At the beverage company. A 19year cocacola veteran. Most recently president of the companys european arm. Shares are basically flat today. Year to date they are down a bit by about 2 . Sara eisen is with us live this hour from the new York Stock Exchange. Sara, this isnt only a story about coke today. A big controversy erupting over the Health Impact of the soft drinks. Yes. Scientists at the center of this weeks coke controversy is speaking out. Dr. Jaimes hill at the universiy of colorado says the recent media reports on his work vastly oversimplify a complex issue, he says, of fighting obesity. Coke has faced a firestorm of criticism this week after the New York Times reported monday that coke is secretly funding dr. Hills work which says that obesity is mainly caused by lack of exercise, not diet, not calories like those in sugary drinks. Well, thats not entirely true, says dr. Hill. He says diet is a critical component of weight control as are exercise, stress management, sleep and environmental and other factors. The problem does not have a single cause and cannot be addressed by singling out only one of those factors in the solution. That runs contrary to the report. On the charge that coke is using his group to get the results it needs to fight its own sales slump in soda, he insists that the gebn, his groups research, are independent and not subject to preapproval by the cocacola company. Now coke is still facing falling soda consumption and increased health awareness. It is especially hurting sales of diet coke. Thats something i asked the new number two executive, James Quincey today in an impromptu call announcing his promotion. In europe diet drinks are growing faster. Both are growing but diet is growing faster. I think as science comes to bear in the u. S. I think well see the turnaround of the category and a great brand like that, coke. That will just allow us to further extend what were already achieving in the u. S. K where weve got revenue growing in a healthy manner already in the u. S. So i think the recovery of diet coke will only add to that. While the ceo said it would be inappropriate to speculate on whether quincey is indeed his successor, that remains to be seen. Declining diet sales and the rise of obesity crisis and concerns are certainly something hell have to face. A lot of people are starting to wonder whether stocks in the dow put in some bottom when we were down 250plus points, then rallied. Right now, take us forward, bob. Unfortunately, early on the evidence was that this was just a very brief blip yesterday that tremendous rally. However, things are improving in the middle of the day. Id say the jurys still out right now. Look at the s p 500. It started with a real disappointment. We just had oil crummy. Energy wasnt doing anything. There wasnt a lot of leadership early on. Volume was a little bit heavier than normal. As we picked up throughout it the middle of the day, volumes lightened up a little bit but were in green now. In terms of the market now, volume is on the moderate side but it was heavier early on. Advanced decline line about even, Consumer Discretionary are leading. Pretty big name for lowes. Theres no followthrough in energy at all. People again yesterday twice normal volume in the big energy names trying to some kind of bottom. But o oil stocks this morning, all did well yesterday but didnt go anywhere. Department stores, kohls big disappoint there. Down almost 9 . Dillards doing pretty well. News alert in the bond market. 30year bonds up for auction. Rick santelli tracking action at the cme. Tyler, another grade where it is more defined by the tail. Dog, think dog. Dplus is the demand grade. I could have gone maybe a cdouble minus. Just like the 10year yesterday was soft. 16 billion. 30year bonds, the rate at the dutch auction 2. 88. But the high yield on the one issued market was around 286. We tailed pretty large all the rest of the dynamics are close to average. 2. 26 bid to would ever. A little lighter than 10 option 2. 34 average. The only thing about this that was kind of solid, slightly above 10 option average and it continues to be the one metric consistent in most auctions for foreign Central Banks seem to be playing directly on the light side. Dplus, 64 billion in supply hit the market. You can see yields moving up on the auction results. To kate rogers with a quick market flash. Watching yahoo shares surging by 5. 5 on an upgrade from bernstein, the firm raised the stock to outperform from market perform saying the current share place already reflects the worst case scenario. Shares are down 27 this year. Currencies are calmer today after China Central bank weakened its currency for a third day in a row. This time they held a rare press conference, saying it would be a minor devaluation. Claims about 10 were wrong and that it is aiming for more of a market based rate. Dollar is more than 4 stronger against the chinese currency in three days alone. But were not seeing the kind of turmoil that we saw for it the past few days. Dollar is stronger against the euro and yen as retail sales in the u. S. Showed a rebound fueling bets that the fed may actually be on track to raise rates as long as the Global Market mood stays calm. For more on the big we tail sales report of the day showing 0. 6 growth, Michelle Myer from bank of america. Take us beneath the headline. Department sales were not great. The headline number was robust, 6. 6 . Auto boosts that total. If you look at a core control number, take out autos, building and gasoline stations, sales were running at 1. 3 . If you dig deeper at some of the secto sectors, Department Store sales continue to be quite weak falling on a year over year basis. This is not a new development. This has been something thats happening for the past few years. I think it speaks to the substitution nature in terms of how were spending. A move from brick and Mortar Stores to more internet sales. Thats certainly reflected in todays report. Home improvement sales which are doing well, those stocks. The predicament for fed, they see a report like this and the u. S. Economy, the rebound is on track. They see something that happened yesterday when the dow was down nearly 300 points and the chinese currency revaluation and it gives investors pause. How do they put it all together and when do they move . Clearly the events of the past few days have made it a little more challenging for forecasting the fed or even for fed officials themselves because it adds another element of uncertainty and risk in terms of the Financial Markets and in terms of the move in the dollar and global trade. But if you take a step back and think about the what the fed has been telling us, they are looking at the cumulative progress that the economy has made. The total amount of jobs that weve created. It is the rate of unemployment which is down to 5. 3 close to their target. Based off of those metrics, it seems like the economy has indeed made progress and we think that theyre gearing up to go in september. Septembers on. Well leave it there. The two questions of the day. Michelle meyer, u. S. Deputy economist at mabank of America Merrill lynch. Coming up, our bull and bear will duke it on on kohls. Were going back to business school. Our weeklong series with the deans from some of the top schools in the country continues. You are watching cnbc, first in business worldwide. No students ever been the king of the campus on day one. But youre armed with a roomy new jansport backpack, a powerful new dell 2in1 laptop, and durable new stellar notebooks, so youre walking the halls with varsity level swagger. Thats what we call that new gear feeling. You left this on the bus. Get it at the place with the experts to get you the right gear. Office depot officemax. Gear up for school. Gear up for great. Welcome back to power lunch. Were watching shares of monster beverage, theyre up over 5 on an upgrade from Morgan Stanley. The firm raised the stock to overweight from equal weight on anticipation of the idea that conditions leading to recent erpgs weakness are temporary. Shares are up 38 this year. Over to sue herera now for a news alert. Thank you very much. Nbc entertainment announcing that they are extending tonight show host Jimmy Fallons current contract through 2021. He will continue to guide late nights number one program into the next decade. According to nbc entertainment. Fallon took over at host in february of 2014. Since then, nbc says the tonight show starring jimmy fallon has dominated the late night landscape winning in all key ratings categories. Cnbc is a unit of nbc. Sara, back to you. Other names were watching at this hour, mylan labs wont give us on its hostile takeover attempt of perrigo. Now it says it wants 50 . Perrigo shares are getting a boost today on the news. Advance auto parts shares also rallying. The company reporting better than expected earnings. Thats helping the other auto parts retailers as well. Auto zone, oreilly both hitting 52week highs. Valeros at its highest level in more than eight years. Up more than 40 this year. Shares of kohls dipping more than 9 today after the retailer missed on estimates and posted a sharp decline in profits. You see down almost 10 at this hour. Shares of the company down more than 13 over just the past month. Jan roger niffen is bearish on the stock, and nealy favors it. Jan, make the negative case first on kohls and why you think they cant turn it around. Well, in the short term, kohls is doing some good stuff. They were under managed for six or seven years. They seemed like they were kind of sleepy. About a yearandahalf ago they startrd doing a Loyalty Program that i think is a good one. They went heavier into branded product which will work well for them. In the short term i like what theyre doing. Longer term i think they are in a tough spot. They sort of occupy the same place at jcpenney. 2,200 stores with the two of them. With the switch to the internet maybe thee need 1,000 stores between the two of them. Maybe less. It is a tough transition for them. Macys is doing a great job with omni channel retailing. So is nordstroms but they run much higher price points. Nordstroms 42, 44. Macys more like 26. Kohls is where penneys and tj maxx is. To jans points or make separate ones of your own. Heres the deal. We really like kohls and its really tough to say that on a day what you are recommending a stock when it is down 10 . Why we like it, the stock is cheap, they have pea got yield and theyre a Better Company today than theyve been over the last three years. We think that the issue is traffic and traffic is going to normalize even over the next couple weeks. This low level we think is going to be of a vision past and the stock is going to be higher just in the next 30 to 60 days. How about as a longterm matter . Longterm, retrail itself has had a very difficult structure. Everything that jan has just said we completely agree with in terms of the overall omni channel is necessary. People have been having to make investments along the way but we like the way that kohls is actually answering that. Theyve been rolling out pickup in store and improving the profitability of their ecommerce channel. We think these are positive moves to make sure theyre competitively positioned for the long term. I actually agree with everything neely just said. They are down 10 but they will have a better fall than other retailers relatively speaking because of the things they are doing right. So in the short term i think she is exactly right. When i look a little longer though than the back half of this year, i think it is a very tough space that theyre playing in and i think it will get ever tougher. I think it is really hard to win the game at omni channel and also think for them, it is hard to win the game in branded product. Macys and tjx own branded product. Theyre fighting the battle to get more branded. Thats going to be hard. I think it is going to be hard for them to win an omni channel. Longer term im negative. But i think neelys right, over the next 30, 60 days they look pretty attractive. Thank you both very much. Appreciate it. The question Everyone Wants to know what does the most despised is or beloved woman on the internet have to say for herself . Well hear from the woman who drew this sketch of tom brady. Plus a stunning betrayal of trust. Whole art world was shocked. How an assistant stole millions from one of the titans of modern art. Thats all coming up right here on power lunch. T youre armedy new jansport backpack, a powerful new dell 2in1 laptop, and durable new stellar notebooks, so youre walking the halls with varsity level swagger. Thats what we call that new gear feeling. You left this on the bus. Get it at the place with the experts to get you the right gear. Office depot officemax. Gear up for school. Gear up for great. Welcome back to power lunch. Heres a United Continental nearing session highs up around 1. 5 as it announced it will boost Inflight Entertainment with more content on more aircraft. The expansion includes more hbo content as well as vivo videos an concerts. Jasper john said to be one of the greatest Living Artists of our time, his works selling for tens of millions of dollars. His trusted assistant now behind bars after admitting he stole dozens of works from the painters studio. Heres andrea day with the crime and punishment. Reporter one of his jobs was to file away or destroy the artwork thatas ter johns didnt like but instead he secretly sold them for millions. Take a look. He is one of the greats of our time. So influential, he was awarded the president ial medal of freedom. His iconic flag fetching nearly 29 million at auction. According to court documents, when collectors were offered paintings like these and told they were authentic and authorized jasper johns, they had no idea what they were really getting into. They were meant for a burn pile. Reporter investigators say all stolen by this guy. Jasper johns trusts his longtime assistant of nearly 25 years. This fbi special agent they were stolen. How many pieces in total did he swipe . 22 pieces went to market but there were more than that that were taken. Reporter an artist himself, myer was living in the shadow of a master for most of his life. Thats when investigators say he hatched a plan to make millions secretly selling unfinished works of art, works that johns had told him to file away or toss out in the garbage. He found a gallery that he could work with to sell his works. Reporter but she says he had to make certain that the 85yearold artist would never find out. They were gifts. We have to keep it secret. You cant tell anybody and it cant get back to him or ill get fired. Reporter according to court documents, he sold the works through dorfman projects in new york city. Prosecutors say creating a fake inventory number for each piece making them appear finished. He also signed notarized certificates that the works were authentic and that he was the legal owner. There was nobody in the office to keep track of those works except for him. And jasper johns. Reporter attorney Judd Grossman says his client shelled out hundreds of thousands for this one. These were real quality pieces that were being sold at prices that reflected that through that reputable gallery. Nobody had a reason to suspect anything was wrong. Reporter the son of late real estate titan henry sagerstrom bought at east eight stolen jasper johns, the price tag more than 7 million. Theyre big collectors because theyre expensive paintings. Reporter she says the the two split the proceeds, johns assistant bringing in millions on the side. Four cars, a sailboat. Reporter the scheme run from the artists connecticut studio. Investigators say despite close calls, myer didnt stop. Check out this email we found in court documents. Myer writes in part very bad as i was supposed to destroy, referring to artwork someone contacted the studio directly to verify. These works were unfinished. Reporter according to investigators, he was able to keep the sales quiet for nearly five years until one of the artists friends happen to notice some works for sale in a gallery. It just seemed oed to that particular friend of jasper johns that these works were there. Reporter it didnt take long before myer was indicted and in the end pleaded guilty to stealing from jasper johns. The whole art world was shocked. Not only about who the fraudster was in this case but hot victims were. Obviously jasper johns himself. Reporter myer is now serving his 18month sentence behind bars, ordered to pay 13. 5 million in restitution. Dorfman was never indicted of any wrongdoing but did settle a lawsuit with the victim, terms undisclosed. Weve made numerous unsuccessful attempts to get comment from them. Back to you. Andrea day reporting. The sketch artist, talking about art, who drew this unflattering, some might said deflating version of tom brady is apologizing, sort of. Heres what Jane Rosenberg said about her new controversial drawing. Im under such pressure, i tend to just grab on to certain lines and i dont flatter people. So i have to apologize to tom brady and all his fans if i didnt make him look pretty enough. The internet has gone wild with her sketches. Some comparing her version of brady to the hunchback of notre dame or the scream. I dont know how you paint an unflattering picture of tom brady. She needs to apologize. It was sort of a halfapology. Gold prices are closing right now. Gold was on a tear. It actually was up for five days in a row breaking that streak today. It is closing out with little less than 1 decline. 1,115. It was up five days in a row on the whole china devaluation currency surprise. That gave it a little boost, though its gone back to its weakening ways. Copper has steadied as some calm has come over china. Palladium, platinum and silver all declining with gold. We are seeing a stronger dollar. Back to the bond market. Rick santelli is tracking action at the cme. Hi, tyler. 64 billion in supply has passed through the treasury this week. 10s and 30s werent pretty auctions. An intraday and twoday 30s, not only did we spike after the auction which makes sense in august supply but we are trading well above yesterdays highs. We held that 2nt 72 on an intraday yesterday. It is all about 2. 75 where they settled out the year. Many traders didnt jump in. Certainly seize the bump in the buying has for a moment been like china, calmed down a bit. Market stabilizing toda