Lebenthahl, and steve weiss is here lets begin with the week ahead. I want to show you an earnings calendar facebook, dmon, and boeing and cocacola, our parent company, comcast, as well steve, this really shapes up to be a hot and heavy week. This is the heart of it youve got a little bit of everything in terms of sectors and industries its going to be very interesting. And of course, its all not going to matter when you get the fed meeting and hear what they have to say, potentially but i think it will be same, follow the course the way it is. I wonder if the dollar, though, does come into their thinking at all. Because weve seen the dollar take a hit it will be interesting to see if they address it. My guess is that they dont. But it clearly is an important part for the markets, as is the politics of the landscape right now. My question is, whens will ceos hit the pause button and say, you know what, things are a it be unstable in washington. Im not comfortable allocating capital. Youll want to hear if ceos say that on the call so very, very interesting week critical weak. Josh, which earnings are going toreally stand out youve got a big bulk of the fang coming out next week. People are going to be paying close attention to that. Mccdonalds is on the docket as well, exxonmobil chevron, verizon youre going to get a real good flavor of where these Companies Think theyre going, the commentary that steve said but also, where investors think the Leadership Groups are going to either remain or get zr disrupted. Yeah, so it looks to me as though health care, specifically biotech, is poised to take the performance lead from Traditional Technology at this stage. And aisle going purely on price, volume, accumulation versus whats under distribution right now. And youre starting to see stocks that are secular growers like tech, scott, but have just not necessarily been in the focus of momentum investors, et cetera and now theyre starting to make really big moves off of wellestablished bases soy just want to point out, too, gilead is one. This is a name that was cut and a half, a large cap biotech, could not find a friend. Now its running, its running fast tons of room to the upside not a lot of overhead supply here the other one is secelgene, whih quite frankly looks absolutely amazing. Take a look at the xbi, this is equal weight biotech, not biased towards the megacaps that i was just talking about theyre all about to go. This is a twoyear consolidation being broke into the upside. It would be great to see this group now take the torch, so were not just talking about fang so were not just thinking about, you know, those tour names that we obsess over. So, mike, how does a strategist look at a week like we have right in front of us, you know, 13 dow components, 180 s ps coming out next weak. This could be, i dont know if you say a make it or break it week, but its certainly going to confirm a lot of stuff if these things come in well. If im a strategist or pm, this is what youve been waiting for. Get the political stuff off the screen and talk about what matters and talk about Company Fundamentals so far, so good. The fundamentals have been great, again Second Quarter in a row where youre going to get doubledigit Earnings Growth. I feel hail confident about that i agree with josh, i think health care is looking much, much better here biotech, probably the best group within that. I dont know if it takes the mantle away from tech, but it absolutely can participate in line with tech are you feeling pretty good about where the market is . Im feeling really good its almost right on track with what weve, looking for this year youre getting a balance of Earnings Growth and multiple expansion this year, and thats exactly what were going to get in the second half so well get this continued, you can characterize it as melt up or march, whatever you want to say, but its going to go higher i think its justified. I think its the wall of worry continuing to fall by the wayside. People continue to be distracted by things that are really not that relevant as it relates to equity market prices its amazing that the market has should be an incredible ability to not be distracted by a lot of the noise thats around whether its coming from the beltway or outside yeah, but, the reality is is that these are the best fundamentals that weve seen since coming off the financial crisis in 09 and 10, meaning we have a siynchronous global recovery, theres not one region thats not growing for the first time in six or seven years we have the first earnings in revisions and breadth weve seen since then across sectors and regions. And look, Interest Rates remain pinned thats probably the single most important thing thats happened this year, is that Interest Rates remain pinned, which allows equity multiples to expand so youre looking at these companies coming out next week, facebook, dmamazon, apple, do we confirm the move weve had in f. A. N. G. And give it another reason to take it a leg harg unless one of these companies majorly disappoints, and i dont think thats going to happen, then the rally is in tact, and its not just for the f. A. N. G. Stocks, this has broadened out considerably and its not just health care. Some of the industrials like a caterpillar certainly has risen. And i think theres more room for the breadth to spread even further. You know, theres some telecom stocks, at t and verizon, which have had, you know, a very rough last three months. This could bes a chance for them to start participating, as well. Theres some things that have been below the radar screen that wec we havent talked about recently, like General Motors is coming out next week theyve mad many, many quarters in a row where theyve beaten expectations, but its only recently that the stock has started responding to that you get one more quarter this next week that outperforms, i think you could see that rally go further the point being is the breadth of leadership in this market is really spreading out, and thats great for the market overall z steve, nasdaqs up ten straight days, fuirst time sinc february of 2015 what happens next week next week could be a critical weak if you have alphabet come out and facebook, even though its not nasdaq, its nasdaqlike youll see that sector continue to move higher those are the market leaders so if the leaders double down, i think youll see the move hig r higher i just have a question for you, mike i dont know how you can say that people have been too distracted with the market the market has completely ignored whats going on in washington theres no distraction, whatsoever well, you have to discern the market and people. So the market has not been distracted, at all but as i whos putting money into the market, though right, but i think the point hesmaking is sort of these stories have cropped up. We focus a lot on some of the noise thats come out of d. C. , wonder if its going to have an impact on the market, the market itself has shown an incredible knack for being resilient. Its puzzling, its puzzling. And i think at some point, depending probably on what happens, i personally think if trump gets impeached or resigns, that the market would trade higher on that naews, because yu have somebody thats more stable mentally in there. I coined this last night, the pence put. Theres a pence put under the market, because worstcase scenario, i dont know how the market would react to that maybe theres anytime theres some escalation of turbulence in d. C. , the market does have a tendency to take at least a little bit of a move lower, but it quickly recovers. Were clearly in a melt up face here. Its happening every day you just hit these small, new highs and it happens almost every day. The pence put is real, but lets be honest, were a long way from trump being out of office. And im not even going to predict how that might happen. But i think the markets would respond quite positively with somebody who has his ideals, but just a little bit more serious demeanor to approaching how to getting these through legislation. Clae clearly were in a meltup. Your best bet is to be in the markets right now unless a disappointment hits. I dont think facebook is going to disappoint at all i dont think google or amazon is going to disappoint if one of them did, that might get me to change my colors on the heart attamarket, but right path of resistance so one of these or two of these reports, lets say they just dont come in the way you would expect they would. Are you really going to change your bias isnt the point to, when youre heading into sort of what could be, maybe some turbulence, maybe it gets a little rocky, to stay calm, as an investor, not overreact well, you are correct, scott. But at the same time, you know, a prudent sailor is going to look at the horizon and see, is there a squall coming . We are in a meltup the meltup wont last forever. I dont know how long it goes. I dont know what the catalyst is that knox it down all im saying is, and ill make this quick, if one of those bellwether stocks yeah, youre one to talk if one of those bellwether stocks broke, that would be a squall on the horizon that i would day pais attention to. So weve had those bellwether stocks break and the markets kept on chugging think about the disappointment, disappointment from amazon after the call where they whack it for 100 a share we all apple underperform substantially in 2014 2015 i think bigger picture, whats going on is less of a pence put and more of a quantity put one out of every four trades at this point is being done by a computer computers arent getting emotional about a headline coming from russia or whatever and if you think that the computer influence of the market is going to lessen over the next three years rather than become greater, i dont know where youre getting your information from so i think until theres a real reason to panic, you will continue to see volatility flare up and then the machines kick in and take advantage of that opportunity. And its happening faster and stronger youve got kushner testifying on the hill who cares thats my point does anybody who cares does the market care at all no. Because we all know whats going on yeah, i agree with mike i dont see a meltup that jim sees, i see more of an orderly progression going higher meltups to me are when youre up 1. 5 to 2 per day were going higher the fundamentals are grinding the reason why the quaunts are coming in, or buyers are coming in on the dips is that they want to own this market pause theres value. The most important thing that happened in the last few months, on june 9th, when the tech stocks really got hit, s p was flat, dow was up and small caps were up. You had a rotation into what is perceived to be the value areas of the market. Theyre sniffing out the better values of that moment now we have a more balanced market, which is a pillar of foundation its a good thing for the market whats your target for the end of this year is it a moving target or do you have an actual number . I never target like end of year my view the 2,700 target that we put out in april is a 12month forward target. I think it happens before the end of that 12 months, if its going to happen, because the fundamentals are just too good one thing we havent even talked about, a very Important Development is that the u. S. Dollar now is much weaker than anyone expected it at the beginning of the area, including us, by the way and its actually accelerating now, for good reasons. And theres facultial reasons we can talk about that is not baked into Company Guidance its not baked into analyst estimates. It could be a tremendous tail wind through the rest of this year the flip side of that is the euro is ripping. And if you take a look at whats happening in europe today, european stocks are getting ham terrified. Its why we have seema mody at the wall taking us through that story. Reporter thats right, european stocks closing sharply lower, hurt by the rapid appreciation in the euro, which you is trading at ayear high against the u. S. Dollar one day after that ecb policy meeting. Germany leaving the market lower as it houses the big exporters their products become less attractive when the currency stronger volkswagen, bmw, daimler all under pressure declines in spain with the ibex off more than 1 scott . Seema, thanks so much the europe trade in jeopardy remember when the u. S. Dollar had that rip everyone is like, this is going to have major implications for earnings and it did. The answer is very specific. Keep in mind, the indices over there is very heavily weighted towards industrials and towards banks. Theres no relation to our index, because they dont have tech, its like 3 so i would say it could offset that trade a little bit. Conversely, i think you should put more money into the multinationals here, because that may not go away there are lots of factors driving that and if draghi ever does come off the gas, if he ever does, youll see those banks fly up and youll see the u. S. Continue, the dollar to continue dropping. Lets just bring in our contributor, kevin oleary hes been long europe for months kevin, its good to see you. Great to be here. So when you see the dax down, you know, 2 or nearly that at one point today, closed better than that, but still down substantially, france down, spain down, europe ripping what does it do to your trade . Nothing keeps me long. Im still way ahead on all indices and all sectors in europe and i believe by the end of the year i will continue to be so. This is a bump in the road i want to remind everybody, when the fed pulled back on quantitative easing was the beginning of one of the best bull markets weve ever had. Im basically making the assumption sometime this year draghi gives the signal on a solid basis that his underlying economies are Strong Enough that he doesnt have to intervene anymore and i think europe will continue next year to outperform ill remind everybody else this, asia is outperforming europe so a lot of the markets that we consider to be risky, et cetera, are actually outperforming back to europe, cpi numbers, earnings numbers, Earnings Growth numbers, deleveraging of of balance sheets, way ahead of what weve got on the s p. So were trading 18 to 19 multiples and still feeling comfortable about it and i certainly have a majority of my holdings stateside, but frankly, Earnings Growth is way higher, in some cases, 15 to 20 higher than what were getting here and earnings are 20 or our p\e ratios are 20 less. The europe trade is still on and i continue to believe the automotive sector getting slaughtered because of the euro, but the underlying core reason for the movement is a great growth story and france is outgrowing us with entrepreneurs. Theyre deregulating faster. And this is france, the place that used to be practically a communist state is deregulating faster under the new administration with more Tech Startups we have per capita than the United States is kevin right . Aisim in the same trade with kech put it on last fall, then got overweight, asia relative to the u. S. Stocks. And i think thats the thing you have to get right this year. And its not necessarily a prediction, its just this idea that youve got seven years of massive outperformance in the s p. You have a double in the market over five years, nothing to show for europe and asia. That could go on for an eighth year or ninth year its historically not likely and it kicked in bigtime. There are now major markets like taiwan that really could be coming out of like 5 and 10year bases, breaking out for fresh money coming into these markets. And i really think youve got to stay with that so europe was so far behind, mike, that theres enough catchup, no matter what the currency does . Were worried about the u. S. Dollar ripping before. Now the ripping euro is not going to have a major impact on the trajectory of those markets . Over a sevenarea time frame, we do our Asset Allocation europe is clearly more attractive than the u. S. For the same reasons we discussed. Same thing for asia. But in the next 12 months, they can both participate the recent move in the euro is a sign of strength in the europe economy. The central bank is now moving more hawkish these are signs of strength, much like when the u. S. Was going through that same process in 13, its a positive signal so whats going on right now is everybody was long europe. They were short the euro, as sort of a hedge, right that was a terrible trade they only got half the benefit and theyve had to reverse that they had to cover their currency side this is a consolidation. Im very confident in the idea over the next couple of weeks, europe is going to actually regain that relative outlook the Global Investment community is coming around to this idea, im not going to say that Angela Merkel is the new leader of the free world theyre coming around to this idea, look what europe has just survived a lot of its selfinflicted, obviously. But what you saw them do with the italian banks shows the flexibility that is now necessary in order to keep the union together a year ago, that would have been verboten and it wouldnt have even been up for discussion. To your point on italy, italy, gdp didnt grow for ten years going into 07 the changes theyve made, fundamentally, to the economy there, to how that countrys run, means thats in much better shape they had no choice. Right all right were watching two big dow stocks closely today microsoft and ge both lower after earnings. But, as you know, theyve traded in very Different Directions over the past many months. Got us thinking about blue chips that have either gone from the outhouse to the penthouse or reverse. Pete najarian joins the conversation now from minneapolis. He owns both ge and microsoft. Kevin oleary i hope is still with us, as well pete, were looking at these stocks and focusing on a couple of names that are specifically in the news today. We go outhouse to penthouse and put microsoft in that area and in some respects, we put mcdonalds in that area over the last couple of years microsoft hit a low of 40 bucks and change in august of 2015 that stock is up 82 since mcdonalds hit a low of 91 in august of 2015 its up 69 since that date. Discuss those two. Well, i think, specifically, microsoft is the most interesting right now for me i own that stock why do i own that stock . Back in february of 2014, they made the exact decision they should have made, which was a transitional position that they were putting in with the new ceo, Satya Nadella he had a focus, he had a mission, and he has executed almost to perfection, scott. When you really look at where that company was, it was floundering, they are spending money, they couldnt figure out, did they want to get more into hardware, were they software they were really just moving around with steve ballmer. Finally, Satya Nadella steps in there, and since that time, annually, revenues have been going up at about a 3 clip. When you look at this last quarter, not only did they have a great quarter in terms of research, but you look at margins as well. So theyre moving in the right direction. Theyre focused on exactly where he came from, the cloud. Thats where theyre getting that growth. You look at azure, its stunning to see how well they are skp executing there. And thats part of the story there. I think when you look at mcdonalds, i think jimmy knows this story better than anybody, but the raeality is, thats a ceo, easterbrook, has taken over that company and figured out, weve got to be better for the customer we can no longer ride on this mcdonalds wagon theyve been on for so many years. That i have sta theyve started to care more about the customer and changed the way theyre doing all kinds of aspects, including breakfast. People wanted breakfast for a long time. But its one element its how people go through the drivethrough. How this becomes more of a technologytype thing. How theyre trying to figure out ways to speed things up and make things go more smoothly. Thats what ceos are supposed to do theyre supposed to be active, theyre supposed to be proactive. Kev, whats more impressive to you, microsoft doubling under nadella or the job that easterbrook has done with mcdonalds ive been very long both of these stocks for a very long time and speaking to microsoft, what really got me up to a 5 weighting is we do a survey every year of our private investments asking what technologies they buy licenses for. Adobe was really on our radar screen years ago but about three years ago, microsoft became the premiere license for every seat in a Small Company with employees 15, 30, 60 employees, that kind of thing. Theyre buying office 365. I love Subscription Services and the stock has really rebounded on the idea that all of these earnings are extremely stable and every time they add a feature, people are willing to pay more it. Mcdonalds the great management execution. If i want consumer discretionary, if i want to exposed that, i love a company that can really deliver by multiplying something good for one location to thousands of others and mcdonalds delivered on that but microsoft is a unique story. Juxtapose that to ge, which ive never owned, because thats where money goes to die. I cant understand the balance sheet. I never have been able to. The new management there are better at explaining the company to everybody, if they want money to come back into it i cannot read that balance sheet, i dont understand it, i know balance sheets. Theyve got a lot of explaining to do. Theyre trying their hard toast explain it ge is down 3 today. Its one of the other stocks, as part of our you know, this penthouse to outhouse instead of the other way around ibm hit a high of 181 on march 1st of 2017, down 20 since then theyve got some sorry, go ahead. Go ahead, jimmy look, its a value trap and it has been for a long time. Everybody who gets into it says the same thing that the new businesses, Artificial Intelligence by the way, theyre great at it. But that artificial, Data Analytics and the cloud are going to overtake the decline in the legacy business. Literally, thats a fouryear story that has yet to play out if youre going to invest in this stock, and im not recommending doing it right now, wait for that turn to actually materialize. Weve been waiting for four years. Wait until it actually happens before you invest in this stock. Until then, its just a value trap meanwhile, if you want ai, nvidia headaches a new alltime high every week. New alltime highs does not have the legacy stuff that ibm is tied to. They are not doing consulting in india or whatever. This is pure ai, this is the play, not ibm. Kevin, thanks have a good weekend. Well catch you soon, im sure take care pete, same to you oh, petes staying good to be here with you. Well take a quick break. Pete is back next. Heres what else is coming up on halftime. Announcer wall street analysts are doing something they dont go very often, downgrading stocks to sell four big names have targets on their backse thats next. Also ahead, the sector Morgan Stanleys chief equity strategist calls his best contrarianhalftime report witt wapner and the traders is back in two minutes all right. We are back on the halftime report. Johnson johnson shares are lower after getting two rare downgrades to sell by Atlantic Equities and btig. Its our call of the day weiss, do you want to tackle this sure. You dont see it that often often. You dont and they both had holds. This is what analysts should do in my opinion. I dont know if theyre right or wrong. Its been caught up with health care, its a good name its part of our nifty fifty this time, but they went from holds to sales because they had price targets much lower than stock is btgi is from 110 and now at 135. Hes doing what he should do if he had a hold on it before, the stocks up 25 isnt it refreshing to see analysts actually be contrarian, not wait for the stock to come down 30 and then downgrade. The only problem is it made a new alltime high yesterday, that is not bearish. Calling tops is tough, but maybe if youre long all this time and youve had this huge rally, maybe its not the end of the world to heed the analyst and take a little bit less exposure to it. Beyond the analysts and whether the move was a good one or not, this story, jim, over for a bit . Do you need to move to the shri sideline on this name and pick Something Else i dont think the name is going to go anywhere other than where the s p 500 goes in general. Its hard to differentiate a stock of this size where many other parts, by the way. What is it a Pharmaceutical Company or a Consumer Staples company i actually think if you wanted to get some life into this stock, you would split the company up nobodys saying thats going to happen anytime soon, but that would propel it higher than what the s p 500 is going to do other than that, it just goes with the market. Pete, give me your take on j j. For a guy who likes the pfizers and the mercks and i think is invested still in both and maybe some of the other big names in health care, what about this one . J j . I love the name its a combination of things obviously, theyve got the consumer division, theyve got all three. Youve got to love the company and the execution theyve had. Its not a name ive been in for quite a while, scott, because ive actually been moving more and more towards names that are actually in one specific area. Josh earlier was talking about the biotechs, gileads finally made a little bit of a push to the upside celgene, obviously, have been a little bit stronger, but the big pharma names, as well. Merck, pfizer, i own those j j, i was in there for a while, but it seemed like it was getting a little bit lofty in terms of a p\e, so i wanted to wait for an opportunity when it pulls back, but it has not given me the opportunity yet it is tough trying to call a top in a stock that looks pretty darned good with a chart that backseat that up and i was looking at a couple of midcap names and youve got to get to sometimes the second page to find any fundamental investors. So this is also driven by quaunt trading. That, of course, what our call of the day. Well keep an eye on that. Two big sales for j j. Speaking of downgrades, two other big sells on the street today. The trader blitz starts now. Wells fargo downgraded to sale you have a look of incredulity on your face you just dont see that often analysts saying sell so lets applaud him for the courage to go against the grain and put a sell and its not just a wimpy sell hes calling for a target price of 35 which would be almost a 40 decline. I think its inarguable that there are better Money Center Banks out there. Jpmorgan is hardly the creme de la cream, but its hard to say that wells fargo is going down and that the banks are going to be beneficiaries of. Its a bold call, ill give them credit for it, but i dont think its the right call. Occidental downgraded to sell at citi. Yeah, this looks terrible the good news is, it stopped going down, so participation trophy, maybe. I would rather buy it when its on the way up. And the other thing i would say is, tell me what oil is going to do and thats what this is going to do and i really dont think its anymore complicated than that. Bank of america, weiss, goes sell on techstron. They had a buy and go all the way to underperform. You dont typically see that, it usually stops in the middle, as we saw with j j techstron are focusing on the end markets, so im guessing that the najarians are more into ride sharing instead of buying their own jets, so thats part of it. The end markets have been tough, its been challenging for a while. But still a company thats going to participate in the growing economy. Lets go to sue herrera, who has the latest headlines for us. Indeed, i do. Thanks, scotty heres whats happening at this hour, everyone a powerful overnight earthquake shook holiday resorts in greece and turkey, injuring nearly 500 pa people and leaving two tourists dead the quake caused a twofoot sea swell that hit the shorelines in the east aegean sea. Sergey lavrov says President Trump may have held more meetings with russian president Vladimir Putin at the g20 summit than have previously been disclosed. But in an interview with nbc news, he shrugged off the importance of those encounters the duke and duchess of cambridge continue to draw big crowds in germany. Prince william and kate visiting the International Maritime museum in hamburg. They were met by the citys mayor after receiving cries of approval and applause from hundreds of people is seven people at a Southern California starbucks couldnt get out of the way fast enough and were injured when a vehicle went careening into the building the Surveillance Video which we just showed you show a red car colliding with another slevehic. It loses control and smashed through the stores window seven people were hurt all right, youre up to date, haas the news update at this hour scott, back to you thanks so much. Well, White House PressSecretary Sean Spicer has resigned within the last hour. Our eamon jarvis is at the white house with the very latest on that developing story. Eamon . Reporter scott, youre right. A moment of uncertainty here at the white house. A little unclear what to expect next white house officials giving us some indication that there will be a press briefing this afternoon, but officials declining to say who it is that will brief the press the reports are that Anthony Scaramucci, a longtime cnbc contributor, whos well familiar to your audience and your traders on your desk, scott, has been brought in as the Communications Director here at the white house, replacing sean spicer and replacing mike dubke, who left a few months ago from his position here. Well wait to see when these meetings break off that we believe are going on right now in sean spicers office what the official word is, but officials telling us they will have a statement, they will have a briefing, but not answering questions about who it is thats going to conduct that briefing later on this afternoon. Eamon, you said it. And dare i say, you know, we know anthony as well as anybody, from his time not only as a regular on this program, but as a contributor to the network and a contributor on many of the shows here knowing him like you do and the way we do, what do you think it says about what the white house wants to do to evolve its Communications Strategy . Reporter well, number one, it says change, scott. This is somebody whos coming in from wall street, not from washington whos coming in without the sort of detailed Communications Background that traditional White House Press secretaries have, but somebody that brings energy, business experience, and loyalty above all to donald trump to this job. Thats clearly what the president is signaling here. He wanted a fresh change in his staff. Even above and beyond the objections from some of his closest aides inside the white house. Were told there was a real scrap here in terms of what would happen in terms of whether or not scaramucci would get this job. There was a meeting at 10 00 this morning, at the white house, in the oval office, in which they hashed a ul of th ees out. And what we believe has happened is that scaramucci is in and spicer is out as a result of that meeting and i think you can expect a total change in tone and a total change in personnel, at least on the White House Communications tale, scott. Well keep an eye on this story. Anthony scaramucci, no stranger to the white house this was him questioning president obama in 2010 at a cnbc town hall event the question i have, sir, and this is something i really, you know, a lot of my friends are thinking about listen, i represent the wall Street Community we have felt lake a pinata maybe you dont feel like youre whacking us with a stick, but we certainly feel like weve been whacked with a stick so i certainly think that main street and wall street are connected. And if were going to heal the society and make the economy better, how are we going to work towards that, healing wall street and main street eamon, we remember that moment quite well. It certainly gives you an idea that, you know, Anthony Scaramucci is not afraid to take people on, even if its the president of the United States reporter and apparently hes doing that today, not in terms of the president , but in terms of some of the president s staff who clearly didnt want him here Anthony Scaramucci is clearly someone who did want to be here. He was pegged for a job early on in the Trump Administration but wasnt able to get it after resistance from some of the trump insiders he, in fact, sold sky bridge capital, made that personal business sacrifice in order to take a job here at the Trump Administration and despite that, wasnt able to come in. Hes been biding his time. This would be a significant political comeback for Anthony Scaramucci, if he is able to come in as the Communications Director and my sense is, Communications Director with a broader portfolio than just communications, in terms of reviewing the overall procedures and processes of this white house, if he does come in. Like i say, were waiting for that you just saw some of those pictures there and you can see them on your screen right now. That is the press office thats what we call lower press. And i was just in that scrum theres probably about 30 or 40 reporters just gathered there, trying to get in to upper press, which is where sean spicers office i was standing there a few moments ago, maybe half an hour ago, and they ushered us out of upper press. Normally, reporters are free to come into that area wherever they want to, right outside of sean spicers door in this case, the staff simply asked us to leave. Theres no real sort of authority for them to do that. The reporters have granted them that and have backed down to lower press, but theres a hoard of reporters waiting for some clarity on what exactly is happening here who is in, and who is out. The question is, if spicer is leaving, who else is leaving along with him we know reince priebus, the chief of staff, is somebody thats been very close to sean spicer over the years. Steve bannon somebody who might have been wary of Anthony Scaramucci coming in all of that presumably being hashed out behind closed doors right now. And thats why you can see those reporters gathered, literally at the closed doors where as close as they can get to the oval office right now, to try to find out whats going on but we are told there will be some clarity, there will be a statement, and there will be a briefing in the Briefing Room, but officials refusing to answer the question of whos going to be giving that briefing, which gives us an unusual afternoon ahead, scott lets not forget, to my count, its been two straight weeks, at least, since theres been an oncamera briefing at the white house. I think june 29th would have been the last oncamera briefing theyve sort of phased it out. I think there was partly a fear that sean spicer, perhaps, wasnt performing as well as the white house hoped he would perform. But also a sense that the president , donald trump himself, was watching those briefings and sort of criticizing them in realtime and the white house, by phasing them out as an oncamera spectacle, as they put it, was able to gain some control of that, lower the temperature of those briefings and allow Sarah Huckabee sanders come out more often than sean spicer in recent weeks and give those briefings to reporters, still not giving an inch, though, even offcamera, they are very combative. They dont like to admit mistakes this is a white house that very much sees itself as under siege from the media and so all of that playing into the decision to sort of have sean spicer step way back. Sarah Huckabee Sanders step up, but not clear where things are going to go from hear, if Sarah Huckabee sanders will be the face of this, if Anthony Scaramucci would be doing some briefings going forward, you would not expect that from a white house Communications Director, which is traditionally an offCamera Position but this is a very different white house and now a very Different Team if there is a briefing, we will take it live. I have been trying to get in touch with anthony and havent been able to do that he might be a little busy at the moment you and me both you know whats happening in every trading room on wall street right now thousands and thousands of dollars being wagered as to whos going to play anthony on saturday night live. Thats a pool thats going on right now. No guesses. What i would be doing right now. I think like so anthonys great and we all like him personally i think seeing him take on cnn and actually having two reporters get fired for misleading their readership about anthony, that had to have been the clincher for this white house who clearly wants to go at cnn. And i think anthony, one thing people should know, he does a great job at anything he does. So this idea that hes not going to be on camera that mufch, i doubt it if you had anthony in your corner, you would put him on camera every single day. So congratulations, mr. Scaramucci certainly as skilled an o orator that youre going to find earlier in the week, we were talking about Procter Gamble and what kind of an activist hes going to be there he called himself a constructist its really interesting, because now all of a sudden we see the september calls getting very activity the september 92 1 2 strike calls being bought, 5,600 of those, around 35 to 38 cents its not a very costly trade, although 5,600 of them makes ate very substantial size. But somebody looking for upside. This is a stock trading a little over 88 a share and you have a month and a half or two months before we see how this plays out. I like these, as well. I would like to see if this plays out. And we both know mr. Peltz very well and how much patience he has. I think that will be limited well see how long hes willing to wait before he sees this stock start to move to theupside based upon some of the changes, maybe, we would lake to see. Good stuff, pete. This time its for real. Well see you later. Have a good weekend. Have a great weekend, man wehle sll see you back heren were talking tech and financials with mike wilson and thats coming up next. I think we should do that meeting tomorrow. Well wait. What did you think about her . Its definitely a new idea, but theres no business track record. Well, have you seen her work . No. Is it good . Good . At cognizant, were helping todays leading banks make better lending decisions with new sources of data so, multiply that by her followers, speaking engagements, work experience. Credit history. That more accurately assess a business chances of success. This is a good investment. Shes a good investment. Get ready, because were helping leading Companies Lead with digital. If only the signs were as obvious when you trade. Fidelitys active trader pro can help you find smarter entry and exit points and can help protect your potential profits. Fidelity where smarter investors will always be. At the lexus golden opportunity sales event before it ends. Choose from the is turbo, es 350 or nx turbo for 299 a month for 36 months if you lease now. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. The power of the nasdaq market. 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. According to our data partners at kensho, the s p has gained 10 or more through the first seven months of a given year 12 times in the last 37 years. When it happens, the s p then trades positively for the remaining five months 91 of th time for more kensho, go to cnbc. Com kensho. Now back to scott wapner and the halftime traders all right, we are back. Mike, lets talk some sectors. Give our folks some guidelines on the places they should be looking. You like financials, industrials, energy, and tech. So all of so value and growth is going to Work Together . Right thats the change. Last year was all about value. Economies were expanding again and so if everybody rotated towards value. This area, value worked a little bit, and then, of course, around march 1st, when i would argue President Trumps popularity peaked, thats when we went back to this barbell secular growth june 9th, you had a rotation back to financials and even energy has performed better. Its stabilizing so, yes, its a balance now between growth and value its not so much about one or the other. So thats why weve got to balance positions across sectors. Youre neutral on Health Care Quality is that because of the move we already had km. To be honest, we missed it. We were looking at health care and this aca debate. I would argue now with aca behind us, health care could come back to the fore. Thats probably an area thats going to do well theres probably other stocks within that. Health care is right on the cusp its our highestrated neutral okay. So you, theoretically, if youre putting fresh money to work in health care, you would be okay with that . Absolutely. Okay. You say sell real estate, sell telecom, sell staples. Yeah, its a similar trend. Its Interest Rate sensitive, its expensive defensives, right . Think about this, in the last eight years even the yield youre getting with the tenyear at 220 yeah, with even more so, because theyre priced even better over the last eight areas, every risk market in the world has normalized these are bond proxies the last area that has risk pra premiums are Still Available are in traditional stocks that people have shunned like financials, even energy, and even tech and health care stocks, theyre not expensive when you take into account the growth that youre getting all right more on the big week coming up, straight ahead on the halftime report. Hey, ive got the trend analysis. Hey. Hi. Hi. You guys going to the Company Picnic this weekend . Picnics are delightful. Oh, wish we could. But were stuck here catching up on claims. But we just compared historical claims to coverages. But we have those new audits. My natural language api can help us score those by noon. Great. See you guys there. We would not miss it. Watson, you gotta learn how to take a hint. I love to learn. Watson, you gotta learn how to take a hint. At the lexus golden opportunity tesales event before it ends. Choose from the is turbo, es 350 or nx turbo for 299 a month for 36 months if you lease now. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. To keep our community safe. Before you do any project big or small, pg e will come out and mark your gas and electric lines so you dont hit them when you dig. Call 811 before you dig, and make sure that you and your neighbors are safe. 811 is available to any business our or homeownerfe. To make sure that you identify where your utilities are if you are gonna do any kind of excavation no matter how small or large before you dig, call 811. Keep yourself safe. [woman] we did it. [man] were campers. Look at us. Look at us. Its so nice to get out of the city. Its so. Quiet. Is it, too quiet . Its awful. Yeah. Feel at home, pretty much wherever you are. Tmobile is americas best unlimited network. slow jazz music fly me to the moon and let me play bell ring you myour joints. Thing for your heart. Or your digestion. So why wouldnt you take something for the most important part of you. Your brain. With an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is now the number one selling brain Health Supplement in drug stores nationwide. Prevagen. The name to remember. Welcome back to the halftime report. Gold rising to a threeweek high today on pace for its biggest gain since midmay this as the yellow metal gets a boost from the weaker u. S. Dollar jim, whats driving gold higher today as we see equities here lower . This is interesting about a week and a half ago, janet yellen pivoted towards dovishness and kind of caught the market off guard the dollar accelerated lower, rates went significantly lower, but gold just kind of rallied a little bit yesterday, however, when i sounded like they were trying to be more dovish and the markets looked at those two currencies together, decided which to sell and chose the dollar, to me i thought that was the green light for gold going higher. I bought it yesterday morning and plan on riding it up to 1300 is my hope interesting sort of walking back a little from hawkishness we heard at the end of june. Brian, we are trading above the 12. 50 level. Are you looking for further upside from here today could be the sixth positive close in a row for gold well, he mentioned the 1300 mark i dont think that would be unusual. When you look over the last couple years, 1300 represents a high gold has tracked very well correlated to bitcoin and the rest of the Cryptocurrencies Bitcoin trading almost near alltime highs today certainly that move higher up from gold to try to get to the 1300 mark of a high over two years is not abnormal. I think golds trying to play a little catchup to what else is out there and alternative to the u. S. Dollar. 1300 certainly in the cards. Not a traditional correlation but thats one we got to start watching, the bitcoin gold trade. Thank you so much for joining us today. For more futures now, catch the live show on tuesday at 1 00 p. M. Eastern time exclusively on futuresnow. Cnbc. Com. 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. To keep our community safe. Before you do any project big or small, pg e will come out and mark your gas and electric lines so you dont hit them when you dig. Call 811 before you dig, and make sure that you and your neighbors are safe. 811 is available to any business our or homeownerfe. To make sure that you identify where your utilities are if you are gonna do any kind of excavation no matter how small or large before you dig, call 811. Keep yourself safe. I want to show you a live picture from the Briefing Room at the whoite house. Reporters are partly in the hallway there trying to get more answers to what is developing into quite a story for the White House Communications department today. Sean spicer resigning. Anthony scaramucci, a name familiar to many of you, certainly familiar to all of us, reportedly accepting the job as white house Communications Director we are also learning there will be a briefing this afternoon at 2 00 p. M i think on camera, with Sarah Huckabee sanders eamon javers making his way become to Camera Position on the north lawn reporters still trying to work the story. What do we know, eamon reporter just got an email from a source who is close to the press administration, press operation here in this white house. I want to read you this email, because it gives me an indication that this is happening with some resistance from people close to spicer, if not to spicer himself. That might be the explanation for this moment of uncertainty we are seeing here at the white house, where we just havent had an official statement yet. Normally you would have an official statement, the lines of demarcation would be clear thats not at all happening right now. This source close to the White House Press operation emailing me moments ago saying this is a joke trump wanted scaramucci on television as a surrogate for the white house and wanted to give him more of a formal title. There was simply no understanding by the president that the Communications Director title comes with a lot of responsibilities, not just going on television. He was expecting spicer to serve as press secretary and Communications Director while scaramucci would have a ceremonial title with no understanding of how the Government Works so thats an email from somebody who very much supports this president , supports sean spicer and is close to this press operation here inside the white house, saying that whats happening right now is quote, a joke and that the president has simply no understanding about the Communications Director role here you can tell there is some anxiety inside this white house, some anxious moments here for people who support spicer and the Current White House team who have been dealing with a very unusual Administration Since january, putting in long hours, working through the weekends, doing all the things the staff here does until the wee hours of the morning sometime there is some anxiety and some apparent resentment among some of those folks to what is happening here so this is sort of a press regime change inside this white house but its not happening without a fight, at least rhetorically right now it all comes at an interesting time, the apparent failure of health care and maybe its not fully dead yet, but an attempt certainly within highranking parts of the Republican Party to pivot towards taxes and Corporate Tax reform speaker ryan on the road yesterday trying to talk that up and to suggest that somebody like Anthony Scaramucci who has worked on wall street for so long, knows many of the key players who are already in the white house and many of the architects of what a tax plan would be, doesnt know about what is now a critical front and center issue, i would say is just flat wrong. He knows taxes, certainly other parts of policy as maybe not as well as the highest and most educated person on those particular topics, but certainly well enough to tell the president and the white houses story, no . Reporter thats why we have to wait and see what his guidance is the white house is promising to give us they say they will give us a statement. They say Sarah Huckabee sanders will brief reporters at 2 00 p. M. In theory by then they will have their sort of story straight on the lines of authority here. What role is Anthony Scaramucci going to have in this administration is he going to be a communications role, will it be a president ial advisory role, an oncamera briefing of reporters role no question scaramucci knows wall street, taxes very well and has long expressed policy views on those issues publicly hes familiar with television, hes been on television. As you mentioned, he was a cnbc contributor for many years so hes somebody who knows these issues backward and forward, but i think the concern among sort of the professional Communications Class in espublican circles would be he