of course the sequester wasn't going to happen until after the close anyway. >> ben willis just saidthe trade was profitable, whatever it was that you were doing, but you are expecting a pullback? >> i am expecting a pullback, and i think we saw a little bit of a hint of it late yesterday when the market gave way after being up all day. again, nobody needs to panic about it. it's a healthy reaction for a healthy market to have the pullback. we're up 7.5% since the beginning of january. that is a great year, no less a month so i would look somewhere around 2.5%. i would prefer to get to a 5% correction before we once again talk about the dow going to new highs. >> maria? >> what about that end of the day imbalance, ben? what are you seeing as we approach the close here? >> right now it's -- it's not a factor, so i'm actually concerned, but i -- i don't have a good feeling about how the market goes out right now, but being as alan said earlier, it's a -- it's the first day of the trading month. you usually see inflows so i would suspect it would stay slightly to the buy side. >> what d

i got to tell you, i don't know i have to ask ben willis and some of our traders if we broke a recordevery single friday since the start of the year we moved to the upside. they were wonder will it happen again? watch out for monday. every single monday has been down. you see green on the screen. one thing that wasn't green, oil. oil is moving lower. there was activity on the floor, people watching closely to see if we would hit it. they said 40 minutes ago, today is not the day. david: some stocks did extremely well and hit highs. yahoo! hit the highest level it has been intraday since 2008. so, yahoo!, doing very well. that is, it is a huge push for that. let's talk about warren buffett though. nobody in the world has been a better stock-picker than mr. warren buffett. he will come out with his letter to the shareholders, always very folksy. liz, are we expecting in the letter? liz: we're looking for predictions. predictions on the housing market. when he makes predictions from others. he doesn't say he thinks he will see. he says here is what i see that makes me believe it will con

>> reporter: trader ben willis says the reason for the record- setting rally is simple. >> the world economy is, in fact, getting better. it's not getting better as fast as they would like it to be but it's getting better nonetheless. >> reporter: there were more encouraging signs today. home prices jumped nearly 10% in january from a year ago. the biggest increase since april, 2006. even the usually cautious fed chairman has been sounding more optimistic. >> available information suggests economic growth has picked up again this year. >> reporter: in its bull-market run, the dow has more than doubled since its low point back in march, 2009. during that time, american express, one of the 30 stocks in the dow index, is up more than 600%. but if companies have more cash, they're still slow to hire. steven woods of russell investments say there's still awaiting a clear signal the economy is out of the woods. >> right now we're growing at about 2%. that's not really strong enough to bring down unemployment at a very fast level. kind of keeps our nose above water. but if we do get 2.5-3%,

liz: when i walked in, one of the first people you pass is ben willis. professionals, reading the traders, would like to see a little bit of a pullback before we march higher. >> i was not seeing panic selling and i am not saying panic buying on the way up. i do think we need a nice pause here. we will need to regroup a little bit at these levels. liz: march 9 of 2009. we are just a couple days away from that anniversary. since that low, we are up 118% for the dow jones industrial. when the fear is the strongest, that is when you really should have bought. >> absolutely. once you see that trend, you really have to get on board. their anticipation of when they will get into this market has clearly passed. once we see this next leg in the market, probably down for a little bit and then off on their way again. we will see some more money comeback in on the pullback. i think we have all learned a lesson. >> the last time i was at fox studios, the dow had an all-time high. liz: that is definitely in the rearview once again. great to see you, jonathan. busy gu

one to quickly run up to ben willis of the moment. can i interrupt you? what is happening? of the believe that we will not hit that big 14,000 -- >> my ex-wife tonya have to tell the kids about santa claus. liz: tell the kids that there is the senate was. sometime this year it will happen. what did you notice? we have been on the phone. what do you -- >> well, i think will we continue to see is inflows because it is the first day of the month. traditionally an update. seeing positive and plugs from that side of the equation. continuing to flow into -- we have seen the rotation into utilities, telecom, consumer staples. liz: the dividend. >> but is also the safest place where investors want to dip their talent coming of other asset classes and the safety of the u.s. bond market, if you will. liz: you get to disagree with him. he thinks it's going to be fine. what do you think happens? >> every monday since we opened in january, we have had a down day. liz: every single monday and then they come every single friday an update. >> that maintains today. that of we all love to th

and ben willis is standing by on the floor of the new york stock exchange.ant to talk about the action on the dow, in particular kind of this retrenchment we've seen on the upside. do you think this morning on the cypress news, ben, was a reason to take some profits off the table, or is there something else at work? >> i think what we saw this morning was an overseas reaction to what happened in cypress. interestingly enough, however, what i believe we witnessed was the flight to safety of u.s. equities. we did not come anywhere near close to the downturn that we saw throughout the rest of the world that was created by the situation in cypress. that allowed the buy on the dip mentality to take hold somewhere after about 12:30 when europe closed. it gave us an indication there was still some safety in that trade, and we saw the dow actually touch into positive territory for a brief period of time. i still think it's necessary to have a correction, but the fact of the matter kind of an odd way of looking at it, the fact that cypress happened was actually a ben

somebody like ben willis looking to asia, looking to china.o i talked to mark newton and a couple of guys at gray wolf looking at momentum. they still think the momentum remains to the upside so that'lt will be something we continue to follow. david: we can animate that and show you, but it was yesterday the futures closed at a pretty interesting level that indicated to a lot of traders things are going to kick off pretty hot and they were correct. back to you, david. david: we are talking about lou dobbs, broad-based rally with the dow hitting a new all-time high. the nasdaq at the highest levels, at five and a half year high, but is the economy strong enough to keep the economy going? fox business host lou dobbs is here. kind of a whimpering economy. one of those two going to meet? >> i am not sure they will anytime soon. a bull market everybody talking about long in the tooth because we're talking about an economy in the fourth quarter contracting and now an update to one-tenth of a percent increase in the economy. there is not much relatio

let's get right to the floor show, we begin with ben willis, most interesting trade you've seen today>> most interesting trade, to me, is a continue wigs of the more sophisticated managers looking to what we call relative rotation. it appears their money is flowing into the financials as you pointed out on the etf chart you just had up. but they appear to be raising some money or using the sale of some technology stocks in order to facilitate the trade to buy the financials. those are traditionally higher beta trades, as we call them, a little bit more volatility as opposed to the general average investor that continues to be putting money into, it appears to us, the health care regions, the consumer financials, the consumer discretionary stocks as well. so there's not much of a trade. the volume's relatively light, but that's the relative rotation we're watching right now. liz: bingo, that's the word i wanted, rotation. technology into financials. gary over at the cme, what interesting moves have you seen across the tape today? >> what surprised me the most today is the euro dollar -

ben willis, you're not going long this weekend. >> no. >> you want to rein in your horns? >> if i want to buy something, i'll buy protection and in the puts and vix but i won't go long. >> are you going to be buying what he's selling, matt cheslock? >> if you want me to. no way i'm throwing in the towel now. the market has gone away from me. i'm going on the same premise as ben. volatility has been awesome as far as trading goes. a 170-point reversal. >> dow down 116 on the open and then -- >> even more than that. wonderful trading down here but maybe a sign of a little bit of a top. >> you feel we are getting a distribution top here. not accumulating. >> no way i'm going home long. the sky isn't falling from sequestration so that's a good thing, too. we're focused on hoops right now. got a little playoff game. >> good to see you guys. have a good weekend. >> pleasure. >> 15 seconds left. the dow up 25 points, a volatile week comes to the end. what will the month of march bring? we'll resume that again on monday. have a good weekend. if i don't see you later, maria continu

and we continue this rally here, ben willis, into the souecond quarter? what do you think?ntin indication of the continuation of this rally. but we have the first day of the month, which traditionally is again positive inflows from individual investors, which has been a tide in this market that the professional investor couldn't stand against. every time we talk, we look for a pullback. we don't get any more than 100 points before the money comes in to buy the dip. we would like to see more than that, but this has, an incredible run. >> how much of a monkey off your back is it to see the s&p closing at an all-time high? it's like, that milestone is behind us. that's what i'm hearing from all you guys down here. you just want to see that done. >> from a professional side, we want to see it done, but it's great for the psychological and the individual investor who fled this market four years ago. money is starting to come in. they're not necessarily coming out of bond funds, but the money is coming in. it's a low velocity tide, but this market just keeps creeping up, however

ben willis, are you troubled by devevelopments in cyprus or are you reassured that we're only down 66s today? >> i think we go further. i think the whole world should be very concerned that somebody believes in a one off in cyprus. con c confisca confisca confiscateion of private property. >> thank you very much. see you later. dow down about 60 points on the close. stand by. meredith whitney and john thain coming up on the second hour of "the closing bell." i'll see you tomorrow. >>> and it is 4:00 on wall street. do you know where your money is? hi, everybody. welcome back to "the closing bell." i'm maria bartiromo on the floor of new york stock exchange. stocks closed lower after a flare up in the eurozone debt crisis. take a look at how we're settling today on this monday afternoon on wall street. dow jones industrial average down 60 points. almost one-half of 1% lower. 14453 after a busy close on friday. nasdaq composite under selling pressure, down 11.5 points. it may be red across the board for major averages. hank smith points out if the cyprus bailout had happened last year,

oil and gold with down arrows but ultimately what a run we have had on wall street and you heard ben willisthe sentiment is as we were wrapping up the first quarter, we will go out throughout the year and most of the guys and we will be setting records throughout the end of the year and we will finish higher. back to you. tracy: thank you, nicole. we will see you at the top of the hour. ashley: he has the midas touch, now a venture capitalist tim draper taking an education in a big way and he joins us next. tracy: as we are still watching st. peter's square, look at the winners and losers as we head out to break. tracy: we have some breaking news. about a minute after 2:00 on the east coast we saw white smoke coming out of the sistine chapel. 115 cardinals chose the next pope. it could be any minute to see the next pope, not the balcony, his name will be announced in latin first. people from all of th over the d have been outside waiting. 46 degrees, pouriig, waiting to hear who the new leader of the catholic church will be, 1.2 billion catholics waiting at this moment. we celebrated st. jo

thank you. >> ben willis. for more on the historic day, let's bring in barry.e you. >> good morning. >> you know, in your latest note, you say that the fed policy, your upside is limited. do you still think that's where we are right now with the dow at fresh interday records? >> yes, we do. i suspect that first of all, we had a fairly optimistic outlook for the year thinking we could get 10% total returns. but as your last guest stated, we've already done 7.5% this year. add in the dividend yield, pretty much achieved what we thought was reasonable. part of the reason we didn't think you could have a big upside year, first, you've never had that when the fed is in an easing mode. '95 is when the equity market returned, after the fed tightened, not before. we do have this issue where the chorus of conscientious objectors like jeremy stein and a bunch of the regional presidents will grow much louder if that reach for yield gets too much more excessive. it's important to keep in mind what's driving the equity market here. in january, it was about growth. and expec

nicole is with ben willis, hi, you guys. >> hi, tracy. about what's going on in cypress. they obviously rejected taxing the depositors, but the big picture, it was a lose-lose either way, ultimately, and not only for cypress, but the whole sewer zone, still a wild card now. >> absolutely. i want to hear them stop calling it a tax. they were taking private citizens' funds, citizens of another country, took it whether you like it or not, nothing for it. that said, that was wrong. we knew that. the mart is in a corrective phase. i think that comets. actually, what happened to the u.s. equities, we see a bounce because of the trouble in europe because we're the safe haven because of cypress and people taking, we'll take what's ours, that doesn't happen here. we have positive inflows on negative news. >> that's interesting. maybe they are too nervous to go over there. >> absolutely. >> we see that with the u.s. dollar too; right? >> absolutely. that's the first asset that moving on that, and so this becomes the de facto investing platform for

assuming that you're going to tell me it's not some intervention a la armegeddon that involves bruce willis and benlve bruce willis and ben affleck, but it's not that different. even though this would cause a significant amount of devastation, this is not large enough to be planet threatening. the ones that are large enough to be planet threatening is ten kilometers across or something. those we could see a few years in advance probably. and then there are various ways, including sending a rockets ship up and maybe landing on it and running your rocket engines. a little bit, if you're far enough from the earth, you have to divert it a little bit for it to miss the earth. it's not science fiction. it's important that we have a monitoring system that can look at all objects. this one is not that close, not near as close as the asteroid a few weeks ago. it's farther away than the moon. in it's fascinating stuff. a little scary. lawrence, i will tell you, you make me feel a little more secure. that was theoretical physicist lawrence krause. thanks to him. >>> overall, beer consumption, uh-huh, it is do

and i'm assuming you're going to tell me it's not some sort of intervention that involves bruce willis and ben. >> it's not that different. the point is -- it's true, we didn't see this one until sunday. this one, even though it would cause a significant amount of devastation is not large enough to be planet threatening. the ones large enough to be planet threatening 10 kilometers across or something like that, those we could see a few years in advance, probably. and there are various ways, including just sending a rocket ship landing on it and running your rocket engine just a little bit. you just have to divert it a little bit before it misses the earth. it's not quite science fiction. and it's important we do that. important we have a monitoring system that can look at all near earth objects. this one is not anywhere near as close as the asteroid a few weeks ago. it's farther away than the moon. >> it's fascinating stuff, a little scary. lawrence krause, i will tell you you make me feel a little more secure. please stick around, we'll be keeping an eye on the asteroid as it's expected to fl

about ice cream that was less than satisfactory that got ben and jerry's customers some vip treatment. >> reporter: it's like a real-life willy wonka and chocolate factory. the surprise of the lifetime >> i was beside myself when i got the invitation. i was like, wow, i got the ticket. >> reporter: all after the ice cream enthusiast e-mailed the company complaining about one of its signature flavor, half-baked. >> the brownie bites were hard, powery. it wasn't the half-baked that i was used to. >> reporter: the invitation from ben and jerry's that real-life golden ticket said it wanted to show winter and other dissatisfied customers, quote, how we use our valuable consumer to make improvements. another customer wasn't happy about overroasted miss tach owes. they got the inside scoop, seeing how the ice cream is made. >> it's really about just making sure that our ingredients are always consistent and we're always giving a satisfactory product. before you start churning up your frosty feedback, put a lid on it. for now, this opportunity is no s'more. >> oh, john. >> we complained, too. here we got. >> we got our own ice cream.

willis said china matters, not spain. let's go to the floor show. i want to start with ben. you were right then, you are right now, it is as worrisome as the market has reflected today? >> the united states equity market has put on a great show given the situation that is pretty severe in china. look at it, this is the chinese government manipulating their own marketplace, and it really goes to second homes and the likes. a pretty scary story on the network channel on sunday as well about the cities in china. it is taking caterpillar tractor down, oil down, the demand central china starts to show any kind of weakness that is the first place you will see it. united states is seeing the market rally, wa we sold off eay coming back, we're hearing whispers of a story the g.o.p. may be ready to come with a bill that might have helped the rally early. the rotation we are seeing is typical of regular investors, the joe sixpack buying telecom, buying utilities, buying the consumer durable stocks. still money coming in from other asset classes and that is why we see the dow up 30 poi

ben & jerry's customers some vip treatment. abc's john schriffen that has details. >> reporter: it's like a real-life willy wonka and chocolate factory. >> you're going to love this. >> reporter: 24-year-old scott white is charlie bucket, gets the surprise of a life time. >> i was beside myself when i got the invitation. i was like, wow, i got the golden ticket. >> reporter: his sweetest dream came true when he was invited for a tour of the factory in vermont. all after the ice cream enthusiast e-mailed the company complaining about one of its signature flavor, half-baked. >> the brownie bites were hard, crumbly, powdery. it wasn't the half-baked that i was used to. >> reporter: the invitation from ben & jerry's, that real-life golden ticket, said it wanted to show white and several other disfied customers, quote, how we use our valuable consumer feedback to make improvements. another complaint, one customer wasn't nuts about what she called overroasted pistachios. on the tour, dressed like everyone's favorite oompa loompa, they got the tour. seeing where the ice cream is made and how they're working to make sure customers aren't lef