for "nightly business report," i'm bertha coombs, new york. >>> let's turn to peter pitts to talk about all of this. peter is the president of the center for medicine in the public interest. per, thanks for joining us tonight. >> my pleasure. >> how likely, now that we're t focusing ose rebates, you know, this flow through of funds that occurs in the industry, how likely is it going to be that we're going to roll those bk d what would the impact be? would it be meaningful to lowering drug prices? >> most people say their drugs are too pensive. i go to the pharmacy and have a huge co-pay. the co-pay costs most pern says. and the pbms as was mentioned earlier are getting 10, 20, 30, 40% discounts from the discountser and tho and rebates are going in their pockets rather than lowering costs athe point of dispensation. when we think of lowering drug pric w, what the voterts really is to make sure when they go to the pharmacy they're payi less out of their cket. when it comes to affording plans out of part d, of course you want affordable premiums but having a cheap plan that gives you higay

bertha coombs has more. >> wall street higher for now. markets coming off of a positive week thanks in part to a strong rally in energy stocks and oil prices. looked for nick reports this week on retail sails and housing. prices at the pump are going higher. it 52 sends higher than this time last year. they predict a 41.5 million americans will be traveling over the weekend. and many consumers have no decide apampdly what their interest rate is on their credit card. only 39% say they definitely know, and 32% say they definitely don't know. the average credit card rate is about 16.7%. the average person owes more than $6,000 on their card. they say the debt works against you can it can go quickly. try to pay them off every month if you can. >> ignorance is police for some people. >> they keep sending you offers and offers. >> they want you to rack it up. >> just had, celebrating moms everywhere, you're watching "early today." huggies snug and dry for outstanding overnight protection at a fraction of the cost. live, learn and get luvs. a ne

table with the ceos of auto companies and is expected to give a speech on lowering drug prices bertha coombsas what to expect on that speech first to eamon javers. >> reporter: we expect some of the most powerful ceos in the automotive industry to come to this gate to my left, to your right here we're expecting mary barra and other ceos for foreign automakers to come here. i'm told by white house officials that one thing that the president wants to hear is what do the ceos think they want the-mile-per-hour gallon standards to actually be it could be an awkward meeting for some of these ceos who are caught bet wichwixt and in betw. the automakers ultimately what they want is one set of standards between both california and washington, d.c they don't want to be caught in that political crossfire the question is, will the president push them to lobby on his behalf and with the state of california to lower california emission standards? as we await those arrivals we'll ask those ceos what they sxkt to happen in this meeting that is scheduled to start in just half hour's time. >> indeed californi

. >>> good monday morning to you, i'm bertha coombs live at cnbc headquarters. wall street looking like it's going to open higher again this morning. markets are coming off a positive week thanks in part to strong rally in energy stocks and oil prices. the dow posting its best week since march, up seven sessions in a row looking to make it eight today. we're going to watch for economic reports this week on retail sales and housing. on friday the dow rose 91 points to 21,831 and nasdaq slipped two to 7402. if you had baby back ribs at chilies, b es may want to check bank account. customers credit and debit card information was compromised. no social security numbers were exposed because it doesn't collect that data. brinker believes the breach happened between march and april. at least 15 separate breaches have occurred to retailers since january of last year. that works out to one a month. >>> the roads will be crowded this memorial day according to aa. more than 41 million americans expected to travel, up 5% from a year ago and the most in a dozen years. predic

. >>> good morning, i'm bertha coombs live from cnbc's headquarters. here are today's headlines. wall street could start the week on a positive note building on friday's rally. and focusing instead on tech, apple stock hitting a fresh all time high after warren buffett revealed that berkshire hathaway boosted its stake in the iphone maker. look for economic data this week on inflation as a consumer on friday the dow jumping 232 points to 24,262 and nasdaq moving up 121 thanks to apple to 7209. nestle and starbucks are joining force for a caffeine jolt to the coffee import. they'll paid $7 billion for the rights to sell starbucks products in supermarkets and restaurants. nestle will also use the starbucks brand in its nesspresso coffee makers. trying to grab more upscale coffee makers where it is overtaken by jab holdings, with the k-cup machine. >>> ticket master sees a future where you no longer need a physical or digital ticket to get into the event. invested in a facial recognition company called blink identity. it can register an image of your face as soon as you walk past a

bertha coombs, thank you >>> a state of the u.s. earnings david berman will join david to discuss with the dow hanging in firmly to a gain don't go away. anyone can get you ready, holiday inn express gets you the readiest. because ready gives a pep talk. showtime! but the readiest gives a pep rally. i cleared my inbox! holiday inn express, be the readiest. >>> welcome back to "squawk on the street." live at post 9 from the new york stock exchange one hour into the trading session and a rally on our hands. the dow up 0.5%, up 114 points the s&p 500 up 0.3%. and the nasdaq lagging behind today. but overall, capping off a strong week in a strong way if this rally holds through the end of friday. >> next week, retail earnings kicking off with macy's walmart, jcpenney my next guest says earnings aren't always the best indication of consumer strength. giving us what have been really good calls >> thank you >> i don't know if you can keep it going >> thanks for having me. >> let's talk about the strength in the consumer. last time you were

. >> our reporters are following all the action for us, bert bertha coombs, and bob pisani on the floorith us, but in washington, eamon has details on a wiretap pressuring the white house. >> reporter: that's right. part of the new developments we've had over 24 hours. in terms of the president's personal attorney, michael cohen, we just finished the briefing here from sarah huckabee sanders, explaining the statements from the former mayor of new york, and, again, this morning, he was on television, and he admitted that the president was aware, ultimately, of the payments that michael cohen made to stormy daniels, the porn star, on bhaehalf of te president. there was question about when exactly the president was aware of the payments that his lawyer made on his behalf sarah was asked about that and why the white house seems to have been given misleading answers on the subject this is what she said. >> when it comes to the other last instance that you mentioned as mayor guiliani stated, this was not something initially known, but later learned, and, again, we give the best information po

let's get right to our reporters following action for us, bertha coombs at the nasdaq, but first bob pisani >> eight days is enough. we are tired because we had a nice run, but this is inflation concerns that are picking up concerns too eight days, and retail numbers, a lot of attention because gas prices move up, inflation concerns, and empire state survey, survey of manufacturing in new york, input prices highest in many years. there's a double whammy on the inflation front. this was a major issue because both of the reports, retail sales, empire state, look at the futures, coming out at 8:30 in the morning, and saw reaction in the markets. look at that mini contract, immediately at 8:30 eastern time after that, there's the decline right there. so that's obviously what's been going on we have not recover. sitting essentially at the lows for the day. this is very, very different than the total decline we saw back in february remember that big concern on inflation in february? look at this we drop 50 points, 500 points in the dow. that day, on that friday, jobs report came out, volum

the charts as always, thank you let's flip to the nasdaq for a look at what's moving there with bertha coombs. >> yeah. we are watching big cap nasdaq being tin the lead onceagain. the nasdaq within 4% of the all-time high. so is the large cap etf. the xlx, it's about a couple dollars away from its march all-time high. the chip sector had really changed trend. it is no longer in correction. now it's down less than 10% from the all-time high. as are large cap biotech a lot of earnings movers, electronic arts at a new historic high after an earnings beat after live services, live gaming services really becoming very popular more so than the games themselves sometimes mylan also reported better than expected earnings. alphabet and all of the fang names are higher today but they are all now out of correction down less than 10% from recent high that's a big shift among the losers today, also some earnings names. biggest decliner, monster beverage following disappointing margins. downgrades there same story for crocs and papa johns. and finally, you know, lots of deals today. investors not so sweet

eric chemi bertha coombs. and aditi roy will have fitbit results.those earnings start to cross. joining me now is senior markets commentator michael santoli alongside sarat sethi. welcome, everybody leading the dow today was apple with about a 5% gain after earnings yesterday i'd call it 4.5% verizon down 2%. aptive was the big gainer. and unum group lagged. we talked about earnings season how there was so much anticipation of strong profits and the market had kind of started to find its footing. and then now lately, even today it was really just the last hour that things fell apart >> taking aggregate good numbers for granted. it's not an encouraging pattern. you have this heaviness later in the day. but i also think it's mostly sideways it says to me it's more of a confused churning market more than one that is particularly fearful you know, even with the selloff in the afternoon, it wasn't like there was an urgency to the selling. it was very kind of measured i don't say that to say it doesn't mean anything, but it doesn't change the pattern very

ringing the closing bell later let's get back to the insurers, health insurance in particular bertha coombs is joining us now with reaction from the speeches we heard now >> thank you very much your association says that getting rid of the rebates, which secretary just said, really, are part of the problem that creates this arms race for higher list prices, will hurt seniors and medicare part d. why would that happen? >> it's important to focus on the positive things, focus on list prices, focus on competition, getting gaming out of the system. when it comes to drug raeebates it's important to remember they are the entity that created the rebate system. now, right now, rebates reduced the premiums for seniors in the medicare part d program so everyone pays a higher price we're all in favor of lower list pricing, getting pricing down, but we have to look to secretary azar's appointment, how do you do it overtime in a way that makes sense to lower costs for patients, lower cost to taxpa r taxpaye taxpayers. >> one of the pharmacy benefit managers pointed out 100% of the rebate goes towards lo

bertha coombs joins us with more i knew that. n this day and age, you need to say that. bertha, you have some stuff on the potential impact on pharma and especially, i think, on -- becky loves talking about pbms we've got to talk about them later. >> the middle men. >> yes it's got a bad connotation >> nobody wants to be called that the president's policy initiative is called american patients first and the aim to help medicare recipients like lilly dawson who takes multiple medications and sometimes has to choose between getting prescriptions and paying bills >> this month alone it's running me close to $150 that's automatic everything has to be refilled. there's no getting around it >> so she's probably not going to pay her doctors this month and put that bill off. officials show four ways they'll target prices. to reduce the gaming of patents. also giving med tear plans more flexibility to negotiate prices. they didn't give many details on this, but they'll stop short of the government itself and will target list prices by limi