A market in search of a narrative. Thats kind of what it feels like down here. The dow may have been in full on rally mode today if not for General Electric. Its the worst performing dow stock. Its down almost 3 , and that despite earnings that roughly met expectations. Why the selloff . Art cashin just told me the market on close orders flat right now. The dow and the s p continue to trade near alltime highs. The nasdaq is still a good distance away from his alltime high of a little over 5,000 set way back in march of 2000. 14 years ago. But youre wondering whether that could happen this year. Could we hit 5,000 and if so find out which stocks could lead the way for nasdaq to retake that magic mill lenennial mark. It would have to be a 20 move after the year we just had. It would have to be the late 90s all over again basically. Here is a look at whats happening in markets right now. Weve mentioned whats going on with the major stock markets. The dow adding 60 points up a fourth of a percent. The nasdaq is slightly lower at this hour down 15. Theres the chart. 4,200 is the level of the s p. We should mention the tenyear keep a close eye on this one. A lot of people looking at what 2. 83 means on this friday. Well ask rick santelli. What do you think . Sounds good. Hes part of our the Closing Bell Exchange today. So is rich peterson jim schlage, tom doyle. Speaking of technology whats the best performing Technology Stock so far this year . In north america we know its blackberry. Blackberry. What a surprise. After todays performance. Im sorry, i was leading the witness there. Rich, what do you think of the earnings so far . They not exactly set the world on fire have they . Well bill when we kicked off earnings season last week with alcoa, expectations were about 5. 8 . Now a week later were at 5. 3 for the Fourth Quarter according to the s p estimates. What were seeing its a trend. Energy and Consumer Discretionary are moving lower. Financials and telecom are moving high perer. All in all, next week when they get a clear vision, we have a lot of big names, microsoft, ibm, netflix, proctor and gabl gamble. John im curious if people are talking about this energy story and were now hearing fed officials weighing in as well. Lacquerk comments being made about natural gas. What is the best way for investors to play that because the energy space, of course generally is weak. Do you play it in the u. S. Dollar for example . Do you buy the indexes broadly . I think you do. Finally were starting to get a little clearer indication from the fed about their policy moving forward. Were in the camp of thinking that 10 billion a month is what theyre going to taper moving through the year which means easy money throughout 2014 and Interest Rate hike not until the end of 2015 perhaps. I think buying the u. S. Dollar on that taper would be a good idea but also were looking at all the indexes, all the u. S. Based indexes moving between 8 and 12 higher next year. Jim im going to ensure that we get a 10 correction by making this statement. We will never have another correction in the stock market. Why havent we had one in so long . What happened . Boy i mean the economy is doing pretty well and it continues to move forward at a much better clip than it did a couple years ago certainly. Its going to happen. We just dont know when its going to happen and i think, you know, client portfolios need to be wellpositioned to take advantage of both upside markets and downside markets. What if you had been sitting on the sidelines waiting for a pullback to get back into this market and it keeps going higher, do you still sit on your hands or what do you do . Id say first thing im really sorry about that but i would continue if youre a longterm investor dollar cost average into this market and take advantage of the downturns in the market and assuming youre a longterm investor you should do pretty well. The economy is going to continue to move forward, and if youre sitting in cash inflation right now, even though its a little under 2 is probably eroding your purchasing power. Rick santelli, what does the tenyear say . I think it says were down 20 basis points on the year. Most institutions whether you look at their portfolio adjustments, their duration settings, for the most part are short expecting rates to go higher. I think the thing to pay the most attention to is whats going on around the rest of the world. We know the term window dressing when we talk about stocks at the end of a major quarter or calendar event. What it means is what youre seeing from the window isnt necessarily representative of whats in the back of the store. And i think whether its spanish rates, portuguese rates, italian rates, the state of the european economy in general just to pick a few, that all of those issues will affect the valuation of u. S. Treasuries at a time when things are definitely Getting Better but as lumpy data shows us we can go from 270,000 to 74,000, theres going to be a lot of issue that is i think the error in judgment is that we will see logic win out in a highly indebted society. I think the u. S. Will see lower rates for first half of the year. Rich peterson i guess more important or more pertinent to our viewers is not so much how the earnings are coming in its how the market is responding to those earnings. Ge, for example, well talk about it later, they beat expectations but still the stock is trading lower. Look at what happened to best by this week. They missed by a little bit. Their guidance was not great and they got clobbered big time. Is the Market Expectations way too high going into this quarter . Well, you know, i think, bill, you have to look at it on a casebycase situations. Look at American Express, they missed by a penny according to some estimates. The stock has been responsible for most of the gain today in the dow jones. I think all in all, were looking for gains again in telecom, financials industrials. I think the recovery nascent as it is in europe will help Large Cap Companies Going Forward, and i think looking at just a picture overall for the full year, were seeing earnings per share of 119. 6, looking at valuation of 15 times 4 on the s p. Its not an excessive valuation. I think equities should be attractive to many. Rich one more question here because im looking across these indexes which again you have the dow effectively a head fake for the investing public if they think were rallying today because its basically American Express, visa. The s p 500 is down and this dispersion between the dow and the s p 500 has been a theme of this short year. What do you do . Do you think that because the components have changed the dow is becoming less reflective of the broader trend . Well again, in your opening remarks youre saying this is a market searching for a narrative and were at the first chapter of a long story thats going to unfold throughout the year. That story is going to have a section about janet yellin. A market thats going to have a section about how tapering will or will not transpire. A lot of variables will come about. I think where investors should be poised to look at again, were seeing a positive growth in earnings the economy is growing modestly, inflation has been checked. The issue is whether its a revision come this month for decembers jobs numbers. So all in all, i think the bias is positive for equities Going Forward. All of those questions, thats what keeps us employed. I just something has changed. Absolutely. When the ball dropped on december 31st the sentiment definitely changed on wall street. You have to figure out what the new sentiment is. Thank you, all. Heading toward the close and the dow is not telling the whole story today. The s p and nasdaq is trading lower but the industrial average is up 40 points. As long as we are up at least 20 points today, the dow can be positive for this crazy volatile week. And the dow and the s p may so far be down for the year but 2014 has been pretty nice to the nasdaq. Will this be the year that indeck finally retakes the 5,000 level . It was nearly 14 years ago when the nasdaq last traded there. And also, you know what happens in Puerto Rico May not stay in puerto rico. Were going to look at the damage a potential default by puerto rico could have on the nearly 4 trillion muni bond market. If you own a Municipal Bond or are in a Muni Bond Fund you want to stay tuned for this segment coming up. And what did Peyton Manning mean when he was shouting omaha during the broncos playoff win last weekend . Omaha is a run play that but it could be a pass play or a playaction pass. Cant give too much away. We want to know what you think he really meant. Tweet us your thoughts and well hear from a Top Executive at omaha steaks coming up who is considering signing manning to an endorsement deal on the back of that. Youre watching cnbc, first in business worldwide. vo you are a business pro. Seeker of the sublime. You can separate runway ridiculousness. From fashion that flies off the shelves. And you. Rent from national. Because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. And go. And only national is ranked highest in car rental Customer Satisfaction by j. D. Power. natalie ooooh, i like your style. vo so do we, business pro. So do we. Go national. Go like a pro. Welcome back. Well, its massive. The 4 trillion u. S. Muni market. Probably many of you watching right now, that market is facing some major headwinds. One in particular the threat from a small island of puerto rico with 70 billion in Public Sector debt and concerns are growing the country wont be able not country, the territory . Territory, yeah. Wont be able to repay it. So how worried should investors here in the u. S. Be worried about a possible puerto rican debt default . Joining us is larry mcdonaldcdonald, Doug Lockridge and also with us is our own michelle carusocabrera. Michelle, put it in perspective. Whats the possible threat of default . How real is it . The possible threat of default, it really depends on issuance to issuance. Puerto rico has so many different flavors of bonds and you really dont know if theres a restructuring how its going to play out. I would say though if you hold a u. S. Muni bond fund here in the United States, you probably have exposure to debt from puerto rico and here is why. Here are the numbers from morningstar. Of all the Municipal Bond funds in the u. S. 69 hold at least some exposure to puerto rico. That number is down from several months ago. Used to be 75 . Why is that . Because theres a triple exemption from puerto rico. You dont pay federal, you dont pay local, you dont pay state tax on revenue you get from a puerto rico bond no matter where you live in the United States. So if its yielding 8 wow, youd have to get 12 in something thats taxed to get the same kind of return. So a lot of funds have bought puerto rico over the last several years. Yeah and im curious, a lot of people were looking to puerto rico to juice returns in muni bond portfolios. The bonds themselves have very strong legal protections. When youre talking about the general Obligation Bonds, and michelle is right, there are many different types of issues on the island general obligation bondholders have a constitutional protection. The constitution of the commonwealth places debt service on those bonds first ahead of any other expenditures ahead of any other pension payments for instance, or any vendor payments. Its a strong legal position to be in. Furthermore, the territory is not eligible to file chapter 9 bankruptcy. Nor can any of the agencies on the island were up against the limits of feasibility here. I understand why they prioritize investors, but at some point they simply wont be able to service the debt. Well lets talk about that. Because of that constitutional hierarchy, gl bondholders have nine times Debt Service Coverage ratio. Their General Fund Budget will be 9. 7 billion and Debt Service Coverage requirements is about 1 billion. Furthermore, their plan to ultimately balance their budget is right on track. Halfway through the fiscal year theyre right spot on where they want to be. Theyre anticipating their total revenues to be 1 billion higher than last year. So there is concern about their ability to pay. Pay. I believe its there and theyve always showed a strong willingness to pay. We heard again this week how the government said were going to do what it takes to honor all our debts in the monday market. Larry, are you concerned . Should muni bondholders in puerto rico be concerned . Keep in mind the bonds are down 30 points on the year. Im talking to larry now, dan. Hang on. They factored in a good part of a mini default. The Senate President of puerto rico reached out to me last week and he mentioned that constitutional protection and i did some research and its true some of the bonds they have 70 billion of debt. Five times detroit. But out of that 70 billion, only 64 are constitutionally protected. So not all the bonds are constitutionally protected and thats one of the things investors have to know. Meaning . Meaning that out of the 70 billion that some of the bonds dont have that could, in fact default. Dont have that protection. One of the black swans nobody is talking about is whats called gatsby 68 and 67. It forces pensions in states like illinois, puerto rico territory, to take a risk adjusted rate of turn. A lot of these pensions are assuming 7 8 assumed return but thats not a risk adjusted return. The new regulations are going to put that down to about 4 which means that puerto ricos obligation on their pension goes from 32 billion up to 38 billion. It spikes. Do we know who owns this debt . Has there been a rotation from the Retail Community dan owns ton of it kelly. Hes the guy with the most of it. When you look at all the funds that morningstar has out there, dan has got the biggest exposure. Are you worried . Everybody else is on the other side of this trade compared to you, dan. Keep in mind that between 25 billion and 30 billion in bonds are owned by retail individual investors in the bonds directly themselves so theyre widely held not only among the funds but individual investors and the hedge funds now. The smart money have been buying. Thats actually helped dry up prices so far in this yeartodate. Long g. O. Bonds are up 7 . What about the 36 of the puerto rican bonds larry was just talking about that dont enjoy that constitutional protection you were just alluding to . Yes, thank you. Do you know if you own any of those bonds . Yes, yes, thank you. Some of those are Revenue Bonds that have strong protections ring fenced by themselves. Look at the bonds that are known as cofina, they are backed by sales taxes. They dont have the constitutional protection but right now they have close to two times Debt Service Coverage on all bonds including senior and subordinate. So that means sales taxes have to fall by half before theres not enough money to pay them. I also wanted to ask you about this look we all know the status quo for the way this is supposed to be handled, but weve also witnessed the example of europe in which, you know, it seemed as though theyre often deciding i dont mean to contradict you but this was the point itches going to bring up. We dont know the status quo. That doesnt help. Its neither fish nor fowl. It is not greece it is not detroit. We dont know what a bankruptcy looks like. Thats the issue. So a lot of attorneys that work in distress are trying to figure out what on earth would happen. Its not really clear. People wonder could they change the constitution the way greece went and changed its laws retroactively to screw bondholders. Could they do the same thing in puerto rico . Good point, and right now it is not a latin american sovereign. Its a territory of the United States of america. So its a good position to be in now. Okay. Larry, what about what dan was saying about those bonds that are not covered or i have been in the distressed business many years, special shout out to acg analytics. Weve been advertising hedge funds. The interest weve seen the last 10 15 days from puerto rico from institutional accounts is spectacular. Theres a lot of people looking at puerto rico credit. But from a longterm perspective, remember one thing, every day 92 people leave puerto rico. Every single day. Their population has gone from say 3. 9 Million People down to 3. 6 million the last ten years. Its completely not sustainable. Their tax laws. Their tax laws are not effective for keeping a population. For those people who own Oppenheimer Funds or themselves own general Obligation Bonds out of puerto rico should they be concerned about the possibility of default . Short term i think they get the deal done. Its a third lien bond. Theyre doing a third lien bill on the cofina revenues. That deal probably gets done so the bonds will get a rise but i think late in the year theres a black swan with like i said this gatsby 68. It really makes it difficult for puerto rico. I think people should be concerned about a default late in the year. Well revisit this im sure at some point. Thank you all for your thoughts on this. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Thanks michelle. We have 40 minutes into the close. As mentioned, the dow is supported by the likes of am ex and visa. Its up 20 points which would put it in the black for the week but the other indexes are lagging. Well keep a close eye on that. After a rocking 2013 General Electric shares one of the worst dow performers so far in 2014, has gotten hammered today on earnings that frankly look kind of okay. So whats going on with ge stock . Well get some answers in a good old stock brawl. And that will be an undercard to todays main event. See Ma Seema Mody and dominic chu are duking it out over bed, bath beyond and best buy. 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And a choice. Take up to 6 tylenol in a day or just 2 aleve for all day relief. All aboard. We have some divergence across the indexes again today with the dow up 25 while the s p 500 and the nasdaq are lagging. Dominic chu, what is driving the Market Action . Lets start with American Express which hit an all time high. Then theres Morgan Stanley rising to the highest level since 2009. Now, on the flip side, theres intel falling after the chipmaker posted weaker than expected Fourth Quarter earnings. They gave a tepid forecast for First Quarter in terms of sales and reuters is reporting it will reduce the workforce by 5 in 2014 through layoffs, attrition, and other methods. U. P. S. Down as well after they said it expected its Fourth Quarter and full year profits to be below previous expectations. This as it struggled with the surge of lastminute online orders and a shortened Holiday Shopping season. Fed ex is falling in sympathy with u. P. S. Apple is falling lower. Were going to end here on General Electric. Ge, which is losing ground after its profit margin missed goals set by the ceo jeff immelt. The company reporting Fourth Quarter earnings that matched wall street estimates. Back over to you guys. Yoop there it is down 3 . So why is General Electric getting smacked today . The earnings seemed pretty innocuous. The Profit Margins not withstanding. One of our next guests says this time the street is getting it wrong. Could this dip be a buying opportunity for ge . With us now, typically we have a bull and bear in our stock brawl. Im telling you, our whole staff scoured wall street and couldnt find a bear. Why doesnt this stock move higher in an appreciable way if there are no bears out there . I think it will. I mean look its all about their Industrial Operating margin. Thats what set it off here a little bit. But this company is restructuring. Things are changing there. Theyre getting out of the financial business. Theyre becoming much more of an industrial. If you look at the industrials and the way theyre set up ge is trading at 15 times. Most of the industrials, you look at honeywell, theyre trading al 18t 18 19 times. The stock has a lot more Margin Expansion and the stock will go higher. We saw this thing sell off over the last couple weeks. Its off roughly 3. 5 before the print. So i think a lot of selling got out of the way ahead of time. I think youre seeing a little pressure on it right here but i think its important to look at this as an opportunity to get in. Im no chartist but it doesnt look like the stock performed that well lately either in response to the Earnings Report or going into it. Whats going on here . Well i think obviously there are some bears out there otherwise the stock wouldnt be down so much today. But really the company has been going through this transition here. Weve added it to our mutual funds over the last six months. We now own it in three of the seven mutual funds we manage. We really like the fact that theyve restructured the business. When you look at it i think you have to look through all this noise because theres a lot of restructuring still going on right now and a lot of moving parts, but if you look at it over the next two to three years, ge has really positioned themselves as the leading Global Industrial company. They have exposure now to just about every facet of the energy and power market as well as Water Infrastructure transportation, and a lot of these industries have really gone through periods of consolidation. In some cases a decades worth of consolidation. Capacity has become more rationalize rationalized. You will see margins expand we think over the next two to three years, and they just havent gotten full credit for it yet. Its not our parent anymore, but is it incumbent for full dough disclosure, a lot of us have shares of ge. We have been watching this stock. I have been hearing about this restructuring since jeff immelt took over in 2001. Yes, he faced 9 11. Yes, hes faced some wars. Yes, he had the financial crisis but the stock peaked in late 2000 at 60 and has never looked back. Hes been restructuring the whole time. I mean when is this stock going to gain some traction in a meaningful way . Look, i can tell you that, you know, the flows im seeing on the desk the important thing to look back on is the money flow and who is buying this name. Were seeing a lot of hedge funds on this weakness buying the weakness. They obviously have done their research. I can tell you when i look at this name and i look at them restructuring and getting back in line with what the other industrials are trading at this stock could easily go right back up towards its highs. I think were at a crucial level here. Technically we broke through the 50day. We get down toward the 100day and i think you will see a tremendous amount of demand come on for this name. Even the companys management country indicate its going to be growing earnings by leaps and bounds. You put money into this stock how are you confident that the earnings power of this company is going to reward you . Well thats very important. If you look at what the orders that came in this last quarter, if you look at the orders on the industrial side of the business they were up almost 10 . So as you do get a recovery in the global economy, which is lagging the u. S. Youre going to get a lot of leverage to capacity as well as the fact that theyve taken so much costs out of these businesses as demand does recover in the global economy. Youre going to see that the Profit Margins expand and theyll get back to that historical earnings power. Theyve also shown a real commitment to increased shareholder value through all this restructuring but also return capital to shareholders. Right now youre getting a little over 3 dividend yield on a stock that trades about 15 times earnings. We think its a very good risk reward for somebody looking out over two or three years. Ill be the bear. I have heard this all before many times. Well see. Its a showme time right now for a lot of shareholders. Thanks, guys. Have a great long weekend. 30 minutes to go here. Hanging on but not by a lot. The dow up 12 points. We need to be up 20 today for the dow to finish positive for the week so thats not the case right now. Were starting to lose altitude as we head to the close. We started the hour up about 60 on that index as the others boded poorly. Did walmart fire the relatively few employees that participated in strikes against the retail giant . Well speak to one of the former employees and get reaction from the company. And divorce filings among the rich are booming. So why are so many couples say goodbye these days . Here is a hint. It has something to do with the stock market. We have more on that answer later on the closing bell. Hmm, fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Everybody knows that parker. Well did you know auctioneers make bad Grocery Store clerks . Thatll be 23. 50. Now. 75, 23. 75, hold em. Hey now do i hear 23. 75 . 24 hey 24 dollar, 24 and a quarter, quarter now half, 24 and a half and. 75 25 now a quarter hey 26 and a quarter do you wanna pay now, you wanna do it, 25 and a quarter sold to the man in the khaki jacket geico. Fifteen minutes could save you. Well, you know. Welcome back. There have been many protests at Walmart Stores lately. The main issue has been better pay and benefits. Most of the folks involved in these protests like the one youre looking at now were not necessarily walmart workers but rather people brought in by unions who want to unionize. There are some actual walmart workers who participated and a few who are saying they were fired in retaliation. Now the government is getting involved in this story. The National Labor Relations Board say those firings of those walmart workers was illegal and it is suing walmart. It filed suit this week to get those workers reinstated and we are joined right now by one of those workers, colby harris was fired in september from his job at walmart in texas. Thanks for joining us today. Thanks for having me. The complaint is 33 pages long filed against walmart. Youre on page 11 and it itemizes various protests you participated in, and you took time off from work to participate in those protests. That is why you were fired, because you missed work is that correct . That is actually not correct. I was actually fired because i was on those days that they accuse me of being absent from work i was actually on protected strikes against the company and thats the reason why they fired me. The reason why they claim they fired me was because of absenteeism, aka, not showing up to work but in reality i was fired for all the days i was on ulp strikes. Thats their reasoning, because you missed work you were let go. Yeah. Theyre saying i simply didnt show up to work when scheduled. We know workers are allowed, of course, to organize to form unions. Thats what the nlrb is upset about, that walmart had threatened perhaps by indicating the workers would be punished if they participated in these protests. The complaint does indicate that for 11 days from may through june of this year you were away from work and as you mentioned, you have traveled to various cities to participate in some of these protests. How many days off does do walmart workers get each year . It depends on how long you have been there. Most workers are parttime, so they dont get any fulltime benefits or they dont get any vacation time. So when we take time off, really its not taking time off. Were on ulp strikes. A lot of workers do not get the benefits. So let me put it this way. Are you a parttime worker or fulltime worker at walmart . I was one of the more fortunate ones before i got fired who was fulltime, but i still was not able to make it. I was making roughly less than 15,000 a year and not able to afford to live on my own. Even being one of the more fortunate ones i still was not well off or doing good enough to be able to sustain myself. Okay. Let me read we contacted walmart, wanted their side of the story. This was the statement they sent to us. We believe we acted respectfully and most important lawfully. Walmart has a strict no retaliation policy and the associates who are included in the complaint were not terminated for participating or membership in an outside group but rather for violations of other policies including attendance. We have their side of the story. What is your greatest beef with walmart . My greatest beef is the rhetoric. The fact that the statement that you just said is completely erroneous and bogus. But is that why you protested . Tell us why you would take the time to go out and protest against your employer like that. Because my livelihood and other peoples livelihoods that work for this company are important, and the fact that walmart could care less about us and the fact weve come to them way before the cameras came and all this bad press came to walmart, wee came to came to them and said this is what the workers need, were not able to make it. Most make less than 25,000 a year which is not close enough to be able to make it. Thats what our biggest beef is and the fact like they did nothing wrong in this situation when the labor board clearly stated they were wrong and theyre prosecuting them for it. If they dont reinstate us by the 28th of this month, this will go to trial. Colby, we certainly understand where youre coming from. The issue though of this particular suit is going to come down to whether walmart terminated you for participating in these kinds of events or terminated you for violating their attendance policy. Thats why i was wondering if you miss 11 days of work in a four to sixweek time span does that violate the attendance policies . Not at all when im being retaliated against for speaking out for better and the fact is i did not violate their attendance policy. I informed them and all the associates who participated in these ulp strikes, informed them thats what we were doing, and by that we were protected. So for them to fire me specifically for all those days that i missed being on those ulp strikes, theyre in direct violation of my federal rights and all the associates who were fired from the strikes that weve taken over the past year. Colby, im running out of time but i have to ask you, my friend, with all due respect to you and other workers who are in this protest, do you sometimes feel like a puppet of the big unions that are just trying to gain a foothold in the largest retailer in this country and if you were so unhappy with your job, why not just go find another job somewhere . Thats a great question and the fact of the matter is that im an associate, and we created our walmart, and we coordinate everything we want to do and no union has coordinated anything we do. The reason why i dont get another job is because walmart should provide better jobs in our communities and i slunthouldnt have to work two and three jobs to make it. They need to respect their associates and pay us a liveable wage. Its going to be such an important case. Colby, thank you very much for joining us. Good luck. Thank you so much for having me. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thats colby harris. Weve got about 20 minutes left to go into the close now, bill. Losing altitude. The dow up only 6 points. We were up 60 when we came on the air here with the closing bell and we need to be up 20 to be positive for the week. Doesnt look like thats going to happen right now. Coming up well hear from somebody who say the longterm unemployed arent leaving the workforce because they cant find jobs. Its because their 401ks are up so much. Seema mody hot for bed, bath beyond. Dominic chu says best buy may be your best bet for a come back. Theyll go head to head when we come back. Powerful screening tools and guaranteed onesecond trades. And at the center of it all is a surprisingly low price just 7. 95. In fact, fidelity gives you lower trade commissions than schwab, Td Ameritrade and etrade. Im monica santiago of fidelity investments, and low fees and commissions are another reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. Call or click to open your fidelity account today. 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Sorry to interrupt i just want to say i combined home and auto with state farm, saved 760 bucks. Love this guy. Okay, does it bother anybody else that the mime is talking . Frrreeeeaky [ male announcer ] bundle home and auto and you could save 760 bucks. Alright, mama, lets get going. [ yawns ] naptime is calling my name. [ male announcer ] get to a better state. State farm. Welcome back. Its the battle of the bbys. Best buy and bed, bath and beyond were red hot in 2013 but they turned ice cold in year. We have seema mody. She says savvy shoppers should check out bed, bath beyond. But dominick chu says best buy can still be a best buy for your portfolio. Its all yours, guys. I dont have the time to go to bed bath beyond. Im going to let seema go first. Citi maintained its buy rating highlighting its diversified product mix from blenders to plates to lamp shades. Off variety of products available at bed, bath beyond which gives the retailer the opportunity to appeal to a broader audience. When it comes to online morningstar says enhancements made to the mobile and online site could help the retailer capture more sales online in the coming years. Analysts point out the Company Still has 1. 7 billion left in its Share Repurchase purchase program. Buybacks could fuel earnings in the coming quarters. If you take a look at best buy versus bed, bath beyond its a pretty decent size gap in terms of divergence. They have a 39 price target. Theyre not the only retailer disappointment. All these retailers are getting clocked because theyd weaker an anticipated holiday sales. Less promotional activity Going Forward. Best buy got hit because it matched a lot of prices. Margins got hit but those holiday promotions start to tail away. Then theres solid Senior Management. They are in the midst of a turn around. This particular Holiday Season may have been a bad one. However, they have faith in that Senior Management team and thats the reason why execution is important, having the right people is an important part of that picture for them. Sure of course. So far this year lets take a look at those charts because bed, bath beyond down 18 , whereas best buy down 40 . You can see how the street is vaulgs valuing these companies. Here is what analysts say could help bed, bath beyond. The ongoing recovery in the Housing Market. Experts say the strengthening Housing Market coupled with a recent pickup in Consumer Spending should translate into consumers spending more on home related goods. You think of bed, bath beyond not best buy. When you think consumer electronics, best buy is still the brick and mortar store out there everybody talks about. When you talk about valuation, i will take that 38 drop i will say that a compelling reason to own it. It has more upside to go. Thats why citis take is also a buy. They have a 31 price target. The cost savings are likely to be announced later this year. This will be a big part of the story. You talk about share buybacks. Theres a possible buyback for best buy coming as well. Thats what citi thinks. That compelling valuation is another reason why. With best buy, it fell a lot, but that may be one reason why it has a lot more to go up. Only if it has the fundamentals. Thats what well see. There you go guys. Bby and bbby just one b separate itss those stories. Thanks guys. Ten minutes to go before the closing bell. Well see if the dow can hold these levels. Its up 23 which would make it positive. Not the case for the s p and nasdaq in terms of todays session. They are lower. Up next david lays out the three things investors need to watch in order to know which direction this market will head next. And president obamas big speech on the nsa controversial phone Surveillance Program and the changes he will be making. David gregory joins us later on what it means to you and the Tech Companies in the crosshairs. Keep it right here. Im beth. And im michelle. And we own the paper cottage. Its a stationery and gifts store. Anything we purchase for the paper cottage goes on our ink card. So you can manage your business expenses and access them online instantly with the Game Changing app from ink. We didnt get into business to spend time managing receipts thats why we have ink. We like being in business because we like being creative we like interacting with people. So you have time to focus on the things you love. Ink from chase. So you can. Heading toward the close. This is expiration day, by the way. Were going to get some volatility, but you will mainly get a lot of volume on the close today, and the question is which way do we go up or down . Were up 25 points right now. Any 20plus point game for the dow means we will be positive for the first time on a weekly basis in 2014. Why has it been so tough to get this market going this year so far . Lets talk about it with greg from high tower and our friend david darst. Why the stutter step . Something obviously changed from 2013 to 2014, greg. What was that . 2013 was a straight move up for the markets with a couple hiccups in june the market moved straight up throughout the year. I think in 2014 we have some more limited space. Some more hurdles. What are they . We have tapering occurring. What is going to happen with the debt ceiling . You have the midterm elections. I think the fed is at our back fundamentally. It will be a good year for the market but it will be more choppy this year. D. D. I hear you have three things that investors need to know to tell the direction of this market. Well you want to watch the earnings, bill. You know so far about 50 of the 500 S P Companies have reported. 62 have beaten expectations. The longterm average is 69 to beat expectations. I think thats one thing. The market is taking a wait and see attitude on that. So far. Wait and see attitude on the fed. You have the three vs holding the market back. Valuations are a bit to the stretched side. Not egregiously so, but a bit to the stretched side. Volatility has been very low. Thats a complacency. Finally is the vacillation, okay . You have had mixed those jobs numbers last month. People want to see theres no consistency. But the last six times its been below 100,000, five of the six times as you recall its been revised upward well above 100,000. So people are hoping for that. You have to put money to work. Where do you put it to work in the meantime . Bill we think small caps represents still a very good opportunity. Even though the russell was setting all kinds of highs last year . But look at the m a activity that moved it. You saw Record Activity in mergers and acquisitions. Companies are sitting on lots of cash right now not earning money. We think they will continue to put that money to work by firing small growth companies. This is also very seasonally strong time of year for small caps with december through march showing us the january effect. We think small caps will have a good year. You like the bigger guys like an intel. Did you like what you heard . Well you know, it was mixed. We would go with apple right now. We think that stock can have a 650 number on it. Cheap valuation. That buyback under way, and you have that new china contract. You have got those three things behind you for apple. All right. Got to go, guys. Thank you for joining us. Well head to the close. Come back with a countdown. The dow, this could be the third consecutive down week to begin the year if we dont go much higher from here. Well look at that and after the bell when you think of omaha, what comes to mind . Warren buffett maybe . How about a song from the counting crows . How about steaks . Well, football fans cannot stop thinking about denver quarterback Peyton Manning when they heard the name of the nebraska city, he mentioned it 40 times last weekend and it may get him a sponsorship from omaha steaks. That story is coming up. Youre watching cnbc first in business worldwide. Stacys mom has got it goin on stacys mom has got it goin on stacys mom has got it goin on [ male announcer ] the beautifully practical and practically beautiful cadillac srx. Lease this 2014 cadillac srx for around 319 a month with premium Care Maintenance included. [ tires screech ] chewleys finds itself in a sticky situation today after recalling its new gum. [ male announcer ] stick it to the market before you get stuck. Get the most extensive charting wherever you are with the mobile trader app from Td Ameritrade. A minute left. This is the dow this year. I mean theres no real trend to this market. Slightly to the downside. Weve had two consecutive down weeks. We could have a third one unless the dow finishes up more than 20 points, ben willis. Why the lack of direction and the s p up one week down the next week up one week down the next. If someone has an answer call in and let me know. Really what we faced for the last three weeks is a market of stocks where individual stocks may be the shining light whether its schlumberger et cetera but theres been no able to discern which way the market is going. Whats it going to take . Earnings arent doing it . Fed tapering isnt doing it . Money coming out of the sidelines. Right now its a stock by stock day and it looks like that will continue into next week. Thanks ben. See you later. Well we are finishing higher. It looks like well have our first up week for the dow in 2014 but not bimuch. Y much. Stay tuned for the second hour of the closing bell with kelly evans. Thank you bill. Welcome to the closing bell. Im kelly evans. Here is how were finishing. A mixed day on wall street. Looking at the dow in particular trying to hang on there and finish positive. It looks like that will be the case. Were up 33 points at the close. We needed 20 to be in the black for the week. Interesting though thats not carrying over to the s p and not to the nasdaq down 7 and 21 points respectively. Lets get straight to it with the panel. Our very own robert frank. Howard dean. Bob pisani also joining us for more on the markets, and mr. Pisani, i want to kick it off with you. I suggested this is a market in search of the narrative. Whats the narrative . The narrative is we are in a little bit of trouble in terms of the guidance. Im a little worried, we have 10 of the s p 500 reporting, 50 of the companies are making their numbers. The other 50 are not making the numbers. Thats a very very low number so far. I think thats an issue. So far the guidance for the First Quarter is not particularly good. To get the market Going Forward, weve got to get a little more positive commentary. If this is it what were going to see, these kinds of numbers, market is going to have a tough time advancing. Mr. Newmark, i want to know what you think. I kind of agree with mr. Pisani. With mediocre earnings the market is not going to go higher. I think its going to go down. Whether or not its the big correction what . I actually think the markets will go down wait a minute weve been talking for years about this market and you have been i have been super, super bullish, but you know what . The s p closed the year close to 1850. It was up big last year. Why should it go up higher if earnings arent that good . A very sound point. Robert frank, what do you think . Look, i think last year was all about the fed, it was all about Financial Engineering and stock buybacks. What is going to reanimate this market . Its going to be earnings the macro story, something out of washington like a grand bargain, or a great rotation where the Retail Investor finally comes back. None of those things are happening. What we can really see clearly now is that its certainly not going to be earnings which is what people were hoping at least in january was going to help power this market. You guys feel confident saying that even at this early juncture . I feel pretty confident. Largely because i think you always feel pretty confident. You cannot look at twitter stock and say, oh everything is great in the u. S. Economy, great with u. S. Companies. Right. You cant do that. And basically the fact that you, kelly evans, are desperately searching for a narrative, thats the tell. Theres no top line growth. We need Revenue Growth and thats not happening. Still, five years, six years, seven years into theit, its still cost cutting. Where are we in this cycle . I think a lot of people are thinking to themselves its been four or five years since the market bottomed since the recovery began. It took people a while to begin that was even the case but that we could still, in fact be in early to mid stages. In other words we have plenty of room still to go so why shouldnt that ultimately support the market . I think at the end of the day youre talking about searching for a narrative, i think its searching for each individual stocks narrative. I think were looking at a stock pickers market. We can talk about earnings and 50 not beating estimates so far in this season but weve also seen some very positive numbers. Weve seen and weve seen some companies have that surprised and missed like cs x and slm in the last couple days. At the end of the year it comes down to each specific company right now. The frothiness we saw with the index overall i think thats we also have this relentlessly positive story that everyone seems to be talking about with the u. S. Energy production boom and certainly that again has got to feed into a story with what sort of a stronger dollar narrower trade balance over time, better balance of payments . Youll see all of that but i just heard he didnt say the market is going to go down for the year but for the next couple months. Here is a little quirky indicator i like. There is a ton of money, Venture Capital money, for the first time in a long time going into the bioTech Industry. BioTech Industry is one of the few industries left where america has an enormous edge over everyone else in the world. Really smart people with lots of money have decided now is the time to invest in what is a pretty risky industry. Those people must know something. Thats interesting, but what if people are piling into biotech because theyre in search of a growth story or an intercept thats going to not Venture Capital. That would be true if the stocks were going up and maybe they will and maybe they wont. These are the people who are putting not hundreds of millions, but even billions of dollars in. These are longterm investments theyre deciding to make and bob pisani, what do you think . First of all, biotech is going up because the jpmorgan conference there was lots of news coming out of there and if you look at the biotech group, they popped right on jpmorgan. The pharmaceutical group popped also. This tends to be very predictable. Were getting great stuff. You want to know whats going to move the market. There are two things that will advance the market. Number one more positive commentary about europe. Remember, all these multinational corporations have been very very cautious on europe. Were waiting for them to say something. Ge i would say modestly positive on europe. Schlumberger was modestly positive. I would like to see more commentary. Number two the biggest thing, you really want to advance the market, job market goes on the front page and everybody says the job market is improving and the country starts talking about it. Thats when people will start reengaging with the stock market in a way they have not, we all know this for the last five years. Thats another big thing. I think the story is going to be the economy and, kelly, i know you want to argue, i think this is the fifth year you have been telling me that its going to surprise to the upside on the economy on gdp no our famous argument was im not talking about that today. I refuse to talk about that today. But in general the economy will grow but its still going to be lackluster performance. I think if you get 3 gdp i thought i was the Debbie Downer and you were mr. Positive on america. Have we switched roles . I said the world isnt falling apart like you insisted it was every 15 minutes. Morgan what do you think . I want to go back to europe. I was covering u. P. S. And the fact they issued lowered guyance for their earnings later this month and one of the things that came up when i spoke to analysts about that was even though the numbers are looking good for the Fourth Quarter, theyre expecting, analysts as well as the company, they are expecting a stronger growth story there. One of the things they are looking at is europe. Its an interesting thing to keep in mind. Lets get if you dont mind lets bring fast money steve grasso into this conversation just off the floor. It seems like we had a real pickup in volume late in the session and the dow did manage to finish up 41 points now that things have shaken out. What was driving that . You had option expiration. It was largely to do with options and guys making sure they were covered on the equities side of business. But, you know, i dont really see a huge sell pressure on the market even on days where we get catalysts to the downside. I dont see people selling this market just yet. For all the worry, were 0. 6 below the historic high on december 31 i will say, mr. Dean brought up a good point that we have an edge on biotechs. What about an edge on energy . What about this Keystone Pipeline . Canada is losing their patience with us, and i do believe that mr. Dean is for the Keystone Pipeline but i could be wrong. Do you want to comment . I dont want to comment particularly but are you more simple thet toikympathetic to the Keystone Pipeline that you might have been in the past . I think its the wrong target. If you want to deal with greenhouse gases, i dont think thats the biggest target in town. How do you do it . You deal with renewable energy. Let me just say one thing about energy. Id be interested in steves comment on this. One of the big items in front besides the Keystone Pipeline, one of the big items in front of the administration and the congress is what to do about exports of liquefied natural gas and petroleum. Thats going to make a big difference in price and a big difference in what happens to the economy. Steve, its new jersey interestingly enough which is one of the states coming out of this saying wait a minute our refineries do really well. We want to be careful here. Its a groat pointeat point because if we lift that ban on crude exports the luxury refiners have had, that collapses. Their margins collapse. You will see thee m esmmp companies do well. I want to ask you about this divergence with the dow up 41 points but the nasdaq and s p finishing lower. Are we making too much of the divergence of the indexes and dare i ask whether the dow is less relevant to the Broader Market trend . Usually theyre in lock step but the truth is id rather go with a bigger broader index and professional traders watch the s p 500 and watch the russell versus the dow. So a lot of times i dont even know where the dow is. I focus on the s p. All right. Kelly, for steve and for bob pisani, the issue about why the market hasnt gone down its because of alternative investments. Its not because people really want to be in equities. They simply go look you know what . What am i going to do . I can put my money and get no yield. Its the search for the reveal. Fully invested bears. People are forced into it to migrate into stocks and the truth of the matter a lot of the Retail Investor that was burned during flash crash and their confidence has been so shot theyre actually not all back in yet because they watch their 401 k s get cut in half and they have been sensitive to get back in. You put a 4 yield on that tenyear kelly, i can assure you the stock market would go down. You look at the wealthy and affluent, theres just so much money in the world for theyre putting money into cars in art, into every kind of collectible in the world. So assets of all kinds are way up. We tend to look at stocks in an isolated bubble we moved 100 basis points. Theres so much cash at the top. I think the higher rates are ultimately procyclical. We have to go. We will try to keep the discussion going in the next block. Thank you, steve. Be sure to stick around and catch steve on fast money at 5 00 p. M. Bob, pisani, appreciate it. The nasdaq is still well below its alltime high. 5,048 set in the year 2000. We want to know if it could recapture that mark and if so could it happen this year . It would be a move of nearly 20 but well ask our next guests. St also, are fewer unemployed baby boomers not looking for jobs because they have enough stashed away to retire early . Usual watching cnbc, first in business worldwide. [ male announcer ] this is the story of the little room over the pizza place on Chestnut Street the modest first floor bedroom in tallinn, estonia and the southbound bus barreling down i95. This magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins. And of those who believed they had the power to do more. Dell is honored to be part of some of the worlds great stories. That began much the same way ours did. In a little dorm room 2713. This magic moment 25 of the s p 500 tech stocks report earnings next week. Well have full coverage on Companies Like ebay microsoft, ibm. The nasdaqs high was 5,048 on march 10th. Were 20 away from that level. Could earnings help propel the nasdaq closer to capturing that mark . Good afternoon. Hey, kelly. Nick first to you. Is it telling that were even asking the question. It would have seemed unimaginable after the lows of the dotcom collapse. Its amazing were getting back there. Its taken a while to get back to this level. 20 return from here would be a fantastic year. It would take the fed tapering and Interest Rates not spiking for it to get to that point and really what would take to get to that level of 5,000 this year would be ceo confidence getting restored where ceos start spending money and hiring and then this economy could be off to the races. Dont know that thats likely but thats what it would take. Just the earnings piece of it, because we just had sort of a long debate about this on the panel. If it really does come down to earnings, what do we have to see in terms of Earnings Growth for these company to achieve anything like a 5,000 level on the nasdaq . One thing about the technology companies, their expectations are higher than the overall market. Thats one good thing. What were seeing that we like about technology out of the ten sectors in the economy, we recommend overweighting technology because theyre earnings expectation trends. The rate of change to their earnings estimate have been positive. And stock prices usually follow that positive delta. I feel like using the word tech is too broad. We have to make explain what were talking about. Old tech new tech, social media. What are we really talking about and do you think its achievable . Its certainly achievable. I have little doubt in the next few years youll probably get there. I agree that i think its a stretch to get there this year. Probably need not only Earnings Growth but multiple expansion to do it but i think you ask an important question. Generally we like the technology sector. The valuations are very reasonable compared to its history. Its the second most profitable sector after consumer staples, but there are significant differences and one distinction id make are companies geared to Capital Spending to enterprise spending, which we think is going to accelerate this year versus companies more tied to the consumer which are more cautious. It seems like theres this massive, you know, activity happening in the enterprise space. It was interesting to see blackberry spiking with citron pointing out its a Software Company not a hand set one anymore. If people want to play that theme, thats the best way to play it . It is some of as we all them the Old Technology companies. They are companies whether theyre in the hardware or software geared to the enterprise space that are really their Business Model is tied to whether or not companies and i agree with the previous comment, have enough confidence to dip into that large cash pile which is about 2 trillion for u. S. Companies and start to spend. I think one of the catalysts might be particularly in tech theres a lot of obsolescence. Theres been a being time since weve had a big Capital Spending cycle. Were overdo. Given the nsa and what the white house is trying to do to tweak it how does that play into this theme . Is it a net positive net negative for the Tech Industry or is it an investable thesis . Well with regards to the nsa and anything for Certain Software companies, it would be a benefit for sure if they can build technology and software that would benefit from anything that would be government related in that regard. Anything that increases profits for any company is what wed like and anything that would increase their business would be good for the stock price. Right. Guys, thank you. Nick and russ thinking about the nasdaq recapturing that 5,000 level. Maybe it will happen. Twitter last year facebook the year before. Which companies are expected to go public in a big way in 2014. Julia boorstin joins us with the big money bets. Julia . Well, kelly, the final Venture Capital numbers are out for 2013 and the biggest funding rounds are a good sign of where investors expect the biggest paydays which could mean the biggest ipos. According to a new money tree pricewaterhousecoopers report. Raising more cash was pinterest bringing in 200 million last february and another 225 million in october. This money is expected to help pinterest start making money this year. So which other startups should investors watch . Rounding out the biggest funding rounds, Car Service Uber raising nearly 260 million. Big data cruncher Palantir Technologies with 374 million in financing and genband which drew over 340 million in investment last year. Total Venture Capital investments grew 7 in 2013 to nearly 30 billion with Internet Companies drawing 7. 1 billion in investment. Thats the highest level of internet investments since 2001. The surge in investment is thanks to the success of recent ipos like twitters and an active Acquisition Market of Companies Like ways. With investors trying to get in before valuations explode, early stage investments throughgrew 17 last year. Not on that list were two Cloud Companies that are expected to ipo this year box and dropbox. They have both raised hundreds of millions of dollars over the pastself years. Kelly, back over to you. And julia, given the numbers as these banks report earnings the investment banks, how well the equity business has done i have to imagine theyre spending a lot of time out your way. Absolutely absolutely. I think this is a trend thats only going to continue as long as the returns continue. Right. Drooling over thats targets. Julia, thanks very much. Have a great weekend. Our julia boorstin. It may be the ultimate american dream, early retirement. My next guest says fewer baby boomers are looking for jobs because their 401 k s are so high. Really . Well discuss that plus how much it really does take to say goodbye to the work agree world early. Keep it right here. Well be right back. Whats an idea without the capital to make it happen . Without the thinking that makes it real . Whats a vision without the expertise to execute it. And the financing to make it grow . 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Is it a winning week or not . Lets talk about this because if you look at the overall picture, kelly, were going to begin with how the s p 500 really was, and it was down for maybe well call it 0. 2 of a percent for the week and for the year its down a half a percent. So were still treading water trying to figure out some kind of direction in a holding pattern. As for the dow it eked out a small gain for the week. For the year now its down less than well call it 1 . And the nasdaq also managing a slight gain for the week despite todays mishmash session here. For the year its up about half a percent. So as you can see, theres not much overall movement for the three major indices so far this year, but again it just reiterates this idea traders are trying to find what direction they want to go in after that banner year last year. So, again, this week just another continuation of those fairly even markets well call them. Thank you, dom. Theres been plenty of talk about how the Unemployment Rate is down for the wrong reasons, namely that people have stopped looking for work. Maybe its not all as bad as it seems. My next guest suggests some Older Workers may not ever reenter the workforce because their 401 k s have come back with a roar. Joining me is the chief managing director at deutsche bank. Forson torson, great to see you. Is it really the case that 401 k balances have improved enough for enough workers that thats the reason why the Unemployment Rate is falling . As you know thats a huge debate about why has the Labor Force Participation rate fallen and the Unemployment Rate fallen. The wisdom from the fed and the work we have done is about half of the decline is for demographic reasons and the other half is for cyclical reasons. While theres not only structural versus cyclical because now the stock market is coming back is indeed interfering with this because higher wealth does also raise the propensity to retire if you will, if the wealth level goes up people also have a high likelihood of retiring. I want to bring in the panel on this with some thoughts. The average balance youre talking about here is 168,000 which doesnt seem like enough to retire on. Thats correct. Certainly it is true that these levels can seem a bill low but the Median Income for households in the u. S. Is 50,000 so its three times the annual salary of workers. There are other savings vehicles than 401 k . If you look at the floor funds then you have the average household has net worth of about 700,000 700,000, so this whole idea is just to say the wealth has increased in the last few years and this is a really important driver that has an influence on the Labor Force Participation rate. Robert frank, what do you make of it . Lets say the average balance here is 160,000 np. Lets call it 3 or 4 . Thats a tiny income a few thousand dollars a year for someone to live on certainly less than 10000 as year 10,000 a year. I dont get how the math can enable someone to live on that amount of money. Were only looking at 401 k s. If you add everything up, this category of people in the 50s and 60s, assets are not only 401 k s. Its much broader vehicle of assets. You have other things. You have also house something 50 of assets whats the total. If you add up everything, what do you think the role total is you cant live on a house. We know from the Federal Reserve if you add total net worth for the household sector and divide it by the number of house holds which is roughly 116 million, the average net worth is people in the 50s and 60s this is the average. They probably have higher levels if you include everything. Torsten, all the data i have seen suggests the labor Participation Rate has actually gone up over the last couple years and in fact my anecdotal data, which is my mother my mother and my father theyre both in their 70s. My mother worked up until a year ago thats because they have to pay your bills. So anecdotally and datawise, it seems a lot of older people are working a lot longer now. David, im glad to hear your mom and dad are still paying taxes and supporting the economy. There are underlying trends going on and thats you have seen an increase in the workforce Participation Group for this group in the last several decades but we have seen a flattening out. Because of the level of wealth being so high Going Forward, the whole argument here is when will we see inflation and if the Labor Force Participation rate continues to be trending down because of the wealth level being high then Going Forward maybe there is not this enormous amount of slack in the labor market. Are you ever retiring . I hope not. But i have a major problem with this whole thesis. The first part of the problem is if theres an average wealth of 700,000, i can guarantee you almost all of it is in the top 80 . And thats not going to have a major effect on the unemployment numbers. For most peoples experience if you lost your job when you were 55 or older in the last recession, you had a terrible time getting it back and when you did get it back you were working for twothirds or half as much. So i really dont buy this thesis. I do not buy that wealth going from 77 to 168 and whatever have you looked at the actual numbers of people instead of just the or maybe more the median than the average because the average takes in that top has done very well. The median is lower but the key issue is the fed worries that the Labor Force Participation rate in the last few years has dropped three percentage points. That corresponds to 4. 5 Million People. The number of people in the labor force in their 50s and 60s is 33 Million People. We have a huge amount of people who have seen their wealth go up and the fed is complain being 4. 5 million who have left the labor force. You cant quantify exactly how many were talking about in terms of how many of these would have a propensity, but the bottom line is its not Rocket Science to conclude if wealth goes up there must be a good deal of people on the margin who says i dont want to come back to the labor market. What does this suggest about what i see as the bigger issue, which is the huge transfer of wealth going on in the United States from the younger people to the older people . I mean this is a case where if the older people are getting wealthier, its really the rich getting richer and the poor being the younger generation. I think theres a point to that, too, because youre also talking about the Sandwich Generation right . The generation supporting their elderly parents and the generation supporting their under employed children in college. Thats all correct. I would split that into the cyclical problem. And then theres a structural problem that we have a whole generation here that hasnt quite been lost completely but definitely has been suffering much more than the older generation. Those are two separate discussions. One is a structural discussion but theres a cyclical issue for the Federal Reserve namely when will inflation appear. You can almost see it as a double whammy. Fascinating piece. Thank you so much for joining us to discuss it. Really appreciate it. My pleasure. President obama revealing changes in the governments data Surveillance Program including restrictions on eavesdropping on foreign leaders. Notably Germanys Angela Merkel when it was revealed last year her phone was targeted. Eamon javers has all the details from washington next. And what about the Tech Companies cause in the crosshairs like google and facebook . We have reaction and well talk to meet the press moderator David Gregory right after this. Stacys mom has got it goin on stacys mom has got it goin on stacys mom has got it goin on [ male announcer ] the beautifully practical and practically beautiful cadillac srx. Lease this 2014 cadillac srx for around 319 a month with premium Care Maintenance included. Welcome back. President obama today announcing some changes to the governments controversial surveillance policies while offering a pretty robust defense for the programs. Eamon javers joins us now with more on what the president has said and will do. Eamon . Hi, kelly. The news here today was that the president said that the nsa will no longer look into its database of socalled metadata of telephone Call Information without court authorization. Thats something they had been able to do before. Also, the president saying that he doesnt think ultimately its the government that should handle this data at all but the big question here is who will handle it if not the government . So for now that data will remain with the government. Nonetheless, as you say, the president really defending here theoverall overall intelligence capabilities by u. S. Intelligence agencies. Take a listen. We cannot prevent terrorist attacks or Cyber Threats without some capability to penetrate Digital Communications whether its to unravel a terrorist plot to intercept mall wareware that targets the Stock Exchange to make sure airtraffic control systems are not compromised, or to ensure that hackers do not empty your bank accounts. We got reaction from two Different Technology companies. Interestingly, yahoo and google issuing the same exact statement word for word saying the commitments outlined by president obama represent positive progress on key issues including transparency from the government in what companies will be allowed to disclose extending privacy protections to nonu. S. Citizens. The Tech Companies clearly very much on the same page in terms of their reaction but still unknown is whats going to happen to that metadata. Who is going to handle that. Thats become very much a political hot potato in washington. Eamon javers this afternoon with more from the white house. Thank you. And joining us now for more on the nsa controversy is David Gregory, moderator of nbcs meet the press. David, its great to have you here. Thanks. This announcement from the president universally met in Silicon Valley with a reaction of this doesnt go far enough. So what does the white house do now . You know, a lot of this is going to be up to congress. Thats whats interesting. The president has outlined certain reforms hed like to see, some of which he can do administratively but congress has got to take a look at this. They have to reauthorize a lot of these programs come next march or theyre going to have to take this on. The question is whether reformers are really going to be emboldened by this. I think whats significant about today, what you cannot overlook is if for all the criticism the president is sticking by these programs, there is still going to be the bulk collection of metadata, the programs go forward. He says theyre vital to protecting the company. A lot of changes may be significant but theyre still on the margins of existing programs. And, david, if you look at the reaction overseas and europe, there was a lot of skrep at this simple as well and thats where a lot of heavy criticism, for example in jarment germany, came from the first place not just surveillance that was going on but also the extent to which u. S. Companies selling hardware and cloud services, expanding into thats important areas have a massive pr problem that this white house today doesnt really seem to have solved. Well, i agree with that. But i also think the president is right when he says americas judged differently and is judged at a different standard and theres a lot of good reasons for that but a lot of this a lot of the spying goes on not only among heads of state for political reasons but also among businesses as you well know. I think that thats going to go on. And i also think theres questions about whether the line is. I think for basicallyp pr reasons, the president had to say were not going to spy on heads of state we work closely with. Well, why not . And then where do you draw the line . What about an Opposition Leader . What about somebody who is farther down the chain who could, you know, rise to power at some point . Again, theres a reason why they do this kind of surveillance in the first place, and its about business and its about protecting the country and its about just understanding it is National Security at the end of the day sure. Not always National Security but it has something mostly National Security, but it still has to do with competition. It was interesting as well when Edward Snowden first had these documents and they came to light, there were some strange bed fellows in terms of the reaction in washington where you had people to some extent on the far right and far left on the same page than the parties lining up against each other. You know you guys on sunday i imagine will be talking about this. And how now have those lines changed and if Congress Needs to move forward on this who should we be watching for action . Well youre going to want to watch dianene feinstein, mike rogers, they will be on the program, they will be leading whatever changes take place. Sensenbrenner and widen in the senate that would like to have a more transparent debate. I think whats important is this is a truly important and tough debate about who we are, about our privacy, and about how we protect the country and what it means to have privacy, and that is a debate that i think we ought to be having as a country and i dont know that we would have had it at this level had we not seen these leaks that the president was critical of but now congress has the ability in a more transparent way to have a real debate about this and see if they want to change it. You have to wonder again if privacy norms will start shifting back after having moved already so far since this country was founded. David, thank you so much. Again, you can be sure to catch much more of david. Meet the press is on sunday. Check your local listings for show times. Whats trending right now . The top of our website, the hot list is coming up next and divorce lawyers for the rich are seeing more inquiries for hungry wives looking for handsome payoffs and handsome new husbands. The stock market has a lot to do with whats going on. Well he beexplain next. Mine was earned orbiting the moon in 1971. Afghanistan, in 2009. On the u. S. S. Saratoga in 1982. [ male announcer ] once its earned, usaa Auto Insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. Because it offers a superior level of protection. And because usaas commitment to serve current and former military members and their families is without equal. Begin your legacy. Get an Auto Insurance quote. Usaa. We know what it means to serve. Welcome back. Looking at the hot list this friday afternoon. How are you doing . Great. Whats happening on the website . You would think we would have started to lose our traffic with the long holiday weekend, but you can see that theres actually still quite a few people on the website. Our number one story right now is the state thats in the worst fiscal condition. Can you guess what it is . Illinois. If i had to venture a guess. You would think or maybe michigan you might guess, but, in fact, im sitting in it. Its new jersey. Ah. New jersey ranks as the worst fiscal condition according to the latest study. A challenge for governor clitionty. Christi. Like he needed another one this week. You can see all the states that are doing the best and the worst. Tonight on the kudlow report larry used to sit on that board. Theyre going to be talking about that a lot tonight so you dont want to miss it. Now, next up a story thats really interesting i think, chinas millionaires. Weve been talking about that a lot. Theyre starting to flee the country. A third of them have already left and twothirds of them say they have already left or theyre about to leave. Now, you probably can guess why, pollution or they want better education, but an interesting thing about that now is that they actually are thinking that because the government chinas cracking down on corruption they want to make sure their money is safe. Those are bigger numbers. I dont know what you think but i think thats much bigger than i would have thought. And robert frank i was going to say, i hear its just a real interesting column by our robert frank. Its a great point. Sorry, carry on. You should totally check that out. Next we move on to real estate. Another hot button issue for all of us actually. What we found out is Housing Starts actually shot up, right . Thats usually a gauge. Home builders are confident so theyre building more. Interestingly enough vacancies are also up. So its not actually necessarily a good sign for the economy and diana olick has a great video. She was on tv earlier, you want to check that out, talking about how maybe its time for us to stop building. Maybe we need to take a breather in this recovery. Thanks so much and have a good weekend. You, too. Coming up shall honey, honey, were rich, i want a divorce. And we want to know what you think the Denver Broncos Peyton Manning means when he continually shouted omaha at last weeks big game. Twet tweet us and well put your reaction on air. Welcome back. Our robert frank, of course covers the wealth and hes bringing us an amazing story. A rising stock market means high priced divorces are also on the rise. Hes invited along jeff fisher one of the top divorce attorneys for the rich and famous who is based in florida. Robert, welcome. First of all, how much of an increase in activity are we talking about . Since the Third Quarter im sorry, go ahead. Since the Third Quarter of last year theres been a notable increase in the consults that weve seen and the other practitioners here in florida. Jeff, you mentioned to me youre always busy but give us a sense of, you know is the volume twice what it was three or four years ago . How many calls are you getting versus previous to this run up . If youre comparing to 2009 i would say the volume is double, but, again, our volume is low. So if we used to see ten people now were seeing 20 and that translates into maybe eight or ten cases. And you do the really big divorces, so thats actually a lot of money. Let me ask you, lets say were talking about stocks here being the key factor. Lets say youre the wife of a ceo or a big executive at say google and youre getting a divorce. How do you value that stock in a that stock in a divorce . Do you value it at the current price or does the wife or husband have to end up selling that stock to pay off the divorce . As for the valuation issue, the simple part is when its a vested publicly traded stock. You value it either on the date of filing or at a date closer to the date of trial if its a lengthy period in between. The problem is the unvested stock and options because you dont know whether its going to vest and you dont know the value on the date of vesting. So it becomes much more complicated when were dealing with unvested securities. I had an issue with roberts insinuation here that its always a woman who is going to i said woman or man. Divorcing the man here. I think we live in a woman or man, spouse. Thats exactly correct. There is parody between women and men. Men want to exit marriages sometimes, too. A rising stock market helps make that easier. Just like its just like the m a business. Its like a reverse. How is it the same . Ceos when stock prices are rising people feel confident. Its a spinoff. In the end, divorce they feel confident about divorcing someone. Were talking about stocks. Im curious i know youre in florida right now. How much does housing play a part in increased divorce rate . Everything plays a part. Stock, real estate wine cars jewelry. When people have more wealth they feel more comfortable dividing the wealth. Were talking about taking a marital state and dividing it in half. And also the days of big alimony awards are passing and so now you have to take a chunk of change whether it is 10 million or 50 million and invest it and live off it. As the value of the assets rise the ability to divide it in half and invest it and live off it increases and so people that want an exit do it now. Its fascinating. I have a question. Well ask you offline, jeff. Thank you for joining us. Appreciate it. Youre welcome. Thanks very much. Have a great weekend. What is the question . This is going to kill me. When you get to a certain echelon of wealth i would imagine with all of your Money Managers and Wealth Managers that youre talking about prenups as well. I would think you have a prenup in place and that would essentially negate how much do you know what im saying . Murdoch had two prenups and a postnup. They had a lot of issues to selt. Now we know. He may play denver but his heart is in omaha. Tweet us what he ment when he shouted omaha more than 40 time last weekend. Well check in with omaha steaks which may try to capitalize on mannings fetish. 2550 life inspires your trading. Tdd 18003452550 where others see fads. Tdd 18003452550. You see opportunities. Tdd 18003452550 at schwab, were here to help tdd 18003452550 turn inspiration into action. Tdd 18003452550 we have intuitive platforms tdd 18003452550 to help you discover whats trending. Tdd 18003452550 and seasoned market experts to help sharpen your instincts. Tdd 18003452550 so you can take charge tdd 18003452550 of your trading. [ male announcer ] this is the story of the little room over the pizza place on Chestnut Street the modest first floor bedroom in tallinn, estonia and the southbound bus barreling down i95. This magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins. And of those who believed they had the power to do more. Dell is honored to be part of some of the worlds great stories. That began much the same way ours did. In a little dorm room 2713. This magic moment so, how do you feel about cash back . I would not say im into it. But lets see where this goes. [ buzzer ] do you like to travel . Im all about free travel, babe. Thats what i do. [ buzzer ] balance transfers you up for that . Well unh. Too soon . [ female announcer ] fortunately, theres an easier way, with creditcards. Com. Compare hundreds of cards from every major bank and find the one thats right for you. Creditcards. Com. Its simple. Search, compare, and apply. [ ice rattles ] welcome back. This is what many remembers about the game last weekend between the broncos and chargers. Omaha omaha omaha yes, Peyton Manning shouted omaha about 40 times during that game. And now omaha steaks is thinking about signing manning up for an endorse. Deal. Joining me now with more on this is todd simon, senior v. P. Of marketing and sales at omaha stakes. Welcome. Does peyton know youre interested . He doesnt know were interested. But theres been a ton of media speculation. In fact, i was asked the question and i gave a speculative answer and we spiralled into this. Any big brand would love to have the star power of mr. Manning behind them. I imagine it doesnt come cheap. You guys are getting a lot of free buzz out of this. You are thinking about doing something more formal . You know that really remains to be seen. Ill give you my Peyton Manning answer. If the wind is blowing in the right direction, we may do something. It could go on the other side. Todd you dont have a lot of time though. You have to make this decision quick, dont you . We certainly do. Right now its been really great to you know represent omaha and the name omaha is synonymous with omaha steaks. Thats an honor. Were hopeful that people will think about omahasteaks. Com when they plan their game day celebrations. You are one of the companies that says theyre going to put 500 into his charity fund every time he says omaha this weekend . Thats right. In fact its grown to seven companies. To now every time he says omaha during the game there will be a donation to the Payback Foundation of 700 and the Payback Foundation benefits at risk youth. What happens if he changes tactics . Now that everyone is on to this omaha thing . Well i think that will be a really great story in and of itself. Everybody will have a great time tweeting about what happened to omaha. So i think either way it turns out to be a good thing for omaha, omaha steaks and for the rest of the companies. Im going to tell you that the nfl will not be happy with either our guest or with Peyton Manning on this whole thing. Why . Because can you imagine, you know instead of doing omaha steaks, hes going to be shouting i think he is a spokesman for popapa john. Papa john. And im, of course rooting for the patriots. You know im a big patriots fan. Can you imagine tom brady doing for ugg shoes. Ugg. I have full confidence no quarterback would compromise the integrity of the game. Todd, do you think it would ever happen . You know theres certainly a chance. We have weve done some big product integrations. We work with Celebrity Apprentice a few years ago. Weve done some of these things like it. I dont know how the deals work. We just hope that if we could put something together it would be great for both of us. We have to let you go on that note. It aint going to happen. We asked and you tweeted. Here are the standout thoughts. To peyton ment the broncos are going to beat the patriots when he was saying it. Manning yells omaha to channel his inner Warren Buffett and hope prudent moves will pay off in the long run. I think peyton is remembering mr. Buffet and hoping to be long term successful like him in the playoffs. Maybe warren will have a response. I want to hear evan do that ugg thing again. Can do you that one more time . Im not doing it. Come on. Unless im paid by uggs. Im not going to do it. Im going to put my foot down. Good luck to new england this weekend. All right. Thats going oun to my son. Thank you so much for being here. A lot of fun on this friday. Fast money is coming up. Melissa lee, whats on the table . I dont know if you noticed, bioteches, new highs almost every single day when you take a look at the ticker. City stop analyst is going to join us. The last time he was on his pick gained 8 the next trading session. Youll want to listen to what he has to say. A long weekend to think about it too. Fast money starts right now live from the Nasdaq Market site in times square. Im melissa lee. Warnings warns everywhere. U. P. S. , royal dutch, nintendo issuing warnings. Deutsche bank is considering issuing a Fourth Quarter profit warning as well. Does this bode poorly for earnings season in the market . Josh brown, what do you think . You know wall street is all about expectations. And so we have a really interesting situation here. 94 companies in the s s p 500