at 9:00. we're going to be live from barcelona. thanks for watching "street signs." what a week it's been. >> it has been. "the closing bell" is coming up next. and welcome to "the closing bell" on this friday as we round out the week here. i'm kelly evans at the new york stoke where the dow has just turned negative. >> we are watching this market, just turned lower in the past few minutes here. it is expiration day. the s&p had been rallying close to record territory again earlier in the session, but now we've given up those gains, but you never know. with expiration of various options and futures contracts coming up at the close today, we might get a push higher, could be lower. a lot of volume, but we'll see. so don't go anywhere. we'll get to that coming up.

>> now that the hockey match is over, a lot of people are focusing their attention on what's happening in ukraine. plus more fallout of facebook's shocking acquisition. kevin o'leary said he might short facebook because of the deal. coming up, a major facebook investor is here to tell us why he sold every share he owned. in a word he's now a zucker bear. >> his word, not ours. >> bank ceos back in the media glare as the president complains about a minimum wage he says is too low. bank heads are getting big fat raises. how big? well, kayla tausche will be here with the numbers. >> here is where we stand in the markets. the dow a off 10 points. the s&p just fractionally lower. the nasdaq is just barely positive, up about one point, 4,269 is the level as we have

watched it at its highest levels since the year 2000. and the s&p 500 despite turning slightly lower is only 9 points off its closing high. >> how many times can we test that high again before it fails? we'll keep an eye on that. okay, kids, gather around the water cooler. let's kick it around on our closing bell exchange. gina sanchez, david quidlow, ross gerber, dick buridge, and our own rick santelli. i don't think i have forgotten anybody. ross, we've been spending this week wringing our hands over weaker than expected economic data. earnings have looked pretty good but you feel like this is the sweet spot for investors right now. explain that. >> i think the big risk going into this year at least in my mind was higher interest rates, and because rates are actually staying lower, which has surprised me, and maybe that's the weather or weaker economic news, we get the best of all worlds with higher earnings

ultimately and then lower rates which support the market. in the end low rates support the market. so i'm bullish. i like the numbers i have seen and i like the economic growth and a nice cool growth mode. >> all the same, dick, you were saying you were disappointed the correction we got wasn't deeper or more pronounced. it seems people who came in and bought the dips right away. but do you think we could be headed back down here? >> no. we're still bullish at r&b capital management. i'm only disappointed because i do think that people have become too complacent. it's healthy for the stock market to have corrections of 10% to 15%, maybe 20% from time to time. any correction we were prepared to buy aggressively, and our outlook for equities is far better than our view for fixed income or other risk assets like junk bonds or reits. >> gina, to the weak economic data. how much of that is weather

related? there's a debate whether they're using the weather as an excuse for whether it's having a material impact on growth? >> well, i think part of it is weather related, but, remember, there actually is still a fairly weak consumer. you have to look at wage growth and you know that isn't going to be super supportive but that's already baked into the recovery story, and so a lot of what you lost to potential weather losses, some of that is lost forever but some of that is going to get recouped later in the year because it's not going to put those purchases off forever. i actually think that this will work itself out and the growth numbers will sort of continue at a pace of 2.5%, 2.6% growth for the year. that's actually a pretty good place for earnings -- i mean for stocks. you know, earnings obviously are a challenge because sales haven't been that great but that's already known. >> you know, rick santelli, we're going to talk about this a little more later in the show, but the fed finally released the transcripts from its meetings in 2008, some of these important,

critical junctures where they made decisions that in retrospect, of course, look suspect. i wonder today as we stand here and think about janet yellen at the helm of the fed and where stocks are headed, how much confidence we should have in central bankers as well. >> the one guest said interest rates are helping support the market. i think the answer to your question is, is that the reason interest rates fell from their lofty end of the year levels down to 2.58% about a week and a half ago is because of the notion that the economy and the stock market still aren't on the same page. and in terms of janet yellen, i think she understands that. i think ben bernanke understands that. i think they want out of this program. it's not cost-effective. i think in terms of zero interest rate policy, look no farther than today's existing housing data, okay? we can all talk about the weather, but the west didn't have any snow, and first time home buyers at 26% versus a 40% average speaks volumes. so the same issue the president

brought up. he talks about raises at the bank. you know what, it's the very policies on both sides that we debate every day that have caused this. why are the bankers doing so well and main street isn't? because of policies like zero interest rate. give people a little wiig on the their money. >> come on, rick. i don't think that's so true. one of the reasons the west -- >> you don't? then how do we have record earnings and a jobless recovery? record profits -- >> part of the jobless recovery is because of the lack of education and investment in our society -- >> who wants to continue actual more money on education most of which goes to retired teachers -- >> we're hiring more -- >> rick, how do you explain -- >> how do you get so many uneducated people? it sucks. we need to invest in our country is what we need to do.

>> we spent a boat load on education but we don't get anything for it. spending money isn't the answer. doing it right is the answer. >> well -- >> how do you explain, rick, the fact that when you travel and when i travel all over the country, every airline is full? ticket prices are higher. every restaurant in any major city is basically full with a wit list. the underlying economy is a lot stronger than people give it credit for. i really think -- >> why don't we end all the fed programs like yesterday? if that's true, why do we have this ongoing debate forever? even at the current pace of $10 billion a meeting, we're still going to be left with $5 billion of purchases at the end of the year. end it now. i don't disagree with you. >> what else is happening in washington, guys? doesn't the fed here -- and it's interesting over the last couple years, how many times have they k stepped up using the blunt instrument of monitor policy? >> david kudlow, why don't you

jump in. >> i think coming back to the weather related impact on the economy, i think it's been underestimated. when we had the hardest winter in some parts of the country in more than 40 years, we don't really know what the impact is yet until that data shakes out a month or two out. we know auto sales declined in january, the most in more than a year, existing home sales declined, but auto sales now are improving already through the month of february. so i think we're going to look back and see that this was maybe another midcycle slow down like we had in mid 2010, 2011 but we'll make up for it and have an accelerating economy. >> are you hiring and do you have any trouble finding skilled people? >> in the profession that we're in, yes, we are having trouble finding skilled people. >> anybody else? >> no, we have hired 20 people in 2013, and we are ready to

hire another 10 to 20 this year, and we're a small company. we're doing that partly because of the confidence we have, but i will tell you it is hard to find highly skilled people that are ready to make a move. >> i'll say it right now, i'll hire five people right now. send your resumes to gerber kawasaki if you want to be a financial adviser. i'm happy to hire and train you to be in this business. >> good for you. >> it's really hard to find people. >> my hat is off to you. >> ross, what is missing from the candidates? if you're willing to hire people on the spot right now, what is it that you're looking for that you're not getting that walks through the door? >> really, it's simple, a college education. so many people cannot afford to finish their college educations anymore. it's so expensive. student debt is just growing like crazy, and we really need to make college affordable to people. you have to be able to pass securities exams to get into this business. so if you're not really in that position to do that, there's nothing i can do. so it goes back into part of the unemployment problem is that we

have to invest in our future, in our children. it's simple as that. >> but i'll tell you what -- >> and we need curriculums and students who are focused on the profession they're going to pursue. we have students that i talk to that are in their freshman or sophomore year of college that haven't picked their major yet. >> right. >> the common core strategy of the government now? it's deplorable. i'm sorry. and you know what? i went to -- >> you have to lay the foundation generally. you have to lay those general skills. >> rick, where would we be without the government? where would -- >> we would be way better off! >> come on. >> have virtuous cycle -- >> the one thing that's missing here -- >> the problem is that the student loan program is not helping, it's hurting. they should shut it all down. when the price starts to fall because they're all competing for students who can't afford it, we'll see how the dynamics will change.

reagan was right. the problem is the government. they're not here to help. they're here to make health care more expensive, college more expensive. everything they touch is more expensive. mail a letter. >> rreagan was the presiden that began the decline of education in our country. >> i'm going to agree with rick here because i do think that student loans are the last big bubble that does need to burst because that's just a mess. and if you look at what has happened in terms of students' ability to get out, find a job, and pay those loans back, it's a huge, huge problem we rarely talk about. at the end of the day what we're talking about are big structural problems. the need to educate and retrain. remember that for the last ten years or 20 years, we had a huge boom in the construction industry and we ended up sort of rebalancing all of our labor into that industry and ancillary industries and all of a sudden now we need engineers. you don't go from being a construction worker to an

engineer overnight. >> are you saying the people you're looking to hire often can't pass the security exams. >> absolutely, they're not easy. >> nor should they be. >> but at the same time it should be the kind of exam that if you make it to a certain level through some college, you should be able to pass that's exams. >> exactly. if you go to college and graduate, i will get you through the exam. i have gotten so many people through these exams. i have trained it a million times. >> fascinating. >> but you have to have the confidence of going through and getting a college degree. it's a huge confidence booster in people's lives, and we take it for granted, us college educated people, but i have dealt with this over and over again, and it's a huge issue in this country, and we need to address it. >> thanks, gang. that was an energetic -- you thought the hockey game ended. we had it break out just now. thank you, folks. have a good weekend. >> you, too. >> not enough energy for the index to move higher it should be said. >> but we may get some volatility here as we head toward the close because of the expiration coming up of options

and futures contracts. the dow down just three points on rather light volume admittedly. have you seen what gold has done this year? the precious metal has rallied 8% in 2014. the gold miners are up more than 20% off some depressed levels. up next, the ceo of gold corp tells us where he sees prices and his business headed from here. >> where do you think they are headed according to him? we'll hear from somebody who was so put off, so put off by facebook's $16 billion acquisition of what's app, he sold all of his shares in facebook. coming up, bellpoint's david nelson explains why he thinks this move makes him a bear on facebook's ceo. and the federal reserve finally publishing the transcripts of its meeting from the 2008 financial crisis and we're learning some pretty interesting things. we'll get into all of that later on "the closing bell." you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide. i'm beth...

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many stocks wrapping up the week with modest gains but that pales in comparison by the gains in some commodities. jackie has more on that. >> good afternoon, bill. it was a wild week in the

commodities pits here. that's what traders were saying, especially when it comes to natural gas futures. the march contract up over $6, a near 16% gain on the week. this is the contract that will go off the board next week, about you they are saying expect that april contract to be bid up as well because of forecasts for more cold temperatures to come. meantime, we were down in the crude pits on west texas intermediary but up 2% for the week and that's on demand for refined products. that's what traders are saying are keeping prices elevated. let's talk about gold. might have been a good year for gold, but this week bullion pretty much flat. traders are watching next week's economics data and yellen on thursday saying that could move the gold trade. they are looking for a move to the upside but they say it's going to be a slow grind higher. kelly and bill, back to you. >> thanks, jackie. janet yellen will be testifying before the senate banking committee next thursday. that's that delayed testimony because of the -- one of the many storms we've had back east

here. it happens so often, gold is strong this year. it had a very weak year last year. in fact, the miners were the weakest sector in the stock market last year. >> some of the key indexes were off by half. >> and now they're the strongest. we're less than two full months into the year, and the metal's big gain is prompting stock of a gold miner rally. here is weigh in is charles jenness. >> great to see you. >> thanks for having me. >> the gold miners have had in the just a rough 2013 but i think three years now of declines. what makes you think 2014 will be different if you do think so? >> well, i do think so and we've certainly seen it so far. we're up 28% on the year already and we've had so retool our business to take into account the drastic inflation we've seen as we had companies around the

world building gold mines, copper mines, iron ore mines and that resulted in a different inflation rate in our business than generally. i think we have a handle on that now. we understand it, and we are addressing those costs such that our costs of producing an ounce of gold has come down pretty significantly. quarter by quarter, each quarter last year and then again into this year. so the margin growth that our investors are looking for, i think we've set ourselves up for now. >> the outlook for gold prices themselves, you know, the dollar as it goes lower helps support commodities like gold. we know that. but if the fed is going to be tapering and pulling in all the easy money, that presume lably means rates go up, interest rates. the dollar goes up. that could not be good for gold, could it? >> as you know, there's a lot of things that impact the gold price. certainly in the near term what

that financial investor sees is important. and that's primarily tied to the strength of the dollar, u.s. monetary policy, you know, the debate you had before the break as to what's going to happen with qe sooner or later. that will all impact it, but the thing that i have been most interested in has been the tremendous physical demand that we've seen from elsewhere in the world, primarily china. if you just think about it in numbers, last year we saw about 800 tons of gold come out of the etfs worldwide, but almost 700 tons, or 650 tons of that was taken up by new physical demand in china. and that's just a tremendous statistic that shows you that there is really a floor for the gold price. >> we actually see this here, a lot of etfs are amassing gold assets again. can you talk a little bit about demand for your products, where is it coming from, how is that affecting the decisions you make about consolidation? >> well, like i said, the big

demand drivers in gold are the financial investor on the one hand and the physical consumer on the other end. what we've seen over the past year is really a transfer of about 600 tons of gold from the financial investors as represented by the etf into primarily chinese, new middle class consumers who have a cultural affinity for gold. that's not going to change. mr. china grows 10% or 7%, that growth in gold consumption will continue. so we think that's a very bullish sign for our product, and, you know, we continue to be very conservative in the way we run the business, but i'm certainly bullish on the gold prices. >> humor us on the gold price. how high do you think it could go? you guys have to plan for that down the road. where do you believe gold prices are headed here? >> well, we have a strategy of making sure that we don't bet the company on an assumed future price. i mean, we're using $1,300 as

our long-term price, and actually this year's mine plans were done for $1,200 gold. longer term i think we will see $2,000 gold again, and i'm talking in the three to five-year range. i think for this year and maybe the next 12 to 18 months, we've got to get past this qe discussion first before there's a lot of direction in the gold market. so i wouldn't be surprised to see us in the $1,100 to $1,350 or $1,400 range for another year or so. >> charles, thanks so much for your perspective. >> thanks, chuck. >> really appreciate it. great to see you again. >> good to be back. >> want to send it over to dominick include. >> aquan financial is moving higher on news it's deal with wells fargo may be approved by march. new york's top bank regulator indefinitely halted ocwen's purchase of the right to collect

payments of a portfolio of wells fargo. we put in a call to the superintendent for new york's financial services department and have yet to hear back. back over to you. >> big move. thank you, dom. we have about 40 minutes to go until the closing bell, and it looks like the market is turning slightly positive here as we search for direction in the final hour that could be affected, as mentioned, by some of the options expiration that's going on. the dow is at seven points. the s&p just about a point higher and the nasdaq up four. when we come back, we'll hear from a man who is standing right over there and he sold his entire stake in facebook in the wake of the $16 billion of whats app deal. >> sammy hagar will tell us how the winter weather is impacting his restaurant chain. he'll also tell us about his latest venture in the fast

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stocks are on track toned the week in the green as the s&p 500 inches closer to record high. but dom, what is driving the gains today? >> we're going to start off with priceline rising 4% after posting better than expected profits on stronger bookings. then there's groupon which is losing ground after forecasting

a surprise loss for its current quarter as it invests about $25 million in marketing to grow its consumer base. barnes & noble moving higher on news that g asset management wants to buy 51% of the bookstore chain for around $672 million or 22 bucks a share in catch and as an alternative it was offering to buy a controlling stake in barnes & noble's nook reader business for just $5 per share. isis pharmaceuticals is gaining ground after reporting positive data on its treatment for spinal muscular dystrophy in children. we're going to end with facebook falling a bit, just a bit, after hitting a record high on thursday's news it was paying up to $19 billion for mobile messenger service whatsapp. >> speaking of facebook, the company has one less shareholder today. that would be david nelson from bellpoint asset management who sold off of his shares in the wake of facebook's $16 billion

to $19 billion purchase of whatsapp. we're talking about 5,000 shares that david owned. so why did he do that? david does join us here along with ron from jmp securities who despite all this says he's a believer in the deal. david, first to you. was it when you first saw the headline, when you looked through the numbers, or does it reflect something about mark zuckerberg personally? >> it was your second time in the name. it was a great name for us last year. we had just started to initiate the position. i saw the headline and then i started running through the numbers in my head, and we were out that night before the next morning. >> because? >> well, look -- >> it's too expensive -- >> nobody is questioning the strategic fit here. i get that. but at $19 billion this company -- this division, rather, is now worth more than half the companies in the s&p 500, and it beg it's the question, it seems that they think this company is going to sign up every man, woman, and

child on the planet to justify this acquisition. it seems like a tremendous overreach, and in my opinion mark has jumped the shark here. >> where do you think the shares go from here? >> i agree that it is highly stra teemingic. it adds to the portfolio and gets them further and deeper into mobile. i don't think facebook and ceo zuckerberg acquired whats up for the next one to three years. i think it's five to ten-year play. given the dollars it's astonishing but when you think about what it can be to the company i think it's pretty interesting. maybe taking a step back to the here and now, i don't know of another company at least in my coverage universe that's growing as fast as facebook, taking as much share as they are in terms of advertising dollars, and is as profitable. >> i'd like to ask a question. at five to ten years, there's an awful lot time to discount. what i found really extraordinary is on the conference call, you know, the utter lack of detail in terms of

financial metrics, and even in the analysts' community when they ask questions, there was no follow-up. and they pretty much took everything at face value. last time i looked, a stock gives me the right to the prora that share of the earnings stream. show me the money. what is this going to be worth ten years from now? >> that certainly was a question. we don't know about what the monetization can be. i would argue it is probably more services specific going forward. if you think about the web in total and sort of what are the massive properties, what are they valued at today, who has the opportunity to get to that level, i think whatsapp is absolutely there and the opportunity is there. we think about youtube, google maps, google search, facebook all with over a billion users. they can get to that monetization i have confidence given what facebook has done over the past couple years to learn and to be able to add services on top of that. not to mention -- >> is ju was just going to say t

of this comes down to the role zuckerberg plays in this deal. people are divided in thinking he's the new visionary in silicon valley willing to disrupt his company from within and others such as yourself who are saying that you're now more of a zucker bear. and he, frankly, does have the control -- >> i understand the concept but visionaries make mistakes and not everybody is going to turn into a steve jobs, and we're assuming here that he is going to make no mistakes from here on in. 10, 15 years from now if anybody is out there that can tell me what the social media space is going to look -- >> isn't that the point? this reflects he might not have -- >> to me it strikes a little bit of arrogance, a little bit of fear that there's some kind -- a little bit of a turf war here, and when asked the question, how did you arrive at the purchase price, they didn't really have an answer. i got the feeling it was two guys sitting around at a table saying, well, what do you think, 15, 19? $19 billion sounds good, let's

go with that. >> kevin o'leary from "shark tank" was with us yesterday and he said whatsapp is not the only messaging service out there. could i build it for half that price and still receive the economies of scale he's going to get? there is competition in this sector right now. >> there absolutely is, and that's when scale comes no play and whatsapp has that with being the leader. i will end with one reminder. when google bought youtube in 2006, we had a very similar conversation, and the stock worked very well for 2006, '07, and look where it is today. >> where is the price target? >> we're at $82. >> it's at $68 right now. we'll see if you have seller's remorse. >> we'll see. we'll see. i'll be back in a year. >> thank you both for joining us. 30 minutes left in the trading session before options and futures expirations.

up next, we go inside the fed's thinking as the financial crisis unfolded in 2008. find out what fed members were actually saying during these critical closed door meetings when the world's economy was hanging in the balance. some fascinating stuff. >> yes, it was. >> and the heads of the big banks got big raises last year. when we kocome back, we'll discs what's behind the double digit raises and whether the ceos are tone deaf to what's going on in the economy right now. stay with us. full, complete checkup.nds on a the works. because when it comes to feeling safe behind the wheel, going the distance and saving at the pump you want it all. get our multi-point inspection with a a synthetic blend oil change, tire rotation, brake inspection and more for $29.95 or less. get a complete vehicle checkup. only at your ford dealer. tdd#: 1-888-648-602121 tjust waiting to be found. ties tdd#: 1-888-648-6021 at schwab, we're here to help tdd#: 1-888-648-6021 bring what inspires you tdd#: 1-888-648-6021 out there... in here.

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welcome back. well, the day after lehman brothers filed for bankruptcy in 2008, the federal reserve met to figure out just how much trouble the banking system in and the broader economy was in and importantly what they were going to do about it. transcripts of that meeting were released today. >> i urge you to read it. it's fascinating. you might be surprised, there were virtually no curse words used in those meetings, but they did agonize over nearly every detail and each word they would use to make sure the market and the world received the message that they intended. joining us to talk about it, our own jeff cox who has been poring over those documents. ben white, chief economic correspondent for politico, and mark olson who was a fed governor. he's now co-chair of trilliant

risk visors. governor olson, let me start with you. it is clear, this meeting we're talking about happened just after the failure of lehman which turned out to be a watershed moment, but when they met, the federal reserve board members really underestimated the impact that that failure would have on the world's financial system. were you surprised by that? >> somewhat, but i think you have to divide it into two parts. the first part especially when you read bill dudley comments when they were dealing with global liquidity. i think they got that part exactly right, and that was a very important role for the fed to take providing the swap lines, et cetera. they did that extremely well, but i think it's very clear and i think anybody that would read the transcript would say they clearly underestimated what the overall impact would be, and that is reflected in the statement. however, we all know when we're in those meetings that there will be a transcript released -- >> exactly.

>> -- so we're very careful not to use curse words. >> jeff, we'll jump down to you. >> what stood out to me was not only did they not see lehman brothers coming or understand the gravity of what happened with lehman brothers, but there also seemed to be a general lack of appreciation for the slow down in the economy. as late as january when we already were in a recession, they were saying we were not in a recession and that we were probably not going to even go into a recession. so there really seemed to not be an appreciation up until the you know what really hit the fan for anybody to stand up and take notice. >> what about you, ben? >> my first blush was almost exactly that. that you read the sort of january meeting stuff before we get into the worst of it with lehman brothers, and you have janet yellen saying she sees unemployment going to 4% plus. the fed economists saying they see growth picking up again and

unemployment going back to traditional level. ben bernanke is worried about the economy and they go through that series of rate cuts to get from 5% to 2% and then they stopped in september. but i think there was a lack of appreciation of how bad the economy was going into the crisis. i think there was some self-congratulations of where they were in september when they lowered the rates and didn't feel they needed to do much more. ben bernanke says in the september meeting, i think our policies are doing pretty well. some of them were. the bailouts for some of the banks were but the monetary policy wasn't. >> mark, with he know these are fallible humans at the end of the day. it's not as if they're expected to be these all-knowing forces, but reading these minutes reminds you of the fact it's he's 20-plus people gathered around a table thinking through this that are determining the course of a $15 trillion economy and it almost makes you think it really should be more of a market based system and there are lots of people doing work on this, whether it's market based gdp futures or some way of

acting as a check against the intellectual -- >> from your lips to god's ears. >> i think what it reflects in significant part is that the decision making is very model driven, and the models had worked very successfully over a significant period of time and they were continuing to use the models. remember they laid out the three potential scenarios and they were picking from those based on the model simulations, and the model sim lathulations had serv them very well up to that point. and then for the next several years plus, they did not. i think everybody that has looked at recognize that's the fact. i think it's very interesting also that of the choices that people were making, it was either stay where we are or make a 50 basis point jump down. >> i found it really interesting that tim geithner in march -- >> nobody thought a quarter point would make sense. >> tim geithner in march was

admonishing the board members to be very careful about the statements they were making. he didn't want to instill a panic. you never want to see a panic. on the other hand, he didn't seem to have an appreciation for the gravity. it seemed at that point somebody needed to throw up a red flag and say we have a real problem. >> jim cramer was jumping up and down about it in august of 2007 and they were laughing at him at that point. >> you don't want to be seen as a chicken little and overshoot something. >> but let's fast forward this into 2014. we haveplaced so much faith in these guys to do the right thing and to financially engineer our way through a $4.1 trillion balance sheet. and these transcripts tell you that they are fallible, very fallible. >> don't underestimate the impact of the liquidity moves that they made at that meeting

because they were very significant and with the swap lines and with the other points that they made providing liquidity into the system was what kept the economy from absolutely coming and grinding to a halt at that point. >> one possibly final important point on this. there was some concern that these minutes were released pretty late. the last few years we've gotten the five-year transcripts released in january, not april or may or whatever, february where we are now. the thought was maybe there's something embarrassing in the fed. i think there's some embarrassing stuff that they didn't move quickly or see the calamity coming but there's not some smoking gun that said they really blew it or said something really stupid. >> that's true. a lot of people were waiting for that. thank you so much. we have it leave it there. we can keep going and we will. it's an important story. >> read these transcripts if you get a chance. >> i want to send it over to dominick. >> kelly, bill, earlier we told you that ocwen financial was spiking on news its deal with wells fargo would go through by

march. according to an inside mortgage reports, moments ago cnbc spoke to a source close to the matter and have been told that that report is completely and utterly false. so, again, we're going to watch ocn shares. this is very much a controversial call here because of the department of financial services, the top financial regulator in new york again scrutinizing this deal very heavily. kelly, bill, back over to you. >> that's unusual to see that. thank you. it's an important one. >> keep an eye on that stock. >> we have about 15 minutes, a little more to go into the close and the dow at this point is still a little bit negative on the session. so we were holding up until 3:00, holding positive. now though under pressure. >> the nasdaq hit a new 13 1/2 year high earlier today. up next, seema mody tells us what's driving those gains and how long it might take to get back to that coveted nasdaq 5,000 level. and warren buffett's business wire, blocking high speed traitors from getting news

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the nasdaq though is about 800 points shy of its all-time high hitting its highest level lately in 13 1/2 years. >> seema mody, tell us about that rally. >> kelly and bill, it's the resurgence in tech that is helping keep the nasdaq afloat. we're still about 800 points away from the all-time high which was hit in the year 2000 right before the tech bubble burst. in terms of what's moving the index today, you have to start with biotech. we saw a sell-off in the space earlier this year but investors seem to be buying the dip. you look at rejeneron, that stock is up 13%. more customers are taking the diy approach to filing taxes. that's the best performing stock on the nasdaq 100. taking a step back, the tech sector is one of the few sectors that is positive on the year. experts say earnings from the tech sector have been relatively strong. plus, i.t. spend something

improving. that's a boon for the broader tech space. i'll end with looking at the biggest winners on the nasdaq 100. a lot of those momentum players, tesla up 40%, netflix up 17%. >> all right. thank you, seema. heading to the close with 13 minutes left in the traysiding session. we're down five points on the dow. >> in the meantime, obamacare's rollout has been anything but smooth, but one wall street bank says a clear winner from the law and its health care, i.t. stocks. rbc capital markets david francis is here to tell us which names could get the biggest boost to their bottom line. we'll be right back. because when it comes to feeling safe behind the wheel, going the distance and saving at the pump you want it all. get our multi-point inspection with a a synthetic blend oil change, tire rotation, brake inspection and more for $29.95 or less.

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standard with our auto policies. so call liberty mutual at... today. and if you switch, you could save up to $423. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? going into the last ten minutes, the dow is starting to move lower here. this is the low of the day now down 20 points. joining us, david darst, a senior adviser with morgan stanley. somebody said we're in a sweet spot for invests. earns have been pretty good. >> 8%-plus. >> but the economic reports have not been so good, they've been pretty soft. that keeps rates low, more growth potential, i'm not going

to do your work for you, but is this a sweet spot for investors. >> you're spot on. this week the market has acquitted itself very well. you had the housing starts. you had the philly fed, the empire -- >> all weak. >> all came in under. china came in with a 48.3 number. well below 50 yet the market has done very well. that's a good sign. it means people want to put money to work. we put $150 billion into equities, individuals have, into equity mutual funds over the last six months after having taken out $500 billion over the last five years. this week is a very important week. you have the durable goods orders on wednesday. tuesday is the case-shiller home prices next week, and then you have on friday the fourth quarter gdp number which was 3.2%, it will be revised down to 2.5%. >> you know what's amazing? can we throw up the itb?

amid all of the housing problems that we've just been discussing, it's at new year-to-date highs, and it points to a sense that people are looking through whatever the choppiness is we're seeing in the macro picture. it's not that markets are always right but it's a telling thing. >> it's a great point. the price action of the home builders has been really great. they're looking through this. the long term average for housing starts is about 1.4 million and we're only in the mid hundreds of thousands. >> are we whistling past the graveyard right now? are we rationalizing a problem? >> if there's a problem, and i would be remiss if i didn't say our solidarity with the people of ukraine. >> absolutely. >> if there's a problem, it could be geopolitical, believe it or not, and venezuela, those folks are also -- their voices are screaming to be heard and they're being repressed. that having been said whistling past the graveyard is if japan

cannot bring off their reform. if china has a much slower than expected growth. china seems to be calming down. if either of those start to surface, i think you'll see more monetary easing by japan, by europe, and even by the fed. so we always have the ability to take your foot off that monetary break that we're gently applying right now. that's what i think is the ace in the hole for this market and the market wants to basically follow earnings, bill and kelly, but it's also that extra boost that could come from monetary sim plus. >> always good to see you my friend. >> have a great weekend. >> we'll come back with the closing countdown in a moment. will we finish higher for the week? maybe not. >> we'll see. after the bell, rock legend sammy hagar is here to talk food and booze. he owns several restaurant chains as well as premium line of rum. is he seeing signs of strength

by u.s. consumers? we'll ask him and you won't want to miss that interview. it's all coming up. you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide. everybody k. well, did you know pinocchio was a bad motivational speaker? i look around this room and i see nothing but untapped potential. you have potential. you have...oh boy. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. i'm bethand i'm michelle. and we own the paper cottage. it's a stationery and gifts store. anything we purchase for the paper cottage goes on our ink card. so you can manage your business expenses and access them online instantly with the game changing app from ink. we didn't get into business to spend time managing receipts, that's why we have ink. we like being in business because we like being creative, we like interacting with people. so you have time to focus on the things you love.

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became big business overnight? ♪ like, really big... then expanded? ♪ or their new product tanked? ♪ or not? what if they embrace new technology instead? ♪ imagine a company's future with the future of trading. company profile. a research tool on thinkorswim. from td ameritrade. welcome back. heading toward the close. about 2:30 left. expiration day, you're going to get some distortions in this market with all the players getting in and out of options

and futures contractins as they expire. the impact it's having today is to the downside. the dow setting lows for the session. the industrial average down 32 points. let's see what the dow did this week. we had more volatility, you know, up day on tuesday and wednesday, down day into thursday, and now we've come back a little bit here, but sam, you were just reminding me, we're coming up on a pretty big anniversary here for this bull market. >> yes, we certainly are. march 9th we'll celebrate the fifth birthday of this bull market. >> march 9th of 2009, what we affectionally called the mark haines bottom as he called it. >> and we have it on tape. >> yes, we do. >> what's interesting is that even though fewer than 30% of all bull markets make it into year six, it's like demographics. you make it to 75, you have a great chance of making it to 85. if you have made it to the 5th birthday, you have a 60% chance

of making it to the end of the six. >> this has been a long bull market, and in that time we've had very few pullbacks, 10% or even more than that. most of them have been 5% and then back we go. >> actually, we had a four-year cycle low in 2010, down 16%, and year three of the bull market, which was 2011, we had resetting of the dials being down 19.4. because we didn't crash and burn, that was like a touch and go. it gave us a little more life. >> you think we could retest some short-torm lows here. >> i think so. i think we'll possibly see some backing and filling over the next couple weeks, maybe digest some of these gains. we're in a little bit of overbought territory, but the 1850 level i equate to a rusty door. it will take several attempts before it finally swings open. i think we approach the 1900 level before we see a bigger decline. >> good to see you, sam.

thanks for joining us. that will do it for the first hour. as we go out, we're down just a fraction for the week for the dow and the same thing for today as well. stay tuned, much more to come. got a great panel today and singer sammy hagar joins kelly evans and company on the second hour of "the closing bell." have a good weekend, kelly. >> and welcome to "the closing bell" hour two on this friday. i'm kelly evans. here is how we are finishing the day and the week and almost the month. the dow jones industrial average moving decidedly lower in the last hour and especially at the last minute here as trades pile up, and it could have something to do with options expiration. we're off 30 on the dow. 16,102 is the level. off 4 on the nasdaq. holding up relatively well, 4,263. the s&p 500 shedding 4 points at the close, 1,836 is the level there. let's get to it with today's

panel. natalie morris, evan newmark and our own kayla tausche and morgan brennan. and also with us, bob pisani. bob, i'm going to you first. what jumps out? >> we had comments from bullard in the middle of the day that seemed to imply the economic news has been soft but he said we're not going to change. i would have thought that would have been somewhat supportive of the market. volume has been pretty good. it's an options expiration but not enough to really support the market overall. i think the bottom line is it's the great disconnect. economic news a little discounting but the market is holding up very well. >> we talked about this in the beginning of the last hour. newmark, that's still a winning formula for stocks? >> it doesn't feel right. look, it just does not feel that good, kelly. the economic news has been mediocre. >> right. >> earnings have generally been kind of mediocre. the only reason the market is

where it is right now is because of the fed. you take the fed out of the equation, and i think the market has a long way to go. >> but they're not really out of the equation. you know the second it looks like growth is stumbling or markets are tumbling, that support is still there. >> how much longer, kelly, can we go through this? that's my question for you. how much longer can you -- >> you can hate it but you're also going to be wrong. >> what? >> right? you can -- isn't the point it's like fully invested bears. everyone hates this market but it doesn't give you a lot of choices if you want to -- >> find for me the argument in which the stock market goes up another 10% from here. >> okay. >> what are you going to base it on? are you just -- because janet yellen occasionally says some nice cryptic words that make you feel good, kelly evans. >> you know what it's going to be? it's going to be all these pension funds and institutional money that have to make 8% a year, they'll pour it into credit that will support equity

buybacks. natalie, what is your take? did facebook pay too much for whatsapp? >> it's really interesting because we're talking about paying more per user, and if they have 450 million users and only 40% of them are brand new, so those people haven't even paid one single dollar yet. so not only are you paying per user $1 per user, 350 million users, that's only $350 million, that's a lot of goodwill in that equation. >> anyone here use whatsapp? >> i used it once. one international -- >> i get e-mails through our family e-mail address and i immediately delete them that say whatsapp. i can't even believe this deal happened. it's shocking. >> why is it shocking? you don't use the product snp. >> i don't use facebook either. >> so how can you say it's shocking? >> you need really fancy friends. when you have friends in different countries and you're

very global -- >> when i lived abroad when we were in london, all of our friends used whatsapp. that was the mode of contact if you were trying to meet up with someone because it was free. it's a really great technology, but i do think that the strategy of paying for the user before you know how to make money from the product, especially at such a rich valuation, does call into question what exactly facebook is going to do with it but we'll leave it to mark zuckerberg to figure it out. i'm going to redefine us at not consumers but users. >> there's clearly excessive valuations in some tech stocks and i agree with that. there's not really what's going on. there's massive amounts of money coming into the u.s. stock market. the whole market overall is not only holding up, key parts of the market like health care are going up dramatically in the last several weeks. people are looking for alternatives. obviously money is coming out of emerging markets to a certain extent, but whatever is going on, the u.s. is clearly a

favorite spot for equity investing right now. >> good point. i want to bring "fast money" trader jon najarian into this conversation. dr. j, what's your take? >> well, i actually like the deal. i like the deal because i like how aggressive zuckerberg is, and he knew that google was in there bidding for this. he knew google wanted it as a defensive move against him. he's got the cash as well as an inflated stock. i thought it was a smooth move on his part and we'll see. again, this isn't going to be decided in a week or in ten days, kelly. this is something that's going to play out over years. >> john, is it possible that five years from now we're going to look back on this deal and go, boy, what a great deal? >> yeah. it's very possible. >> didn't we say that about youtube over a decade ago? >> what was said about skype. microsoft and skype. that worked out really well. >> keep in mind --

>> you have senior living home merger today, all stock. . you have facebook using its stock to buy whats up. when a company is willing to use its stock as currency, that's a powerful signal to the market. there's a story in "the wall street journal" that's looking at the increases in daily volume at td ameritrade, e trade, scott trade saying the volume on daily trades is up 30% in the last month. people are really feeling this market. the question is maybe they're getting in too late. >> by the way, these are all what you call tells. they're all tells. they're all little pieces of data. when you say to yourself, are you going to look back, i got a bargain. i bought facebook when it was a $180 billion valuation. >> evan, to your point about skype, skype had already been passed around three times at that point. so i don't think that's the comparison you want. if you're talking about something that's already been rehashed, let's talk about

myspace. if somebody went out and paid $19 billion for myspace, that would be something that's already been passed around. but this is something that nobody else has. nearly half a billion folks that go there. 70% of them every day. >> aol back in the day, they only had 27 million users when it was bought by time warner. >> that worked out real well for time warner. >> at least it's the same type of business. it's a communication type business. it's not like google and youtube. we get it. >> what about the company we haven't mentioned yet, one of the most valuable companies, and that's apple. and you have got some others saying this is a company that spent $14 billion on share buyback while facebook went out and spend $16 billion to $19 billion on acquisitions. dr. j, which company would you rather own? >> facebook. they're more aggressive. how much money is apple going to

make on buying its own shares back? the answer is if it goes up, i guess they saved themselves some money. but apple is not making anything building for the future by buying its own shares back. facebook is at least making that attempt rather than hoarding $140 billion in cash. >> all right. >> it's really apples to oranges, too. appling is a semi mature company. facebook still has great potential. >> what's that -- say that again, bob? >> i said apple is almost a fully mature company and facebook -- >> but it doesn't have to be. >> -- is still moving in its infancy i think. >> so thane we're not comparing apples to apples. >> if you're apple and you want to be perceived as that company, that amazon that keeps reinventing itself, that facebook, how many people are now talking about what a visionary mark zuckerberg is? you're not really hearing that kind of conversation about tim cook? does that matter? >> of course it does, but the space they're in, facebook is in, the social media space,

that's the explosive growth. apple was in a hardware space where they invented essentially the iphone and exploded the whole idea of hardware and using a mobile phone. that's a different time and a different space. >> all right. >> if they were in social media right now, apple was in that space, then i would say they have a fabulous future but they're not really. >> well, i downloaded the whatsapp app yesterday so that has to be a classic sign of something. >> probably not a good sign, kelly. >> for anyone involved. we got to move on at this point because we have some news now. a former director at evercorps is being charged with insider trading and our very own david faber joins us with details. >> thanks a lot. you know, this is a name that i know from having covered mergers and acquisitions. i remember having talked to him when he was at cfsb. a well-known banker in resources and mining companies, had moved from cfsb to evercorps, a senior banker, charged this morning by

the s.e.c. and the u.s. attorney with insider trading, arrested, in fact, for having allegedly done so through a number of accounts. in fact, in the complaints both from the s.e.c. and the u.s. attorney they cite trading that seems to have been on behalf of his girlfriend, perhaps to generate resources for child support in a number of different instances. here you see it right there. tay tan yum, this is a deal that he became aware of through his job, trading ahead of that, of a deal for it to be acquired in a takeover. as well he was apparently trading in stock of his own company after having become aware of a better than expected quarter that evercore was about to put up and also traded in shares of westway, a client of his. this is according to the complaint we saw today. interesting we don't often see, of course, senior investment bankers at well-known firms arrested and charged with insider trading as is the case

here for the 55-year-old mr. hixon. no word from him or his attorney. of course, he was fired apparently from evercore at the end of last month. back to you. >> and, david, that's precisely why i was going to ask what this means for evercore and perhaps too early to tell. >> i wouldn't necessarily draw too much attention to it. they put a statement out saying in their 20-year history as a firm they have never encountered anything like this. it does not appear he was exacting in any way with the knowledge of management. if that was the case clearly that would be a different story. in this case when they apparently learned of it, they terminated him, although we will certainly watch the story to see what develops from here. >> all right. david faber with the latest important details on that one. david, thank you. and have a great weekend by the way. much more ahead on "the closing bell." up next, how much will this help to level the playing field. warren buffett's business wire cutting direct fees of news releases and economic reports to

high frequency traders. we'll explore what it means for main street after the break. plus, we'll get you up to speed on the latest developments in ukraine. the country's president and opposition leader siping a deal to end the crisis but will it stick. david gregory joins us in just a few minutes. we'll be right back. thinking up game-changing ideas, like this: dozens of tax free zones across new york state. move here. expand here. or start a new business here... and pay no taxes for 10 years. with new jobs, new opportunities and a new tax free plan. there's only one way for your business to go. up. find out if your business can qualify at start-upny.com

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welcome back. free markets, fair markets, an important theme here. warren buffett's business wire deciding to cut off high frequency trading firms from direct feeds of economic reports, a service they used to pay big bucks for. eamon javers has more now. >> that's right. this one follows up on a "wall street journal" report and berkshire hathaway owned business wire saying it's no longer going to allow hft firms to buy direct access to the press releases it puts out. "the wall street journal" reported that the way the high frequency traders were getting an advantage here was buying the press releases directly from business wire, and what they were doing was getting a jump on the general public which got it from news services. so business wire would send it to dow jones, for example, and it would take a few beats for dow jones to retransmit that press release with potentially market moving news to its

audience. that's how the hfts were getting ahead of the general public. interestingly, in the press release saying they consulted specifically with warren buffett himself permly so making that very clear that that was a buffett-driven decision. take a look at this chart from just about this time yesterday and what you're seeing is trading in acacia search corporation. that red line is 4:00. that's when most of us think that the market actually stops trading. and you see the dots going down the middle of the chart right after 4:00. that is a huge spike down in trading in acacia after 4:00 but before the market has closed. in this case the market didn't close until about 160 milliseconds after 4:00. when acacis released their earnings, people were able to trade on that 127 milliseconds after 4:00 p.m., beat the close

and have the trades count. that's the kind of time scale we're talking about here. >> eamon, just to be clear, what you're saying is even though these technically happened the close, they counted as trades during the trading session that day? >> exactly. what nan neex is seeing right n is that these trades happened about 127 milliseconds after 4:00 p.m. yesterday, but the closing cross doesn't happen until many milliseconds after that. so the actual close of the market is happening a little bit after 4:00 and in that tiny, tiny window of time these guys are able to make these trades reacting to the news. the news came out at 4:00 yesterday. so it looks very clear that somebody is reacting here in a very, very speedy time frame. this stock according to nanex tracked down 3% in 127 milliseconds in reaction to the earnings report that was put out at 4:00. when companies are releasing these earnings reports they think they're putting them out after the bell. they might not exactly be putting them out after the bell. that all according to nanex.

>> stay with us if you will. i want to bring dr. j back into this conversation, john najarian, of course. john, your position on this for a long time has been that high frequency trading is unfair, it disrupts the market. so i would imagine then you welcome this move, this change over at business wire. >> yeah. and in particular, kelly, coming from warren buffett who has said your reputation is everything. that's what he said when he stepped in to take over -- or to head up solomon brothers when they were found to have been trading ahead of some of the bond information and so forth. your rep tutiutation really is everything. and if warren buffett owns business wire and they are feeding high frequency traders this information ahead of somebody else, well, that's too much edge. i think eamon would agree there are a lot of ways this could be abused. that example that he used from yesterday is one of those. but there are a whole bunch of

bad things about high frequency trading that i disagree with. >> what do you make of that example specific to yesterday. i don't want to conflate two different things. in the one case we're talking about paying for information milliseconds before the public gets it. in another we're talking about booking trades incredibly quickly and taking advantage of what almost seems to be a time dislocation to book them. >> i think, number one, the public, of course, will never be able to trade as fast as professionals. that's just not going to happen, at least not in our lifetimes, kelly, that they can trade at the same speed. so professionals, whether they're on wall street or chicago or san francisco will be able to trade faster. that's a given. but to give them even more of an edge, to get them market moving information ahead of or faster than anybody else, that's ludicrous. that's what eric snyderman basically was pressuring warren buffett's company on. he did the same pressure and

applied that to reuters and both of them now have backed off and my hats off to them for doing that. >> eamon, last quick word? >> i want to say that the berkshire hathaway owned business wire has announced it's going to stop doing this but they won't say they have actually stopped doing that as of right now. i tried to pin them down today on exactly when this is going to stop or has it already stopped -- >> interesting. >> -- and they said they will not answer that question. they said they're going to stick by their statement of yesterday -- >> but they will at some point tell us, correct? >> presumably, presumably. we asked them today, has it already stopped or if not, when is it going to stop? and they declined to answer the question. >> it sounds like they're -- it's like these slices of time in past and present and future. i'm getting all confused. >> it's very confusing. >> it's such an important topic. dr. j, really appreciate it. olympic curling is coming up at 5:00 p.m. get that second screen ready because john and the "fast money" freestyle are streaming live on fastmoney.cnbc.com at

5:00 p.m. it's a done deal in ukraine? maybe not so much. there are doubts even at this early hour. up next, the latest on the situation where the bloodshed has ceased for now, but the current government and opposition leaders signing a compromise agreement the outcome of which remains far from "meet the press" moderator david gregory weighing in on the high stakes when we come back. 40,000 sets of eyes, or a million sleepless nights. whether it's building the world's most advanced satellite, the space station, or the next leap in unmanned systems. at boeing, one thing never changes. our passion to make it real. ♪

welcome back. deadly protests in kiev,

ukraine, taking center stage this week. a deal to end the crackdown on protesters has been signed by that nation's president and the opposition party. the big question, will both sides honor that agreement? david gregory, moderator of "meet the press," is following the story. he joins us now. david, it's good to see you. i think a lot of people certainly around here are focusing in on just how serious the situation between the u.s. and russia this could he is escalate into. >> whatever is happening at least for now, and it's been a good day by all accounts, the demonstrations have stopped, the bloodshed has stopped, and that's obviously very good, is this an agreement that will be looked up to? we don't know the answer. but what are the penalties for russia? the united states has facing a reality where russia has yet

again used its influence and its sphere of influence to really be an architect of this protest. so what does the u.s. do about that beyond ukraine when the fact that it's also russia that's being such a road block to any progress in syria? >> senator john mccain has been pretty strident already in this regard. he says, quote, this is the most naive president in history. he also says the naivete is stunning. putin he says has played us so incredibly. is he wrong? >> well, there's no question that i think putin has filled a vacuum here. american foreign policy has been i think without a great deal of definition in some of these areas where you have democratic protest, whether it's in egypt or in other parts of the globe. we see it in syria where it's

such a difficult situation and this president declared a red line and then stepped back from it and didn't get involved, and he's getting criticized by allies who say what is it that you're actually for? in this regard standing up to putin, the reality is putin -- russia doesn't really represent a big strategic threat to the united states. it is more of an irritant, but at what point does he cross the line in his own vision of preserving russia as some kind of super power, which it's not even though it has nuclear weapons, projecting his influence in a way that hurts the international community. >> gary cassparov was tweeting and calling president out for these red lines that really mean nothing in his view and the view of others. it makes you wonder what the obama administration is going to do. how does it address this issue? what is the framework for dealing with an issue like ukraine? >> well, i think what the united states will look at is what it

ultimately wants in that region. they want to be able to keep russia at bay, where they want russia's help. i think there's a recognition, and again it's been heavily criticized, but that russia's got interests and trying to humiliate russia off the world stage is not a way to get vladimir putin to cooperate in areas where the united states wants cooperation. in the case of ukraine, i think that anybody would look at this from the west and say we'd like ukraine to be more in the western orbit, to be a part of the european union, to be a robust economy. they could add political and economic stability to the european commune, that that would be a really good thing. that's where the u.s. interest is. the question is how hard do they push an economic and political solution? at this point it looked like the president was really dug in on making sure the military didn't get involved in cracking down on protesters. so far so good in terms of what he meant.

>> yeah, even the sanctions which mccain and murphy i think in connecticut are calling for, look, ukraine finds itself in a tough situation in the first place because it needs aid. it was turning to russia. if we push sanctions that kocou only undermain mine their ability. you can be sure to catch more, much more of david gregory coming up this sunday on "meet the press. "he'll be joined by national security visor susan rice. up next, forget income stagnation at least for bank ceos. plus a wall street firm initiating coverage of stocks that could win big from obamacare. you'll want to catch this list. we'll be right back. capital to make it happen? without the thinking that makes it real? what's a vision without the expertise to execute it...

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welcome back. 2013 was a very good year for bank ceos. x compensation for top executives increased substantial for at citigroup, goldman sachs and jpmorgan. a lot of people want to know why the big increase. >> so the profits rose substantially at all these banks which is the benchmark that a

lot of the boards are going to be looking at here and also the stocks rose in most cases. the stocks more than doubled in a lot of these banks. you think of bank of america and citigroup, you have executives that are really entrenched in a big turn around effort. the one that surprised a lot of people, jamie dimon, $20 million in a year where the net income actually fell and the bank paid out more than $20 billion in legal fees over the course of full year 2013. but when you think about it, a lot of these compensation packages are in stock. so you're really incentivizing the executive to continue the company on a course where that value is going to go up. dimon's pay package was $18.5 million, no small potatoes there, but it was mostly in restricted stock he will get over the course of several years. we talk about silicon valley and whether there's a double standard -- >> we were talking earlier about schmidt taking home $100 million in pay after earning billions in stock. no one was freaking out about

that. >> but also we talk about these banks as regulated ewe 2iutilii you. not only is compensation down from the crisis, but i just did a back of the envelope search for a couple utility executives, pg&e, the latest compensation from 2012, $28.5 million. so even the utility executives still make more than the wall street executives which is saying something. it's all about the optics. >> kayla is doing the impossible. she's making you the viewer feel sorry for a bunch of wall street ceos. >> there was another survey out this week indicating that finance had the lowest trustworthiness among the american public. is finance like any other industry or is it not? with the memory of 2008 still burning, the answer is it's not. so that raises all these interesting questions about pay and incentives and how protected the system is and whether we trust these institutions to be

stewar stewards. our financial system. >> these are not angels, but being the ceo of a fortune 500 company you will be compensated well. if you look at the bls data from the governor, if you're a ceo of a company you're making a couple hundreds of thousands. but if you're running these big companies you're going to make in the tens of millions of dollars. that's a fact of life. >> the missing element is the institutional shareholder voice. and the reason why jamie dimon a able to give him a 74% pay raise, it obviously has to go to the compensation committee on the board, is because the institutional shareholders stand behind jamie dimon and -- >> warren buffett said, i would give him a raise. it's not apples to apples, but there are a lot of people who will have plenty of support. >> the bigger issue i think is really the compensation ratio for the overall bank and that is the key thing that the

institutional shareholders are looking at. and if you look at with james gorman and what he's doing at morgan stanley -- and i notice in your numbers he was taking the lowest amount or might be taking the lowest amount -- >> we don't have cash bonuses yet. just stock bonuses. >> he has been actually cutting pay across the board at morgan stanley trying to boost the returns to the shareholders and, you know, the truth is that's what they should really be focusing on much more whether they pay themselves an extra couple million. >> morgan, what were you going to say? >> when you look at ceo compensation for last year, not a single bank ceo was on that list, not even close. >> you mean in terms of the top paid. >> top paid executives in 2012. that's one point. the second point is, again, it's all relative. we're talking about restricted stock. stock payments. we're not talking about all cash. and when i used to work at forbes, we looked at billionaire files for the forbes 400 and we looked at restricted stock very carefully because a lot of times

that didn't factor into how we valued somebody's net worth. very different than a cash bonus. >> and it's not quite so nonsensical now because they're all within, you know, a couple hundred -- or a couple million of one another. it's not like one person is way out there and an outlier. you know the old saying, you make within 5% of the people you congregate with. it's not quite so crazy. >> talking about larry ellison in the commercial break, he might be an outlier. >> some of the bank ceos, you're hanging nout davos, hanging out with multibillionaires. some of these guys are very well off. blankfein is a well off individual -- their peer group is other fortune 500 ceos and the reality is they are among that peer group not the highest paid. >> you're keeping up with the dimons. >> but it's a question of how much do you pay a ceo in finance today that's not necessarily as much as some of the other institutions we talked about.

you want to retain talent, you want to have the best people working and all of that, but you don't want to draw the ire of regulators who have to approve your capital distribution plans, who are looking over every piece of your business. i think what's interesting this year and this quarter, they're all trying to find that sweet spot. >> and the sweet spot is really hard to find. you're seeing a lot of disparity between some of these pay packages based on the performance of the company, what the regulators have said to them, and how much they have to set aside for their capital. i don't know. i just think that looking at some of these utility numbers is really stark. it is all about the optics. this is an industry that's under such fire it's paying its executives less than the electric grid companies. >> really quick question to natalie, do you think silicon valley pay has become more of an issue, more outsized, more -- are we going to look back and start to say, this was the moment where the pay packages just got egregious? >> well, we also have to remember that silicon valley is a bit more hippyish.

some of the perks that are used in banking are not always used in silicon valley, but that being said, no one is freaking out about it yet, so it seems to be keeping pace with the growth of these companies, and -- >> share prices of doubling -- when your share prices are doubling or tripling, it's a lot easier to pay people a lot of money. >> and you're not systemic. at the end of the day, you're not too big to fail, we think. , see what is clicking at the top of the hot list. plus sammy hagar is coming up. his food business spans from kennedy airport in new york to the island of maui. find out if profits have fallen prey to frozennomics. we'll be right back. tdd#: 1-888-648-6021 out there... in here. tdd#: 1-888-648-6021 out there, tdd#: 1-888-648-6021 there are stocks on the move. tdd#: 1-888-648-6021 in here, streetsmart edge has tdd#: 1-888-648-6021 chart pattern recognition tdd#: 1-888-648-6021 which shows you which ones are bullish or bearish. tdd#: 1-888-648-6021 now, earn 300 commission-free online trades.

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and 5 lines would be $175 a month. plus you can add a line anytime for $15 a month. sharing's never been better for business. ♪ welcome back. lots happening. our website heating up and not because the temperatures finally are, too. what's on top today? >> we had that big detroit news about them filing their bankruptcy plan. well, our very own john did a little spe lunging through the records and he found out that bad bond bets are still out there and there are a bunch of cities and municipalities that are being plagued by them. he went and he found about 73 cities, municipalities, and that kind of thing, they still have over 500 interest rate swap bets out there. that's what tanked detroit. very scary story and our readers love the scary stories.

my number two, ben white. he was talking about the fed with you. he wrote us a column though about the obama budget and how he feels it is doa, that is dead on arrival, when they put it out in early march. that's because obama withdrew the little give to the gop on social security so they're not likely to talk about it. they've got a little agreement to tide them over for a year. everybody is looking at the election. budget stories usually don't do that well for us. >> i'm surprised that's number two. >> i have a feeling it's because of the letters doa in the headlines. finally, my favorite feature of the day. we took a look at the rare earth industry in north korea and how china, which is building a lot of electronics that rely on rare earth, is going into that and helping them develop it, sort of tightening the ties between north korea and china. once again, another scary thing that our readers just love. that story has been grabbing traffic right and left ever since we put it up.

>> you always have to follow the money. try to find a positive one next time. >> we'll try. >> have a good weekend. allen wastler. a wall street firm starting coverage on stocks that could get a huge boost from obamacare. the list you need to know about is next. so we're up early. up late. thinking up game-changing ideas, like this: dozens of tax free zones across new york state. move here. expand here. or start a new business here... and pay no taxes for 10 years. with new jobs, new opportunities and a new tax free plan. there's only one way for your business to go. up. find out if your business can qualify at start-upny.com

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welcome back. rbc capital markets now initiating coverage on health care information technology stocks. the firm citing some real economic impact of obama care saying it's creating big opportunities in this space and it's naming names. with us is rbc analyst david francis. it's great to have you with us. so what are your top picks in this sector? how much of a fill up will obamacare be? >> thanks for having me. you know, the trends we're looking at in the marketplace are really being masked by some of the headline issues as you look at what's going on with obamacare and some of the issues they've had with the healthcare.gov website and people losing their insurance, being kicked off insurance roles, that's getting a lot of media play but that's masking bigger underlying trends in the marketplace which are essentially seeing health care dollars for the first time being moved over to the consumer, for them to have control over that

spend. and from our perspective that creates a huge new market dynamic. >> i notice here you're saying actually that as this all plays out, we're going to have a google of health care in the shape of web md. >> that's our top pick. we think web md is uniquely positioned to become essentially the google of health care. because it is the dominant brand in the space with over 150 million unique users per month coming to visit with an over 3 billion page views per quarter now in the most recent quarter. web md is uniquely positioned with the traffic that's coming to the site to provide value-added products and solutions to these consumers that aren't capable, again, of managing their health care spend with the information technology tools that they have at their disposal today. >> want to bring the panel in on this.

do you guys use web md? >> i do, but it's really just a hypochondriac's paradise. >> don't you think that's what google is? >> my wife is going to take offense to that. be careful. >> look, i just want to know, do people use web md other than self-diagnosing? >> well, if you look at the business model today, it's an advertising driven business model today, about 80% of the revenue comes from the public portal that you and i all interface with and that we know very well. but if you look at where the market is going in terms of consumer traffic being driven to web md, the opportunities for them to lever that platform in the direction of providing price transparency services, quality of data -- quality of provider services and other things that consumer need to better manage their health care, there's nobody better positioned in the marketplace to take advantage of that than web md. >> i haven't been really that thrilled with web md's mobile offerings yet, and i had two

babies in the last three years so i use web md baby and basically it always just says call your pediatrician, but what i do see is this trend to empower the consumer to find out what's wrong with them and then take that data to their doctor. in fact, i just had a call this week with a company called glow that is fertility prediction, and they're working now with companies so that they're making this as an offer so that you can take your own health into your own hands. and i think that maybe is more indicative of the trend of like the quantified self. >> how can you play this? >> to that end, web md is moving in that direction. the company late last year bought a company called avato which is in that patient/physician connectivity space where as you're well aware again from a lot of headlines, privacy and security of patient data is a big issue in the health care i.t. space and web md recognizing again the need to connect the consumer with their physician has bought and is integrating that kind of a tool so that the physician and the

consumer can interact more appropriately and again drive more efficiency in the marketplace for both people. >> can we talk also about e-health and how you view that important business here, too, as this whole transition takes place? >> another great company, e-health is essentially, they built the health care exchange before there ever was a health care exchange. it has been in the business for 50 years now. offering to the individual market. the company's in the process of building private exchanges to go after the small group market as well. it's a uniquely well-positioned company, as the only folks that have been doing that for a long period of time. it's a difficult task and an expensive and time-consuming task. >> all right, and they're potentially going to win here as mentioned.

this is one of those things, politics aside, people want to know how to make a money and this is way to think about it. thank you. well, rocking the business world, sammy hagar made 100 million there are from his tequila business, now he's looking iffer a billion-dollar idea, he may have found it. he's up next with the latest business adventures. will he keep the shades on? [ children laughing ] move to the country, and live a long, happy life together where they almost never fight about money. [ dog barks ] because right after they get married, they'll find some financial folks who will talk to them about preparing early for retirement and be able to focus on other things, like each other, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. it's just common sense. so ally bank really has no hthat's right, no hidden fees.s? it's just that i'm worried about, you know, "hidden things." ok, why's that? well uhhh...

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. . . . . . double the screen time. double the fun. catch the latest curling action right here next on cnbc. that tablet "fast money freestyle," melissa, what's in store? >> this is the last our freestyle, kelly, we have the ceo of the company that google's partnering up with to make your smart yn phone experience 3-d. we have doing fake commercial breaks, arguably the most fun part of the show, you won't believe what we have planned for you tonight on "fast money."

we'll see you guys in a couple of minutes. >> see you later. okay, before we go tonight, we got van halen, sammy, hagar, to talk to, he has a red-hot line of rum. you know his sammy beach bar and grill. sammy hagar joins us live from miami where he's attending the south beach food and wine festival, has this weather been good business? >> oh, thank you. as far as new york, the storms -- the new york beach bar and grill, it's jam packed, the fans are all posting things on my website. saying thank you, we're sitting here, eating burgers. the people in maui isn't effected by this.

>> you have had the maui wowi going on. what's next for you? >> well, i'm really -- i'm really excited about sammy's beach bar rum because it's so pearl. you know, everyone says, you know, i'm a wine enthusiast, everybody says, why don't you wine? i think i can make the best rum in the world. so, i really i'm excited a about this rum project, because it's winning all of these awards. rum that's for mixing. try it straight. they drink it straight. they go, wow. >> you're converting the country to straight rum drinkers. >> it's a fun drink. >> it is gluten free. >> i want to have a word with sammy's chief marketing officer,

i want to know how come there's not rum on our desk here, how come there's no rum on our desk, sammy. >> well, you would surprised, i just flew in, i have been in cayman islands on this big rum quest, because hawaiian rum is totally different and you know, the cane over there is totally different, it has a different flavor and different taste. it's really clean and pure. so, i went around the islands tasting all of these different rums. when i got here, i didn't have any more of my rum, every time i's tasted those other rums -- >> you can get some. i just got off a plane. >> is this your billion-dollar idea? >> no. >> or, is that something else in. >> i don't want a billion dollars. if you read my book, i said, who wants to be a billionaire? if you can't spend all of your

money, set your kids up and spend all of your money on your death bed, there's no use in doing all that, i don't want to die rich. >> you never start a business to make money, is that the wrong idea, should everybody starting a business just because they love the product? >> i think it makes for a more fun business, if you're doing it for money, the greed factor comes in, instead of doing it for all of the right reasons, then when the money comes in, i just got this royalty check, oh, wow fantastic. it brings more joy that way. for me, it's the passion. like i said, with the hawaiian cane, the way we make it and the island of maui -- the sugar factory, you can try to bicycle to, they pick the cane right outside the distillery, they

make the sugar and bring it up to the truck. it's done so pure. and that's exciting. that's better than money. the money comes with it. a good product will bring you money, i swear. >> on that note, sammy, i have a quick question for you, publishing catalogs, alternative investments has been really good. what about your publishing catalog, do you hook at that as an investment? >> my publishing catalog throughout my whole musical career since 1982, i have had so many songs, it has made certainly a lot of money since the '70s until now, i'm sure it's made $100 million, too, but the difference is, it's -- the music industry, record sales for a person like me is diminishing,

even though i still like music, the truth of the matter is, if you notice there's a lot of rock stors. >> we got to go, ligety come toss the line in sochi and finally has his giant slalom gold. twilight settles over sochi and the black seacoast as the sun sets on the curling competition at the xxii winter games. hello again. members of the royal order of shot rock and i welcome you to stanford, connecticut, studio. we have arrived at the culmination of the curling competition, the end of the end, if you will. earlier today in the bronze medal games, sweden