The lowest since october of 15. The road map begins with a rough week for retail. Nordstrom and penney are down this morning. Nbcs lester holt sat down with President Trump and well bring you the highlights on russia and more and plus the tweet storm this morning, threatening former fbi director comey. Apple is taking aim at another all time high today and two analysts raising the price target. First up though, Government Data showing retail sales up 0. 4 in april. The strongest gain in four months and nordstrom beat on revenue and comps are down 0. 8. Penneys swinging to the surprise profit, but Revenue Misses on a 3. 5 decline in comps. Jc penney is going to give its all time low run for the money today. What can i say . Minus 3. 5 comps. They did talk about how march and april improved from february. Now, kohls said the same thing. There was a lot of etf selling yesterday. Really came off of macys. Ebitda, here 40 million down from 176 last year. Theres no growth and its really hard in an environment where theres Companies Growing so quickly. To say listen, im going to buy some jc penney so i see no reason to own it. I do feel that the big issue here is you have fine jewelry doing well. You have home doing well. But we know amazon moving in against home. Sephora thats looking at your selfie best. Its a reason for being in again. Thats what happened yesterday with macys. Whats the reason for being . Why do we need penney . Obviously if you work at penney, i like to shop at penney, but theres a lot of places in the world to shop at. We have too many places to shop at and thats really the take away. Too many. Some of the macro retail data, Department Stores down 3. 7. I know. Nonstore up 11. 9. Essentially amazon. Look, this is your cell phone. I mean, this is just if you do want to shop. Nordstroms had this thing too. Nordstrom is an amazing company. A really kind of sad Conference Call because they provide the best service. But it doesnt matter because your cell phone provides better service. It does. And your point about being very particular in what it is you want also seems to take away from the overall consent of a Department Store. Yes. Of going somewhere for a lot of your different needs potentially. Even, you know, again the guys who they were saying that traffic is really not down that much. Right. But people just come to get the one thing from the one store that they want after having researched it or perhaps even bought it on their phone or at least certainly preordered or know what the price going to be. Then they leave. Right. New generation doesnt want to waste any time at the mall. Previously you listened to the piano playing in nordstrom. Nordstrom, one of the things that bothered me about the call it was about what sold well and merchandise and what was good. We didnt get to shoes until like twothirds of the way through. Inste instead, it was talking about we have a rack next to the full full store, we do well. That does well. They were down 6. 4 comp sale. Big picture, what do you do if youre running one of these companies that really is much more of a 20th Century Company . Thats where im going which is the big youre playing out with the hands behind your back. They dont have the artificial intelligence, they dont know what the customers want. Dont have the data systems. Not enough. Not like amazon. Amazon knows so much more about a customer. And nordstrom always was like you had that oneonone relationship with your salesperson. Well you have your oneonone relationship with alexa. She is literally in your house. Youre talking about fly wheel effects exactly. Shes not really intrusive. I did sound off a bunch of alexa for those who were watching earlier and nordstrom, they dont know anything about their customer versus what amazon does. If they are so smart about their customer, and it doesnt matter. Amazon knows so much more. Its so important. And so and sad. So the answer for these companies is . Well, look, all of the they have 122 stores and they said theyre all cash flow positive. Right, by the way, macys every one is profitable as well. They made 71 million in the quarter. As the generations get older, you look at the new generation that just frankly is outrunning these places and they know it. I mean, its not like nordstrom is saying were doing well. Not with the minus 6 comp. It goes to minus comp. What if it goes to for heavens sake what sears is doing. I dont mean to pick on sears, because i learned from Eddie Lampert that sears is much different and the fake media theres a lot of fake media. Didnt trump working overtime. Well talk about that. It doesnt matter. Eddie im not picking on him. The fact is is that nordstrom is one of the great merchants of all time. The market cap of jc penney and sears added up together doesnt amount to a hill of beans. They have a lot of people working at the places. Thats going to happen next. Much more about employment about employment. Than about market cap. As cuban alluded to yesterday. Well hear from cuban later today powerful right. Do a lot more than with a third fewer employees. The whole melissa lee show last night was fantastic and must watch. And with steve wynn stuff. Cuban is cluing into the whole ai machine learning. You said he he had i keep on going out to california. Im trying to learn. I go out there. I dont go there as much. You can learn here in new york too. So true. So true. Im not im just saying that when youre out there, the people want to show you. Like let me show you what were working on. Its every case its about not being as smart as the machines. The machines know more than the nordstrom brothers. The nordstrom brothers always knew what you wanted to wear and now these guy the machines have figured it out ahead of the nordstrom and they can charge less. Its a very devastating its a very sad Conference Call. Yeah. Its sad because they cant figure it out as well as amazon can. One last note on amazon. The journal today saying a big push into furniture is on its way. Building these larger ware houses to store and ship bulky items like furniture. One of the Fastest Growing categories. Maybe andrew leff will be bailed out. I had brad jacobs on earlier this week. That article mentioned Xpo Logistics and what jenkins is doing is providing that less than that sofa to you. Ikea has already been doing this. But yes, i think when amazon does this, it is bad for williams sonoma, bad for the Home Business of jc penney. Its going to be bad for macys. Its going to be bad for everybody who sells furniture and xpl logistics can get it to your house because thats the last mile sender. They can put it you know, get it to your house and that used to be a difficult thing. You needed to rely on these Department Stores with the big trucks. You did. And the delivery times took forever. The time between when you bought a piece of furniture and it arrives is months oftentimes. Not because of the delivery. Because of the manufacturing. If i had you over for dinner, i would order amazon, bring the stuff to my house. And, you know, you would think that i had furniture. Wayfair is down 6 in the premarket. Well, it did have a pretty big run. Now, andrew leff did indicate on the network that he was going to go golf while he waited for it to come down and so maybe he can finish the 70,000 holes that he was playing in the interim. Happens to be fun. The president this morning adamantly denying that he has any business dealings with russia. This is what he told nbcs lester holt. Sent a letter to lindsey graham, from one of the highly rated law firms in the country, that i have nothing to do with russia. I have no investments in russia. None whatsoever. I dont have property in russia. I built a great company, but im not involved with russia. And now we have more tweets from the president today. Lets get to the white house and eamon javers. Good morning. Good morning, carl. The president is awake. He seems angry and he is tweeting this morning and i want to give you a couple of the tweets from the president of the United States just within the past few moments. Including a threat to simply end the White House Press briefings because his officials have struggled to get their stories straight during the course of the week this week. He wrote on twitter, as a very active president with lots of things happening it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at a podium with perfect accuracy. Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future press briefings and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy. As far as an official that i just spoke to at the white house now is aware, the press briefing scheduled for today is still on. Well see whether that stands throughout the rest of the day. Then the two tweets which are getting the attention of the world this morning. One on james comey, the fbi director the president fired earlier this week. The president s tweeting, james comey better hope that there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. When James Clapper himself and virtually everyone else with knowledge of the witchhunt says theres no collusion, when does it end . The president there suggesting its possible he has a nixonian style taping session that may have taped himself and the fbi director and the fbi director affirmed for him that he was not under investigation. Now just got off the phone with a former high ranking fbi official. I want to read to you some of the comments from that official just seconds ago reacting to the president s tweets here. Because i think this is important. The fbi official saying, first, he started a war with the intelligence agencies and now he wants one with the fbi. This is not going to end well for this administration. He is out of control, referring to the president of the United States. The former fbi official says its so out of the norm for him to even say that. This threatens the independence of the fbi and goes against core american values. So obviously the president s tweets this morning stirring up a firestorm here in washington, d. C. Well have to monitor developments carefully for the rest of the morning, guys. Eamon, thank you. Eamon javers at the white house. Now, we have been through a heck of a week already. We have talked about the degree to which the market thinks this is a side show. Right. When does that change, if at all . I still think maybe when earnings season is over and were less focused on individual companies. Because i think that we struggle to relate. I mean, theres a started a war with intel agencies i think of intel mobile. Its not about that. By the way, wed all like to think of intel mobile ai. Im using it as a metaphor. I look at the tweets. I try to relate them to the s p 500, maybe you could do that. And then i relate them to the goldman upgraded tiffany. Tiffany is going to go up, i can sit here and lament some of the tweets which i know i would not im not president , but theres a redefinition of whats president ial. But it doesnt factor in to, you know, why you should sell ge on the deutsche banks downgrade. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Ge has not performed well this week. We have a new downgrade at deutsche. To a sell. Yeah. That was a brutal a cash flow issue. You know, i wish you you cant relate that to comey. 28. 40 on ge. Kind of like, you know, theres like like wheres the wheres the nfl commissioner who says we have to stop this . Wheres the person who can explain how democratic processes and norms work to the man who is the chief executive of our country . Thats what id like to know. He doesnt seem to have an understanding or an appreciation for simple democratic how a democracy works. Sorry. Well ill get speaking of salesforce. Com yes, exactly. Certainly this tweet does not close this chapter. A lot of people expect that comey will have a response of some kind. Well see. When we come back, well talk some unilever. Hear what the ceo told jim last night. Take another look at the premarket. The dow going for its longest losing streak since the end of march. But the nasdaq trying to hang on for a gain for the week. Back in a minute. Rays always b. Last year, he said he was going to dig a hole to china. At t is working with farmers to improve irrigation techniques. Remote moisture sensors use a Reliable Network to tell them when and where to water. So that farmers like ray can compete in big ways. China. Oh. He got there. Thats the power of and. A 10speed directshift 5. 0transmission. Ine. A meticulously crafted interior. All of these are feats of engineering. Combining them with nearperfect weight distribution. Is a feat of amazing. Experience the firstever 471horsepower lexus lc 500 or the multistage hybrid lc 500h. Experience amazing. Its been almost three months since unilever rejected kraft heinzs takeover offer. Major kraft shareholder Warren Buffett said it was not as hostile. Heres how the ceo responded last night. In the end, our strategy in fact in investing is warrens strategy. Right. My returns have been higher in the last eight years than warrens returns so i think its better if he leaves us with what we know how to do well. [ laughter ] that was spicy, jim. Yeah. That was whoa. Speaking of salesforce but what returns is he talking about . The returns on his stock price . Stock price, yes. What was really interesting was this man was indignant in his own kind of light way. Meaning that he basically has he was saying, look i have much better brands. Were doing better than kraft heinz. I cant believe Warren Buffett did this. Making it as if warren was really the driver. Right. And that he took great offense to it. Warren was not the driver. Right. As we know. Right. He was there. It was once he learned that it was potentially not friendly or it was going to be nasty, he was like, cut it out. Put the brakes on it. Then he came on our air with becky and talked about a language barrier. Sorry. Being one of the reasons why there may have been a miscommunication. Which is ridiculous. Language barrier. You know . Multilingual of which hes better than everybody else in any language he sports there. But i think it was clear from his point of view, there was no meeting of the minds or no actual substantive discussion. You know the other side of this. And that does not they dont seem to be saying the same thing. But im with mr. Polman. He wasnt even the least bit interested in selling but he was doing the Strategic Review before he said and it produced a lot of good results. Right. Yeah. You know hes up 30 . I continue to be fascinated by the failure of kraft heinz and in such a spectacular fashion and how quickly they folded. Yet, i continue to hear Different Things from both camps in terms of what was said or done which goes to the lack of perhaps communication. But the kraft heinz side continues to believe in many ways that they did get a signal that indicated there was a willingness to engage. Wow. Whether polman obviously and others say that is far, far, far from the truth. It just it was such a misstep for kraft heinz and their strategy so much depends on their ability to continue to acquire. Even this week, alex bearing in a written interview did indicate we can only be friendly in our future deals which of course i reported as well. But that makes it more difficult for kraft heinz. This was not an insignificant moment for them. Polman said no way, no how. Why isnt that stock at 80 . The business is so bad, they have got the center of the store which they claim nobody goes to. Unilever has the center of the store and theyre kicking it. To me without a deal, this thing is a wasting asset. Look at those brands. Well, they may find one. Theyre considered to be excellent operators as we know, jim. Excellent operators but the dogs wont eat it. I mean, that stuff that they sell to the millennials. This is the pantry. Im having trouble with my dog eating too. Maybe we can talk off line about that. My dog, last night they were ravenous. I try to give them the ligaments. Try the ligaments. Yeah. Ligaments. Stick with dog food. No. No. Thats natural organic, chief, come on. Anyway, i look at kraft heinz. I look at this pastiche of the brands and i say, they need to buy someone yesterday. Or that stock is going to be at 80. Is unilever ever going to buy anybody . The kensington acquisition and paul polman what he did with this dollar shave club, when he decided to take on gillette, i think hes eviscerating them. You know, he says, listen, when you go to buy gillette, you have to go and find somebody with a key, its like going to jail. Really expensive. I mean, hes magnificent. Hes right down the block from us. 100 yards from us. In englewood cliffs. Best foods building. Hellmanns, look for the hellmanns, look for the best, man. Well get the mad dash with jim in a moment. Futures still mixed here with the nasdaq stronger than the dow or the s p. Back in a minute. Hey, the future, whats her problem . Apparently, i kept her up all night. She said the future freaks her out. How come no one likes me, jim . Intel does just think of everything intels doing right now with artificial intelligence. And pretty soon ai is going to help executives like her see trends to stay ahead of her competition. No more sleepless nights. Were going to be friends im sorry about this. Dont be embarrassed of me, jim. Im getting excited about this we know the future. Were going to be friends because were building it. But i keep it growing by making every dollar count. Thats why i have the spark cash card from capital one. With it, i earn unlimited 2 cash back on all of my purchasing. And that unlimited 2 cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business. Which adds fuel to my bottom line. Whats in your wallet . Deartheres 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 oh, man, it has been a long, interesting week for all of us. Wow. You have been working hard as always. We have a mad dash to do. Same with you. Same with you. About 5 1 2 minutes before we get there. So last week when i was out of in cupertino, tim cook announced 1 million to help the manufacturing, and we know its corning, from corning, new york. 200 million to foster glass innovation and glass production. When you look at this, its the old days when theyre doing fiber. Corning is doing a lot