report tomorrow. will the report be fodder for the q.e. 3 argument? >> a mixed bag for retail sales in april. limited racking up another strong month. costco missing for the second month in a row. >> and general motors beats expectations with its earnings, underscoring strength in the core north america operations but highlighting weakness in overseas market. we'll be speaking with bob lutz. >> and green mountain coffee, investors questioning consumer demand for k-cups and the company's ability to compete with starbucks. some analysts out today trying to defend that stock. claims and productivity, both coming in better than expected this morning. jobless claims dropped 27,000. u.s. productivity fell .5%. and the ecb holding its main interest rate at 1% as inflation offset pressure to support the weak eurozone economy. there was a big debate this morning going into the number, the ecb number. what were the odds of a cut? zero, just above zero. clearly they are holding their fire maybe until rates are closer to 7% than 6%. >> or until they positively have to. draghi's still speaking, i believe. simon is listening to mr. draghi. no surprise on that front. the key questions that remain for the ecb are very large, how much more short-term liquidity will they need to inject? and unemployment hitting a new eurozone high, the highest it's been since 1999. we know that. a lot of things on mr. draghi's plate. >> and some of the headlines crossing right now, how we see ourselves in ten years, he also says they're better off consolidating through cutting expenses as opposed to raising tax and by investing in infrastructure, that should create jobs. all eyes on that spanish auction, the first auction of long-term debt since that country got a two notch downgrade from s&p last week. it met expectations in terms of the amount sold when you compare it to last month's number. this time around, 3.617. they did sell the amount they wanted to sell. >> and in fact they almost always do. a lot of the banks do step up. the question becomes the secondary market and what we see in those yields. oftentimes a successful auction does not necessarily auger for yields coming down in a significant way. we haven't really seen that. we pay very close attention to that spanish bond market, to the ten-year in particular. >> we'll talk more about the claims number which the job market in this country is as clear as mud as somebody said on twitter this morning. but first, mary thompson has breaking news on avon. >> reporter: i'm outside the place where they're holding the annual shareholders meeting here on 59th street in new york city. of course, it comes at a time where there's a lot of controversy surrounding avon, most notably it's nonexecutive chairman who recently stepped down is still at the frm firm. we had the chance to speak with a man named david mitchell who served as ceo and chairman of avon until 1985. and he's a little bit angry that ms. young after stepping down as ceo in december is still at the company as nonexecutive chair. here's what he had to say. unfortunately, we don't have that sound bite from mr. mitchell. but essentially he wants her to go. the problems with avon include this. the company said very poor performance because of weakening sales in some of the more developing countries like russia as well as brazil, it's also been -- there are also some allegations with foreign bribery, et cetera. that is the scene-setter for this annual meeting. we spoke to other investors, too. they are concerned about ms. young who served as ceo for 12 years. they basically want her out. very tightly controlled meeting. i couldn't talk to any shareholders inside the meeting. they have just a couple of items on the agenda. we'll have the details. back to you. >> mixed trade in terms of the premarket trade on avon but one we're watching today. let's go ahead to costco, gap and target. sending the stock sharply lower. costco, i know -- carl, you have the chief costco correspondent -- >> you're mr. costco now, like i was with walmart. yours was only recently a great documentary. >> the comps are going to get tougher as we go through the rest of this year. they had a very strong spring last year. the summer was incredibly strong. average out march and april, trending with january and february. but there is a larger concern given what target and macy's said today. maybe the mid-tier consumer is having some problems, even though some of the comps of the nordstrom's of the world at the high end are doing pretty well. >> it was the smallest same-store numbers for costco in 32 months. it got downgraded to a hold from a buy at deutsche bank last week. erns about the price cuts the company initiated last spring lasting longer than expected and especially in canada where the company is going to have to go head to head against target. are they going to keep the cost cuts in place? sit going to further contract margins in that area of the world? >> at the sears shareholder meeting yesterday, a lot of talk that costco has been stealing share from sears, especially in electronics, right, and televisions, which we all know is a hypercompetitive market space. and the other thing, easter -- april had it last year. this year did not. it's extremely difficult with such a big weekend like that to compare year over year. >> the other one that's worth watching is the gap. there are lots of expectations about a turnaround here at the gap. it was a miss, a decline of 2% in the month of april. analysts predicting a decline of .8%. just last week, janney raised the price target on the gap saying all that colorful denim that david likes to wear on the weekends has helped sales. >> how did you know? >> those orange jeans. >> those are my favorites. >> wait till j. crew starts posting -- they'll be coming to you. >> luckily j. crew's a private company. they will be public again. no doubt about it. target do see may same-store sales up in the low single digits. >> and even though lower than expected on the comps for the month, beats the quarter. >> that's true. let's move on to general motors. reporting a first-quarter profit, beat expectations as it was able to boost vehicle prices and cut losses in europe. the stock trading slightly lower premarket. phil lebeau has more on this. >> reporter: melissa, we're talking about a company, rail a tale of two companies, north america phenomenal, europe continues to be a problem. overall earnings and revenue for the first quarter, beat the street reporting earnings of 93 cents a share, eight cents better than expected. by the way, before earning interest and taxes, that comes out to $2.2 billion. on the revenue side, $37.8 billion. slightly better than expected. when you look at the two worlds of gm, in north america, phenomenal first quarter earning $1.7 billion. profit margin jumping 1.3% all the way up to 7%. but in yueurope, they lose more than a quarter of a billion dollars. when we talked to the cfo, he is keeping with the company line, which is, they're working on it but it's going to take some time to fix europe. >> i think you're going to see a series of steps as we move through the year, actions taking already along the way, boast on the cost side and on the revenue side. it's going to be a gradual story and gradual progress. >> reporter: and because it's a gradual story, that's the reason why shares of general motors down 30% in the last year. guys, you indicated the stock is probably going to open lower today. what i'm hearing repeatedly from analysts and investors, let me know when you're going to really fix europe. it's not a series of small steps. unfortunately i think that's what we're going to see from gm for the immediate future. >> europe is one issue. but some of the guidance for q2, q3 in the u.s. is also getting some attention this morning. >> reporter: right. it's supposed to be in line with the first quarter and a lot of people are saying, are we not going to see any more growth in the united states? and their market share is now at 17.4%. they're making more money per vehicle. but that market share being down that low has people saying it's going to trend lower for the rest of this year. >> i want to bring in bob lutz for his insight. bob, always good to have you. good morning. >> good to be here, thanks. >> are you more -- what's your bigger issue for the company? is it europe or is it -- >> i think this thing is europe is way overplayed. when you put europe in context with the rest of the world, it hardly matters. everybody's having a problem in europe. ford is losing money in europe. gm's losing money in europe. fiat is losing money in europe. it's just the general economy. now, gm is not kauai as well positioned in europe because a lot of the costs are in germany and that's the problem that has to be fixed. there is a strategy to reduce the level of employment in germany but obviously the company isn't going to divulge that. >> reporter: what about the rest of this year in north america? dan ammond says we might be nearing the end of price guidance. would you be worried? >> no, i wouldn't be worried. it's not going to be a super year. there's a lot of uncertainty before the election. economic growth isn't very robust. we are seeing some good replacement demand. but the company is moderately optimistic because they have raised the forecast for the year from 13.5 million to 14 million. they've raised it to 14 million to 14.5 million. as far as pricing power is concerned, gm is now premium priced to most other manufacturers. chevy cruz, interestingly enough, has an average transaction price that's between $2,000 and $3,000 more than an equivalent toyota corolla. so there's a reversal when an american car is demanding higher prices than its japanese equivalent. >> reporter: bob, are we near the end of the cycle? you know how these cycles go. you have pricing power for the market for a period of time and then it starts to ease back and then you see incentives creeping in. are we near the end of the cycle for the industry? >> no, because the fixed costs -- everybody's fixed costs are lower now. so there is less incentive to just drive volume to keep the plants running because it's so expensive when the plants aren't running. right now, there's a lot of -- there isn't a lot of free capacity -- production capacity is relatively tight. and there is -- gm is still de-insenting, reducing sales on fleets. cadillac is almost totally out of the fleet business. i think their strategy is the right one. and you didn't mention the market share in april is up versus march. as long as the share is around 18%, 19%, i wouldn't get worried. >> bob, if you can, pull out your rosetta stone for depfeiffering gm speak. when ammond says they still have a long way to go, in your view, what sort of a fight, how long will this fight last? >> it depends on how bad the debt crisis gets in europe and the general european economic recovery. but i think two years is probably a good time frame to look at to get out of that problem. >> bob, thanks for getting up early. well, it is 9:13 here on the east coast. talk to you next time. >> okay. thanks. >> bob lutz and phil lebeau, thank you very much for bringing us those numbers as well. there's green mountain coffee in morning. down nearly 40% premarket, trading after reporting first-quarter result that is widely missed estimates on both the top and bottom lines. guidance well below expectations. herb greenberg who's been following the story from the beginning, if there was a beginning, herb has more headlines. >> this may go down as one of the very worst earnings calls i've ever heard. with some variation of the word "understand," used by analysts in the company at least 15 times. the issue here is growth. sales growth tumbled to 37%. that's up. but it was 101% year over year a quarter earlier. and the company also warned of moderating growth going forward. bullish analysts on the call actually sounded blindsided. one even said he was confused. the company is on the defensive. here's the ceo talking about visibility. >> we're very positive about this business going forward. but there's a lot of moving parts. and we continue to invest in our abilities to try to predict it. there's just a lot of moving parts. >> a lot of moving parts. and later, here he is talking about k-cup demand. >> we're working it. we're working it hard. i just don't want to go out and communicate that we understand it, and then a quarter from now, have to change that. we're working to try to understand it. >> all of this perhaps gets to the most important question of all -- if the company does not fully understand why the dynamics of the business have changed, why does it continue to offer earnings guidance? guys, it's an interesting question. we'll see -- >> herb, it's david back here. what's your best read on what's going on here? in terms of the movement of the stock, we know, incredible momentum stock. it's probably broken now. but what about the business? what's your sense as to what's actually happening? >> david, i think with the business what you're seeing is the dynamics are changing. you have a situation where patents are coming off their k-cups later this year. competitors are already coming into that market. as that happens, margins start to fall. a lot of excess production capacity affected the margin going into this quarter. you've got a business model. the company says it's not broken. you have a business model that certainly is challenged. >> or, herb, maybe the dynamics haven't changed and actually the dynamics are the very same and people are only realizing what a terrible picture it is right now. remember, david einhorn questioned about how the company was marking down inventory, where that inventory was landing in terms of the supply chain. >> by the way, that's the accounting issue. there's the accounting issue that doesn't even play into this. we're just talking about the business issue. there's still that accounting issue overlaying this. where did inventory go? when was it shipped? that's still going on. there's an s.e.c. investigation here. the company actually discussed that in its earnings release when it talked about costs, they weren't including the costs of that. but a ton is going on here, guys. a number of analysts downgraded today as you'd expect after the fact. one from janney montgomery who's been one of the biggest bulls on the stocks, reiterated as buy. >> whitney's remains short on green mountain even with the stock decline of 40% this morning. that's one view out there. herb, thanks so much. >> you're welcome. coming up later, the ceo of ethan allen interiors will be on set with us to talk about the country's expansion. and later, an exclusive interview with the president and ceo of orbitz worldwide. let's take another look at the futures. looks like we are headed for a higher open. stay tuned. what happens when classroom teachers get the training... ...and support they need? schools flourish and students blossom. that's why programs like... ...the mickelson exxonmobil teachers academy... ...and astronaut sally ride's science academy are helping our educators improve student success in math and science. let's shoot for the stars. let's invest in our teachers and inspire our students. let's solve this. it was a record-breaking night at sotheby's last night. in 12 minutes, edvard's famous painting "the scream" sold for $119.9 million, making it the world's most expensive work of art to ever sell at an auction. bertha coombs was there. she just narrowly lost out on that bid. >> yeah, you kind of start sweating it when it comes to something above 100 million bucks. very exciting evening. sotheby's had a lot of invested in making sure this one sold for a record price. it's perhaps one of the most famous screenings. this was one of four versions of the painting. this is the only one privately held by family friends of the painter. it started out with five bidders. quickly narrowed down as it got up above 100 million bucks to two phone bidders on the phone. and it looked like it would top out at about $105 million. but at that price, the auctioneer could afford to give the bidders the luxury of time. here's a taste of the final bids. >> i shall sell it then. can i say i love you at $106 million? it's $1.6 million. $107 million. $107 million, charlie's bid against you stephan. i shall sell it then for the historic sum of $107 million. sold. thank you, charlie. >> thank you, charlie, very much. that was the hammer price. but with the commission, the world auction price, $119.9 million, soelt sales to the night, just over $330 million. williams capitals analyst calls it a great night for sotheby's but notes that last year's second-quarter earnings was a record for the auction house. they've got a very high hurdle to beat with next week's auction on tap. and even with the $12.9 million commission on "the scream," between the costs of marketing, it's not always clear just how much they actually make on one of these massive sales. but the benefits of the publicity ultimately helps with other sales. it brings in the premium buyers and the premium sellers. so it's one of those things that it's not a bad thing to have on your books, melissa. >> certainly is not. bertha, best of luck next time. >> yeah. >> bertha coombs. >> i think there's three others, right? there's four "screams." bertha still has a chance. >> i have my eye on a rothco. >> saving your millions for that. "the scream" is what we're tweeting about this morning. complete the sentence. if i'm paying 120 million bucks for something to hang on my wall, it better be able to, what? we've got your response throughout the morning. got to be able to make money, maybe? i don't know. a lot of options out there. p/e firm carlyle group set to start trading on the nasdaq. kayla tausche has all the details. >> carlyle group priced its ipo at the low end of an already lowered range at $22 a share. the alternative asset manager went on the road from coast to coast here in the u.s. and canada and throughout europe, marketing a range of $23 to $25 a share. that would have valued carlyle group at as much as $7.6 billion, a number that would still look like a discount compared to its peers. but the peers haven't traded well. both blackstone and apollo have never touch the price they ipo'd at. and based on where carlyle was able to price when the books closed on tuesdays, investors didn't think it was enough of a discount to guarantee the stock would go up for them. we'll watch to see what happens when it opens today. only 10% of the company is being floated in today's offering with a lion's share of the company still in the hands of the firm's three founders. even after the offering, william conway, daniel danello and david rubinstein will own 46% of the company and their stakes will be worth about $1 billion apiece. these founders are the last of theirs to try to monetize their companies. blackstone was taken public at the peak of the market in 2007. a reverse merger to get kkr in exchange in 2010. investors are appeased by the fact that none of carlyle's founders are selling shares in the deal. that's a sign the name plates that have given the firm clout in deals for years aren't going anywhere anytime soon. not to say if carlyle trades as well as they're hoping, they wouldn't seek to take some money off the table at a higher level. it's set to open in just about an hour. carl? >> kayla, it's david. wanted to get quickly in there. i know people who are offered the stock lower saying they thought they'd get the pop, that is the underwriters. let's not forget, carlyle does an enormous amount of business with wall street in its business. it's an important deal for the underwriters who are doing so much of the advising on their