let's get to scott wapner on the half. >>> welcome to the halftime report. i'm scott wapner. our top trade this hour, bank brawl, the most hotly debated sector in the market and why kevin o'leary and mike mayo are on opposite sides of that trade. also with us, josh brown, the brothers najarian here as well. let's begin with the banks now negative on the year leading to the most pressing question facing investors. to buy into a sector that's been sagging or simply stay away. kevin o'leary, you tried to warn people. you said stay away because there's going to be a lot more declines ahead. >> i bring even more information, scott. yesterday was 2500 executives from regional banks in orlando. i was a keynote at their conference and i love to do these things because you learn so much going out, start with a brake light of chardonnay, move to caber nay for dinner, and here's what i learned. this assumption that we're going to get this regulatory relief, turn that switch and get instant earnings acceleration, is completely wrong. here's why. they spent $1 billion as a collective impl

let's get to scott wapner on the half. >>> welcome to the halftime report. i'm scott wapner. our top trade this hour, bank brawl, the most hotly debated sector in the market and why kevin o'leary and mike mayo are on opposite sides of that trade. also with us, josh brown, the brothers najarian here as well. let's begin with the banks now negative on the year leading to the most pressing question facing investors. to buy into a sector that's been sagging or simply stay away. kevin o'leary, you tried to warn people. you said stay away because there's going to be a lot more declines ahead. >> i bring even more

i'm scott wapner. we begin with stocks moving higher this hour on pace for their best day in more than a month. this as earnings season begins hot and heavy tomorrow. can the rally continue? we'll ask that question today to one of wall street's legendary investors, leeon cooperman. also with us -- let's begin with a big day on wall street and welcome in lee from florida. welcome back. nice to see you again. >> nice to be with you. thank you for having me. >> you bet. you were with us some three months ago and you said you weren't sure if we were in the seventh or ninth inning of the bull market. do you have better clarity on that today? >> no. i would say we're not in the early innings. but the conditions that could bring significant market decline are not present. bear market rs associated with the stock market sensing a recession hitting all the economic data looks fine. china's getting stronger, u.s. economic growth is accident. second cause would be u fork price iing in the market. i think the mark

we have faber, scott wapner. we have more guards -- we have a lot of guards.damn, so -- >> i promise total commitment. i don't promise total quality. i don't have high hopes for myself. >> we have more guards than -- we can field a whole team of guards. you know what's coming up now -- i forgot completely. you forgot yesterday. you know the masters, you remember who won last year? from sheffield, dude. >> i floated the idea that a brit could fight your great american golfers. >> danny willet won last year, then had a rough go of it. i digress. today we have andy puz nner. what would it be like to be in the cabinet? what do friends say to you? he has a lot of comments on $15 men m minimum wage, and we may talk about some ads that carl's jr. used to run. we have senator bob corker on. a lot emanating out of washington. and these guys are insisting, gorsu gorsuch, gorsuch by friday, one way or another. we'll see whether any of that effects the markets, which look weak. >> they are soft this morning coming off weakness in asia and europe. we look forward to "squaw

i'm scott wapner. top trade this hour, whole foods fight. partners taking a near t% stake in the company. the stock's falling today after poll popping 10% on the news. new details on how this could play out. with us today, joe, stephanie, the brothers najera yan. let's begin with the pressure on whole foods. at noon today, i can report from sources there still hasn't been communication twun jona, but the firm is trying to engage the ceo. the interesting part of this story, jana was once short whole foods in 2014. it knows the company and its business quite well result of that campaign. in this case, i'm told jana is focusing on two tracks here. operational improvements and b possibly a merger, depending on what offer might be out there. i'm told januaa wants to put al the opgs on the table. jana said to be heavily focused on the board, which has had one new member since 2008. shares have lost half their value in the last many years. have lagged the s&p 500 over the past year. leslie. >> great reporting, now, jana partners took massive stake

to continue covering the markets and more, we'll turn it over to scott wapner and the half. >>> welcomehalftime report." our top trade this hour, with a question over whether the u.s. is really the best place for your money and why some say the answer now is no. with us for the hour today is jim laventhal, rich sapperstein is here as well. let's start with that debate. it's been a strong start to the year for u.s. stocks. take a look around the globe. you'll see a better picture almost everywhere else.

i'm scott wapner. top trade this hour, whole foods fight.tners taking a near t% stake in the company. the stock's falling today after poll popping 10% on the news. new details on how this could play out. with us today, joe, stephanie, the brothers najera yan. let's begin with the pressure on whole foods. at noon today, i can report from sour

i'm scott wapner. our top trade this hour, a blow banks. why today's jobs misses, bad news for the financials. the question is now, is it time to sell. with us for the hour today, jim, josh, john, jerry and steve. erin brown as well. the head of macro investments. let's begin today with the aftermath of today's dispint jobs number. there's a look at your picture. yields were falling, so, too, today are the banks. steve, we ask the question, is it time sell? i see you have sold a little bit of your citi. >> i shaved a little citi. it's gone from just floating downstream with the currants to swimming upstream. while i still believe in the banks longer term and i think neelds remain low, actually more unnaturally low given where we were just talking, 22 pois bastes points. we see where the u.s. is. i thought there were opportunities to make money elsewhere in the market and i didn't want to increase my exposure. but here's what i'd say. it's amazing to me that we're not leading off with syria. can you think of other times when we would? i thin

the halftime report with scott wapner, the traders and kevin o'leary is back in two minutes. . online u.s. equity trades... ♪ ...you realize the smartest investing idea, isn't just what you invest in, but who you invest with. ♪ when this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night, so he got home safe. yeah, my dad says our insurance doesn't have that. what?! you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. so you'rhow nice.a party? ♪ music plays throughout) i'll be right there. and the butchery begins. what am i gonna wear? this party is super fancy. let's go. i'm ready. are you my uber? [ horn honks ] hold on. don't wait for watchathon week to return. [ doorbell rings ] who's that? show me netflix. sign up for netflix on x1 today and keep watching all year long. >>> we are back. shares of tesla popping today on an upgrade to buy. the firm saying even with the ris b ks, growth investors cannot afford to ignore this stock. it is our call of the day. a line from their note really seems to sum up the entire scenario. we sympathize with bears, they s

i am brian sullivan in for scott wapner.n this busiest day of earnings season, we are going to drill down on the biggest winners in the last two months. that is two sectors, tech and health care. your traders today, joe, jim, john and pete. also co-founder of dialectic capital and joining us from the conference in chicago, josh brown. all right, guys, let's focus in on alphabet, formerly known as go

i am brian sullivan in for scott wapner. on this busiest day of earnings season, we are going to drill down on the biggest winners in the last two months. that is two sectors, tech and health care. your traders today, joe, jim, john and pete. also co-founder of dialectic capital and joining us from the conference in chicago, josh brown. all right, guys, let's focus in on alphabet, formerly known as google, also amazon and microsoft. they are all reporting their earnings after the bell today. joe, if you had to pick one name that could be the more important one, the market mover of those three, could you identify one? >> now the market mover? amazon and google have been the market mover all year. >> is it the donkey driving the market cart? >> for someone like myself and many out there right now, you're hoping for an earnings miss so you finally get the -- >> whoa, you're hoping for an earnings miss? >> yes. >> why? >> because you want to get into these names. >> cheaper. >> you want to get in cheaper. that's the opportunity.

when the halftime report with scott wapner and the traders continues in two minutes. various: (shouting) heigh! ho! ( ♪ ) it's off to work we go! woman: on the gulf coast, new exxonmobil projects are expected to create over 45,000 jobs. and each job created by the energy industry supports two others in the community. altogether, the industry supports over 9 million jobs nationwide. these are jobs that natural gas is helping make happen, all while reducing america's emissions. energy lives here. all while reducing america's emissions. i'm ricardo, a sales and service consultant here at the xfinity store in bellevue, washington. here at the store, we offer internet, tv, phone, customer service, home security. every situation is a little different. it could be about billing, simple questions like changing the phone number. sometimes, they want to upgrade, downgrade, but at the end of the day, you want to take care of the customer. one of the great things about comcast, there's always room to move up. of course, it depends on you, how hard you work. ♪ >>> welcome back to

to continue covering the markets and more, we'll turn it over to scott wapner and the half. >>> welcome to "the halftime report." our top trade this hour, with a question over whether the u.s. is really the best place for your money and why some say the answer now is no. with us for the hour today is jim laventhal, rich sapperstein is here as well. let's start with that debate. it's been a strong start to the year for u.s. stocks. take a look around the globe. you'll see a better picture almost everywhere else. europe, brazil, india, china. josh brown. >> hey, scott, how are you? >> are there opportunities elsewhere? is it undeniable at this point? >> it's undeniable and people running money are starting to wake up to this and the benefits are showing up in their po portfolios for the first time. the first time on valuation, a cyclically adjusted pe for the united states is now 30. we've almost never been this high. forward returns are not what they were when we were at 17, 18, 19. developed europe, cape is 17 so about half. emerging markets is 15. the second thing i want to say, i beli

>> scott wapner calls me joyy occasionally. >> "friends." >> friends with joey. should we talk policpolicy -- ws waging the dog. >> going back to the united thing, we should ebay the seat. >> ebay the seats? >> no, i didn isn't that what they try to achieve? >> dynamic pricing. >> so we hahave sillerto tiller moscow, calls with the chinese, earnings are coming. how do you feel about the markets? if we look back, we saw that monetary policy for many years was market beta, and we're in a shift now. two components driving the shift are geopolitics, trump and the policies around what may or may not happen andamentals that are stabilizing. >> when you say policy, is it uncertainty that we may end up in some kind of situation with north korea, russia, syria, et cetera, or is it that we thought this was a noninterventionist president and he's looking far more interventionist and that is the uncertainty? we're not sure who we got here. >> it's an unknown unknown. we are sending the armada into syria, but we can't really know. i would put that in the tail risk category. t