A penny for your thoughts on this one. President obama gave his two cents on the fate of the penny saying hes openopen to the idea of getting rid of the copper coin. The president says it costs more for the government to make a penny than its actually worth. The mint says it costs nearly it. 5 cents to produce and distribute a single penny. Tell us what you think on that one. Meantime, lets take a very quick look at whats happening with the markets. The dow is down by 0. 3 . Walmart is down by 2. 8 on the reports of that internal email about february sales being a total disaster. The Spokesman Says sometimes these internal emails can be inaccurate. Thanks for watching street signs. Have a great weekend. Closing bell is next. Hi, everybody. Happy friday to you. Welcome to the closing bell. Im Maria Bartiromo at the New York Stock Exchange. The major averages in danger of posting losses this week though. If we stay right here, well see that. Im bill griffith. The dow does not be able to look like it will avoid a second consecutive losing week. The blue chip average down sharply in the last half hour on those reports of an internal email from a walmart executive indicating that a very slow sales, a total disaster were the words used to describe the sales so far. Weve got the latest on this developing story coming up. Amazing that interoffice email getting out like that. Once again. Just as the individual investor is urged to get back into the market, more news of possible insider misconduct. The government looking into suspicious trades before cnbc reported the news before it was reported Warren Buffett was purchasing heinz. Automatic spending cuts are set to kick in march 1st and congress is on vacation as the cuts seem more and more likely to happen what, impact will they have on the stocks and economy . Former fed chairman Alan Greenspan is joining us exclusively to weigh in on that. Lets take a look at markets and where we stand with the Dow Jones Industrial average near the lows of the afternoon, though just shy of them, down about 45 minutes on the Dow Jones Industrial average and a third of a percent. Nasdaq composite also negative today, doubledigit move there on the downside. A decline on the nasdaq. S p 500, decline of 5. 5 points on the standard poors, now showing the level of 1515. Lets get more on this developing story involving walmart. Courtney reagan with the very latest details. Court, what can you tell us. Reporter dell component walmart and other retailers reported that february was the slowest sales were the worst in years. And the organization response. With any organization we see internal communications that are not entirely accurate and lack the proper context and individual opinionsch well release our First Quarter earnings and well know for sure. Walmart shares fell sharply but are coming back a little bit. Walmart investors have been concerned about the retailers consumers feeling pinched since the Company Started rementioning the prominence of the paycheck cycle a couple quarters ago. Add in the new tax increases and february sales become even more in focus for walmart. Bill . Thanks very much. Reaction in todays closing bell exchange, lee munson and gene prony and doug cote from ing management and rick santelli. You dont work for an Investment Management company, do you . Not yet. Doug cote, its this kind of a story that still has you investing defensively right now, isnt it . What do you make of this . Well, whats seen in retail sales that came out last week, kind of on the light side. And there is concern. It was mentioned the payroll tax hike, and were more concerned with a general easing of fundamentals. Fundamentals seem to be rolling over. You have japan data in recession. You have europe in recession, first negative quarter for the u. S. , so we dont see the fundamentals supportive of continued market trend, and this might be a little overdone right now, i mean, the market. Thats the issue, isnt it, lee munson, because you have a market that has been rallying since 2012, and new money coming into this market and earnings have just been okay. Revenue has certainly been nothing to write home about. Now this on walmart indicating were looking at a slower period. Is the market too high for actual fundamentals . I dont think it is because were still looking at potentially 8 to 10 Earnings Growth on the s p for this year of 2013. But ill tell you, maria, the walmart news is not good. The big thing is weve had spending stay up while people are getting a tax hike so whats happening is generally what American Consumers do is they adjust their savings, and why not . Last month the s p was up 5 . So i think, if anything, the fundamentals are still there. People are making money in the market, in their 401 k s if they can keep spending so when you get news like the walmart stuff. For me the fundamentals are there and this could be a great trading opportunity if we could really get people to panic next week, would love to buy into it. Was going to ask you this question. With Retail Stocks heading lower, is this the kind of market move that makes you want to step in and buy and take some profits and step back for a little while . Well, bill, you know, this has been a rotational market, and thats been one of the very positive features, that the market continues to address the shortterm excesses and we get these pressures put on consumer discretionary. I think the real store they year will be more of the business or the industrialled sectors of the market. In other words, a focus on the Global Economic expansion, the industrials including the aerospace and defense, tooling and dye cops and so on. Youre going to buy selectively is what youre saying . Well, were going to buy more rotationally. Well focus more on industrials, technology and health care, more so than on consumer discretionary. Rick santelli, a lot of supply coming into market this week. Talked about it last week. What kind of an impact did you see . I think the market will speak for themselves, if you bought into the threeyear note auction, you basically are unchanged in terms of money, bought into the tenyear auction youre making dough, yields are lower than 204. 6 and they were auctioned on the 30year bond as a push. Bonds were gobbled up, but its not as easy as it was to recycle through the fed purchase programs, but heres something interesting, okay. When i look at walmart and i think about how i feel about the economy which isnt really represented by stocks, look at this chart starting in november for walmart stock and the dow jones. Walmart is about at the same level it was in november. The dow is about 1,400 points higher. I think walmart has it right, and i think its one of the reasons buying the fed into the treasuries aside where yields have remained stubborn about moving up even though its the financial communities main antagonist. You think retail sales will slow down from here, is that what youre saying . Absolutely. When i look at exports as less than 10 of our gdp so why should scloeg slowing in the rest of the world hurt us a lot. Thats a bad metric. Think of all the multinationals and the overseas sales. Thats tries the number of exports, and thats where the pain is going to come from. But, rick, youre going to see the lowering of the spending in the 401 k s. Rick, you have to understand, you know, were out of 2008. People are going to look at their 401 k statements whether they have a job or not and will see 5 , 6 . What do you want them to do with it, pull it out to live today . I want americans to buy more crap, and i think that this is a blip on the screen. I want them to get more money at their job, not through their 401 k . They need jobs. The thing is they are making growth. The 401 k is a good story, i agree. Let me ask you this. One of us will be right by summer. What about this walmart memo, gene, as a portfolio manager, you see an interoffice memo at walmart where, you know, one of the managers says, look, this is disaster in terms of our earnings, numbers are coming out next week. What do you next week . Do you move on it . This could indicate something bigger. How do you see it . To be honest with you, we dont have walmart in our actively managed portfolio. But it does say more about the economy and about retail sales in general. To some degree, but you look at the retail group, and there are a number of stocks trading near 52week highs like ralph lornor Dillard Department stores doing very well so i think this is a general buying opportunity with a focus on walmart so i dont see this as a lasting longerterm issue. Just like the google preannouncement of the earnings, many thought that was a big problem and here is google right back up again. Its the same psychology. Last quick word to doug cote. You thought this was overdone. Would you buy walmart, is that what youre saying . What we have to look at is the payroll tax, the driving force in slowing the consumer down or housing . Housing is really picking up, and Housing Prices are going up, and if im a consumer, i care a lot more about my Housing Price going up, so i think this might be overdone. Buy more crap, there you are. Thank you, bill. Thanks, guys. Have a good one. 50 minutes before the closing bell sounds for the day. A market under pressure and walmart a big problem. Down 3 and dow industrials down 44 points. Have you seen this video yet of the meteor explosion in russia . Watch it from left to right. Its reminiscent of the movie armageddon. Could the u. S. Experience a financial armageddon if congress does head off massive acrosstheboard cuts march 1st . We transitioned from the meteor to sequestration. Well ask barney frank and some very harsh words that senator Elizabeth Warren had to say at a hearing on capitol hill, i have a feeling that hell echo some of what she said. And also is the u. S. Dollar dying . Some say yes and is the fed to blame . Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan joins me. And gold, why is it not glittering, a big down week. Well get some info later from the ceo of gold corp later on closing bell. At fidelity, we do it by merging two tools into one. 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Reporter banks and Bank Regulators got a taste of how their lives will be different now that massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren is on the commit we oversight over their agencies. At her first Banking Committee hearing a simple question for the simple head of the ftc, cftc, fdic and the treasury, among others. The question im real asking is can you identify when you last took the wall street banks to trial . I will have to get back to you with the specific information, but we do litigate and we do have settlements that are either rejected by the commission or not put forward. Okay. Weve got multiple people here. Anyone else want to tell meet last time you took a wall street bank to trial . Now the s. E. C. Chair echoed the views of fellow regulators that trials are costly and timeconsuming and settlements can achieve their goals, but senator warren wasnt buying it. There are district attorneys and u. S. Attorneys who are out there every day squeezing ordinary citizens on sometimes very thin ground and taking them to trial in order to take an example, as they put it. Im really concerned that too big to fail has become too big for trial. That just seems wrong to me. Now republicans on the Committee Held back from what had been expected to be criticism of too many dodd frank rules and the power of the new Consumer Financial protection bureau, an agency ironically warren herself might have head federal not for republican opposition. Maria . In many ways our next guests thanks, half. On. Barney frank is the coauthor of the dodd frank banking bill and joins us now in a cnbc exclusive exclusive. What do you think of her debut on the Banking Committee . I think its expected. There is on the part of some republicans some filibuster eseremorse, namely they were very vigorous in wanting her not to be the head of the cfpb. I think they wish they had that one back. I think rich cordray has done a very got job. What elizabeth should do is exactly what she has been doing. What kind of senate should she be doing . Came to the senate with more legislative accomplishment than people believed and we worked very closely to set up the cfpb in other areas and what she said was exactly right. I would make this point though. It isnt fair, and wasnt saying this to just make it critical of the administration officials. Part of the problem is that when the republicans took over the house, and people have said, gee, implementation of that bill, its slower than you expected, correct. I had not anticipated the republicans winning the house and then denying Adequate Funding to the Security Exchange commission and the Commodities Future Trading Commission and thats part of the problem. To go up against one of these big people is very expensive. They have been underfunded and they are caught in a double bind because conservatives who used to complain about activism now like to get the judges in there to overturn political outcomes they dont like so they have got judges in washington telling the s. E. C. And the cftc no, you cant do this. You have to do a lot more work and the republicans in the house denying them the funds. The only thing i would say is this. Do you think thats why she is frustrated that no bank has gone to trial . I mean, she was very specific there, congressman. Has anybody ever tried to take a bank to trial . Just wondering what you think. Should a bank have been prosecuted over the 2008 financial crisis . I mean, where was the fraud or wrongdoing in terms of i mean, you can put stupidity aside but in terms of breaking the law, where was it, congressman . Thats a very good question, and one of the points that ive made is that one of the reasons that we had to pass a lot of laws in 2009 and 2010 were things that were wrong by kind of a moral or Even Economic standpoint werent illegal. So, no, i dont think you could have gotten everybody sued who did something wrong. On the other hand, it does seem to me there was criminal activity. There was deliberate misrepresentation, but the other thing thats deterring them, people have to go back to the accounting issue when they sued, you know, a Big Accounting Firm and it went under. Part of the problem is when you prosecute the bank, even when you fine the bank, the bank is the United StatesSupreme Court to the contrary, corporations aint people. They dont bleed. They dont hurt and the hurt gets passed along. What i raised in a letter ive zend sent to the regulators and they havent sent it. I should have sent it earlier. How come individuals havent been prosecuted . Frankly rather than pass the banks, instead of passing hurt on to oh, i would hope people would press that. How come some of these individuals havent been prosecuted . Thats what i think our viewers are trying to figure out. Where was the criminality exactly . Can you name anybody or a bank that you think sort of bordered on criminality or actually broke the law . Who . I will give you the examples. I believe in the libor case, if what i read is true. I never had Prosecutorial Authority and the committee i chaired didnt have jurisdiction and i had a hard enough time figuring out ceos, i did not get into it in detail. I will say this. The criminality came to me in specific misrepresentations. There is what people would look at. Selling their customers a bill of goods, for example, those selling a product that they were shorting at the same time, or dismissing internally . But thats thats another blanket statement. I still dont know who youre referring to. I just mentioned the libor people. What does it matter with you . So, in other words, are you s saying bob dimon should have been criminally prosecuted, he was the ceo at the time . Is that what youre saying . Thats not remotely what im saying. Im saying that i was not a prosecutor and didnt have the authority to look at individuals and im not familiar with what individuals did. I have read there were individuals who misrepresented. I believe they should be investigated. It would be mccarthyite which ive never done to start naming names now. Im explaining the policy, where there were individuals who misrepresented, as i am told they with with libor and elsewhere, where they reported facts inaccurately. Now to tell you names, i havent looked into it, but it doesnt mean you cant describe the kinds of activities that should be prosecuted, and i also say in my judgment, prosecuting some of these individuals would be better. But you people didnt have fiduciary responsibility, weve now given it to them. You kn