them directly? >> i think that's an excellent point. i do wonder, though, how many people actually go on to the s.e.c. website and download the s-1 and read that. >> that's true >> that's a question as well do your homework first, right? thanks for watching "power lunch. >> "closing bell" starts right now. yes, it does it's the final hour of trade take off like a rocket ship. that's what president trump says would happen to the economy if the fed followed his advice. also chip stocks posting one of their biggest weeks of the year. we've got to debate on whether investors should hold on for the ride and samsung warns of slowing demand have we officially hit peak smartphone we will debate that. "closing bell" starts right now. ♪ ♪ happy friday welcome to "closing bell."

i'm sara eisen here with wilfred frost. green arrows across the screen s&p's up about a third of 1% energy's in the lead materials the only group that's negative and the nasdaq charging ahead by half a percent small caps doing even better up .8%. >> up about 2% for the week on s&p, nasdaq. germany up 4% for the week, china 5% but still a good week here in the u.s. coming up, kathryn minshew of the muse telling us how millennials are navigating the job market right now >> let's get to today's jobs report despite a strong headline number president trump is blaming the fed for economic growth not being stronger >> i personally think the fed should drop rates. i think they really slowed us down there's no inflation i would say in terms of quantitative tightening it should actually now be

quantitative easing. very little if any inflation and i think they should drop rates and they should get raid of quantitative tightening you would see a rocket ship. despite that we're doing very well >> let's bring in julia coronado from macro policy perspectives and ethan harris from bank of america merrill lynch. julia, it's one thing to call for the end of quantitative tightening, which the fed is actually starting to, and another to call for quantitative easing this is a whole new level in terms of easy policy from this administration >> right >> how crazy is that >> it's a little crazy i mean, it's not surprising that a politician would like to see markets take off like a rocket ship it's the job of the fed to think longer term. >> would they take off like a rocket ship? >> i'm not sure. because if you think that the fed is beholden to politicians then you're starting to lose the credibility of the institution as the arbiter of sort of the longer-run business cycle. i think we rely on the fed to be the grown-ups in the room. and so you know, i think the

president's just job owning. i don't think the fed's going to change anything about the way it makes decision >> you even though he's jawboning he's not really calling there for quantitative easing. >> he's not? >> no. it's just his way of articulating he wants more dovish policy. i don't think he's actually saying that's what should happen when he went to his second sentence as well he said end quantitative tightening rather than repeat the call for quantitative easing. i think it's what came out as posed to specifically saying he thinks rates should be 0.5% and we should be buying bonds aggressively >> i don't think he'd be sad about quantitative but again, he wants to juice up the economy and the fed is thinking more medium term through the business cycle where are we, what's the right mix of policy for the economy as it stands >> ethan, does the economy need for loose policy depending how severe that loose policy could be >> i think julia's absolutely right. it doesn't make any sense to ease monetary policy right now the economy looks quite healthy. we're slowing down from some

unsustainable growth rates from last year where we juiced up the fiscal policy. slowing to 2%. but that's healthy growth for the u.s. and financial conditions remain very supportive of growth. the fed is a long way from imposing real pain on the economy or the markets so i don't understand why we want to throw gasoline on the fire when it's already burning nicely >> i mean, what would happen if we did what would happen if the president got his wish >> well, i think the danger in doing an easing now is twofold in very different directions one, it might scare the markets because they'd wonder, a, is the fed giving in to politicians and losing independence? or b, do they see something really ugly out there that none of the rest of us see and are easing because of that the other risk of course is that financial conditions are already quite easy you've got very low credit spreads, strong stock market, and a little bit of irrational exuberance out there and i don't think they want to juice that up even more.

i think they're correctly happy with a modestly hot labor market and modestly hot financial conditions that's kind of a reasonable policy for right now >> julia, overall do you think the fed has done a good job in the last 6 to 12 months and do you think that's likely to change if the fed does keep calling for what he'd like to see? >> look, it's always a little bit clunky when you get to a turning point and the fed sort of had to recalibrate on the fly given the slowing global backdrop it did that. i think it did that appropriately so i think i agree that they're in a good place right now, that you know, rates are not that high and they're backing away from the reduction in the balance sheet. i think that's appropriate for where we are the resilience in the labor market, in the jobs report is very reassuring. >> how much longer can that kind of jobs report resilience, and it's strong by a lot of measures, go on? >> look, i think we are going to see some slowing in job growth

if we expect slowing in economic growth, we should see job gains slow to 150 to 175, something in that range as the months go on. but -- and we saw that in manufacturing in this morning's report manufacturing should be where we see the slowing because that's linked to the global economy most directly. so we should see some slowing in job growth but the labor market is tight enough to generate wage gains, and that will be good to keep the consumer on track. >> ethan, do you think the fed in terms of the shape of the yield curve is ever going to get a helping hand from other central banks around the world or is the outlook there still so poor that they're never going to be able to tighten >> i think unfortunately both the ecb and the bank of japan are basically zuk stuck at steer here actually in both regions what they need is a fiscal stimulus because monetary policy's basically out of ammunition. that's going to keep u.s. interest rates low

it's going to be an ongoing weight on the u.s. bond market but i'm not worried about that that's not a bad thing it means lower borrowing costs in the u.s it doesn't mean we're going into recession. it just means that it's hard for u.s. bond yields to rise relative to the rest of the world when everywhere else we've got zero rates >> obviously it's one thing the president can express his opinions about what he would like to see but he's backing that up by putting forward two fed nominees here potentially that are political allies. >> yeah. the two nominees that are under consideration are definitely more overtly political than what we're used to seeing on the one hand that's only two people on a committee of 17, 18 people so that might not be enough to change the current deliberations. but it's a worrisome indication that political intervention is on the rise that could erode the independence of the institution. >> but if it's such a worry then surely the senate would reject

the appointments >> surely so well, we'll see. we'll see. >> seriously, there is a process for this >> there is a process. and i think there are? concerns >> but politicians too >> that's true >> they're politicians who presumably 50 plus 1 will have a line in the sand they wouldn't want to cross if it is as terrible a thing as everyone suggests >> the fed does have a special place. and i think the senators tend to recognize that you really don't want to mess with the fed and the fed's independence because then you start to create problems down the road that you might regret >> on that note if it's as bad as everyone suggests, they'll reject them. >> that's entirely possible. i would suspect the hearings will certainly be contentious. >> we shall see. julia and ethan, thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you now semis have surged since 2019 nearly 30% with strong demand from china as a significant

driver here to debate whether there is more room to run is ruben run and kevin waterhouse from edgware research very good afternoon to you both. thanks for joining us. kevin, if i start with you, you think demand is settling somewhat >> we think demand is challenged in some products in some products it appears to stabilize, in other products i think it's challenged. i think inventory's building i think pricing is starting to get a little more aggressive so we're concerned some of the calls for hockey stick growth in the second half of the year. >> ruben, are you taking the other side >> i am. we're a little more constructive on the space than kevin. we think that semis, which have recovered quite nicely after a pretty sharp downturn in december, came out and gave us earnings and guidance at least for the near term that are reasonable in our view and across a lot of the analog semiconductor space we think that expectations for the year

are reasonable i understand that there are some areas that are calling for sharper recovery in the second half but i think in general a lot of the names we're looking at do have reasonable assumptions built into the models for the second half of the year. and we are getting some evidence right now that things are starting to stabilize in some markets like handsets and then there are some signs that we could see some growth coming second half in important markets like data center and of course things like 5g infrastructure getting built out. generally, we think that the setup looks pretty good as we head into the second quarter of the year >> ruben, are you concerned about the valuations following the bounce from december's lows? >> that's another good point a lot of the semiconductor companies that we follow, especially on the analog side and looking at some of the rf names that will be selling into 5g infrastructure still trading at reasonable valuation. lower than the group lower than the s&p and we think that's a pretty good setup from a risk to reward

profile. again, as you look into the second half potentially some recovery coming. >> kevin, how do you think about the product cycle this year and what we're expecting as a driver versus some of the previous years? >> sure. when you look across the products as ruben mentioned, handsets for example, this year we think is a down year on a unit basis pcs we think are a down year on a unit baesis this year. more importantly in the data center market where there is a lot of growth expected second half of the year, sharp recovery and spending from the major cloud players, last year was driven by a pretty strong product cycle from intel with skylink this year cascade link we don't think has the same driver for demand in second half of the year in addition, we think intel could be pressured by some share lost to amd but just when we look at second half of the year and where estimates have gone and agree with ruben in the maer term some of the estimates have come down to more reasonable levels, when you look ahead to

q4 and q3, q3 there are a number of stocks numbered for better than seasonal. 4q almost all of them are numbered for better than seasonal you look at where assessments have gone and how stocks hareace we think it's a poor setup for second half of the year. >> ruben your top pick for the moment >> the top picks we're look at are away from data center and selling more into some of the content appreciation stories out there. automotive industrial automation. and certainly 5g infrastructure. top makes for us marvel technology skyworks, all of which we think have strong product cycles coming up second half of the year and are reasonably valued >> thank you for joining us. we'll leave it there >> thanks. >> thank you >> still ahead, a top portfolio manager lays out the four reasons he says a recession is not imminent and the stocks he's buying right now as a result >> up next the deduction cap leaving some taxpayers with a

higher bill than usual this year we'll speak with one expert who has an investment strategy to offset that burden you.

all of you. how you live, what you love. that's what inspired us to create america's most advanced internet. internet that puts you in charge. that protects what's important. it handles everything, and reaches everywhere. this is beyond wifi, this is xfi. simple. easy. awesome. xfinity, the future of awesome. ♪ everybody's working welcome back to "the closing bell." we're up only about 14 points on the dow. dow inc. leads the charge.

home depot 5%. goldman sachs up 5%. these are the week to date returns. i was thinking what is happening there? week to date returns and jpmorgan chase up 4% itself. >> a new campaign to hike taxes on wealthy americans is gaining steam. robert frank with the details. hi, robert >> it is the most targeted and well-funded campaign yet to raise taxes on the wealthy a coalition of more than a dozen progressive groups are creating a new effort called tax the rich and it's aimed at urging voters and candidates to pass new taxes on the top earners they plan a seven-figure ad and awareness campaign starting in the democratic primary states. they will kick off in iowa and move to new hampshire and colorado including tv and digital ads, rallies and town halls. many of the democratic candidates already have proposed plans for higher taxes on the top earners and wealthy but this new group will hold them more accountable saying "it will make it impossible to consider yourself a progressive leader if

you do not support taxing the rich >> the wealthy and big corporations are not paying their fair share, and should we win back -- should democrats be successful in 2020 this needs to be a top priority for them >> now, raising taxes on the rich is also popular among voters the group's polling shows that 75% of americans support higher taxes on the wealthy and a fox news poll found that the top concern for voters, all voters, is that the rich don't pay enough buys, back to you. >> still, though, no kind of unanimity on the best way to do this in the most palatable way yes, people welcome the idea in general but i guess when they see the actual policy and how it might impact them it might be less favorable >> we have talks about increasing the top income tax. we have talks about the es tailt tax. we have talks about a wealth tax. we have talks about a capital gains tax. so each of these sort of have their individual proponents but

no unified plan or really sort of workable plan yet from any of the candidates >> thank you very much sticking with taxes, the new cap on state and local tax deductions could expose residents in some states to higher federal taxes one firm says investing in municipal bonds could help alleviate some of that pain. john, thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> so munis have seen inflows of late, have they? how big have those inflows been? >> it's been a record first quarter in terms of inflows from municipal bond funds, which is evidence of individual investor demand accelerating. about 24 billion cumulatively in the first quarter in comparison to just 5 billion in inflows last year. interestingly, that's sort of accelerating through tax time when flows will have traditionally become a little bit weaker >> so explain that for us, john.

why salt in particular would be motivation for investors to get into munis >> i think it's a combination of factors. first of all of course the rate environment has become more benign and i think behind the scenes in 2018 municipal bond investors were building up cash. sort of waiting for a then hawkish federal reserve policy to run its course. now that the messaging from the federal reserve and from the fundamental data has become much more benign and rates have edged lower the fed has stepped to the sidelines, that's part of it but in addition the tax cut, at least on the top bracket, was relatively minor, from 39.6 to 37% when you then take into consideration the state and local tax cap, deduction cap of $10,000. that actually puts a lost municipal bond investors into what potentially could be a higher effective tax rate as opposed to a lower effective tax

rate and that makes municipal taxable equivalent yields look favorable. so it's probably enhancing demand in here >> john, so clearly there's tax benefits to owning these but are there risks as well? what's the spread at the moment over the equivalent treasury and how does that relate to history? >> sure. well, first of all, if you take very, very high-quality municipals, strong aa and aaa paper, those will trade in a relationship to u.s. treasuries. and they started the year, 2019, at somewhere in the neighborhood of fair value to a little bit cheap. and throughout the first quarter municipals have outperformed so in ten years and shorter munis are trading relatively richer than u.s. treasuries even though on the long end it's still fair value to a little bit cheap. then for bonds with more credit risk, triple b rated bonds, non-rated bonds, bb rated bonds, you're picking up on average approximately 215 to 220 basis

points of additional yield for investing in high yield with more credit risk and that's well within historical nofrmz and i think is fairly attractive as long as the economy continues to be on solid footing. >> are there certain parts of the muni market that are more attractive right now than others just straight up government? schools? highways where would you be looking >> sure. well, first, amt has become less onerous because the -- because neuer and fewer people are going to be subject to the amt going forward. a lot of toll roads and airport and transportation bonds might be subject to the amt. and there you can pick up a little of extra income and if you're not subject to the amt that income comes without the commensurate credit risk we like the liquidity of specialty states like california and new york just generally, and we like essential service

revenue type of facilities from water and sewer to electric power and bonds that have a direct lien on property tax receipts >> john miller, thank you for joining us >> thank you very much for having me. >> under 40 minutes to go before the closing bell taking a look at the markets, we're certainly off the highs of the day. the dow was up more than 100 points at one point. up 35 right now. but still going strong here into the close. nasdaq's up half a percent stocks rose pretty much every day this week looking at the s&p. still ahead, earnings season officially kicking off next week with reports on deck from jpmorgan and wells fargo we'll preview what investors want to see from the bankz plus tapping into the beer market wall street weighing in on three beverage giants today. we'll tell you what the analysts are saying about those names, ahead. val, vern... i'm off to college and i'm not gonna be around...

i'm worried about my parents' retirement. oh, don't worry. voya helps them to and through retirement... ...dealing with today's expenses... ...like college... ...while helping plan, invest and protect for the future. so they'll be okay... without me? um... and when we knock out this wall imagine the closet space? yes! oh hey, son. yeah, i think they'll be fine. voya. helping you to and through retirement.

we have 35 minutes until the close. it's been a steady day of gains, albeit not groundbreaking. rises up .2% on the dow. s&p up half a percent as is the nasdaq, up 2% for the week now on the s&p coming up, wage growth slowed in the latest jobs report but a new study says compensation is not the most important factor for prospective employees. the ceo of career site the muse will tell us what job seekers

really want. and later, smartphone saturation samsung issuing a new earnings warning in part from cooling smartphone danemd. we'll discuss which companies are most at risk from the slowdown cfa institute.

transparency. expertise. these are the building blocks enduring relationships are built on. as investment management professionals, let's measure up. cfa institute.

welcome back to "closing bell." stocks are rallying on this friday seventh day in a row for the s&p 500. and as you can see, most sectors are green. energy's in the lead today followed by utilities, health care, and consumer discretionaries. only red pocket there on the side is materials, which had a pretty much strong overall week up more than 4%. communications services also lagging behind the rest. >> time now for a cnbc news update with sue herera >> hello, wilf hello, everyone. joe biden held a news conference in washington where he talked about running for president and depend defended his unwanted touching of women in recent years. >> i'm sorry i didn't understand i'm not sorry for any of my intentions i'm not sorry for anything i've ever done. i've never been disrespectful intentionally. to a man or a woman. you know, it's that -- not the reputation i had since i was in

high school, for god's sake. >> united nations chief antonio guterres travels to eastern libya ease continues to try to avert a confrontation between militias in the east of the country and fighters loyal to the royal commander. libya has been split by rival governments over power and oil fields an election debate in south africa descending into chaos as supporters of opposing parties ended up fighting each other chairs flew through the air, punches were thrown. south africa will be holding national elections next month. you are up to date that's the news update this hour, guys i will send it back downtown to you. >> okay, sue, thanks very much we have just over 30 minutes -- just under 30 minutes of trade left, i'm sorry. and we are higher by half a percent on the nasdaq. a little less than that on the s&p. the dow down just .2 of 1% have we hit peak smartphone? the new warning from samsung

that could shake stocks. >> plus one home retailer jumping on an upgrade. why morgan stanley says an activist push could create a lot of up side when "closing bell" returns. we see homes staying cooler without the planet getting warmer. at emerson, when issues become inspiration, creating a better world isn't just a result, it's a responsibility. emerson. consider it solved.

♪ march jobs coming in strong. but new data from career development platform the muse says 58% of next gen workers plan on changing jobs this year. how does that shift impact the overall parkt? joining us is kathryn minshu, co-founder and ceo of the muse, author of "the new rules of work." welcome, kathryn >> thank you so much >> what have you found in terms of workers planning to change jobs why is that happening? >> absolutely. well, i think it's driven by a number of shifts in the market we found in general that the two things that next gen workers are look for most is learning and growth opportunities and also work-life balance. i think this blows up some of the traditional wisdom that it's all about compresidenciation, which we're seeing it's not. >> is that something that relate only plays for younger workers i mean, obviously career progression and opportunities is

going to be much more important for them and as you progress in the workplace other things like pay will become increasingly important. >> you know what's interesting is we don't seem to hear differences between demographics or generations in our data i will say that the user base of the muse is 2/3 under age 35 but at the same time we cut our survey responses by a variety of different age groups, other demographi demographics, and we found that really across the board a lot of people are looking for the sort of development opportunity and for more work-life balance and that is edging out compensation among those different groups >> i wonder how much of that, kathryn, has to do with the fact that this is a very tight and hot labor market so there are opportunities companies are desperate for workers. also a lost these people aren't used to a tough labor market >> the labor market is more mobile than ever before. when we asked our users how many of you would move for the right company or role it was 89% of

people said yes. the factors they're using to define what is the right company or role it's things like the culture, the values, the employee experience. sometimes the perks and benefits as well. sometimes the company's reputation but i think we're seeing today's workforce take a much more nuanced view of where they want to work and then they're voting with their feet. >> talk to us a bit more about that point about reputation. increasingly they care about the overall image of the company >> absolutely. it's one of the things that came up as the most important factor in next generation workers deciding where to work was the company's reputation i believe it was around upwards of 80% of people said it was important or very important. but i will caveat this isn't just the prestige of a company it's also the reputation as evidenced by what tips employees say about working there. i think this is a very important point because companies used to be able to control their brand and today there are so many ways that your employees are a part of how your brand is perceived in the market.

whether it's through social media, through online review platforms, through places like the muse that feature verified employee testimonials. is all of a sudden we're seeing that as reputation becomes more and more important employers have a little bit less control over it. >> which sectors are the hottest right now? >> that's a great question obviously technology roles are incredibly hot i don't know if that's going to surprise anyone. there are about five open engineering jobs for every developer or engineer looking for work so anything in the technical space is incredibly hot. we're also seeing some really interesting movement in health care the news is not necessarily a platform where you're seeing a tremendous number of doctors or nurses but all of the other roles that are required to make these health care companies operate. operators, marketers, finance, et cetera. we're seeing some really interesting traction i would say that we're encouraging job seekers to think outside the box of sort of the traditional companies they may be thinking of and be willing to consider a wider variety of options when they're searching for jobs on the muse

>> kathryn, thanks for joining us >> thank you so much for having me >> still to come, we will tease% what's to come for the banks next week, but first of all we're going to have a look at some individual market movers today. this stock catching the attention of wall street headwinds like intense competition. mean, deutsche bank upgrading constellation brands to hold and a.b.i. trading higher after getting an upgrade from bank of america saying they expect first quarter results from the bud maker. a. xw i. saying it sees a nice little pop-up a couple of percent. other than these investment banks all decide they were going to release on the same day but they have done and good different direction ones but none of them transformational positions a.b.i.'s got a couple of percent move boston beer down 6%. >> i mentioned a mystery stock

before the break it's bed bath & beyond that stock jumping on an upgrade from morgan stanley. while it sees concerns around it's its competitiveness in the home space activists may untether stock performance from underlying results in the near term morgan stanley's not alone in this view. there's nothing like an activist to come into a stock to really revitalize it. this had been a serial underperformer all the analysts coming out there's this trio of activists it's not so much who is going after them it's that the ideas are really ringing true for wall street replace the ceo and chairman look at potential strategic alternatives in other words, there's so much work to be done on bed bath & beyond that the market has really embraced this idea activists are pushing it raymond james even sawed the company could be taken private >> it's not a big jump it's a damning indictment on what people think about the current management

the note seems to say there's actually a lot of low-hanging fruit and a simple management change can grab that >> nobody thinks the story's changing nobody thinks the trajectory's improving. it's just activist scenarios there's also been a tremendous short squeeze in this stock we should note. >> it's up 4% today. we have a market flash on some auto stocks. seema mody has the details >> we're watching volkswagen, daimler and bmw. eu authorities are saying that germany's three largest car makers agree to secretly equip their vehicles with inferior emissions equipment and colluded to provide better emissions. it's a finding that as "the new york times" says could expose volkswagen, daimler and bmw to these concerns around air pollution in europe among other risks. this is a preliminary decision by the european commission but it was back in 2015 when this really got a lot of attention when volkswagen -- we were seeing shares of daimler down just about 2%.

volkswagen under pressure as we read through these guidelines. >> next a top portfolio manager tells us four reasons why a recession is not imminent. >> later after a wild first week of trading we'll look at what lies ahead f lt. at cinuporyf [leaf blower] you should be mad at leaf blowers. [beep] you should be mad your neighbor always wants to hang out. and you should be mad your smart fridge is unnecessarily complicated.

but you're not mad, because you have e*trade which isn't complicated. their tools make trading quicker and simpler. so you can take on the markets with confidence. don't get mad. get e*trade and start trading today. don't get mad. ♪ can i get some help. watch his head. ♪ i'm so happy. ♪ whatever they went through, they went through together. welcome guys. life well planned. see what a raymond james financial advisor can do for you.

all of you. how you live, what you love. that's what inspired us to create america's most advanced internet. internet that puts you in charge. that protects what's important. it handles everything, and reaches everywhere. this is beyond wifi, this is xfi. simple. easy. awesome. xfinity, the future of awesome.

welcome back to "the closing bell" here the losers on the week as a whole for the dow. j&j, merck, and coke making up the rest of the list >> pretty defensive on the losing front wall street's volatility index dipping to its lowest level since october. let's bring back mike santoli with more on how to read that. >> below 13. it's only been down here just briefly in mid march and now we've kind of decisively -- seems like we'll probably get a close below 13 today you have to go to early october. this is basically running directly opposite to this very clockwork march higher in the indexes, in the stock indexes. it shows you that essentially this is a pretty stable market there's a lot of divergence within sectors so it's not as if all stocks are going up and down at once, and

that often kind of suppresses volatility i guess you would say we're at the level where the low vix is confirming where we are near the highs as opposed to saying it's too low and it represents maybe kind of a dangerous complacency among investors because if you keep in mind back in september after you've had a long summer of slow grind higher in the stock market we were under 12. so you can get down to 10, 11 range. that's where we were in 2017 as well >> clearly that's a six-month chart. we haven't been anywhere near those 40 highs for a while but even if you look at a two-week chart, i mean, remember then we were talking about back above 16 or close to 17, about to spike again it's been quite a quick turnaround >> i think once the s&p broke above that ceiling, that perceived ceiling around 2800, that was one thing that i guess got some of the volatility to bleed out of the market. also if you were watching this morning when the jobs report printed it was -- i mean, volatility just fell away. basically it was the market, the

traders saying we have a weekend coming up, nothing seems to want to break this market right now and the only known catalyst was going to be the jocks report it came in slightly better than expected >> also there's this idea that the fed kills volatility >> without a doubt >> when you get a number like a goldilocks number like the jobs report, not too hot wage inflation, very strong job growth >> that's right. >> but it doesn't push the fed to tighten policy. and that's been a huge driver. >> threshold for the jobs number having any real impact in the near term on fed policy stance was very, very high. that threshold was high. we didn't get anywhere near that interestingly, bond market volatility spiked in the past several weeks and now has also come off that was where the action was because of those questions about inverted yield curve and the rest of it >> see you in the next hour. >> see you soon. >> we have 14 minutes to go in today's session. joining us on "closing bell" exchange today burns mckinney, performance manager. rick santelli at the cme group in chicago

good afternoon burns, do you like the market at these levels seven straight up day. that's the longest streak since 2017 do you think there's more fuel in the rally >> i think equities are probably better placed than fixed income instruments right now. but really looking at the u.s. stock market today it's kind.95 that sweet spot where it's not overly cheap but it's not terribly expensive you've got the s&p trading around 17 times earnings, which is right in line with its long-term average. which suggests that basically companies or stocks should go up with earnings. now, that said, earnings probably are going to be a bit more muted this year than they have been in recent years. for one you're rolling off -- you don't have the benefit of the tax cuts this year and for two, i think one thing that could provide a headwind that might slow down earnings growth is the fact that in the fourth quarter profit margins in the s&p were at historically high levels. if you normalize those that

might actually slow that down a bit. mid single-digit returns is something that's noting? to get excited about but it's really the best we're going to find anywhere in the market relative to fixed income or other instruments. >> rick, what was the bond market's interpretation of the jobs number and how do you explain the moves we saw >> you know, if you -- we were live obviously, wilf, when the number was coming out. and immediately 2s and 10s -- the whole curve but 2s and 10s in particular the yield spiked they sold treasuries off almost right to the resistance level that traders were looking at as the breakaway point. so we were getting close to 2.38 in the 2s, close to 2.55 a halfish in the 10s there's a lot of clues in that nobody that was looking for lower rates panicked a bit we get to see their hand it's sort of a tell. and it acknowledges the notion that prioritizing those lows that were created all along the curve on january 3rd and lasted

until about three weeks ago, they're very technically significant. sought number was a good number. but unlike last month with a headline number of 20,000 which was obviously revised up, that was bd the internals were very positive last month whether you're looking to partition -- participation rates or employment to labor, all of that was better than this report especially the month over month wages up 1/10. we didn't lose ground on wages work week's worth 400,000 jobs but productivity might have pause the a bit. i think it was a b-plus, c-minus number, which is plenty good enough the markets speak for themselves they're just looking for an excuse in equities in my opinion to jump over current all-time highs. and most likely the excuse has to be something big like the trade deal >> the other thing that happened today, burns, is the president threw out the idea of quantitative easing, thinks the president should be going there and he's already called for them

to cut rates 50 basis points how do investors like you take those calls? >> really, i think there's a pretty wide divergence between what the economy needs and what the president's re-election campaign needs i think that that's something that again, with the president looking toward a re-election in the next 18 months, he probably is as most presidents would going to be focused on and wanting to see interest rates lower and easing in monetary policy but at the same time, you know, with the numbers we saw today they don't really justify that you see it was kind of again in that middle ground i think rick noted a b-plus, c-minus response which is something the stock investors kind of like at this point it is a little bit goldilocks where it suggests that the economy's strong enough, you're not moving into a recession so you don't necessarily need to cut rates. but at the same time as wages were a little more muted which means you're not seeing inflationary fears there's no reason to raise rates

either it allows the fed to be patient and be data dependent going forward but it certainly doesn't seem to indicate we need to be cutting rates in the near term >> rick, what's your take on the president's call this morning? >> you know, i think dropping rates is a bad idea. i think talking about crisis era quantitative easing is a bad idea but let's keep in mind, he tells us what he thinks. and just because he may tell somebody to jump in a lake doesn't mean we need to call the coast guard. i think we should debate that it's a bad policy idea i think using that in the context of politics i think burns says it right, as a re-election it's a good idea i certainly didn't get the notion that he was putting out a presidential edict >> so burns, let's talk about your picks health care, energy, and discretionary. what's the general idea? sounds pretty cyclical >> well, i think that we've seen an inversion or a near-inversion

of the yield curve which i don't think it suggests we have a recession imminent but it does really point to the fact that the economy's slowing down in those cases there's a couple of places to look for one. you look for stability of earnings and i think the health care sector certainly provides that and then coming from a different direction you look at the consumer discretionary space that's one that really the discretionary stocks tend to be hurt as interest rates are rising and that's what we've had in the last couple of years but when interest rates go down that helps discretionary names we have clean consumer balance sheets you have high consumer confidence and still lower unemployment i think that's also a place that investors could look to for opportunities right now. >> we'll leave it there. thank you both very much burns and rick we have just seven minutes left of trade and when we come back, we will of course have the closing countdown. >> after the bell, earnings season officially kicks off with the banks next week. we'll break down what to watch there. coming up on "closing bell."

- i love my grandma. - anncr: as you grow older, your brain naturally begins to change which may cause trouble with recall. - learning from him is great... when i can keep up! - anncr: thankfully, prevagen helps your brain and improves memory. - dad's got all the answers. - anncr: prevagen is now the number-one-selling brain health supplement in drug stores nationwide. - she outsmarts me every single time. - checkmate! you wanna play again? - anncr: prevagen. healthier brain. better life.

if you have a garden you know, weeds are lowdown little scoundrels. don't stoop to their level. draw the line with the roundup sure shot wand. it extends with a protective shield and targets weeds more precisely. it lets you kill what's bad right down to the root while guarding the good. roundup sure shot wand.

got weeds in your grass too? try roundup for lawns. kills weeds, not the lawn. roundup brand. trusted for over 40 years. you should be mad at people whos forget they're in public. and you should be mad at simple things that are unnecessarily complicated. but you're not mad, because you're trading with e*trade, which isn't complicated. their app makes trading quick and simple so you can strike when the time is right. don't get mad, get e*trade and start trading today. the nasdaq on pace to close higher by nearly 3% for the week let's get to bertha coombs for a

look at today's movers bertha >> sara, it's all about tech this week. very strong performance in tech. led by chipmakers. the chip indices today hitting fresh all-time highs as the overall indices are now within about 2.5% of their all-time highs. among the leaders this week, lam research, nxpi, cree and analog devices both hitting new highs as well. the chip sector up about 6% for the week the best performance we've seen since the beginning of the year. the week endedjanuary 11th tech isn't far behind. the s&p tech sector just edging up to a new fresh all-time high as well. much more mixed picture there. not as robust gains as we've seen as a number of those names are not really getting quite the oomph as they were in the last move-up we saw in tech that said, amazon and apple among the big gainers this week.

both of them move in on the competition. apple surpassing spotify according to the "wall street journal" when it comes to people with music subscriptions and amazon reportedly looking to take on all sorts of competitors, even when it comes to those air pods maybe instituting alexa into air pods. alexa now also being hit with compliant, wilf, which means that more facilities and more health care companies will be able to use that and you can ask your alexa echo about what's going on with your health >> bertha, thank you very much for that you canask them if they're willing to have one. we've got three minutes left to trade here for today and for the week it's been fairly steady throughout the session the high on the dow was actually 100 points but that was a slightly misleading very positive open. it slipped back and then all three of the indices have been kind of flat throughout the session. 0..4% for the s&p. the nasdaq we just heard 0.5%. the dow's only up 0.1%

sectors up energy, utilities toward the top materials, financials toward the bottom and the ten-year treasury yield for you here for the week as a whole you can see we did see a pullback in the yield when the jobs number came out. but it is oup on the course of the week of course having pulled back significantlit prior ten days or so sectors, though, for the week as a whole also gives you a glimpse of the s&p for the week as a whole to show you. up a healthy 2%. it's been a good week. china and the rest of the world up more. china's up 5%. germany's up 4%. it's still been a deecht week up 2% the sectors coming for you for the week as a whole. materials offer a very healthy 4% the bottom was staples the only meaning -- >> you saw again cyclicals, a look at what's moving for the week tech stocks, bank stocks industrial stocks. all your cyclical names. defensive names. reits, utilities, consumer staples all on the bottom. this is all part of that global

growth story, the growth slowdown we saw in the second half of the year and the first quarter in china and perhaps in europe is going to end this is controversial. but this is the bull market narrative right now, that we will get a trade deal, there will be few if any tariffs >> a lot of happy assumptions built into this. but the market's going along with this narrative. the idea that wait a minute we are not bottoming in china and certainly not bottoming in europe on the economic data is now a minority opinion that may be wrong but that's the way the markets are working. >> what are you looking at into next week, bob >> important thing is the ipo business going to keep heating up we probably will get the terms for pinterest on monday. we'll see how that -- that's going to be the second unicorn remember lyft had a pretty rocky reception this week but it is ending to the up side. 74 and change right now. and we're priced at $72. there you see it that's a nice recovery for the week we've had eight ipos since levi strauss. 5 of the 8 are trading up. so let's say it's not bad.

but now we're going to get a lost those big highly valued unicorns like lyft pinterest will be important. >> also banks have had a decent week this week. rates moving up. other than they'd rates moving up bob pisani, thanks very much there goes the bell. up 0.15%, or 42 points on the dow. s&p. russell up a full percent. nasdaq a little more than the s&p, 0.6% or so. that does it for the first half of the "closing bell." sara, back to you. >> that wraps a pretty strong week for the bulls on wall street welcome to "closing bell." i'm sara eisen wilfred frost joining me in a moment along with mike santoli senior markets commentator take look at how we finished the day on wall street up to the highs of the day

the jobs report more than expected in a positive way. the dow -- some noise. a little more than a tenth of 1% s&p 500 almost .35%. materials the winner for the week it was the only loser, though, for today. the russell 2000 outperformed today. small caps up a nice 1%. treasury yields follow it all. on the longer end of the curve 10-year yield below 2.50 and the dollar rose. here are the stories for our radar investors. president trump putting more pressure on the fed. jamie dimon and ray dalio weighing in on capitalism. and lyft back up below its ipo price. joining us to talk about the market today, michael zin from ubs financial services welcome in, michael. first, though, mike santoli. another strong week here for the bulls. 6 out of the 7 last sessions for the dow and nasdaq higher. seven straight in a row for the s&p. inching close to those record highs.

>> it's a real quiet orderly bid to the market. it doesn't get rattled at least in this last little stretch. the market up near 2900 and the snapp. we only spent parts of four weeks above that level in the history of the index so obviously you're more or less within a very short chip shot of the all-time highs it would be weird if we didn't fully make a run at it if you want to quibble, the market is kind of slowed down a little bit momentum has flagged a little bit. it's not been as brad as you might expect and we're getting a little bit stretched. but all that really means is that the market has found a way to going higher basically on a goldilocks background. >> i think the backbone, this lower for longer interest rate setup and the constraint on today if we're getting a little tentative as we approach the highs is we're super close to the highs on the big indexes we're not really super close on oil price or on inflation expectations we're actually still fairly far

away from where we were i think oil prices around 75 we were back in october. so the low inflation outlook -- >> i'm sorry, mike, i'm going to interrupt you because we've got some breaking news on boeing with phil lebeau phil >> sara, this is big news. boeing announcing it will be cutting production of its 737 max. that is the plane that's built in renton, washington. and this is a cut of 20% production will cut from 20% dropping from 52 per month down to 42 per month. that's the reason why you see shares of boeing ticking lower right now. we have a chart we can show you that shows you how monthly production of the 737 has gradually moved higher over the last couple of years it's currently at 52 a month it was supposed to go up to 57 per month by the end of this year but there's the chart that shows that but as you can see, now they're going to cut back starting in the middle of this month down to 42 per month the ceo dennis muilenburg out with a prepared statement saying this is a smart move given the

fact they are focusing their efforts on finalizing a software fix for the 737 that they believe will ultimately be certified by the faa and other regulators around the world so that this plane can start flying again. guys, this is important for the main reason that production drives sales, which drives revenue. as soon as you start cutting that, it makes everybody on wall street say okay, let's bring down our estimates and it's not just for boeing it's for a number of their suppliers too. take a look at spirit aerosystems out of wichita, kansas they build the fuselages for a 737. boeing has already started reaching out to many of its suppliers, explaining to them what they're going to be doing so it's not a huge surprise in that partnered but again, guys, that's the main news one other piece of news that boeing is announcing, dennis muilenburg says that there will be a committee formed on the board of directors to review the companywide policies and

processes for the design and development of airplanes this is a subject matter that has come under great scrutiny, especially in washington, where a number of lawmakers have said what's the process and basically what's the process between boei boeing, sechl certification, and the faa as well as other regulators around the world. that's the good news boeing cutting production of the 737 down to 42 a month from 52 a month. >> why the change in sentiment in a couple of weeks ago, a month ago we were talking about how they were so keen not to have to cut production what's changed >> look at their change in their commentary just over the last week and a half. remember we were out in renton, washington last week they held a briefing for reporters as well as for others who are primary to the future of the 737. and in it that briefing they said look, we believe that we have a solution worked out, that we will be able to forward it to the faa by the end of the week

clearly as they have been working on this software fix they have determined that there are a number of other things they need to finalize in order to send that to the faa. at the same time the faa has made it clear they're not going to rubber-stamp this they're going to be working with regulators around the world. they are likely to take many weeks if not a couple of months maybe to approve any fix for the 737. so in the meantime what do you do if you're dennis muilenburg and the rest of the leadership at boeing? do you keep building these planes and then moving them to different fields around washington or in the pacific northwest? or out in the desert in southern california i think they're believing that the smart move right now, bring down production. if they can keep it gown for a couple of months, then they perhaps can bring it up later in the year >> phil, thank you the stock under pressure off the load of the session. it was down 1% now it's down a little more than half a percent how much of a readjustment is this going to have to be for wall street in terms of estimates and models >> i think for this move if it's

just this increment, right it's just a stutter step in the production probably not that much but i do think if really what we're in for is working toward a broader cancellation of orders or if this ultimately starts to look like this is a lost generation in their model line-up, where they really have to back away from this iteration of the plane, obviously that's a bigger story but right now i don't think ten planes in the longer-term pipeline of boeing in terms of a net reduction is that huge >> michael, what's your take on boeing enhanced value after all of this the last couple months >> i can't go too specifically into boeing per se, but i think that it's indicative of the market sorting out what they're looking for, is there going to be a meaningful change, and i think we're just in a wait and see mode a little bit. this is incremental stuff at this point >> another big story today, the president earlier saying that the u.s. economy would climb like a rocket ship if the federal reserve were to cut interest rates listen >> i personally think the fed

should drop rates. i think they really slowed us down there's no inflation of quantitative tightening it should actually no very little if any inflation and i think they should drop rates and they should get rid of quantitative tightening. >> one of the debates we've been having is how seriously investors should take it a, the front is advocating for certain moves from the fed and b, advocate informing more extreme crisis measures during a time where we're roaring 2%. >> i don't think it makes sense to take it too literally that he really wants to start enlarge the fed's balance sheet again. i think he's reit raith the fact that he'd like quantitative tightening to stop what would that mean effectiin ? the fed's got to be a buyer because some of them are mature. if they're keeping the balance

sheet stable which of course they're going to do starting in a few months anyway, then that just sort of keeps that part of the monetary stance steady i doubt he was saying let's do qe 4 and 5 >> what does it mean for stocks where the fed is at the moment and do you expect the fed to alter its positioning whether it's because of what the president calls for or not >> yeah, i think what i was beginning to say before is i think the fed is clearly on hold i think that's been totally bolstering the argument for buying long-term growth stocks because you can present buy those at a long-term interest rate and i think that puts the fed in a comfortable position as long as we don't get oil prices really raging. i think it would be really strange if the fed were to cut rates while they're still tightening you're not going to see that happen at the same time. i think until september you're not going to see any kind of noise about them cutting in any significant way. >> but i do think when we have these two floated nominees for the fed board out there it seems like it's going to be a

draumbeat to get easier policy from the fed it might become a much noisier such for the markets, right? if gdp still seems strong and they're -- >> you don't think the market's going to get affected by this. >> not right now i think people are essentially saying okay you can jawbone all you want but right now patience by the fed, indefinite hold seems like it fits the environment. >> michael, in terms of valuations across the borkros c, equity index, have we seen the change in multiples and now we need to see the delivery of earnings >> i think you still have some room for multiple expansion in the fed pause part of the cycle. if you look at prior incidents, 2006, you continue to get some expansion. not a ton. but i think you can get some and then of course we're looking for four or five percent kind of earnings growth this year. i think that's the grind higher kind of scenario people are looking forward to >> also ahead lyft shares. they rallied today stock still down sharply since

its ipo one week ago today leslie picker joins us with more leslie it's only been a week? >> crazy just one week. it was a bumpy road to start but smoothed out toward the end of the week if you got allocation in the lyft ipo and held it for a week you're up about 3% but if you bought at that highest rate during lyft's debut you're still down about 16%. now, if you recall a week ago this was expected to be a hot deal reports surfaced that lyft was oversubscribed early on. the company priced at the high end of a range that had been boosted on purported high demand lyft closed up 9% on day one but then the market opened on monday and the stock slumped on some bearish analyst reports and speculation surrounding short sellers. when the numbers came in it was cle clear. that quickly declined.

some investors attributing the gains later in the week to a mini short squeeze of sorts. just because week one returns are mixed doesn't necessarily mean a company's long-term potential is doomed. a notable example of course is facebook which saw its shares cut in half six months post-ipo. and has done extraordinarily well since then. but more often the reverse is true in the post-dotcom bubble era ipos surged 14% on average on day one but on a market adjusted basis they lost nearly 2% over the three years following meaning that investors who bought in at the ipo and held it for three years would have generated negative alpha, guys >> my question, leslie-s clearly we saw those shorts play in the early part of this week and then stability and a bit of a bunceback since. any indication of what -- whether that is sustainable if we had the investment banks kicking in syndicates? >> that's the key question what's interesting with these week one ipo performance numbers is there's really no fundamental

change to the company. right? we haven't heard from the ceo. he's still in a quiet period there's? technical things and some psychological things on the $72 per share number which was their ipo price which can cause some moves to the up side and to the down side. but one thing i think is important to pay attention to is that volume has been coming down which can be a good sign because we were seeing a lot of shares trade hands and lyft was seen as a proxy for something other than the company that it is >> thank you very much >> we want to get more on boeing 737 max production cut, just hitting the wires. joining us on the phone is sheila kahyaoglu from jefferies. boeing cutting the production from 52 to 42 a month. how big of a deal is that for the top and bottom line of the company? >> ten aircraft a month for the

time being this is a modest positive in our view they're going to be sustaining production levels and employment levels in place. ten aircraft 500 million revenue opportunity per month that's being cut on an operating profit basis is about 20% -- or 20 cents depending how long they cut it and on free cash flow it's 150 million per month of the reduced rate on a cash flow number not all that, you know, meaningful >> do you think they're being proactive? given feedback they don't want this plane anymore >> no, i think it's more proactive. you want to be able to make sure the upgrade goes out and there's safety standards that they're implementing you just want to not be parking a lot of these aircraft given the production rate is so high that's why the cut is being

implemented. not because of any demand issues >> what is your rating on the stock at the moment, sheila and how do you think about the way the market's priced in the turmoil of recent weeks? >> we have a buy rating on the stock. it is our franchise pick i think the market is looking through it as it's viewing it as a temporary cash flow. long-term impact >> just remind us how big of a deal these planes are to boeing's entire fleet and entire production put it in perspective for us >> sure. it is a big driver the 737 accounts for about 30 billion of boeing's revenues on an annual basis for 2019 and from a cash free cash flow perspective it is the free cash flow engine. annual free cash flow on our model on a 15 billion number for 2019 it is a big driver i think investors are looking through any production rate cuts

potentially in '19 and '20 and saying this is still going to be a long-term revenue driver for the company. >> sheila, thank you very much for joining us >> thank you >> back to broader markets, what are you looking out for next week and in the months ahead >> we're planning to be active earnings season can be a time for overreaction and a chance to pounce on values we'll have the banks coming out next week. i think the reports will be generally positive they're pretty cheap coming into it as well you'll see a lot of activity around the banks i think generally first quarter's always a little messy had a lot of weather remted stuff you had flood you will government shutdown. noisy. probably a chance to pounce on some stocks. >> what do we learn when we get this kind of very strong run-up? >> i think it's a good excuse for the market to just chop

around if nothing else on the other hand when estimates have been slashed this deeply you typically have a lower bar for them to beat i think you'll get some back and forth. which you see a lot of sell on the news responses that upset the upside responses >> thanks for joining us are we reaching peaks in smartphones? we'll discuss whether samsung's warning of slowing demand for samsungs is a warning for companies like apple >> and a company taking a look pp's ear pods and getting set to unveil alexa-powered ear buds details when we come back. you've worked hard to grow your wealth. make sure you're working with a wealth manager who can grow with you. cfa charterholders have the investment expertise to unlock opportunities other advisors might not see.

learn what a cfa charterholdr can do for you at therightquestion.org

woi felt completely helpless. trashed online, my entire career and business were in jeopardy. i called reputation defender. they were able to restore my good name. if you're under attack, i recommend calling reputation defender. and consider joining their groundbreaking campaign to give every american the right to remove old, inaccurate search results by going to righttobeforgotten.org. vo: if you have search results that are wrong or unfair, call reputation defender at 1-877-492-6705. all of you. how you live, what you love. that's what inspired us to create america's most advanced internet. internet that puts you in charge. that protects what's important. it handles everything, and reaches everywhere. this is beyond wifi, this is xfi.

simple. easy. awesome. xfinity, the future of awesome. amazon is reportedly planning to take on apple's air pods as it looks to move its alexa virtual system even farther from the home. deirdre bosa joins us with more. deirdre? >> making alexa mobile is key for amazon if it wants to compete with apple's siri and google's assistant and of course keep its early lead in voice-based computing. wireless ear buds would be the logical way for amazon to do so and move alexa beyond the home short of making a smartphone which amazon has of course

already tried. so reports it is getting ready to launch alexa-powered ear buds should come as no surprise its success, though, is another matter two key questions here one, can amazon create a product that is as popular as the air pods google's first attempt at the pixel pods were a flop another question, will they have to pair with smartphones and therefore work through apple or google operating systems gardner analyst vana gortz says untethering it from phones may be possible but it could come at the expense of battery life and size but if amazon does find a way he says it would make them totally disruptive that's the best way to think of this and werner alluded to this as others, is like that earpiece in joaquin phoenix's character, he uses in the movie "her" to xhiekt with the virtual character scarlett johansson thanks >> i haven't seen the movie. >> i was going to say if alexa has scarlett johansson's voice amazon's stock goes to 2500. you should always want to talk to -- >> some editorializing on the

part of mike --? i'm sorry, i wasn't perfectly objective. >> deirdre, thank you very much for that we're going to continue the discussion now the rise in wearables pointing potentially to the end of smartphones. sam shung just warned of impact. 14% decline. let's bring in ed lee from the "new york times" and a cnbc contributor. ed, smartphones in general, that's not new that we've seen the replacement cycle extended and growth in developed markets is certainly not growing as quickly as it was. >> we've seen shipments decline quarter over quarter the last few quarters samsung bore the brunt of that partly because they were in the lead in terms of volume. right? so they were sort of at the head of everything. apple was close ibehind in term of where they were now we're seeing maturing in markets like the u.s., europe. and as asia rises and other markets rise they're going tore cheaper phones and that's not what apple or

samsung is known for >> well, samsung has a big fleet of phones. >> huge fleet. exactly. big range. >> they're in a better place for this an apple is >> true. but the chinese makers like xiaomi they're just undercutting price and they're from all accounts just as good. just as well made. the software maybe sort of is less caught up but in china especially we chat is the operating system anyway. it's an app everyone uses no matter what the underlying operating system is. and they can get away with that. what naepz for apple and samsung if you're if these mature markets and you've hit saturation you need to get more engagement out of the phones so services, in the case of apple that's their media business, they're really trying to prop that up. and that's away for them to boost their sales. it's not going to go in these up and down cycles the way hardware renewals do. great thing about services, it's much more predictable fudge see the rise month to month since it's like recurring revenue typically. they just announced apple tv and apple news how much that plays into it

we'll have to wait and see but that's the plan. they've seen that coming what samsung is saying is something apple has seen which is why services -- >> we saw this with pcs. you basically hit peak pc and it has been a kind of growth at less than gdp for many years now. and i guess the value accrues to the software and services. >> and what happened after that was facebook and google. it wasn't even the operating system there was a fight for the operating system for years and it's like you know, what that's not even about that anyway >> the value is not in the machine anymore. >> exactly >> does 5g change things yes, it will make it easier to view movies on your phone live streaming them but how many people actually do that? i kind of feel there's a little hype out there for this next level of service but already what we can do on our phones is pretty remarkable. >> pretty remarkable but i do think that will make the hardware more of a commodity ultimately if the connection to the internet wirelessly is that much faster and more able the hardware kind of becomes less important because now things can be done in the cloud amazon's talking about doing ear

buds based on alexa. if it's not tethered tie phone somewhere, if it's tethered to 5g in some way you can imagine you don't even need a device to go along with it, you're just accessing information from the cloud. that's the sort of science fiction scenario but i think that is the idea that's what everyone's trying to figure out is how to keep people connected in this seamless way where the hardware becomes less of a crutch, less of a thing in terms of how much competing hoe iningt has. >> ed lee, thank you up next on "closing bell" we will break down the charts to see whether the big rally in consumer discretionary stocks is a sign the market and the economy will remain strong >> plus a new poll from the information says lyft threatened morgan stanley with legal action over its short selling products. we'll speak with one othe f reporters who broke that story moments ago. that's coming up ♪ 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, you have a partner in that pursuit. pgim: the global investment management businesses of prudential.

let's take a look at how we finished off the day on wall street strong finish to what was a strong week for stocks the s&p 500 ending up about half a percent. 2% or so for the week. energy was the best-performing group of the day materials the weakest. the russell 2000 index of small caps outperformed at 1%. the nasdaq technology had a strong day up about .6%. for the s&p 500 it was the seventh straight day of gains. i keep saying that because that's actually the longest winning streak for this market since back in 2017 >> small incremental gains as opposed to block gains

consumer discretionary's been a strong performer the past year especially compared with consumer staples >> it's gone in phases yes over the last year there's been a pretty big lead opened up by consumer discretionary which is here. the blue line. obviously reached a new -- just about a new high if you see it on a relative basis. especially but just about at a new high even though the overall market's still about 2% below you see how deep the plunge was from the september highs to the lows so that was a massive amount of underperformance and it's made it all back up yes the jobs report helps this story today. it's the kind of activity you'd like to see. whenever we were talking about the cyclical shift you talk about transports, banks. but the consumer side has been particularly strong. this is a good sign for the market and it started before the jobs report. the xly, the discretionary sector, is very heavily weighted in amazon and home depot so it's kind of the giant secular leaders. it's not necessarily gm and

ford but home builders have done well also they're in here. i think as long as you see this trend it's pretty much healthy underpinnings for the market even though it isn't necessarilily predictive of the overall market take off. >> the whole of the time you picked the difference is 5%, 105 to 115 so 10% >> just about. >> if you picked utilities and tech, for example, it would be much wider still, would it not >> utilities have been at an all-time high. ute vilts done okay. it hasn't been so much of a risk off. it's much more about the consumer in particular within the cyclicals that i think has stood out. by the way, the average weekly earnings within the jobs report today i always look at the weekly earnings is up 3.2% year over year. you do hours plus average hourly earnings and it's actually a pretty good number it's obviously strong real income gains and that's what's probably underpinning a lot of this >> all right we'll keep an eye on it. mike, thanks time for a cnbc news update with

sue herera hi, sue. >> hello, sra. hello, everyone. here's what's happening at this hour bill cosby says he did not settle a defamation suit brought against him by seven women, but his insurance company did. he says aig decided to settle the cases without his knowledge, permission or consent. he vehemently denies the allegations and maintains his innocence. former congressman anthony weiner must register as a sex offender when his prison sentence ends. that is the ruling today from a new york city judge. weiner must register for at least 20 years, update his address annually, and have a picture taken at a police station every three years. he is due to be released on may 14th spacex test-firing its powerful three-booster falcon heavy roblth today in florida. the test was originally scheduled for thursday but was pushed back. and as a result the actual launch of the rocket has been moved from sunday to tuesday of next week. and a postage stamp featuring marvin gaye was unveiled in

detroit today. the postal service saluting the legendary motown singer with a forever stamp. this is the newest addition to their music icons series and he was a music icon. that's for sure. that's the news update this hour guys, have a great weekend see you next week. >> you too >> thanks, sue up next, lyft reportedly threatening morgan stanley with a lawsuit over a short selling product designed to get around lockup agreements. the reporter behind the story is going to join us in a moment. >> and author joanne littman joins with us a new workplace trend, mandatory paternity leave for men. why that could help level the gender gap in the workplace. coming up on "closing bell."

boeing shares keep falling here after cutting production of its 737 max. phil lebeau joins us with the latest details phil >> and sara, we're starting to see the ripple effects, if you will, of boeing announcing that it is cutting 737 production by 20%. and we have a wall that shows you what the 737 production has been like going back to 2016 why do we start there? because in 2016 monthly

production was at 42 737s a month. so 42 a month. that's what they're cutting it back to now. from 52 per month, which is the current rate, back to 42 per month. they say they're going to make this move in mid april but let's be clear they're already communicating with their suppliers and there are thousands of suppliers when you look at the subcontractors as well as primary contractors let's look at a few of these and the impact we're seeing with them start with spirit aerosystems. this is a company out of wichita, kansas. this is where they make the fuselage for the 737 spirit aerosystems under pressure as is united technologies. not a surprise given the fact it supplies a number of avionics and components to boeing for the 737 max. and then you have general electric and i want to point out, we just talked with ge aviation. it is not cutting production of the leap 1-b engine. that's the engine on the 737 max. they say they have good momentum with that engine right now and so for at least the time

being they will keep production at the same level despite the fact that the max production is dropping by 20%. so guys, that's the story as the ripple effect from boeing cutting production on the max is starting to be felt by other aviation companies >> phil, thanks very much. phil lebeau in chicago for us. now, the information is reporting lyft threatened morgan stanley with legal action over short selling trades joining us on the phone, jessica lessen from the information. she's one of the authors behind the story. jessica, just talk us through exactly what happened in your eyes given that the company of course ipoed a week ago and the shares were locked up in that initial period >> absolutely, yeah. this is a highly unusual situati situation. but as we know, earlier this after a strong ipo at the end of last week lyft shares were falling and fell as well to $66

a share. ipoing at 72 and the companyand the bank, underwriter jpmorgan were perplexed by this. what they figured out was that morgan stanley had been marketing a product that allowed investors to basically get returns from short selling the stock. so a way to get around those lockup periods they weren't allowed to themselves sell the stock, but morgan stanley had been marketing a product. there were a couple different mechanisms one was a total return swap. morgan stanley was actually shorting the stock that essentially allowed these investors to short the stock, to hedge against the ipo price. so lyft of course caught wind of this, was very concerned, particularly because it was driving the price down it was some very unusual activity we learned they actually sent

morgan a cease and desist letter threatening them and getting them to try to stop doing this an unusual situation obviously shegd a spotlight on these lockup periods are they as ironclad as investors think? and i think we're just seeing the beginning of this play out >> i was just going to ask-- >> our sources say no. they say this is highly unusual. there's a lot of finger pointing morgan stanley's reportedly the lead underwriter for uber, lyft's biggest competitor. was not an underwriter in the lyft ipo

so yeah, but we're not aware of other examples of this obviously people use swaps all the time to obscure their transactions but in this context for getting around lock-ups we think this is highly unusual we also know that other banks were approached by investors during the road shows, seeing if they would consider a product like this. and that at least two. they declined to do so because they didn't believe it was legal. >> jessica, does your reporting suggest that this threatened legal action from lyft was successful in getting morgan stanley to stop doing this i ask because of course the share price did turn around during the course of the week. >> absolutely. we believe they think it was successful in getting them to stop doing this. morgan stanley hasn't commented to us yet on the story but we believe that jpmorgan and lyft believe that the activity did stop after this. >> okay. sorry, mike. >> that's all right. it's just an interesting -- it's

an interesting test because the lockup agreements are enforceable presumably at the investor level and somebody else who creates a swap that anybody in theory could buy or sell not necessarily subject to it. >> right they decided initially they could go with that and then going otherwise. it's interesting they'ring go to be on the other side of the next one if it's with uber. >> i have heard people say that the lyft ipo to short it would be a good hedge if you already owned uber >> right so maybe some are doing that jessica, thank you >> thank you both. >> still ahead, the streaming wars are heating up. spotify reportedly no longer the top dog in the music business. we'll tell you who's stealing the number one spot next plus a major milestone under armour ceo weighing in on two of the sponsored teams macing it to the final four. er . buy a new galaxy s10e, and get one free. more for your thing. that's our thing.

servicenow put our this changes everything. you're right sir... everything. well not everything, i mean you're still blatantly sucking up to me gary. ahhh... stop it. servicenow. works for you.

stories on the "closing bell" radar today. with hbo's "game of thrones" just nine days away from kickoff for its final season people are upping the ante on who they think will emerge victorious of the "game of thrones" and become ruler of westeros by the end of the final series the uk "times" released an article diving into the various betting odds available on each of the characters and who they think's going to end up as the winner. and they dived into various odds and some surprising ones were in there. bran stark was the favorite. and he various others. i didn't an know there was betting odds >> i was going to say if you think about it these facts exist in the world somebody knows how it ends >> i think if they walked in and said i'm going to put 10,000 pounds on this they wouldn't take the bet on this

it's the smaum bets on the side. but i actually thought bran stark was dead i've got to up my reading on what's happened so far >> it has to be a female character. they also -- >> i remember we had a wall of it khaleesi's 10-1. that's a good value. she had win. >> she should win. this weekend is the ncaa final four men's championship. the big winner may not just be the basketball teams themselves but under armour or nike both companies have two sponsorship teams in the final four and this is a first for under armour it's a big deal. because it's usually nike-dominated teams, some adidas they've got two. i spoke with under armour's ceo earlier about the impact the tournament has on his business >> this is what and who we are that our products work that we are giving athletes that edge we are giving teams -- we make a promise to them that there's a souper power inside every under armour uniform, every under armour shoe that's made. on a grassroots value there's

4,000 to 5,000 high schools out there playing in under armour uniforms today this is a great validator for them to show them the same products they're wearing out there on the grassroots level, the same things that can take you to the highest level collegiate championship and even the nba as well. >> validation for their business and some other teams that wear under armour as they try o'grow their stable of athletes i asked them about zion williamson that is going to be like the biggest -- people are predicting the biggest bidding war ever when it comes to a shoe contract when he goes to the nba. and plank said -- >> if you're in the final game, whether it is one or two teams, you've won because you've got the tv ex-poerkz for both the games in the final four or two out of the three >> and i asked him what he would do if it ended up tx text tech versus auburn. cheer for both, i guess? >> double celebration. >> it's brand exposure it's bragging rights not necessarily a translation on sales but a longer-term impact and for him credibility and

validation in terms of their strategy because they are the upstart. >> absolutely. well, apple music surpassing spotify in paid u.s. subscriptions according to a report in the "wall street journal" today apple seeing a growth rate of about 2.6% to 3% annually compared to 1 1/2% to 2% for spotify. that actually is interesting in the sense it's a slow growth business, these paid music subscriptions. this is only paid. it's not about the ad-supported tier on spotify. and i'm interested also because i heart radio is going to come public again the biggest traditional radio operator and their big pitch is look, not everybody's going to pay for this final point is 50 million global paid subs for apple. you've effectively built 1/46 netflix. that's the scale we're talking about. it's not that bad. >> not bad at all. the only other question i wonder about is how many of those people are kind of not free subscribers but verizon offers it for free if you get a certain size bundle -- >> they say it excludes people on a free trial.

but i don't know if you have your -- >> but they'll still be getting revenue for that from verizon. it's probably not full price and i just wonder where it stakes out but either way like you said it's a good model they're going to try to replicate -- >> when i read this what i thought was a-ha, spotify brought a complaint against the eu antitrust competition, very recently against apple because spotify relies on apple and the app store. apple would say look, we contributed to your enormous growth spotify says it's not fair you take a cut watch this space >> i think spotify has cut into the u.s. growth of apple subscriptions because i think the lead had been greater before >> up next, could required paternity leave actually help gender issues in the worklace? joanne littman, author of "that's what she said" joins us next >> coming up on "fast money" if you feel like you missed out on the rally top technicians says ers e group of stocks that you can still play in order to catch up he'll explain. with all that usaa offers

why go with anybody else? we know their rates are good, we know that they're always going to take care of us. it was an instant savings and i should have changed a long time ago. we're the tenney's and we're usaa members for life. call usaa to start saving on insurance today. your daily dashboard from fidelity. a visual snapshot of your investments. key portfolio events. all in one place. because when it's decision time... you need decision tech. only from fidelity.

woi felt completely helpless. trashed online, my entire career and business were in jeopardy. i called reputation defender. they were able to restore my good name. if you're under attack, i recommend calling reputation defender. and consider joining their groundbreaking campaign to give every american the right to remove old, inaccurate search results by going to righttobeforgotten.org. vo: if you have search results that are wrong or unfair, call reputation defender at 1-877-492-6705.

>> welcome back. google releasing its annual diversity report this beak showing just a 0.7% increase in women in its global workforce for a total of 31.6%. >> joining us now to discuss what steps google and other companies can take to close the gender gap is joanne lipman. she's the author of "that's wha she said," my book of the year, joanne welcome. >> thank you for having me. >> this has become a top of mind business issue, i heard of the book, felt enlightened and felt they needed to give a copy to various employees. what's in it for male executives as they think about trying to run a more equal company >> the executive who recommended it i'm assuming is a man >> that's what most executives are.

>> exactly, but that's why i wrote the book i actually wrote it for men and the reason i wrote it is women when we get together talk all the time about the issues we face at work and not just the me too issues of sexual abuse, but the everyday indignity, the being overlooked, ignored, marginalized and not taken as seriously as our male colleagues, and so, but women talking to each other is half a conversation and it gets us to 50% of a solution. so we really need men to stwrjon us that's why i wrote the book. i know really great guys who would like to be a part of the solution, but a lot of them just don't know how don't also know what to say. >> in general, when you see top executives come out and say look at what we're doing, we're doing this, this and that and making progress do you say that's sort of all talk and no action >> i have to say, in the wake of me too there's been more conversation and i'm working

with companies going and speaking and that's very encouraging, but i'm getting frustrated because there's a lot of talk and there is simply not enough action and we're not seeing enough movement what type of action would you like to see? some tips or advice? >> there are things that companies can do and there are things individuals can do. on the company side, i have seen some companies that are starting to make progress so, for example, return ships. this is return ships like intern ships for people, it could be women or men who have taken a few years off work often to raise kids the first was trademarked by goldman sachs in 2008 and at that time it was an outliar program and you were there for a few months just like an internship and you refresh your skills and you can apply for other jobs when it started. goldman was an outliar and not that many people got job, but in the last two years it's exploded so we have seen quite a few new programs there's a company called i

relaunch that specializes in placing women in these programs. they count 50 companies, 38 of which have introduced these programs in just the last two years and they're companies from all over from technology like apple and ibm and banking and insurance and consulting so you are seeing them most of them are pilot program, but it's a start. >> and the idea of mandatory paternity leave is fascinating and i wonder what kind of uptick you see for that either now or down the road, because it does seem like if it's mandatory and not kind of, if you take maximum leave and if you're a father, maybe you're shirking. >> love that mandatory paternity leave. >> there's only one company i'm aware of, humanized check is in boston when i spoke to the ceo said lots of companies are starting to offer family leave, but men don't take it. women take it. men get that kind of wifrnk fro

their supervisor saying you don't really want to do that it's going to hurt your career so the ceo said the only way to even the playing field was to force the men to take the leaves which they now do and it's hard. i spoke to the first man who took paternity leave, forced to take paternity leave and his relatives looked at him like, how important could you be >> i have a quick industry sector, and i don't know how much you've gone into the different sector and you're from the media sector where you're an executive and a journalist are certain sectors better in regard to their policies? >> tech, we just saw those numbers at google? >> tech and finance are without question, the two worst. i think tech has been trying to make some moves, but it is so you need policy changes. you need strategy changes and you need workplace changes and the leadership has to own it tech is attempting to, but it is

so male dominated and overwhelmingly failed, and that finance is a little bit more in denial in my experience and we're merit-based and we don't have sexism in the organization and if you dig down, who are they hiring and who are they promoting and who's getting the good accounts? if you're being given the prime accounts and the mentoring you're going to be -- have better results than those who are not. >> joanne, thanks so much for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> joanne lipman up next, your wall street look ahead. we're breaking down the key things investors need to watch for the ekwe ahead we're back in a couple of minutes. i'm working to keep the fire going

for another 150 years. ♪ 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. ♪ here's a look at what's coming up next week on our closing bell calendar. monday we will get factory orders data for february tuesday brings the february job openings and labor turnover survey always fun to look at the jolts and we'll also get the small business optimism index for march. pinterest also expected to host its ipo roadshow launch and we will get levi's first earnings since going public. >> on wednesday they will digest

the latest read on inflation as well as delta and bed, bath and beyond thursday highlights include the weekly jobless claims and we'll get march import prices and april consumer sentiments and earnings reports from wells fargo, pnc and first public. that does it for closing bell. thank you very much for watching >> have a good weekend "fast money" begins right now. "fast money" begins right now live from the nasdaq marketsite overluking times square it is a quantitative quarrel president trump and jerome powell facing off as trump doubles down on his push for the federal reserve to cut rates, but the market already knows who the winner is. we will explain and check out energy soaring today the best performing sector and j.p. morgan says this trade is about to catch fire. we will show you the chart that could point to even bigger gain ahead. but first, we start off with the markets and the s&p 500 locking in its seventh day i