Right now. Its great to have you with us on this thursday. Our Investment Committee stocks giving up big gains the dow is up more than 185 points earlier in the session. The feds front and center. Policy makers are gathering as we speak if jacksonville Steve Liesman is there, speaking with philly fed harker his comments really impacted the markets here. Reporter yeah. I think maybe the key is this. That harker is not a hawk but his talk or his answers to my questions were somewhat hawkish. Heres what he said when i asked him, you know, where should rates be where should they go ididnt think the cut was appropriate, necessarily, but i went along to it to get back to neutral. But im on hold right now. My forecast is hold where we are for exact one of the reasons is that that i think we run the risk of creating too much leverage in the economy. Reporter that comes against the backdrop of course harker did not want to raise rates in december now hes okay with where rates are right now. And, of course, the mark, the backdrop is the market expecting several hikes from the Federal Reserve this year. Now, i did talk to an actual hawk, esther george, the Kansas City Fed host. Again she does not want to see a rate cut in the months ahead. My sense was weve added accommodation. Right. And it wasnt required in my view im observing the downside risk. Right now, im really focused on what the Federal Reserve has to do to achieve its mandates and in my view, with this very low unemployment rate, with wages rising, with the inflation rate staying close to the feds target, i think were in a got a place relative to the mandates we are asked to achieve. Reporter so, now you can start to see the context for jay powells speech tomorrow now, some members of the committee are more dovish and they want to see rate cuts the market, of course, wants to see rate cuts. The president wants to see rate cuts some members of the committee are on hold and dont want to go further until they see the economy weakening. That really will be the key is the data. Of course, we had fed officials here guys, we run into a few other things out here. Wild life, weve had some elk around here, some moose. I dont know go they have the video of that. If we havent, we got a little video there of some wild life, really nice things with horses beautiful horses there, steve. Beautiful horses and those buffalo. Buffalo buffalo. I dont know what that is reporter all the kind of things, thats all sort of meat for the nigerians. Freeze dried and they make jerky out of that stuff. Thats good jerky. Reporter they make the jerky. The smoked jerky with jalapeno maybe or Something Like that they are well known for doing. So, you know, we have that we have the whole rate thing here we have the wild life thing together. You got everything in jackson hole that you possibly could want steve, i want to get back to reporter a monetary moose, mellissa, also i love talking about jerky like the other guys here on set. I want want get back to the fed meeting. The fomc meetings yesterday revealed a fractious fed there didnt seem much contention there what tone did jay powell, hes speaking of a body that came together for a decision but not for the same reasons reporter i think thats a great question, mellissa and its something that im puzzling over. I think a chairman has to keep his committee together he doesnt want a front run. There has been a change since the voelkeralan greenspan years where bernake and powell, he has to keep that in mind he has to deal with the issue, the economy is growing 2 . Thats the forecast of a lot of fed officials for 2 growth. So the question becomes one of insurance cuts or not. I would still say the september cut, which is a 98 probability 98 probability in the futures market is probably still on. Its questioning that extra 25 after that and another 25 after that you remember on this show what sit last week or two weeks ago there was 75 basis points of cuts baked in. So i think the fight were having in the market about what the right course is, is between 25 and 75. Thats a big gap it was thursday, it was after the selloff after that initial shielded yielding version. Right we have the version, we have one basis point of air between the 2 and 10year yield at this point. What has changed, you know this better than everybody else better than expected retail sales numbers. We got a slate of retail earnings that looked pretty darn good so are things in your view really different reporter i talked a lot about this its the sort of tale of two economies. And i can go down the list weve got a consumer thats been pretty strong. A Manufacturing Sector thats been flat to down. We have the Global Economy several of the economies are weaker, flat we have the u. S. Economy growing right about trend. So you have that split thats out there. And its not obvious and i mean that important. Its not obvious for the fed which way to go. You can make a call and you can defend it. You can make the call for the quarter point cut and youre not crazy and you can make a call to be neutral and youd not be crazy. And i think one of the differences we see here, mellissa, is something we dont talk a lot about its the issue of excess leverage and how much you want to pump up the economy i will Say Something thats really important i will be reporting on this a lot this week. That is how much global yields matter. The two fed officials ive spoken to so far, theyre not impressed about what the president is saying the difference, germany at neutral and negative Interest Rates and the u. S. Being at 2 or 2. 2 they say our economy is growing. We have higher inflation we have a better Growth Outlook than they do we dont need to be where they are or bring down our rates. That as you know has been a persistent call from the president. Right. Reporter to lower those Interest Rates i want to tell you real quick, once, we have a lot more coming up here. There is the powell speech tomorrow morning before that Loretta Mester and James Bullard and Robert Kaplan this afternoon as well gita gopinath. Economist and mark carney a big interview from the bank of england. Thank you, Steve Liesman in jackson hole no animals were harmed in the filming of this. Lets go back to the markets do you think were setting up in terms of what we actually get in september . I mean, its really interesting when you listen to fed official itself. Theyre being proactive. Theyre saying, look, this is where we want to be. They dont want to be reactive to a market that is telling everybody, if you dont get this cut, it will be a big selloff to my mind right now the market will not like if we dont get a rate cut in september. If we get it, powell says, guys we are stopping now. It sounds like there are a lot of downside risks. If the cuts arent there, in the short term, the markets could selloff i would agree in the short term the mark will be disappointed remember, the market is up 18 this year. So you could have a little disappointment and a strong year what i believe is more important for the sustainability of getting over 3,000 on the s p and staying there is whether we have a trade deal. The trade resolution is something the market over the last week has sort of ignored. Everyone is excited about retail sales and there has been a manic buying into retailers, not that target doesnt deserve to go higher on that number, but 20 adding so billion to the quarter seems a little extreme and the enthusiasm with some of the other retailers is as if were trying to find something that works. If there is no trade deal, it will affect consumers. Too. The issue is there is no more deadline once trump pushed out the tariffs of december 15th thats our hard deadline now, john yes, it is, melissa to the point of the jackson hole meeting and whether or not the fed officials pay attention. It was, of course, an 82 vote it wasnt unanimous in the july 31st meeting the issues that i will be listening for tomorrow are real, pardon me, are whether or not we see more focus on the global slow down. Because all of us around the table have echoed what we have seen this week which is very positive news out of the u. S. , whether its consumer or broadly the economy here so i think its really going to be the focus of how much waiting do they put on whats going on overseas right. Whether its germany, brexit, whatever it might be thats the focus will be by me and by many on the powell speech tomorrow bad pmi numbers out of germany, how does that matter . Its consistent with what weve seen over the last couple of months. So i guess we dont need an emergency fed meeting. Thats off the table we were talking about that two weeks ago. I think there is too much communications i think we are over communicating. I think the messaging right now, were creating an environment where investors are just hearing what whats coming from the president , hearing whats coming from the Federal Reserve at a certain point its too much communications, were dismissing it i think if you look at the marketplace, in particular, a day like today, you get a market that sold off aggressively this morning, led by selling in the leaders, in the nasdaq type of names. We are seeing the market come back now a lot of that is on boeing a good job in getting into that name but you are also seeing Financial Institutions getting a strong bid today you are seeing energy even with the price of oil down, energy is being bought today so potentially what you might have is a situation where there is rotation opportunity for the equity investor, if they do decide there are realities and troubled spots and they want to get away from those technology names. So i like the glimpse of what we are getting today on a longerterm basis. John talks about the fed and actually looking more globally and seeing whats going on out there. That being somewhat of a factor right now dow is pointing to exactly what we got. Steve said they could cut or be neutral. Thats exactly what i think the position we are right now. I think when you look at volatility look at where we slid in such an unbelievable pace. We knew up toward 24 here we are back at 16 we are moving at 1 today, exactly, for those people that say the vix doesnt mean anything mov were moving at 1 at least and the vix is trading and it is accurate there is pressure on the fed we know the trade war deal, its got pushed out, to december. The reality is right now, that makes the fed that much more right in front of us right . Because now were looking. To move the pressure from the fed to active, exactly. Because we have that extended deadline on trade there. Because the ecb may be considering fiscal stimulus. You could see where the fed could make the decision either to cut or stay neutral it really would come down to the commentary from mr. Powell afterwards i really think that if they stayed neutral did not cut. But he prompted out why he made those decisions the right way. Hes had two big stumbles. He had one in december and recently can he stumble again he doesnt have room if he does, the markets will react in a negative way. Tomorrow will be a stumbling melt in your view, kerry i think its possible i doubt there is anything about which the market says, oh my god, we get anything we want he will be so firm in his commentary the market will take away from it, disaster were never going to get any cut or think were going to get everything we want i would say these people are very good at speaking diplomatically without letting you know will it be handicapped tomorrow what do you think . I would say you have a good chance of a rate cut and basically say, look, we have to see what the data will bring in. The trade issue is out there globally the fiscal stimulus could come out. If it starts turning around, if things get better and the fed does not want to go to 50 to 75 cut and all of a sudden be in a position where the ten year goes back to where weve seen it in the last six months, now do we need to raise again . I think we have to be careful, plus they get this rhetoric from the white house. I think there is a lot of pressure on them to be neutral here. Confirm what the markets are expected okay. Lets move on here joe, you had mentioned boeing in those headlines. Boeing did move on the back of the headlines. They freeze to 57 a month in february 2020. This is according to reports citing sources there is, of course, if regulators approve the embattled 737 max to fly in the fourth quarter. They say its possible they move back to record high production by june of 2020 and we see there the stock is up by 3. 6 . They jumped in on jim laventhal on boeing. Where do you stand on this one when you talk about the pressure on jay powell, there is pressure here. These are hundreds of thousands of jobs. Of course, getting boeing back on track would be big into the election year. Like i say pressure on regulators or pressure on the fed . These regulators will be under severe pressure. Why s the u. S. The election factor into both because its jobs boeing is the largest exporter in the United States because theyre one of the Largest Companies in the worked. And the fact that they have been on hold for most of this year, mem, with their biggest, newest plane, their fastest selling plane of all time at boeing. This isnt a secondary thought this is their biggest like i say hottest ticket so for them to get out there again with this would be big if the administration gets it wrong, its going to be really wrong. I dont think dits administration its the regulators. The regulators. But they got it wrong the last time boeing got it right. Who knows who is exactly to blame. But there were two crashes and theyre going to make sure that as best they can guarantee there wont be any crashes, thats going to be paramount. So buying it now because the stock is down and because of automatic reasons you cited are enough to make the trade, im not sure that if the stock moves up 10 , i would want to stay in that trade joe. I think people may not want to get on the plane once its in service. Say they go in service if december you fly a lot. Will you fly 737 max you will be the first to get on. I from. Im with them i fly all the time joe is in the care i would do it, too, i believe theyre going to rebrand it. I dont think its going to come out like the max initially well think maybe its a different plane . Exactly just to go back, if theyre approved to fly in q4, thats software its not that there is a structural and we need to change the body of the plane. Thats more problematic. Sure. So these headlines, you know, nodding to this possibility that theyve resumed rorpd production by june of next year, does that all of a sudden move up the time frame where you believe boeing will actually recover . 446 or so around there in january. That was the all time high in the stock. If you remove that overhang, you get back to record high production bam. Are we back there . So heres the other thing you got to think about think about it as the macropicture. We are talking global slowdown, u. S. Doing fine. Are the orders going to be there if this happens . Theyre already there though well, they couldnt be, then like so youre oleary over there at ryan air. Youre oleary over there. All of a sudden he has mouthed about he need big discounts. You will see that. As far as him stepping out of line and then letting air india or anybody else who is in line with him leapfrog over him because he cancelled, i dont think he can afford that what i think you see in the stock reaction the market is telling you it will be okay. I agree in one way the economy is saying its all fine the other way, yields are all down, globally we have a slow down it will be interesting to watch. As a former airline analyst, i will tell you, there has never been a recession during which companies, countries, buyers do not can sell airplane orders they just do it. That what happens. They run out of money, cant borrow what we got for boeing is a company for the last five years until recently did not act like a cyclical business at all will it start to have that type of cyclicality ever again . Maybe not. But thats one of the risks that are in the stock it was not a cheap stock when it was at its all time high at all. It was expensive Great Company, great cash flow lets knot act as if you dont think it returns back to its glory days it might. Never say never im going to start doing a different evaluation level everybody likes to do these circumstances. Its cash flow forget pe for a while for boeing thats why the 4 flicks. Look at pe and add the cash flow into there a little pie in the sky. Maybe its somewhere in the 400 range, though. Apple, reportedly getting ready to unveil an ipad pro. Its about this time apple announces a product effect iment had a great run so far up 10 in the past two first half weeks. 10 gain for apple you know what this does in terms of all these new products that they, in fact, do come out, if the reports are, in fact, correct. It adds to sales in that quarter. Yeah. Its, of course, not going to be the 5g phone that a lot of people want that i dont care about like some people i guess but it wont be the 5g this time around, mel. September 10th thats what a number of websites are saying will be the announced date for this iphone pro and so forth. I think eighth positive thing. Since we have looked at the break down back to august 4th or Something Like that and the market had those two very turbulent weeks up 800, down 800. You know, back and forth across those two weeks. This kept climbing as you just said so to put on you know 16 17 like that out of apple, in the midst of all that volatility told you that there were people buying not just apple, buffet and theal algos. There was a lol of institution alibiing that thought it was cheap below 200. Remember that was year, not a good one, it had trouble in china. Its interesting the timing of this this could really, they bridgeed that sort of lull period that people thought might happen because people were eighth waiting for the rollout of the 5g and this could also offset anything we might see from china which is an issue this year. Also theyre getting ahead of potentially having margins lower. Thats potentially one of the bicker overhangs on the stock. Thats why when the trade war is focused, its not only the revenues its the margins you have a Software Company in a hardware shell so thats where i think the negativity comes in. So this is one way coming ahead of them. Pete. I its amazing we talk about the phone all the time i know obviously why its with the sales. The services, that is the growth thats where they get margins, too, thats the areas we need to focus on when you talk about the watch and somebody says theyre not innovative i disagree i think theyve gone on the right path for growth. Theyre starting to get into peoples psyche its not just the phone. Its more than the phone the phone is what everybody wants to focus on. The real drivers is where the growth the right now of course, as weve seen this week, companies that get consumers to spend money on them those stocks were acting apple is a Consumer Company, a software in a hardware shell its also a Consumer Company that business with the help from the president about likelihood that theyll push out tariffs that would affect their business on electronic product. That going to be a positive for them people keep spending a positive. They also need the coin deal. I think thats one of the biggest catalysts, there was concern this would be weaponized in the trade dispute with the chinese. They clearly seen tim cook gives the message to the market that thats not going to be the case g. That is not the case, you can go back to the fundamentals of this company the incredible Buyback Program they have and the products that others are citing here its a company you want to own. Are we putting off the inevitable of thinking of the impacts on apple right now they have until the 15th picking up the phone and dialing President Trump directly because they have such a wonderful relationship according to president. But thats december 15th and how much power will tim cook actually have to call him up again and say you know what, weve passed december 15th we need to go out to march or whatever time frame he has are we sort of delaying, pete . Well, we have been. We have been doing that. Right . We continue to kick this thing a little further out and buy a little time. I think as we get closer to those kind of days, we get into december yes, if there is not something resolved they will work on kick it out a little more. I think the relationship with the president. We talked about this yesterday i like the fact that he was listening, they had a great dinner, mcdonalds, whatever they had it was probably fantastic and figured out a few things i this city president needs to hear from these guys, whether its boeing, apple, whoever it might be, he needs to sit down and hear from them West Virginia are they say sfg. Please pick up the phone and call the president call nadella. Give them a call absolutely right. I think you are right, the consumer at the end of the day will end up paying the excess. That itself the cost of the economy. Because if the consumer cant keep the economy going, we already know that Industrial Companies arent doing it. Think about the last two weeks. Whats the best communication that we have gotten from the Trump Administration its been, oh, yes, we have spoken to tim cook and weve also spoken to the bank ceos we spoke to brian mine brian mi moynehan this is an administration on the belief they were going to be a business Friendly Administration we have to go out and continue to extent wait that message to investors. All right electronic arts, theyre in a bare market after falling 30 from recent eyes Value Investors sarot is well positioned to drive growth as the digital market shirts to downloads. Explain. The cash if you take out the double digits growth, 50 of the revenue comes from fifa. The movement from software is the subscription so all of a sudden your whole revenue model is shifting. You are getting money paid on a monthly basis. Have you great gains coming down the road including madden at a market multiple growing double the rate of the market, where there is positive cash flow at a time you Want Companies with positive sheets. The stock is down 30 . Weve initiated a position playing the whole gaming as we go forward and the more that they, the more games come out the better they do. Looks like a value pack i think its a good trade we owned ea around around the wrong time two failed launches and the market really hated it theyve got fifa, theyve got madden if you have that as your base and you can build on to something else, i think thats a reasonably good trade here we have to take a break heres what itself coming up on the Halftime Report. Gy me some slack why one firm says its our call of the day plus the Investment Committee is ready to answer your questions to reach us go to cnbc. Com halftime. Or tweet us at Halftime Report usg inthe hashtag askhalftime stay with us the Halftime Report is back in two minutes. Were pretty different. Were all unique in our own ways. Somos muy diferentes. Muy diferentes. vo verizon knows everyone in your family is different. There are so many of us doing so many different things. vo thats why verizon lets everyone mix and match different unlimited plans. Sebastians the gamer. Sebastian. This is my office. vo and now with more plans, everyone gets what they need without paying for things they dont. The plan is so reasonable, they could stay on for the rest of their lives. Aww, did you get that on camera . Thanks, dad vo new plans now starting at 35. The network more people rely on gives you more. Hey i live on my own now ive got xfinity, because i like to live life in the fast lane. Unlike my parents. You rambling about xfinity again . Youre so cute when you get excited. Anyways. Ive got their app right here, i can troubleshoot. I can schedule a time for them to call me back, its great you have our number programmed in . Ya i dont even know your phone anymore. Excuse me . what . I dont know your phone number. Aw well. He doesnt know our phone number you have our fax number, obviously. Todays xfinity service. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Ill pass. Welcome back, everybody, im sue herrera, heres your cnbc news update at this hour secretary of state mike pompeo meeting with canadian Prime MinisterJustin Trudeau ahead of the g7 summit. He says it is wrong canada is intent on aiding in their release. Our team is focused on helping those two canadians being released china needs to honor its commitment of the world and our expectations were working on it diligently its wrong that they are being held. Global outrage of the fires raging across the amazon more than 70,000 fires are burning in brazils rainforest Officials Say they have surged 83 this year compared to last year brazils president enraged environmentalists by making unfounded claims that organizations started the fires out of anger that he cut their funding. Here at home, the Green Bay Packers quarterback aaron rogers causing quite a buzz on ticket they tweeted he was decked out in denim sporting a bolo tie as the team arrived for the preseason game against the oakland raiders. Thats the news update at this hour back to you. I thought he wore it well i thought he did. With the shades. Thats his real tache. Yeah. He looks good. Its a look that not many can carry off. Freddie mercury. Oh my gosh, you are right there that was a good one for sean our producer. Thank you, sue, sewer herrera. Lets get to slack shares, giving up gains fractionally higher after a bullish call from mkm at a 40 price target calling for nearly 25 upside from here. It is our call of the day. Joe. What do you make of slack . You know the knock, if there is a knock on slack is that people always thought that somebody else could come in and do the same exact thing that would be Microsoft Teams or alpha bet or potentially facebook so the competition risk is there for this company the community likes the stock. The 12 months price target average is somewhere around 37. You have seven buys, eight holds, one sell. There note today, it is not a praise is to the investment community. In fact, the stock is not trading very well off of that i think the high for the day was somewhere around 32. 80 its fallen below 31 longer term, this is a stock that can find its trajectory to the upside if it is able to transition a lot of its customer base, which is using the free model and getting them to be paying and paying the premium that a lot of the instilled examiner base for slack is paying now which on an annual basis somewhere around 100,000. So if you are able to get comfort in the coming quarters, that theyre able to convert those free customers right. Then i think you will see the acceleration in the stock, wouldnt sell it here, but i think you need to have that confidence in hearing that message. I wouldnt know it here. You have a look on your face. The path to profitability looks bad. The daily active users for microsoft surpassed them its going down, down, down, down when will they make money . We looked a at this company. They mentioned in this article, in this analysts review is, hey, we look at this thing and the valuation might scare you. Well, it should. I mean at some point, theyve got to prove that they have that math to profitability. We dont see that right now. The competition is there thats a good question. That is one we will pose the analyst himself at mkm partners. Option pulls in the material space, john and pete have those names and trades for you next. First a check on s p sectors as we head to break. Well be back right after this do you have concerns about mild memory loss related to aging . Prevagen is the number one pharmacistrecommended memory support brand. You can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Welcome back to the Halftime Report. We want to call attention to shares of overstock. Com, which are spiking up massively towards their best levels of the day so far. This after a ceo and founder Patrick Burns says he is retiring from a director in the firm this stems back to comments made a week or so ago with regard to his involvement now with convict russian spy maria butina the news sent the stock tumbling over the course of a few days with regard to his involvement there. They have now been trying to recruit those losses because of these headlines of his resignation. A lot of comments from a fairly outspoken ceo figure in his own right in patrick byrne, thats the reason there is a lot of volatility in shares of overstock. Com. Thank you, dom, dom chuchlt traders are betting on one retailer ahead of earnings much more unusual activity so, pete, kick it off first. Kicking it off, bed, bath and beyond, you can look at this chart. It looks as ugly as it can look. It made a turn, earlier today, stock was trading about 40 cents lower than it is, its trading 848. Somewhere this that range. We saw they were buying in the first week of september and buying the nine strike calls they bought about 11,500 at the time now its pushing towards 12,000 of these about a 20 to a 30 cent option risk reward, we always love those trades i love what im seeing here. I bought this i will be in this about a week thats about what i have about two weeks maybe to be able to hold on to this thing this one i like a lot. I got one more as well i got corning. Corning hit right out of the gates this morning, very very actively bought. You see, once again, a stock trading call it in the middle low 30s in here, the severe drop its seen recently maybe there is a little recovery in front of it right now they are buying 15,000 of these october 28 calls so theyre right at the money. Theyre directly going right at where the stock is trading i love cmes. Theyre going about a dollar this was a large trade i will be in this probably a month. I will love seeing this. Riskreward. These are already in the money theyre already something that can move to the upside without the low 30s numbers. Thats when id probably start thinking of an exit. John you are up mel, take a look at this one. Switch data centers, stock is up 37 cents today. With the stock in the 16 vish range. They come in, theyre buying out in february. So february 16 calls somebody wants to simulate owning stock, basically that is the the money calm, mem, all the way out to february. Like the trade, im in it. Ill probably be in it twotothree months. Second trade, real kicks fox. 34 strike, a september trade, 33. 30. They buy the 34 strike calls they bought about 5,000 quickly. I bought these i will probably be in these 2tothree weeks not months take a look at what went on in key sight keys we talked about it when it was an 88 stock two days ago. We said look at this upside activity they were buying the 90s, 9250s and so forth now with the stock at 100 bucks. All of those calls deep in the money. Were not talking about the 11 or 12 gain on the stock, mel, were talking 2 to 500 percent returns on those options thats just trade. Another quebec one, nvidia, nvda, talked about very short term trade they bought the weekly 170 skauls now with the stock today 171. 65. Those calls went from 70 vents cents last friday to 3. 90 today. We got out of the bulk of ours at 3 today. Nonetheless, great trade most of those have been liquidated and or rolled out to next week, mem, people want more upside on nvidia we were talking tim cook getting love from the president. What is the flipside like . Ford is under fire the risks and rewards facing ceos and their stocks straight ahead. President trump taking aim at another ceo this time attacking formed for fought backing the administrations plan to roll back the obama fuel efficiency rules. Eamon javers joins us from the white house with more on this. Ro the president s got ceos he favors and ceos that are out of favor. That can make difference with particular policy outcomes they want tim cook the latest example. I asked the president yesterday whether he has a better relationship with tim cook of apple than other Technology Ceos the president says he does, tim cook makes it personally picks up the phone and calls him. We built this sliding scale here take a look of the relationships of the president from the best tim cook to the worst jeff bezos of amazon. Its sort of a sliding scale, the president praised yesterday. Marlin hewson at Lockheed Martin she is here a lot. She has one dominant examiner in the pentagon which is run by the president of the United States safra catz of oracle mary barra has been in and out of the president s crosshairs. Ceo of ford lameb basted the president frustrated American Auto makers not siding with the Trump Administration on the emissions and jeff bezos the president does not like the Washington Post jeff bezos owns it and the president does not like him, tweets about it. Thats about as in the doghouse you can get with a ceo the question is whether there will be policy and outcomes for that, bottom line advantage for amazon well wait and see to that it doesnt sound like there could be possibly damage to a jim hackett. Im curious. We had that scale all nicely spaced out but if you had your druthers, would you slide hackett closer to bezos or further away reporter i think youd slide them further away. I dont think anybody is in the doghouse as much as jim bezos, remember there is a multicontract for federal Computing Services on the line here amazon really wants and some of the competitors, including oracle has been trying to make sure that amazon doesnt get it the president has called into question whether amazon get that contract is that personal or is he making it purely on the policy merits when he calls that into question . Its sort of hard to untangle those things thats why i think you see a guy like tim cook spending to much time focusing on getting into the president s frame and building that relationship, which is largely done through the family hes gotten close with ivanka trump and developed a relationship i am told with melania trump, the first lady, particularly when they had dinner bedminster, new jersey last week. I am told they bonded at that dinner over technology and her be best campaign so cook has been working sort of through the first family into trumps inner circle thats paid some dividends i asked the president about ti cook yesterday he said, look, he explained well his situation on tariffs, visavis samsung, his major competitor the president said i will have to do something forle. It remains to be seen. Apple could get a policy win because of his winner companion. Thank you eamon javers, a nice place to be the inner circle of the first family but for ford and for jim hackett, would you be concerned about the company and what it could possibly lose, if i kout lose anything, because of being criticized by the president . Well, id be more concerned about the fits and starts that the stock price has had for ford id be more concerned about the weak ness thats emanating from europe and from china. Thats where i think you have to be more concerned. I think as it goes back to the comments we had earlier, there was real concern that apple would be weaponized. I think that takes this off the table and allows you tof the vision of all the wonderful fundamental stories going on about apple in the company. Surat. I think the Auto Companies fall into this tariff issue and have you global slow down. You get you know people think of peak auto sales. Now you have what everybody thought a white house that was supportive of the auto industry. Now you got another headwind there. Its hard for these Auto Companies to get out of their way. Trading at five times wereings, i this i the stock prices will be flat. So it would be nice if jim hackett and mary barra called more frequently . Get cozy. Yes. Get cozy with ivanka and melania. Investors are playing safe haven big. We got your trades straight ahead. And we have zero account fees for brokerage accounts. At fidelity those zeros really add up. Maybe ill win saved by zero welcome back to the Halftime Report im seema mody this is futures now. Gold under pressure as investors turn their attention to jackson hole where fed officials are gathered to discuss the next steps for the central bank our traders today, jim yurio Gold Holdings at a sixyear high what happens if Jerome Powell turns hawkish tomorrow i dont think he does i think Jerome Powell is in a tough spot tomorrow. I dont think he pleases any investors at all when he doesnt please equity investors, that means buy gold good support right above 1500. Id buy it the first time we trade down there because i think this thing works its way back to 1520 jim, Goldman Sachs sees gold headed to 1600 over the next six months do you see a path to those levels i agree completely. The strength we saw in early august has been retraced a little bit but surprisingly little. This consolidation period the last couple of days if it trades 1520 or 1525 that would be a breakout to the up side and its game on. Back up to 1590 is my target right about now. In about eight minutes our futures now show kicks off well have more on how to play jackson hole with jeff mills plus much more at 1 00 p. M. East owner futuresnow. Cnbc. Com. Halftime is back after this. This is my headquarters. This is where i trade and manage my portfolio. Since i added futures, i have access to the oil markets and gold markets. Okay. Im plugged into equities trade confirmed and i have Global Access 24 7. Meaning i can do what i need to do, then i can focus on what i want to do. Visit learnfuturestoday. Com to see what adding futures can do for you. The traders are answering your questions mike in new york asks if cisco is a buy here after earnings im holding it. Im not buying yet its down about 11 . Trading at a market multiple the call said things are going to be slow for the next two quarters probably wait a little bit before it comes down to get a market pullback and then id buy it brandon in georgia wants to know if now is a great time to buy zoetis the stock is up 60 year to date it may not be the perfect time to add a new position, but its a Great Company. Its in the Veterinary Health care business so they are safe, so far, from any pressure on pricing. And theyve been growing the franchise. And we think its a Great Company but perhaps a little bit on the expensive side. Ll rht aig your final trades straight ahead on the half. Big show tonight on fast money at 5 00 how to position your portfolio ahead of powell tomorrow also salesforce earnings after the bell final trades here on the half. Joe, kick it off the financials have sold off enough and jpmorgan is one of the ways to play a little baste recovery bounce. Surat qualcomm. I think the apple information is good for this stock. They agreed with lg yesterday. The stock has more room to go. Carrie . Waste connection. Its an essential service that focuses on second and third tier cities strong cash flow we like it here. Doc i like this one cancer stock ziop a lot of buying into the weekend. Gap stores going into earnings theyre buying the at the money calls. The 18 calls keep an eye on this thing. Have fun at the fair. State fair, baby. The exchange begins right now. Thanks, melissa heres whats ahead. The inversion is back. Markets are once again worrying about the feds next moves after two members say a rate cut may not be needed. Is this panic warranted . Well ask. Plus, call me maybe. The president praising apples tim cook for calling him directly to deal with tariffs and other matters. Why isnt every ceo doing this well discuss. And hiding in plain sight. A cnbc investigation into just how easy it is to hack your phone, your computer monitor and even your desk fan we begin with the market gyrations. Theyve been gyrating but