Small cap russell index is often seen as a proxy for tax reform that index is underperforming again today. Well have the latest on any changes to the house tax plan, and we have an update on the senate tax plan. Which is still to come lets start, though, with todays earnings parade that is driving big moves in the market. In various stocks. Bob pisani joins us now with the highlights from this morning and we have a preview of whats still to come here tonight, bob. Retailers coming, bill, but remember 75 done. Still a lot of retailers just want to companies in general, just take a look at royal caribbean, nice move up here beat by 9 cents. Despite the hurricanes and the issues, they gave a terrific 2018 outlook thats why the stock is up almost 3 . Move to the left, remember coach, well, its now called tapestry, that i had a decent number here. The small beat, revenues were short. Remember, now, they now own kate spade. So theyre merging the company i would call this a transition quarter. The quarter just closed. Theyre talking about significant cost savings that stocks up art bout 1 . Elsewhere speaking of cost savings, you know the trading vol jum and volatiume and volat down one of the big Market Makers in the world, virtu, decent volume trading. 17 . Look at the stock up here. Cost synergies thats helping bought night trading savings are greater than they expected numbers are okay august, september, october trading income held fairly steady thats been an otherwise down stock. Some Trading Companies are doing very well. Cboe has some products that are very hot remember those vix products, the volatility products, thats what they own, one of the things they own. 53 for the year down slightly for today. Elsewhere, were going to finally get the retailers and remember, we had a terrific earnings season so far, up about 8 in the s p 500. These are one of the few things that could sort of upset that as you can see sthem late in the day, these stocks have been moving to the downside bill, and kelly, i would also mention the russell 2000 also down about 1 today. Along with some of the bank stocks maybe a little concern there about tax cuts Going Forward back to you. Yeah, retailers struggling as you pointed out, too bob, thank you, check back in with you in a bit. Another stock soaring today after reporting earnings this morning is valeant meg tirrell has more. Valeant in the middle of trying to orchestrate a turnaround the ceo joe papa was tasked with getting the debt under control and growing through practices other than acquisitions and drug price increases. Today they beat wall street estimates on the top and bottom lines for its Third Quarter. Ever evercore reporting it was driven by significant strength in its main drug. Returned its eye care brand to a good start with 6 growth in east each of the last three quarters. Companys presence on amazon a helpful driver today joe papa said the company isnt talking to amazon about prescription drugs thats a key question in the space right now. Echoing similar comments from pfizer ceo last week papa sees the turnaround as a threeyear process the company paid off more than 6 billion in debt with no obligations nowle until 2020 its stock, however, is trading at a fraction of its 2015 highs of more than 250 a share, guys. Meg, by the way, what is going on with mallinckrodt that one coming if light of wall streets expectations the Company Giving a funny reason people are questioning a little bit for that, saying that an increasing number of written prescriptions for that drug are going unfilled of course, this is kind of a controversial drug because of the price. More than 36,000 for a 5 milliliter vial. Its growth this year in the first half was driven by price increases so thats concerning people a lot on the mallinckrodt front, guys. The lone egg in its basket. Not doing so well. Thats a problem. A big drop. Thank you, meg. Thanks, meg. Meg tirrell. We have a news alert on dis ny what a story today Julia Boorstin, whats happening . Disney reversing its ban on the Los Angeles Times from press screenings of its movies this following the l. A. Times investigative report into diseconomys businedi disneys business reports with the city of anaheim. We had productive discussions with the Los Angeles Times involving our specific concerns and as a result we agreed to restore access to advancing screenings for their film critics. This follows the new york times, the washington poest and others say they were boycotting in solidarity with the l. A. Times. Saying they would disqualify disney from its awards until day reverse ed the ban on the l. A. Times. Battle between the media giant and back over to you. Now resolved. Just silly, silly, to be banning their film critics when its local news out there, their dealings with anaheim. And meanwhile, they may need to curry favor with regulators depending on how seriously these talks could pick up and progress with 21st century fox. Exactly the wrong kind of image theyd want to send right now. It sounds it sounds like they resolved these issues, but its certainly interesting seeing sort of this media giant which has a lot of different businesses and l. A. Times which covers many different parts of disneys business try to work out that relationship. Also worth noting we have disney earnings coming up on thursday and im sure that deal, of course, will be in focus there oh, boy that will be interesting. Julia, do these these, you know, critics reviews matter anymore . I think they just you know signaled that they do. I think this battle didnt look good and clearly disney wanted to resolve it as did the l. A. Times. I think the reviews are important for the publications as they are for disney i think one thing thats interesting, now we have Rotten Tomatoes which aggregate the reviews so you could see sort of a score, a number of how positive or negative the reviews are. I think they do matter as the bar to going out to a movie seems to be higher than ever disney has been very successful with its films but it certainly doesnt want to put itself as a disadvantage all right, julia, thank you crazy story. Julia boorstin there with that. Lets get to our closing bell exchange, minus signs for the major averages today after yesterdays modest rally put everybody into record territory except the russell joining us in our closing bell exchange, allison deans from aa deans advisory we have cnbc contributor peter costa from empire executions next to her at post 9. Rick santelli joins us from the cme in chicago allison, you and i were chatting before the show, i mean, crazy market plenty of reasons not to be in it, but everybody seems to be in it right now as someone whos very valuationoriented, it does make me nervous its an expensive market and so my view is if were walking into an environment where rates are more likely to go up than down, what you need is really strong earnings momentum to continue to propel the market higher the good news is, and looking at results so far, it seems like the majority of earnings are coming in many at or above expectations and guidance tends to be more positive which should help the market, but we need to count on Global Growth continuing, and strong Profit Growth to keep this market propped up peter, what do you make of the big decline in the small caps today and the fact that while the other averages, as bill said, have been closing at record highs, they continue to languish a bit i think you have a rotation back into bigger names i think thats part of it. You know, to me, looking at the small caps coming back in, theyve had a good move. I think that i dont mind that i dont mind having that whole sector come back i think theres opportunities there. I think you have to be very selective about where you go i dont know if buying the whole index is the way to go right now. I do think theyre probably in that group there are some real good values. And, you know what, its not surprising i think a lot of the money is going into much bigger names you look at the top 75 stocks. Theyre all up and i think big money, big cap stocks, thats where people are putting their money. Im not hearing anything about tax reform the argument some have made for why these, you know, companies which tend to pay higher taxes, maybe thats a proxy for the fate of the tax bill you read anything into that there . Its very possible. You know, having not seen i mean, you look at the big cap stocks, theyre going to benefit from it because theres going to be tax advantages. The smaller cap stocks, im not 100 sure how much its going to hurt them. Seems the investing community believes its going to impact earnings Going Forward not really sure if it is i think that theyre equally as nimble as far as taxes as the bigger Cap Companies i think maybe people might be overestimating that a little bit. And rick, the yield curve continues to flatten out here. A lackluster threeyear note auction today even at the rather lofty levels here. You know, peter said today he thinks its still that the treasuries are signaling some fears about the impact that fed tightening will have on the economy. I know you feel like its more about yields that are overseas right now, right absolutely. But its a little bit of everything i can understand peters position quite clearly, and today if you drew a chart of where things lined up on the opening for 2s, 3s, even 5s today, there wasnt Much Movement it isnt because it isnt trading. Threeyear note auction was mediocre i gave it a c. Maybe 10s and 30s in thefection t next two days will give us yields its been a while since we closed under 30 and we visited in the interim 60 basis points, almost 50 basis points and thats a hard dynamic to fight i mean, you think about all the negative rates around the globe then you think about these european sovereigns and how it puts extra horsepower in our long end in the form of purchases and also think about the t. I. N. A. Notion, especially apropos on a day where stocks and valuations are under the microscope you can get 150 basis points on a 6month bill dus doesnt sound like a lot, look back a couple years, it was a goose egg. Consider thats only 40 basis points away, less than a half a point away from the dividend yield of the s p 500, all of a sudden a picture starts to emerge listen, i think Global Economic horsepower isnt something to write home about but its definitely improving, but to look at our long end of the market, the european long end of the market, theres other reasons for the behavior and i thechi think those are hard to trade around because we just dont know how long some of these policies or that dynamic will continue allison, if there was one thing that could shock bond yields higher, do you think it would be signs of serious wage gains . It could be serious wage gains. I think people are still pretty optimistic about there being some type of tax reform and based on what im seeing coming out right now, its extremely confusing. It feels as if rather than completely reforming and simplifying the tax code, theyre shifting different winners, different losers and already theres going to be pushback i wonder if thats a real issue for the the market. Lots of rotation in the market as it continues higher. Thats for sure. Thank you, all, for your thoughts on todays Market Action allison, good to see you good to see you, too. Lets send it over to seema mode d mody. Shares jumping to a session high after a report from bloomberg says brookfield is Holding Preliminary Talks for a takeover of ggp, of course, ggp formerly General Growth Properties it is a Real Estate Investment trust also known as a reit see shares of the stock up over 13 on this takeover speculation, guys. Back to you. Wow another industry where were talking about megaconsolidation and maybe, seema, another one where you can bring up the Amazon Effect. Yeah, clearly an opportunity for more m a a, youve seen the s p sector do, perform quite well in 2017, in fact, one of the best performer sectors this year. Thanks, seema, no doubt well be seeing you later. Heading to the close right now, weve got 47 minutes left in the trading session here as we say minus signs across the board for the major averages not big ones but enough to take us out of record territory. When we come back, activist investor bill ackman losing his bid today to win board seats at adp. Ahead, we will look at the recent trend of investors losing their proxy battles. And what it means for the future of activism. Later, shares of disney and fox are both higher again today. Fox up by 2. 5 after the blockbuster report we broke here yesterday about deal talks with the two companies. Well talk to the former chair of the fcc whether a pproved an other mergers could be in the works. We want to hear from you reach out to the show on twitter, febacook or over email we always love hearing your thoughts youre watching cnbc, first in business worldwide you always pay 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 782 on home and auto insurance. Call for a free quote today. Liberty stands with you™ Liberty Mutual insurance. Welcome back with the markets dipping lower today, especially the russell 2000s down more than 13 , dow down 34 points trip advisor which is plunging today, a 21 decline the travel website saw revenue come in below estimates, said reigniting nearterm hotel growth has been more difficult than expected. The shares are not reacting well nor are its competitors, its rivals in this space, priceline. Priceline, too, right, exactly. The fierce proxy battle between activist Hedge Fund Manager bill ackman and leadership of adp came to a close today. Leslie picker joins us with the dramatic results of that vote. The dramatic results, three months in the making thats right the official tally is in, adp announcing today shareholders reelected all ten of its directors. Pershing squares three nominees including the firms leader bill ackman received about a quarter of the shares voted at the meeting. Not enough to obtain those actual board seats adp Ceo Carlos Rodriguez described the results during the meeting as a, quote, ass whooping rodriguez said in an interview with cnbc his company should not have been targeted in the first place. I think it is surprising, frankly, that a company that has such a successful and strong track record would be attacked, and i think that its really, i think, a sign of, i think, greed and avarice gone too far in the sense that youre attacking a good, Strong Company to make shortterm profits using derivatives and stock profits and other instruments designed to do just one thing which is put money in the pockets of a hedge fund but victory doesnt come free, of course, adp said it spent 27 million spending off bill ackman and his other two nominees for the board p g earlier this year spent even more than that for a margin of victory that was much slimmer. But as activists take on bigger and bigger companies, they have more firepower to fight back and higher success rates according to activists insights, companies have won 64 of proxy fights this year including todays. Thats the highest proportion since at least 2014. The number of proxy fights has stayed constant over the last four years, guys you have no idea what it is to hear leslie picker of all people say ass whooping. Sorry, mom. That it sos o out of charact for you. It shows the emotions that have been stoked in these proxy battles. Absolutely, earlier today we were in new jersey in the meeting. You could feel the tension, it was palpable between these two gentlemen who by all measures, this is a very condensed proxy fight. Three months is very quick to get to, you know, the point of disclosure to an actual proxy fight. You can see, i mean, this is a company that had been performing pretty well before bill ackman took a stake its one that had, you know, a very strong board, a strong ceo, that was not willing to back down and cede to the demands that he laid out despite the fact he had done a lot of research, 168page report, so it definitely is something where the everyone took it a bit personal well, the ceo was kind of personal about this. He attacked bill ackman, said he didnt know what he was talking about. Do you think other ceos are going to follow suit, that strategy effectively paid off. Certainly something Carlos Rodriguez has done and i havent seen a lot of ceos fight back on that side of things. I asked him, actually, during the interview today, whether he would recommend that strategy as one moving forward and he just he kind of let he pointed to the economics of the company and said that, you know, because wed been performing so well, i felt that i had the liberty to really be on the offensive here and, you know, push back against some of the demands and not, you know, cede to the activists just because he owns a large stake in the company. That is a lot of money, though, to spend, to win i mean, 27 million for adp, 35 million for Procter Gamble right . Its a lot of money i mean, when you think the outcome is virtually the same as where they were three months ago or where Procter Gamble was before nelson peltz came in, you have to wonder as a shareholder what is the benefit of all of this. Exactly is it worth the money being spent . Real liquickly, is it over f bill ackman and his involvement with this company, then . He said no. He said no he said that if the company does not abide by the certain metrics that they put forth to iss and to investors throughout this process, some of those being operational margin improvements and other metrics and Revenue Growth over the next few years, then he will be back he will he did not hes not shy about starting another proxy fight even as soon as next year wow. The nominating window for directors is just nine months away, guys, so we dont get much of a break. Holy cow. If this happens again. Yikes le