interest rates and higher dollar. >> yep. and not seeing that today. a little bit of profit taking. >> exactly. >> ben willis thank you very much. brian, over to you. >> wrapping up with no greece deal. the dow down 140, and the top for business is revealed. all coming up with the close"closing bell" right now. >> hi and welcome to the "closing bell," everybody. i'm kelly evans here at the new york stock exchange. >> welcome back. >> good to be back bill. >> i'm bill griffith here at cnbc headquarters. that, of course, means i'll be on nightly business report on pbs. join us check your local listings. they're running for cover today. we have a bit of a selloff in stocks right now. bonds are higher, dollar lower. all caused in part by comments by activist investor carl icahn that he feels the stock market is overheated the junk bond market he thinks is in bubble territory. and then of course we have those concerns about greece as well, which we'll get into in a

little bit. among the sectors being hit today, transports and the high-flying biotech stocks getting hit especially hard today, as well, kelly. >> yeah but bill, if there is some green, it's home builder lennar bucking the trends. posting strong earnings shares up 4% on the session today. and the company's ceo will join us live in an exclusive interview here at the new york stock exchange coming up. >> looking forward to that. that's a key, key sector we've been watching carefully. so what's being called the mini ipo today. new rules allowing entrepreneurs to raise up to $50 million from small investors. shark tank investor kevin harrington with us. hooest going to look to take the advantage of the strategy and tell us about it coming up here live on "closing bell." >> yeah. you might have missed this story with everything else going on to our viewers out there. but it's a crucial one. can't wait to talk to him about it. and meantime yahoo ceo melissa mayer providing an update.

but, we start with the markets and those comments. you saw it here today on cnbc. told scott wapner on the halftime report markets overheated. listen. >> i'm very concerned about the market. and i think the market is overheated. especially the high-yield market. and it's sort of a sad commentary because i think the public is walking into a trap again, as they did in '07. >> strong words from carl icahn. let's talk about with our "closing bell" exchange guest today from index financial partners is with us. there at the big board and rick santelli in chicago. and jack i guess you're going to take issue with carl icahn? >> well it sounds like carl's trying to buy something and hoping the market goes down so he can buy it cheaper. the reality is that i agree with him as far as the high yield, that goes. i think there are certain sectors that are looking a

little topee to me. and a lot of that might be because there's nowhere else to go in fixed income so they start running for yield. as far as corporate america goes, i don't think there's a comparison between what happened in '07 and what we're looking at today. you know, you're talking about a corporate balance sheet that is so much healthier than ever before. >> all right. hang on one second guys. we're going to get more comments. the other issue we're following right now, those developments in greece or regarding greece i guess i should say. sue herrera stepping in with developments right now. >> and here's what we're finding out. basically, the eurozone finance ministers have ended their discussions at this point on those loans for reform. the deal that was being put together, hopefully, for greece. they're expected to resume those talks, again, on thursday. and the technical talks between greek's prime minister and the bailout institutions which is a separate discussion is going to continue into the evening. but the eurozone finance ministers ended their

discussions. they didn't seem to be doing very well in terms of progress in those discussions with austria's finance minister finland's finance minister and the spanish finance minister coming out earlier today with statements saying we're not getting anywhere. and that is, indeed, the case. they have concluded their talks for this afternoon. the technical talks will continue tonight. back to you guys. >> lucy pulling the football away from charlie brown. >> once again. >> yes. >> and it's interesting to look at markets, the dow's down 145 points, bill. arch cashin said it best the 50 points, next 70 icahn, technical on level breaks. does that speak to the influence? each of these was having on the markets today? >> i think it does. and jack hit the nail on the head. you get someone like carl icahn who talks his own book. he talks about his position in apple. when he talks about it being overheated, is he trying to get it to a point where he's looking to buy something? >> he also said he feels like it's his responsibility as an older figure in the markets like

he did in 2007 like he should come out now and acknowledge the concerns where he sees them to protect the retail investor. >> so listen that's all well and good i hear you. but i also think like jack said the junk bond market he may be right. i don't think we're going to get this panicky sell signal in the equity market at all. i didn't hear if he called for a level on the s&p or where he thought the market was going. i don't merely think the market itself is as frothy you know that's just a pullback well within a normal trading range. nothing for anybody to panic about at all. >> i think part of it is carl icahn, when you think about it he's a value investor. he'll want to buy it. i think he's finding it more difficult to find value right now. >> i think maybe you're right. if he talks the market down he sees value again. >> rick santelli it's an interesting one. he did invoke high-yield bonds as the most explicit example of where he sees frothiness in the market today.

interestingly, though, a lot of the high grade stuff that's under pressure this year. on a lot of supply issues. where do you see concerns in the bond market? >> well, i think when it comes to icahn's comments today. listen, when he exited maybe one of the best trades in netflix, i think he's giving people some insight. i wouldn't look for him to be a public service representative for the rest of us. it doesn't seem to be in his character. but it's hard to argue. i was on a panel with jim bianco and jeff gunnlack. and the points brought up there are a little easier to drill down on. it's the rollover risk in high yield you want to be paying attention to. and there isn't a whole lot of it in 2015. $50 billion according to research where it really gets interesting around 2018 to 2019. you're looking at about $300 billion of junk to rollover in addition to close to $400 billion of fed paper rolling over. you need a catalyst for things to move. it's always about timing.

well, those dates are probably giving you a better assessment of timing and pretty much every expert who calls to the end of bull runs is usually correct on just about everything except for timing. >> so you're worried about liquidity then is that right? >> yes. absolutely. it's liquidy and destruction of destruction of capital that's going to bring this one down. tina will stay in place until capital is destroyed versus moved. >> you know we had gary kohn on yesterday. we asked him about the liquidity issue that people keep bringing up. and he says he's not worried about liquidity because what will end up happening is there will be what he called a price dislocation because everything has a price. if you don't have the liquidity to meet the demand or the supply, the price will solve that problem for you. so are we -- >> for the last -- >> but, bill -- >> liquidity problem. >> one at a time guys. >> rick first. >> he also said -- >> liquidity.

>> yeah. >> yeah. >> that is liquidity. >> no and i was going to say, the other thing he mentioned was the overregulation in the marketplace. you've got less people making markets. and that's something rick has been talking about. i've been talking about. one of the reasons the footprints are so large and price dislocation is exactly what rick said. it's illiquid markets. >> right. but when you have less people providing that liquidity, that then only adds to the illiquidity on top of the price. if the price is out of line like bill said and like he said yesterday, the market will determine where the liquidity comes in. and that's based on price. >> jack can we go back to greece for one second here? as rick mentioned, perhaps calling the market top isn't the easiest thing to do. but certainly, more pressing this afternoon is the sense there's still no resolution on these euro group talks about what to do with the country. what happens to markets in the meantime? where does that leave us? >> it's really strange. greece is turning into what i

consider a buy-byeuy scenario. it's not a lehman event. it's more akin to having your brother-in-law living in the basement free loading off of you and won't look for work. it's that type of scenario. it's aggravating, but nowhere near earth shattering. again, it's turning into a buy/buy scenario. >> i think he's right. i think initially, if a default, you're going to see the initial pressure. i think he's absolutely right. in the end, it's going to be a huge opportunity. a huge buying opportunity. >> certainly haven't seen much of an impact. >> say hi to your brother-in-law for us. >> i will. >> jack, rick and kenny this afternoon. initially moving higher today, the company announced 7 for 1 stock split. shares have fallen off after carl icahn said he was selling his position in the company, bill. >> yes, he just kept giving us all kinds of things to talk about today. joining us is kevin kelly of

recon capital. they own netflix through a covered call etf. carl sold his netflix stake. what are you doing? buying more? >> absolutely this is not a selling opportunity. carl didn't sell it because he thought there was a shift in the company. he sold it because he thought it was booking profits. it's not in the profile. like you mentioned before, carl likes value this has turned into more of a vc play. that's why mark cuban is still in it and there's a paradigm shift in the medium of consuming content. so the company's still doing well. they can still grow 25% revenues year-over-year. we actually think this will help the stock because it's going to have a wider shareholder base it can bring down the volatility. historically, the volatility is 42.6. we've extracted that right? so when you sell covered calls against it you can pull in that premium. that's another great way to do it. >> just want to get part of what he seemed to be saying in his argument is he likes apple

because it has no competition as carl icahn put it. when he talked about netflix, he made a handsome profit on and now sounds like the concern is really is a lot of competition. netflix maybe isn't that unique. what about that fundamental criticism, if you will? >> well, what investors need to look at is where is the next growth driver? and that's actually overseas. and that's where it's happening right now. there could be over 250 million households they can acquire to subscribe to netflix. and there's only 20 million overseas subscribers. also consumer confidence with their own product is at an all-time high. they've got pricing right now that they could increase as well as implement and add model. that's what hulu has done. hulu premium -- >> that's exactly it kevin. there is a hulu. so many streaming services. if netflix is one channel among many, does that erode the competitive advantage it had five years ago when it was the only player in the space? >> absolutely not.

it has the first mover advantage. also has the content, it has its own original content. it's competing against a couple players. you've got hulu hbo go and amazon prime instant. and they're the clear leader the gold standard. if people are going to go to video on demand and use a subscription service like this the first one they're going to is netflix. >> fair enough. >> all right. very good. kevin, thanks for joining us today. kevin kelly. >> yeah. lots of contentious points to discuss in this market this afternoon, bill. the dow is down 154 points and going back to carl icahn, apple is the only name in the green, of course. he spoke quite bullishly about that company's prospects. everywhere else the s&p and the nasdaq down 13 and 36 points respectively. >> here's something that has nothing to do with carl icahn. lennar rallying on the back of a strong earnings beat. the ceo of the second largest home builder will speak with us exclusively after this break. if he thinks the housing

recovery is on solid ground and what impact rising interest rates could have on the home building business coming up. also, two automakers driving full speed ahead into the 21st century. but may be taking two roads into the future. keep it right here. i'm here at the td ameritrade trader offices. ahh... steve, other than making me move stuff, what are you working on? let me show you. okay. our thinkorswim trading platform aggregates all the options data you need in one place that lets you visualize that information for any options series. okay, cool. hang on a second. you can even see the anticipated range of a stock expecting earnings. impressive... what's up, tim? for all the confidence you need. td ameritrade. you got this.

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at universal studios hollywood. the dow down 146 points right now. here are the 30 components that make the industrial average. as you can see 29 or lower, 1 is higher. that would be apple up over 1% today. dupont, by the way, for the record is the big laggard. down 3.15% right now kelly. >> let's hone in on the other big movers. higher after its oil and gas units filed for an initial public offering of up to $100 million in common shares. under the symbol fmog and disapointing quarterly revenue. this despite beating on earnings. the guidance for next quarter also falling below analyst forecast and separately monsanto reiterating the interest in buying syngenta.

meanwhile, shares of lennar moving higher today, as well after the company reported better than expected earnings. a 30% jump in earnings. thanks to the continuing recovery, we seem to be experiencing in the housing market right now, kelly. >> in a cnbc exclusive, we are joined by stewart miller. welcome. >> good afternoon. >> good to see you. >> nice to be here. >> since the downturn we've seen a steady comeback what has been slow and steady. normal recoveries would be very vertical in nature. you see the first time home buyer come back in a very strong way. >> in a very strong way? >> in a very strong way, typically. this recovery has been very difficult. it's been slow and steady. and the first time home buyer's been absent. >> still? >> well, we're starting to see the first-time home buyer come back and we've seen that

reported by other builders. we're seeing that in our business, as well. but the comeback of the first-time buyer has been slow because they're the most affected by the way that the credit market the mortgage market has been reconfigured. regulation has hit their ability to get qualified and to be able to get a mortgage and buy that home. >> sure. >> and we've heard also stewart, sort of a chicken and egg thing. we heard the first-time buyer, not only difficult to get that mortgage there hasn't been enough inventory for them to look at. and as anecdotely we heard from real estate people from around they're waiting for more inventory out there. do you acknowledge that home builders have been reticent to get going again and start building in a big way? >> let me pick up the question stewart, in case you couldn't hear that. bill is asking about inventory, which we've heard the ceo of realgy say. we need home builders to start building. what do you say to that? >> they're building in response to direct demand and demand has

been somewhat impaired. we do need inventory out there, and there's no question there's a shortage of supply across the industry. and that's not just for home ownership for existing homes, but it's also in the rental market. we've seen a production deficit. you see that from a recovery standpoint home building is only getting up to about the 1 million homes per year level. we need to be 1.5 million to 2 million homes per year we're not getting there. but the demand hasn't been able to come back. >> that's what i was going to ask. some critics will say, i wonder if there's a supply profitability tradeoff. are builders holding back on building burned both experience but also your average selling price, i read was the second highest ever during the period. including the boom. why throw a bunch of inventory into the market when we're making handsome returns here. >> it's not just about returns. the fact of the matter is that demand has been constrained. it's like a funnel.

and the mortgage market is the biggest constraint. the millennials have been doubled up. they haven't reentered the market. the mortgage market is really limiting people's access to home ownership. and that's kept a lot of people on the sidelines. if the mortgage market were to open up i think we'd see a lot more production. >> not looking to play the blame game is this a problem that washington has to address. is it just inherent to the nature of a lot of businesses burned by their mortgage lending experience and having tightened up too far? >> no, i think this is a pendulum swung too far in terms of conservatism. this is definitely something that washington's going to have to address. the regulatory environment is constructed or has been re-constructed away from risk. but dramatically away from risk. rather than just correcting the excesses of the last downturn what we've done is overly conserve conservetize.

people able to afford a mortgage and support a mortgage are just not being granted credit and they're being kept out of the market. >> meantime got to talk about some of the areas like houston, where you saw weakness despite strength elsewhere. >> you know we've been watching very carefully how oil prices would affect the business. we thought that it would be a more dramatic impact particularly in houston. but, in fact houston's been a very strong market that's kind of gone through this correction in oil pretty steadily. we've seen pullback at some of the higher end price points but the low-end, the first-time home buyer market happens to be pretty strong. houston's weathered this storm pretty well. >> it's fascinating. there's a lot of people saying this is still such a regional. or more so regional housing market. listening to your stuff about how high prices are and how there's not enough inventory on the market. there are plenty of buyers sitting with the home they paid more for than it's worth. saying what part of the country are you talking about? is that what you observe here today? that it really does depend so

much on what parts of the country you're in? and which parts of the country are strongest? >> well you know it's kind of funny. you know, pretty much across the country, we're seeing strength. but strength in different pockets within each region. and by and large, your outskirts have performed at a lower rate than your inner core of each of the cities each of you major markets. you've seen a correction in pricing and the inner core where people who were under water are no longer under water. but outside the primary loops of your cities you're still seeing a lot of people that are under water in terms of their mortgage where they overpaid at the height of the market. it's a tale of multiple cities. it's less regionally focused. but within each market there are more differentiators. >> just before we go we talked about the first-time buyers. what's the single biggest behavioral impact you're seeing from the boomers?

>> pretty much people are sticking to what they've done historically, at least at the boomer end. i think that the boomers are tending to stay in the homes they're in or moving back to cities. more city dwelling than the outskirts and the adult pockets. but the boomers have been steady as she goes. >> yeah we see that all the time. you know leaving the big old house in the suburbs and moving into the city. stewart, thank you for being here. really appreciate it. stuart miller is the ceo of lennnar this afternoon. shares up handsomely after the results today. not the same for the rest of the market. dow's off about 150 points. this hour the s&p down 12 and the nasdaq down 33. up next yahoo ceo marisa mayer, we'll bring you those highlights. plus the buzz on social media and cnbc.com is getting louder with guesses on which state will top cnbc's annual ranking of the best states for business. we'll run through the key clues before we reveal the winner for

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ma ris a mayer talking up a major transformation in silicon valley. right now, shares are fractionally higher but they're down 19% this year. josh lipton has highlights from that meeting today. josh? >> well, bill, it's been nearly

three years since marissa mayer took the helm at yahoo. and today she reminded shareholders about the changes underway at the company. >> we remain committed to making ya yahoo the best place to work, hiring great people. we've overhauled every core product and introduced new, innovative ones to improve the product suite. we've increased traffic, particularly on mobile. and we're pleased with the stability in our business encouraged by the continued growth. >> now mayer highlighted everything that she believes is going right at yahoo. new growth areas, mobile video, social and native advertising, generated $1.1 billion in revenue last year. monthly active users on mobile as she notes, up 20% year-over-year. as for alibaba, mayer says the plan is to complete the spinoff of the stake in the ecommerce giant by q-4 and perhaps providing some assurance that the plan is on track. mayer did face some blunt

questions, though from shareholders who asked the ceo if they should hold on to their shares. this year, the stock is down hard in its last reported quarter, yahoo said that revenue from both display and search ads. mayer emphasized that the stock performance over her three years has been in her words, quite strong. she said that her own stock ownership of yahoo is significant. kelly, back to you. >> good day to have laryngitis by the way. those are the breaks. thanks, josh. >> thanks josh. throughout the day, scott cohn is talking about the annual ranking of the best states for business. >> we've been guessing all kinds of states. obviously to no avail at this point. the man with the answer joins us now with a recap of all the clues to this point. scott? >> >> hi bill. you know i have a confession to make. i try every year we do these top states tends to be diabolical but fair. and i'm a little concerned that i may have gone a little too far

in one direction. diabolical. and so as we show you these hints, again, ask yourself if you think you've got it, are you sure? and if you are sure, then why are you sure? and if you still didn't get it or think you didn't get it, we're going to give you a special twitter only hint in just a little bit. my handle is @scottcohntv. a long journey starts here part blue, part red, float your boat, home of the babe mm-mm good. now, i don't know, as i said try to be fair. anyway, the plan from here on out is and the second hour of the "closing bell," we will reveal america's top state for business. we'll have an interview with the top state's governor who is one of the few people in the world who knows what the top state for business is. and we will also let you see where your state stacks up at our special website, top

states.cnbc.com. keep an eye on twitter and keep it here on the "closing bell" for the big answer about an hour or so from now. guys? >> scott, yeah. bill? >> after every clue i come up with a different state. i'm completely confused at this point. >> i'm wondering if we've heard anything about which were at the bottom. >> oh the bottom states, that will be in our rankings. we're going to highlight tomorrow on the "closing bell" when you'll know where we are where the top state is. we will highlight the bottom states and tell you why they landed at the bottom of our study. that's interesting, if not a little bit disheartening to those states every year. >> yeah the rankings remind people to go through each of the 50 states and you can see the past years and who has been there. the runner-up as we heard was texas and lost by narrow margin just four points to the winner where you're standing? >> that's right. four points. i don't think, and i'd have to go back, i don't think we've had

a margin of victory that slim. the top state, which will be revealed later this afternoon. >> trying to read the license plates of those cars behind you there. i'm trying to see. >> i like the question mark. >> is that memory? are you in ohio? where are you? we'll find out. >> we're in america. >> you're in america. we know that part. thank you, scott. and scott will do the big reveal the next hour of "closing bell." he'll be revealing the governor of that state. do not mitszss that. they do such a great job with this ranking, kelly. >> it's a ton of work. >> and typically, it comes up with a surprise. i suspect that'll be the case today. >> and it's time now for cnbc news update with sue herrera. >> hi kelly, thank you very much, and here's what's happening this hour. dzhoknar tsarnaev has been sentenced to death by lethal injection. he asked for forgiveness of ala lrksl allah.

he will be sent to indiana for imprisonment and execution pending an automatic u.s. ambassador to france after the wikileaks claimed they spied on hollande and his predecessor. he spoke on the phone with president obama who told him the u.s. is not targeting his communications. three people were killed in somalia when a car bomb targeting military trainers from the united arab emirates hit their convoy. the group al shabab has claimed responsibility for that attack. and a top regulator with the federal railroad administration telling house lawmakers that railroads and companies that fail to implement safety technology will face federal fines. congress has mandated that all railroads have the technology in place by the end of the year. and that's your cnbc news update this hour. back to you, kelly. >> thank you so much. just about 30 minutes to go bill. we're getting into crunch time

here in terms of the trading session. the dow is just off the lows down about 135 points. still, .75%. only apple in the green. csx trying to get up there. the s&p, nasdaq down .5%. the new economy shares offices, living space, cars you guys are sharing everything these days. that train is not lost on ford which is about to enter the sharing marketplace. meanwhile, less about sharing at general motors as it is chased by fiat chrysler these days. the tale of two auto giants and what could drive their stock prices higher when we come back on "closing bell." 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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welcome back less than half an hour left to go in trading. we like to talk to a floor guy about it. joining us today. sir, good afternoon. what are you watching? >> it's an interesting time. i mean we have russell come on friday. so you know that's going to be a major volume event. >> rebalancing? >> yeah the rebalance. so what's happening now? well, i don't know. it's a little bit of a calm before the storm in the sense we

haven't seen the kind of volumes we've been expecting. i haven't seen the kind of flow. volume's a little bit lighter. does that mean we have tsunami that is going to come in big at the end? volumes are swelling big here on the close. we have some banking deals coming tomorrow morning. things could get interesting very quickly. i think we're still worked out. look, i don't want to say he's not having an impact but i don't think he's the one running the show. we're a little bit soggy today. we've been within a range. >> is that a greece situation, then? is it because of that? >> you know what i'm not a big fan of greece running the markets here. i think a lot of that stuff's baked in. we'll get to a spot where someone will have to finally make some determination. >> one way or the other. >> it's just headline news right now. >> what levels are you watching real quick? >> the thing we're watching now on our side some of the sectors that have been adversely impacted. and will they continue to trend that way. we start to see some support here. you've got to be looking at

transports health cares. a couple of sectors. to indicate whether we're going to see follow through or maybe just range bound and going to lift to the upside by the end of the week. >> thank you. >> eye on transports and health care. back to you. >> let's talk about those transports. they have been lagging wall street morgan brennan stepping in to tell us what's going on. morgan? >> yeah well in a lot of ways it's more of the same. now the dow transports are back in correction territory as of today, down more than 10% from the intraday high last november. and every component is in the red. but, once again, it's really the rails that are some of the biggest losers. so csx, kansas city southern, union pacific, norfolk southern they're all down 2% or more today. and that's happening as we get another negative weekly reading on rail volumes. much more disappointing than expected. and as several analysts cut earnings estimates again. also, keep an eye on trucking stocks. those are getting slammed, as well, following a negative analyst note from wolf research. swift transportation knight

transportation, westerner enterprises all down more than 3% apiece, as well today. >> very important to keep an eye on. thanks very much. meanwhile, in the autos, ford on higher ground after the auto giant announced that car-sharing program that it's launching in six cities here in the u.s. and in london. phil lebeau has details on that. phil? >> and bill i've had a number of people say to me why would ford do this? why would they launch a car sharing program? keep in mind you've seen automakers try pilot programs. and he believes solving the problem of congestion and urban mobility has to be one of the mantras of the future for ford. so they're launching this car-sharing program, six cities in the u.s. three in the bay area, along with portland chicago, washington, d.c. also doing similar program in london. basically, if you're a ford motor credit customer. if you bought your car through ford and it's financed through ford motor credit you determine how much you're going to charge to rent out your vehicle by the

hour, several hours, whatever it might be. here's the reason why ford is doing this. look at this chart. it says it all about worldwide demand for car sharing, 4.9 million people are a member of car-sharing clubs right now worldwide. by 2020 guys that's expected to jump to 26 million. we'll see if this works for ford. certainly a lot of interest at this point. >> phil, i'm just chuckling. my question wouldn't be why is ford doing this? why isn't everybody else doing this. seems like a no brainer given the changes in this economy. >> reporter: well you talk with the other automakers, i'm sure they've considered it to some degree. but at this point, ford is being a little more ahead of the game if you will. i wouldn't be surprised if we see other automakers do this as well kelly. and, especially, if ford finds success in this. >> fair enough. and phil while we've got you, general motors shares taking a hit today. between that and this continued discussion about fiat circling them for a deal here. what do you make of it?

>> it's a one-way discussion at this point because it's all coming from the folks up in auburn hills. and there's no conversation coming back from the folks here in detroit at general motors headquarters. look, we're going to be talking with mary barra, the ceo of general motors tonight because they've unvaileiled two vehicles today. the convertible, we'll start in the low $30,000 range. should get a good reaction from the market and the new cruz which they're going to be showing us later on today. and we're going to be talking with mary barra and also mark royce in charge of product development worldwide. we'll talk with him on "fast money." the bottom line, in terms of this merger talk it's more speculation than anything at this point. sergio would love to do a deal. but the executives and board at gm, that's not what they're interested in right now. and you've got to have at least some interest there, otherwise, it's going to continue to be a one-way conversation. >> i mean it has been a one-way conversation and smacks of

desperation on his part at this point. does he have a plan "b"? >> he's got to figure out what the future is about. it's a highly leveraged company. technically, does he need to do a merger? no. but he has made it very clear, they need scale. so if general motors doesn't work out, if he can't convince the activists to work out a merger from the gm side, does he pursue something with the other automakers around the world. there are a number of possibilities out there. the only one he's being vocal about right now is general motors. >> all right. well, bill we'll leave it there. really appreciate the information. general motors and ford both in focus today. >> yes, thanks for sharing time with us phil. >> out in detroit. nice. 18 minutes to go into the close here. and the dow is up 150 points. the nasdaq which yesterday hit a new record high. today, falling back off that by

30 points. the small caps did the same thing. the s&p, the broad market index down 12 points .5%. >> this is an interesting story, new way for small business owners to get investors. shark tank's kevin harrington will be here to discuss many ipos that have been permitted by regulators regulators. this came out of the jobs bill earlier. but we're going to talk about when we come back.

welcome back to, the securities and exchange commission. the regulation a plus part of the 2012 jobs act or jump start our business. companies can raise up to $50 million from the general public in a 12-month period. allowing more retail investors to get a chance to get in early. >> kevin harrington is one of the first entrepreneurs to try out this mini ipo. he's a ceo of a celebrity-driven mobile shopping platform called starshop. and he joins kelly there at post 9:00. good to see you. not many people saw. this was an amendment that was added last minute to the jobs report there. the jobs bill that came out of congress. how does this kind of an ipo. when i hear ipo, i think regulations and a lot of

paperwork. is it that easy for these small businesses to raise the money through this system? >> let's put it this way, you do need audited financials for two years, you know, there are certain regulations you still have to be following. you can now offer your opportunity to nonaccredited investors, which opens it up really to the universe. and as i said you know coming from shark tank people would call me and say, hey, why didn't you invest in that particular opportunity last night? and everybody in the -- out watching television kind of wanted to be a shark. >> right. right. >> it was kind of funny. >> and we've seen kevin, already, a bunch of crowd sourcing, kick starter kinds of things out there. is this basically the sec's answer to all of that? >> when you think about kickstarter. people who have put money in, they didn't get equity. so now you have a chance to put money into something after you've gone through all the processes. and you now get a piece of the

equity. >> this went live on friday. just so people are aware. last friday june 19th this goes into effect. what can you tell us about what happened over the weekend and since? >> well, there's -- a lot of activity. people wanting to know how can they do it? there's a couple things you have to do. you need to have audited financials. you've got to get approved also. >> but to get involved you only have to download the app, is that right? >> the -- to get involved. are you talking -- >> to invest? >> you talking about start? >> to invest. >> to invest, well, you you can't invest yet in a mini ipo, regulation "a" company yet. you've got to be approved by the sec. >> bill? >> i gather are you investing in some of these ipos? planning to? what? >> i do plan to. i do plan to. >> how risky are these things? >> well this is the thing. as an investor i still always look at the company, the jockey.

i look at even more than the jockey. i look at the team behind the jockey. do they have operations finance. do they have money, do they have capital to get started? and really, how is there -- their company uniquely positioned in the market they're going after? so you still have to look for the things you look for as a solid investor would look for. >> and, listen time will tell but it really is shark tank nation appreciate it. good to see you this afternoon. >> thanks for having me. >> about ten minutes left of trading. a down day for the most part today. back close to the lows of the session, down 161 points right now. that is the biggest decliner percentage wise today. and creditors in the greek government at an impasse. larry mcdonald has a unique perspective. "closing bell" is back in two. ...become especially important. from the makers of one a day fifty-plus. new one a day proactive sixty-five plus.

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7 1/2 minutes left. here's how we stand. dow down 158, s&p down 13, nasdaq by 35 points. joining kelly and me. larry mcdonald from socgen. good to see you both. welcome back.

larry, kelly saying you have a slightly different take on the situation with greece. are you worried about it? not worried about it? what are you doing about it? >> well it reminds me of that famous lehman moment when we had the congress we were waiting for the decision from the house and senate. i think we're going to go through that on sunday night because the imf is clearly thrown this back at greece. they want more. the governments, they're going to have to go to the parliament. and that's probably going to take place sunday night. >> larry, the difference in this case, though is markets aren't falling 600 points. are you expecting that moment to come as those deliberations, as the real deadline's near? >> there's not as much systemic risk. there is $650 billion of total debt exposed to greece. but a lot of the bonds are now in public hands, not private hands. but if if they get a no vote and then it looks like a default in the short-term that could cause some problems monday

tuesday. >> meanwhile, phil carl icahn thinks the market's overheated. worried about the junk bond market. what do you make of all of that? >> i don't agree. to me, we're in a sweet spot. you have moderate growth. you've got low inflation. and accommodative fed and a consumer that gets stronger every single quarter. we talked about the consumer didn't show up in the first quarter. guess what it wasn't true. i couldn't disagree more. i like the equity market more than the bond market. by the way, you could be losing money in the bond market right now. and where are we on the equity market? extrapolate that over one year he's wrong. >> what specifically are you buying here? >> i actually still like the international market as much as the u.s. market. for me, i made a big move at the international small caps. i like that space. made a move earlier this year. u.s. small caps both seem to me like they're in the right spot as we get growth. those are new move for us. i have recently cut back a little bit on mlp exposure because of the volatility.

there will be an opportunity in there, as well. >> all right. good to see you both. thank you for your thoughts on today's market action. coming back with a closing countdown in a minute. five minutes left in the trading day. after the bell alabama and alibaba making steps today to get rid of the confederate flag. joining others in the wake of the racially motivated murders last week in south carolina. but we have the ceo of the company. who will continue selling the controversial symbol of the south? and he'll explain why. you're watching cnbc first in business worldwide. ♪ approaching medicare eligibility? you may think you can put off checking out your medicare options until you're sixty-five but now is a good time to get the ball rolling. keep in mind

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welcome back. about two minutes left as we head to the close here in the countdown. as i said they sort of ran for r today. the stocks went down. they were worried about greece. looking at carl icahn's comments during the "fast money" halftime report today that the market may be topping out at this point. show you the dow here. and that european influence, as well. bob pisani with me as well. once we see the european markets closed it becomes a different market. most selling after the european markets had closed today, bob. and yields went lower today as they bought bonds in defense, i guess. >> so we were talking about this earlier about the -- who to blame here. and i'd say 30 maybe 40% of this was clearly greece worries. but i have to say, carl icahn, i do think moved the markets. we started getting weaker when word came out that he thought the markets were overvalued. and he spent 15 or 20 minutes

with scottie and the crew on halftime reports. >> almost the anticipation of what he was going to say, that brought some of that selling, right? >> you know, you get -- what happens in these kinds of situations is when the market's right at highs, gets very trigger happy. so high beta stocks, for example, cyber security stocks biotech stocks, they were hit the most. we also saw, again, transports -- >> yep. >> which never used to be high-beta stocks in the past suddenly have become them. and a lot of people are looking for canary in the coal mine. i don't particularly feel that way about them. i think there's peculiar characteristics of them. particularly the way coal is changing and the way oil transport is changing. >> transport's going lower, but housing's going higher. there's a dichotomy there somehow, right? two economically sensitive groups. >> i hope everyone was listening to stuart miller talking today just a few minutes ago. and the important thing is, the consumer names. the retail companies, the home

building companies are all doing better, and bill we're going to talk about that next week. earnings are improving for all of those consumer cyclicals. >> got it thanks bob. we'll see you later. so, coming up where in the country is scott cohn? which state is the best for doing business? you'll find out coming up in the second hour of the "closing bell." see you tomorrow. >> thank you, bill. welcome to the "closing bell," everybody. i'm kelly evans. after record highs yesterday for the nasdaq and the small caps on the russell today, it's right across the board. let's take a look at how we finished up. the dow going up at the lows. there was quite a bit of sell interest. so that could've had something to do with it. 175-point decline on the dow, back below 18,000. only apple notably was in the green on some remarks from carl icahn earlier. the s&p, meantime giving up 15 points about .75% nasdaq down

37 points today. joining me to talk about this we have cnbc contributors and stephanie link in the house. also with us more on today's market action, "fast money" trader guy adami. welcome one and all. and stephanie, i'll start with you. what would you contribute today's decline to? i mean how much of it was greece? how much was maybe carl icahn's comments these markets are overheated or something else entirely? >> i think it's greece. we were weak pretty much for the whole day, whole morning until carl icahn made the comments and decelerated when he made those comments. and, i think the problem here in the near term is yes, we have this uncertainty about the macro, about greece. but we haven't really heard from companies yet. we have to wait for earnings season. right? we've heard from a couple of companies recently. and we feel better once we learn more. and we can get our arms around where earnings are going to go. and the impact of the dollar and the lower oil and all of these conflicting issues. so i think we have to wait a couple of weeks ask and alcoa

starts on july 8th. in the meantime you have to wait until what you're hearing. retail sales here in the states. housing is actually doing very well. so i think there are pockets to be okay about. but i think, unfortunately, macro is really kind of taken hold in the near term. >> carol? >> i think this is much more carl icahn. i think, you know if you look to the beginning of the day, greece didn't seem like it was having that much of an impact. and as soon as carl started tweeting and appearing on cnbc. and you saw those individual stocks, and then he talked about the market being overvalued and high-yield bonds being overvalued. and seems to me there was just a steady acceleration of that decline after those comments. >> guy, is he right about the market generally speaking to take the comments about overvaluation? >> let me say, first of all, i am not worthy to be in this quartet, intelligence wise or beauty wise. i'm a fortunate man right now. that said you know carl's been

singing this tune now for quite some time. he's going to wind up being right at a certain point, but i think you go back to the comments that stephanie made. you've got to wait to see what happens in earnings season. i think the transports it's something we've been talking about with you for quite some time. you have to say -- you have to at least acknowledge it. i mean, here it is now, trading 148. seemingly on its way down to 140. first, it was the rails, then it was the airlines now simulated transports. there's clearly something going on there. it hasn't affected the broader market yet. but i fear it will at a certain point. >> it's closing high was 9217 on december of last year. this is either one of the most interesting secular bear markets that we've seen in some time or i mean, it's like if it doesn't portend for the broader markets what it used to historically speaking, then we're learning all sorts of new lessons about what's going on today. >> last year the transports were one of the best groups across the board. rails, airlines everybody liked

the airlines. now all of a sudden, nobody likes any of these. i think that's your opportunity if you're a longer term investor. some of these stocks and some of the industries like airlines for example, you're at a 10% free cash flow yield, eight times forward estimates. good franchises pricing power, good management teams that own a lot of stock. if you can take the kind of longer term perspective, i think you can find the opportunity. same thing with the rails. and i actually like low expectations headed into earnings. because that means that well we'll get more information and maybe you see a relief -- >> means the bar is low once again. they can beat it just like they do every single time by financial engineering and buying back stock. and then we're back to where we've always been. >> there is a big group, carole that does use those levers and pull them when they have to. no question about it. but at the same time, to stephanie's point about some of the transports you're looking at areas, and i remember when warren buffett was buying the rails and hedge funds were piling into the airlines.

these are no brainer stories. now it doesn't seem to be the case. >> well i cannot even talk about the airlines. i'm completely conflicted as a customer that consistently has travel issues. so i have a conflict of interest to even think about them. but, you know you are right. there could be some opportunities you know as we move forward. but it could be telling a story. >> it reminds me -- >> especially especially if you -- that's why i mentioned the economic data. >> right. >> the economic data was all really negative. if we were decelerating in every part of this economy, i'd be worried. >> right. >> but we've seen some pretty good housing data for example. we've seen some pretty good retail sales numbers. auto sales. yes, oil has been disappointing, coal has been disappointing. there have been some concern about capacity creep in airlines. that's disappointing. but i think generally speaking it's not gloom and doom. it's not gloom and doom. >> i think that's where we differ in viewing the data. i don't see that data as great data. i don't -- i certainly don't expect we're going to pull back off of that. but based on where we are in

this recovery and where we should be in the growth of the population and the amount of personal savings that consumers have and all of these data points, we should really be in a better place. so i can't look at that data and throw a parade for it. >> break the tie for us, guy. >> you know i -- i tend to sort of favor what carol's saying. i hear what stephanie's saying. i'm in carol's camp. five, six years down the road we should be doing better than we are. yes, the data appears better, but it's coming off an extraordinarily low trough that we seem to be bouncing off of. and i think at best you can say the data has been mixed. at best. the earnings will tell the tale. do we continue to see the financial engineering that carol spoke to? or do we finally get the revenue growth that everybody craves? i'm sort of in the -- i'm sort of in the camp of financial engineering continues to rule the day. >> all right. we've got to drill into this big selloff today. creditors and the greek government at an impasse over the debt crisis. concern continues that greece may end up leaving the european union.

a look at how markets reacted during other possible -- deidra great to see you. >> great to see you, kelly. and both of us spent time in our london bureau so we well know how easy it is to blame greece for market turmoil. you were just talking about this. on this side of the atlantic at least, it may not be making much difference. the numbers show that greece fatigue here is real and has been for a while. now, we found that markets typically take news in stride and push through it. it probably feels about 100 times, but we identified 16 solid instances since 2011 when markets were buzzing about a potential for the return of the drahgma. just a few weeks ago when warned about the beginning of the end of the eurozone. looking at the examples and averaging out the returns on those days we found out that markets in the u.s. don't move much at all.

in fact, the dow, the s&p 500, and the nasdaq come out to pretty much flat over the days that rumors have flown high. the s&p returns an average of just 0.01% while the dow on average is absolutely flat. now, if you're looking for some drama. looking for some action try the grek the global x greek 20. it does terrible when greece is on the brink. on average falls 2.3% on such a day. and in today's session, it finished lower by about 2.6%. the bottom line for the greater u.s. markets, though it may feel like greece is a driving force on a day like today. but overall, when you look at the numbers, crunch the numbers, the data tells us that fatigue has more likely settled in. back over to you guys. >> it's a great point. and i think you know one we are hearing more and more down here guys. is this the case you think? it's much ado about nothing? >> no, i think it is a big deal. and i said to lisa your new crack e.p. that they should put

a dollar sign instead of the "s." we could go to the bank on that one. again, i digress. quickly, i'll say they will take the coward's way out in terms of this whole greek drama because why? because that's what everybody winds up doing. they take the coward's way out. how do you play it? deutsche bank has been under considerable pressure for the last six months. if you look at that bank just on valuation, i think you own d.b. regardless of what happens with the greek exit or stay put. >> are you buying deutsche stephanie, here? >> i think there are a lot of value in the u.s. banks or the kind of global banks based in the u.s. here. you know, some of the bigger companies like you know bank of america, or something like a jpmorgan. that's not to say that deutsche bank doesn't have value. i think there's a little bit more risk versus the reward. but i like the financial sector very much. and i think the fact they've been leaders over the last month or two because of the yield curve steepening i think that's a good sign. another sign that the economy is better. >> i thought that greek dramas

always end in tragedy. that's why they're called greek tragedies. i think in the short-term we are going to see another kicking of the can down the road. but at some point, this is the, you know we're going to have to an end to this. i don't see it ending well. and that's just that's kind of how i see it. >> do you mean not ending well for investors in these markets thinking to themselves, okay fine, i take your point. does that still mean it can end in a way that's politically unpalatable but not affect financial returns? >> i think it could affect financial returns. i don't see it's a short-term issue. and i think if you go back to the data why the markets aren't paying attention to it on a short-term basis. but, you know, it's one of those potential you know i don't know if it's a black swan since we're aware of it but something goes in the wrong direction, and i think that could have a tremendous impact. >> guy, we've got to go. give us your other quick trade of the day. >> i think this netflix. i mean, if carl icahn rang the bell on netflix, good for him. but i think the selloff, if you're bullish in the stock, i

think the selloff is exactly what you're looking for. the netflix story is still intact. maybe have a couple more days of weakness. i think the stock continues to push higher. although nice job by carl today. i've got to tell you. >> it's a $2 billion profit i think he pocketed. we'll hear about it on "fast money." thanks for being here this afternoon. there's much more coming up here at 5:00 p.m. on "fast money." gene munster. that could drive the stock higher after a positive session today. you won't want to miss it. and the senate vote on the trade protection authority's underway. we'll keep a tally of the votes and bring you a count coming up on the "closing bell." keep it here. the red hot rental market showing no signs of slowing down. you'll be surprised by who is actually driving this growth. and it's not the millennials. we'll talk about that next. plus new york city investigating whether whole foods is overcharging for pre-packaged foods. coming up we'll discuss whether that could give investors some heart burn. and we're minutes away from

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you got this.

welcome back. shares of lennar a bright spot in a down day.

stuart miller the ceo of the home building giant joined us last hour and expressed concern over the mortgage market. >> the fact of the matter is that demand has been constrained. it's like a funnel and the mortgage market is the biggest constraint. the millennials have been doubled up. they haven't reentered the market. the mortgage market is limiting people's access to home ownership. and that's kept a lot of people on the sidelines. >> millennials are not the only ones impacting change in the housing stre inging industry. diana? >> reporter: yeah, and kelly, it's a perfect segue to this because the builder hedged bets well by launching a multi-family apartment business. they played that up on the call today. talked about huge rental demand, even beyond what they had expected and underwritten and the $6 billion pipeline. now, today, we have new

information on the rental market. rental demand will soar to historic highs in this decade and, surprisingly it will not all be driven by millennials. so far, households age 45 to 64 have accounted for about twice the share as households under the age of 35. so as we talk about higher rents, it's the middle-aged, middle class that's getting squeezed, too. also households in the top half of the income distribution, although they generally more likely to own, they contributed 43% of the growth in renters. that's really some unexpected numbers, kelly. >> diana, it's a fascinating topic. we were just getting worked up about it. stay right there, if you would, stephanie, you surprised by this? >> well, yeah, i am surprised by it. is the savings rate from this kind of group that's actually renting more is it just not what we thought it was going to be? but diana, i wanted to actually ask you a question about lennar and the asps up 8% on the year.

and pretty much optimistic about the pricing environment. do you think that the pricing environment is going to stay this robust? and as a result if it does are they going to see a decrease in demand going forward? >> yeah i think prices are going to rise for a while. and that's because of such low inventory. and lennar had a record high average home price it sold in may. they expect prices to continue. they continue to have pricing power. what will happen though when it gets to a certain price point, you're taking out your first-time buyers. interesting on the call though they said in texas, they're doing very well because they do have some entry level product. they're going to have to do more of that as more first-time buyers come back in order to support prices overall. >> in texas, there is a nice cohort of demand among first-time buyers from properties. but going back to this rental report, there's this sense that you know there's still a split in terms of younger people looking to rent, but especially a demand coming from the older

segment of the population for rental units. >> absolutely. i wanted to ask, diana, was there any reasoning behind this? were the people getting burned by the market in the past not wanting to have to go through that in the future? are there perhaps some second homes in the city they decide to rent to have the weekend city get away? is there any sort of breakdown of what these older renters are doing? >> it's all kinds -- all ends of the spectrum i should say, in the middle range when you talk about sort of middle-aged renters, a lot of them were burned by the housing market lost their homes to foreclosure and can't get back in don't want to get back in. but remember we have a huge cohort of downsizing baby boomers. and last year last week, on this show, we talked about the multi-family high-end rental apartment. we talked to a developer who said he was seeing all of these, you know very wealthy baby boomers who were downsizing did not want to own again. they had enough trouble selling their big houses in the suburbs,

they wanted to live in an urban area in a nice place and that's why these high-end rentals, 6,000 a month in the suburbs of maryland are doing so well. but, again, in that middle range, you do have people who just don't want to buy, again, because they want to be more mobile. they don't want to be tied down to a home or don't see the value in it anymore after everything we've been through. >> diana, it's a fascinating report. great write-up on cnbc.com. thanks for joining us. that's our diana olick. speaking of housing, bed, bath & beyond out with the numbers. >> all those linens towels items, bowls, whatever you want to call them. what's happening with bed, bath & beyond shares down 2%. just about 33,000 shares have traded so far. of 93 cents a share. narrowly misses estimates for 94 cents a share. in terms of revenues they come smack dab in line $2.74 billion in sales for this past quarter, that's in line with

expectations. they do see comparable store sales up by about 2% to 3% for the current quarter q-2, but the earnings per share guidance for this current quarter is a bit lighter than some analysts' expectations. that move to the downside about 2.5% down on about 33,000 shares worth of volume. bed, bath and beyond. back over to you. >> thank you very much. we're going to flip over to a news alert on disney. the details on this one. hey, julia. >> hey, kelly. disney announcing increasing the dividend. declaring a cash dividend of 66 cents per share for the first six months of fiscal 2015 payable july 29th. the news not only is the company increasing the analyzed dividend by 15%, but it also will be splitting up its dividend payments to twice yearly from here on out. kelly, back over to you. >> all right. thanks very much julie. again, shares up .25% there. guys, conviction reaction here to the news on disney and bed

bath? >> yeah and i think it really illustrates the challenge that this company has when your comp store sales are up but you're just missing on earnings. and they use couponing so heavily. >> don't i know it. >> to drive their traffic. something they've really struggled with to keep up with those operating margins. there were so rumors activists could be getting involved here. that is that dance that you're watching with bed, bath & beyond. >> i think they're heavily investing in their businesses. and online for sure. that's something that's been subpar over the last several years. they're heavily investing, and i think that's the problem with the story that you had not this great operating leverage story. because you have to keep on spending and planting the money back into the business. 2% to 3% comp going forward. i think that's pretty good. >> we could use more of that from some of these companies. all right. meantime hospitals are taking on the review site when it comes to health care ratings

and may be beating yelp an its own game. we'll talk about that next and get ready for the big reveal of this year's top state for business. scott cohn is in that mystery location, scott. any last-minute clues? >> what do you people want from me? i've been giving you hints since yesterday afternoon. i'll tell you what we're going to do. we'll take a break and pretty soon we're going to tell you which is america's top state for business. it's almost here when the "closing bell" continues.

welcome back. take a look at the etf getting hit pretty hard today, down almost 2%. this after we've seen a strong run-up previously in this area. but hospitals, meantime are taking on yelp with their own ratings and review system. the company curating the patient satisfaction surveys is national research corp. joining us to talk more. vice president. welcome to the program. >> thanks for having me on today. >> what's interesting about the rating system, hospitals were collecting this information, right? and you found a way to put it up for the public to see, is that right? >> that's exactly right. >> and to provide some helpful context. begin their health care search online. 45% read online reviews before booking an appointment. 1 out of 3 patients will avoid a physician after reading negative

reviews online. online reviews have never been more important in health care national research corporation is the first to market with a turnkey solution that essentially lets hospitals outyelp yep but builds confidence. >> and you do it in a way where it's actually a lot of information is available on the hospital's own website. it's kind of part of their website. you guys are the stars in the listings, you're not a website i type in the url for. when i'm looking around and googling in my area. >> that's right. we make the hospital's website the most trusted source for patient reviews anywhere on the web by taking the patient satisfaction surveys at hospitals are already collecting and converting them into online ratings and reviews for their doctors that get published to their doctor's profile page in the same consumer friendly five-star format that you're used to websites like amazon and

trip adviser. hospitals around the country are starting to embrace transparency by sharing this with the public for the first time. >> what are the barriers to entry? and what's the competitive landscape like? >> so we've been -- we're first to market as i mentioned. we've been developing this platform a number of years, for a number of years. i started the company required in 2009. we've been doing this for private physician practices since 2011. piedmont health care in atlanta was the first hospital system in the country to go live on the national research platform in april of last year and the results have been spectacular. >> how much are you including with the patient data? because as much as i love the american consumer, a lot of the times, they are not the best judge of what is good and what is bad. sometimes third party ratings would be very helpful in evaluating something like a

hospital. are you incorporating those aspects? >> so today, we're taking the surveys approved by federal government at hospitals like piedmont health care and cleveland clinic every patient has the opportunity to complete one of these surveys that get very high completion rates. we take all of the specific questions and use those to calculate ratings that get published on the hospital's website. it's 100% from these surveys, but going forward, we're looking to add additional information as this technology matures. >> and as an example, you often have thousands and thousands of reviews because of the history and the reach of these surveys that exist within the hospital system. we'll be watching andy to see how it plays out across the country. thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you very much. appreciate the time. >> for national research corporation this afternoon. you can check out much more on the spark.cnbc.com/thespark. breaking news now, eamon javers, what's happening. >> the united states senate has just passed the 50 vote

threshold that it needed to pass that trade promotion. authority bill that's been so hard fought in the senate and in the house of representatives. the voting is still ongoing right now. right now, we're looking at 58 yeses, 38 nos. he is expected to sign it no the clear exactly when he will sign it. meanwhile, this has been a very convoluted process kelly, there's a package that's going now separately of worker assistance measures. the senate will vote on that package later this afternoon. it's expected to pass. it's going to be re-routed back to the house of representatives, though. not clear, ultimately, oen what the fate of that package will be. but it is expected that will go separately. meanwhile, today, the president will be able to sign the trade promotion authority bill if he so chooses, kelly. >> thank you so much eamon javers in washington. attorney general loretta lynch speaking to police cadets

in alabama says she agrees with president obama that the confederate flag belongs in a museum. the "new york times" reporting, meanwhile, the justice department is likely to file federal hate crime charges against charleston church shooter dylann roof. meanwhile, the casket carrying the body of one of the victims of the shooting made its way through the streets of columbia to the state capital where it will lie in state. the church's pastor and also a state senator. the search for two inmates who escape from prison is continuing in northern new york state, searchers fanning out for new clues in the whereabouts of david sweat and richard matt. they have been on the land now for 19 days. bobbi kristina brown has been moved to hospice care. a spokesman for the family says her condition has continued to deteriorate and thanked everyone for their support. and that is the cnbc news update at this hour, back to

you, kelly. >> that's tough, sue. thank you so much. walmart, sears, ebay amazon and others pulling merchandise bearing that confederate flag. one of the nation's oldest flag makers has no plans to stop selling it however. we'll hear from the company's ceo in a moment. and walmart imposing on charges on suppliers to offset higher employee wages. are higher prices for customers imminent? that's later on the "closing bell." when you're not confident your company's data is secure the possibility of a breach can quickly become the only thing you think about.

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a lot of red on that board. the dow losing almost 1% down 178%. the s&p down 15, the nasdaq down 37 from the closing high yesterday. and the confederate flag may soon join another ghost of the confederacy if many of the u.s. companies have their way. joining amazon ebay etsy, walmart and sears. and all of this comes after a racially motivating mass shooting last week. the alleged shooter was featured in several online photos with the confederate flag. my next guest says despite the controversy and the symbol of racism to millions, the confederate flag is a symbol to others and plans to keep it on

the shelves. joining me now is gus porter. gus, welcome to the program. after everything that's happened, you will continue to sell the confederate flag? >> yes, i will. >> and why is that? >> the flag, despite its meaning and despite what people it is still part of our country's history. it's still a battle flag of our country, people, americans, did fight and die for that symbol at one point in time. it is, it doesn't have to be positive history for something to be history. >> in other words, to you, this isn't a business decision. this isn't simply well there's demand, i'm going to sell it. you feel strongly you should be selling it? >> if i sell maybe half dozen a year, that's probably a pretty popular year for it. so it's not -- it's a major

moneymaker for me. to me, it is more about principle. i don't want to punish a symbol for the actions of people who are misinterpreting the symbol and using it for hate and using it for something that the flag was not designed for. >> bringing in carol? carol? >> yeah i appreciate your willingness to stand up and, you know, take that stand for the symbol based on that. i guess the question is you said you may only sell a dozen or so a year. what has demand been like over the last few days? because, you know, the history in america is when you say something is going to be banned or you can't get it somewhere, all of a sudden, everybody's going to be rushing to buy it. so have you seen an increase in demand because of this? >> i have seen a handful of people looking for the flag. i've also had a handful of customers looking for the union flag, as well. and other flags from the civil war era. most of my manufacturers in

light of this situation have discontinued all confederate-related flags. union and confederacy. i'm even having trouble filling orders for customers, whether they're using it for peaceful purposes historical purposes, or something otherwise. >> contentious issue, gus, thanks for joining us. gus porter ceo of wgn flag company. meantime, scott cohn giving final clues on this year's top state for business, scott? >> we have officially kelly, milked this as long as we possibly can. so the time has finally arrived. we're going to take one more break, and when we come back america's top state for business 2015. you'll want to watch it. standby. business by leading the way on tax cuts. we cut the rates on personal income taxes. we enacted the lowest corporate tax rate since 1968. we eliminated the income tax on manufacturers altogether. with startup-ny, qualified businesses that start, expand or relocate to new york state

pay no taxes for 10 years. all to grow our economy and create jobs. see how new york can give your business the opportunity to grow at ny.gov/business

the guessing began yesterday if not well before. the clues were heard all day today and the teases continued. let that final drum roll begin. for the 2015 best state for business. we go to the man with the answer. scott cohn. scott, we are begging you, please tell us where are you? >> our top state study. our exclusive top state study literally goes through thousands and thousands of data points. and it brought us here to a state that is overflowing with good things for business. 50 states more than 60 metrics, ten categories of

competitiveness to help us unveil america's top state for business 2015 the peterson family, jason, linda, patty on vocals. they're the first family of music here in minnesota. ♪ hey come on and lay down down by the river side ♪ ♪ down by a river side ♪ ♪ by the side of the mississippi river in downtown minneapolis, here is a look behind minnesota's rise to the top. >> there's no guaranteed path to the top of our rankings and this state has always marched to a different drummer. minnesota, the north star state, the land of 10,000 lakes. is the land of 1,584 top state points. minnesota finished zikts last year.

minnesota's best category education, ranking number two this year. a priority of governor mark dayton. >> the quality of our state is and will be determined primarily by the quality of our citizens. influenced strong by the educations. >> the state comes in third in the category low crime, healthy citizens, a welcoming state. but no state is perfect. minnesota ranks 35th in our cost of doing business category. talk about marching to a different drummer. the governor not only raised taxes, he's proud of it. minnesota's top individual income tax rate one of the highest in the nation at 9.85%. the corporate tax is 9.8%. the state sales tax is 6.875%. local taxes can add another 1%. even so minnesota's economy is among the healthiest in the nation with unemployment well below the national average. minnesota's largest employer is the world renowned mayo clinic

the largest industry is finance. from the north woods to the twin cities, a state that tries hard to be nice, fighting hard for business. minnesota, america's top state for business 015. 2015. >> and so minnesota puts it all together to reach the top of our rankings. the coveted spot. let's tell you more about where i am. we're in the guthrie theater. the world renowned guthrie theater building in downtown minneapolis. and the architectural feature here that is really pretty breathtaking is something called the endless bridge. let's talk a little bit about where we were yesterday. a lot of good guesses about that. they call it the grand canyon of the north. the mine up in hibbing, it is one of the largest open pit iron mines in the world, certainly the largest in north america, thanks to them for all of their hospitality yesterday. now, about those hints, some of

you got them, some of you didn't. that's the mississippi river which starts north of here. it's 2,300 mile journey to the gulf of mexico. this stumped a lot of people. part blue part red makes purple. prince's song and album "purple rain," or minnesota vikings, purple and gold. float your boat the land of 10,000 lakes, 11,842. babe, the blue ox the faithful companion of paul bunyan which minnesota claims as the most famous fictional citizen. and mmm-mmm good 3m. the first mine was a bust. but we know that 3m is a diversified manufacturing company based here and doing very well. markdayton is the 40th governor of the state of minnesota. he joins us from st. paul at the governor's residence. governor dayton thank you for being with us and congratulations. >> thank you very much. exciting day for minnesota.

>> you heard our take on things. really good for quality of life great for education, pretty good for workforce, not so good on cost. did we get it right? >> well, that's the reputation we have. we're not a low-tax state. but we're high-value state. and you caught what it is about minnesota that draws people and draws businesses here very well-educated workforce, highly productive. and bottom line for business is profitability. and minnesota businesses do very well. >> there are concerns though about the level of taxes. yes, you did erase the budget shortfall. you've got a surplus now, which you spent some of in a legislative session. you p wanted to raise taxes some more as far as the gas tax goes. are you at all concerned that you're going to start scaring businesses away? how long can you sustain this? >> well it's overlooked in 2013 facing the budget deficit, we raised income taxes, only on the top 2%.

98% of minnesotians saw no change to the income rates. and last year, a reduction. it depends on your income level. and also because we didn't borrow the money, because we were able to invest in all day kindergarten. we continue to build on our strengths. we're in a position where we're not raising taxes. we're going to dedicate an increase to the gasoline tax to additional highway and improvements. but we're fiscally responsible state. and we're strong financial position now we're not going to raise anybody's taxes. >> all right, governor. let me ask you, we have only a little bit of time left about health care. we could get a very key ruling from the supreme court on the affordable care act. minnesota does have its own exchange, which had some difficulties. and there's been this issue of insurers who propose some huge increases for this state. that directly affects quality of life. what are you going to do about

that? >> well the increase is projected for next year are not because of the affordable care act but because of the minnesota state exchange. they're reflective of the increases of the industry which go way beyond the health care inflation in the country and in minnesota. we're going to get to the bottom of why these big increases are being proposed. it's not just minnesota. it's states all over the country whether they're in a health exchange as state runner or the national one. and it is something we're concerned about for sure because it's going to cost people. but we started out this year with the lowest rates of health insurance of any state in the nation. so ours are going up and others are going up. it's going to be bad for everybody. it's not a reflection on minnesota. >> governor markdayton thank you very much. we want to remind you, you can now see how your state stacks up our full 2015 study at top states.cnbc.com. we want to keep hearing from you using the #topstates.

peterson family, take us out, please. ♪ >> the debate about raising the minimum wage is a hot one. and it could get even hotter. walmart set to start charging fees to nearly all of the vendors for stocking items and new stores as a way to offset higher wage hikes. we'll have what that means for customers when cnbc "closing bell" continues. 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. the 2015 c-class. at the very touchpoint of performance

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♪ [container door closing] what makes it an nx is what you can get out of it. ♪ introducing the first-ever lexus nx turbo and hybrid. once you go beyond utility there's no going back. walmart working on ways to combat the increased costs of hiking its wages. courtney reagan has the details for us. hi, court. >> hi kelly. doug mcmillan and u.s. ceo greg mcmoran are -- making sure it has everyday low costs. at least in every way that it can. so to do it the world's largest retailer is doing everything it can to operate as lean as possible. and that includes making sure suppliers like procter & gamble for instance are doing their part.

so walmart is simplified and amending its terms and agreements with 10,000 of its suppliers. that's all of them. in four qas. first walmart is aligning the timing of its payment to suppliers with the turn of product. so if it takes five days to sell an item walmart will pay that supplier in five days. second, walmart is cutting out unnecessary administrative costs for both parties. next it's taking a more consistent approach to how it charges suppliers to share in the cost of the retailer's supply network and its expansion. i asked walmart are these costs to suppliers new, and they say for some it may be but not necessarily for all. as the current contract terms for every walmart supplier are not the same across the board. it's a negotiation like many ways in business. this effort essentially is aiming to make suppliers' costs more consistent. finally, walmart is base the costs for defective merchandise on each vendor's prior year level. so say if it was 2% of the

merchandise was broken defective or returned walmart would assume that same level would be the case for this year. kelly? >> courtney stay there with us. what do you make of this? >> courtney mentioned procter & gamble as one of the suppliers. but there are 10 thouf them and there are many small businesses. while procter & gamble may be able to adapt i worry about a small business owner who may have to do one of two things either raise their price which may get them dropped as a vendor or decrease their quality. i don't know how they're going to be able to manage them. >> they're all going to raise their price and the consumer's going to feel the brunt of it. this has everything to do with the fact walmart can't grow they're seeing a lot of competition, and the wage increases are really coming back to roost i think. >> is that what we're seeing court? >> you know that's not what walmart says. >> of course not. >> walmart says at the end of the day they're trying to give everyday low prices they have to do that by getting their costs very low. they're saying hey, vendors, if you make your costs low we can charge the lowest prices, then people will buy more, the sales volume goes xup it benefits us both. >> somebody has to pay at the

end of the day. somebody has to pay. you can't just raise wages and not expect that the costs are going to go up. >> unless you're going to -- we'll leave it there. courtney reagan thank you so much. but we have had companies argue they can increase their revenues by increasing wages. i take your point. we'll see which way this one bears out. >> it's tough. >> dominic chu's jumping in with a quick market plash. >> shares of cree which makes l.e.d.s, light emitting diodes. 186,000 shares have traded so far. that's after the company forecasted fourth quarter revenues of $431 million. that fell below many analysts' expectations. the l.e.d. lighting company announced also, though, in conjunction a $500 million share buyback program. it also plans to restructure its l.e.d. products unit to reduce excess capacity. cree sees restructuring charges of $85 million. on balance between the stock buyback and the forecast for revenues that came in below expectations again on balance down 5 1/2% 186,000 shares,

kelly-v traded so far. back over to you. >> all right, dominic. thank you. whole foods market is not so affectionately known as whole paycheck for its high prices. customers may be paying even more than they realized. we'll explain next when "closing bell" continues. but not every insurance company understands the life behind it. ♪ those who have served our nation have earned the very best service in return. ♪ usaa. we know what it means to serve. get an auto insurance quote and see why 92% of our members plan to stay for life.

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welcome back. whole foods market is under investigation by new york city's department of consumer affairs for overcharging customers for mislabeled prepackaged products. if you guys saw the details in this story, it basically says the weights on the labels don't reflect what's inside and often are overcharging people. >> i think if you're going to whole foods and you're worried you're going to pay $18 an ounce or $18.13 an ounce you're probably in the wrong location. but what's interesting -- >> that's probably why they get away with it if they do. >> this happened last year in california. they were made to pay $800,000 in fines for a similar thing. the thing that kills me about this is those fines went to government agencies. it wasn't like it benefited the people who overcharged. why can't we have free quinoa day or something to major for the fact they've been overcharging? >> they're also charged with overpaying taxes on certain -- >> allegedly overcharging. >> exactly. in a statement provided to cnbc whole foods does say "we disagree with the dca's

overreaching allegations and we are vigorously defending ourselves. we fully cooperated with the dca from the beginning until we disagreed with their grossly excessive monetary demands." so it's getting political pretty quickly. >> yeah, for sure. you just don't know if this is a couple of stores or is this like companywide? clearly if it was companywide that's very disturbing. right? >> would it bother you from an investment point of view, does this shake the thesis? >> no. no. i think this company, though is going through a transition. they're going through some cannibalization. they have competitive issues. you have a lot of the supermarkets that have really stepped up their efforts in kind of fresh and organic foods, and that's really taking away from some of the whole food markets. but so they have to deal with what they're dealing with on their own. >> call me a cynic but i just assume everything is overcharged. i assume the labels are always wrong. i assume i'm always paying more thain should. >> you can go weigh your packages now. they have to be within 30 feet of where they're sold. thank you so much for being

here. that does it for us on "closing bell" this afternoon. "fast money" is coming up in a few moments with mandy drury in for melissa lee. what's on tap? >> bullish note pout by piper jaffray and we're going to be talking about apple. yeah, it was in fact the only positive dow component on fairly significant volume. we'll talk about that. also talk about the yahoo! shareholder meeting and also dm's launch of the new cruze for the car lovers over there. >> straight over to you guys. >> "fast money" starts right now. we're live at the nasdaq marketsite. hello, everybody. i'm mandy drury sitting in for melissa lee and our traders on the decemberric dan nathan david seaburg, brian kelly, beaks, and guy adami. good to see you all. and tonight on "fast" follow the smart money? well carl icahn kark out of netflix. why the billionaire investor got out and the comments he made that could signal the top might be in for the stocks. plus stocks may have ended lower today but we have uncovered a secret indicator that says now could be a good time