>> this is the most that brokers have ever seen, demand for $1 million listings. >> this is sure to nation's heart back to wall street. >> the cockles of americans' hearts have been warmed. >> or at least rich russians. >> that kind of money could buy a new heart. thanks for watching "street signs". >> "closing bell," coming up next. hi, everybody. we're into the final stretch. we're into the closing bell. this market in the green, but we have given up a fair amount. about half of today's gain eliminated as we approach the final stretch. >> we were up 218 points on the dow at the high of the day. that gain has been cut in half. however, even if we were to close -- right, right? well, why not? even if we were to close well off the highs of the day, but still higher, it would be the 20th straight tuesday that we've had a higher -- >> go figure! >> unbelievable.

but a lot of the market news, because we've had economic data that came out that helped support the rally today. >> that's what it is? it's the tuesday thing, the economic data or -- >> sure. >> even with the markets on such a great running with there are bargains to be had. we want to find them. our week-long series where the pros name their best bargain stocks are kicking off today. stay tuned. two names they say have a ton of room to run. >> and then, you know what may be as hot as the stock market right now? housing. that economic report this morning, case-shiller index came out, showing a huge gain in home prices over the last year. the beleaguered housing market may be driving this economy right now. it may also be boosting stocks. we'll have the latest and find out if this trend can last and what the fed may do about it. >> the dow jones industrial average, as you heard, better than up 200 earlier, now up 102 points, 15,405, last trade on the dow jones industrial average. standard & poor's also -- the nasdaq composite, rather, as you can see, off of the best levels of the session, but still holding ton a 24-point rally

here on the nasdaq. let's check the s&p 500 with a similar chart pattern, off of the highs, but still in the green with a gain of nearly nine points. stock market kicking off the unofficial start of summer, with a huge gain. let's get to josh lipton with what's driving this move today. over to you, josh. >> maria, as you guys were mentioned, we are well in the green, but also now well off session highs. the dow had been up 218. now up about 102. you did have that positive economic data today. you saw home prices better than expected, consumer confidence, better than expected, but some traders down here point to that vacillation, as well as this light volume we're seeing on the big board as indicative of really the conviction in this move. now, what's been working today, if you look under the hood in the s&p 500, it's really those cyclical sectors, those economically sensitive sectors. it's energy, as well as financials. you had analysts at moody's change their outlook on the u.s. banking system to stable from negative. what is not working today is utilities. the dow utilities actually now down for four days in a row here, as we see this move from

the defensives into the cyclicals. bill, back to you. >> josh, welcome back to the new york stock exchange. we'll be checking back with you as news warrants. let's get to our "closing bell" exchange. in today's exchange, we have michael yoshikami, dan from janney capital markets, peter costa on the floor of the exchange from empire executions, and welcome back, rick santelli, from a well-deserved week off. and when you come back, ten-year yields are at a year-high and that two-year note auction didn't go so well today. doesn't hurt the stock market, though. >> no, and that really is the issue. it might not have hurt the stock market, but maybe it gave us a little taste of what rising rates can go to the stock market or the pressure it might put on the fed to try to clear up what's, to me, very unclear. if we look at two-year note yields, you know, they were 19 basis points on the second of may. they're now at 28. if we -- these are the highest yields, should we close here, bill, since early november of last year. five-year note yields touched

1%. haven't seen that since april of last year. and by the way, beginning of may, they were at 64 basis points. the ten-year at 213, the high yield of the day, that was at 163 on the second of may and also, the highest levels since early april of last year. >> you know, i guess, what i want to do is look back to last week, michael yoshikami, which was a pretty scary week. we had a thousand-point sell-off in japan. a rough day, a couple days here in new york. has anything changed? do you still worry about that sell-off that we saw last week and what that may tell us about what's ahead for this market? >> i'm not concerned about the japanese sell-off. i think it's specific to the japanese market. japan has such a dreadful economy. and they are completely pumping it up with monetary policy. we have a struggling economy being pumped up by monetary policy, but it's nothing like japan, because of demographics. but i do think it really goes to the whole volatility concern that we have going into the

summer, that if you have cash in your portfolio, if you're moving into equities, you need to move slowly. there's going to be lots of opportunity to buy. if you have equities that have run, it's time to take some profit. just like we've seen in the treasury market, there's volatility, and so i think you need to be tactical here. >> peter costa, back to maria's point, about last week. you know, we had one day where we had that huge rally, and then a huge sell-off. and for some chartists, that was seen as something as a reversal for the momentum for this market. here we sit today with another 108-point gain on the dow. what do you think the mood of the market is here? >> i think it's data-specific right now. we've had some good data this morning. i think, you know, they're all inter-related. the market being up where it is, consumer confidence being, you know, getting better, and the housing market improving vastly, they're all inter-related. when one person feels comfortable about their economic condition, they're more apt to go out to spend money, more apt to go out and buy houses, and

more apt to invest in the market. i think everything is all inter-related at this point. i'm still a little skeptical. i think we're getting very close to a top right now and i'm going to stick with that. i still think we're going to be another 200 to 300 points off the high after that and i'm just going to like lay back and not spend any money. >> yeah. >> is that what you're seeing from customers? do you feel that sort of laggard behavior from some of your clients? >> the institutional customers, they're almost stepping out of the picture right now. that's a sign, they've made their money, they're doing pretty well right now. some are up 15 to 20%, some are higher. they donate see anymore movement on the upside. they're just waiting for any kind of pullback, maybe, to just re, you know, allocate their portfolios a little bit. but right now they're not doing anything. to me, that just indicates that they think we're near a top also. >> but now, dab wan trobski, if i read your notes correctly, the dow in the last four years has

gone from almost 6,000 to 15,000 and you think that only now are we beginning a secular bull market, right? >> sure. that's one of the things that we're looking at, on a long-term basis points, we're very bullish on the stock markets. i would agree with the other speakers here, though, that on a short-term basis, things do look a bit frothy, you could see some pullback in the markets. but broadly speaking, we do think we're making the transition here. you're breaking out to new all-time highs at a time when valuations are really at some of their cheapest levels in over the last decade or so. that's one of the hallmark signposts of a new cycle. the other things we're seeing are, you know, they're doing it, equities are doing this against the backdrop of higher rates now, and we think that's a positive as well. and in the meantime, you see the commodities markets underperforming equities as an asset class. we think these types of correlations bode very well for the stock markets longer term. and over the short run, things are frothy.

you could have a pullback, but we like the setup. >> but rick santelli, i believe you used the "b" word this morning. bubble, yes? >> absolutely. our last guest, in my opinion, nailed it. basically everything he said is true about valuations, in normal times. because all the history he's using to give us that wonderful research is predicated at a time when markets moved on their own. they moved the fundamentals. they weren't managed markets. and i think that when you look at the context of the liquidity and we can argue about it for days, but at the very least, you need to concede the idea that all of those historic metrics have to have a roger maris asterisk, because if interest rates were at 4%, or 3.5%, i'm not so sure his numbers would have turned out the sign. >> i agree with rick. i mean, if you look at the numbers right now from the housing market, housing market is up, okay, celebrate, but the housing market is up with basically zero percent interest. so i don't think you can really look at the numbers that you see

now, even though we think equities will creep higher from here, i just don't see that there's any real justification for huge runs in the stock market going forward, when we really do have artificial times. we have bernanke leaving in february. who knows when interest rate policy is going to look like. >> we have to go, but, dan, you've got to defend yourself, then, after those guys pummeled your premise. quickly. >> i would like to say, everything that was said, yeah, presents a huge wall of worry for the arguments i give, there were five against it, and that's exactly what the stock markets love. i think it's going to take a lot of people by surprise, years from now, the market is going to be significantly higher on the backdrops of a higher rate environment. this is what the market is doing now. it's a discounting mechanism. it battles that wall of worry. there's no adoption from main street. nobody's trading this market. it's levitating on low volume. these, again, are some of the hallmarks of an early stage bull cycle. so we're behind it. you know, we're going to look for a correction like everybody else, but i think longer term, this is the place to be. >> all right. good divergence there.

thanks, everybody. appreciate it. we'll see you soon. >> welcome back, rick. all right, let's get to the latest on this train that had derailed in the last hour or so near baltimore. jackie deangelis has the update for us. jack jackie? >> hey, good afternoon, bill. we know that shortly after 2:00 p.m. a cargo train derailment occurred. that was near the white marsh area in maryland. that is roughly about 20 minutes away from baltimore. what we know so far is that six to eight cars are reported to be a part of this csx-operated freight train. preliminary report revealed that several buildings had collapsed just around it. and also, other reports indicate that a hazmat team is on the scene. they are working with authorities at this time to investigate, a, what happened, obviously, but, two, what might have been on that train and also the cause of it. this cause, at this time, not known. meantime, no injuries reported at this time. there are some reports that businesses in the area have been evacuated.

and i do want to highlight that csx is a company that provides rail-based transportation services. their headquarters are in jacksonville, florida. csx was trading positive for most of the day, but since this happened shortly after 2:00 p.m., the stock is now down by 1%. you can see from some of the live pictures that we've been showing, there are large plumes of smoke rising from the area. and also, ap reporting that three rail cars could be seen off the tracks. mean, i do want to highlight as well that this is the third incident, the third big train mishap that we've seen in just the last two weeks. so, obviously, this is a developing story and we are following it closely and we will bring you any updates. back to you guys. >> all right, jackie, thank you very much. keep us updated here. heading towards the close, 50 minutes left, the dow up 100 points. was up 213. we need a gain of -- let me get glasses, we need a gain of 184 points to get an all-time high on the dow. >> we were there earlier. well, sell in may and go away?

not this year, obviously. the s&p 500 is on pace for the best month of may since the 2004. but somebody here says the party is about to end. the bearish case for the summer swoon, coming up. >> and if you thought tax hikes out of washington have been covered earlier this year, think again. now there's talk of a new airline travel tax. we'll talk to some people who warn, this could end up grounding the resurgent airline economy, even the economy. >> and he correctly predicted six brands that would disappear in 2012. which brands will be extinct before the end of the year. that's coming up on "closing bell." but we can still help you see your big picture. with the fidelity guided portfolio summary, you choose which accounts to track and use fidelity's analytics to spot trends, gain insights, and figure out what you want to do next. all in one place. i'm meredith stoddard and i helped create the fidelity guided portfolio summary.

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nope. we could only watch tv in the rooms that had a tv outlet. yeah if we wanted to watch tv someplace else, we'd have to go to my aunt sally's. have you ever sat on a plastic covered couch? [ kids cheering ] you're missing a good game over here. those kids wouldn't have lasted one day in our shoes. [ male announcer ] add a wireless receiver. call to get u-verse tv for just $19 a month with qualifying bundles. rethink possible. welcome back. quick correction. we need to be up 84 points for the dow to be in record territory. so we're there now. we're not 184 points. i got a bad number before. all we need to be at is 15,387 to be at an all-time high. just to we're all on the same page there. meantime, president obama making a return to the jersey shore as it opens back up for business this summer, following, of course, the horrible devastation last october from superstorm sandy. nbc's peter alexander is in asburry park with what the

president saw today. peter? >> reporter: bill, gad to visit with you. the president already en route back to the white house after really was lake a three-hour trip here to the jersey shore, as the mayor of asburry park told me, we survived sandy, we can handle rain like this. it's just a nuisance. and with that rain coming after them, both chris christie and the president strolled down the boardwalk, not far from here, in point pleasant. optically, it was as striking to see the two of them together. republican and democrat rivals in some ways walking side by side, as it was to see the optics of the recovery that's been taking place here. the president tried to deliver a very clear message, not just to the people of this community, to whom he said, you are not alone, but also, to all americans, speaking in some sense, as if he was a one-man new jersey tourism board, saying we are open for business, we need you to come on down. new jersey is ready to welcome you back. already, there are 22 of 23 boardwalks open in this area. the memorial day holiday. everyone we've spoken to said was a good start, but they still

acknowledge there's a long way to go. maria? >> all right. thanks so much. we'll keep watching that, peter. meanwhile, back in washington, the obama administration proposing a $28 tax increase for round-trip airline tickets. the airline says it needs the money to cover infrastructure and security costs and also to reduce the federal budget deficit. >> cnbc contributor carroll roth is not a fan of the idea, but george hopeka says that money is needed to get our airports into the 21st century and i welcome both of you. george, make the case. why do we need this tax increase? >> well, bill, i think that those who fly should pay for the infrastructure of the airline industry. and another key point, bill, is that the faa has lost $1 billion in taxes, because instead of raising airfares, the airlines have increased fees. and those fees are not subject to the 7.5% excise tax. >> carol, how are you going to pay for this? we all complain about the infrastructure, but nobody wants to pay for it.

>> listen, maria, already on a ticket of $300, it's estimated that we're paying $60 in taxes. there's so much inefficiency and there's so much waste in the system already, i feel like the money's there, it just needs to be used more efficiently. there is a tax called the essential air services tax. $200 million that we're keeping open, airports in rural areas, sometimes with one gate, two flights a day, so that people don't have to drive a couple hours to the closest airport. take $200 million from that, put it into these other things that need to be done. i think that that gets it done. >> what about that, george, these charges of inefficiency. >> there's probably no doubt, bill, that there is inefficiency and waste in both the faa and the tsa. i'm not sure if that is really the issue, though. i think we do need the extra revenue, and, again, if the tsa is only funded 50% by people who use airports, the other 50% is

paid for by the general taxpayer, and i just wonder if that's fair. i think that is the essential question. >> the inefficiency is 100% the issue, if we keep raising taxes and we keep with the spending, there is no incentive for us to get this under control. if you're -- >> but you have to admit, carol, there are fewer flights now than there were after 9/11. it's a smaller airline industry, less money is going toward the faa. look at the quality of the technology that's being used or not used, in this case, for the air traffic controllers out there around this country. i'm not trying to carry george's argument here, but you have to admit, that there is a -- >> bill, you're absolutely right. >> here's the point, bill, i understand that, and if you want to charge me an extra buck for the airline controllers, fine, but a lot of this money isn't even going towards these kind of improvements. it's going to quote/unquote, pay down the deficit. it's going to tsa theater. it is going to a lot of things

that are inefficient and wasteful. and the only way we're going to stop it is to stop the spending. it's gotten completely out of control and it's an insult to the american people to continue to tax them like this. >> i think the bigger issue is, who does this impact and what kind of an impact is this going to have on our economy. and we're talking about the idea to get back to growth, george. how do you get back to growth if, in fact, you just keep piling more expenses on the average guy out there. we know that anybody who flies is not just going to be the rich, it's going to be a big swath of people, and those people are going to have to do more with less, because they're focused on this additional tax. >> that's a good point, maria, but talk about inefficiency, one of the greatest inefficiencies in the airline industry is our air traffic control system. and the next gen gps-based system has been put off year after year, because of a lack of funding. a new york city taxi cab has a better navigation system than the airplane you're riding in --

>> but is this the answer for everything that's broken? go -- just tax them more? >> i think we need to improve -- >> in washington, it certainly is. >> i think if we improve our air traffic control system, we'll save billions and billions of dollars in wasted money on delays and fuel costs and the airlines will make more money. i think we have put off the next jen air traffic control system for far too long. it's going to cost money. the airlines don't want to pay for it. airline passengers don't want to pay for it, congress doesn't want to pay for it, but we are wasting billions of dollars. talk about inefficiency, carol and bill and maria. >> you know, we were just looking at the various taxes you do pay. it is pretty infuriating. if you really looked at your airline tab and where that money goes, it is pretty infuriating on all those taxes. and then we can talk about hotel taxes as well. that gets in the way, too, especially here in new york city. thank you, both. i didn't expect this to solve the problem, but we at least aired it out. thank you both for joining us today. >> and we're in the final stretch of trading for tuesday.

a market that's up 118 points, although well off the highs, which were better than 200. >> we are in record territory for the dow, but not for the s&p, in case you're wondering. >> danger on the high seas, again. another cruise ship sending an sos, only this time it was not carnival cruise. up next, that latest cruise ship that is sailing in troubled waters and literally putting out fires as it sales. and rising prices for homes in march. will it last? and how much of this is behind our economic and stock market recovery? clients are always learning more to make their money do more. (ann) to help me plan my next move, i take scottrade's free, in-branch seminars... plus, their live webinars. i use daily market commentary to improve my strategy.

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as we know, carnival cruise lines has been trying to put out the public relations fires from all of its recent mechanical troubles. now one of its biggest rivals has had to literally put out a huge fire of its own. nbc's mark potter is in miami with the details on the fire aboard that royal caribbean cruise ship. mark? >> hey, bill. a couple of things are happening today in the case of the "grandeur of the seas," which had a fire in the back deck of its ship. but early monday morning, that ship is now moored in freeport, the bahamas. after canceling the rest of that cruise, royal caribbean international is now flying most of the 2,200 passengers back to baltimore, where the cruise began. interestingly, some 25 passengers say they don't like to fly, so they had to make special arrangements for them. they're putting them on a ferryboat to ft. lauderdale and they'll send them off by land to

baltimore. also today, the u.s. coast guard and the national transportation safety board are beginning their fire investigation to try to determine the cause of the blaze. and officials say today they are securing the fire scene and are gathering up documents, video, pictures, and also the vessel data recorder. in time, they will also interview crew members and first responders and some of the passengers to try to see if they can add to the investigation. that investigation could take anywhere from six months to a year, we are told. and a senior official also says that there is one little bit of good news here. once the fire broke out, the systems on the ship designed to keep the fire from spreading actually worked quite well. and none of the passengers were hurt, none of the crew members. so a little bit of good news there, although still a black eye on an industry that's head a lot of problems this year. maria, back to you. >> i'll take it here, mark. thanks very much. nbc's mark potter with that crazy store. what a year it has been for the

cruise lines. royal caribbean shares down a little bit today on that news. but they're up 5% this year while shares of its competitor, carnival, have been down 10% year-to-date. so with the cruise industry such a mess today, pr wise, is either stock a buy? let's talk numbers on that today, on the technical side, carter worth, chief market technician with oppenheimer. on the fundamental sigh, steve cortez, the founder of vera cruz. carter, cruise us through this chart right here. which one looks better? >> it's all pretty messy stuff, as the last person said, but lesser of evil is royal at this point. carnival cruise is really taken the brunt of the bad luck or mismanagement or a little bit of both. the comparative chart tells the story. so on a one-year basis, you can see there the tremendous outperformance, but it's really more of a case of underperformance in carnival, but it's been persisting on a five-year basis, even a ten-year basis. so neither is particularly exciting, but a little bit of luck or mismanagement and

somehow royal, even with this black eye, it has less black eyes than carnival. >> steve, you touching either one? >> i agree, i do not like carnival cruise lines at all. i don't even like the name. have you ever hung around a carnival? it's not a great scene. but the stock, the main problem is ccl and margin compression. you see continual margin compression for the last decade. its margins right now, profit margins are half of what it was ten years ago. that's because they've had to discount incredibly to keep their growing fleet full. that's a real problem for carnival. but on the royal caribbean side, i do think there's an opportunity there, because it's quite cheap. trades for only 13 times, and i think there's a lot of potential in asia. in just about a month, they're going to open one of the biggest docking ports in the entire world in hong kong. i think that that is the promise in the future for royal caribbean. among the two, i much prefer rcl. >> it's interesting, steve, you mention the compression of margins.

the stocks, each of them actually topped has to do with the margins back in '05. and they're both about 30 to 40% off their all-time highs. where, of course, hospitality stocks in general have come back, and the market itself at all-time highs. something is structurally not right and it's the margin issue among many other things, the black eyes. >> i tend to agree, i think if you want to be in this space of leisure discretionary, i think rather than these two names, you're probably much better off in disney. >> thank you, both. i'm guessing cortez had a traumatic encounter with a clown at some point in life, maybe why he doesn't like carnivals. check out the new online edition of "talking numbers." just look for the handsome face of sully there, that's where you'll find it. heading towards the close, 30 minutes left in the trading session. we're in record territory for the industrial average on what could be the 20th consecutive tuesday where we've had an up

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. welcome back. home prices posting their best annual gain in nearly seven years. but can the housing recovery be enough to drive the economy? diana olick taking a look at today's realty check. over to you. >> while home sales and home prices are improving, construction of single-family homes is still running well below historical norms. and construction is a major driver of the economy. home sales are not. >> when you look at this, buying and selling existing homes is very nice, we all feel good, the

prices are going up, it doesn't add anything to gdp. >> still, price gains do give consumers more home equity and therefore, more potential spending power. home prices were up 10.3% and 10.9% from a year ago in march, in the top 10 and top 20 markets. prices were also up over 10% nationally in q1. when you talk about housing juicing the economy, you have to remember that it is the fed's intervention in a bad economy that juiced housing in the first place. >> without low mortgage rates, you know, the housing market would not have had near the recovery that it's had. so it's really been that combination, you know, in a sense, a real potent brew of very low mortgage rates, which has helped keep demand high. and that's meeting constraint and supply, which constraint is being helped by this negative equity. >> that takes away pricing power, but it's unlike to have a major effect on housing's recovery, because one third of this housing market is still all cash. bill? >> all right, diana, thank.

so is the housing recovery really having that big of an impact on the broader economy? and will the better numbers for home prices that we saw come from case-shiller today, will that last? >> so columbia university real estate professor, christopher meyer, is a housing recovery believer, but david licken of mortgage banking solutions says the impact is being overstated. chris, where are you seeing the impact strength in the housing recovery and where do you see that making itself most evident in the broader economy? >> well, for starters, we're seeing more people coming into the market to buy homes. while there are certainly investors in some markets, many of them are people who want to live in those homes. it does impact the broader economy, because those are pe people who are shopping for things to fit out their homes to build. but when prices go up and prices get to the point of hitting construction costs, that's when you'll start to see construction come in as well. the key thing to remember is that the u.s. population grows, so that we're going to be adding a million households a year or

more and we've got some catching up to do for existing households. that demand is going to help. >> david, what are you cautious about on this recovery? >> well, number one, i think you have to put christopher's optimism in a proper construct for where we're really at. what is driving this housing recovery is investors, coming in and buying these homes and renting this. we're having the largest increase of single-family rentals going back, looking back 20, 30 years. so what's driving this and taking out the supply, which is good, and we're pleased to see it, and eventually, that's going to impact things. but what we're seeing is that is not the systemic under pinnings of the foundation we want to see of a sustained housing recovery. and look at the number of college graduates graduating from christopher's fine institute, a place of learning, as well as many other places, they're not getting jobs. and that is our next layer o of people we want coming in to the market to buy these homes. >> college graduates are -- may

not be doing as well as they have historically, but are still doing very well and college is a wonderful investment. >> i agree with you. >> what about this idea, though -- >> chris, you have to admit the rental market is very hot right now. there are plenty of people out there who are shying away from buying a home, because we all remember what happened in 2008 and 2009. that's good for the rental market, but is it a sustainable recovery for housing, if that's what people are doing with homes right now? >> actually, the data, i think, the whole discussion of rental is much overstated. even if you look and go back to the nra series on cash purchases, always more than a quarter of home purchases typically have been cash purchases. there are lots of people who have off their home, they sell one home and buy another. investors in certain markets, they go to atlanta, phoenix, parts of florida, absolutely. you go to san francisco, you go to new york, to boston, other parts of the country, no, you're not seeing large numbers of investors who are copping in and

buying homes. and surveys of potential home buyers suggest this is not like the great depression, when people decided they didn't want to get into stocks for decades. the vast majority of americans of home-buying age aspire to be homeowners, and i think are going to be homeowners in the coming years, maybe not the mansions in the suburbs that some people used to move into, but nonetheless, they're going to be homeowners in the kinds of places they're going to be proud to live in. >> i guess, the issue is, what real impact is it having on the overall employment situation? if the goal, the economic goal, is to get back to growth and certainly job creation, is the recovery in housing counting towards that? is it actually moving the needle? >> it is moving it a little bit. you're seeing it on the consumer side in confidence in spending. so far, construction employment has remaining only a little bit above where it's been before, but i think you're going to see that momentum pick up and you're going to see more of the

construction side of it. but the consumer side is, of course, a big deal, because that's nearly three quarters of gdp. >> david, you shook your head? >> well, i do at this standpoint. i want to get to construction at one point, but i want to say, the student loan debt is now up over $1 trillion. that is going to impact -- a lot of them are going to default on that, and that's going to impact those borrows -- those individuals coming in and being attributed to that first-time home buyer population we so desperately want to come back. on new construction, what's really an interesting component to this, with a lot of people have clients who are builders, and they're saying the cost of material is going up so rapidly that that's one of the things that's impeding this new home. so that actually could be a good thing, because we're going to continue to burn up this inventory. but having this be on a sustainable plan, we've got to get first-time home buyers back in a sustainable way. demographics, all a lot of factors are contributing to it, maybe not being quite so bullish. >> all right. thanks you both. good conversation. appreciate it. >> thanks for being with you.

>> well, the markets slowly going higher here. the dow is up another 128 points right now. we're in record territory there. the s&p needs another seven points to close at a record high. but, still -- >> unbelievable record run. meanwhile, this story is amazing, bill. the death of a prominent private wealth manager, reports of millions of dollars in missing money. sounds like a soap opera, but it is a real-life business mystery. it's a developing story and we'll bring it to you next. >> yes, indeed. after the bell, we'll hear from somebody who says one major retailer and one major automaker won't be around by the end of this year. get his top-five brands facing extinction. he's got a good track record on this as well. that's coming up later on the "closing bell." [ male announcer ] it's intuitive and customizable,

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another tuesday, another rally for the stock market. and the tech sector has been a big leader today. bertha coombs is at the nasdaq with a tech check for us. bertha? >> the nasdaq on track for its

tenth straight up tuesday. tech leading the way. interestingly, idc today with some mixed news when it comes to hardware. they expect that tablets are going to surpass pc shipments this year. they're going to be up 59%, they think. interestingly, apple, one of the biggest tablet makers around, still not playing in this rally. microsoft, though, not so great in tablets. but rich herland over at omorea says this year you could see some activist shareholders and he's also raising the price target, up about 35% year-to-date. netflix, couch potato. a lot of folks may have downloaded "arrested development" over the weekend, but we don't know how many. >> all right, thanks so much. bertha, thank you. the mysterious death of a prominent private wealth manager in texas is sending shock waves through the investment community today in the lone star state. kayla tausche with the story. >> after a month after invesco's

atlantic trust inked a deal, one of its star money managers was found dead. mark powell led the austin arm of the firm with over $22 billion in assets across 12 cities. in the weeks since his death, investors have come out of the woodwork to claim money they say they personally invested with or lent to powell. atlantic trust says it's notified the relevant authority of powell's activities and the firm has no reason to believe that the accounts of any invesco clients who must have $5 million or more to invest with the firm had been accessed. personal acquaintances say that powell loomed large in austin's social and philanthropic circles, but he was warm and friendly. colleagues say the same thing. sources at atlantic trust say they were shocked to hear of powell's death and even more shocked to learn of the recent news. these sources say there's no talk at present of the $200 million sale to cibc. it's still unclear under which

guise how he was borrowing money from investors. but he phoned family friends immediately before his death, which does give us some clues about one of the most unsolved mysteries to this date, maria, which is his exact cause of death, which at this date is still unknown. back to you. >> really mysterious story there. we'll keep following it. kayla, i know you'll bring us the developments. thank you. >> that's really strange. >> crazy, crazy story. >> we'll keep on that one. mplgs we've got ten minutes before the closing bell sounds for the day. a market up 124 points on the dow jones industrial average, about 100 points away from the highs of the day. well, count u.s. trust's joe quinlan among the bulls out there right now. when we come back, why he's favoring technology and industrials right now. there are those cyclicals again and why he's also turning bullish on some of te merging markets. we'll talk about it, coming up. and consumer confidence hitting a five-year high. tanger outlets's ceo is here to talk to us about what he's seeing in the retail business. stay with us. all stations come over to mission a for a final go.

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welcome back. about 12 minutes left in the trading session. the dow in record territory on this shortened trading week. stocks have given back a chunk

of the earlier gains. dow had been up 218 points, now a gain of 121. >> it's still a head scratcher, to see this rally today, after last week's upset. how do you want to prepare your portfolio for this summer? we bring in right now joe quinlan from u.s. trust and chad morgan lander from stifel nicolaus. joe, where are you on this. last week, we had this big scare about a slowdown in china and about what happened in japan. and here we are, back to the record books again. >> i think, maria, investors came back from the long weekend, put some money to work. they still believe in the u.s. growth story. china is still going to grow by 6, 7%. numbers got a little bit better out of germany, so therefore the european union. i think investors want to be in this market, finally, in equities. >> do you agree with that, chad? >> i do. this is a sea of liquidity provided by the global federal banks and the federal reserve as well. so you're getting that carry trade from the bank of tokyo, courtesy of the bank of tokyo. you're starting to see the yen weaken and the carry trade is in

full effect here. and that's what's sparking the equity market rally. but global growth is lackluster here. and in the united states as well, you're not getting a real follow-through. so investors want to move up the quality spectrum. >> the lows of november 15th to where we are right now, we have not had a correction at all. we've had a very, very good run. don't the law of physics just suggest we should see a pullback of some kind. >> and we'll get it. i thought the tapering talk would have done it. but when it does come, we'll put some more money to work in equities. we're waiting for it, we're ready. te merging markets look attractive here. >> you're not putting money to work here? >> piwe're putting money to wor. but if we get a correction, they're even more opportunistic. >> what our group did, we went from an overweight on equities to more of a neutral weight a couple weeks ago. that's based off of the fact you're not getting any earnings follow-through. it's been more lackluster. and you want to move up the

quality spectrum, move from your small caps to more overweight on large caps, and even be a little bit more critical and skeptical of some of your high-yield bonds at this point. >> apparently, art cashin says there's half a billion for sale going into the close. nine minutes until the close. the bottom line is, the fed, when would you expect the tapering to begin? how do you anticipate a federal reserve that at some point has to start moving, slowing down the bond purchases and in fact sending interstates a bit higher. how do you want to invest around that ultimatum that we know is coming? >> it's going to come and it's perhaps going to come later this year. and when that happens, you're going to have some of the risk trade come off, okay? so one wants to be a little bit nor neutrally weighted, knowing that the wave of liquidity is going to be somewhat curtailed. but keep in mind, the federal reserve is going to be seriously accommodative up until that point. and well into 2014. >> you think it's going to go on longer than -- >> much longer, because you have an unemployment rate that has to go back down to 6.5%.

and that's not going to happen until late 2014. >> the unemployment rate, i think that's the key. and remember, when the fed starts tapering, you have the bank of japan, bank of england, all the international reserves of the developing countries, that's a lot of liquidity. >> i thought of this morning, couldn't we get, with the housing data we're getting right now, very good numbers, couldn't we get a 3% gdp and still not be anywhere close to 6.5% that the fed's targeting? are they looking at the wrong bogeys? >> absolutely, you can get a 3% growth trajectory, but what's happening, you're not getting the real follow-through on gdp. it goes from 2% to 2.5%, and the following quarter, it goes back to 2%. you have to have a self-sustaining recovery and you're just not having it as of yet. >> we have to go at this point. thanks, gentleman. >> really appreciate it. >> as we're standing here, there's a news conference or something going on behind us. a photo opportunity. >> we'll come back with the closing countdown for another terrific tuesday. >> the dow trying to close at a new all-time high. coming up, two big money

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record high again. >> here's what the day looked like. we were off to the races this morning. a gain of 213. 18 points on the open this morning. drifted lower. kind of moving a little higher with a gain of 108 points. 15,411. that's well in record territory. going back to november 15th, the dow was at 12,500 at that time. we're in and out at 15,400. i'm not picking on you, terry dolan, but when did you get out? >> i would have gotten out around dow 15,000. >> so right about here. you were ready to sell in may and go away. >> i was, i was. >> what was so troubling to you? >> the overextension of the rally. it's very rare you see a rally this long in the tooth in terms of dow points. we're talking almost 3,000 points when you calculate it together. it's a situation where it becomes harder and harder to define value added. i would recommend money investors to take a break, so at least part of their position if not half of their position, stay in cash, look for this market to come down and come in with cash

on the second leg. but for this market to re-trace 10% of the dow right now would still keep the trend in tact, keep the positive flow going, but give the investors a little bit of a breather where they're not buying into a long, extended rally like this. >> but where you going to go? that's the question. >> that's the driving factor. how am i going to get away from this moving train? >> i think what's going to happen is, we'll be surprised to see the fed to start to unwind and start to change their actions earlier than expected. i think we've got some telegraphs to that. >> so you think they go earlier? they start tapering earlier? >> i do, i do. >> what's early? end of this year. >> i think before the end of this year, as we get into the fall, maybe the summer. i think we'll see how the economy thrives over a period like the summer before they make any decisions. but take your lead from the fed chairman, excuse me, the fed president out of chicago, evans -- >> charles evans. >> the largest proponent for quantitative easing. he's now saying, i think we have adequate policy. take your lead from china, who opens up the sovereign wealth fund here in new york to find

other diversitied investments other than treasuries, so we can get out and move their portfolio into a more-balanced nature. take those cues and you'll find a few cracks in the fed and a little infighting over how much policy they should continue to have. >> we'll talk to steve tanger next hour, retail outlets. we'll find out what he's saying. it is an uneven economy when you look at the backdrop. he's right in there with retail, which is so important. see you next hour. >> tanger outlets is ringing the closing bell in a few minutes. meanwhile, the ten-year yield went to 213 today, highest we've seen this year, highest going back to april of last year. i know i'm preaching to the choir. >> that's why i thought we would see a classic reversal. low of rally followed by the sell-off. >> yields are going higher, but the stock market is too. >> i think the market is a little confused right now. we'll wait to see what happens. >> so you'll hang tough here? >> i'm a seller. >> all right. i like your attitude there. terry dolan, thank you very much. we bring him out on tuesday, just because the market rallies and he's always waiting to get

out there. yes, we've done it again, 20 straight tuesdays with a market rally, the dow up 107 and a record closing high. but the s&p, not a record closing high. stay tuned, second hour of the "closing bell" coming your way right now 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. it's a tuesday, of course, so the k sstocks rallied again. the dow in the green for a record 20 straight tuesdays, we're closing at another all-time high for the dow jones industrial average. take a look at how we're finishing out on the street today after a long holiday weekend. the dow jones industrial average, up 107 points today, 0.75%. the market had been up better than 220 points earlier on, so we're closing well off the highs of the session, but nonetheless, an all-time high and that 20th