so i mean i would argue that global trade, we're going to see plenty of global trade. [closing bell rings] it is not going away anytime soon. it is still going to involve the u.s. and lots of other countries. liz: scott wren, thank you so much of wells fargo. the dow loses 94 points of gains. a big move for all of them. david and melissa, over to you. melissa: stocks seesawing in the final moments of trading. the dow ending barely in positive territory. the s&p and nasdaq closing slightly higher as well. i'm melissa francis, i'm david asman. glad you could join us. this is "after the bell." we have you covered on all big market movers. it was up, down, everywhere in between. this is what else we have for you at this hour. coming up new headlines, just crossing. russia may have known the assad regime was planning a chemical attack. this is secretary of state rex tillerson is on his way to moscow. he will have a lot to talk about over there. lieutenant colonel oliver north weighing in on these breaking

developments. tax reform, has it been scrapped? what the white house is now telling fox business about reports the president's tax plan may be starting over from square one. conservative speech under fire yet again on campus. protesters shouting done an event where author and commentator heather mcdonald was due to speak about the war on cops but she says it is not the students to blame. she will tell us who, coming up. melissa: the dow ending higher but barely, led by shares of caterpillar. ashley webster is watching big movers from the new york stock exchange. ashley. ashley: almost ending where we began, melissa. we have news from whole foods. word activist investor jana partners taking a big stake, second biggest stakeholder in the company. will shake it up. improve technology and operations to better compete with its rivals. shake up the board, maybe, maybe, see how much of a

potential bidder would pay for whole foods. up nearly nine, 10% today. take a look at tesla. we always seem to be talking about test last, the maker of the electric cars. at one point today the most valuable u.s. automaker in the country. surpassed ford last week. they went past gm today. they he been neck-and-neck. tesla up more than three% on an investor upgrade. piper jaffray raising it from neutral to overweight that giving a nice impetus forward. at&t, they're buying straight path communications for very hefty one and a quarter billion dollars. why? because straight path communication has licenses for the spectrum, the airwaves. wireless carriers want to improve their service they need more bandwidth. they're willing to pay a pretty penny for it. as you can see, at&t, down about half a percent but straight path communications going straight up. 151% to the upside. guys back to you. melissa: ashley, thank you. david: nice gain.

here is a quick check on oil, ending the day up 1.6% to just over 53 bucks a barrel, getting a boost in response on going turmoil in syria and libya, shutting down its largest oil field. gold snapping a two-day winning streak, down three bucks to 1253.90 a bounce. melissa: the trump adminstation not taking anything off the table with tax reform but with officials saying a detailed plan is still weeks away, will anything get done with congress in two-week recess. blake burman standing by at the white house with the latest on this one. i feel like i know the answer to that question if. reporter: i spoke with a white house official who told me, they are a few weeks away as it relates to tax reform. you really have two separate issues going on here. the first is a report out that the trump administration is essentially scrapping the president's plans as related to tax reform that he unveiled on the campaign trail.

instead white house press secretary sean spicer pushed back a bit. what they're doing right now is going through the normal process, working through their processes trying to come up with something. thus this white house official says they're at least a few weeks away. the second thing you have going on is the recalibration expectations when tax reform might happen. take you back to march 1st. when treasury secretary steve mnuchin told neil have -- cavuto that tax reform would be signed by august. gary cohn said on friday he wasn't sure the august timeline was the current projection. earlier today at the white house press briefing i asked sean spicer, the press secretary, the following question. listen. americans are filling out their tax forms right now for 2016 this time next year they will it out for 2017. will they have a 2017 tax cut this time next year? >> middle income americans i

hope have a tax cut by then. reporter: what you did not hear was a yes. instead mr. spicer saying coat, i hope. spicer said today he acknowledged wt th are going through right now is a quote, major undertaking. melissa. melissa: it is major all right. blake, thank you for that. david: sure is. our money depends on it. james freeman, "wall street journal," liz peek, "fiscal times," former trump campaign advisor and fox news contributor steve cortes, good to see you all. james, people are not hope forge change. they are doing something about it. conservative group funded in part by the koch brothers. they put ad against the bordera. they say we need a tax cut, not new taxes. here is their ad. i will get you to comment after. >> americans voted for change, economic growth, stop wasteful spending. now members of congress want a new trillion dollar consumer tax that could drive up your costs and hurt or economy.

more for gas, groceries clothes, everyday needs to skyrocket, costing us $1700 more. this consumer tax increase as big as obamacare. tell congress that is not the change we're asking for. david: so i'm not only hoping for tax cuts, i'm hoping that we don't add a new tax. is it dead or not? >> well it is probably dead politically but that was young economics in that ad. this is basically the, border tax was a way to cut rates to make it simpler, to collect the same amount of money in a more efficient way, that allows more growth. if you want to get rid of that, keep the cuts, i think that would be fine. that should be what the administration is after. david: put up that graphic a little too soon. let me get to liz on this. this is a bipartisan tax cut. the simpson-bowles commission was empowered, keep that graphic up there, simpson-bowles commission was empowered by president obama. there were republicans and democrats who voted.

brought down tax rates, look at this, individual rates, we go from seven rates that we have now down to three, 12, 22, 2%. corporate tax rate would come down to 28%. yes, you would get rid of a bunch of these deductions most of which are just enabling corporations to avoid taxes, but why don't we go for this, liz? this is already a bipartisan tax idea that was floated a few years ago? >> i think my fair lady line is wouldn't it be lovely? the problem is, realistic answer there is no bipartisan consensus today on tax reform. by the way, it didn't happen then either. nancy pelosi reaction to the simpson-bowles recommendations was dead on arrival if you recall. david: right. >> so look, the border adjustment tax has been embraced by none other than grover norquist. that really tells us a lot. david: hold on a second, i had him on. we talked about that.

he said only if it is part of a big tax cutting package. >> that is the point. david: if they jettisoned it, i would. >> that is the point. as james points out that ad is misleading. it is balancing mechanism. people would be better off because tax ratewould be lower and border adjustment tax would not impact most americans to extent they would benefit from the lower tax. david: steve, what i really like about the simpson-bowles idea. first of all lowering rates tremendously has a past, proven past, but paul krugman hates the idea. anything that paul krugman hates is bound to be good. he is of course "new york times" reporter, nobel prize-winning author, he suggested would have the crash as a result of trump's election. wasn't true. he said so a public service reminder, simpson-bowles is terrible. i'm reading from a piece he wrote couple years ago. it mucks around with taxes but is obsessed with lowering marginal rates despite a complete absence of evidence

that this is important. well that is hogwash. there is lot of evidence that lowering tax rates boosts the economy, right? >> right. except all of economic history, david. by the way he deserved his nobel prize in economics about as much president obama deserved his nobel peace prize. i don't put too much what they decide there in scandinavia about nobel prizes. what i do know, i'm personally dealing with filing my taxes right now. i think every american who is knows two things. number one they're insanely too complicated. david: right. >> the fact we go through every april or october, if you defer. and then secondly, that they are simple too high. they are confiscatory levels right now. it is strangling economic growth in the united states. on top of that enabling kind of cronyism team trump which team trump ran against. david: get rid of deduction. seven rates to three rates. that is what simpson says and lower tax rates tremendous.

>> david we're going to do it. i still believe. david: i sorry, love you, we have to move on. melissa. melissa: president trump meeting with budget director mick mulvaney at the white house right now. mulvaney is expected to send a federal agency next week ordering them to become smaller and less costly. mulvaney will tend a meeting tomorrow between some of the biggest american ceos and president trump to talk infrastructure. james, i will start with you, i mean this trillion dollar public/private infrastructure package, seems like way down on the list of important things right now but it is something that a lot of people would get behind. >> well, i think the infrastructure piece is something you use to tie into a tax-cutting plan if it's a way to get democrats on board. it is just, in a vacuum, it is not the way to he grow the econ. government-directed investment will not be how we get to the 3, 4% growth we need.

they realize in the administration after the march jobs report being not obama is not enough. he has to enact some of these growth policies. melissa: liz, cutting the size of government is exactly what voted him into office but now as he arrives, it is painful and tough. >> my gosh, remember during the sequester, the bloodletting that went on about the idea maybe someone would have to keep budgets where they were -- melissa: crying, whaling moaning. >> it was ridiculous. i don't know a ceo in america not at one time or another in his career been asked to cut expenses by 5% or 10%. and yet, some how the federal government is immune to such suggestions. the notion it is so efficient and so properly run there is no excess, all americans disagree with that that is 100% agreement across the board, that the government should go on a budget. melissa: steve, it never fails to amaze me, in washington standing still with your budget there, is weeping and crying and gnashing of teeth and beating fists on ground.

but as liz said, corporate america it is standard. a company needs a turnaround, everybody, five or 10% has got to go. that is normal. >> melissa, it is standard in families. mom and dad didn't make as much money or expenses went up because somebody is going to college. all of us deal in the realm of economic reality except washington, d.c., by the way four of five richest counties in america by income are in the washington, d.c., metro area. that is tragedy. not because washington works harder. not because it is more creative. melissa: because they themselves well. >> gigantic leech on the rest of the country. trump was elected to end that, little the leech and slay the dragon and he is going to. melissa: he better. david: drain the swamps. awful news. christians targeted on palm sunday. latest on the attack how egypt and how israel are responding. >> suspect behind the wheel of a truck attack in sweden. why authorities had been

searching for him for month. david: president trump and his administration putting pressure on syria and its allies along with north korea. we'll speak with lieutenant colonel oliver north about the biggest threats facing u.s. security right now. >> the president has been very clear there are a number of lines that were crossed last week. he is not going to sit down. we saw that in the lasted a administration. they drew these red lines and then the red lines were run over. [phone ring] hey dad. hey sweetie, how was your first week? long. it'll get better. i'm at the edward jones office, like sue suggested. thanks for doing this, dad. so i thought it might be time to talk about a financial strategy. thanks for doing you an pay him back? knowing your future is aboutore th just you. so let's start talking about your long-term goals. multiplied by 14,000 financial advisors, it's a big deal. and it's how edward jones makes sense of investing.

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is in power. david: how do we achieve our goals there? here is lieutenant colonel oliver north, host of "war stories" and fox news military analyst. colonel north, one thing candidate trump was clear about, he wanted to reorganize nato, so nato is force fighting terrorism. i would think now is the perfect time for that. plus you have that coalition of that trump put together of arab allies that we had, people that haven't always been on our side who are now, not only in the fight against isis but who could be used used in the fight againt assad? >> look, david, we're right at cusp of dramatic change in the strategy pursued thus far which is totally lacking the last seven years. think about a million people a day are being starved somewhere in internal displaced person. you have 500,000 dead already. 14 million already fled the country. it's a disaster. the state of syria is

nonexistent as a functioning state. here is the good news. the meetings that secretary tillerson is having right now, could well lead to what you and i have been talking about for some time. a nato coalition supported by a sunni-arab, if you will, stability force, goes into was witness syria. what you end up i think is three separate principalities. you have the the alawhite part of the country where assad is right now. you will have a kurdish part of the country. you will have, i hope a sunni part of the country were stability farce perhaps from egypt and perhaps from jordan. think about it -- david: that is powerful alliance. >> it would be. david: of course it sets up a very clear choice i think for the russians. you want want to be part of a alliance with iran and hezbollah, terrorists and choice

between the a-team and the q team, which would you prefer? >> as everybody knows secretary tillerson was about the priorities was first defeat isis. noble goal. the reason why they didn't come on top of the idea let's call it an international force going in and removing bashar assad is because you will have to go to congress for one of two things, either get a coat vert action finding from the cia to down the current regime, or u.s. military. outcome of gadhafi was not good for him. not good nor anybody else either. david: final point on this, don't you think the russians would much rather be allied with us in that particular region than allied with just iran and hezbollah? they're in pretty bad cop company. they are used to that but if given that clear choice might they shake aloose from the alliance?

>> we have hopes that everybody is rational actor. i'm not sure vladmir putin is really is anymore. david: i understand. i want to get your take on another issue. the u.s. deploying aircraft carrier and three guidedded missile cruisers to waters getting near north korea. after the country test-fired another ballistic missile. what is their mission, colonel north? >> i think the mission is to make sure kim young unis not going to test a nuclear weapon on on anniversary of his grand father's birthday. 15th of april, tax day here, cause for a celebration. they love to put on a great military show. it would not be unexpected sixth time for nuclear weapon. david: they are giving me a wrap. if that missile goes over the uss vinson, what the vinson would do? >> i would doubt that the it would get that far. without getting in classified material i doubt it would get that far. david: colonel north, thanks very much for being here. melissa.

melissa: the latest media conspiracy theory. why some in the media that the chemical attack in syria was arranged by russia to help president trump. david: uh-huh. melissa: historic moment now. justice neil gorsuch sworn in to serve on the nation's highest court. what is next for the supreme court's newest member. >> the decisions you will make will not only protect our constitution today, but for many generations of americans to come. ♪ predictable. the comfort in knowing where things are headed. because as we live longer... and markets continue to rise and fall... predictable is one thing you need in retirement to help protect what you've earned and ensure it lasts. introducing brighthouse financial. a new company established by metlife to specialize in annuities & life insurance. talk to your advisor about a brighter financial future.

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>> justice gorsuch, you are now entrusted with the sacred duty of defending our constitution. melissa: empty seat no more. neil gorsuch officially being sworn in as a justice on our nation's highest court. fox news's peter doocy is at the supreme court with all of the details. peter?

reporter: melissa, the last couple hours the composition of the supreme cot changed potentially for the next couple y. after 14 months hang eight justice there is is now a ninth. the process started at the justice's conference room, the supreme court behind us where neil gorsuch put his hand on the family bible his wife louise was holding to take a oath to support and defend the constitution. he then signed that oath and loaded up into a motorcade toward the white house with the rest of the supreme court justices along for the ride. justice anthony kennedy who gorsuch used to work for as a law clerk administered the judicial oath to gorsuch steps away from the oval office. antonin scalia's widow maureen and son eugene were at the rose garden. gorsuch promised that he would never forget the late scalia. >> i'm honored to have here today, my mentor, justice kennedy, administer the judicial oath, a beautiful oath as he did

for me 11 years ago, when i became a circuit judge. to the scalia family, i won't ever forget that the seat i inherit today is that of a very, very great man. reporter: we also did hear from president trump this morning whose platform as a candidate with many promises to put a conservative on the high court. as president he talks about what gorsuch as justice means for the judicial branch but also for his first term. >> and i got it done in the first 100 days. that is even nice. [laughter]. you think that's easy? this ceremony has special meaning as justice gorsuch is filling the seat of one of the greatest supreme court judges in american history and that is antonin scalia. reporter: we thought there might be protesters here at the court

while the swearing-in was happening because the "nuclear option" was controversial. we didn't see a single one. now that he has been sworn in, gorsuch can get down to business. we expect one of the first big cases you will hear about again is religious freedom case out of missouri coming soon. melissa. melissa: wow? peter, thank you for that. david: i like how the president said he wants a justice who will serve under the law not over the law. in other words a lot of justices making the law. he has a good man i think. melissa: there you go. david: we'll see. christianity under attack all over the globe. why the terror strike in egypt is causing israel to close its borders. melissa: plus secretary of state rex tillerson heading to moscow amid high tensions between the u.s. and russia. a live report from moscow next. >> other countries have to ask themselves some hard questions. russia should ask themselves, what are we dog here? why are we supporting this murderous regime

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melissa: in russia know about syria's chemical attack in advance? fox news's jennifer griffin standing by at the pentagon with details on this latest report coming out of the associated press right now. jennifer what do you know? reporter: right now, melissa, this is a single source report from the associated press. it says that a senior u.s. official, unnamed official, has confirmed that the u.s. has concluded that russia knew in advance about syria's chemical weapons attack.

i've been speaking to sources both here in the pentagon as well as at centcom, as of right now the u.s. defense department can not confirm russia knew in advance. last friday, melissa, we did have a briefing from two senior u.s. military commanders who spoke to us after the tomahawk strike on the airbase in syria. that is when reporters were told that the pentagon and others, u.s. intelligence were looking into whether russia knew in advance. they laid out a scenario and circumstance evidence that raised eyebrows certainly in the intel community. and that was, two things, number one, there are 12 to 100 russians based at that well-known chemical weapons airbase, the one that was struck by the 59 tom houck missiles. that is where u.s. officials say that syrian warplanes took off. that is where the chemicals were put together and the sarin gas was assembled and placed inside

of that barrel bomb according to u.s. officials. so there were russians at that base. it is believed that there are russian experts on chemical weapons based in syria in the past. and also just hours after the chemical weapons attack last tuesday, there was a russian drone up above a hospital where victims from that village were taken, who were suffering from the chemical weapons attack, five hours after that russian drone was seen above the hospital, that hospital was bombed by a russian-made plane. could have been a syrian air force plane or a russian plane but u.s. officials are still investigating that. so again only one source right now. the ap reporting that u.s. officials have concluded that russia knew in advance but as of right now officials who we have spoken to can not confirm that. melissa: wow, a lot to unravel there, jennifer. thanks for working on it for us. we appreciate it. david. david: in the midst of all this secretary of state rex tillerson is heading to moskow right now. fox news's rich edson is live

from moscow with the details. is he really walking into a hornets nest there, rich. reporter: he is is, david and secretary of state rex tillerson arrives here in moscow tomorrow he does so with the better part of a week of the united states and russia condemning one another. the latest coming from the white house and press secretary sean spicer who noted the international support the united states has gotten since the attack on syria last week and noting has in its corner, iran, north korea and syri as spicer says, we the united states are on the right side. the white house previewed the message the secretary of state delivered when he arrives here to moscow from italy. >> i think if you look at the countries that are with us it speaks pretty loudly the number of countries that stood shoulder to shoulder with this president. russia, on the other handstands with syria, north korea and iran. when you contrast the two groups

of countries, seth, it is pretty clear we're on the right side of this issue. reporter: as for another attack in syria, another chemical attack in syria the white house says that action again, the administration holds open the possibility of further action. meanwhile the russians are responding with increased rhetoric of their own. the foreign minister here says, sergey lavrov spoke with his iranian counterpart today. in a statement according to foreign minister, they say both parties, iran and russia, say that aggressive action against a sovereign independent state was overt violation international law, primarily the u.n. charter, it threatened regional security and was detrimental to the fight against international terrorism. secretary of state rex tillerson is scheduled wednesday to meet with his foreign counterpart, lavrov.

he would meet with the mr. putin if invited. no such meet something on putin es schedule. melissa: here to unravel all of that, a former cia operations officer. you were thinking a lot of things as all these things were going by. >> the first thing to consider, the trump, for once the russians their bluff is being called. most of their actions past eight year are acts of bluff because they knew the obama administration would not stand up to them. now they're having to face stark realities. >> did it strike you as plausible they knew ahead of time and even assisted as the ap report seems to indicate in the attack that happens last week? >> if the intelligence communities are putting that out i assume they have the proper sourcing for that, but does seem incredible that russia would further risk eroding its image on the world stage because all the recent press about these chemical attacks have not

established the image of russia. i think even the russian people are going to start reacting to this because i don't believe they really want to be lumped in with partners such as syria and iran for that long. melissa: do you think, they just believe they wouldn't get caught, no one would care, no one would notice or make a big deal? >> exactly. probably something like that. the fact like i said russia has been relying on bluff. the past, for instance, the mass demonstrations we had across russia in perhaps two weeks ago, also the terrorist attack in st. petersburg show putin also has some domestic issues he has to deal with. i think this conference with tillerson, the russians would be more conciliatory than they appear to be on the world stage. on the world stage they're outraged and make, there is a lot of rhetoric out there but i think behind closed doors they will be a little bit more reasonable. melissa: because the headline a lot of people are trying to make this afternoon, that putin won't meet with rex tillerson. that tells you something out of the gate he is getting snubbed. you don't buy that?

>> that is diplomatic telegraphing i think but i thi behind closed doors lavrov will understand now adults are in charge and russia will be called to account for its actions. with the russian economy not being the best and russian forces i would believe somewhat over extended in places like ukraine the russians may be a little bit more willing to deal with some sort of peace-saving gesture. melissa: what does that mean, willing to deal? >> russia won't respond to american demands regarding syria but russia may find a way, if the united states gives them a diplomatic out they might find a way to reduce the presence there, in a way that isn't embarrassing to them. that doesn't cause them to lose face. that may happen as putin will reach the calculus what russia is losing in syria is much worse than what it stands to gain by support of the assad regime. melissa: great analysis. good stuff. david? david: there is the carnage in egypt. the state of emergency been announced for a period of three

months after two suicide bombings in tanta and alexandria killed scores of christians in two separate church attacks on palm sunday. conor powell is here with the latest. reporter: christian community is hit by a wave of violence past two months. this is the biggest attack in years. two separate blasts leaving at least 45 people dead, 100 wounded. both attacks were actually caught on camera. the pictures are disturbing. surveillance cameras show a man turned outside the main gate of st. marks cathedral the seat of the coptic community. second later a massive blast. a bomb exploding inside of st. george's church in the nile delta town of tanta. isis claiming responsibility for both attacks. egypt has been under a state of emergency.

but president el-sisi issuing another one, despite vows to crack down on extremists in egypt. he has struggled to tackle terrorism or other of egypt's pressing problems since seizing power in a coup in 2013. israel announced its border crossing with egypt after fears of an imminent attack. david and melissa. david: conor powell. thank you very much. melissa. melissa: president trump reached out to the swedish prime minister to offer his condolences after a truck smashed into a department store killing four people. we're learning more about the man behind what is being called a terror attack. he is 39-year-old from uzbekistan, who was denied asylum and told in december he had four weeks to leave sweden. the authorities were searching for him him to deport him but

couldn't find him. david: protesterss forcing a woman who is defending u.s. police to end her speech early. just wait until you hear who is behind the shutdown. we asked a group of young people when they thought they should start saving for retirement. then wasked somelder people when they actually did start saving. this gap between when we should start saving and when we actually do is one of the reasons why too many of us aren't prepared for retirement. just start as early as you can. it's going to pay off in the future. if we all start saving a little more today, we'll all be better prepared tomorrow. prudential. bring your challenges. gave us the power to turn this enemy into an ally? microsoft and its partners are using smart traps to capture mosquitoes and sequence their dna to fight disease.

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[shouting] >> black lives, they matter here! >> black lives they matter here. david: a speech was abruptly cut short due to protest designed to specifically shut her down. heather macdonald, manhattan institute.