Just in the last 30 minutes or so here as we see these stories unfold as the gang on power lunch talked about. You have not only conflicts brewing with north korea, triang gulated with china, but syria with russia. On the ground there in palm beach. Things growing by the hour here as we prepare for the summit between president xi and trump, yes . That is correct, and cannot be overstated, bill. We are watching as the first family descends the stairs at the airport nearby in west palm beach, arriving more than an hour after the chinese president and his wife arrived. Greeted by secretary of state tillerson. Interesting that the chinese president received by the secretary of state and not the president himself. Safe to say this is a tense relationship. Both sietsz ades prepared for a difficult meeting where potentially the chinese side comes with specific things it wants to see over the next four years while the trump team is said to look for tactical wins despite the fact that they have suffered legislative defeats in the past. We are still awaiting those pictures of the president , but we are getting some news about some items that hes addressed aboard the plane to the press. Mainly assad saying hes still running things, still in power, something should happen, signaling for the second time in as many days his views on the situation in syria changed, and, again, he said hes prepared to go it alone on north korea. Certainly, two increasingly escalating conflicts, and especially the north korea situation is one thats going to be at the top of the priority list for the conversations with the chinese president , whether they can actually agree, find commonground on how to approach that because the chinese have been fighting that situation and figuring out how to posture themselves with their neighbor, and they are increasing nuclear threats, but its unclear exactly what the Trump Administrations strategy is to get them to the table. Steve grasso here at post nine preparing for the exchange in a few minutes, but, steve, again, like yesterday, were seeing the markets selloff here late in the afternoon. This, not nearly as dramatic as yesterday, but do you think markets are sensing these tensions that may be prizing geopolitic geopolitically . A big week. President xi. It was the focal point was supposed to be about, but thats a conscious decision to run that headline that hes willing to the u. S. Is willing to go it alone with north korea. Thats a conscious headline to run the headline on syria, so these are something where President Trump wants to let the world know that he is prepared to do one alone or all of them alone, all at the same time. So its kind of shocking, shocking the world to have a perp want to throw all of that at the, you know, at the world all at one time. This is different than what we are used to. Suggesting its hard to know what the intentions might be. Steve, you said the marks are going ahead and pricing it in anyway. Yeah. Were basically, you know, want s p, two points turning negative on the session today. Looks like its okay because there would be this meeting between, and now it all seems to take a different tone. I think to bills point, and its telling. Yesterday we learned from speaker ryan that tax policy, tax reform was off the table in the short term or would take longer than they thought, and the market fell down in a precipitous fashion. Today, we are dealing with north korea and syria, and the market seems to hold in there. I think the market is focused on what the market thinks it has control over and what it can price in. We cant price in all variables involved with syria. President trump has spoken to putin already. Im shocked to see the headline hes not, and you had tillerson speak so pointed on syria already about assad. That, to me, shocking. Maybe the market needs to digest it, but the market is so focused on tax reform. As you talked, we got a note from mr. Cashin, himself, he agrees. He feels the geopolitical commentary is spooking the market. Kayla, if youre there, quickly, i dont know what kind of a schedule you have in front of you, but we have nothing we dont know whats going to happen this afternoon, which is unusual for a meeting of this magnitude between two World Leaders like this. It seems as though they are going to be taking it casually this afternoon, and that may be the uncertainty the market also is not comfortable with right now. Reporter well, weve not been given many details either, bill. We know when the white house announced weeks ago theres a dipper this evening at maralago, which well wait for a readout from that and other meetings that happen. Both sides with large delegations with them. You can imagine President Trump includes secretary of the treasury, some of the top advisers, steve banon, secretary ross of the commerce department, and ive learned from a white house spokesperson that peter nevaro, one of the most outspoken china hawks, the most critical of the way that china trades and massages the currency hes also traveling to florida with the president. Obviously, the president s going to be getting quite a wide array of view points on how to deal with china. Its unclear how hell distill that into one cleareyed strategy meeting with his counterparts from china. We know tomorrow theres a working lunch, and theres going to be meetings throughout the day, but, really, my guess, at this point, good as yours until we get more details from the white house. There are the markets and nasdaq now, slightly negative on the session, the dow up by three points, kayla, thank you. Back in washington, lawmakers are trying to squeeze in Unfinished Business before the twoweek easter recess. How are they doing . Kelly, its not where the administration or Republican Leadership wanted to be ahead of the long break. Clearly, the lack of a Health Care Bill is the most glaring problem, House Speaker paul ryan and conservatives in the party came together today on one aspect of the bill creating high risk pools for people with preexisting conditions. Its not repealing and replacing obamacare, but ryan framed it as a sign of progress. I actually think that divided narrowing quite quickly. What this idea represents is the goal that everyone from the Freedom Caucus to other groups represented here is seeking. Reporter this is, though, a tiny step in a massive agenda, and there are fresh signs that tax reform is not going to be a slam dunk. Ways and means brady promised democrats in the committee he will hold hearings on the tax bill, and that could end up pushing back the timetable for any path forward. The administration will probably miss a selfimposed deadline to start the count down to renegotiate nafta. A formal letter would be ready this week, but theres a lot of hurdles it still has to jump through. Guys, lawmakers have to hit the ground running when they return just to keep the government open much less make a didnt in their agenda. All right. Good points, thank you, ylan. In washington now, turning back to the markets, blackrock ceo and chairman is on squawk box today giving thoughts on how possible delays in that policy reform impact the u. S. Market. If you believe it will be longer phenomenon these to transpi transpire, and we have an economy that is slower because of the uncertainty, then i would say the market is the u. S. Equity markets are probably higher than they should be. So are the u. S. Equity markets too high right now . Joining us now our Closing Bell Exchange officially, john augustine, steve brasso, and Rick Santelli from the cme in chicago. John, i dont know, do you agree with larry, first of all, and, second, i mean, when you look anywhere, theres so much uncertainty, politically, militarily, economically, whatevers going on now, we dont know what happens next, right . True. Headlines, earnings season, better economic reform. The feds put themselves back on the scene yesterday as well. So in our view, though, whats running our investment thoughts, though, is still the bond market and the low yield. Yes. The stock market may be pulling values, but for discretionary money manager, we cant go to the bond market right now, so can we theres the place to be outside of cash and bonds right now. And what about where just reported, the president meeting with president xi as we try to wait for more information about what might develop in syria and north korea, you know, you are sitting there, chief investment officer, and do you make any adjustments to that . Just bring back the risks a bit, or none of the above . Not bringing back the risk. We put in inflation protection as an example last december, and have a little tip. Have bonds, obviously, as well. And then fully diversified in stocks, hold in our view, on the political headlines, react and act on the fundamental headlines. Those arguably are getting better, although theres questions on the economy. Rick, here we go again. Talking about the bond market. Any response there . Were at 23 had 4 on the ten now. Do you sense that the treasurys have been anticipating the issues involving north korea and syria before other markets have . You know, if you look at the close monday, tuesday, wednesday, today, its all within several basis points on ten. All maturities are unchanged. Dollar index up sixth of a cent. I dont like extra volatilities, patterns displayed over several sessions. We talked many times, price volatility is now a fundamental, in my opinion, keep it simple. Get the most volatility, and were extreme top, but im impressed. The issues are difficult to tie in the marketplace. Its holing. Ill make it simple. I still say that, yes, Pay Attention to bonds, equities are the main actor on the stage because i think what dents the actor now is lower rates. If we get below 227 to 225, tomorrows number our other fundamentals or other forces, i think that would be interpreted as weakness. The stocks would have a bigger problem than the patience issue on trump legislation and geopolitics. Steve, what do you have to add to that . Fair point. I think when we started the conversation, its a rotation. They are coming out, and eight years of demand, a stock market that roared and risked higher, you also have people in position where they had another return. So they were looking at that bond portfolio, and coming out of the election, people said, o, were going to break out of the funk of 1 to 2 growth, and were going to reach higher into 3 growth world. People had to be invested in the equity markets, so thats the biggest head wind that i see for the marketplace is that we cant break out. Weve seen some cracks, retail sales, cracked, durable goods, weve seen flattening of the yield curves so if those things remain persistent and look at value as far as pe ratio on the s p, we start to look a little bit symbolic of what we saw in 2007. Thats what has people afraid to put new money to work in the marketplace, and you start to see earnings come iing through, course, people dive back into the marketplace, but look at the market right now. Were still up. Yeah. It has every reason to selloff. They couldnt pass the repeal of obamacare. Yeah. They couldnt get anything done, but yet people still maintain a positive outlook. Still maintaining their propensity to buy equities. We have to go. You disagree with larry, you are a buyer of blackrock. We are a buyer. We like the stock. Thank you, guys, appreciate your insights on another moe mentous day that wall streets watching carefully. The dow is up 16 points right now, 45 minutes to go. Down as little as two, but hanging on to gains here. S p up and russell and nasdaq up. Pulling back on comments, ahead of the meetings with chinas president , look at reaction from former u. S. Ambassador to the united nations, Bill Richardson. That should be interesting. Watch out, google and facebook. The ceo of the Worlds LargestAdvertising Company said snap could be a force to be reckoned with. Martin sorrell picks it exclusively next. Youre watching cnbc, first in Business World wise. With e trade you see things your way. You have access to the right information at the right moment. And when you filter out the noise, its easy to turn your vision into action. Its your trade. E trade. Start trading today at etrade. Com [ [ screams ] ] [ shouting ] brace yourself this is crazy [ tires screeching ] whoo boom baby rated pg13. [ screams ] we were just discussing the next guest. It says here hes critical of facebook and google fake news. Stepping up the game to exert more control over digital ad placement. This interview has been going on for two minutes already, folks. With the rise of fake news story, martin says the tech giants are not doing enough on their platforms. Welcome. They are media companies, not Technology Companies. Well, that, so this is important. So very important. Their claim is we are internet companies, we dont have to take ownership of the content. Digital engineers. Tinkering. You dont need the ear piece, just talk it out. Educational pools to the news feed to help people learn what is fake news. So what weve been doing is working very closely with google who is the medium in which we placed 5 billion, just under 5 billion last year, and so it is, like it or not, the most powerful media channel, but it is a media channel, and google publishers, they are media owners and put that just like we do, and for your what you sell on air. The reports dont view it that way, but google as publishers that could immediately absolutely. Interesting, the regulators in europe have facebook and google on the agenda at the moment. See what decision comes down, but an issue they are mulling over is whether Technology Companies should be subject to the same that any classical or traditional media owner is. We have been talking a lot here lately about the Tipping Point witnessed in the retail industry. Especially in the United States. Away from brick and mortar. Stores closing now because the rise of amazon. Exactly. And other ecommerce. Are you seeing that in advertising as well . Migration more to Digital Advertising . Well, youre certainly seeing the rise of the allpowerful everywhere amazon. My favorite question is asking people what worries you, what keeps you up at night . Crimes and i would say 80 of the time amazon is mentioned. Used to be google is what troubled people in terms of what to do, but you see it in cloud computing, contempt, if you see it in payment, this morning, there were some articles about payments, that ad platform, valued at 350 billion. I think by one analyst yesterday, and now they take the view amson will not compete, and so what our clients want and agencies want is more competition in the market place. Anything to give you competition of facebook and google, accounting 75 of digital, in turn, about 30 of worldwide advertising, so that means google and facebook are 21 of worldwide advertising through that online. Anything that balances, snap chat is another important possibility in terms of balancing the marketplace, so getting more than two solutions is important. Aol and yahoo are another potential as we go shame on me. Report, owner of news corp. , published yesterday very disinteresting. But he, again, kind of makes this point about, you know, the difference between just monetizing content and actually publishing, it, for example, taking ownership of it. If you look to every analyst on the street that covers stocks, other than add milting theres near term you get to the numbers, this is not an issue, the platforms grow in strength and power. Youre in charge of placing money out there. Im not in charge of it. We have five do you see them changing any behavior in the overall shift . Well, they changed their behavior. Theres been boycotts, that we disagree with. Your negating or the most arguably one of the most powerful mediums, so why would you do that . Maybe you stop for a little bit. You pause. You wait and see and improve the technology. I mean, they go about media placement for a minute, which is what all this in the u. K. Was about and spread to the u. S. And india and elsewhere. What weveresponded well, actually, to be fair, come up with new technology, open slate, to define what are white stripes, in other words clear sites and black sites. I saw an article this morning that jpmorgan chase, not a client of ours in the media area, other areas, yes, not in media. Reduced the number of sites they put their online content on from 5,000 whatever it is to 400. So people that white list is what i refer to. Thats where you put your content where the content is cure ated and controlled. Not controlled where we put stocks that you dont know the circumstances in which which content is reviewed. You get fake ads. Misplaced ads. Yes. This is the problem, against inappropriate content. Running out of time, much more to talk about. Let me ask, your thoughts on ive lost count a number of advertisers who pulled from the Oreilly Factor on fox. How effective is that as a tool or weapon, and what do you think happens here . Well, i think people use it to make a point, and we were talking about this before. Direct correlation, a 1 1 correlation between withdrawal and boycotts whether its mentioned in the press or phone calls reported. One email to one ceo of our Client Company who immediately say, what do we do . So at least they paused. People are making a point because gender equality, diversity, this whole area of csr is becoming more and more important, it motivates consumers and people to join you or not join you as employees, it motivates people with you one way or another. This is a critical area. What were seeing here is this play out in a more and more significant way. One final question. If you had seen pepsis ad before it ran, would you have advised them to pull it . Are the other companies what i would mention is it came from an inhouse agency, and as somebody responsible for agencies, maybe not so bad. This is how they are trying to appeal to the youngest generation. You know, authenticity are not making comments, but a authentici authenticity, i mean, thats millennials or centennials, not 100yearold people, but those born after 1997. They sniff out autothen tisty. You have to be very care fful. Actual protest, for example might have been be very careful how you ask questions. You took a ding, cutting back on spending you had to sneak that in there. Heres the question with all do respect, people did not look at it carefully enough. They said they w