record-highs. goldman, nike, cat, chevron, jp, having the most impact today. >> president trump came out, talked about that we'll have a tax plan in two or three weeks. that will be good to see. and here's what you have to say about president trump. he's lived up to everything he has said. i think there's been a major turn in that he could have gone after the chinese, but he didn't. so he sent a letter, and so then that gives, i would say, some respect for in terms of how he's dealt with his counterparts. >> you think that's in part for the gain today, along with his comment he's going to get to taxes in a couple of weeks. he's going to have something on taxes in a couple weeks. >> yeah, i think we're on the same show. i just said that, right? he's going to do taxes. >> let's listen to it. >> we're going to be announcing something i would say over the next two or three weeks that will be phenomenal in terms of tax. >> yeah, so it's going to be -- >> half the things you say go in one ear and out the other when it comes to me. >> right. which is why i'm on this side of the table. so in any event, yes. so taxes have gotten -- mark was looking up already. we've been in a holding pattern, up and down, the market hasn't done that much lately. and frankly, a lot of going forward. in terms of names going up, it's been a mixed earnings period. some of the guidance has been i would say a little shaky. high valuations. i'm still sitting on a good amount of cash. seth carman's letter, increased risk. so it's good to have worry in the market. i'm not uber bullish. i'm waiting for opportunities, finding some things to buy but not a lot. >> jimmy, we're making the point and really asking the question over the last several days, whether the market had gone as far as it could go on hope and aspiration of actual policy. and that it needs to see some steps forward towards actually putting them on the table to have a debate over taxes. the president says, hey, i'm going to have something in a couple of weeks. >> which to me, scott, is hope. because we don't have anything. it's very reminiscent -- >> the guy has been in office two weeks. what do we expect, a whole tax -- bill to be passed in two weeks? >> no, let's look at what he has focused on. the immigration work, the wall, the ban. >> that's easy stuff. >> you say it's easy. what i would say it's not pro growth -- >> the tax battle -- >> you asked me a question, i want to answer. >> i'm trying to help you answer it. >> just stop for a second. i'll answer it. he's not gone after the things that are pro the economy, pro growth. he hasn't actually done the repeal of frank dodd. he says he's putting out taxes, but as i hear that, the same thing from two weeks ago, we're going to replace obamacare, something better but no details whatsoever. so your question was, can this market still continue to go up on hope, or is it looking at fundamentals? i say today is just a melt up on the bases of hope. because there is nothing to really sink your teeth into as far as a tax plan. >> josh, weren't people waiting to get away from some of the noise and some of the executive order stuff, and get to the substance of the rally in the first place? that is the agenda that leads to better growth, that leads to better earnings, that leads to better stock prices. or higher stock prices. >> so i think -- i think what's really interesting, pointing this out. we're now in a situation where -- and i don't know for how long this will last. the favorability ratings for donald trump are now positively correlated -- >> are you on speakerphone? hello, are you on speakerphone? i'm going to stop you. are you on speaker, because if you are, can you get off of it. >>? no, i'm not on speaker. >> yeah, now you're not. >> i'm on a samsung galaxy note 7, so if something happens, you know what it is. so right now, we have crude oil, u.s. dollar, u.s. stocks and the ten-year yield, all positively correlated with trump's favorability rating. which is a really weird situation. but that's what's going on. so to steve's point, if we do get something on taxes, and we get positive commentary on the way there over the next three weeks, which is what i think he said, that's going to be supportive of stock prices. and by the way, when you look at the internals of the most important sectors of the market, you have price moving up, and then under the hood, you have the advanced decline line for each of those sectors, also moving up. so as financials are about to take out a new high, you also see the advanced decline line of financial stocks, meaning more stocks participating than not. you see that in health care, you are seeing it in tech, in industrials. i don't know what else you would want to see. >> buy -- owe to josh's point, biotech on space for its best day. steve, retail up more than 1% today. second day greater than 1% led by abercrombie. so it's fairly broad. >> yeah. after biotech sold off, because we heard spicer come out and say, look, this phrma battle is not over. it's still going to be price. but, you have to exceed the details. there is movement. let me go back to my point. trump came out, and he's come out and done everything he said he would do. so what the market is saying is, he's going to continue to do it, and that means a tax plan. we don't know the details of the tax plan. we know what's been bandied about. which is that a tax rate of 15 to 20%, called 20%. we know he's going to do away with all the inductions. what's it mean for private equities, real estate prices come down. but we also know that elizabeth warren has risen to more prominence in the democratic party and that could be troubling. so it may not skate so easily through. so there will be lots of debate, republicans, of course, have a majority. so that's where the hope is. but the devil is always in the details. so i think that you're not going to see the smooth, smooth sailing ultimately it will pass. that will be positive for the market. but you don't know in terms of the sectors how they'll respond, and that's where you've -- >> these details are going to be very important. i think we all agree on that. the border adjustment tax, if it goes through in any form, is going to hurt some of the sectors we're talking about right now that are going up. retail should be badly damaged by a border adjustment tax. refineries, which are also going up today, should be badly hurt by a border adjustment. >> apple should be badly hurt by a border adjustment tax. >> let's move to the twitter takedown today. that stock getting ripped on the company's disappointing outlook. josh, i don't know. do you still own it, and if so, why? >> yeah, no. i still have shares, and i still think the platform has potential. the problem is, that's all there is at this point, is potential. very little progress. you did have an uptick in daily users, which is nice. you did have an uptick in overall users. at the end of the day, you've got a couple of things working against the company that either they got worse or nothing got better. the first, and i'm sure your analyst will fill you in on the details. the first is that conversation is completely out of control. stock-based comp. as a percentage of revenue -- i don't know if i've seen anything like it in any other tech company. and then the second -- and it's gotten a little bit better but still stratospheric. the second thing, really quickly, you've got a big problem if you run an advertising business that is struggling in the middle of a political -- a national presidential election. you know, if you are not minting money in that time frame, i don't understand what you need to have that happen. so steve and i were right about this yesterday. contra bernstein basically did not see what he saw, and i think that's fortunate. and i'm not a buyer of more shares, even though it's down 10% today. >> well, i'm just wondering, you note that as being such a negative for twitter, and yet what gives you the confidence that they can turn your potential into actual real benefit at this point? >> i'm losing confidence by the quarter, scott. >> josh, i've got a question for you. just -- you rely heavily on tech goals and that's a big part of your investment discipline. and it serves you well, obviously. because you built -- >> not in this case. the technicals on twitter from short-term, intermediate term, long-term perspective are pretty terrible. i got involved with this when it became public. i was wrong from the start. i pretty much never looked at this technically. and i haven't really traded it at all. but steve, to that point, if you look today, it's putting in a decent candle. the fact that it's not on its way to revisit the old lowe's, maybe is a positive. and if we close out the day with a good hammer, which looks like it's trying to do, maybe it's not as bad as the last couple of quarters where they disappointed. that's the best i could tell you, technically. >> look, i'm not in the stock, and josh, you can respond to this. what i look at is the growth in the users. i'm going to use the top line users. 300, 2 million, two years ago. now 19 million. call that a 6% rise. if i compare that to what i think we would all agree is a great company, facebook, they're up about 50% in the number of users. i know the active users have gone up a little bit higher. but it just seems like a dea death knell, especially after this quarter with the president. >> josh may not have thrown in the towel yet on this name. but one wall street analyst did a long time ago. scott devitt joins us on the phone. reiterated his sell rating. scott, you there? scott devitt, are you there? >> let's put a picture of him -- >> he's been -- >> i'm reiterating too. >> he's been negative for some time. josh, let me ask you. what finally pushes you over the edge to actually sell the stock? >> well, i mean, i don't have enough that it's, like hurting me or crazy meaningful. but i do still see potential, and the potential is that this was never going to be facebook. and i think people that got into it with that idea made a miscalculation. i think the real potential of twitter is probably some kind of a deeper connection with a company like google, or something where very, very capable people on the advertising side take a bigger role. i have no idea what that will look like. but the main difference between this and twitter and facebook, i think, is the real-time nature, the fact that when news breaks, this is where everyone is. more so than facebook, even. and i think ultimately, somebody will be able to come along and find a way to make that enormously profitable. hasn't happened yet. they have been through several iterations on the product side, on the advertising side. but i do still think there's a lot of potential there, around events like award shows and sporting events. world series is a huge traffic spike. debate night. there are huge events throughout the course of the year that twitter absolutely owns. somebody is going to come along and figure out a way to benefit. >> yeah. scott devitt, do we have you now? >> yes, can you hear me, scott? >> yeah, i can, thanks for bearing with us there as we fought through some technical issues. what's your read on the quarter? obviously not good if you just reiterated sell. >> i think that josh and others have, you know -- have made very good points. and the lifeblood of a business like this is -- starts with product. and that leads to users and engagement. and this company is on the very end of growth cycle in terms of driving growth and users. it discloses monthly average users, which have barely grown over the past two years. daily active users have begun to grow again. but it's disclosed figure on an absolute basis. and it's hard to determine how much of that daily active usage is driven by single events in recent quarters versus being sustainable. we think this stock, potentially on a fundamental basis, excluding josh's commentary about potential m & a still has significant down side. the midpoint of the 1q guidance was 22% below consensus estimates for revenue in the first quarter. and for the full year, our estimates are going down close to 10% on these numbers. >> let me ask you this. if twitter seemingly can't fix its own problems, what would give anybody a belief that somebody else could come along, buy it, and then somehow fix it? >> it's hard to believe, unless it's potentially at this point being bought for reasons other than economic in nature in terms of driving activity on a larger platform or that larger platform thinks it has tools and capabilities that can fix the problems that twitter has. we have said this, and i think on your show previously, as well. when the m & a speculation was very heated in prior months that we thought it was a stretch. and we continue to do so, at least at prices anywhere near current levels. >> yeah. good to have your commentary, scott. thanks so much. >> thanks so much. >> scott devitt joining us, a full analyst and a certain bear on twitter. let's bring in the biggest bull now on wall street. brian weezer on the phone, as well. brian, are you there? >> yes, i am, although i don't know that i'm the biggest bull at the $17 price target on a hold rating. >> i have $26 price target -- >> that's old. >> maybe we havered and apologize. nonetheless, you don't have the sell. >> when was the $26 price target? >> from around the time of the m & a speculation, when it seemed very heated and given the volume of potential bidders, seemed not implausible. $17 -- it's been remarkable how much the business has just decelerated even recently. the biggest problem twitter has had -- i've never been an uber bull. when the stock was up in the 70s, whenever it was up in its highs, the business has always had something real and very important. it was never going to be a ubiquitous platform. it's not clear to me the management team appreciated that ever. it's not clear that they have appreciated it even now. it may be that if they do come to appreciate that being a niche platform and super serving a niche audience, they have a durable business. but it's not clear to me yet that they're there yet. and that might be what's necessary to make business something that's more valuable. >> you've helped us make even -- the greater point by pointing out, you know, that you're not, in fact, the biggest bull and your price target, in fact, was only ever as high as it was on m & a speculation. not anything based with the fundamentals of twitter whatsoever. >> correct. at that time. i think i might have had a higher price target, but never that high. >> right. >> so the bigger point is that there is a business there. and the company business has not been able to figure itself out. the -- the line from mark zuckerberg that twitter is the clown car that fell into a gold mine has always been something that's been difficult to -- for the company to live down, i think, in some respect. that said, there are certainly a lot of great people there. certainly a lot of very capable people there. but it's never been pulled together. and that's always been a bit of a challenge for them. >> brian, i appreciate the time. pivotal research. twitter was made for the kind of action we saw last night at madison square garden in the first quarter of the knicks/clippers game, when charles oakley got into a fight with security. here's the call from the game. >> new york city police there. that's security. and apparently there's a -- >> charles oakley in a fight in the stands. charles oakley involved in something. they need security in a big way. >> well, we show you that, because twitter still buzzing over the incident. reports say oakley was yelling at knicks' owner james dolan sitting nearby and was asked to leave the game. he was arrested and charged with assault. jim lebenthal, the other reason we're showing that, you have said that madison square garden is a value play. >> i think this is a very interesting stock, scott. don't look at the earnings right now. they recently spun off the networks, msg networks and hard to project what the earnings will be. look at the balance sheet. a $4.2 billion market cap but $1.3 billion in cash. it's enterprise value is $2.7 billion. and that is against an array of assets. i think we can talk about and really come up to more value in 2.7. it opens the knicks. look, any publicity is good publicity is what i say about charles oakley. it owns the rangers. i know you're a caps fan and you'll indulge me and say the rangers aren't terrible. >> the knicks have gotten a tremendous amount of publicity lately all for the wrong reasons. that's not good for the value of the brand, period. >> how about this? the l.a. clippers, right, they were sold two or three years ago for $2 billion. do you think the knicks -- i mean, l.a., new york, similar markets. i think the knicks could probably, if they were on the block, they're not, could easily get a $2 billion valuation. >> not going to argue with you on that. >> okay. so then you've got $700 million of the market cap that's left for the rangers. it's left for the rockettes, it's left for the liberty, madison square garp deny itself. for the forum. a lot of assets out there. this is the balance sheet play. the one risk, you're investing with jim dolan who does have a certain mercurial aspect to him. he also owns at least $20 million by my count, dollars worth of the shares and is not going to let that get decreased in value. so that's a risky would be willing to take. >> you're betting, as well, steve with a guy like abely, too. he's owned this stock. >> forever. forever. it is a value play. >> dolan is good enough for gabelli, got to be good enough for lebenthal, no? >> i like gabelli. a smart investor. >> this is what mario does. >> good endorsement. absolutely a good endorsement. >> this is what mario does. wait out dole -- terrible stuard of the franchise. knicks have been horrendous. the thing about oakley, that was not a fragrant foul, it was below the head. so he should still be in. so -- >> one quick comment. the knicks have been terrible for a long time. imagine if they actually got good. i'm not a basketball expert, i don't know what it takes to make that happen. do you think the knicks -- >> don't sign any carmelos -- >> josh, you buy madison square garden stock? >> no, this is not my kind of thing. i get the pro and con. and i do agree that there is probably a lot more value here than what the share price is reflecting. but that assumption is that the dolans think they're doing anything wrong, which -- [ inaudible ] that. so for me, that's not somewhere i want to be. >> all right. here's what else is coming up on "the halftime report." food fight. whole foods, dunkin' donuts and a bold call on grub hub. while our correspondent is caught in the snow, he still has a lot to say about food and food stocks. the rest of the desk will take their position. before the break, our partners at kensho warn, don't get sucked in by today's twitter drop. the stock dropped 9% or more in one day 11 times, averaging a drop of 2% a full week after a big drop. for more of that stat and a lot more, go to cnbc.com/pro. scott wapner and "the halftime report" team are back in two minutes. trt. , spspse.e s pe amag welcome back to cnbc's "halftime report," i'm michelle caruso cabrera. president trump says there is going to be some kind of tax proposal in the next couple weeks. there is new evidence that a key component of tax reform is hitting a lot of resistance in the senate. the border adjustment tax. senator david purdue of georgia sec lating to all of his colleagues a letter, urging them to reject the border adjustment tax. he says, yes, definitely lower the corporate rate. yes, definitely move to a simpler system and move to a territory yam system. he says the 20% tax on all imports is aggressive, hammers consumers and shuts down economic growth. the former ceo of reebok and dollar general and speaks a lot about consumer issues. so scott, this is something that's very, very key to chairman brady of ways and means, and house speaker paul ryan. they definitely want the border adjustment tax in the final bill. but they're meeting resistance in the senate. we've got a battle going on here and we're still waiting to see whether or not president trump actually supports a border adjustment tax. we don't have clarity on that. >> yes, waiting for a lot of stuff. michelle, thank you so much. we are back on "the halftime report" whole foods on the move today. the company reported a miss on the top line. stock up 3%. steve, what's your take here? their comps were worse than expected. why is the stock up? >> people see the bottom being set. so the stock went from as we know a huge favorite, and been cut in half over the past few years. so, again, they're seeing the bottom, think it's a good time to get in. it wasn't as bad as people thought. there were short going into the trade. now it's time, okay, maybe this is as bad as it gets. let's take a chance and move forward. >> is that where we are, josh? >> i think that's exactly what's going on. i don't know that i'm somebody that wants to take that bet that it's bottomed, because there have been a lot of false bottoms along the way. but probably it was yooverheate going into the number. maybe people recover and maybe they don't continue to deteriorate. back to technicals, there is nothing suggesting this is the bottom. and every time you've taken that bet, it's let you down. >> any time in retail these days that you announce your closing stores, that gooses a stock. they said they're going to close nine stores instead of continuing on with their expansion plans. that's why, in my opinion, the stock is up. having said that, the in roads that safeway and the other normal grossers have made in organic food is really just going to continue to eat away at their business. i think this is a false bottom. >> yes. that's actually the most important point. which is that everyone has gotten wise to the whole foods playbook. better food, better produce, better appearance in the stores. >> and cheaper. >> and do some things internally with the in-house brand that makes it look less like a -- a step down. >> so how do you -- how do you square that with your conduct on disney that's not old news. you said the espnews, everybody knows that, that's been going on for a year-and-a-half. whole foods, that's going on for a year-and-a-half. everybody knows that. that is why the stock is down. how do you square that? now they're addressing it. shutting stores. >> i think it is old news and i think the only reason the stock is up today, they announced they're closing nine stores. and that's a change. that's a change from yesterday when the plan was we're going to expand. >> what do you do you with grub hub, josh? they say taking a break from this meal. >> not a fan. so i've used seamless and i know the -- i know the product very well, as you might imagine. so -- >> using it today, for that matter. >> yeah. here's the thing with grub hub. it's a $3.5 million market cap. any day somebody can say we want this and it could be bought. i never would buy a name just on that. if you actually look at what's going on with it, almost every single big restaurant chain is coming up with their own app, and their own online ease of ordering system from dunkin' donuts -- starbucks, you don't have to talk to a single human being. chipotle's app is incredible. everyone is going to have one. this is a company getting second and third-tier restaurants locally. and i just don't think that's a great competitive position. the other problem is uber is going to start bringing food to me. and i love the uber app and i use it all of the time. and it's on the first screen of my phone. why do i also need seamless? so i think competition in this space to deliver food is really going to get tougher. and you're up against companies that can raise billions and billions the dollars at will. if amazon says they're going to use their delivery people in the cities to do this with meals, which i think they have, that's going to make it even worse. >> i don't like it. i think it's commoditized business. there is really no barriers to entry. and i don't think anybody is buying this. it's going to be massively diluted, unless you've got more ridiculously valued stock. it's only an amount of time. >> josh, you have a reaction to duncan doughnut's earnings today? >> so good. i -- i think that dunkin' is such a cool business model for restaurant investors, because it's asset-light. they don't own the locations. they're all franchises. so there's a lot of gross revenue, but this company lives and dies on net revenue. the good news is net revenue is up almost 6%, quarter over quarter. they're going to simplify the menu, they have thousands of combinations of meals. more than mcdonald's. they recognize that's ridiculous. it makes wait time slower so they're going to address that. but they're opening 383 stores in 2017. which is the same pace as 2016. that's what wall street really wants to hear from these types of companies. so if they can do that, and earn $2.40 a share, i think the stock has support here in the 50s. i don't know that it's breaking out any time soon but done very well since i've been in it, and i'm very happy. >> got a good split on the street, five buys, five sells and 19 middle of the roads. >> and the sells are on on valuation, right? so it's basically a quick service restaurant trading above 20 times earnings, which is not cheap. so the sells are not on execution or on competition or -- the sells are, hey, it's expensive. but, you know, the market understands that. >> they are -- the franchises themselves for people that want to get in the franchise business and have other jobs, want extra income, they throw some nice cash flow. so that's what keeps the franchises going along. so it's a nice investment, uncorrelated to the markets. it's good. >> all right. airline and airport executives meeting this morning with president trump at the white house. that's where we find our phil lebeau today. >> hey, scott, they met for more than an hour at the white house. the president, along with ceos from five of the six largest airlines, as well as executives from shipping companies and some of the busiest airports in the country. we have seen this picture before. this is the president as he sat down at a conference table. i think there were about 14 different executives there, industry trade leaders also there. donald trump saying, look, the airlines are under excessive regulation. our airports used to be the best and now we're near the bottom. we're going to modernize the system. that's what donald trump is saying. the plan is. the president believes they can do a lot of this by investing in the airports. after the meeting, we had a chance to talk with southwest ceo gary kelly about what happens next for the airlines and the airports. >> we're just getting started. i'm hopeful that over the next 60 to 90 days that working with his staff, we can come up with some actionable items. good news, we're not at a standstill. we are making progress and the opportunity to actually speed that up in the future, i think, would be very welcome. >> that's gary kelly at the end there, talking about the investment in infrastructure. in other words, airlines like southwest, and they're not the only one. other airlines have investing billions of dollars, upgrading terminals around the country. now the question is, can the federal government speed up the flow of money to airports to do things like add runways. fix the air traffic control system, so that there's less congestion in areas like new york. as you take a look at the airline index, scott, one reason it's moving higher today, many believe that this could finally be the big push that we have heard so much about in terms of improving airports, improving the airline industry in terms of the flow of traffic at different airports around the country. we'll see. a lot of promises. and it's too soon to tell whether or not any of this actually filters down when we see some of these improvements made around the country. >> yeah, phil, thanks. phil lebeau for us. north lawn of the white house. pete, najarian has joined us from minneapolis. pete, what do you make of this news and does it directly impact the way you think about these stocks? >> no, because i think we're talking about something a little bit further in the future. i think what i would rather have heard was a lot more conversation about the international competition, scott. i mean, that's really what the big three face right now. they can compete under the conditions of a very fair playing field. but it's not often times fair, and that's one of the big disputes i think is going on right now in the airline industry. i think, obviously, pricing power is huge. they've got that. they've got all kinds of growth in front of them, if it's a fair playing field. but that's the biggest problem. obviously, it would be great to see some of these updates that phil is discussing right now. i think, actually, the competitive level is a far bigger question right now. and that's something that needs to be answered quickly. >> pete, i think you were sitting on the set here when cramer was on, and we talked about how southwest was his best pick in this space. is it yours or no? >> no. i like southwest -- well, i like southwest a lot. a huge -- you know that bernstein upgrade the other day, scott, how great is that for somebody to come in front of these meetings with an upgrade like that? i think that's impressive when somebody wants to put their neck out there like they did. what i really like right now, if you put a gun to my head, i'm in american airlines, i also have jetblue exposure. i look at save and spirit airlines right now. that's a company that has incredible growth in front of them. when you look at the idea they only have 100 airplanes right now, they have room to grow. and they're the one that has a huge up side, i think, in regard to that. this is a stock that was trading much higher than it is right now. it's been hit for all of the right reasons. but i think they do have a huge runway in front of them. yeah, pun intended. >> look, the airlines have basically done nothing this year, so relatively flat. i think there is huge up side. they still have pricing. the issues they have, they shot themselves in the foot somewhat, because they are increasing capacity in their own miles flown. and passenger seats. they dialed that back a little bit. that's what you have to watch. that's the delta. as long as they keep that under control -- the other issue, of course, the immigration policies that trump is putting in. we'll get over that. i don't think it hurts them. southwest is a pick, because primarily domestic. so i like the airlines. i think they're cheap. tend to be volatile. a lot of people aren't sold on them. buffett has become a recent convert. let's not forget that. he never bought on airline after usair. >> that's right. >> i think you own them. i like them. american airlines i added to. i will add to more. >> if you listen to snowbound josh brown, he's been behind the stock for a good chunk of the 360-% jump. the company reports after the bell today. we'll talk about whether it's time to take more profits or let it ride. it's "the halftime report" on cnbc. back in two minutes. tf skos $.ing le? tm spitor? (cf skos $.ing le? at'surom? at the vfthe woth pi, t things thamaereyat urn al? crand a a sueeis s apture dnig there er mlipiesf dna inve samp. aat sthan ore. hi, everyone. i'm sue herera. here is your cnbc news update at this hour. in an oval office ceremony, jeff sessions was sworn in as attorney general. president trump calling him a man of integrity. he used the occasion to sign three executive orders, including one targeting transnational drug cartels. apple's chief executive tim cook condemning trump's immigration ban during a speech in scotland. he received an honorary doctorate. >> steve was the son of an immigrant. our company has immigrants in it, key to the innovation of our company. our company depends on diversity. and diversity with a big "d." >> a tough morning for martha stewart. take a look at that. she got stuck trying to plow the four miles of road on her property in upstate new york, saying even the best snowplow drivers get stuck in the snow, and she tweeted out this picture of her frustrating start to the day. i think she has a lot of company. there is at least a foot of snow on the ground, scottie. back to you. >> all right, sue. thank you. pete najarian tracking unusual activity in one discount retailer. we'll talk about his bullish bet coming. first we'll show you the s&p sector wall led by financials today. we are back right after this. all right. welcome back. you may recall yesterday, we had the btig analyst, rich greenfield, on our program who had just upgraded twitter shares into the number saying it was time to give twitter a second chance. well, we were wondering what mr. greenfield thinks today with that stock down more than 10%. i asked him on twitter to come on. and now he is live with us. hey, rich. >> the irony is you asked me on twitter. and it shows the visibility of the twitter platform and engagement of the twitter platform. >> of course, i was thinking of the irony of the whole thing, as well. but seriously, stocks down 10%. are you still thinking it's time to give them a second chance? >> sure. i mean, to be fair, the stock was also up 6 or% over the last couple days. certainly obviously giving that back. i think the real key that we tried to make very clear yesterday when we appeared on your show, was that this was not about the near-term. we knew they were going to miss. we said they were going to miss the next couple quarters. is it worse than we thought? definitely worse on the revenue side in terms of the dragdown. but the thing that's better than we thought is engagement. not only are daily active users, which is the most important statistics in our mind of looking at any internet business and a social media business, daily active users growing 11%. you've gone three, five, seven, now 11 accelerating further into q1. and time spent. so time people are spending on the platform, which i think has been one of the biggest. people are literally really quick on and off twitter, and they're not getting the type of engagement. time spent up double digits year over year. those are the type of metrics that bode well, not for today, not for q1. but as you look out over the course of the next 12 months. >> okay. >> people need to be buying the stock. >> i'll come back to you, though and push back and say, okay, that's fine and great. maybe the more important metric going the opposite direction is the ad revenue, the video ad. and that seems to be a much bigger issue negatively than the one you have just raised as a positive. >> let's put it into context. first of all, video ad revenue is going in the right direction. a lot of the direct response and other forms of off-network advertising getting hammered. the actual video ad revenue has been the one bright spot and i think the reality is, as we have seen with all advertising-driven businesses, look at the change that you have seen in via com, as eyeballs have started to improve. advertisers follow eyeballs. if twitter's eyeballs move in the right direction and engagement moves in the right direction, you're going to see the same type of momentum shift on the advertising side, it doesn't happen overnight. it takes time, which was the point of our thesis. but we're seeing a real rebound and engagement of the twitter platform. and i think, look, first step, you can't have advertising without eyeballs. how to fix the engagement first. the next step is moving on advertising. you know, you can either make the bet that it's going to work out over the next year or not, or making the bet they can solve advertising next after they have got the eyeballs moving in the right direction. >> rich, here's where i -- >> this is steve weise, rich. >> hey, rich here's where i disagree. your logic makes sense. but advertising dollars also follow brand. and you can't compare the brand value of via com, and they had a misstep where they lost some eyeballs and came back. the brand of twitter has been tainted almost from the go. and when you look at the stock price, it ratifies that taint. so they're a downward spiral and downward spiral is also by the negative activity. i'm not sure you could ever find advertisers and i say ever, i know that's generalization. they're going to want to sign up for their brand. it's a brand associated with negativi negativity. it doesn't mean it's the right eyeballs or the eyeballs that buy what they're advertising. and particularly when there are so many other brands that are competitive. >> there's plenty -- i -- i would say there is plenty of negativivity that happens on facebook. but a large engaged audience that people spend a lot of money against. i would look at what happened last night. a great example for your viewers is what happened last night. so at the knicks game, the incident with charles oakley. one of my residents tweeted out the video of the event. this morning, he remarked that in the heat of the moment, i posted this, knowing it would be news. i chose twitter, and it wound up in capital letters, everywhere. the power of twitter is compelling. i think the point is, news happens on twitter. the world is increasingly turning toward news to twitter. >> so what -- hold on. you're not telling anybody anything they don't already know. we know that there's tremendous engagement on events that capti captivate people's attention. the election, the oakley incident last night. any number of sporting events. anything. and yet for some reason, twitter cannot figure out a way to better monetize that. there is no track record of being able to do it. and yet you're willing to give them highway to figure it out when people think that, you know, there is a wall already -- from the vehicle. >> i would say, i've been a skeptic of this company for the last three years as they have struggled to grow users. you said there has been this engagement. the actual reality, they have been basically flat-lining. the problem with twitter stock, they haven't grown users for so long. they literally were going sideways as the product struggled. as the product started to get better and made it easier to find what you want, as they moved more aggressively into video, we're starting to see users for the first time in years start to meaningfully grow again. so i think a lot of the advertising challenges they're having are backward-looking on their problems, rather than forward-looking. so look, i agree. this has been a problem company to the last three years. we have never had a buy on it until yesterday. >> good timing. >> i agree -- >> let me ask you this. so you said this could be negative for the next couple of quarters. why not wait a couple quarters? i know the discounting mechanism. >> the market discounts growth in users. we're looking at users. if i see users moving in the right direction and engagement moving in the right direction, advertising will follow. and i also think there is a tremendous number of companies who look at the data and engagement the twitter platform has. and i think the odds that twitter survives as a public company are low if the users and engagement are moving in the right direction. this thing is going to get taken out. the problem that scared a lot of people away was two-fold. it was, one, the poor performance of users, meaning going the wrong way. and it was all of the what i would call safety and hate speech trolling that i think twitter has done a much better job on, getting a better handle on. >> rich, i appreciate you calling in. >> thank you fort lauderdale having me. >> good conversation. you knew the kinds of questions that would be coming your way with the stock down 10% in your call yesterday. i really do appreciate it. >> no, thanks. >> rich greenfield. btig. we have a news alert on the consumer financial protection bureau. elon muy live with that news. >> thanks, scott. i obtained a copy of a memo outline changes hensarling is planning to make on dodd/frank. it's a lot more aggressive than the first one. here are some of the fed lines that are going to be major changes to the consumer financial protection bureau. the director would be a political appointee, subject to removal by the president at any time. it strips the agency's powers to bring cases against companies it says are acting in an unfair, desen active and abusive way. on banking regulation, the bill will remove the fdic from the living will process and relaxes requirements, and removes annual stress tests to a two-year cycle. one thing that didn't change is the bill's reforms to the federal reserve. the fed would still be required to adopt a rule for changing monetary policy. this bill would also still give the government more power to audit the fed. i'm still combing through the details of this memo and i'll keep you posted the details of the memo. back to you. >> thank you. breaking news and good news at that. interesting news, i should say out of the nation's capital. you want to, you know, have a comment on this? i mean, they -- some people are looking to take dodd frank, roll up into a ball and toss it. >> i think there are good elements of dodd-frank, and there's horrendous elements. we look at funds, direct lending funds, where they are charging normal businesses 20% interest just to run the business. that's horrendous for dodd-frank. it's created this barrier for normal businesses to do business. not only from an interest rate perspective, but from the compliance perspective. that's horrendous. i don't think you should politicize the fed with government overnight. >> we're back after this with unusual activity with pete. ing urns eap he, ms a vg is,alitane aiondoars way, acng manof the eap he, ms a vg rls leinve thglal iesntbusiudtis way, deardictery ays.i'veou perpe f toge are ecnced r heartsaci ayey: yovengrpe f ree. r heau ar♪[vucdn: aesteacngleonk itan accs, hknere ta ah..the sinen newtey gring hep he taxees, anrlasnoonke its dvtialreadutn newtey gring hep he taxe cor, day govzlet howoucomp'n it. welcome back. signs of unusual trading activity, pete, what did you find today? >> well, look at dollar free, scott. actually, when it hit, stock traded at $78, and now it's moving up as the markets, obviously, move to the upside as well. look at the may 82.5 calls. aggressively, 4400 were bought between $3.10 and $3.60. they were outs of the money by $4.50 while buying these giving them a lot of time, but that's a lot of premium as well. this is a significant amount of dollars being put down to say that the dollar tree, which gave good guidance last quarter to say that dollar tree's going to do well this quarter and maybe even beyond, i'm in this, but i actually bought the stock today, scott, and sold calls against the position. there is upside and discounters have upside in the early parts of 2017. >> good stuff, pete, thanks. see you back soon. >> yep, thanks. a quick break and then final drads. . welcome back to the "halftime report," crude oil rallying over a percent today. jim, you said crude appears at a range since december. are you a buyer or seller? >> disease to prove more strength. if you tease out the story of whether or not opec's going to comply with the production cuts, you're left with the oversupply story that's real and potential of real live growth. that's a story too. part of the supply story was that we saw bigger draws, so maybe we're reacting to that now, about 54.60 is where i buy it. >> above 53 by a hair? >> last couple months have been a range bound. 52, buyers and hedgers come in, and 54, shale producers are sellers. this range, i suspect, continues for a while as we shake things out and balance supply and demand. the numbers are not as critical. they are a little bit lagging in nature and that's why there's a sideways market. the inventory build yesterday was an indication. i still think it's a range bound, buy 52, sell 55. >> thank you, david stockman, former director of the official 6 managements and budget under president reagan, why the stock market may be headed for a free fall. that's today at 1:00 p.m. eastern on "futures now." we'll be right back. 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