He was here when you were out one day. Andrew was out. Antimatter and matter together. Were both gentlemen. Okay. After another down day yesterday, its been five out of six down sessions for the dow and the s p 500, it looks like things are turning around in the early hours. Right now dow futures are indicated up by 43 points. S p would open up, so would the nasdaq. Overnight in asia, the nikkei ended flat. The hang seng was up by 1 . Shanghai was flat as well. In europe, as france prepares for elections, the cac is higher by 1 today. The dax is up as well. Ftse slightly lower. If you check out crude oil prices, this was the big story yesterday. After a slide of 4 yesterday, things are picking up this morning. You can see wti up to 50. 79 a barrel. American express posting better than expected q1 profit. The positive results helped in higher spending by card members i feel like our family helped them there. Amexs guidance indicating it was starting to mitigate some impact of losing key partnerships last year. Ebays q2 profit falling short of estimates. They spent heavily on revamping t the and qualcomm reporting revenue and profit that topped the streets forecast. The positive results easing concerns surrounding the chipmakers dispute with apple. Apple suing qualcomm back in january accusing the company of overcharging for chips and refusing to pay roughly 1 billion in promised rebates. Weekly jobless claims and the april philly fed survey will be released at 8 30 a. M. Eastern. At the same time fed governor jay powell will be speaking in washington about Capital Markets and growth. As for earnings, talked about this a little bit at the top of the show, couple dow components. Travelers, verizon, bank of new york, melon and blackstone report this morning. After the close, visa and mattel. The imf and the world bank Holding Spring meetings in washington. A couple interviews today, grown Alan Greenspan at 10 00 a. M. Eastern time in an exclusive interview. Imf managing director Christine Lagarde will be on squawk alley at 11 00 a. M. At noon, Michelle Carusocabrera sets down with german finance minister wolfgang schauble. A bit of political news a lot going on today. Some tough talk on iran late yesterday from secretary of state tillerson. Tillerson describing the Iran Nuclear Deal as brokered by the Obama Administration as a failure. An unchecked rye riran has o potential to travel the same path as north korea and take the world with it. The United States is keen to avoid a second piece of evidence that strategic patience is a failed approach. A comprehensive iran policy requires that we address all the of the threats posed by iran. Its clear there are many. Tillerson getting out there. His comments came hours after the state department confirmed that iran was complying with that nuclear deal. Elliott management has released the private letter from Klaus Kleinfeld which led to his resignation on monday. Arconic, which is in a proxy fight with elliott said kleinfeld agreed to resign after the Company Found he used poor judgment by sending a letter. The hedge fund is run by paul singer. The letter read as a threat based on false insinuations and it immediately informed arconic board. Kleinfeld wrote to singer last week mentioning a tlip singrip took with his family to the world cup in 2006 and singers alleged partying after the soccer matches. Going to out you for partying . He enclosed an official soccer ball from the world cup as a souvenir. Arconic cited the letter as the reason kleinfeld was stepping down. Thats interesting. I had been wondering since we heard about this letter, what could he write to make them say forget it, we question your judgment. Interesting watching fox news cover this. Brett baer does straight intros, the howard kurtz, who then did a completely scripted, very straightforward read of how this happened. Oreilly had a lot of interesting mannerisms. I thought about doing a caution, or Something Like that. You cant. You have to do it straight. Fox news is parting ways with bill oreilly following Sexual Harassment allegations. 21st century fox, the Parent Company of fox news releasing a statement saying the agreement was reached after a in their words a thorough and careful review of allegations. Oreilly calling the move incredibly disheartening. The star host came under pressure after an article by the New York Times revealed that 21st century fox paid 13 million to settle harassment claims against him. Since then more than 50 advertisers abandoned his show. According to forbes the Oreilly Factor brought in 1 111 million in ad revenue last year. Well talk about the impact on the company at the bottom of the hour. I think it was more than 65 advertisers. 2015, i think oreilly had 1 168 million, the factor generated. Greta left, it didnt seem like a big deal at time. Went over to msnbc. Gretchen carlson was embroiled in the roger ailes thing. She left. Megan kelly went to nbc. Darn lucky they brought in tucker carlson. Brought in a lot of traction. But they got your boy, did you work with bowling here . No, just missed him. He has a big job now at 5 00. I couldnt watch this show at 5 00. Isnt it a demonstration of the power of the network, the platform over the people . Well see. People always argued that the flat form w platform was like that because of roger ailes. It gets a lot of viewers because its seen to present a totally different viewpoint than mainstream media. Appeals to half the nation. Anybody could be that conduit, but then again, you wonder whether you can just throw anything up there and that it will stick. You might be able to. Separate question what do you think this says about the larger ambitions and plans of the murdoch to me this is as much about the Murdoch Family and the change in terms of power, appreciating the way james and lachland and the way rupert thinks about the world. There was a much bigger deal that mattered for them, the sky news deal. And making sure i dont know that theres the political leanings of james and lachland. I dont know if an 86yearold Rupert Murdoch totally stepped aside. The ongoing investigations about whether the cfo, whether the payments were proper, all the management that was there enabling ailes and oreilly are all still there. And promoted. Right. In this day and age, you get the harassment sort of paint on you, and highw and how do you come out of it. They had to get rid of him. But what about the people calling women in saying well give you this. Fox paid for these settlements. Its not like this was news to them. I think thats one of the investigations, whether the settlements were done out of how do you do it if youre the cfo . Can you plug and play and put anybody in that seat . He was a light personality. That is a huge difference. Does his following turn away from fox news . Do they follow him or are they upset with him being pushed out . He was one of the first hires. Do you remember him from inside editi edition that ridiculous sound . I thought he was like an entertainment tonight host. You worked for him for a while i w. I was an intern at inside edition. 1994, o. J. Simpson. You were like an abused child. You had him abuse you thats not true. He put the promos together. Thats mostly what we did. But it was fun. Thats why you feel so comfortable here. He gets abused. He started in 98. By 2000 he overtook larry king. Then ailes put out this is the new king of cable news. It began a total domination of cable news by fox. Once you get to that Tipping Point, where you knew when he took that vacation, he said it was always a planned vacation, you knew he was gone. Its a matter of balancing the advertisers who dont want to be there anymore and his fondness hes a ratings jugger thought. Juggernaut. Does someone take over . When you wipe the slate clean at fox and start anew as someone who is not a harasser moniker . You would want to hire him if you could get beyond i dont think an advertisingsupported net wowor could hire him. We did see don imus come back after controversy. True. Would have to findtrue upstart i dont think a classic mainstream, dare i say, Media Company could hire him. Unless theres more innings to play out and the story changes and evolves. You dont know. I wouldnt place any bets on it at this point. Weve seen all kinds of people who have come back from getting knocked down. Being in the media maybe he can start his own ott network. He has his own audience. He has his own audience. I think that mainstream advertisers wont want to support like that. Mainstream networks will not want to get behind that. Do you think his audience would maybe. If there was a new i dont think netflix would do this, but if there was new netflix, somebody who was a startup trying to make a name for itself, against a netflix agreed. In a subscription business im not sure his following is that real. Thats the other thing. Its not a digital audience. Glenn becks audience finally had to leave. How is the blaze . Mixed bag. Unclear whether the mixed bag is a function of his performance or the way it was managed. Is this a big story for everybody . No. Were in the media, we think this is a big story. And were not on air right now which is great. Yeah. Hopefully the show is starting soon. We should move on. Lets talk crude prices. Crude prices rebounding this morning after a dip of nearly 4 yesterday. Jackie deangelis has more. She can jump in on the conversation. Good morning. Another support was tested yesterday indicating a lack of confidence in oils recent rise. A rebound today after saudi arabia and kuwait say consensus is building to extend that opec cut. We saw almost a 2 drop on the back of that crude inventory number. This time of year we should be seeing a bigger cried turn as the summer driving season is around the corner. When the market does consider supply and demand the signs are not that encouraging. U. S. Production is climbing. The big question now is this, will opec extend that cut . The secretarygeneral said it is too early to make a call. The next opec meeting is a month away. Second, will geopolitical tensions be an issue . Could the iran deal be revamped . Keep an eye on washington. And is a rebalance panning out as wall street expected . The figures not signaling confidence. Back to you. Thank you for that. Well check the markets. Lets look at things. Joining us to talk about the markets is jeff saud. And raymond joy also joins us. Our guest host for the hour is jeff grasso. David, you still like u. S. Stocks, but you sound like youre more cautious than you had been in the past. Well, i am to the extent that i think the market needs something to break it out of its current lethargy. Weve pushed out expectations of policy initiatives from washington. Thats number one. Number two, earnings are coming in pretty well with some notable exceptions. Thats already priced in. If you look at the economic data, its been just okay. It hasnt really supported expectations of improving earnings over the balance of the year. We need something to get this market moving. I think it will be on the economic front. But we havent seen it yet. So were treading water, just drifting lower now. But you definitely like stocks more than bonds . Yeah. Yes, i do. I do think that earnings on balance this year are going to be pretty good. Maybe in the 10 range overall. I think thats enough to get us a little bit higher. Im not looking for a big move up. Maybe another 5 in the s p at the peak of where we get to this year. But the other thing is i think to a certain extent, its kind of a counter intuitive way, the fact that washington is delaying on tax reform, fiscal stimulus, that is keeping the market in propping it up a bit. I think there is still widespread expectation. Well get something. We just dont know when. Jeff, i think you agree with most of davids points, at least the points about how you would stay away from bonds at this point but you still like equities . Yeah. Greetings from your home city of cincinnati, which is where i am this week. My models called the trump rally, they got cautious the end of jab. Of january, but our models are turning positive. We think the markets have transitioned from an Interest Rate secular bull market to an earnings driven secular market. I think people are profoundly underinvested. Im looking for a bottom for the First Time Since we turned cautious at the end of january. And the earnings you think will not disappoint . No, i dont think the earnings will disappoint at all. Theyre slated to come in up 9 according to fact set, and i think that will be on target. I think the Second Quarter of this year will show Earnings Growth better than that. Steve, i think you made the point that we keep looking at the market averages, but theres a lot happening beneath the surface. Sure. If you really look at whats gotten killed, everyone looks at the trump rally as jeff said, you watch that 13 rally in the s p. Then you see the market sort of hanging in there everyone says, well, were meandering or moving sideways. Financials got killed the last month. Energy falling off a table, the industrials falling off a table. Theres a lot happening. A lot of Fund Managers are getting carried out. Andrew speaks to them every day. When you talk to these guys watching their performance on a yeartodate basis fall after a cliff in a market that seems to be hanging in, as people say. But theres a lot of stuff getting whacked. To jeffs point, if we dont get progrowth policies, i dont know where the market goes from here. Jeff, how do you feel about sectors like financials . I like financials. I think the fiduciary role wont go into place. What i hear all the hill is constructive for financials. We have not seen the steepening of the yield curve yet, which would also be very positive for financials. The back drop for financials has the wind at its back. We think you should be overweight financials. Jeff, david, thank you very much for joining us. Jeff, enjoy cincinnati. Steve will be with us for the rest of the hour. Thats a beautiful shot. Thats from kentucky, but i dont think thats a real shot. Are you on the other side of the river . No im in downtown cincinnati, wkrp, joe. In cincinnati very close. I know exactly where you are. You can either have some gold stark chili or skyline chili. Skyline. Im a price hill chili fan. Grasso, do you want reagans economy or obamas economy . The phil graham editorial in the wall street journal. I thought about you reading this, andrew. I have grasso here, i have to talk with him about it so i can have help. They looked at cbo scoring. The point of the article is theres no way the cbo in its scoring can distinguish between good Economic Policy and bad Economic Policy. So when they looked at scoring reagans programs, theres they were unability to see that it would it delivered they didnt do dynamic scoring. It generated an additional 2. 3 in new revenues, when they scored obamas, they were unable to see you would last 2. 4 in federal revenues. But you have reasons. It doesnt happen in a vacuum. Thank you. Thank you. I tell you one thing, president obama was the first president from Herbert Hoover to not have a 4 3 . I thought it was 4 . 3 . Even worse. 3 . Okay. So you can pore over the gdp number. Its an objective number. I wont debate the number. But i think life is relative, you tell me when President Trump gets you a 3 or dare i say 4 gdp the way he promised, then we can have this conversation. I understand. Unless and until we get in there were 100 days in. 16r7b8g9s 16r7b8g 1 00 days in and its hard to say its going swimmingly. I think its hard to increase population that you need to for gdp. Thats the point. The Obama Administration said this is a demographic story. This is a world relative story well see. Look closely. Hidden in every swing, every chip, and every putt, is data that can make the difference between winning and losing. The microsoft cloud helps the pga tour turn countless points of data into insights that transform their business and will enhance the game for players and fans. The microsoft cloud turns information into insight. A used car, but weve got the get tdigital tools to help. Now with xfinitys my account, you can figure things out easily, so you wont even have to call us. Change your wifi password to something you can actually remember, instantly. Add that premium channel, and watch the show everyones talking about, tonight. And the bill you need to pay . Do it in seconds. Because we should fit into your life, not the other way around. Go to xfinity. Com myaccount investors will be watching closely on sunday as french voters go to the polls. Wilfred frost is covering the election. Where are you, in las vegas . Thats a very reallooking what is that structure called behind you, wilf . If media matters watches, i want them to write a story that i didnt know the eiffel tower. Youre in paris . I am, indeed. It looks almost as real as the one in las vegas. Any way, lets get to the point, three days away until france goes to the polls to pick its next president. Four candidates with a chance of winning. Lets look at the odds of who is most likely to win the first votes. Marine le pen, the farright leader of the National Front party. Icy she has. But shes not likely to get to 50 of the votes, so round two who is likely to be the president at the end of this whole process . There le pen drops to third place. The forgave sit the favorite is the centrist, mr. Macron. I want to use a newspaper to highlight some thoughts. The leftwing newspaper has a title that reads the battle for the working class vote. The picture, Marine Le Pen of the farright, Jeanluc Melenchon of the farleft. The working class vote could be won by the farright or farleft, donald trump and Bernie Sanders prospects. A Jeanluc Melenchon rose over the last couple of weeks. The other paper i want to show you, a rightwi