Why Cooperman likes stocks much better than bonds

Through the prism of the Good, Bad and Ugly on Wall Street, here are three top items for investors on Thursday.

The stock market has proved baffling to investors of late, with wild triple-digit Dow swings from one day to the next. Case in point, stocks looked like they were going to open higher in early trading Thursday. But that enthusiasm waned, and stocks were unable to continue Wednesday's 274 point rally in the Dow Jones industrial average, which had wiped out a similar-sized decline Tuesday.

Leon Cooperman, founder of hedge fund Omega Advisors, told CNBC on Thursday that while stocks are fully valued, he'd put money in equities over bonds in the next five years. "Thirty percent of the yield more than bonds. I think you can find plenty of stocks ... [that] are much more attractive to me than bonds," he said in a "Squawk Box" interview."

Just when it looked like Carl Icahn and Apple were on the same page, the activist investor called out the tech giant again on Thursday in an open letter—urging an accelerated stock buyback to boost shareholder value. In response, Apple wrote to CNBC that it always appreciates hearing from shareholders, but pointed to what it called an aggressive capital return program already in place.

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