it's a very special day here at cnbc, and everybody is coming to the newsroom. is it just because you're back from milken, brian, or is there something else going on? >> no, the 25th anniversary of cnbc. cnbc 25 list. we're going to be ringing the closing bell. how cool is that? >> ding, ding, ding, ding, ding? you'll get to see the whole cnbc team. they deserve it. >> stick around. "closing bell" is next. ng bell". >> hi, everybody. welcome to a very special edition of "closing bell." i'm kelly evans at cnbc global headquarters. >> and welcome, everybody. i'm tyler matheson in for bill griffith. the actual closing bell will be rung right here on the floor of the cnbc newsroom which will be filling up for the full hour, nearly everyone, hundreds of people who work for our network. we won't time lapse it. will show it to you in realistic as it all developments as part

of the cnbc 25 celebration, and we have a very special broadcast just ahead. >> yes, including an interview with one of the first cnbc 25. former federal reserve chairman alan greenspan joins us exclusively. we're going to talk about his biggest achievements and his biggest regret over the last quarter century. when we ask him we'll speak with him in just a moment. >> and we'll find out this hour if the dow can make a new all-time closing high, possibly a fitting touch on this special day. the dow only needs to gain about 41 points to close at a record which was set on december 31st of 16,576. well, actually right now. >> yeah, sitting a little above it. >> actually above. there we go. we'll tracking that closely over the next 60 minutes. meanwhile, the s&p 500 right now, there you see it, if i can get my eyes on it. 1883, up a quarter percent. let's take a look at nasdaq which has had a rough april. happy to see april in its rear view mirror today. up about 1/5 of a percent, up

41.11 and some change. joining ours closing bell exchange abigail doolittle, keith fitzgerald and jack bouroudjian and rob morgan and the gentleman who likes to mix it up, steve liesman and rick santelli, welcome back. that is an eight-box, an octobox, we invent it had here at cnbc. we're proud of it. one of the great 25 anniversary things. jackbouroudjian, any surprises? >> no, did exactly what i said? janet yellen is the most transparent fed chairman i think i've seen in a long time, doing exactly what she said and i'm glad she's doing it. look, she's been telling us that they will pull back on the asset purchases, exactly what they need to do because quite frankly it isn't making an impact, and rick knows this. look, the last time we saw a number like this gdp number come out we had rates at the ten-year

at 1.8%, so the bottom line is that it doesn't matter what the fed is doing. it matters what d.c. does. we need pro-growth policies for the economy to get going. really what we have is a disconnect between the stock market and main street, and we're seeing it manifested today. >> okay. rob, just want to talk a little bit here about the fact that we've got the dow at all-time highs this morning despite the fact that the gdp was really weak, looking at the jobless claims, other parts of the economy it suggests there is some strength, that things are holding up okay. how much further do you think this rally could go here as we continue to shake off myriad calls for a correction? >> you know, it wouldn't surprise me, kelly, to get some type of pullback, but i still very optimistic about stocks. i think the gdp number that came out today that was so dismal, it's a very backward looking number, can easily be explained by the cold weather, and as you said the jobs number continues to get better, and so i would continue to overweight stocks here and i think we've got a

ways to go. >> abigail, you're worried about mixed signals. explain why and what you're talking about. >> for once i agree with jack. the statement is all what we expected but the mystery continues. the fed is sitting on both sides of the fence. on the one side they are tapering and on the other side they have a very dovish rates talk. bernanke was very successful with this sort of a smokescreen, but investors are starting to get tired of it. they want some certainty, and also with the taper, investors are pulling off of the risk asset curve. >> to what extent do they not have certainty? the fed has been, as i believe jack said, very transparent about what they are doing. >> yeah. >> and even down to suggesting what the timetable will be for it. >> i think we're getting mixed signals, yes, very transparent in terms of this taper and they are staying on board with it, but, on the other hand, all the fed talk out there that's highly dovish so i don't think that investors can really trust that the taper is going to continue when interest rates will, you know, necessarily be shifted so i think that there's still quite a bit of uncertainty out there relative to the fed.

>> steve? >> i think there is some uncertainty, but i think overall what has been telegraphed, what's been interesting to me is that the market understands i think these two dynamics that are going on. the federal reserve has said it wants to shift from a qe-based policy back to an interest rate policy and in order to do that it has to eliminate quantitative easing. that's what it's doing, tightening on the one hand while promising further forward guidance for interest rates on the other hand as far as the forecast can see you. >> know what's interesting about today, by the way, apologies if we've already plowed this ground. let's talk about the pce deflator and the gdp report, in other words. >> 1.2. >> i mean, it was extremely low, and it continues to fall. >> that's a concern of the fed. that's the reason why it's moving very slowly essentially on the taper. >> even if paul singer is out there saying he thinks deflation in the u.s. economy is likely than an asteroid. >> i think that's the overall thinking right here is you don't really have deflation.

have you relatively low inflation right now, and that's -- that's the thing that i think the fed seeks solace in right now. when janet yellen looks at risks, she believes the risk of deflation is higher than the risk of overall inflation and that's been a pretty good bet. where should i put my money relative to inflation, lower inflation has been more true than higher inflation? >> and wasn't really the origin of kwooquantitative easing a fe initially of deflation. >> i want to put you into a position, and i know you'll have a ready answer for this. you've been very critical of the fed over the past few years. i want you to identify one thing that you think that they are doing right right now and have done well. what would that be if i had to -- if you had to say something? >> well, i think one thing they are doing right would have probably been in the kind of 2010 area. i think their asset-backed program, the commercial paper

programs, i think they were good. i think an interim period, i'd be hard pressed to say anything good, and i do agree with all our guests. i think the fed is totally transparent. but not transparent in the way i think that is a good way. you know, i look at interest rates. we're about ready to close at a two-week low on 5s, two-week low on 10s and two basis points away on the lowest close on 30s since june, the widest spread. our rates are wider than boone's by nine and a half years since we've seen these levels. i just don't see where this is going. i don't understand. >> let me just follow up. >> i think the dow could get to 18,000, but i think that the real issue, is i don't know it has anything to do with anything really great on the economy. >> let me just follow up. i assume you think that -- that the balance sheet is, a, too big, b, that the idea that at the very least the fed is slowing its purchases of federal paper and mortgage securities is a good thing. do you think so far that that slowing of purchases has been

engineered well, poorly, not fast enough, what? >> we have 53% still ongoing in purchases. we've tapered 47%. i think it should have been gone, should have been gone at the beginning of the year. i think we should -- >> absolutely. >> now be in the zero interest rate policy camp. should follow the tailor rule. interest rates should be higher. when you give capital away for free, anything you get for free, you treat like something you get for free. so you look at stocks, and then you think apple. borrowing money to buy back their stock, gee, what a great dynamic the fed has orchestrated and wall street will never kick the tires on this, tyler. >> why would they kick the tires? they are making boat loads of dough. >> that's not the fed's problem. >> you know what, that is congress' problem. >> that's congress. >> to rick's point. >> you know what, you have -- they are doing exactly what they need to do. i've got to tell you, i'm very impressed with what janet yellen

is doing [ all shouting at once ] >> keith, talk a little bit with b what you think is at play. about the fed, about washington and some of its flawed policies? >> look, i think the investors really need to take a good hard look at what's going on here. to say the fed is transparent, yeah, that's right, to say what the fed is doing what it's doing. missed the crisis in formation. >> completely. they missed sub prime. >> and the money -- and the certainty that we're looking for has got to come from not only investors but has to come from ceos. those are the guys that put the money on the table every single day to bring jobs to america. >> their confidence is improving. >> well, it is improving but 0.1% growth is hardly -- that's not hardly good. >> oh, come on. that's an aberration. let's call it what it is. >> aberration or not. >> i don't know about you guys, the economy came to a grinding halt as far as exports go, 100% of the great lakes frozen over. can you not ship anything out of

the northwest. >> let's face it. >> all weather-related. >> all weather-related. >> we're going to see some big snap-back numbers starting with friday's unemployment number, by the way. >> i have to interrupt here because for so many years now we've all been talking about the second half recovery. what second half? if you look at the earnings season. >> there is no second half. >> we keep looking forward. >> 3% average growth in the second half of last year. >> so lumpy, and we're always giving it some kind of discount, whether it's the weather or some sort of situation. >> what do you want to do? >> right down the number that we're going to get and be sure if it. you're an investor and you have money in the market and there's certain risk with it. >> at some point i -- >> not much risk anymore, uncle steve. >> i'll tell you what. >> one at a to im. >> what's clear here is we've invented the octobox. we haven't figured out how to control it. >> that's a fair point. that is a fair point. >> rob, are you expecting growth to pick up in the second half,

and if so, by how much and how would you put money at work against that hypothesis? >> well, you know, it seems like the last several years, as we've talked about, we've expected second half growth. we haven't gotten it, but the earnings keep coming through. you know the s&p 500 is selling at about 15 times earnings, and the earnings growth has been there, even though the economy hasn't necessarily been there for u.s. companies, and i -- that's what i'm really focused on. >> rob, we have to take a look at this -- this current earnings season if we look at it. right now we're looking at .1% growth, exactly the same as the economy. investors and analysts -- >> i think that number has come up a bit, abigail. >> can i make one point. we can sit here and criticize the federal reserve, but at the same time we need to spend at least equal time, if not more, criticizing washington. >> absolutely. >> one of the great failures -- >> there is no adult supervision in washington. >> on the part of democrats and republicans, let me make this quick point, there's agreement in washington on the need to

reform the corporate tax structure. it's an absolute crime that they have not gotten together in the place that they can get together and make those reforms that they can. everybody knows from larry kudlow down to the biggest liberal you could find that we need to fix that system. >> and my favorite, steve, how many people are coming on over the past couple of years telling us, oh, this is the easy part. we'll take care of this and move on to the income part of the tax bracket. >> nobody has actually done it. >> we need people who will actually do something about it in this country. >> if the fed wasn't manipulating the markets and the stock market went down because tax reform wasn't happening, it might get done. the fed is the problem on a number of levels. >> i have some sympathy with in. >> that's like saying a doctor shouldn't help a person on the ground because they didn't stop eating or they didn't stop smoking. the doctor -- >> the doctor took a hippocratic oath and the others took a

hypocritical oath. >> if an alcoholic walks into a doctor's office with a case of whiskey, maybe. >> we've gone from a octobox to a hexabox. >> breaking news on a train rerailment and let's go over to dominic. >> a very developing story here about lynchburg, virginia, a city within central, virginia. i know that area over there well, tyler. city officials in lynchburg, virginia, are confirming that a rail tanker car carrying crude oil, three to four tanker cars, have been breached. about 13 to 14 tanker cars of a train have derailed, and they are involved in this particular instant. what you're seeing there are videos and photos of this developing story. right now city officials are urging residents to stay away from the downtown area of lynchburg, virginia. we've also had some reuters reports with regard to what was happening there. they say that some crude oil has

leaked into the james river which is adjacent to the city from the derailed trail. that's, again, reuters citing lynchburg city spokes persons and also some crude oil has leaked into the river again from these particular cars. also, we do have no injuries reported right now. that's according to reuters. also, that the train involved, according to reuters, is a csx train. we have reached out to both csx and to the national transportation safety board for comment. no comments just yet for this developing story, but, still, tyler, kelly, you can see the stunning images right now. again, no injuries yet reported. we'll keep you apprised of any details as they become available to us here, guys. back over to you. >> that's pretty shocking. seen that railroad track, and the james river is a major waterway, tyler. that's going to do a lot of damage, and that's a heavily forested area as well. lynchburg, virginia, in the center of the state there, in the mountains, so if this fire spreads, there could be some more trouble. >> that looks like a very major blaze, my goodness gracious. and this, of course, adding to

concerns about how much oil and other chemicals we carry by rail. there's been several as we certainly have reported here, several derailments over the past several months and this one in virginia adding to those concerns. all righty. we've got right now about exa exactly 45 minutes until the closing bell and right now let's take a look at where the dow is up 27 points at 16,563. let's look at the s&p 500. it's higher by a mere three points. >> and here at "closing bell," it's going to be an historic day. cnbc will be ringing the closing bell, and we'll do it right here from headquarters marking our 25th anniversary. >> and you see the crowd gathering, very few over our 25-year span were more consequential or influential than former fed chair alan

greenspan. a look at how far fed policy has come over the past quarter century. don't want to miss that. >> and former federal governor randy croszner will join us and tell us whether he thinks janet yellen is steering us on the right course. >> and facebook is recovering from its messy initial public offering. twitter facing tough times now after hitting its ipo out of the park, but the growth targets, maybe not so much. we'll talk to the pros about which stocks should be on your buy list. keep it right here. ♪ [ 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, so she could really turn up the volume on her dreams today...and tomorrow. so let's see what we can do about that...

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"closing bell" coming to you live from cnbc headquarters. our president mark hoffman will ring the new york stock exchange's closing bell right from our floor. the crowds are gathering. it is getting noisy. there are going to be hundreds here, kelly. >> looking forward to seeing all of that. a special day indeed. got a lineup of heavy hitters, for this show including former fed chair alan greenspan and

former fed chair randy kroszner. don't miss aof any of that. >> the dow looking to close on the upside, been a very bumpy month for equity. you're holding down the floor on the nyse. what's going on there? >> the new closing high is slipping away. dow, 16,576 is what we need to do is and we're 20 points away. the fed came out and said economic activity picked up other other than that the fed statement unchanged. earnings are moving particular segments. put up hmos. a great number from well point. that's helping the hmos. paper products don't move the markets. had a great report. that's up about 2% right now. hotels, hyatt and marriott both had excellent numbers, both of them beat on earnings right now. they are moving the whole hotel group. the internet content stocks were

all mixed because twitter user numbers were disappointing and zynga to the upside and finally movies and entertainment. amc was a little bit of a miss there. they had a quarterly dividend. what impressed me about them. attendance was up 5% and they were able to raise prices about 2%, still on the downside but raising prices in this environment, pretty impressive. guys, back to you. >> especially in light of the gdp report. thanks, bob. >> today we learned the ceo of a company called shaneer energy has paid $142 million in 2013 to its ceo, a company that's yet to turn an annual profit. the salary of a ceo from a public company requires the approval of the board of directors and reminds us what warren buffett told cnbc last week about boards rubber stamp ing comp.

>> the xebization committee comes in and works for a few hours and days and maybe they have consultants and they say we have approved this plan. never yet heard any of the 19 boards i was on, anyone say in the meeting say that they are against it. i've heard them say it outside the meeting. >> did you ever vote for something you were on a board that you disagreed with? >> sure. >> like what? >> voted for compensation plans i haven't agreed with and even sort of muttered a yes on some mergers that i think didn't make any accepts. it happens. >> welcome to both of you. this is a gnarly question and never seems to get satisfactorily resolved. mark, should warren buffett not mutter when he's on a board? if he didn't like a pay package shouldn't he vote against it, as

in coca-cola's case? >> i was actually puzzled by warren's decision not to vote on this particular issue, but it highlights i think what is part of the problem of an owe bake nature of how these determinations are made. i think the good news is that the problem is improving with shareholder activism, and i think the tactics will bear that out. >> nell, is it true that shareholder activism has a role to play in reforming some of these comp packages? >> it does. at the very moment, some of the largest institutional investors in the country are on the phone with board members from one of the largest companies in the country talking about their play plan. on the other hand, you have companies like oracle where the say on pay vote has gone strongly against 87% of the outside shareholders' vote against the pay two years in a roemp the company doesn't care at all. you know, your octobox before, a lot of complaints about things that companies aren't doing. not creating jobs, buying back stocks and that's because of the

incentives built into the pay plan. we're creating perverse innoc t incentives and why don't you ever report on the names of the compensation committee members that approve these packages? >> that's a good point. >> if you did that, that would make a big difference. >> if we're upset with the way it's structured now, wasn't the whole idea to give the companies incentives meant to address prior problems or at least do something to reform executive pay, egregious executive pay practices of the past? >> certainly was intended to do that and 162-m of the tax code will go down in history as one of the stupidest things congress ever did which is a pretty high bar. on the other hand, it's so easy to game the system, either from phony accounting. we at governance metrix ratings, gmi ratings, which is now the name of my company, we give shanerre energy a very aggressive grade for their accounting. well, that's because investors are driving up the stock based on the aggressive accounting and

giving him rewards for pay he should not be getting. >> mark, if you say activist investors are making a difference here, really this is in the hands of shareholders. but one of the problems, as nell points out, is the say on pay votes are non-binding in most cases. should they be non-binding or should they be binding, and would that do the most to -- to address what may or may not be a problem? certainly looks like it would be a problem at chenniere energy where the guy lost millions and got rewarded just because the stock went up. >> i would be reticent to recommend that say on pay become binding to. me that starts to venture into territory of throwing more regulation at the problem. i also think it's unfair to paint the problem with excessive compensation with the obsession with income inequality in the country. as folks like mr. kudlow remind

us, there is significant disincentive for corporations to continue to grow here to improve the talent pool. >> if these -- if these -- if these recommendations aren't binding, then what is the point of them? >> the point of them is to add transparency and nell and i would agree that increased transparency is part of the solution. >> the issue is not income inequality. the issue is every penny spent on ceo pay should be looked like any other asset allocation in terms of the return on investment, and the return on investment of these pay plans is worse than a piggy bank. >> that's true, but i think one of the other things we need to consider, nell, is that the law is really not on our side. if you look at -- >> that's why -- >> look at the decisions. >> that's the point. >> as it relates to this, they are unwilling and reticent to attack the business judgment rule. >> and that's why it has to be the shareholders who have a

binding vote on this. that's not regulation. that's called a free market. let the shareholders who have a much lower number of conflicts of interest be the ones to decide whether somebody is getting paid too much. >> that's where we'll leave it. thank you both for the conversation. we appreciate it, and i'm sure this will be one we'll be back to. shall we take a look at the newsroom. dow up 24 at 16,560. 16,576 would be a closing high. >> yeah. we've been trading above that level earlier and not quite there as we head closer to the closing bell. got former fed chairman alan greenspan speaking of which coming up to help us celebrate our 25th anniversary. there's everybody gathering in the newsroom. we'll discuss his role in steering the economy through some good and bad times during his tenure spanning four presidential administrations and what about those who say the seeds of the financial crisis were planted during his tenure. we'll ask him. >> and up next, the big facebook/twitter face-off. we'll talk to the pros about which social media stock has the most potential to plump up your

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>> this is going to be the greatest kelly group selfie in the history of cnbc. this is take myselfy back day here. this is our 25th anniversary, and we have the honor of ringing the closing bell at the new york stock exchange. hundreds of our co-workers have turn out in our newsroom today. >> look at this, wow. >> even had to clean up our desks to get ready for this moment, and, folks, including people who have been here for all 25 years, i see jim fork and scott cohn, rich fisher and others crowded around there at the center. we'll point some of them out as we move along. 29 minutes left on the "closing bell" and where we sit right now at -- right on the number of 16,576, kelly, would be a closing high. >> i think it was .66. remember giving bill a hard time about the decimal points yesterday but looks like it could be pretty relevant. now a tale of two social media stocks, facebook gaining ground this year as twitter struggles which is the opposite of how the

two young stocks began their public trading life. seema mody looks at what's driving this divergence. hey, seema. >> the tale of two social media darlings. let's start with facebook's rocky debut in 2012. shares fell more than 50% in its first four months as a public company as investors wondered whether facebook could actually make a profit on its huge user base but sentiment quickly changed thanks to better than expected earnings and facebook's ability to generate revenue from its growing mobile traffic. off of its highs, facebook off 55% from its i'mio. that's the chart for facebook. different story for twitter. the company's blockbuster debut went smoothly, closing well above its offer price of $26. shares continue to gain momentum hitting an all-time high of $74 in december, but the story quickly changed due to disappointing earnings, concerns over a slowdown and user growth. twitter shares have been steadily moving to the downside hitting an all-time low in today's trade at $38 a share so two very different stories

there. remember, facebook is much bigger than twitter with more monthly active users, more mobile active users and high q1 revenue so while it's natural to mention facebook and twitter in the same breath, very important to note two different companies. >> very back to you. certainly are, and want to take a deeper look into the facebook/twitter stock divergence. >> one is a twitter believer and another thinks facebook will have explosive growth and their advertising model is a better long-term sustaining beast. so shane, to be clear, you prefer twitter to facebook. exactly why? >> i prefer twitter to facebook right now because i think twitter is massively underrated because of what they are about to do. two-thirds of twitter's users right now are international, but only 28% of its revenue is coming fingerprint national sales, so there's a huge differential there where twitter has room to grow over the next little bit, and we talk about mobile being the fuel for facebook right now for their growing ad revenue.

twister just bought last fall the biggest -- the world's largest mobile app server mopub and have yet to integrate that into its advertising products and when that happens twitter will roll out a lot of exciting stuff. >> larry, i know you don't like facebook. how do you feel about twitter here? >> i love facebook. i think facebook will continue to drive. twitter never should have gone public. all twitter is is a high-priced app. you're getting out of the gates here with the company, and you've got low user growth, got barely any user grows and they are not making any money, and at the end of the day it's a bland model. there's no way this thing goes mainstream, i don't see them sustaining it. i said it at the beginning before this thing came out. >> you're not convinced by mopub by that article, larry. >> not convinced at all. the users are going down, and the user growth is lackluster. that's where you've got to be. got to be in video advertising

and not even doing anything with video advertising. this is a stock that will continue to go down. i have it as a one-year target at $15. >> all right. >> people wanted to buy it because they loved facebook and thought it's facebook, but they are seeing it's not facebook. >> gentlemen, sorry, have to shorten the conversation there. both got your points in. we should point out that twitter is now trading above its ipo price, below its first day close. we have got right now about 25 minutes till the closing bell. let's take a look at the dow. 16,584. slipping -- no, it's above, excuse me, above the all-time closing high. >> incredible, wouldn't it be, tyler? >> if we hit an all-time high today. take a look at what's happening on cnbc headquarters. lots of excitement. take a look at how many people are crowded into this studio right now. we're celebrating our 25th birthday and cnbc president mark hoffman will have the honor of ringing today's closing bell right here from our floor at cnbc global headquarters. you don't want to miss any of that. we have 25 minutes to go before

the close. >> don't you feel like you're in times square on new year's eve. i really do. up next, former fed governor randy kroszner on today's fed announcement and whether or not janet yellen is till making the right moves. right moves.

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. let's get you caught up on the markets and there you see the dow sitting above what would be an all-time closing high by about five points. 16,581, up 46 today. nasdaq higher by nine and the s&p 500 up 5.25 point. >> pretty consistent gains for those across the major indexes. a developing story from the cable industry's annual trade show out in los angeles. jon fortt has the details for us. >> will comcast have to buy a wireless network in the next five years? that's a question put to put to ceo ryan roberts. he doesn't think so because he thinks he can use the wi-fi inside people's homes to provide neighborhood networks. charter ceo tom rutledge says he's got the same strategy. take a listen. >> i think that the convergence of the wi-fi delivery system with a really power fful wire le

network is really our future, and i think it distinguishes us from our competitors and gives us a better future than anyone i can imagine. >> now the key here is they would have to use the wireless n.e.t. works from an mbno perspective to fill in the gaps. the first time i've heard comcast and charter saying they are pursuing this strategy. back to you. >> thank you. good to see you. jon fortt out for us in los angeles. take a look at the lingering gdp and topics of concern over the interest rates. >> for more analysis on the fed meeting and the state of the u.s. economy let's bring in former fed governor randy kroszner. good to have you with us. >> good to be back. >> how do you think janet yellen is doing? >> i think she's doing a fine job. i think continuing on with the taper like they have been doing makes a lot of sense, and it's

really kind of steady as she goes. >> it's interesting, both from the tenor of what you said there and the market reaction which is positive for the first time after a fed meeting in i don't know how long, does this not suggest, and i think -- it was neal irwin writing in "the times," the post" as well that the fed meetings and jobs reports aren't exciting anymore because it seems to be kind of steady as she goes. is that the case, or are we too complacent here about how strong the economy really is? >> interesting that the fed is flirting -- that the dow is flirting within a all-time high on a day when we've got such a disappointing gdp report, but i think the fed is focused on the march and april numbers looking pretty good. been a very strong chicago purchasing manager's index. auto sales were strong in march and so i think even though we had sort of our winter of discontent looking forward, things are looking a little bit more contented. >> your fellow chicagoan rick

santelli has been very worried about the long-term consequences, intended and unintended of expanding the fed's balance sheet as much as the federal has and keeping interest rates as low as they have been for how long it has been. what do you see are the major risks as the fed steps away into a different era? what are the major risks, the big dangers, and what percentage do you place on those risks coming true? >> this is uncharted territory. of course, the federal's balance sheet has never been so large and we've had this very unusual policy for quite some time. i think one of the key resks is being able to communicate what the fed is trying to do to not upset the markets. we could see a year ago when the fed started talking about the possibility that in six in-to-nine months it might start to reduce the pace of increase of asset purchases, the taper, and it caused a lot of tumult in the markets so i think that that's one of the big risks, just being able to communicate

clearly and not have the markets get too out of whack. >> and real quick though, what about the actual mechanism here what. if they go to raise the fed fund rate and it doesn't go up? >> i think the fed can have an influence on that. if they say that they want to do is and start to take some of the punch bowl away, the rates will go up. saw how quick the ten-year rate went up when they said they would slow the pace of increase almost a year ago. >> good to see you, randy. an important day, fed meeting, gdp numbers and come friday we'll get the jobs report. the adp report looked pretty strong, notwithstanding the disappointment on gdp. 15 minutes to go and hanging on to a record level, just by a nose, by about three points. >> and "closing bell" coming to you live from headquarters here at snooebs cnbc where today our president mark hoffman will ring the closing bell of the new york stock exchange, doing it remotely, all part of our big 25th anniversary celebration. >> we also have a very special

guest coming up to help us mark this special day. former fed chair alan greenspan is going to talk about the biggest regret of his tenure as head of the world's most powerful central bank when we come back. come back. [ man #1 ] we're now in the approach phase, everything looking good. ♪ velocity 1,200 feet per second. [ man #2 ] you're looking great to us, eagle. ♪ 2,000 feet. ♪ still looking very good. 1,400 feet. [ male announcer ] a funny thing happens when you shoot for the moon. ahh, that's affirmative. [ male announcer ] you get there. you're a go for landing, over. [ male announcer ] the all new cadillac cts, the 2014 motor trend car of the year.

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all right, folks. the dow needs to close above 16,577.66 to end at its first record close of the year. it's slipped back down -- 659. we're above it. i beg your pardon there. dominic, what's moving the markets? >> how noise would it be if we got a record close on our birthday celebration. we'll start with energizer holdings splitting into two, one focusing on health care and the other focused on household products. they are up about 14% in the news and then there's pepco, the biggest percentage gainer on the s&p 500, the washington-area d.c. utility will be bought by fellow utility excelon for $27.25 in cash, the stock moving 17% to the upside. wwwgrangers gaining ground after increasing its dividend by 16% and approving a 10 million share

buyback program. the stock up 2% and garmin also in the green on a better than expected 10% rise in quarterly sales. this as higher sales of its fitness and aviation devices more than offset weakness in its personal navigation products, and we're going to end with glaxosmithkline falling after the uk's largest health care company posted a 10% decline in sales in its first quarter. kelly, tyler, back over to you. >> dom, thanks very much. better get out to the floor because it's getting pretty crowded. >> getting crowded and loud out there. >> 12 minutes to go to the close. take a look at markets. still looking at record highs for the dow. strong gains across the board. i shouldn't say too strong. only up a tenth of 1% when all is said and done, tyler. we'll see what happens. >> and the buzz is building here at cnbc headquarters as the final preps are made to ring the nyse closing bell from right here on our floor. it's a big day. >> i love it. alan greenspan is going to spend some time with us to muse over the last quarter century, and

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a few points shy of an all-time record high of the dow dow jones industrial average at 16,571 and back with us as we wrap up our first hour on the floor of the new york stock exchange is larry mcdonald from new edge usa. larry, any surprises in what the fed did today? how do you like the market's reaction to it? >> well, the big surprise is if you think about since march 3rd, the s&p 500 has danced around 1880 or 1884 now, and in the past over the last month we've had eight failures here, eight or nine failures here where the equities have sold off, but in the past over the last month, since march 3rd, when the stock market has been here, treasuries have been up near two spot 80 and two spot 75. today treasuries are at 2.64 so the bottom line is the bond market is not buying this risk

on right now. >> larry, do you agree with bill gross who says we're talking structurally lower rates which means structurally higher stock prices? >> well, i think, you know, through the course of the year, that's a different ball game. i think over the next month i'm a seller of stocks unless -- below this level, 1885, 1890. that's where i'd stop myself out, but i'm a seller of stocks short term below those levels >> you know, larry, have you -- have you worried at all about whether corporate profit growth is strong enough to support stock prices at record levels? >> well, it's really not. we're extended in terms of margins. margins and multi--year highs in terms of stock margins, completely unsustainable, and if you look at gdp today, what's most disturbing is everyone is talking about the weather, but we saw exports to china, to canada and to mexico in sharp decline, quite frankly. >> that's got to be a weather thing as well, larry.

we've got to go. don't you agree that those exports were affected by what was happening on the weather production side? >> well, you could see in terms of transports, but i think that there are some -- some data in terms of the exports overall. i don't think you can blame all of that on the weather. >> fair point. good to see you, larry. sorry we're not down there. >> we'll be right back with the closing countdown. a very special edition here of the closing bell for the next several minutes. >> this is the first time i've ever done a show in front of a live audience and they are paying no attention to us at all. there they are after the bell. there they are. go ahead. give yourselves a hand. now they pay attention. now they pay attention. >> oh, i wish everybody could be here. this is great. >> the new controversial term in washington that'sagering folks from wall street to main street, tax inversion. they are cheering for tax inversion. that's when corporations go

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♪ ♪ ♪ [ tires screech ] chewley's finds itself in a sticky situation today after recalling its new gum. [ male announcer ] stick it to the market before you get stuck. get the most extensive charting wherever you are with the mobile trader app from td ameritrade. >> all right. let's get you caught up on where the dow sits right now, 16,580, record closing territory. nasdaq up five points and nasdaq

up ten points. time now for a very big closing countdown. wish you were here, bob pisani, not the same without. >> 16,576. i think we'll hit a new high. in 1989, 24 years for me, and i'm so proud of this organization that really started as an idea by bob wright. didn't have any ratings for a number of years, remember that well and in the mid-1990s cnbc took off, was the hottest thing on it will vision for many, many years and we've really never looked back. had a number of presidents, but mark hoffman has been here for a long, long time. done a great job. we've expanded from television. we're now all over the internet and all over radio and doing conferences. the organization just keeps getting bigger and bigger, guys, and i couldn't be proud of it today. >> and, bob, how about the significance of what markets are doing here. it's been all year we've been waiting for the dow to breach its december 31 closing high. had it for the s&p.

the dow has traded above that level. if it happens today why do you think that is? >> i think the important thing is the fed did give a little bit of a push here, a little bit of an upgrade to the u.s. economy and said economic activity had picked up in recent month. i would have liked a little more aggressive statement, but i think that's really all you can get away with. didn't downgrade any of the outlook on housing. a lot of people were saying they were disappointed. didn't really do that, and everything else they essentially left unchanged so the fed is still i think very much a dovish mode. they still need the moderate growth in the economy. no chance that they are going to raise interest rates any time soon at this point and that's such a wonderful sight to see, all of the great people at cnbc waving their arms there. >> guys, your best memory. >> yeah. they are cheering for you, bob. >> such a wonderful thing to see. look at all those wonderful people there.

hundreds of people. you don't normally see. more than 500. >> happiness there. >> more than 500 are there. >> mark hoffman. >> there you go. >> all right. [ cheers and applause ]

>> very close to an all-time high on the dow, forgive us if we're a little self-indulgent here today. >> do i see a little moisture in your eyes, tyler? >> that's the closing gavel. we'll have to call t.mark hoffman, president of the network. he'll join us shortly. we'll actually be able to speak with him a little bit as we go out. >> looks like we'll close at a record high. settling at 14,579. several of the folks around, mark, are 25-year employees, and it's great to see all of them as mark makes his way over here. jim forkin, also, mark, joined by the chair of nbc universal news group. jim fork and risch fisherman, sue, scott cohn is here, basically on day one and several others. the party -- you know -- all-time high on the dow which

is a wonderful way to remember this day, and even more wonderful, kelly, is that the bar is open now. we can go there. >> the party will continue, shall we say, after the close here, and here comes -- here comes mark hoffman, president of the network. joining us here on set, good to be in the studio. >> so great. that was great. >> great to see you, mark. welcome. my god. >> that was just great, just great. >> the last time they let someone do it that way. >> that's what we understand. so nice of the new york stock exchange to let us close the market on our 25th anniversary from cnbc, and we had 500-plus employees here, and what a thrill. what a thrill. >> how many pounds of confetti as well? >> last time i saw you carrying a gavel that big you were running after me. >> please sign your contract, please sign your contract. >> so nice to be surrounded by so many people who have been here 25 years. >> that's what we did. we had on the podium with me was pat philly who is the chairman

of the -- of the nbc news group and then filled in by all the employees who have been with us for -- for 25 years since the very beginning in 1989, so it was great, really great. >> one of the things, you know, you've not been here a long time is how global this business has become. >> well, absolutely. you know, maybe even ten years ago we were -- we had some assets internationally but we were -- we really were a domestic cable channel. >> television cable channel. >> tv cable channel, and we're now a diversified media brand, international. we're international, in 800 million homes around the world and 120 countries and in nine or ten different languages so it's -- it's -- it's grown quite a bit, and -- and cnbc, now it's a staggering number to hear, but we -- the two of you and your colleagues around the world, we interview more than 1,000 people a week every week. >> wow. >> you know, it feels like it some weeks. i think i saw jim cramer over

there as i was tweeting some of the pictures from this moment because you see all of these guys together in one place. he was looking through notes and the viewers were saying is he doing his homework still? does this guy ever stop? >> he never stops. >> he never stops. that's the secret. >> inside of -- inside of 25 years you have a lot of other anniversaries, so jim's show is approaching its tenth anniversary. "squawk box's" 20 years and on radio stations tore ten years so a lot of things have happened in a quarter century. >> do you want to take credit for an all-time high on the dow. go ahead. >> just as we were ringing the bell it was two points below. it's a nose above. a day to remember. >> very nice, very, very nice. >> lastly, highlight from the last 25 years for you? >> well, this -- it's -- there's been a lot. i mean, there's been a lot of highlights and just to see how the world has evolved and how -- if you catalog the change in the business world and in markets,

there were many. i would say the proudest i was of the organization was leading up to the financial crisis in 2008 and the year, year and a half or so that followed it. i felt like -- as if all the hard work that had gone into building the organization over the first 20-plus years or so had -- had really paid off and it was -- it was a traumatic and frightening time for many, and i was so proud of the way cnbc not only reported the story but the -- but the way they treated the seriousness of those events. >> and who would have thought five years later we'd be where we are right now? >> new record high on the dow today, so it's been -- it's been quite a 25 years, and i'm glad you're here and i'm glad to celebrate with the two of you. >> congratulations. >> thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> all right. to the stock market, shall we go

there, ker? >> why not. a day to do it. record highs, ending up 45 higher, 16,580, the new high water mark and the s&p adding five and the nasdaq, so much of the turmoil over the markets for the last several weeks but adding 11 today. bob pisani now wrapping up the action from the floor of the new york stock exchange for us. bob? >> and here's something unusual, kelly. the fed may have helped us out to get to that record high. let take a look at the dow jones industrial average on an intraday basis because we were treading water a bit until about 2:00. that's when the fed came out and they made one little statement, one little tweak. they said economic activity had picked up in recent months. that was a little bit of an upgrade, not much. the rest of the statement pretty much unchanged. the market fluttered a little bit and ultimately ended higher, 16,576 the old record and now at a record high on the dow industrial. stock of the day had to be twitter, enormous amounts of volume and activity. this is the lowest close

essentially that it's hit before. the important thing is priced to 26 in november and went to almost $75, and now essentially it's about half of that. let's look back at april and show you what the major indices, a wide variance here in the minimum wage or indices. there's the nasdaq biotech and the dow utilities. the big gainer, interest rate sensitive on the upside. dow industrials up fractionally. the s&p 500 also up fractionally but the nasdaq and small caps, many russell 2000 stocks are in the nasdaq, both got hit hard as we saw big momentum names like biotech and internet names all to the downside. in terms of sector leadership, s&p sector leadership, energy stocks which is essentially a value group was a big mover on the upside? utilities, consumer staples and industrial materials all on the upside. guys, back for you. >> all right. mr. pisani, thank you very much, and stick around because while we bring in today's panel to break down the day's market action we've got plenty to talk about. special guest.

"forbes" media chairman and mary thompson and rob insana. 25 years of the markets, record highs, i know you were skeptical a couple weeks ago. tempering the skepticism what do you think happened? >> as i said just a few days ago, took the hedges off and decided, listen, the market, with the nasdaq down 10% peak to trough, nasdaq down 20%, that may be the correction we were looking for even though the s&p and dow didn't participate on the dunn side and now new all-time highs for the dow. what the fed said today was actually pretty good new. they said the company is reaccelerating and going forward with their plan, as stated so that in itself is an optimistic forecast, and i think that actually helped the market. may help it more in the days ahead. takes wall street a little while to consider what the fed has to say. >> you know, steve, kelly made a point as we were talking to mark

hoffman there a moment ago about how far the stock market has come back from the depths of 2008 and 2009. what was, it 6000? >> 6500 on the dow and now at a record high close today on the dow. would you in march of 2w7b have suspected that five years hence we would be at this level? >> okay. i predicted it. >> good work. >> are you surprised in. >> yes. >> and i think it's a tribute -- >> are you scared by that? >> no. i think the fact that there's still a lot of skepticism around is actually a bullish thing. remember mr. john templeton said it's only when you have euphoria you should worry about the market. far away from that. american corporations have put their houses in order in a way they did never before in 2008 and they are in good shape. the economy is starting to pick up. wouldn't know it from the first quarter and banks are starting to lend again and that's huge. commercial industrial loans are growing at double digit which i think is good for later this

year. still sub par, hitting 250 instead of 150 if you want to make a baseball comparison. >> seems to be something going on in terms of rotation within the marks. dr. j, how would you describe it? >> would i play off of what steve just said or mr. forbes. >> steve, don't make me sound so old. >> but i would play off of that, kelly, about the loans and so forth. commercial and industrial, yes, but, still, joe and jane are not getting the loans. the money is really tight, and, in fact, the underwriters are a real pain right now. i've heard this across the board. >> are you talking about mortgages specifically? >> mortgages, any kind of loans that an individual may get rather than a corporation. >> apple can go out and get $7 billion by snapping their fingers, but just go out and try to get $7,000 or $70,000 or finance a home. it's a completely different story. that's something that could accelerate dramatically into the second half of this year, and if it does that bodes very well for the market. if it doesn't, it's the polar

opposite. >> is that a matter of banks being very cautious about lending and regulators still having an impact there? at what point does it start to ease up? >> could be regulators, marry. >> it is regulators. >> regulators have a good -- >> underwriters -- >> you guys are saying the demand is there. >> yeah. >> it's a supply side problem? >> yes. >> does anybody disagree with that? >> any banker you talk to say there's an examiner in the house almost every day, and unless you have 20% or 30% down, unless you have a fico score of 750 -- >> we want it to be that way. wasn't the whole thing about the financial crisis, lending standards got so far out of whack. >> doing 25% loan-to-value ratios, grew up with 10% down and 600 fico score and now you need 750 or better before you can get into that loan and that's regulatory constraint in a very easy money environment? >> i would echo what john was saying earlier. look at the bank earnings reports we did not see noticeable pickups, at least on the consumer lending side.

some industrials were better but not great. janet yellen gave the speech at the economics club of new york and used the word slack as in slack in the job market and slack in the economy 14 times so the fed itself is very cautious right now. i'm optimistic. i'm in the camp with you guys. >> she would say it's a demand side problem. bob? >> yes, the fact that they are very, very cautious right now, and that's a good sign. i think they will keep rates low for a very long while here but we've still got real healing to go. >> we'll talk tax and tax reform in the next block but i want to turn to you because this is a subject you do a lot of thinking b.this matter of the tax inversion, of companies doing things to avoid u.s. tax because the rates are higher here. do you think we've gotten to a moment with the pfizer deal and others where we may have hit a tipping point where this now some -- some fix becomes more possible, or you just don't believe it at all? >> no. i think there's a consensus in

congress to do something on the corporate tax side. the biggest block is the white house. the president really doesn't want to deal unless it's a tax increase. when you add it all up. if tomorrow he signaled he'd be willing to do a real deal, real reform and real cuts in corporate tax rates, you'd get it through congress in a matter of weeks. consensus is there. >> hold the rest of that thought because that's exactly what we're going to pose in the next segment. thank you, bob. good to see you again. happy 25. the pressure is mounting on congress to gets its act together on tax refor. pfizer's proposed acquisition of astrazeneca proving that u.s. drug-makers are in a disadvantage to rivals overseas. will lawmakers ever act? we'll hear from one next. >> and former fed chair alan greenspan took one of the top spots on the cnbc 25 list, so what's his biggest regret in the nearly 20 years he ran the fed? you may be surprised by the answer. you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide. where did all those people go? l? [ man #1 ] we're now in the approach phase,

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it's a growing trend that could actually stunt growth here in the united states as we saw earlier this week with pfizer and astrazeneca when it comes to mergers and acquisitions. more u.s. companies are attempting to relocate their headquarters overseas to slash their tax burdens because we've

now gotten to the point where corporate taxes in america are higher than they are in many countries in europe. >> but this mega merger is shining a spotlight on the irish with you the heat firmly on congress to make some changes. so let's turn to dennis berman from the "wall street journal" and republican congressman aaron schock from illinois. good to have you both with us, and congressman, i hate to make you stand for congress here, but you've patently failed to do anything on this front. time is rapidly running out. >> well, i think steve forbes in your earlier segment hit the nail on the head. if the white house was engaged on this and believed it happened. >> why does the white house have to do with it, congress? >> they actually have to endorse corporate tax reform. dave camp, the house ways and means committee, house republicans, have had it in our budget the last four years. we've voted on it and passed it. we laid out a comprehensive proposal for tax reform that allows for repatriation of money, that lowers the corporate rate from 35% to 25%. >> but it laying it out in the

budget the same thing as passing it? >> well, the house of representatives can do it, but we've got to have a senate and a president who is a willing party. >> fair sgloint this deal with pfizer is a case study in what's wrong with our tax code this. company has $49 billion in cash sitting overseas trapped because of our antiquated worldwide tax system. we're the only industrialized nation in the country, aside from our high rate, that allows for double taxation of foreign earnings. that's got to go, along with the higher rate of 35%. japan just lowered its rate and we now have the dubious distinction of not just having a worldwide system but the highest corporate tax rate in the world. money is liquid. i'm from illinois. guess what? my residence, my companies, they are moving to texas. they are moving to florida because the rates are lower there, and it's more competitive. >> lots of companies have a lot of cash. apple obviously with 130 billion or something i believe overseas. dennis berman, didn't the president in his state of the union address bring up this

topic, and at one point or another said he wanted to see corporate tax rates come down? >> well, of course, he did, and of course congress has said over various years it wants to make a difference, it hasn't, because it's so dysfunction a. i think -- the congressman makes a very good point. the pfizer deal should be a wake-up call to every member of congress, both in the house and the senate. we have basically the creme de la creme of american corporations choosing to renounce its citizenship and head elsewhere. now, i do think there are some very real criticisms about what companies are doing to get through every single loophole they can, running earnings through ireland, running earnings through offshore venues, patent revenues, royalties, a gamut of tricks conducted by lawyers here on wall street that make this all possible. those have to close as well, and, of course, everyone wants to talk about it in concept it's a great idea but when you talk about closing the little loopholes then all the lobbyists come out. >> and who is going to get gored. >> they feast on washington.

>> ron, you seem uncomfortable? >> the one thing that's kind of interesting. i don't think the companies are abandoning the u.s. if you look at what's happening, manufacturing is coming back to the u.s. for a lot of competitive and comparative advantage reasons. don't forget we may have the highest marginal corporate tax rates in the world and one of the lost effective tax rates in the word for the very reasons being described here show no one really has to leave to dodge paying taxes, they can continue to domicile profits offshore and engage that way. this is not necessarily a wholesale departure of major corporations from the u.s. >> you can't say they can go offshore and that will be great because we still get some benefits. the -- >> i don't think i said that. >> it's almost as if i married a canadian and said i'm a canadian now, i don't have to pay the u.s. taxes, the standard is 20% of your shares held by foreign owners, you like fopfizer can s i'm a uk company. >> have r some of the things we've seen aimed at closing loopholes so you can move

forward with tax reform? >> the reason why these companies have to do somersaults and back flips to get the rates down is because our rate is so high. let me give you a case in point example on the astrazeneca/pfizer deal. astrazeneca's effective rate based in the uk is 21. pfizer's effective rate in the u.s. is 27%. every percentage point this pfizer can reduce its rate by saves them $200 million in net profit. so that six-point spread, if they could redomicile in the uk, the six-point spread would save them $1.2 billion in profit. i don't care which shareholder or budget director you're talking to and how -- how pro-american they are, at the end of the day if you can save $1.2 billion by being in another country, you'll do it. by the way, manufacturing may be coming back to the united states, but let's look at these high-tech research jobs in a pfizer employ here in the united states. the average high-tech employee at pfizer makes $140,000 a year.

that's the average employee at pfizer, so these are companies we need to keep in america. started in brooklyn 150 years ago. can you imagine what the labor unions would be doing if gm or some of their unionized companies were fleeing the states for a foreign domicile. >> we're up against your dom frame so thank you for joining us. >> steve, you've made the valid point, that ultimately the white house has to endorse this. the white house will probably say that it has, but clearly somewhere the progress is not happening. do you believe that what we're seeing is laying out and kind of closing these loopholes and doing things around the margin to then be able to move forward or is that just a narrative that really we're never going to see the there there, the actual tax reform happen? >> doing it around the edges won't work. the white house has to take a lead and not use it as a disguised way of massively increasing taxes. if the president was seeroffs doing something like done in 1986, it would be done very rapidly and they would clean the thing out like they cleaned out

tax shelters if you get a massive reduction in tax rates. >> we've leave it there. dennis, thank you as well for joining us. yelp is out with its quarterly results. dominic has the numbers. dom? >> here's what's happening. shares of yelp are moving just around uneven from flat to higher in a very choppy trade. it's a volatile trade after hours in the company. the company did beat on the top and bottom line in terms of its first quarter results but current quarter profit forecasts or at least one measure of them fell below what some wall street analysts were expecting. did boost their four-year revenue forecast. you're seeing the tug-of-war play out in the stock and that's up marginally about a quarter percent after a sharp drop to begin with. >> a better story is here on weight watchers moving sharply higher. up about 19% on better than expected first-quarter profits. it also boosted its 2014 guidance warnings as well. the wtw, weight watcher shares after market, up 19%.

kell, back over to you. >> i'll take it, dom. thanks very much. up next, an exclusive interview with international paper. the company just beat wall street earnings estimates because of rising demand for shipping boxes. we'll ask them what that says about the state of the global economy next. >> and how are retail investors feeling about this market which is inching back, in fact closing above record highs, at least for the dows. stick around. don't miss our retail investor roundtable as we always do on this final day of the trading month. we'll be right back. how you wa. with a fidelity investment professional... or managing your investments on your own. helping you find new ways to plan for retirement. and save on taxes where you can. so you can invest in the life that you want today. tap into the full power of your fidelity greenline. call or come in today for a free one-on-one review.

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let's talk markets a little bit. a late push for the dow took it to a new all-time high. >> and bob pisani joins us to round out the day's action. bob, what drove the markets? >> the important thing is we had our 25th anniversary, the most important thing, but other than that the federal reserve i think gave us a little bit of a boost in the middle of the day. take a look at dow jones industrial average. we needed to get over 16,576. that was the old closing high, and we did it. 16,580. the fed came out in the middle of the day. the fomc statement said economic activity picked up in recent months. that was a little bit of an upgrade and that was enough to close at a new high. other than that earnings mattered. two-thirds of the way through the earnings season. big movers today on the upside. pitney bowes, wellpoint, garmin, all had great numbers overall. up about 5%, and all those stocks moved their particular sectors to the upside. for example, we had nice moves up in hyatt as we. they moved the hotel stocks on the upside.

did have a few losers, however. ebay was okay but the guidance was on the weak side. express scripts was disappointing. twitter has closed at the lowest level as a stock here. remember, it went public the 26th of november, went almost to 75 by the end of the year and now the gains have essentially been cut in half. now trading at the lowest point ever. went public at 26, but it traded above that on its first day, so this is the lowest point for them. paper products, i know you'll have the ceo of international paper on. earnings beat for international paper, and, guys, here's a company that gets 75% of its revenues in the united states. i know paper is not necessarily a hot product, but here's a company that's really handling things very well right now. guys, back to you. >> thank you, bob. you mentioned international paper. let's get more now on the company's results with a man in charge. >> chairman and ceo john faraci joins us now and exclusively as

cnbc celebrates its 25th year on the air, international paper was a dow component what. were you doing pack in 1989? where were you? >> oh, gee whiz, i guess i was in chicago running one of our businesses. >> that's a good place to be. >> yeah. >> let's talk about your results. i want to get to you compare business in the first quarter of this year with your operating results of your business first quarter of last year. i realize these results this time around were affected by the write-down i guess of a plant closing. how is business really? >> well, actually business right now is a lot better. you saw the gdp numbers for the first quarter. game at it from about zero and that's how it felt for us in the packaging business. think of corrugating packaging. over 90% of the boxes, the goods that move around the country, move around in corrugated packaging so we're a great reflection on the economy. i think the important thing is in april, april volume and today's the last day of april, but it looks like april will be up 3% from the first quarter and up 2% over april last year.

that's shipments of our corrugated packaging in the u.s. so if that holds that means the economy has stepped up from were it was in the first quarter which was pretty weak. >> john, you guys do a lot of corrugated paper and do a lot of paper drinking cups, the products that people use every day so when i hear you're only growing 2% from a year earlier that suggests to meet economy, while moving forward, is doing so barely. >> we're still going in slow motion. i think we're growing well below our potential. i believe we'll get there but it's frustratingly slow the sixth year after the recess and we've averaged 2.5% growth, maybe even less over those six years and we should be growing at 3 plus. >> americans' incomes aren't growing. >> that's one of the problems. that was a comment someone made about tax reform, like to see corporate tax reform and individual tax reform because 70% of our economy is consumer spending and got to put more money in consumers' pockets and

that's what lead to more gdp, more consumer spending. >> why don't you put your companies overseas? >> our cash tax rate is probably in the $500 million to $600 million a year range right now, and, you know, we're not looking to do that inversion. you have to be acquiring -- you have to have a number of shareholders overseas. someone said most of our business is here in north america, though 25% of our business is outside north america, europe, russia. >> and there are listed companies in the s&p 500, you know, are headquartered overseas and have roughly the proportion of business you guys do and they are getting a better rate than you are. >> sure. well, look, we -- we look at all the options all the time. we've talked about that with our board. you know, we're focused on what we can do right now. we wouldn't have that opportunity to exist today. how can we improve earnings and cash flow with the portfolio

that we have? >> john faraci, chairman and ceo of international paper. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> yeah. on a nice beat relative to the street today for their earnings. he tied for third place on cnbc's list of the 25 most influential people in business over the last 25 years, so what does former fed chair alan greenspan say his greatest achievement is, and what's his greatest regret from his time at the fed? he'll join us next in an exclusive interview. >> and is the market really rigged, as author michael lewis claimed in his book "flash boys." find out if actual rea little investors think that wall street is an uneven playing field. we'll exmore that later on the "closing bell." "closing bell." ♪ ♪

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within throw months of taking office in 1987, the reagan appointee was faced with a stock market crash. he moved decisively. >> he said we'll provide liquidity to the markets. the markets corrected on his say so. >> and so the greenspan myth began. >> as part of cnbc's 25th

anniversary celebration we've been honoring the top 25 leaders in business all day and all month really. our next guest is number three on that list, and he shares this spot with his successor, ben bernanke. >> yes. he served as chair of the federal reserve for nearly 20 years and he's known for his easy monetary policy. joining us now to look back on his career and the last quarter century is former fed chair, alan greenspan. it's good to have you with us. thank you. >> thank you very much. i'm delighted to be with you. >> and what do you think looking back on the last 25 years was your greatest moment and your biggest regret? >> well, the greatest moment really was a whole period from 1987 forward because, remember, we were in a period of significant decline and long-term interest rates, and that enabled us to maintain an increasing policy of growth

thanks in part -- in large part, to paul volcker putting inflation under control earlier, and so that what we were looking at was both something good and something which made us a little nervous. we liked very much to see the economy moving forward in an extraordinarily long period of rapid growth, but we also knew because we talked about it at the time that very successful monetary policies inevitably lead to bubbles. fortunately not all bubbles are toxic. in fact, the dotcom boom, as you know, was an extraordinary major collapse in equity prices, and there were huge capital losses, but they were not leveraged, and as a consequence, if you look at the period immediately subsequent to that crash. the economy did reasonably well

and had a very, very mild recession >> you know, chairman greenspan, i would like to have you look at tuesday's economy rather than back at the one of the past 25 years, but in light of what you just said, a long period of very, very nice growth and incredible job growth for much of that period through the late '80s and '90s and much of this century. why do you think we're having a hard time getting back to those levels of growth and especially employment? what's wrong? >> if you look at the data, what you find is that was wrong is that assets with life expectanci expectancies, like long-term construction, long-term equipment manufacturing and the like have essentially fallen to half of where they were, and they have been that way for five years. if you take two or three percentage points out of the gdp semi-permanently, which is what we have done, you're going to

have the type of stagnation we've seen. >> in other words, nobody is investing in new plant and equipment, is that what you are saying? >> they are investing in new plant and equipment provided it's short lived. software, for example, is doing exceptionally well. equipment of short lived assets are doing well, but anything which requires income coming from a very long-term investment is doing extremely poorly. non-residential construction, as you know, is dead in the water despite the fact that commercial -- commercial asset prices are rising somewhat surprisingly. >> mr. chairman, i didn't hear you say what your biggest regret was. do you have any regrets from your tenure? >> oh, yeah, of course. many. i think the most important one was the fact that we had known, as we got into the period of

2003, 2004, that we were skirting on historically thin ice. i, in fact, did a jackson hole conference, very nervously made the statement that we had been -- we've been seeing protracted low-risk premiums for a very long period of time, and history does not look kindly on protracted periods of low-risk premiums. i thought i would upset the market in doing that because it was not the type of thing that federal reserve chairman usually do, and i very rarely did that, but i thought it had to be said, but it didn't make any difference because nobody was listening. >> so do you think we're in that kind of situation today? would you then have conducted policy differently then, and are you taking some blame for what happened with the ensuing boom and collapse in the economy? >> well, i'm certainly aware of the fact that we did not know

when -- we knew that there was a bubble out there. what we didn't know was the extent to which it was going to collapse and how do we know that? we obviously would have taken different types of actions, but these types of things happen once in a lifetime. this -- this was the most extraordinarily major financial crisis in history. it's true that economic declines in the 1930s were far more than what we're getting now, but the crisis was the first time that overnight credit literally disappeared because markets broke down. that is the type of phenomenon which we almost never see. we've never seen it before. the last time the short-term money market shut down was for one day in 1907, and it opened up the next day. what i'm trying to say is that

there,was a very unusual crisis. you're asking whether the fed was involved in it. well, there's a very big argument with respect to whether or not we -- our policies in the early 2000s were too inflationary. i submit that we did move the rates down because we were fearful. as price inflation was falling for very much the same reasons that people were worried today about deflation, but the most important issue is despite the fact that we lowered rates, we did not have long-term rates moving down. we did not have money supply accelerating. there are no fingerprints of an easy money policy in the marketplace, and so while it could have been, and we could have been very culpable at that time, but i think -- i've made lots of mistakes in the 18 nfl

yea -- 18 and a half years i was at the fed. remember, that we had a housing price boom about the same order of magnitude of australia and canada. neither one of those had the types of problems that we had largely because of the very toxic market that emerged with respect to subprime mortgages. i know people think that we were involved in that, but the evidence is that we were not. >> all righty. mr. chairman, thank you very much for being with us. >> my pleasure. >> alan greenspan. >> no one more central to what happened to the economy over the last quarter century, and now let's talk about what's happening today and send it over to dominic for a quick market flash. dom? >> check out what's happening

with chevron. they are raising their quarterly dividend to $1.07 a share on the heels of exxon mobil raising its dividend earlier today by 9.5%. chevron shares still unchanged in the aftermarket. two large oil companies and two large dow components, kelly, tyler, both boosting their dividend >> the recent claims by author mark lewis didn't set well. >> a look and weigh-in on the state of the market and former citigroup chief and cnbc first 25 member sandy wile reflecting on his one-time protege jamie dimon. what is burning up the hot list. keep it right here. cnbc is first in business worldwide. worldwide. ght? ♪ like, really big... then expanded? ♪ or their new product tanked?

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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 talk, great things happen. welcome back. time now to tap into the mind and take the pulse of the retail investor. the market here is still pretty flat for the year, although the dow just closed at a new record high, so what is the risk for that old chestnut, tyler? selling in may and going away in. >> newcomer charlie kirk is a student and founder of turning point usa. back with us is wayne smalls, an engineer at the health and human services department. joined by our panel as well. charlie, let's start with you. are you going to sell in may and go away or not? >> well, not so much. you know, i'm looking at the market from a student perspective.

i'm by no msnbc a major investor and will the little money i do invest in the market i like to think i'm optimistic going forward. one of the biggest fearsy look at the market is consumer spending with millennials, young people, the skyrocketing amount of student loan debt and especially in the new younger trendy-type companies, i'm fearful that there's not going to be as much discretionary income for young people to spend. i'm optimistic and with young people and things i'm hearing around college campuses i'm a little bit cautious as the skyrocketing student loan debt. seeing it hit $1 trillion nationwide. i think it would be something to look out for in the future. >> if you were concerned about the next generation, let's say of the u.s. consumer, what does that mean in terms of investments, and are you as concerned as wayne is? >> well, i am -- i think that students should take -- should study the market once employed after graduation. joining a 401(k) at the company

and just contribute to it up to the max that the company will match it with. >> always a good idea. wayne, give us a couple of stock picks. bob pisani on the panel is going to join in on this discussion as well. >> i'm still holding my five-year hold with sirius xm. next month i plan to purchase a spider etf or power shares qqq, and i also plan to start strategically buying into apple in june and possibly again in september when the new iphone is released. >> dr. j, wise move, going to buy into the qs? >> i don't think it's a bad move because of the correction, ron, that you've spoke of, that we've seen of nearly 10% for the nasdaq. it would be even more, the biotech index so if you're looking for values versus the rest of the market biotech is still foremost in my mind followed by the broad tech sector. >> bob, do you think people are starting to nibble around the ibbs, the biotechs here? >> they have been trying. largely been flat so far this

month. the important thing is that the growth prospects for these companies are tremendous now. that's different than where it was 14 or 15 years ago. kelly, can i go back and address the retail investor story because this is something i'm hot on. i'm not so this is something i'm hot on. i'm not so worried about young investors. i'm worried about the old people, the baby boomers that are not investing. the average 55-year-old has something like $60,000 in their 401(k) right now. if they're going to live to 85 or 90, which is where these tables are now. we got to find a way for the people 10 to 15 retirement. forget about the 25-year-olds. >> your concern does not recede the older you get, by the way. it is still with me. though these many years later.

charley, do you have any stocks on your buy list? >> the one i'm hot on is facebook. i have dealt a lot with facebook. i was part of the generation when facebook was a small company. now they have well over a billion users worldwide. over half of their users are mobile. we do some advertising on facebook. we're starting to see a much greater return on invest. i think you're going to start to see facebook go up in value. a real revenue stream going forward. people in my generation are using it exclusively and i don't think twitter is as hot as people tried to make it out to be. >> thank you. wayne, charley and bob good to see you as well. coming up next, alan wassler is going to round up the stories. the hot list coming up. >> and our panel will reflect on the past 25 years at cnbc and

what they're looking forward to with the next 25. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] the wright brothers started in a garage. 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. ain't garages great?

well, it should be of little surprise on the day of cnbc's 25th anniversary, some of our content is proving popular.

>> one particular reflection has caught some heat and with more on cnbc.com and its hot list with the site's manager. >> hi, guys. this morning on swauk box, the famous banking chairman of citigroup talked about his break up with jeremy diamond. number two for the day looks like it's going to be mr. ron up there with you. he wrote a column about how wall street should be chairing the fed right now. apparently fidelity and scott trade are denying customer requests to route stock orders through iex. that's the anti shenanigans exchange made famous in michael's book. by the way, happy 25th. >> we love it. thank you very much. there's going to be a lot of cleaning up to do. we'll meet you outside. more on our special coverage of the markets tomorrow.

>> tune back in tomorrow as we begin year 26 with a special guest the undefeated five-time boxing champ who says he wants to buy the los angeles clippers from disgraced owner donald sterling. should only host game shows? samantha, do you take kevin as your lawfully wedded husband... or would you rather have a new caaaaaar!!!! say hello to the season's hottest convertible... ohhh....and say goodbye to samantha. [ male announcer ] geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more.

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welcome back. what a day. we're talking about the past 25 years. can we talk about the next? >> why not. >> let's do it in about five seconds. >> i'm going to go with my fortress america theme. >> all the apple and biotech and pharma drugs. >> dr. j. >> as much as they did bad mouthed. i think fracking continues to expand and as that does, energy becomes cheaper, good for american manufacturing. >> mr. forbes. >> on the medical side you're going to see advances coming up that's going to make obamacare ridiculous. we're getting warmed up. >> typewriters will come back. >> and i'll regrow hair. >> thank you all so much. thank you. >> great to be with you.

was it all virginia hour of closing bell, how about that. >> exactly. speaking of which, "fast money" coming up in a few moments now. >> speaking of virginia -- >> yeah. over the next 25 years. what's on tap? >> we are following the yelp conference call. we got one stock entering but one of our traders is calling the triangle of death. so we will name names next hour. >> looking forward to it. over to you guys. >> "fast money" starts right now. live from the nasdaq from new york city's times square. we are celebrating cnbc's 25th anniversary tonight. regis philbin will join us. yelp's conference call going on right now. shares are moving in the after-hour's session. guidance was a bit weak. we'll keep the les