Transcripts For FBC Countdown To The Closing Bell With Liz C

The two are to talk about business ties and latest threats posed by north korea and, yes, china. You can see hes pulling up right now. The Prime Minister of vietnam about to get out of the car. President trump waiting r that moment. But as we do wait for that Prime Minister to come out, here is the statement the white house is saying it will refer all questions about russias probe to trumps outside attorney. That is the news at the moment. Now, why . Because we have the news too that we do have james comey, the former fbi chief who was fired by President Trump saying he will testify publicly, specifically before the Senate Intelligence committee. He says President Trump asked him to back off of the flynn probe. These will be comeys first comments since the fbi director. On top of it, we do have the Federal Reserve making news too that it sees signs of a tightening job market, even more so in many parts of the country. And the beige book, which leads to more speculation that a june rate like is on the way. And plus financials are on a positive note. The dow is down 33 points. So if youre planning to sell in may, you have less than an hour to do it. Last trading day of the session here. Heres where we stand. The Dow Jones Industrials down 30, the s p and nasdaq, which is all the averages with a more than 2. 5 gain for the entire month is currently trading down 15 points of a quarter of a percent to 6,187. Now, as we mentioned, were looking at the banks at the moment. Theyre dragging these markets down. Goldman sachs once again the biggest lagger on the dow, it is down three and twothirds percent this week. Not only that it faces criticism for the bomb purposes, concerning there are huge rights going on in venezuela. But the jp morgan and bank of america both sigl today th theyre warning this quarters low volatility is hurting trade revenue, and it may affect earnings for q2. As you can see jp morgan down 2. 5 , bank of america down nearly 3 . Can the retail ice age causing michael kors some major frostbite at this hour. Shares are plunging 9 . Michael kors, super hot since its ipo a couple of years ago. Its a Luxury Fashion company. But it issued a gloomy annual forecast and announced plans to shut more than 100 of its Retail Stores. Not the Discount Stores but Retail Stores over the next two years. Let us get to more of that comey news and, again, it is that james comey will publicly, publicly testify in front of the Senate Intelligence committee about what he says to President Trump and that President Trump asked him to back off probing into Michael Flynns relations with the russians. Michael flynn of course was the National Security chief that was first picked by donald trump. But then had to step down because he apparently hadnt revealed a whole bunch of clicks with the russians he had taken money from speeches, he had been a consultant. So let me get to fox business blake burman who is at the white house. A flurry of activity. If i sound a little herky jerky here, i keep checking the wires. Blake. Same here. Theres a briefing going on right now, liz, what the White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer that i just stepped out of. Ill get to a couple of highlights on that in just a second. You led in to me with james comey. Heres the very latest. According to several reports out there, comey, the former fbi director fired by this president is set to testify as early as thursday next week on capitol hill and the headline from those reporting this is that he will say that the president tried to pressure him during parts of during parts of their conversation as you know comey was initially supposed to testify on capitol hill behind closed doors. There were calls for him to testify publicly. Now were learning that this could happen indeed as early as next week. Helen number one. Number two. As i mentioned, the press Secretary Sean Spicer briefing right now off camera but in front of reporters on the record inside the White House Press briefing room. Spicer was asked a russiarelated question and said that the white house will not answering qstions on the russia probe going forward. Instead, bargain that off tos personal attorney. The president as we know hired mark, a long time attorney of his who he has turned to for these questions outside counsel for the president. He will also lean on his long time Attorney Michael Cohen as well. A third headline in which the president is expected to make in the next couple of days. Sean spicer didnt say when that decision will happen. If the president has made a final decision yet, and i personally asked spicer, liz, whether or not the president is considering an allornothing approach. Basically either to stay in the deal and its entirety, to pull from it and its entirety, or maybe take a little bit what he likes. Kind of cut around the edges. Spicer understand touching this at all saying basically youre going to hear from the president on that soon. Comey, russia, paris, you just saw the Prime Minister of vietnam enter who President Trump is set to meet with for the next hour. Liz. Liz we have to remind our viewers that james comey gave testimony earlier weeks ago, may 3rd, actually, and he when asked about it in front of i believe im not exactly sure, Justice Department when he was asked whether he was pressured to perhaps stop an investigation, we had a senator say if the attorney general or senior officials of the department of justice opposes a specific investigation, can they halt the investigation . Comey said in theory yes. And asked has that happened . Have they halted it . And he said not in my experience because it would be a big deal to tell the fbi to stop doing something without appropriate purpose. That was just on may 3rd. But now of course hes saying that the president tried to pressure him by saying you know what . Michael flynns a good guy, why dont you forget about all of this . Thats what comey is prepared apparently to testify about. And now we have the dow down 45 points. Blake burman, thank you very much. And, blake, by the way, judge napolitano is rushing over here to get in front of the cameras for us because he knows all the ins and outs of the legalities of this. But as we said, the president now has an outside counsel and all questions to the white house are being this issue to that counsel. To wall street, it is a race to the close as major averes are rising off session after opening in positive territory earlier. The dow and the s p 500 are on track to end higher for a second straight month while the nasdaq, which hit an intraday high earlier is on track foreseventh consecutive month of wins driven from apple to netflix to google to amazon. But with summer almost upon us, should investors kick back in june or kick their portfolios into high gear . To the floor show, traders at the new york stock exchange, cme group. Let me ask you about this breaking news. Right now on the floor, how closely are traders watching this news about james comey who will publicly testify now . I think theyre watching him pretty closely. Its not the shock and a he had a week ago when he was fired and then you saw the dow down almost 350 points. But i think hes been out of everyones mind because the president was overseas, we havent seen him recently and then now all of a sudden hes testifying . You have to tell the truth. So bottom line, i think traders are paying attention to it and the markets are starting to show some cracks. Were starting to see sectors that are bending like the famines from bent to almost broken. The small cap weak. Oil back to 50. So if we start losing tech, which we havent yet, i think finally we might get a little bit of reat the same time. But i think it could hit july or august versus june. Liz so, folks, what hes saying is watch for tech as that red flag but stay on your toes right, scott . Because headlines such as what we are now reporting continue to keep the market on edge; right . Exactly. Liz okay. Let me get to ira. Ira, do you just kick it into high gear now . Or do you kick back . You kick back. This is where you step back from these markets. Youre going to go play tennis, golf, the kidsre on vacation, everything happens, congre is gog to lead very shortly. Youre not going to get a lot done and those cannot be bullish, the stock market, so i think you take a slight defensive posture. Do you just come in and buy the new highs . I would doubt it for the summer, which you defined well is june and july. Well take a fresh look at things in august. But i dont think we do get a lot of good data over the next three weeks here. Liz luke, what do we do . We do have the jobs number on friday, the expectation is to see a build of about 183,000 jobs for the month of may. But more importantly, i dont see how anybody can just kick back when it comes to investing in oil and oil names, as long as opecs around, its going to be abissue. Yeah. You can kick back on oil. Oil is a global commodity, and you look at how volatile it has been compared to the stock market. Its a whole different animal. But i will say that the stock market signals is President Trump going to be able to put through any of the plans that hes talked about . Infrastructure, et cetera, expansion of business, tax cuts. All that stuff is going to be on hold, and its not giving oil a reason to go up. Plus the fact that opec doesnt seem to be able to control the price of oil anymore, so i would be careful. I would watch oil, and i think the surprise as we said all year is going to be that gasoline prices are going to rise while you see Oil Prices Stay steady. Liz okay. And finally, scott, jobs friday. Were about 48 hours away from that. What are the traders expecting . And could it really move the markets as we head into june . I think the traders would like to see an inline number. They dont want to see a really weak number because if we get another weak number, it back up some of the economic signals and then all of a sudden we go from may one hike or maybe two hikes to none. And we want to see at least one hike, otherwise, you know, youll start seeing some more divergences that have already started to develop iraq and before we go, ira, are you hunkering down . Your budget in illinois is going to be more of a disaster than it already is. Midnight tonight; right . Right. So illinois broke. End of discussion. What can i say . Yeah. And then they want to come to you guys. The traders and tax you more to get them out of the problem; right . Right. Liz unbelievable. Thats what they keep doing. Liz good to see you. Scott, ira, lou. Closing bell. Were 48 minutes away. A massive and deadly explosion in a secure area of cobble and as the death toll rises with 90 people killed, 400 injured, it turns out americans were in the thick of it. We will give you the latest details on their conditions, the afghanistan terror attack details next. And the Prime Minister of vietnam at the white house making comments with President Trump right now. Thats hitting the tape. Theyre talking about trade, security, and the ever increasing threat from north korea. So ill get you this headlines the second we come back. And what does the u. S. Need from this tiny asian nation . Peter brooks standing by live. You have to hear what he has to say because it depends on what you buy a what your company makes. At crowne plaza we know Business Travel isnt just business. Theres this. a bit of this. Why not . Your hotel should make it easy to do all the things you do. Which is what we do. Crowne plaza. Were all business, mostly. Your insurance on time. Tap one little bumper, and up go your rates. What good is having insurance if you get punished for using it . News flash nobodys perfect. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Switch and you could save 509 on auto insurance. Call for a free quote today. Liberty stands with you™ Liberty Mutual insurance. Liz breaking news, we now have a number on how many u. S. Citizens were in the thick of this blast that killed 90 people. It turns out 11 u. S. Citizens were injured in the blast. It shook the city center of cobble this morning in afghanistan. At least 90, as i mentioned kill, 400 injured and the death toll is expected to rise, following a massive bomb, which apparently had been hidden in a sewage tanker. The explosion ripped through the Diplomatic Center where several embassies, including a Germany Embassy were heavily damaged. The u. S. And nato embassies are not far from the blast site, so it cant be too much of a surprise that 11 americans have been injured. While a target is still not specifically known, the Afghan Taliban have denied any involvement. We will bring you any further updates and names as they come in. So now as we look at the markets, this is where weve been much of the day. Down 35, down 40. But at the moment, we have the president meeting with the Prime Minister of vietnam. His name is nguyen, and theyve apparently just spoke to the press, and were watching this closely as the tape is about to come in. There are many things tore discuss. Trade, the paris climate accord, not to mention the rattling out of north korea and the fact that the chinese have staked their claim, making fake islands in the South China Sea which vietnam, asia, and japan all said we own the islands that are in there. So we right now as were waiting for that tape go ahead, brad. Were waiting to see if President Trump addresses comey. No doubt reporters will absolutely throw a question his way. So how this works is it has been taped. They dont do it live. And we got a tape into the building and the most important thing is that were seeing multiple headlines that james comey, the former fbi director is going to testify before the Senate Intelligence committee. We dont know the exact date, but it could be within a week, and he has prepared apparently to say that President Trump attempted to pressure him to drop the investigation into russia ties with the former nsa director that was trumps first pick, and that would have been michael flynn. So lots of controversy. Lets listen. Trump were going to find out very soon. Thank you, all, very much. Thank you, all, very much. Its an honor to have the Prime Minister of vietnam at the white house and the oval office. Prime minister has done a fantastic job in vietnam, led so many different categories in trade and other things. Were going to be discussing trade. Were going to be discussing north korea. And many things to talk about, and we look forward to being together very much so. [foreign language] thank you, mr. President for inviting me to pay this official visit to the United States. I bring with me the greetings from the vietnamese people and greetings to your dear friends. [foreign language] the relationship between vietnam and the United States have undergone significant in hit of. But today, were able to [foreign language] i have had the great pleasure of having a full conversation with the president last december and also in exchange of letters. I was very impressed by the openness and friendliness of the president , and im confident that our meeting today will be equally candid and open. And set out major directions for our corporation on the basis of Mutual Respect and equality in the interest of peace, stability operation and development in the asianpacific and the world. [foreign language] we look forward to paying a visit to you and paying an official visit to vietnam later this year. Trump thank you very much. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Liz and President Trump not addressing the latest news that the former fbi director james comey will testify publicly about what he says was pressure to drop the russia investigation. He did at the very top. I dont know if you caught this, so let me bring it back to you. He did talk about the paris climate accord. He said he will make his decision on whether to stay within that climate agreement very soon. Quote very soon. He also did say hes been hearing from a lot of people on both sides of the paris climate deal, so he says hes listening to both sides here. Very important to note, though, that it was back in 19 about 2016, last year, october, that the countries, a group of them set in motion the accord and the president has tweeted hes not sure what hes going to do. So lets look at etfs quickly. Exchangetraded funds that are focused on green and clean energy. Since the election, theyre not hurting. You know, youve got the First Trust Clean edge fund up 19 since the election. Power shares clean energy up 11 . Look at all of these. They dont appear to be hurting at the moment. Either way, were watching this closely because this decision will come out in a few days. Now, President Trump also you saw welcomed the vietnamese Prime Minister to the white house. The two very critical and pressing issues to work through. Most important being china land grabs and trade. The land grab first, it involves china claiming ownership of islands in the South China Sea, natural islands which japan, vietnam, and have claimed. But china c