he articulated it. [closing bell ringing] >> that's right. cautionary tone but there is always optimistic things to look at for this company. liz: he also transformed the company. david: and as we go to the bells we managed to turn this market around. this was a very, if not fully negative at least lackadaisical market until things started to turn around about midday. that is when we saw all of the incan sees go into the green, liz. liz: here we go. dow jones industrials eking out about a 60-point gain. not bad at all. nasdaq jumping near a full percentage point. russell 2000, star of the day when you look at percentage gains. david: small and mid-sized caps doing extremely well. "after the bell" starts right now. david: breaking down today's turn around in the markets, joe bell, schaeffer's investment research equity analyst.

he warns of more volume filth in the market but he is -- volatility in the market but basically a bull in this market. and alan knuckman from the pits of cme. alan, i want to start with you. talk about a recovery, this is v-like recovery we've had since january. >> absolutely epic. if you take the measured move, distance of the selloff, add it on to the highs 1950 is the target in s&p. we still have seven more% on upside. nasdaq has completed recovery. who says how much higher we can go from here. things like still very supportive. not just equities. way they came back was very impressive. it was a lot of other marke looking a gold, looking a oil, and looking at bonds. we see asset reflation as people feel better than they did last week. liz: you call reflation with natural gas, listen, i don't tend to want to focus at that much on commodities. this is major jump, 8%.

silver continuing to move up nearly a full%. >> remember the metals have been absolutely beat own down. this bump is only natural. natural gas is affected by weather. i'm from upper peninsula of michigan where we get 300 inches of snow. this is winter to me. if you look midpoint last 10 years. midpoint is $7. we're not at midpoint t feels like pain because we're at such historic low levels. david: if you're upper peninsula of michigan, this must be like summer to you. joe, i want to talk about the generalled into of mood of market. there was a january, no good news could move the market positive. seems like we're out of that. is it premature to say that. >> you're exactly right when you look at january the price action was weak. there was a panic selloff and there was a lot of panic and fear. it was only about 6% pullback. kind of reminded me of a lost

pullback in 2013. we saw active managers cut their exposure by nearly half. we saw short interest still near multiyear highs. sentiment, extremely pessimistic reading. a panic and fear for just a 6% pullback. once again it was a nice buying opportunity as panic selling sort of oversold that rally and perhaps it was a good buying opportunity. liz: we want to do the right thing for our viewer investors and needless to say, there has been many a panicked individual over the past year-and-a-half who has been wrong. stayed out of the market, lost money. however at some point, are we not going to see larger correction than just 5%? >> that at some point yes, we're going to have corrections of 10%. historically at least past year-and-a-half or so they have been around 5 to 7% range. really what we look at is expectations. what is the general sentiment around that pullback? when we saw the 6% pull back we saw extreme amount of fear.

that told us perhaps there was some upside there. if we go ahead and get like a 5 or 6% pullback and all of sudden everybody is not expecting that larger correction that is when we expect lower prices because not as many people are bracing for the downside. david: but alan, the earnings so far have been very commissioned. -- mixed. we have everything from positives to whole foods going down 7% based on their earnings report yesterday. so with a mixed earnings report is it really conceivable that we could sort of go in an upward trajectory like we did in 30 another? >> it is very possible. earnings need to be reminded how well corporations are doing. if you look better as whole we're doing better on type line and most importantly better on the top line most of all. that focuses how well corporations are doing. getting back to your point it is about leverage. you have to find stocks with good levels to lean on.

home depot from 72 level. mcdonald's 84, low in 2012 and 104 was high in 2013. midpoint is 94. we're at 95. being at levels you don't have to risk a whole lot if you're wrong as opposed to buying a stock with big extended move you're inna lot of danger obviously. liz: you like ak steel. you also like expedia. you have a soft spot in your heart for i.t. -- homebuilders which is the homebuilders etf. let me continue down on ak steel. a big commodity move here. why? >> yeah, steel is, has an extreme amount of doubt. when you look at all sectors within the entire u.s. stock market, steel has the highest amount of sell ratings, talking about analysts. analysts are the most bearish own steel yet the price action is incredibly strong. ak steel trading on a strong earnings report just a couple weeks ago. so improving fundamentals, strong price action.

we still think expectations are extremely low. we think steel in general could have a lot of upside in 2014. david: joe bell, terrific having you here. thanks very much. alan knuckman, we'll check in with a couple minutes when the s&p futures close. thanks, guys. liz: cable giant comcast announced it will buy time warner cable for $45 billion. the merger raising concerns about competition in the pay tv business and the impact it will have on the consumer. david: so will the fcc allow this deal to take place? joining us is a public interest amount at this trust attorney and former fcc policy director and a jeffrey isenach american institute of communications and policy director. you guys are terrific experts on this. different views. jeffrey, we're seeing headline "the biggest loser" is consumer. consolidation is a bad thing. less competition means higher price, fewer choices which you say what, jeffrey? >> you know this is, whole

market a battle of giants and goliaths like the walt disney company, google, netflix, verizon. to have bigger, healthier, stronger competitors is good for everybody. no question comcast and time warner together are stronger faster better competitor will provide better services to consumer than two of them separately, particularly time warner getting up to scale. it will be a good thing for everybody. liz: fair and balanced, david, you tend to disagree on this one. why? >> i couldn't disagree more. past mergers have not benefited consumers. consumers pay more from their pocketbooks. and what's critical here you're going to have a giant who will really be able to dictate the terms of content. we'll see less innovation and less choice in the market. there are going to be use that power coercively to prevent innovation from occurring and consumers will suffer.

david: david, are not regulators always a few steps behind technological innovation when it comes to the free market? the private sector when they have big consolidation, then some little guy will find a weakness and find a perfect technology to fit that weakness. shouldn't we let the market play it out? >> well, we should let markets work where they can but the problem here we're, if the merger were to be permitted, which it won't be, the, you would create a firm that is so large that it would be a trouble dictate the terms of access. that would cut off alternatives to cable and it would also increase the costs of for people to develop content. liz: jeffrey, david just said this merger won't be approved. what do you think? >> yeah, i think he is wrong because i think the benefits are so strong. just a couple of points. first of all, when comcast and nbc merged the fcc impose ad whole range of conditions to address exactly the problem that david is concerned about. and that is everyone's access to cable programing.

and online programing. those conditions are surely going to get extended now to time warner. you could argue whether that is good thing or bad thing but this will not be completely unregulated market n fact regulations imposed on comcast will get extended to time warner. david i think would favor that. on your point about technological change when, david was at the federal communications, federal trade commission they proposed merger conditions on aol-time warner and made the bold prediction that aol would be broadband monopolies in the future. five years later the company was on its last legs. so i think your point about making technological predictions is right on point. david: yeah. and david, the fact is, is that there are all kinds of alternatives right now as we speak in some ways, cable already seems like a dinosaur. you think of the non-cable alternatives of the mostly on the internet of course with cable. shouldn't we just let that dinosaur die its own death and focus on the future which may be

something other than cable? >> well, we don't know that that's the case and we should let the market, you know, we should let the market work. david: haven't you, haven't you already seen signs of that? i mean in all of these new product that is are coming out that are trying to avoid cable, frankly a lost cable customers already have seen prices go up so high they're looking for alternatives. >> well, right and that is part of fact that prices are increasing is the reason why we don't want to see any increase in market power that would come about because of this acquisition. let the markets stay the way it is. there is little enough innovation, allowing comcast to get larger is lake telling somebody obese, giving them a prescription to eat ice cream every day. that is the wrong prescription for consumers. liz: jeffrey, let me play devil's advocate to your opinion on this. i'd love to be optimist. my parents are canadian. let everybody be well and everybody can win. no, they actually can't. i'm just wondering if you let these two giants come together, do they shut oust us?

do they shut out, make sure, i'm thinking worse, because i also worked in local news because i'm really cynical, blackouts suddenly of our work or turn down promo purchases things like that? >> so just the opposite. one of the problems that, david has focused on the bigness issue here. one of the problems that companies like time warner have in getting content they're not big enough to negotiate with the content giants like cbs for example. so everyone was aware there was blackout recently involving time warner and cbs that was function of the fact that time warner didn't have bargaining leverage to do business with cbs and get content that it needed. comcast doesn't have those problems, right? this is not a battle between giant corporation comcast and little consumers this is battle between giant corporations. we want them all to be on fair playing field. david: this is battle will continue for a while. you two, i hope you come back to talk to us again because you're perfectly suited to debate each other on this issue.

it is $44 billion deal if the regulators let it happen. we will talk more about it. could you come back and see us. >> love to. >> sure. thanks a lot. liz: good discussion. david: excellent, excellent debate. heavy snow, sleet, icy rain are blanketing the east coast so where is it all headed next and when will we see some kind of relief? with have your up to the minute forecast next. liz: terrible weather leaving hundred ever thousands of people without power around heat. when the lights go out one company's profits light up. ceo of generac, the generator company, joining us. are its phones ringing off the hook? how much would it cost to have your own backup power installed? we'll ask him. david: back to the time warner cable deal. will the deal be good or bad pour consumers if allowed to be pulled off? tweet us at ftnatb -- fbnatb.

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we're half a percent higher on close. looks like a strong train continuing after that qe reversal last week where we made new lows but not new highs on volatility on vix. ever since that day we've been turning straight up. david: booed week. thank you very much. alan, good to see you. >> thank you. >> we're talking about kraft foods. kraft foods reporting earnings just moments ago. david: nicole petallides on floor of the new york stock exchange with the very latest. >> liz and dave, let's take a look at numbers first. i will tell you what ceo tony vernon had to say about kraft. these are adjusted earnings per share of 43 cents. big miss for estimates of 61 cents. revenue came in, a slight miss there, 4.6 billion. versus estimates of 4.63 billion. ceo tony vernon saying we made significant strides as new publicly-traded company over last year. you know kraft was reinvent the, right as a food and beverage company. we continue to make significant strides. we continue to drive profitable

growth, reinvest in our brands. they do everything from things you buy at supermarkets to prepared meals and the like. everything from cool whip to a-1 steak sauce and pickles. they continue to try and grow the operations. have lower spending is something else they noted noted in the rhc coming out after the bell. but you do see right now the closing value of 53.60. but the bid-ask, not bad. looks 53.60, to 54.39. looks like people are taking it in stride. liz: not a bad day for kraft. tough to move a company like that. >> can't get around that brand. liz: macaroni and cheese, orange. another huge winter storm hitting atlantic states and northeast causing thousands of flights being canceled around the country. david: rick reichmuth from the weather center with the very

latest. rick, what is going on. >> that backup will take a long time to clear things out. we'll be windy out of the northeast. we could see more delays because of that as well. wind gusting in the southeast mid 20s to upper 20s. take a look at live shot outside of ant at that -- atlanta. it looks like it is warming up. it will take a while for the ice to completely melt. with winds we'll potentially see additional tree damage and potentially more power outages across that area for the night. go back to the maps. we'll continue to watch snow in philadelphia. take a look at this. because of this snow right here, philadelphia, you're at 53 inches of snow. that makes it your fifth snowiest winter you ever had. look at number four and number three. by saturday we'll be into the third snowiest season we've ever seen. new york, we have 10 inches to go. we still have a lost winter to

go. unfortunately we're only early to mid-february. we have a ways to go. this is the storm still bringing snow across parts of virginia right now. that is center of at least upper level disturbance. that has to get completely out of here before we're done with the storm. we've seen warm air pulling across the coast. all that very heavy snow we saw this morning, we saw rain on top of that. it melted some of it. a lot is just slushy. clouds in new york, light rain in philly and light rain in d.c. that will change again. we'll see colder air come back in. we'll see snow fly from d.c. to philadelphia again and up towards new york city. by the same this is done which is going to be tomorrow morning, we have additional snow that will fall. two to four inches from philadelphia to new york city. so we'll have more snow on top of this, even though we've seen this melting so far today. got to tell you real quickly, guys. we have another storm to deal with saturday. not as big of a storm as this but coming oute central part of the country. not as much moisture associated with it. by saturday morning, take a look

at white on map. snow in places like philly, new york city, up towards hartford, connecticut. maybe another two to three inches snow falling from this. that is bonn. another problem saturday. cold day for everybody sunday. another storm on tuesday. it will be warmer. rain along the coast but moremore snow across interior sections of new england. this active pattern, dave and liz, we're still in it. liz: rick, do i escape it if i two to quebec? >> no. david: parts of alaska were warmer than most of the northeast so who knows. >> alaska had a temperature in january of 62 degrees. it was the highest ever temperature in the month of january. david: go to the winter olympics if you want warm weather. thanks a lot, rick. >> you bet. liz: when you hear about extreme weather people worry about the potential threat to their power supply. we talk to the ceo of generator manufacturer generac about impact of all the winter storms on their business.

david: make your own energy, sounds good. you mike think orbitz is about air travel think again. that is not biggest driver of the growth. did you see the stock today, up how does that make the ceo feel? we'll ask him here coming up live. ♪ so ally bank has a raise your rate cd thaton'that's correct.rate. cause i'really nervous about getting trapped. why's that? uh, mark? go get help! look, you don't i have to feel trapped with our raise your rate cd. if our rate on this cd goes up, yours can too. oh that sounds nice. don't feelrapped with the ally raise your rate cd. ally bank. your money needs an ally. life's an aenture and it always has been. but your erectile dysfunction -

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liz: more than half a million people in the southwest were without electricity earlier today but it doesn't always take bad weather to turn out the lights. it is estimated, listen to this stat, that 250,000 americans lose electricity every day!, for whatever reason. when the power dims there is one company whose profits shine.

generac is leading manufacturer of generators. here comes the big question. what kind of demand is this company seeing right now? are the company's phones ringing off the hook? joining us generac's ceo. aaron, let's get right to it. you have very strong numbers for q4 earnings per share and your revenues. that is right out of the way. congratulations. tell me what your phones have been doing since this phone hit. >> thank you. i mean we've actually been pretty busy throughout the month of january and obviously with this latest storm. last week it was pennsylvania with an ice storm. this week it is atlanta and southeast and moving up the coast. so things have been very business civil we've been positioning product in parts of the u.s. where it is needed and providing support for customers and deal years walk us through this. when you say it is needed right now, people wait until they are hit and have no electricity, i need a generator. how long does the process take for a three bedroom, two bath home to look up one of the generators. >> you can run out and pinch,

diy, major stores and buy a portable generator right, ones you pour gasoline is. couple a cowell of appliances refrigerators, lights, things essential to the home. longer term solution is mem are turning to permanently backup system, homestand bigenerator. run off natural gas or propane. fully automatic. it is a bit of a process in terms like a home improvement @roject. you have to get permit and contractors involved. if you work with one of our dealers turn-key solution. can take upwards a couple weeks. depending longer how busy things are. you don't have to worry about it next time power goes out. liz: you have a residentialal business. business opportunity as well for big corporations. how much does it cost, for say again, going to three-bedroom, two-bath home. >> get into a product like that for 3 to $5,000, fully installed. get into business, that is

depending on size of the business. smaller businesses, 20 to $25,000. larger businesses, very complex systems can being frankly hundred of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars. >> i thought i was so clever. i got a generator after hurricane irene. it was gasoline powered one. sandy hit and we ran out of gasoline. >> no fuel. liz: very much intend to go for straight natural gas one. what are you recommending, shortage of propane i believe in some areas right now? >> there are, yes. propane turned out to be up with of those fuels, it has been a a long time since we had any kind of disturbance in propane supply. certainly if you have natural gas available in your home, really pretty fuel-proof fuel for a generator. the generator can run for, a long time on natural gas. and it really is the way to go. you don't have to worry about refueling as you said or problems with gas stations not having power as well. waiting in long lines. really not something you want to mess around with when your power is out.

liz: we gave a stat at top, i know you heard it, 250,000 people are without power for any given throughout the day in the united states. the grid is unreliable on certain occasions. and aging and not secure. what concerns you the most? what keeps a guy like you up at night? you get to benefit when power is out and clearly an issue you are think about and knowledgeable on. share that with us. >> just as american, one of the things, we travel all around the world, people are amazed what kind of a grid we have. a rich nation like the u.s. having more of a third world country type of grid. it is everything from as you mentioned, the grid aging. average age of grid components is 40 years old. lack of investment in the grid to bring it up to standards needed. you point out a really important point, liz which is, probably even more so top of mind people today, which is security threat that, i don't know if you read recently there was a, report on a power station that was under attack effectively last april in

california. liz: gunfire, crazy. >> a major high voltage substation feeding silicon valley. this is, hopefully it wayne a dry run for something on a broader scale but at end of the day i think all of these things, whether you're talking about mother nature or you know investment, or vandalism and these other security threats, having a backup plan as a homeowner, business owner, there is just no two-ways about it. you have to have some kind of a backup plan. liz: definitely going for natural gas soon. i like having gasoline one. it's a good stopgap measure. >> it is. liz: aaron, your stock has done well, up 43% year-over-year. it is jumping double-digit percentages today. good to hear your story. love to see how you do your business at some point. >> love to have you, liz. you're welcome anytime. liz: generac. you're in an apartment, david. you doesn't have to worry about that. david: i pay a maintenance fee.

shares of orbitz rocking 28% after earnings. the current quarter? we'll ask the ceo straight ahead. music arenas, nightclubs, cigars. jay-z is partnering with coiba to launch a high-end line of cigars looking to take advantage of that growing business. we'll talk to the president of general cigar in a fox business exclusive that you don't want to miss. ♪ welcome back. how is everything?

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if we want to be ready for aonger retirement. ♪ liz: orbitz soaring more than, did you see this? 28% today as investors liked the online travel site's big boost in fourth quarter revenue. where did it come from? hotel revenue and vacation group and vacation bookings. david: but the big winter storms on the east coast which caused more than 6,000 cancellations a threat to its business this quarter? or could it see influx of folks looking to go south, warmer climates? johning us orbitz worldwide ceo. barney, great to see you again. i appreciate it. i have to start with congratulations. up 30% jump. when you see that, even though i know ceos say, we don't pay

attention to daily die graduations, when you see a 30% explosion in your stock value, do you celebrate or do you get nervous about the next quarter? >> we keep focus on execution. we delivered strong 2013 with revenue up 9%. ebitda up 12% and acceleration of 15 percentage points in -- david: not going to let you get away with that, barney. when you go home and shut the door will you open a bottle of champagne honestly? >> it has been a good day for sure. we'll be celebrating. liz: let's pull apart these numbers and find out what really drove it t wasn't necessarily flights. it was truly an opportunity you capitalized on that came from what, hotel rooms and group package deals when it comes to vacations? >> right. last couple of years we've been laser-focused on hotel distribution opportunity because it's a huge opportunity still

very fragmented. we think as world moves towards mobile we can play important role getting consumers revenue deal. hotel revenue growth 18%, presenting real expansion in that part of the business for us. david: weather clearly hurts in the short term but there is so much pent up energy, folks who have cabin fever in the northeast looking to get out of this weather, are the short-term problems with flight cancellations worth it in terms of creating that pent up energy that will accrue to your benefit eventually? >> we're global business. so in general, kind of weather evens itself out various different points of sail but it is clearly challenging for everyone who is involved in the travel industry right now and these huge weather systems hit big parts of the u.s. because it really does, we have all the cancellations we've been having, means we have to work hard to deal with all of our customers. it is certainly challenging. >> the competitive landscape may

be as frigid as what the weather is outside. i'm thinking about all the names out there, whether bookings.com, which is part of -- listen, there are so many options out there. how do you convince people to go to orbitz? >> well, we launch ad ground-breaking new rewards program, orbitz. we launched it in october. it has been extremely successful. we think it is best loyalty program. when you book hotels and airlines on orbitz and learn 2% on ticket and up to 5% on when you book a hotel. you can redeem that versus future bookings. this is meaningful differentiation than other programs out there. we created a focus making our sites a most rewarding to place to plan travel and if you book with the apps you get higher earning tier an working really nicely. david: bbrney, you have been so good, these packages list talked

about moments ago creating the best value for consumer. have you just squeezed every bit of wiggle room out of that or i? can you actually bring down the price even further on these packages? >> there are some great deals to be had, and you're act absolute i right when you buy an airline ticket and hotel room as a package we can save you a lot of money and we're able to show you rates you wouldn't otherwise been able to achieve and we continue to negotiate with suppliers to make that happen. when you go to the rewards program you can save money on hotel there are multiple ways to have value booking on orbitz these days. liz: stock shining performer. certainly good toosee you, barney. >> thank you so much. liz: orbitz worldwide ceo. david: he has done a heck of a job with that company. by the way, rapper jay-z, one of my favorites, he has come out with a new design. let's see if we get a picture of this.

of course he has record labels and sports agencies. look at this. this is cigar box inside of which have the special super premium cigars. if you are at all interested in cigars, if you're a cigar lover, or your husband is, whatever, you want to stay tuned for this segment. an incredible cigar opportunity coming up. maybe a smaller audience than it used to be but boy are they willing to spend big bucks, liz. liz: another big snowstorm tears its way up the east coast, some communities are finding salt supplies wearing thin. coming up we'll find out how one major salt producer is dealing with the overwhelming demand and they're used to this stuff. it is affecting even them. ♪

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or trouble breathing. tell your doctor your medic history. and ask your doctor about celebrex. for a body in motion. david: the cigar industry is in a little bind these days with more taxes, more regulation squeezing profit margin within line. premium cigars are rejuvenating the industry. general cigar is recruiting jay-z to develop what it is calling a super cigar. we is dan carr, general sig disbar president. full disclosure i do smoke

cigars. i love them. obviously i wanted to do this segment. i'm excited about it. i've been to cuba. i used to cover latin america. i smoked coibas, those in cuba have unique flavor. is that flavor you and jay-z are going for or something totally different. >> really something totally different. this is something that i, i met jay-z about three years ago and we started discussing dirt things and, clearly it is well-known and documented he loves obviously luxury and he is also has a strong passion for premium cigars and hand-made cigars and with that we talked about what could we do? and what evolved was within our company we have the largest inventory of find tobaccos. we have proprietary tobaccos. we have exotic tobaccos and we have a lot of fine tobaccos.

he wanted to create his vision of the most ultimate cigar. david: based on what? based on flavors he likes? how do you work -- you have a whole bunch of tobacco leave growers that worked with him and to figure out what he likes and what parts of the leaf he would use. >> this went over two years. i can tell you what is fascinate about jay-z is that he understands our world. he understands fine cigars. and he understands modern luxury. what we were able to do and we took our time. it was all about the cigar with him. we spent over two years to create this blend. and, what he was looking for was something he never had before. something obviously that he loved and something that people would enjoy. david: you end up with this. here's the cigar. it is called commodore. >> commodore. david: commodore. how much does it retail for? >> we launch adweek before christmas. it is come prodoorcigar.com w

very three things. we have humi door. david: maybe you can bring the camera here. it's a big human my door. >> that sean carter logo designed by ay-z personally. it comes with 21 cigars. it is all spanish cedar. it has a travel humidore which goes with his life-style. this is $1,000. $999. david: for the whole case? >> whole case, everything. we have a travel humidor for $350. that comes with 7 cigars. we have seven cigars in a beautiful gift box for $210. david: can i buy these cigars individually. >> absolutely. we would appreciate that. there are $30 a piece. david: 30 bucks. for those who don't know that is sort of the target that i think

a lot of cigar, premium cigar companies are looking for. people who are willing, you don't smoke one every night. maybe once, a couple times a week at most? >> again depends on the cigar smoker but typically it is on occasion. david: how has that market been growing past couple years? >> we had a lot of different things. we've had taxes go up. we see a lot of legislation and regulation coming into our business but what we've also seen that cigar smokers are very passionate and they're very loyal and they find ways to enjoy a nice cigar with friends. david: yeah. >> and, especially what we're seeing is a really big resurgence for luxury, super premium cigars. david: and there is also resurgence in places to go to smoke. there is a place here called macnudo which i must admit i just joined a couple weeks ago. you see more of these places where cigars, that are kind of insulated from a lost regulation that is most restaurants have to

adhere to vis-a-vis cigar smoke. >> we appreciate it. club macinudo is part of our company, general cigar. we wanted to create a place to enjoy a cigar. we find with regulation, those occasions are somewhat taken away and rights. we see consumers find way to enjoy. david: it is commodore. it's a $30 cigar. if you like premium cigars i can't wait to try this. i will let you know what i think. >> valentine's tomorrow. david: my wife is latin american she does enjoy the smell she indulges me. liz, what you got? liz: i'm looking out window as they try to rye move snow from sixth avenue. state and local governments scramble to remove snow panned dump assault on the road as the storm slams the east coast but are supplies running out? we have founder and co-ceo of

the largest producing salt mine in the nation. plus two crazy climbers take it upon themselves to get bird's-eye view from top of second tallest building in the world. it was captured on camera. we'll show you video that may make youyour heart skip a few beats. that's next. stay tuned. ♪ [ mannouncer ] if you suffer from a dry mouth then u'll know how uncomfortable it can be. [ crickets chirping ] but did you know that the lack of saliva can also lead to tooth decay and bad breath? [ exhales deeply ] [ male announcer ] well there is biotene. specially formulated with moisturizers and lubricants, biotene can provide soothing relief and it helps keep your mouth healthy, too. [ applause ] biotene -- for people who sfer from dryth.

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david: snow and ice storms blanketed the country all winter. so you would think that this would be a good thing for road salt companies? but it has increased demand overstretched their capacity? liz: let's find out now, joining us american rock salt founder co-ceo and chairman gunther berman. whose staff has been working 24/7 to meet skyrocketing demand. gunther, i heard you have not taken off a day except super bowl in the last couple months. it has to be nuts over there. >> absolutely. why are you in new york? you should call a snow day today. i think -- liz: we have to be there to inform everybody how your company is working so hard but why is there a shortage?

surely we've seen this many storms in the past in a single winter? >> well, sort of unprecedented. i think i saw some statistics that the snow events this year in storm are 80 range. last year it was in the 40. of the last year it wasn't very strong winter. clearly the rapidity which the snow events occurred this year that it has put strain on industry but not only in terms supply but also logistics have been very, very difficult. as you probably know the great lakes have frozen. salt comes in by boat, by rail and by truck. and as as you have those snow events all those manner of transportation are challenged. david: gunther was freaking us. he is down in fort lauderdale,

florida. he is doing one of those smart things, the snowbirds. sat mines, i was surprised new york had salt mines. i'm wondering if excess demand on supply that you have could lead to depletion of those supplies in is there enough for hundreds of years? >> well, we have a 10,000-acres of mineral rights and there actually is another mine in new york state which is under cayhuga lake. we go down about 1400 feet, 30 miles south of rochester and clearly have enough mineral rights and future reserves to continue to supply salt. as we work at a level we've been working we can produce in excess of 6 million tons a year. it isn't the quantity. we work all summer and hope when the crop comes in we can tell it -- sell it. the last couple years it has been a real challenge.

this year obviously there is more demand for our carrots and vegetables in our case, deicing salt than there has been in the past. as i say magnitude of storms and rapidity they hit really challenged the industry on the logistics side almost as much as on the mining side. liz: wish you were public. your stock would be jumping probably. david: that's right. maybe this will make you go public. can make a lot of money doing that. gun they are, we have to leave it at that. congratulations missing all the lovely weather being in florida where you are. >> i'm like everyone else. no way to get out of here. everything is tied up in the east. david: fort lauderdale, florida. we have to leave it at that. american rock salt founder co-ceo and chairman. gunther, thank you very much. enjoy the weather. liz: we were asking about the comcast, time warner deal whether it will be good or bad for consumers? dawn wrote on twitter, comcast

is way too big and refuses to listen to customers. they will only be more pig headed if allowed to acquire time warner cable. david: scott on facebook told us, elimination of competition is never good. our only hope that enough people switch to online content forcing providers to change their pricing structure. liz: there are about three of us on my floor alone, adam shapiro, myself, i believe liz macdonald, we all switched to fios. i switched because i couldn't get jeremy lynn basketball games on the knicks because there was a big problem. you look at some of these situations, well, who will win out here? i think verizon comes out. david: question of content providers. fox is a content providetory comcast and to time warner. it will continue to be so. maybe they will have the ability to squeeze out some of those content providers who are charging more than they would like to pay. now they may have a better bargaining position. liz: either way time warner stock did respond very postively. up more than 7% through much of the session.

comcast pulling back slightly. we'll see. david: we have a lot more to come. "the willis report" is coming next. we'll sigh you tomorrow. >> bye now. have a good night. [ male announr ] how can power consumption in china, impact wool exports from new zealand, textile poduction in spain, and the use of medical technology in the u.s.? at t. rowe price, we understand t connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason over 75% of our mutual funds beat thei10-year lipper avere. t. rowe price. inest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectu with investment informion, risks, fees and expenses to read andonsidecarefully beforinvesting.

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with new jobs, new opportunities and a new tax free plan. there's only one way for your business to go. up. find out if your business can qualify at start-upny.com gerri: hello, everybody, i'm gerri willis. right now on the "willis report", two of the biggest companies in america want to become one. comcast buying time warner cable, is this a good or bad deal tore consumers? >> we're heading out to the sunshine state. the latest on rollout of florida's alternative to obamacare. >> the president told us we could keep our doctors. that is not happening. our users guide to love and money. how to come out of financial difficulty stronger than ever. we're watching out for you tonight on the "willis report