courtney reagan knows.he's back with those. >> if you love all things french, you're a froncofile. if you love all things royal -- >> englofile >> that's english in general royal family stuff isny jam. it's a royal wedding triple play madame tussauds's unveiling meghan markle's wax figure it depicts the green dress markle wore when the engagement was announced. wedding story number two, dunkin' donuts releasing a special doughnut in honor of the royal wedding. it's heart shaped, covered with chocolate frosting, vanilla frosting and stuffed with jelly. >>> and lego lands windsor made a replica of the castle, horse drawn carriage and the royals themselves >> two things. am i allowed to say what you just wrote down on my paper. she said i'm going to the royal wedding. you are going for cnbc >> nope. >> you're that much of a fan >> i will stand on the street and wave >> you're flying to england to wave >> yep going stand and wave >> she has her horse and carriage ready going with a chimney sweep and david coppe

for "nightly business report" i'm courtney reagan. >>> and macy'snl isn't the company that goes afteruperstar executives. other retail giants in theast like sears and jcpenney have brought in star power to help turn t stores around with very mixed results. is tess the way to go for shareholders? joining us is eric gordon, a rofessor at the university of michigan's school of business. thank you for joining us tonight. >> hello. >> you pick any of -- maybe the mostams instance of a company hiring a superstar executive when chrysler hired lee iacocca. >> yeah. that one worked. ou're an investor you have to have mixed feelings. you're excited but you have to beworried. sometimes it works really well and someti s it doesn't work at all. >> and is that industry specific? i mean does i it work bette retail as bill mentioned or retail in terms of auto industry? and not in other areas. >> you know, it should work in retail because retail is an area of creativity. an individual should be le to make a arthur martinez made a difference at sears. he brought a lot of vicrea, a lot of star power fro

i'm courtney reagan.rin brin brian sullivan is on assignment. let's check the market action. futures pointing to a higher open on the dow jones. implied higher by 38 points. nasdaq higher by 33 points the s&p 500 stands to open higher by more than 3 points first the big story of the day, apple. shares shooting higher after the company topped earnings expectations and announced a 0 $100 billion buyback let's get to arjun kharpal with more on apple's big quarter. >> good morning. let's dig into the key bits of the report here. that 1$100 billion share buyback investors were excited about that in this quarter apple gave back share holders 22$22.8 billion v buybacks, that's record sum for a quarter. so they continue to reward investors. that is keeping them happy about the stock. next key figure is iphones while the unit numbers were up 3%, revenue increased by 4%, which gives us a sense that customers were purchasing the higher priced iphones, that made tim cook excited on the earnings call, where he said cu

i'm courtney reagan. brian sullivan is on assignment today.ay the fourth be with you dow jones industrial average if it were to open at this point would open higher by 9 points or so but watching shares of apple this morning we're doing so because warren buffett told becky quick that berkshire hathaway bought a whopping 75 million shares of the tech giant in the first quarter. here's what buffett said to becky last night >> it is an unbelievable company. if you look at apple, i think it earns almost twice as much as the second most profitable company in the united states it's a wide, wide gap. it's an amazing business here's a company that's -- whatever the earnings are, 60 billion or whatever, you can put all their products on a dining room table >> they already own 165 million shares of it before. though were a huge shareholder of apple to tack on another 75 million on top of that is -- first of all, i guess if you are an investor with a background and a history like warren buffett, you see trends, you see large scale purchases -- the size o

in april helped push down consumer spending on home and outdoor supplies but as cnbc's courtney reagan did not dampen may comparable sales at home depot >>> unseasonable weather kept consumers from spending on garden supplies and outdoor merchandise during a time when spending on those items is high. that makes up about 20% of home depot's first quarter sales. the weather hit hardest in april which the company said was one of the coldest and snowiest aprils in 20 years >> i don't think it's nearly as bad as this looks. we had a slow start to spring. and this is coming off of two years where there really wasn't much in the way of a winter. once the weather turned sales picked up. >> in fact, home depot said many comparable sales are up double digits just a little bit more than 2% in april good news, may is the most important month for gardening. home depot executives express confidence that sales lost in the first quarter will get picked up in may, june and july and as a result reiterated its full-year forecast while outdoor categories missed the mark, the rest of the store did well sal

. >>> good morning, i'm courtney reagan live from cnbc headquarters. here are today's top business headlines. wall street could start the day in the red. investors are eyeing president trump's decision to delay steel and aluminum tariffs on canada, mexico and the european union pie a month and exempt several other countries. also on today's watch list, data on manufacturing, the fed begins its two-day meeting and apple reports earnings this afternoon. the markets ended april on a down note but still eked out small gains overall. the dow fell 141 points to 24,163 and the nasdaq slipping 53 to 7066. >>> analysts say sales fell 8% last month and that's despite big discounts for consumers. sales are also expected to drop further in 2018 as interest rates rise and more late-model used cars return to dealer lots to compete with new vehicles. >>> thousands of websites are expected to post red alerts on may 9th ahead of a senate vote to block the fcc's repeal of net neutrality rules. the go red campaign is designed to promote awareness about the vote and the h

. >> courtney reagan was there for pleasure wilfred was there working. >> the shortbread, has a bestefore date of 2019. i don't know how long it will take to ship it could get lost in customs also included in that gift bag, a 20% off coupon for anything in the castle gift shop >> all right that could be big. >> there you go. >> buying a mug, you go to the gift shop, close to the palace, it can cost 20 pounds. that's expensive >> my wife was just there for business took a trip to windsor castle. she could have used that castle. we've been in the mode of buying christmas tree ornaments those things are expensive >>> moving on to the miss usa pageant. miss nebraska is the winner of the miss usa pageant she won it last night. she beat out 50 other contestants to claim the crown sara rose summers, a 23-year-old from omaha will go on to represent the united states at the miss universe competition. this is a great story. for a lot of folks out there who look at these pa jens and say maybe they're not the best thing for women's images, it's something where a lot of folks feel like it's an em

we have courtney reagan joining us live from arkansas at the walmart shareholders meeting and we'll beng to bill simon he used to run the walmart stores in the united states from 2010 to 2014 he's come out swinging when it comes to amazon, says congress should look into breaking up amazon for its anti-competitive practices. those are the same sort of charges that used to be levied against walmart. we'll talk to him about those things we'll be joined by the chairman and ceo of c.a. technologies he'll ring the opening bell today. and a special host with us today. you. that's starting at 7:00. >> or my better looking twin >> it's the light, right >> i look better in sunlight we'll see you soon i'll literally see you soon. >>> coming up on wall street, why one guy remains optimistic on the u.s. equity markets stick around >>> welcome back we're up about 100 points on the dow jones. maybe 137. gaining some steam throughout the morning. joining us is a man who remains optimistic longer term, craig johnson from piper jaffray are you sticking by your target, 6% upside from the s&p here for the

alvaro and courtney reagan here. alvaro is an analyst and courtney is here as well you know, you can look at the profit number. profit numbers are often very fungible you can manipulate them by what you counting and when you choose to count it and you have a little issue with that profit beat but the real concern here was sales. how worrisome was the sales shortfall or the miss there? >> listen, tyler, going into the quarter you knew there were a few moving pieces that would create some disparity around what the comp would be i would highlight whether it being the biggest impact. >> is it a legit excuse? a lot of companies a lot of times say it was the weather. >> is very much is it's legit if you look month to date in may, they're talking about double-digit comps. >> there was not much gardening going on in this area mid-march to about a week ago. >> that's right, that's right. >> and they quantity fified it us home depot came out and said our u.s. comps were 4.2% if we didn't have this impact for weather, they would

courtney reagan has more on this story. a lot of this seems like maybe alphabet wants to put a little bit of a counterweight to amazon, that's why this relationship is happening? >> potentially walmart said on the cal with analysts when the deal was announced, they said right now our stake is worth $16 billion and 77%. however there may be new investors that come on that will further dilute our stake we will remain the majority shareholder. google had been a name that had been floated not a surprise this speculation is coming about, and could be something that we see. i think there's a number of things that are attractive to alphabet here. they also have a stake in the game when it comes to selling android phones india is a big market to try to penetrate or really continue to win for one of these mobile phonemakers. then also cloud. that's a separate business amazon has a big web services business that's going to be important for google to try to get in and get a piece of that. >> it adds to the number of u.s. companies alr

i'm courtney reagan. we checked on this earlier in the hour, but it's sinking, down 3% amid reports president trump will withdraw from the iran deal at 2:00 p.m. there was this sharp reaction to the initial headlines even though many thought this was going to be the outcome, so what does it all mean >> well, courtney, the initial reaction was due to the fact that some people thought actually he was not going to tear up the deal or decertify. we saw about a 4% drop, $3, went below $68, and then rumors came out he had a conversation with macron, that they are going to withdraw we saw some of the losses pair, but right now as we hover on the $69, a lot of uncertainty. if we have the track record of president trump, we're going to see sanctions slapped on iran in about an hour. >> hard to know exactly what's going to happen. everyone seems to think they know until they don't and then things move around jim, what levels are you watching jeff pointed out that $69 level. >> the only thing we do know is what pric

courtney reagan joins us she just got off the phone with macy's ceo >> that's right.of negative comps but jeff gannett macy's ceo did tell me there were a bit of shifts in there we need to be aware of that friends and family event, it's a big event normally falls in the second quarter. did shift into the first quarter. so we got a benefit from that. also the easter was a little bit earlier so that also helped. we'll see what happens then and what that means for the second quarter. we know they did also raise guidance they feel confidence at least for the balance of the full year for sales. no weather impact in the aggregate which was interesting. because yesterday home depot sort of blamed the whole quarter on that. it does make sense they sell a lot of gardening you can't plant flowers if it's still snowing outside. but gannett said no weather impacts. certainly in parts of the country you'd see weakness here and there. international tourism up 10%, best since 2014. so china is the big country when you look at where those tourists are coming from. and then followed b

i'm courtney reagan.e's your cnbc news update former california governor arnold schwarzenegger is urging president trump to join effort to promote green energy. he spoke at the austrian world summit >> to those of you who are watching at home who are nervous about the future, that those of you who insist because you can't imagine success without fossil fuels, we ask you to join us everyone also, you, president trump join us. >> drama surrounding the father of the bride for saturday's royal wedding. news report in britain and the u.s. raise doubts thomas markle will walk his daughter down the aisle. headlines announcing he will not attend the wedding >> a new journalism reporter and novelist tom wolfe has died. he was suffering from pneumonia. he was 88 years old. that's your cnbc news update at this hour. back to you. >> thank you >> the najarians have made their way to the telestrator you have a two-for, and you're up first >> netflix is the first part of that and the reason i like this one so much, when

courtney reagan is on walmart's home turf.ti roy is in seattle with amazon aditi, we'll start with you. tell us what to expect today >> about a hundred amazon shareholders are expected to gather in the building behind me later on this morning. they're going to be talking about a number of usual business items starting with the election of nine directors. they're also going to be talking about a number of shareholder proposals including one that would require that the chairman of the board be an independent director and to that point a group of protesters is also expected to be out here flying a plane with a banner reading, bezos needs a boss of course referring to the current chairman and ceo jeff bezos who just last month wrote a letter to shareholders saying -- announcing for the first time that amazon prime has more than 100 million subscribers. he's expected to talk to shareholders later today and also looking for more commentary on the company's plan for building up prime capabilities including any updates on that much an

let's get more to courtney reagan now. >> with j.c.marvin elson served for a year as ceo designee and then as ceo for the last almost three years. he was with home depot for 12 years and prior to that at target for 15 years. he started his retail career in college as an hourly employee. the retailers board will be meeting this week with the ceo search, the main discussion point. the department store has started a search committee looking internally and externally for possible successors. he spent a year as ceo designee under then ceo. j.c. penney did that purposefully after the departure and reinstatement which was quite shocking to company employees. currently four executives take over as part of the office of ceo when elson departs. cfo jeff davis current board member will be new board chairman. coming into j.c. penney elson's biggest critics pointed to weakness as he pointed to career in operations specifically in integrating stores and websites somewhat similar rules at target. that weakness is likely key strength for lowe's. the h

including our brilliant own courtney reagan who is here in windsor to celebrate as well the numbers overallare around 200,000 100,000 to 200,000 on the streets of windsor in terms of additional visitors to the uk, the estimate is 50,000 to 100,000 overall, gross terms, not people just getting away for the weekend that will be split between london and windsor windsor is not big enough to fit an extra 100,000 people arriving what economic impact will this have in 2011, we did see retail sales in the uk jump to 2.1% in the month of april the average for the first half of that year was less than 1%. so a bit of a boost, but nothing too significant overall. either way, well worth whatever the net cost is overall. back to you. >> wilfred, thank you. wilfred frost in windsor guys, are you getting up early and watching this tomorrow >> no. you have had a busy week working the phones >> i will. i have to wake up to walk the dog. >> little league >> i will go to sleep. i will not be watching >> i will be >> okay. >>> time to send it over to another guy who i know loves that royal family. jon fortt ha

shares of tapestry, formerly known as coach, decline in same-store sales for kate spade division courtney reagans. >> comp sales there did fall short of expectations, as you point out. the coach brand did beat but just barely. total tapestry business, earnings beat expectations thanks to a more favorable tax rate as gross margins disappointed premium brands parent company upped its forecast stewart weitzman is the smallest of the group disappointed there, too. taking it all together, shares of tapestry lower by about 14%, on pace for the worst day since at least august 2017 rbc analyst brian tunic says the european conglomer ate set the bar high for tapestry so results didn't quite get there that's part of the reason for the sell-off analysts think this could be a buying opportunity, saying in general the brand transformation has been pretty impressive and the consistent trends in north america, especially for coach, the biggest brand, those are encouraging. back over to you guys. >> yeah. tough take, too. thank you very much, court >>> we'll be bacwik th oracle ceo mark hurd. as a control enthu

the biggest deal for walmart ever courtney reagan joins us with details and reaction pretty negative walmart shares >> maybe it's a sell on the news this had been largely telegraphed for some time. many of those coming out of india. it's walmart's biggest deal ever buying a 77% stake in indian e-commerce called flipkart combination of cash and new debt this is about five times the size of the jet.com deal walmart says it's still in discussion with investors that may join which actually could lower that percentage of that majority stake but it will still stay the majority stakeholder. the minority stake will continue to be held by the co-founder benny banzel leaders running the business will stay. the board will eventually change amazon reportedly also made an offer possibly pushing up the price. walmart's cfo tells me the retailer paid what we thought was fair for this deal the earlyiest the deal would be approved is by the end of the second quarter if it's aprufd it will have a negative 25 to 30 cent earnings impact for the quarter 60 cents for the full year analysts haven't been ab

boorstin is standing by to cover results for us seema mody will bring us results for roku and courtney reaganmichael santoli, the postup guy >> otherwise known as, yes >> we'll show you the graphic. it's got a basketball. it's cool. >> i need to see it. >> you do. paul hickey is an investor leading the dow, today was dow dupont walmart down after announcing its flipkart deal in india on the s&p, tripadvisor. there were a lot of big moves. the 10-year went over 3% today now wti over $71 a barrel. if that was such a concern, why is everything being staken in stride >> i think the market -- the stock market had done all this kind of testing just to see if any incremental news was going to break it below this recent range. it didn't happen this morning or really early afternoon when the market did take off and really start to rally, it wasn't any headlines it was just about, you know what this is going to hold. the volatility index went below 14 that says we have some stability here as bob was saying, we have a chance to make a run and maybe get rid of this down trend that's been in place for a c

. >>> let's get to courtney reagan for market flash >> hi there.res of department stores are lower today even though the broader market is higher and this comes ahead of the group's earnings reports in coming weeks and a note to investors, department store valuations have gone too far, his team thinks the fundamental upside for these names is limited he's concerned about an earlier easter, unfavorable weather, further pressuring sales he calls out jcpenney, kohl's and dillards >> thanks for highlighting that. >>> the oil market is closing for the day, another strong one for oichl. let's go to dom at the commodity desk >> anyone who drives to and from work every day knows what that trend for oil prices has been and it's been up we're seeing more of that today as you can see here with prices for that front month west texas intermediate crude topping $70 for the first time since late 2014 same thing goes for that price that also caught a bed and hit their highest intraday levels in that time span you got geopolitical concerns part of the story, specul