apparently amerisource, which reports wednesday, is offering just those kinds of discounts. that's right. amerisource bergen has set off a real rootin' tootin' price war, one that no one expected because after all, this industry has been a benign ol goply for a decade and a half. mckesson made it very clear that this is the problem on their conference call. the ceo said, and i quote, i can tell you that mckesson doesn't believe you can build sustainable relationships with customers or value for shareholders with a price oriented approach, and i know at least one company in our sector has been pretty public about growing revenues above market and about regaining market share, particularly in the independent space, end quote. in other words, they think price cutting is a real bad idea, but one company, amerisource, has gotten pretty aggressive about it. now, mckesson, as i said, the stock lost 22% of its value today. worst decline in 17 years. it might not be done going down. how is that possible? how bad could it get? in the past when price wars have broken out, the stocks of

but one company, amerisource, has gotten pretty aggressive about it. stock lost 22% of its value today, its worst decline in 17 years. and it might not be done going down. how is that possible? how bad could it get? in the past when price wars have broken out in this industry, the stocks of these companies have been eviscerated. it doesn't happen all overnight. i know down 22% seems like an evisceration, but it might not be. there could be more ahead. now the investors who own these drug wholesalers are freaking out because who knows where the price war ends? here? lower? does mckesson try to win those pharmacies back with even bigger concessions? do other drugstore chains demand similar discounts? that's the fear. we don't know the answer. of course on their conference call, mckesson said they don't expect aggressive price cutting on their part to continue. but if their competitors keep cutting prices, i don't see how mckesson will have much choice even as it obviously wants to hold the line. the stock's gigantic decline today is screaming that they c

be aware you can have a relief rally, but when amerisource reports it could be in trouble.s under pressure, drug stocks are under pressure, money continues to flow into the takeovers, tech and banks. doesn't seem to want to end. just be careful health care. i don't know if it can bottom. >> point's been made. cardinal has a big non-drug division. >> yes. look, these companies are not dumb companies but look at merck lost all of its value after ketruda. >> what's on mad tonight? >> well, you know, alcoa splits tonight. we're going to have them, newell some didn't like after the quarter. and then brunswick had a quarter that was hurt by the fact that they have an exercise business. that i actually like very much. so we're going to talk to them. and this week we have so many companies that are onto talk about earnings. i'm very excited about it. and i hope it makes up for last night which was painful. >> that was rough. you had to wait a long time for that result. >> yes. and tonight's day of the day and tomorrow's my wife's birthday so we're going to be up a little too late e

mckesson's loss you mentioned quickly, people may have missed it amerisource burden loss, cvs, whichcare mart, take a look at all these names, maybe we'll have a board for you at some point, mck, and cardinal health, cah, all getting crushed. >> everyone was so wrong. mckesson was so abject when they say, listen, we've got to talk about what's happening here. they go over like generally speaking we anticipate pockets of increased competitive activity as part of normal business. what we've began to see is activity broader than expectations, more aggressive and across several areas of the u.s. pharmaceutical business. it's very rare you have management as candid as they are basically saying, listen, these guys -- we're really going into a dog fight. typically they start up as, hey, business is good, but no, this was like a very competitive atmosphere. we got to figure out whether politics played a role. did the drug companies not raise price as much as they would. >> and therefore they didn't benefit as much. or in fact while they hold the drug -- they own it and then they buy ahead an