Its the euro dollar. As that has been under pressure its put some pressure on the market. Also stay with us for an exclusive interview with lift ceo logan green. Ride sharing Companies Like lift and uber are under fire recently. Theres a lawsuit from drivers that could increase their labor costs. The question is are drivers employees or are they contractors, independent contractors in relationship to uber and lift . Big difference. And theres an interesting point diane made on our panel just at the end of the last week where she said were becoming sort of the next generation, a 1099 generation not a w2 generation. A lot of odd jobs that ultimately has to prout youvide you a standard of living and health care. These questions all underpin the conversation were going to have. Very, very important. Lets show you how the markets are trading right now. The dow is about at the highs for the session with a gain of 232 points. 1. 3 same amount percentagewise for the s p which is up 26 points at 2080 and the nasdaq is at 4926. Boy, if we have another day like this we could back to that mythical 5,000 number. Maybe you will be around. Maybe i will be. And this one will stick. Joining in our the Closing Bell Exchange amy wu sam stovall, anthony chan from chase, jeff killer killberg from kkm financials and so is rick santelli. Amy, riddle me this. One day well have a big rally, the next day a big selloff the next day a big rally. Its been like that a couple weeks now. Whats the market doing here . Is this confusion or is there something going on with this volatility . Hi guys. From an Options Market perspective, obviously the fed is the most important thing people are waiting for for wednesday but ill tell you honestly, what investors are doing right now is focusing on the next 6 to 12 months in options land even though we have the fed coming up. The markets really only pricing a plus or minus 2 move for this week. What theyre really worried about, whether its going to be in june or september, is the rest of this year and thats really where youre seeing the tail hedges come in whether thats in emerging markets or in s p or s p relative to europe or a domestic market like iwm. Its really not the recent term theyre focused on. Its really the longterm tail Events People are concerned about. Anthony chan how focused are you on the u. S. Dollar and would you say theres a strong correlation now between the dollar moving lower and stocks moving higher . Well i think, kelly, what you see in the stock market is that when Energy Prices come down, thats always a red flag. But all of a sudden when you see the dollar going up too much thats also a red flag but today you had energy going down which is not necessarily good news for some people in the market, but you have the dollar also giving up a little bit back. So net net what you have is the market more or less trading on a relief trade here that we have this fed meeting and perhaps the Federal Reserve wont disappoint. Yes, they might take the word patient out, but they probably will tell you that the data is sufficiently cloudy that they may have to wait a little bit longer. Jeff, whats the volatility lately telling you right now . Whats the message of the market here . Well bill its a great point. We are seeing a twopoint premium in the april vix. I think Retail Investors should really take caution when we see this emotional move this volatility like you spoke to of the vix, we will see continued movements. Up and down 1 but this is the time this should be a slap in the face to the Retail Investors. They look at your portfolio. Where are you susceptible . Get ready for continued volatility. Does the market act with this volatility, jeff like its more like a top or like a bottom here . What do you think . No its acting more like a top. Its a slow moving top but when you see that volatility look at the eurocurrency. Last year it never really moved. It was that slow steady step up, and now were seeing dramatic volatility. I think the same thing will be coming to the u. S. Equity market. This volatility cant be contained in one asset class. Its going to spill into every asset class. Rick do you think this is just the dollar taking a pause after the incredible run its been on here . I think its the euro taking a pause on its incredible debilitating run. Its semantics to most whether youre short the euro or long the dollar you get your check. I think its very important to understand the proactive part of any trade if you really want to understand how long the trade will last and whats really the driving force. The dollar index down 0. 75 because every currency i can see on the board is doing better. I think the fed issue is a big one. Whether it was Peter Boockvar or myself as we get closer and closer to wednesday and the worlds focusing on one word in a statement, i just think theres a bit of irony there that theres so much more within the economy to talk about like every single number today was a miss and here we sit up 230 points. Actually, rick, thats why i asked because i wasnt sure. That Industrial Production number pretty weak. The mining number in there was terrible. I thought maybe the weak data was pushing the dollar down but youre saying no thats the tail, if you will the euro is still the dog. Yeah i think it really is. I think this is important because we could talk about as greg said theyre not really manipulating, its not really a currency war because theyre trying to do Something Else that indirectly makes the euro weakly. Collateral damage is still damage. What the ecb is doing is a little bit more important in the grand scheme of things to the dollar and i think what the fed is doing is going to be hugely important for the u. S. Yield curve and the notion that, you know, its hard it get our bearings. Everybody is looking for a flattening of the curve. Im not so sure im convinced. Sanlm, we havent forgotten about you but the headlines are going to currencies and oil and the fed policy but youre the earns guy earnings guy. They have not impressed. No, they havent. Con seb shus numbers are pointing to a 3 decline in the First Quarter. Were looking for five of the ten sectors to post red numbers. The biggest, energy down more than 62 , but add to that telecom, materials utilities, and consumer strainaples and investors are wondering what kind of news regarding the strengthening dollar and the impact on these multinationals will have. Are you seeing any sectors getting a lift from this . What youre find something people are gravitating more toward the domestic oriented areas. Consumer discretionary has done exceptionally well to the point where the valuations i think look overbought and am a bit worried about jumping in to follow the momentum but the Consumer Discretionary because low Interest Rates i think that the Economic Data today is now causing some to push out when the fed will be raising rates and thats an additional reason to be optimistic. Amy, do you agree with jeff kilburg that this volatility signals a top more than a bottom . Is the market walking on air essentially . Yeah, to some degree yes. For a long time we had the fed put in place, right, and now thats been removed, but thats sort of followed on into europe. So the question is theres a volatility band in one market and not necessarily in the other, and yet with that being true we havent actually seen too much happen with the vix handle at 16something last time i checked. Even though we had this big scary, okay, the fed put is gone, whats going to happen next . The reality is not too much has happened, and i dont know that much will until we get even with fomc wednesday we have a plus or minus 2 move priced edd into the market. Thats pretty standard and we dont see anything being put on in place either short term or long term. Its a lot of talk but i dont see much happening. Jeff even though the fed bid is going away the corporate bid is there and its so strong and last week we had the biggest ability of announced stock buybacks in history, 80 billion worth. 57 billion of that was the financials to be sure after those stress tests. But isnt there a huge source of did he mand from the corporate sector that people need to be aware of . I think absolutely kelly. Youre seeing that those buybacks, that should be scaring investors. When you see folks buying back their own stock, they cant put money anywhere to go. The ecb undercurrent, that money has to find a home somewhere. Theres a lot of confusion in the market. I think its a great point, these corporations are just as confused as the fed is. Anthony, you were the first guy we heard say that patient was coming out of fed language. That was a few weeks ago. You still thats going to happen wednesday, but does that necessarily begin the clock on when they will start to raise rates . I think it begins the clock, but that clock is going to be moving in real slow motion because the Federal Reserve certainly doesnt want to upset the markets. They dont want to upset the overall economy. Remember, this has been a multiyear process for the Federal Reserve whether you agree with them or not in terms of making the economy recover. They certainly dont want to do anything that would put that in jeopardy. Is it possible were overthinking this . They say its data dependent but is it possible that they are on a time table, an unspoken time table and they will just test the waters by raising the rates one time in june just to see what happens . Well, i think that could be possible but remember bill that the economy is in fact recovering. I know today we got a few data point and got some people nervous. The Industrial Production the empire state. Guess what happened last year at this time when weather was inclement . The economy was weak in the First Quarter. As you progress through the year the economy recovered just fine. Weather wasnt that great in the First Quarter so im not shocked at all. One of the things i point out, if you look at Janet Yellens favorite labor market indicator, the labor Market Conditions index, today at a reading of about 4. 5, that number is high enough that in the past the fed funds rate was a lot, lot higher. Even average Hourly Earnings averaged close to 2. 6 even though wages are lower, thats where theyre going, not where theyve been in the past and we need to focus on and policy policymakers do the same thing. Youre in the faith group in terms of its going to happen. Thanks for being here this afternoon. 50 minutes to go to the close. Dow is up 228. Trying to reclaim that 17,800 mark. The nasdaq adding 55 points. Coming up, u. S. Crude Oil Prices Hit a sixyear low but gasoline prices arent anywhere near the lows. Why the disconnect . Well get some answers plus the pros will weigh in on the top five reasons oil could go even lower. That story burning up cnbc. Pro. Check it out during this break. Later lifts ceo speaks with us exclusively. Lots to discuss including a couple lawsuits that could up end the Business Model for all ride sharing companies. Dont go anywhere. Were back in two. Hey, girl. Is it crazy that your soccer trophy is talking to you right now . It kinda is. Its as crazy as you not rolling over your old 401k. Cue the horns. Just harness the confidence it took you to win me and call td ameritrades rollover consultants. Theyll help with the hassle by guiding you through the whole process step by step. And theyll even call your old provider. Its easy. Even she could do it. Whatever, janet. For all the confidence you need td ameritrade. You got this. Rally day on wall street. The do you sitting near the highs of the session with gain of 230 points. Up 1. 3 precisely the amount the s p is up right now. The nasdaq up 55. Where is the strength . Its pretty much across the board. One sector in the s p is negative today interestingly. This is not a day you want to sit out a rally. The materials sector is down today. Health care jumping back into the pole position. It had been the one lead sog far today until things got more volatile. Up 2 . Russian president Vladimir Putin finally making a public appearance laughing off gossip about his tenday absence from the public eye. Among the rumors making the rounds, he fell ill, became a father even that he had died. Wed heard all of them. Jeff has the latest for us. The president s appearance at a meeting with the president of kurdistan has put pay to all the wild speculation about coups in the kremlin. President putin seemed in reg relatively good spirits and brushed aside questions about his absence by suggesting there will always be gossip and wouldnt the world be a dull place or a boring place without that . A couple other developments though over the last 48 hours that its worth mentioning. One, the Northern Fleet is going on military maneuvers with the mobilization of 40,000 troops. The other, that the president said in a documentary aired over the weekend that he would have considered Going Nuclear over crimea. Just one thing to bear in mind when it comes to how the markets have traded around this story, the Falling Oil Price rather than speculation over the president s health has done more damage. Back to you. Lets dig a little deeper into putins palace intrigue. These fast days cast a bright light on how centralize the russias power structure is. Theres no real Succession Plan if something happened to him. Our own Steve Liesman spent part of his career reporting in russia, he lived there. John busse is also here. I just asked you what was that all about, Steve Liesman . Kelly and i last thursday were dealing with all these rumors about him. We didnt say anything on the air but we were hearing them constantly and then it became a news story over the weekend. What was going on . I think the obvious answer is geoff got to moscow and found putin. This is about his third or fourth absence, and there was another leader stalin who used to disappear as well. You dont know if its some kind of depression or Something Like that, but what it did underscore is what you said at the top, its about the instability surrounding succession in russia. Its the reason why investing in countries without that kind of Succession Plan or democracy, so to speak, are not necessarily good bets. You can have a lot of volatility around that kind of thing. John whats your read of his public absence and now unusual was it . It was odd. Steve is right, hes done this before. He did it at the beginning of his presidency not in more recent years. Yeltsin used to do this when he got drunk, he would just disappear for several hours. He would stay on his plane or disappear for a day or so. I dont see how putin comes out of this without seeming somehow weaker because there is no explanation for it. What was it was it an illness . Was it an internal power struggle . Was it a wag the dog situation where he was trying to take attention off of the economic problems of the country the war in ukraine . Was it stress . Was it depression . Was it related to the nemtsov assassination . He comes back and the next news item we have is the 40,000 troops exercises. Its a bit like youre right, that hes seen as weaker so what does he do in response to that . He orders a massive troop exercise in response to show his strength here. Thats a little worrisome. I think thats right. And remember this is in tandem with a lot of other exercises. Sending bombers near to british air space. Theres a lot of kind of nationalist feelings. Hes a popular figure in russia and he keeps squeezing that. He keeps squeezing the power of russia message as a way to maintain his influence in the country. Steve, what about johns idea that it had something to do with the assassination of nemtsov. Hes one of the real dissidents in russia against putin. Could the intrigue have something to do that . I did know him better than any russian official i knew. We took a few trips back to his home area together on the plane and then i followed him around back there and he was a real reformer, a real democrat and, look, i dont know what happened there. Theres a lot of suspicion as to what happened, but i think that whoever may have ordered the assassination of nemtsov may have miscalculated. When you hear about the demonstrations on the street this could be a real challenge to putin here. Do you agree, john . Just to underscore what steve is saying and he says it with authority. Remember, he won a pulitzer for the journal during his days in russia covering russia. With john as my editor i might point out. I just dont see how you can be the macho putin, riding barechested on the horse, and then disappear for ten days because you need a spa treatment for stress relief or something and come out of that without making any Public Comment to explain it. Im not sure how that comports. How that works, how you can pull it off. Gee doesnt need to make any stinking comment. Hes the Supreme Leader of russia and thats the way it is. Its very much a czar very much a step back from the time i was there when it was at least a hope or some threat of hope there could be some progress in reform in russia. And putin represents a dead end in that regard and thats a real serious problem for russia. Picking up that point, he may also have played it exactly as steve just said and, you know, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Maybe he did it as a way of shoring up support domestically. People love him. If youre not in the public eye, they wonder about you and you come back triumphantly. As steve pointed out, the speculation about what happened is more than a parlor game because people are choosing to invest in russia or not right now. Should this episode give those investors pause do you think . Well i think so. And i would agree with steve on this, its a broader feeling of instability in russ