pepco services the washington metro area and the mid-atlantic. a deal for a consumer business. that is according to people with knowledge of the matter. rose royce holdings has just confirmed that it is in talks to sell its power generating assets to siemens. retooll would further the energy generation landscape. ge and siemens work on competing offers for alstom. this is "countdown." shares are due to start trading in just over an hour. he is an analyst at sac so bank. he joins us from paris on how the markets might receive them. thank you so much for joining us. do you expect it to open up this morning -- there is plenty of news for investors to digest. how far is this battle going to run? will this be built into the share price? high can expect very volatility of shares today. week, remind you, last shares increased more than 10%. exceed.e they will investors will welcome the bid of general electric on the choice of the alstom board. we cannot forget about the other company behind this big. mainis alstom's shareholder. he have to look at the s

exelon is buying pepco holdings.ntic customer base of about 10 million. the deal represents a 20% premium for pepco shareholders. >> you love paris. you love france. >> it's my favorite city. >> there you go. >> by far. and i love the french when i'm there, too. i don't have any problem with, you know, they may have a problem with me. >> they may recognize you. >> i got a daughter pretty good at french and also speaks a little. so we do just fine over there, thank you. >> you should go strike a deal. >> he may offer. >> he may need your help. we mentioned a backing offer from ge for power asset itself. germa germany seem siemens isn't accepting that bid. >> reporter: they can solicit unsolicited bids. to that end, siemens is ready to sweeten an earlier bid, offering to swap some not all of the power assets along with cash. they called ge's offer compelling, alstom has untildown kd 2nd to make a decision. it would then seek approval of the company shareholders as well as the labor board. alstoms largest expects if off

breaking news, the volume of exelontions, m&a deals, looking to buy pepco for about %27.25 in cash. exelon looking to make a bid for pepco for $27.25 in cash, $5.4 billion. >> the mergers and acquisition show. the apple deal yesterday is an example. >> bond sale. needed to geteld it done for less amount of money. compared to what it would have been five years or 10 years ago, it is a giveaway. theere's the stunner of day. the a.j. stunner of the day, utilities up 13.5% because of the interest rate issue. lower for longer. >> douglas ramsey was on "surveillance was quite radio yesterday. he says it is a mystery. he says it does not look normal that utilities are on such a run. >> you almost wonder is it reflects the notion that the fed was going to raise rates sooner than expected and all the sudden janet yellen says no, we will keep low rates for longer. that is good for utilities. >> we will monitor this story with exelon and pepco. >> wants to monitor. there is a fed meeting this afternoon, slack is the word of the moment for fed economics. chair yellen used the word 14 times in h

we see continued consolidation in the energy sector. >> pepco is joining the old baltimore gas and electricmarva peninsula, fill in virginia. it's a really good acquisition. they can cut costs. not a fan of excel lon's management but this does make strategic sense. excel lon one of the few you don't have to woiry about, the supreme court ruling the death of coal in "the new york times," the epa will never allow -- mark my words, another coal plant built in the united states, never, ever. >> in light of the fact that we just got q1 gdp that grew 1.1% annualized. >> making france look very good. >> let me add one positive note here, which is, for example, excel lon is going to borrow $7 billion to do this deal. >> right. >> ebay for whatever reason is at least doing something with its cash, bringing it home, we were's not sure why. -- we're not quite sure why. we have more activity. we seem to have more of a willingness of corporations, i would argue, recently with some of the transactionionses we're look at, to do something other than buy back stock. >> astrazeneca i think is going to happen

first, exelon and pepco saying they signed to do an agreement. >> somebody may have been listening whended to combine, because on monday, they traded 4,000 call options. >> you sent a note around saying this is dirty. >> this is dirty as lydia's martinis, folks, because somebody knew this deal was coming up. 100 calls a day. 100 call options per day. how many they trade monday? 4,000. the calls they bought went from $2 to $7 like that. it smells bad. >> i need that red phone out there, the hr hotline. >> yeah, that was close. >> it could come at any moment. you know, you're talking names. >> you're so efficient with the babies out with the bath water. >> it could go in any direction at any time. >>> express scripts falling after cutting guidance and missing on both the top and the bottom, steve. >> look, it's counterintuitive, because you expect with health care doing so well and what's happening around with new scripts and so forth, this would have outperformed, but there are pricing pressures from the large buyers of the scripts. but i think it's quality company. i think this is a mis

qwest number three, pepco holdings.or agreed to by the washington metro area utility at 6.8 million -- billion dollars in cash. it will be helped expand in eastern u.s.. >> twitter said yesterday membership broke in the first quarter fell 25% to some 30%. it dropped to its lowest level in its debut. they topped estimates. qwest number one, u.s. utilities tires and man commits weather. as -- as a result, the ceo is just -- in just a few moments. first to call on the markets. i want to bring in the senior managing director. his call is that we are in no man's land when it comes to this direction. about what, you should always buy into a correction. qwest you should. in a bull market, those conditions are just not present but they are -- we are optimistic. qwest what do you mean? >> you make a loan where you ,ant to be an aggressive buyer when the percentage of stocks among the various averages is much lower than we are now. highflyinge of these social media stacks and they have been crushed. that is not enough. qwest we a

pepco's 20% higher than close yesterday.s will make a big mid-atlantic power company. >> time for the big story. if you thought the fed was worried about economic weakness, you were wrong. the central bank said our economy is gaining momentum. janet yellen thinks it is ok to ease off the easing, cutting back the bond buying program by $10 billion. the weather is getting better, apparently, but data is still weak. cio at pimco is joining us. and right here on set with me, mike mckee. a big miss. did the economists get it flat out wrong? is janet yellen right? how do you interpret it? >> this was not a really big miss. the data are a collection of actual data the government has and projections. the projections could easily be off, and the government is only guessing at what the trade in inventory figures are for the last month of the quarter. this will be revised three or four times. >> maybe it will look better eventually. >> it probably will. things that were bad in this report are things we have indications are changing. a

pepco is said to have found a pump. sending radioactive water the wrong way. they say they're checking whether there are any leaks at all outside the water system. 's been six months since sites were set on the company. things have just turned around in the short seller's favors. how they benefited. >> the shares plunged 20% on friday. and -- >> that's a huge plunge. that is after its last result. the results came out disappointing investors coming out at 22 cents per share. the shares are now down 44% since october, which is where they released his support ying basically the company misrepresented cash and exaggerated sales. reported, least 72% is fictitious. those are all allegations made against them making investors somewhat uneasy. now they have been working really hard since then to try to get its share price back up. and it has been rising quite successfully. not up to the highs that it reached last year but doing quite well. this earnings report making investors a little bit skittish not least because there was actedly an accounting error revealed. it

i'm not going to say that pepco is doing badly.now, do i want the company to split up? i want the company to do what's right. this number seemed good from me. i'm sure we'll hear from nelson peltz saying it could be better. >> a 13 handle on chipotle. >> i have to tell you. >> a 13 handle. >> certain things happen. i have been saying, can they do 9 which was the last quarter. the average guy is lucky to do 3, 4. it's fast food quick service. 3, 4%. 5 is unbelievably good. i mean 5 is amazing. 13%, it's just not possible. i shot them an e-mail. must be a typo. has to be a typo. it's not possible. the earnings per share not as good because the costs are going up. doesn't matter. anyone who looks at anything other than revenue here and same-store sales is -- ought to just go look at a tool and dye company. this is a great american revenue growth story and food costs are up 150 basis points. higher beef, higher avocado and did it matter? no. >> cheese as well. >> cheese. >> and then operating margin at the restaurant level, 25.9. >> bu

pepco announced the results and betty liu joins us with the company's cfo. >> ahead of earnings, earningshare and organic revenue was up and volume in the u.s. so far is declining, this has been a consistent story, not just for pepsico but coca-cola. on, the ceo of pepsico, joins me. read to see you again. >> great to be here. >> you have some pretty strong sales growth going, not just here in north america for snacks, but for beverages and snacks overseas. how much pricing power is this giving you? >> actually, the pricing power is quite good right now. if you go back to the investments we made a couple of years ago, those things are both strengthening the brand, and also we have products, that the consumers work for. what you saw is five percent growth in revenue, three percent revenue growth in beverages. and frankly, consumers are moving more and more to the $20 billion brands around the world. so the company is performing very well right now, and individually the pieces are good and collectively the portfolios are working very effectively together. >> and your margins expanded by at

i came from a substation here at pepco. we have got a very vulnerable grid and we are making it more so the more we close down. 316 b water rule is going to affect nuclear and coal as well. we are beyond talking about 56-60 in coal plants. we are talking about the possibility of closing down nuclear and super critical coal. it is an issue that needs to be addressed. i had in my comments that the coordination and the cost of these new rules and nrc needs to come into picture. we have regulatory rules coming from the nrc that have significant cost impacts and we are not looking at them from nrc or epa. >> i probably just offer one thing. we asked for and got the safe reliability safety valve and i think that is important going that allows that analysis to happen and hopefully people to look at it and if we see the reliability problems we will be the first to speak up. nick is right. a lot of this is about time. we need to make the time and the time to make the transition. if you give us that time, this industry is robust. it

they are up about 14% in the news and then there's pepco, the biggest percentage gainer on the s&p 500rea d.c. utility will be bought by fellow utility excelon for $27.25 in cash, the stock moving 17% to the upside. wwwgrangers gaining ground after increasing its dividend by 16% and approving a 10 million share buyback program. the stock up 2% and garmin also in the green on a better than expected 10% rise in quarterly sales. this as higher sales of its fitness and aviation devices more than offset weakness in its personal navigation products, and we're going to end with glaxosmithkline falling after the uk's largest health care company posted a 10% decline in sales in its first quarter. kelly, tyler, back over to you. >> dom, thanks very much. better get out to the floor because it's getting pretty crowded. >> getting crowded and loud out there. >> 12 minutes to go to the close. take a look at markets. still looking at record highs for the dow. strong gains across the board. i shouldn't say too strong. only up a tenth of 1% when all is said and done, tyler. we'll see what happens. >>

check out pepco holdings a utility company and spiking after reviews with an advisor.ility company that serves customers from new jersey to d.c. >> let's note the dow is off 115. we are off our highs. we lost 140 on friday in part because of visa. one of the reasons we are down so heavily and interesting to see aping heading towards 600. >> you mentioned visa. an important fact when you look at these american companies and impact they're having from russia and ukraine. the new round of sanctions announced today doesn't seem to be spooking the markets. part of that sell-off was attributed to that. >> and putin may be driving them out how they operate there. >> interesting reaction. you mentioned high flyers. nasdaq may be positive but having to do it without amazons and others. amazon is the fourth worst component of the nasdaq 100. we've not seen leadership return to high flying names the way we hoped. >> we will see earnings next week, twitter, priceline, amazon, investors weren't impressed with that stock, wonder if the clock is running out on jeff bezos, not chunk o

the boys from pepco think they are still there, and am i reading this? go back down. >> we'll take a quick break. when we come back, we'll have much more from muhammad alerian. much more right after the break. ♪ "first day of my life" by bright eyes ♪ you're not just looking for a house. you're looking for a place for your life to happen. ♪ >>> game of thrones continues. doesn't that sound like -- what is that? >> rome? >> the guy at the beginning, sounds just like him. do you watch? >> i do. >> at the beginning, all the things moving around. we'll go back to our special guest, former pimco cio and the chief economic adviser and member of the international executive committee. i did not see it last night, so let's not talk about it. what year was that when you coined the term, new normal? >> we coined that in 2009. >> 2009. and i think at the time you said five years, didn't you? >> we said three to five years. and it was both a cyclical for verizon next year. and the second horizon in the next three to five years, we are likely to see up usually low gro

don't know if you caught a breakdown yet of their orange juice versus pepco.ut nelson felt they're running rings around pepsico, when it comes to minute maid. >> pretty good surprising stats. u.s. flat but pricing up 2. what's behind that? >> it's still water and sugar doing pretty well. i was surprised. good number. good number. >> yeah. >> and the pressure is going to be on pepsi to match it. >> i think it is when they report thursday. i know pepsico has been doing better lately, stock up from 80 to 83. a lot feel that is because peltz will throw down the gauntlet if they don't deliver a good number. this raises the bar for pepsico. >> you believe it does so? >> i do. i was surprised i had been saying i don't think they could reaccelerate growth if they spend more money but looks like they did. north america accelerated median investment, sochi, winter olympics and super bowl. >> always the 4 x head wind. talking strong dollar, one reason earnings were down 7%. >> i think that makes sense. j&j had a similar problem. >> yep. i guess speaking on j&j. >> the me

you're seeing exelon, con ed, pepco, a lot of the names in the green.0-year, can show you how investor sentiment is shaping up today. >> yeah, overall for the week, a narrow range relative to the remainder of the year. s&p's been -- yesterday on the dow, that was hard to watch. hopefully, we'll get more action in the next hour. that's what brian sullivan will bring us as we head into the weekend. >> yeah, we were debating about the unchanged thing. it's, what, the first time in 13 years. >> yeah, since christmas eve 2001. tyler mathisen said, does that mean santa's coming tomorrow? >> yeah, yeah, a big question, guys. what did you get us here for "fast money halftime"? >> no, a lump of coal. >> a strong lead-in. the correct answer. guys, thank you. have a great weekend. >>> welcome, everybody, to the "fast money halftime report." here is the game plan. rumble in the jungle. amazon getting taken to the woodshed after reporting razor-thin profits. finally, retiring of bezos' strategy. two tech investors go head to head on whether there is trouble