pharmaceuticals. we were talking about closing the border wall. ksu, kansas city southern, 30% of revenues come from mexico border crossings the stock is up. >> shrugging it off. >> you know what that is that's your check, please. >> that's my check, please. >> "closing bell" starts right now. >> it's the final hour of trade, rising demand to push lyft whether it can turn around in the final minutes. and u.s./china trade talks expected to take center stage tomorrow kevin rudd is here to tell us what to expect also gamestop about to report earnings. we'll give you those numbers as soon as they break "closing bell" begins right now. >> all right

welcome to "closing bell." i'm scott wapner along with morgan brennan today with an hour in the trading day to go. it's somewhat misleading today, at least if you look at the dow. walgreens is having the worst day in some five years, disappointing earnings and that stock is weighing heavy on the dow today. the nasdaq is coming back. look i looking for a little direction the last hour. there you go there's your market picture this moment small caps are off by one quarter of one percent you look at the dow at the top there, morgan. >> investors definitely seem to be digesting that rally we saw yesterday. wilfred frost and sara eisen are in washington, d.c they both have big interviews to bring us wilfred has bank of america and sara has the chair of the fcc and just spoke with larry kudlow sara

>> let's kick it off with sara. >> go ahead. >> reporter: i was just going to tell you that everybody here -- the business community is now a little bit worried on the trade side of things now that the president has threatened to shut the u.s./mexican border. chamber of commerce, i did catch up with national economic adviser larry kudlow he was here to give him a speech and i asked him about the economic fallout he is actually looking for solutions. listen. >> we're watching it and looking for ways to allow the freight passage. some people call it truck roads. and there are ways you can do that, which would limit the breakdown in supply chains i mean, the president's positions on border security are well known i support them fully the numbers, 100,000 immigrants every month. it's crazy

the question is, can we deal with that and not have economic damage i think the answer is, we can, and people are looking at different options. particularly if you can keep those freight lanes, truck lanes open i mean, that's probably the nub of it. >> what about those coming over here legally to work and not to mention the tourists >> that may be difficult i don't want to comment on it, because we're playing right now to try to -- you know, what you want to do is stop the emergency and the breakdown and you want to try to limit whatever harm that does. it's a very difficult task i think that's doable. i don't know where -- the president will make a final decision on these things he hasn't yet. we're looking at all those options. >> here at the chamber of commerce they've been pretty

outspoken on the need to reduce any economic fallout around this issue. >> they're right i agree with that. >> larry kudlow there, really saying that he is looking at options to mitigate the economic damage, keeping those truck lanes open, to get freight keeping across the border so that supply chains and, for instance, auto manufacturing are not disrupted. he agrees with the u.s. chamber of commerce. earlier, we talked to the president of the chamber, tom donahue, representing 3 million american businesses about his concerns around shutting down the border and the business and economic damage. listen. >> sure ly, we don't want to shu down the people that come to the united states every day to work here, cross the border that we need we don't want to shut down the trade that allows us to make automobiles and related products between the two countries. we don't want to shut down the

movement of tourists, but the president has a legitimate concern about these migrations of people. >> just a latest in the flare-up of concerns. slower global growth, christine legaard spoke earlier. guys, i'll share more of what she said later in the show trade is a major risk factor that the imf is citing, man-made problem in terms of its economic growth. >> sara, i wonder how much the administration is playing with fire, so to speak, on that issue for a group of folks who are already worried about where the economy is heading right? this is the president's top economic guy, the same person

who was arguing for an immediate 50 basis point cut on friday, now has to sort of balance if you do shut the border with mexico what the economic impact is going to be, even though he told you he thinks they can be okay. >> he thinks they can be okay. his word was he's playing with options, or at least looking into options to try to make the economic fallout less bad. that is, the disruption of the supply chain but you heard kudlow he didn't really have a solution there when it came to the workers crossing the border, or the tourists, another source of economic activity. by the way, since you brought up, scott, the rate cut, of course you know i pressed him on that issue he stands by his comments but did say he was misquoted as saying that the economy directly and immediately needs a rate hike he didn't say immediately. he didn't want to make it any kind of emergency or anything like that. he said he just wants to protect the economic recovery and he also, i might add, scott, said

very pointedly, he believes in the independence of the federal reserve and they're going to do what they're going to do and he's just voicing his opinion and the president's opinion and want to make that very clear, that he wasn't exactly looking like he was bossing the fed around. >> words matter, right when it comes to the president of the united states and the top economic person in the white house. >> absolutely. >> words have a little more meaning than the average person suggesting that the fed might want to cut interest rates some time, maybe not immediately, but in the near future, just in case sara, thanks. >> correct and to that point, scott, christine legaard, head of the imf, i asked her this morning, do you think the fed should cut rates by 50 bases points she said i strongly believe in the independence of the federal reserve and will not tell them what to do. >> sara, thank you we'll see you later in the hour on your interview with larry kudlow and jelena williams

turning now to trade next round of talks are due to kick off tomorrow in washington. shanghai deposit is far outpacing the s&p 500 for the year so far. that index is up 27% with strong market performance and better than expected economic data for march. could china have the upper hand in the next round of talks kevin rudd, former prime minister of australia joins us now here at post nine to discuss. welcome. what are you expecting in terms of this conversation between the u.s. and china as these trade talks continue are we actually going to get some stoort of deal here >> basically there's too much interest on both sides to let a deal slip by they both need a deal. chinese for macroeconomic reasons, despite what you just reported in terms of a better performance by chinese stocks in the last couple of months. it's been a pretty average year for the chinese economy in 2018.

soft growth, soft employment so they need to put a shot in the arm of chinese growth. similarly in the united states, you've just been referring to what the fed is doing with rates and the pressure on the fed to do something more. if the president wants the economy to power its way through 2019 and into an election year, putting this trade war behind him is, frankly, a necessary precondition for that happening. >> the devil will be in the details, though, right things have to go far beyond simply raising the amount of product you purchase from the united states. and that's where it could get a little dicey on the forced transfer of technology and some of the other hard sticking points that exist. >> you're absolutely right, scott. three big ones at the moment are sticking one is the american position, which is that, okay, china, let's say we get this deal just to keep you guys honest, we want to keep a level of tariffs on in terms of those we've

imposed. >> which they suggested they would. >> for a period of time. that's problematic two, the biggest problematic one, though, is the americans asking the chinese to say okay if in the future we say you chinese are cheating on x, y and z, we don't want you to impose retaliatory tariffs on us once we put tariffs on you. that is what i would describe as an impossibility for the chinese side to accept it would be seen as an unequal treaty, which china has had a bit of experience with in history. and then state subsidies for chinese technologies. >> china has been rolling out quite a bit of stimulus, given that number we got, reading we got yesterday, we saw stocks rally on the idea that perhaps we're seeing stabilization in that economy do you believe that's the case if so, does that take the

leverage away from the u.s. as these talks progress >> one swallow doth not a summer make so one pmi data point out of china for march, indicating we've hit above 50, 50.8, i believe, was the number, indicates that things are possibly headed in the right direction but there's been a lot of negative data over a period of time. what have they done? as you said a large degree of fiscal policy stimulus into infrastructure and other, as it were, public investments credit loosening for the private sector, something that private firms have been complain iing about for some time, and changes on the tax front the big question is how durable an effect this will have on chinese private sector business confidence and whether that will be further turbo charged if we get a trade deal. >> you're an expert on china, obviously. given the news of the day, i would like to ask you about mexico. >> the country to america's

south, yes. >> from your perspective, can you shut a border with a major trading partner and not expect some damaging economic fallout >> i think it's virtually impossible and i listened carefully to what larry kudlow had to say, let's put this into two streams, stuff we like and stuff we don't like. easier said than done administratively in australia, we don't have land borders. bottom line is that you have to be careful about these sorts of things and unintended economic consequences many americans need to be reminded how significant these two nafta economies are to growth in this country these are big numbers. >> is the u.s. still the best house on the block, as it were, in this global economy we've been hearing a lot of talk today about the fact that the global economy is continuing to slow, maybe that there's a soft landing rather than a recession, that the u.s. still looks pretty strong, versus everything else

is that your take on the matter? if so, when you're having these types of trade talks, discussions about closing the border, is it something that this economy could actually support right now? >> true, you look at the global economy. that's what your program analyzes most of the time. europe's soft for a range of reasons, geopolitical reasons. china, question how it's emerging for '19 bad '18. here we are in the usa, during the long period of, shall we say, economic growth and still business conditions relatively buoyant, although employment growth has begun to slow radically. i think from the american macroeconomic point of view, perspective, i would simply be doing everything possible to sustain growth shutting the border with mexico is not a smart move in order to sustain growth and business development. on the china side of the global economy, you've seen what the chinese have done on their financial markets,

liberalization, bond markets, future moves on derivatives markets and expanding foreign investment in chinese equities markets. all good stuff but also a big change because china, for the first time in its history, is about to experience significant deficits this introduces a whole new variable into global macroeconomic management that we're all going to have to adjust to as well. >> eventually tighten our seat belts maybe. good to see you. >> yeah. >> good to be with you on the program. let's head out to washington where wilfred frost sat down with ceo brian moynihan. wilf >> indeed. bank share prices have been underperforming in the market partially on fears of the economic outlook and what that means for interest rates retail sales for february data disappointed and i asked the chairman and ceo of bank of america brian moynihan what he was seeing in terms of data as it relates to the u.s. consumer.

>> if you look at bank of america's data, $3 trillion of m money spent on debit cards, checks written, atm cash out, that will grow 5-ish percent, due to growing faster in nondigital that's consistent with the 2% type of growth versus the 3% we had last year. >> i also asked him what he thought about larry kudlowe's calls on cnbc last week for a further 50-basis point on the fed. here was his answer. >> the economy is growing. the fed is trying to get themselves more in neutral that's what they said. the goal of the fed, their charter is not to try to push the economy. it's to make sure the economy is priced stability that's where we are, 2% plus growth economy, low

unemployment wages are growing faster than people think people are spending. i think they're playing it the way they should. let the data tell you what to do they were clear about that the markets have dpon back and forth. when they got in this range, they have to pause to take a look at what happens next. i don't think we need to juice it we have to let the economy work. >> bank of america stock is trading up today they are reporting their results in two weeks' time next hour of closing bell, guys, i did sit down with brian moynihan and we talked about the threat from apple and goldman sachs' new partnership and also what he's expecting when he comes to washington next week for a hearing in front of the house financial services committee. guys >> he came off pretty positive, don't you think, wilf, pretty optimistic about where we are, even in a world where tariffs have obviously had an impact he did reference that. he came off to me as pretty optimistic. >> i would agree 100% with that, scott. i would say very optimistic

relative to the sort of more downbeat tone we've had in the marketplace of recent weeks and months and the difference, i would say this time coming into earnings, which as i said kick off in a little under two weeks, is that we've heard that before, back in december ahead of the january earn iings if you're looking for short-term shares, that was wrong even though the earnings were good. we'll have to see whether or not this time the bank ceos if, indeed, they are optimistic they're right. on the share price i asked specifically about that and whether he felt banks investors were worried too much about the yield curve and he seemed to say yes. people are overreacting. we heard that three months ago and the share price has underperformed since. >> the line that really jumped out at me just now was moynihan saying that wages are growing faster than people think we are waiting for that latest jobs report. when you do have more and more market participants thinking or

speculating that we could see a rate cut later on this year, that's a very contrarian commen to make. that sounds a lot less dovish. >> i agree and i think we're also hearing from him that he felt january was a one off with the shutdown and we did also see divisions up wards and his data in march showing better data than february overall, it plays into him being a little more optimistic either way as it relates to the fed, he says wait and see the data so far, i don't think he has seen the data that warrants any further need for a cut. >> wilf, we'll see you in a bit. wilfred frost in maryland. >> see you then. we'll dive into today's volatile session that pushed lyft well below and is keeping lyft below its price. >> plus christine legaard tell

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welcome back lyft volatile today, trading well below $72 ipo price leslie picker has been following the stock and joins us now with more h hey, leslie. >> morgan, that's right. interesting few days, trading below that ipo price of $72 but right around the initial range it marketed the first week of the road show. at that time they were seeking $68 a share and bumped the range up by 6% and priced at the high end of that new range. now today's levels are right around that first range. it was a range that at least some investors we spoke with at the road show said they were quite comfortable with, that pricing was cheaper than a basket of comparables investors were using to assess lyft's sales, a determinant as to

whether investors view that company to be cheap or expensive. the company priced at $72 a share which psychologically can showcase high demand for the stock. i've spoken with several people who got allocations at 72, that flipped on day one i've spoken with others who see some of the recent weakness as a buying opportunity also in focus today, less than one hour from now is the settle deadline allowing prime brokers to lend to investors who want to short. last three trading days they haven't been able to short because brokerages feel comfortable they'll have inventory to lend after today's date guys >> action today, leslie, looks pretty positive, right >> it does. >> that would be your takeaway, the way the stock has held up as momentum seemingly keeps building to the downside >> what's interesting is that volume levels are still quite high here, scott it's been steadily climbing.

18 million shares traded that is extraordinary for a company that sold about $33 million in this ipo. it's clear that there are a lot of moving pieces it's unclear based on the sources i'm speaking to exactly who is buying, who is selling, what types of investors are buying, what types of investors are selling. it's something -- it gives people some pause in terms of finding a conviction level for this name at these levels. they really want to see some of that liquidity dry up before assessing what to do in terms of bullishness or bearishness. >> good insights, leslie picker. thanks for joining us with them. we've got about 35 minutes before the bell. and it's a mixed picture for stocks right now dow is down 70 points. the s&p is slightly higher, up one point. .3% nasdaq and small caps are under performing auto stocks on watch today in fears of a slowdown in sales how the big automakers fared in

the first quarter and what's drive those trends. gamestop down about 20% so far this year. we'll get the latest read on this company when it reports earnin ds so after the bell.

30 minutes to go on the day.

walgreens' worst day in years. down 76. nike, verizon, j & j, travelers also among the big losers. after the break, we'll head back to washington and hear from fdic chair jelena mcwilliams to hear how prepared the banks are for the next big economic downturn build bridges, insure prosperity. as investment management professionals, let's measure up. cfa institute.

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hovering right around the flat line. materials, your best performing sectors. consumer staples and industrials biggest under performers time now for cnbc news update. theresa may says britain will seek another delay to brexit in she will try to have cross party ta talks to break the log party jam. >> when we pass a deal

to ensure we leave in a timely and orderly way. >> a fire has erupted at a houston area chemical plant, spewing a plume of thick, black smoke into the air fire marshal's office says one person has been killed, two have been injured at the crosby chemical facility. a spanish interviewer that barcelona soccer star lionel messi is a great player but, quote, is he not god end quote. the pope explain iing only god n be worshipped but pope francis is known to be a soccer fan. you're up-to-date. that's the news update this hour guys, i'll send it back down to yo you. >> it will ring hollow with millions of soccer fans. >> no doubt. no doubt sue, thanks. >> you got it. sara eisen sat down earlier with the fdic chair.

sara >> hi, scott we don't often hear from the fdic not only do th jelena mcwilliams took over last summer this is her first time speaking with cnbc. i asked her what kind of shape the big banks are in and whether they're prepared to weather the next downturn. >> it should be an answer that you like and an answer that gives you some level of comfort but the real answer is, how well prepared are they, period? and banks are well capitalized we've instituted returns since the 2008 financial crises that are making them more resilient it's something we're constantly keeping in mind. we are preparing for what could be a downturn at some point in time. >> when you came in, as many other trump appointees, of some of these agencies, you did talk about deregulation, trying to look at the post crisis

financial regulation like dodd/frank and figure out how to make it a little more lenient, is that fair is that something you've been working on >> i personally have never said deregulation, so i try to be very careful deregulation would assume taking away the regulations we're looking at calibrating the existing regulations to a point where they're more suited for the risk profile and the business model of the company and not just putting all the companies with a certain threshold or certain profile into the same category these are unique companies these banks have a unique risk profile in many cases and i think our regulatory approach will be more tailored to that. >> are there specific policies you're looking at right now? >> looking at how we're looking at capital and liquidity of banks, looking at how we are calibrating the deposit rules for institutions of different sizes, taking a look at the volka rule. >> bb & t and sun trust.

>> the application not the merger yet, yes. >> regulators have to approve it. >> yes. >> how does this look? is this a good thing or bad thing for competition? >> if you ask bb & t and suntrust, i can't speak for them but i believe they would tell you it's a good thing because it allows them on a technological side to have better investment and economy of scale if you look from the other banking institutions i imagine that institutions that are larger than a combined bank would be for bb & t suntrust would be looking at them as a viable competitor. and institution below them, i think, will look for opportunities to team up with a new bank and hopefully, you know, get some benefits out of the merger. >> it sounds like you're leaning toward letting it go through. >> i can't speak of that right now. we don't -- >> would you be the regulator? who would be their regulator >> whoever they filed their application with they have a choice to make, whether they will be regulated by federal reserve, as a federal

reserve bank or fdic, as fdic bank. >> you see it spurring other types of mergers for regional banks? >> potentially that's always, you know, a game plan for some of these entities. i don't know if it would spur them already further than they're talking about this. >> in terms of the bank performance lately, it's been another rough period the yield curve has inverted do you see that as a big issue >> we monitor it we look at all of that banks have had record profits. quarterly banking profile, banks are doing exceptionally well part of it is attributable to the tax cut and part of it to the interest rate increases and we're not concerned about their viability at this point in time. >> are you concerned about a recession? >> no. i wouldn't say we're concerned about a recession, but it is something that we constantly look at economic factors and see where the economy is pointing and how our institutions are prepared for it. >> some have warned of the boom

in leverage loans, for instance, as a potential ticking time bomb in case we do enter another downturn is that a place where you've been focussed? >> we look at concentrations, leverage lending and portfolios in general for leverage lending we have concluded that a lot of the exposure interacts to banks. banks are partly involved with the loans but a lot of their exposure is indirect so we're monitoring that and making sure they have liquidity capital that is sufficient for those loans to withstand the downturn. >> are there any other pockets where you're looking for >> you constantly look at kind of a prior experience in commercial real estate you look at concentrations especially for community banks that don't have diversified portfolio. you want to be mindful of where their assets are allocated and proceed accordingly with regulations. >> jelena mcwilliams, brand new fdic chair, guys big news at the chamber event, imf indicating it's going to cut

its global growth forecast next week, saying the outlook has worsened from a few month ago. what christine lagarde said was driving that pessimism and where the u.s. fits into the global picture right now, it's outlook for 2019 see you then. >> sara, thank you see you in just a bit. less than 30 to go, edging on 20 minutes before the closing bell. dow jones off its worst levels of the day, still down about 66 points as we've been saying all show long it's really due to the weakness today in walgreens, one of its worst days ever otherwise the market is holding up pretty well the s&p is marginally in positive territory auto sales coming in we'll tell you what's driving slowing sales, next. plus shares of gamestop are down around 20% so far this year we'll get a read on the gaming consumer when itepts ror earnings after the bell. feel that? that's the beat of global markets, the rhythm of the world.

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and western digital all have gains. some of the major automakers for the month of march phil lebeau has more. >> they weren't horrific it's not like we're seeing auto sales fall off a cliff but they were lackluster given what we've seen the last couple of years. reported sales in march, honda up at 4.3% is one of the bright spots there. we should point out toyota, fiat-chrysler both reporting negative numbers, roughly in line with expectations general motors didn't report sales for march but for the quarter because they now do it on a quarterly basis total sales down 7%. this is the story for all the automakers nobody wants to buy a sedan nowadays gm's average transaction price up almost $1,000 to $35,881. you take a look at shares of general motors the industry estimate in terms of the sales pace for the first

quarter expect to be around 16.7 million. we'll get that in the next hour or so. we're also watching shares of tesla. the anticipation is growing that whether it's today, tomorrow, at some point, we will get the q1 delivery numbers as soon as we get those guys, we will pass them along to you. this is the focus here model three deliveries not the overall number there will be some intention of that but what happened with model three deliveries in the first quarter. >> phil, we talk a lot about peak auto and the idea we're past that now after years of record auto sales. how much is the fact that you've got this record number of used vehicles on the market as well playing into this, higher prices, higher interest rates as well >> all of that all of those are factors, morgan sure peak auto, you had the four best years ever in the united states when it comes to auto sales with sales annually topping $17 million. there's a saturation point that, to a certain extent, has been reached in terms of the american

consumer you add in the volume of used vehicles coming into the market. not only the number of used vehicles, morgan, but the quality. these are three or four-year-old models people look at and say you know what? why should i buy new when i can buy a 3-year-old model that's pretty darn good right now all those combine to weigh on sales a little bit. >> do you feel, phil, like there's the same level of optimism that some of the home builders are starting to feel because of where interest rates are, like morgan said? this is going to be kind of a make it or break it. if you can't sell cars when rates are this low, you'll have the naysayers out of the woodwork again. >> right and you see this in the valuation for the auto stocks. if you couldn't succeed over the last four years in terms of getting investors excited, which they did not sales of general motors trading in that $36 to $38 range what will it take? clearly they've got the cost side of the equation in place. they're going to make money. they're going to make a lot of

money this year if you look at a company like general motors and yet investors are still saying, eh, not really excited not sure why to buy these stocks except for the dividend, clearly a play for some investors. >> phil lebeau, thank you. >> you bet. up next, citi private bank's chief strategist tells us what he thinks is harming business confidence plus bank of america ceo brian moynihan speaking candidly about pressures from washington. >> we face political pressure all the time that's part of the job. >> more from that exclusive teiew with wilfred frost on the closing bell tech sector. it's about technology transforming every sector. ♪ at pgim, our bottom-up approach uses a technology lens to identify long-term winners. from energy... to real estate... to retail. finding such opportunities for alpha is the true value of active investing. and around the world,

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why do you think that? >> we had a 3% growth year in 2018 but this was significantly impacted by tax cuts yes, there are permanent effects with regard to competitiveness with the tax cut but personal income tax liabilities went down and that's not something we're repeating in 2019. we had nine rate hikes, 18 months of outflows from the federal reserve's balance sheet. you can see domestic sources of economic weakness, housing contracted last year not by a lot but you can see retail sales, employment and housing, all these domestic sources and you mentioned autos just before the break all these things are slowing down now for very domestic reasons and the federal reserve would have been off course to stay on the policy track that it was. it would have damaged -- in fact, it could have ended the u.s. expansion. >> yeah. and, rick, if you want to know where the volatility has been in the recent weeks it's been in the bond market. we had the ten-year moving back

above 2.5. it's now slipped back below. and a lot more talk about the possibility of the fed not only potentially holding steady this year, but the idea that it could cut. how is the action playing out right now in the bond market >> i could make a very good case that you're exactly correct. i could point out fed fund contracts, aspects of the yield curve that are all augering for a rate cut that doesn't mean it will occur. i continue to say that the one character in this novel that's real that we can touch without theory, without assumptions, without strategizing, is the market when you look at the nasdaq, dow and s&p all within striking distance of all-time highs and look at the fact that rates have come down but stabilized, the only conclusion i can draw is that steve is right. it doesn't mean there isn't a lock and reload here and take it a step farther when you consider how far interest rates have fallen since october, november

of last year when we had the double top in tens right around 3.25 we'll be discounting future earnings at much lower yields. so, yes, we can always find a wall of worry somewhere that we can try to climb in the end, markets idling here with all the news of the day, shutting down borders, maybe workers, trade issues. i think this is a cause for optimism. >> take that one step further. if the fed was, as you say, off course, they obviously pivoted in a major'. >> exactly. >> the way that the market has been trading lately, does that tell you we're on the march to new highs, we'll get there and then go beyond >> i agree with what rick just said and in the end, it was very important. the federal reserve took a warning sign from the market and it heeded it if you take a look at what the federal reserve's intentions are for its balance sheet, for its treasury holdings to go from $30

billion a month shrinking those treasury holdings, increasing treasury holdings by $20 billion a month that this alone could have had yields decline and that a big part of the stabilization and equity markets, again, has been this change in course from the fed. and i do think if we avoid shocks and avoid making some policy mistakes that you will have seen the very weakest of the growth right at the beginning of 2019. i would expect employment data to look stronger i would expect pickup in growth from something closer to 1% or 2% but it's very important for those policymakers to stay on guard. and it's good for them to worry a bit. >> steven, what would be a policy mistake >> well, if you think -- >> from a market standpoint? >> i would think about it this way. when the yield curve has mildly inverted -- we had nine rate hikes, we just have to be more cautious again, putting rate hikes back

on the table, as if the economy was growing 3%, that would be one. major trade disruptions. there's been a good deal of optimism that we will come to some terms on trade issues and if we're going to put auto trade, for example, on the front burner, we have significant problems in disruptions around the world and business if we were to do that. we would see expectations weaken again. you mentioned during the break that business confidence has come down. it has the large business sector since the early part of 2018, small business since the third quarter of the year. so trade disruptions are something, again, we have to avoid. >> right rick, would cutting rates right now by any magnitude be a policy mistake? i can't imagine you would think that the fed shouldcom com out and cut rates by 25 or 50 basis points am i wrong >> i think it would be a policy mistake.

i don't see what we would garner from it. there are times when fundamental economic data would be a beacon for jay powell to consider what you just suggested giving back at this point would fuel nervousness and i don't see that enough has changed. think about it this has been a rather strong first quarter we just finished neutral means just that. not to be trigger happy and to be patient so yes, i think any action right now would be a policy mistake. >> figured that's what you would say. that's why i asked you rick santelli, thank you very much steve wieting, pleasure to talk to you as well see you both soon. market flash on delta. here is the animation. that means phil has it

phil >> delta up 5% today this is what happens when you've got depressed expectations, which is what a lot of people have for the airline sector and then an airline come out and say we're raising guidance for the first quarter, to earn between 70 and 90 cents a share. now they say they're going to earn between 85 and 95 that's the reason you see shares, what, now more than 6%, we're in that pre -- that guidance season for the airlines don't be surprised if you hear from other ka erers heading into earnings season. >> yeah. positive news from the airlines for a change phil, thanks coming back with the closing countdown in just a moment duncan just protected his family

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because you have e*trade, who's tech makes life easier by automatically adding technical patterns on charts and helping you understand what they mean. don't get mad. get e*trade's simplified technical analysis. welcome back to "closing bell." leslie picker has some news on lyft. >> the result of natural buying and selling of the stock, not stieblization by the underwriters this represents a positive sign for lyft it indicates the moves we're seeing today, now into the positive territory, are not the result of support from banks involved in the deal, that they're purely investors trading the shares and ipos, underwriters or stabilization agent to help support the stock on the open market

scott, over to you for the countdown. >> leslie, thank you very much interesting news to deliver as shares of lyft have been under pressure from the moment of the ipo, after that initial pop. got about a minute left as we close it up here on wall street. the dow is the big loser today that really has to do with walgreens. i'll show you the chart. it's one of the worst days in many years nasdaq has been the outperformer s&p has been flat much of the day. rates have stabilized a bit as well the last couple of days and that's something to certainly keep an eye on i'm showing you the ten-year, at 2.47, was 2.50 or so we have 40 seconds or so left with bob pisani. watching rates and they seem to have stabilized. >> economic data was very mixed today. so, overall it was not great auto sales numbers, not particularly great but the manufacturing yesterday was terrific overall i'm glad to hear we're a little

more stable in lyft. pinterest is going to come i assume we'll hear something monday. >> bob, thank you. that does it for the first hour of "the closing bell." heading back to the table with morgan and mike santoli in a moment welcome to "closing bell." i'm morgan brennan scott wapner will join me here in a moment, along with mike santoli, cnbc markets commentat commentator. sara eisen and wilfred frost are in washington. sara talked to larry kudlow and wilfred spoke with bank of america ceo brian moynihan we'll get to them in just a few moments. meantime, here is how we're finishing the day on wall street, as stocks settle dow finishing down 78 points off the lows of the session.

26,179 down a third of a percent. s&p 500, closing right around the flat line, 2867. nasdaq, out drls perfoperformer. small caps finishing lower and the transports also finishing the day lower. this, of course, after that big rally yesterday, as investors digest what was a very strong start to the second quarter. here are the stories on the radar for investors. imf managing director christine lagarde warning about slowing global growth, lyft getting hit with its first sell rating on wall street and gamestop set to report earnings any minute now joining us to talk about the market day, courtney gibson from loop capital mike santoli, let's start with you. not a lot of volatility in today's session but a strong start to the quarter. >> today not a lot to make out of it except the market held its

gains, right mostly slept it off after yesterday, after having a really big run out of the gate for the quarter. i do think you're sort of seeing a bit of a subtle move, more cyclical stocks have acted better over the last couple of weeks. maybe there's underneath the surface rotation going on from the safer stocks back to cyclicals but don't want to extrapolate too much except to say the market managed to hold the flat line without giving up much of yesterday's rally. >> it's okay to have data catch your breath, right after a couple of big days >> it absolutely is, scott and what's interesting today, i talked to my equity desk at loop capital before coming on today we're almost 24, 25% lighter on volume today the volatility that we're seen today, which has been somewhat muted, is probably driven by the fact that folks have been sitting on the sidelines they we do a lot of trading with fundamentals and the programs we're seeing are very balanced

we're not seeing folks taking these market or sector bets in this market right now. people are really kind of sitting by and seeing what's going on in the markets right n now. >> kourtney, what do you see as the next big catalyst for these markets? >> right now we're dead in the middle of paying attention to what's going on with earnings. that's going to help us catapult higher or potentially put some things on pause. but what really does concern me and has for a while -- scott you and i have talked about this i think companies right now are fearful of guiding one way or another. i mean, if you miss, you are blown out of the water right now. and the markets have become incredibly unforgiving if you think about what's going on with trade and china and slowdown, if you will, those things, obviously, are affecting the markets right now and the stock market globally. but ultimately, i think right now we have to really pay attention to what's going on with companies and how well they're doing.

>> mike, morgan asked kourtney the drivers. i read a note from you earlier, which threw cold water on the idea right now that we're a full-blown fomo market, fear of missing out. there is no alternative. >> right, right. >> is it too early to go there >> i think that's overanticipating where we are. i think people are more involved than they were two months ago in terms of saying, okay, this rally has legs maybe we'll participate in it. the flows have not been all that aggressive into equities this year i mean, if you look at etfs, it's been okay they've been out of equity funds. we're in the earlier stages if the market holds up that people will say wait a second, maybe we did escape these dangers that have been so front of mind most of the year. i think we have to be a little careful in saying it's nothing but momentum there is a little bit -- i think the market is -- or bulls out there are saying there will be a

seamless hand-off, benefiting from low rates, dovish fed and less bad news globally to something that turns into a full-on inflection rate in growth maybe we fumbled the baton in there, passing one to the other. maybe the market gets overheated in the short term as it might be right now. i don't think we're, right now, in full-on fomo mode yet. >> you'll get earnings really soon, kourtney it's a put up or shut up moment for the rally. you've come this far and maybe have extended further on the expectation that earnings would be better than expected. they sure as heck better be. >> i think they will be, scott again, i think part of it is companies are trying to under promise and over deliver that's the world in which we're living in right now, fortunately or unfortunately but i also talked about the fact that we've been moving into a stock picker's market. it's not going to be a situation where, you know, a tide is going

to raise all ships, right? ultimately i think we're going to see some names that are really going to out perform and we'll see others that don't and that's okay. even within financials, obviously you had brian on from b of a earlier there are going to be some banks that will do better than others. if you have to be in financias,s how are you allocating within those sectors if you're an institutional asset manager that has to allocate versus a benchmark, where are you going to be within those sectors where you have to have representation? i think that will be very, be very key and being in companies that are with well-run businesses is going to be critica critical. >> global growth has been a top concern. sara eisen spoke with the imf earlier today. sara >> the person you want to hear from is the head of the imf. and today christine lagarde did

suggest that the outlook has worsened here's why. >> it's a delicate moment. growth is losing momentum. and it is losing the momentum that we had hoped for, pretty much, across the globe we have 70% of the global economy that is slowing down so, compared with previous forecast, it's clearly going to be a little bit downgraded added to that, there are signs of hope coming up. so, we forecast 2019, second half, early 2020 should be better placed. the movement of deceleration has affected all countryies, including the u.s. the u.s. was immune to that for a period in january, we did not downgrade our u.s. economy forecast. now it's pretty much across, as i said, 70% of global economy is affected by this slowdown. >> lagarde there, indicating

that the u.s. is no longer immune to the global slowdown and is likely to be downgraded in terms of growth as well i followed up and asked her, so then do we need a 50 basis point interest rate cut which would suggest growth is slowing and what the white house has advocated. she wouldn't go there, said that the fed is fiercely independent. one other warning, the imf has always warned about rising debt loads. i said both parties in this country seem to be advocating right now more spending, more deficit busting kind of policies asked her why is that and why is it not a concern she said two factors to watch. number one, eventually entitlements are going to come due, people are going to age and node those public resources and, number two, we can't have low interest rates forever and eventually the market could lose patience, even though the u.s. is in a unique situation where everybody wants our dollars and everybody wants our debt still very much hammering those big picture risks, guys.

>> here we are, sara, wondering whether we're going to close the border with mexico and what any economic impact of allof that could possibly be when you raise so many valid concerns that are out there in cross currents, slowing economies. >> right. >> arguing over whether rates need to be cut, et cetera. >> it sort of gets at one of the themes that christine lagarde talked about in her speech here at the u.s. chamber of commerce. there's so many man-made issues, self-inflicted wounds she calls them, that could help the outlook brighten and the expansion continue brexit is clearly one of them that the imf is worried about in terms of outlook trade is another they are big advocates of open, free trade, tariff-free trade, which they say is absolutely cutting into economic growth and that's where the border issue with mexico fits in. it was a huge topic of conversation today the u.s. chamber of commerce

that represents american business warned pretty heavily that there could be some significant economic fallout in terms of jobs and supply chains and, guys, i'll share with you later what larry kudlow, the white house, of course, national economic council adviser shared on this issue, that they're working on figuring out ways that if the president does decide to close the border, they could mitigate some of the economic disaster. >> sara, thank you great insights key insights from a key figure on the global stage. we'll see more of you as the hour unfolds meantime, i think we have some earnings, scott. we do. earning alert on gamestop if we could take a look at that. that's coming out right now. do we have those numbers stock hitting into the number was down about 2% or so. josh lipton, you have that for us >> yes, scott. eps of $1.60 versus estimates of $1.58. looking ahead, q1, scott,

they're calling for break even to a loss of five cents, unclear if that compares to what the street was looking for, a gain of 17 cents. 2019 total sales minus 5 to minus 10%. 2019 comp sales also minus 5 to minus 10%. looking through the categories quickly here, new hardware sales decreased 9.8%, new software sales decreased 7.8% accessories did increase 18.8% preowned sales declined 23.3% and digital receipts increased 4.7% the stock was already down year to date about 20%. call starts at 5:00 p.m. eastern. back to you. >> josh lipton, thank you. mike, ouch. >> yeah. ouch it's been a prolonged ouch for this stock it really is beaten down by the market and priced for something close to extinction. it's a billion dollar market cap. if you looked at it compared to cash flow or something else, it's utterly cheap based on what

they were able to report that slide on top line for as far as the i could see at least through this year. it shows you that there's not a lot for people saying this is the time to buy the pain they did have a settlement with a hedge fund, an activist investor, putting new people on the board. maybe they'll be considering other options. very heavily shorted. >> comps is ugly. >> yeah. >> comp stores down 5 to 10% >> oh, yeah. >> you're not getting that from a lot of retailers these days. >> overall top line for the consumer is well above -- well positive right now so, clearly, just losing wallet share. i mean, it's the long-term story you've known forever it's basically blockbuster video but they've been able to keep it rolling with second-hand game sales and a lot of the rewards programs. >> interesting to hear what they have to say on the call as new competition comes to market from the likes of apple, google.

>> online gaming. >> fortnite world, we're living in it. >> exactly. >> news on netflix julia boorstin has that for us out in l.a. >> department of justice and academy of motion picture arts and sciences, the organization that puts together the oscars, has received a letter from the department of justice from doj chief warning that if there are changes to the rules about which films are eligible for oscars that that could raise anti-trust concerns what they're referring to here is that there were reports that steven spielberg was looking to limit the eligibility of movies from the likes of netflix and amazon if they were offered in theaters too soon to when they were offered online, and saying that if the window around the theatrical release was not significant enough that they should maybe limit whether netflix should be eligible for oscars the academy responding, telling us they receive this had letter from the department of justice

and have responded accordingly, saying the board of governors will meet april 23rd for its annual awards rules meeting, where all branches will submit possible updates for consideration. this is pretty fascinating to have the doj get involved with something like this. this speaks to the rising power of netflix, which won a number of oscars this year for roma, which is available in theaters for just a number of weeks before it was also available on streaming, just three weeks later available for streaming. transformation of the movie industry happening here and now the doj is getting involved. >> it's really funny, you know you had the whole kerfuffle about the spielberg commentary after the awards he's at the apple event for their new streaming service. it's like, wait a minute are you for it or are you against it >> apple is not trying to claim that they should have their stuff eligible for the oscars, that we know of. >> no, but just the mere fact that the voice. >> right. >> said what he did and then

he's advocating by his mere presence. >> sure. >> for being involved in apple is interesting in and of itself. >> i think at the heart of this is the competitive edge that the movie theater chains have had in terms of those releases and being able to bring people into those theaters and spend that money versus sitting at home on their couch and streaming. >> that's true it's interesting oscars have always had specific rules about what's eligible for an award had to be released in a theater, in new york or los angeles county in a certain time in other words it's not as if they just started to decide who is eligible and who is not. >> get with the program, right, the world has changed. get up to speed or -- >> it's fascinating that netflix cares so much about awards they don't deal in ratings or tell you how many people watch they really need the prestige that the awards give you. lyft struggling today again after falling below its ipo price. we pulled data about how

millennial investors are trading the stock. according from data from robinhood, lyft was the most traded stock on the platform 14% of users who traded that day bought lyft and the average age was 33 it was the 80th most held stock on the platform. today they could not provide us with data because it is no longer in the top 100 most held stocks on the platform mike, read through here. >> it's a tough lesson obviously, kind of the buy the brand that you know. i think we saw the same exact story play out with the snap ipo, which went okay for a couple of days but then did not after that you know, it sort of is fascinating. there's as many ways to get in trouble in terms of kind of grabbing on to the hot company that you believe in and thinking that that's worth investing in. >> kourt -- >> i'm sorry. >> go ahead. >> kourtney, these high ipos

don't come along that often, right, where they bridge age gaps and interest and everybody knows for the most part what the company is, what it does you use it if you're 21 or 71, and it attracts all this attention. what do you make of the way this whole thing has played out >> you know, i think that this market has been yearning for ipos we know that and i think it's been helpful to the banks that have been part of it from a capital markets perspective. i think we'll see the boost in some of the direct listings that we may see coming forward in a slack or the fact that you'll have a pinterest, post mates and other ipos coming to market right now. i think you're right, you're going to get some of the folks in very early that are like, i want to get the ipo pop. and on the flip side you're going to see which names will end up in portfolios to hold for the long term. and, you know, we'll see whether lyft ends up being a snap or facebook yes, i'm making the comparison we've had that debate for a

really long time for those who thought snap would be the thing that put facebook to bed i doubt it and we're going to see lyft's big sister coming to market very soon and that will be the gauge for the market going forward as well. >> yeah, absolutely. we're not done with this conversation kourtney gibson, thanks for your thoughts today. >> thank you for having me, morgan thanks. bank of america ceo brian moynihan reacts to what contributed to the retirement of ceo tim sloane. first larry kudlow with his take on the potential economic impact of osg clinthe border with mechanixico his comments we when we come back measure up? a cfa charterholder does. you've worked hard to grow your wealth. make sure you're working with a wealth manager

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a get your questions answered by awesome experts store. it's a now there's one store that connects your life like never before store. the xfinity store is here. and it's simple, easy, awesome. welcome back larry kudlow speaking at the conference, capital market summit earlier this afternoon. sara eisen talking to him right before he went on stage. sara >> scott, clearly the white house is thinking about ways to limit the economic damage if president trump does decide to shut down the u.s./mexican

border talked to larry kudlow about that al also, listen to the part about the fed because i haven't shared this before, kudlow making news here on what could be the next fed governor nominee listen up. >> well, we're watching it and looking for ways to allow the freight passage. some people call it truck roads. and there are ways you can do that, which would emilerate the breakdown in supply chains the president's policies are well known 100,000 immigrants every month, it's crazy the question is, can we deal with that and not have economic damage the answer is that we can. and people are looking at different options, particularly if you can keep those truck

lanes open. >> what about the workers? hundreds of thousands of people coming over here legally to work, and not to mention the tourists. >> >> well, that may be difficult. i don't want to comment on it because we're planning right now to try to -- you know, what you want to do is stop the emergency and the breakdown and you want to try to limit whatever harm that does. it's a very difficult task i think it's doable. i don't know whether the president will make a final decision on these things, he hasn't yet we're looking at all those options. >> i imagine you've been in touch with business. here at the chamber of commerce they've been pretty outspoken on this issue. >> i agree with that. >> are you still calling for half a percentage cut? christine lagarde, brian moynihan, everyone says we may be slowing but no recession in

sight. u.s. is still doing great if you look at the rest of the world. >> i agree with that i think we're in good shape. my point there is a precautionary point as i said on the network the other day. and i felt that they went too far. i want to say also the fed is independent. it will act when it acts somebody said that i wanted immediate this, immediate that i was completely misquoted and incorrect. look, the fed will do what it's going to do. that's my point of view, the president's point of view that they went too far. you do have a world slowdown you have declining inflation, which is a great thing and i just don't want threats to this great recovery. we're rebuilding the economy successfully and we'll try to remove as much threat as possible i noticed the markets have already priced in a quarter point reduction and even some hints of half a point reduction. i think a lot of people in the

markets agree on this point. but the fed will do what it's going to do on its own time. >> finally, are you pushing personally to get steve moore nominated to the fed board >> i am strongly in support of it the president is in support of t i think he will make a brilliant fed governor a smart, smart guy what steve moore knows that could really help the federal reserve, you never heard me say this before, is that strong growth is not inflationary more people working is not inflationary low unemployment is not inflationary particularly when tax cuts are driving incentives i think he will make a federal reserve governor. >> he was asked to follow up by a reporter on the sidelines about whether he was worried about any of the allegations that have come out against moore

for not paying child support and kudlow said no, the president and i are not worried about that the controversy with moore surrounds the fact that critics point to his lack of experience in monetary policy, lack of phd, not a prerequisite for joining the federal reserve. he wrote a book called "trumponomics. some wonder if that blurs the lines between the administration and the federal reserve, both with the economic adviser and the president telling the federal reserve to cut rates kudlow saying it's on track and he will push for moore to be in that job. >> it's not surprising at all, sara moore was the one who first said 50 needed to happen immediately. moore is the one who wants to use the commodities index. kudlow mentioned that on our air friday the issue with this, though, is

that you have a good economy you're arguing for what sounds and feels and would feel like an emergency move by the fed and would suggest that the trump economy, kudlow economy can only be that and only be good in an environment where rates are that low. and i just have a hard time wrapping my arms around that. >> so kudlow addressed this again. that's sort of what i was getting at in the question, scott where i said bank of america ceo, imf managing director no one is pointing to a recession. no one is pointing to a severe slowdown in the u.s. that would warrant a type of interest rate cut like 50 basis points and his answer was two-fold. one, we need to protect the recovery that's sort of what the line is, from kudlow. he said that on cnbc friday as well, in the face of slowing growth from the world and also

he did note that the market was starting to price in a cut of 25 basis points. he has a point there, for the reasons that kudlow is suggesting or not clearly the market has moved a little bit in the favor of the white house, even though the white house refuses to acknowledge it's a slowdown and that's potentially a reason for a cut. >> it's interesting to hear the possibility of keeping freight lanes, certain truck lanes open between the u.s. and mexico if they were to close this border do down we've seen the most exposed transport names trade lower today, kansas city southern, un pacific, werner enterprises, some of the other trucking stocks you've spoken to quite a bit of people today what's the sense of those you've spoken to about what this would mean from an economic standpoint even with those freight lanes open >> the u.s. accident chamber of

commerce has been very clear on this that is, there is a lot of potential economic risk if the president does shut down the border with mexico and doesn't take any kind of measures like kudlow is talking about. now the kudlow part was news when tom donohue spoke with me, president of the chamber of commerce, he said we do need to watch out for the jobs, the hundreds of thousands of people who cross the border kudlow didn't have an answer for that donohue did worry about the supply chains and cited auto production and the amount of parts that have to cross the border on a given day, more than a billion dollars crosses the border on a daily basis. that could be very disruptive. kudlowe's comments indicated at least they're having that conversation that was the first time we've heard that inside the white house if, indeed, they were to shut the border. chamber of commerce, imf this is a crowd that is not a fan of tariffs even if tom donohue of the

chamber of commerce on the efforts on the deal, they hurt growth, cause uncertainty. it was echoed a million times over by these institutions and these heavy hitters that have been here today. >> sara, thank you. >> we're getting fresh headlines on the border from chamber of commerce and eamon javers has those details. eamon? >> reporter: that's right. to respond to what larry kudlow told sara eisen earlier today, the idea that this administration could shut down the border but still allow goods to get through the border. they did not love that idea. they say it's not quite as easy as shutting down lane one and keeping lanes two and three open in terms of the border they don't like the idea of allowing goods through the border but not necessarily the workforce to move back and forth across the border. chamber of commerce officials

saying there are serious questions about how that would be implemented and it would still have negative economic consequences larry kudlow as you heard, sara eisen say, suggesti ining ways keep goods flowing the chamber of commerce seems conflicted with that in the conference call that just concluded. >> in terms of unchartered territory, i know you're tweeting about this as well, are there any examples we can point to that this happened before >> they talked about the 9/11 event where the border was slowed down. there was a lot more intense scrutiny of vehicles coming across, people coming across the border right after 9/11. chamber of commerce officials said within days of that, by september 13th of 2001, you had announcements of plant shutdowns by automakers because the supply chain is that thin in terms of -- or was that quick in terms of how fast the parts are moving

from mexico to plants inside the united states. what they're suggesting is that in 2001, this was a matter of days before plants shut down and the supply chain, if anything, is more integrated now than it was back then. >> all right eam eamon, appreciate it very much eamon javers on the north lawn, keeping us updated. bank stocks have been underperforming the broader market we'll break down the charts to see if the banks are ready for a breakout ♪

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welcome back to "closing bell." big banks have struggled in recent months. could that mean a recovery is on the way? mike santoli is at the telestrator with more. mike >> we have the makings of that false starts, people calling for banks that didn't outperform and didn't take hold we have a setup here kbe bank stocks, etf against the s&p. mostly it's been an exaggerated version of the s&p stocks did okay but then the yield curve panic sent banks way below it we do have another chart that is a better example of how much investors, perhaps, have given up on the bank trade right now this is the number of shares outstanding in that kbe s&p 500. money pouring out of the etf therefore, they are kind of like destroying share as opposed to

adding them. it's about as low as the number of shares since 2011, that other huge sell-off bank sector panic. right here you have the sentiment makings and the fact that the stocks are very chief of prolonged rebound. >> tell me where rates are going. >> there we go they just track rates, no matter what you say. >> which is why if you think that the treasury yield hits downside targets recently and buys to the upside, that's the other ingredient right here. >> time for cnbc news update thank you, mike. let's go to sue herera with a cnbc news update hi, sue. >> hi, mike. democrats challenge the trump administration's latest challenge to the obamacare act. >> last night, the president tweeted that they will come up with their plan in 2021.

translation, they have no health care plan. it's the same old song they've been singing therefore, repeal, they have no replace. >> attorneys for new england patriots owner robert kraft were in court today, trying to get a speedy trial they did get permission to represent kraft in his prostitution case. they plan to file another motion to further suppress video recordings of kraft in a private massage room they hope to go to trial in may. and the alliance of american football is suspending operations just eight games into its first season that's according to multiple reports. the decision was made by majority owner tom dunden. an announcement from the league is expected later today. you are up-to-date that's the news update this hour guys, i will send it back downtown to you. >> sue herera, thank you did youd either of you actually watch that i know you're a sports guy. >> right no. >> no. >> all right there we go. >> you have to be a real

football addict. bank of america ceo brian moynihan gave us his take on the move. >> we face political pressure all the time that's part of the job it's really part of what we do. >> much more of wilfred frost's exclusive interview with moynihan is up next. what do advisors look for in an etf? don't just track an index, help me meet a client's need. is the fund built to sell or built to last? etfs are only part of a portfolio. so make it easy to explain. give me a quality fund that helps me get clients closer to their goals. flexshares etfs are designed and managed around investor objectives. so you can advise with confidence. before investing, consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. go to flexshares.com for a prospectus containing this information. read it carefully.

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- ( phone ringing ) - get details on this state program call or visit welcome back let's head over to washington where wilfred frost sat down with brian moynihan. >> yes, i did. i interviewed him earlier on stage, the topic of tech's impact on banking was a significant one and i asked moynihan whether he felt threatened by apple and goldman sachs' new partnership. >> goldman is building a retail bank is we watch it, you know - you know, we are very strong partners with apple in a lot of ways if you look at apple wallet and what happens in it, we've been a

major part of that since the beginning and so they're all a threat to us everybody is a threat to us. i wake up every morning paranoid about who is trying to wipe us out but i think they're threats we can handle. i don't know how much more you can increase the competition in the card space it's another competitor. at the end of the day, don't think this is going to change the course of history. >> spinning forward, he will be back in this neck of the woods next week. i asked him whether he thought it was unfair that his sector is still facing broad political pressure despite the improvements they've made over the last decade. >> if you look at what we can do for clients and customers, you know, the criticism we take, society has a right to comment on our industry because we sit with the trust of american society in our companies and in our consumers that we serve. society has a right to comment we are products of communities we are formed by the

communities. that's why one of our core tenents is that we share with our communities. >> i also asked him in the earlier cnbc exclusive on the half time report whether he felt outgoing ceo tim sloane had personally felt and faced undue political pressure. >> you know, look, tim is a colleague and i enjoyed working with him we face political pressure all the time it's part of the job it's what we do. end of the day, so embedded in economy, banks this is part of the job description. >> now that hearing, of course, down from eight ceos to seven, given tim sloane's departure is next wednesday in d.c. guys >> wilf, thank you wilfred frost down in d.c. for us coming up, it's equal payday one brand that's making a big play to bridge soccer's gender wage gap that when the closing bell comes

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welcome back to "closiing bell." women's soccer players speaking out on closing the gap on the wage rate. >> groundbreaking lawsuit against its parent u.s. soccer recently one brand is stepping up in honor of equal payday, trying to

close that pay gap between u.s. women's and men's soccer teams had a chance to speak with some of the players about that and ask them why now they were filing this lawsuit. >> i think this team has always been very committed to fighting for what we believe is right and fighting for ourselves so, this is kind of just another step in that. >> the machine's team and women's team have separate collective bargaining agreements, pay is structured differently. how did you find out what the imbalance was? >> we've learned a lot throughout the last couple of years through negotiating our agreement and then having brands like luna bar step up hugely, practically seeking us out and wanting to close that gender pay gap like they have today in offering us exactly the same roster bonus that the men get. so it's pretty incredible to meet brands like this, that are really at the forefront of

closing the gender pay gap. >> some might look at this issue and say, i don't get it. the women win more, they play more, they work just as hard, if not harder why is there such a big gap? i think you guys put the number at 38% in pay. how do you answer a question like that? >> i think that people now, the public knows we're playing the same number of games, competing in the same tournaments and so that's why this is such an important lawsuit. and i think that being a member of this team, you kind of learn about fighting for your rights, fighting for gender equality in sport. it's kind of a torch that's passed down. >> i'm sure you've heard on the broader point in your lawsuit against the federation that while the pay gap is big and may not be fair, men's team brings in a lot more ratings and a lot more money in terms of the events what do you say to that argument >> i would say that's an incomplete argument and, you know, i think that unless we're going to talk about the

investment across the board in everything and, you know, take that back years and years and years, it's hard to really have that conversation. >> i was looking at what other companies are doing in that space i covered the nike event, big fashion event in paris where they made a big deal about designing women's uniforms for women this year instead of making it an iteration of mens what did that mean >> to see a company like nike to put on an event where each jersey has a story behind it is incredible i've never been a part of an event like that. it's pretty incredible to see the game changing. not just the soccer game but the culture and people celebrating women and celebrating the world cup for what it is and for these 23 women representing our country at the highest stage. >> and, guys, as for luna bar, which is making that big announcement that they will be

paying the difference in women's and men's bonuses, the company putting out a statement today, saying that they are proud to support these women and all women. and don't worry, morgan, because apparently we only have to wait until 2070 to level the pay gap in this country. >> i know. it's such a depressing stat that we've been putting out there on cnbc today with the glass door data question about the luna bar situation. were there strings attached to the deal that luna bar gave the soccer players >> i'm not aware of any and it follows some of the other announcements that we've seen from other major corporations like adidas, for instance, also coming out and saying thatthey will pay equal bonuses to the winners of adidas-sponsored teams for the world cup that they would pay for men so slowly, but surely there are steps being taken, but obviously this lawsuit shines a pretty big spotlight on the issue and not just of the bonuses which is a step that these companies are

taking, but really what they're paid in general per games and how that's measured and how that's determined because the men didn't even qualify for the world cup in terms of the u.s. men's team not only did the women qualify, but they actually won and they have the momentum and the case to be made headed into this argument luna bar just one of the examples of the sponsors and they talked about how grateful they were for the support and stepping up. didn't talk about the string attached, but i assume they're doing a lot of press around it >> sarah, thank you. >> ibm ceo speaking exclusively about how her company is using artificial intelligence to save hundreds of millions of dollars and we'll find those comments for you next. coming up on "fast money." a former new york times reporter and author says there is a canary in the cannabis base that n ke tcamahe industry go up in smoke. he'll explain. prestigious jobs over the years. news producer, executive transport manager,

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bell." cnbc's john fort spoke exclusively with ibm ceo ginni rometty about how her company is using artificial intelligence to cut costs in the workplace. >> the original genesis is the belief that ai will change 100% of job, but if you want the real benefit of it you have to change how the work is done and my hr leader chose to make hr the role model example of that, and she has done a fantastic job putting ai in end to end she tracks and we have now just from the ai alone my hr function has saved $300 million >> you can catch more from that interview tomorrow on "squawk

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>> welcome back. let's take a look at how we finished the day on wall street. it was a mixed picture for stocks with the dow finishing down about 0.3%.

26,179 was the level and the s&p 500 closing at 2867. the nasdaq composite, the best performer in today's trade up about a quarter of a percent small caps lower and real estate communication services and material stocks were the outperforming sectors today whereas energy and consumer staples were the laggards in large part thanks to that big drop in walgreen's alliance on disa pointing earnings this morning. >> can we do some earnings right now? do you want to do a quick check on gamestop first and foremost >> you have gamestop and dave and buster's game stop's an ugly story. that stock's down nearly 8% and their revenue estimates for the first quarter were pretty ugly same-store sales guidance being looking down 5% to 10% on the flip side is dave & buster's they authorized a buy back and you can see that stock is getting a nice boost in the after-hours market up nearly 7%.

all right, mr. santelli. >> you want to go play, right? >> ski ball. >> ski ball, is that the draw? i've done my best to avoid dave and buster's whenever possible because it's so loud and birthday parties and -- >> scrooge, come on, man dave and buster's! >> scrooge is longstanding, yes. >> i don't think this is a representative earnings trend. mindful of the fact that the market has rallied up to this point where it's acting as if first-quarter earnings are a gimme or they'll look through them or it's not necessarily going to be anything that stops the rally short. maybe that's the case because i do think you'll get a pass of some of the data, but we do have to be careful because there's always back and forth which doesn't begin for about a week, week and a half. >> in terms of what to look for through the rest of the week, is it the jobs report on friday >> it culminates with the jobs report and tomorrow we have ism

services and all of the macro numbers are feeding into the picture of where we are in the u.s. versus the rest of the world and if the first quarter ended on a decent note. >> the picture seems to have gotten a little bit brighter of late. >> yes >> good to see you both. >> that does it for us it is time for "fast money" from the nasdaq in times square "fast money" starts right now live from the nasdaq marketsite overlooking new york city's times square. i'm melissa lee. face book shares soaring as instagram's new e-commerce feature is expected to bring in billions for the social giant. we've got all of the details and plus president trump threatening to shut down the u.s.-mexico border and it could have a huge impact on a number of stocks you own. we'll tell you what they are we'll start off with the airlines going up, up and away as it's about to raise its first-quarter earnings guidance. the airlines and transports taking off in just the past