Month of may in seven years. What does that say about the state of americas of discovery . It may not be as clear cut as it may seem. Stay tuned to a special report behind those numbers. Love that story. Another botch by bank of america. This time sending the wrong data to regulators making its private stock Trading Platform look larger than it actually is. This error coming a month after making a mistake in its stress test numbers that. Resulted in the banks suspending a planned dividend hike. How does this happen . And who, if anyone at bank of america should be held accountable . Well take a closer look. Cut their Trading Volume literally in half, thats how much they overstate it had consistently. Heres a good reason not to be sleepless in seat. The city council passing that 15 minimum wage, making it the highest in the nation by far so who does this really affect . How many workers . How many businesses . The answers may surprise you. I always love saying, that the answers may surprise you. You deliver it so well. In the markets, about an hour to go and the dow is off 20 points. The s p 500 is fractionally lower and the nasdaq is off 7, but if we do turn around this hour it will be record highs for the dow or s p 500. 1923 is the level on the broad index at the moment. All right. Lets talk about all of this in our Closing Bell Exchange today. We have Kimberly Foss from imperial wealth management, author of wealthy by design, and rob mar tenstein and ron weiner from rdm financial, rob morgan from v to v associates and our own rick santelli. Kim, can you hear me hock . Yeah, i got you. Oh, okay, good what. Are you expecting this market to do here . Drifting along and talking yesterday dont have a lot of volatility, just inch ever higher, moving up, new alltime highs, what are you thinking about the market right now . You know, i think were cautiously optimistic for the long term. The markets are moving higher and taking some profits, but i really think that they are looking at and waiting for the ecb numbers, the policy decision on thursday to come out. Meantime, guys, you know, the best offense is a great defense, and that is a welldiversified portfolio, globally diversified, and, you know, completely invested you know, rick santelli, today it looks like were seeing yields on the long end start to inch up a little bit, tenyear and 30year in particular. Is this how important is this in your mind . I mean, is this can we put the short squeeze, if you want to call it, of last month behind us . Well, you know, short squeeze, Short Covering, all those are very conventional wisdom phrases. I think its way easier than that. We saw yields move down to 2 hadnt 33. We have big data coming out. Wednesday jobs, thursday ecb and friday jobs and that doesnt even mention all the other data tomorrow, trade deficit, nonmanufacturing, the Service Sector ism new. I think what youre doing is youre seeing some of the most recent positions getting taken off, taking the slack out of rope, the breakout point was 2. 57, always add three basis points, 2. 57 to 2. 60 is the area we should come back, to right about where we are. Havent traded intraday at a 2. 59 yield in three weeks but today is a red letter day for another reason. I actually am pleased that the lights of Esther George talking about courage to tighten, a big research paper, came out of dallas fed, and you know what they have discovered is that when you keep rates at what they call the zlb, zero lower bound, it creates an additional amount of confusion and uncertainty and creates a negative feedback loop. Years ago traders on the floor said let me ask you this. Let me ask you this, rick, because there are people having this conversation every weekend, every night. Should somebody take the opportunity right now then to refinance or to get that 15year mortgage instead of a 30year mortgage say . Absolutely, absolutely. Were fighting over the last coconuts on gilligans island. If youre looking to refinance or buy a house, do it, but what this fed Research Says is that when you put rates at a place that is associated with crisis, people keep the crisis in their minds. Yeah. So the enemy are them. They are the enemy, and ill tell you what. I think were starting to see a sea change in this direction, and i cant tell you how optimistic that makes me that the fed is actually contemplating the courage of normalize okay Interest Rates. We will see how that works out. Ron weiner, you know, one of the reasons or maybe a main reason that the ecb is expected to cut rates on thursday, among other things, is because of the economic weakness over there but you want to look for International Exposure in your portfolio right now, right . About 13 what have we own now isnt national in our moderate portfolio, but the vast majority of our international and emerging markets comes from owning large cap u. S. Multinationals. Were real comfortable and know they are fullvalued and know they are probably not going to go through the moon and emerging markets are cheaper and europe is cheaper than the u. S. , we dont care. You know what . Its a lot safer and a lot less volatility just being in large cap u. S. But we nibble around the edges around 12 . All these low Interest Rates around europe beats me why thats so, and it scares me. Its kind of saying that theres no place else to have money and that people are a little scared or buying spanish treasuries instead of u. S. Home loans and emerging markets are moving up because of low Interest Rates. We dont think thats a good reason to invest for the long term. Well stay in the u. S. For the most part, and well stay with large cap multinationals for the must part. Rob bartonstein, what about Mortgage Rates . Are they headed up from here . Well, i can tell you i think theres a lot of reasons that weve been told for a while that Interest Rates are headed up and everyone should get ready for that. Everybody paying attention is also hearing the former fed chairman ben bernanke out on the lecture circuit telling anybody who can afford to listen that he doesnt see the fed rate getting back to its average 4 in his lifetime, an ill just remind you that hes 60 years old. I think theres a lot of other immediate pressures on rates. Rates are trending down. I think that the supply is treasuries is moderating or dwindling because of shrinking deficits in the u. S. And a whole host of our countries all the way down to japan at. 56 on 10 yields are lower Interest Rates in the u. S. I think theres pensions that have to park large chunks of cash and all of those played into the back end. We may not see rates up any time soon. Rob morgan, thats why youre weighting stocks over bonds right now, right . Absolutely, bill. I think that certainly well enter a rate hythe hike cycle at some point but it probably wont come until next year and typically in a bull market of stocks, stocks continue to rise on average a year after the rate hike so i see the bull market continuing with legs even though were near record highs and youre actually right on that. Growth or value . Well, i continue to like smallcap growth though its been really kind of a riskoff year so far and largecap value has so far done better. I think the dollar will continue to go up. That probably hurts the multinationals a little bit and helps the small caps, and i think more of what i like consistent growth is more than momentum growth. Also to friday, added 288,000 last month and. Expected are for a two handle again this time around. Do you think that the action were seeing is reflective of people positioning for a stronger number again for a strong read iing . Yes, on the surface but whether its North Carolina or the United States of america, big jobs numbers really still hide fact that we have less and less people actually working which is really the only part thats important. Back to rates and mortgages, i agree with ben myricky. Ive always agreed with him. I dont think rates are going back up, but that still doesnt mean youre supposed to dance around the raindrops on your mortgage. Even if rates do not go up, the amount that youre going to be risking if it goes down just augers to make the move sooner rather than later. All right. There you heard t. Mortgage recommendations from rick santelli. Thank you all. Good to see you. Thank you, good luck, Kimberly Foss, with the new book. Thanks for joining us today. We want to update you on a story that has the whole nation talking. Steve handlesman has more on the armys potential investigation into former prisoner of war Bowe Bergdahl. I think its beyond potential. The chairman of the joint chiefs and the pentagon confirms it says there will be what the pentagon calls an inquiry into charges of misconduct on the part of Bowe Bergdahl that allegedly led to his disappearance and being taken captive by the taliban and soldiers who served with bergdahl clearly will be all together happy to help in this inquiry. Its now a public shaming by one after another of these soldiers who are coming out. I spoke to one today, who said of the six who died during the search for bergdahl, two were his friends. He says these six would not have died, in his opinion, he says bergtdal didnt pull the trigger, the bad guys, the enemy, the taliban killed these soldiers, but it was because he said all the operations shifted into a search for Bowe Bergdahl who all the soldiers on the scene there say walked away. They said they were trained in basic training that they will never be left behind. There will be a forever search if they take their weapon and hair body armor which is why Bowe Bergdahl did not do that, left behind his weapon and walked away and there was a search anyway and six americans lost their lives. President obama in poland today aware of the controversy that leads to more lawmakers here on the hill and more in the public no doubt upset at his prisoner swap for bergdahl said, quoting the president , whatever those circumstances turn out to be, meaning the truth about why bergdahl disappeared, we still get an american soldier back if hes held in captivity period, full stop, but theres no period and no full stop, bill and kelly, on this story. Republicans up here say they will investigate, and they sense in this a an issue they can use against democrats and the president in this election year, maybe an issue thats stronger than benghazi. Back to you. Certainly pressure. Thats for sure. Steve handlesman, thanks for joining us. See you later. Heading towards the close, 40 minutes left in the trading session, any positive close for the dow or s p would be a new alltime high. Not happening yet. The dow is down 22, the s p down 1. 75 points. See if we can make a comeback and call them the comeback kids. Some of the years biggest losers are now some of the biggest losers in the Second Quarter. Dominic chu will round them up for us coming up. Stocks at or near record highs, so why does new data show that individual investors are now retreating from stock trading . Well look at whether that is a red flag for this market coming up. And whats going on at bank of america . First it made a major mistake on its capital plans submitted to the fed, now it says it miss taken takenly downsized the size of its Trading Platform. Is anyone being held accountable . That story just ahead. [ girl ] my mom, she makes underwater fans that are powered by the moon. She can print amazing things, right from her computer. [ whirring ] [ train whistle blows ] she makes trains that are friends with trees. My mom works at ge. Welcome back. The u. S. And france light lately have not seen eye to eye from the crisis in syria and general electrics attempt to buy a French Energy company. Now a potentially massive bank fine may push those two countries further apart. Michelle carusocabrera has details. Reporter frances foreign minister went on television to criticize the u. S. Government over reports, thus far not company, that french bank parawho is may face a fine for evading sanctions against to sudan and syria. He said, quote, if there is an error or violations then theres the fine, but the fine has to be proportionate and reasonable referring to the 10 billion figure saying these figures are not reasonable. He went as far as to say a fine this big couple pact trade talks ongoing right now between u. S. And france focused on agriculture and electronics. Word s reports that front hollande will bring up the reported fund when president obama meets with him in paris in two days. President obama is traveling to france for the commemoration of the dday landings in normandy during world war ii. Also likely to come up in that meeting, general electrics attempts to buy alstroms assets. They encouraged a German Company to bid for the company instead. It would wipe out all the profits from 2013 and impinge on their ability to pay dividends and raising questions, kelly and bill, about whether all the banks in europe need to raise more capital in case there are no fines because there are great concerns about whether the european banks are undercapitalized from the getgo. Weve heard some u. S. Banks concerned about retaliation so that what happens, tit for tat perhaps in this case. Well see. Thank you. Thanks. On the domestic side, speaking of banks here, another botch for bank of america weeks after revealing it made a mistake on its capital plans. That hit the stock price because the new dividend plan had to be scrapped. The banks now admitting it incorrectly reported the sides of its private Trading Platform. Kayla tausche on the details of that. Bank of america backtracking again on data provided to regulators. This time the data concerns the volume of Exchange Trades the bank handled last month. Finra began collecting data on this activity after mounting criticism against the socalled dark poompts the first batch of data highlights the week of may 12 through 18 and the amount of trades that happened then. It was published this week and it showed the bank of america had the highest volume of any firm involved by credit swiss, barclays and ubs. Shortly after release the data showed that b of a had half the volume reported and thats because an error was uncovered. The bank declined to comment or elaborate on how the missed clusion happened, but this data is just part of a new move to shed light on Exchange Trading that accounts for more than a third of all activity that consumers and Institutional Investors are making. Of that activity big banks process more than half of it, and, that of course, has piqued the interest of regulators who say transparentsy is better in that they cant be sure whats going on in these dark pools and some of the alternative platform but its in no firms interest to be at winner or the top of any lists so perhaps for the bank of america looking sloppy might be a better alternative though of course not ideal. Back to you. Kayla, thank you very much. This might not have raised many eyebrows had the banks stock not tumbled in late april after making that error in the Financial Report that was submitted to the fed. You remember that error caused regulators to force b of a to suspend its Share Buyback program and the Dividend Increase that it planned which, of course, didnt set well with investors and shareholders who had been waiting for that. Joining us for more analysis is senior manager at the bond rating agency. Chris, good to see you again. Hi, guys. How serious do the problems run at b of a . This particular issue i think is noise. They made a mistake on the number. Its kind of silly because merrill really doesnt figure in this particular area, four firms that are bigger than they are. Wait, chris, to be clear, they reported a size of their trading pool that put them as biggest on the street. Number one. The numbers were published and then they go, sorry, half the size of what we said we were. There are other firms that were bigger. You know, to meet issue with bank of americasy think one of fatigue this. Maing banks leadership has been, you know, running the bank since the crisis. Moynihan, the ceo, talks about, you know, how how difficult its been, and i think much like city group its time for new leadership. Its not the mistake in and of itself is such a big deal, i think its not, but there are other operational issues that investors i think have a right to have an answer to. Ill give you an example. Earlier this year when ginnie mae told bank of america they cant make any more loan transfers, they had a big deal, and this is an issue that have you had have been addressed by management years ago. It hasnt been done in part i think because they have been taking cost out of the business. Theres been huge turnover among managers at bank of america, and i think its time for a change. I think the board of this bank really needs to start thinking about this seriously. Is it the ceo we hold accountable on all of this or what about the cfo bruce townsend, the highest chief Financial Officer of the corporations out there in the whole country and now youve got two big boo boos on the Balance Sheet. Dont we hold him accountable . Someone has to be held accountable. Bill, the point again is this bank that has literally been shaken apart because they have been restructuring in a slow death march for the last five, six years, they didnt do it quickly. They are almost done. I mean, the good news is that bank of america is almost done with the process, but its been extremely costly, and investors have been waiting and they are frustrated, and i think that to me is, why much like citi, we need a strong operator who really has credentials as an operator. I dont think you would say that about moynihan. Hes been learning on the job, to be fair, and i also think that the board has got to at some point do something to say to investors, look, were going to build thi