a parallel case has been filed. we'll learn more from the men who brought this case in just a couple of minutes. >> thanks very much, kate kelly. appreciate that. very interesting story evolving there. sue? >> and the dow right now is down 110 points. digit loss. that does it for all of us on "power lunch." right, ty? >> and "street signs" begins right now. and we begin with breaking news. a news conference bringing charges against two former jpmorgan traders tied to the london whale chase. preet barrera, known as the chief of wall street, about to take the stage. we'll bring that to you live. bob pisani and kate kell and herb greenberg and possible binsy as well. thanks for joining us. to what degree do you think this

is going to make a difference or whether it's really just a show trial? >> that is the question, because in the end when you think of this big london whale case which many people, their eyes will just glaze over, how does it affect me, and i don't know that you know other than they are really going out and they are really taking down some people, but beyond that, does it affect the trading of stocks? no, i actually don't think it does. what about you, jim? >> not this case. >> i think there's historically people involved with these kinds of particular dense instruments who have tried to get away with things in order to be able to influence their bonus. it went on tremendously during the period where cvos were in abundance. the little horse out of the barn, a little late. yeah, this is not meant to protect the person at home. it's meant to protect the institution from people who commit fraud. >> the person at home, the average joe is sitting there and watching this show and say, okay, it doesn't make my money any safer, preet perrera is

leveling the playing field. >> and he's letting people know they can't get away with even what is perceived as murder. >> so he makes an example of certain big cases? >> we wish he had -- i wish that there were many other people whom you and i both know. don't want to libel them, who did a lot of this stuff quickly that wrecked people's homes and people's lives. we read these articles constantly. this is not one of those cases. >> so, where do we go from here? i mean, for example, do you think preet particular rerera i fantastic job? >> i don't think anybody down here thinks these charges will affect the average person, but everyone down here knows and understands that what's happening here is a little bit of theater and a little bit of enforcement.

they want to project the idea that there is a new cop on the beat, whatever you want to call it, the new sheriff of wall street. that's more important than whether or not it's going to affect average person or not, just the perception that somebody is watching what's going on. nobody down here doesn't doubt that issue. mandy? >> just once again let's quickly recap what we're waiting for here. waiting for a live news conference that should beginning anyminute. preet perrera should be taking the stage. we can see he's just coming out here. he's walking up to the podium so we should be beginning any minute now and hear about what's happening with javier martin-or rtaja and julien grout, been charged with conspiracy to falsify books and records and commit wire fraud and charges were unsealed earlier on today in federal court in manhattan. let's listen in. any second now.

what do you expect him to say? >> good afternoon. i'm preet bharara for the southern district of new york. today we unsealed federal criminal charges against to you former traders at jpmorgan chase and company. the largest financial holding company in the united states and the parent of the nation's largest bank. we have filed conspiracy, wire fraud and related charges against these two traders for their alleged participation in a scheme to hide the true extent of massive losses in a synthetic portfolio maintained by the chief investment office of jpmorgan. all tolled as the world now knows the losses ultimately reached over $6 billion. the named defendants are javier martin-artajo who served as head of equity trading in that office

and julien grout who was a vice president and a derivatives trade they are that office. as the complaints describe at the heart of this case are alleged lies and misrepresentations about the fair value of synthetic credit derivative products and in particular credit default swaps on jpm's books, the alleged conduct is simple and straightforward. the defendants deliberately and repeatedly lied about the fair value of billions of dollars in assets on jorpgan's books in order to cover up massive losses that mounted mount after month after month at the beginning of 2012. those lives mislead investors, regulators and the public and they constituted federal crimes. as has already been conceded this was not a tempest in a

teapot but rather a perfect storm of individual misconduct and inadequate controls. we also announced a non-prosecution agreement with another former trader at jpmorgan, bruno ixall. before i get to the charges in some detail today, let me introduce our partners in this prosecution and investigation which began well above the senate issued its very thorough report this past march. these are, by the way, us a may appreciate, difficult cases to investigate and to piece together, and the only reason we're here is because of the fine men and women who are career prosecutors and investigators and enforcement lawyers who literally poured over thuses of pages of documents and interviewed doss of witnesses and built this case through sheer hard wok. i'm joined by fbi and

representing here today, april books, the special division including their excellent team. i want to thank them for their incredibly hard and dedicated assistance. we're also joined by george canales, the executive direct orf enforcement at the s.e.c. i want to take him and his team for all their great work in getting to this point as well as well as andrew calamari and michael ignatt oh, and they are always a great club rater on these gayses as well. i want to think the career who are standing here in my office. let me take a couple of minutes to talk about the particulars of today's charges.

first, as i mentioned, the two defendants were traders at jpm's chief investment office or as it's known the cio. what was the purpose of the wio? >> well functioning banks have deposits meaning the amount put in want the money it left out. in ypb owes case was a 325 billion which is by the way more than any gdp of any kun. within there were several sieve portfolios. up was called the credit part of the money was v.ed in risky credit derivative products. that synthetic krifn portfolio

grew ma drought any inside and was extremely postable jen waiting $2 billion in cross the revenue. he was positive until 2010 when things began to go south in a very big way and that's where the trouble began, culminating in today's charges as alleged the defendants violated in essence their obligation to honestly value the bank's assets. banks that trade in these sorts of risky products are required to record their daily assets and liabilities in an honest way by marking their position in their mark to accounting. the fair action is the raider which they can make positions by traders are required to make

terms. of the fair arkt data, and true dent and xepance is offer close to the i had night. >> y's own is mid-market, around that's exactly in fact what executives at the cio did, out at the mid-points and sometimes referred to as the crude mid until 2012, and that is when things took a turn for the criminal. you know, in 2012 the scp, that portfolio i mentioned, began to loose money as a rapid and fast pace. 188 million in february. why? because traders made big bets but the market turned currently

against him. beginning in at least march of 2012 the defendants began to cook the books. they abandoned the methodology dictated by common sense and sound akrounting practices. the methodology used by jpm's own investment beige. moreover as alleged, the defendants knew they were cooking the books with respect to valuations because they separately, separate and apart from what conduct i'm describing, they accept laterally get meticulous track of what the valuations would have been had they nod lied about them. the hope was that the bets would turn around, but they didn't. and as the bets continued to sour, rather than scale back and come clean, the defense allegedly doubled down, not only on their bets but also on the fraudulent valuecations and also on the cover-up. if you take a look at the chart on my right for a moment you'll

see reflected here a lot of what's in the detailed complaints that one sailed today. as i mentioned, beginning in january of 2012 they had to report a $131 million loss and over time based on pressure from martin-artajo, according to the complaint and instructions from haar tin-atarjo according to the plant. not to change anything. >> as of march 12 that's according to what the spreadsheet said they should have been, the gap at that point already in march was all right $292 million. by march 0th according to a later analysis that the bank asked its own investment bank to do using a reasonable methodology in their view to see what the gap was between the way the people in the cia was

evaluating the assets, they came up with a gap after the fact of $67 million and as everyone knows the bank had to significantly -- significantly understatement its first quarter losses and have to restate its neve revenue for the $6.60. people in the complaint argue about whether or not this was a wise thing. the ceo says i don't want -- i don't know where he wants to stop, but it's getting idiotic. those are the words of mr mr. icksall. so how did this happen? which is a reasonable question. where were the internal controls? done sure, the cio had a valuation control group whose

job was to serve as an independent and rigorous check on the traders asset valuations but as alleged in that group that group was neither independent nor rigorous. in fact, it wasn't even really a group as it was staffed in london we essentially a single employee and as alleged the value group regularly tolerated wide discrepancy between trader marks and control groups owned independent valuations. let me end by just saying a couple of things. the difficulty inherent in precisely valuing certain kinds of financial positions does not give people a license to lie or mislead or to cover up losses. it does not confer a license to create false books and records or to make false public filings. and that goes double for handsomely paid executives at a public company whose actions can roil markets and upend the economy. capitalism works best when its captains do not lie and cheat.

capitalism works best when its biggest beneficiaries play by the same rules as everybody else. we happen to live in a time where not just one bank but one trader within one bank can do catastrophic economic harm in practically the blink of an eye. recent history bears that out, and that is why prosecutors need to be even more aggressive and regulators more vigilant, and as i have been saying for some years now companies themselves need to pay closer attention to the cultures that they create. now, it's my hon tor call to the podium april brooks from the fbi. >> just to quickly bring you up to date on what is happening here. we are currently following a live news conference. we have just heard from the wall street sheriff, u.s. attorney preet bharara. he's been detailing the charges against the two derivative and

former jpmorgan chase employees tied to the london whale issue. we'll get back to preet bharara when he takes questions. i would also like in the meantime to get to you, jim cramer, because, you know, everyone is trying to work out whether or not the investor class is on a level playing field and what needs to happen here, whether or not preet bharara is tough enough to make it a level playing field. >> well, look, these are complex instruments, as he said. >> yes. >> they were subject to tremendous variation in price where it was possible to obfuscate. >> guys, can i get in? >> what's really important in this document, march 30th is when -- the upstairs guys in new york were saying what's the deal? what's the deal with your numbers? on april 6th bloomberg and the "wall street journal" break the story. what happened in that period? how could "the journal" and "bloomberg" knows that these marks were dead wrong and the

top guys not know it themselves? >> you just said, the top guys. this is what's fascinating because when preet was talking he mentioned under pressure from above. >> didn't say whether it's under pressure to tell the truth or to lie. later he talked about the culture. talks about culture but they are not going after anything with the culture because that's what they can't nail but i thought that was a very important thing to highlight. >> absolutely. >> individuals lie is what this says, and he's nailing individuals. any time you nail individuals who lie the place is clean. >> but he's not with the people who forced them to lie because of the pressure they were getting from above. he used the words pressure from above. >> guys, a couple of observations here, if i might. it's kate kelly. herb, i think you're on to something. preet bharara here knows that he's charging a couple of individuals from the london office of a major u.s. bank no less, people that are certainly not household names, but he is taking aim or at least trying to

rhetorically at the american banking culture. he's pointing out that the $350 bill crop that the cio office is trying to hedge is bigger than the gdp of several countries. this one trade can cause catastrophic damage. this is not a tempest in a teapot which is what dimon famously said in the first quarter of 2012 when he was sort of trying to minimize the reports you were just alluding to about the marks and the so-called london whale trade. >> and making an argument for more trade. the comment about what you said, one banker at one bank can cause catastrophic damage and this is why he said regulators need to be more vigilant. that's the whole pretext of what's going on here. >> he says they need to be mindful of the culture they are creating. that's what's key here and that's also a theme. a single trader formerly of goldman sachs held liable for i

believe six out of seven counts in association, among other things, misleading investors. >> in the end, kate, this is other people's money so while it may not have anything to do with leveling a playing field, certainly has a lot to do with the people in that playing field and their money. it's in the banking system. >> kate, i would also like to know. to what degree would they like to have for the financial crisis, the trading loss revealed in 2012 and last year has raised a lot of fresh questions about whether or not these big wall street banks have really learned their lessons from the financial crisis. >> right, and i think you hear from rhetoric from bharara suggesting he understands, he and his colleagues in law enforcement are understand some pressure to bring more significant cases against the corporations themselves or the individuals responsible for creating issues. i just want to draw your attention to breaking news here. this is a statement from attorneys representing bruno icksall who was nicknamed the london whale because he was the most central figure associated

with putting these trades on. he, of course, cooperated with authorities. his lawyer says the department of justice after reviewing all the relevant facts has decided not to bring charges against our client who has been cooperating with u.s. authorities and will continue to do so as needed. have no further comment. this was a key player in the investigation. you heard bharara saying these marks are, quote, unquote, idiotic at some point. >> isn't it credible that he's emerging as sort of the hero but he's now the one who has been arguing we should have gotten out earlier, that he didn't argue with the valuations and his boss and deputies are now being painted as the bad guys. there will be a lot tighter interm regulations, the cio not adequately making sure that they checked the valuations. >> right, the valuation control group that consisted of essentially one person and had a very proforma functionality. >> the news conference is

continuing. we're going to go back to it in just a moment's time when preet bharara takes the q&a session. jim, more quickly, do you think we need more regulation here? >> i don't think the derivatives market. i feel like jpmorgan was the market in this. they could have called whatever price they wanted. this market was jpmorgan's, they were the bid and asked and got whatever they wanted because there was no disinfectant, no light hon this stuff. >> what we know is no matter what comes down as a result of this the menries on wall street, memories in industry are very short and over time there's a new way and method to try to create south korea. >> and these are big markets where can you see stuff. >> i think it's also worth noting that jpmorgan itself has actually weathered this storm pretty well. i think it's up by a third from

its pre-london whale price. >> people are going to hate me for saying that, but i don't think jamie dimon could have realized. they have a huge book, a $about 350 billion book. i don't think he himself could have recognized this was happening. >> well, you may be right, but it gets down to, of course the culture all the way through and where did that -- where up the line did it stop? >> that's a good question. >> and why was the pressure is there? we know why. pressure is there because of bonuses and everything people is trying to do. everyone is looking out for their own hide. >> the evaluation control group, didn't really exist. >> a lot of unanswered questions xwl probably 50 people right now and they probably, you know, come with -- they come with machine guns every day. not going to let that happen again. >> guys, we'll continue following this live news conference. we'll get back and talk about what's happening in the markets because the dow is currently down by triple figures. only 2% above pits record highs.

we need to get an update on what's happening on that side of things as well. stay with us here on "street signs." ♪ [ 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. and trade with papermoney to test-drive the market. ♪ all on thinkorswim. from td ameritrade.

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arrested yet, but the maximum that these true traders would get would be five years. let's listen in. >> well, i think the people you said at the beginning which is the document speaks for itself. as i said, the investigation remains open. the allegations in the complaint do speak for themselves, and i'm not going to get into who did what first, but i think as people know in the world that there were a lot of press reports about what was going on within the bank almost as soon as it happened and that everyone jumped ton quickly. mr. canales made the point about the s.e.c. and the same is true for the fbi and u.s. attorney's office. yeah. [ inaudible question ]

>> yeah, again, i'm not going to talk about what else may happen in connection with this case. mr. canales can talk about this from the s.e.c. perfective. these are the charges we brought now and the investigation remains open. yeah. back there. [ inaudible question ] >> i'm not going to go beyond what i've already said. multiple speakers up here have talked generally about how compliance is important. separate and apart this case, talking mohr generally about institutions, whether you're talking about albany or you're talking about firms on wall street or you're talking about retailers on main street, culture is important, and, you know, culture of integrity is important at those places and the important thing from the perspective of the people up here who are before we are prosecutors and regulators and fbi agents are americans, and we

would prefer not to see bad things happen, and when there are better controls in place and a better culture in place, whether you're talking about a political institution or a corporate institution, it would be better if those things didn't happen in the first place and in case after case that we have seen, that i've seen in a little bit over four years of doing this job you -- you worry that there's not as much of a good culture at a lot of places as there might be and it does matter. yeah? [ inaudible question ] >> i'm not making any definitive statement about culture in this case. what i'm saying -- by the way, whether or not you -- you're going beyond, you know, a certain group -- there are a group of people who are alleged to have been part of this and

that's a group in which the culture was not great, as evidenced by the allegations that we're specifically making against identified people but i'm not going to go beyond what's in the complaint. patty? >> the complaint seems to describe mr. iksil as reticent after allegedly participating in this scheme. he becomes reluctant and starts sending messages and information to jpmorgan. is that why he got the none prosecution agreement which is extremely rare to obtain? >> non-prosecution agreements, they are rare, and there are a number of factors that go into a determination about that and a lot of deliberation and among factors that go into it are relative culpability and degree of cooperation and whether you can compel the person to testify given circumstances like his circumstances and location. whether or not that person

actually, you know, was a voice for reason within the institution and whether or not that person raised some red flags, and i think, again, on this point, as in most, you know, did sound the alarm more than once. >> okay. so we've been listening to the question and answer session with preet bharara, the sheriff on wall street and, of course, we're seeing some various headlines, for example, the investigation into the case does remain open. i would like to get to you, kate kelly, once more, because the first question right off the bat was has anyone been arrested, and the answer was no. they are in contact with these two former jpmorgan employee lawyers but no one has been arrested. why not? >> amanda. i think it's an important question because people are sort of accustomed to seeing somebody arrested on the very same day they are charged. in this case a couple of intervening factors have grom come up. julien grout is a french

citizen, he's relocated to the south of france unable to find a job in the city of london where he once worked for jpmorgan and french citizens are not typically extradited by france though there is an extradition treaty between the two. i'm told he'll very likely surrender or present himself for arrest in the uk in the coming weeks or so but that wasn't going to happen today. as for martin-artajo on a long planned vacation outside of the uk so he also was not available for arrest in the uk, even though the english authorities appear to be cooperating. >> indeed, i believe that julien grout is hiding out in a very nice medieval village, not a bad place to hide out for the moment. i want to ask you, jim, for your final thoughts. obviously this is ongoing, still a lot that we need to know on the case, but how do you feel about this so far? >> you go back to the level playing field. >> right. >> jpmorgan, a lot of people made mistakes. jpmorgan very abject about this. they gave the guys up to the

governments and said, look, please take a look at this. all i'm saying is that if everything had sunlight, knew about all derivatives and just put all the ceos and make them have a market, this wouldn't happen, okay? you can have all the controls in the world. you can't gain fraud, but if you do have a lamp that sounds, the industry has fought and fought and fought that, and that's why i think you don't learn your lesson. >> i know you're a very busy man. we'll let you go any minute now but i want to get your thoughts on the market, right? since hitting the record highs a couple weeks ago we've been generally moving to the downside. do you feel that there's a rising yield story. is this a tapering story, that we just need a pause story, what's going on? >> we keep lose leadership. housing has become very difficult for me to gauge because interest rates are going up. we lost airlines, boy, that was a terrific group and now we're being led by the minimals, led by the minerals in 2008. that was a narrow group that no one follows. >> also a high crossity market,

you know. moving so quickly. >> i don't think it's a ash did. >> you don't think there's buying opportunities on these dips in. >> a lot of stocks that i don't have cat lifts for. >> and what is a tesla falling say about 13% over the past five days tell you and coming down, you know, interestingly enough. >> i think people are being prudent. have some gains and should take some gains. >> apple i believe is one stock that will be a center piece of your show tonight and learned from a 13-f, herb, that herb fund legend julien robertson is out of apple. who do you make of that? >> that was 45 days or so again. coomerman was in, now he's out. >> i hate following 14-s. >> maybe he could the back in yesterday at 1,440.

>> bottom line, you shouldn't necessarily follow these humming fund moves. >> look, apple was an inexpensive stock and you made money -- if you were the first person. >> there you are. >> second bottom line is always watch twitter now. okay, thanks, guys. jim, thanks for stepping in, herb, you might be sticking around. we'll be talking about macy's pain possibly be jc penney's gain. our retail roundup is coming as well, but first, can you name today's mystery chart? here is a hint. you might find the answer to be bittersweet. for the small and the tall.

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how bad will jc penney be. let's take a listen >> my first takeaway when i read this wasn't wow, how disappointing. it was what are the numbers going to be at jc penney if macy's is this bad? >> okay. our lady on the retail beat courtney reagan joins us once again. the point is well made. expectations have already come down so when it misses by such a wide margin, this is real worrying, isn't it? >> it is and it's not. it's clear that the second quarter was not good. sales in the summer were weak. we know the wet her some a bit of an impact and potentially what we saw, all that have still coming through. macy had to say going forward, actually i think it's making us feel a little bit better on the conference call. we think this was just a speed bump, this is not beginning of a trend. >> a speed bump dawe to what? >> due to weather, consumers being concerned about the gas prices and the payroll tax hike. i mean, it does have an impact. what they had to say about the consumer going forward, the

momentum for back to school is actually promising, and that's what a lot of the analysts actually were focused on, more so than the results themselves. >> what about jc penney? if macy's misses what's jc penney going to come out? >> different story. >> when i heard jim say that, i was driving my car in and i said, well, how do i know that those people who had gone to macy's hadn't shifted back to jc penney? >> they might have. >> indeed they might have. >> so that gets down to the jc penney equation here and part of the story. >> and it also gets down to the broader consumer. >> i don't believe that the macy's shopper is always the same as the jc penney shopper. i think the jc shopper is more of a tjx, kohl's shopper. it is more about how the consumer is feeling in general and that could be the problem in addition to all the other stuff. >> we'll get the big reveal won'ty we. jc penney up by .8 and macy's, meanwhile, is down 3.5%.

thanks, security. >> a really great day for apple crossing 500 bucks a share but the next guest says there is another tech name out there that you should be buying right now, and it is the best thing you're going to see all day, really, i promise it is. raising the bar on bar mitzvahs when "street signs" returns. are you sure we should take this billboard down? people find out state farm does car loans as well as they do insurance, our bank is through.

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apple trading once again over $500 a share today after investors carl icahn and leon cooperman reveal stakes in the company. the next guest says the stock has more room to run. well, let's bring in matt mccormick, portfolio manager and icahn thinks it's cheap and leon cooper man thinks it's cheap. do you think it's cheap, matt? >> i do, mandy. when you look at technology as a whole there's a lot of potential for the entire sector. we think that the catalyst for apple's recent move was a recent dividend increase and it caused investors to take another look. it was kind of investment purgatory where it was not sexy enough for the growth guys or cheap enough for the value players and when you see a dividend that increases potential for management, you look at the new iphone coming out after labor day and the

low-cost iphones coming into asia and looking at what icahn is doing and looking at the potential for apple tv and we clearly see more positives versus negatives and we think that the buyback announcement and further potential dividend increases give a stock with a strong visibility going forward in an entire marketplace. you like apple and something that i think you should charge apple advertising costs considering all the positive press they are getting because everyone seems to like it as well. >> while leon cooperman likes apple there's an even more favored stock and qualcomm, which i believe great minds think alike because you've also got that on your pick list. >> we do like qualcomm as well. you look, mandy, when they increase their dividend by march and 40%, a strong sign of future earnings power and you look at the growth of technology, particularly in smartphones in asia which is clearly going to be a dominant play going forward with the snap dragon as well as the developed markets we think we get a two-for of very strong

company in management, positive dividend growth and an asia play. you have developed markets and, plus, it has low debt so we think technology as a sector has some of the lowest payout ratios and lowest pe ratios and lowest debt, the best potential for dividend growth and we think this is an opportunity for investors to take a fresh look. like seeing the positive moves. technically apple and qualcomm looked very strong. >> matt, thanks so much for joining us. >> where were you ten years ago today, because it is the anniversary of the great northeast blackouts who are asking you, are you prepared for it to happen again? >> and can you name this super sweet mystery chart? we'll be revealing it next, but, first, bill griffith, what's coming up next on "closing bell"? >> we're looking at airline mergers, whether they help or hurt the consumer? gordon bethune says consumers will ultimately pay the price if the government successfully blocks amr's merger with u.s. airways and instant analysis of

cisco's earnings which could move the market tomorrow and you know him from "man versus food" by adam richmond is now on the move to find the craziest sports fun and their culinary creations. maria is back here with us at the top of the hour for "closing bell." bye daddy! have a good day at school, ok? ...but what about when my parents visit? ok. i just love this one... and it's next to a park. i love it. i love it too. here's our new house... daddy! you're not just looking for a house. you're looking for a place for your life to happen.

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as you can see there, the dow and s&p are down for the sixth time in eight sessions. in fact, the bad stretch that we've had recently has now put the dow into negative territory for the month of august. it's now down about 100 points. okay. time for today's mystery chart. it is also our sweetest hard money segment yet and that's a big hint for you because can you name this chart? it is up more than 12% over the past month and it's near the highs for the year. it is cocoa. bad weather in the ivory coast, the world's biggest cocoa producer is partly to blame for the price spike. coming up next on "street signs," remember this scene from ten years ago today? and are you ready for the next great blackout? the ceo of generac will join us next.

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now, the lights are apparently out, maria, down at the new york stock exchange, in major portions of times square, the nasdaq area is out as well. this power outage affecting new york, including the new york stock exchange, which apparently bathed in darkness right now.

as well as portions of new jersey and even out farther east on to long island. the power out ands are now affecting not only the new york metropolitan area, new york city, new jersey, even out to long island, also up into connecticut and westchester county in new york. but also as far west and north as detroit, toronto, and ottawa. >> no, you don't need to adjust your screen. that was ten years ago today. you probably noticed, as well, the dow was at 9,300. anyway, it was a massive northeast blackout that left 50 million people in darkness. back then, few homes or even businesses had their own electricity generators. but take a look at the shares of generac since the 2003 blackout. they have soared 235%. the maker of home and backup generators also saw a massive jump after hurricane sandy left millions in the dark last year. joining us once again on "street signs" is the ceo, aaron jagdfeld. great to have you on the show

once again. are these backup or stand-by generators becoming like central air, an absolute must-have thing in the home these days? >> yeah, we've heard people talk about these things as the must-have appliance for homes, and just like central air conditioning, as you pointed out, it started out as a very small percentage of homes that have them. today, it's still small. it's really less than 3% today. it's growing very quickly. >> how much have sales improved, or how much has demand jumped since hurricane sandy alone? >> i mean, sandy alone, obviously, is a massive event. 8.5 million people without power. that created awareness for the category, that helps us drive penetration. but it's been growing, as you mentioned, over the last ten years. we've been seeing a lot of growth in backup power. >> do you think something line the 2003 blackout could happen again? >> you know, there's been a lot of talk about that, and i think that there's probably in terms of 50 million people without pow power or 60 million people out of power all at once. that's probably unlikely based on things done to the grid.

the fact remains, the grid is less reliable today statistically speaking than it was ten years ago. that's based on the white house's own reports, the national electric liability council. there's a lot of data. >> i wanted to ask you, i did go on your website, to see how much it would cost to buy one of the backup generators. they're not cheap. they're thousands of dollars. you can get a portable one under $1,000, but nonetheless, as they're becoming a must-have item, will the price come down? >> well, obviously, with volume, you know, you get scale, and with scale, you can bring costs down. that's what we're seeing in this business. we've been driving the price down on the products over the last 10 years since the blackout in 2003. we think, you're right, a couple thousand dollars to put them in, but at the end of the day, what is an outage worth to a homeowner or small business in terms of lost revenue, lost inventory, just the lost time in your own home. it's a pretty serious -- it can be a lot of serious ramifications for losing your

power. >> yes, and a state of the infrastructure. that's a completely different topic. aaron, thank you very much for joining us today. coming up next, we are crazy for tacos. we're also raising the bar on bar mitzvahs. farmers presents: fifteen seconds of smart. so you want to drive more safely? stop eating. take deep breaths. avoid bad weather. [ whispers ] get eight hours. ♪ [ shouts over music ] turn it down! and, of course, talk to farmers. hi. hi. ♪ we are farmers bum - pa - dum, bum - bum - bum - bum ♪ you make a great team.

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yet being named for doritos chips, but tastes similar to the flamas flavor. and yum brands is up about 10% since the debut of the first locos taco back in march of last year. it has been the largest and most successful product launch in taco bell's 58-year history. i believe yum brands this week has hit a record high. and it's bar mitzvah meets broadway. check out the video of 13-year-old sam horowitz stepping into manhood in the most epic way we have ever seen. this roughly three-minute-long video of the choreographed bar mitzvah entrance happened last year, but is just now going viral. the dancing, the lights. his mother is not saying how much it cost to pull this all off, but we figure it wasn't bupkis. just sit back and enjoy. ♪

sam horowitz, everybody. absolutely delighted, doing fantastically. what can you say? thank you for watching "street signs," and "closing bell" is next. see you tomorrow. hi, everybody. we enter the final stretch. welcome to the "closing bell." i'm maria bartiromo at the new york stock exchange. it looks like the bears are in control today. >> yeah, i'm bill griffeth. the steady drip you're hearing is the stock market losing steam bit by bit. this is the sixth out of the last eight days the market is lower. i have to say, you know, you and i don't believe the fed will start tapering in september. >> right. >> but more and more, the market is starting to act like it believes it will. >> that is the worry. as interest rates inch up, part of the story is the market is doing the job for the fed. >> exactly. >> they'll have to be real cautious come september. we'll be watching that. also on to