acquaintance. prosecutors are asked for three years in prison and $100,000 fine. the defense is asking for no prison time, just probation. he should know shortly what the answer is. by the way, cnbc also learned kpmg is moving against london as well and hope to get details on that later. guys, back to you. >> jane, thank you very much. that will do it for this edition of "power lunch." >> "street signs" begins now. see you tomorrow. american companies are now hoarding so much cash they could give every single worker a $10,000 bonus. hi, everybody. we're calling it the great cash stash. who's hoarding all the money? why? what it means for your money. plus, why this week may be the best week ever for billionaire activists and how states are having a nicotine fit over e-cigs. how are the markets doing ahead of this night's seattle slew of earnings? >> you know, it's a very strange trade in the markets. we're off session highs.

pretty much green and the nasdaq and s&p 500. dow turning just a few moments ago. you would have thought we'd have a more positive day in the markets giving apple's big beat. apple is up 8% still. facebook doing a turnaround today, down by more than half a percent at this hour. this is a market you'll want to keep track of as we go into the close with the financials also going to the red. >> i would say, i agree, quickly in your professional opinion, i'm sure you'll talk about it tonight on "fast money." have the markets not reacted enough to eukraine? >> that's the one thing that held it back. at least today. if you look at today, for instance. as well as gold geopolitical concerns could be back on the table as we go into the rest of the earnings season. >> got it. we know it's good to be a billionaire and very good to be a billionaire this week. especially so-called activist investor billionaires. this just might be the best week ever for them. just look at some of the big

moves we've seen. big ackman making big money. carl icahn getting what he wanted from apple. yesterday warren buffett abstained from the coke vote about corporate compensation. in fact, take a look to what warren buffett told our own becky quick on why he did it. >> i didn't want to vote no. kind of un-american to vote no at a coke meeting. but the -- i didn't want to express any disapproval of management, but we did disapprove of the plan. >> i'm sorry. with all due respect to mr. buffett, he's a legendary investor, we greatly respect his opinions but that is un-american to say it's un-american to vote no. >> i completely agree. in fact, honestly a little disappointing to hear berkshire hathaway -- warren buffett is a model. >> exactly. >> to not vote -- >> by the way, an abstention,

that's saying no anyway. you ought to use your clout when you have the platform and ability to exact change zblooes not been afraid to take the -- >> what's happening here? >> he could pay himself a higher income -- that said, disappoint from warren buffett to not at least vote either way. >> yes. all right. let's take a look here at apple holding on to its gains. best day in two years after announcing an earnings beat in seven for one stock split. the stock is now up about 8.1% here. of course, with the stock split, this could potentially put in the running for inclusion in the dow. of course, not as many index funds are indexed to the dow jones industrial average. it could still help and get the incremental investor in terms of the retail investor, how you express your views in the options market. it will be much cheaper. >> question. the one thing, i heard you talk about it last night on "fast money." you asked did tim cook come in

on dow inclusion? he wouldn't touch that at all. peak tablet, maybe tablet sales are starting to roll over, gotten flat. i know my ipad, first generation pretty much crapped out. >> you're not going to update? >> you know what, i looked, compared size and price. i-cloud. i went with a mmacbook. in our industry, we create a lot of content. american companying hoarding about $1.5 trillion in cash. that, my friends, is a low estimate. let's put that number into perspective. that would be nearly the entire economic output of india, the ability to give all 144 million u.s. workers a $10,000 one-time bonus. buying $ ining 50 million $30,0 or equal to the payroll of 7,100

new york yankee teams. let's bring in diana from the manhattan institute. also cnbc contributor jared bernstein. diana, listen, i know where you stand on a lot of these issues but the american public is getting sick of hearing about this cash sitting overseas while american middle class workers haven't had a real raise outside of health care benefit costs in years. >> well, apple did give a lot back to its shareholders. we just heard about apple. how well it's doing. that is giving back to its shareholders. if we lowered the corporate tax rate closer to oecd levels, we'd see more repatriation of these earnings. right now, our state and federal corporate tax rate is a top of 39%, compared to about 25% average for oecd countries. we tax companies on worldwide income. many companies just tax companies on their territorial income. we need to move closer no line to our competitors because it's a global race for capital out

there. >> yeah, you know, and listen, we're not picking on apple necessarily here but because, diana, the size of their cash hoard, it's hard not to. what would be the answer? i know what jared will say, about ten years ago if we offered a break, guess what, dividends and buybacks went up which doesn't really help. is there any way, diana, to force companies if we do this tax holiday to use the money the -- i hate to use this term, the right way? >> well, i don't think we want to be forcing companies to do anything. we want to be putting in the right set of measures, the right incentives for investment then we will find that capital will come to the united states. >> i would more agree with that notion. jared, i'm curious what you think. it's not like companies -- the notion that cash is trapped overseas, companies are actually using this cash, but not necessarily in ways of some people like maybe brian want the companies -- i mean, you take a look at what's gone on recently lick this year and driven by the fact the companies are using

cash overseas to buy other companies overseas which is an area of growth. take a look, for instance, allergan pharmaceuticals, cash overseas as well as a favorable tax rate of the acquiring company. >> i think you can find examples like that, but i don't think there's any question that there are very high levels of potential investment income sitting on the sidelines. i mean, i hope you don't disagree with that point. i think that gets -- >> no, no, i agree. >> okay. good. i think that gets you into this good discussion that you guys were just having about what do you do about it? i don't believe that, first of all, i agree that lowering the corporate rate, broadening the base, being more internationally competitive are all good things. sometimes i don't feel like that's going to scratch the itch. if you were able to get more capital back here, it seems abundantly clear it's slow growth, lack of demand. just the absence of good domestic investment opportunities that makes the

difference here. you can tweak the tax code any way you want. maybe that's going to help shareholders. it's not going to read down to working people. >> fair share of taxation, some probably do, some probably don't. if i owed you $100 and knew if i paid you today you would necessarily let's say 25 bucks would just go away and only get $75 back. maybe at some point you get to the $100 back from me in full. what would you ask me to do? you'd probably say, hey, sullivan, wait up, get the 100 bucks at a later date. isn't that what corporate america is doing? >> yes, i do think so. this actually folds nicely into this issue about deferral. the idea that so many of these resources are deferred in overseas accounts. now, this idea you would give them a tax repatriation holiday as you said earlier worked very, very badly in 2004. >> i agree with that. >> it didn't lead to

investments, jobs or growth. it led to stock buybacks. apple is doing that even without the repatriation. i still think we have a demand side problem we haven't struggled with yet. >> is it a problem -- i'm curious what you think, is there a problem of companies keep the cash overseas and just continue to issue some debt? i mean, larry summers' address, corporate america is issuing debt noord to do buybacks and capital allocation plans instead of bringing the cash back. >> i don't think there's necessarily any problem with that. we need to look at the bigger picture why are companies not investing more? wepharmaceutical companies, for example, there are big fda regulatory hurdles they have to jump through before being able to develop these drugs. we need to look at regulation as well as tax policy. we need to focus on making the united states the most business friendly climate that we can have. and that, yes, it will trickle down in terms of jobs to people at different income levels.

>> so, whenever i hear somebody say trickle down, i really get alarmed because there's actually probably some -- there may be some good ideas in there although i don't know that the regulation, that's kind of more of a talking point. i don't know if there's anything real there. i will say what we've seen in the past is that corporate profit really actually is very high right now and if trickle down worked, believe me, we would know it. the fact is we're still kind of muddling along at growth rates, you know, 2%, 2.5%. >> agreed. there's an answer, guys -- >> we have to look at what investment is doing. if we look at the oil companies, for example, they have massive investment. it's really trickling down. north dakota's unemployment rate is 2.9%. >> i would say although trickling down, diana, listen, that's one of those charged terms that gets everybody fired up on the twitter machine. diana, thank you very much. jared bernstein. thank you very much. now, all these bad recalls.

has it been hurting general motors' sales? you think it would be. we're going to explain why coming up. later, can't miss big sbr interview with the head of morgan stanley's investment arm. that's coming up when "street signs" returns. consolidates the ratings of up to 10 independent research providers into a single score that's weighted based on how accurate they've been in the past. i'm howard spielberg of fidelity investments. the equity summary score is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. call or click to open your fidelity account today. bulldog: [yawning]

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more. >> hey there, melissa. perfect day to have our guest, colm kelleher for morgan stanley. as melissa said in the intro, we are at $1 trillion already for global mna this year. think it continues or are we going to see it peter out as in the past couple years? >> i think it will continue. remember, m&a volumes on the whole came down and are recovering. confidence in ceos is recovering. within that trillion dollars you're seeing a mismatch in terms of america being very dominant in terms of activity and activity slowly following elsewhere. so we feel very good about m&a in the pipelines. >> what is making ceos more confident right now? >> i think the economy in the u.s. is clearly recovering. the economy in asia is recovering depending on your point of view. and in europe, there is some recovery from very low levels so i think generally that's underscoring it.

>> do you see european activity picking up? report that ge may make a purchase over there. are u.s. companies itching to spend money they have overseas on deals overseas? >> the short answer is yes, but the long answer is europe is facing very major structural challenges. europe is very like japan was the beginning of its initial decline. it's got to face its whole issue of structural reform and it's also facing a very endangered banking sector within europe in terms of recapitalization, the aqrs and so on. i think short term, anyway, immediate term, europe will not do well in terms of growth and will impact people's decisions on pricing. >> are there concerns about russia and ukraine at play in there, too? >> not specifically. i think most people, europe is very interconnected with russia in terms of energy supply. i think most people take the view that the situation in russia will be, and ukraine will be contained and dealt with in the reasonably immediate future. >> let's go around the globe a little bit. you've been spending a lot of time in asia, going back there next week. tell us what you're seeing in

china, because caterpillar actually said they were somewhat cautious there. we had yum brands come out with good results. what are you hearing from your clients? >> we're seeing a pickup in activity and confidence. we're seeing liberalization in the equity markets there as you know. there's been an easing of restrictions between the shanghai and hong kong exchanges as these presidents open up. president xi is a great source of change. i'm definitely in the camp of those people who are not concerned about china. we're known as big morgan in china given our commitment to the country, so we're still there. we are seeing a pickup in activity. ipos. increasingly m&a. i want to turn your attention back to the states here because once again, when you're saying the ceos here are becoming more confident, that's driving m&a, what are they looking to do with the their money? do they want to do deals or saying buybacks and dividends are a better option or is cap x where they're planning to -- >> i think that pendulum is moving from the former to the

latter as confidence builds up. >> how do they feel about activist investors? what's their concerns? are they nervous an it? did they talk to you about it? >> i don't speak to them about it. our view activist investors are a way of live and you deal with them. >> i want to talk to you about the book "high frequency or the flash boys." what did you think of that? >> i haven't read it. having said that, i've been briefed on it and i think it is a broad-brush approach based on some dated information. it's not specific to institutions. i can only talk about morgan stanley and our roles in the market. nose criticisms don't apply to us. we were mentioned as one of the five great banks in that book. >> you have a program called mset, though, that allows people to connect into a high frequency infrastructure. what would happen to your equity business which has done so well if that was to go away because of regulation, new regulations? >> well, two points. one is very little in terms of

our high frequency interface because it's not that significant for us. but we provide equivalent and equitable access to all our clients into our pool and to speedway. so we believe in equal pricing and, in fact, we've been at the forefront of advising regulators in our thoughts and electronic market making and implicit threats and good things to be done. look at the website from 2009 and see presentations we've made on this. we just feel the product we offer is equitable. everybody has a equivalent access. and in fact, our clients will tell you that, too. >> won't to thank you for joining us. we're going to continue our conversation and you'll be able to see that on cnbc. for now i'm fwoegoing to toss i back to you, brian and melissa. >> m >>. coming up next, could gm's recalls be a bargaining chip for perspective buyers? buy and sell recommendation in street talk. all that coming up when "street

signs" returns.

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segme segment. we talk a lot about gold, a little bit about silvesilver. we don't talk about palladium but we should. it's the best performing major metal in the world, right? watch out. there's been a strike in south africa. if they reach a labor deal, it possibly, possibly could fall. >> we entered this year with a deficit world who wide. it will be interesting to see what the trade is. >> it's a car trade, too. >> batteries. gm reporting results earlier today. profit, no way to put it. it stank. it fell more than 80%. believe it or not, that was actually better than twault walt said. down 1.3% but not tanking. the question, though, is, what's going to happen to gm going forward? do consumer car buyers even care about the recalls? joining us, edmonds.com jessica

caldwell. all right, jessica, i'm sure you guys have all your fancy shmancy stuff on edmonds.com. are people slowing down their interest and looking at gm cars either with you or on the vehicle lot? >> surprisingly not. we're looking at consideration of edmonds.com shoppers through the entire recall and it really hasn't fell. a lot of these cars are very old. none of them are sold today. if you look at chevrolet which is their big brand, it's pretty much stayed steady as have their other brands. it doesn't look as if that many car shoppers are really paying attention to the recalls and what's happening. >> are we seeing it anywhere on the food chain, jessica? i'm curious in terms of resale values, for instance. i would imagine gm cars have taken a hit on that secondary market. >> well, again, these cars are old. they're not commanding top dollar. a lot of them were lower-priced vehicles. several year s old. in terms of what they're going to take a hit on the used car side, we're not talking about a

lot. the brand overall, not much move there, either. inventory has been tight the last few years so not seeing ii effect there, either. >> are they going on to the lots looking at a car and at the same pace as before but thinking they're going to get this car at a lower price which means, of course, margins will be squeezed for gm or incentives will have to be increased? >> possibly. i think if these people come back, the people with the recalled vehicles, i think definitely they will get a cut in terms of incentives. gm has said they will offer employee pricing to these people coming back with the recalled vehicles but that's still probably not, you know, the large percentage of what gm is selling at this moment. >> yeah, i mean, jessica, listen, i'm not going to tell people to buy a car or not, but i will say this. ford, the rollover problem a number of years ago, rebounded nicely. toyota, unintended acceleration, lost a little market share, rebounded nicely. right? american car buyers have a very

short memory. >> american car buyers do. their memory is very short. if you look back at the toyota recall, we definitely saw a hit in consumer interest during those few months. the difference being the vehicles that were recalled were for sale at that moment. whereas the general motors recall, you can't buy any of those cars. so, again, will people remember this in a few years' time? probably not. >> jessica caldwell. hey, jessica, great to have you on the show again. thanks very much. >> thank you. here's another big consumer story making waves today. the fda announcing it will begin regulating e-cigarettes. the most important new rule will ban anyone under 18 from buying them. other rules require e-cig makers to place health warning labels on their products and expose the ingredients. some experts think this could be the end of the traditional cigarette. here's another thing. is this just all a pretense? for more tax? you can't tax, of course, e-cigs unless they're regulated by an

agency of the government. you know what, cha-ching for us. taxpayers. right? phillip morris, altria, lorillard all in the green today. reynolds and altria have their own e-cig offerings. the regulations aren't as strict as they could be. >> nor are the taxes. taxes on e-cigs if they have them at all are less generally than traditional cigarettes which is a huge money making source for new jersey and other states. >> there are no regulations on how they're marketed. for instance, you know how cigarettes, joe camel, et cetera, et cetera, the regulations aren't there for the e-cigs. >> this story on the "wall streetjournal.com is the number one most read. states can say this is anti-smoking cessation movement and should. let's not beat around the bush. states, all of them, except for north dakota, needs the money. that's it. they need money. they got to tax it.

tax everything. they're broke. >> tax everything. >> can i be more clear? all right. we're about to talk rubber tires and something called express homes. street talk is on deck. and break out the bubbly because cnbc's 25th birthday bash continues after this quick break. ♪ like, really big... then expanded? ♪ or their new product tanked? ♪ or not? what if they embrace new technology instead? ♪ imagine a company's future with the future of trading. company profile. a research tool on thinkorswim. from td ameritrade. [ banker ] sydney needed some financial guidance so she could take her dream to the next level. so we talked about her options. her valuable assets were staying. and selling her car wouldn't fly. we helped sydney manage her debt and prioritize her goals,

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street talk time. daily rundown of wall street views and recommendations. we kick it off with sienna, upgrade from a buy to neutral at ubs. >> stocks responding, up 4%. ubs raised their target to 27, 22% upside by the way. noting ramping sales for ciena as well as improved valuation on the stock. it should. stock is down 9 % year to date. got a little smaller. neutral. credit squeeze. the stock is feeling the pain here. >> you might talk about that tonight "fast money" 5:00 eastern. down 9.5%. their target is 50 bucks. that was below the target coming into today. basically no reason to buy the name is what they're saying. revenue below estimates. sales from aerospace fall flat.

saying no reason to buy xlnx. >> dr horton upgraded to a buy from a neutral over at citi. look at that pop. >> that's a big pop. up 8.7% which is the 23, 22. revenue from home sales up 22%. they're releasing, melissa, something called express homes. that's not the term. that's a brand. it's going to be an extreme starter home priced from $160,000 and up. we're showing you a few. so dr horton, known for the lower end, is going right after -- >> even lower. >> they're going at the renter. dr horton is going after the renter. >> or first time home buyers that have not been in the market. >> 160,000 grand to start. couple floor plans to choose from. quick build. see how it works. >> gt. over at goldman. >> goldman late in this. it has been. stocks up over 125%.

>> think about the car trade in general. >> unbelievable. good times. great to see. great american company here. stock. goldman sachs likes them now. where were you 12 months ago, goldman? i'm not picking on you. jou just saying. >> you are picking on them. hms holdings upgraded. >> under the radar name. target is $20 a share. oppenheimer believes the stock has completely discounted any risk associated with renewal of recovery audit contract. basically some issue there. onnen himer says out of the way. buy the stock. they see 4 bucks upside. street talk to talking numbers. our daily look at one stock from a technical and fundamental perspective. today we look at united continental. poor weather, whether else, hurting the airline. richard ross, eric, on the rentals. rich, i'm going to start with you. if you look at a chart short term this year ual made a series of four lower highs.

each mini run was a lower high. as an amateur guy that follows your work and others, this is negative. been a big run. what are you seeing from a technical perspective? >> gordon gecko put it best when he said, you got me into this airline, you better get me out or the only job you'll have on this street is sweeping it. bring up that chart. i'll show you why i'm going to get you out today. there's still time to save yourself. over the past year, you can see that well-defined up trend. we track that with precision. this year we run into trouble with the bearish triple top, brian. that tells me we're looking for a reversal in the primary trend. today we're testing the critical support at $40. i think we take that out. we retest the 200 day and, in fact, when we pull out and look at the longer term chart, you can see that, yes, we've been on a phenomenal run from $3 down near the low. we're running into that key multiyear resistance around $50 which takes us back to the high set around 2007 and '08.

i think the stock pulls back to the $30 level. that's 25% down from current levels. you can still save yourself. sell the stock right here, brian. >> mark, what are the fundamentals here? >> probably about to ruin any chance of ever getting an upgrade again on united but the results in the first quarter were just absolutely terrible. you know, they lost a ton of money even when you take out the weather-related issues. and, you know, every important metric, the numbers were down except for expenses. those were up. when you put this in the framework of the entire airline sector which has been very strong, both the technicals as well as the fundamentals. a lot of the airlines reported very good quarters, profitable. they all face the same weather. related issues united did. last time i checked, american and delta flew in the midwest that got hit by the storms. this is a nice property in a nice neighborhood. i would avoid it. though that works in real estate, it doesn't work for the airline sector.

>> check out the online edition of talking numbers with yahoo! finance. time to unveil cnbc's list of the 25 most influential people in the last 25 years. >> you're on that list. >> i'm not and you're not, either. >> i know. we're in the bottom 25. >> we didn't even make the secondary list. we're starting with a name you probably don't know but really should. that's next. 25 years from now, will we still be using paper nomoney? our money is actually made out of cotton. you get the idea. first, let's go to bill griffin and sarah who sit on mountains of hundreds at the new york stock exchange. >> i want to weigh in on that paper money discussion. i don't know. >> wrong show. you had your chance yesterday. >> she's very big on the yen, by the way, right now. very long yen. coming up on closing bell, guys, we got big brands, big earnings. count them. amazon, starbucks, microsoft, visa. just to name a few. reporting earnings tonight. we have all of them coming up. we have virtual parade of

ceos on the show. plus we have qualcomm's new boss in his very first television interview and will ride the rail with union pacific as well. >> not so sad about the paper debate. all of that and more coming up on the "closing bell." stay with us. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 trading inspires your life. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 life inspires your trading. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 where others see fads... tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 ...you see opportunities. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 at schwab, we're here to help tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 turn inspiration into action. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 we have intuitive platforms tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 to help you discover what's trending. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and seasoned market experts to help sharpen your instincts. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 so you can take charge tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 of your trading. for what reality teaches you... firsthand.e. in the face of danger,

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we're getting ready for our big 25th anniversary next week. we're narrowing down our list of 200 leaders to find the cnbc 25. let's take a look at one of the contenders. cher wang. >> innovative, ambitious, hard driving. called the pride of taiwan. cher wang is not only a billionaire, she's one of the most influential female executives in the world. >> cher wang is considered one of the most successful and powerful women in tech

following. >> in some ways she was born to be a businesswoman. her father, y.c. wang was a petra chemical and plastics tycoon and one of taiwan's richest men. she sent her to los angeles in her teens to get an education. she graduated from berkeley with an economics degree and went to work with a computer company co-founded by her sister. 1997 back in taiwan, wang co-founded htc, a technology company that began as a pioneering so-called contract manufacturer. but wang's company was eventually to make its deepest mark selling sleek, affordable htc branded smartphones including google's first android handset. >> htc provides one in six smartphones to american companies like t-mobile and sprint and verizon. so htc while it might not be a household brand, nonetheless, has quite a lot of traction in the united states economy.

>> when you're talking about htc smartphones, you're talking about finding the perfect product mix of higher end smartphones as well as smartphones that can be sold globally for lower costs. >> while the company's sales and profits peaked a couple years ago, htc has managed to stay competitive in a very crowded cell phone market now dominated by apple and samsung. >> they still have htc smartphones in millions of hands all over the world. and now they're branching out into other aspects, what they have is market share in emerging markets and places that are high growth and that in a lot of ways was cher wang's vision. >> a vision that made her one of the wealthiest women in wireless. >> she's one of the richest people in taiwan. yes, she came from wealth. yes, she is married to wealth. at the same time, she certainly deserves to be on the cnbc 25 list on her own merits because she's created the powerhouse that is htc. that is now not just a taiwanese name but a global name.

>> next week, the final cuts will be made. we'll announce our list of the 25 most influential and transformative people in business over the past quarter century. that is a look at the last 25 years. let's take a look at the next 25 years and the big question. will we still be using, you know, hard currency like our paper/cotton money? come cnbc's 50st anniversary. what say you, kayla? >> brian, in 25 years spending money will be about so much more than just choosing cash or credit. it will be all about options. how to pay, where to pay, and what to pay with. in 25 years, money will burn a hole in your hard drive because you'll never leave home with a wallet. that's already drew in emerging markets where banking infrastructure is limited and in developed markets, any internet connected device will be able to pay the bills says visa's vp of digital solutions. >> your refrigerator may very

well make orders for you when you're running low on certain products. i think that's just an example of the ways that all the things in our lives that are electronic are becoming connected and as they do, they become places where we can transact. >> reporter: the definition of currency will expand. says futurist heather including options like frequent flyer miles and facebook credits to tip restaurants or pay the baby-sitter. bills will be used in times of emergency like when power goes out and can't scan your phone at the checkout. as currency moves to the cloud, banks that don't innovate may have to retreat. >> all of these payment upstart companies now they're really going to be eating the bankers' lunch and maybe the banks will have to get with the program really quickly or they will just have to revert back to the more conventional business of banking. >> reporter: they expect that coins and the $100 bill will be phased out in the coming years just like the $500 bill and

$1,000 bill were in the late '60s. consultants and futurists believe digital currencies will have staying power so long, brian and melissa, as they make it through whatever financial crisis is the next one to hit. guys, back to you. >> you know, here's the problem, kayla, i've got with the concept of just mobile payments. i'm not so sure cell phones are going to be around in 25 years. we'll all be paying from our phones. how do we know phones will be around? i think we'll look at stuff and automatically buy it by sheer force of will. >> reporter: well, maybe you have more force of will than some other people, but, you know, brian, that's a question that came up fairly often. when you think about where gdp growth is, obviously a lot of that is happening in the emerging markets where middle class consumers who are getting purchasing power don't have phones. visa actually just put in place this program where you're not only identified by your fingerprint but can pay with your fingerprint. basically registers an electronic identity that's the same as a social security

number. basically press your finger down, recognizes you, you pay. don't need a phone, don't need anything really. >> that's more secure. kayla, thank you. all right. one city, three big companies all reporting earnings after the bell today. we are previewing amazon, microsoft, and starbucks. i'm calling it the seattle slew of earnings. >> catchy. next. >> slew. [ male announcer ] this is the age of knowing what you're made of.

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shares of qualcomm down 4% on earnings. i'll be speaking with the ceo of qualcomm steve mollenkopf. that happens in the next hour of the "closing bell." by the way, that's a great interview because paul jacob, chairman, former ceo told any a couple years ago in san diego if we change the corporate tax laws, this goes to the first segment we did in the show, he'd open a factory immediately and

hire 10,000 people. >> cisco, all these guys. especially in tech. they have a lot of cash overseas. they want that to happen. >> ask him about that, i hope. right? >> you have to watch. >> oh. a little more than an hour from now, we're -- start getting after the bell earnings reports. it is three big companies from the puget sound on deck. starbucks, microsoft, amazon. we've got all three covered. let us begin with amazon. we're joined by ben shakter. >> there are two key numbers. the margin number is important but also the unit growth. the unit growth is what a lot of investors have been focusing on for the last few quarters. we'll be looking at that first. >> target for amazon, 465, 40% above the current price. you're very bullish. higher than the average consensus from analysts on wall street. are you still confident in 465.

>> we are. we still like the stock very much. the things that they're doing across the board are really just pretty remarkable in terms of the breadth and ambition of this company. so we think they can execute. obviously it's a multiyear strategy and going to take some time. we really do like the stock here. >> okay. you called fire. i think it was called fire undeg or something like this. is it going to be of any interest to you or is it simly too early to tell how it is doing? >> broadly it is too early but we like the fact they're focused on obtaining exclusive content. the hbo deal was interesting in terms of showing how serious they are about about getting exclusive video content. we expect more deals like that ond mo and more deals on the gaming side to lead consumers to have more reason to want that device. from amazon to microsoft headquarters, in redmond,

washington, ed mcguire, great to see you. this is going to be the first conference call. are we going to get an update on mobile efforts such as windows office for ipad? >> absolutely. the story here is more going to be about his tone and disclosures that's going to cast a lot of expectations in a new light focused on how he is going to present the story to the street but absolutely, nokia's deal closes on friday. you've had some interesting price changes with windows being made free for small devices and some other discounts. so whether they can -- the future of windows is really the question here. hopefully it is going to clear away some of the fog around the enterprise business which is really the crown jewel here. >> i want to ask you about cloud services. that's also been viewed as a high-growth area for microsoft in particular. recently there's been a round of price cuts, google, amazon, as

welling a now microsoft cutting their prices for cloud services. do you think we'll get guidance as to where pricing is in this segment? >> it is not a big piece of microsoft's business. frankly, our view of technology value is that it always migrates up the stack. for microsoft and office 365 is always going to be a far more lucrative business than really trying to play a race to the bottom with amazon and google with pure cloud services but they do have the infrastructure to compete world class. think that's more of a backdrop to show they can get the small companies, start-ups, really the marginal users but the value in their applications, particularly office 365, is where the focus will be and the profits will come from. >> ed, thanks for your time. last, but certainly not least, starbucks. let's bring in starbucks analyst will slabo. coffee prices have nearly doubled from last year. is that going to crush starbucks earnings? >> coffee costs are going to be

front of mind but when you think about what affects their earnings this year they're already lock in through this year and 40% of next year. we think this year you'll see a benefit which is already in stone. next year that hurts them probably just a little bit. this is more of a fiscal '16 issue where you likely see a bigger hit to their earnings. >> if that's the case then, not to take away the drama from tonight, how important will the numbers be given is a you're saying these costs are hit us in a few quarters. >> i think right now people are going to be worried about dairy costs and other input costs which are rising for most restaurants' baskets. the bigger number is how are we trending in the u.s. in terms of same-story sales growth. it dropped to 5% last quarter. does that continue to decelerate will be the main focal point. >> will, a real pleasure. some of the best business executives of tomorrow are already coming up with the best

ways to save money and energy now. we are about ready to head to chicago to meet three northwestern graduate school students who won a sustainable investing challenge. that's coming up.

i'm jane wells in los angeles. former p p&g partner scott london has been sentenced to 14 months in prison and $100,000 fine for his part in an insider

trading scandal in which he alleged -- no, he didn't allegedly -- he pleaded guilty to giving a friend inside information on certain companies which the friend then traded on. 14 months in prison. prosecutors had been asking for three years. his attorneys had been asking for probation only but it will be prison for scott london and the fine plus three years of supervised probation after he's released. we don't know when he are surrender or file an appeal based on this. in honor of earth week we want to bring in one of the winners of the morgan stanley sustainable investing challenge. the founder of fresh coast capital. your idea is to invest in brown fields. this is land essentially. what do do you with this land and how do you make money off this investment? what is the exit plan? >> brown fields are vacant, potentially contaminated lands that you can't redevelop due to the contamination. our proposal is to plant hybrid

popular farlar farms. they can naturally remediate soil through their roots while also providing a profitable product. you canst the poplar farms in as soon as eight years for timber products. on top of that we expect the land will appreciate as a result of our trees and we'll also be able to capitalize on that appreciation. >> because of the planting of hydropoplar trees the land becomes uncontaminated and is fit for development? >> exactly. that's the end goal. >> how do you achieve diversification within your portfolio is everything is leveraged toward brown fields and hydropoplar timber products? >> there are brown fields all over the country so you can get diversification through different climate. we are also exploring different types of plants such as switch grass and willows that could also provide different types of wood that would also add additional diversification.

>> so you won, nicole. what do you do now? >> so we're presenting fresh coast capital at the milkin conference next week in l.a. we'll be on a panel about impact investing. then we'll start with our first pilot farms in northwest indiana. >> you haven't made an investment yet but you are hoping to do that soon? >> that's right. that's next on the agenda. >> nicole c had h achlhchavaz. >> i'm glad when you said what are you going to do now that you've won, she didn't say dance around. >> to disney world? >> but that's kellogg. she's much smarter than that. >> stocks reporting after the bell today. the seattle slew of companies. amazon is up 3 1/4% or so. that's going to be interesting to watch. that's what we'll do tonight on

"fast." we have an exclusive with the ceo of sun power. >> that's a big hour. that gross margin number on amazon. at some point they're going to start making money on what they sell. we've been saying that for ten years, melissa. >> maybe. maybe. >> thanks for being here. >> closing bell is up next. we do welcome to you "closing bell" for this thursday. >> magic number to watch today for the dow, looks like we're not going to get there because we are in negative territory but the all-time high to look for is 16,576. the s&p getting closer to its highs. the biggest mover of the day is the nasdaq. not hard to figure out why. apple surging today. big news broken on this show yesterday. 7 for 1 s