when, she refuses -- >> mr. ruddy, the show is just about to end. we hate to cut you off and thank you very much for joining us. thanks to mary ter rea and leo yud which. we reached out to gm and they told us they will not respond on specific cases and extend our regret to those who were affected. >> our sympathies to the ruddies as well. that's it for our show. "the closing bell" begins right now. hi, everybody. welcome to "the closing bell." i'm kelly evans down here at the new york stock exchange. >> and i'm bill griffeth. this is one of those days, the s&p, any closing above -- any positive close is another new all-time high for the s&p 500. the dow needs 44 points to close at an all-time high, which hasn't been done since december 31 of last year. so we've gone all this year

without one. we had 30 all-time highs if memory serves last year. >> it was one after another. right now we're only about 20 points away with the 20-point rally we're seeing. stocks are hitting these highs amid a week that continues to be driven by controversial charges that the market is rigged. yesterday memorably the author of the book "flash boys" michael liewis was challenged on cnbc. today we have the whistle-blower highlighted in his book. we take a closer look at if any retail investors are impacted by what lewis is alleging and if so, by how much. >> looking forward to that. everybody is still talking about it on the floor here. also with us today, that guy right there in a first on cnbc interview sirius xm boss mel karmazin. it's national autism awareness day. he will be speaking on a personal level, his grantson has

you autism. he's working on his third retirement. he ran cbs for years and sirius and xm. >> if you have been wonder what these pins are four, itr, it's f world autism day. 16,556 is the level in the dow. the nasdaq meanwhile pretty much on the flat line, 4,268 as its potentially sitting out the rally today. the s&p 500 adding 3 points to 1,888. yesterday it closed at a record high. >> let's talk about a lot of things in our closing bell ex chain. diane from clear alternatives, peter andersen from congress asset management, jack bouroudjian, from bull and bear partners. kenny polcari from o'neil securities and our own rick santelli as well.

kenny p., what's moving this market right now? very quietly we're just setting these new highs. >> and we're really just digesting the move from monday/tuesday, but the other thing is a little bit ago fed president bullard came out made the commentary that with slowing inflation, they may be considering tapering the taper which only means -- goes right to that story that was kind of excelling the markets, that maybe the fed is not necessarily going anywhere so therefore, more money means higher prices. we're not really running away because the market is still -- it's digesting part of it, but it's really trying to determine whether those comments -- what they feel about those comments. >> was that you, peter, trying to get in there? >> no, that was me. gee, bullard said something dovish. >> go ahead. >> i was just saying what bullard said is typical bullard. charlie evans would say the same thing. i'm tell what you, the market and treasuries had nothing of the dovish mentality because if they were going to taper the taper, that means they would be buying more treasuries and

continuing to manipulate interest rates when we are now at a five-year going to have the highest close since september of last year, highest close since the third week in january. 30-year bond not participating. there is the curve flattening and the reason is because it doesn't believe mr. bullard. >> if anything, doesn't it seem like this isn't really about the fed -- his remarks about tapering the taper. he also talked about what would happen on the precipice of strengthening growth which you have goldman out talking about that today. if you want to talk about more monetary easy, look to the european central bank this week. look what the yen is doing. it's really here in the u.s. where the thesis, to your point about the treasury market, seems to be things are looking better. the payrolls number friday could be quite strong. that's what expectations are. peter, what do you think? >> one of the things i think is that we've got too many fed officials talking about this. i don't even know if they're on the same page. regionally that's one thing, but i'm hoping they're all reading from the same playbook. when we're talking about

tapering the taper, i'm hoping that isn't just one person's thought. and even if it is one person's thought, i'm still very optimistic on equities because i think earnings are going to be very, very strong. i'm looking at holdings in the portfolio that are up year-to-date 20% with earnings growth potential of, say, 75% or more. so on an individual basis, i'm not too concerned about those -- >> did you say 75%? did you say 75% earnings growth? >> absolutely. i'll give you an example. >> what are you talking about? 75% for the index generally? >> no, no, no, not the index generally. absolutely not. that's a different. i'm talking on individual levels. when you look at individual stocks. there are some stocks that have earnings projection growth for the year ahead to be 75%. >> okay. that's a pretty optimistic situation. >> yes, indeed. diane, what do you think? >> earnings season is about to come. this week is chock-full of macro

data. next week earnings season is upon us. if you spent a lot of thoughtful time focusing in on the commentary we got at the end of the year, last quarter's earnings, you heard a lot of ceos talking about their willingness to go out and spend money, right? a lot of them said the economy is turning, companies are doing better, it's time for cap ex. all eyes in this earning season are going to be focused on how much money are they really spending? what are they doing to continue their growth? and how much cash are they really going to leave on hand again? >> and we're talking about having a drinking game here on every time they mention the word weather. >> right. >> apple juice. >> i think it's dramatically overstated. who doesn't know -- >> that doesn't stop any company from ever using it as an excuse. >> bouroudjian, we've gone six minutes and haven't heard from you. >> we're at all time highs for a reason. companies are making money. here is a little secret, rick,

it doesn't matter if the fed is printing up money or not. corporations are doing well, and that is the lifeblood of the market. another couple weeks we're going to be sitting here during earnings season talking about how these better than expected earnings are coming out. >> if it doesn't matter, then why are all the hedge fund managers in the world -- >> one at a time. >> if it doesn't matter why don't all the traders write to the fed and say we don't need it? you're screwing up the economy. >> well, here, you got the most dovish speech i have ever seen by a fed chair given by janet yellen the other day. the bottom line is that we trade the market that we have, not the market that we want, rick. the market that we have right now is chaired by the most dovish fed chairman, period. the reality is that unless they can get some pro-growth policy out of d.c., they are a one-legged stool and it will not work. >> it's an economy that needs d.c. to tell them how to grow and it needs the fed's training wheels. we don't need either.

the country and the business know what is to do. >> did you see what policy would be sense -- >> can we describe -- i'm looking at cap ex projections just back to basics for a moment. somebody mentioned company ex, diane. i think that is right on. it's going to give you direct insight into the companies themselves and what they're seeing in their industries and whether or not they're -- >> do you see factory orders? cap ex and factory orders was negative. >> that's what it's all about. >> factory orders has a component for cap ex. the orders nonaircraft. that in factory orders was minus 1.7. >> was that the february number, rick? >> yes. >> it shows up in durable goods as a function of factory orders. it has been on the disappointing side. >> earnings are not supposed to be growing in this first quarter so much.

am i right or am i wrong? there's a muted expectation on what earnings are going to be. so diane is right, people are going to be paying attention to are these companies doing what they said they're going to do. are they spending the money and what will we see as a result. >> you can -- >> the industries -- >> all right. >> hang on, everybody. >> we have a horse race. everybody a running at once. >> if we're going to use cap ex as a gauge one good place to watch is capacity utilization. we're still kind of low by historical standards. >> right. >> if companies start to see demand anticipated out there, they should be spending more, diane. how should investors play this? should you buy the industrials here for that? >> i think absolutely the industrials. there are two great places. first, industrials, right, the xli index, and then basic materials, xld. for those two components, those two sectors of the market are likely to do much better as we

see cap ex growing. when we think about capacity utilization, we have had a tremendous amount of technological innovation since the last time we had a lot of cap ex. so rather than focusing as much on capacity ut lie zition, many companies are likely to do replacement strategies. so i think that becomes really key. >> i got a minute left, guys. is the market rigged? go. >> there's no function -- >> the biggest bunch of yellow journalism i have ever seen. "60 minutes" turned into "national enquirer." >> unbelievable. >> it's different -- >> it's the most -- >> i'll tell you what, the type -- >> jack, jack -- >> you really want to attack somebody -- >> jack, jack -- >> you can see -- >> let's be transparent. >> if they quit selling order flow and options or in for ex,

maybe they can do something. here in the futures world, we don't sell order flow. we have the most transparent market there is. you have an order book that tells you exactly -- >> okay, the equity market doesn't like that, jack. it's no longer like that. there's 100 plus venues to trade. it's not very transparent. >> the futures markets have one venue. when you're talking about -- >> yeah, but, jack, the retail guy should not be investing in futures. you want to -- >> the current technology gets ahead of law -- >> we're talking about the markets being -- >> the conversation should be market structure. >> peter, go ahead. >> and the reality -- >> one last thing, i think as technology gets ahead of law, we're just going to have these kinds of problems. we're acting as if this is the first time this has happened in the history of the markets. since the 1800s, technology has always been advancing ahead of the law so we're just going to have to work this out with the technological law to put in place and regulate everything. >> all right.

>> there's a big difference between predatory programs and nonpredatory programs. >> absolutely. >> keep that in mind. >> absolutely. >> we got to go. it was unfair of me to only give us a moninute on that. you did not disappoint. everybody has talking about. thank you, gang. >> thanks, guys. >> heading towards the close, 48 minutes left. the dow is up 22 points right now. we need a 44-point gain for a new all-time high for the dow. the s&p, any positive close is another new all-time high. >> nasdaq has just just tuturne negative. people will be watching this closely. google, using an unusual method to split its stock. it's allowing the co-founders to share a ton of google shares but remain in control of the company. should google investors worry about too much power in too few hands. also ahead, amazon is trying to muscle into your living room unveiling a new video streaming

device called firetv. the big question is if sales will catch fire as well or is this too similar to apple tv, google chrome,r oku and other things i have no idea what they are. and later -- >> are you an investor in brad's exchange? >> no. >> michael, i am just asking for full disclosure. >> absolutely not. are you insane? >> no, i'm not. i'm trying to do my job. >> i was just trying to figure out what the hell was going on in the stock market. >> yes. if you missed it, the big throwdown on cnbc yesterday pitting author michael lewis in one corner alleging high speed traders hurt markets. now a new twist in that debate. we'll bring it to you later on. keep it right here. ♪ [ male announcer ] when fixed income experts... ♪ ...work with equity experts... ♪

...who work with regional experts... ♪ ...who work with portfolio management experts, that's when expertise happens. mfs. because there is no expertise without collaboration. throwdown on cnbc yesterday c y just take a closer look. it works how you want to work. with a fidelity investment professional...

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welcome back. if you're just joining us, the dow is up 30 points. needs 44 to close at its first record of 2014. right now we're at 16,562. nasdaq has been on either side of unchanged today. the big rally in biotech cooled

today. any positive move for the s&p puts it in record territory and that's where it is right now. >> dominic chu is tracking some of today's big movers. >> let's kick it off with shares of gt advanced technologist. the shares are up 6%, off session highs though. analysts at goldman sachs reiterated their buy rating on the make are of crystal and solar components. they boosted their price target to $24. shares are up 480% over the last year. and then intuitive surgical continuing a strong run a day after surging on the heels of fda approval of a new version of its di vinci robot system. upgraded to an jut perform and slaps a $700 price target on the stock. google gets set to issue a new class of shares to investors starting tomorrow. holders of google stock will be given a stock dividend comprised of a new c class of shares.

each google share will be given an additional share of this new stock. google shares will trade under a new symbol, googl and carry voting rights along with them. the c class shares are without voting rights. they're going to trade under the ticker goog. important to note in essence each share of google will have halved in value like a two for one stock split. google shareholders should get ready for that in tomorrow's trade. >> rather complicated. let's talk about that. dom, thanks very much. was a google stock split the right idea or is google going against its own edict of don't be evil by limiting shareholders' voting rights and making sure that its founders will always have total and complete control of the company? >> joining us now is collin gilles, senior technology analyst, along with jeff cox, finance editor at cnbc.com. jeff, first to you. thoughts on this one? >> i just think the optics on this are so bad. it just feels like as bill

pointed out, this sort of do no evil philosophy for google, and now you're taking 55% of the company effectively and putting it in the hands of two guys -- >> then you would extend that to any companies in which owners retain share? >> i think google doesn't want to belong to that class of companies. the corporate culture doesn't seem to want to go there. >> collin, this was announced two years ago and it took them this long to get there because there was an uprising. >> i think google wants to belong to this class. this is what they've done. sergei and larry have retained control. >> can you blame them? >> so there's two schools of thought. one is that when i speak to founders of companies, they say it allows us to have a longer term outlook than just that 90-day quarterly grinding away. but, you know, what they're telling shareholders is no votes

for you. we're going to make all the decisions, no votes for you. >> this is where facebook is relevant because mark zuckerberg has been making a ton of acquisitions. people have expressed some concern about it but they don't really have veto power. >> if you're the type of investor who is not crazy about robots, high in the sky pa loba technology, it basically renders your voice moot. if you get to the point where they're not making the right moves and the investors are not happy with the direction they're taking the company, they basically have no say other than to sell the shares. >> but they have the ability to she wi sell the shares. >> vote with your feet. you raised the point about facebook. now google will have a currency that won't dilute their voting rights that they can pursue larging acquisitions if they so choose. if you look at the facebook/whatsapp deal, they have used a lot of stock. google hasn't been able to do

that because they didn't want to lose the majority control they had. these are smart guys. why don't they just give themselves ten to one super votes. they're google. 1,000 to 1. jam a couple more zeros. >> why did they do it this way? >> it's the typical structure. >> let me ask you this, i know you're an analyst, not necessarily a market moralist or something, but hong kong says it is one share, one vote. it's one reason why alibaba is going to come list to new york. should new york's structure be that accommodating to companies who want to retain control? >> it's just how it is, right? and i think what's interesting is let's see the performance of these companies against companies that do not have this type of structure. we'll see how the bets play out for facebook and see what happens -- >> what happened during the dotcom days? were there any lessons to be learned from that? >> don't invest in a company not making any money.

>> that's one of them. beware the high valuation that are paid for in paper stock. what we have to see is ask yourself is google creating value? their search business is a wonderful business and they're trying to expand beyond that and they've got their fingers in a lot of different pie approximates. >> should a company that's one of the biggest in this country effectively have a veto -- be run on a veto basis by two people? should that much investor wealth, should that much market cap be all tied up with these two guys? >> it's just -- you know, they have that right and that's how it's set up. if you don't like it, don't invest. >> if it weren't google, if it weren't these guys who have created so much value, could they have gotten away with this? >> yeah, pretty easily i think. to elaborate on your question a little bit, kelly, i think it would be a little draconian to force this on a company -- >> one share, one vote? >> yeah, absolutely. but i think with certain companies comes certain expectations. i think the market has that expectation for google, that

they would have been a little more democratic about it. >> tomorrow we'll find out what is a shareholder vote worth because the difference in twice between the goog shares and the googl shares will reflect that. i bet it's like $1. >> what a concept. we'll let the market speak and determine the value. >> we can deduce it. thank you both. about 35 minutes to go into the close here. just a reminder as to where we stand. the dow is up 27 points. the s&p is positive by 4. this would be another record high. the nasdaq was negative a few moments ago so it's right around the flat line. as anticipated, amazon has launched a major strike in the streaming wars. jon fortt has the nitty-gritty on this new device that they're unveiling today. plus, if you're wondering which hockey puck to get to stream video, we break it down and explain the differences i hope. later, former cbs and sirius xm ceo melichar ma zin weighing

in and talking about his work for autism speaks. don't miss it. don't miss it.

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find gary busey. find gary busey! but this new amazon fire tv listens to me and does exactly what i say. gary busey. yeah! amazon fire tv! >> so that's eccentric actor and former "apprentice" star gary busey recruited as a pitchman for amazon's new entry into settop tv called fire tv. >> jon, does amazon have a hot property on its hands? >> well, physically it's room temperature. i mean, here it is. fire tv, roughly the same size as an apple tv. i tell you, i got a chance to see it work. it's impressive. it has a quad core chip inside it from qualcomm that allows you to play video games, do stuff that's graphically intensive at

high resolution. it's got fast wi-fi which you want in a box like that. but it's 99 bucks which means it's the same price where apple tv is now. the question becomes from, you know, this sea of different gadgets we have now to stream video to the living room, which one is best? part of it will come down to content. they pretty much all do netflix. this one does as well as hulu plus, vimeo, several other channels. espn was in there and said this one does a good job of streaming hollywood f hd for a long time. what is amazon going to do to make this stand out even further? if you're not into gaming how will they push it beyond amazon.com? right now that's the only place you can order this thing. of course, we've still got a few months to go before the holiday season and we still got a few months for apple to roll out the next phase of its content strategy in apple tv, whatever that happens to be. remember, tim cook said just a few weeks ago apple tv was a

billion dollar business last year. no longer a hobby. expect to see them make some more definitive moves in the next few months, guys. >> all right, jon. let's talk about this. this new amazon service is adding to a slew of companies competing in the video streaming wars. google's chrome cast, apple tv, roku, they're all vying for your attention obviously. most sort of look like hockey pucks you plug into your television. >> what sets these devices apart? let's ask ryan lawler from tech crunch along with jon fortt. ryan, what's the difference between amazon fire tv, for example, and let's pick say google chrome cast. >> well, the big difference between amazon's fire tv and chrome cast right now is the price. amazon is coming in at $99. chrome cast is around $30 or $40. so if you're going to choose just based on price, obviously chrome cast is where you would

go. the difference in the content that they provide isn't that huge. chrome cast does require you to have either a smartphone or a tablet to connect to it. it doesn't have apps natively lined up on that device, but, you know, it's a pretty competitive market right now. >> jon, have you tried all these? you know, technology, content, price point, those are the things that you try to differentiate themselves from. how do you compare them? >> well, i haven't tried all of them but a few key differences here with this fire tv. if you're already a kindle user, you have some preferences that will move over. for instance, somewhere where you stop watching a tv show or movie, once you pick it up with fire tv, it will start at that point. amazon has x ray a service that allows you to get more information about the actors, the drebters, the producers of any particular think you might be watching.

there are some nice video smoothing, over enhancements that amazon has thrown in here. the interfaces are different, and, of course, you have gaming. you can't really do that on a chrome cast. chrome cast is a very simple, very basic device in a stick form that plugs into the back of the tv. this is more of a box with a processor that's powerful enough to play first person shooter games, mine craft, things like that. there really is more to it if you want that in your over the top box. some people will, some people won't. >> what i notice as well from the ad is it seems to focus on a problem people have a lot of these newer platforms to access tv and video which is they're impossible to search and to find something that you're looking for. do you think that's what amazon is trying to solve here and if they're successful, do you think that will be a differentiating factor in the marketplace? >> obviously, as we saw with that gary busey spot, they are trying really hard to differentiate with voice control and voice search. to be honest though, i haven't personally seen a lot of appetite for voice search or for

people talking to their tvs right now. having universal search across all the different types of channels or apps, services that you have, will be a big differentiator, but right now it's something that a lot of other boxes have as well. roku has something similar. you can expect that apple tv will probably roll out something similar as well when the next version of that comes out. >> you know what we're running into, guys? we're running into a port problem. h hdmi ports. most tvs have two to four. a lot of them are already full with your cable boxes, maybe a dvd player, or over the top box or a game console or something else. amazon is coming into this and will have to make the case that you're going to unplug something else to plug this in. we're no longer at the point where we have enough ports for everything. that will be the battle of the holiday season. >> this is the 21st century battle for ports.

it happens in your living room on your television. ryan and jon, thank you, both. >> thanks, guys. appreciate it very much. while we were talking, we got 30 minutes left, the dow coming precariously close to an ju all-time high. 42 point gain. >> yesterday's brawl between michael lewis and the president of bass global markets still ringing in our ears. if the term rigged as you concerned, bob pisani will explain how high frequency trading has likely had no effect on the retail investor. you won't want to miss this, up next. >> absolutely. and is this a harbinger of things to come for the broader markets? dow transportation average has been hitting record highs lately. seema mody highlights the high flyers in that sector so don't touch that clicker or hockey puck or whatever you're touching right now. stay tuned. stay tuned. these days, everything your business does

is done on the internet. and tomorrow you'll do even more.

that's what comcast business was built for. slow dsl from the phone company was built for stuff like this. switch to comcast business internet. then add voice and tv for just $34.90 more per month. and you'll be ready for tomorrow today. comcast business. built for business. welcome back. the dow is up 44 points. i think we're right at it now, at all-time highs for the industrial average. the s&p is in record territory. the nasdaq has many miles to go before it sleeps. we're nowhere near that, but right now we are setting these highs on this april 2nd. >> what a week to do it as well.

michael lewis' claim that the markets are rigged by high speed traders are still the source of much agitation today. >> the term rigged many say is loaded making the average investor wary of the stock market. p bob, if i buy 100 shares of a stock from somewhere like e trade or ameritrade or scott trade, whatever, how does this affect me, the high frequency trading we've been talking about? >> in those cases if you're dealing with discount brokers, there's a good chance they would sell them to internalizers. these are market makers who pair off the buy and sell orders so that 100 shares would probably be paired off internally with their own inventory. if they couldn't do it, the order could end up down here on the floor of the new york stock exchange or some other exchange. it could go to a dark pool which is a private trading vehicle run mostly by brokerage firms. now, that's where perhaps in those circumstances you might interact with the high frequency trader. they would have bought the stock a penny lower earlier and tried

to sell it to you a penny above. but most of the major complaints i hear come from the institutional side. the institutional players, the people who buy stock in size, complain the pennies add up, number one. and number two, when they try to go into the market with size orders, the market moves around them. and that increases the cost of trading for everyone. that's a legitimate complaint i think from a lot of the institutional players. guys? >> bob, stay with us. let's talk about it. we're going to get back into this whole area once again here. >> yeah. let's get some more reaction from rich gates from tfs capital who was the whistle-blower cited in flash boys. he joins us along with ronald, ceo of steiffel. >> i don't have a dog in that fight but i will start by saying to the individual investors that are out there watching the show, markets are not rigged. so we can go from there. >> rich, i haven't read the book

yet. i apologize, but you're highlighted in this book. i don't know the answer to this question. do you agree with michael lewis, is the market rigged? >> the market has issues. the market has opportunity to get better. the market has been getting better since the 1800s. one of the characters in the book, one of the flash boys, is quoted around page 100 talking about the milestones that have taken place in the last 100 years and the improvements. this is just another milestone. >> what would you like to see happen here? what changes need to be made? >> look -- >> i would like to see -- >> go ahead, rich. >> i would like to see everybody keep their eyes on iex very, very closely. everyone who is not a high frequency trader, mutual funds out there, everybody on the buy side look at this firm. it's a beautiful business model

in its simplicity and it's designed for traders like us. >> rich, don't you think the market has issues, which you said, and i agree with, is very different than saying the market is rigged. by saying the market is rigged, it tells everybody at home that it's not safe to invest in the market. those are the implications. don't you think that that is a gross exaggeration? >> well, you better get o'brien and michael lewis back on to argue that one. my point -- >> what do you think though? we're asking you what you think. do you think the market is rigged? >> the market is safe. >> is it safe to invest in the stock market right now. >> i'm in the business. this is what i do -- i want to jump in here. technology has made trading costs much, much more efficient. the question -- what has happened here, the last scandal that occurred was back when the new york specialists were colluding and that brought in mms, and the outshoot is a

fragmented market. the market being fragmented as it is today has issues we can improve on, but it's not rigged. and for people to say it's rigged is almost reckless to the average investor. the average investor trades much more efficiently today than they ever have in the history of time. >> ron, do you think your firm loses any money because of skimming, if you want to call it that, by high frequency trading? >> i don't quite understand the skimming. i will say, i will agree with rich on this, there are issues that michael lewis points out with respect to some things that can be improved upon. no question that they can be improved upon. but the debate is about market structure. the way we've structured markets. we have gone from the new york stock exchange having 70% of the volume to 15%. you want a better illustration of what's going on? goldman sachs paid $6.5 billion for a specialist firm they're selling today for $30 million. that's what's happened to the market. and so, yes, we can do things,

but some of the benefits of mms has created some arbitrage opportunities that supposedly the high frequency traders take advantage of. if there's anything being done to manipulate the market, that should be outlawed tomorrow. >> rich, i want to go back to the question i asked you before. i didn't get an even. i'm thinking about the individual investor out there hearing the debates using the word rigged used by a man that we all respect in michael lewis, who has written some great books over the years, but now he's making the charge that the makts are rigged. do you agree with him and is it safe for this individual investor listening to this debate to get into the stock market right now? >> i invest in the stock market. i manage money for clients in the stock market. i think it's a safe place. michael lewis has done a wonderful service to wall street and the industry insiders by releasing this book. it's a masterpiece.

there's been a lot of discussion on this the last several years. five years ago tfs capital, my firm, first came out and talked about latency arm arbitrage. it was skridescribed in the boo "dark pools." >> here is what has to be looked at, okay? i will say this, it's a fact that reg mms has caused market on your screen to appear more liquid than they are. that is a fact, but the trading spreads are a penny. markets are not as liquid as they appear, but it does not mean anything nefarious is going on. i think there are things that can be improved on. make no mistakes, there are things we have to do, technical things, take and make markets, incentives. we need to look at this but this debate is about market stricture

n -- structure, not about it being rigged. >> i agree. can't we all agree what the s.e.c. needs is to have tools aavailab available to look into behavior that is illegal. >> we have representative peter defazio calling for a three basis point tax on certain transactions. is that a solution that would help here or hurt? >> it's not one that i would recommend. >> that's the worst idea i have heard all day. >> okay. thank you both. we have to leave it there. we'll keep searching for the better ideas in that case. we've got 15 minutes to go before the close of the dow at a record high amid all of this. it's adding 54 points to 15,857. same goes for the s&p up 7. >> we're strengthening into the close. the dow transports considered a leading indicator for the

markets, they're hitting fresh highs as well. we'll run through the leaders in that sector coming up next. former ceo of cbs and sirius xm mel karmazin on ringing the closing bell to mark national autism day. we'll be speaking to him about that and the changing face of media. we'll get his take on where media is heading and what job he may be heading to next. don't miss any of it. t miss any. or how ornate the halls are. it doesn't matter if there are granite statues, or big mahogany desks. when working with an investment firm, what's really important is whether the people behind the desks actually stand behind what they say. introducing the schwab accountability guarantee. if you're not happy with one of our participating investment advisory services, we'll refund your program fee from the previous quarter. it's no guarantee against loss and other fees and expenses may still apply. chuck vo: standing by your word, that's what matters the most.

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welcome back. take a look at your screens because for the first time all year the dow jones industrial average finally appears poised, poised to close at a record high. in fact, even as we're talking about this, we're perhaps just below the level. there it is on the right, 16,576 is the level we're looking for. >> it's getting close. it will be a squeaker at the close. meanwhile, another day, another record for the dow transportation average, considered a leading indicator for the broader markets. seema mody has the lowdown on that story. that's been positive for the bulls. >> that's right. the transport index grabbing the attention of traders. the index is seen as a leading indicator for the broader market. it hit a record high this morning, currently is trading in positive territory. you know, a lot of traders linking this move in the

transports index to the latest read on factory activity. add to that today's adp report came in better than expected suggesting the u.s. economy here is improving. now, another reason transportation stocks are on the move might be due to the decline in the price of crude oil, which is, of course, a boon for those trending stocks. in fact, the inverse correlation between the transports index and crude oil can be seen in a one-week chart. back over to you, bill and kelly. >> seema, thanks very much. now, we've got, let's see, about 11 minutes to go into the close. 16,576 is the level we're watching. the dow has not closed higher since december 31st when it set a record high. again, the first quarter we were just below that level. here we are the second day into the second quarter and we could perhaps take out that level. >> it's amazing, it's taken us until april to get a new high on the dow after the number of times -- >> only amazing given the performance of markets over the

past five years. >> exactly my point. later, white castle is looking to be crowned breakfast king. a top executive will be here to share what his fast food chain has cooked up to compete with mornings. we'll talk about the breakfast wars, the minimum wage debate which continues to rage across the country. a lot to talk about coming up. >> and a very special guest after the bell, mary higgins clark. she is still writing new books. >> love that. >> and she will join me at the new york stock exchange. i love her. don't miss it. we'll be right back. 'll be righ. yeah, i'm married. does it matter? you'd do that for me? really? yeah, i'd like that. who are you talking to? uh, it's jake from state farm. sounds like a really good deal. jake from state farm at three in the morning. who is this? it's jake from state farm.

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welcome back. seven minutes left in the trading session, and it will be a squeaker. if you're looking for an all-time high for the dow, it needs to be up roughly 44 points. we're almost there. as you can see, about a point away at the moment. transports are in record territory. the s&p is already there. the dow could make it a hat trick if we close up 44 points. joining me right now, steven reese from jpmorgan private tbak and len tannenbaum. does it matter if the dow closes at an all-time high? >> we're not focusing on levels. we're still very constructive on equities markets.

>> but after such a strong year last year, are you surprised it's taken us four months to get to an new all-time high? >> not at all. we started the day with a double digit return forecast of 10% to 12% in the u.s. where we are now is pretty much in on track. we think earnings next week will support further upside in markets. we're looking at 7% to 8% growth this year. that's really going to drive the bulk of your return. >> it feels like we're grinding. last years it was pretty easy. we had 30 all-time highs or something like that on the dow. now it's grinding along here. >> but, bill, there's a lot of liquidity. still qe in effect. you have tons of money in the loan markets. you have loans pricing very aggressively. it's still a manipulated market. so this year you're going to feel really good. you're going to have that sugar high. i think you're not going to feel the bad effects until next year. i think we'll go up 5%, 10% this year. i think next year is a real question mark. >> really? okay. we'll take a break, come back

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welcome back. two minutes left in the trading session. we're watching the dow here wondering if it's going to close at an all-time high. it's very close. it needs to be up 44-plus points. we're up 40 right now. it's been wavering below that level it needs to be at. don't know if it's going to happen. s&p, any positive close is a new all-time high. as we mentioned, the transports are at a new all-time high. be back with len and steven. where are you putting money to work? you're positive on the market this year? >> we're telling clients to be more selective in terms of their approach and sectors will be important. we had a bias toward cyclical sectors, financials and technology we like to balance it with health care. >> because the fed is raising -- planning to raise rates or tapering right now? >> tapering is happening because growth is picking up and as growth picks up in the u.s. economy, that will benefit your cyclical sectors. as rates move higher, it will help financials as well.

health care is a call on aging demographics, lots of free cash flow and great m&a activity. >> mr. cautious, what are you looking senate. >> i run two publics. we have about 140 holdings. right now what we're tilting towards in sectors, health care to an extent but really technology. such exciting things going on in tech. a lot of good tech ipos coming. we're starting to take advantage of that. i'm focused on the growth sector but also one that the u.s. economy is famous for is high tech. >> biotech could be part of this whole discussion but we are reminded how volatile that section can be right now, right? >> right. biotech is taking a breather but the sector was up 50% to 60%. so what we're seeing is healthy. health care is still the second best performer year-to-date. >> thank you, guys. as we go out, close to an

all-time high on the dow. it is world autism day, awareness day. old friend suzanne and bob wright ringing the bell. the former ceo. and mel karmazin will be kelly's guest on the second hour of "the closing bell." see you tomorrow, kelly. >> welcome to "the closing bell." i'm kelly evans. the rally rolling on as the dow tries but it looks like has failed to close at a record high. here is how we're finishing up the day on wall street. the dow adding 40 points to 15,573. the nasdaq meanwhile up about 8 after flirting with the flight line and the s&p 500 adding 5, 1,890. that we can say for that broad market index is another record high. let's bring in today's panel. elon, stephanie link, sheila dharmarajan, and steve grasso will join us in a second when he's off the floor. also with us for more on today's

markets, we have another "fast money" trader, guy adami. and it is great to see all of you. stephan stephanie, the context here is so interesting. at the backdrop of everyone talking about whether the stock market is rigged or not, we continue to rally. volume today a little light perhaps but i wonder if that doesn't make more people hesitate getting into this market than any sense that they might be rigged. should people feel confident about wading in here? >> i think they have to focus on the fundamentals. that's the most important thing, and the u.s. economy is certainly showing signs of life. the numbers today were okay, right? adp a little light but i was encouraged construction came back and has seen an acceleration. the factory orders a little better than expected as well. we're all waiting for friday's nonfarm payroll numbers. whispers are starting to inch higher, but interesting, kelly, today the retail consumer stock markets acted well and it's on the heels of better jobs. perhaps there's speculation you will see an increase on the wage side on friday's numbers which

is a good thing. >> it's a fascinating point because one of the hardest hit sectors in the first quarter, in fact, was consumer discretionary, and it wasn't just some of the weather that was going on, people paying more for utility bills, it was also the affordable care act which contributed to the increase in spending and to income at the same time as well. that's why friday's number is going to be so important. >> you had a number of issues actually in the fourth quarter -- first quarter in terms of consumer spending. the expiration of the unemployment benefits for long-term jobless, but i think you have to be careful about getting too optimistic about what's going to happen on friday. we talked about the spring swoon coming in during april, may, june. and now you're sort of seeing the opposite. people are getting excited about what might happen in the spring. even if we had a blockbuster number, say 300,000 payroll jobs announced on friday, you're still only going to be at a sick-month moving average of 200k. that gets us back to where we started. it doesn't mean things are getting better. it just means things aren't getting worse. >> but at least the initial

claims, which is a leading indicator, you're at new cycle lows and that's very encouraging along with the other economic data points in manufacturing, in auto sales, in housing numbers. >> right. >> all the numbers are starting to point to an improvement. it's not just jobs. it's very, very important but there's a lot of other factors. >> guy -- >> hi. >> talk about income. hi. if we want to talk about a gauge about whether the cycle is kicking into a higher gear, whatever you want to call it, a lot of it is going to depend, and we were reminded of it by janet yellen, you have to watch those wage numbers. would you bet on the consumer? >> you never bet against the consumer because they're resilient as you can possibly be. it's not a fact whether or not they should be spending money. the reality is consumer always comes back. we can debate that later, but let me just go back. you led this with the whole rig thing. let me say one thing, when i was young getting on a train in grand central, every corner had a three card mo nte guy.

those games were rigged. high frequency trading, say what you want about it, i'm somewhat agnostic, i could care one way or another, but they don't rig the outcome. the outcome is not predetermined for the investor to lose. i dig michael lewis, great author, i have read his books. the word rigged was said for one reason only, for him to sell books and he's going to sell a lot of them. but i'm not a believer the market is rigged. >> if the high frequency traders are able to say we know you, guy, want to make a trade at "x" price and before you can even make that trade we're going to get in there ahead of you and push the price -- >> it's the cost of doing business in the marketplace we live in now. these guys, they are a natural evolution from the geniuses that decided we needed to go from the eighth and quarters and make it pennies. that's the natural evolution of the market which we could have an entire conversation on and i know steve grasso is coming in to talk about it. all they are is just an added layer of cost that you have to

deal with in today's world. >> steve, let's address this before we move on. do you agree, it just an added layer of cost or is there something more pernicious here? we know the guys at rbc were losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year because they were effectively -- i know the terminology everyone is going to be upset, front run on some of the trades they were trying to make. >> guy hit on it. once you want to have a more xef tiff marketplace, more participants, it gets to a fragmented market. there's going to be advantages when you have a fragmented market. we went from the new york stock exchange having 90% of the market share and above to now you have 13 different exchanges, 50 different dark pools, and this is what we're worried about now. to me it's noise. yes, it's a problem, but i don't know what the fix could be. it's a lot of noise around the marketplace right now. so, yes, if there's advantages that are given to some people,

that shouldn't exist, but longer term, it's trading. >> i want to leave it there for now. let's move back, sheila, to what's happened in the markets today. a lot of people watching the nasdaq to figure out if it was going to hold here at the close. it did, added eight points. what about the internals? >> a lot of traders are scratching their head. you have had a very good start to the trading quarter. things going back to what they almost seemed to be like back in the first quarter. people feeling good, but i will say when you talk to everyone, there is an added layer of uncertainty, a little bit of nervousness. are the economic fundamentals really there? i think unlike what we saw in the first quarter where it was just kind of volatility all over the place versus what we saw last year which was gangbusters ahead, there does seem to be an added layer of nervousness and uncertainty. people aren't as quick to rush back in. they're definitely looking at the fundamentals and stock picking more than ever this quarter. >> art cashin earlier was saying what people are looking for is to see whether the apron sans was just a one-day affair or not. it looks like we've continued into a day two. do we continue until day 90 of

the quarter do you think? >> you know, if you look at this marketplace, we made new highs. everyone didn't want to rush in until we made a new high. we made a new high. now it has to confirm itself, but the truth is nobody wants to buy stocks at a new high. they're willing to hold onto what they have. they're not taking profits because they're afraid that we're going to go to s&p 2000. >> i sort of like the wall of worry, and guess what? we have a week to go and then you get earnings. alcoa comes out next week and then you'll get a barrage of companies that will tell you what's going on and then you can figure out where you want to go. i still think you're going to want to focus on the cyclical stories and the cyclical sectors because the economic data is getting better. >> the risk is not to get long winded on the markets, but the truth is if you're going to risk the upside, steph, are you better off just buying this marketplace above 1900 or 1925 in the s&p versus buying it now

and having it come in 50, 60, 70 handles? >> you mean you will have more certainty if you see it rally up to the next level? >> i think you need confirmation because you get that law of round numbers. 1900 becomes the base. granted, every sale in this market has been a bad sale. we're due to correct but the problem is we've corrected and unless you're a "fast money" trader, you haven't been able to react to it. >> to that point, it depends on your time horizon. if you are a trader, then maybe you want to follow more technicals. if you're fundamental, a little longer term like we are, you want to take advantage of sloppy days, a little uncertainty where you expect -- when the economy improves you will see the top line improve and i think you will see multiples could possibly expand if you get that revenue growth we've all been waiting for forever. >> sheila? >> no one likes to buy new highs, i agree with that. last year there was a sentiment you had to buy or you would be completely left behind. this year i'm feeling a little bit more hesitation about feeling that need to buy especially now that we're continuing to hit these new highs in this type of volatility. >> mr. adami, last word?

>> the russell sold off in february, bounced back nicely, did it again and it's bouncing back. the transports suggest you have further room to the upside. you just don't fight it. i thought we'd make a retest back down lower. i said i was wrong a number of times, i'll say it again, but right now the path of least resistance appears to be higher. >> we'll leave it there for the time being. thanks, everybody. stick around and catch guy and the rest of the "fast money" crew coming up on "fast money" at 5:00 p.m. david winters stepping up his fight with coca-cola today. sara eisen has the details for us now. >> hey, kelly. certainly, david winters upping the ante in his fight against co-ka ca-col coca-cola's proposed pay plan. he's questioning the ceo's role as chairman of the board, the dual role. winters is wondering whether it's a good thing for shareholders to have the ceo actually leading the board as well in light of mr. winters' claims that coke's equity plan

is, quote, one of the most outrageous grabs of shareholder wealth in the history of commerce. that was a quote that he mentioned earlier on a webcast that he held on the topic this afternoon. coke fired back immediately defending kent's dual role saying our board is satisfied that combining the roles of chairman and ceo has served our shareholders well over time. we'll continue to do so making the point that coke is enormous, it operates it more than 200 countries and it's an important thing to have the ceo and the chairman represented with a single voice for the bottlers, for the consumers, for the customers, and for the shareholders. if you haven't been following this back and forth, winters has been calling on shareholders to vote against the equity plan at the april 23rd annual meeting. he sent a series of leaders to coke's board, to warren buffett, the largest shareholder, and to other shareholders saying that it dilutes the shareholders and excessively rewards management. coke completely disputes his math, calls it misinformed, says

it does not reflect the facts that he's overstating the delieu tiff impact of the plan. where this goes from here, david winters owns about 2.5 million shares of coke. it's less than a percent. he says he's in it for the long haul but certainly not backing down from this fight on executive comp. in fact, escalating it here, kelly, ahead of the meeting. >> yes, he certainly is, sara. thanks very much. want to mention david winters will be here on "the closing bell" tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. we want to talk to him about all of this. can i get a quick thought from the panel? it's been a tough week for coca-cola for a number of reasons. there's this news about diet coke potentially having unwelcome health side effects. pepsi shares roughly flat. coca-cola is down 7%. what do you do with beverage companies? >> i go for the company that's outperformed. i wouldn't be in coke right now but i bet steph is probably in this group. i'm not in the group. but if were to play it, i wouldn't play it through coke.

>> we're not involved in it but i think at 37, 38 and the fact that it's lagged for such a long period of time something has got to give. i think kent has done a really good job over the years and just recently he's fighting some of these secular headwinds so david winters has a right to be frustrated and this situation reminds me very much of jamie dimon and jpmorgan when they wanted to split up the roles. if the bottom line improves, if the fundamentals improve at folk, we won't talk about this. the point is they haven't been imprfg and they have to really figure out how they're going to grow going forward. >> just real quick s this a validation for the pepsi strategy which has been under pressure from nelson peltz but they have a big snack business. volumes in terms of kind of pepsi itself are roughly 20% of the business instead of 70% at coke, and we know coke's two flagship products are under pressure. is that one reason if you're pepsi to defend the current strategy? >> i think pelts is in for a long and big fight because pepsi is digging in their heels and

the quarter would not have been nearly what it was this past quarter if they didn't have the snack business. that kind of helped save them. so i think that's a tougher call. again, i think that coke has to figure out their growth strategy and pepsi needs to execute better. period. >> and we'll leave it there for now. ceo of gm mary barra under fire on capitol hill for a second straight day. take a listen. >> i don't have the complete facts to share with you today. >> okay. well, that is incredibly frustrating to me that you wouldn't have a simple time line of what happened once you got that knowledge. >> so does she really not have a recall crisis time line or is she being intentionally evasive? we'll hear from the ranking senator on that committee next. also, we'll talk about the future of the media industry when former cbs and sirius xm ceo mel karmazin joins us. he's a key player in supporting national autism day. he just rang the closing bell as part of that effort. and the waffle taco is so last week.

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welcome back. gm ceo mary barra getting grilled on capitol hill for a second straight day. eamon javers, did she give any new insights in the recall crisis? >> not really. this ignition crisis is really a problem for gm. they don't seem to be able to provide answers, and, man, was there some tough treatment for mary barra on capitol hill from the senators who were very frustrated today. watch this. >> why not just come clean and say, we're going to do justice here? >> that is incredibly frustrating to me. >> oh, you can't even talk to that. you don't know anything about anything. >> you know, as a ceo on capitol hill when somebody says to you -- a senator says to you you don't know anything about anything, you really have a problem here. another senator trying to get at this question of whether or not the chevy cobalts which had this ignition switch issue that are still out on the road today are safe to drive. watch this one. >> if i were to have a recalled

chevrolet cobalt, would you recommend that i drive home in it tonight? >> if you take the -- all the keys off the ring except the ignition key or just use the ignition key, our engineering team has done extensive analysis to say that is safe to drive. >> i suspect that cobalt drivers would not take comfort in that advice on knowing what has come up. >> and, kelly, that's just kind of how it went today for general motors on capitol hill. a lot of senators really not satisfied with this explanation that as long as you don't have a lot of heavy stuff dangling from your key chain, the car is safe to drive. they wanted a little more to be done by gm. gm for its part says they're giving loaners to any customers who have these vehicles who feel like they're just not safe to drive, they don't want to drive them so they can get them repaired and get them back on the road. >> thank you very much. republican senator dean heller

from nevada is a ranking member on the committee. he joins me now. thank you so much for being here. what was your reaction to what you heard? >> it wasn't a good day. it wasn't a good day for gm. wasn't a good day for mary barra. wasn't a good day for nhtsa, the traffic and safety administration. frankly, it wasn't a good day for delphi. all around, not getting the questions answered as they avoided some of the tough questions. it was very, very frustrating for both republicans and democrats on that committee, but they have got to step up and really start answering some questions. >> senator, do you trust that general motors' cars are safe to drive? would you trust your child in one? >> i wouldn't. mary barra said she'd let her son drive one but i certainty wouldn't. to think you have to drive all your cars off your key chain. keep in mind if you hit rough road, if you hit a pothole, same thing could happen. i would not have my children in one of those vehicles. >> well, at the same time i know you have been pretty critical of nhtsa, that is the regulator here for not doing more when it

saw issues. so what steps need to be taken now and are you comfortable that you have heard from them a real defense as to why they weren't more proactive on this front years ago? >> i raised a lot of questions in committee, specifically as to whether or not they received questions or people far above them outside the department of transportation telling them not to go forward on this. keep in mind, gm had a lot of moments of conflicts of interest as they were moving forward over the last ten years. i asked specifically in that 2005, '06, and '07 what was their financial status and it was poor? was there a reason they didn't have the recall come out because they couldn't get the bailout or the fact that 60% of the taxpayers and the government owned gm at the time. was there a conflict in there? was that the reason they didn't expose the problems? there were many moments of conflicts and i think they ought to be disclosed and we ought to find out, get to the bottom of why 13 people died and why they waited so long, both nhtsa and gm, in moving forward on this

recall. >> so you don't feel as though we've gotten to the bottom of this. what happens next then? >> not even close. you're right, kelly. what i want to do is bring them back to the committee. chairwoman said she wants to bring them back. i asked when this internal investigation that they're supposed to be doing will be completed. they said within the next 45 days. so i would hope that chairman mccaskill will bring gm back, bring delphi back, bring nhtsa back and let's get to the bottom, figure ourt what happened, and find out who is at fault here. >> thank you so much for your time this afternoon. >> you bet, kelly. thank you. >> really appreciate it. investors getting ready for friday's big march jobs report. wall street has some pretty lofty expectations. is the labor market finally heating up or will weather be blamed again if the numbers disappoint? that's next. later, we'll discuss the future of the publishing industry when best-selling author mary higgins clark joins me on the floor of the new york stock exchange. really looking forward to this one. we'll be right back. mine was earned in korea in 1953.

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...who work with regional experts... ♪ ...who work with portfolio management experts, that's when expertise happens. mfs. because there is no expertise without collaboration. welcome back. friday we have the march jobs report in hand and everybody is hoping for a big number and a boost to the economy. my next guest is more concerned about the coming worker shortage when, he says, jobs will go unfilled. really? joining me is milton. how big a number are we talking? >> the consensus is 200,000 payrolls growth. we could exceed it but we'll have to exceed it by a lot.

there will be a bounceback because of the bad weather we had. there should be a bounceback. if we don't have a much bigger number than that, it speaks to a fundamental slowness in the economy, what we have been experiencing for years now. >> all the same, you're worried about a worker shortage. why? >> the worker shortage -- the book "30 tomorrows" talks about we have a demographic problem with a reduced flow of young people into the workforce. there's going to be a worker shortage, but this is not something for this month, this month -- >> are you saying old people will crowd young people out of the job market? >> no, i'm just saying the worker shortage is a relative thing. we have an enormous overhang of effectively dependent retirees. we've had low birth rates for decades so there's a reduced flow of young people coming into

the workforce. there's a skills mismatch. there will be a great jobs market for skilled labor but it's not happening next month or even next year. >> i'd like to jump in here and ask you about your outlook for women in the labor market actually. i think you have been arguing that women could play an important role in sort of filling that worker shortage. what do you think it will take to get more women to join the labor force? >> that's a great question. i think one of the solutions we have, a lot of people have looked at this demographic. they've said they made some dire forecasts, some prominent people. i won't accept that. i think the country will not allow its prosperity to go and i think one of the reasons is going to be bringing more women into the workforce. >> sounds like japan. >> despite second wave feminism, women have not participated in the workforce as thoroughly as men, there is room there. i think one of the ways we will do this is with child care, and i think more firms will offer child care -- >> do you offer child care? >> sorry? >> do you offer child care? >> no, we don't offer child

care, but i think -- >> you might have more women working for you if you did. >> sheila, what were you going to say? >> i'm not one that makes that policy decision at lord abbott but there are firms that are offering child care, especially larger firms where large groups of people congregate. they say when there's a school holiday, a lot of people don't show up for work because they have to be home with their kids. they provide child care on a temporary basis for people in that situation, and i think more firms well. >> i want to jump in here. speaking of age and the age issue and job creation, everybody is pointing to silicon valley as the new jobs engine. do you think the jobs growth we've seen out of silicon valley is overrated or do you think that's truly the direction in which the economy needs to go? >> i think there's examples there. i don't think it's overrated or underrated. i think it's part of the solution. i think they're leading the way in some respects but they're not the only ones. >> what do you think about outsourcing?

do you think that -- we've seen a lot of outsourcing to other countries. do you think that long term if we have a shortage here you will see that reverse in the favor of hiring more in the u.s. and keeping them in the u.s.? >> actually it will depend on the kind of work. i think that there's no doubt about it, the united states with high wages and a skill advantage over emerging markets is going to see more simple labor intensive activities migrate overseas. we'll have to train workers to bring them back into the workforce. we're going to have to upgrade and move toward more high value activities and i think that is the way we're going to meet part of this labor shortage, not in the sense of we do it or they do it or it comes back or it goes there. it's a question of who does what. they will do the simpler more labor intensive things. we will do the high value more complex high trained things here. >> milton, thank you for being here. milton ezrati from lord abbott. straight ahead, former cbs

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comcast business. built for business. welcome back. so if you couldn't tell by the color we're wearing or the pins we're wearing today, april is autism awareness month, and today marks the seventh annual world autism awareness day. across the globe, cities are showing support by lighting it up blue, and with us now fresh from ringing the new york stock exchange closing bell, autism speaks co-founders suzanne and bob wright. also with us is board member and former sirius ceo mel karmazin along with a special guest as well. mattias is here, and mattias actually, your brother has autism, doesn't he? >> yeah. >> how has that been for you? >> it's kind of hard for him to kind of talk and do stuff that normal kids do. >> but i see you're showing your support for him today. >> yeah. >> and your grandparents must be so proud of that. >> we are. >> absolutely.

>> and drawing awareness to this event to autism today, why is it so important to you? >> well, awareness is what drives people to kind of go out and to help families whether it's trying to get research money or it's trying to get insurance, whether it's trying to get care or municipalities, educational issues, preschool, during school, you have housing issues. all of that needs to have a lot of awareness. these new numbers are 2.5% of boys, 1 in 42. i don't think most people understand what the significance of that is. there's nothing we know that's like evil that goes 2.5%. it's just too much. so there's a huge need here and awareness helps people understand it. >> suzanne, you raise awareness however you can. you brought a bag in -- >> how do you like this? >> i couldn't believe the technology. >> it's wearable technology. it was given to me by my daughter-in-law. >> light up the blue. >> and light up the blue and we're lighting up blue around

the world. right now as the stock he cexch closed, we're lighting up blue. the pope had an audience with youautistic families. >> you had experience with this in your family as well. it's something to figure out what to do about it. what helps, what hurts, what have you learned? >> number one, thanks cnbc for what they're doing today because as bob pointed out, our goal is to raise awareness. if we can raise awareness, we can raise money, and if we raise money, we could do all kinds of research and do all kinds of things for the families of people affected by it. we don't know enough about it, and that's why we need to look at every single possibility and do everything that we could think of. off the wall ideas, traditional ideas to find what will ultimately be a cure a treatment, and in the process take care of all the families that are being affected that

need so much help. >> bob, in your experience, what works? do we know at least what doesn't work? >> one of the awkwardnesses is that no two children with autism are the same. so certain things will work. there's a lot of therapies and the occupational speech and behavioral are the most prominent ones. some children have medical conditions that need to be dealt with as well. but the greatest thing asset we have is we have over 400,000 people that are connected to us through walks in the united states, and these are mostly people with families with autism. they are on the ground, and we're trying to help them get local services, improve their local services, report on how they are feeling about types of services and therapies so we have kind of a top down, ground up, and really most of our information comes from the ground. our research we do with the nih and our own which is not insignificant, between us and what we've gotten the nih to do,

it's almost $2 billion. i wish i could tell you it's proved some enormous point at this stage, but it's opened up a lot of doors which require a lot more effort and the government has to -- that's one area where the government has to act. >> and what we know is that there's a tsunami coming for all of these kids that have been diagnosed with autism are moving up the age spectrum to where there's going to be this need for all of this care for adults, for senior citizens with autism. no one is sort of dealing with that yet and it's going to require a lot of money and, unfortunately, the government is not either in a position or not willing yet to commit the kind of money that the government should be committing to this horrible situation. >> mattias, do you have other friends with autism? >> a few of my friends have brothers and sisters with autism, and they say the same things like it's hard for them to play and do stuff with other kids. >> yeah, i know, it's such a struggle to grow up with it and

really appreciate all of you being here. >> thank you. >> be remiss not to talk a little bit about the media business while i'm sitting with two of the executives who have seen so much change throughout it as well. we had an interesting discussion earlier actually about the idea of shareholders in some of these media companies and technology companies. should one share equal one vote, mel? why or why not? >> i have been opposed to that for a long time. as a matter of fact, i was on the board of the new york stock exchange and while i was on the board of the new york stock exchange, i tried to get them when they were changing the rules to make it that way, and new york stock exchange decided not to do it. i believed in voter democracy. having said that, especially in the media world, there are an awful lot of controlling shareholders, you know, and a lot of people will argue that's good, you know, because they have the same long-term vision, you know, that most shareholders do. well, i say that if, in fact, they have -- if rupert murdoch

or sumner redstone or brian roberts has a long-term vision, i believe many of their shareholders have a long-term vision, and i don't believe there should be different classes of stock. having said that i have had the privilege of working for a number of controlling shareholders over the years -- >> yes. >> -- and i found them to be hard working, honest. you know, i just believe db someone who owns 10% of a company shouldn't have 80% or 70% of the votes. >> bob, do you agree. >> this is a call-in show, isn't it? it's john malone. this isn't the time, john, for that. we'll call back. >> so that's been your experience. that is a classic example, i think, of what we're discussing on this front. so do you feel strongly one way or another though? does it make it such that you

wish there was a more democratic say as to how some of the media companies run? >> well, i agree with mel to a point. i think smaller companies, that's not inappropriate. somebody that really has a real ambition and wants to do things but when a company gets huge, it seems to me it's out of kilter. >> one second. hello. it's john malone again. >> in all fairness, every shareholder that buys stock in a controlled company knows what they're doing. it's transparent. you know it. so, therefore, there's nothing wrong with those companies having controlling shareholders because the shareholders know that's the way it is. >> and i understand that, but i think if we're moving towards more of this, and again i don't know, you guys have more of a historical perspective than i do, if we're moving more in that direction, is that a good thing or not or is that not the right question to ask? >> i think there are plenty of choices for people to invest their money in and no one has to

invest in any one particular stock, so if, in fact, there were more companies that had controlling shareholders, they're still going to be the vast majority of companies that don't. people buy a stock for one reason, they want it to go up. they may sell it for a lot of different reasons. they may need to buy a house. but they buy it for one reason. if you're going to buy a stock in a company that has a controll controlling shareholder, you're doing it because you think it's going to go up. >> the performance speaks for itself is what we usually hear in response. thank you so much for bob and suzanne wright, mattias, mel karmazin. >> thank you. >> still ahead -- >> don't you like food that's tasty and delicious? >> i do. >> then what are you waiting for? head over to white castle. it's what you crave. >> they may be best known for

their hamburger sliders, but now white castle is making a big move into the breakfast wars. will customers crave it's you new trio of belgian waffle breakfast sandwiches? don't miss by interview with best-selling author mary higgins clark. clark. [ 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. ♪ it's like hugging your kid, but with money. it's something that you could get from somewhere. it makes you indestructible, like a superhero. i'd love to be a superhero. it's so you can come back to life...i think.

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it gives my dad a piece of his mind. at your ford dealer think? they think about tires. and what they've been through lately. polar vortexes, road construction, and gaping potholes. so with all that behind you, you might want to make sure you're safe and in control. ford technicians are ready to find the right tires for your vehicle. get up to $120 in mail-in rebates on four select tires when you use the ford service credit card at the big tire event. see what the ford experts think about your tires. at your ford dealer. welcome back. the battle for breakfast, it's on. white castle is the latest fast

food restaurant to add a breakfast menu. hoping to take a bite out of the fast growing morning market. according to a recent report, breakfast sales was over 5% to $27.4 billion last year at fast food restaurants. and white castle vice president jamie richardson joins us to introduce the new belgian waffle sandwich approximates. >> great to be with you. >> why breakfast? >> breakfast is the place to be. one thing we've learned as a family owned business for 93 years, the crave is a powerful thing. we're cracking freshings. we've got this incredible belgian waffle sandwich that will melt in your mouth. >> are you won over here? >> i haven't had the chicken one but i had the sausage one and it wasn't too bad. here it is. i'll take a bite out of it after the show is over. in terms of breakfast, i did a story back in 2010 about breakfast as an unemployment indicator. a lot of folks were getting out of breakfast because folks didn't have jobs, they weren't driving to work, and so they weren't getting breakfast on the way to their office or on the

way to their employment. so are you guys actually seeing this sort of related to the macro economic picture at all because people are now getting jobs and working again? >> for us it's castlenomics. people are craving tasty food. people are on the go and they're looking for the convenience of getting hot, affordable food at places they can trust. they don't have to compromise like they might have had to in the past because the quality is right. >> and the key in that, too, is people are on the go. that's what we hope. we hope that is indicative of something more broad. >> are you seeing people are ordering this -- i know with mcdonald's you can't get breakfast past a certain time. >> 10:30. >> exactly. is this something where if you see this tremendous growth, maybe people's palates are changing. i have four children. sometimes i make breakfast for dinner. is it something where you can

get it all day long and if not, then why not? >> well, yeah, absolutely. the chicken waffle sandwich is available all day. then we start serving breakfast at midnight because we know people are on the guy and they might be getting up early or staying up late. breakfast for dinner might be something to look into. my daughter maggie always says breakfast is the most important meal of the day. i think at the castle it's the same way. >> from a business model perspective, breakfast is really a frequency driven business. you want to get into people's habituals. do you plan on doing that with these sandwiches or will you add coffee and other items to get people to come in every day? >> we've had a breakfast menu for 30 years and it's the best kept secret in the world until today. now we're sharing it with everybody. we have had coffee on the menu since 1921. that frequency is all because of the people behind the counter. they're the heroes of the castle that make it possible. that allows us to do new products.

we have chef fill lynphillip, t of deliciousness. he comes up with ideas we can execute on -- >> we have to go but what are the profit margins for breakfast relative to lunch? >> you know, coffee can be a really high margin item. but we know that we're going to try to keep that price point low so for us margins are always compressed but we're hoping for the extra visits to make it all work with we can keep krabing on. >> jamie richardson, thank you for joining us this afternoon. good luck. >> crave on, my friends. >> crave on. up next, we'll hear from one of the biggest names in the publishing industry, best-selling author mary higgins clark talking about her new book and how ebooks are changing the industry when we come back. stamps.com is the best.

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welcome back. the queen of suspense is back with another novel. mary higgins clark, "i've got you under my skin," tells the story of a young boy who witnessed his father's murder. and he's still haunted by the image of the killer's face. mary higgins clark is here to tell us about the book and her career. >> thank you so much. it's wonderful to be with you. >> i've probably read every one of your books in the library, growing up.

and i can still remember plot lines, like the crazy husband who moved the furniture around every night when she was sleeping. and then, he would arrange it back. where do you come up with the plot lines and how are you still able to be so productive after a prolific career? >> i love to write. even if i didn't have a contract, i would be writing. there's no question about that. and my mind has always gone to suspense. when i was 6 years old, i was saying to my friends, let's turn out the lights and tell scary stories. it was in me, always. >> but you didn't have an easy way -- an easy life, in some sense. you've done so many different things. you were a flight attendant. you were a catalog model alongside grace kelly. raising small children. and writing 5:30 to 6:30 before work? >> it was the only time i had before work. it was actually about 5:00. and i flipped up the heat and

made a pot of coffee. and i had 1:15 to work before i picked the kids up with school. i went in to a car pool, with men, and they said it was indecent to work in the backseat of the car, until we hit the george washington bridge. i was zipping up my clothes. >> and it's not as if you wrote one book from all that. you've written dozens. >> 45. >> 45 books and you're still going. >> why not? you know, be a couch potato? take up knitting? >> not for you. >> not for me. >> did you feel you would be an author? would be a writer? or is it something you did as a hobby to do? >> i always knew i would be a writer and maybe well-known. when i was 15, i -- after school, i was a telephone operator at the hotel shelton. and if i got downtown early enough, i would walk on fifth

avenue and pick out the clothes i would have when i was a successful writer. >> and you have had such success. we're at business work. we talk about investing all the time. what have you done over the years with the funds you received? the money you had and how have you generally tried to build success? >> well, except for the ones that were very bad investments -- >> like what? you had some bad investments? >> it's too painful to tell about it. >> oh, no. tell me it wasn't the dotcom bubble or something. >> no. it wasn't that. but i've always been investing. i mean, interested in investing. and i -- well, i just bought -- which is it? facebook and twitter. and i told my broker to buy them. >> did you really? >> yes. and he persuaded me only to get 500 shares when i planned to get 1,000. >> do you use facebook and twitter? >> i use facebook. i haven't gotten into twitter

yet. but i intend to. i just finished this book. and so, everything was in the book. i didn't learn how to use the iphone. >> i see. this was a book for some -- was it an investing book? or a book about using technology? >> oh, no. the one i was writing. >> this book. >> when i was writing this book, i can answer the phone and i can dial from it. but that's the extent of my talent. >> well, the same, you must have seen so many trends come and go. i like that your not afraid to bet on the new technologies. >> oh, yeah. years ago, i would train myself in the back of the car going into work. and then, i'd pull out $300, which paid for it. >> mary higgins clark, you are always full of surprises and wonderful stories. we're really looking forward to reading this one, too. >> thank you so much. lovely to be here. >> thank you for being here.

up next, the panel's final thoughts on today's trading action. maybe you should stick around for that. >> i will. >> and much more. we'll be right back. b k. geico motorcycle. see how much you could save.

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financial noise welcome back. time for final thoughts with the

panel before we go. elon, we've heard whisper numbers as 300,000 for friday's jobs report. does that mean the bar is getting too high? >> i don't think the bar is too high. any good number, i'll take. i'm worried about what's going to happen on friday. an expectation that things will be really great. and when they're not, we'll be devastated. i'm going with temporary optimism. >> weather is going to be applauded or blamed. i'm watching the 1900 level in the s&p cash to keep it simple for home gamers. you want to stay above that to give the move confirmation. >> after the close, announced positively after the close. fusion i.o. made an announcement with oracle to partner up. sienna holds their analyst meeting tomorrow, as well. those are the names i'm looking at. >> and we believe the ceo is coming on the program to talk about this. we had a positive preannouncement for once. this point, it seems like the

negative/positive ratio has gotten so big. >> and certain sectors will do very well. and the economic data is being better. maybe we get better top line, which would be welcome news. >> on that note, think earnings are going to be the next catalyst. all of the momentum stocks that rose last year, they've been delivering pretty well when it comes to earnings. can they continue that trend? i think it will tell us a lot of what happens to those names. >> today, momentum name, they do all right. >> we saw some dips up and down. we saw some of the names pull back and pull forward again. a little again of what we were talking about earlier. i think people like those names. but they're more temperate. >> mary higgins clark could have called the bottom in twitter? i'm a holder of twitter. >> very possibly. >> i'm hoping that right now, she marked the bottom at twitter. >> i lover that. >> she did ask me -- i took a picture with her. and she asked me, is this a

selfie? >> put the bottom of selfies, as well. >> she's hipper than i am. that's not saying a lot. "fast money" is coming up in moments. melissa lee, what's on tap? >> this time of day, you get a little hungry, right? we brought some chips. you know what's special about these chips, kelly? >> they're not computer chips? >> they are -- well, you can eat them. >> some ways. >> they're 3d printed. >> oh, wow. >> 3d printing chips. we're going to 3d print crackers. >> wow. that's a scary thought for what can happen in the future. melissa, over to you guys. >> thanks. "fast money" starts right now. live from the nasdaq market site in new york city's times square. i'm melissa lee. pete najarian, john najarian, karen finerman and guy adami. and amny unveils fire tv. shares of netflix did move slightly