and one of today's leaders and jim cramer's going to tell us why. and we go inside the closed door meetings of fed head with community bankers with somebody who is going to spill the goods from that meeting. but first up, a trifecta of economic reports seem to unsettle stocks, jobless claims, existing home sales, and the philly fed manufacturing index. the dow closed down 69, the s&p off 8. but let me say this, the index of leading economic indicators. nobody on wall street talks about this for some reason. it rose today. it is up six straight months and stands at a four-year high, probably sums to about 2.5% to 3% gdp growth. so talk of a spring-time economic stall. i think a little backup in jobless claims, it is overbaked. yeah? i'll watch the claims number carefully as you will. but right now, i think that's more ado about good friday than anything else. we will see. so let's talk, joining me now we have brian kelly, shelter harbor capital co-founder and cnbc contributor and brian green vice president of global portfolio trading with clsa. brian

i'm jim cramer. see you monday. larry, what do you have for us? >>> the stalled speed recovery and scandals are killing obama's chances for reelection. this is "the kudlow report." yeah, the stalled speed economic taking its toll on obama's poll, so now team obama is labeling romney as a radical conservative extremist? instead of brainstorming, they're blame-storming, figuring out who to blame. nonever thinks of mitt as -- here as an election you don't know about that could have ramifications far beoind what you think. francois hollandi could doom europe if he wins sunday and goes on to be present. then there's sex and scandal. mills onbeing wasted at the gsa, now 12 secret service agents on the taxpayer dime embroiled in the worst scandal of its history. this is government corruption at its worst, you know, in the private sector, a ceo would clean this mess up. why is the president awol? he is, by the way, the chief executive of this country. >>> we begin tonight with this. team obama now calling mitt romney an extremist, a hard-core conservative

i'm jim cramer, see you tomorrow! hey, larry, great day. what are you looking at? >> jimmy, i've got a laundry list from around the globe. is the correction over? this is "the kudlow report." a new round of stock market optimism today. huge gains across the board led bay dow gain of 181 points. the big question, is the market correction over? google beat expectations and announced a split that investors may not like. and jack welch will talk about stocks, commit and why barack obama has an enemies list. plus ann romney wins the mommy wars after she was attacked by an obama consultant. set off a firestorm on the role of women in the economy. but first up, let's jump right into today's stock market action. dow up 181, s&p at 19, nasdaq up 39. look at this wall, all green. now, i want to raise a optimist being data point. international trade for february, booming exports. nobody looks that the stuff. if all these countries are buying our good, there's no way the world economy is going bust, and that includes europe. so let's talk. joining me is jim ureo, and steve for

gemmy cramer, my buddy, says yes, absolutely. what's up? >> our mutual friend carl quintanilla will be doing a -- i'll be watching like everyone else, even as i have had a sneak preview, but i want to take a moment to talk about costco, the stock. not just costco, the special. i've been ae believer in this stock for years and years. my charitable trust owns it, i think our viewers should continue purchase it. what draws me to the stock? first, its unique business model blows me away. because it is a club. people pay to shop there. the dues just went up for the first time, and almost no one blenked. netflix, their customer base revolted. second, costco offers the every day low price i used to associate with wal-mart. costco is wal-mart on stair roads. costco pai pays its associates well. it offers the best benefits of any company that i follow. that's allowed it to have the lowest turnover. why is that so important? because the biggest line item cost for retailers is training new employees. that makes the cost of doing business for costco am

jim cramer breaks it down. hello, jimmy. >> larry, every day on "squawk on the street" we are kicking around the notion of post traumatic stress. we are thinking about what execs are saying. today, caterpillar, positively down beat on what's happening. and brazil and china slowed. and i can see the collapse of coal. still up, things are brighter, u.s. nonresidential construction getting longer, both u.s. and china have the ability to turn things around. to me, cat is too negative. i think they remember too well the down turn. the real mystery, conservative outlook from bowings management. far too many orders to handle and commercial aircraft for planes like the 737, where the kinks are out and cost march begins are huge it makes me feel far more bullish than the terrific company is letting on. i don't know if i want to buy cat management. too down beat for me. boeing, can't let cautious optimism color the story. as it started out very sluggish, and then ral eddielied 3. 7. a multiyear cycle and despite the rall

my pal jim cramer has been thinking about the epa and fracking. he said today's decision may point the way to a less adversarial process that could free up this energy sooner. jim? >> hey, larry. maybe the epa is beginning to recognize natural gas fracking isn't as dangerous to drinking water that many in the agency may have thought. that's my real take away from the epa's decision last week to back away from its slamming of range resources for allegedly polluting drinking water wells in texas. the epa has been on a wrecking crew for months again the process of fracking to bring up the surface difficult-to-drill shale oil and gas. the agent seemed determine to top fracking by prejudging the process. i felt as if the epa decided to take its marching orders from gasland, a movie passing itself offs a documentary saying fracking causes drinking water to catch on fire. on friday the epa went back on a lawsuit and admitted there's no link between range's fracking and contamination. it needs to retest results of a fracking case brought in wyoming where

i'm jim cramer, i'll see you tomorrow. hey, larry, what's going on tonight? >> jimmy, dow dropped 214 points, but i see it as a shallow correction, not a full-fledged plunging sell-off. i'm larry kudlow. this is "the kudlow report" markets took a body blow. down another 214, but bellwether commodity alcoa came back it proves that we're not off a cliff and i'll call this a shallow correction. also this evening, big money politic news. rick santorum calls it quits. mitt romney the de facto republican nominee. for me, pro business and market friendly and i regard romney's nomination as bullish for investo investors. there he goes again. president obama unleashes the buffett tax attack. joining me in a moment, austan goolsbee, former chair of the economic kouns sill of advisers. >>> and chris christie calls it like he sees it, saying this country is turning into a nanny state of entitlement at the bush presidential center tax summit. i had the honor of moderating, and former president bush says president obama making a mistake, not extending the tax cuts. take a

jim cramer says it may be a buying opportunity. good evening, jimmy. what you got. >> larry, can you buy stocks with big advances in a given session? we had three today. let's drill down on them. amazon, expedia, cerner. amazon and expedia were short going into the quarter. jeff beez owes made it clear he was going to spin to win. congratulations he was able to recoup spending almost immediately in the form of better gross margins an excellent earnings. the stock is up huge. better moment will come to buy it. i am caught up in the expensive nature of the company. if it dropped to the low 200s, would be tempting. expedia. terrific company. talked about it on "mad money." others didn't. short sellers scramble to bring the shorts in, it is up too much. if i want travel, starwood. that brings me to cerner. they had a terrific quarter. even better, all scripps. these two electronic record keepers for doctors and hospitals have been duke tg for years. terrific buy. pick up some of that, sell expedia, wait for amazon to come down before doing any buying. back

i'm jim cramer. see you tomorrow. >>> the stock goals are back and nat gas prices fall under two bucks. good evening. i'm larry kudlow. this is "the kudlow report." are the bulls back in the game? markets made a comeback after five days of losses. i'm still betting on a shallow correction. today seem to support it. it's been my view and remains my view. now, we are monitoring a live speech from janet yellin looking for a possible qe3 here on kudlow. also on the first full day of the general election, president obama once again promotes the anti investor, business, so-called buffett tax. it's more like a romney tax and listen to this. >> wild eyed socialist tax hiking class warrior was ronald reagan. >> i knew ronald reagan. i worked for ronald reagan, and you, my sir, are no ronald reagan. this is a back door capital gains tax hike that will damage growth and is chris christie right with this warning? >> we'll turn into a -- that will not just bankrupt us financially, it will bankrupt us more. then w

i'm jim cramer and i will see you tomorrow! hey, larry, what do you have for us tonight? >> all right, jimmy. the anti-investor buffett tax vote is under way. it's a very important tax. if it gets defeated, and i think it will, that's going to be good news. good evening, everyone. i'm larry kudlow. this is "the kudlow report." breaking news under way right now. the senate is still voting on the buff it tax. it looks like it's going to go down. i certainly hope it does because i think it's a dumb idea, nothing but a tax on capital gains and dividends and the entire stock market. by the way, you can't have capitalism without capital. risk capital powers the economy. why tax it? but listen, this whole buffett tax business is a political circus sideshow. the real issue, taxmageddon. a there are 5.3 trillion tax hike effective january 1st, 2013. this taxmageddon should be priority number one to avoid destroying the economy. so far, congress is not nearly anywheres getting to it. plus tonight an obama administration official pleads the fifth amendment in front of congress. and

there's always a bull market somewhere, i'm jim cramer, see ya monday! hey, larry, what are you looking at to end the short week? >> all right, jimmy, the president still bullying the supreme court and adding to his nixonian enemies list. this is the "kudlow report." our sizzle story tonight, the president can help, but once again, bully his way into federal courtrooms? he had his attorney general eric holder craft a non-denial denial at the request of the fifth circuit this to defend this week's presidential bullying of the supremes on the overturning of obama care. did the president mistakenly call unprecedented. i read the three-page later and i think it basically says to the court, simmer down. and i totally agree with senator mitch mcconnell who in a dramatic speech today warned obama to back off the supreme court and let the court do its work. the president ending his worst week in a long while, a gloomy, negative bullying attack on the court, paul ryan's budget, blaming mitt romney for oil prices, and aiming for the rest of his enemies list. he lo

my pal james cramer wants an answer. >> hey larry, let me ask you something. you ever wonder how out of touch this labor department is with modern-day america? it's not the sanctity of an important religious holiday. what makes me make this charge on your show? despite the fact that the stock market is closed, correctly, to allow people to observe good friday, the labor department is choosing to issue the most important statistic it compiles, the payroll and employment report at its regular time, 8:30 at friday as if there is no holiday at all. this number should not be issued on a day when the market can't react to it. i have to believe in this modern era they could issue it tomorrow morning if they wanted to. this good friday issuance is a pretty disgraceful decision when you think about it. the fact that neither the change nor the s.e.c. pretect this is outrageous. if good friday is important enough to close the ex-changes, which i think it, it's important enough to be respected by the labor department. their silence is not golden. to me it is still one mor

i'm jim cramer. i'll see you monday! hey, larry, what are you looking at to close out the week? >> all right, jimmy, my take? both china and the u.s. are better than folks think. i'm still playing it from the optimistic side. good evening, everyone. i'm larry kudlow. this is "the kudlow report." so this roller coaster week on wall street. markets took another dip today. the dow down 137. the s&p off 17. the nasdaq lost 44. but again, i'm still an on the mi optimist. and in just a second i'll show you how this is still going to be a shallow shakeout, and i'll make the case that our economy and china's are both better than you think. all right. the president and vice president unveiled their 1040 tax returns today. turns out he's using the same rich man's exemptions that he rails against. and that's not stopping team obama from promptly pounding mitt romney to release his returns all the way back to the 1970s. all they're trying to do is discredit romney's business success. the romneys, by the way, pay 20 times what the obama's pay for 2011 taxes. tonight we begin with the late-da

now my pal jimmy cramer been thinking about energy and the president and the republicans today, and he says both sides are totally wrong for different reasons. really? he has a solution, so let's hear him out. >> hey, larry. it's not drill, baby, drill. it's use, baby, use. we've got a phenomenal disconnect between what the political parties are saying about oil and gas reserves and what the reality may be. when i hear president obama talking about energy, he always mentioned we can't solve the problem of high gasoline prices by drilling for oil in the country. he is saying we can only hope long term, through conservation, solar, win and other renewables we can bring down the cost of energy. when i hear republicans talk, they put it squarely on the unwillingness for drilling on federal lands. we would somehow induce pricing to come down enough, well, let's just say they believe there is enough oil there to affect pricing, both sides are totally wrong. the president's wrong when he says we can't bring down the price of oil short-term, because we could we just need to use more natural ga

i'm jim cramer. see you tomorrow. hey, larry, what do you have for us? >> all right, jimmy. neither stocks, nor jobs, nor the economy is going to fall off a cliff. this is the "kudlow report." stocks took 131-point payroll dip today. you know that. but when you look at the economic data points, it's clear to me we are not dropping off a cliff, there's no double-dip. there's no catastrophic stock plunge coming. a healthy correction? maybe, but not a plunge. >> jack up energy and really damage the economy just the way the fed did a year ago. ben bernanke is moments away from speaking his first comment since the bad jobs number on friday. we will take you there live and talk about outrageous fleecing of american taxpayers. the general services administration spending almost $1 million on a lavish las vegas conference all on tape. now congress is calling for an investigation. i say let's shut down the worthless gsa altogether, the private sector can do it much better. first up this evening, the jobs report on good friday, made for a bad monday. all major averages closed off 1%.

. >>> next on "mad money," cramer has an exclusive with chipotle's big enchilada. get it? that's all coming up top of the hour with the one and only jim cramer. >>> all right, in honor of the nfl draft we had our own draft today for stocks to watch. our own guy adami watched his stocks earlier today. listen. >> with the seventh and final pick aim going to fort worth, texas, a tandy corporation, and it's radio shack. >> going for the shack. >> yeah. well, i have an epiphany. pete and i were in the green room and shaquille o'neal came to say hi to us. >> in the green room? >> on my kids, we're out on twitter, showed it. >> wow. >> radio shack, monster short interest. all the bad news is out. either going to zero or 15. i think it's going to 15. got to be in it to win. it can't pick microsoft. got to go out there. especially with the seventh and final pick. i put it out there on the line. that's how i roll. >> shaq is in the green room and you think radio shack. love how your mind works. very simple. >> can you imagine if you walked into the green room? i would have picked, c

. ♪ >>> up next on "mad money," cramer has the exclusive look at the ceo and the federal realty as top man coming up at the top of the hour. time for the green trade. this time there is relatively good news for the stock. analyst at kantor fitzgerald upgraded and joins us now to tell us about the call. great to have you with us. the stock was down 7% and a high shortage and has that has a roll n how the stock trades. it was lukewarm and it's a hold at this point to see more consolidation and capacity cuts coming. how does it shape up? >> well, let's be perfectly clear. i'm not positive on the solar panel industry at all. they deserve a long road to go with negative things going on. we had a sell rating since we initiate and took every opportunity when the stock was either up or in the triple-digits to say sell it. down here in the low 20s when it's right at the price target of 2150, we are saying right now we believe that the industry and in particular they recognized the challenges in the industry and yesterday they announced they are cutting 33% of the capacity and 30% of the employe

. >> next hour, cramer slicing into apple. how so many got it wrong. make profits for years to come and checking out stock that is getting a bid and should you buy it now? it's all coming up at the top of the hour. you don't want to miss that. the next trade powering the portfolio. two energy heavy weights. they are set to report before the bell. they announced a dividend increase. the best way to trade ahead of the numbers. give me the trade on exxon. i heard a technical analyst saying technically the stock looks broken and under performed the broader market as well. >> i like that here. if you are talking about an economy. exxon does well and they become less oily and more gassy. >> they increased a bit and will probably buy back another $5 billion in stock. ubs had a note about that this morning. the problem is it takes a lot to knock people's socks off. they missed and the stock has been stuck around $86 and stuck for a long time. this is part of the problem. when the oil is perceived to have a premium and not a real demand attached, people don't b

they know jimmy cramer likes it. >> anthony. >> humana and i like humana. >> i think kansas is going to win. >> i like that, but kansas is not going to win. humana, i will go with anthony on that side. >> we have the person tomorrow when we come back. we always hear about jobs leaving america. here's a chance to create jobs in america. oil sands projects, like kearl, and the keystone pipeline will provide secure and reliable energy to the united states. over the coming years, projects like these could create more than half a million jobs in the us alone. from the canadian border, through the mid west, to the gulf coast. benefiting hundreds of thousands of families throughout the country. this is just what our economy needs right now. and i thought "i can't do this, it's just too hard." then there was a moment. when i decided to find a way to keep going. go for olympic gold and go to college too. [ male announcer ] every day we help students earn their bachelor's or master's degree for tomorrow's careers. this is your moment. let nothing stand in your way. devry university, proud to s

you see 50% upside and i hope you also saw the great interview that cramer did, as well. >> yeah, yeah. you know, he's been on the road a lot lately. starting to tell the story. you know obviously we need some specific cat list to happen. we need them to sell maiden three, their cdo assets that the fed helped take over and we need them to sell or ipo and we think a sale is sort of been where we think this is sort of going to play out at iofc. >> that's exactly. breaking news that an ipo could be soon for iffc. >> i don't think we've seen the company comment one way or the other what the real plans are. but we think the story of that being a worthless, you know, asset is overdone. i think they obviously have older planes but they've taken a lot of marks and in a market where you have ultimately, financials with sort of buying power and low cost financing, you know, this is a spread-based asset. >> josh, thanks so much. >>> doc with a comment? >> yeah, just international lease finance corp whether or not it's north of even 10 billion on the ipo as kayla said, it's somewhere between 7 and