The investors are watching for signs of trump progress. And apple is up 24 in the first three months of the year. The best gain that stock has had in five years. And musk for the win. Tesla delivered a record 25,000 cars. Were others able to keep the pace . First up, despite the dow and s p snapping four month win streaks in march investors have reason to smile. Dow and s p each extending the quarterly winning streaks to six while the nasdaq outperforms both in q1 with a 9. 8 gain. April, jim, is seasonally strong. Havent had all three down since 05 in the month. Well get earnings. I think the industrials which have kind of plateaued, the banks, are going to be up first. For the most part if you get the dollar to stay weaker, you hear about International Orders i dont know if anyone saw that european pmi, but europe is strong. They could lead a lot of the industrials. Asia better. But i think that were going to start off coming in hot for earnings season. I think we a lot of companies will make their numbers, beat rates. Thats going to change things because this last bit was nasdaq. The last six weeks were nasdaq. Those were all the companies that do well when the economy is a little weaker. European pmi, 562, a 71 month high. Employment in europe an eight year low. But theyre still they still have the ridiculously low Interest Rates. I think that keeps pressure on us to have low Interest Rates. Why should you borrow and lose money instantly in germany. Which the last auction failed. The two year failed so money is coming here. I think i wonder how strong our country was in the month of march. I just got a sense that some of the infighting in washington kind of took some of the steam out. Thank heavens for the rest of the world. Youre referring to Consumer Spending on friday. Well get another clue on auto sales today. Yeah. I know that phil was talking about peak numbers. I think there might have been when i see all of the really classic fast growing Nasdaq Companies do well, i tend to think thats people huddled in what companies can do well regardless of the economy. Not as good a sign as we had say at the beginning of the quarter when the industrials led. It does matter. Certainly retailers took some wind out of the sails in q1. Under armour cut today at fbr to sell. You heard that barrons story. Dispersion on yeah, i think the lululemon stink pants still hovering over that situation. I think that its interesting this morning jay jill gets a lot of recommendations. Its less brick and mortar and more its really an Online Company where the margins are higher online. So i think theres a lot of different cross currents in apparel and in retamil. The one that does well is walmart. There could be a border tax because they do better because they have a great Balance Sheet. Amazon keeps to power higher. Amazon has the 1,000 feel. I know there are momentum players, listen, why do i have to be in any retailer . Ill be in amazon. And, you know, people can make the mistake sometimes of assuming somehow that the consumer is weak because retail is weak. Thats not the case. Online its fairly strong. But retail continues to be weak. What was the point you were making about the border tax and walmart . I lost you there. I think that walmart if you do a border tax theyre the one that has the most Balance Sheet wherewithal. So they may not have to pass on the prices. I look at the jcpenney and the target. I think they have to pass on some higher prices. Wall matter can eat the margin. Border tax does not seem to be something thats given a lot of credence at this point as being able to pass if it is even included in what we see as a bill and for tax reform if we get one. True. But i think the republicans are split. Therefore, perhaps nothing will get done. I think this Economic Team is much stronger in the white house than their health care team. Well, were still waiting for mnuchin and cohn to come up with the white house plan. Politico saying two things. One, they wont outsource the writing of this draft to congress. Yeah. It will be drafted in house. And two, that mnuchin that the draft thats currently being written does not include b. A. T. We have heard both sides before. Look, if thats the case i think theres some a compromise and get some tax relief. And that would be very good but you need to see it. If these huge First Quarter numbers are going to continue, you need to see some relief. Right. We can have the same conversation, we will probably for quite some time, you say that okay, thatll be already. You want me to flip and take your side . Not exactly what im looking for here. I guess well end up having the same conversation a lot. No, were going to vary it. Unless the markets the market the investors still seem willing to believe that whatever comes will be enough to justify the levels that the market has gone to. I think there wont be something. This is not health care. I continue to believe that the Mainstream Press is wrong. That the idea that theyre a a tax cut will be somehow not liked. People love tax cuts. They dont like it when you mess with your health care. Dont mess with my health care, but cut taxes, im game. I want higher taxes. Who ever wanted higher taxes . Name me someone. Who was it on the hill who said the irs unlike the aca has few defenders. Yes. Its true. Yes. A swvery good point. Other in fredonia, theyre willing to take up the taxes. Remember . Yes, i do. I know hes a big Marx Brothers fan as well. Yeah. The president meantime is talking tough about both china and north korea ahead of a u. S. Visit by chinese president xi later this week. Quote, china has great influence over north korea and china will decide to help us with north korea or they wont. Ft asks whats the incentive . And the president responds i think its the trade, i think its all about trade. When you talk about currency manipulation, talk about devaluations theyre world champions and our country hasnt had a clue. Pretty interesting transcript, they definitely give a big play on top of the fold here on the ft. I think this is the end of the policy of we continue to appease north korea. Lets feed them and hope they go get better, no. Lets pressure the chinese because the chinese if you do a pinzer move, then i think the North Koreans which are paper tiger other than Nuclear Weapons which therefore makes them a real tiger i think if the chinese clamp down on north korea its a win. I dont know, its in chinas interest to clamp down on north korea but everybody is afraid. Doesnt sound like were afraid anymore. Tillerson is not afraid. People point to the peso in the q1. And argue that trade is less of a concern because of the performance in multi u. S. Multinationals. Well, you know, i was going back and forth with some people in the administration about the idea that when you shut up about mexico the peso goes from 22 to 18. You know . Thats big windfall. Remember the peso is the way they manipulate it. They the peso is the number one differential. Then wages. Then health care. Then pension. Then environmental destruction. Mexico this administration has continued to focus on the trade deficit led by trade adviser peter navarro. It does mystify a number of economists who feel thats not a real reflection and one that you should be focused on in terms of economic weakness. Our large trade deficit and the president continues to call out china as a that anyomanipulator. They have not been lowering their currency for quite some time. One of the things that navarro represents the extreme. I think it will be case by case. Thats what i keep hearing, its no longer going to be broad and just everything. I want to hear what Constellation Brands has to say on thursday because remember its so hard to make mexican beer in america. They are on the front lines and i think theyre very much involved with whats happening in washington. I think it will be much more subtle and nuanced. I think there are some industries that are that were going to defend ourselves. Just the way that obama defended us in steel. I mean, people forget obama saved ak steel and u. S. Steel. Obviously, youd like to think they saved themselves but obama put through some big tariffs. We forget anything that obama did, but he was a fair trader in the end, trying to keep the chinese and koreans from making steel, to keep their people employed and dumping it here. Obama ended that. And thats important. Well, speaking of defense, certainly one of the most important things on the agenda between trump and xi jinping will be north korea. Right. Geopolitics not something that the investors are focused on all the time, but it can raise its head as being a key issue. As north korea continues to advance towards the Ballistic Missile that can carry a Nuclear Warhead as far as los angeles you might imagine thats going to be a key problem for this administration to deal with. Yes. And to potentially deal with china on. Right. Remember the administration is a little stuck. The worst socalled trading partners is south korea. Where in order to be able to make it so theyre a bulwark of democracy, we let them sell as many cars as they want here. We are not allowed to sell barely a handful of cars there. But thats part of the old Foreign Policy that i think a lot of the Foreign Policy objectives are being rejected. The Foreign Policy that made it so our workers were sacrificed is something that the Trump Administration is elle a i wi really close to. The idea you go to china, forget south korea i think its very important. Because the u. S. Is no longer inclined to continue to subsidize south korea either. No. Thats definitely the case. We are watching these reports at least ten people are reported to have been killed by explosions at two metro stations in st. Peters burg, russia. The cause of the explosions is not yet clear and putin is considering all possibilities including terrorism. Additional security measures have been taken. As we get more information on that this morning, it looks very difficult over there this morning. Hardliners. Remember. Hardliners. They have gone after terrorists in their country in a way that is pretty much different from everybody else in the world. Been pointed out putin is the former deputy mayor of st. Petersburg. Tesla hit the delivery thisthi thises morning. We kick off the month of april and the Second Quarter. More squawk in a moment. In july of 98. The y our 18 year old was in an accident. When i call usaa it was that voice asking me, is your daughter ok . Thats where i felt relief. Were the rivera family, and we will be with usaa for life. Please repeat the objective. Thrivent mutual funds. Managed by humans, not robots. Before investing, carefully read and consider fund objectives, risks, charges and expenses in the prospectus at thriventfunds. Com. Getting auto sales today, lets start with ford. Phil . And carl, ford out with the numbers a decline of 7. 3 for the month of march. A little better from the edmond edmunds. Remember, were comparing with a march of last year that was not terribly strong relative to other marches. The overall Industry Sales rate is expected to come in at 17. 2, 17. 3 million. Which would be an improvement compared to march of last year. Again, ford coming in with sales dropping 7. 3 . Car sales, this is the one thats going to get some attention dowhere, down 27 . Its peak autos well see the sales fall off a cliff from here. Because were a lot of warning signs out there. Remember the number one indicator in terms of auto sales, consumer confidence. If that remains high, generally speaking, you will see auto sales remain relatively high. Back to you. Phil, well be coming back in a moment for gm. We have this discussion every month, and you resist the peak auto argument. I think employment and confidence go hand in hand. I think employment i dont know about this number. The march month because of what happened in washington may bring down consumer confidence, but phil is right. I think that whats happened is that in this particular case, ford is very much an f150, 250. I saw the announcement about the 250 news. I have to see what everybody has to say. A study out today, usa today reports that ford is leading the selfdriving pack ahead of wamo and ahead of tesla and uber. Remember the preannouncement the story is wrong. You have you have the numbers. Theyre right from the california Motor Vehicle department. The issue is how many people have to get involved when their car has a problem and i dont know. I have looked up the numbers. S these these numbers do not jibe. Can we talk about the how big scare they were so afraid that advertisers were so afraid theyll be matched against terrible ternab terrible camp or whatever. Hate campaigns in google. It looks like the problem has been solved. I urge people to go to the california Motor Vehicle site and talks about the most critical metric. How often does the human have to get involved and waymow is so far ahead. Its not worth discussing. Tesla is up in the premarket. It announced it delivered 25,000 vehicles in the first three months of the year. Thats teslas highest ever quarterly total, up 69 from a year earlier. The company aiming to deliver 50,000 vehicles in the first half of this year. Stocks almost at 290. Look, when ten cent put the money in it solved it solved all the capital problems. Now youre starting to hear about model 3. Remember how many times tesla missed the numbers in terms of deliveries. This is a make of the number and i think its clear sailing. Clear sailing for the stock because they dont need to raise any more capital. They may need to raise more capital. Next year. Yeah. But the belief is that ten cent will be there in the future as well and willing to take a larger ownership theyre around 5 . Can you explain how big ten cent is. Theyre hundreds of billions. Theyre enormous. Hundreds of billions, right, so that answers the question about in other words, the check they wrote for almost 2 billion was not something that put them in economic straits. No. Theyre not in any concern about that. Its not just the relationship theyre cementing and conceivably could lead to big things for both of the companies. But it may go nowhere. But they have an economic ownership in tesla. We have to talk about the tesla monthly numbers at a certain point as bizarre as that is. An open price would be at an all time high on tesla. Very short after they got that capital. And including goldman who has a sell on it and did the deal and thats ill advised. We diskudzed that last week. I have new things. I know you do. We have a lot of time to fill. As does elon musk, a lot of time to fill. Hes reusing the rockets. Hes moved on tesla and solarcity. Now hes dealing with the brain thing and the hyperloop did you catch john cena proposing this weekend . That was something. Wwe. Nice ring. Huge ring. Wwe theyre starting to do much better subscriptions. I think theres new things. That just happened. Wwe, they were here last week. Im telling you the numbers are going to jump for them. These kind of events the snobs on wall street dont realize how big wwe is. But they do know how big john cena is. Very big. Very large. Bell ringer. I think this matters. When we come back well get cramers mad dash. Look at the premarket on the first day of the quarter, back in just a moment. 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 thats why a cutting edgeworld. University counts on centurylink to keep their global campus connected. And why a Pro Football Team chose us to deliver fiberenabled broadband to more than 65,000 fans. And why a leading car brand counts on us to keep their Dealer Network streamlined and nimble. Businesses count on communication, and communication counts on centurylink. Remember here at ally, nothing stops us from doing right by our customers. Whos with me . Were like a Basketball Team here at ally. If a Basketball Team had over 7. Im in. 7,000 players. Our plays are a little unorthodox. But to beat the big boys, you need smarter ways to save people money. We know what you want from a Financial Company and well stop at. Nothing to make sure you get it. One, two. And we mean nothing. Well, it is an monday, it is officially spring given the weather yesterday. The mets opening day today. Good luck. That marks the beginning of spring for me. Yes. Its a mad dash for this monday as well. You were learning about mergers on friday in tulane. Okay. In the meantime i wish i had been but yes. Well, in the meantime, a very important merger and swap occurred where dupont swapped for to fmc. They swapped their Product Protection the early stage. Fmc gave them really a supplements business. David, this prop protection that fmc got makes them a pure play ag. You know how scarce ag companies are ahead of a pretty good cycle and they have a lithium Battery Division theyre talking about spinning it off. Lithium, think tesla. The number is raised by four different firms. Friday it did react to the news already. It reacted. As we see. Its people realize, wow, if monsanto merges with beyer, theres a shortage of pure ag plays and people love the ag business. Once theres such consolidation, we know that the regulators dont want to hear this, maybe theres more pricing lets say lets say less pricing flexibility. These are deals with lack of competition. Did i say that . Or at least the marketplace might begin to think. So these guys get rid of the lithium battery thing it will be a pure play. Everyone wants lithium because which dont have pure plays. Everyone wants prop protection. By spinning off lithium, theyre a pure prop play and they have a Lithium Division that becomes an independent company. That means the stock can go much higher. Got it. Speaking of spinoffs and new companies well have cs