>> and ackman, by the way, is also instrumental in the canadian pacific change around as well. >> this is another way to look at it as well. very similar circumstances. >> great. a ceo in his 60s, great track record. >> nuance. greenbroir. that does it for us. "power lunch" starts right now. scott, thank you very much. gentlemen, thank you as well. with see herrera at the stock exchange, and i'm tyler mathisen. the microphones are at the ready for mary barra, who's been on capitol hill today testifying before a government oversight committee with respect to those ignition switch defects that were linked to the deaths of at least 13 individuals. here is ms. barra. let's listen in. >> i know what we need to do, and we're about doing it.

i think i'm uniquely qualified with my experience, with my knowledge of how the company works, and i know we're going to change it. we're already making great change and not only changing processes, we've addressed the people issues, but it's truly creating an environment where people feel empowered to talk and they are. >> reporter: -- saying i think there's an issue here and an internal investigation on safety issues based on -- >> there's been a number of issues. they haven't all come directly to me, but i can tell you there's been dozens, and we're addressing all of them. i can't tell you where they're at, about you they're all considered -- we're considering them to be a serious issue until we understand, but i think more importantly, what will help us change the environment at gm is not only if we find an issue and say, hey that's not a problem, making sure we go back to the xwoiee and they understand that they were heard, we acted and they feel good about it as well. >> how do you respond to do e-mail that now says it was a

safety issue. shall pointed this out as a safety issue in 2005. doesn't it undermine the lucas report saying that gm never considered this a safety issue? >> this is very difficult. if you're talking about the e-mail they put in front of me, that was not refer to the cobalt. so it was a different situation, but i think the important thing is, as it relates to stalls, we consider stalls to be a safety issue, and if it's because of a defect we're going to take action. i think we're demonstrating that. that's another important message we're sending to engineers across the company, so they know what to do. >> reporter: are you gotten to the bottom of your recalls yet? >> as we said a couple weeks ago, wee redoubled our efforts, wee added additional investigators. by the end of the month we think we'll be substantial complete. >> reporter: are you taking a kitchen sink approach to these recalls just recalling anything and everything you see. >> i wouldn't say that at all. what i would say is we've got back and looked at our internal

data, customer data, and we've mined that data to see if there's something we need to do, but also importantly with what we're creating in this integrity organization, we're looking at specific issues and making sure the systems in the vehicle work appropriately. so we're already seeing the benefit of a change we made. >> reporter: for example, in 2014 car that you're recalling, is that just because degiorgio had a design in handling the ignition switch? >> we definitely went back and looked at that, but now it's simply an insert to the key on that. >> reporter: general motors has said that it's voluntary if they want to participate in the plan. you've said that they can fight you in court if they'd like to, but anyone who -- in 2009 right now your lawyers are fighting to maintain that bankruptcy protection, that liability shield. why are you doing that?

>> the more important thing is we have a compensation program, we've hired an industry expert in ken feinberg. we have specifically said we want every single person who has been impacted, either lost a life, a loved one or physically seriously injured. i think that's what everyone should focus on. it's a voluntary program. >> reporter: they don't have any of the rights -- >> again i think we're going above and beyond, we're incredibly proud of what we're doing and it's the right thing to do and shows focus on the customer. >> reporter: any more ignition issues -- and -- [ inaudible ] >> i am 100% confident in the remedy because of the extensive testing that's been done by the organization, the validation. they have looked at it from a systems perspective. we're going to look and we're not completely done with our work yet. >> reporter: 20 million cars

this year -- >> if you look across the board, these span a wide number of years where these vehicles, and there's a wide amount of different issues. in some cases we're simply saying we need to check and make sure a connection was made. we need to check over a long period of time in a specific use situation underneath the seat, did something fray? what i think we're signaling to the public is we take safety very seriously and we're going to do the right thing, regardless of if it's a vehicle where there's 20 maid or something that happened over a longer period of time. >> reporter: the recommendations will be independent -- -- >> mr. belucas has an outstanding reputation. i'm sorry, mr. pfeiffer as well has a reputation as well of complete independence as an expert in this area, and he will be independent. he will make the decisions.

that's the way he works these programs and he's an expert at doing that. >> reporter: some of the commit company seemed to have a hard time making a distinction one person internally making a decision without changing a part number and cover-up. how do you make a distinction of what becomes a cover-up? >> again, using and embracing what was uncovered in the belucas report, if you look at that. there were many points in time -- i believe in my heart had that information been made available, had been made available to the engineers, they would have taken action, and we would have resulted in a much more expedient manner. so what i look at -- again, the term "cover-up" i think you saw in the hearing it was even the definition -- i look at what information was there, which individuals had it and did they answer questions forthright.

>> all right. >> that's mary barra stepping away from the microphones, a ceo barely six months on the job facing what arguably is the biggest safety crisis in the history of general motors we're going to wait for phil lebeau to join us. sue, you can't see almost the fire in her eyes, as she steps up and tries to make good a very difficult situation. >> absolutely. the hearings this morning did get a little testy, and she was criticized by the lawmakers, perhaps not surprisingly, gull nonetheless, i don't think it was a very easy morning for her. as she goes into the afternoon session, it will be interesting to see whether some of the same fireworks are present. one issue that came up in the hearings this morning, ty, was the fact that she has been basically a career gm employee, which in her opinion is a benefit, because she knows the company so well, but there was one lawmakers who said if you've

been there all along and you know the company so well, how could this have happened on your watch? it was a very interesting exchange between those two people. it's a two-edged sword. >> we look at the chart year to date, down about 12%. sales for gm automobiles have been remarkably resilient throughout this. i think she may have made a bit of news there when she said, sue, when asked a question about whether the recalls are finished, they've recalled something like 20 million automobile so far this year. she said she hoped to say that they would be done by the end of the month, but it's not end of the month yet, which suggests perhaps more recalls are on the way. >> right. i agree. ty, thank you very much. you're going to go to dom? right. fedex flying high today, the parcel delivery company beating earnings estimates, shares moving higher by almost $6, $7 a share. transportation storings are

having a great year, too. all-time highs for that barometer. not all transport stocks are created equal. dominic chu is here to separate the winners from the loser. we all know that airlines have been soaring, flying high all over the board. there are some standouts. here's a mystery chart for you, because this stock has done a pretty decent job, up about 66% year to date. it is an airline, but tyler, fresh off a merger, who do you think it is? >> american. >> there you go. american airlines. this is an interesting company overall. now all of a sudden you have another one here, this is a rail company. a rail company in this particular move, you can see here up year to date, this is a pretty decent-sized move. does a lot of coal, based in jacksonville. >> oh. >> csx, and one big loser, we'll

just mention quickly, on the ocean freight side, that's matsu. >> thank you very much, dom. "closing bell" has an exclusive with the ceo of fedex today, also interesting to hear from fred smith. that's at 4:00 p.m. eastern time, one of the titans of american business. sioux? stocks are kind of mixed now, waiting for the fed's decision on interest rates. so how much of an impact with the rise in geopolitical risk have. as you can see the dow is down 12 1/2, s&p is up a fraction. gentlemen, i apologize in advance for the brevity of this interview, but we had the breaking news from gm at the stop, so i beg your indulgence on that. let me start with you, alex, if i could. how dao vu the markets and what part of the globe, given your

international footprint, would you be putting money to work in? >> i think we would still remain very positive on europe. i think uk seeing some strong numbers out of that market. beginning to get -- and i think there's more that they can do going forward. we would like that market from a price act. equally from the state. we see underlying growth out of this colder winter and inactivity in the first quarter, so some accelerating growth in the u.s. as well. >> one of the issues, though, is the rise in food and energy prices. do you think that that will derail the economic recovery? and how do you feel about the market? >> i'm hoping -- >> and sue, there's a lot of reasons for it, but not the least of which i think, you know, the rise in energy prices is transitory, only in source as the is a fear of the disruption in supply, but all with his move

forward and say what does that mean? i certainly thing you can look at energy as a positive investment, and as you're looking at that, mastec might be a play. $7.3 billion project, and mastec will probably get a lot of that work. so i think, you know, investors should be looking at energy and continue to do so. >> gentlemen, thank you. i appreciate it. we'll have you back very soon. back to dominic chu for a market flash. >> check out what's happening with conagra, getting hit after the maker of hunt's and slimgym cut its expectations. conagra is down about 8% in the trade. here's some of the other food companies who are faring in response to that. dean, jn seismicer, treehouse

all down. and amazon widely expected to unveil its first smartphone at a big event in about 20 minutes' time. the event is out in seattle at headquarters there, paralaunch will be ute there. josh lipton is on the scene out there in the pacific northwest. jon fortt and julia boorstin are at the stock exchange, and we've also got top analysts waiting in the wings with their reaction. we will return in two minutes-ish. (vo) watching. waiting.

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welcome back. at session lows, barclays is lowering its price target driven by the recent price -- that stock you can currently see down over 4%. back over to you. keep an eye on oil today, militants attacking an -- michelle, what's the latest?

>> the latest according to the iraq oil report, which is the website that fog uses exclusively on the iraqi oil instrument, they say it's a stalemate when it comes to the baiji refinery. they were attacked at 4:00 a.m. the government says they're in control, sometimes they're not. we're waiting to see what happening. we also had an opportunity to interview the governor of kirkuk, who is actually a u.s. citizen, because they lived in exile in the united states for decades. he actually had a very successful practice as a neurosurgeon in washington, d.c., and in an odd twist of history, he was a very young resident at george washington university during the attempted assassination of ronald reagan. as a result, he was a member of the team, albeit a junior member of the team that helps james brady with his recovery. we sat down and talked about several key topics, failure of the iraqi army, the deep divide,

and controversial positions that senator biden took about the breakup of iraq and hoe he feels about the united states. it was a checkpoint arm. it was not an army in a sense where you have discipline, training, a commitment. that wasn't there. sectariansism is getting deeper and deeper. differences between shias and sunnis. it's not just differences, it's very deep hatred, actually. i mean, can't any longer believe people say, well, that's not true it's just a group of fanatics and all that. it's not. everybody accused united states of that, trying to split iraq into three parts, but probably that was a very, in my opinion even then, we said it was a very good article, because maybe that's the only way you can keep the country together. >> you look back on your time in

the united states fondly? >> oh, of course. the united states is a great country. i think there's no better place to live than the united states. >> is it true that the kurdish people are some of the most pro-american people in the world? >> i think so. >> reporter: he believes in what he calls a deep federalism, which is the three different regions of iraq based on ethnicity should have a lot of autonomy, with very little power given to baghdad. he thinks that would hole iraq together as a country. >> so interesting. thank you, michelle. we are just minutes away from amazon's big event. the internet giant expected to unveil its first smartphone. we'll be all over the headlines as they cross. amazon is just unchanged. that's ahead, plus -- up next, a start-up polishing the wrim's workday. >> the majority of u.s. women get a manicure every other week.

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. to the company's inhaled antibiotic for lung infections. the stock is up again. tyler, back over to you. time now for our weekly series "the power pitch" where start upfounders just have 60 seconds to convince a panel that their company has what it takes to be the next big thing. watch closely. welcome, everybody. i'm mandy drury. in just a moment's time we'll see a power pick. at that time you the viewer can grade the pitch live. grab your mobile devices, log-on to cnbc.com/vote to give this pitch a grade, we want to see what you think. get ready to start voting. here's the pitch.

>> i'm ka tina, and i'm liz whitman. we're the cofounders of manicube. >> the mission is to make the lives of working women easier. we provided affordable 15-minute manicures. we work with hr departments to perform our services in conference rooms. >> we crafted our services to be affordable, convenient and high quality. they're conspiracy to brick and mortar salons, because we leverage technology to provide easy online bookings and payments. two, we've developed protocols that are faster, mower hygienic and ute lies premium nail products. today we serve over 100 corporate offices across new york, boston and chicago, with plans to expand to the top 15 u.s. cities. >> manicures are just the beginning, our customers are busy affluent working women and

we hope to provide more service to make their lives easier. >> with us now are the cofounder. on our panel is kate shillo. that focuses on early stage companies. before this she was director of operation. and from silicon valley is sonia hoel perkins, also cofounder of broadway angels. she has invested in more than 50 companies, a few that have paid multibillion dollar valuations. on our panel from san diego is janis jordan, president and ceo of multiminx nail, a company that created a solid coating that you essentially shrink wrap onto your nails. the designs are used by thousands of manicurists for celebrities and across the

world. great to have you all with us. girl power on "power pitch" today. thank you very much for joining us. you are in the hot seat. kate, would you like to go first? >> can you tell me about the differentiating supplies that you use that differentiate you from brick jammed mortgager stores? >> our service is designed tore convenient, affordable and upscale. not only is it 15 minutes and right down the hall. it's the same price you would pay at the corner nail salon. in terms of our supplies, we use premium brands, single-yew files and buffers. >> what about you? >> how do you make money? and how does the employee make money? this question is for liz. >> i could go into the cost profile specifically. what i can say is we are fortunate in that our business model is essentially the economics of a nail salon without the larger fixed cost. over a third of our customer base is getting 25 manicures or

more per year with us. >> janis? >> how do you train and maintain the manicurists? how do you keep them stock? >> we have a rigorous hire, we hire the creme de la creme, put them through our training and they're trained on our protocol, so the manicure you get will be the same in l.a. at a law firm. >> out of the companies that you have currently signed on, how many customers return ever week. >> over a third good they every other week or more frequently. >> why not cater to men as well? >> we have a service designed specifically for men, it's called the men's clip and clean. it ends with a buff and sign. about 8% of our customers today are men. >> are you profitable in any cities yet? >> we're profitable on a gross profit basis with every single visit. so every day that we go out and perform, you know, 10, 12, 20, 25 manicures, we are profitable.

>> we heard what they had to say about it. are you in or are you out? this includes, by the way, you, the viewer. time to get our year phones or go on your computer and vote live. visit cnbc.com/vote, and see if your vote patches our panelists. kate, what did you think? >> in or out? >> i'm interested more to learn about scale, exit strategy, and see more about the margins. i'm tentatively in. >> sonia, what about you? >> i still have questions about the service model. i was trying to think of shoe shine businesses or barbers that have gone public or sold for a lot of money. i haven't seen a lot of that, so i am out, but i wish you the best of luck. >> janice, you're the deciding vote. >> it's a growing industry. the time is now, where a manicure is in, your outfit is not complete without it. we do this at minx, at hq, where we get a manicurist it and our

employees love it. i am in. >> two ins and one out. what is your reaction? >> we wish we had a lot more time so we could take everyone through and answer questions about logistics and how we plan to scale, because we do have a thorough plan and thinking about expanding, we're excited about the progress and hope to continue to serve working women. >> best of luck with all your goals. and also a big thank-you to our panelists today, kate, sonia and janice. the live voting is just about to close, so thank you very much, viewers, for your in our out. that's today's "power pitch." >> fascinating. 58% of you said no, you would not back in venture. 42% are in. let's look again at the grading that you gave the pitch on how the manicould you ladies. 35% an a, 12% a b, 12% a c, 11%

a d, 30% didn't like them at all, kind of the opposite of a bell kiffin curve. >> that kind of divided up that group, didn't it? i thought they were great. >> my wife would sign up immediately. >> it basic lip would be the only way i would be able to get a manicure these days. the fed is set to release its statement, and right at the top of the hour, yellen's news conference is right after that. rick santelli is at the bond market and what they're anticipating. hey, rick. >> hi, sue. i hope the press conference doesn't have as tough a crowd as the poor young ladies had. interest rates, we're down a couple basis points. but what's fascinating is the five year and yields are actually down more, double that. if we look at fives versus tens, we could see today it actually steepened a couple basis points, but remember, that particular

spread a multiyear flat. if we look at the dollar index today, it's drifting a bit lower, but really the key chart is the next chart. month to date. this is all we've down. remember, look at the scaling, 80.40, to 80.80. less than half a cent closing range for basically the entire trading month. tyler, sue, back to you. >> thanks, rick. i'll take it. well, happening right now in seattle, amazon unveiling a brand-new product, widely expected to be the company's first smartphone. our panel of reporters and experts are standing by. jon fortt is monitoring the event from the breaking newsdesk back at headquarters. he'll bring us the latest. julia is looking at the content play, morgan brennan on whether venture into mobile is a smart play, and also the top internet analyst waiting in the wings as well, but first we'll start with jewel gentleman? >> reporter: amazon's phone is about keeping consumers in the

ecosystem. buying and consuming everything from music and videos to books and games. it's no surprise that today ace phone unveil comes a week after amazon launched a streaming music service, subskrishers of the $99 prime service. it's been investing and creating original content and licensing more videos to keep people using and signing up for prime, which already has about 20 million subscribers. streaming all that video will be easy if, as reported, amazon partners with at&t to allow people to stream more video without racking up data fees. the other content play, selling the nearly quarter million app., including games that are available on amazon's app. store. if amazon's new device that is 3-d capability, that could be a huge win for developers to augment their games, which is not available on the android or ios platforms, and could be be a big win for gamers. tyler, sue? >> ty, up to you. thank you, sue.

let's take a note at 1:30, amazon stock was p 25.90, so use that is aural your benchmark as we compare how the stock does on this product announcement. apple and samsung lead the crowded well-established business for smartphones right now, so why would amazon want a piece of that pie when others have failed? it's a question the ceo of one major mobile carrier is asking and morgan brennan now with that side of the story and names we might remember or that company was sooner forget. >> amazon has a long-term gold of being exercise, but in a sharply worded tweet, he wrote -- let's home op zone doesn't fall victim for the at&t curse that is the facebook phone, #onemonth. he's walking about the htc first failed miserably. google is in the game as well.

the operating system powers many mobile devices, but the own smartphone, the nexus series, that sold directly through google play, and now we dug deep boo the archives espn's mvp phone. espn and vising teamed up to keep sports fans up to date on scores and news. steve jobs shared some harsh words about this device, but guess what? apple also had a dud. an i tune phone. it could make calls and hold up to 100 itunes song. for amazon, this is all about a brand extension play, a phone means you're inside the ecosystem and likely to buy products from them. think of it like the kindle, but one big step further. tyler and sue, back to you. >> you know, in these cases, i'm looking, with the exception of that itunes phones, it's all cases where companies that aren't device makers are trying to brand phones. i guess google is a device maker now, but facebook and htc.

maybe that's the catch there. and people like to buy a phone from somebody they think is a device maker, like an apple or a samsung. >> that's a fair point. we'll have to see what happens. >> erickson, weren't they a maker. don't forget to tune into "amazon rising" sunday, june 29th, 9:00 p.m. eastern and pacific. interesting show, i am sure, there. breaking news. let's look at the stock, 325.90. it's taken a major drop, 15 cents lower now, morgan. 325.79. we're awaiting the start of the launch event. we're also, of course counting down to the fed, the latest statement and economic forecast, and then rover janet yellen's news conference. we're going to take a quick break and bring you back to tackle these two big stories for wednesday.

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all right. let's get some reaction ahead of the announcement by amazon, which is now trading at 325.69.

joining us on the news line is aaron kessler, analyst at raymond james. nice to have you here. >> good to be here. is that a good move for amazon? >> i think amazon is looking to gain further market share of the media segment, whether it's video games, music, and launching a phone is one way to do that. obviously we think the phone will be low priced to try to get more users, and clearly amazon leverages the razr brand model. >> are they up to taking on a samsung. >> so far they've shown that they're wills to stick it out

there. if they -- i think amazon has wanted to take a longer-term view, and i think they're looking to gain more share europe as well. >> i assume it makes you more bullish? >> i think more, but i think it's probably too early to say if it will be successful, but increme incrementally, i think it's a right move. we're going to take a quick break, but aaron will stay with us. ty, up to you. and we will have more on that announcement with our panel on that major news event. we're also counting down to the federal reserve statement and the forecast on the economy. it became an evening more important meeting. we're just minutes away from janet yellen's news conference. the last time she had a news conference, she made news. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 trading inspires your life.

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welcome back. jeff bezos is on sale. we he said 60,000 customers applied to be at the event. 300 were accepted. the most important news is the business model amazon will pursue. we'll let you notice when there's more news. >> jon fortt, thank you very much. it will be interesting to see him. we don't see him too often. happily we quite often see phil lebeau. >> j.d. power every years surveying owners of new vehicles after 90 days, and that's when they get the initial quality survey. for the second straight year, they show the initial quality of new vehicles has slipped. not a lot, but just a bit, dropping about 3%. j.d. powers says the top complaint, more problems with the tech features, especially

voice-activated software, bluetooth, which brands at the top of the list? porsche with the fewest reported followed by jaguar, lexus, hyund hyundai, and toyoda. where did general motors raven? three out of four gm brands ranked above the industry average, in other words having fewer problems reported than the industry average. so for general motors, this is the second straight year where their brands have done better than the industry average when it comes to initial problems being reported by new buyers. tyler, back to you. >> phil lebeau, thank you very much. do you think amazon launching a 3-d smartmoan will -- the results are next, and we are just minutes away now -- actually 15:28 from the fed's statement, janet yellen's live news conference follows shortly after that. we'll be right back after this short break.

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18% say yes, definitely, 43% say no, 39% say probably, but consumers would have to buy the phone first, but i guess that is part of the condition in this. let's see what's coming up on "street signs." hey there, ty, a big event. first of all there's a fed policy announcement due at 2:00 p.m. sharp. when the consensus is for no surprises, be real careful if there are some prices for the market. and we'll start the show about five minutes early, but guess what if a whole pile of other big stuff. all excitement over an amazon 3-d phone, and over possibly faulty ignition switches. lots of things happen. it's going to be a big show. join us five minutes earlier than normal. that's in about eight minutes' time. mandy, let's go to jon fortt, who has new information. hi, jon. >> hi, tyler. jeff bezos has made it clear from the beginning of this

presentation this about prime, it's about loyalty for amazon. he put up a chart showing growth in prime subscribers. and pay an annual fee. amazon wants loyalty. now he's talking about hardware. he says amazon has sold tens of millions of kindles. that's the closest we've gotten -- kindle tablets that have been told. we expect to hear about a phone, but overall, this is not about the hardware itself. it's about the service behind it, how it drives prime and how it potential drives further purchasing of digital goods or even package goods. remember, they're getting into the grocery business as well. >> right. absolutely they are. we want to remind our viewers at 1:30 p.m., the price on amazon stock was 325.91, and right now the market likes it a bit better than it did earlier. joining us on the news lines is aaron kessler senior internet

analyst at raymond james. i notice that you've lowered your rating slightly on am zonen zone from strong buy to outperform. the price target moved to 391. does this announcement make you feel like you want to change that again or not? >> i think it's too early for that. the reason we've had a change, we saw less leverage in the model than we were expecting. revenue growth is largely in line, but amazon is largely becoming an -- we didn't see that. we think it's probably an investment period over the next couple years. that doesn't mean we're negative. >> do you happen to know what percentage roughly of amazon's sales take place on mobile phones? >> we've seen not specifically for amazon, but a lot of e-commerce rates in the 15 to 20% range currently, but we think longer term that's likely

going to 30%-plus. >> if anyone can pull this over and go up against the likes of apple and samsung, my money would be on jeff bezos. he's extremely dynamic guy, and he thinks out of the box. where others have fail, he might be able to succeed. >> in the opening comments he's talking about patience, persistence and attention to detail. he says that's why amazon prime has been so successful. i think it's interesting that they're making prime about the center of this. it's about keeping within that amazon content ecosystem. now they have the music, they have the books, you know, they have the video, and they're really investing in making that entertainment content value and appealing, so you don't have a reason to go anywhere else. >> does it play into the hands of critics, he sends lots of money b. had you he's not making a profit? >> in the short term.

i think a lot of people don't understand the hardware strategy. he has built up a situation where there's not a lot of downside risk for launching this hardware. he's got a kindle business that already is in the tens of millions, so he 'buys components at a good price. when he launches a phone, he can use some of that leverage to do that. he doesn't have to take on apple or psalm sung. what he needs to do is target that amazon customer and get them to buy more. we've got to go, because the fed decision is coming up, right, ty? >> that's "power lunch." "street signs" follows after this.

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welcome to a special "street signs", everybody. we not only have the fed interest rate decision due in minutes, then the press conference about a half hour from that, but we just got breaking news from amazon.com. >> let's get straight to jon fortt. tell us all about it, jon. >> it's the amazon fire phone, mandy, 4.7-inch screen, 2.2 gigahertz qualcomm we suspect processor, aluminum buttons, camera in the front, rubber around the sides.

jeff bezos say this is about prime, about 4r0i89. they've been working on hardware for ten years now when you count the original kindle, that they know how to do this and they're going to do it right. we haven't heard yet the business model. will they subsidize data plans? how much is this going to cost? what else might be included? those things will drive the stock of this company house, what the revenue upside might be for them going forward. that continues. of course and we're continuing to follow it, mandy and brian. >> indeed we are. we're checking on the stock as well. at this stage it's completely unchanged, but ever so slightly moving to the down side. >> jon, very quick question. are they just completely unaware, or completely unconcerned about the federal reserve decision? four minutes? who launches a new product three minutes before a fed rate decision? >> i'm going to go with unconcerned, brian. >> well, so much for yellen. at least we'll give her a big

front and center press conference in our show. we've got stocks here, just the very, very slight down side to the s&p, the dow and nasdaq right now. if idea we do close down today, everybody will depend, stocks will be down for the first time in four days, what is doing well is the dow utilities hitting another record high. let's look at what treasuries are up to, the ten-year note currently yielding 2.621%, of course they gained on the back of the inflation numbers. we'll see what kind of reaction there is to what yellen says. gold meantime, a three-week high on the back of everything happens in iraq. right now very, very slightly to the down side. it's currently sitting at 1271 per troy ounce. let us bring in our all-star fed panel. joining us is david kelly, also russ kostrich.

any expect of anything from the fed today? >> yeah, i don't think there had be any change to the quantitative easingport or interest rate past, but they will be changing their forecast. three new people are among the 16 making forecasts this time around, i think they will nunch down their forecast of unemployment, nudge up their forecast to inflation in 2016, so the really interests thing is will they nudge of the trajectory even a little. that could have a bond market reaction. >> a stock market reaction as well, david? >> i presume it would, but as usual. the stock market will be a mixed picture. >> russ, what are your expectations here? when the consensus is there shouldn't be any surprises from the fed, it kind of scares me. the market could react. >> i think that's fair. i think we're going to see a slightly more hawkish tone, just racing the prospects that an initial rate hike might happen

earlier. to some extent the market has been more bullish than the fed, so we may see the expectation coming along with the fed. so me one of the most interesting things will be will the fed provide clarity about how they think about the employment picture, any indication about whether or not they're focusing on long term versus short term unemployment. that will tell us how worried they are about inflationary pressures building up in the labor market. >> yeah, and david, i think that's the thing, so the inflation story seems to be the one story. do we go ahead some harsh words from yellen that maybe moves her a little more hawkish? >> no, i think she will try and talk down any worries about inflation, but the facts are the facts. the truth is we've got about 80% of the way towards full employment as defined by the federal reserve using the unemployment rate. you know, that does mean there will be higher inflation if we don't see something to slow this economy down. it just doesn't have that much

capacity to grow. >> let's very quickly look at the markets ahead, ahead of the decision here. we've currently got the ten year at 2.63%, the dow only slightly to the down side. let's now get to steve liesman with the fed decision over to you, stevie. >> federal reserve taper by $10 billion brings down the mortgage-backed security down, treasury purchases now down to $20 billion. the total now $35 billion, now half of what the highest level was when the fed began tapering in december. the fed very much yew boilerplate language against when it comes to policy. it will continue reinvesting. the highly accommodative policy remains appropriate. the current target rain of zero to a quarter will remains appropriate for a considerable time. addial