Great to have you here. Stocks steady right now, as you see behind me as melissa said, the nasdaq, though, hitting another record intraday high. Its been a good april. With less than two days of trading left in the month, the average is holding on to solid gains for the month. Its one of the stocks of the day, shares of retailer floor and decor, i think its in my future somehow. I dont know. But i think it is. Soaring on its ipo debut up more than 40 . You take that any day. Here is what else is happening this hour, House Speaker paul ryan says no final decision has been made on when to vote on a plan to overhaul obamacare. Recode reports apple is in talks to launch its own Money Transfer service similar to vennmo. United Airlines Announced that ten major changes will take place following that disturbing incident of a passenger being removed forcibly from one of its aircraft. One of the changes pass skbrers may get up to 10,000 for getting bumped involuntarily. Melissa, sign me up. Tyler, we begin with the biggest earnings of the quarter. Bob down at the new york stock exchange. Hi, bob. And the important thing is were at the Halfway Point in the earnings are better than expected. Take a look at the First Quarter up more than 12 . 10 of the very beginning of the quarter. And its been strong for the comments for the full year second quarter, third and Fourth Quarter, thats why stocks are holding up. This is a big relief to the markets that nobody is taking down the numbers for the year. Lets take for example the transport. You see something strange today . All the railroads up, the airlines down, thats because the railroads had good numbers. Union pacific beat, President Trump said he is renegotiating not leaving nafta help to the airlines. Airlines now, higher labor cost and American Airlines is hurting all the rest of the stocks. Big day for tech after the close. You got amazon, google, bell weather look at samsung, they had very good overall numbers. Thats a big company, of course, in the chip space overall. Now, finally, big oil is going to report. Weve heard from industrials. We heard from banks. Tomorrow well hear from exxon. Well hear from chevron. You see whats going on with oil . The big story is the continuing growth of shale and lesser influence from the middle east. Thats going to be the big issue, but theyre expecting these earnings to go up for these Companies Big time in 2017. We want to hear what exxon has to say about where oil is going to be in the second half of the year. Guys, back to you. All right, thank you very much, bob. As bob just pointed out, this is one of the biggest days on the earnings calendar despite todays choppy run, dow is on track for the biggest weekly gain of the year. Trump stock market score card as it stands right now has had the third best overall Market Performance in the first 100 days as president and the second best republican behind h. W. Bush. Lets bring in managing director and Portfolio Manager with reuss funds. Gentlemen, great to have you with us. Steve, start off with you, in terms of valuations in the markets and in terms of what weve seen so far in a pretty decent earnings market what we heard albeit very vague outline of a tax plan, where do we stand on this rally . Its more than a decent earning season. Its another great earning season. 77 of through yesterday 77 of companies that reported beat their estimates. Only 15 disappointed. As you pointed out, 12 growth. Those are great numbers. On top of continued aggressive monetary policy, a very businessfriendly administration as opposed to the obama administration, so its only i mean the market rally makes all the sense in the world to me. Yes, valuations are getting a little stretched, but boy the sun sure is shining as far as the stock market is concerned. I dont see a whole lot of reason i think well get a technical correction here. We had a big rally. I think well pull back a little bit from a technical perspective. Ive got cash im waiting to put it to work on a pullback, but i dont see the market having a significant decline. Not with this not with this setup. Jay, are we seeing everything come up roses really, or are we whistling past the graveyard . Arent there concerns looming in terms of whether or not a tax deal gets done in any way, shape or form . The french elections seems not to be such a big problem at this point, but still weve got a lot ahead of us and were at full valuations as many people point out . Well, we are. Some of that is absolutely true. Earnings have been okay. Were in the small cap space so earnings reports tend to come later, but so far so good. The setup like steve said is okay, but youre correct, the market has, i think, priced in a good expectation of reductions in Corporate Tax rates which are very good for small cap stocks, infrastructure spending. Very good for small cap stocks. Well see what happens. The market is looking through geopolitical but the russell 2,000 has been up around 18 since the election. A good chunk of that was in november. Some of that was this past week. So you know there could be a pause, but in small cap Small Cap Value lagged for years and years. Late last year Small Cap Value started a resurgence versus small cap growth. Were Small Cap Value managers at reuss so we feel good about Small Cap Value within the russel 2,000. I think of chuck reuss and your shop and value and small caps. So in what areas specifically of that universe are you concentrating your focus right now . Quickly. Ive got some financials. We have cyclicals, technology, so you know its very broad but were looking at company by company. We have investment banking, we have pc connection in technology. Weve got general text is an automotive supplier, so all of those, the Company Fundamentals are very, very good. In spite of what the market may or may not do, for the next five years those should be very good stocks. Gentlemen, thank you. Thank you. Now to the d. C. Action also driving the market these days. Were just an hour away from President Trump signing a memorandum on aluminum imports plus washington still buzzing over the unveiling yesterday of the outlines of the president s tax plan. The big question now is how will it get paid for if indeed it will. Steve mnuchin weighed in this morning on today show. When we come out with the details of the plan, this will be paid for combination of Economic Growth which will be around 3 or slightly higher and a combination of by reducing massive amounts of deductions in special interests. All right, will the white house be able to negotiate this deal and get it through congress . Lets bring in Robert Costa National political reporter with the washington post. So, robert, what was the reception on the hill to this proposal . There was an embrace but not a hearty embrace by congressional republicans. They like the idea of sweeping tax cuts, the 15 corporate rate, but when it comes to the reality of law making here at the capital, they know that its going to be a very difficult vote, that there are not enough votes there yet for the trump tax plan, the house has its own tax plan that speaker ryan has been working on. So they really have to try to find some common ground. Can they actually keep the 15 rate on corporations because other plans have it more around 20 . Theyre going to have to try to figure out will this be a deficit Hawk Republican Party or not . Where are their real priorities . That all has to be worked out. I can well imagine the line of attack from the democrats will be two things one, we dont know how much this helps mr. Trump because we dont what his tax returns look like. Thats one. Number two, if youre a working person in this country, you can see a massive reduction in the tax rate for corporations from 35 to 15 . That favors corporate interests, businesses, Small Businesses, but there is not a commensurate reduction for individuals in rates really. Its not that big a cut, and individuals lose a lot of deductions that they otherwise would get. Thats exactly right. If you look at some of the banner headlines in my newspaper and others, it focuses on the fact that this tax plan helps those who are wealthy and those who are running corporations or corporations themselves. My sources at the white house say their counter to that is they hope the working class base around the country recognizes trumps activities on trade, his tariff activity, his efforts against nafta perhaps to even withdraw. They hope that will balance out this narrative building in washington that its all about helping out corporations and rich people. Robert, there are certainly many things within this broad outline of a plan that democrats and fiscal hawks within the Republican Party will oppose. At the same time, is it maybe is it too optimistic to think this is an opening gam bet and the administration left themselves enough room to negotiate a way certain things that would otherwise be sticking points in order to accomplish other more important things like getting the Corporate Tax rate down to as close to 15 as possible . Its fair to say based on my reporting that this tax proposal as is really a theatrical flourish. It lays out the principles, but it does it before the 100 day mark which is so crucial for this white house. The president himself im told is really driving his staffers to try to come up with some action on taxes that the president has been listening to larry cudlow and steve more thinks through his tax plan, but the white house acknowledges privately and somewhat publicly that theres so much ground to cover still on capitol hill that as much as they have these plans and principles out there, it doesnt mean this is going to come to a vote or become law any time soon. All right, robert, thank you. Also an nbc news political analyst. Sticking with taxes, key kpaent of President Trumps reform plan is a major concern for those living in high tax states. Robert frank is here with all the details. We know that the top 1 pay more than a third of federal income taxes and they are of course the biggest beneficiaries of state and local tax deductions. Lets see how much they would lose and what it could result in. 30,000 a year from the deductibility of state and local taxes. But a small slice of super earners in high tax states, they account for the lions share of that. New yorkers make more than 1 million a year save an average of over a half million a year from that deduction. Now, californians who earn seven figures they save an average about the same 497,000 a year. If they lose that benefit, the wealthy could have another incentive to move to florida, arizona, texas or no other income state tax. Realtors in florida telling me this morning theyve been on the phones with clients saying they have yet another reason to head south and buy some real estate, but even taxpayers in florida stand to lose a little built. Check this out. Taxpayers in florida taking 14 billion in deductions from local taxes so thats not just the state taxes, because theres no state income tax, but the local taxes, the average deduction for a florida millionaire is 133,000 a year. So we could have an acceleration of the millionaire migration to low tax states but millionaires throughout the country could feel this. Another thing that i think has made this overblown is that the amt prevented some of the wealthy from using this deduction in the first place. So, it may not be such a big impact. Because the amt goes away. Right. In this. So the average writeoff for that high strata in florida is 133,000 a year. Thats right. Thats from, what, property taxes . Property taxes and other local fees. School taxes. Because there is no income taxes. To your point, tyler, when you boil all this down, the rich will be fine because they have llcs and like donald trump, they can write the working wealthy, the salaried affluent, especially in these high tax states, theyre going to see a major increase because they never were subject to the amt and theyre going to lose this deduction. And the deduction the loss of the deduction in short will cost them more than the reduction in rates will benefit. Absolutely because they are not going that far down in rates now from 39. 6 only to 35. So, theyre going to see a big increase. Again its the working affluent not that we should feel too sorry. They have very limited ability to move their jobs. It will be interesting to see what corporations do to respond to their workers and where they want to live. Absolutely. Thank you. Still ahead the chief Investment Officers of one of the biggest activists investor firms on the street weighs in on this market and where he sees opportunity right now. Plus, the countdown is down to the 2017 cnbc stock draft. Eight teams, 50 stocks, one winner. Who will reign supreme . It all kicks off at 2 00 p. M. Eastern time. You do not want to miss it. You think traffics bad now, the futures going to be a nightmare does nobody like the future . Cmon, the future. He obviously doesnt know intel is helping power Autonomous Cars and the 5g network they connect to. With this, wont happen in the future. Thanks, jim. Theres some napkins in the glovebox. Okay, but why would i need a napkin . You could have just told me a bump was coming. We know the future. Because were building it. You realize the smartest investing idea, isnt just what you invest in, but who you invest with. Usaa gives me the and the security just like the marines did. The process through usaa is so effortless, that you feel like youre a part of the family. I love that i can pass the membership to my children. Were the williams family, and were usaa members for life. Hey youve gotta see this. Cno. N. Alright, see you down there. Mmm, fine. Okay, what do we got . Okay, watch this. Do the thing we talked about. What do we say . Its going to be great. Watch. Remember what we were just saying . Go irish see that . Yes im gonna just go back to doing what i was doing. Find your awesome with the xfinity x1 voice remote. Welcome back to power lunch. 13 d monitors active passive summit with my guest, ed garden, cofounding partner and cio. Nice to have you here. Thanks for having me. You spoke not too long ago talking about the changes that have taken place broadly speaking in terms of Corporate Governance and ownership. What do you mean when you talk about owners acting like owners as you did briefly here. What i said, david, is that Something Big is happening in the public equity markets. And that is that owners are acting like owners. And it sounds so basic yeah, it sounds like something that should have always been the case. Sounds so basic, but you and i know for the better part of the last 100 years that wasnt the case, right . Public share owners feld like if they didnt like what was happening at the company, their only option was to sell, right in theres a huge gulf between the owners and the managers. All that is changing. And i think theres a lot of reasons for that. The consolidation of the shareholder base, for instance, but i think the biggest reason is the transfer of wealth thats happened from public share owners to private equity over the last say, 40 years. Right . Public share owners have watched as private equity has taken underperforming Public Companies, underperforming divisions of Public Companies and made a fortune. And the question is, why and how does that happen . Right. Some people as you know say its simply a function of the capital structure. Really doesnt have to do with the underlying performance of these businesses. Levering up and benefits from low rates. I have a different view. If you look at a company in the private equity context, the owners are the board. Management is reporting directly to the owners of the company and those owners are very informed, very engaged, lot of skin in the game, very different from a public equity context. So, theres something in that ownership mentality, in the board room dynamic that creates really good results. And thats basically what we do and i think what youre seeing is youre seeing public share owners move up the ownership mentality spectrum. Theyre obviously never going to be at the private equity end of the spectrum, but at trian, were in the forefront of all that. Can you do it without being on the board . Or is that in some ways always sort of an end goal when you get involved and take a very large position, for example, as you have in ge or procter gamble. Most of the time were going on the board. But ge is actually poignant example of what im trying to describe. Were not on the board there. Right. This changing relationship between owners and the Public Markets and managers. So, think about ge. Iconic company, big company, Important Company where they ask trian to become a share owner. We put out a public white paper, as you know with all the reasons why we like the business. But we also said that we would hold management accountable to deliver on their commitments. And they missed their numbers last year. Our first full year. Not the last quarter, the quarter prior was not a good quarter. And to be fair, your white paper then is capital the stock did very well, since then it has not. It always comes back to earnings. In 2016, our first full year in the stock, while they hit on the eps line, it was because of lower tax rates. So they missed on the operating income line. At which point we intensified our engagement with management. In going back to my earlier point, owners involved with management, our involvement with management led to the Company Filing an 8k in march which basically laid out a set of initiatives that i think increased the probability that management will be successful, right . So, committing to an ebit number to ensure the eps is high quality. Starts with our operating income number.