Ever. And for the nasdaq it was the second record close in a row. The dow jones next was 21 poipds to 18,080. The nasdaq climbs 36 to 5092 and the s p gains five points to 2117. 69. For the week the major indices were higher with the best fiveday run since late october. So despite the groans from traders there is no volume valuations are high and the Economic Data isnt as strong as it should be there are some things working in the markets favor. Bob pis annie has more. The standouts were again on the nasdaq with three big Seattle Companies reporting earnings. Microsoft was up over 10 . Wlou amazon was up 14 . That is a historic high. And starbucks was up. Also a historic high. And earnings while weak arent as bad as many are feared. The flat earnings are blamed on the weather and the collapse in oil and the strong dollar. But oil is moving up. The dollar stopped rallying so these excuses wont hold much water in the current kwaernt. And the rally is accompanied by low volume and volatility and while that is true but there is no alternative to stocks not in cash and bonds. Real estate is an alternative investment but a high cost one. For nightly business report, im bob pis anie at the new york stom exchange. And now to the begga deal that didnt happen. Last night we reported that comcast was close to abandoning the 45 billion bid for Time Warner Cable. The deal announced 14 months ago came underin continuance scrutiny from regulators concerned they would control too much broadband. Shares of comcast rose and Time Warner Cable popped 4 . So what caused the merger to un why did the collapse of this deal set off a new round of deal chatter . It started as a 45 billion cable merger but the deal died because of the internets growing role as a gateway to information and entertainment. Neither company is owed a breakup fee but comcast said it spent more than 230 million last year trying to win government backing for the deal. That was enough according to comcast chairman and ceo ryan roberts. We thought we could get the deal approved we thought we could make a good case. I think our team did. But in the end, we have to move on. Unwilling to battle federal regulators the two companies walked away from a deal that would have given comcast control of more than half of the nations 87 million broadband customers, 30 of the tv market and including nbc universal. The fcc applauded the deals demise saying, the decision, quote, is in the best interest of consumers and the merger would have been a risk to competition and innovation. The department of justice said it is a victory for providers of streaming content and services. There are no gatekeepers for deciding what you get to access or toll roads on the information superhighway. It may have been deemed after the white house backed the concept of Net Neutrality last fall it. Met trouble for the netflix decision to pay comcast for Faster Service which illustrated the power Broadband Companies could have over content providers. One key mistake and that was not giving into netflix. Nobody knew why internet why you should worry about an open noibt. Things could have been different if they handled that in a less aggressive manner. Comcast, for one, has a lot of cash left to redeploy. One Analyst Thinks a foray into Wireless Communications could make sense. They are not just going to sit around. The world is moving fast. My partner has talked about tmobile or sprint acquisition could make sense. The key device in every persons life now is a mobile phone. The end of the deal also means Charter Communications a regional cable operator will not acquire some of the Time Warner Cable comcast had agreed to depart with. And another dependent on the merger charters acquisition of Brighthouse Networks the countrys sixth largest cable tv operator. It is also off. But there could be other deals in the works and Charter Communications backed by bill air john malone may make a bid to by twc. Time warner cable announces earnings next week when bhor details could be announced. One of eric holders last acts as attorney general was to authorize a lawsuit against the deal. We are joined from washington with more on the antitrait environment. So what was the main reason the government didnt like this particular deal . Well i talked to a department of justice official today sue, who said that ultimately it wasnt about the Cable Television business but the comcast folks made the argument that the comcast and time warner didnt overlap or anticompetitive but they were looking at the broad band penen and an official saying this would let comcast control 60 of the broadband and the department of justice thought that was simply too much sue. So given what happened today, what lessons should other Companies Take from the comcast failure . Well clearly what the department of justice is signaling here is no deal is too big to be scrutinized. The department of justice official that i talked to today said the lesson for other companies shoue e will get down into the weeds of these deals and proposals and go through the documents for as long as it takes. And im told this deal though there is speculation in the past week here of what the fate is im told now that this deal has been effectively dead for a number of weeks because eric holder made that decision to block the deal based on the staff recommendation a couple of weeks ago, according to a d. O. J. Source this morning, sue. Given the fact a deal of this size was scrapped to your point, how much of a Chilling Effect do you think this will have . That is the question. How much selfcensorship will be on the part of Companies Looking at opportunities in the mergers and acquisition space. And you can imagine this sends a big message to anybody who is consid doing a broadband acquisition of any significant size in this country. They have to get over that hurdle of how much control does any one company have over Internet Access in this country. That is clearly what the government is concerned about here and that is the argument that any future deal will have to get over. A man javers in washington. Comcast is the Parent Company of cnbc which produces this program. And there was drama in the drug era. Periggo rejected a deal from mylan. That is the second dismissal this week. But mylan doesnt just want to acquire periggo, it also wanted to fendoff a take over attempt by teva. The latest offer under values the company. And periggo dropped 4 and teva added nearly 2 . To the u. S. Economy now where march durable good orders for big key ticket itemsupped 4 the largest increase in eight months but the rise was driven almost entirely by higher demand for defense, auto and aircraft orders and an important measure of future investment fell 5 . More than estimates. The seventh straight monthly decline. And that decline in Business Investment prompted a number of economists to trim forecast for firs growth which the government is due to report last week and that is the most widely followed measure of econoc health. But a comprehensive look at First Quarter data over the past 30 years conducted by Steve Liesman shows there may be a big problem with the numbers. A trend that some economists have confirmed. The latest tracking data show another weak First Quarter on tap. As low as 1 given what we know so far. Will it be a coincidence it is another weak First Quarter . Cnbc went back to 1985 and did a detailed review of gross domestic data and the most growth in the united states. We found what looks to be a substantial and persistent problem in the data. We thought average First Quarter gdp compared over all in the 30year period six of the ten worst quarters since 1985 were First Quarter. And since 2010, First Quarter looks like another economy altogether averaging 0. 62 versus 2. 3 over ts what the average is for all four quarters of growth. You can see the First Quarter lags substantially and the Second Quarter picks up some of the growth but not all of it. It is not a question of what has happened the last four years. The most compelling part is q1 has looked different than the other quarters over the past i would say 25, 30 years. That is not something seasonal adjustment should do. So there is a real puzzle. So i hope folks will dig in and figure out why. The beu published the gdp and they are looking into residual seasonality or the possibility they may not be adequately adjusting the data for regular patterns. The cnbc Analysis Shows the q1 effect holds whether the economy is in expansion or recession. E potential for the q1 data right now is significant. Fed officials are considering rate hikes and some have suggested the recent q1 weakness gives them pause. Investors are faced with the issue of whether the economy is really weakening or should they be banking on a Second Quarter rebound. For nightly business report, im Steve Liesman. Still ahead, why our market monitor guest is a big bull on apple ahead of its earnings reports due out on monday. The first apple watches made their way to customers today. And while many may look at device as a consumer product, businesses see it as something that could change the workplace. Josh lipton has more. There will be apple watch sport starts at 349. The sarah palin ceo tim cook has made a strong pitch for the companys new watch. Em facizing the quality, precision of the timepiece but the success will depend on the apple beep bench of developers who need to design engaging apps. Already there are more than 3000 apps available for the watch. Right now most of the attention is focused on apps for consumers. Things like uber make sense, you want to request a driver and get back to whatever you were doing. Yelp is another good example of an app coming out where you want to see what is around you and get a recommendation of where to eat. But it isnt just consumers. Companies are also betting that the apple watch can play a big role in the workplace. The idea is business apps could help professionals work more efficiently and stay better informed. You are a Sales Manager and you get a quick notification you are about to use a deal on price, and that is something you want to react about a deal in five minutes. And if you are away from your iphone or computer you could lose a deal that way. A quick check on treasuries. And tech giants are taking notice. Sales fos designed an app to get realtime alerts and view dashboards an even the apple rivals are getting involved. Microsoft designs an app to allow users to control powerpoint slideshows on their iphone. And there are challenges with using the apple watch in the workplace. The most obvious, over loading workers with too many notifications. Companies need to figure out which notifications are important enough to send to somebodys wrist. Otherwise, they might just be distracted or annoyed by the watch. But workers seem open to the idea of using a smart watch in the office. Of those who plan to buy the apple watch, more than 90 want to use the device for work functions, according to a new poll conducted by miebl iron a mobile software company. For nightly business report, im josh lipton in san francisco. And now to our market monitor who said apple is a good investment ahead of earnings on money. He also recommended that stock back in december and said apple along with disney and taser would increase 20 in the first half of this year. And as can you see, so far, his picks have seen some pretty decent doubledigit gain. Ez ross gerber ceo and president of his own management company. Welcome back. Nice to have you here. Thanks. Nice to be back. Lets start with apple. You say it is a good investment ahead of earnings. And we just profile the apple watch. Does that factor into your bullish view . Absolutely. I spent an hour with the watch yester its an incredible product. So much better than the expectations. They are completely sold out across the world and this will continue to be the most sought after item probably all the way through christmas. So apple has great things going on in every division they are hitting on all cylinders and this is an absolutely must for your portfolio. So we are extremely excited. And your price tagt is between 15 to 160 billion by the end of the year and so that is an upside. And it could go higher. It is trading at a discount multiple to the market. What else can you ask for in a company . It has a great position. So it has a lot of potential upside. Lets move on to imax one of your picks. What will drive things on imax . Because in the past it was inconsistent. That has changed however. But why are you bullish on it . I match has had an inconsistent history because they rely soly on the product of the Entertainment Industry that it gives them. So as a theater owner, if the movies are that good it hurts the revenue and profits and weve seen decent movies and lower rates. It will be a record year for movies but it ends with star wars. Imax has the theaters bood up all of them for star wars from december through january. This is the biggest movie of alltime. You have to play the star wars trade. This is a great way to do it. Well may the force be with the stock. You think it will be going about about 50 by the end of the year. I think it has considerable upside. They can leverage their global brand as well as the fact that they get a cut of revenue for every ticket that is being sold. So they have a sort of unlimited upside and fixed cost. So their margins will increase and that is great for them. And tesla is the last target price of 260 toward the end of the year. Do you view it as a tech company or a Consumer Products company or a car maker. What do you look at it as. I look at it as a Technology Company that makes cars. At the end of the month they will announce they are making batteries. They are pivoting to a Battery Company and the development of the technology is revolutionary. We cannot tell you how important it is to upgrade the storage of energy and that is what tesla has mastered with the car. And as they expand into this home power business and Consumer Power business it creates an enormous upside for them in the battery business. So were bullish on tesla because the model x is a beautiful car and comes out toward the e of year and that will increase the demand for tesla and we do think theyll hit their target. Ross well leave it there. Thank you so much for joining us. My pleasure. Have a good weekend. Ross gerber. Shares tumble and we begin tonights focus. The company cut the 2015 profit forecast blaming, what else the strong dollar. And it reported quarterly revenue that missed estimates. Sales were mostly hurt by lower demand for prisoners and because of higher costs. Shares fell 9 to 11. 99. Fio jenno tech slowing the key multiple sclerosis weighed on the results and the Company Reported lower than expected profit and revenue. Shares fell 7 to 401. 74. American airlines went the other way after they reported the First Quarter profit number nearly doubled. This is the company that continues to benefit from low jet fuel prices. But despite the beat the strong dollar and competitive capacity and softness in latin america pulled down sales. And the company declared a 10 ยข dividend. Shares rose to 52. 71. Kellogg declaring a dividend of 49 cents a share it. Will be made in june and will tike the dividend 2 starting in the third quarter. The yield on the dividend is right around 3 . Shares meantime were off a fraction and finished the trading session at 53. 73. Andary pharmaceutical lost more than half of the value. This is the lead experimental drug failed in a late stage study. The stock was off 63 or 22 to 12. 87. Cocacola still has a lot of work ahead of it if it wants to turn business around. And as we told you this week when the dow component reports earnings investors are starting to feel optimistic about the companys future. Today sara eisen spoke to coke executives including the ceo muttar kent about where the Largest Beverage Company sees the groeblg. She has more from headquarters in atlanta. The answer to slump in sales. Bet big on small packages. You see feet and feet of mini cans. The mini can business is exploding. It is driven by portions and waste. In the next 1015 years, sara beverage brands in the world will be built and enhanced in three ways. One is ready to drink, continuing to be impacted just like this packages just like this. And the second at home through Technology Like carry cold an the pods. And the third is Technology Enhances at food service like freestyle. In other words, the coke growth of soda is in smaller bottles and cans and they are sticking with diet coke and see growths outside of the u. S. Despite plunging popularity at home. And they are announcing they are taking aspartame out of diet pepsi and using splenda instead. Aspartame is the most contested ingredient in our beverages. We have 200 studies by numerous regulatory bodies and we make sure that the education and the awareness is out there and reinforcing to consumers that it is perfectly safe to drink. And coke is investing in the drink brands growing. The fastest one tea, gold pt and smart water. All three are growing fast. And still this is a company with 70 of the sales coming from soda. Unlike pepsi which only gets 25 of the business from drinks and the last from salty snacks under the frito lay brand. Instead of