Transcripts For CNBC Closing Bell 20130301

5,000 data samples per second. Which is good for business. Because planes use less fuel, spend less time on the ground and more time in the air. Suddenly, faraway places dont seem so. Far away. As we count down to the sequester, you cannot fault d. C. Companies for seeing a Business Opportunity and the publicity today. Today during lunch and dinner hours the fast food chain z burger will give customers a freeburg fer they order a zquester. Have a good weekend. Closing bell is coming up next. Hope to see you on monday afternoon. Hi, everybody. Good afternoon. We ernter the friday stretch for a friday. Im Maria Bartiromo coming to you from the equities floor of barclays in new york city where we have a very special show on tap. Bill . Yes, we do. Im Bill Griffith here at the new york stock exchange, of course, where weve already had a very volatile day, and dont forget this week the final hour of trading has seen some huge moves including that big selloff we saw in the final minutes of trade yesterday when the dow lost about 56 points in just a snap of the finger. As for today on the open this morning, the dow was down 116 points and then the market came roaring back on good Economic Data. The manufacturing number that came out at 10 00 a. M. Eastern time helped the market, and weve been drifting here. The dow needs to be up 110 points today, maria, in order to hit alltime high, an right now were up 24. Im sure at barclays they are sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for this, right . Well, they are not waiting for it, they are actually making moves. A lot of action up here. Ill be talking to the ceo Anthony Jenkins on the hour closing bell about his vision called project transform and how he plans to build a better barclays after missteps and well talk about the libor rate scandal and getting over it. When is it in the rear view mirror . Just a few minutes well talk with skip mcgee who runs the Corporate Investment bank here in the United States and the americas. Runs the americas for barclays. Barclays a dominant player on the deal front ranking second in the United States and third in the americas overall. I want to also highlight that barclays is the only bank to be the initial underwriter in the lat l acquisitions of 2013 so far, heinz, dell, liberty global, so well get into a lot of that. Well find out if they think the deal flow picks up the rest of the year and what that might mean for this market rally. Bill . Lets get you caught up on the markets as we go into this final hour of trade on the first trading day of march. Theres the open this morning forth dow, down, as i said, 116 points. Then came back after that first half hour of trading. Up 29 right now at 14,084 and change. The old high, all time, is 14,164. Nasdaq is up 7 points at 3167. Apple has been struggling today, and the s p right now is up 3. 33 at 1517. Keep in mind the dow is on pace for its ninth straight gain of a friday meaning it has closed positive every single friday so far in 2013, and its the first trading day of the month, so finishing in the green can often be a good sign for the entire month. Are we grasping at straws here, maria . A lot of indicators to look at, and certainly a lot of analysis on what the first two months of gains mean for the rest of the year. Lets get right to the closing bell exchanged. Joined by brian beleskey and David Greenlaw from morgan stanley, david katz from matrix asset advisers, and our own rick santelli. Gentlemen, thanks for joining us. Appreciate t. David greenlaw, let me kick this off with you. What are you expecting as we approach the close here as we know that here we are on the day that sequester cuts will take effect . Any big surprises, you think, in the next hour . Im not sure about the next hour, maria. I think the market has been well aware that skywester is coming and is going to kick in. I dont think that will have much impact. Im more focused on how the sequester gets changed or adjusted over the course of the next month or so. Well be revisiting this issue towards the end of march with the continuing resolution and the sequester is likely to be wrapped into that, so well have shortterm disruptions in the economy related to the the sequester going into effect, but those disruptions should be relatively modest, i suspect, and the big ge is what happens at the end of the month with the continuing resolution. Yeah. Brian bellsky, you called this the bunker poll market and the skywester is only a piece of that, isnt it . Investors in general remain extremely reluctant to allocate money back into equities. Mr. Greenlaw has it exactly right. Its not about todays date with respect to the sequester. Its about what it looks like over the next couple of months as the u. S. Government finally gets its financial house in order and what the cuts in the budget look like. From a longer term perspective we lead by the ruler of stocks which lead the economy, and the stock market is telling you that this will be a good thing that the u. S. Government is finally forced to do some budget cuts, and, again, get its financial house in order. Okay. David katz, do you read into anything about the first two months of the year, i mean, given the fact that we had such a good january and february . Does that suggest the rest of the year would be positive, or is this just really history books and really doesnt make much of a trend . What do you think . Historically a good january has been correlated to a good year. Sam stoval put out a beats today saying a good january and february hats been highly correlated to a good year. That coupled with the fact that pe ratios are low and the economy is in a recovery mode, earnings pretty good and a lot of m a activity leaves us pretty optimistic for the balance of the year. We expect a lot of volatility, but if the government doesnt do something really stupid, we think well be in pretty good shape. Meantime, rick santelli, the safe havens continue to grow. The dollar is at a sixmonth high, 1. 50 against the pound today. First time weve seen that in a while and yields in the treasury continue lower. Oh, absolutely. Youve had two weeks in a row where treasury yields have closed lower. Three weeks in a row where the pound has closed lower against the euro and the dollar and four weeks in a row that the euro has closed lower against the dollar which means dollar indexes closed up four weeks in a row, and i always like to take a wide look to get some perspective. Look at a tenyear chart of tenyear note rates, they are definitely basing, but it doesnt look like theres any sense of urgency for them to go higher. Look at a tenyear chart of the dollar index it looks like its coiling and maybe set for a breakout, but it all depends on the relatively value or lack thereof the european currencies and if you take the name of the dow off of it, as much as we can trade above 14,164, this is a chart id be a little careful with. A lot of charts that ive been looking at lately that id be careful with. Interesting when you look at what the baltic dry shipping index has done, what copper has been doing, real breakdowns there. Do you focus on that, David Greenlaw, in terms of putting money to work and know we have open questions with the continuing resolution and debt ceiling debate coming in may . How do you want to allocate capital today . Im an economist so im folk yugts on the economic numbers and we did have a very strong report which is consistent with some of the strength and indicators that youre talking about, maria. We had a soso month for car sales. I think theres a lot of questions about the retail sales environment. We get that data in a couple of weeks. We still see q1 gdp tracking around 1. 5 so there is indication of strength in manufacturing, maybe a little bit of momentum building, but we do still have a number of important headwinds. Were in a situation, brian, where we all realize does that mean you want to put money to work in this market or not, based on what youre seeing in terms of economics . So my focus is on the economy. Ill leave to that to the other strategists that were talking with. Brian belski, realize the fed is catalyst for this market and David Greenlaw highlighted the Economic Data, tepid at best, so the fed is not likely to pull back on the liquid any anytime soon. Having said that, this market has gone very high, very fast. Do you believe it goes more without some kind of a correction . An excellent point. Our target for year end is 1575 which is only a few Percentage Points from here. We remain very comfortable with that target. We havent seen the inner workings of the target move that much especially considering mr. Greenlaws point with respect to the tepid economy and macro side of things. Earnings growth is coming until a little bit better than most people expected, but the bottom loin as weve talked about on this show everybody is looking for correction, and when you typically that v that kind of scenario it does not come. Our problem with the market on a nearterm basis so many Institutional Investors seem to be chasing high beta right now. We dont believe thats the right course of action. We believe high quality assets as denoted by energy stocks, Technology Stocks here in the u. S. Will lead us out of this and define the bull market in equities over the next several years. Gentlemen, good to see you all. Have a good weekend. See you later. Lets check on the winners and losers in what has been a wild trading week. With all three indices on track to close the week higher, here are your notable leaders and laggards this week. In the s p some of your best performance, delphi automotive, dollar tree which continued to post strong sales growth, range resource, tiffany and safeway. Laggards, first solar which offered weak guidance for the current quarter, jc penney, apollo, peabody and on the dow winners included hewlettpackard and home depot where fourthquarter earnings jumped 32 in a jump in sales. Finally lets recap the week in nasdaq, leaders include Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and amgen, laggards, f5, sears, intuitive and apple, now a 52week low, now down some 32 from its 2008 peek. Josh, thanks very much. Were in the finley stretch. Weve got about 45 minutes before the closing bell sounds today. A complete reversal earlier. We are, we need to close up 110 points to hit an alltime high. That would be nice, but i dont think so today, right . Not happening. Were digging in for gold. Shes not going to answer my question. Were digging for gold. The precious metal getting crushed lately. Can you buy on the dip with gold and come out on top, he asks. Thats coming up. And then after the break, find out where barclays sees opportunity and dont miss my exclusive interknew with the barclays president. Thats coming up. Back in a moment. How do traders using Technical Analysis streamline their process . At fidelity, we do it by merging two tools into one. Combining your customized charts with leadingedge analysis tools from recognia so you can quickly spot key trends and possible entry and exit points. We like this idea so much that weve applied for a patent. Im colin beck of fidelity investments. Our integrated Technical Analysis is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. Now get 200 free trades when you open an account. Welcome back. 45 minutes left in the trading session. The dow is up 37, but on the open it was down as many as 116 points. Continuing that slide we saw yesterday afternoon, but then that manufacturing report came out at 10 00 a. M. Eastern time and brought the whole market back. We still though need to be up 110 to be hit an alltime high for the dow. Thats not happening right now, as you can see. The nasdaq is up 8 and the market up three points. The leader the last couple of years is the bank stocks, the xfl, the financial spider of damages stocks. Going back to the beginning of the year, you see the gains we saw in february and january. Now things are getting to get a little dicy. One of the reasons were seeing a hesitation in the markets because of financial stocks but they are up 7. 7 this year. Not a bad gain. Maria. All right, bill. Were gauging the markets from the Major Trading floor here in barclays. Welcome back to our special edition. Coming at you from the barclays equities Trading Floor in manhattan. The automatic spending cuts kicking in hours from now and the president saying the effects will be felt in weeks and months to come even though stocks have had little reaction to the stalemate, something investors are watching closely. Those in this room as well joining on this is the head of the americas, and thats skip marie. Thanks so much for joining us. The Capital Markets recently have had to be great news for you here. Why do you think the markets are reacting and tell us what you think is going on recently and in history in the Capital Marks . The markets have become a bit immune. Gone through crisis and crisis and we keep getting through this. Last year we had to deal with the election and with greece and with the fiscal cliff and we got through all of that muff so the market is noun, in terms of the sequester its really been a nonevent . What do hear from clients about moving their money . Keeping hearing the same thing that this is a fedinspired rally and that there are few alternatives. What do you hear from clients inters of why this market has been so resilient . I think if you look at money flows i would say that its an accurate statement that the fed has really pushed people out the risk curve, and so we look at the fixed income markets last year, and it had very, very robust issuance, and move was coming into fixed income, high grade and high yield and now weve seen the shift even further out the risk curve this year with major inflows into the equity markets, an youve seen the markets are touching or close to touching alltime highs. What do you have to do here at barclays in terms of keeping this momentum for the rest of the year . Do you think this continues . Were constructive on on the markets. Were constructive on the economy absent some sort of wild card event. As i said before, we think the skywester is a bit of a nonevent. The elections in italy, people have looked right past that. Our base Case Assumption is in the month of march these guys get together and do something. Doubt its a grand bargain, probably just kick the can further down the road, but you have a slow growth economy, and the markets will continue to perform well because of low interest rates. Meanwhile, youve got to operate and ceos out there have to operate the business regardless of whats going on and thats exactly what they are doing. Records amount of cash on the Balance Sheet. Deals are happening. You guys have led a number of big deals this year, heinz, et cetera. What does the pipeline look like for the rest of 2013 . Do you think the deal flow continues . In terms of activity we feel good about it. Last year was a little bit slower for the year before. Our base case this year is up 10 or so in terms of deactivity, but i have to tell you if theres a surprise, my guess is there would be a vice to the upside. Corporate Balance Sheets are very strong. Companies are in great shape after all the restructuring that they have done the last few years. Valuations, even though the market is hitting, you know, really almost new highs, valuations are not crazy. Has the structure of the deal changed from past years given the fact that funding rates are where they are . What does the deal look like today . Thats a very good point. In fact, since the year 2000, this is the second highest level of cash in terms of transaction. Almost 70 of transactions are all cash, and that makes a lot of sense given the amount of cash on corporate Balance Sheets and very cheap funding available inside which youve seen already several examples of multi multibillion dollar transactions so far this career. When you look at these deals, are they becoming pricey . Having a debate with some of these deals just yesterday in terms of the pricing that were seeing. Are things getting away from companies . How would you characterize priceing . I think pricing is still rational. Its rational. Yeah, and i think, particularly if you look at a company sitting with a bunch of cash on their Balance Sheet and then they could take that cash and put it to work in terms of buying a company that has some earnings, thats going to be accretive in terms of earnings going forward. They are going to do deals and buy back stocks and pay dividends. Youre not hearing a lot about expanding in terms of hiring because of all of this uncertainty in washington. I think thats a good point. You know, one of the things that corporate america, if you will, has done the last few years, they have gotten very adept at doing more with less, so they are very efficient in terms of operations, and profits have gone up, but its not been a great story for employment. Whats your take and how does europe play into this . I know youre running the americas here for barclays, but how does the trouble in europe impact things in america, full . The italian elections, a big disruption in the u. S. And then we come back the very next day. So, as a global firm and then as a firm thats what unique in terms of you look at our position in the uk, look at our position in the u. S. , and either place its a home game for us, so we care a lot about the market in europe, and europes been a drag on the overall market the last year in terms of m a activity, in terms of equity activity. We think weve seen the bottom, and we think the markets are looking past the italian election. So the deal flow you think is largely in the u. S. Or maybe asia and europe has bottomed . Well, we see equity flows so far this year and equity deal flow in the u. S. We do think that later this year well see a rebound in those markets in europe. Real quick, i want to talk to Anthony Jenkins about this, but i see the different signage around here about his transformed culture. How does this impact your business . A lot has happened in the industry and a lot has happened at barclays. When you look at purpose and values, i think it was right and certainly appropriate for us to come together around a common set of principles and values that we all agree on, but one of the one of the key things that gets lost when you see all the signage and stuff like that is 99. 9 of our employees have been, continue to, and will continue to do the right thing every day. Act with integrity and act with honesty. They treat their colleagues and clients the right way. Thats why were here. Skip, god to have you on the program. Stick around, later on in the program ill be talking exclusively to the ceo of barclays Anthony Jenkins. Does he plan more layoffs . Find out what this change in culture means for the firm. Thats later on the closing bell. Bill . Meantime, maria, with about 40 minutes left, the dow is up 30 points. It was down 116 if youre just joining us. It needs to be up 110 for a closing high today. Meanwhile, how about gold in the price of gold is falling for the fifth straight month. There are still believers though in the precious metal. I love gold the look of it, the taste of it, the smell of it, the texture. Find out if this is a golden opportunity to buy back into this beaten up commodity. Well take a look at gold next. Thats a preeminent analyst we just quoted there. Speaking of selloffs, jc penney shares plunging more than 20 this week alone. Is ceo ron johns onthenext boss to be shown the door . Thats later on the closing bell. Revolutionizing an industry can be a tough act to follow, but at xerox weve embraced a new role. Working behind the scenes to provide companies with services. Like helping hr departments manage benefits and pensions for over 11 million employees. Reducing document costs by up to 30 . And processing 421 billion dollars in accounts payables each year. Helping thousands of companies simplify how work gets done. Hows that for an encore . With xerox, youre ready for real business. Welcome back. Oil and gold prices have gotten crushed recently. Jackie dangelis has that story. Reporter oil closed at a twomonth low, 90. 68 a barrel. A couple of factors contributing to losses, number one, the stronger dollars and concerns over the sequester and bigger concerns about the global economy. Meantime, read in the metals complex, bouillon closing down more than 5 an ounce in the session. Its a rough run for gold. Weve seen the metal down for five consecutive months, including february. Thats the worst streak that weve seen in 16 years. Back to you. Bill . All right, jackie. Thank you very much. So has gold lost its luster for good, or is it time to get in right now . Lets Start Talking numbers on that end. Well look specifically at the exchangetraded fund and the symbol is gld. Technical side joe greco with me on the floor of the stage and on the fundamental side is jeff kilberg, founder of kkm financial, a cnbc contributor who is in chicago. Jeff, low rates and easy money policies around the world so why is gold falling right now . Well, bill, i think theres a couple of stories going on, and clearly its a u. S. Dollar strengthening story. We came down and our other guest can talk about the technicals but once we broke that 1620 essentially in the gold, we saw a breakdown and saw it testing the 50 level. One thing that really helped out, those who want to step in here and be a contrarian like myself is that ben bernanke came out and basically said that all the fed president s and bickering and fighting, folks, hell still make that call, and he came out and said that on tuesday. Weve seen markets rally, and with the markets rallying, folks are averse to gold, so i think this is an opportunity to get in and get long gold right now. Joe, what do the charts look like . Well, thanks for the nod there, jeff, but, you know, im very long term and looking bullish but really short term im sideways. Personally im flat ex my wifes private collection, but i dont see any reason to jump in at this point yet. The story if you take it back a couple of years is a really nice bullish channel that moved the stock or gld in particularly. Thats what were drawing down on right up to 2011 and then all of a sudden we really started to form this its a bullish pennant but at the same time not doing anything compelling. Bounced off of that 150 level and down intraday and just below 150 in gld. Each time it was met with a little bit of balancishness and right back in so we didnt really break out. As we elongate the time line, id like to see a price action, deep breakdown or i want to use that sense of urgency of people getting out. Think about it, a 4. 3 billion outflow of commodity sectors. 95 of that is essentially gld. Seeing people flush, thats where we want to come in here, because at the end of the day were going to see a commitment to gold. Because i think at 1620 we tested it, you know, two days ago, been a great volatile trade but right here in the gld, 1952 level, great support just under 150 so i think this is the time if youre averse to buying it right here. Sell some 150 puts or collect premiums and youll get put to it in the event we go back and test the december 2011 gold price, but we like it here, joe. I just dont think youll get the reaction that you want so right now i dont think in march you need to jump right in. You need the same opportunity maybe midway through the year youll have the opportunity to buy the 150 level. Just in october, everybody loved when gold was 1,800 and nobody wants gold at 1550 so ill stay with my boy paulsen and stay long here. There was a lot of airiority into it because of the Central Bank Involvement because of bernanke getting involved in printing and just a nice trade for people then to take off, but the price action lastly i understand it. Last thought. The demand picture has not changed. China, you know, asia, they have not changed the demand component of wanting to own gold. Thats a very key component. People are overlooking. They do want, but we dont have the catalyst just yet to cause that breakout, not in my opinion. More time on the clock. One of the great debates. Everybody has an opinion on gold, whether its up, down or sideways. Thanks, guys. Even gold member. Even gold member had a comment as well. Heading towards the close, about 30 minutes left here. The dow up 26 points. It has been a wild day. Well see what happens in the last half hour here, maria. Well, president obama is warning that automatic spending cuts will make everything a little bit worse. Every time that we get a piece of Economic News over the next month, next two months, next six months, as long as the sequester is in place, well know that that Economic News could have been better. Did he just say six months from now . If the stalemate goes on that long, the market finally could feel some pain. Thats one mans opinion and thats next. Also, form er economic advisr Austan Goolsbee says people should worry about the spending cuts and why it will put our economy under pressure coming up later on the closing bell. Tdd 18003452550 theres a few things that i really love tdd 18003452550 playing this and trading. Tdd 18003452550 so im always looking to take em up a notch or two tdd 18003452550 and schwab really helps me step up my trading. Tdd 18003452550 now i can use their most powerful platform, tdd 18003452550 streetsmart edge, on the web. Tdd 1800345255 so i get their most advanced tools on any computer. Tdd 18003452550 ive also got a dedicated team of schwab trading specialists. Tdd 18003452550 all this with no trade minimums. Tdd 18003452550 and only 8. 95 a trade. Tdd 18003452550 after all, im in this to win, right . Tdd 18003452550 open a schwab account and you can earn up to 600 cash tdd 18003452550 and 150 commissionfree online trades. Tdd 18003452550 call 18882846065. A talking car. But ill tell you what impresses me. A talking train. This ge locomotive can tell you exactly where it is, what its carrying, while using less fuel. Delivering whatever the world needs, when it needs it. After all, whats the point of talking if you dont have something important to say . Welcome back. If youre just joining us the dow is up 28 points. Youre thinking oh, a quiet day. Has been anything but. The dow was down 116 on the open this morning, and then came roaring back on some favorable Economic Data on manufacturing, but it still a tepid close from what has been a very volatile week obviously. Right now at 14,082. The nasdaq up 9 and the s p up 3 points. Maria . Yeah. Its all about the fed once again. Another day where wall street does not seem to care about the washington chaos thats now led to blunt spending cuts. Yeah. Let talk about the sequester. Our jeff cox says dont let that fool you. The markets will be taking hits soon enough of this while our own bob pisani thinks traders and analysthigh concerns have been off the mark. Jeff, if the market hasnt reacted by now, defense stocks have been trading near alltime highs ahead of the sequester. Why would they worry in the near future then . I get it, bill, its a tough case to make. Let me say this. We have a debt and deficit crisis. We know it, you know it, t washington knows it but nobody wants to admit it. Why i do think the market is going to care and is going to care. The biggest bullish drop in two and a half years last week and also the lack of leadership, we saw what happened when mr. Obama spoke today and how the market reacted to that. I think those type of gyrations will become more common. Finally, we havent seen what some people call that Washington Monument effect where something actually tangible happens to show us that, yes, these guys are serious, that they are willing to wreck the economy to score political points. Well, you have to wonder if thats the end result, wrecking the economy, bob, then i think we will have an impact, but at this point why should anybody care knowing that its all about the fed and this is the best game in town . I think they should care, an jeff and i might agrooi grow ee this could be a real mess. The analysts and traders have been high this whole thing because a lot of these guys are long these stocks, the defense and Health Care Stocks in particular, and i think theres a group that really kind of wants to sequester to go through. The Wider Community believes that the cash flow effects on the stock market from these budget cuts are not going to be as great as people have hyped and also that in the first few months of this the effects are going to be very, very minimal, and i think that might make some sense. What about that, jeff . My belief here is that this is a fragile market. I think, you know, weve seen some things that really didnt seem to have a lot of oomph behind them really take a bite out of the markets, so when you look one of the things im focused on. Very much interested in mr. Magees comments to maria previously about risk, about how Foreign Investors have been pushed out on the curve and look at bill gross comments, he said corporate debts are being priced irrationally and i think hes right. When you look at the spreads with junk bonds, like 2007 levels. I just see us on this precipice that theres something here that that can easily knock us off. I think the key here, guys i dont know. You know, here we are entering the final month of the First Quarter, bob. Whats your read in terms of the First Quarter numbers so far . Could that be something that unnerves this market . Well, so far, so far, we have had an absolutely spectacular year. Its very rare when you get january and february moving together. I would agree with the idea that much of march is going to depend to a certain extent on how this gets resolved. Right now the street believes that by the end of march theres going to be some kind of resolution, particularly around march 27, when you get a continuing resolution. There will be a deal for these budget cuts as well combined in. Thats the sign of what it believes. If were here one month from now and its april 1st and the government is starting to shut down because the continuing resolution proposal is not passed and still no further deal on sequestration, i can assure you the markets are not going to be high. Jeff, what about marias point, the fed, thats whats driving this market . Not so much fears about the sequestration. Thats an easy argument to make that the fed is driving things, but i think, you know, when you look at economically, we are dancing on the head of a sewing needle, and the two biggest stories in investing this year, one i mentioned before, the mispricing of risk and the other is the consumer pressure. Consumer pressure has not shown up yet in the Economic Data. It will. Tax increases, gasoline prices and all the other things weighing on consumers, thats a huge problem. And president obama made exactly that point today, jeff. In an economy where youre 0. 3 . Doesnt take much. Even 0. 1 , we dont know exactly how much this might affect but even 0. 1 could matter. Thanks, guys. Good conversation on a very important topic for the markets right now. See you later. Thanks. You forgot about the the tax holiday, the payroll tax holiday that went away, thats another thing that consumers are upset about. Yeah. Warren buffetts bethaway set to report earnings. Josh lipton with a preview of what investors are watching for. Berkshire hathaway reporting after the bell, also expected, of course, the highly anticipated letter to shareholders from the oracle of omaha himself mr. Warren buffett. Beyond the top and bottom lines heres what analysts are telling me they are looking for. One, the insurance business, any impact from superstorm sandy. Two, they have shown decent results in their manufacturing and Retail Businesses the last year so the street will want to know if those trends are continuing. The energy business, are they seeing any pushback from regulators . Finally, last fall berkshire raisedits accommodate a stakeholder and analysts will want to know if thats continuing. The stock, by the way, hitting an alltime high just yesterday. Back to you guys. Josh, thank you very much. Heading towards the close here with about 20 minutes left. The dow is still up about 30 points. Maria . Are the worst days behind best buy . Investors buying up the stock today. A big move despite the troubling results. Well tell you about it when we come right back. Andrew mason has had better weeks after being fired. The companys founder fired as groupons ceo, but he wrote arguably the best goodbye letter ever. If you didnt hear about this, youll want to stay tuned for this. Plus, well tell you about some other ceos who went out in a colorful way after being told to hit the road. Thats later on the closing bell. Im only in my 60s. Ive got a nice long life ahead. Big plans. So when i found out medicare doesnt pay all my medical expenses, i got a Medicare Supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if youre eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80 of your part b medical expenses. The rest is up to you. Call and find out about an aarp Medicare Supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. Like all standardized Medicare Supplement plans, it could save you thousands in outofpocket costs. Call now to request your free decision guide. Ive been with my doctor for 12 years. Now i know ill be able to stick with him. Youll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. Plus, there are no networks, and you never need a referral. See why millions of people have already enrolled in the only Medicare Supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp. Dont wait. Call now. Welcome back. Best buy is still losing money, but it did report better than expected results even after rejecting that their 1 billion investment in the firm. Mary thompson has details for us. Mary . Reporter hey there, bill. In the latest twist the ceo saying the combined proposed investments from three private equity firms would have hurt shareholders. The cost of these investments, however, were determined to be excessive and dilutive to our existing shareholders. Therefore, the company concluded to not accept these offers. Reporter as far as an expected offer from the firms founder and minority shareholder richard schultz, joly said it wasnt made, freeing the firm to focus on the turnaround. He also said he hasnt made a decision to exercise his right to appoint two directors to the companys board. On the earnings call, joly outlining a sixpoint plan aimed at improving esstore sales in all of best buy segments. Joly calling fiscal 2014 a year of transition, an effort analysts applaud while pointing out it wont be a quick fix. As for the fourthquarter adjusted earnings from last year, beating estimates by a dime on stronger than expected revenue as u. S. Sales steadied with International Sales continuing to decline. Bill, back to you. All right, mary, thank you very much. Heading towards the close, 15 minutes left. Losing some altitude now, the seydou up just 15 points right now, maria. Well see what happens here. Yeah. The dow may be within striking distance of a record high but one top investor says dont expect that to happen any time soon. Hes expecting a pullback to begin before we get to the new record. His thoughts on whats behind that. And gary gensler warns his enforcement will be compromised by the spending cuts set to kick in at midnight. Hell be here exclusively to explain why. Back in a moment. [ watch ticking ] [ engine revs ] come in. Got the coffee. That was fast. Were outta here. [ engine revs ] okay. Final minutes of trading for the first day of march. All three major averages are in the green at the moment, plus, the dow is on pace for its ninth straight friday gain, but it does continue to fall short of an alltime high. Maria . Yes, it does, and were looking at sort of a dropoff in momentum as we approach the last few minute. Where do we head from here, allen valdez is here and from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Michael Gerka and well be joined by ben willis coming up. We think. Hes around here somewhere. He must be buying or selling something right now because we havent found him. Yeah. Well, its at the close. Im sure hes settling out trades. Allen valdez, let me kick off with you. What are you seeing in terms of the flow today on wall street . I really thought wed go through the level. Why . New money comes into the market. Yeah, yeah. Weve had that friday run for the last few weeks, and just was that momentum coming into today, even though we sold off yesterday. Still a lot of positive buzz about getting this market through today. Of course the sequester wasnt going to happen until after the close anyway. Ben willis just said down. I hope the trade was profitable, whatever it was that you were doing, but you are expecting a pullback . I am expecting a pullback, and i think we saw a little bit of a hint of it late yesterday when the market gave way after being up all day. Again, nobody needs to panic about it. Its a healthy reaction for a healthy market to have the pullback. Were up 7. 5 since the beginning of january. That is a great year, no less a month so i would look somewhere around 2. 5 . I would prefer to get to a 5 correction before we once again talk about the dow going to new highs. Maria . What about that end of the day imbalance, ben . What are you seeing as we approach the close here . Right now its its not a factor, so im actually concerned, but i i dont have a good feeling about how the market goes out right now, but being as alan said earlier, its a its the first day of the trading month. You usually see inflows so i would suspect it would stay slightly to the buy side. What do you expect to be happening here . Well, one of the first things i would look at is how march is going to set the table, and without question theres a lot of successful long positions in the stock market that are looking for nothing more than that last push higher to take profits and reassess. Its been a successful trade. That being said in march i think the tone is going to be a stronger dollar, and these being prefaced by the way the british pound came off today off the fundamental news and more importantly the euro breaking down above 130. Thats the story and it will come right back into crude oil. Watch the dollar. A strong dollar would not be good for the u. S. Stock market. It would not be good for the u. S. Stock market, but i think this market will continue to drift higher. Again, with the fed, with their infusion and them keep zipping the market, this market will continue to go up. Maria . Michael, let me ask you about that, the currency story, because if youre looking at a move in the dollar, what do you which currency out there benefits . Where are you seeing money moves in terms of the currency war . Well, actually when you speak of the currency war, theres a dynamic there because right now australia should be one of the biggest benefactors and they are not. In fact, that was the barometer on when we started to see things turn first with aussies, so if you really want to look at the most nonsexy story its going to be the u. S. Trading over canada actually. I think the dollar performs very well against canada as were starting to get talk about a housing bubble in toronto, and with that being said, keep an eye on 1562. I think thats kind of a blowoff top in the s p, and that would align itself with the last move up, would strengthen the dollar and then a correction in the stock market. Ben willis, where do you see opportunities then . If youre expecting a pullback, got to put money somewhere . The inflows coming into the market are typical of traditional investor money. They seem to be going into the telecoms and into the utilities and into the consumer cyclicals. The stocks that they are familiar with, companies that they work with every day so thats a traditional Retail Investor kind of environment. I dont disagree with some of those trades. I like the idea of buying dividendpaying stocks. Like the mlps as a place to dip your toe in. Master limited partnerships. Some of the reiths, not the mortgageback reits. Ben, you just mentioned the Retail Investor. Do you think thats who is participating or is that largely institutional . Who is out there tradeing . I believe what were seeing is the Retail Investor follow through and, again, to me it gets recertified on the first day of the month. Were seeing those kind of inflows. Down earlier coming in because of the fundamental news on the pmis out of europe. The first reit should have continued. I think what were seeing is the investor coming back, and thats what we need and thats why i believe well go higher. Alan is going with a defensive strategy of what you want to buy. Youre more positive on this market short term. Do you go with more Growth Stocks . Youll be very happy to invest in this market. A lot of opportunity out there. Like ben said, youll be very happy a year from now, two years from now. Youll be happy youre in this stock market no matter what group youre in. Maria. Ben, you keep talking about, you know, march 1st, beginning of the month. Do you think it reverses on monday . Absolutely. I would not want to go home long this market right now. As a marketmaker at albert freed, trends are meant to be broken, but thats a trend i dont want to fight, particularly the fact that im looking for the pullback. Saw the drastic selloff last monday. We thought that was the beginning of the pullback. Obviously that was not the case once again, but i do not want to be long if i dont have to be. Quickly michael, do you think treasury yields continue lower . Sort of broken through the trading rake weve been in for a while . Are we going lower here, do you think . Yes, we are. 180 seems to be the pivot point as far as where the basis will be as we start to entrench lower. Again, that would coincide with a weaker stock market as we start to see the selloff. I think the treasuries still have another move higher, and i would not be surprised to see lower yields near 168. All right, guys. Thank you all. We love trader talk around here. Thats what we do on the floor of the new york stock exchange. Well see you later. Coming back with the closing countdown for this friday. Maria . Yes, and then at the top of the hour ill be talking with the show of barclays Anthony Jenkins to get his outlook on the markets and whats next for business. Youre watching the closing bell on cnbc, first in business worldwide. [ male announcer ] ive seen incredible things. Otherworldly things. But there are some things ive never seen before. This ge jet engine can understand 5,000 data samples per second. Which is good for business. Because planes use less fuel, spend less time on the ground and more time in the air. Suddenly, faraway places dont seem so. Far away. [ cows moo ] [ sizzling ] more rain. [ thunder rumbles ] [ male announcer ] when the world moves. Futures move first. Learn futures from experienced pros with dedicated chats and daily live webinars. And trade with papermoney to testdrive the market. All on thinkorswim. From td ameritrade. Two and a half minutes left. After a week like this traders get a little punchy as youll see in a moment. Lets see how the week did. The dow when all is said and down, a down day, up day, continued higher and today weve gone sideways on the close here