Its comments by mario draghi, which have sent the youeuro lo. All over the map today so far. The point is, its our fourth consecutive down day. Thats right. Were going to keep a close eye on markets. Were seeing the s p 500 selling off by about 22 points. We mentioned the dow off 220 to 161138. The nasdaq losing ground as well, off 68 points in the session today. Lets talk about it in our closing bell exchange. We have heather hughes, greg ip, amy wu, ron weiner, and our own rick santelli. Were going to bring a trader from the floor. You want to bring him over . Come here, warren myers. Come on over. Well get you in place as well. Im going to start with rick santelli. Because of the lack of consensus, mr. Market, on whats causing this selloff today, you know, what do you make of that when nobody can agree on why people are selling equities today . Oh, i dont agree with that at all. Just because you have six different aisles at a supermarket being crowded, its no reason to say you dont understand why they all want to get into the store. They do. So you have one aisle thats nervous about how the german stock market is trading. One aisle is nervous about the trend in china. Both on their data, what they have to back their loans. All that has affected the yuan. We have another aisle looking at the stock market versus the treasury market in terms of where do you want to have your money. I think it all makes perfect sense. The thing thats different today, two things actually. The first is Interest Rates were leading stocks today. It was a close call, but thats what ive garnered. And i think the second issue is that all those things are proactive on the same session. Amy, how much further do you think we have to go here with this move to the downside . Thats a good question. And i dont want to sound like a broken record, but honestly, from the Options Market it would tell you not that much more because it hasnt been panic or protection being put on. You see a handful of eem trades, a handful of xfi, a handful of other things. However, its not this consistent downside put protection youre seeing being bought. Its something relatively muted from our side. Greg ip, mario draghi about an hour ago making comments that sent the euro lower. That seems to push our market lower in the last hour. What do you make of comments theyre making over there where the German Market has been suffering . The European Central bank, of all the folks who matter on this story, seem least worried about the low inflation trend thats been going on in europe. So one of the reasons the euro has been so strong is perception that the europeans are not going to ease into this disinflationary trend. The selloff in commodities weve seen over the last day or two is just going to muddy the picture fur further. Its going to continue to give us this tension between low inflation and a central bank in europe and United States that doesnt seem to worried about it. Ron, if you wanted to take china as a case in point, you can paint a picture where things look okay for u. S. Equities here if china slows a little bit, maybe Commodity Prices drop because of that but its actually a break for consumers over here. I guess the real question when we look at markets today is, is this just that sort of issue . A china issue that we have to work through, for example, or is there something more systemic here that people seem to be concerned about . What do you think . First off, investors are still skittish starting back from 2000. We have a much more skittish environment for anything that happens, anything negative or positive, but mostly negative. I think it is a combination of all these things happening all within the same week, ten days. But the u. S. Is the safe place or the safer place to be. I would be thinking, okay, wheres the opportunity in this . Maybe not today. Maybe not next week. But theres definitely an opportunity. The u. S. Is growing. It is more stable. Our banking is better than european banking. So the s p is flat. I think were okay. I dont think were great, but i think were okay. I would be looking for opportunity in the u. S. Some of these things will boil over. Some of these things will calm down. Doesnt matter over the next 6, 12 months, i think the u. S. Market is higher. Heather, im going to let you speak to the individual investor out there. What are they to make of all this as we try to come up with reasons for this selloff today . Do they buy this dip . Do they stand clear . I think over the past three hours today, theres definitely no shortage of red flags when youre looking for reasons to climb a wall of worry. As were all alluding to, tensions out of russia, the china market, obamacare coming up. So that will still hold true. Two quick things. I think no one would be surprised if political tensions out of ukraine led to economic stability as we get closer to imposing sanctions against russia. Number two, regarding china, the wave of chinese defaults on their bonds that may occur and their shadow banking system, in order to shrink their system, we need to provide more loans to nongovernment institutions. That may not be a bad thing. Lets flush out some of the toxins in the global economy. Lets address the problem in china of being a more or lacking a consumer driven economy. Right now u. S. Consumes, china produces. We need china to consume. Just to be clear, when you were talking about some of the geopolitical unrest coming out of ukraine and russia, you said that was going to cause stability or instability . Instability. Yes, instability in terms of the economic sanctions. I think youre seeing it regarding the markets a reversion back to value, perhaps. You saw the highflying growth social media stocks outperform during the first two months of the year. Now youre seeing investors not just that trade that rick alluded to, meaning theres no alternative to stocks. Now, if we get a bit here, down 225 on the dow, you may see a reversion to value heading into march and april into the spring. By the way, i hope everybody saw squawk box this morning. Jack welsh saying there is no alternative trade, meaning investors are trapped in the equity market. They have no other place to go. Except for today. Warren myers, youve been constructive on this market. Now were seeing a pretty serious selloff. What do you make of this . Were seeing global events trumping the u. S. Domestic data thats been coming out. The data that came out today was marchly pretty decent. Jobless claims were good. Retail sales were good. Exactly. If you get this trend of global events pulling the u. S. Equity market down, youre going to get a bigger divergence between the quality and the weakness in other markets. Once this settles out, this will be the place to be. Warren, whos selling today . Is it real money . Is it the hedge funds, retail . I think its a little bit across the board. I think its a lot of people taking profits in stocks theyve been holding on to for quite a while and locking something in. Theres certainly no sense of panic here. The volume is still relatively light. I dont see it as any worry signal. If volume is heavy, rick, its heavy in the treasury markets. Its akin there to a day where we might have got an fed statement or where we might have got an jobs report. Huge activity. Its brought yields down. Its confirmed some of the weakness we already saw across the treasury space in the last couple sessions. Exactly. I think a very important point we need to bring up here is traditionally, you know, lower Interest Rates are always viewed as a big positive for equities. I dont think this is the case in any regard. On another front, when we talk about china and heather brought up a good point. We need to shift it to a consumption economy. The president in his first term in this country said we need to shift more to an export economy. Both of those are noble endeavors. But they take a long, long time. None of those issues are going to happen in the here and now with respect to the proactive realignment of these pieces. Bill, kelly, we were talking off camera that this month the ism manufacturing was up and the ism nonmanufacturing was down. Thats counterintuitive to Americas Service economy. We are coming back, but we dont have to come back a lot. The worlds still growing. Maybe not growing fast, but thats more toothpaste, more computers, more iphones, more cars. I think america is the safe place. But thats whats so interesting. We mentioned yesterday that was getting a lot of traffic, this whole idea about how strong the u. S. Looks. Greg, if you had told people today we were going to get the retail sales report we did, except for maybe some lower revisions to prior months, and the jobless claims figure, you would not have expected to be down almost 250 points in this session. Yeah, exactly, kelly. In fact, thats precisely why im not getting worked up about this drop in the dow. To the extent weve been going back and forth is it because of the weather or because the economy is rolling over . The better than expected retail sales data and jobless claims number lean you towards saying its probably weather. If you are worrying about the economy hitting a soft patch here, you should be less worried today. And that probably also means that next weeks fed meeting is probably going to be as much of a nonevent as it can be given itll be the First Press Conference for janet yellen. Shes hoping its a nonevent. Very quickly, warren, talk us through this last hour. What do you expect to happen . I was looking at the market on close and balances. They were slightly leaning to the buy side. Nothing huge. I dont see that having an impact at the end of the day. I think well close near the lows. Thats the trend weve seen for today. Heather, what were you going to say . Oh, just regarding the weather. I think or was that amy . It was amy. Sorry. Go ahead, amy. One of the biggest debates were having with clients is whether or not buy backs continue or with cap capex increases. Both these things are extremely positive. Its just a question of which one is going to lead the charge. Great point. Thanks, guys. Thank you, everybody. See you later. Warren, well let you get back to work. Much more on this surprise selloff throughout this next hour as we head toward the close. The dow just off the low set moments ago. Were down 238 points right now. The nasdaq having its worst day in quite a while. Were down 73 points on the nasdaq composite index. Frankly, some of the higher momentum names, if you want to call them that, thats where we saw the early weakness. Its confirmed with some of these etfs. By the way, defensive measures are doing very well. Utilities are very strong today. So were seeing a lot of these defensive issues that nobody wanted to buy at the beginning of the year coming back so far today. President obama putting pen to paper on a controversial executive order, expanding overtime pay for millions of americans. How will this go down with Corporate America . We have two members of cnbcs own chief Financial Officer council. The financial chiefs of abbott labs and trulia will talk to us about what expanding overtime pay will mean to their company. Also, with food inflation on the rise, the ceos of agco plus, the head of fast food giant taco bell, will weigh in on all of that. By the way, taco bell is entering the breakfast wars. Out with new breakfast items, including the waffle taco. Really . For breakfast . Well hash that out coming up. Stay tuned. Kelly told me to say that. [ male announcer ] this is kevin. To prove to you that aleve is the better choice for him, hes agreed to give it up. Thats today . [ male announcer ] well be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol. I was okay, but after lunch my knee started to hurt again. And now ive got to take more pills. Yup. Another pill stop. Can i get my aleve back yet . For my pain, i want my aleve. [ male announcer ] look for the easyopen red arthritis cap. Its amanda. Hey sweetie. What . [phones rings] okay, ill send it. One hundred seventytwo dollars for a chemistry book, what is it, made of gold . Just use citi popmoney. Boom. Ah, shes feeling lucky. Hey sweetie. Cancun, yeah no, youll be spending spring break with your new chemistry book. With citi popmoney its easy to send money to just about anyone, anytime. Visit your local branch or citi. Com easierbanking to learn more. Welcome back. If youre just checking ining the day, weve had a substantial selloff and a flight to safety at the same time, as bonds have seen their heaviest date in while. Defensive stocks are very strong day. Meanwhile, the dow is down 1. 5 today. The nasdaq getting hardest hit, down 1. 7 . There are a myriad of reasons. You pick, most of them having to do with overseas action. Weaker economy in china. The unrest in the ukraine. The problems in the european arena economically. Mario draghi making comments earlier today. Whatever it is, we have the worst selloff weve had in quite a while on wall street today. And in the last hour in washington, president obama made his controversial executive order, expanding overtime pay. He made that official today. Eamon javers following that out of washington. Thats right. The president wants to change two key thresholds. He wants to change the salary point at which people have to collect overtime pay. He also wants to change the rules around the type of work involved that you are allowed to be exempt from overtime pay. Both of those things have taken together could expands overtime for millions of americans in an election year. The white house thinks thats good politics. The president today said its about basic fairness. Take a listen. If youre working hard, youre barely making ends meet, you should be paid overtime, period. Because working americans have struggled through stagnant wages for too long. Every day i get letters from folks who just feel like theyre treading water, no matter how hard theyre working. And guys, the president saying this is about basic fairness, but its going to have to go through that bureaucratic process over at the department of labor. Just because he signs an order today doesnt mean thats happening any time soon. Bear in mind as well. During his year of action. Thanks, eamon. Reaction now from two key players. The cfo of abbott labs and the c. O. O. Of trulia. Welcome to the new york stock exchange. We just heard a series of measures coming out of washington, trying to boost pay for minimum wage workers, now for overtime workers. Thomas, whats the impact for your business . Were in the business where i think there will be minimal impact. I do think this is something that for many business persons, there are only two things that can happen when costs go up. Its either to reduce costs elsewhere or to pass them on to consumers in some ways. Itll be interesting to see how this plays out and what it means for other Companies Across the country. You feel the same way . I think the president s proposal is a step in the right direction. Not only is it right for income inequality, its also right for the economy. I say that because, keep in mind, all of these minimum wage workers are also consumers. And the extra income they will earn will likely go right back into the economy in the form of more, you know, School Supplies for their kids, more groceries. So this is fascinating. I didnt know necessarily if you guys would agree or disagree. We have now incapslated the two different views of this issue across the u. S. Economy. Youre not talking like a cfo. Look, i think its right for the economy. It is going to come back into the economy. Almost certainly it will end up in extra spending across different sectors. I can tell you, you know, first hand i started out as a dishwasher earning 3. 35 an hour. And its hard to make ends meet on that kind of an income. If you had made more, would you still be a dishwasher today . If you made 20 an hour as a dishwasher unlikely. The fact is, it would have enabled me to support myself and if i had a family better. Its likely that money would not have been saved but would have been used just to make ends meet and therefore would have come back into the economy. All right. Lets move on to other areas. Obviously both of you represent two key areas of the economy right now in health care and in real estate. Health care, obamacare, their costs are going up. What does that do for your business right now . Well, abbott has always supported the Affordable Care act from its main objective, which is access to health care for all americans. From the beginning, weve been supporting that. It has had an impact on our company. You know, we are a medical device company. At least thats one of our businesses. And, you know, we pay the medical device tax. Thats affected our ability to potentially invest in innovation as we go forward. You know, the u. S. Market is very important to us. This plan is very important, but its only about 30 of our business. Were about 70 outside the u. S. Very emerging markets focused. You know, thats where were mainly focusing our investment these days. Well see how it plays out longer term. That emerging market focus, does it make it hard to sleep on a night like this . You have to have a long view with emerging markets. We have a long history, decades long of dealing in these markets. Weve seen the turmoil. Weve seen things come back stronger than ever. Its been a little noisy the last few months, but if you in a lockterm business Like Health Care where you have to invest and in these economies where the growth rates are two times the developed world, where health care is increasing as a percentage of the economy, its really where you have to be if youre going to have a chance to grow as a health care company. Sean, real estate grows in fits and starts here since the recession. Congress wants to do away with fannie may and freddie mac. A lot of head winds in your industry. Whats it done to your business . Theyre definitely head winds, but theyre tail winds. Its not going to be a smooth journey ahead, but were at the beginning of a sustained recovery. Theres plenty of bad news. Some youve cited. If youre a home buyer this spring season, things are less affordable than they were last year. Home prices are up 10 year on year. Mortgage rates rinare inching u and they have nowhere to go. But if youre out looking this spring, theres probably more inventory in the market. Rises prices have brought homes on to the market. And theres less competition. 2013 was about the investors. But theres less inventor noir. Home builders have not been building. Theyve not come back in a great way since the great recession. And new home buyers, very you know, they want to buy right now, but it is tougher for them to afford, and theres not as much inventory. Youre sort of in a bottleneck period right now for the real estate market. There are. There are mixed signals, undoubtedly. The k