Today. Im at the boeing post, where that stock is rebounding right now. Up 2 . Weve got more on that in the meantime, the rest of the market hovering near alltime highs. Weve got 59 minutes to see if we can eke out a new record. Yeah, but just losing that momentum, morgan, in the last few minutes, now red on the a s p 500. Im wilfred frost. Good afternoon to you. Lets look at whats driving the action some trade pessimism as we got news that phase i of the u. S. Trade deal may not be signed in november, as planned Solid Earnings reports from merck and pfizer helping give the Health Care Sector a boost, but tech has turned lower with disappointing results from alphabet and grubhub, driving the nasdaq lower also to come today in our beyond the bundle series, we will get the details from at t about their new hbo max service and well also speak with one of the disrupters in the mccollum the interview coming up on closing bell. We are just negative for all three of the major indices of course, any positive close for the s p is another record alltime close the nasdaq, we are slipping by about half a percent away as it got close to its own record yesterday. Health care and materials lead the charge joining us for the full hour, steve grasso from stuart frankel. Steven, good afternoon to you. Good afternoon, sir thanks for joining us we slipped the last hour or two, but why was that i think you hit it on the head it was about the trade headline. And weve had an enormous rally in the market. Being as though we couldnt get above alltime highs, we popped above them so theres a high benchmark to keep us moving higher. We need better trade data or we need better trade progress fmoc tomorrow. And we also need to see earnings weech got earnings and any negative headline on trade is going to be perceived as a sell first, ask questions later. And thats what we saw today is that whats hurting apple . Melissa mentioned it just down before handing over. Was up a percent, record alltime highs down 2 . Whats happening there i think its silly to put that much into one headline that we saw today things are still moving forward and you heard the administration say, this doesnt mean that a trade deal is not moving or progressing forward. It just means that maybe its not going to be done as quickly as the market had thought. Its got everyone back on their heels again. Lets focus in on the big stories were watching today phil lebeau has more details on todays boeing hearing bob pisani has a look at what weve learned from earnings season so far, as we reach the halfway mark and meg terrell is covering some big moves in the pharma space. Phil, first to you on boeing the senators blasted Dennis Muilenburg about the culture at boeing and whether or not they had cut corners in the development of the 737 max, but there was also a line of questioning that a number of senators were pursuing, whether or not boeing and the faa have too cozy of a relationship so has the balance gone too far to allowing industry to police itself. Senator, i dont know if i can characterize it that way my sense is that we all have the same objective here. We all want safest industry possible that is our objective and my sense is that we could look at the balance. That there are refinements that would be worthy. So when you look at the max and look at the relationship between boeing and the faa, remember, they need to get this plane certified. Boeings target remains to have it certified by the faa at the end of the First Quarter they have several hurdles to clear before they get to that point. That brings up the question, is there growing pressure on the faa. Remember that boeing, as you take a look at shares of the stock, which did move higher today while Dennis Muilenburg was on capitol hill, they are planning to ramp up production of the 737 max starting in the spring of next year, going all the way up to the end of next year to dramatically more than what theyre making right now. Theyre at 42 a month now, they want to get up to 57 a month by the end of next year phil, whatsyour take as to whether muilenburg today successfully convinced everyone that he and his Company Always put safety first no, i dont think they did that i dont think so you can see, a lot of it was in the commentary from the senators and they werent buying what he was selling now, look, he said time and again that we made mista mistakes, that boeing needs to do better and he believes changes are being put in place so that the company can make the safest plane possible, whether its with the max or future models but you got this sense from listening to the senators that theyre not buying that safety is at the core of what boeing does so this sets up tomorrow, guys, where the house will have a crack at Dennis Muilenburg, and in some ways, the house may be tougher than the senate, because there are a couple of representatives there who have been doing some extensive investigations, and i suspect theyre going to have among the toughest questions for Dennis Muilenburg tomorrow. Phil, if people dont believe that he always put safety first, something that he said in the past he did always do, then is he going to lose another one of his management titles . Youre asking the question, is he going to be replaced as ceo. We asked him that before he went in he essentially said, look, im not going to answer that question im focused on getting the max back in the air. Whether or not that happens, wilf, as i said earlier today, i dont think that thats a question that the board is looking at right now, because that would add more turmoil to what is already a very tumultuous situation with the 737 max. Could it be addressed somewhere down the road . Thats a possibility, as well. What this does do, wilf, this puts greater pressure on the faa. They want to certify this plane once they believe its safe. But they already have egg on their face from what happened back when the plane was grounded around the world and they keep saying, nope, its safe, keep flying it. I think you would see even greater care and perhaps more time being taken with any decision to recertify the max. Phil, thank you, as always lets get some more perspective. Good afternoon to you both richard, starting with you, do these hearings matter from the share price . I think they matter from one perspective. That is, a lot of investors view these types of hearing as close to the end of the process. I think shareholders, you know, are generally inclined to get bullish. I think they would like to get more certainty around when the max is actually going to recertify. But what these hearings essentially do is get a possible negative out of the way and i think one of the things you saw from the hearing today, theres nothing incrementally negative jim, you considered to have a buy rating on the stock. Is that how you see it yeah, i think the most important thing that came out of the hearing today is that he didnt make it worse the stock price reaction shows that he had a calm demeanor, answered all of their questions forthrightly certainly, there is questions as to whether boeing does have a safety culture, but as of now, theyre going to be given the chance to bring this plane back into service and to prove that they do have a safe plane. And i think the fact that the stock reacted today shows that things are not getting worse, at least. Rich, the questions that focused around not just boeing, but the intersection of beoeing and the regulators in the faa and where the maybe safety protocols, the lines have been blurred, was that the most notable thing that came out of the testimony today . I think, clearly. If you looked at what the senators were focused on and writ really resonated, it was on this relationship between the faa and boeing and i think what youre going to see we all know changes are coming, right . But i think the only way we can sum this up is that the relationship has to be more antagonistic you know, the faa has to do more to challenge boeing, more to question boeing, more, et cetera and i think that is what we saw from several of the senators today who were zeroing in on this relationship with boeing. Steven, where do you stand on this share price i think well, if you look at it, its up 8 yeartodate and if you would have put you in a confinement and said all of these negative headlines and not told you what stock it was, you would think the stock would be cut in half or would be underwater we havent seen that so i dont know how much of this is that theres only two Major Players in this arena and that there is a pseudo backstop on this stock and maybe im making that up, but the bottom line is there is a duopoly, so i do believe that this has been the underpinning in this name and it has performed better than anyone would have thought otherwise so, juim, to go back to the question that wilf raed beforisd before, once we see a return to service of the 737 max, do you expect Dennis Muilenburg to continue to be in the ceo role and if not, who would take over . Yeah, i think that as long as the plane does come back out into Service Without undue delays past maybe january, as long as they can get the pr moving to convince the flying public that the plane is safe, get the faa onboard, get Global Regulators onboard, start moving these planes, get all the logjam at their facilities out and start shipping again, and start improving their finances, i think he has a good chance to retain his job obviously, mistakes were made and they acknowledged that, but how they act Going Forward is what matters and i think Going Forward, given the duopoly in the industry, given the huge backlog in commercial orders that boeing has, that they will return to the financial powerhouse that they once were all right, were going to leave it there richard saffron and jim corridor, thanks for joining us today. Turning now to the Broader Market as we reach the Halfway Point in earnings this season, bob pisani is here at the exchange with a look at big takeaways so far a little bit of a split the consumers are doing really well the global cyclicals, not so much heres the poster child for the u. S. Consumer. Mastercard same situation as visa last week great numbers, Revenue Growth, maybe 15 for the year thats up from low teens so the consumers in good shape. Capital one said the same thing. And then you get the big global cyclical names theyve basically been lowering their numbers. Theyve been seeing this weeton. Electrical system, big in europe and asia they lowered their guidance, cummings diesel engines around the world. They lowered their guidance. And we know this is largely on the strike we know the problems with auto productions around the world, as well these lower estimates arent happening with Consumer Staples or health care much more stable Earnings Growth so heres where we are at the first half of the year here. U. S. Consumers have been strong, industrials and materials and energy, coming down. Guys, back to you. Bob, thanks so much for that. Bob pisani on the floor. Earnings from merck and pfizer hitting today before the bell. And they have both helped buoy the Health Care Sector, which leads the sector on the s p 500. Meg has been diving into those results for us hi, meg. Reporter different story for pharma it was a beat and raise for pfizer and merck in the end of the quarter. Keytruda drew more than 3 billion in quarterly sales, topping analyst estimates by 200 million and for pfizer, outperformance came from its Breast Cancer drug ibrance and prevnar 13 merck in favor and pfizer still not yet covered from its july deal with mylan. Wilf, back to you. Hda also performing well today, helping that Health Care Sector higher. After the break, senator mark warner sending a letter to mark zuckerberg, asking him to rethink facebooks controversial political ad policy. Well speak with the senator exclusively about that letter, next plus, its another massive afternoon for earnings with reports ahead from yay, mondelez, amgen, amd and many more were going to bring you all of those numbers as soon as they hit. And as we head to break, heres a check on our data tracker. Poe pending home sales raising and Consumer Confidence missed the mark driverless cars, or trips to mars. No commission. Delivery drones, or the latest phones. No commission. 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That stock losing steam in todays session as well. Its down about 7 after making its public debut here yesterday on the new york stock exchange, becoming the first publicly traded commercial human space Flight Company it popped yesterday. Seeing it come back down to earth, pardon the pun, today but certainly, one to keep an eye on meantime, pressure mounting on facebook after the companys decision to exempt political ads by politicians from Third Party Fact checking, with employees and Congress Calling for change. Virginia senator mark warner is now asking facebook to provide more transparency over its policy and telling the company to hold itself to the same standards as cable networks, stating in a personal letter to ceo mark zuckerberg, quote, facebooks apparent lack of foresight or concern for the possible damages caused by this policy concerns me and going even further to state that transparency itself has, quote, been undermined, at least in part because of the nature, architecture, policies, operation, and platforms of facebook lets bring in senator mark warner for an exclusive interview. So whats wrong with facebooks current policy here . Well, what facebook and lets be clear, were talking about ads sponsored by politicians. First of all, we have no rules at all with those kind of ads. I think there should be basically Disclosure Requirements facebook has moved in that direction. I dont think fully, but they have moved in that direction but this case of saying, if a politician sponsors an ad, that politician can lie with impunity, i think, has enormous repercussions. And i think we even saw that in the testimony last wee member o asked appropriately, well, what happens if someone is running under banner of the American Nazi Party does that by virtue of being a candidate allow that kind of nazi propaganda to be posted on facebook, a facebook that 68 of americans look at on a daily basis, 178 plus americans, and there is going to be no governance at all on that type of political advertising and not only and we can be assured that russia and other nations will intervene in the 2020 election and and someone has announced that theyre running for governor in election, but hes going to go ahead and register for a candidate, so he can start putting up fake ads right away this is not going to improve the quality of our political debate, and i just wish facebook would have thought this through, rather than laying out this policy that i hope theyll rerequester. Senator, as you make clear this this threepage letter that being allowed to lie with impude impunity, seems frankly ridiculous to be something that can be permitted why do you think facebook is doing this why not preempt it do you think theyre just desperate for the dollars in what is going to be a bumper political years . I hope not. Candidly, i think that facebook could have avoided all of this theyre a big enough company, if they would have simply not allowed political advertising, probably the quality of our political debate might improve if that took place they chose not to do that. Thats their business decision but i dont think this is a case of them trying to scrounge out a few more dollars i think there are legitimate First Amendment concerns and clearly, there is a First Amendment right, if you are a broadcast television station, you have an obligation under your fcc license to go ahead and put up that ad facebook has no such obligation. Thats why i think facebook with their region, with the ability to have their platform manipulated by bots, by other foreign influences, much different than a profiter for that matter, cable television. Thats why ive suggested the analogy is better to cable cable is willing to take down a political ad that is demonstrably false it still falls on the obligation of an entity who can prove that the ad is demonstrably false, so thats a pretty high standard. And i think that standard would have worked well for facebook. And my hope is that they will reconsider, because i think the absurdity of their current position, whether its american nazis or people running for governor in california today just so they can put up fake ads and lying ads, the threat that this poses with reinforcing activities of foreign governments, this is going to be a disaster so, senator warner, when you talk about the fact that facebook has no such obligation, it gets right back at the heart of regulation discussion weve been happening and begs the question, why arent lawmakers like yourself, and i know youve put some legislation out there, but why arent lawmakers passing regulations that would require a company like facebook to adhere to some o