tv Street Signs CNBC August 26, 2014 2:00pm-3:01pm EDT
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higher, albeit on low summer volume. >> this is a much bigger shot in south houston, a major fire engulfing basically a warehouse, and you can see the smoke. we're told from miles and miles away. we'll continue to monitor it. that's it for "power lunch." "street signs" begins now. how does a 200% gain sound to you in my guess is not bad. details on that ahead. plus are you still looking to get into stocks? we're going to make sure you are not buying at the highs. the real deal behind warren buffett's burger king push. are you working from home right now? watch out, yew boss may be watching you. >> that was awfully long and awkward piece of music. yes, i would like a 200%
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return on my money. that is exactly what the s&p has given you if you got it any depths of 666 back in march of 2009. whatever you want to say about volume, it is still the best august in 14 years. this month alone the s&p is up almost 4%, and the dow has a report intraday high. let's now go to bob pisanis who is also known to rockwell. consumer confidence back at the highs of october 2007, not surprising, because many people, our viewers, going home, pulling open their statements, and it looks pri good. is the past of least resistance still higher? >> yes, it is it's continuing because of low rates. how about the what? a lot of people keep asking me, what? what's going to derail the rally? it's a very simple one. the number one rally killer
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would be a rapid rise in interest rates. if you see that ten-year go from 2.4 to 3.5 in some short period of time, it's over for the stock market. most people don't feel that's going to happen. that's it. i also get worries about whether or not we're peaking out in earnings. i don't see it right know or no earnings growth, but i'd like to see more capital investment, that's for sure. what we've got today, a little bit of interest, as oil had been down, even today oil wen up and dame down. elsewhere, very low volume, there are some of these eamericans market etfs, suddenly they're hot again. this is turkey, south africa. brazil small caps, b.r.f. this indicates to me that the rally is broadening out, they're looking at tertiary groups.
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this is the biggest of the etfs out there. we're sitting at an 18-month high. browsening out is good. markets hitting lots of new highs, but on some of the lowest volume of the year. david kelly and federated investor -- steve ot both join us now. steve, let me start with you. a moment ago bob was saying the number one rally killer in his mind could be a rapid rise in interest rates. do you agree, or do you see it as something else? our guest yesterday said it would be a recession in the u.s. economy. >> no, i don't think it takes a resays, about a 3.5% rapid rise, i would agree with bob, would probably cause a correction in the rally, but we think that would be a huge buying opportunity if we go the it. by the way, we don't see that happening at all. even with all this good economic news today, the ten-year is
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being very well-behaved. even if it did, mandy, you know, we think or 2500 forecast on the s&p, which you've had out there for a couple years, we've got that based on a 4.5% ten-year. with the s&p at fair value, maybe 18 times at 4.5% on the ten-year. i don't think it's a killer of the secular bull market, but a big quick move, which we don't expect, but it's certainly going to be a buying opportunity. >> when you talk about buying opportunities, steve, it feels like -- i don't want to use the word "correction" because that suggests 10% or mo, but they're coming in shallower and shallower. what do you make of that? is it telling us something? also the incredibly low volume. >> people have been complaining about the low volume all the way off the lows in '09.
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it'sing an unusual rally, because i think it's the lack of retail interest. retail is yet to come into this market, so, you know, the low volume thing has been an ongoing issue. i put out a piece two, three weeks ago advising people they're just shorter and shallow ever than everyone thinks, and, you know, that to me is bullish. when you see the market can't hold a correction for more than a few days, and never as deep as everyone wants, you know, that gives you a sense of where the market is going. >> david kelly, i don't have any sleepwalking synonyms, but i do have this. 17 years of doing this job, people at home think this way -- it can't go higher, it can't go higher, it can't go higher, heck with it, now i'm going to buy stock,ened any this it tends to
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roll over. is this that time again? >> i don't think we're quite at that point yet, but i think we'll venchsually end up there. even if the federal reserve is talking about tightening, the bank of japan is so easy, the ecb is so easy, it's pouring liquidity into markets. that's what's holding down the u.s. interest rates. we're getting economic gain is no interest rate pain, but also there's a recipe to eventually cause a stock market bubble. the bigger risk is always going to be buying too late rather than selling too early. is it not? >> it's a roller coaster. i think you have to stay on this at the moment while the u.s. economy continues to improve and we're confident about easy money
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out of the europe and japan. eventually this will change, but right now, i would rather by in stocks -- >> you want to get the last word in there. >> i want to say we've all been trained on you start off this program off the lowing of '09. we're only 25% off the 1999 levels, so over 13 years, so the market just broke through the '99 range last year at this time. we think this market is heading much higher, people are so trained on expecting a major correction that that provides the worry we think for an economy that's doing well, probably accelerating, good earnings. >> steve and dave, we've got to go, this has been the home of hope-ium for more than three years. >> yes. >> but at the same time you
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can't just cheerlead from our end. there are risks out there. guys, thank you. the s&p 500 is now up 200% since the 2009 lows. if you missed out, listen, be careful. nothing does go up forever, or at least it shouldn't. let's going more strategy advice and tack about what's happening inside the market. mark, you probably heard that last dialogue. nobody is trying to throw water on this rally, it's been solid, exciting, but what are they doing now? are mom and pop finally getting off the investing couch? >> we've just looked through the second quarter results of some of the major asset managers in the united states. what we are seeing are three distinct trends. the first is money is actually flowing back into the asset management industry at a rate faster and higher than we have seen in more than a year. what's interesting is where
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those funds are actually flowing to. they're going into index funds. so in the great debate between passive versus active management, passive gained ground in the second quarter. and in that space, i would mention as well, smart beta has been very, very hot. the second trend that we saw in the marketplace was money coming out of money market funds, and this was largely due to regulation, reforming had not yet been finalized at the end of the second quarter, so many investors stepped away from that particular asset class. the final thing we learned, looking again at roughly 14 major asset managers is that this is a great time to be a traditional asset manager with stocks up in the first quarter, bonds up -- excuse me stocks and bonds up in the second quarter, emerging markets up, assets under management rose, revenues rose, and the firms are doing extremely well. >> just a moment ago, steve said
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he feels the retail investor hasn't even begun to get into this market. what do you think will happen from here? and to our earlier point. are they getting in a little too late, mark? >> it's a little difficult to say whether they're getting in too late or too earlier early, but what we see is the way they are getting into the market is through the index funds. so they're going in in a passive instrument, which to us means it may be a slightly more conservative or cautious approach to getting into the market. >> so what's the advice then for moody's mark? what are you telling your clients out there? >> our group is responsible for rating the asset managers, the debt issued by asset managers. they have not traditionally been issuing debt. they have been doing so in the last couple quarters, they are highly rated investment great companies, and we think they're going to continue to perform. >> why does an asset manager, who is not building a factor
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need to issue debt? >> that's a very good question. what they are doing is a couple things, we're seeing more m & a in the asset management industry. some of that is being funded with debt. the second thing is asset managers are starting to use their own money to seed new investments that will attract very investors to get these new products up and running by sort of putting their own skin in the game. >> thank you very much for joining us today. >> meg tirrell has some breaking news for you. valiant already allergan situation, sources say allergan plans to announce it intends to hold that special meeting that valiant and bill ackman have been pushing for. with a planned special meeting to be held december 18th. this is the special meeting that valiant and bill ackman have
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been pushing for. now that burger king and tim horton's are a couple which other chains would be a good match for each other? you have your opinions, and thank you very much for them. in fact we'll be reading your tweets. >> first, possible corruption, freezing a deal with apple and the l.a. school system, guess who is going to suffer? that's right, the students. a sad story, coming up. n happen. with fidelity's guaranteed one-second trade execution, we route your order to up to 75 market centers to look for the best possible price, maybe even better than you expected. it's all part of our goal to execute your trade in one second. i'm derrick chan of fidelity investments. our one-second trade execution is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. call or click to open your fidelity account today.
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companies have ceos, why can't a federal health care plan? meet the first ceo of obamacare. thank you very much for joining us today. i want to ask you this to start. you were returning the connecticut exchange and people considered it to be one of the better wubz. why are you taking on this tough national job with a website that's infamous for a lot of problems. and to try to make the enrollment and renewal process as easy as possible. i'm very much looking forward to it and proud to be proud of the team. there will be a new enrollment in just a few weeks. are all the problems fixed? >> i don't start the job until september 8th, so i'm probably
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not in the best position, but what i can tell you is that we're really one third along in the progress to fully implement this law. we're at the top of the third of a nine-inning game. so there's going to be meteorology progress, more work, but every year it will get better and easier. >> you had a lot of cuedoing for how you handled connecticut. reports are that other states have reached out for advice. who were some of those states? >> well, you know, i can't really share the names of the states with you, but you know, we definitely believe that there's a big opportunity to make this scalable, and that the more lives that enroll through a common platform can reduce the transaction costs, make it cheaper, and make it easier. and i think there will be plenty of opportunities, both at the state and federal level to do that. >> can you tell us if they're
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contiguous, east or west of the mississippi? red or blue? i won't pressure you on that. don't worry. >> that's okay. i would tell you that i know connecticut is having some good discussions with several states, and we'll see what happens. >> a question, though. healthcare.gov, you're the first ceo. what is healthcare.gov? is this a new sort of big government agency? 200 people? what is it? >> well, healthcare.gov is the portal. it's the enrollment and renewal portal for the affordable care act. already in place are 300 skilled professionals at the center for consumer insurance and information oversight. there's a number of folks who have been implementing this law for years, and i'm looking forward to being part of the team. >> with the open enrollment i was talking about, approximately how many people do you expect to sign up?
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>> you know, i don't know yet. i'm not trying to be coy with you. i'm so new, i don't believe that i could really say that. but what i can say is this -- i think that there's a lot of opportunity to take private sector principles around clarity of purpose, around accountability, around establishing key goals, defining metrics around that that are already applying for healthcare.gov, and i look forward to being part of that team and continuing to promote that. >> i love what you're saying there, kevin. if you could bring one thing from the private sector, one lesson that you have learned, to washington, what would it be? >> accountability. i think having clear lines of accountability, where people know what they are responsible for, it's well defined, that they're given the resources needed to implement and that
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they're managed. that's something that i know is very much aligned with secretary burwell's vision and something i know worked fairly well for us in connecticut. >> best of luck, kevin. we really hope you'll come on again maybe a bit into the job to give us an update. thanks and good luck. >> it would be a pleasure. thank you. meantime, a sad story from the los angeles school system. it looks like the students will not all be getting. cnbc -- and it involves some possible improper connections possibly with apple and/or pearson, the educational software company itches the los angeles schools superintendent is a fan of apple, maybe too much of a fan. "los angeles times" is reporting that the superintendent, john deasy suspended future use of a contract with apple that would
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provide computers to all students. that comes days after disclosures that the superintendent had very close ties to executives at apple and pearson, the company providing the curriculum on the devices which might have influenced the bidding process for that contract. for example, the initial rules for winning the contract appeared to be tailored to the products of the eventual winners. a lot of money is at stake. the initial $30 million was expected to expand to about $500 million. apple's ipad does boast a commanding presence in the american classroom. it enjoys about 90% of the market share for tablets, that's according to an analyst at idc, including kindergarten through 12th agreed. the product still doesn't account for about 20 march of apple's revenue. this issue doesn't look like it's going away. the teachers' union want an official investigation, and the superintendent does deny any
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wrongdoing. mandy, back to you. >> it's all about the kids. i hope they win out in the long run. have you ever found yourself at work being distracted by maybe facebook, a little tweeting, brian, planning a travel, or maybe even fantasy football. >> should i take a kicker in the fifth round or sixth round? >> definitely the seventh round -- is there a seventh round? i have no idea. so could work at home employees actually be more productive. your 16-year-old daughter
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liberty mutual insurance. if you dream of eliminating the daily work commute, wish you could do your job from the comfort of your own home, listen up. this is the story for you. our next guest says that both size of the deeply polarizing work from home debate has the story all wrong. joining us is professor of management and entrepreneurs. that's quite a title, charlie. great to have you with us. how do we have it all wrong? >> so the issue that people talk about is telecommuting. but that's not the issue. the issue is really supervision,
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management, trust, and really engagement 679 i think last year the gallup study said that 80% of all employees are disengaged. whether it's from home or from work, it really comes down to whether or not the employers are engaging their employees. that's what i think is the issue. >> you're putting the onus on the employer and not the employee. it's the employer's fault if the employee is not engaged, it's up to you to call them, have them on skype or something, it's up to the employer? >> i think it's the job of the employer. as people get in the room, we have this false sense of security if they're in the room, i can watch them working, but my job as employers is to manage mire people, and i constituent up a structure where i can communicate with them. whether or not they're in one cubical over or a thousand miles away, it's still the same thing. >> doesn't is it come down to the person on the other side. there is a lot of people who will work diligently at home.
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my commute stinks, it's long, it eats my day, it serves no purpose other than destroying the environment and causing me great frustration, but for some people, it's like, there's the fridge and the kids, whatever. it depends on the worker, doesn't it? >> absolutely. that's the job of the employer. mean an employer's job is to identify the right workers, to set up a structure where you can monitor their performance. >> how do they do that? if i'm the boss and i want to hire somebody to telecommute, is there some question i can ask them where i can't say -- >> you can tell by their product. a lot of time what's happening is they're gauging the performance based on hours. when they log in hours, they must be doing work, which is the whole issue that came up with the uspto, but there's so many metrics. they accomplishing their jobs?
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when employers or managers are in touch with their employees supervising the product, they are able to use gauge points, and then you make that assessment. you know, i thought you could communicate, but i didn't realize you work on a kitchen table with your kids around. you, by the way, have an extra room in the house you can go to? that's all part of the dynamics to make sure the force is as efficient as possible. >> that's a great point. i would ask that -- do you have a room with privacy? >> absolutely. i have someone, for example in my office, my right hand, telecommutes two days a week. we sat down, when i found out she was traveling for two hours for, do you have a room? is it conducive? am i putting you in a product that will only hurt your. >> we have work in a very busy newsroom. we sit near the doors. we're constantly interacting.
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>> signing autographs. >> i hate to see it, where it can be counter product i have been. if i was at many how in the quiet, i would probably get more done. it depends on the person, the situation, the job. it has a lot of different influencing factor. we have to leave it there, charlie. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank us for having me. fancy some waffles with that cheesesteak or wings with your noodle? what other restaurant matchups might be made in heaven? student for our list. and u.s. gun sales have hit record highs since the president's reelection, but have gun sales finally peaked? we'll have a preview of smith & wesson, as well as a guy that's been bullish on the stock for 25 years. what does he think now? stick around. how about over there?
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time for requesting street talk" first up we have pepsi, namura commenting on the business in russia. it remains concerned. if you ever needed an example of how the russia/ukraine is escalating. >> they also say not much to be gained if they bow to shareholder pressure and try to split the company up. it remains a rating of reduce and a nasty price target of 81. stock number two, goldman sachs being initiated with a buy rating. >> stock's up two tenths of 1%. bruised but not beaten. they say, listen, all negative attacks largely dissipating for goldman, and trading activity has likely bottomed.
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>> and analysts talking up corning this morning. >> glw, glassworks, is the ticker. they think cash flows and return on equity have room to grow. their rating stays at outperform, but one thing to note, the ceo of corning just filed a 130,000 sharing. >> symptom number four started with a buy. >> an interesting call. it's about but a be part of their thesis is that cray would benefit from the sale of the business to lenovo, enabling cray to perhaps slip in there. >> talking of slipping in, under the radar is affiliated managers. you know, this actually feeds
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into a seg muppet. >> moody's was talking about was they -- this is a roll-up investment firm. credit sweet met with affiliated managers management last week, they reiterate this as their top long idea for the second half of the year. the ticker amg. they are not the ones that trick out the mercedes. time now for "talking numbers." let's talk best buy. it has been anything but form the stock is down 24% this year. aaron ghibs and todd gordon are joining us. aaron, fundamentally, best buy, bullish or bearish? >> we have it on a couple model portfolios. they are very much in the midst of a turnaround story. they have to shift their revenues more to online and that's what they've been doing. part of being more online focused, not only increases your
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revenues, but also cost-cutting. so they cut their expenses by 11% last quarter, so it's exactly what we wanted to see them do, as well as really focusing on integrating their multichannels, being able to leverage both those stores and the online experiences. now, so far all the we've seen is that margins have been able to greatly expand while revenues are still seeing relatively flat, though we're seeing great traction in the online business with about a 22% increase. if they can keep this up, there is hope that they can really adjust to this new economy of retail -- of the retail consumer, and see the growth come back. got it, so you're counting on a little hope there. what about the technical side. what are we looking at? >> unfortunately best buy has to prove something to us first before we can get behind the fundamental story that erin is speaking of. the big gap we saw in january when they reported horrible
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holiday sales, they're still recovering from that massive gap in all. we've only managed to cover about half of that gap. and right now what we've seen is best buy settling into a range. it's caught between the 200-day moving average, and about a 3325 level, which has served as a double top. between 30 and 33 1/4, i would say best buy needs -- you kind of stay away. once it gets above that and closes the gap, i would say away. >> got it. thank you very much to both of you for that. there are many other vignettes like this in partnership with yahoo finance. yeah, it does seem like a lot of a valuation. there's a lot more to the site than just those lists. we'll have the full story for you. plus 14 reasons why burger king's deal for tim horton has everybody thinking who might be
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next? we've got some ideas, but they are about food, not about taxes. a big merger like this, to talk about anything except for the quality of the experience and the quality of the food always seems strange. they're talking about who will pay more or less taxes, which is all good at fine, but at the heart of the matter, they companies that serve food. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 trading inspires your life. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 life inspires your trading. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 where others see fads... tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 ...you see opportunities. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 at schwab, we're here to help tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 turn inspiration into action. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 we have intuitive platforms tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 to help you discover what's trending. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and seasoned market experts to help sharpen your instincts. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 so you can take charge tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 of your trading.
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joining us is the lovely kelly evans. >> brian, are you ready? >> i feel like a european soccer player. i'm on loan. and you want first off, i need to correct something you said. you said supposedly the most important out of the trading day? i'm co-hosting the show. >> what a turncoat. >> my greatest asset is my
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humility. are you ready? >> i am, and brian, it's going to be a great one, actually because of what the markets are doing. we've already had both of s&p and report intraday highs. there's a lot to watch for. that's why i want, are you ready? >> listen, within time on "closing bell" we hit a dow record. you never know. i have three pens. i look forward to it. >> the great hair, yes, we do. i have to he said the u.s. stock market was uninvestable, it wasn't quite ready to shore it, but look, we'll ask the question again, seen if perhaps he's chastened by what he said last time. >> well, the buzzword for our show today, which i would argue is the most important trading hour of the day is accountability. >> yes. always important. and brian, your held fully accountable for what happens next hour. >> yes, ma'am.
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i'll do as i'm told. thank you, kelly. >> thanks, kelly. check this out. this is not just a pure tax play, burger king moving from canada to florida won't actually be cutting the tax bill. canada has lower ratesings but not the same huge tax savings as ireland. all in burger king probably pays the exact same rate as in the u.s. this deal is largely motivated by the need for higher growth. pure and simple. let's face it. the -- when it come to purveying food -- you put these two together and you have a chains with serious international sales growth potential. that's what i think will be unlocked here. >> there you go. he couldn't agree with it more. the deal is really not about taxes. there might be a small benefit, but it's about a fast-food combo. >> so brian, we thought we might try to match up a few other names in the sector. what have you come up with, bri?
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>> my first deal book jack-in-the-box buying krispy kreme. there's no other rationale art that krispy kreme has not done well, and this is nearly a copycat deal a burger king/tim horton. >> that one makes sense. >> my second pick would be dine equity, the parent company of applebee's and i hop buying blooming brands. they ooutback, bonefish, they own royce, so they have a full complement. dine equity does not though those kind of names. dine equity's to be is worth something, bloomin' brands is falling. they seem to complement each other geographically. plus bloomen brands was started by chris sullivan, tampa,
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florida. >> we do not eat them down under. i had one opportunity and one missed opportunity. i'm going to start with the missed opportunity in light of the fact back in 2006, mcdonald's the largest, chipotle grill sold its share, and they're probably going gah, what has chipotle down? it's up over 600%. still there's some speculation that mcdonald's might be interested in doing something. >> i think chipotle could buy mcdonald's. >> it's a missed opportunity. talk about an opportunity, buffalo wild wings and domino's getting in bed together. what's better? a football game, you're sitting on the couch, you know, what's better than wings and pizza? >> i'll tell you why that deal would never work. domino's already sells wings, plus they're not a dine-in,
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they're a takeout. >> that is true, and we're having a big debate about this. but why not combine the two? do both? why do you have to be both dine-in? >> maybe you don't. stretch out. >> yeah, you never no. domino's would buy buffalo wild wings. >> that's what i mean. >> domino's buying buffalo wild wings. >> we'll see. we'll see. >> domino's up about 8% so far this year, buffalo wild wings pretty much unchanged this year. smith and weston set to report earnings after the bell. is this the booming gun sales that started in 2008 finally beginning to fade? let's bring in brian -- brine been, you've been on the show, you've been bullish and very right, by the way, on smith & wesson for years.
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any reason to change your thesis? >> i think the environment drives what you're seeing here. kind of building the arsenals. i think it's a market driven on trepidation. i ran in the bomb, whether it's the red chinese with their antiaccess, antidenial in the south china sea, you've got hamas, hezbollah, a world full of trepidation, and we've seen gun sails. it's plateaued through july, the gross numbers are 12 million down about 500,000, still plateauing. there's a lot of trepidation, country music is one of the biggest booming venues and music, a little over 13% of the market share.
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it's very patriotic. very pro-family. hollywood also talks -- it's noah, and it's -- a different kind of -- apocalyptic movies. >> so there's you've laid out the case here for why you think the gun sales will continue. you call it portfolio insurance. what's the best thing possibly for guns to invest in? give us the actual stock names here. >> you want a nice dividend yield, and a lot of cash. so i think the average guy on the street, his way of mitigating political corruption and trepidation is obviously gun sales.
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we have not seen -- and we still see it in a tough marx. liquor and guns do very well. would you invest in a westbound site that does a good job of tricking you into watching advertising without you even realizing? >> now, mandy will show you 17 reasons why they are betting on buzzfeed. i'm going to say my good-byes as i prep for the most important trading dawg day. >> you're not going anyway. >> i'm out. >> no you're not. yes, i am. good-bye. wanted to know?
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could help your business didavoid hours of delaynd test caused by slow internet from the phone company? that's enough time to record a memo. idea for sales giveaway. return a call. sign a contract. pick a tie. take a break with mr. duck. practice up for the business trip. fly to florida. win an award. close a deal. hire an intern. and still have time to spare. go to comcastbusiness.com/ checkyourspeed if we can't offer faster speeds - or save you money - we'll give you $150. comcast business. built for business. well, buzzfeed recently got $50 million in financing from venture capital heavyweight andreesen horowitz. cute cat videos can't be worth that much money, can they? no, but if they're really advertisements for millions that watch them, maybe.
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♪ the news website's produced over 9,100 videos and combined have racked up over 1.8 billion views, but don't let the cute purring faces fool you. the buzz means business. jonathan pearlman is the vice president of agency strategy. >> nobody comes to buzzfeed or really any other site for the ads. they're coming to buzzfeed for content, and that's exactly what our ads are, it's content that is as, sometimes more compelling than the editorial content we're producing. >> and like all the videos on the site, the ultimate goal with an ad is for people to watch and share it. buzzfeed won't reveal exactly how much companies pay to have their videos posted on their site, but it's a strategy bands like purina are investing in. this is friskies' latest buzzfeed campaign, a video called dear kitten. it's an older cat giving a new kitten advice. subtly working in that getting frisky with cat food is a
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delicacy. >> dear kitten, you should be aware that there are two kinds of food. the first is sort of a dehydrated, brown anybodilet. i think they gave us these because they're training us to be astronauts. just a guess. the second kind is wet food. it is so special, they keep it in little armored, metal casi s casings. >> the brands manager for friskies. >> we knew it was going to be very, very successful. we never anticipated that it would be the most successful buzzfeed video they had ever done, given that it was an advertisement. >> the video got more than 14 million views on youtube, and balangi believes that is valuable for their brand. >> we got 14 million views, we paid this amount of money. that is a good value, okay? what that tells you is that you have a lot of cat owners in this case hitting that share button. that is very powerful. you don't see that every day. >> so, now buzzfeed's reportedly valued at $1 billion, what is the company doing now? brian, great to have you with
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us. you know, with the reported potential value of about $850 million, do you think that buzzfeed is really worth that? >> well, it's really hard to know unless you've actually seen the financials and you know what their plans are, what their trajectory is. i guess the only thing you could say is there are definitely a lot of companies that are a fair amount bigger with a solid growth trajectory that are worth less, but it's hard to say, unless you've actually seen the numbers. >> it's interesting. i was mentioning about andreesen horowitz and its investment in buzzfeed, basically comparing buzzfeed to the early days of big, behemoth companies like viacom, cbs, et cetera. considering that we are in the middle of this technological shift, do you think one day buzzfeed could be like that? >> i mean, randomly, you could pick a company and it could become that, but it's hard to identify any one of them at this point. if reports of them having something like $40, $50 million of revenue last year, that's a
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small division of any of those companies. so, it's unlikely, but you can't rule anything out. >> let's look at the bigger picture of how advertising is shifting, okay? because i don't know about you, but when i'm trying to, like, get some content, i've googled something, and suddenly, ads pop up, i hate it. i don't click on the ads, i don't want to share the ads, i'm certainly not going to be recommending it to a friend, but the way that buzzfeed is doing it subliminally, i might share it in a viral way. is this the way advertising is going, or are we still in early days? >> i think the advertiser use of web-based and media differ. i think what's called native advertising in this context can be very effective. the challenge is to do it well. it's hard to scale. 14 million views is lovely for a kitten video, but that's not a campaign. it's not enough for a big brand by itself. so, as a supplement to an overall campaign, that's great. it could be an essential part. at the end of the day, most
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advertisers, if they're really big, they're focused on metrics like awareness, and if they think they can spend money on display ads in a given environment and drive a goal, then that's great. they'll spend the money there. the individual banner ad by itself may not be meaningful, right? but the accumulative effect makes some difference, at least advertiser would like to think. >> brian wiesen, thank you very much for joining us. i just got in trouble from brian for saying the word viral, which is i think on one of his hate lists for 2014. thank you so much, brian. for more on buzzfeed and how they're turning cute cat videos into millions of dollars, the full report is up now on cnbc.com. and i can tell you, it's very entertaining. okay, so, how is that fire phone working out for amazon? we've got some very extingui extinguishable numbers for you coming up. who would have thought three cheese lasagna would go with chocolate cake and ceviche? the same guy who thought that small caps and bond funds
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and cialis for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment is right. cialis is also the only daily ed tablet approved to treat symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours.
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if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or any allergic reactions like rash, hives, swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a free 30-tablet trial. the amazon fire phone was launched with much fanfare and debate, but how has it fared with the consumer? it's possible that the phone may not have sold more than 35,000 units in its first 25 days on the market. during the period of july 25th, which was the launch date, and august 14th. if that is the case, the fire phone made just 0.02% of market share, according to the company. compare that to the apple iphone, which ran out of supply in the first three days after its 2012 launch after selling about 5 million units. quickly, let's look at what the markets are doing.
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we've reached new record highs, of course. since the march 2009 lows on the s&p 500 when it entered an intraday low of 666, number of the devil, we have gained by 200%. take that and stick it in your 401(k). "closing bell" with kelly and brian is coming up next. see you same time tomorrow. history in the making in the final hour of trading. i'm kelly evans at the new york stock exchange. >> and i'm brian sullivan in for bill today. a good day to be here, because the s&p 500 is trying to close above 2,000, kelly, for the first time ever. >> and the dow also flirting with a record close. it needs to finish above 17,138 to hit that mark. we're currently about seven points shy. let's get right to it with our "closing bell exchange" crew today. welcome one and all. we've got karen cavanaugh,
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