30% to almost 7 million bucks. the number of sales also increasing 26% year to date. now, let's take a look at what you get for your money. this two-story ocean front property, that was the most expensive sale in the quarter for $11 million. there are some signs of caution here, guys. inventory in the luxury space more than doubled in the quarter over a year ago. a lot more houses for sale. one of the mansions that's still on the market, guys, this 12 bedroom, ten acre south hampton estate. the price? 45 million bucks. things looking definitely a little bubbly out there, guys. >> thank you so much, robert frank. thanks for watching "street signs." going to be a secret location tomorrow. >> shh. secret location tomorrow. in amagansett at that house. hi, everybody. welcome to the "closing bell." i'm maria bartiromo coming to you from the ubs wealth management conference in new york city. stocks back in rally mode today

after a setback yesterday. hello, tyler. >> shares late in the nasdaq higher as activist investor carl icahn increases his stake in the company, steps up his effort to get ceo tim cook to launch $150 billion stock buyback. does icahn really own enough shares to get his way? we will talk about that and more. >> where is the growth? we are looking at growth and the economy, coming up. when i talk to former council on economic adviser larry summers. where he sees the u.s. and global economies headed as well as discuss some of the recent headlines out of the country's capital. >> meanwhile, maria, let's get you up to date on the markets. they are powering higher right now. the strindustrials up 113 pointt 15,526. about .75% higher. nasdaq moving up by 25 points. 3932. two-thirds of a percent. s&p 500 is at 1753.

up seven points or a little less than .5%. maria? >> not a bad showing today with that triple digit gain on the dow. bob pisani, what's behind this move? >> we've got strength in home depot and visa. those are helping the dow. when you've got four of the five biggest s&p 500 stocks on the upside, it's easy for the s&p to be up. take a look. apple and exxon. boy, they're huge weightings. one and two. microsoft is three. berkshire is five. you've got all of those doing well. no wonder the s&p is moving to the upside. consumer discretionary has been strong all day on earnings reports. hotels are strong. starwood had a great report. occupisy rates at all time highs in north america. revenue per available room increased nicely, nearly 7%. home builders are strong. another consumer discretionary group. pulte beat. orders were below expectations but they're ignoring that. mi homes also a very good report. order up nicely for them. elsewhere, take a look at some other groups. exxon is having a good day. oil equipment companies are not. cameron had poor guidance. diamond offshore had revenues a

little lower than expected here. these equipment companies are having a tough time so far this year. same with some of the refiners if you look. price of gasoline is dropping faster than the price of oil. this is a big problem. because it means the refiners, their margins get hurt. look at some of these refiners today. exxon is going to be reporting next week. they're going to have problems, of course, growing. that'll be october 31st. next hour, we're halfway through earnings season. i'll have a scorecard about who's winning and losing. that's in the next hour. back to you. joining us now on our closing bell exchange rick reider from blackrock. greg sarian. peter anderson. jim lowell. let me start with carl icahn who wrote the letter to tim cook today about what he wants to see from the company. the stock jumped about 1% on the letter. what do you think? does he have this much influence on apple to ask for such a big buyback? how do you think cook should

respond? jim, let's kick it off with you. >> i think it's healthy for apple to be challenged in the way that icahn is doing. i don't think he has the clout, certainly not in terms of voting. half of 1% is his potential ownership stake. the reality on the ground is i would trust that tim cook and his team to figure out the best way to allocate the capital going forward. i think icahn's window is between one and three years for return on the investment. i'm looking at apple as a long-term investor. but i would say that inside of the fidelity fund universe, contra fund, one of the early adopters of apple started trimming its stake by almost a third back in mid-summer. so fund managers that i track and rank are certainly looking at apple with a lot of questions that maybe icahn has an answer to. >> peter anderson, how do you see it? >> peter, i was going to ask you a question. i guess mr. icahn mostly is grumbling over the fact that apple has so much cash. $150 billion. he wants them to put it to use. he said in the interview today, if i wanted to buy a bank, i'd

buy a bank. not apple. but might not apple be better off in the long run putting more of that capital to use doing what it seems to do best, and that is innovate? >> well, it's a complicated question. it's a simple question he's asked. in fact, when you look at the proposal, you could put it down on a white board. it's about two or three lines. anybody from a first year mba program could analyze that question. the real matter is, does apple have a process in place to handle any shareholder inquiry? i disagree with the earlier speaker in terms of weighting the gravity of the situation by how much mr. icahn owns. technically, if you own one share of apple stock, you have the ability to go in there and question the company. and if this goes to a proxy contest, my research has shown that usually the incumbent loses. so you want to at all costs avoid proxy contests. and kind of settle this out of court, so to speak.

so the long winded answer is, i think that apple does absolutely have other alternatives. i think it's short term to do the buyback. but far be it for me to reason that. it's upon apple to have a process in place to think through all of this and come back and communicate quickly to the marketplace before this thing gets out of control. >> yeah. i mean, carl icahn, as you heard, he was on earlier with scott wapner. want to get your take, greg. want you to weigh in here on the possibility of a proxy fight here. listen to this. >> i think we would test and see how the shareholders feel and if we should do a proxy fight. and we would judge -- judge that at that time. >> apple -- >> greg, what's your take on all this? >> yeah. apple's had a very impressive history, maria and tyler, of innovation. just tuesday they announced upgrades and changes, enhancements in their ipad and their successful macbook

products. our view is tim cook and his team has had a great track record executing on their strategy. we do not believe they're going to be pushed around by carl icahn. and we view their outlook very positively going forward on apple stock. >> rick, you spend most of your time on the fixed income side of the -- of companies and the capital structure. that means you're very familiar with capital structure. so talk to me about the advisability of borrowing to do what mr. icahn says. and if what mr. icahn is as simple as what peter describes, it does seem pretty simple, why doesn't every company do it? >> i think more and more companies are going to do it, tyler. i think we're in this part of what qe does, it allows companies to finance at incredibly distorted levels. and what's happening, i think you're going to see over -- certainly over the next period of weeks and months is that companies -- especially at the front end of the curve pretty darn close to zero after tax. more and more companies unquestionably will take advantage of it. >> let's move on to the broader

market, rick. we've got a big rally in stocks right here. what's your recommendation in terms of fixed income? for the longest time we've been hearing stay away with rates at these levels. >> the thing that's pretty amazing at this conference, all people want to talk about is the equity market. people have a strong feeling about the equity market. what do i do with fixed income allocation. you're seeing a big movement. the strategic income fund, people are trying to diversify away from potential rate risk. everybody understands you're distorting rates to levels that be aberrational and probably keeps going for a period of time given the fact the fed's not tapering at this point. so people are thinking about what does it mean? what happens in may, june, how do i think about that going forward? >> what do you do? >> diversify. take away some of that rate sensitivity in your portfolio. we're going through a period now, you can ride it for a little bit of time. then think about it differently. think about how you get income at different parts of the world. how do you get income from different assets. things like how do commercial mortgages get you income without as much duration. >> peter, sticking with the idea of the broader market, interest

rates have come down about a quarter point in the past few weeks. the price of oil has come down. they're applauding back here for those two facts. the interest rates have come down. and we punted at least for two months or three months the troubles in washington. does that mean all clear for stocks? >> well, you know, i think that it's just a cyclical thing, tyler. it's all clear for stocks until it won't be. which will be in january when we have to revisit this thing all over again. and i'm treating it as kind of a cyclical backdrop now in picking the best stocks you can. i don't think it's going to go away for some time, this cyclicality of the debt ceiling, then pushing it further down the calendar. we just have to learn to live with that as investors. i will still say eve nn this environment, there have been some very, very good results. we're halfway through earnings season right now. and the portfolio i run, i'm

very happy with the results so far. about half the companies in the portfolio have reported. more than half of them have a surprise in earnings. i think that's a pretty good fortune predictor in terms of how things are going to go through, say, the fourth quarter and beyond. >> do you worry -- given the government shutdown, given the economy, sort of bumping along the bottom, are we entering the fourth quarter weaker than we would have? >> well, when you ask somebody like me, you know, i'm looking at individual stocks. so i'm almost immune from just general comments about, say, the s&p 500. in a portfolio of 20, 25 stocks, most of them are doing very, very well. so from my viewpoint, i'm very optimistic. so it really is that trite

phrase, a stock picker's market, even more than ever. there are still opportunities out there. i think that's what viewers have to realize. is that wholesale, you might be able to make some general comments. but when you start looking with a magnifying glass at some of these things, there are still some optimistic situations out there. and i continue to remain optimistic. i know i've been optimistic probably since you've first had me on this program. >> well, you've been right. >> even with low interest rates. well, even with low interest rates. when we talked a little bit earlier about it, capital structure is a great thing to have right now. if it's encouraging companies to borrow more, there are plenty of companies out there that i would argue are under levered. when you're underlevered there's a whole theory about being underlevered. that's not the optimistic -- the optimal capital structure. and that there's a balance between debt and equity that you should have. so i think when you have a half full perspective of things in a

glass, i think the glass looks pretty good. >> mm-hmm. >> you mentioned -- >> jim, you want to jump in? yeah. >> sure. i mean, what i would say is that if we get worse news, and we probably do enter the fourth quarter weaker than wanted forecast due to the debt ceiling default debate. the reality is that bad news is good news. we know with yellen likely to be confirmed as the new chairperson, we've got a safety net under this economy that's, i think, net good. not just for u.s. stocks, but for global stocks. we've begun to see a turnaround off of a floor inside of the euro zone in particular. i think that bodes well. today's report out of ford clearly being driven higher in terms of what it's able to sell, not just based on u.s. sales, not just based on the housing recovery, truck related sales, but also seeing some improvements in asia and in europe. so i think we are priced for bad news, but we've got phenomenal safety net that i think will continue to catch this market

and bounce it higher as we go forward. >> all righty, folks. we've got to leave it. >> thanks, everybody. >> got to leave it there. thanks very much. maria? see you soon, guys. thank you very much. we have about 45 minutes before the closing bell sounds for the day. a market that is higher today. up 100 plus points on the dow. the saying is that america runs on dunkin. but maybe the better way to put it is that dunkin runs on america. u.s. sales surging in the latest quarter. find out what's driving the growth when we speak to dunkin brands ceo nigel travis. >> also ahead, talking to larry summers. don't miss that interview. microsoft, amazon, zynga, all set to report after the bell. analysis of the earnings trifecta later on the "closing bell." tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 trading inspires your life.

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welcome back. you are probably familiar with the phrase america runs on dunkin. that certainly appears to be true. u.s. sales were up better than 4% in the past quarter, pushing profit north of 36%. the rest of the world not running as well. international sales a bit weaker, down 1.5%. >> let's break down the numbers with the man in charge at dunkin brands, nigel travis. good to have you with us. thanks for the doughnuts and coffee you sent over. what's the hotter item here in the u.s.? is it the coffee or the doughnuts? are either of them hot enough to help you double your store count as i read you intend to over the next few years? >> well, tyler, it's great to be back. and what i would say is it's really down to three things. it's our coffee, and that's not only our hot coffee, but it's our iced coffee as well. our flavored coffee did very well in the quarter. it's doughnuts. we had a great quarter on doughnuts. the thing that most people miss is the middle part. which is our sandwiches. our sandwiches really boomed.

both our breakfast sandwiches in the morning, our afternoon sandwiches did really well. and our whole approach to giving you a beverage and food meeting our snacking and breakfast day parts i think was a huge success. >> so are you seeing the consumer spend up these days, nigel? i mean, before we start offering, you know, sort of reasons in terms of why your business is so strong, i mean, you've got flavored coffee drinks, sandwiches. we'll get into that in a moment. how would you characterize the average consumer today? >> well, the consumer seems to have done very well during the quarter. but i put that down to the fact that we're about value. maria, you and i have talked before about the fact that we seem to do very well in good times and bad times. but one message i think i would put out there is i think the consumer would be in an even better situation if we could get a resolution to everything in washington. the stop, go, stop, go, is not very good for the economy.

we think there has to be some kind of resolution with all the senators and congressmen coming together in the next two months. let's get some consistency. something like simpson/bowles. something like that. because i think that will give us the stability where the economy can really move on a sustained basis. >> you'd like to see a plan, anybody's plan, basically, is what i'm hearing you say, that you think would unleash the consumer and thereby unleash your business and america's business more broadly. right? >> absolutely. we want certainty. we want consistency. and whether revenue goes up some, whether some cuts in some entitlements, i don't really mind. but let's have a plan. i think any plan is better than the constant stop, start, stop, start that we've been seeing. >> well, let me ask you about some of the things that some of your competitors are doing. so free wi-fi has proven successful for starbucks. basically the stay as long as you can strategy. is that something you're considering, just to get bodies in there to stay all day long?

that's something they certainly are celebrating over at starbucks. >> yeah. i would actually say that they were first. but we've come in. we've got faster speed as far as we can measure than they have. we have it in just about every one of our stores. that's something that's already there, maria. i think in support of our pm snacking strategy, wi-fi has been very -- >> i guess we just lost, maria, nigel there. the shot kind of froze as he was talking about the pm snacking strategy. we're not going to get him back, alas, we'll just have to eat the doughnuts maria. we'll take a quick break, huh? >> we don't have any of those doughnuts and coffee here at this ubs conference. >> they just didn't know you were there. >> enjoy, tyler. >> they didn't know you were there. i'll save some for you. >> okay. we got the dow up 102. up next, he called french workers lazy right here on

closing bell earlier this year. why is titan international ceo maurice taylor now closing in on a deal to acquire a french fire maker plant where he says employees really only work for three hours a day? he'll join us to tell us what's changed. gold prices have plunged 20% this year. coming up, find out how that's impacting the gold miners when we exclusively speak to the ceo of goldcorp. customer erin swenson ordered shoes from us online but they didn't fit. customer's not happy, i'm not happy. sales go down, i'm not happy. merch comes back, i'm not happy. use ups. they make returns easy. unhappy customer becomes happy customer. then, repeat customer. easy returns, i'm happy. repeat customers, i'm happy. sales go up, i'm happy. i ordered another pair. i'm happy. (both) i'm happy. i'm happy. happy. happy.

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welcome back. last time he was on our program,

titan international ceo said the french workers are lazy and overpaid. he also wrote this in a letter addressed to the french industry minister. >> with us, maria, is maurice taylor, chairman and ceo of titan international. welcome, mr. taylor. welcome back. last time you were here you had some strong words about the french and their work habits and that you want not buy a factory in that country. it turns out you're still working on a deal over there to buy a factory. what happened? what changed? >> well, good afternoon. and, number one, we have a factory there. so it's not that we're new. it's just that at that facility that we were looking at, what i said was what i seen and the problems that our friends at goodyear had. so this last august, i got requested to come over to meet with the minister.

he had a plan. and i went over. i met with him. nice young fellow. very tall guy. and i told him the simple facts. that we would be interested if they could straighten up the problems with the cgt union over there. because they've got to go to settlement with goodyear. the plant is owned by goodyear. the employees are goodyear. they've got to make a settlement with goodyear. then we would consider moving forward. and that's then what happened. it got leaked out. and i was sitting here, and he's had a few interviews over there. and i wish him the best with that union he has over there. so that's really the -- >> what changed, then? what changed specifically? because there are a number of companies out there who -- by the way, agreed with your initial assessment. now, the french industry minister who we just saw his

picture, arnaud montebourg called your comments as extremist as they are insulting. yet you said obviously you had a meeting with him. sat down with him. what did he do to change your mind? because i think many other companies that are watching right now would like to know that there is, in fact, a change happening in france. is there? >> i -- i think, you know, it's like our own country, maria. you know, politicians say one thing. and they're trying to, you know, move in a different direction. but they move a little slow. i mean, the situation is, is there's a lot of unemployment. there's no question they have laws there. and our other plant in france, you know, it's a seven-hour workday. they get an hour for lunch and breaks. but they work real well for the other six. there's some positives.

there's some negatives. i personally believe that if you can take this cgt and remove the optic obstacles that are there, the employees then would have the opportunity, and i believe they would work. and i believe we could turn it around. we've got quite a history of taking things that other people couldn't make work and making them work. >> all right. >> so we just closed down one up -- interesting, in russia. the thing that no one really understood is when you go in, there's one thing that you don't find in a country like russia. there's no salespeople. because they were raised with the government making all the decisions. >> right. >> sometimes, you know, there's some great opportunities. and we expect to be a global player. >> good to have you on the

program. mr. taylor, thanks very much. >> thank you. you have a great day. >> and to you. we'll keep watching that development at titan. meanwhile, he is one of the banking industry's most feared regulators. yet you've probably never heard of him. kayla tausche just sat down exclusively with the man who's levied billions in fines against the big banks and even knocked jamie dimon out of one of his roles at jpmorgan. kayla, over to you. >> the most feared regulator has a pretty simple mission. to keep the banking industry safe and sound. but tom curry took the helm add comp controller of the currency just over a year ago and he's bulking up the agency's efforts to do just that. today they proposed bank hold 30 days worth of liquidity in case of another credit crunch. later this year he'll roll out stricter guidelines for bank's corporate governance, risk management and auditing that the occ will be enforecing on the ground. >> we think the bar should not be set at satisfactory in critical areas. we go on site to our exam program and evaluate those

institutions. whether or not they've met the standard of strong. and, going forward, if not, that really is a reflection on management's ability to manage the institution. >> management at jpmorgan chase have been under particular watch. the occ has chastised the bank for anti-money laundering controls and identity theft products and fined $300 million for the london wale loss. recently they asked dimon to step down at chairman of the banking sub sidsidiary at the institution. not all banks needed to make such a change. there could be more action from the occ over jpmorgan's relationship with bernie madoff. but all banks are keeping in close contact with this washington watchdog. extremely risk averse and hell bent on preventing another crisis. maria, back to you. >> thank you so much. >> kayla, thank you very much. the dow right now up about 103 points. s&p about seven.

nasdaq about 23. with about 30 minutes before the closing bell, maria. it's hard to argue the rollout of obama care has been anything but a debacle. coming up, michelle caruso-cabrera on whether it can be fixed. hot stock, cold profits. later on the "closing bell." americans take care of business. they always have. they always will. that's why you take charge of your future. your retirement. ♪ ameriprise advisors can help you like they've helped millions of others. listening, planning, working one on one. to help you retire your way... with confidence. that's what ameriprise financial does. that's what they can do with you. ameriprise financial. more within reach.

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some big earnings reports driving this market higher today. dominic chu will break them down. >> starting with ford which posted better than expected third quarter earnings and sales. analysts say an improving european market warrants a brighter outlook for the automaker. also pulte homes reporting third quarter profit that exceeded street forecasts on better than expected sales. the home builder did report a 17% drop in new orders compared to the same time a year ago. strong quarterly earnings for the generac company. sales were strong in the wake of hurricane sandy which hit a year ago. as a result the company raised its sales forecast for the entire year. also underarmour reported solid third quarter numbers. shares took a hit after the

athletic apparel maker's 2014 outlook hinted at a possible slowdown in growth. xerox earning 26 cents a share, beating estimates by a penny. the company warned that its current quarter forecast is well below street estimates. maria, tyler, back over to you. >> all right. thank you so much. we are in the final stretch of trading here. just about 25 minutes before the closing bell sounds for the day. we've got a market that is higher. dow industrial up 90 points. although off of the best levels of the day. >> maria, up next, the ceo of goldcorp. is going to tell us exclusively how the gold miner is dealing with lower selling prices and higher production costs. after the bell don't miss my one on one interview with former national economic director larry summers. did you know he was in line to head up a national bank? we're not talking about the fed. a lot to discuss with larry summers to find out which country had him at the top of its wish list. back in a moment.

welcome back. breaking news on fanny and freddy. diana olick with the story. >> loan limits will not drop at fannie and freddie. at least for now. federal regulators say they will keep them as they are through the middle of next year.

that's 417,000 in general. and 625,000 for higher priced markets. president obama had called on the federal housing finance agency, the conservator of the two, to lower loan limits in order to shrink their role in the market. fhfa acting director ed de marco says the timing is not right because lenders are too busy scrambling to comply with new regulations that take place january 1, quote, and that's enough. de marco is referring to rules from the consumer financial protection bureau requiring lenders to prove a borrower's ability to pay a loan. he says he will consider the limits again next month but will give at least six months' warning of any changes. he also says that all reps and warrants against defective loans from the housing crash will be completed by the end of this year. there's more online. realtycheck.cnbc.com. maria? >> all right. thank you so much, diana. >> thank you, diana. it's a tale of two commodities, today. gold heading higher. oil prices heading lower.

sharon epperson has all the details for us. >> hi, tyler. we've seen a little bit of a mixed picture here in the oil market with brent crude a little lower and u.s. oil prices, after hitting a four month low in the previous session and actually even lower earlier this morning, they actually rallied and finished just a little bit higher at the close. keep in mind, though, the inventory story is still a big one for u.s. crude oil. that has been pressuring prices and will likely continue to do so, traders say. the other side of the coin is what has happened, as you said, in the gold market. gold prices rallying today to above the 1350 level. another psychological level traders are watching. many saying there's more of a bullish tone now to the gold market now that it looks like perhaps we'd see a tapering far later than had been thought just a few weeks ago. that may continue to keep some momentum in the gold price. back to you guys. >> all right. thank you so much. gold shining bright today. not only in the market, but also for miner goldcorp. the company reporting third quarter earnings that beat analyst expectations.

the stock up as you can see on this chart. almost 4% on the session. >> maria, in a cnbc exclusive we're joined by chuck jeannes. let me start by asking, you had a large writedown in the quarter. obviously you have to contend with lower gold prices. are the writedowns behind you? how are you dealing with the lower gold prices? >> well, thanks for having me on. yeah. the noncash charge in the quarter was associated with retro active tax that was applied at one of our mines in the dominican republic. so certainly don't expect any more of that. actually, we saw a very strong cost performance at 9 of 11 of our mines. the costs were down quarter on quarter. that's how we deal with the lower gold price. we can't control the gold price. and so we focus on what we can control. and that's the cost of producing

our product. the net result for us in the quarter was an increased margin. >> so can you tell us where the demand is is right now? where are you seeing the demand for gold? >> well, maria, it's very interesting. because we had the big drop in the etf holdings back in april. and the selloff in gold in what i would term the investment or financial market. where all that gold went was directly to asia. and we saw tremendous buying and demand across china, india and other parts of asia. to the point that there were 20 and 30, $40 premiums being paid on the shanghai gold exchange for gold. and so that's where the demand has come. and i think that trend is very sustainable as we see a growing middle class in china and other emerging countries in asia. it's a cultural affinity that isn't going to end any time

soon. >> mr. jeannes, yesterday the ceo of cater piller, in talking about his earnings and his company obviously very separate from yours. different line of business. he talked about the strains that he saw affecting the mining industry broadly. not specifically gold. but mining at large. how do you see the mining business globally, and do you care to react to anything that mr. oberhelman said yesterday about the health of the long term mining business? >> i did see that interview. and, you know, i think that i would agree with the general comments that we have had, as an industry, to go back and rethink our capital investment programs in light of the kind of inflation that we've seen in capital and operating costs over the past several years, what happened is everybody was building new mines at the same time. that drove up costs. so now we're looking at it with a much more disciplined.

each time we buy a new truck, we're making sure there's a strong return on that investment. and so i know for our company, that means that our capital expenditures have come down. and we'll be much more rigorous in the way we allocate that capital going forward. >> so where are you seeing the opportunity in the world today? >> well, we're very excited. we're building three new mines right now. one in argentina, one in quebec and one in ontario. so our company has what i would call kind of a built-in growth profile as we see our gold production increase. and at the same time, our costs are coming down as a result of a lot of these cost containment efforts that i talked about. so we like the countries that we're in. we're weighted towards north america with a lot of production in canada, mexico, the u.s. but also throughout the americas. argentina, guatemala, the dominican republic, chile. a lot of opportunity for growth. you know, we continue to look at

how we fill that pipline in down the road. >> you're a canada based company. i imagine you have some views from the north of what's been going on in our government here in the u.s. do you have any perspectives about -- about that? and how that might be affecting your business or your customers? >> well, i -- i'm actually american, living in canada. i think about what's gone on with the government shutdown focused on our business in terms of the impact on the gold price. and i think it was mentioned in the lead-in to the piece about how that probably contributed, along with some weaker than expected statistics on labor statistics, to an expectation that quantitative easing may last longer. the tapering may be pushed out. that, of course, is positive for gold. so in the short term, it's been beneficial for my company. longer term, i'd certainly like to see some better cooperation

in washington. >> all right. mr. jeannes, thank you very much for being with us and continued good luck to you. right now we've got about 16 minutes before the closing bell. the dow is pulling back just a little bit. up about 87 points. the s&p has lost a little steam, too. and so has nasdaq. maria? this market is higher for five out of the last six trading sessions. up next, a pair of money manages will tell us where they still see buying opportunities. back in a moment. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 trading inspires your life. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 life inspires your trading. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 where others see fads... tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 ...you see opportunities. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 at schwab, we're here to help tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 turn inspiration into action. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 we have intuitive platforms tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 to help you discover what's trending.

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we are about ten minutes away from the close. joining us to help break down today's market action, randy bateman and bob gelfon from mqs management. welcome to you gone. mr. gelfon. the market by any standard has had a very nice stretch over the past few months and this year. is the economy strong enough to support the market at these prices? >> i think what's really happening is that the economy is not really that strong. it's positive, but not running like gang busters. fed policy is, of course, very, very easy and looks to stay that way for as far as the eye can see. i think that's been the big push behind the stock market gains recently. >> randy, what do you think? when you look at a market that's

obviously been, you know, boosted by the fed action, tapering is probably off the table until next year, do you want to buy into it even though earnings may not be exactly where you think they will be? as bob just said, we're looking at weaker -- a weaker than expected economy? >> yeah. if you look at what's taken place this past year, we've had a significant amount of multiple expansion. about 70% or so of what has taken place in performance of this market. solely as a result of the fed being involved. going into 2014, however, we're looking at single digit profits. we're looking at productivity starting to slide a little bit. we're looking at the labor force being a little bit slower. so we think there's going to be some significant headwinds. we will not have multiple expansion in 2014. the chances of that are about the same as finding queen elizabeth at a tattoo parlor. >> that's a frightening thought, there.

let me go back to you, mr. gelfond, if i might. some of the momentum stocks have started to pull back. i'm thinking of netflix. i'm thinking of priceline and several others. is that suggestive to you that the market is maybe going through some first tremors? and if the fed pulls out at some point next year, do you think the market can stay at these levels? >> unless we see really strong economic growth coming, and unfortunately it doesn't seem to be in the cards, any pullback by the fed would have a strong downward effect on the market. but i don't think that's going to happen. yellen is probably even going to be more dovish than bernanke, who's already fairly dovish to begin with. i think the taper isn't in the cards any time soon. and they're more likely to stay easy even longer than expectations are right now. >> are you worried about valuations? how does this market feel to you in terms of valuation? >> well, when you have interest

rates at almost zero, it's almost hard to quantify what the right valuation is. it's really what makes it sort of scary. although things look very strong now and you're in a situation where you're playing with dynamite, the fed is, by keeping things so easy for so long. so, you know, we certainly, as we've seen in other takeoffs in the market, we could see much, much higher valuations. but it could also be a house of cards. it's hard to say when it could end. but unless we see strong economic growth, which we're not seeing, there could be troubles ahead. >> randy, if i extrapolate from what you said, which is that this year most of the growth we've seen, about 75% of it, has been from multiple expansion, and you don't expect that to persist into 2014, then you're basically left with the dividend payment and earnings growth, which would suggest to me that best case next year you get maybe a 5% year? >> right. could very well be. mid-single digit territory seems

to be a valuation that could be out there. we're looking at pe multiples currently a little higher than their normalized historical standard. we're looking at what's probably going to be a reversion to the mean in profit margins. if that's the case, we've got extraordinarily high profit margins. i think those will be curtailed somewhat and that growth will be suspended. but the fed's always going to be the 900 pound gorilla in the office. what they do has been so strong and so powerful, and it's driven so much in terms of this equity market that we'll just have to wait and see if the bond vigilantes, whether they come from domestic or international sources, will have something to say about where we continue this massive stimulus effort. >> bob, what do you think? what kind of a fourth quarter in 2014 are you expecting for the market and the economy? >> in 2014 or 2013? certainly this year, you know, the impetus is probably to go higher. next year, i don't have a clear

view on that. certainly it's not just the fed, but central banks around the world with very easy policy. there's a lot of head winds in terms of continuing increase in regulations. you know, taxes are still relatively high. i think those are going to be big headwinds. and it's going to be hard for the economy to overcome that, but still doesn't mean that it's going to have to hit the stock market as long as the bond market and the dollar are relatively comfortable with the fed's position. >> randy, how do you factor dysfunctional politics in washington into your outlook? or your investing? >> dysfunctional anything is not something that you want to have. uncertainty is always negative. and the way that investors perceive things. politics is politics. you have to deal with them. you have to try to understand. particularly the unintended consequences. you know, you looked at what happened after the sar banes oxley law. we had a lot of companies -- actually, the number of publicly traded companies has declined

every year since 1997. part of that is due to the sar banes. two major pieces of legislation that are going to have their own unintended consequences i think you're going to see probably some more mortgage e merger andn activity. more companies going private. >> we have to leave it there. you've left a thought in my head of queen elizabeth in a tattoo parlor. randy, thank you. bob gelfond, thanks to you as well. bob pisani will come back with the closing countdown. i'll see you back here tomorrow, maria. >> thanks so much. earnings from microsoft, amazon and zynga are minutes away. we've got an all star team standing by for instant analysis of the results. you're watching the "closing bell" on cnbc, first in business worldwide. bny mellon combines investment management & investment servicing,

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get real-time market scanning wherever you are with the mobile trader app. from td ameritrade. welcome back to the "closing bell." keep an eye on shares of tesla. they are up in the market so far but took a brief dip after reports that the state of california might be considering lowering the number of zero emission vehicle credits that tesla electric vehicles qualify for. that took a little bit of a hit on the stock. as you can see there, still up pretty heavily on the day. tesla shares certainly in know

kus -- focus as we head to the closing bell. >> dominic, two minutes to the closing bell. keith joining us from kuton, keith bliss. why are you bullish? >> it's hard not to be bullish. every time you've tried to short the market in the last 18 months you've gotten run over. despite a lot of people saying we're in a short term overbought mode, we just picked up a lot of momentum in the market the last six sessions based primarily on the brent and the overall u.s. market. we've seen the s&p can trade up to 1770 quickly. >> nice day for everything. fractional gains everywhere. no new highs. transports hitting a historic high. transports can move and drag the industrials along with it. >> absolutely. and a lot of the work that we do, transports is generally a leader for the s&p and the dow. it will drag it higher. transports, of course, are moving on favorable oil prices and other things in the energy complex.

again, another good sign for us to think short term we're bullish. >> today is the halfway mark for earnings. about 50% through the s&p 500. thoughts on the scorecard here. put up the scorecard. once again we're seeing a situation where earnings are beating overall, 66%. you can put that up. 66% of the companies are beating. that's better than the historic average. but the problem has been what's going on on the revenue side. only 50% of the companies are beating on revenues. that's below the historic average. once again, we've got this problem. good news on earnings. but the revenues aren't coming in the way you want. >> from a stock trading perspective, what we really look at is that top line revenue number. a lot of our clients do as well. how long can they continue to engineer the eps to beat the analyst estimates, but as long as top line sales continue on their trajectory downward, not gaining as much on quarter on quarter basis, it's a little troubling sign. as some point the crows come home to roost on the engineering and eps number. >> they keep being able to do it. 3% earnings growth this quarter. roughly 3% revenue growth. they still manage to just eke

out these little fwans here. the problem, of course, it's at the expense of hiring to a lot of extent, jetting the productivity gains, just not getting the hiring. thank you very much, keith. there's the closing bell. ringing the bell at the new york stock exchange, executives at fidelity investments introducing some new etf products today. "closing bell" with maria bartiromo is coming next. and it is 4:00 on wall street. do you know where your money is? hi, everybody. welcome back to the "closing bell." i'm maria bartiromo today coming to you from the ubs wealth management conference in new york city. market back in rally mode today. mo money moving once again into equities. d dow jones industrial average finishing just off the high of the day. standard & poors 500 index picking up 5 2/3 points. about one-third of