again, russian president vladimir putin worldwide exclusive on "squawk box." >> which i will be sitting in on tomorrow. that's gigantic. wow. lot of questions for the russian president. unbelievable. thanks for watching "street signs," everybody. >> see you tonight. "closing bell" is next. welcome to the closing bell, everybody. i'm kelly evans here at the new york stock exchange. >> i'm bill griffeth, back at the new york stock exchange. >> good to have you back. >> market looking to extend the gains made yesterday. we will get through the final hour of trading. plus, we're following a lot of stories today. i mean the market's kind of quiet, as you can imagine. but there are so many stories surrounding this market. what exactly is the fed's plan to get o you the of the market without losing control of interest rates right now? what if we told you they aren't really sure? don't take my word for it. steve leisman is reporting that scary faq for us. we have some other fedex fol--

folks joining us. after the close today, we have some big earnings out. hewlett-packard. that tech bellwether, of course. the gap. we'll get those numbers right after the close today. a late-breaking story this afternoon. billionaire mark cuban making some headlines today in an interview about racial issues in lift donald sterling/l.a. clippers saga. mark admits to his own prejudices and bigotry. in no way were the comments comparable to what donald sterling said, but does this put the nba in a position where it has to respond. will sterling try to drag down cuban with him? so many questions. you'll hear what cuban said in his own words. a full report is coming up in a little while. with an hour to go into the close, the dow is up 28 points.

1,6561 is the level. s&p 500 finally up eight. joining us on our "closing bell" exchange for this thursday before big holiday weekend, heather hughes, peter andrews, jim lowell, gerard fitzpatrick and our own rick santelli. he should be in there somewhere. i don't see him but he'll join us a little bit later. before we get started you have some spice to add to the stew first. >> if we could just quickly show what's happening with twitter today. it is the thursday before memorial day. volumes have been light. rumors are flying traders might be despatch here for something to make these stocks move. it has been rallying, recently turned positive in the session today on rumors of activist involvement. what i can tell you, a source familiar with the situation telling me carl icahn is not taking a position in twitter. again rumors flying around wall street on this one.

shares have gone down 2% to up 1%. carl icahn is a prolific user of the social media service but he does not own a share of twitter today, however, i can tell you. >> it is not one of those situations where he liked it so much he decided to buy into the company. >> apparently. >> again, this is one of those situations, it is a lightly traded week and it is easy for rumors to move a stock. that apparently is what's going on here. >> there have been others making the rounds out there. again, a reason to treat it all with an extra dose of caution this week. >> heather hughes, what do you make of this week's activity? one day down big, the next day up big. we're kind of hanging in there today. what do you see with this volatility right now? >> it is a see-saw, see-saw, up-down. i didn't know today was a half-day? right? it's not. but really where have we gone? nowhere. we're flat on the year. so perhaps the consolidation in itself may be the correction. we may not have to move lower, 10% lower, like the russell 2000

that small cap index to have the dow and s&p where they are near all-time highs again right now. you might not need small cap leadership. i think we are doing okay where we are right now. there is no clear direction in either up or down. but even if we're flat on the year, you take the 32% last year gains in the s&p, average that with this year. you've got a 16% two-year average. that's not bad year over year. >> who's chuckling there? >> that was me. boy, that is one twisted way to look at last year's 30% return! let's look at it over three years. that's not bad either. based on 11%. yeah. >> not bad at all. you're right, i have to be a glass half-full. i do things -- >> that's wonderful. i'm surprised janet yellen will probably borrow that.

>> jim lowell, how full is your glass? what's your allocation look like? how much of the portfolio is in stocks here? spl we have clients across the risk adjusted spectrum but the reality is i think heather is right. to be flat so far this year, given everything that's been thrown at the market, including all kinds of fears over pace of recovery to russia's invasion inside of ukraine. i think it is okay. i do think though that we'll see a 10% to 50% pullback at some point in time. maybe next week. maybe the trigger is when we get the revision to first quarter gdp which could go into negative territory, that could spook the market. any sell-off we've seen this year we've taken advantage of. whether u.s. growth, stocks, health care in particular. remaining very bullish. >> the russell is up today, in part, because of a rally in biotech stocks. a trader pointed out that the s&p biotech index has been on a

tear so far today. peter anderson, is this a time to sort of look for bargains right now, do you think? >> i think there's always bargains out there. the frustrating thing right now is that there is no clear trend emerging. can you believe that we're half-way through the year almost at this point and the glass some day it is half empty, some day it is half full. examples abound in this market right now, bill. let me just give you one quick example. jcpenney came out with their earnings of last friday. rallied like a son of a gun because they really had some positive results. apparently. one of the things they mentioned was their bank line. okay? they said they extended their bank line to another $500 million. so people thought that was great on friday. fast forward two days later, monday over the weekend, and all of a sudden the same investors are interpreting that as a negative sign and the stock

starts to trade off. now nothing happened -- >> and today it is up another 3%. this is the kind of jerky action i'm talking about here. one day they're convinced it is armageddon, the next day it is a pull had-back. . >> lorick, i hear your point th you're concerned for numerous reasons, but i just think over the longer term perspective, of course over the short term, it pays to be cautious here, always. because of uncertainty with the federal reserve and monetary and fiscal policy. but i think from a long-term perspective it may pay to be long. >> gerard fitzpatrick, talk about what's happening in rates. this has been the surprising story of the year. rick pointed out if you were in the 30-year you'd already make a 13% total return here. what's the next move for rates? >> how wrong account market be?

everybody thought it was a no-brainer yields go higher. look, we're making money in bonds, people recognizing the xwers diversification. i can see 10-year treasuries being range bound between 2.4% and 2.7% over the coming months. however, once we get past the end of the quantitative easing when taper ends, that's the time when i can see more of a catalyst for yields to go higher. short-term i can see yields relatively range bound but going higher once we get towards are the end of this year. >> looking through some of the research that's been circulating around wall street. it is fascinating that at a time when various people are talking about inflation poised now to rise in the u.s. from what was a low, rick, when people are talking about the federal reserve's exit strategy and goldman's putting out notes about look at the depression, rates might rise faster than you might think. rick, is all of this action the

pressure on the u.s. rate space, is all of that because of europe? one animal cyst said there is a deep spiral taking hold there. >> some pressure's coming through from from the economy. we saw the real rally in treasuries last week but on the inflation side i see it pretty muted at the moment with inflation repressures. look at the fed's measure of pce, only 1.1 versus target of 2. once we get more towards full employment and wage growth starts to rise, that's when the inflation pressures will start to rise. that will be the movement for the increase in rates. >> rickster, what do you think? >> i think inflation, deflation, they're all interesting but i think the notion of how to really handicap those dynamics is impossible. i think with all the debt in the developed economies especially in europe, they have to make deflation the monster. i can't even imagine all the debt countries like greece and

spain have, maybe in italy not as much, but all that debt, if we see their currencies or major shifts in their valuations, that debt is going to get real expensive in the u.s., of course, we have servicing the debt. but in the end, i think that i agree with mr. bernanke and it would cost you $250. i think long-term rates are going to be a lot lower for a lot longer because i just don't see the horsepower there. when i see smart people talking about minimum wage, they don't get it. mcdonald's, they don't have a printing press. i think people in government have gotten so spoiled they could solve everything with a printing press. i just think they think all these corporate have one, too. hey, $15, $20, $25. just fire up the printing presses. some entities are on a budget. since countries aren't on a budget, i just don't see the economic horsepower for the future. >> i think what we really need

is some momentum. what this market needs is a clear say one to two months of pure momentum in one direction and i would hope that would be on a positive side. but even in that case, momentum is a fickle friend. so you use that to get a grip on the market, and then you start doing valuations. but right now we're kind of stuck in neutral. i think it is frustrating a lot of investors. i know a lot of portfolio managers right now, including myself, are just kind of holding on to their positions to wait for some more clarity. >> last word to heather. >> i guess the point i'm making is that, yes, we're in a frustrating consolidating period, but isn't that okay? at least we're not all projecting some sort of -- except mr. santelli -- bear market correction or for yields to pull back. i think your consensus, i heard 1.6, all the way on the 10-year,

which was what we had seen last may. but i think right now being at some sort of a range, even though it seems volatile, up, down, up, down, right now that's sort of healthy for the markets and in itself may be some sort of correction. >> don't let rick get under your skin. >> that's his job. we got to go, guys. thanks for your thoughts today. gerard fitzpatrick. that's a real absent there. he really -- he is a fitzpatrick, for real. that's for sure. heading toward the close, we got 48 minutes left in the trading session here. the market up 15 points on the dow jones industrial average. the blue chips are lagging the secondaries, small caps today. rug se russell 2000 is the big winner. twop mon money pros are com up. plus, what's the fed's plan to exit the market while keeping rates under control? that's a key question.

steve leisman says they don't know yet. really? well, he's next and it could make you nervous. stay tuned. j.d.com, up almost 10%. are investors diving into a dotcom black hole with this one? we'll have a special report from the nasdaq. all stations come over to mission a for a final go. this is for real this time. step seven point two one two. verify and lock. command is locked. five seconds.

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welcome back. what is the fefb's plderal rese plan to pull back its extraordinary measures in the market while keeping control over interest rates. >> steve leisman says we might not like the answer. we'll talk about it along about jeff cox and cnbc contributor greg ip. steve, what is janet yellin's plan? >> what there is essentially is a plan and a process to have a plan. what the new york fed in particular is doing right now, they're testing different facilities out there. these are the sort of things you'll have to get familiar with.

reverse repo. term deposit facilities are two of the ones you'll have to know, along with something you might know already, interest on excess reserves. those are three things. the thinking as i understand it is the interest on excess reserves will do sort of the bulk of the work with some combination of reverse repo which is sell assets, taking in cash, along with term deposit facilities, then give it like a certificate of deposit for excess reserves, along with a final thing the fed might do which is effectively to sell assets. it all sounds confusing. i'm not sure how much we're all going to have to be worried about. what the fed is focused on is trying to set a interest rate. now it will have a whole bunch of tools. >> greg, where does that leave us? >> of the debate on how to move up interest rates is an interesting one. whether they start the journey, whether they'll pick the toyota or chevy, most people want to know when are you going to hit

the road and how fast are you going to go. >> greg, i'll just push back a little bit. what the fed can't know, can they even set an interest rate. while people may not be bothering themselves whether it is going to matter an awful lot. >> you almost get to the point where there's too much tranparncy here, where there are too many conflicting statements. >> wow. we're going to know too much? >> when you look at the market reaction, market doesn't know which way it is going. fed is coming across basically like a circular firing squad. >> steve, we've been making it up as we go along. they have been, at the feds, since 2008. it shouldn't come as a surprise that they're still making it up. we are in unprecedented territory, aren't we? >> i think that's right. there's never been $4 trillion of excess reserves out there. they'll try to get to a certain place and do so without

disrupting the economy. effectively they are trying to put brakes on the economy. one analyst said that every book on banking is going to have to be ripped up because right now the thinking is that it is a closed system. one of the things the fed does when it does reverse repos, it opens up the system, effectively allowing money markets to come in and do business with the fed as well. a lot of things -- i think the fed will stumble for a while, kind of like it did with qe, until it finds the right mix. >> the key for the market, does that interfere with their ability to set monetary policy where they want it. i say the answer is no. will there be some feeling around the edges? we set interest on excess reserves at 75. we can work through that. reserve bank of new zealand has been doing this for many years and it works just fine. the bigger question remains when do they move? i have to disagree with jeff. there's complete consistency in communications. today the new york fed released their regular survey of primary dealers and there's 100%

agreement. 100% agreement that there will be no rate increases for the rest of the year. >> it's greg and steve's job to kind of get down in the weeds. it is sort of my job to see above the weeds an see what the market is seeing. when you look at what -- the couple of statements that we had from fed governors earlier on in the week and we saw what the market reaction was, we saw the market reaction in march, relatively benign statements from janet yellen about a six-month time frame after qe ends. how can you say there is clear communication out there when you see these violent reactions from the market? >> we have defined down violent. look at the vix. vol is the lowest -- when we're calling 100 points on the dow violent we've really lost our tolerance for volatility. >> greg, a couple things. first, you can't argue complete consistency in the sense that dudley and williams in the last

couple of days just went about reversing the markets thinking about when assets would be sold. that's a change that just happened last couple days. i think it was something they floated and now it looks like it is increasingly policy. it was sort of bicoastal. that's one. the second is, i don't have confidence in the fed's ability to get this right out of the chute. i don't even think the fed has confidence in this. i think they need to have transparency and they've begun that process. i don't beguj they will that. they need to talk about how they are thinking about this stuff. i've talked to a lot of guys in the market, they are waiting to hear from the fed how this all will work. greg, going into the unknown -- >> i have one last question for greg before we go here. when we start to talk about the fed raising rates, what rate are we talking about? >> they'll go at a quarter, at a half. >> what rate though? >> which rate? well, they will have the federal funds rate target but they have to move things like the rpp rate. >> we're going to have to talk about it.

the market has to understand it. i think the fed's begun a process here, but it is very confusing. there are at least four, five variables here. >> bun quick last point. level of transparency and certainly around what the fed is doing is unprecedented, that means there is nowhere to go but down. there will be more uncertainty and that will cause confusion and volatility in the market. >> there are some praying for it, at this point. >> you guys are fired up. i feel like we were standing in the newsroom there. see you later. we've got 40 minutes to go here to the close. dow is only up 19 points. still green arrows for the s&p. up seven. at 1,894, it is not far off from the record highs. ben bernanke and tim geithner raking in money and being paid in large part by the financial sector. in some cases, hundred of thousands of dollars for a

single speech or an evening at dinner. why does somewhere -- what does that say? someone here says we have a big plel with that. we're going to get you both sides of this story coming up. larry kudlow is coming in. >> that's all that matters. billionaire mark cuban's comments admitting he's prejudiced. this was just a little while ago and they're now going viral. >> i know i'm prejudiced. i know i'm bigoted in a lot of different ways. i've said this before. if i see a black kid in a hoodie at night on the other side of the street -- on the same side of the street, i'm probably going to walk to the other side of the street. if i see a white guy with a saved head -- >> we'll play what he said talking about how he's prejudiced. what's the nba's next move here? considering the donald sterling scandal swirling in the background, we'll talk that out ahead. she keeps you on your toes.

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welcome back. not a huge rally today but we're pretty much seeing green arrows. russell up 1%. nasdaq up .75%. the only red arrow, volatility. >> 52-week low still on that volatility index for the markets. since leaving the federal reserve earlier this year, former chair ben bernanke has not let the grass grow under his feet. he's commanded six-figure fees on the speaking circuit.

>> his path between the revolving door of wall street and washington is widely traveled. >> ben bernanke and tim geithner will be appearing at a venue here in washington, d.c. tonight, all part of tim geithner's ongoing book tour. they'll do a sort of joint event tonight talking about the fsn crisis and the response to it. we also got a new estimate today on hillary clinton an just how much money she's made in speaking fees since leaving the office of secretary of state. from mother jones magazine, they say she's made about $5 million just in the past several months. she's making, according to media reports, $200,000 a speech. she's not the only one. ben bernanke is also in that $200,000 a speech range. tim geithner, according to media reports, these numbers can be very tough to pin down. a little bit more than $100,000 a speech. of course, it is not just obama administration officials. we've also got former bush folks, including george w. bush himself who is said to make between $100,000 and $150,000 a

speech. alan greenspan at $100,000 a speech. dick cheney, after he left office, reportedly was making $75,000 a speech. returning to hillary clinton though, some questions being raised here about how appropriate all of this is given that she's a potential presidential candidate on the democratic side and the presumptive front-runner it she does run. take a look now at some of the people who are putting money into hillary clinton's pockets. again, according to mother jones. fidelity. kkr. goldman sachs. national association of convenience stores. the national automobile dealers association. all of those entities paying for speeches from hillary clinton. what we don't know necessarily is how much each of them paid. in some cases you don't know who the payers are at all. hillary clinton spoke at my alma mater, colgate university, a great school, by the way, i tried to call colgate to find out how much she was paidnd who she was paid by. they told me that donors pick up the tab for her speech but they

wouldn't say which donors and how much. so it is possible here to put anonymous money directly into the pocket of a future possible presidential candidate, guys. >> sounds like you need to call your alumni network there at colgate. >> it was not me. i didn't pay for the speech. let's dig deeper now into the ethical questions these huge speaking fees might raise. >> joining us, cnbc contributor larry kudlow who's raring to go. richard gronski. a lot of this is about the timing as well. bernanke just left office. when you left the new york state legislature, there was a time period when you couldn't go back and lobby, for example. >> conflict of interests occur when big money goes into the pockets of people who have been in government and yet may end up back in government. this is a continuation of the trend where the rich and powerful have access to the rest of us don't have. poor dick cheney's only getting $75,000. larry kudlow is defending hillary clinton. something is wrong in the

universe here. >> i don't know about hillary clinton. richard's point is valid with respect to lobbying. none of these people are lobbying. i can't see why they can't sell books and make speeches. by the way, interesting point here. a friend of mine went to two of the bernanke events. one was the big one and the other one was a small one. he said bernanke said nothing. there was no value added. he just repeated a bunch of public statements. >> people also said they walked away from those dinners saying ber nansky still doesn't get it. >> bernanke will never criticizes fed. tim geithner's just trying to sell his book. these guys have to earn a living. here's the problem. $400,000 for speeches. since his term at the fed, the u.s. dollar has lost one-third of its value. top margin on tax rates have gone up.

you have to sympathize with the guy. $400,000 is not worth what it once was. he can barely make it in washington, d.c. i sympathize. >> what about access for real people, real decision makers. if time and time again the places they're heard and the money in their pocket comes from narrow special interests. >> these aren't decision makers. >> they aren't decision makers today but the resolving door goes two ways, it goes out, it ko comes back in. >> they're not lobbying. >> the fear of bernanke, he was just in office a couple of months ago. he is an architect of the policy that's under way right now and he may be giving away state secrets or things janet yellin is thinking about. >> if someone who's in the government is negotiating a deal for themselves at the time they're making decisions about the interest of those people, it's a conflict of interest. >> they're not making -- >> that's a fact question,

larry. nice try. >> you're being very slippery through here. >> thank you. >> they are not arguing any policy decision. if you are talking lobbyists, i would agree with you. by the way, we have federal rules to cover lobby. these guys are not doing any lobbying whatsoever. i don't see why the free market -- >> this is about inside information. >> there's no inside information. >> but people at the fed will say bernanke knows nothing right now about what's happening with policy, he's been cut off. but perception matters and so, frankly, if somebody leaves one day there probably should be and will probably will be a 36-month cooling-off period. >> i left management and i went out and gave speeches. >> it is not the content of the speech. it is the access to the interest group. >> they don't have access! they're not in the federal reserve. >> the national association of convenience stores has access to people it's paying for to give

speeches -- >> so what! >> so should i, so should you. >> you can! >> if i had $400,000? that's your idea of democracy? the democracy for the rich is not democracy for the masses. >> it is called free market cappalism, whatever the market will bear. these fees are going to come way down because there ain't much value added to it. some people are always walking away saying it. >> defending tim geithner, defending hillary, it is the first and only time it's happened and i congratulate you. >> there's also a six-book review -- financial -- review of all the books have been written about the crisis in the harvard law review right now. the essence of the argument, the author makes, it is regulatory capture that is the problem. many will say this is a perfect example of regulatory capture. >> what is? >> this nexus between wall street/washington. regulators, regulated. >> look, whatever.

you're going like five steps. you're connecting dots that are five yards apart. all i'm saying is these guys are out of office and they're not lobbying. if other observers want to talk to them and pay them for it, it is a free market. they aren't going -- i agree -- >> i'm playing devil's advocate here, but you would have no problem if on a tuesday ben bernanke is in office and leaves that day, and the next day -- >> actually, there are rules against that. he can't do that. >> there is a cool-off period. >> i think a 30 or 60-day cooling-off period. yes, that's true. >> a lawyer-like details of this are interesting and important but the big picture is that if you've got big bucks get access. if you don't, no one cares, no one listens to what you think. that's what's getting the american people all riled up. and appearances do matter. >> or belong to a huge trade association. >> these trade associations. they represent main street. it actually helps them understand the process.

i'm sorry, go ahead. >> i got 30 seconds. larry is choamping at the bit. >> the federal reserve is going to use reverse rps but they have no clue how to do it. the changing of interest rates is not coming -- the fed funds market is going to be dead. banks do not need excess reserve. they're going to shift it to the reverse rp market. that's when banks essentially loan money to the fed and it trades cash. >> you don't think they're going to want their security -- >> the question is -- right. the banks may not cooperate. and they may decide not to bid for the bonds. that's happened in europe. the auctions may not work. you're talking about right now a reverse rp market $300 billion. $2.2 trillion of excess resef reserves. those are lousy odds and the fed should be talking about this to educate the public. >> as steve said, it is the

great unknown. that's for sure. thank you for joining us today. 25 minutes left in the trading session here. we're kind of stalled at the moment. the dow is up 13. big gainer today again has been the russell 2000 up more than -- >> feeling a bit lost about where the markets go from here? you're not alone. up next, two of wall street's top money pros give you their closely watched guidance for the best investments for your hard-earned cash. a special report on the pharmaceutical industry and why that pill costs so much. in new , the porter was so incredibly careful careless with our bags. and the room they gave us, it was beautiful. a broom closet. but the best part, / worst part, was the shower. my wife drying herself with the egyptian cotton towels, shower curtain defined that whole vacation for her. don't just visit new york.

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we've been waiting for earnings from hewlett-packard. the stock has suddenly started to move and we're getting indications that they may have inadvertently released the data on their website. >> we were expecting this earnings report after today's closing bell but on hp's website they have reported their fiscal 2014 second quarter results. head lynn numbers are 88 cents. that matches analysts estimates.

revenue coming in $27.3 billion. that's down 1% from the prior period last year. it also narrowly misses the average analyst estimate of $27.4 billion. they also go on to say that they return $1.1 billion to shareholder in the form of dividends and share with purchases during the quarter. so again, a revenue slight miss, an earnings match. you can see the shares which were positive today have moved just off session lows down about 2.25%, 2.5% to the downside. earnings for now have met expectations. sales slight miss. they bought back $1.1 billion worth of stock or returned it in terms of dividends in that second quarter. guys, back over to you. >> maybe somebody hit the send button early again. that's happened before. >> it certainly isn't the first time. bob pisani joins us now with more. how many times have we now seen companies, whether it is leaked, whether it is fished out of

their website. >> that's it. bill's right. somebody hit the button wrong. this was not deliberate for sure. the stock down but coming back a little bit. modest gains doesn't seem like too much here for the s&p 500 but in the last two days we're up close to 1.2%. that's the best two-day rally since april 15 and 16. that's how choppy the markets have been. 1897 would be an historic high. we're only three points away from that. we already have sectors moving up to new highs. remember the worries about emerging markets we've had? the emerging market index. the eem. the etf. the highest level since october today. there are some beaten-up, choppy groups that have now bottomed and rallied in the next day or two. 3-d printers? remember they got killed in the last several months. look at them all up double digits here. getting killed, also moving to

the up side. the markets continue to churn sideways here. there is not a clear direction really this year. is that about to change? >> let's talk with a couple of veteran market watchers, bob dahl, liz ann saunders, good to see you both. bob, here we go again. hewlett-packard out early. what we're hearing is that theyman matched expectations on the bottom line but the top line is a little light here. that's been the tren for a lot of companies reporting earnings especially for this first quarter this year. what do you make of all that? >> yeah, i think that's right. in hewlett's case it is a free cash flow story. i think some people started to believe revenues would be higher. but for the market overall, look, we need a little bit more real gdp because the marginal profits that come from a little more top line are huge as we've

witnessed in recent quarters and years. as bob pisani just pointed out, we have to realize the stock market has not changed a lot, but it is up. if you analyze year-to-date gains, add two points for dividend yield, we're knocking on a high single-digit total return for this year. after 30 last year, not sure that's a bad year. >> liz ann, i wonder after the pop in jobless claims this morning, does that worry you? i know it is still a one-week trend. you still think the economy picks up some momentum here going in the back half? >> i do. i wouldn't pay attention to a single week. i think the trend is in the right direction. there are, believe it or not, estimates of 5% real gdp for the second quarter. that may be a little bit of a stretch. most of the leading indicators get you pretty comfortably to around 4%. >> 4% gdp in the second quarter? >> i've seen two estimates as

high as 5% real gdp -- >> but you're saying 4% maybe for the second quarter? >> i think it is doable. i think the estimates are clustered around 3.5%. i don't think that's much of a stretch. now that said, a lot of it is just carry-over from the weakness in the first quarter. you tend to get that rubber band effect. i don't know that you want to extrapolate those numbers into the second half of the year. that would be a mistake. i think a pretty decent number in 2q is probably in the cards. >> i'm curious, bob, goldman was talking a little bit overnight about comparing what we are going through now with the great depression. saying looking at today maybe rates have to rise faster than the market is currently expected. greg ip made that point. almost nobody is out of the consensus view on this one. is there danger of a fed surprise here? >> well, look, there's no question that interest rates have come down a lot more than most of us thought coming in to the year. 2.50%, the 10-year treasury is

signaling there's something potentially wrong. i think it is concerns about europe as you folks have discussed over time. if in fact the bond market is saying i'm from missouri, show me better growth before i move down and price up in yield, we could get a fairly quick move back up toward 3%. i wouldn't be surprised. i agree with liz the surprise relative to the consensus is probably going to be the up side for the second quarter. >> i wish we had more time but all the breaking news got in the way. always love having you both on. the hewlett-packard number did come out early. for whatever reason it matched on the bottom line. it was light on the top line. the revenue number. that stock is down at this hour. it's come off the lows but it is still down 1.25% going into the close. 15 minutes to go until the close and the dow is up 13 points. five for the s&p which is at 1,893. 26 are for the nasdaq. >> china's jd.com, the big ipo today, red-hot on its first day of trading.

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welcome back. let's hope this isn't the bellwether. hewlett-packard was supposed to report earnings after the bell today. those earnings were posted early and, as you can see, the shares dipping on that. they match the earnings estimate a little bit light on the revenue side. a lot of focus on the guidance. we will have full analysis but again this hitting before the close, an unusual, but not uncommon -- not entirely uncommon, we should say, development. >> haven't heard from hewlett-packard this time around on what happened but hopefully we'll know soon. jd.com surging on its first day of trade. seema mody looks at the ins and outs of this chinese e-tail play. >> that's right. second largest e-commerce company in china. jd.com going public here on the

nasdaq. the ipo being watched closely by market participants for two reasons. first, the e-commerce market in china is a multi-billion dollar market growingings at a fast pace. u.s. investors are looking for ways to get exposure to that growth. second reason -- traders are trying to gather some insight on alibaba. the bigger e-commerce giant -- chinese giant that's expected to go public later this summer here in the u.s. jd.com trading above its ipo price of $19 a share, but still off of its highs, still it raised roughly $1.8 billion in its initial public offering making it the biggest chinese internet ipo here in the u.s. back over to you. >> all right, seema, thank you very much. the stuff you miss during commercial breaks. up 16 points on the dow. about ten minutes left in the trading session right now as we head toward the closing bell. plus, billionaire mark cuban's comments admitting he himself is prejudiced. they're going viral. wait until you hear what he said and what the national basketball

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about seven minutes left. plus signs, not big ones, light volume, thursday before memorial

day weekend. joining us, steve krull. good to see you. we've been stuck in a trading range for a while here lately. when you think we break out it is to the up side or downside? >> up side. it is like halftime at a la cro lacrosse game. i think all of a sudden we have low rates and the earnings are okay but we went too far last year. we're taking a pause to reflect. but probably july, august, we should resume the up trend. >> who's going to be buying? the fact that there's no volatility in this market, that volume has been anywhere, that people just aren't in it. from i think there is plenty of cash around. i think some people are still worried about what's going on in other countries. i think the money will find good stocks. we have people that guy good ideas. they're not necessarily convinced about the market but

the idea is still work. >> there's the fed tapering process. we've just been talking this hour how the fed is making it up as they go along. they have to at least let people know what the plan is when they have a plan. >> they said it was data depende dependent. d data has been very mixed, to say the least. retails sales were supposed to be good after the weather. instead of being down 2%, 2.5%, they were down 0%. i think data is very suspect. we're in a 2% gdp situation. >> what do you think hedge funds do here? they haven't performed that well in this market especially in march and april on some of those numbers we were just looking at. >> its he's tough. they are behind the 8-ball. a lot of our clients, a lot of them are great investors.

the long-only guys like the blackrocks have been doing extremely well. it comes back to this after the next couple of weeks, it will be a stock picker's market and that's it. >> steve, we got to go. we got more insights now maybe on the story or hewlett-packard. >> david faber joining us. >> we can certainly give you the numbers at this point. it does appear that hewlett-packard mistakenly put up page one of the earnings release on its website early during trading. in fact the number was correct. of course people saw it there. they are now putting up the entire release. 88 cents a share. $27.3 billion was the revenue number for the quarter. it was a fine quarter. you can see the stock has reacted a bit, though not a blockbuster quarter, by any means. but an important part of it is also going to be more job cuts at hewlett-packard, in fact. the company saying that the 2012

restructuring program under which it had targeted 34,000 jobs, 31,000 of which have already left the company, is going to be now expanded to as much as 50,000. meaning there's somewhere between another 12,000 to 16,000 jobs that will be lost at li hewlett-packard under this 2012 restructuring program the company began. they will realize $1 billion in savings from that. in a conversation i was able to have with meg whitman -- we'll be talking a lot more to her tomorrow -- she says listen, it is a question of how many people you need and fine tuning your workforce. at this point it was a workforce that began at 306,000 when she took over the job and will be reduced by 50,000 by 2015 or so. that's certainly one of the key parts of the release. it overall saw the company do fairly well in personal systems

in terms of the revenue numbers there an continued stability in commercial pcs in particular where they gained share. in fact, they gained share in a number of their key areas but overall still not seeing that revenue growth that this transition is obviously this transformation that meg whitman is trying to take this company through is aiming towards. we'll have a lot more as we go along looking through these numbers. >> david, thank you. david faber with the latest on hewlett-packard. those numbers out early, for whatever reason. you can see the market response has not been good, down 2.3% ant $31.77. as we head toward the close, what do you make of this market? the kind of report we are getting from hewlett-packard, a technology giant, a bellwether of that sector right now. they still have a reduced head count. >> it is so important for investors to focus on companies with really strong balance

sheets and specifically those companies that are growing revenues, top-line revenue above category average. that's absolutely -- >> who are those? >> in the pharmaceutical industry, johnson & johnson. eli lilly. don't i afraid to go to senofi. look for those values. it is more chang chllenging but they're still out there. the fact so many people are nervous is to us a positive thing. >> we keep harping on the interest rate play and how yields just remain so low right now. we got people talking about maybe 4% growth in this second quarter. yields certainly don't show that right now. do they? >> i don't think that 4% is in the cards. i think as long as we're in the near 3%, 3.5% we're in pretty good shape and at least avoid a significant correction.

>> appreciate it very much. we're going out with minor gains. small caps, the russell had the biggest gains today. dow finishing up about ten points. stick around, more on hewlett-packard, more on what it may mean for the market tomorrow on the second hour of the "closing bell" with kelly evans. thank you, bill. welcome to the "closing bell." i'm kelly evans. we've already got news this hour. we'll recap it for you. we are finishing up the day on wall street with the dow jones industry average, nasdaq, s&p, pretty much green arrows across the board. the red arrow, only if you look at the volatility index. there's none out there. dow 16,544. nasdaq up.5%. russell up 1%. for more on what to make of all of that plus the early earnings release from hewlett-packard that you were just hearing about, let's bring in today's panel. fred lane from raymond james.

cnbc contributors jon najarian and anthony scaramuci and michelle caruso-cabrera. sounds like the first page of hewlett-packard's earnings release was posted to the site a few minutes early. >> it was not entire release but it was enough that obviously headlines started to head. i think it was 3:36 or so and the stock was reacting. 88 cents a share. it was more or less in line with what animalysts were looking fo as well as the revenue number. what wasn't released are what are goings to be re -- continued job losses, restructuring, after they cut an over $300,0 $300,000-strong, done by 56,000 by 201$2015.

billi that $2.3 billion in free cash flow number will result. that's something we've come to expect from this company that's done a good job in delevering its balance sheet, generating cash, running its businesses more profitably. that's what they're going to be pointing towards, even though printing was a down revenue number again after what appeared to be strong numbers last quarter. they're pointing to profitability increasing significantly in printing. margins going up in a number of these businesses. the stock reacting somewhat negatively to this number overall. hewlett-packard has been outperforming a lot of the promises it has made. this quart it just came in line with those promises. we'll get a lot more from the call. meg whitman will also be joining us tomorrow on "squawk on the street." >> the fiscal third quarter guidance may be a touch. gap results have hit.

courtney reagan has a look at how the retailer is doing. >> so gap actually beating on the top and the bottom line. gap, inc. reporting earnings per share of 58 cents. the street was looking for 57 cents. that's down from a year pry but beating consensus. revenue of $3.77 billion, also above consensus. this is the company that still reports same-store sales. for the quarter down 1% which is what we knew. re-affirming full-year guidance in a range of $2.90 to $2.95. actually a good report out of a retailer. gap beating on the top and bottom line here after the bell. >> courtney, thank you. dr. j, which of these gap, hewlett-packard, jumps out to you? anything about the market action today? >> hewlett-packard was an outperformer for the whole year up until this point. they were up about 15% give or take nearly double cisco and microsoft which were up 7% and 8%. that was outperformance. it's given some back here today.

i don't think we test those march lows which for hewlett were around 29. gap stores is interesting as well. a lot of their guide is even though they're meeting estimates, they're on the low end. we'll have to see how that goes. that's the largest soft goods player in the retail clothing space. so exactly how the rest of it plays out, that will be key. >> sure. especially with the focus on retailers as we move into that part of the earnings season. fred lane, what do you make of it? start with hewlett-packard. that's the bellwether for the tech sector. hopefully not with regard to how its earnings were released but at least with the substance of them. >> i think hewlett-packard is an unfortunate bellwether for technology stocks in the sense that i think they really are struggling. they used to be a powerhouse in a lot of different parts of their business. they've had to restructure their business. they've had spin-offs in response to pressure from shareholders. i think really special identifiesing as they do in what's especially a pretty

low-end commodity for the business, with admittedly a lot of replacement parts which carry good margins, i think they'll still in the process of re-inventing themselves. i think that mobility -- they're not playing the mobility game. they're kind of out of the growth in a lot of ways. microsoft also out of the growth is better positioned. but i really think if you look at kind of what's happening in the world, where is hewlett-packard. i think they have a longer term strategic challenge to deal with. >> that very question answered perhaps. >> i sort of see hewlett-packard almost like a technology bank in the following respect. they've got a lot of recurring cash flow. they're shrinking. their head count and they're using a that cash flow to buy in shares to shrink the float. what you'll see is eps gains over the years and they'll surprise people. now i'm also a big fan of the management. i think she's done a very, very good job of re-assessing the culture and restarting the culture from a lot of mistakes that were made prior to her arrival inside the company.

>> what you just said is so interesting. from shrinking head count to shrinking flow. does that not encapsulate some of the space? an american public feels generally like they aren't participating? >> yeah. it doesn't sound like a great formula for growth when it is tieing to rationalize the company down to the size of the demand. >> currency hits with gap as well. $20 million worth. we look at sales all over the world, they look lower compared to last year. >> we were out last week -- jimmy, thank you very mcuch, tok us to a nice dinner. the cash flow, down about 16%. to anthony's point, yeah, they are shrinking various parts that

they have to, more or less, because when your cash flow is going down like that you've got to make some tough decisions. obviously wmeg whitman is makin those tough decisions but in the short term it is going to impact price. >> you have to acknowledge that they are executing this plan that michelle's described and that we're all describing, shrinking flow, reduction of head count, yielding higher share appreciation. he's probably right about the fundamentals. you got to give the management team credit for doing what they can do, kelly, to make it work the way it is right now. >> i think it is a dangerous trading stock personally. it wouldn't be something that i would want to sign up to. it is kind of an oxymoron in technology. a company people associate as a bellwether in technology and it doesn't grow. in fact it is shrinking. >> when i think of hewlett-packard, i think of printers. that's it.

printers. >> cartridges. >> cartridges. okay. >> i love to print. all the earnings reports are printed out. >> michelle's anti-vooienvironm. >> they have to do something transformational. they have to do something that's so mind boggling, everybody will say, oh, my god, who would have thought about that? >> and the stock would sell off. people would say you're outside your core confidence. what are you doing? >> that's a great point about what to do with this space if you're "old tech." do you throw money at some of the newer more exciting things to try and change the story or to maybe re-invent yourself from the inside or do you sit back steady eddie, focus on the cash flow, maybe increase the dividend, do what you can to sort of financially manage the

business. >> those new techs were the big stocks people were hitting hard just over the last month. now some of that have a little bit of that momentum or at least gathered themselves but it takes rumors to get some of the others moving. like twitter today. they have a rumor that an activist was getting involved to even get the thing to support at a very low level of valuation right now. it's not equal across tech and the big winners are still facebook and very few others in the social media space outside of the yelps and open. >> you know what makes me very nervous? talking about what's scary? this golden bull that was unveiled by jd.com today. if you believe in sentiment indicators, i'm surprised -- that's the worst. that is the worst. that is the double click o oompa-loompa party from 2000. >> this is the golden bull. >> that is horrific.

>> it is a chinese cultural thing. >> it could be. it's a very bad sentiment indicator. a gold bull? come on, that doesn't make you nervous? >> i'm going to add that one to the list. >> you should also be nervous because the consumer sent many index keeps going higher. consumers are very, very optimistic. when i start getting -- >> do happy people make you nervous? >> to some extent they do. as an investor they do. when the taxi cab drivers ask me what stock should i buy, i'm selling the market. >> when you see the most recent aaii survey that said no more than 30% bulls, no more hand 30% bears. in fact the most neutral they have been in the last nine years. that's not exactly frothy. . >> i don't think -- >> consumers are still digging out. that's my opinion. >> diversification is always the bug a boo for investors. everybody wants to follow in love with a space, a sector.sem?

no. do i like certain ones a lot better than others? yes. that's purporting to create alpha. most people can't create alpha. >> leave it there. >> that includes me, by the way. >> hundred of people are not loving mcdonald's, meanwhile, today. they're protesting higher wages outside the fast food giant shareholder meeting near chicago. activist shareholders are also making head lines inside the meeting. we'll get the details on that next. also, did you hear this one? >> i know i'm prejudiced. i know i'm bigoted in a lot of different ways. i've said this before, if i see a black kid in a hoodie at night on the other side of the street on the same side of the street, i'm probably going to walk to the other side of the street. >> mark kooun's getticuban's co reverberating. that story is ahead.

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welcome back. facebook hosting its second-ever annual shareholder meeting today. for the first time investors can put up their own proposals for a vote. morgan brennan with the details on this one. >> reporter: that's right. this may have been the first time that facebook shareholders could submit proposals but no surprise given facebook's dual class share structure, none of those five outside proposals passed. naturally, the very first shareholder comment that addressed the business of the meeting took aim at that saying why even submit proposals when we know ceo mark zuckerberg is just going to strike them down. zuckerberg himself started his comments today by reiterating facebook's mission to connect the world but also stregsing the

company's strategic shift to focus more on privacy. highlighting a new tool rolled out today called privacy check-this had. this is supposed to enable users to better choose who they're sharing information with. also get this -- reverend jesse jackson showed up today and he made comments as well about the ongoing need for diversity. the best part of that, reverend jackson saying to coo cheryl sandberg, "as i lean in, please like me on facebook." >> sounds like the action continues there, morgan. thank you so much. that event, quite tame compared to what's going on at the mcdonald's shareholder meeting where hampton pearson is. what's been happening today, hampton? >> reporter: it's been a shareholders meeting to remember. whether it was ceo pay at the top or the wages of workers behind the counter, the shareholders meeting has been all about getting paid. 800 to 1,000 demonstrators here over the last two days primarily focusing on demands for a $15 an

hour minimum wage with lots of support from organized labor. nationwide, who say their long-term goal is union sizing the entire fast food industry. 100 arrested yesterday. a different story all together from what happened here today where we had half as many demonstrators and no arrests today. but inside the meeting a bit of a surprise. a very vocal group of shareholders basically accusing mcdonald's of predator advertising practices when it comes to children. shareholders calling the advertising, if you will, predator. the ceo don thompson felt he had to take on those critics. >> why do have values at mcdonald's and all of us are parents. for those who have challenges with our menus or the choices, that we'd love to hear their feedback. >> but when it was all said and done, business as usual. the board of directors getting re-elected by landslide votes and an advisory proposal on

executive pay being pushed through but no guarantees of wholesale changes across the boards. >> on, ham son. thank you so much. should we call these outside interests like in the case of mcdonald's taking over a shareholder meeting in or is this just the best place now to sort of state your case. >> we had occupy wall street. now we have occupy shareholder meeting. what's basically going to happen, we'll get a rumblings. that voice is mute in the board meeting. these boards are not going to be moved by these sort of incidents. >> what do you think is moving inside the boardroom. this is about pay but not just for the workers but also at the corporate level. >> it is a different strategy. it ismoralsuasion.

what ends up happening is people react with a stiffened back to this. even though it makes good headlines and good publicity, it will very rarely work in a private company. these are not politicians. they're ceos that are being charged with allocating capital. >> michelle, styles you feel like the only option is to go public? >> you bring up warren buffett. if you remember the interview where he revealed he had abstained from the coke vote, he also said something else, that he had been in many meetings where he actually disagreed with the pay package of the ceo. he sat on the board around yet he didn't say anything. he swallowed his tongue. he said you don't understand when you're in there, it is really hard. if warren buffett can't protest a pay package? who can? and what does that say about the dynamics of a boardroom. >> i think a lot of boards, it is basically the ceo club, as anthony said. we're all going to support each other. if nobody creates a problem for the next guy. that's one of the problems with corporate governance. it is one of the problems with

so-called public ownership of companies. facebook has the best of both worlds if you're zuckerberg. right? i've got basically a company i have absolute control over and it is public and people put a very high valuation. >> but that's in zuckerberg's interesting wi interest, not generally the shareholders. >> he's trying to get the valuation of the stock up. people want independent shareholders. the business schools will tell you that the independent shareholders may or may not be helping the companies. it is actually the people empowered and own the company that are the ones that are driving the shareholder value. >> that's why inside the company, kelly, i like the idea of these activists. not the protests outside. i like the guys that can actually try to change things from inside. in other words, when you're changing that board structure, to fred's point, as well as anthony's, when you change that board structure so it is not

just the ceo club. when you have somebody trying to do that in ebay or sotheby's or wherever it is. that's where i will disagree with warren buffett. that's where i think you can get those voices that will stand against owner -- these unbelievable pay packages, because these guys are not part of that club. they're outside the club. >> to publish the committee or at least hold them publicly accountable as well so it isn't just a boardroom problem. check out what's happening with aeropostale after losing 52 cents a share in the first quarter. its sales came in below analyst estimates and its second quarter guidance is below what wall street was expecting as well. aeropostale shares down 13%. a different story for ross stores on discount retailing. spiking after hours, up 1.5%

after first quarter results matched wall street estimates. their second quarter and full-year guidance was also in the range that wall street was expecting. again the stock is up 1.3% after its after had-market highs. gamestop posting better than first quarter earnings, its sales rose 7% on continued demand for new game consoles from the likes of sony and microsoft. up nearly 2%. >> a lot of movers there. thank you. health care costs continue to rise. skooi hi sky-high prescription drug prices. from one drug to thoer, we'll take you to denver to meet the women cashing in on the legal marijuana business in the mile-high city.

welcome back. the price of prescription drugs has been skyrocket being the past couple years. what we're breaking down what is behind the sticker shock and how it is impacting both patients and the drug industry. meg? >> that's right. price of drugs is one of the biggest issues weighing on minds of investors in pharma and biotech because they've been going way up. that raises questions about whether they're sustainable. when approved in 2001, gleevec changed the face of chronic mild leukemia. its price about $30,000 a year. a decade later, dplee gleevex's

price tripled. that's a growing trend in the pharmaceutical industry. health insurers and congress are taking notice. >> access is a problem for a lot of patients in correlation to these very costly medicines. we sometimes think people have insurance and under obamacare there is a lot more coverage. but what that doesn't take into account is very often there is a very big co-payment that the patient has to come up with that is often many, many hundreds or thousands of dollars. >> reporter: some doctors have started to think about price when prescribing medicines. in 2012, sloan-kettering refuses to use one medicine because it cost twice as much. a group of physicians called for lower prices on leukemia drugs. in march the congressional committee asked drugmaker gilead to explain the price of its new hepatitis c drug.

it is a cure for hepatitis c and could save the health care system money over the long term. >> some of the price tags these companies have put on drugs just appear high to folks. it is very difficult for somebody that's not a trained pharmaco economist to explain why a drug that perhaps costs $50,000 a year is actually cheap for society. >> researchers say there needs to be a balance between reining in drug prices and encouraging pharma companies to spen money on risky science. drug industry says it costs more than $1 billion and takes at least a decade on average to develop a medicine. the failure rate is high. for everyone gleevec, thousand of potential drugs never make it to market. read more on cnbc.com. >> an issue that hit home with a lot of these biotech companies in march when congress raised the issue. appreciate it. dallas mavericks owner mark

cuban heating up the hot list today. >> i know i'm prejudiced. i know i'm bigoted in a lot of different ways. i've said this before. if i see a black kid in a hoodie at night on the other side of the street, on the same side of the street, i'm probably going to walk to the other side of the street. >> so how will the nba react in the wake of the donald sterling racism scandal? that is next. it's one of the most talked about new cars of the year and it is right here at the new york stock exchange. coming up, we've got an up-close and personal look at the red-hot jaguar f-type. ameriprise asked people a simple question: can you keep your lifestyle in retirement? i don't want to think about the alternative. i don't even know how to answer that. i mean, no one knows how long their money is going to last.

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welcome back. pretty much only one story that's generating heat on cnbc.com head and shoulders above the rest, it involves entrepreneur and dallas mavericks owner mark cuban. speaking in a less than eloquent way about comments made by donald sterling -- >> this happened about five hours ago we put up the story. basically mark cuban, when the whole donald sterling being banned from the nba for racist comments he was making. the owner of the l.a. clippers. mark cuban said he thought the nba was on a slippery slope. he was at a conference on

wednesday, made remarks a little bit more on point and explaining his position a little more. actually even admitting that, hey, he's prejudiced and he guesses everybody else is, too. listen to the full comments. we have them right here. >> i know i'm prejudiced. i know i'm bigoted. in a lot of different ways. i've said this before. if i see a black kid in a hoodie at night on the other side of the street, on the same side of the street, i'm probably going to walk to the other side of the street. if i see a white guy with a shaved head and lots of tattoos, i'm going back to the other side of the street. right? if i see anybody that looks threatening, chances are there's part of me that takes into account race and gender and age. i'm prejudiced. >> you wouldn't believe the heat this story's been generating on the website, kelly. 30,000 people have already looked at it in the short time we've had it up. they're still piling in. there's all sorts of comments on we're up to 200 right now, pro and con. rather illuminating discussion.

that's what's really hot today. >> a lot at stake for the nba. thank you. wmpl what will the fallout be from these comments in the light of donald sterling's racist comments. adam, good to see you. you are a sports attorney. what happened what happens now? mushg cuban having said this in a public forum. what does the nba's response have to be, do you think? >> i think the first point we need to look at is mark cuban. he's a very intelligent, very well liked own the in the nba. i don't think for a second that his comments are not completely calculated in order to get a response. i think he did this to find out how the nba would react. how the media would react and how the other owners would react because i think he's one of though owners who is not going to vote to strip donald sterling of his team. and i don't think there's going to be any negative fallout from the nba against mark cuban on

these comments. >> just curious what you guys think. do you agree with what adam just said? >> i actually do agree with that. but i think that there is a different tone between the two comments. don sterling's comment caught off the cuff, showed true prejudice. i think what mark cuban is trying to be somewhat instructive about society. i almost think his comments are going to force more of a healing discussion about this issue. that's my opinion. >> kelly, what sterling said was obviously horrific. he's obviously a racist. but there's something very unsettling where you can say -- an american can lose their property for expressing an opinion. and i understand that within the nba club there's all these clauses, moral turpitude, et cetera. but the core issue of being able to lose something that you bought because of your expression of your belief really feels un-american. >> i think mark cuban basically was starting an authentic

conversation about these issues. i think that's what he was doing. and it is as simple as that. >> which is different tone and different rhetoric. >> i think he went overboard on the tmi. this whole animalcy of what side of the street am i on and so on, think it was a little overblown and really unnecessary. that took the conversation beyond where it was going to be constructive. >> that's why he's getting the hits though. >> i think all of this is especially concerning, given the fact that -- let's remember, the nba knew what donald sterling was. this isn't the first time that they knew what they had under their hat. and the players knew. the commissioners knew and the owners knew. now everybody's running to the hill because the cat's been let out of the bag. >> you're exactly right. because what happened here is -- the players love mark cuban. the players that play for him love him. players on the other teams love him. that's players of all colors, all races. they like playing for this guy, they think he's out in their corner for them.

>> he's an authentic guy. >> yeah. authentic versus sterling, who is not. i don't think these particular comments hurt mark cuban. i think it opens the conversation as many other panel lis panelists are saying. >> what kind of corner has the nba got itself in here or does the fact that mark cuban was speaking generally and publicly versus donald sterling speaking privately make these two comparable cases? >> the nba has a choice. they can either fan the flames or they can take the position that he was expressing an authentic position that he probably overexpressed himself. and the fact of the matter is i agree with jim. i think the players who play for him like him. and i think the other nba players -- in general -- like him. and oh, by the way, i think that kind of speaks to the point. he is not a committed racist. i think what he is, he's a guy

who's authentically saying i wrestle with these things, i know my weaknesses, i am a human being. i have my frailties. i have my foibles. >> just to bring this to the bottom line with regard to what happens to the team, that's what some of this comes down to. correct? is he forced -- other players or coaches force him to get rid of the team or not? what do you think after these comments from mark cuban quickly? >> i think he's tested the waters on this. i think that he's speaking on behalf of a lot of other owners who are concerned that what they say or what they do could result in their team being stripped. i think he's kind of thrown it out there and kind of giving a preview that there may not be so many owners who want to do this. >> there may not and quick resolution either. thank you for now. appreciate your perspective. there's news out on uber now. >> kelly, this about uber. again the car service, taxi service, delivery, whatever you want to call it, the company is

meeting with investors and probable discussing an investment to raise about $500 million in funding. this according to a report from dow jones citing sources familiar. this particular investment could value uber as high as $12 billion as a company, as an enterprise. possible investors again according to this dow jones report citing sources include black rock, general atlantic an technology crossover ventures. the same report also said that uber's projected revenue in the year 2015 could be as high as $1.5 billion. again, dow jones citing sources saying that uber is looking to raise $500 million in a new round of financing that could value the company as high as $12 billion. back over to you. >> wow. thank you. a lot of retailers would love to have that market cap right now. >> there's a golden bull driving in the back of the uber. >> the golden bull. the second largest lender of

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honestly, the off-season isn't i've got a lot to do. that's why i got my surface. it's great for watching game film and drawing up plays. 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! td bank up almost 3% today after beating second quarter

earnings and beating expectations. joined by ed clark, td bank group president and ceo. ed, it is great to see you again. >> it is great to see you, kelly. >> so your results were pretty strong this morning. talking about earnings up 14%. revenues better in the u.s. division looks like a bright spot. >> yeah. no. it's been pretty exciting. i was thinking about it when i took over as ceo, we were making $2 billion a year. now we are make 2g billion a quarter. all our business we're firing on all cylinders. >> wells fargo is making $6 billion a quarter. is that a target? >> i'll never catch john stock. he's a great ceo. >> meantime, so many issues buffetting your industry. can we talk about td ameritrade which looks like it saw 35% growth year on year. is the retail guy getting back in the market? >> yes.

i think they seem -- the trades have been excellent. there was a bit of a pause there but now they seem to be back again so they really have just tremendous results. had they're just an unbelievably well run company and great part of the marketplace. delivering really low cost trades for individuals and really they're at the forefront of the derivative business. they really move smartly to be where the investors are gone. >> all this amid the flash boy's discussion about whether you can trust the market and everything. clearly there is some interest of equities. in terms of your other lines, looking through for example the target card portfolio, do you think you could have got an better deal if that had happened a year later and can you tell us at all about the performance of some of those cards after that data breach? >> so, no -- well, i don't think -- you wouldn't want to take advantage of someone but i think we got a very fair deal for both of us. we are just delighted with the deal. the deal has outperform our orange nat expectations. there was a pause in terms of

our growth. so in fact our target portfolio is down a little this quarter. but that's what you sort of expected as a result of that. we are now seeing reengagement of the customers. i think you'll see growth again going forward. in terms of losses, they're very minimal. there's a lot of -- obvious concern about the breach. the fact is the consumer -- we haven't seen a lot of consumer losses. obviously we in target stand behind the consumer for those losses. >> did you tell us more broadly just from your lines of business your perspective here. what is happening with the u.s. economy? is more credit flowing? is demand picking up, and if so, where? >> i'm really bullish on the u.s. economy. i think the u.s. economy has emoti emotionally, if you want to call it, turned the corner. businessmen want to invest in.

we won't have any more fiscal nightmar nightmares. so i think the u.s. economy is recovering quite well. that doesn't mean it is not a pretty tough environment for banks. most of our peers have had, if you say they're fundamental organic growth, the revenue is actually down, not up. i think because of low interest rates and, frankly, tightening margins on the loan side. it is a tough environment to do well in right now. >> yeah, so -- the picture isn't as rosy as it appears. still operating well in a tough environment. thanks for joining us this quarter. appreciate it. ed clark, td bang group ceo and president. talks to acquire ra rival

tobacco maker. jane wells in the mile-high city talking to the ladies lighting up the legal marijuana business in colorado when we come back. if you wear a denture, take this simple test. press your tongue against it, like this.

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welcome back. there might be some new competition on the tobacco block. reynolds is in deal talks, reynold brings cigarette brands camel and pall mall to the table. lorillard makes e-cigarettes. the main question, $22.5 billion market cap for lorillard. does it happen if. >> i think things are getting a bit shaky. with the stocks moving around like it has in the past days, there is a component of this

deal when you put it together. that changes valuation. i would say things look very delicate. >> what would it mean if it goes through for this space? what about regulatory concerns? are those legitimate concerns? are those legitimate now that there are so many different kinds of e-cigarettes out there. we're talking about pot coming up. that issue as well. >> yeah. look, you're going from three to two. that's happened with beer. i think in this environment, yeah, it probably can happen. the beer in question is whether or not you have got bat involved. bat owns 42% of reynolds. according to my sources, they are looking at participating in this deal. the end of july it will become easy for bat to buy more of reynolds. >> is that going to affect the timing? >> i think it could. i think the talks have been choppy along the way. my sources tell me lorillard was getting cold feet. the fact things are heating up again doesn't necessarily mean we're in the final stages.

>> that could explain the price action we're seeing as well. good to see you. >> you too. >> now in colorado some women taking some tasty recipes and capitalizing on the state's latest thriving industry. jane with the details. i wonder if you have got some chocolate treats? >> kelly, i'm sorry i lost my phone. some breaking weather news rights now. this area of denver is under a tornado warning. we'll be that way until about quarter past the hour. they're waiting until there's a local alarm that goes off and people will evacuate if necessary to a safer part of the building. i'm going to keep talking to you even though i can't hear you. interesting things at this cannabis summit. you have vendors have pitching

these architectural firms. civil engineering. plumbing. as row houses build out here. a lot of people they're pitching to are women. story owners. manufacturers. lab techs. so many females starting to mentor each other. >> to be in this industry, you have to be bullet-proof. not only to battle banking and taxes and other people in the industry, but you have to have -- you have to be steel. >> you need steel for any business. maybe even more so for this one. because the rules are changing all the time. new labeling. limits on thc and still no banking. one of the women, she has to pay her taxes in cash. the state has put out cash counting machines. the state takes that money and puts it in the same bank that won't accept her cash. there's talk of establishing a banking co-op. at this point too many red flags. not a lot of people want to

expose their money outside of banking. back to you again. >> thank you. and please be safe out there. jane wells in denver this afternoon. everybody on the panel, they're excited about our next segment. the jaguars f type. a collection of movie bad guys driving the marketing campaign. the car is here and so is the man behind that marketing. and vladimir putin will sit down with cnbc happening tomorrow morning during squawk box at 6:00 a.m. eastern. the signing of $400 billion deal to supply china with fuel for the next 30 years. oil, ukraine, and more on the table tomorrow morning when russian president appears live on squawk box. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 at schwab, we can help turn inspiration into action

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stiff on the lip is ke stiff on the lip is key. >> we all drive jaguars. >> oh, yes, it's good to be

back. >> if you somehow missed it, that is jaguars's latest campaign featuring three actors. a big success for the company comes at a cost. joining me, jeff curry behind all of this. thank you for being here. i'm not going to pretend to know as much about cars but i would love to know what was the cost of this campaign? this was on sale for three weeks? how much do you have to make to justify that investment? >> it's really all about presenting your brand in the best light to the most consumers. not everyone is going to buy a jaguars today. it's setting the brand up for all the future jag owners and all the new models we have after this. >> is this work going to work? >> yes. it's a gorgeous car. michelle and anthony, all of you guys would look good in it.

>> how much weight? >> about 3,600 pounds. super light-weight. >> pretty awesome. >> they are top of the line $99,000 but it starts at $65,000. >> $99,000 for this car? >> for this car. it's a good deal. >> kelly, it looks like your color, too. >> yeah. i'm blending right in. >> they all turned into teen-age boys during the commercial break. >> john tried to call shotgun ahead of me. i wanted to drive. >> it's a great branding strategy. >> where did you come up with the idea? were you worried it would translate outside the uk? >> we all love villains and hollywood always casts brits to play the best ones. we're not the usual suspects where they're up setting the

traditional marketplace in luxury cars. >> you could have gone with the hero like james bond. >> we all like to be a little bad, right? >> become loveable villains. how does that work? >> we like that fun. it's that tongue and cheek humor. brits can do that. >> how much did you have to pay these guys? >> to get actors like that, they don't come cheap. but we set out to make a movie. that's what we did. when you look at the reach of the commercial, it was worth every penny. >> how many of you moved in the three weeks it's been on the market? >> the car just went on sale three weeks ago. everyone on dealer lots is already sold. we have great orders coming in. we expect people to really love this car. >> what's your next big idea? >> we're already looking at what follows british villains. the campaign runs through august. we have some great ideas coming

up for what continues the story. >> we have to go. >> your clubs in the back there. >> is it jaguars or jaguars. >> i say jaguars. >> as long as you buy it, he doesn't care. >> thanks so must have. now time for "fast money." over to the nasdaq and melissa lee. >> "fast money" starts right now. live from the nasdaq market site in new york's time squares. our traders are steve, brian, karen and guy. empty seat down there. but steve is on his way. conference call starting right now. getting the latest details from david coming up. plus, the debate over dividends that started two days ago. >> it won't be long until we all go and covet of a security deal. >> kevin, i thi