Oil did crack below 39 the s p 500 suffering its worst twoday slide in 4 1 2 years and stocks look to bounce slightly before the open. It is a new era for Disney Bob Iger has stepped down with a lot of questions, of course, why now . Techs tanking in correction territory with high names like alphabet, apple, amazon losing a combined 4 million on consecutive sessions the state department wiped out 1. 7 trillion in gains markets down 6 and jim, 7 on the s p, you think might be time to do something. Its interesting. You have to buy something. The cluster they find in america, i say it that way, got the green light to say it from the cdc and possibility of an ebola situation, remember, we lost someone in texas. That was a problem in texas. Would Something Like that here be shocking . We lost 14,000 people from the regular flu and perhaps the new flu and respiratory illness, its certainly possible. You will read everyday about somebody new and some new area, because the nature of the beast, its so easily caught. The uk direction saying you have to be six feet away. Its easy to catch its worse than the regular flu. We had 50 Million People with the flu in america perhaps 100 million with this. We tried to delineate the difference between the Public Health aspect and corporate Economic Activity aspect today, we hear from a long list. We dont know were not doctors. I think you have to start by saying heres what the cdc says, supply chain bad, economy obviously weak then, you get into a situation you have a tjx reporting a great quarter. Do you just disregard they reported a great quarter i dont think so do you file it away . I can look at these stocks and say how many affected. Do any in travel affected . Everybody cuts numbers some of these other companies. I was talking to mark in salesforce yesterday was stepdown tuesday. Is that what it was stepdown tuesday. Lets just say, do you just want to hate the market as much as you did minus 7 and havent bought anything . I cant. My travel trust, 21 cash, not that im a genius. I notice the highest thats like buffet. The only time ive ever been actually, fortune compared me to buffet. Me and karen im not sure thats a specious comparison . Because karen and in broke up hi, karen, i know she watches the show it is coming to this country and will be a disruption as the cdc indicated. We will see corporations curb travel the economy will slow i think some companies will reflect that the stay is negative, down 7 , staying as near as positive, up 7 what david is asking, why wouldnt you wait for these warnings to come when you know theyre coming okay. I know you want to wait for the warnings to come i had a transition on stepdown tuesday. They got hit and cut numbers they already told you things will go down, then you have to say, you know what, even when they warn and get it over with, things can go lower. Im just saying, if you have a lot of cash, 20 cash, not putting 1 to work are you really going to think nobody has anything going on there were two federal government things yesterday. National su za health with a hug your children thing. I thought that showed bad leadership and then talking about it, bo gilead, the first to say, this thing is coming here things are happening and good. Im beginning to believe in the science. There is some risk that they do something good and you have bought nothing the first shoe, weve got real problems, we get the cluster, okay the second shoe, we get a death, all right . So youve got piling can goods and water the way a lot of my hedge fund buddies are in second and third homes, they should be buying stocks . We already did that jim already grows his own food i grow it from seed worried about fungus he can choose from around the world where it is hes going to go, although you have to get on a plane which is probably not something you may want to do david, its not about me. Yesterday i announced i was somewhat crazy i mentioned an animal that was really part of this epidemic part of the corona virus. If you havent put anything to work, i think youre playing with fire. I would say put it all to work if i dont have to sell the shoes. Im beginning to hear a different tone from people like vallci, who are saying its coming early on, no minced words. And then menchs gillaac and moderna. Ive been with them since they were working on a vaccine for cancer dial up a possible vaccine obviously, a vaccine, you just dont turn it on i will give you one. Regeneron changed its tune it had the cure for ebola. It is saying, hey, look, something on the horizon, well be okay. I cant be as negative i know macys is jarring yesterday. They gave you a corona virus lets listen to tjx. Maybe they dont give you the caveat i come back and say, if you bought nothing look at that top name. Nothing to do with the corona virus. Thats a mental virus 120 odd things. Lets not be too personal, david. Stay away from me with your homonym attacks, please. I didnt mention a name am i optimistic . No im not as negative as i was when i came into this thing hating things. Im not as negative, how about that we have a press briefing at 6 00 im trying to move that because of mad money. In beijing, hi. Hey, guys, chinas Upper Echelon of the communist party confirmed a meeting today and according to state tv they confirmed the economic recovery is accelerating. 14 provinces in china have now downgraded their Emergency Response level, this as new infections and deaths continue to decline in china. Different case in south korea, they now have the most number of cases confirmed outside of china. That includes one u. S. Soldier as well as the authoritiess attempts to try to determine how many more they might have by testing 200,000 or so members of a church thats at the center of that countrys outbreak. China and the authorities here have said that theyre stepping up their efforts to screen travelers from south korea one city here has said its offering free test kits from visitors to that city. The Chinese Government is trying to access the economic damage. A Sports Official said the province where a lot of the venues are for the beijing Winter Olympics to be held in 2022, saw a drop by a third in visitors to their sports venues as well as ski resorts, the cornerna virus way on the minds of many Sports Officials in japan. The Prime Minister weighed in, calling for cultural sites and sports venues to push things off a bit for another two weeks as concerns mount about the potential cancellation of the Tokyo Olympics this summer here in beijing, we had another mixed message as to exactly how much of the coronavirus has been detained here. The capital has now declared all supermarkets in this city have to screen and space out the customers that come into the super markets by two square meters other 4 to 5 square feet. Thats, they said, to make sure there isnt a lot of crowding and because theyre concerned about the potential spread of this virus howard, are people on the subway then if they dont want you to be within 4 to 5 feet of anybody, what about things like mass transit mass transit, people are in close quarters, but after the supermarkets they have been getting more crowded for the most part people dont like to go shopping and the Grocery Store is where they buy basic necessities. One pattern youre starting to see as more people come in the capital, there are more people at the Grocery Store and more lines and concerning them and why they made that edict today passenger traffic day on day is up threethree versus twosix, the prior day people are moving around more. I like to say what a great job shes doing and morgan stanley, going back to work. I know if theyre putting people back to work, its supposed to put people very much at risk it doesnt sound like theyre that much at risk, if you believe the numbers outside of wuhan, particularly we have more instances in this country. 50 Million People have gotten the flu in this country. It seems like were in a moment now where its easier to get the flu here than the corneronavirus there. The communist authorities we met today said they have to remain vigilant especially wuhan and Hubei Province, the most affected and policy officials are trying to do their best to try to stop the virus from spreading any further but at the same time supporting the economy the question, i think, can you really marry these two priorities i think its increasingly unlikely the authorities are going to definitely get this calculation right. Thats a tough balance, well said, eunice well said as always. Talk to you in a bit change in business, iger steps down as ceo succeeded by bob chapek, who recently served as head of parks and products. He talked about passing the torch with Julia Boorstin yesterday. As we looked at the businesses, we have a great set of assets and strategies, whats next in terms of my own priorities was making sure the pipeline in the company was rich and all our engines were working extremely well i wanted to spend more and more of my time on that the only way i was able to do that was give up the daytoday running of the company and pass the torch on to bob. Interesting succession calculus and a surprise. Thats what took so many people by surprise was the immediacy of it as you might imagine, over late yesterday, into the night, texts, emails, phone calls, so many people in the Media Business including a lot of executives and other companies asking the question, is there Something Else here . Strange. I dont understand 22 months he will be executive chairman, why rush it . Is there a health issue . I can tell you firstoff, no, theres not one health issue is this mr. Igers plan. I asked him about issues so many people want to raise wondering about the health of the business and so many other things iger said, listen, around thanksgiving of last year the desire to leave the company coalesced. He didnt want to be ceo anymore and raised it with the board around thanksgiving. The board had already identified certain candidates, already were in a mode of, as you might imagine, given a transition, still a ways away, but they certainly were getting ready for it regardless and they targeted people including the gentleman who got the job. They moved from there to make the decision on this 22 month, which is long, in fact longer than anyone you can remember in terms of someone who was ceo moving into the executive chair seat, iger said, theres no rule book on this stuff. Ive always done things differently. Not an iconic class but has done things differently in his approach i would say that as well that is the story. 81 earnings calls, 20 years as either ceo or coo. He told me basically, i dont want to run the company anymore. I want to focus on the creative. Does that mean hes going to be reading scripts and writing, hes always overseeing those, what it does mean is he will be taking a much more handson and solely focused approach to the direct to Consumer International business and how you fuel content for that he will be looking at things like hulu now disney fully controls and how you build that business out the fox studio not that far away when they made the deal never been an issue for iger, he paid big money thats a big number. Fox studio, big changes there. Wants to evolve in the geo brand. Theres much for a Creative Business overall in the company. What a great call ive been racking my brain, maybe he wants to enjoy the rest of his life a bit, but maybe thats what the rest of his life would be enjoyable those calls are a drag you know what you have to have for a call. Hes not really that happy. I feel, a lot of times on the call he never belittles, a lot of times he feels like, guys, are you kidding me, do i have to keep answering espn . Will you please think bigger i want people to read his book the book is great. Its written he wasnt expecting to be ceo now. He extended obviously based on the completion of the fox acquisition. It is a long period of time that he really be there they feel confident obviously. We will see. It will be interesting to watch. Theres no alternative here. Hes not going to run for office i think at one time, if it werent for fox and murdoch he wants to, i think, a, theyre very good at surprising people there they do keep these things quiet. There are questions, kevin mayers future at the company. They have every expectation he will stay, only a year building disney plus. And the executive that did not get the top job, i dont know what his plans are, mr. Mayer, and certainly they expect he will stay and hopefully he does. Thats where things stand and it was sudden and immediate no leaks the board kept it quiet since thanksgiving when mr. Iger came to them and said, i really think its time to step down he obviously didnt know about the coronavirus since then the theme park percentages are down they may have to close some theme parks. I talk about the fabled buying opportunity, i like this i like this one. I just think its good hes not leaving even with the short term park disruption i think everybody says, all the parks will close and nobody will do and it goes back to before disney plus you have an annual meeting not that far away, iger will be on there and then he will leave the stage. Yesterday, i had an unfortunate choice of words. In the book, there was an unfortunate choice of words. It involved you. Oh, yeah. There was no cursing in that there wasnt. Did you hear cooperman on squawk wow, i think he took his cue from me. I apologized your kinds of words that david was doing a dogged amount of work and used the word crap he said holy crap it goes to 116 where we didnt know about this you kidding me bob iger hes not going on vacation or south sea islands that i know of bob iger will stand up as one of the unique ceos i dont agree with you he is iconic class but mr. Iconic class. So many guys are guessing, and ladies, guessing he never seemed to be guessing, always had a focused idea what he wanted to accomplish. Exactly we will get the mad dash to opening bell and lowes and wendys and virgin galactic. And the First American case of the coronavirus. Futures back in a moment ts to h. And you should be mad your smart fridge is unnecessarily complicated. Make ice. Making ice. 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 Commission free today. shouldnt you pay less when ynow you can. Data . Because Xfinity Mobile gives you more flexible data. You can choose to share data between lines, mix with unlimited, or switch it up at any time. All on the most reliable wireless network. Which means you can save money without compromising on coverage. Get more flexible data, the most reliable network, and more savings. Plus, get 300 off when you buy a new Samsung Galaxy s20 ultra. Thats simple. Easy. Awesome. Call, click or visit a store today. Salesforce is a story, of course we talked about executive succession a moment ago regarding disney jim did talk about that. I am so grateful to keith you and i know keith and i are such great friends keith is ready to move on to his next chapter and will be staying on as an advisor to me i have to support him. He is ready to go forward and i give him my full blessing. That was marc benoff. I was talking about keith block. You know this company very well and mr. Beniof and other than iger ascending to executive chairman role first, keith and marc remain good friends second, this was stepdown tuesday, if you read another great book, keith and marc paired up for the big picture, kind of what youre talking about with bob iger. Lets talk about, what a blowout quarter nobody seems to care about at all talking about 35 billion in revs, just the rpo, the performance numbers we look at as billings wow. Very strong what about the fact a guy ceo only lasted 18 months. He wants to do his own thing. Does he go to oracle i dont know, if hes advising mark, even though Larry Ellison and marc remain friends that would be odd i dont think keith wants to compete directly i think keith would be shocked this stock is down they won big orders including volkswagen, gigantic i thought marc loved the time off with his family and time to do some things trillion Tree Initiative what did he find its not as much fun as he thought and wants to run the company fulltime without any help yes he was so happy yesterday. So was keith he was pretty happy. Can i go back to funds its like talking about the doctors, like i know anything about the coronavirus. The business is great. He said its not like the coronavirus is cutting off our business its not like the china situation. If its going to be down, thats a great quarter. The market looks good today. Hate to buy it off i am not fretting keiths leaving as much as i love keith. Keith is very different from marc i thought marc enjoyed that time with his family, lynn and the two girls, which he still does marc also loved all the initiatives, time magazine, 300 million for homeless, trying to help the darned world. I think he can do both he will be ceo very shortly. Hes too good not to be. Hes the closer. I always call him the closer he closed it out pretty quick over there is there any kind of what do you like . Youre like henne young . I am. Im trying to be straight and hes taking the Little Things i have hes gotten a lot of pep lately. Whats that about . Hes rochester to your jack benny. Yes im dickens. Youre fenster go google that small staff kiss me, keith. There is some research we didnt get to. Hsb does cut nike to hold. I know youve seen this one. Ive been waiting for that call surprise shares trading 2 blonde the all time highs. It will be in march and doubt it will be supportive china slow and now talking about europe slowing, i do think he will do a great job this will be the correct one when you get maybe in the 80s, you can say, you know what, this thing will run its course. Eunice did say did not portray a world where china was as bad as it was three weeks ago. Shes been spot on lucky to have her were coming off the worst twoday point loss for the d