our leslie picker is live in the newsroom with what lies ahead. leslie >> hey, scott.ompany taken private would be tough to structure without the advice of experts. sources told us that the board plans to meet with investment bankers next week to begin hammering the details. the process will be void of musk who will have to recuse himself with the management buyout of his namesake company, but the independent directors have an uphill climb in front of them. despite musk's infamous tweet that the funding is, quote, secured. it's been three days and so far no one has been able to find out the source of financing either debt or equity for what would amount to be a $70 billion field. in the meantime, short sellers have claimed much of the paper losses suffered the day of musk's tweet one of them, david einhorn used the opportunity to poke fun at musk today, i want to thank elon musk for the shorts. he is a man of his word and they did come with manufacturing defects. #tesla it was apparel maker chubbies that sent 50 short shorts to david einhorn. musk tweeted at the short

our leslie picker has the story tonight. ♪ ♪ >> here at transmatics head quart e the fallout is practicallyrnight once they were announced in march. transmatic uses mostly domestic steel and the cost of the factory floor has soared as u.s. steelmakered has boostheir prices by 25%. that steel is then stamped into components for autoparts, doorlocks and plumbingan materis shipped to customers all over the wor. sofar, the higher costs are being passed on to customers and eventually transmatics is buying the parts cheaper from partners in europe and asia. >> in a trade war which ises ntially what we're in, there are clear winners and clear losers and unfortunately, there lot of collateral damage in people's lives and livelihoods are put between the crosshairs. >> transmatic m need to transfer production to its overseas plants to mexico and iinaorder to stay viable against the competition, even if that means rolling back hours and investment in holland, michigan. >> trade uncertainty hitting home for theactory workers. >> we, unfortunately fall into that area that it doesn't really help, so it w

leslie picker has more. >> about one month ago, toys"r"us closed for good.ut the controversy surrounding its 33,000 displaced workers has only amplified. the july jobseport was bleak reminder of the rail casualty g belyhe otherwise healthy employment picture.me so of the toy stores'd- laif workers have beeneeking redemption. they're taking aim at the private equity firms that acquired toys"r"us in a leveraged buyout in 2005. the workers say the pe firm paid themselves hundreds of millis,s of dollven as they let toys"r"us slip into bankruptcy. the workers have garnered support from members of congress who wrote a letter to the three firms, sayin urging them to do something to help. both new jersey's u.s. senators and one congressman have rthlied former toys"r"us employees, demanding severance. >> this storied new jersey company was run into the ground by bunch of corporate raiders, looking to turn a profit. these companies drained toys"r"us of its resources and its ability todapt in the marketplace. and they treated its woemers, oyees like robert and shaquema

let's get to leslie picker. >> jack dorsey, the ceo of twitter will be testifying in front of the committeethe afternoon of september 5th the chairman announcing that when decisions about data are made using processes, the american people are right to raise concerns and that this committee being the house, energy and commerce committee intends to ask, quote, tough questions about how twitter monitors and polices content so that will definitely be something to watch out for december 5g9 back over to you >> leslie, thank you leslie picker and the benefit that twitter and they have over facebook is they were able to deal with the problem before they had a problem thanks to facebook's problem >> i don't think it will ever be as big. >> to your point, they learn from facebook and it's a muted effect and i don't think it has the exposure that facebook did with the negativity and it's up 42% year to date i don't -- i think they're in the big boy's chair now and i think they'll be okay. >> it almost feels like twitter and jack dorsey had the policy on it. >> i had a pillow. >> but i agree with gras

leslie picker has s thetory from grand falls, texas. >> reporter: this is plains all-americ pipe yard in grand falls, texas. the76-foot pipes are stored here before they're welded together and placed underground. it's the makings of a pipeline that will transport crude from the oil-rich permian basin to corpus christi where it will be refine but take a closer look, and you'll see a stamp that says, made in greece. the y pipes see here were ordered from a greek steel mill in december. by the timhese pipes reached u.s. shores a few weeks ago, plains was already on the ok for the25% steel tariff. that added an extra $40 million in expenses for this project. plains all-american, a $20 billion pipeline operator, filed for an exemption from the tariffs. it's one of tens of thousands of applications that american companies have submitted, seeking relief. the company sai it should not have to pay tariffs on steel that was purchased before the tariffs went into effect. plains aelo said the ste they needed was specialized and could not be manufactured domestically. plains heard laston that its

in an investor letter he said his fund green light capital is down more than 18% this year leslie pickerollowing the money. more pain. i don't know what else to say. >> there's nothing more you can really say the market is telling them they were wrong, wrong, wrong about nearly everything. that's according to the letter there's no sugar coating these returns, down more than 18% year to date. >> and he doesn't either this is a very conciliatory note that he put out to his investors. >> very conciliatory he mentions he understands why one would redeem but he believes his portfolio is really set up for the long term. he actually spoke on an investor and analyst call this morning for green light where he blamed what he called a frustrating environment for value investing and said the reversion to the mean should happen sooner rather than later they just don't know when. >> our year-to-date investment result is poor but we're encouraging by the underlying fundamentals of our company's portfolio which generally improved in our long book and deteriorated in our short book it is hard to explain

i'm leslie picker.ve l brand, the company for victoria's secret and bath and bodyworks, beating 2 cents per share. the stock is down, as you can see. they're more than 5% in after-hours trading thanks to cutting its full-year guidance as well as very weak q3 guidance and announcing the departure of the ceo of victoria's secret pink, melissa? >> retailers have a lot of problems in terms of executing and figuring out what the consumer wants to buy and the price points. >> yes >> i've been sort of intrigued by it. i don't own it it's bad to miss, to beat and lower your guidance. the back half of the year and i won't buy it certainly not tomorrow i want to see how it shakes out. >> it is a very and they're talking about the long-term growth of the retailer earlier today on cnbc. >> i think you're seeing winners and losers right now in retail we took a path that said we'll invest in the long term and several years ago we decided we would invest in our stores and invest in our brands and invest in our team an

leslie picker, back at headquarters all right, guy there are be on voubsly two angles here and one the likelihood that you believe this could happen and the regulatory issues just behind the mechanism in which musk tweeted this out to the world the likelihood first does this make sense >> the likelihood would be the biggest sell of all time. >> by far. >> karen can answer that and so with that said the likelihood is probably less than 25%, but does that mean the stock can't get to 420 on its own i would submit it can. our job is to figure out if stocks are going higher or lower. sometimes they do it really well and sometimes i do it pretty poorly and i think we've done a decent job, and very good chance at 280 it got down to 289-ish and we said if it holds to 325 it's off to the races and it's pretty much exactly what happened, but if you're short the stock now given the headline risk. i continue to say the stock will go higher and we can talk about valuations, and i don't think any of that matters right now, and i think what matters is buyers control and the long haul, even if he's be

>> leslie, thank you leslie picker back at headquarters berkshire hathaway, upping its apple exposuredo you agree with that? >> absolutely. it makes total sense he's bought into the right idea. he's seeing it in wearables and services my gut tells me elliott's buying puts to protect the position i don't think it's negative. she talked about that, as well to me it makes a lot of sense. why not? s volatility is extremely low right now. buy protection, own it and that's a great trade >> facebook, yeah. facebook and google are two names that i love and i would continue to like so i agree with that, and snap chat and twitter are two names i would sell aggressively and it lines up the ducks with these guys. >> i don't have any ducks or anything, but a couple of gooses i like the idea. >> you mean geese? >> no, gooses. >> it's geese. >> whatever. we get your point. what was the point anyway, the one trade i do like is the hedge exactly what pete said on apple, and being somewhat cautious on the macro picture here and why not put some protection on at the very least? >> i'll make a little foi

let's bring in leslie picker for more on the story. >> the fallout continues for the two little word,ng, and it's been over a week since elon musk tweeted a phrase, a phrase that still has the power to push tesla's stock price higher or lower. today that phrase appears to have caught real traction about the sec which has reportedly issued a subpoena to tesla and that news, of course, sent the shares lower today i guess the backdrop of a regulatory pressure is becoming increasingly clear that funding was not as secured as the initial tweet that the markets have believed. so shares dipped on that headline mid-morning and closed 3% lower today, but any new showing that tesla is moving in the direction of an actual private, seemed to generate more optimism and the topic of the next few days have been that of advisers and musk tweeting that he was working with goldman and others but none have actually come out on the record confirming the mandate until today when goldman sachs' research department sent a note to clients saying it was effectively suspending ratings and price targets for tes

the sec is looking into musk's tweets about taking the company public let's go to leslie picker. >> musk'sets about taking tesla public has attracted regulatory attention "the wall street journal" is reporting that the securities and exchange commission has reached out to tesla and asked whether musk's plan to take the company private is factual the journal's story citing people familiar with the matter sent tesla's shares lower in late afternoon trading tesla closed down 2.4% pairing a little bit of yesterday's 11% gain the tweet in focus is the one that am considering taking tesla private. funding secured. where he described his plans in more detail. the journal's story said the sec also inquired yet disclosure was first made on twitter rather than a regulatory filing the story also said it wasn't immediately clear whether the sec has opened a formal enforcement investigation. the sec declined to comment to cnbc harvey pitts was on squawk box this morning and said there's enough for regulators to start asking questions the former president of the nyse tom farley recently tweeted to the s

. >>> welcome back to "fast money," we have an earnings alert, and leslie picker is in the newsroom with more >> shares of gas plummeting in after-hours trading after reporting second-quarter figures that failed to impress investors and this right here is that gap global comparable store sales were down more than double the rate than analysts were expecting and the company has been grappling with supply chain issues within the gap line which has led to a boom in inventory and especially old navy brands like decent same pf store sales in the quarter and they weren't enough in the eyes of investors to offset some of the weakenses that were very apparent in their did gap brand and as one of the few retailers in the red for the year, investors in toechlerred expectationses and they reaffirmed and the call began 15 minutes ago where the ceo spoke about their commitments to brick and mortar stores and they're continuing their focus on technology >>> it perplexes me to continue to hear over and over that stores are a liability they're an asset, not a liability. sure, if you've got a store and a

. >>> let's hand it over now to leslie picker. quick market flash here on mcdonald's >> that's right. mcdonald's shares falling to a potential low on reports of multiple potential illnesses at one restaurant in james town, new york 22 individuals reported common symptoms of nausea and vomiting from august 4 through 21st and all individuals indicated they had eaten various breakfast sandwiches at the establishment. the department added mcdonald's is fully cooperating with the investigation. we also reached out to the mcdonald's a local franchisy saying out of caution for the health of its customers it's proactively closing that risteraestaurant f cleaning >> not the kind of headlines investors like reminds you of chipotle a little bit. >> but one restaurant in the context of mcdonald's entire system is a little bit less -- >> worrisome >>> when we come back alibaba, what's behind the drop and what it says about possible weakness in that whole chinese technology market and internet stock next >> and later hawaii airlines is suspendi

i'm leslie picker.digging for pershing square and have a position on bill ackman's first. he had 3.7 million shares to hold half a billion dollars worth, 4.2 million share which is is an interesting sea change from what we saw last year with the proxy fight there and also acquired a stake in lowe's which we knew about and disclosed 7.7 million share stake worth $37 million, willch? >> leslie, thank you very much for that it's been a positive session up a percent. >> a vacation on this. >> on vacation for a week and a half "fast money" starts now. >> "fast money" starts right now, live from the market overliking times square. the traders are brian kelly and dan nathan the crypto crash continues and crypto breaking below 6,000 before hovering at those levels and the move as a whole has the crypto universe in a frenzy. bill harris who previously called bitcoin a scam says it is about to get a lot worse he will be here and the tesla saga continues and elon musk

leslie picker live at a factory in michigan where the tariffs may not be having the desired effect leslieys. we're here at transmatic a 50-year-old metal stamping company that's found itself in the crosshairs of the trade war. we'll tell you me horonow that company is fairing coming up after the break. you'll get clear, actionable alerts about potential investment opportunities in real time. fidelity. open an account today. fidelity. tap one little bumper and up go your rates. what good is your insurance if you get punished for using it? news flash: nobody's perfect. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. switch and you could save $782 on home and auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty mutual insurance. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ let someone else do the heavy lifting. tripadvisor compares prices from over 200 booking sites to find the right hotel for you at the lowest price. so you barely have to lift a finger. or a wing. tripadvisor. >>> hello, everybody i'm sue herrera. here's your cnbc news upd

leslie picker on set with us for the details. those shorting the stock getting hit today. >> we don't know the validity of this tweet, how real it is, about he is actually taking the company private and has funding secured. i have called out to sources of providers of funding, haven't gotten any confirmation yet. what we do know is that the paper losses for short sellers, that's real. that's real in real-time at $3.60 a share the shorts would be down $631 million just for today. based on this move, the moves we saw last week and for the year, the short sellers would be down. this is market to market losses. these aren't realized losses, but noteworthy for portfolios. $2.35 billion for the year 35 million shares are held short with $12.7 billion worth of short interest that's the absolute value of short interest that's out there. that's the -- makes tesla, of course, the highest shorted stock. about 28% of market cap. >> that's a pretty big name on short. >> you have jim chenos who spoke as recently as delivering alpha. the compan

leslie picker is on that story >> that's right.re thousands of steel pipes in this staging yard each of them is stamped with the same words, made in greece we'll tell you why this imported steel is creating a $40 mill wherein health care for this wherein health care for this american whereithat means poweringhis americmore devices, more video conferencing, and more downloads in seconds, not minutes. get fast internet and add phone and tv "the closing bell. comcast is building america's largest gig-speed network to give small businesses more. call 1-800-501-6000 today. this wi-fi is fast. i know! i know! i know! i know! when did brian move back in? brian's back? he doesn't get my room. he's only going to be here for like a week. like a month, tops. oh boy. wi-fi fast enough for the whole family is simple, easy, awesome. in many cultures, young men would stay with their families until their 40's. >>> plains all american it paying a hefty tax on its newest pipeline because of the trump administration's new tariffs leslie picker is in

and leslie picker is here as well lead it off leslie. >> i think a good way to start this goes back topreneurship discussion we were just talking about, the number of public companies in america has been on the decline for about 20 years now sitting at roughly 3,600 at the end of 2017. it's estimated that twice that number is inventor backed and private equity backed companies. we have seen three iterations of the jobs act trying to make the country more hospitable for ipos what can be done if you were talking to the jay clayton the sec what would you tell him the companies need to get into the public markets. >> we have seen good strides out of the sec so far including more companies in the ability to file confidentially so companies have a little bit more air cover if they are wanting to test the markets before they fully alert the market of their intentions to be public that's giving people more flexibility i think is helpful but i think the other reason is the private capital markets are very rebust and there is good "access hollywood" to capital for companies before they make the

leslie picker is with us as well what's the angle you are following? or what news have you learned today? >> we've heard from the independent board, providing a bid more clarity from musk's buyout idea. six directors in a statement said it was the ceo elon musk who began the discussion with the board about taking the company private. they say the talks addressed the funding aspect, the statement did say that the board has met several over the last week, and is taking the appropriate steps to evaluate taking the company private. musk, of course, did not sign onto the statement nor did his brother. one director is on leave, but as questions swirl around musk taking tesla private, some investors are turning to the board and wondering if they support the idea or just support musk critics have argued that the board lacks independence about a year ago they added two directors to try to beefl up the independence of a board. >>> just this year opposed the reappointment of three members saying they were too close to musk, another shareholder proposal also sough

. >>> i'm leslie picker at cnbc headquarters shareoffs ratings giant nielsen soaring today as he's pushing the company to sell, and this could be one part of a big sellout on wall street >>> the cfo of netflix stepping down what it means for the company's financial future "the closing bell" starts right now. >>> how many times have you practiced your walk on vacation? >> oh, every day on vacation >> down the boardwalk, along the beach, everything. >> i was thinking about the whole time >> it was looking well rehearsed. time well spent. welcome back welcome to "the closing bell" this afternoon we're going to get to all those stories in just a moment but first of all let's check in with how those markets are doing. we're now down about 0.4% on the dow, down 92 points. the low of the day was 156 points we're not at the lows but certainly lower than where we opened which was around the flat line nasdaq only a fraction negative. the dow and s&p are lower for a fourth straight day now and we will keep an eye whether they'll close there. looks like they will >> pretty resilient i have to say cons

. >>> we've got a market flash for youoon arconic leslie picker with the details >> reuters reportinghat arconic is having discussions to sell the entirety of the company. this coming after last month it announced it would be undergoing a review to potentially sell its buildings and construction unit. now, sources familiar with the matter tell reuters that arconic is looking to sell the entirety, and that it's talking with private equity firms about a potential sale as you recall "the wall street journal" first reported last month that arconic was attracting interest from private equity this story now appears arconic is engaging in those discussion. it's gone through a series of deals. it spun off recently from alcoa in 2016, most famously underwent a management following that elliot holds board representation, and according to sources familiar with the matter elliot has been, those board representatives have been the ones that are pushing for the sale of the entirety of arconic. now, as you can see their shares are spiking upwards of 4.4%. and so we'll continue following this when we

open an account today. >>> welcome back to "power lunch" and to leslie picker for a market flash. >>t to draw your attention to shares of tronc up about 4.9% upon a report by reuters saying the company is in talks to sell itself to an investment firm led by will wyatts, a former executive at the activist fund star board value. the report citing people familiar with the matter said his firm secured financing for the deal and is in advanced negotiations with tronc. we are checking with the company and will hit you know if we receive comment. back to you. >> thank you leslie. >>> shares of amazon in party mode the stock hitting an all-time high outperforming the fang years the past months. and bringing party city into the followed. >> i see what you did there. >> if you look at the list of retailers that threw in the towel that said if you can't beat enemy join them it's hard to see what stands in the way of amazon growth where does the company go from here. >> let's bring in our panel. you have the buy rating on the stock and a price target selfie 2150 explain the rationale for that pr

month lag, and that's why after ordering them, they were tariffed upon arriving in the u.s. >> leslie picker in texas. thank you for bringing us the story. >>> coming up, two messy battles. first, the president versus google he says its searches are wrig every rigged it will be addressed is he planning regulation? and john schneider versus papa john's the company's founder with bombshell accusations about the current management thdeilcongl e tas mi up great question. see, for a full service brokerage like ours, that's tough to do. schwab does it. next question. do you offer a satisfaction guarantee? a what now? a satisfaction guarantee. like schwab does. man: (scoffing) what are you teaching these kids? ask your broker if they offer award-winning full service and low costs, backed by a satisfaction guarantee. if you don't like their answer, ask again at schwab. if you don't like their answer, take prilosec otc and take control of heartburn. so you don't have to stash antacids here... here... or, here. kick your antacid habit with prilosec otc. one pill a day, 24 hours, zero heartburn. [ horn

leslie picker is here.he has some highlights of berkshire hathaway's latest 13 f filing with the s.e.c. >> good morning. warren buffett's berkshire hathaway continued adding to its stake in apple upping it in the quarter by more than 5% to hold a position worth upwards of $50 billion in the trillion dollar company. also some repositioning with bill ackman's portfolio. the founder of pershing square slashed hits stake in adp where just a year ago he was kicking off what turned out to be an unsuccessful proxy contest ackman doubling his stake in united technologies and disclosed his share ownership of lowe lowe's other notable moves were coatue dissolving a stake in snap and david einhorn preferred gap and t.j. x ajx >>> and value act cut its stake in 21st century fox. all these stakes are as of june 30th and may have changed in the six weeks since. >> einhorn s he's like walki, h like -- >> ouch. >> he's everywhere that's bad right now. >> he's unlucky in a way >> don't stand around him. sputnik will fall on

apple soars to new highs and wall street is celebrating except for the hedge fund world and our leslie picker> it always seems to happen this way, scott. apple is the go-to and tween million share was apple in the first quarter and that's according to symmetric.io which analyzes trends with 1,000 hedge funds and we'll find out in a few weeks if any of these guys bought shares in the second quarter when those disclosures are due, and just to put things into perspective, apple's market valuation, of course, reached $1 trillion today the size of the entire hedge fund industry which invests in not just equity it is, but fixed income, commodity, et cetera is just $2 trillion more. so it's no secret that apple and other banks have been increasingly responsible for the market's gains over the last few years, but for hedge funds looking to outperform the s&p that creates kind of a conundrum. too much exposure to companies like apple can cause the fund to be overly correlated to the market, but without the big names they can be difficult to outperform and that's what we've seen over the last few years

elon musk speculated in a string of tweets he could take the company private for $420 a share leslie pickeras more hello, leslie. >> there was a take private proposal and a price, but was it all hypothetical that's the key question for investors as they digest yesterday's tweet and memo from elon musk. he tweeted that he was considering taking tesla private at $420. funding secured. that came after a report that saudi arabia's sovereign wealth fund took a stake. as the stock surged the questions swirled a traditional leveraged buyout would be difficult for tesla because the company has negative free cash flow a full equity backstop another option where the buyers acquire tesla without debt is another possibility but these are typically limited to smaller deals, not a0 bia 7$70 billion l like tesla would be. it would require tesla's thousands of individual shareholders to roll into the private company giving away their liquidity rights musk said to employees no final decision was made but he believes tesla would operate better as a private company because it wouldn't be subjected to price sw

weight watchers out with earnings lesly picker has them for us >> this is stock that's doubled year toand still investors are selling on the news today despite what looks to be quite large or a pretty solid quarter here a beat on the bottom line with $1.01 per share versus 88 cent consensus and an increase in their earnings guidance for 2018 revenue guidance on what the street expected about $410 million for the second quarter and interestingly enough margins are expanding, revenue growing and it appears to be showing in the numbers but yet it's been a darling for last six, seven months or so with july seeing some weakness in the stock >> clearly didn't live up to expectations >> yeah, i mean or just the stock could run so far ahead, more than doubled this year. but also down more than 20% on its high also i don't know if there's much to it but it seems as if they've run inverse. it's almost as if they compete for mind share as time goes on >> pepsico shares, stock nearly 80 rers, and coca-cola gaining. >> jenlts, a very good afternoon to you both. what's the take on this guy? is this

. >> before we head to break, let's go to texas where leslie picker spoke to one texas based company pain from tariffs. leslie >> reporter: hey, morgan, we're standing in the pipe yard for one of the largest pipe line operators in the u.s take a look at this stamp right here it says made in greece this imported steel is creating a $40 million headache for the company thanks to the trade war. we'll tell you what they are g ouitomg aerft the break. it's absolute confidence in 30,000 precision parts, or it isn't. it's inspected by mercedes-benz factory-trained technicians, or it isn't. it's backed by an unlimited mileage warranty, or it isn't. for those who never settle, it's either mercedes-benz certified pre-owned, or it isn't. the mercedes-benz certified pre-owned sales event, now through august 31st. only at your authorized mercedes-benz dealer. >>> it's not a good thing to restrict trade america had the freest trading environment in the world our economy is more open than any other and we remain the world's number one manufacturer, manufacturing output is an all time record high cle

we're going to debate how long the job search can actually last >>> i'm lesly picker at cnbc headquarters >>> i'm kate rogers in salt lake city utah and the u.s. economy keeps adding hundreds of thousands of u.s. jobs but there's a massive shortage in trucking we'll tell you why and how companies are trying to fill the void >>> i'm bob pisani in for wilfred frost. we'll talk with the whole nasa crew in just a few moments "the closing bell" starts right now. >>> happy friday and welcome to "the closing bell. a special welcome to bob pisani. your walk killed it. don't tell wilfred i haven't seen anything like that >> i was just walking by and they grabbed me. i was planning to leave early and look here i am >> this is exciting. let's check ipon tn on the marks it's about about 96 points nasdaq, though, losing some of its early gains. tech underperforming today we'll talk about that. russell 2000 is actually down. the small caps getting ahehit au 0.5% >> steve, it doesn't look like the jobs report is going to essentially change the fed narrative at this point. >> not at all, really. really w

leslie picker has the latest details at headquarters. >> reporter: can we start what the process is unlikely to entail traditional leverage buy out would be very difficult. tesla is bleeding cash and without predictable stable floss large banks will be hesitant to commit to raising the debt required and even if tesla were able to finance a 60% of the deal with debt their annual interest bill alone would be $2.7 billion according to barclays could they finance the deal only with equity? in theory they could but musk would need tofind partners tha could buy out the public shareholders minus his own stake. that equates to about $60 billion of equity. saudi arabia sovereign wealth fund acquired a fuel billion dollars worth of tesla shares but tesla would likely need more than just saudis to get this done if this deal happens it may not require 60 billion in equity musk said current shareholders can stay investors in a private tesla as well. so how would that work well the individual investors who don't want to sell it for 420 can opt to roll their stake into the private company, potentially thro

. >> all right phil, thanks phil lebeau in miami let's get to leslie picker with the latest on possible funding leslie zbloog melissa, so in a typical deal you would first hire advisors, have them arrange a buyer and a price insure funding is secured and then announce it. in the case of tesla's take private news is dribbling out in the exact reverse. late last night we learned via tweet that musk had hired advisors to work on the proposal unique among the list, though, is silver lake, which is a private equity firm. the firm has about two decades of experience taking companies private and then public, but it's not a traditional deal advisor like you would see at one of the large investment banks like goldman sachs a source tells me that's not actually the role that they're serving right now. they're not really being compensated as one i'm also told that silver lake isn't currently in discussions to participate in tesla's take private right now. the firm does have a longstanding relationship with musk, though, going back to its investment in solar city, which now appears as a holding in

the blame game leslie picker here is look at whose fault it is that we lost that great retaile >> hi,l. it's amazing that when they closed doors a month ago that meant the loss of 33,000 jobs. the july jobs report on friday was a bleak remind are of the casualty buy lying the otherwise healthy employment pictures. the workers and several members of congress blame private quiet. they were acquired in a leveraged buy out in lenchtd debts. the firms payed themselves hundreds of millions of dollars as to its r us slid into bankruptcy many employees and several politicians from new jersey where toys "r" us is based argue the p.e. firms should compensate the workers. the reports last week said the employeesy on capitol hill asking for legislation that would embed more worker protection into private equity investments. for their part be the p.e. firms be willing to provide some aid for the former employees outside of the bankruptcy process. in a letter back to congress, k.k.r. said they do not want to toys "r" us to be liquid eighted. but it was forced by the creditors. that the firm said th

. >>> i'm leslie picker at cnbc headquarters shareoffs ratings giant nielsen soaring today as he's pushingsell, and this could be one part of a big

we're going to debate how long the job search can actually last >>> i'm lesly picker at cnbc headquarterslt lake city utah and the u.s. economy keeps adding hundreds of thousands of u.s. jobs but there's a massive shortage in trucking we'll tell you why and how companies are trying t

high we'll monitor the market as we close today and see whether we can hold that ally >>> i'm leslie picker in michigan how one auto parts maker is getting caught up in the trade war. ahead how this american company may be forced to move production overseas >>> i'm sara eisen in for kelly evans. would you put a microchip in your hand for your job we'll talk to a ceo that is microchipping its employees. "closing bell" starts right now. >>> welcome to the sleepwalker, david faber, there was a slow walk >> taking my time. >> the s&p hitting a record. first time we've seen that since back in january, january 26th. the dow touching its highest level since february 2nd >> coming up we're going to get details from president richard fisher, and talk about rates and we're also expecting to get more details on that plea deal from president trump's former personal attorney michael cohen. we are of course monitoring the action right there from that courthouse that's not far from here at the exchange waiting for the latest >> he's expected to appear 4:00 p.m >> but first let's get to those markets. join

leslie picker is here to break down the details >> one month ago toys r us closed for good.versy surrounding the 33,000 displaced workers has amplified. it was a bleak reminder of the retail casualty belying the otherwise healthy picture. some are taking aim at the private equity firms that purchased toys r us. the pe firms paid themselves hundreds of millions of dollars even as they let toys r us slip into bankruptcy. they have garnered support for members of congress who wrote to the firms urging them to do something to help. reports showed that the toys employees were on capitol hill last week asking for legislation that embed worker protections into pe investments. for their part, the pe firms appear to be willing to provide some aid for the former employees outside the bankruptcy process. in a letter back, they said they did not want toys r us to be liquid dated but it was forced by the creditors they said they did not profit from the investment, guys. >> thank you, leslie >> wonder how you do that though you want worker protection, obviously, but a lot of pes -- >> who

we'll have the ceo in a bit at 8:00 leslie picker has more on the sonos pricing.ightly less demand than they were expecting with this deal sonos pricing its initial public offering $2 below the range it had been marketing to investors. that puts the size at slightly more than 2$200 million at $15 per share the debut valuation is 1$1.5 billion, abou half the value the "wall street journal" said in late april it was targeting. early investors like kkr sold on the deal which can signal to investors that a company has reached its peak while revenue continues to climb the company has not posted a full year's worth of profitability since about 2014 on the minds of many investors going into today's debut, competition. on the low end it faces competition from google and amazon on the high end it faces bose. sonos is breaking more into streaming but that space is also crowded with spotify, pandora, apple. in the face of such competition, sales and marketing expenses have been higher for sonos when it comes to technology ipos, investors just want to see future growth. they

. >> leslie, thank you very much for that leslie picker in texas. >>> let's get a broader check-in onkets joining us is the editor of the shork report, steven shork good morning, steven i guess this recent dollar weakness has been helpful for oil prices. >> it certainly has. we of course in the wake of what we saw in turkey the past couple of weeks, we had a lot of volatility with the dollar which certainly at one point was helping the bears, but certainly now with the weakness in the dollar, that is favorable for the oil bulls. we're also looking at a market right now that is really being kept afloat on headlines some of these headlines are old. venezuela, it's in the final chapter of its saga, iran sanctions. everyone knows those sanctions were coming up we do have some new headlines, of course. what we got out of iran yesterday threatening to choke off the strait of hormuz will put a geopolitical bid into the market and civil strife in libya is helping to propel the market. >> so overall, though, stephen, on the geopolitical point, are you saying that's already priced in net/net th

leslie picker is in holland, michigan, with a profile of transmatic leslie >> reporter: hey, becky.eel comes in through the door looking like this coils of steel that the factory floor machines then feed through and cut out parts that go into automakers and door locks. every household items like that. it's kind of like a cookie cutter, essentially. now, thanks to the tariffs, this steel has become between 25 and 30% more expensive for the company. we spoke with the cfo of transmatic yesterday, who told us that there are about 6.5 million jobs, like those you see on this factory floor, with workers who do production of steel and that the tariffs are actually putting those jobs at risk to protect the several hundred thousand workers at the mills. >> in a trade war, which is essentially what we're in, there are clear winners and clear losers and unfortunately, there's a lot of collateral damage and people's lives and livelihoods are put between the crosshairs >> reporter: now, so far, transmatic has been able to pass most of those costs on to their customers, which represent about 10%

lessly picker has more on this company. hey, leslie, you can see coils of steel working their way into these machines which are then pressing them into parts that go into autos and go into door locks and industrial supplies but this company has been impacted by the tariffs as the tariffs on steel increased by 25%. hitting their bottom line about 10%. and so it's become a hung ige ie for them most of the steel they bring, in the spri supplies are from do, not importing thep 90% of these on to their customers but they are worried in the long term these customers will defect to their competitors overseas >> the parts we produce here, we have competitors both in asia and europe that produce very similar components the price of doing business is the most competitive price on marketplace and the simple fact is they are like taxes to our business we're not as competitive as we were six months ago. >> now, suppliers have filed for exemptions but so far none of them have been approved yet. the executives here tell me they are considering moves