become an issue. [closing bell rings] liz: i thought you were going to say the indians beating the red sox. i'm a red sox fan. stocks are up in hopes after u.s.-china deal. the nasdaq is not out of bear market territory. we'll have to wait another day for that. connell: trade optimism out there, boosting the dow, finishing positive territory, second straight session. off the highs. melissa: we will take it. connell: i would say we're up triple digits, we are, up exactly 100 points. the s&p 500 closing up four days in a row. the nasdaq fighting for gains as we head into the close. so one of the headlines we're looking at today for the nasdaq which ends up five points, whether or not it would exit bear market territory. just a little short of that but it is up. there you go. green across the board. i'm connell mcshane. melissa: i'm melissa francis. this is "after the bell." we have more on the big market movers but first here is what's new at this hour.

♪ melissa: president trump just wrapping up remarks to top law enforcement officials from across the country in washington, d.c., stressing the need for border security. the president is waiting on the final legislation from lawmakers to make a decision about the tentative agreement on capitol hill. we have the latest on the state of play to avoid another government shutdown. and also on the white house agenda today president trump sitting down with the president of columbia as the situation in venezuela continues to unravel -- colombia. the commander-in-chief's strong words for the nation's disputed president, nicolas maduro. it is apparently no longer okay to be rich and successful, did you know that? connell: what? melissa: why bill gates says he doesn't deserve his fortune. connell: that sets up a discussion or two. melissa: it sure does. connell: meantime we're following the biggest stock

drivers today. deirdre bolton is at floor of the new york stock exchange with the dow up triple digits. edward lawrence following latest developments on the china trade front. blake burman keeping careful watch over the negotiations of the budget deal at white house. deirdre, let's begin with you. >> green on the screen, you guys called it a few moments ago, s&p 500 and nasdaq all going higher. basically investor optimism there will be some sort of framework reached on trade between the u.s. and china. we know key meetings happening on friday. investor optimism we will be able to avoid another government shutdown. look at some of the dow movers. i will call them out to you. home depot, 3m. visa, goldman sachs. they account for more than half of the dow's gains today. so you know, we've been following the fact both the dow and the nasdaq are basically on pace for eight straight weeks of gains. overall the markets look very healthy, if you look at sort of the broader sectors, you

essentially had send that were strong. only utilities closed lower. just great market breadth, green on the screens. meantime back to you. melissa: all right, thank you. so possible deal in the making. trade representative robert lighthizer and treasury secretary steve mnuchin preparing to sit down with chinese negotiators to hammer out an agreement tomorrow. edward lawrence live in d.c. with the latest. edward? reporter: melissa, getting an audience with the president. chinese president xi xinping will meet the u.s. trade delegation in china for these talks. this is the same gesture president donald trump extended to the chinese on january 31st, when he met vice premier liu he in the oval office. robert lighthizer and treasury secretary steve mnuchin planning their strategy for two days of high level talks thursday and friday. one major sticking point is the mechanism of enforcement should china break the agreement. the u.s. has been very clear what it wants.

the chinese acknowledged there needs to be punishment. president trump showing optimism today. >> it is going along very well. we'll see what happens, but i think it is going along very well. they're showing us tremendous respect, something which a lot of countries didn't used to show the united states, they're showing us respect now. big difference from the old days, tell you that. the deal with china is going very well. reporter: in the end the white house is saying it might be a meeting between president trump and president xi xinping in march to seal the final deal. the chinese planning to take the u.s. delegation to a banquet this week in downtown china, much like the dinner that the u.s. delegation paid for when the chinese negotiators were here in washington. optimism something can be worked out maybe not bit march 1st deadline but soon after. melissa. melissa: edward, thank you. connell: take it to the market panel, john layfield and michael an

mike antonelli. people read between the lines, xi xinping is meeting to meet the u.s. delegation, we're getting close to getting something done. what do you think? >> i don't think that is necessarily a good indication because president trump did this with their delegation as edward lawrence pointed out. i don't think that is an indication. president trump is indicating he is wants a deal. he basically taking any deal. we'll not get a good deal to work on intellectual property. if we get ownership structure changed, tesla factory that will deal a lot with intellectual property i think as far as we can go. what the market he is seeing president trump seeing to push some type of deal, won't be a great deal but a deal the market wants. connell: market prices that in, michael, in the process of doing that so if we get a dole like the one john is expecting or talking about, maybe some selling on the news, what do you expect? >> so look i think what people need to understand about stock

markets in the very, very short term they don't trade on good news or bad news, right. they will not trade on the deal or not. they will trade on better or worse and things right now are getting better. when you look at the trade negotiations they seem to be getting better. the context of the deal might not be the most important part. it may be things are getting better. in the short run that is what markets are looking for. whether the deal is better, buy the news or sell the news, the market likes that. connell: do you agree with that, john? >> somewhat. i certainly agree the trend is what people are looking at. if you try to handicap the market going forward but we have full employment, we have 7.3 million job openings, wages are up, earnings at 19%, projected coming in at 1.1%. we have a strong market as michael points out. the problem handicapping the super bowl, when you're told on thursday, brady and other players may not be playing, you know, it is just. connell: right. >> unpredictability that comes

out of the white house is leading to a lot of this market uncertainty but i do think any good news is good news for the market. think i the market wants to go up. connell: especially last few weeks. stick around. we'll have more in a moment. melissa. melissa: will he or won't he? president trump not saying whether he will sign the budget legislation agreed to bit legislative negotiating committee. blake burman at the white house with the latest on this one. what do we know right now? >> reason why president trump is not committing to the spending deal one way or the other whether he will sign it or not because the actual text of the legislation has not been finalized. a official told me advisors here in the building want to go through the fine at text when it is completed. they want advisors at the department of homeland security to look through it as well. at that point they present it to the president in full. at that point he will make a decision whether he will sign it or not. that advisor telling me that what the president has been briefed on already at this point there are certain things in this

bipartisan agreement that he does not like. the president is saying today he wants to make sure he can overcome certain obstacles. >> well, we haven't gotten it yet. we'll be getting it. we'll be looking for landmines because you could have that, you know. it has been known to happen before to people but we have not gotten it yet. it will be sent to us at some point. we'll take a very serious look at it. reporter: friday night is the deadline to avert a second government shutdown this year. the president saying he does not want it to come to that and there is already talk up on capitol hill there might need to be a short-term spending bill to potentially let many people actually see the final product of what the bipartisan committee came up with. the house freedom caucus among voices today saying there should be a short-term deal. the freedom caucus, some of those numbers have the ear of president trump, members of the more conservative wing of the republican party.

congressman mark meadows who leads that caucus said in a statement the following, he wrote quote we believe members should be given enough time to read it before voting on it so they can decide whether or not a better deal can be negotiated. they're still, melissa trying to put the final touches on the language. here we are 2 1/2 days until a potential government shutdown. melissa. melissa: break, thank you for that. -- blake thank you for that. the president can't sign anything until it goes through the house and senate. here with more on the border security bill is chad pergram, where it stands, fox news capitol hill producer. first do we have any idea how long it is? >> no, we don't. i asked somebody a little bit ago, about 20 minutes ago, when we might get the text. all they would say, tonight, 6:55, 11:00 in the morning. they don't know. here are two on tack schedules, there are two funerals tomorrow.

when would they have time to read the text. there is funeral here in washington, d.c., for former john dingell who died. many members want to be. there president clinton is speaking at funeral as well as house speaker john boehner. and several members are going to north carolina to the funeral walter jones. i talked to steny hoyer. he is the house majority leader. he said they're 99% there. they have most of the bill in form. most people should know what is going to be there. but there are always those details and people i want to see them. i talked to tom graves, he is a republican congressman from north carolina. he is one of conferees he is undecided. there was this idea floating around capitol hill, even before the idea of cr, continuing resolution before i need to read the text. we need time to digest it. not a bad time to hit the pause button. the hitting pause button, what

old saying on capitol hill what starts to stink after three days, house guests and fish and legislation. even though a lot of members might not like what is this in, that would be an evident to kill the bill, put it out over the weekend, in week or maybe towards the end of the month, that's a problem. the other key is they have to get the vote matrix right in the house of relationships. i'm told most house democrats will be for it but they will need help from republicans. democrats probably can't carry all the freight on their own for this. here is one of the other dynamics, republicans saying this a bad deal, we shouldn't vote for it, whatever, there is a realization going on in capitol hill this, is the first piece of major legislation been up at the house of representatives since the republicans lost the majority. i talked to one aide a few minutes ago, republicans are walking around like they still have the majority, they don't of the it is democrats. democrats even though this he have the majority will need a

little help from democrats, from republicans. >> chad, if one of the conferees saying he is undecided that doesn't really speak well of the bill because they're supposed to be together, working on it together an coming up with something they will present to everyone else. >> right. melissa: if they're not on board, that doesn't sound good. even if it passes the house, does it pass the senate? what happens if it doesn't? >> well there seems to be more support in the senate in this case because you know, republican senators were starting to get very nervous about being blamed for a government shutdown. this was the motive by mitch mcconnell a few weeks ago trying to put the bill on the floor trying to say look, mr. president, the government shutdown is bad. he was trying to protect the president from a jail break of defections from republican senators. also trying to protect republican senators being too far over the tips of their skis supporting a government shutdown which is not reflecting well for the gop in the polls. that will be one of the keys here. i mentioned tom graves. he is a good weather vane as to

conservatives in the republican conference in the house. if he starts to blow no, that, you could see that a lot of republicans in the house might not be there. but i talked to kay granger, she is the ranking republican of the appropriations committee. she thought there would be no problem having enough signatures from the conference report. you need signatures from the conferees. you don't need every last one. need a simple majority. at the end of the day they should have that if graves doesn't sign but he is undecided. melissa: my lord. chad, thank you for your time. connell: we bring back deirdre bolton for cisco systems. tell us what you see, deirdre. >> you have a beat on the top and bottom line. one of my sources tells me beats by a penny as far as the earnings go. that is pretty much the way forces go for a very long time. 73 cents per share. that is the earnings number. wall street looking for 72. look at revenue, 12.4 5 billion.

if you look at earnings, up 15% year on year. if you look at revenue, that is up 4% year on year. the company also talkingbout a dividend moving up about 6% and a $15 billion buyback. so you have the stock moving higher postmarket. i want to point out for the third quarter, we were talking about the fiscal second quarter, cisco looking forward, expecting strong earnings consensus for earnings and sales again. so third quarter earnings going to come in between four and 6% growth. wall street looking for close to 3%. stronger there on the forecast. as far as earnings go, 77 cents a share, versus the estimate consensus for 68 cents a share. a lot of people really admire the job the ceo has done in the past few years, taking sort of an older legacy company, really kind of making it innovative

again. a challenge somewhat hard to do, like we've seen with microsoft. back to you guys. connell: deirdre, thanks. stock up more than 3%. stay with technology for a moment with nasdaq. we mentioned this at the top of the show. it just missed mark in terms of exiting bear market territory. it is barely up 20% from the christmas eve low. let's talk to john and michael on tech. these stocks, seemed like we were worried about kind of the end of the world by christmas eve. now all of sudden they have run up so much. how do you view broadly speaking technology? >> you know what? we want to see tech do well but it is a important growth sector but is that a different story for a different market? the fang story was 2017 and 2018 story and they will have government regulation coming down on them in waves. i want to see cyclical, and

consumer. housing stocks. tech i like it but i want to see the other sectors do better first. connell: that is interesting. maybe doesn't tell us as much as they told us in the past. michael is right that is the big concern of 2019. but they are supposed to get hit by the quote-unquote tech lash with regulation down the line. what do you think? >> i agree with michael, it's a last year story however i think it's a big future story as well. look at the audiences these companies put together. i think regulation is coming, because politicians love red meat. they go after the oil companies, banks, anybody they think has approval rating less than them. they will go after the tech companies. don't know how much it will hurt. probably more in europe than the united states. look at the audience these companies have. 2.5 billion people monthly users at facebook. 1.3 billion devices being used by apple per month, around the globe. these companies are going to start taking over things like the epl, like the nfl, the nba

streaming they will v apple services is supposed to be $50 billion in two years. it was 10 billion this last quarter. this is a, i think it will be a true growth company because of the audiences they have accumulated. connell: that whole next step for apple and company. john, michael, appreciate it. >> thank you. melissa: for more on the bruising funding fight, lawmakers are racing against the clock ahead of another government shutdown. congressional leaders struggling to finish the text of the bill, this as president trump says he is looking for landmines in the agreement. so can they find common ground before friday's deadline? we'll talk to congressman rob woodall about what happens next. connell: plus confronting the crisis in venezuela. the president sitting down today with colombia's president talking about the growing turmoil in that region. why both leaders are urging the global community to get involved. melissa: not deserving his

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venezuela. since the last time we spoke, what do you think is the most important thing to watch here from the u.s. perspective. the president talking today about all options being on the table. what is his next move. what should his next move be? >> thanks for having me on. from a, from president trump's perspective the most important thing is really what is going to happen with the humanitarian aid. there is a big meeting tomorrow at the oas where they have invited all 50 plus countries recognized juan guaido as the legitimate president of venezuela. they need to open up the barriers that the military has put at the border because they consider it an intervention by the united states. what is really at stake if the international community starts distributing food, the military loses control because that is how they maintain control over the people. connell: right. >> so that is the, and that is the border with colombia that is the issue. colombia also has an interest in this because they were bombed recently from a terrorist that came out of venezuela. so there would be a key partner

to a accompany, if there is military accompaniment, from the military invited in by guaido. that would be key. connell: he said february 23rd, he being guaido, february 23rd is the deadline for that. >> right. connell: how do you see that actually happening? so the food or humanitarian aid in general is in colombia. so what happens next? what actually has not happened that has to happen in order for it to get to where it needs to get on time so to speak? >> you have colombia and two more points have set up along the brazillian border. the president is even more right-wing than duque and has little sense of humor. all that food should enter. what should happen between now and then there is increasing pressure on the military to acknowledge guaido. there's a lot of pressure, you can keep your assets, you will be offered amnesty. senator rubio is talking about this, support guaido and let the

food in to be on the right side of history. connell: is it your thinking maduro is basically done, starts to really unravel? >> yes, yes. the humanitarian aid is directly linked with the unraveling of the maduro regime. it is the last bit that keeps them in control of the people, is the control of the food distribution which acts as form of corrupt financing for the military. so once that comes in, the military looses that source of income and they lose that form of control. so that is why it is so important. tomorrow we will see whether almost 60 countries also add pressure. if the food doesn't get in. they will look to impose more sanctions on the venezuelan regime. so it is, it is really linked to the change. connell: the deadline is couple weeks away. could happen sooner than that. >> yeah. connell: i think i asked you last time timelinewise. does that give you better idea when this could be really moving forward in venezuela, within a

month? >> we'll see. there are couple other factors taken into consideration here. russia and china, "wall street journal" reported that the, that china has been having talks with guaido's people here in washington, which is diplomatic representatives and that the russians are starting to do the same. they're starting to realize, there is no going back with maduro. the only way the guys recover their money, which is 20 billion plus for china, 18 billion for russia, if they start making a deal with the opposition. if they flip, they will probably want to see certain conditions like more military changing their minds. they will have a peg. if they see the events happen, and they flip, flip their vote also at the security council, then he will be out, he will get on a plane out. connell: quickly. >> that is a lot of suppositions. connell: that gives us something to watch. vanessa, big help again. thanks for coming on. >> no problem. thanks for having me. melissa: good-bye bullet train. why california is pulling the plug on this very pricey

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melissa: a 15 year mission coming to an end. nasa officially declaring the end of its six-wheeled opportunity rover on mars. the rover lost power in a dust storm last june. all efforts to make contact have failed. the rover's journey marks the longest robot ever sent to earth to the surface. what a bummer. connell: executives from t-mobile and sprint, making the case for their $26.5 billion proposed merger in front of what turned out to be a skeptical house panel today, arguing it won't hurt competition or raise wireless services. kristina partsinevelos, following it all, joins us now.

>> you have the third and fourth largest wireless companies to create within company, that would consistently have 127 million subscribers. there is a lot going on in congress today with the ceos of sprint and t-mobile, even though congress can't veto this deal, they wanted to ask a few questions and they were concerned about competition. you had the ceo, john legere who spoke about promises for customers. listen in. >> the new t-mobile will have the capital, scale, the network to super charge competition, unleashing significant benefits for consumers that includes keeping prices low. >> he went on to promise he would keep prices low up to three years. they do claim too, this could potentially keep prices low for everyone because they will be better able to compete against all the competition like at&t and verizon but also compete against tech giants that enter the wireless say like let's

aapple. they plan to move to rural america, offer 5600 new jobs, five new call centers from 2021. this deal would also help them improve the 5g technology, that they could beat china. unions are very concerned not only potential job losses that come about when the two companies join forces, but that prices go up because there will be a lack of competition. if you think about what happened during the obama administration, you had at&t tried to buy it. mobile. that deal was blocked because they said it would stop competition in the marketplace. this deal is worth $26.5 billion. it still needs to pass regulators. connell: we'll watch it. kristina partsineveloss in the newsroom for juice nobody deserves to be this rich. bill gates makes revelations about his net worth. spending for love. americans dishing out a lot of

cash this valentine's day. how much did you spend? connell: let me ask bill gates. i have a long time -- melissa: it is tomorrow. connell: it is tomorrow? melissa: where do you fit into the mix? we'll bring you the numbers coming up. ♪ a biotech firm that engineers a patient's own cells to fight cancer. this is strategic investing. because your investments deserve the full story. t. rowe price. invest with confidence.

introducing the new capital one savor card. earn 4% cash back on dining and 4% on entertainment. now when you go out, you cash in. what's in your wallet? melissa: nobody deserves to be this rich. easy for bill gates to say. made more than $10 billion in taxes but the 63-year-old said

owe should pay even more. according to a new interview with the "daily mail." here is dan mitchell. center for freedom and prosperity chairman. noelle nikpour, gop fund-raiser. he is wants to pay more taxes no one stops him from paying more. >> exactly. there is a website at the department of treasury you can voluntarily give more money to donald trump and nancy pelosi and alexandria ocasio-cortez, if you really think they will spend the money better than you, but here's the thing, he is a hypocrite. he set up a foundation a foundation is one of the top ways that rich people rich people protect income being double and tripled tax. if he thinks should pay more capital gains, sell his stock, he will have realized capital gains and pay taxes. that is virtue signaling or something absurd like that. we don't want more money going

to washington, leave it in the private sector where it creates jobs. melissa: noelle, it's a little bit hip -- hip hypocritical, he is part of that group that doesn't want to leave anything behind. that says he doesn't trust the government to spend it wisely. if he could leave it all to be taxed when he dies. instead he is putting it in a foundation, apparently he thinks they're better at doing good around the world than the government is. >> well, i mean, you know, he does have a point. you know, i would rather, i think anyone anyone certain amount of money would rather have some sort of a foundation, because a, you can still, you know, have control over it. and if you don't think that your government is spending things wisely or if you don't think that you would like the direction of some of the policies in play, then you wouldn't do it. but the funny thing of it is, i think if you ask a major, major

billionaire, do you deserve this wealth, what do you think about wealth, in order to be liked or in order not to be a villain, everybody wants to be liked. i think you will find a lot of these guys saying that they would be willing to go pay more in taxes. they're not doing it. but they would be willing to. i think you will see a lot more billionaires, as the left keeps targeting them, as you know, bad actors. melissa: apologizing for the wealth. >> absolutely. melissa: dan it speaks to a larger theme where we don't celebrate people who are self-made any longer. look at all the grief howard schultz is getting. he is someone who grew up with nothing and he is still apologizing and attacked having so much money, that used to be what america is about, the tremendous opportunity. it is the only place where you can be born with nothing and work your way up to being one of these people on the screen right now.

why don't we celebrate that any longer? >> we should and i think actually the average american still does. it is only the political class, or that crazy "new york times" reporter who says we should basically get rid of all billionaires in society. now let me make an important point, if you make big money because you're getting special favors from the government, let's say you're warren buffett, you profited from the tarp bailout or goldman sachs did the same thing, there are bad ways of making money, because you're in effect in bed with the politicians, but bill gates, the schultz guy with starbucks, they're are all sorts of rich people, steve jobs before he passed away, they are only rich because they developed, created new goods and services that the rest of us valued. i want more billionaires in america. melissa: stuff the rest of us valued. noelle, you can go first later on. we'll see you guys later in the show. thank you. connell: we'll talk about the high-speed train out in california. those plans are slowing down as the state is pressing pause what

turns out to be a very costly project. taking aim at the commander-in-chief, mike bloomberg, speaking of billionaires, dishing out half a billion dollars or planning to block president trump from a second term. money well-spent or could it backfire on the democratic party? ♪ 300 miles an hour, that's where i feel normal. having an annuity tells me my retirement is protected. learn more at retire your risk dot org.

connell: canceled faster than a speeding bullet, sort of. the california governor gavin newsom raising some eyebrows

when he ditched this beleaguered proposal for a high-speed rail line that would have connected los angeles and san francisco. let's get to hillary vaughn in l.a. with the latest on this. reporter: hey, connell. well, newsom announcing this project has sucked up billions of taxpayer money over the past decade and the budget has officially run out of control. the state estimating the cost to finish this project could reach nearly $100 billion. >> the current project as planned would cost too much and respectfully take too long. there has been too little oversight and not enough transparency. right now there is simply isn't a path to get from sacramento to san diego, let alone from san francisco to l.a. i wish there about. reporter: so now californians will get 10% of the project that was promised, a high speed route between two towns in the heart of central valley, bakersfield, merced, a stretch of farming and oil communities.

local representatives from the area say they don't want this high-speed rail in their town. they also don't think anyone who will actually buy a ticket for this. this isn't a commuting, popular commuting route, regardless, governor new some will finish this part of the track and pursuit private funding to finish rest of it. connell: thank you, hillary vaughn. maybe that is the answer, a private company says they can make money bidding off this. melissa: i don't know how that can ever be the case. he is not giving the 3.5 billion back to the feds, back to us. not giving it back to donald trump as if like -- connell: that is how he phrased it. >> i'm not giving that back to president donald trump. connell: it is amazing. we heardthis thing forever in california. melissa: never a good idea. now they have to admit it. far from common ground. lawmakers work to pass a budget deal to avert another government shutdown, a deal that does not include full funding for president trump's wall, not even

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melissa: congress has go days to vote on the bipartisan border compromise to get it to the president's desk and there is a lot standing in the way. here to talk about how it is all going, republican congressman rob woodall, a member of the house budget committee. thanks for joining us. we had our own chad pergram on earlier today, what he is hearing, there is probably enough democrats in the house but maybe not enough republicans to get it over the finish line, is that your take on what could possibly happen? >> melissa, i'm loathe to contradict chad. he is one of the best sources on capitol hill.

folks are still waiting on the final language. we've seen big numbers but you know how the details are. folks are always trying to slip a little something in that moves the needle one way or the other. i want to see that final language. i'm hoping we get to a place that folks can get on board. melissa: everyone is saying they will try to read it before they vote. how long will it be, is that realistic? >> there is really a good chance for that. we're looking at particular sections. are there restrictions on detention beds? will i.c.e. have the flexibility to protect america from not having to release dangerous criminals back out into the, into the interior? are we putting new miles of fencing in those areas where we know we need them most to prevent the flow of human trafficking. melissa: this is only 55 miles. are they doing that? >> you think about the size of this construction project. this was never going to be a one-year project. this was going to be a multiyear

project. what we're talking about a down payment of 55 miles this year, when nancy pelosi is still trying to figure out how to manage the most liberal caucus in democratic history. we'll make another payment this year and another payment next year like we made the payment last year. i think there is momentum around getting the job done to finish the wall. melissa: rest of america wants to see comprehensive immigration reform. we have seven million open jobs in this country. there are people who could come here and work and other people are flooding across the border that are committing crimes. it is up to you guys to sort threw how people get here, how you deal with, that push. you guys aren't doing night thank you for saying that, melissa. i represent a majority, minority district. 27% of my bosses are first generation americans. we can absolutely come together to do that in common sense way candidly we have not gotten enough from democratic

leadership or republican leadership on in years past. i waited and waited during the shutdown norfolks to come back to the table, do exactly what you just asked for. melissa: any chance that will happen after this? >> you're right, not going to happen, in funding bill this week, but of those things that only this president can do, i believe only donald trump can put a signature on a immigration bill that solves the immigration issues for a generation to come. let's take a yes for an answer he wants to create the most robust legal immigration policy america has ever seen. melissa: congressman woodall. thanks for coming on. >> thank you, melissa. >> we'll believe it when we see it in terms of comprehensive part. melissa: we need it. connell: half a billion dollars, we've been throwing out a lot of big numbers throughout the hour. here is the latest from former mayor mike bloomberg word he is throwing a lot a lot of cash tot president trump out of the white house, whether he runs are not. details next.

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connell: more big money talk, as mike bloomberg is reportedly getting set to spend $500 million trying to stop donald trump from being re-elected in 2020. politico has a report on this and supposedly, that would just be an opening bid, the $500mil. let's bring back dan mitchell along with nicole. either way, if he runs, he would spend it on himself, but if he

doesn't run, he's going to spend it on a big data operation, almost like a shadow campaign. this is your business. this could be impactful, right? >> you know what, as a national fund-raiser, i'm really sorry i didn't broker that deal. i wouldn't even be here. can you imagine the amount of commission if he brokered a $500 billion deal or something? we talked about this at the break but bloomberg put in around $200 million to various things to make sure that he was supporting democrats that wanted to run for congress. connell: in the midterms. >> yeah. so this $500 million, this is a serious commitment. if he doesn't run and he puts this in, this is a very, very serious commitment to advertising, to getting their message right, and this is -- when you have money like this, you can control your message, you can -- if president trump hits you, you have enough money

to -- logic connell: fire back and all that kind of stuff. this is like 1% of his net worth or something along those lines. that's an interesting point. if he doesn't run and still spends this, right, do you get the sense bloomberg will run for president? because he could almost have more of an impact if he doesn't run and spends all this money on somebody else. what do you think happens? >> he obviously has a very healthy ego and he does have this desire to make or manage other people's lives. we saw that with some of his nanny state policies in new york city. but i suspect somebody close to him is probably saying look, there's no constituency for a rich guy who wants to control everybody else's lives and raise everyone else's taxes. if he spends the money on other candidates, there's a practical question and philosophical question. the practical question is outside of getting the name i.d. up, a lot of money in a race doesn't translate into votes. otherwise we would have president hillary clinton. the philosophical point is i'm glad he has the freedom to do

it. i'm glad the supreme court upheld the right of people to participate with political speech in our process. god bless him for doing it. even if i don't like some of his policies. connell: i get it. you are always standing by your principles. we appreciate that. thanks for all the time today. good to see you both. melissa: love is in the air and it is emptying your wallet. americans are expected to dish out a record $20.7 billion in total spending this valentine's day. that is according to the national retail federation. it is up 6% from last year. connell: how much of that is mike bloomberg? melissa: think he's a romantic valentine? connell: i don't know. i saw a study, you know, it's all men. do you think that's fair? men spend like $300 on average. women spend $50 or $60, did you know that? melissa: i don't know. connell: bucking the trend, as usual. melissa: there you go.

connell: thanks for joining us. the dow ended up higher by almost 118 points. we will see what happens with china. melissa: we will go work on our valentine's day gifts. in the meantime, "bulls & bears" starts right now. davi >> i see it as aspirational. i see it as a jump start. i would vote yes but if it got down to actual legislation as opposed to here are some goals we have, that would be different. >> why not create a moonshot? why not say in the next ten years we are going to create a green economy? david: more 2020 democrat hopefuls now backing the green new deal, the sweeping environmental and economic resolution co-sponsored by freshman democrat alexandria ocasio-cortez. the plan has faced widespread criticism over its costs and demands not just from