it's one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. call or click to open your fidelity account today. welcome to "closing bell." i'm kelly evans other at the new york stock exchange on a big tuesday, bill. >> it is a very big tuesday. i'm bill griffith. watching a market with mostly green arrows. in fact the dow, all it needs is a gain of 128 points to close at a new all-time closing high, something we haven't seen yet this year, and we're within a gain of 100 points, only need another 28 points.

>> that's right. >> and only need a 21-point gain for the s&p to do the same thing. >> more points than that this hour yesterday. we'll keep a close eye on markets here. got to watch that nasdaq what art cashin was saying if he were standing here. that may tell you what direction we're getting. >> a big couple hours. an hour from now the mega earnings parade continues with two heavyweights. tonight we get twitter and ebay. a lot on the line for both of these companies. we have their results first with the best analysis including the instant reaction from twitter's largest single individual shareholder. that should be very interesting coming up. >> and this story people are following. they are talking about it. pretty extraordinary. just in the last hour, an outraged nba commissioner handing down a lifetime ban to los angeles clippers owner donald sterling for his racist comments made. they were caught on tape. we'll speak to sprint ceo dan hessey who pulled out of the sponsorship deal with the

clippers. will that be enough for them to get back into the clipper franchise? we'll ask him that and much more. >> we'll have more developments on that. also the cnbc 25 has been unveiled today. martha stewart made the list. she will be here live with us at the new york stock exchange. also a very special look at another powerful woman who is in the first 25. that, of course, would be oprah winfrey. you will not want to miss either of these two legends coming up this hour here on "closing bell." >> that's right. so here again is where we stand in the markets. dow getting 101 point. another strong session. not much turnaround on this tuesday. pretty strong across the board. there's 16,550 is the level. nasdaq, also been the telling market this year. today it's up 33 points to 4107. finally, the s&p 500 broad market index up 9. half a point. it's been a pretty tight range this morning before breaking out a little bit as we head into the

close. >> let talk about on today's "closing bell" exchange. with us is ann miletti who brought the cold weather with us from wisconsin, tom carston from carston advisors, lance roberts from fta wealth management, chris bidleson and rick santelli standing by in chicago. ann, we're all focusing on the, and the fed. they meet again tomorrow. which is more important? i mean, what are you watching to tell you where to put money for your clients right now? >> i think earnings are the most important thing to focus on, bill. i mean, it's really the fundamentals that matter the most for us. everybody knows rates are going up. it's just a kind of a matter of timing and how quickly it will happen and how controlled it will be, so it's the timing question as it relates to the fed. for the companies it's fundamentals and so far i like what we're seeing. >> it's so interesting though because we're talking about everybody knows rates are going up and yet they haven't budged

this year and just earlier today called cause and effect where they say if everybody is sure bonds are not buying them, they are not sure who is. their answer is it's probably foreign banks, other foreign institutions. what's going on here? why won't that ten-year budge? >> well, to me, i think it won't budge because the u.s. economy, you know, it's got this giant albatross around its neck. whether it's the obama health care plan and all the question marks there or what's going on with how many times in the last bit we've heard about tax code. imagine covering mt. rushmore with a million band-aids, a billion band-aids, the reasons are endless and for a group of interest rates going up. the short end, the curve is flattened so for 2014 the long end goes down, not enorm familiarored with what it sees globally and domestically, and i'll rephrase that. we see good things. it's just it could be way

better. short end, zero interest rate policies have outlived its usefulness, just like the quantitative easing, so we see two-year, three-year, specifically five-year, those rates are stubbornly high. look following this chart treasury yields, nine and a half years it hasn't been that high so when i hear about quantitative easing u.s. style, why? interest rates are already done. maybe we should talk about s&p putting deutsche bank and 14 other humongous european banks on negative outlook. that's a good place to start. >> sure. >> when in the history of the world has the fed ever led the bond market? always been the other way around. >> i think it's a real tell that the economy is getting better and caterpillar coming, parker, hannafin so give janet yellen credit for being more than a

bernanke clone. >> did caterpillar lay 7,000 people off? >> take a look at north american sales. >> i'm not questioning that, but the jobs scene isn't getting better. many businesses can do great with zero interest rates, buying back their own stock without hiring anybody! >> by the way, if you want to talk about one of the most defining things about this market as well, massive issuance in junk bonds, bill, because of all of this. who is it, one of the french large cable companies coming to market with the biggest junk bond offering. >> a relative term because the yield on junk bonds is what the safe havens were ten years ago, right? >> and lower in some cases, like three triple e rated companies left in this country and yet people can't get enough of this kind of product. >> yes, that's correct, and it's 5.5% to 6%, the only thing where, you know, retirees and seniors and savers can go over than 35 basis points on a cd so

i still think it's an area that's encouraging. >> right now, lance roberts, the utilities have been hitting all-time highs. defensive plays have done well. energy is going higher. what does that say about the market sentiment right now? what are you buying here? >> well, i'm buying exactly that. look, a couple of things here. interest rates can't go up when wage growth is declining, inflationary rates are depressed, and overall economic growth remains very sub par, and when you look at the markets themselves, the internals of the market are deteriorating, and this is why you're seeing the safety plays start to rise. the reason interest rates aren't going up is because rotations into safety out of aggressive growth, look what has happened to biotechs and technology as of late. >> do you agree, thomas, that that's what we're seeing is that the internals are weakening? >> yeah, absolutely. i think that you've got valuations are at very high points. you've got weak earnings, and the potential for growth, you know. we've seen the stock market that over the last couple of years is a lot higher because of

expansion of the multiples, not really from a strong earnings growth. >> that's not necessarily true. >> well, we've seen growth but not the kind of growth -- >> earnings expansion has gone almost in line with the s&p 500, at least until if you want to call it the middle of last year. >> are you saying, tom, that, haven't justified the levels for the stock market right now? >> you've got to be careful here. >> i think that we've seen it go hand in hand. it's gone hand in hand. seen growth in earnings and also seen a growth in the multiples as well, and if you look at a lot of positions in the equity market right now, you're trading at valuations which i think if they are not overvalued they are certainly at the high end, and yet we've got an economy as rick was talking about just really hasn't been seeing the growth of most that people see tangible impacting their lives, whether it's job growth or other factors. so i think there's a little bit of a disconnect there.

>> i think there is something -- >> got to look at top line, bill. >> something could be happening though rather than the market just being fearful of growth. maybe it's just broadening out, and so some of the money that's gone into some of the momentum kind of stocks is just broadening out into other areas of the market that are trading at much lower valuations. >> that's not what you're seeing. >> and that could also be a factor of the economy improving, right? >> no, no, that's not what you're seeing at all though. >> the market may be settling down, taking some of the pockets of high valuation out and applying it into lower valuations. >> go ahead, lance. >> absolutely. it's rotational. >> you're not seeing that at all. first of all, profitability has grown by 250% in terms of earnings but revenue growth has only been 30% since 2009, so your consumer driving the top end is not growing. that's why you're not seeing expansion in the underlying economy. you're not seeing a broadening. markets. you're seeing a narrowing of the market. if you look at momentum and direction of the market, it's becoming much more narrow.

new highs versus new lows, et cetera, are all coming in, and that's very indicative of a market that's becoming much weaker on the near term than stronger. >> but i think the multiple expansion that happened in the marketplace happened in pockets, and so you're seeing the breakdown of that, but the market recognizing that there's value in other areas. >> okay. >> i agree there's still cheap places. >> breaking news all over the place. thank you all for your thoughts on today's market action. >> appreciate it very much. >> want to get back to the other major story of the day, the nba acting swiftly and decisively against los angeles clippers owner donald sterling who made rates of comments that were recorded and released to the public over the weekend. >> sarah eisen is in manhattan and has more from that press conference. >> reporter: kell and bill, the press conference wrapping up in the last half hour. sense then an outpouring of support from -- for the nba and for the new commissioner adam silver's decision to ban

mr. sterling, donald sterling, owner of the clippers from life, from the clippers, from the nba. not allowed to go to the games, not allowed to participate in personnel decisions, not allowed to attend the owners' meeting. he did stop short of forcing a sale of the team. however, here's what he said about what he's going to do when it comes to a sale. >> i will urge the board of governors to exercise its authority to force a sale of the team and will do everything in my power to ensure that that happens. >> and there you go. that's why you have support, not just from the clippers themselves who just issued a statement. they will be holding a pre-game press conference tonight as game five, home game. very significant for them, but also from the lakes of lebron james and magic johnson, all over twitter, supporting the nba decision. obviously it was a tough call, and it was a severe punishments,

and what was led to believe the most severe and most harsh that the nba, that mr. silver could levy against mr. sterling. when it came to this action, he said it was a painful moment for the nba, want to get past it and really took it personally saying that he himself was offended. back to you guys. >> he doesn't have the authority to force the sale. the board of governors, they really don't have the authority either, but they can put the pressure on donald stearn, and if anything -- or donald sterling. if anything i think the -- the advertisers, the sponsors are the ones who will have the greatest impact on all of this, something you can talk to dan hesse about as well. >> saw them leaving in droves. that likely putting a lot of pressure leading towards the outcome that we're seeing here. again, a lot of questions about the precedent that this is setting, and is there any response so far that you're getting on that front? >> reporter: no, just a really supportive response, but the ultimate test is going to play out tonight starting with the fans and the players, and over the next few month and we'll see

how long this lasts. obviously adam silver wants to get past it for the nba. sponsorships a big deal and many say they suspended sponsorship so they could come back after this decision, but some said that they terminated it completely. >> yeah, and everybody -- you can go to the clippers own website. they have changed it, very dramatic statement on the part of the clippers organization saying we are one, and it will be interesting to see how they perform tonight for game five. they were pretty sluggish on saturday. >> and there's rumors about magic buying the team. >> thank you. let's get back to market coverage. a pretty good day going here. the dow up 202 points, 26 points away from an all-time high, something we've yet to see this year. >> and after the bell, twitter and ebay gearing up to report. we'll tell you which numbers to watch out for you and bring you those results the second they hit the street. keep it right here for all of that, plus, twitter's largest

individual shareholders will be joiningexclusively. >> also ahead, maybe the housing market is not broken at all. a new report shows that home prices jumped almost 13% in february year over year. we'll talk to the housing pros about where prices may be headed from year as we approach the home buying season and it starts to pick up. >> plus, oprah winfrey, carlos slim and martha stewart, three of the illuminaries making the top 25 influencers list. we'll all hear from them in the special 25th anniversary of "closing bell." don't go anywhere. we'll be right back. female announcer: sleep train's interest free for 3 event

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celebrations, the network has been highlighting the top 25 most influential and transformative people in business from the last 25 years. the full list was revealed this morning on cnbc. it's available now at our website, cnbc.com. >> and spearheading it all, tyler mathison who joins us now with a look at someone who has amassed her power and fortune from the talk show stage, tyler. >> reporter: folks, thank you very much, a media power howe who may be the world's most influential woman, number seven on cnbc's first 25. >> that's one of oprah's main messages. if you can figure out a way to do the work you love, something that you would do even if you weren't getting paid, if you can figure out a way to do that, you're golden.

>> reporter: oprah winfrey's story is an epic tale, the kind of up from nothing american success story that makes americans believe in themselves. a child of poverty, a victim of sexual abuse, oprah winfrey came up from the deep south to take the world by storm. gayle king has been her best friend for 28 years. >> she was born a colored child, as she says, back in 1954, when at that time she said it was almost very racially segregated. >> not really educated when she was young. you know, oprah was taught she's going to be able to work for a nice white family one day if she was lucky. >> so to go from that, this young girl, from mississippi to be one of the most powerful women in the world, yeah, that resonates with her, and there are times that she does have to go wow. >> reporter: media mogul, actress, philanthropist, dubbed by "forbes" the richest african-american with a networth

approaching $3 billion, oprah winfrey built a television, film and publishing empire on the strength of her ideals. >> i think you have to say that the heir of authenticity helped her become that billionaire. what was really being sold up there was oprah. >> i'm oprah winfrey, and welcome to the very first national "oprah winfrey show." >> reporter: show debuted in 1986 and almost instantly became a national phenomenon. >> what you're looking at here is the significance of somebody who started out in one of the most non-serious insipid venues you can start out in in hosting a television talk show in the era of trash tv and took it and made it serious and resonate in people's lives. oprah came along and made it connect to her audience in a way that was extraordinarily possible. that's a social phenomenon and a business phenomenon. >> a business phenomenon who touched people's hearts far more, even more than their

wallet. she broke rule after rule. >> when i think about oprah's smartest business deal it would have to be owning her own show, having the vision to know that that would be the right decision for her financially and to be the right decision for her personally. >> reporter: she's success led to the creation of her own tv and film studio, harpo. >> and at the time, think about this. there were no women who owned their own studios. i think mary pickford and lucille ball, so it did seem sort of pie in the sky how kur possibly do that? >> reporter: but the she's impact and financial success also helped many others with what was deemed the epra effect. >> she has a bigger effect on consumers than anybody else i can think of. shapes the world and influences americans everywhere. >> she transformed the publishing industry. she got people wanting to read, made best-sellers out of authors maybe nobody ever heard of bvr. >> and tv stars out of unknown doctors and cooks, dr. phil,

dr. oz and rachael ray among others. >> i was on her show 29 times, and i was able to be on the oprah winfrey network. for some reason i'll always feel that i'm in debt to oprah for me being suze orman. >> not only anoints tv personalities but arguably presidents. >> there's been analysis that oprah alone was worth a million votes to barack obama, may have been the difference in the obama campaign meeting hillary clinton. >> i think when she met barack obama and met him because she didn't d an interview with barack obama, she walked out of that interview saying wow, so when he announced that he was going to run for president of the united states, she wanted to do anything she could to help him. she had never done that with anybody before. i think that that made a difference. but i also think barack obama inspired things in people that people hadn't seen in years. >> >> reporter: with the tv show coming to an end and "o" magazine going strong, winfrey

set off on a new challenge, creating own, the oprah winfrey network. it got off to a rocky start. >> went through a period thinking, boy, i was number one for 25 years, and now that doesn't matter. there was all of this, you know, we call them haters who were almost celebrating that it was so difficult for her. that was jarring, but that didn't deter it. it just made her think i've got to work harder and she went in and took a close look at well, this doesn't work. she has a friendship and business relationship with tyler perry that. came and that's a huge hit. lance armstrong agreed to talk to her for the very first time so you started hearing all this buzz about good and it was good. it wasn't negativity. >> reporter: that ability to turn the negativity around is what makes oprah winfrey a true visionary and one of cnbc's first 25. >> i think now when people about oprah winfrey, they think about, you know, media mogul, philanthropist. i've heard actress, but it all boils down to the core of who

oprah is, changing people's lives for the better, both men and women. that's what she does. >> reporter: oprah winfrey, up of cnbc's first 25. rebels, icons and leaders. who is number six on that list? jim cramer has that story coming up later on "mad money." folks, on this day at this hour i'm struck by how far we have come as a country on race and how far we still have to go. >> boy, that's for sure, on both counts. you know, when i think of oprah, i think the word juggernaut, and we forget how different the world was in 1986 when she started, as gayle king was pointing out there, but think of the number of people who have been spun off, if you will, in their own careers, us a pointed out, tyler. that to me is one of the most impressive things about the oprah juggernaut. >> and to think about, you could talk about the impact of having a daytime tv show like she did could do to lauren the career to

be part of the national conversation but the list of people who have tried and fake in her wake makes her accomplishment look only that much more incredible. >> boy, isn't that the truth. i mean, every year there are a whole raft of new people who come out, and it is hard to do and hard to make success, but it's her authenticity i think that carried her through, and people saw her struggle with lots of things, including her weight and personal crises in her life. >> go ahead. finish your thought. i wanted to mention the global nature of the cnbc 25. it isn't just american brewers and icons, is it? >> no, it isn't. carlos slim, number 25 on the list, we spoke with him after he learned he made the list. let's listen to what he had to say. >> i'm very glad to hear of the decision, but there are also so many important business people in the world that are working in different types of companies and in different sectors.

my work and the work of the people is very important in all our business activities. just to congratulate you for your 25 years of intensive work and successful results. >> and congratulations to us one and all. be sure to watch cnbc's special program tonight at 7:00 p.m. eastern time. we'll highlight the top five rebels, icons and leaders from the past quarter century. bill and kell, back to you. >> long day, tyler, long day. >> fun day. thanks, ty, see you later. >> we're not finish. >> no, far from it. martha stewart is also on the list of the top 25 influencers. >> yeah. >> and another human brand name right there. on the floor of the new york stock exchange talking to some of the traders and getting ready to talk to us. wait until you hear about the latest business venture she's cooking up. that's coming up in a moment here. >> and we've got about 35 minute to go with the dow holding up, a gain of 102 points.

at this hour the s&p adding about 9. the nasdaq 33 as we keep a close eye on that. >> lots of talk about the housing industry hitting a snag. new information that might put a smile on a home seller's face coming up. coming up. disney started in a garage. amazon started in a garage. ♪ the ramones started in a garage. my point? some of the most innovative things in the world come out of american garages. introducing the lighter, faster cadillac cts. 2014 motor trend car of the year. ain't garages great? for $175 dollars a month? so our business can be on at&t's network yup. all five of you for $175. our clients need a lot of attention. there's unlimited talk and text. we're working deals all day. you get 10 gigabytes of data to share. what about expansion potential? add a line anytime for 15 bucks a month. low dues... great terms...

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you know, it housing market is showing signs of line and sales of single family homes increased .8% in january, prices surged nearly 13% on the year. >> the bad news, homeownership fell to just under 65%. that's the lowest level we've seen in 19 years so what does all this data say about the housing market? joining us is our own diana olick and author of "foreclosure nation" and also here in the discussion, senior economist. diana olick, i guess what we're saying as prices rise some people are being priced out of the market and homeownership is going down. is that was going on? >> what we've been talking about again. price gains with r a double-edged sword. yes, it's good that we're getting value back in the real estate, getting people back from under value and bringing them into a positive equity position and allowing them to possibly sell and at the same time with higher mortgage rates and higher necessary down payment and higher mortgage insurance

premiums, affordability is really taking a hit and you're seeing that in the sales. >> sherry, do you think this means there are people who are going to be structurally priced out of housing market who might own a home in this market and won't today? >> absolutely. we're seeing that particularly from the first-time buyers, many of whom, 5% more who are living with their families, who have about 2 million less household formations for that reason. the good news here though is that part of what we're seeing is a rolling back of artificial influencers, so we had the low interest rate, and we had the investors which is not normal in a healthy housing market. they are now rolling back, and that's where the primary decrease in sales is coming from. the good news is that they were buying the exact same homes that first time home buyers typically buy, and we're already seeing inventory going up so hopefully that will be a help for affordability. >> sarah johnson, the fed is tapering now. rates are supposed to be going up. they aren't yet but eventually

will. what will happen to the housing market when that happens, do you think? >> well, rising rates and rising home prices will certainly slow the recovery in the housing market, but they shouldn't stop it. the demographics are favorable. demand is outpacing supply, so the big question is when will building activity pick up? >> and what do you think the answer is to that? i mean, we've talked to home builders, and they were ruing having too much land on the books by 2008, and they started selling it en masse. now they are kind of wishing they had that land back again, right? >> i think credit conditions for development are still rather tight. building costs are rising, so there are a number factors, but bottom line, i think we are likely to see a significant increase in home building over the next two years. >> bill, i would also argue on that one there. when we see the home builders looking to produce more, they are faced with higher costs for land, labor and materials now, an they have jacked up prices

even higher than the existing home market, and we saw that in the most recent report on sales of newly built homes. the question is if buyers are only to -- if only the move-up buyers can get into the now home market and not having the domino effect, will the builders have to start bring down their costs, the prices of their homes and, therefore, squeezing their own margins with their own higher costs? >> that's what's been holding back a lot of home builders, one of the reasons they haven't increased their inventory and their building. >>ia. ladies, we have to go at this point. thanks for your insight into an important, important part of our economy right now. appreciate it very much. see you later. >> yeah, housing is a business cycle as ed lemur would say. >> 30 minute to go, the dow holding steady with a gain of about 100 points. about 26 points away from an all-time closing high. can we do it in the next half hour here? >> sprint is among the companies dropping their sponsorship for the l.a. clippers. the nba has now punished donald

sterling and sprint ceo dan hesse speaks to me in the next hour of the show. we'll ask him if enough was done for him to return and do business with the clippers again. plus, matt damon is here. he's big on his water.org initiative, and coincidentally rumored to be playing aqua man in the new movie. >> wouldn't you know. all comes together. coming up next, she's been walking the floor and taking photographs. i think she's putting new magazine to go. martha stewart, one of cnbc's top 25 influencers. she will join us exclusively coming up after this. p after th.

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welcome back. another rally day, and we haven't had nearly the volatility we had yesterday with that round turn. a gain in the morning, and a selloff in the afternoon and then a return to those gains in the afternoon. we had a rally in the open this morning, and it has stayed there. the dow up 90 points. we're about 26 points away from an all-time high on the dow jones industrial average here. >> now, pretty remarkable. we'll keep an eye here. what, about 25 minutes to go before that close. >> meantime, cnbc unveiling our list of the top 25 rebels, icons and leaders of the past 25 years as we celebrate our own an versery. our next guest holds the coveted

number 24 spot because of her tale of innovation keeping the task of keeping a home and transforming it into a media empire that reaches about 100 million consumers across all platforms each month. >> while she ehad her shares of ups and downs, martha stewart has maintained her poise throughout and has become on paper the first female self-made billionaire in the united states all the while. >> she created a brand with a distinct following. fans, including some of the traders here on the exchange floor. she's been walking the floor today taking photographs, and she's making her way to a great applause. how are you? >> welcome. >> number 24 on the list. what did you say to me when we were in commercial? you're glad you're still around after,000 those 25 years. >> we should all be thrilled that we're here, and i'm very thrilled. this is a big honor, and a very nice recognition. >> go ahead.

>> i was going to say to me it's fascinating to think about at the time, how many people had really built a brand out of their name. it's something that people today now take for granted. did you think about it that way at the time when you were first launching your business? >> no, but i had a friend called charlotte beares who said you're a brand, you're a brand and i woke up one day and i said i'm a brand, and it's a strong brand that we've built. >> what does that brand say? what is the brand about? >> the brand is about excellence. it's about high quality. it's about trusted information and really excellent inspiration for the homemaker. i mean, we're trying to reach every day as many people as possible with that kind of great information and content. >> there are so many people, bloggers, women at home, who want to be the next martha stewart, and it's surprisingly difficult to do. what is it? what is the secret? is it persistence?

>> well, it takes a tremendous amount of hard work, first of all. it doesn't happen overnight. it is -- it does take a lot of persistence. it takes a lot of attention to detail. it takes a good team of people around one to make a brand, and a brand that sticks. that's really -- you know, the merchandise speaks for the brand. the content speaks for the brand, and it's all about that that i really care about and i have to speak for the brand every day. >> that's what's so interesting as well about it. what do you consider to be the biggest regret or mistake that you've had during the 25 years while building this brand, with as we've noted the ups and downs? >> getting embroiled in a difficult situation with a legal situation was really, really damaging, and that we have survived all that and thrived and continued to hopefully grow all aspects of our business is just fantastic. >> you know what's interesting about that, though, martha, in all the tombs we've worked

together and i've seen you in social occasions, you are unflappable. i have never ever seen you lose your temper. i've never seen you down, so when you were in all the legal problems, when you were in the penitentiary, let's call a spade a spade, you know, did you believe you could come back again and reinvent yourself to get that brand back on track? >> a person in trouble that doesn't believe she or he is guilty is a strong person, and i learned how to make lemonade out of lemons. >> yes. >> and as only martha stewart could do, right? >> and you know what, it's all in the past, and now i'm looking towards the future. i'm an optimist still, and -- and i only see good for the martha stewart brand, but also for this economy. happy to see the dow back up to the high today. it's really exciting. >> you, like all of us in the media, we have to react to the

marketplace, and the -- and the social media, all the different platforms. we have to keep moving where the people are and you've done a masterful job of that. >> i like social media and love technology. i'm really thrilled to be with the google guys and the zuckerbergs and steve and bill. i'm thrilled to be in that group because i was an early adopter of all of this. i -- i try very hard to use my twitter, use my facebook. i use the pinterest and instagrams of the world and that said you still have to provide the real stuff, that real nitty-gritty stuff that the homemaker needs in my case, that -- that homemaker needs and wants on a daily basis, those dose of information are very important. >> yeah. >> story we're watching today. it obviously involves the national basketball association, this whole mess with donald sterling, okay. there's a brand. one of the former players kevin johnson has called this a defining moment for the nba.

>> yeah. >> crisis management for this new commissioner adam silver who has now banned donald sterling for life. >> i saw that, a big fine. too bad for him. he should have been whatever. >> what about the leadership issues involved here in trying to maintain that brand that is the nba? that's adam silver's job? >> well, strength and honesty and goodwill really, really need to come into play here, and i think that that's really what's happening. >> and what is the biggest thing that you've learned from your whole career, from all of this? >> always look to tomorrow with a bright smile and goodwill and optimism. >> i heard dick parsons the other day be the kind of person that people want to see succeed. there's a lot of truth in that as well. >> that's right. that's where your fan base comes from. martha, congratulations against. always good to see you. >> thank you very much. >> good to see you, congratulations. >> number 24 on the cnbc 25 here. we'll take a break. we'll come back. the dow is up 92 points. kind of losing out a little bit,

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time in the last couple of weeks. if i'm not mistaken. looks like we'll fail again. up 86 points. needed a 127-point gain to get to the new high for the first time this year. >> closed up high 86 yesterday as well. all eyes on twitter and ebay which post results after the close. dominic chu keeping an eye on all the numbers we should be watching for. dom? >> we'll start with twitter first. the street is expecting a loss of three sent a share from the social media company on sales of 241 million. investors will take a hard look at growth hoping that the company can at least maintain last quarter's 4% growth rate and users, advertising revenue and time line views per monthly active viewers will also be watched very closely. just off session highs ahead of that trade, 2%. as for ebay, analysts are expecting a gain of 67 cents on sales of $4.2 billion. investors here will be able to focus on the numbers now that activist investor carl icahn reached an agreement with the company not to spin off its electronic payments unit, so, of

course, that's a big focus, and those shares are up 1.5%, bill, kell, ahead of the trade after the bell. back to you. >> thanks, dom, very much. with the 13 minutes left, the dow holding steady with a gain of about 92 points. see how we do in the last few minutes. >> the yield on the ten-year, meanwhile, creeping in, not keeping people from huge deplanned for apple's bond offering. busy hour ahead. we'll get reaction to the nba planning the clippers owner donald sterling for life. sprint already withdrawing their sponsorship and will that make him reconsider and matt damon playing aqua man in the new "justice league" movie. >> that would be fitting. >> helping to bring clean drinking water to the world's forests. keep it right here. both of those guests coming up. . in a world that's changing faster than ever, . we believe outshining the competition tomorrow

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welcome back. it's been a rally day but still in this trading range the market has been in for a few weeks. back to the upper end of that range with the dow up 20 points at 16,538, nasdaq up 28 and s&p up 8 points, except for the nasdaq within striking range of all-time highs as we get set for earnings from twitter and obey here. joining me in the meantime,

lynnette cooper from athenna capital advisers. it's a grad traders' market. a good investor's market? >> yes, absolutely, though we're pretty late into the cycle, kind of getting mid to late cycle i think in this recovery. >> plenty of people are waiting for the proverbial 10% collection before they use a shopping list. are you still investing? >> we're still investing, but right now it's not the one-trick pony invest only in u.s. equities. i think you see correlations dropping across global markets. you see that disbursions getting higher so you really have to place the bets in the global markets as well. >> where are you going overseas? >> right now within emerging markets we think that there really is a lot of disbursion and we really favor active management there. we like emerging market funds,

very relative to the benchmark and matthews pacific tiger fund. in europe, europe is up 80% since the lows in 2012. >> right. >> and wouldn't overweight. >> what about here in the u.s.? a lot of defensive plays are doing well. utilities at an all-time high for the first time in six years right now. >> yes, absolutely. >> do you like those right now? >> we're seeing some of that cyclic rotation. for example, consumer discretionary stocks with the worst performers year to date and see commodities up, utilities up, so i think the kinds of things you look to buy mid to late cycle, more quality names, the things like j&j, p & g, exxon, ge, all aa rated, all very solid companies. they can defend their margins. if we get some pressure, wage pressure, for example. >> where would you go for income? what kind of dividend plays? >> all of those stocks that i

mentioned are 2.5% or better. >> which is pretty good in today's market, right? >> in today's environment it's pretty good and they have the capacity to raise their dividends which a lot of stokes don't. we are pretty invested in utilities, but we like to spread it around and amongst those other kind of names as well because utilities won't be able to raise dividends as easily if we do see the inflationary pressure coming in, instead having this easy money policy right now early in the cycle policy where we're actually kind of getting mid to late in the cycle. >> good to see you. >> wonderful to see you, bill. >> let's take a break. we'll come back with the closing countdown to see how things close out and after the bell, ebay and twitter will be posting their resultsch we'll bring you the numbers, the instant analysis and market reaction, a whole three-ring circus coming up in just a couple minutes with our team of experts. you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide. ss worldwide. 24 vitamins and minerals, antioxidants,

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haven't had one yet this year, and it doesn't look like we're going to get it today either with a gain of about 86 points as we head towards the close. now we wait for earnings. twitter and ebay will be reporting tonight. both have been trading higher. look at twitter up 6.6% right now. ebay up 1.7%. they are expecting from twittery loss of three cents a share and whispernumber.com says that's what they are about expecting. ebay, the whit per number guys say 69 cents so we'll see how they do coming up here. bob pisani, those will probably set the tone for tomorrow, in addition to the fed meeting we have tomorrow, by the way. >> the twitter normal metrix don't matter. even revenues don't matter with twitter. what matters is the monthly active users and what happened last quarter is it didn't grow that much. grew about 3% in the u.s.,

active users and 5% internationally. this is a growth company? the stock really dropped on that. remember, twitter went public, i think it was $26 in know. went all the way to $75 by the end of december, and when the news came out in january about this, that the growth wasn't that great and the users the stock dropped down and then it dropped down again when the momentum names started getting hit hard. >> a crashing momentum play in this and got caught up. >> so $26 to $75 it went to and now it's down to $43, and the question is can they get monthly active users and engage people longer on the site? that's are the metrics that matter. >> the fed meeting, not expecting anything except another $10 million coming out of the buy-in program. >> and i think you'll find particularly after yellen's last comments that she will be uber dovish on that, uber dovish i think is what you're going to see right now. very happy to keep the interest rates, the ten-year, at the 2.6%

level. >> thanks, bob. see you later. still no all-time high with either the dow or s&p. stand by. we've got the earnings from twitter and ebay coming your way, and did i mention that it's "shark tank" tuesday as well. that's all coming up next on the second hour of "closing bell" with kelly evans. see you later. thank you, bill and welcome to "closing bell." i'm kelly evans. here at the new york stock exchange it's 4:00 p.m. here's how you're finishing up the day on wall street. see the dow not too far from a record high and added 85 points, similar to what we saw yesterday. the nasdaq with a gain of 35 point and the s&p 500, the broad market index up half of 1%, about eight points today. let's bring in today's panel, a couple of big earnings reports we're waiting on. before we get to that our

guests. with for more on today's markets, upcoming earnings on twitter and ebay, "fast money" trader tim seymour and great to see all of you. mike santolli, debating inside of the last hour. what's happening, with the fact that utilities are high and the broader index and everybody is convinced that there's an internal breakdown with the momentum names. what's the diagnosis here? >> back at top of the range in terms of the s&p and dow and the bottom of the lineup carrying things and trying to score runs for the entire team and that does show you it's a narrower margin. the things that you would like to see that deserve a better risk appetite, small caps underperforming and the rest of it. positive signs, things haven't fallen entirely apart. the credit markets remain ultra strong so you don't see anything disastrous on the horizon but this digestion phase, i don't really know what gets us out of it. >> how important? got twitter and ebay.

>> absolutely. >> those two, obviously they are important companies, but how much so for psychology more broadly? >> i think given the recent selloff we've seen in technology names, investors are questioning growth prospects when it comes to the big tech heavyweights so the earnings tonight will definitely set the tone on what to expect on tech heavyweights and how they can place themselves. >> how do you like tech here? what parts of it do you like? do you -- do the old tech trade, kind of an income play, a value play? >> right. >> and what does that tell us about the economy? >> well, i don't see twitter as a tech bellwether. i think, you know, apple which has had a very big run to me embodies at least value and a place where after, you know, a run up to 59 oy think you take profits. that position you took half off today. i think if we look across the entire nasdaq, as we've mentioned, mike said there's a rotation going on, there's a sense that some growth isn't happening. i agree with that, and i think

there's very constructive things happening. if you look at industrials, if you look at the transports and look at the international m & as, some driven by those not wanting to bring cash back on shore. tonight's earnings are interesting for the company's specific plays but won't drive what's going on tomorrow. >> got to love what apple is doing here. there's huge interest in its debt. they are borrowing because they don't want to bring the cash back onshortstop seeing a bunch of m & a activity. >> bothers me immensely, the crazy contortions corporations are going through to just be complaint with our really ridiculous stupid tax laws which are hurting our economy. if there's ever any evidence that you need to prove that we need to reform taxation it's this week. the pfizer move, the apple debt. >> right. >> all this stuff is crazy, and i'll tell you something else as an investor. having a really hard time putting the incrementals to work. today hi to put some money to work on my own which i really

care about. >> as opposed to other people's money. >> i care about everybody's money but i really like mine. i did the most boring thing, bought floating rate loans which buys me 4%. >> did you buy apple? >> that debt is way too expense sniff. >> kate? >> i think as our discussion here points out, the sort of strength in the stock market is very fragile. i think there's a lot of divisiveness out there. i was just reading about paul syringe's letter at elliot, saying that yellen is a magician showing economic strength by the tapering and it's all sort of a fakeout and i think there are those who believe it. on the other hand, more than halfway through earnings and people feel reasonably good about it. do we have news? >> you can see, twitter shares are moving, for those listening, down about 7% after hours. quarterly results have hit. morgan brennan with the details

now. morgan? >> hi, kelly. we've got some nice numbers from twitter. first let's start with the biggest number investors were looking for, monthly active users, 255 million monthly active users. that's a 25% year over year increase, that's an increase of just under 6% for the quarter as well. now, earnings per share. break even, zero, so that's better than the street's loss of three cents. revenues also better than the street. 250 million for the quarter. analysts had been calling for 241 million, so a 119% year-over-year increase for revenue. we'll keep going through the report and will bring you more as it comes. >> morgan, thanks for much. i want to bring in tom forte, senior internet analyst at healthy advisory group and joe steinberg who is president and c.o.o. of buzzfeed. you can see there.

tom, what's going on? >> a repeat of last quarter when there was strong revenues and better than expected non-gap earnings and the audience member wasn't as better. we were looking for 27% growth but only 25% growth which suggests a lot of the big events, the olympics, academy awards, et cetera, drove usage but may not have driven audience growth, but we'll look for more details on that as we examine the numbers. >> john steinberg, we were sitting here on this set last quarter when this happened. you dropped a jaw. >> i know. >> your jaw dropped at the user metrics. what do you make of this quarter? >> this one is right almost in line. people were expecting 257 million ads, 255 million ads, the stock is basically back where it was at the beginning of the day before it ran up. exactly what people expected, a revenue beat and an earnings beat, just like last quarter as well but the user metric is where people thought it would be. >> you know, kelly, speaking of the market volatility, take a

look at twitter, it's more or less flat from where it started at the ipo, and i think it shows you that based on momentum and confidence or a lack thereof, these stocks will take a wild ride. facebook surprised tremendously to the upside and twitter, as john was just saying, more or less in line with expectations and technically a beat, and it's moved multiple points today on sort of high and low expectations, so i think these names we'll continue to see a lot of choppiness. >> it's not good enough just to meet expectations. >> that's not good enough. >> when you have no free cash flow, not paying a dividend and you're a momentum growth stock. meeting the estimate means you'll get slaughtered to death. >> and your guidance is below expectation. >> yeah. >> if you look what facebook did, their numbers last quarter or last week were fantastic. this is not even what these guys are giving you, and these guys are probably six quarters behind facebook in terms of monetization, just not good enough. >> there was a possibility going into this quarter that we would get a huge beat on the user number, that it would be in the

260s. coming in the mid-250s is just good enough. lucky the stock isn't down a lot more. last quart ter dropped 24% when the number was so below expectations so they are basically lucky they are flat. >> and the technical factors, the lockup is coming off. >> and all the same, tim -- >> go ahead. >> i was going to say if we're going to continue the unfair comparison with facebook they also didn't prove or kind of get rid of all the doubts in the first quarters of the public company. i think the market is basically giving them a little more rope to hang themselves before they actually say this thing is a bust. >> tim? >> remember a key lockup coming up on may 5th, an expiration where shareholders could potentially sell their stock. that's been a concern for shareholders who hold shares of twitter and the big question is also the valuation. does twitter justify, does twitter grow at a point where you can justify its high valuation? >> right. >> i wonder how many people holding those shares who can now

sell them want to at 40 when they have seen it trade at 75. i know we have to let you go. just a final thought here. >> that's the wrong way i think to be trading a stock. if you think the stock is not going higher, in fact it's going lower because they are disappointing and given guidance, all the changes they have made to the sight are not having an impact right now. you sell the stock even if your cost base is higher. >> kelly, one point i would make is let's listen to the call really carefully. if they talk about product improvement on the call, movement that they are engaging to get the profile up beyond the design and views that will be significant after hours. >> say that again one more time. >> the call will be vitally important because basically on that call they will say the product improvements that they are making for the out quarters, things they are doing to drive engagement in the future, if costello says something on the call that indicates they will make a bigger growth in movement in international or domestic in the coming quarters, people will be excited about that. >> what about comments from nbc universal i think talking about the fact that when it comes to twitter's enhancement for the

viewing audience of television programming which is kind of its core argument right now, at least, that it's just not there, that there's no there there. >> the same thing with facebook and that's proved not to be the case. you have to remember i was criticized for television advertising. problem here is 200 million, $25 billion market caps, 200 million use, you've got to do something amazing now to justify that going forward, something amazing. >> the whole tv argument to me was them trying to get budget from television which is what everybody in digital is trying to do but ultimately not many people are tweeting while watching television, not many people are talking about the specific program on facebook while watching it, so to me that was never a great argument for ad revenue growth. >> tom, talk to us about the valuation now. twitter is trading at about $39 after hours, off 8.5%. as kate mentioned, this is close to where it priced in the first place. not talking about a company that's trading at 75 anymore, so what is the valuation here?

how much is that justified based on what we're learning in this quarter? >> sure. i mean, i'm looking at twitter over the next 12 months. on that basis i still think they have an opportunity to improve the audience metrix. clearly i think the results were not anything outstanding in this quarter, but i think there's still time. if you want to compare against facebook, facebook became public with 800 million monthly actives so twitter has two big growth opportunities, one to grow their audience and two to improve that are monetization. would i have liked to seen a bigger number on monthly actives, yes. but does it mean it won't perform well as a stock over the next 12 months or near term, i'm a lot more optimistic than some of the people talking. >> catch more of tim seymour coming up with the "fast money" crew at 5:00 p.m. of they will do more as well on the earnings that we're getting this hour. sticking with twitter for the time being, my next guest is its biggest institutional shareholder, has been investing with the company since the very beginning. he's managing director at lower case capital, up more than 15%

through lower case capital and its funds. >> hey, good to be here. >> you see this stock trading down after hours. do you add to that position? you're taking a big loss on paper here. >> there's no paper loss here. we've been investing this company since 2007. frankly, at this point, i'm used to seeing the stock underestimated. that's how we're able to build this ownership position in the first place. pulling poem along the way -- >> sure, go ahead. >> seen people along the way who haven't understood that we've seen this movie before. this is google. remember, a bunch of us were former goggle executives and know how we built that business and seeing the same business built here, monetization within twitter.com itself and then through mopas. when i hear the audience of 200 million users nobody mentioned mopub, one advertiser gets to twitter and they can get their ad in front of a bill crop users on android and twitter.

that's a 12.7 billion business and i'm a big holder right now. >> and so if you were to talk about -- break down twitter a little bit, especially for people following this narrative at home. where is the most value in this name right now? is it in mopub? >> there's a lot of potential in mopub. it's already start toddrickle back into the main result. you'll see -- frankly, we've seen facebook trying to move in that direction and get a little bit of access to that revenue and seen google go after it, too. they are the market leader, go to them and get access to 2 billion users. 255 is a great number right now but if you want access to a bill crop users there's only one place to go. facebook is rolling out an ad network which isn't a platform so that ads will probably flow through mopub as well. >> how do you get to the 1 billion figure, chris?

>> if you have an ioso android hand set and you're installing apps as all you're seeing twitter ads when you're using the apps so even if you're not on twitter.com you're seeing the entire business and twitter is the one caring the checks and paying out to the developers. it's a huge business and the street is getting their head around it. more and more questions around that and that will be a huge value of drivers and returns going forward. literally like what we did at google. built the ad wars business and monetized the site back when people were asking us back then, hey, how are you going to make money and then we built the ad sight business and monetized it and take that and bring it to mobile. >> as soon as the competitors realize the competitive advantage though, won't they pile in and drive down ad rates and just steal some eyeballs? >> first of all this, audience is growing geometrically so it's not a winner take all scenario. what mopub has is an ad network

others can feed into. you can see them running them through the mopub network and google with the ads coming through the mopub network and twitter will be paying the ads so they are extremely well performing here. >> it sounds like not netly -- you're not worried here about the valuation of the shares or what -- you know, in other words, are our shareholders who may feel differently, are you worried about the pressure that they may put on the shares as they start to sell? >> no, i've spoken with every major shareholder out there, and there's no plans to sell or distribute any of the stocks? saw it in an ak filed by the company that the ceo or the co-founders will sell any shares. we're the largest, 15% of the stock and nobody is going to sell. just getting started with this company right now, and i think as the street starts to understand how to value this company, not a bilateral social

network like what you have with facebook so it doesn't actually matter if you're logged in every day. if the tweets are reaching you, if you start valuing how pervasive this network is, when you see them in the newspaper and see them on television, you realize those are monetizable events, and this is a huge network. think about ellen's selfie. 3.3 billion impressions of that tweet in the first 48 hours. this is a huge, hewitt network. >> chris, in listening to this case, what do you think twitter is worth? where do you think that these shares should ultimately be tradeing? >> i bought this stock originally in 2007 and didn't have that in mind. i bought it again in '08 ago, 09, '10, '11, '12, '13, if somebody wants to partner with me, i'd happily do it. we'll own this stock for a long time. in the same way i wish i didn't sell some of my google stock when i left the company back in '08, no way you're going to pry the stocks out of my hands now. >> fascinating case. thanks for being here.

>> thank you. >> now the earnings parade continues. you can see shares of ebay are on the movement the company's earnings report is out now. dock nick breaks down the numbers for us on this one. dom? >> the head line numbers, the stock down 3% in the after-hours trade right now. ebay is reporting earnings on just the basis of 77 per share, beating the estimate of 67 cents a share and sales coming just about in lynn, 4.62 billion, and they are also saying that in the second quarter, the current quart, they see, coming in at 67 to 69 cents per share on $3.4 billion to $3.4 billion worth of sales. 49 cents on earnings and on 18 opinion 5 billion worth of sales, and, again, as you can see with the shares, they are reacting, though marginally to the downside about 1.5% right now on just about a quarter of a million shares worth of volume. again, the options market was

pricing in what could have been a plus or minus 4% move in the stock. the conference call is kicking off in the 5:00 hour so, of course, we'll be going through this release and headlines and bringing you any more detail. ebay a beat for earnings, in line sales and the stock is down about 1.75% in the after hours trade. back over to you, kelly. >> dom, thanks very much. more reaction from colin gillis, senior tech analyst and colin, first to you. this downward move. what's driving it? >> i don't think that we'll see that stick. this is a classic ebay quarter. got some earnings upside that was to be expected. it's a little bit better than expected and decent quarter guide as, particularly on the revenue side. this is a company that tends to guide conservatively and beat expectations. it's an excellent stock, growth out of reasonable price. >> g.a.r.p., john, do you like

it? >> i would say it's a pretty cheap stock in terms of tech. the thing to really pore into the release, just trying to pull it up right now, the growth merchandise volume, selling more autos because the numbers are skewed. my hunch is there wasn't enough top line growth in the units which is why the stock is down? and how much will this be about paypal? >> a lot is about paypal, and the stock has not acted well for over a year, and it's because it's caught in a bit of a limbo. paypal is doing great but also seen to be in a very crowded space. nobody knows the future of payment. everybody wants a big piece of it and i also think after carl icahn stopped his activist campaign, which i thought was a poorly chosen up, it left with, okay, what's the next thing to get this going. >> quit point though, think icon

and paypal. having paypal inhouse when there's so much desire for this sort of action has to give you more organic growth and if they make a disposition of that asset for profit, don't you have more upside? >> dom has more from the earnings reports. >> interesting, we've been talking about taxes, tax inversions and arbitraging the tax system and ebay said they brought back $9 billion worth of foreign cash. they repatriated that cash to the u.s. market. as a result of bringing back $9 billion, they took a $3 billion charge so, again, ebay is saying that they have increased their u.s. available cash by $6 billion, bringing $9 billion abroad back home and taking $3 billion worth of tax charges on bringing that cash home. >> sounds like they need a new cfo. why are they doing things like that? >> my question about this company is when does it make its move out of being a growth story

or trying to pretend like one and turn into the microsoft and sort of dividend-paying apple. >> i think the world is eager to see that. >> that's a rhetorical point, kelly. they don't actually want to see it. >> pay me a dividend and i'll become a shareholder. >> to kevin's point, analysts looking for any kind of commentary around ebay's buyback program as well as international growth. they have been pushing into international market and how are sales doing in those specific regions? >> john. i'm looking here at the gross merchandising volumes, right in line, usa 12% growth and internationally 11%, right in line with what was predicted. >> kolp, where does that leave you on the shares? >> if you look at the u.s. -- when people consider to be the marketplace business, growing 12%, 13%, you look at the payment side that everybody, every really likes. that grew 27%.

that would probably be the larger portion of the ebay company, you know, early next year, a year from now, so this is a classic straight-up ebay quarter. the one wrinkle is the repatriation of the cash paying the taxes, you know, for all these companies with cash assets languishing on their balance sheets because they don't want to pay the taxes and get a tax holiday, these are the laws of the united states, bring the cash back and pay the tax and have it available for domestic use. >> that's a real interesting comment. you going to sell the company to disney? how much is it worth these days? >> to comment. i know it's rare for me not to have no comment on anything, but no comment on this one, sorry. >> we've found the one place where john won't go. thanks for joining us. >> may pleasure. >> appreciate it. >> a quick programming note. tune into "squawk on the street" tomorrow minute because the twitter ceo will be here to

discuss result and my next guest pulled the sponsorship of the l.a. clippers after the comments of donald sterling. more on the decision made on sterling a couple years ago and cnbc releases the picture of the most influential. keep it right here. you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide. ss worldwide.

welcome back. take a look oat shares of twitter. down 9% after hours headed back to where this company priced when it went public, this after some earnings that had people if not missing what the consensus, what the street thought perhaps on the revenue and earnings side, some of the numbers on the subscriber front, perhaps not just quite up to the expectations for this name. nevertheless, we'll have more detail as that call takes place. in the meantime, ebay also reporting earnings. those shares also moving lower as the company repatriated a chunk of its overseas cash. off about 3%. now, nba commissioner adam silver making a decisive move

over the controversial racist remarks made by l.a. clippers owner donald sterling. sarah eisen joining this for us and joins us from outside the nba press conference at the new york hilton with the details. >> reporter: ever since commissioner silver made that very decisive ban just a few hours ago, there has been an outpouring of support. you've seen it from the team, the nba teams including the clippers. you've seen it from other celebrities who have weighed in on this before like mark cuban, other owners of teams. here's lebron james just tweeting. commissioner silver, thank you for protecting our beautiful and powerful league. great leader. that pretty much sums up the sentiment and reaction you've seen so far to that decision. let's just go over the decision because it was such a monumental day here. the nba commissioner just three months into the job, adam silver, putting lifetime ban on mr. -- on the owner of the clippers saying that he cannot

participate in personnel, he cannot participate in any owners' meating. listen to how he put it. >> effective immediately i am banning mr. sterling for life from any association with the clippers organization or the nba. mr. sterling may not attend any nba games or practices. he may not be present at any clippers facility, and he may not participate in any business or player/personnel decisions involving the team. >> now the bigger question going forward is what happens with the sale because they did stop short of making mr. sterling sell the clippers. obviously the pressure is going to be on the board of directors to have the authority to vote him out, but he is -- this distance from the team in every way that the nba can possibly do. kelly?

>> sarah, thank you. the team's own website making that clear this afternoon. sprint, one of more than a dozen companies dropping or suspending its sponsorship of the l.a. clippers. that was yesterday. sprint suspending all sponsorship activities pending the investigation which came to a conclusion an hour ago, and donald sterling has been banned for life from the nba. so dan hesse, the ceo of sprint here to talk earnings and other issues. welcome. >> thank you, kelly. >> does this mean that your company will advertise once again or market once again with the l.a. clipers? >> proud to be a sponsor of the nba. commend commissioner silver for the leadership that he's shown. we support the league, its players, its fans, so we're still supporting and advertising at the nba level. we haven't decided yet when we will advertise again with the clippers. >> how do you make a decision like that? >> one of the considerations will be what actually does end up happening with respect to the ownership of the clippers. we like the steps that the

commissioner has taken, but we will not begin advertising yet with the clippers. >> until you feel comfortable with who the new leadership is or if there's an actual sale of the team. what is it for you that makes you then able to move forward? >> well, we -- we'll just -- we'll consider a number of factors, but right now, you know, we aren't ready because the ownership has not changed yet, so until the ownership changes, we likely will not advertise. >> a decision that, of course, is only a couple of hours old and it comes on a day when you guys have so much else going on. >> yeah. >> as well. your shares up 11% today. you had earnings -- in fact, it is the tablet growth in particular or should i say the number of people who are using sprint's network with their tablets that surpassed expectations to some extent. do you see that trend becoming even stronger as we head in towards second half of the year? >> we do, and actually we guided to, you know, good growth metrics in the second half of the year. the second half of the year the

subscribers are not growing at the rate we like them to, primarily because we're replacing the entire 3g and voice network which put pressure on subscribers but we're expecting subscriber voice to get healthy. tablets, since you don't make calls, tablets still very popular. >> this gets very interesting because it's a higher margin business for you guys on the voice side than on the tablet side and what happens if more and more people are use the network with a tablet device. >> they are both important and both accretive. one of the things popular with the analyst investors today is we significantly bead ebitda expectations and the 11th straight quarter we met street expectations and taken earnings guidance up for the year. >> toss that mean were you maligned by some competitors family plan? is that driving numbers? >> we had very good metrix with the framily plan on record.

we hit a million customers in less than 40 days and now almost at 3 million so framily is working well. >> people are knitting together to make some savings and not surprising. what does this mean of a potential tie-up between sprint and t-mobile? >> i can't comment on anything speculation with respect to any m & a activity. >> what happens if verizon has to become more competitive with regard to some of its pricing? obviously they have an incredible networks a lot of coverage. is the mobile industry, if consolidation happens, is that good for sprint period, or are you worried still about priceing? >> we think actually the industry could be more competitive than it is, still dominated by two very large players, and i think the industry would be stronger with a stronger number three. >> and what do you mean by that? >> well, i mean, that if there's more consolidation in the industry that did not include at&t and did not include verizon, that would be good for consumers and good for the healthy industry.

>> that maybe included sprint? >> yes, possibly could include us, yes. >> we'll leave it there for the time being and thanks so much for your time on a big day for the shares. >> my pleasures, kelly. >> breaking news. mary thompson with details on general electric. mary? >> hey there, kelly. dow jones is reporting that the french company has accepted ge's offer for its energy assets, according to sources from dow jones. ge made a binding offer of 12 billion plus for all the assets and that the preliminary deal could be announced as soon as wednesday, that being tomorrow. ge declined to comment to cnbc, of course, earlier today. they were willing to make a bid or an asset swap for some of alstom's assets and wanted a four-week period in order to do so. ge stock is moving in the after-hours session on the news. dow jones reporting that the expected deal could be announced as soon as.

back to you. >> perhaps going the way of ge then, mary. thanks very much. ebay and twitter not the only big names reporting earnings after the bell. a roundup of all the action next, and here's one of hollywood's biggest stars and now matt damon taking on a very difficult and challenging role, providing clean drinking water to a billion people around the globe. he'll tell us about that and he'll address ruiners he'll have a role in the upcoming "justice league" movie. here's a hint on that role. it does have something to do with water. be right back. right back. we helped sydney manage her debt and prioritize her goals, so she could really turn up the volume on her dreams today...and tomorrow. so let's see what we can do about that... remodel. motorcycle. [ female announcer ] some questions take more than a bank. they take a banker. make a my financial priorities appointment today. because when people , great things happen.

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earnings have been coming in fast and furious after the bell. dominic joins us to round up the big movers for us, twitter being the prominent one. >> so many of them. let's lead off with twitter here. breaking even in its first quarter, three cents better than expectations. sales also coming higher than anticipated, but it disappointed wall street analysts by reporting 255 million monthly active users. that's up only 5.8% from the previous quarter. you can see there, twitter shares down 8% in the after-market trade. also ebay a big name reporting posting first-quarter earnings of 7 cents a share. second quarters earnings were to the low side of analyst expectations. you can see ebay down about 3.84% in the after-hours trade. and a penny shy of estimates on

sales of $90 million, a bit light of expectations, noodle shares down on the downside and express scripts posting weaker than expected earnings and the stock is taking a hit, as you can expect in the after hours, down about 5%. kelly, back over to you. >> don't have to try hard to draw a theme to this bit of reaction after the bell. he's played everything from a secret agent to a secret angel during his hollywood career. is he getting ready to take on the role of a superhero in the upcoming "justice league" movie. and they are the most 25 influential people in the business industry over the last 25 years and did we get the list right? let us know if you think there's somebody not on the list that ought to be, and you won't believe who our panel said

should be on the list. at least one big name a pretty big surprise. a special tonight at 7:00 p.m. eastern on the world's rebels, icons and leaders. we'll be right back. be right ba. 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. ♪ mattel started in a garage. disney started in a garage. amazon started in a garage. ♪ the ramones started in a garage. my point? some of the most innovative things in the world come out of american garages. introducing the lighter, faster cadillac cts. 2014 motor trend car of the year.

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welcome back. he's played many big roles on the big screen.

now in what could be his most challenging role yet, matt damon is tackling the water crisis around the globe. brian sullivan joins us from the milken global conference in los angeles. he's joined by water.org co-founders matt damon and gary white. brian? >> thanks very much. you introduce it had so we can just dive right in here. let talk about this. hi, guys, welcome. thanks for spending time with cnbc. 980,000 preventible diseases and 1.4 million children die every year because of lack of access to clean drinking water. why doesn't this issue get more attention? >> that's a great, great question, and one that we want to be asking of everybody here while we're -- you know, in our time here. i mean, i think for one, for all of us in the west, it's really hard to relate, to right? like -- it's not an issue. i turn on the tap and it's everywhere, in the bathroom and kitchen. can turn around and get a glass of clean water. our children aren't dying from

these things. these diseases are killing a child every 20 seconds somewhere on planet earth. every 20 seconds a kid under the age of 5 is dying because of lack of access to clean water and sanitation. now, our kids get diarrhea and they might miss a day of school or have a stomach bug but clean answ water is the answer to a lot of these things and they go away. when you have something like aids and we have a program that's done incredible things all over the world. americans can relate to it. we know people or colleagues or family members perhaps who have dealt with hiv/aids. clean water and -- and the lack of it, i think, is something that's -- it's hard for us to clear that first hurdle to even understand the magnitude of the problem. >> solving problems takes money. obviously we're cnbc. ga gary, you were nice enough to come on in davos at the world economic forum and talk about loans and bonds and social good to build the wells. where do you stand with this right now? >> we've launched this fund to

leverage money from social investors in the u.s. with a targeted financial return of 2% and we can on lend that to our microfinance partners in developing countries who then lend that to really poor people so they can get a microloan so they can connect to the water utility, so they can build a toilet, so we've got the thing rolling. we're going through the regulatory process of this, and we expect to be raising the actual debt by the third quarter and disbursing loans. 50 million in demand with this capital and with our partners they can help millions more get access to water. >> incidentally, we've been doing this for years now and we've completed over 300,000 of these loans. they pay back over 98%. so -- so this is not -- >> that's a pretty good rate of return. >> a pretty good rate of return. not just making this up, so we're very confident we'll have success with this. >> i know ellie evans, fellow virginian, wants to jump in here because she said she would smack

me up side the head. kelly. >> i'm going to dive right in here as well, brian. look, matt damon, if only you could play a superhero who could deliver clean drinking water to the world's forest, dare i ask whether you could play aqua man and in fact leverage your celebrity to draw attention to this cause through this new movie that potentially rumors are out there that you could play aqua man in? >> playing aqua man. >> you can go the spanish route if you want to. >> there is international distribution so it's fine. >> we're huge in latin america. >> well, since they made ben batman i've been showing up at his house every day dressed as robin, and my little campaign i don't think has gone too well so far. so far i haven't been contacted by anyone to be in the movie, and with ben in there -- >> look, you have to say it would make a certain amount of sense for this cause, if you did it only for this cause it would actually make a certain amount

of sense. >> well, all right. it -- >> and perhaps the box office. >> yeah, exactly. i'm open to be in any good movie, as always. might be a bit of a stretch, but if dressing up in yellow tight somehow moves the needle for this issue, i would be willing to do that. i've done sillier things. >> aqua man was orange. you could have aqua.org on the shirt. speaking of blue, i know you bleed boston green with the celtics, you obviously know what's going on here with sterling and the clippers. you're a rich guy also. would you be interested in buying a piece of the clippers if it became available? >> i don't have donald sterling money but if magic wants to put people together i'll jump in as a tiny minority partner. >> you would. would anybody contact you? >> a lot of us are excited to get him out of nba so whatever it takes.

>> matt damon, aqua man, o man in france, real pressure. gary white, thank you very much. water.org. i'll seal you later. >> great stuff, brian. thank you. thanks to matt and gary as well. in the mix of the top 25 is an interview with warren buffett and if you voted in the list of 25 leaders and innovators, it's been available for more than eight hours, but we here at "closing bell" are giving you a second chance to be heard if you didn't get in that time. tweet us. is there anyone on the list who is not included who you think should be? your thoughts on this coming up at the end of the show. of the . care for you. today, you can come to cleveland clinic for anything, everything or just to get that "thing" checked out. big, small, and yes, the best heart care in the nation. it's here everyday, for everyone.

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when warren buffett talks people listen and his profile for cnbc's first 25 has people clicking for his take on business over the last quarter century. for that, alan joins us. good to see you. is it all buffett? he's been dominant for most of the day. over 57,000 people have gone into our writeup of his interview on the network this morning tied to our big top 25 of the past 25 years, that list. but he had interesting things to say. he says the mom and pop retailer -- retail investor rather have it good these days

because the cost getting into the stock market is so much better. so very popular story. also jack welch's comments about how the american tax system is a sin. that drew a lot. but lately we have had an on fire story in the last hour. i have gotten all sorts of spike alerts on it. the mayor of lawrence blaming the state for toyota's move to texas. he's very anger gry. >> you certainly see the ads all over the place in the state. cnbc's first 25 list, some are weighing in on who was left off the list. whol what would you put on the list? cnbc closing bell is how to reach us. tomorrow we have a special show planned. it includes ringing the closing

bell at cnbc world head quarters. as you saw there in exclusive interview with alan greenspan. all that tomorrow. we'll be back after this.

. fast and furious earnings after the bell today for some

after-market activity. let's check back in. >> let's start with twitter breaking even. 3 cents better than expectations. revenue coming in higher than expected but reporting 255 million active users. twitter, you can see down about 10% in the trade. there's also ebay posting first quarter earnings of 70 cents a share. sales coming in at $4.26 billion. you can see their ebay shares off session lows down to 3.5%. then dream works reporting a first quarter loss as the company took an impairment charge related to the performance of mr. peabody. they're down about 4% in the after-hours trade. vista print posting third quarter results and down about 15%. it was down 20% earlier on. back of to you.

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welcome back. cnbc today releasing the list of the top 25 people who have had the most profound impact on business and finance since 1989. that's when cnbc first went live. we want to know who didn't make the list that you think should have. here are some tweets. sir richard branson, and malcolm said elon musk and i didn't make the cnbc 25 list nor did john mcphee. and michael dell. and you have some picks of your own. >> kevin beat me to the punch with dik bold. jamie also has run and helped build the defining commercial bank, jpmorgan. he's presided over this thing

with a great persona. >> no other man in resent history as had more impact than bold. vilification of the wealthy. government being negative on businesses. the leveraging of banks all from that ground zero. >> what steve job means to apple is what qualm means to samsung. >> we'll hand it over to melissa lee and the "fast money" crew. >> we start off with twitters conference call beginning right now. shares coming in slightly better than expected. investors are looking for stronger user growth. listening on the call. he'll be with us for the full hour. ebay, also moving low after hours as that conference call begins. we will brick you more straight ahead. our trades are tim, ryan, steve and pete. we kick it