The final president ial debate before those key elections on sunday is starting about now, and we will tell you whats at stake for the euro and your Global Investments coming up. Meanwhile, forget sign also of economic weakness. Federal reserve looks like it is on track for another rate hike in june. Naels according to the statement they put out just an hour ago. We will have more on how the market is reacting coming up. Plus this afternoon it is all about Mark Zuckerberg and elon musk. Their two companies will be reporting earnings after the bell tonight. We will get you ready for those reports and bring you the numbers as soon as they are released. Be interesting to see how that turns out. Meantime, shares of apple still trading lower. Coming off the lows of the day, but they were down sharply on the open this morning. Ian weidner from bush securities and were going to start with ian. You were our bear yesterday during our apple bullbear debate. I mean what did you learn in that report and why do you think shares went lower today . Well, i mean at the end of the day they missed iphones. Thats the biggest deal. But what i would say is that, you know, think about this. Youve had cramer on every 20 minutes talking about the sbig interview with tim cook. I mean you might as well be doing weather and traffic, and the stock still isnt up. So to me that tells me that guys are full up long, and when i look at sort of all of the different metrics, you know, people are giving them the benefit of the doubt, that this was just a pause in front of the next cycle. But, like i said yesterday, samsung is back, sprint was talking very bullishly on that product refresh, and so to me it just seems like theres a big leap of faith here at 147. Ian, you will be excited because we have a preview of the interview that jim cramer had with tim cook, ceo of apple. Take a listen. You mentioned two troubling issues. You talked about how we are working on getting china better. Curious to know why they seem to have cool but better than last year at this time, and then you also talked about yes, people are holding back, some waiting perhaps because of a new phone. These were things you address. So i would like you to flesh them out with the people who watch, who own the phone, who are confused by this. Yeah. Well, i think the last one is kind of simple. Honestly, it is that there are more rumors floating and more press articles and mentions of new things. And when that happens, a percentage of people delay. So, yeah, we see a piece of that. That probably affects us more in china than other places. Okay. Because theres a tendency there to buy the latest thing. Although i have to say the 7 plus is an extraordinarily well there and it is up double digit from the previous year, you know, comparing to the previous generation product. But we didnt do as well on some of the previous generation iphones there, and were, you know, looking at why and trying to address that. Robert, that was a problem in the report, not enough iphones sold, and his reasoning there is to some degree people are waiting for the next one, the iphone 8. Do you agree with that . What about the weakness in china right now . Yeah, i think there are two things there. I mean iphones were, you know, flattish year over year, so, frankly, thats all we were looking for. June quarter i think will be flat, you know, up a little bit. Keep in mind, you know, theyre rebounding from a poor year last year. Stability is all we really need because we do have a new iphone coming end of september. I think with china, i mean china was their weakest market. China has been their weakest market for several quarters now, but if anything the comps are at least getting easier from china. So i think china should start looking a little better. Keep in mind china had a mammoth year two years ago, and so theyre still kind of digesting that to an extent. Robert, what about this latest Samsung Phone . It is getting quite good reviews. Appears not to have the same battery issues. Could that peel off apple followers that like the big screen and the features it offers . The galaxy is competitive because it is always competitive except for one obvious issue last year. Apple doesnt go for the majority of the market. I mean they have sort of 15 of smart phone units. Apple just needs to kind of keep the people they have, gain a little bit more each year, and keep their prices and their margins up. The prices wentz up. Their average selling price was up a little again year over year. I think asp will keep moving higher this year. So they have to keep doing what theyre doing, and i think theyre competitive because theyre the only game in town if you want ios. Ian, you made the point yesterday you felt the galaxy would be stealing market share away from apple. But, you know, if people are waiting for that iphone 8, which is the 10th anniversary which everybody is expecting something to be revolutionary, would that render our conversation today moot if people are rushing in to buy the iphone 8 again . Are they . You tell me. I havent seen anybody rushing in to buy the iphone 8. It is not available until the fall here. Right. But it remains to be determined. I think everybodys making the bet that thats going to happen. I would say this. Even though theyre only a smaller percentage of potentially smart phones, theyre over 100 of the profit of smart phones. So if samsungs back and i think it is a huge deal. You want to talk about easy comps from where they were last year till now, to me it is a big deal. If that starts to hit them in the margin side, it is going to be an issue. Ian, what about meantime what theyre doing in services and in media . Is that going to bear more fruit for this company if they continue to move maybe the emphasis over a broader, longer term horizon, away from how many iphones theyre selling and more towards that piece of the business . Certainly it is a positive thing. What i would say about services is that it is really still dependent upon the device. You know, even with the services growth, iphone is still such a large portion of the profitability here that unless people are buying the devices, then the Service Revenues arent going to go as high. Robert, how much higher does apple go here . I mean weve had a lot of people on who had buyer recommendation but the price target was not much higher than the stock is now. Where do you see it going . Our price target is 180, which is 12 times next years earnings ex kooscash. I think 180 is totally doable. A nice move up. It has been a huge year for apple. Trading just about 147 a share. Ian, robert, thank you for joining us. Thanks very much. Thanks for having me. Dont forget mad moneys jim cramer will join us next hour of closing bell with more of her interview with tim cook. Be sure to stay tuned and watch the entire interview on jims show tonight at 6 00 eastern time here on cnbc. As you mentioned earlier, it is make or break time in franls. Marine le pen and Emmanuel Macron are squaring off in a live debate, happening not. Where in particular the street will be paying attention to this debate, michelle . Hey there, kelly. We have showing you the live debate that began at 9 00 p. M. In paris. Market participants are watching this because it is a moment of very high vulnerability for Emmanuel Macron, the candidate favored by the markets because he is not seen as a great debater. He can get both you see him there righthand side of the panel. His opponent on the left, Marine Le Pen, is considered a better debater than he is, and political analysts say this moment could help her increase her poll numbers. Most, and i emphasize most but not all Market Participants favor mr. Macron because he wants france to stay in the euro and represents the stalt tus qu and they think stability. Le pen does not want to stay in the euro and represents instability. She is behind by almost 20 points, but the spread has gotten narrower in the last week, and theres deep fear that the polling is not accurately counting her supporters. Also this moment right here we are watching live on france tv they think could be a factor in bringing those polls closer together. Were going to be live all day on friday and also all day on monday after the election on sunday so we can bring you the results. If theres a surprise, guys, and Marine Le Pen does win, markets are very complacent right now, we could see a lot of volatility on monday. Thats for sure. It was interesting, michelle, to look at the reaction after. They thought the debate might be between le pen and the foreign left guy. He didnt make it. Instead it is the sort of centrist macron we see here. Does it mean some of the risk look what happened in Global Markets since that outcome. No volatility. Everything has been fine and steadily drifting higher. So is it as much of a risk if she were to pull this thing off . So the biggest fear was that it was going to be, as you mentioned, Marine Le Pen, versus mellenchon because he was the Bernie Sanders of france and both of those people have very leftist economic policies, if not their social policies. So it was going to be two people who did not believe in what a lot of economists think would make france more competitive. Their policies would have france less competitive. So the bigger risk was absolutely in the first round, whether or not we would see two not conventional candidates come forward. Now macron, as you see, ahead in the polls. There is less risk because hes got more conventional views on economic policies. Hes not a big game changer but certainly not like she is. But if the polls are wrong, i think the thing is the markets are so believing that hes going to win, that if he doesnt it is going to be trouble. All right. Well, well let you catch your flight. Safe travels. We look forward to talking to you on friday. Thanks, michelle. Thank you. We have a news alert meantime on aetna. Were at the coombs. What is up . Thats right, bill. Aetna saying it is pulling off of the individual market in virginia. Both on the Obamacare Exchanges and off the exchanges as well. Aetna is in several counties. I dont believe that they are the single insurer in any virginia county. Anthem has that distinction. But mark ridley talked about the fact they need to look at what markets theyll participate in. As many insurers, theyre saying theyre not going to participate in markets where they will continue to see losses. He said this yesterday on the analysts call. Weve already withdrawn from iowa. We will be notifying some other states here shortly, but we only had four states remaining. So our presence will be much smaller than it is this year. And, of course, he said that on closing bell, this very show yesterday as well. For a lot of insurers, even as they are submitting some initial rate filings, they are withholding their true commitment through the end of the summer. They dont have to commit until september, guys. So even insurers that are putting in rates now could still pull out if the uncertainty continues in washington. And that stock is now trading at an alltime high. As we mentioned to mark, what he is doing is pleasing wall street. Thanks, bertha. We will see you later. And we have about 45 minutes to go here. Look at this. The dow is positive. Significant maybe for why it was weaker earlier, but we are watching the votes in washington this week to see what happens if there are enough to pass the new healthcare bill and if it means the agenda is on track. The Freedom Caucus is in favor of the upton amendment as it is known that would allow states it would provide funding for preexisting conditions so that insurers could raise their premiums there. But help people pay for higher premiums. I dont want to over state it, but at the time it came out we were still negative and we had the fed decision. Tesla, fit bitd, write it down. Those are some of the big names reporting earnings after the bell tonight. We will break down the results with our team of analysts, and the second those numbers hit the tape. Still to come here. We will go back to the fed and some take aways from the twoday policy meeting that just wrapped up. You are watching cnbc, first in business worldwide. So glad youre back. 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. Welcome back. Dow is looking at a tiny gain of five points right now. The only major average in the green, still it has come up a few points and taken positive territory in the last hour or so. The s p is down about four right now. Look at the nas damagdaq, down point. Russell 2000 down. Definitely dispersion across the as we say. Welcome back. Some of the other markets are moving today. We have molson cores trading lower with the denverbased brewer reporting a miss. They blame weaker sales volume in the u. S. This past january and february. That stock down 4. 6 . Young brands is trading highers on an earnings beat. Lowest cost of kfc and lower taxes helped to boost profits at the fast food giant. But the pizza hut chain reported a decline in same store sales. Sales for pizza hut down 3 . The stock though is up 2. 25 right now. How about the fed . Policy makers wrapped up a twoday meeting a short time ago. Steve liesman is at headquarters in washington with some of the highlights. Kind of a quiet meeting this time, steve. Reporter yeah, but interesting though, kelly. The fed looked through recent economic weakness, a signal to markets a june rate hike remains on track here while it said, quote, growth has slowed and Consumer Spending was only modest. Went on to say, fundamentals under pinning the continued growth of consumption remain solid and, quote, the Committee Views the slowing in growth during the First Quarter as likely to be transitory. Then the fed repeated the line from march where it said specifically Economic Conditions could warrant gradual hikes in the future. That lead to comments like, they want to high again in june. Ian shepherdson said weakness dismissed, june higher likely. A pretty sizable chance of a rate hike in june. Now it is around 69 . The fed didnt change Balance Sheet language, saying it would continue to reinvest principal. Most people think a plan to reduce holdings will come later this year. Guys, if you look at the xlf or the Regional Bank indices, they got a pop as the banks have tended to trade higher when the thinking becomes more that the fed will raise Interest Rates. You see that right there in the xlf to the left of your screen there. All right. Steve, thanks very much. Steve liesman there. Lets get to our Closing Bell Exchange today with the dow virtually unchanged, the other major averages lower. David saurby is with us, steve grass el from frankel sitting next to him, and Rick Santelli in chicago. Im going to start with you, rick. What are you seeing, if anything, in terms of market response to the fed meeting . I mean the twoyear note up is three basis point, dollar index up just a tad here. Is the market starting to get ready for a fed rate increase next month do you think . I think that the markets are ready for rate increase. I just think the question is, a, how many rate increases and is the notion of reducing the size of the Balance Sheet a 2017 infomercial that happens in 2018 or not. Many traders on the floor believe thats the case. So, you know, the markets prepared for this. The moves everybody is talking about that have, you know, somewhere in the 70 range of a june tightening, those are predicated on fed fund futures which really, you know, as they go lower, the percentages go up, they didnt close that much lower soechlt we lower. So were kid of splitting hairs. The markets were prepared for this and it is evident by everything you pointed out. One thing i think is worth noting is that the markets were pulled back into that range so to speak. Loot it looked like the ten year was drifting under 228 area, back 230ish, know that it makes a huge difference, but to many theyre operating under the notion we will be in a range for a while. I think i would probably go along with that. And youre looking at some names, david, you think, you know, honey well, pnc bank, oracle even are attractive in that kind of market, right . They are because theyre more cyclically orient. They still are generating aboveaverage cash flow to the investor and the valuations are compelling to me. They do benefit when the ism index as it is today is comfortably above 50. Those you can own longer. Manufacturing index, both composite. Though the Service Index jumped positive, the manufacturing was a bit softer. Steve, earnings, clearly were in the thick of it right now. But washington still a focus for wall street as well. I mentioned earlier members of the Freedom Caucus are now saying they support this new amendment thats being attached to the healthcare bill. You still have talk of tax reform at some point. What do you see and how do you see that affecting the market right here . Well, if you look at yesterday we have the underperformance of iwm. Those are the ones that have more to gain if theres tax policy, real reform, real knockdown of rates. You and i discussed this. The world has been discussing it. Where does that Corporate Tax rate go . 35 to 20 . 35 to 30 or 35 to 25. It is anybodys guess. It is not going down to 15. So i think iwm had less to gain the higher that established rate goes. But you had asked rick is the market prepared for a rate rise. I think if you look at markets around alltime highs they would say that they are prepared for a rate rise. The market is set up to fail though. I have been lightening up on positions because we are set up were not priced to perfection, but we are set up to fail short term. And jeff gunlag said yesterday he thinks we will get a correction in the market this summer as the fed raises rates in ernest here. You notice, the market is tr