you are branding and a bathrobe? we will leave it there today. jcpenney turned upside down again. we will see if charles payne has an argument for buying the stock right now. charles is coming up to talk to us. north korea warning the rest of the world to get out of south korea. the famous director tim burton's is back with us. those stories and much more are coming up. ♪ we always like talking to tim

burns. fagan is off today, by the way. let's start with the market, as we always do. nicole petallides joins us now. nicole: we have a very busy morning. the down right now is up close ten points. we have had the back-and-forth action since march 20. we continue to see, obviously, not too far off the unchanged line. the s&p and nasdaq are both squeezing out gains as well. we will show you herbal life and sketchers. they have both been altered this morning. the auditor of herbalife resigned.

sketchers, some of the analysts have talked positively about a great first half of the year. it looks like it is open. i am not really 100% sure. i don't even want to miss speed. those are the two names in gaming interest wall street. connell: thank you. confidence among small business owners weakening last week. we will talk about that. >> there is just too much regulation of small businesses today. that is gripping the ability to expand. connell: we talked about the

jobs report being a huge disappointment in a lot of ways. should people be more confident than they are? >> there is a legitimate reason to be less confident. this remains the limpness economic recovery. connell: i will hold back and wait and see what happens. >> i will wait to see whether i can afford to take on more employees. connell: let's talk a little bit bigger picture on the economy. we get into all these topics all the time. people say you're a fool us down again. what about here at home? the jobs number not great.

housing shows signs. >> let's look at housing. some of the year-to-year growth rates are impressive. the reality is, the level of home sales is at a pace that we last observed in 1997-1998. the growth is a positive, the level of activity is a negative. the 15.2 million unit sales rate is well under the 17 million units during the ten. connell: you are killing us this morning. what is economic growth looking like for the whole year? >> to present. less then the 3.2% that was typical.

i would be very much surprised if we reach 3% real gdp growth over the next several years. connell: what would have to happen? >> a release of pent up demand. that would be very much a positive for gdp. there has to be some shock that lives the economy. something comparable to the introduction of a pc and related software. the development of internet telecommunications technology in the late 1990s. barring that, it will be very tough to reach trend growth. connell::you are right. >> we forget about demographics. they are very unfavorable.

governments have to practice austerity. connell: we see that in europe already. thank you, john. great to see you. we have a report on waste. talking about government waste. billions of dollars in wasted spending. peter barnes is all over it for us on capitol hill today. peter. peter: 162 areas identified. this report will be the subject of a hearing later this afternoon. he says that the first one is a little fishy. there are three separate programs to inspect catfish.

$14 million a year. the food and drug administration also inspects catfish. another one where it is showing some concern, renewable energy programs. hundreds of programs across 23 different agencies for wind power alone. a cost of five elegant dollars a year. the pentagon wasting about $82 million a year in the manufacturing and storage of uniforms. military uniforms. they do give the white house and congress some credit for trying to fix these kinds of things. it says that 16 were undressed and 27 were not addressed at all.

the president is focused on trying to 11 -- 118 duplication. connell: thank you. a news alert now from north korea which is making more threats against the united states and south korea. warning foreigners to get out. how serious on a day-to-day basis are you taking this? >> you have to take it seriously, but then you also have to look at everything that is going on. we are expecting a missile test tomorrow. is north korea mobilizing on the ground? i do not think we are seeing

that. they have a policy of belligerent and blackmail. it is a very dangerous game that could have dire consequences if there is some sort of misperception or miscalculation. connell: that is the thing. how do we handle it? i am on the radio every morning with imus. every subject comes up. he was asking me, this morning and i think yesterday as well, how long do we just keep letting this guy, how long do we keep letting him talk like this? would you let somebody talk like this to you in the schoolyard? what do we do? >> it is a war of words. they will come up with some other sort of antics here. they are trying to influence our

policies. they are really trying to get concession. they want someone to run to them and say that what we do for you to get you to stop this. the question is, do you really want to push it over that threshold? the war of words is not that damaging. we have heard this before. we have to be very cautious. this is a dangerous animal we are dealing with. connell: as long as it is just words, then we almost ignore it. are you worried that, what kind of action may he take, legitimately? what might he do? >> well, of course, there could be some sort of violence towards south korea. we saw that in 2010. they sunk a warship. they had a plot to assassinate the south korean defense

minister. if you do not do something, they mean nothing in the future. i think there will be some sort of violent act somewhere. we may see this missile launch tomorrow, that probably will not be aimed at anybody. it will probably be sent out into the ocean. even a nuclear test is not violent to anyone else, but of concern. we do not want to make the situation worse. connell: thank you for your analysis. appreciate it. new developments now on the bird flew over in china. an eighth person has been confirmed dead. authorities still say there is no evidence that the virus is being transmitted between humans. we will take a look at some of the pharmaceutical companies and how they are trading on wall street today. then we have a cyber stir for

you. criticizing a new law that bars nondefense agencies from buying it systems from companies that are associated with the chinese government. we brought you that story a few weeks ago. it all comes as the cyber tension between the u.s. and china is becoming increasingly tense. a u.s. diplomat thing hacking originated in china is undermining the relationship with the u.s. he is urging china to take firm action against cyber criminals. what is old is new again at jcpenney. it could be a place for you to make yourself some money. we will talk of dow that what charles payne max.

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♪ connell: breaking news and we are following it at the new york stock exchange. nicole petallides is back with us. nicole: the stock is still halted. we saw that earlier this morning. herbalife is announcing today that it is resigning its auditor for herbalife. why are they doing this? this is because of a legend insider trading and herbalife security. we did have kpmg as the accountant of herbalife. an independent accountant.

they have been following herbalife for years. basically, an insider type guy at the kpmg who was allegedly doing some insider trading. also call herbalife has not opened yet. connell: good enough. we will be back to stay on top of this. let's make a little money with charles payne. first guy to this breaking news on herbalife. charles: her comments changed a lot of things. you would still suspect the stock would be under some amount

of pressure. connell: speaking of disasters, i want to speak with you about jcpenney's a little bit. ron johnson is out. what do you make of all of this? the idea that he did it, he wanted to superimpose his will on jcpenney. had he ever walked through a jcpenney's store? is there a point where --

charles: at some point, this will be a screaming buy. it was a ninefold move. every year same-store sales were up. the stock had a good run. it surprised the street. they probably want some fresh blood in there. it is pretty obvious that this guy will be temporary. the people, the service, they had that stuff. finally, they turned it all around.

if people think these cannot come back, they are absolutely wrong. twenty-seven hedge fund old jcpenney coming into this month. cheryl: thank you. charles payne. credit card swipe fees. retailers say they are not ready to let the credit card companies off the hook on that. we will have the money behind the story. is it easier to raise money to tell these important stories? first, a look at our world currencies are faring today on markets now against the dollar. we will be right back. ♪

♪ >> i have your fox news minute. a shooting rampage has left 13 people dead. officials say a 16-year-old man went to five houses this morning killing his mother, son and

neighbors, including a 2-year-old baby. family members of the sandy hook victims are in washington to meet with senators and lobby for tougher gun laws. at least 14 republican senators have threatened to filibuster the proposed gun legislation. in philadelphia, the football league has just ended. more than 4200 former players are suing the nfl for allegedly concealing known risks to the brain from head injuries. the judge did not give a date on the ruling on whether the case will go to trial. those are your headlines. connell: thank you very much. retailers are paying more in credit card swipe fees than they

made in pretax profits last year. it sounds ridiculous. jeff: it has been happening. we have those latest numbers for you. there is my credit card. every time you run this through the machine here at the 7-eleven, that is $0.25 for the folks at visa and mastercard. it is a 6 billion, $7 billion settlement. >> when you divide it out, it works out to about $200 per location. jeff: you pay more in swipe fees. >> it is a hidden clause. it is $0.25 per transaction.

jeff: it sounds like a lot. it is not just a convenient store folks. >> there are a lot of people involved in this class. lower transaction counts or lower values. there you go. live from the 7-eleven. it will be interesting to see how this comes out. connell: that is a big story. jeff, thank you. tim burns the famous filmmaker is standing by. he will be talking to us about

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herbalife that hasn't opened yet today. there's a sea of traders all the way down the hall here outside this post. i'm hearing about 38 1/2 is the indication right now when you try to get a look. that's ever changing but 38 1/2. 38 to 38.10. what they're trying to do is find the right place to open this. the reason why it was halted throughout the day today is we were talking about kpmg which is their auditor, their accountant. they've been resigning as the accountant. they were doing trading on herbalife shares. shareholders are saying that doesn't bother me. i would double down and even buy more. we should see. it will be opening momentarily. we'll continue to follow it. hold on. connell: are you getting it now? >> $38. so they're going to open at $38. is that pretty sure?

freezing it at $38. there you go. and now it's opening and there it is. and now we're open and good to go on herbalife. connell: okay. we're glad we stayed with you for that. there you see the quote we're getting on it in real time. i believe that's now trading. you see the volume moving at the bottom of the screen and nicole talked about 38 at the open. just to recap, you have the auditor out, the investigation underway. more to come, i would think, throughout the day on exactly what went on there with kpmg and herbalife. let's move to another topic we told you about earlier that we would be talking about. small budget films. just generally speaking they're all the rave in hollywood these days. making money not because they have big stars but because of the stories they're telling and same goes basically for the documentary world with the new film set to air on pbs telling a compelling story of the famous film maker, ken burns is telling it. thank you for coming in. >> thank you. connell: the central park five is about the central park jogger

case where these young men were accused of rape in that case and wrongfully accused and then years later, it came out that somebody else had per pet situated that crime in 1989 and you pick up the story to tell us. >> it's a rollercoaster ride. i'm interested in good stories, as you say, and this is as good of a story as any i've told and it should be we toll. my daughter and son-in-law are the co-writers and coproducers with me but this is a rollercoaster. these kids are 14, two 14-year-olds, 15-year-old and a 16-year-old who is developmentally challenged. they go to central park expecting the day off of school. one comes back 13 years later for a crime they didn't commit and now they have been in -- they've had their convictions vacated, been exonerated and they spent 10 years. the city of new york has put the slows on it. it's the story of the overreach of government. it's wasting millions of dollars of taxpayer money pursuing and

delaying this money because these people can't admit a mistake. connell: huge rush to judgment, obviously. >> they had the guy two days before and they didn't follow through and he was allowed to rape this woman and then go on to rape others and murder a woman and meanwhile, these kids are in interrogation for 30 hours. you and i would confess to anything just to go home. they didn't know about miranda. and finally, after 30 hours, they get the stories straight and put them in front of a camera. these terrified kids contradictions within their confessions, contradictions between the confessions and no d.n.a. evidence. the d.n.a. evidence they have is another person. >> the business side of what you do, this is a terrific story worth telling. you're working on other projects. we talked about the roosevelts, about jackie robinson. >> yes. vietnam, country music. >> what's the environment like now? you need the underwieting and support? >> i work in public television. no commercial interruptions but

also, we have underwriters, not investors. it permits me to spend a long time to dive deep, knowing that we can do as authoritative as we can on a particular subject and we've been able to do that for 35 years in civil war, baseball, jazz and all the things we've done because cbs set a pick. i found it in an organization called the better angels society which helps us find individuals of wealth to off set what we've lost from institutional foundation, government funding and corporate stuff but the corporate bank of america is there. it feels like a market is better and what's been great is people have stepped up to the plate in the better angel society named after lincoln first inaugural appealing to the angels of our better nature. today when we're so at each other and everybody is red state, blue state, male, female, whatever it is that history is a table around which we can still have a conversation. that lefty and that righty love

abraham lincoln. if that's the place where you can start, the genius of america is compromised. it's the uncompromising thing, we say i'm all for uncompromise but this is our genius. connell: i'm into about all the topics that you are working on in the future but in particular, the first thing i did in broadcasting when i was in college is work on this big project about jackie robinson. >> he's a hero for every american. connell: always been fascinated by him and his story and the lessons for life that come from sports and everything that's associated with it and now the new movie is out. >> i'm so excited about it. his widow rachel has been incredibly generous and sharing the intimacies of their relationship. he turned the other cheek for two years against the racial threats and abuse. these five kids have heroically, without bitterness or anger, have withstood fighting city

ha hall, but also the 13 years of injustice. it transcends america. it's a biblical tale in which there's not a school kidney somewhere that can't take some inspiration from the story of jackie robinson and we think also the central park five. connell: the central park five premiers -- >> april 16, pbs. a week from today. 9:00. 9:00 to 11:00. fasten the seat belt. clear out the little kids. it's a tough story but fasten the seat belt. it's as rip roaring of a story as we've ever grabbed and tried to hang on to. connell: thanks as always. >> thank you. connell: all right. well, they're going to be measuring snow by the foot out in colorado so we're going to turn in that direction next. missouri bracing for tornados. weird here in new york. we're enjoying spring weather but look at these scenes. we'll have the latest on travel problems around the nation, see if there's any economic impact to that and then watch what

you're posting on facebook which is just a general rule but now there's a new development. the i.r.s. is apparently checking out your time line and see if they can figure out who is cheating on their taxes so we'll get into that. first on "markets now" let's look at stocks up a little bit. there's bond yields. @

>> i have your business brief. herbalife was halted on news that kpmg resigned as the company's auditor effective immediately. yesterday they said it was withdrawing auditor reports for two unnamed clients because a partner was involved with providing non public client information to an unspecified third part. sketchers have also been halted but is trading once again. the european commission has launched anti-trust investigation into some master card's payment fees. master card intends to fully cooperate with the commission. and sea world entertainment expects the price of the initial public offering of 20 million shares of $24 apiece. that's a day after the amusement park said it was eyeing an i.p.o. up to $500 million. blackstone bought sea world in 2009 for $2.3 billion. that's the latest in the fox business network.

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♪ connell: markets now continues on an absolutely beautiful spring day in new york city looking up at radio city music hall north of us on sixth avenue. it's 72 degrees right now here in new york. upper 70s later on. best day of the year we've had so far which makes it all the more strange to talk about snow falling out in other parts of the country. in denver it's been snowing since last night and this is kind of a big story. maria, they don't have it like us, right? >> no. and it's all connected. that beautiful weather we're dealing with in new york city, not dealing with but receiving nice until new york city and across the rest of the country is associated with the same storm system. it's a strong cold front and ahead of it, you get the winds out of the south pumping up that warmer air northward so again, that's what's causing the rise in temperatures. for others, the colder air is

coming from canada southward producing very cold temperatures across the plains and the rockies and it is cold enough that that precipitation associated with that front is actually coming down in the form of snowfall so we're seeing some snow coming down right now across south dakota, parts of nebraska, wyoming and also colorado and some areas out here can receive over a foot of snow. we're talking 20 inches locally in some spots so there are a number of winter storm warnings in effect and because it's such an issue with the storm system, wind gusts 30 to 40 miles an hour at times, we do have blizzard warnings in effect as well because we're expecting whiteout conditions where it is warm along the frontal baund ever boundary. we do have a severe weather threat anywhere from texas up through parts of iowa and illinois. you could be talking about some isolated tornados, damaging wind gusts and also large hail from some thunderstorms. >> all right. we'll stay on top of that. completely unrelated question. you're not a facebook stalker, by any chance? >> no.

i do have a fan page but -- connell: so people can stalk you on facebook. >> yes. feel free. connell: have at it, people. but i asked that for a reason. we're about to talk about the i.r.s. being a facebook stalker in and of itself. apparently internal revenue system is out there monitoring social media, trying to make sure everybody pays their taxes. if you haven't paid taxes, try to figure it out by i guess looking at your facebook page. is that what they're doing? >> about the worst type of stalker you could have, i think, connell. we got six more days until the official tax day for filing and if you're thinking about skipping out on your payment, be careful what you tweet because the i.r.s. is getting resourceful in its pursuit of tax cheats, going on a more social route. there are fresh reports today about the i.r.s. and how they're going social and trolling your facebook and even twitter accounts to mind data, to collect information about you and any findings to file criminal charges and to cut down

on fraud related to tax filings. this is a practice that is on the increasing use by feds in general. law enforcement agents, for example, right here in new york indicted a gang based on what they were doing on social media. now, the whole concept of social media for the i.r.s. is a double edged sword because it does create a lot of fraud opportunities for identity thieves out there. the house company on oversighting government reform just published data that 1.1 million fraudulent tax returns were filed by identity thieves in the year of 2012. many of them using social media to get access to data so facebook can cut both ways for the i.r.s. but again, always just good to be careful what you put on your facebook page. you never know who is watching. connell: and just pay your tacks in general. thank you very much. all right. let's get to another edition of

"stocks now." we've actually watched the herbalife company. the stock from the opening bell was halted and then live on the air, about 15 minutes ago, the stock opened up for the first time today. we have the managing director who is on the floor at the new york stock exchange and joins us right now. could you take us through, ben, just a process of stock from the opening bell at 9:30 being halted and then getting the back open again and what goes into that? how did that work? >> sure. i would be happy to. i'm a former senior floor official and that's one of the functions i performed on the trading floor is halting stocks. to stay specific to herbalife, the company, through a designated person, contacts the new york stock exchange through a division called market watch. market watch picks up the phone and calls down to the trading floor, asks for a senior floor official to come in, in this case the governor came to the phone and they're told, you need

to prevent herbalife from opening today, which it did not. sketchers was somewhat similar, however they opened for trading. floor official walks in, makes sure there are no pending trades about to happen and then stops the trading in that stock. the stock is then halted. it's called a global halt because it is from market watch. it doesn't trade anywhere else in the world by regulation and until the news is disseminated, in this case herbalife decided to err on the side of caution and halted the stock from even beginning for the day that kpmg had resigned from being their auditor and withdrew two full years of audits on their company. once that news was made public, under fair disclosure sanctions, that the new york stock exchange comes back to the crowd and puts up an indication based on the imbalance of the stock, in this case turned out to be slightly for sale on about 25,000 shares of stock and the stock resumed

trading within three minutes of that indication and that's pretty much the nuts and bolts of how it works. connell: and it's a terrific explanation in all seriousness, ben. some people may know that but i'll bet there's a lot of people that did not understand the mechanics. it was like an nfl analyst dissecting the play. so thank you, ben. very helpful. we're going to move from wall street to a business owner coming up in a moment here. still expanding in this economy as tough as things are for some. cofounder of georgetown cupcake is here. our crew needs to calm down. some people getting up from behind the cameras. we're not at break yet. see what the recipe for success is come being right up. all stations come over to mission a for a final go. this is for real this time. step seven point two one two. rify and lock.

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connell: we're back here at markets now. next guest who you just saw to my left, she met her husband at princeton. that's been a huge topic of news lately as you probably know. her education was the key ingredient in helping her transition from a career, actually in private equity to something a little bit sweeter. talking about cupcakes with sophie, the cofounder of georgetown cupcake and she's with us right now. long, winding road. >> not typical for sure. connell: when you were at princeton, you were big into -- >> i was molecular biology. connell: that adds another wrinkle. is there something that waves it all together? >> when you go to college, you should study what interests you. take the hardest classes you can and soak it all in and do what you love. and i love working at venture capital and private equity.

i met fantastic entrepreneurs and that is what sparked the company with my sister. i think all entrepreneurs have this spark in them from the get-go. we never considered it a viable career option until finally we had a frank discussion and said why are we afraid to do this? we took the plunge in 2007. connell: 2007 was rough timing before the crisis. what about the present day? how are things going now? for all the talk we hear about what we should eat, healthy we need to be, seems like cupcakes is a place to be. we're down the street and then there's competition right down the street at magnolia's. >> the thing about cupcakes, they're part of the dessert landscape just like ice cream and cake but one thing is versatility. you can serve kaup kicks at corporate meetings, black tie weddings, kids' birthday party. other dessert options don't necessarily have that so we're

able to tap into all those events and customers. connell: they don't have to have 19 cupcakes or just five. economic environment, do you see anything? see any movement? are things getting better? worse? >> we have been getting better for sure. our average tickets are going up. i think people are spending more money. i don't know in that's an indicator of the economy in general. we started in 2007 and kind of the height of recession and i think cupcakes are extra recession proof because they're an affordable luxury. connell: i will ask you because you really did meet your husband at princeton. what a crazy controversy here. that woman wrote the article saying that women, i guess, should go to princeton and the first priority is let's get a husband while i'm there. was that the intent going in? >> i've heard about the controversy and my husband is fantastic and i'm so gld i met him there but my advice is when

you go to college, take the hardest classes you can, learn as much as you can. if you meet a husband, that's great but don't make it your mission. connell: did you meet in a lab? >> we were lab partners. that's true. connell: and he probably loves cupcakes, too. is he still a scientist? >> no. connell: neither one of you. that does say, just do what you like and then transition. thanks, sophie. good to see you >> thanks for having me. connell: georgetown cupcake and we're trying to keep our crew from it until we can wrap up the hour. no secret that the republicans are going to pounce on the president's budget tomorrow. there's a guest who says the democrats have their own issues with the president as well and then more on this board room drama with j.c. penney, whether the retailer can be saved. wheel hear why this has cost the store already the holiday season for 2013. markets now continues in a

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[ crows ] now where's the snooze button? dennis: hello. cheryl: hello, everyone. what to do to turn around j.c. penney. ron johnson is out. mike is the c. echl o. we have a guest coming up who says it may be too late to save this iconic name. dennis: target obama budget. the republicans hate the budget due out tomorrow but we have a washington insider who says congressional democrats have a dirty little secret. they don't trust the president. cheryl: we have a grim picture for jobs as small business confidence falls. restauranteur and partner of a renowned eatery is going to be here so how to fix the issue of the small business. dennis: and stocks every 15 minutes.

nicole is at the floor of the new england. what else have you got? >> we have a lot of action happening here on wall street this morning. let's start off with we have up arrows on the dow, nasdaq and s&p 500. up nearly 2%. drug stocks, bank stocks up arrows. let's get to herbalife that. obviously has been a key story this morning. it did not open at the opening bell with the rest of the stocks here on wall street. it was halted until as you can see there, 11:30 is when it finally opened, right around that time we brought you the cameras. it was halted because of concern about what was going on with kpmg, their auditor, their accountant. now they've stepped down and not doing that job and there was an insider trading allegedly happening with one of the partners of kpmg and that's why there was a concern. herbalife shareholders are saying, whatever. it's one guy doing insider trading. right now the stock is down 26

cents. sketchers has been halted. it opened this morning and then was halted. they're not yet open. back to you. dennis: thanks very much, nicole. cheryl: other stock is j.c. penney. they show a big decline. right now down about 10 1/2%. they made a drastic management change last night. c.e.o. ron johnson out after just nine months. former c.e.o. is back into the role. the managing director of strategic resource group says that's a solid choice but you're saying it may be just too late. there's too many factors working against this company. >> too late, too much to do, too little time. cheryl: is it the vendors? >> it's the vendors in march. the vendors already started factoring their payables from interest rates exceeding 20%. they're that worried about having factoring or insurance

and their payables until the end of the year. cheryl: those giving goods to j.c. penney are worried. what about this was going to be a 40, 50, $60 stock? what happened to that parade? >> cheryl, the analysts were dancing on the tables where the late grade roger ebert and i would have given penney two thumbs down as soon as they ended their promotional plans and coupons and dennis could describe it, instead of dancing on the tables, now they're dancing on the grave. cheryl: let's talk about a few things here. we're looking at a lot of real estate. this is a real estate story as well. you've got somebody that came in for nine months, ron johnson. he tested out a strategy at these stores, getting rid of sales and the customers that go into the stores said absolutely not. we want the sales back. he didn't even test this. big mistake? >> big mistake. i teach the history and future

of retailing and marketing at cornell university and my students, as soon as he did it, there wasn't a single student, any friends and family that were shopping penpenney. ma macy's and all the other competitors are closing in for the kill. huge mistake. first time in the major of history retail to your point, cheryl, it rolled nationally without even testing in one store. cheryl: he was coming in from a company like apple, running stores there, huge success. did he just -- do you think he just misread that customer? especially j.c. penney, maybe a latina customer. many say he screwed up, he ignored that woman. >> he screwed up and even if you look at the ads in the magazine that just arrived last night in people's homes and the hair salons and the beauty salons

across the country, the penney ad is pathetic. it has a caucasian model in it and the target and macy's ads are superb. they're giving more money to macy's, target who are advertising to those latina consumers and those shoppers have shifted. ron johnson fired the agent, african-american and caucasian shoppers 25% of the business down the drain, not bouncing back. shape i want to ask you about the lawsuit before i let you go. we're still in the middle of it. you say the martha stewart and j.c. penney already the big louzers in the court of public opinion. >> already the big losers. even if they win the court case, their business could blow up. cheryl: and j.c. penney taking a financial gamble on martha stewart and macy's may win. thank you for coming in. good story today. appreciate it. >> likewise. dennis: as president obama prepares to deliver his budget tomorrow to congress, our next

guest says congressional democrats have a dirty little secret. they don't trs the president. joining us from inside the beltway, greg from potomac research group, what is it they don't trust the president about? >> they don't know what he's going to talk about at dinner tomorrow night, dennis. there's going to be 12 republicans at this dinner and i think an awful lot of democrats are afraid the president is going to give away negotiating points before the negotiations begin. dennis: sounds like what boehner did on the cliff stuff. it's been leaking that president obama will propose some modest entitlement cuts and some kind of social security adjustments and i keep hearing dems say i'll never be in support of any cut ever. just look at some numbers and social security, if you turned 65 in 2010, you will take out 30% more of your lifetime than you ever put in and it's like that for the next couple of decades. do democrats really believe,

truly, that we can avoid any cuts in social security and medicare? >> not all. there's some democrats like mark warner of virginia who get it. i think even dick durbin of illinois understands there's got to be something on entitlements but for the rank and file democrats, they don't like seniors getting whacked and they don't like the fact they've been shut out of this process. you've got a president negotiating with republicans and not really informing the rank and file democrrts where he wants to go. dennis: which do you think president obama wants to do more? which is his bigger desire to soak the rich with still more tax increases or reduction caps or to cut entitlement spending? it's like he's willing to do the latter to win the former. >> he wants to raise taxes. that's the big priority. i think if there's one area for all of your viewers to be concerned about, it's not a tobacco increase. there's a lot of mickey mouse stuff. the big thing is to curb deductions, to maybe have a

limited 28% even though the top right now is 39.6%. so i think a cap on deductions is something the president very much wants. maybe the buffett tax as well on millionaires. if he has to eat some entitlement savings, he will. the big goal is to get new tax revenue. dennis: that cigarette tax is very much anti-poor. the poor disproportionately are smokers. they are addicted. i was surprised to see that. the cap on the i.r.s. and hide it from taxes. i don't understand why there would be any disincentive to save at all but i'm just wondering, i thought if we agreed to raise the top rate to 39.6, we weren't going to do caps on deductions. i thought it was one or the other and obama wants both? >> sure. we're on the slippery slope now. i think he would like to -- seriously, he would like to get more on revenues. as far as the i.r.a.'s go, i think you're messing with something pretty sacred there.

i think getting involved with i.r.a.'s would backfire politically. dennis: thanks very much for being with us for that inside insight there. have a good day. >> you bet. you, too. cheryl: the jobs act meant to make it easier for startup companies to raise capital and possibly go public hitting the one-year anniversary this month. some critics calling the law a failure due to the fewer i.p.o.'s in the past year. we have a story that once again links wall street to washington rich. >> right. and there's plenty of debate in washington as to why there haven't been more startups or why there hasn't been better job creation associated with this proposal or this law now that it's in effect for a year. let's do a little refresher course here. the main components of the jobs act allow smaller businesses that can advertise for investment. it raises the shareholder registration level from 500 to 1,000 and also the s.e.c. allows

small businesses to advertise for investment. now, small businesses can raise town a million in equity funding on line as long as the website is approved by the securities and exchange commission. first off, though, there is some evidence that it's doing better than some folks think. you did mention there are fewer ipo's in the year after this passed and became law than the year before. share prices for companies that went public under the jobs act, this is according to a market data firm, they've risen on average 28.9% from the offer price compared to 13.1% for those that did not. that's the most recent data that came out in january. as to why in some corners it's not doing as well, one congressman says it's all the s.e.c.'s fault. he says congress as well as the business community are still awaiting jobs act ground rules

from the s.e.c. that are long past due. the s.e.c. says we've been working on this complex rule making effort and very much appreciate the extensive input we received from crowd pleasing participants and others. we'll continue working hard amid a busy rule making agenda to get the rules done as soon as possible with an emphasis on getting them right. so year end, mixed reviews and some finger pointing here in washington. pretty par for the course around here. cheryl: finger pointing in washington. imagine that. dennis: and speaking of jobs, small bilusinesses not hiring. jeff benjamin joins us how to fix it. he's a restauranteur and partner of one of the philadelphia's renowned eateries. cheryl: the tax man may be spying on your facebook page. why you need to be more careful about postings on line. dennis: and another bird flu death in china. why doctors and businesses are

more worried about this outbreak than previous ones. cheryl: and as we go to break, take a look at oil. we're at 94.16. up 80 cents. my mantra?

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axiron. cheryl: we're up 36 points right now. we want to get stock stories out there today. microsoft, dragging on the dow right now, general electric. and stocks now every 15 minutes and we're taking you to the floor of the new york stock exchange. nicole, there's so many good stories stocks out there today. where do you even begin? >> i've got lists and piles of them. we want to make sure we're hitting different things. we have touched on j.c. penney throughout the day today. just wanted to give you what some analysts are saying about some retailers. j.c. penney is in here.

c.s.w., designer shoe warehouse and the gap are both slightly to the down side on a day where the dow is higher so here is what they're saying about the designer shoe warehouse, their growth story remains intact. they have a positive rating and they put a $73 price target that shows upside potentially. the gap, jeffries, they continue to view the stock as a top pick. buy rating there. they raised their tarring tote $56, up from $51 so at $36.75, upside potential for that one. j.c. penney, the problem story here of the day and of the last year, we really should elaborate, but they continue to deteriorate further. they have a $15 price target. c.e.o. replacement reflects urge ents situation ard koing to the u.b.s. saying that they even reduce further their estimates. they reiterate the sell rating. they have a $10 price target so

$14.10. they're saying sell it because we think it's going to 10 and now there's talk about even j.c. penney putting itself up for sale on wall street so you're hearing those rumors as well. they brought in the prior c.e.o. and that in itself doesn't seem like a cure-all for you will. cheryl: and michael francis left j.c. penney, by the way. another executive left that company to go to gap who just got a positive briefing. there you go. thank you very much. like a soap opera. dennis: it is. and it's time to make money with charles payne. he's looking at a kind of cliff that isn't fiscal. >> it could be. cliff natural resources. i want to put it out there right away. it's a high risk idea. one firm has like a $10 target but this is a stock that's come down dramatically. i think too much. and a couple of years ago, iron ore prices were $189 per ton. they went to $85 late fall. they bounced back to around $150. i don't think they're going to go back to $85. we're starting to see a lot of

demand. they're saying around the street rye now this is up because of alcoa. they had an okay number but that's apples and oranges and alcoa is down six cents. i will say alcoa made interesting demands on auto, construction, gas, turbine. it's already matched the average daily volume so it should double that. major breakout. my target is $25 plus. nip -- it has been a heartbreak engineer the past but i think it's significantly oversold right now. dennis: that was pretty valuable advice and worth far more than

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>> at 22 minutes past the hour, i have your fox news minute. north korea is now warning foreigners in south korea to evacuate. top u.s. military commander in the pacific says north korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons represent a, quote, clear and direct threat to the u.s. and regional security. in china, eight people have now been confirmed dead of bird flu. the h 7 n 9 virus has infected 24 people so far all in eastern china. since confirmed in humans for the first time last month. authorities say there's no evidence the virus is being transmitted between humans. in philadelphia, nfl hearing on concussions litigation has ended. more than 4200 former players are suing the nfl for allegedly

concealing known risk to the brain from head injuries. nfl denies any negligence. the judge did not give a date for the ruling on whether the case will go to trial. now back to cheryl. cheryl: thank you very much. fascinating story with the players. appreciate you bringing that to us. well, we want to take a look at shares of alcoa right now. right now up a penny at $8.40. despite the company kicking earnings season off on a fairly upbeat note, they beat expectations. watch out. the earnings bar still may be set too high for many companies that trade on the s&p 500. vice president and senior equity analyst joins me now. i'm curious, you know, you're saying that really the comparisons year over year, we have to be really careful that q 1 is going to be, frankly, rough. so much for this rally, huh? >> yep. well, you know, we'll see what the stock market does. you can never really marry up

what you think is going to happen and what you predict the stock market is going to do. but looking at it on a stock by stock basis, we're surprised that the number of preannouncements we've had already and i think it's going to be interesting as we start really meaningfully rolling through earnings season. i think we're going to hear a lot of companies talking down their earnings even though they made this quarter. cheryl: many analysts have come on talking about the new highs on the s&p 500 and the dow, dow getting toward another record number. we'll see. you know, the problem is that enough strategists are coming out in mainstream media and saying, no. everybody be careful. we're going to have to sell. this is going to be bad. but you're not really saying that, kim. you're saying we have to be a little more specific here in what we buy and what we sell at this moment. >> right. now, we're not buying the market as a basket. we pick individual stocks and anybody that's picking individual stocks has to keep their eye on the market but i think it's much more germane to their financial health to watch those companies closely. when the market does dip, you

know, i hate to sound like a scavenger but i'm looking for companies that are finally at the price that i want to buy them at. and, you know, i'm kind of happy on those down days, i have to tell you. cheryl: i'm one of the most frugal shoppers you'll ever see in your life. >> i don't know. i'll bet i can outfrugal you. cheryl: g.e. has an interesting story. once i got the financial issues out of the way, the finance, frankly, you're saying this stock is up 20% the last year. you think it's still got room? >> right. we're looking at three to five years. we think the acquisition save made in a couple of areas, the most recent has been in energy purchase are extremely interesting. these fit in with the model of the company where they buy a company that makes, you know, physical things as opposed to the financial stuff that they were doing. but then the areas that they work in always have a service contract that goes along with that so they get an annuity-like

business along with, you know, the heavy industrial business. so that's a very interesting business and once again, they've done this with their most recent acquisitions. cheryl: one of the things that knocked me off my chair this morning when i saw some strategies you're putting out there for your clients was health care. the health care sector has been a darling of wall street and you're saying you're avoiding health care. last year 25%. is that the reasoning here? what's going on? >> no. we're looking forward. 50 cents of every dollar is spent by the government. things are getting very tight with entitlement programs and, you know, the people who are selling services and goods to -- you know, through the health care channel are going to have to watch what they are billing the government. and we think the government is really going to tighten down. so any of the health care stocks that you have, take a good look at them. we love allergen because they're the big botox maker and that's

all cash. there's no reimbursement from the government for, you know, cosmetic botox. there are some other uses for it but that's why we like allergen as a health care pick. >> the botox revolution, if you will, absolutely. government accounts for half of all health care spending right now. good to see you. >> thank you for having me on. dennis: march madness is over. prepare now for april aing detroit. sam joins melissa and lori with his concerns that investors are lulling themselves in a sense of security. cheryl: leave it to sam to come up with that one. the union battle. she paid dues for 22 years but her union refused to help her in her time of need. you don't want to miss the next guest. dennis: and careful what you tweet. the tax man may be watching. the i.r.s. may be monitoring your twitter account. cheryl: take a look at the

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stocks now every 15 minutes, nicole at the floor of the new york stock exchange. >> all right. well, we're talking here about one airline in particular. airline maker. and that's boeing. so here's a look at boeing right now. it's down almost .2%. turkish airlines, which is the world's fastest growing large carrier, they are trying to really become a global name in the airline industry. what they're trying to do is they're trying to double the size of their fleet in pursuit of becoming this airline over the world. they're going to buy up to 95 planes from bowing and from 2016 through the year 2021. i know the airlines were recently rated. i think jet blue was number two. it's one of my favorites to fly because they have tv's on there, right? and one of the big losers, i think, was united.

did you happen to see that? maybe turkish airlines will be in the 14 names to be rated in the future. back to you. dennis: thank you very much, nicole. cheryl: imagine paying into the union for 22 years and then at your time of need, they were not there for you. it's a story of sharon, a professor at roger williams university. she's suing the university of rhode island and the faculty association. sharon joins me now. sharon, thank you for being here. >> thank you very much for having me. cheryl: let's explain to the viewers what happened here. you are a professor of graphic design and you had been basically running the defendant but you say you were not fairly compensated for that, correct? >> that's correct. our union contract allows for additional compensation and it's

a significant amount. i had actually written a program and delivered it in every name of the day, recruited every student, created budgets, hard faculty and when i tried to receive compensation from the university, they told me that they didn't need my help anymore and that i should basically tottle off. and i said i would like to be paid for the work i did do. i took it to my union and then i filed also a discrimination charge against the university because i also noticed that my male counterparts had been paid for similar work. cheryl: so you go to the union and you file the grievance, you go to the union but the grievance, it just basically expired. the union just let it expire. what was their reasoning behind this? what do they say to you after 22 years of you paying dues at what, 18 grand in total you paid? >> actually withdrew the grievance and, in fact, threatened me to withdraw my own grievances and they also

threatened me in front of my human rights attorney to withdraw the discrimination charge i had out against roger williams university with the commission for human rights in the state of rhode island which i refused to do. when i refused to do it, they got my union to do it. so nari, the national association of rhode island made a call to my local union and had them withdraw it. cheryl: i do want to do a letter of yours. we did reached out, fox business reached out to the national education association of rhode island and to the university of roger williams. both said they refused to comment because of on going litigation. you're suing for a little over a million dollars. do you have any sense of when this may indeed go to court? has your attorney had at least gotten to the discovery process going with the defendants' attorneys? >> yes. we just received a response from the nea and we're now in discovery. yes. cheryl: and you say that you

really regret being in a union. >> i do, yes. i think our union is antiquated. i think they do not protect women at all. they have five different places in their website where they talk about unions' rights regarding women, affirmative action, women in leadership roles, stereotyping and it really is lip service to what they actually do. when you need them, i can assure you, they will not be around. cheryl: the national education association is the second largest union in this country behind the afl/cio and we'll continue to reach out to them and get a response to them. sharon, thank you very much for joining us with your story. >> thank you. dennis: tax pain. consider this. cyber stalking taken to a whole new extreme. the i.r.s. may be monitoring your social media comments to make sure you aren't bragging about paying less than your fair share or buying a yacht that your w 2 says you cannot afford. with data mining now widespread

on platforms like facebook and twitter, government can monitor and collect information that used to come from an informant. so take down that picture of your big yacht if you only declared $20,000 in annual income. cheryl: i will take that down immediately. the calendar may show it is spring but denver getting socked by snow. look at these pictures. flight cancellations. west coast minutes coming up. dennis: and small bis hiring. it's slowing down. restauranteur and partner of a philadelphia eatery joins us next on how to fix t. let's take a look at 10-year treasuries. 

>> i have your fox business brief. herbalife under pressure after kpmg resigned as company's auditor due to insider trading scandal. shares resumed trading last hour after being halted pending news. sketchers also announcing kpmg resigned as its auditor. late yesterday they said it was withdrawing auditor for 32 unnamed clients and the ford focus was the world's best selling passenger car in 2012 according to polk. more than a million focus cars were sole last year outpacing the corolla.

first international auction house will offer without a partner, mainly in china. instead, christie's will start holding auctions in china this fall. thank you orville and wilbur... ...amelia... neil and buzz: for teaching us that you can't create the future... by clinging to the past. and with that: you're history.

instead of looking behind... delta is looking beyond. 80 thousand of us investing billions... in everything from the best experiences below... to the finest comforts above. we're not simply saluting history... we're making it. cheryl: we want to follow up on something that tracy burns was discussing and that's sketchers and herbalife. the stock just reopened. it was halted. sketchers has said that kpmg is resigning as its auditor. that was the news on skechers. and then herbalife as well. kpmg resigning as herbalife's auditor and skechers saying kpmg says it has no reason to believe the financial statements of skechers have been materially

misstated. i wanted to bring that breaking news to you. dennis: and small bis slowdown. national federation of independent businesses optimism index falling for march and it paints a grim picture for jobs. joining us to discuss that and more, we have restauranteur and a partner in vetri, a philadelphia italian eatery, jeff benjamin, thank you for being with us. as small businesses look for the outlook for the economy, which is bothering them more? there's more regulations i have to worry about? >> there's plenty of command. regulations are more than demand. dennis: we start seeing more pieces of obama care unfold. now, how is obama care affecting restaurants and what are they doing about it? >> i think it's affecting small

business in general in a pretty big way. forget for a moment the financial impact the direct implementation is going to have. those of us in small business have to find guidance on it so i'm not hiring resourcing people. i have to find out what i have to do and there's the increased taxation we have starting this year at 3.8%. dennis: that is on s corp earnings and many restaurants claim them not as business but s 8 xhk -- and,000 -- and now they have to fund medicare. that doesn't seem good for business. why don't you figure out obama care on your own? why would you have to hire an adviser? >> i don't think even the government has figured it out yesterday. it's several thousand pages long. i was going to be the guy that read it and it didn't work. i got together with colleagues in chicago last month for a restaurant round table and all of us had the same questions.

what are you doing about obama care? and we -- first we have to learn about it. we're hiring lawyers or accountants. dennis: now, there's an albatross that happens. i own a restaurant, let's say, and i could spend $8,000 or $12,000 covering an employee with health care coverage or pay the government a $3,000 penalty and let me employee go to the government to market that's supposed to be set up. how much are we seeing that in the restaurant bis? >> that was part of the conversation and the reality is we also want to be good employers. we have to tow that loin. we spent several years in the private sector figuring out how to insure the employees and we offer a great insurance plan to the employees and the government now says not only did you do a great job doing that but now we're going to force you to do it and if you don't, we have to tax on it. is it fiscally sound or good h.r. policy? dennis: the president said if you like your insurance plan, you won't have to go through a change. are your employees at vetri able to go with no change with obama

care coming? >> we don't know. what's going to happen, we don't even know what this platinum and gold and silver exchange is going to look like yet. that hasn't come out yet. dennis: uncertainty leaves to doubt and when in doubt, why expand? thank you for being with us, jeff benjamin. >> thank you. cheryl: time for your west coast minute. kroger, the parent company of ralph's and food 4 less is planning to put car charging stations at 145 stores in california and arizona. it's going to cost kroger about $1.5 million. take a look at the stock. kroger shares up 35% yoer over year. right now the stock is up 21 cents. hawaii has invested $200,000 in a zero waste bio fuel feed program. working with the u.s. department of agriculture, it's going to allow farmers to turn agricultural waste into into owe fuel. the governor of hawaii hopes it will ease their dependency on

fossil fuels and a spring storm watch is in effect in colorado. airport officials in denver have already cancelled about 300 flights so far. it is predicted the area will get between six and 11 inches of snow. happy spring. denver international, major hub for united continental. right now that stock is down by two cents. and that's your west coast minute. dennis: all right. it's a quarter till. let's head to the floor of the new york stock exchange and managing director, thank you for being with us. ben, we had two stocks pending announces today, one for skechers and one for herbalife and kpmg resigning as auditors there. do you usually think the news is going to be good or do you think the news is usually going to be bad when a stock is halted? >> that's a coin toss, 50/50. in my experience on the trading floor, having been a senior floor official and having halted stocks either pre-opening or during the trading day, it can

be for any number of reasons, quite frankly, but the way the system works, there are committees -- designated people inside the exchange. they call market watch and notify them there's news pending they believe is pertinent. under the fair disclosure rules of the s.e.c., they then -- market watch then calls the floor of the exchange. senior floor official or governor goes to the telephone, gets the stock and will walk into the trading crowd and halt the stock from trading. that's a global halt when it's halted for news pending so it's not allowed to trade anywhere else and we wait and then once the news is disseminated and the company says yes, that's all we have to tell the investing public, we then go to a formal indication that can last about three to five minutes where the stock may be affected, either to buy or for sale. in the case of skechers, it was a non event and they wee opened the stock and continued to trade

the stock. dennis: telephone calls. sounds very 1990's to me but thank you for being with us. >> pleasure. thank you. cheryl: a little history lesson for today. oil making a comeback. sandra smith joining us today. >> good time to come down on the trading floor. if you throw up an oil hot board right now, oil is $94.25 a barrel. right new tides of recession up nearly a buck on the day. it had been lower but we just got this midday spike and a lot of trade ires talking about weakness in the dollar. the u.s. dollar hitting a three-week low as we speak against the euro currency. you get that weaker dollar, you get a boost in oil and the other commodities. one other thing that is a bullish sign for the crude oil marketer right now is that we're testing some key technical levels and technical analysts will say it looks bullish for crude oil if you look at the

100-day moving average. the crude oil market did test the levels in very, very safely bounced after that 100-day moving average. when that happens, it tends to be a bullish sign for the overall market. so crude oil prices right now getting a pretty nice boost and like i said, sitting right near their highs of recession. back to you. cheryl: sandra, thank you. dennis: cell phone, tv service could alter the entire business. that's in the media minute. cheryl: as we go to break, take a look at some winners on the nasdaq and as you can see, you have nuance, gilead, even microsoft. stuart varney making 85 cents right now. we'll be right back.

dennis: in today's media minute, barry diller started fox broadcasting in the 1980's. now the cell phone, tv service he's backing could lead fox to abandon broadcast altogether. that threat issued yesterday by chase kerry, president of our parent company. he likens aereo to pirates stealing shows out of the area. yesterday the courts ruled blocking aereo. ca carey says it could become a cable channel. louisville cardinals win over

michigan drew an audience 18% larger than last year's final and got an astounding 70% share of viewers in louisville, kentucky and lastly, what's wrong with this picture? on the left is the imprisoned james holmes' alleged batman shooter on trial in colorado and on the right is fox news reporter jana winter whose coverage of the case may send her to jail. defense lawyers want her to reveal law enforcement sources. she has refused. a judge for now has deferred that case. of course, you've heard about it everywhere, right? i'm sorry. it didn't get any coverage. don't know why. cheryl: it is now. finally it's getting coverage. looks like 90210 has some competition. a new zip code in colorado is making california sized ways. colwell banker sold the most homes at 10 million or more and take a look at aspen. right behind beverly hills followed by montecito, bel air

and miami beach is at the end but obviously. everyone from aspen is from l.a. most likely and that's why they're buying multi million dollar homes in denver. >> capitalism comes back, baby. new signs that north korea is preparing for a missile threat. the country's new warning to the neighbors to the south. cheryl: and trying to make heads or tails of j.c. penney shakeup. wall street is definitely not impressed. dennis: and double, triple, quadruple trouble. the government's wasted repetition and what it's costing you. announcer: where can an investor

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