let's check in with jim hughes and find out more about where the company is heading. mr. welcome back to "mad money." i gave a prolonged background because people don't understand the first solar is not what it was a couple of years because you've changed the way the the company works. >> we've tried to transition the business in the last two years. there were a lot of changes in the solar industry. we went to a fully vertically integrated business model focused to provide the complete solution to the customer and that's allowed us to appeal to a larger number of customers and we vereinvested in our technolo and our technology has gotten better in the last few years. >> let's talk about that, and you talked about how your technology is cheaper than silicon, but it seems like that you guys have caught up and maybe are about to pass in terms of the power per sell that you generate. >> the conversion efficiency said the ultimate entitlement of our material is much higher than silicon and we're now beginning to prove that not only in the laboratory, but we're taking those res

. >> jim hughes top leads california's laguna hotshots, an elite group of firefighters on the front linesme of the most ferocious fires in the country. >> how have fires changed since you started fighting them? >> when i started in '89 till now, it seems that the fire seasons have gone much longer. when i first started it was in a six month period, basically june to november. >> but that has changed dramatically he says. >> we joke about it being a year-round fire season. >> it isn't just putting communities at risk but posing dangers to men and women on the front lines. >> can you take much more in terms of the demands this job is now requiring? >> the one thing that's going to get us is if we're sofa teagued -- our head has to be in the game. >> no matter how sharp his crew might be wildfires are unpredictable and sometimes explosive. last year his teamworked alongside the granite mountain hotshots. >> i got the phone call and i didn't sleep for two nights. >> what happened exactly? >> we just lost a hotshot crew. the hotshots were burned over and killed. >> 19 hotshots from the same cr

heather hughes, jim lowell, greg epp, david trainer and rick santelli standing by in chicago. david, what to make of apple's earnings and the -- i mean $90 billion is their share buyback. that's $90 billion is bigger than 90% of the s&p 500 companies out there. they are buying back a whole company. what do you make of all that? >> that's the most innovation we've seen from apple in a long time. >> zing! >> at least we got something to smile about, right? can't get it from products, i guess you might as well get it from financial engineering. end of the day, unfortunately, is not going to add any real value for shareholders. >> so you're not impressed. >> i'm not impressed at all. ipad sales are declining even though tablet market sales are going up. they're losing share in that space. iphone franchise is strong but it is not going to be strong forever. and the same thing i've said for a long time with the current valuation does not mean the stock is cheap. this is not a value stock. >> that's the question, do we need a new product or new technology from apple, can we just pene

today with is at the big board, kimberly fontz, karen hughes, jim lowell, gerard fitzpatrick and our own rick santelli standing by in chicago. jim lowell, what matters more to the markets today do you imagine -- fundamentals like earnings or fed policy? what do you think? >> both. no question about it. janet yellin's speech says the fed remains in the market and economy's corner. hasn't paid to fight the fed for several years and it won't for several years going forward. in terms of earnings, while ibm and google disappointed last night, american express, the best bellwether indicator of small business lending and also consumer lending and spending, we've seen growth. this has enabled this market to gain more ground than it's lost over any meaningful time period. >> can it keep going when a lot of people are wondering whether the interest rate market is telling us that the economy can't keep up? >> i think slow and steady wins the race. yesterday with janet yellin reiterating that hey, they are going to keep interest rates low and they're going to tie it to the jobless market -- or u

hughes got 12 of the next 13 athletics. a's starter jesse shabazz crafting seven innings one earned run a career-high nine strikeouts. but a's closer jimnson couldn't close with a two-run lead in the ninth. escobar into left. run closes it to 4-3. brian dozier fly to right. play at the plate josh reddick can he throw out kurt suzuki? tied at 4. in the 11th, derek norris put it out of play. a huge three-run blast into the bleachers. his second homer in as many days. the a's win final 7-4. >>> in golf a lot of masters talk about the one golfer not playing tiger woods. his absence due to back surgery is apparently hurting the box office. secondary ticket market services claim prices have dropped 25%. >> wow. >> since he withdrew. ♪[ music ] >> the scenery at augusta national priceless. ♪[ music ] >> but the vegas money is on defending champion adam scott and rory mcelroy both 9:1 odds to win. mcelroy thinks everyone has a shot at least for most of the golfers. >> just looking down the list here. tim clark, john hurt. no, i don't mean that like -- [ laughter ] >> now that i'm talking like the people that are playing regularly on the pga to