our "street signs" members is leaving us, and she's going to take a tour of europe, and jennifer has been a great part of our team. we'll miss her greatly. she is going to go have fun and tour the world. jennifer, i'm going to miss you. >> we love you, jenny, and thanks for all your hard work. and welcome, everybody, to "closing bell" on a friday. i'm kelly evans down here at the new york stock exchange, and, bill is here today as well. >> i'm back in the saddle, as it were, yes. today's show, the dow on track to close at an a new all-time high if we can move up a little higher. as you can see, we're about 20 points, 21 points away from an all-time closing high. we were there earlier, another one of those days, flirting with all-time highs and then a fade into the afternoon so we'll see what we can do this last hour of trade. reaction to these markets with

mohammed el-eran. >> this economy has a 50/50 chance and we'll likely to have another financial disruption in this market. >> looking forward to that. bill clinton and lloyd blankfein, a dark alley where someone gets their throat slit and one paragraph in tim geithner's new book in the financial crisis. our andrew ross sorkin spoke with the former treasury secretary. more on what bill clinton told tim geithner when the world was on the precipice back then. >> andrew will join us next hour to talk about that, so we're looking forward to that. where we stand an hour to go into the close, a little bit of different directions here. depends what happens with the s&p the dow is up about 12 points and the nasdaq is also higher today, and notably we should add that it's been leading the market downward the last couple of sessions and s&p 500 sitting on the flat line at 1875. >> let's talk about it with our

closing bell exchange, quincy cross by and ken mahoney and eric from russell investments, ron mullencamp and our own rick santelli. quincy, our bob pisani has this adage it's really significant when the stock market's following the bond market so closely and stock markets have been like a laser beam on the ten-year yield, and you're sort of dismayed that it does hover around 260. you think it should be higher, right? >> the ten-year is the embody meant, you know, of better economic data, worse economic data and geopolitical concerns and also what the fed is doing and how much treasuries are being auctioned off. the other thing is we're seeing that foreigners are picked up buying in the ten-year which is pushing the yield down. that said we think if the economic data continue to pick up, we will see a more cyclical tone in this market. almost regardless if the ten-year can't start pushing itself up. >> you know, we talk a lot about

valuation here, whether it's parts of the market, the market overall and it looking frothy. eric, jeff dunlop is out there saying corporate bonds are the most expensive he's seem them in his career. would you agree with that, and if so what choice does that leave for investors? >> well, they are not cheap, so if you're going to own corporate bonds you'll own them because you have a running yield advantage obviously over treasuries and we think that that's actually a fairly safe thing to count on in terms of incremental turn. you're later in the credit cycle at this point. we hi it has a lot more room to run and what we're expecting is a flat spread environment. >> you think -- >> sorry, just want to stop you there because that's a fascinating point. even though we're already seeing these incredibly high prices in that space, to some extent in the stock market, you think we're not even anywhere close to the end, in other words, that they will get more and more expensive here? >> no. i don't think they are. i think they will kind of remain on a relative pricing meaning

the spread will stay pretty stable. we're a long way in our minds from a recession and really major moves in the spread. you'll need some kind of major economic slowdown or major recession to get them to blow out or even increase meaningfully. we just don't think that's likely. clip the lead. >> ron, we know you're a great value investor. you're always looking for value, and you are here to pound the table, not on stocks but on natural gas, right? >> well, yeah. we see no value in ponds. you can find some value in stocks. when we broaden our horizon a little bit, natural gas is still the no-brainer. gas is selling for about half the price of crude oil so anybody who can shift from burning crude or gasoline or diesel or anything based on crude to natural gas. we think that's a good play. probably for half a decade or more >> do you buy stocks that play in the natural gas field? >> we own a little bit of the drillers and own some of the people who do the service, including the fraccers. we're looking for people who do the distribution, primarily clean energy there, people who

make engines for trucking. trucking looks to be like the next teed up and rails, and we're trying to have a leg in this in every piece of this place. >> we've seen a spoik. that was back in march. see it on the screen there as well and when the weather and climate was so cold around the country. where do you think the natural gas price is headed longer term in order to justify people getting in at these levels? >> we think gas will be $4 plus or minus a buck. that's between $3 and $5 for a decade or more. >> you're saying that's a reason to be long. already at 4.5 right here. can people afford to capture what's going to be the upper end that have spread? >> i'm not betting on the price of gas moving up. i'm betting on the price of gas moved and all the people that can benefit from using more volume of gas. we're betting the volume of gas gets used because the price remains in this area, so i'm not betting. we're not buying natural gas futures, for instance.

buying all the people who would benefit from the switch from crude to gas. >> ken mahoney, you still like stocks. what do you buy? >> this is like the and going ad going and has to be frustrating the bears. look at the headlines that they have to work w.every day it's russia, china's slowdown and the fed tapering, and yet the bears really can't get the claws into this market. it's good for the investors not to be focused on headlines here anywhere. that's how they look at their investment strategy and the direction of the market when they are looking at the headlines. the last couple of years, headlines were peres pretty ugly for syria. the government shut down and the credit bob call that we had. for investors look at all the noise. kind of lock ahead and say earnings would be good and interest rates are pretty low and while the seas are kind of cheap there's an upper bias in to market. >> look across the dashboard, the dollar index is moving higher to the tune of half a point. is that about a dollar rise?

>> everything is counterintuitive, moving in countertrend measures. steepening of the yield curve, dollar index doing better the last couple of days. look at the long-term charts and one-year charts of 10s, 30s, i'm sorry. they just don't look like yields will be going a lot higher. they look like flat to lower. dollar index, the last chart for one year. it's still bumping along. still very close to minus for the year based on where it closed. the dislocations in the marketplace i think make some of these moves very difficult to predict, more difficult to explain, but i'll keep it simple. i think when you look at the ecb they have really painted themselves in a box, and there's a lot of knowledge to draw from it? why would they want to go to negative interest rates? does that portray the type of healthy economy that most analysts have been harking in europe, and if it's about disinflation or deflation, i'm sorry, i'm not buying it. i think that is crazy. it's not using natural gas, and

i think when the politics change, that guest is going to be the fifth head on mt. rush machine. no amount of flat earth politicians is going to dissuade the public for what makes economic sense and jobs. >> look at some of the chemical companies and some of the users of natural gas are worried we export a bunch of it and the price rises. >> this is the dumbest argument as well. if we wouldn't have started exporting food two generations ago we would never have seen the type of productivity we've seen in agriculture. exporting energy will just build. it will build all the technology, and it will build the industry to be better for everybody. >> go ahead. >> i'm trying to picture what a head of natural gas on mt. rushmore would look like and i'm coming up with nog nothing too pleasant. >> quincy crosby, don't you want lower yields for the 10 and the 30 because if they were to rise,

that provides competition for stocks. i mean, you want a lower yield in the bond market so you can be more attracted to stocks, don't you? >> well, you do to a certain extent, but what you don't want is the ten-year yield telling you that the economy is never going to pick up. that's not what you want, and as long as the market is focused on that it is what it is. we deal with the cards we're dealt. moointd mind you the one thing we do not want is the ten-year yield to move up dramatically or markedly suggesting that the fed is behind the curve. that would be the worst thing for both markets, and we're not there yet, but if the data continue to improve and we don't get a sense from the fed that they are going to talk about rates rising or talk about maybe speeding up qe, the market is going to begin to wonder what on earth are they doing? >> eric, got to go. real quick, the russell 2000 is points away from being in a correction opportunity. is that an opportunity or a warning sign?

>> i think it's an intramarket correction. expensive stocks are coming back to earth. we don't think it's a fundamental correction in the russell 2000. we hi it will continue to move up as other areas continue to consolidate. >> happy friday. >> happy mother's day. >> oh, yes. >> happy mother's day to all mothers as well. 50 minutes left in the trading session here. can we do it? the dow tantalizingly close to all-time high territory. wouldn't it be nice to do that for mom, finish at an all-time high close. 8 points away. >> can do it for dad next month. just mentioned the russell 2000 as well. that index of small-cap stocks is creeping closer. here's a look to the 10% correction territory. 1091 would be the level to watch, at 1104. how worried is wall street? mohammed el-eran speaks to us exclusively next. >> apple in talks to buy dr.

dre's beats electronics for as much as $4.2 billion, but why now, and will this deal give apple the cool factor it needs to keep its mojo going? we're going to toss that around with some top apple pros coming up. >> and happy mother's day to my mother, to all you moms watching. there is new evidence moms may be the majority of ceos in the near future. why? we have a special report coming up. [ female announcer ] there's a gap out there. that's keeping you from the healthcare you deserve. but if healthcare changes, if it becomes simpler... if frustration and paperwork decrease... if grandparents get to live at home instead of in a home... the gap begins to close. so let's simplify things. let's close the gap between people and care.

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welcome back. the dow need a 29-point gain or thereabouts to hit an all-time closing high. getting there. up 17 point right now. the nasdaq positive. when was the last time the nasdaq was positive? been a while. >> and even the russell 2000 which has been beaten down, adding.06% today, but it's still within striking distance. it's typically a leading indicator for stocks. dominic has the details for us. >> reporter: the russell small-cap 2000 was flirt iing i

regard territory. look at things like rocket fuel, down about 16% over the past couple of loss, posted a loss in the first quarter on weaker than expected revenues. gogo, in-flight wi-fi and facing wireless challenges from the likes of at&t. isis pharmaceuticals losing half of its value. it reported a wider first-quarter loss than analysts were expecting. all in all, a tough two months for small-cap stocks, and luke you said, a lot of traders lock at this as a leading indicator for the overall market and the question is whether or not this is a dip, kelly, bill, that's to be bought or a sign of things to come. back over to you guys. >> thank you for now. more insight on this possible correction in the small caps and what it means for the rest of the market. >> joining us, mohammed el-eran.

welcome back. >> the small caps and the russell 2000 down roughly 10% from its recent high. what's the message of the market for you right now. >> two messages from the downturn 10%. one is valuations matter, especially for the high beta stocks, and the second is when you come to the mature phase of fed support, which is where we are now, we get into the mature phase of support for the market, it really impacts different segment of the market in different ways, so more generally i think, bill, the key issue is this market is now settling into the great moderation 2.0. this perception that we're on a range bound economy and predictable policies, and that's, of course, quite a few rotations within the market. >> mohammed, does that also mean like the last so-called great moderation, inestbly leading to a credit boom and collapse? >> so i worry about that, in the sense that it's encouraging

massive carry trades. the minute you tell someone there's great moderation, then the temptation to lever any risk element is huge, so we're seeing a major compression in the equity risk premium, in the credit risk premium and the default risk premium. liquidity and volatility. i worry that people may be getting too comfortable with this notion, especially that the fed is going into a more uncertain public environment. >> moemt mohammed, for those not familiar with the term, a term of the more popular trades today. >> for example, greece being able to issue below 5%. italy and spain having record low yields well below 3%. all that reflects a mentality that you should go wherever there is yield and get it now, because you see a yield play pays you every day. so if you're out of it and the world is stable, you actually bleed income, and that's something that investors don't

want to do today. >> we heard from both janet yellen of the fed and mario draghi of the ecb this week. are they saying basically the same thing? are they in lockstep in trying to revive their respective economies with moderate infligs, and how do you think they are doing? >> yeah. mr. draghi and ms. yellen said three things that the market love, first, that they are very committed to supporting the economy and avoiding deflation, second, that they will do whatever they can to achieve the outcome, and, third, that they see the risk to the downside, so that gave a lot of encouragement to the markets, but -- but look also what yellen and jeremy stein said. they both warned us that policy is evolving and that we're entering a less deterministic and less precise support phase. >> so evolving being euphemism for we're making this up as we go alonging correct?

>> we're exiting qe, bill, exiting qe, and we've got to rely more on forward policy guidance, and forward policy guidance is a different type of instrument, and i don't think the market quite realize that had. >> mold, i want to lean heavily on a reuters piece talking about some of the problems your former player is saying. back in 2002 it was you personally who made a daring and highly profitable debt that paid off and brazil is now one of the most ill-timed wages pimco has made over the last couple of years, making it one of the real underperformers in emerging markets especially. can you comment on whether the emerging market bets were an attempt to slow some of the outflows we're seeing from pimco at the time and generally whether you approved of them? >> so, i can't speak to the specific trades. let me tell you a result story. it's very important to emerging market investors. in an active class like emerging markets, people tend to get way too excited on the upside and way too depressed on the way

down, and that is because it's a technically robust after club. so that with this story it's been a pretty good story until about two years ago. two years ago the government did not make the transition to the next set of structural reforms, and the market -- it took a lot of the market to realize it. now the market has realized that if anything it has corrected exocetively relative to where it is today. >> if pimco lost $200 million on some of these trades, as the article suggests, did you approve of those trades or did you put it back on that strategy? >> i don't speak to what happened within pimco, kelly. i don't speak to what it's like to invest in emerging markets, and it's a fairly volatile after thought. >> how could we not ask mohammed, do you like u.s. stocks right here? what do you like, anything? >> so i generally think that this is a good time to take some

bets off the table. i think the geopolitical situation in ukraine is much more serious than what the market realizes, that it's difficult to control things on the ground. i also think we've come a long way for an economy that's so sluggish, so you want -- it doesn't mean you exit markets completely. get some dry powder because we have volatility ahead of us. >> thanks for sure. mohammed, always good to see you. >> thank you. >> we have some breaking news, speaking of california, on the los angeles clippers. dom, what's the lateest? >> guys, what's happening here is the nba has named former citigroup chairman and former time warner chairman and ceo dick parsons tonight interim ceo of the los angeles clippers. that's effective immediately. parsons is currently serving as a senior adviser at providence equity partners and, of course, in a former life, also an economic adviser to president barack obama. adam silver, the commissioner of the nba, says i believe the

hiring of dick parson will bring extraordinary leadership and immediate stability to the clippers organization. parsons saying in the release, like most americans i've been deeply troubled by the pain the clippers team, fans and partners have endured. i'm a lifelong fan of the north korea and am firmly committed to the values and principles it's defending. i'm honored to be asked to work with them and help open a new inspiring era for the team. remember parsons, former president barack obama economic adviser, he will be the interim ceo of the los angeles clippers so at least bring in some semblance of stability to an otherwise turbulent at left situation. kelly, bill, back over to you guys. >> wow, just a remarkable story that continuesing to be remarkable. thank you, dom. >> dick parsons to the l.a. clippers. >> you need somebody with a strong hand, and he's got it, that's for sure.

>> 40 minutes to go now into the close, and the dow is up about nine point. here's the s&p, ever since and slightly negative. rebounding here as well. up 11 though that won't do much. >> it has been the buzz all day. the question is will some of beats' electronics cool and heat up apple's image or is cool something no amount of money can buy? we'll talk about that with some apple followers coming up next here. >> later, home lending seized up during the financial crisis and now potential buyers are claiming that's still the case. more on that when we come back. don't miss it. money up front was risky.t of we can launch a feature really quick, and if the feature doesn't work, we haven't lost anything, and we can have something up and running in days. and this would not be possible without the cloud. we are now supporting over 25 million users each month.

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welcome back. when you hear the word apple and beats, you probably think it's an earnings report, but in this case apple isn't talked to by dr. dre's beats electronics that specializes in head phones for $3.2 billion. the shares are off half a tune today. >> more on what's been the story of the day for a lot of people. morgan? >> reporter: hi, guys, yeah. so the deal is not final, but at that price $3.2 billion, this could be the biggest acquisition apple's ever made, so what's the tech giant actually buying? a company that makes these slashing high-end head phones which already retail for a couple hundred dollars apiece. i don't know if you can hear the classic music next to me but this whole store has been

buzzing the last couple of days and apparently we've got a street musician looking to make money off of that. the company also beats -- also has a streaming service similar to that of pandora or spotify that only just launched in january, so the company pulled in a reported $1.2 billion in revenue last year, and sources tell me that apple is most interested in the head phones and actually the brand itself. not just the brand of the product, but the co-founder as well. that's because beets was founded in 2008 by hip-hop celebrity dr. dre, but also music producer turned record company executive jimmy iozzine who is set to join apple's creative division as a consultant if and when this deal goes through and both walk away with hundreds of millions and this will put dr. dre as hip-hop's richest artist. this represents a departure for apple which built its own hardware internally rather than

acquire it, not to mention the fact that it launched its own streaming service. itune radio last fall. analysts are a bit skeptical and we could have an official announcement if all goes well with the talks as soon as next week. meantime, we've got head phones and street musicians and a lot of people buzzing here at apple. back to you. >> i thought i heard an orchestra in the background. >> simmonia, another day in santa monica. >> thanks, morgan. sounds pretty cool but should investors be bullish or bearish on this deal? >> let's talk about it. max wolf is chief economist strategist and analyst and ukari cain is author of "haunter empire," apple after steve jobs" and a shareholder in apple, david milson. >> this hurt my brain. i think tim cook and the gang, i

think they woke up and said, oh, my god, we're not cool. >> they are going to try to buy cool. >> and maybe jimmy iezzine said this is what it's going to cost to get cool and white guys around the office singing, oh, my god, you know, doing -- >> what's wrong with the deal? >> look at it. this is not about technology. this is low brow technology, about the streaming service. that part of it, i understand. that part of it makes sense, but from a technology standpoint, i'm an actual recording artist and all these head phones offer, equalization process that boosts up the base and hip-hop artists like that. >> that may be the case, but just in the coffee shop this morning, i saw a bunch of guys wearing the beats head foes. why do you like this deal, and do you like it from the perspective as well as a share herald and not just as a consumer play. >> thanks for having me. i do like the play.

i don't own the shares, my family doesn't own the shares. if i do own the shares i like the deal. >> very few mass market design-driven products with unbelievable margins. apple is always the big problem for them. how do you keep the margin that they have and the market share? this is a company that's going to sell 60 million iphones and ipads on a quarterly run rate. they can bundle this in. the margins are higher than the margins on the iphone or ipad. i do think it makes certain sense. there is an effort to buy cool. there is something always a little bit sad about that, but, again, it can be very lucrative. i do think it's a hard thing to wrap your head around. >> no pun intended. >> it looks like the beat deal makes sense for apple. >> if there's any doubt that this is no longer steve jobs' apple, this one seals the deal, don't you think? >> yeah. it's hard to criticize apple for that because, you know, it's not the same company, and so apple does have to try something

different. >> on its own merit, do you like this? with tim cook at the helm of this apple, forgetting steve jobs in the past, does this make sense? >> i have a ton of questions about it, because, you know, when you think about the practical aspects of how you would integrate beats, it's a company that is cool, but it's cool in a completely different way than apple is. i mean, it's known for its loud in your face and bold design. apple is more about understated elegance, and -- and so -- so just take the question of, you know, how is apple going to continue to design beats products? is it going to be the chief industrial designer? >> i think there's some good questions here. >> same questions that you're asking. >> same questions that i'm asking. >> they have an army of engineers out there, and this is a very low-tech product in the end, and are you telling me that they couldn't design something like this? this is not about buying -- >> you know how branding works. >> this is not about buying the cool. >> exactly.

>> you're buying dr. dre and jimmy iozzine. >> apple in the past did some times when apple is voting people from the music industry to help them out, it didn't work so successfully. granted it was during the steve jobs day and it was steve's way or the highway. i think you'll see a huge culture clash. i don't know if it will last there. >> i'm not going to say it's a fad but you know how figureth public can be and beats are very hot right now, but, you know, come monday morning, don't say risk, a cool factor wearing off eventually. >> absolutely a great point. >> always that huge risk and while you're hot in the cool factor, get the 70% margin and see people on the train and walking around or what have you. wouldn't discount to zero the streaming music. streaming music is a tough business because you do have to go out there and have relationships with artists and they just acquired two people with a lot of graph it is a and

relationships with artists and in closing the circle here and getting a better streaming service is a big deal. this is definitely an "x" factor deal. >> right. >> however, i don't think it's that hard to figure out ways in which this actually makes sense. >> just on the merits of acquiring a streaming music service that has got it more right than itunes raid yes. >> that makes sense. that part of the deal -- is the only part of the deal that makes sense. miss spotify, 3.2 billion, this is what it costs. >> you sold your facebook shares when they did a deal you didn't like. >> this is a rounding error for apple. >> okay. >> with facebook that was a total of 19 bill crop, big difference. >> good to see you all. >> thank you for your thoughts on what's been a captivating story today, that's for sure. >> 30 minute left in the trading session here. the dow up 14 points. we're not going to know if we havin a all-time high until the close. 15 points away from the level on the industrial level right now. >> quiet on the earnings front and the final push out of the earnings box next week. we'll tell you what wall street

is looking out for. that could leave markets in your markets big time coming up. >> female brain drain and what some companies are doing to try to reverse that flow. a new data out that shows this a few years from now it will be male brain drain and that's the problem. is that really the problem? stick around. we'll get to that coming up.

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welcome back. the dow is up 20 points. eight points away frommin a all-time closing high on the industrial average. finish that out for the day, the nasdaq has finally perked up, a pretty weak four days and the s&p is up half a point. >> mother's day is this sunday, and we figured there's no better time to take a closer look at women and business. >> steve liesman joins us now with a snapshot of where women are in today's economy, where they are headed from here as well, and you've got some rather surprising result, don't you? >> right to the where the business leaders and government leaders of tomorrow are going to be more women than men, and the question is how companies will respond, especially when it comes to structuring the workhorse and the controversial issue of maternity leave. more men over 50 have college degrees, but under the age of 35, well, the figures reverse.

40% of younger women have graduated college compared to just 32% of men. this means employers, when they are looking for educated, talented, qualified people, they are going to be choosing from a larger pool of women than they are men, and according to the national partnership for women and families, we have a maternity leave problem in this country. we're one of eight countries in the world without mandated paid maternity leave. papaya new guinea is another one. the family medical leave act passed in 1994 gives 12 weeks of unpaid maternity low of and it covers just 59% of workers because of worked restrictions among others. google has extended some paid benefits this year to men. when it made its maternity leave more flexible they cut their attrition rate in half. companies are finding it profitable to make the workplace a better place for women. and there's a study that backs up that it makes good economic sense as well. bill?

>> let's talk about it. we'll stick with the role of women in corporate america, not papaya new guinea but thanks for that stat. thank you. stay there, steve. >> joining us is a business columnist at "boston globe" and a column today on women restarting their support. you see a crisis right now with women in the workplace. why? >> yes, you know, a lot of high-level women, women with mbas are leaving the workplace in droves, and they are taking a break to raise their family, and they find it very hard to come back into the workplace. i mean, a lot of these women after taking i think -- an average take about three years off from work. only 40% of them are -- of those who want to come back can actually come back to a full-time job. >> because it's not available, or because they are not interested? >> right. >> well, i think a lot of them -- a good portion of them want to come back full time. far fewer, hard to get any type of job. only 23% can actually get

part-time jobs, so i think there's a stigma attached with women who take a break, but one of my columns, what i wrote today, kind of offers a glimmer of hope. i wrote about the startup reach higher which is training women with mommy mbas and putting them through a six-week boot camp and at the end of it giving them a job placement, working four to six-month internships, assignment, consulting gigs at really big companies like fidelity or panera bread or emc, and the idea is women who left very hard-charging careers, high-powered careers can come back into the workplace and troy to pick up where they left off. maybe it's full-time or part-time. >> you've got to imagine there's going to be some sort of private sector response to this problem, right? if there's a demand for women to get back in the work force, someone has to spring up to help

then, right? >> not only that, just a demand for women in the workplace. look at the college graduation statistician, people you want to work for you, and those professional women with professional degrees, they demand maternity leave and they demand a workplace that's structured more to them. you are correct. the private sector will respond. the question we need to ask ourselves is will the private sector respond adequately and quickly enough? what we're talking about here in this article that was written have tremendous macro economic implications in the sense that we're losing the skills, losing this knowledge and the productivity of people who are in the workplace and then they leave and they have trouble coming back. >> right. and this is the whole point, steven, we know katherine matsui was talking about this in japan and speaking about how to change the society and she just came out with another report this week intercading all of the work that still surely needs to be done. >> you can make the argument that the country that will win

nom nailses for economic supremacy will be the country that figures out women in the workplace. >> bold statement. do you agree, shirley? >> i'll drink to that. there's such a big female brain drain now that corporate america is waking up to this. i mean, down where you guys in new york, i mean, wall street has really -- goldman sachs coined this term returnship, where they offered ten-week internships to people who took career breaks, jpmorgan lunched one, they really want the women back because they have a problem. you have women who are on the fast track and they left and they have to find a way to get them right back in. >> did i just put some data on this one. women have been leaving the workhorse in greater numbers than men, the issue of work force participation that we talk

about. it's more of a female issue than male issue. that's not true in other countries, so it is a matter of global competitiveness. the united states is not winning that race, and the issue of maternity leave is a big one. figure out ways to pay for it. it's a critical way, but certain states like california, which charge a little bit to the employer and a little bit to the worker find ways to make it work and mandate it, and i would also tell you guys speaking to the national ceos they would still prefer a sing national rule when it comes to maternity leave than they would 50 separate ones. >> larry kudlow would love the experiment. >> thinking the same thing. let's get larry on board on this one. >> i think we need to have this discussion with him. >> good to see you. >> see you later, steve. know we were folking on women and mid career. my 22-year-old daughter graduated last year. the good thing is when she applies for a job, it doesn't

matter whether you're a man or woman, gotten to that point in the industry she's in. it's not unusual. >> markets so many to like it here. we are now sitting if we close at an all-time high, just barely, but the dow is up 30 point. >> another big week of earnings, another week coming up. we'll tell what you could move the markets and your portfolio coming up next. >> and check out when bill clinton told tim geithner at the height of the financial crisis. quote, you can take lloyd blankfein into a dark alley and slit his throat and it would satisfy them for two days and the blood lust would launch again. more on that in the next hour of this show. the interview is running in the "new york times" magazine this weekend. you also don't want to hear what else he learned. be right back.

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couple of points after being briefly negative and we started the hour and the nasdaq up about 18. a squeaker to the close. >> 90% through the earnings season for the first quarter. dominic tells us how corporate america has done so far and preview the big names we're watching for next week. >> bill, kelly, 90% done which means we're in the homestretch, 451 companies have reported their numbers, and the s&p 500, and generally speaking, again, it's been pretty good, though, yes, the caveat has been it's been on lowered expected. of the 400-plus companies 68% have reported earnings above estimate and one out of ten have met estimates. one out of every five have come in below forecasts. a dose ent earnings season and when it comes to next woke it's going to be all important, because it marks the unofficial

end of the earnings season and then you have the retail, that will be huge. macy's, walmart, jc penney, kohl's, walmart, marks the unofficial close to, season so that's a big one to watch. guys, back over to you. >> we'll focusing on walmart shortly. thank you, dom, very much. see you later. ten minutes left in the trading session. up 22 points. need to be at 16,580 and change. >> it's been a long week. >> about seven points away from an all-time high. >> the president today had members of his owen party outraged. former labor secretary robert reich said what numbskull in the white house arranged this? why is reich so mass?

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seven minutes left here, a squeaker to see if we finish at an all-time high, two, two and a

half point away. now exactly two point away from the all-time high. joining me now, robert lewina and an independent consultant. will it matter if we finish at an all-time high. we'll flirt with it and then it pulls back late in the day and we have failures to continue the trend higher. the technicians interpret that in a come ber way meaning it can't break through to the upside. there is a school of thought if building a base, because you'll result -- the debt downgrade in 2011, really not had a significant correction. had the little 1% half june and 3% last august with the chemical weapons attack. we've really not had a set back to speak off.

you're building a pace when you're going sideways. >> that's the dow and s&p. the russell 2000 is in correction territory. >> a lot of people are saying that's a leading indicator of the economy and where we'll see the canary in the coal mine. >> i don't agree with that. i think this is a healthy rotation and what you see is the bubbles and some undervalue names that really ticked up in the first quarter last year. i think this is good for the market. >> do you go with the ones that are beat down or now when you're looking at a company like amazon or google, beaten up 25% and getting out of those to soon right now.

those are the names you might warrant to be nibbling here. >> if you're looking to buy into strength, we talked about the oil drilling, oil services stock. baker and halliburton are both up 20%. don't like those, bill, and schlumberger has lagged behind. only up 11%. mass you have limited partnerships, another one that lags real estate investment trust so you can go into that and get a 6% yield energy from a from and tax advantage for certain kinds of individual accounts. one thing you need to double up on is if you're going to get something for your mother for mother's day, double it. >> so make it 24 roses. >> that's right. >> we're going to come back with you guys in just a moment. hang tough as we take a break. we'll come back with the close countdown. kell, an action-packed show after the bell coming up. housing blood lust and instant billion airs coming up, so don't

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this market right now? i mean, this is still pretty much an unloved rally in this market. >> you had two development this week. one is corporate revenues for the first quarter. they were for 90% of the companies reporting, up 3.3% and for the fourth quarter up 1.4%. getting a little bit of revenue dynamic. the european central bank hit, said he won't have a little present as -- we've been talking about this for month and it's finally coming. one of the things that broke our market because they think the fed will follow them? >> this market is not impressing. >> no, it's not. i dole with individual markets. bear hi dipping on market of the

hitting all-time highs. >> thank you both. good to see you. have a good weekend. that will do it. won't know for a couple of minutes whether we do actually get an all-time high. right on the cusp of it for the dow jones industrial average, not for the s&p or the nasdaq obviously, but we'll wait and see what happens here in the second hour of "closing bell" with kelly evans. have a great weekend and happy mother's day, mom. >> thank you, bill. welcome everybody to "closing bell." i'm kelly evans on a friday where we have to see exactly how things settle here, but it looks like on this friday before mother's day we're closing with the dow jones industrial average setting a new record-setting close high. 15580 was the level we're watching. it appears as though we're settling at 16583. and also market fluctuating the last couple of hours but adding

a 3.68. >> a special guest, rick harrison from "pawn stars" and cnbc contributor howard dean and our own mary thompson and robert frank and more on today's action bob pisani and "fast money" trading guy adami. welcome, everybody. >> you've got rick harrison there. >> yeah. >> that is the best show outside of your show, our show, the best show on tv. those guys are stud. >> you've got get down here. i'm on my way. i go, what do you think of these markets? asking if the russell 2000, i think there's some warning signs out there. the activities of our fed and global central banks to me are troubling, and that's an understatement. i think the russells are trying

to tell you something. obviously been underperforming. i'm in the minority that says the lower interest rates, the fact that yield continue to go lower in an environment where they theoretically could be going higher. that's troubling and the transports turns, the s&p will be the last time. >> you're throwing in cold water. >> no, i'm not throwing anything. >> how could would i be doing if i didn't point those things out? none. >> bob pisani, what say you? >> i think what we're seeing is healthy. nasdaq index is up 12% and zs down 2%. when there's no growth people will pay up stupid prices for growth, but now that the economy may be showing signs of turning around there are signs of movement into some value names, and you sell off the high-growth names whenever this happens. i think it's healthy to sell off some of the internets, 3-d printers, solar stocks, all the

names people were paying -- >> the record high looks better today than it might have been three months ago since we've seen correction. rick, welcome, by the way, great to have you here you on set. what do you make of stock prices? >> you know, you sort of have to buy stocks because you can't buy bonds. who would buy bonds at these prices? i think it's a little higher than it should be. >> i thought it was interesting when mohammed el-erian. what he's really talking about is people are going out further on the risk curve and not understanding the risks that they are taking because they are just taking yield and this is all, especially in the high net worth space, where i deal with investors looking for the higher return, it's starting to sound so familiar to 2008 and 2009 where everyone who was smart was

talking about people going too far in the risk curve, not getting adequate returns for risk. i think we're seeing that again. >> does it sound familiar to you guys? >> it does. i was speaking to one private equity guy who said i can't, and he deals in the real estate space, and he was saying that people are essentially, apparently throwing money at them because they are chasing yields in this low interest rate environment, and though rick pointed out, the italians and -- >> i want to say what a riot it is on to be with rick harris op. all the crowds and the high-fives he's getting coming on the floor of the new york stock exchange. what am i, chopped liver here? >> they don't have something to pawn. >> right. >> so what about this? let me throw this out for a

second. first of all, people got used to really big numbers and big returns until the recession. i think they are going back, and hopefully they will get those kind of returns, they are novelty secondly, i think the dow is up mainly because you can't get any kind of decent returns that you're talking about in bonds and why not go to difficult dividends. i agree with the idea that the nonnon-dividend high-growth stuff was a little too frothy, going down a little bit and i think the stock market is still solid because as long as dividends, interest rates are low and interest rates are pretty decent, people will buy stocks. >> the big problem we had in 2008 was -- we had artificially low interest rate and everybody was chasing yields. you can't get good breaks on bonds and everything, you start chasing things, and when you start chasing things, things go back. >> rick, it's not -- we're not in bubble territory in the overall market. the growth names we, and i agree on the bonds, high yield, 5% yields on high-yield funds is

ridiculous. the overall market, you think it's overpriced? >> yeah, i think a lot of things are. i think it's actually a little high considering that we don't have any real growth in the economy and the stoblgts keeps on flying up. >> i have a question in your business. what's besk the highest price these days. has it changed at all. >> the easiest thing to sell is t-shirts. >> my business is a lot different than other people. i have a pawnshop with 5,000 people a day that come into it. i do a lot of resale. >> it's still the whole staple of a pawnshop, wedding stuff like crazy. i sell -- and i have tons of weird an to exand the only person in the world that you can get them from. my personal store is a little bit different, but most pawnshops, plugging along, nothing great, nothing bad. a lot of misconceptions about a pawnshop. when the economy is bad a

pawnshop doesn't do good because you basically have all sellers and no buyers and when the economy is on fire it's the exact opposite. >> i'm seeing whether it's beverly hills or new york, the expansion of very high-end pawnshops and i don't ups, look at wealthy right now. they have a lot of cash. their stocks are up, their assets are up. why do they need pawnshops, and yet you see a brand new one every day here in beverly hills, moomy, new york? what's that about? >> that's of the asset supply, in other words, the people sell stuff because they have it and then they buy new suv. upper middle income that a uyears ago bought a few things. >> people aren't exactly pawning their picassos. >> you've got to realize, you can buy picassos for as low as $500, the etching for robbie, there were tens of thousands of

them made. you can buy a picasso anywhere from 500 bucks to 500 million. i get those in my shop all the time, but not the 5 million ones. they are the 5,000 or 10,000 one. >> thinking of something jim grant wrote in his newsletter, he made a point that rolls into this discussion. he said there is such a thing as value and momentum in the art market, for example, and not just the stock market. he was talking about oscar murillo selling for 100 grand basically a piece of gravity and old masters struggling to sell even at those prices. robert, is there a way that you can -- to identify in the market and even some of the more traditional names. >> you see the artists and -- the artists that have had slow and steady moves are not coming

down a lot as well. >> it acts a lot like the stock market. you get growth names because suddenly a lot of people think that that's where the market is going to be going for the near term, and they eventually come back down by reversion to the means. >> artists become financialized and hedge fund guys who love to trade the art. >> right. >> so it's really become more like a financial asset than a cultural artifact. >> guy, give us a couple of trades going into next week. >> listen, i still think -- i don't want you to misconstrue. i don't think the stock market is in a bubble at all. i think stocks are very reasonably if not fourly priced. energy looks fantastic. a couple of companies have broken out. exxon mobil at an all-time high and bp, names like bigger 66, some of the big-cap health names lock interesting and it's interesting that some of the banks that got obliterated look good as well. it will it be to be on a planet where central banks, including

our own, act irresponsibly in a certain period of time, someone will have to pay the piper. >> energy, particularly exxon, low price to book and stocks have had trouble growing for many, many years but if the economy starts growing other people start to take a look at them and then suddenly exxon is a slow growth stock and is it so awful on a value basis? >> still one of those late cycle nails, right, bob? >> more than late psych. a lot of people who think that the big oil companies really can't grow much at all. exxon is 4 million barrels a day. how do you -- thanks. >> real quick, hold on. >> i'm going to vegas next week. you guys are the best. >> swing on buy and if you go broke at the cass noh i might help you out.

have a great job. guy adami coming up with the rest of the "fast money" team at 5:00 p.m. and they also have a guest who said apple would buy beats back in apple. that was an april fool's joke, and he'll explain why he's still laughing now. don't muss that, and let's head over to meg with a quick market flash. >> just crossing the wire, positive clinic trial data from astrazeneca and am again meeting the end points of the first study in phase throw. that's the last phase of studies generally before you can apply for regulatory approval so getting positive data there. astrazeneca in its update on the sales goals for the next couple of years give a potential sales goal of 1.5 billion, very good news as they fight to fend off the $106 billion bid from phizer. kelly in. >> meg, thanks very much. 2% lower. been seven years since the

housing bubble began to burst, but it's still really tough for most americans to get a mortgage. is that the biggest threat to a housing comeback? we'll talk about that next. also, bill clinton apparently telling former treasury secretary tim geithner that blood lust for bankers was so bad that they could kill blankine and it would only last for two years. >> "the forbes" list just changed. it came out like two weeks ago. they need to update the "forbes." list. >> just changed in a big way. >> taking on facebook, but it lives on. you can call dr. dre the richest man in hip-hop if apple buys his famous beats for $4 billion. keep it right here. you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide.

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welcome back, the u.s. economic recovery continues, the unemployment rate is at its lowest level since 2008. home prices are also on the rise, but more potential buyers are explaining that getting a mortgage is hard to come by and my geks nest says that's holding back housing from really taking

off. joining us now is our very own diana olick and jeff cox. how bad is it? >> kelly, start off saying there's an old kenard in real estate that the three most important things in selling a house are location, location, location. it's really about cost, cost and cost and sellers, i think, are getting a hill bit overconfident. recent surveys that diana has reported on very well show that there's not good pricing happening and where we are as far as financial conditions go, it's really creating a big problem in the market. >> how bad is it, diana and how tight are financial conditions? those would argue that lending has gone back to the pre-2008

level. look at that chart. that's an amazing chart that suggests credit availability as recognized by the mortgage bankers and what you look at what the lenders are looking for now, not just the higher down payment and the fico score, really at what people's overall debt is. is being able to though that bet. that's what is keeping people out of homeownership. prices are in the sky. >> yeah. >> i was just wondering look at the mortgage credit availability chart. it shows where it was during the crisis. war is it historically, ie, before the crisis? is it still lower? >> still lower. >> take the chart back to 2000, it's actual hi lower now than it was back then and loy of to is due to the debt-to-lending

ratio, not where it was where everybody -- >> i think the problem here is we basically threw the baby out with the bath water after the crisis where we had ridiculous require lones. and we all know the problems that went moot crisis and if you have 700 or 720 fico score or 20% down and are willing to pay up for a more. lenders aren't even doing that now and it's not showing up in some of the numbers because there's so much distortion with all of the investors out there and as far as average person goes, it's just got to be ridiculous. >> our eamon javers is on set and went out there process of buying a house and described it as a financial colonoscopy. >> one of the interesting sets of numbers that's come out is first-time home sales are way machine less than they have

been. >> is it because kids have so much debt and can't buy houses hike they used to be? >> don't have the -- young millennials now don't want to buy a house, they believe in homeownership. would you want to buy a home some day, yes, but having a baby is the trigger to buying a hoe. millennials are getting married later and having children later. when you talk to millennials, they saw what happened to their parents in the crash. they want to be mobile and in the urban core, and for a lot of them that means renting. >> love your stories. isn't that a good sign meaning you have fewer distressed sellers? >> only if they can sell it, though poem are overpricing

their homes and. looking at national statistics and they say home prices are up 13% year over year and nationwide. i know what eamon went through. i know what i went through on a home equity line recently, trying to get an appraisal to match up with home value and drive-by appraisals which didn't match what the home is really worth. it is less if you don't -- a lot of spell ers spellers suddenly price however they want. >> i was going to ask of what -- how many people are ultimately turned away from banks and how many of the deals fall away? >> i don't have an exact mum for that. it's my five's kiss and there are willing buyers and sellers out there, but getting the deals together is a hard part because

they are all falling apart in the financing. it's when the talk to the real people especially if you're a middle income kind of a person, it's very, very difficult. >> you can reach much more about this on cnbc.com. >> former president bill clinton apparently you could call goldman sachs ceo and it wouldn't be enough to stop the blood bust. andrew ross tsurkin heard that. and why now is the former labor secretary haveing -- tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 searching for trade ideas that spark your curiosity

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welcome back. cnbc's own andrew ross sorkin sat down with timothy geithner, the interview done to promote geithner owes book, "stress test." the book talks about how many on wall street hailed him as a hero and main street saw him as a puppet bailing out the big banks that have wronged them. geithner recalls a story that also appears in the buck. when he asked former president clinton bill clinton for advice hon how to quell the easy masses. >> he said you could drive blank blank in the salary and it.

teena joining me now is andrew ross sorkin. why are you down here? >> i'm mid-town. >> let's talk about this quote. do you think bill clinton is please that had this is now on the record? >> i'm sure he's not pleased. in fact, i've already seen a number of talking heads, if you will, out of d.c. take issue with it and really try to suggest it create a bigger issue for hillary if she were to run in terms of the clinton connection with wall street and the way he felt. i'm sure he's not happy but to the extend that tim is trying to defend himself against the suggested who suggested he wasn't neuve of central treat in bad that he didn't have inch wrugle rom or at least who he

would organize you. >> the argument that he makes in the book, and i spent time with her for the article that appears this weekend sunday in the "new york times" and for the interview we did on our air on monday, it's really an explanation of what took place during the crisis, what he thought he was gaysing, and his president clinton or this lack of trouble to explain it and sell it to the american people. he give up very on right to spell it because he had meetings with bill clinton thinking it was unsellable. some people disagree and will be upset about that. i do think that am some point he said i don't think i'm going an to the extent that you doing

things as a politician is to get the public behind you, and he also failed. i would argue the same time he saved the system, if you will, though there are critics that don't believe that the system as it exists today should have been saved. he's a peelrizing person and thinking. >> too big to clearify. >> one of the most mass nating things to me is we all knew geithner wanted to leave office and i was credit he didn't within t >> those who are drafted against -- >> andrew, what do you make of that? >> there's two pieces of it. one was how reluctant was he

really take the position. he suggests he was quite reluctant and i also spoke with rahm emanuel, chief of staff, an i'm not here to tell you tim is wrong, but he said if asked, i will serve and didn't seem that he was relunt tack. >> what i want to know is how -- >> what does it say to you? >> well, clinton's got the best political mind in the question still, no question about that. it's an accurate observation. here's the problem, i think. people hated what happened to them firstly and they were furious at banks. if there had been some criminal prosecutions they would have forgiven the bank bailout. no sane person can think it was a good to not bail out the bakes. the teen western situation had son it and it was question.

hubl -- that was the problem this apparently everyone got away scot-free except the taxpayers. >> he was in a lose-lose situation. >> exactly. >> you get on television an tell the american people you're going to take their money and give it to the people who screwed it off they are going to be mad at you and never happen. >> and clinton, that's exactly what clinton's assessment was and he's right. >> i don't think everyone will ever get mad at clinton. that's right. >> might take it out on hillary but never take it out on bill. >> a lot of people that apparently -- you go look lieu the comments and go to twitter based on this comment. >> it's everywhere. >> he disparaged his own base because the them he's referring to are -- why haven't we gotten anyone's head and historically speaking because of what happened, head on dismissing that saying nothing what we could ever give them, quote,

unquote, is good enough? >> the piece that dean is speaking, to and the other that so much suggest is for the risk that the government and taxpayers took, why didn't we get more? and -- and one of the things that is so interesting when you spend time around the former secretary now, you know, to him he'll say was it messy, yes? >> i think to some degree he considers it a rounding error to save the system. to many americans that rounding error is a huge error and so he's living within the priss oven his own mind, thinks he's done a great thing and a whole group of people who hate him. >> that's exactly the problem. he and everybody else in washington and wall street was completely insulated from -- from what happened as a result of their actions, so somebody -- >> what are you talking about? >> somebody loses their house -- >> but everybody is participating in the economy that they were by definition -- we're all in this ship together.

>> the people -- >> the banks how many of millions did citi actually play, a number of millionaires that year so people will read, that people who lost their house, lost their livelihood, and even if tim geithner goes up and says, listen, we made these investment in the big banks, we actually made a profit. >> the government made a profit. >> that is not enough for the person who is sitting there in a house that they paid $250,000 for and it's worth over $150 and not being able to explain why they had to do this. >> people's retirement were wiped out, that's a problem. >> you take, you know, a small -- a young family, they lost their house, they lost their job. i mean, they lost everything. you take someone who is well off and he went from 5 million to 2.5 million, it's a different world, and those people are never going to -- >> i think what he'll challenge the rest of his life.

to believe the other side of the cliff was worse, i would argue that we didn't get to feel which was so much worse, up to 10% unemployment in this country and just think in reality when a true great depression looks like. >> that's the problem. we're all sitting here and we agree. you had to do this. there's no way you could not bail out system. the problem was that the people who got screwed, and there are a huge number of them, this was not their fault. the people who did it got off free. >> it does still become clear from reading everybody's books it was hank paulsen who seemed more inclined to let lehman fail than perhaps geithner. >> thank you. >> we'll get more of this because that interview is coming up on monday. andrew's interview with tim geithner airing here on cnbc monday morning on "squawk box" and you can read the article in the "new york times." >> are numbskulls making

decisions at the white house? that's what robert reich wants to know after blasting president oba obama's visit to a walmart. why he's so upset in a minute. >> the "forbes" list just changed. it came out like two weeks ago. they need to update the "forbes" list t.[ bleep ] changed. >> in a big way. >> won't believe how much money dr. dre will be worth if apple buys his beats electronics and why this could make him the richest man in hilltop. we'll be right back. it's got onenote, so i can stay on top of my to-do list, which has been absolutely absurd since the big game. with skype, it's just really easy to stay in touch with the kids i work with. alright, russell you are good to go! alright, fellas. alright, russ. back to work!

the "forbes" list just changed. need to update the "forbes" list. just [ bleep ] changed. >> in a big way. >> oh, my. >> first billionaire in hip hop right here from the west coast. >> if they left the video on facebook we wouldn't have to play it so much. >> will dr. dre be hip-hop's first billionaire? what's a brand new billionaire to do with all that money. robert frake, he and our panel. our wealth correspondent. in this case dr. dre was already

rich and now super rich. how much money are we talking about. >> before the valuation he was worth about $550 billion. doesn't look like he's quite a billionaire and doesn't matter. >> he's got about 20% of the company, 3.2 billion sale. he's going to be, again, whether 800 or a billion, the wealthiest help-hop guy above jay-z and puff daddy and all those guys. >> his story, you see a guy in compton and pursue that dream and sell the company. >> this deal isn't done yet. >> one of the reasons they wanted him to take it down because he's selling early.

>> the question is this a frothy price. >> it's a preposterous price. >> by the way, these things have a 70% profit margin. beats may already be a fad that's tabd. >> rick, what do you think? >> first off, not just head phones, i have teenage kids. >> plastic jewelry. >> no, i mean, it's a status symbol and some status symbols stick around for a long time. as long as they keep it hip it will be around for a long time and will be worth a lot of money. >> apple needed some goal and

went out and bought some. look at the frost. >> margin on these things. >> it's not just the head phones, streaming music service that they wanted to get into that. dr. dre was making an album. you can make a $10 album or sell $3 head phones, what are you going to do. >> more about apple's possible deal. >> t. boone pickens said congratulations, dr. dre, welcome to the 1%. >> .01%. >> you built that. >> so many things to unpackage in that. >> peter tweeted beats just sold apple's today's pet rock. >> and lou says here's why apple beats is smart. integrate it into head phone that incorporate apple ecosystem and lots of beats people are

samsung. >> pet rock, is that fair? i don't have teenage kids. >> you've seen them everywhere, i'm sure. >> how do you value something like this? >> it makes me a little nervous. would i buy this? >> i would not. >> would i buy the stock? i haven't bought a. regret it had sometimes, but i just don't buy stuff that has a bigger pe than i can count, but just think about it. this guy is -- he's 49, so he will become a billionaire. if he invests that, and in a diversified portfolio. he will become a billion air, and that just couldn't have happened even 20 years ago. to somebody that quickly with a company that is 36 years old. >> not that fast to a billion? we have bigger portions that are created faster today than ever

before if you create a good product and sell it. >> is that a function of all the capital in the world? >> my question from a psychological point of view. if this is sort of the standard that you can sell your company after six years for $1 billion that makes earphones, now can we have some understanding of why it is that certain of these growth stocks get bid up to the ceiling higher than we would have bid them in the '70s and '80s. >> i have a friend who basically sold a nothing company. sold it on tuesday. >> started on sunday and sold it on tuesday. >> he started it -- >> basically started it five years ago and sold it tuesday. 80% of it for 360. >> yeah. >> a lot of it. >> he's not -- >> you have a lot to cover. >> straight ahead on "closing bell," don't have to be a member of the x-men to get fired up on this list. economic indicators based on

what's happening at pawn shots. we'll ask our guest what he's seeing at his pawn shot. we'll be right back.

♪ here's a good one seattle... what did geico say the mariner? we could save you a boatload! ♪ foghorn sounds loudly ♪ what's seattle's favorite noise? the puget sound! ♪ foghorn sounds loudly ♪ all right, never mind doesn't matter. this is a classic. what does an alien seamstress sew with? a space needle! ♪ foghorn sounds loudly continuously ♪ oh come off it captain! geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. welcome back. what does today's hot list reveal in terms of your appetite? a look now at what's driving traffic today. >> it's friday afternoon and people are fooling aron, that's what it is. our top story right now from our west coast bureau. they went and they live right next to it, the richest zip code in the country, atherton,

california, went and wrote a nice little feature for us. has a lot of the video eye candy that people love about real esta estate, a place like eric schmidt, meg whitman, charles schwab. >> all i know is greenwich must be hanging its head in shame. >> it must. >> nice california weather. people are checking that out. now, this is funny. i've always noticed whenever we throw out a post office story people flock to it. >> that's true. >> the latest numbers from the post office, and the post office, again, they lost money, nearly $2 billion and they are saying congress needs to fix how they work. >> look, if they have to account for their pension liability over a 70-year period so i do sympathize with them. >> can't control their labor or delivery schedule. >> right. >> but our reader is always interested in the post office, and then finally we have a feature up why salmon may become the new lobster, all right? salmon used to be a big treat and all these salmon farms came

along and everybody started eating salmon. demand went up. we just had a hard winter so supply is getting a little pressed. >> oh, no. >> how much are prices up? >> seeing like a 7%, 10%, 15%, depending on where in the world you are so there you go. those are our three. >> all talapia from here. >> thank you. >> why did president obama visit one of the retail giant's location earlier today? that's what former clinton labor secretary robert reich want to know. called whoever arranged this a numbskull and he'll joining us wednesday. and an asia flaming hot sauce and jobs and reputations are at stake. we'll have the whole story for you on "closing bell."

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welcome back. president barack obama speaking today about his energy program praising walmart for being energy efficient. many in president obama's own

party are now angry. in a facebook posting reich says walmart is one of the nation's largest and worst employers. low wages, unreliable hours and few benefits, discrimination against women and anti-union, end quote. he also went so far as to say what numbskull in the white skull in the white house arranged this. walmart can't do anything right. >> i'm not angry. i know how white houses work and it's just that you've got a lot of people in the white house, some very young, they're paying attention to one thing like the energy and environmental agenda, and they're completely losing sight of the fact that last week there's a big vote in the senate over raising the minimum wage and the republicans are saying, no, we're not going to even have a vote and walmart is the poster child for low wages and lousy benefits and there goes the president and he forgets the wage and job and inequality agenda. >> i'd like to know if those on

the panel agree with you. >> i absolutely for the most part do agree with you. i'm absolutely pleased walmart is putting solar panels on their roof. that's a big deal. but i would say if your message is about inequality, that's tough to show up at walmart. >> who else has a bigger footprint, commercial footprint in the united states than walmart. they're doing like 335 renewable energy products. they're not a model company by democrat standards but you've got to say they're doing it right for this and why not give them a hat's off. >> i did. if your message is inequality, that has to be consistent across the board. >> another thing, kelly, if i can just say, walmart is not in any way the leader on renewable energy. there are many companies that are doing a far better job than walmart. in fact, walmart's emissions --

walmart's emissions of carbon dioxide last year were 2% above the year before. walmart is certainly moving in the right direction in terms of solar panels. but i mean the point is the big issue last week and it should be this week as well and it should be in weeks ahead is to raise wages and make sure this economy is working. walmart is one of the -- it's the biggest employer in the united states and it is one of the worst in terms of wages. you and i and everybody else are subsidizing walmart in terms of providing medicaid and food stamps and everything else to walmart workers who are not earning enough to get out of poverty. >> we've covered this multiple times on the show. it's a valid point. what were you going to say? >> i wanted to ask secretary reich, why wouldn't mr. obama say something about this. given the inequality and society is such a big thing for me and something i've been beating the drum on, why would he choose go

there? he's the one with the last say. >> mary, i think what the president could have done, he could have gone to walmart and said, i want to praise you for moving in the right direction on solar panels and renewables but, quite frankly, i think you're not good enough with regard to labor issues and employment. >> that would have been interesting to call him out while he's there. >> sure. what great opportunity. what great opportunity. >> rick? >> me? >> yeah. i'm just curious what you think about it all. >> what i think is there's a million pension funds out there with walmart stock that are doing really well. i think one of the problems is we need less regulation in this country. we need to be able to create more jobs in the country. look at all the oil we can produce in the country. those are high paying jobs. then you have north dakota at $18 an hour. if we create more job, walmart is going to have to pay more.

>> mr. secretary? >> yes, that's true literally if we create more jobs. i mean the fact of the matter is right now the median wage in the united states is going nowhere. median family incomes are going down adjusted for inflation. you've got 95% of the economic gains in this recovery going to the top 1%. we've got a very large and growing problem of inequality that is hurting the economy because if the middle class doesn't have -- let me just finish my sin tense first. let me just -- wait. let me just finish this one sentence. if the middle class does not have enough purchasing power, and i'm talking about everybody who's earning between $20,000 and $90,000, if there's not enough purchasing power there because median wages are dropping, then the economy really cannot get out of first gear, and that's exactly what's happening right now. >> we've run out of time. thank you for being here, especially on such short notice. robert reich, appreciate your perspective on this. >> thanks very much. >> up ahead, a week that was.

on monday, the service that services many long airline trips. we're going to talk with the company about their deal with at&t and so much more coming up right after this. milk chocolate lovers don't necessarily like dark or white. before we couldn't really allow the consumer to customize their preferred chocolate. we needed the scalable cloud solution allowing them to see all 800 products and select what they are looking for. now there is endless opportunity to indulge. does it end after you've expanded your business?? after your company's gone public? and the capital's been invested? or when your company's bought another? is it over after you've given back?

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welcome back. a couple of minutes to go here.

we're going to talk about a couple of things coming up next week in term of the earnings and economy to watch out for. rick, i just want to ask you since you interact on the ground. you're outside mantd where a lot of us are stuck, what do you see in terms of how well the economy is doing? >> i basically -- i consider it completely flat. i don't think there's been several different changes the way that we figure gdp and everything else, so my big problem is can you really trust the numbers? >> your own store. >> in my store, it's a different world. i have 5,000 people a day coming in my store. >> that's what i want to know. what is it like in your store? >> in the depths of the financial crisis it was literally a nightmare. we had people coming in with tons of construction tools. i couldn't even take them. >> it's a fallacy you do better in bad times. >> think about it. people coming in and zero buyers. and then when times are really good, it changes around.

i have a hard time getting merchandise. during the publ. construction tools became worthless. just a lot of things were -- it was a bad situation for a long time. >> you say it's flat. does that mean it's flat time because it's kind of equal, supply and demand? >> it's cruising along. i'd like to see bond rates a little bit higher. it would make me feel the economy's better. i think if -- i think in spite of everything, i think the american people are going to make it better. >> when you start get 1g $00 million picassos, then we should worry. >> i wanted to add you had a profitable trade on tess lowe this week. you do want to give us a heads-up? >> i'm short on tess lowe again. i think it's a wonderful incredible company. i just never think it's going to fw worth this kind of money. >> there it stands. >> i want to ask him about ukraine. good or bad, ten seconds. >> keep our fingers crossed they've got to get this election

done on may 25th and putin doesn't want to do it, so there's more to drop. >> that's flappable you managed to fit that in. happy mother's day. have a great weekend, everybody. "fast money" is coming up in a few seconds. melissa lee, round out the chart for us. >> we've got the one chart for us. this doesn't smell good for the markets. >> over to you. >> "fast money" starts right now live from the nasdaq market site new york city's times square, i'm melissa lee. our traders tonight are pete najarian, guy adami. the tech giant has been sitting on a massive cash board and sitting on the sidelines of silicon valley rival made big purchases this year. apple ceo tim cooke referenced it last month during a conference call. >> we're not in a race tond