peter barnes has the numbers. i am wondering if it has something to do with why we are fighting back. >> consumer credit rose in february according to the fed to $3.13 trillion. however, consumers pulled back using their plastic in february. maybe the bad weather is to blame. we will see how they person digging through the numbers. credit card debt contracted at 3.4% annual rate to $8.54 billion outstanding in february while all other type of narrowing rose at a 6.4% annual rate nearly 2.3 trillion. although growth in student loans are flat. black knight financial has mortgage numbers for us today. monthly mortgage origination at the beginning of the year hit their lowest level since it began tracking them 14 years ago. issuing 27,300,000 new mortgages in january compared to the post crisis of 850,000 in october 2012. the housing data says that is largely because the refi boom is over, but it feels the housing market recovery continues on course. liz: i am wondering if this number, the market takes this as a bulli

let's grow to peter barnes in washington with that. peter. >> melissa, the fed actually held two meetings in march to discuss changing its so guard forward guidance it might begin to raise short-term interest rates. the federal fund rate. the minutes show that in addition to their regular meeting in mid-march, fed members held a videoconference meeting on this issue on march fourth. the minutes show a lot of debate what the fed should do next on forward guidance. some of the doves wanted to keep quantitative easing guidelines numbers in the policy statement and signal a commitment to low interest rates if the fed did not hit its unemployment or inflation target. quote, one participant favored retaining the existing threshold language on the ground that removing it before the unemployment rate reached 6.5% could be misinterpreted. another participant favored introducing new quantitative thresholds including five 1/2% one for the unemployment rate. and a few participants proposed adding new language all together on the rate guidance in ca

now let's go to peter barnes. >> the fed continues to taper, the fed continues to taper, cutting its bond purchases by another $10 billion a month as expected. the policy statement is almost identical to the last one in march except for the economic analysis which is somewhat upbeat. quote, information received since the federal open market committee met in march indicates that growth in economic activity has picked up recently after having slowed sharply during the winter in part because of adverse weather conditions. labor market indicators were mixed but on balance, showed further improvement. the unemployment rate however remains elevated. household spending appears to be rising more quickly. business fixed investment edged down while the recovery in the housing sector remains slow. of the fiscal policy is restraining economic growth although the extent of restraint is diminishing. inflation has been running below the committee's longer-run objective but longer run inflation expectations have remained stable. the rest of the statement is almost identical to the statement in march

peter barnes watching the situation in washington d.c. and they are working this good friday inside the beltway. wall street pretty much closed. market's close, the rest of the world appears in many parts to be making money today. we are keeping an eye on a number, dozens of global exchanges on the screen right now that are open today. countries such as china, japan, malaysia, ukraine, vietnam. all of these on your screen so the market's panel is on call with some smart names for your portfolio that you can buy first thing monday morning when u.s. trading resumes. the founder and ceo, will see asset management president. jason first, you have to tell me off the bat if monday we start to see a real pop because it appears for the moment that a larger part of the ukraine issue is over and behind a sand better weather, the easter weekend is over and people are looking forward, not backward. >> this has been a difficult winter for the markets. you have obviously the trifecta of polar for tax, the ukraine and russia and 70 happening, tapering a

the fox business network, peter barnes has the latest live from the supreme court. did you get a sense of the arguments back and forth about how the supremes may rule on this case? >> reporter: yeah, bill. it seems that a majority of the justices, six of them by my count, reserved their toughest questions for aereo asking a lot of questions about its technology, about its business model. about why it shouldn't be paying the networks for this programming. for example, justice elena kay beg kagan says it's exactly the same as watching cable. chief justice john roberts said he could see no other reason for aereo's technology other than to circumvent township right laws. the lawyer for aereo says our technology is special. it helps our customers to individualize and access the programs they want to see, bill. >> peter, the magical question ultimately. what if aereo wins? what happens? >> well, the broadcasters and analysts are saying that the networks could perhaps start their own streaming video services that you pay for to compete with aereo. they could start their ow

peter barnes has all the details.work in america is watching this one, peter. >> that's right, david and liz. broadcasters say this case is make-or-break fight for survival with billions in programing invests and revenues at stake and air yo is just a video pirate. aereo says this case is about technological innovation. it just created a new, modern day antenna for your digital device like your iphone that simply facilitates your viewing like like a vcr or a dvr. for as little as eight bucks a month, aereo captures over the air tv signals broadcasters provide for free through digital tv antennas. it stores them in the servers and streams copies over to the internet to computers, smartphones and other devices on demand within seconds of live or later. now the programs are stored in the cloud. aereo does not pay anything to the tv networks that sued it, which and they include fox and the networks either licensed programs or create them themselves. so this is a basic copyright case. generally if a show is broadcast publi

peter barnes, fox news network is live from the supreme court with all of this peter?: that's right, jenna. aereo streams over the air broadcast signals to thousands of its customers but does not pay broadcast networks for those signals like cable and satellite companies do. in questioning here, today, a majority of the justices were, asking pretty tough critical questions of aereo, its technology and its business model. justice roberts, kennedy breyer, scalia, ginsberg and kagan, so a majority again, asking these kind of tough questions. kagan, for example, hey, looking at menu on aereo and the controls, quote, it is exactly the same thing as watching cable. chief justice roberts saying that there is no reason for you to have thousands of small antennas, which is how this operate, rather than having one big antenna, there is no reason for aereo to have 10,000 antennas other than to get around the copyright laws. but the attorney for aereo, david fredericks said, listen if an individual can put a antenna on their home, digital antenna and run the line down to their tv

peter barnes is our senior washington correspondent and has the details. peteer?i, that's right. the senate finance committee approved a package of 50 tax breaks today. congress usually approves these every year, year after year, rather than just fold them into the tax code but the committee approved a two-year, $85 billion extension of these tax breaks this time around. it did that to try to buy some time to actually try to deal with them permanently and fix the rest of the crazy tax code that is riddled with complexity and special interest provisions. provisions he approved including mainstream ones extending tax relief for struggling homeowners with mortgage debt forgiven. research an development tax credit for companies. mass transit and parking tax break that companies give their employees and bonus depreciation to encourage companies to invest more in factories and equipment. there was usual grab bag of really special interest provisions, film production expensing for hollywood studios. tax credit for people who buy electric motorcycles. faster writeoffs for

more on with the feminist reveals, let's go to peter barnes in washington, d.c. peter. peter: the fed actually held two meetings in march. fatah members wanted to drill down into how they wanted to change the so-called forward guidance on when they might begin to raise short-term interest rates. in addition to the righ regular meeting in mid-march, they held a conference meeting on march 4 and the minutes show a lot of debate. some arguing hard to keep quantitative guidelines, numbers feeling a commitment to low interest rate is the fed did not hit the unemployment or inflation target, but as you know they ended up deciding to drop the quantitative guidance in favor of qualitative guidance with general descriptions of economic conditions that could trigger rising rates. the take away seems to be this was more dovish, less hawkish. liz: i find a meeting very interesting. very reminiscent of what we saw during the financial crash and the concerns with the secret meetings. tell our viewers what was discussed. >> whenever they have a major, major policy item on the agenda l

stuart: thank you very much, peter barnes. please ignore the sarcasm.suring popularity, how much time do we really spend on a website? that is what the company figures out, and their ceo is here. welcome to the program. so let me get this right, you can measure pixel by pixel, second by second what people are actually engaged in on the web, that is what you do. >> official analytics have only been capturing clicks. we are able to see second by second what each is doing so we can see if you're using a particular page, so i'm looking at it again. we can understand incredible detail just what content captures peoples attention. stuart: how can you tell whether or not i just looked away from a website? >> whether you know it or not, you're constantly making small movements with your mouse. the averages about 1st you are doing this. for 95% of the people on some sort of action within 4.8 seconds. so we listen for that. stuart: you can measure my attention. you know if the website got my attention and the quality of that attention. you got all of that. >> is

peter barnes is in washington. peter, how bad is this? >> melissa, the secret service is calling this a major cyberattack, that may incur quote, large dollar losses at banks, especially small and medium-sized one. a recent cyberattack on atms netted cyber crooks $40 million, using just 12 debit card accounts. state and federal regulators are warning, criminals are able to withdraw funds beyond the cash balance in customer accounts, or other atm control limits. they used stolen debit, prepaid or atm card account information. the crooks get into bank atm networks through employee emails to plant malicious software that obtains employee log-ins and accesses atm control panels. with the crooks can change settings to permit greater or unlimited cash disbursements and atm machines and change other fraud and security related controls. cyber thieves themselves organized simultaneous withdrawals of large amounts of cash from multiple at moves over a short time. according to authorities, usually four hours to two days. and regulators have put the b

senior washington correspondent peter barnes has more. roadcasters say this case is a make or break fight for survival. billions at stake, they say it is simply a video pirate. but this in this case is about technological innovation, it's just created a new modern day antenna for your device that facilitates your viewing like a vcr or a dvr for $8 per month, captures the over the air tv signals that broadcasters still provide viewers for free through digital tv antennas, it stores them in the server and streams copies of them over the internet to computers, smart phones and other devices on demand within seconds of live or recorded for later viewing. they do not pay anything for the tv networks including fox, so it is a basic copyright case. they license it themselves, generally if a show is broadcast publicly and widely committees created to be paid something, but if the performance is for private viewing by a lone customer or small group, they have said the creator is not entitled to a payment. now the high court has to determine what th

our senior washington correspondent peter barnes is here with more. ter. >> that's right, gerri, financial regulators are warning banks and credit unions about the heart breed bug and to fix it asap -- "heartbleed." this is bug in part of open source software widely used in american companies. the federal financial institutions examination council which is a standards group that includes the fed, the fdic, the occ, says in a notice just put out ad 5:00 eastern that the bug could hurt bank encryption systems. the release says that with the bug, quote, attackers could potentially impersonate bank services or users, steal log-in credentials, access sensitive email or gain access to internal networks. the council is telling banks and credit unions to themselves or with their computer vendors to take proper steps to fix the bug. gerri. gerri: peter, we asked this question last night actually. could banks be in the cross-hairs of some of these bad guys? and now you're saying regulators are warning banks. i have to ask you, what should people think about the

let's bring in peter barnes. >> melissa, that's right, the beige book says the bad weather is fading and good weather is good for the economy. what a shock. this is the report on the health of the economy that the fed will use at its next policy meeting in just a couple weeks from now. quote, the expansion was characterized as modest to moderate in eight of the fed's 12 districts. chicago as one of the other ones reported that economic growth picked up. new york and philadelphia indicated that business activity had rebounded from weather-related slowdowns earlier in the year. consumer spending increases since the previous property in majority of districts, in part due to better weather. the beige book says, and manufacturing improved in most districts. also, thanks to the better weather. melissa. melissa: let's get to james romelli. peter, stick around to see how markets are reacting to this news. james what do you see? >> only, reaction on beige book are muted. looks like the markets are holding the bid relatively well. one thing traders need to be aware of around the release of the

rich: our own peter barnes is live from washington with more. peter? french economist cause ad international uproar with his new book about the gap between the rich, especially the very rich he had sends out there and everyone else. sorry, couldn't help myself. he says without some action by world leaders such as big tax increases on the wealthy the rich are going to keep getting richer. today pkt was in washington where his book added new fuel to the debate over income inequality this election year. he has collected 300 years of data on wealth and income in 20 countries and down clouds the rich will keep getting richer for one simple reason, return on investment and call tall is 5% globally historically while worker income is 5.5%. so workers will keep falling behind. but he says in his book, quote, there are nonetheless ways democracy can regain control over capitalism and insure that the general interest takes precedence over private interests. his big deal? a global tax on wealth, on assets themselves like a global property tax, a tax on value of s

coming up our own peter barnes gives us the latest on the diplomacy and the possible financial falloute talking to one of the hedge fund world's biggest players about why you should consider investing in, hair salons? that's right. jim hedges, john barrett holdings ceo, will tell you how to stay on the cutting-edge of alternative investments. stay tuned. ♪ my dad has aor afib.brillation, he has the most common kind... ...it's not caused by a heart valve problem. dad, it says your afib puts you at 5 times greater risk of a stroke. that's why i take my warfarin every day. but it looks like maybe we should ask your doctor about pradaxa. in a clinical trial, pradaxa® (dabigatran etexilate mesylate)... ...was proven superior to warfarin at reducing the risk of stroke. and unlike warfarin, with no regular blood tests or dietary restrictions. hey thanks for calling my doctor. sure. pradaxa is not for people with artificial heart valves. don't stop taking pradaxa without talking to your doctor. stopping increases your risk of stroke. ask your doctor if you need to stop pradaxa before surgery o

let's get to peter barnes in washington. >> melissa, that's right. regulars are approving new regulations requiring the eight largest banks to raise $68 billion in capital by 2018 to meet new tough every capital requirements but regulators proposed this last year. the banks have been expecting it and already started raising that new capital according to officials. the rules, something, applying to something called a leverage ratio, apply to banks with assets of more than $700 billion that are systematically important, bank of america, bank of new york mellon, citigroup, goldman sachs, jpmorgan chase, morgan stanley, state street corporation and wells fargo and company will be covered under this new rule. they are designed to help protect these banks in another financial crisis and avoid future taxpayer bailouts, though the banks argue the rules will curtail lending and saddle them with higher costs. melissa? melissa: peter, thanks so much. so back to the markets. they are alive. stocks back in the green after three days of steep declines but what's r

peter barnes is here with more. >> to this controversy has been ratcheted up from author michael lewisdon imus this morning he charged some high-frequency computer trading rigged to the stock market for average investors. that some superfast traders can run regular trades by getting access to order information milliseconds before everyone else and unfairly profit from that. >> would it feels like it is insider trading because instead of hearing the company will acquire another you get the advance word of the price movement in the stock can can react before it everybody else. >> he said this might be illegal. gerri: it is a good point. i have to tell you most of what he said we have been saying for a while. it is no surprise but water regulators doing? >> the fbi has been looking into this also the sec chairwoman it white said her agency has a focus for quite some time on unlawful practices of high-speed trading firms. >> i cannot talk about specifics but a number of ongoing investigations regarding various market integrity in structure issues including high-frequency traders and focuse

peter barnes is here with the latest there are seven 1000's registered with the irs to prepare tax returnsn not cpa or opted not to regulated in any way with the explosion of tax preparation programs it could be a friend or a neighbor to get you help at their dining room table. with 80 million tax returns at least half from a pate prepare an estimated half of those of that is not regulated the government has tried to crack down for several years. some of them are accused of charging excessive fees a year and mistakes and outright fraud. >> is an egregious cases they calculate the refund and skip the wine that shows he did the work then after the tax payer leaves they boost the refund the thin pocket the difference. worst of all homeless the taxpayer can improve what can happen they are on the hook for the monday when the irs finds out he. >> more oversight got ammunition today from the lead gao investigators poising as waitresses it mechanics had an undercover review those that were not cpas or lawyers and in 70 cases there were refund fares ranging from getting the taxpayer $52 less or mo

fox business network's senior washington correspondent peter barnes is here tonight to tell us the federalnment is involved. >> attorney general eric holder today became the latest official to announce an investigation into a wall street practice known as high frequency trading. it allows super fast buying and selling with computers with special access to stock prices and orders in milliseconds, 1 thousandth of a second earning tiny shares of pennies which adds up given they trade up to 28 million shares a day. some firms pay stock exchanges millions for these special data feeds. high speed trading has exploded in recent years and now accounts for nearly half of stock trading today. >> practice which consists of financial brokers and trading firms using advanced computer algorithms and ultra high speed data networks to execute traits has rightly received scrutiny from regulators. >> the charge that the stock market is rigged by all of this comes from author michael lewis who once worked on wall street in his new book "flash boys." he does not claim it's illegal. in fact, he and many others

. >> peter barnes is here for janet yellen. 4:00 o'clock show with liz claman. i thought i would be part of the company, but i am a company of one. stuart: back to lauren on yahoo!. digging into allie baba. yahoo! owns what? how are they doing? >> great. the issue is the numbers are a little bit late. this is for the end of last year. $3 billion. we are talking about what could be and probably will be the biggest ipo in the u.s. yahoo! has the option to sell a 10% stake in the ipo. that will be a huge windfall for the company. stuart: thank you very much, indeed. look at the big board. 16386. that is a nice rally. just .75%. we have another rags to riches story for you coming up. the man who runs a chain of gyms. it is called retro fitness. coming up next. ♪ we asked people a question, how much money do you think you'll need when you retire? then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last. i was trying to, like, pull it a little further. [ woman ] got me to 70 years old. i'm going have to rethink

fox business network correspondent peter barnes is in washington with how precisely it's different. has caused an international uproar with his new book about the gap between the rich, the very rich, and everyone else. and he says that without some action by world leaders such as big tax increases on the wealthy, the rich are going to keep getting richer. today he's here in washington where his book is adding new fuel to the debate over income in equality here in this congressional election year. he has collected 300 years' of data on wealth and income in 20 countries and ensures that the rich will keep getting richer for a simple reason. the return on investment, on capital has averaged 4% to 5% historically while global growth, along with worker incomes, has averaged about 1.5%. so the workers will never catch up, he says, but he says in his book there are nonetheless ways democracy can regain control over cap 'titaliscapitalism. his big idea, a global tax on wealth. not a tax on earnings or income but on the assets themselves like a global property tax on the value of stocks, bon