always fun having tony robbins in house >> he rattles off these stats. it's amazing >> great message thanks for watching "power lunch. "closing bell" starts right now. it is the final hour of trade. investors are waiting for the latest read on tesla deliveries. we'll bring you those numbers as soon as they're released box announcing a new release. we'll talk about the d.c. crackdown on silicon valley. and signet getting a pop on earnings but down more than 50% over the last six months alone the "closing bell" starts right now. welcome to "closing bell." i'm sara eisen alongwith wilfred

frost. fifth day in a row stocks are higher started overnight overseas with better news out of china and europe the dow only up about a point at the moment the s&p 500 up 0.1%. we'll see if these gains hold in the next hour of trade techs having a good day and information technology is one of the best performing sectors on the s&p. it's up 0.5% little action, but stocks keep creeping higher sort of quietly toward their record highs. >> keeping higher as you said. it's been a decent couple of sessions in a row. the dow is flat at the moment and steady slippage of the gains in the last couple of hours. we'll keep an eye on what happens in this, the final hour of trade u.s. trade rep ron kirk will join us with his take on u.s./china trade talks kicking off again today in washington. >> and let's begin with kayla tausche with the latest on those talks. what do we know? >> the principals are meeting beginning today in washington.

we've been seeing them coming and going throughout the day look at treasury secretary steve mnuchin from earlier this afternoon. we believe these meetings are taking place until the end of the week though in past rounds the chinese delegation has stayed for an extra two or three days to signal how committed they are to these talks. i've spoken with officials who say the process is going on to comb through this deal text. 100-plus pages it's slowing going but both sides are committed to reaching a deal larry kudlow told reporters the two sides are making headway >> i think the chinese have acknowledged these problems for the first time they were in denial. >> [ inaudible ] >> all of them the ip theft, forced transfer, lack of ownership. the cyberhacking they've acknowledged it. before that, they wouldn't ac

acknowledge it >> what can we expect the result of any deal to be? people expect an outcome as scheduled detente. the wild card is when certain tariffs would come up. china wants u.s. negotiators to agree up front to removing all of the tariffs president trump wants to close the deal himself at mar-a-lago, but myron brilliant from the chamber of commerce in washington said 90% of the deal is done. it's just the 10% that's left happens to be the hardest part so we'll see how they bridge that last gap. >> kayla, nonetheless, 90%, of course, is significant progress, but it doesn't feel like there's a sort of sense of excitement and euphoria in d.c. about the deal getting done. is that skepticism the 10% won't be finished or that the deal itself won't be that significant? >> i think it's that the deal won't be some big firework that gets announced today, for instance there's still going to be a lot of work that has to happen behind the scenes. it's not really sexy to talk about the fine print of a

negotiated trade agreement that's close to 150 pages long and going through every single line and making sure that nothing gets lost in translation. that's not really the stuff that makes the sexiest headlines these days that being said, people in this market are waiting to hear any type of news they can get about any progress happening behind the scenes the fact this work is still happening means it's moving in a positive direction >> my favorite quote from christine lagarde, the imf managing director yesterday, she was on stage and we were talking about how -- what levels of optimism we should have around this trade deal. she said there's no deal until the fat lady sings and i think that the sentiment there was we've heard a lot about a deal it's good to hear they are making progress. but we still really have no idea in terms of business certainty and planning whether those tariffs are going to come off. >> and exactly which tariffs would come off at what point they would and for companies who operate in these industries that are subject to these tariffs, of course, that's of highest

interest one question that i've heard over and over and over again, especially in the phone calls i've had today is, what will the president, president trump, demand to decide himself what does he want left until the mar-a-lago summit for him to work out with president xi the chinese want everything done before they get there so that there's not a risk that president trump walks away the same way he did with kim jong-un in hanoi but there is the m.o. of this white house to leave some of the parts until the bitter end to keep come of that suspense in place. that's hanging over the talks and injecting a little uncertainty here >> kayla, thank you for that trade headlines helping boost the market earlier today but the new data showed weaker than expected private payrolls and a pullback in service sebtsor growsebtctor growth

thanks very much for joining us, doris. so let's talk about the overall sentiment you're seeing out there in the market. when you speak to clients, have they been spooked by the last six months of up and downs in the marketplace. i think clients in the fourth quarter with the big drop in the market, even clients that were invested for the long term and were on a plan and had adequate short-term resources certainly a 20% move down in the market is unnerving. the clients that we've worked with the longest, we work with them very carefully to get them not to overreact to short-term movements in the market, and we still believe, obviously, that's the best plan for all clients. have enough short-term cash set aside and then invest for the long term. so you don't have to course correct and react to near-term up and down. >> so you're based in delaware >> yes the company is headquartered in delaware, but we're part of the

m & t. >> i was trying to get a sense of who your clients are. >> our clients are national and, in fact, international clients >> high net worth? >> high net worth and ultra high net worth. we manage $90 billion in assets. wilmington trust started as the family office for the dupont family in the early 1900s. now our clients are primarily wealth creators. >> i'm trying to figure out the impacts of the tax changes now that we're filing our taxes and finding out how much we owe or refunds. and just wondering if, you know, a lot of your clients are getting hosed? >> yes, a lot of our clients are now waking up to what it really means. particularly new york, all the high tax states. new york, new jersey >> think that's going to have an impact on investing? >> i think it's going to have more of an impact on residential choices. so we are seeing a big up tick in interest in florida, in

states that have much lower tax rates. the forecast, the demographic forecasts are that texas will have more millionaires in three years than new york, believe it or not very pro business state. much lower taxes so it's definitely having an impact >> back to the markets do you like risky assets at the moment or not given the bounceback this year >> we do we actually are positive on growth we expect 2% to 2.5% gdp growth this year. we do think that the jobs report which is due out on friday will bounce back. we're expecting 225,000. we think the last report was an anomaly driven primarily by weather. and it was one week or the end of the government shutdown was included in the reference period so we're thinking the economy is still going along and the biggest questions is really the fed. obviously, we're watching labor

markets are very tight watching wage growth and inflation where there's no sign of concern right now the biggest issue for all of us is it's hard to measure productivity the technology,you know, the expansion and kind of ubiquitous nature of technology now in our economy and socially is making it much harder to measure productivity gains >> and why are you here ringing the bell today >> m & t is proud to be the sponsor of the newest and most exciting cultural institution, the shed so as you probably know, hudson yards is the biggest real estate development in the country it's the size of downtown seattle on the west side of new york >> i hadn't heard that >> it's over the old rail yard the whole hudson yard development is quite exciting and mayor bloomberg and the former deputy mayor of economic

development wanted a cultural institution at the heart of the development. >> and you guys are sponsoring it do doris, thanks very much. good luck with ringing the bell later, which is 50 minutes away. leslie picker has the latest on carl icahn. >> carl icahn exited his stake in lyft prior to the initial public offerings according to three sources familiar with that trade. john than krista doro had joined the board after the firm invested $100 million in the ride-hailing service krista doro was a managing director at icahn's firm until 20 2017 icahno stake was worth about half a billion dollars if icahn had remained an investor, he would have had an uphill battle as the traditional activist they have the 20 to 1 vote which would make his voice far more

muted than his typical investment also the lockup agreement in this ipo requires investors hold their stake for six months guys >> should this have been disclosed before the ipo >> interestingly, they did disclose that dodoro resigned from the board in march of 2019. that was in the middle of the ipo process they disclosed that. they showed he had a much smaller stake than he actually had. about 12,000 shares. i've been calling sources to figure out what the differential there and why he had those 12,000 shares. it may have been part of compensation related to his membership on the board. but i'll get you an exact answer because that's something i'm digging into as well and i should also note that lyft declined to comment. and we're still trying to reach carl icahn for a comment on this as well. >> keep us posted, leslie. thank you. we have a big lineup of guests coming your way after the break, the ceo of

signet jewelers joins us to talk earnings why her company didn't finish the year as strongly as expected in and box ceo erin levy andro khana will join us to weigh in on the crackdown emanating from d.c. on big tech and what it could mean for stock prices delivery drones or the latest phones. $4.95. no matter what you trade, at fidelity it's just $4.95 per online u.s. equity trade.

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welcome back to "closing bell." here are the winners in the s&p which is essentially flat at this moment with an hour left in trading. lost all of its gains for the day. we're seeing advanced microsystems up 8% nielsens up a healthy 7% we have the dow in negative territory now. down 20 points with 1 hour, 45 minutes left to trade. >> you went impressed when it was flat at the top of the hour and here we go, headed lower shares of signet are up, but the jewelry retailer posted weaker than expected same-store sales. stock up 0.75% joining us is gina drosas. >> thanks for having me. >> so the stock is doing okay today holding in there, but it's been a really rough patch over the last few months.

where exactly are you in your transformation of this company >> well, sara, we're year one of a three-year transformation. we've called it path to brilliance three key strategies for signet. customer first building a strong omni channel experience and a culture of agility and efficiency i'd say we're making progress. we certainly aren't there yet but we've set a strong foundation for bolder and faster action this year >> what i'm trying to figure out is the sales decline, which has been going on for a long time now, does it have to do with factors that are out of your control that you are in the mall and mall traffic is down, that millennials aren't getting engaged as much as our parents used to. or is this sort of an execution issue with signet where you have got a lot of work to do on turning it around and you can do that >> well, there's no question that the retail environment has been challenging, not just for sig net but for many other

retailers as well. but signet has a very strong competitive position in the marketplace. we're far and away the leading retail jeweler we have a diverse branded portfolio with kay, zales, jared and piercing pagoda. as we work forward update our product experience to make sure that we have a strong value oriented assortment and bring more on-trend jewelry as well as a seamless omni channel experience, we can definitely grow both the top and bottom line >> how are you thinking about the balance between brick and mortar stores and online you're closing some stores in an effort to cut costs. is that a transformational move or just around the edges >> no, it's definitely a transformational move. in fact, we announced that last year we closed more than 260 stores this year we'll close another 150 over a three-year period

a 13% reduction in our store footprint. despite what some people think in the jewelry business, it's a competitive advantage. about 70% of customers now are starting their journey to look for jewelry online but more than 80% of those are purchasing in store. and that's where our store teams' expertise and full-service offering, which includes repairs, piercing, service plans, that's where signet has real competitive advantage. >> talking to some analysts about the various brands and the different stores that you guys have, one question that comes up a lot is, why not merge kay and zales? what's the big difference in the two stores and who comes into them and why have both in terms of your footprint? >> you know, we've done a lot of research on that in the last year and we do have different shoppers that come to kay and zales. zales tends to be a more fashion forward customer, more female

self-purchasers. kay tends to be more of a gifting customer skews a bit more male. so we have an opportunity to use our brand portfolio for our competitive advantage. >> what are you seeing in this first quarter. i know that the holiday season wasn't perhaps terrible, and the stock is up a little bit has there been lumpiness with the shutdown and all of that >> well, we didn't guide today in our earnings call at all about where we were in the first quarter. so i can't really say how it's tracking to date but what i can say is that i think as we move through the year, we will continue to get more and more of our path to brilliance initiatives in place, which includes new products, a complete transformation of our marketing plan signet, for many years, has had a competitive advantage in broad

scale marketing. no other company has the scale that we do in that space we'll take, though, some of that marketing and make it significantly more targeted. a much stronger digital and social presence than we've ever had before which makes our marketing effective and efficient. that's just one other example of the initiatives that will continue to come online throughout this year >> the british business in particular looks like it's been difficult. is this brexit is brexit preventing people from gettingengaged >> not from getting engaged, certainly, but brexit and consumer confidence in particular has had a negative impact on the uk economy overall. our brands, there are no exception. we'vine soe inseen some bright s we continue to be the leader in bridal jewelry important strength in prestige watches but that's overall a tough market, and i see it as a he

headwind for us. >> wilfred is going to give me grief for that question. >> brexit explains a lot >> i thought meghan markle's ring was creating a trend and creating some demand >> she got engaged with stones from botswana. we have a cutting and polishing facility in botswana we have some unique lines of product that we offer in that range and she also got engaged with a three-stone ring which has been a trend solitaires are also very strong right now. >> gina drosas, thank you for joining us >> they also have an instagram account now, too >> who >> meghan and -- the duchess of sussex >> but they have royal rules of instagram? >> very sort of roll your eyes rules. over the top you might say in coming up -- earnings season kicking off next week. one strategist says the stakes are particularly high this quarter. we'll tell you why

plus, facebook losing today's gains on news that millions of user records showed up on amazon cloud services. we'll speak to an executive from the company that discovered that breach we're back in a couple alpha seems more elusive today. is it because so many go after it the same way, chasing after short-term returns? instead if getting caught up with the crowd, the investment managers at pgim take a long term view. uncovering opportunities for alpha across public and private markets, while anticipating unforeseen risk, has powered our rise to a top ten global asset manager. partner with pgim. the global investment management businesses of prudential financial, inc. the global investment management businesses of whai tell clients, etfs can follow an index, but which ones target your goals? it's not about quantity. it's about quality. no trendy stuff.

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still ahead, we'll speak with former u.s. trade rep ron

kirk about the new round of china trade talks and why he says closing the southern border could cause extraordinary amounts of harm. after the break, a new headache for facebook as millions of user records show up in amazon's cloud. box ceo aaron levie joins us to discuss this and a lot more, next

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welcome back time for a cnbc news update. >> lori loughlin arriving to face charges in the college admissions cheating scandal. her husband mossimo was also charged and arrived at the courthouse before her. they were among 33 parents charged, including fellow actress felicity huffman in what authorities have called the biggest college admission scam ever prosecuted. virginia's lunts governor says that a polygraph test proves he did not assault two women accusing him of sexual misconduct justin fairfax releasing the report from a polygrapher today. >> i voluntarily submitted to a polygraph test by a nationally respected polygrapher with regard to the allegations of each accuser i passed each of those tests on the very first try

today i am providing the full report of the polygraph expert's report to the public. a heavy thunderstorm overnight inundated the northern california city of chico that storm dumped more than four inches of rain in 24 hours flooding streets, homes and businesses luckily no injuries were reported but it was a mess. that's the news update back downtown to you >> sue, thank you. see you next hour. shares of facebook are trading lower following a report that millions of its user records were found on amazon cloud servers. the company put out a statement responding writing, facebook's policies prohibit storing facebook information in a public database once alerted to the issue we worked with amazon to take down the databases. we're working to protect people's data. greg pollack is joining us

the company software breach site first discovered the data on this server. so, greg, thanks for joining us via skype. explain what and how you found it >> sure. so amazon s3 is a storage solution used by many, many people and it's one where private or rather sensitive data is often stored while still being entirely public to anyone with internet connection. so we've been researching this for years. finding examples of sensitive data, helping to secure it in order to help protect people and businesses, as well as the country. and this is just another example of an amazon bucket that was configured for public access and contained data that was of some sensitivity. >> whose error is this facebook's amazon's or the individual company cultura collectiva that placed the data on the server in the first place? >> sure. ultimately it's cultura

collectiva they collected the data, created the database and stored it in such a way it was publicly accessible amazon and facebook have more subtle relationships and responsibilities here. so they certainly did not expose the data but without facebook, we would not have the watering hole of all this data that businesses collect and then export from the platform and similarly, amazon has created a platform that anyone can use and store files on, and ultimately it's the responsibility of the user to configure it securely. but amazon made it possible for them to configure it with public access >> how long ago did you discover this data was there? when did you notify the companieses, and how quickly was it taken down? >> yeah, so we discovered this one in january of this year. and immediately notified cultura collectiva we emailed them twice. got no response. we followed our protocol and

notified amazon because they are the ones running the inf infrastructure it's hosted on and amazon security did what they always do which is their policy is to notify the owner of the bucket but that's about it. so we've -- we talked to amazon and let them know this is still open and this is still an issue. and then that lasted up until this week when finally through contacting facebook, facebook was as per their statement, facebook contacted amazon and got the problem resolved very quickly. >> okay. so a couple of months in between before the data got taken down thanks for joining us. >> my pleasure thank you for having me. >> joining us on a cnbc exclusive interview is aaron levie, chairman and ceo of box we have lots to talk about, about box. but straight off the back of that clearly this was the error of, if the reports are correct, of cultura collectcollectiva, not

facebook but is this common where users of facebook data have left it out there in a place perhaps they shouldn't have done? >> one of the amazing things about the internet and the cloud is that we see so much innovation from so many applications and we're able to use our data in amazing ways the down side is we have data that is fragmented around the internet, stored in lots of places that we as users don't even realize every application that we install, every application that we use on facebook, every application we use anywhere is taking that information and storing it somewhere if you have a misconfigured amazon web services environment, that could leave data vulnerable for researchers or attackers that might be discovering that information. so this is a real challenge. it means all developers building applications need a high degree of security hygiene in how they build their applications and we as users need to limit the amount of systems and tools we're using to manage our

information which is -- >> good luck with that >> exactly >> is this the kind of thing regulation can fix >> it's a really good question at some point we need to be thoughtful about oversight around our data privacy, where our information is going, the kinds of developers building these applications there needs to be a higher bar for what types of apps can be installed and used in these types of environments and some type of government oversight on the policies and procedures that facebook or any other development platform uses to let those types of applications go live where consumers may unknowingly be adding their data to those applications. >> mark zuckerberg came out with an op-ed inviting legislation. what did you make of that? the fact he was doing it at all, the timing >> at this stage, it could be easy to be cynical about why he's having to put that message out there. obviously, a lot of scrutiny around the organization. it certainly is a situation where if he doesn't propose or if facebook doesn't propose regulation, it's going to happen

to them one way or the other and they may not be in control or in the driver's seat of where we're going from a regulatory standpoint however, i think the points he laid out the four major areas of regulation are going to be incredibly important i think we need some degree of government oversight around how our data privacy works in the internet for these major platforms. we need control of our information and probably some shared understanding of what we do think of hate speech online what we do think of what kind of information can be shared in these type of platforms, and it shouldn't be individual private corporations making these decisions. needs to be more of a democratic process which the government can help drive >> you actually when you acquire clients like the one you're doing today which we'll talk about, help these companies and advise them on issues like gdpr, which is europe's version of all of this. is that what you have in mind? would that work here >> i think what gdpr did, i think really well in terms of

outlining is the sort of philosophy of every user should be able to have control of their information and their personal information in these types of pl platforms and revoke access to that data if we so choose and know what's floating out there on the internet. that only works for eu citizens and it's an eu specific set of privacy laws that we need to a global scale what zuckerberg was calling out is how do we have a u.s. version of this but how do we turn this into a global conversation on a per state or per region basis we don't have different or conflicting laws from a data privacy standpoint it's really important. this is a time where we need to bring more regulation and oversight to tech while at the same time balancing the sort of speed and ability and ability to innovate in these industries as well >> new partnership today with world fuel services for you guys why is that news it's a new client, but why is that newsy and something you want to talk about >> any time we bring on a new

fortune 500 company that's using us in a regulated industry any organization in industrial space, world fuel services and the energy space and transportation market, you know, critical customer that's going on live and moving to the cloud. >> because industrials haven't done that in the past? >> we're seeing this technology adoption life cycle where technology companies adopt first and smaller start-ups adopt. now large banks, energy organization, government agencies begin to move to the cloud and modernize the way they operate and work we're happy to partner with wfs and many other large industrial organizations as well. >> gets us to the last earnings report now put out at the end of february which really hit with a thud on wall street. expectations of higher billing >> we would have chosen a different sound effect but we were happy overall last year 20% growth in q4 year over year. put up some, i think, very solid

metrics in terms of large deals. $100,000 segment $500,000 customers we didn't perform as well was in the million-dollar segment a few deals pushed into fy '20, which is the year we're into now. in particular and complex organizations, very regulated institutions, banks, life sciences organizations where these deals are more complex in nature some of that pushed into this year which caused us to lower our guidance this year which we were not satisfied with. this wasn't something we were happy about. coming into this year we're very confident in our growth targets and ability to ensure customers can use add-on projects and full breadth of our platform which drives these larger deals and transaction sizes. >> i wanted to ask if you had any views on the lyft ipo. you went public and trading above your ipo price do you think tech companies are

going -- what do you say when they say these tech companies are going public too late, not leaving enough on the table for retail investors >> i think it's interesting because if we went back ten years we'd say companies were going public too early and way too much risk in the market at the stage at which companies were going public. when you go public, and bring retail investors in, you want to make sure you have enough durability, a future runway of groec growth more up side for investors from a financial and strategy tand standpoint you're able to go and scale in the personal market i don't think companies are going too late on the whole. on a per company base, i that may be the case but in general we want to remove the risk from these companies while leaving a high degree of up side weave seen that in the case of facebook, google, many other companies that went late in the journey on an historical basis but created tremendous up side as a public company for

investors. >> one question about regulation in your broader space. lots of calls from it. elizabeth warren and co saying individual companies have too much power where you operate in, there are some goliaths like aws, google and microsoft but yourself, drop box, are operating in that space. would you like to see those big three broken up? or do you think the structure at the moment is kind of fair >> occasionally, i wouldn't mind it, in the heat of competition but what's amazing about the technology industry is that it moves so quickly and changes so quickly and that any incumbent one day would be disrupted by a new insurgent. i think that the health of that continues to this day so i would rather let the markets drive competition. however, i do think there needs to be some form of regulation in particular around data ownership, data privacy, ability to control our information in these platforms and in general let the market choose what types of technologies they want to see played out in the market

but there will be more regulation it may not be in the form elizabeth warren proposed but i do think that it is time for some -- >> is there a lawmaker that gets it >> in this political environment, it's difficult to have the -- unfortunately time and thoughtfulness and, you know, discussion and debate that it really warrants and i think hopefully we'll see that throughout the upcoming election, but right now, i have not seen the perfect proposal. maybe mayor pete will be the solution >> we shall see. thanks for joining us. >> i've not heard him talk about tech regulation. >> he's probably got something up his sleeve. still to come on "closing bell," we'll ask silicon valley's congressman what type of regulation he wants for big tech first, the grocery wars are heating up again how amazon's whole foods price cut could impact supermarket stks "closing bell" will be right back or could it turn out differently? i wanted to help protect myself.

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shares of kroger, for instance, get hit. these are the biggest grocers in the country. there's a lot of speculation that every time amazon does something, especially with whole foods, it's going to hurt the margins of a kroger or walmart we talked to bill simon earlier today. he's former walmart u.s. ceo, and he made the point we have much lower prices especially on produce which is the traffic driver for groceries at a walmart or at a kroger also not a ton of geographical overlap. only 400 something whole food stores 10% of kroger stores actually overlap in terms of market area. it's not just going to be an instant killer of margins. yes, there's already thin margins there, but there's going to be a lot more competition it's going to be digitally and online ordering. and the jury is far from out on whether amazon/whole foods is the answer there they've all got aggressive strategies >> the amazon effect is there but it's less and the bounceback is quicker from when the news

comes out. >> still investors are sensitive to it. kroger has been hit on this. i'm watching shares of deutsche bank. the ongoing news flow on a potential merger continues ubs might sbbed in acquiring its asset management group stocks up 0.76%. now a year or so ago they ipo'd the asset management business or a small part of it in order to get valuation in its overall share justification for it in its share price. hasn't gone that well. with that in mind you could say this sounds possible but i still think they would want to hold on to asset management. maybe this could be seen as something to raise capital to pay for the commerce bank merger which people said would otherwise need quiet issequity . either they'll go to merge with a domestic partner or -- >> what's driving all this action in european banks >> dreadful underperformance over the last decade and need to do some kind of surgery in order

to rectify the situation and there's the political will to do it which there wasn't for a long time. ubs is an interesting one with deutsche bank. that's been mooted this is a small subsector type being mooted but i'd keep an eye on whether there's something more at play there deutch is up 0.8%. up next -- riverfront's chief market strategist here to tell us three conditions that he thinks are already priced into the market and ron kirk weighs in on trade and the market and the one group he says is paying the bulk of the burden for tariff tensions ♪

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factors that are already priced into the market. what are they? where do we head next? >> i think the first thing that's priced in a trade agreement with the u.s. and china. if you look at where the market is right now it's really where it was when we actually started the trade war with china to begin with that's the first thing that's priced in. i think that a slower earnings growth is priced in to the market expectations have been lowered and so, you know, if any company misses their earnings, they're going to be punished for it. and the last thing priced into the market is that there's one rate lowering cut this year is priced in so far in the market we have to be careful with the fed because they're so data dependent. if we continue to see the soft data turn around and the hard data follow along with it, then you may see the fed flip later

on in the year >> rick, for services data slowing down but still well above 50 and then also payrolls are a little soft. what do you make of all of that? >> i think you nailed it to me, there's always a lot of debate as to how much attention you pay to the jobs numbers, especially quote/unquote as you get to the long end of an expansion cycle. but i would put asterisks. after 20,000 last month and today's adp, the headline was 45,000 light, we gained back 14,000 in revision by my math we're still 30,000, 31,000 light we need a good number with a good revision for friday because that's going to make a difference to this market. i agree with kevin right now if you look at the equity markets and think about the story of trade and consider that's probably the biggest impediment to the market releasing a big attack at all-time highs even though we're in striking

distance, we'll need some type of catalyst. jobs number friday, monitor trade. but all things considered, i continue to monitor ten-year note yields, treasury yields in general and they are steady as she goes with an upward bias that's a good thing. we're definitely making a footing here on rates and that's not going to take any optimism it's going to put optimism back into the equitykevin, what do ye next catalyst? >> the real big catalyst is you have to see this trade deal that we roll back tariffs if you roll back tariffs, that will be the surprise to the market right now the market is pricing in trade deal that has tariffs not moving and not being cut at all and so if we get the president to roll back the tariffs, i think we can see up side but i still see that the s&p is going to be limited to the up side we're trading at about a 16.5 times multiple right now unless we really see the data and economic data and earnings come through, you may get up to

18 so you are going to be somewhere around 2970 at the end of the year at best >>o tell us some sectors that you like banks is one of them >> right so we have been buying emerging markets and buying smaller caps this year. so the two things that are really big in those sectors or in those asset classes have been banks and technology and so those are the sectors we've been focused on. >> so banks y? because they're big in those sectors or fundamentally >> they're big in those sectors, plus i really do think that we're going to see interest rates go back up you know, rates came down really, really fast, and i think that they overshot and so and that's where the financials really started getting hurt was when you start seeing interest rates coming down and now that things are starting to level out and you are seeing rates gradually go back up, financials will eventually benefit again. >> kevin, thank you very much. rickster, thank you. up in, we'll be back with

the counting closedown five minutes left of trade >> twitter's jack dorsey adding his voice in support of regulation of big tech plus we'll ask silicon valley's congressman what that guti sullo le. that's coming up ♪ feel that? that's the beat of global markets, the rhythm of the world. but to us, it's the pace of tomorrow. with ingenuity, technologies, and markets expertise we create the possible. and when you do that, you don't chase the pace of tomorrow. you set it. nasdaq. rewrite tomorrow.

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welcome back to the "closing bell." just over two minutes left of trade. positive session overall but we did see steady selling throughout the afternoon took us briefly negative at the top of the hour but a little bounce into the close. 0.2% of gains for the s&p. there are all four indices for you. it's essentially similar picture across the board the dow lagging just a little bit. up 0.2% as well. that's had a big advance into the close. the nasdaq up 0.6% materials the big outperformer at 1.5%. energy and staples at the bottom if you were to look at the week to date chart you'd see materials also outperforming there up 3% for the week staples at the bottom underperforming for the week i'm going to show you the s&p 500 over one week as i bring in bob pisani puts today's lackluster final few hours into perspective because we've been up five or six sessions in a row.

week to daerkte, not for the ful five days, but 2% for the nasdaq >> in the last several days as yields have moved up, bottom for yields was thursday. we've moved up yields have helped a lot we had a nice rally going. we came off. it sounds silly. we had that report out that millions of facebook users were found to be stored publicly on amazon web servers, market dropped. amazon dropped a little bit. we saw facebook drop a little bit. i know it seems silly to account for the drop but i think that was a part of the factor china trade talk optimism. semiconductors generally very strong a lot of these semiconductors, qualcomm, micron and broadcom and corvo. they get 50%, 60% revenue from china. they're all trading up the smh has been going up. the etf as china has been rallying there's the smh in white

the shanghai stock exchange is in orange. look at that that's year to date. that matches 30%. >> strong session it was in asia and europe as well today there goes the bell. 0.2% on the dow. the russell up about 0.5%. nasdaq leads the charge up by 0.6% dow up about 41 points or 0.16%. that does it for the first hour of the "closing bell"." sara, back to you. welcome to the "closing bell." i'm sara eisen wilfred frost joining me along with mike santoli. take a look at how we finished up the day on wall street up again. fifth day in a row of gains for the s&p and nasdaq s&p 500 going out with a gain of about 0.2% which actually puts us just confirmed this, to about 2% from a record high. it's been a steady climb up here

nasdaq outperforming the rest of the group. as far as what worked, materials, technology and consumer discretionary, best performing sectors energy, staples and industrials were the big losers. caterpillar had a downgrade. russell 2000 index of small caps did better up 0.5% here's stories on our radar. industrials hit a 52-week high jpmorgan regaining the crown and waiting data on tesla's first quarter deliveries a lot of suspense around that. joining us, first is cnbc contributor from douglas d. lane and associates welcome, serat mike, it's been a slow creep higher putting us not too far from record highs. what's the main driver of it >> it's been a methodical move in the last stretch of it. the drivers have subtly changed. in the last little bit, you mentioned industrials hitting a new high semiconductor index hitting a

high and so they led the way down now back to a new high that tells you, obviously, that china trade deal stuff is getting priced in. and it's taking over from the more defensive bond-like stocks. still, though, the nasdaq was up all day. not just about semis semis and faang, familiar leadership it's a still two-sided thing where the big growth stocks you can't find people that hate them and then i think the cyclical stocks are starting to come back around transports as well >> good momentum, five or six sessions in a row. even if today's gains weren't big. >> you're seeing the internals now especially for pro growth improve. yesterday the transport come back delta had good earnings to go forward. i think the markets now predicting this china trade where probably closer to the end than we are in the beginning but that could be a potential where we've got to be careful. earnings starting next week. a lot of bullishness right now investors are back in the market so i think, although i still

like the market here, you'll be cautious to put new money to work >> part of it has been, the yield stabilization. the ten-year yield is back above 250. the real hand wringing came below 240. we're back up there, mike. eventhough we've had data misses and adp payrolls today the bond market and i'm sure rick would agree, it hit the down side technical yield targets. a furious rally. got a little overextended. and now it's just easing back. not exactly reacting to every data point we're still waiting for jobs and in general the outlook for quarter one looks okay but, no, to sarat's point, the thing to look out for now is having a sense of overconfidence get infused into the market just as we reach the old highs, get to the precipice of earnings season and then see factors behind it or not >> we've been focused on the yield. what about the dollar. is that going to be an issue

>> i think the dollar could be an issue if our dollar gets stronger, that's going to hurt our market. if more people want to be with us so we have to watch that for global arnings, multy national earnings it's not something that i think is going to happen but it's something you're definitely going to be cautious for because you can have unintended consequences, especially as the rest of the world is struggling to get back to some type of growth and we've got slow but steady growth over in europe >> handful of industrial names hit 52-week highs. second best performing s&p sector so far this year behind tech mike, is this china led ultimately >> i think china is helping to actually drive it, but i do think the particular industrial names you're seeing right there are a little more the slow and steady, these companies that over decades have compounded ae earn,s so i see the reasons for it, but they're similar to a lot of these stocks otherwise working, which are just long-term

predictable cash flow businesses with a little bit of help from a cyclical up tick and maybe help from china >> and cac got a downgrade >> boeing was down today you didn't get the usual suspects of big bellwether industrials that people chase just to play the headlines >> are you in this group if so, what type of companies? >> the industrial side, we have more transports and then a couple honeywell is one of them but i think we have to be careful, you have such a rapid bounceback the market is predicting we'll not go into recession at all not saying we are, but if you get slow growth, i don't think some of these valuations justify what their growth rates are. a bounce compared to where we were -- >> the whole market or industrials? >> industrials per se. more opportunity in some of the other sectors but some good quality companies you want to hold in this sector as well. >> did you say you were in the airlines >> delta is one of our largest holdings >> focus on that >> if you look at united, delta, american delta is the best of them.

united we own as well. i like the balance sheet almost a 3% dividend yield they are focused on earnings growth and shareholder friendly. they've gone through the whole restructuring the other two are still going. delta trades at seven times earnings normal trading at nine times and if you can get any type of 9 to 10 times multiple with a good balance sheet you still have a good up side >> airlines are popular, i feel like people citing buffett, although they have underperformed over the -- >> they have underperformed. they look very cheap they have for a while. they are a way to play the consumer a little bit. so i get why they are popular. the problem is they also look cheap when things are about to turn for the worse >> it's one of the sectors investors will kind of throw out really fast when you get an inverted yield curve or think you'll go into a slowdown. it's the first thing investors sell the fundamentals of a delta are

very strong. even if we went through a downturn, this is one company that could survive it, unlike the past that's where investors are focused. what's going to happen when we get a recession. will this company survive? >> back to the china trade talks. whether it's industrials or everything, clearly we know china underperformed for a very long period. but that is now in the rear-view mirror and of late, china has performed better on days of good news on trade talks than the u.s. has. does that in any way point to people's expectations that this deal is going to benefit china more than the u.s. >> i don't think so. i think it's where we're coming from so much more depressed, much more undervalued aurrguably and with more direct stimulus being applied by chinese authorities everything getting traction at once is creating a higher beta reaction in those stocks versus ours >> one thing i've been trying to figure out is corporate investment, right? that sort of missing piece right now of the recovery. it got better after the corporate tax cuts

and whether that sort of dwindled down because the effect of the tax cuts has waned or because you have the big china/u.s. trade conflict. the brexit uncertainty and when some of these global factors come down if we are going to see a surge of corporate investment >> yeah, it's a totally open question to be honest because i don't think we have a generation of ceos that is looking for every opportunity to invest. they feel they can do it all buy back stock invest prudently but still a high hurdle rate i need to get a good return on this project we don't want to just be building empires out there i'm not that much in the camp that says we're going to unleash some huge investment but it could be a added part of the economy. i don't know how much sentiment plays into that. >> i agree with you, too it's a much more shorter term focus these days but the companies that have the wherewithal and can invest, once we get the uncertainty away, you can't blame them right now why would you invest when you don't know what your tariffs are

going to be and your in demand is going to be then we'll see who the companies are and i think those might be ones you want to invest for the long term because their returns of capital, if they are successful, will have good stock prices in the future >> also wanted to talk banks jpmorgan leading the charge as wall street's top dealmaker knocking goldman sachs to the number two spot according to data from merger market. jpm increasing its merger deal volume by 33%. raking in $322 billion wow. in announced transactions. wilfred, always a race here. >> always a race definitive data comes out once we get q1 numbers and you can see what they made in each subsector. either way this comes back to a team we spoke about with brian moynihan and the head of bnp u.s. the capital markets has been fine this quarter in the u.s not great in europe. it's been fine here. trading is not going to be good year over year big declines because last q1 was so strong.

but i don't think we'll see a huge negative reaction in q1 when it comes to the capital markets. for the banks earnings, it will be on loan growth and guidance on -- >> if deal making has been so strong in north america is that a factor that could suggest up side momentum in bank earnings, and has it been priced into the shares which have underperformed >> i think you'll see it slightly offset by trading being down overall but the net takeaways it's not going to be as bad as some of the guidance has been out of the european banks the question i think on deal making itself will be what we hear from the ceos as to whether it's sustainable if it was a one quarter rush megadeals only and it's not going to continue. you can say the same for the ipos we've seen a couple big ones >> i think you're right. the mark set not going to give companies that had a great m&a quarter that valuation bump. you'll get it because you'll be a one time but they'll look at loan growth and really look at kind of the

credit quality of what's going on there and i think the wealth management businesses this quarter might surprise to the up side because you had a good quarter compared to what we did in the fourth quarter. you'll have a nicy e y isequentl growth rate. has the investor come back to the market or using other products that could be morgan stanley, jpmorgan a lot of them have good wealth management teams and divisions within their forms >> the banks have had a good bounce over the last six or seven trading sessions, up 10% from their lows. that's been correlation with yields >> yes, plus we had this rotating market right now where if it's been a lagger for a while, the overall market stays supported. they'll get to those and pick it up and close the gap it's mostly that, plus anticipating that the bar is low for decent earnings because valuations got knocked down. >> big week next week for the banks. house financial services committee hearing. seven biggest ceos go to that,

down from eight because tim sloan is not going and earnings tick off from friday there might be other factors that can move the share price. >> i'm sure they'll ask them about deal making and who is coming out in the top of the ranks. >> i'm sure she'll being does about that, exactly. tesla one of the big winners today on wall street as they await first quarter delivery data phil lebeau joins us >> and we're still waiting we are told it's likely going to be this afternoon. so i'm going to stay here until we have the final numbers. let me show you what people are focussed on. it's one specific number q1 deliveries. you want to look for the model 3 component. the expectation is that the consensus is 54,600 model 3s delivered during the first quarter. i've talked to a few aichblt ans who say closer to 55,100

if they deliver 56,000 vehicles overall i think we get a little relief here. whether they give us any guidance at all, any commentary about production and demand, particularly in the overseas markets, that's the other thing that people will be looking for. so we expect these numbers any second the stock has been moving higher, guys over the last three or four sessions in anticipation that perhaps q1 deliveries will not be as slow as many people feared certainly not going to be as high as in the fourth quarter since they pulled forward demand in the united states but that's what we're looking for >> still the stock is down for the year more than 10%. it's underperformed the broader market >> correct >> does this company have a demand problem or not? >> hard to know. part of the problem is, and i get this question from people all the time remember, they are supplying a global market right now. it's not like you look at general motors and say what's going on with sales here in the united states? then you can sit there and say, okay, do they have too much supply, too much demand? what's the issue in the united states for tesla they are still filling in the global market, especially

in china where they're just ramping up deliveries. that's going to be a huge market and europe they've gotten a lot greater demand over there but that's also a little more mature market, certain areas like norway but that's not a huge market, but that's an example. >> for this quarter itself, what will decide whether it's 55, 60 or 65? production or -- >> no, it's deliveries inspe in terms of what they delivered. >> these are already ordered how many they manage to live up to >> this is a real production delivery issue not a demand issue for this quarter >> for this quarter, yes, but let's look if we see a number that's raeshlgs really low on model 3s, far lower than people are expecting, then you'll hear the questions come up, okay, is there a demand issue here because you had all of these people who were signing up for reservations and i know they don't like to talk about reservations. when they first announced the model 3, that was worldwide. not just the united states and they've never gone back and

kept us up to date on how many of these they've worked through. >> what's your latest thinking on tesla, mike >> if the stock gets down 250, 260, it bounces. it did that for the third our fourth time in two years that's all you need to know looking at the chart that's been the pattern and that also represents when people get too skeptical about their ability to come back 25% is still sold short. it's going to spring around based on the latest number and whether that can be spun into, hey, they're at least on track for what they've promised for the whole year >> we'll leave it there. sarat, thanks for joining us phil, we'll welcome you back when you have the numbers. up next, congressman r ro khanna tells us whether he agrees with mark zuckerberg that washington should inkrecrease o the internet and ron kirk will weigh in on what it will keta for president trump to seal the deal with china measure up?

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should big tech have more regulation congressman ro khanna who represents silicon valley joins us now thanks for joining us. >> i've got votes coming up soon, but i appreciate being on. >> we appreciate it as well. particularly given your tight schedule what do you think is the key issue when it comes to more regulation for tech and is it likely to be delivered in the next year or two >> absolutely. it's necessary speaker pelosi asked me to draft an internet bill of rights and i think a lot of those principles will be implemented. first, people should have the right to know about their data second, you should have the right to consent before your data is collected. third, you should know if your data is being transferred. as you alluded to, now mark zuckerberg, jack dorsey, tim cook, many tech leaders understand we need this type of legislation. >> but do lawmakers understand

we've seen a few hearings from some of the big tech ceos. it's been painful to watch because it's been more of a display about how ill prepared congress has been to regulate them >> you're absolutely right when google was in front of congress, one member kept yelling at him saying tell me whether you can track my iphone and he had to patiently explain that google didn't make the iphone other senators don't understand how facebook makes money the technology illiteracy in congress is appalling, and that's why we haven't had thoughtful legislation but i'm confident that people are getting up to speed, especially with some of the nonprofits help and academics help and we have to act and have to act in a thoughtful way >> what about market share is that an issue when you look at the size of companies like facebook or google >> it is the one thing i say is we don't want all the big tech companies to be chinese. we don't want alibaba, ten cent

and baidu to dominate the world market what's important is regulation to make sure companies aren't privileging their own products amazon shouldn't be allowed to privilege amazon basics. google shouldn't be allowed to privilege its own products in search let's have thoughtful antitrust regulation but let's not just call for breaking up companies because they are too big or we'll be ceding the entire competition to china >> if size itself is not an issue, is bundling of products you said you can't privilege your own products necessarily alongside others that you have but just in general giving a bundle of products and trying to go into adjacent markets, does that raise any flags i'm trying to figure out where the boundaries may be set. >> bundling, tieing is a problem. the microsoft case is very instructive. microsoft was not allowed to bundle the internet explorer and as a result, netscape was

able to succeed. we probably have google as a result if microsoft had been able to bundle internet explorer, we all probably would be using bing search but the d.c. circuit refused to break up microsoft and most people think that's a good outcome. microsoft is no longer dominant, but they were not able to bundle products so i think that is a good line to draw. >> i believe you're co-chairing the bernie sanders campaign for president. where is he on this issue, and do you expect it to be one that resonates with the public in the general election elizabeth warren already staking some claim with the breakup big tech >> well, he is for thoughtful regulation, but his focus is, how do we get technology to rural america and communities of color? we have a huge wealth gap in this country african-americans have been excluded from opportunities in technology much of rural america has been excluded what bernie sanders is talking about is expanding broadband, affordable broadband, giving

more people a chance for tech apprentice ships, giving mere people an opportunity to participate in the knowledge economy. ultimately, i think that's our country's biggest challenge. >> do you see senator sanders and senator warren as having a lot of overlap in their positions, and do you think ultimately they need to team up? >> i think they have some overlap but i don't think senator sanders has called for the breaking up of tech companies. i think he's more focused on providing opportunity for people who succeed in technology careers. and i think senator sanders is talking about policies that will allow people to help succeed in the 21st century we need to invest in human capital. we need to invest in medicare for ul all. i have a vote coming up so i hope you'll allow me to go to that >> we appreciate you joining us. go ahead and vote congressman ro khanna joining us from the kopts > capitol. energy prices have been

lagging. we'll look at whether it's a red flag for the oil market. lori loughlin and felicity tcffman appearing in court mih daniels will react ♪ to inspire confidence through style. ♪ i'm working to make connections of a different kind. ♪ i'm working for beauty that begins with nature. ♪ to treat every car like i treat mine. ♪ at adp we're designing a better way to work, so you can achieve what you're working for. ♪

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a positive morning sold off much of the afternoon and nice bounce into the close allowing all the indices to close higher >> crude oil prices have been on a tear this month. why aren't energy stocks following suit mike santoli looking into that >> a divergence in the last month. oil stocks had a good run off the december lows but so beaten down crude oil, wti crude up 13% in the last month pretty much flat for the broad etfs the stocks not really following crude. one is the earnings estimates have not been going up much for the energy companies a lot of times the market leads that process this move in crude is not enough to filter through to the bottom line estimates, at least not yet. i guess you could look more broadly at oil being in a bit of a range. last year up in the 70s. maybe the mark set not going to give the companies credit for being able to bet on higher prices, at least at these levels or above for the full year maybe skeptical about that

demand story not clear the market losing interest in energy stocks. energy as a percentage of the s&p 500. 5.4% in the s&p. it's the lowest it's been pretty much ever. and it's not just because other sectors have gotten so huge. basically no valuation credit being given to these companies >> i guess the other factor for them in the last six months or so is whether the market wants risk or safety and these stocks have been trading as cost cutting, strong cash flow, big dividend yields, regardless of what oil price has done >> they're caught between those two characterizations of different stocks if you want really strong cash flows, stable, predictable dividends you can get them elsewhere. yes, these companies have high yields most of the big majors on the other hand they don't give you great leverage to an upswing. so maybe they are a little awkward spot >> mike, thanks. in time for a cnbc update with sue herera >> here's what's happening at

this hour. secretary of state mike pompeo welcoming turkey's foreign minister to the state department his visit comes during a time of tension between the two countries. nato is at odds with turkey over its planned purchase of a russian air defense system president trump is threatening to stop delivery of the newest u.s. jet fighter if the turks go through with that deal joe biden again responding to accusations by two women that he inappropriately touched them saying on twitter that social norms are changing and that he has heard what these women are saying he adds we will be more mindful about respecting personal space in the future. and democratic presidential candidate julianewe julian castt reparations for descendants of slaves >> if under our constitution that we compensate people, if we take their property, why wouldn't we compensate people who were considered property and

sanctioned by the state? >> you are up to date. that's the news update this hour back downtown to you sue, thank you the college admissions scandal taking center stage this afternoon. lori loughlin, felicity huffman appearing in court to face fraud charges. we'll talk to purdue university president mitch daniels about what colleges can do to avoid admissions cheating. first, we'll talk to former trade representative ron kirk about the state of the u.s./china trade talks y 'swhhe noto comfortable with china's action so far. that's next. a business owner always goes beyond what people expect. that's why we built the nation's largest gig-speed network along with complete reliability. then went beyond. beyond clumsy dials-in's and pins. to one-touch conference calls. beyond traditional tv. to tv on any device. beyond low-res surveillance video. to crystal clear hd video monitoring from anywhere.

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welcome back trade front and center eamon javers joins us. >> they say talks are going well at the trade representative's office take a look at comings and goings as steve mnuchin walked into the building. liu he everybody all smiles today

if you are judging by the body language, this was an encouraging day on that basis alone. but earlier in the day, larry kudlow of the national economic advisory council was speaking at a local event here in washington he suggested that there are a wide range of issues that are still being discussed. here's what he said. >> we're covering issues that have never really been covered before all on the table all making good progress all making good headway but we're not there yet. we're not there yet and we hope this week to get closer. >> what we're told is they are going through the agreement line by line making sure things as basic as the translation line up from the english side to the chinese side making sure both sides agree with what the other side is signing off to so that can be a detailed process and ultimately we don't have any word or indication of how long this is going to take and you heard larry kudlow saying we're not there yet

no final agreements on some issues and no timetable for a roll-out >> i'm sure we're -- english/mandarin translators have been making their money of late want to switch focus what did we learn from larry kudlow at that event or elsewhere about what the president is thinking toward the fedded their its makeup at the moment >> larry kudlow has been defending the president. there have been criticisms of the president in going too far in sending larry out and talking to the head of the fed in jay powell and he wants a rate cut this year. wants it ton specifying an amount he wants rates cut by larry kudlow said we have a view at the white house we have our opinions but just because we have our opinions and express them publicly doesn't mean we're bullying the fed or badgering the fed or not respecting fed independence. so the official line from the

white house is there's no collusion between the white house and the fed. they're not telling the white house what to do they're airing their opinions and let that be as it may. that's what the white house is saying the critics are saying it's inappropriate and the white house shouldn't be leaning so hard on jay powell to follow a specific course of action here >> inappropriate, unorthodox but, eamon, it's not a step too far in that the white house isn't taking any action. they're not calling up jay powell saying you better cut interest rates or how to replace jay powell they've drawn a firm line that he's -- >> we did learn in "the wall street journal" yesterday that the president called jay powell on march 8th, which was the day of a disappointing jobs number we don't know the entire contents of that conversation. snippets were reported in the journal yesterday. we don't know what the president has said to jay powell but you're right the white house's argument here is, look, we were saying that interest rates needed to be cut and they should not raise back in december.

we were saying they shouldn't raise rates. and it was inappropriate to go forward with their plan of unwinding the balance sheet as aggressively as they wanted to do and the fed ultmetly came around to that view from the white house's perspective, they were right and it took the fed awhile to catch up to them and they feel there's nothing inappropriate about that >> eamon, thank you. >> you bet let's bring in ron kirk, former trade representative to discuss the trade developments thanks for joining us. >> thrilled to be with you thank you. >> what's your latest take on the developments with the talks? we're hearing 90% there. >> we don't -- i wish i had -- that i was a fly on the wall having been through this process myself i don't know that we know much we do know that the u.s., i think, is correctly focusing on protection of intellectual property, core trade secrets and

getting a fairly ironclad commitment from china to stop its actions to try to force technology transfers but we report is seen a lot. and we don't know. and regrettably, this president has a penchant for making these grand pronouncements about success only for us later to find out that the substance doesn't match the reality. but i am encouraged that we now have had three successive level of talks at a very high level. our experience, any time the vice premier shows up, he has the authority to make a deal and the fact that the two sides continue to talk, and if it is, in fact, true, we are down to the level of making sure the language and the translation is, in fact, representative of what the parties have agreed on we could be closer to a resolution than not. but i don't know enough from the outside to make that judgment.

>> yeah, we're all just going on body language and reports and the comments that we get from the economic team, ambassador kirk one sticking point or final point seems to be this issue of enforcement. why is that so tricky? >> well, it's a matter of trust. look, i respect the economic adviser ludlow's pride and the fact they are addressing these issues, but they have been addressed before and one of the difficulties is absent a formal trade agreement with china, which we don't have, historically we've had to rely on the wto to enforce these, but i think the administration in this case is correct to say we want more than just a commitment we want an enforceable mechanism that will hold china's feet to the fire and allow the united states to put in place punitive measures that they don't do that but i'll also think china

rightfully looks on the other side and says we just don't know when to believe this administration or not. with respect to his threatening to close the border and we're going to have nafta. we're not going to have nafta, it makes it difficult for our trading partners to know when to take him seriously but we've got to overcome this distrust on both sides, hopefully to get to an agreement. >> mr. kirk, often there's a debate about whose administration has or hasn't been tough enough on china parking that to one side, do we not talk enough about whether big u.s. corporations should shoulder some of the blame for the intellectual property loss if they were so desperate to pursue the growth on offer in china and were willing to partner in jvs to get it, is not some of the blame to be at their feet >> i don't think there's any

question they bear some of the responsibility we live in a market-driven economy where all businesses live by one fundamental principle. where's the biggest source of consumers for what i'm making, what i'm buying, what i'm growing? it's hard to ignore that market from china but i do think american businesses now realize that perhaps they have made, you know, a solomon's deal in many cases by sharing relevant and high level technology with china and that that can be too steep a price to pay but the flip side of that, china also realizes if they push too far, many of those businesses have other options i mean, china does have a universe of new consumers, but so do they in india and africa and other developing economies that would welcome u.s. investment and not be nearly as nefarious in terms of trying to

steal core u.s. technology >> very quickly, ambassador kirk, wanted to get you on the record with some thoughts on what shutting down the southern border, u.s./mexico, would do for trade. how do you think about the economic fallout there >> i think the fact that majority leader mcconnell swatted that down so quickly speaks to the lack of wisdom in that and i know i'm here as a u.s. trade representative, but as a texan, no state would be harmed more by this than the state of texas. we share a border with mexico. much of that billion dollars, billion and a half dollars of trade and commerce that flows between mexico and canada every day comes through ports in texas. it would be devastating to our economy and very harmful to the u.s. economy >> ron kirk, thanks for joining us >> thank you for having me still ahead -- cracking

down one of wall street's most popular brands making a big change to its corporate sales program. the details next and shipping chic. retailer forever 21 launching a pretty unlikely partnership. 'sotveone buzzing this afternoon. we'll explain when we come right back ...all while helping you to and through retirement. can you help with these? we're more of the plan, invest and protect kind of help... voya. helping you to and through retirement. their medicare options... before they're on medicare. come on in. you're turning 65 soon? yep. and you're retiring at 67? that's the plan! well, you've come to the right place. it's also a great time to learn about an aarp medicare

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that said constellation brands will be divesting about 30 of their lower end brands for $1.7 billion. the reason we expected the shares to move lower on this is there were reports including from cnbc that the company would fetch a far greater number, as much as $3 billion for those 30 brands that they plan to sell. they assigned an agreement with e & j gallo winery to invest it for wine and spirits priced at $11 and below retail >> leslie, thanks for that move on to stories on the "closing bell" radar today patagonia will no longer customize products for companies that don't align with its environmentally conscious values the outdoor outfitter saying in a statement it would focus on working with mission-driven companies that prioritize the planet for its corporate sales program. i just feel this is a little bit too far. there's a sense behind this that they're saying companies have to prove to us that they are saints

in order to earn the right to be our customer >> seems they'll miss out on a lot of revenue >> which is a little too far different from where we see, if it emerges with proof that someone has done something really awful then we reserve the right not to serve you but this is extreme >> it fits with patagonia's brand. it has a bit of a -- projected a do-gooder ethic for right or wrong. >> hasn't this been like a uniform in start-ups and bank b? >> wall street, too. and a few cnbc shows that wear branded ones >> i guess it's an opening for someone else >> i'm going to stick with the clothing theme forever 21 is collaborating with the u.s. post office on a brand-new clothing line called forever 21 xusps it features jackets, shorts, much tos with -- >> is this a joke? >> no, it's real >> the postmen are going to wear

this >> as well as the words express, first class or priority written on them. they're pretty sexy actually >> is this for the postal service workers? >> no, not all all it's for you to buy. >> as they deliver their letters. >> it's for mike santoli's teenage daughters. >> i like my postman but -- >> it's not for the postman. the statement says, by the way, this collection is not part of the official usps uniform and will not be worn by postal employees. good thing they'll not be wearing tube tops on duty. >> some of it looks like the cycling uniforms the postal service used to sponsor lance armstrong but the other part is it's the kind of thing where you couldn't necessarily engineer it becoming a viral thing but you could see it happening you could see it becoming almost like kind of square hip -- >> to wear post office colors. >> their brand, i think, probably has other things to worry about. >> it's part of the whole vintage kind of what was cool back in the day. >> forever 21, forever stamp

>> postman pat, eat your heart out. avengers "end game" scoring the biggest opening release. it set the record on fandango. previous record holder was star wars the force awakens in 2014 these event movies, the marvel universe, the biggest thing going in movies right now but also we have this habit of presales it's become much more of a thing than it ever was >> i've lost track of which is which but the peak before was "star wars" 2015 the most recent ones, getting them, rushing them out too quickly. clearly with the avengers that's not the case if this is the new record but something they should be wary. there's been a lot of these. >> we've been talking about comic book movies. it's not my thing. somebody needs to explain to me what they are capable of doing >> they've got a cult following. >> what's postman pete >> pat

>> british reference up next the college cheating controversy heating up lori loughlin and felicity daffman appearing in court toy. we'll have more on the fallout with purdue university president mitch daniels straight ahead.

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we've got a news alert on boeing phil lebeau with the details phil >> sarah, take a look at these these are pictures sent to us by boeing of ceo dennis mullenberg after he went on a test flight on the 737 max after the software upgrade the test pilot according to boeing tested a number of scenarios to see how it would handle some of the issues with the anti-stall technology. boeing doesn't say anything new in terms of how quickly they'll

deliver the software just that it will happen in the coming weeks and that is the latest from boeing. don't forget, tomorrow mor at 3:30 a.m. eastern time that's when we get the initial report from ethiopiaairlines about th crash a couple of weeks ago. back to you. >> thank you very much still to come on "the closing bell." faking the grade, actresses felicity huffman and lori loughlin appeared in court over the cheating scandal and mitch ho iels will tell us how his scols working to prevent similar things from happening. 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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actresses lori loughlin and felicity huffman appearing in federal court in boston today. the two facing charges for allegedly participating in college admission bribery schemes. >> mitch daniels, former governor of indiana. >> thank you very much for joining us >> yes, sir. >> what's your take as to how serious the punishment should be for this and what would be enough to make sure it doesn't happen again >> i think severe punishment is probably in order. i think the reputational damage alone probably serves as punishment to these folks. i think it's worth noting that as egregious as this behavior

is, first of all, in our celebrity-obsessed culture if these weren't hollywood people involved we wouldn't be sitting here talking about it. it would have been a one or two-day story and secondly, there has been some -- a rather fuzzy thinking that wants to indict a whole system as being rigged here. the fact is this is bribery and wiring around the system so some schools should have better defenses and obviously, this conduct warrants some kind of severe penalty, but i think we ought to keep our perspective about how serious this particular incident really is. >> that said, would you not admit that special treatment has existed before in a legitimate way, not going around the system where people make huge donations to build a library or whatever it might and be that that carries special favor and is that something that should

continue >> i think these things are all very good questions, but there are all kinds of preferences around the system and the biggest ones by far are demographic or ethnic. geographic schools trying to have some balance in their student body and harvard right now is in the dock itself for alleged discrimination against asian-americans. so if the issue is should we have a system based purely on academic merit there would be all kinds of practices that need to be re-examined, but i think most people believe that there will should still be room for some judgment. >> but, governor, i mean, this is a question specifically on financial access, access being granted because of financial positions. should that continue in light of this moment that everyone's had to pause and rethink >> i, frankly, don't think so, and i can only speak for one

school this is the time of school when i'm receiving heart broken letters from parents and grandparents of either alums or in many cases, people who have been generous in their support of our university. we don't grant special treatment, but listen, they're for private schools who rely particularly very heavily on these donations to exist i'm not going to sit in judgment as to whether they should never, ever take that into some account as one of many, many factors >> governor, do you think there should be more transparency in terms of exactly how admissions decisions are made, though >> i do think that's a good idea and yet, every school i am aware of these days practices what the experts call holistic judgment,

and that is they weigh multiple factors and how would you ever be able to turn that into some completely transparent formula that people can look at and know in advance yes or no that would be hard >> governor, thank you for joining us we appreciate it >> thank you thank you. >> that does it for "closing bell." >> "fast money" begins right now. "fast money" starts right now live from the nasdaq marketsite overlooking times square your traders are pete najarian, karen finerman, and guy adami. the man who moves markets, marco kolanovic and chips gone wild and hitting a 52-week high as they soar this year. we'll tell you which has more room to run and we start with the rally heard round the world literally.