. >> leslie, thank you leslie picker in the newsroom. tim, you're a shareholder. >> i think there's a lot of leverage that citi bank can pull or has exposure. credit cards were very good in the first quarter. their core business is strong. if you want leverage in a growing economy, that's what we're arguing, i like citi bank. >> valueact, theranos of value fame, that's my only comment have at it >> i'd agree with that i would say citi is trading at a discount to book value they reported book on the "closing bell" with kelly and mike book value is $71.5. even if you give them a 1.3, 1.4 multiple price to book, you're talking about a $90 stock.

for "nightly business report," bom leslie picker. >>> to read more destination ma turn knit's gender board fight you can read more at our website. >>> higher profits hurt the bottom line at toll.builde they missed expectation and the expenses climbed. despite the miss toll brothers did beat onnd sales said it is seeing strong demand for orders even as interest rates rise. shares of toll brothers closed wn more than 9.5% to $39.46. > kohl's saw profits a revenues inch higher. that news was overshadowed by the warninghat it expects sales growth to slow in thend sealf of the year. the shares were off more than 7% to $60.61. >>> well, more customers visited t.j. max and its other store brands this past ffquarter. the priced retailer topped both profit and sales

who else to bring in on this than leslie picker billion on citi. this is a big fight. >> it is value act does take these big, concentrated bets. banks have been a focus for them, but this 1$1.2 billion stake in citi group, they've been building that up for about 45 months. it doesn't appear value act is looking to push for major changes at the bank just yet, but believes citi could return more capital to shareholders, that's what they're starting with in their investor letter. value act writes we believe the u.s. banking system has a structurally lower risk profile than any time in our lifetime. the firm points to scale as a key driver of greater profitabilities. value act believes that citi's restructuring has not been adequately priced in by the market and says citi should generate more than 15% return on tangible common equity by 2020 and deliver eps of double that level from 2017.

leslie picker standing by with the latest >> reporter: hey, melissa.outside of cbs's headquarters in new york where the board meeting got underway just 30 minutes ago. we'll ve me haoron the battle between cbs and its controlling shareholder right after this these zebra and antelope. they're wearing iot sensors, connected to the ibm cloud. when poachers enter the area, the animals run for it. which alerts rangers, who can track their motions and help stop them before any harm is done. it's a smart way to help increase the rhino population. and turn the poachers into the endangered species. ♪ ♪ yourbut as you get older,thing. 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. the name to remember. (slow jazz music) ♪ fly me to the moon ♪ and let me play (bell ring) >>> welcome back

leslie picker. >> that's right.ave taken small positions in adp according to a person familiar with the matterme men matter shaw has been increasingly becoming more of an activist investor, and sachem head was the first analyst hired at persing square last year, and ferguson had previously targeted tdk, a spinoff from adp. the two hedge funds have talked to the company, this person told me, it's unclear whether there's any kind of activist engagement on either side at this time. i say the big akeaway from the news is that it's potentially more pressure for adp ahead of the analyst day, june 12th, bill ackman spoke about this on the call, hoping for efficiency announcements from the company on that analyst day in a couple of weeks now, i have not yet heard back from adp for comment, representatives for the two hedge funds have declined to comment, but certainly one that we're watch as the filings trickle out this afternoon guys >> leslie, thank you >>> separately, june 12, the state department is operating under the

leslie picker is here. >> warren buffett telling becky quick that berkshire did hold talks with uber.hat was in response to a report that the company offered the ride hailing service a $3 billion investment earlier this year the report says the discussions fell apart as uber and berkshire disagreed on the terms and the size of the deal buffett says some of the details in the report are not correct. but he is a great admirer of uber's ceo, dara khosrowshahi. in an interview with carl quintanilla on the sidelines of the code conference, khosrowshahi said the feelings are mutual >> i'll tell you that i'm a giant fan. i'm a warren buffett fan boy for many years, one of my business goals in life has been to get warren buffett to invest in something i'm involved in. so far i failed. so maybe, maybe one day i can convince him that times will be right, he'll be willing to honor us with an investment. it hasn't happened i think warren can invest anywhere any time. >> an investment by berkshire would have been a big seal of approval for uber ahead of an eventual ipo khosrowshahi telling carl th

leslie picker is here with those. >> good morning. cisco, the company's third quarter earnings and revenue beat forecasts, but revenue from the security and services divisions missed expectations. cisco's fourth quarter outlook fell in the middle of the range of analysts estimates. cisco's ceo, chuck robbins, will be on "squawk on the street" at 9:00 a.m >>> take two interactive's fourth quarter revenue missed forecasts. the sales outlook for the current quarter and full-year are also well below estimates. >>> jack in the box had earnings beat forecasts but revenues missed it expects sales to be flat to up about 1% this quarter. >>> shares of ocado are soaring in london today. kroger struck a deal to use its grocery delivery technology. kroger will also take a 5% stake in the company >>> shares of loxo oncology are higher after the company released data showing its experimental cancer drug shrunk tumors in about 70% of patients regardless of where the cancer originated. >>> back to the markets and your money. we'll call this the all a

. >>> good morning, i'm leslie picker live at cnbc headquarters. here are today's top business stories. wall street could see some red arrow at the opening bell this morning. the markets rose yesterday as investors managed to shrug off another spike in bond yields. the yields on the benchmark ten-year treasury hit its highest level since 2011. stocks were led by the retail sector as macy's reported better than expected earnings. look for earning on unemployment and manufacturing from walmart. dow rising, nasdaq closing up 46 to 7398. instagram testing a feature to show you how much time you spend on the app or wasting time looking at selfies, pictures of food, flowers or pets. last year instagram revealed average users under the age of 25 were spending more than a half hour a day on the app and older users were spending more than 24men minutes a day. youtube launching a new streaming service. youtube music comes with extra features personalized playlist based on youtube history. the free version comes with ads while a premium version is $9.99 a mon

i'm leslie picker live at cnbc global headquarters. here are today's top business headlines. wall street will look to add to yesterday's big rally. the markets surged more than 300 points as bank stocks rebounded from tuesday's losses. concerns about italy's political prices and potential ripple effect on europe and global economy appear to have eased for now. trade issues could be in focus today as the white house is reportedly set to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from the european union. we'll also get reports on unemployment and housing this morning. ceo of uber says the company is in talks with google's self-driving car unit about a possible deal that uses technology on the uber app. this would be a major in uber and wamo. they haven't commented on the current talks with uber. it plans to have rides in a fully self-driving car. consumer reports reversed its position and recommending tesla model 3. this comes after tesla released a software update to improve the vehicle's braking distance by nearly 20 feet consumer reports said model 3's braking was worse th

. >>> good morning, i'm leslie picker. here are today's top business headlines. wall street could be in wait and see mode as markets around the world await president trump's decision on the iran nuclear deal later today. stocks closed well off the highs yesterday after the president tweeted he would make an announcement this afternoon. oil prices are pulling back from 3.5 year highs, traders say if the u.s. withdraws, that could hurt iran's oil exports further tightening global supplies. the dow rose 94 points yesterday to 24,357, nasdaq closing up. americans are getting charged up about electric cars. a new survey from triple a finds 20% of people say the next vehicle will be electric. >>> that's up from 15% last year. this could bode well for tesla, which is ramping up production of the first mass market electric car, the model 3, as well as gm's chevy bolt and nissan leaf. one reason for americans' growing enthusiasm, they are not as concerned any more about not having enough juice in the battery to get from point a to point b. >>> microsoft announced a new fe

john flannery gave disappointing guidance and said he could not guarantee its dividend is safe leslie picker back at headquarters with more hey, les. >> ge investors spooked by comments he made at an industry conference earlier today he said he did not expect to see profit at ge's power business this year, profit growth and declined the 2019 dividend those comments sent the stock down 7% posting the worst day since april 2009 while there was a silver lining flannery did affirm ge's profits and cash flow. much of his comments were focused on the power unit which along with ge capital are seen as plebeleaguered units within e company. when it comes to power, he told the conference ge is folk cusino what they can control, getting margins higher. >> new unit will be tough. we're going to continue to focus what we can control, continue to drive cost down rapidly. on the service side we see maybe some green shoots. this is not going to be a quick fix. but at the end of the day long live assets with intrinsic economy value. we're going to make the most of what we have there. >> flannery repeated th

. >>> welcome back to halftime i'm leslie picker. we heard back from gamestop in response to the letter at management sent the company yesterday. the hedgefund is urging the company to explore strategic options. a representative from gamestop just wrote back to say, quote, i can confirm that gamestop did receive the letter from tiger management, llc, gamestop has a long track record of welcoming communication from all of its shareholders and values constructive input that may help increase shareholder value now, gamestop surged as much as 15% on this news premarket, but so far, it's trading about flat today. scott. >> thank you leslie picker. >> all right, chipotle has run up more than 50% thus far this year but argus research doesn't see the rally end soon itpgraded the stock to a buy price target $540. we have made it our call of the day. what do you think of this? >> stock is $200 off its low is there more room to go >> there's probably more room, but when you look at the p.e. aflt 38, even if you look on the forward, that seems l

let's get to leslie picker in the newsroom. >> the filing day is here. the hedge funds add and took new positions in technology during the first quarter, but selectively. so if you recall the sector experienced some significant volatility during the quarter. it's clear that hedge funds really sorted through those and picked their winners and their losers facebook did get some attention with tiger. >> third point green light all adding to their positions. same with alphabet with tiger management, duquesne, all increasing their stakes there and amazon with more and duquesne putting money to work in the ecommerce giant apple a mixed bag. all slash their stakes or sold out. but berkshire hathaway of course remains a believer, as warren buffett mentioned on cnbc. johna also took a new small position in apple. outside of the fangs also saw some interesting moves twitter saw a move from management and tiger global which each took new stakes in that one however, green light reduced its stake in twitter and now a few well-known hedge funds took positions in dropb

. >>> good morning, i'm leslie picker. wall street looks to rebound from yesterday's sell-off and the dow snapping the eight-day winning streak despite the yield's weight on stocks. recent data suggests the economy is picking up after a slow start sparking concerns the fed may try to tap the brakes by aggressively raising interest rates. look for reports on housing and manufacturing. the dow falling 193 points and nasdaq dropping 59 points to 7 7,351. whole foods is launching the new customer loyalty program today offering special discounts to amazon prime members and includes 10% off hundreds of sale items and rotating weekly special, they'll roll out to all other stores this summer. amazon previously announced prime numbers could gets free two-hour delivery from whole foods stores and the new strategy will test whether amazon's $14 billion acquisition of whole foods can disrupt the grocery industry and intensify a price war with the likes of walmart and kroger. the retailer is also slashing the delivery fee from 4.99 to

. >>> good morning, i'm leslie picker live at cnbc global headquarters. here are today's top business headlines. wall street could be set for a mixed day of trading. the markets reversed early losses yesterday to finish higher after the fed says it would be comfortable letting inflation rise temporarily. that's reassuring investors the fed won't be too aggressive in hiking interest rates, which affects consumers borrowing costs. look for economic data on unemployment and home sales. dow rising 352 points, nasdaq closing 47 to 4725. apple is narrowing the scope of its self-driving car program. "the new york times" reports after being spurned by mercedes and bmw am is now teaming up with volkswagen to change vw advance into self-driving shuttles for apple workers. last year the times reported apple scaled back plans to build its own self-driving plans to focus instead on developing the software and technology. ups will start charging an extra $150 next month to deliver oversized packages. this comes as u.s. investing billions to expand and automate sorting

leslie picker explains. >> reporter: in the me too era, allegations of predatory behavior bankruptedinstein's company and forced out wynn founder steve wynn, sending the stock on a roller coaster ride. the stakes are high for corporations failing to root out sexual harassment. so they've turned in droves to private investigators. >> an ounce of prevention really is worth a pound of cure here, because the cost both in terms of potential drop in stock price, legal and pr costs, possibility of the regulators getting involved, they're enormous compared with the relatively modest expenditure in hiring folks like us in order to rule out this behavior. >> reporter: a private investigator for 25 years, he says he's seen about 35% more client calls related to sexual misconduct over the last six months. >> i have never seen a societal phenomenon that has had an e me too post weinstein world. >> reporter: firms are looking for help in due diligence. he's also looking into the background of potential board members. and some clients are seeking possibly predatory behavior in competitors, a move t

leslie picker?> that's right, shares slumping in the after market today on a big miss on the bottom line. the company reporting a loss on an adjusted deluded basis of $1.58 per share. that compares with analysts' sfimts sometimes of $1.26 top line, though, was a beat, report i reporting $2.06 billion versus $1 partnersh $1.98 billion. that's what analysts estimated there. this comes after a flat performance year to date, and it's competitor, avis, closing way in the red last week after they reported earnings and posted weak guidance back over to you, kelly. >> all right,less leslileslie,. john augustine, you get the last word, shares down 10% now, radical rethink of the future, where the automotive industry is going? >> tough space ride sharing services are probably hurting them. potentially some of the resale services are hurting them. so this is a space where generally we're not going to be in we're going to stay in the blue chips. >> all right feeling comfortable with that this afternoon guys, th

. >> reporter: i'm leslie picker in new york, a major shareholder advisory group unfriends mark zuckerberg in the battle between shareholder and dual class stock ceos >>> i'm kelly evans, focusing on small caps hitting a new record high, and why the ceo of bumblebee tuna landed in hot water. the "closing bell" starts right now. >> you know, it's a different energy, faber. i felt like i was too intense because you were - >> i didn't know what to do there. i have not done one of those in a while. that long open of a documentary. >> i'll take your word for it. >> a lot of walking here in this show >> there is. more to come thank you for being here >> of course >> david faber in for wilf today. we'll get to everybody and the stories mentioned in a moment. a check of the markets, 200-point swing in the dow today, down 41 points along this weakness coming just in the last couple minutes, talking about the trade impact that could have fed into that, and s&p and nasdaq lower, and russell 2,000 at another intra-day high. >> we start with comments from the white house, the president actually offerin

scott. >> got you thank you. >> leslie picker with the breaking news for us >> steph, we know that head this position in nike, right he got out quick he made a really nice profit i only bring it up because it's one of your larger positions and i just wonder whether that's sort of the new bill ackman mode of investing shorter, quicker, hopefully bigger hitters rather than these longer positions you know, i think it was a fairly sizable gain they had in nike, in fairly short order. >> you never can apologize for taking a profit, right that's always a good thing i think with nike, i see it as a secular winner and so while it had a nice run and it might just pause for a little bit, we're at the cusp of a whole new product innovation cycle for the company, not only here but around the world. so i think all they need to do is show a little bit of improvement here in the united states, because that's what everyone is focused on, even though it's not nearly as important as it once was, but if they start tosy any kind of improvement due to these products, i think the stock takes another rerati

leslie picker. >> let's get to futures now. jackie has the story on crude. >> well, crude is surging today. over 2%. rebounding after yesterday's sell-off, trading over $68 a barrel right now do you think we can get back to $70? >> i think absolutely. i mean, the weak dollar is certainly helping now, but also, we see the saudis to a certain degree are walking back the conversation last week where the russians where they agreed to increase production. other producers don't like that. they like $70 to $75. they expressed their reservations about that. saudis, kuwaitis, and emirates are meeting this weekend to walk that back. so i think we're going to see less production and higher prices >> jim, what do you think? you're breaking down the key levels >> ijim, what do you think you are breaking down the key levels >> i think this move is largely technical. for two and a half weeks we tried to push out of the range to the up side when it got exhausted it came back it hit 60.80 andrejected it yesterday's movement and the day before e

leslie picker has more >> you have a push to say let's consider this.his is one of the most exciting things we've seen in the m&a world. comcast announcing yesterday that it was in advanced stages of proposing a superior all-cash offer to outed by disney for toxto fox's assets, soon after comcast got a vote of support fr activist investor christopher hone urged the murdoch family to engage with comcast and wrote if comcast formalizes a superior all-cash offer, we would support that offer over the current disney offer he noted that the murdochs may prefer disney's stock offer to a higher price cash offer from comcast due to tax benefits, but he urged them to comply with their fiduciary duties and opt for the highest bid. disney agreed in mid-december to acquire fox's movie studios, regional sports networks and other assets in a deal valued at about $52 billion at the time. comcast has been preparing an all-cash bid to top that if the government approves the at&t/time warner tie up. comcast, disney and fox all declined to comment on the letter >> so fasci

let's get to leslie picker >> there's a lot to unpack here. today is supposed to be cbs's annual shareholder meeting, but late last night the company postponed it in the accelerating war between most of the board led by ceo les moonves and shari redstone i was outside cbs's headquarters last night as the board was meeting inside we saw several board members walk in. they voted to approve a special dividend that diluted redstone's voting power to 17% from 79% the board said if consummated the dividend would enable the company to operate as an independent non-controlled company and more fully evaluate strategic alternatives redstone is the controlling shareholder for cbs and viacom and has been seeking to combine the two companies. a delaware judge yesterday temporarily blocked the temporary restraining order against her that moonves' camp was trying to impose that means the special dividend most likely will certainly be challenged in court. national amusement said in a statement today's vote, while couched as an effort to prevent such a transac

leslie picker has the details. >> we saw a lot of volatility during the first quarter we wanted to lookee how hedge fund managers played some of that volatility, specifically within tech and healthcare sectors. they did purchase facebook en masse, most likely on a dip that stock faced headwinds from the cambridge analytica standal. third point and green light added to position in facebook. apple was more mixed green light and appalossa sold stakes, but berkshire hathaway remained committed some smaller tech companies also saw interesting moves during the quarter. twitter saw a boost from tiger management and tiger global, which each took new stakes however green light reduced its stake in twitter which is one it's held for a couple quarters. a few well known hedge funds took positions in dropbox which went public during the quarter soros and janna took new positions. healthcare attracted interest. berkshire hathaway doubling its stake in teva to more than 40 million shares, or 7$700 million worth. that stock got a boost in that position in after-market strayeding and tiger management pi

. >> for that and rest of the news leslie picker, cnbc world headquarters. good morning, leslie. >> hi, good morning, scott and laura. wall street could be set for a mixed day of trading today. the markets reversed early losses yesterday to finish higher after the fed said it would be comfortable letting inflation rise temporarily. that's reassuring investors the fed won't be too aggressive in hiking interest rates which affects consumers borrowing costs p economic data on home sales do yourising, nasdaq closing 47 to 7425. the trump administration is launching an investigation into whether there should be tariffs. could be seen as an attempt to gain leverage in nafta talks with canada and mexico which have stalled. president trump asked commerce department to consider whether auto imports threaten national security. nearly half the cars and trucks in the u.s. are imported. tariffs would be especially fein for for asian automakers. apple narrowing scope of its car program. after being spurned by mercedes and bm wchwp apple is teaming up with volkswagen to cha

leslie picker has the details. >> more female board members at a maternity retailer might be what tors ago, shareholders voted to overthrow the male dominated board at destination maternity in favor of a women-dominated one. it's an upset that few were predicting just days ago two unhappy shareholders nathan miller and peter o'malley ran a slat of three women and one man. the influential proxy advisory firm iss encouraged investors not to vote for the women nominees due in part to their lack of prior company board experience iss declined to comment beyond their report before today, destination maternity has only had three women directors in its 35-year history. one was just voted out and three left in 2011 since then, the stock has plummeted nearly 90% amid management upheaval. and challenges in the retail sector investors should be weary of how small this stock has become even with a 3% gain on today's news, destination maternity's market cap is a mere $43 million. in a statement announcing the preliminary vote count, miller said today, quote, in our view, newly independent voices i

. >> for more on that and rest of the news before the bell let's check in with leslie picker, live atnbc world headquarters. good morning, leslie. >> hi, good morning. wall street could be in wait and see mode today as markets around the world await president trump's decision on the iran nuclear deal later. stocks closed well off the highs yesterday after the president tweeted he would make an announcement this afternoon. oil prices are pulling back from 3.5 year highs and traders say in the u.s. withdraws that could hurt iran's oil exports further. tightening global supplies the dow rose 93 points and nasdaq closing up 55 to 7 ,265. sources say that comcast, parent of nbc universal is planning to make a $60 billion cash offer for most of fox's assets, that would top disney's $52 billion takeover bid. the move is contingent on whether the u.s. government approves at&t's purchase of time warner. that deal is being challenged in court by the justice department over antitrust concerns. >>> microsoft has announced a new feature to let you pay your bills from inside outlook. the company is

. >>> i'm leslie picker. how corporations are taking extra steps in the me too era to root out sexual harassment in the ranks. >>> and i'm kelly evans. those stories plus bill gross' horrible one-day loss -- >> that's first question answered second question, if you're able to buy time warner, you're going to end up working with the ro roseanne barrs of the world. talent that is popular and may make you a lot of money and cause all kinds of headaches for you in a way you haven't had to deal with as the guy running the phone company. in the -- you first proposed this deal, what? a year and a half ago? >> yes about 18 months. >> i bet you had many thoughts about it how are you thinking of talent like this where these people are going to cost you post enormous profit and potential headaches >> i've got to -- this is the issue you probably spend more cycles on than anything else and actually, it goes both ways. but how do you protect the creative culture and a creative culture that may or may not be flattering to

. >>> let's move on, short selling to be best in the best of times and leslie picker is in new york city, with noted short-seller, carson block, the founder and cio of muddy waters. leslie, take it away >> hey, scott. that's right, the short seller is here. it's a conference convening several dozen, but it may be more like a support group given the performance over the last few years. but with me now, of course, is carson block what do you make for opportunities for short-sellers, especially when you look at markets today. do you down 1.25% there. are we starting to see a more normalized environment where the last coming of years you do your homework, you think you found the case where the fundamentals go to zeros and all of a sudden other factors, the tide lifts and goes against what your thesis serves. >> yes, it's telling in the way we're seeing qe unwind and that's been upon for pushing up a lot of assets where really above where they should be on the one hand, when you look around the market today, there are a lot of excesses. a lot of companies engineering their financial statement

. >>> let's bring in leslie picker who's in las vegas sitting down with the former secretary of defenseer president obama leon panetta take it away. >> thank you for joining me. obviously a very topical day for you to be here and i'd love to get your thoughts on this iran situation with the u.s. unilaterally pulling out of the deal. with no plan b, do you expect there to be another plan and in the meantime, are we setting ourselves up to be on a collision course other economically or geopolitically. >>> the greatest concern is that i don't see a strategy here, i don't see a plan b and the problem is if we've offended our allies, which we have by basically dropping out of that agreement, we're possibly going to implement sanctions and if our allies continue to abide by the agreement, we would have to sanction our allies. we've raised questions about trust and whether they can trust whatever we can agree to and i think in large measure we've lost our leverage in terms of getting iran to the table, because iran has no incentive, really, to sit down and negotiate on anything right now. so m

. >> leslie, thank you leslie picker in the newsroom. tim, you're a shareholder. >> i think there's a lot of leverage that citi bank can pull or has exposure. credit cards were very good in the first quarter. their core business is strong. if you want leverage in a growing economy, that's what we're arguing, i like citi bank. >> valueact, theranos of value fame, that's my only comment have at it >> i'd agree with that i would say citi is trading at a discount to book value they reported book on the "closing bell" with kelly and mike book value is $71.5. even if you give them a 1.3, 1.4 multiple price to book, you're talking about a $90 stock. >> still ahead, disney shares stuck in the mud but will its earnings shares bring out the bulls? we've got those details. i'm melissa lee. you're watching "fast money" on business first in the world. here's what else is coming up. >> tim says one biotech stock that's been dead money for the past three months is about to break out and he'll pitch you the name >>> plus, call it the billionaire beatdow

leslie picker, following the money on why some big-time money managers are hiring private investigatorsirt on their potential targets. it's all at noon on halftime wilf >> scott, great stuff. we look forward to that at the top of the hour. 12 minutes away. let's get over to the cme and rick santelli has the santelli exchange >> good morning, wilf. all the headlines basically have the same thing written about them with regard to trying to put a face and an epilog on a wild ride that seemed to emily nate from italy and circumvented the globe. the stories, read something like this, europe's wake-up call for italian politicians. that's basically what they said. i have an issue with that. now, granted, there may be a wake-up call for them and granted there may be some ongoing scrutiny about exactly who they'll pick for their next economy -- economic minister because, obviously, serona wasn't the man and that seemed to have been part of the catalyst as to how all this started to affect the marketplace and today, of course, we had a couple of auctions and they seemed to have stabilized the sit

. >> leslie picker joining us with more on this big story >> investing in financials is a strategy that worked very well for value act, and now comprises about a third of the firm's $13 billion in assets. value act disclosed a $1.1 billion bet on morgan stanley, and that stock has surged more than 80% since about a year ago, they revealed an investment in kkr it was acquired at first through derivatives, but the stock itself has gained about 30%. value act didn't push for large changes at either of those companies and it appears at least in these early stages that they're using the same tactic at citigroup. citi told cnbc in a statement, quote, we have been having constructive conversations with valueact and welcome them as investors. according to the investor letter obtained by cnbc, they believe citi, which sord of has been a laggard relative to its peers is poised to benefit from its scale and relatively low risk profile. after studying the bank's financial statements, valueact said citi can return $50 billion in capital to investments in the form of dividends and share repurposes ov

leslie pickers is breaking it down back at headquarters. >> that's right, melissa it was a rough startthe year for cryptocurrency focused hedge funds. even though they started turning things around in april, it's unclear whether they can capture the extraordinary returns of last year. according to hfr which compiles a cryptocurrency index, the weighted performance was down each of the first three months of 2018. in march the strategy declined about 34%. in april, things came roaring back the index surged a whopping 49%. its best monthly performance since december while that helped to dent some of the losses for the year, the index is still down about 17.5%. compare that with gains of 2,907% last year the recent losses seem to have hampered the number of crypto fund losses this year. five new funds were launched so far, meaning 2018 is on pace for about eight new launches compare that to 45 launches in 2017 according to a recent report by bloomberg, at least nine crypto currency hedge funds shuttered in the first quarter of 2018 still, data from autonomous next found that there are stil

leslie picker has more >> investors this quarter took advantage of some volatility in the first threeonths of the year to buy stocks in ways that they saw opportunistic berkshire hathaway doubled its stake in teva to buy about 7$700 million worth. shares went higher in after-hours trading yesterday. omega advisers continued to add to united continental which became the firm's largest holding at the end of the quarter. he also boosted his stake in citigroup. david tepper took a new stake in wells fargo, but he did cut his position in bank of america. two well known activists, stan lowe and big ackman took stakes in united technologies ackman's pershing square had 1.9 million shares, and all of these positions are as of march 31st and may have changed in the six weeks since then guys >> in terms of overall trends, have you noticed one particular stock that keeps cropping up >> a lot of movement with facebook as you recall, the cambridge analytica scandal broke in the first quarter of the year. those shares saw some pressure, and so i think a lot of hedge fund managers took the opportuni

our leslie picker following that story for us, as always. >> hey, scott. interesting, this may actually be a bearish indicator for the markets. the latest sign of a renuvination in the hedge fund industry $17 billion in inflows in the last year. but perhaps even more notable, hedge funds have been raking in money on a quarterly basis since the end of 2016 or five consecutive quarters but of that $17 billion in flows in the first quarter, $13 billion worth or more than three fourths were put into a strategy called cta, which stands for commodity trading adviser. these types of hedge funds trades futures on not just commodities but also currencies and rates. interestingly, ctas put up horrible performance on average in february and march, down 5.4% and down .7% respectively, but ctas actually perform best in trend following situations in other words, when the market is up for a sustained period of time and when the market is down for a sustained period of time volatility, like we saw in the first quarter, not always beneficial for ctas. so industry experts t

. >>> welcome back, we a news alert on tesla, leslie picker has the details, leslie?> kelly, elon musk on twitter today in defense of tesla in response to a story in the "wall street journal" this morning, which looked at potential safeguards that were discussed at the company ahead of the fatal crash of the tesla car in march. the article goes on to say citing people familiar with the matter that they discussed additional sensors for eye tracking and steering wheel to help the auto pilot system and potentially prevent crashes, but they were rejected on costs. musk on twitter said, quote, this is false eyetracking rejected for being ineffective, not for costs. wsj fails to mention tesla is the safest on the road, approximately four times better than average back to you. >> this, after he put out a note flattening the organizational structure. i wonder because that is because all the executives left. >> exactly more critical if he announced it beforehand >> understandably, there's a lot of trepidation there about getting the technology right lesl leslie, thank you. >>

. >>> i'm leslie picker. how corporations are taking extra steps in the m

he is with leslie picker in las vegas for a "power lunch" exclusive. >> we have got a ton going on oneopolitical front we have got iran, north korea, the potential for a trade war. yet the markets seem to be shrugging it off largely when do you think these concerns and these tensions will actually trickle into the economy or will they >> if we manage it superbly, they won't have to usually we don't manage superbly for very long just because we are human beings and there is -- there will be an accident -- there could be an accident at some stage where somebody makes a wrong move. >> manage superbly how what should we be doing to make sure none of this actually spills over into the economy >> well we need the fed do it its part well and i'm pretty sure that will happen. but we also need the people in charge of the political relations between countries to think about how the other side will react and try to minimize the feedback that you get from the measures you undertake. >> how do you evaluate the alliances where they stand right now, both on a trade alliance side as well as a geopoli

. >> challenging is putting it politely leslie picker. joining us, christopher glenn. thanks for phoning in. especially on a day when we have so much news on general electric you said the 2018 outlook included a second half uptick in power which seems to be the opposite of what we are getting from the ceo right now is this a dramatic change in tone >> no. the outlook had always been for flat profits for the year. they are starting a bit slower you know, they were down over 35% in profits for the first quarter. the fourth quarter last year was very, very, very weak. so that's much different comparison and they have got a little bit more cost out. it's more of a comparison and timing iryou and it's seasonally stronger in the second half, too there is not a whole lot of meat on that particular comment today. >> what is driving the stock down 6.25% >> i think it has to do with the fact that shares had moved higher on a lack of incremental shoes to drop the last couple of months and also on some expectation that at epg there would have been a bigger disclosure of a portfoli

partner, syria, not as important for capital markets, but we had news on an ipo pulled let's get to leslie pickert was not the right point in the market cycle or soul cycle. pull the ipo blaming market conditions as you recall, they filed the initial s1 almost three years ago. there's been a series of management turnover to the co-founder stepping down so it's not surprising they are pulling it now we'll see if they refile in the future, but for flnow, they say market conditions. kelly? >> what market conditions? >> that is what every company that pulls ipos say. they don't say, oh, because we can't get the price we want. >> it's one thing if it's neiman marcus, but who in the soul cycle space -- because of blue apron? >> they obviously did not have a lot of great reception in terms of the business model. they missed the window in terms of when there was enough buzz and momentum in the actual customer response, and, yeah >> it's the equivalent of people leaving companies for family reasons or for personal reasons. you know, it's one of those, you know, it's never what's really going on >> i like

hanging on to a little bit over $15 right now look at shares of adobe, higher after hours, and leslie picker>> kelly, shareholders clearly liking what they are seeing with adobe's new announcement putting cash to work here, announcing acquisition of magento commerce. they say that will help the company expand into e-commerce, adobe crowd, and digital experience said in a press release, this acquisition makes the customer experience, quote, more shopble -- shopable there's a buy back through year 2021 too the shares up one quarter of 1%. >> no reactions? >> always looking for the wow moment with the buybacks $120 billion company >> fair enough >> 1% of market cap acquisition, i mean - >> acquisition is tiny >> yeah. >> surprised they felt the need to do it at all, never heard the word "shopable" either >> microsoft made the announcement and paypal announcing on m&a too. >> thank you very much talking markets with us. there's more ahead here, and up next, campbell's at a six year low. how a shift in tastes could impact the stock and fate of the countries best known brands. >>> spotlight on the

that was after our leslie picker reported there was more to the board suggesting the company exploresegic alternatives. why might that be necessary? wall street has basically orphaned this stock. it's down in the last 12 months. investors think it might be ripe for extinction because gaming is going online also the shares are still short. a lot of people betting against it it's one of the cheapest stocks on the market. this remains quite a battle ground the company has not had a specific response to this idea that they explore strategic alternatives this is going to remain in focus there. on a day when retail in general is bouncing nicely >> exactly mike, we'll see you in a couple. thanks very much 12 minutes to go record day for the russell 2000. we'll see what happens on the bell with that just under 1615. >> we'll get earnings from cisco and take two interactive a preview of how much they could move cinupexhe oomg nt ren "closing bell. don't go anywhere. don't just track an index, help me meet a client's need. is the fund built to sell or built to last? etfs are only part of a port