marked by maybe not such great performance. >> well, it seems to be a good month. next month, of course, starts tomorrow. we'll see how november fares going into the rest of the year, tyler. >> folk, that will do it for this edition, halloween edition, of "power lunch." >> "street signs" begins right now. ♪ the music says it all. a scary but merry happy halloween to you. but is the most frightening thing right now the valuation of the stock market, or is the exuberance rational this time? a big debate ahead. we're going to ask the ceo of "the new york times" if you'll have an actual newspaper to read in five years. why facebook may have a teen problem but nobody seems to care. plus, mandy, the top five turnaround towns in america. first, tell us what these markets are doing. >> i will indeed. hello, everybody. stocks are swinging between gains and losses today in the aftermath of the fed. with the dow and the s&p trying to avoid their first two-day

losing streak in three weeks. but we begin with breaking news now. and it is on google. josh lipton, what is the news? >> reporter: yeah, mandy, here in san francisco, google just announcing its latest and greatest smartphone, the nexus 5. let me give you the specs. five-inch display, weighs 130 grams, so pretty light, running a qualcomm snapdragon processor means it's the most powerful yet. when you play around with it, it has an interesting feel, the back and sides almost feel kind of silky. it has an improved camera, a smarter phone dialer. the price, $349 without a contract. it's available today on google play in ten country accident available at sprint, t-mobile, amazon and best buy in the coming weeks. now, the phone is going to be powered by kit kat, new operating system. these versions are alphabetical and named after desserts. you had ice cream sand, jelly

bean, now kit kat. the point was trying to expand android's footprint. kit kat is actually using less memory than jelly bean. it means it's a new operating system, but it can run on entry-level phones. also a new cloud storage framework, new wireless printer framework. the broad goal here, google says, expand that reach to the next 1 billion smartphone users. guys, back to you. >> wow! i think -- good report, josh. one other thought i had is that the names are just silly. we used to get excited about putting men on the moon. now it's like ooh, we shaved a few grams off the jelly bean. any thought on that? >> listen, we always have the alphabetical. there were leaks that kitkat was coming. a press event, it was a bunch of tech journalists. i think what they're really trying to do, and google's android man was saying the point here, we want to keep expanding that footprint. if you look at that smartphone operating system market as of the second quarter, according to

idc, android still is the dominant share. they want to keep growing that. if you can reduce the memory, get more people on that system, maybe you have the purpose there is resolved. >> hot new pickup line. kitkat or jelly bean, baby? josh, thank you. if you didn't tune in yesterday, "a," shame on you. "b," here's what famed inskr ed bill gross told us. >> i think the markets are bubb bubbly. bond prices, stock prices. steve liesman has pointed out profit margins are publicly. you know, to the extent that any of them can be sustained, i guess, is the ultimate test in terms of tapering or, you know, the purchases by the fed in terms of adding to their balance sheet. but yes, slightly bubbly. >> slightly bubbly. so is it time to take the money and run after what has already been a very good year for stocks? let's welcome in president of shri kumar and jonathan, chief

u.s. market strategist at rbs capital markets. jonathan, on price to earnings, price to sales, price to book or any other metric out there, using the dow or s&p, whatever you want, are stocks in a bubble territory? >> i don't think they're even close. the mistake people make is they see a stock market's up and then they assume that's expensive and you have to look at where the earnings, where are they going, how is it compared to your alternatives which is bonds with interest rates down this low. and i don't see stocks at something like a 14.5 times multiple as being problematic at all. >> what would make you see the warning signs that we would be close to bubble behavior? >> i mean, first, the only thing which really causes bubbles is some unbelievable exuberance and excitement. and you've had, for the last ten years, the public has not been in the stock market really since the internet bubble. we've seen them getting back in, but really only talking about the beginning of this year. ceos, m&a activity is weak. cap ex spending is weak.

so the makings of a bubble are just not there in terms of this excitement. >> do you disagree? >> i disagree with that, mandy. if you look at the bubbles of the late 1990s with the internet stocks, they didn't see the bubble until the bubble burst. nobody said -- there were companies with no earnings. nasdaq substantially higher value in 1999 than it is even today 14 years later. take the case of what happened to housing in 2005/2006. house prices can only go one way, and that's upward. we all believed it. so it seems to me that equities have been going up for five years. the economy has not recovered. quantitative easing continues on an ongoing basis. the federal reserve essentially says that the economic growth outlook is somewhat better. but they have not reduced qe. it's continuing. all of those to me suggest a bubble both in the bond market and in the equity market. the question is when is the bubble going to burst? >> and also how big the bursting

of the bubble would be. but i'm going to make fun of my own first question because when we talk about valuations, it's kind of silly to even talk about trailing earnings when if the economy next year, jonathan, grows at 3%, stocks are probably wildly undervalued. if the economy grows at 1%, stocks are probably grossly overvalued. >> i mean, i think there's two things. one is if the economy grows a little bit slower, you actually have interest rates are likely to weaken up a little bit. and then stocks may actually look more attractive. the real question is what are you paying for a dollar of earnings compared to a cash flow someplace else? but to sri's point, you were talking about, you know, real estate or the internet bubble. we were paying 30 times multiples on the internet on companies that were fake companies, that didn't have real underlying earnings. you don't have that in the s&p today. there's some high flyers, but they just don't have the characteristics. when you take a cab going into new york city and a taxi driver tells you he's flipping apartments and making money, that's a bubble.

i'm not hearing that talk on stocks and bopds. >> a lot of retailers have not participated. but does that mean there's not a bubble? you say both stocks and bonds are in a bubble. you don't want to put a timing on it. that's a very difficult thing. but you said how big is the popping going to be? soft deflation or is it a bang? >> right. i think, mandy, your and brian's questions are spot on. >> that's why we have you on the show. >> thank you. >> because you say stuff like that. >> we've formed a mutual admiration. >> you vindicate our questions. >> the longer you postpone the bubble bursting, the bigger the burst is going to be. i wish the fed had stopped qe sometime in 2009. a qe1 in 2008, entering the fifth anniversary. we haven't reduced it. the bubble bursting would have been relatively small in a'09/'10 and we would be going on to further growth. if you don't do that, i expect no tapering, by the way, in

2014. >> no tapering next year. >> if you have done it for five year, why not for six? why not for seven? >> you sound like lebron james. not five, not six, not seven. >> the point being that the fed is going to be forced into doing something by the market rather than the fed. >> last comment, jonathan, quick. >> i think the fed is going to have to taper in the next 18 months. but they have not been able to get the economy growing much past 2% over the last couple of years. they've not been able to have the influence they want. so what are they doing? they're talking up the stock market. as long as they keep doing that, it's hard to see how this is going to burst. and so it's a very supportive environment. >> we've got to leave it there. sri and jonathan, thank you so much for joining us today. let's look at what gold prices are doing. certainly no bubble there. in fact, they're falling after posting a two-week high earlier yesterday. we go to sharon epperson with more. lady in red. >> reporter: mandy, it is all about the fed and when they will

start tapering. a lot of traders are still parsing through the fed's statement from yesterday. we are looking at a continuation of the decline. and part of that is due to some key technical levels. the inability of gold to stay above the 1355 level just a few days ago. and the fact that it already had run up about 100 bucks just in two weeks' time. now we're seeing that momentum back in the gold market. we're also watching what's happening in the oil market. many traders will be following very carefully any development about iran over the next several days as they go into the next round of nuclear talks at the end of this week. and today we're hearing that the obama administration is now pressing for a delay in another round of sanctions against iran, waiting to see what they're going to do next with their nuclear program. back to you. >> sharon, thank you very much. well, forget baba o'reilly. has facebook really become a teenage wasteland? and the faa loosening the rules for electronics on a plane. now, are we just one step closer to being able to use our cell phones? why that could be, i think, the worst idea ever. clients are always learning more

to make their money do more. (ann) to help me plan my next move, i take scottrade's free, in-branch seminars... plus, their live webinars. i use daily market commentary to improve my strategy. and my local scottrade office guides my learning every step of the way. because they know i don't trade like everybody. i trade like me. i'm with scottrade. (announcer) ranked highest in investor satisfaction with self-directed services by j.d. power and associates.

facebook shares up by nearly 5%, but only after the social network actually scared some investors on its earnings call yesterday. there was some confusion over whether teens are logging off facebook for good. julia boorstin, what happened?

>> well, mandy, facebook cfo played into investors' worst fears that facebook is losing its cool factor with teens. saying this on the earnings call. >> our best announcement on youth engagement in the u.s. reveals usage among u.s. teens overall was stable from q2 to q3. but we did see a decrease in daily users specifically among younger teens. >> this comment and another one facebook made saying it won't significantly increase its advertising load, erased a 16% gain in after-hours trading on better than expected results. this despite the fact that analysts on the earnings call didn't seem to care and didn't ask a single question, but facebook's potential teen problem. now, he tries to downplay the teen use decrease but didn't explain that it does not include popular service instagram. he also didn't stress that the 13 and 14-year-olds he's talking about are only in the u.s. market which is responsible for

just less than one-thififth of facebook's daily traffic. concerns about u.s. teens overshadowing much better than expected results speaks to questions about whether facebook can maintain its rapid rise that we have seen over the past quarter. mandy? >> julia, thank you very much for that. where does facebook go from here? let's bring in lou hearner. i thought we knew about this for a little while now. why is it such a shock to the market that teens are using facebook less? >> yeah, i think we have known about this for a while, so i'm actually a little surprised by the market's reaction. at the end of the day, every kid that's on facebook, it turns, guess what? their mom and grandmother is on facebook. >> that is so uncool, right? >> it is uncool. but facebook has been uncool for a long time now. but it went from being cool to being a utility. and as he said on the, teens are still going on there, if not quite as much every single day, they're still using it, still utility, it's really still the only place where they can connect with all of their friends.

>> i think something, though, lou, that david said that didn't get a lot of attention which is the biggest concern to me. quote, youth engagement is hard to gauge because self-reported data is unreliable. basically the cfo said people are lying about their age. doesn't that make it a little more difficult? hi, i'm 12. i'm actually 8. >> that's been a problem for a long time for facebook. at the end of the day, advertisers have a good sense of who they're reaching by the reaction that they're getting from the advertising that they're doing on facebook. and in my mind, the biggest most important metric for facebook is the daily active users as a percentage of monthly active users. and that number continues to climb. it went up to 61.2% in the last quarter from 60.5% the previous quarter, and that shows -- they're gaining from the mobile use because the more people who are on mobile, the more people who are on every single day, and that's all positive for facebook. >> yeah, the focus on the mobile strategy finally paying off. lou, i want to ask you, if teens

are using facebook less, what are they using more? twitter? >> they're not really going to twitter. certainly not here in the u.s. they're going to more messaging apps like snap chat or we chat. which are both very cool. both have massive audiences, actually, dramatically bigger than twitter. you know, what we do know for sure is that they'll be going to some new things in 6 and 12 months. >> lou, appreciate it, buddy. thank you very much for your time today. chat with you again soon. speaking of technology, the faa easing up rules on using electronics during a flight. this means you'll be able to listen to music or watch a movie during the entire flight. phil lebeau, why stop there? why just the music? why can't we text or send e-mails or snap chats or make calls? >> i think because the faa is saying, you know what? we still want people -- we want to be a little more safe than sorry in terms of sending any signals out from your phone while you're in flight. and here's essentially what the faa rules are.

and it comes down to this. the e-readers, the ipods, any games that you might have played in the past, those are going to be okay from start to finish. you don't have to turn those off. what is still banned, anything with cell service, sending out a signal. so you won't be able to text or send e-mails or make phone calls. that's still banned. here's the faa administrator talking about what he thinks you should do with your phone when flying. >> we want them to be in airplane mode. there is no safety problem. if it's not. but you're going to arrive at your destination with a dead phone. and i don't think anyone wants that. >> the faa says airlines should change their policies by the end of the year, although we've already heard from a couple delta and jetblue saying that they plan to do it much sooner than that. if the flight attendant asks you to turn off your device, you still must comply. so don't argue with them. it's ultimately their aircraft if they tell you you have to turn it off, you have to turn it off. by the way, i love this quote from the association of professional flight attendants. when talking about this new

change, they said "it's a win had-win. frankly, we're tired of feeling like halmon tors when it comes to this issue." i want to quickly show you shares of gogo as well as global eagle entertainment. both of these guys provide the wi-fi connectivity that many airlines use. and also, we talked about two airlines, delta and jetblue. they both said that they have filed the paperwork with the faa. this is their way of saying perhaps much sooner than the end of the year, guys, you'll be able to keep the e-reader open, listen to your music, do whatever you want. >> cool. and they can teach us how to stop using seat belts because none of us have been in a car. phil, stay with us. bring in eamon javers. you're a high roller. in fact, you've been on air force one, the president's plane, right? you can do whatever you want with a cell phone on that plane. >> yeah. i mean, that's what's amazing about this. the president's plane is probably the most secure aircraft in the world. i've only flown on it "calm a c

of times, but they do not require flyers to stop using their electronic devices. i've seen filed pool reports from a blackberry while air force one was rolling down the runway. on that aircraft they say do whatever you want. there are absolutely no restrictions. you can call, play games, do whatever. and on commercial aircraft, i've got to say i'm somebody who travels a lot. i fly with my three kids a lot. and it is a godsend to have those electronic devices when you're traveling with small children. it's going to make a big difference in terms of the screaming kid factor on these airplanes because if i can put, you know, bug squash in front of my 2-year-old, he's happy. >> yeah. whatever happened to those crayons and a piece of paper and some cartoons? >> whatever happened to parenting? >> exactly. whatever happened to parenting? >> no, do not put this up to the parents. we want a technological solution to this problem. that way i can read my magazine, committee play his video game and we're fine. >> baby-sitter. it's so much better than the real baby-sitter and a whole lot cheaper. phil, we've been asking the

question how close we are to being able to use our cell phones on the plane. i'd like to ask, do we really want to use our cell phones on the plane? i can't think of anything worse. you're doing an overnight flight back to australia. there's someone having a good old yak to their auntie. >> think about this. for a long time there were phones in the seat backs. you had to pay with a credit card in order to use it. i think i used it once or twice. i never heard anybody complaining. i think for the most part -- >> because they made it so expensive that you don't sit there for two hours yakking away on it. >> that's true. look, at the end of the day, do you want the person next to you chatting away? no. we've all been on flights where you land and the person is just yammering away. everybody's tired and you want to tell them to shut up. >> hey, just landed! >> what about watching movies on the ipad? that's something i've noticed on airplanes a lot lately. and the choices, the content choices that people make with those airplanes. >> eamon, i've seen some content choices on planes. you go back to the lavatory. so you're walking by.

you can see what everybody's looking at. i'm going to tell you something. 22-year-old guys that have their own row, they make some very interesting content choices. >> right. so do the flight attendants have to police all that, too? they have to police everybody's conversations? they're talking too much? movies? is it g-rated? r-rated? what are you looking at? >> i love you, eamon. let's quickly gloss over that and move back to your report. >> see how i did that? i moved right along. >> you're fantastic. still ahead, in his first interview since taking over "the new york times," we will speak exclusively with the new ceo, marx thompson. million-dollar homes. the trick-or-treat edition. seven homes in towns with a haunted pastor even ties to a horror flick. see which spooky spot is going to win this round coming up. it's a growing trend in business: do more with less with less energy. hp is helping ups do just that. soon, the world's most intelligent servers,

designed by hp, will give ups over twice the performance, using forty percent less energy. multiply that across over a thousand locations, and they'll provide the same benefit to the environment as over 60,000 trees. that's a trend we can all get behind. maestro of project management. baron of the build-out. you need a permit... to be this awesome. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. (aaron) purrrfect. (vo) meee-ow, business pro. meee-ow. go national. go like a pro.0 that's a good thing, but it doesn't cover everything. only about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you.

so consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, they could save you in out-of-pocket medical costs. call today to request a free decision guide. with these types of plans, you'll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients... plus, there are no networks, and virtually no referrals needed. join the millions who have already enrolled in the only medicare supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp... and provided by unitedhealthcare insurance company, which has over 30 years of experience behind it. with all the good years ahead, look for the experience and commitment to go the distance with you. call now to request your free decision guide. who found a magic seashell. it told him what was happening on the trading floor in real time. ♪ the shell brought him great fame.

♪ but then, one day, he noticed that everybody could have a magic seashell. [ indistinct talking ] [ male announcer ] right there in their trading platform. ♪ [ indistinct talking continues ] [ male announcer ] so the magic shell went back to being a...shell. get live squawks right in your trading platform with think or swim from td ameritrade. as housing recovers, some markets indeed faring better than others. realtor.com ranked the top ten turnaround markets. we showed you the bottom five on "power lunch," but we get the good stuff. now diana olick is here to give you the winners which may surprise you. diana, count us down. >> reporter: you know,

especially right, brian, the top town, very surprising. we'll get to that in a second. this survey looks at median home prices, supply of homes for sale and how long those homes are taking to sell or days on the market. now, realtor.com put it all together to get the q3 list which, of course, also depends on local employment and investor interest. so here we go. take a look. the top five turnaround markets. two of them are in michigan. number five, ann arbor, and detroit at number one. rounding out the list, ft. lauderdale, reno and santa barbara. now, the only florida market to make the top ten, ft. lauderdale is all about inventory. supply is down 14% from a year ago. but starting to move up, which is why buyers may want to get in now. unemployment is right around the national average. santa barbara is also really interesting. california markets had dominated this top ten list for the last several quarters. this is the first time there's only one in the market. why? the unemployment rate is below the national average. and well below the rest of the states' rate. homes are selling faster.

36% than they were a year ago. prices are up 27%. now, back to that number one, detroit. this is a fast nacinating marke. it went into a foreclosure crisis well before the rest of the nation, and the distressed supply there is still huge. unemployment also very high. 9.8%. but it jumped from number seven to number one on the list. realtor.com says it's because prices are up 44% from a year ago, and houses are selling far faster. now, some of that could be new investor interest in the area. but it's still very controversial. some are saying it's time to get in. others say they wouldn't touch detroit with a ten-foot pole. one critic told me today there is no demand there. for more, it's online, realty check. exxon mobil saw its profits drop 18% but still made nearly 8

$8 billion. a guy dropped his phone in a lake and four months later, it still works. what brand was it? we'll tell you coming up.

in today's markets, a lot can happen in a second. with fidelity's guaranteed one-second trade execution, we route your order to up to 75 market centers to look for the best possible price -- maybe even better than you expected. it's all part of our goal to execute your trade in one second. i'm derrick chan of fidelity investments. our one-second trade execution is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. now get 200 free trades when you open an account.

now to a segment that we do every day now at this time. talking numbers. today focused on exxon mobil. third quarter profit falling on weakness. the refining business. but the stock still higher today by about 5% over the last month, in fact. how come? on the technicals, richard ross, on the fundamentals, john stevenson, on the drums, keith moon. john stevenson, first you and the fundamentals. why is it going up as oil prices are going down? >> brian, i think it's really a story about global growth resuming. i think that's the only reason because the fundamentals are horrific on this stock. this is increasingly becoming a natural gas play. 55% of the reserves are booked to natural gas which doesn't seem to bad when it's on a 6-1 ratio. but we all know that oil trades at roughly $100 a barrel which is a 25-1 ratio which means that we're really overstating the economic value of the reserves

by a factor of roughly 6 times. so it's enormous overstatement which is all, of course, legal under the s.e.c. guidelines. but i think what it really shows is this is a company that's increasingly going to struggle for growth. in fact, there's going to be no production growth next year. and only 2% production growth for the next few year ares. so the only reason to buy this stock is for shaur buybacks and the dividend and already management is guiding down on terms of the share buyback. honestly, i think this is where oil and gas money goes to die. >> ooh, that's harsh. do the charts agree on that point of view, rich ross? >> well, i'll tell you, brian, this is the third worst performing stock on the dow industrials this year so it is difficult to get too excited about it. let's pull up that shorter-term daily chart first. and you can see this extremely well-defined trading range that has constrained the stock for much of the last 12 months. now, in isolation, a trading range is not bearish, but against the backdrop of a bull market like we've been in, you can see we've had that sharp selloff after july earnings.

a v-shaped reversal has taken us back over a key pivot point at $90. that's potentially set the stage for the test of this high-end well-defined range, up around $94, $95. let's pull back and look at the longer-term weekly and show you how we could become bullish on this stock. you can see once again very longer-term multiyear trading range and you've got that critic critical resistance up around highs around $95. if we were to surmount that key resistance, then you're talking about clear skies up above, and you want to be bullish on exxon. but not until you get that decisive breakout. >> okay, guys, thank you. we've got to cut it a little short. we've got breaking news, i understand. indeed, on obama care, bertha coombs, what's the story? >> the cms, centers for medicare and medicaid giving an update on what's going on with healthcare.gov. they've brought in big guns to help with the tech surge. they now have members from oracle, google and red hat working with the teams already there. from oracle on leave is michael dickerson. he has worked with the obama

campaign in the past. and greg gershman working with cgi. they wouldn't give us any indication as to how big this tech surge team is. we'll try to get all those details from them. back to you. >> bertha, thank you very much. appreciate that. interesting development. coming up this halloween with a dire cocoa shortage possibly on the horizon, should you kiss this stock good-bye? and trick or treat? a guy says this phone spent months under water and still works just fine. we're going to be myth busting when we come back. but first, bill griffeth with what's coming occupy "the closing bell. >> the sprint ceo, dan hesse, fasting wireless data speeds. also, remember, dan niles bought facebook when it was below $20 a share. now that the stock has nearly doubled, dan has sold his entire stake in facebook. and we'll find out if he's going to use those profits to invest in, oh, twitter's ipo coming up.

and the scariest headline this halloween could be the story that the world is running out of wine. yes, it's true. details behind that horrifying story coming up. i can't speak. i'm horrified. "closing bell's" coming up at the top of the hour. we'll see you then. 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. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and seasoned market experts to help sharpen your instincts. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 so you can take charge tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 of your trading. i have a big meeting when we land, but i am so stuffed up, i can't rest. [ male announcer ] nyquil cold and flu liquid gels don't unstuff your nose. they don't?

alka seltzer plus night fights your worst cold symptoms, plus has a decongestant. [ inhales deeply ] oh. what a relief it is. ♪

♪ [ male announcer ] eeny, meeny, miny, go. ♪ ♪ more adventures await in the new seven-passenger lexus gx. lease the 2014 gx 460 for $499 a month for 27 months. see your lexus dealer.

a triple dose of sunshine on this halloween. gogo, harman international and carbo ceramics are all soaring today. particularly carbo ceramics is up 34%. gogo higher on the faa news we mentioned earlier with phil. flyers will be able to use electronics from taxi to landing. gogo provides in-flight wireless. harman also getting ai nice pop on an erm earnings beat and carbo soaring after posting a huge earnings beat. meantime, it was a mixed quarter for "the new york times." they did post a loss because of the sale of basically "the boston globe," but digital subscriptions rose about 28%, and that stock has soared. it is up 67%. let's dig in. joining us in studio is ceo mark thompson, his first interview as

ceo. julia boorstin out on the west coast also joining us as well. let's get the first question on earnings to julia. ladies first. >> mark, thanks so much for joining us. now, you made major progress in stabilizing your ad declines over the quarter, but your advertising is still declining, even digital advertising declined more than 3%. what will it take to turn that around, especially considering the digital advertising is doing so well elsewhere? >> well, we're certainly looking harder at digital advertising. we have appointed a great new head of advertising, meredith levy has come from "forbes." and we are looking hard at ways of turning that slight decline, but it must be said consistent decline in recent quarters of digital advertising back into growth. we're very pleased with the progress we've made on the print side. but it's very important that we get digital advertising back to growth. >> and how do you do that? >> i think innovation. i think we need to recognize --

>> people don't click on ads, do they? >> i think that we're seeing across the entire industry a shift away from what you could almost call traditional display advertising. that first wave of digital advertising. video is incredibly important. above all, trying to make sure that you've got, whether it's through special custom advertising or whether it's through more effective use of programmatic advertising except the machine-to-machine buying of advertising is here to stay. we need to be more aggressive, innovative and effective. >> but you oversaw the digital media initiative over at the bbc. it cost about 100 million pounds, i believe, to sort of move everything over to the digital world. and yet that was axed because it just wasn't working. so how are you the best person to sort of move forward into the new media world at "the new york times"? >> it's simplification there. almost everything we did in digital worked at the bbc, above all the bbci-player and main

website have been a massive success at home and abroad. "the new york times" has done a fantastic job in video. you've seen how our digital pay model, probably working more effectively than any other pay model in the world at the moment. >> then why was the project axed? >> "the new york times" pay model has not been axed. it's grown -- >> no, the bbc, the digital media initiative that you oversaw. >> not a consume facing digital product, but a computer project which was based essentially on tv production inside the organization which didn't work. that's perfectly true. but of all maybe 10, 15 digital projects when i was head of the bbc, that was the only one that didn't work. and it was not about the consumer facing side of the digital thing at the bbc. >> okay. >> mark, you mentioned your success in digital ad subscriptions for "the new york times." obviously that's been an area of strength. you're working on more subscription products. you said you'll be rolling out in the first quarter of the year.

but there's so much competition right now in terms of free content out there. we've seen the rise of sites like buzzfeed. how will your paid products compete? >> well, you'll note, julia, that many people said two years ago that "the new york times" was foolish to launch a pay model because there was so much free content. the truth is "the new york times" brand as journalism means that there's a real market. people want to commit to "the times" and to pay for skrup subscriptions to "the times." we want to broaden our portfolio products, to have a broader range of price points. some cost less, some a little bit more. if you like, we tap that demand for effectively and find, you know, new audiences alongside our existing ones. so this is really the second stage in rolling out what so far, i think, has been a very successful model. >> isn't it amazing, mark, how things have changed? because a few years ago, right, nobody thought that a pay law would work. and when some rolled out and

they didn't do well, everybody maybe like obama care started piling on. now that's the way it is. however, we've also seen the rise of so-called aggregator news sites. you know what i'm talking about. >> i do. >> right? they'll put a few paragraphs and say link here. what's your take on the future of pay walls and whether or not these aggregator sites can, indeed, survive? >> i think firstly -- >> are they good for you or bad? >> the internet is a big, wide world and lots of different kinds of model will co-exist. for people who want and they will be of the world's population, no doubt a minority, but still, you know, in their millions who want deep, rich access to high-quality content. and they want someone to curate it for them to make sure what they're looking at is not going to waste their time. it's not going to be confusing. it's going to be clear and of high value. i think pay models work. you have to execute very, very well. you can get it wrong on price. you can get it wrong on the offer. but if you execute as well as "the new york times" company did

two years ago, they can be a real success. it doesn't mean they're going to take over. it's too simple to imagine that the whole world is going to flip to pay. >> do you still think people are lifting your stuff? let me just ask it in a very blunt way. is internet theft a problem still? >> we came up with a model which was pretty porous. we still got tens of millions of people coming to the site. many people -- and we're very glad to have them -- come freely to the site and get news from "the new york times." people who want to dig deeper have to pay. and actually, a big funnel, lots of people coming in the front door, the most committed ones actually paying for it. so you have a mixed revenue model, advertising, one revenue stream, subscription, a second revenue stream. multiple revenue streams is the reason that cable tv is so profitable in this country. we want to make sure that we also have access to multiple revenue streams to pay for the

high-quality news that "the times" makes. >> but at the same time, while you've had the success with subscriptions, you see buzzfeed has surpassed "the new york times" in august in terms of total views, multiplatform. how do you explain that? >> the point is what we're trying to do, we are trying to reach a group of people who want high-quality news. you've seen in this quarter that we've grown our revenues, not just grown our profitability, but grown our revenues through a mixed model. buzzfeed has got a revenue stream essentially through advertising. we've got multiple revenue streams. and our model isn't simply about getting the maximum possible number of users on the web. it's about a mixture of broad access so people sample at times combined with deep access paid for my subscribers who really value most what "the times" does. >> do you think you'll be around as a print organization in five years' time? >> i think the platform is great platfo platform, and i do.

>> i like the print flat form. >> the role of our print subscribers -- in other words, it's wrong to think we've got print subscribers and digital subscribers. most people who read the physical newspaper also want access to "the times" when it's convenient on a smartphone. >> because i get up too early to get the paper in the morning. i get the weekend version, plus it gives me nice digital access. >> that's right. >> last question follows up what mandy asked you. not to bring up the bbc stuff. however, which arguably is in a transitional period could be hampered by "a," the distraction, "b," the travel. >> i think if you look at today's results, i think you we're in the middle of a very big transformation. we'll be launching new products next year. we've renamed the international newspaper. i've been hard at work at "the times." and to be honest so far we're pleased with the results. >> mark thompson, pleasure. thank you. julia, thank you. coming up, candy crush. why the price of sweet treat is

about to hit your wallet and waistline. from candy corn to real estate. round four of our trick-or-treat version of "million dollar homes." (vo) our new planes don't fly any faster.

but it sure feels that way. because with power ports... and wi-fi... and in-seat entertainment, for everyone on board, now when you fly, time flies too. (flight attendant) sir, we're about to land. (vo) we're adding a brand new plane, with all this, every week. it's just one way we're building the new american.

welcome back to "street signs." treasury and irs announcing new rules on flexible spending accounts. you know the spend being accoin to be payable to pay for drugs and other costs. now you can carry over up to $500 a year starting with the 2013 plan year. easing that restriction. something that a lot of people have had to use or lose. now you can carry up to $500 a year starting with your 2013 plans this year, guys. very dramatic change there. >> that is a good change. thank you very much for that, bertha coombs. halloween treats are about to get even pricier. jane wells is with us. say it isn't so, jane. >> reporter: oh, mandy, i'm at rocket fizz candy store today. and this is candy's big day. kids, get ready for something really scary. cocoa prices, they're up 20% so

far this year. lack of supply as bad weather hits west africa meets rebounding demand. costco tells us replacing a ton of cocoa has gone from $2,200 to $2,700 a ton. it's running through packaged chocolate faster than chocolate faster than anticipated. if it has to buy on the open market it will hold off passing along higher costs till valentine's day. kroger owned eed ralph's -- >> we think this will be the first year in 2014 where the level of cocoa demand exceeds production for the first time since 2009. that's driving prices higher. >> now, hersheys hedges as much as two years in advance. after you binge, how do investors purge? here's my odd transition of the week. ♪ >> corey wooten stars in a

hilarious dance video with other nfl players as part of the league's effort to get active. fuel up to move 60. i asked him about america's weight struggles. in the process he unknowingly named a stock. >> nowadays, a lot of people eat fast food a lot of times. if we could maybe eliminate that. maybe more home cooked mee eed . if you do eat out, maybe subway, or chipotle, something that's a little healthier option. >> oh, look at chipotle's gain. i asked wooton, he had good moves, if he wanted to be on "dancing with the stars." he told me, first i have to perform on the field well enough to become a star. >> it's not just the price of cocoa that might put your chocolate addiction in jeopardy. supply of the stuff is becomes an issue for the world's biggest candy makers as well.

joining us from the national confectioner's association, larry graham. kind of playing fun. it's a light story. it's not a joke to a company like hershey. >> well, it's not a joke to anybody. particularly consumers. but i think short term, we're fine. there's plenty of chocolate out there. i think long term there are some concerns. we have about what remains to be the same amount of supply. but what's happening is, there's a lot more demand in the world for cocoa and chocolate. >> what kind of trend are we seeing in candy? in terms of what's popular now that might not have been popular in the past when you consider how much focus there is on healthy eating these days? >> well, certainly a lot more focus on chocolate, particularly dark chocolate. as you know, there's been many, many studies out there indicating how dark chocolate is good for you. it's high in flavinoids and antioxidan antioxidants. we're just seeing in general much more demand for chocolate and chocolate products.

particularly gourmet chocolate products. but it's halloween so it's all kinds of candy out there. not just chocolate. you know, as a lot of developing countries industrialize and have a little bit of discretionary income, one of the first things they want to buy is chocolate. wanting to have a little bit more candy. you know, in their diet. >> wine as well contributing to the wine shortage. thank you so much, larry, for joining us. happy halloween. >> same to you. in the spirit of halloween, cnbc's million dollar homes franchise ventured into america's spookiest neighborhoods. all the featured towns have either a haunted past or ties to a famous horror flick. we sent out seven reporters to give you a tour of these mystery million dollar homes which will fight to the death only only one survivors. in the last round savannah beat out salem. in round five the ominous oasis

bat battles the ghoulish glory. >> reporter: this four-story townhouse built in 1847 is one of the oldest in an area famous for ghost tours. the garden which can be used for good or evil is the center piece of this one-eight of an acre lot on a street that has many stories to tell. this french provincial style home sits on about three-quarters of an acre. water screviews. inside you'll find 3,300 fully renovated square feet. you can certainly cook up some mischief in this gourmet chef's kitchen, featuring double ovens and a wet bar for your tastier brews. >> this grand foyer leads into a family room and wet bar. on the other side of the house there's a dining room and this gourmet kitchen that's just perfect to cook up a batch of

jumbalayah. >> upstairs the three bedrooms. the guest bath has a claw foot tub and a roof terrace overlooking a cathedral. >> there are four bedrooms. 5 1/2 baths. master suite has its own sitting area and its own balcony. in the spacious bathroom there's a large shower, jacuzzi tub and tab louse view. >> the home also has this garden level suite with a full kitchen and bath. it's the perfect place to make your guests disappear. all the for the asking price of 1,064,000. >> it offers an additional kitchen and room for yet another bedroom. it is the perfect place to host your halloween soiree. it can be yours for $949,000. >> we have to guess the location of the ghoulish glory. always great to see you, dolly. >> thank you for having me. >> i saw palm trees in the

garden of the ghoulish glory. somewhere perhaps a little warmer. >> how about this? ann rice books? >> new orleans. >> got it. >> fantastic. >> "interview with the vampire." >> which house is better bang for your buck? >> to me, no question, it's ghoulish glory in new orleans. it's the perfect house as we were just saying. and the best part of all? it rented for $10,000 a month. you've got phenomenal exit strategies, whether you sell it or keep it and rent it out. >> that's the winner? >> i love that. that's the winner. >> got it. okay. thank you so much, dolly. the million dollar challenge continues, of course, on the "closing bell." we look forward to finding out who the winner is. one smartphone under water for four months. story coming up. we're a little skeptical to say the least. it's estimated that 30% of the traffic in a city

is caused by people looking for parking. that's remarkable that so much energy is, is wasted. streetline has looked at the problem of parking, which has not been looked at for the last 30, 40 years, we wanted to rethink that whole industry, so we go and put out these sensors in each parking spot and then there's a mesh network that takes this information sends it over the internet so you can go find exactly where those open parking spots are. the collaboration with citi was important for providing us the necessary financing;

allow this small start-up to go provide a service to municipalities. citi has been an incredible source of advice, how to engage with municipalities, how to structure deals, and as we think about internationally, citi is there every step of the way. so the end result is you reduce congestion, you reduce pollution and you provide a service to merchants, and that certainly is huge. 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. we saw this story today. though it's a cool one we are skeptical. a man in sweden says he dropped his nokia phone in a lake. says he found it four months later at low tide. when he laid it to try, it worked. it's not at waterproof phone. also, mandy, lakes don't have tides. do they? >> not that i know of. >> he may have thrown tide in a lake to clean it. dear, viewer.

true story or nokia pr stunt. let us know. >> thanks for watching, everybody. "closing bell" is coming up next. looking forward to seeing you tomorrow. also, happy halloween, everybody. go do some spooky stuff. hi, everybody. we enter the final stretch. welcome to the closing bell. i'm maria bartiromo at the new york stock exchange. final hour of the trading for the month of october. spooky, spooky day today. >> happy halloween. just a fair warning, we are on such a sugar high today. this has been anything but a scary market this month. we're going to bring home the final tallies for october. a lot more in today's show. look at this. they built this chart to show you the month to date gains for the major averages. the dow up 3.2%. nasdaq up more than