in about ten years >> what a happy quarter it's been, who would have thunk after the fourth quarter we had. >> they just got the timing right. if it was christmas eve at the bottoms, january 1st almost gets you all the way back up. >> 50 basis cut says larry kudlow, markets got to love that >> thanks for watching "power lunch. "closing bell" starts right now. >> it's the final hour of trade, larry kudlow making big news on cnbc calling for the fed to cut rates by 50 basis points is that the right move lyft getting a pop on its first day as a public company. we'll see whether it can hold its gains into the close casper could be the next ipo. its ceo will join us exclusively.

♪ welcome to "closing bell." i'm sara eisen here with wilfred frost. session highs right now. the dow is off about 0.8%. larry kudlow just telling cnbc, he and the president want to see a half a point rate cut and a stopping of the balance sheet reduction. but the federal reserve is independent. the nasdaq is up 0.8%. technology a big winner all day. big gains in healthcare, industrials. both groups up 1%. lyft surging in itse ededy debu. >> it was a good end of the week in asia and europe coming up, the ceo of bnp paribas on whether this is one of the worst quarter environments in history. >> we begin with today's lyft ipo. seema mody is at the nasdaq

market site where shares opened for trading before noon eastern. deidre bows is de de and we seema, so let's kick it off with you >> it was a crucial day for nasdaq and gets shares of lyft to the market in a timely manner lyft opening for trade at around 11:45 a.m. eastern at $87. though as you can see, off the highs. trading around the $80 handle. with the gains, lyft has a market cap over $23 billion, making it larger than her i have, discovery and motorola among others a number of silicon valley unicorns are in line to go public in the coming months. the question is can lyft

continue to generate strong investor demand through its first earnings report? we spoke to a number of invest today that said a key test for lyft to show investors while it's loss making it is continuing to expand its footprint and user base and that it is working towards becoming a profitable company >> thank you very much for that. >> let's go to deidre bosa with a look at competition between lyft and uber. >> lift's first day pop is good news for uber, because though the two companies have battled it out for years in terms of market share, riders, drivers, a good sentiment for lyft will help uber, it will help because it will be used to value uber at a much larger price tag. ridesharing used to be thought of as a winner take all market investors have come around to the idea that it can and will be more of a duopoly and it will

work as such, lyft's co-founder telling us this morning the competition between the two companies has evolved. >> it's not about a price battle between the two players anymore. biz ha it's about having the best price and operations >> he is referring to the lyft brand, which is thought to be warmer and fizz uzzier than ther brand. that's something highlighted throughout the road show uber's ceo, khosrowshahi, has worked towards retaining drivers, and that is important to both companies. >> let's bring in a lyft

investo investor welcome. >> thanks for having me. >> are you long-term believers in this company? >> absolutely. we got in there early, we want to hold those shares we believe it is still early it's long innings, it's the beginning of this whole cycle. ridesharing is a disruptive industry, it's going to take time it's going to take money that's why you see all the expenses the main thing now is to grow the top line, get market share, build out your end to end network. in the end it's about service. it's about providing good price. that's what they're doing. >> when will it be profitable? >> it's going to take some time. by my model, it's about 2022, 2023, they can do it there is a path. right now i think we have to look at the top line, they're growing the top line underneath the hood, they are

trending positively. they're going down, expenses are lower. losses were about 32%. there's a path it is going in the right direction. it will take some time at this point they need to invest in their network. they need to get the driver network together all that is going on it will get there ultimately it's in the right direction, all the metrics are pointing in that direction. it looks bad, but if you look at the cash burn, it's okay it's 350 million, with 5 billion in their pocket they have some runway to prove their business model. >> there is also optimism from the believers on the opportunity for international growth the founders told andrew ross sorkin this morning it's a call option, though they're not there compared to uber is it part of your bet that they have to expand internationally to make the economics work >> i think right now it's all

about the u.s. and canada. this is where the big market is. they have said that. the company has said that. they want to focus on that there's more work to be done here any international opportunity will be incremental. they will look for if they have a good chance of doing well. they don't want to throw money at it. i think they're focused. that's the good part about lyft. they have a focused strategy they've been executing to that strategy well. >> i'm interested in some comparisons people made verbetw snap and facebook, the way instagram told snap's idea, took it as its own for expiring stories, and uber stole lyft's idea, on cheaper option. is that a fear that uber can always copy lyft's best ideas and use its size to crush them >> i don't think so. i think the market is big. they will copy each other in the end. it's almost like verizon and

at&t they have the same service they will compete on quality of service, providing end to end transportation network, which is what they're building out right now. i think the management has said that they will not compete on price. they will maintain their quality of service they will keep their drivers happy. drivers are the raw material of this business. you need to keep them and manage them you can't just play pricing games with them. i think lyft is executing to a good strategy. >> it's still independent contractors. they don't get health insurance. there's still lots of riots as we heard earlier it's still a big risk. >> yeah, but if you read the fine print, they have enough information, they have enough data to target the incentives to go where the demand is they can rationalize the benefits, the incentives they give to drivers. there's cost savings to be had

in terms of that there's a way to balance driver rates and manage the expenses. there is a path. they need to manage it calibrate it well. they can do that >> you are locked up for six months >> exactly >> what sort of price would encourage you to take some profits? i understand you're a long-term bull case, but given the jump you've had >> we manage funds so we manage this for our clients. so after six months, we give it back to the clients. they can do what they want in long-term funds, we're long-term holders. we'll stay there we believe in the story. we believe in the whole segment of the market. transportation as a service will be ig. it's disruptive. early stages it's only 10% of the market, of the country that is using this it's really only 10% >> some people say that means it won't be mainstream and the value proposition may not be that good. >> no, i think it means it's very early it's not easy to disrupt a well

entrenched industry. they're fighting regulators at every point. fighting the taxi and limousine services all the money went into fighting this creating the market uber did the heavy lifting also. only now in the last two, three years they're moving forward that's important to note >> thanks for joining us >> thank you >> congratulations on some nice gains. larry kudlow making news moments ago saying the fed should cut rates by 50 basis points here's why >> there's no emergency. just a point of view i watch yield curves tens to bills are slightly inverted commodities took a big whack this is not an emergency this is our point of view. i think they went too far. we don't want to threaten this

great recovery the president has in effect redesigned and redeveloped and reengineered this economy with lore t lower tax rates, opening the door to energy again, and also trade deals that i think will be very pro growth. don't want to jeopardize that. we have more people working than ever we have got remarkably low unemployment across the board. including the biggest contributor to the labor force last year was women, all the minority categories. this is a terrific story joe lavorgna joins us by phone to discuss joe, if there's no emergency, then is there a need for a 50 basis point cut? >> thanks for having me. the -- yes i don't think we need to cut immediately. i do agree with larry that the fed has gone too far in fact, if you look at the shadow rate, which was put out by the atlanta fed some time

ago, rates effectively at their trough were about minus 300 accounting for the quantitative easing and guidance, rateds up 240, that is a 500 basis point hike in rates. i guess where i might differ with larry is i think the economy is a little bit softer it's losing a bit of momentum. importantly, wilfred, the inflation back drop will be tame the core pc deflator, which the fed looks at, my guess is that it will be running at 1.5 if not lower within six months. >> joe, i don't understand how larry can argue that president trump redesigned, redeveloped, reengineered the economy in such a positive way, the trade deals will come through, we'll see 3% growth this year, but we need a half point interest rate cut i don't understand the logic >> for me, the logic is the economy is a bit weaker.

larry is not saying that >> he didn't say that. >> momentum is softer. in that role it's kind of hard it's like the fed chief, he won't say things are weaker either you all sort of -- for lack of a better term, everybody is a cheerleader on this stuff. if you believe that momentum is fragile, and the price or inflation backdrop is tame, then you do want to get out ahead of things and cut rates on the tax side, i never like what they did on the household side i said that. i argued that. i think it's contractionary in some sense on the coast you have a lot of wealth, gdp, and they'll have effectively big tax increases. on the corporate side, that may be all correct, but we won't know that in the fullness of time it doesn't mean a year or two, let's see how this business cycle progresses and where are we five years from now these are long-term secular

forces on the corporate side that we hope will be brought about. >> regardless of the rational behind the 50 basis point move, do you think it's likely to come we saw a reaction on the short end of the curve following those comments from larry kudlow do you think that action is justified? >> the market rallying as theedy is come day it coming to a close. the fed is pricing in a cut by the end of the year. do you get there because the data is softer or is the fed doing it more because of a stitch in time saves nine. they wanted to to do it as an insurance move i'm more of the latter i think that will get them nervous, that's why i think they cut. that would be equity friendly. that wouldn't be equity

negative >> the other question this whole thing raises, kudlow went to great lengths to say the fed is independent, we don't want to step on them and then recommend two policy prescriptions from the white house. there are reports they will appointed steve moore to be on the fed board, someone who also agrees with trump and also has made it known he wouldnants to rates. is the line blurred of fed independence >> they're a preacher of congress, the president voized h voiced his opinion on the fed. you have five presidents who vote at any point in time. those people are not senate confirmed. it seems like people in positions of pow sheer haer shoe the ability to criticize the fed. i don't have a problem with people criticizing the fed if

it's fair. i was vocal that powell needed to pivot, he did whether he listened to me is another issue. he was listening to marcus and he did we have to give them praise when they do well and be krconstruc e constructiveconstructiv constructively critical when they make a mistake. i think they'll be cutting i don't see rate hikes i'm with larry >> joe, thanks for joining us. >> thanks, everybody still to come, one of wall streets's top international fund managers joins us to discuss how to position your portfolio for q2 >> and later, we look ahead to the next wave of ipos. the ceo of casper will join us amideptsha ror tunrwriters for n public offering.

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. welcome back to "closing bell." 40 minutes left of trade for the quarter. the dow is up 0.7% today 170 points higher. not far from the highs of the session. it's been a positive day and a positiveweek we're up a couple -- 1.5% for the dow for the week as a whole.

it's been the best quarter for the dow since 2017, the s&p since 2009, and the nasdaq since 2012 have the markets gotten ahead of themselves with no china trade deal and brexit still a road block? let's bring in sarah ketterer. welcome back, nice to see you. >> nice to see you thank you. >> we usually turn to you for some good value stocks contrarian bets. last time you gave us the european banks is it harder in this environment given the strong run up this year to find bargains? >> the run up has been very narrow there are plenty of bargains the u.s. market delivered a good year in three months so you can -- if you look outside the u.s., there's a greater proliferation. you see this in terms of valuation disparity between the europe, australia, east index.

you get a very good r.o.e., return on equity very competitive with the u.s. market there's a bulliance has doesn't itself in markets abroad >> are you not concerned about the outlook for growth in europe or are you, you just think the valuations are so unbelievably attractive >> i'm not sure i would agree with either of those my colleagues and i, our clients hire us to find undervaluation, and there's considerably more of that outside the u.s. market it doesn't mean u.s. stocks inning a grein inning a in ingthe whole are overvalued they are discounting the crisis that the world endured in 2008,

yet we don't see a crisis. we see slow growth yes, very undervalued. the energy sector as well has a lot of undervalued stocks in part because investors have so many more exciting places to go. >> what's your top pick in the banking space? >> unicredit in italy. unicredit ron by a credible ceo, who spoke at a conference a few days ago and being well managed is crucial in the world of banks especially european where cost cutting and capital management are the two levers that banks can pull he's doing an excellent job and very little if any of that effort is recognized in that share price, despite the clean up of bad debts. so there's this dark cloud of italy hanging over those bank shares at 40% of tangible book value. that's book less goodwill that we think isunjustified

this bank has presence in germany, eastern europe, but it has restructuring potential. none of it recognized. >> i mean, i'm curious about your energy call given crude oil had a 32% up quarter, brent up 25%. why don't you think the energy valuations have caught up to those prices >> if you thin energy, halliburton is one of them, my colleagues who cover energy at causeway are quite shocked at the 37% decline in halliburton shares over the last 125po 1 12 months. that's unusual nor a company not only involved in shale, but are a pioneer. they are also significantly placed abroad. in non-u.s. the drilling activity is picking up we're in a different opinion

versus the market on halliburton. it's hard to go wrong in such a well-managed very established business yes, there's a cycle in oil and gas services, but if we're reaching some sort of low, and activity should pick up, now is the time to accumulate a stock like that. >> sarah, china is up 24% in the first quarter. is that now fairly valued? >> this is a tough question, wilfred, because there's so many interesting companies in china and they are evolving very quickly. maybe not at the speed of lyft but something close to that. what we see today is not what we'll get tomorrow in the private sector in china particular, we have observed a number of companies. we think the market has not fully priced them. there's a great opportunity for price discovery, for value investors in that market we give it, not a linear trajectory, definitely upward

sloping one. >> sarah ketterer, thank you for joining us. we have under 40 minutes to go before the closing bell just off session highs the dow is strong, up 162 points it was strong all day. but markets seem to embrace larry kudlow coming out, talking about the prospect of lower interest rates >> he's always stylish >> s&p is up about a ha half pe. healthcare is a big winner right now. coming up, linda mcmahon is expected to step down. karen mills joins us to weigh in. after the break, the ceo of out-front media will join us on the latest trends indvting aersi and how his billboard company is keeping up in the digital age. e.

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. welcome back time for a cnbc news update with sue herera here's what's happening at this hour. parents making their initial appearances in federal court for their alleged participation in a massive college admissions scandal. they are among 50 people charged of paying $25 million in bribes to college insiders to get their children into top-rated schools. the judge did not ask the defendants to be arraigned and no pleas were entered. education secretary betsy devoss says she is not a

supporter of free speech zones on college campuses. she spoke at the national review institute 2019 ideas summit in washingto washington >> if you don't have the freedom to debate and discuss ideas freely, you don't really have learning ultimately. i think there is a r many campuy >> pope francis issuing sweeping new sex abuse legislation for vatican personnel and diplomats. it requires the immediate report of abuse allegations to a va vatican prosecutor you are up to date that's the news update this hour sa sara, wilf, back to you. we have a news alert on apple. josh lipton with the details >> news here breaking on apple

apple canceled its air power product. this statement from apple. after much effort we concluded air power will not achieve our high standards, and we have canceled the project we apologize to those customers who were looking forward to this launch we continue to believe that the future is wireless, and are committed to push the wireless experience forward the airpower was introduced a while ago, back in september of 2017 it is this pad that allows customers to charge multiple apple products at the same time. i think a lot of people might have thought it would be delayed, that's not the case it's been canceled back to you. >> josh, stick around with us. let's bring in jon fortt other advanced smartphone makers have this service. is this a gram changer >> i don't think it's a game

changer. this is a surprising move for apple. this company likes to say it executes crisply you'll recall the airpods, the original airpods took a long time to come out, too, at least in the volumes where people could get them apple took along time supplyin those in volume. now they're a popular product. maybe some people thought it would be a similar story with the airpower but it's been longer for that. i can't remember the last time apple announced a product and failed to deliver it there are lots of ways to charge mobile devices, samsung announced that you can charge apple devices on the back of its new phone. apple not able to do this at the volume and quality they expected >> clearly the stock is still up doesn't look like anything too major for investors, but given the airpod delay, some of the macbook keyboard troubles, any reason to think there's anything

wrong with some of the hardware processes at apple >> i think jon is right. like i said, i think there's a lot of discussion about this product. why it wasn't being introduced and jon is right to say, you know, it is urprising. you don't see apple make this kind of decision, this hardware decision too often it's also interesting, we don't really have a reason there were a lot of reports about this product, some possible challenges. we'll were talking about technical challenges some reports of an overheating issue. apple is not going into detail, they're just telling us their high standards were not met. >> jon, just quickly do you think apple in gem over t general over the last year has slipped regarding services >> not in my eye apple always in their industrial design and their engineering tried to push boundaries sometimes that has not worked as well as they hoped people have been complaining

about macbook keyboards, laptop keyboards from apple for a long time sometimes venting issues spots appearing on screens it's a question of how quickly they fix those things. it's unusual they fail to deliver a product they announce, but it's legendary how many products they try to develop that don't end up getting to the point where they actually deliver them thank you very much. apple stock down about 0.8% for the week outfront media is up more than 27% this year and is ringing the closing bell today to celebrate five years since going public here to talk about the company's strategy and how it is keeping up in a digital world is the ceo, jeremy mahl thanks for joining us. >> thank you >> we think of it being old school, the billboard advertising. are we wrong to think about that

>> apple is our largest client in the u.s if we think about another topical event today, the listing of lyft, you look at lyft, they've been a huge client of ours over the last four, five years. last year all of their advertising budget, they put 70% of their ad budget into our media. >> is it a cyclical business in what drives better or worse periods? >> i think as with all media, we're very much -- we have an alignment to gdp, that's for sure if you look back over the last few years, while digital media has decimated some of the old traditional media that we can think of, being very difficult, in press, radio, magazines, out of home media has increased its share over that same period. so even though it's cyclical, we've been creeping up in our totalal share ashare. >> when we use our computers and

phones, the ad is targeted to the eyeballs looking at it, presumably on a billboard you can't do that. how do you use data to enhance your business. >> there are two pieces. we will always be a one to many medium as it becomes increasingly difficult to target audiences as they fragment across all sorts of media platforms to have a go-to medium where you know that you can just hit a lot of cry balls is still hugely important. that said we've been doing a lot of work in terms of data and insight. we can now in a detailed way tell you exactly who is looking at which board as we go forward, digitalization for us will be another big growth factor. we're putting more digital screens out into the market. don't know if you've been on the subway, but you'll see digital screens sprouting up everywhere there. we're also having a much more digital overlay to how we transact with those screens. that's all about data and

insight infused audiences, and you will be purchasing those screens based on exactly who you want to reach. >> i think we need a closing bell billboard on the subway, perhaps. >> we can certainly help out there. >> thank you very much 25 minutes until the bell ringing. the dow up about 127 points. a healthy half percent of gains for the s&p. stocks looking to close out the first quarter with big gains, but there's been some recent weakness in the banks the ceo of bnp paribas u.s. joins us to discuss the statement of the sector. and celgene surging today as two firms weigh in on bristol-myers $74 billion buyout plan we'll fill you in next obvious.

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170. just off session highs here. s&p is up a half percent nasdaq is up about 0.7%. the big headline is we are set to finish out the best quarter for the s&p since 2009 coming up, the s&p is on pace, as i just said, for the best quarter in more than two

decades. that's first quarter best quarter since 2009, best q1 since 1998 we'll look at some winners and losers over the last three months after the break, shares of restoration hardware parent, rh, wnummeting today on earnings do 22% we'll break down that move coming up.

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. welcome back to "closing bell." let's check in on individual market movers. celgene popping today after two firms, iss and glass lewis both recommended bristol-myers shareholders do vote in favor of the company's proposal to buy celge celgene. starboard value opposed the deal originally but today ended its fight following these two recommendations. as you can see by the share price reaction, that pop in celgene, lower bristol-myers, looks like investors expect this deal to go through the vote is april 12th the shareholder, wellington, originally opposing the deal, still does, but starboard backing down from its position saying it won't solicit votes

against the deal >> both coming out strongly in favor. the shares up 8%. restoration hardware plummeting following mixed fourth quarter earnings. the company beat on eps but missed on revenue. gave much weaker than expected eps guidance for the year. they cited the downturn in the housing market deutsche bank downgraded the stock from hold to buy wells fargo saying the share price move is overdowne down 22% they are also becoming a broader lifestyle brand in the luxury space. a big disappointment >> it's one of the stocks you have to watch if you're on a warning alert for a slowdown here in the u.s., at the high end, for instance, it's expensive furniture. and it had been doing well running up about 40% over the past year into this report we have 50 minutes left of trade. as we've been saying, it's a

decent end to the week and to the quarter. we're up 0.7% on the dow, 172 points higher on the session coming up, despite the strong performances this quarter, one sector is significantly undervalued. we'll find out what next. and we'll take it back to the nasdaq market site as lyft looks to close out its fst diray of trading with nice gains stay with us and you should be mad your smart fridge is unnecessarily complicated. but you're not mad, because you have e*trade which isn't complicated. their tools make trading quicker and simpler. so you can take on the markets with confidence. don't get mad. get e*trade and start trading today. don't get mad. how about letting your hair down a little? how about a car for people who don't play golf? hey mercedes!

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intraday lows at 1.34, 1.35, 1.37 from that vantage point my answer to your question is yes consolidating and bumping along the low end of this interest rate treasury range for this cycle is okay as long as it doesn't start to drop again. i think the biggest story today everybody was talking about on this floor is larry kudlow joining steve moore, suggesting 50 basis point cut of course the fed is independent. i find it highly incongruent after a nice interview with kevin hassert, how on one hand you can have good economic policies, nice horse power in the comeback of the stock market and economic data in general, many believe, including mr. hassert that we have years of 3% gdp growth how can you think that on one

hand and on the other hand feel the need for down 50 basis points that was the topic today >> kudlow addressed that and said we just want to protect it we want to protect the recovery. >> doesn't make sense. >> in the face of global weakness tom, does it make sense? the markets seem to almost buy into the fact that we need a rate cut even if it's not necessarily for the reasons that kudlow mentioned >> i think -- i'm with rick and you on this. i think a rate cut at this point, with the economy picking up, would be a real mistake. the economy is looking good to me >> tom, given the moves we've seen in the yield curve over the last couple of months, how are you feeling about q1 earnings for the banks which kick off in a couple of weeks? >> i think it's going to be a mixed quarter for the banks. the largest banks will to the have great trading results the margins for the regional banks will probably be better

than they were in the fourth quarter. loan demand will be pretty good. so it's going to be a mixed quarter for the banks. overall this is a sector that got pummelled in the fourth quarter last year. i think there's some real great values out there >> which is your top pick? >> among the regionals, i like a couple companies that do the debit card business. so they would be meta financial and the bank corp, and i like bank of america and capital one. >> what do you make of tim sloan's departure? is that a catalyst for the wells fargo stock price? >> i think it's mob rule so they had the right guy as the ceo. but there was too much external pressure, particularly from washington, that they just needed a change. i think that's unfortunate tim is a great guy he was on the right path with wells fargo. but i would expect that they're

going to hire a woman ceo. if i was jamie dimon i would be all over trying to retain mary ann lake at this point >> a lot of people will look at their 401(k)s and returns for the quarter, it was a good one for bonds. we saw that price appreciation if you own munis, etfs, what would you tell people about those gains being sustainable? what's the outlook for the year? >> i don't think we're going to see the sky-high rates many were fearful of i don't think we'll see a huge run up in inflation. i'm only mystic on wages you need to be optimistic also on productivity. at these levels, i just don't see more meat on the bone for that bond portfolio just staying kind of pedal to the metal long. i continue to believe when we close at the end of the year, stocks will be significantly

higher and i think interest rates will be higher than they are now, probably closer to 3%, but i don't think we'll be doing pole vaulting over 3% any time soon >> tom, what's your outlook on the economy given all that we've discussed and what larry kudlow said earlier >> i think rick nailed it. the market is telling you the odds are greater of a fed funds rate cut before the end of the year i think the odds are greater that the fed funds rate will go up before the end of the year because the economy will do better i think your seeing it in a're l the numbers i'm looking at up next, we'll be back with the final closing countdown of this first quarter >> after the bell, the ceo of casper will be here to talk about whether his company will join the red hot ipo race.

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lyft just moments away from ending its first day of trading. trading near the lows of the session. let's go back to seema mody for a check. >> lyft has been unable to climb back to the highs of the session, which was around 88 a share in the open. we are breaking below $80 a share, still moving on significant volume 60 million shares have exchanged hands. healthy liquidity in total, raising about 2.$2.34 billion in its offering it does pale in comparison to the amount uber is expected to raise in its ipo still for today, lyft gets to step out of uber's shadow as the first publicly traded ride hadinhade i hailing company. wilf, back to you for the closing countdown. >> two and a half minutes left of trade in the quarter. we're looking good into the

close. up about a half percent or so for most of the indices. s&p up about 0.7%. for the week as a whole, up more than a percent for the three major indices. the russell is a softer laggard today, but green across the screen healthcare, industrials, tech at the top. softness in real estate and energy only two of them in the red. quick summary of the week in terms of the yield curve, it's been key slid for most of the week down below 2.4% stabilized yesterday, back up a bit today, helped by sentiment 2.405. just showing you the dollar as i bri bring in dom chu >> we have earnings season coming up. the large cap ones coming up in a few weeks. the stronger dollar may play in that discussion. for now, we're near the highs, 210 points for the dow a decent way to cap off a banner quarter

for stocks overall you mentioned the sectors. healthcare a leader today. but not for the quarter. out of all 11 sectors, they're all green. it's been a great start. healthcare the worst performing sector so far this quarter technology the best one. as we talk about lyft, the stock of the day, about 70 million shares have traded twice the amount of shares offered to the public, they have now exchanged hands during the course of 2r5trading. many traders are saying this is the undercard. remember, it's uber at the new york stock exchange that will be the one you want to watch. a little axe to grind for some traders on the floor still, lyft may be a precursor to that. >> levis did well. we will talk to the casper ceo coming up. overall for the week, that fall in yield, the negative chat that came with that, encouraging that we are up 1.5% for the dow >> the key is the financials outside of the headlines around

tim sloan and wells fargo, the yield curve, what the regional banks can do on the heels of that, some argue the yield curve doesn't matter >> dom, thank you very much. at the bell, the dow up 210 points, or 0.8%. the russell, up 0.3% today the s&pand nasdaq in between that does it for the first hour of "closing bell." sara, back to you. closing at the high of the day there. welcome to "closing bell." i'm sara eisen, wilfred frost will rejoin me in a moment along with mike santoli. that's a wrap on the week and on the first quarter. look at how we finished up on a strong note up about 210points a gain of about a percent, more than that for the dow. for the s&p, up about 1.2% for

the week today was good day for the bulls. healthcare led the charge ere. industrials, information technology, all 1% or so gains a piece. only real estate and energy closed lower for the day the nasdaq popped today, 0.8%. as wilfred referenced, the russell 2000 underperformed today. small caps up 0.3% still wrapping up the best first quarter for stocks since 1998. best quarter since 2009. what to make of that very strong quarterly performance, lyft shares popping, but closing near session lows. and larry kudlow, white house economic adviser calling on the fed to cut interest rates. casper's ceo, philip krim will be here to talk about whether his company will be the next big name to announce an ipo. the first quarter coming to a close. it's been a very strong one for

the market dom chu has the details. >> you mentioned those multi-year superlatives for the broader measures of the market the strong gains this first quarter are on the heels to a rough end of 2018. the gains today mean the best rf 2009 the best started to to a year ft quarter wise since 1998. you have to go back in the books to find a better start for the russell 2000, it's the best start of the year for the small cap index since 1991 a big move there as for the energy market, the surge in crude oil means west texas intermediate having the best start to a year since 2002. anyone out there who drives a car on a daily basis knows that translated into gasoline prices. gasoline futures off to the best start of the year since the inception of those contracts back in 2005

working off a low base, easy comps. traders will be watching to see if that momentum continues into q2 great q1, back over to you joining us to talk about the market today, nancy tingler and tony rodriguez first, mike. all the great superlatives about the first quarter, there's another one, that is we're coming off of the worst fourth gaurt e. quaur quarter since the great depression that does put it in perspective. >> looks like a blurry "v" right now where the market is trading. that's where it was trading in the second week of october so essentially before that real big plunge in the fourth quarter, we regained that, just less than 1% below the 2019 highs for the s&p. so i think it's a constructive picture. what we saw the last couple of days is when the bond market buying panic calmed down, yields

lifted it gave leerclearance for some d of quarter buying of stocks. i don't think it was a decisive move today, but it shows there was this pent up upward drift in the market if treasury yields did not stay compressed. nancy, what's the next potential catalyst to the upside >> that's a good question. i think we'll muddle around in here for a few weeks while we prepare for first quarter earnings i actually think the market is looking past first quarter earnings, even with the preannouncements we've seen stocks get pummelled and come back what we're looking for is resurging global growth. i think that's what the markets are waiting on a bit of trade talk and a bit of when is this whole thing going to get restarted again and led by china >> mike, if you look at the outperforming groups of the quarter, we've done this exercise, it does pay to emphasize technology came out

strong in the first quarter. what does that tell you about the environment? >> some of the sectors that worked well really only worked well until march, then it shifted. technology was strong throughout technology can be a risk on sector, we see the end of the semiconductor cycle. the semiconductors ran hard. or it could be a big quality growth stock that are reliable and they can grow cash that's what worked in the second part of the quarter. so i do think technology is a little bit of a hybrid in that way. the other stuff that did work, it was defensive in the last month. energy got all of its gains for the most part in the first two months the quarterly score card doesn't so much tell you what tone was exiting the quarter, which was more of an equality and stability bias versus risk seeking. >> when we say technology performed the best in the quarter, it's really the chip names that drove the action. talking about 30%, 40% gains over the last three months, and

xerox corporation, which also had a strong quarter >> tech now is tech hardwarement when they shifteded around t ee sector >> tony, when you look fixed income market, risk on, risk off what was the main driver >> you saw risk on in january. you saw the recovery in the high yield market you mentioned it was a strong equity quarter we saw good returns. high yield was up 7% emerging markets and investment grade credit up 5% higher quality didn't do nearly as well with treasuries up 2%. it was a risk on market from a return perspective certainly relative to a weak fourth quarter that was very risk off >> decent week as we were discussing national economic council director larry kudlow appeared on power lunch this afternoon.

he explained why he thinks the fed should cut rates by 50 basis points >> there's no emergency. it's just a point of view, okay. i mean, i watch yield curves i have for a long time, tens to bills are sligactually negative, slightly inverted. commodity prices, commodity index took a big whack in the fourth quarter and earlier this year this is not an emergency this is not anything, this is just our point of view frankly, i think they went too far. we don't want to threaten this great recovery basically the president has in effect redesigned and redeveloped and reengineered this economy with lower tax rates and a big roll back in regulations, opening the door to energy again also trade deals that i think will be very pro growth. we don't want to jeopardize that we have more people working than ever we have remarkably low

unemployment across the board. including kelly, i might say, the biggest contributor to the labor force last year was women. and all the minor categories this is a terrific story >> i think the reason this is so buzzy, and so sort of eye popping of a headline to hear larry kudlow say that, the white house chieeconomy, where he's r, the jobless rate is a multi decade lows. we have very little inflation. we do have growth. we are set to have a growth year he said there could be tailwinds, like trade deals with china or with canada and mexico. if all that is happening, momentum on the upside for the economy, that is an argument to raise rates. at the very least leave rates alone. you cut rates when momentum is shifting downward. when there are risks on the horizon. when things are not looking good you can't say things are all good and we need a half point cut. >> particularly the half point aspect no one wants to hike too soon,

you can argue it's worth being preemptive maybe 25 basis points. you can't say half a point cut and all that >> all the economists out there saying we need a half point cut, we heard from joe lavorgna, david rosenberg, scott minert, these are bears. they think we're losing more momentum than we are people who have a rosy view of the economy do not think we need a rate cut right now >> i tell you when the fed cut within three weeks, in 1998, the vix was at 40, the market was going straight down. people were worried about a global recession that's the circumstance under which it happens that being said, the market has gone far along in saying we're getting a cut this year. whether it's correct or not, that's in tune with the general leaning of the white house >> maybe it's happening for the

wrong reasons. >> tony, what's your take on all of this? >> i think it's interesting because i do think that the fed did cut after december, because when you look at what they did post-december, it was they changed their forward guidance from two tightenings to zero and they changed their balanceg higher level than anticipating i think they acknowledged they made a mis180. maybe larry is maybe fearing there is more of a slowdown. i would think the fed is okay to sit digt this yetight this yearo anything, absent data indicating something different than our view of 2% growth. it's a moderate growth economy i don't think it can handle more tightening, and the fed has done

an appropriate reversal, i don't think it will need an easing unless there's deterioration in the data out of the u.s. or chin china. >> nancy, what's your take on it. >> i'm rosy on the second half of the year. we were anticipating the possibility of a 25 basis point increase later in the year, fourth quarter so this sort of takes that off the table for the moment i find the whole thing super fascinating. it was somewhat of a tortured by well crafteded and del explanat larry. there is no inflation, that's right, or not much but i think the 50 points is a bid for 25 the market is sort of pricing in 25 i'm sitting back with a grin on my face and watching because this is a hard one to predict. i think the economy will be pleasantly surprising all of us in the second half of the year, led by a resurgent china >> it's going to be hard for

jerome powell -- tony, it's hard for jay powell, yes, he has to tune out the white house and the political noise and the potential nomination of steven moore, also calling for a cut, but as mike referenced earlier, the market is starting to price in a cut in line with those views. that's something powell does pay attention to >> yeah. i do think powell runs the risk that if they were to suddenly ease 50 basis points immediately especially, they might as well move their offices into the west wing their independence and credibility would be out the window i think they'll be patient and look for data that is softer than 2% number or if the inflation data -- we've seen a decline in the pc to below the target fsh target f that starts to plummet and get down to 1.5%, you would see them trying to be saw shcaus and not risk the economy growing to 2%, rather than because

they're responding to significant weakness that they see. >> and what we have obviously, just to tie it together, we have a patient fed that is insisting on being dependent on the data, an inpatient white house that wants to make sure that growth stays fired up those two things are probably going to be in conflict for a while. we always have to dial back to where we were in the fall. in early november, when the ten-year was at 3.23%, and there was a big spread between the ten-year and the three-month the markets seemed okay with pricing in two hikes i only say that because the market today doesn't always have perfect foresight. we don't know what the economies will perform like. the economic story can change quickly as we get into the second quarterment >> we are going into an election year let's not forget. >> we won't be able to forget that, i'm sure >> thank you have a good weekend. >> thank you very much lyft making its long-awaited

trade debut on the nasdaq. the stock started trading about 20% above its ipo price and then lost steam throughout the day, closing at the lows of the session. john healey has a neutral rating on the stock and has more on the stock's debut and where this val united nations puts it right now. how are you comparing it what's the closest company you're looking at? >> you have to take an approach that's outside of the box. what we did is we looked at a dozen or so companies that have come to market the last 20 years that we could describe as similar to them, primarily those are platform oriented businesses that can be everything from an open table, from a seed trip, expedia, booking.com, those types of names when you look at those businesses, you look at what they traded at respective of the growth rate they've been producing on an enterprise value to sales basis you would see for businesses those -- that group

of businesses, you would see it, they would trade at a mid single digit enterprise to sales multiple on our estimates for 2019, we have growth at -- lyft improving 75%, and about 40% in 2020, which is primarily driven off the bookings and a bit of improvement in the take rate when we look at that core group of companies, when they were producing those top line levels, they were trading at a mid single digit ev to sales multiple we think fair value for the shares is around $90 if you want to get bullish and look at a shorter timeframe for those periods when those like companies were producing those growth rates, you could create a scenario that would push it maybe 120 to $130 in terms of the stock price. i think that's a bit of a blue sky scenario it understates some of the competitive risks that may be on the horizon for lyft if you wanted to get bearish on the name, we think the $65 level

was about as bearish as we would get. we think fair value is closer to the $90 level. >> nancy, what do you make of this first day of trade? does it suggest the rest of the ipo market can be hot? >> i think so wilf i do think this was a great opening. i know it sold off on the day, but there's going to be a lot of enthusiasm around these names. also because the number of shares available to investors have gone away my caution to retail investors, these stocks have incubated for a long time and private capital made a lot of money on them. so the initial euphoria we have seen in past decades may not be available to the individual investor at these levels i'm wary of these two voting class shares where the shareholder doesn't get to express themselves as we like to with voting at the proxy level

i'm not in i can't value it yet i appreciate tony's -- sorry, the comments about the current enterprise value to sales, but for us, it's not yet a proven company. we need some track record. >> guys, we'll leave it there. thank you very much. john and nancy, have lovely weekends >> thank you lyft did kick off a wave of highly anticipated ipos. could casper mattress be the next one to announce it's going public ceo philip krim joins us straight ahead. and apple is pulling the plug on itself wireless charging ha hardware why one analyst is calling it an embarrassment for the company. that's coming up

apple pulling the plug on i long-awaited airpower wireless charging hardware say it will not achieve the company's high standards. joining us is dan ives what's your take >> my take is it's a major black eye for apple. the fact that a product that was introduced by cook in '17 never saw the light of day, it's an embarrassment from a product perspective.

and i think it's something that is concerning not just from an investor perspective but from a product perspective, which speaks to maybe the tide is turning there. >> an embarrassment, that's a strong word. is that because this is a transformational in terms of whether people want to buy the phone or the sort of signal it sends to the market about the quality of hardware innovation there at the moment? >> it's more about the hardware innovation the concept that cook could introduce a product with the red carpet rolled out in '17 definitely had issues in terms of a technology perspective. the fact that product never sees the light of day is a shock given the dna in cupertino in those four walls it's not finalml lfinancially tt but it speaks to some of the bloom coming off the road from an r & d perspective in cupertino. >> i wonder if it also says this

is inherently a difficult product to perfect and apple showed a little bit of discipline about its brand by not really allowing some huge outcry to develop because the product wasn't ready and it was out there, but they just called it back saying we'll have to try harder >> look, it's a good point in terms of, you know, maybe some mea culpa here if you look at samsung, they have a similar product out there. it's more the concept that they introduced the product that didn't see the market, especially as this was part of the unified product strategy, that is really more of the worry. i think it calls into question -- this is a company that for the lasestigation from a product perspective in homepod and others has been nothing to write home about. i think that's part of the problem at apple they have continued to have issues in the r & d. this is something never in a million years would i ever have

thought a product introduced in an apple launch event would never actually come to market. >> i think we should say, dan, you're not exactly a bear. you have a buy rating, a price target of 215. you're a fan of the stock. >> we love -- remember, we continue to be bullish on the name, on the install, 900 million iphones, the sum of the parts, we also will call it like we see it. this is a ding doesn't hurt them financially speaking, but it speaks to some uphill battle that they're having from a product perspective outside of the core iphone ecosystem >> dan ives, thanks for weighing in >> thanks. the ipo market is certainly hot with unicorn lyft making its debut today and levis closing 35% higher after its ipo last

we're e. wee week casper may be eyeing an initial public offering. recently it raised 1$100 million in funding bringing its value to just over $1 billion we are joined by casper co-founder and ceo philip krim welcome. >> thank you >> is there truth to these reports that you guys have hired underwriters and are looking to ipo? >> not sure what prompted that report, we just wrapped up financing, and are excited to announce the 1$100 million we raised no comment on the ipo side of things >> are you excited to see the ipo market take iing off at the moment does it open an eve knew for you to consider? >> i'm excited that the ipo market is doing well seems like lyft did great today. good execution there it's great for late stage financings in general. it's good for companies growing quickly. it's been a viable market for folks. >> you're able to raise a ton of money still in the private market how do you think about that

calculus about when yyou want t go husband we're coming off the best first quarter since 1998 >> yeah. >> timing is good so far >> the public markets have been hot this year for sure when i think about it for cas r casper, we're building a generational brand and business. so we look at the public markets as something that could be down the road for us. but right now we're focused on building the business, taking great products to market our mattresses are the highest rated mattresses by consumer reports. consumers love our brand and our business we've been rolling out stores which are doing well we'll continue our distribution expansion, making sure casper changes the way people sleep that gets us excited that's why we started the company five years ago we have a long way to go doing that >> tall k about the calculus of the physical stores. we have seen with e-commerce companies, you have customer acquisition, a big burst at the beginning, then it becomes more of a mixed or difficult picture.

is that what drove new that direction? people were skeptical initially that people were buy mattresses sight unseen any way >> when we started almost no one was buying a mattress online today maybe 1 out of 9 people are buying online, which means 8 out of 9 people wanted to tich t touch the product. customers wanted to lay on the product. mattresses are something you spend a third of your life on. we wanted to bring our products to life, our brand to life, customers have flocked to it people are buying in the store people can take the mattress home with them that's ban popular offering. we think it helps to extend our ability to deliver great products, great services and experiences. >> and people are paying to take naps >> yeah. in new york city we have -- >> you can't put a price on a good nap >> you can't put a price on a good nap that's true. we have the dreamery in new york

city it's a great way for people to take a nap and try our product >> how much does it cost >> $20 for 45 minutes. >> and my sister went. she said she give you a mask a very zshg en spa-like experiee >> i didn't know this existed. >> where are you on the product pipeline you started literally with one mattress, said it was the best in the world added a few different types, but lots of different products now what's next? >> with casper we hope to be the world's first end to end sleep brand. we wanted to create all the products you need for a perfect night of sleep we've been doing that. we have pillows that are phenomenal, sheets, bedding, full lines we want to be the one-stop shop to help you get a better night of sleep in january we launched our first technology product this is the glow that helps you

fall asleep by sunsetting the light in your bedroom in a natural way. it's been a great product so far. we think technology will continue to change the way we sleep and change your bedroom. >> just want to go back to the ipo question i know stacy cunningham has been hanging around on the floor. are you about to metet with her? >> no, just here to see you guys >> what about the competition. you're not only one doing this now. a lot to of companies have jumped on to the trend of shipping mattresses, one that fold into a box, spring open where do you stand in terms of your market share and how do you deal with the competition? >> we have had some people follow us into the e-commerce movement within the category none have been as large as casper we have had over 1 million customers, done over $1 billion in sales, we have a long way to go we wanted to to be the market

leader in this business. >> phillip, thank you for joining us >> thank you for having me >> with a newborn baby and doesn't even look tired. brand ambassador >> good mattress >> thank you breaking news here, president trump making some comments on trade just moments ago. here's what he to say. >> perhaps president putin, perhaps president xi of china, my people right now are in china, negotiating the trade deal we'll see what happens >> how did that round of talks go >> i think it's going well the trade deal is going very well we'll see what happens it's going very well they're in china right now, the highest level of our people meeting with their people. they'll be coming back here for another round. it's a very comprehensive, to use a word that some people like, some people don't like, i think it's okay. it's a very comprehensive, detailed listing of problems that we've had with china over

the years. it's going to have to be a great deal if it's not a great deal, we can't do it. >> do you plan to name a new defense secretary today? >> i'm happy with pat shanahan i think he's done a great job. we knocked out the caliphate if you look at syria, what happened in a short period of time, far shorter than people said was possible. we're working together very well -- >> we will continued to monitor and l and let you know if there are other headlines. the trade talks with china has been going very well according to the president that's been the read out so far. i guess for investors, that's still reason to hope for a deal. >> you need a decoder ring to know what going well and progress, upbeat there was some talk today when we heard larry kudlow out there talking about pressing for a rate cut, that maybe that's a signal that they can't count on china getting done soon. >> he denied that. >> i know that butthere's not a way after

months and months of hearing it's going fine, it all sounds the same >> we should point out that headline this morning, shanghai up 3% today. that got a jump. up 24% for the quarter was china. still to come, the s&p 500 staging its best start to a year since 1998 up next, we'll break down the charts to see if there's concern the rally may be running out of steam. and stocks may be surging, but m&a sinking 17% in the first quarter? find out what's behind the slowdown later on "closing bell." alpha seems more elusive today.

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the s&p 500 closing comfortably above that 2,800 mark after wavering around that level for weeks. mike santoli has a look at why that level is so important to the bulls and the bears. >> yes it's 34 points above, more than 1% above the 2800 mark it's looking constructive. this orange line is the 2800 level. here's are the concerns. one, two, three, four times you hit it went across, five, six, seven, eight. basically a dozen times you have crossed this line. m most of those times it acted as a ceiling. you have this 50-day average,

the bright line, the dpra line is t gray line is the 200-day average. this trend line is pretty much flat so that's why i think this is a proof point, to see if we can stay above this level. the pullbacks have been benign this entire quarter. we're back to this level i don't think people realize we first got to the level we're at now in mid-january 2018. so we're talking more than 14 months where you really have not had a breakaway move from here that's why i think there's a lot of eyes on it. >> 50-day moving average on its way up through the 200-day, that's usually encouraging >> usually it is it's not terribly predictive in terms of exactly how it goes, but preferable to the alternative. the 200-day is so flat, it's not confirming an uptrend or a down trend. >> 2800 level is an important number to look at. time for a cnbc update with sue herera

>> thank you very much here's what's happening at this hour democratic republic of congo reporting 15 new confirmed cases of ebola, the biggest one-day rise since the outbreak was declared last august the outbreak is the second largest in history, having killed 660 people. attorney general william barr plans to issue a redacted copy of mueller's nearly 400-page investigative report by mid trill. he revealed that in a letter to lawmakers. he said he's willing to appear before the house and senate judiciary committees on may 1st and 2nd. a california man has been sentenced to 20 years in prisoe, called swatting, including one that led to a fatal police shooting of a kansas man tyler berris appeared in federal court. and british street artist banksy art piece is back on

place in a bristol museum after a ten-year absence, thanks to a loan from its owner. the painting depicts those in the house of commons as chimpanzees. it is banks ebanksy's largest wn canvas >> you would think that's timely >> especially given what happened today timing is everything >> sue, thank you. up next, we will get the outlook for the underperforming financial sector we'll be joined by the ceo of bnp paribas u.s. and later on we will get the reaction to linda man'mchos departure from the white house we will speak to karen mills who held that job under president obama. don't go anywhere. measure up?

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welcome back financials are up more than 7% in the first quarter but one of the worst performers of the s&p 500 in terms of seshgtsctors. joining us now is bnp paribas usa ceo jean-yves fillion. >> it's a pleasure to be here. >> bnp is the biggest bank by

assets in europe, but you have a significance presence here >> i did it's a diversified retail business, on the west coast, here in new york. reaching out to clients from individuals, entrepreneurs, small cap, mid cap and large caps that we serve domestically and around the world >> we'll dive into what you're doing in the u.s. in a moment. we wanted to look at europe first of all mario draghi said this week that they need to think about the side effects of negative rates, talking about the hit it's had to the banking system. how important was it to get that acknowledgment because of the tough environment you've seen over there >> you've seen a lot of acknowledgments not only from the ecb but as well from the fed here who is ang nis acknowledgie fact that maybe tightening is not the right way to go forward.

i think mario draghi is adjusting his weight on this situation. negative rates in europe, let's be candid, they have been helpful to keep the eurozone on a growing path and today it probably becomes more of an impediment particularly at times for the banking industry >> you have got a pretty good lens into the u.s. economy what's your view on how much the global weakness is spilling over to affect the u.s. outlook >> it does having said that, particularly when you look at today, i think fundamentals always win. this is still an extremely robust economy gdp excellent, 2% growth forecasted for 2019. jobs status excellent. spending my life with ceos, it's very vibrant i think confidence is pretty high having said that, this economy, as you said, is not living in a vacuum and the slowing down in europe, slowing down in china, that has

an impact here >> when you think about the investment bank, sergio imotti said this was the worst quarter ever do you see that in your business or is there a difference between the u.s. and europe? >> in my business i don't probably see it the same way it's really because of the diversified activities we have i believe when you are geographically diversified, europe, asia, u.s., you benefit or you capitalize on different drivers. and particularly in my business here, being retail and investment banking, i think this diversification has had managed some of the more stringent factors you're referring to >> i wanted to ask about the anti-banker sentiment following the departure of tim sloan from wells fargo. how do you see how that's evolved over the last deck said

decade in the u.s. versus europe >> i think if you refer to the banking industry, i would say, you know, moving forward and looking at new leadership and i think this is what all industries do. this is no exception here. we have to adapt, adjust i have to say, as it relates to bnp paribas, we have benefited from stability in management my executive committee in the u.s. is actually over 15 years of stability when you go through cycles, you go through crisis, it adds value. in terms of the banking industry trying to work on their personal branding, for sure being more part of the community, being more involved in stability, being connected to sustainability and diversity and inclusion is something we have to do more on and work very hard at >> we are out of time. thank you very much for joining us >> pleasure being here >> jean-yves fillion, ceo of bnp paribas here in america. still to come, a change in

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welcome, karen talk about linda mcmahon it seems like it's been an island of relative calm in this administration as far as some of the cabinet posts in the trump administration go. >> well, it's really important to have a powerful champion for small business sitting at the cabinet table and somebody who has the president's ear because small businesses are really an important part of the economy, but sometimes the voice of small business is not always heard you know, i experienced this, as you said, ten years ago this week i joined the obama administration in this role. we were in the midst of the financial crisis small businesses were dropping like flies we lost 1.8 million small business jobs. the sba loan guarantee program was like a lifeline to so many of these businesses. it is a critical job even more critical today because, as you know, banking is changing technology is changing

fintech has come on the scene. so this is going to be a really important position to fill and technology nowmeans amazon as well as banks are at the table. >> in general, the environment for small business has been positive we've seen that in the confidence numbers between the tax cuts, the deregulatory push. how would you characterize it in this administration? >> i would say that the small business recovery started from really a difficult place in the recession. but thanks to really the access to capital that's available today, small businesses are able to grow. they have sales. but you know what? it's hard for small businesses to prosper they have a lot to of competitive pressures. so one of the things that i'm optimistic about is technology is going to change the game. i actually have in the book something called small business

utopia, where artificial intelligence and the streams of data that are available are going to be ability to make a small business dashboard so credit would be available at the push of a button, as you're running your business.life-threg cash crunches won't mean you have to sort of walk down and wait three months for an answer from a bank. this is really an extraordinary time if we get it right, where small businesses could really have the wind at their back from technology. >> thanks for joining us on the perspective. >> thank you now fears of a global economic slowdown may be hurting deal makg. 'll discuss that coming up in our radar segment.

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welcome back to "closing bell." here's what else is on our radar for today. the gender equality conversation is happening inside financial services companies last night i moderated a conversation with jeffrey solomon discussing the changes he's making to the firm to promote equality while he did talk about improving hiring practices and hr tech sneaks at cowen, he gave interesting examples how men can step up and change the culture and how they deal with women in the workplace. listen to this. >> i would like each of the men to do this when there's a woman in the room, see how many times she gets interrupted like i had no idea i probably do it i probably still do it and i shouldn't, but i'm much more aware of it now. when you see your female colleagues getting interrupted inadvertently, stop the male

colleague and say, excuse me, let susie finish after a while, you can -- you can pull the male aside and say you interrupted her three times. next time you're in a meeting, why don't you try to let her finish first that's something that men can do for women that is really tangible and super helpful >> the reason i picked this specific sound bite to play was i thought it was interesting to have a conversation about this unconscious bias that we have. i mean it's one thing to say, look, we're going to have 50% of our incoming hirings like goldman sachs is doing for women, that's absolutely necessary. but it's also interesting to have these conversations about what you can do inside meetings that you're not even aware of that can make it more equal. i notice none of you are interrupting me right now so i'm just going to talk until the end of the show. >> as long as you're finished. >> okay, go. >> no, i agree we'll take note of that.

that's interesting i'm sure it happens a lot. global m & a activity drying up according to new data global mergers and acquisitions slowed 17% in the first quarter. conversely, the u.s. m & a market has seen its strongest start since 2000, up 9.4% last year this goes back to that ubs quote about the worst environment. i do think you shouldn't extrapolate for the u.s. banks who start reporting coming up. m & a has been good, trading has not been good but capital markets overrule it should be all right for the u.s. markets. >> it fits with the fact that the u.s. market has outperformed. >> and our economy is still doing the best in the world. it's a talking point that president trump uses a lot, but these kind of statistics would indicate that's true that's where the action is. appearnd we have another potential high ipo in the works.

endeavor, which owns the ultimate fighting championships league is filing the paperwork for an ipo interesting type of company to come public. this is a human business, taking a cut of a lot of tv and film production as well as ultimate fighting formula one is now part of a public company now too. >> the thing that amazed me on this, in the report saying that it would be valued at $3 to $4 billion. we think of this company as the giant of its industry. yes, i know it takes small cuts from everything, but -- >> just an advisory business. house financial services chairwoman maxine waters released a statement saying in part mr. sloan's departure is long overdue and should be followed by the removal of other culpable executives and directors. this bank has a long, shameful track record of egregious violations of the law. i will continue to scrutinize

wells fargo' activities and treatment of consumers and work to ensure that the bank is held fully accountable for its wrongdoing i think the target is likely to fall away as time passes. >> i'm all about fighting crony capitalism, but when politicians know better about who should lead your company, we've got to ask about that. >> and criminal activity is a step too far we've run out of time. apologies, "fast money" team >> it starts now have a good weekend. "fast money" starts right now. live from the nasdaq market site overlooking new york city's times square, i'm melissa lee. the dow surging today to ending the quarter, having its best start to the year since 2013 if you missed the party, don't worry. the chart master will tell you the one stock to buy to catch this rally. plus the worst performing sector so far this year. check out some of the losers