Check out crude oil prices, which went fuderwacken again yesterday, according to mark grant. Wti is up by just 1 , to 46. 36. Brent crude sitting at 44 th49. President trump abruptly fired james comey. Comey learning of the firing while speaking with fbi agents in los angeles. This morning there is bipartisan outrage as congressional members on both sides express concern about the sanctity of the Ongoing Investigation into President Trump and his ties into russia. Eamon javers has more on this continuing to develop story. Good morning. It was a dramatic and Stunning Development last evening as the white house announced that the president fired the fbi director. This is something that caught all of capitol hill by surprise. It caught all of the Law Enforcement community by surprise. It caught the Intelligence Community in washington, d. C. By surprise. Heres what the president of the United States wrote to the fbi director who is conducting an investigation into whether or not officials close to donald trump colluded in any way with the russians in the 2016 election campaign. The president writing to the fbi director, while i greatly appreciate you informing me on three separate occasions that i am not under investigation, i nevertheless concur with the judgment of the department of justice that you are not able to effectively lead the bureau. It is essential that we find new leadership for the fbi that restores public trust and confidence in its vital Law Enforcement mission. The White House PressSecretary Sean Spicer explained the events to Peter Alexander last night. My understanding is that the president was presented with the recommendations of the Deputy Attorney general, served as u. S. Attorney for maryland under president obama, who oversees the fbi. He made that recommendation to the attorney general. The attorney general forwarded that to the president today. The president concurred. Scholars are comparing this to nixons saturday night massacre. What do you think of that . I think its ridiculous. Donald trump, Jeff Sessions and other republican officials and white house officials praised fbi director comey for the way he handled the Hillary Clinton email visions, the deputy thing the Deputy Attorney general cited in his lergt wrtt recommending the firing of fbi director comey. Heres how the president praised comey over the past several months. It took guts for director comey to make the move that he made in light of the kind of opposition he had. I was not his fan, i tell you what, what he did, he brought back his reputation. Theres little doubt that fbi director comey and the great special agents of the fbi will be able to collect more than enough evidence to garner indictments against Hillary Clinton. Hes become more famous than me. So that president ial pat on the back will get a lot of attention. We also had the first comment officially from President Trump about all of this, it came in the form of a tweet. Not explaining his decision but attacking Chuck Schumer, the democratic leader in the senate. Saying Chuck Schumer had gone too far in his criticism of President Trump. Heres the tweet from a few hours ago. Crying Chuck Schumer stated recently i do not have confidence in him, james comey any longer, and then acts indignant. Thats the first comment from the president of the United States on this. I spoke with with the White House Press secretary doing the briefing today, she said she was not aware if the president led the review of james comey has led to the firing. Stay there for one second. Is there any new information we have in terms of the timing of all this . That seems to be what is at issue in terms of what it is that instigated and was the empe tus impetus to do this now. Thats the question, why not. Sarah Huckabee Sanders point the out to me that the Deputy Attorney general, Rod Rosenstein who wrote this memo the Deputy Attorney general in the hierarchy is the supervisor, the person responsible for overseeing the fbi director. Rosenstein was just approved and sworn in several days ago. This would have begun under his watch, his review. There is a real open question about why this is happening now. Was the president wanted and where were going from here. I was in the white house, outside of sean spicers office last night, yesterday afternoon around 4 00 p. M. I was talking with officials there. Don mcagain, the white House Counsel walked over to sean spicers office with a stressed look on his face. And sort of very insistently asking wheres sean . Wheres sean . I need to talk to sean spicer now. I didnt know this news was spending at that point. Nobody did. It struck me out stressed out don mcagain logann looked in th moment. Did this stick you as something that was impulsive . Or something that you think was planned for weeks on end . Rnl there was clearly planning here. This review by rosenstein took some time. Finding the predicate, citing the legal findings in the memo, that took some time to put together. How much time is unclear. Sarah Huckabee Sanders wouldnt tell me when this review began. It began some point after rosenstein was confirmed. Then the question that well have to figure out is why did donald trump want to do this right now . This is a presidencydefining decision by this president. They will it will consume official washington for the next several days or weeks. It will have impact on everything that the president is trying to do. Well bring in john ceifert, a career cia agent who spent much of his career in russia. You read the papers this morning, especially the editorial papers. Some papers say this is deserved. Others are comparing this to a much larger conspiracy, questions have been asked whether this is a saturday night massacre. Which is it in your mind . Well, certainly the timing is fishy. Theres nothing new here, right . The information theyre looking at is from last summer and leading up to the new administration. Separately theres an ig investigation of director comeys actions over the summer, which is not done yet. One would think they would wait until the ig investigation is done or taken this action before. Though President Trump obviously praised some of these actions earlier. The questions that come up are about timing, why now, and what it leads people to be worried about is the russian investigation, that somehow its a means to try to stifle that or stop that. If thats true, which i have no reason to know, i dont think it will the professional investigators of the fbi and the Counter Intelligence squads will continue to do their business and work on this. Thats what i wanted to ask. Will they . If this is part of some kind of larger conspiracy to tamp down an investigation, can, in fact, the removal of mr. Comey do that . I dont believe so. I do know this administration, theyre new to their job. They tend to look at intelligence officers, Law Enforcement, judiciary and assume theyre part of the partisan process and treat them as such. However the people who work, professional intelligence officers, fbi officers have been working for a number of administrations, they are nonpartisan and will follow the information where it goes. I think this will continue. Our institutions are stronger than this. If this was Banana Republic when the president made a decision like this, it would be a threat. John, let me ask you, the wall street journal this morning, editorial page says the fbi chief forfeited his credibility with his 2016 intervention suggesting he could not go on from either side. By the way, this is such an odd bedfellow situation, several weeks ago, probably two days ago, Many Democrats would have said that he was responsible for the election of donald trump. Yesterday there were democrats questions whether they had whether he had any credibility to begin with. Now, of course, now that hes done, the conversation has turned the opposite way. I certainly understand that. But the firing of an fbi director, its only the second time in history where thats happened. Its a big deal to do that. Certainly directors comeys actions over the summer, there is a right to criticize that. He personalized a professional investigation. Thats why theres an ig investigation of him. I think the president would have been in a much better place if he let that run its course and used that as the reason to fire mr. Comey if thats what he believed he had to do. Joe, do you think there would have been outrage had the president fired james comey back in january when he decided to keep him on the job . No, i dont. I think that would have been understandable and appropriate as a new president wants to bring in his own team. But at time he was praising mr. Comey for his work on the investigation. Thats what makes all this troubling and smack of real politicalzation. Time will tell on that. I have faith the fbi will continue to do its job. What could Jeff Sessions or President Trump do now to instill credibility in the department itself and to the degree this investigation is ongoing . Im not a political expert, but it seems to me who he chooses will be a big deal. He will be looking to an fbi director overseeing an investigation of people related to his campaign. Therefore the more credibility and professionalism that that person offers allows the political process to settle down and move forward. If that person looks to be subservient or kowtowed by the white house that will create a different set of problems for the president. Where was the ig investigation . Do we know anything about that . Who is responsible for it . Theres been reports on that. These things are done in a professional manner, they take time to pull everything together. I dont know exactly where it was, but it wasnt done yet. I would assume in the space of a few months, but i dont know. Is this the kind of thing where i imagine career people in the fbi, if they dont feel that things are being handled properly, talking about leaks, the president complained about leaks, is this the kind of thing where you think would hear more of that if thats the case . People talk about the saturday night massacre in the nixon time, im old enough to remember that. This is where deep throat came from. I dont think most professional investigators will be leaking and doing things like that. I think theyll continue to do their work, but thats a threat that would happen if it looks like theres political pressure on career investigators. John, appreciate your perspective. Thank you. Thank you. Now to the top corporate story. Disneys Second Quarter profit beating forecasts on the Box Office Success of beauty and the beast and the new theme park in china but higher programming costs and subscriber loss at espn weighed on results. In an interview with cnbc, bob iger acknowledged the rising cost of sports content and a drop in cable subscriptions but says hes still confident in espn. We will eventually be in a direct to consumer business for espn product. We hope to launch one before the end of this year. Were increasing agent with our apps significantly. With that becomes not only more brand affinity but also more advertising. Were rung the business more efficiently. So were confident in espns future. Iger addressed the highprofile layoffs at espn. He said he wouldnt call them major layoffs because it was a few hundred people out of a few thousand. When we return, u. S. Equity futures at this hour, they are down. The dow looking like it would open off 48 points. 49 points now. S p 500 looking to open down as well. Nasdaq off just about a half important. A full rundown of the movers after the break. And a programming note, an exclusive interview with former treasury second stair jack lew he will be with us at 8 30 a. M. Eastern time to talk about everything going on in washington and more. Dear predictable, theres no other way to say this. Its over. Ive found a permanent escape from monotony. Together, we are perfectly balanced, our senses awake, our hearts racing as one. I know this is sudden, but they say if you love something. Set it free. See you around, giulia if you want to stay on top of your health, one simple thing to do is take the pledge to go and get screened for the cancers that might affect you. So stand up to cancer and take the pledge at getscreenednow. Org it only takes a minute to take care of yourself, and nothing rhymes with org. We literally cannot live without it. And if we cant live without it, maybe its time to reimagine it and make it even better. So its awesomely fast. No. Still nope. Now were talking. So it works here and here and here. And so you can even take the occasional time out. Nooooooo yes yes, indeed. Speed, coverage, control. Introducing xfinity xfi. Find your awesome and change the way you wifi. Every time i get accustomed towards low volatility, like at the end of the greenspan era, we think we have the levers under control. There is low risk in the world, something erupts to remind us that that idea that anybody is in control of anything is hubris. The low volatility itself might be a bubble of confidence. We wont know until we know. That was Lloyd Blankfein speaking to wilfred frost yesterday on power lunch. For more lets bring in Julian Emanuel from ubs as well as phil orlando from federated. Guys, welcome. Phil, the headlines there, trump firing james comey, your job is to make your clients money. Does this jeopardize the markets or their confidence . Raises a question in terms of timing and motivation. Why now . Why not when trump first came in office in middle of january. I dont think ultimately this will be anything more than noise, but we have to figure that out. Theoretically there could be some volatility and uncertainty over the next couple of days. How much of the run since the election has been optimism about trumps agenda . I ask that because if this in any way redoes optimism around the trump agenda, should that then knock the market at knees just a bit and we see some volatility creep in . Optimism has been part of the run. Make no mistake, the fact that earnings are absolutely stellar in the First Quarter is a big part of it. No question, you see the confidence measures pick up. Partly in anticipation that policy is going to be pro business, will be pro growth. To the extent these headlines are a distraction, thats where confidence may come in. If confidence slips, it makes these higher multiples that we have more difficult to sustain. Does it reduce your optimism in the trump agenda . We have to see how things unfold. Theres no question about the fact that the victory in the house last week was a sign that washington is figuring out how to get things done. Its a slow process. The market may have been too optimistic coming into the beginning of the year about how the legislative process works. But it is moving forward. Fwan, well have to see whether this is a distraction. Phil, what will you tell your clients . If they call you and say, i wanted to get into the stock market. Things are good about earnings. But theres so much dysfunction in d. C. , i want to sit this one out. What would you say . Stay the course. We just hit a record high in stocks this week. If we should get a meaningful correction, we would use that as a buying opportunity. But lets look at the facts. Were enjoying the best First Quarter earnings season in five years. Revenues up 7 , 8 . Earnings up 15 . Everyone is concerned about the punk First Quarter. But thats a seasonal problem that the Commerce Department cant figure out. Second quarter, well bounce back. If we can get the trump agenda in, which we fully expect will hatch, perhaps by the end of this year, beginning of next, were looking at trend line gdp growth of 10 . Thats what were ultimately investing for. Do either of you have thoughts on disney . Because we saw them last night. Saw the numbers that had come out. There were concerns about espn. That raises questions about the entire category of these stocks. The disney espn issue has been out there for years. Sports is not going away. Media has been a great category in the stock market. Disney performed well. You have a bit of a hiccup that doesnt mean disneys franchise is hurt. We still like the company. Stocks pulled back about 2. 3 this morning. What areas, what sectors coming out of the earnings area that you were talking about, do you think are ones to jump into . Technology is very strong. We like technology. Its reasonably valued. Technology as well as healthcare is where the center of the offshore cash that could be repatriated if we have tax reform lies. It weaves back into the narrative that we need to see the political discourse stay on track. We like technology. We also think in a rising rate environment the fed will hike in june. That financials will start working again. Thats an interesting point. Phil, you think the same things . Absolutely. The areas that we like since the election are those leveraged to the improvement in the economy. Financials and tech at the top of our list. We would throw energy and materials and industrials into that list. As the economy improves, these sectors will do better. Phil and julian, thank you very much for coming in. Thank you. Thank you. When we return, President Trumps firing of fbi director james comey raising questions about the gop policy agenda. Republican strategist s