something. two days ago when i said i like the market, i have never been flamed like i did my life like the did@jim cramer at twitter. we're going to use a hostile reactivateor for when people are too negative. had a very good run today. i'm jim cramer, see you tomorrow! hey, larry, great day. what are you looking at? >> jimmy, i've got a laundry list from around the globe. is the correction over? this is "the kudlow report." a new round of stock market optimism today. huge gains across the board led bay dow gain of 181 points. the big question, is the market correction over? google beat expectations and announced a split that investors

may not like. and jack welch will talk about stocks, commit and why barack obama has an enemies list. plus ann romney wins the mommy wars after she was attacked by an obama consultant. set off a firestorm on the role of women in the economy. but first up, let's jump right into today's stock market action. dow up 181, s&p at 19, nasdaq up 39. look at this wall, all green. now, i want to raise a optimist being data point. international trade for february, booming exports. nobody looks that the stuff. if all these countries are buying our good, there's no way the world economy is going bust, and that includes europe. so let's talk. joining me is jim ureo, and

steve forbes. steve forbes, i want to start with you on this point. if you look at these trade numbers, it's sort of a boring report but exports are booming all across the board. it's fascinating and it surprised me. even sales of our goods to europe, growing by about 12.5%. it's canada, mexico, south ameri america, the pac rim. if the world economy were truly sinking, we wouldn't be selling them our goods. >> that's true, larry. but southern europe is still going into recession. even though we had v got exports, we did it by cheapening the dollar. so we're like that car on the highway, opened highway, we're going up to 40 miles an hour from 20 but we should be at 70, 75 miles an hour. so it's a mixed picture. better than last year but not what we had in the early 80s. we're both old enough to

remember a real recovery. >> you're right about that. but our sales of goods to all these places around the world is fascinat fascinating. >> it shows american companies have gotten their act together since 2008. but we're not creating the number of small businesses we should. good picture, good sign but not the recovery we're capable of. >> officials in europe suggesting very strongly that the european central bank will take care of business. they'll put more money in to bail out bonds and sovereign debt and so forth. china gdp may rise by as much as 9% this year. we might even see some of that in the first quarter. china loans and money supply growing rapidly. u.s. cni loan, business loans, almost 20% year-on-year rate,

stuff that nobody expected and beige book from the fed pretty good. are things better than people suspect? and is that what the stock market might be telling us now? >> i think they are. any time you go from 20 miles an hour to 40 miles an hour, we all want to see things grow faster and we'd like to see a healthier economy but corporate america looks very strong. just going back to the question of exports, i look at a company like coach. it's an incredibly well-run business, very reputable, their asian opportunity is huge. there are some great u.s. companies to invest in. they've been great to invest in in the last five, ten years as well but now is a very attractive time. >> anything beside coach? it's a good thought, coach. >> sure? can i have ten minutes? >> give me a couple. >> chipolte is a tremendous business. we began recommending it in 2008 before the market collapse. that stock has gone from 40 to 433 over the last four years. it's an incredibly well-run

business. look at the tenure of that company. people love working at chipolte. it's a healthy alternative. it's been a great stock. i think it's going to keep being a great stock. >> thank you for coming in from chicago. we appreciate it. today was your base being risk on trade day, all the cyclicals, energy, materials, they did great, consumer cyclicals did great, had you a good day on the dow, 181 points. is this a turning point or is there more misery? >> i don't think we necessarily need a turning point. it's still a bull market. what i think is going to happen is a run of the mill correction. i wanted a 6% or 7% correction to trim the hedges so the bush can grow better going forward. i'm a bull, optimist. 3030 is my spot on the down side on the s&p. i'm going to stay with it. unless we see stabilization or more strength in the next couple of days, i'm back to being a bull. >> if there's follow-through on

today's rally, follow through tomorrow, let's say you're up another 120, 140 points? >> then i'm as optimistic as larry kudlow, which is a pretty strong thing to say. >> new york fed president gave a speech and he said a couple things. he also said there would be consequences to another round of qe and i found that interesting coming from dudley, who has been associated with the quantitative easing position. do you think the fed is going to quit new stimulus? >> they not only have to quit new stimulus, they have to make it overt that they're going to have a stable dollar. otherwise people are going to believe -- get one bad report and they're going to go back to

their bad habits. unfortunately, ben bernanke, regardless what dudley says, is a man who believes you go on helicopters and shovel out the money, pieces of paper, and somehow that gets the economy going. the fed is one of the critical reasons why, and you appreciate this, this recovery has been so punk. weak dollar means weak recovery. we should have learned that from the 1970s. one of the things a new president has to do is get a fed chairman to realize the prime job is a stable dollar. >> oil prices, retail gas prices have all sort of leveled off and come down a little bit. is that a positive trend that's going to continue? if it is, it's very bullish and it will add to the slump of natural gas priesces, which is tax cut for industry and people at home. >> janet yellen's speech made them sound like hawks.

she said fed stimulus has been inadequate since 2009 and there has not been enough. i don't think a slight trade down in crude and gas is helping things yet. >> i saw that as a big positive. >> it's in the positive direction but it hasn't gone far enough or hard enough. i'm not sure how much it's going to go down. if they're going to be throwing money at this from helicopters -- >> i think dudley said in his speech we're not going to throw money. dudley was a little tougher. yellen, i don't know. i got to get out of this segment. >> what was when the banks start to withdraw those reserves they talked to the federal reserve? what's the fed going to do? >> they should withdraw the excess money. will they? i don't know. >> retail investors need to always think long term. don't get too worried about the

macro stuff. it's interesting to follow but that ten-year-plus perspective. >> thank you. we appreciate it. now we've got breaking news coming in to cnbc. nbc news confirms south korea has launched a rocket of some sorts. its destination is unknown. the white house is about to issue a statement. we'll bring you more as we know it on the bottom of the screen. so please check it out. coming up on "kudlow," jack welch will join me with his take on the economy, the election and his latest column on president obama's enemies list. don't forget, as always, free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity. we had three pretty good premarket guys on the show tonight. for me that's a pleasure. i'm kudlow. we'll be right back. more than 150 million professionals

are connecting here. linkedin connects with the big board.

we continue our breaking news, monitoring what's happening in north korea. a north korean rocket has been launched, destination unknown. more details as we get them in. >> meanwhile, in other business news, google reports and disappoints investors. we're joined with more on that and all the latest breaking headlines coming into the cnbc newsroom. good evening. >> that's right. google's report initially kicked the stock higher but then the market digested the details and

investors aren't thrilled. no cash dlif dend. instead it put in one new non-voting share for each existing share. the wall street journal reports investigation into best buy's outgoing ceo brian dunn centers on whether the married dunn misused company assets for an alleged relationship with a 29-year-old female subordinate. and word from nbc sports that nhl playoff ratings from cnbc and nbc sports network with the best playoff opening ever. >> stay with us, mr. welch is coming right up. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550

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because for 200 years, we've been helping people and their ideas move from ambition to achievement. and the next great idea could be yours. ♪ welcome back to "the kudlow report." if anyone knows anything about the market and economy, it is jack welch, founder of the jack welch manageme menment institut famed ceo of ge. as always, it's great to have you on. a couple weeks ago on the network you said rising gas prices were taking the air out of the economy or out of the recovery. you triggered a stock market selloff when you said that. the last couple days we're coming back. i want to get your current thinking. do you still think the recovery

is faltering? do you think stocks are going down? >> larry, i was very clear when i was on cnbc that morning on "squawk box." i said i expected an acceleration in the first quarter. what we were getting was modest growth in the short cycle businesses, in food supplies, in chemicals and other things in our private equity companies. but we were getting real straight in nonresidence construction and in infrastructure. so i said while the economy was strong, it wasn't accelerating the way i thought it would after the fourth quarter. >> do you see anything changing now? >> no, not because the stock market went up today. i actually think that the economy has got some positives. it's got the market, it's got consumer confidence and it's got banks throwing -- i mean federal bankers throwing money at it

around the world. on the negative side, though, you have gasoline prices, you got europe. we don't know where china is going and we've got a tax increases right around the corner. >> let's talk about the tax increase, not my favorite subject but something that is very much in the news. i want to get your opinion. president obama out there campaigning, as you know, for the buffett rule, put a 30% minimum tax on millionaires, a lot of harsh rhetoric, including vice president biden today vilifying rich people. what's your thought on this? >> that gets to the column that my wife and i wrote this week for reuters. when we look at president obama's choice -- romney as a candidate, you have two things to look at. you have a clear ideological choice. one is a centralized government

with a clear-cut central control and a european style socialism. that's obama's plan. romney's free market capitalism and free market. so on ideology there's a choice. then you move, larry, to leadership style. in leadership, the obama style is divide and conquer. today it's the rich hedge fund managers. but let's stop for a minute and go back and look. it was the insurance executives in health care, it was the bankers in the collapse. it was the oil companies as oil prices go up. it was congress if things didn't go the way he wanted and recently it's been the supreme court. he's got an enemies list that would make richard nixon proud. >> what does that tell you, jack? in other words, okay, he's the

president, he's got an enemies list. i've said the same thing myself actually. i'm just interested in your take on this. what does that mean, divide and conquer? how do you lead the country if you're singling out this one is bad, this one is bad, you're bullying the supreme court, you're bullying paul ryan. what does that mean? >> larry, great leaders don't divide. great leaders are interested in coalescing. i would argue that romney's style in governing the people's republic of massachusetts was to bring people together. it was the same thing in the salt lake city olympics scandal, bring people together. my view is great leaders, whether they be in companies and it always relates to companies, where they be in companies where you are don't have one division pitted against the other. you try to get the whole company to pull together. >> jack -- >> to win. >> jack, bluntly, do you think

mitt romney can win this race versus obama? >> absolutely. >> and you've said romney is the pro-business guy. he's the market-friendly guy. would you change your outlook if you thought romney was going to win? would it be good for the economy? would it be good for the stock market? is it that clear? >> i'm not going to talk about the stock market, but it would be great for the country. we'd be a stronger company, we'd have more jobs, we'd have more people getting a piece of the pie and we wouldn't have this divisive nature that we have with this president, screaming at one group and then screaming at the next group in a high pitched voice. he was in florida this week screaming and yelling about rich people. he went after the supreme court. we got to stop this, larry. >> well, okay. i hear you loudly and clearly. you don't have to convince me. i'm just glad that when you say

it, it has some real weight to it, jack welch. thanks very much for coming back on the show. we have another hot story here. let me bring you an update on the north korean rocket launch. the u.n. security council has convened an emergency meeting for tomorrow. we'll bring you more as we get it, as the news comes in. coming up tonight on the show, ann romney under attack in a new war against stay-at-home moms. mrs. romney i think tweets her way to victory. we'll go into the economics of stay-at-home moms. they are worth a lot of money. and wife of republican sean duffy, she is the mother of six and she will sound off on this whole topic. eve they should be in charge of their own future. how they'll live tomorrow. for more than 116 years, ameriprise financial has worked for their clients' futures. helping millions of americans retire on their terms. when they want. where they want. doing what they want. ameriprise.

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what you have is mitt romney running around the country saying, well, you know, my wife tells me that what women really care about are economic issues. and when i listen to my wife, that's what i'm hearing. guess what? his wife has actually never worked a day in her life. >> that was democratic lobbyist and frequent white house consultant hilary rosen.

ann romney under attack and ann romney fired back. take a listen. >> my career choice was to be a mother and i think all of us need to know that we need to respect choices that women make. >> all right. by the way, i looked up the word economy, it means household management. that's right. do you know how much a stay-at-home mom's salary could be worth to the economy? st state- -- stay-at-home moms deserve an average salary of $113,000. the value of stay at home moms is incalculable. rachel, thank you for coming. let me ask you, when you heard

this from hilary rosen, a left-wing democratic lobbyist, how offended were you? >> i was so busy eating bon-bon think about it. >> you raised six kids, ann romney raised five. did you have get angry? what did you think? >> i did. i was angry. who is this woman to say only well heeled democratic strategists have the right to comment not only on the cam bain on the state of the economy. you're slightly right. all moms, whether they're home or not, are the best gauges of what's going on in the economy. i can assure you what i talk about to my friends who are moms, working and nonworking, we're not talking about free birth control, we're talking about gas prices and we're talking about unemployment and we're talking about all kinds of

things, which is the point of what ann romney was bringing up to begin with and she was sort of calling the left out on this. >> i thought she won that war easily. this business about calculating a stay-at-home mom's salary. i know it's goofy but salary.com does this. housekeeper, ceos, cooks, laundry machine operators, janitors, van drivers. i'm reading this stuff and trying to figure it out, rachel. i would say a stay-at-home mom knows a whole lot about the economy doing all this stuff. >> yes, can you add marriage counselor and child psychologist to that list? there's a whole lot of things we do. i can tell you when my husband is home from washington and i take some time off, he'll tell you -- he'll be the first one to tell you that my job is a lot harder and a lot more physically grueling in so many ways. >> why is it so many activists

from the democratic party like to make fun of traditional stay-at-home moms? why is it they forget the choice aspect and lash out at the more traditional aspect? why is that? >> i don't know. i think the crux of it is a misconception of the feminist movement. again, this idea of choice, it's so ironic and hypocritical for women like that to come out and say and disparage the choices that other people make. and this is what's so amazing about this time. and, by the way, being an at-home mom right now is like it's never been before. we're so informed, we're so in touch. the internet is at our fingertips. >> rachel, i'd talk to you all night but i'm flat out of time. thank you forel