too complacent, that they have once again grown too accustomed to a market that only goes up. the other thing you notice, sue, is how these kinds of events have changed. sure, there's the food, some of it pretty good, some not so good, the tote bags, but there are charging stations and social media. that will do it from the schwab impact conference for this edition of "power lunch." >> "street signs" begins right now. see you later, it ty. somebody forget to tell the markets they're due for a drop. the dow continues to climb and two very smart investors here with their playbook as we already start thinking about what to do next year. your other hot topics on this veterans day. we go undercover investigate waste, abuse and dangerous conditions in the va hospital system. you need to see this. we're going to meet a company that wants to hire more than 1,000 vets and how amazon.com

just may save, mandy, a post office. >> hello. happy monday. not a whole lot of movement out there in the markets. the nasdaq for one is now positive, both the s&p and the dow traded above their closing record highs today, but not their intraday highs. nonetheless what we've got as i can say, not a lot of movement. let's try to put pizazz into this with bob pisani at the nyse. the wsa ran the front page story today noting the retail investor has returned to stocks. all hail the retail investor returning. what evidence do we have that the retail investor is back? >> the biggest evidence is fun flows into mutual funds. let me show you the last five years, a blood bath since the 2008 financial crisis, $200 billion came out of mutual. stock mutual funds in 2008, more in 2009. a little inflows, this is 2010 and big outflows in 2011, big outflows in 2012. all of a sudden 2013, $167 billion in inflows. that's why people are starting

to say, maybe there's a little more interest. here's what's worrying everybody right now, mandy. the complacency levels are very, very high. put up the next screen. i'll show you. the put call ratio is low. people are not buying any protection right now. the volatility index, similar indication. very low. people aren't interested in buying protection. investor sentiment, very bullish right now. generally that's considered to be a contrarian indicator. mandy, you know this, just because complacency is high doesn't mean the stock market is going to drop imminently but it does mean combined with high prices, that the market's vulnerable to little shocks like that and that's what's got people a little concerned right now. back to you. >> we're going to talk a little more about that, bob, thank you very much. excellent setup. what a weird month it has been for the stock market. most indexes are fractionally high ber us how they're getting there and who is leading them is bizarre. looking at our screens we discovered this. many of the hottest stocks this month are names that have all been put out to pasture, the

best performing stocks in the s&p 500 this month. first solar, transocean, jc penney, the gap, and u.s. steel. with all due respect to those companies, fine people, right? is this the last gasp from a big year? joining us from wells capital management jim paulson steve from fed deteriorated investorsp when you go through names like that low quality rally if that's the last gaps before a downturn, what do you think? >> well, i certainly see, you know, there's some warning indications even as bob pointed out. people are not exactly giddy with optimism but they're no longer as pessimistic as they were, complain sensy, values are way up that where the interest rates are also rising. i guess i kind of think that the thing driving this market a lot higher, i believe money velocity for the first time in this recovery, brian, is starting to turn up and the initial signs of that is the economy starts feeling better and i think that's what the stock market's

picking up. i'm not so sure that's done. we may go higher into 2014 and maybe when we find out velocity has turned up and that creates a lot of fear around the fed and their exit strategy, a tougher half of 2014 but might be from higher levels. >> good point. may be higher. the point about the complacency here, steve, even though complacency might not be the big indicator we're ready for a drop but we're more vulnerable to any shocks that may come our way, whether it be as jim mentioned something from the fed or something else. what do you think could make us vulnerable to a drop in the market? >> mandy, i think it would have to be a serious change in the underlying fundamentals. we think the fundamental backdrop is quite good, thinking 2,000 on the s&p for next year. i say the short term complacency but the valuations on the market against next year's earnings are actually pretty attractive relative to everything else. i don't think people are long-term complacent but in

terms of a more serious pullback to get that, i would say one of three things has to happen. one is a fed policy mistake. they start hiking too far too fast. i doubt they will given that yellen is in charge. second, some sort of foreign accident, maybe something like puerto rico going under. our folks think puerto rico muddles through at least the next couple years. so, you know, that could do it. and then third maybe something in the u.s. economy that's unexpected like, for instance, a housing pullback. we think housing is going to reaccelerate next year but if the housing market weakens seriously, i think that could take some of the legs out of the economy and out of the market. >> you know, jim, you are the master of stats but i'm going to try to trump you here. our crack data team, get this, the two weeks heading into thanksgiving, the last few years, have been dismal. we're showing our viewers that, you know, 2007, and 2008, but also in 2010 and 2011 the market dropped pretty significantly in

the two weeks leading up to thanksgiving, only rising in '09 and last year. any historical credence to this? >> i couldn't know if there's much there. i mean you do have the holiday season, which tends to mean some of the players, even like today, are not there and we're not fully playing. but i doubt there's a long-term seasonal there brian. probably just coincidence. 2011 -- >> i think brando's curts said apocolypse now, sell the house, the home, the kids. >> yeah. that's true. >> i wouldn't get much for mine. >> you know, if i could respond to steve's comment about something that could change next year and i really think if money velocity turns up, that's going to totally change the national conversation in this country around the fed. it won't just be, you know, how much longer before they start tightening, it will be how fast can they start to liquidate their excess bank reserves. i think that could be a big change next year.

i think that's got some odds of occurring and that would mean interest rates go up a lot in the bond market, and probably we have some pe contraction in the last half of the year. >> you believe if we get any kind of correction and whatever the trigger is we just don't know, but whatever the correction is, it's not going to be deep and terrifying. it's just going to be short and shallow, in which case would you see it as a buying opportunity? >> our investors we think the corrections will be short and shallow. they have been. and we think they come in, the market goes higher on better fundamentals. the fed hikes in the kind of scenario jim is talking about is going to be into an improved economic picture which is going to be good for underlying earnings and go ahead for equities. we think equities can trade at 17, 18 times even with a 4.5, 5% ten-year bond yield which i doubt is going to go much higher than that. we think the backdrop for equities is good. >> we agree that heading into 2014, be smart, but be

optimistic more than bearish, correct? >> yep. >> all right. >> yes. >> absolutely. >> all right. >> we'll keep the kids and the house. thank you. a massive -- they might sell us. a massive rescue and relief effort under way in the philippines after one of the strongest storms recorded slammed into that country. officials say super typhoon haiyan killed at least 1700 people and that number expected to go higher. hundreds of thousands more have been displaced. cnbc has more. >> reporter: the last few hours, the philippine president akein no has addressed the nation and has declared a state of national calamity. what this means in practice is that the federal government now have effective control over the relief operations. the other point is that the government can also control prices of basic goods. remember, we have heard instances of profitearring and some instances of hoarding.

the government are trying to clamp down and prevent it by exercising direct price control. this super typhoon has caused a storm surge of tsunami-like proportions that has washed out roads, trees that have blocked the roads, communication is down and the power is down. so it's making the provision of disaster relief extremely difficult at this point in time. back to you now. >> all right. tough scenes. thank you very much. still ahead, one analyst is boosting his rating on an already red hot retailer an what amazon.com is doing to help serve the post office. >> later on we'll be heading south of the border for a firsthand look at mexico's manufacturing boom. plus, china's cyber monday. stick around when "street signs" returns.

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the the shares of twitter are currently higher right now up 42.21 did drop below 40 this morning. and when they did, they were down 20% from their ipo high of 50 bucks. still up 50% from the ipo price of $26. >> you may recall that a few months ago we said that amazon.com should buy the post

office. we were kidding, but perhaps we weren't too far off the truth. the two announcing a surprise team up today. let's bring back in john fortt. we're stretching it a bit but this is unusual. what's the news? >> why buy the cow when you can get the sunday delivery for free, at least how it seems to be going. amazon announcing they're going to start sunday delivery in the new york area, los angeles, pretty much effective immediately. this is especially good for prime members. if you order late thursday, early friday, you might get your stuff before the work week starts. >> so what do you think that we're going to be doing then, john? is this going to be materially benefiting either company or a nice press release? >> it's good for the postal service. based on the report they gave to congress after last year in 2012, they did better than $11.5 billion in revenue from shipping and packages. that's more profitable for them than delivering smaller pieces of mail.

extra day of delivery certainly won't help. from amazon they seem to be trying to shift people toward prime. it's got lots of benefits from them. loyalty. those people tend to come back more and their digital media strategy is built on the idea these people who pay $79 a year, get a lot besides that two-day free delivery. they get access to the digital trove. it could only help loyalty if you know you don't have that gap day where you don't know what's going to happen, can you get the package before sunday? if not it's going to come next week with sunday delivery it will help but won't roll out nationwide for several months. new york and l.a. get the benefit up front. we'll see how it goes. >> john fortt, thank you very much for the details. >> best buy has lived up to its name. surprisingly the hottest retail stock in all the land. this year up about 20%. but -- 270%. one analyst sees even more. michael of ubs under the name and price target has a buy and a

$49 target. mike, after the huge run, why the upgrade and target price increase now? >> so we think the stock still offers a lot of potential upside from this level. we'd also offer the point that you can't necessarily look at just the last nine months from where the stock has come. this consumer electronics retail is a complicated business. also it's gone through -- best buy has gone through a dramatic change, so these two conditions create a scenario where the stock can easily be mispriced. we think that continue to be the case and see a subsancal amount of up -- substantial amount of upside from here. >> show rooming was weighing on the stock for so long and the ceo came out last week and said show rooming is dead, we've killed it. my question is, at what price? to what degree is all this price matching and aggressive, you know, anti-show rooming tactics killing their margins a the same time. >> a good question and the

argument we're putting forward is the company has really narrowed the price gap between it and its closest on-line only competitor amazon. right now if you look at a basket of items it's about 2% on the big hardware, they're neck and neck. the price has been absorbed over the last few quarters and offset by a host of repositioning efforts and cost reductions the company has taken. we think it won't be as -- as penalizing as perhaps some of the skeptics argue and then that leads to the consumer question of, well if you can buy the item at the same price that you can on-line, but have a place to return it, a place to get some help, why wouldn't you buy it in store? >> and i see they're doing a clever thing with that too. rolling out amazon kiosks within best buys. if you can't beat them join them. >> join them. >> keep your friends close or enemies closer, something like that maybe? >> i totally agree.

and not only have they been doing that with amazon they've been doing that with other key venders like google, samsung, microsoft. i would expect more of those over time. what it shows is how important, how influential best buy is within the ecosystem of consumer electronics and for -- >> michael, sorry to interrupt, you bring up a point, pretty much all their main pure may electronic competitors are gone. i almost said tweeter -- twitter -- walmart, but the peer play ones, best buy is the last man standing nationally. fries out west and that's about it. >> in spite of that, best buy has never lived up to its potential. we've seen through all of the expense reductions that the company has taken out, that there was a lot of low hanging fruit and we think that doesn't impact the consumer experience. you combine that with a developing product cycle, two new gaming console launches, i would imagine a new play station 4 or xbox 1 on the holiday list,

so just an example of the product environment becoming a little more in best buy's favor. >> you have been reading my kids' christmas lists already. thank you for joining us. i'm going to hand you a gift right now. it is your time to do a victory lap. >> why? because i picked best buy as my stock draft pick last year. >> exactly. actually bought it and put your money where your mouth is. >> we are not allowed to own any equities. >> full disclosure. >> yeah. you would have done very well. >> thank you for that. my other pib was circuit city. that's a joke. today is china's cyber monday. the biggest consumer shopping day for the nation with the biggest amount of consumers. josh lipton has more details on this. staggering stats, josh. >> amazing, mandy, chinese consumers are buying. november 11th the biggest shopping day of the year for chinese consumers, known as singles day, and it gives us a clear window into why investors are so excited about the

possibility of ali baba, the chinese e-commerce giant going public. it's a holiday created back in the 1990s where chinese celebrate the single life it has become a shopping bonanza. last year on singles day sale on alibaba's platform total $3 billion. this year they say sales on its platforms were bigger, $5.7 billion, a new record. sale involved 20,000 merchants including big brands like gap and uniqlo. the number of visitors to alibaba's website 402 million. they're often compared to amazon but the company will tell you that's not really accurate. alibaba does not directly sell goods. it's a platform for which buyers consumers and companies buy and sell with each other. they make money off advertising the bulk of its revenue. the company is growing fast, generating revenue of $2.3 billion in 2011 and $4.1 billion

last year. most recently for that april through june period alibaba reported revenue of $1.7 billion. that was a 61% jump year over year. alibaba is planning an ipo that people familiar with the matter tell cnbc could take place in early 2014. the possibility of that ipo is one reason yahoo! stock has soared. yahoo! has a 24% stake in alibaba. guys, back to you. >> everyone is saying now twitter is down as the next big ipo to watch. thank you for that. still ahead, some great news, gas prices falling 14.5 cents over the last three weeks. going to tell you where to find the cheapest gas in america. >> and on this veterans day we honor our troops, we demand better treatment for them. coming up, cnbc investigation into the waste, abuse and sometimes dangerous conditions going on in some of the nation's va hospitals. we investigate. you won't want to miss it. it's coming up. welcome back. how is everything?

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here's sharon epperson with today's pump patrol report. >> gas price falling fast, most drivers paying the cheapest gas prices in nearly three years. nationally prices on average have fallen for ten straight weeksp. you'll find the cheapest gas in springfield, missouri, prices are $2.76 a gallon on average. in the couldn't nenl u.s. gasoline most expensive in san francisco at $3.74 a gallon. the national average dropped a couple more pennies over the weekend. to $3.19 a gallon according to aaa. that's the lowest price since february of 2011. now with abundant supplies, declining demand and lower oil prices aaa says the national average could fall close to $3 a gallon by the end of the year. nine states in the south central part of the u.s. including cap sass, missouri, new mexico, and

mississippi have seen the average price of gasoline in their states fall below $3 a gallon according tos gas buddy.com. you can find gasoline below the $3 mark in many other places. aaa says one in four stations in the nation are selling gasoline at under $3 a gallon today. back to you. >> sharon epperson always bringing the good news. i'm going to say it right now, mandy, one of my predictions for next year is going -- >> getting it early. >> i want to jump the gun. the inevitable rush, like opening stores on thanksgiving. going to have to do with mexico. i've been convinced by more and more i've read their economy and market perhaps will be maybe next year's japan this year and part of the mexican resurgence has to do with the older idea of manufacturing. phil lebeau is covering the story at a manufacturing plant in mexico where they have fair to say a new boom going on. >> they do, brian. a lot of people want to compare mexico with china and i've got four reasons why mexico's manufacturing base is not only

catching china but in many cases passing it up. first off with shipping costs. we're talking about a 40 foot container going to the east coast of the united states, three days, $3500 from mexico, compare that now with 21 days and almost $4700 from china. that's reason number one. the second reason, and they're seeing it here at the auto parts plant, trade agreements with 45 countries, including brazil, as well as the united states, maybes it more effective shipping out of here and then you have the third reason, mexico has cheaper natural gas and electricity costs than in china. and finally, the labor force here is paid a significantly lower wage rate and it's also a youthful wage or utahful labor force here. >> mexico is not competing within mexico. mexico is competing with the rest of of the world. if you want to compete with china and india and thailand, the younger work force they're using you have to have the same

kind of speed and agility in delivering the product and the younger force helps us. >> keep in mind the average age of the worker here at this plant, 24. 24 years old. and when we talked with the coo he brought up one more point he's been in this industry almost 20 years, he has seen a lot of booms and he compares what they're seeing here in mexico to what you saw in china in the '90s. a lot of momentum brian and mandy. >> for china the sad truth and the outcome of economic success, gradually price yourself out of being competitive. we will bring out our predictions the end of the year and watching your prediction on mexico for 2014. thank you for joining us. >> still ahead, an upgrade downgrade edition of street talk. >> and later on herb greenberg has two bees in his bonnet today. robots an the gluten-free craze, joining us when "street signs" returns. clients are always learning more

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it it is street talk time. hitting stock stories you need to know about at the start of the week. it is monday. there has to be an m and a story out there somewhere. viro farmer. >> soaring on the news that london listed them, buying them for $4.2 billion, about $50 a share. stock around there. the ashes aren't saying another bid is going to come in. 27% above friday's closing price. a potentially lucrative drug to treat rare diseases. couple retailers. different stories here. an inc and express. >> and the stocks going in different directions. goldman sachs beginning coverage on the two in different directions issued a sell rating on ann taylor expressing concerns about elevated inventory levels, buy on express, expects outsized

earnings growth. we should know express has had a big year up 60% year to date, and ann taylor 4%. the trend moving in the direction that goldman sachs is talking about. >> facebook which has been moving down today. >> according to a filing the stock down 1.8% to 46.66. mark an drese's venture firm has sold about a third of its facebook shares. sold them on november 6th around 49 to $50 a share. they're not dumping out of the name. they still own more than 4.5 million shares. they say they're still big believers in the company but taking a little profit off the table. >> why not? >> maybe they need the money for something else. selling a third. >> exxon getting an upgrade, our fourth stock. >> exxon shares up 6 pens cent. argis research upgrading them to a buy, the last quarter will be a low point in the company's near term results. their target 104, about 12% more than the current price. exxon kind of quietly is up 7%

in the past month, outpacing the dow. >> yeah. >> kind of quietly done this. >> and our under the radar name, maiden holdings. >> yes. this is not the bra company. >> no. >> this is a bermuda based reinsurer, guggenheim securities upping it from a buy it a neutral, about $3 of upside. they like the valuation and call this the best in class return on equity. >> and nearly 2,000 independent investment advisors managing billions are gathered in washington for the schwab impact conference. one of the best gauges of where americans are putting their money to work. we've sent out tyler mathisen at the conference and what have you found out? >> i'm braving the investment advisers here. thank you very much. this is one of the biggest conclaves of its type and these are the folks registered investment advisers who manage your money. they put it to work for you. you may have a relationship with one or more of the individuals that are here today. one of the things schwab does is they poll those advisors to get

a kind of state of mind of the business and the results this year are interesting in part. first is, that the investment advisers are quite bullish, 70% say they see their businesses growing. that means they're going to be collecting more assets from more customers over the next five years they believe. they believe that the need for advice is expanding. not contracting in today's environment. 55% of those advisors think clients will want more low-cost options. index funds, etfs. that may implicitly tell you they're getting away from buying and selling trading in individual stocks, individual names. going more for the cost sensitive, hard to beat market indexes rather than those individual securities. now, we talked earlier today to several registered investment advisors and i asked them about the state of mind of retail investors. take a listen. >> yes. with the had help of the registered investment adviser. >> i think hthey are which give

us some concern. >> i think so too but i think our clients are cautious and i think that's healthy. >> is the retail investor back? that was the question. the general response was yes, they were, but you heard elaine beetle say that gives us some concern. maybe they are worried that the retail investors have sort of suspended disbelief as, you know, mandy and brian, we know they have done previously over the past decade or so and it hasn't always worked out well. interesting day here. we have much more. maria will be here in a few minutes to do her 3:00 and 4:00 hour. she'll be live from schwab impact talking to the ceo of schwab among many others. back to you, in the mean time. >> thank you very much. good luck with that rough crowd. as we commemorate veterans day let's talk about job opportunities for vets when they return home. edible arrangements kicked off its heros welcome program earlier this year and plans to hire at least 1,000 vets over

the next year. let's hear more about the program from tarik fa reed founder and ceo of edible arrangements. >> thank you very much. thank you. >> sos there's two things you have, because you are a franchise, so this is not just about -- i know you're offering a discount to the franchisees who are veterans but also just about hiring. tell us about the program. >> we started the heros welcome program because we have amazing franchisees who have been veterans and as they came into our system they've added serious amount of value in our system and the growth, they're bringing the discipline, they're bringing the risk taking, everything that's perfect for franchising and franchising, you know, creates entrepreneurs and we wanted to number one help the veterans and we wanted to do for the people who have done so much for us, that's one, and second, create an opportunity, you know, the if is committed to creating 80,000 jobs for veterans. we wanted to do our part. we decided we're going to get involved and commit to at least

1,000 and then they have made an opportunity of business owners of 5,000 business since 2011 having 5,000 veterans who have opened businesses, we want to continue with that and help with that and it's been a great opportunity. >> a wonderful program. how much of a discount are you offering on the franchise fee? >> it's not only the discount. it's a $10,000 discount but all the support you get with it. the veterans bring a lot to the table as resources from their discipline from the courage and risk that they've taken and that's a perfect formula if you have a system, franchising is about processes, it's about, you know, following the discipline of the training, that the franchiser gives. you give that to people with, you know, the background of the military, they do great with it. >> because you get, listen, it's unfortunate but in this day and age what you get is everyone is trying to take advantage of veterans day, offering up pr pitches and come on and talk about this or that. we've heard from so many companies -- my father by the way, happy veterans to my dad,

u.s. navy, nine years, go navy, they bring stuff and you referenced it a little bit, it tell us what the leadership qualities are they bring? not some pr stunt. these are excellent employees. >> i started out in a small business, had nothing, mine my family, you know, didn't even -- money was the last thing we had. started a small business. and what you brought to it was hard work and then the risk taking. people in the beginning were telling me, that you really want to do this? how do you know you'll be successful? now you take people with courage who didn't -- who did nothing but take risks and then also the discipline that the military teaches them, and when you put them into any kind of a job or within the -- in the confines of an entrepreneurship or business and you give them the training they're going to do phenomenal. we have more than enough examples where veterans have done amazing. you know, it's a bit of for us more than the veterans because our system can benefit from that discipline and training that they received and the risk taking. >> away from the heros welcome

program just for a couple seconds, you started your business about 13 years ago now. you have over 1,000 stores and i assume growing as well. how is business? >> business is great. business is great. i mean, i'm probably the luckiest guy on earth. last 13, 14 years we went from zero stores to a small 600 square foot location in east haven, connecticut, to over 1100 locations throughout the world. so it's a blessing. this is our way of giving back and we'll do our part for a country that gave us so much and for people that made it all possible for us. >> see, that beats flowers. >> it really does. >> you put -- you put the "e" in beat flowers. that looks delicious. >> it is delicious. >> we're going to enjoy those in the newsroom. >> can i have one to take to my jury duty. i have it to go to jury duty. if i bring something. >> every time you go to jury duty -- >> don't pick me. >> thanks so much. >> thank you very much. >> well there is the good news on this veterans day. good work. >> thank you. >> but ahead a cnbc

investigation into the utter disgrace that is going on at some of the nation's veterans hospitals. folks, trust me, you need to see this. >> you do. plus herb goes gluten-free, stocks that is. forget houses. just wait until you hear what the super rich are flipping now. but first, bill, give us a preview of what's going on at the "closing bell." >> the dow trying to close at another record high. an all-star panel of money managers set to tell you whether you should be buying or selling stocks right now. as you heard from tyler in washington, retail investors are finally pouring money back into stocks again, but is that a warning sign of a possible market top? charles schwab kriewaldt bettinger joins us to talk about that. i'm here at the big board. we always look forward to have you join us for the most important hour of the closing day. more "street signs" coming your way after this. i have low testosterone. there, i said it.

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gawk at the high-tech helpers. health care service, manufacturing, particular interest obviously if an aging society. incredible. fun stuff. >> it peens thank you very much. >> thank you for that. >> want to tell you that. >> telling me how to say it in japanese. thanks very much. >> speaking of -- mandy speaks japanese, that's the joke. speaking of robots by the way, one of her favorite herb's favorite company is upper fire but you would never know it from the stock. let's bring in now, herb. give us the news. a lot of people say you're just piling on. >> depends on what you want to look at as the news here. an fda survey released that i actually think is kind of laughable because the survey was a survey of 11 doctors pretty much and that's it. it basically shows in a sense actually positive news about the company. doesn't really say anything, this is the survey, doesn't say anything you really know. if there was quote/unquote

negative news it was increased talk about adverse effects that are being adverse -- adverse events reported to the food and drug administration. but when i take a look at those adverse events, they really are the result of an increased number of lawsuits that have been filed that have more reports of adverse events that have to be reported to the fda. i don't think this is -- i look at this and just say, come on guys, the most important thing about intuitive surgical really has to do, whether the company is facing as it is, a sustainable slowdown in its sales. i mean that's what we're seeing. that's -- you know the result -- was there too much marketing, did this -- did the robots get into the wrong hands as we head in our documentary the da vinci debate. some of the issues that have been surrounding the company. >> herb, am i right in thinking the fda is basically saying they are not entirely sure whether or not the rate of incidence has gone up or whether it's more

reports of indianapolis dents? >> i think the fda is behind the curve in this one and i think they're basically with the survey coming out just trying to show like they're doing something. where was the fda, you know, as this company was growing like gang busters? that's the big issue. >> okay. herb, you've got a glut ten free stock play for us. you have mentioned it before on "street signs." i understand there is more you would like to give us today? >> i have a piece on this on the street.com today. bolder brands reported earnings and a little miss in terms of what people were expecting but the real issue, when i go through this, i look what the analysts are saying, which is generally positive, the way i read it and they were togging on there about competition from a group which has a number of big brands in the united states. they have a new brand called good-bye gluten and the company's ceoer boulder brands ceo steven hughs was we're not seeing an impact from them. when you start getting this into

the mainstream and you start getting competition, that creates price competition and that's what you have to look at going forward here. and you also have to look the at the bigger issue with gluten free. >> you think it's a fad? you think gluten free is a fad? >> outside of the 1% of the population that has sill lee yak disease and must not eat gluten, the rest is you know, there's really no scientific proof that gluten does or doesn't affect the broader population, doesn't make you feel better and this company and others all forward the fact. >> sounds good gluten free if you don't necessarily need it. >> sounds good. and there's a lot more distribution, more doors and stores taking gluten free product. there's an end point and at the end point with any fad is you get full distribution, and then what happens to the growth and that's what investors will have to figure out with boulder brands going forward. >> some of those gluten free products have higher calories as well. always a lurking evil. >> luckily also almost all

entirely taste-free. >> that's not true. >> it's a joke! >> it's a joke, herb. >> herb, look at your backdrop. you move out west in front of a beach, you're probably -- >> lose your sense of humor. >> probably naked from the waist down and yet still not smiling. >> close. i am smiling. >> there's a smile for us. >> stand up. >> okay. . on a serious note, on this day we honor america's war heros. four-month investigation into the state of america's veteran administration hospitals, shocking, disgraceful and we'll show it to you coming up. >> a 99-year-old veteran dies with no family or friends to attend his funeral, but what happened next is going to literally bring you to tears. the moving story that shows the power of social media and that is next. (vo) you are a business pro.

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president obama paying tribute to millions of men and women who gave service to this country.

>> the department of veterans affairs is the second largest agency in the u.s. government with a budget of more than $150 billion, but there are allegations that the system may be deeply flawed. big bonuses, about $408 million last year alone, given to administrators and officials, some who run frubl troubled va hospitals. take a look at what we found at the va in jackson, mississippi. >> reporter: the va in jackson, mississippi, has the most whistle-blowers to date, seven so far. according to congressional sources and the office of special counsel. or osc. one of those whistle blowers, dr. phyllis holenbeck, still works there. >> everything can be included under the umbrella of unethical, illegal, heartbreaking and life-threatening for the veterans and everything in the care of the veterans starts in primary care.

>> reporter: dr. hollenbeck's claims are substantiated by the osc. this document shows the agency has raised concerns about understaffing and illegal prescribing of narcotics by nurse practitioners, among other things. >> a piece of the wall hit behind me and a piece of the wall this way. >> reporter: 24-year-old c.j. stewart sustained critical injuries when he was severely wounded in afghanistan. he's already had 40 surgeries at military hospitals. but since he is now medically retired, he goes to the va, where his wait time to see a doctor -- >> it took from last august to this september, so actually a little over a year. >> reporter: another big issue at the jackson va is the use of unsterile surgical equipment. we spoke with a former surgeon that worked at the va in jacksonville until last year. he agreed to speak with us on

condition of am anymononymity. >> that was the biggest problem, other patient's bones, particularly drils, we would find pieces of bone on. it shows nobody is taking time or care to clean the instruments. >> reporter: the director of the jackson va, joe battle, got $6500 last year as a bonus. that's on top of his salary of almost $165,000. his boss, rica lewis-payton, director of the south central va network, which includes the facility in jackson, got almost $36,000 in bonuses last year. her salary in 2012, almost $180,000. >> so much money wasted and so much money spent for things that have nothing to do with patient care. >> now, in a statement to cnbc, the va said it had investigated three whistle-blower allegations

about the sterile department, saying jackson has implemented stringent oversight process to ensure surgical medical equipment is cleaned and sterilized according to manufacturer's instructions before each use. concerns are still under kree view. this is just a clip, mannedchec the full documentary on investigationsinc.cnbc.com. it's disgraceful if some cases what's going on here. >> absolutely. >> a great story, 99-year-old veteran coe percival died with no family or next of kin. today hundreds of strangers came together to pay respect, a fit for the hero.

you've heard of house flippers. wait until you hear what the uber rich are flipping now. weekdays are for rising to the challenge.

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with the mobile trader app. from td ameritrade. you've heard of flipping houses. here's the ultimate in elite hard money investments. flipping jets. robert frank is here now. >> the gap between the rich and the super rich has never been greater. i know we all cry over this. the private jet market tells the whole story. let's take a look.

the private jet market as a whole still grounded, dlirys less than half of their 2008 peak and prices for smaller used jets also down by half. the g-560, customers have started flipping them. they retail for $56 billion but some are playing $70 billion to get one on. bernie ecclestone flipped it for $71 million, earning a profit of $6 million. brokers tell me who other unnamed millionaires have flipped their jets. why would someone pay $6 million over retail? if you order it today, you won't get if until the third quarter of 2017. for some it's worth the $6 million to avoid the three-year wait. in three year's time you may be the only millionaire on the tarmac. >> this is when you have, quote/unquote, too much money. >> no such thing. in my world, no such thing of

too much money. >> i'm willing to give it a try. >> a sweet ride. >> seat 36-c on the 737 isn't cutting it anymore. robert, thank you. >> "closing bell" is next. hi, everybody, welcome to the "closing bell." i'm maria bartiromo. today coming to you live from the schwab impact conference in washington, d.c., where the top investment advisers are gathering to try to figure out where this market heads from here. once again, bill, we're in unchartered territory. >> yes, we are. i'm here at the new york stock exchange and it seems this market wants to at least edge higher, as it's doing today. the dow would close at a new high with any positive close today. the s&p needs about a point and a