natalia, thank you for the details on the unitedhealth news. we are joined by john tolley. insurers got billions of payments and that is the contingent in the system. if it is true, how did it happen? john: just to be clear, the news came from the wall street journal. the department of justice has not commented. the issue is that these insurers contract with united states government to take care of people on medicare and private medicare advantage plans. how much they get paid in the plans depends on how severely ill the people they enroll are. the question being raised is whether companies are inflating the diagnoses, the illnesses they report to the government for payment in a way that crosses a line that inflates their payments from the government. vonnie: that is obviously wrong but this division is a relatively small part of unitedhealth, right? does it have a material impact -- obviously it is on the shares -- but on earnings if this changes or something -- some not ethical activity comes up? john: was reported is a civil fraud investigation, part of -- these kinds of

should a company like unitedhealth group even have a medicare business? when you get in bed with medicare parts a or b or d, and i was on the phone all day trying to understand it because medicare itself is complicated. should unitedhealth have a medicare business, as you're noting, medicare has four different parts. the a is for the hospital, the b is the doctor's office, the d is for the drugs. and this is part c, which is the ability to provide care through a capitated system. and i believe it's a good way to go. the problem is that rather than paying the insurance company this prepayment, which means that all they can do is require prior authorization and other interventional ways to lower utilization, you should be paying it, as far as i'm concerned, at the clinician level, the doctors in the hospitals, because they're the ones who can change your health and keep you healthier. and i think if we were to move in that direction and united healthcare will required or did it voluntarily to pay the money directly to the people providing the care, i think

unitedhealth is down, what, 11%. it looks pretty bad for unitedhealth, doesn't it? look, right now it's a headline, it's a story. this needs more transparency. they need to shed more light on it. but, look, i don't think anyone could really be surprised if this story is, in fact, true, if they're somehow looking for a back door to get into to to double bill or to bill medicare extra. clearly, we understand there's a lot of waste with in the process. stuart: okay. heir going to hook at that and who knows where that's going. you don't want an investigation from the government on your hands, now, do you? >> nor doge. stuart: right. youtube talking about reportedly getting ready to launch a premium light version of they are paid prescription service. the target audience is people who with watch practice other than music videos. it's going to be the available in the u.s., australia, germany and thailand. what do you make of that, kenny in. >> so, listen, i'm not a huge -- i don't watch youtube at home on my television set. i don't watch you youtube -- sounds like an inte

unitedhealth has responded saying that they have they are not at all. they say it's misinformation and that they always operate at the highest standards with regard to their particular practices. unitedhealth shares down about seven and a three quarters percent. that's $39 to the downside. it's worth about roughly 300 points. of the 566. the dow is down right now. so if you're looking for a stock of the day, it's got to be unh. we'll keep an eye on that and see what other developments happen this afternoon. i know you'll have much more on that later on the show. >> indeed. soon we will. don. thanks. the word of the month has been uncertainty. under the new administration, what's uncertain for investors is if this is more or less than usual. and in fact, there is a way to quantify that. let's bring in senior economics reporter steve liesman. steve, welcome. and what can you tell us? >> you know, fed officials, the unknowns of fiscal. policy seem equal right now to the problem. >> with inflation for figuring out. >> where policy is going. several fed offi

unitedhealth under pressure.investigation into the company's medicare billing practices. we're going to have much more on this and the fallout in just a moment. and you can see shares are now down 9%. alibaba shares jumping again after earnings yesterday. reports now that gamestop ceo ryan cohen has increased his personal stake in the chinese tech giant to roughly 7 million shares. that's worth about $1 billion. baba sent the hang seng higher overnight, too, and it's now up. get this a whopping 60% since the start of the year. also watch the travel names today. booking holdings gaining on strong numbers, room nights, gross bookings and revenue all up double digits year over year. strong international travel demand was really the big driver there. you can see those shares up about 4.5%. >> weighting on michigan consumer sentiment a few moments ago. we'll get to that. actually 64.7 we have now is pretty much in line with actually just a slight miss from 67.8 expectations. we're going to couple that with the service

unitedhealth has certainly faced a lot of obstacles recently.the killing of unitedhealth ceo, the shooting death and an expensive cyber attack against its subsidiary. also talking about medical costs. unitedhealth putting pressure on the dow as we take a live look at the markets. also this morning, the consumer sentiment report, michigan's consumer sentiment report came in for january. it is down 10%. consumers not feeling very great about the economy. that's helping take the dow down 350 points. the s&p 500 down about a half of a percent, and the nasdaq down about one half of a percent as well. the federal trade commission is taking public comment about alleged censorship by tech platforms now, reuters reports. ftc chairman andrew ferguson has called for an investigation into whether tech companies stifled right wing speech, and whether advertisers work together to pull spending from certain sites, such as x. the agency has opened a public comment window that runs until may 21st. two new amazon facilities in stockton are bringing more than 1000

meantime the unitedhealth group is facing a federal fraud investigation.ording to the "wall street journal," the department of justice is looking into the company's medicare billing practices, probing how the company records diagnoses that lead to extra payments for its medicare advantage plans. unitedhealth says it is unaware of the investigation, calling the report fraudulent. >>> taking a live look at the state capitol, where a bay area lawmaker is attempting to hold health insurance companies accountable for wrongly denied claims. a bill from state senator scott wiener would require insurance companies to report denials to the state if too many of those cases are overturned on appeal, the company would be hit with fines. >>> coming up next at 5:00, new developments in the menendez brothers' push for a new trial, today's announcement from the l.a. county district attorney. >> with respect to law enforcement, we have spoken with every menendez family member that wanted to speak with us. so we've done the hard work. >>> we'll meet a new year and a new adv

selloff intensifying throughout the session as weak data on consumer sentiment and a huge drop in unitedhealth weighed on the markets. the dow plummeting nearly 750 points, seeing its worst day since december. unh responsible for 30% of that loss. we'll have more on that in just a few, but take a look at some of the other big losers today. discretionary stocks the biggest sector laggard led lower by casinos, cruises, cruise lines and more. industrials also taking it on the chin with ge nova, old dominion and united seeing outsized drops. and take a look at meta. a week ago it was riding a historic 20 day win streak. we were talking about it here a lot. and now it's down four days in a row and taking the rest of the mag seven down with it. all this action coming ahead of nvidia's fourth quarter results on wednesday. the last of the mega-cap names to report. that stock now just barely positive on the year. shares still more than 12% off their all time highs. that was hit on january 7th. so where do we go from here. and does this week's action make nvidia more or less important. tim you get to ki

so unitedhealth is a huge component of the dow 30.and for arcane reasons, it you know, when that stock gets hammered like it did yesterday, the dow falls hugely. >> mhm. and listen voters signal pretty strongly as we were just saying in the election they think prices are simply too high. what can president trump do. we focused on what's kind of out of his hands. but what can he do to help out on that front. and how likely is it do you think that he does that. >> well, you're assuming a misunderstanding. i think if you're trump of a of of how tariffs work, it's not like you're getting immediate cash back or a check that can be cut out like a stimulus check for people to go out and spend on consumables. traditionally, prices inflation has been killed by hatching some sort of recession. you have to have a slowdown. you have to have demand destruction. you have to have less people going out, less going to disney world, less buying less, leasing less, and then workers coming in and accepting less in exchange. i know it sounds mercenary to

investigation into unitedhealth's. medicare billing practices.. it's a civil fraud investigation. focused on the. >> company's practices. >> for recording diagnoses that trigger some extra. >> payments to medicare advantage plans. >> join us now for more on this and other topics. doctor scott gottlieb. former fda commissioner. and a cnbc contributor. he's also a board member at pfizer and illumina. >> you know. >> this all these things inside out, doctor, and there. >> have. >> been myriad complaints about some of these medicare advantage plans. >> reading about. >> how this works. >> it could. >> certainly be. rife for abuse. i'm wondering whether you have anecdotal evidence of things like this occurring. do you understand what they're saying, that you get a lump. sum from medicare for these advantage plans? if you find some additional. >> diagnoses. >> you're able to go back to medicare and say, you owe us more money. >> and in. >> this investigation. >> they seem to. >> have identified people that said there. >> was. >> pressure from united he

big losses for home depot, unitedhealth and mcdonald's.ontributing a lot to the 100-point drop for the dow. >>> all right, coming up, energy secretary chris wright bashing efforts to achieve net zero carbon emissions. >> net zero 2050 is a sinister goal. it's a terrible goal. [applause] finish it's both unachievable by impractical means -- stuart: okay. trump's administration if rolling back the biden era energy mandates. we're going to get into that for you. >>> trump promising to complete a canceled natural gas pipeline between pennsylvania and new york. that's a bid to bring down energy prices in the northeast. jeff flock is going to take us through it. he's next. ♪ ♪ finish i don't play for money. my ambition is to play big—to help and inspire others. that's why i joined sofi. they help people earn more and save more, so they can realize their ambitions. sofi. get your money right. do you have a life insurance policy you no longer need? now you can sell your policy - even a term policy - for an immediate cash payment. call coventry dir

apple, ibm, unitedhealth group is up and nike is up as well.rs. ecolabs is on there, phillips 66, dupont, coca-cola and since halt inty -- is that financial? i guess since matty financial, that that's what it was. and the nasdaq winners, global groundings, is that it? if. >> foundries. david: okay. my eyes are not as good as they used to be -- [laughter] >> on semi, mongo db and apple. david: and the 10-year treasury, the yield is up 4.2 basis points to 4.536%. that's the 10-year. check in on gold. as we mentioned, it's down just by a tick, down about $6. still well over $2900 per ounce. and bitcoin is down, again, not by a9 lot from their standards, it's down to $96,946. taking a look at oil, it's up a little bit, up about 88 cents to $73.20 the a barrel, and nat gas is up about 3%. big jump for nat gas. the average price, by the way, for a gallon of regular is now $3.14. but if you live in california, sorry to say it is the $4.66. what a difference. >>> coming up, senate republicans are pushing two separate bills to get trump's agenda passed,

mangione has pleaded not guilty to murder and terror charges in the killing of unitedhealth ceo brian thompson. his next court hearing is a week from today. also new tonight. we're getting some answers into that deadly mid-air collision over the potomac. 67 people were killed when a black hawk collided with an american airlines jet. the ntsb, now revealing an early analysis of the flight data and voice recorder on the helicopter, indicates the pilot and her instructor read out two separate altitudes just before the crash. the radio altimeter also showed an altitude of 278ft, confirming the helicopter was flying above its mandatory 200 foot ceiling. the crew was likely wearing night vision goggles throughout the flight. more worrying pilots may have missed a key directive from air traffic control. but there's a caveat. the ntsb chair says this information is only preliminary, and they found, quote, inconsistencies in the data. i want to get right back to former black hawk pilot elizabeth mccormick. glad to have you here to help us make sense of the new information we're learning today,

. >> steve weiss, unitedhealth unh. >> axon enterprise. >> wow, i didn't even call your name. all right. thank you. see you on the closing bell. >> thank you very. >> much, scott. >> and welcome to the. >> exchange i'm kelly evans. >> here's what's ahead. >> tech is. >> taking a hit with. >> amd and alphabet leading. >> the declines today. >> alphabet on. >> track for its worst day. >> in a year. >> that's on earnings. >> apple a different. >> story also moving lower. we'll dig into. >> the details there and broadly look. >> at how to position. in the. >> tech trade now. >> plus he was instrumental in tiktok's ban. now he's raising. >> a red. >> flag on deep sea. if you use the app. >> you're going to. >> want to hear this. >> for ceo. >> ivan cerini. >> joins us. >> in a live tv exclusive with. >> what his firm uncovered. >> and the national security. >> concerns it raises. >> as everyone is still. >> buzzing about deep sea ai disruption. and speaking of tiktok, perplexity is making a bid for tiktok. u.s. ceo says it's a deal president trump will like. is it a long shot, thou

this time, it's unitedhealth offering employees in its benefits unit buyouts if they quit by march 3rd. sources tell cnbc if the company does not meet its resignation quota, they will begin layoffs. shares are down nearly 13% over the past six months and are fractionally higher today. stay with us. >> muni money is sponsored by b&m help build america's future with b&m insured muni bonds. >> infrastructure makes our economy grow and keeps our communities strong. and now's the time to build. ban mutual protects municipal bond investments that finance essential projects, providing an added layer of security to improve your portfolio with guaranteed income that helps investors reach their goals. invest with confidence. build a invest with confidence. build a better as your host, i have some rules. two flush maximum per bathroom visit. no games. no fun. there's a great barbeque outside. but don't touch that. meanwhile, at a vrbo... when other vacation rentals make you share your turf with a host, try one that's all yours. and with the help of financing from capetus, you can meet all of your

also, just in this morning, unitedhealth.al report saying that the department of justice is investigating medicare billing practices. so more on that coming up in today's dollars and cents. thank you for joining us here on mornings on two. i'm pam cook. >> and good morning i'm dave clark. it's friday it's february 21st. and the sky outside of our studio now. spectacular. you did a great job, steve. >> well, you know, i didn't finish number 77, which is that orange up there. >> but here comes. >> the paint by numbers in there. yes, but it is nice. here comes the sun.hat correct, pamela. thank you. a few high clouds. i think we'll clear those. and it looks nice. it really does here. so get out and enjoy 30, 40 and 50 on the temps. why is oakland 51? because they have an east northeast breeze. look at that 23 to 28mph. that will do it. so it will be mild to warm today. we could get near 70. there will be considerable cloudiness spilling in late saturday, sunday and monday. but it's stepping out. weather no doubt. get out and enj

yahaira: unitedhealth group shares are tumbling nearly 10% amid reports that the justice department launched its billing practices. the journal reporting that the doj is looking into the united health diagnosing practices after claims that medicare paid the company billions of dollars for questionable diagnoses. president trump met with tim cook at the white house yesterday. cook is among the tech leaders trying to foster a closer relationship with trump since his reelection. apple is caught in the middle of an escalating trade fight between the u.s. and china at a time that it is seeking to revive sluggish iphone sales. amazon mgm studios gained creative control over the james bond franchise forming a joint venture with longtime custodians, ending the family control over the franchise paving the way for amazon to offer more james bond content. your bloomberg brief. jonathan: in the 1960's, he said, do you know how many times i've seen that online? that is what people want he said in the 1960's. dani: i can't think about him without the cgi mustache situation. if amazon owns it, they need a

doctor ucsf as a provider will charge $100 for a visit before you decided to transfer us from unitedhealth to blue chip so what am i going to do $100 for a visit? i as i said, sir, we're not able to answer your questions from the dais where this is public comment and so we've heard your comment and you're welcome to follow up with staff from health service system to address your concerns but it does send me to where i came from where i was before. >> you have staff in the room, sir. >> thank you. hopefully a staff person will be in touch with you and no one else has approached the podium. >> well move to our moderator who will notify us of any callers in the public comment queue at this time for secretary there are eight callers on the phone line three callers have entered the public comment queue at this time. thank you. moderator on meet the first caller welcome. caller hello, welcome. caller three minutes begins. thank you. my name is darcel grace and i'm a retiree and i'm i'm concerned about prescription benefit and i got a prescription benefit for mail order from my doctor for 90 day