i trade like me. i'm with scottrade. (announcer) scottrade. voted "best investment services company." . murph won the debate. final trade. >> buy ge. >> stephanie pet smart. >> "power lunch" starts now. >> halftime is over. "power lunch" and the second half of the trading day starts right now. >> indeed, it does. another major company jumps into the new health insurance exchange debate. leaving workers to make their own decisions. is it good? is it bad? is it too confusing? is it about to happen to you? a key ceos's take on the new health insurance rules concerning ceo pay, the fed, the government, the economy, and, of course the stock market. speaking of the stock market, we are counting down to the 2:00 p.m. fed decision about 59

minutes away. my partner tyler is what i'm trying to say, and you are my tyler, but you're down -- >> and you are my sue. >> sue, i can't remember a more eagerly anticipated, maybe more important fed decision than the one we face in about 58 minutes from now. everybody wonders what the fed is going to do with those bond purchases. probably no move on interest rates. almost certainly none here. what will they do about the bond purchases. that is one reason why the basic barometers of the stock market are basically calm. a little bit lower. the dow down about 47 right now. the nasdaq off about 4 and the s&p down about 3 points. basically waiting, watching and wondering what the fed will do. but there is also another huge story that we're following at this hour and that is the question of whether they will rise above down in washington and come together with respect to raising the debt ceiling and then that important continuing resolution to fund the

government. there are a lot, eamon javers, political tactics playing out. >> doesn't feel like rise above time in washington. the latest information that we have is that the negotiations are really at a standstill over this issue of whether or not to defund obama care. earlier we saw speaker boehner come out and say he's going to make it contingent on a continuing resolution that they defund obama care. take a listen to what the speaker had to say. >> we're going to continue to do everything we can to repeal the president's failed health care law. this week the house will pass a cr that the locks the sequester savings in and defunds obama care. the president has signed seven bills over the last two and a half years to make changes to obama care and i sincerely hope our friends in the senate have plans to make this an eighth time. >> so house republicans saying no continuing resolution no for

the government unless we defund an obama care. that is a nonstarter in the senate in terms of the votes and also a nonstarter with the president of the united states and he said why earlier today. take a listen to that. >> to make sure that you are using your influence in whatever way you can to get back to what's -- what used to be called regular order around here. doing things in a way that reflect the genuine messy negotiations of democracy, but did not promise apocalypse every three months. >> and what's interesting there, tyler, is that the president was speaking to the business roundtable. he's looking to american ceos and corporate leaders to weigh in up here on capitol hill with house republicans and say, wait a second this continuing resolution is important. we don't want a government shutdown. let's not try to push this obama care defunding stuff and hold off on that and fight that another day. the president is looking to exploit what he sees as schisms

within the republican party over this. whether that's going to be successful or not is anybody's gaes guest. >> thank you very much. a story sure to unfold over the next couple weeks. to the markets ahead of the fed meeting. you see that dow industrials down about 45 points about a quarter of 1% at 15484. the s&p down 2.6 points 1702 the nasdaq down about.10%, the least of those three barometers 3741 the quote right now and gold down about $6 an ounce at 1302. sue? >> let's get two takes on the impact of the fed. diana olick on housing but we'll start out with dominic chu on stocks. >> take a look at where some of the wall street experts are looking for the most impact on anything from the fed. we know rising rates have taken their toll op companies with high dividend payments.

sectors like utilities, telecom services because the relative attractiveness of those bigger dividend yields lessens as interest rates go higher. s&p capital chief equity strategist says there are other reasons as well. companies with higher levels of debt suffer because higher rates mean higher interest costs. one reason he thinks companies with higher debt levels could suffer as well. he took a look at some sell rated companies. they also have higher relative debt levels higher dividend yields as well. a few names that s&p capital came up with to avoid are packaging company bemiss cypress semiconductor and cliffs natural. if you believe the fed would only taper if they thought the economy was slowly headed in the right direction, some traders like companies that participate in economic upside. you think names like disney or industrials like general electric consumer companies like macy's. this is all going to depend heavily on what actually happens

with the fed today and where the economy, sue, goes from here. >> thank you very much dom. now to diana olick on the impact today's decision might have housing and the mortgage markets as well. >> hey, sue. of course the big question is where will mortgage rates go less than an hour from now when the fed announces it will or will not dial back on its asset purchases. rates took a breather last week actually which sparked an 18% jump in mort again refinances. that could have been on a fear of a rate spike. today mortgage rates loosely follow the ten-year treasury but rates care more about mbs according to matt new graham at mortgage news daily. be prepared for rates to go either way at a fast pace this afternoon. how much does it really matter to the housing recovery? doug yearly ceo of toll brothers said on "squawk box" no matter what the feds says it can't change housing demographics and peter at the lindsay group says the impact of the incredible amount of fed accommodation over the past five years can be

partly undone if interest rates continue higher. what he's saying housing could enter a giveback period because just like the drop after the home buyer tax credit there is no free lunch. tyler. >> all right. diana olick, thank you very much. let's take a look at apple which has had some rough days in recent weeks but today is to the one of them. up $6.43. the first reviews of those new iphones released overnight showed mostly positive reactions. which the company says the most dramatic change to mobile -- its mobile operating system since the iphone's launch in 2007. so, the early reaction sue, pretty positive there in the marketplace and among reviewers. >> indeed, it has been, ty. we're just a little bit more than 50 minutes from decision time. goldman sachs ceo lloyd blankfein spoke to "squawk box" today on how the firm is positioning ahead of the fed

decision. here are the highlights starting with who might be the next fed chief. >> i will have to work with whoever has that job so it is actually quite convenient that i like everybody who's been named. >> and here's what mr. blankfein thinks about the markets and the economy. >> the largest probability is that we muddle through all these things, we're climbing the wall of worry and we're stauntively very well positioned to -- for the economy to keep improving. >> and finally, mr. blankfein on trading the fed. >> i expect -- i think at this point there has to be some cut. i think if it's a number like down $10 billion, the market will be very, very happy. if it's more than that the market will be sad. there's a bill tail wind from the fed and people think, gee, this is the first moment when there's a withdraw of kind of abnormal support for the market. but it's not as big a deal. >> so why don't we start right there. what does the market want from

the fed? mike is the chief u.s. economist at jpmorgan and mike you would think the fed will start to taper reducing its bond buying in various sectors bay total of $15 billion. >> we're looking for about a $10 billion in treasury purchases and $5 billion in mortgage purchases. >> what if they don't do it what would that tell you? >> that would be really surprising to me. i think the fed has tried to reel back in market expectations from earlier this year that there would be qe infinity and if they didn't taper today that would set back the hard work the fed has done to get the market to realize that qe isn't going to last forever. >> the reason i ask it when you talk to -- we talk to a lot of people, as you to certainly, and some people have made the point that the metric on the unemployment situation has not met what the fed laid out initially when it talked about qe3 and staying in for the market for the long haul that some of the metrics that the fed

has set even though the economy is improving, have not yet been met. it doesn't seem to resonate with you, though? >> right. i mean one can argue that the unemployment rate is being polluted by the changes in the participation rate. that said since qe3 started last september, we have added 2 million jobs and that isn't affected by unemployment rate measures. secondly, look i think the fed may be feeling the decline in the participation rate is structural and they've mentioned that 7% unemployment is about where they want to be when asset purchases end. they haven't conditioned that by talking about the participation rates. i think all their communications point to getting tapering starting pretty soon because it may have to end within six or nine months. >> let's end on the economy. you do think that things are getting better? >> we do. i'm sorry, third quarter looks like we did slow down to around 2% but early indications are that momentum is picking up toward the end of the quarter and looking for things to pick up to around 2.5% in the fourth

quarter. >> mike, we'll leave it there. thanks very much. we're ticking closer to that decision. thanks for joining us. ty, down to you. >> all right sue. let's take a look at tupperware stock, shall we? it is up more than 50% in a year, though down a little bit today. but the ceo like many other ceos has a lot on his plate from a new proposal to the disclosed ceo pay ratios to the average workers deciding on health care exchanges for employees, and, of course the global business climate. the view from the top, next on "power lunch."

. in. in corporate news fedex is delivering posting better than first quarter fiscal products despite global tepic economic growth the stock up 2 1/%. >> the home goods company tupperware which includes beauty and personal care products outperforming the broader market rising about 50% for the one year and 200% over five years. even i know that means the triple. if we served lunch here at "power lunch" we would probably save the leftovers in containers like this one from tupperware. these were my mother's favorite containers of any. ricks going is the chairman and ceo of tupperware brands in washington to announce the boys and girls clubs of america's youth of the year scholarship winner which the company support supports. we got a lot to go so let's dive in here. first, is it really true there

is a tupperware party every 1.4 seconds around the world? >> that is correct. we've got a sales force out there of 2.8 million women and so 24 hours a day, seven days a week there's one starting. >> that is -- so right now, there are tupperware parties starting every 1.4 seconds. let's talk about first the global business climate as you see it. the biggest share of your revenue is more than 30% comes out of europe middle east and africa africa. how especially is that region performing for you and more broadly is the global economy doing? >> well, that has been an important area for us and will continue to be in the future. i was at the ambrasetty conference this past week and there's a lot of focus and discussion, we believe europe is going to solidify angela merkel is probably going to be

re-elected she is actually she's kind of running europe and that gives a lot of people comfort. so there are headwinds. one of the things that was reported this last week that for the first time in europe there's a declining work force. so they have issues there. shrinking population, work force, but that's offset by, you know, what's happening to us in the emerging markets and -- >> yeah. >> this incredible concept it's the rise of the rest is -- >> quick thought -- >> fa reed za car ya would say. >> where do you see it stable growing, growing slowly what? >> stable to growing slowly. we have a nice business here in the u.s. but at the same time there are many better opportunities around the world with the emerging middle class. what's driving the emerging middle class is the emerging middle class is women, women

being educated empowered. we were in china this last month and -- at the beijing business school friend of mine became the first ambassador from china to the world trade organization, 75% of their students are women. >> let me turn you if i might to two topics i think of interest broadly and especially to ceos, big companies like yours. the sec as you probably know has proposed and just voted today on a rule that would require companies to disclose the ratio of ceo pay to that of the average worker. where do you stand on that? is that a good idea and for a company like yours, with 12,000 of your employees non-u.s. how would you go about doing that calculation? but basically you think it's a good idea or not? >> it's cannon fodder. it is -- you know the u.s. is 5% of the world's population. that isn't what the rest of the world is focused on. we focus on showing women how to

become entrepreneurs and many times she'll start with a simple kit and earns a 7 figure income. that's where we're throwing our attention, not another thing on what's going on here in the u.s. markets. we're focusing on growth in these other markets outside the u.s. >> and so i take it you think it's probably a pretty dumb idea more broadly you would rather focus on other things. >> it's been about as effective as sarbanes-oxley which mostly in business is just cost companies money. >> let me turn you now to a growing trend in the united states among companies and this morning, we heard from walgreens or it was reported that walgreens is now going to sort of stop paying for company sponsored insurance and give its employees a stipended to go on to the newly forming insurance exchanges to buy their health care coverage. realizing you only have a u.s. work force of about 1,000, does

this strike you as a good idea? would you consider it for your company? does it tell you that companies are increasingly trying to get out of the business of providing insurance to employees? >> well that certainly has been the case that companies are trying to get out of that business, but the complexity for us is 2.8 million women around the world, so our focus is where the masses of population are and where the growth is going to be. do we have to pay attention to that? this is our base. yes. but it's not our focus. >> mr. goings thank you very much and congratulations on your work with the boys and girls clubs of america. >> thank you tyler. >> very interesting conversation. could google be the answer to our health care problems. the tech giant making a move into the health care sector. we'll tell you all about it. plus -- >> coming up on power pitch, we're going to the dogs

literally. can e-commerce site pet flow get three ins from the judges and their furried friends. stay tuned to find out. about to be the millionth customer. would you mind if i go ahead of you? instead we had someone go ahead of him and win fifty thousand dollars. congratulations you are our one millionth customer. nobody likes to miss out. that's why ally treats all their customers the same. whether you're the first or the millionth. if your bank doesn't think you're special anymore you need an ally. ally bank. your money needs an ally.

it is power pitch time. we give founders of companies 60 seconds to make their case and then a panel of experts will decide whether they're in or out. take a look. >> i'm mandy drury and today's power pitch is going to the dogs literally.

we have a company that wants to make life a bit easier for pet owners and all those hungry cats and dogs out there. alex is the co-founder of petflow an on-line delivery service for pet food and supplies. before dipping his paws into this new company alex was a co-founder of epic advertising which sold for $48 million in 2005. joining alex is ruby and the inspiration behind his start-up. they have 60 seconds to deliver their power pitch. . >> hi. my name is alex and i'm co-founder of pet flow.com a scheduled pet food delivery service. this country has more than 160 million pet dogs and cats and over 60% of households have pets. more pets than children. this year alone pet parents will spend $55 billion on their pets and over $22 billion on food alone. the staggering statistic e-commerce is less than 4% of

sales, far lower than any other consumer category. shopping pore pet food usually involves a last minute trip to the store when they reach into the food bin to find it is empty. they choose the favorite products, set a delivery schedule and a box containing the pet's favorite toys and treats arrives at their doorstep. we carry 150 high quality brands. since we launched in 2010 we raised over 15 million on venture capital. >> alex and ruby on the right side of your screen. they can hear us but can't bark back yet. power pitch panel today, john steinberg, president and ceo of buzz feed and a digital media company that delivers original reporting in entertainment, business and politics and continues to be very successful with viral social content featuring cute pet picks. john joined by his 14-year-old burmese cat. and also next to john we have wendy diamond, founder and chief pet officer at anfy mall

fare.com and best-selling author of several books including "how to train your boss to roll over" and in the guinness book of world records three times for things such as the most expensive pet wedding. and joining wendy is baby hope diamond. we're pleased to have you all here in the show. thank you very much. okay. you cuddle your pets very well behaved pets let's huddle up on pet flow. wendy, what do you think about the pitch? >> i think alex's company is mazing. they have every product for your pet and you can get it the next morning. >> john, is this a product and a service you think you would use of other services out there? >> more important than the pitch is the use. i went on the site and became a customer this week the selection great. my concerns the site is not mobile optimized. after buying all these cat items, i got an e-mail for duck flavored treat chews for dogs. that concerns me a bit. >> that concerns you. that's --

>> you should have e-mailed me to me. baby would have loved those. >> the first thing i thought, were they competing with big power houses like amazon and amazon has huge distribution and logistic power at its fingertips. i would like to know how he can do something going up against something like amazon. >> pets.com all over again. they couldn't -- they couldn't handle all the shipping costs. pet food is heavy. we have to figure out if the shipping is in the margins or not. >> i borrowed a friend of my own. this is rider. hi ruby. wendy first. >> alex why would i choose pet flow.com and not amazon.com that has wag.com where i can get all my groceries in one shipment? >> we have a lot more products than amazon.com for the premium category we carry over 70 brands and they have 27. >> why is it not mobile auto optimized? >> it's next on our list. when we look at our traffic there's not a lot that comes from mobile.

our average customer is a 48-year-old female. we get a lot of browsers but not a lot of people -- >> you may get browsers because it's hard to make a purchase. >> the site works on mobile. it definitely has -- we have a lot of work to do to make it fully mobilized. >> you are planning to go in that direction. >> which the end of this year we are. >> how many customers do you have and are you adding every month. >> we add around 10,000 customers a month. we have somewhere around 100,000. >> i bought five cat items and got sent a dog treat remainder afterwards. >> by the end of this month that will change. >> did you cater for any exotic pets out there? i used to have a dragon from australia. would have loved the meal worm treat or something. >> we often get asked. we used to say your trip to the pet store is over but not really. we don't have everything yet. >> you heard what alex had to say. we need to know whether or not we are in or out. well i believe pet flow.com is one of the savvyiest e-commerce sites in the world. i believe that it's a definite

takeover. i am definitely in. >> what about you john? >> they don't have the technology that a company at this stage should have whether the personalization or mobile opization, it's the future for everything. i'm concerned about that. with that said these guys are pros the discount is there, the selection is there, the optization of taking you through the purchase. light speed in there. those guys are some of the best investors in the space, for that reason i'm in. >> for me it's fantastic they're adding about 10,000 customers a month, can compete on price with the bigger guys out there. so they're reaching critical mass. i'm also in on this. you know what alex you've got three ins. what's your reaction? >> i'm excited. i chose the right business after having a big exit from one and making a big bet on this one. >> okay. thanks so much to alex and ruby. pet flow. and our panelists, wendy, baby hope diamond, john and ben. >> named after the scientist that came up with the original conceptualization of the internet.

>> a clever cat as well. >> my new furry friend ryder. that's today's power pitch. >> are you in or out on petflow.com. follow the conversation on twitter using the #powerpitch. or log on. and leave a comment. sue? >> full disclosure, i use pet flow and it is terrific. there you go. gold market closing right now and prices earlier fell below the $1300 mark for the first time in five weeks. above that level now. sharon it's been a volatile session. >> it has been. we're seeing lot of short covering here going into the close and we are looking at gold prices that are now above that 1300 level. a lot of traders they're all waiting for the fed. even though we are seeing the end of the floor session trading, we are not seeing traders leaving their screens. they're going to be keeping their eyes on what's going on until we get a decision from the fed about tapering. what they're looking for since the general consensus seems to be tapering in the range of 10

to $15 billion. they're saying if it's under $10 billion look for gold prices to rally, over $20 billion look for gold to come off. that is what traders will be watching. they're not really leaving the floor today. they're going to be watching what's happening with the fed. back to you. >> thank you very much sharon epperson. the fed expected to announce the scaling back of its quantitative easing program. how much will the fed pull back? here's what wall street's top firms are forecasting in ranges from 10 to $15 billion. nobody is an outlier there, malcolm gladwell all in the 10 to $15 billion range. we come a long way since qe was first announced during the financial crisis. and today makes it a very important one for the markets. seema mody will look at how the market reacts on fed decision generally but first the trading action with bob pisani. what you would expect a lot of watching and waiting. >> we're going to snap a three-day win streak if this keeps up. i want to point out the weakness

in the hmo stocks the medicare advantage stocks that we're seeing today. humana, uam, unh, well care to the downside today. i think the market is getting a little nervous about obama care at this point. remember, the president has very little political capital right now and he walked away from larry summers a lot of people believed because he didn't have the political capital. i think the tea party smells blood and are hopeful they might delay this for a year. the markets a little nervous about this because these are outliers to the downside. keep an eye on this. on the taper, i think you put up most of what we needed to know here. the aamazing thing, everybody at 10 to $15 billion. i only saw credit suisse and rb. no one has $20 billion out there. be careful in terms of the announcement. it's going to be a tricky time between 2:00 and 2:30 between the time the announcement is made and the time of the press conference where you're going to have a period where there's

going to be a lot of questions that are not going to be answered and that's where you could see, tyler, a lot of the guy ragss going on. a lot of questions people want that aren't going to be answered in that simple statement that's going to come out and that's you're going to see gyrations in the market. >> i hope i've got the timeline right and never like to go when i'm not sure. i believe the announcement comes at 2:00 and the press conference at 2:30. >> that's right. >> we will see a busy half hour. >> that's the tricky time that 2 to 2:30 period before you've been able to answer the questions but after we've gotten a simple statement. >> thanks very much. check in with seema mody. take a look at how the markets react on fed decision days. seema, not much of a day. this is a very unusual fed decision day. >> it is. >> really is. >> absolutely. surprisingly tyler and sue, it's been quite positive if you look at history. according to the investment letter since 1994 when the fed began announcing its rate decisions on the day of the meeting the s&p 500 has averaged a gain of .4%.

however, the s&p 500 has declined on each of the last three fed days its longest negative streak since 2010. mostly due to uncertainty around whether the fed will reduce its bond asset buying program. while the taper might be priced into the markets experts still say forecasting a cautious day of trading ahead. >> we will see. the volatility will probably pick up. thank you very much. all right. to the bond market which is going to be parsing every single word of that announcement and the news conference. rick santelli is tracking the action at the cme. >> it's easy to tell you what's going on with the yield curve and treasuries. look at interday quickly. you notice what's happening the further down the curve you go, the further rates have broken down dramatically in the period of time. the next chart since the last meeting, 10-year yields minus five year yields. the steepening looks like some

traders are losing their nerve. whether it's not selling fives or buying tens and 30s they're reversing that. we are seeing some flattening. how is the dollar going into the fed meeting? easy. just look at one chart. looks like we're in a challenge 81 moving lower, not looking very good for the dollar. that probably means the dollar thinks there's going to be ongoing taper, we don't know the amount, sue. back to you. >> with the dollar off better than a tenth of a percent right now. thank you, ricky. well google is going in an interesting direction, going to take on health care. we'll look at what they want to do and apple shares rallying today. a lot of reviewers love their products. and is your day going better when these guys are up at bat? we'll talk about that.

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well the already not so great season for the houston

astros got a little worse last night. jonathan velar trying to stretch a single into a double, yikes, and that happened. the butt tag. bottom's up. the astros, worth looking at it again, isn't it? the worse team in baseball unfortunately for them. that is the power love play of the day. >> that's the play of the day right there. that is a metaphor for a season gone wrong, horribly wrong. power rundown time. john still pondering that last immam we saw there. let's -- so we'll begin with you. google announced a new company to focus on health and well being, calico trying to tackle aging and illness issues. what are they doing and why? >> well they're trying to solve death and dying, trying to -- immortality, i don't know. i think if google ends up on any

kind of a stock slide, this after the driverless car and other things might -- google glass, might be seen as a bridge too far. it's a big undertaking but they've got one of the best in the business art levinson to do it. he's chairman in a couple different places genentech and apple, on the board of hoffman la roche. it's a big product. hard to imagine what will result if they're successful. >> yesterday, robert, we heard news that there's a new drug that can do away with double chins. the world is really changing here, robert. >> yeah. on the one hand it's ridiculous silicon valley and the arrogance of people who think technology and data can solve any problem including death. on the other hand we've got people like elon and sergei no matter how big the problem try to tackle it good for them they have the money, let them try. >> let's turn to another tech company, john, the reviews on

apple's new iphone the 5c and 5s are in and they are pretty dog gone good. did the people who booed this announcement get it wrong? >> i'm not sure. part of the reason the stock went on a day of the announcement people were hoping for a cheaper phone to get into emerging markets. i think there's still questions of volume an the 5c. we didn't get preorder numbers this time understandably because both phones aren't out yet. i think people will look at the lines outside the apple stores the press release that we expect to see next monday if apple follows its pattern and then we might see a reaction. >> i was a little skeptical, robert frank, of the idea of the utility of the fingerprint scanner. the early things i've read about that number one, it actually works, number two, it's easy and number three, it may really open the doors to lots of new services. what do you think? >> i'm with you. that to me was the biggest

surprise. everyone loves the fingerprinting thing and i thought that's a throwaway. that was the highlight for all the reviewers. it reminded me of siri when siri came out, it was great, and now it's not so great. >> let's turn to -- >> i like siri but this works. >> siri is beautifully mocked in those microsoft surface tablet ads. turn to starbucks, and the ceo there, howard schultz, saying that guns are not welcome in his stores. check your weapons at the door. let's look at what he said. in a statement here there was a little more equivalent. he said we believe strongly and i hope our customers will respond to our request and understand this that guns should not be part of the starbucks experience. he falls short, though, of saying, no guns at all. he basically is saying robert keep them out, but we're not going to force you to keep them out. >> well, you know it's a little unclear because the law is the law. so he's saying we would really like you not to bring a gun in

our store if you don't have to but again, they'll have to follow the law. it will give customers pause when they order the caramel mack yotty with an extra shot these days. >> well put. john fortt top that. >> don't they have stores in texas. what will they do about that. that's why they can't ban guns or they would have to move out altogether. add this to the list of places that i frequent but i'm happy we don't have too many guns. my house, place of work please if you don't have to have a gun don't bring one. >> folks, thank you very much. >> sue, over to you. >> thank you, gentlemen. counting down to the fed. markets bracing for the fed to perhaps scale back on quantitative easing today. but how big might that pullback be if it does come. plus ben bernankes's news conference in about 45 minutes. it's all market moving news and cnbc is all over it. the dow is down 40 points. we're back in two. [ female announcer ] it's time for the annual shareholders meeting.

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welcome to "street signs." it is a special show. so special, we're actually starting five minutes earlier and easing into "power lunch's" time. apologies but it is all in the name of a good cause. it is fed day and probably the most important fed meeting the last few years because it could be the day the fed announces the first of a slow wind down of the $85 billion quantitative easing bond buying program ie the taper. it starts 1:55 p.m. eastern time. make sure you tune in. it's going to be a big day and we've got all the market reaction and very star panel including bill gross, all coming your way. see you then. back to you. >> we're happy to give you that extra five minutes, mandy, especially today. over to dominic chu for a market flash. >> sears taking a hit in trading. the stock down just around 5% off session lows. the retailers issued price guidance for a new loan it's

going to take out meant to pay down other borrowings and debt it has. this is a stock that was up about 60% from the lows we saw at the end of august so it looks like right now, sue, investors are taking profits ahead of the fed. >> sure looks that way. thanks. back in june we told you about a major scam in the art world. andrea day has the big update. >> back in june we brought you the story of a woman accused of masterminding a scheme to sell more than 60 fake works of modern art to new york galleries. her victims paid pore than $80 million for the fake art. this week she pled guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and tax crimes related to the fake art scheme. she will be sentenced in march. tune into "power lunch" for our next crime and punishment. >> did you take the money, tate if this is a story of tate george a man who reached the top of his game making it into the nba playing for the new jersey nets. but who now stands accused of

running a major ponzi scheme duping friends and other pro athletes out of millions of dollars that he allegedly blew on himself. >> thank you, andrea. we look for that update. a trillion dollar headache that will impact every person in america. and we'll tell you about it knicks. -- next. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] some things are designed to draw crowds. others are designed to leave them behind. ♪ ♪ the all-new 2014 lexus is.

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. another major company making a move on president obama's health care reform initiative. bertha coombs following that story for us. >> this is a trend that's accelerating. private exchanges making headlines. walgreens the company changing its benefits for 2014. giving 120,000 employees cash and asking them to choose from insurance plans offered on the private benefit exchange. ibm and time warner shifted their retirees to tower watson's private exchange last week and accenture expects enrollment to soar to 40 million people by 2018, more than you'll see on the obama care exchanges. shares of aon hewitt and towers watson are both at all-time highs. with more confidence that state health exchanges will be up and

running by october 1st the start of obama care enrollment the focus is making sure people sign up for coverage. the obama administration set a goal of enrolling 7 million uninsured and in new jersey one of 36 states which opted of building its own on-line marketplace in favor of one built by the federal government health officials there are hoping traditional brokers will be able to help get people enrolled. at a recent meeting with them federal officials still couldn't give them details about the plans and pricing. brokers say their phones are ringing off the hook. >> i'm sure. >> but probably won't know anything until october 1st. things are moving on-line this year they're still going to depend on traditional people to get folks to enroll. >> thank you bertha. it's a complicated story. i'm glad you get to explain it to us. that brings us to our yahoo! finance question of the day which is, is specific switching to a private health care exchange a good thing? 35% say it's good for companies, but for employees.

4% say it's good for employees, bad for companies and 23% say it's good for both 38% say it's bad for both. so that kind of illustrates some of the confusion that's out there, right, ty some. >> absolutely. a lot of controversy surrounding this but i think it really is a sign that more and more companies are pulling out of the health care business. >> right. >> very interesting afternoon ahead. >> it is. that does it for us on "power lunch." >> the fed decision is just about 8 minutes away. "street signs" begins in two minutes.

jackie: there are plenty of things i prefer to do on my own. but when it comes to investing i just think it's better to work with someone. someone you feel you can really partner with. unfortunately, i've found that some brokerage firms don't always encourage that kind of relationship. that's why i stopped working at the old brokerage and started working for charles schwab. avo: what kind of financial consultant are you looking for? talk to us today.

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get to a better state. state farm. hello. welcome to a special edition of "street signs." we are just minutes away from finding out if the fed will slow its bond buying program for the first time in nearly five years. if it does by how much. it is being called the taper and it is very important to your money. we also get our first look at the fed's projections for 2016. >> after we get the fed statement we will get clarification from ben bernanke in a live news conference that begins at 2:30 eastern time an as always america, we have an all-star package ready for you to break it all down.

diane swamp, david kelly, russ coaster rich and bill gross. i suspect we could see the never-before-seen on cnbc just a guess. >> let's hope so. # >> it is light volume as you can imagine as everyone is awaiting for this and very narrow trading. the dow, s&p and nasdaq are down. take out your pencil and write down the scores. dow off by 40 points nasdaq off by 40 points. by the way, down slightly the s&p is up about 19 percent year to date. 18% for the dow and 24% higher year to date for the nasdaq. let's get to our panel. thank you very much for all of you for joining us today. it's a special show, of course. david, i'm going to get to you because you're sitting on set with us. what do you expect and what would rock the markets and keep them even keeled? >> i expect them to stick to ben

bernanke's original plan which he announced last june. they will be done tapering by next june and reducing bond purchases to about $75 billion at a monthly rate between now and the next meeting. $10 billion reduction in monthly purchases between now and the next meeting and the rest of the pace is going to be asia dependent. >> to follow up on the first part of my question do you think that would keep the mark even kiehled because that is factored? >> i think it will in the short run but in the long run the implication of the fed moving a trillion dollar of purchases does push interest rates higher and express confidence and that ought to push stocks higher. >> diane, no taper, $5 billion, 10 15 20? where are you at? >> i agree with david on a $10 billion taper but a lot put on forward guidance by the fed. they could move out when they expect to move short-term rates up which could be more of an anchor for long-term rates in the market's expecting. >> you think the 2016 is the one we're looking at here in terms of the potential wild card for

the market the economic forecast fed funds rate forecast, 2016? >> 2016 late 2015 that's where the shift could come. the economic forecast will be marked down. >> russ, what's your estimation and what do you think will happen based on that estimation? >> >> i largely agree. somewhere between a 10 and $15 billion taper. a lot of pressure on the forward guidance. what do we hear about the state of the economy and reiterate most importantly what happens today, we are in a rising environment. even if that rise is modest this is a game changer for a lot of asset classes from gold to defense stocks and something investors have to start to reallocate to take into can account. >> ken, a ten-year chart of a bond yield. for 32 years we have been albeit a declining rate environment with bumps along the road but come down from the early '80s. going back all the way to 1790.

this is courtesy of louie shah mad da. ken, do you believe that a 30-year, a generational decline in interest rates will end today? >> i think it probably ended six months ago or nine months ago when the ten-year yield was below 2%. i do think that the trend is clearly going to be to hire real rates, real rates historically in ten years have been closer to 2%, 1.5 to 2%. we're right now at.7%. that needs to continue to increase. i don't think the kind of levels we saw in the '90s and the '80s for sure are coming back any time soon so i think that's going to create some distortions when you look at those charts. >> david very quickly before we get to the decision 20 to $25 billion, more aggressive taper what would that do to the markets? >> that would upset the market. i think that would cause the stock market certainly to fall.

i think -- i'm not sure what it would do to the bond market. i could flip either way. negative for stocks. i don't expect them to do that. why would they upset the card. they're getting into enough trouble in terms of the communications strategies. >> okay. here we go. federal reserve decision. >> no taper. the federal reserve did not taper. $40 billion per month in mortgage backed securities $45 billion in treasuryies will continue to be purchased. the fed says taking into account fiscal restraint they see improvement in the economy but decided to await more evidence that progress will be sustained before adjusting the purchases. asset purchases the fed said however are not on a preset course. the fed will reinvest principle and roll over treasuries that mature mature. downside risks have deminished since the fall tightening financial conditions observed in