centene fell nearly 5%. it is important to note that both centene and we have a number of things in common, including significant business around government h programs. and that could prove to be either a risk or a reward. bertha coombs h the details. >> reporter: centene has grown its medicaid business tenfold over the lastade in part through regional acquisitions. the $17.3 billion deal touy wellcare will be its biggest transaction yet. >> these are two good companies in my opinion. you're putting the, togeth they're high growth industries. they have complementary products that work well together. we've had the objective to build our medicare product. they have a strong medicare product. we have a technology platfor they need for their work. would e combid company become the nation's fourth largest health insurer, cementing the safety net programs and the affordable care exchange marke the combined company a million medicare advantage members and 4 million medicare part drug plans across all 50 states. wha

down you want it to go up jim pointed out, centene is coming back a bit.ders at wellcare, 29% roughly if i remember, of the combined company. it is both cash and stock. >> centene is a really good company and it has been a horse for a long time. they bought fidelus in new york state. that was a religious managed care, they have done remarkable with that. that just happened i think this market likes to forgive and my forgiveness stock of the day is dollar general >> okay. >> this stock is back to where it was when it so-called severely disappointed. what does that tell you? the market wants growth. dollar general is growth so i -- these are positive signs, measured against oncoming supply >> market seems to be quite forgiving in many cases. >> look at boeing. >> look at boeing. you pointed out, still up 17% over the last three months >> that's incredible it really is incredible. if carnival comes back, that would be something that was a disappointment versus norwegian which i had the week before >> ronald donald was on yesterday. >> there are big companies

. >>> and centene multi-billion dollar acquisition makes it one of the biggest government-sponsored health care in the u.s. but with the trump administration stepping up the attack on affordable care act, how could it impact the company plans for a gigantic acquisition. i've got the ceo so sty with cramer >> announcer: don't miss a second of "mad money," follow at jim cramer on twitter. tweet cramer at #madtweets at madmoney@cnbc.com or at 800-743-cnbc head to "mad money" on cnbc.com. your brain is an amazing thing. but as you get older, it naturally begins to change, causing a lack of sharpness, or even trouble with recall. thankfully, the breakthrough in prevagen helps your brain and actually improves memory. the secret is an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. ...or trips to mars. $4.95. delivery drones or the latest phones. $4.95. no matter what you trade, at fidelity it's just $4.95 per online u.s. equity trade. >>> has pvh gotten its groove back it looks lik

centene was lower most of the day.e to the affordable care act will we be seeing more consolidation in this space mike, either way there's been a lot of consolidation already do we expect that to continue? and do you think it can get rushed through >> seems like the players have been maneuvering for a couple of things the payment chain of health care services and drug delivery services this idea of vertically integrating, having the insurance company, so yes, i think two things are happening that will probably continue to happen, which is try to figure out how you would get scale to partner up and also stocks are going to trade on legal and policy headlines in a way that they did before when there was suspense about obamacare. >> we do have lulu lemon earnings just out. seema mody has that. seema? >> earnings of $1.85 adjusted much higher than $1.74 estimated. $1.67 billion xwebeating consen of $1.15 billion on the back of strong holiday sales. the company announcing a $500 million buyback. comp sales are in line with

aporter: i think centene got pretty decent deal.ng a price well below wellcare's october 2018 high. isn'tsh price actually that significant, which is a sign that wellcare could see some benefit to being a part of a larger organization in a time of significant turmoil for those government focused businesses. vonnie: all right, max nisen, thank you. guy: still ahead, we are going to be talking about what is going on here at westminster today with brexit. a big day in the brexit battle. all of the details to follow. this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪ guy: live from westminster in london, i'm guy johnson. vonnie: live from new york, i'm vonnie quinn. this is "bloomberg markets." guy: let's turn back to what is happening in westminster today. parliament is due to vote on brexit plan b options, effectively taking control of parliamentary business from the government of theresa may. there's a number of sort of different aspects to this. we are joined by bloomberg's jeff shankman. whenever going to find out what they are going to -- just bloomberg's je

centene down by almost 8%.es that have been moving this centene and wellcare since they both rely so heavily on the affordable care act had both been under pressure on news of the trump administration pushing to overturn the affordable care act. >>> tesla shares defending elon musk's tweeting habit. that musk uses twitter wisely and that it's part of everyday business for many ceos this comes off several high profile tweets have gotten him in trouble whether to hold musk in contempt of court due to a tweet in february forecasting the number of cars tesla would produce in 2019 >>> the latest cnbc all-america survey look at programs typically seen through a partisan lens. but there is reason to believe this will have size across the political spectrum steve liesman joining us with more >> our pollster has a famous phrase polling isn't interesting until it is. this data i'm about to show you to me is astonishing and eye opening and an important entry in the great national debate over the government versus the free

we have health insurers and managed-care providers moving on the centene well cared deal.urkish lira is trading at 5.37. weaker .8%. a lot of things going wrong for the financial sector in turkey. no liquidity at the moment. polite.t is being let's get more on the turkish story. in thehave been tumbling worst move since 2016. the real story is not stocks, the real story is in the liquidity story on the offshore side of the fed when it comes to the turkish lira. effectively, the central bank has squeezed that market try. us.a amoa joining walk me through your sense of what the turkish authorities have done. it looks like they are trying to find something short-term that is going to help the president out, but from a long-term point of view they are killing the market stone dead. diana: essentially the authorities have gone back to the classic how to manage nem crisis, which is tightening liquidity to make it impossible to short the currency. they have done this by creating a two tiered market. you have offshore banks and local banks. there is a limit to what offshore banks

eports late e tonight that centene and wellcare are in takeovks. >>> congress went back to work in washington today and there are a number of policy issues that need to be worke out, as usual. ylan mui is following that story for us. what's on the agenda now that the mller investigation is over. >> reporter: there are two big issues that dominated the discussion on capitol hill today. the first one was health care. as you mentioned, democrats came out with new legislation today that they said will protect people with pre-existing conditio. it willlso lower the cost of premiums. but president trump was on capitol hill meeting with senate republicans today and he said that republicans should be the party of health care, so that is one issue that we n expect to see a lot more fus on in the woex a and month ahead. also today the senate took a vote on the green new deal, the sweeping proposal to climate change. it didn't advance in the senate, but democrats are determined to continue t talk about this, even though it didn't move forward. that is another area where tuby say rcans are playing politi

up 10% it's a cash and stock deal that centene will pay that's the reason those shares down 7%. those are our stocks of the day. >> dom, thanks >>> welcome to "the exchange." i'm kelly evans. overnight in china, industrial profits shrunk by the most since late 2011. then germany had its first auction of ten-year debt with a negative yield since 2016. and the u.s. ten-year yield dropped to 2.35% that's helping housing weekly mortgage applications up 9% refis jumped 12% and the trade deficit narrowed in january. let's drill down more on the sell-off and how markets are digesting this with bob pisani at the new york stock exchange >> hello the bond yields are smacking around the stock market. it's a problem stocks began to weaken midmorning as bond yields began moving down. semiconductors, energy stocks, emerging market stocks they're all trading lower. banks had a one-day rally. they've resumed their downward trajectory fractionically. for stocks to resume the breakout, bond yield need to stop falling traders have believed we can't have stocks going up in the u.s. with bonds weake

my question is regarding a company we both know as being really good, centene >> it's been down in theps it's gotten out -- away from as cliff basin, my head writer and only writer says it's out of fashion on the wall street fashion show. what can i say right now these stocks are bad they always come back. they do. you take a look at the chart i'm banking right here right now. i need to go to jason in alabama. jason? >> caller: mr. cramer, thanks to you and all your hard work we appreciate it, sir. >> my staff makes me look good every day. they do. >> caller: i purchased a small position in cadillac golf company and i'm thinking of buying more. >> i like the stock. i'm surprised it fell down so much i like it. i think it's a good stock to own. i think you can buy it and put away charles in florida, charles? >> boo-yah although i have no idea what that means >> i don't either. >> berkshire hathaway. i bought it in 2007. it went down in 40%. i rode it. now it's up 150% i know your position on taking some winnings off the table and paying tax, but i'm 77 years old and would like to let it

. >> well care is a medicaid provider and it is soaring on a report that centene has spoken to wellcare about a possible takeover it has a market cap of $11.5 billion. both stocks were down about 4% during market trading hours on the reports that the trump administration is now asking the fifth circuit court of appeals to throw out the entire affordable care act. wellcare has just taken over or bought aetna's medicare part d plans, so it does face an expansion next year once it's able to take over those plans. aetna getting rid of those plans, having been acquired by cvs. so we continue to see reported talks here within this sector and reported moves on consolidation. we have put out calls to both companies, have not heard anything but again, according to a bloomberg report citing people familiar with the situation, the two firms have been in talks back over to you. >> all right, bertha, big move there. guys, anybody got a view or position on wellcare. >> quickly the stock has been under extreme pressure a lot of the managed health care stocks have been getting bludgeoned on everything

there's jim talking to the centene ceo ouabt their wellcare acquisition. there's more "fast" after this 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. ♪ it's a revolution in sleep. the sleep number 360 smart bed, from $999... senses your movement and automatically adjusts on each side to keep you both comfortable. and snoring? how smart is that? smarter sleep. so you can come out swinging, maintain your inner focus, and wake up rested and ready for anything. only at a sleep number store, save $500 on select sleep number 360 smart beds. plus, 48-month financing on all smart

they had a reception, the ceos of well care and centene last night and we dug into it a bit i don't think wanted to do it now, the price was right. it's going to spark a whole new round of consolidation who is left standing maybe five big companies at the end of it. >> you had some of your picks and favorites are similar over the years, they haven't changed a lot. they've never been based on merger and acquisition >> true. >> are they now or you figure that might come along if the fundamentals are tractive with or without consolidation >> i don't usually pick an event. i pick it on fundamentals. consolidation offers optionality to the upside and bullish on the government space humana has the likelihood of being taken out. it will probably take two years because cigna needs to de-lever from the express scripps transition molina is probably going to get taken out soon maybe united is a buyer, maybe centene. i don't think they maxed out on their debt capacity with well care and magellan as well. broadly speaking, i've been a bull on managed care think it's a real buying opportunity. the weak

health insurer centene, buying up one of the rivals health care plans.ion-dollar health care deal -- well care health plans. >>> lennar, big earnings miss in the first quarter. revenue down. look at that. the stock is up. we'll figure out why the stock is up. you have such a big miss. ashley: yes. stuart: i don't understand it. >>> let's stay on money. market watcher hans is with us. hans you say we're in a surprise for economic growth this year. i got to tell you i would be very surprised if we meet 3% growth this year. is that the surprise you're talking about? >> no. i think the surprise we won't be running under 2% this year or the low twos, stuart. when you look where we're tracking for first quarter gdp, just a week or so ago the expectations were under 1%. actually under half a percent. a week later we're up above 1 1/2% for q1. that is according to the atlanta federal reserve. i think as we move out of the first quarter, which is seasonally the slow time of year, we look to the business surveys, consumer surveys, they're all still at less that re

this deal will help reduce centene's dependence on the obamacare healthcare exchanges.ws. and this, mercedes-benz calling back cars over a safety issue with the seats. the automaker recalling 22,000 coupes and convertibles because the front seats might not lock into place and they could fold forward in the event of a crash. the affected models include the 2017 and 2018 c300 and the 2018 e-400. mcdonald's is reportedly ending the fight against the minimum wage. the fast food chain says it now supports phased in wage increases. the about-face could boost efforts by house democrats to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2024. the current minimum wage is $7.25. at mcdonald's it's around $10. maria: coming up, there's a measles scare, one area of the country threatening pen amountss for not getting vaccinated. and we'll have the story on a critical penalty in the nfl, the story after this. ♪ never going to grow up. ♪ never going to slow down. ♪ we were shining in the dark in the middle of a rock she. rock . ♪ we were doing it right. run with us in the unstoppable john d

for instance, we had the centene deal yesterday. it could change how companies are approaching deal flow going forward. lisa: we saw yesterday saudi aramco saying they were going to borrow $10 million for their deal. it is interesting they are turning to the bond market because things are so easy. alix: good job, saudi aramco. the other top story is china. you have the forum kicking off premiermier -- and the speaking earlier about overall markets. >> world economic growth has remained in positive territory, but it is being weighed down by factors like sluggish trade and protectionism. the global economy is losing momentum, and uncertainty is on the rise. basically, the really interesting thing as we saw this glencore unit freezing imports of canola, there is some concern that if you have that happening with u.s. companies, , does thatying well companies? you can see the starbucks of the world, some big u.s. company's being impacted in that way. so the prospects of a protracted ,ituation can really go poorly and certainly for chines

do you agree with the market that centene is not a great deal, wellcare not that bad?ake some losses on policies they acquired, so i don't know that they have the best execution record. the interesting part of this is ceo. alix: thank you very much. art hogan will be sticking with us. coming up, january trade numbers. how u.s./china tension weighed on imports and exports. we also speak to u.s. representative tom reed of the ways and means committee. this is bloomberg. ♪ this isn't just any moving day. this is moving day with the best in-home wifi experience and millions of wifi hotspots to help you stay connected. and this is moving day with reliable service appointments in a two hour window so you're up and running in no time. show me decorating shows. this is staying connected with xfinity to make moving simple. easy. awesome. stay connected with the best wifi experience and two-hour appointment windows. click, call or visit a store today. alix: this is "bloomberg daybreak." i am alix steel. risk off. we have the trade balance coming out very equities under pressure

senti centene -- >> i asked the ceo how can you take action and maybe a huge buy right now when aca,p is battling against the texas ruling. >> this is so based on the government because these are medicaid medicare. >> he chose to call it aca he said i still call it aca. michael is a visionary but it' an investment year and that's a curse word cvs is an investment course word if you use the word investment, it's probably the worst thing you can possible do. you realize apple in its launch never used the word investment people talking a lot about the apple card and the goldman relationship. >> apple's been flat for the week for the most part you had some cross currents there in terms of the qualcomm >> a lot of people who are key to the thought leader, so to speak, on the stock of apple, they don't cover a credit card you have to figure out what happened to costco it's more about costco and the credit card. goldman does not have a credit card right now much to speak of. there should be a higher multiple than the 1415 that apple gets of course goldman 7.9 price is an embarrassment and m