going to be what all the regulation most likely revolves around. >> i agree completely. deirdre: quickly, jason? we actually have to leave it there. jason, mitch, thank you. liz claman, it's up to you. i'm gla that jason didn't . finish. he will be mad at me for saying that. we have to say that oil grabbing the spotlight, now taking center stage right this minute. with a 4% spike in the final hour of trade as president trump cracks the door open to iran. black gold powering the markets after donald trump told the media quote, iran wants to talk. and that a face-to-face could happen at the united nations general assembly here in new york city later thimonth. oil, which is trading right now at $56.20, closed in the regular session more than 4% higher. nice move there. but the president is

intransigent when it comes to slapping tariffs on china. american retailers forced to rip up their business plans after levies on chinese goods popped up to 15% over the weekend. the retail industry leaders association is here exclusively on why their clients from walmart to gap, home depot, best buy, all of these stocks see those particular tariffs that kicked in over the weekend as the worst yet. deadly hurricane dorian now hugging the east coast after devastating the bahamas. armageddon in the bahamas. the latest forecast has it now dangerously moving close to georgia's coast, where the peach state's deep water ports serve as a gateway for international trade and investment. the georgia ports authority executive director is here and about to join us on how he's preparing for possible landfall and what it means for the massive volume of global goods waiting to arrive right there. on wall street, stocks are up and they were up early after

hong kong leadership pulled a 180 and withdrew its contversial extradition bill that sparked violent protests. as we head into the final all-important hour of trade, the dow is up 215 points, s&p up 28, the nasdaq better by 92. plus, what caused starbucks to slip, picking up the slack and charlie breaks it on the latest in this merger drama at viacom/cbs. at least i didn't say t-mobile/sprint. less than an hour to the closing bell. let's start "the claman countdown." liz: breaking news. the united kingdom's prime minister boris johnson, rebuked. he has just been foiled by the house of commons. just moments ago, british lawmakers approved a three-month delay to brexit if the uk cannot agree on a deal to exit the european union by october 31st, which is the date that of

course, boris johnson had wanted. the delay would move the exit to january of 2020. now this bill heads to the house of lords. prime minister johnson's response after he lost this vote? that the bill passing effectively ends the brexit negotiations and right now, he is pushing for an election on october 15th, just two weeks before his deadline. we shall see. we should look at the pound sterling. i don't know if we can do that now. events that we were looking at earlier yesterday have this at $1.19. now it is moving higher on news that brexit isn't pushing right up into the global world's face at the moment. the british pound up just a bit at $1.22 per pound sterling. events in the uk and hong kong are making the bulls here very happy. stocks showing a pretty significant rebound at this hour with the nasdaq in particular jumping at the moment. we do have it up 93. shares of semiconductors, many of which trade on the nasdaq, are looking decidedly chipper

after jpmorgan said it expects semiconductor demand to actually pick up in the second half, as both supply and demand sides of the equation improve for the sector. investors are taking the meat cleaver to tyson foods after it lowered its 2019 forecast. let's take a look at the meat processor. it's blaming volatility in the commodity markets and a fire at its kansas beef plant which caused it to shut indefinitely. tyson foods down 7%. let us get to the white house and president trump, moving markets at an impromptu press conference in the oval office just about an hour ago. let's show it to you. the president discussed trade with china and he said this before. there wasn't anything really new here but he sai as usual, he wanted to make a real deal on trade and that things are going well, we shall see. he also stated plainly that america is not, however, going to do business with the chinese tech giant huawei. the big headline came when the president left open the

possibility of meeting face-to-face with iran. asked if he would be open to meeting with president rouhani at the united nations, that's happening in just a month here in the new york city area, the president said quote, anything is possible and that the u.s. is not looking for regime chang in that middle eastern rogue nation. to blake burman from the white house. that was pretty significant, it started to move the oil markets immediately. reporter: lot of headlines today it relates to the u.s. and iran, liz. as it started earlier today, by the way, with the treasury department, as they put on more sanctions against iran, as the treasury department says they are targeting what is being described as a network that allows oil to get from the iranian revolutionary guard to syria, that ends up benefiting iran, they say, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars a year. so that was from treasury earlier today, though as we heard fro theresident a few hours after that, earlier this afternoon, he is still open to the idea of potentially meeting

with the iranian leader rouhani. the president saying the sanctions the u.s. has been putting on iran are crippling and could potentially bring iran to the negotiating table. listen. >> anything's possible. they've got a big problem. they're getting killed financially. their inflation is at a number that few people have ever seen inflation at. and it's a very sad situation. they could solve it very quickly. we could solve it in 24 hours. but we'll see what happens. reporter: as you mentioned, the president also continued to say today that he thinks china wants to make a trade deal, citing china's slowing economy. but back here at home, farmers are starting to express their displeasure with the trade war. for example, the nebraska corn board, nebraska corn growers association say that trade policy is damaging agriculture. the president, though, said this afternoon that the roughly $28 billion in bailout money is

appreciated by the farmers. >> well, the farmers are extremely happy. they also know, they are warriors, they also know we have to do this with china. we can't let this go on. so our farmers will be helped. nobody that we've done more for than our farmers. and they understand you have to win the war. reporter: that mini press conference broke out in the oval office there after the president got an update on hurricane dorian. the president also saying that if farmers are impacted on the east coast as dorian makes its way north and east, that the government is ready to step in and help those farmers. liz? liz: you know what, i'm looking at the national hurricane center forecast track and it is still very serious, blake. i know you know that. we want our viewers to know that. the carolinas are certainly going to be scraped at the least by this. thank you very much. by the way, the president is still speaking. if he says anything more that we need to get to that we already haven't, we will keep you

posted. but for now, it's time to start the "countdown" calendar. we are two weeks away from the federal reserve's decision day when the markets find out directly from fed chairman jay powell where benchmark interest rates stand. as investors wait to hear three top fed heads getting a jump on the action, turning out in force over just the last five hours to get their positions out there into the ether. new york federal reserve president john williams was first up. he said that the u.s. consumer is carrying the economy but that low inflation is quote, the problem of this era. then a few hours later, dallas fed president robert kaplan said he's watching to see if weakness in the economy intensifies and almost more importantly, what the psychological effect will be on the consumer. then minneapolis fed president neal kashkari says tariffs are causing nervousness for business and recession warning lights continue to flash. let me translate all of this.

these three are all dovish. none of them outright said the economy's doing great, no need to cut rates, we need to preserve rate cuts for real trouble. they didn't say that. let me get to our floor show traders. time to play rosetta stones and translate. what they said that matters most to our viewers and maybe what translates into a vote either way of what kind of cut we will see. phil flynn, you're up first. >> i think they are saying they are going to do whatever it takes. if you read in between the lines, a lot of differing views on the economy. the one thing they had in common was basically looking at the entire situation, saying listen, we know there's problems out there, there's uncertainty about trade, there's mixed signals here. so we will act if necessary. i agree with you. i think it was dovish, i think the market took it that way. didn't take it as wildly bullish. the market was already up on foreign good economic news. but we know from the reaction to the market that they feel the fed will do what it takes. liz: tim anderson, this is

what's getting the most play here, what john williams said. he said low inflation is the problem of this era. look, it's been about a half a percentage point below that key level of 2% that the fed likes to see that has been stubborn and persistent, almost like he was worried about disinflation. >> well, in addition to his comments, you now have two regional fed presidents, kashkari from minnesota and bullard who gave an interview with reuters last night being very vocal that they feel the fed should be aggressive and they are all but calling for a 50 basis point cut in two weeks. bullard specifically says the fed can easily justify this by saying very simply they want to get the fed funds rate in line with the rest of the yield curve. three or four months ago, powell said at a monetary policy

conference that the interest rates being outside their lower bound was a monetary policy challenge of their time. so if you're going to look specifically at the data, maybe they only cut 25. but if you want to look at them getting in front of a problem and eliminating the dysfunction of the economy of having fed funds rates so far above the rest of the yield curve, i think the odds are increasing significantly, almost by the day, that they're going to cut 50. liz: right now, folks, remember, at this time yesterday, 7% odds in the morning yesterday, we had a 0% chance of 50 basis point cut which would be the more aggressive one, and right now, it's ticked up to 9%. to luke, i know you don't have a minute for these guys. you've had a real issue with the fed overall. what did you glean from any of these three today? >> well, liz, it's kind of like when i got my grades in college,

i cried a little, i thought about it and i cried some more. i cannot believe this stuff. instead of talking about what the future holds, they should answer the following questions. do they know that when they kept rates so low that companies were going to do a lot of financial engineering, going to buy back stock, not going to expand, not going to hire? that's what we've gotten. it's been low rates for ten years and employment still isn't there. it's because it's a policy problem. when you talk about what are you going to do with rates or access to money to take it out of risk and get it to places where employment goes up. about inflation, the way the u.s. government calculates inflation in the last 20 years probably changed 20 times. people are spending more on housing and general living than they ever have before so this low inflation stuff is -- i don't know who they are trying to fool but it's not fooling me. so i think the fed's probably going to cut, probably 25 basis

points. they didn't need to but they're not going to get the result. why would a company like apple with all this cash go out and issue bonds? it's going to be because interest rates are too low or too high. liz: yeah. well, tim, phil, luke, we'll be watching it. by the way, suddenly they are all out chattering. it's about a week i believe before they get the zip it memo, where they're not allowed to speak, it becomes a quiet period. we saw that with a lot of times in the past. we will be watching. they are all getting out ahead of this. we will keep you posted. thank you for joining us. our great traders on the floor show. let's get to the dorian effect. it is starting to hit individual stocks. we're at session highs for the closing bell which is ringing in 47 minutes. the dow at about 219 points to the upside. make that 220 and climbing. it's jetblue that's tumbling after cutting third quarter forecast for revenue per aible seat mile. what is that? a key metric used by the airlines. jetblue blames, yes, what caused

that damage in the bahamas. of course, it's hurricane dorian. soft bookings to puerto rico and other islands, weaker than expected demand due to the impact of that hurricane. jetblue is down nearly 5% right now to $16.38. up next, have you seen this trail of devastation dorian has left behind in the bahamas? even seasoned hurricane experts are stunned. now as it makes its way up the eastern seaboard we have a forecast on the path of the deadly storm live from the region and how businesses by the beach are bracing for possible impact. "the claman countdown" coming right back. introducing the first of its kind lexus ux and ux f sport. also available in hybrid all wheel drive. lease the 2019 ux 200 for $329 a month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer.

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liz: we are hearing words like armageddon and the pictures tell the story. it is devastating. take a look at what used to be the stunning islands of the bahamas. this is now what's left after hurricane dorian wreaked havoc on the island for two days straight. remember it just sat there churning over the region. now, at this hour, you have rescuers wading ankle-deep and in some cases, chest-deep waters to search for survivors. at least seven people, including an 8-year-old boy, were killed and authorities do say they expect that number to rise. now dorian's wrath is roiling off florida's east coast and moving north ward. it is expected to come knocking on the doors of georgia and the carolinas. 24 hours ago, look at this, on "the claman countdown" fox news was standing on carolina beach with blue skies and sunshine all around. so as you memorize that shot from yesterday, let us now head back to doug to see what has now

changed over the past 24 hours in north carolina. i see a big difference already. reporter: i wouldn't have volunteered for this duty had i known it was going to rain. seriously, we are on the cape fear river in downtown wilmington, north carolina right now. you can see behind me, the coast guard cutter "diligence" built in 1964, one of 16 intermediate coast guard cutters, normally a ship like that would put out to sea with the approaching storm coming, but in this case, it's undergoing repairs, as all old ships require. they are going to keep it right here on the cape fear river and hope for the best. the danger to have a ship like this, a heavy ship with the tall top size like that which acts as a sail, imagine 100 mile per hour winds hitting that kind of surface. you are looking at real danger of it slamming against the port or if the river should lift considerably, it lifts the boat, too, you don't want it on dry land. there's another ship just to our right across the cape fear river which i want to show you just because it's interesting to me.

that's the "uss north carolina." world war ii battleship. it's in a little dug-out inlet there. nobody expects all 40,000 tons of that to move during the storm. moving around, swinging around a painful 180 degrees which i know is a violation of camera ethics, two buildings under construction right here. there was a gigantic towering crane there. if you had been here 12 hours ago, one of those giant cranes that are used to erect tall towers, they disassembled it over the last 12 hours. i believe we shot some video of that and have it for you. incredible amount of work that these guys did in the short period of time. great business for the crane company. they will have to put that crane right back up when the storm passes. other preparations going around the wilmington area, we were at carolina beach yesterday, we shot some video of the big lifeguard stands being removed by bulldozers, taken to a secure area. those things are very big and heavy and stable but not in the face of 100 mile per hour winds. also today, we made our way out

towards wrightsville beach, but the police had blocked the causeway over to it. only accessible by owners and people who are doing work for owners. you had to have a sticker on your car. they would not let the media in there. all kinds of preparations going on there. one of the major things we saw out there was the boating traffic. a lot of small boats, people want to get their boats out of the water. it's a huge investment for a lot of people. we talked to one boat ramp owner who had moved 70 small craft in a period of the last 72 hours or so. he charges $30 per foot for every boat so if you are talking about a 30-foot boat, he gets $900 out of that and he moved 70 boats in the last 72 hours. so we're hoping for the best here, looking at storm surges of five to eight feet, potential windfalls of, what, 80, 90 miles per hour in coastal areas if the storm should make contact with land. it looks like it's in the best possible situation to make contact with the continental

united states right about where we are right now. so we're here, keeping our eyes open and hoping for the best. liz: i see 15 inches of rain are possible. so we're watching it. you are watching it. thank you. we will forgive your photographer for the 360 move. reporter: i didn't ask him to make a 360. 180 is bad enough. liz: he's got to do this thing where he wipes the lens with the little rag. reporter: okay. you are being told to wipe your lens. liz: he's doing great. or she. thanks so much. we appreciate it. the art of the beat. with 38 minutes before the closing bell rings, look at shares of michael's surging after the crafting megastore wrapped up its eighth straight quarter of better than expected earnings despite falling sales in the second quarter. that stock is jumping 11.75% and folks, it's an interesting china story because much of their

inventory comes out of china. but not all retail is created equal. up next, the surprising names climbing to the top and also to the bottom of the markets and why tariffs could still play out as the ultimate judge and jury for the shopping mavens we love most. that's next on "the claman countdown." great riches will find you when liberty mutual

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liz: we have some breaking news and i do want to mark the dow jones industrials and the s&p and where they stand right now. we do have the dow up 216, s&p up 28. here's the news. the u.s. commerce department has just announced it is imposing preliminary anti-dumping tariffs on certain steel coming in from china and mexico. specifically, it is, i understand, the kind of steel that is used in big structural efforts here. a 141% duty on the structural steel and a 31% duty on mexican

structural steel. so china getting hit the hardest here. again, a tariff of 141% on incoming steel used for big structures from china. the commerce department says no canadian fabricated structural steel has been dumped in the u.s. market so it escapes this, but the president has been open to saying quite constantly that the u.s. steel industry has benefited from this while steel stocks are moving higher at the moment, we did know of course that u.s. steel had closed a plant in august and then i believe just back in july, they had laid off about 200 other workers in gary, indiana. we are watching what appears to be crosswinds with this story but again, big structural steel tariffs on chinese and mexican structural steel at the moment. all right. while the commerce department is cracking down on chinese steel makers, they have been on the warpath about tariffs when it comes to retail.

this as disappointing earnings have fabric handbag maker vera bradley stock plunging to a record loechw. this two-day chart really ugly at the moment. very bad situation. then you have teen outfitter american eagle hitting a two-year low, down 12%. those earnings do not reflect, we should mention, what just kicked in this weekend. those additional set of tariffs that went into effect sunday night. but here to give us an idea of how it may all impact the retail sector, in a fox business exclusive, the retail industry leader association chief brian dodge. let's get to it. first on the breaking news, what do you make of this heightened tariff and duty atmosphere at the moment? >> this is what we have been concerned about for more than a year now. this trade war seems to have no end and the impacts are reaching the american consumer. the latest round of tariffs hitting the american consumer products just days ago are highly concerning to us, because

if you look at the economy right now, you have investors are jittery, manufacturers are pulling back and farmers are hurting. and the consumer is the only bright spot in the economy. so as you add increased costs of the products that they buy every day, you are going to have an impact on their expenses and their confidence and that's the worst thing we can possibly do right now. liz: could we put up, if we can, the breaking news that just happened? even though it's the steel industry, what just happened is that you have more than 100% duty that has now just been slapped by the commerce department here in the u.s. on chinese structural steel. while that has nothing to do with retail and the companies that you represent, everybody from walmart to best buy, i need to hear from you what you interpret from that. it sure doesn't seem like things are calming down. it's almost like they are simmering higher. >> they are not. there will likely be some additional retaliation that will follow this. that's concerning to us. steel is a component to

virtually every manufacturing product so the headwinds we saw just the other day in the manufacturing community, we may see even heavier headwinds as their chief raw material becomes more expensive. liz: american eagle outfitters, that stock is plunging. we know vera bradley which makes fabric handbags, they are also looking at an all-time record hit to their stock. tell me the companies that you represent, what are they saying to you? and it's not just the retail as in clothing. it's obviously electronics as well, with best buy. >> yes. retailers are doing an excellent job of managing their way through the higher costs associated with tariffs. but we have reached the point with the tranche that went into effect just days ago where the increased costs are unavoidable. these are consumer products that are often low margin, that are coming in here without an alternative sourcing opportunity for them. so they have to come from china, at least for the foreseeable future. as a result, they are going to

cost 15% more and perhaps higher as this processes calculates. liz: we are sitting here guessing. when will it end, will things calm down, will they strike a deal. the guys at deutsche bank, there's an economist there who came out with a note over the weekend that was flagged by one of our people, r.n. white, in the d.c. bureau, and he in essence is saying that china is prepared to have this trade war last a decade or at least as long as the second sino-japanese war back in 1937. it almost seems like they no longer see resolving a trade war as the top issue here. they are ready to hunker down. >> you know, we have reached a point in this trade war where we have no choice but to reach some sort of agreeable conclusion. the president has assured us there will be conversations this month and we will encourage him to recognize the state we are in now and reach an agreement that resolves the tariffs. liz: brian dodge, thank you very much. we will see you next time. we are going to be calling you a

lot. we like to know how the companies behind the stocks that our viewers own are doing. thanks so much. closing bell ringing in 28 minutes. up next, starbucks, how is it losing steam in those cups of steaming milk and espresso? we are tracking all the action from the floor of the new york stock exchange on the taxing matters that have investors dumping out shares of the java giant at this hour. and do you remember what you were doing when you were 9 years old? did you have a business? were you running political campaigns? i will tell you what this ek's podcast guest for everyone talks to liz was doing at age 9. donna brazile was campaigning door-to-door for a city council candidate because he promised to build her community in a poor area of louisiana a playground. find out how she got him elected while she was just 9 years old and how she went from going to that to her wildest dreams,

entering the national political battleground. she now works with fox news. you got to hear her story. trust me, it's really compelling no matter what aisle, side of the aisle you stand on. everyone talks to liz. download it at fox news podcasts, apple podcasts, google podcasts. session highs for the dow, a gain of 235 points. we'll be right back. what do you look for when you trade? i want free access to research. yep, td ameritrade's got that. free access to every platform. yeah, that too. i don't want any trade minimums. yeah, i totally agree, they don't have any of those. i want to know what i'm paying upfront. yes, absolutely. do you just say yes to everything? hm. well i say no to kale. mm. yeah, they say if you blanch it it's better, but that seems like a lot of work. no hidden fees. no platform fees. no trade minimums. and yes, it's all at one low price. td ameritrade. ♪

gerri: i'm gerri willis with

your fox business brief. it may be the beginning of pumpkin latte season but starbucks shares getting burned at this hour. investors steaming after the coffee chain warned of slowing profit growth as benefits from tax cuts wear off. activision blizzard shares raised to outperform. call of duty and world of warcraft. sales estimates being upwardly revised for the newest player in the line. the price target raised by $17 to $60 a share. up 4.7%. weight watchers also gaining into the close. shares getting a boost from one of its top actors, queen o herself, oprah winfrey. the media maven announcing plans for a wellness arena tour called

oprah's 2020 vision for your life, set to kick off january 4th. price target upped to $37 a share. right now, that stock up 4.5%. up next, dorian digging in. liz talks exclusively with griffith lynch on the massive challenge of locking down one of the most important entry points in the nation for international commerce. can i get some help. watch his head. ♪ i'm so happy. ♪ whatever they went through, they went through together. welcome guys. life well planned. see what a raymond james financial advisor can do for you.

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liz: hurricane condition zulu. that's the coast guard designation for closing ports to all commercial traffic due to storm conditions that are about to arrive and it is in effect for ports across the southeastern coast, including the deep water ports of savannah and brunswick in georgia. annually, the two ports bring in some 37 million short tons of

container cargo. savannah, it is the third largest gateway port in the u.s. its garden city terminal is the largest single container terminal in the western hemisphere while brunswick brought in 600,000 automobiles last year alone. griff lynch is executive director of the georgia ports authority. what's going on right now? i'm sure you're waiting on this thing but what did it take to lock down the ports? >> well, thank you for the call. first of all, following the lead of the governor and his staff, they made the right decision to shut the ports down yesterday to ensure safety of life and get all the folks that live on the island out and get them west of the storm. basically, we had 30 ship-to-shore cranes, these massive cranes that go along two miles of dock. we have 156 pieces of yard equipment that are very, very large.

our team takes about five or six hours to tie all those down and secure them and make them ready for high winds, should we face that. liz: we just heard from doug mckelway in wilmington, north carolina. in essence what he was saying is they had to bring down cranes, he showed us the huge building cranes. these things can become projectiles, i'm sure. but let's talk about the business impact. what is coming in and out of the savannah deep water ports and brunswick deep water ports on a blue sky scenario type of day? >> yeah, absolutely. we are a 24/7 operation. on the import side, we are bringing in consumer goods, all the things that anyone buys in a store coming in mostly from asian locations, then we are also bringing in auto parts. we have different types of parts that arrive and we keep manufacturing moving parts off to like the kia plant, where cars are being produced in the united states. mercedes as well. mercedes auto parts.

then conversely, on the export side, we have agricultural products that are going out and also proteins like poultry and things like this. it's a massive port. we handle about 50,000 to 60,000 containers a week. right now, we are in our peak season so all the christmas goods that folks will buy in stores are coming into the port now. liz: christmas goods already and we are thinking about that just at the beginning of september. so can you perhaps explain the cost of the closure when you expect to see this open again for the ports and will there be a bottleneck or are ships staying very far away at the moment? >> well, i think that absolutely ships have now gone off to sea and those that are supposed to come to savannah will go behind the storm or around it, but definitely, we would expect in the southeastern ports to see a bottleneck. it will cost obviously millions

of dollars to recover from this, and take a long period of time, especially because we are in our peak season. we are in elevated volume. thankfully, our gateway is fairly robust and i think we are talking about a few weeks of impact and then hopefully returning back to normal. but the key is when do we get started, when do we return to work. right now we are being told the storm is going slower than expected. we were hoping to open up tomorrow afternoon. looks like that may be tomorrow night or gate activity, normal traffic flow, friday morning. liz: griff, thank you very much. i hope you guys all stay safe. we will be thinking about you. >> thank you very much. liz: of course. when we come back, charlie gasparino, cbs/viacom. now what, charlie? dow jones industrials up 224 points. we'll find out in just a second. ♪

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liz: sometimes mergers are great for stocks and sometimes, not so much. it hasn't even been a month since cbs and viacom announced their long-awaited reunion, but talks of future expansions to the redstone family entertainment empire have investors on emergency alert. shares of the media giant, since that merger agreement, the agreement to rejoin forces which came the same day as the discovery that the parent company of hgtv, food network and tlc was one of the famous names on this rumored post-merger shopping list, have done horribly. look at cbs since the merger, down 14%. viacom down 12%. viacom's c-suite heir apparent bob bakish is fighting back against this buying buzz. gasparino is here. >> buying buzz, yeah, i guess you could say that.

listen, there's been a negative market reaction to a couple things with this deal. the synergies, you know, investors thought the synergies out of this, i think something like $500 million -- liz: meaning job cut savings. >> on the low end. that's the other thing that caused the stocks to go down post-merger, the company knows this, i mean, i have sources inside cbs viacom who says they are well aware of this, that the other thing that caused the stocks to sink was essentially that they were going to buy something. l lionsgate, discovery, something that would be diluted to earnings. bakish is out right now saying that is not the case. that doesn't mean they won't buy anything. from what he's telling investors, from what i understand, he's meeting with investors this week to spread this message, that they will not seek an immediate merger partner, you know, at least until this deal is closed. and maybe not even after that. that they are not going to do

anything that is dilutive in the near term meaning if they buy something, now, who knows what lionsgate would sell for now. i read something about comcast no longer carrying the programming so maybe they can get that for a song. if that is possible, that they get it at a very cheap price, they might buy it. but doing something major like a discovery, from what bakish is signaling to investors today, this week, is it ain't going to happen. one of the reasons why he's doing that is because the market violently, he said don't do it following this deal, that they said if you go out and immediately buy something, even though we know that, you know, it's been spoken about a lot, shari redstone has spoken about this, they have all -- they have -- there's been a lot of chatter inside cbs and viacom about buying something like discovery to get bigger, to get more -- it's not happening any time soon. liz: i was looking at discovery, this is a $4.2 billion market cap company. >> that's a big chunk of change.

liz: but let's see. >> lionsgate's a little different, i would think. you might be able to get lionsgate cheap just because of some of the industry trends. that said, you know, what he is telling people, for all i know, they got lionsgate teed up tomorrow. i can tell you what he's telling investors today. we're not going to do anything that's dilutive. a big acquisition like a discovery would be pretty dilutive at this point. that doesn't mean they won't do it in the future but right now, they got to digest this merger, put the two companies together. as you know, they have created some sort of centralized office to basically figure out these synergies, meaning job cuts and economies of scale and overlapping departments. that's a big thing. investors want to see some decent cost savings out of this. and they don't want to see them do something that's dilutive. that's a huge thing. he's telling investors that today. so the notion that they are

buying discovery for now, maybe for awhile, no. at least that's what bakish is telling investors. the notion they are buying lionsgate, again, been out there, probably not unless they get it for a song. liz: discovery up 1%. it's up 9% year to date. >> what's going on with the two stocks? liz: cbs is up 1.25%. viacom up 1.5%. charlie, thank you very much. we do have headlines on twitter. twitter is saying it is temporarily turning off your ability to tweet via sms or text message to quote, protect people's account. they sent this news via tweet. it's not affecting the stock. stock is up about 3.25%. >> can that stop the trolls from bothering me? i want twitter to stop trolls from bothering me. liz: you know what the trolls are telling me they want you to stop bothering them. we are near session highs. we'll be right back. we trust usaa more than any other company out there.

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♪ liz: we were just a few seconds ago at session highs, up 240 points for the dow jones industrials. we're still up 229 points. biggest gainers intel, nike, united technology, a real mix of names moving higher. s&p better by 30. nasdaq up triple digits, up by 100 points. crowinger is drawing a line in the sand comes to customers entering stores with guns. joining retailers dick's and walmart in response to mass shootings. all three names are up. walmart hit a new all-time high intraday. right now we have walmart better by one full percentage point 24 hours after announcing it would stop selling certain types of handguns and ammunition that to

into the ar-15-style guns that many of these mass shooters have been using. so let's bring in somebody who thinks this stock is a play. we're joined by bmo portfolio fund earnest ramos. 250 billion in management. your call on walmart right now? >> we think that the decision they made 24 hours ago is a good decision from a business standpoint because it will resonate with the majority of their customers and only disonate with minority of them. 90% of people favor stricter gun control, background checks, et cetera. that is a population decision that will likely get more market share from those customers. from a, from a perspective that we own it, we own it because of three things. basically the fundamentals of this stock are very strong. look at the way it performed against the biggest retail

threat in the world which is amazon. only ones that actually kept up with amazon online business and of course their brick-and-mortar business is doing well. they're attractively valued by our metrics. they got positive momentum as you mentioned. they were hitting 52-week highs. so, great -- liz: record highs. record highs. let me make that clear. $115.87, folks is a record, just a day after walmart makes a decision to stop selling this certain type of ammunition for ar-15 style guns. i want to know, there is always a trade here. we're not taking positions. talking about an investment decision. overall we have a few seconds left. what do you see for the next couple weeks? really quickly we think the market will continue to trade on macro mostly. the earnings are strong. they have continued to be strong even though there was a dip in the middle of the year.

[closing bell rings] looking rest of 2019 and 2020, seeing strong earnings growth, but macro will dominate for the rest of the year probably. liz: great to have you, ernesto ramos of bmo. great day for markets. connell: it was a global rly, started overseas. the dow settling in 239, 240 points higher at the end of the day. not far off session highs. very good day for the s&p 500 and the nasdaq as well. both closing up on the day, neighborhood of 1%. even a little more for the nasdaq. i'm connell mcshane. melissa: i'm melissa francis. this is "after the bell." we have more on big market movers. here is what is new at this hour. dorian making its way up the east coast after devastating the bahamas one official calling the damage, quote apocalyptic. we are live in nassau amid the