Certainly been the case all this week. Everybodys waiting for donald trump to take the stage where you now see venture capitalist peter teal warming up. A lot of focus here still here today is on what senator ted cruz last night did or didnt say. Vote fur conscience. Vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the constitution. I dont know back at the stock exchange, bill, but that was the moment of the night despite a fiery speech of Vice President ial candidate mike pence last night. Tonight, we have a big round of guests from the rnc and speaking with Cleveland Clinic ceo toby koz grof and had the move of blocking Health Care Mergers and the head of the National Association of homebuilders tells us why he thinks donald trump will help give the Housing Market a boost. And looking forward to this, retired Lieutenant GeneralMichael Flynn, he is going to respond to trumps controversial comments about setting conditions for defending the allies in nato. Well, we certainly look forward to all of that over the next couple of hours. Meanwhile, here on wall street, the dow in danger of snapping the nineday win streak and will have to have a big comeback this hour if it happens. Well talk about whether its a breather of the rally or something for cause of concern for the bulls and then another barrage of earnings after the bell tonight including at t, chipotle, starbucks and visa. Just some of the big names on that slate. Well have instant analysis of the numbers coming up over the next hour or so. Lets begin with the justice departments lawsuits to block those two major Health Insurance emergenciy emergenciy eiey eier mergers. Its not unexpected as you say. The thought was that anthem and cigna in deep trouble in terms of at least being approved. And also, etna humana. Both deals announced over a year ago seeing the consolidation play out in the hmo industry. Said simply, five going to three was too much for the government to take in terms of the view that they took saying that it would eliminate competition and, therefore, consumers would suffer as a result. And so, they moved to block both of the deals this morning at 11 00 a. M. Of course, a press conference with attorney general Loretta Lynch and the antitrust overseer sort to speak both having comments on that. Where do we go from here is the question. People may notice the stocks are up. Humana took the opportunity to raise guidance and one reason why that stock is up. Another may be, well, its not clear that going to court is going to be the worst thing. Both Companies Say theyre willing to do that. Interesting to note, humana and etna seem more unified in that approach and cigna said we may not close at all. Remember, theres been some difficulty in the relationship between cigna and its merger partner anthem. Its interesting to note the press releases. Both of them going to court and appears to have the same judge, john d. Bates, a federal judge, and viewed as favorable for the companies. Who knows . A judge. Well see. He did rule against the ftc seeking a ruling in 2004 so some at least taking that as a sign, hey, maybe if they go to court they have a chance and also important is Medicare Advantage and medicare, something the ceo of etna brought up earlier today on the halftime report. I think if we cant come to a negotiation on what markets to diverse and we have two very complete remedies in front of the department of justice right now, im letting to judge decide whether they compete and i think that would be precedent shl for the industry and an important decision to have made and so well go all the way to make it happen. Theyre considered splat. If the government were to lose and considered to be the same, it would have significant implications. A reason why some thought, bill, that perhaps the government wouldnt go against etna and humana and doesnt want to set that precedent that he just mentioned. Well see from here. As you all know, we had lots of antitrust activity even in the last few months and heres the latest. So what do you think . Will there be a deal . Doesnt have to be both of these. Doesnt have to be the proposed mergers that are in on the books right now. Could there be a deal thats all worked out . What happens, do you think, if theres no deal at all . What happens to these four companies then . You know, i mean, listen. I think you never know when youre going to court. It is interesting, bill, that oftentimes, the majority of cases when the government says no, the two Companies Say, see you later. Theyre done. When they dont and choose to fight you can end up with a settlement to allow a deal to close, meaning the divestitures such as was talked about or win in court. Well see. It remains unclear. You could have one deal. When the other deal not win. And the question is whether consolidation will come to the hmo industry the way all of these players wanted it to. A lot of Musical Chairs going on when this all is coming down initially. David, thank you very much. I didnt see mark since he started that beard and i guess growing it and wont shave until he gets a deal or something. I dont know. See you later. All right, bill. Lets get to the closing bell exchange. Joining us is amorosio on poegs nine and ben willis and Rick Santelli checks in from chicago. Ben, i was not aware that stock prices could go down again. The industrial average is down 115 points. We had been in the midst of the best run in three years here in the u. S. Stock market. What happened today . The european buy eers that p the safety money in the New York Stock Exchange gone home at 11 30. The bulls not dead. We have a long way to run. But this is a breather that we need quite frankly. We have had an extraordinary run and the bull needs a breath. I think the dow up nine straight sessions coming into today. How do you think the markets position . I would agree. I think we are poised to take a breather mean and one thing to acknowledge from the fundamental point of view is looking at the price ratio earnings is its rallied at 17. 1 earnings and now the thighest levels that we have seen in ten years. That shouldnt be a deterrent to the rally, necessarily, but cause a pause and what were pricing in right now is essentially 2017 earnings and its not quite 2017 yet so we might have gotten a little bit ahead of ourselves here. Rick, what do you make of whens going on today . You havent seen too Much Movement in the treasuries and so forth but it has been much of this the equity market and i keep hearing about digesting earnings. What do you think is going on . I found it fascinating because if you look at the yield curve and look at treasuries and remember that we had some uturns, rates were going up as mario draghi took the mike and then after press conference, they started to go down so two years are down three base points. We had curves steepening with lower rates on a day that the stock market breaks the streak. It tells me that the central bankers have given way and investors minds to the stock market. The stock market is now the weath weathervane and not shocking and i like days to see it play out when the stock market goes down, curve steepens tells me thats a fed implication and it shouldnt be the real story today should be the ongoing stability in housing. Now, it is not terrific. But many of these metrics are the best since 07 or 08 and never going to get to the 05, 06 and double many of these metrics like starts and permits. But existing home sales were solid. So i think mario draghi and ben willis had it exactly right. Theres a european presence in the markets and even beyond that i think that the equity markets are now the weathervane and everybodys going to Pay Attention to and the crutch for the july meeting in many regards depending on how the future direction goes with the market. We also seem to have earnings in today, ben. If i look at the worst performers, Sherwin Williams and i think a cleveland area company, southwest, we know what happened there. Intel, american express. Is that weighing on the markets today . I think some of the play in the market helped in particular with intel for bellweather if you will. The overall market as rick just quite put it very well the fact of the matter is to love to trade on fundamentals and pure earnings, that is not going to happen for a long, long time. The equity markets are going to be driven by Central Banks and the continuation to awind unprecedented art form if you will. Theyve now realized that negative Interest Rates is absolutely disastrous decision an trying to unwind that will have to look at those Central Banks in that particular reason. The United States led the charge back out and trying to manage our growth, if you will. But the fact of the matter is Central Banks are driving investors into equities and should have been for quite a while and 17 1 2 times forward looking earnings on a yield curve against negative Interest Rates is not even close to unprecedented and not near the 2025 pe ratios and the equity markets have a long way to go in my opinion. You are nodding your head vigorously here. I was. I have to bring it back to the ecb once again and did not deliver and not that it was Great Expectations to deliver and one thing that the European Central bank has to address are banks and bank prices and Bank Earnings and admitted its a profitability issue and how do you make the profit if rates are negative and not out right negative rates but a pile of cash at the ecb charged 40 basis points. Yeah. Thank you all for joining us in our exchange today. I got to get back up to the cnbc booth and i think you can see over the shoulder there, the set is cool. Everybody has a booth. And the box seats that you would ordinarily have for the q here in the arena and threw it together. This convention is earlier than usual and they put in cleveland because at the time lebron wasnt on the cavs and thought the mafrs season might be too long and needless to say, the cavs wound up in the playoffs. Any case, i have to put on the basketball shoes and get upstairs. Ill see you in a second. If anybody can get there in time, its you. Well see you in a little bit here. Were setting lows for the session right now. The Dow Jones Industrial average down more than 120 points right now. At 18,470. S p down 13. The nasdaq down half a percent. Special coverage from cleveland does continue. The Cleveland Clinic ceo gives us his reaction to the justice departments move to block the two Massive Health insurer deals. Plus the chairman of the National Association of homebuilders tells us why he thinks a donald Trump Victory would be better for the Housing Market. And former trump Vice President ial contender retired army Lieutenant GeneralMichael Flynn has a take on mr. Trumps comments on nato that triggered alarm bells across europe. And then after that, we got more earnings after the bell tonight. At t, chipotle, starbucks and paypal expected to report. Well have the numbers for you, the second they hit the tape and set you up for tomorrows trading session, as well. You are watching cnbc. Welcome back ebay with a record high on the earnings beat last night. Ecommerce platform also increased the profit and revenue and ebay says it saw a slight boost of currency swings following the brexit vote. Lets check out other movers for this thursday. Southwest airlines among the biggest losers in the s p 500 today. The discount carrier reporting disappointing earnings, company said that stiff competition is weakening fares right now and analysts not impressed by the projected 3 to 4 decline per revenue of seat mile and of course they had the problems with the reservation system yesterday. Not a great time for southwest. Pandora spiking briefly today. Liberty media ceo floated an offer of about 15 a share for the Internet Radio company. Liberty media controls sirius xm and you can see pandora is lower after that spike earlier in the day. Meantime, Dunkin Brands of Second Quarter results this morning. The company did beat on earnings. It missed on revenue. The stock did trade lower but it has come back a bit. It is down 1. 25 right now after opening sharply higher. We welcome back chairman and ceo nigel travis. Good to see you, sir. Welcome back. Bill, very nice to be here. Kelly will be along in a moment here. Give us an overall view of the quarter and then well talk about some of the specifics that youve got. How did you do this quarter . Well, actually, i think we did pretty well. It wasnt a spectacular quarter but it was a quarter where we executed some very important strategies for the future. We launched cold brew which has had a very good reception, particularly in the two biggest test markets of new york and los angeles and rolling that out across the whole country in the rest of the summer. That really is a game changer. Its a different way of brewing coffee. It sets us apart from some of our competition. Its a great product. The repeat purchase has been fantastic. We launched on the go ordering during the quarter. Were very pleased with the start of that. And i think this is the biggest operational change since we introduced drive throughs and probably going back to the disappointing revenue you mentioned, we have managed to get a handle on franchisee pricing. That is a very big thing. And i think that is something thats going to hold us in good stead in the months and years to come. Your cfo mentioned youre selling most of your of the store. The companyowned stores and fewer than five. Why . Whens the strategy there . Okay. So, bill, this is an interesting one for me. When i joined the company i was insistent of Company Stores and picked up Company Stores to demonstrate operational excellence, to show the franchisees we knew how to operate stores and we picked up problem markets and converted them into some successful markets. Good example is atlanta. Dallas was one of the markets we picked up. We are in the process of transitioning that. Well transition another market up here in new england. And were probably end up to be honest with no Company Stores in the near future. We feel the time for them has passed. Were 100 franchise. We love supporting our franchisees. Focused on franchise economics. Franchise relationships. And i think by doing that, we can move forward. Its simply in the operations. It has no impact on the profitability. But it means that we can be totally focused on franchise stores. Hi from cleveland, nigel, where im wondering how the outcome of the political election in november, do you think it will impact your business . Hey, kelly. Everyones very interested and following your reports and others on whens going on in cleveland. And i think its your questions an interesting one and youre in cleveland. Clevelands one of our most successful markets. Why . Because were executing outstandingly. We have franchises who work together. They run great stores. They partnered earlier this year with the cleveland cavaliers. They rode it all the way to the victory behind lebron. They had a promotion. The team wins. You win. Which helps drive our perks membership. Which gets you in on the go ordering. So, so were very happy with cleveland. But coming back to your question, its going to be a very interesting election. As we learned from my home country, you cant predict anything these days and i think what we are going to see is from our industry a very strong push to whoever wins has to focus on supporting Small Businesslike like our franchisees. They need support and for us its critical they support them because its about development. Most of our revenue, most people dont seem to realize this, most of our revenue doesnt come from our Comp Store Sales. It comes from our development. So we need to make sure that our franchisees have a great environment to flourish and i can tell you that will mean more stores for us in the future. Wow. Long explanation there, nigel. A glimpse into what is at stake as we follow the convention for the next couple of weeks. Thank you, again, for joining us. Thank you. Thank you. All right. We got about 40 minutes left in the trading session here with the dow down 117 points today. So were in the process it looks like snapping a ninesession win streak that had put the dow in record territory and same thing for the s p and not happening today. Up next, the head of the Cleveland Clinic weighs in on the justice departments attempt to block the two Health Insurer mergers in the name of consumer protection. Also, General Motors with blowout earnings as teslas ceo musk releases his master plan for his company. Phil lebeau puts them together for us when we come back. Hey there. Hi, im looking for a deal on an iphon. I was thinking, something along these line oh, okay. Well, how about this heres my answer. Is thiyou with a dinosaur body . Its just me with happy hands. It just means ill take it. 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