"countdown to the closing bell" starts right now with liz claman. ♪ liz: unprecedented. two fed heads deliver very different testimony today. janet yellen telling a senate panel she sees softer than expected spending, and in a legal first, former fed chairman ben bernanke getting deposed about his right in the bailout of insurance unit aig. we're following both for you, the investor. battle of the budge, americans spend $40 billion a year on weight loss products, and the industry continues to balloon each year along with our waistlines. how does the diet business stand out from the crowd to crack the code? nutrisystem's ceo tells us how she's whipping her company into shape, first on fox business. and blackstone's eye for fashion. the private equity firm taking a 20% stake in versace.

fox business speaking with stephen schwartz spank bout his decision to invest in the fax house of the likes of -- fashion house of the likes of madonna and lady gaga. "countdown to the closing bell" starting right now. ♪ ♪ liz: ood afternoon, everybody, i'm liz claman. will the fourth time be the charm? yes, the s&p 500 is desperately trying to achieve a record close every single day this week, but today looks like it could be the day. watch out for this number, 1848. we are above it right now. we need to beat it at the end when the closing bell rings in 59 minutes. no real beating on capitol hill today as new fed chair janet yellen was thrown lots of questions by the senate about what she's seeing in the u.s. economy tea leaves. she's talked about the weather saying it might be a factor in some recent softer-than-expected economic data. we're going to dig into her testimony in just a moment, but

right now there is a retail rally. in the very names experts here were beating up on yesterday. jcpenney and sears rocketing higher and buy, all of them gaining better than expected results. so yc penny is a -- jcpenney is a huge jump here, up more than 25%. that's a huge move. but does that really mean that these two names -- and i'm talking about sears and jcpenney -- are they really out of the woods? and blackstone getting its groove on, buying a big chunk of a major fashion house. blackstone chief steve schwartzman telling us all about it in a fox business exclusive. you'll hear what he has to say. versace, i mean, wait until the oscars. janet yellen, i don't know what designer she was wearing, but she wasn't the only fed head giving testimony in washington. at about the same time she was speaking on capitol hill, her predecessor, ben bernanke, was being forced to provide a

exactly what happened during the financial crisis, particularly when it came to bailing out aig. we're tracking bernanke and yellen with peter barnes in washington and charlie gasparino who has details on bernanke's really unprecedented testimony. peter, what did we hear that was new from fed chair janet yellen, and i know you had to go through every single word. >> reporter: well, liz, she got a blizzard of questions about the weather -- [laughter] ah, sorry. [laughter] and, of course, the question is, are the weaker economic numbers that we've been getting lately like the ones here due mainly to the bad weather, or is there something else going on? rough patch, another swoon like we've seen in past years? and if it's a swoon, fed chair janet yellen said, of course, the fed will consider shifting gear on policy, maybe pausing the taper of its billions in bond purchases each month. but, yellen said, it's too soon to tell. >> what we need to do and will

be doing in the weeks ahead is to try to get a firmer handle on exactly how much of that set of soft data can be explained by weather and what portion, if any, is due to a soft or outlook -- >> and if it's not mostly weather, would you consider pausing or changing the rate of tapering? >> asset purchases are not on a preset course. so if there's a significant change in the outlook, certainly, we would be open to reconsidering. but i wouldn't want to jump to conclusions. >> understand. >> reporter: and the irony of all this is, as you recall, liz, yellen's appearance before the senate banking ccmmittee was scheduled for february 13th but was postponed because of bad weather. we had a snowstorm here. back to you. liz: how could we forget? i remember that story, and you guys broke it out of d.c., and we're saying, wow, i mean, here comes a storm, ann she's

canceling it. here it is today, she brings up the weather. let me get to charlie gasparino. you've been on a historic case of ben bernanke testifying today -- well, testifying? yeah. >> giving a tension. i mean, rarely do form or fed chairs or former treasury secretaries or new york fed presidents give testimony, but that's exactly what's happening right now. and this is hank greenberg's lawsuit over the legality of the aig bailout. you would think hank greenberg, a big shareholder, would like the bailout. he didn't because that diluted all the share holders, and he believes it was done illegally, unconstitutionally. some courts are kind of agreeing with him, because they're letting the case go, and here's what we have now. we had paulson's deposition, former treasury secretary, hank paulson, we had tim geithner, he was at the time of the bailout the new york fed president, big player in this. and now, finally, we've gotten -- we haven't gotten it totally yet, it's still going -@on. we've got ben bernanke's

testimony, i wish -- liz: he's poised as a lawyer, he memorized the questions. >> i can't tell you what he said because it's not over yet. liz: right. >> i just tried to get some atmosphere orics about what it's -- atmospherics about what it's like in that room. david boies is one of the best lawyers in the world -- liz: he's a genius. >> he is what he is, he's dyslexic too. liz: i've read the book by malcolm gladwell, he's dyslexic. >> from what i understand, this is a six-hour deposition. it starts at nine, they're going to take a break -- there's me and david, and you were involved trying to break us up there. [laughter] liz: i love that. >> he memorizes every question. i can't even tell you what he's going to say, it's all here. liz: again, as you say, he's dyslexic, but it gives him an advantage because he overmemorizes all the facts and, therefore, he is ready. >> from what i understand, he's got a computer memory. what's interesting also about this case is hank greenberg the

guy that initiated all, his client, was scheduled to show up. he did notment he abruptly canceled. the word is from the greenberg camp is that he had some business meetings, so take it for what it's worth, that's all i know. hank and david have been sparring lately -- liz: which we discussed yesterday. >> which we discussed yesterday, which gives us a whole new odd turn. david boies took on his private jet a lawyer for the new york attorney general's office, a deputy new york attorney general who's actually bringing another case against hank. liz: unrelated. >> unrelated to this. liz: they were stuck in nebraska deposing warn buffett, right? -- warren buffett, right? >> if you listen to some people around hank, he'll tell you that, you know, not only did he give him this plane trip, but when the story started breaking from me -- and this is where i think it could be an ethical issue with the people in the new york attorney general's office -- apparently bo to

ies -- boies stayed on the phone with this guy for hours, and hank is mad about that. i mean, this is like crazy stuff. it's kind of interesting -- liz: planegate, because it affects what's going on as far as the deposition today. >> the only way it does is if hank decides to fire boies, and i would say that's a possibility. it's not a tteoretical -- it's a little more than a theoretical -- i think it's unlikely. liz: isn't dade boyce valuable to hank -- this is a first-ever for a treasury secretary to be deposed. >> fed chairman. liz: i'm sorry, fed chairman. >> probably former treasury secretary as well in a case like this, but definitely a fed chairman. liz: right. therefore, boies is brilliant enough because initially the federal reserve dug its heels in -- >> right. and he kept going back and back. liz: -- desupposed on a case -- deposed on a case. >> here's why i think hank lag him out on this --

liz: can we show the video of charlie and david boies again? that was a great day. >> it was great. he came on here and you, actually, helped make a very insane story understandable. [laughter] between he and i. [laughter] i like the way he's lecturing me. liz: right. no, he was trying to convince you. >> okay. i agree -- liz: fine. i gave the guy a private jet flight. >> i think it gets worse because, apparently, his lawyers at his firm were working with schneiderman's people, hank hates him because he's still suing hank. the long and short of it is there are tensions between hank and boies right now. i don't think hank will get rid of him. i think the reason why because this aig case so complicated. he knows too much about it. liz: charlie gasparino and, again, the business of people in the business world is fascinating. >> thank you, i appreciate it. liz: thank you, charlie. while investors go over janet yellen's testimony with a fine-toothed comb and wait for what happens with ben bernanke's testimony, let's take a look at stocks and see what they're

doing. they're continuing to rise, off the earlier highs of the session, but the s&p 500 still chasing a record closing high. dow jones industrials getting back to the highs of the session which happened to be up 78 points, right now we're up 62. let's bring in the traders for the floor show, the new york stock exchange, cme group and the nymex where tension is boiling over -- no, it's not, but i can certainly get excited about this. i mean, yet another rally, certainly. but where cowe go from here as we wait til the market totally digests what janet yellen said, or is that all the way through the system? >> i think that's in the system already. kind of quiet, i feel, in this overall market. investors have been waiting for anything, waiting for testimony to come out of washington, waiting to get through earnings season, waiting for this bad weather to be over with so we can stop blaming all the bad economic data on the weather. so investors still feel not really sure what to do. tomorrow we're getting end of the month, we're going to see a lot of volume, a lot of volatility, a couple of trades that'll be leading up into that,

a small rebalance that will occur also. but i think the overall sentiment is, yes, this market does want to move higher. nothing dramatic has really derailed this market. a lot of geopolitical issues that are out there. it seems like the market takes a pause, digests the information and then continues to move higher. i like what i'm seeing so far, i like the slow moving market. 2013 towards the end of it, the market was moving way too fast in one direction, not really healthy for what we'd like to see on a normal basis. liz: yeah. it's been one step forward, half a step back. chris robinson, right now lots of green on the screen although even the transports seeing a nice gain of about two-thirds of a percent. we play into everything. the u.s. dollar, treasuries, what grabs your eye right now on the floor of the cme? >> well, we're trading futures here, so we're looking at the market discounts, everything. you're talking about record highs in the s&p. march s&p are already trading at record highs. three weeks ago we were 124 handles lower. the dow futures were a thousand

points lower back in the first week of february when people were panicking, everybody was looking for a 10% correction. that never came through. we got about a 6-7% correction. all those people that bet on the market continuing going lower have been chased out past three weeks, and what are they looking forward to now? well, really a week from tomorrow we're going to get the unemployment numbers the first friday of the month. that is going to set the tone, i think. for right now you've got people that sold the market in the hole, they've been chased out, and right now if you look at, all the markets are up. gold's up, the bond market's rallied, and the stock market's rallied. so anybody that's been betting on the short side has been chased out. liz: i know. >> i think we're looking for that unemployment number on the first week next month. liz: tom bradley's saying i know what's down, the energy sector. as we look at gold, terry duffy was on with maria bartiromo on the opening bell, and he said he was going long gold simply because of the psychology, if people get concerned about

equities, gold may profit. what's going on with oil today, tom? >> you saw the large pullback last week in natural gas from 6.5 down to 4.5, that's about $20 move in crude oil. oil's come off its highs from 105, but we thought it was. that was the high end of range that we've seen over the last eight months or so. but it looks like natural gas has found support around 4.40 in april, we look more that up to 5 before it pulls back and oil to down p to 100 before it makes another move higher. liz: good to see all of you. thank you so much. we love our traders. great to have you on the closing bell. breaking news out of state of california which, by the way, is the tenth largest economy in the entire world, so it truly matters. governor jerry brown will seek re-election. now, you remember just two days ago we had neel kashkari on, he's running as the republican candidate there. be an interesting race. we do have governor jerry brown having turned what was a pretty significant deficit into a smaller surplus, but a surplus

nonetheless. once again, governor jerry brown going to go for it once again, running for re-election. by the way, next wednesday i'm going to california, and we will be with governor jerry brown because he is striking an innovation partnership with the prime minister of israel, benjamin netanyahu. we will have a first on fox business interview with netanyahu next wednesday. stay tuned for that. >> closing bell ringing in 45 minutes. weight loss is a $40 billion industry, and some americans will do or spend anything to shed the pounds. that's why companies like nutrasystem are making handsome profits. they've just come out with numbers that the market didn't love, but the stock is up more than 100% over the past year. dawn has been at the helm of that turn around of nutrasystem. coming in live, first on fox business, we'll ask her about the proposed new labeling of food. and what does blackstone's steve schwartzman have in common

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♪ ♪ liz: it's really cold out today here in new york city. it was about 30 degrees. you can see it right there on the clockk nice. and, i don't know, it's what in chicago? i'm overestimating because it's fun to. investors are hoping we finally see signs of thaws in the arket right now. look, we've got a rally, nonetheless, but all the major indices in the plus column at the moment. how about your portfolio, is it going to thaw out with spring just around the corner? are you prepared to capitalize on a turn around? our guest has more than a management for high net worth clients. she has a cheat sheet for you on where you, too, can cash in. joining me now, carol pepper, pepper international president. great to have you. >> thanks, great to be here. liz: thawing out, we've been on a roll with the markets, so i dare say the markets have been

pretty heated. but portfoos are waiting to see certain individual stocks start to look better, and what are the signs we need to look for? >> well, we're starting to see the signs we need to see. look at what happened with the new housing starts. all of a sudden they're up 468,000 -- liz: you mean new home sales. >> that's right. liz: yeah. >> so we're starting to see the kinds of signs we went to see. once this weather passes, people can get out of the house, start shopping again, start improving again, i think we're going to see what we need to see. liz: it's as if people who would go certain stores and certain stores that are publicly-traded stocks have itchy shopping feet. they're waiting to go outside. >> that's right. and i'm really excited about what's happening, for example, with home depot and lowe's. looe's just announced a $5 billion share buyback, home depot just increased its dividend by 21%. and with all the new home sales, all the improving, all the focus on real estate, we're going to see these two retailers

coextremely well. liz: it's not just running in to get bags of salt or snowblowers. now people might want to start doing home improvement. >> that's right. liz: and, therefore, you believe those two names are opportunities. and your going for some retail names too. ralph lauren, target. >> yes. liz: why those two? especially target which is coming through a real storm? >> yeah. they had a tough time, obviously, with the scandal and the hacking, but they've done a phenomenal job. the ceo just announced a $100 million plan for new cards that will be embedded with chips that'll make it much harder to scam consumers. that's a really smart strategy. and, you know, when you buy that new home, you're still going to go to target to start filling it up. liz: people are looking for the windshield and the rearview mirror at this point. >> that's right. liz: that's how you see it. let's talk about strategy. the spring thaw is coming and people are going to the start emerging and spending some money. what is the best strategy for an investor who's listening right now that could mimic what your high net worth clients actually do? >> well, the the first thing is

asset allocation. make sure you have the right mix of stocks and bonds. then you want to make sure you're going for the high quality names. it's really important not to go for the junk. there's no reason to. why not buy the best? that's what high net worth people do, and you should do too. you want to keep enough cash in your portfolio so that if the market has a dip, for exxmple, the ukraine right now or if it looks dicety for a few days, you're not tempted to feel at the wrong time. liz: i like how you phrased that. you have cash to keep you calm about the money you have aloe candidated to certain stocks so you don't sell when the knife is falling. okay, ipo market. this is interesting, it was so talked about. the last quarter of 2013. now you're not hearing so much about it, but that's why we're talking about. and carol feels there's still opportunity, but there are ways to play it where you can brung in a basket, and that is -- bring in a basket t and that is, for example, this ipo which is an etf. >> that's right. looks like there's going to be a

lot of ipos this year. for example j crew, la quinta hotels, a lot of companies are planning to go public. liz: and would they then go into this etfsome. >> that's correct. they buy the stocks right after they become public, and they hold them for about a thousand trading days, and you get that benefit. so those, instead of trying to buy facebook yourself and maybe you're not buying at the right moment, buy the etf. and then you have the entire basket of top ipos. liz: you've got another one, fpx, first trust. how is that different from ipo? >> it's just a little bit broader. they hold the ips for a little bit longer, so it's a broader indirect of -- liz: went public a while back. >> yeah. so those are both great ways for you to get into ipo market and be really exposed there. liz: carol pepper. and we are going to put all of your picks up on the facebook.com/lizclaman page. we really appreciate you coming on. >> always a pleasure, liz. liz: and we've watched your

company grow and your assets under management grow, so it's really great to see you. thank you so much. >> great, thank you. liz: we've got about 36 minutes before that closing bell rings. diet plan nutrasystem's bottom line budging. its stock price, today it's falling, but expanding over the long-term along with america's waistline. we have a first on fox business interview with ceo dawn zier on how her company is making big bucks helping you slim down. also proposed changes of those food labels, that's going to be announced tomorrow. and wall street getting in bed with the fashion world. we're not talking about with models. we have the man behind private ec by few -- equity company blackstone on why versace has been trick for his business. maria broke this story this morning, your going to hear what he has to say and how you can capitalize. ♪ ♪ (announcer) scottrade knows our clients trade

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♪ liz: when i say college campus, i bet you immediately picture youngsters in their teens and low 20s wearing school hoodies, but lately the landscape of college towns is really changing and attracting a surprising new demographic. baby boomers, that's the group born between the end of world war ii and 1964, are increasingly retiring to more vibrant venues such as college towns. so what's behind this new trend? jeff flock live at ann arbor, michigan, with more on this. >> reporter: it is behind people who just don't want to give in, you know? the generation before the baby boomers, they were content to go to dell wwb and pray shuffleboard maybe, but not the guy in the front seat of this car. john reid is 95 years old. you would not know it to to talk to him or let him drive you around the campus of ann arbor -- >> you'll be sorry. [laughter] >> reporter: john, why -- you know, you retired, why would you

retire to ann arbor, michigan? it's about 14 degrees out there right now. what are you doing? >> well, first of all, it was easy to retire here because i already lived here. but the choice was between a place like this and a place where you're spirally with, or largely with older people and more sedentary activities. here the life of is still vital, the university is a busy place, there's a smorgasbord of few going on. >> reporter: you make a great point. we were out this morning on the golf course with some folks who were snowshoeing and cross country skiing. you know, this generation -- and you're ahead of of your time because you're 95. you were practicing law when the baby boomers were born. but you adopt want to give in. you kind of are an old person that doesn't want to be around old people. >> i come to an office at the law school every day which the university generously makes available, and so with younger

colleagues who are dealing with frontiers of things and so there are all kinds of conversations. and the mind stays reasonably lively which would not likely be so if it were a shuffleboard existence. >> reporter: and this was not true of most of the people in your generation, people that retired with you did go off to sun city and the rest of that, and baby boomers really are not willing to give into that. >> well, that generation couldn't afford to go off someplace, they would just sort of settle down to a lower standard of living in their, in their present location which was not very exciting. >> reporter: john, i'll tell you, i really appreciate the time that we've spent here together on this campus. it is, you know, liz, it's a little bit like, you know, when you're out on the coast, you drive to ocean because you want to drink in the water. here the water are the young people and the vibrancy that surrounds this, and it kind of

gives you an energy that maybe the ocean does as well. the free flowing of ideas, people and possibility. liz: jeff, that is very poetic. >> i now live where people are still active -- >> reporter: you know, i try in my old age. [laughter] >> they're attractive, and, you know, active. and those who are sort of retired at point have had very interesting pasts which they share with us from time to time. they were researchers, leaders in their field -- >> reporter: that's wonderful. john reid, i appreciate the time. thank you so much. liz, i hope if i'm half as vibrant as john reid is -- liz: oh, i love this. i absolutely love this. we are all sitting here in the studio watching, he is just a brilliant driver at age 95. john and jeff, thank you so much. he's absolutely right, right? you keep around younger people and vibrant thoughts, and you're in it to win it, use it or lose

it. what other analogies can i use, benny? jeff came up with that very poetic comparing it to the ocean to, but i'll move to ucla. a little warmer than ann arbor. high finance meets high fashion. one of the world's largest private equity firms, blackstone, taking a 20% stake in the family-owned italian fashion house versace for $287 million. in an exclusive interview on opening bell with maria bartiromo this morning on fox business, blackstone's chairman and founder, steve schwartzman, said the deal would help versace grow the brand. >> versace has a huge brand name recognition around the world, particularly in places like china. but its business itself is much smaller than its recognition. and it provides the opportunity for really major expansion of the company. liz: you know, you can actually own versace right along there

with steven schwartzman, because he is actually running that company. it's publicly traded. ticker symbol bx. be sure to watch "opening bell" with maria 9 a.m. eastern right here on fox business. the versace transaction values the business at about $1.4 billion. blackstone allows the company to fund brand new stores and have an eventual stock market listing of the actual name versace. but reuters saying that ipo could come within three to five years. versace recently hired lady gaga to promote its brand, the latest to be the face of versace. among the others? madonna. blackstone not the only private equity firm involved in the qoarkses. it beat rivals such as informs corp. and bahrain-based investment firm that once owned gucci. take a look at where blackstone's shares are, moving higher by nearly a percent to 32.99. and some of versace's high fashion competitors such as

karan and louis vuitton, they are just slightly lower today or flat. good to see everybody at the moment, and here's lbmh up about a half a percent. closing bell ringing in 25%. from super skinny, right? wearing versace to losing weight to fit into versace, yes, join the club. wait until you hear what nutrisystem is offering to slim you down to size. nutrisystem's ceo here first on fox business to tell us the secret to weight loss success and how those new fooddlabels will affect her business. she's up next. againn first on fox business. you've got to be here. ♪ ♪ she loves a lot of the same things you do.

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♪ ♪ liz: we all love a great turn around story. one day does not make a turn around, but we'll look at jcpenney anyway because this is a big jump, 25 and a third percent higher, shares of the battered retailer soaring following an upbeat earnings report, are today finally turning the corner after years of losses? i hesitate, nicole, to get all excited about this. we've been disappointed before. >> reporter: i think the hesitation is merited, liz. obviously, this is a company that's had a tough time of it, and this quarter is the first quarter that we're seeing profit for jcpenney since 2011. so, you know, hold your horses. in the meantime, though, stock's doing great today. can't deny that. take a look at it. up 25.5% right now for jcpenney. this as they came out, posted a profit. they did well, they're going forward, they're saying that they have enough money on the balance sheet, liquidity,

guidance according to the analysts, they think they can sell, not keep raising capital. and the ceo who, obviously, has taken over, mike ullman, obviously says a lot of his turn around plans are behind him. now he's going to work on marketing. liz: nicole, we'll take it. thank you so much. diet season in full swing as thousands of people try to follow through op their new year's resolutions. i would say millions really. i mean, who doesn't want to los3 just a couple of pounds? but body shapes aren't the only things that are changing. first lady michelle obama shaking up the food industry with plans for sweeping changes to nutrition labels that will affect all packaged foods. the new rules, what'll they do? they'll highlight added sugars. not just sugar, and fat. they could make the calorie count much bigger print and could trim revenues at some of the major package companies. but how would this impact all the weight loss players out there? could the new rules add some pounds to their bottom line?

joining me now, first on fox business, the ceo and president of nutrisystem, dawn zier. great to have you. you're coming off relatively strong fourth quarter numbers, and as we look forward, the stock -- while down today -- it has had just a wonderful first year. so i guess it would be the second year of your turn around plan, correct? >> starting our second year, and we're excited, liz. we're projecting the first be full-year revenue grrwth over the last fife years, so fife years of declining, we're in go mode. we're really excited. les les are you excited about the proposed changes that are supposed to be announced tomorrow. >> >> i think they're good, i think they're great for america. in my mind, an informed customer is a good customer. i was at the store the other day, there was a muffin, and a muffin, a serving -- it was a serving for two. that's not normal thinking, right? serving for two for one muffin. so i think it's good. nutrisystem, in many ways, was ahead of its time. we understand portion control, and this'll help educate america. liz: do you anticipate spending

any money to change your labels heresome. >> no. i guess make the calorie count bigger, but we're pretty up front it's all about portion control and caloric intake. liz: so you're not screaming about new regulations that are on the way. >> i think they're great. period. liz: all right, let's go forward. fast five, i had a box because you guys sent it to me, and i've sampled a lot of the food, tastes pretty good. >> good. liz: till me what's going on -- tell me what's going on with your overall turn around plan. especially compared to your competitors. while you were up more than 104% year-over-year, i would say weight watchers is down relatively significantly, it's down 50%. medifast is up 15% year-over-year. you all have very high portions of your float being shorted. why don't people, why doesn't wall street believe in these companies and in nutrisystem? it's almost like they're cheering for you to go down. >> i think our stock performance over the last year has shown we can do what we said we would do.

we're different than a lot of our competitors. apps and trackers and fitness trackers, they complement me. they don't hurt my part of the industry. we're about food delivery, portion control. so very different. as i like to say, you can't -- apps are not edible, so our products are quite different. liz: they sure are. but this competitor chart really articulates just how well you've skyrocketed, and part of that, you tell me, is this that you're now available on walmart shelves and soon will be available on the shelves of target? >> retail's been a great play for us, and we're excited with our launch into target in april. a lot of our growth is coming from retail, but the significant part is coming from turning around that we're projecting from '14 is turning around our direct to consumer business, bringing in new customers year-over-year. for the first time in many years, that's a win for us. diet season, it's like holiday retail season, and i feel week knocking it out of the ballpark. liz: celebrities certainly help. all of the weight loss companies have harnessessed or corralled

celebrities. you guys went with the male crowd the last time we spoke. now you've added melissa joan hart, marie osmond's been there for a while. melissa joan hart, talk about her. >> she's great. she just did a shoot for us. he just did a bathing suit reveal, she looks awesome. liz: a mother of three, by the way. >> mother of three, in her 30s. she looks great, and she's a fos great on the red carpet and real authentic. liz: she talked about revealing herself in a bikini, and that's not an easy thing to do. >> no. liz: so it works. >> and she's honest. she talks about her weight loss experience and after having the children it takes time, and she wasn't ready to lose it right away, but when she got serious, he turned to our program, and she looks great. liz: why buy nutrisystem's stock? especially, we've passed january which is the time when everybody says i'm going to go on a diet and then forget about it later. >> i think it has to do with track record, and if you look at what we said we were going to do

over the last year, we did every single thing we said we were going to do. we have a lot of plans for the future, product innovation. craving crusher shakes, walmart kits, fast five, those are examples of some of the things that we can do, and is we have more planned for the horizon. liz: dawn zier is the president and ceo of nutrisystem. no problem at all with the proposed new label changes. thank you very much for joining us. >> thanks for having me. liz: we've followed this turn around story closely, and we will continue to. >> great. liz: if our viewers had listened a year ago, they'd be up 100%. [laughter] closing bell ringing in 14 minutes. thinking of reor tiring to the sunshine state? for many, that is a dream, but make that a reality.that could and jpmorgan's retirement guru michael falcon is next with the five things you absolutely need to do to have a great retirement fund. it's a fox business exclusive. and the markets may close at 4 p.m. eastern, i am always on call for you. head to foxbusiness.com/oncall,

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liz: we often talk about the 1% on ts networks, right? well, today we're talking about the 4% number. it's the idea that retirees withdraw 4% of their nest eggs in the first year of retirement and then increase that amount by inflation each year. but perhaps it's time to forgo the 4% rule. get rid of it.

well, yeah, but replace it with what? joining us now in a fox business exclusive, michael falcon, jp morgan. for our purposes today you are head of retirement. the 4% rule, people have stuck by it, but why do we need to move on from that. >> so it's a great rule of thumb, and if you're thinking about putting something on the back of a napkin, it's as good as anything. problem is, it doesn't account for the realities of how old you are, when you might need the money, what your risk appetite is, how much wealth you have or hold up retirement income you might have from other sources like social security or annuities. so we think it's deficient, and we spend a lot of time, developed a research paper, very excited we released it this morning called the dynamic withdrawal strategy where we've modeled out multifactor scenarios that look at not only withdrawal rate that changes over time, but also the implications to your asset allocation. liz: please don't tell us we need to spend less when we're

retired, because aren't we supposed to enjoy our retirement? >> well, that's the interesting outcome. we don't always necessarily need to spend less. we need to plan for our spending, save appropriately and, obviously, withdrawing too much money too quickly in retirement can lead to depleting your funds which you don't want. but by the same token, people who don't withdraw or don't enjoy their money in retirement can live a more anxious life and end up with extra resources -- liz: the spending patterns, sorry to interrupt, you see that health care either gets high -- everything else dose down, but health care goes up. that's understandable. >> this is one of the big myths. the big myth is, okay, well, through retirement i'm constantly going to spend more with inflation. health care costs do rise, and inflation on health care is higher than the rest of the basket of inflation, but your other spending tends to go down. we looked at data as to what people are actually spending in different age cohorts and spending actually goes down. liz: and here it is. people do see spending go down. again, health care moves higher, but i want all of our viewers to really listen up right now.

if you have the sound down, turn it up. michael, you have five very important must-dos when it comes to the rules of of retirement. >> five things you have to do. the first is you need to get advice. we recommend that you work with a qualified financial adviser, certified financial planner, get somebody you're comfortable with. but it's very, very hard to do it alone. liz: the second one, adjust your withdrawal rate. >> you need to be looking in retirement at what's actually happening. what's happening in the market, what's happening in your needs and adjust the withdrawal rate and your asset allocation. third thing is you need to control your spending. this is true as we're accumulating and saving, we were just talking about it before the segment, but it's also true to have a spending plan as well as a saving and investing plan. liz: and plan to address the health care cost cans that, of course, is crucial. there are actually ten. we're going to put all of michael's ten very important ideas. i love these, i love lists like this up on the facebook.com/lizclaman page. obama, of course, is going to be putting forth myra and that, of

course, is something you actually think is a pretty good idea. >> yeah. we saw it in the state of the union, treasury is supposed to pilot this at the end. it's basically a roth-type vehicle where people without a 401(k) at work can get into an automated savings accumulation, accumulate up to $15,000 in a relatively safe investment. liz: and it gets people -- >> if it gets them started, it's not a retirement solution, but it can get people started saving, and we think that's indicative of them remaining savers and investors. liz: michael, so great to have you. love to help our viewers in this way. michael falcon, managing director asset management and head of retirement. we do care about you as you retire. closing bell ringing in less than five minutes. we have nascar racer and godaddy spokesperson danica patrick, a fox business exclusive. people pitching her business ideas while they're a passenger in her seat as she zooms arounn 150 miles an hour. if you can get her attention like that a, then you've got a good business. ♪ ♪

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get real-time market scanning wherever you are with the mobile trader app. from td ameritrade. liz: maybe fourth time is a charm as we get close to that record. we go to nicole on the floor of the new york stock exchange. we're waiting for earnings after the bell from gap. >> we're watching gap slightly to the downside. there was a lot of talk about heavy promotions going on but they kept their costs uncontrol. the buybacks have given us steady idea here for gap so just slightly lower is the return of the underdogs. start with jcpenney today, up 25%! who would have thunk, huh? >> finally profitable quarter. finally a profitable quarter for jcpenney. the idea going forward that the turn around is underway.

[closing bell ringing] barnes & noble, don't forget they had a takeover offer and had better numbers. liz: it is a record for the s&p, a record close! we were above 184intraday many times. couldn't quite make it stick. the new number well above 184, david. -- 1848. david: not bad at all. "after the bell" starts right now. time to break down all of today's history-making market action. we have larry rosenthal, rosenthal wealth management the best criteria for picking winning stocks. darren sringa will tell us why he thinks the u.s. energy industry is global game-changer. of the chris gersch joining us from the pits of the cme. chris, 1850 on the s&p was one of