president and this evening we will continue to talk about these in greater detail. iraq was also another area of discussion for us on regional issues. transparent elections and the participation of insuring all political groups in the election are both very important. we would like to see a peaceful. in iraq. with respect to the middle east peace process. we discussed with the president, this important issue which is very important for regional peace. as you know, we are working with the israeli government for conversation for those who lost

their lives the visits will contributions to peace in gaza and unity and pakistan, in my opinion. the turkish republic of northern cyprus is always in favor -- in cyprus, we believe there is a lot of opportunity to reach an agreement on the cyprus issue. this is an area that we continue to focus on. we have briefly touched upon other developments in africa and also -- our fight against terrorism will continue to be the case as i said before and we also touched upon issues related to the defense industry and i can say that this has been a

turning point in the context of turkish american relations. the partnership between turkey and the united states serves peace security and stability and will continue to do so even more in the future. i look up my remarks short, not because i am trying to flee from the rain, because i hope our discussions will be beneficial for our future relations. >> let me just make sure i am a good host. mr. prime minister, do you want an umbrella? we can arrange it if you need it. this will be incentive for the press to ask precise questions and for us to give precise answers. >> i want to ask you about the

iris. can you assure the american people that nobody in the white house knew about the agencies actions before your counsels office found out? do you think that you should have learned about it before you learned about it from news reports? also, are you opposed to there being a special counsel. this are prime minister, what is the status on efforts to normalize with israel? do you still plan to go to gaza in the coming weeks? >> i spoke to this yesterday. my main concern is fixing a problem. we began that process yesterday by asking and accepting the resignation of the acting director there. we will be putting in new leadership.

they will be able to make sure that following up on the audit that we gather up all the facts, that we hold accountable those that have taken these outrageous actions, as i said last night, it is just simply unacceptable for there to even be a hint of partisanship or ideology when it comes to the application of our tax laws. i will go ahead and ask folks, why do we get a couple of variants. they will look good next to us. i have a change of suits comp but i do not know about our prime minister. there we go. that is good. let me make sure i answer your specific question. i can assure you that i certainly did not know anything

about the ig report, about it being leaked to the press. typically, the ig reports are not supposed to be widely distributed or shared. everyone is trying to protect the integrity of them. what i am absolutely certain of is that the actions that were described in that ig report are not acceptable. in addition to making sure that we have a new acting director, we will also make sure that we gather the facts and hold responsible anybody who was responsible for this. we will make sure that we identify any structural or management issues to prevent something like this from happening again. we will make sure that we are accepting all of the

recommendations that the ig has in the report. i am looking forward to working with congress to fully investigate what happened. make sure that it does not happen again and also look at some of the laws that create a bunch of ambiguity in which the irs may not have enough guidance and may not be clear about exactly what they should be doing. the american people should have confidence that the tax laws are being applied fairly and evenly. in terms of the white house and reporting, i think that you have that information from mr. carney and others. i promise you this, the minute that i found out about it, my main focusshas been making sure that we get this thing fixed.

i think that it will be sufficient for us to be working with congress. they have a whole bunch of committees. they have ig is already there. they will be recommending an investigation. attorney general holder also announced a criminal investigation of what happens. between those investigations, i think we will be able to figure out exactly what happened, who was involved, what went wrong and we will be able to implement steps to fix it. that, ultimately is the main priority that i have and i think the american people have. we have an agency that has enormous potential power and is involved in everybody's lives. that is part of the reason why it has been treated as a quasi- independent institution. that is also why we have to make

sure that it is doing its job scrupulously and without even a hint of bias or a hint that somehow they are favoring one group over another. as i said yesterday, i am outraged by this, in part because look, i am a public figure. if the future administration is starting to use the tax laws to favor one party over another or one political view over another caught that is why it does not matter whether you are democrat or republican, you should be equally outraged at even the prospect that the irs may not be at the with the kind of complete neutrality that we may expect.

>> the question about gaza, according to my plans, most probably, i would be in gaza in june. it will not be a visit only to gaza. i will also go to the west bank. i place a lot of significance on this visit in terms of peace in the middle east and this visit in no way means the favoring of one or the other. i am hoping that that visit will contribute to unity. i hope that my visit and contribute to that process. thank you.

you've talked about chemical weapons and we know -- did you present that evidence at today's meeting and what does turkey expect from the united states in this process. you had said earlier that the chemical weapons would be your bread line in syria. do you believe that at this point in time, syria has over gone to redline? will the u.s. take more initiative to see those that go in the future? >> let me, first of all, chemical weapons and rockets, all of that information is shared between the relevance between our in a --

administration. we share information. we will continue to work in this way. >> as the prime minister indicated we are constantly sharing information. i have said in the past, we have seen evidence of the use of chemical weapons inside of syria. it is important for us to make sure that we are able to get more specific information about what exactly is happening there. separate and apart from the

chemical weapons, we know that tens of thousands of people are being killed with this. by itself, it is sufficient to prompt strong action. that is why we spoke extensively about the steps we are taking on humanitarian efforts, the steps we are taking to strengthen the opposition, politically so that it is inclusive and representative of all the people inside of styria in the steps we need to take to strengthen the capacity of the syrian opposition that are on the ground fighting to protect themselves from the assad regime. we need to continue to try to mobilize the entire inter- national community.

we are able to move to a political transition in which the institutions inside of syria are still functioning, but we have a representative, multiethnic, multi- religious body back and bring about the rockers the and peace inside of syria. with respect to what i have said in the past around red lines, what i have said is that the use of chemical weapons are something that the civilized world has recognized. as we gather more evidence and work together, my intention is to make sure that we are presenting everything that we know to the international community as an additional reason, and additional mechanism for the international community to put all the pressure that they can on the assad regime and

to work with the opposition to bring about the political opposition. there is a whole range of options that the united states has already engaged in. those chemical weapons inside of syria also threaten our security over the long-term, as well as our allies and friends and neighbors. this is also an international problem and it is very much my hope to continue to work with all the various parties involved, including turkey to find a solution that brings peace to syria, stabilizes the region, stabilizes those chemical weapons, but it will not be something that the united states does by itself. i do not think that anyone in the region, including the prime minister thinks it would bring about better outcome inside of

syria. >> i would like to ask you about the justice department. do you believe that the senior of phone records was an overreach and do you still have full confidence in your attorney general? more broadly, how do you feel about comparisons by some of your critics about this week's scandal. >> i will let you guys engage in those comparisons. you can go ahead and read the history, i think, and draw your own conclusions. we need to make sure if there is a problem in the government that we fix it. that is my responsibility and that is what we will do. we need to make sure that the

irs applies the laws of the way they were intended. we will need to work with congress to make sure that there is adequate funding for what is necessary out there. with respect to the department of justice, i will not comment on a specific and pending case. i can talk broadly about the balance that we have to strike. leaks related to national security can put people at risk again put men and women in uniform that i have sent into the battlefield at risk. they can put some of our intelligence officers who are in various dangerous situations that are easily compromised at risk. u.s. national security is

dependent upon those folls being able to operate with confidence that folks back home have their backs so they are not just left out there high and dry. and potentially put in even more danger than they may already be. i make no apologies and i do not think that the american people would expect me as commander in chief not to be concerned. on the flip side of it, we also live in a democracy where a free press, free expression and the open flow of information helps hold me accountable, helps hold our government accountable. the reason i got involved in politics is because i believe so

deeply in that democracy and process. the whole goal of this media shield law that was worked on and largely endorsed by folks like the washington post editorial page and by prosecutors was finding a way to strike that balance appropriately. to the extent that this case, which we still do not know all the details of i think now is the time for us to go ahead and revisit that legislation. i think that is a worthy conversation to have. i think that is important. i also think it is important to recognize that, you know, when we express concern about leaks, at a time where i still have

60,000 plus troops in afghanistan and i still have a whole bunch of intelligence officers around the world who are in risky situations, and outpost -- part of my job is to make sure that we are prottcting what they do. >> for the prime minister, i wanted to ask you, sir, if the united states does not step up its involvement in syria, in your view, how will that affect the war? >> excuse me. you are right. i have complete confidence in

eric holder as attorney general. he does his job with integrity and i expect he will continue to do so. >> you are talking about the part of the class which is empty. i like to look at things with the glass half full instead half empty. what we would like to see is the sensitivity on the part of the international community in part to what is going on in syria. i do believe that the united states is doing the same and other countries. our aim is to accelerate this

process and i will be visiting other countries. by foreign minister will be visiting other countries just to see how we can speed up things in a way which will ensure a transition to a democratic system in syria. our goal is to see democracy. i think this is a collective responsibility on a part of all countries that believe in democracy. >> mr. president, my first question is to you. you mentioned that assad should go and the question is, how and when. is there a rough timetable?

>> mr. prime minister, you stated that you had expectations from this visit and you had some expectations that what is your general observation about this visit? >> we would have preferred a assad go two years ago, last year, six months ago: two months ago, and there has been consistency on the part of my administration that assad lost legitimacy when he started firing on his own people and killing his own people through, initially were protesting peacefully for a greater voice in their country's affairs. obviously, that has escalated during the course of time. the answer is, the sooner the

better. in terms of the question how, i think we have already discussed that. there is no magic formula for dealing with extraordinarily violent and difficult situations like serious. if there was, i think the prime minister and i would have already acted on it and it would already be finished. incest, what we have to do is apply steady international pressure, strengthened the opposition. i do think that the prospect of talks in geneva involving the russians and representatives about a serious political transition that all parties can buy into may yield results. in the meantime, we will continue to make sure we are hoping that position and

obviously, dealing with the humanitarian opposition. >> thank you very much. as you know, we will be meeting again this evening. we will have time to go into further detail. as i have said before our views do overlap. we will continue to explore what we can do together. russia and china, being part of this process is very important. it is important to the security council. their participation in this process will add to the pressure

of the international community. it continues to be a very important element. when we look at the humanitarian support that we have provided so far, we see that support equaling more than $1.5 billion. we continue to keep an open door policy and we will continue to do this because we have a border that is 900 kilometers in length with syria. we will continue to do this, these are all very important. on the one hand, you have thee o normalize correlations. we do not need to have other problems, issues in the region.

we had legislation to bring syria and israel together. we had five rounds, but unfortunately, they came to an end. i hope that all the steps we take in the future will yield results and we can work together with united states to determine this. thank you. >> we are discussing all of these issues. there are steps to be taken by the security council and we will continue to assist that between us. thank you. >> thank you, everybody. thank you. thank you guys. >> you are watching president

obama right there with the prime minister of turkey. a question and answer process after their statements. should you have known sooner? he immediately jumped in and said he is fixing the problem. demanding and accepting the resignation from stephen miller. >> he also addressed the questions about the photograph with the ap. he started that response saying i will speak rabelais here. he went on to protecting our assets, if you will. he did not really want to go into too much specifics with that issue.

i think he worked in the issue with benghazi and protecting americans overseas and the issues with terrorism that remain. he has perhaps, lost at sea. we are going to check in with lou. melissa: first, let's go to peter barnes. >> i think the key take away here is the president asking what he thought about his counsel being investigated. continuing investigations by inspectors general as well as the criminal investigation at the justice department would be sufficient to get to the bottom of the problems there and get those problems fixed. take a listen. >> i think we're going to be able to figure out exactly what happened, who was involved, what went wrong and we're going to be able to implement steps to fix it and that ultimately is the main priority that i have but also i think the american people have. they understand that we've got an agency that has

enormous potential power and is involved in everybody's lives. >> those comments about the associated press and the national security investigation, you see the president again not going anywhere near suggesting that the justice department acted inappropriately there and in fact the administration has been saying that it simply supports this new legislation for a shield law in congress from senator schumer and congrrssman conyers introduced yesterday and says it is not a direct response from this controversy but rather that it is the right time to do it. melissa, lori, back to you. melissa: no, that is absolutely true. the question was directly, do you think this was an overreach and there was a follow-up talking about the comparisons between nixon and now. of course he immediately pushed all those things to the side. and he expressed his confidence in eric holder

say he was a fine attorney general and should continue in his post. peter barnes, thanks so much. >> you bet. lori: thanks, peter. let's bring in lou dobbs now. he was listening to the press conference along with us, shaking your head, expressing a lot of doubts perhaps about so many different angles. i will let you take it and begin where you like? what struck out to you? >> lori, you referred to a question is this an overreach? that reporter asked a number of important questions that the president chose not to answer. this was a peculiar time for the president to make himself available to an inquiring press. he is used to being before, when i said he is at sea here, he is at sea in uncharted waters. he doesn't really know how to deal with an inquisitive challenging press right now. he has not faced a press corps with this demoan in and this attitude and thank god they're back. to the point that this president wanted to talk about anything he wanted to talk about process. he wanted to talk about

firing a man who was going to leave as you pointed out --. melissa: in two weeks. >> in two weeks. this is the kind of obama drama that is playing out as, at least in the white house's view, as some sort of firewall that he can create around the reality. what the president himself, and it's pretty clear to me at least, has not adjusted to, that the american people, because of those e-mails, know jay carney, the president's personal spokesman, lied to the american people. the president himself has lied to the american people. this president has received more pinnochios in the last several months than i can count. and specifically to say that this benghazi has been investigated is a, is at best a concoction of desperation on the part of this white house. it has not happened. today to say he is going to work with congress? this is the congress this president stonewalled for

eight months. now suddenly with these three scandals unfolding around him, you know, he says he wants to work with congress. congress has seven committees working and they're going to be working on this issue with or without him. the president right now has circled the wagons and is trying his level best to manage what is i think ultimately unmanageable. and that is, the flow of truth about this event. lori: what would have satisfied you, sorry, to hear from the president? this is where he is right now dealing with a trio of scandals as you keep refering to them. what does he do? what would impress you? >> nothing at this point would impress me. >> too little too late at this point? >> nothing would impress me more at this point for this president to understand how so many people have evaluated his performance as president actually being a war on the american people, our traditions and our values and that while he

didn't intend that he will make every effort to make certain it never happens again. he will not go after the associated press's first amendment rights. he will not be going after the tea party and conservatives with the internal revenue service. let's be clear here these four, specifically four folks sitting in cincinnati go after the tea party and other conservative groups deny them wholesale, their tax-exempt status out of something that they just conjured in their own imaginations. this had to be an inculcated value at least and a direct order at worse. and that is yet to be examined. secondly, in benghazi, this president, his press secretary contradicted secretary of state hillary clinton contradicted, this is only the beginning. this is, and to suggest that the accountability review

board was somehow a complete investigation when that was never its charter, its mandate, in point of fact everything leading up to the attacks was the mandate. and for this president to come out today and say it was because congress didn't pass the embassy security legislation, that is a travesty against truth. lori: okay. lou, thank you. >> great to be with you. lori: your wisdom as always i love to say that to you, it is so true day after day. lou dobbs everybody. catch lew at 7:00 and 10:00 p.m. eastern. tonight bob goodlatte will be your guest. white house is in damage control and that is certainly an understatement. bring you to the markets here. nicole petallides, down at the floor of the new york stock exchange. the dow is up by just about a hair. >> we have the dow up five 1/2 points, lori, the nasdaq composite also higher. both the dow and nasdaq setting new intraday letter. the dow setting all-time

record high of 15,302 and change. the nasdaq is trading at the highest levels since the year 2000. s&p 500 has not set another record. it has done so closing nine of the last 10 sessions with up arrows and setting yet more records. right now the s&p is slightly lower. back to you. lori: thank you, nicole. melissa: all right. natural gas production is an an all-time high but there is battle brewing with what to do with all of it. the obama administration is set to rule on whether or not to green light a plan to allow exports or whether we should keep it all for ourselves. joining me in his first interview since becoming president of america's natural gas alliance is martin durbin. martin, thank for coming on the show. >> happy to be here. melissa: there is a battle brewing that we have unlocked this tremendous resource here in the u.s. should we export it as liquified natural gas and make money on it or hoard it and keep it all here and use it for manufacturing? how do you think this debate will

play out? >> i think the facts are going to be realized, the facts will be on the table, they are on the table. listen, we have a an incredible opportunity here, abundant, affordable clean natural fast in amounts we didn't know we had before. there is absolutely no reason we shouldn't give ourselves the opportunity to be part of the global market for this resource as well. melissa: it sound like you're in favor of exporting it. the charles river associates is a consulting group that did research on behalf of the dow chemical we would have to say. they quantified the natural gas, if we exported it would be worth about $2.3 billion in terms of benefits to the u.s. in gdp and in revenue. when you look at using it here in the u.s. for manufacturing, which is the argument that it could build back the manufacturing base here in the u.s. and create revenue and create jobs, that that would have a direct affect of $4.9 billion. more than double. is that a compelling case to you, that it is worth twice

as much if we keep it here at home? >> there is no question we want to use this resource in a way that will bring back manufacturing and it is. it already is. it will continue to do so. what's interesting is that every other study that has been done out there, whether done for the department of energy or, you have had mitt, a report released yesterday by icf, all say this is a net economic plus for the country no matter how much we end up exporting there is so much international competition for the lng market right now, there are already 63 different facilities around the world either planned or under construction. there is no guaranty how much of that market that the u.s. producers are going to get but --. melissa: i'm sorry. i got to stop you because that doesn't really answer the question. how do you balance between exporting and using it here at home? yes it is a economic benefit no matter what you do with it. a lot of people argue if we keep it here at home the benefit is even greater because it adds to manufacturing and creates more job. how do you respond to that

specific argument? >> i think it is a false choice. i don't think all the data is right there if you look at everyone of the other studies they say we will have more manufacturing, we will be able to maintain, you know, reasonable prices here. and that's going to create jobs the net economic benefit will be much greater if we give ourselves the opportunity to be part of that international, that global lng market. melissa: people also make the argument that it is part of our own national security to be self-sufficient and to keep our energy here at home. that that helps us to be stronger and be less dependent on foreign nations. how do you respond to that one? >> good news, with or without these exports we are quickly becoming self-sufficient for energy and more and more so. oil and natural gas, across the board. i don't think the issue of our being able to get a significant and a constructive piece of the lng global market is going to affect whether or not we still have the ability to produce all the energy we need here and still be able to provide more into the

global market, to our allies, a clean, abundant, efficient source of energy. melissa: it is a tremendous resource. martin, thanks so much for coming on the show. >> happy to be here. thanks for having me. lori: and charlie gasparino will join us next on what could be former cia director-general david petraeus's next assignment. melissa: take a look at the ten year treasury here as we head out to break the dow is basically flat on the session right now but you can see the yield on the ten year falling there pretty dramatically, five basis points. we'll be right back you make a great team.

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and a 30-tablet free trial. >> i'm adam shapiro with your fox business brief. mortgage rates rose for the second straight week. according to freddie mac the average rate on a 30-year loan is 3.15%. that is it still near the record low of 3.31% reached in november. airlines in the united states narrowed their losses in the first quarter which is traditionally the toughest travel period. airlines $552 million in the first three months of the year. that is down from 1.7 billion lost during the same time last year. according to the industry lobbying group, airlines for america summer travel should pickup from 2011 but still trail the prerecession peek. 65-year-old couple needs $200,000 to cover health care costs during retirement according to a study by fidelity. while the figure is high, it is more than an 8% drop from

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lori: four-star general and former cia director david petraeus may be making a move to wall street. charlie gasparino has the story. so what are the plans for general petraeus? >> point out couple years ago john mack, when he was ceo of morgan stanley or might be chairman at the time he officially passed it off to james gorman. brought general petraeus to talk to the troops. would give them rousing explanation of what it is like to be in battle. he talked from what i understand, the capital markets, what it means to raise money in the capital markets. how important it is for the country to have vibrant capital markets businesses turn to basically expand and get capital. he really impressed people there. from what we understand right now the transition that general petraeus is

trying to make now as a private citizen is in wall street but what we are told that the fox business network that several major financial firms are talking to him. one firm he is in advance talks with. it is kkr, the private equity firm. we are told he is close to hen very kravitz. that is where john mack is right now. these are described to us as advanced negotiations. they could fall apart. this guy is a wanted man. a lot of people like his knowledge. he knows everybody across the globe. brilliant general. -plori: give him that money. melissa: when you look at carlisle and makeup of people at carlisle. this is normal to get somebody -- >> this is even more than normal this guy bring as little different experience. if you look at his background, i didn't know this about him, graduated top 5% of his class at west point. went on to get a master's and ph.d. he obviously had this incredible career as a public servant, head of the

cia ia, general. melissa: what his ph.d in? >> i think it was international relations. i'm going by memory right now. this is an incredibly smart guy, perfect guy for a private equity firm that is global. you need to talk to clients globally. you need to think in terms of globally in business development. melissa: opportunity makes sense. >> this is the guy to do it. whether he does this deal i can't tell you. this thing leaked out three or four weeks ago they were talking about broad talks. i can tell you about talks inside kkr, these are fairly advanced talks. they could come extremely soon if they do come. my only caution here this is a guy that is wanted. there are other players. he is not he is not, he is not signed up until he is signs on the bottom line. in terms of reputation, rehabilitation, listen, the guy had, i don't look at that as something that he has to worry about. i don't think anybody on wall street would. this is a mistake. i don't --.

melissa: doesn't impact his business knowledge. if they're getting him to consult potentially defense or weapons deals that makes a lot of sense. >> our you're asking me about a private affair. it was with consenting adult if it happened. i don't even know it happens. lori: it raise as question of trust and working for kkr and raising money and confidence -- >> don't compare general petraeus having extramarital affair with consenting adult is not akin to eliot spitzer who had sex with a prostitute. melissa: she didn't get anywhere near that. >> i was saying if you're going to trust the guy, because he made a mistake? one mistake? lori: well he did lose his position. >> right. yeah, but i'm just saying --. lori: powerful position. >> one mistake. lori: clearly he made many mistakes, charlie. melissa: oh, my goodness. >> how do you know that? that could be a libelous statement. i won't sue for liable. we're all friends here.

-- lible. melissa: keith bliss on the floor of the new york stock exchange. we'll draw you into the conversation. no, in fact i will ask but the markets instead. we're only up 11 points but you think the bulls are in charge? >> no, despite consolidation and pullback here, we take a breather that is common when you have bullish markets. on the s&p we're staying above what was a pretty serious resistance line at 1647. we stay up there for another few sessions there is no reason why we won't go higher. you may not want to get long in this market because you might think it is a little overbought at this point. my recommendation is definitely don't short it because you could get hurt here. melissa: interesting. keith bliss, thanks to much sore for your insights. good stuff. lori: seven million member strong. gilt groupe, the flash sale website how they are refining its offerings and. will an ipo be next? melissa: take a look at some

of today's winners on the nasdaq as we he he had out to break. cisco systems is trading higher up from earnings up 12%. we'll be right back. n ] on december 17, 1903, the wright brothers became the first in flight. [ goodall ] i think the most amazing thing is how like these chimnzeeare. [ laughing ] [ woman ] can you hear me? and you hear your voice? oh, it'sxciting! [ man ] touchdown confird. we're safe on mars. [ cheers and applause ] ♪ hi. [ baby fussing ] ♪ [ whirring ] [ dog barks ] i want to treat mo dogs. ♪ our business needs more cases. [ male announcer ] where do yo want to take your business? need help selling art. [ male announcer ] from broadband to web hosting to mobile apps, small business solutions fromt&t

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lori: okay. flash sale giant gilt groupe has been making headway in e-commerce since 2007. the company is said to have billion dollar valuation. sold luxury goods and services to more than 7 million members. what is in-store for gilt groupe, we're pleased to join us michelle peluso, ceo of gilt groupe. >> thank you very much. lori: there are flash web sites out there. gilt groupe has been around six years. you started as a sample sale website. you've grown to seven million customers.

but against the backdrop of competition you are profitable but how do you intend to say that way? >> it is flattering to be copied and to be a leader in this space. this space is exciting for consumers. the idea of finding inspiration and fast and fun and simple, affordable ways to live a better life is exciting. every day they're coming. something is new. they're finding what they like. for us incessantly important to think about the customer experience and how we keep innovatings on that front. lori: how are you keeping yourselves and yourself from stores like groupon? amazon has its own flash sale website of the these are hyper-growth companies, right? >> yeah. lori: but you guys really adjusted quickly when your growth was happening too fast. i hope you can tell me a little bit about that. >> our model is fundamentally different from groupon. we're in the business of selling physical goods to customers and every day we're putting new merchandise in front of their eyes allowing them to make smart purchases. we're always thinking about new ways of expanding, while staying focused on the core customer experience.

making sure it is simple, fast and fun for customers to have fun and be inspired what they want. we recently expanded in the mobile space. amazing how customers log on at 12, and north of 30% of our revenue come from mobile devices. that is really extraordinary. lori: people on the train or commuting, not driving putting in for sale items. you have so much traffic in that first hour you list your sales that you had to expand, right? how did you have have the money to do that? how did you know that was the right investment? where is the next step for expansion? is it more acquisition because i know gilt was busy doing that as well? >> i know there is lot to do with the core consumer base we have. international is definitely one area we consider expanding. we started to shipping to international points of sale for the customers who love the gilt model, something exciting, different and fresh every day. we see 10% of our sales coming from international destinations which is exciting. mobile as i mentioned earlier is a big expansion opportunity for us.

on vintage we started to doing vintage sales and we find that those sales snap right up. lori: the investment community is chomping at the bit. there is a lot of buzz for ipo plans. what are your plans. >> we plan to be at some point a public company. we have that profile a growing demand and consumer base excited in a business model that works but i'm not in a rush. for me, it is 2 1/2 months since i've been ceo. we don't have a burning urgency or need to raise more money. i think that is the likely future but i'm not in a rush. lori: macro picture is interesting. you have the economy and high unemployment. don't ever rule out the good ol' american spender. people are out there opening their wallets. is it correct that these conditions might be ideal for you? you are offering mostly discounted luxury items at a discounted price? >> that is interesting because our business model kind of works in both cycles. in a cycle where consumers spending more they find what they want and that is exciting.

in an environment where the economy is a bit sluggish and retail has been slower that we've seen past few years there is more supply to sell to our consumers. they want a great deal and a bargain. nice to see a business model where you see it play out in different economic cycles and quite good. lori: you have a $56,000 birk ken bag that definitely sold. you hit all classes of spender. michelle, nice to meet you. good luck with gilt groupe. >> thank you, lori. lori: melissa, back to you. melissa: coming up tonight on "money," congressman mike kelly from pennsylvania a member of the house ways and means committee which is holding a hearing tomorrow on the irs discrimination scandal, i will ask him what his first question is ahead of that drama tomorrow. that is 5:00 p.m. eastern right here on fox business. wall street waiting on huge after the bell results from dell and jcpenney. tracy byrnes and ashley webster have a preview next on fox business. don't miss it. here they come. [ male announcer ] at his current pace,

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ashley: will come back, everybody, i'm ashley webster. tracy: i'm tracy byrnes. president obama speaks out on the irs scandal and promises new management is on the way. but is it enough to restore americans confidence in the agency with unpress dented access to their money? we will have a closer look on that ahead. ashley: meantime a slew of weak economic reports holding back stocks from building on their record run. the dow, it is just about flat today, up a couple of points. we'll have the biggest movers and a preview of critical results coming up after the bell. tracy: our special report, small business, big ideas. you think the weight loss industry has run out of new ideas? think again. we'll meet the ceo of retrofit. it is luring big-name customers like google and jetblue. but right now, top of the hour, time for stocks as we do every 15 minutes. nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange. nicole, as we just said we are flat-lined on the dow.

>> right. at one point we were 15,302. so we surpassed all-time record down in history again, unless somebody surpasses that. -- composite is higher. also we're seeing the s&p 500 --. ashley: there you go. dipping in and out of nicole. sorry, nicole. tracy: just like the dow. dipping in and out of positive territory. ashley: said flat line and it went down. tracy: maybe i jinxed it. ashley: president obama, meantime wrapping up joint news conference at the white house with the turkish prime minister, where he talked about everything from the irs scandal to national security. so much to talk about. peter barnes joining us live from the white house with the latest. peter? >> that's right, ashley. on the irs scandal he said, quote, we are going to be able to fix it. he was asked specifically about whether or not there should be a special counsel appointed to investigate the irs scandal and he, shot the idea down. he said that he felt that, that oversight from congress,

investigations by inspectors general, and the criminal investigation at the justice department would be sufficient to get to the bottom of what happened at irs and to make sure that those problems are fixed and they don't happen again. of course the other thing that dominated this press conference was this, the ap national security case. on that the president was given the opportunity to distance himself from the justice department's decision to issue a broad subpoena and secretly gather the phone records of ap telephone, editors and reporters, rather, and in fact he sounded, he basically endorsed the justice department's strategy with that. take a listen. >> i make no apologies and i don't think the american people would expect me as commander-in-chief not to be concerned about information that might compromise their missions or might get them killed. now the flipside of it is, we also live in a democracy

where a free press, free expression, and the open flow of information helps hold me accountable, helps hold our government accountable and helps ourfuncti. >> now the speaker of the house kept up his criticism of the president on the ap case, the irs scandal and the situation in benghazi. take a listen. >> americans should never be targeted or harassed by their government for their political beliefs. if reporters telephone calls are being monitored, the better, the government better have a clear and convincing reason for doing so. when the american people, or americans are killed abroad, the government should tell the truth. >> and house republicans will be able to keep up their attack at that big hearing tomorrow at the house ways and means

committee on the irs scandal. pshley and tracy. ashley: talking of scandal, lots to talk about. peter barnes, thank you so much. appreciate it. >> you bet. tracy: starting to feel circular though. is the white house doing enough to control this growing group of scandals we should say or could it derail the president's second term agenda? joining us now, byron york, fox news contributor and chief political correspondent at the "washington examiner". buy i don't know, i'm so glad you're here. now there's a lot of them. which one bothers you the most and could in theory derail the president's basically second term? >> well, the two most important ones i think are the irs and the lingering questions about benghazi. benghazi of course is a life or death story. people actually died in benghazi. so i think you would have to place that higher than anything else. the irs of course is an agency that reaches into everyone's lives and that's very, very important issue. the ap story, journal list

story is an important story, a important first amendment issue but i don't think it is quite as big as the other two. tracy: we had juan williams on here yesterday basically saying same as president. the their job was to protect us. they went in to protect us and this is how it ended up unfortunately with the ap story. to the irs story, your point this is in everyone's home. jack lew is basically in charge of fixing this. can he do that? getting rid of a temporary commissioner will not make a difference to anybody. >> the temporary commissioner was going to leave the job by statute on june the 8th. tracy: right. >> so obviously that's not a very big move. kind of a minimum thing the president could do to make it look like he was doing something. i got to tell you before we have a lot of reforms on the irs we have to find out what actually happened, and the president i think did not inspire confidence with his press conference today where he is asked, we found out today, by the way, that the white house counsel knew about this from, april 22nd.

so the president was asked, can you tell us nobody in the white house knew about these actions before april 22nd? and his answer was, i did not know about the ig report until the ig report was leaked to the press. that sounds like a very lawyerly narrow reading of the story. so we'll have to find out, okay, did anybody, not just the president, anybody in the white house know what was going on? tracy: right. of course we come into obamacare and how now the irs will be in charge of that. really there is no other organization that goes into every household. only irs is in charge of health care unfortunately. already businesses have to report on this year's w-2 how much was paid on your behalf. next year you will have to report it. what happens? could this basically derail obama care? >> people are afraid of irs. they don't trust the irs. this does not help either one of those things. i'm not sure it could derail obamacare but it could

certainly help. people don't know how much the irs is a part of obamacare. look at the bill. large parts are amending the internal revenue code to make it more powerful here. everybody will have to submit kind of a w-2-like form to the irs showing they have acceptable insurance. and then, if, if they're eligible for subsidies, the irs determines that. if think get a raise at work or maybe their hours are cut at work or somebody else happens at work, they will have to keep the irs updated on that to update their subsidy status. there will be a lot of interaxzs, more interactions with the irs than people normally have. tracy: to your point, as we said it yesterday, you're guilty with the irs before you can prove yourself innocent. people are afraid of the irs, afraid they will know way more information about us. talking about medical records online. it just gives you this big brother feel and you wonder who is behind it all. >> well, the democrats in congress were behind it all.

that is how, that is how they decided to do this when they were structuring -pobamacare. it is such a widespread, far-reaching thing that there was only one agency, the irs, that actually knew how to do this. and, you know, theee are laws concerning disclosure of what the irs can disclose. for example, if a member of congress calls the irs and says, i want john q. public's tax return, he can't get it. it is secret. the irs can't give it out. they knock ad hole in that so the irs can give confidential tax records to the department of health and human services for the purposes of these, of these subsidy dis. by the way, you heard about this penalty that you might have to pay if you don't have insurance? tracy: right. >> they can't make you pay it, but the irs will take it out of your refund. they have the power to do that. tracy: it is frightening. i think, making a really bad movie. byron york with the "washington examiner". we'll see how it all plays out.

thank you, sir. >> thank you. ashley: let me restate, i love the irs. in case --. tracy: yeah, right. they're listening. there are bugs in the ceiling i think. ashley: so much more to come this hour. stocks failing to gain any big traction today. nicole petallides we hope live from the new york stock exchange. plus, one money manager says it's time to be conservative. we'll hear his strategy next. tracy: plus, small business, big ideas, retrofit helps companies keep their employees in shape and healthy. the ceo is our special guest ahead. first as we do every day at this time of day take a look how oil is trading as we head out to break. the dow is up 16 points. oil is up, $95.32. we'll be right back.

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tracy: it is time to get a check on the markets. nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange. got to make sure she is okay. hey, nicole. >> yeah.

alive and well over here, watching markets continuing to gain. we're less than 10 points away from our all-time record intraday high set earlier today of 15,302. you can see we're trying to hold onto a gain of 16 points on the dow. nasdaq holding onto records and s&p down slightly. cisco beat the street on the bottom line. an analysts are jumping on board. the stock is up a whopping 13%. wal-mart is to the downside. wal-mart down 2%. 13 negative dow points. same-store sales missed. revenue disappointing. outlook is somewhat weak. we're seeing that down 2.25%. look at wine, beer. we're watching constellation brands, molson coors and jim beam is up half of 1%. constellation brand is up 3 1/2%. moulson coarse is up 2.9% at

the moment. saying validation is attractive and improving outlook for u.s. alcohol revenues and liking especially spirits in the high-end brew. they seem positive on the group. constellation brands is at an all-time record high and price hikes and trade-ups are likely. there is the all-time high we're talking about. back to you. tracy: thanks, nicole. see you in 15 minutes. ashley: markets are in melt-up mode. we know there doesn't seem to be much to keep them down, our next guest is taking well, a conservative approach. joining me, robert russell, chief investment officer of. robert, thanks for join me. housing starts are down, unemployment claims are up, and showing how disconnected stock market is to the real economy. what does that say to you and does that not make you sleep very well at night? >> hi, ashley. good to see you again. what is happening this "alice in wonderland" type

of market. it is all being created by the fed. investors are facing two, two realities right now. one, they have too much in the bank and they're in essence guaranteeing themselves a loss because of basic interest rates way below real inflation. and two, investors have too much in the market. they have too much at risk and they're not truly diversified. and when this market, eventually corrects, and reality is priced back into the market, they will face massive pain. so i think right now is time especially if you're in your 50s or beyond to be taking a second look at how you're invested and not having all the poker chips on the table. ashley: so, conservative because, many of your clients are nearer retirement. so what are you telling them? who you do you diversify your portfolio to allow for these market moves? >> absolutely. so people, let's say they're 55 years old. for somebody that is 55, the most we would have in the market would be about half

of their portfolio. okay, in stocks and fund type investments. the rest is spread among other vehicles like principle protected accounts and investments that are not correlated to the markets. alternative investments. inflation sensitive investments and that kind of thing. and that is where you get your true diversification. look, we're not trying to beat the market. we're just trying to beat zero every year and have a comfortable ride for our clients. ashley: have you missed the big gains that this market has been remarkable over the many years now? have you been always taking this approach and are you kicking yourself if you've been more conservative? >> yeah, you know what? the truth is we have missed all those big gains and i'm proud of it because we also missed those losses in 2008. and that was the key. race over again. start the our clients can go back to work and build their wealth again. so they're relying on us to help them sleep well at night. ashley: does the fed get out of this smoothly or not?

is that your fear we could see a big crash because the fed pulls back on the money? >> yeah, you absolutely are correct. the correction is going to come from the debt bubble which will lead to inflation eventually, massive inflation. now, where does that start? it starts with a pullback of the fed. here's the thing though. if in studied what the fed has done over the last few years, it is they have hinted, over and over again, before taking action, to not freak people like me out. so that is what they're going to do here. they will not turn off the fawcett and turn off the printing press. they will do it very, very slowly, hopefully, hopefully they won't create panic but we'll see. ashley: we will see indeed. rob russell, thanks for joining us today. we appreciate it. >> my pleasure. thank you, ashley. tracy: well, coming up it is a busy day for after-the-bell earnings. we'll have a preview of dell, jcpenney and much more ahead. ashley: plus the long slog for housing's recovery. jeff flock is live from one building site in chicago.

there he is, showing some signs of improvement. jeff? >> housing starts down nationwide more than expected but one area of the country positive. i'll tell you what that area of the country is and talk to a ryland regional president about what's working in the housing market. i don't know, i hear saws. i hear hammers. stay tuned.

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>> 21 minutes past the hour right now. hi, everybody, i'm jamie colby. this is your fox news minute. new orleans police saying they have arrested a second suspect in the mother's day parade shootings that wounded 19 people including two children. 24-year-old sean scott, the brother of 19-year-old akim scott, he was arrested last night. both face 20 counts of attempted second-degree murder. police arrested four additional people, charged with harboring those suspects. in texas, the national weather service is saying that last night's tornados responsible for six deaths had winds of up to 200 miles per hour. there were dozens of people injured. 250 are still homeless.

the fatalities were in granbury, texas 40 miles southwest of fort worth. global soccer star david beckham retiring. the 38-year-old signed with manchester united as a 14-year-old and became one of the biggest names in sports winning championships in four countries, england, spain, france and the u.s. beckham won two mls titles in six seasons with the loss loss galaxy. i bet that is not the end of him. those are the headlines. back to tracy and ashley. those two can't stay out of the media. tracy: i wish i could retire at 38. >> nice. take care. tracy: housing starts fell sharply last month but applications for building permits were a silver lining. jeff flock is our silver lining with one homebuilder in huntly, illinois, with more. hey, jeff. >> the whole midwest is a silver lining as a matter of fact, tracy. take a look regionally how this went down. as you point out, nationwide

starts kind of down. more so than expected, even though those permits were up, take a look at where actually it was good news, in the south, down 28%. northeast down 2%. midwest was up 11%. we're at a ryland home development here outside of chicago. i'll tell you, they have been booming. look at ryland the stock, compared to housing starts. of course in the past five years, you see actually, ryland had a pretty good run, even though starts have been up and down. talk to john carol, the regional president for ryland here who said he actually has been restarting communities. this one here is a restart of a community development that had been shut down because of the recession. listen to what he said. >> when we come in and restart a community, that builds confidence because the buying public sees that and they say, hey, they're obviously willing to invest in the money to restart a community or multiple communities. they must see something good. and i think that's important

because i think as a leader in the industry, certainly here in chicago as well. that is important, that we send the message to the public and help educate them between today's low interest rates and record low housing prices there is no better time to buy a new home. >> not a good time necessarily to buy a homebuilder stocks today however. they are kind of down on the news but i'll tell you those stocks have had an incredible run. amazing to me these days how fast they put up a house. this guy with a nail gun, it goes 100 miles per hour. remember when a guy had to get a hammer and swing a hammer to build a house that way? 14 weeks all it takes to build this house. good news right now. tracy: loving that. ashley: that's great. tracy: i think i need a nail gun. you never know. that is so great. oh, my god. i would shoot my toes off, probably. jeff flock, thank you very, very much. imagine me with a nail gun?

ashley: pinned to the second floor. tracy: nail my seat to the ground and be stuck. ashley: you with a nail gun? frightening. you know what we should all be? we should be worker unions in argentina. you know why in they got really good news. two million people get a wage hike of 24%. president christina fernandez striking that deal with six allied labor unions. now the hope is that the similar deals will be made next month. that's when the government starts negotiating salaries with unions that are aligned with the president's opponents. tracy: is that really a deal? ashley: yes. tracy: a deal for the unions. ashley: a great deal. tracy: is it a deal for anybody else? ashley: can they afford it? probably not but we'll worry about it later. 24%. tracy: when in doubt become argentina union workers. ashley: get on a plane. tracy: the irs scandal is escalating coming up in congress. they want to know who, when, what, we'll have the latest coming up next. ashley: we have the winners

an losers with the dow moving up slightly higher at 13. we'll be right back.

♪ ashley: 90 minutes until the close, a mixed day, half red and green. on the upside, cisco, hp, on the downside, maybe it's nots the happiest place on earth, walt disney low, walmart laggard on the dow 30. nicole, always the happiest person down at the stock exchange. you have a preview of two companies after the bell today, nicole? >> important to look at the names, two in the tech realm looking at applied materials. right now, waiting to find out

what applied materials is going to report in the 4 p.m. show. you can see the stock is in the wase and see mode, down one quarter of 1%, down at 14.76 a share, but in the tech boom days, this was over $50 in the year 2000. never resumed those levels, but it's one to continue to watch for their announcement as well as dell. keeping an eye on dell today. the earnings come out after the bell. we got some of those already. they released earlier yesterday. you can see the stock now down a quarter percent. we'll see how it works out. does it work to benefit carl icah or michael dell? that'll be key to watch. here, take a look and make sure you keep that on at 4 p.m. to watch both of these names coming out with the quarterly reports because they are telling, obviously, for the economy and also for the tech stocks overall. j ppenney as pell.

back to you. >> we'll have more on earnings later this hour. tracy: the latest on the irs scandal, and president obama is focused on fixing the problems at the irs ahead of a critical congressional hearing tomorrow on the agency's targeting of conservative groups. rich edson on capitol hill with more. rich, we talked earlier, telling me part-time commissioner to go doesn't make people feel good. >> well, especially since he was set to go next month. republicans call for a sweeping investigation of the administration, calling for jail time over this, including the speaker of the house, president obama was the first question he fielded at this afternoon's press conference, asked, can you assure us that no one in the white house knew about this over the last couple years. the president's response was that he did not know personally what was contained in the inspector general report until it was leaked by hill sources friday. the investigations continue.

president obama says when he found out that he agented immediately. >> the minute i found out about it, then my main focus was making sure we get the thing fixed. you know, i think it's going to be sufficcent for us to be working with congress. they've got a bunch of the committees. we got igs there. the ig has done an awe audit, and it's my understanding that they will be recommending an investigation. >> need to know where the facts are. somebody made the decision to do this, and i doubt that there were low level employees in the cincinnati field office. >> doesn't end there. the inspector general's report could not identify who developed the criteria to ensure the groups got a higher level of scrutiny when they were applying for tax exempt status at the revenue service. we have the department of justice investigation. we have three congressional investigations going on. there are two separate committees on the house side.

one holds the hearing tomorrow. a house and senate panel hold hearings next week. back to you. tracy: rich edson, thank you very much. ashley: the scandals surrounding the irs getting bigger, the commissioner stepping down at the president's request, but weeks before he was to do so anyway. gerri willis is here, and, to me, it's like how the president -- the least he could be doing to be seen to be doing at least something. >> by the way, his comments were only three and a half minutes along, very short, to the point, and i'm canning steve miller, the acting commissioner of the internal revenue service, and i was not out the door that miller was telling people i'm not up here anyway. i'm acting commissioner. i am down in june. we knew right away this was less than it seemedded, that the president was posing at taking action, but it was not thorough

going, doesn't go to the idea of what happened in cincinnati, not the ideas rich just said, who told the people in cincinnati to put the criteria together, and to put all of these groups through this. ashley: a lot of shredding and deleting going on? >> people on the show were subject to this, and there's people who wanted to start their own group, what do i have to give you to get tax exempt the list of things back made them hang up the the phone and not take action. they were told that they had to give audiotape facebook posts, twitter posts, social media. what this is is this of the irs, and that leads me to the other thing. this is tyranny. when you use the government to make sure that no one, no one comes up against you, that's tyranny. this is why americans are worried about this. look at this irs bigger than the ipa, the fbi, the fda. it is a big, big agency with

some 90,000 workers, 89,550 workers. ashley: 7.8 billion budget. >> that's right. tracy: people are scared of the irs. especially, audited, i've been awe fitted, i have no idea what you're up against because i'll prove you six ways until tuesday that you're wrong, and i have. you go through the motions. people ang up or quit saying the irs is right, i'll write the check. >> there's a lot of intimidation, and even in the regular operations of the agency; right? what did they collect? 2.5 million in taxes last year. what they do per course. they can garnish your wages, take your assets, president -- put you in jail. it's a powerful, powerful agency, and when you use that agency to go against political enemies, hunt them down -- ashley: talking about this tonight? >> we will, but also a topic which i think your viewers might

like which is what's going on with bees. bees. we're talking about bees. what's happening to the population of bees? it's diminishing dramatically because of problems in the environment. we have live bees on set. ashley: interesting. just flying around? >> i have a scientist coming in with bees. tracy: man, oh, man, i hope they are not flying around. i'm scared of bees. ashley: i can't wait. wear the big hat and vail. >> i don't know what's in store for me. ashley: stay tuned, as they say, don't miss "the willis report" and the bees here on the fox "b" business. " b" for business. there you go. tracy: breaking news, oil closing up at $95.16. today's gain of nearly 1% marks the second straight day that

crude closed higher. ashley: the senate voted to approve the nomination of earnest as energy secretary coming in a volt of 97 yous to absolutely 0 nays. he's got the professor look, doesn't he? crazy english professor? i don't know. i'll shut up. tracy: okay, good. special report, small business, big ideas, retrofit lining up big, and big customers like wall greens and nfl players association, we'll meet the health care ceo next. ashley: first, the 10 and 30-year treasuries as we head to the break. we'll be right back. ♪ [ whirring ] [ dog barks ] i want to treat mo dogs. ♪ our business needs more cases.

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and make it happen. i'm janet long and i formed my toffee company rough legalzoom. never really thought i would make money doing what i love. [ robert ] we created legalzoom to help people start their siness and launch their dreams. go to legalzoom.com today and make your business dream a reality. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side. ♪ >> i'm lori rothman with the fox business brief. a senate panel backed president obama's controversial nominee for secretary, but it's uncertain if it gets the majority in the full senate. republicans hinted at tactics to delay or block votes. meantime, boosting quarterly dividend 10% to five and a half cents a share reiterating the approval for the $426 million stock repurchase and use the after tax proceeds from the $120

million sale of victory capital for additional repurchases. apple taking a bite out of the app market with a huge milestone today, 50 billion down loads, and to commemorate, they are giving a 10 ,000 app card to thee man in ohio who down loaded the 50 billionth app. lucky guy. that's the latest from the fox business network.

tracy: a weight loss company that helps busy people get in shape with help from technology. our next guest tripled the work force in the last year and signed up big companies like walgreens, and the nfl player's association. jeff, the ceo of retrofit. now, jeff, tell everybody you sort of had a weight problem before this whole thing startedded; right? you've been starting companies for awhile now, good at that,

but the weight loss thing you struggled with; right? >> i was. like most americans, i gained a pound and a half a year from the time i turned 30 so it crept up on over the years like it does so many americans, and i was inspired enough to start a company. tracy: what's interesting to me@ is it's using technology, you don't have to go to a gym. you talk to people op skype, sounds like the perfect -- the perfect help for corporate america because we're all so darn busy. >> so retrofit is the first program specifically created just for the corporate market, busy professionals so like me, i traveled, living out of hotels, eating at the airports, things that are just really, really hard to do when you try to maintain a healthy lifestyle, and so each of the clients get their own team that effectively gives them private lessons, meet with their own registered dietitian, own behavior coach to address the mind set aspects, and their own exercise physiologist who guide them through the process.

tracy: a fee of $150 up depending how long you sign up for, and now you're signing corporations up to do this too; right? does that mean corporations like walgreens are subsidizing? >> yes. many companies are starting to subsidize the program so people can reach our department, do you subsidize weight loss programs, and increasingly, the answer is yes. the biggest health care component that a company can choose to reduce their health care costs is weight loss. >> i love the notion that half the clients, and they don't they don't want to tell, but they just want to get it done, and anybody in the fitness world knows it's 75% diet. >> that's right, tracy. we met with a lot of men, and what they said is, look, i don't have an interest in going to group lessons so we decided to invent private lessons, and the internet is just an amazing

technology to do that, skype video conference is the platform. we get each of the clients two wireless tracking devices, a wifi scale, step on that scale in the bathroom, and it sends us the data instantly. we can track the progress. it's amazing. there's a wireless tracker that tracks steps per day and miles per day, and how they sleep. it creates just a totally new kind of way of losing weight. tracy: a new look on big brother watching you too, but nevertheless there's a lot of people out there thinking it's cool because you got an $8 million investment in venture capitalists, haven't you? >> we did, we raised $10 million in total, last was $8 million. i think vcs are waking up to the opportunity of technology-enabled health care services that promise to change the health care landscape, especially with obamacare and the reality that companies just have to get arms around their health care costs, and weight loss is the fastest way to do it. >> sure is. preventative care, which was not

in obamacare, is exactly what your company is trying to do. jeff with retrofit, thank you very much, sir. >> thank you, tracy, appreciate it. ashley: from weight loss to binging. television binging, that is. we have are fast becoming a nation of binge viewers. why wait to see it once a week when you gorge yourself in a season in a weekend or two. that could alter the way the tv industry operates, and dennis looks at the implications. dennis? >> actually, i'm calling it fftion's big binge theory. new numbers from amazon prime service shows 30% of viewers who watch two series, justifieded and the good wife, watch the entire run in two weeks or less. being viewing is on the rise, and it's one reason why may 26th, netflix reposts arrested development. it did the same with the 13 episodes of the house of cards,

and one survey found 5% of people who downloaded on day one watched the 13th and time episode by ay two. this binge viewing started years ago with dvd box sets for 24 and other binge-worthy show, gaping with on-demand viewing, show time, homeland and game of thrones, dramas that pull you in, but the interpret accelerated that trend. binge viewing posts problems. house of cards helped the stock price; right? netflix makes no extra money on extra binging. same for amazon. all you can eat video, advertisers beside the point in the binge. episodes of a series have to hang together better, seem leslie, and one day, they may be thrown down, and tbs doing that with big bang theory. viewersings --

viewers themselves, but you can't talk to the roommates at the water cooler at the show. you're at risk of being a spoiler to your friends, that your friends avoid was they fear hearing the next twist. ask yourself, guys, is it worth it? ashley: you know, binge viewing, i've done it with "homeland," and there's an appeal to it. >> so enveloping. >> it is. good stuff. interesting. ashley: my last being was the godfather trilogy, that shouldn't surprise anybody. all right. it is quarter till, time for stocks as we do every 15 minutes, and, oh, keith rich, i apologize, on the floor of the new york stock exchange. one line, we say it so much, keith. so the dow is teetering back and forth, red green, red, green, what are we waiting for? washington to figure it out or from earnings reports? where are we? >> well, it's not unusual when

you get to the tail ends of the an earnings season for the market to consolidate around levels, especially with an excellent run, which it has in the beginning of the year, but the postture remains well in tact in the market, above key resistance lines we broke through earlier in the week, and we will stay above those for the time being and actually move higher. there's a lot of reasons we make for the bull case in spite of the weaker manufacturing data we got this week out of the economy, but when you talk about money sloshing around in the system, when you talking about people now starting to chase returns, when you talk about all money coming from other places around the world because of the low interest rate environment, it's higher, definitely in the short term. >> nobody cares what's going on in dc? >> not right now. capital goes where capital is rewarded, and that's inside the equity markets despite the machinations in washington.

tracy: keeps them out of the way. busy with other stuff. thank you very much. >> my pleasure. ashley: keep them out of the way is key. wall street looking for signs of improvement, and jwpenn -- we have a preview. tracy: as we head to break, the dow is flat. let's take a look at some of your winners on the nasdaq, cisco systems up 13% today. we'll be right back. ♪ new way. for seeing what cash is coming in and going out... so you can understandevery- last week, this month, and even next year. for seeing your business's cash flow like never before, introducing cash flow insight powered by pnc cfo. a suite of online tools that lets you turn insight io action.

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tracy: jcpenney set to release earnings after the bell releasing a 16% drop in sales in the first quarter and expecting a loss of 89 cents a share as

the company's trying to recover from the admitted mistakes under the former ceo, ron johnson. retail expert joins us by phone now. kristin, how ugly do you think the report's going to be? >> caller: well, obviously, you know, ugly enough already, the news out there, and i don't expect to be pretty. i don't think they will be surprised with the numbers, but a matter of how bad they are. ashley: can the company recover? >> caller: absolutely not. ashley: wow. >> caller: absolutely not. you know what? i've been really vocal about this a year ago with the turn around announced with ron johnson. he's not a bad merchant. i want more constructive, this is a great american heritage brand, but retail is very darwin, and sometimes you have to let the weaker brand die. ashley: they've gone back,

desperately, i say, to the old style of doing wiz -- business to get the customer back in the door. appears to be working, there's been an increase in sales in traffic earlier. is that in the enough, though, in your opinion? >> caller: you can't fall far from a basement window? how much traffic do you need to have an increase from where you are? they got rid of, you know, ron johnson, brought in mike who is running the show, but he's using the old couponing methods, which that customer responds to, but all the old methods implements that got them into the bad place they were in in the first place, and as you know, rework is extremely costly. add the expense of that, you know, amazing management team they had with all the sweeping changes they wanted to induce, and then the amount of money to retract that is just, you know, it's bleeding op top of bleeding. ashley: good brands though,

stafford, and they are popular, aren't they? >> caller: that's where old brands go to die, actually. ashley: i guess -- >> caller: with all disrespect. ashley: that says it all. thank you for joining us by phone. appreciate it. >> caller: thanks, ashley. ashley: not optimistic. keep it here for complete coverage of jcpenney, dell, and applied materials, results after the bell at 4 p.m. eastern time in an hour from now. that's where brands go to die. tracy: retill cemetery. huh, we'll see. the numbers will be interesting for sure. how about this? harry winston is the proud owner of a rare 1.73carot diamond, the largest to sell at auction. the julie company, bought last yearings bought the pear-shaped stone for 26.7 million at

christie's auction yesterday. the stone was cut from a rough diamond weighing about 246karot and took months to sand it down. what do you do with it? ashley: can you imagine that person who found it? tracy: put it around your neck? can't wear it on your hand, what do you do in ashley: heck of a wedding ring. tracy: i don't know. "countdown to the closing bell" next joined by cisco who reported better than expected earnings, and later, jim rogers joins liz to say whether he's a believer in gold in spite of the recent decline. and "countdown to the closing bell don't goknows you anywhere. it any other way.

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♪ liz: cisco delivers, the new strategy working and does the equipment maker prove the entire tech economy is taking off? we asked the chairman and ceo. leming dare investor gym rooming -- jim rogers, and why the oldest currency in the world is connected to a virtual one. as gold sinks, when he will buy? texas flying, not the passengers, but the pilots. we'll tell you exactly why they text while on the job and if it's safe. "countdown to the closing bell starts right now. ♪ now it's just the nasdaq with positive territory. good afternoon, everybody. i'm liz claman, we have two big companies names with very diff