week. it is time for "the call to action" on stocks you need to watch during afternoon trade. let's get to cnbc's matt nesto. >> i'm on my heels after the paris stuff. the market's trying to regroup as well. it's kind of a changed market as has been all week. the traders are telling us it continues to be a stock picker's market within select sectors and the global recovery play is back in a big way. you can see the transports are one of the best performing groups here today. that, of course, within the industrial sector and also seeing some strength in capital goods, but if you look at the transports and even that has a story because if you take a look at the top of the transports you'll see ups with that big upgrade in their fourth quarter, a 20% increase from what they saw well above con sense us and it is up 4%. the railroad's very strong here today. osc in the shipping space and delta very weak. delta's down % today.

it's still up 07% from november 1st. if you take a look at the capital goods group, again, very strong in this marketplace. the cyclical play is back and they're having their best week, capital goods in six months. that was a hot theme in the cyclical index, very strong outperforming the market by a wide margin today. some of the capital goods or capital greats, if you will, include diesel, itt and john deere all very strong in an otherwise quiet marketplace here today and that is what we're looking at. steel is the other story that's worth looking at. all stocks are up 5%, 6%, 7%. and j.p. morgan with positive comments and good reports from schnitser. larry, back to you. >> this is a sad parting of the ways temporarily because our friend is going back to australia. >> i'll be leaving suspected. >> that is terrible. >> that's great for her. i want to be on the beach! >> are you going to go to the australian tennis tournament?

>> i am not, larry. it's been great working with you. >> thank you for helping us out. >> that's it for "the call." >> i'm melissa francis. >> i'm mandy drury. >> i'm larry kudlow and see you on "the kudlow report" at 7:00 p.m. eastern time and "power lunch" is up next. welcome, everyone to "power lunch" for a friday. i'm tyler math son and stocks trying to battle back following that somewhat disappointing jobs report, at least some people seem to see it that way, others would zero in on the fact that jobs were added according to a revision in november. nasdaq going positive. it was just a few minutes ago and still is as tech recovers after a couple of days in the doghouse. the dow and s&p 500 still higher for the week despite today's slight decline. >> and i'm sue herera. our partner michelle continues on assignment. what impact will this jobs report have on the consumer, on business confidence, on the

markets going forward? we have every angle covered for you. i'm dennis kneale, slapping back taxes on hedge funds and private equity, is that the right way for the government to raise revenue or is it a war on wealth? watch the sparks fly on the power grid debate and we've got that for you. >> first, let's go to the market reporters and mary thompson kicks it off from the new york stock exchange where a lot of people would argue that this market is holding up better than many expected given the headline number on the jobs report. >> you're right, sue. the job data, was there some disappointment that we lost 85,000 non-farm jobs in the month of december, but again, not -- some investors saying it's still the job market is certainly much better than it was some time ago. not enough to do great damage either to the stock market or the dollar today. as tyler mentioned earlier, techs are gaining. one area where we're seeing a lot of strength are the transports and this sank to a positive forecast from ups that saw domestic and international

operations in the fourth quarter. we are seeing weakness in the discount retailers. interesting call from oppenheimer seeing same-store sales and tough comparison in the year ahead as consumers become less frugal, should the economy improve? >> now let's get a check on tech and for that let's go to the nasdaq and scott wapner. >> tech has been the laggard thus far of 2010 after being the leadership group of 2009. it is up 0.3% right now and we've seen a turnaround in some of the large cap and widely held technology stocks. google is higher, amazon, microsoft and apple are all now in positive territory. a turnaround there. watching shares of genzyme today. genzyme shares getting a nice boost. carl icahn indicating he could launch a proxy battle and that stock getting a bump up and that's the story here at the nasdaq. let's go to brian shactman at the nymex. >> oil just went positive today for the very first time so we'll keep an eye on that. i want to look at gold versus the dollar because it's been up and down.

the jobs report came up and we saw a reversal. the dollar weakened and gold soared and it tempered and gold is making a comeback as well. we do have some movement here and the big story is oj. back above 150, two-year highs. we're looking at temperatures down south over the weekend to get back into freezing territory. that's lake oak chobe, why do we care? it's a $ billion business. let's go to chicago. >> the floor is a bit abuzz. there are published reports that i'm getting from my many of my sources about something that the obama administration will put to a public comment period and it goes something like this. average americans were hurt big during the big givebacks and their iras when the credit crisis pushed stocks down. they're thinking allowing that and allowing more of an annuity

scenario. if you think this through, what it means is instead of a bit of your paychecks going into annuities, it is going to treasurys. it would be lower return, but safer. this is very early, but you want to pay attention to any new stories coming out about this annuity conversion they're going to put out for public comment. back to you. >> but, rick, if indeed that is the case, if that does happen wouldn't people be going into the treasury market right at the time that most of the analysts that we have on here on cnbc say don't go into the treasury market? >> you can put your ira in a treasury right now, rick. what's the difference? >> the difference is it's going to be something that will be more of a large-scale program, a very simple one and more of a conversion is as well. like i said, early stages, but the range of opinions is from, hey, maybe that's not a bad idea that we're worried about who

will be buying treasurys. >> would there be market impact, do you think? >> initially it almost seemed as though it was. other traders think it's time to sell equities again. remember, we're months and months away from this each getting closer to the bull's-eye. >> interesting that the buzz is on at this hour. thanks very much. there was positive sentiment heading into the jobs report and the date ended up pointing many investors. the u.s. economy did lose more jobs than expected, but prior months, november, notably, revised upward and positive job growth. our senior economics reporter steve liesman takes us inside the numbers. >> i want to look at the impact on jobs when it comes to the consumer, business and for the markets. what you find is that consumer and confidence and jobs joined at the hip, business less so and the market is actually ahead. let's take a look here. what you see when you look at

this, take a look. they're pretty much right together. as they go up, they go up and as they go down, they go down. when the job's lousy, they're depressed but take a look at the next one which is capital spending by business and jobs and what you see here is it's more together, even a little bit lagging and not quite as joined there. for example, look at this area right here where what you see is that business spending, decline and confidence with jobs is in line there. that's less sentiment. what you see is the temporary help also ends up, for example, right there. really good example, leading job growth. that's temp up in yellow and that's up. so ahead of time they take tentative steps. finally, if you did look at the market what you would see is that the stock market tends to lead job growth by three months and i think that might be something that would explain why you have a very muted reaction to this disappointing number today. >> all right, steve, stay with us if you will as we talk more

now about the jobs report and its effect on consumer sentiment heading forward. let's bring in stephen stanley, chief economist at rbs and richard hastings, consumer strategist at global hunter securities. welcome to you both. i see that you say that you are, you like the trend and you think it's probably pretty good and i'll grant you that, but i'll point out this, when you've got really overall underlying unemployment of people who are unemployed who have dropped out of the workforce and who are working part-time for economic reasons at above 17%. how could you ever expect consumers to feel confident? >> well, i wouldn't think that you would expect that consumers would think good times are right around the corner. you have to make a clear distinction between levels and changes. we've just gone through the worst recession since the 1930s. so the economy's at a very low level. the question is really whether it's bouncing from that and if

so, by how much. our view is that things are bouncing and that labor markets which again, the same situation we've had the worst jobs decline in decades and decades so we think firms are going have to hire again. >> we'll get them to hire again, richard hastings. >> what will it take to hire them again? it will take a much more specific focus small sectors of the economy. what they're attempting to do right now is some sort of a broad-based effort and it's not specific enough. what they need to do is find two or there parts of the economy that have some sort of a trickle down effect which will have a supply chain, vertical effect where people and companies will have to -- >> are you talking about a second stimulus program that's very targeted or how are you suggesting that should be done? >> it would be a second stimulus it needs to be quite small and quite specific. it doesn't need to be something more than $100 billion. the problem is that what they've done so far is extremely non-specific and based on

individual projects. what's very complicated, eligibility formulas and it's not creating jobs. >> steve liesman, i know we're obsessed with what happened in the last five minutes and yet if you look back to the november report, initially we lost 8,000 jobs and some people thought that would be revised for a bigger loss and we gained 4,000 jobs in november as the market right now, steve, missing the point here? i think that's an incredibly surprising, early turn. >> you know, dennis. it's hard to comment on the market. the mark has priced-in job gain and the market feels pretty good about that prediction and didn't get it today so it's not advancing, but when i see the dow down 20 and the s&p down less than a point there. i say you what? it feels confident in its prediction that we're going have job growth. that's a good point you make. the november number not only stood, but got better and that was a reversion of recidivism if you want to call it in december, but most of the forecasters are

saying you know what? if we didn't get it now, we'll get it soon. >> was this report mostly big enough to impact wall street and not main street. is that the reed i'm getting from you? that's a good way to put it. the disappointment was there and it was enough to impact the markets a little bit especially because people have gotten themselves into a frenzy about how great the number was likely to be, but it's not enough to change. it's not really enough to change the big picture. take me as a litmus test, we're optimistic and nothing we saw today has led us to change our outlook for the next year. the idea from the first chart was that consumer confidence would want lead us out of it. you have to have business confidence and i think you have to have market confidence and that will help to lead to jobs. >> thank you very much. and we'll pick up basically on the next hour on the question of whether there ought to be some targeted stimulus specifically at thenner city where the

unemployment rate for african-americans is 60% or so higher than it is for the nation, and the winter weather advisory for the country. the weather channel's todd santos joins us with the word on whether we'll get any relief. todd? >> well, dennis, easily after the weekend we'll talk about the monday, tuesday timeframe. in new york, likely to hold onto it and at the end of the coming week we'll see a break a look at the southeast first and that's where we'll see the real issues and at left in saturday morning and look at the records ones side there and we're not quite in record territory and we're in the cold rate, and the morning lows in the 20s in the panhandle of florida. by monday we'll see the numbers creeping up across the area. in the upper midwest and extending to the northeast. so tyler, at least a little bit of improvement by the middle of this coming week and we'll see the fading and the relief from

west to east. >> all righty. thank you very much, todd. we'll get ready for the cold here. michelle was headed to atlanta on assignment. i hope she brought a coat. >> they have a certain kind of anti-freeze in new orleans that you can son summe, i'm told. >> think you are absolutely right about that. >> up next, jobs number is in. time for investors to move on to the next challenge. believe it or want, earnings season begins next week and we will have all of it and more for you. what should investors be looking for in those numbers? how do we play it? a lot more ahead this hour as well. we'll go live to the consumer electronics show to speak to the ceo of a chinese manufacturing giant. we'll get his take on china's red hot economy plus the war on wealth is raising taxes on hedge funds the right way to pay for deficits or it will kill the financial sector and drive talent overseas. dennis? >> get ready for the fast money halftime report, of course.

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>> shares of ai dpshgs right now up 77 cents at $25.35, but that is good enough for a two and two-thirds percent gain. barney frank has want decided on whether he will hold hearings on

disclosures while timoney geithner was at the new york fed. it was a story we covered for you extensively here on "power lunch" and congressman frank is commenting on that. he also says that the focus mr. geithner's role on the aig bailout to the exclusion of mr. paulson and mr. bern anky is a quote, unquote, partisan attack and he also seems to be, according to the headlines, anyway, expressing his support of both geithner and bernanke saying they have dealt with the financial crisis very well despite some criticisms. >> that's good for geithner. >> let's gather our power lunch market insiders for their take on what investors like to see from the earnings season which actually starts next week. can you believe it? let's talk to dan cook over at -- it's the teleprompter. at ig markets and ira harris, partner of axis trading. dan, what are you thinking on the jobs report and the upcoming events next week? >> think the jobs report really

just showed us what the broader economy is. they have very little market impact and don't necessarily follow each other. as far as the market's concerned it may be positive because the repos and what the fed was talking about is farther away from being implemented. >> it's the fourth month of retail gains. we kept waiting for the top line to grow. what about the upside chance for an earnings surprise? >> i'd love to see actual revenue. we h h't really seen that through last year. we saw a lot of cost-cutting measures and i would like to see that shift. i think i would be disappointed in the hope. that's what i'm looking forward. we have to see the revenue growths to push this market higher as we head into february and the spring month. >> along those lines, ira, if earnings do want come in as expected, even if they beat, but there isn't the growth underlying that the street is looking for. what's the best trade in the bond market or treasury market to hedge against ditzsappointme

next week? >> ira. >> you saw we steepened out a bit today and i think if the numbers continue to disappoint, sue, we'll keep seeping it. i was expecting to see a very strong number this morning because we would have seen some interest in action and i think the treasurys would have rallied off a strong number and we're getting a reverse today because it does look as dan said, the fed's going to be easy going forward. >> ira, rick santelli mentioned there was a buzz on the trading floor out there about some proposal that is apparently making the rounds if only among traders to in some sense convert massive portions of the american retirement system into an annuity plan that would buy treasurys. are you hearing anything about that? if you haven't, fine, if you have, tell us. >> no, i just heard that from rick and that would make sense. it would kind of fit with the whole takeover of fannie and freddie by the treasury on the christmas eve surprise that we

saw because they'll have to figure out some way to move that off the fed balance sheet on to other people's hands and they'll find creative ways to deal with that. thank you. >> up next, hedge fund hotshot jim chanos, he's a relentless short seller. he has a new target, china. he said they're headed for a crash. it's our consumer appliance market. can china keep booming and they overcome perceptions of lousy chinese-made products. we'll ask the chairman about that. >> he's up next and let's check in on stocks hitting new 52-week highs today. they include u.s. steel, ak steel and titanium metals, obviously. the commodities and sector moving higher today.

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billionaire short seller jim chanos calls beijing's economy hyperstimulated on and the verm of a complete meltdown. he goes on to describe its real estate sector, quote, a thousand times worse than dubai. pretty strong words from this preeminent investor, but don't tell that to manufacturing giant hayer. we are very pleased to welcome haie, r american chairman michael jamal to power lunch. welcome, sir. a pleasure to have you here. >> thank you. it's great to be here. what do you make of mr. chanos' comments? they are pretty strong words. from what you see on the ground in china is it a disaster waiting to happen and overstimulated and artificially supported economy? >> well, you know, we're really not in china. harks aier america is based here in the united states, but everything that i'm hearing from our partners in china is that things are very well planned and going as planned and haier itself as a company is doing

tremendously well especially with the recent government stimulus over there. >> i think that's the point. the government stimulus. do you feel confident that when the stimulus is eventually removed that your company which has extensive deal negligence china will be perform as exceptionally well as it has? >> absolutely want. i don't think we will be affected at all. about ten years ago we entered our major global expansion with the united states being a major emphasis. today we're in the u.s. and in europe, in the middle east, in australia and haier is really diverse and not dependent on the asian economy or the chinese economy, so to speak. >> but your parent company -- >> we're very well diverse and distributed. >> your parent company is chinese, correct? >> the parent is chinese. >> what percentage of your sales of the total company take place in the u.s. and what do you expect that to be out five years? >> today haier america has 5% of

total volume. so in 2010 we're planning to be 5% of the total group's volume. >> can you migrate your company seamlessly, and i assume the answer you will give me is yes from a reputation that is built around air conditioners and household appliances into more high-tech goods like computers? you've got a netbook that you've come out with and some blue blu-ray stuff. that's not an easy trick to pull off. >> no, you're 100% right. in fact, this is our tenth ces show, believe it or not and it's our largest ces show. it is a major challenge to migrate from commodity-type products, air conditioners and compact refrigeration, but interestingly enough, today we were just awarded a huge recognition by "popular science." we demonstrated a new technology which is a wireless television, totally wireless tv which sort of starts to tran 16ed the image

that we are now entering the new age of technology with harks aier and that will extend across all of our product lines. today at ces, we're for the for the time displaying a full line of netbooks, digital cameras and we also have a fuel line of led televisions. so we've come a long way in ten years since we first started here in the united states and even though it will take a little bit of a while to establish ourselves further, we feel that we've come a long way and we're doing a very good job in getting there. >> thank you very much, appreciate it. >> thank you. >> all righty. straight ahead, hiking tackes on hedge funds and private equity, an irresistible target, perhaps, but is it a smart and fair way to raise revenue or is it a war on wealth? you saw some of the firestorm right here on "power lunch." round two coming up. >> as you know 12:45 p.m. eastern time get red for the fast money halftime report. melissa's here to tell us what's on deck. >> hey, guys, you might be thinking about buying

financials. we have an option strategy for j.p. morgan and an interesting turnaround for j.p. morgan and we'll tell you the dip you might want to wait for. all ahead on the halftime report, but first "power lunch" after this. (announcer) if you want directions to the stadium, push here. if you want to see the weather ahead, push here. if you want to access 10 gigs of music you just downloaded to your hard drive, push here. and if you want to pull away from it all, you can push here. the all-new-40-gig hard drive nav and entertainment system

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>> welcome back.

in the headlines at this hour, the stocks are down a bit on the back of a worse than expected-headline employment report. 85,000 jobs with the unemployment rate at 10%. boeing downgraded from neutral to held upon the stock has gotten bit of ahead of itself. despite the dow declines there are 46 s&p stocks hitting new 52-week highs. the railroads, shippers and energy names are all on that list. ty? >> washington, possibly cracking down on wealth in the new year targeting it very directly. one of the issues when the senate reconvenes is raising tackes on what's known as carried interest, something that could more than double the taxes on private equity and hedge fund managers and on certain things like real estate-limited partnerships. is it the right move? it certainly sounds irresistible probably to politicians and pop lefts. daryl jones is professor at florida a&m university and robert stewart is vice president for public affairs at the public

equity council. mr. jones, let me start with you. i assume you see, for example, that 20% profit participation that hedge fund managers and certain private equity people get or pull out of this thing as fees, want as a slice of profits. explain to me why you see it that way when so many other countries do not. >> well, first of all, i think that the premise of your question is -- might be wrong. i think most other countries are facing this issue. that is they're recognizing that managers are getting paid for their services with respect to other people's money. but in any event, the right answer to your question is they're not -- the managers are playing with other people's capital. they're not investing their own cash. just like you and i are putting to use other people's money in what we do every day. we're performing services with

respect to other people's money and it's called compensation. we're getting a yield to labor and that's compensation. >> most private equity managers and hedge fund managers do have their own capital in their investments. so their capital is at risk as well. >> to the extent that they have their own capital, they ought to get capital gains rates and the bill before congress has an app for that. they have capital gains race on their own skin in the game. ? address specifically that point because it seems that mr. jones has a good point here. if what the -- if what a manager is doing is taking other people's money and intelligently putting it to work to make a profit for those individuals and get 20% of those profits, why shouldn't that be regarded simply as a fee to them for their services? >> let me just say this. we've all seen the jobs numbers today. 85,000 jobs lost in december, now hardly seems to be the time to be more than doubling the tax point. >> okay. fine. fine. but --

>> answer the question. >> i would be delighted to. it's important to remember that this is a tax on all investment partnerships including 1.6 million real estate partnerships. investment partnerships are taxed just like everybody else. they pay ordinary income on their salaries and their fees. they pay ordinary income tax on their salaries and their fees, when they buy a capital asset whether it's a company or an apartment building or a real estate development, they increased the value of that asset over time and over more than a year, they sell that asset at a profit. >> congress set it up that way so capital would flow to these kind of projects. >> professor jones, the whole reason our capital gains tax is lower, it's encourage longer term investment. >> exactly right. they raised the tax on silicon valley funs which invest for four to five years before looking for an outcome. the effective tax rate in california for those guys goes to 59%. what are you thinking here? >> we're not talking about raising the taxes on investors.

the people who actually put the cash in will still get capital gains returns. we're talking about raising the taxes on the service providers, just like you and i are service providers. >> that's what we're talking about. >> a 20% cut to the upside and the upside was a long-term upside it seems i should pay capital gains and not regular income. >> no. the capital gains tax is to prevent tax on inflationary gain and a previously taxed capital. >> if all you put in is labor you ought to pay the same tax that you and i pay when we put in our labor. >> they aren't paying the same taxes on that. >> they're are -- this is television and we've got to go. thanks for being with us. >> we'll come back to this one, though. >> next up, a first story and it says -- i don't speak frern and i'll just say oh, my. it appears the tax-happy french may be looking to dapp google as a source of tax to help fuel france's own fading culture.

france's culture minister proposes slapping taxes on major internet portals to help pay for spreading french books, movies, music online. you would think consumers would do that because they want them. america's culture is flooding through google, microsoft, facebook, yahoo!, and overwhelming the french way of life. the 2% tax largely aimed at advertising. >> we need more johnny holiday, that's the guy we need. do you know who he is? >> dwroent. >> he is the french elvis. >> yes. i think they should have a nice glass of red wine and calm down a bit. >> if france does it, look for every other country in the european union to do it and if they do it, look for other countries to start doing it and let's tax the internet all over the place. >> do you think it's a very con ro veshl talking point? what do you think? what does your gut tell you? >> with the french when it comes to taxes everything they propose is entirely serious because they want to be as high as possible. >> big shake up maybe on the way in nbc's late shift.

it looks like the risky move to save money $300 million a year by putting jay leno on at 10:00 p.m.? julia boorstin will tell us the delicate story. >> margins and profits at the major retailers getting a lot better? will we see a wave of deals and takeovers in that area? meanwhile, let's take a look at where the marks are. >> down 24. >> the s&p is basically flat and the nasdaq a little higher.

nbc's big dilemma. whether to go through the merger with comcast, it's what to do with jay leno and late night. cnbc's julia boorstin is here with the latest. julia? >> dennis, jay leno's making headlines as speculation grows that nbc may change its late-night comedy lineup. nbc saying last night the best comedy team in the business will remain committed to keeping conan o brie own nbc. he's a valued part of our late-nightlineup. jay leno saying on his show last night that he doesn't think there's any truth to the rumors. joking, nbc only cancels shows when you're in first place and he is not. nbc deciding a little over a year ago to replace the 10:00 p.m. prime time slot rather than scripted dram as and they wanted

to keep him from going a rival network when his contract expired and giving conan the "tonight show" show slot. a typical prime time drama costs $2.5 to $3 million and nbc saving on creating new programming and pilots can cost $9 million or more. since the leno show launched in september after a $10 million marketing blitz, they've been under pressure and the demographics are down nearly 10%. the network acknowledged that lower ratings are hurting local affiliates giving them a smaller audience leading into the key 11:00 p.m. newscast. if nbc were to move leno, they start filling the 10:00 p.m. slot. the networks ordered nearly 20 pilots for the coming fall more than any fall tv season in years. and they can take usa which has high-rated 10:00 p.m. dram as or

pull those from other countries or continue programs they might have otherwise considered canceling. dennis, back to you. >> thanks, julia. >> i thought the broadcast networks were all, but dead. this morning front-page of "the new york times" the leno shows up and they're still at the center of pop culture. >> that's where the audience is and the fastest -- quickest way to get an audience is to be on one of the four or five major -- major networks, but the really telling part there is the idea of how much less it costs to produce leno than it would to develop and produce five separate dram as. >> right. >> unless you can re-air those dramas. >> rival tv executives had told me at the time when they made this, look, they'll take a ratings hit, but they will save $300 million ayear. it would make nbc profitable. >> the local affiliate, the cost

longer term for local affiliates in terms of audience sloss huge. >> that's the other surprise. it's a problem for them. >> that's the other thing, whether nbc would care what the other cable companies need and they're still needed in their current environment. >> needed and loved. needed and loved. all right, straight ahead, investors have chewed over the jobs numbers and it's time for another second stimulus plan and are the president's tax policies, though, perhaps discouraging businesses with hiring? we'll talk about all of those issues with a top white house economist, plus stocks, bonds, energy, we get you ready to make some money next week. "power lunch" trader triple play. >> up next "the fast money halftime report" and right you in you can see the dow is off 20 points.

welcome to "the fast money halftime report." we are getting to the hear of the action and the stocks fighting back. the nasdaq going positive and tech is starting to recover here. where are your trading opportunities today in let's get to the word on the street. the governor, steve grasso, and bill of sutland equities and an options action trader. grasso, let's kick it off with you. in terms of the nasdaq going positive today, are you sensing on the flow that the flows are indicating that people have an itchy trigger finger when it

comes to technologies that are now underperforming the broader markets so far in 2010 and people just want to get in. >> definitely. people want to get in to tech. they've been there and they don't want to lighten up on tech. you will see tech, materials, energy stay pat and wind up leading us this first quarter of this year. it doesn't matter what the jobs number is. you have to hold your nose and buy them. close your eyes and buy them and that's where we are at, unfortunately. the trend is still higher. >> i hate to be a debbie down or a friday, but let's piece this all together, we have a disappointing jobs report and there are reports about the consumer and j.p. morgan making an interesting call and saying their concern about the weakness, coca-cola as well as culver and as well as clorox are underscoring the fact that perhaps the economy is not as strong as we think it is. >> you know, it's easy to make that kind of assumption, but for the same represents, i'm seeing that the recovery is actually starting to take hold from what we saw exiting the third and then into the fourth quarter.

this is a brief, momentary pause here and you've seen it in the s&p, but i think the white knight out here will be earnings and i think that you will see another round of good safety out here as we go a quarter forward. so let's want look into that number too much today and it will be dramatically worse. let's look at that revision anyway and that's a reason to keep a smile on your face. brian sutland, everyone is watching the vix today. a 19-month low. what i noticed is that the viblths, the volatility on the nasdaq is slightly higher. people might read into that that perhaps the nasdaq is in for more volatility and how does he see it? >> the nasdaq and the vix trade higher than the vix and it's a positive sign. we are starting to see normalcy return back into the market and actually the vix trading lower is rather normal. you know, the vix is comprised of the s&p 500 that includes a lot of the financials and the volatility there meaning the financials are in good safekeeping right now and typically the nasdaq 100 which the vix is tracking in terms of

that volatility, you get names like apple and names like google and amazon and those have more volatility in it. seeing it trade higher, i think that's bullish for the market. >> with all that said, return to normal and let's get to the chart of the day. what are you looking in terms of levels of the s&p 500 and what does it mean for investors out there today? >> it really doesn't change. we've been bullish for months from 1100 to 1150 on the s&p. we are there now. with the long-term time horizon you want to be in the profit taking mode beginning to unwind your exposure. shorter term the momentum is positive. you can buy the s&p in front of 1120 and looking for 1150, 1106 and maybe even 1107, but the bigger picture here is that as we saw this morning, we've got a private sector that still can't stand on its over two feet. the market's already up over 70% and if you look at the chart historically this, is a place where we tend to thread water and it makes a lot of sense here

to begin to take some profit and take a step back, but -- >> bill, here's the thing though. we were at 1235 in the s&p. there's nothing, but air in between us and there. i don't want deny it's okay. you never laugh at taking profits, but the truth is there's nothing, but air. we can get caught up in a vacuum. >> i think you could make a move above 1200, but bigger picture, that's a small move relative to the distance we've already traveled. if i'm right here, then i think fair value in the s&p somewhere around 950 and 900. a lot more to lose on the down side than there is to gain on the upside and that's the point. the risk reward doesn't make sense here. >> with that said let's talk about the next trade and one sector that is certainly back today and that is the financials, stay group cutting estimates for j.p. morgan and goldman sachs as well as i believe morgan stanley. basically concerns about trading, fixed income, commodity and currencies. are you noticing also an itchy

trigger finger when it comes to last year's market leader? >> i notice you want to see people go into the trades like citi. i own citi and bank of america. i own that like citi. and bank of america. you're seeing people put money to work there and taking money off the table on big names, jp morgans, coldmans that once were the trade dejoer in the financial market. they ran respectively, maybe 62%. the xlf is up 28%, 52 weeks. >> i just like to weigh in. i don't know that so many people are stepping away from jp morgan. today we saw people buy 14,000 in jp morgan. playing earnings play going in next week. jp morganenes. you buy the dips in the financials. >> making the play in options is quite different when you watch the big institutions put money on the table as far as the common. >> the capital options is much smaller compared to buying the

actual stock. let's delve deeper into the discussion. jp morgan positive on credit cards names today. visa, the firm increasing price target on that name. can you get positive on these transactions processors if there's concern that, perhaps, consumers may not be spending as much? >> absolutely. i think for what you just discussed, not necessarily in the options where we're talking about the calls that are so short term, but i think that's a synthetic bank play when you start putting money into visa, mastercard and discover. they've done very well, since their ipos, at least two of them. i don't see where we're getting consumer related noise that's going to make us get a little furry here. for the same reason i have no problems with those positions and i think they'll do very well. >> bill, what do you see in terms of the financials whether it be some of these credit cards names or xlf? >> good question. i think like the broader market the short term is still positive. what i like in the xlf right

now, it's been in the 14, 15 consolidation. broken up to the upside. the trader today is buying in front of 15, looking for move to 16. all i think you have to risk is a close below 1460. >> all right. let's move on and talk about google. spent a lot of time on that stock yesterday saying if it breaks below 600 take a look. intraday, interesting move in google. it fell to 58911 and turned back higher indicating people want to get into this one. let's bring in scott redler, technical analyst who was here yesterday giving us levels. what levels remind us are you looking at in terms of good buys opportunities for this stop? >> a lot of traders came in today eyeing the 50 day moving average for google which was 583. we thought that would be too easy. we put a strategy on the table where if google goes positive, get in that trade. google not only went positive,

it's had follow-through. for those trying to time the market, we feel this is a year to actively trade positions, rotate through different sectors, there will be times that are compelling for several sectors. today was a day to look to get involved and let's see what kind of traction it could have if it can get back to above 600 and hold that level. >> if it does what do you do? you want trade around your positions. if you bought google south of 590 or so, what point do you start thinking take the money off the table? >> if you sold in the 620 area, a lot of traders did once the nexus phone was out, some traders might have taken half off and the rest might trail it. if it acts appropriately and gets back above 600, trades well and this morning is a new pivot low, they'll stay with it. depends on the time frame.

for those holding it for the year they can trade around options and the position. today was a day to recenter the trade. we have today's low to trade against, and see how it acts going into earnings. >> thanks for that insight analysis. on "fast money," you heard it on the report, last month, "the new york times" continues to pound the table on china, is its market a bubble? if so, how can you play it? >> we told you yesterday the market can't win with this jobs report. what's your next move with the numbers in the books? "fast money" digs deep for new opportunities ahead. and earnings season is almost here. what does that mean? worlds are colliding. options action and fast fusing together to trade the earnings blowout. plus it's been biotech's big catalist.

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welcome back to the "fast money" halftime report. time for power lunch trade to go. we go to brian substitututland. >> i take a look at intel right now. the consumer electronic show going on in las vegas, intel unveiling a chip where they can fit 60 million of these things on a pin. neat stuff going on there. looking at the price action of intel, selling jam 20 puts. that allows me to get along the stock at 20. if i miss it, it didn't pull back, i collected premium by collecting the puts. >> do you buy or sell? brian, kick it off. >> i'm a buyer of this market. i think it trends up to 1150 on the s&p. getting short the vix and i like it to go higher. >> short term might be still bullish. guy front of 1120.

>> mike? >> i'm going to get long, stay long and remain that way. 1121 and 1144. big levels in the s&p. i see 1235. >> the bottom level is the same as everybody else. 1 121 we hold that. nothing but air on the upside. still a buyer. >> see you tonight at the desk. u.p.s. enjoying its moment in the sun as it upgrades outlook for the fourth quarter. could this signal an economic comeback is ahead. a terrific hour on "power lunch," white house economic adviser austan goolsbee joins us. talk jobs, economy, the recovery. should there be a targeted second stimulus toward boosting employment for minorities? it is gadget mania at the consumer electronics show in las vegas. david poeg is with us to show you the hottest new items in tech.

welcome to a very busy second hour of "power lunch." michelle caruso-cabrera on assignment. i'm tyler mathson. stops are mixed as they try to digest, shrug off, having a weaker than expected december jobs report. 45 s&p 500 companies hitting new 52-week highs. almost 10% obviously. including engine and power generators, the company cummins, northrop grumman up nearly 50% from last year. >> u.p.s. announcing it's eliminating 1800 jobs. lifting u.p.s. shares to 17-month highs. right now up 4.5% a share.

>> we have two heavy metal players that have much in common with u.p.s. u.s. steel and ak steel hitting fresh 52-week highs. this after jp morgan raises earnings and stock price targets for both companies on improved pricing outlook. what does that say about the underlying strength of the u.s. economy and beyond? >> more now on jobs. president obama's tax policy with our guest, austan goolsbee, staff director and chief economist of the president's economic recovery advisory board. he joins us from the north lawn of the white house. mr. goolsbee, welcome back. >> thanks, great to see you again. >> when can we expect to see more robust job numbers than we got today? >> well, the numbers today were clear sign we're going to face, you know, more bumps in the road. this is the deepest recession since 1929, and we're on a trajectory of improvement. we were losing 700,000 jobs a month when the president took office.

we're down to, you know, .1 of that, but the president said very clearly it's not near enough. 10% unemployment rate is way too high. it's going to be a tough slog. it has been a tough slog since 2007 when the recession began, but, you know, hopefully we're on the right trajectory. >> i have to confess i feel like they're telling me i'm not having a heart attack anymore and that's the good news. i'm not healthy enough really to get back there and take it to the hoop. what is it going to take, mr. goolsbee, to get businesses to start hiring again? is it more stimulus, is it something different? what is it? >> well, i mean, i think there's two to three parts. which part of the market you're talking about. one, it's clear we need to keep pressing at what the president has called for on the small business credit direction. you've seen weakness in the small business that normally small business is an engine of recovery and in a credit crunch on small business that's been hard for them to fulfill that role. i think second you do need a

direct jobs package. the president called for that and i think as you saw today the president with one small element on this clean energy manufacturing stuff that came out of the recovery act, we need more on that. and, three, we have got to just keep counting on some places slow and some places more rapid expansion of the business sector that they're going to, as output rises they're going to need more bodies to fulfill more output. >> mr. goolsbee, we have headlines we need to pass along and i have a question for you. the white house is saying treasury secretary tim geithner was not involved in the arks g e-mails at the new york fed which concerned specific disclosures and that president obama has complete confidence in treasury secretary geithner, following a story we brought you here yesterday on "power lunch." mr. goolsbee, though, some of the questions that were circling around mr. geithner created uncertainty in the market.

it has royiled the market a little bit. so have issues about health care. private taxes and the like. do you think those issues are somehow contributing to the lack of confidence from businesses to hire people? it seems to be contributing to the unemployment situation. would you agree or not? >> i don't know that i totally agree with that. i would say the main thing by far if you talk to businesspeople, i've talked to scores and scores of businesspeople around the country, is that the level of business demand for their product and where they think the economy is is the main driver of whether they need to hire people and whether they're going to start growing. we've been in the toughest recession since 1929. it isn't surprising that this has been a very difficult job mark. >> when we talk to individual businesspeople and we read a lot of surveys, they say one of the biggest uncertainties and the things that are keeping them to adding to their payrolls is the uncertainty about their own tax

bracket, their business tax bracket and their health care costs. >> well, i'm not sure, as i said, that i totally agree with that. in the surveys i've looked at, that's not the number one thing. if you believe that, look, the health bill discussion, the health bill we're getting close to the end game. going to see what it is. i think when they look at the final bill they will be -- if they are in the negative mindset they will be pleasantly surprised to find it's not adding to the deficit and not going to dramatically increase the costs on employers. that for small businesses it's actually going to make health care dramatically more affordable because they get direct health care credits that will finally be -- they will finally be able to ain order it. in that version of events in three weeks or so, you know, or a month, that uncertainty will be resolved and we should see a big rebound. >> is the obama administration committed to pushing for a second stimpack? if the jobs number came out today and said we added 100,000

jobs in december, would you guys still want more spending for jobs? >> of course. 100,000 would be pathetically small. 7 million people have lost their job since the recession began. we need a jobs package to get people back to work. >> if you look at retail sales up four months in a row. christmas sales up 3%. maybe we're seeing signs. maybe the bottom sp behind us and we don't need to spend more money in deficit. >> we just lost 85,000 jobs. we need too get jobs growing. we would need 175,000 -- 200,000 jobs created per month to just keep up with population growth. i mean, we are way below where we should be. it's not acceptable. we need a jobs package. >> forgive me for interrupting, mr. goolsbee. give us, then, the evidence that suggests the stimulus dollars have created jobs or give us the hard facts that tell us that by

golly if we hadn't spent that money earlier this year the jobs number that we got today would have been a heck of a lot worse. can you make that case? >> i can give you two style of facts. i want do caution you that the only people who think that we would not be better off with the stimulus are the republicans in congress playing the role of the east german judge at the olympics. where it doesn't matter what evidence i'm going to give them, they're going to say, well, hit the triple flip and i'm giving him a 2. we can either go through hundreds of programs where they have either prevented people from losing their jobs or on infrastructure, on direct payments to state programs, on clean energy manufacturing, on tax cuts to 95% of workers, where there are people employed because the thing is in existence, or we can g look at the style of evidence that private sector forecasters from wall street, from main street and across the board look at the employment situation and they

believe as well as the nonpartisan cbo that the stimulus package added 1.5 million jobs to what would have been there if it hadn't existed. >> we'll take it where we can get it. >> job loss is .1 of what it was. it's hard to argue we would be better off without the stimulus. >> thank you for being with us. let the record note an obama administration official likened republican congressman to communists in east germany judging the olympics. i like that. let's get to our market reporters. mary thompson at the new york stock exchange. >> thank you, dennis. those east german judges. we have a mixed market here on wall street with the dow and s&p under pressure. both off their lows of the session. the nasdaq recovered earlier in the day thanks to the strength we are seeing in tech. the s&p and dow under pressure from the weakness we are seeing in the financials today. the jobs data was disappointing but not overwhelming for the markets. look at the financials. we're seeing weakness across the board. jpmorgan chase, morgan stanley,

coldman so goldman sachs, citi, seeing lower revenue from commodity tranging in 2010 than in 2009 where the areas were very strong for the big investment banks. citi under pressure as well today. bank of america, set to pay out big bonuses for 2009 as the bank is set to post a loss for the fourth quarter and full year as well. quick check of dow movers as co. coca cola under pressure on a downgrade from jp morgan saying it's hard to see the company stock rising much from where it was. general electric extended. american express lower despite its price target raised to 45 from 40 because of strong christmas sales. let's get a check on tech where things are looking healthier than they are here at the big board. we go to scott wapner. >> finally outperforming. we're the leadership group in

2009. the lagger thus far in 2010 is technology. has not performed these past few days, not this week. nasdaq turned positive. up shy of one-half of one per spent. intel is moving higher today. new chips announced at the ces in vegas. amazon up 1.5%. microsoft and apple in positive territory. mike huckman is going to be at the jp morgan health conference next week. lots of news coming out of that. news out of that today. carl icahn could be ready for a proxy fight at genzyme. today burn steen put out a bullish note today, 4.5%. >> the boys on the floor here call me, every time i'm down here, it goes down. a reversal in oil, up 38 cents. keep an eye on the $83 mark. they think it's short recovery. weakness in the dollar might pile on top of that.

if we get a rebound in equities we could finish above $83. let's look at the rest of the complex. rbob is outperforming natgas. keep an eye on retail prices. gold, unbelievable. it was down 13 bucks then the jobs report came out, it went positive. now with the dollar weakening the last little bit we are back in positive territory for gold. incredible today. one quick look at orange juice futures. it's unbelievable. freezing temperatures over the weekend and we're at two-year highs over $1.50 a pound. rick, i thought we had a breather here. we're getting really busy. >> we are. we're going to go fast. intraday one-month chart, down a lot on the day. down a lot on the month. looks like they're turning. sugar buzz stimulus as far as the eye can see. the same reasoning as a dollar buster. intraday dollar had huge swing down from 830 highs to where it

is now. look at it on the month. what may have been the best of its rally. tyler, i don't think mr. goolsbee answered your question. there's another question on the floor. traders are curious about. you notice the big drop in the labor force this month on their report. if the labor force would have been held constant with the previous month the unemployment rate would have been 10.4%. if the labor force was constant going back to august the current rate of unemployment would be 11%. that seems strange considering he brought up that you have to consider the population growth side, we're all scratching our heads. sue, back to you. >> thank you very much rick, appreciate it. looking ahead, a programming note. you won't want to miss "the call" on monday. leon cooperman, chairman and ceo of omega advisers will be special guest that hour talking about his industry, the markets, the economy, regulation and much more. that's monday at 11:00 a.m. eastern time. up next as you probably know

that jobless rate did hold steady at 10%. notwithstanding what rick rightly pointed out. that is if you included the people who dropped out of the labor market. the discouraged workers. the number would have been a lot higher. the unemployment rate tellingly for blacks is more than 16% right now. so it is time for the government to launch a specific jobs stimulus plan aimed at minorities? we'll tackle both sides of that issue. also ahead, you will not be seeing my poker face today. i owe pop superstar lady gaga an apology. stick with us. i'll explain why. >> won't want to miss that. on wall street the dow is down almost 21 points. the s&p almost flat on -- well, down about a third of a point. we have some of the commodities markets moving to the upside today. we're back in just a moment. i'm jane wells in los angeles. shoppers bought more from retail over the holidays. are retailers now open to buying

each other? we're going to name name z after the break. d it's all right here. everything sent to you organized by the person who sent it. the droid eris. the droid that's as connected as you. exclusively at verizon wireless.

welcome back to "power lunch." right now we're taking a look at the unemployment report which, of course,as out earlier this morning. rate for the month of december at 10%. if you dig deeper into the data, find the unemployment rate among african-americans is at 16.2%, for hispanics, 12.9%. obviously much higher than the

national average. is it time for president obama to create a stimulus plan that, perhaps, is targeted at the minority employment situation? joining us now is president and ceo of the national urban league and ron christie, founder and ceo of christie strategies and former special assistant to bush/cheney. mark, i'm assuming you think that would be a good idea. the question i guess is how would it work? >> i think a targeted strategy other than, quote, a stimulus, targeted job creation strategy which would include direct job creation, enough one. jobs for youth where the unemployment rate for black youth is at 50%, and, three, support for small business lending. some expansion of small business lending are the kinds of things that if targeted to urban communities could help us reduce the unemployment rate in these areas of high unemployment which happen to be in black and brown

communities. >> ron, do you disagree with that approach? >> i'm nervous about government being in the job creation business, but i agree, it's very important looking at our youth of how can we stimulate their minds as well as stimulate their productivity in urban communities? i do believe that the expansion of small business loans is a good idea. in the longer term what we need to do is focus on the area of education. i think in order to have a very productive and robust workforce we need to make sure our kids are armed with the tools necessary to get higher paying and more highly educated jobs. >> i agree long term. >> okay. mark, should the government, though, be spending more on this? should we do tax cuts to locate new factories in poor neighborhoods? >> i proposed in our six-points jobs plan an important set of reductions for solar manufacturers, if they locate in these areas.

that's an important long-term strategy asupport. in the short run we need to put people to work or what we're going to be doing is extending unemployment benefits, paying for food stamps and other safety net programs. i think direct job creation is a viable short-term strategy. >> how do we get people back to work? should the government spend money to stimulate jobs for the minority sector? >> i just don't think so. again, i don't see how the government putting money in people's pockets is going to create a job. i think if the government is going to stimulate the economy and stimulate job growth they need to cut the taxes on small businesses so small businesses can expand their workforce. i'm leery of governments saying, let's look at poorer areas as if people who are african-american or latino are poor. the government needs to say, how do we get out of the way, remove barriers to allow small businesses to motivate individuals to be hired? >> it seems the president has been hesitant to get behind this targeted stimulus aimed at the

minority community. why do you think that is the case? for example, i think that the congressional black caucus proposed such a program and the president certainly didn't sign on to it at all. >> we're going to be encouraging the president and i think that there are those in this country who are going to be loud in opposition to this. what they forget is that when you put people to work in an economy like ours, they spend money. they prime consumer spending and in the long run, enhancing consumer spending is going to help business and help the economy recover. the fact of the matter is the private sector is not creating jobs fast enough to stem the tide of unemployment. so we need temporary measures that involve direct job creation and i'm saying temporary direct job creation while at the same time talking about education, looking at incentives for the better location of plants in urban communities and the like. we have to look at this in two parts. what can we do?

what should we do now? an unemployment rate of 16% should be unacceptable to all, even 10% should be. >> ron christie, one last question for you. a big softball here. obama is our first black president. should he be doing more to help with the black unemployment problem? >> i think the president of the united states needs to take steps to make sure all americans who want a job are able to find one. i find a problem with the notion that somehow you're a black president you're looking after black constituents. he was elected to lead all of us. he needs to make sure people, particularly of color, have that opportunity. >> particularly people of color. i think you said kind of yes. have a good day and a good weekend. the jobs number was so-so today. he's an optimistic side. the "daily beast," who are hiring big time.

number one, archaeologist. the median pay is $53,000. over the next ten years we're going to hire 30% more of these indiana jones. how about a curator? bureau labor stats predicts the need for curators will expand rapidly over the next decade. or a ship captain. don't need a degree for that. work really hard and need sea legs of steel. i'm thinking george clooney in the "perfect storm." not a bad salary. some of us here at cnbc are already living the dream, babe. number ten on the list. producers and directors. job growth prospects not as good as a ship captain, though. so, tyler -- >> all you need is work experience to be a ship captain. >> i'm going to go become a curator. i think that's what i'm going to do. remember "candid camera?" they did this marvelous skit with they had people come into an office where people were going to do career surveys and had people filling things out and they'd come back and sit the

person down. they said, we decided what you need to become a is shepard. people were like, wall street ad men. it was from the madmen era. you should be a curator. move on now. up next, holiday retail sales. i told you. they're going to be better than expected because expectations were low. >> did you have red bull today? >> i did not but i should have. we're going to look at m&a activity and retail maybe in the new year. retailers at 5 2-week highs include staples and big lots with a 1% gain in big lots and 2% gain in staples. no gain in the dow, though. down about 20 some odd points in the dow jones industrial average. we're back in just a minute. so i was surprised when my doctor told me i still had high cholesterol. that really hit me, and got me thinking about my health. i knew i had to get my cholesterol under control. but exercise and eating healthy weren't enough for me. now i trust my heart to lipitor.

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let's take a look at aig group stock up 2.1%, 80% government-owned company moving up. the chairman of i believe house oversight economy, has announced he will hold hearings into that question that was raised about disclosures surrounding aig's payments to certain banks, payments that were apparently, well, i guess the new york fed wanted to keep some of those payments quiet. within the last hour the white house has said the then-head of the new york fed, secretary geithner who will be asked to testify or invited to in front of chairman towns that the administration stood behind secretary geithner who had at the time those payments were in process recused himself from discussion of any individual company. >> that echos barney frank's

comments earlier that we brought you on the first hour of "power lunch" expressing confidence in not only mr. geithner but fed chief ben bernanke. >> this ongoing story. the headline here is chairman towns will hold hearings into that aig situation and secretary geithner will, obvio be invited attend. let's go to matt nesto now watching the markets. a weekly rig count. it's pretty interesting and telling, too. not necessarily surprising. the cold weather, the price of oil and natural gas rising today. not necessarily a shock. good to see that the rig count is rising. if you look at the oil service stocks today, baker hu er hughe one of many that are strong. halliburton very, very strong. baker hughes at its high of the day, up 1.7%. the u.s. rig count rose 65 last month for the month of december to 1172. canada also higher in the worldwide rig count, added 100. so baker hughes up 23% in the

month and up 1.7% today. back to you guys. >> brace yourselves for a different kind of shopping trend. many experts forecasting a busy year for retailers when it comes to mergers and acquisitions. we thought that was all dead. cnbc's jane wells in los angeles with a look at how 2010 is stacking up. jane? >> dennis, women's wear daily says retail m&a went from 150 billion globally in 2007 to 35 billion last year. things could be warming up as banks become more open to financing. one analyst telling wwd you'll see a lot of activity in the $200 billion range. among potential targets mentioned, no interest in selling are underarmor and lulu lemon. nike, pvh, iconix. they're all great and have the cash and need to buy to grow. this year expect things to get competitive. >> i'm seeing for good companies

absolutely yes in extremely competitive landscape. it may only be two or three people chasing the deal as opposed to ten. and i think people are being more selective in terms of who they want to talk to because they want to talk to somebody that they know is going to get the deal done. >> harrison says he's currently working on three or four deals. won't name names. one trend he says trying to buy a majority stake in a company and buying out the rest three to five years later kind of like layaway. one thing that surprised him, the lack of interest in buying by international players even with the strength in the euro and the pound. >> thank you very much. tale of two cities in the commercial real estate market. story on page one of today's "wall street journal," there are signs washington, d.c., is on pace to surpass new york city as the most expensive prime office real estate market. this due to government expansion in the nation's capital. several companies that have

relocated into that region. the big apple trying to recover from the financial crisis. data from the research firm reese show out of 79 american cities tracked in the fourth quarter, new york had the sharpest decline in office rents down about 20% per square foot. as for washington, rents in that city were down only 3%. average office rent in new york now exceeds washington's per square foot by only $3. up next, the markets got off to a hot start this week. 150 points higher on monday. since then we've been in a very tight trading range. what is on the radar for next week's action? we'll get you ready to make some money with trader triple play. just minutes from now, richmond fed president andrew lacquer is going to speak out about the economy. we're going to bring you the headlines as soon as the news breaks. could be a market mover. he frequently commented on inflation. right now the dow jones industrial average is down 23 points. the ten-year note, a little bit of a move there. crude oil has been a mover, up

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it's time for the trader triple play. joining us on stocks, robert heler. fixed income, holly list, director at citi. and tom, trader at scs commodities. we're above 83 bucks on the oil market. as we go into next week we have more cold weather coming. that usually moves nat gas and other commodities. we have a big move recently in commodities. what are you looking for in the oil pits next week? >> we're going to continue to trend higher. if we settle above 8450 on the crude side we'll get to 90 bucks by the end of the month, hold there and see if we can go higher. >> what's the driving force? >> i think the driving force is new money at the beginning of the year, looking for a home. i think you also have the weather. i meaning, we had the numbers this week where we actually had builds in crude and heating oil gas and we barely came off a dollar and rallied back up another two. i think we're going to continue to trend higher. >> thank you very much.

we're going to take a brief pause in this. as you know, richard fed president jeffrey lacker is going to speak out about the economy. our steve liesman who follows all things feds is joining us now and will have the latest headlines on that. >> thanks very much. jeffrey lackr, upbeat views on the economy. he says the recession has app r appeared to have ended this past summer and turnaround in stock prices and stabilization of home prices he believes is supporting consumer spending. he talks about a global economic rebound not just in the united states. he says that's going to help u.s. exports. he's looking for a good number in the fourth quarter after the 2% in change number for the third quarter. growth in inventories, information on that this morning. he says that will require hiring in the economy although he does not expect rapid improve in the job market. little bit of economic activity. will disappoint for quite some

time. the risk of deflation has diminished. he's not worried about the upside. he says the risk of higher deflation is minimal but something the feds should look out for. he says the government dead cannot deal indefinitely and the fail to deal with deficits can dampen economic growth. two other fed issues saying that they look for better jobs data before they end up actually tightening. >> steve liesmans, thanks very much. we're going to break away from our prior discussion to head to the consumer electronics show in las vegas. julia boorstin is there with colcast ceo -- >> i think there may be a problem with julia's -- can you hear us? there you go. take it away. >> we'll get the shop ut of julia. >> we're joined by brian roberts, ceo of com cast. i know you are very busy walking

around the floor dealing with technology. quick question about the fcc statement on comcast versus the fcc saying this case underscores the importance of ongoing rule making to preserve the free and open internet. >> i agree with that. i think that having clear rules from the fcc will be great and we're very supportive of that. the initiative to try to make it clear so everyone knows what the rules of engagement are. i think that's been the -- was the context of this very narrow case. >> so, and any other thoughts in terms of how that will be resolved in the merger? >> they're in the process of doing rule making and at the time we put out a statement that said, you know, we think they're on a good track and we want to be supportive and constructive in a dialogue to have rules that allow for the innovation we're seeing at ces to continue and at the same time the reliability and performance of the network which is critical to our

customers. >> technology at ces, you've been walking the floor. how is the technology here going to change comcast business? >> well, every year you ask yourself that question. this year i think it's 3-d all the time. the success of "avatar" has really got a galvanized excitement about what 3-d can be. the thing i take away that's the most significant, the tv companies that makes the sets, sonys, panasonics, samsungs, said when high def came out it took so long because they started at $20,000 a tv and now we're several hundred dollars. it took a long time. 3-d tvs are going to start out between somewhere between no extra money and maybe a few hundred dollars extra. maybe 10%, 20%. no one has revealed the price yet, but that's our sense. it's going to get adopted a lot

quicker and we want to broadcast 3-d shows, pay per view events to channels. today we're the largest provider of high def. we want to be the largest provider of 3-d. we want to be there at the beginning and this feels like the beginning. >> i'm going to let the guys jump in from the studio. >> we've watched with great interest the retransmission issues that have cropped up in recent days involving scripts, involving fox and various other cable providers. very soon you will have the opportunity and problems of dealing with nbc's retransmission issues with your company, comcast, the cable company. i wonder, and i gather you have outstanding issues with the scripts right now. where do you think this all goes and how do you intend once nbc-u, if the regulatory hurdles are cleared, how do you plan to walk that tight rope, thread that needle? >> we're doing it today and it's a fair question. there are two great businesses. cable programming business and

the content business like nbc and broadcast and description, whether it's cable or satellite or phone companies. they have to work together. there's going to be a healthy tension from time to time. sometimes an unhealthy tension. in the end the consumer wants that content. they want more choices and the interactive features that these companies like comcast can deliver. i hope we can play a constructive role. there's still, as you referred to, many other companies that have to negotiate with many other companies like we saw at year end. i think we're not going to be in a position to by ourselves change anything, but i think as part of working and being in both businesses, programming and broadcasting, film businesses, kr creativity and content consumers love, cnbc and others recognize at the same time 80% of our company is a cable distribution company after the deal and we're going to want to find great

deals for the consumer. 3-d comes along. you realize, how can we add value? how can we find creative ways on demand? accessing this content whenever you want? you can continue to watch the shows on your pc for no extra cost, on your mobile devices. that's what i think will help create value and there will be negotiations. they usually tend to get worked out. >> dennis here, brian. since you brought up the nbc universal deal is now fair game, the justice department review, how long it's going to take to get the deal done. 12 months or 18 months? which is the better bet? >> i certainly hope we can do it within 12 months or less i hope. >> wow, that's news. okay. good. >> i done know, that's not in our hands. way want to work as cooperatively as we can to try to make this something that both companies can get on and begin the planning and come together. we're excited. >> general motors out of

bankruptcy in a month, certainly h they have to close the nbc deal in less than a year. i have a curve ball. what do you say to the argument that says, we used to think content is king. distribution has been pounded down. next up content gets pounded down in value, that the king is dead and cable channels are overpriced right now and overvalued. what do you say to that? >> well, obviously i think cable today and all the cable channels are great value and i think the consumers -- i think real world can you bring experiences and value for two hours of watching a movie? people love to pay $10 or $11 or $40, $50, $60 to get 50,000 hours of content. you get it now on many devices when you want it. i think there's fabulous value and there's going to be, you know, many different business models to try to look at when you get that content, which window is it in, different

value, if it's just released? that's one experience. if it's ten years old, that's a different experience. that's how the content is getting priced in windows. it always has. >> will we ever see a day when cable channels disappear and instead it's just a big al la carte menu and it's not cable beaming out a channel lineup? >> i believe there will be cable channels for a long time and that's a business that's grown. it's one of the most exciting parts of the business. it's what we love about nbc and universal, in addition to many other things, are their great cable channels like msnbc. many people in the youtube world want to direct one content directly. i think the beauty of what's happening at ces is how the consumer is going to get to pick and choose from all of that in a

seamless way. consumers king. i stand by that. >> it's sue herrera. nice to see you again. i'm relieved you think there's a future for cable channels. my question is -- >> absolutely. >> my question is, you mentioned the 3-d technologies and all of these new things being put toward the consumer. my question is, how willing do you think the consumer is at this point in the economic cycle to embrace that and at what kind of price point does it have to be put at for the consumer to embrace it on a broad scale? >> very fair question, again, my principle job is looking two years, five years, ten years, and i think these cycles come and go and it will be different peaks and valleys. i think that if the price is no extra and you can have 3-d, that's one experience for "avat "avatar" and the 3-d films in box office now are charged a couple dollar premium a ticket and most successful movie of all

time may well be this 3-d movie. we'll find the value. what's encouraging, again, walking around this crazy ces show, is hear the same theme, which is this is not that expensi expensive. it's going to happen. perhaps takes several years until it's really adopted, but the experience, if the creative folks can make that experience really better in 3-d then it could be a winner and nobody knows that yet. it feels like a beginning. comcast wants to make sure our customers have access to that content, whether on demand, a pc, on a tv. i think we can do that and will. >> thank you very much. julia boorstin, thank you for joining us from ces in las vegas. up next, he's the chic geek. we're talking to david pogue of "the new york times." standing by at the consumer electronics show in vegas with the coolest gadgets of the coming year. don't embarrass yourself by buying the wrong thing. tune in for this. there are a number of companies at the huge ces show.

what are some of the companies there and how are their stocks performing? most of them on the upside including panasonic, garman, dolby. harman. easton kodak down slightly. and it's all right here. everything sent to you organized by the person who sent it. the droid eris. the droid that's as connected as you. exclusively at verizon wireless. tell carl he's coming to new york with me. i thought you said carl was our best presentation guy. [ worker ] he is. just last week he told my team about fedex office print online for our presentations. we upload it to fedex office,

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gecko: uh yeah...it's interesting.... certainly not the worst ringtone i've ever heard... ♪ ringtone lyrics: a-ringedy- ding-ding-dingy-dong, ringedy-dong-ding-ding... ♪ gecko (to himself): yeah, that might be the worst. anncr: geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. latter part of the trading session in the dow jones industrial average and the s&p. the dow's been under pressure most of the session. given the headline number on the unemployment report not doing badly. 20 points or so on minus side. s&p in positive territory and flat on the session now in the

face of a 29 cent gain in the oil market which doesn't sound like a lot. up above 83 bucks on the oil market and gold market positive as well. you have the dynamic of commodity markets moving to the upside. which normally would be kind of a push and pull between equities and commodities and it's not really playing out that way so far. >> producer just mentioned in my ear, everything i say i'm told to -- the s&p has not had a negative day all year. unfortunately it's only january, what's the date today? >> it's the 8th. >> i'll take it. five trading days. negative day all year. the s&p. >> yeah. >> all year is only seven days. we're still stretching here. we have our next guest. although we want to call him our next star. we have t"the new york times" tech columnist david pogue. we're not going to pogue. i lied to you. misled you. for that i apologize. >> the hand up your shirt obviously misled you. >> youtube, here we come.

tyler, take this next tease. that's up there. i'm thinking that's what they want us to. >> we're going to take a quick break. when we come back we're going to talk about detroit. because as you know, a year ago things looked very dire for detroit. by evidence of ford and other stocks -- what starts monday? >> the detroit auto starts monday. we'll talk about that and who's going and whether it's a good idea. hi, ellen! hi, ellen! hi, ellen! we're going on a field trip to china! wow. [ chuckles ] when i was a kid, we -- we would just go to the -- the farm. [ cow moos ] [ laughter ] no, seriously, where are you guys going? ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! [ female announcer ] the new classroom. see it. live it. share it. on the human network. cisco.

it's so nice to have company after the accident. aaahhhhh!!! what is it? someone paid me cash! but who? who? aflac. who pays you cash when you're hurt and missing work? aflac. ...cash to help with expenses that health insurance doesn't cover like the mortgage, gas and food. aflac! ahh!!! what now? someone's standing on my foot. all: ahhhh!!!! who could it be?

good things come to those who wait. joining us now, the ever elusive "the new york times" tech columnist david pogue, at csu for us looking for the coolest new gadgets coming out this year. david, show us what you got. >> oh my gosh. hours worth of stuff. got time for me? i'll talk fast. this is motorola's new phone. called the back flip. the problem with the phone, is where are you going to put the keyboard? they thought of putting it on the back. you have this empty space. they put a track pad here so you

can actually scroll as you look at the thing like this. and filled with great ideas. like when you do this it turns into an alarm clock. as long as it's charging next to your bed, have it do something useful. love that. sling, the company that makes gadgets that lets you watch your home tv over the internet or laptop, this puppy will plug into your dish box and let you watch your dish television over the internet wherever you happen to be or within the house they're going to offer this. it's a wi-fi high-definition 15 inch monitor so that you can watch tv where there isn't a place for wires. >> how much does that cost? >> like the bathroom or the shower. prices to be announced. this stuff is super prereleased. >> light bulbs? >> these are really cool. a lot of green stuff at the show. these are from panasonic, toshiba has similar. l.e.d. light bulbs.

19-year life. equivalent for a 60-watt bulb for 75% of the power. this is from sony, transfer jet technology, like a microblue tooth. take a picture like this. available on cameras, picture frames and laptops. >> that's jim goldman. >> i set the transfer jet button. i say i want to transfer this image and i put this thing on this $150 dock. while mine doing anything else, no passwords or whatever, it's going to transfer the pictures to the frame or laptop or printer. really great idea. >> the whole reason you like that is because you don't have to plug it into a socket or something? is that the value added there? >> yeah, no plugging. imagine you're at a party and want them to start playing on your tv without fussing with tvs. >> give us another. >> finally, just to show you it's not all big-name companies, a company called utopia is making ear bud covers for your blue tooth ear bud or iphone ear

buds. they're guaranteed not to fall out because they come in a bunch of different sizes. how do they know what size? there's an iphone app. take a picture of your ear with a quarter for size reference. in one day they make custom ear buds and send it back to you. >> we did a segment on best jobs. that has to be the worst job, looking at photos of people's inner ears all day. i feel sorry for that person. david pogue. to a last person of business and empty calories. lady gaga, pop superstar, was on an interview with julia boorstin. she wore this amazing headpiece. >> we thought it was a hat. >> i said, you could see more of lady gaga and her ridiculous hat. i have to issue a correction and policy, ladies and gentlemen. that is her hair. that is not a hat. therefore, i should have said, you can get more of lady gaga and her ridiculous hair.

>> we don't know that it's actually her hair. >> fashion into a hat. >> hair, extensions, you've outsourced the hair to other people. >> more proof that hair spry is a girl's best friend. let's see if the market can turn positive by the end of the trading session. we've been down slightly on the dow 20 points. the s&p may be able to pull positive. have a great weekend. that does it for us. >> "street signs" with erin burnett begins right this second. re, which runs multiple apps at the same time. frannie! oh! [ male announcer ] james, the jet-setter, can call from just about anywhere in the world with the international tour. and matt has the customizable htc hero with google -- giving him access to thousands of apps. [ tires screech ] bringing you the first and only wireless 4g network, as well as the most impressive lineup of phones. sprint. the now network. deaf, hard-of-hearing and people with speech disabilities access www.sprintrelay.com.