robert frank is live with the details. robert?they have been an amazing investment for big gross, selling a part of his collection, which is considered the largest and most valuable in the country today, about 300 lots, expected to sell for about $2 million or more. as you can see, the sale is going still going on. some lots sold for twice their estimated sale price. how does bill do it? first of all, he buys the best and he's not afraid to pay full price. paying $3 million for a single stamp a few years ago has proven to be a good investment. do your homework. he aplayed some of the same models from bonds to stamps. he looks back 75 years to figure out which stamps will appreciate and hold their value. finally, he believes that you should sell once in a while and encourage other people to collect. he's going to give the proceeds for today's auction to doctor's without borders. so bill gross doing good with what has turned out to be a great investment. >> and i love that he's collected these for so long. robert, thank you. >> more

let's get to a very artistic and very cultured man himself, robert frank. what are the details?mandy. you know this skit reminds us just how valuable these great works of art have become, not just to collectors, but also to museums, like the met. giving 78 works of art to the met, valued at more than $1 billion. there was no official bidding war for these pieces, but you can bet a lot of museums were stalking these works. that's because there simply aren't. great works of art up for grabs. most are already in museums or private collections that are pledged to museums. robert black, financier, playing $120 million for the screen and the met, the momah. and this supply/demand issue is one reason we're bound to see record surpriprices in the spri auctions in manhattan this spring. >> it's just amazing. what does it say about the art market? >> well, i think the art market is bit like stocks right now. there's just money, a lot of money. they're printing more dollars, not making more picassos or la jeres and that must be needs a place to go. >> thank you very much for joining us, ro

for cnbc, i'm robert frank. >>> it's noon on the east coast. time for the halftime report. >>> thanks so much. welcome to "the halftime report." let's take a look at where we stand on this friday on wall street. there's the picture. it is red arrows across the board. modest losses for the major averages. here's what we're following on the half. $800 billion worth of advice. no. $800 billion worth of advice. maybe it is $800 billion. it is. the heavy weight tells us where the best opportunities are in the markets right now. penny seeking dollars. new details about how the company is trying to fix its financial situation. it was a story cnbc broke earlier today, and the stock is on the move. first, our top story. can earnings keep the rally going? the first of the big bank reports out this morning to mixed reviews. stocks are mostly lower, but are coming off their best four-day run of the we're. what's the best setup for next week? we're trading the action from right here with steven weiss. john, mike, and joe. joe, set us up for next week. what

robert frank has more of today's auction and who's behind it. >> bill gross is best known as the bond king, but the billionaire bond trader and founder of pimco is also america's stamp king and today, he had a huge trading day in stamps. >> sold in 650 to bidder 654. >> bill gross sold more than 300 lots from his collection today at an auction for charity. that is a tiny slice of his collection, which is far and away the largest and most valuable collection in the u.s. some lots sold for more than twice the original estimate. a few lots sold for more than $60,000 each. >> this sale certainly attracted a lot of attention because a lot of this material hasn't been on the market in literally decades and it also helps this mr. gross is dpifing the proceeds to charity. >> as a collectible, they have great investments. stamps returning more than 200% over ten years. better than art, wine and even stocks, but it takes expertise to buy the right stamps at the right price. >> quality and rarity are the two things that you want and to get both together, that's what somebody wants, ten years fro

thank you so much, robert frank. will the dow and s&p close out the week on a high note?ur panel will be up next telling you what to be prepared for tomorrow. trade knows our clients trade and invest their own way. with scottrade's smart text, i can quickly understand my charts, and spend more time trading. their quick trade bar lets my account follow me online so i can react in real-time. plus, my local scottrade office is there to help. because they know i don't trade like everybody. i trade like me. i'm with scottrade. (announcer) scottrade. voted "best investment services company." but at xerox we've embraced a new role. working behind the scenes to provide companies with services... like helping hr departments manage benefits and pensions for over 11 million employees. reducing document costs by up to 30%... and processing $421 billion dollars in accounts payables each year. helping thousands of companies simplify how work gets done. how's that for an encore? with xerox, you're ready for real business. >>> welcome back. 30 seconds on the clock. our panel is here now

robert frank is back on set with some details. do i really want to see this? >> oh, yes.l is $1 billion medieval wedding. sean parker, the facebook billionaire s going to marry his fiancee on june 1st. the "new york post" reporting that invitations went out on antique scrolls. parker's emerged as the partier in chief of silicon valley. we showed you the mansion in new jersey where he had an engagement party. this is auld stone mansion. 30,000 square foot house. they had ice sculptures and a concert. there was also his recent halloween party which cost around $150,000 where sean dressed up as justin timberlake. we'll see if he dresses up as john snow or other characters for this latest wedding. it's going to be in the big sur in the forest. have that nice, foggy medieval aura to it. >> bull markets, the graveyards are littered with parties that were huge and big and later parodied because of where they fell in "the times." >> that's a sign to me that the big markets are back. that steve schwarzman party got so much criticism -- >> and then the dot-com boom? >> yes. and sea

our wealth editor robert frank now has more. . >> hey, tyler, a huge trading day for bill gross. we're talking about stamps, about 300 lots going up for sale today. theablying is still going on. it's going to go on until 5:00 p.m. some lots fetching more than twice the estimates. a lot just went for $62,000 for a single lot. some of that is because bill gross is such a smart collector. people want to buy from him, but it's also because stamps have been an incredible investment over the past ten years, yielding 216%, 72% over five years, better than art, better than wine, better than even stocks. stamps have been a very good investment. now what's being sold today are many of the first stamps ever issued by the postal service. again some of these are expected to fetch moran that are dln 50,000. that makes bill gross the top fh fill lat list. >>> the interest rates on student loans are about to double later this year. should the government be profiting from their financial burden? that's part of our power rundown, when we return. >

. >> marc, hey, it's robert frank.mportant point that outside 5% of the financial assets were owned by the top 5%. i think it's closer to 80% by the top 10%. either way, what do you think is the problem with having so much financial assets in the hands of so few and where does that lead us? what could the ultimate problem b. what do you think could go wrong with that rising inequality, if you look at what happened in cyprus and we can debate whether it was fair or unfair, but people with money they will lose part of their wealth either through expropriation or higher taxation. >> do you think that can happen in the u.s.? >> yes. it can happen anywhere in the world in western democracies because you have more people that vote for a living than people that work for a living. >> how much could the wealthy lose in the u.s. if that happens? >> i think you better be prepared to lose 20% to 30%. i think you're lucky if you don't lose your life. >> that would be bad. there's no bailout for that, marc. no bailout to get you bac

in the northern part of the country and that is a factor helping to lift natural gas prices. >> robert frankll-off mean for the wealth pep that's next. goldman sachs' jan hatzius will give us his exclusive reaction to today's jobs report. >>> the jobs report is out. >> march non-farm payrolls increase by just 88,000 jobs. >> were you able to nail the number? if so, you've won this ipad case signed by the entire "squawk on the street" gang. find out if you're the lucky winner later on "squawk on the street." you can rent a car without a reservation... and without a line. now that's a fast car. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz. by going low. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 like offering schwab etfs tdd# 1-800-345-2550 with the lowest operating expenses tdd# 1-800-345-2550 in their respective lipper categories -- tdd# 1-800-345-2550 lower than ishares tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and vanguard. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and with all our etfs commission-free tdd# 1-800-345-2550 when traded online in a schwab account, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 it leaves our investors with more money to invest. tdd#

we want to get to cnbc's editor robert frank who's got story. > it is the dream team of philanthropists. carlos slim is giving $100 million to the bill gates effort to eradicate polio. now, slim was joined by five other billionaires in the cause. they include michael bloomberg, ray daalio, and prince al waleed. now, the aim of this project is to eliminate polio entirely around the world. it's going to cost around $5.5 billion for those vaccines. they've raised most of it. and the world's top billionaires are taemg up more and more in charity and business. bill gates and carlos slim are already teaming up in agricultural charities in central america. prince al waleed -- >> and besides the philanthropy and charity we're involved with mr. gates, we have a joint venture together in business. like the four season brand that we own. so it all is opportunities. when you say there's downturn, it just means there are opportunities. so always you look at any opportunity. >> and maria, just goes to show that in business and philanthropy they can both go han

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. >> also joining us wealth editor robert frank. ron, what can you -- what do you think is going through steve's mind right now? he's had so many lieutenants and other traders who have either been indicted or openly investigated. at this point they've not been able to point a finger at him directly. >> yeah. first of all, i haven't spoken to steve probably for about a year. safe to say i wouldn't know what he's thinking right now. based on what i could imagine he's thinking is that this has been a very long, drawn out process. i think they've often felt at times that they've come after s.a.c. for quite a number of years without finding any smoking guns. that obviously has changed in the last year. but when i joined the firm which was literally the week before lehman brothers collapsed, part of the process in your discussions were the increased compliance, that there was a real effort under way to make sure compliance was first and foremost at the firm. they brought in folks like harvey pitt to engage in compliance seminars. listen,

robert frank is here on set with that story.rsation with cramer. >> when it comes to revenue the irs is following the willie sutton rule, go where the money is. increasingly it is with wealthy taxpayers. new data from the irs shows tax filers making $1 million or more in income were 12 times as likely to be audited in 2011. 1 in 8 of them are audited, compared with 1 in 100 for the rest of the population. those audits have been extremely lucrative. 400,000 audits of millionaire earners brought in an additional $4.8 billion. that averaged more than $100,000 per audit. it is not to say that all the wealthy are tax cheats but a lot of additional money came from minor clerical errors or different accountings. but the irs created a special s.w.a.t. team aimed at just the rich with dozens of tax experts trained in the arts of wealthy tax avoidance. if you're wealthy, watch out. irs will be looking at your return this month very carefully. >> aren't they always supposed to be doing this? or is it not -- i don't know. are you supposed t

robert frank here for the full hour and we'll fine out why young millionaires just might be far more their parents were. got to hear that. >> first, though, some breaking news from ism services and for that we send to to rick santelli. it's a little late, but my man, 544? >> yeah. >> 54.4, that's the march read on non-manufacturing ism and the broader swat to the u.s. economy, the service sector. if we look at the adp's and the expectation for friday, its new read is 53.3 and twhafs last time, 57.2 so headline disappointing a bit and the employment index disappointing a bit more and when was the last time we had a read at 54.4? that will be the weakest since november of last year? carl, back to you. thank you so much, rick santelli on that miss. let's get a check on the markets. 54.4 was a miss, lowest since november. the estimate was 55.8 and we have lost growth fund here. s&p down about four handles to 15.66 and the nasdaq down a tough to 15.51. >> jc penney saying its ceo did not receive a bonus or stock award after what was a dismal year for the retailer. courtney reagan has the

robert frank joins us now with more. is it -- it's one of the biggest donations period.y times has that been done? >>reporte >> reporter: you know maybe about 20, 25 times in u.s. history. you're right, joe, it certainly is one of the biggest art gifts in recent history and also shes just how desperate these big museums are to capture the great art that's still in private hands. let's put some context around these numbers. if you look at this gift, the total giving to arts groups in total in 2011 was $13 billion. this gift alone accounting for about 8% total giving to arts groups in recent history. it's right up there with the walton family giving $1.2 billion to the crystal bridges museum and the $1 billion that walter anenberg gave in 1990. those paintings now probably worth two or three times that. lauder was a great classic painting collector, paintings he collected over more than 40 years. these are some of the great works from picasso, george brock. and it shows that, you know, most of the great art today is either in museums like the met or it's in the hands of pr

robert frank has today's million dollar minute. >> there are watches.n there is this. the rn18. the price tag is $1 million, but the cost of this watch isn't the only thing that's out of this world. the movement wheels are made from a meteorite. each wheel is surrounded by precious and semiprecious stone. this was not an easy watch to make. it took three

be time to shell out serious coin for an extremely rare nickel in today's million dollar minute robert frankpected to sell for 50 million times its face value. >> this is the sexiest coin of all. >> sexy? rare and really expensive may make more sense. >> we think it will earn more than $2.5 million. >> why is this nickel from 1913 so pricey? >> there's only five in the entire world. >> miss liberty was the face of five-cent coining until the early 1900s when the u.s. mint decided to change it up. >> in 1913 they switched to the buffalo design. >> this coin is not supposed to exist. it's supposed to have the buffalo design. but the mint employee printed these five specimens with the 1913 date. >> don't bother digging through your closet for another 191 liberty nickel. >> the other four are known to exist. they are in collections known to all the people in the coin collecting circles. >> and when the last known nickel hits the auction block, only one person on the planet can take it home. >> i can see buying a nice car. but a nickel? >> this coin has an amazing history. it was purchased in the

robert frank has a look at what parts of the country house the most tax cheats. icans do not cheat on their taxes but every year the irs loses hundreds of billions of dollars to returns. it turns out the cheaters tend to live in a lot of the same places. the national tax fair advocate found a lot of tax cheats live in california, especially in wealthier towns. beverly hills, newport beach ranked high, so did san francisco. outside of california, the cheating capitals are houston, texas, atlanta, and washington, d.c. northeast and midwest had among the fewest cheaters. the study found that small businesses tended to cheat the most with real estate and construction businesses having the worst record if irs is now tar getting these areas and business toes find false returns. the agency audits 100,000 returns every year but the wealthy are about 12 times as likely to be audited. where should you live if you don't want to be audited. the allusion islands in alaska, indiana and monthaven neighborhood in the bronx. back to you. >> interesting. when you say the wealthier

frank oppenheimer. founder in 1969 and brother of jay robert oppenheimer who engineered the atomic bomb. the exploratorium is a place for visitors to interact with the exhibit. with the old quarters, you could touch everything. get your hands dirty and experience scientific phenomena firsthand. >> 12 years. i love this exploratorium. you can experiment. tinker with everything. that's why it is great. >> these exhibits and aura around them inspired other centers around the world. more than 600. the exploratorium tested the theory that hands on is the best way to teach and learn science. especially in a time when science and technology are sought after national commodities. one of the greatest things you can do is watch visitors and how they laugh and smile and enjoy interacting with the exhibits we created. paul daugherty translated his knowledge of physics into displays that he says help teach science. this exhibit is about the impact of copper on magnets. >> as soon as a person comes over after interacts with it, that brings the exhibit to life. if you watch, the person comes to life as

we'll get another perspective from congressman barney frank of massachusetts and nbc news analyst roberth up next. exactly tidy. even if she gets a stain she'll wear it for a week straight. so i use tide to get out those week old stains and downy to get it fresh and soft. since i'm the one who has to do the laundry. i do what any expert dad would do. i let her play sheriff. i got 20 minutes to life. you are free to go. [ dad ] tide and downy. great on their own, even better together. [ babies crying ] surprise -- your house was built on an ancient burial ground. [ ghosts moaning ] surprise -- your car needs a new transmission. [ coyote howls ] how about no more surprises? now you can get all the online trading tools you need without any surprise fees. ♪ it's not rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. formal terrorism charges against one of the captured terrorist bombers, zocor tsarnaev won't likely be filed until tomorrow. there's been a delay. the 19-year-old was captured last night in the backyard of a watertown, massachusetts, resident. now, new video, brand new j

frank. >> caller: have you read a wonderful poem by robert hayden? a bunch of sundays? it fit well what you're saying about your father. and it's a short, wonderful poem. it begins that -- [inaudible] and put his clothes on in the blue black cold. and from then -- [inaudible] weekday weather made bank fires blaze. then he says in the poem that when the rooms are warm, you recall me. i would get up -- [inaudible] driven out the cold and feeling the -- [inaudible] but then he says later on -- [inaudible] what did i know? what did i know of love's austere and lonely offices? finish so -- so the point is, you make the point so well in your talk that your father did love you. but you didn't know that, what that love austere and lonely offices. my father and i never got along together. he lived to be 104 years old, but we never got along together. but i love what you said. and i'm glad you wrote it. republican or whatever you are. [laughter] >> guest: well, thank you very much, and you're absolutely right about the old man getting up and going to work every day, not liking it

thank you to ron, karen, frank and david that is all for now, i'll see you back here tomorrow at noon when i'm joined by robertlein. until then, follow us on twitter. "andrea mitchell reports" is coming up next. ou wear dentures you may not know it, but your mouth is under attack. food particles infiltrate and bacteria proliferate. ♪ protect your mouth, with fixodent. the adhesive helps create a food seal defense for a clean mouth and kills bacteria for fresh breath. ♪ fixodent, and forget it. we make meeting times, lunch times and conference times. but what we'd rather be making are tee times. tee times are the official start of what we love to do. the time for shots we'd rather forget, and the ones we'll talk about forever. in michigan long days, relaxing weather and more than 800 pristine courses make for the perfect tee time. because being able to play all day is pure michigan. your trip begins at michigan.org. and now it powers our latest innovation in more efficient cooling and heating. introducing the world's only solar-powered home energy system, which can cut your heating and cooling bills in half. ca

roberts has a preview of a story you'll see tomorrow night on "48 hours." >> zoo nana griga can never forget the murders of her brother and girlfriendfrank and his girlfriend kristztina furton. >> reporter: frank cbs news consultant investigated the grisly crime. >> the killers were danny lugo and adrian doorbal. guys that worked out. >> these were a bunch of meatheads. the plan was kidnap wealthy people, take everything they have and then kill them. >> reporter: judge alex ferrer tv judge alex served on the case. the case had it all. fast cars exotic dancers, torture, murder and a centerfold mod. sabina, the girlfriend of danny lugo. prosecutor gail levine. >> she was in love with danny lugo and she thought he was her cia agent. >> reporter: sabina would become a key prosecution witness eventually bringing down these fast fast. with an a-list cast the movie claims to tell the true story of the so-called gang who in real life had failed on several occasions to kidnap one of their targets. >> it would be funny if it wasn't so tragic because they're running through the yards screaming abort, abort like they were on a secret mission. >> reporter: another was played by tony shalhoub. he was tortur