Transcripts For CNBC Closing Bell 20160310 : comparemela.com

>> like i always say, it's all about the currency move. euro doing a massive turnaround after ecb said he did not anticipate cutting rates further. what was that all about? we'll dig deeper into this move that seemed to drive the market action across asset classes. this is just the first of many central bank decisions over the next couple of weeks. we have the fed next week. >> bank of japan will be heard from as well. brain drain at twitter, what steps they are taking to retail talent and discuss whether this is an issue for other companies. >> donald trump sounding off on free trade, saying we need smart trade. we've got a debate whether the u.s. trade agreements are doing more harm than good for the economy. we start with this move lower for stocks. bob pisani has details. >> we were talking about this earlier, the question is, did mario draghi make a communication error or not say it the right way? he's expanding the qe program and buying corporate bonds, at the end of the press conference, he made a remark that changed everything. >> from today's perspective and taking into account the support of our measures to growth and the return to our price stability objective, we don't anticipate that it will be necessary to reduce further rates. of course, new facts can change the outlook. >> we don't anticipate it will be necessary to further reduce rates. that seemed to change everything. take a look at the markets against the stock markets in the u.s. and europe. this is germany, europe -- germany was up but then all of a sudden it moved to the down side. you're looking at numbers there of course that are the german backs. our markets -- our stock market, our futures market was also up and this is pretty clear. it too just sort of very quickly moved to the downside. so obviously here, this was an issue with what he actually came out and said. maybe he wanted a more balanced message that rates wouldn't be going down forever. what it does clearly indicate, the markets are very addictive to stimulus programs and ideas. other issues here was oil. oil was dropping into the open. we had a problem at the open with energy stocks. you see exxon down. most of these names are still down fractionally at this point. the s&p 500, the good news here, we're coming off the lows and on the verge of going positive with modest buy programs right now. a lot of discussion whether mario drag hi wanted to community that idea in the way he did and whether he should have said it somewhat differently. >> one of the biggest interday reversals for the euro in history. jeff curry of goldman sachs was out with a note outlining why the rally in commodities might not be here to stay, saying market views on reflation an releveraging have driven a premature surge in commodities prices that we believe is not sustainable. >> jeff is head of goldman's commodity research. he'll here to discuss it. thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> what to make of i guess the move since your call. we have seen a little cooling off of those bounces, was it a global short squeeze? what was the dynamic. >> there were three forces at play. the three rs, reflation and realignment. let's start with reflation, we started to see green chutes meaning the u.s. e and p guide the production down. those are expectations, we're not there yet. these green chutes created a rally. you put the cake in the oven and turn up the heat, you have to wait an hour before it's baked. the problem is as you rally, you're turning down the heat the cake won't bake. if we rally too high, we like to call it a self-defeating rally. turning to realignment, we saw that with the ecb announcement, there's a lot of concern about the lack ofdy verge ens in central bank policy. that was driving a stronger dollar and lower commodity prices. as people gave up on the idea, we saw a weaker dollar and higher commodity prices. we'll see next week but our view is for three rate hikes in the u.s. the coming year which reinforces higher rates and lower gold prices and lower commodity prices. china announced very large credit numbers. you take the total tcf, 3.45 trillion and a lot going down to pay u.s. dollar debt. >> the three rs not sustainable. what about on these rumors and speculations of opec, nonopec meeting, nonmeeting, end of march, on a production freeze. is there any merit to this? can the bulls hang on to this at all snl. >> we made the same argument over and over, when you look at the ability for opec to run a cartel it's limited. that dynamic has not changed. we think about the announcements of freezing production. russia was already at peak production. saudi arabia was not going to invest. it was no sweat to make that kind of commitment. we don't see any change in the fundamentals by these recent announcements. >> no change in the fundamentals and energy companies given a chance to sell forward. prices have come up a little bit. does that mean the recent lows are in jeopardy or do we hit a range for a while before going higher? >> when we think about the way the market will trade going forward. we like to call it a trendless market. we see spikes to the downside to create the type of pain. keeping the heat on in the oven to bake the cake. we need price spikes to maintain the good behavior that's been put in place. trendless market, lots of volatility between 20 and 40 for the next three to six months. after which once the market begins to rebalance, we see evidence of a deficit in actual draws and inventories and then you get the green light to move higher. >> where's the m and a they want to see before the bottom? >> you've got to assume everybody is out there sniffing around trying to find a deal. the problem that makes it difficult, tied up with senior secured debt right now. when we think about the ability to get access to these assets, it's going to be a while. we need more down today pressure and pain. we not only need to rebalance the barrel market for oil but the capital market for oil. that's going to take longer. >> let's turn to gold for just a second. conventional wisdom is negative rates earn electrical trillion around the world. it makes the opportunity of holding gold much less. is this far more complicated than that? >> gold has a negative carry it sl. when we think what drives gold, we call it the currency of last resort. you've got to be really negative on the dollar to want to buy gold. remember, the dollar still a positive carry asset. in terms of thinking about the view on gold, we think about our view on the dollar. if you buy into the view that we're going to see, the three rate hikes then you would see higher rates in the u.s. and lower gold prices and the strength in the u.s. economy. >> it's been wrong, gold is getting another 1% boost today, still keeping this $1100 target. >> absolutely, i would argue what's going on today is what you're seeing in terms of euro and weakness in the dollar. when we think about what happened with the ecb announcement -- >> if we see more rejections like this, gold is looking attractive. >> but we're talking about a denominated in u.s. dollars. we have to think what will the fed do next week? >> that's going to be the question. thank you very much. jeff curry. >> we showed you the list of march madness events coming up for the market. the european central bank did kick things off today with that announcement of a rate cut and more stimulus measures. next week bank of japan will be meeting. what can you expect from all of this action and what did we learn today? joining us today, our very own rick santelli. when you look at the surge in the euro, nearly 2% after 1% decline in the euro, what does that tell you how the market took a slew of ecb measures, three rate cuts and expansion of qe and even more? >> it must be a mistake in communicating policy, right? i'm hearing a lot of that today. i don't think there's any way you can communicate half empty policy in a good way. i think it's a repud yags of the actions. i think they administered another drug that has less and less of an effect. >> mario draghi would prefer a lower euro and higher dax. what did he end up getting? a dax that reversed 500 points and closed down close to 2.5%. we heard melissa lee saying one of the busiest turnarounds in terms of movement today, listen, i think that trying to reload the kruddy credit to give them more money to buy it back. we're putting another layer of wall paper over the other layer of wall paper, over termites and nothing is changing. central banks should pay close attention to this. we've come to the point where the half life of half rotten policy is much shorter than it used to be and all the times we heard about the fed is nervous to normalized because of the stronger dollar, wow, i would say they have a wide open window to normalize right now, wouldn't you think? >> actually, rick, great point. i wonder if people are drawing that conclusion, maybe why the u.s. stock market wasn't so hampy with the way the currency moved. >> the markets pretty much move the same. i don't think it's any coincidence that short of mat e maturities dropped even less because it's about selling good stuff to buy the bad stuff. they didn't buy the toxic assets. there's no fix here. mario draghi isn't fooling anybody. the cannon, ba zooka bubblegum will probably give you smaller bubbles than his policy. >> where does he leave you to see the markets try to digest the policy moves and what do you make of it today? >> i think there's a lot of digestion going on. we're going to process it, particularly the statement of the -- but as far as what the draghi said today, i think this reaction with the currency, you're going to see it drift back down slowly but everybody knows the answer. the fed will raise three or four times so the currently probably drifts to 107, 108. we still like european equities. that's what will be interesting to support, as people look at the going on particularly with the ltros, does that put a floor in the short run? european equities still provide a good opportunity but let's see how tomorrow goes as far as processing the reaction for the weekend? maybe by 1:00, at least west comb time your guests will have a different view of market an hour earlier. >> is that your interpretation of today's market action, that is falling out of love with easing or the bazooka bubblegum? >> you're about to hear me agree with rick santelli. we saw a repud yags of the action. what it really does is create a carriage rate for the banks and going to suppress private sector lending and increase demand for the euro. >> let's get to stock reaction, i don't know what the twists and turns were about if not just oil, but doesn't it suggest this whole beak the bears haven't been able to do much with a overbroad market. stuck around the flat line for the week. >> i got a little nervous when 1979 didn't show up. it's been a good level for us. the good thing was the backup level was 1970 was precise. as we talk where are we now? 1983 on the s&p 500. if we can hold 1987, i think i can give you 1994. not a promise. >> my question to you, mark, about the financials. is this a buy signal? we've been talking about what exactly is in that cocktail of easy policy for mario draghi but the banks did rally and no question this is an effort by mario draghi to get them to lend. that was a big source of anxiety earlier in the year. is this a buy signal on european banks and u.s. banks as well. goldman sachs earlier was leading the charge higher. >> we certainly think -- with our u.s. managers and our fund, seeing the same thing in european ones. that's what the market will settle out. it kind of knows everything. draghi knew exactly what he was doing with communication. it wasn't a mistake. he wanted people to say this was -- we're doing everything we can and now process it moving forward. at least in the short run we think it is positive our managers think it's positive and it's our biggest overweight sector in funds in equity funds in u.s. and europe. >> we'll see what happens with the fed next week. for now gentleman, thank you for weighing in on today's market action. with 45 minutes to go until the closing bell, we are looking at declines across the bell. health care just went positive as well and technology is the biggest lagguard and dow jones is -- >> well off the low. after break, plugging a brain drain. we'll discuss one of the biggest challenges facing silicon valley companies. >> cracks in the commercial real estate market and whether that signals trouble ahead for the residential market? 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joining us to discuss it is ian grant from rifer i can't partners. it seems a tough feedback loop and stock goes down and you have to give them more stock. is this kind of a trap? is this something going on more broadly out there? >> i think a lot of this is blown out of proportion to a degree. what we're seeing here is a natural evolution that we see in silicon valley all the time. companies like twitter go through an ipo, early stage employees, tend to want to go back to startup or start their own company. it's the natural evolution, we saw it at google and facebook more recently and seeing it at twitter now. i think twitter is going through a transition led by jack and making the moves he feels he needs to make to move the company forward. >> so it says here that your film is an executive search firm focused on early stage venture backed technology companies. where are those companies that the great talent and great thinkers in silicon valley want to work if they are not the big public company. >> there's still a ton of great people at twitter who truly believe building a long lasting platform is changing the world. at the end of the day when you're a digital company, all you have are human capital assets, you have to do everything you can to retain the best and brighter technical talent. in twitter's case, it's particularly important because people can walk over the road to uber or walk down the road to coin base or any other number of startups, what choice do you have but to give people compelling compensation packages in addition to other things that engineers look for solving interesting technical challenges and culture fit, working with smart people and that all still exists at twitter. >> granted that maybe twitter and other companies don't have much of a choice but to reload their employees with more stock. i think from an investor's perspective, facebook and google went through phases like this, but they grew so fast that everybody made out. investors did and employees did very well. the question here, if twitter itself is a company and business isn't growing that fast and you're allocating more value to employees, does that come at the expense of investors? >> it's a great question, mike. at the end of the day you've got to believe in the mission of the company as well as the leadership. as i said before, twitter has fantastic employees there. as a recruiter in the bay area, recruiting talent, we also look to recruit people out of twitter. i can tell you they've done a great job of retaining some really great engineering talent. do people leave? yes, but whole variety of reasons for this. typically it's to go back to an early stage company where they don't want to continue working for public company. it could be any number of reasons that we see. >> if they like the leadership of jack dorsey they can go to square which is doing better than twitter right now. ian, how fierce is the competition right now among these big tech companies to get top talent? >> the competition is extremely fierce. we use a phrase and it's probably overused but certainly a wall for talent out there. people get nervous in challenging times. companies make i believe if they make the right moves for the right reasons tend to come out at these times stronger. that's clearly what jack is doing across all levels, making the moves he needs to make to make the company stronger and people there need to and by and large do buy into the mission of jack. could they walk over the road to join square or uber? they could but we don't see that brain drain as being described by the press. >> all right. ian grant, thanks for your perspective on that. >> setting it straight a little bit. >> it's a complicated hr market to say the least. >> we've got about 37 minutes left in the trading day. hovering just below the flat line on major indexes, looks like s&p 500 down 5 and dow down 5. it was down 130 at the lows around midday. >> been all over the place, digesting the big draghi press conference. when we come back, free trade has become a hot button issue in the presidential race. we'll debate whether it hurts or helps the u.s. economy and jobs. >> also coming up, why the commercial real estate market is cooling off and if that poretends a slow down in the residential market. cracks are showing up in the real estate market. >> commercial real estate financing, demand has been very strong with low vacancies and high prices last year but here's the issue. ten years ago we also had a commercial real estate boom and a lot of it was backed by cmbs, bonds that are backed by buildings. those bonds have a 10-year life span and have to be refinanced now. i'm talking about $400 billion this year and next year according to cbre. that's 100 billion more than last year and there is a problem. the spreads on cmbs are no longer favorable to investors looking for high yield. they are going elsewhere. with no one to refi these loans they could go into default. conservative estimates $43 billion in loans could face trouble this year and next. yes, big banks could step in but they are getting hit with a lot of new regulations this year making them more skittish about real estate. on top of that, commercial real estate prices fell in january for the first time in seven years and that is not going to help matters. >> interesting, i wonder if we'll see then maybe a rush of some sales of commercial real estate. how are the owners of these buildings going to try to get aw from the prospect of default? >> that's entirely possible but the problem is prices have gone up so high that commercial real estate is very pricey right now. it might be hard to sell these assets. who wants to buy them right now if they are not able to get financing they want? banks are pretty good about financing commercial real estate until now but they are starting to move away from it. we heard from a lot of developers they are seeing banks pull back. >> interesting. so the excesses of the last boom are still have to be worked through on some level. >> thanks, diana. >> time for a cnbc news update. let's head up to headquarters. >> here's what's happening. in florida, mike lee endorsing ted cruz for president, becoming first member of the senate to do so. >> it's time my fellow americans to expect more, expect freedom. it's time to elect ted cruz as the next president of the united states. >> at least three people are dead, thousands of residents evacuated after record flooding in louisiana. more than a foot of rain fell within hours and another half foot is on the way. democratic presidential candidate bernie sanders campaigning at the university of florida in gainesville where thousands of supporters cheered and chanted. in his speech he told them to stand up to the status quo. would you like to earn 3.14 years of free pizza from pizza hut just answer three math questions but they range in difficulty from high school to ph.d. level. it kicks off on march 14th. known to math fans as national pi day. it mimics the math met cal pi 3.14. they will distribute the questions 8:00 online eastern time. >> if you get the pi right, you get a pie. >> i get it. >> how many more can you do? >> it's been a while. >> it's been a while for all of us. that's what scientific calculators or for. >> mike's kids in math class probably know the answer. >> sure. >> we're in the final half hour of trade. the most important 30 minutes to go before the closing bell and we're looking at the dow unchanged. we've come back -- >> s&p slightly positive. >> and nasdaq has been lagging all day, still negative. we'll keep an eye on it and talk to a trader about what he's watching into the close next. >> and free trade, coming under bipart san attack, whether it's an economy builder or not coming up next. [vet] two yearly physicals down. martha and mildred are good to go. here's your invoice, ladies. a few stops later, and it looks like big ollie is on the mend. it might not seem that glamorous having an old pickup truck for an office... or filling your days looking down the south end of a heifer, but...i wouldn't have it any other way. look at that, i had my best month ever. and earned a shiny new office upgrade. i run on quickbooks. that's how i own it. welcome back, we're hugging the flatline here with the s&p 500. markets didn't know exactly what to do with the currency moves, any of it. >> it's confused. it's exactly confused and we saw that in the action. we tried to hold on and didn't, tested 2000 for the third or fourth time and hit resistance until the market took advantage and sold off. you sigh we traded that right held at 1970, the area where it was supposed to have found support and found it there exactly. we're going to stay in this range and we're in the 1940, 2000 range until after the fed discussion in a week and a half. i think she's stul. >> kind of between catalysts right now, anything to be made of the fact that bears couldn't make a lot of this? we couldn't drive it down sustainably? >> i think that goes straight to the confusion. bears don't know what to do and bulls aren't ready to push up through. that's keeping us in a purg tore tri, until you get a catalyst, something she says at the feed meeting, which i don't think rates are going anywhere in march. i don't think you get anything in april or may the way people are trying to make you think. i think they are stuck. you get one hike in june then get nothing until maybe december. >> all right, we're in a little bit of a lull. thank you very much. back to you. >> mike, a debate over free trade, becoming a real focal point in the 2016 presidential race. donald trump sharing his stance this morning on "squawk box". >> to be a good free trader you have to have smart people on our side also. we're being out negotiated at every corner. i like free trade but you have to be represented by very, very good and smart and cunning people and we are not. other countries are. and that's why they are all taking advantage. the concept of free trade is great. i am a free trader but it's going to be fair trade now, smart trade. it's not going to be stupid trade. what we have in our country is stupid trade. >> all right, for more on the free trade or stupid trade debate we're joined by allen tunnelson, anti-free trade and mitch free, who is of z key machining. we have gone back and forth on twitter on this issue and currency devaluations and other things. is donald trump right that foreigners are killing us on foreign trade? >> if you look at the official u.s. government data that we use to track overall economic growth, fixed residential investment, everything, we can see that the expansion of the u.s. trade deficit that is heavily influenced by trade policies and trade deals has cut the growth of the overall u.s. recovery in real terms by nearly 20%. that's more than 400 billion dollars. billion with a b here, i have to -- there's no choice but to conclude that u.s. trade policies have failed or at the very least, there's much room for improvement. >> mitch, i assume you disagree. state your case? >> i'm certainly in favor of free trade. it has to be fair. obviously. but you can't be an isolationist and capitalist at the same time. i'm a capitalist. i totally degree the rules need to be fair and adjust things to make sure they are fair and take responses accordingly, but small businesses are many case dependent on free trade and global trade. it creates jobs. i would argue that free trade is a net job creator. >> mitch, if free trade is -- how can free trade be a net job creator if it's a net growth killer? >> because it helps u.s. exporting companies and that's a big chunk of our economy. look how -- >> but sara, trade entails more than just exporting. it also -- it also entails importing and if you calculate growth the way the u.s. government and every reputable economist you can think of has been calculating growth for literally decades, there's only one conclusion, that trade policies have been a growth killer if growth is being killed, how does employment go up unless you throw productivity into the tank completely, which i don't think we want to do. >> alan, japan has run a trade sur plaus very often for a long period of time. >> not lately. >> not lately. that's -- that information -- >> lately it's been -- its economy is not growing either. >> that's right, it's not running a trade surplus anymore. it's running a big deficit. >> the world as a whole cannot grow because there is trade. it has to net out zero sum game? >> i certainly don't agree with that. >> in fact, what we also have to keep in mind is that at the roots of the 2008 financial crisis were massive global imbalances centered on trade flows. >> protectionism and capitalism don't go hand in hand. we're a better place because we export. we have to have the ability to export and import. >> no one is against exporting. >> of course. >> it has to be better balanced. >> can't have it both ways. i'm in the manufacturing sector and it's so hard to find manufacturing capacity and talent in america. if you made that more expensive and limited importing, it would be difficult for companies to survive. and i think it would negativively impact job growth or job sustainment more than it does today. >> do you know we're on track to run a manufacturing trade deficit of about 700 or $800 billion, how that helps u.s. domestic manufacturing as opposed to offshore multinational companies, i have no idea. no one else does either frankly. >> aren't you leaving out a key component which is technology. it's easy to put -- to blame it on trade and puts a foreign face on it as a usa editorial argues today but technology really has revolutionized the way manufacturing happens in this country and maybe it's made it more expensive to manufacturer in this country as well but it's also boosted productivity. >> i think that you're confusing the debate about trade effects on jobs and wages with trades effects on growth. i'm talking about trades effect on u.s. economic output, including manufacturing output and once again, if you look at the figures on gross domestic product, there can be no doubt that the trade flows that are heavily influenced by trade policies have cut this economic -- economic recovery's growth by $420 billion since the middle of 2009. i'm not talking about jobs, i'm talking growth, production here. >> i think it's more complicated than saying trade is good and trade is bad. >> i think it is too. i completely agree. >> it is. >> clearly costs and benefits to what happened with nafta. a quick question for you, the solution here is not as easy as figuring out the problem. donald trump has proposed 45% tariffs on chinese goods into the united states, maybe even on mexican goods. what would that do to your business and your position here on u.s. exporters? >> i think that doesn't do a lot of good what happens, companies that source from or sell from those markets, they are going to move it to india or vietnam or low cost country is. i don't think by imposing a tariff fixes the problem. i really don't. >> final word, alan. >> i think that we've made great product by recognizing that we've got a major trade problem. this country's economic policy establishment has been in complete denial about that for decades. so we have -- we have now accomplished step one and we've got to figure out, okay, we've got a problem, what do we do? still major progress. >> i agree with that but protectionism isn't the answer. >> tell me what is. >> i think that's a good question. >> we'll leave it there with that agreement, thank you, gentlemen. good debate. sanders and trump aren't too far apart. we have a market flash on columbia pipeline. mary thompson has details. >> columbia pipeline shares have been halted for trading. they are trading lower. earlier this month dow jones reported that trans canada was considering a bid for columbia worth $10 billion, because columbia only has a market cap of $8 billion. bloomberg -- a report from bloomberg throwing cold water on that report from dow jones earlier saying the deal is now unlikely and you can see columbia pipeline still up but off the highs of the day and where trans canada is trading right now, it is slightly higher than it was still off about three 1/4%. >> we were just talking about energy -- so we have more news on that as well. >> we have about 17 minutes, less than that in the trading day. we're knocking around the flat line. s&p down two. and dow down 30 points. >> the euro is at the highs, so maybe tracking that as well. new research suggesting buy backs could be the catalyst for the next major downturn in the stock market. dom chu will be here to explain. 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[light instrumental music] a new report says shared buyback could be the catalyst for the next market down it is turn. dom chu is back with the story. >> there's still a variety of reasons to be bullish on the market but the macro strategy team told them to keep a close eye on share buybacks. here's the reasoning and their four main points. first a slowdown in corporate earnings, corporate profit margins are expected to be under continued pressure and profit growth is expected to be nonexistent this year. si riding borrowing costs, for company debt have been on the rise. third, the regulatory environment, the uncertainty about how buybacks are viewed by regulators and politicians is on the rise in this election year and fourth, the possibility. possibility of negative interest rates in that hypothetical environment, it could be positive because borrowing costs move lower but the economy is weakening which could put pressure on -- total cumulative buybacks have been bigger than the fed's buying of u.s. treasuries. that's a big deal and why they say it isn't the end of easy monetary policy that should be of big concern. a bigger one could be putting the brakes on corporate share repurchases. that could be a huge deal. they've been seen as a big buyer, structurally so of stocks in the market and some perhaps even say the lack of buying in january helped contribute in some way to the fall in he can kuwa equity prices. >> hard to trace it back to that absence but another thing driving this potential trend, the stocks of big buyback companies have been underperforming. maybe they don't need factors to say it's not worth it anymore. >> it's interesting, if you look at the mega cap stocks, large cap, $7500 billion or more, many with large share repurchase programs have been underfunding and now it's about the efficacy and whether there is buyback money being deployed. we don't have clearcut data for the first quarter of this year. we're starting to see the initial numbers for the fourth quarter and it could be about $146 billion spent during that quarter not s&p 500 companies, a huge thing to watch whether the buyback space starts to slow if it does in 2016. >> david was on earlier this week and said the window is still open through the end of march or so for the buybacks, dom, thank you. >> we've got a little over ten minutes to go before the "closing bell" we have fought off earlier losses though the dow is still in negative territory by 38 points or so. s&p 500 little change. it is down less than .2% and nasdaq still down about .04%. >> our next guest says something big could be going on with small caps. why getting small is smart he says, coming up next. e*trade is all about seizing opportunity. so i'm going to take this opportunity to go off script. so if i wanna go to jersey and check out shotsy tuccerelli's portfolio, what's it to you? or i'm a scottish mason whose assets are made of stone like me heart. papa! you're no son of mine! or perhaps it's time to seize the day. don't just see opportunity, seize it! (applause) watching tvs get sharper, oh remotes, you'veit! had it tough. bigger, smugger. and you? rubbery buttons. enter the x1 voice remote. now when someone says... show me funny movies. watch discovery. record this. voila. remotes you are back. the x1 voice remote is here. x1 customers get your voice remote by visiting xfinty.com/voiceremote. >> welcome back, we have the s&p 500 trying to nose into positive territory. we're joined on the floor about sandy vilry and sandy, you think small caps might be time for them to have their day? >> if you look at the last two years, they had a tough time. they underperformed by 12% and another 6 or 7% in 2014 and long-term small caps are riskier but return more. we think it's time for small caps to outperform. >> aren't they tied to loose credit conditions and other things we're waiting for to kick? >> when you look at the global problems and with a stronger dollar ultimately, you want to stay domestic and that's going to favor small cap. these larger companies exporting, it's going to be more expensive for them and don't think it's going to work well for large caps. >> we're here in front of post eight. this is a railroad that has been slashed almost in half in the last year. why are you saying it's time to buy? >> that creates the opportunity. they have exposure to oil, to china and things like that. the stock was about 1045 and now looking at $58 a share. this is a time when you buy these companies, when's it's out of favor. these guys are founded in 1899, my firm is 1911, we like this company, they are a real dominant shortline railroad growing at 15% and making acquisition by acquisition. >> waiting for the small guy to kick in here. appreciate it. >> we're coming right back with the closing countdown. >> after the bell we're talking china because we've heard rumors that china has manipulated its currency, now it's playing with its movie box office numbers. we'll go behind the screens of this story. very interesting. you're watching cnbc first in bids worldwide. our cosmetics line was a hit. the orders were rushing in. i could feel our deadlines racing towards us. we didn't need a loan. we needed short-term funding fast. building 18 homes in 4 ½ months? that was a leap. but i knew i could rely on american express to help me buy those building materials. amex helped me buy the inventory i needed. our amex helped us fill the orders. just like that. another step on the journey. will you be ready when growth presents itself? realize your buying power at open.com e*trade is all about seizing opportunity. and i'd like to... cut. so i'm gonna take this opportunity to direct. thank you, we'll call you. evening, film noir, smoke, atmosphere... bob... you're a young farmhand and e*trade is your cow. milk it. e*trade is all about seizing opportunity. department of justice just issued a new filing in the apple versus the fbi case. new paperwork laying out its argument that apple ought to open up the iphone of farook, the shooter in the terrorist attacks last december in california. what we've been able to review so far, including the fact that the government says that apple deliberately raised tech no logical barriers that now stand between an lawful warrant and iphone related to the mass murder of 14 americans. another point that the government is making in this filing is justice department is saying apple's rhetoric is false and corps rose sirve of institutions able to saveguard our liberty and rights. we're going through the filing as we're able to print it out and read the pages here and we'll bring you more details as we have them, guys. >> now, is the government essentially saying in this case apple presented tech barriers or in general? >> in this particular case, apple deliberatery raised tech no logical barriers that stand between a lawful warrant and iphone container evidence related to the terrorist mass murder of 14 americans. they are talking about this case specifically and making an allegation here that apple took steps that made it more difficult for the fbi and the department of justice to get access to the information on farook's phone. there are a couple of declarations from the fbi agent who was involved in this, the technical specialist who was involved in analyzing this particular phone and negotiating back and forth with apple in the very beginnings of this case and beginnings the negotiations between the company and government. we'll read those and learn more about what it is that the government is saying that apple did wrong here but the government clearly not happy with apple. very tough language here saying that apple's rhetoric is false. keeps getting more interesting, bob, couldn't get a lot of downside momentum late in the day? >> i think you're right, that's put a nice little q on this. dollar weaker overall, good for a lot of big multinationals and green chutes like pepsi and coke. let's call this a side ways move overall for the day and a lot of questions about mario draghi, what was intended. >> and state street global advisers ringing the bell here. at the nasdaq, 21st century fox. [ bell ringing ] [ applause ] >> welcome to "the closing bell." let's show you how we're finishing the day on wall street. we're going out with pretty much unchanged markets, dow finishing off lower, less than 5 points, at one point erp up 129 and down 178 and we go flat. the s&p 500 closing barely positive, up less than one point and the nasdaq, lagging all day, down a quarter of 1%. joining today's potential, senior markets contributor mike santoli. along with stephanie link and we have "fast money" trader, guy adami. it is hard to believe after the draghi drama, we end unchanged on the dow and s&p 500. >> it seems you have the reaction and reaction to the reaction and reaction to all of those reactions, it's hard to trace out exactly what the u.s. stock market was really responding to here. one line of reasoning says maybe the euro was up, not because he was disappointed but maybe it is going to work. >> that's an optimistic take. >> obviously but dollar weaker, does that open the door for the fed to be more aggressive? i think it was a push/pull, we tried the upside and downside and finished in the middle. >> it always takes a couple of days to digest and this was the bazooka that everyone was looking for. maybe an upside surprise to that. the reaction on the currency front was also positive. the dollar coming down is a good thing for profits and oil didn't fall dramatically and initially it had fallen. i think he delivered and the commentary, what he talked about in terms of not doing more is what spooked people but doing an awful lot. asset purchases versus lower negative rates which would have been a negative commentary and negative data point. >> guy adami, would you also spin this as a positive, that the euro rallied and that weaker dollar is going to be helpful for janet yellen and u.s. multinationals. >> it's not what he wanted at all. he wants to torch his currency like everyone else wants to torch their currency and exact opposite happens. it a is it a positive? >> i don't know how any of this could be construed as positive for anything when central bankers have been the topic of conversation on an absolute daily basis. nobody would have known mario draghi from me a year or 18 months ago and now he's the center -- >> that's not true. >> it's madness at the absolute level we're talking about negative interest rates, it's absolutely startling and we say it with such -- we're so glib about it. i don't know how it all ends up well, it makes no sense to me. on a lighter note, your show in the morning, you guys are crushing it and forcing me to wake up and watch tv at 5:00 a.m. in the morning. >> thank you very much. i appreciate that. we go from 5:00 to 5:00 here on cnbc. >> seriously, guy brings up a good point, we did see gold rally 1%. so much easing and sort of negative reaction and currency market, you might have thought it would have gone up even higher. >> potentially, i think a lot of what this move told us, once again, it's been going on over a year. big traders caught offside by reaction to policy move. it's been happening once every couple of months. you don't really know if it was a fundamental reaction to the policy move or not. i honestly do think that none of these central bankers wants to be in this position. but to expect them to really behave that much differently, given the set of conditions that we have right now, i mean, i'm on board with the idea that we have diminishing returns and they don't wisht to be doing more. just because you tell them they lost control, doesn't mean you won't try to assert control. >> we don't know how it's going to pan out to guy's point. but you know what's interesting, we rallied 10% in 20 days and we actually ended around flat today. i mean, and that actually to me speaks volumes about -- there's buying power in the market, right? it's pretty broad based and it's also this continued theme of value versus growth. and some of this cyclecal sectors doing well. industrials gave it back today but i would rather see us lead with those sectors and let's see if there's continued strength. >> we haven't brought up the fact that oil did decline, down 1%, a lot of metals giving back recent gains with copper. china was down 2% overnight. is that part of the mix here that has been a concern with us all year? >> definitely part of the mix. a huge move in crude oil and started february 10th when you had that uae headline, i think around 2:30 in the afternoon, i recall it well. it's been off to the races since. i don't think anything changed in terms of fundamental supplies and demand in crude oil. i happen to think we're probably getting toppy in the oil trade and also happen to think that gold should have sold off significantly over the last few weeks and it hasn't as a matter of fact it's been going higher. i'm sort of scratching my head as to why. i think i understand but gold is really trying to tell you a story. yes, i think crude is getting toppy here and 2025 in the upside will be major resistance in the s&p, it was an enkourning day and we closed unchanged but there's still a lot of head winds out there in my opinion. >> we have earnings here in the afterhours, earnings alert now on cosmetics retailer ulta. >> this looks like it is a beat, nearly across the board, turning in earnings per share of 1.69 that beats estimates of 1.54. revenues 1.27 billion, better than analysts expectations of 1.235 billion. comps up 12.5% compared to analyst consensus of 9.4%. looking at guidance for the full year, ulta expects to grow earnings per share at a rate of 18 and 20% and analysts had been looking for growth of 18%. that potentially you could view that as better than consensus. also, ulta believes the full year comps will grow 8 to 10% as well. this is a retailer who shares our soaring after hours, almost 11%. a good fourth quarter and strong expectations for the full year as well that growth stock on a tear. >> beauty theme is alive and well and estee lauder also blew it away when consumer staple stocks were missing and lowering guidance. the guidance for 8 to 10 comp is exactly in line. some people thought they might talk that down. great numbers and these are two stocks i think you can continue to own. >> this stock looks like a lot of this so-called growth or momentum names in 2016, underperforming the broad are market after significant outperformance in 2015. >> 187, it seems it's going to make a trip back and try that again. for a while you had a lot of shorts betting against this game because it was one of these hypergrowth. they don't sell something much different than anybody else but they are a minor category killer. >> the consumer is continuing to spend in this category and there's not that many of them that are this intensive in terms of what they do sell. i think that speaks volumes of where the consumer is putting their dollars. >> technology did underperform today both in the s&p and nasdaq biggest laggard and microsoft. i wonder if you're making any trades now, ahead of the federal reserve next week and bank of japan. you said it was important we're holding gains and you have an optimistic outlook. >> i'm pretty optimistic, it's been a tough start to the year what we're hearing from management teams across the board during conference season, january was horrible and february got better and march is starting off better than february. i think the economic data is getting better. we're certainly not off to the races but the stocks pricing in a recession. this market started to price that in and i don't think that's the case. you can be buying some of the still beaten down cyclecal financials in particular. >> i think i just bought myself an ulta curling iron the other day. i understand why the comps are so good. now you're approaching probably close to 30 times forward earnings in this stock, shorts have gotten burned in it and wonder if it's worth it. we can go back and forth all day. is the data better or worse, i would say on average, it's been mediocre to decent at best over the last six months. my main concern is that central banks have inserted themselves into the situation and in order for the market to continue to go up, they need to do everything exactly right. the corner they painted them self-s in is getting smaller and smaller. >> bojangles with some numbers. >> not much reaction in the stock in light of the company's earnings, which were better than expects on an adjust basises blgs, better than estimates of 19 cents a share, and revenue was slightly ahead at $29 million and they were looking for 128. it seems sales a little light, analysts were looking for 1.5% gain there. it gave guidance for the present fiscal year and it is expecting earnings of 86 to 90 cents a year and analysts looking for 88. conservative guidance there. where it's expecting revenue anywhere between 533 to $543 million analysts were looking for 540 for the restaurant chain. back to you. >> a nice little pop there, 2.45% and bojangles ceo will join us tomorrow. this chart is not so pretty going back over the last year. >> restaurants are in so much competition for sure. but it does seem like this report is good enough and maybe the lower oil prices are starting to feed into consumers going out and spending more. >> this was an ipo from spring of last year, high 20s, excitement over a new concept and expanding out of the regional base in the south into other areas. kinds of the breakfast counter from mcdonald's has not been helping. at this level, it's probably 16 or 17 times earnings, it's not really a particularly overvalued company, it's probably about the guidance for the rest of the year. >> were you buying bojangles biscuits as well? >> you must have been following me around. that's what i did. every time i go to the beauty count oer it makes me hungry. trades 17 times forward earnings, what's interesting is the short interest has grown. so this quarter is probably good enough to get a short covering rally, you can see the stock trade up to 17.5 to 18. >> we're going to leave it there. >> be sure to stick around and catch more of the charming guy adami and rest of the fast money crew. we'll be talking to one of the biggest wisest men on wall street, blackstone advisory partners, byron wien, why he believes the two biggest risks to the market are right in front of us. when we come back, hillary clinton promising to slow the revolving door between washington and wall street. up next, we'll look at how realistic that is and whether it could actually hurt both wall street and washington from attracting top talent. all day breakfast has given a boost to mcdonald's revival but taco bell is battling back with a large number one dollar breakfast menu. details on that coming up. you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide. we need to be ready for whatever weather may come our way. my name's scott strenfel and i'm a meteorologist at pg&e. we make sure that our crews as well as our customers are prepared to how weather may impact their energy. so every single day we're monitoring the weather, and when storm events arise our forecast get crews out ahead of the storm to minimize any outages. during storm season we want our customers to be ready and stay safe. learn how you can be prepared at pge.com/beprepared. together, we're building a better california. >> welcome back. >> investors do not like the news, the restaurant chain coming out with earnings that are better than expected on 15 cents a share for, two cents ahead of estimates and revenue was light at $86 million. analysts were looking for 88. the company's guidance for the fiscal year that its currently in, it expects earnings between 70 to 74 cents a share and analysts were looking for 74 cents a share. that conservative guidance keeping pressure on its stock as you can see down over 7% in the afterhours session. back to you. >> mary thompson, thanks very much. >> ugly reaction for that growth stock. >> this was a 1050 stock. basically up 40% or more since february 11th. this is one of the smaller beaten down names. giving back some of that and maybe the con clus is not that it's a direct perfect competitor to chipot le but couldn't get a tailwind from the troubles. >> we'll keep an eye on that the afterhour. both candidates have been railing against the so-called revolving door between wall street and washington. here's what hillary clinton had to say about it during last night's debate. >> i do agree we have to end the revolving door. i strongly support a piece of legislation in and i will look for people who put consumers first and do more to main sure main street nowishes and reach out and ask for advise as to who should be appointed, including to senator warren and other former colleagues in the senate. the former assistant under tim geithner and head of the regulatory reform initiative at the bipartisan policy center. aaron, thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me. whether it's hillary clinton or whoever wins, do you think this is campaign rhetoric or do you think serious reform on end being the revolving door between washington and wall street? >> this is a very serious issue. who you have on top matters tremendously. the policies they pursue and how effective they are is determined by the quality of people you have at the top. in financial regulation, personnel is policy. >> are you arguing that that person and we're really talking about the treasury secretary here, should be someone with some real life experience on wall street in the financial markets so they have a feel of that and both parties have this tradition of nominating treasury secretaries who have a history on wall street. >> i think it's broader than any one person or agency there's a whole team they put in place. you have the federal reserve and sec, i think what you're looking at is an entire team perspective you want some people with more government experience, private sector, you want a diverse set of opinions. >> i guess the question is, how important is it for somebody to know really the inner workers of the financial system, of all of these elements that are going to go into, for example, executing the provisions of dodd frank or these other laws that might be put into place? >> it's incredibly important that somebody on your team have real world experience and understand the practicality of what can be done and what can't be done and to know when complains and concerns are legitimate and when people are just talking their book. you need somebody with real life experience to be part of your team. do you support the bill introduced by tammy baldwin that get at the issue of conflict of interest and bans government workers from accepting bonuses from former employees when entering government and extends the period for which they have to wait to lobby after they leave office but it doesn't outright ban someone from financial services working in government. is that the kind of reform we need? i think there's a misgnomer what the revolving door is. the premise of the idea is that people from wall street are somehow lax when they come into government. i don't think the facts bear that out. people rely on because it makes an easy story. if you look at the data, there's no data to indicate that and substantial data to indicate the contrary. >> hillary clinton in the debate did say she would look for someone with more experience with the consumer. does that suggest that perhaps she would nominate for treasury secretary and presidency a consumer ceo? would that be acceptable to you? would that appease that on the left and sanders supporters who are so anti-wall street? >> it's important that she make sure she have a team of people that are dedicated to helping small business and dedicated to helping grow the economy these are core values and and who on the team will execute that vision in accordance with her in terms of the priorities that she's going to set or her administration will set? you don't want to judge a book by its cover and person by one line on their resume. >> all right, we'll leave it there. we expect to hear more on campaign trail. good to see you. thanks for joining us. >> china's box office selling more movie tickets last month. but a new report questions whether chinese film distributors are rigging those results. that story is coming up. but first, jane wells has an up close look at an interesting new airship. >> i'm jane wells, this is not a bounce house, it is the intear kbror of a new airship the company is building for the commercial market. part airplane, part blimp, part helicopter. that story next. hould hire stacy drew. ♪ ♪ she wants to change the world with you. ♪ ♪ she can program jet engines to talk and such. ♪ ♪ her biggest weakness is she cares too much. ♪ thank you. my friend really wants a job at ge. mine too. ♪ i'm a wise elf from a far off shire. ♪ and sanjay patel is who you should hire. ♪ thank you. seriously though, stacy went to a great school and she's really loyal. you should give her a shot. sanjay's a team player and uh... it's a bird, it's a plane, it's a super blimp. lockheed martin's commercial new airship. >> they announced buyouts across the division and as the defense side shrinks smigt you might think never would happen, happens. they develop things like the sr71, stealth program. they built a prototype for the commercial market, part blimp and part helicopters and about to announce the first sales to companies who want to transport for areas without roads. >> how much will it cost? >> $40 million list price. which is pretty affordable for an aircraft. >> i'm inside one of the three lobes in the proto type, like being in a really big bounce house. when the real airship is built, they'll be three times bigger and longer and in total it will be able to carry 47,000 pounds of cargo. >> what you should be looking at now animation of what the new airship will look like, 300 feet long and in production by late 2018 and we'll see if there's a market and how big it will be. lockheed has poured in its own money to fund this program, over 100 million dollars. back to you. >> mike is all over this. really into it. >> now, jane, honestly, i happened to stumble across this new yorker feature and it included the lockheed effort. a private company starting an even bigger one and wants a ship with a really fascinating helium compression system. it's kind of interesting basically how people think this could be a genuine growth area. >> they talked about if for a long time but never gotten off the ground. lockheed hopes for first to market, it is the first to get rules from the faa to certify this craft. the other companies don't have that yet. it's hoping if it gets out there first and also it wants to do something very specific, some of these others companies want to do tourism or whatever. it wants to deliver cargo or goods to places without infrastructure. oil, mining, ups, amazon, that kind of stuff. >> jane, do you think this is going to be a domestic kind of market or do you --? >> oh, no. >> how many do you think they can build of these? are they kind of modeling out any kind of number? >> yes, in fact, it will be mostly international. because the need -- there's infrastructure in the u.s. you don't need it here. it's places like africa or other places where you're building out you might need it. even to decline goliver goods, consider a success if they can build 100. if the first version is a success, they'll build bigger and bigger ones, the ones being the size of a floating rose bell that can carry 1 million pounds of cargo. let's wait and see what the market really wants. >> no customers yet, right, jane? >> yes, they are on the cusp of announcing their first deals and one other thing to remember, they first flew the prototype ten years ago. they spent the last decade researching what market, not military, that's going to be too much of another issue. commercial markets, ten years to figure out who the customers are and for first time out of skunk works they've developed a separate sales team. never been a sales team out of lockheed martin skunk works before. >> thank you, jane, on long haul airships. let's send it over to mary thompson. >> we're taking a look at zumiez, in the afterhours session down 11% because it gave weak guidance. they are expecting a loss of 7 to 11 cents a share for the first quarter and analysts were expecting it to break even. its revenue is expected to fall below estimates to 172 to 175 million for the quarter. same store sales looking tough as well. the company saying that the retail environment in north america remains very tough. back to you. >> interesting statement there on the retail environment. shares down 9%. >> what we were talking about before the consumers being choosey and what they are spending dollars on. clearly this particular part of the market, a lot of econo competition. if anything, people are upgrading away from zumiez and into the higher end retailers. >> and investors being choosey as well, it is time now for cnbc update with sue herrera. >> here's what's happening this hour. the united states is planning to pub welcomely blame iranian hackers for a 2013 cyber attack against a small dam in new york state. officials say the hackers gained access to back office systems of the dam 30 miles north of new york city. baltimore police officers with will start getting body cameras in may. the mayor and police commissioner making that announcement this morning. all officers will be equipped within two years. it's expected to cost $11.6 million over five years. democratic presidential candidate hillary clinton campaigning in tampa continuing to hammer home her plans to break down barriers and create jobs. she strongly encouraged people to get out and vote. soccer legend peli is putting 2,000 items up for auction, include being the three world cup medals that could sell for up to $1 million. his 1977 new york championship ring is also up for sale. that's the cnbc news update. >> sue herrera, thank. china's box office is booming, but are the numbers of people in the audience as fictional as the films themselves? louie anderson is here to tell us about his new show "baskets", he plays the mother of funny man zach gal fin knack kiss. that's coming up at ally bank, no branches equals great rates. it's a fact. kind of like grandkids equals free tech support. oh, look at you, so great to see you! none of this works. come on in. hey, jesse. who are you? i'm vern, the orange money retirement rabbit from voya. orange money represents the money you put away for retirement. over time, your money could multiply. hello, all of you. get organized at voya.com. . let's look how we finished the day on wall street. little change at the end of the trading session but we were all over the map with the dow opening up with a big rally then the euro reversed course and shot higher, almost 2%, dow finishing with a loss of five points and s&p 500 going out with a slight gain of .3. not even one full point and the nasdaq composite ending lower. checking on the names that just reported earnings after the bell today, a lot of moves in both directions, ulta up 11% after coming out with a beat. el pollo loco, rallying hard from mid february into this report and bojangles up almost 5%. we learned that china's movie box office beat out north america for the first time ever. in the month of february, china pulled in more than $1 billion in ticket sales while north america generated just under 800 million. that $1 billion number may be imagine fridery as they are see whether they tried to boost sales by buying up tickets for what they are calling ghost screenings, is this another sign we can't trust data out of china rebecca sun, hollywood reporter. have you done reporting on this idea of ghost screenings in chin sna? >> ghost screenings aren't an entirely new practice. it's under the radar and happening for a while. as these numbers get bigger, people are paying more attention to them. the reason why we have this story because this past weekend, it man 3 open to $70 million and that movie did engage in the ghost screening bulk buying practice. >> but that's crazy. how can u.s. companies and how can hollywood films compete in a market where they don't even know what the markets are in the box office? >> exactly, that's the problem. it creates a lot of unfair competition and that's on top of what the state regulated practices already are in the case that hollywood movies have a quota on how many can be screened in china per year. they are giving disadvantaged release windows and don't get to screen in the locals do. it definitely creates a huge problem in terms of doing business in china. >> it reminds me on some level on the early days of pop radio and they would have to pay to play the record and the records got popular. is there any way out of it for u.s. studios? do you have to take what you can get in terms of distribution in china? >> that's a great question. the u.s. has to engage in china. without the fraudulent numbers, it will become the biggest movie market in the world, as early as next year. they kind of have to live with it. and the u.s. side has leverage. and china needs to work with hollywood in order to benefit from the expertise and the fact that hollywood movies are still the most popular around the world. that's why there is incentive to really crack down on this kind of fraudulent reporting. >> is this happening from the smaller players in the market or more uniform? from the larger theaters as well? >> that's a great question. right now it's coming from the slightly smaller ones. i think the really big and very legitimate studios in china are partnering with our majors, warner brothers and sony and pa paramount and that sort of thing. you will see this level out as those smaller companies get squeezed out of the market and really get heavily regulated in the sense. it's not really the kind of practice that you're seeing from the really big players in china. >> what's been pt model of success for a a hollywood studio or production house when it domestics to doing business in china? >> dreamworks animation partnered to do kung fu panda 3. that did over $150 million in china, better than any u.s. movie had done since last summer. that's a good model going forward. legendary has a huge movie coming out called "the great wall" stars matt damon and huge dhin ease movie stars and this will be the biggest co-production to date. we'll look to that as a really effective model for co-productions going forward. >> we'll see if the chinese regulator cracks down. thank you. rebecca sun from "the hollywood reporter". >> we have breaking news on the response to apple. >> we're continuing to go through the filing we just got from the department of justice and ongoing apple versus the fbi fight. the department of justice weighing in with its arguments that apple is wrong when it says it shouldn't be forced to open farook's iphone. here's what the department of justice writes in this filing, this is pretty intense language from the department of justice, very critical of apple, apple attacked the all rits act as archaic and the fbi's investigation as shoddy while extolling it itself as the primary guardian of america's privacy sen picking up a couple of new details on exactly what happened with farook's phone. all technical details but important for the overall legal arguments. the fbi and doj saying that evidence sulgts that farook had changed his i cloud password on october 2nd and last backup from the phone to the icloud occurred on november 19th 2015, weeks before the attack. question is what would have been on that phone between october and attack in december. they also are writing here that icloud backups for mail and photos and notes were all turned off on farook's phone. that gives the government the sense there maybe things on the phone that they are not able to access to the icloud. >> and what are we looking for next? the apple and doj going back to court this month, right? >> they are going back at the end of march. we'll see both making arguments and the judge who issued the ruling in first place will have to make a decision, presumably one side or the other, whoever is disappointing will appeal that and go all the way to the ninth circumstanceit. the government may not get the information about this terrorist attack that it wants any time soon. >> we'll see what happens. thank you for the update from the department of justice on apple. >> when we come back, you'll recognize him from his roles in the louie show and former host of "family feud." his latest project has him looking very differently. louie anderson discusses his new show "baskets", it is the battle for breakfast all over again, taco bell and mcdonald's expanding menus. who will win? that's next. you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide. , with creative new business incentives, and the lowest taxes in decades, attracting the talent and companies of tomorrow. like in buffalo, where the largest solar gigafactory in the western hemisphere will soon energize the world. and in syracuse, where imagination is in production. let us help grow your company's tomorrow - today - at business.ny.gov >> the battle for breakfast wanwang wages on. days after mcdonald's started testing its own expansion of the successful all day breakfast menu. with both fast food chains adding new items, which stands to come out on stop and which stock could end on top. you own mcdonlds? >> i do. it had a nice run. i'm not sure i would add to it here. i hold it and will hold it. but clearly the breakfast part of the story has helped mcdonald's. their sales in january in quarter up 5.7% and it was did he have in any eventually helped by the breakfast initiative. it's not surprising but it's not just breakfast. mcdonald's is a restructuring story with new ceo and trying to find all angles. in the end this environment is extremely competitive. i think they have to do they can to do the traffic in the door. >> what is it, more than 30% is the addition of all day breakfast and how much is some of the other restructuring after -- >> i think the stock went from 90 to about 100, 110 on the restructuring and then the last bit was the last quarter when it actually surprised to the upside in terms of same store sales and driven because of the all day breakfast initiative. >> i think the breakfast push is up em blem attic of easterbrook. even if the franchisees thought it would gum up operations of the stores. i was surprised to see jack in the box cite the breakfast competition from mcdonald's for slowing down their midday sales . that was a surprise to me and to stef's point, kind of a zero sum game. i don't think we're getting a lot more people to drive to fast food to get breakfast. it's buy it here versus buy it there. >> not getting a lot of love for yum brands lately, ahead of their split? >> they have a lot to fix in china. that's the other thing, mcdonald's in china has been able to fix or at least improve their results over there. and i think at yum, we're still waiting to see the results, there's still a lot they have to do in terms of investment in that particular region. there's more they have to prove. >> also seems like one of the concepts is always not quite clicking correctly. it's like the gap in a way. >> we'll see how the $1 breakfast menu does. >> are you going to go? >> $1 breakfast at any new york deli. >> i like breakfast all day. >> louie anderson is here at the new york stock exchange to tell us about his latest show "bas t "baskets" and changing lands escape of comedy. that's next. ers. at&t can help you stay connected. am i seeing double? no 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types of plans let you pick any doctor or hospital that takes medicare patients. and there's a range of plans to choose from, depending on you needs and your budget. so if you're turning 65 soon, call now and get started. because the time to think about tomorrow...is today. go long. our next guest is host of "family feud" and creation of the animated series "life with louie." he's louie anderson and he's back in a role unlike any in his past. in "basket" he plays the role of a mother of twins. have a look. >> i look at plenty of choices. i just made my weekly run to costco. tropical mango, strawberry mango fever. it's brand-new. you've got plenty of choices, honey. you don't see what you like here, i've got a whole garage full of stuff. >> louie joins us now from post 9 to tell us more about the role. but all you can talk about is the euro. >> i don't know about you, but the euro, you make an offhand comment and everybody believes it. >> your european vacation. >> wasn't that a chevy chase movie? >> you got it. >> this role is something -- it's been praised. i've not seen it. is it a comedic role? >> you haven't seen it? >> i haven't seen it. >> oh, my god. i spent the morning in here just so i could talk about it. it's actually been the most fun thing. zack and louie called me and said, you know, will you play zack's mom? i said, yeah. yes, i'll do it. because those guys, they're royalty in comedy. they called me and i said i'm going to do it. i've always done my mom's voice in my act in the last 30 years. so i thought it would be fun to honor my mom, believe it or not. she could have been in show business. and so i think even -- no matter what you're doing in life, your parents, you're trying to somehow kind of equal that, they took care of you, you know. i think she would be thrilled because i'm using all her mannerisms and most of her clothes. >> do you prefer stand-up comedy or movies? >> well, movies are long and drawn-out. so i like tv. and i love stand-up. i really enjoy stand-up. >> how is the comedy business right now? >> alive and well. there's so many great -- look at louie casey, not just to suck up to him because he's the executive producer, but look at him. look at the alternative comics out there. we couldn't even say this stuff when i started out in comedy what they're saying on tv now. >> or on youtube or wherever. >> you know what i mean? it's alive and well. i'm glad to have had my -- i have a young comic who's successful and comes to me and says, hey, i watch your specials. i go, that means i'm old, right? >> interestingly, on the business side of things, he's actually selling his own product. >> yes. >> do you get to change the way -- the different way that consumers are getting their movies, and their comedy, do you have to change the way you market yourself and you do business yourself? >> well, you know, here's the thing. i think that's the future. i think we're going to deal with each other and with the internet. you know, our customers directly. you know, i haven't done his -- he has a great example of how to do things, you know. a model. he has a great model. he sold his special online, you know. and cut out the middle man. you know, i'm from old school where the middle man's important because the middle man books you. but when you're that popular like he is, i think he was trying to make it better for his fans. he was at the comedy service recently, $20. no other charges, just $20 to get in. i thought, that's really smart. i mean, i had to pay, too, which i thought was weird, but -- >> louie, we wanted to ask you, everyone here on wall street and in hollywood are talking about the election. endorsing candidates. speaking out. using your sort of podium to announce your position. what's your feeling about it? >> here's my feeling about it. you know, i'm a hubert humphrey democrat, grew up in minnesota. loved hubert humphrey. you know, mondale, all those people. i look at the democratic party really simply. i think bernie sanders may not get in this time. but i think he's a foreshadow. he's foreshadowing later on of what people are really looking for. and donald trump, you know, people say all these things. but both parties are saying one thing really clear. we do not want to go with the status quo. we don't want to go with the establishment. we want some -- i think what people want is some -- i don't know, i think they want -- the checks and balances to get back. if people ran a business like they run the government, they'd all be out -- the government would be out of business. i think what people want is to have a checks and balances. and i think people want honesty, and i think people are tired of being lied to. >> it seems like this campaign is good for the comedians, the satirists, too. >> i always expect when i walk into a catholic church to see cruz on a fresco above the ceiling. that's what i think right away. when is that going to be part of the religious history? you know what i mean? when you see trump, you just go, what a smart guy that keeps pounding a message, you know. rubio, he's just like, hey, you're not getting a tip. you didn't deliver the paper every day. i mean, that's the fodder i see as funny. around bernie sanders, i always think of lily munster's father coming out of the staircase that opens up. lily! >> that's what we were looking for. stand-up comedy here. >> we've got to laugh at ourselves. i'm the first one to laugh at myself. >> thank you for stopping by. >> thank you very much. >> "baskets" airs thursday night at 10:00 p.m. on fx. and on broad way two weeks from now. the market staging a comeback in the last hour of trading. up next, what will drive stocks tomorrow. the final check on the big earnings movers. "closing bell" will be right back. he really loves our wireless directv receiver. (dad) he should know better. we're settlers. we settle for cable. but let us repay you for your troubles. fresh milk for the journey home? (neighbor) we live right there. (dad) salted meats? (neighbor) no thank you. (dad) hats then! (vo) don't be a settler, get a $100 reward card when you switch to directv. we believe in the power of active management.management, by debating our research to find the best investments. by looking at global and local insights to benefit from different points of view. and by consistently breaking apart risk to focus on long-term value. we actively manage with expertise and conviction. so you can invest with more certainty. mfs. that's the power of active management. we're minutes away from conference call. we'll show you a final check on shares in after-hours trading. bojangles up 7%. i want to thank my panelists. that does it for us here today. "fast money" begins right now. "fast money" does start right now. overlooking new york city's times square. i'm melissa lee. tonight on fast, the market has been on fire. but four mega cap stocks have curiously sat out the rally. some traders think they could offer your portfolio the best opportunity to make you money. we'll give you the names. remember all that talk how hillary clinton was bad for biotech? we have the reason why she actually might be great for some of the biotech stocks in the space. apple shares have been dead money for over a year now, but something just happened today that couldha

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