Thereabouts. 100 points or so on the dow. Only one sector is positive. In fact, it is now not positive. All sectors lower on the s p and for the week as a whole, sara, down 2. 5 . Every day down this week. We havent seen that kind of losing streak in years transportation index in particular down 11 straight days. Today outperforming china its been the other way for the most couple of weeks. Slammed. Lets get straight to the economic story of the day. Jobs feigns of february 20,000 a huge miss versus 180,000 gain. National economic director down played the data earlier today on squawk on the street. We are the source of stimulus we are the hottest economy in the world. And we are experiencing despite this silly flukey number we are on a rolland i will say that the outlook for the american economys still 3 growth plus. Lets bring in Steve Liesman with a look at how todays numbers stack up compared to the other data over the past two weeks. Thanks, wilf. If the jobs in february, 80,000, it would have fit in with other data of an economy slowing down. December retail sales were very weak along with Construction Spending an trade. Gdp forecast have come down 2. 5 the estimate for q4 and 1 so far without a whole lot of data in for q1 2019 it was so weak that maybe its an outlier or a result of onetime factors of february cold weather and maybe why construction jobs at 31,000 and travel and leisure gain done and the shutdown ending and a snapback from the outsized gains of 311,000 jobs in january plenty of economists decided, hey, the best way to make sense of this to fall back on the threemonth average and did fall sharply from 245,000 and remains a strong 186,000 sometimes you just have outliers to the trend this was the second biggest miss by the wall street consensus i went back to 2003. That was in the middle of a recession in 2008. Hopefully this is more like september 2017 when wall street missed by 120,000 jobs and next month the government reported more than 250,000 jobs reported. Silly, fluky number is an official indication. It is compare and contrast for us the data today from the u. S. And the tone of the data downgrades we have seen from the rest of the world in recent months is the u. S. Moving forwards a similar position as the eurozone and china . Great question. Theres a serious downgrade yesterday by ecb and china slowed i believe they went down by. 6 in the outlook that is not what happened in the states so far. First of all, the u. S. Has a higher baseline growth than europe does. We have got more to give right now i think that q1 2019 number is a bit of a fluke i guess in terms of weakening. I dont think it ends up being a 1 year but i think more closer to 2 so i dont expect us to weaken but you have to say, wilf, we are all holding on to what you buddies are doing over there in britain and brexit and how much the weakness wash up on american shores. Make sure your buddies dont screw it up. Oh i have confidence. I wouldnt hold wilf responsible for this. You said it steve, thank you joining us to talk about what it means for the market, Michelle Maier is here, maddy dresner and erin brown from pimco. Is it a fluke, michelle . I like the way steve described it quirky, a fluke. Wilf, we try to not own it and explain it away but theres been a lot of weird data right around the turn of the year weird Housing Starts number and then a strange resail sales number and i think revised and more of that threemonth moving average is the way to go. Look at the trend. The labor market the trend not 300,000 which we had in january and not 20,000 but in between and probably just south of 200,000 and consist with the 2 economy. I think the bigger question is, is it slowing . Yeah. Can we expect those kind of numbers to continue this year . It is slowing it is slowing. But thats the point theres a moderation activity. Theres not a contraction happening. The numbers have been recession their indicators and i dont think thats right i think a slowdown, a moderation is correct an need to see rebound of 20,000 print we saw. Erin, what does it mean for rates . Clearly the outlook is influenced for years by the rates outlook abroad particularly in europe and japan. Where do we go from here yeah, so i think where we go from here is we are of the view we are in the neutral with a gradually Slower Growth rate and a normalization of the tax stimulus impact of late really starting to hit in 2018. As that starts to wane off 2019 we expect to a slower outlook Going Forward and so for rates we think gradually rates can rise a little bit from here but over the longer picture we think its a new normal and rates across the globe remain very low. And i think you did sorry. No. I just wanted to connect what you said to maddys worlds for stocks and an Inflection Point with the week like we just had. I krcorroborate what michell said we have to recognize we have a strong january we had a strong december and also, take a look at the wage growth numbers. So while we saw weakness in the actual new job hiring numbers, wage growth was actually a little bit hot which is a good sign for the economy and good line that labor has some Bargaining Power where they havent had the entire cycle. Maddi, theres daebebate as late if the progress of trade talks is factored into the markets and flip side if negative factors is priced in. What is your take on those two conflicting balancing acts we are broadly expecting 4 to 6 Earnings Growth and if we see that come through we think we see anywhere between, you know, a 2900 to 3000 on the s p with no multiple expansion and we do think to your point theres upside surprise. I dont think that the entire positive china trade negotiations outcome is priced in to stocks so to the extent we get a positive outcome, whether its brexit or whether its china, actually we think theres upside to stocks from that more tepid mid single digit number. Erin, if the theme so far and has been is Global Growth is slowing is the move this year global Central Banks take a pause from tightening or step up easing firstly, we think that you have already seen the move where you have seen the fed go on hold and our jououtlook is not lookig for more rate hikes this year. We dont think that the boj moves the yield curve control and we think the environment is the market priced for it and across g10 you wont see Significant Movement when we look forward, you know, and looking into the sort of years ahead, we think that you are sort of in this environment where its probably youre not seeing fed rate cuts and we would put it at pretty evenly balanced between additional rate hikes versus cuts and so when you look at what the forward markets pricing in right now, probably pricing in too much in the way of rate cuts next year but we dont think that you are going to be able to see Significant Movement from global Central Banks in the next year or two just given where this gradual slowing of Global Growth. Michelle, we have all known that the Global Growth outlook is slowing for a few months but the china trade data today or the ecb yesterday, has that made you incrementally more negative on the outlook internationally have you downgraded growth forecasts . We havent. We have done that already. We have been downgrading our forecast across the globe since the turn of the year and i think now we are at a point where we have reached that correct number that weak q1 across the board and think things are plateauing and we should see acceleration across the different economies and you can make a similar argue accommodate coming to an economic surprise index. Expectations were high the data came in weak. But now maybe youre at a point to surprise on the upside because expectations have been downgraded so much. In honor of International Womens day and jobs day, a big story thats going on right now, the Labor Force Participation rate is ticking up in this country and, michelle, you wrote about it in a note today it is largely because women are coming into the workforce. It is, yes. Thats encouraging when you dig through the numbers what you are seeing is prime working age women returned to the labor force and you see that 25 to 24yearold population particularly the higher educated part of that core and thats a really good story showing that you have people coming back in and those people are maybe more productive and you can therefore see perhaps some Stronger Economic growth or a longer business cycle. Why is it happening do we know if you look at college enrollment, you are seeing increasingly women are more enrolled, garage wait raduating degrees than men and seeing delays of forming families, getting married later and that potentially means more engagement in the labor force in the younger ages. Michelle, you have some work in terms of when women see wages rise and excess cash they spend it differently which sectors could benefit . She works, she earns, she spends was the piece and thats important because women do spend differently on average than men we tend to see in our data that women spend a bit more on health care, on housing but also, on things increasingly we have been seeing self care, on entertainment and where we have seen a reduction of late is apparel. They have to take care of their families are there policy implications either from Central Banks or fiscal authorities of all this well, certainly if you look at whats happening in japan theres been a decadelong focus on getting women back to work. And thats somewhat been successful i would echo michelles comment that women spend differently women think differently, too so if you look at some of our portfolio manager, the roster of Portfolio Managers out there, more and more women are coming in to that role and its really added value because they have a different perspective on valuations, on how to deal with stress vmenvironments, how to tk risk and added to a stronger set of investors certainly at jpmorgan. Erin, final word on this topic. Do you think theres a boost to come to the economy if this trend continues . Absolutely. When you look at women participation, even here in the workforce in the u. S. , it is still about 13 lower than that of men we are in an environment where across g10 economies right now Global Growth is slowing and so where you could get productivity enhancement, where you could get additional participation in the labor force is if we see more women participating. So youve seen a big push and policies initiatives in japan, in the u. S. To try to increase a declining labor force by increasing female participation but that gap exists and theres more room for upside if we see more policies that an initiative undertaken by governments to try to increase and narrow that increase participation and narrow that gap. Memo to politicians, a shot to growth in productivity without blowing holes in deaf sits no brainer. Well leave it there. Thank you to you all. Softbank ceo masa son speaking out with cnbc why hes pouring money into companies focused on ai ahead. After the break, the ceo of williamssonoma to talk about the push of women to serve in leadership roles in Corporate America. The future of Technology Investing lies beyond the tech sector. Its about technology transforming every sector. At pgim, our bottomup approach uses a technology lens to identify longterm winners. From energy. To real estate. To retail. Finding such opportunities for alpha is the true value of active investing. And around the world, you have a partner in that pursuit. Pgim the Global Investment management businesses of prudential. The Global Investment management i can customize each line for each Family Member . Yup. And since it comes with your internet, you can switch wireless carriers and save hundreds of dollars a year. Are you pullin my leg . Nope. You sure youre not pullin my leg . I think its your dog. Oh its him. Good call. Get the data options you need and still save hundreds of dollars. Do you guys sell, other dogs . Now thats simple, easy, awesome. Customize each line by paying for data by the gig or get unlimited. Get 250 back when you preorder a new samsung galaxy. Click, call, or visit a store today. Welcome back to closing bell on another down day for wall street. Dows off the session lows one point we were down 220 now down 121 all sectors, though, within the s p 500 right now are in the red. Energy is biggest loser. Overall market down more than half a percent. New report of jpmorgan finds female participation of boards improved last year from 20 to 22 in 2018. This up tick amid a push of increasing diversity of boards and a law in california seeks to end allmale boards. A company thats made hiring and promoting women a priority, williamssonoma. The retailer has a board of more than 50 women and more than 53 of vp and executive level positions filled by women. Joining us now to discuss is ceo laura alber. Nice to see you, welcome. Thank you. So those statistics are an anomaly. 24 companies within the s p 500 have female ceos why is it so low its upsetting. I haerds that stat yesterday as i was getting ready the talk today and im surprised we havent made more progress you know, williamssonoma, i guess we are an oasis. We have great representation we have gender parity. It is not a single thing it is everything we do as you said, we are over 55 at the Senior Management level and the board. And were very focused on performance. Which i think is the big differe differentiator. I was reading an interview you did online with cnbc a few months back and you spoke there about the importance of role models and the fact that you, your company, do have gender equality does it make it self fulfilling that the role models exist and then the promotions come based on that kind of performance . I think it must right . Because people feel more comfortable. They have different types of role models to look up to, different types of women, different types of men and they can see themselves and theyre not self conscious about how they act and they can focus on the performance versus presentation which sometimes can get in the way of really doing the substantive thing. You know, one issue i have been looking at specifically is Consumer Companies and a mind boggling number of dont have women on boards or management. You cater to consumers, buying at williamssonoma, west elm what sort of decisions does that help you make and how do you connect with your consumer i mean, you have to have management and boards that reflect the diversity of your customer base. Right . If theres 50 women in the world, one would think theres 50 working, 50 management, 50 on boards. Its just the easy math. And i think when you reflect whats happening out there you will get more knowledge about what people want and what the Consumer Trends are. Laura, we wanted to switch and talk big picture about williamssonoma and youve always had a bit of a Price Premium to your brand and a sort of quality premium in consumers eyes is maintaining that today harder than ever before because of the threats of online but also from big brands like whether its Online Amazon or offline walmart bringing in their own types of products to rival those of your own . The most important thing is to have differentiation. And i really believe that increasingly customers care about sustainability and its not just about being premium but sustainable luxury, premium that is sustainable and what does that mean . It does mean that you have to have a clean supply chain, you have to use great materials, take care of the people that make the products that you are bringing to market and im thrilled we just won 24 named in barrons sustainable customer and only Home Furnishings retailer on the list this year. You know, we were talking to jim cramer about the name and he mentioned digital sales. You arepowering the growth through ecommerce sales looking across the retail landscape, yourself and the others doing a good job at that, what different yates you i think it is not about one single chain customers use the channels in different ways they Research Online they sit on the sofa in store. Go back online we now have buy online in store. Ship to store. Its really about the ecosystem and i think in considered pruktds like Home Furnishings products it is nice to be able to see a piece of the brand in real life and then the confidence to go online and one of the things we have been doing is really improving the digital experience to take the fiction out of decorating for your house and weve been working on 3d visioning capabilities online to allow the customers to drag and drop into a room planner our products cross brand and i think is pretty groundbreaking in that no one else is doing it cross brand with the kind of breadth of assortment we offer with the platform of brands at williamssonoma. I read that 15 of your costs of goods sold related to import of china hows that impacted your business are you hopeful of resolution in the near future . Yeah. Ive been talking about this since we heard the news we are vertically integrated which means that we source and make our own goods across the world and we have very tight relationships with our vendors and we have domestic manufacturing of upholstery and so we have been able to shift some products out where it makes more sense and then there are products that we are keeping in china because of the quality and the beauty and the pricing relationship there and so, were in i think a better place than most of course, wed rather not see the trade war continue it would be better to have it not be on the table at all. Finally, i know you cant get into too many details with the quarter because of the quiet period but we have a lousy jobs report for the month of february we had a pretty surprising retail sales report in december. What is your general take right now on the u. S. Consumer you know, im optimistic about the consumer i think theres a lot of room for Great Companies to bring sustainable, beautiful products to market and i know people love their homes and so were in a wonderful business of helping people furnish their homes, teaching them how to cook and to lead more enjoyable lives so for that reason im pretty optimistic that theyre going to continue to spend in our space laura alber, nice to see you. Thank you. Coming up, shares of netflix pulling back today as a wall street firm sounds an alarm about rising competition lbrk wnhewel eado t new note straight ahead when you look at the Critical Issues facing our world, what do you see . We see a billion more people breathing free. We see access to fresh food being the global norm, not the exception. We see homes staying cooler, without the planet getting warmer. At emerson, when issues become inspiration, focusing core strengths to create a better world isnt just a result, its a responsibility. Emerson. Consider it solved. Move to the enterprisegrade cloud thats built to handle all your apps. The ibm cloud. The cloud for smarter business. Still ahead, a rough week for auto stocks. Mark fields will join us to discuss the state of the industry and what he thinks about teslas longterm viability. Softbanks masa son sfepeakn out with david farber. Somebody said theres nobody better to influence the next wave of technology than you. In part because of the risk youre willing to take, the money at your disposal and other things do you agree with that im just a small startup come on more about his latest thats coming up next. Time now to get a cnbc news update with sue herera. Hello, everyone President Trump surveying the damage from above of a deadly tornado that devastated a small alabama town killing 23 people he and the first lady flew south to georgia and then took a helicopter to alabama. U. S. Special representative for venezuela abrams denying allegations that venezuelas Opposition Leader is a puppet of the United States. Abrams comments came as a power outage left much of venezuela in the dark the allegation that juan guaido is a puppet of the United States i think is first ridiculous and disproved in a number of ways one is the number of countries that support him. The longtime boss of the crime family Carmine Persico has died he had been serving what was effectively a life sentence at a federal prison in North Carolina he was 85. You are up to date thats the update. Back downtown to you see you in an hour. Sue, see you next hour. Thank you very much. Artificial intelligence was one of the key themes of davids interview with softbank chairma and ceo masa son david joins us with more david . We went through a lot of things, masa and myself, in terms of discussion of the investments made within the vision fund 100 billion portfolio. He says theyre all linked by the focus of Artificial Intelligence regardless of the industry of which he invests and one name i found myself wondering about which is we work masa said he would like to own more and appears the investors and at saudi arabia may have put the brakes on the desires there a bit but i asked him, well all right, ai and we work, how does that work . So, many people still think it is just a sharing office. They buy real estate and lease it out and thats the thats not my view. Okay my view is its a working community. So facebook, when facebook came, people still did not understand the power of mook. Still thought it is just a bunch of photo and text introducing people thats not the case. It is a community. Its a graph that you want to get. Throughout we work membership they can help each other they can come in the share of new york, boston and meet and help each other among we work members and with the power of ai can recommend, hey, by the way, you have if youre looking for design of the package, theres another member in the Wework Office next building and you may want to have a meeting at the next party on friday night. Yes might. You can im skeptical about that i dont know if people really merge in a wework in the same way that he was saying but he is the expert david, is it fair to say that some of the earlier investments they made have been more successful than the more recent ones did you discuss the track record and performance with him we did. He has a track record that enviable and i think able to raise 100 billion in venture money, late stage. They talk about 44 irr since 2000 now, that includes, of course, the greatest investment anyone ever made. 20 million in alibaba now worth 130, 100 billion depending on where the market cap is of alibaba. 29 . But they have had some successes within the portfolio now, the big ones are still to come well see if uber maintains or increases the valuation going public or wework or slack or the other names they have gone into in a big way and did buy nvidia, a public company, and sell it at a large profit they bought at 105 and sold at 218 and a takeout of flip card which walmart bought at a big premium, as well. When i think of ai and i think of job losses. Yes. Some of these companies dont require as much manpower did he have thoughts on that i agree with you and i think he sort of gave that same he arctic latted that same story that is there are always new jobs created when jobs are destroyed. He went back to, you know, wherever you want do go with the horse and buggy and car came and or farming which is 90 of the workers in the world and now 5 and does that mean that there have not been additional jobs . He came back to that but we also got to the whole thing of rome did you see that earlier no. The world may be like ancient rome and everyone sitting out in baths with the robots waiting on them and you will have a basic income im not kidding. You will have a base income. And the price of so many things will come down dramatically because the mode of production is not human labor any longer. How much of the fund is invested and for whats left as he is optimistic to make the returns or is the tech valuation, where does he stand on that . Seems to believe, wilfred, he can continue to generate significant returns. There are about 70 billion of roughly 100 billion invested although he pointed out banks now give him the increase in asset size willing to lend to the fund and thats increasing the capital capacity a bit with leverage, obviously. So they may go beyond that and 70 done with their investing. I know theres just a stream of people in and of of his home in woodside he has 15 to 20 meetings a day he spends 97 of his time on investments now. So he doesnt seem to think theres a shortage of potential ideas. You carved out the other 3 . One hour with him which very unusual. Took only like four years for that hour. Does he have a successor . No, not really. How old is he running the vision fund is also he is in his early 60s and said hell go about 8, 9 years. Could kalanick take over . He said he thinks he has great admiration for him as a founder and what that required of him and said conceivably to invest with him again. Congrats. A full hour. So nice of you to stay so late the talk to us. It was. On a friday. Only time when he takes vacation and does way too often on fridays. Too generous. What is he going on fridays usually traveling back to europe it was so good, david, can we do another section in the next hour 4 45, see you then. Really funny. We have got love that 22 minutes left of trade the dows down 0. 4 . The day low was 220. Energy the worst performing sector today whats driving that slide, next. Prime minister may issuing a pretty sharp comment to a reporter on this International Womens day. Listen. Only one question from a woman reporter on International Womens day, pretty poor show only one question. Touche. Coming up, well continue the coverage as we speak to two female top executives of how to fix the jendser gap gender gap america. Ooh. So, why dont traders have coaches . Who says they dont . Coach mcadoo you know, at td ameritrade, we offer free access to coaches and a full education curriculum just to help you improve your skills. Boom mad skills. Education to take your trading to the next level. Only with td ameritrade. At t provides edgetoedge intelligence, covering virtually every part of your manufacturing business. So this wont happen. Because youve made sure this sensor and this machine are integrated. She can talk to him, yes. Atta, boy. Some people assign genders to machines. And you can be sure you wont have any problems. Except for the daily theft of your danish. Not cool at t provides edge to edge intelligence. It can do so much for your business, the list goes on and on. Thats the power of. This shipment will be delivered. I want to fly like an eagle welcome to closing bell. We are about less than 20 minutes out to the close and we are off session lows dow losers, though, energy is among them exxonmobil down almost 2 . Pfizer, cocacola, caterpillar you have a mix of defensive and cyclical stocks. Goldman sachs with a good day. Its the euphoria about not having to wear a suit and tie lifting the stock. Delayed reaction after low rates yesterday . Exactly. Now, as sara said, energy worst performing sector in the s p 500 on pace for its worst week since december. What is behind the declines . Lets bring in global head of commodities trading. Thank you for having me. Ill start with the news we got from exxon and chevron earlier in the week. Big upgrades in the permian. Does the size surprise you a big thing in terms of weighing on sentiment is a view with them going into the permian are they going to essentially take costs lower is this going to be a situation where we talked about below 50 is the permian productionive but with the technology is that going to drive costs down . Does that mean the permian becomes more prolific . Are we talking about the permian story overwhelming opec, overwhelming saudi Going Forward . What is going on with the weakness today i think it is the macro story. Real concerns of demand. With job numbers, chinese imports, i mean, that is the biggest headwind for oil is concern of the Global Economy. I think that is the big story this week before we had the saudi story. Opec cuts were working and can they counter balance demand . You said it will u. S. Production overwhelm opec it is a big challenge u. S. Production will grow and we have offsetting factors, sanctions on venezuela, iran under sanctions. We have two opec countries under sanctions and saudi arabia says they take production lower it is a question of where does the year end aneed higher prices than where we are now. What is going on with the saudis right now i think the saudis are still in the situation of putting this floor in i mean, they keep talking about taking production below 10 million. They basically taken a Million Barrels off since the summer and theyre really bound to the mark market themselves. Several opec producers is cheating nigeria is not complying and saudi bearing this on their become and the story of the permian continuing to produce, how long will they do it what about the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund is cutting . It was announced over the summer recommending cutting exposure to Energy Companies and then the Government Commission said dont do it so this is something thats been discussed before people are questioning the norwegians know something about the future of oil . Is this about criticism of environmentalists . A thing of a sovereign wealth in the producing company it should be for diversification and not surprising to seek to invest in other sectors. The oil is a strong story yes, it was pummeled last year and up more than 20 with brent or wti for the year. The strength of the opec cut i think really helped them if we can get beyond these demand concerns, i do think we will end up brent 68 to 70. In terms of some of those geopolitical supply concerns, is venezuela fully priced in, for example . Are there other surprises to come the surprise to watch is what happens in algeria hundreds of thousands of people in the streets if we get potentially regime change there, is that the second arab spring . Will leaders around the region say, why, gosh, we need to spend more and double down on the desire for higher prices you said we come up to 70 we have a president , though, who doesnt like Higher Oil Prices and makes that very clear on twitter and with the saudis who he has a Good Relationship with. Will he let that happen . This is a great question with the opec secretarygeneral in washington for two days making the case around washington about the value of opec in terms of providing stability to the oil market, lack of volatility but they face pressure i think the organization faces pressure theres a bill through the judiciary commit tee to declare opec a cartel. That is something to watch for them ali if it gets to a floor vote it could pass. We have 13 minutes to go here before the closing bell take a look at the major averages, cutting the losses here into the close. Dows only down 50 points. We are down more than 200 at the lows still lower but checking touts s p 500 we have two positive groups a little bit of an improvement in the tone and the tape. Cocost beat. Thats next here on closing bell. [beep] you should be mad your neighbor always wants to hang out. And you should be mad your smart fridge is unnecessarily complicated. But youre not mad, because you have e trade which isnt complicated. Their tools make trading quicker and simpler. So you can take on the markets with confidence. Dont get mad. Get e trade and start trading today. Dont get mad. How do you determine the durable value of a business in the Transportation Industry without knowing firsthand the unique challenges in that sector. Coming out here, seeing the infrastructure firsthand, talking with the people behind the numbers creates a different picture. Once i know what a business is truly worth, we can make better informed investment decisions. Thats why i go beyond the numbers. Lets send it over to seema mody for a quick market flash. U. S. Stocks on track for the worst week of the year and notable underperformance of steel stocks in the week including u. S. Steel on pace for a 11th consecutive day of losses, the longest losing streak on record down nearly 20 in the time. Some analysts sayits the tariff and trade uncertainty and the Global Economic data youre looking at shares down another 4 in todays trade. Wilf and sara, back to you. Thank you. Lets check in on some other individual Market Movers at this hour netflix got a downgrade today to neutral from buy citing increasing competition to member growth. Disney plus was one of the competitors cited. Netflix shares down 1 and rebounded strongly 50 or so from the low back at the end of last year it was a downgrade but price target stayed the same in the 380s. Impressive the downgrade didnt have more of an affect. I dont think its new to talk about competitor threats like a disney plus and out there. It was also interesting that the note mentioned netflixs cmo departing. Not sure how big of a catalyst that is but it was one of the factors. Today, costco after the company blew past wall street estimates, despite a highly competitive industry, the drop in gas prices and a shift to lower cost sourcing, the Company Announced to raise the minimum wing to a spread of 15. 50 per hour may need great strong same store sales growth we discussed it yesterday. It is an interesting week of differences coming to retail earnings target, kohls strong. Disappointing from kroger. Margins are always impressive on costco. Kudos to stephanie link who was here, has been an avid believer in that stock. All the sort of negativity today around the jobs number, worth pointing out that most of the retailers at least have offset that poor december retail sales data and not like capitulation on the data theres some positive signs out there. Doesnt look like when that retail sales for december number came out, it was recession their a recessionary and not what were getting. Ceo of williamssonoma is optimistic. We have 6 30 left until the close. We are climbing into the close down just 33 points on the dow we were down as much as 300. Will we go positive seven minutes. What do you think . I dont know we need steve grasso here to make a call. Not quite. After the bell, we are going do talk to a former ford ceo mark fields about the state of manufacturing, trends in the industry closing bell will be right back dont get mad. Get e trade, dawg. Sara, if youre watching, i might lose this bet. The dow is very nearly positive. S p still down. 2 the dow, though, essentially back to the flat line. It was down as much as 220 points theres been an encouraging final couple of hours of the session after a negative week. Particularly the last few hours. The other thing thats happened today for the first time this week the u. S. Outperformed the rest of the world. Shanghai down 4 the nikkei down 2 europe down half to 1 it means a number of sectors are positive, as well. We had all the sectors in the red earlier today. Defensive in tone but good to see some green there energy and consumer decisi discretionary the bottom a couple of themes did dollar is highly mainly because of the weakness, particularly the euro and the ecb. Todays bounce back in the opposite direction and the dollar index for the week as a whole as you can see up 0. 9 10year treasury note yields lower. Not so much for u. S. Factors but because of the ecb downgrade to growth we have seen buying of european bonds and dragged down yields globally the 10year at 2. 63. Bringing in bob pisani bob, main takeaways for today and the week dollar 21month high. Thats largely the euro. But we now have some two major head winds europe and china political meeting made it clear even if the trade deal goes well they have a lot of problems and why theyre furiously stimulating. Mario draghi almost said the same thing trying to be proactive theres not a recession in europe maybe italy is weak but they act like they want do get ahead of something. Outside the United States, europe and china, signaling things are slowing down and abouting the try to stop that. Heres what was encouraging of today. What was weak . Bank stocks. The kbe tonurned positive a few moments ago. Russell 2000 down 4 russell 2000 was just positive i see its flat lining here. Energy still on the downside Home Builders were also on the weak side for most of the week those, too, turned around. Three Leadership Groups with a hard time this week. Quietly turned positive today. I dont know if thats the bottom but its encouraging. Its been energy and industrials the laggards of the week we got a bit of gains of the week in utilities and real estate and down 2 of theweek and essentially flat today, bob. Which is nice to see buying into the close on the dow at least. What is happening is kudlow got the way and people are looking at the jobs report as perhaps a bit of a fluke well see. There goes the bell and, sara, sorry to disappoint but we are just flat, just below the flat line on the dow about 18 points lower s p down. 2 that does it for the first half of closing bell. Back do yto you, sara quite a recovery there into the close. Not quite into positive territory. Welcome to closing bell. Im sara eisen wilfred frost rejoining me in a moment along with mike santoli, senior markets commentator look at the day ultimately and the week on wall street. Dow going out with a loss of only 24 points or so it was down more than 200 at the lows and had this nice little runup into the close. S p 500 down well off the lows. In fact, toward the close groups turning positive like utilities, materials, real estate, consumer staples. Biggest loser of the day energy. Consumer discretionary not hot today. Russell 2000 down. 1 . Tallying it up, though, stocks down every day this week for the worst week of the year heres the story on our radar. Stocks finishing up as i mentioned. Chinese exports falling by more than 20 last month and concerns of europe. Another big theme of the week here joining us to talk about the market, Sarah Ketterer she was manager of the year and weshds note sarah is one of the very few woman ceos of an assets firm here in the u. S welcome. First, mike, got some buying into the close is that a bullish sign to cap off what was a pretty bad week for stocks better than the opposite. Fridays have been strong this year so i do think in general at the lows this morning the s p was down 3 from its high a week ago. Thats about the range where you say this is still a normal pullback we had this slowdown theme working the way through the market the bond market especially you have treasury yields compressed and well ordered and kind of a quick downward repricing of yields and modest with stocks. Sentiment and valuation are neutral and stocks were not really necessarily out over the skis very far. We said yesterday that the difference between the ecbs piftd a pivot and the feds pivot is its not accompanied by bad data as it was in europe. Does that change now with todays jobs number . I dont think todays numbers enough to change that overall. Its interesting the market pretty quickly made the assessment that you could really discount this number as a potential trend change and doesnt seem to be that because of the prior months adjustments but i think theres things on notice because they might slump into that direction so i am looking at credit Market Conditions and then looking at the yield curve and things like that to maybe indicate that the markets are hunkering down for an erosion of the data that we havent seen yet. Sarah, how would you characterize the stock market after the pullback this week where valuations stands versus fundamentals and the data like todays job report well, globally valuations are reasonably attractive and led by the part of the world underperforming, namely europe and japan and non u. S. Developed markets trading at half the price to book multiple with a competitive return on equity so we think things look dicey in the u. S. Cast your eyes abroad and thats where the real bargains are. Like where specifically i would argue that the epicenter of pain uk given brexit but Continental Europe took a real blow this week after the European Central bank decided to pause on any prospective tightening and looks like qe inif ity and that made investors very nervous especially about banks trading at some of the lowest valuations we have seen since the Global Financial crisis so those are bargains right there. Lets explore the banks in a moment in more detail. Its a bold call at the moment but on the topic of europe and the slowdown in growth we have seen Morgan Stanley ceo spoke in new york today as part of the ceo Speaker Series and did address that slowdown in European Growth outlook. From ten years ago europe is in a materially better position. You have Economic Growth in the sort of 1 range which is not great but its better than ten years ago. The profile has changed. There are always pockets of misery in europe italy has tried hard to occupy that throne for a while and theyre succeeding but, you know, spain had it for a while. The grownup in european politics for last ten years is Angela Merkel and thats coming to an ends some point so im not anxious about European Growth. We dont look to europe to provide 3 to 4 growth. We look to europe to be stable, be growing 1 to 2 . Mike, i guess thats now the sort of bull case on europe. What james gorman outlined and not concerned to drag the u. S. Down but thats a sort of positive spin at the moment. A positive spin on yeah. What seems like more of the same story in europe. 1 to 2 if thats a run rate. I guess thats a net positive. I think the issue for u. S. Investors is that europe is a bigger piece of multinational u. S. Company earnings than it is of the engine of the Global Economy and why the effect is felt more sometimes with stocks than it is really in terms of the fate some people think youre crazy to go in european banks when the central bank downgraded growth forecast to 1. 1 and said that basically negative for zero Interest Rates forever and crushing the banking system. Why are you a buyer . Whos crazier, the investor to buy unicredit in italy at 40 of tangible book value thats the book value. Less goodwill. Those are crisis level valuations for a bach thats cleaned up its bad debts and is we think doubling the ratio and investors will be rewarded further. Is that crazy or 30 times earnings for a stock to disappoint the market and plunge is that crazy . We think its european banks, this is the time. But sarah, i mean love this. Clearly central bankers reinstated the ltros and as sara here says, made it clear that we are not going to get the shape of the yield curve changing any time soon. Does that not make you fear that its very hard to make serious earnings what is your view on the ltro . Well, we knew that was coming none of that is a particular surprise but what we look for is two items that banks can control and really adept Bank Management can cut costs and have sufficient capital to make the market calm about the ability to grow the loan book they can certainly grow their non lendable income. Theres so much the banks can do even in a very subdued economic environment as were seeing today. And yet theyre getting credit for none of it which is fascinating. This is a tremendous opportunity to pick up these banks when theres such the most uncrowded trade. From europe to asia, chinas exports fell more than 20 in just the last bit of data that we got, out of february that was for. Estimates of a 4. 8 decline. And analysis has shown that the slowdown in chinese exports is linked to u. S. china trade negotiations mike, weve known chinas slowing and the trade issue is out there and nonetheless getting a data point much worse than expected it weighs on markets. Shanghai market down 4 . Especially after that market has had such a huge snapback rally. Maybe the market to over anticipate but it was a giveback on this big rally. But, you know, its certainly the numbers dont really tell you. Up to look pretty hard to say that china macro bottomed and turning for the better. They have been trying to stimulate and address the problem. Sarah, do you see any opportunities in china or anything related to the china story . We could look out beyond the next several quarters, over several years, china of particular ashares and difficult for Foreign Investors to access those shanghai traded stocks then maybe some of the most value laden opportunities for any investor anywhere given how ignored they are and retail driven so we are pouring Research Effort into china and were convinced there will be a payoff for our clients. Including china mobile . Is that a top pick in china . For stability purposes. Think of it as one of the several great asian mobile companies in consolidated markets so that they have a very tame and favorable competitive environment, very high dividend yield in the case of china mobile tremendous financial strength so that they can assure that investors keep being rewarded and theyre well positioned for 5g coming up soon in the next 12 months so it may not blow it is not going to necessarily return huge in terms of Capital Gains but right now that income and that stability in such volatile markets we want that for our clients. Wanted to get to a few other bets that you have on right now including in energy. We were talking about the slump in Energy Stocks today they have had a good year so far. Where are you buying in this group and why . Well, for our global clients, one of our preferred areas is oil services, in particular those exposed to fracking and ill mention halliburton 27 of the revenue from u. S. Hydraulic fracturing and theyre very well positioned for any improvement in Capital Expenditures by their customers and those customers completing wells so theres been a proliferation of drild and uncompleted wells and we like the dividend yield on the stock and the Share Repurchases and overall financial strength and nows the time to accumulate and we think those pipeline problems will be resolved by year end. Mike, the big sort of royal dutch trading more like linked to the oil price or the value type stocks with the big dividends they have got . No. They refine crude oil into dividends and buybacks basically the way theyre viewed and have been for sometime sometimes very low sensitivity to the end product prices and a different category than the exploration names, for shuure. Thank you for joining us. Coming up, mark fields discusses the outlook of manufacturing in this country and whether he thinks tesla is making a smart move by closing its physical stores. And latter, well look at how to fix the gender gap of corporate boards and joined by ceo Maggie Wilderotter and Katherine Minshew on global. When you look at the Critical Issues facing our world, what do you see . We see breakthrough medicines getting to patients in record time. We see harnessing natural gas unleashing the promise of clean energy. We see engineers simulating the future to improve today. At emerson, when issues become inspiration, focusing core strengths to create a better world isnt just a result, its a responsibility. Emerson. Consider it solved. The u. S. Jobs numbers released this morning painted a weaker than expected picture of the u. S. Economy manufacturing payrolls soft with only 4,000 jobs added. Joining us to discuss manufacturing and the Auto Industry, mark fields, former ford ceo and thank you for joining us welcome. Thank you for having me. Lets start on the not quite the broad economy but broader autd t auto sales do you think theyve peaked for this cycle and how long before we see growth in the numbers again . The last four years have been pretty high record for the autd toe industry but you are starting to see a flattening the last month you saw the sales down more than 3 . Last year they were down a bit you have a number of factors working in there the bottom line is its fairly healthy because the consumer is fairly healthy looking at wage growth, low unemployment. What kind of warning factors do you look for for when that could fall off a cliff it always looks rosie until it doesnt. You have the look at a number of things. The first thing is what is the state of the consumer . Youre continuing to have wage growth unemployment is low. Consumer confidence is high. Seeing them turn down, that is telling you that the consumer is a little shaky and we are not seeing that. And then secondly you start looking at incentive levels of what the industry is spending and if you look at the last six months, the industry is actually reduced incentives so those are just a few of the things that you look at and if the consumers healthy the consumer industry is healthy. Looking at manufacturing as a whole in the country, how much do you think there is an impact of the trade war i think there is an impact. Overall when you think about business investment, you think about whether its dealers, Auto Industry or the industry as a whole, you see business inve investment softening they dont want to see uncertainty. So when you look at those things it does impact it to a certain degree, absolutely. We look at how showing the auto stocks and how the market is valuing Auto Companies and seems like not just at the mature part of the cycle but dont know what the next cycle looks like so how fast do you think theres going to be that big transition to alternative fuels, electric vehicles and things like that . Can that happen in a quick way if oil prices dont go up a lot . When you look at the prices, i mean, theres three factors that are really combining now on auto industries. You have the fact that china is now slowing down youre not having the same growth rates you have had in china. Its been 12 compounded over 10 years. Last year it was down 4 so you wont have china to rely on. Secondly, you have the cycle, end of the cycle coming which reduces profitability in the Auto Industry and the third piece is advent of electrified vehicles, the margins are lower than internal Combustion Engines and part of whats reflected in the stock market and in terms of the uptake on electrification its the cost versus an internal Combustion Engine and by most studies it takes another five to seven years for that to come to fruition the second is charging infrastructure this is not like field of dreams, build it and they will come it is more like electrify it and they will charge and if you dont have an infrastructure system for consumers because where the growth will come is not folks that just have a twocar garage and they can charge up there. Its People Living in apartments and things of that nature. Third thing yeah. I mean, the third thing, not many people talk about is the convenience factor the charging time. Right. The industrys going to have to get to a point because consumers are rational and time is luxury and so if until you can get the charging down to what it takes to fill your car up at the exxon station and grab a slurpee thats Holding People back. What about the level of competition and innovation tesla widely seen as the best ev on the market for a number of years. Is that about to change . Absolutely. In teslas case, they have done a terrific job of moving the industry to electrification. The bad news for them is they have movered the industry to electrification and when you have that competition that is going to impact their business and they have talked about some of the issues that they have but every manufacturer, i think theres about there will be 200 fully electrified vehicles on the market in three to four years and that will change the market and the dynamics for tesla. Do you think tesla as a sustainable, longterm Business Model . They have a very sustainable brand. From a Business Model standpoint, the key for them this year is they have to have that balancing act of how do they grow volume by churning out more cheaper versions of the model 3 while not sacrificing the fact that they want to be sustain bring profitable you have seen musk walk away from that at least this quarter and comes down to the consumer right . Because without incentives, thats going to impact teslas Business Model by eliminating their stores, are consumers wanting to buy a car like a crockpot on amazon . Those are the type of things that tesla really has to prove and the next 12 months are very telling. What do you make of the no physical stores aspect for them . Its a difference going from early adopters to mass adoption. And, you know, consumers have always been used to going and seeing and touching a vehicle. And i think that is going to be very interesting to see because it is the second biggest purchase they make in their life after their house and will they want to do that just online not physically or test driving the vehicle . Thats a leap of faith. One more question on the likes of uber and lyft a story said that mercedes and partnering and one is ride sharing do you think theyll take on uber and lyft in a meaningful way . I think theyre looking at it because they say we need new Revenue Streams and, of course, the Addressable Market Going Forward thinking about the urbanization, people moving into cities, that demand is just going to skyrocket i think the interesting thing thats causing pause for all the automakers is lyft, for example, in their s1 that they published theres an interesting thing saying that they have about 3 billion of net loss carry forwards that they say maybe will be able to use them if at all by the time they expire by 2030 which says they could not be profitable for next decade. You know if theyre not profitable, if ubers not profitable then the oems are saying where in the value chain of transportation as a service can we make money . So finally, i think of tpg as Cutting Edge Technology investments. What are you advising them whats promising well, you look at, you know, theres an old saying where there was the gold rush, you want to be the folks selling the pick axes as opposed to getting the gold and so, we are looking at component things such as lidar. Obviously tpg with an investment in uber and looking at the technologies to enable things like transportation as a service and what are those companies that really provide some compelling technology and business approaches Going Forward. Mark fields, thank you for joining us. Thank you. Up next, a key signal to watch that could indicate the end of the u. S. Economic expansion. And a new report finds worker demands to be solid throughout this year. Find out which industries have ocsidsomg hiring nee cin upn long bell. This is huntsville, alabama. Aka, rocket city, usa. This is a very difficult job. Failure is not an option. More than half of employees across the country bring Financial Stress to work. If youre stressed out financially at home, youre going to be too worried to be able to do a good job. I want to be able to offer all of the benefits that keep them satisfied. It is the people that is really the only asset that you have. Put your employees on a path to Financial Wellness with prudential. Bring your challenges. Todays february jobs report number well below estimates with 20,000 jobs added during the month. Mike santoli with a look at the relationship between jobs and the stock market mike, what did you find . In particular the Unemployment Rate and today down so that was a good news piece of the report but that is a very longterm chart going back to around 950 of the s p 500. This is basically a chart that only counts percentage moves and this is a chart of the Unemployment Rate or actually the trend in the Unemployment Rate so dont get caught up in what the two lines are but the orange line crossing above the green line coincided with market tops and the prelude to a recession and what we are on the lookout for here is whether this was going to be another one where we curled higher and a risk of that because if you remember we did tick to 4 from 3. 7 before this month and if we continued higher from there there was a threat we did do that and dodged the bullet this time and its not as if its an immediate market top but if you look down the way, you know, right here was another one. So essentially coincides with when the cycle is nearing an end and the stock market starts to show peaky activity. It is the this is suggesting it is the turning point in the Unemployment Rate and we have a low level but changing direction at a low level and then all of a sudden the more recen readings are going higher than the last 15month average or Something Like that, thats usually getting that timing signal and yes we have only been around this low in terms of Unemployment Rate a couple of times in 2000 and then go back to around 1970. Assumes that in time the Participation Rate levels out or oer otherwise thats its nuance yeah. Mike, thank you very much. Doesnt includes the y. No. Time for a news update with sue herrera. Heres whats happening at this. President trump and the first lady visiting alabama to survey the tornado damage. While there, they visited a row of 23 crosses. One for each victim observing a moment of silence in front of each of the markers near a Church Canadian Prime Minister trudeau apologizing to the communities of Northern Canada for past mistreatment. The government separated children with tuberculosis from their families in the 1940s and 50s. Today, i am here to offer an official apology for the federal governments management of tuberculosis in the arctic from the 1940s to the 1960s many of you know all too well how this policy played itself out. And new york citys iconic Chrysler Building is up for sale the owners have hired cbre group to market that property. A number of Real Estate Investors believe the building could struggle to recoup the 800 million that the Abu Dhabi Group paid for the stake in the property in 2008 it was big news back then, the financial crisis well keep track of it for you guys, back to you. Have a great weekend. Sue, thank you very much. You, too. You know what the very, very top room in the Chrysler Building is . A restroom so that when it was built the founder enjoys a nice view. A toilet . Yep. Have you been up there . I do. I know the company that had the last two floors for a few years. Thats funny. Pretty cool. Good factoid. Up next, democratic president ial candidate warren calling for a break up of Big Companies. Well discuss how to fix the boards room gender gap for your heart. Your joints. Or your digestion. So why wouldnt you take something for the most important part of you. Your brain. With an ingredient originally discovered in jellyfish, prevagen has been shown in Clinical Trials to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Welcome back here are some stories on the closing bell radar today ive gone for airbnb for Hotel Tonight for an undisclosed amount and will operate separately for now and one step n the surface sounds like an about turn and they did add Boutique Hotels to the platform a year ago and said that that takeup pretty strong and obviously hence this move. They havent disclosed any of the financial terms and tight lipped on the finances although they have revealed they have made a profit for the last two full years i think its worth 450 million or something in the last round. Right well see what listed on possible ipos this year. Sure. Different from the airbnb and lyft if theyre right of making a profit. Doesnt it make them a partner to Big Hotel Chains with inventory on hoteltonight and theyre rivals right now exactly and hotels moving into their space, as well but i guess something they see they need to ahead of that plan. Advertises a lot. Hoteltonight. Underarmour and steph curry with shoes for girls coming after 9yearold Riley Morrison wrote to curry in november saying she couldnt find the curry 5s in the girls section and curry wrote back personally saying he would address this and made good on the promise with underarmour. The new girls. It is crazy that theyre isnt a girls section and often womens sneakers have to be in mens sizes. Really surprising im sure girls wear sneakers as frequently as boys do. Probably more now. Rocking pink reeboks. Adidas. I couldnt get into heels this friday afternoon well, me either thats saturday night, right . Calling to break up used to be. Singling out facebook, google and amazon her plan is large tech platforms as utilities and reversing illegal tech mergers very detailed. This is a policy paper and really been talked about but she specifically says what would be required of a tech platform and breaking them up help address the issues its not clear. I do think that the bundling issue is something over time people have gone after government sued microsoft. Microsoft said customers love this, they love getting the web browser along with the other software and they said, no, anticompetitive she makes decent arguments of where the state of play is and control. You look at the world apart from china which didnt allow anybody else to enter and built Big Companies themselves and now you have the World Leaders listed and headquartered in america blown them out of the sphere and if you start going against that that will prevent the other industries. I think shes riding the tech lash right now. Up next, frontier, former frontier ceo Maggie Wilderotter is here with Kathryn Minshew well be right back. My sneakers. When you look at the Critical Issues facing our world, what do you see . We see breakthrough medicines getting to patients in record time. We see harnessing natural gas unleashing the promise of clean energy. We see engineers simulating the future to improve today. At emerson, when issues become inspiration, focusing core strengths to create a better world isnt just a result, its a responsibility. Emerson. Consider it solved. This is decision tech. Its Screening Technology that helps you find a stock based on whats trending or an investing goal. Its realtime insights and information, in your own customized view of the market. Its smarter trading technology, for smarter trading decisions. And its only from fidelity. Open an account with no minimums today. Why go with anybody else . We know their rates are good, we know that theyre always going to take care of us. It was an instant savings and i should have changed a long time ago. Were the tenneys and were usaa members for life. Call usaa to start saving on insurance today. Today may be International Womens day but Corporate America has a shockingly low number of female Board Members sara has the data for us. Happy International Womens day. Not so much in the board room. We have new data showing very slow progress when it comes to female representation on Company Boards perhaps more shocking is a significant number of Consumer Companies that rely on disproportionately demale buyers have zero female Board Members of the russell 3000 a total of 457 companies have no women on the boards and a slight improvement of 2016 with 738 with zero female representation and really wanted to see Consumer Companies, 31 of them had no female Board Members. Again, tiny improvement from two years ago and in many of the cases we have found it goes well beyond the board skechers, nine board directors, no women on the executive Management Team. We asked why no Comment National Beverage Corporation behind the popular soda and allmale board and all Management Team. Trip adviser said a female stepped down the company says we have been working with the current board of directors to identify and evaluate candidates and expect to announce next week the addition of two female Board Members. J j all male board 6 out of 7 on the Management Team are male. Says we are fortunate to have women that make contributions in the areas of expertise and also in the unique understanding of women as core target consumers bottom line, it is surprising given how much data there is and diversity leads to higher returns and reflects the population not to mention for Consumer Companies their core customer the number of Companies Still with no women stunningly high and didnt look at companies with one for instance and the pattern there is theyre not promoting them high enough because we see it in the lack of the executive leadership and that corresponds with lack of Board Members, as well. Amazing statistics. Theres one one female board member. Higher numbers there they drop off, they have none. Lets continue the discussion now and bring in maggie and Kathryn Minshew and author of the new rules of work. Very good afternoon to you both. Maggie, if i start with you, successfully on the board of Many Companies, lyft, costco, hewlettpackard, what have you managed to do you feel like clearly not enough others have been able to do . Well, its great to be with you on this great day for women as i think we celebrate women in all facets of this world and i believe we do help make the world go and r round aroundt includes in the board room i have sat on 35 public Company Boards in my career and most of the time i am the first woman on the board and i always get on the nominating and Governance Committee and make sure that we can bring more women on boards and so when there are two or three or four you really do start to make a difference i chair the docusign board today. We have four women on that board. On the hewlettpackard enterprise board we have four and pat russo is the head. Pam carter is terrific and i chair the audit committee. I see in tech a number of companys that have really stepped up and said its important to have diversity, important to have great Women Leaders and thought leaders working with great men to make the best decisions for those companies. Kathryn, the muse, how do you prepare a generation of women to sit on boards . Absolutely. I think its about tackling the problem from both sides. We give women and men, as well, a tremendous amount of information about how to navigate the career, raise your hand for the promotion, the opportunity that might lead to the path to being on a board some day but i also think you have to look at the problem of a structural structural perspective because we have seen in research that in corporate settings women are often judged on performance whereas men are judged on potential and we have to change the game and equip more women to take that leap, support them in taking the big assignment to put them in the path for a board position and again help make sure when people think of Board Memberships theyre not thinking of the usual suspects but thinking beyond that pale because as we have seen theres binders full of capable women and sometimes as simple as finding them. Kathryn, you suggest theres not investment. Theres a massive part of the problem. We see innovation and potential right now and yet only 2 of Venture Capital dollars go to companies with a female ceo. That is abysmal in 2019. Theres been so Much Research done when male entrepreneurs pitch people ask questions about what is the potential for success of your company and female entrepreneurs people ask about how could it fail . Theres a fundamental difference in how people evaluate very similar businesses and i think that that has to change, as well, to continue to givewomen a fair shake at the positions, the influence and the power that will allow them to be fully equal members of society. Theres a stubbornly low number of companies with female ceos and i think its backed off some levels it was not that long ago. And i wonder, most of these companies are at least givin lip service to gender diversity and to promoting them. Whats the Sticking Point . Certainly, i have read the research and observed the glass cliff effect and they seem to get the chance when a company is in trouble and how do you break that logjam and change behavior on a bunch of boards to do that . Well, i think its a great point. And i do think that there are 29 women today running fortune 500s in the u. S. So its down from a peak of the low to mid30s and part of it is pipeline it is really having great women in companies that have had pnl responsibility, strategic responsibility, interaction with facets of the business to build that experience profile in order to run companies and there are Many Companies that just dont have enough women in that pipeline in pnl type positions or positions of authority to run big divisions and big areas of companies to have three or four different candidates that they could look at as potential successors. Do i think its changing yes. The Big Companies that ill involved with have women in the pipeline but have to be prepared and move them forward and as a board member what i push for is to take risk on great women. Put them in positions maybe that they dont necessarily have the background for but they have the potential to do it and just like we would take risks on men first time in those types of positions and i do the same for the board room. I think high potential women might not check every single box but nor do the men and giving opportunities to get in the board room, bring diverse points of view, different expeesrience and think about the consumer or customer from a different perspective really makes a difference. We have to leave it there, guys well continue this conversation thank you both for joining us. Thank you. Thank you. Up next, wage growth rising to the highest level in a decade but a part of the Financial Sector where pay is falling sharply. Well tell you which ones straight ahead. Coming up, the ceo of take two esports is about to get bigger than ever cid d ate ain whats got him so exteanwh hsees coming next for the industry. This is your invitation to a higher standard of luxury. This is the invitation to lexus sales event. Lease the 2019 es 350 for 379 a month for 36 months. Now thru march 31st. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. Welcome back the february employment report came in much weaker than expected, but many hiring managers are still having problems finding qualified candidates for job openings. Sharon epperson looks at whos hiring and the skills most in demand. Despite todays disappointing jobs report, the job market remains strong or it should. It found that 40 of Companies Plan to hire fulltime workers this year while another 47 are looking for parttime help the top areas for hiring are in jobs tied to skilled labor, data analysis, Digital Marketing and Cyber Security these are highly specialized fields while many hr managers say they currently have job openings, theyre having trouble finding candidates Many Employers want to try to bridge that skills gap theyre saying theyre going to provide onthejob training. If youre worried your skill set might not be the best fit, highlight your soft skills demonstrate that youre a team player, show how you Pay Attention to detail and how well you interact with customers in and out of the cost me while jobs are available, the big question is are they paying and how much another report from glass door found wage growth slowed in february rising just over 1 from a year earlier. Jobs that saw the lowest wage growth were in financial services, including Loan Officers and financial advisers. Both of those fell 3 . Bank tellers and pharmacy technicians saw the highest wage growth and those rose about 6 year over year. Are those places where there are job openings plentiful where theyre actually paying higher. Actually the highest job growth or the highest paying areas are in areas that are more high tech, areas like a Digital Solutions architect or a data scientist. So a lot of people are concerned if thats where the highest paying jobs are, i want to get a sixfigure salary or above as a median base pay, you have to have these skills. So trying to find out what skills are transferable are what people need to look for as theyre looking for a job. Mike, what did this trend say for the outlook of the economy, when there are jobs available, but i think it shows you labor demand is relatively strong, which is a good thing. Although cycles come to an end when the economy can no longer employ the Resources Available profitably so i do think that actually job shortage can slow business down and slow the economy if it persists for a long time. The idea is trying to find people who have had jobs that might be able to be transferred in some of these hightech areas and finding skills that you already have that could work that team player, that capability a lot of people say could be transferable. Up next, big readings on inflation as well as retail and tech earnis,ll ong an tap for next week. Well give you a full preview when we come right back. Im off to college. Im worried about my parents retirement. Dont worry. Voya helps them to and through retirement. Dealing with todays expenses. While helping plan, invest and protect for the future. So theyll be okay . I think theyll be fine. Voya. Helping you to and through retirement. Is it because so many go after it the same way, chasing after shortterm returns . Instead if getting caught up with the crowd, the Investment Managers at pgim take a long term view. Uncovering opportunities for alpha across public and private markets, while anticipating unforeseen risk, has powered our rise to a top ten global asset manager. Partner with pgim. The Global Investment management businesses of prudential financial, inc. We have some news on the ongoing china trade talks. Eamon javers with the details. Reporter yeah, just an update from here at the white house. Sarah sanders here at the white house told me a short time ago that negotiations are ongoing about a trump xi jinping summit meeting, a lot of speculation about whether that would happen at maralago this month or not. Nothing has been cancelled but nothing has been scheduled either i also talked to a Senior Administration official who said that the negotiations are going line by line through a written agreement that officials are debating back and forth between the u. S. And the chinese side. That is taking longer than expected the official rejected, though, speculation that its taking longer than expected because the chinese feel they have the upper hand in the wake of north korea in that the president would be more eager for a deal. In fact this official said that the chinese are worried that the president might walk away. The official said you dont want to send xi to maralago and have trump walk away that would be a diplomatic catastrophe, so thats why you have to have the linebyline edits. What they dont want is to send xi jinping here, their guy here, appeared potus says, nope, im out of here, see you on the 9th hole so its taking longer than expected because the chinese want to iron out all of the agreements in writing in detail very, very carefully before they send xi jinping to a highstakes facetoface meeting here in the United States. Eamon javers in d. C mike, on a week where we have optimism on that deal at least not improve, were down 2 for the week. The market may be losing a little bit of patient right now, but the good news is were down 2 so maybe we have no longer priced in a good scenario. The president said that the market would spike on a trade deal today. Thanks for watching today and all week that does it for closing bell. Have a great weekend. Sara, fast money does begin right now live from the Nasdaq Market site im scott wapner in tonight for melissa lee. Tonight we have the ceo of taketwo entertainment, Strauss Zelnick here to talk about his big push into esports as they hosted their draft this week we do start with the Global Growth fears gripping wall street the dow down 200 points at the lows rebounded nicely at the close. China got slammed overnight, the