look at herbalife jumping about four and two-thirds percent.re going to have more on this story in just a moment. in the meantime, got to get to microsoft. you just heard dennis kneale's report, talking smack. the company is touting the xbox as the entertainment console to own. microsoft says its newest xbox can be simply a one-stop shop. you can replace your often bulky settop boxes, and also microsoft says customers can channel surf by voice command. voice command. shares of microsoft are moving down just three-quarters of a percent at the moment, still at $34.84. and president obama has, indeed, signed a disaster declaration for oklahoma promising that victims will receive all the support they need after being hit by that massive tornado yesterday. you're looking at some pictures of the latest disaster photos. you can see they still are very much in search and recovery mode, search and rescue as well. cars just flipped over like match sticks. we're going the hear from one of the country's most successful oil men, oklahoma native and billiona

it herbalife is a ponzi scheme herbalife was on its way to going out of business it's a multi-level marketing scheme otherwise known as a ponzi scheme what is funny guy was shorting the stock aggressively twenty million shares or more of one hundred million shares outstanding in herbal life but then carl icahn comes around and starts to buy the stock not because he likes herbalife because he likes the company but because another had fund manager short and he can torture that other hedge fund manager by buying stock or going along and creating what's called a short squeeze so now the herbalife stock is trading near all time highs is it because the underlying company makes sense economically no it's a ponzi scheme is it because it's well managed no it's a ponzi scheme do you have one hedge fund manager battle going the other hedge one money both bill a quint and carl icahn are borrowing money from the wholesale market a near zero percent rates to do battle against each other narcissistically to fight over a ponzi scheme that sells herbal life products to people who themselves are narc

i think you could call a high frequency narcissism as applied to the pyramid scheme which is herbalife yes exactly. so speaking of pyramid schemes let's move on to another narcissistic market going on at the moment the art of selling out to the faceless money men when prices are going crazy a crash must be on the horizon warns oscar humphreys so in new york this past week leonardo dicaprio presided over an auction and. broke records smashed records no this was no isolated event these inflated prices were mirrored by options at sotheby's and christie's that made nearly half a billion dollars the highest total and auction history but max get this highest totals in auction history this past year mirrored in the auctions the buyers are often the galleries that represent the artist or collectors that own other works by these artists the more they pay the more valuable the work they already own because. most of the posers game. christie's and the other one self-abuse have been involved in scams in the past for their financing the purchase of art to jack the price up of art work to make the c

francine mckenna points out and seems disclose that it performs substantial consulting work for herbalife during periods that have to be read audited this code in parent independence something that is prohibited by as these rules well maybe the as the so you can use that ten million dollars from nasdaq to start enforcing sarbanes oxley whirling arbroath let's get to what's in your prime interest. back in january house republicans struck a deal with senate democrats to temporarily suspend the debt ceiling and exchange of congress didn't pass a budget which the sit in the senate has not done in about four years the members of congress would have their pay with held under the no budget no pay act the debt ceiling debate was separated from the debate on spending cuts which house republicans have retailing said they would not vote on increasing the debt ceiling without a match as congress continues to kick the can down the road on reigning and our ever growing trillion dollar debt the debt ceiling was reinstated on may nineteenth at sixteen point seven trillion dollars which we've already hit

herbalife is in the green here in the after hours. here is a headline.l icahn increasing his stake in herbalife from 15.9% to 16.5%. again, icahn raising his stake. the subject of a big debate between two big debates, icahn who is long and bill ackman who accuses the company of being a pyramid scheme. >> icahn bought more than 611,000 shares. stock closing today at the regular close $43.01. up in the after hours session. >> when i was younger, it was a game show called "press your luck." no whammies. >> loved that. >> completely rigged. >> radio show? >> no. i dig carl. beard looks great on him, but i think he's pressing his luck on this one. i'm convinced mr. ackman is going to prove to be right. not to say the stock can't go to $45, $46, but i think it wasn't about this quarter, i don't think that is about the trade. i think this stock gives up the ghost. >> when you say that, are you saying you believe that this is a ponzi scheme? >> i guess i have to believe that, yeah. >> if you're you canning company on its fundamentals. >> clearly, i haven't done

i asked him about herbalife. moved on to other things.ly got into that position because he thought the presentation by bill and the subsequent stock drop was a big overreaction. so dan is no longer in herbalife. he said it was a good one at the levels he got in. the other trade that has been working for third point and continues to work is long greek debt. he called it a good investment. got in last year. they doubled their money. but clearly the headline as japan has gotten an awful lot of conversation on both sides of the issue from many of the world's greatest investors. dan thinks it's the best idea right now. he has been in on the trade as i said. they are still long the nikkei and thinks that the structural reforms there are a huge game changing thing. presentation is off the record. just a few moments ago. >> dan and kyle are good friends. i know them both and they have conflicting views in japan. kyle bass is about as negative on japan as an investor could be. he makes no bones about the position that he is taking. and for some it

about the debt ceiling later today with winwood brooks a public notice and finally headline brown herbalife of back in the news with a new auditor. had formally retired their accounts because of an unrelated insider trading charges against the auditor and its place and now is pricewaterhouse coopers but there's a catch as journalist francine mckenna points out and seems to you see this close that it performs substantial consulting work for herbalife during periods that have to be read audited this code in parent independence something that is prohibited by as these rules. maybe the as the see can use that ten million dollars from nasdaq to start enforcing sarbanes oxley by whirling our breath let's get to what's in your prime interest. back in january house republicans struck a deal with senate democrats to temporarily suspend the debt ceiling and exchange of congress didn't pass a budget which the sit in the senate has not done in about four years the members of congress would have their pay with held under the no budget no pay act the debt ceiling debate was separated from the debate on s

we haven't had one in a long time. >> do you think people at herbalife will sell more?play? like aerospace? >> don't drive me into that. >> what will we be watching tonight? >> whole foods. so many people shorted it because they thought they missed the quarters. walter rob does not miss quarters. >> what a grit place to shock. 6:00 and 11:00 "mad money." president obama set to make a statement on the oklahoma straj dee. we'll bring you live coverage first white house and we'll bring you marisa mayer and the ceo of tumblr, david karp. keep it here. but there are some things i've never seen before. this ge jet engine can understand 5,000 data samples per second. which is good for business. because planes use less fuel, spend less time on the ground and more time in the air. suddenly, faraway places don't seem so...far away. ♪ the act of soaring across an ocean in a three-hundred-ton rocket doesn't raise as much as an eyebrow for these veterans of the sky. however, seeing this little beauty over international waters is enough to bring a traveler to tears. we're putting the

it herbalife is a ponzi scheme herbalife was on its way to going out of business it's a multi-level marketing scheme otherwise known as a ponzi scheme what is funny guy was shorting the stock aggressively twenty million shares or more of one hundred million shares outstanding in herbal life but then carl icahn comes around and starts to buy the stock not because he likes herbalife because he likes the company but because another hedge fund manager short and he can torture that other hedge fund manager by buying stock or going along and creating what's called a short squeeze so now the herbalife stock is trading near all time highs is it because the underlying company makes sense economically no it's a ponzi scheme is it because it's well managed no it's a buddies game do you have one hedge fund manager battle going the other hedge fund money both bill aikman and carl icahn are borrowing money from the wholesale market in a zero percent rates to do battle against each other narcissistically to fight over a ponzi scheme that sells herbal life products to people who themselves are narc

penney, we're seeing it in tesla, we're seen it in herbalife. be careful being short, because you can get squeezed. - topic two: is it time to go bold on gold? - i like gold here. we came up and made a couple of weak highs here recently. we broke above $1,400. $1,450 is kind of the key level for me in gold. that is the halfway point of this last sell-off that we've seen. so it will be interesting to see. but the dollar has turned over, and it's made a weekly reversal last week, it's following through. below 83 on the dollar is a very good sign for gold, and it's very encouraging. - in the last three days i have seen a lot of unusual option activity: call buyers and a lot of the gold miners, they have gotten beaten down so poorly i haven't participated in any of those. a lot of these $4, $5 stocks, we have seen call activity. i am actually short the gld through put spreads in june. i am profitable on it so far. i think it tests back down to 133 on the gld. - abx on the upside, look for that to move to $24. it is trading at $21 right now, so that'

about the debt ceiling later today with winwood drugs a public notice and finally headline brown herbalife is back in the news with a new auditor k p m g.

same guy who got into a big time with bill ackman on c n b c a few months ago and that was over herbalife and that's still going on and i can't wait for the next but maybe maybe we'll see dell an icon on t.v. well michael dell is the son of the founder of dell so you was there anything that he had done maybe that didn't help the company well i'm not an expert on this particular company but i will say in terms of carl icahn he is a very powerful and astute activists investor and that means what he's buying shares in a company he's trying to influence the board of directors and he wants to influence what you want to have my shareholders meeting and yeah i would on this one and they might yeah in august they're supposed to have a shareholder meeting and the question is are they going to vote before that on whether or not to take this dell offer or are they going to hold out for icahn so it's a big deal. thanks for joining me thank you. today we got schooled on prime interest university we learned a lot about student loans thanks to professor shad block and two of our producers fed mouthpiece

you have karl icahn who has built a strong position in herbalife in recent months.ueezed. in the meantime, you can see it has been running up. back to you. cheryl: thank you very much. the irs commissioner in the middle of the two-party targeting scandal. peter barnes has been covering that story from inside the beltway. we are looking at so many moving parts today in washington. again, he did not answer questions. he did not want to answer questions. peter: yes. we also heard from the top republican on the senate finance committee and hatch very upset with the white house. especially after the white house said yesterday that the white house counsel and chief of staff to the president were briefed on the fact that there was this report underway. then the white house says neither of them told the white house about it. take a listen. >> these hearings are not some sideshow designed to distract from the president's agenda. i hope that the president and his administration are not attempting to distract us from getting to the bottom of this. don: senator hatch, the democ

political level we saw it recently with carl icahn knew that there was a huge short position in herbalife which is a ponzi scheme listed on the new york stock exchange and he went in there and he bought up a lot of the stock took it off the market and the other hedge fund guy ackerman who was our agrement who was short those shares is in deep trouble i kept getting margin calls and more margin calls so measured carl icahn is in charge of russia china and iran and these other countries are gold buying policies and you can start to them and see the the problem that the west has going forward well of course in the west everybody's terrified of prices they follow price signals and that's it whereas in the rest of the world they're chasing ounces or cumulating ounces and chase the central bank's tonnage and finally you know soc gen's alber edwards is also saying the same thing warning stocks to crash gold to top ten thousand dollars albert edwards in a note that he wrote recently edward said that central bank stimulus measures will drive the world towards a global recession soaring inflation a

and he wasn't talking about herbalife or jcpenney.out it only two weeks ago. >> in the same tenur that he spoke with you about in the past where he is acknowledging the things they have to do. he was constructive about it. >> well, it's hard to be critical of somebody when the earnings are coming in good. now it u underperformed some of the peers, but not all of them. >> that's why it's so interesting. you may expect investors to sell us off on the news as they try to make sense of it. so that tells us this was enough of a concern that they prefer to see the past ceo gone. >> the stock may be moving more than you expect because he knows all the customers, right? he knows all the players within the company. so that any change that is going to happen is probably going to happen sooner than if you brought in somebody with a steeper earning curve. >> i know we made the comparison to mike holm coming back to jcpenney. it's a guy coming back to fix something perceived to be wrong. who knows how long either of those guys will be in those pos

herbalife its shares climbing almost 10 percent today. his wealth one of $22 million toda.is chagrin, on the otheside of that trade. also making money, investors an clear wire, sprint, its offero acquire for a extra 14%. shareholders are expected to reject the previous offer, no matter it already owns the majority of the comny. more than 4%. who is trying to save money? espn laying off hundre of it staff. saying it is merely managing costs with the move disney has bee imposing division by division cuts for the past mont as the ssock kes hitting all-time highs. we see companies being bought d so. today the annual list ofthe world's most liable branches out . no word brown ranks compies on their performance, consumer sentiment. perfect combination of big data ets actual and value. make come as no surprise that apple tops the list despite some pretty rocky stock performance. clearly brand is a lot about th company, including a forecast o the market's performance. ceo joining me now, thank you for starting in coming down. let's start with the top five brands. apple at $185 bill

i think we will hear from ackman about herbalife. will bring. he is always a surprise. he often comes armed with four or five ideas. we will see if he focuses on one or gives us an array. and i'm curious to hear about singer. >> absolutely. thank you. >> thank you. >> when you the viewers ask, we deliver. >> i'll do it. why not. >> we're on our game tonight guys. >> adt, they go out and they miss on top and bottom line. the stock opens down, rallies a little and then slap, they hit it again. i wouldn't get in until it makes a slower move. >> when you're looking at the s&p, when you look at this, you're talking about the s&p and call it the all-time highs. walter is one of those names. there could be a shift as we get into the shift. >> still a thank you. still very much alive. same store sales will get better as the weather improves. i would be long this stock. still a lot further to go. >> did they say diy other there? >> diy at home depot. i won't go there. >> i don't really like the stock up here. >> when we come back, final trade

her herbalife shares. up over 6%. can't really tell you why.d absolutely nothing to do with herbalife that day. they're going to name a new auditor. we expect that. there was a big buyer for the november 45 calls paying up to 570 for those and that was an aggressive buy. perhaps that's had the effect of move that stock up. big battleground still between, of course, mr. icon who has board seats and a large, large position and bill atman who as we at least expect is still quite short many of those shares. >>> nasdaq is another interesting story. up breaking above 3500 now. we keep saying 12 1/2 year highs every day but we said it now for 16 straight sessions aztec has shown the leadership that some in the early part of the year, kelly, hoped it would. >> tech had been lagging. look at cisco, one of the best performers last week was leading the dow. got people excited about the story generally saying does this mean we're finally going to see an enterprise cycle we can believe? >> google has made a difference. >> absolutely. >> playing largely with

david: herbalife hired pricewaterhousecoopers as its new auditor. the firm will immediately reaudit the company's financial statements fiscal years ending in 2010 through 2012 as well as review 2013. liz: according to financial news, thomson reuters and market have teamed up with investment banks to build a new messaging service that might challenge competitor bloomberg. bloomberg, which pretty much owned the space come under fire recently after reports that journalist at the company were accessing customer data. goldman is teaming up with thomson reuters. david: a lot of customers didn't like it when they did that apple's ceo tim cook defending the company's tax practices before senate regulators. arguing it pays all taxes dues due and using foreign subsidiaries pay all taxes due. liz: microsoft unveiled the new xbox, a third generation console that pitches quote, the ultimate, all in one entertainment industry. microsoft says you don't need a cable box anymore because our console integrates speech recognition technology and switch to the hockey ga

. >>> we are watching herbalife.y choose price as auditors which will reaudit the company's financial statements. hlf jumped 11% yesterday. it's in the green again today. there was chatter there's been some possible short squeeze going on. short interest in this one, 32%. but traders i talked to said nothing out of the ordinary here. premiums haven't skyrocketed. negative three is nothing unusual. still tacking on another 4% right now. scott, back to you. >> josh, thanks so much. quite a move that we've seen here. i'm sure there are some shorts getting squeezed out. it's above 51 now. >> those that bought into the thesis are among those, scott. i doubt if it's ackman himself. just ahead of that the over-the-counter options, those that he bought expired may 10th. just ahead of that, two days ahead we talked about on this program the unusually heavy buying of money calls all the way up to and through the 50 strike. in other words these guys have been spot on. rich richly rewarded as they've ridden this and if it's a sq

and i worry about the billion dollar hedge fund managers fighting over herbalife, i worry about the person who's seeing their savings earn zero and on a real basis lose money. >> now we're talking about. >> i agree, i think it's a bad policy. but at the ent of the day, the market loves it. >> that's the bottom line. >> you can criticize, you know, manufactured activity, but t a the end of the day, this is reality. and this is what's driving this market. and you've got to figure out how to inforvest around it. >> investment managers are under the gun every quarter to make profits and the way that they do it is by investing in stocks right now. you have to be in it. regardless of what the policy is, you can write any letter you want to, but the fact is, they have to make money in order to gain assets. >> all right, everybody. we'll leave it there. thank you so much for your time. appreciate it. we want to find out what is behind this struggle today. bob pisani in the middle of the action right now with more on this market decline. hello, bob. >> let's put up the dollar again. maria was refer

was in court last month, and he has deny denied information that he passed along information on herbalifecause he thought shaw was in financial trouble. so at this point, there doesn't appear to be any evidence that this scandal had any impact on the quality of the earnings reports they audited. now, brian shaw made nearly $1.3 million, he says, off of these trades for insider tips. that's money he plans to return, according to austin attorney. he could face five years in prison, but if he pleads guilty and continues to cooperate, they'll ask for a lesser sentence. he also said he paid scott london $60,000 in the kickbacks. london due in court a week from today. and earlier, london, like his friend, will plead guilty. >> jane, thank you so much. what a story that is. appreciate it. jane wells. >>> jack lew speaking with our steve liesman exclusively this morning. >> this year, cyberthreats were one of the areas of risk that we identified. >> i'll discuss cyberthreats and a lot more with congressman mike rogers next. plus, we'll get his reaction to the stunning admission from the irs that

step by step, inch by inch, slowly herbalife goes higher. >> step by step, inch by inch, we get closere opening bell and four minutes away and another big day of trading ahead and a lot more "squawk on the street." ♪ [ cows moo ] [ sizzling ] more rain... [ thunder rumbles ] ♪ [ male announcer ] when the world moves... futures move first. learn futures from experienced pros with dedicated chats and daily live webinars. and trade with papermoney to test-drive the market. ♪ all on thinkorswim. from td ameritrade. >>> you are watching cnbc's "squawk on the street" live from the financial capital of the world. the the opening bell set to ring in just under a minute's time. guys ringing the bell down here, clorox, which was started 100 years ago by five guyses with $500 making bleach out of the saltwater out of the san francisco bay. >> it's an incredible bay. it wasn't initially called clorox, but they recognized this thing had magical powers. one of the things it's been able to do it's healthy. clorox is the only thing that works against germs! >> i don't think people know they make hidde

first up, embattled herbalife trading higher as the company at the heart of that battle between bill

brian shore who took tips from london on herbalife. be arraigned next week. >>> as far as european stocks are concerned, ahead of the u.s. open today, we're knees near the session highs. the xetra dax is one to focus on there 8,164. the ftse mib is up 1%, as well. banks are in focus. earnings across the board today, hsbc up 3%. good numbers out of socgen to 4%. commerzbank up 1.2%. so pretty good reception. rbs is the only slight weakness. as far as the agenda in the united states, march consumer credit figures are due out at 3:00 p.m. eastern. look for numbers before the open from directv and call. after the close, we'll hear from disney, electronic arts, whoet whole foods, live nation and zillow. >>> u.s. futures are calling a slightly higher stock once again. it will be 18 straight gains for the dow jones industrial average. unprecedented and the s&p is also at fresh record highs at the moment. it was a mixed week, mixed start. the dow -- despite the fact that it was up, they only traded at the tightest range in months. the s&p 500

. >> as far as icahn goes, where he stands on herbalife, che chesapea chesapeake, netflix. >> it makesr head spin. >> perhaps he's just being the poker player he is, folds here. he didn't even have a d file. 4.6% and why not just go home and take a small loss, but apparently, he wants to push it or tender in at 1365. we'll see where this goes. i still am somewhat dubious. >> the stock will be way up today. they did bring their guidance up looking for 68 to 69 cents for the quarter and same-store sales and not a lot of companies offer same-store sales guidance for the month and april was up 7%. old navy up 9, banana up 1 and gap up 8 and even with the weather concerns in the last few weeks. easter was a bullish calendar shift and they'll have the flip side. >> so interesting. we get so little these days in terms of same-store sales from most of retail at this point. >> that is quite a little turnaround. the stock's up 39% in two months. >> fed chairman ben bernanke blows into the windy city and we'll hear him address the conference which we'll hear him address in 19 minutes' time. what

. >> icahn's herbalife stake. icahn, when is the guy going to quit?u've still got some room to go. eog. this just took out its all-team high here. rbc says that -- that mark papa is underpromising. they have an oil revolution. they have found prudhoe bay in the eagleford and they have a new one in the delaware basin that no one is talking about. >> jim, we might have new mom and pops watching today because they're beginning to hear the market is setting record levels. usa today has a graphically, a thermometer like a united way board, that more gains are impossible and that it's bound to explode. >> let's take the case of bank of america. this wrecked a lot of portfoliois and think bank of america was the preferred way to play the group. it keeps getting better and i mentioned bank of america because that kind of strock destroyed it. washington, mutual, fannie mae, freddie mac and these destroyed people and it will take a long time to get over the losses and they're still smarting from it. once they get over it, they'll come in. >> final seconds here.