do you remember the new? >> well, maybe we are. who knows. all right. that will do it for us. it's always a pleasure. >> always a pleasure. >> i have got some mile sewns out there in the market to bring your attention to.

we have got the nasdaq here touching a 12.5 year intraday high here and will close at a 12.5 year high if it holds and closes above be that 3300 mark. it has paid to play defense. the dough utility is hitting for the seventh straight session up 18% year to date. but here is the best stat of all that i would like to share with you. we are on pace at this point for a record high close for the s&p 500. the number to beat, 1593 or 15997. we're currently sitting one point below. is it important? is it sustainable? what are people saying? >> sure it's important. if you look at what the big global industrial are saying,

global growth is very slow. the s&p 500 is at a new high. look at the month of april. look at what is happening. look at the more cyclical rarts. the cyclical index itself. the russel 2,000. the small cap intex is down 1%. commodities as a group are down 3%. this is not good if you're interested in global growth. there is your market leaders. your cyclical names overall. let's take a look at dividend. a lot of discussion about dividend etfs.

look at that rocket up. you are buying here into all of the defensive names. great that they are new highs but investors are pushing the valuations up. that was the point about the journal article today. >> as i have said, it has paid to play defense. let's look at what is happening here. as i was saying just a moment ago, new 12.5 year highs. >> for that while the street was trying to speculate on whether if technology would participate. and in the past ten days we have seen this rotation out of defensive and into cyclical stocks. here seeing the nasdaq hitting that 12.5 year high. here is the big reason. apple shares while the stock fell a beat on earnings last week. we are seeing the stock stage a cut back. it did break about an hour and a

half ago. the stock has pulled back. aside from apple is the semi conductor players that are getting a bid. another sector on a tear to take note of. biotech up about 27% year to date. typical of of what we are seeing. that seems to be a contraryian indicator. >> i just want to point out that we're sitting at 1596. the number we're watching for is literally one point away which would be the intraday record high for the s&p 500. let's get down to what's happening with treasuries. we got some subdued prices. to me that suggests that we're in for a long and steady road. no? >> absolutely. she did a wonderful job.

one thing see ma will not be able to do is a 13 year high. in march of 2,000 traded 5,50. don't think that's in the cards. in terms of fixed income, nothing speaks to the idea of the ecb in central bank and bank of japan better than the following chart. don't be surprised to see a 166. back to you. >> thank you very much. okay. let's take a look at where the market is going.

where do we go after that. >> it would seem to be that the path of least resistance is still higher. >> of course i would suggest that. there is certainly a lot to it. if you look at the leading sectors, you're looking at the names and kinds of companies that are leading the market higher. i get the sense that there are a lot of unfom courtable eeoc equitable buyers.

>> the argument is that stocks will continue to trade higher as long as the fed programs remain in place. i think simon mentioned it earlier. seems like we're in this goldy locks period again. so i think there is a lot to be said. >> that is a classic case of bad news. i would like to break it down and take a look at what you would do in terms of investing. is it time to get in. >> we have a pretty dramatic

underweight we now have a punch of new supply. we track that relative to other commodities and based on our

>> name one ceo named on the worst list and could actually end up on the best ceo list for 2013. >> the president is ready to announce his nominee for transportation secretary. we will dig into who it is and why next.

>> happening right now, president obama ready to announce his nomination for the next secretary of transportation. what are some of the pros and cons of this nomination. >> he is young, 42 years old. he is a mayor. that is an executive job. charlotte, north carolina, where democrats have their convention. he's african-american. president obama has gotten criticized for having a cabinet that is too white. he is somebody who does not have deep experience in transportation but he promoted light rail in the city of charlotte. he went to davidson college. north carolina is a target state for democrats going forward.

and now rounding out his cabi t cabinet. two more this week. she has been a fundraiser for obama. the heiress to hotel fortune. he went to elementary school with president obama. and i would expect that we will gret the other two nominations in the next week. >> is this a big deal, picking a candidate from the host city of the dnc? >> the reason the democratic

convention is hosted there in the first place is because they are popular in that state. he is somebody who has shawn a lot of potential. >> let's talk more about this. what do you think of this nomination? >> we have got a guy with some track of balancing a budget and doing his hard work. it's a huge improvement. i'm really encouraged. >> encouraged and yet he doesn't seem to have any serious conspiracy. >> it's not transportation but doing the right thing. if you recall, mr. lahood said to the 2.5 million toyota

drivers to quit driving your car. those are bad decisions. this guy has had to do the hard work of running a city. he has got good judgment. >> you wouldn't say this is a political thank you for hosting the dnc last year? >> it could be. but rodney slater was an african-american and one of the bester transportation secretaries that i have ever worked with. i don't know about the origin but i know he has a good reputation for good judgment. it really needs it, especially over in the faa side of the business. >> i would like to change topics and the faa. you know there are some republicans in congress who accuse president obama of making

these furloughs as painful as possible. do you think he has made his point? >> it blue up in his face. i think that was the objective. the ticket taxes that they collect run the system. so the money was there. it was just a ploy, i think, to put some pressure on the congress to ease the tax abatement and it didn't work. it just blue up in his face and they folded and went away. it was a foolish idea. cost millions of dollars for not only airlines but the economy and i'm glad to see the congress straighten it out. >> so it backfired. duh the faa need its own budget separate from the political process? >> i think the faa needs a good leader and good judgment. they have one that doesn't know the front from the back of an airplane and is at a loss at what to do.

the air transportation system runs our economy. you can't go to london for a meeting if you can't fly there. the whole country came to a standstill. you need somebody who understands that. >> indeed. always great to have your commentary on our show. a positive sign for the spring home selling season. could it be better. give it to us, diana. >> demand is there. supply is not. that appears to be keeping sales less than robust. a contract did rise 1.5% month to month and up 7% from a year ago. sales are leveling off. and the numbers are even more dra mat nick some other markets. you can check out his recovery. listings are down 42% year over.

31% in minneapolis and down 30% year-over-year in charlotte. why? well several reasons. first, despite rising home prices, over 10 million or 22% of all properties with a mortgage were still in an underwater position at the end of 2012 according to core logic. add to that 11 million more that have less than 20% equity which makes a move up buy pretty pricey. >> the trade off market, while doing better in some areas, is nowhere near where it used to be. you have people under water or people who are no longer underwater. if you only have your nose above the water, that ain't much for a down payment. >> he's right. home prices in february were up over 7% annually according to a new record. and because of rising home prices, a lot of potential

sellers are waiting to see just how high those prices might go. add to that still pretty slow housing starts and a slow down in foreclosures and that's why there is just not much out there to buy. >> let's bring in tania. how strong do you think the housing market is? >> i think that these are good signs for housing. it's showing that we're not in a boom and bust situation. we still have a lot of leveling off to do. but these pending home sales are good. eventually they turn into existing home sales. we are going to see those numbers tick up. when you talk about pending home sales you have to realize that people can't just put contracts in on homes and hope. they need to be prequalified. these are not false pending home sales. >> i understand here if you break it down from region to region we are seeing the gre greatest strength in terms of

recovery in the south but the laggard is here in the northeast. can you explain why that is? >> well, you have to realize that housing is still trending right? the south and the midwest are coming up. so we're seeing homes where diana is talking about not enough inventory. we're seeing organic sales in states like arizona that have come back and are really recovering. the northeast has a lot going on. their real estate was always high. their numbers are going to skew and be different across the boards no matter what. >> can you give us good news? so many of us have been through the cycle. we want this to be real, right?

and yet there are fears out there that q1 was a peak for growth. can this be a recovery for real? >> it absolutely is a recovery for real. when we look at the stock market and what it's done and the home price recover y we are back to the peak of total home wealth. what that means is as people gain confidence in the housing market they are going to start buying second homes and vacation homes. those two things lag behind personal family homes. we're going to see those over the next two years along with all the investors. that's a good thing for real estate. >> i certainly hope you are right. thank you for being the bearer of good news. let's get back to the markets.

rewith on record watch here. and also coming up is a ground breaking headline in the world of sports. an nba veteran becomes the first openly gay professional male athlete. is this a marketing gold mine? and phil lebeau is going to find out what is going on at boeing. loads of things coming your way. do not change the channel. i've always kept my eye on her...

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we're looking at the physical demand coming out of the u.s. mint as well. that has been particularly strong. you may see a bit of a bull back in the physical with china on holiday. >> a landmark moment in the sports world.

>> this is a veteran player. he is 34 years old. he has played for six different teams. he went to the final four in college at stanford. he's not ry worried about establishing himself in the league. >> just quickly you think this will galvanize others to follow should they wish to do so? >> there is no doubt that there are a lot of gay athletes out there who are thinking about this and wondering whether the time is there for them. there must be dozens if not more

gay athletes across all the major sports. i think we will see more if not in the days and weeks ahead certainly in the months and years. >> howard, let me understand. you have helped four professional athletes come out of the closet. what does it mean in terms of marketing opportunities? >> a few years ago they would think it is something that would hurt a career. the people i have worked with have been exposed to new opportunities and i think we're at such a place in this world that i think jason will likely get picked up by a team and i think there will be endorsers that want to sign him for exactly this reason. i think we live in a different world today. >> i think nike has been way out

front. i think there are a number of companies that have been very sfis kad t. but also the inclusionary marketplace. and i think those are the kind of companies that are going to step forward and say this is the kind of guy we want. have there been any cases where it has been a hind rens? >> i think historically, martina, the tennis star who was out long ago always felt it hurt her endorsements but that was literally decades ago. i worked with a couple of athle athletes, two female athletes

who came out in association with sponsorships. they made significant dollars and got to go on a cruise. >> that is exactly where we're sitting at the s&p 500 phil le bee has an exclusive interview with the ceo of boeing. do not leave us.

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>> before we get to street talk, we're near the highs of the day. the s&p 500 is one point away

from its intraday record high. as for the dow, its record closing high was on april 11 earlier this month at 14,865. kurnly at 14,835. a little way to go for the dow but the s&p 500 is the one that we are watching one point off of its all time high. we're calling this the all-time high version. >> okay. currently sitting at 63, an all time high from moodies as well. >> moody's and standard & poors. >> it's been a long running

lawsuit. >> basically plaintiffs were asking for $638 million. that stock is a 52 week high. >> i don't want to sound like a broken record but i already do. and we have biogen at an all time high. >> prescriptions first. >> this was actually the third pick in mandy's mavericks cnbc stock draft pick friday. >> great pick. >> you see other health care stocks rallying. two big, big moves. the government comes out and proposes this 0.8% increase in re-imburressment rates. so we have better than analysts said. >> why don't we take a look at what's happening.

>> this is one of my favorite stories. sort of like china's version of twitter right? basically deal with values. gave me confidence about the near term profitability. >> i would have done that. >> you are. >> okay. boeing just wrapping up its annual shareholder meeting. caught up in another cnbc exclusive. >> remember, you had a conference call and they talked about keeping costs relatively in check. bad feelings hurting business.

here is what he had to say. >> they will be back in service quickly. and we, as we're thinking about the next derivative we're confident so are our customers. >> remember on saturday, either yoeb wan airlines made the post post fix commercial flight to kenya. the real question is what happens with the backlog of planes that have been built? it is not changing its plans. >> i think there is a possibility we could do a couple

more than that. but we're getting the production line flowing again. we're moving forward. we understand the fix. >> fairly upbeat today at the annual meeting. what a heck of a run these guys have had since the drowning back in the middle of january. if there are no dream liner problems. >> thank you very much. let's take a look at the s&p. we are currently sitting at 1595. that level check. done. the next level we need to watch for? of course wi are just 1.5 points away from that level. we have got to keep on watching it don't we bill? >> yes, we will.

we have two big hours coming up for you. asking whether inflation is too low. some members think so and they want to extend economic stimulus to combat that. we will tell you whether that's a good idea or not. we're going to speak to the company ceo who is ringing the ceo. ledge dare investor will tell us how high nat gas could go. we have got you covered coast to coast. in the meantime more street signs right after this. (announcer) scottrade knows our clients trade and invest their own way. with scottrade's smart text, i can quickly understand my charts, and spend more time trading. their quick trade bar lets my account follow me online so i can react in real-time. plus, my local scottrade office is there to help. because they know i don't trade like everybody.

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invested in the world. bny mellon. >> we dissect the earnings stories that everybody is talking about. i'm melissa lee. as you see there, we are an s&p 500 record watch and the key level to watch for is 1597. we're just about one point away so we will be eagerly awaiting that level. right now to close here this will be a new closing high. let's start off with the score

card as we watch for this record. many companies have reported so far. 69% beating estimates. we are watching a number of companies that are beating earnings just a few hours from now. let's start out with herbalife. >> the aptly named? >> pronounce -- don't pronounce the h. they are trying to gi more clarity into who buys the products and who doesn't. i want to see any more information on whether they have a new auditor.

>> the key will be any distributor numbers? much more important than earnings. >> are we expecting to see any moves you think? terms of the billionaire battles? >> i don't know so. i have always said that's a side show here. we know i con has two more members on the board. let's look and see how the models are holding up. see if there are any defections among any large distributors, some of whom are going to one big private mlm as we call it. >> maybe no big news there but it will be interesting to see how the companies executives talk about their discussions with carl. now that they have opened up the discussions what recommendations they are getting.

what advice and what back and forth. >> i am sure it will all be very optimistic. >> you are such the skeptic. that's what we love about you. let's talk about buffalo wild wings here. the talk of the restaurant industry as more and more players jump into the wing space. >> someone joked about this that chicken wing prices had gone up 14%. chicken wing prices were extremely volatile. they spiked at the end of february. >> we have a chart here that can show that. >> an extremely volatile move. >> i think we do. >> we will -- >> it came off in the past couple weeks. >> it's hard to hedge something like that. i saw a break down that wings are 39% of revenue. >> when you take a look at an interview. sort of separate that issue of wing spriss and say it's more important as it relates to the

sports industry and how they're tying into the sports industry. >> disclose a lot of issues with the rises in commodity prices. >> it will be interesting to see what they say about prices. it is believed and wedbush having noted on this earlier that mcdanlds when they are entering the wing space they bought up a lot of chicken wings they stockpiled them and froze them in order to lock in those prices. and that's why we have seen the

decline. >> keep an eye on earnings growth. 25% is their target. if they miss that the market will let you know that. >> that is boneless wings. they are cheaper than bone-in wings. yes. and that is a huge promotion. that is all the rage. >> i don't get wings. >> you have to do something on the ground. >> on that scene the analysts noted that his estimates for eps growth are determined solely by the potential decline in wing prices. if they decline further he will raise estimates. that is what is the driver of those numbers. >> let's talk about reports of the stock trading to the upside. ahead of the result.

city came out very positive on a copal of the minors. so when you take a look at this versus the gdx, you can see that it is actually held up a lot better. what we will want to look for is all-in costs. meaning every single detail and driver of costs. all-in costs per ounce for the price of gold. that's what we heard from a lot of the gold miners, particularly the ones that have done well. >> i don't believe this is a quarter to quarter story, by the way. it's one that you have got to look at over the long term. anything better than expected on this one will help it. >> exactly. that is the earnings squad for today. if you want to join the conversation, please tweet us. we will be back tomorrow morning with more insight.

i will see you tonight at 5. street signs continues right after this.

okay. there at home these are the numbers to watch. get out your pen and paper. currently sitting at the 1596 mark, right? in one point we would be at the intraday high at 1597. we already crossed over the former closing high of 1593. cleared that one. we're waiting for the 1597 mark. see whether or not we can close at or above that level at the end of the day. for the dow in terms of its closing high, we've got a little way to go on that one. we're also on watch for that. currently sitting at 14,833. the old time high was april 11th at 14,887. let's bring inpeter kenny from knight equities and art from lazard capital markets. peter, we're obviously making a big deal of the fact that it is important. we've got back to these record

highs. at the same time i would like to really know whether or not we are witnessing the highs of the year. >> okay. highs of the year, so far, year to date, yes. we're there. however, a lot of volatility -- >> as in, like, this is as good as it gets. >> no. >> we're going to get to our records and back off or we've been further to go. >> no. i think there's further to go. i'll tell you why. housing, quantitative easing, rotation within the equity space to the lower valued or the cheaper stocks. very, very specifically, basic materials, telecom, large cap tech. these are opportunities and relative valuations where you're going to see capital move. that should continue to give lift to the markets. >> if you ask someone who is in this market it's pretty exciting, right? great. i'm at a record high. my portfolio is looking good. art hogan, how good is retail participation? are there people at home who are saying, dang, i missed out on this? >> i think there are. i think if you look at the end of last year the money that came out of this market because of the fear of the fiscal cliff and what that meant for capital

gains and dividend taxes you saw money exit the market and not come back yet necessarily. it's very intriguing to see, mutual funds and etfs. pretty consistent this year. a steady flow for the entirety of this year. as a matter of fact, for the first time in the second we're seeing more money come off the sidelines into equities than bonds. not the great rotation we talk about so much but certainly a concerted amount of money coming into equities. interestingly enough what it's been chasing so far this year is the defensive sector. utilities, health care stocks, consumer staples. three of the leaders. i think that's very typical of money that's been itching its way into equities but in a very defensive manner. i think that's going to continue throughout the summer. >> very good point to make. as we've said a couple of times already on this show it has paid to play defense. maybe time to rotate. peter kenny, if you have missed out or if you just want to make more money which sectors do you go for? where is there still growth and/or value? >> i love having a dividend. i like playing value. you got to love telecom, large

cap tech. you have to have some exposure to utilities because you definitely want a defensive posture within that silo. of course, if you're looking for alpha, you have to go after the growth story. you have to be looking at housing. you have to be looking at an improving macro story domestically, which has given some lift and backbone to the overall move higher. >> what could bring us on down, art? >> well, it would be something that's either unpredictable in terms of geopolitical unrest, things heating up in the middle east, for example. and putting a spike in the price of oil for, you know, no good reason except for destruction of supply, certainly something we'd be concerned about over the course of the summer. or if we have europe coming back into the forefront as being a problem. right now we see europe being constructive. italy has a government. ecb cutting rates. maybe quantitative easing. if the european story turns more negative that's going to be a problem. if we have something that disrupts the supply of energy

that could be a negative. barring that i think we're in a slow grind higher for the balance of the year. >> if i play devil's advocate on those two points, i'm going to pose this question to you, peter kenny, maybe that will make us here in the united states look good by comparison. problems in the middle east. problems in europe. i'm going to put my money where it's a little safer. here to the states. is that a feasible option. >> absolutely. that's actually i think one of the primary thesises that has led capital to u.s. equity markets is the relative attractiveness. the less risk, the more highly predictive markets as a direct result of quantitative easing, as a result of the lack of the geopolitical scares or risks that you're seeing in the eu or the meltdown or the relative lack of appreciation in equity performance in asian markets very specifically. >> got it. to both of you, great to have you on the show. we're going to go for a very quick break. coming up, on the final hour of trade, has the rise at the

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a brand new start. your chance to rise and shine. with centurylink as your trusted technology partner, you can do just that. with our visionary cloud infrastructure, global broadband network and custom communications solutions, your business is more reliable - secure - agile. and with responsive, dedicated support, we help you shine every day of the week. will the fed signal and end of qe? fed day is wednesday. we have our all stars ready to give you instant analysis tomorrow. we're going to tell you why bernanke is bringing sexy back. thanks so much for watching. we're sitting at 1595 at the s&p

500. in one point time -- make that one and a little bit's time we could be sitting at a new record high. "closing bell" is next. it'll take you all the way to the close. hi, everybody. welcome to the "closing bell" from los angeles. i'm maria bartiromo coming to you from the milken conference in l.a. in the next two hours i'll be speaking to some of the biggest names. peter wineburg. boone pickens. a whole host of people who are making money in this bull market, bill. >> looking forward to that. maria is in my hometown. i'm in hers. bill griffeth at the new york stock exchange. bums running wild again today, maria, put the s&p on pace to close at a record high. as mandy was mentioning, one of the leading groups in this sector have been the utilities. they are hitting yet another five-year high today. coming up we'll look atth