make sure you join us tomorrow "squawk on the street" is next ♪ >> good wednesday morning. welcome to "squawk on the street." futures largely unfazed by this house impeachment inquiry and instead focused on trade as the president meets with shinzo abe of japan today we'll watch nike, wework, altria, best buy and more. europe's catching up to our losses from yesterday. oil down nearly a buck road map begins with the ecigarette crackdown hearings and investigations and sales limitations.

now the ceo of juul is out and tobacco giants philip morris and altria call off their merger talks. >> the political risk for stocks, futures pointing to a muted open house democrats move on impeachment and what the turmoil will mean for ongoing u.s./china trade talks. >> new products driving sales and double digit growth in china. big news regarding philip morris international and altria. the two companies deciding to end merger talks juul is announcing that kevin berns is stepping down as ceo. it will suspend all broadcast, print and digital advertising in the united states as regulators have launched this crackdown on vaping products. meantime, altria tightens their guidance for the year. reaffirms domestic cigarette volume down 5 to 6 but it does seem like juul is entering a new chapter here as they try to get fda approval. >> i think if the fda cares

about -- where was gottlieb on this cnbc contributor why didn't he shut this thing down we can't get cannabis passed in this country we let juul go through this is a very -- this is a reckoning moment for altria. the numbers were horrendous, going the way of coal. juul was the way out it is going to fail. and philip morris didn't want anything to -- >> it was last thursday, you and i were on set at delivering alpha that my last update indicated, of course, the talks between philip morris and altria were going slower. and that less progress is being made and that vaping and the recent moves to ban it in various places had figured in as a significant factor in the talks. that only worsened over the last few days people close to the situation telling me when i had reported it was maybe a 40% chance of what happened. then it fell to a 10% chance and

then, of course, it was yesterday, more or less, they decided this is over and done with the key here, guys, is to why this deal is not happening now between philip morris international and altria is because of this recent move toward banning vaping in various places now, remember, the product, it is not vaping, that is the philip morris international product that also is -- they share it with altria here in the u.s. but they were looking at this merger as an opportunity to pursue what was the open window in innovation in a more aggressive way and certainly that might have included other products. and would have included the relationship with juul it wasn't about economics anymore. even the declining value of the ownership that altria has in juul, it was about the inability to see ahead here in terms of navigating this whole idea of

new problducts and where things would go and how that would impact the combined company. is it possible one day this deal comes back absolutely but for now, they just couldn't get there. >> philip morris growth company, was a growth company, overseas, they smoked more than we do, two companies split up, people may not remember, one was supposed to be the growth vehicle, one was the income vehicle it is very hard to be an income vehicle when you're wasting asset, you're a company that literally is losing customers keep dying and you can't find new customers because the country built a consensus against tobacco. and then suddenly they came up with a new way to up end the consensus to do it in a very sub-rosa way, many addes saying we're not appealing to anyone under 21, what everyone knows is -- if you want people to start -- you want under 21 to do it, you got t i was opi it.

i was open minded until i watched your documentary you can't be objective your documentary made it so -- >> these two things are not -- they're connected. the juul change in leadership and the altria philip morris national talk -- >> burn's replacement is casey crossweit, chief strategy growth officer. does feel like they're going to try to make iqos the new swing and try to do it the right way through regulation that they managed to pass. >> i wanted -- if you feel it is a great way to be able to stop people from smoking, make it a prescription product, what gottlieb should have done. it means that altria overpaid for juul if juul is that effective at getting people off tobacco, you make it like it can kill chantix, it is not worth what juul thought it was.

and the juul people were, you know, i'm not saying they were incredibly arrogant. i'm saying they genuinely believed that by having flavors that were appeal to children but said you shouldn't use it if you're children, they were very disingenuous and burns said in an interview, i have two kids, i don't want them to use juul great, how about my kids how about my kids? >> juul did try to go on an apology tour which began with our documentary in the spring. this is what kevin burns told us at the time. >> if we did this tour today, with a parent, right, of a teen who had been using, who had been addicted, how would you sort of defend all this, all this scale? all this production, all this growth >> first of all, i tell them i'm sorry that their child is using the product. it is not intended for them. i hope there was nothing that we did that made it appealing to them as a parent of a 16-year-old, i'm sorry for them and i have

empathy for them in terms of what the challenges they're going through. >> so, just ended up being a bit too late here, jim. >> look -- >> he did scale the business -- >> i heard him say that, i mean, i watch your documentary many times, carl. and when he said he had empathy for others, i don't want him to have empathy for others, i want him to stop killing them it is amazing. your documentary laid it out they were very smart and you could put a subtext on everything, listen, we knew exactly what we're doing and they came to us and they all had all the charts and i said, these charts clearly show you can stop smoking by going to the fda and getting a prescription license but you can't make billions. you can't justify the valuation with that. sometimes you just got had altria got had. you blew it open . you a empathy for the people he's killing? it is killing. can we just make that point?

when my father-in-law died from it, it wasn't like he was, like, living he was dying and i just can't get over this stuff is happening and people -- what has to happen to people to realize what this stuff does do you have to literally die yourself to understand is it really that -- is it really like that >> i don't know. >> i'm dead. do you remember the ads they used to have, the guy, theperry. hi, king and i, yul brynner, by the time you see this, i'm dead from smoking by the time you see this, i'll be dead. what do we have to do. i'm sorry to be so angry about this my wife lost a child and it is a bad thing. and i know that sounds really soporific but it is true >> we know it is, jim. final thought on altria and philip morris specific to the performance of the stocks. remember, they embarked on this,

not necessarily to create efficiencies but more so really as a recognition some would say that their business perhaps was weaker than shareholder base even realized it was there is a question here as to whether or not they're ever going to regain the lost market cap. neither one went up on this. at the end of the day, just a loss of market value because there seemed to be a dawning on the part of some shareholders, wait a second, maybe a little tougher out there than we think in terms of people giving up smoking, thankfully, but turning to other alternatives that they felt they needed to go to. want to stop there and get to a news story that just hit, which is another company that we have covered fairly closely, ebay, devin winnic stepping down, they named -- they name scott shankle, senior vice president, chief financial officer, interim chief executive officer. ebay has elliott they're involved

on board they had initiated already the strategic review of key units including classified and most significantly stub hub, which jim has thought is -- as significant value. they have been moving forward with that is my understanding. not clear here exactly unfortunately because not a chance to really talk to anybody since this just hit as to why mr. wenig is stepping down, given it did appear they were moving in the direction that the activists, they already were representation, and all they say is they'll conduct a search, continue to focus on strategic plan and product initiatives at ebay, and mr. wenig is no longer going to be president and ceo or director he's out. >> he's out. wow. he's really out. >> just see you later. >> he's really out that's incredible. how about the fact that they're

going after henninger -- elliott, did you see that? >> i did >> all guns. training on him. >> elliott between at&t and then marathon, where they showed up three years ago, asking for a split into three, the company initiated a review, but they feel like now perhaps that review is not as fulsome as it should have been >> they come back three years later. they said, basically, gary, the ceo looked like he would adopt the elliott plan to split up while he was talking about buying endeavor. while he was talking about buying a huge refiner. the opposite of what elliott thought they had >> we want to get to marathon. >> isn't that amazing? >> he was there for about four years, took over for john donahoe, service now who fought off carl icahn, but split company into pay pal and

ebay and the key marketplace has been doing -- they're not changing their -- they reaffirmed their full year guidance, guys organic growth, nongap eps growth of -- eps, says growth here, 270 to 275, check your -- >> in both these cases there is something commonal yit aalitycoy the ongoing review looks to be a stone wall of elliott. >> it has taken a long -- ebay has moved. moved at a glarbs pace >> glacial is rite do you know what it is called when a glacier falls >> caved off. >> elliott got caved >> they're coming back more to this >> ebay's stock -- >> don't let the door hit you on the way out.

kind of thing? >> yes, it is. >> not an elegant retirement. >> like, when -- >> like when tom hagan was told to go back tom hagan was told to go back. >> i was thinking what a week it has been for the ceos of wework, ebay, juul, volkswagen, comp score and nissan that's just this week. >> volkswagen is the worst that was manipulation, they nailed those guys. that is a huge slate of people who did not do what we thought they do. ebay, you want to call devin devin is always -- he always takes your call. i got him on speed got him on speed dial. >> we got some breaking news on boeing at well to phil lebeau in chicago. good morning, phil. >> good morning, carl. five months ago, the boeing board of directors as the 737 max situation was unfolding, they said, we'll have a committee formed on the board of

directors to analyze our safety practices. well, they have now decided they will have a permanent safety committee on the board of directors, and not only that, but in the future, when directors are chosen, safety and experience in safety related matters will be one of the criteria for choosing directors in the future. that was one of the criticisms the company also out this morning with a whole list of suggestions from the safety committee that may be implemented. we won't run down all of them. there is an article up on cnbc.com, outlining those. don't forget, we're coming up to that critical point of the year, the fourth quarter, when dennis says the max will be recertified and flying again we'll see. we're almost here and this is the time when we'll see if it actually does get certified and is back in the air >> all right, phil, important on boeing >> let me ask you, i know you're not the stock buy. but, phil, this stock has -- you've been unbelievable in the reporting of it. and it just seems that there is just this inevitable approval

coming down the road because this is one of the strongest stocks in the market there is -- i got to believe in undercurrent from the gary kellies of the world that we'll be back in the air with this, it may be back in the air by the end of 2019. and am i being too optimistic with that narrative? >> no. if you listen to the commentary, the new head of the faa, from those in the airline industry, ceos, whether it is gary kelly, oscar munoz, the expectation is at least in north america that the max will be flying by the end of the year. now, are they too optimistic that's the big question here, jim, but i think that most people believe this plane is close to recertification doesn't mean it is going to happen next month, but they do believe by the end of the year they'll get this back in the air by north america, europe, china, that's a different beast altogether may take longer. >> wow >> as we're talking, phil, jim, tweets boeing is a buy

>> absolutely. i've been watching everything that phil says like a hawk and this is the beginning, with the stock crossing 380, of a recognition that this thing is going to be with us. i understand phil is -- phil, the foreign faa can do what it wants. this plane, once in the area, it will be in the air everywhere. your story is getting to make me feel like this thing is going to be something we're going to forget about 18 months from now because boeing is being incredibly responsible and i think they're doing great things that's my view i may be a lone. i think boeing is doing this thing right, phil. >> the key here is that they are likely not going to are to drop production any further, they plan to ramp up production early next year. and you know that is the key here if you haven't lost a lot of the backlog, which they haven't, and you can ramp up production, there is potentially the chance to make this all up in terms of that backlog by the end of --

let's say 2021, in terms of those delayed deliveries. >> and when i talk about, phil, i talk about with big portfolio managers about this, what they realized is boeing stock was incredibly undervalued going into this. because they may have the longest runway, no one else is coming in against them, they have an unbelievable safety record, they stumbled here they finally came clean, whatever it was, i think the faa held him up when this comes back, it is going to help the gdp and you're going to see people say i must own this stock because it has got the best ten-year trajectory of any major industrial. you got to admit, phil, nobody said that boeing is not going to be used to get 2020. i've not heard a single bad word about what is going to happen with boeing. >> we haven't seen the order cancellations. that's the key look at that backlog it remains 4400 planes >> never saw a reduction in backlog. what does that say about that

great american company thank you, phil. thank you for telling it like it is, the whole darn way >> all right we'll watch that in the meantime, we'll get cramer's mad dash, countdown to the opening bell look at the premarket as we continue to pay attention to the president at the u.n. this week. more "squawk on the street" from the ny sait ea setrghahd. tv announcer: it's just as powerful as the lexus rx... as many safety features as the rx, the new... the lexus rx has met its match. if they're talking about you... you must be doing something right. experience the style, craftsmanship, and technology that have made the rx the leading luxury suv of all time. lease the 2019 rx 350 for $399 a month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. a new kind of credit card.

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welcome back we'll get to a mad dash. ten minutes before we get started with trading here on hump day we spent some time dealing with elliott this morning elliott management, the activist fund, they do a lot of other things at&t, marathon, and now ebay. >> all this morning. >> cohn is on the board of ebay. and devin wenig the ceo out. >> this is unbelievable. when we speak to devin, he was, to me -- again, like when alcoa met with elliott, we're much more aligned they always say that to us, david. marathon, we're really aligned david, unless it is aligned like

invisalign, i'm taking a harder line. >> a characteristic of many of the activists, particularly the successful ones, they're relentless that's something at&t will want to keep in mind as well. it is not just once. it is -- it goes on and on and here, jim, it seems as though the board was simply unhappy as best i can tell with the performance of the marketplace wasn't about actually -- wasn't actually about moving the process along faster in terms of potential sale that's moving along. it was really about the performance of marketplace and mr. wenig wasn't getting it done there. >> you look at shopify, the comps are hard to find when you look at shopify, when you look at etsy, you know, libra, this company was underperforming. devin wenig, to his credit, said, listen, i'm trying to turn

it i can argue that maybe it can't be turned t was n eturned >> are they going to have better execution with the new ceo, they're conducting a search, they're saying the cfo will take over for now and everybody is happy about that the stock is down a little bit >> could you explain to people at home that elliott is not some sort of fly by the night outfit, the work they do, when you read it, is the most in depth. >> they do a lot of work they aren't always right in terms of at least identifying a lot of upside in their potential candidates sometimes things work against them remember the battle in hess. can't fight the commodity. >> we spoke together and they walked me through it yes, you couldn't fight the commodity. but the work was impeccable. i was blown away by the work i admit it, i said, you know what, wow, i thought i did a lot of work on this, you outworked me i got the commodity right, you got it wrong

we have a good relationship. >> speaking of elliott, we'll get to marathon on the other side of this break >> this is reverse head and shoulders. this could go through the roof i have procter, david pay lohta know what head and shoulders is. >> we're back after this

you're watching cnbc's "squawk on the street" live from the financial cap actual of tit world. a busy wednesday morning, jim. we covered juul, altria. haven't touched on nike yet. >> mark parker last night, it was not just a clinic.

it was perhaps one of the -- the great explanations of how to do business in a crazy world, whether it be tariffs, gross marg margins, china, dealing with brands, using artificial intelligence, whether it be using machine learning i suggested anyone who wants to be in business get in business you start this morning by reading this i wouldn't do what he did. i think he gave away too much to everybody else it was that brilliant. and this man is fighting every single global tide and winning because they work harder and they're ingenious. the jordans, how do the jordans have the best year ever? do these people know who jordan is many people who bought jordens were not alive when jordan played he's so humble people are jealous of my interview with bob iger the other day. don't be jealous of iger be jealous of parker this man is executing at a level that shoe dog, that buck knight has to be proud of.

>> jim calls it a clinic these nike results and online was strong. upbeat business in china this is what mark parker said about china on last night's call >> in china, specifically, we continue to extend nike's lead in our key cities of beijing and shanghai, we serve a generation of digital first consumers and we support their love of sport by helping to grow participation through grassroots programs. as i said before, nike is a brand of china for china and the results continue to prove it out double digit growth every quarter for more than five years. >> set to open all time high kalyn to 103 jeffries to 97 is that too modest >> no. not at all i think when you think about what they're doing, remember, what their biggest thing is, the olympics so you got between now and next year to get into this.

they talk about that the olympic road map and how important it is, they are operating at a level that i think people don't understand. they are riding every single wave now, look, on a smaller scale, lululemon is too this is about wellness it is about wellness for people who are in great shape, not in great shape. chinese government, regards them as integral and trying to keep the country in safe. they had great numbers in europe i don't know, i saw no -- i saw no flaw. this is not one of those to be sure we screwed up here, the gross margins were up big. everyone seems to struggle with the direct to consumer not them the only thing that was interesting was that they said they get along well with amazon. but they think the relationship is fantastic singles day, they think is going to be a gigantic day for them. that's november 11th this was beautiful i'm going to sleep with this call tonight, like a lovie blanket. >> let's get the opening bell on

the s&p 500. at the cnbc real time exchange big board, it is global citizen. a movement with the goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030 at the nasdaq, epsilon, the largest generator of carbon fuel energy >> is the run that under armour had over are we done talking about aadeds being cooler >> adidas is not cooler on the european side. they say and we're taking share in europe. under armour remains a convoluted story you can't keep up with the product. one thing nike is doing you're seeing with the great ones, they have so much firepower, they can spend anything on product. i think that converse is doing better than under armour with high single digits t it is hard to compete with the guys who have enough money to be able to master supply chain and master artificial intelligence

i always thought this would happen, certain point, the big guys could become unassailable nike has the firepower to have the best product and to have an unbelievable read on the consumer >> 5%, almost 6% gain ere. far and away the best dow component. >> this is like when estee lauder reported. >> want to talk about marathon and elliott there? this is a $38 billion company, of course. retail, midstream, refining. three years ago, roughly, elliott came at them, tried to have them split the company. they undertook a review, decided not to do so and now elliott's coming back at them i should tell you, by the way, i think the nominating window for directors here is open or not yet open, but will close in early to mid-december which is

important. >> marathon pet. not marathon oil don't want to get them confused. >> get rid of that, thank you. mpc, marathon petroleum. they're back again, asking for the retail company to be a stand alone speedway is the name they operate under. >> worth a lot of -- >> the largest u.s. listed convenience store operator midstream would become a stand alone. mplx, top five, and then refining company they say -- they think this will unlock as much as $22 billion in value we talked about hess during your mad dash elliott did force the sale of hess stations to mpc, which pushtur turned out to be a gold mine for mpc. elliott was involved in hess at the time they did have success in the

permian over at hess i want to add one more thing when it comes to marathon, up over 5%, which is, jim, i'm also hearing some other large funds are involved including de shaw, the large hedge fund, which has taken a bit to activism of late. may remember they were in lows, remember that they -- i believe they also own a stake similar in size to that of elliott and are predisposed to the same fonts, this is a company that is worth more broken up than it is together so i did want to add that. elliott owns a similar size stake, i'm told, and is supportive of elliott's view. >> what is important to me, on page three of the presentation, they use this, this is really very tough language, disengi disingenuous speedway review it was never serious marathon was already nearly six

months into the process of acquiring endeavor they dissembled. marathon, this mplx, it yields 8.9, all that group is still very out of favor. this is an indictment of the management team for agreeing with elliott at the same time, trying to buy endeavor >> and, again, i think it is important to point out here, they're not going to be alone in this at the very least joined we another large hedge fund, shown an interest in activism and other investors perhaps. >> mpc is correct to go up and elliott will get its -- >> a board meeting today or very soon and there is a belief they have been a poor allocator of capital. >> it is important to point this out. that he came on "mad money" and came in with a -- >> you had the ceo on. >> yes said, listen, elliott, way ahead, doing the same stuff, a lot of agreement this idea of saying you agree

with elliott, and then not growing with elliott, memo to ceos, they have a memory of elliott. you can't just give them the heisman. they're thorough stankey today talking about directv not being -- >> glad you went right there i was about to make that move. what are we doing? high fiving? >> no. save the whales. didn't you see that? you were -- i put ear wig in your head. >> i liked them all. especially back to the old show itself >> at&t is worth mentioning. here it is this is the biggest activist battle we have seen in a very long time. and i describe it as a battle. maybe some constructive dialogue between elliott and randall stephenson stankey is maybe not on board yet. he confirms what we reported last week. they're thinking about doing something with directv, he comes out with the wall street

journal, who runs -- the coo of this company and says, directv is an important part of what we're going to be going forward and we're not doing anything with it. which is what i said that day when the journal did that strange story. stankey also sort of saying, you know what, things aren't as bad at directv as some people think. and -- >> that does he base that on >> you know -- >> losses per share? >> i'm not quite sure. i'm not quite sure. >> subscriber losses per share. >> says in areas where there is actually access to broadband versus uverse, they hold on to their consumers. we all know how quickly directv's been losing -- >> can this man be off the reservation? >> i don't know. i don't think that's a fair characterization he's a very directed and -- >> i think when you read between the lines of the elliott presentation, i don't think they were that thrilled about stankey's move up. >> no. i think that's correct i think that's become one of the

focuses of this. and we'll see where it ends up i think mr. stevenson's comments at the goldman conference last week were encouraging for elliott and i think mr. stankey's comments in this interview with the wall street journal -- >> i keep thinking about when there was a chance for twitter was getting all this nfl programming. everyone is very -- both bob iger and marc benioff happy they walked away from twitter, this could have been the end of directv had they pursued the strategy for nfl so i've got to -- i think directv may be a cash cow. but that cash cow is not going to be known forever. it can't be milked forever. >> right. >> wasting asset too >> yes, it is. and you and i have talked about the future, there is a diverse set of opinion on at&t, a reason why it is still one of the least owned among active managers in terms of waiting in the s&p and what it actually is owned.

>> interesting that -- >> apple, at&t, they're underowned this is incredible how the money managers could be so wrong >> so, yeah, we're watching all of these and elliott is involved in three of the stories -- at&t is an ongoing story. ebay, of course, mr. wenig, gone, search under way >> i didn't see that coming. >> no. i wonder if he did. >> i don't know. got him on speed dial. did you get him? >> i called, i asked for comment and did not get -- did not reach him. >> this stuff is incredible. you have at a time when so many stocks are at a high, if you don't get your stock up, elliott will if elliott thinks you're not doing the right thing. >> they don't go to proxy fights very often when is the last one they did. >> the other oil stock that

they -- occidental keeps coming up apparently firing people left and right. trying to justify this anadarko. i think that certain point they have to come on, that one is also -- >> an open upgrade to join ica. >> i would reduce my stake in a heart beat i don't like -- the competitors too. i don't want devin i don't want apache. these are all awful. >> got oil down. buck and a half. as these reports that aramco is pretty much back on track and restoring production brent is basically back to where it was prior to the attack maybe a couple of bucks higher. >> did you see the uc system yesterday, devoted to divest all the fossil fuels that is what is going to happen. that is the big move you'll see. i was involved with harvard for companies that were -- south africa

it was lightning we got rid of those stocks like this we started realizing that they underperformed the averages so you could do well and do good. and that's going to happen to the oil companies, happening right now. >> el-erian tweeting charts of funds under management chart does not lie >> no. >> going in one direction. >> that is something we talk about, but such an enormous and important change going on. >> you should check "mad money." we do it we call it impact per share. ips. 6:00 >> millennials moving into their own and want these things. >> millennials -- >> change the approach for asset allocators and the companies i keep waiting for the big oil company, one of the big ones to say, okay, we're all in on, like, on solar, whatever >> remember exxon went all in on computers. >> unilever, they'll switch to

be -- both anglo dutch companies. i think our younger viewers want this they want us to talk about this they don't want us to say, look, i think the take two is a great company. they want to -- they want to grill strauss zelnick on whether video games are bad. there is enough data to show over and over again they're not. >> one thing that is bad is tobacco. we got to follow it anyway, jim. altria is only up less than a percent. >> stuck with -- >> the economics 59% ownership in the combined company by philip morris international. they were going to split the board. split duties in terms of management, so socially it was going to be so-called merger of equals, economically not as much it is not happening. at least anytime soon. >> 8% yield. >> because of the concern about the bans on vaping, not because of the economic interests of --

of altria holds in juul, which we spent a lot of time talking about, but because it muddies the view of the future that these two companies wanted to take as they got together to focus on innovation and what to do to replace what is thankfully a rapidly declining group of people who smoke. >> thankfully. >> i never smoked, thankfully. nobody in my family did. no vaping that i'm aware of. >> lucky because the -- you see it in your family, you're aghast, people get hooked. can't get off. >> we mentioned nike before. evercore goes to 150 that's got to be a street high 72% implied upside. >> 151 look, nike was unbelievable. parker was incredible. the stock should be up more than 4. we have this environment, we haven't mentioned this thing going on in washington, this impeachment thing, i'm being -- >> so nice we haven't mentioned impeachment or wework.

>> trying to make money for people if you didn't -- you have a pe lowering event going on in washington but nike triumphs over all -- nike at one point, they say, this is our last bad quarter for tariffs. who are those guys it is like butch and sun dance here. >> we'll whiait to see how this goes down with abe today, the promise of no auto tariffs can be put in writing the way the japanese want. you said we're headed to auto tariffs with the eu and china. >> president hasn't picked a fight lately with germany. i think that last week i interviewed speaker pelosi i have high hopes for the new nafta. >> high hopes to low hopes meantime, you have this gm strike that is a major american company. this is a big walkout. why isn't gm stock going down more i'll tell you why, because i'm

going right now from hold to sell gm. nobody else will i'll do it. >> should go down. >> should go down. should go down the problem is yields at 5 pe is 5. yield is 4.4 how can ford yield more? answer is gm is more profitable. i sell gm here, right here, right now. i would get out of it. i think that they don't have any -- they can't win here they're boxed. union has got them union has them i don't know what jim is going to do. mary barra, talk to phil. >> talk to phil. >> talk to phil. >> dr. phil. >> doctor of automobiles, anything that moves, he's the doctor of. >> like the best there is. ive with we have to move on i'm going to praise phil again >> a strike goes on. thank you, nike. dow up 58. to bob pisani.

>> thank you very much for nike. dow is up. almost half of that is due to nike about 30 points. mixed trading, very indeterminate day here this is one of the days you can't mca lot ake a lot of concs banks up a little bit, utilities unchanged. healthcare unchanged the trend really in last couple of weeks has been away from the value stocks, names we had, remember the big rally we saw a few weeks ago in retail and banks and industrials? that's faded in the last couple of weeks these had a great start to the month of september instead we have more defensive, not so much today, utilities, for example, are back essentially at historic highs. now it is essentially back to historic highs you see looking at that. elsewhere, the thing alarming to me, ipo market got slammed in the last couple of days, particularly yesterday the ipo etf, big gainer

throughout the year, up 30%, now back to the lows, back to the early part of february and yesterday some of the recent ipos, some of the big software ipos really got slammed. so we had some of those early ones down, but we had lyft hitting a new low, slack hitting a new low. smile direct was down 14%. this is for the week, by the way here lyft new low slack also hitting a new low that's a good indication of market sentiment we have big ipos coming up, know about peloton what is going on there. nothing is changed the terms still there, 40 million shares, 26 to 29 that hasn't changed. we're waiting for that to price on -- pricing tonight. we have endeavor group be down here on friday priced tomorrow. 19.4 million shares, that's for endeavor if you put that up at 30 to $32

and, again, still hasn't changed. want to comment on wework. and the impact on ipos down the road wework is an esg company, environment, social and governance big topic these days among the ipo groups and this is all the governance issue with wework here has to do leadership, pay, voting rights, shareholder rights, a lot of the debate is that part, the g part of governance esg is becoming a big term out there. you see the impact some very interesting work today done by new street research talking about the whole esg or the governance part of that and how it might impact other unicorns that are out there. if you look here, we're talking about positive impact on unicorns here, if you put that up for the implications of that, they would talk about this as new street, maybe less centralized governance out there. more balanced growth profile, more interest in shareholder, stake holder rights. that's the whole esg platform.

my point here is this whole mess could turn out to be very, very positive for all those people who are trying to move corporates more toward that esg platform, more socially, environmentally. good may come out of this in the long run the dow is flat. carl, back to you. >> bob, thank you. to the bond pits rick santelli at the cme in chicago. >> i've had so many people on as guests and so has cnbc regarding what happened on september 16th when funding seemed to have dried up and a shift for liquidity zoomed most i talked to said they think it is a one off, not that big a deal, confluence of a bunch of factors, the perfect storm but yet if the 16th of september represented a light thirst that should have been quenched, there is gallons and gallons more of liquidity going down with regard to the ongoing thirst.

another operation again today, 75 billion and another time over subscribed to, 91 billion submitted. what does it all mean? i can't tell you exactly what it means, and there has been a lot of other things going on since the 16th, but let's start a ten year chart at the 16th everything has been very soft in the fixed income side on interest rates here and abroad since it occurred. if you open the chart up, you can see that yesterday we settled at a two week low. and it certainly seems as though we're not getting a huge bounce, though parallel shift today, all maturities down one basis point, sometimes when that happens in the morning, it is a clue, maybe things are reversing a bit on the most recent short-term trend. if you look at bunds since august 1st, same scenario and do keep in mind minus 71 is the all time low closing yield as we get ever closer. if we look at the dollar index, throw it on the 16th, it has been mostly sideways, but it is higher and most thought that if this

thirst was satisfied, that the dollar should pay the price or ongoing operations, the dollar would be softer. that doesn't seem to be happening either we're at sitting right around are only a percentage away that low of the dollar is now creeping up against. guess what, that's september 16 as well. back to you. >> thank you when we come back, former health and human services secretary will be with us to talk with the merger talk and juul crack down on vaping. still a lot of red coming housing wise more "squawk on the street."

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stepping down immediately, the search for a successor begins. trying to understand what happened the lack of progress of the marketplace business it is worth mentioning, the marketplace business has shown some growth. the stock has had a very good year as well i'm also hearing there also may have been dispute over the future of the classified business we know stub hub will likely be sold we know he was in favor of keeping classified others wanted it sold. the feeling attributed to him is that he's not going to stand by over the dispersement of the entire company and other board members feeling strongly that

the classifieds should be sold and now he is gone >> just amazing. this is where i thought he was doing a really good job. absolutely, i thought the same stay on that one a big story. another story is cintas, since the merge. it has been a house on fire. a uniform company. a very medium gauge of small to medium size business in an era where people are getting depressed. >> very good indeed. jeff lawson, this is like many of the stocks that go down pretty much everyday there will be an opportunity,

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>> good wednesday morning. welcome back to "squawk on the street." busy morning we lost some initial highs in the morning. thanks in large part to nike which has had a blow outquarter. up 5%. heightened political uncertainty. delayed reaction to wework and a

bunch of other things. >> i would say nike continues to propel the dow even higher today. china was a bright spot. even north america which had a slight miss was chalked up to back to school timing. the company sounded very confident on the call. >> we take you to nbc and a special report on the president. >> announcer: this is an nbc news special report. >> good morning. it is 10:00 a.m. on the east coast. we have breaking news this morning tied to the now impeachment investigation. a lot of this renewed attention is focused on the president's phone call with the leader of the ukraine and whether there was an inappropriate ask pete williams has just gotten a first look at the transcript of this call.

how have you gotten this look and what you heard >> the so-call transcript. these are the notes taken by the so-called note takers. it is as close to a transcript that is available. the best record of this call made july 25 from the white house residence from president trump to president of ukraine. the call lasted about 30 minutes. let me walk you through the call having read the notes. trump begins by congratulating him for his election and midway says this, quote, i would like to ask you to do us a favor. our country has been through a lot. ukraine knows a lot about it i would like to find out what happened with this situation with ukraine i guess crowd strike the server they said ukraine has it

it is hard to tell what the president means. doj officials are trying to understand that. they are thinking somebody in ukraine has one of the missing clinton servers. then there is one reference to biden in this call the entire call transcript is about five pages, even though the call lasted for 30 minutes trump said this, i heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and shut down that is really unfair he says, quote, there is a lot of talk about biden son. that biden stopped the prosecution. a lot of people want to find out about that whatever you can with the attorney general would be great. biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution if you could look into it. it sounds horrible to me

that is the only mention in the call the ukraine president replies, he's having someone look into the situation. somebody in the intel community heard about this call. not firsthand but the official said he or she heard about it from white house officials and complained to the inspector general of the intelligence committee saying it could be a violations of campaign finance law something with soliciting information from a foreign institution but that it didn't meet the narrow standard for passing on a complaint because it wasn't an intelligence activity it didn't involve an intelligence employee. the justice department said the appropriate thing to do was to

refer the matter to the justice department criminal department and that is what happened. they say this morning, the criminal division including career employees concluded there was no campaign violations in this call. they did so after looking at this call, talking to people about the call they concluded that the president was asking ukraine to do did not amount to a thing of value, which is what the law would require in order to be a sol isation of a campaign. it asked the white house for notes and the white house voluntarily turned them over this conclusion was reached here last week. trump said in the call that he wanted rudy giuliani, his lawyer and attorney general william barr to talk to the president of ukraine but the justice

department says barr only found out about the call several weeks after it was made when the matter was referred here to the justice department for investigation and barr has not spoken to the president about this, about ukraine or investigating anything related to former vice president biden or his son the president has not asked barr to contact ukraine or anything on that matter and it said barr had not communicated with ukraine about this or any other subject and has not talked about this with rudy giuliani. one other note, the justice department said it does not know to this day the identity of the whistle-blower that's known to the inspector general. but they say in the letter to the director of national intelligence about this, which was forwarded to the justice department

the ig says there is some indication of political bias on the part of the person who made this complaint >> a lot to unpack there --. >> that was nbc's pete williams reacting to the transcript just released between president trump and the ukrainian president at the heart of the proceedings nancy pelosi announced yesterday. certainly stocks coming off early gains the s&p and nasdaq were positive. let's bring in our eamon javers. >> reporter: that's right. there are down sides and upsides for the president and his team the white house has released within the past couple of seconds, the full transcript you heard, the notes taken by the

note taker on that call. that is available on line right now. in the summary pete williams gave you, what we heard was the president of the united states asking the president of ukraine to investigate joe biden and his son. the quote from the president on that call on july 25th is this there is a lot of talk about biden's son, what biden stopped the prosecution. a lot of people want to find out about that whatever you can do with the attorney general would be great. biden went around bragging that he stopped prosecution it sounds horrible to me the upside is this new information you heard which is that the department of justice already looked at this and already made a conclusion that this is not a campaign finance violation. the reason for that is that this

is not the president requesting a thing of value as defined under campaign finance law the other upside here for the white house is that the intelligence community is not turningthis whistle-blower complaint over to congress they are arguing under the inspector general statute, this is not about intelligence or about the actions of an intelligence community employee. this is high-level information between the president and there for it is not appropriate to be turned over. now the question becomes will the congress see that full complaint. that will be the next ask from democrats. i think you will see the white house clearly today pointing at this and say, look, the department of justice already pointed to this. so in reason to impeach the president over this. >> of the six committees working

on this, do we need to have our eyes pealed on intelligence more than the other. >> adam schiff will be a key piece here republicans are going to investigate this as well that could present a bit of complicating factor here the other will be a political one. are americans general comfortable with the president of the united states asking the president of the ukraine to investigate joe biden and his son. we know some of the facts on that because we have this piece of the transcript. we can see what the president said according to the note taker in the room. the white house has said nothing inappropriate here the democrats are saying we are moving forward >> pete williams called this a

so-called transcript how much faith do we have in the totality and legitimacy >> these are professional note takers and transcribers. these are not audio tapes. this is a detailed note taking by somebody with knowledge and involved in real time. there could be omissions and deletions and a possibility that the note taker is his or himself emphasizing one thing or other things you could get an angel's on the head of a pen here whether this is a transcript or what somebody decided they heard at the moment then you get into a separate

question of what was the whistle-blower's idea. that is probably not the note taker but somebody that has seen this second hand you get the whisper down the lane effect. to sort of raise the question of whether or not there is political bias in any step along that chain >> what are we waiting for next? reaction from the democrats or the president? >> the next thing i'm going to do is read the entire transcript to see what else is in there democrats will clearly react to this the president, you'll have to monitor his twitter feed he's meeting with this very same ukraine president today. that will be scrutinized around the world and happens to fall on the same day they are releasing

this transcript. this gives the president of ukraine tremendous leverage here if he were to come out and say he felt leveraged by the president, that could tip the scales he may not come out and say that to stay in favor with the administration we'll see the president of the united states in a press conference in new york later today. he will, i'm sure as always, have quite a bit to say about this >> eamon javers, thank you so much we'll take the president if we see him on the sidelines at any point. markets rebounding a bit after the lows we saw from the release of the transcript. home sales, let's get to rick with the numbers >> this was a blowout number,

713,000 seasonal adjusted, annualized units the highest number we've had since july '07 was in june this is the second since 2007. so it is among the highest levels let's go to diana to break it down >> mortgage rates. this is all behind it. we saw mortgage rates falling starting in may. they really tanked from 3.8% these are signed contracts people out shopping in august, they saw rates come down and they jumped. july's number was considerably higher where we saw sales most was out west a huge jump. also in the south.

a big increase in numbers there. northeast and midwest fell for the month. we are also seeing the supply down to a five-month supply. it had been over a six-month supply the median price has been up 2%. the largest amount of homes sold were in that lower price range that's probably why you saw the upgrade of builders today. a blowout number on home sales >> the dow dipped into the red currently up 25 points, thanks in large part to nike this morning. joining us this morning global strategist and capital founder

good to see you. struck by a jp morgan note this morning with uncertainty like this constitutional conflicts like the impeachment process or rare events like this, does it mean anything, history in this case >> so this time may be different. why does all of this matter? that policy uncertainty feeds back to the out look into market uncertainty. you could say there is little uncertainty. 2013 is an example no clear indication that the out look was affected by it or that markets even cared about it. that is evidenced today. ebbs and flows have gone on.

in terms of the outlook, also in terms of market uncertainty right along with it. this matters today as far as it could interact with policies and resources and to drag on the out look with that as back drop, we are fairly caution here sitting under the out look we had already been cautious two months ago on the trade war. this is supporting that drag on the economy and the lack luster corporate environment. we haven't changed anything just yet. >> i would argue it is not just policy but election 2020 it is happening in the first term and feels like increasingly caring what happens.

especially moving ahead. is it too early to call on that or make trades on that >> we are cautious but moderately so. we see this as the end of an expansion until the beginning of the year until rates become uncertain. markets have chopped around. you expect more on that. we'll keep an eye. the president has some comments this morning if we see him, we'll bring that to you how about you, does the market real really care? >> i think it has to care. you are still in a scenario

where you have a lot of uncertainty. the election cycle of next year will come more and more into play earnings have actually decelerated. the markets now are acting incredibly well. everyone is complacent because i can discount back, i have the ability if you look around at the markets and look at copper and some of the other metals, there are issues out there you still have the amazing $13 trillion of negative yielding debt out there including corporate debt the markets are really complacent now when they shouldn't gbe you should be really cautious here >> the fed has only cut rates,

we've seen two this year how does this cycle of risk taking and buying bonds? >> they can but the fed is the last central bank not pushing on a string they have the ability to push a little further if we look at the global basis and growth, a lot of those are really pushing on a string they have to change their stance that is a much slower way to put money into the system. i think the fed can help a little bit they are cautious as well. looking at powell, he's talking about how there has to be a change going forward i think from a global perspective, growth is slowing you are going to be in a scenario but it is only a little bit going forward.

>> can i and on a positive note here this cycle could go on for some time housing he number is evidence that lower rates are passing through. this is an important shock absorber this could go on for some time >> certainly a lot of cash on the sidelines >> a lot of corporate news to get to prance chief among them is designation of ebay ceodev ceodevin wenig, he is out. search beginning for a new ceo a couple of reasons here as offten is the case idifferin

views. some board members the view that ebay marketplace was not growing as it should have been, despite the fact that last two quarters has been strong. on the part of some board members there as they saw it to assure mr. wenig out remember ebay has taken a review on the stub stub business.

in particular, what i am told is an argument in terms of that particular unit. given that it is not really an environment i want to be a ceo and he is gone cfo will take over for now elliott is an activist there they have one board member who runs the activist practice at the large hedge fund >> star board too on board >> i think they were involved. i don't remember if it was designated >> some what surprising there is a lot of corpse news, not to mention, nike. >> ebay not doing well

>> stock is down a bit on that news >> when we come back, nike hitting an all-time high and juul is out and altria and phil philip morris discontinuing talks of a merger.

>> major developments today on the tobacco and vaping front the house energy oversight subcommittee the cdc and fda monitoring we'll bring you up to speed as it happens as we continue to watch the story of altria and phillip morris calling off their merger talks the leader at juul has stepped down the e-cig company suspending advertising in this country. bringing you up to speed repeatedly how that has changed since then >> down sharply. this is not a liquid stock here. we are talking the secondary market it is well down from that number it is the cloud that has arrived

over vaping in general and the bans that will take place in certain states and countries that is also responsible for the failure of philip morris and altria talks to end. the so-call merger of equals but the economics would have leaned towards fi towards philip morris. it seemed likely they were going to get there it was about being able to bring the r&d budgets of these two to focus on innovation in a rapidly changing market for those who use tobacco. some believing it did point to weakness and that they believe

they needed to move faster some available to them you could imagine that given the cloud over vaping at this point, it becomes much more difficult to imagine that. at this point for these two, i'm told this deal would have occurred doesn't mean it won't be revisited. >> bonnie who wrote about this said she could see this combination and talks resuming when the environment is better and she continues to recommend both stocks even though the deal has broken up. one of the deals is icos >> it is a heat not burn tobacco product. not vaping it is set to launch in the u.s. and set to be a driver for the

industry >> what is interesting here is that this deal was announced they both lost market cap. it was like the market said, wait a second, are you more desperate than we thought. they took that 35% economic interest >> why aisn't altria up today? >> there is the concern about their business not to mention that it wasn't what it once was. philip morris has rebounded some today. they service the international market which has not seen the retreat of smoking that we have here >> but it has the deal talks in

place. clearly the market wasn't a fan. >> the guidance of altria today down, and the pressure now for icos to get approval and see if vaping continues to decline. >> or the driver for years now and why these stocks have not been too bad they can shrink them, shrink the boxes. they also pay very high dividends. >> the growth officer at altria will now be running juul whose founder also stepped down. >> by the way, speaking of altria, the global tobacco and nicotine for up, we'll hear from them in a few minutes.

nike surging today they say they are getting a boost from new products and investment in e-commerce if you had to pick out one part investors weren't enamored with, it was that and they say there will be a rebound. despite trade head winds and slow down, nike managing to keep strong sales there accelerating to 27% on the period 22% if you take out the impact here is what was said on the call about china growth. >> in china specifically, we continue to extend nike's lead in our key cities, we continue to support those interested in

sport. nike is a brand in china for china. we've driven double digit growth every quarter for five years >> 21 quarters of double digit growth is clearly a good thing higher margins they continue to expand there. number one, they go direct to consumer and continue to innovate they are having a good streak right now. they experienced the joy ride. the running shoes did incredibly well they had the zion williamson partnership. the women's world cup. that is something you are not seeing out of competitors like adidas or underarmor right now

nike really capturing the spread in athleisure. >> i can't even keep track it is 75% of analysts say buy on this stock they managed to beat the higher expectations they've got 25% of manufacturing in china they are exposed globally and do get dinged we saw all of that the head winds called even more volatile than expected was impressive >> the last 12 months, only 9% >> they get swept in it is the highest in history >> let's get a news update with contessa brewer now. >> president trump is meeting on

the sidelines of the un general assembly he talked about state fierghters and the need to put them on trial. a russian reporter asked zelenskiy if trump put pressure on him he replied, only my six-year-old son can put pressure on me >> showing the parliament was adjourned. mattel is leasing a new barbie line meant to be gender neutral with interchangeable looks and a range of skin tones.

>> very 2019 thank you. more on the merger talks more from the ceo of altria. still to come from alan binder onraits and more the dow is pushing higher here up almost 80 points. when did you see the sign?

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watching treasuries closely. minneapolis fed president telling the washington post that the fed has, quote, put the economy into a more dangerous position and needlessly raced interest rates over the past few years. >> with us now, alan binder

wrote, he would refer that the fed save its limited ammunition. it is hard to keep track everybody has a different view are you saying it is a mistake they are cutting rates >> i am. i don't think it is a huge mistake. the trust of what i wrote there is that it is very debatable right now. so you just gave neil kashkari's view it is a defensible view. sometimes it is obvious. this is not one of those times you can see the fed internally on the committee is very divided. >> how should the market take it in terms of what they should do next and what kind of cycle we are in >> i hate to say this, market

people like concreteness but in a position like this, the next move of the central bank is going to be equivocal. i don't know if it was up to me, i would stand pat until i saw a fire that needed to be put out. then i would bring out the heavy hoses. that's my opinion. i'm not a voter. a few of them agree with me but some are on the other side absolutely >> alan, whether they are talking about the commercial market and saying the covenants on loans have weakened do you see those things now? >> they see it better than i do. they have a lot of data come across their desk i'm not seeing sure, when you've had such low interest rates for such a long

time -- people get sloppy about managing money that means a lot of things to me, it means leave too much money in the checking account, they get sloppy. nobody thinks credit is tight by the way. i'm not sure even kashkari, given what he said, thinks they are in a tight credit but those kind of things happen. >> just to push back, haven't we seen some whites of the down turn's eyes and business uncertainty, manufacturing numbers have been pretty weak. the yield curve inverted which has signaled every recession post war how do you characterize those

risks? >> let me try to go backward from the yield curve inverting, i understand the history but that is based on the short rates and long rates lagging that is how you get inversions that is not at all what is happening now, so i discount that one heavily what you said about manufacturing is true. that is tried to the trade the trade war is the biggest risk that is right at the top it is hitting manufacturing and farming already. in terms of employment, if you add up those two sectors, you are talking 12% of american jobs, the service sector is doing well the consumer is spending, which is making up for the fact that the investment response to, say, the tax cut of 2017 has been

disappointing, not to disagree with you too much. there is a case and you've pointed to some of those things, to cut the rates now i just don't see it very powerful given that the fed started this process at the upper range of 2.5%. if they were starting at 6, i would say, yes, shoot some bullets now but given that their ammunition is thin, i would prefer they save it for when p there is more than just a few little reads >> at least we have more bullets like some of the other international banks like ecb and others >> yes i should have said that. we are still the shining star. compared to japan and the eu, we are looking quite good >> alan binder, thank you.

>> you are with elcome >> speaking with the fed later today sitting down with jim bullard. he was one of the dissenters he wanted to see them go more. he has become one of the president's favorites as well. >> who would you say is more bullish? >> sounds like they are both bullish. with bullard, it is more he's worried about what he is seeing as sources of a potential down side risk. we'll ask him why he feels so differently than some other colleagues inside the fed. >> that's a good one tons of news on boeing today take a look at shares of boeing it has settled the first claims from the lion air crash that happened off the coast of

indonesia last october we talked to representatives here saying they have settled 11 of the 17 claims that have been filed by their clients relatives of those victims those filed by boeing. the reports that each victim family would receive $1.2 million each. we have not confirmed that amount this is the beginning of what we should see play out either in terms of settlements or lawsuits and mediations in court between boeing and these families as they try to move past these two accidents and planes and the victims from these accidents >> thank you we'll be back in a moment.

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get started at fastsigns.com. >> the global tobacco and nicotine forum under way in washington talking about the juul interaction with the white house and the breakdown of merger talks with philip morris >> we are always looking for opportunities to strengthen our position we thought it was worth a discussion about whether there was an opportunity to merge. ultimately, we couldn't come to terms. we are back focused on our very strong position in the u.s. market we find exploring opportunities is important we are very pleased with our market position today. particularly given our portfolio in noncome bustable tobacco

products now. >> would you invest in juul now? >> last summer, we believed juul was best positioned to become the market share leader. they were at 50% share and we knew there was a youth vapor epidemic that would have to be addressed. things are turning out about the way we expected. i think it is too early to assess what will happen with the youth e-vapor rates. >> have you discussed anything with trump about the ban >> i have not spoken to them directly i have been following it closely. i have to say, the increase of the youth e-vapor use issue, it

is important to preserve the e-vapor option for adult cigarette smokers. >> angelica joins us good to have you you've covered this space so well forinterview? i wonder, do we need to start paying more attentiono to icos s we did in juul >> he brought up a good point, which is that this epidemic really started last year with the fda calling it an epidemic it's only been a year. juul has taken some steps to try to curb things i do think that icos is an important part of the story that has gotten lost. it is their new heated tobacco product that is now for sale in the u.s. and will be a growing part of the portfolio.

>> angelica, it's interesting that a former altria executive is now going to run juul they have no path to control but this would seem to bring the two companies closer together rather than further apart. >> exactly i think this shows that altria is not happy given everything going on you see headlines every single day about the vaping epidemic. you see states banning flavors outright you see all of this action i think it's just a sign that altria wants change and wants to see a leader it knows can shift the tide here. >> how exposed is altria to juul and the misfortunes that the company is facing? >> so right now the deal still hasn't been approved by regulators, so the earnings aren't showing up on those financial statements however, altria is still subject to all of the headline risks every time you hear something about juul, it will impact altria it will ruin the brand if there's bad news every day about

it. >> and it also was a key reason why philip morris international and altria were unable to get to the finish line in terms of negotiating a deal you asked him about that but i'm curious, there is any sense that once things become clearer in terms of vaping and the bans from a regulatory standpoint that the two companies may undertake the effort to get together again >> you know, howard did say they are always looking at opportunities and thought there might be one here. it didn't sound like he ruled it out based on strategy, he said it was more about terms so you could see something along those lines. some analysts have floated the idea maybe the companies come together and then split focused on cigarettes with one company and maybe juul in another company. i think it's an interesting idea and will depend on what happens with the regulatory landscape. >> we've also noted and you can see it next to you, the altria share price not responding

positively it went down after we reported the potential economics of the deal roughly a month ago, i think the 27th of august, and it's not going up today either, based on the continued fear of their main market going away. >> and, you know, howard did bring up a point when we talked about cigarette declines the actual number of cigarettes they have been selling has been on a downward trajectory for years. however, since e-cigarettes entered the landscape, those numbers have been falling even faster, which if you're altria and do have a stake in juul, that's not necessarily a bad thing. however, evening ti think the c recognizes that it has to change somehow. >> what kind of regulatory action are you expecting out of washington against juul potentially and vaping how far does this go >> well, right now actually on capitol hill there is another hearing on vaping. you have the acting fda chief

testifying, so you'll probably hear more about the flavor ban and what we can expect from that they said we'll see it in a few weeks. it's been a few weeks now, so we'll see when we can actually see the final regulation everyone is expecting the mint and menthol to be included in that ban today juul also said it will not lobby the trump administration on any of those policies >> angelica, thank you so much for that angelica lavito covering the news down in washington, d.c getting some comments from the president, not just on the release of that so-called transcript but also the market's reaction to it. >> how is that not pressured -- >> if you take a look at the democrats, they went down to see the president of ukraine and they asked him for all sorts of things and don't go with the republicans and stay with us, like it's a political war. they shouldn't have done that. that should be an impeachable event i guess based on what you're saying.

the democrats just went out, they went down there, a group of people some of whom i was dealing with on the gun issue they went down and put tremendous pressure on ukraine the president himself just came out with a statement saying there was absolutely no pressure put on him and there wasn't. what i do want to see is i want to see other countries helping ukraine also, not just us. as usual, the united states helps and nobody else is there so i want to see other countries help just so you understand, it's the single greatest witch hunt in american history, probably in history, but in american history. it's a disgraceful thing the letter was a great letter, meaning the letter revealing the call that was done at the insistence of myself and other people that read it. it was a friendly letter there was no pressure. the way you had that built up, that call, it was going to be the call from hell it turned out to be a nothing call other than a lot of people said i never knew you could be so nice. so part of the problem you have

is you have the fake news, you have a lot of corrupt reporting, you have some very fine reporters and journalists, but you have a lot of corrupt reporters, a lot of corrupt journalists. i would rate you right in there, by the way excuse me, excuse me, excuse me. excuse me. so we're having -- if you notice the stock market went up when they saw the nonsense. all of a sudden the stock market went down very substantially yesterday when they saw a charge after they read the charge the stock market went up very substantially. we have created the greatest economy in the history of our country. the greatest economy in the world. had my opponent won, china would right now be the number one economy by far and right now china is way behind us and they'll never catch us if we have smart leadership, way behind we've picked up trillions of dollars and they have lost trillions of dollars they want to make a deal very badly. it could happen. it could happen. it could happen.

it could happen sooner than you think. our military is rebuilt. our military has never been stronger when i came in it was depleted our vets are happy so many great things are happening. and the democrats feel they're going to lose. we had the highest poll number, rasmussen 53, but they say you can add 10 to it a lot of people say you can add more than 10 to it because a lot of people don't want to talk about it but they want to vote for trump. so i just say this we have the strongest country we've ever had we have the best economy we've ever had we have the best unemployment numbers we've ever had we have the best employment numbers we've ever had we have now almost 160 million people working that's far more than we've ever had working in our country before thank you very much, everybody thank you. thank you. thank you very much. >> that is the president obviously two big headlines there. one is that the market in his

words rose substantially on the release of that so-called transcript and in fact the session low was about 50 points negative on the dow. we're up 140 so call it half a percent from the lows to the high so far. the other is that china, a deal with them could happen sooner than you think they did take that and run with it. >> we saw all three major averages go back into the black. that was a big question off of yesterday's news and what a lot of the research notes focused on this morning, which is not just the 2020 election risk and whether this decreases the odds that president trump wins a second term but really does this influence his leverage in negotiating with china does it decrease the odds that he can get the trade deal that he wants with china, or is he going to have to sacrifice on issues that are going to be hard climbs for china and does it weaken his hand. let's go to eamon javers in new york for more on the market reaction and what we just heard from the president. >> reporter: yeah, sara, interesting that the president talked specifically about th

response in the dow to the release of this set of notes of his conversation with the ukrainian president. the president making the argument here that the economy is really part of his legacy and part of the reason why he should not be impeached up on capitol hill regardless of the specifics of what he said in this transcript with the ukrainian leader, the president is arguing that he is a popular leader who has a good economy and, therefore, the democrats are simply playing politics that's going to be the argument that you'll hear from the white house here going forward also saying here that there was nothing inappropriate about his call with the ukrainian leader now, in that set of notes we do see the president of the united states asking the president of ukraine to look into a matter regarding joe biden and his son. that's going to be the issue that the democrats are focusing on they will make the case that it is inappropriate and perhaps impeachable for the president to ask a foreign leader to give him information or to produce

information about his political rival. that's going to be the crux of this now, remember the other piece here is this whistleblower complaint that we have not seen publicly and that is still very tightly held according to media reports, the whistleblower complaint is about more than just this one specific call so it could be here that there's additional damaging information out there. but the white house feels good enough about this call to put out the entire set of notes here today and for the president to go out on international television here and say he did nothing wrong, you can see the words for yourself and make up your own mind. they're making this pitch to the american people, guys. >> eamon, the market cares more about a china trade deal than any impeachment inquiry in the meantime and the president mentions a possible china trade deal a few moments ago what do we think the chinese are thinking right now >> reporter: well, that's a fascinating question of course i'm not talking to xi jinping directly so i can't tell you what they're thinking.