Suni, great to see you again, welcome back thanks, scott, great to be here where are we in this rally, as volatility has picked up. For sure. Concerns picked up but where rates are going. Yes how does it all play out . Honestly, i would call these growing pains, to quote our house view on the ceo side there are opportunities here there will be a little dip coming out of rates. I think well see higher rates from here, temporarily pushing the market down a little bit we still like the story, the trend is going to be up. The fundamentals are strong across the oard. Value stocks versus growth im not walking away from the super Growth Stocks that are driving change around the world. Feel pretty good about the rally continuing but as you say, volatility is up rates volatility is up, highest point 25 in the last two weeks alone. Are we, michael, on the cusp of the longawaited correction, as a result of rates maybe thats what everybody is worried about. The volatility weve seen in the last few days indicates, yeah, we could be turning through some choppiness here. The thing were looking at most is the treasury refunding. As we add to that supply, does this yield curve invert . That has been, for over 30 years for me, that canary in the coal mine that im watching im looking at rates, yeah, that could be a problem weve been volatile, steve, the selloff earlier today. Were up 125 points on the dow best january in nearly 25 years. What happens this month as we get under way for trading today . The market is hitting some try at normalcy with this volatility the volatility may be excessive this week, so well find a middle ground. But volatility is here to stay when you hit these levels in the market and these valuations, its natural for people to get more nervous, particularly once youve been chasing momentum, and once people that have been there in a longtime institution. The rates the straw the breaks the camels back. Absolutely. Im short treasuries you look at bunds, yields are moving up. Jgbs are looking up nine bibs. The rate change has accelerated. Will increased supply hasten that i think it will. But i dont think were anywhere near recession so an inverted yield curve, michael and i were talking about this beforehand, every recession has had an inverted yield curve. But not every inverted yield curve, has there been a recession. So i still think were okay. Its consolidation but the direction of the market is still higher. The highs for the tenyear note curve the dow recovered and is moving higher even as rates are moving to the highs of the day. Sure. Higher rates and higher stocks can coexist. Of course, especially when the new orders component of the ism is at 65, thats a good thing. Lets not forget where the value of the u. S. Dollar is right now. A lot of that is because youre seeing emerging market currencies that are tethered to the price of oil, theyre rising rates can rise because of positive Economic News and rates can also raise, to michaels point, because of higher deficits and because of more supplies, the Federal Reserve reduces their balance sheet. I dont think that leads to the impending grand correction, whether it be in the fixed income or the equities market. I think there is higher volatility, and thats a good thing for the markets right now to digest. As i said yesterday, i think in the near term, where the equities market goes from here largely depends on what we hear this afternoon from apple. There have only been three times in the last 60 years where youve seen decline in both the equity markets and the tenyear at the same time and each of those immediately was a recession. So i dont think were there yet. So in answer to your question, you can see credit go down, meaning rates go up, without equity markets as a matter of fact, thats normal but i think people have to remember too, that corrections are normal i mean, were just so used to not having one, and the market there we go, whats a bear market . How do these things happen weve heard old people talk about bear markets we havent seen one in ten years. I mean, theres a whole phalanx of traders on the treat who have never seen a bear market we expect earnings to be pretty good, suni. Were about to get to the heart of earnings season you can say for many of the key areas it begins tonight with apple, amazon, alphabet. Big names, yes. Some of the industrial names have reported well and their outlooks have been good. Yep things like boeing are moving higher, and others are earnings going to be able to trump, so to speak, the movein rates, will they be able to deal with rates moving up, because theyre moving up for a good reason yeah, i think thats exactly right. If you look at the economics of the rate move, youre talking just shy of 4 before youre restrictive on earnings and stock prices were nowhere near that. Animal spirits, maybe theyre animal bogey men, you hit Something Like a 3 , were past 275 as a benchmark there, and i think things retrench. I dont know if i would call it a correction as much as a consolidation. You see sector rotation, i think you see some push more for those value stocks that have been people are talking about as the big movers in 2018 so i think we see more of that than we see any kind of recession or real drop or correction correction would be bought, right, of any kind of magnitude, is that what you guys think . I would say once the correction presents itself, you want to be incredibly patient in buying it. A lot of people will have the mentality, okay, lets step in, step in, step in i think that leads to an environment where it could be a lot deeper than people think i also think the thing people havent had in a long time, weve had modest price corrections over the last couple of years we havent had a time correction, which is far more painful. A correction that occurs over the course of six months, boy, thats going to lead to a lot of investors churning themselves in a negative capacity. We havent really had this big flush or rush out of bonds into stocks. Couldnt you theoretically, if people are going to move out of bonds, push rates up, and you get that money moving into equities, because theres a good reason to be in equities, with a synchronized global recovery, earnings coming in strong. Why wouldnt we see that i think weve seen that the last couple of years, thats one of the big drivers of the rally weve seen now people are nervous its not an if, its a when. People are more cautious, sentiment has changed. Theyre diversifying more in asset classes. I think thats happened. I think theres plenty of cash out there too i dont think where anybody is really needing, wanting for investable youve been looking at a lot of inflows, its almost like a weekly inflow. Right in addition, weve never been through any kind of a pullback with the algos in place, the algorithm traders in place i think thats still a wait and see. I know but the stops in place, but thats a worry to me its a worry to me also, you dont know how theyll respond, what a relative value trade is suni i think makes a great point. I dont believe youll see a mass exodus from bonds into equities if you look at a bond holder, why they hold bonds, its because its safety. If youre owning treasuries, maybe you wont get a return, but if you own a maturity, youll get all your money back if youre that conservative, where youve got this big weighting or decent weighting in bonds, youre definitely not going into equities at these levels so i dont think that occurs greenspan says were in the midst of two bubbles, stocks and bonds. I disagree with that. If there is a bubble, i think the bubble maybe is in equitylike type of investments. We talked about that yesterday, steve and iwere talking offair, high yield over the last couple of years a lot of that has been utilized as a replacement some of the dividend strategies weve seen over the last couple of years over the last couple weeks, i keep talking about these bond proxies. Boy, thats the first place youre looking right now to pare back your holdings i dont think the bubble is in equities or bonds. I think its in products that look more like a bond and act like an equity like direct lending funds i would be hardpressed to walk into a room of Family Offices or ultrahigh net worth and say, who is not in a direct lending fund. The fundamentals are pretty strong, broad across the world as well as across sectors. Its hard to argue with that when i think of a bubble, i think of irrational behavior this is pretty rational. I think some of the growth momentum stocks, maybe but theres still a tremendous amount of value in the market. Greenspan talked about irraci irratiir rational exuberance in 1996. The do you went through 4,000, 5,000, 6,000 in like a year and a half it was like 8,000 eight months later. It goes up 33 last time after greenspan said he wasnt wrong, but markets can go a lot higher i know were going to talk about that the valuation on chipotle is much more egregious and much more of a bubble valuation than what weve seen on facebook or google. Absolutely. Lets turn to facebook, microsoft. Both stocks hitting new all time highs today on the back of strong earnings. Youve been trading facebook, following the earnings the stock is up again today. Yes so ive had a position, i was half listening to the Conference Call last time i was in the office, half working stock traded down eight bucks. I bought it, turned around for a quick 11point profit. Thats the type of volatility that gets bought when the market corrects, i dont think youll be looking at markets. Youll be looking at situations that are really out there, inordinately penalized did facebook allay a lot of the fears out there that the change they made to their business was going to have a dramatic impact . Very responsible Conference Call, very up front. He said what it will be. Also, you look at the ad Revenue Growth, phenomenal who cares if some of the users are down as long as you have the demographics, and Everything Else working for it, the stock continues to work. Microsoft i mean, i almost dont want to discuss it because it has been so stealthily you dont want to jinx it yeah, i dont want to jinx it what a quarter, scott. 98 Revenue Growth on the cloud side okay, we understand that but you even had office 365 come in with incredibly strong 40 plus percent Revenue Growth. Theyre hitting on all marks i love the comments from Satya Nadella talking about Technology Companies and trust. I dont know if everyone picked up on that, but emphasizing that the customers, the relationship theyve developed over the years, its all about the client trusting microsoft as the brand. I think thats so incredibly important. Theyve done a great job i bought more this morning, i think its going above 100 you like tech as you talk about i guess you have to be somewhat selective, though if you say value you do say its still the momentum in stocks, those are the ones youre not going to short in any way, shape, or form, theyre changing the way we live, we dont want to get in the way of that one i talk about value, im talking about Construction Companies and some of the infrastructure stuff thats coming our way. Those stocks are really undervalued, we think. Theres tremendous amount there. And in the energy space as well. And financials, of course, i always like financials you guys believe in the value trade, that energy is going to continue, financials will get more momentum . Certainly the fundamentals in the picture thats developing for the banks, with higher rates and their ability to actually make some money now on money market and some of their short term instruments, that is a lot more powerful than most people would be aware, particularly when youre talking about just fractions of a point but theyre really meaningful. And i think too, energy, that pendulum is swinging back. The value stocks from that russell 1000, yeah, thats where you have to start to look to be able to hit them where they aim. Real quick on energy, you have oil sitting at 65, its been here for a while. The refiners, i do not like the refiners with the oil sustaining at 65. For financials, we talk a lot about the big banks. And the big banks obviously will benefit. Net interest margins and rising rates. Theyll also benefit on the trading side, from the increase in volatility. Thats a positive. And lets not just think about financials in terms of banks lets this of the exchanges, which are doing very well. Lets think of a lot of the insurers which are doing well also lets take financials and include all of it. One of the other great debates in the market as we look at valuation here, and some people say theres euphoria, greenspan and others mentioning bubbles, is International Stocks versus the u. S. And the better place to be. You still, even after great runs in some of these stocks, like emerging markets we do like emerging markets when you back into a fundamental view of the markets, volatility is low, current accounts are clean, reserves are robust, theres a lot going on with emerging markets we just came back from three weeks in asia, wow, is it moving and in addition to the fundamentals, the new economy that is china and the stocks that are coming up there, for the first time in a long time the service sector, consumerled stocks, are the bigger exports, more than 50 of the exports, versus the traditional ag, steel, those type of things out of china it really is something to watch. We see a tremendous amount of interest there from our client base also, you think about the technical side of that trade, when the msei adds the china shares in june, thats a tremendous incentive for people to start looking harder at china. We just came off our china conference, huge demand from european investors for the first time in a long time. Would you be overweight to emerging or overseas stocks compared to the u. S. We like global stocks, we like emerging markets. Probably equal personal view, emerging markets. I like the technical play there. When you talk about greenspan saying things, hes been around for a long, long time, and if youre not if youre not regarding this as a completely new playbook with things that have never happened before in his entire involvement career, youll be married to whats happened in the past, where theres been, you know, this wild exuberance. Thats not now thats not now, with the emerging markets thats not now with you dont hear anybody saying theres a bubble in emerging markets, equities. Absolutely not. Those questions are raised singularly about the u. S ill disagree ive been in some conversations with large investors, theyre not im going to say theres not a voice here or there that thinks it. But the broad conversation is that emerging markets and europe are cheap, the u. S. Is expensive. But youve got youve also got a situation, from greenspans perspective, where the u. S. Economy is doing just fine, the recovery is happening just fine. Were seeing some wage gains weve got unemployment at 4. 1 that continues to fall and all of a sudden, youve got a huge fiscal cut and youre going to add to the deficit. This is a theres a lot to worry a guy like greenspan suni, what are you telling clients, i saw Goldman Sachs this morning lowering their forecast on the value of the u. S. Dollar. Were talking about emerging markets. How much of the emerging market story is really a currency story and what the dollar is doing here i think its a great question and i think currencies have been part of it the carrier trade has been a big part of portfolios for the last year at least. I think there arent a lot of overheated currencies in the emerging markets now so dollar helps as it weakens. The Overall Health story globally, the synchronization of that growth helps the markets. You like dollar weakness . Yes slowing weakness but still declining, yes thats why theres this conundrum of trying to come up with why you shouldnt invest in the u. S. Is difficult. Youve got the declining dollar, the tax reform which is transformational risine inging rates, youre goio derail that entire story i agree, you cant expect the dollar to decline as much as it has, i think its down 4 , if its going to go down that much in 2018, throw out all the playbooks and figure Something Else out i do think you have to have a fundamental understanding of why the dollar is going down is it more europes strength or is it more about something in the u. S. Great points. And that could put the brakes on it too, as yields go higher yields go higher, that dollar could strengthen and the fall could slow or stop or even reverse some the dollar is competing with the currencies obviously overseas butwith rates overseas, youre on the cusp of the ecb fully pulling back from qe once they do, i think you may see more weakness in the dollar. But to me, the best place to invest in the u. S. Is not the s p thats benefiting more, 40 of those earnings come from overseas, but the midcap companies, the ones that are domestically focused, will be the biggest beneficiaries of deregulation and the tax bill. Part of my point is that, why do you even need to distinguish between smaller and midcap stocks versus big cap stocks in the kind of environment were in, with the tax reform and the other positive catalysts, the dollar, that we already mentioned . And the cash flows that are going to be increasing, the ability to buy back stock in huge numbers its a leverage and theres greater leverage to the tax bill and deregulation for u. S. Centric companies than there is for multinationals. Its beneficial to both. On the other side, the large cap have the benefit of the Global Growth and the repatriation again, Different Reasons for each one, but its how we end up where we are, which we like stocks would it surprise anybody, you get through some volatility, as long as rates dont get too far away from us, that you could have a similar year to last year this year. Why couldnt that be possible . Youve seen multiple years, successive years where youve had gains like last years as a matter of fact youve had scenarios where there have been three years of gains, 30 , 30 , 26 . I looked at these numbers. Just because youve had a year like last year, and a year like the year before, doesnt really matter all that much in terms of what happens it all depends on how much you think tax reform, suni, is in the market now, and earnings expectations i think the tax reforms are in the market to some extent again, its not slowing down the fundamental growth were seeing across the board in many, many sectors. Again, this is such a broad based, fundamental story here. Feels good the biggest reason why 2018 could be like 2017 is because nobody thinks that 18 could be like 17 thats a good point the consensus has said, we think stocks are going higher in 2018, we think the markets will be okay in 18, but theyre not going to be anything like we saw in 2017. I dont know, the prevailing thought in davos was optimism across the board in ways you hadnt heard before. Right . I wouldnt count on strategists leading the charge if youre going to play that card, youve got to say everybody is so bullish, that means the markets are going to go down. I think once you start to see the earnings actually come through, were anticipating earnings now in the markets, but all of a sudden, you start to see quarter over quarter of 12 and 15 and 20 earnings growth, thats going to i think ignite probably another leg up. Its been great having you here thanks, scott suni harford joining us exclusively today. Heres whats coming up on the Halftime Report. Next up, the call of the day. One analyst orders a slash on chipotle plus a big day of earnings after the bell apple, mazon, alphabet the traders are ready to take their positions. Our data partners on what happens when the s p jumps more than 5 in january for the rest of the year, the market is then up 75 of the time with an average return of 13 for the s p, 10 for the dow, and 9. 6 for the nasdaq. For more, go to sentence. Com kensho. The Halftime Report is back in two minutes. Welcome back to the Halftime Report. Shares of chipotle under pressure today ubs downgrading that stock all the way to sell. The firm says sluggish sales and struggling Brand Perception spell more downside for investors. Its our call of the day emmitt, its a brutal note everything they say, worst Brand Perception than when the food safety crisis began. Review trends continue to trend downward theyve dropped below prefood safety crisis lows a new ceo could maybe be a catalyst but long term challenges remain. Is that right . Listen, the price target is 290. Its at 310 right now. I disagree that theres a sell call on this that being said, i think the stock saw the bounce to 345 back in january i think the biggest concern for this company is that they raised prices in 20 of the locations back in april. They raised, in november, on an additional 40 now midjanuary, they raise another 40 . Scott, when they did this in 2014, they had four executive quarters of traffic trend declines with eps growing at the same time. You saw the p e multiple depress by 30 i think raising prices, given what youre highlighting, the perception issues they have right now, it doesnt leave any opportunity for the stock to recover. Can a new ceo, no matter how dramatic the name may be, cause changes until the perception of whats happened to this company, michael . Absolutely. Why hasnt it happened yet . This stock has been kind of a cult following and theyve lost a lot of their cult, the kids who were eating there five days a week i talked last week about this stock in my office with a group of kids from miami and ohio, doing their thing in washington. They asked about i said, how many of you still go to chipotle theyre losing the kids theyve been supporting them every one of them was there three times that week. So they are seeing a return. I think its all about managing that image and bringing back that diner and they know their demographics i think the right leadership can actually accomplish that it was so, though, priced, the valuations are sky high, but it was before you know, it was on these expectations that this thing was going to the moon hypergrowth, and that was going to continue, and thats why investors were buying the stock. Havent you changed the dynamic from hypergrowth to hanging onto the customers you still have i think theres an in between. You can still have reasonable growth i would be hesitant to accept the ubs call here for a sell i wouldnt be short this stock weiss this company does not deserving the multiple that it has. Whats interesting about the ubs report, he raises number from 892 to 949 for this year but hes still slightly below consensus, a buck below consensus next year. In what universe does a company that hasnt executed for an extended period of time, has had declining growth, and recovering growth, deserve this kind of multiple it doesnt you have to believe im going to believe that because of the extensive search thats going on for a new ceo, and bill ackmans presence in that environment of doing that, theyre not going to true. Ron johnson is available come on, stop it. Theyre not going to whiff theyre going to get somebody that makes you say, okay what do you mean . I dont understand your comment, stop. Whatever, man why is this one youre going to say because ron johnson im not talking ron johnson im talking valeant. He bet on him. He didnt put him there he bet on him thats as good as putting him there. Man, theyve got a search firm involved. I just think the risk on that is to the upside, because he knows how important a new ceo matters, with a track record and a good story to tell. Theres only one ceo that youre entitled to your opinion. If you want to say, his recent performance means i dont want to truste the guy for anything. But im suggesting that i think hes smart guy. Im just saying, picking ceos is not his forte. Hes not picking them individually hes involved. Assume he picks a good ceo. Am i going to pay for that now part of the bet, if youre going to be long this stock, is that a new ceo will help this company get back maybe not all the way, but to some level of where this company was to justify invests coming back its got to be patrick doyle. Youve got to see more for this company i wouldnt be short this stock i wouldnt be long either. Youve got to wait theyve got too many headwinds right now, too much erosion. The numbers just dont as steve says, the numbers dont support these prices its the wrong strategy youre in the environment where your competitors are in a discounting strangl ining straty so why are you raising prices in the middle of that thats a great point. I dont understand that theyve got to hurry up with the search on the ceo. And again, dominos, patrick doyle, look what he did there. Patrick doyle comes if they brought that name out, what would happen the stock would surge stock goes up would that be good enough for you . If its a high quality ceo whos turned around companies before, sure im not entrenched im just looking at the only thing i could look at, which is the history. I dont think papa is a very good ceo he came into perigo into valeant. Perigo was at the bottom when you sit where the debt was, 30, 40 billion of debt, you dont move a freighter in five minutes im not suggesting im just looking at his track record at his prior company. Okay. The stock was ron johnson is ron johnson. I mean, okay he would be the first one to admit that was a mistake well see who he picks this time so hes going to pick him well see who they pick okay by the way, the Halftime Report is going on the road you taking stephen . Just to get away from me. We are live tomorrow, tomorrow, u. S. Bank stadium in minneapolis. That is the home of the super bowl and were going to be joined by al michaels calling the game for nbc. Brian cornell, local target company, obviously hes the ceo, hell be with us as well, were excited for that you can watch that, catch all of that, jim cramer is going to drop by, obviously hes excited about the game too you can watch the super bowl on sunday night, 6 30, nbc. Cornell is a guy i would bet on next in the blitz, the trades on nvidia, ebay. Halftime report is back after this this is a tomato you can track from farm, to pot, to jar, to table. And serve with confidence that its safe. This is a diamond you can follow from mine to finger, and trust it never fell into the wrong hands. This is a shipment transferred two hundred times, transparently tracked from port to port. This is the ibm blockchain, built for smarter business. Built to run on the ibm cloud. This is the ibm blockchain, built for smarter business. Sometimes, they just drop in. Obvious. Cme group can help you navigate risks and capture opportunities. We enable you to reach Global Markets and drive forward with broader possibilities. Cme group how the world advances. Yes or no . Gin. Do you want the same tools and seamless experience across web and tablet . Do you want 4. 95 commissions for stocks, 0. 50 options contracts . 1. 50 futures contracts . What about a dedicated service team of trading specialists . Did you say yes . Good, then its time for power e trade. The platform, price and service that gives you the edge you need. Looks like we have a couple seconds left. Lets do some card twirling twirling cards e trade. The original place to invest online. Hello, everyone, im sue herera here is your cnbc news update at this hour. A man who drove a man into a crowd of worshippers near a London Mosque has been convicted of murder and attempted murder a crown court found Darren Osborne guilty in the june 2017 attack that killed one and injured nine others. A rocket fired from the Syrian Kurdish held enclave hit a restaurant in the Turkish Border town, injuring at least five people. Thats according to turkish officials. Turkey launched a crossborder offensive into syria on january 20th tonights execution of a texas father who shot and killed his two young daughters will go on as scheduled. That is the word from a federal Appeals Court to attorneys for John Battaglia they had appealed on claims of mental incompetence. Britains Prince William and wife kate arrived in norway this morning, greeted by norways crown prince and his wife. They are on their third day of a fourday visit to sweden and norway scotty, back to you. Sue, thank you so much. Apple, alphabet, amazonall due for numbers today. Cash story, its built in already that we know the product story is going to be disappointing. Theyre probably going to cut the guidance on iphone xs i think its about how are they going to manage the cash i know just to be clear, theyre not going to give you unit guidance on the iphone. Right youre not going to be able to know that right away. They may cut their revenue number as a result of fewer than expected sales agreed. Youll have to read into that but my point being, given what the stock has not done of late as the rest of the market, michael, has risen, how much is rising on that number tonight . I think a lot more to the downside than the upside, actually i think people are waiting to see how bad this thing is going to be. And if its not awful, i think the stock might hold in. But theres if you dont get the volumes and you do have to look at the cash and you do have to look at the numbers, i think that the weakness, any little bit of weakness could cause a more profound selloff in the stock. The other interesting thing, weiss, correct me if im wrong, im sure you will even correct me if im right, but apple usually runs up into a number. Apple usually goes up into its up today i know, but its been down fairly consistently, if not flat, into this print. What does that mean . I think the cycle is of buying in advance of the quarter happened sooner this time in the last quarter than normally plus, you know, just the its so astounding, the cuts that youre hearing about in the supply chain, that there is no runup if those numbers are true, if they have to cut from an estimated 40 million to 20 million, how bad a miss is that for management i mean, thats incredible. You know and i hear you about the Cash Management story i think you need a turnover in the Shareholder Base and its going to be at a lower level if thats what it is because this is a Consumer Product company. Ill give you these words. Ibm. East m eastman kodak. Polaroid those are all companies that thought they were impregnable, that they couldnt go down blackberry. Ill give you that. Okay. Throw them all out there but i never pegged you for an apple sycophant. Thats a sycophant . How about a reality check . I mean, youre talking about ibm and kodak and polaroid he didnt say xerox i just forgot ibm is still there. Look, i just think that you have to realize theres risk to the story, that their margins on their iphones are far, far are you still long, by the way . Im still the position. Okay. Give me something on amazon. Amazon pretty much owns the customer, right . 70 of online sales are still going through amazon they own that customer theyre expanding. Their synergies and the deals theyre making in the marketplace are remarkable its hard to bet against them and hard to find a compelling Valuation Case for the stock youre never going to find a Valuation Case thats some day. Well, i dont know. But you wouldnt buy the stock because of valuation i cant buy the stock because of the valuation, right. We stick with a very strict discipline and i cant buy the stock because of the valuation that discipline has saved me over years okay. Joe . Whats interesting to me is for the very first time, you think about these three names, alphabet, amazon, apple. If all three of them went down tonight, i think apple would be the one least likely for investors to want to buy which is amazing to me amazon lower, alphabet lower, buyers tell me about it, quickly its a compelling growth story, their growth is tremendous, they have no competition. I own it. Im going to keep owning it. All right halftimrertisacinwo nutes. Bk t years. Door opens dad . But today, youre ready to try something new. Mom would be proud. Your mother hated garlic. With blue apron, any night is a chance to see what cooking can do. Your but as you get older,hing. 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And at 4. 95, you can trade with a clear advantage. Oh thanks. Say, yeah, i took your advice and had geico help with renters insurance it was really easy. Easy. Thatd be nice. Phone for help with chairs, say chair. Phone for help with bookcases, say bookcase. Bookcase. I thought this was the dresser . Isnt that the bed . Phone im sorry, i didnt understand. Phone for help with chairs, say chair. Does this mean were not going out . Bookcase. See how easy renters insurance can be at geico. Com. All right. We want to welcome you back to the Halftime Report. In a moment well take you out to White Sulphur springs in virginia the president of the United States is expected to speak momentarily. Paul ryan may have just introduced the president , in fact there is President Trump greeting some of the other members of congress on the stage, making his way to the podium now lets hes making his way down the line just a bit before he steps up to the podium. In fact there is the president of the United States, donald trump. Thank you, paul and mitch, for the introduction and for your tremendous leadership you folks have done i just looked at some numbers, youve even done better than you thought, i think, based on what we just saw about ten minutes ago. I want to thank you to the governor of this incredible state, my very good friend jim justice, and his wonderful wife cathy who are with us. And jim is now a proud member of the Republican Party, who was a democrat he switched over, right . You dont see that too often maybe well see it more and more but thank you, jim and the hotel is beautiful and everything is beautiful. We appreciate it its great to be among so many friends for the second time this week tuesday was an incredible evening, as we were all inspired and i really mean that we were inspired by americas heroes and uplifted by everyone who sacrificed in the fight for freedom. They were and are incredible people that we saw that night, and tremendous courage and one of the people, i have to say, boy, you got a very big hand, steve. Steve scalise. A great hand and were all truly blessed to be americans before going any further, i want to send our prayers to everyone affected by the train accident yesterday, especially to the family of the person who was so tragically killed. Our thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones and thank you. With us today onstage is our incredible Leadership Team and they really have, if you look, just look at the whats happened in the last short period of time, without them i could have never won the presidency, i guess. I dont know could i have won the presidency without them huh . Steve, yes, right . I dont know but theyve become very good friends. And were now in battle together and in friendship together Senate Majority leader mitch mcconnell. Thank you, mitch great guy. That was a big win we had, mitch. Senate majority whip john cornyn, great job, thank you how the majority whip steve scalise, again, steve, thank you. House majority leader kevin did they forget your name . Whats going on here they didnt put his name up but thats okay. Its the first time thats ever happened that will never happen again working together we have accomplished extraordinary things for the American People over the last year i really believe this is just the fwining. Paul ryan called me the other day and i dont know if im supposed to say this but he said to me. Hes never ever seen the Republican Party so united, so much in like with each other but literally the word united he used its the most yunitedhes seen the party. I see it too i have so many friends in this group. Theres a great coming together that i dont think either party has seen for many, many years. He called me i thought it was nice. Every day were removing government burdens and allowing our citizens to follow their heart and live out their dreams. We believe in Strong Families and we believe in strong lawyers. We believe in the rule of law and we support the men and women of Law Enforcement we believe every american has the right to grow up and have access to a really great job we know that for americans, nothing, absolutely nothing, is out of reach we dont know the meaning of the word quit. We dont quit and the republican hasnt quit. If we did, we wouldnt be here today. We would be sitting home saying that was a tough year instead of that was one of greatest years in the history of politics in the history of our country for party, what weve done and what we accomplished i dont think its been done and not by much. I give these people tremendous credit that was people able to act under pressure while we had a great year, we werent given credit for it. In one year we knocked out more regulations than anybody Supreme Court judges so many successes but when we got the great tax cut bill and we call it the tax cutting jobs bill we got that, it was like putting it all in a box and wrapping it with a beautiful ribbon. We started getting credit not only for that but all the other things we did during the years its amazing the way that happened i was surprised. We got a lot of credit from a lot of people and theyre saying while he had a lot of accomplishment and then they went on to do the thing. The fact is, you understand that we really did. We got a lot of credit it all came together in that final month. I give everybody in this room really kudos together were building a safe, strong and proud america since the election weve created 2. 4 million jobs thats unthinkable that doesnt include all the things happening youre going to see numbers that get even better. Unemployment claims are at a 45year low, which is something. Africanamerican and hispanic unemployment have reached the lowest levels recorded thats something very special. When i made that statement the other night it was zero movement from the democrats they sat there stone cold, no smiles, no reply wow would have thought they would have clapped a little bit which tells you perhaps they rather see us not do well than see our country do great thats not good. We have to change that we have eliminated more regulations in our first year than any administration has ever eliminated and that means four years, eight years or in one instance 16 years. In one year we knocked out more regulations. Its an amazing thing. I happen to think that is every bit as important toward our success as the tax cuts. I have many business friends and many people in business came to me and say that including Small Businesses they say the fact they no longer have to go through years of turmoil in getting approved and getting approvals and getting rule changes and getting all sorts of things and getting old while waiting to get them. Thats something we sign into law the biggest tax cuts and reforms into american history. Included in there is the individual mandate we repealed it thats a big one thats so big. By itself that would be a big achievement. We take it as well that was included one of the Great Potential fields anywhere in the world and i never appreciated so much. A friend of mine called up in that world and that business said is it true youre thinking about it i think were going to get it. I said are you kidding thats the biggest thing by itself after that i said make sure thats in the bill it was amazing how that hadden impact that had a very big impact on me, paul i really didnt care about it. When i heard that everybody wanted it for 40 years ive been trying to get it approved. Its great for the people of alaska thaer very happy campers don, thank you were always good together we never had a problem with it you think about it, that by itself is a big bill the individual mandate by itself is a big, powerful bill. I want to thank Senate Finance chairman and a very spectacular man orrin hatch. Hes i love listening to him speak. He said once im the single greatest president in his lifetime hes a young man. Kevin, where are you what a job he was working what are you average sleep for about four weeks about maybe nothing. I think he had no average. You did a great job. Nobody knows it better than you. Thank you. Maybe well do a phase two are you ready for that i think youre ready the typical family of four will save roughly 2,000 a year to lower tax rates for hard working americans, we nearly doubled the standard deduction for everyone now the first 24,000 earned by a married couple is completely tax free when i came into this beautiful building just a little while ago, one of the people said i just got a check and i have 221 more than i had last year at this time in my envelope thats what we were waiting. We were waiting for february and we got hit with these corporations giving bonuses to everybody that nancy pelosi called deplorable. Does that make sense deplorable in crumbs thats not crumbs. Thats a lot of money. We also double the Child Tax Credit thats so helpful to so many we have gone from one of the highest business tax rates to one of the most competitive, one of the lower one