Walmart today. Absolutely. Even though the stock is up sharply as i said. And that does not matter to me because i think the stock continues to go higher you have to reevaluate how youre going to look at this company in terms of the growth that they are producing right now. This is about multiple expansions this is about a company that were pricing at x ike i think its time to price it as x plus clearly the purchase of jet. Com was just a sensational purchase and youre seeing evidence of that right now i bought it today. No problem buying it up 8 , its going higher. Josh, comps best in eight years. Grocery comps best in like six years. Im saying do you remember youve been talking about this stock for a long time. No doubt. We called the breakout in the 70s. And i remember some very heated arguments here on the desk about, oh, they overpaid for jet. What have they added since they bought jet, like 30 billion in market cap they underpaid for jet it was worth so much to this company because it was the transformative spark and it was the way that they were able to take ecommerce to a serious level. And now youve got wall street analysts talking about this thing like they talk about baba. Theyre talking about gmv, gross merchandise value across the platform they never talk about a big box retailer on gmv until now. Jet was the spark that started that walmart is up 41 this year. Target is down 23 this year thats what jet. Com acquisition meant to this company. Its the difference maker. And now the street is rerating it to joes point, deservedly so. This is not to say its the next amazon, its a different scenario, but its a company that has found a way to get sexy again. It may not be the next amazon, but it may be one of the few thats proving itself to be able to compete with amazon. The biggest risk you take right now is not taking a risk you have got to take a risk in 2017 and 2018. A business risk, a calculated risk for walmart, 3 billion. If it was a writeoff, it would have been a mistake and wouldnt have sunk the company. This is a Gigantic Company but if they did nothing and just continued along the path of were going to grow revenue 2 and try to earn 7 margins on it if thats what they continued to do, they would be down 23 with target or maybe worse in the future. Cramer called it a reinvention this morning. Yeah, i agree with josh and joe. It was transformative, the jet purchase kevin didnt like it and hes warming up to it josh and kevin got pretty heated about that josh was right but i think the issue here is the 3 billion to a company the size of walmart, which isnt the size of apple. But the purchase is about the same as beats. Now, which one of those two is transformative, judge . Jet clearly transformative for walmart, whether its 30 billion in market cap added or even more. This is something thats changing the way that amazon has to look at these guys. I believe its one of the reasons that amazon went after the grocery space when they went after whole foods, because they need the distribution on the ground. Think about that. Amazon announced a takeover of a bricks and mortar grocery, not at any sort of discount to anything in the sector definitely at a premium. Both stocks went up. Amazon went up almost as much as the actual purchase what the actual purchase will cost them thats what i mean by you have to take a risk if youre in one of these industries thats being looked as as dead in the water, you can either do incremental things, do nothing or do something transformative it doesnt mean its going to work, but it does give you a better shot at not being left pete, is it a risk given a 40 plus percent gain in this stock, to buy it up 9 today . I wouldnt be chasing it up here i understand joes methodology of why he would like to buy it here quite honestly, yesterday the interesting part for me was you guys had a long discussion about target i had an opportunity to sit down with Brian Cornell yesterday we talked about a lot of Different Things for a long period of time what a great guy. Im sure he told you everything is just great. No, what he said was were a couple of quarters behind, and hes right we talked about that on the show just on monday theyre a couple of quarters behind what i mean by that was the jet acquisition was brilliant. Josh was right 3 billion and that was something that was transformative and its hitting and actually working right now for walmart. The problem right now when you look at the online growth over at target, 24 , thats not so bad. It was 50 over at walmart so certainly theyre trailing there. Their ecommerce at target needs a lot more than it is right now, and i think that is something to come they dont even offer the entire store the way walmart does presently on the online. The pickup is different. I mean its something where if you look and just say were a quarter or two away, i think thats a reason to look at target and say, you know what, this company is doing pretty well. Does wall street really believe that target is down 20 some odd percent in a year, walmart is up 40 year to date investors have voted they have voted. Well, investors have yeah, they voted, scott, but ill push back on you to say this. They voted on the jet acquisition. The jet acquisition was something that really was transformative to the way people looked at walmart. They said, you know what, they are going headtohead with amazon thats where target, i think, is behind a little bit. It doesnt mean they have lost i think that just pushes them behind they still have 1800 stores. They still have a distribution ability out there, scott so its not just talking to brian. This is long before that i look at the stock, ive been in it, ive been out of it on this pullback, i actually think thats the opportunity i would say to you over the next six or nine months, lets take a look back at now target and walmart now and see where they are. The risk is that youre going to continue to chase walmart higher well, yeah, certainly i mean are they, or will we get one of those big pullbacks there as well, scott one of the things everybody is overlooking is, well, yeah, they have grown in the ecommerce area, right . What does that mean to margins it means that those margins are much more razor thin than they already were. Margins went down a few blips. Thats not the story. 13 consecutive quarters of samestore sales growth in a retail environment that is littered with Companies Reporting quarter after quarter of declines. The comps get easier and then the results get even worse walmart is bringing people into the store and utilizing Technology Things like accepting new payment systems, et cetera im not saying target cant do it, im saying that the way in which they have done it is too incremental. They need to be looking at maybe looking at shopify. Like they need partnerships or deals or acquisitions. And thats exactly what theyre doing. But look whats going on within the store right now. Joe brought up inventories yesterday. Unfortunately, i will disagree on what happened there inventories were up because Holiday Season changing of dates, that started part of it but then youve got chip and joanne and the magnolia. Youve got a couple of Different Things coming in on the electronic side. That pushed the inventories up so they are doing things within the store. There is something going on, but the problem is, is it right this second no i would say its a couple of quarters away and then we can look and see what kind of growth weve got there. Okay, fair enough well revisit. Thats certainly possible. And by the way, one of the things pointed out yesterday, 30 Million People still do go into the physical target stores each and every week, so thats something as well. You just brought up is it the physical or the digital, its a combination of both. You need them in the physical that builds out the digital. We all agree. Lets talk about cisco now those shares having the best day in 18 months after a strong quarter. Its a stock when our own jim lav laventhal has been telling investors to buy. The stock is going to build out on a 15year high. The secret is in the acquisitions they make all these small acquisitions, not big acquisitions they should start to show up. Thats jim and hes talked about it on numerous occasions old tech is back, socalled old tech, doc, and its back in a big way, whether its cisco or intel or if you consider microsoft, that too. Cisco, the change in leadership, the handoff has gone id say very smoothly im not going to say its mirroring what happened in microsoft with petes favorite ceo, sascha nudella. Pete talked about the upside calls being purchased in cisco they blew it out of the water as far as that goes i like what cisco is doing obviously the guidance Going Forward for 2018 also very positive, judge. And thats why the stock is reacting the way it is today, right . This guidance bump. Yep guidance was strong. And, you know, youve got barclays, beard, everybody across the board who follows this closely, moved their numbers up or went to buys from neutrals pete, congrats on your trade. You tripled your money yeah, the recurring revenue thing is something that stands out too. When you look at 37 of that, scott, thats a pretty impressive number. You look at margins continue to hold on. The growth and security. The growth obviously i finished the show up the other day with cloud baby. This thing is killing it and they are the group out there and how about the partnership with google cisco is doing everything right. Youve got to give a lot of credit to Chuck Robbins, whos been the guy directing this over the last short period of time but doing an amazing job ive got an interesting stat for you. How about the fact that cisco cumulatively has bought over 100 billion in stock back since the inception 21 average per share price. I mean this is a company that has invested back in themselves. They have done a great job with the repurchase they continue to show that and they have got growth and you look at them and look at the p. E. Level right now its still a stock with plenty of rom to the upside should be a 40 stock. So im going to ask you the same question that i asked about walmart. Is there a risk in buying it up 6 today no, no. Whats the difference absolutely not, scott heres the difference. I look at the p. E. And the growth of each of these two companies. Its absolutely not comparable when you look at whats growing right now in the growth rate that youre seeing coming out of cisco, it is not comparable. They actually have plenty of more room to the upside. Yes, theres competition in the cloud, but they are one of the many theres probably three or four youd call or categorize as leaders. Then you look at the p. E take a look at what ciscos p. E. Is presently. Its almost 15. 14 or 15. Forward is 14. 8 so just two minor things, but i think theyre important for context. The screen is flashing that cisco is at an alltime high and its not it was significantly higher in 1999 and 2000, but it is a 16year high so for most people who are trading and investing, may as well be an alltime high on the buyback. Youve got to be careful with that on cisco. A lot is just to retire the Stock Options that they have lavishly bestowed on executives and employees and theyre one of the more notorious cases on masking huge amounts of stock issuance with buybacks so its not quite as pure. So i think there is some element of this stock following in the footsteps of first microsoft and then intel where these companies are breaking out of these 10, 15year consolidation ranges not only seeing Earnings Growth for the first time in a while thats meaningful, but also seeing a rerating in the multiple people are willing to pay more for these companies than they were even a few years ago, and its not a huge difference in earnings and revenue growth, but its enough. And the International Aspects of these companies very, very important in the context of a Global Economic recovery these stocks would not be doing what theyre doing if you werent seeing a return to growth in europe and asia and latin america. You can see why people continue to put money in this sector, which has been the best performing sector. Not reliant on one individual economy. Great balance sheets. The dollar has come way down. All the new is doing well the facebooks, the netflix, and then all thats old is new again. But they have recreated themselves. In the case of oracle, adobe, microsoft, they have moved from selling a license to a recurring revenue model and the street is ecstatic about that. They love it and thats been the key for a lot of these names. We want to remind you as well that speaking of cisco ceo, Chuck Robbins is going to give a cnbc exclusive interview tomorrow at 9 00 a. M. Eastern time on squawk on the street and he has a good story to tell. Meantime President Trump on capitol hill this afternoon making a push for tax reform where hesmeeting today with house republicans. Ylan moy is there and she is with one of those congressmen. Reporter thats right, scott, now, the meeting with President Trump just broke up and im standing here with representative peter rosscum, head of the tax policy subcommittee in the house. Peter, how was the meeting and what did the president tell you . Well, it was a very top line sort of meeting. There wasnt a lot of details obviously on tax policy but larger themes about Economic Growth and sense of applicat accomplishment i think his last words to us were go vote obviously that was go vote yes but i think that theres a general disposition that this is an opportunity that doesnt come along very often also a reflection about how we are positioned visavis the rest of the world from a competitive point of view. He reflected on some of his observations coming back from asia, wanting to create more of a trade balance between countries, but just without question our tax code is inextricably linked with our prosperity and our future. This bill has a lot of momentum in the house, expected to clear the floor later on today. Over in the senate, theres some concern being raised over provisions like the individual mandate. Did he talk about that at all . That didnt come up to my recollection it was largely a top line theme talking about the need for tax reform, simplification and making us more competitive i think he was here talking to house members about a house bill but also was reflective about the nature of the process and was communicating a level of confidence that the senate would come together around their bill and then in a Conference Committee that ultimately would come to fruition, things would be improved and negotiated all the way through. Did he talk about deadline at all . He said that he wants this done by christmas did he reiterate that during the meeting . He didnt talk about a deadline here. I think the subtext of that from my point of view is were meeting expectations in the house. That is the desire to get something done out of the house by thanksgiving that will happen today in all likelihood and then the pressure and the attention then will turn to the senate to see how their process is as they try to get something out of the senate. The president is known for carrots and sticks did he talk about any sticks, any consequences that might happen for republicans if this doesnt go forward it was more positive. So it was this is an opportunity of a lifetime basically to come along and do something significant that youre going to be reflecting on for the rest of your days, that this will have been a successful effort so there was no admonition of what happens if we dont it was pretty clear, though, a lot of folks realize you dont get a chance to have a fundamental tax transformation like this. It comes along infrequently and most of the members of congress that im interacting with recognize that. Thank you so much, congressman. And that was peter roskam, one of the top tax writers in the house after coming from this meeting with President Trump the house will be voting later on today scott, ill send it back to you. All right, thank you so much for that as lawmakers work on the tax plan at capitol hill, another point of controversy popping up for the administration with that picture right there. Being circulated widely through social media today its the treasury secretary, steve mnuchin, with his wife, louise linton, holding up newly minted 1 bills with his signature on them. Those go into circulation next month. Our john harwood joining us now, our editor at large. John, this is getting a lot of circulation as we said today the optics are being criticized for an administration that is trying to sell a tax plan to the middle class well, thats because theyre bad. This isnt going to make the difference between whether the tax bill passes or doesnt pass, but its very unwise to have a billionaire treasury secretary pose in a glam shot with his wife with gloves on holding a bunch of dollars when youre trying to pass a tax bill that is clearly aimed at the top of the income scale in fact theres a new joint Tax Committee assessment of the senate bill today which shows that by 2027, scott, all income groups under 75,000 will see their taxes go up and all groups over 100,000 will see their taxes go down. The biggest tax cuts go for those earning 1 million or more that is not a formula for Building Public support. Lets take a look at the polls that weve seen here in the quinnipiac poll yesterday, 21 negative on this tax plan overall when you look at one of the subgroups thats important White Working Class voters, whites without a College Degree, they are paradoxically the most supportive of the plan its just slightly negative. Much more negative among whites with a College Degree or better. Then when you look at different income groups, again, working class voters are less opposed than workers who are upper middle class or wealthier. This is a Public Opinion landscape that is not good for this bill. They do have, as peter roskam said, momentum in the house. Theyre highly likely to pass that bill but they have big problems in the senate. Ron johnson comes out and says hes opposed to it, hed like to vote yes i dont know that hes there yet. Collins, corker, mccain have also raised some issues. How messy is that road between th