alix: welcome to the most important hour of the session. 60 minutes left until the closing bell. i'm alix steel and this is "street smart." the dow off by more than 300 points as the global selloff radiates through markets. two big worry spots, greece and fears of the overheated market in china. breaking news in the past hour. antitrust lawyers are leaning against the comcast-time warner merger. those shares taking a hit on the news. we will have the latest developments. i will be speaking to the quirky c.e.o. on the company's first acquisition and partnership with mattel. "street smart" starts now.

here are the top stories we are watching ahead of the closing bell. president obama says the next round of talks with iran will require creative negotiations to reach a deal that has enforceable penalties if an agreement is violated. the president made those comments during a news conference with the italian prime minister today. president obama: our main concern is making sure if iran does not abide by its agreement that we do not have to jump through a bunch of hoops to reinstate sanctions. that is our main concern. i think that goal of having in reserve the possibility of putting back and applying forceful sanctions in the event of a violation, that goal can be met. alix: deutsche bank is

considering a partial or full exit a consumer banking operations according to a person with knowledge of the matter. it could be announced as soon as this month. another top story where watching, attorneys at the justice department antitrust division are said to be leaning against comcast's bid to buy time warner cable. the attorneys are concerned consumers would be harmed and could submit a review as early as next week. alex sherman joins us on the phone for more. what are the potential implications for both companies if the deal is blocked? alex: it is hard to say at this point. the easiest word i can say is chaos. i think if the deal is blocked a bunch of things unwind themselves assuming comcast does not go down the road of time to litigate this. if the deal becomes dead, by the way this is a great scoop by our

regulatory team, what happens is charter, which has made a side do with comcast, and a couple of weeks ago announced it is fine bright house, it walks back -- buying bright house, the bright house deal was contingent on time warner cable. charter which it originally tried to buy time warner probably comes back in as the only buyer. it is possible time warner could say we want to make a run of this by ourselves now it comcast is not buying us. maybe they don't want to do a deal with charter. i would say that ship may have sailed. it may be too late for time warner cable. they may be forced into doing some deal with charter because their shareholders won't stand for it. what is comcast do? does comcast decide they want other cable assets? maybe they want to buy bright house or go other another asset.

maybe they want to turn their sights elsewhere and do a big deal internationally. all these things are on the table. it blows the home media industry wide open. alix: like you said chaos. thank you, alex sherman. we have less than an hour until the close of trading. we want to get to the breaking news desk where scarlet fu is looking at all the action on the street. very significant downdraft in stocks. the s&p right around the lows of the session. scarlet: i will start with the size and scope on the decline. there are more than nine stocks lower for everyone up. for all three indices, it is the biggest a client in three weeks. in the s&p 500, all 10 groups are down. this is hardly limited to the u.s.. the exchange traded fund that tracks chinese shares is our best gauge of sentiment on china. it is off by more than 4% after

chinese regulators tightened rules on margin lending and made it easier for short-sellers to short stocks. it is not clear if greece and its creditors can reach a deal. germany's finance minister hinted as much. you don't want to hold your breath or any deal. bloomberg is reporting greece's creditors want to avoid what has been called a grexit. this is the world index. here is what happened early on last night. this is when asia opened for trading. we percolated here. europe opened for trading. we moved higher initially and drifted lower. this is when the u.s. stock market opened for trading. there is the leg lower. we have been heading steadily south. we have been drifting lower as the afternoon has gone on. the losses have deepened. you can argue, who wants to

belong heading into the weekend when there are so many questions regarding greece and china. chinese markets will open overseas on sunday night our time. a big question as to whether the valley continues or we will see a big rebound or give back of gains posted over the last couple of weeks. chinese stocks are among the best performing equities this year. the vicks has moved higher but still well below the long-term average of about 19. it is at 14.73 at the moment. nymex crude not the big story for a change. down 1.5%. financials are among the biggest decline is the best decliners. morgan stanley still has to report on monday. alix: greece is one of the anxieties fueling today's selloff. greek government bonds seeing their worst week since the government came to power in january.

investigators fleeing for the safety to get another record low. great creditors are said to be exploring every option to pull greece back from the brink. why the panic now? joining me is the president and c.i.o. of merck investments from san francisco and credit market specialist joining me in new york. welcome to this dramatic selloff day. what changed over the last 24 hours in greece to perpetuate this anxiety? >> nothing really. we are getting one step closer to judgment day. what is different about today is the sprints are widening. it is the first time in a long time the stress on spanish yields are widening. until now, there was no contagion. even now, you can argue whether it is contagion or not. i don't think we will see much because most of the debt is no longer held by financial

institutions. by all means, we are right for correction. stock markets are high. we have to credit greece for the trouble. alix: fair enough. we have been talking about how the markets are taking the potential greek issue in stride. you have a great chart today talking about credit default swaps and saying this time they are saying this is different. explain the chart to us. >> what you are looking at is the greek five-year cbs spread -- c.d.s. spread. that means if you want to bring this down to layman's terms, if you were to ensure a vehicle, he would have to pay 52% of the value of the car to ensure it for just one year of accident insurance. it does indicate a very high level of concern in the market. alix: what is the probability of

a default in the next five years? >> over the next five years, it is around 91%. according to the risk neutral and pied default probability. alix: that is extreme. it looks like institutional investors are saying this is severe and serious. what scenario do you think markets are pricing in? what is starting to get talked about? >> i think the default is the baseline scenario. what is interesting on a day like today, the euro is up rather than down. people say it is the funding currency because the interest rates are negative. the currency is no longer what is actually played. the liquidity is quite low in the c.d.s. market. greece's problems are mostly greece's.

varoufakis is wrong if he thinks this is a problem for everyone else. the problem of contagion is limited. alix: is the main street rhetoric echoing what he is saying, it is a greek problem and not a mainstream problem? >> there is some truth to that if you look at charts. in the past, it has been interesting. the news volume on greece has fluctuated in lockstep with five-year spreads. since the beginning of the year it has plateaued, the news volumes. and yet the spreads continue to rise. there is speculation about what that means. does that mean there is less concern, main street concern, about a greek default? alix: main street twitter not talking about it, but the market thinks something different. headed into the weekend,

negotiators will resume talks in brussels ahead of next week's finance minister meeting. what do you think the number one topic is? >> quite clearly, they are talking about greece. the head of the i.m.f. is saying we don't just need words. we need actions. we need to get our hands dirty and work on the numbers. that is not happening. the reason varoufakis is at ease in washington is because he is talking to politicians and academics. there he is at his best. when it comes down to the nitty-gritty, he is not doing the homework. part of that is he's a pro in game therapy -- game theory. i think he has gotten it wrong because the rest of the world may not care if he leaves. alix: thank you so much. axle you are sticking with me a little longer. chinese regulators stepping in to pull the stock market also contribute in to the global selloff. what is a homebuyer get for $25

million -- what does a homebuyer get for $25 million? i will ask the start of "million dollar listing new york." stay with us. ♪

alix: this is "street smart." i am alix steel. here are top stories ahead of the closing bell. teva is boring a takeover offer for mylan. it is a begins a move that would create a global, generic drug giant -- it is a move that would create a global-generic drug giant. china is building new harbors and airstrips on various reefs in the spratly islands. beijing has confirmed it will be used for military and civil purposes. several countries have been fighting over rights to the south china seas for centuries.

coca cola will buy a line of chinese protein drinks for $400 million and is expected to be cash for the deal. was largest beverage company is making a renewed push into the asian market after another takeover deal was blocked six years ago. markets getting hit hard for the carnage started in after-hours trading in china. futures were hit after regulators step into cool off the overheated market allowing investors to borrow shares for shortselling. with me to discuss, axel merk, and the chief strategist at silver crest asset management. patrick, what happens when markets open? patrick: it shows this is so fragile. i don't know what will hope when markets open on monday because they have the weekend, the chinese government, to shore up the market. this is a market that has been fueled by margin lending.

there has been an explosion of margin lending over the past year. about a quarter of a trillion dollars has gone in. every time the chinese government hints at regulating that in some way, the market shutters. i think it shows how fragile the gains are the market is seeing. it was not just about market lending pretty was about making shares available to short. it seems they want the market to come down after the rally. axel: the problem china has is there are so few avenues which you can invest in. it used to be housing, precious metals, the stock market. unless the economy is more open to investment, these things are going to happen. luckily, the banking system is maturing.

for the time being, everyone will rush on the same trend. momentum trading is popular in the u.s. and china. we see the volatility that comes from that. patrick: chinese regulators are talking out of both sides of their mouth. on one hand, they are trying to rein in the excesses. earlier on friday, china's s.e.c. was talking up the market. they said if you think you are too late, you are not, it will keep going up. it is interesting to have a regulator talk that way. alix: the chinese government has been saying buy shares in hong kong. patrick: they want a correction without a correction. they realized there are excesses, they try to rein that in. they try to have it both ways. axel: the best short-term policy is good long-term policy. you have to make the markets more mature.

wiggling around will not cut it in the long run. margins are very high. they're cutting it down. i don't think they will try to come to the rescue of the market. when it crashes more, maybe they come in. they need a longer term plan. alix: what are the global repercussions? we have the futures market down 5%. it can spread. axel: of course, it can spread. it is not greece people are worried about. it is a few speculators in china people are worried about. the market was rising on good and bad news. the market can come down on good and bad news. we have high valuations. volatility has been low. volatility has to rise as the federal reserve is trying to engineer an exit. it is good to blame it on the chinese. patrick: it is a catalyst but not a cause. alix: this issue is not going away. thank you for joining us.

president obama and president castro launched a new era in the relationship between the u.s. and cuba. not everyone is happy about it. we will look at why it is leaving a bad taste in some republicans' mouths. ♪

alix: u.s. and cuba are on the road to being friends again. president obama intends to take cuba off the terrorism list. congress has a month and a half to decide if it wants to stop that process. one congressman that may be looking to block that is republican florida congressman who joins us now from miami to explain why he thinks it is a bad idea. thank you for joining us. why do you hate it so much? congressman: good afternoon. the president's actions with regard to cuba fit in with the

rest of his foreign policy agenda. bread lines in syria were ignored. the famous russian reset resulted in disaster. sanctions relief for iran in exchange for nothing. now a gift to the cuban government where the government is getting little or nothing. in exchange for alan gross, a hostage the cuban government held unjustly for five years in a cruel way, the united states has given up three convicted spies that had to process rights in the united states full diplomatic relations, sanctions relief, and now removing cuba in a political decision, removing cuba from a list where it belongs. we have to remember the cuban government still collaborates still harbors terrorists. there are fugitives of u.s. law living in cuba. what are we going to get out of these negotiations? alix: the countries left on the list are iran, sudan, and syria. is cuba as bad as those three?

how can you make that case? congressman: cuba has close ties to iran. ahmadinejad was in cuba in 2007 and with fidel castro, they said we will bring the united states down on its knees. cuba was caught shipping arms illegally to north korea 18 months ago while the white house was conducting these secret negotiations that it did not reveal to congress until later on. this is no friend of the united states. there are people living in cuba today who have murdered u.s. law enforcement officers. these are things we ought to take seriously. alix: we do have pope francis considering adding a stop to cuba on his visit to the u.s. it would be the third pope since 1998. you are catholic. if he does that, does that support ties to cuba? would you follow your leader of the church? congressman: i hope pope francis goes to cuba. i am a big fan of pope francis.

even though we may disagree on policy to cuba, i know pope francis condemns the conduct of the cuban government. pope francis condemns the chronic human rights abuses in cuba. pope francis wants cuba to stop supporting some of the most dangerous enemies of freedom and democracy throughout the world. alix: what kind of reassurances would you need to see if we saw cuba removed off the list? congressman: the cuban government must stop collaborating with america's worst enemies. alix: they have denounced terrorism. what other reassurances would you need? congressman: the casters have been in power for 56 years. they are both in their 80's. do we believe they have changed? no, governments like cuba, syria, are not interested in peace. they are interested in survival. the united states has got nothing out of negotiations with

cuba. the united states has got nothing out of negotiations with iran. alix: thank you for joining us. we have to leave it there. coming up, how fracking could because in cancer. we will be right back. ♪

alix: here are the top stories we are watching ahead of the closing bell. teva pharmaceuticals is exploring a takeover offer from mylan. it is a potential move that would create a global generic drug giant. teva has not made a formal approach yet although mylan is aware of interest. blackrock pays for larry think 23 million in 2014. this according to a filing that

catholic -- calculates pay. blackrock is the world's largest money manager. chevron is said to be sending a rare export of american crude oil to asia. the type of crude being shipped does not meet normal quality specifications and is not regularly exported since the 90's. chevron is the second largest publicly traded oil company in the world. 30 minutes until the close of trading. we want to get back to the breaking news desk where scarlet fu is looking at three movers. scarlet: bloomberg is reporting teva is looking into buying mylan. it has been long speculated because it makes sense. these are the two biggest generic drugmakers. this would not be tax inversion deal because all parties are incorporated outside the u.s. teva is based in israel. mylan is incorporated in the

netherlands and has a market cap of $33 billion. mylan made an unsolicited bid of almost $29 billion to buy the other company. some are saying that is a trigger for teva to act before mylan becomes bigger. teva and mylan or higher on a day when almost everyone is lower. the deal had been approved by shareholders. another deal may come undone because of regulators. we are talking about comcast and time warner cable. bloomberg is reporting department of justice antitrust lawyers are leaning towards blocking comcast's plan to buy time warner cable. they are lower on the news. they are lower along with the broader market. if you look at other media companies, there are a lot of moving parts. people are saying if comcast does in that buying time warner cable, what does that mean? all of these other stocks are

lower in line with the overall weakness in the broader market. alix: thank you. does fracking cause cancer? is fracking bad for us? it is a debate that rages throughout the energy community. a new study from the school of public health throws more fuel on the fire. it says fracking could be causing rising levels of cancer -causing radon gas in pennsylvania. joining us now is one of the co-authors from san francisco, a research fellow at the robert wood johnson health foundation and scholar at u.s.c.f. your study created a lot of controversy. what were the big points? >> what we saw was looking at nearly one million indoor basement radon measurements from 1989 through 2013, we saw a radon levels fluctuating in the early 1990's through the early 2000's.

around 2004, we saw levels increasing statewide. we also saw radon levels increasing more rapidly in counties that had more of the unconventional natural gas development than in counties that did not have fracking. alix: what is radon? why is it so bad for us? >> radon is a problem. it comes from uranium, which is a radioactive material. preyed on is a gas that can get into homes and get trapped there -- radon is a gas they can get into homes and get trapped there. when inhaled, it can cause cancer. it is a known risk factor. alix: radon increased in parts of pennsylvania that had no fracking. why would that be? is there a distinction between correlation and causation? >> yes definitely. the main way radon gets into homes is from the soil underneath the buildings. buildings on top of ground that has a lot of uranium are going to have higher levels of radon.

there are parts of pennsylvania that have high levels of uranium in the soil but don't have fracking. you would expect to see those places have high levels of radon inside homes, which we do see. but aside from that, we have a situation where this industry could be exacerbating some known pathways because radon can also dissolve in water and get into homes. it has been found in natural gas. the industry has the potential to increase some of these pathways into homes. that is what we were trying to look at with our study. alix: there is a 2015 department of environment protection report that try to develop what you said. there is little potential for additional radon exposure to the public from the marcellus shale, which is what is in pennsylvania. the only sample -- they only sampled a handful of wells but did direct samples. what is your response to this criticism, that theirs is more accurate? >> they did a very important

study. i think it is important complement to ours. what they found is reassuring. they took the polar opposite approach to what we did. they went to 34 wells and did careful sampling. they looked at the natural gas coming out of the wells. they took ambient air samples. they looked at the liquids coming out of the ground after fracking occurred. they did not find concerning levels of radon in those 34 wells. our concern was there has been over 7000 wells drilled in the state since 2005. thinking about the key relative impact of the fracking industry looking at just 34 wells does not seem sufficient to us. the could be about the hundreds of wealth surrounding buildings. we used nearly one million measurements, used big data to look at long-term trends. alix: it will be continuing, a hotly contested debate. thank you for bringing us your findings.

the united states produces more than a third of the world's corn supply. while returning abroad to import it -- why are we turning abroad to import it? we will discuss that in two minutes. ♪

alix: we eat $36 billion worth of organic food a year. the sector is growing three times faster than overall food sales. most of the corn grown in the u.s. is bioengineered. that means we have a lot of demand for again at food and not enough eligible supply. joining me to discuss, bloomberg news reported from washington. on the phone, we have the director of organic and sustainable agriculture. thank you both for joining me. where do we get organic corn from if not the u.s.? >> the majority of organic corn does come from the u.s.

but you would think all of it could. the u.s. is the world's largest grower and exporter of corn, and yet we have to bring it in from exotic places. the organic trade association was looking at government data and found going back the last couple of years the number one source for organic corn to the u.s. is romania. why romania? well, one of the requirements for organic corn is it not have genetically modified material. romania is largely a non-g.m.o. country. they meet the organic threshold they are making money. alix: you have to buy organic corn. where do you get it from? do you have to go to romania to get it? >> stonyfield works with farmers who have to purchase that organic corn, so we are not purchasing it directly. but we know our farmers are struggling to find enough organic grain in the domestic market and a lot of the grain available to them is coming from

overseas. in the northeast, a lot of it comes through canada. we know the grain coming through canada probably came from romania or one of a number of other places. alix: what is the problem? why is it so hard for us to fulfill organic corn needs in the u.s.? >> that is a great question. we have been looking closely at that trying to understand why more growers are not taking advantage of this market opportunity because we know prices for organic corn and soy are three or four times what they are in the conventional market. you would think that would be a big incentive for growers to transition. but there is a couple of things. we know we need more research on how farmers can control weed pressure. we know in some places, there is not a clear path to market for again a grain. there may not be infrastructure for an organic farmer to clean,

dry, and store the grain to keep it segregated from the conventional grains to get to market. we are trying to address the challenge from a lot of different angles. alix: how do we know the organic corn we are getting from romania is actually organic corn? >> that is an excellent question. the usda has a certification process that goes across the world. if you are an organic corn grower in romania, you can be in touch with the usda and people will come over and certify your practices. some countries will be audited more closely because organic is important marketing product. alix: we will have increased scrutiny over imports of organic corn. what are the solutions we can do to help farmers grow organic corn in the u.s.? >> i think we need to be investing more in research and into technical assistance.

providing resources to the farmers who do want to transition to help them understand the new practices they will need to adopt. and then i think industry needs to be making an effort to make clearer connections with farmers so they understand what the market opportunities are, what types of grain we are looking for. a lot of farmers are not clear on where they would market this organic grain. providing that information is important. i think there needs to be investment in infrastructure as well so that grain has a clear path to market. alix: when you go around to farms and farmers, what is the solution they need to seek to transform their crops? >> one of the things they talk about a lot is there is a three-year transition where a conventional farmer has to be practice free before they can be certified as organic. that is a yield loss where they do not have the organic benefit.

getting through that three years is important for u.s. farmers. then it is a matter of looking at marketplace factors. prices for conventional corn have been good. now that corn prices are declining, folks in the organics industry say they're getting more questions from farmers wondering if this is the time to make a switch. alix: thank you for joining us. coming up next, stocks still deep in the red. the dow jones is off by 260 points. at one point, we were down over 300 points. the s&p coming off mildly off the lows of the session. the nasdaq the hardest hit by far, off by almost 1.5%. we will break down the origins of today's selloff when we come back. ♪

alix: here are the top stories ahead of the closing bell. president obama trying to sway skeptics. he warns the u.s. cannot reach

trade deals with other pacific nations, china will set up rules and put american businesses and workers at as it --at a disadvantage. consumer prices increased the second consecutive quarter after falling through much of the winter. investors are looking for signs inflation is rising as the fed considers interest rate hikes. we are minutes away from the closing bell. we are seeing stocks continuing to tumble, the biggest trading drop in three weeks. what is behind the perfect storm we are seeing in today's trading? the ubs senior equity strategist joins us to discuss. what was the catalyst for today? >> i think the fact that nobody can pinpoint a concrete catalyst to me means it is probably mostly positioning. if we had to pick one i would say it was the new chinese regulations or rumors of chinese regulations about clamping down

on speculation in the chinese stock market. that with trepidation about greece, though seem to be the things people are pointing to most as the catalyst. alix: we did see futures in china decline about 5% once we got the new regulatory rules. fundamentally what is the deal? >> fundamentally, things are fine. we are in the beginning of earnings season. only about 10% of the s&p 500 has reported. earnings are coming in decent. i think the big fear was we were were going to see currency induced mrs. by multinationals. we are seeing companies that are lowering estimates because of currency are seeing their stock prices go up because the underlying trends are pretty good. i think there has been a lot of fear going into earnings season. what we are seeing is companies are delivering better than expected. alix: across the board, you have amex, netflix, intel all warning. >> if you look at nike oracle,

all those companies had big dollar headwinds also and the stocks went up nicely after they reported. alix: we had a 300-point rally in the dow, money going into treasuries, the dollar is relatively flat. where do you go? >> we view this as an opportunity. i am still bullish on the markets. i think you will see gains the moderate this year. it will mostly be driven by improvement in earnings growth. if you strip out energy and the dollar, i think you will see earnings growth of mid-single-digit that is likely to continue and accelerate in the second half of the year. that is likely to move stocks higher. i would say this is a buying opportunity. alix: are certain sectors going to benefit more? we don't strip out energy on the upside. >> it is true, but energy has already taken the hit. everybody knows energy earnings will be bad.

they are coming in bad. the fact that oil is bouncing has given that sector a bit. in terms of opportunities, i think tech looks interesting. you have reasonable valuations companies exposed to nice secular drivers in terms of big data and mobility. most important, we are finally seeing signs of life in europe in terms of european profits. if european companies start to spend more on hiring as well as i.t. infrastructure that will be a nice tailwind for u.s. tech companies. alix: your so-called -- you are so calm on a day when we are down. >> we are only down 1.7% from the all-time high. i think it is important to keep things in perspective. alix: perspective, wants to be a buyer intact, likes the u.s. he is staying with me for the close. the close is next on "street smart." the dow is now off by 1.5%. the s&p is off about 1%.

we will be back in a few minutes. ♪

alix: welcome to our viewers around the globe. you are watching bloomberg television. i am alix steel and this is "street smart." global shares tumbling the most in three weeks. investors betting on how fed officials may interpret signs. first quarter revenue fell short of analyst estimates. a persistent cloud hanging over the market greece's debt negotiations. let's get to scarlet fu at the

breaking news desk. we are seeing stocks climb a little off the lows as we head into the close. scarlet: just a little bit. this is still very much a big drop for the major indexes, the biggest in three weeks. we did get a pick up in volume that we were looking for the last couple of sessions. trading is at least 20% above the 10-day average. you have macro and micro worries hanging over investors. there are the greece default concerns that will not go away anytime soon. chinese regulators tightening rules in china after the market close. and a spate of earnings in the united states all conspiring to push u.s. stocks lower following losses in europe. oil is dropping about 1.5%. you are seeing that move into safe havens. the 10-year yield fell to as low as 4.9 basis points. that is incredible. what is not consistent with this

off day is the euro. it is strengthening above $1.08. alix: thank you for a look at the markets. i am joined by u.b.s. wealth management senior investment strategist, and the chief intelligence analyst. are we finally seeing markets coming down to the weaker g.d.p. growth? >> what is interesting is every time we have bad news, it seems like stocks get a bit because it is creating expectations the fed will move later. eventually, it should catch up. if we are looking at sluggish growth, earnings expectations are reduced. stocks valuations slip as well. maybe there's some of that reality. in terms of today's move, it seems it got moving in asia picked up momentum in asia, and follow through to the u.s.

i don't think today's move was a reflection of new insights into the economy. alix: also joining us is chief economist from sterne agee thanks for joining us. do you agree this is sort of a one-off selloff in the markets not necessarily reflective of the weaker g.d.p.? >> i think there is an underlying weakness not acknowledged by the marketplace. where seen a lot of optimism carry over from the middle part of last year with back-to-back quarters of above expected g.d.p. since then, nearly every sector of the economy has slowed. i think the market is slowly starting to come to grips that we may not be out of the woods yet, and the fed may be forced to delay a rate increase until next year. alix: you want to buy. you like tech. you think this is a buying opportunity. how do you combat with these great economists are saying? >> we are seeing slower data. i think a lot is temporary. there has been a lot of talk about reports and the weather.

what has been underappreciated is the indirect effects of energy and gas slow down. we are seeing it from industrial companies. it is broader them we thought initially. companies that don't have direct exposure to oil and gas spending are seeing a slowdown in their business. that is temporary. once we get through this in the first quarter, second quarter maybe, you'll see the underlying trends i think get a bit better. on top of that, the boost to consumer spending from lower energy prices i think is really yet to be very clearly evident in the economy. that's another thing that should help us on the way up. andy: you heard the closing bill -- andy: you heard the closing bill. the dow looked to be closing down by about 1.5%. at one point the dow was down by over 300 points. alix: so finishing off the lows of the session. the nasdaq also off by 1.5%, down by almost 76 points. and the s&p off by a little over 1%. the s&p falling for two straight days, looking at its lowest

level since the beginning of april. so nevertheless a quite dramatic slide for the markets today. we also want to take a look here at the 10-year yield. the yield falling below 1.86% today as well. so money moving in to the treasury market. for a look at the day's biggest movers in the stock market, we want to get to to to our chief market correspondent at the breaking news desk. give me names here that stood out. reporter: i'm going to mix it up a little bit here. as i look at the most active stocks by value, it's a sea of red. apple's down, comcast down g.e. down, facebook down. i want to focus on a couple names that are gaining. that defied the market selloff. let's begin with netflix. building on yesterday's 18% rally. a new record high hee fournette flicks. there's really been a rerating of this company. it's up 64% over the past three months after netflix's fourth quarter earnings report convinced investors the international ghost story is going to be a significant driver of revenue soon.

bristol meyers also seeing its biggest gain in six weeks on an encouraging cancer drug study. so that stock also defying the declines overall. and matel. posting a smaller than expected loss last quarter. sales declined at two important units. barbie and fisher price have slowed down. it's not as bad as anticipated. that was good for a 5.8% advance. the other gainers in the market, as you might expect teva is looking to acquire mylan. this is not new news. but new reporting shows that discussions are taking place. andy: giving us those positive -- alix: giving us those positive moments. it's a rehash here. we're looking at stocks, looking at the worst day since march 25. you have the vix also jumping the most in three weeks. so more volatility coming. as we see stocks falling off. the s&p sectors finishing in the

red. all dow numbers finishing in the red. really a global selloff end to out the week. joining me to help break it down is a chief economist. u.b.s. financial strategist and bloomberg chief economist. lots of factors here behind the selloff. let's go through them. we have greek officials struggling to reach an agreement before athens faces payments of over $1 billion. chinese regulators curbing margin trading in markets. and u.s. consumer prices starting to firm. drilling a little deeper into the c.p.i. here, does this take the disinflation worry off the table? guest: if we only look at the c.p.i. numbers, maybe it does. but actually if we look at the other data out today, which was the mark -- or the april preliminary read on consumer sentiment, the long-term inflation expectations component of that survey, and this has

been a point of pride for the fed, they're looking at this disinflationary period we've been through, they said, well, long-term inflation had expectations have been well anchored. they weren't well anchored today. they slipped basically back to the lows of the cycle. we haven't basketball lower since -- been lower since 2002. the fed is going to say, well, the measured inflation numbers may be moving sideways or edging slightly higher, but households' perceptions of inflation expectations are potentially rolling over. one report does not make a trend. but this certainly is something we should be paying very close attention to going forward. alix: does that wind up changing the environment and does the market sort of look at that right now? guest: the market is looking at that. as we know they've already pushed out their expectation. remember it was by the end of last year. well, starting 2010 and 2011 pushing out to the end of 2014. it was in the first three months of 2015, then march, june september. as you pointed out, it's not only the c.p.i., it's the p.p.i. p.c.e. inflation

expectations coupled with a just so-so momentum in the labor market. headline momentum has slowed from an average pace last quarter to 325,000 down to under 200,000 across the first three months of the year. this is going to make it very difficult for the fed to make a case of any sense of immediacy to raise rates. alix: what was your first quarter forecast for g.d.p.? guest: 1.2%. guest: what i was going to say is as we look at the c.p.i. there's not broad-based inflation pressures. if you look, there's really one hot driver of the c.p.i., of the core c.p.i., and that's rent. so we have very low vacancy rates because there's not been a lot of construction. household income prospects have been improving. if you look at rental inflation it's running at 3.5%. if you look everywhere else in the c.p.i. not much inflation. alix: of course a federal reserve official also looking at all of this data. and today, and this week really reinforcing forecasts the central bank will wait until

september to tighten. the atlanta fed president and boston fed president saying a recent run of weak economic data makes them wary of racing interest rates too soon -- raising interest rates too soon. when you have to put money to work, how do you monitor what the fed says one day and then says the other day and when they may or may not raise rates and that? guest: as carl's been saying, i think the bigger picture is the -- is what to focus on. the bigger picture is we're in a pretty disinflationary environment. the dollar's stronger. that means our imports are generally lower in price. you clearly have the oil impact that's still rippling through things. and we're not seeing a pickup in significant increase in wages. yes, there are pockets of it at the lower end of the labor market. but if you look at the broad brush statistics, we're not seeing any real acceleration in wage gains. that to me says the fed has plenty of time to wait if they need to. alix: does that change your investment thesis? guest: it does. i think the timing of when they do start to raise and why

they're raising is very important. if they're raising rates because they want to stave off inflation, that's a whole different story than if they're raising rates to try to normalize from these very low rates. and if they start to worry about inflation, that's a different outlook for stocks. it's not what we're focused on at this point. i don't think that's likely in the next few quarters. but at some point that probably will happen and that's going to be a different environment for stocks. alix: we have seen sort of market expectations for where rates will go differ from what the fed thinks. much more pessimistic when it comes to the markets. which one plays catchup? do the fed rezz adjustment to the -- feds readjust to the market? guest: the fed themselves are readjusting. as we saw in the march summary of economic projections they lowered their forecast for rates by over 50 basis points. remember too that the fed is consistently overly optimistic. they overshoot reality in terms of growth by 100 to 300 basis points. they overshoot inflation by 200 to 300 basis points. so the fed too has this build---

built-in optimism that they'll have to adjust down to focus on reality and the markets will have to adjust to that as well. alix: one of the big catalysts is the deal with china. you had beijing banning margin trading businesses, brokerages from using so-called umbrella trusts. and also allowing -- so wanting investors to short shares. the change follows advances on the shanghai and hong kong stock exchanges that were at tremendous highs. what does this kind of rally, this kind of government interference, i'll say, in a stock market in china do to us here at home? gus: this is the big dilemma for the -- guest: this is the big dilemma for the chyneels. everyone's scratching their heads wonder if the valuations in the chinese equity markets are fair. i don't have a strong view on that. certainly the chinese economy is slowing down and they're trying to manage the two processes here. we saw a very significant market

reaction when they did make the changes today. and then you have greece problems in europe. so it was just a bit of a perfect storm. alix: the ball rolling over there. when you wake up in the morning on sunday, what -- are you look at china? are you worried about their market opening? guest: i think it's going to be important to watch what's going on. i do think, though taking a step back, i think what we're see something probably a little bit of just profit-taking called a mini deleveraging. i think a lot of people were on this bullish china trade and now they have to rethink about that and that seemed to have a knock-on effect and also european stocks have been doing well. i think we're seeing a little bit of profit-taking. what's going to be more important for me is the earning season and i think that's been the -- what's been powering the market this whole six years and the fact that we think we're going to continue to see good earnings gains going forward. that's going to be bullish. alix: funny you mention earning seasons. a busy week for wall street. china -- tomorrow we get china property prices. sunday the markets, the end ma

-- markings the end of the imf -- i.m.f. world bank meetings. and we're to not done. that's just the beginning of the week. alix: david's laughing about the laundry list of stuff and we have earnings. morgan stanley halliburton i.b.m. yahoo!, you read them there. we have a ton. what's the most important thing you're going to be looking at next week? guest: from the economic calendar standpoint, i think durable goods is going to be a key indicator. as we know, as we've talked about, business investment, business spending has been on the decline, on an annual basis. orders have been flat. excluding defense and aircraft

orders. so it's really going to give a tell-tale sign to what the underlying momentum is as we look out to the second quarter and beyond. our business -- are businesses beginning to ramp up spending or are we still in this negative malaise think? expect the ladder. i expect businesses will continue -- latter. i expect businesses will continue to pull back on investment as we see the consumers still on uneven footing. alix: a little negative and optimism over there. you're in the middle. guest: looking for positive gains in durable goods orders. they're continually disappointed. i think we see another disappointment on friday. i'm in the same camp. alix: we'll leave it at that. thanks for joining me. i appreciate it. thank you for being with me today. after the break, i'm going to talk to loonled's reigning queen of venture capital about the e.u.'s message to google. plus, i'll be joined by the star of bravo's million-dollar listings in new york and we're going to get his take on the manhattan real estate market.

♪

alix: this is "street smart with trish regan." here are the top stories we're watching after the closing bell. apple's c.e.o. has the best pay for performance rating of any c.e.o. that's according to the bloomberg pay index. the first daily ranking of the highest paid u.s. executives. cook was awarded $62.5 million in compensation last year and under his leadership apple revenue has climbed to $183 billion. title has named an interim c.e.o. replacing andy chen. he oversaw title under its prior owner, rapper jay-z, and more than a fellow -- dozen fellow musicians bought the company. and the justice department is nearing a recommendation to block comcast's $45 billion proposal to buy time warner cable. attorneys are investigating whether a new nationwide cable

giant would harm consumers. the attorneys could submit their review as soon as next week. joining me now over the phone is a partner at london-based venture capital firm to discuss. what is your take here if a comcast-time warner deal does not go through? what happens? guest: i think what happens is what people have been used to for years anyway. it's just that it's so funny, this has been in the works for so long, everyone was expecting that it was a done deal. in general i think it's probably better for consumers frankly. the merger will have meant that the single company would cover more than half of television subscribers, cable subscribers in all of the country. that can't be good for competition and for better services it. wasn't going to be good for streaming services. you can argue whether or not they're get to go big. but in general i think leaving them independent is going to be better for consumers, probably not as good for shareholders. alix: absolutely. a reporter described it as

potential chaos. what do you think the solution then is for the companies? can time warner actually go it alone at this point? guest: they're going to have to and figure out how to innovate aggressively internally or look at different kinds of services. maybe it's streaming directly or maybe it's just going to be one or the other, whether it's cable or satellite. or broadband. and just kind of take one specter at a time. as opposed introduce toy -- opposed to trying to combine with their competitor and partnering and blowing everyone else out of the water. ip i -- alix: i want to get your take on this. google has been under the gun in brussels. trying to fight this antitrust probe. what does this wind up meaning for the tech industry in europe? does it change how you view companies' opportunities? guest: i have a lot of mixed feelings. i kind of understand the sentiment coming from europe but

sitting here in london while i see ourselves as the hub of what's happening in europe and european tech, i am a little bit appalled by the action. i think there's been a lot of anti-american sentiment coming from europe and coming from brussels. on the other hand, i see the u.s. federal trade commission itself three years ago also made a recommendation to sue google on at least three bases and there was a lot of questions about why it passed on that and how it reached some kind of an agreement with google in order to not proceed with filings. so the question then is whether europe's rhetoric is intentionally strong and intentionally aggressive in order to try and set the stage for a similar type of agreement. or if it's just being blindly antagonistic and saying, listen, we don't want you being so big and so influential here. alix: you have some great perspective because you've worked at unihood, skype, open wave, sun, apple. huge tech companies throughout the world. who is next for brussles? guest: that's the thing. if we continue to make really

great internet and tech companies here in europe, that will be what satisfies european regulators. they won't see it as just a patriotic or nationalistic type of mission against say american companies or perhaps companies coming from airborne yafment i think we can do that and you mention -- asia. i think we can do that. you mentioned skype. that was only ever in europe. swedish founders danish co-founder. businesses operations based in london. never, ever went to america. and i think we just need more success stories like that. then i think the european regulaters will start to doubledown a bit. alix: google obviously huge dominance in android and desk top publishing and there's so much more to come from this as well. thank you so much. it was so great to get your perspective. coming up next on "street smart with trish regan," banks not lending to your small business? we may have the answer to your

fast funding needs. we're going to look at the kayak of fast business lend coming up next. ♪

alix: call it the kayak.com of small business lending. it's an online marketplace that provides companies easy access to nonbank lending. launching this week it aims to lend to companies that need $100,000 or less it. allows them to compare funding choices for many source and get their money within days. joining me now is the founder and merchant cash and capital founder which owns bizfi. thanks for joining us. what kind of reception have you received? what sectors seem to be most interested in these kind of loans?

guest: the product has been really well received. we've had tremendous interest from restaurants. auto parts and repairs. nail salons. construction companies. and just a whole myriad of businesses. alix: why do you think this kind of lend something popular right now? why can't these guys just go to bank? guest: i think that since the recession of 2008 and 2009 banks have had a really hard time lending to small businesses. whether they're still concerned about the losses that they took or the new regulatory environment that they're in. since that time, so much capital has come in to our space in the technological innovation has made the user experience so good and so easy, that it's really just been a great opportunity for borrowers to come and get money very easily and quicker. alix: what's the average loan that you're seeing? guest: we go from $5,000 to $500,000. but the average is approximately $50,000. alix: and what do people wind up doing with that? $50,000 from an ex pandsing your

business standpoint doesn't seem like that much. guest: the average is $50,000. but people are using it now mostly for expansion or growth purposes. whether it's to take another location, to upgrade some equipment, to put in a new line. and some business owners are just using it to deal with seasonality or sickly calt that they face. alix: what's the average interest rate payment on these loans? guest: it ranges from s.b.a. lenders who have -- who start at around 4% and 5% up to equipment finance companies and factors and cash lends that are are in the high teens or low 20's it. really depends on the credit worthiness. alix: that's huge. high teens. that's an enormous interest rate payment. these are small businesses. how can they afford to kind of repay that? guest: i'm talking about the effective yield to the borrower. if you look at the fact that the interest rates that traditional alternative finance companies are providing, whether it's

equipment finance companies or a.r. factors, that's been the rate for years and years. it's nothing new. alix: what's the risk to the lenders? guest: the risk to the lender is that they have to get comfortable with the borrower and rely on their credit models and decision engines so that they can provide funding within hours. which is a huge change from what it used to be. alix: what kind of risk are are they having in terms of not getting their money back? guest: most of the default rates have held up to their traditional levels. we collect around 93% to 94% of every $1 that's owed to us. alix: anything change when the fed hikes rates? guest: i don't think there will be any change to the borrowers. our cost of capital will go up slightly. but we don't plan on passing that cost on to the business owner. alix: thanks so much for joining us, sheding this light on nonbank lending. next if you have an idea for

making a better barbie or hot wheels car mattel wants to hear about it. i'll tell you how a new platform is giving consumers the power to become investors. nudenoul -- ♪

alix: welcome back to "street smart." here are the top stories that we're watching after the closing bell. teva pharmaceuticals is exploring a takeover offer from mylan. that's according to people with knowledge of the matter. they haven't made a formal approach yet. inflation may be picking up. the core cost of living rose .2% in march, the third tonight in a row. on a year-over-year basis, ex cludesing food and energy costs, rose 1.%. president obama said the next round of talks with iran will require creative thinking. the u.s. and its negotiating partners will be discussing how sanctions with iran will be eased if an agreement isn't met

by june 30. big selloff on wall street today. the major averages suffering their worst day of losses in a month. a sea of red all across the board. our chief markets correspondent is at the breaking news desk with a recap of all the action. take me through some of the damage that we saw. reporter: we've all been wove into this false sense of security. the slow grinds higher even in the face of a lot of headwinds. waiting for the other shoe to drop for weeks now. they kind of did today. i say they because you had three factors. you had greece default concern, china, as well as a strefpk -- string of unimpressive earnings. today's selloff all but erased the dow's gains for the year. now little changed in 2015. volume did pick up with trading in the nasdaq, s&p and dow up 20% above the 10-day average. keep an eye on what happens in china over the weekend. sentiment has turned south on chinese stocks after regulators there tighten some rules on margin loads. also made it easier to short

sell stocks there. of course this news came after chinese stocks closed so the best gauge we have on what might happen on monday, sunday night, monday morning our time, is the f.x.i. this is the e.t.f. that tracks large cap chinese stocks it. plunged more than 4% after yesterday, making a seven-year high. the question is, did regulators pop the stock bubble or did they just find way to let some air out of it? we're not really sure yet we won't know really until the coming days. let's also point out where the vix ended. this measures the cost of protecting against declines in the s&p. it did top 15 at one point this afternoon it. closed off its highs and just below 14. just below 14, it's stillwell above the average of -- excuse me i'm getting my numbers mixed up. it's below the average of 14.5 over the last 12 months. we've seen volatility come down over the past year. alix: unbelievable. thanks so much. staying on top of a story that

we're watching very closely, attorneys of the justice department's anti-trust division are said to be leaning against comcast's bid to buy time warner cable. our bloomberg west editor at large is in san francisco to give us the latest on the reports. obviously if this didn't go through, it would strongly effect comcast and time warner. who else would it truly hurt? reporter: so if the deal were to go through, the potential to hurt any provider of content whether it's hulu or netflix, yahoo!, you know, youtube, you name, it any of the other companies that are trying to create innovative new programs and want to get it through the pipes of comcast it's more difficult when you're competing against a massive company and what comcast-time warner would be. the ownership of the nbc universal assets are crucial to. that just their ability to de-decide what you get and how you get it is much more difficult. the big deal for anyone who is in the content side of things. but it's also a big deal for

companies in the enterprise business. because companies that are selling the networking gear, the routers, the optical switches and the things that time warner's buying when they make their decisions and comcast is buying different stuff, a combined company, cost cast-time warner, would save over $1 billion in expenses. that's money they might have been spending, for example, on some of that enterprise technology. this could be a big win for those companies which will still continue to get business from the separate companies. alix: thanks so much. let's shift now to design and engineering. the company quirky wants to help invent the next product that will you not be able to live without. founded in 2009, quirky teams up as an in-house design unit with an online community of inventors. quirky products are already on shelves at home depot, best buy, amazon, target kind of have -- what this are they? the extension plugs -- the power

strips. moveble power strips. that is what they invented. i love those moveble power strips. thank you. guest: no problem. alix: thank you for inventing them. you actually announced partnership with mattel yesterday. what does that entail for you guys? guest: we're really excited to kind of take all these ideas that we've been getting since we launched in 2009 we've gotten 15,000 toy ideas. but we struggled as a company to launch a product in the toy category because the toy category is so sort of dependent on brand and distribution and things like this. we sort of waited and we kind of took a page out of our success of working with g.e. and decided to hook up with the best brand in toys, mattel. and yesterday we put out the call to action to our community of 1.2 million inventers to start playing. start making toys. alix: finding new growth in hot wheels and barbie or is this creating a wlole new line?

guest: it could mean either of those things. our community gets to to share those ideas. we take those ideas to our partner in mattel with the hopes of commercializing lots of them. alix: yesterday was also a big day for you because it was your first acquisition right? earlier this week. a big week for you. guest: we had an ok week. alix: you bought undercurrent. what is the company? guest: it was a pretty cool thing. undercurrent is a consultsy that works with the largest companies in the world. companies like pepsi and american express g.e. etc. to help them move faster and invent better. when we sort of looked at our business model which traditionally was making manufacturing and selling products all on our own and realized there was this huge opportunity to serve corporations, do corporate invention, we realized we needed a company to help us sort of service those clients and that's the role undercurrent is going to play. with our relationship that we announced with mattel, they're going to help mattel move faster and listen to the community and

the same thing with harmon. we're working with them in the audio category. g.e. in lighting. undercurrent's going to be sort of the rocket fuel that all of our corporate invention partners are going to be able to leverage. alix: but this is different for you guys. when you started off you were like, no way no partnerships, now you have three. what changed for new your business model? guest: guilty as charged. we started and we were pretty selfish about our community. we wanted to take their ideas and bring them all the way to market. we thought we could build a consumer product brand across is it 12 different categories. what we realized is in certain categories we had scale and in certain categories we didn't and in the categories where we didn't have scale we realized that we wanted to have the best partners in the world. alix: i talked about my favorite product which is the moveble power strip. what's your favorite? guest: mine to date is really the g.e. air condition that are we did last summer. we're here with it.

where you can set a budget and turn it on and off with your phone. alix: cool. set a budget for my air conditioner. interesting. great to have you. thanks for joining us. congratulations on a really big week for. c.e.o. of quirky. coming up next, new york city real estate sales are red-hot. i'll discuss what's behind the trend and if it will continue through 2015. i'm going to talk with the star of bravo's "mdlny." ♪

alix: this is "street smart." $95 million. that's what he pulled in for a penthouse in new york city last year. in the middle of the action is one of new york city's hottest brokers. he's an associate broker and is the star of bravo's "million dollar listing: new york" that premiered last night.

welcome. so great to have you. congratulations on another premier. guest: thank you very much. it was number one on itunes today. alix: shameless plug. speaking of big properties. your current top listing for $25 million. what do i get for that? do you serve me dinner? guest: you get 5,000 square feet. alix: will you do my nails? guest: i would do anything for you. it may seem very high but in reality it's not. we waited for the release of a building 220 central park south, two bedrooms $800 a square foot. a full floor floor -- a full floor. so it's basically a steal. we're just running with the 220 central park south it. should sell pretty quickly. alix: unbelieveble. we're looking at enormous prices. last year new york city real estate prices hit pretty much historic highs. the average sale price of an american condo jumped 19%.

unbelievable. what do you expect that to continue to be? what are we going to look at this year? guest: this year new york city was the number one most -- number one market in appreciation of real estate. last year douglas element did $18 billion in gross sales. coming from $14 billion the year before. now we have an exclusive alliance with knight frank. now we're over 55 countries. around the world. and we are the number one most connected network. private around the world. so there is nothing but increase. alix: unbelievable. you are the star of the bravo show, right? what has it done for your career? what does it mean for you? guest: when i jump into the show at first, i wasn't really thinking about what it was going to do to my business. i was sort of excited about being part of something that i never had been a part of. but then after i started to see the results, the direct results into my business, i started to analyze and see what sort of behavior this real estate show

or exposure worldwide, which now it's syndicated in 145 countries, it's quadrupled my business in only three years. because now you are automatically associated with real estate. people in the street see you and they may forget your name but they say, that's the real estate guy. you're associated with that. now that it's airing in the u.k. and australia, in sweden and canada, people there are looking to invest in new york city, since it's a reality show, they feel like they already know you they come to you for that. alix: do they do that in different types of clients? guest: you get different kinds. in the beginning it's a question for very private clients. they ask you whether you can keep the discretion. in reality 90% of the show is for a high net worth individual. once they get to know you, they understand that because of that platform that you've elevated yourself, you have access to more information that they normally wouldn't be able to get with someone else. alix: are they going to rename it "$100 million listings" now?

guest: $9 billion listing ." alix: all right. a better view of the global luxury rel estate mafment -- real estate market. we're going to discuss what that does for business coming up. ♪

alix: this is "street smart." for perspective on the global real estate market, luis, star of bravo's "million dollar listing: new york." your firm achieved $18 billion in sales volume. additionally, d.e.'s covering the macroside of real estate in the new luxury lifestyle publication, "elevate" magazine. given the growth of the market, how has douglas elliman adjusted its business model? guest: they were able to do $1 billion in gross sales before the alliance with the largest

real estate brokerage company in europe middle east asia. and now we are a private company, essentially connected with knight frank which makes us now the biggest -- we had the biggest market share of luxury properties in the world. alix: you guys are huge. you have 17,000 agents working across 440 offices. unbelievable. how do you all stay connected? how do you stay related to each other? guest: we're not a franchise which means companies like others compete with each other. we're one company, we share information. we have consistent meetings around the world. we go where the luxury buyer is going. we know what's happening in china. we know the reason why chinese are coming into new york city. so we are very, very connected. we just opened in aspen. we have that access. alix: what is different about the luxury market and the interpersonal communication?

when my husband and i bought an apartment i pretty much found it on street easy. we had a broker but we didn't really need one. why is luxury markets different? guest: this is something that i wasn't prepared for but last year i sold two properties off instagram. on instagram. imagine if -- i posted an exclusive that i had on 90th street. i get a comment from someone someone that says, how much is this? i reach out to that person he ends up buying it. another -- through another post that i did, i end up getting an $8.5 million buyer who just signed a contract in the four seasons. on instagram. so that tells you how the world is evolving and the way we communicate. i think douglas elliman is doing that as well. we're trying to -- now information is out there. good brokers are worth it when they can filter that. and they understand the behaviors of the market. i think a good broker's always needed. not the ones that tell where you the kitchen is.

alix: what's the next hot market? obviously you cover new york, you breathe and sleep new york. but if you were to list another market that's up and coming, that's going to be the luxury market of the world, what would it be? guest: predictions say by 2025, new york city will be the biggest luxury market in the world. now it's london. but miami's growing. los angeles is growing. london continues to grow. new york city is where everybody is putting their money as preservation of their capital. because it continues to grow. even on the crash in 2008 we never really went down. alix: what about the buyers? who are they? are they foreign? do they live here already? are they trading up? second homes? guest: there's a very large influx of foreign buyers. chinese are very strong. russian ares are very strong -- russians are very strong. south americans are very strong. there's a big percent aage of

local buyers as well. there's buyers that buy for varied reasons. for investments. new york city has -- alix: are they sensitive to the stock market or the federal reserve or the stronger dollar? do market fluctuations play into this luxury market for you with buyers? guest: i think the correlation between the stock market and real estate market are the same. when the markets go down, everybody sort of pulls from either listing or -- we've had moments where we have people submitting offers and the market happens to crash they take their offers out. when they were in fact in the middle of a bidding war where they were very agriss -- aggressively trying to acquire that. they are next to each other. alix: so great to have you. great perspective. when i have $1 million, i'll be callinging you. guest: you already have $1 million. alix: multimillion dollars. coming up, before there was tinder there was grinder.

i'm going to talk to the c.e.o. coming up next. ♪

alix: this is "street smart." here are the top stories we're watching at the closing bell. a decade-long headache that is its data storage business. after a decade of pressure to sell the business, the event surit proving to to be challenge -- the venture is proving to be a challenge. and canadian circus group is on the verge of a sale to another group. a chinese investment fund has s also said to be involved in the sale. the entertainment company had hired goldman sachs as an advisor. nearly 3/4 of americans say sexual orientation should be protected from discrimination. the same way that race is.

that's according to a new bloomberg politics poll. the poll also found that 58% of americans believe gay marriage will be legalized nationwide in 10 years. imagine if you took $5,000, started your own dating app, and made the company profitable in six years with two million active daily users? and almost 200 countries. that's exactly what my next guest did. the c.e.o. and founder of grindr. thanks for hanging out with yous. what is grindr? guest: it's a smartphone app for gay men. you can chat comb guys around you. the goal is to meet. we're all about helping you meet and taking it from there. alix: in six years you went from $5,000 to this enormous business. that's an incredible trajectory. how did you do it? why did you clues to target the gay community in this way wand why do you think it was so successful so quickly? guest: it's a very big problem in a gay man's life. we don't always know who else is

gay. the smartphone is a perfect piece of technology. location-based services was a perfect match. it just kind of worked out together. we had no business plan, no real kind of understanding what have happened. it just kind of happened. alix: no business plan? guest: no business plan. no investors. we were a self--funded business. different type of company that we're very proud of. alix: you're one of the first dating apps to really monetize. 75% of your revenue comes from premium. how did you gain that kind of power? guest: i think we provide a great service. that's what it's all about. we're all about our customers. we're all about giving them an experience that's helpful for them and we solve a problem. it's about $12 a month, less than the cost of a martinny in most places. we think we have a very compelling offering. alix: your app is also in afghanistan and iraq and that was really striking to me because i can't even imagine the gay rights in those countries. what was it like for you to go

in those environments? guest: it all happened organically. it's legal to be gay in over 70 countries in this world. grindr and a lot of places is one of the unique places for gay men to meet each other. fleece gay bars, there's no gay life. so we're very proud of that. alix: do you have a lot of competitors? it seems you're making a good case of why there's a need. how do you fend off competition? guest: we have the most guys. we're the largest network. when you're looking to meet on a proximate-based service, that's the most important thing. it's global. alix: do you have an exit strategy? what's the end goal here? guest: i'm living the dream right now. this couldn't be better. we love what we're doing. we have a great team in l.a. but always looking for opportunities. we want to grow into a lifestyle brand where gay men can -- we can solve gay men's problems, a lot of other problems we can solve. if we find the right partner to help us in that strategy of

becoming a lifestyle brand and continuing to grow, we'll certainly consider it. alix: listen up, everybody. grindr ready to partner. thanks so much for being with us. really appreciate it. c.e.o. of grindr. that's it for "street smart." have a good weekend. ♪

mark: mark halperin and john heilemann here at the grand plaza hotel which is the center of the political universe in nashville. live free or move to