the market, even at these levels. >> yeah, also another first on cnbc interview coming your way. billionaire elon musk will be joining us in a little bit. the tesla founder, embroiled in two battles. one with texas and one with sarah palin. both centering around his high-end electric cars. you do not want to miss this interview. and to see what musk has to say about that business. stay with us for that. >> and maria, former apple ceo, john sculley, giving some advice to apple's archrival, samsung. what's the advice? we, he thinks samsung should hire former jcpenney ceo, ron johnson. sku skulley's here to explain why in an exclusive interview. >> let's get to the markets as we approach the final stretch. take a look at where we are. a gain of 64.5 points. earlier today, the market had been lower, lower down as much as 17 points on the dow. the high, up about 85 points on the dow industrials. and as you can see, we are holding on to a double-digit move. nasdaq up 3.5 points, yesterday nasdaq was the best performer. let's get a check on what's sending the s&p to new heights. >> just off the highs, two to one advancing to declining stocks. it's been basically straight up since bottom, that was friday, just after the open, after that lousy jobs report. broad advances. what do i mean by that? look at the sectors. when you get material stocks advancing as much as consumer discretionary, consumer staples and health care, everything moving up, that's a broad market advance. people ask me, what do i mean when i say the market's going pa parabollic. we're up another 20 points. this is a very dangerous time, but also a time of great opportunity. we don't how long this is going to go on. but you could make some very fast money very quickly right now. how about some sectors? take a look at the retailers. march same-store sales came out. here is the good news. the bad news is, fairly small increases in sales. and maria, this is not a lot of companies reporting anymore. only 14 out of 120 publicly traded companies report on a monthly basis anymore. finally, computers, computer chip companies all to the downside. no surprise there. but barclays also downgraded the entire semiconductor business. you can see some of the names involved in commuting to the downside. back to you. >> bob, thanks so much. i want to break down this market right no with our special guest. mario gabelli heads gamco investors. >> always a privilege and fun to talk stocks on the floor of the new york. >> exactly. i know you're not looking at the macro stock market, you're a stock picker, but you're finding value in some of the deal flow we're seeing. explain that. >> when you see a transaction like heinz, where warren buffet and an lbo comes along and buys a company, it lifts the other companies like general mills, because they're starting to say, hey, what's warren laooking at? he's looking at cash flow, so that's an important element. and when ge bought lufkin, it lifted the ship of related companies because of his, their commitment to go into shale and fracking. and so companies like weatherford, which we like, are an example of that. >> do you think we'll see more deal flow in that space, where weatherford is? where do you expect the most deal flow to lift these boats? >> you'll have a lot in the health care area. it's not an area which we have a very deep, strong core competency, maria, but we have individuals like jeff jonas and ken kendra working that area and we're finding good ideas there. but the economy, the clear path is housing, it's energy, and in addition to that, it's vendors to the boeing and airbus. if you're looking at a way to play india and china with a rising middle class and high propensity to travel, a high 1.5% to travel in boeing, and benders to boeing we like, like curtis wright. ively gi you more names. >> you know, mario, the last time we were together, you were very excited about energy and you've added now this extra fill-up of the possible deal flow that could come into this area. is it really mostly the fracking that has you so juiced about energy? and what other companies besides weatherford and the other one that you mentioned du ed do you your eye on? >> we like to look at natural fuel and gas, natural fuel is about a $60 stock. and it has 80 million shares. it's a $5 billion company located in buffalo, new york. utility, midstream pipeline, which hopefully they convert to an mlp, tyler. and in addition to that, they own that acreage in marcellus. that's a very prolific fine. it's good for the united states and our balance of payments, good for our deficit, and good for creating jobs in the united states. so we like national fuel and we like weatherford as a play on a -- once day get past this foreign practices dynamic and some other minor issues, not necessarily minor, the company could be 50% to 100% up in the next 12 months to 18 months, after they get past the fcpl. >> i would like to get your thoughts on the broader market, and put it this way, who's going to state hotter longer, your beloved new york knicks or equities? >> that's a great yes. they've positioned themselves. but msg was a spin-off, part of financial engineering, a deal that maria started me, and financial engineering, they split up cablevision and amcx. last time i was down on the floor, i talked about "the walking dead," and somebody smirked, but the stock is up 50%. amcx is 54, madison square garden is 58, maria. so, it's a double dribble. >> but when you look at the broader market, you have to have a strong market in order for a lot of these ideas to work. i want to get your opinion on what sam zell said yesterday. listen to this, mario, because he compared the market right now for stocks to the housing market back in 2006. listen to what he said. >> every single day it goes up. every day in 2006, the housing market went up. what was the number one headline every day? housing prices going up. what are you talking about every day now? new high on the stock market every day. i just think that we are suffering through another irrational exuberance. >> yeah, look, sam is right. and yet he's as the dynamic went from being materially undervalued. and after the bernanke came out of jackson hole, they put more money into the system. he's joined by mario draghi and now corona in japan. so that liquidity was designed to reflate housing and reflate financial assets. and so an area like the stock market that we want to participate and not through mileless investing. companying like t. rowe price, cheap stock. leg mason, the stop is going through a rewrite with the ceo sullivan coming on board. maria, the stock is $32. >> right. >> a $1 billion nol. i want to participate that way. >> how do valuations look to you? you can't really say that the valuations today are like they were in the dot-com boom. because they were off the charts there. you're talking about 14, 15 times earnings -- >> maria, you're dealing with a broad brush. i want to go down and look at cable stocks, like chatter is up sharply since rut ledge took it over. time warner cable is up sharply since it was spunoff, and cablevision is down. cablevision, one they get past this first quarter, is going to start looking 12 months out, like a bargain at 14 and change. >> and there's real momentum in the group. again, lifting a lot of boats. but cablevision, you're say welcome hasn't really performed. >> well, that's good. >> yeah, that's good. >> you know, i can't hit home runs all the time. look, the knicks were on the road show and they lost four in a row. now they look like a team. >> all right. >> but indiana will be an interesting game on sunday. >> we'll be watching. mario, good to have you on the program. >> always fun. >> mario gabelli joining us. >> a stock picker's stock picker if ever there was one. let's take a look at some of today's big movers. josh lipton here with the details. >> a roundup of some names making headlines today. ross stores, nice move on solid volume, reported a surprise 2% rise in march. same-store sales also saying it's looking for first quarter earnings to be a bit above the high end of its forecast of $1 to $1.04 per share. ross up some 19% this year. another to mention, chipotle, josh brown listening to a conference in new york said, gundlach announced a new idea and it's a good one. pc sales nose-dived 14% in the first four months of the year and that was the biggest decline in two decades. hewlett-packard in the red as well as microsoft, which goldman sachs downgraded to a sell. in other news, par cleys downgraded semis to neutral. they say the growth profile in semis is much slower than many expect. also talking about a much smaller snapback in earnings, which means some semis still look relatively expensive. analysts did like one name, though. the upgrade silicon laboratories to overweight ticker slab, up about 4.5% right now. maria, back to you. >> all right, josh. thank you so much. we are in the final stretch of trading for the day. we've got about 50 minutes before the closing bell sounds for the day. we've got a market that is holding ton gains in uncharted territory again. 14,872. nasdaq and s&p also higher. >> and ron johnson out at jcpenney, but is he headed to another retail job? after the break, we'll talk to former apple ceo john sculley who says this company should hire johnson now. >> and why is elon musk angry at sarah palin? it's a battle being waged on twitter. tesla founder billionaire elon musk is here to tell us his side of the story. >> and we are calling them the rip van winkle trades. what if you've been asleep for this rally. why some experts say it's not too late for the names that can still make you money coming up on the "closing bell." i know what you're thinking... transit fares! as in the 37 billion transit fares we help collect each year. no? oh, right. you're thinking of the 1.6 million daily customer care interactions xerox handles. or the 900 million health insurance claims we process. so, it's no surprise to you that companies depend on today's xerox for services that simplify how work gets done. which is...pretty much what we've always stood for. with xerox, you're ready real business. which is...pretty much what we've always stood for. welcnew york state, where cutting taxes for families and businesses is our business. we've reduced taxes and lowered costs to save businesses more than two billion dollars to grow jobs, cut middle class income taxes to the lowest rate in sixty years, and we're creating tax free zones for business startups. the new new york is working creating tens of thousands of new businesses, and we're just getting started. to grow or start your business visit thenewny.com welcome back. former kpmg partner scott london is about to be arraigned in california. jane wells is at the l.a. courthouse and she's got the latest. over to you, jane. >> reporter: maria, he will be making his first appearance, that is, in federal court, in this courthouse behind me, at 2:00 p.m. pacific to face charges of insider trading. in evidence is a photo from the fbi, a sting of london, allegedly accepting what we now believe to be $50,000 in cash and gifts when you total it all up, from his country club golfing buddy, brian shaw, in exchange for tips on firms that kpmg was working with. let's look at some of those companies. the companies london was accused of trading nonpublic information on include herbalife, sketchers, deckers outdoor, all based in southern california, as well as allegedly ticking shaw off ahead of two mergers, rsc holdings by united rentals and pacific capital by union bank, to a total of illicit profits to shaw of $1.2 million. shaw, when confronted, began cooperating with the fbi in the sting operation against london. he told the fbi that london always told shaw he was very jitterous in the gifts he was giving and he didn't have to, but he didn't turn those gifts down. and when he was alerted he was going to put a hold in his account, the criminal complaint said, "shaw said that london reassured him that there was no reason for concern and explained that insider trading was like counting cards in las vegas. if you were caught, they simply ask you to leave because they cannot prove it." again, the two men knew each other, they were both members at the high end country club out of west lake village. no word if bruin shaw will be charged with any crimes. but scott london will make his first appearance here in court at 2:00 p.m. pacific. the court battle -- >> wait a second -- >> -- over martha stewart continuing today, even as the man who replaced ron johnson is seeking a way to end the battle. courtney reagan is inside the courthouse with the latest. hi, courtney. >> hi, governor, there, tyler. well, jcpenney is not confirming that mike ullman has or has not had any discussion with macy's about the settlement, nor is jcpenney confirming the report that three executives have left the company, but news did just happen inside the courtroom behind me. judge jeffrey owing basically denied a dismissal notion. they say macy's lawyers have met the burden of proof necessary on the claim that martin luther living violated its contract with macy's by designing products for jcpenney in the categories in question. we're talking about the ones that are not labelled with martha's names, but are currently labeled jcp every day. this means that martha stewart's lawyers will have to argue this claim as a part of their defense. they were hoping to clear the decks a little bit and make their defense a little bit simpler, but now they do have to include that. tomorrow macy's is going to propose a broader injunction than what's currently in place to also potentially include some of these martha celebration products that are currently for sale at jcpenney, things like plastic pitchers and plastic champagne flutes that macy's believes are also in violation of the contract, because they have very similar products, albeit made of different materials. it keeps getting more and more exciting in here, maria, back to you. >> it does, courtney, what a story. thanks so much, courtney reagan. and while the cleanup continues of rob johnson's sudden departure at jcpenney, current apple ceo, john sculley doesn't think he should be out of work for very long. he thinks he would be a great acquirement for samsung. >> do you think that samsung could benefit from the skills he learned at apple to make these stores a hit? >> well, he did a terrific job and was really the creative talent in building the apple store. there's really nothing that even compares with apple in terms of the profit per square foot. samsung doesn't have anything comparable to that. they have signed a deal with best buy. ron johnson would be a real coupe hire for samsung or best buy if he were to come in and the for them what he did for apple. >> it seem to me, john, that samsung is really gaining on the heels of apple right now. would that be a game changer? getting the right talent in there? do you think that samsung will overtake apple as the leader in this space? >> well, here's how i think about it, maria. apple introduced the iphone four years ago. it was a creative leap that changed the world. but the product was introduced at time when we had apps and we were still 3g. now we have lte, which is a wireless broadband, the big story today in mobile is mobile video. what do you need with mobile video? a big, large, luscious screen. samsung has the best screens. so there's a real opportunity for samsung to take advantage of that difference at exactly the right time, and if they had ron johnson there, i expect that would be a pretty big coup for samsung. >> can you see any opportunity for mr. johnson to go back to apple? i gather the head of retail position there is vacant right now. >> well, if i were apple, i would be trying to get him on the phone as quickly as possible to at least talk about it. because, he did do a great job at apple. and that job is open, apparently. so i think that the mistakes that were made at jp penny was really not an issue apple and i think ron could go back and probably do a great job. so he's in a pretty interesting position, i think, with either samsung or apple. >> where's the most innovation right now happening in technology? a lot of people worry that apple's actually not innovating the way that it was years ago. >> well, apple is an extraordinary company. i wouldn't worry too much about apple. i mean, i think people are being a little hard on apple, but it's still selling really well. it actually gained market share with the iphone in the u.s. the big challenge for apple is in the asian markets, because it doesn't have products at the right price points. samsung does. so i would hope that apple will come out with a lower priced iphone for asia. i would hope that apple will continue to improve the types of application services they have. they are in discussions with yahoo! apparently. so apple really has a chance to continue to do very, very well. but you're right, it hasn't had a product innovation in several years with the iphone. >> do you expect it to come out with an iphone that has a bigger screen? that's been one of the things i've been thinking of as i i've transitioned over top one of the bigger android phones that does have a bigger screen. >> i don't have anymore insight than anybody else does in terms of what apple may actually be working on, but do i think a bigger screen is a good idea? absolutely. as i said, mobile video is the sweet spot now and having a bigger screen does make a difference. >> we'll leave it there. john sculley, good to have you on the program. thanks so much. >> let's go to josh lipton, folks. >> enjoy the masters. >> i bet he is. >> a beautiful day here. >> t's no more beautiful place at this time of year than augusta national. let's go to josh lipton now for a quick market flash. >> bill ackman of persian square speaking at a luncheon in new york. persian square the largest shareholder in jcpenney. and ackman saying he still thinks that jcpenney's shares are worth $75 each. now, they're currently trading at around $15 each. for those of you playing along at home, $15 to $75 would qualify as a 4% surge. ackman also saying that the new chief executive, mike ullman, is, quote, the right guy at the right time. maria, back to you. >> josh, thank you so much. we're in the final stretch of trading here. we have a market that is uncharted territory once again, even though we are off the best levels of the afternoon. about 35 minutes before the close and we've got the dow up 51 points. >> and maria, the banks helping to lead this historic market rally. tomorrow kicks off a huge round of bank earnings. what will those mean to the market? we'll explain that, coming up. >> also, a bird flu outbreak taking a big bite out of yum brand sales in china. find out if that could make the stock sick. back in a moment. we went out and asked people a simple question: how old is the oldest person you've known? we gave people a sticker and had them show us. we learned a lot of us have known someone who's lived well into their 90s. and that's a great thing. but even though we're living longer, one thing that hasn't changed: the official retirement age. ♪ the question is how do you make sure you have the money you need to enjoy all of these years. ♪ the death toll from an outbreak of bird flu in china rising today and so is the financial fallout. michelle caruso-cabrera has the details for us. >> tyler, ten people are dead. and we now know the outbreak of bird flu started about a month ago. this is a type of influenza that originates in birds. the fierce of a pandemic are taking a financial toll, as you mentioned. yum brands in china say their kfc same-store sales are down 15% in march. they say publicity about a