Tdd 18003452550 can you believe it . Tdd 18003452550 i love it when you talk chart patterns. Tdd 18003452550 trade up to 6 months commissionfree tdd 18003452550 with a 50,000 deposit. Tdd 18003452550 call 18776568765 tdd 18003452550 and open an account, tdd 18003452550 now with no trade minimums. All right. Tesla shares pulling back on their comeback just again. Again elon musk telling the New York Times review fake. Closing bell is next. Hi, everybody. Happy monday. Welcome to the closing bell. Im Maria Bartiromo at the new york stock exchange. Trying to avoid starting the week in the red. Tough job. Down 35 points. Six weeks in a row the s p was positive, but not today. 50i78 bill griffith. On todays agent, stocking trying to get back on track after what was the first losing week of the dow. The dow hasnt closed above 14,000 since it was there on february 1st. A warning of two potential road be blocks for the market and the economy. Huge automatic spending cuts set to kick in and an increase in the price of gasoline. The president s top economic adviser spurling here on both issues. By the way probably the biggest story of the day. Is your bourbon being watered down . A big scandal involving makers mark is unfolding. I know youre a wild turkey drinker, but makers mark, well have the latest on the story they are watering down their bourbon. What . Yeah, what . Lets check as we approach the final stretch. The Dow Jones Industrial average down 35 points. Off of the worst levels which happened at about 10 00 a. M. This morning. Nasdaq composite similar pattern. Also off of the worst. S p 500 looks like this. As you can see there, flat on the session. Down about two points. With less than an hour to go in the trading day, the dow cannot seem to pick up the pieces after snapping that fiveweek winning streak last week. Is that reason enough for investors to take money off the table right now . Lets talk about that today. Dani back with us here. And we got Rick Santelli in chicago with us as well. Time to take profits . You know, people are saying a the the market right now is taking a breather. I think its holding its breath. Weve been in a narrow trading range and weve got a couple things happening this week that are very disconcerning to investors. Like . Tomorrow we have the president s state of the union address. We want to hear whats going to happen with sequestration and the debt ceiling. Then on wednesday morning, we also have core retail sales. Thats going to give an indication of what the Consumer Trend might be. Is the consumer in the same field of flowers and unicorns and daisies that the u. S. Equity investor is in . I think thats probably what were going to see. Already were not seeing a lot of alternatives for folks money other than stocks because of the low rate environment. Andrew, how are you investing right now . Well, were probably going to go ahead and move in this market. Looks like the pullback is more likely 1650 back to these levels. So more than likely now is probably the time to ease into the market. Youve got tremendous momentum and breath here. Youre fighting the tape, as they say. This is probably the time to deploy. Meanwhile, Rick Santelli, the race to the bottom of the currency markets was interrupted today. Horror of horrors. Japanese officials saying they dont want the currency to go much lower. And the euro moving higher as well today. Once you put that machine in motion, i dont know if you can stop it. And bill, i find it so telling you have so much more outrage about a makers mark liquidity injection than the feds liquidity injections. Whats your point . Thats a story for another day. Because thats not good for either. A 20year chart of the dollar index looks like its going to be going at these levels for awhile. They look like theyre going to stay low for awhile. But a 20year chart of the dow is a technicians dream. Double top or no double top, in for a penny, in for a pound. It totally explains investors behavior. Theyre waiting around to see if it is a double top or it punches through. Its interesting. Looking at the charts, people are trying to figure out if weve come too far too fast. Youre looking at taking some money off the table just because of fundamentals. In a sense. But i also think theres some great places where you should stay put. There are some great yielding companies out there. For example, ge pays 3. 4 yield. The stock is down. Intels another good example. 4. 3 . Their dividends more than doubled since 2007. Absolutely stay with them. And you may even when this market does back off which it will. Were going to hit a a wall at some point. Weve got to deploy more capital. The question weve been asking here, andrew, is the catalyst if were going to get the double top that rick was pointing out on the chart there, were wondering what the catalyst could be that would send this market lower. Dani has talked about what shes looking for this week. What are potential benchmarks youre waiting to happen . Well, youve been through earning season, the lions share of it. Going into the rest of this year, youre going to look at earnings margins. How much are they going to deteriorate. And it looks like theyre kind of hanging in there. So that part of the worry isnt there yet. The second worry is going to be any policy coming out of the state of the union tomorrow. Anything that would tell the markets something adverse for assets. Thats going to be a problem. Then finally youre looking at emerging markets, international markets. Hows the heart beat there. Whats going on . Is it 100 proof . The growth in the markets abroad and not being watered down. So thats those are the things youre watching for. I am seeing a theme here today. Rick santelli, if currencies are destined to continue lower especially the euro, wouldnt that be good for the u. S. Stock market . You know what . If its a byproduct that the dollar ends up better off because of what i perceive to be an escalating relationship between currencies like the pound, the euro, and the yen, then im happy. Ive always thought like ben like mr. Ruben, a strong dollar policy is in e u. S. s best interest. I think its a good thing. For us anyway. Yeah. Andrew, what about you . In terms of currencies away from stocks, any interest . Yeah. We still have a nice position in gold. We do like commodities for the long haul. We do believe part of the strategy is reflating our ways out of these problems. And we also still like the mlks Master Limited partnerships. Thats a tremendous growth space. We still like those investments at this time. All right. Well leave it there. Thanks, everybody. We appreciate it. Well see you soon. Weve got Big Technology names in the news today. Lets check on those stocks. Lets go to josh lipton. Hey, maria. A roundup today in big tech today. Google slipping today as the Company Reported its former chief executive is selling some 42 of its google stake would could net him 2. 5 million. And apple up after reports that the iphone maker is exteermting with the design of a device similar to a wristwatch. Tim cooke will be speaking tomorrow at the Goldman Sachs tech conference in san francisco. And blackberry dropped. The company formally known as research in motion reportedly losing a big customer. Home depot transitioning some 10,000 employees to iphone. And well staff with mr. Softy today. Microsoft surface pro is in short supply. Microsoft said there was Strong Customer desire. And it was sold out almost immediately. Stores only received a few of the tablets. Back to you. Thank you is much. Controversy today around elon musks tesla. Musk saying the New York Times claim saying the battery is bad in cold weather is bogus. Hes on the phone right now. Good to have you on. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. Weve seen the article. What are you saying against this article . That they have the wrong information . Yeah. I mean, essentially the we think the article is something of a setup. Its pretty unreasonable. I dont want to paint the whole New York Times as being problematic, but i do think that this writer and this particular article really is misleading. What could you tell us about the battery then to offset whats being printed today . Well, when we downloaded our vehicle logs after the test drive, he had not charged up to the maximum charge in the car. Essentially its like starting off a drive with a tank thats not full. And then instead of driving to the next charger location, there was an extended detour through manhattan. And and it also showed that at times he was driving very fast. In some cases ten miles or more above the speed limit. When you drive really fast, the range decreases. When you factor in those three things, its to be expected that youre not going to make it from one charge to the next. And we warned him you cant do these things. Right. With all due respect, mr. Musk, who doesnt drive a tesla faster than the speed limit, but thats another issue. Im intrigued by the word setup you used there in your first answer. Do you feel this blogger who had this story being set up . Was he setting it up . I mean, was this is deliberate fabrication in your view of how this was portrayed . You never know for sure in these things, but i would say that its more likely than not. We explicitly said to do this trip he needs to make sure hes fully charged when he starts up, that he doesnt take detours, and that he drives at a reasonable speed. Im not talking about some ridiculously low speed. Im talking about, you know, at least not too far above the speed limit. And none of those three things were done. So if somebodys explicitly asked to take reasonable actions in a test drive and then blatantly doesnt, what conclusion is one supposed to reach . But it seems like these two things, going faster than the speed limit, taking a different route as what the plan is, it seems that that is opening a sort of a can of worms right there to say if you make any detour to what you expected, the batterys not working. So it seems vulnerable. No. Just by those three things youre pointing out. No. I mean, its just like if you had a gas tank car. If you only filled up part way and instead of driving to your destination you meandered through Downtown Manhattan and the traffic and everything and then raced to where you were originally to go and you ran out of gas, people would just think youre a fool. Sure. Im intrigued im intrigued that youre responding as you are. This suggests to me that you feel that i mean, obviously were looking at your stock which was down today perhaps on this New York Times article. But do you feel this could do damage to the tesla brand . Well, i do. And the thing is, this article obviously the New York Times has huge distribution and comes with a great deal of authority. And i think for the most part that its warranted. But there are times when it is not. There are times when the New York Times has, well, published articles that are less than accurate. And its well known situations like that. And i think unfortunately this is one of those cases. I dont want to paint i dont think all articles in the New York Times are misleading. I think most of them are quite accurate and they take great pains to be accurate. Right. But if theyre making a claim about the tesla that it is not in fact including some of these other issues that youre pointing out, i think its important that you do point them out. In terms of the charge, how do you know he didnt charge to me mark . Because whenever we do media test drives we do detailed logging. This is not turned on unless we get written permission. Were sensitive to privacy and we dont do this with any customer cars unless they give us written permission with a signature. We understand. But for media test drives, after we had a really bad experience a few years ago with top gear where top gear pretended that our car ran out of charge and had to be pushed home and then we looked at the vehicle logs and it turned out that it had Something Like 50 miles of range left. They basically just faked it. After that really negative experience sure. Youre going to check on things. Exactly. Were going to verify it. Got it. Elon musk, good to have you on the program. Thanks so much. Thanks for having me. Youre probably wondering, cnbc did reach out to the New York Times journalist. If he will be on today, well have his side of the story. It seems there are things that were missing before the piece. Love to hear johns side of the story. Weve got 45 minutes before the closing bell. Down just 20 points on the industrial average. Coming up, its not your grandfathers Exchange Traded fund. Are creative etfs worth the gamble . And jake bogle is also with us. And hes not a fan of the more creative etfs. Stay tuned to that warning from the father of the etf fund. Whats worse if you prove it is a mistake you have about 0 chance of having it corrected. Well talk to an attorney and the attorney general taking on the credit agencies. Plus bad news for your mint julep. Your old fashioned. Your manhattan. They may be watered down with less alcohol in them. Horror. But still costing the same . Is that legal . This developing story is getting a lot of buzz and we are on top of it coming up. Yeah. The buzz. [ male announcer ] this is not my home. There. I said it. They dont have pictures of my kids. They dont have my yoga mat. And still, i feel at home. Could it be the flat screen tv . The not so mini fridge . The different free dinner almost every weeknight . Or maybe, its all of the above. And all the rest. Am i home . Nope. But it almost feels that way. Homewood suites by hilton. Be at home. To deposit checks from anywhere. [ wind howling ] easier than actually going to the bank. Mobile check deposit. Easier banking. Standard at citibank. Okay. [ male announcer ] with citibanks popmoney, dan can easily send money by email right from his citibank account. Nice job ben. [ male announcer ] next up, the gutters. Citibank popmoney. Easier banking. Standard at citibank. Our allday special coverage on Exchange Traded funds continues now from the largest etf conference in hollywood, florida. Etfs grew by more than 20 last year and they have over 1 trillion in assets right now. As the industry continues to grow, its opening access to more exotic and riskier markets that were otherwise difficult to access for the individual investor out there. And its these types of etfs to give jack bogle pause. Steve sachs runs the types of etfs jack is concerned about. Gentlemen, good to have you on the program. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. Jack, to you first. You like some etfs, but not all etfs. I like some etfs, maria, with some with particular purposes. If you want to buy and hold the u. S. Stock market or bond market or international markets, buying and holding it here at vanguard, were indifferent on the etf or the Traditional Index Fund we have. Performance will be identical in this. And theyre matching indexes. So if as long as you dont succumb, theyre not quite the same because investors move money around a bit too much here. Steve, ive been doing this long enough that ive seen some fads come and go. I can think of the closed in country funds that were so hot in the early 1990s. And i cant find one these days. I guess theyre still out there somewhere. Make the case that an etf is not the current fad. That it will eventually fade away. Well, bill, you know, its a good question. But youve got to remember that the etf is just the wrapper. Within that wrapper is the strategy that youre trying to employ in your portfolio. And we have 10,000 mutual funds in the country. The fact its just the strategy. And forget about the fact of the wrapper. You need a understand the wrapper. No doubt about it. And you certainly need to educate yourself as an informser. But what you need to focus on first is am i deploying the right strategy for my portfolio . Lets talk about those strategies. I think there are plenty of etfs out there that are plain vanilla. When you say wrapper youre calling them basically a type of etf. If you want to buy dividend payers, emerging markets, whatever. Talk about the etfs that are leveraged. What are they and you offer some leveraged etfs, right . Yeah, we do actually. Pro shares is the leading alternative etf company. Within the alternative landscape and buckets, we view levered geared as we call it a bucket of the alternative landscape. Its like any other Portfolio Management tool. The use of leveraged first and foremost from our product perspective is used as a Risk Management tool. Give an example. Investors use our geared etfs to manage the risks within their portfolio. If youre long equities and you want to reduce your exposure, say the market has moved like in the last couple months. Using an inversed level but why would i want to use something that sounds complicated . Other than i just dont buy an etf or sell my etfs . Absolutely. But again, you got to think about it in terms of the portfolio youre managing, what type of investor you are. Maybe you cant reduce your equity exposure. Maybe theres Tax Implications for you doing that or from your longterm investment perspective youre trying to manage risk in the shortterm or immediate term. Bob, youve been covering this for awhile. Youve seen a proliferation of all kinds of etfs now. Theyre not just plain vanilla, are they . Yeah. I think the question is whether these types of whatever you want to call them more exotic tieps of etfs that jacks concerned with. Im concerned with them too. Volatility etfs are appropriate for individual investors. Steve, why dont you tell us who uses leveraged and inverse etfs. What kind of investor uses your products and what percentage of your products are used by Retail Investors and do you think its appropriate for them to use these . Absolutely, bob. Generally speaking as i mentioned before institutional investors, professional investors, people who are managing money for other people. So people who are professionals in the investment game and the investment strategy, you know, arena. The fact of the matter is we do have individual investors that use our products. We think generally speaking that class of investor is a highly sophisticated and highly educated investor. Make no mistake. Our products are not for every investor in the market place. You have to educate yourself and do the work and we recommend every individual investor seem out a financial professional like here in this Conference Today to help them manage their portfolios. Jack, isnt that the issue right now, then . Its a matter of doing the Due Diligence as steve admits. His leveraged etfs are not for everybody. Youre concerned about the existence of these things in the hands of individual investors who have no business being in them. But if they do the Due Diligence, they would realize that on their own, wouldnt they . Thats a big if, i think, bill. Investors traditionally look at past performance and largely past performance, anyway. And make their choices. What we havent talked about here which is really central to this whole etf question is the issue of you guessed it. Cost. Because if you have a high cost, say 1 , which i think is not far from what the profund is happening to charge. You have no way management can beat that. Because these are index funds. So you lose your index almost by definition if you do your indexing properly by 1 a year. In over five years or ten years, thats a killer. Jack, isnt that isnt that, jack, the very reason etfs has taken from market funds . Yes. Most of the etfs are lower. The Vanguard Funds are the same, but most of the other etfs are now trying to compete with us. And so etf costs are generally lower. All right. But the profunds charge 1 . Thats extremely high for this business. Vanguard averages. 1 . So you have to lose. You have to lose by definition. And thats the bottom line. We got to go, bob. Can i get last one question . Sorry. Thats why the funds have been so popular. They are transparent and much lower fees as opposed to mutual funds. Go online, get more exclusive content from inside the conference. Well talk about the growing showdown between etfs and mutual funds. Well tell you how price wars are heating up in the industry. Check it out on etf. Cnbc. Com. Full disclosure here. My husband is the ceo and founder of the seventh largest etf provider. We have 40 minutes before the close on the dow jones down 20 points. What do Carnival Cruise lines and boeing have in common . Fire and bad press. Carnival dealing with an engine room fire right now. Boeing still trying to figure out the dreamliner battery fire problem. But is the stock hot right now . Look at them coming up. Also eric schmidt selling 2. 5 billion of google stock. Holy cow. But we want to know what you think hes planning to do with all that money. Tweet us cnbcclosingbell. Im a conservative investor. But that doesnt mean i dont want to make money. I love making money. I try to be smart with my investments. I also try to keep my costs down. Whats your plan . Ishares. Low cost and tax efficient. Find out why nine out of ten large professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. Ishares by blackrock. Call 1800ishares for a prospectus which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. Read and consider it carefully before investing. Risk includes possible loss of principal. More likes. More tweets. So, beginning today, my son brock and his whole team will be our new senior social media strategists. Any questions . Since we make radiator valves wouldnt it be better if we just let fedex help us to expand to new markets . Hmm gotta admit thats better than a few likes. I dont have the door code. Whos that . He won a contest online to be ceo for the day. How am i supposed to run a business here without an office . [ male announcer ] fast, reliable deliveries worldwide. Fedex. [ male announcer ] fast, reliable deliveries worldwide. All stations come over to mithis is for real this time. Step seven point two one two. Verify and lock. Command is locked. Five seconds. Three, two, one. Standing by for capture. The most Innovative Software on the planet. Dragon is captured. Is connecting todays leading companies to places beyond it. Siemens. Answers. announcer at scottrade, our cexactly how they want. T with scottrades online banking, i get one view of my bank and brokerage accounts with one login. To easily move my money when i need to. Plus, when i call my local scottrade office, i can talk to someone who knows how i trade. Because i dont trade like everybody. I trade like me. Im with scottrade. announcer scottrade. Awarded fivestars from smartmoney magazine. Welcome back. Two big companies, two scary problems. Carnival is dealing with a ship with a fire. Boeing trying to deal with the issue of the growned dreamliners. Lets talk numbers on this story. We have carter worth and steve cortez. Good to see you. Carter, what about the charts. What looks better to you . We like boeing here. Carnivals had a big move. 30 up the last year. And longterm if you look at the pattern its in nowheres ville. But boeing it stays at 75. Takes the hits well. We think it breaks out here. A lot of tension, that fiveyear chart. Thats where the opportunity is we think. Steve, thoughts on boeing . I tend to agree with carnival. But i think boeing is in a lot of trouble here. One, whats not in the news right now about the 787 but what i think is coming which is labor strike. Theyre voting right now. I think theyll opt to choose a showdown. We could have a strike shortly for boeing at a most inopportune time. The second thing i would point out is boeings price performance. Up double digit percentage in the new year. So i think if you want to be in transports, any name but boeing makes a lot of sense. Boeing acts poorly on a relative basis. That is the opportunity which is to say its had a lot of bad news. Not up but not down either. As things hit one day after another. And i do think theres more bad news to come. I think the other thing will be out of washington, d. C. Defense stocks lately have done very well into last year. But over the last couple weeks Lockheed Martin did poorly. I also think the defense segment of boeing is a place to be very careful as we get into sequestration round two. Was there anything that would make you buy boeing here . What would it be to change your mind . A far thrower price. Always interesting me. If it declines from here, id get interested. See, that would scare me away. Lower price, id say you can have it. Well leave it there. Thanks so much. See you soon. All right. Were heading towards the closing bell. The dow is down 21 points. The s p has been down every monday so far this year. Thats five trading weeks, but still. But were close to going break even. Well watch towards the close here. Meanwhile, a study finds 40 million americans have mistakes on their Credit Reports. The agency wont fix them even when shown the proof they are mistakes. Well talk about that. And mike dewine is with us next. If that story gets you angry, you havent heard anything yet. One major bourbon maker is literally watering down its booze and charging you the same price. Later on the clb. Tdd 18003452550 when im trading, im totally focused. Tdd 18003452550 tdd 18003452550 and the streetsmart edge Trading Platform from charles schwab. Tdd 18003452550 gives me tools that help me find opportunities more easily. Tdd 18003452550 i can even access it from the cloud and trade on any computer. Tdd 18003452550 and with schwab mobile, tdd 18003452550 i can focus on trading anyplace, anytime. 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Jackie, tell me why somebody should bring theyre car here to the ford dealership for service instead of any one of those other places out there. They are going to take care of my car because this is where it came from. Price is right no problem, they make you feel like youre a family. Get a Synthetic Blend Oil change, tire rotation and much more, 29. 95 after 10. 00 rebate. If you take care of your car your car will take care of you. Did you know theres a 20 chance that you have a mistake on your Credit Report . And did you know that you have a near 0 chance of getting that error corrected . Its all part of a new government report that has been raising eyebrows today. Eamon javers has the latest. We know how important your Credit Rating can be. Forget buying a house or a car. Take a look at this new study looking at the rates of errors on peoples Credit Ratings. 5 had an error on their Credit Rating report that was significant enough to effect the rating itself. Now, those errors could mean higher costs for loans and for insurance for those consumers. And one in five had an error corrected. They only found four out of five saw a modification although we know that process can be maddeningly difficult for a lot of consumers. We talked to all three of the major Credit Rating agencies. We have a report from experian. We believe it confirms that Credit Reports are predominantly accurate and serving lenders and consumers well. The vast majority of errors on Credit Reports have no bearing on Credit Scores for example outdated information on a consumers phone number and the like. For those consumers caught in that trap where there are errors, they can find it very difficult to get those removed and get a clean report in order to move on with all the Financial Transactions in their lives. Back to you. All right. Thank you so much. Ohio attorney general mike dewine is taking the ftc report a step further. Hes opening an investigation into the Credit Reporting industry saying they are breaking the law. He joins us now to lay out the facts as he sees them. Welcome back. You say these Credit Reporting agencies are breaking the law. This is a violation of the fair Credit Reporting act. Is that what youre saying . Absolutely theyre violating the law. My office got involved in this after a series done by the Columbus Dispatch where they really laid out what the problem is. And the problem is that the system that has been designed by these Credit Reporting agencies who are making so much money, the system is designed not to get at the truth. They have a huge error rate as you heard, but the bigger problem is when you point out the error to them, it is virtually impossible to get them to fix it. And thats really what the problem is. Yeah. But we contacted all three major Credit Report agencies and they directed us to their trade association which issued a statement in response to the ftc report. That did not address how to fix the problems. But they did say 88 of errors were the result of inaccurate information reported by lenders and other data sources to National Credit bureaus. What do you say to all of that . Well, dont you think its interesting they wont talk directly to you . They wouldnt talk directly to 60 minutes last night. They wont respond. The only way theyll respond is by a statement. Theyve set up a system. Imagine if you were someone who had an error and you knew there was an error and you put all your information, you and your spouse put all your information together and ship it off to the Credit Reporting agency. You know what they do with it . They send it they scan it, then they send all that information to india or to chile and someone takes all that information, reduces it just to a little code, and that code then goes sent back to the furnisher of the original information. Heres the question i have. I saw that theres no way thats going to work. Well, i understand that. But heres the question i have. How did we find ourselves in this position . I mean, we realize that those three Credit Reporting agencies have such power over our lives and our ability to borrow money and our financial future, but you know, we know the system apparently is broken based on this ftc report, but it is very broken if were to believe the 60 minutes report last night, if we are to believe what youre stating after your investigations and this ftc report. How did we find ourselves this far down the highway . Well, thats a very good question. And i think its something that Congress Needs to look at. They are not following the congressional law. The law says clearly when you make a complaint and say you got my information wrong, they have to do an investigation. Ive been in Law Enforcement and doing investigations for a long time. What they do isnt even close to an investigation. Its laughable. So i think, you know, were going to continue our investigation. I Hope Congress will take a look at this as well. Its just a travesty. It really is. It effects millions of people. It effects their lives. So what where are you in your investigation then . Whats the next step . And how far do you seek to go . Well, were working were talking with other attorney generals across the country. I really cant get into that in detail, but i will tell you were going to stay on this. What we found is in the past attorney generals working together collectively collecting power in different offices can get results for consumers. But i think we need to take a dual track. Congress needs to look back at why the law is not being followed as well. Very quickly, sir then what do consumers need to know now while all the investigations are going on . Do they have recourse . Or what can they do to help themselves . Ironically, they do. They can contact their attorney general. And what we have found is that if they contact the attorney general and we are the ones who go to bat for them, these companies have a vip program. And theyll give us answers. But if youre the average citizen and dont go through your attorney general or dont go through your senator or congressman, youre just out to lunch. And youre not going to be able to get any kind of result. So i would advise anyone, contact your Attorney Generals Office and youll be able to get some results that way. All right. Well leave it there. Great to have you on the program. Thank you so much. We appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Were in the final stretch of trading for the day. 20 minutes before the market closes. 16 points down on the industrial average. Google executive eric schmidt is planning to sell 2. 5 billion of his companys stock. Do you have any guesses as to what he might do with the cash . Well get to your responses there. And teslas elon musk calling in moments ago to refute a New York Times report on the car. We are waiting on a response from the times. Stay with us. [ male announcer ] this is not my home. There. I said it. They dont have pictures of my kids. They dont have my yoga mat. And still, i feel at home. Could it be the flat screen tv . The not so mini fridge . The different free dinner almost every weeknight . Or maybe, its all of the above. And all the rest. Am i home . Nope. But it almost feels that way. Homewood suites by hilton. Be at home. Its delicious. So now weve turned her toffee into a business. My goal was to take an idea and make it happen. Im janet long and i formed my Toffee Company through legalzoom. I never really thought i would make money doing what i love. [ robert ] we created legalzoom to help people start their business and launch their dreams. Go to legalzoom. Com today and make your business dream a reality. At legalzoom. Com we put the law on your side. You know my heart burns for you. Im up next, but now im singing the heartburn blues. Hold on, prilosec isnt for fast relief. Cue up alkaseltzer. It stops heartburn fast. Oh what a relief it is lets take a look at this. What did i just say to you . Repeat what you just said to me. The swim suit models just showed up. Theyre going to ring the closing bell and i said that will give a lift to the markets here. And what happened . So the s p 500 is positive now. He said that should give the market a rise. Thats how i said it. Thats what you said. Its up. 3 now. The s p has been lower every monday so far this year. Well see if that pattern is broken today. Now, are they wearing swim suits . They are not. You have not seen them yet . There they are. Theyre over there. Lets check it out. Everybody probably knows now the new swim suit issue from Sports Illustrated will be out tomorrow. These are young ladies in that issue. And theyre ringing the closing bell. And they are approaching now to ring that bell. So we will bring you more as we have it. Hard hitting news. Well, theyre giving autographs. Google executive eric schmidt already a billionaire and hes about to get a lot more liquid. Jon fortt with the details on that. Yes, he is. As of the beginning of the year, schmidt had 7. 6 million shares of google stock. Hes planning to sell up 2. 5 billion worth. The trading plan allows him to diversify his portfolio over the course of the year. When he said hed be more concerned if the current ceo or cfo owed. Will play less central role going forward. From the sidelines got to say, thats what it looks like. Running google is your fulltime job, it makes sense to sell doesnt make sense to sell 40 of your stake. But if in a year or two hell be nonexecutive chairman or take a less active role, he would need some money to pursue other ventures. Well, i dont know what schmidts plans are, but it is clear the company is taking different kinds of risks than when he was ceo. Investing in nexus hardware, projects like google glass. All right, jon. Thank you so much. We asked and you tweeted about this. We asked what you thought eric schmidt should do with that cash. Heres some responses. C. Adams says pay a lot of tacks. Should have done it last year. Hes a little late on that. Thats a good point. Victor tweets he will buy a stake in blackberry. Thats a good one. Wouldnt cost much. And another says he should take the money and buy undervalued shares of apple. Thanks again for tweeting in. Send your comments o on cnbcclosingbell. All right. About 15 minutes to go. And the dow is still down 12 points. The s p down a fraction right now. Despite the pullback in stocks today, our next guest says equities are the least of all evils right now. Thats Michael Thompson with us. Also, makers mark is leaving a sour taste in some peoples mouths. Get this. The company is watering down its bourbon and keeping prices the same. And this news is not going down very well at all. That story coming up later on the closing bell. [ engine turns over ] [ male announcer ] we created the luxury crossover and kept turning the page, writing the next chapter for the rx and lexus. This is the pursuit of perfection. Welcome back. U. S. Stocks taking a pause today after hitting a high last week. But Michael Thompson says equities is the least of all evils out there. He joins us along with david kelly. Mike, youre not alone in this questioning but i wonder if its a reason to buy simply because you say its the only game in town. Well, i think does that make a valid investment then . Its not the only reason in town, but it is an important reason. You cant you have theres a demographic shift going on where people theres a pile of wealth that has to be invested. If it doesnt, theres a problem. Thats first. But you have a tepid yet seemingly recovery that barring any shock, youre going to end up with the 7 earnings growth. From 14 to 15. That gives you 10 . To be honest with you, again, its the lesser of evils. David kelly, what do you think . You want to put new money to work here . Yes, i do. I think its important to get money that should have been at work all along into the markets. Theres about 10 trillion today sitting in cash. What we know is cash is paying you zero with an underlying about 2 . So youre earning a negative return right now. I think people think they avoid risk by not being in markets. But the truth is they run risk if the money is running out. So i think equities are about fair value. But bonds are expensive. Cash is expensive. David, youre the global strategist. Were in the midst of the beginning stages of a currency war. As everybody races to the bottom. Japan, europe, everybody including the United States here. Is that good or bad for equities . I think its generally bad. This is so overmedicated this global economy. Europeans are trying to do a lot of Different Things on monetary fiscal policy. The jpss trying to push currency down. If everyone tries to push their currency down, nobody succeeds. I think it is generally negat e negative. I think the narcotics would do better if they did less to try and help them. Let me ask you about that, mike. Is there a real Downside Risk to all of this . I mean, i understand that its the lesser of all evils because there just arent any alternatives to stocks. But what is the Downside Risk of the Federal Reserve sort of manipulating this situation and creating an environment where there arent any alternatives . Aside from the fact that the fed has basically bullied the market out of the setting of Interest Rates and basically taken over a lot of the key things . Yeah. I think the one good thing is that you know, the theme that would spook the market is if the fed did a turn and said were going to withdrawal capital. I dont think thats going to happen. If you look at distribution of debt, they can let this roll off and still control it. As a philosophical argument to be made of when are they going to let this thing go off of kind of support . But i think if you avoid the shocks, i think youre okay. The look. This is an ideal. This is what we have to work with. So there is danger, but i dont think i think again the path to the least amount of danger. One thing to add to daifts comments. U. S. Companies tend to do really well as long as the u. S. Currency continues to be cheaper. All right. Thank you, guys. Good to see you both. Thanks for joining us today. Appreciate it very much. Up next, the New York Times now responding to elon musk about his claim that the newspapers test drive of a new highend electric tesla was bogus. Phil lebeau will have the latest on that. Then the threat of massive spending cuts hanging over the market, coming up ill talk to Gene Sperling from the white house today. They want more revenue. Representative tom cole says more taxes are off the table. Is there any hope of a compromise to be reached . Back in a moment. , you should know that axiron is here. The only underarm treatment for low t. Thats right, the one you apply to the underarm. Axiron is not for use in women or anyone younger than 18. Axiron can transfer to others through direct contact. Women, especially those who are or who may become pregnant, and children should avoid contact where axiron is applied as unexpected signs of puberty in children or changes in body hair or increased acne in women may occur. Report these signs and symptoms to your doctor if they occur. 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How am i supposed to run a business here without an office . [ male announcer ] fast, reliable deliveries worldwide. Fedex. [ 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. Its not rocket science. Its just common sense. From td ameritrade. If you only knew what goes on behind the scenes sometimes here. Weve got two minutes left in the trading day. The apple story i got to tell you quickly