The principals of 11 public, private and parochial schools were summoned yesterday before the New York City Health Department's administrative tribunal because, the department says, they permitted students to be in school without proof of immunization.

The principal of a 12th school could not be served with a summons, according to a department spokesman. The summonses are returnable on June 16 and 17.

Under state law, principals are responsible for making sure that their pupils have been inoculated against such diseases as polio, diphtheria, rubella, measles and mumps. If the principals are found to have violated the law, they can receive fines of up to $500.

One of the schools involved is a public school, seven are parochial and three, including Trinity School, are private. They are in all boroughs, except Staten Island.

Health Commissioner Reinaldo A. Ferrer, who had issued a directive last August ordering school principals to submit evidence of compliance with the state law, said: ''It is unconscionable at this late date that principals have still not cooperated with state and city efforts to immunize and protect children from dangerous and sometimes fatal diseases.'' Explanations Given

Demetrios Triantafillou, principal of St. Demetrios School in Queens, who received a summons, said he had submitted his immunization forms ''in time'' to the Health Department. ''They say they never received them,'' Mr. Triantafillou said. ''They should have informed us.''

He said he was going to the department today to show officials photocopies of the completed forms. Robin Lester, headmaster of Trinity, said: ''I guess the Department of Health is asking us to be their accountants.'' He said the department's immunization forms were ''very complicated and time-consuming'' because ''we have to request the information from the parents, and they in turn have to check with the family doctor to find as many as nine exact immunization dates.''

He said the department had held that the evidence of immunization of 500 of Trinity's 830 students was ''not acceptable.'' Mr. Lester said the school now had satisfactory immunization evidence for about 400 of the 500.

The other schools to receive summonses, according to the department, were: Public School 316, St. Agatha and Yeshiva Ohel Moshe in Brooklyn; St. Gabriel and Kew Forest in Queens; the United Nations International School, Holy Name of Jesus and Yeshiva University High School for Boys in Manhattan, and St. Anthony in the Bronx.


The Jan. 29 letter from Marie E. Howley, a member of the United Federation of Teachers, attempts to create the impression that the opposition to tuition tax credits expressed by the U.F.T. president, Albert Shanker, in his weekly ''Where We Stand'' column does not reflect U.F.T. policy.

On the contrary, that position reflects resolutions of the United Federation of Teachers Delegate Assembly and convention resolutions of our state and national affiliates - the New York State United Teachers and the American Federation of Teachers - over the past decade at least. These resolutions oppose tuition tax credits, vouchers and other schemes to provide government funds to nonpublic schools. In fact, the U.F.T. was a plaintiff in successful Federal suits challenging the constitutionality of New York State laws providing such aid.

So strongly do teachers feel on the subject that the A.F.T. Convention of 1978 voted, with near unanimity, to bar endorsement of any candidates for Congress who had voted for tuition tax credits, no matter how supportive they had been on other education and labor issues.

The overwhelming majority of teachers oppose tuition tax credits because they would lead to the destruction of public education and the proliferation of schools supported by government funds but organized along religious, racial, ethnic, economic and ideological lines, with virtually no accountability to the public.

Because private schools do not have to accept and retain every student, educate the handicapped, provide bilingual instruction and comply with the host of other regulations governing the public schools, the competition will be unequal from the outset. The private schools will skim off the cream of students and parents, while public schools will be left to struggle for funds with which to teach those who are most expensive to educate.

Some teachers, of course, support tuition tax credits for personal reasons -and our union newspaper is open enough to permit the airing of their views (a fact to which Marie Howley alluded). But they are in a very small minority. Mr. Shanker's views, as expressed in the column, reflect those of the majority. After all, he has been the elected president of the U.F.T. since 1964, re-elected most recently in 1979 with 75 percent of the vote. JULES KOLODNY, Secretary, United Federation of Teachers, New York, Jan. 29, 1981

Summary: To the Editor:    The Jan. 29 letter from Marie E. Howley, a member of the United Federation of Teachers, attempts to create the impression that the opposition to tuition tax credits expressed by the U.F.T. president, Albert Shanker, in his weekly ''Where We Stand'' column does not reflect U.F.T. policy.   On the contrary, that position reflects resolutions of the United Federation of Teachers Delegate Assembly and convention resolutions of our state and national affiliates - the New York State United Teachers and the American Federation of Teachers - over the past decade at least. These resolutions oppose tuition tax credits, vouchers and other schemes to provide government funds to nonpublic schools. In fact, the U.F.T. was a plaintiff in successful Federal suits challenging the constitutionality of New York State laws providing such aid.


MATTHEW JOSEPHSON, BOURGEOIS BOHEMIAN By David E. Shi. Illustrated. 314 pp. New Haven: Yale University Press. $19.95. By JUSTIN KAPLAN

MATTHEW JOSEPHSON, who died three years ago at the age of 79, was among the last of a disappearing breed - a man of letters and an intellectual generalist. He had been a biographer, memoirist, historian and magazine writer. During the 1920's he was a prominent expatriate, and as an editor of the trans-Atlantic reviews Broom and Secession, he molded a brief alliance between the European avantgarde (most conspicuously the Dadaists) and a group of rising American writers that included his friends Kenneth Burke, Malcolm Cowley and Hart Crane. By 1928, when he published his distinguished biography of Emile Zola, for which he chose as dramatic focus the novelist's intervention in the Dreyfus affair, he had already articulated one of the dominant concerns of his own life - the writer's challenge to be activist and public person. But although Josephson sought to meet that challenge in literature, in the surrealist esthetic and in left liberalism, he never for long found a resting point.

David Shi says Josephson remained ''essentially a bourgeois intellectual with a strong sense of social concern and a disdain for corporate power.'' This seems a fair enough capsule judgment. Certainly the disdain and the concern - together with an intense curiosity about American business - motivated him to write his most important book, ''The Robber Barons,'' a muckraking study of J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie and other corporate empire builders over the five decades between the Civil War and Theodore Roosevelt's war on the trusts.

''The Robber Barons'' was published in 1934, at a time when the Depression had readied audiences for a reappraisal of the supposedly visionary, innovative nature of American capitalism during what had been its most dramatically consolidating phase. The book headed the nonfiction best-seller list for half a year and reportedly was required reading for New Deal bureaucrats. Despite attacks on its historical methods, its reliance on secondary sources and the foregone character of its conclusions, ''The Robber Barons'' still remains a standard popular work, novelistically provocative if not invariably just. ''There are never wanting some persons of violent and undertaking natures,'' Josephson quoted from Francis Bacon on his title page, ''who, so they may have power and business, will take it at any cost.'' This was the personal understanding he brought to his book. He had derived it in part from compromising experiences in the financial world that set him apart from Kenneth Burke and Malcolm Cowley, whose early careers were roughly paral- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Justin Kaplan's most recent book is ''Walt Whitman: A Life.'' lel to his in other respects. Josephson had begun by rebelling against the prospect of entering the banking business of his father, a Russian-Jewish immigrant who had arrived in Brooklyn as a printer's devil. The son went to Columbia University instead of the bank, and then to Greenwich Village and Europe. But after two years in the society of Tristan Tzara, Man Ray and Louis Aragon, in what seems a Dadaist transformation, he returned and, completely untrained and uninformed, took a job as a customer's man on Wall Street; that he was hired at all may be evidence of how desperately the securities industry was then in need of regulation.

He expected to make his fast million and retire to a life of writing in the country house he had recently bought. But he left Wall Street in despair, having seen his customers stripped by the brutal shakeouts of the Coolidge stock market and then dismissed by investment professionals as suckers who got what they deserved for trying to get something for nothing. ''He recalled this time as the most unhappy period of his life,'' Mr. Shi writes. ''Life on Wall Street made him a sick man.'' But his business experiences made him an indignant man as well, and left him with a conflicting mix of aims and means. He lived the life of a country gentleman and kept a suite at the Essex House. ''When not writing articles for the Saturday Evening Post or The New Yorker, or working on biographies of Juan Trippe and Stendhal, he remained actively interested in the political questions of the day.'' It seems clear, as Mr. Shi suggests, that Josephson's response to at least some of these questions was paternalistic and elitist. He was willing to go along with Stalin, for example, on the principle that Stalin probably knew what was best for the people.

Mr. Shi says he has not written ''a literary biography in the strict sense of the term, but rather an intellectual biography of a literary figure.'' Nevertheless, there is a great deal of revealing personal material here about Josephson's love affairs (with Katherine Anne Porter, for one), his friendships, illnesses and disasters. Despite considerable charm and attractiveness, he never got over the mannered aloofness that had marked him in high school when he first began to think of himself as an artist and an intellectual leader. He seems never to have come to terms with his background, and even in remembering his father - a ''noble fellow who was gentle and patient with me'' - manages to write in an inappropriate if not insincere idiom.

With age, deafness compounded Josephson's inaccessibility; more than ever he was a great talker but a terrible listener. ''His attempt to assume the responsibilities of the writer turned public man occasionally exposed the shallowness and inconsistency of his political opinions,'' Mr. Shi concludes. ''He never developed an appreciation for the complexity of human nature or of causation; nor did he ever satisfactorily resolve the conflict between his bourgeois aloofness and his support of an egalitarian social program.'' Josephson's energies may never have found an enduring focus, but his biography is a useful contribution to the social history of men of letters in America.

Illustrations: photo of Malcolm Cowley photo of Kenneth Burke photo of Tristan Tzara and Matthew Josephson photo of Matthew Josephson


With less than eight weeks remaining before a deadline for the return of 837 Grumman Flxible buses to the streets of New York, only 99 have been returned, and company and transit officials said yesterday that the deadline would not be met.

In addition, officials of the Transit Authority charged that 70 percent of the buses that had been returned - after twice being sent back to Grumman for repairs - still had mechanical problems.

The developments have thrown into question what will happen to more than $20 million being held in a bank account that was set aside to pay for the buses once they were delivered. On Dec. 31, the funds in the account are to revert to the agencies that are paying for the buses.

The delay of the payment to Grumman threatens to worsen the financial plight of the corporation, which has already lost $70 million as a result of troubles with Flxible buses around the nation. Grumman has agreed to pay for repairs on 2,650 buses in 26 cities, including Los Angeles and Chicago.

Because of the delay in delivering the buses, the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York said that the authority was considering legal action against Grumman.

''My chief concern,'' said the chairman, Richard Ravitch, ''is the fact that we have not gotten buses back in a timely fashion, as Grumman promised. I want to know why and want to analyze whether to make legal claims against them.'' A Patchwork of Buses

The authority has continued to use old city buses scheduled for retirement, as well as 160 buses borrowed from the Washington transit system. The authority has been able to meet its peak requirement of 3,343 buses because of the recent delivery of 500 General Motors buses.

John D. Simpson, the president of the Transit Authority, the M.T.A. agency that runs the subways and buses, said the performance of the new General Motors buses had been ''excellent.'' But he added: ''Are we satisfied with the Grumman buses? The answer is no.''

A recent authority report said there had been numerous additional problems involving the A frame, shock absorbers and trunnions, or movable joints. None of the conditions presented an ''immediate safety hazard,'' the report said, but could lead to ''more costly, serious and recurring problems.''

Carol Bellamy, the president of the City Council, suggested that the M.T.A. should try to cancel part of the $94 million order for the 837 buses because, she said, Grumman has not lived up to the agreement.

But Weyman B. Jones, a Grumman spokesman, said that if the delivery date was not met, as expected, the M.T.A. would still be obligated to purchase the buses, although a new payment and delivery schedule would have to be drawn up. ''We still have a contract with the M.T.A. for the sale of the buses,'' he said. Escrow Account Set Up

The terms for the return of the Flxibles were reached last Jan. 8, soon after the buses were first withdrawn for repairs. The buses, which arrived in the city in the summer of 1980, had been removed from service after cracks were found in their undercarriages.

Under the agreement, Grumman said that it would pay for the repair of the undercarriages, an advanced-design A frame. The M.T.A. agreed to pay the manufacturer $10 million toward the buses and put $26 million more in an escrow account. Money was to have been paid from the account as buses were delivered.

The delivery schedule was again set back in August when the first of the returning Flxibles were sent back again because of a new defect discovered in the engine mounts. Grumman took the buses back and agreed to make both the A-frame and engine mount adjustments.

With the bus order far from completed and the escrow account about to expire, M.T.A. lawyers have been examining legal options. Mr. Ravitch said several options would be presented to the full 14-member board of the M.T.A. when it met in its regular monthly meeting next Friday. 'The Big Bus That Couldn't'

When the escrow account expires, the money will be returned to the several agencies that helped the M.T.A. pay for the vehicles, including the City of New York and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Officials of these agencies are expected to be called in on the negotiations.

In a related development yesterday, a State Assembly committee issued a report saying that a ''massive and total breakdown'' of review procedures had led to the purchase of the Grumman buses.

Assemblyman G. Oliver Koppell, the chairman of the Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, issued the report, entitled ''The Big Bus That Couldn't.''

''Everyone assumed that somebody else had set adequate standards and performed adequate tests,'' said Mr. Koppell, a Bronx Democrat. ''But that was not the case.''


TRENTON, April 13— The New Jersey Reapportionment Commission approved today by a 6-to-5 vote a new map of the state's 40 legislative districts. The action insures that the June 2 primary election will be held as scheduled.

Today is the deadline for certifying the districts and April 23 is the last day for candidates to file nominating petitions to run for the state's 40 State Senate and 80 Assembly seats.

In today's voting, all Republican members of the panel were opposed to the measure. Dean Donald Stokes of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, who was appointed the 11th member of the panel on March 30, cast the tie-breaking vote.

He said both Republican and Democratic members of the commission had been close to agreement last night and that the final map approved today meets the ''overall test of fairness'' demanded by the State Constitution.

Although some legislators in both parties have complained about changes in their districts, there was no indication today of any contemplated lawsuits challenging the plan.

In fact, the commission was congratulated on its action by Senator Joseph Hirkala, a Democrat who is also the City Clerk of Passaic. The Senator had been an outspoken critic of the plan because it took the city of Clifton - which he carried by 9,000 votes in the last State Senate election -out of his district and added a number of towns in neighboring Bergen County.

''I accept it and I know how hard you worked,'' Senator Hirkala said to the commission members. ''Now I have to go out and win my new district.''

Not everyone was so understanding. Senator Donald T. Di Francesco of Scotch Plains and Assemblywoman Hazel S. Gluck of Lakewood, two Republican members of the Reapportionment Commission, voted against the plan because of changes to be made in their districts.

Mr. Di Francesco said the new map places Republican incumbents in a new 22d District ''in a great deal of jeopardy, and I think it was drawn with that in mind.''

He said the new district was divided between Essex and Union County towns that ''have no community of interest.'' The old 22d District combined communities in Union and Morris Counties.

The three other Republican members of the panel - including J. Garfield De Marco, the Burlington County Republican chairman and the party's leader on the commission - supported the two legislators' views.

Mr. De Marco said he was prepared last night to vote for the new map, but changed his mind today because of the final shape of the 22d District.

''There was a breakdown of communications,'' he said. ''We thought the agreement was that the Democrats would redistrict Hudson County and Newark and we would draw the lines in the northwest part of the state, including the 22d District.''

John Sheridan, the counsel to the Republican members of the panel, estimated that the map contains 20 ''solid'' Democratic districts, 16 ''solid'' Republican districts and four ''swing'' districts.

Peter P. Curtin of Lawrenceville, a Democratic member of the commission, said the breakdown was 18 Democratic districts to 16 Republican districts, with the rest favoring neither side.


WASHINGTON, Sept. 20— The Federal Communications Commission ''almost certainly'' will delay beyond March 1982 the planned implementation of its telephone deregulation program, according to one of the agency's members.

The centerpiece of the program is a new subsidiary of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company that would sell on an unregulated basis a variety of communications equipment, ranging from telephones to complex switchboards, and offer sophisticated data and information services.

Subject to pending appeals before the commission and in the United States Court of Appeals here, the plan, drawn up by the F.C.C., was to take effect March 1, 1982. But Joseph R. Fogarty, a commission member who specializes in telephone regulation, said that implementation of the program could slip to December of 1982 or even later.

Some definite decisions on what to do about the lagging program, now being held up because staff officials at the commission say they are overburdened, are expected to be made at a meeting of the commissioners on Oct. 7, Mr. Fogarty added.

Mr. Fogarty is only one of seven members of the commission, but he is deferred to by his fellow commissioners on telephone industry matters because of his expertise. He is expected to be especially influential on telecommunications issues in coming months because three members of the commission, including the chairman, joined the agency only this year.

''When we delay the date for implementing the plans, I know it is going to be difficult for A.T.&T.,'' said Mr. Fogarty. ''They are busily working on restructuring plans to coincide with March.'' Shift of Equipment an Issue

At the heart of the commission's problem is the lack of success in deciding how to transfer billions of dollars worth of existing Bell System equipment, such as telephones and switchboards, to the new subsidiary.

In order to shift the equipment from the regulated side of the company to the unregulated side, it must be depreciated on a steppedup schedule, if not immediately. Quicker depreciation could drive up local phone rates and have other consequences, industry officials say.

On Thursday, at a joint meeting of the House subcommittee on investigations and the subcommittee on telecommunications, there is scheduled to be a disclosure of the results of a long-awaited examination o f the F.C.C.'s Common Carrier Bureau. The subcommittees are expected to also delve into several recent controversial rulings by the commis sion. ''I think it will be the most important hearing wewill take par t in this year,'' Mr. Fogarty said, but he declined to be more speci fic.

In particular the members of the commission are expected to be questioned about a closed-door meeting where they decided to grant A.T.&T. an increased rate of return, from 10.5 percent to 12.75 percent, which later resulted in increases in long distance phone rates in excess of 16 percent. Overseas rates declined over the same period.

The increase was expected to result in an estimated revenue rise of more than $725 million this year. Overcharges and Cellular Radio

In addition, according to members of the staff of the joint House panel, commission members will be questioned about the disposition of $100 million in overcharges A.T.&T. is said to owe customers, and a decision earlier this year to begin a new form of mobile telephone called cellular radio by guaranteeing A.T.&T. a part of the new service.

The whole question of how to dispose of telephone equipment and how to provide for the maintenance of the phones and other devices after they are unregulated is a complex question involving phone company accounting departments, local utility boards and the Federal commission, Mr. Fogarty said.

The manner of disposing of the old equipment could also affect A.T.&T.'s success in financing the new subsidiary, which may cost up to $20 billion to institute, he said. Bell must propose a capitalization plan in November.

A.T.&T. officials, asked about the consequences of a delay in instituting the new plan, declined immediate comment, saying it would be premature to react before the commission moved.


Reg Murphy, the 47-year-old publisher and editor of The San Francisco Examiner, plans to concentrate on the editorial product in his new job as publisher of The Baltimore Sunpapers. He will assume the position after July 1, succeeding Donald H. Patterson, 64, who will continue as president of the A.S. Abell Company, which owns the newspapers.

''Every organization needs to go through an assessment and renewal process,'' Mr. Murphy said. ''But the only thing that really matters in the final analysis is what gets into the readers' hands.''

Mr. Murphy, who was kidnapped in 1974 in a highly publicized extortion attempt, began his career with The Macon (Ga.) Telegraph and later joined The Atlanta Constitution, where he became political editor in 1961. After working for about three years for Towers, Perrin, Forster & Crosby Inc. in its corporate communications operations and helping to start Atlanta magazine, he rejoined The Constitution as editorial page editor in 1968. He has held his post at The Examiner since 1975.

Mr. Patterson, whose father had also been publisher of The Sunpapers, came to the company in 1946. He was named assistant secretary in 1961, vice president two years ater and secretary and geneal manager in 1966.

Speaking about his new association, Mr. Murphy said, ''This newspaper has been a lot lot better than it has gotten credit for.'' He added that he would work to develop ''community awareness of what is really in the newspaper on a daily basis.'' Leonard Sloane


Charles Scribner's Sons will publish ''The International Encyclopedia of Dance,'' a multivolume reference work, in 1984.

It will be produced under the auspices of the Dance Perspectives Foundation, an organization that encourages dance scholarship. The foundation has received a grant for preparing the volumes from the Research Materials Program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The encyclopedia will consist of four volumes and an index.


Last week's inflation figures, which showed a 1.1 percent increase in December (12.4 percent for 1980) were depressingly familiar. However, indications are beginning to surface that one particularly volatile consumer price component, mortgage rates - which rose 23.3 percent in 1980 - may be about to soften.

Median home prices in California, often a harbinger of national trends, declined $1,500 in November, the fifth drop in the calendar year. Annualized (November over November) appreciation stood at 11 percent, the lowest increase recorded since 1975. Earlier in the year, the appreciation rates were slightly below 30 percent.

The California experience contradicts national trends, where median home prices rose $1,600, to $64,300, up 15.6 percent from November 1979 levels. However, it may be a signal that consumers are feeling the Federal Reserve's tight money policies, and are no longer willing to pay high mortgage rates for a speculative investment that may be declining in value. West Meets East in Tokyo

Coping with rising Japanese imports is not a uniquely American problem. This week, officials from the European Economic Community travel to Tokyo to discuss ways to redress -or stabilize -the Common Market's trade deficit with Japan, around $8 billion last year. Community officials are likely to press for a reduction in exports of specific products like cars and electronics. The Japanese, who expect 5 percent real economic growth in 1981, and admit that over 3 percent is attributable to exports, seem unlikely to cut back willingly, and may push for greater European imports instead. However, countries like France and West Germany, beset by economic slowdown and in the midst of restructuring basic industries, may be unwilling to take up the challenge.

If the Japanese agree to some form of export limitation, voices calling for like treatment in the United States seem sure to rise. And, if that development doesn't materialize, individual European countries are apt to press ahead with arrangements to protect endangered industries, giving strength to similar moves here. Beef Prices Rise

The National Cattlemen's Association meets in Phoenix this week with many problems afoot. Higher feed costs, rising interest payments and high energy prices have made ranching increasingly expensive.

In the face of rising expenses, ranchers have felt it necessary to slaughter more cows, which increases beef supplies. Since 1975, the nation's live herd population has dropped about 18 percent.

Without the supply increase, retail prices for beef, which increased 5 percent on average last year, and have gone up over 50 percent since 1975, might have risen even faster. And most economists and forecasters expect beef prices to increase again this year. However, opinions vary as to how big the jump will be.

Economists at the Cattleman's Association think ranchers will bring even more meat to market this year than last, pushing average beef prices up only 7 percent.

Donald Ratajcjzak, an economic forecaster at Georgia State University, disagrees. Fewer cattle will be slaughtered this year, and not more, he says, and beef prices will be 10 to 12 percent higher by August. Cable Keeps Growing

If cable television is any indication, Americans are no longer satisfied getting something for nothing. Since 1975, the number of cable subscribers has risen nearly 50 percent, to 17 million. Industry revenues, including pay television, are estimated at more than $2 billion in 1980, nearly 400 percent above the levels in the mid-1970's. Moreover, weakness in the economy is not expected to hurt receipts, which should grow 15 percent this year.

Analysts like David Goldman at Smith Barney cite three reasons as the basis for such optimism - an accelerated pace of new system construction, rising revenues from pay television (which nearly doubled between 1978 and 1979, and are estimated to have risen 60 percent in 1980), and more ample financing.

By 1985, some analysts estimate that nearly 30 million households will be wired for cable. Advertising, currently a relatively insignificant revenue source, could rise sharply. Armed with more money, cable television operators could use the additional funds to help hold down increases in the cost of cable services to subscribers, creating a new stimulus for growth.

Illustrations: graph of E.E.C. trade with Japan

Summary: The Fed Hits Housing   Last week's inflation figures, which showed a 1.1 percent increase in December (12.4 percent for 1980) were depressingly familiar.  However, indications are beginning to surface that one particularly volatile consumer price component, mortgage rates - which rose 23.3 percent in 1980 - may be about to soften.   Median home prices in California, often a harbinger of national trends, declined $1,500 in November, the fifth drop in the calendar year. Annualized (November over November) appreciation stood at 11 percent, the lowest increase recorded since 1975. Earlier in the year, the appreciation rates were slightly below 30 percent.


Updated MAY 14, 2015 10:12p ET

Heroin and a syringe were found next to the body of Tony Ayala Jr., San Antonio police disclosed Thursday in a report that says investigators suspect a drug overdose killed the troubled boxer.

According to a newly released police report, the items were found on a desk next to Ayala's body, which was found face-down on the floor next to the desk and chair. Investigators said the syringe contained what appeared to be a narcotic and that a ball of heroin wrapped in tape was found on the desk with a cooker cap and a spoon.

No sign of trauma was found on the body, police said.

According to the report, a woman whom officers found weeping over his body said she and Ayala had been drinking and quarrelling in a house they shared the night before. About 1 a.m. Tuesday, he left the house angry, she said. About 7:30 a.m., sensing that something was wrong, she went to the gym owned by the Ayala family where he trained and found his body.

The woman's name was blacked out in the report.

Ayala, a 1979 Golden Gloves middleweight champion, was 19 when he was arrested and later convicted of raping a schoolteacher in New Jersey. He was undefeated in 22 bouts with 19 knockouts and set to fight Davey Moore for a junior middleweight title before the arrest.

After serving 16 years of a 35-year term for rape, Ayala repeatedly ran into legal trouble in Texas as he tried to revive his boxing career. He was shot in the left shoulder by a woman after allegedly breaking into her home and refusing to leave in 2000. He got probation and a short jail term in a plea agreement.

Four years later, Ayala went back to prison for 10 years when he violated parole in the Texas case. He was pulled over for speeding and charged with driving without a license, possession of heroin and possession of pornography.

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Ayala was charged in 2003 with having sex with a 13-year-old girl, but the case was dismissed when the girl said she lied about the incident.

Known as ''El Torito'' (the Little Bull), Ayala had a 28-1 record.

Summary: Police suspect drug overdose in boxer Tony Ayala Jr.'s death


I have one market theory: the tape is good or bad.

Technology has been factored into almost all industries because the world is socially and mobile connected. The one that lags behind is Wall Street. Yes, Wall Street has given us derivatives, 4x leverage ETF’s, HFT’s and a crowd around the one pipe at The Fed, but it will never catch up to the world in mobile and social.

Wall Street, in the era of social leverage, is left to hoarding, scheming and chasing — giving the individual has an unprecedented edge. Here is one recent example:

Most investors have heard of Dow Theory. I have always been skeptical that stock market averages must confirm each other, but not enough to care… until recently.

There has been much chatter – usually from the under-invested, or people on the wrong side of the trend – that the Dow Transports has not confirmed the ‘New Highs in the Dow Jones.’

The Dow Transports is made up of 20 stocks. This link has a good breakdown. What the old Dow theory does not take into account is Uber, Lyft or their legion of competitors. Not to mention Google Maps, etc.

Love or hate Uber, its recent $50 billion valuation makes it worth $300 million more than Federal Express FDX . FedEx did $49 billion in sales in 2014 so I am sure every Wall Street analyst is scratching their head. FedEx also works on just a 5% profit margin and carries $7 billion in debt.

Based on my modern interpretation of a ‘Transportation Index’ – one which includes Uber – all-time highs have been a daily phenomenon.

I live on the edge of old and new and the noise and the quiet. I love them both. I would be a better investor if I was not fascinated by the noise and just fascinated by the new.

History is important. Math is important. Price is important. Who you follow is important.

Wall Street and Dow Theories on the other hand…

Howard Lindzon (@howardlindzon) is co-founder and chairman of StockTwits, and general partner of angel investing firm Social Leverage.

Summary: How can a transportation index not include a transportation company worth more than FedEx?


Katherine C. Cohen/Boston Children's Hospital

07/14/2015 AT 11:30 AM EDT

Nine-year-old Tyler Bois was born with

, a congenital defect in which brain tissue extends into the spinal cord.

Despite undergoing 20 surgeries for his conditions, the young boy hasn't lost his fighting spirit and joy for life.

Tyler dreams of playing football with his favorite team – the Dallas Cowboys, according to

And the fun-loving boy, who likes to play with his golden retriever puppy and enjoys skiing and wake boarding, also wants to open up a pizza shop and will either call it "Slice of Ty" or "Ty's Pizza Palace."

During the hardest times, Tyler not only keeps a smile on his face – he keeps others smiling around him as well. Before his last operation, he gave the staff at the hospital an impromptu dance from his bed.

Dr. Roger Nuss, who has performed a series of surgeries on Tyler, said he has defied the odds,

"Tyler has surprised a lot of people...No one would have predicted heâd do so well. His family is so upbeat – he's in the perfect environment to be successful," Dr. Nuss said.

Tyler's parents, Amy and Steve Bois, just want to help their son achieve his dreams – however simple they may be.

"I want to walk more and do things with my friends," Tyler said.

So his parents opted for elective procedures to help Tyler walk with forearm crutches and low-level braces.

They support their young son by telling him, "We're going to help you get there. It might not be easy, but we're in it together. There are no limits to what our family can do."

Amy added, "Dr. Karlin (an orthopedic surgeon at Boston Children's Hospital, who has performed numerous surgeries on Tyler) told me about a patient with spina bifida who walked down the aisle at her wedding. He said, 'She made it that far because her mother pushed her when she needed it. Youâre doing the same for Tyler. It will pay off in the end.' That really made my day."

Summary: Despite undergoing 20 surgeries for his conditions, the young boy hasn't lost his joy for life


Another Chinese reverse merger company just got flattened.

Shares in China Media CCME , a Fujian-based company that runs a television ad network on intercity and airport express buses in China, lost a third of their value Thursday as doubts about the company’s reported numbers intensified.

Muddy Waters, a Hong Kong-based research firm that bets against the shares of companies it reports on, issued a note Thursday afternoon asserting that China Media “is engaging in a massive ‘pump and dump’ scheme whereby it significantly inflates revenue and profits in order to enrich management through earn-outs and stock sales.”

China Media overstated its 2009 revenue by a factor of five, Muddy Waters claims, and in many cases its vehicles don’t even play the ads the company claims to have sold to its customers.

“We estimate that over half of CCME’s network buses do not actually play CCME content,” says the report from Carson Block of Muddy Waters. “Rather, drivers play DVD movies that are often provided by passengers.”

A representative of China Media didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Muddy Waters could just be talking its imaginatively named book, of course. But its credibility on this call is aided by the quick demise of another Muddy Waters short, a Chinese maker of emissions gear called Rino International, which was delisted shortly after admitting it didn’t actually have a couple contracts it had previously claimed.

Like Rino, China Media was created in the purchase of a publicly traded U.S. shell company. Short-sellers have been circling these companies on the assumption they used this back door to go public for a reason other than saving on bothersome road show costs.

The battle over China Media has been intensifying over the past few days, with another short-selling site, Citron Research, publishing a report Monday calling China Media “the China reverse merger stock that is ‘too good to be true.’”

Citron called China Media “a phantom company” that has published financial numbers that “don’t make sense.” In response, China Media issued a press release saying it hadn’t been contacted by Citron.

It added that it “strongly disagrees with the views expressed and believes that investors should rely on the Company’s public reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.”

John Hempton, a widely followed investment blogger who runs the Bronte Capital hedge fund in Australia and is short China Media, wrote this week that the China Media case is fascinating because the company is either one of the extraordinary businesses in history, or one of the most brazen frauds – “and so far nobody has the extraordinary evidence.”

Hempton writes that the strongest point in China Media’s favor is a big investment in the company by Starr International, the investment firm associated with Hank Greenberg, which would presumably have the know-how to kick the company’s tires. Starr is the company’s biggest shareholder, with a 16% stake.

Whether the tires on China Media were kicked or not, they are quickly going flat Thursday. The stock, down more than $5 to $11 and change, has lost more than half its value over the past week.

*Correction: Earlier I wrote China Media Express was previously known as “Delightfully Frozen Corp.” and that its recent securities filings were signed by someone named Con Unerkov. Those statements are true not of China Media Express, but of the unrelated China Media Group of Hong Kong. My apologies for the error.

Summary: Another Chinese reverse merger company just got flattened. Shares in China Media , a Fujian-based company that runs a television ad network on intercity and airport express buses in China, lost a third of their value Thursday as doubts about the company’s reported numbers intensified. Muddy Waters, a Hong Kong-based research firm that bets against…


Ray Gerish, a floor hand for Raven Drilling, works on an oil rig drilling into the Bakken shale formation on July 28, 2013 outside Watford City, North Dakota.

Output from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in July reached its highest monthly level in recent history, according to a Reuters survey on Friday. This has raised concerns of oversupply with the news agency also reporting Monday that Saudi Arabia is expected to raise its prices for its light crude by around $1 a barrel – a move that is likely to hurt demand.

Meanwhile, U.S. shale rigs also continue to see a slight rebound with Baker Hughes data on Friday showing a higher rig count for a second week in a row. Sentiment has also taken a hit, with net long positions on WTI declining last week, according to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Read More Oil prices could be as low as $50 by 2020: Goldman

Elsewhere, a worse-than-expected Chinese economic indicator on Monday did little to lighten the mood with increased concerns that demand is set to weaken in the world's second largest economy.

Nonetheless, Mahesh stressed to CNBC that sentiment would change in the near future.

"Come the next six to nine months, do not assume that OPEC will produce at these high levels," he said, citing potential disruption in Iraq.

He added that demand is also "very much underestimated" and said that U.S. shale production was still around 60 percent lower than it had been at the end of last year.

"We're expecting global oil demand to grow by close to 2 million barrels per day this year," he added.

Summary: WTI and Brent closed in on their lowest price levels for the year with analysts highlighting a raft of reasons for the fall.


FORTUNE — Last May when Yahoo YHOO CEO Marissa Mayer paid $1.1 billion in cash to buy Tumblr, New York techies cheered. Finally! A New York startup exits for more than a billion dollars! This hasn’t happened since Doubleclick sold to Google in 2007. And it is one of the signs people look for in determining whether the tech scene is robust enough to rival Silicon Valley.

At least once a year, a New York journalist — often someone at Fortune — writes a story claiming that Silicon Alley has come of age and can finally compete with Silicon Valley. (It should be noted: I’ve never read a “Can Silicon Valley keep up with NY?” story.) Every year, New York’s tech scene is hotter. It’s been a decade since Google opened its New York offices across the street from Chelsea Market, and the company now houses 10% of its staff here including 1,500 engineers. Cornell NYC Tech’s first group of students — a seven-member “beta” class — started their studies last January at the program’s temporary offices — in the Google GOOG building. And a growing crop of tech startups from Etsy and ZocDoc to Fab are finding there is enough talent, space, and local government support to stay in New York even as they grow.

But the New York tech scene still lacks some of the most crucial elements of a mature ecosystem. Exactly a year ago, I outlined the three factors holding New York back. Herewith, I offer a report card on our progress:

1. Money. Investors put $1.7 billion into NYC startups in 2012, a jump of 54% from five years ago, according to the MoneyTree report produced by PwC and the National Venture Capital Association. But most of that money still comes from the West Coast. New York City has a number of angel and early stage investors, but few larger tech funds.

MORE: Steve Ballmer’s Microsoft years: What the critics are saying

Thrillist CEO Ben Lerer, who flew to the Bay Area to raise $13 million last year for his dude media empire last year, says things have gotten a little better. Later-stage investment is still lacking in New York, he says, but there’s more money for A rounds. Lerer, who is also an investor with seed stage venture fund Lerer Ventures, explains: “A few funds that built their brands on seed stage deals have raised larger funds now so they’ve shifted their dollars a little later-stage to put more money to work.”

2. People. Most New York tech executives and investors still say New York needs more talent, but then, there’s a talent shortage everywhere. What’s clear is that the engineering investments Google, Facebook FB , and other large tech companies have made in New York are paying off. A vibrant and growing community of developers is emerging. As important now, says Betaworks CEO John Borthwick, is “experienced people who can scale businesses.”

Birchbox CEO Katia Beauchamp says recruiting is getting easier this year. Partly that’s because her sample subscription service is becoming more established, but she also credits the evolution of the ecosystem of engineers in the city. And she highlights the positive aspects of operating within a smaller ecosystem. “You actually run into people and develop relationships,” she says. “It feels like an intimate community.”

MORE: New details in Uber’s massive funding round

Meanwhile, New York’s original tech heavyweight, Kevin Ryan, has been very involved in hiring for software company 10gen. He and cofounders Dwight Merriman and Eliot Horowitz invite candidates to work from either the New York or the Palo Alto office. In the last year, he says, more new hires have chosen to work from New York than San Francisco. Office space is cheaper, too, at the moment. In downtown Palo Alto, the company pays $75 per square foot; in Times Square, it’s $60 per square foot.

3. Exits. Tumblr is the main event in New York this year. But it’s not the only massive exit. Earlier this summer, 3-D printing company Stratasys SSYS purchased the Brooklyn-based 3-D desktop printing company Makerbot in a $403 million stock deal. And in May, Priceline PCLN completed its $1.8 billion dollar acquisition of the Norwalk, Conn.-based online travel booking company Kayak. (Norwalk, for all you skeptics with a narrow definition of NYC, is about an hour’s drive from Manhattan — roughly the same as the distance between San Francisco and Cupertino, Calif.)

Ken Lerer, another New York tech stalwart (and father of Ben), says the momentum is gaining. “I assume a very active next six months continuing into next year,” he says. “It’s like an epidemic — once you get to a certain place it has a momentum of itself.”

MORE: Tim Ferriss: Tech has too much ‘dumb capital’

The next year promises to be significant for the New York City tech community. One of tech’s most powerful advocates, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, will step down this fall after his third term, and a new mayor will be elected. Cornell NYC Tech will graduate its first class. Any of a dozen private tech companies may move closer to an initial public offering.

Could this be the year that the city births a tech giant of its own with the acquisitive power and the sheer ambition of Google? That will be the event that will finally merit Silicon Alley’s comparisons to the valley.

Summary: Tech is big in New York -- but the alley still ain't the valley. Here’s our annual report card.


Need to trade in that impulse-purchased Cartier Calibre steel and gold two-tone watch for some fast cash? No problem.

Online pawn shop Borro allows people to turn in their prized possessions like luxury watches or even cars for quick cash. The start-up accepts items worth at least $5,000 and returns them upon being paid back plus interest.

Founder Paul Aitken told CNBC the company had revenues of $17 million last year and is expecting to exceed $30 million this year.

It is also raising new funds through the platform OurCrowd. Borro and OurCrowd just announced the largest equity crowdfunding round at more than $6 million dollars raised, with another round of funding coming from institutional investors led by Canaan, Eden and Augmentum.

But why would the wealthy need a pawn shop?

"They need liquidity quickly, they've probably got regular cash flows, so more traditional forms of lending aren't an option, so they fall into asset-backed lending," Aitken said in an interview with "Power Lunch."

Summary: Borro is an online pawn shop allowing customers to get fast cash for everything from luxury watches to Ferraris.


The Oracle of Omaha is at it again.

Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway's chief executive, said Wednesday his company will be buying a small business in Western Europe. "I'd love to buy big ones," he said. "I'd love to buy big ones."

Read More Berkshire's NetJets avoids $500M IRS tax claim

Buffett did not disclose the type of business Berkshire Hathaway is buying nor its exact location. He also added that while his company will be setting up shop in Western Europe in the near future, he is still monitoring the situation in Russia.

Standard & Poor's downgraded the country's credit rating to below investment grade on Jan. 28. Buffett also said the fall in oil's price has affected Russia dramatically. "[Russian President Vladimir Putin] has got lot tougher economic problems than he had a couple of years ago," he said.

Read More Russia cuts vodka prices on moonshine fears

WTI and Brent both fell on Wednesday by 8.2 percent and 5.7 percent, respectively, after a four-day rally. Oil prices have been falling to multiyear lows since last October, crippling Russia's main source of economic growth.

Buffett also said on Fox Business that he is not looking for investment bargains in Russia. "We do some business in Russia," he said.

Summary: Business magnate Warren Buffett said Wednesday he is planting his flag in Western Europe.


Brazil's central bank won't be able to save the country with monetary policy, economists warned, after downgrading their 2015 growth outlook to zero as stagflation drags the once vibrant economy.

"There is no near-term solution to deepening stagflation," said Dev Ashish, Latin America economist at Societe Generale in a note on Wednesday. "Fiscal and monetary orthodoxy is not expected to yield any fruit in the near to medium term."

Annual inflation shot up to a twelve-year high of 7.1 percent in January, according to official data on Friday, well above the central bank's 4.5 percent target range. With inflation widely expected to remain elevated, analysts in Brazil revised their 2015 gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast to zero, according to a central bank survey this week.

South America's largest nation is estimated to have grown less than 1 percent last year.

Brazil's central bank - the Banco Central do Brasil (BCP) - engaged in an aggressive tightening cycle last year to combat inflation. It pushed the benchmark short-term interest rate, the Selic, to its current multi-year high of 12.25 percent. Markets widely expect more rate hikes in the coming months.

Summary: Brazil's central bank won't be able to save the country with monetary policy, economists warned, as stagflation drags the once vibrant economy.


WHEN: Today, Thursday, February 26th

Following is the unofficial transcript of a CNBC EXCLUSIVE interview with Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester with CNBC's Steve Liesman on "Power Lunch" (M-F, 1PM-3PM ET) today. Following is a link to the interview on CNBC.com: http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000356423.

All references must be sourced to CNBC.

STEVE LIESMAN: I'M SITTING HERE IN NEW YORK CITY WITH CLEVELAND FEDERAL RESERVE PRESIDENT LORETTA MESTER, AND, BOY, THERE'S A LOT TO TALK ABOUT. THANKS FOR JOINING US.

LORETTA MESTER: THANKS FOR HAVING ME.

LIESMAN: I WANT TO BEGIN WITH WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY. THE HEARING ON THE HILL, A LOT OF PEOPLE SAID IT WAS ABOUT AS PARTISAN AS THEY'VE EVER SEEN. WHAT IS YOUR REACTION TO IT?

MESTER: SO I WISH WE WERE ALL AS POISED AS JANET YELLEN WAS YESTERDAY AT THE HEARING. WE HAVE HAD SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT OUR TRANSPARENCY, BUT AS YOU KNOW, THE FED HAS BEEN WORKING ON TRANSPARENCY AND COMMUNICATION OVER THE YEARS. QUESTIONS COME UP ABOUT OUR POLICIES. I AM CERTAINLY ONE WHO THINKS THAT THE FED IS ACCOUNTABLE TO CONGRESS AND THE AMERICAN PUBLIC, AND I THINK WE'VE BEHAVED IN A MANNER THAT SHOWS THAT WE ARE. CAN WE IMPROVE OUR COMMUNICATIONS? SURE. BUT AUDIT THE FED, THE BILL THAT THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT, THAT IS BEING TALKED ABOUT, I THINK IT IS MISNAMED AND IT'S ALSO MISGUIDED BECAUSE IT'S NOT REALLY ABOUT AUDITING THE FED. THE FED IS AUDITED. AND I THINK JANET BROUGHT UP THE FINANCIALS TO SHOW. YOU KNOW, WE ARE AUDITED. OUR FINANCIALS STATEMENTS ARE AUDITED. IT'S REALLY ABOUT HAVING POLITICAL INTEREST INFILTRATE THE DECISIONS ON A SHORT RUN BASIS.

LIESMAN: DO YOU THINK THOSE QUESTIONS WERE APPROPRIATE? ESPECIALLY QUESTIONING AND SUGGESTING THAT IT'S POLITICAL THAT THE FED CHAIR IS MEETING WITH THE TREASURY SECRETARY?

MESTER: I THINK FED CHAIRS OVER TIME HAVE MET WITH THE TREASURY SECRETARY, AND I THINK THAT'S VERY APPROPRIATE. I THINK IT'S ALSO APPROPRIATE FOR CONGRESS TO ASK THE FED CHAIR WHATEVER THEY WANT TO ASK. I THINK HER RESPONSE WAS THE RIGHT ONE IN THAT, YOU KNOW, WE WANT TO HAVE A DIALOGUE, RIGHT, WITH THE TREASURY SECRETARY. BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN THAT RIGHT POLITICAL INFLUENCING IS INFLUENCING HER DECISIONS ON POLICY. SHE'S A VERY THOUGHTFUL MONETARY POLICYMAKER.

LIESMAN: DO YOU HAVE CONCERNS AT THIS POINT WHEN YOU SEE HOW POLITICAL THE FED HAS BECOME? DO YOU THINK THAT'S GOING TO EFFECT POLICY?

MESTER: I DON'T THINK THE FED HAS BECOME POLITICAL. I THINK WE ARE GOING TO –

LIESMAN: I MEAN IN THE SENSE THAT IT SEEMS TO BE IN THE POLITICAL ARENA RIGHT NOW AND IS SERIOUSLY DISCUSSED.

MESTER: NO, I THINK WE ARE GOING TO FOCUS ON THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS. WE ARE GOING TO FOCUS ON SETTING THE BEST MONETARY POLICY THAT WE CAN TO FURTHER OUR DUAL MANDATE THAT IS GIVEN TO US BY CONGRESS. I THINK IT CAN BE A DISTRACTION. IN FACT, YOU KNOW, SOME OF THE HEARING WAS ABOUT THAT RATHER THAN ECONOMIC CONDITIONS, BUT WE ARE GOING TO SET POLICY BASED ON THE BEST POLICY FOR THE COUNTRY IN TERMS OF ECONOMICS.

LIESMAN: LET'S TURN TO POLICY. IN YOUR OPINION SHOULD THE WORD PATIENT COME OUT OF THE STATEMENT WHICH SIGNALS TO INVESTORS AND TO THE PUBLIC THAT A RATE RISE IS AT LEAST TWO MEETINGS AWAY?

MESTER: SO, I GUESS I'M IN FAVOR OF MAKING SURE THAT JUNE IS ON THE TABLE AS A VIABLE OPTION. IN MY VIEW, AND I THINK THE CHAIR EXPLAINED THIS QUITE WELL IN HER TESTIMONY, TAKING PATIENT OUT DOES NOT NECESSARILY MEAN THAT A RATE RISE WILL NECESSARILY COME IN JUNE. RIGHT? WHAT IT MEANS IS THAT JUNE BECOMES A VIABLE OPTION THAT WE ARE GOING TO START LOOKING AT ANY MEETING, RIGHT, WE ARE GOING TO GO INTO THE MEETING WITH THAT BEING A POSSIBILITY. RIGHT NOW, PATIENT IS DEFINED AS NO GREAT RISE FOR TWO MEETINGS.

LIESMAN: SO LET'S SAY YOU GET THAT VIABILITY, LET'S SAY YOU GET THAT FLEXIBILITY OR OPTIONALTY IS THE TERM YOU GUYS LIKE TO USE.

LIESMAN: WOULD YOU, IF YOU VOTED NOW, THINK ABOUT WHAT JUNE IS GOING TO LOOK LIKE, WOULD YOU VOTE TO RAISE RATES IN JUNE?

MESTER: SO I CAN'T TELL YOU THAT BECAUSE WE ARE GOING TO BE ASSESSING THE DATA AS IT COMES IN, IN THE SPRING AS WE GET TOWARDS THE SUMMER, RIGHT? WE ARE DATA DEPENDENT IN THE SENSE OF WE LOOK AT INCOMING ECONOMIC DATA, SEE HOW IT EFFECTS OUR OUTLOOK, AND THEN SET POLICY BASED ON THAT. SO I CAN'T TELL YOU TODAY WHAT I WILL OR WILL NOT SUPPORT IN JUNE BECAUSE I WANT TO SEE THE DATA THAT COMES IN OVER THAT TIME. I CAN TELL YOU THAT MY OUTLOOK IS THAT THE ECONOMY ACTUALLY IS PICKING UP MOMENTUM. WE'VE HAD SOME VERY STRONG LABOR MARKET REPORTS OVER THE LAST, YOU KNOW, SIX MONTHS EVEN. INFLATION'S BELOW OUR GOAL, BUT THE REPORT THIS MORNING ABOUT WHAT WAS GOING IN THE CPI WASN'T A SURPRISE, TOTAL CPI BEING LOW, BUT CORE CPI STABILIZING. SO MY FORECAST IS FOR INFLATION TO GO BACK UP TO 2 % BY THE END OF NEXT YEAR.

LIESMAN: WE HAVE TO GO. JUST GIVE US YOUR NUMBER FOR GDP THIS YEAR.

LIESMAN: 3%. VERY GOOD. AND YOU ARE GOING TO STICK AROUND. WE ARE GOING TO DO SOMETHING FOR THE WEB THAT IS GOING TO BE RIGHT ON THERE.

LIESMAN: LET ME TOSS IT BACK TO YOU, BRIAN SULLIVAN. BACK IN E.C.

With CNBC in the U.S., CNBC in Asia Pacific, CNBC in Europe, Middle East and Africa, CNBC World and CNBC HD , CNBC is the recognized world leader in business news and provides real-time financial market coverage and business information to approximately 371 million homes worldwide, including more than 100 million households in the United States and Canada. CNBC also provides daily business updates to 400 million households across China. The network's 15 live hours a day of business programming in North America (weekdays from 4:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. ET) is produced at CNBC's global headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., and includes reports from CNBC News bureaus worldwide. CNBC at night features a mix of new reality programming, CNBC's highly successful series produced exclusively for CNBC and a number of distinctive in-house documentaries.

CNBC also has a vast portfolio of digital products which deliver real-time financial market news and information across a variety of platforms. These include CNBC.com, the online destination for global business; CNBC PRO, the premium, integrated desktop/mobile service that provides real-time global market data and live access to CNBC global programming; and a suite of CNBC Mobile products including the CNBC Real-Time iPhone and iPad Apps.

Members of the media can receive more information about CNBC and its programming on the NBC Universal Media Village Web site at http://www.nbcumv.com/mediavillage/networks/cnbc/.

Summary: CNBC Exclusive: CNBC Transcript: Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester Speaks with CNBC's Steve Liesman on "Power Lunch" Today


Technology in the auto space is advancing at a rapid speed, with much of the focus on the development of autonomous cars. But although Google has dominated the headlines, it's not the only one making waves in this space.

Speaking to CNBC at Mobile World Congress, Klas Bendrik, CIO of Volvo, said it too was developing a driverless car, which would be tested by "normal people on normal roads."

"The starting point is to put these 100 cars in the streets of Gothenburg (Sweden), driven by normal people on normal roads, which will actually see whether this can be rolled out further in Europe and also in the U.S.," he said Tuesday.

In February, Volvo revealed details of its "Drive Me" program, which will see the company work with transport authorities and legislators to get driverless cars on the roads as soon as 2017.

It came after Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault-Nissan, told CNBC Monday that his company was "on track" to deliver an autonomous car by 2020.

"What we have promised is that automatic traffic-jam driving will come in 2016…and by 2020 city driving," Ghosn said, stressing that it would enable people to be "more in control of driving."

Read MoreAll the Apple car hype broken down in 10 questions

Summary: When it comes autonomous cars, Google has dominated the headlines - but it's not the only company making waves in this space.


GE, in a move to become a pure play industrial company, is exiting the financial services business by selling the bulk of the assets contained in its GE Capital unit and returning most of the proceeds from that disposition to shareholders in the form of a $50 billion share buyback.

GE shares rose more than 8 percent in premarket trading. (Get the latest quote here.)

The company will take an after-tax $16 billion charge in the first quarter of 2015 in connection with the divestiture of GE Capital. Roughly $12 billion of that charge, which includes paying taxes on repatriated earnings, is non-cash.

GE said its intent is to create a "simpler, more valuable company" by effectively disposing of a unit whose assets are equal to that of the nation's seventh largest bank.

Read MoreGE CEO Immelt: I'm just a baby, I'm not leaving

It will do that by selling units to other financial institutions as well as portfolios of assets, including Friday's sale of its commercial real estate assets for $26 billion. GE will sell most of the assets of GE Capital Real Estate to funds managed by Blackstone and Wells Fargo.

GE will keep the financial operations that help its customers finance their purchase of equipment from GE.

While the company has considered shedding GE Capital for a number of years, Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt, in an interview with CNBC, said now was the ideal time.

"You really have a perfect market to be selling financial service assets, so you've got slow growth, low interest rates, lots of liquidity, people searching for yield," Immelt said. "We think it's good for the regulatory world, it's good for investors. And that's been more or less recent. Now's the time to do it."

GE expects to return more than $90 billion to investors through 2018. While parts of that return include the current dividend and the spin of its remaining 85 percent stake in Synchrony, the bulk will come in the form a $50 billion share repurchase program that will shrink its share count to as little as 8 billion by 2018.

Summary: GE will sell most of the assets of GE Capital over the next two years, including an immediate real estate sale worth $26 billion.


Since a call represents the right to buy a stock for a certain price at a given time, owning those calls granted the options holder the right to purchase Disney shares for $100 at the close of Friday trading. That was quite valuable, since Disney shares closed at $106.69.

Actually, the trader appeared to take off half of the trade on Friday morning at a price of $6.80 per options contract (perhaps because the trader didn't want to own as many Disney shares as the call allowed). If half the calls translated into Disney shares purchased at a $6.69 discount, and half the calls were sold at a price of $6.80, the position ended up being worth nearly $34 million.

Since the position was entered into for $8.5 million (excluding transaction costs) that represents a profit of $25.5 million, or 300 percent.

"This is why I trade options instead of stock—because you can get the better return on investment if you're right about your position," commented Andrew Keene, an options trader with Keene on the Market. "This trader just locked in massive profits in Disney."

Summary: "This is why I trade options instead of stock—because you can get the better return on investment if you're right about your position," one analyst said.


Almost half of these are energy names, taking advantage of the huge jump in oil prices this past week. At least some of those stocks are only up because of the price of oil—they were down since Aug. 17 before rallying recently. Energy stocks often drop in times of general market volatility.

And of course, after Tuesday's rout in the oil markets, it's unclear how long even these names will be able to stay positive short term.

Read MoreHere's how to trade stocks when Rule 48 is in place

At the top of the list of positive stocks are Cameron International (CAM) and AGL Resources (GAS)—both jumping due to M&A activity. Lucky for those shareholders, they are the only two stocks up more than 20 percent in the last couple weeks.

Their positive moves of 34 percent (CAM) and 21 percent (GAS) are the only two moves more than 10 percent higher since the rout began. Compare that with 183 stocks that have fallen 10 percent or more—including a giant 21 percent fall by Ventas (VTR) and a 23 percent drop for Wynn (WYNN).

The majority of drops (251 in total) are tightly packed in the negative 5 to 10 percent range. Here are the absolute worst performers since Aug. 17, the 15 companies all down 15 percent or more:

The majority of drops (251 in total) are tightly packed in the negative 5 to 10 percent range. Here are the absolute worst performers since Aug. 17, the 15 companies all down 15 percent or more:

Summary: A few dozen stocks in the S&P 500 index are still up since the market meltdown began in mid-August


MELBOURNE, Sept 2 (Reuters) - London copper resumed its downtrend on Wednesday as sentiment soured towards base metals after world factory activity slowed in August and the International Monetary Fund cut its outlook for global growth.

* Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange fell by 0.4 percent to $5,049.50 a tonne by 0042 GMT, extending a 1.3 percent drop in the previous session. Copper hit its weakest in six years at $4,855 a tonne last Monday.

* Shanghai Futures Exchange copper fell 0.5 percent to 39,000 yuan ($6,129) a tonne.

* China's giant manufacturing industry contracted and euro zone and U.S. growth eased in August, data showed on Tuesday, while the International Monetary Fund cut its forecast for world growth this year.

* Growth in the U.S. manufacturing sector slowed to its weakest in almost two years in August, with the Markit PMI falling to 53.0 in August, down from 53.8 in July.

* Copper bears appear to have taken cover, but they are unlikely to hide for long as falling output costs due to "currency wars" and weak Chinese demand growth provide ample ammunition for another attack over coming months.

* Indonesia will keep its export ban on nickel ore, contrary to recent media reports suggesting the country may relax curbs to prop up its slowing economy, senior government officials said.

* Some big aluminium producers have offered Japanese buyers a premium of $110 per tonne for October-December primary metal shipments, up 10 percent from the previous quarter, four sources involved in quarterly pricing talks said on Tuesday.

* For the top stories in metals and other news, click or

* World stock indexes and oil prices slumped on Tuesday as weak Chinese data fuelled worries about a slowdown in its economy, the world's second biggest, and sparked more market turmoil.

0900 Euro zone Producer prices Jul

1215 U.S. ADP national employment Aug

1345 U.S. ISM-New York index Aug

1400 U.S. Factory orders Jul

Most active ShFE tin ($1 = 6.3630 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Melanie Burton; Editing by Richard Pullin)

Summary: MELBOURNE, Sept 2- London copper resumed its downtrend on Wednesday as sentiment soured towards base metals after world factory activity slowed in August and the International Monetary Fund cut its outlook for global growth. Copper hit its weakest in six years at $4,855 a tonne last Monday. *China's giant manufacturing industry contracted and euro zone and...


Cem Ozdel | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Runners participating in the 2013 ING New York City Marathon on November 3, 2013.

Thirty-nine year old Meg Keflezighi is hoping to add to his already impressive resume and win his second New York City Marathon this Sunday.

New York's champion in 2009, he won a silver medal in the 2004 Olympics though his most memorable race happened earlier this year. After a 31 year drought, he became the first American male to win the Boston Marathon since 1983. It is a victory cherished by Keflezighi as it followed the horror of the 2013 marathon, when three people were killed and 264 were wounded by terrorists bombs.

Summary: Top Marathoner Meb Keflezighi talks about the big business behind running marathons.


Most economists and pundits predict a continued upward trend for most assets next year, but they will eventually be proven wrong.

In one of my classes at the University of Chicago Business School in the 1970s, the eminent statistician Harry V. Roberts liked to tell a story showing the homespun wisdom of his colleague and idol, economist Milton Friedman. The great monetarist was part of a panel evaluating a PhD presentation on forecasting growth rates for the U.S. economy. The candidate painstakingly described his methodology for fitting a broad array of variables––global capital flows, future exchange rates, immigration trends, and sundry other factors––into a computer model that, presto, spat out a prediction for the following year’s GDP.

According to Roberts, Friedman delivered a brief, cutting critique––probably in the same nasal monotone I remember when, decades later, he returned my long-distance calls collect. Declared Uncle Miltie: “Why would this extremely complex model, based on factors that are themselves hard to forecast and could easily be wrong, produce a better number than taking the growth rates for the past five years, and dividing by five?”

For Roberts, the anecdote amounted to a parable on the pitfalls of economic forecasting. Friedman also liked to use the aphorism, “Predictions are extremely difficult, especially when they’re about the future.”

Friedman’s lesson isn’t that forecasting is impossible, but that the best prediction is usually the basic assumption that prices and growth rates will go back to their historic averages, or in economic parlance, “revert to the mean.” What’s difficult is guessing when that will happen. Indeed, the timing is truly unpredictable. But it invariably does happen.

Now, we’re in the heart of the predictions season. The forecasts for the New Year from the pundits on Fox Business Network, CNBC, Bloomberg TV and dozens of websites vary a bit, but the overall message is overwhelmingly the same for most assets: stocks will remain on a roll, generating double-digit gains for 2011. The prices of gold, oil and other commodities will continue their upward march. As for bonds, rates will keep rising, but slowly. And almost no one has a good word to say about the housing sector, where prices have fallen for months, and according to the prediction mill, are destined to follow the same downward trend.

The problem with these predictions isn’t that they rely on complex economic assumptions. It’s just the opposite––they’re really not forecasts at all, but extrapolations. The pundits are telling us that recent trends will simply keep rolling.

They could be correct, but only for a while. In the longer term, these forecasts will prove wrong, for a simple reason. Most assets are already selling at prices far above their historic averages. As economic gravity takes over, they’ll inevitably return to those benchmarks — meaning stocks, bonds and commodities have a long way to fall.

So let’s briefly examine these assets, and look at the factors that govern their long-term value. For commodities, it’s production cost. For stocks, it’s the multiple of price to average earnings. For real estate — the surprise in this package — it’s the cost of owning versus the cost of renting.

From 1983 to 2004, gold prices averaged around $400 an ounce. Today, the price for an ounce stands at $1390, or 3.5 times its historic average. The rub is that the production cost of gold is still in the $400 range. It’s a combination of speculative demand and a temporary shortage of supply because of the long lags in mining the yellow metal that accounts for the surge. The spread of gold ATMs and ads luring people to sell their jewelry are sure signs of a bubble. Look for gold prices to drop sharply, and silver, copper and other metals to follow.

A similar scenario is threatening oil prices. The cost of production even in deep water wells is less than $60 a barrel, yet prices are over $90. Hence, the highest cost producer is earning 50% margins. We saw what happened when builders were making huge profits––they kept building until housing prices collapsed. Oil will follow the same pattern.

How about stocks? The best measure of the whether stocks are cheap or expensive is the price earnings formula devised by Yale economist Robert Shiller, which divides the current S&P price by a ten-year average of inflation-adjusted earnings. By smoothing earnings, Shiller avoids the error of judging that equities are cheap when profits are unusually high, as they are today.

Today, the Shiller PE is a lofty 22.7 — that’s more than 40% higher than its long-term average of 16. Indeed, stocks could keep rising for months or even longer. But that would make them simply more overvalued than they are today. In other words, a Friedmanesque reversion to the mean does not signal a rise in equity prices at all, but a sharp drop. The only question is when it will happen.

Let’s move on to bonds. The sudden rise in yields on the 10-year Treasury from 3% in early December to 3.49% yesterday is a chilling reminder of the high risk to bond prices at these extraordinarily low rates. Despite the recent rout, the prices of 10-year Treasuries have plenty of room to decline. If yields return to their historic average yield of 6%, Treasury prices would drop by 20%.

Believe it or not, the one asset that isn’t overpriced, at least in most cities, is the most vilified: housing. The 30% nationwide decrease in values since the 2006 peak has brought the cost of owning a home to where it should be––back in line with the cost of renting the same house or condo. The fall in prices in most markets is over, or nearly over, and if it isn’t, housing will become a better bargain with each downward tick.

That doesn’t mean that housing prices will soar. But it does signal that homes are finally priced about right, and that it’s an excellent time to move out of that rented flat and buy one.

It’s extremely hard to forecast what changes we’ll see in economic policy. Those changes may not affect the health of our economy this year or next, but they could greatly influence its future course. A prediction made by one of Friedman’s heroes, the legendary Austrian economist F. A. Hayek, demonstrates the treacherous challenge of charting public policy.

In 1979, when inflation was raging and the Federal Reserve was deploying cheap money to battle rising unemployment, Hayek gave a speech declaring that the Fed could not be trusted managing the money supply. Hayek stated that it would always succumb to political pressure to use cheap money to create jobs, and that the effort would bring not prosperity, but greater inflation.

Hayek was wrong. Three months before Hayek issued his warning, Paul Volcker became chief of the Fed. Over the next several years, Volcker defied Hayek’s predictions by reversing course and taming inflation.

So here are the best predictions for the New Year: Prices of stocks, bonds and commodities will gravitate towards their long-term averages––meaning the odds are they’ll go lower. As for economic policy, if Hayek can be wrong, why try to forecast the truly unpredictable?

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Summary: Most economists and pundits predict a continued upward trend for most assets next year, but they will eventually be proven wrong. In one of my classes at the University of Chicago Business School in the 1970s, the eminent statistician Harry V. Roberts liked to tell a story showing the homespun wisdom of his colleague and…


Taking on transportation giant Uber could prove to be a costly mistake for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Elevation Partners co-founder Roger McNamee said Thursday.

"The consumer demand for the Uber- and Lyft-kind of services is so great that any politician who gets in the way of that is really asking for trouble," McNamee said in a CNBC "Squawk Alley" interview. "Uber's success is really about consumers demanding the availability of Uber and Lyft cars wherever they are."

McNamee made his remarks after the city agreed not to cap the number of for-hire drivers while it studies how these services are impacting traffic and the environment in one of the world's largest cities.

Read More Uber blasts NYC mayor's 'artificial cap' on drivers

"We're pleased to have reached an agreement with Mayor de Blasio's administration and the City Council to collaborate on a joint transportation study and to work together on ways to continue expanding economic opportunity, mobility and transportation access in the city," Uber's general manager for New York City, Josh Mohrer, said in a statement.

Nevertheless, McNamee added that Uber can afford to not be so aggressive in how it does business. "I look at the behavior of the company and I really do think that they have challenged people in ways that are unseemly and likely to backfire at some point," he said.

"These guys only have one approach and that seems to be sledgehammer to the head, and so far it's working, but I'm very uncomfortable with it."

Read MoreLyft: We are growing faster than Uber

McNamee also said that, due to its popularity, Uber can also afford to better pay its drivers and even increase its prices.

"This is not just a price play; it's a convenience play that has really changed people's lives and, like an iPhone, they will pay a premium over whatever they were paying before to have that instant access."

San Francisco-based Uber has been valued at more than $40 billion.

Summary: Elevation Partners' co-founder Roger McNamee says Bill De Blasio could be in trouble for taking on Uber, and here's why.


Oilman T. Boone Pickens said Thursday that Saudi production is topping out at about 10 million barrels per day and oil prices will return to $70 per barrel by the end of the year.

OPEC is "all in at 31 million barrels a day. That's about all they can do," Pickens said on CNBC's "Squawk Box." "They talk a lot about it, what they can do, and the Saudis say 12 and half. Well show me. I'm ready to see 12 and a half.They're making 10.3, and they struggle at 10, I think. I think 10 is about all the Saudis can do."

Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said Saudi Arabia produced some 10.3 million bpd of crude in March, eclipsing a previous high of 10.2 million in August 2013.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is expected at a meeting on Friday to keep a group output target of 30 million bpd, a ceiling it has been exceeding for most of the last two years, weakening prices.

Read More CNBC Survey: No action at OPEC, but what about shale?

The cartel is now pumping about 2 million bpd more than needed, analyst say, feeding a glut that has left millions of barrels stored on tankers without a buyer and kept prices at close to half their peak levels last year.

Production declines in the United States will also support prices, Pickens said, noting that output has dropped off in North Dakota's Bakken formation and Texas's Eagle Ford play as drillers have taken about 1,000 rigs out of oilfields since December.

"Now, you shut down 1,000 rigs, we're dealing with decline curve," said Pickens, chairman of BP Capital Management. "If you're trying to grow production, you've first got to maintain production."

Read MoreThe looming threat to American oil output

Oil wells—whether conventional or unconventional—reach peak production soon after they yield the first drop of crude. The U.S. industry is dominated by unconventional wells.

Conventional wells go through a long period of steady, flat production between peak and decline. In contrast, production falls rapidly in the first three years of unconventional wells—those in shale, sandstone and carbonates. They then enter a long phase of very low production.

"Just as soon as you get an oil well, put it on production, it starts to decline," Pickens said. "Now how fast is it going to decline is very important."

—Reuters contributed to this story.

Summary: T. Boone Pickens says Saudi production is topping out at about 10 million barrels per day and oil prices will return to $70 per barrel by year end.


Foreign investors already can invest in China. The Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect was launched last November, and it allows such investors to trade Shanghai A-shares through the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Mainland investors also gained access to Hong Kong shares, known as H-shares.

"China's opening up could be the surprise story of 2015," said Michelle Gibley, director of international research at Charles Schwab.

China has previously been turned down by MSCI for inclusion in its 27-year-old emerging market index. Last June, MSCI decided against including China's A-shares in its EM index based on the constraints of China's existing qualified foreign institutional investor programs. The QFII and a separate yuan-based program were the only vehicles at the time that investors could use to directly access China's markets.

Read MoreChina stocks nearly a quarter overvalued: Credit Suisse

MSCI, while voting against China for its emerging market index, did launch last year a separate A-share-specific index, which is tracked by the KraneShares Bosera MSCI China A ETF (KBA).

"It's obvious the Chinese authorities have been taking a number of steps to gradually allow access to foreign investors around the world," said Dimitris Melas, global head of new product research at MSCI. "One of the important developments in the last 12 months is the development of the connect program."

China has taken the right steps to open up its markets since then, and that could make MSCI more open to including A-shares in its index, analysts say.

Read MoreChina market down, not out: UBS

"I don't think there are any big, sweeping changes they have to make. It's just the details," said Barnaby Nelson, managing director of investors and intermediaries in northeast Asia and Greater China at Standard Chartered. "There's a very strong sense we're in the last phase before opening up."

Nelson and other analysts cited many developments in China during the past year, including quota increases for foreign investors, and the expected expansion of stock connect to include the A-shares, or stocks listed on the Shenzhen exchange. China is also moving to allow reciprocal trading in mutual funds between Hong Kong and Beijing.

Melas said MSCI determines index eligibility from a country's economic development, the size and liquidity of the market, and market accessibility. Many investor products use MSCI's emerging market index as a benchmark or track it, like iShares' EEM ETF.

Some funds have already taken the first steps to bring A-shares to global investors. S&P Dow Jones Indices launched an index in May for 75 A-shares available through the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect. On Tuesday, Vanguard announced it would add A-shares to its $69 billion Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund and ETF (VWO).

"It was really a decision based on the investibility of China and the investment trend," said Joe Brennan, head of Vanguard's Equity Investments Group. In the last month or so Vanguard received approval to invest up to 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) in Chinese securities and is seeking to double it.

The revamped Vanguard emerging markets fund's benchmark is the FTSE's Emerging Markets All Cap China A Inclusion Index, launched last Tuesday. Initial weighting of A-shares will be 5 percent, with an expected increase to 32 percent with greater access to capital markets.

Similarly, analysts say next week's announcement on MSCI's emerging market index is more symbolic than immediately market moving.

If MSCI decides in favor of A-shares, the stocks won't be fully implemented into the index until a year later. Including H-shares and other China-related stocks, the addition of A-shares is expected to boost the index's total China exposure to 37.5 percent from about 25 percent, Melas said.

Initial market and investor reaction to the Stock Connect was muted given the low amount of foreign trading allowed. Even today, the total market cap of foreign investment through the connect and the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor program is less than $1 trillion, or below 10 percent of the Chinese market capitalization, according to ChinaQFII.com.

One sticking point might be the absence of Shenzhen's A-share market in the connect, said Charlie Galligan, managing director and head of program trading at Convergex. Shenzhen, up 114 percent year to date, has outpaced the Shanghai index, up nearly 53 percent so far this year. However, China remains on the right path, and expectations are for Shenzhen to be added later this year.

"As China's capital markets become more mature and China's GDP gains weight, MSCI will eventually add China A-shares to accurately reflect global equity market opportunities," Galligan said.

Many Western investors are already eager to take part in China's stock rally.

Sameer Samana, global strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, said the DBX X-tracker ETF for Chinese A-shares (ASHR) quadrupled the number of shares outstanding in the last year to 28 million.

"Last year no one even knew about it," he said. ASHR launched in November 2013 and has a market cap of $1.5 billion.

To be sure, A-shares are not the steadiest of investments if Thursday's 5 percent swing in the Shanghai composite is any guide.

Read MoreChina stocks crash, now what?

"A-shares appear somewhat expensive and could be vulnerable to a pullback given the rapid rise over the past six months," Gibley said. However, she does not think any short-term decline is the beginning of a bear market in China.

Summary: China has been opening the door to foreign investors, and it may soon get even more global exposure at a time when its stocks are sizzling hot.


Euro zone officials are expected to hold an emergency summit Monday after failing to reach an agreement on a cash-for-reforms deal for Greece at a meeting Thursday. Athens has said that without further aid, it will be unable to make a 1.5 billion euro ($1.7 billion) debt payment to the International Monetary Fund on June 30.

Read MorePurported ECB warning raises Greek tensions

Large deposit outflows from Greece meanwhile have raised concerns that Athens may have to implement capital controls.

"In the absence of any major data releases today, the Greece story is likely to dominate once again," Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at currency trading firm OANDA, said in a note.

"It will be very interesting to see whether the jitters kick in as we progress through the session and investors begin to become more risk-averse ahead of such an uncertain weekend," he said.

U.S. stock index futures ticked higher during early London trade, with the Dow Jones industrial average futures up 30 points.

Read MoreFinal acts in Greek drama could be rough for markets

U.S. stocks closed about 1 percent higher on Thursday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq topping its intraday high from March 2000 as this week's dovish Federal Reserve statement boosted investor sentiment.

The strong performance on Wall Street helped underpin sentiment in Asia, where Japan's Nikkei closed almost 1 percent higher, and in Europe, where shares rose in early Friday trading. However, the Shanghai Composite tumbled 6.4 percent for its worst weekly decline in 7 years with property and banking stocks leading the index lower.

Two Fed officials speak later in the day: San Francisco Fed President John Williams talks on policy at 11:40 a.m. ET, and is the first Fed official to speak after the Wednesday's Fed meeting where the central bank lowered its growth forecasts but said the economy would likely be strong enough to withstand a rate hike this year.

Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester speaks at 12:45 p.m. on community development and the Fed.

Read MoreEarly movers: HSY, RHT, SWHC, STT, CAG, GILD & more

Earnings due this session are expected from CarMax and KB Home.

Summary: U.S. stock markets were expected to open a touch firmer on Friday, extending the previous day's gains, with all eyes on Greece.


New York Mayor Bill de Blasio visits a second grade Spanish class at Amber Charter School in New York, Sept. 4, 2014.

"I think the elections were a ringing endorsement for it, and I think that in those places where you have caps on the number of charter schools I think those will start to come off. There has been some local opposition that has been difficult, and I think that will start fading away. I think it will be very healthy for the industry … and I think it will all start to fade away as the political alignment really supports charter schools," Brain said.

This could mean more acquisitions and opportunities for a company like EPR Properties. For those companies that build charter schools, this could be good news, but it could be bad news because there is not much competition in the space.

---------------------------------------------------------- Read more from Mad Money with Jim Cramer Cramer: Howard Schultz for president? Cramer Remix: Stocks for the next 25 years Sandy Weill: 'Banks aren't the same anymore' ----------------------------------------------------------

"It is true, it is a double-edged sword, and so we can dominate the market and get good yields. But at the same time, because people aren't familiar with that in the capital markets, they sometimes look at that and maybe discount on us a little. Which we don't think is appropriate because we have demonstrated such a good strong portfolio performance," Brain said.

Summary: Jim Cramer speaks with CEO of EPR Properties to find out what the recent elections could mean for charter schools.


Arvind Yadav | Hindustan Times | Getty Images

Ram Naresh Yadav, governor of Madhya Pradesh

The Indian Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider removing Madhya Pradesh's governor amid a government recruitment scandal linked to 35 deaths, NDTV reported.

Governor since 2011, Ram Naresh Yadav was accused in the scam last year but charges were dropped on grounds that his office entitled him to immunity from investigation, NDTV said.

The television station said 35 people linked to the scam have died over the last three years, including Yadav's son. Known as the Vyapam scam, it refers to top politicians and bureaucrats who allegedly allowed large bribes to allow imposters to take the qualifying exam for government jobs.

Read the full coverage at NDTV.com

Summary: The Indian Supreme Court agrees to consider removing Madhya Pradesh's governor amid a scandal linked to 35 deaths, NDTV reported.


"Much tastier than Chinese rice. Worth every cent - great texture and taste," one delighted buyer wrote on Taobao.

To meet demand, some Chinese producers now say they use Japanese seeds and promote their rice as a safer alternative to purely domestic strains.

Zhejiang Xinxie Yueguang Agricultural Science and Technology says its Echizen brand rice is safe and grown with "water from pure sources and strict quality control". The packaging says the rice is a Japanese variety.

Read MoreWarning: China may trigger fresh rout in commodities

But Echizen rice is grown in Changxing county, a hub of lead-acid battery production in eastern Zhejiang province. Battery production can be highly polluting.

Li Jun, general manager at Zhejiang Xinxie Yueguang, insisted the company's rice had passed tests for lead, cadmium, mercury, pesticides and other chemicals by state inspectors.

The company had also found other areas to grow rice where there was less concern about pollution, Li said.

The Chinese eat around 120 million tons of rice a year and the country imported more than 2.2 million in the first 11 months of 2014, including 1.2 million tonnes from Vietnam and 626,000 tonnes from Thailand, customs data shows.

Japan is a small rice exporter - just 3,777 tonnes in January to November 2014, according to agriculture ministry data - but it is looking to boost shipments to Asian countries as part of a wider push to export more agricultural products.

However, if the trend to China looks encouraging, any further increase through normal export channels may be slow: the Chinese authorities have given just one Japanese rice mill clearance to send polished rice.

Others have begun an application process but that has stalled. Some would-be suppliers have been waiting for three years, a Japanese government official said.

Summary: Japanese rice is added to Chinese consumers' list of everyday foods bought at luxury-good prices because they fear the local alternatives aren't safe.