years. it's got an çeight-cylinder engine. you can fit golf clubs and skis in the back. again, $198,000. the california tee for ferrari. >> thank you so much, robert. thank you for watching "street signs." >> "closing bell" starts right now. welcome to "the closing bell." i'm kelly evans here at the new york stock exchange where this historic bull run continues. >> i'm bill griffith. the s&p is trying its record close again for the week once again. the dow needs a gain of a little better than 150 points to close at a new high. that doesn't look possible. but the s&p doing very well despite an escalation of sorts between russia and ukraine. >> while we know march 9th was the closing low for the s&p, it was today we hit that intra-low

of 666. it is in a book of record here along with other bits and bobs. meanwhile, for bitcoin, bankruptcy hacking and an apparent suicide. we're tallying up the many headlines and problems to figure out what it means for the future of this virtual currency and others like it. >> also, an çunlikely championf boosting the minimum wage. it's conservative multimillionaire ron unz. he wants to raise it all the way to $12 an hour. what's really interesting are his reasons why. ron will join us exclusively. you do not want to pass judgment on his idea until you hear him make his case. coming up here on "the closing bell" today. >> now, here's where we stand in the market for the final hour of trade. the dow is up 77 points. again, 16,437. take a look at the nasdaq, which is just fractionally lower. literally shedding about two

points. the s&p 500 adding about five, a quarter of a percent. we have some variation today for sure. >> let's talk about today's action in our "closing bell" exchange. we bring in our panel. kenny, i know you've been skeptical of the rise here. it just continues. you feel like this market just can't be brought down at this point. why? >> you know what, because they want to force it to go to 1900. you can almost feel it. they're not putting pressure. they're letting the buyers come in. look what's happening. the market keeps going higher and higher. the buyersç keep coming after i. i think what's happening also, it's running up in front of tomorrow's nfb report. i think all expectations now are muted. goldman cut their number yesterday. i think you're going to have a sell-the-news type of event

tomorrow. if it comes in low, they're going to dismiss it as weather. >> nfp, by the way, nonforeign payroll. what are they expecting? what's the number everybody's looking for right mow? >> 150 is the consensus, i think. goldman went to 125 yesterday. >> kbryeah, the bar is lowering. when we talk about people pulling this market lower, who are they? is this where the retail investor is getting involved? where is the upward bias coming from? >> i think it's more trading oriented. when you look at the mark, we set high. it's really been select groups that have been invited to be up double digits. some techs, new tech, some of the financials. some of the health care buyouts. a lot of the market is sloshing around on change. i think the market is a little tired. we really haven't seen retail pour into the marks. i think it's more professional traders. >> ken, we're talking about this being a tradeable market. you still are convinced this is a secular bull market going much

higher from here, yes?ç >> yes, i do. there's really nothing that i see out there to get in the way of the market, what's happening in russia and with the russians and the ukrainians. i think it's a temporary situation. the dow is -- i think we'll see 18,000 with a friendly fed, with no political drop. >> when did you see 18,000? >> this year. >> really? >> by the elections, i think we'll see it then, yes. i think the momentum is going to pick up once the weather-related problems are behind us and we get some good economic data. the retail investor you were talking about i think will see that positive news. that'll encourage them to go in. i think we'll see dow 18,000. but i think that the markets, the lows of 2009, 180% rise since then, i think it's setting up for big problems to come. >> i'm going to direct for a second. give us the five box. if you see 18,000 on the dow by the end of this year, raise your hands. anybody else?

okay. we know you do already. jim lowell, you don't? >> no, i do. i think there's a reasonable chance of seeing significant gains towards year end, especially the fundamentals continue to project slow growth, not slowing growth. everybody now assumes the weather-related factors are impinging the kinds of economic data we're seeing. if that turnsç out to be the case, fine. if we really are entering into a slowdown or if the market plays russian roulette on a more protracted basis, then we can certainly see a pullback on the magnitude 10% to 15%. >> jim, what about what's happening? some of these names really jamming up this year. today if you look at the action, relatively sharp declines. we have to put this in context. does that tell you, perhaps, something about momentum in this market, more broadly? >> there's definitely valuation at play in the small and midcap

stocks. we're seeing historical levels of valuation. stocks are getting pricey there. on the blue chip, we're seeing good values. no question that today, if you look at the nasdaq, that's all about the biotech sector selling off measurably more than the broader markets. >> rick santelli, guys here on the floor will tell you they're watching the yield on the ten year very carefully. that's the most sensitive indicator of what's going on overseas. it has risen appreciably. what's it telling us right now? >> well, listen, kenny's a sharp guy. i hear he makes a great beef stroeg november, but when i look at a ten-year note çyield, i would say the exact opposite for 2014. these guys are paying more attention to the stock market. but not necessarily the stock market when it moves higher. it seems as though the stock market, whenever it gets iffy, becomes a real driving force for the ten-year note. that makes sense. now, the upside, i found it

amazing today as the stock market continued to power up, interest rates pretty much hit their high yields early and drifted a bit. now, if tomorrow's number is really solid and the stock market gets a good head of steam, and i think anything over 175,000, i think stocks are going to be off to the races. it will be very key to see if we close above 275. because if that occurs, as a technician with the compression i see in interest rates, that would be a significant event. >> look at what's happening in the financials. yeah, go ahead, ken. >> my belief system is when the market is rising, you need to be in it. when it's coming down, you need to be out of it. >> it's just that easy, isn't it? everybody's going to get out and not get one rain drop on their umbrella. that's the world i want to see. >> in november of 2007, we told our clients to get out because the momentum of the market had changed and we're watching it carefully. my concern is after theç

elections, when interest rates go up and the taxes potentially go up, something is going to trigger this. with the fed putting all the -- >> i think there's a thesis here about the gop. >> it's equally as important as when to get in the market. the reality is over the last five years, the last ten years, staying with the market in a well-diversified portfolio, that's built wealth. >> especially when you have the fed -- >> we told our clients to get back in the market in june of '09. you also have to have a buy strategy, not just to sell. >> listen, ken, i got to ask you a question. on the one hand, you see the dow at 18,000 this year. in the same sentence, you said that you're expecting this correction to come when the fed starts to pull out. i'm curious. you see us running things out and coming back to 16,000? where do you see us at the end

of the year? >> at the end of the year, i think we'll be close to that 16,000. it's next year when these imbalances that the fed and all this debt we're running up come to roost that i think the potential is we could see the dow around 9,000 or 10,000 after that. i think a bear market is setting up. right now i think things are going, so we need to participate. i don't think it's time to get out right now. >> what i learned today is the bond guys are watching stocks and stock guys are watching bonds. that's comforting. >> and the fed is watching the golf channel. >> there you go. see you all later. take care. we have some breaking news now on the goldman sachs elevator story. andrew ross sorken has the details on the cnbc newsline. not a big surprise. maybe the timing is interesting, andrew. >> thank you, guys. crazy story. bizarre. it has now take an stranger turn. of course, there was th

the @gselevator twitter handle. we unveiled who that was or unmasked who was about a week and a half ago. a 34-year-old from texas, former citigroup banker. never worked at goldman sachs. he was the man behind that handle. he'd also gotten a book deal. apparently today, touch stone saying the book is no longer on. what is surprising about it is that in many conversations that i had with the publisher and over the past week, the publisher reaffirmed multiple of the book and claimed they knew who he was the whole time. now they're raising some questions about what they actually did know in their statement, suggesting that information that's come to light in the past week or so, i imagine some or the reporting we did, changed their view. >> andrew, what do you think is the problem from the publisher's point of view. >> look, at this point the

problem is the credibility problem, the pub lis si problem. frankly -- >> publicity is good. publicity is the greatest thing for a book. >> i would have thought so. "the new york times" editorial page, which obviously i have nothing to do with, came out and scolded the publisher for publishing what they called a nonfiction book which they ultimately thought would be fiction. hard to understand. a lot of people probably thought it was a parody account to begin with. i will say my intent when we unmasked him and did that report and figured out who he was, it was more because it was a parlor game and mystery on wall street than inside goldman and whether he was a real employee. sort of a surprising turn. i thought i might go out and buy the book. >> you know what he could do now is write one heck of a novel. >> can he write this book for someone else? >> he could. he could turn around and find another publisher. i saw a statement that i believe he made in a publicationç this afternoon suggesting he might do that. i just got off the phone with

him as i was getting on the phone with you. he said it was a mystery to him. that as of friday he was told they were still a go and were supporting him. he didn't get a real explanation at least thus far today about why they pulled back. of course, we'll do more reporting this afternoon. hope to bring you that when we figure it out. >> you must feel horrible. >> excuse me? >> you must feel horrible unmasking him and killing his book deal, andrew. >> you know, i feel a little bad. i didn't intend to do this. he seemed like a nice guy who was trying to -- admittedly, it appears he did lie to some people about what he was doing. unclear whether he was lying to the publisher. more so he had lied to some others. it's worth also noting the book proposal he sent out, gs seemed to indicate he worked there or had worked there. that may have left a misimpression.

the publisher, by the way, never had actually met him before they signed the deal with him. so, you know, lots of questions that still need to be asked and answered. >> great stuff. andrew, thank you. >> thank you. >> riveted by this one. we'll see ifç that book resurfaces yet. >> one of the great parodies on twitter. moving along here. about 50 minutes left in the trading session. the dow is up 71 points. it was up 90 at the peak today. the s&p is in record territory if we close right here. >> and retail sales, meanwhile, frozen in january, hitting earnings for companies like costco. up next, whether any spring thaw will heat up retail stocks from here. >> speaking of heating up, facebook shares, they're down today. but they've been up 30% so far this year. can the company keep up this rally? bob told us yesterday to beware of the social media stocks. what's next for facebook? >> and tomorrow's all-important february jobs report could

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welcome back. the s&p 500 closing into record territory again today. but the retailç sector is in t red. why is it struggling? >> the disappointing earnings and sales results. the good news is many of them are indicating sales actually started to pick up in recent weeks. children's place and cato citing freezing temperatures. costco pointing to margin pressure from the promotional holiday season as a drag on earnings. margin pressure beyond just the holiday season was a drag for elle brands. they're issuing a forecast going forward below consensus as a result. now, it's a different story at staples. the office supplier retailer didn't blame weather or promotions for its drop in sales and profit but rather the

migration of customers online. staples said its online sales increased 10% in the fourth quarter. that means 50% of the total company sales are coming from onlean purchasing. children's place plans to close a total of 125 underperforms stores through 2016. staples closing 225 as a part of its cost-cutting program. add that to the 1100 closures of rad radioshack stores. we're looking at a lot ofhempt real estate here soon. >> that's true. thank you, courtney. you stay here and join the conversation. evan, you think this slowdown has a lot to do with weather, don't you? >> certainly does. we've had probably one of the top five coldest and snowiest winters we've ever had on record, certainly in the northeast and midwest. frankly, it's kept a lot of people at home. when they are ready to get out, they were buying those must-have or need-to-have items. >> bill and i were talking during the holiday season about how something felt different

this year. we saw that come through in the e-commerce numbers. those were up big. we've seen pressure on the consumers as we've turned the corner into january, whether in the form of heating bills or costs related to obamacare. the chains under pressure, the chains going away, if you want to go down the list, it's those that are underperforming that haven't kept pace with this shift. that was suggested this is a totally different story than weather. >> yeah, for a certain extent, you're absolutely right. it's definitely not the only story, but it has been a big story. what we've seen this winter is that consumers are buying only needs. they're going to certain locations. sbarro, they took a hit as well. for them,ç the impact from weather is on traffic. if people aren't coming in because of the weather, there's an impact there too. >> they're getting ready to file bankruptcy for a second time. maybe as early as next week. courtney, that is a story right

now. you're finding out who the real weak links are in the industry when the snow does fall here. >> yeah, sure. exactly. some retailers would say, look, we were weak across the board. if you look at the regional differences, where we had the heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures, we were weaker still. there are ways to parse through and see what hit when and where. but not all companies are as forthcoming with that information. cato corp. is another company that reported. it's a retailer mainly based in the southeast. they're blaming weather. we saw atlanta and parts of the carolinas get hit by those freezing temperatures. it paralyzed those areas. that was a real trouble spot. >> evan, it's interesting though. rick even made this point yesterday. are so many of these retail chains just one snowstorm away from bankruptcy? >> i certainly don't know about that. the ones that can manage it well can actually, you know, do well and plan their inventory appropriately. certainly we're not out of the woods yet. we talked earlier about those

high home heating bills. as people get those bills in the mail over the next couple weeks, that's going to have an impact on march. you know, one of the good news things to think about here, we have a later easter this year. that's obviously a big spending period. so a later easter, spring will come, things will warm up. but we're not out of the woods yet. >> and to that point, there was a survey just out today of diners who said they plan to spend 9% less this year. 9% less on eating out. that's a big, big number there, courtney. that doesn't help. i mean, that's a sign of the mindset of the consumer out there right now. their price conscious and trying to keep to buying the basics right now. >> sure. i would say that actually might be even more troubling all of these data points for the casual dining space. those are sales that when you lose them, they're really gone. you don't make those up. you're only going to eat so much every day. you're not going to save the meal you missed because you had a lower paycheck and move it into next week. that's really gone. that's a bit more concerning to

me than maybe what some of the retailers are reporting. >> and just curious because we are having this discussion about all of the pressure the consumer is under. on the same day we found out in the fourth quarter of last year u.s. household net worth hit $80 trillion, up 17% since its prior peak. the point still being, i guess, that what looks like is happening across the economy is to ápáq,tent concentrated among those at the top. >> i think that's really the case. even though we've come a long way in a lot of different areas, there are still a lot of folks that feel very differently or spent very differently than they did before the financial crisis and before we went through all of these hardships. we may never be able to shake that. i think there's a difference among different income classes. >> wait until spring when it warms up. >> it may not come. >> so i hear. those of you in florida, i know it's already warm there. >> florida and the southwest.

those of us in the northeast will have to wait a little longer, but it will come. >> all right. thanks, evan. >> about 40 minutes before the close. take a look at what's happening across the indexes. towards the highs of the session. the dow adding 76 points. strength in jpmorgan today. >> 10,000 points in five years. that's about how much the dow has gained since the lows of march of 2009. coming up, dom chu breaks down the sectors and the stocks that have been leading that rally since the great botbottom. >> facebook has been a big part of the tech rally lately, but should you still like this stock, or is it time to take %-pwe'll settle that question n in a stock brawl. we'll be right back. aluminum production in south africa, and the aerospace industry in the u.s.? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason over 75% of our mutual funds

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welcome back. the s&p is trying to close at a record high, but have you seen what social media stocks have been doing lately? that group up a whoppi inping 8 just two months. seema, what's behind those gains? >> you can't ignore the massive run we've seen in the social media space. the social media etf up about 8% this year, outpacing the major index indexes. there's one dominant theme driving social stocks. that's mobile. following the consumer shift to desktop to mobile, social media companies are doing a better job at monetizing mobile. although, we're still in the early stages.

now, investors have been sharing facebook's mobile growth. the stock up 30% just this year. other big winners, pandora, yelp, and zynga. what about twitter, the hottest ipo of 2013? shares are down this year. double digits. remember, its earliest report disappointed the street. instagram users are expected to eclipse twitter users by the end of 2014. remember, instagram acquired by facebook in 2012. the race between facebook and twitter definitely heating up. bill and kelly? >> they are, seema. thank you very much.ç and on that note, yesterday on this show mutual funds legend bob olsteen warned about social media stocks like facebook. >> this is a story that's not going to come to a happy end. 10% of these stocks make it. the other 90 doesn't. they're all good companies. they're just not worth what they're selling for. there's no way to justify it. >> is he right, or is facebook

the exception here? it is time for a stock brawl. >> let's do that. anthony on the upside, brian says the company will struggle in a rapidly saturated market. good to see you both. anthony, the knock on the social media companies, they're a bit of a fad. very fickle audience out there. why do you think there's more upside for facebook? >> i don't think it's a fad at all. engagement continues to grow for facebook. if you think about the reach of facebook, over 750 million users check their facebook feed every day. there's no sign it's a fad. it's really the broadest, most mainstream social media platform in the world. and when you think about modernization in terms of reach and targetability, that's really what's in early days for facebook.ç instagram is in early days for modernization. the biggest point is the

business is so profitable. the margins on facebook are north of 50% in the most recent quarter. so the clip that you just showed that you can't justify the valuation is not really true when you look at facebook's valuation as a multiple of its earnings. >> brian, in a nutshell, are you cautious on facebook here because it's too mature in this space or not mature enough? >> well, i would agree with some of those points, but i think it is growing. however, you have to look at the valuation. i run a fund that's entirely based on the present value of future expected profits relative to how much you're paying for those profits. so in this case, you got a company trading at a $180 billion market cap. its net profits are only about $3 billion. even with those growth rates projected, you're really not going to grow into the value of that market cap for quite some time. >> anthony? >> yeah, i mean, they're going to do, we think, between $6.5 billion and $7 billion.

that means a target valuation of low 20s. let's say 22, 23, times 15. you get to a valuation of $78, $80 a share. i know the stocks runç quite a bit, but when you compare facebook's valuation to other internet stocks like pandora, netflix, twitter, facebook looks quite reasonable given those high profit margins. >> just curious, anthony, what about that whatsapp purchase? $19 billion. do you justify that? how has that move been reflected in the share price? >> it was a very strategic deal in terms of facebook. when you look at the valuation, $19 billion for 450 million users, they paid $42 a user, which is less than a third of the twitter per user price. i know that whatsapp hasn't monetized the way twitter has. but when you look at it compared to facebook's own per-user valuation, whatsapp was quite

reasonable. we think there are great modernization opportunities ahead, includie ining games and subscription revenue. >> very quickly, what price should this stock be trading at right now, brian? >> it's probably about 20% overvalued right now. so probably closer to the 60 range. >> okay. and anthony? how much higher? >> our price target is $78 a share. certainlyç we think it could trade higher. >> all right. thank you, both. >> thanks, bill. >> see you later. heading toward the close. 30 minutes left in the trading session. we're heading apparently back to the highs of the day. the dow was up 90 at its peak. now up 81 points. the s&p, if it closes here, would be a new all-time high. >> although, in the meantime, bitcoin bombarded with bad news

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welcome back. rally day on wall street for the most part. the nasdaq is lagging today. technology not following the rest of the market, but the dow is up 83 points. a few points off its highs of the day. the s&p up five-plus points. that is all-time high territory at the 1879.73. >> all right. bankruptcy, hacking, and a mysterious death of a ceo. the bad news is piling up here for bitcoin. >> cnbc.com editor jeff cox has been tallying up the hits. what's your conclusion right now? >> well, indeed, guys.

these have been better days for bitcoin. let's take a quick look at key dates. january 2009, founder makes the first bitcoin transaction of ten bitcoins. he's now trying to distance himself somewhat from bitcoin. july 2013, mt. gox, formerly a trading exchange, registered with the trading department to relay money laundering concerns. that same year, we had trendon shavers, sued by the sec for running a bitcoin-based ponzi scheme in which he allegedly raised ç$4.5 million of client money. now, you go to 2013, december, china prohibits financial institutions from transactions with bitcoins. february 2014, mt. gox files for bankruptcy.

tough move there. more than $470 million of the virtual currency vanishing. now finally, just a few days ago, the sad story of autumn radkey. she was the head of a small bitcoin exchange in singapore. she was found dead in her home under circumstances that remain unclear, guys. these types of events could certainly cloud bitcoin's future. >> that is for sure. jeff, thanks. so does bitcoin have a future? that's the question everybody's asking right now. >> and joining us now, kevin ruth, a writer at "new york" magazine. also the author of "young money." joining us as well is steven pair. kevin, you dabbled in the bitcoin space. you didn't like it. why? >> i was excited about it at first. i thought, maybe here's a way we can get better transactions that we don't have to pay these ridiculous fees to banks. but what happened is as many of those incrents happened, i just

lost faith. i don't think it the security is there yet. i don't think the infrastructure is mature. and i think there are fundamental problems with the bitcoin protocol itself that are going to make it very hard to ever take off. >> you called mt. gox the exchange there a wheelbarrow filled with cheese. we know where you stand with that. steve, you've obviously hitched your wagon to bitcoin. is the name bitcoin damaged goods now? maybe there is a need for a virtual currency in the world, but does it have to be bitcoin? >> well, people discount -- or you have to keep in mind the network effects at work. you have companies like bitpay and a number of other companies involved in this ecosystem that gets more and more valuable every day as more and more people use the technology. i got started over three years ago with bitcoin. i've witnessed all of these stories you just went through. what people have to keep in mind is these are growing pains with

the technology. >> steven, that is the issue, though, which bill just raised, which is, are we getting past the growing phase point to where people are falling out of love with this idea, with this specific virtual currency? they've scene some of the problems in regards to just the price fluctuating,. hacking has been a huge problem here. that's why we're asking the question as to whether bitcoin here is damaged goods. >> no, i don't think so. as a technologist, i focus every day on the problems that bitcoin can solve. i know that every day we process transactions for our merchants and solve a very real problem that they have in collecting payments safely over the internet. >> i mean, kevin, the idea of a virtual currency is very interesting. for a global economy being able to exchange good and services using a virtual kurn ski of some kind would seem to make sense. >> absolutely. i think there will be digital currency innovation in the

future. i just don't think bitcoin will be it. if you go to the middle of the country or go anywhere other silicon valley and mention the word bitcoin, people think drug purchases, bankruptcies, money laundering. those are the headlines they see. it's going to keep it from every really achieving that network effect. >> there is in this country a fundamental need for payments, right. look at western union. look how many parents transfer money to their kids through their bank accounts online all the time. so what would be the right way to solve that problem if bitcoin isn't it?ç >> i think it has to be much more secure than bitcoin currently is. the exchanges would have to be built up and made more robust. i think you have to also deal with some of the price stability. i don't think people want to put -- store their value in something that's fluctuating sometimes 10%, 20%, 30% a day. >> what about the security issue on this whole thing, steven? that is going to be a huge speed bump for those of you in the

industry to try and convince people to use this virtual currency in the future. if they don't feel it's secure. >> yeah, people are focusing on where we're at today with the technology, but there are wallets being developed right now that i would guess in one to two years from now, the theft of bitcoins will be virtually impossible. there is technology available in the bitcoin protocol that allows you to use bitcoin in a much more safe way. today, what you have to do is secure a private key on your computer and you have to secure it from theft or loss. so naturally, people do have those keys stolen, and they do occasionally lose them. but again, there are more advanced features that have not been exploited yet. but i know of multiple projects and multiple companies that are working on solving those issues. >> all right. gentlemen, good to see you both. thanks forç stopping by today. >> and we want to send it over to dom chu for a quick market flash. >> kelly, bill, check out what's happening with safeway.

the stock is hovering just around unchanges, but it's important because dow jones is reporting the private equity firm cerbebu has made a deal to acquire safeway for about $40 a share. that according to sources familiar. a deal could be announced as early as today. safeway currently trading just about flat. remember, $40 a share is the approximate size of the deal. it's trading around $39.50 right now. >> hanging right there. sounds like the market doesn't expect it to go any higher from here. >> we'll see what can be done with this struggling grocery chain. >> yet another one. >> anyway, there's about 15 minutes before the close. the dow some 75 points near the highs of the session. the s&p 500 here would be closing at another record high. >> and it's hard to believe it's been nearly five years since the most recent market bottom. that was 10,000 dow points ago. you may be surprised by the sectors that have led the way

back to these new highs. we'll get to that coming up next. >> and later, we're joined by the republican multimillionaire leading the charge to raise the minimum wage up to $12. may sound like somethingç a democrat would push for, but his reasons revolve around basic conservative principles. he'll join us exclusively to explain. wall isn't a street... ...return on investment isn't the only return i'm looking forward to... for some, every dollar is earned with sweat, sacrifice, courage. which is why usaa is honored to help our members with everything from investing for retirement to saving for college. our commitment to current and former military members and their families is without equal.

welcome back. at the top of the show, we told you the man behind the twitter account @gselevator lost his book deal. apparently now we can tell you goldman sachs itself weighing in. here's the tweet they put out. >> they just tweeted something here. we'll all get it. guess elevators go up and down. >> yeah, you can infer exactly what they're referencing. >> i can't imagine they were really looking forward to reading that book either, even though it might be considered a parody. >> i can appreciate the sense of humor at least in this situation. even if perhaps, if gselevator himself, does not. >> meanwhile, the markets keep climbing. it's a far cry from the down days of 2009 five years ago. right now about, the dow was about 10,000 points lower than

it is today. dom chu has been researching what has been the hottest sectors over these last five years. he has some surprising, maybe not so surprising, results for us. >> what it comes down to is looking at how strong the s&p has been since then. if you look at some of the industrial sectors, one of the best performing sectors in the s&p 500. the third best, in fact. a very healthy run. it's been up again about 242% since those bottoms we saw in march. now, here's an interesting chart as well. the best performing stock with an industrial during that time is a company called tech strong. they may cessna aircraft, easy go golf carts. back in march of 2009, this stock you could have bought for just around $4 a share. look where it is today. you can see all the way up to $40. a huge move. the second best performing sector in the s&p 500, an interesting one for sure as well, is the financials, the banks. people don't like them. some people do. they've been the second best

performs sector. you can see up about 258% since march. the best performing stock within financials in the s&p 500 is actually not a bank, it's a company called general growth properties, which is a real estate company, a real estate investment trust that manages multiprops. you can see here that stock you could have bought for, get this, back in those times, back in march of 2009. a massive move higher to the $22 we see today. best performing sector overall is consumer discretionary. one stock in particular stands out. you can see up 325%. the one stock that helped drive the action, it's wyndham hotels. back in the day, you could have bought this stock for $3 per share. look where it is today, $75.76. bill, kelly, if you pick the right stocks at the right time, it could have paid some really healthy results. that stock is up 2300% just since the march lows.

>> my late father-in-law worked for years for tech strong. he passed away in 2008. i think when his estate was settled, they sold his shares in 2008. >> that's a nice move. >> missed out on the move on that one. oh, well. >> makes it seem so easy when he puts the lows and highs like that, doesn't it? there was a sector that dom left out, though. that was on purpose and of course it's tech. >> so we gave that job to sheila, who has seen the tech bubbles come and go. she's with us now on that part of the story. >> hey there. well, tech leadership is a clear theme that we've seen since the march 9th low. overall, get this, the s&p teg sector up nearly 200%. and half of the top 20 performers in the s&p overall, they're tech companies. so tech clearly one of the big winners here. let's talk about some of those shining tech stars. you have hardware companies like sandisk and seagate, all big

winners since the low. software and internet. take a look at ebay. all big winners. when you're talking about winners, you can't leave out apple. that company, the stock is up 540% since that march 9th bottom. so clearly tech has been a big winner. but get this. some of these stocks here are now even higher than their all-time highs. we're talking about even higher than the '99 and 2000 tech bubble. apple, for example, ebay, salesforce.com. these stocks have even surpassed their tech bubbles. i will point out that sandisk and jabil haven't quite done the same thing. the question is, can this continue? most are bullish on tech in 2014. as the economy improvms, tech will benefit as korpgs continue to open up their wallets. if you're a little tooç worrie tech has come too far, too fast, a little too pricey these days,

march gone stanley says, this is the one sector you're going to see big growth. if you want to have a shot at some returns out there, you got to pay up for the growth. so in his view, tech is still a good buy. kelly? >> sheila, thanks very much. now, we've got about ten minutes left to go into the close. looks as though we'll be closing here with the s&p at about 1876, adding almost -- >> you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide. there's a saying around here,

you stand behind what you say. around here you don't make excuses. you make commitments. and when you can't live up to them, you own up, and make it right. some people think the kind of accountability that thrives on so many streets in this country has gone missing in the places where it's needed most. but i know you'll still find it when you know where to look.

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welcome back. about seven minutes left in the trading session. the dow is up 55. was up 90. we're losing altitude into the close here. the that's donasdaq is down nai. tomorrow we get the jobs number. how important is that for you? i mean, are you watching that as carefully as the fed does right now? >> i think regardless of the ç number, it's going to be good for the market. if it comes out a bad number, they stay the course. if it comes out a good number -- i mean, we may get a fed taper. >> either way, it's good for the

market. you feel like we're in a secular bull market still. >> this is one of the most hated bull markets i've seen in my career. bull markets go up for a long time. they go up a lot. that's the argument everybody keeps making, it's gone up too much, too long. >> what do you think? >> i completely agree with what mark is saying, which maybe scares me a little bit. >> from the march of '09 lows, right now five years ago, we were 10,000 points below where we are now. isn't that enough for a while? >> if you look at corporate profits, they're improving. valuations are in the middle of historical averages right now. i don't think a lot of people are really engaged in the market yet. we've had a 30-year bull market in treasuries from the early '80s lows. those people have never see a bear market. but equity investors have seen plenty of pullbacks in the market and a lot of volatility. >> i wish we had more time. we'll have you back to talk more. thanks for joining us today.

we'll come back with the closing countdown for this thursday in just a moment. stay tuned.

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♪ [ indistinct shouting ] [ male announcer ] time and sales data. split-second stats. [ indistinct shouting ] ♪ it's so close to the options floor... [ indistinct shouting, bell dinging ] ...you'll bust your brain box. ♪ all on thinkorswim from td ameritrade. ♪ about 90 seconds left. the dow at the peak today, up 90 points, lost some ground. we're back to that low right there. maybe we'll bounce back. who knows. tomorrow we get the jobs numbers. i keep hearing 150,000.

>> it doesn't matter. i hate to say that because of course we care. >> because of weather you say? >> yes. if it's poor, blame the weather. nothing happens. if it's better than expected, we'll move up again to new highs. that's rather annoying, but they're getting a get out of jail free card. i've been noticing a big rotation this week into the financials. i don't know if we can put it up, but the banks are up. bank of america is up really big. citigroup is up. jpmorgan. we're seeing rotation out of the health care leaders, out of utilities into the banks this week. we did have a yield curve steepen a little bit. yields went up a little bit. >> which is good for the financials. >> generally that's good. and i think that rotation matters. that's kind of a big story. bank of america up almost 6% this week. that's a big move up. >> that was a hallmark of what happened in 2013. a lot of rotation that went from sector to sector to sector.

thanks, bob. >> thank you. >> see you tomorrow. that'll do it for theç first hr here. we're sort of bouncing back with the dow up 63. of course, the tone will be set for tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. eastern time where we get the latest nonforeign payroll. you'll see that tomorrow on "squawk box." meantime, here the second hour "the closing bell" with kelly evans and company. see you tomorrow, kelly. thank you, bill. welcome to "the closing bell," hour two. i'm kelly evans. i feel like a broken record. closing at another record high. welcome. here's how we're finishing the day on wall street. take a look across the major indexes. green arrows except for the nasdaq. the dow up 65 points. at the session high, it was 90. the s&p 500 only adding about 3.5 points is good enough for another record high. the nasdaq bucking the trend today and closing lower. we're going to ask john fort about that in a second.

let's bring in =)ñtoday's panel joining me now. john, i know some of the biotech names are weighing on the nasdaq. are people just looking for value here and not seeing it in some of these names? >> i thinkç that's some of it. you look at who did the worst, zuliliy. pandora getting hit by spotify's purchase today of music intelligence company net suite. all down more than 2%. i think you kind of hit it. >> not quite record highs yet, but i guess when you have bond yields around the 2.7 range, people still looking for alternatives in stocks right now. i'd say three keys driving this market higher. right now we still have a lot of

merger and acquisition and ipo activity. number two, housing. number three, the big energy story in the u.s. i think the data on housing of late is okay. that will be the backbone of our economy going forward. hopefully it will lead us out. >> that's an interesting point. dove tails into what we're talking about with the mergers and acquisition activity. anthony, it feels like there's a lot of activity right now. is it here to stay, though? are we going to look back on this period like some springs in the past ant "e"á$u(áháhe peak of activity for the year? >> kelly, there's a ton of cash on the s&p 500 balance sheet. something like $2.8 trillion in cash. the hedge fund activists want that catch into the market. they want that to improve shareholder value across the s&p 500. so that's going to be a big driver to the stock market

movement. >> we need confidence to help propel the ceos and managements of company to -- >> or maybe we just need carl icahn. >> there you go. he'll work. >> the reason why you're seeing a lot more activism is that they have a wider birth of license. we were talking before the show, sky bridge moved its portfolio to 40% activist right now. >> wow. >> bereaving that we're in the early stages of what will be akin to what the lbo revolution was like in the 1980s. >> okay. i love that. hang on just one second. we have dan nathan on the screen. i want to bring him into this conversation. if what you're talking about is sort of another wave, almost a transformative period, what does that mean? what kind of activity do you expect? >> you'llç see everything from

the splitting up of pepsi to writing apple to get a dividend increase. this is the sort of stuff happening. positive fundamentals. i agree with heather on the housing situation. it's improving. positive fundamentals for the bank. the economy is expanding. not as quickly as we'd like it to. it's almost a goldie locks thing in terms of its expansion. it means the fed is not going to pull back too aggressively and it sets up well for a good year. last year the market was cratering. i told you we're in a bull zone. it's a 5% to 15% move this year for the markets. >> keep shaking the market. let's get to dan nathan. >> i wish that were true. >> do you get the sense that people are buying into name sectors, small caps, whatever it might be because they're going to be purchased? in other words, is that healthier? is that just robbing peter to pay paul? >> i think it's a good speculative, especially going down the food chain.

anthony just mentioned carl icahn. he's actually gone the other way. he's set out for huge targets like apple and ebay right now. ebay has been very successful in the short run. the stock has had a nice bounce. i think investors are looking aç the company in a different light. i think he's also learning it's really hard to move one of the largest market cap companies around in the world. i would just take one issue with what anthony said. those guys are very smart investors. they're going where the money is going. i think there's only a handful of activists out there that are probably worth following. he mentioned nelson peltz. the guy has been doing it for a long time. look at dan low, who's had a really hot hand. let me tell you something. they all don't go to the moon. you can just look at sotherby's, for instance. underlying following some of these activists, i think you have to follow good companies that are going to do well, whether the activist is there or not. >> that's exactly the point bob

olstein was making. michelle caruso-cabrera joins us now. why aren't we talking more? we have crimea as a region being seeded, i don't know what to call it, to russia. yet in the market, nobody is talking about it. >> so during the ecb conference this morning, it was said, from a purely technocratic perspective, there isn't that much interconnectedness.'o cf1o if it becomes bigger, if it becomes a much larger geopolitical issue, geographically, then we could be talking about it. ultimately, ukraine is a very, very small economy. i think we see -- and a lot of guests have pointed this out over and over again. geopolitically, the market looks through it most of the time. >> or looks for the ones that might be systemic. if greece couldn't pay its bills and you're calling into question

the relationships and sustainability of the whole thing, that's one story. unfortunately -- >> ukraine is not systemic. >> what about russia? could it be more of a problem for the rest of the trading economy? >> if we start to see even more outflows than we saw on monday when that market was just decimated and international investors clearly told vladimir putin, look, it's not going to be on our dime. i don't know. the ruble was obviously the cause of the huge events we saw in the late '90s. i'm not sure that's going to be the case this time around. remember, currencies float now. so many of them were fixed back then. you don't have that came kind of dramatic overnight impact. >> if you look at what's happened to the u.s. dollar today, the strength in the euro after the european central bank didn't do anything moreç proactive, we're shrugging off a little bit. what does that mean for an investor? how focused should we be?

>> i'd say, are we still flocking to the u.s. currency as the global -- are we the helm holding up the world right now? the russian ruble has done 10% since the occupation of crimea. i think the bigger, broader story is about energy right now. so fracking, i think, is saving us in the u.s. and it's really -- i understand it's all about economic sanctions only at the time, but specifically the russian pipelines supply the eu with gas and oil. those three pipelines, that would be the key going forward as an impact on oil. >> dan, how do you play the energy story? do you want to be long? do you want exposure to the commodities, or when we look at the oil complex fangly under pressure in the last couple sessions. >> it's been very volatile. energy is not my thing here. the way that risk assets are pricing this situation right now to me is very curious. we're one week out from when

crimea was not on the tip of too many people's tongues. we had that volatility really late friday afternoon into monday. now a lot of the s&pç indices have made new highs. i'll tell you who hasn't made new highs, obviously russia. also, germany. russia's biggest trading partner. the dax has only recouped about half of the losses for monday. to me, i think those are areas you want to focus on here. the risk to the u.s. economy has nothing to do with that jobs number tomorrow morning. in the near term, it's external. so to me, i think there's way too much complacency here. i think you want to keep an eye on russian equities. you want to keep an eye on the ruble and the german dax. >> thank you, guys, for now. right here, let's send it over to dominic chu for a quick market flash. >> hey, kelly. action in gap shares. getting hit in the after hours. the retailer is reporting same-store sales that fell a weaker than expected 7% in february. that stock it down about 3%, 4%.

analysts were expecting about a near 1% increase in those sales. the ceo saying february was tough, but they remain committed to executing under global priorities. back over to you. >> dom, they sell 7%. i feel like i'm missing a decimal point there. just incredible. thank you. much more ahead on the markets. the jobs report out tomorrow morning. already a key focal point today. we'll tell you what wall street is expecting and how it could move your money next. also coming up, a big idea ooç the minimum wage. silicon valley multimillionaire ron unz says we should raise it to $12 an hour, and he's a republican. wait until you hear him make his case. you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide. i don't want to think about the alternative. i don't even know how to answer that. i mean, no one knows how long their money is going to last. i try not to worry, but you worry. what happens when your paychecks stop? because everyone has retirement questions. ameriprise created the exclusive confident retirement approach.

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welcome back. spring may be on the way, they say anyway, but stormy weather has been taking the blame for everything lately from weak retail sales to high food prices. so what will the jobs report look like tomorrow? we have a preview now. great to see all of you. dennis, first to you. what do you think the market's line in the sand is for a

positive/negative number come tomorrow morning? >> kelly, it's such a silly number to begin with. my own figure is so high. i think it could be 188,000, but that's just because i take work that i get from the adp, work that i get from trim tabs, do a little massaging of the numbers. that's what i come up with. i got to tell you, i could beç comfortable, and this is going to be hard to believe, with anything plus 85 and above 210. anything within there i consider to be a bull's eye, a square hit upon the mark. no one knows. the weather is so egregiously bad. who know what is that number is going to be tomorrow. i suspect that the market wants to make sure it's somewhere north of 125, but that's the best that one can say. >> and greg, how much does it really matter? >> well, i mean, it's a great question, kelly. it's astonishing you've had not just a couple of bad numbers but two months of persistent downside surprises on economic numbers like the citibank surprise index is its low nest three or four months.

this would be like the third sub-200,000 payroll print in a row after a long run of very good numbers. so basically, the market keeps seeing bad data. the market keeps going higher. why is that? i suspect it's because we have a very friendly fed and the overall story is once you wash out the weather effects, you have an economy that's growing. not growing fearly as strongly as we thought it was a few months ago but still growing. that seems to be good enough. >> lindsay, yesterday the disappointment in the services index was just the latest data point to disappoint. i can't get over that figure from gap stores that just hit as well.ç how bad is it out there, and how much can we blame on the weather? >> that's just it. the market was looking to the february data to be the prer verb yal tie breaker between the strength we saw in 2013 and the weakness that we saw in december and january carrying forward. but now as the winter weather carried through to february, it's unlikely that we see a clean data report until march.

meaning, if we see a disappointing report tomorrow, the market is very likely to slough that off and point to the scapegoat we've seen over the past 60 and 90 days, meaning ice and snow. i think that's a disingenuous analysis as the loss of momentum was very clearly established in the employment sector months ahead of those winter storms. >> so that's your view, that there's been a clear loss of momentum in the economy? that echoes what greg has been saying as well. >> there certainly is a loss of momentum. we see the average employment growth decline from near 200,000 at the start of last year down to 170. it's clear that weather aside, employers have been very hesitant to put money to work in terms of investment in equipment, in structures, in new office space, and certainly new employees. >> greg, if tomorrow's number misses then, do you think that would force the fed to respond? >> no, i don't. one of the strikes things about all the commentary from the fed is that they really seem to think it's all weather. if you look at the beige book,

for example, some interesting research. some folks counted the number of times it mentions weather. three times more mentions in yet's than in prior beige books. if you look at something as mundane as the fed's own industrial production report, they're putting a lot of emphasis on the weakness because of shutdowns that were weather related. they seem convinced it's the weather. i cannot see them doing in differently until they start to get clear data, which won't be for another month, that tells them something else is going on. >> so dennis, riddle me this. why are all the commodities popping? we even got the baltic dry on the move. i understand there can be things outside the country supporting that, but it comes back to how strong the u.s. economy is. >> well, i think the economy was actually doing quite well, thank you very much, except for the weather. greg, i think you've got it a little bit wrong. i think there were ten times as many rechferences to weather in this month's beige book than the last time. that, i think, is a telling

point. the economy, i thought, was doing quite well. the only reason the unemployment numbers are as bad as they are, or the employment numbers, is that going into november and december, every employer of every small business was simply saying to themself, i have no idea what çobamacare means, an i'm going to just simply sit upon my hands and do not discount the importance of that. that i think is amongst the smaller businesses in the country, that was very severe. >> small businesses are still sitting on their hands saying i'm not going to hire, i don't know how taxes, obamacare, regulations go into effect. >> they don't. >> that certainly strengthens the idea for continued loss of momentum. >> greg? >> just on your point about the strength in commodities. one thing to keep an eye on here is we've seen some of the day today overseas better than expected, especially out of europe. which is one reason we had a relatively upbeat press conference from the european central bank. if you want to think about this being a global business, the fact that europe is doing a little better suggests that the united states is probably not sinking into a new low ebb.

it's probably just a lot of noise around a 2% growth trend. >> dennis? >> it's not just europe that's doing better. take a look at what's going on in southeast asia. vietnam, indonesia, they're all doing quite well, thank you very much. they're not doing startlingly well. they're doing nicely well. i think that argues for the demand, the pick up for demand in commodities. >> but dennis, at the same time, i was just reading this, why ch is why it's fresh in my mind. goldman has a note saying there momentum. it's an extraordinary level, actual actually, of disagreement in this market. >> markets always have great disagreement. you touched on a good point, kelly. baltic freight has been ticking upward. if i had to pick one economic data point, if i'm only allowed to use one, give me baltic freight. then give me copper prices. i'll take a look at what the economy is doing. baltic freight is getting stronger. shipping stocks are getting stronger. >> greg, lindsay, i'm going to

give it to you as well. one economic indicator. >> it's the unemployment rate. in fact, that's one reason why i will quickly pass to the payroll number and look at the unemployment rate. unemployment rate keeps going down. that tells, number one, economy is still growing, but number two, the potential underlying rate of growth of the economy is not enough to support strong earnings growth. >> lindsay? >> i'll piggy back on greg's comment. i want to see the participation rate tick up in the u.s. economy, suggesting that we are seeing sustainable momentum in the labor market. so we talk about 6.6% in terms of the civilian unemployment rate, but we're near 13.5% in terms of the real unemployment rate. that's the number i'm focused on that i'd like to see show momentum on the downside. >> and that'll tee up our next discussion. we'll leave itç there for now, guys. great to see all of you. really appreciate it this afternoon. going to be exciting tomorrow morning, at least that much we know. well, as i mentioned, the maximum case for a $12 minimum

wage. that's what millionaire ron unz is pushing. he says history is on his side. he'll make his case in just a few moments. we'll be right back. we know we're not the center of your life, but we'll do our best to help you connect to what is. sunny or bubbly? cozy or cool? "meow" or "woof"? wheels or wheeeels? everything exactly the way you want it ...until boom, it's bedtime. your mattress isn't bliss: it's a battleground of thwarted desire. enter the all-new sleep number classic series. designed to let couples sleep together in individualized comfort. starting at just $699.99 for a queen mattress.

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welcome back. to kick things off with dom chu and a quick market flash. >> gogo significantly raising

stake in this to about 5.4%. that stock up about 1.2% in the after market. back over to you. >> all right. thanks very much. now, my next guest is a theoretical physicist, a software developer, a former candidate for governor of california, a political activist, and a republican, and he's currently campaigning to raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour. but his argument isn't quite the same as those who are typically pushing for a rate hike. here to explain in an exclusive interview is ron unz, chairman and founder of the higher wages alliance. ron, great to see you. why are you with libertarian sympathies arguing for a higher minimum wage? >> well, i think it makes a lot more çsense. right now government spends over $250 billion a year on social welfare programs for the working poor. people who work but can't afford to survive on their paycheck. if you force businesses to pay their own workers, they wouldn't shift the burden over to the taxpayer. and that makes a lot more sense. >> ron, i'd like to bring the

panel in here in just a moment, but to be clear, your view then is that the $250 billion the government's spending, that number will go down. it won't go up because there will be more unemployed people, for example, filing for jobless benefits as a result of a minimum wage hike? >> the unemployment drop will be nej libl compared to the people who will be earning 30%, 40%, 50% more per year. the government would save on the national level tens of billions of dollar in social welfare spending once the businesses have to pay their own workers. >> michelle, this make you rethink the value of a minimum wage? >> tell me the breakdown of who's on men mum wage. >> well, we're not talking about minimum wage. we're talking about people earning at minimum wage or a few dollars higher. >> that's not my question. who is making minimum wage? >> everybody. basically 40% of the wage earners in america. they earn less than $12 an hour.

minimum wage. >> they'd still get a wage hike. >> and who are those people? tell me the demographics of them. >> men, women, all the different groups. >> you know they're mostly teenagers, right? >> that's not at all true. >> that's the percentage of people on minimum wage, teenagers. you want to raise the minimum wage on teenagers who would be unlikely to get a job, right? >> that's nonsense. 40% of the wage earners earn less than $12 an hour. 40% of the whole country. >> anthony? >> the question i have is about incentives. it sounds like making a governmental declaration to raise minimum wage is sort of akin to just telling small businesses, hey, you got to up the ante and not clear the market price for the services. so what's your reaction to that? i don't really understand how in a free market society we're just going to make these declarations. isn't that against everything that milton friedman stood for? >> well, look, if you don't believe in a minimum wage, you should call for abolishing the minimum wage. if we have a minimum wage --

>> that's what i do. yes, we should abolish the minimum wage. absolutely. >> michelle and i should probably be sitting next to each other so it's not a cross fire. >> here's an idea, what about -- >> he didn't answer the question. not to interrupt, i just want to understandç it so the viewers n understand it. you just can't make a declaration. it's a free-market society. these businesses are trying to make money themselves. there's a supply/demand curve that intersects, which is why michelle and i are in agreement. why don't we abolish the minimum wage? the problem with left-leaning policies is they hurt the people they're intending to help. >> ron? >> well, look at the cbo report, which was touted by opponents of a minimum wage hike. of the low-wage workers impacted, 98% would get a wage increase, 2% might lose their jobs. >> you want to be the vladimir putin of minimum wage. we're not in an autocratic society. >> i have a lot of respect for

the purity of the libertarian argument. you guys are certainly making it. ronald raeagan made it too. i just don't buy it. maybe we should try it. maybe we should try. sure, some people will lose their jobs. probably the workers who are not as good. maybe some small businesses who don't deliver a product that's good enough to raise prices, they'll go out of business. but so what? let the free market take it from there. >> here's an idea. each state -- let each state decide what'sç right and best r them. what's good for california may not be great for maine. >> is that what you're calling for, ron? it is a $12 hike in california, correct? >> that's exactly it. i'm pushing a $12 hike in california. also, california has a cost of living 30% above the national average. $12 in california is $9.25 at the federal level, which is not an unreasonable number. also, i'd like to say, for those people who disagree with raising

the minimum wage, do you support abolishing those $250 a year of social welfare programs funded by the taxpayer? >> they should be devovled to the state, absolutely. right now the department of agriculture does this entire huge program for food stamps. food stamps should absolutely be available as a subsidy for the poor. right now administered at the federal level, it's ripe with corruption. we should devolve that money to the states and let every single state decide what they're going to do in terms of social welfare. absolutely. >> anthony, you want to weigh in? >> i just think that we live in a society of market forces. when we overadminister or think we're smarter than the market clearing price for society, we always make a mistake. because none of us are smarter to do that. we collectively will do better if we stick with free market -- >> i don't know, anthony. we mess with the market forces all sorts of regulations we put in place. we don't want to be china. we get on apple's back over -- >> i'm not talking about -- >> we're not talking about child labor.

you devolve all the way to the extremist point. come on. >> that's what happens with the argument becomes political. we add hyperbole. >> well, where's this common ground? i think we all want to attack the social mobility and education. let's work the social entitlement and welfare programs. >> ron, we got to go. let me get a couple quick points. you know one of the things that hapgs when you raise the price, it will drive people to the grave market. there will be more people paying cash under the table for services they frankly don't think are worth $12 an hour. that can't be a good thing for the economy. >> very few, very few. wage laws are enforced in the way that immigration laws and other laws are not enforced. also, i'd like to point out that the height of our post-war prosperity in the late is the 60s, we had a minimum wage 20%, 30% above the current level.

it worked in the '50s and '60s. i think it would work again. >> last question. the earned income tax credit haç bipartisan support. people like the incentives. why shouldn't you be pushing for that instead of a higher men mum wage? >> it's just a welfare program. it's the government sending welfare checks to poor workers to make them less poor. i don't believe in welfare. i believe in work. that's the reason i became a republican under ronald reagan. >> all right. we got to leave it there. we got to continue the conversation as well. appreciate your time this afternoon. >> i like the last comment. >> ron unz. >> except he doesn't seem to agree with much of it. i don't get it. >> i think this is going to carry on into the commercial break. coming up next, a television rarity. we're going to get out the boxing gloves. axiom capital chairman on the markets. it's an exclusive you don't want to miss. don't go anywhere. how do you know which ones to follow? the equity summary score consolidates the ratings of up to 10 independent research providers

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welcome back. so today we're marking five years since the market bottom. this was the day the s&p 500 hit its intraday low of 666 back in 2009. stocks, though, are showing no signs of slowing down since then. the s&p posting another record high today. given all these huge gains, are there any good values left out

there to buy? bull run really last? joining me now in a rarity is liam dalton, chairman and chief investment officer of axiom capital. welcome. >> thanks. >> you once ran around the floor here, did you not? >> long time ago. high school. >> yes, and different scene today. what about the market? where do you see value here? >> the market to me represents -- things are changing, but they're changing very gradually. i think it's very likely now that we've begun to unwind some of the qe that we'll gradually go back to a more normal market environment. we're early in that stage. as a result, the market itself is still well supported by excess liquidity, decent growth rates, corporate earnings. i think we're going to begin to see more normal variations in things like volatility and individual stock performance. >> would you describe yourself as macrobear? is there an overriding

skepticism of how strong the market is? >> you know, i think overall what's maybe caught a lot of people by surprise is the lack of differentiation. because the forces of liquidity were as strong as they were, i think that may be the one factor that wasç lost on perhaps the negative case that there was so much excess liquidity. in the past few months, we're seeing much more dispersion and performance in individual companies, that it will play a much bigger role going forward. >> at this point now, having recognized how powerful a force expansion is here and around the world, the stock market rally that's now five years old, can you give us some specifics? where, as people look around and describe the market as fairly valued here, even if they're worried about some volatility going forward, where do you see good value? >> you know, value can be a trap. so i wouldn't use the term value. i'd use growth. i think what you'll see in the market internally right now is growth is being rewarded.

in some cases to an extreme. so you've seen some pockets of the market in areas of technology, software, internet that actually look like they're getting up to extreme valuations. then again, there are other areas of the market that look like they represent value. telecom, for instance, or utilities. yet, they're finding no sponsorship. what the market is saying is it's going to be harder to find growth going forward, so they're crowding into names that are displaying growth. there's a lot of stocks that are simply going to underperform. a lot of the underperformance we're seeing is in the consumer related sectors. it draws some questions about how strong will the consumer be going forward andç is there gog to be a change in spending patterns. >> is it your view that some of the pressure is transitory and we'll look back and see it was all weather? is there a change here? >> i think the change was beginning several movants ago. after the close today, you see something like the gap stores or costco. these you might expect because we are coming off tough weather. late last year we began to see underperformance in some of the same-store numbers coming out.

for instance, the big box retailers. i think spending patterns are getting choppier. >> what's it going to look like in a year's time? how much of this -- and we've had people say, you know, part of this is a mentality shift from the downturn. part of this is e-commerce making waves. part of this is just innovation throughout retail, maybe people spending more on tech. what's going on? >> i think all of those factors you mentioned are playing into it. but the companies that are delivering the best price points, the most efficiently, are winning. so a good example of that is priceline. the scaleability of a model like that has that's generating 25% earnings growth, 30% margins, and it has infinitely scaleable economics. it's a fantastic vehicle for peop people to invest in. >> is priceline going to be a $2500 stock? >> well, let's see.ç right now it's trading at about 20 times next year's estimate at $65. so i think it can probably find

another five or ten times earnings. at peak earnings, yeah, it would be. >> is it a mistake for them not to be splitting -- does that make it unaffordable for the retail guy ultimately? do you worry the number of stocks as we are hearing people say is smaller, that they have a higher price tag and that's a break with the past? >> you know, i think the market is very efficient. i think whether stocks split or not, it's zwrst going to split the metrics the same way. i would expect whether it's priceline or a growth stock in the industrial stek to be or the pharmaceutical sector, et cetera, or biotech, whether they're split or not, markets have become quite sophisticated. i think the effects of stock splits are not what they once were. >> what about corporate splits? are we at the dawn of a big move there? should people be playing that? >> you mean corporate restructurings? >> spin-outs. >> absolutely. if companies are being clever about, you know, displaying that they're being active about, you

know, returning shareholder value and increasing it, i think that's going to be a signal for investment managers to flock to those stocks. we've seen an interesting thing in companies buying other companies. ey're actually seeing outperformance of the s&p. that's a big factor. >> cignet announces it's going to buy a rival jeweler and prices jump 20% on that day. >> that's investment managers rewarding companies being very focused on growth. organic growth is very hard to come by. there are a lot of mature businesses and business models out there. what i think investment managers are looking for are companies that have either great organic growth or a quiztive mindset they're going to grow their top line through acquisitions. it's across several industry sectors. >> where does that leave a pepsi? >> probably kind of sleepy. pepsi is a great company. it has great branding and great products. again, you're trying to maybe guess a very mature company with

less interesting growth patterns than some other areas of the economy. i just don't think a stock like that is likely to outperform unless there's, say, a dra the maic restructuring. >> in that case, if nelson peltz does push them, then you would get involved? >> i would like carefully at how that was structured and what they were doing specifically and look at which pieces make the most sense. >> one more hot-button issue. ebay and çpaypal. indicative of what's happening out there more broadly. would spinning out paypal unlock that value in this case? >> carl icahn has been very successful at pressuring companies to take steps. i would think if he were able to do that, there's a case to be made that the multiple on the paypal piece would be higher than the overall company. i'm sure that's what he's focused on and, frankly, in this market environment, that's working. i probably wouldn't question the strategy. >> last question. is it true that you inspired the

red suspenders that charlie sheen wore -- >> oh, boy. that's a long time ago. >> going back to the wall street movie. >> that's a long time ago. >> our friend here, ron, mentioned that might be the case. >> i'll leave that as a rumor. >> okay. we'll have to get you back to talk more about whether greed is good. >> okay. we'll see if that happens. >> dalton, thank you so much for your time this afternoon. >> sure. my pleasure. the fast-changing crisis in ukraine taking another turn. just a short time ago, president obama holding a last-minute briefing. we'll get the latest from washington on this important story right after this. ♪ [ cows moo ] [ sizzling ] more rain... [ thunder rumbles ] ♪ [ male announcer ] when the world moves... futures move first. learn futures from experienced pros with dedicated chats and daily live webinars. and trade with papermoney to test-drive the market. ♪ all on thinkorswim from td ameritrade.

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geico. welcome back. president obama holding a surprise briefing on the ukraine crisis earlier this afternoon. john harwood joins us now with some details. john? >> kelly, there's been a lot of talk over the last few days about the united states acting to impose costs on the russians. some steps had been taken. g-8 planning suspended, that sort of thing. but today was the first time the administration took concrete steps in order to target specific individuals, and the president announced that in the briefing room today. >> this morning i signed an executive order that authorizes sanctions on individuals and ententities responsible for violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of ukraine or for stealing the assets of the ukrainian people. according to my guidance, the state department has also put in place restrictions on the travel of certain individuals and officials. these decisions continue our

efforts to impose a cost on russia and those responsible for the situation in krocrimea. >> the visa restrictions have been impoeszed, although the administration did not say how many people are targeted or name them. the financial penalties have not been actually implemented. the president's ordered grants authority for the treasury to impose those. the russian foreign minister who met again with john kerry today said he regarded it only as a threat so far because the lists hadn't been drawn up. they're going to continue the diplomatic track. meanwhile, the president also came out and said it was unconstitutional under the ukrainian constitution for crimea to hold a referendumç that's scheduled for just a little over a week from now in order to declare whether it wants to remain part of ukraine or join russia since crimea is 60% russian speakers. the outcome has been a foregone conclusion. the administration wants to put a stop to that to avoid

dismembering ukraine. still a lot to be determined. >> john, thanks very much. many fast-moving parts to this story. want to get reaction from the panel and start with michelle. you were in kroou yan just at the beginning of the week. so what is the extent of these sanctions really meant to achieve here? >> well, first of all, what they announced today were visa sanctions and travel sanctions. look, there's nothing that a really wealthy russian hates more than not being able to go shopping in new york. it sounds like i'm being snide, but the fact of the matter is that's absolutely true. they hate not being able to go to london, et cetera. this is probably extremely painful for certain individuals. at the same time, u.s. can't do much more than this, right? you want to do real economic sanctions, you got to get europe to go along with you. that's going to be extremely difficult. >> and the sanctions always -- i mean, if we're talking about punishing the russian economy, obviously that does a lot more than pun ush vladimir putin. >> and he's so wealthy, i don't know that he can individually be punished. >> and we should mention there's one of the world's largest yachts currently docked on the

west side highway that apparently belongs to a russian billionaire. not that it's related, but a lot of activity. >> and he came here so his wife could give birth to her baby. >> wow. crazy. >> one quick thing. i think the only way to fight this right now is through the banking system and through economic imposition. the united states is not going to get militarily active in that region of the world. it's akin to what eisenhower said in 1956 about the invasion of hungary. he set up another tee time. this is not a democrat issue or republican issue. this is about the strategic interest of the united states and our economic interests. i think the president is doing a good job here. there's not much more than he can do. >> interesting how quickly the conversation has changed. wow, he should be doing a lot more, to, boy, he's doing a good job. we'll have to see how effective -- >> were you taking a shot because i'm a republican? >> no, no. not at all.

>> did anybody ever want him to do more from the beginning? nobody ever suggested they were going to raise a finger from ukraine. >> several commentators with were talking about moving battleships. >> not on this network. >> i wasn't trying to talk abouç you guys. >> are you watching other channels? >> i read newspapers. >> we have to leave it there, guys. thanks very much. what's percolating to the top of our website? the hot list is coming up next. plus, jane wells getting into the kitchen to cook some bacon and she's bringing it home. you won't want to miss this one. , she makes underwater fans that are powered by the moon. ♪ she can print amazing things, right from her computer. [ whirring ] [ train whistle blows ] she makes trains that are friends with trees. ♪ my mom works at ge. ♪

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welcome back. you click, we report. which stories are getting the most hits on our website? >> we have an interview with a blackrock pro. russ koesterich. he was talking to our futures now folks. and he's been resurrecting a theme that we've seen play out on the website all through the week. is it the weather? or is the economy really softing? he says bulls have to take a second look. our number two on it, very tragic story. an executive ran an outfit called first meta, in bitcoin

exchange. she had a death not from natural causes down in singapore. people have been fascinated with that story. over 200,000 people have read that story on our site in the last couple days. we're continuing to cover çtha. and cdc warned of a resurgence of superbugs. here's a fear fact for you. 2 million people get sick with superbugs every year. 23,000 of them die for a health care cost of $20 billion. it's the fear factor. >> what is a superbug? >> a superbug is a bug that develops when after you get people so many antibiotics that the bug that started the sickness says, i say this to your antibiotics. pretty scary stuff. >> it is, actually. i shouldn't laugh. allen, thanks very much. really appreciate it. our jane wells, acquiring a new culinary skill. she's cooking bacon in the shape of the bowl. she spoke to the entrepreneur behind this craze. that's coming up next. ections.

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welcome back. perhaps you've seen the infomercials. the perfect bacon bowl has been selling like hotcakes since hitting the market in november. jane wells went to check it all out. jane, is this legit? >> it totally is.

this is what makes america great. a guy who is a lab tech is trying to make a bacon turtle. can't. and ends up creating this.ç >> eggs and hash browns for breakfast. it's better in a bacon bowl. >> the perfect bacon bowl has sold more than 2 million units since hitting the market in november. the brainchild of thom jensen. he has not yet brought home the bacon. how much money have you made off this yet? >> actually, i get my first check within the next month. but it's only for fourth-quarter of last year, which is a small time. and in january, it went into walmart. and now, it's in targets and walgreens and everywhere. i won't get another check for another year. but that will be like a waterfall coming at me, i hope. >> do you think you can stop being a researchologist after that? >> i hope so. my boss is looking to replace me. >> what do you think of all this? >> it's surreal. i don't know how -- i can't comprehend it yet.

it's exciting. i'm here. i've never -- it's cool walking around the nbc lot. and i hang out with you for a while. >> that's really cool. >> it's very cool. >> it's the highlight of your life. jensen is working on a baby-related invention. he won't say anything about it, kelly, only that it does not involve bacon. >> or working on turtles. i love that. jane, stay with us. has anyone here tried the bacon bowl? >> i çhave. i tweeted about it when i saw it first advertised. it was brilliant. >> i've made it. i've done it. >> jane, what did you put in it? i like the idea of ice cream. >> i put scrambled eggs in it because i'm too boring. my one suggestion, if you get these, is spray them with pam. even though it's fatty bacon, it sticks to the thing. and it's better coming out of the oven than coming out of the microwave. i tried it several different ways. >> i wondered, when i was is a earlier, i was thinking about safety. there's something about the concept of wrapping bacon around

these tins. nothing is going to leach into the bacon, we hope. >> oh, gosh, kelly. you can make bacon less healthy? >> i know. i know. i realize that it's probably all fine. and we have these kitchen product. it's a way for people not to do as many dishes. >> exactly. >> isn't bacon great. i feel bad that two of the major religions of the world cannot eat bacon. i feel bad for them. >> it's not our religion. >> the bacon shortage, everyone is afraid of. corn is rising. >> you can do that. you put cookie dough. the possibilities are endless. >> can it handle ice cream, though? >> there's only one way to find out.

>> how much does it cost, jane? >> it costs about $10. but if you call now, you can get a second one for the same price. >> jane wells. thanks very much. "fast money" is coming up in a few seconds. melissa lee, bacon bowls? >> absolutely. all the way. we have an exclusive with the ceo of amd, talking about the graphics card. that and a lot more. >> all right. from bacon to bitcoin. melissa, over to you. "fast money" starts right now. live from the nasdaq market site in new york city's times square. i'm melissa lee. our traders are tim seymour, dan nathan, karen finerman and john nagarian. the dow up 177% since the lows of march 2009. bank stocks, top high. we tell you where the financials go. to the desk. ahead of tomorrow's jobs report, is there anything that can derail this massive bull run?