Everybody is trying to pick the bottom and its not working out so well. The proof is in what you get, right . What you get is when you find these earnings out and find out where they are, you look at somebody like macys. When you miss on the revenue as badly as they did, scott, they call themselves a transitional stock and they are. But they are still a ways away from the transition that they need to make to be competitive. Thats the problem they have got right now. When you look at look at those numbers. The same store sales numbers. Those were almost double as bad as expected. Its unbelievable how difficult it is right now in retail when youre not amazon. You want to talk numbers, doc. Sure. You saw macys is down 14 . Rubbing some salt in the wound, judge. Kohls down 6, nordstrom 7, macys 8. You can go down the list. Dillards 12. Overall retail sales are up but not at the retailers you named, judge. When we talk about easy comps and tough comps on the show all the time. These guys, macys, coming off a year ago quarter when the samestore sales were down 6 . Now they come out down 5. 25 or Something Like that. This was just a terrifically bad quarter. Obviously i and anybody else who had calls into this thing just saw them get flushed. The only good news there is stocks down almost 4. And the options you could only lose what you paid for them, 40 cents or whatever. Its a giant slap in the face. It is. To anybody who thought that retail had bottomed or was close to bottoming. Look at these declines today. But it doesnt say bad things about the consumer. Its just ugly. Some people are going to want to read through and say im not saying thats what youre saying. I dont think were doing that. Overall retail sales are up, but the problem is that theyre up of course at amazon, we know that. Look at how that stocks done. But theyre up in a lot of stores other than these. These big ones right here. And the lesson here, just stop trying to pick a bottom. You cant pick a bottom. The floor keeps getting lower and lower and lower and lower. Focus on the stores that do well. They really need to get rid of most of the stores that arent doing well. Its taking longer than people expected. Hence you get samestore sales declining because some stores arent doing well at all. Focus online and what stores you have. If i said what retailers would you buy here . Jim might say, look, pennys is still the one. Would you buy any of these apparel names, Big Box Department store . Youre going to get earnings over the next couple of days. No. Youve got a secular condition thats challenging all of these brick and mortar retailers. Ultimately its about selling off Square Footage. That is where this has to go. Who are the buyers on the other side of that . What do they do . I keep hearing about we want to create destination experiences. I dont know what that means. Do we just go to open bowling alleys all over the United States . Im not sure. Driving ranges. Even target. Target is down 21 year to date, down 3 . So i think this is a Square Footage problem more than anything else. I also think its going to bleed into other parts of the market. Keep in mind, retail is nearly 10 of the high yield market. So retail is going to replace looking forward. Energy is the contagious in the high yield market. But the discounter, when we talk about these names and look at the next level and look at tjx or ill give you burlington. Thats a name we never bring up, ross stores. When you look at discount, thats when people are making Great Strides and theyre building themselves out in a different way. Obviously when you talk about tjx, home goods and where are people spending their money. You can see that the way home depot is coming off its highs. You look at lowes and where people are spending the money, scott, its in the home. You remember that day, at this point its probably eight weeks ago if not further back when we had matthew boss, jpmorgan on, and hes the number one retail analyst. We asked him point blank, is there a single retail or apparel stock or Department Store that you would recommend buying right now . And he couldnt find one. Right. Even as other people try to find and pick bottoms in this space. Theres nothing that you would buy here . Kate spade, when youre talking about coach and kate spade potentially, you know, what that could be. You look at somebody like what ive touted time and time again on dips and thats raufl laurlp. I like that one buying it on dips. When you look at that or l brands, two of the stocks i would focus on there, they have both had some nice pops, even though theyre down hard from some of the recent highs. You dont want to chase them at the higher lows. I agree with the l brands, you buy it on the dips, like today. Victorias secret, great brand. You have to be very careful because the bottom is not there and you can slowly leg in. On days like this, if youre going to get aggressive maybe the next question is where is the bottom, right . This is like the carnival ride where you stick to the wall and the bottom falls out and you feel nauseous quickly. The bottom is for someone like a bill ackman thats going to be able to buy the retail Square Footage. The bottom is the retail opportunity for an institutional investor. Not to be sarcastic, we always say, yeah, theres a retailer, its amazon. Besides amazon, myself, ive done a poor job point out, alibaba isnt another alternative beneficiary besides amazon to this ecommerce move that we see and obviously its globally exposed. I think 120 today, nearing its alltime high. Baba and amazon together, theres your retail opportunity. Were not even discussing the fallout in other areas, some of these the ggps, simon properties. We could throw up those stock as well. Thats where the leverage comes into play as well because they have to go back to the market to get new capital and that could cause but those two you mentioned, judge, simon property, spg looking at them right now. The stocks have been battered, they should be battered, but they have class a space. So there is a value beyond just the mall in these spaces because they are close to city centers, theyre in, you know, great zones. There are a lot of bs and c that you dont want to touch. They dont even bother to tear those down if those malls go out. Lets talk about retail but as it pertains to groceries. I want to bring new reporting about whole foods and its move to shake up the board. Yesterday the Company Announced that it was removing seven people from the board and nominating five new directors. Whole foods has been battling with jona partners over its future. Jona is pleased with the shakeup, however, its skeptical with the companys plan to address its operational issues. Theyre concerned about nominees and their lack of grocery market experience, also the lack of input they have in the new plan that whole foods is trying to roll out. They rejected an offer of two of its nominee because it would have had to agree to a standstill agreement until 2019. The company didnt want to be muzzled for that long. They are keeping all of their options on the Table Including calling a special meeting to push for its own slate of poubo nominees. I know youve owned this stock in the past. Im still in it right now. I took off half today, actually. But we talked about april 18th, we saw huge activity in there just before all these rumors of somebody potentially buying them and all these names started floating out there. I think it was more attached to the idea of how much percentage in terms of where Jana Partners numbers were and where some other investors really were when they started to make moves in here. When you look at this company, scott, they just have not figured it out. I think jana is correct on this. Seven straight quarters they just continue to see declining sales. Thats a real problem. I think a lot of that is because of the fact they went right after the grocery stores, of course. But the grocery stores, when you go into a krogers, they all have their natural section now. They all have their whole foods part, and its getting bigger and bigger. Thats making it much more difficult for whole foods to be able to compete there, and thats why you wonder if jana at some point doesnt press it a little harder saying, hey, look, we need to do something and thats not necessarily in the store itself. The older stores have negative comps. Secondly pricing pressure. Commodity prices have been going down and down and down. They cant raise prices and people are saying well go to other stores and they cant keep the margins up so thats what youre seeing. So the stock is up 20 year to date. You know, you guys may be the commentary is a little more negatively bent. Wells fargo out with a note today, they reiterate their outperform, 42 price target. The company is talking a good game but this time its serious. The new proactive approach to change is a good thing. Are you guys giving it enough credit . Stock has moved. I think the stock is rightfully valued where it is right now. Basically youre believing that there is going to be some form of a turnaround for this company. It probably didnt belong at 30, it probably doesnt belong to be at 45 any time quickly. This is probably the right price and you want to see the company not only hit on the competition challenges that theyre facing as pete is point out. Every store right now offers what whole foods offers. But i think the experience too has deteriorated. Its a name that i have owned in the past. Its a store that i frequent. And youre talking about stores. You go to a store, its crowded, its crammed and doesnt give the presentation that it did when it first was presented to the customer. Thats the fine line, because it used to be the starbucks experience. Starbucks has been able to maintain that. Whole foods is declining. If theyre going to cut costs, you might see more of that experience taken away. Do you own it because you think that jana is taking a wait and see . It could call for a special meeting, it could go to an annual meeting and get more aggressive. The company could get sold, right . Theres been chatter around that over the last many weeks. Why not own it for all of those reasons . And if you do, youre owning just the options in there, scott. I think thats why somebody went out and bought as many options as they did. If time goes on and nobody has called for that type of meeting, whats going to happen to that stock . They report another quarter where they see the samestore sales go down again, the stock will start to pull back. When you looked at that big jump that they showed a minute ago on the chart, that jump was the second everybody found out about Jana Partners and that 9 stake. Its not like they put a bunch of hacks on the board. No. Either. Ron shake, they got operators and people people from best buy. Yeah. They got people who know the retail and maybe the food business, its just according to my sources, jana looks at the list and its like wheres the grocery experience. If theyre trying to overhaul and turn around their business, why dont they have people on the board who have credibility in that particular part of the industry. Thats a fair point. I mean its a fair point. Its accurate. And i think maybe to petes point, its why you dont get very aggressive right here with the stock at 37. This isnt something that appears to be imminent in terms of a turnaround strategy. This is something that really is going to take a lot of work, a lot of time, a lot of effort and really a lot of fight on the part of the activists to get the company to move in the right direction. We did reach out to whole foods for a statement. We havent heard back. If we do, well let you know. Heres what else is coming up on the Halftime Report. A snapback for snap stock. Shares sink after earnings. One analyst says the pain is just starting. Plus, cheaper than ever. Thats what bank of america calls one unloved sector. The details and the trade, next. Before the break, how the rest of retail reacts after macys drops 10 in a day. Our data partners at kensho show within five days, nordstrom and j. C. Pennew also falls hard. Target also drops. The s p Retail Sector falls 2 within five days after a big macys drop. My business was built with passion. But i keep it growing by making every dollar count. Thats why i have the spark cash card from capital one. With it, i earn unlimited 2 cash back on all of my purchasing. And that unlimited 2 cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business. Which adds fuel to my bottom line. Whats in your wallet . What . Pony neighing] hey gary. Oh. Whats with the dogsized horse . Im crazy stressed trying to figure out this complex trade so i brought in my comfort pony, warren, to help me deal. Isnt that right warren . Well, you could get support from thinkorswims inapp chat. It lets you chat and share your screen directly with a live person right from the app, so you dont need a comfort pony. Oh, so what about my motivational meerkat . Inapp chat on thinkorswim. Only at td ameritrade. Did you know slow internet can actually hold your business back . Say goodbye to slow downloads, slow backups, slow everything. Comcast business offers blazing fast and reliable internet thats over 6 times faster than slow internet from the phone company. Say hello to internet speeds up to 250 mbps. And add phone and tv for only 34. 90 more a month. Call today. Comcast business. Built for business. Welcome back to the Halftime Report. That is one chart of the day for sure, snap plunging after releasing its first Quarterly Results since the ipo. Global daily active users missing estimates, revenue short. This as the Company Faces competition with facebooks instagram. Doc, you bought it after hours yet. I did, because i was losing so much money on the calls that i still own so i thought let me throw good money after bad. No, thats not what i did. I did buy in the after hours last night and it could have been good money after bad, but i mean i took people like david tepper at his word. I thought there were a lot of people who right around that 17 level would come in. I didnt buy it at 17 of course, bought it at 17. 38 or Something Like that. But i thought this was an opportunity to get in for a trade, scott. The numbers you talked about were horrific. The growth rate stopped, it virtually stopped, and thats because facebook ad nauseum we heard, everybody has been attacking them. However, i thought the fear would drive people into puts, which i sold this morning, so ive been eating away at that loss that i took on this trade, but overall i dont want to own this thing for the long term. Im the opposite of josh or of david tepper in that regard. Some people seem to be put off by what they perceived to be arrogance from evan spiegel on the call. Jim cramer today, i think he said it today, quote, he needs to be hazed. Yeah. The yahoo google stuff. One of our producers talked to Ross Levinson who had been high on the company and two founders who said this was so poorly managed that theres no way you should have had this kind of a disaster on your first Earnings Report. Except for the fact that they were decelerating before they ipoed. They were decelerating in terms of the growth factor. You look at zuckerberg going right after them aggressively. 3 billion. Obviously they did well because it was a heck of a lot bigger number when they ipoed. When you look at the money they hemorrhaged from the ipo and people taking money out, all of that, unbelievable numbers. So when they came in and the report that came out and then to still have some arrogance about yourself, thats a pretty interesting way to approach it. I think one of the things you have to be really careful about, facebook has all the money they want to keep on growing instagram, messenger. The more snap spends on r d, the more its going to hurt you in the next earnings. So facebook has a ton of Free Cash Flow and snap has to be really careful about earnings. Lets show you this wall graphic that we have because snap is in good company when it comes to laying an egg in your first publicly traded your Earnings Report as a publicly traded company. Twitter down 24 , facebook down 12, linkedin down 10. Are we hyperventilating over a company in its public infancy . When they talk about losing a billion dollars or even more, judge, and they said but thats, you know, really nothing. Thats crap. I mean people looked at that and said that is that arrogance youre speaking to. Its kind of like when zuck was Walking Around with a hoodie. When was the last time you saw him in a hoodie in front of the cameras . Hes not doing that anymore, because you come across as both arrogant, i dont care, you guys dont want to buy my stock, dont buy my stock. Thats going to drive that thing to zero when you act that way. But i think spiegel can recover from this. I agree with Ross Levinson that if he grows up and does a more grownup Conference Call next time if ross was here, he would say, all right, they need to build a team. This is huge inexperience and its showing, it spilled out for everybody to see. Goldman is out with a note today unbelievable. That says daily active user net ads accelerating, users increasing, they remain buy. You talk about arrogance. I am amazed at the Analyst Recommendations this morning. Goldman sachs is still at 27. Morgan stanley comes out and reiterates an overweight position at 28. I mean its an incredible amount of arrogance and its unfortunate because it does not it does not suggest or teach the proper discipline. Those watching the show, those watching the markets need to have around these companies. You talk about facebook and twitter. Twitter out of the gates lays an egg. Twitter has negatively performed over the time span since the ipo. Facebook lays the egg but then gives you time to get back in again, and i think those are the things as an investor or a trader you want to wait for. You dont want to be involved in snap right now until you see the fundamental turn like you saw in facebook. That could take multiple quarters. Is it never going to happen . I dont know the answer to that. There are analysts who are throwing this thing out the window. Brian is joining us now. Welcome back, its good to have you on the show. Thanks for having me. Sell call, 9 price target. Your reaction to earnings is what . You know, despite having a sell on the stock, i am actually reasonably positive about the business in the long run. I just think its massively overvalued. People are not counting for share dissolution. Its being run by individuals who dont have a lot of experience doing this before. Its a venture states company. Now, the quarter itself i thought was you know, it was below my expectations. To their credit, they did give us guidance saying that revenues would be below the Fourth Quarter in the First Quarter. I just dont think any of us believed that it should have happened. A company at this stage should not be experiencing cyclicality. So that said, i dont think you want to overstate the consequences of one quarter. I think it causes you to change your view of are they a billion dollar revenues this year versus 900 million . Thats kind of where i went. Yeah. But does that change the long term . Not really. Now, that said, where the stock was trading before was massively overvalued. And i dont know that the Company Needs to be concerned about that except to the extent that a lot of employees who work there have been issued significant amounts of rsus which are dependent upon a high stock price. The biggest risk for the company is how do you manage a workforce whose compensation is largely stock driven if the stock does come down to earth. That will be a bigger issue. So do you think that earnings were mismanaged, as some have suggested . Presumably you were on the call. Do you think that spiegel came off arrogant or in an otherwise negatively perceived way . Honestly, i took it as just confident but i dont know that it was the right tone for this call. It actually sounded to me like they have had five internal earnings calls for their investors, their board or whatever where they have gone through this process before and this was just another call. Like there was no attempt to sell investors on the stock. There was no were grateful that investors have placed such a significant valuation for us to grow into kind of commentary, and heres how were going to do it. What about the idea of the mismanagement of the earnings, right . As Ross Levinson suggests, theres no way you should come out this bad in your first Earnings Report. I agree, except for the fact that if you think it wouldnt the optics would not have looked better in the next quarter, maybe you thought this was the best chance to do it. You thought there was a window and you took it. Again, to their credit, they did warn that their revenues wouldnt grow. So i think most of us, and i include myself in this, have to say, wow, we didnt take them at face value. We didnt listen to the words they said. Yeah. And what about this goldman note, right, that points out the positives . I know its been ridiculed a bit on the desk today in front of me, but when they point out that daily active net ads are accelerating and engagement is increasing and they remain a buy, others suggest sort of, yes, youve had some early stage turbulence, obviously, but see the forest through the trees. Is that a fair point . Well, i havent seen the note. I dont read competitors work. Im giving you the headline, if thats what they say. I mean, yes, you can look at it that way. I would point to this. When i look at the data from nielsens dcr data, i see about 1 16 of the amount of consumption from a time spent perspective on snap as i see on facebook. And i see about the same, maybe slightly less relative to instagram. I see a little bit more than twitter. And thats about where you should be thinking of it. Now, instagram has a massive advantage because it has less time spent per user but has many more users. Snap is talking up the daily active user numbers. Thats a lovely metric, it just doesnt happen to be the relevant one for most marketers. A monthly number is arguably much more important. Right. The targeting ability that facebook offers is much more important. The sales force that facebook is already putting out towards marketers and can just bundle instagram with facebook is more important. So its not to say that they cant they arent able to manage their metrics well. Daily active users is a good metric in terms of gauging engagement. I wouldnt overweight that metric looking at the company. Brian, thanks. Appreciate your time. Brian weiser. Snap was a threetime cnbc disrupter. Find out whos next when cnbc reveals the fifth annual disruptor 50. Doc, do you want to wrap it up . I wanted to ask brian, but i think the desk kind of knows what the answer would be. When this lockup comes, judge, this is the mother of all lockups because its a oneyear lockup they gave the insiders in here. And they own 30 of the company. So when they push this thing out, oh, my god, if theyre not perform at that time, this thing will be single digits. And then what happens is they leave and you lose your intellectual capital and you now have to acquire more intellect cal capital when the value of your stock, which is your coin, is lessened. Just ahead, the trades on home depot, yum, exxon and many more in our blitz. Plus, you know who is tracking the unusual activity in the options market. Were talking chicken and a Big Industrial name. Were back in two minutes on the Halftime Report. Fast money hits the strip. Tonight at 5 00 eastern, melissa lee is live from las vegas of the on the show, steve wynn, mark cuban and wayne newton. Usaa gives me the peace of mind and the security just like the marines did. The process through usaa is so effortless, that you feel like youre a part of the family. I love that i can pass the membership to my children. Were the williams family, and were usaa members for life. With e trade you see things your way. You have access to the right information at the right moment. And when you filter out the noise, its easy to turn your vision into action. Its your trade. E trade. Start trading today at etrade. Com im dr. Kelsey mcneely and some day you might be calling me an energy farmer. Energy lives here. Becton dickinson is one of the biggest movers in the s p 500 today. Its also a member of the cnbc iq 100 which is up over 25 in the past year. For more on the index go to cnbc. Com iq100. Now, back to the Halftime Report. Were back, the najarians making their way to the telestrator. Pete, you are up first. Usually jon is up fist. Were looking at pilgrims pride. Take a look at this chart. Pretty interesting how fast this thing has been moving to the upside. A little bit of a decline recently, but today really interesting to see the june 25 calls extremely large, about 14,000, just under 15,000 calls bought today for around 40 cents. Very aggressive call buying. Its not a name we see very often so it just makes you scratch your head. As its approaching this number, just under 25. You got a little time. Im in the trade, jons in the trade. Whenever we see something brand new we havent seen in a really long time, this gets us excited. Excited about this one. I literally thought of this question. I dont think ive ever asked you before. Are you guys always in the same trades . No, no. You look at something . Even though we look alike and all the rest of that stuff, no, well see stuff. Sometimes the interpretation is different. Or sometimes i have too much of something, judge. If i have too much, for instance, energy and pete adds an energy name, thats the last thing i need so i might hold off on that one. Doc, what have you got today . Ive got general electric, judge, how about this one . Ge trying to gather itself after this selloff like petes talked about coming down to about this level. And what are they buying . Theyre buying twoweek out calls. Basically the june 2nd expiration calls. They bought about 6,000 of them right there at the june 29 strike. So its virtually an at the money call so it doesnt take a lot of movement for those calls to double or triple. Again, just buying those, i bought them today, ill probably be in them a week or ten days. Pete, you in or no . No, im not. Recently ive just had no reason to be in this at all. Even though thats a big trade, john is talking about 6,000, 6,000 in ge is not a massive trade. Im looking for massive trades. Thats not one of them. The wave not quite as big. Pete, thanks. Doc, thanks. The Halftime Report back right after this. I count on my dell Small Business advisor for tech advice. With one phone call, i get products that suit my needs and i get back to business. On a perfect car, then smash it into a tree. Your Insurance Company raises your rates. Maybe you shouldve done more research on them. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Liberty mutual insurance. Were back. Lets run through the blitz. Home depot got downgraded to neutral from overweight. Stocks down 1 . And its right near the alltime or the highs, which is an amazing thing how this thing is run. Hes talking about valuation, the interesting part of this call, scott, is the fact that he raised the price target while downgrading the stock. What that tells you, its been a really fast run to the upside and theyre expecting some sort of a pause, makes a lot of sense, and another move to the upside. I agree with this analyst. I think its a good call to go to neutral but raise the price target. So goldman takes yum off of sell and moves it up to neutral. Goldman has missed the whole party on yum. We still like the stock. Theyre moving to a completely franchising model. Taco bell is firing theirs, kfc is turning around and theyre getting 15 of china earnings which they dont earn anymore. Thats yum china. Doc, talk to me about symantec. The quarter was good but the outlook was weak. Operating margins, however, are going to be going up, thats what they said, so thats what i would focus on. If you want to draw a line in the sand, right around 30 or 31. Stock got down to 30 and change and popped back over 31. Id be a seller about that 30 put strength. Joey, exxon, upgraded to buy from bank of america. Low risk option for portfolio managers, underweight expenditure. Trades between 80 and 90, will not accelerate much above 90, in a down market not going to hurt you, a better name, poncho energy. 25 Production Growth this year, 5 last year, 20 billion market cap. This is the name to put in your portfolio for energy exposure. Bank of america says biotech is cheaper than ever and its time to buy right now. What does our desk think . Where are the opportunities in that space . Well talk about that when the Halftime Report comes right back. Dear predictable, theres no other way to say this. Its over. Ive found a permanent escape from monotony. Together, we are perfectly balanced, our senses awake, our hearts racing as one. I know this is sudden, but they say if you love something. Set it free. See you around, giulia i count on my dell small for tech advice. With one phone call, i get products that suit my needs and i get back to business. Looking from a fresh perspective can make all the difference. It can provide what we call an unlock a realization that often reveals a better path forward. At wells fargo, its our expertise in finding this kind of insight that has lead us to become one of the largest investment and Wealth Management firms in the country. Discover how we can help find your unlock. All right, with the major averages sitting right near alltime highs, bank of america seize buying opportunities in biotech. The firm says that group is cheaper than ever and increasingly unloved. Is that the way that you guys see this trade . Cheaper than ever . That describes biocrest and several other stocks in the space, judge. And some of them we dont get to mention on the show because theyre smaller market caps, but a lot of them are trading at or near multimonth lows. Youre talking about bcrx. You had unusual activity in there. We do have some unusual activity in that. Thats a smaller market cap. Its under 500 million. Yep. Thats why we dont get to talk about them on air much. What about some of the other names, the bigger one. We like bristol. Not really biotech but has a lot of biotech flavor to it. But i think the overhang here is essentially nobody knows whats going to happen with the health care law. If theyre going to put pressure on thats why the stocks are cheaper. Do you buy the stocks or not . I agree with the call. I think you buy them. Pete . Of the names, im in gilead and i keep waiting and waiting and its not happened. They have got some cash. They have great drugs but theyre so great thats a problem for them and they have to improve their pipeline. They have got to buy somebody, they have not done that. Ive been hold this thing far too long. I think amgen is one of the best names. I think literally of the biotech names, when you get a dividend yield like you do from them, what a strong name youd want to be in. I have stayed out of biotech and continue to stay out of it. It scares the heck out of me. Any market decline, this is a sector thats going to get annihilated. All right. Coming up next, after posting its best day since december, crude jumping again. Why one trader thinks that rally is just getting started. The Halftime Report is back in two minutes. The power of innovative thinking. The power of 100 of the worlds top companies. The power of an etf. The power of qqq. The thinking we put in, clients get out. Power your clients portfolio at powershares. Com qqq. Before investing, consider the Funds Investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. Call 8009830903 for the prospectus containing this information. Read it carefully. Distributed by invesco distributors inc. When this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night, so he got home safe. Yeah, my dad says our insurance doesnt have that. What . you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. Iits where we end up. T, expedia. Everything in one place, so you can travel the world better. A used car, welcome back to the Halftime Report. Crude oil seeing a nice bounce today off of opecs monthly report showing reduced output. This coming after oils best day since december. Jeff, no surprise oil is down. They told us they were going to cut. Exactly, jackie. I think this speaks to the fact that we got excited last week when we saw the technicals get pierced. All the bears got all ramped up. I think you have to go back and realize why are we in a range. Its because of the ramco ipo. Saudi wants to extend the production cuts another six months but ipo is a 2 trillion valuation. Think about that in apple terms. Thats twice the size of apple. So theyre going to continue to pound the microphone to achieve the goal. Its massive and that oil price is very important to them. In the meantime, jim, were smack in the middle of the range, 45 to 50. Which way do you think we go . Now that weve explored the downside hard and somewhat rejected that, i think we could easily pop back up to the 50, 51 level before we even have to make a decision. Thats just on the rejection of these lows. But i do think its interesting that you said, yeah, of course theyre sticking to their production cuts because theyre not really controlling the price quite yet, so theyre probably going to double down at some point is my thought. Okay, thanks. Meantime theres more online at the top of the future. Halftime is back after this. Fast money hits the strip of the tonight at 5 00 eastern, melissa lee is live from las vegas. On the show, steve wynn, mark cuban and wayne newton. Then on fast money tonight at 5 00. This is where i trade andrs. 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. Im dr. Kelsey mcneely and some day you might be calling me an energy farmer. Energy lives here. But we should be seeing more range of motion. K good, im fine. Okay, well lets see you get up from the couch. Im sorry, what . Grandpa come. At cognizant, were uniting doctors, insurers and patients on a collaborative care platform, making it easier to do whats best for everyones health, every step of the way. You may need more physical therapy. Ugh. Am i covered for that . Yep. Look. Grandpa catch grandpa duck woah ha there you go grandpa. Keep doing that. Get ready, because were helping leading Companies Lead with digital. Welcome back to the Halftime Report. Nbcs lester holt sitting down moments ago with President Trump. It is the president s first interview since the firing of fbi director james comey. We will bring you that momentarily. So stay tuned for that. As we look at the market picture, you can see stocks are way off their lows. It was a tripledigit loss. Earlier in the session, in part guys, maybe because of concerns over the president s agenda being delayed. Some of what was going on on capitol hill today regarding the aftermath of the firing of director comey. The vicks by the way we didnt mention that was up 10 earlier on. People talked about the fact that is there too much complacency about everything. Yeah. I think youre going to watch all those. People are now actually getting concerned. Weve finished with earnings season. Where are we going with this market . Too many things going on in d. C. I think thats where kind of concern is. But look at what the market is moving today. Even when we were down on the lows, we were half a percent down . Yeah. Half a percent doesnt get that vix past eight. Like you said, 10 pop, that was the fierce. Whoever wanted some protection bought some, but, you know, drove it up to 11. Thats three points above what the move justified today. Let me ask you a question. Go ahead. What i told you yep. Okay, the core of the president s agenda that relates directly to the market is not going to happen until 2018 at the earliest. If its not a secondhalf story like you argued that it is, what does that do for your view on the market . I think we get more volatilely obviously in the summer period, the third quarter. We get more volatility there as it gets pushed off. I would use that as a buying opportunity because that would make 2018 a huge run. I think its fine as long as its the First Quarter of 2018. If it begins to bleed further in, now you put the midterm elections front and center and becomes big risk. Here now is that nbc news special report, again, lester holt sitting down just moments ago with President Trump. Announcer this is an nbc news special report. Here is lester holt. Good afternoon from a rainy washington, d. C. Where i just completed an exclusive white house interview with President Trump where he offered his first detailed explanation of his sudden firing of fbi director james comey, one of several Significant Developments coming from that interview. The president telling me he had decided to fire comey even before he met with attorney general sessions and his deputy rod rosen stine, differing from the version of events provided yesterday by the white house. The president also describing his contacts with comey in which trump acknowledged he reached out to the fbi director where he asked if he was under investigation with regard to russian influence. But the president started with some pretty sharp words about comey himself. Look, hes a show boat. Hes a grand stander. The fbi has been in turmoil. You know that. I know that. Everybody knows that. You take a look at the fbi a year ago, it was in virtual turmoil, less than a year ago. It hasnt recovered from that. Monday you met with the Deputy Attorney general rod rosenstein. Did you ask for a recommendation . What i did was i was going to fire comey. My decision. You had made the decision before they came into the room . I was going to fire comey. Theres no good time to do it, by the way. Because in your letter you said i accepted their recommendations. So you had already made the decision . I was going to fire regardless of recommendation. He made a recommendation. Hes highly respected. Very good guy. Very smart guy. The democrats like him. The republicans like him. He made a recommendation, but regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey. Let me ask you about your termination letter to mr. Comey. You write, i greatly appreciate you informing me on three separate occasions that im not under investigation. Why did you put that in there . Because he told me that. He told you you werent under investigation with regard to the russian investigation. Ive heard that from others. Was it in a phone call . Did you meet face to face . I had a dinner with him. He wanted to have dinner because he wanted to stay on. He asked for the dinner . A dinner was arranged. I think he asked for the dinner. He wanted to stay on the fbi head. And i said ill consider. Well see what happens. But we had a very nice dinner. And at that time he told me you are not under investigation, which i knew any way. That was one meeting. What were the other two . First of all, when youre under investigations, youre given all sorts of documents. I knew i wasnt under. And i heard it was stated at the committee at some Committee Level that i wasnt. Number one. So that didnt come directly from snim. Then during the phone call he said it and then during another phone call he said it. He said it once at dinner and then he said it twice during phone calls . Did you call him . In one case i called him and one case he called me. Did you ask am i under investigation . I actually asked. If its possible, will you let me know am i under investigation . He said you are not under investigation. But hes given sworn testimony that theres an on going investigation into the Trump Campaign and possible collusion with the russian government. Right. You were the centerpiece of the Trump Campaign. So was he being truthful when he says you werent under snfgs. I know that im not under investigation, me personally. Im not talking about campaigns. Im not talking about anything else. Im not under investigation. Part of my conversation with the president just a short time ago at the white house. Nbc news justice correspondent Pete Williams is in our washington bureau. Pete, with regard to the statements that the president made a call and asked if he was under investigation, does that potentially cross any lines . Ive asked several former federal prosecutors about that and say no. Its unusual. It wouldnt be unethical. It wouldnt be illegal. What about the president asking the fbi director am i under investigation . They said that might be politically dumb but its not anything that violates any sort of judicial cannon, no, lester. So if for comey to even have to initiate the conversation, the same thing applies . Right. And as for this idea that hes not under investigation, senator Charles Grassley implied that jim comey told he him and senator feinstein in march that trump was not under investigation today as well. All right. Lets go to chuck todd, nbc news political director, moderator of meet the press also in our washington bureau. Chuck, your initial thoughts about that portion of the conversation . Well, look, the president himself said he separated himself from the campaign. And frankly it wouldnt be unusual if youre investigating a campaign you wouldnt necessarily be investigating the candidate from that campaign. It has always been about his associates. There hasnt been as much about any sort of role that the president himself as a candidate may or may not have played. So, that in some ways i think thats been one of those washington questions that have been out there. Well, is the president himself under investigation . It doesnt mean hes off the hook here because the campaign is at the center of this investigation. All right. I want to bring in chuck, thanks. Hali jackson, our chief white house correspondent. The president as you heard said he had made up his mind to fire comey before he met with the a. G. And deputy a. G. How does that jibe with what we heard in yesterdays White House Briefing . It raises some serious questions about what the white house has said over the last 36 to 48 hours, lester. If it is the case that the president had made up his mind already to fire james comey, then why did he ask rod rosen stine the Deputy Attorney general to go ahead and put that language in writing . Why did sean spicer say that the president acted based on the clear recommendations from rosen stine and from sessions . And when the president calls james comey to you a grand stander and a show boater, why then did just a month ago the president say he had confidence in his fbi director and why was that assertion repeated again just last week by sean spicer, lester . And chuck, if i can very quickly, what does this do now on the senate side their investigation . Is this spurring them on in a new and different way . Look, i think it will. I think what was rod rosen stine asked to do. Ed a we know he is on capitol hill meeting with the heads of the senate and Intelligence Committee who excused themselves from another hearing in order to have that meeting here. I think theres going to be a lot more questions that congress is going to have about who asked him to write this memo. Did he have any help writing this memo. Senator feinstein, for instance, very concerned is that the memo lacked legal justification and seemed to be filled frankly with more political spin than anything else. So i think this becomes a new part, new angle that congress will explore. All right, chuck todd in our Washington News room. Thank you for your analysis. Want to let you know you can see much more tonight of my exclusive interview with President Trump on nbc nightly news, including his response as to why it took 18 days to fire general Michael Flynn after he was notified that the National Security adviser might be compromised by the russians. And of course well have full coverage throughout the day on msnbc and on nbc news. Com. For now, im lester holt. Nbc news, washington, good day, everyone. An extraordinary interview between our colleague lester holt of nbc news and the president of the United States, donald trump. The first interview with the president since his firing of fbi director james comey. Some of the highlights, mr. Trump telling lester holt that director comey was a, quote, show boat and a grand stander, that the fbi has been in virtual turmoil that the president planned to fire director comey regardless of the recommendations that he got in those two letters, that director comey told the president that he was not under investigation and that director comey wanted to stay on as fbi director. Tyler mathson and the power lunch lunch gang getting ready to come on the gang. What do you make of this extraordinary interview between our colleague lester holt and the president . This within the going to make questions go away, in fact, its probably going to raise more questions as lester just concluded with nbcs hali jackson. The president s remarks here dont exactly square with what his own White House PressSecretary Sean Spicer said on