we are back down in the 12s. if you're not protecting your portfolio right now, that's just not the decision to be making. that's the nicest way to say that. >> i agree. just like the nba, last five minutes are all that counts. it is all jaw boning until then. that's all for us. "power" starts right now. "halftime" is over and the second half of the trading day start right now. i'm mandy drury. welcome to "power lunch." tyler is out today but brian sullivan is standing in. deal or no deal. greece unveiling a new reform plan but will it be enough. will greece meet its debt payment deadline. the dow valleying trip inging inging inging rallying. josh brown said it is a win-win for swift and apple. we'll dig more into the story that's can't vapting the music world. i guess you could say there's no more "bad blood." home sales surging.

we're starting to see a very bullish sign emerging from the american housing market. we'll explain what we mean. drama unfolding in greece. a very fluid situation with the debt stricken country unveiling a new reform plan in exchange for more cash. chief international correspondent michelle caruso-cabrera is live in athens. give us the latest there, michelle. >> reporter: latest are one, we got a big protest going on behind me. these folks are pro-europe. they very much want the government to come to some kind of deal that keeps them as a member of the european union. they're fearful of being forced out of the euro. right now we know there will be discussions tonight between the leaders of the eurozone country to see whether there can be progress made. that's on top of the meeting earlier today with the finance ministers of the eurozone. now is the first indication we are actually making some progress. greeks have finally submitted enough of something, enough

measures and reforms that maybe they could actually secure some bail-out money perhaps by the 30th of june which is really the key deadline for being able to pay the imf and also for when their program expires. pretty peaceful behind me right now. a noisy crowd. there was a scuffle earlier on. things have calmed down since then. that's because there was a protest earlier from an anti-euro group. a group of leftists who very much don't want to stay in the euro. in fact they don't want greece to pay their debts at all. speaking of not wanting the debt, there's a movement within parliament itself not just within the public that suggests that greece shouldn't pay its debts. we're back to that kind of situation again. in fact the leader of the parcel. is actually in charge of the truth in debt commission and she says that greece shouldn't pay the debt either. it is a pretty explosive statement for a member of parliament. >> this debt has been found illegal, illegitimate and bogus.

and it has been found to have been computed in violation of basic human rights principles and freedoms. >> reporter: she says the debt is illegal. this was in direct response to the head of the central bank who had put out a report earlier in the week saying if greece didn't come to deal soon it could potentially meaning leaving the euro. she was furious about that and contested that. in fact she didn't think greece should be paying the debt at all. things heating up even though it looks like we may be making some progress on an actual negotiation. we've got a triple-digit rally on the dow. the nasdaq and russell 2000 small cap index also jumping to all-time intraday record highs. bob pisani joining us from the nyse floor. bob, honestly truly, is it all about greece today? >> today it is yes. you can see that in europe and

here in the united states. there is a belief that there's some deal that will be made and it will be a kick-the-can deal. a brief extension, then some negotiations on possibly a third greek bailout six months from now. take a look at the markets here. we're getting what i call a modest expansion of new highs. for example the health care sector is at a new high. consumer discretionary group is at a new high xly. mid caps ijh is at a new high. these are a lot of builders and airline stocks for example. that's at a new high. in the markets themselves it's the financials where the market leadership is right now. although the rally and interest rates stalled out, financials never stalled out so jpmorgan goldman, wells fargo, huntington banks, capital one, a lot of small regional banks are also at new highs. this is a small group of media stocks at new highs. disney, time warner and comcast,

that's our parent network of course also at a new high. health care all the merger talk and hmos also sitting at new highs as well cigna and anthem as well. finally, europe closed right at the highs all throughout the morning was moving up. you can see significant moves up, 3%. it is rare for germany to move 3% on the hopes of a greek deal. the question is does this give the green light to invest in europe again? remember germany is 10% off of its historic highs. we'll discuss that in the next half-hour and show some evidence both pro and con about whether getting back into europe is the right deal. and we'll also talk about the health care sector. check out the euro currency versus the dollar down 16% in the past year and down 6% so far this year. with greece on the front burner

what else the best and case scenario for the euro/dollar trade. i know we hit $1.14 earlier on. >> reporter: mandy, hope and optimism that a deal gets done in time. certainly positive for the euro. if deal talks suddenly collapse and the worst comes true the euro could get hit pretty hard and may seriously undermine the credit of the currency. the bank of tokyo would raise risks for the entire spillover for the entire eurozone. long-term once the price settles and they boost the euro's prospects because europe white house greece means fewer economic headaches but it would awfully get messily before that. what if there is a last-minute

deal euro should get a boost. even if grooegseece stays in the euro that may not be the biggest driver of the your euro/dollar trade. most wall street shops say this is the most likely outcome. dollar heads higher in the second half of the year uup is the dollar bullish etf. bottom line is greece is just a near-term issue for currencies. it is a sentiment driver but watch the central banks for the long haul. a major deal may be brewing in the red hot health care space. or maybe not. cigna rejected a takeover offer from anthem. the supreme court could rule any day now on the affordable care act that could change the game in health care yet again.

bertha coombs with more. let's talk cigna. >> it's just another quiet monday right? an anthem's ceo says he's confident the cigna deal will work and that both sides can still come to an agreement. a deal cigna has rebuffed already saying it is not just in its shareholders pea's best interests. on a call with analysts swedish said it would be good for the industry and for consumers. >> the combined company would be an industry leader. it would have a strong position across growth markets and the scale to drive greater efficiency and affordability for our customers. >> that is the argument. analysts say in a changing obamacare landscape insurers

need to be bigger to get better pricing from hospitals and to operate both in private and government markets. that's how they're only going to be able to make money and survive. the top five united has that scale and breadth now with 40 million members. anthem the second larger with 37 million. aetna, humana and cigna are not that large. if aetna and humana consummate a deal they'd just be bigger than united. nothing is set in stone yet but in some markets some of these combinations could possibly reduce competition quite a bit and that's going to get employers, consumers and other stakeholders raising concerns. this is not like the last back of mergers we saw after obamacare. this is a much bigger scale likely to raise some concerns. dominic chu has a "market

flash." >> two big new price targets here. netflix' price target being raised to $950 a share at btig the firmed recall citing continued subscriber growth meaningful upside momentum. facebook raised to $120 a share calling facebook's oculus a revenue growth insurance policy for the future. two big stocks and two big price target increases to keep an eye on. wholesale soaring. diana olick breaks it down ahead. taylor swift won a case against apple and why they caved. that's coming up.

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in the headlines at this hour gopro shares sliding. analysts warn of decreased interest in action cameras as consumers look for alternative products. there are a number of them around. fifth third bancorp selling 400 branches and mobile and electronic banking continues to grow in if popularity. the williams company surged by 24% today. the company saying it is open to other offers.

home sales are staying hot around america. existing home sales up to a new 5 1/2-year high. first-time buyers making a big chunks of sales. there are four regions tracked by the national association of realtors -- west midwest, south and northeast. six different price points. 0 to to. of the 24 possible combinations which region and price point had the biggest sales gain jump year over year. again, 24 possible answers. think about it. harass mandy on twitter with your guesses. right now diana olick is in washington with more. >> reporter: i know the answer brian. let's go to the sales numbers first. sales strong. no question. prices though starting to raise some eyebrows. may sales beat expectations

rising 5.1% for the month to 5.35 million units annualized. that's the highest since november of 2009 which if all of you recall was the first expiration date of the home buyer tax credit which was of course later extended. sales were up broadly but the northeast was especially strong in sales after a rough winter. now to the real headline. $228,700. that was the median price of a home sold in may. the highest monthly price ever back in july of 2006. the peak of the housing boom was $230,400, just $1,700 more. the realtor's chief economist says the median price for all of this year could exceed the peak of 2006. he does say, however, we are not in a house price bubble as we were back in 2006. why not? that story is online. realty check dot cnbc

realtycheek realtychecks.cnbc.com. homes in the $250,000 to $500,000 price point in the midwest year over year sales jumped 28.4% in that price point and that region. let us bring in nella richardson. any rationale for this? >> it probably because due to last year and a very slow cold winter in chicago but it is also due to the demand in the midwest in particular. buyers are ready to buy in 2015 and we think this is the best year yet since the bust. >> there you go. good as the explanation i could come up with. when we look are -- pretty much every group was up except for $100 million-plus homes in the house. that includes texas and some of the very low end in california.

do you have any rationale why certain regions were booming off the charts? >> it paul has to do with inventory. if there are a lot of homes for sale you get a lot of home sales. in the $1 million-plus price point in texas, there aren't a lot of those for sale. we had investors come in and buy the distressed homes. california median home prices are much higher than in the rest of the nation so you won't see sales in that region. it is an inventory numbers game but inventory is still very tight pushing those prices. i want to keep an eye on those. >> nela there is school of thought that home sales are burning because everybody is freaking out about the potential higher rates and everybody's rushing in now. >> it's one of the reasons. at this time last we are people were still unsure about the housing market and health of the market. this year they're diving right

in, they have a reason. the fact that mortgage rates may go up by end of the year means that people are getting off the sidelines and diving right in trying to lock in those low rates right now. >> do you see a meaningful jump in rates coming forward? >> no. i think it is all hype. it is the anticipation of the rate increase. the federal reserve has given us every indication that a rate hike on the short term rates would be gradual. so the effect on longer term rates, like the 30-year mortgage, may not even be seen this year at all. but still it is going to be the first time that people are in a tightening situation since 2004 2006 so they don't know what to expect. they want the short thing now. that's what's motivating a lot of these sales. >> are you coining the term kwtd "rate hike"? >> why don't we do it. another bit of trivia. it is rate "hype" season. let's get down to another flash. amberella really on track

for its worst day ever as a public company. there was a bearish short seller's report on friday. shares down 19% again today. the stock's biggest active day of trading ever. citron research friday called the stock price ridiculous and said a 12-month price target of $60. half of thursday's closing value. the stock is also falling today in sympathy with gopro. those two stocks have been darlings for a while but they're back a lot of those gains. we'll see as we approach the closing bell today. do you get the feeling that your teenager knows more about technology than you ever will? i certainly do. do they crush you at candy crush? you can imagine what happens when they're set loose on a mock trading floor and have to battle it out for stock picking supremacy. that's straight ahead. "power lunch" is back in two.

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simplify the way work gets done and life gets lived. with xerox, you're ready for real business. welcome back to "power lunch," everybody. stocks are rallying on optimism about greece though off their highs of the day. the sectors leading the way right now, energy is the leading sector. however discretionary over here and health care as well are new all-time highs. utilities ever so slightly in the red there. brian? the stevens institute in technology in hoboken, new jersey has a state of the art

mock training floor to train students in the field of finance. they held a training competition for high school students this year giving millennials their first look at the life of a trader. >> i want to welcome to you trading day! bulls are going to compete first. then we're going to turn to the bears. >> you're all going to start out with $1 million. you can go long a stock, you can go short a stock. >> live from the financial capital of the world on this friday -- [ opening bell ] >> i'm the associate dean of business. trading day was born because because we were brainstorming on what to do to make high school kids aware that we have good business programs here. we thought the lab would be a real attraction for them. we have a real high-tech be financial lab that they will enjoy. they work with advanced data sources. firms that regularly hire our students include goldman sachs,

jpmorgan, morgan stanley. >> the finance industry used to be a relationship industry. that has changed completely now in the last 10 15 years and it is all based on computer networks talking to other computer networks. >> i wasn't expecting to see these students ready to go in the morning, ready to hop on to the trading floor, checking their phones for the stock prices and bid spreads. >> i graduated in 1995. i types of skills that i think are most important are those that have an analytical problem solving type of skill set who are willing to take initiative to try to solve any problem that's thrown at them. >> three, two, one -- >> first place for the 2015 stevens trading day is -- new mark high school! >> we are newmark high school and we just won stevens trading day! >> all right.

congratulations to newmark high school. if you're wondering where newmark high school is it is a small, private high school in scotch plains. they won representing the bears, mandy. >> okay. gold prices talking of bears, closing right now. currently sitting at $1,184 down by $17, 19.4%. well off the highs of $1,205 in the middle of last week. silver copper palladium and also platinum all moving down except for silver which is slightly higher. in the bond market right now, european ecwitszquities are higher. bond prices are lower. 2.6% on the 10-year note. the 30-year bond yield also moving up to 3.15%. that's your very small bond report today.

let's get to a "market flash." >> shares of synaptics got a downgrade of sorts from analysts at jarp morep jpmorgan. they cite among other things the valuation and pocket that apple could develop a competing product by itself in-house. apple is currently a very large client of sinynaptics. a hopes of a debt deal with greece. is this a good buying opportunity especially in europe? apple blinks. taylor swift gets the tech giant to makes a major new tune on its music service. how she won, how apple caves and why it may matter to you. "power lunch" back in two. the e-class has 11 intelligent driver-assist systems. it recognizes pedestrians

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hello, everyone. i'm sue herera. here's your cnbc news update for this hour. the debate over the

confederate flag at the charleston state house is intensifying. state leaders are urged to take down the flag following a rampage at a miss torquehistoric black church in south carolina. a new report says failure of the government to act on climate change could cost 50,000 lives by poor air quality in 2100. airlines are collecting record fees from passengers checking luggage or making reservation changes. airlines took in $1.6 billion in the first quarter, up 7.4% from the same time last year. numbers come from the bureau of transportation statistics. and this is a real live shark tank. divers shooting video of a shark trying to take a bite out of an underwater camera off florida's east coast. the divers were not jrdzinjured. let's get back to "power lunch,"

guys. stocks right now are still higher. they've been higher all day. futures popping on word overnight of a potential word with greek debt. who knows. either way the dow is up 89 points. we're lost steam but we were up 140 points two hours ago. bob, a little bit of the greek euphoria seems to be wearing off a bit. >> the big question over the weekend was would a greek deal cause resumption of the european stock. we had a huge one from. january to april that fizzled on concerns about greece. the answer is still out but short term the answer is yes. look what happened overnight. it is very unusual to see germany move 3%. that's a very very big market but not just germany. we saw france move as well. we saw italy move. the european markets' close was quite spectacular. beyond that the question is can

we go back to the old highs that we saw. if you look at germany, germany's now only about 7% from its old highs. france is 5%. spain's 4%. these were were highs not only ago. italy is only 2.5% from its old highs. those are big moves to the upside. last week for example, germany was more than 11% before its april highs but it rallied 4%! it's rallied 4% just in the last couple days on hopes that a greek deal would matter. so it is moving the markets overall here. if you look at broader europe vgk, that's the vanguard european index, it rallied 2%. this is just five days. look at that move up. on hopes of a greek deal. i think the real question is what happens afterwards. after the deal and i think the answer brian, is that if european stocks continue to have decent earnings and the earnings have been better than u.s. markets, partly due to the weaker euro, the answer is the european rally can definitely continue but a lot depends on the state of the euro versus the

dollar. >> bob, when we talk about a deal let's be clear. it's not as if greece is a, being absolved of its obligations or b playing the loan back. >> most people down here believe kick the can six months then deal with a more comprehensive third greek bailout that would involve some kind of haircut and reforms that would be kicking in. that's what i'm talking about. that's what the market seems to believe is going to happen. >> bob, thank you. courtney reagan at the nasdaq. free us from greece just a little bit here. what are you watching? >> i wish i could but i really think that rising tide is lifting all boats, even here at nasdaq where it is tech or biotech heavy but we are seeing fresh new highs here for the nasdaq composite, really opening at highs here for the session, holding on to them though fluctuating a bit here and there as well as the s&p 500400 mid cap index. we have a reuters report that

chipmaker advanced microdevices amd, considering various strategic alternatives. that's pushing shares higher as well as jpmorgan upgrading agco from underweight to neutral giving a nice lift to those shares. if we look at some of the biggest nasdaq 100 movers we've got apple on the move. we talk about it because of its outsized impact on something like the nasdaq 100 with all of the news we're hearing about taylor swift getting apple to reverse its course. facebook and microsoft unveiling ad formats as well as some content at the cannes advertising conference in france today. that would be nice to be there. for now we'll just have to be report on the action that it's having on those shares rather than being there. biotechs still in play here as one of the hotter sectors of the summer. back to you. >> i think i might be picking it up from there.

with the market rallying on a possible deal with greece is this the all-clear for stocks? european or u.s.? joining me now, paul detrick, and paul christopher. paul, thank you very much for are joining us, i know you are in the camp that believes six months time from now we'll still be talking about greece for better or worse. the question is what does the market do in the meantime? >> people have to understand that the proposal that the greeks made today did not include any cuts in pensions or wages and every single analyst who's worked on this sapsys the numbers will simply not work. we are going to get a six-month reprieve. they're going to kick the can down the road. but in the end it doesn't really matter. greece has an economy the size of dallas. 75% of its debt is held by the

banks. 25% by the ecb. that's all hedged. it is going to have no impact -- >> you say it doesn't matter but look at the markets here. >> it will have no impact on the economy. the markets are different. this is a blow to the european union union's self-esteem, it is a blow to the euro that's why they don't want this to happen but that will drive markets done if this is a greek -- >> hold that thought. we have developing news in athens michelle? >> reporter: we just want to show you what's happened here with the protests. it's expanded gotten much larger. these individuals very much want to stay in if the european union, stay with the euro and they want the government to reach some kind of agreement. i spoke with some protesters who said they want to be out here every day until an agreement is signed. if you take a look over my shoulder, some of them have actually managed to get up on the steps of parliament. for the last couple of days protesters were allowed up there. today they decided they won't allow that anymore. they have riot police set up on either side of the steps.

normally you can get up there. people have managed to get up there. that's how they draped that greek flag that's hanging in the center. you can see -- on either side of the steps there are journalists hovering there to see if the protesters are going to try to somehow break through and get up on to the steps of parliament. thus far though very peaceful. generally older crowd than we've seen in the past because a lot of these people are middle class and feel very connected to the euro and feel very much that they will suffer if this country and the government actually doesn't come to some kind of agreement. you guys were talking about how the markets have rallied today, mandy, on the assumption that things are getting closer than they have been before and that that's been a good sign. but still these people came out tonight by the thousands to try and make sure that that's exactly what they want to happen. you can see the close-up there of the flag. mandy, back to you. >> thank you, michelle. still we're talking about a rally but we are coming off those highs of the day.

emotions are running high. we'll wait and see whether or not this stays peaceful. we certainly hope so. . back to our guests here. paul christopher, what's your reading on what greece means for us here in the united states and our markets? >> if greece leaves the eurozone, that would mean a break in the union so that the currency could really be simply membership at will. that's not really the basis for a good union. i think we'd have to see some risk premium built into equities, bonds and the euro itself. as those sell-offs continue you would see some spillover of disappointment i think into our markets, though not to the same extent. >> if we don't get a deal if there was some kind of break, what would it look like? would it be a very knee-jerk messy reaction in the markets here, maybe even globally and then we move on? like a very short-term thing? >> it will be a very short-term

event. markets will go down because this is a first of a kind stipe of thing and that usually happens. but the next day everyone's going to look around around say are people going and building cars in germany? did it have any affect on the banks? no. when was the last time you imported anything from greece? never. and then two or three days later, the markets just going to recover because it has no impact. >> okay. but assuming we don't get to the stage of breaks is this a buying opportunity for the european markets? i know they've already come off correction territory but still is it a buying opportunity for you? >> if we get a deal we think it probably is a buying opportunity as we do see the economic expansion continuing and we expect earnings to continue to improve. and importantly, revenues which were a surprise in the first quarter, positive surprise. >> we'll keep on watching.

thank you both very much. i feel like this is not the last we'll talk about greece. go to "power lunch" pnt krchltpowerlunch.cnbc.com to. one thing i'll add, michelle noted it is an older crowd. the retirement age issue. i said it on "squawk box" this morning. i was in greece a number of years ago. that's what everybody brings up. they want to raise the retirement age. that's why it is an older crowd. they're ticked off about that part of the provisions. there you go. they retire i think at 53 54 on average. the germans retire ten years later. part of this plan something try to raise the retirement age. when you talk to these folks a lot as i have on the streets of athens they'll say -- and they want to raise the retirement age. it always comes back to that issue. this is a sticking point between the two sides. take a look at major health

insurance stocks. they're all big movers today. merger talks heating up in the space. aetna making a bid for humana. anthem going after cigna. is all this merger talk maybe a bad thing? jonathan bush ceo of athena health. your take on all this potential talk of deals. >> thanks for having me on. obviously this is what happens in mature markets when the ability to innovate is smaller than the ability to consolidate. these guys are looking for savings and some pricing power and some market power. it is what happens anywhere where innovation slows down. obviously in health care innovation is borderline illegal with the federal government de defineing exactly what is and isn't health care. we've seen this as well in the hospital space with over 1,000 mergers in the '90s -- or in the first part of this century -- 95 in the last year. they're running out of ways to invent, so they're consolidating

down. >> i kind of made a semi-joke ahead of the show saying to bertha coombs, it's kind of like the airlines. right? maybe they should -- health insurers should merge with the airlines because they've done nice jobs of building these little blocks for themselves. how many health insurers do you think the government would alour allow? if we do one deal we could end up with four deals. would the government with okay with four but not three? >> the big three automakers. i don't know. these are what happens when industries essentially die. in this country we've got a very strong government and we want to pro large employers so we put them on life support and sort of keep them as sort of paraplegic pets for a while. hopefully what will happen is that they'll be disruptive innovation and the role of the traditional health insurance company will obsolete. what does it mean for you?

>> what does it mean for your business and your customers, for our viewers that have health care? >> athena health represents the doctors. there are 65,000 doctors on our network that we do all their billing and medical records and all their reporting. so at some level fewer people to handle that with is more profit for us. what's more exciting strategically, it is opportunity for us to step in to some of the nooks and crannies that payors have sort of been asleep at the switch on in terms of creating narrower networks of more tightly coordinated doctors and hospitals that might be able to offer employers a lower cost in exchange for a deal where the employees only use a specific set of teams for specific types of care. we all know coordination costs in health care is absurd. you can't get your mother's e x-ray to the next. one doctor has to start all over again with one clipboard when

you get a specialist. we're trying to create a health care internet and insurance companies kind of receding back into sort of commodity status is an opportunity, both in the short term and long term if we take it seriously. >> the market hasn't treated them like commodities. cigna i think is up 70% over 12 months. we appreciate your insight, jonathan bush as always. athena health's shares have done exceptionally well over the past five years but are down 18% year to date. taylor swift spoke and apple swiftly changed its tune. what the star said that made the company do a u turn on its music service. that is straight ahead.

if you're running a business legalzoom has your back. over the last 10 years we've helped one million business owners get started. visit legalzoom today for the legal help you need to start and run your business. legalzoom. legal help is here. welcome back to "power lunch." keeping tabs on the airline stocks today, "barron's" says shares of the top four air carriers could rise anywhere from 15% to 50% citing two simple factors -- less competition and dropping fuel costs. if you watch american airline

shares delta, united continental southwest, they were all mentioned positively in the article. even if this happened, those airline stocks are still down 15% to 20% this year after a banner year last year. apple and taylor swift may be getting back together. the company changing its tune on artist royalty payments after the pop star went after the company blog post. julia boorstin looking at the power of taylor swift and josh lipton on why apple caved. would be nice to be taylor swift, wouldn't it? >> mandy, taylor swift is wielding her power as the world's biggest pop star. when she speaks to her fans 59 million twitter followers, 71 million likes on facebook apple listens. swift writing on her page to apple, love taylor. an open letter criticizing apple music for not paying writers, producers or artists for apple's three-month free trial period for new users, explaining that that's why she's holding back her multi-platinum album, "1989"

from apple you a new sub subscriptions subscriptions. swift seating the stage for her battle with apple establishing herself as an advocate for artists at the american music awards last year. >> what you did by going out and investing in music and albums is you're saying that you believe in the same thing that i believe in, that music is valuable and that music should be consumed in albums and albums should be consumed as art and appreciated. >> now that apple's capitulated, we'll have to see if swift changes her mind and decides to include her album in apple music. no answer from swift on that. josh lipton we keep saying apple caved. did they cave? >> well, sully, it is a big reversal for the tech giant.

in a series of tweets apple's man in charge eddie q, the man in charge of itunes now says we hear you taylor twist and indie artists. he also added apple music will pay artists for streaming even during customer's free trial period. creative strategies, a long-time apple watcher, says the company did make a clear error here. it was a miscalculation he says not to compensate the artists. but he thinks the tech giant should get credit for reversing course and demonstrating some flexibility. and he thinks apple will actually end up benefiting from this snafu. the public spat with swift he says only means that much more attention and awareness for service right before its big launch on june 30th. no big sign of worry from investors here. apple stock up more than 15% year to date. the weekend brawl between apple and taylor swift as entertaining, no doubt. but it doesn't have much impact

for investors. that's because the music service is not going to be a big money maker for apple. at least in the near term. piper jaffray's jean munster notes that even if apple matches spotify whether it comes to paying subscribers, that would still add less than 1% to revenue in 2016. mandy, back to you. >> makes them look good at least. the stock is at $127.43. you no longer need acres of farmland to grow vegetables. you just need a factory in the middle of the city. it is called vertical farming. we'll head to new jersey to show you how it is done.

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here are this hour's power points. number one, the nasdaq and russell 2000 small cap indexes, mid caps too, have all jumped to all-time intraday highs. may existing home sales rising 5.1% for the month, the highest level since november 2009. athens protests outside the greek parliament building so far. it is largely an older crowd.

if you missed any big stories in the last hour go to powerlunch.cnbc.com. cnbc is profiling up and coming entrepreneurs with some big ideas all this week at the iconic conference in los angeles. kate rogers is live in santa monica right now reporting on a company helping parents and kids with transitions. >> reporter: hi, brian. we all know disney is one of the biggest studios in hollywood so what happens when a powerhouse like that throws its weight behind a start-up? we'll tell you many coming up next on "power lunch."

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try the un-carrier risk-free for 14 days you'll love it, or we'll pay for you to go back. cnbc profiling up and comings entrepreneurs at the iconic conference in los angeles this week. kate rogers is live in santa monica right now helping a company with parents and kids with transition. >> reporter: that's right. parents out there know kids sometimes struggle to understand life's ups and downs but it turns out the right story can sometimes make all the difference. take a look. every parent knows how tough transition can be for kids. we're here in los angeles with a start-up backed by disney that's

using personalized stories to help make these changes easier for children. her son struggled to understand why he was changing schools. they got the idea to help new kids understand situations with stories that help feature their photos. >> whether starting school welcoming a new sibling, moving you have child development experts script language and parents can drop throw photos and pada text to help explain their stories. >> they have a new editor in chief to ensure the language used is effective for kwidzids. >> think of language as the doorway into your child's mind. if the language is too complex, it is like having a doorway that you can't fit through. >> the start-up will begin to incorporate disney junior characters into upcoming books

this fall and that has some big-name investors like evan ka trump and wendy murdoch excited. >> i think in this space to have a collaboration and partnershipship with disney is about as good as it gets. just as far as a content perspective. my daughter was like a moth to the flame when it came to disney characters. >> if there's any company that knows how to tell a story that kids want to hear, it's disney. much more on these startups on line on cnbc.com. of course a great lineup for you from l.a. tomorrow including marcus lamonus from "the prophet." >> thank you very much. as we just mentioned, tyler mathisen will be be broadcasting live from l.a. tomorrow so tune in to "power lunch." brian, over to you. thank you very much. we'll see you. greece is up about 100

points. we rehe about gin with a big development out of greece. even a bigger group of people gathering outside of the greek parliament buildings in athens. you can see it is sunset there. it is getting dark. many out there showing support of european efforts to strike a debt deal with greece. many others no doubt, angry that there has to be some kind of a deal at all. stocks here in the u.s. are rallying on hopes that a deal could be reached by the end of this week. the greek etf, grek the ticker sharply higher on the news. we'll have the developing story straight ahead. all the facts you need to know. but first for the impanlt oct on your money. you may wonder why does a nation with the gdp roughly the size of oregon have such an impact on us. i'm really happy to literally rope you in to this. i tweeted out that you're one of

the smartest people i know that we should listen to you. i believe that. you're also a european ex-pat. you used to run a hedge fund. when is the end? what happens? >> we don't know. the whole situation, as we have talked about for a line time this has been building up in the european debt so the greek situation is just one of many facets of the whole european debt situation. we don't know how that is going to play out. >> we often hear greece has an outsized effect not only because it is greece with you but then your former country of spain, italy, say we want this deal too. is that really likely to happen? >> yeah it is. because if you look at the political shift going on in europe going toward populism. that's the problem because that's when you can change governments and governments do silly thing just to appease the people. we have seen it all over the world. what happened with the greek elections and what they are doing now is all about populism as well. >> greece has gone through six

prime ministers in 11 years. as i said this morning on kwauk "squawk box," there's all this fancy stuff. imf, ecb. when i was there, everyone was talking about the potential of raising the retirement age. >> greek population much like in spain and italy has two problems. one a huge unemployed population. the millennials don't have jobs. the other is a huge retiree population. if you take money away from both of those factions people are going to be upset. >> the millennial situation, no amount of debt or austerity is going to solve that. even if you give more money, you aren't fixing 25% unemployment among 25 year-olds so where does this go? >> i think the problem -- i don't think it is going to get there in five to ten years. >> define that. >> i think the debt needs to get restructured. it is not only in europe. it is obviously similar problems in japan and china. problems all over the world with too much debt.

with the same problems of aging populations. >> we had a pseudo default in 2001 where the banks took a semi-cut, because they believed they had to. do you believe there will be a soen had called credit event, a hard default? >> first, you'll have what happened in sighcyprus. the. eu took all insured deposits in the banking system and took them away so everybody got wiped out on their savings. i think that's likely to happen, that's still the model. after that if that still isn't enough money, then there is hard defaults. yeah. it is certainly possible. ir i don't look at certainties. i look at probabilities and they are relatively high still for defaults in europe. >> always a privilege for your insights. safely travels wherever you may be off to. thank you. let's talk more about the greece impact on your money with

professor jeremy siegel senior strategy investment advisor. where do you see the u.s. market in 12 months' time from now and how will greece factor in to that? >> i see stock markets up in 12 months. i think we will be past greece. there will be a muddle through some solution. the important thing is that if they do have a credit event in greece i'm very confident that draghi will open the coffers for portugal and spain and everyone that they've considered to have abided by the rules. so we're not going to have a contagion from greece to the rest of europe which would really be serious. i also think that we need to get one increase out of the way by the fed. and i think that is still going to come in september and i think fourth quarter could be the best of the fourth quarters that we have this year in the stock market. >> let's just back up for a second.

you said that you think the markets are going to be up in 12 months pea's months' time from now. but you are famous for putting big numbers out there and just being very bold when it comes to predictions. what kind of numbers are we talking for the u.s. market in 12 months? >> six months -- well six months ago i said it is very possible that we could see dow 20,000 by the ends of the year. i said that's where i think the markets should be based on fundamentals based on interest rates, based on projected earnings. we don't always get there right away. sometimes it takes longer sometimes we overshoot it. sometimes we undershoot it. but i really think that when i look at all of the factors and even interest rates going up i still think this market is worth 5% to 10% more than what we're seeing it sell at today. i think once we get that fed increase out of the way, we could really see 20,000 by december, january. >> what's the biggest risk then?

>> the biggest risk i really think for the markets, is that we have a poor second half of the year. we need to get our growth north of 3%. this first half is a disaster. and we can argue about what it is seasonal the bad weather, but we want to see gdp growth really grow north of 3% preferably 4%. if we stay in a 2% mode then it's going to be very hard for the market to make any headway going forward. >> professor, thank you for your comments today. as negotiations continue in greece, there are growing concerns over what happens if a deal is not reached. listen to what the president of the athens chamber of commerce and industry told our michelle caruso-cabrera earlier today. >> how bad is it for business right now? >> extremely bad. market is completely stagnant.

during the last few weeks we've had the banking institutions being literally battered as a result of the tax withdrawals that have been taking place. so we need an agreement tonight. >> what happens if you don't get an agreement? what happens if the banks have to close? >> if we don't get an agreement by the 30th of the month which signifies the end of the current program, then unfortunately we will have to have capital controls. if capital controls are imposed, it is absolutely catastrophic for the economy, for the market. >> has it ever been this bad? >> it's never been that bad. the last 5 1/2 years, as you say here on cnbc we've been pointing out how bad these austerity measures were for the business community. we pointed out that the mixture of economic policy that had been applied was the wrong type of economic policy. however, it has never been as bad as it is today. >> what's the next step here do you think? >> i'm sure that prime minister tsipras realizes what will happen to the country if he doesn't come back with a

solution. i'm not saying that the solution is what the greek economy needs at this moment but at least it will keep us standing up. this is a national crisis michelle. it's the worst that we've faced since the second world war. so the current government needs to take care of this situation. >> here's the thing. if they bring back an agreement that a large population -- large percentage of the population doesn't like are we back to violence in the streets? >> well i don't -- i'm an optimist by nature. but obviously if we do have another agreement of deep austerity following 5 1/2 years of austerity, anything is possible. >> that was earlier today. michelle i think has worked for about 24 hours straight. michelle, thank you very much. we do appreciate that. two quick questions. number one, we talk a lot about what's going to happen with the debt. where did the money go in the first place? the money that is owed. what was that used for? do you know? >> gosh. >> they're borrowing -- they've

been borrowering for years. >> the first round, $200 billion -- yes. yes. the first $200 billion went to build what they call here in europe the clientless state. right? they hired many many government workers and they paid them. it went for big projects that didn't amount to much et cetera. a lot of that money was wasted. or just made to build a bigger government in order to have more voters, et cetera. remember though, a lot of that debt got written down. it was owed to the banks, banks took huge hits. it's what led to the crisis in cyprus, et cetera. then what happened is european taxpayers lent more money to the greeks to cover their bills, and that's been really to cover their -- the functioning of the government now for the last several years years while they were supposed to be restructuring the country to get to the point where they wouldn't need to borrow any more. they got close. then this election happened. the recession started again. tax revenues have fallen and now

they're back to needing more bailout money. >> you also talk about a potential olympic hangover. let's not forget about the olympics that ran over budget a lot of money spent in stadiums that are sitting empty and rotting. have people complained to you about the retirement age issue, michelle? i know this is a complex thing with debt ecb, imf and schedules. at least when i was there, a lot of people simply expressed the fact that they were ticked off that the european union wanted to raise the greek retirement age and they were angry about that. >> reporter: yeah. you know? we ask about the retirement age all the time. i say greeks retire early. they say no it's not true! it's not true! it's not true! we don't retire that early! yet when you lookality the proposal put forth by the greek government they admit that public sector workers on average retire right now at 56 years old. we interviewed several people last night said what about retirement? early retirement? people giving all these exemptions. one woman said to me it's only the government workers. problem is the government workers are a huge percentage of

the workers. there's only roughly 3 1/2 million people working in this country to support a population of 11 million people. you have nearly 1 million people working for the government. it's a large percentage. when it comes to private sector workers, the current retimpltrement age, on average, is about 60. so it's amazing. it makes everybody crazy. they deny that it actually is a problem and yet when you look at the actual numbers, it's certainly looking like they're retiring very early. >> michelle caruso-cabrera nighttime in athens overlooking a plasmassive protest. thank you. another big story this hour is what's going on in health care with health insurers moving across the board today and into lots of record highs out there as lots of m&a chatter builds in the sector. cigna rejecting a bid from

anthem. on the krptcnbc news line steven how does this shake out? who ends up with who? >> thanks for having me on the line today. we think there is a good probability that anthem ultimately prevails in its acquisition of cigna. there's been some governance issues that have been brought up but i think those will be overcome. there has been some noise in the marketplace that etna has indeed made an offer for humana. that combination is less likely due to overlapping markets. then the ironic piece of it is perhaps united unh, is looking to acquire etna in order to bulk up its commercial side of the business. again, unites does not need to do anything here. they are take very well diversified, both within the health insurance area and outside of the health insurance area. >> i see you've already got an

outperform rating on united health. john than bush from athena health thinks it reduces options for the consumer. what do you think? >> if you look at most markets, if you define it by state, 70% of the market share is usually controlled by two health plans. however, the rollout of exchanges have actually increased the number of plan offerings and their actually new insurance companies. so again, i don't think it is a huge issue for consumers, but there are certain markets that are very very concentrates even before. round of potential consolidation. so again i don't think it is -- it's really that problematic for consumers. >> okay. steven, thank you very much. i should just say to our viewers

and listeners that you have an outperform on aetna, a market perform on humana. up next the one food stock that is leaving investors in serious need of some. he he. he pep he. the amount of money activist invest efforts have in their war chests right now. if you like big numbers, we got a big number. stick around.

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one company in the news today, noodles&co. the stock is down 1.5% but it was way lower premarket. all upon news the president's company and ceo is leaving. we mention this because it is the latest in a struggle for a company that's struggled since june of 2013. stock down more than 50% over the past 12 months. auto sales have been strong across the board but the auto stocks have not. gm is up by 4% since january. ford, down nearly 2%. but honda is up 13% since the beginning of the year and toyota, another japanese company, is up nearly 9%. all this comes as auto sales continue to soar here in the united states. what's really driving the boom on the car lot? let's bring in phil lebeau. got any answers for us phil? >> mandy, a number of things. certainly the economy proving

has helped. low interest rates across the board and you've got a wider selection of vehicles for people who have pent-up demand over older vehicles. but the one question i get repeatedly from people is is there a bubble in subprime auto loans. so we asked folk at ecquifax and run the data. see if what you see from first quarter subprime loans as a percentage of all loans. go back to 2007 when the last bubble took place. we're almost up to 30% of the loans being subprimed. it bottomed out in 2009 and has move higher but now as of the first quarter, if you go into 2015, the total comes in at 23.9%. it was 23.6% in 2013. 23.9% in the first quarter of this year. that's when 1.59 million new loans for subprime borrowers were written. that's about 34% of the new

financing for vehicles with the average new vehicle for a subprime borrower coming in at 27.309. the dlinelinquency rated at 3.9%. auto sales continue to march to a record high level. go back to 2009 when it was at 10.4 million vehicles. we're easily going to past 16.5 million million. one thing that's interesting, when you look at what vehicles are selling right now, it is certainly not the car. the good old-american sedan, down .5% shares. shares of gm that stock is not going anywhere where despite a lot of the chatter that's out there regarding possible consolidation. back to you. >> phil thanks. from cars to homes and housing staying high. existing home sales rose to a

5 1/2-year high last month. first time buyers piling into the market. robert frank joins us now but also foreign buyers still having a big-time impact on this market. >> big-time. the foreign buyers have been a huge driver of real estate especially at the very high end. wealthy buyers from overseas snapped up a record $104 billion worths of real estate over the past year according to the national association of realtors. foreign buyers now account for 8% of all u.s. sales. most of the buyers are wealthy investors looking for a same home for their foreturns andtunes and a majority paid catch. the average price -- $500 million. their main state, florida. california, second followed by texas and arizona. chinese buyers are far and away right now the largest overseas buyers with $28 billion in sales, that was way ahead of the number two, canada. india at three.

wealthy chinese are buying mostly in l.a. san francisco and new york. their average purchase price, $831,000. about 39% are buying the properties to live in and 7% are buying them for student housing for their kids. canadians are mostly buying in arizona and nevada. latin americans like florida. mexican buyers like texas and the british like l.a. new york and kissimmee. florida. most purchases by the overseas were most live in the suburbs. it's not the cities it's the suburbs where most of their buying is. >> kissimmee is not honolulu. but it was laying on the desk. i don't know why it was there. but we'll figure out a reason for it later. >> there's no reason. why not? >> there is a reason. >> there you go. what's the reason? >> it was hawaiian shirt friday brian. you missed all the action and hula hooping. >> i didn't miss anything. i was in wisconsin eating fried

food. stick around. we got $30 billion of market advice coming your way. and taylor swift taking on apple. that got us thinking about some other big corporate changes of heart. we'll talk about what it means to maybe reverse course. we'll "shake it off." there's no "bad blood." automotive innovation starts... right here. with a control pad that can read your handwriting, a wide-screen multimedia center, and a head-up display for enhanced driver focus. all inside a redesigned cabin of unrivaled style and comfort.

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one of the biggest areas of concern for the economy right now is that seemingly suddenly the nation is less efficient. we say that because productivity has gone negative the past two quarters and that's gotten the attention of the federal reserve. but how can that be in a nation where every citizen now carries basically a small computer in the palm of their hands? senior economics reporter steve leisman is here with some answers. it may have something to do with a story that he has been all

over -- bad data. >> that's one of the explanations that's out there. we want to show you results from last week that we held back. this story is so important. how productive we are, how efficient we are. it determines how much we can grow and the output capacity of the country. our survey showed three results with the number one result being bad data or bad statistics. we've talked about this a lot. first quarter data ends up being weaker than normal. it also means the productivity data is weaker than normal. that could be revised up. but then there's two other big ideas in here 23% say it is temporary. 31% say it is permanent. this 23% idea i want to associate with two economists, one who wrote the book "the second age of the machine." one thing they say is a big rush of productivity and technology means we're not so quick getting incorporated. it takes time to show up in productivity data. another professor robert gordon from northwest says we just don't have the big ideas and big

technology. his idea is that it is permanent, 31% of our 39%xxxix% respondents respondents. this was the big productivity boom of the '90s. it came down in 2005. now it is down here and it is practically negative. some of the responses we got were very interesting and show the ideas about the big economic debate that's out here. "it is a lack of capital purchases of technology per worker." you'll see that idea in different forms here. "it's a legacy of weak investment during the recovery and the recession," which means that it's temporary in her mind. but dean baker writes from the cpr, "weak labor markets cause companies to be less concerned

about economizing on labor." fell ly finally, "as boomers retire they're replaced by double the number of rookies," which means overall you have experienced workers retireing, more inexperienced workers coming in. there is a period of time then. this is something we need to follow very closely as the output of the country, fed policy are all tied together. there is a big debate as to the reasoning why there is a big concern. >> steve, thank you. the final energy trades are krorsing for the day ing crossing for the day. jackie. >> a dramatic reversal as we go into the end of the day. we were under $59. now trading over $60. i'll explain what happened. it is a technical story. stay with "power lunch."

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hi i'm sue herera and here's your cnbc news update at this hour. the mubt for two escaped convicted murderers is now centered in owl's head in upstate new york near the

canadian border. dna from one of the suspects was found at a burglarized cabin in the area. the fugitives escaped from a maximum security prison in the region more than two weeks ago. south carolina's governor nikki haley will call on the removal of the confederate flag from the state house. in a sharp departure from her previous position, haley is expected to call for the flag's removal later today. the debate to remove the flag has been intensifying since last week's deadly rampage at an historic black church in charleston. firefighters are digging a perimeter around a massive wildfire in a national forest 90 miles from los angeles. nearly 2,000 firefighters are on the scene. the blaze is covering more than 27 square miles. so far, no homes have been damaged or destroyed and the fire -- the cause of the fire is under investigation. former fed chief ben bernanke "is appalled" that the treasury secretary wants to replace alexander lamble ton from the $10. he offered an alternative in the

blog post. take andrew jackson off the $20 bill instead. bernanke says jackson was a poor president and given his views on the central bank he'd probably be fine with having his image dropped. jackson opposed the bank we now call the feds. that's your cnbc news this hour. >> hamilton actually gave us money, founded the banking system. jackson hated banks, hated money. by the way, replaced grover cleveland on the $20. >> you would think that that would have been a logical choice but the treasury feels the $10 bill is the next one up for "improvement." they change is every once in a while to prevents counterfeiting. that was the next on the list. >> down with jackson, the american lion. sue, thank you. this is an awkward transition. a taliban suicide bomber and six gunmen attacked the afghan parliament in kabul. local tv station was broadcasting live when the attack occurred. take a look.

all six gunmen involved were killed, 18 people were wounded in the attack. the taliban released a statement saying they timed the attack to coincide with the vote to enforce a new defense minister. >> oil turns around as we settle into the close but it is nat gas where we see the big move today. jackie deangelis, you said there was something technical about this story. >> you mentioned the action overseas which is what took brent crude futures higher today over their 100-day moving average. we've got futures expiration today so everyone is on the august contract here. we closed at $60.38. remember we have this gravitation towards that round number of $60. this is very technical action that we're seeing buying the dips exactly what happened there today. meantime also having was that we bucked the trend of a stronger dollar today. you talked about nat gas futures

trading lower today, $2.73 around the close. traders are not expect being the weather to be that hot on the east coast especially right now and stocks are in goods shape at this point. if we do get an extraordinarily hot summer though don't be surprised if this turns around. back to you. >> jackie, thank you. time for "street talk," analyst recommendations we dig out every day just for you. ready? >> ready. >> first stock, carnival. deutsche bank upgrading from buy to hold. $55.30 a share up from $51 they say second quarter earnings should be above the upper end of the guidance. there is something called "operational momentum." the second stock, metlife with rbc capital upgrading to outperform from sector perform citing developments in the regulatory arena. the target increased to $68 from $57. it is current at $57.35. it implies 20% up side. it's been hot, up 13% this

quarter. they rolled out kind after hybrid product designed to pay financial professionals more over the life of the policy. stock three, sandisk. from buy to hold. the animal lis and i e-mailed back and forth this morning said to make sure people know it is a longer term call. not a quarterly thing. he likes them because they are getting back into the apple business primarily through the watch. let's look at the fourth stock here. this is not really an upgrade. netflix. btig is boosting its target to $950 from $600. it is at $673 here with the firm saying the business model is gaining momentum. the rating remains a buy. the target implies a whopping 45% up side from here. we want to know why aebl linimal analyst

made the bold call. >> you shamefully are booking a good analyst on the company you are filling in for? >> i'm shameless. eqt mid stream partners. ticker eqm. it is a $7 billion market cap company. it is a storage and pipeline company. that mostly serves transporting natural gas of its parent company eqt. they mostly operate in pennsylvania and west virginia. barclays resumeing coverage with overweight, 20% up side. stock paid 2.9% yield. it is based in the great city of pittsburgh where yinz know what i'm talking about. >> different language. >> that's pittsburgh. eqm, your under the radar name for the day. time for "trading nation." after great home sales this morning, housing stocks you got

a big analyst team there, very good team. what do you like in the housing stock? >> i think the housing names you should be continuing to own here especially in the face of wages improving and jobs improving. wages and jobs are two of the primary drivers when it comes down to household formation. rental market's going to stay on fire and i think the new home sale market and resale market is going to continue to grow. i look at the rental market and say a lot of these home builders have done some fantastic things as far as partnerships with the reits and they benefit directly from an increased and improved rental market. on the housing side you have a rating increase in the foreseeable future. i think there will be a lot of people jumping in trying to get in ahead of that. but importantly i think when jobs do improve they've been very concentrated to the cities. i think they spread out a lot more and i think it will spur a lot more demand in suburban type areas in housing. in general i think you will see strength going forward as thee

components of the economy din continue to do better. >> what do you think of the home builders technically as a group? >> they're showing great relative strength right now. we're in an environment of slightly increasing interest rates which traditionally aktsz as a kind of obstacle to growth and home builders. we're just not seeing that right now. rates are moving up close -- not moderately, about 2.3% 2.4% in the 10-year. home builders have shown relatively strength. i like when a fundamental relationship, something that shouldn't be happening is not, that shows you there is underlying strength. the next chart shows xhb is actually on the brink of a break-out here above 37 quarters. technically it looks good. i think there is pretty good tailwind behind this sector right now and we'll look to play this to the long side. >> thank you both very much. for"trading nation"," head

to tradeingtradingnation.cnbc.com. is this apple's big "coke" moment with a turnaround? pressure from none other than taylor swift. advice for your portfolio. stick around.

you probably know xerox as the company that's all about printing. but did you know we also support hospitals using electronic health records for more than 30 million patients? or that our software helps over 20 million smartphone users remotely configure e-mail every month? or how about processing nearly $5 billion in electronic toll payments a year? in fact, today's xerox is working in surprising ways to help companies

simplify the way work gets done and life gets lived. with xerox, you're ready for real business. big hedge funds especially those that can be called activists by some have a record amount of cash on hand. a great cnbc.com pro story up right now explains how you can follow their moves. >> so brian, just check out what's happening with conagra. we learned jana partners took a stake, they think the value

could be unlocked at conagra. if you follow in those footsteps you might be able to make a little bit of money. here's why. there is data about out about how much money is being put into activist hedge funds. a record amount of money has been put in. last year $30 billion worth. you can see inflows in activist funds. that means $120 billion total assets under management as of last year. there have already been 90 proxy fights started this year or will happen at shareholder oeventsevents throughout the course of the year. our analysts looked at some of these strategies you can actually follow them and invest the day after they disclose their activist position here. 20 years of activist campaigns were looked at. if you buy shares the day before, hold for a month, the average outperformance over the market is 3%. if you hold it for two years, you can outperform the market by 8%. that's just a part of the story. other parts of it will be online

right now but still an interesting part about activist investors. >> you can read that story at powerlunch.cnbc.com. greek debt optimism pushing stocks higher here and in europe. the dow is off the late morning high but it is still up by triple digits. jason pride, director of investment strategy, good to see you once again. a lot of consider in the investment world right now. >> we think there is. but on the whole we still think we're in the middle of the longer term economic cycle both in the u.s. and globally. really it is the global story that's kind of bringing the next wave of that cycle around. not that the u.s. will necessarily peter out but we've had a pretty long run of growth and now it's time for some of the international markets to be kicking in. part of that story is surrounding greece. part of that story is surroundsing europe and japan but around europe on the whole kind of getting their act together. one of those pieces is finally

getting the story surrounding all the problematic countries, portugal italy, ireland, spain and greece. four of those are already in reasonably good shape. italy's finally showing economic growth for the first time in four years. now we're getting closer to a resolution of the greek situation one way or other. >> possibly. but what does that mean for an invest investor, jason? are you investing in europe now and even in some of those peak countries? >> reality is in the u.s. you are trading at 18 times normal itzed earnings for large cap stocks. not extremely overvalued but overvalued. internationally you are still getting valuations of 14 times earnings for the average stock and that is still a discount to where they normally trade. pretty big gap between what you're getting u.s. and europe. when you have that gap and an economic cycle that favors kind of all the boats rising together perhaps even europe catching up a little bit, maybe there's an advantage to having

an overweight and an allocation particularly in those geographic areas. >> very interesting. jason, is there any possibility that underneath all of these greek headlines has been buried the fact that china just last week, mainland shares had their very worst weekly loss since 2008. it feels as if the air is kouming outkoum ing coming out of this bubble, if not a full-scale pop. are you worried about china? >> china is an interesting situation. one, that market's been on fire. absolute fire and arguably that domestic market is probably in a bubble sort of scenario. but now let's think about that market. that market is primarily held by the ultra wealthy. it is not disbursed throughout the crowd and does not necessarily correlate with what's out there on the hong kong exchanges. reality is if that comes down even reasonably hard it's not

necessarily enough to cause widespread panic or concern. is it necessarily what you want to have? i don't like having markets swing all over the place. typically somebody gets caught with the purse strings open and you find out there's trouble along the way. that can cause gyrations but not enough to cause an economic collapse. >> even if we see a further drop in chinese markets, bottom line it is not enough to have a global effect. thank you. apple makes a stunning reversal. did the biggest company in the world just give in to taylor swift? plus a farming revolution in newark new jersey. morgan brennan is live to explain. morgan? >> reporter: hey. check out this arugula. this is being built from a former dance club in newark new jersey. this the next big thing in ago gra

you no longer need acres of farmland to grow vegetables. all you need is an old industrial building in the middle of a city. morgan is live in newark to explain. >> aero farms is in the process of developing the world's largest vertical farm here in newark, new jersey.

it expects to harvest 2 million pounds of salad greens and herbs per year and do so without any soil or sunlight. instead using l.e.d. lighting cloth and nutrient mist. this is a $39 million project backed by the state and goldman sachs financial. vertical farms are sprouting up across the country. the reasons, whether is not an issue. they can use 90% less wear and there is no need for pesticides. >> the rate of germination, going from seed to harvest optimizing all the conditions the plant wants, we have consistent harvests with a very high yield. >> aerofarm says productivity is 70 times greater than a field farm. take green sense farms which

supplies whole foods and other retailers in the chicago area. >> produce remains much more nutritious the fewer miles it travels. by being able to get your food to your customers quicker, it's more nutritious. and more importantly, we can grow year round. >> keep in mind there are drawbacks. this is capital-insensitive. urban real estate is exponentially pricier than rural. because soil isn't involved you cannot label this as organic. still, many of these companies are selling their produce in local supermarkets and commanding prices similar to organic. consumers are buying it. and it castes very good. apple may be the biggest company in the world. no match for the power of taylor swift.

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i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy for my studio. ♪ and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business... that's huge for my bottom line. what's in your wallet? we are watching developments in greece. this is video earlier today where michelle caruso-cabrera is in kath leets. the protests peaceful so far. government outlining a new reform plan with a june 30th deadline looming. we are all over this story. >> sometimes it's a good idea to

switch up brands. the new coke comes to mind as the infamous reversal in history and jc penney's no coup yins no sales went away. and netflix quikster? no because they stopped it before it came out. apple music just said uncle with its payment policy with response to a public complaint by singer taylor swift. let's bring in jeff price and tom sturgis. taylor swift, apple. so it's getting a lot of attention. >> taylor swift came down hard on the side of all independent artists. she is an independent artist. she is not signed to a major label. she came down hard on behalf of

everybody who is the little guy fighting the big guy. she went toe-to-toe with apple in the opinion of many she knocked them right out. >> she said you are not giving people free iphones. don't ask us to give our music away. >> exactly. >> i think it's close enough to that. what we just saw were two remarkable things. number one, it's the power of the written word. still. after all this time the written word has all that impact. plus the picture of her holding the apple was fantastic. then eddie q responding on twitter to change his company's, the largest company in the world, to change their corporate policy on twitter responding directly to an artist. i think it was a tremendous move by apple to recognize they have made a mistake and they were going to change course immediately.

and use the leverage of pleasing her to make that happen. >> i am a music fan. i am a spotify subscriber. should i feel guilty about merely being on those services? >> it's not your responsibility to decide how the infrastructure of the music industry works. it's our responsibility to give you what you want and capitalize on it. that's what we do. this was an inside baseball issue. what was great is taylor swift gave it a public persona that wasn't there and brought something behind the scenes into the forefront. apple capitalized on it wonderfully. this couldn't have played out any more brilliantly for everybody. apple gets additional marketing and promotion for the forth coming service. they look like they soul because they have one. taylor is fighting for the little guy. and raises all the boats in the water higher. >> will it change anything long term for anybody? >> it will. when the leader in the space

makes a demarkation line saying you have to pay for free? yeah. >> we'll leave it there. big story, big-face names. thank you very much. check out "fast money." >> yours truly will be there. see you then. >> "closing bell" starts now. welcome to the program. sara eisen in for kelly evans at the new york stock exchange. >> welcome aboard. i'm bill griffeth. it started with the european markets. the stock markets over there closed with a bang today. on optimism over a potential deal in greece. the ft-se, the cac, the dax. the dax