steve mcqueen, and then there's everybody else, and then normal human beings down here he's at the top. >> reporter: now, last year, paul newman's porsche that he actually raced sold for $4.4 so mcqueen is going to best his old time rival in the market place by a multiple of four to five this car could sell for between $13 million and $16 million, guys back to you. >> have a good weekend keep your eyes on the tape let's get to wapner and the half and welcome to the "halftime report." i'm scott wapner our top trade this hour, stocks at a tipping point is this week's turbulence the start of a bigger correction and if so, how should you play it with us for the hour today, here at post nine at the new york stock exchange, josh brown, stephanie link, sirott, pete

najarian let's begin with a look at the major averages boy, what a different story it is at this very moment s&p and nasdaq are positive. the dow jones industrial average, knocking on the same door, as well. josh, this is a far different story from how it looked a half an hour ago. >> yeah. >> this is what it's come to >> this is the big pivot, scott! he's pivoting! >> we're looking at the future of employment for certain people in the white house, is now the main driver for stocks >> like, intraday in late august, when all the real money is out at gurney's, you know, yes. but bigger picture, like, i don't feel like this is really changing people's positioning, whether or not goldman sachs is going to win out over the clan inside the white house like, i don't -- i really don't feel like the position has changed that much. let's keep in mind, though, s&p was 2.7% off the high this morning at its lowest levels, but russell was 7% off the high.

so if you really want to gauge sentiment and you really want to get a good feel for, is today the day that all of a sudden people feel better, over the last week, i would watch small caps i would not be relentlessly focused on the s&p because that's really not where the damage has been done so far. you don't think gary cohn's future, for example, has a larger role on where the stock market could potentially trade or the instability that could be felt -- >> you already know how i feel about this >> you just said it was insignificant, other than a moment or two in august. >> i'm talking about day-to-day trading. i don't think people feel like, oh, that's it, cohn's staying. i don't think that's really how people are behaving. i think at the margin, there are trades based on that look, if you ask me, josh, you manage money, you work with high-net-worth people, you're an american citizen, which would you prefer hawkish behavior in trade wars with china or tax reform i'll take the tax reform

i think a lot of people agree with that. i just don't think you can draw the dots and say, this changes everything for investors >> right although, steph, the market clearly seems to be trading on this down 275 yesterday and worries about gary cohn's future talked about by almost everybody as a chief catalyst for the sell-off now there's an axios story that bannon may be out. maybe that decision comes imminently and the stock market rallies back by nearly a hundred points >> well, the market doesn't like uncertainty, you know that and yesterday was like the peak of uncertainty and if cohn does leave, then there's more uncertainty, because then it's what we all thought would happen would be, okay, maybe health care doesn't get done but taxes probably gets done repatriation probably gets done. infrastructure probably gets done and if cohn goes, maybe that gets put on the back burner. >> we're going lead the whole show today, is this the start of a bigger correction? now the question is back to what

it was why get all in a whole tizzy over a one-day slide in stocks, when the fundamentals across the board are good the ones that david tepper told us the other day, the ones we know growth is good, earnings are good, rates are low. >> absolutely. >> bottom line >> absolutely. absolutely and that's what i've been saying for the last call of weeks when we've had some more volatility and the market has pulled back i don't think you buy 100% of a position on any of these given days, because you just don't know what the macro is going to be but i think you look at fundamentals and look at companies that have reported strong earnings. where they've beaten, where they've raised, where fundamentals and secular stories are still in tact. and the market gives you the opportunity to buy those, that's what you do. i've been picking away for the last two weeks, but i think it's hard to time especially the macro so i focus on fundamentals and as you said, they are still very strong. >> i completely agree with steph. and i think what you're seeing

now is so many people saying, i'm looking for a reason to sell, and this is it so, let me take some money off the table. plus, as josh said, the volatilities is higher, because you don't have so many people play right now so i would look at good companies that we haven't been able to buy in the past. add to the ones that you own, especially on days like yesterday. and you know, i think come september, that's going to be an interesting story, when you get a lot of volume back >> we are watching the president of the united states making his way for the weekend to camp david. you can see, in what has been a tumultuous week, undoubtedly, within the white house an exodus of ceos from various policy councils, along with questions about the future of the -- one of the chief economic voices within the white house, gary cohn, the future of steve bannon this in hagerstown, maryland, where the president will head a short drive from there to camp david for the weekend. we'll keep our eye on all of that and how it play into the greater narrative, doc, in what

in the world is going on with this stock market. it seems like this is another smack across the face, that there's more risk in being out than there is in being in. >> look at the numbers today steph and i agree 100% with what you said about, you know, what's been driving us so far you also had consumer sentiment today, very strong >> all of the economic data this week has been good, actually >> 97 versus 94, expected. i mean, these are really good numbers so if you're somebody that wanted to jump out and you're that nimble that you could jump out and jump back in, okay otherwise, would something like yesterday drive me out would listening to who i think is a very informed gentleman up in yale, simonfeld, say the markets will all just erupt if cohen leaves i think it would be a very quick eruption i want him there don't get me wrong i want gary cohn there, because i think he is the one that is going to push these policies, not mitch mcconnell. but i think that it would be a very fast reaction

>> so i'm with you and i have to tell you, there are probably algorithms right now that are programmed with something -- something to the effect of, cohn leaving, fired, whatever, waiting for that twitter headline it sounds ridiculous, but literally, trades are getting done on this stuff if that's what -- if that's what the immediate reaction is, is to sell, don't be shocked when the index money wave comes back in and buys that headline so we can speculate who's next, who's going to go, who's going to be quit or be fired, but truthfully, mechanical money doesn't care about, oh, gary cohn, i went to a yanky ga a y y truthfully, mechanical money doesn't care about, oh, gary cohn, i went to a yanky gaanky with him no one cares the money coming into this market on negative headlines is index money and algorithmically driven money i don't think it matters >> pete najarian, you're with us, as well. i'm wondering what your thoughts are and how they may have changed, if at all, about the market from 9:30 this morning

until 12:07 in the east. >> well, it's extremely representative of exactly what we're in right now and you guys were talking about it it's a very volatile situation right now. obviously, you talked about this week with the president. it has been a tumultuous week. it's been brutal and we've watched the market go back and forth i think the reality of it all is, you look for the fundamental story. i mean, steph was talking about lower rates. we talk about volatility all the time how about the idea of the fundamental story and what we know right now look at applied materials. look at nvidia, look at facebook, apple, all the names we talk about each and every week here on the show and every day on the show, all these tech names. when you look at the fundamental strength and look at that growth and a name like red hat, that's got a revenue growth of 19%, year over year, these are names that are absolutely those names that when they get sold off, those are on your list, because we know the fundamental story and we know how strong it is right now, scott >> but pete, i could come right back and say, why don't you look

at the transports, pete. the transports haven't been playing ball in this rally at all. that's a danger sign in and of itself the markets had a rolling correction across a wide swath of sectors hundreds of stocks, hundreds or 10% at minimum are below their 52-week highs. isn't that a concern in and of itself and doesn't it show the internal fragility, if you will, of the market >> it does and i totally agree with you transports is something we talk about all the time and we keep an eye on that area of the market place. and talk about financials all the time each and every one of these segments has some positives and negatives. i think the overwhelming positives lies with technology i think you could also add financials to that and maybe you start to kick in industrials. but certainly you're right i'm not saying the entire market looks impressive and every single sector is doing everything we can and that's why we're at these highs we are being led and there's this rotation of leadership, continually, every single week but transports is certainly

something ting every one of us should keep an eye on, because that is a concern. but i'm not going to let that concern right now drag me out of some of these areas. and when i look at the volatility index going from 16 back under 14 today, it just shows you a volatile time we're in right now and that low volatility should be bought. >> i think a lot of people, just real quick, to jump on that point, first of all, the transports held the 200-day, which is what you needed them to do but more importantly, people reading the internals backwards. they're looking for these breakdowns in things like advanced decline or percentage o of names above a certain moving ar average and saying this is evidence that the rally is falling apart. it's the opposite. those extreme drops have been the buying opportunities for years and years now. as we speak, i think it's 39 or 40% of s&p 500 names are below their 50-day 50-day is nonsense it's short-term noise. those are the opportunities where you're looking for the names that you've wanted all

along, when they come in so i just don't see it that we could extrapolate a couple of days starting last week, into it's all over, it ended. >> the way somebody put it in e-mail to me, which i think is well said, external fragility with underlying strength isn't that a description of where the market is? >> is that a haiku >> judge, i would point out what we've been talking about in terms of the speed of the market and so forth whether it's reading axios or anything else. but i'll put something up on twitter right now because i see these blocks in the spyder, for instance, spy. anything they can access electronically like bang, bang, bang, as soon as those headlines hit, 7,000, 10,000, and so forth, a lot of puts sold in the s&p. and obviously we went from negative 90 or $1100 in the dowt positive in the s&p. >> let's bring in bob pisani

with a look at what's happening inside the market we've been talking about, bob what a move for stocks today >> who knew there was a bannon depressant in the market as well as a cohn premium. the question, as you've been talking about, scott, are the markets in trouble they're not in trouble yet, but there are some cracks starting to emerge. we've seen something that wecht se seen in a long time. several events have come together first and most importantly, there's leadership doubts about president donald trump emerging and the ability to get tax cuts through. traders have been alarmed by the dramatic decline of the small cap russell 2,000, down 7% from its historic high about a month ago. it's been failing ever since the health care bill failed. it's now flat for the year look at this divergence. the s&p is up 8% for the year. the russell's flat it's almost all companies with earnings in the u.s. it looks like some are downgrading in the hopes of pro-growth policies from the trump administration also, separately, a basket of

companies that pay relatively high taxes and would greatly benefit from tax reform, it began slipping back in april it's collapsed again just in the last three or four weeks the stock market is not cheap, we all know that, and the leadership does look tired amazon, 11% off its high, but still up 28% for the year. also, the argument to buy cheaper value stocks like energy and retail, that's a very tough sell i think a lot of peel lost badly in energy and retail this year third earnings may be topping, the s&p, only expected to post gains of 6% in the third quarter after double-digit gains in the first and the second quarter finally, the federal reserve, which has been such a big help for so many years, is mostly neutral for stocks right now so, i'm going to be watching the next few days, scott that's going to be an important test in today's context, a 5% pullback would be notable. that would bring us back to the levels we saw in may so 5% right now, scott, from the highs would be 2356. that's a long ways away. that's 75 points and that would

be a 5% pullback >> thanks so much, bob pisani, on the floor bob mentions energy as one of the places to keep an eye on you guys are watching oil and the energy stocks today. >> oil out of nowhere, right as the show started up probably 3% off the lows. i don't see any reason for why that would happen. but, i think it's noteworthy -- >> it's -- >> it's the worst sector of the market are the energy stocks >> and the fundamentals of oil just don't support oil going up at this time so you're looking at more macro plays, more hedge fund plays, kind of looking just to maybe diversify as to what's going on. >> even if oil doesn't go up materially -- >> the stocks go down. >> the stocks are down 25 to 35%. so there is some value in this space. and i say that because i've been buying on the way down and it hasn't worked and it's been very frustrating, but it goes back to your rotation. if you could get energy stocks to actually rally and hold that rally, i think that's actually -- >> even stop draggi inging woul an improvement >> from a broader market

standpoint, there's some interesting commentary out there today. citi for one, by bob buckland, he says, investors should still buy the dips, but the dips may get bigger and be more frequent. is that a fair sort of assessment of how most of you think, that this market should be traded or invested in buy the dips, but be prepared for more dips and maybe even larger dips? >> i think like the easiest for investors who are not following this minute by minute, and frankly, most should not be, is to just look out for a lower high i've said this before. if you really want some kind of a tell that the uptrend is at an end, rather than trying to guess, all right, it's going to be next tuesday, wait for a correction where we rally back from it, but don't take out the prior high, before starting the next correction. it tells you this has shifted. it's not science, it's art, but why guess in advance as this thing continues to move higher

why not at least have some kind of a signpost that tells you, the buyer's stopped coming in at a lower level, that they had come in previously, maybe to buy the dips psychology has vanquished it just hasn't happened yet. >> for the long-term investor, though, the fundamentals are really pretty good earnings are really good interest rates are low oil is low, consumer is strong they're picky, in terms of where they're buying but they're strong household formations are strong. the whole nine yards corporations, they're -- >> but i don't care if you're a long-term investor or a short-term investor, these corrections are -- or pullbacks are unnerving. >> the whole point of it is, if you do get a correction -- >> you're not thinking about your time frame when the market is pulling back by 3 or 5% >> i respect that. but i will just say, the fundamental story hasn't changed. the big picture hasn't changed you get pullbacks and it doesn't feel good. i was the first one yesterday who felt really bad, because my portfolio was down i felt bad however, however, i'm looking at

the fundamentals and i'm trying to think a little bit longer term and find blue chip quality companies that get hit, especially because the big picture hasn't changed that's my point. >> and it's not the retail that's the buy the dip, really the retail, when it's the buy the dip, it barely mauve moves s much in the market when they buy the dip, they are nimble enough to hedge with things like the vix, just like mr. ackman did just like gundlach does. so when they do that and when the vix drops down into those 11 ranges, which we damn near slammed down to that again yesterday, as we broke down. that's the opportunity, judge. >> we'll step away for two minutes. when we come back, footlocker sales tumbling this hour sales disappointing the street two downgrades for the retailer, as well. we'll debate it in our trade of the day.

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all right. we're back on the "halftime report." shares of footlocker plummeting as the athletic retailer falls short of street expectations the worst day for the stock since november of 2008 also gets three downgrades this hour it's our call of the day boy, guys, this stock is absolutely getting hammered. matt boss, jpmorgan, becomes the third of the day to downgrade this stock >> i don't understand where

management is this whole quarter. how do you have a stock go down 25% in one day, lose a quarter of its market cap, after already being down from the highs of what, 40%, 50% like, how is this even real life so it will be interesting to hear how this gets explained away >> well, obviously, it's not -- i mean, the stock is down 27%. they seem to be, you know, blaming -- >> there's no guidance on this -- >> -- a lack of new innovative products they're saying that it's not hot right now. that's the whole issue >> the trends are soft for sure. >> dick's sporting goods >> nike under armour >> i think with footlocker, they get hit even harder, because they aren't seeing the pressure from the vendors so the nike and the under armours are pressuring them. not only that, nike and others are focusing on their direct-to-consumer strategies on their own. so i think some of this certainly is softness. but some of it is also the

pressure from the vendors, as well so i still think you want to go with the vendors, the footlockers -- >> online competition, though? people buying direct from adidas, direct from nike >> that's what i'm saying. i want to own nike i don't want to own a footlocker particularly, also, since they're tied -- >> but you just sold nike? so steph wants to own nike, you don't? >> i want to buy it. >> i don't hate nike it's going lower it's -- look, i bought this thing, they killed nit may, i knew it was a great opportunity. i didn't know how fast it would run up it ran up, now it's in the process of pull back it was in an up trend, it's not. >> so you didn't short it, you just sold your -- >> nike's fine unfortunately, for steph, but maybe fortunately, because she'll buy more, i think it's going to head into the 40s >> you get a global company with fabulous brands -- >> no one zprdisagrees. >> new products are coming they've already guided in the first half of this year to be flat in north america. they could grow sales 4% for the

full year, even if north america is flat, which i don't think is going to happen -- >> you're going to have to wait, though, until the market appreciates the positives that i don't disagree with you on >> i don't have a cat lust in the short-term for sure. but i'm willing to hold on >> pete, what about you? >> this is a tough one, scott. this is one of the companies that how difficult is this right now, if you're talking about footlocker right now, how difficult is it to compete in the environment we're in i think it's very, very difficult. i understand what the debate is right now between nike i think the one other element that you've got to consider with nike is the pressure and competition level of adidas just continues to get higher and higher and higher. they are making a push, more and more into the united states. and i think they're being very, very cost effective, in this push into the united states. and it's working so it's making it that much more difficult. under armour, i don't look at as the same kind of competitive level to nike that kevin plank this is they can but i think adidas is someone

who can eat away at some of nike north america, for sure. >> probably not fair to talk about retail in any way today, without mentioning gap and ross stores >> sell them both. >> just by virtue of what the earnings were and what the stocks have been doing today >> sell them both. ross, you have this nice bounce off of very oversold conditions. still in a very overdefined down trend. guilty until proven innocence. gaap has gre gap has great news and else off anyway how can we say there's any kind of institutional going on. >> we are on the opposite side of off price for sure. i don't own ross, because it trades at a premium to tj. and out of all the quarters that have been reported, tj and ross had -- they were outstanding better same-store sales. better margins >> will it matter past today >> hold on >> i do think it will. >> for ross.

>> well, i would say to t.j. >> i have no comment on t.j. i'm with you on that >> they kind of work together. they trade together. but i think what's the most important point is off-price is not getting hit from amazon. specifically, both companies had very strong traffic trends who is seeing traffic? nobody is seeing traffic >> fair, fair. >> not only that, but they're getting in the stores and actually buying. >> fair. >> that's the bull case for walmart, too >> you can have walmart all you want, but that stock is up way too much for me. >> ross stores up 4 sticks right now. is anyone going to be excited about that on monday or take away the gain from today and goes back. >> i think the takeaway is that offprice is not getting amazoned and that is an opportunity for both stocks. i'm not saying -- >> and that's the same sort of point that steve was making this morning on "squawk box." >> yeah, >> look at the winners, it's the offprice, the discounts. >> and the offprice going back to school, too we're just into that phase, as josh and all these folks that had kids off at camp

they're all barrack or most are back, some come back next week and they're all going into the stores to shop and a lot of that's done in t.j. maxx and ross stores. >> would you please tell my wife that >> she buys a to the name brand -- >> i don't think she got the memo on that, doc. >> mrs. brown, please go into ross and t.j. maxx >> please go to family dollar. for god sake we'll be -- are we going to break? >> if you want to. it's starting to get uncomfortable. >> for you or your wife? >> for all of us up next, a double dose of unusual activity john and peter tracking the moves in the options market, as always stay with us for their plays first, let's get you a check on the dow 30 dow is now down just 16 points "halftime report" back after this

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some of today's leaders include applied materials, my conn, baker hughes and amd for more on the index, go to cnbc.com/ cnbc.com/iq100 now back to the "halftime report" with scott wapner. all right. let's do some unusual activity doc, what do you see you're up first. >> all right, these guys are

getting tarred with the brush, judge, of being in the fitness space. although that's not all they do. it's brunswick so they have this much fitness the rest of it's boats and big-ticket items and they're out of bowling, by the way. but so brunswick today trades through 49 to the downside trades through 49, makes a very nice bounce. now it's back up over 50 they're aggressively buying the double nickel. that's 55 calls out in december. i joined them. >> that strategy is called the big lebowski >> to get out of bowling >> pete, what do you have. well, bi'm looking at century link keithmeister from announced how much they've jumped up their stake. they've got an active role here, as well. bank of america had a note out just the other day talking about the dividend looked safe to them. there's a lot of different news stories here yesterday, 11,000 of the september 20 calls aggressively

bought for 55 cents. stock was a little bit higher. today, they've returned again, scott. and over 20,000 calls trade today, being bought for 40 cents. so stock, i think, was right around 1860 when those were bought keep an eye on this. this is a lot of paper, two days in a row makes you want to scratch your head obviously,meister sees something here he's been on before, smart guy there's something here and i know that he's very active in the options world, as well so i think there's something worth noting and i'm in these and will probably be in these for at least a few weeks >> seeingis stock trade down b about 1% pete, thank you very much. have a good weekend, pete. see you back here soon, bud. >> thanks, right back at you >> let's go to sue herrera now with the latest headlines. >> hi, scott thank you so much. here's what's happening at this hour, everyone spanish police say the attacks in barcelona and cambrilles had been prepared some time ago. a senior police official saying the two attacks were connected with an explosion in a house

they believe one of the persons injured in the blast and now arrested had links to the two attacks. joint chiefs of staff general joseph dunford meeting with his japanese counterpart in tokyo. that meeting is part of his asian tour to discuss tensions on the asian peninsula >> i think what's most important is that we integrate our capabilities >> and i know that's what our plan is. >> the cleveland clinic and american cancer society say they will pull their annual fund-raisers from donald trump's pl mar-a-lago resort in florida following the president's remarks on charlottesville the event has raised up to $1 million annually to purchase equipment for that hospital's florida facility that's the news update now over to michelle >> coming up in 28 minutes on "power lunch," d.c. drama and your money every headline seems to move the markets, so we've got your game

plan for navigating the volatility plus, the trump agenda, travel and terror former continental ceo, gordon bethune joins us to talk about the effects. plus, cashing in on cars a look at the fastest, most expensive supercars in the country. and how one investor turned $800,000 into $12 million. that and much more ahead on "power lunch" at the top of the hour >> that is the definition of a great trade. >> nafta talks kicking off this week our morgan brennan focusing on the stocks that could stand to win or lose from a revision. "halftime report" returns to post nine right after this

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deere falling more than 5% in today's session according to our data partners at kensho, there have been ten other times the stock has dropped at least 5% in one day since 2010 a month after a similar drop,

agco jumps nearly 11%, deere rises about 8% cart pillar and torro gain more than 7%. for more, go to cnbc.com/kensho. now back to the "halftime report". >> welcome back. nafta renegotiations kicking off this week. our morghab brennan joining us now with a look at who stands to win and maybe lose from the revised rules. morgan >> that's right. whether directly or indirectly, nearly every transportation company in the u.s. is exposed to north american trade. and that so-called cross-border business has been a big source of growth, especially at the southern borders so that's been true for truckers like warner enterprises, swift transportation, and schneider national but it's also the case for the rails, especially kansas city southern, which operates a railroad in the u.s., but also one in mexico. now, that mexican business accounts for nearly half of revenue and about 55% of overall profit that's thanks to auto

manufacturing, materials moving into mexico and finished cars coming back out, as well as the uptick in refined energy product exports from the u.s now, given that, ksu has been the proxy trade for u.s./mexico relations really since the november election, when it shed a quick $1 billion in market cap the next day, after that presidential election alone, on tough trade talk from president trump and what that would mean, but as it's become clearer that perhaps that stance won't be as severe as had been feared, and more recently, that nafta talks will likely be as stark as feared, kansas city southern has rallied. take a look at that. it's up now almost 25% for this year make making it the second best performer in the dow transports for 2017 scott? >> yeah, all right, morgan, thank you so much. sirott, kansas city southern >> yes >> you own a lot >> we own it and we bought it before the election and bought it after the election on the dip. and i think when you look at the rails, it's still one of the cheaper ones it's got great exposure to

commerce and i think this is one of these things when all of a sudden it comes up again, you get the opportunity to buy it more, but we'll keep on buying this and -- >> i bought it, too. i love these setups. they took the stock down to $60 from the election into december. and it was so cartoonish, because, the sole reason for that sell-off, while every other stock in the sector was going up, was because of how heavily important cross-border traffic from mexico was. that's how opportunities present themselves i'm shocked we didn't see bigger hedge fund involvement in this name, because they love to fade these kind of things also. >> i am not selling. >> i wonder what we'll do with deere today. another investment stock on the move it's lower after earnings. you've talked about it, josh, on numerous occasions on this show. are you still in it? >> i have a double in this i'm fine with it today's hammer that's starting to form, take a look at the candles on deere what you're essentially seeing

is a stock that's four points off the worst levels this morning. volume was not convincing down at that level. i don't suggest it goes down at the high or fills the gap, but it's very helpful to see these kind of things hammer out. >> no pun intended >> we've seen this before in deere. look, we've seen this before over the last couple of years, the company has come out with very inconsistent results, it's the hallmark of this management team the market has really not cared beyond the day that they actually report earnings revenue is a little light, earnings a little better than expected they want to take this down 8% at the open, they're welcome to do that. i don't think smart fun sells down 8% for all intents and purposes >> gold prices touching $1,300 today, on pace for its third straight day of gains. we'll go to the future pits for those trades and we'll do that when we come back.

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all right. we're back, with post nine at the new york stock exchange. call your attention to the major averages at the hour far different picture than there was quite earlier this morning you can see the dow, s&p, nasdaq are at the highs of the day. the dow is up almost 40 points, even better than that and climbing, as we speak. s&p is in positive territory, as well i want to also make sure you're seeing that headline at the bottom of our screen whereby that's steve bannon is said to be out as donald trump's chief strategist, according to "the new york times." and that is clearly having, guys, a dramatic impact on the stock market right, i mean -- >> imagine if more people were here >> does this now change the trajectory of the agenda in some ways >> i hope, but we don't know that for sure. >> hope so >> i'm told we have our eamon

jarv jaff javers, as well. >> we don't have official confirmation from here in bridgewater, new jersey, that steve bannon is out or that the president has decided to fire him, as "the new york times" is reporting. we're also seeing the drudge report make similar headlines. these are well-sourced entities, but nothing official here from the white house. aides that have remained behind remember, the president took air force one from here in new jersey today he's on his way to camp david for a national security meeting about south asia, the afghanistan issue, this afternoon. so the president is en route right now. and i can tell you that from my reporting, steve beyonce was not on air force one, not necessarily expected to be on air force one today for this trip he hasn't been in bedminster new jersey with the president during the course of this week. so, he hasn't had necessarily the ear of the president and we know that staffers for this president like to be the last one to talk to him before he makes a major decision like

the one that he's making today, about whether or not to retain steve bannon so with all that said, we just simply don't have any official confirmation for you right now if you want to, we can talk about some of the controversial statements that bannon has made in the media this week, that a lot of analysts have said haven't helped his cause during the course of the week, because he's been seen as talking to, obviously, to the media. talking about an economic war with china talking about a lack of options with north korea, statements that were seen as boxing in the president of the united states, and this particular president does not like to be boxed in by anybody, particularly a staffer, who works for him. so some of those comments were seen as out of line. bannon defended those comments, though, saying that his interview, because of all of the attention that it got, distracted fire from donald trump hilmself. that is, the media criticism shifted from trump's comments on

charlottesville, virginia, and his fiery press conference earlier this week to banno himself, sort of casting himself as a lightning rod, absorbing some of the incoming criticism on behalf of the president, presumably he made that argument feeling that that would be something that would encourage the president to keep him onboard. but as of right now, no official confirmation from the white house about the status of mr. bannon no denials, though, i should say, of earlier reporting that this decision was likely to come today. and it was likely to be, to fire the president. there has been silence from the white house staff when we've asked them to go on the record and give us a comment about what mr. bannon's status is, as of right now. >> we're showing, eamonn, and you may know it or not, and forgive me if you do, if you're learning it at the very same moment that i'm telling you, that bannon is said to have submitted his resignation on august 7th, according to "the new york times." >> on august 7th that is new to me, as well that's an interesting thing,

because that would indicate that this has been in the works for some period of time. so we'll have to figure out exactly what the chronology of events here was, and if he did submit a resignation days ago, why we're not learning it until just now especially given all the attention that bannon got this week >> the other point, eamon, as you know, you've been covering it all week, it's been one heck of a tumultuous week for the white house. you've had the exodus of all of these chief executives and wild speculation on the future of gary cohn, which, in part, people say, caused the stock market, the dow jones industrial average, to go down more than 270 points yesterday you have to wonder if some point the president looked at the situation and said either cohn is going to be going or bannon is going to be going and maybe cohn is the one that we need more in the white house, because the president, as we know, likes to say how well the stock market has been doing. he wants to get key parts of his agenda through as well

>> reporter: you know, that stock market move gives steve -- gives gary cohn an enormous amount of leverage and clout with this white house, for exactly the reason that you're laying out if he's seen as somebody whose departure would rattle markets, then that's somebody that the president is more likely to want to hold close. now, the question was never about whether or not the president would push out gary cohn the question was whether gary cohn would resign himself in protest over the president's comments, equating peel on both sides of the charlottesville protests as being very fine people that was something where a lot of observers said that gary cohn was feeling frustrated and angry with the president for those comments but total radio silence from gary cohn himself. we got statements from white house officials on background yesterday, saying that gary cohn was not going to leave but we have not seen gary cohn since the press conference on tuesday, after which he did take some questions since then, we haven't seen him

or heard him make a definitive statement about his own status and you get the sense that behind the scenes, there's been a lot of wrangle with the white house team in terms of who was going to stay and who was going to go. this afternoon, right now, we may be getting more clarity on who's staying and who's going, staying and who's going, scott. >> it's hard to overstate as well, eamonn we should mention it by senator corker as well who is exceptionally critical, questioning the competence of the president. this is a guy who was tossed around at times as a name who was potentially being considered for that role. >> scott, i can tell you i'm getting an alert here. nbc news has learned steve ba bannon is out at the white house. we're reporting the same thing

you're right, we did see that call from the tennessee republican senator bach corker for a change at the white house. he questioned the president's stability and his competence those are very tough criticisms from your own party or any party to say about the president of the united states and now we're seeing it. steve bannon is out at the white house. stephen bannon is departing according to a senior administration official. senior administration official confirming bannon is out. >> stay with me. bob pisani is back on the floor with us as well. bob, there's been quite a move on the market related to this news. >> let's take a look at the s&p

500. remember, scotty, we were talking about this there was another report that ban would be fired we were down about 5 points. as you see, we've rallied up 8 points that's a 13-point move since the initial headlines came out that's quite a move. i just want to point out the market is a lot more stable. a long of fang names were looking tired. now they're fractionally in positive territory amazon is up as well we've also had one heck of a move in the energy complex i want to put up oil if we can natural gas and oil moved more than a dollar. look at that rally this was right around the time the headlines came out a big refinery in texas. the exxon baiten refinery was

shut down. there may be fundamental news as well we saw energy stocks going down every day. new lows on all the northwestern names. there you see the xle which is the main etf overall a lot more stable. the important thing is we now have a down day not followed by a second down day with heavy selling at least so far. that would be a real positive for those who want stability back to you. >> eamonn, back to you what if anything does this do to help the president get back to business, so to speak, to try to put the events and the way things were handled in charlottesville and steve bannon and the white house? >> the white house will view this as having taken some action, demonstrating change and a willingness to change. this has been an absolutely

brutal week for this white house with the departure of all of those ceos and council members military officials putting out statements saying they don't stand with hate. you've seen a whole range of criticism of this president, and they will hope that the white house by firing a high-profile aide very close to the president, that will send a signal and change the news cycle. whether it does that or not remains to be seen you can imagine there are those in the white house can feel things will start to settle down and they can get back to business and focus on the business at hand remember, the president going to camp david to talk about the wars in iraq and isis. there are significant matters on the president's plate the rest of the day, let alone the rest

of the year in terms of the tax bill and infrastructure. he's wanted to focus on it, but he hasn't been able to bring his administration around do anything yet because of the endless sort of controversies seen coming out of the white house. >> jonn najarian, i'm wondering how you look at this, doc, the so-called trump agenda may not have been in the market at all, but the prospects of key parts of it falling apart all together if gary cohn was to decide to leave mattered clearly to the stock market as we saw from the reaction yesterday and then today. >> as you heard from the cheers that went up on the new york stock exchange because of that judgment a lot of folks, i think, agree mr. bannon is going to be a much

better leader toward repatriation. >> mr. cohn. >> i mean mr. cohn seemingly a further endorsement of cohn by bannon's exit, so i view that very possibly. >> we'll see who's being tee'd up to replace him. that's not going to be cohn's role. >> maybe it won't be. >> hopefully the next senior adviser is not a cousin or blogger from the nether world. >> are we clear on that point of view that none at this point or

very little of the president's agenda was being factored into the stockmarket at all. >> still is not. >> the whole thing could go to heck in a hand basket and increasing pli turmoil in d.c. was going to be a big problem for the potential stockmarkets i think they showed you that. >> oh, sure. those led you down and those wo benefit from tax and deregulation until something gets done, i think there's a little bit that does get into that. >> we've got too more voices joining the conversation john harwood, in terms of change and the white house, what do you want to say on that? >> i don't think it's going make a whole lot of difference in the sense that most of the problems that donald trump has experienced lately flow from his

own personality and character and values rather than steve bannon himself steve bannon wasn't running tax policy for the administration. in fact, as we were looking to tax reform, he had been talking about a higher rate, raising the top rate, trying to defuse the tax on the rich. he lost that argument. they're not going to go up don't know if they're going to do on or if tax reform will pass at all other than to the degree that there's pressure with a trade war with china he said he was menaiically focused on it the other day. i'm not sure it was going to make a difference. >> you've been following from capitol hill what are your thoughts on this news >> i want to pick up where john left off about releasing this wage war where bannon had been

one of the loudest voices on that consider all the investigations that the administration has ongoing right now, a steel investigation by dumping in other countries. bannon had been said to have espoused that. there was some internal disagreement over exactly how to proceed. others pushing for a softer way. you could get a change of course with some investigations and pursuits already in the works specifically on trade because there might be some sighs of relief from those favoring a softer stance on those issues going forth because there are a lot of things already in the works that bannon had set in motion in this newly created job. the other thing is "the new york times" reporting of the date of his resignation is important

because there were questions over bannon was the source of the president's initial commentary last saturday after the charlottesville violence erupted. the president said on tuesday he and bannon hadn't spoken that struck some as a surprise because there was conventional wisdom that the president and bannon would have sort of knocked heading on that issue and figured out how to respond interesting that he has had not consulted him and perhaps it is an indication that the resignation was a long time coming. >> art cashin has more as well art, it was quite a move the moment of this first action yoes story saying that mr. bannon's future was in question double dow digits have come back i've said this at the top of our show we're engaging the