Overtake the u. S. Is it time to shake up your Investment Strategy . And apple, floating another ibond. Should you buy it . Or are you better off in u. S. Treasurys . Or is buying apple stock the better move right now . Were going to lay out the pros and cons of each of those three options. First, though, to sue who is here at headquarters today. Hi, sue. Good to see you, ty. You mentioned the feds latest decision comes out in just under an hour from now, but earnings and the economy of front and center for us. An important read on jobs ahead of fridays employment report. Pride sector employers adding 220,000 workers in april, that is the highest since november. It is above estimate. But its the latest gdp report that has many asking questions. The u. S. Economy slowing in the First Quarter to one of the weakest paces in the last five years of the recovery, rising. Part of it is the fridge illustrate weather appears to hamper Business Investment and weakness overseas. Despite this, though, earnings have been pretty decent. Were more than halfway through the reporting season with 69 having beaten estimates. 22 have missed their expectations. So lets talk about this. Which one should you believe . Earnings or the economic data. Bob pisani is here, Steve Liesman is with me. I believe bob pisani. And i believe you as well. Make your case. Inl going to make both of you make your case. Economies like the u. S. Dont stop on a dime. First of all, i think part of it will be revised up, but i also look at the earnings reports for make rho calls out there. You see a lot of stuff in will one company writing the extreme weather caused expenses to go up. Simple things like snowplowing. Also things come out and these Company Earnings have been reporting about the weather quite a bit. Absolutely. Heres the key. What we have seen in the march and april data is very predictable to what you would think if you were snapping back from a weatherrelated weakness. And one of the worst winters on record. We see it in some of the earnings reports, some of the things being said, and i think well see it in the friday report as well. Bob, do you agree with that . The earnings bar, though, was pretty darn low this time. It was literally zero for the First Quarter and its been Getting Better. In that sense theres good news, but its still pretty anemic. Earnings growth for the First Quarter is 1. 7 . It was zero before, so it probably will end up around 3 still. Sue, this is the weakest earnings number growth we have seen in about two years. All right. Its Getting Better. Last year 2 numbers, but still well short of the 6 Revenue Growth we saw p. Seven, eight years ago, so i dont want to make too much of this. Hey, bob hopefully well see it in the second quarter. Can i show you another way to like at it inflays real growth, earnings were 1. 7, the earnings have done better than the economy, okay . So what you would look for if were going to do as make roe advisers reiterated today, 3 1 2 real in the second quarter, you can look for an acceleration of, if they just do their normal piece of the pie. Theyre Getting Better because of the relentless cost cutting and slow improvements, a 2 product activity growth every year, that helps the bottom loon. The fast money guys are behind us trying to get through. Hang on one second. Ty, over to you. How to req size the opposing data from strong Earnings Growth . But gdp well below expectations. Which do you believe . Earnings or gdp. Which ones do you give herrier weight as you try to make your Investment Decisions . Answers from dan greenhouse and kenny policy carcari. How concerned are you about the flattening of corporate Earnings Growth . If its 1. 7 , thats better than zero, but it aint good. No, its not good at all. Quite frankly it hasnt been good for a few years now. Its been good enough to help drive the stock market higher, but it certainly isnt good. What the higher stock market has shown us is good enough is indeed good enough. To your first question, gdp is quite important, has affects on how much companies earn, but what drives stock Prices Higher is earnings. Boy, i agree with that. Kenny, are earnings growing and is the economy growing fast enough to justify a Dow Jones Industrial average that is within shouting distance of an alltime high . You know, weve had this conversation going back and forth. I do agree that earnings are the numbers that individual investors look at, but i think the market is well ahead of itself because of other reasons. I certainly think that Central Bank Action whether its the fed has certainly helped equity prices around the world, and certainly in this country, which is would were always see nervouses in around every time janet yellen has to speak. Will prices come in to reflect the reality of where the economy is . I think thats what were looking at. The question about whats more important, i agree with dan, its certainly earnings. The individual investor buys what he likes and what he knows, right . Gdp could be complicated for a lot of people. They want to buy what they know, so earnings is what they Pay Attention to. Sin kenny brought up the idea, theres a fed meeting at 2 00, do you have any view that this very weak gdp number will in any way influence what the fed does, doesnt do or says at 2 00 . The answer is absolutely not. Ultimately gdp is a backwardslooking number. Because it was unquestionably terrible, it doesnt tell us anything that we doesnt already know. Thats that the First Quarter was terrible. Just as steve talked about before, the march data, the april data, whether its on the make rho side of things with the chicago purchasing index or the minor or mike error in terms of companies saying on the ground april looks better, we know that q2 will be better and q3 should be better still and ultimately that will watch away the weakness. How do you figure in the chinese economy and potentially being bigger than ours as soon as this year . Listen, ive been on the opposite side of that argument. A lot of people have been so concerned about china china china, they were going to be the catalyst to take us down. I think its well overdone. I think its not nearly as bad an everyone has been talking about. People have not been talking bad about china, in fact parts of china, some Companies Reported parts of have actually been helpful, so i think it will be an interesting dynamic. I for one look to see how theyll come out with that. Kenny and dan, thank you very much. We have to leave it there. We want to take you out to california to the Facebook Developers conference where Mark Zuckerberg has just taken the stage. Were going to be monitoring what he says. He says move fast and break rules i believe is what the bottom part says there. Morgan brennan is watching it all, and will report the highlights as they happen. Lets send it over to dominic chu for a market flare. Chesh out whats happening to w. W. Granger. The company is increasing its quarterly different by 16 to 1. 08 or per share, and also authorized a 10 million buyback. Banking bombshell today, is this the end of too big to jail . Reports out there that federal prosecutors are preparing criminal charges against two major banks, sandy weil on cnbc weighing if on there the kate kelly has more on what this could mean for those big banks hi, kate. A very big story that that the issues are involved in different, alleged money launder that bnp did for rogue nations, and the use of tax shelter at credit sweet for wealthy american clients. The potential charges, which would be some of the first against major Financial Firms are stirring up Big Questions about whether large banks are too big to jail after comments the attorney general made last year suggesting that consequences of indieding big banks case sis stemmic risks. Asked this morning on squawk box, sandy weill touched on the sensitivities involved. I would say maybe the u. S. Attorneys office is saying these things to get a good resolution of the problem without it going to court. And without it having to do that, or doing the criminal part in a way that it doesnt really affect broadbased business. Theyre also talking about a Foreign Institution that doesnt do all the businesses in the United States. Weills comments record that theyre working to mitigate the broader impact of potential indictments which got a bad name after essentially bess a deathblow to Arthur Anderson a dozen years ago. In the case of b in the meantime p, officials from the u. S. Attorneys office in manhattan are coordinating with the new york fed and department of Financial Services to ensure a potential criminal charge is carefully handled. If bnp pled guilty, they would be more likely to freeze its abilities to clear transactions in dollars for a time which would be a tough blow for doing business in new york and in the u. S. In general, than to revoke its banks charter which could have a worse impact than the dollarclearing issue. Is there any irony here that both of the banks are nonu. S. Banks . Is that an accident . Theres absolutely a lot of irony, tyler. Im not making light of issues, Money Laundering for rogue nations many people consider to be tantamount to terrorisms and the tax shelters has been out there for a number of years. Not meat light of them, but theyre not u. S. Domicile banks and there continues to be a lack of indictments of either individuals or banks especially connected to the housing crisis. The Justice Department has engaged in settlement talks. So there have been consequences, but this fear of corporate indictments, the recent example is really s. A. C. , the hedge fund which is operating as family office, with only slightly diminished capabilities, so i think theres a feeling especially in the u. S. Attorneys office that they need to get tougher. Kate kelly, thank you. Thank you. North carolina feeling the effects of a massive spring storm. In cumberland county, floodwaerds, the water is so high it flooded cars and homes. Thats a bad day right there. It looks like more is on the way for the northeast. Weather channels carl parker has the latest. Well, we have seen tremendously heavy rain along the gulf coast today. That rain is slowly moving along toward the east. Here is the radar picture, still a heavy rain threat. It is Getting Better in pensacola. Thats also lowered the Severe Weather threat farther northward in parts of alabama and central georgia, but to the north its going to be warm and humid today. Well get plenty of sunshine in the carolinas, storms are beginning to fire up. This is going to be an area to watch. We have tor con values of 6 out of 10, as well as into the central and eastern parts of the carolinas. That means a 60 chance of a tornado in a 50mile radius, looking at specific cities and timing, were thinking it will be primarily through the afternoon and evening. And 5 out of 10 in columbia, south carolina. Could be a very busy asp in the midatlantic region and parts of the southeast. Back to you. Carl, thank you very much. Twitter shares better than 10 , getting crushed. The ceo speaking to cnbc about the three things hes focusing on now to grow that social media giant. General electrics ceo also speaking with cnbc today. How confident is he about that 17 billion alston deal . And what will it mean for investors. Check out our newsroom. Were ringing the closing bell today in celebration of our 25th anniversary. Theres the podium. Cnbc 25, you can see it there. Its a terrific moment for our company and also for you, our viewers. We wouldnt be here without you. Were back after a quick break. announcer scottrade knows our clients trade and invest their own way. With scottrades 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 realtime. Plus, my local scottrade office is there to help. Because they know i dont trade like everybody. I trade like me. Im with scottrade. announcer scottrade. Voted best Investment Services company. Im taking off, but, uh, dont worry. Im gonna leave the tv on for you. And if anything happens, dont forget about the new xfinity my account app. You can troubleshoot technical issues here. If you make an appointment, you can check out the status here. You can pay the bill, too. But dont worry about that right now. Okay. How do i look . Thanks. [ male announcer ] troubleshoot, manage appointments, and bill pay from your phone. Introducing the xfinity my account app. Welcome back to power lunch. Check out shares of boeing. Boeing currently up to session highs, about well call it half a person. Ryan air, with the worlds laster customer there, trading up as well. Shares of twitter under extreme pressure. The stock is now down, though revenues doubled in the second quarter, the number of people who joined the social network did not increase as quickly as many had hoped. The stock is down 10 since the ipo back on november 6th. Twitters ceo was on squawk box this morning talking about his strategy. Im focused on three things ground, the second and third are absolutely in receives to steadily improving margins, steadily xwrochb margins as a high growth company, what i want to make sure were doing is not starving the Growth Engine while constantly focusing internally on Getting Better at operating efficiency and operating leverage in service to margins. How does it compare to rival facebook . Facebook has five times more monthly active users than twitter, and reported ten times more profits in the First Quarter than twitter. How do their stocks compare . Well, over what has been admitly a volatile month twitter is down almost 20 , facebook down about 3 . Interesting stats, an interesting report from twitter last night. Ge get a preliminary for 13. 5 billion in cash, and if the deal goes through, it would be the largest acquisition under jeff immelts watch. Earlier today, cnbc had a chance to speak with mr. Immelt, and Mary Thompson has the highlights. Hey there, tyler, when we spoke tole deal would be approved and shareholders, despite the outcry from a number of frances top politicians about the bid. Weve done a lot of deals in europe over time, and were pretty experienced, so i think we have a good offer and i think it will be executed. Buying the thermal and grid businesses would be the most significant. It will further cut its reliance on earnings from the finance arm. Ge experts that three quartz of the proofs could come from the industrial businesses, the rest coming from finance. Ge also expect to cut costs in the first five years once the deal is approved. I think its an acquisition thats very consistent with our execution stills, our ability to buy synergies, its in a market we understand. I think it has relatively low execution risk for investors. Sue, alston can consider unsolicited bids. Rival siemens is expected to sweeten an earlier interest and alston says it would give information that it might need to make a binding offer. This has been marked by an ongoing transformation to focus ge on higher growth industrial businesses. Recent reports say he may be leaving before the mandatory retirement age of 65 or seven years from now. We asked him if this paves the way for his exit. I think ive got a fantastic company. I love the way were positioned. There will be a right day for a transition to ge, but thats not today. Not today, sue. Thats the time they have to decide whether or not they want to give the final okay to this bid. Back to you. I think jeffs going to be around for a while, mary. Thank you very much, Mary Thompson. For the first time in three years, facebook is hosting the fa8 conference, and well go live to San Francisco for the headlines. Shares right now of facebook up 1. 7 . Thats ahead. 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