more about what the fed is thinking. why would we care so much about praits if we weren't so addicted to debt? if it hurts housing, what does that say about how much we're borrowing? oil inventories doing something they haven't done since ronald reagan was president, a very feisty, fiery "street signs" straight ahead and all kicks off with the fed and hampton pearson right now. >> reporter: brian, the absolute must-read portions of this minutes is all about the discussion on how to communicate and what fed chairman ben bernanke should say about the strategy and guidelines for easing the fed stimulus program. here are the highlights. participants discussed what bernanke should say at the news conference, that the fed chairman should describe the asset purchase bath during that news conference and should emphasize all that going forward would be dependent on the economic outlook. also discussed, how to communicate decisions on asset purchases going forward.

there was concern that forward guidance might constrain actual fed monetary policy decision making. the fed should provide more guidance soon. some felt that the discussion of normalization was premature. however, normalization details should depend on economic and financial developments as well. as an additional discussion of policy normalization should be deferred, and as monetary policy-makers also looking at the views of the markets and its reaction to what the fed was doing, participants were seeing the accommodation was coming sooner than previously thought in terms of how the market was reacting. primary dealers have not changed their expectations on rate hikes. rights yields were seen by markets as signaling an earlier rate rise. asset purchase decisions, again, depending on that economic outlook, so, brian, some of those highlights and, again, yes, it was all about what ben

bernanke would say at the news conference after that meeting. >> indeed, hampton pearson, thank you very much for the highlights. quick reaction from the trading floor. bob pins at the nyse and rick selly in chicago. been watching the reaction there in the dow. were down about 25 points going into the minutes, bob. now we have pared those losses and gone ever so slightly positive. is this the kind of reaction that you would have expected? >> that's a pretty modest move, and -- yes. it could go either way here. i don't consider that to be terribly statistically significant. here's the important point. more clarity on asset purchases would be helpful. people are wondering a closer idea of when they would start the tapering and even when they would end it. there were discussions before that the clear signal might be when unemployment reached 7% is when they might terminate it, and then consider raising rates. we've really gotten no further

guidance here, just the idea that things should be moving in that direction, that they should provide more clarity. i'd like a little more information than that frankly. we got into positive territory but most of the rest of the market isn't moving. bank stocks, put up the bkx, very little reaction over all and what you're going to see here, a very, very small blip here. put up $1 for a second to see what's going on, but there's the dollar weakening. most of the traders down here would like a little more information and provide more clarity soon. >> fairly negligible move so far as markets are digesting what was said. let's get out to rick santelli. what about bonds, the same sort of picture there? >> well, i don't know what is statistically significant would be to viewers, but we moved about three basis points, four basis points lower in a five-year note, currently 1.47. we're around 2.66 on a ten, now at 2.63.

the dollar index, that's moved big. that was down about 38, and it's now down about 60, close to two-thirds of a cent so the euro had a nice rally and the dollar lose ground against the yen. i think it makes perfect sense. stocks went from down 30 to up 20. they will scrutinize the rorschach of the minutes like they do the statement to come up with reasons why the taper isn't going to be happening quick or to try to find reasons why they don't think that the fed is going to have enough tough love given the types of moves in the market, and at least for the moment the thought of you want to be long stocks and treasuries in front of the minutes is paying off. >> rick santelli, thank you very much, and let's hit the markets because we've seen a turnaround in stocks. the dow jones industrial average, look at that spike, not soaring, but we were down about 20 points pre-fed minutes. we're now up 42 or 30 points, come down just a fraction. the point is 50-point turnaround

when those minutes are released. perhaps the fact that the market is getting relief that the fed will provide more clarity soon is bringing buyers back into the market. all right. meantime, pay attention, mr. bernanke, because for the first time we're apparently seeing proof that higher rates are having an impact on the housing market. in a minute we'll show you how ridiculous that all is and let's get the headline with diana olick. >> rising rates mean falling mortgage applications and one analyst is predicting dire consequences for the housing recovery. to that in a second but first take a look, if you will, refis down 4% last week to a two-year low. that is continuing to take away from consumer spending power. purchase applications were down 3% last week and down 28% in just the past month. now, we visited an open house with real estate agents out in northern virginia, and they say the story of this housing recovery is changing very quickly. >> what's happening is we're pricing down. if they were qualified up to

600, now we're looking 550 and below. >> so you have this acute inventory shortage right now out there which pushed home prices up 12% from a year ago and a rate jump which has taken away around 15% of your average buyers' purchasing power. noted analyst mark hanson based in california calls all this unprecedented, barely comparable to the end of the home buyer tax credit in 2010. >> that stimulus was so small compared to 3.5% interest rates, it's almost not even a comparable but the only thing i can find. when that stimulus went away, new home sales fell 38% in a single month, down 25% year over year, and existing home sales fell 30% over a single month, 24% year over year. >> so anyone who looks at sales and price numbers that are out today, well, you're looking backwards. first, we'll see a rush to buy by those who can because of the higher rates and then things

could likely turn around very fast. got a lot more of this online. go to reallycheck.cnbc.com. brian? >> more on our mortgage strategy session in a second but first to dan greenhouse of btig. dan, we saw the market spike briefly, coming back down. not flat lining just yet. what's your take, should they be viewed as hawkish, dovish, what? >> to be completely honest. the fed minutes are now officially a very long read. >> 25 pages, by the way. >> and i'm sitting here on my machine and not all there, but the first thing that jumps out at me there appears to be a very contradictory part of the minutes, i'm struck by the passage that says half of the fed thinks they should end purchases later this year. that's a little bit higher of a number than i think people thought, but then later in the minutes they go on to say that many want to see more evidence before slowing purchases.

so i find that to be a little contradicto contradictory. if you wait until you get more evidence, you're into september and then half want to end by the end of the year. it's a very short period of time to be tapering, and the market is not there. >> of course, it hates to have any kind of conversation that's contradictory, right, dan, so how do we actually make sure we're not confused by in? what do you do if you're confused in the markets? >> who is not confused here? >> who is not confused. got to be honest. every one of my client, btig's clients is in state of confusion with regard to the fed, but the truth of the matter is for most investors this is a sideshow. since no one knows what's going on, including the people in the room, what ultimately matters for the path of your portfolio is picking the right stocks, getting the cash flows right and the other stuff will take care of itself. >> the kind stocks you're talking about are those that are be functional and grow completely independent of what the fed is doing with its policy. what kind of sectors can do that, dan? >> a number of stocks, but since we're talking about the fed, we

advise on a couple of names that we think actually benefit from higher interest rates, particularly cno financial. we have a buy rating on it and one of those names if you think rates are going higher actually work in your favor and the stock is outperforming the s&p since the bottom in rates. >> you know, dan, listen, i understand how important the fed is, okay? i'm not discounting it, but i'm going to say right now, i've been doing this for 17 years, the fed has become insignificant at this point because everybody knows we're going to taper of course, right? the bond market collectively, the vigilantes, whatever you want to call them have made their move. the federal reserve, unless they say ben bernanke is retiring tomorrow or we're jacking the fed funds rate up two points, 200% overnight, is not going to move the markets because the market has already seen what's coming. it doesn't matter. the move is coming, right, and the market has already change it had and stocks have still gone higher because oh, my gosh, a stock price is actually just the future value of earnings

theoretically, and the american consumer is spending more, no? >> yes, except you have to -- i largely agree with you but don't forget you have to discount earnings back, and so interest rates and discount rates do factor into a pricing model. >> we could argue the fed model all day long, right? the american consumer is spending more. oil inventories are down to 1983 lows, people are driving more. housing market, despite the rates, as i'm going to show everybody in a second, basically insignificant. >> well, i wouldn't say insignificant, and i think there's a larger debate about whether the composition of growth in the economy -- listen, the stock market is doing well, housing market is turning around, interest rate sensitive areas like autos are doing well, but at the end of the day consumption really isn't what should be driving growth. to a large degree it should be investment and this is a much larger conversation than we'll have right now. i do agreed with the larger point that given the move that's already occurred in the short term the fed becomes insignificant because they will play catchup to the market. >> when can we say good news is good news?

you've mentioned data points, jobs, really positive reaction in the market to a good jobs report. are we now shifting to a situation where we can move higher in the market when the economy is stronger? >> i think good is good and everybody should always think good is good. >> but it wasn't, got a bad data point and it was like oh, goody, the fed will still be there for us. >> i defy anybody to come debate me that fed easing is in the medium term a more beneficial boost to your portfolio than is growing corporate earnings. >> bingo. >> it is a sideshow. in the short term it matters. when the fed does one thing and interest rates do another and stocks react. also remember the day after we watched the ten-year yield, the euro and the yen became the determinant of where stocks were going. in the short term, any sort of fad can be latched on to to help determine. >> god bless you, dan, because never before has any guest spoken the truth so clearly and

concisely, all right, because as you've noted before, and i'm going to steal your own data, corporate earnings since the market bottom in 2009 have more than doubled. we can argue all day about how they are doing that, more worker productive, salaries not going up. corporate earnings doubled off of 2009. corporate america has gotten leaner for good or bad, but it's been good for investors because earnings are up and stock prices have gone up and to me that's the number one most important thing about why we're off -- i don't hear ben bernanke manipulating the markets. yes, manipulation as far as the buying of mortgages go and treasury notes go and with all respect to my colleague rick santelli, corporate earnings, which is what stocks are supposed to be, are up. >> two things. first, to the extent that we have a federal reserve since 1913, interest rates are always artificial. there's ten guys in a room deciding where the cost of money should be. >> ten people. >> as long as that's the case, then there's going to be manipulation and secondly i would add thank you for saying

god bless me and lord knows i've sinned because i can use it. >> i'm going to break up the love fest and ask what will happen with the markets, the s&p at 1654 is a stone's throw from cracking its record high of 1669. do we blast through it and do we hold it or how much higher will we be at the end of the year? >> i want to see how earnings season goes. i'm taking a pass right now. i want to see earnings -- >> i rescind my god bless you. >> i understand, and then thereafter i want to see what happens in september. i think we can handle higher interest rates. where exactly we go is, of course, an uncertainty but i don't think the summer is going to be any better than any other summer. >> oh, okay. dan greenhouse, thank you very much. >> thank you. there you go. the market turning around a little bit to the positive on the release of those fed mont minutes. a lot more to talk about. our morning meeting was pretty

fire they morning because i said higher rates don't mean squat for the housing market. >> we didn't tease it would be a fiery, feisty show for nothing, right? we deliver. >> oil doing something it hasn't done since 1983. so in honor of that all day in this show we'll feature songs from '38 which was a shockingly good year in music. >> and possibly my favorite year. later on, ten stocks under $10. a fresh list of bargain names. grab a pen, grab a piece of paper. you'll have to write them down. also, by the way, would like you to join the conversation. tweet us @streetsigns.cnbc. check us out on facebook or e-mail us. multiple ways to get in contact with us.

like to show you ways going on with the markets. seen a turnaround in the last 15 minutes or so. going into the fed minute at the top of the house, the dow was down by about 25 points. after the minutes were released, a lot of discussion about the communications strategy and what exactly ben bernanke should say at the news conference. we've now seen the stocks turn around. up by 32 points in the dow. the dollar is also reacting to the downside. brian? >> check out this rare surprising headline. oil inventories saw their biggest two-week drop in 30 years. bertha coombs joining us. bertha, what happened? >> reporter: it is a huge domestic story. we're at a real infliction point, brian. we are starting to see these

pipelines come online and the landlocked cushing, oklahoma surplus inventories really starting to come down, real big declines. nearly 10 million barrels last week, the second week that we were at that level. we also saw a record amount of production of distillates and wti which was the also ran for the longest time is now really the hot commodity in the secretarior. take a look at wti versus brent. it used to be that brent had that massive premium, as much as $24 a barrel last february and it has now today shrunk at one point to below $3. what's interesting is if we look back at beginning of the arab spring, you know, last week it was all of that turmoil in egypt that helped propel prices back above $100 a barrel, but we're seeing a much bigger move in wti nymex next time and the real

story is what's going on domestically. andy lippo over at lippo oil says we have seen at least 300,000 barrels of capacity come online, removing oil from cushing, two major pipelines, and then also the whiting refinery in indiana drawing that oil from there. we saw 2.5 million barrel decline from cushing last week, and he says we're likely to continue to see that. 9 million barrels of oil that's come on capacity the past month that will be impacting these inventories. back to you. >> thanks very much. with the big drop in inventories i suppose a very simple question simply is where did all the oil go? joining us is andy lippau, where did it go? >> a lot to the gulf coast refining complex and as a result of getting supplies from the u.s., backed down on the imports, imports now 7.5 million barrels a day, a year ago they were closer to 9 million barrels a day. >> how much is due to strong

demand? how much is a good news story inters of the u.s. economic recovery, or is it something else mainly at play here? >> i think a couple of things are at play here. clearly we've seen gasoline demand the last couple of weeks and be at the highest level this year. shy of last year's levels, we are seeing growth in diesel fuel demand and that's indicative of a growing economy especially for use in the midwest, for crop production. >> so it's mainly home demand that you're talking about. what about export market demand? >> the export market just continues to grow as really overall demand in the u.s. has been rather stagnant. we continue to increase our refinery production, refinery operations are at the highest level since july of 2007. whatever products we don't use we're exporting to south america as well as europe. >> i'm glad you say that about demand because we talked yesterday about how there's so many people on the road, anecdotally, got to get out of

new york bubble and explore america and it looks like there's a lot of people on the road. i know people are struggling with higher prices but it sounds like you're confirming what we've talked about anecdotally and we're having, to andy's point, more demand than supply. >> if you come to houston you can see the traffic around town. it's just amazing how much it's grown over the last six months, 12 months, so i know that the gasoline demand down here is growing. you know, overall nationwide, one of the offsets is the increase in mileage efficiency of the car. that is tempering some demand but it's the fact that the world oil demand is growing and the u.s. refining system is providing some that have supply. >> i heat to be a debby downer here and pop our little hopium bubble, but history shows when we get to a certain level in crude oil, already at 106 and change here, we see demand of structure kick in. how much higher will we go from here, and at what point will we

see the demand destruction? >> already shocking that the crude oil is around $106, and to me that means that gasoline prices are going to rise to the pump at 3.60 a gallon, and that really does place a threshold on the consumer. they are going to get some sticker shock over the next couple of weeks. i think you'll see the impact really after the summer. i don't expect anyone to change their vacation plans now. >> andy lipow, a real pleasure. watch out for the houston traffic. we know how bad it can be. >> seen an incredible jump in oil as well. want to reiterate, an 11.5% jump in the past ten sessions in crude. i know there's lots of other things going on, egypt, tensions. >> egypt has no oil. egypt is a gas country. no oil in egypt. not a lot. >> i totally agree, but there's fear it can spill over into the middle eastern region at large and naturally it's always psychological. >> what tensions, because the suez canal, the sixth fleet, no one is blocking.

>> that's the fear, that the suez canal could have some of its energy supplies blocked. >> if it did the united states navy would be there in six seconds reopening it. >> keeping an eye on storks up by 28 points on the dow. we were down by 25 just before 2:00 p.m. before the release of the latest fed minutes from the june meetings. we've had a nice turnaround here. let's certainly hope we can keep on moving to the upside. also, attention, bargain shoppers. we have a new list of ten stocks under ten bucks. >> and this one right here did something she said she'd never stoop so low to doing, went downtown out of the confines of the upper west side and she was battling the masses to buy a cronut. >> oh, it was messy, it was messy. ♪

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our visionary cloud infrastructure and global broadband network free you to focus on what matters. with custom communications solutions and responsive, dedicated support, we constantly evolve to meet your needs. every day of the week. centurylink® your link to what's next. let's find out what's happening with the markets after the release of the fomc minutes. kenny, let me start with you, first of all. what is it, do you think, that the market is latching on to that made them turn around from

negative to positive after the minutes? >> because what did he really say? >> right. >> he said nothing other than we can do this, do a, b or c. data depend be the. if it gets weaker, we can add, we can take away. otherwise full steam ahead. didn't say anything that's new. made it real clear and you can tell that's what the market was expecting and what did it do, nothing, just off a couple of points on the s&p and now that they know the fed is not going anywhere, it's off to the races once again. hitting our head at 1652 which is the level of resistance and levels that are starting and right back to where we were yesterday. >> do you think this kind of reaction is justified, bear? >> no, not really. >> what reaction? >> i would -- i would argue that any -- any little rally should probably be sold. this is really following the same pattern that occurred back in 2004 when we were battling between, you know, this idea that the fed was going to start

the normalization process and whether the economy was actually getting strong enough to warrant it, whether the fed was taking away the punch bowl too early, which, of course, they have never actually done before. so, no, i think that any rally should be -- should be sold. we're quite in the middle of a policy normalization-related correction. >> barry, how much does the fed matter right now? >> oh, it will matter a lot. remember, next week we'll get much more current information with respect to all of this. we get the humphry -- semi-annual haul fry hawkins testimony, and that will give us the latest thoughts post that last labor market report which, of course, was strong, with upward revisions, so in this -- you know, in these minutes where they are talking about wanting to see substantial improvement in the labor market, well, they got a couple of decent months of improvement. >> humphrey hawkins, very old school, good for you. barry, you said you think any rally should be sold.

are you essentially saying the market goes down from here, a summer swoon or something more? >> oh, i'm sorry, is this question coming to me. >> absolutely. >> absolutely it is. every single one of these normalization-related corrections, '83, '94, 2004, they span for several months. they all began the same way. they began with the bond markets selling off and parts of the stock market most correlated to bond markets selling off, and then as we moved through the process it began to -- the correction began to be led by things like small caps and consumer discretionary, the more domestic cyclicals, financial included in, that so we've really just gone through the first stage of this process, and it's highly unlikely to have run its course until, you know, a, we've gone down something closer to 8% to 9% which was the magnitude of the rest of these corrections, and, b, the domestically leveraged cyclical sectors participated in that. >> kenny, barry, appreciate it.

got to go. appreciate you joining us on short notice. get you back on soon. good debate. >> thanks. still ahead, we now know -- i guess north dakota. >> you guessed north dakota. pretty close. >> i was wrong. mark it down. south dakota is the top state for business, but what state is tops when it comes to the best roads? we can wipe out new jersey, right? so -- and we talk to a grandson of a big builder and why he's bulldozing homes in detroit. >> and also later on in the show, i find out what would possess anyone to stand in line in a very, very hot summer, by the way, for three hours for a pastry. >> inside the craze, a creamy, flaky, gooey battle over the cronut rages on. that's all coming up on "street signs."

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let's take a will be at what the markets run, to currently up 13 points, down 25 going into the minutes, but bottom line, folks, bob pisani says it's not that much of a move, even though we did move into positive territory and kenny polcari also said what was said was nothing new. notless, a bit of a positive

reaction. let's talk some stocks in street talk. first of you a, i'd like to bring up a chart for hewlett-packard which is getting a nice move to the upside on an upgrade. >> citigroup moving from a buy to a sell. this is a stock that's outperformed the market. hard to bleempt citi cites increased benefits in cost kafgs and increased momentum from their services sector. hewlett-packard one of the best performing stocks in the dow this year, i think it may be the best performer in the dow. who would have thunk it. >> also take a look at helen of troy, a hair care company. >> some can see they have mandolin slices. earnings 11 cents above estimates. tough retail environment, markets don't care. >> stock number three which is a self-serving pick because this is one of brian's picks.

>> this has been a weak stock, on our team here. had to put it in. joseph carraba will retire, they needed a change. bb&t upgrading to a buy. one-year return of negative 64% this. tock is singlehandedly holding my team back from certain victory. >> how much is it done since the draft pick? >> i can't even look at it. too ugly. like my grades. >> things can turn around and we do see all the time. stock number four is two stocks. wells fargo and also pnc bank. >> yeah. both downgraded to a hold from a buy citing weak loan growth. ongoing regulatory scrutiny and the likely winning benefit of credit leverage for the downgrade. certainly been a paste of fundamentals and sentiment seems to be playing a role. both seem to be getting hit on

the downgrade. >> meantime, happening right now, the ceo of smithfield foods is testifying on capitol hill over the company's proposed takeover buy of a chinese buyer. the senate agriculture committee has hey lot of questions about how the world's biggest pork supplier can maintain quality and safety. our very own jane wells is following the latest developments on that and joins us now. jane, what do we know so far? >> we know that larry pope is waiting to talk. that is michigan senator debbie stabenow, the chairman of the senate agriculture committee, pork and politics coming together in this highly anticipated senate hearing. senators want to make sure that the chinese takeover of america's largest pork producer, the world's largest, doesn't impact safety, competition, pricing, national security. smithfield is being acquired by the chinese company for $4.7. the smithfield ceo larry pope is

expected to testify that the new owners are committed to high standards, a good thing for american hog farmers and consumers need not worry because no pork from china will be imported here but senator stab now is concerned that china is profiting from a lot of work paid for in part by american taxpayers. >> well, i have to tell you we as a federal government, you and i as taxpayers have put in over $800 million in research and development as it relates to food safety and feed processes and efficiencies and so on, and essentially we have a chinese company buying that. they are buying it on a premium. >> china's pork needs are exp d expanding, and this is a way for the most populous country and it's been said that they have been guilty of, quote, outrageous food safety violations. pope going to counter that saying they will leave u.s. management in place, that

nothing much will change. he's expected to say approval is ultimately up to a panel in the treasury department, guys. the committee on foreign investments in the united states. back to you. >> jane wells, thank you very much for the report. we'll be watching what the outcome that have is. meantime, listen to this. the song playing right now, 1983's "one thing leads to another." >> by the way, sis, do you know what the album was called? >> "reach the beach." >> and the guy was like this coming out of the water. >> okay. on deck, we'll head to the bargain bin because our friends are calling out a couple of sub ten buck stocks you may want to look at. >> roads crumbling, bridges falling down and the rent is just too damn high. new yorkers shelling out more than ever for their largely rodent-infested closet-sized

apartments. but first, bill griffith, what's coming up on the "closing bell"? >> so many things to tell you about. some lawmakers are pushing to eliminate the mortgage interest deduction. say it ain't so but hear from somebody who says contrary to popular belief it will not end up hurting the hot housing market. you were highlighting hewlett-packard, up an astounding 80%. we'll look at the charts to see whether this stock has more room to rally or not, and then stand by. fed chairman bernanke set to deliver a big speech that will happen on our watch. we'll find out if he'll give investors any new tapering clue. look forward to seeing you at the top of the hour on "closing bell," the most important hour and more "street signs" coming your way right after this. [ cows moo ] [ sizzling ] more rain... [ thunder rumbles ] ♪ [ male announcer ] when the world moves... futures move first. learn futures from experienced pros with dedicated chats and daily live webinars.

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veterans, and their families is without equal. begin your legacy, get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve. all right. the dow jones industrial average back to negative. right after the fed minutes came out, seemed a little bit positive. we saw a spike, about 50 points in the dow on a moment's notice and we screamed a lot and now -- >> sorry, correction. you screamed a lot. i was my usual cool, calm and collected self. >> if you say the fed doesn't matter, you shake -- here's how it works. you shake the fed tree. >> yes. >> right. and what happens?

>> hope the money flies out. >> the nuts fall out. you're a moron. >> why you need to digest a little bit. >> want to be clear. when i said the fed doesn't matter, the fed matters over time. i mean right now because all the fed's actions for the last five years, they are over. we all know it's going to wind down. in ten years it may matter again. >> you always get a knee-jerk reaction from traders. >> love segments like this one because actionable info just for you and the customers, of course, talking about the good guys of the spoke investment group out with the top russell 3000 stocks trading below ten bucks. they put out a list of ten under ten stocks in april. that basket of stocks has jumped 13% in the past two months. let's bring in co-founder and friend of the show, paul hickee. how did you pick these names like bgc, pull it out of a hat or just get it? >> what we do is we do a screening process where we look

at the valuations of these stocks and ratios under about 15 different metrics and then we compare -- we find the cheapest -- stocks that are cheaper relative to the overall market and to their peer groups, and then we run them through some technical screens that we have, and, you know, this month's list is 20 names fit the bill, and, you know, three of the names that we were talking about like bgc partners, just announced the sale of their e-speed unit in april, but the stock, it has very big and fixed income trading over the counter, and as rates are rising and you see volatility in that area of the market, their volumes are going to increase, and they have also been slowly building out a real estate management operation, and we think that can benefit the stock going forward as well. >> i know you also want to talk about boston scientific and yet i see over the last 12 months or so up 67%, just got a downgrade from citi because at these levels it's fully valued. do you beg to differ?

>> well, the funny thing about boston scientific, in each quarterly update we've seen this year in the list, one of the stocks on the list and it's been universally hated by most company -- by most brokerage firms and yet the stock keeps rising so, you know, there's a lot of negative sentiment on the stock and when the stock has negative sentiment and continues to have negative sentiment towards it and is up 60% on the year, that's telling you something, and with boston scientific, they have demographics in their favor. the percentage of americans over the age of 65 is increasing triple the rate of the general population so that will help in their products of pacemakers, defibrillators and other implantable devices and have recently been taking share in the lead category which is another positive because they had some very poorly integrated acquisitions over the years, but it looks like that is getting behind it, and now they have made some acquisitions in some niche products which could have the potential to be a driver

going forward. >> paul hickey, we'll leave it there. always appreciate you bringing us great actionable information like that. thanks so much, buddy. see you soon. >> all right. talk to you later. >> coming up on "street signs," a household name in home building is on a mission to tear down homes. how the youngest poulty is bulldozing his way of detroit. >> family dollar is the name and it's real popping on an earnings beat. the stock climbing 5% as we can see there to 69.10. hey kevin...still eating chalk for heartburn?

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well, you don't need to tell new yorkers that the represent the is too dang high, because guess what? they already know it. once again, the big apple is the most expensive real estate market in the country, according to a new report. average rent there tops 3,000 bucks, the highest average for any u.s. city, ever. san francisco comes in a distant second with an average rent of just a hair under $2,000. >> new york didn't land on yesterday's list for the best states for business. that's no surprise to anybody, but does it fare better in its quality of infrastructure?

our own scott con is in crazy horse, south dakota, with the top five. scott? >> reporter: hi, brian. we'll have the top five and the bottom five. you know, this isn't exactly an infrastructure project but pretty amazing feat of engineering, memorial, which is 65 years in the making. it's really a native american education center, and we're standing on what will be the arm of this massive sculpture, sort of akin to mt. rushmore. most tourists won't be able to come up here. it is pretty amazing. we do look at a lot of things in infrastructure, beyond just roads and bridges. we look at that. we look at the rail system. we look at commuting times. we look at air travel and the availability of that. we look at the water systems. so which states were tops in america's top states for business? texas, which is always a great contender all around, has the best all-around infrastructure. the number-two state is a tie between north dakota and tennessee. then, kansas. and in fifth place, a three-way tie between indiana, illinois,

and missouri. as for the worst infrastructure in the nation, according to our rankings. maryland, rhode island, vermont, connecticut, and hawaii. and since you brought up new york, new york came in 42nd. you think about the commuting times, and that tells you something right there. we're getting a lot of reaction to our study on twitter, on facebook, on our website. topstates.cnbc.com. a couple of comments on facebook from martha lanier. let's revisit the quality of life in january. maybe texas just might go back to number one. hawaii came in number one for quality of life, so texas has some competition there. and brian buckles talking about south dakota, our top state, a great state, most east coast municipalities are burdened with high debt and high taxes, and indeed, we look very closely at the cost of doing business, including taxes, and also the economy which includes state finances. here in south dakota, they are rock solid. back to you guys. >> rock -- did you really just say rock solid standing in front of the giant rock sculpture,

scott cohn? did you really just say that? >> reporter: well, imagine. yes, i did. >> i love it, actually. >> yeah, he did say it. >> you are solid, scott, thank you very much. by some measures, detroit has more than 70,000 abandoned homes and buildings. it leads to higher crimes, reduced property values and a sense of depression in a town that's fighting to come back. it's interesting a member of the family who made the fortune building homes is now leading the charge to get rid of the ugly, dangerous, just awful homes hurting a city. let's bring in bill pulte, whose grandfather started pulte homes. bill, thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you, guys. >> what has been the reaction to your efforts and your mission? >> it's been extremely positive. i'll tell you, especially in the neighborhoods. as you know, detroit has 139 square miles. obviously, we have a thriving downtown area now with dan gilbert, roger penske doing downtown. but the city is very wide. we're wiping out massive areas of blight. homes as well as dead forestry trash.

and i got to tell you, the neighborhoods couldn't be more happy with what we're doing. >> and what's the outcome going to be? i've been on some of the roads. i love detroit. a lot of friends there, bill. when you do this, what's going to happen to these neighborhoods? >> well, hopefully, what happens with the neighborhoods is they become functioning again. you know, the city has a $1 billion operating fund every year. $500 million is spent on public safety. so we've got enormous public safety issues in detroit. if we can get rid of the places where the criminals are hiding -- and certainly over 11,500 fires in the year, and 6,000 in abandoned structures. you can imagine living in the neighborhoods with all of this going on, it's tough. if we can get rid of the blight, the city can be fixed. and the city has financial issues. if we're able to get hit of the blied, we won't have the police and fire problems we do. that's a big strain on the city. >> i finished up detroit, an american autopsy, a great book, a tough read. people lighting homes on fire literally cheaper than going to the movies. bill, do you have a goal here,

an ultimate goal to get detroit into some semblance of order? what can be done? >> sure. >> make it back into farmland? >> that's right. what we've done is tried to show through two miles we can knock out the blight. we knocked out ten blocks in ten days. the next area is 500 lots of blight. in answer to your question, if we could get rid of that, then we can become stable. in terms of what happens to the land after the fact, we don't know. that's step two, three, four. right now, we're focused on step one, which is stabilizing the city. specifically, we hope our model is able to be used across all of the government funds. there's tens of millions -- potentially hundreds of millions -- that will be coming in to the city -- >> bill, quickly, why are you doing this? let me just ask. people questioning your motives. >> yeah, completely altruistic. it's the pulte family, a tremendous amount of expertise in housing production. they said come on board and help, and that's what we've been

doing. >> bill pulte, appreciate it. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. coming up next, what does it really take to get the hands on the coveted cronut? find out in two. out there owning it. the ones getting involved and staying engaged. they're not afraid to question the path they're on. because the one question they never want to ask is "how did i end up here?" i started schwab for those people. people who want to take ownership of their investments, like they do in every other aspect of their lives.

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coveted concoction around. in fact, people are waiting in line for hours in the wee small hours of the morning. so i decided to go and see it all for myself. ♪ here at the bakery in new york, all of the pastry fans know the cronut, and all of the people waiting in line here for the one-and-only cronut. how long have you been waiting here in line to get a cronut? >> before 5:00 a.m. >> reporter: oh, my goodness, look at this line. some of the people won't get a cronut. if someone came up to you and asked to buy your spot in line. >> absolutely not. >> reporter: here i am, at the end of the line, two blocks long. despite the imitators, the cronut rages on. it's an absolute mania. the man behind this flaky sensation, dominique ensle, says there's really no way to sugar-coat it. >> i don't want people to get confused with what's out there. we want to protect our creation and make sure we're going to do it the long term. ♪

>> reporter: he has the trademark for the very famous treat. he's not making it easier on his customers. the bakery only makes 300 every morning. the doors open at 8:00, sold out by 10:00, and a limit of two bucks per customer. >> the numbers are low. >> reporter: sales here are hot. so hot, in fact, there are reports of a black market for cronuts at a going rate of 40 becomes a pop. even if it's hard to get your hands on a cronut, everybody says they're absolutely delicious and well worth it. you know what? what i thought was interesting, i can't be absolutely sure, but i suspect there were actually people who got this early in the morning, and maybe do it every single morning, and sold their spot to other people. when i asked them, hey, did you sell your spot to somebody else, because they shifted in the line, and they said, no, no, of course not. >> did they do it like that, oh,

no, no, no -- >> yes, the australian accent. >> and did you get one. >> we were allowed one for the prop. they only make 300 -- >> i've heard of crony capitalism, but not cronut capitalism. >> and the flavor this month, coconut. thanks for watching "street signs." hi, everybody, we're in to the final stretch. welcome to the "closing bell." i'm maria bartiromo. >> what do you say we open a cronut franchise? >> i like it. >> we could buy one of those. make more than 300 a day. i'm bill griffeth. today, the markets are on hold, until next hour. and then, who knows what will happen? we had the fed minutes come out last hour. and they're still trying to make sense of them. it seems the fed officials are ready to begin tapering, but they're not convinced that the economy is ready for