except for people on unemployment. spain, 26%, whatever it was. that's a feel-good story and a nice way to the end show, everybody. thanks for watching us. go get some pizza in italy. >> you've got a snooze. you've got to get a snooze. "closing bell" is coming up next. hi, everybody, welcome to the "closing bell." i'm bill griffeth. maria will be along in a few minutes here at the new york stock exchange, where stocks are poised to start this new month on a down note so far. the fed sent the market and the world a message today, first, that it is prepared to do more or less depending on the economy and how it's faring. also, it said that washington, d.c. and our elected officials are dropping the ball big-time with their fiscal policy. our steve liesman and many others will be here to break it down in just a few minutes here. we are also wondering whether clorox ceo donald knauss is sifting through what the fed is

saying, after all, his business is so dependent on the global economy. he'll be here specifically to talk about earnings. and then we're on facebook watch. the company will be reporting earnings next hour at the top of the hour there. the question is, has marc zuckerberg and company cracked the code for monetizing mobile? that's what many investors are watching for and we will have the very news for you first and the best instant analysis anywhere, coming up, at the closing bell. meantime, here's how we stand. some weak economic data this morning. the private jobs number, the factory orders, all pointing to weakness in the economy. the dow is down as many as 123, just before the fed announcement. and we've been coming off that low ever since. down 92 points right now. nasdaq at this hour is down 19 points. also off the lows of the day at 3309. and the s&p 500 index at this hour is down 9 points at 1581. a rough start to the first day of the month. that month, bob pisani, at least some people sold in may.

you wonder whether they're going to go away, right? >> yeah. last year wasn't too bad for this time, but we'll see what goes on here. and bill, you're right, adp was disappointing, construction spending disappointing. take a look at commodities, we've got a little bit of a inflationary concern or a deflationary concern when i get these type of consistently weak economic numbers. even the precious numbers like silver fall to the downside. that's spilling over into the commodities. stocks, space, energy stocks that are weak, some of the big names, u.s. steel is weak, occidental in the energy space, also to the weak side. alcoa is up, isn't that curious? alcoa is talking about cutting capacity, reducing high-cost smelters, particularly in europe. that's how these companies grow now. capacity lower, just cut out the higher-cost areas. very interesting story about alcoa. a lot of people disappointing that the fed didn't really come out and acknowledge the weaker economic data that we've been seeing in march and now into

april. but they did insert a new sentence and a lot of the guys are saying, this kind of covers their concerns here. the fed says the committee is prepared to increase or reduce the pace of its purchases to maintain appropriate policy accommodation. increase or reduce the pace of its purchases. remember, bill, they're serving notice here. they're on realtime watch. if things get worse, they'll increase the purchases. that's what that statement is all about. i think that did help stabilize the markets a little bit. bill, back to you. >> that raised some collective eyebrows. we'll look at that next segment when we comment more ton fed's announcement today. meantime, let's talk about the market action in today's "closing bell" exchange from seth masters here with me. ann from wells fargo advantage funds, zack carabell, and jeff cox, all joining me right here. seth, what did you make of the fed's announcement. does it make you want to buy more or fewer stocks? >> we're more of an investor

over the long horizon. and that's a better entry point if you want to be positioned for what we think over the next few years is going to be a good environment for stocks. >> actually, you feel this market is still cheap and the quality of the market is better right now, right? >> exactly. if you look at what stocks are trading at today, it's a little bit under 14 times this year's earnings expectations. and actually, the quality of companies, as you say, is extremely good. they're generating lots of cash. their balances are in great shape, and compared to previous times when we were at these levels, the market is in much better condition than it's ever been before at this price. >> zack carabell, lots of people have been waiting for this correction to begin, of some kind. you're kind of disturbed about all this skepticism in the market, aren't you? >> you know, i am. i think there's a huge amount of professional rooting against the markets. i'm not sure if this is because markets have done a lot better than a lot of professional investors believe they ought to have done, and so therefore, there's some degree of, you know, wanting the markets to pull back so you can get in or

so that your performance can look better. and i don't think you should discount that as an aspect of the psychology. and there's a huge amount of skepticism about fed policy. and granted, today's announcement was great. they're prepared to increase or decrease. it's like saying, i'm prepared to eatmo more or less dependingf i'm hungry. market participants hate that, but they should get used to it. grow up. >> a lot of people lay this rally at the fed's feet. do you think they seem to be getting set to camp in right now. they're not going to be here for a short period of time, they're going to be here for a long period of time. does that bode well for stocks long-term, zack. >> two things, yes, it bodes. two, there's a psychology aspect. and the third is, i think stocks are doing well, because, frankly, relative to anything going on in the global economic system, as we just heard a moment ago from the gentleman, companies are doing well. they may want be doing as well as people expect or want, but relative to the economy, they're

doing smashingly. >> ann moletti, to this point, the rally has been led by the so-called defensive sectors, those that aren't quite independe dependent on the vagaries of the economy, health care, consumer staples and so forth. you would by the laggards in this market right now, wouldn't you? >> i would. if you look at technology, that's a growth sector and the market seems to be discounting those growth sectors. if you look at the percent of gdp spend in technology, it hasn't changed, so the shares remain the same. and, you know, in slower growth economies, people just feel more secure in a more stable-stereotype companies. but if you look at the growth potential longer term, it's still there for technology and it's being noer eignored by the of the market. i would rather focus on what other people haven't, and technology is one of those areas for us. >> very interesting. so eeyore cox, what did you make of the fed announcement --

>> eeyore? >> you know what i mean. they're in this for the long haul, aren't they? >> they sure are. and i guess to address zack's concern, i never would have guessed the stock market, it makes my 401k look good. if you want to talk about somebody who's not going to be happy, investors maybe going to be happy that people who don't have jobs aren't going to be very happy. we're seeing that in earnings. 60% of s&p 500 companies missing. so to make their bottom lines, it means they'll have to continue to cut costs. the first place they go to cut costs is head count. i think the jobs picture is not going to be very pleasant going forward. how the market deals with that, who knows. go ahead, zack. >> i'll play tiger to jeff's eeyore. >> very good. >> to ann's point about

technology, because of that, companies are likely to invest more in technology over time for the very point that they need to either keep wages low or efficiencies high. >> and i wouldn't -- in fact, i very much agree with ann's point about rotation. i think if you are going to commit new money to this market, i think that there is going to be a rotation theme going on. i would just be -- the one economic thing that this market has not racketed to, with poor jobs reports, and i think come friday, i think that we're going to get another pretty weak report and it could really set up for a sell in may, or at least, you know, something that lasts a couple days, anyway. >> seth masters, what about this? companies that are having to deal with the slower economy are not hiring. they are cutting costs, revenue has been light for the most part, for a lot of companies reporting earnings, but the bottom line has been good because of that cost-cutting. in essence, that fostering more participation by the fed right now, because they're not hiring and they are keeping their powder dry at this point?

>> well, i certainly think it's not beating the fed to take its foot off the accelerator. but the key thing i do see, and i agree with ann as well, that a lot of companies are really able to generate pretty good fundamentals, really good earnings growth, and, in fact, returning a lot of that cash to shareholders, both through dividends and share buybacks. and in this environment, what's odd is, up until now, it is the consumer staples, the utilities and the telecoms that have been driving the market up. that's extraordinarily unusual. i think the next leg of what we see over the next few years will be from companies that are really driving their earnings, as you suggest. >> ann, i know you like to invest longer term, but do do you think it's likely that we get this sell in may phenomenon this year? are we due for some sort of a pullback here this springtime? >> i do think we're probably headed toward a little bit of a pullback. it's less about what month we're in and the sell in may concept, more about how far we've come in the first four months of the year. so multiples have been bid up,

and the earnings estimates really aren't catching up. and so, fundamentals are still lagging. and i think where the multiples should be. and so, i don't know if it's a severe pullback, but i think we have to at least settle in and let these returns that we've already generated for the year soak in a bit. we're longer term optimistic, but near-term, i'm looking for areas of the market that have been underappreciated. >> yeah, we've already had a good year this quarter. >> we have. >> thanks, al. good to see you with your thoughts on today's market action. we have some breaking news right now on those successful bonds that apple auctioned off earlier. >> bill, today is the first official day that apple bonds can actively trade. and according to bonds.com, apple's entire bond issue today is seeing strong demand, making up roughly 68% of the telecom, media, and technology sector's bond volume. apple's ten-year note, which yields 2.4% in particular is seeing strong demand. $240 million of apple's ten-year bond has been traded, which

shows that rather than just sitting on an apple bond and waiting for it to mature, fixed income investors, bill, are actively trading these notes, which means you can probably expect the spread between apple's ten-year and the u.s. treasury note to tighten going forward. so bottom line, here, you're seeing strong demand and fixed income investors the from the retail side and the institutional side coming in to play this apple bond. back to you, bill. >> seema, thank you very much. we'll take a break. maria will join me just moments from now. the down, starting to head lower again, down 112 points right now. it was down 123 at the low. day, just before the fed announcement. we'll see how he do as we go into this final hour of trading. you'll love this story. high-speed trading is under fire again. are the chicago mercantile exchanges computers rigged to give the mercantile an unfair advantage. plus, the fed sounding this little down beat about this

economy. our fed experts will weigh in on where it all means and where the fed and economy may go from here. and after the bell, you will not want to miss this. we'll wait to see what the news feed says on facebook. have the social network's earnings right here. everybody will be watching for that and the market response, coming up on the "closing bell." stay tuned.

so no change from the fed today on interest rates. they will continue to buy treasuries, securities to stimulate the economy, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. that was kind of new. >> yeah, it was kind of new, but it didn't really say anything. i mean, other than, yes, of course, the economics will dictate it. let's get with our economics reporter, steve liesman now, and on-air editor, rick santelli. also with us is mason slain, president, chairman, and ceo of interactive data. good to see everybody. mason, haven't seen you in forever. what was your take on the fed today? >> they really said nothing new, of course. and it's a continuation of a policy whereby it will be good for the stock market, the stock market will probably keep going up, but not good for anything else, not good for the economy. people aren't going to be buying anymore autos or houses because of interest rates staying so low. and it really keeps impoverishing people who have to live off their savings and

trying to make a return on very low interest rates that are prevalent today and look like they're going to continue that way for quite a while. so, i don't think it's particularly great news for the economy or for the people in the u.s. >> steve, i'll come to you in a second, but, rick, we're setting lows now for the stock market again, the dow is down 125 po t points, do you think this is fed related or what do you think's going on right now? >> you know, i think it's partially fed related, because i don't think that they have the magic with the heaviness that is being placed on stocks. just the breadth and duration of how many days and sessions it's gone up, benchmarked against the last two or three weeks worth of very soft data, maybe anxiety over tomorrow and the ecb and what may lie i head for europe, especially in light of their 12.1% record high unemployment. and, you know, there's a lot of debates, bill, on the trading floor, that many of the press conferences that ben bernanke had, he said as much, he

memorialized it by saying he could not only do less in terms of the purchases, he may do more. my analogy is, it's like the that crazy uncle that never leaves, starting to hang pictures and put new rugs on the floor. i think they're really taking over the space. to me, free markets, what the fed seems to be doing to me, whether it goes up, down, they're going to be involved for a long time. >> let me read the sentence that everybody's talking about right now. steve, you're going to want to comment, i'm sure. the committee is prepared to increase or reduce the pace of its purchases to maintain appropriate policy accommodation as the outlook for the labor market or inflation changes. is that how you read it? that they're kind of settling in and getting comfortable here, steve? >> no, not at all. i pretty much disagree with your two prior comments on it. i think it's an important change and i think it's a change that affects the markets and the traders down there. it's one thing for the fed chairman to say it, it's important. what's happened now is that notion of essentially optionalty

and also sensitivity to incoming data is now policy of the committee. so i think now there's a little bit of gaming that's going to go on, perhaps, before fomc meetings that can allow it, force the market to guess up or down, is the number really $85 billion? that's gone from rhetoric of the chairman to a policy of the committee. and that's an important comment, or an important change that is going to make a difference for traders when they figure out, are they going to do more or less of this? and by the way, it's symmetrical in the sense that this is something that will create a guessing game on the upside of increasing quantitative easing, but also on the downside, when it comes to decreasing quantitative easing. >> but what was the point, steve, of saying, look, we'll -- we will be ready to do less or more? >> the point is, maria, i mean, i can't -- what popped into my head was the idea of, i'm going to punch you. i'm not going to do it now, not

you, obviously, maria, but you know what i'm saying here. it's somebody winding up to do something and saying, i am really ready to do this and do more than the $85 billion. look, i think what they're talking about behind the scenes now is what i'm calling, you know, the break the glass options here. they include doing more purchases, there was a proposal to lower the unemployment target, there's probably an idea out there among some of the duddiest of the duds to raise the inflation target. and also, just making more firm comments, as they did in the statement, about ending fiscal restraint. let me underscore, again, 2.5% growth in the last gdp report, 0.8% subtraction from government spending. >> so we want traders to trade on an interventionist fed versus market fundamentals, and you think that's a good thing? >> but, rick, i mean, specifically, i didn't put a qualitative -- i'm simply reporting -- >> no, you said it's good because traders will be able to

trade, whether they're going to get more involved or more involved in a different way. >> i think, rick, there's two ways to think about this, and especially it's important on the downside. there's this issue for the federal reserve that's been talked about for really decades, which is the terminal rate problem. let's say when the federal reserve starts to tighten up, rick, the trouble that the market will do is it will price in the terminal point of policy almost immediately, even though the federal reserve will judge that the economy doesn't -- can't bear that terminal rate issue. so a guessing game can be helpful in that regard, in terms of keeping the market from pricing in a terminal rate. >> see, we do agree. the market -- >> go ahead, mason. >> i don't think there's any chance of the fed doing less. i don't see anything at all about that. there's a bias toward the downside in the economy. i don't think it's much of a guessing game at all. i think interest rates are going to stay low, very low, too low. they're going to scare people, the economy is going to stay

weak and it will continue to encourage high levels of qe. >> when you say that, it just strikes me, obviothe obvious qun is, if it's not benefiting from lower rates, why would it benefit from higher rates? why would that spur investment? why would that spur purchases? why would that spur borrowing if the price of money were higher? >> because it's real. >> because you have policies that reflect recessionary thinking, deflationary thinking. it scares people. >> but it doesn't only scare people, but it also has this persistent uncertainty, which continues and continues and continues. so, sure, things seem like they're getting better, and sure, this market keeps hitting highs. of course, not today. but at the end of the day, you're still seeing corporates sit on cash, almost $4 trillion of cash on balance sheets, unwilling to make decisions over the long-term, unwilling to hire people in significant numbers, in terms of job creation, and that's the bottom line. look, i'm joshocked that we're t

seeing more m&a action out there. we've got record low unemployment rates, we should be seeing a huge boom of m&a right now, why aren't we? because confidence levels are low. it's all about confidence. it's all about confidence. >> doesn't that strike you as saying the fire department created the fire or the heart surgeon created the clog in the arteries? i mean, the notion that -- >> would you want a surgeon to be operating on you every day? >> no. no, but that's -- >> that's what they're doing. >> and doesn't it strike you, there's a little bit of hubris involved in your comment to the extent that you know what the right level of interest rates for this economy is, beyond what is already out there in the market? if you think about, and think through the concept of, if the fed withdrew what it's doing right now, where would interest rates settle? >> i talk to business people over day. i know how they feel. they're scared, because they think the fed must see a recession -- >> they're scared because they want to pay higher rates? >> i think the metaphor we're using may be wrong here in calling it surgery and a surgeon doing surgery every day. what about the metaphor of the

doctor keeping the patient on morphine or some other pain reliever, just so that they don't feel any pain at all, right? as they pull back on the morphine, you are going to feel some pain, but that's going to revive the patient and we can figure out whether they're ready to stand on their own two legs right now. >> they just cut down qe every quarter, signal it properly, interest rates return to more normal levels, which are maybe a hundred basis points higher than they are. and i think that breeds confidence among businesspeople. it gives people who lived on fixed incomes more money, they spend more, and it's a virtuous circle that develops. >> rick, we'll give you the last word. >> when it comes to hubris, nobody can beat the federal reserve. just because you get a diploma from princeton or yale, doesn't mean you know more than free markets or the aggregate personality of everybody without picking winners and losers -- >> i beat it notes having the degree, but go ahead.

>> okay. we'll leave it there. >> thanks, guys. >> back from the land of milton friedman there in chicago. >> thank you, rick. see you later. that was a good discussion. we need that -- >> my issue is confidence. >> i agree, i agree. and they just maybe pulled back a little bit to see if the patient can revive on its own right now. dividends making a big comeback these days. coming up, two companies boosting their dividends to investors. are they the stocks you should be buying? >> and later in the program, steve liesman will be along again with larry kudlow, agreeing on austerity? yes, it's really happening. no, the world is not ending. back in a moment. stay with us,. it raises the price of fishmeal, cattle feed and beef. bny mellon turns insights like these into powerful investment strategies. for a university endowment. it funds a marine biologist...

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all right. welcome back. two well-known stocks seeing a trend we've been seeing. ibm and costco just the latest in a string of companies to increase their dividends with interest rates low. bigger dividends are becoming much more attractive. but should you buy either of these stocks off the increase in the dividend? let's talk numbers on the names. on the technical side of the story, abigail doolittle of the seaport group in new york, and joe greco from the new york stock exchange. abigail, which of these charts look better to you? >> costco, by far, maria. i love this chart. ibm, not so much. if we take a look at the two-year daily chart in costco, we see a beautiful up trend. nice pockets of consolidation.

that tells us steady accumulation. the most recent consolidative pause has higher lows that recently took out resistance, recently overtook the sellers. that's an ascending triangle, target 118. i am a buyer of costco here. ibm, on the other hand, if we take a look at that chart, a three-year weekly, we see a nice uptrend, but it reversed last year. it started to reverse into a trading range. what makes that range bearish in my view, buyers were unable to take out the sellers on this last third attempt on resistance. i think that reck tatangle of resistance will break to the upside 160. i would sell ibm. >> joe, what do you think? do you disagree with abigail? >> i do, on a fundamental level, fife quick ones. ibm has five times the r.o.e. of costco and four times the margin, which is what a lot of people look at. three times the price to book ratio, which i think is very attractive.

two times the yield, which is very important. not so much in the tech space, but very important if we're comparing against costco. the number one is, ibm has been a relevant company and a game changer for over a hundred years. costco is trying to window dress with this dividend raise and they're shuffling the inventory and shuffling their product mix to consolidate and make their earnings look a little more attractive right now. ibm has been doing this for a long time, since 1995 -- >> i would take the opposite side here, joe, absolutely. i think that costco, that their dividend rates is a nice bell and whistle. for ibm, i think it's more of a band-aid. we've seen negative revenue growth last year into this year. i don't think investors -- >> that would be a band-aid since 1995. >> it's been the same increase, dividend increase since 1995. that's a really long-term band-aid. >> but revenues for the first time in many years started to decelerate last year, they disappointed on the last quarter. i think this dividend raise isn't going to do anything to change that fundamental picture, whereas costco, it's nice to have. it makes the stock more attractive for investors. >> final word here, joe? >> ibm is working on the atomic

level, and they have in their back pocket that their dividend payout is very, very low. they could always increase that payout ratio, and people are really going to flock to the stock. >> we'll see about that. >> thanks very much. we will keep following on both sides. thank you so much, abigail, joe, we'll see you soon. we're in the final stretch of trading here for the day. we've got a market that is worsening, down 136 points on the dow jones industrial average right now. >> they're selling in may so far. >> they really are. >> you know, you do this. >> high-speed trading may have been moving too fast at the chicago mercantile exchange and the playing field looks a little uneven. the story is just ahead and we've got the debate. >> a full debate on that. >> and we're a little over a half hour now away from facebook's earnings. has the mobile strategy paid off or is it back to the drawing board? that stock is down a percent and a half right now. we'll get some answers, coming up. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 when i'm trading, i'm totally focused. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and the streetsmart edge trading platform from charles schwab... tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 gives me tools that help me find opportunities more easily.

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welcome back. we are about 30 minutes away from the closing bell. take a look at the markets and how we're shaping up here as we approach close. the dow jones industrial average near the lows, down 126 points at 14,713. nasdaq, also negative today. and as you can see, we're looking at a double-digit move there lower, down 26 points, 27

points on nasdaq and the standard & poor's 500 index, also extending the losses here as we approach the close, down 13 points on the standard & poor's. >> more shenanigans in the world of high-speed trading. well, this time, the chicago mercantile exchange is under scrutiny. eamon javers has the latest on that story from washington. >> reporter: "the wall street journal" reporting this morning that at the cme, some high-frequency traders have figured out that they can get as much as a ten millisecond advantage over their competitors and get a heads up on price information and that's something that's got a lot of people scratching their heads and wondering whether or not there's an unfair advantage here for high-frequency traders. it's an issue that i talked to bart chilton from the cftc about a little while ago. he said one thing he would like to see at least for a start is for high-frequency traders to register with the cftc. take a listen. >> the second largest trader, by volume, at the chicago mercantile exchange, in the

past, and maybe still today, is a high-frequency trader located in prague. now, if i want to get the books and records, because i think something potentially nefarious has gone on, i'm not going to have any luck getting this information from prague. >> now, i talked to the cme group about this morning, and they said that the lag that's there is not always there in every case. it's the result of technology, and they say they're trying to get those speed gaps down to zero as soon as they can. but they say that they are there now, although they're working on the issue. maria? >> eamon, thank you. joining us right now, dennis killaher of better markets. he says this is the latest example that insiders are rigging the game for their own benefit. on the other side of the debate, al drina aldridge, both join us right now. >> hi, maria. >> dennis, let me kick it off with you. you say this is another example

of the insiders rigging the markets for their own benefit? >> well, it's pretty clear that we've seen what high-speed computer trading has been doing in the equity markets. this is a very important report to show what it's not doing in the commodity markets. keeping in mind, the commodity markets are very important for edging, for producers of commodities, for everything from our food stuffs to fuels. it affects every single american family in a very important away. the cme and commodity market sell themselves as being fair and open with a level playing field. and what this article in the "wall street journal" showed today is that just isn't always the case. that there are people getting a time advantage and an information advantage, they're basically prop traders, trading for they own accounts, for their own advantage, and taking advantage of other people, when other people don't have the same opportunity. >> yeah, and irene, you're not bothered by that, why not? >> first of all, this problem is really a technology problem and it's something we've just seen on the new york stock exchange. and the new york stock exchange, i think, in september, was penalized $5 million, because

their delay was, get this, a hundred times greater than the one ton the cme. a hundred times. the cme delay is absolutely minuscule, it's only one millisecond, and you know how much time it takes the signal to travel from new york to chicago? 20 milliseconds, almost 15 to 20 milliseconds. >> are you saying that no one benefits from this millisecond time lag between the trade and the confirmation that can occur? >> it's very difficult. and it's very difficult for different reasons -- >> i don't know how you could say that, though. >> it's wrong. >> they found people -- >> i know it's -- >> they found people in the article who are benefiting. >> yeah, so i don't know how you can say that. >> okay, so to benefit from something like this, you need the market to move, right? because you need to buy and then you need to sell at a different price so you can capture some sort of a gain. most markets do not move this fast. if you look even at the s&p 500 futures, they probably move by one tick every minute, on average.

there are certain times when definitely the market moves a lot faster, such as when there are news announcements or something going on. but overall, the market moves does not -- >> we're not saying it happens every second of every day, but there will be those time when the market does move on news or whatever it is and people will take advantage of that. >> it's entirely possible. and i'm saying, the same situation we had on the new york stock exchange just a little while ago. and this one millisecond delay, it's extremely easy to incur from the technology point of view. awe you need to incur some program on the same computer and it may slow other programs down. these things happen. >> the problem is we have a high-speed computer arms race right now between prop traders. and it's not correct to say that a millisecond here and a millisecond here doesn't count. in fact, milliseconds are worth billions of dollars. and they're moving to microseconds, and they're soon going to be at nanoseconds. better markets have filed four comment laters with the cftc telling them to get out in front

of the computer distortions that are happening in the commodity markets and are going to happen, and the new derivatives markets. and we see from today's reporting that not only don't you have an unlevel playing field, you have a massive lack of information about what is happening. and it's not just when the markets move. these computer programs actually move the markets. it shouldn't be called high-frequency trading, it should be called high-frequency quoting, because somewhere in the neighborhood of 99% of the quotes never get filled. what they're doing is pinging the market to draw out legitimate hedgers and bona fide sellers. and they're creating market moves and then exploiting them when other people don't even know it's happening. >> you're itching to get in on this, irene. >> actually, this is not the case. there are a lot of legitimate reasons why people are doing this, and in my book, it's 300 pages of explanations why people are doing it. it's a new addition, completely revised. but this friday, we have a conference where cftc commissioner is coming to discuss these issues.

it's at new york institute public policy institute. we have joe hasberg, going to be talking about exactly high-frequency quoting and why it happens and how it happens. and you know what, these are not at all the reasons you just brought up. >> all right. >> first of all, berkeley dealers in many markets plays these quotes, they sort of act like, you know, how you apply to preschool sometimes and you have to stand overnight in line in new york city nowadays. there are people who stand in line and sell their seats in the morning to people who did not want to stand in line or something like this. a lot of brokered dealers nowadays make their money the same way. they place their order and then they wait for customers to arrive and if the customer arrives he gets preferential priority in the order cue. and if the customer does not ari arri arrive, they just cancel these orders. >> dennis, what's wrong with that? >> it's completely misleading. what is happening here is

completely secret and invisible and it's done that way by design, so that other people in the market don't know how they're being picked off. so, for example, recently, the cme, on behalf of its customers, stopped providing information to the cftc, because it was used by independently analysts to show in two different studies that the high-frequency trading is at times being exploitive and manipulative, but there's a lack of data and a lack of refusal to provide the data. what are they afraid of? >> we've got to go at this point. we're not going to solve the problem in the time we have remaining. but thank you both for your sides of the story. >> by the way, the cme told us -- >> i was just going to read this. go ahead, do it. >> the cme told us there can be, not consistently, a backup of a few milliseconds between the time a message gets out on the public feed versus when a firm receives the confirmation of their trade. so a firm might know they got a fill a millisecond or a few

before the whole market. they're aware of the latency and put a technology fix in earlier this year that reduced the likelihood and potential length of a possible delay and they have another fix coming this summer. this is what the cme told us today. >> we did want to get their side. they are continually making improvements, they say, to improve inefficiencies. they admit there are some inefficiencies in that whole process. heading toward the close, 15 minutes left, down 141, that's about the low for the session, on a day when the fed said they'll keep interest rates right where they are. >> and a busy day for earnings as well. we'll come back and take a look at how the earnings names are trading and who is still to come. we'll get that from josh lipton, coming up. >> including facebook, those highly anticipated numbers shortly after the bell tonight. we'll get the news and the market reaction and the guidance, all coming up. welcome to the new new york state, where cutting taxes for families and businesses is our business. we've reduced taxes and lowered costs to save businesses more than two billion dollars to grow jobs, cut middle class income taxes to the lowest rate in sixty years,

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because we're that kind of airline. and we never stop looking for a better way. it's how we've grown into america's largest domestic airline. we are southwest. welcome aboard. well, it's a down day for the markets, but certainly several earnings reports names are looking up. let's get to josh lipton, he has the postscript on some of these names and preview on others. josh? >> maria, lots of earnings reports. let's review some of the highlights here, humana, enjoying a nice move today. the health insurer, better than expected first quarter earnings. also, boost 2013 guidance. that stock, up some 13% so far in 2013.

intercontinental exchange, another gainer. i.c.e., which is buying nyse says profit fell on acquisition costs, but still beat the street's estimates. others reported, but disappointed. that would include garmin. first quarter profit clocks in below estimates. revenue dropping at its personal navigation devices business. that stock down some 17% this year. now, earnings reports, we'll be watching after the bell. that would include facebook, of course. analysts looking for 13 cents on sales of $1.44 billion. jpmorgan remains bullish as it's still early, they say, in social advertising. facebook, now up about 3% this year, though down some 27% from its offering price of 38 bucks. also on our radar, cbs, visa, and yelp. bill, back to you. >> all right, josh, thank you very much. market status stations out there right now with the dow down 139 points. this is the worst first trading day of the month for the markets going back to june of last year. man, do we have a lot of

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well, here we are, about ten minutes away from the closing

bell, the first trading day of the month, the one that starts with "m." >> may day. >> markets don't like this so much. it is a one-day event, this sell-off, or could may be the losing month we're finally looking for here. >> we have bob kosich with us, along with bob turner who manages about $18 billion. gentleman, good to have you on the program. >> welcome. >> thanks for joining us. what do you think this is? would you be a seller here, down 142, or a buyer? >> i would stick with the plan, maria, as we've done really since the bull. the market is not as cheap as it was six months ago, but not expensive either. >> does that mean you're putting money to work in the market? >> yes. >> bob, what are you doing here? >> same way, i agree with bob. it's not the time to bail out now. i will say that either the market is up this year, but it's been led by kind of slow growth stocks, staples, utilities, health care. so, if we do have a correction, i think that's where it's going to come from. >> so what does that mean? you'd buy the laggards here?

the technologies and financials -- >> and industrials. >> it's interesting that the dividend payers have been so, really the asset class to own in an environment where rates are at such record low levels. but, what's wrong with technology? >> well, i don't think anything. i mean, clearly, it's as cheap now as it's ever been. the cash balances are high. >> you've had this big transition away from traditional windows in intel environment to mobile, android, ios-based environment. and that transition is not easy. not to mention moving to the cloud. but there are a lot of companies that can do well in that environment. >> down 141, so we're still sitting at the lows of the day. you guys have set that target to the s&p to 1650 by the end of the year. i know you're going to stick by that. but does that mean we couldn't get a 10% correction in the meantime? >> you can get a 10% correction at any point. and actually, the stage is set for a 10% correction. we will learn a lot about this economy in the next three months, because seasonally, it's a strong point for housing. we're going to learn a lot about

how much success bernanke's engineering through qe3 in the months to come. so 1625, 1650, as long as things continue to improve. but there's a huge disappointment at some point along the lines, there will be a correction. >> so are you saying basically, you don't want to step away from stocks until you have a clear idea that the federal reserve is going to start raising rates? >> the federal reserve today was very interesting. they sort of implied a symmetrical directive right now. they said they could purchase more than $85 billion or do less, but we don't have a lot of confidence at this point, which way it's going to be. so if the fed looks like it's going to start to tighten quicker, it could temper stocks. you really want to see the fed thread the needle here. 2.5% gdp, anything above 3% changes the dynamic of the market. >> does the fed's announcement make you want to buy more stocks or fewer stocks? that's the question today. obviously, somebody's buying fewer. >> more over time. it's been a bit like a broken record here. it's pretty much the same

message each time. if anything, this time, they were probably a little bit more concerned about the fiscal drag. if anything, it argues that the qe goes on for longer. >> the fiscal doctoring, they were saying in there, that one line -- >> fiscal policy is restraining economic growth. >> taking a swing at congress there. >> and well they should. >> agreed. >> there's no fiscal policy. >> well, we know that. we know there was a tax increase, we know there's a lot of spending cuts through sequestration. think about the beginning of the first quarter, all the head winds. you ask why tech spending, capital structures have been strong, because first quarter was not a prime period for capex. that should improve as the economic outlook improves. >> all right. >> confidence. >> thank you so much, gentleman. >> appreciate you joining us. >> we'll come back with the closing countdown for this first trading day of may with the dow down 144 points. >> and a big day for mark zuckerberg and facebook. the company reports earnings in the wake of a new mobile strategy. will investors like what they hear? the news, just a few minutes away. you're watching the "closing

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which would be fine if bob were a vampire. but he's not. ♪ he's an architect with two kids and a mortgage. luckily, he found someone who gave him a fresh perspective on his portfolio. and with some planning and effort, hopefully bob can retire at a more appropriate age. it's not rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. 3 1/2 minutes left. we've all been waiting for a correction. is this the impinge beginning o? >> could be. down 150 at the lows. >> the dow's down almost a percent right now, the nasdaq down, they're all down like amounts. so they're all moving in tandem at this point. here's what the dow looked like today. we were selling on the open this

morning. the adp, jobs number didn't look all that great, factory orders. then we hit the low, just before the fed announcement, came back a little bit, and hitting the lows for the session right now. the yield on the ten-year, which would be impacted by the fed's fou announcement, saw the fed come back a little bit, but we are hovering around the 162 level, which is just about the low for the year here so far. alan valdez, what do you make about this market and what about the fed announcement, anything in there that surprises you? >> no real surprise. the only kind of minor surprise, they said they couldn't go up or down with the rates. going up would be a real shocker. >> let me ask you this, about this market. here we are, down 144 points on the dow jones industrial average. what is the likelihood this is just another 1% decline that's going to be met with a buy on the dip mentality. what do you think? >> i think a very good likelihood. that's been the play all year long. >> are you one of those buyers, i am definitely one of those buyers. especially in the environment we're in, it's going to come down. the adp number very weak.

the fed has to keep the pedal down. and that money coming into narcotic, where else you going to go? >> bad news is still good news. >> remember the numbers last week. $11 trillion in cds and checking accounts and money markets, all on the sideline, make nothing interest. >> does it matter to you that nyse margin debt is at an all-time high. >> people are borrowing more to buy stocks right now. >> it worries me. but, you know, that's the game they're playing now. so the market is just going to come up. i don't think we're going to see, you know, a go away in may, i don't think you're going to see it this year. i really don't. >> alan, good to see you. let's get ready for facebook earnings. bill, have a good night. >> you too. you're not done yet. what about those facebook earnings? they could set the tone for tomorrow. the question is, have they figured out mobility and how to monetize that right now. >> doesn't seem to be. they can't get that down yet. but that said, facebook always beats. the last two quarters, they keep beating. >> they beat, expect on the stock price? >> yeah, on the stock price. but, no, i don't know how

they're going to get that mobile down. all the growth has come from overseas, not here in america. that's another problem for facebook. >> what we've been hearing for people the last few days, as they make their preparations to invest for the next month or to is we all know what's been leading the market at this point, the defensive plays, the health cares, the utilities, you know, the consumer staples, these people are start to look at the laggards. they want the technologies, the financials, the industrials. is that what you'd be buying on these dips? >> i like the whole market, but, no, i still like the fundamentals. i still like those defensive stocks. i like liquidity, i like to be in stocks that get in and out real fast, because this market can change on a dime, which you're seeing today. i think, overall, if you invest today, the market will be up higher. >> so you're not expecting a very good jobs report on friday, then? >> no, bad for the economy, good for the market. >> that's how that works right now. it's that inverse relationship that goes on. alan, thanks very much. >> thanks, bill. >> so first day of may, is it going to be sell in may and go away? something that maria loves to

talk about. i'm sure she'll be doing more of that coming up here, as we get ready for those earnings from facebook and the all-important guidance from mark zuckerberg as well. the dow is finishing down about 140 points on this first trading day of the month of may. here's the second hour of the "closing bell" with maria bartiromo. i'll see you tomorrow. and it is 4:00 on wall street, do you know where your money is? hi, everybody. welcome back to the "closing bell." i'm maria bartiromo, coming to you from the new york stock exchange. the market kicking off the new month of may on the downside, triple-digit loss for the dow. markets anxiously awaiting facebook's earnings, due out any minute. we'll have those numbers for you and the market reaction asap when they hit the tape. take a look at how we're settling out on wall street, the dow jones industrial average finishing just shy of the lows. the market today down 137 points. 14,701 last trade there. nasdaq composite gave up about 30 points, almost 1% lower there as well