Las ramblos area very popular with tourists this is the height of the tourist season he plowed into a group of people at the Plaza Catalunya then the man jumped out of the van and fled on foot no word as to whether or not he has been apprehended shortly after that reuters reported that two men entered a local restaurant with guns in that plaza area as well. Nbc has not independently confirmed that there are mixed reports as to whether or not this is being considered a terrorist incident. There is only one source that is calling it that. The police have not independently confirmed that to us or to nbc news. At this point we do know that there are injuries we do not know how many. There are unconfirmed reports of one death. Nbc has not confirmed that either we do know that the police have cordoned off that area there is a massive Emergency Response to it reuters is reporting that the Emergency Services and police have requested that mass transit and rail System Service to that particular area be shut down the Prime Minister reportedly is going to make his way to that particular part of the city. No word on whether he will do that right away or whether he is going to be in contact with Emergency Services before he makes that his way to that particular area. So thats what we know right now. We do know that there are injuries because we have seen pictures of people lying on the ground we dont know the state of their injuries we do not know if this is terror we do not know if there are deaths we do know that the police are calling this, quote, amassive crash and we do know that that is a very highly populated area. Its now just after 6 00 p. M. Local barcelona time scott, ill send it back to you. Sue, well ask you to keep you posted on anything new that you learn. The markets as we said are near the lows of the day. We want to focus on what were calling our top story today. The chief executive exodus in the continued fallout from that stunning day in d. C. Ceos bailing on President Trump and the one name that may now matter most to the markets which are, as we said under pressure, at this hour, and were well before reports out of barcelona started to come in with us for the hour today to discuss all of this, joe taranova, jim leventhal, and jon navarian there is the Dow Jones Industrial average below 22,000. This is coming as there are questions about the president s agenda and the future of his adviser gary cohn said to be facing pressure to leave the administration, a move which could have broad implications for investors. Our Kayla Tausche with more from washington on what she is hearing at this hour kayla, what is the latest . Reporter well, scott, it is clear that colleagues of cohns from Goldman Sachs, from wall stre street, from the new york and jew rich whcumulativommunumulau whun knit tis have said its not okay for him to serve. He remains committed to the agenda we are getting statements to that effect. The first one said gary intends to remain in his position as nec director at the white house nothing has changed but then provided a new statement that said, nothing has changed. Gary is focused on his responsibilities as nec director and any reports to the contrary are 100 false its unclear whether the white house intended to supplement the record or entirely clarify a record that gary intends to remain in his position, but at this hour that is a tea leaf that we are reading. Colleagues that have spoken to him say hes sort of torn right now because on one hand he is unsettled by the comments that the president made on the other hand, there is a moral obligation to continue serving in this role for the good of the country. So well see what happens throughout the course of this week internally there is a continued fight with steve bannon who is a Senior Adviser to the president who last night made comments to a magazine reporter that said fighting globallism that thats a fight bannon fights every day. Theres treasury, gary cohn, Goldman Sachs lobbying we got at that do this the president s default position is to do it but the apparatus is going crazy. In terms of the market impact, scott, they said yes, it is true, gary cohn is the champion for the economic agenda in the white house. A resignation would cause a near term impact. The greater worry long term is what would happen if one of the three generals currently serving the president would resign, whether its chief of staff john kelly, general h. R. Mcmaster or defense secretary mattis, that would open up a National Security vacuum and create a risk of a black swan event or something geo politically that would be much worse for the country, a much more grave situation than to say if companies were to have lower tax rates. On whether you expect from either your own reporting or other sources as to whether we would hear from gary cohn directly on his future plans today . Well, of course we are waiting to see if he chooses to speak on this matter, whether he chooses to continue to talk privately with colleagues of his at the white house and people whose advice hes drawing from back in his previous life. At the risk of sounding like im recapping the bachelorette and not talking about some serious white house personnel questions, people say hes there for the right reasons, that he sincerely cares about the economic agenda and that he wants to remain focused on but over time that could prove unsustainable. Kayla, thank you so much. Kayla tausche from the hill. Im wondering what you think of all of this. Gary cohn seems to be viewed by many at least in terms of wall street and investment prism, that hes critically important is that the way you see it yeah. Look, i think so, two thingsment the first is, this is a shame because i think we can all agree that donald trump is at his best when hes surrounded by the business community. The meetings that he took in the winter, the i dont want to call it performance, but just the whole aura of what he was trying to do, who was helping him, there were like a lot of hopeful signs for people who didnt vote for him. So its a shame that this came apart. Now the second part of that is of course it came apart, because tacitly supporting this given his response to schaar lotsvich and all of the other stuff im not going to get into, its a nonstarter for the business world. You cant do it. As far as what gary cohn should do, how the market will take it, this is at this point a matter of conscience. I dont think anyone can answer for him. Hes got to do what he thinks is best for himself and for the country. I know what my answer would be, but im not him and hes not me. Joe, the bigger question seems to be a market that was a little unsettled yesterday, right . Stocks fell off of their better levels a selling that continued into the morning even before the first words of whatever they were going to end up calling it in barcelona became known. Is the market now going to start reacting differently to some of the news out of dc in ways that it hasnt in the past . Its been remarkably resilient to look through the noise and look past it is that about to change . When youre bringing the name of gary cohn into the marketplace and questioning whether his presence will still be there, i think the answer to that is 100 yes. Im saying also in the context of the exodus of these chief executive officers, whether that in and of itself is a game change be ger in the way the markets will view washington and the white house . Its absolutely a game changer. We saw that yesterday afternoon. You had the market that wa coming back and basically acting as if last week did not even happen we were trending towards the highs once again and then we were very significantly on the back of that again, i want to go back to gary cohn for one second and keep something in mind. Were talking about gary leaving, and no one knows what gary is going to do. Gary has an out. Thats the fed chair hes not part of the administration you have to wonder now, does this make his decision a little bit easier and guide him to accepting the fed chair. Jimmy, how should we view the markets today as investors did things change yesterday in a meaningful way they changed in a little way. Yes, its meaningful because were talking about the presidency of the united states, scott, but really the market as we know has not expected his agenda to go through for quite some time. If it did go through that would be positive Infrastructure Spending heres the other side of the coin, its not just gary cohn, other business people, Business Ceos, nominated confirmed people there is an election coming up in a little over a year. The Republican Party is in disarray theres a growing feeling that the republicans may even lose the house of representatives on the trajectory that were in right now and then you can really kiss goodbye all these probusiness agenda items . Did anyone from this incredibly dangerous. I dont think hes wrong. I do agree to how he reacts to it but hes explicitly saying that he is working against the lobbying from Goldman Sachs within the white house so what is the economic agenda is it what bannon claims to be preaching or is it any now if you want to say gary cone face to face with ban nond and ones going to win out do you really think that the genteel, professional buttoned up gary cohn i really like your opinion on it say steve bannon stays because hes one heck of a lightning rod. Which agenda is it . Is it a trade war or infrastructure and tax reform . You tell me. The biggest question that people had been asking is the why has the market been able to remain so resilient. I think weve answered that. Why is that because there was expectation that the agenda wasnt in the market at all. Thats why there wasnt a great selloff. The construction the construction the Construction Industry grew and the s p is down 20 . Its a disaster. No one risking investing dollars is investing on that premise. If they were, theyre not anymore. You can see that in actual marked performances. They call it the bloodless verdict of the market. For more on where the markets may go from here, lets welcome in brian belsky. Good to you have back. Thanks for having us. Do y we appreciate it theres a couple of important things wed like to touch on. Please. First off, i think its important people understand nobody in their mother, brother, cousin, sister, uncle think anything is going to get done in washington the market is positioned for nothing to happen. If something does happen, i think the markets will go significantly higher we have the good fortune of traveling around the world and talking to people all over the place. The disdain for politics and around the world is at an alltime surprise. Number two, the optics of whats happening this week is what mr. Brown talked about i think is the most unfortunate thing given that we are optically driven in the market the market is aching for a reaction the idea that something would happen in north korea was low. Therefore, thats why were seeing this Market Reaction in the last couple of days. Lastly, ladies and gentlemen, its august. Next week people are going to be on vacation for the last two weeks in august and this is typically a period where you start to see volatility increase again, nobody believes with it because were so fixated on the vix being lower. If everybody thinks the vix is going to be low forever, i would take the bet were going to see volatility increase over the next two to four to five a. Moving it for the First Time Since june 2016 which is prior to brexit. Its a cliche. Is that a sign is this russell weakness that the s p can ignore i think its russell weakness that the s p can ignore. Earnings cash flow, dividends are much stronger s p 500. I think investors are going to buy big cap stocks remember, the russell over the last 20 years is outperformed 17 of the last 20 years we have a lot of premium that can be rolled over the other thing, too, remember, always believe in their own you know what after trump was elected. Domestic, domestic, domestic the small caps got a way bit over extended. Brian, are you in a sense saying you mentioned the word optics, and thats an interesting word are you saying that the markets are now going to be more sensitive to the optics out of d. C. Because the market has shown this resiliency to ignore much of whats happened in washington judge, its a great question. Heres what i would say. I would say optics to everything again, were aching for a breaking were aching to be reactive to anything whether or not its an unfortunate event geo politically in barcelona or continued malfeasance with the corporate side the one thing i would say is youre talking to wall street executives, talking about the increase of a black swan event let me tell you, no one, no one can talk about black swans the more people talk about a black swan event happening, the more likelihood it doesnt black swan events happen when no one is looking for one stop with the black swan talk. Maybe we should focus on the real fundamentals. David tepper told me is the real story. Earnings are better. Global growth is stronger. Interest rates are lower stocks in that environment do well should go higher and we should ultimately as a marketplace transition away from momentum and away from multiple expansion to Earnings Growth and Revenue Growth i mean, think about it the majority of Institutional Investors have less than ten Years Experience theyve never seen a real cycle where fundamentals lead. We think actually thats where were going, and thats why were so bullish longer term again, we think were nine years into a 20 year bull market because were going to transition into fundamental investing. The market is almost fighting itself the problem with investors right now quite frankly is they think they need to be invested they dont really want to be invested its almost defensive investing. Market is up, i ought to invest. Theyre aching for breaking. We need to get back to fundamental investing. U. S. Large caps are so well positioned relative to the rest of the world. Despite what the white house said today, people are going to continue to speculate about gary cones future. What does he mean to the s p 500 in plain terms its not very good. Its not like President Trumps going to become liberal all of a sudden or socialist. The platform is to be more business friendly and conservative were going to see tax cuts. Were going to see infrastructure were going to see repatriation. Weve seen massive discounts on the fda, fcc, epa, pick your acronym. Those are the scenes that are providing more Margin Expansion that no one is actually accounting for now we actually need to see more fiscal change and its not happening because were all fighting with each other but its not theres the perspective. Its not like President Trump is going to switch teams all of a sudden this is very unfortunate from an optics stand point but, again, we need to see tipped credibility from everybody working together and the whole system working along the way it should. Brian, appreciate the time. Well talk to you again. Thanks for having us. Bmos brian belsky. Doc, there definitely appears to be a more unsettled feeling in the market regarding whats taking place in washington granted, this incident in barcelona has a lot of people feeling unsettled at this moment and were waiting for more details there. Clearly seems to be having somewhat of a reaction in the way the stocks are trading the washington question and this feeling of things being more unsettled perhaps and the ceos walking out the door makes a big statement about all of that. It does you saw an Immediate Reaction yesterday, not just in the selloff that joe mentioned, which obviously accelerated dramatically today, but also in the volatility again, people seeking protection i noted a big trade this morning. I called the vix specialist Jamie Terrell on the cboe. Somebody did a one by five spread i talked about the ratio spreads. This person was buying that spread in other words, he bought or she bought an awful lot of the sep 23 calls its already a winner because of the pop weve seen in volatility vol is up 16 today. It could be a huge winner. They did it in size. 90,000 of these up side calls like we talked about yet all those ceos were stepping back and the volatilities were exploding. Unless you think these volatility trades for lack of a better positioning are sucker trades, the vix is up 18 , banks tend to cool off quickly in the days behind us vix comes down so its a short term trade more than anything else. You see it happen on thursdays more than any other day, joe of course, a week ago we were seeing an aggressive selloff because of north korea and so forth. We saw how fast it came back from that and now youre seeing it accelerate here on the rumors this thing hit at the exact minute that those copacabahn ru were out there whatever the story is, theres certainly a lot i understand why that would lead to volatility were all pretty well versed in whats going on. Can any of us point to a single i dont want to use the word achievement but measure thats been taken spearheaded by gary cohn eight months since he came in . A concrete thing hes done i think its fair to say part of its optics they view him as an extremely credible voice on economics. They think of him as the next fed chair. 5 on the s p in and of itself to have somebody in either role. Refer to him rightly or wrongly. They talk about the adult in the room thats why he needs to stay. Whether you believe that or not, thats the commentary thats been out there i think wall street likes him and wants him to succeed in the role the best thing for his sanity will get him moved out of the building and into the fed. Probably a great fit for him i think Goldman Sachs shares would like seeing him at the fed. And but, again, were just making things up because anything can happen in this white house. Theres also listen, i disagree with that. I mean, ive spent time with gary cohn. Ive sat at yankee games with gary cohn for nine innings and spoken to him about the markets in 08, 09 and this is a gentleman who understands how Financial Markets work and in stressful times i think we would all feel very confident that his presence as an adviser, as an economic adviser is first and foremost and i dont know if gary really is concerned about whats going on with Goldman Sachs or if its really going to rally Goldman Sachs stock. Having gary having gary there is incredibly important to the market because if you remove him right. What are you arguing with . Were all saying that. Im not arguing. Im sharing an experience. We all agree on that. Josh, this isnt about an argument between you and i im sharing an experience in knowing the man. Im sharing an experience about knowing gary cohn. What i disagree with is the premise that Goldman Sachs stock, its worth 5 of Goldman Sachs stock whats 5 positive for Goldman Sachs stock is if theres a lot of volatility in the market and theyre making money off of it if youre going to replace gary koe cohn, tell me whos coming in. They need an adult in the room there isnt one. What about the general . I dont know the general. Heres what else is coming up on the Halftime Report. The battle over adp. Speaking out over his position in the stock today well bring you the latest. Plus, one invest oor whos going short. The Halftime Report with scott wapner and the traders is back in two minutes whats Critical Thinking like . A basketball costs 14. Whats team spirit worth . cheers whats it worth to talk to your mom . Whats the value of a walk in the woods . The value of capital is to create, not just wealth, but things that matter. Morgan stanley for years, centurylink has been promising fast internet to Small Businesses. But for many businesses, its out of reach. Why promise something you cant deliver . Comcast business is different. We deliver superfast internet with speeds of 250 megabits per second across our entire network, to more companies, in more locations, than centurylink. We do business where you do business. Adp, bill ackman speaking about his position in that stock. The q and a is underway well see a change in the ceo. Thats something that adp said he wanted and its his earliest statement but ackman himself has not addressed it until now its been 3 hours with 168 where ackman supplies his plans at adp. The market didnt seem to buy into it. Shares of adp sold off 220 to 225 per share by 2021 that would be doubling returns in less than four years. The enclosures max adps under competitors. To improve adp ackman pointed to what his firm calls an over staffed Service Organization and sales force with productivity thats declining ackman said the Corporate Culture relationship organizations are like biological things. One degree of insularity someone comes in from the outside or they leave or they get passed over because theyre not part of the club. Ackman was very excited about the real estate thing. Investors could make a lot of money if they sell off their offices. He addressed adps decisions to disclose his two stakes. They got off on the, quote, wrong track. He said had he had he said he has this interview with the nominating committee of the board later today. Whether that situation leads to an actual plot remains to be seen. Leslie, thank you so much i know youll keep listening to the call one investor is taking the other side of mr. Ackman today Robert Chapman is his name he is the founder of chapman capital. He joins us on the phone robert, welcome back. Thanks, scott you shorted adp i shorted over the two or three days came out of the leaks of his filing. What kind of price point are we talking about started around 115 and finished up in the low 120s. Right around 119 1 2 on average. Three hours, six months of work, 85 consultations, whats what has ackman got wrong . Well, i have to say just the numbers youre putting out there shows i think a focus on quantity over quality of research, and i think there are two things that may be underestimated on the long side here number one is where are we in the employment cycle the payroll numbers have been expanding for seven, eight years. The unemployment rates near a 16 year low around 4 . Thats down a lot from 10 in 2009 thats an important year they made their move into adp and back then it was trading for around 1 3 of its current price. He paid 10, 11 times 29 earnings of 240 a share lets be clear that was at the deep, deep bottom of a horrific earnings cycle. They wisely paid a low amount before the stock market went through the roof very different dynamic now so its youre not like on an island, so to speak, as the only sort of person who looks at this stock and says, you know, maybe the other side is the better bet being the short side. Lee cooper man was with us a little over a week ago and said, and i quote, the fact of the matter is if i was to make an investment decision, i would probably short the stock rather than go long on valuation. Of course, mr. Cooper man was on to defend adp of which he was a director for nearly 20 years ive got to be honest. I know you know this question is coming how much, if any of this, bob, is to be on the other side of ackman just to be on the other side of ackman its funny you say that i was on the phone with a friend of mine about 20 minutes ago we were both sort of joking that making a dollar being short and ackmans stock feels good about one hes not long. Theres a part of that that youre drawn to take the other side of this trade you still do your analysis hes paying 40 times earnings for chipotle paying 27 times earnings for adp. You know, the spreadsheet he put together and the power point on valeant doesnt look so great at this point im not so sure that the analysis is being done all that accurately and astutely over pershing square. With respect, they did speak with 85 people they did six months worth of work surely their level of deep dive is greater than yours on this particular company. No question, but i look at what what ican has said many times about these no brainers, and sometimes its best to take a step back and come back with a simple analysis and try to work around that and see if your hypothesis is correct. To his credit, cp, the analysis was margins are way below the competition. Hunder harrisons a brilliant cost cutter and were at the beginning of a cycle in the economy where you can get multiple expansions, boom, that works. Ggp, highly leveraged equity where the enter price value is probably much more than the debt as the economy improves and the malls go up, values go up, assets will accrue disproportionate then you have herbal life, valeant, chipotle, adp you can put together a 4,000 page powerpoint and 20 page excel spreadsheet. Get rid of powerpoint, excel and go back to basics. Theyve come back and say, look, canadian pacific, home run. Air products done well there are other stocks everybody seems to be trans fixed. Im not ignoring what the performance has been over the last couple of years, nobody is. This guy seems to get no credit ever and now he finds himself once again in a bit of a pickle with a guy whos got a history of liking to be on the other side of him. But the stock lets talk about adp again. Lets move away from the personalities. I know its fun to talk about the personalities. Lets talk about the stock and the dynamics the competition in hdm, payroll, and that type of business is fierce now and its not just fierce from paychecks and the likes. You have these startups that have been funded in the valley and some of them are public now like ultimate where the value of their equity is driven by Revenue Growth when your stock or your private equity is driven by Revenue Growth, you dont care about how you price that next contract youve got to make the quarters revenue numbers. In the case of ultimate they went from 25 to 20 Revenue Growth this year their stock took off 25 points over the course of the week. When that is the driver of your competition, just getting the contract, and pricing is not paramount, the margins of adp are screwed and the Revenue Growth at adp is screwed i think he may have missed that major point, just like in valeant he missed that the Business Model was about price gouging, just missed it. A gigantic huge Sycamore Tree in the middle of his yard and he didnt see it. He thinks he can improve the margins to be competitive with their chief competitor being paychecks. Apples to cooperman and others have reviewed it. I appreciate your time. Thank you for calling in. Thank you. Robert chapman saying he is short adp shares lets get over to sue herera with the very latest on that incident were following. Indeed, scott thank you very much. Heres what happened earlier today, everybody just about 5 00 p. M. Local barcelona time a white van at the city center went over the curb and plowed into a large group of people. This is the las rambla area. The city center is closed to pedestrians at some point, but there are streets that run on either side of it. So the white van plowed into people the gentleman or persons, we assume its a man because thats what police have said, escaped they are now looking for him at this point the driver basically was going, as i understand it, to the northern side of the square. We do not have any confirmation on how many people are injured, but we do know that there are deaths and injuries. The interior ministry saying that there are deaths and injuries as you can see. And im just looking at the latest from tom winter barcelona police, according to tom winter of nbc news, they are looking for at least one suspect in the attack. They cannot confirm the motive behind be the attack at this time, but they believe the incident to be intentional interesting use of language. They are not using the word terror but they are using the word attack. Some of these images may be graphic. We also had reports of two people hold up in a restaurant that remains unconfirmed because there is theres a lot of conflicting information at this particular time. This is from earlier from aptn a senior white house official tells nbc news that the white house chief of staff john kelly is aware of the situation. He is keeping President Trump abreast of the situation what we know is there are deaths and there are injuries we do not have numbers on that police are treating it as an attack they have not used the word terror at this point and its now just after about 7 30 p. M. Barcelona time so well keep you posted on this, scott. Its still a developing story. Back to you. Sue, thank you so much. Halftime report back right after this hey gary, whatd you got here . This bad boy is a mobile trading desk so that i can take my Trading Platform wherever i go. You know that thinkorswim seamlessly syncs across all your devices, right . Oh, so my custom studies will go with me . Anywhere you want to go the markets hot sync your platform on any device with thinkorswim. Only at Td Ameritrade with at t you can get your entertainment right here. Right now, when you get the incredible iphone 7 from at t you can get unlimited data and live tv. The channels you love. Your favorite shows and movies. Making your iphone into more of a. Oh my tv is ringing. Hey. Im in the middle of a. A second iphone from at t . Okay right now when you buy a new iphone 7 from at t youll get a second iphone 7 on us. And power both with unlimited data and live tv. Were back on halftime. Jon nagerian making his way over there there it is, mastercard. Thats right. Its one that josh, joe, a bunch of the guys on the desk love i love it, too mastercard, somebody came out, judge, and moved it up over 150. Lone pine has a stake in this. Master card, you can see the stock rallying a little bit already here take a look at the calls they were buying. With the stock at right around 131 or so this morning, they came scrambling in, bought about 8,000 of these calls the september 137 calls. Again, with stock around 131, thats a 6 move within the next month. I bought these calls as well, judge. Ill probably be in them two to three weeks. Love the up side and i love what both master and visa are doing. So do, doc, most of the people on the desk. Crowded trade. Yeah. I stayed long visa. For a reason. Im in master card now. Ive stayed long visa ive had visa since the mid 80s 102. 79. The 1980s or the mid 80s price . Well, i could qualify for both those prices. I think youre talking about a stock that could actually push towards 120, 125 having that Global Investment strategy, again, visa and master card pay right into that its financial. These are businesses with moats. You look at todd and ted at Berkshire Hathaway have been buying these names pretty much the whole way up this is a stock thats been going up for almost eight straight years whats really interesting about them is that they are kind of like mobile businesses master card and visa are not taking the credit risk of the user of the card the bank is taking that. Theyre taking interchange faith. We keep hearing about disruption in payment meanwhile, every payment disrupter, what do they take, visa or master card, including apple pay, including right . I think these are businesses with the sustainable advantage growth year after year and not an unreasonably high premium multiple for the market. Were up next the retail stock on wall street. Analysts says is hitting the bulls eye can you guess which one it is . Well debate it in our call of the day next this is not a cloud. This is a car protected from storms by an Insurance Company that knows the weather down to the square block. This is a diamond tracked on a blockchain protected against fraud, theft and trafficking. This is a financial Transaction Secure from hacks and threats others cant see. This is a patients medical history made secure while Still Available to their doctor at their fingertips. This is an asteroid livestreamed to millions of viewers from 220 miles above earth. This is ai trained by experts in 20 industries. Your industry. Hello. This is not the cloud you know. This is the ibm cloud. Built for your business. Designed for your data. Secure to the core. The ibm cloud is the cloud for enterprise. Yours. We are back on the Halftime Report. Want to give you a check on the markets. Right around session lows. Dows down 138 vix is at session highs. Up nearly 19 . Just shy of 14 mkm partners today upgrading target to a buy. Patrick mckiever made the move our call of the day. Welcome. Good to talk to you today. Thanks, scott. On a day where everybody is seemingly talking about walmart, why is target your choice . Target reported yesterday so a little one day earlier than walmart. I thought it was really an encouraging quarter. They had a more than 2 increase in store traffic, which was actually better than Walmart Walmart was at 1. 3 on traffic for walmart u. S. I know the comparison was a bit easier for target from last year, but still i think the traffic excel leration was encouraging. They grew digital more than 30 . Nyse kwengsal acceleration and i think they have some good things going on with new merchandise lines including cloud island, which was introduced in march. Theyve got a bunch of stuff coming up in the fall. I think theyre becoming a more viable competitor to amazon. Thats sort of the over arching thesis here. Yeah, thats exactly where i wanted to go with a question now thats going to be, is it sustainable . Why should we believe that its not amazon, walmart, and everybody else well, i think it will be amazon, walmart, target and everyone else. I had been pretty skeptical on targets ability to compete with amazon they have a customer profile that is pretty similar, its that amazon prime customer i was a little bit worried about whole foods when that news the amazon whole foods tie up when that news came out, but there was so much that came out i think yesterday in the Conference Call on merchandising and what theyre doing there it really differentiates them. Theyve got brands that are unique to target so that helps them compete with amazon they are doing really well with digital. I think theyre taking a page from walmarts playbook by being more aggressive and pro active with digital they announced earlier this week an acquisition of this Company CalledGrand Junction which is a technology transport Company Based in San Francisco they specialized in last Mile Delivery theyre doing a lot more now to compete more effectively. Appreciate the time thanks so much. Sure things. Doc, you got a trade here i love target 38 increase in that online. Thats great thats one of the reasons he cited it, but i still have to stay with walmart. Up 15 year to date versus 10 in at n tli a. 6 yield. Whsoto kebout the way walmart is going. Halftime report is back right after this i put everything into my business. And i had all these points from my chase ink card. So i bought ingredients, utensils, even made custom donut cutters. Wow all with points. Thats how i created the ripple the doughnut in a doughnut in a doughnut. Suddenly its everywhere. I mean, it really took off. 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His family had used another insurance product but i was like well ive had usaa for a while, why dont we call and check the rates . It was an instant savings and i shouldve changed a long time ago. Theres no point in looking elsewhere really. Were the tenneys and were usaa members for life. Usaa. Get your insurance quote today. Welcome back to the Halftime Report. Im dominic chu. Were watching gold rallying for a second straight session and pacing for its best day in a week after stocks sell off a bit here scott nations, what else is giving the yellow metal a boost in todays trading the fed continues to look for inflation like i often end up looking for my car keys. The dollar is still relatively low. Thats helping also, today, more than most days, we have haven buyers but this is despite the fact we have an interesting note from morgan stanley, comparing gold to bit coin. They point out that gold has millennia of history, pointing out that its a great hedge against inflation. But they also point out that bitcoin has its place. Theyre getting a lot more calls from potential customers and bit coin may be better if youre worried about transaction costs. So lets talk about the gold side bitcoin, obviously a massive momentum trade right now jimmy, were trading right around that 1290 mark in gold prices weve hit it twice before this year, april and then again in june do you see trading that 1300 level or above for gold anytime soon to me, the levels between 1,300 and 1310 include get above that and settle there and feel comfortable there, only then will i believe that its shooting through the moon. At this point in time, i think its going to have a lot of difficulty with that i think it needs a catalyst to push above it. On the shorter to more medium term, i would rather look for places to short it to be long it all right, jimmy oreo, thanks so much. Remember, today, futures now, weve got former u. S. Trade representative, ron paul or u. S. Representative ron paul giving his take on the latest tensions in d. C. And what it all means for trumps agenda and the market overall and jack avalon of Bmo Private Bank to join us to reveal the one thing that could propel the market to new highs. Well see you in a few minutes online thats at the top of the hour exclusively on cnbc. Com futuresnow. The Halftime Report back in a few minutes. Added futures, i have access to the oil markets and gold markets. Okay. Im plugged into equities trade confirmed and i have Global Access 24 7. Meaning i can do what i need to do, then i can focus on what i want to do. Visit learnfuturestoday. Com to see what adding futures can do for you. Becareally want to be there, but you cant. At cognizant, were helping todays leading Media Companies create more immersive ways to experience entertainment with new Digital Systems and technologies. Get ready, because were helping leading companies see it and see it throughwith digital. At the lexus golden opportunity sales event before it ends. Choose from the is turbo, es 350 or nx turbo for 299 a month for 36 months if you lease now. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. Were drowning in information. Where, in all of this, is the stuff that matters . The stakes are so high, your finances, your future. How do you solve this . You dont. You partner with a firm that advises governments and the fortune 500, and, can deliver insight person to person, on what matters to you. Morgan stanley. Welcome back, everyone im sue herrera with an update on the ongoing situation in barcelona, where police are now calling this incident a terrorist attack earlier this morning, our time and late evening, barcelona time, a white van jumped the curb and plowed into a group of pedestrians at the city center it is in the las ramblas area. It is very popular with tourists and it is the height of tourist season we have reports of fatalities by police they have not given us a number. We have multiple injuries. Police are not confirming how many however, reuters is citing reports of at least one person dead this happened at the time when most people were walking on the plaza, at dinner of course, it is the tourist season we will bring you more information on how many injuries, when we get it the bbc is reporting that we will have a press briefing with police in about a half an hour, so we may get more clarity on the number of people who have been either killed or injured. But there were reports of multiinjumult multiple injuries in this incident scott, ill send it back to you. Well monitor the news wires nbc news is working on this. Keir simmons is working on this. And he was stations in that area for eight years. So hes on the job on that for us we do want to note, sue, that the stock market appears to have taken a bit of a leg lower, perhaps on this news, upsetting what has already been an unsettled market today theres a look at your Dow Jones Industrial average, down by nearly 167 points. Stocks had already been lower on the day. Its important to note that, as questions about the future of gary cohn continue to swirl around the stock market. Interesting, you know, people are still passing around stories on that. Our former colleague, kate kelly, who is now at tthe new york times, tweeting that she spoke to a Hedge Fund Manager on that issue, and the quote is, the dotted line between the market and gary is not circuitous its a pretty direct line right now. And i think thats how most of you feel it appears the markets at large feel that way as well, joe for sure. And listen, we can hear it from the white house, but we havent heard from gary. And until we hear from gary, i think everyone has a right to be a little concerned yeah. Well see what happens there lets do some final trades and i mean, somebody can talk about alibaba, if they want, as part of their final trade. A stock thats just knocked it out of the park. Earnings that knocked it out of the park they bought it aggressively yesterday. They bought calls on it aggressively 162. 50 calls i think 18,000 of them in the final half hour or hour of trading, judge so wherever they buy it late and buy it in size, that means they think they know something. This thing is the size of amazon and not in the s p 500. Think about what that means for a fund that needs to pick up alpha in a large cap name, where it will really help. Not many other places that you can actually do that yep, lets do final trades. What have you got . Real quick, dominos has pulled back. A great lowrisk trade at 190. Just for today, obviously, risk off is piling up here and one way to play it is short the ibb. Doc dollar tree its one of the retailers that does well when people are worried. Josh . My thoughts and prayers to barcelona. Thats it for us. Power lunchic ic picks up this story right now. Im tyler mathisen. Here is what is on the menu for power lunch on another very busy newsday in august big Business Ceos bailing out on President Trump, but what about Small Business owners and are investors now beginning to lose faith in trumps economic agenda and the president trying to save their jobs, so why are manufacturing workers quitting at the fastest pace in a decade . And is this actually a good sign and of course, that deadly attack in barcelona. Al van plowing into pedestrians. A number, we think, of people are