okay. we want to bring you back to these markets here. we're looking at significant gains there. you can see a little bit off of the highs of the session and still up 86 points right now on the dow jones industrial average. we've also got gold rallying as well. in the meantime, the dollar getting weaker. let's see if we can take a look at that gold chart up 18, 1.86% moving higher as we speak.d oil we've got the energy sector overall helping to prop up this dow as we speak, up 86 points. we've got one more chart for you there, the u.s. dollar index. the dollar as i just pointed out getting stronger. a little bit of weakness there in the euro. there you have it. what a turnaround, guys. >> you know, was there a -- >> a little stronger euro, right? >> euro's rising, the dollar's falling and the reflation trade is back, but there were reports two days ago of an $8 billion

short position on the euro and how that could be leveraged so if you get a deal, a bail out nation deal for greece and the european union those shorts may have to be covered at least in the short run. that's my only thought. >> there you've got the euro. you can see it 1.36 right now. that's a great point although we haven't seen an official deal yet. >> no, it's all true. a lot of speculation. >> that's going to do it for "the call." i will see you on "street signs" at 2 p.m. >> i'm trish regan. >> i'm larry kudlow and i'll see you on "the kudlow report" at 7:00 p.m. eastern and we'll tell you why it doesn't work. "power lunch" is up next. and welcome, everybody, to "power lunch." i'm tyler matheson. you did hear it first on cnbc, earlier this morning beginning with senator bob corker of tennessee, "squawk box," an overhaul of the nation's banking

regulations is back from the dead. we will hear now from corker's counterpart on the other side of the aisle, senator mark warner first on "power lunch." i'm sue herera. beyond just banking should washington use the snowstorm to reboot the whole system as the nation's capital digs its streets out from the snow, can it also remove the roadblocks to progress? >> i'm dennis kneale. we've got our very own "power lunch," ceo summit covering everything from foam mattresses. a surge in the dow over the last few minutes. bob pisani has what the traders -- why are they feeling optimistic right now, bob? >> i'm not sure they're optimistic. it's more like the euro has been dramatically oversold and let's look at the euro and these etfs that are very actively traded around the euro and the dollar have had enormous volume over the last several days, the fxe, that's the main one, they've been selling the euro all throughout the morning. we did have, i guess you could

call it a press conference at 11:00 eastern time and as that ended the euro started ending up. i don't think ittened on optimism. the bottom line is there is some kind of agreement to provide aid to greece. the euro started bouncing after the meeting, sort of broke up and here we saw the dollar, of course, weakening a little bit and that creates a whole cascade of events in the commodity space. we take a look at gold and gold had a nice move to the upside. it moved up big commodity stocks like freeport-mcmoran and the copper stocks started moving up as well here and there's a move up in freeport and we had the energy stocks moving and they tend to also do this when they move up in the commodity stocks and even stocks that had a tough time of it like halliburton. finally starting to show some light. >> we had techs move up as well and texas instruments and all of the big names are on the upside. >> rick, we saw prices down here on government securities and yields moving to the upside. >> yeah. a little nervousness out there

with all of the questions of the day and the dealers and the weather and supply being an issue, but let's start with the currency side and end up on the picked income. intraday of the euro versus the one-month of the chart. you can see, you might have missed it if you blinked. with after all of the news regarding greece, we did see it dip briefly under 1.36. it is going to continue to be the big story and bob brings up the other story, not nearly as dramatic, but look at the 30-year bond intraday and we auctioned 16 billion of them and in about 58 minutes, yields are up a bit for all of the reasons of the day, credit, snow, long weekend, china out on holiday and dealers a little nervous about owning the supply. the headline that got the oohs and the ahhs was a flash of new jersey governor declares fiscal emergency due to deficits and that really is the story in every place that we seem to look around the globe and that's why greece, portugal, california and new jersey are all part of the

same story. back to you. >> euro zone countries say they will take action and they needed to help greece, and details of the plan are kind of vague. >> c nbc nbc's rebecca ney neeham is in europe. >> to the announcements we've had today. remember, we had a meeting of various heads of state for some of the big euro zone countries and they came out with various statements saying there's a great deal of solidarity and a lot of commitment to taking some kind of action, but no action. the euro dollar has reacted as we've been hearing quite dramatical dramatically, really. the press conference finished not very long ago and we see the euro dropping against the dollar and it fight come back a little bit toward the close of the session and also debt, the big impact going on there. this is what the greek bond yield looks like compared to the ten-year german bond at 3.24. let's send it back to you.

>> thank you very much. all right, as we mentioned earlier and as we broke on cnbc, new details in the efforts to revive the overhaul of the nation's banking regulations just left for dead last week. >> senior economics reporter steve liesman brought us the headlines and he's here to flush them out and such a fascinating story with the way this is all orchestrated in washington. >> it's all politics and it will lead to an overhaul of the nation's banking system which got a major shot in the arm today when senator bob corker revealed on cnbc that he is crossing party lines to work with the democrats. >> well, i'm just one senator, and i certainly would never say that i being replace senator shelby, somebody i respect and like a lot, but i am stepping forward as a republican senator saying that this is a piece of legislation that needs to be passed. >> in just the past half hour, the treasury department said it welcomed corker's decision to work on a bipartisanship base

wiss senator chris dodd. he is the democratic chair of the senate banking committee and that would be to end -- and too big to fail on everything else. cnbc has agreed that two senators have put the end of the discussion the thorny issue of the consumer protection agency. don and shelby revealed they were at an impasse on the entire bill because of a disagreement over the power of that new consumer agency. cnbc has also learn tad all of this took place while washington was supposed to be closed down because of the snow. a cup of snowballs back and forth. his gamble is that at least on this issue bipartisanship could be good for the economy and all of this raising the possibility. 75 years from now we could be talking about the dodd, corker bill just like glass steagall for 75 years. >> he must sense in the country some of the unrest at the impasse and the gridlock that washington. >> lighting the candle here. >> i think he is, and i'm sure he's heard from his constituents from that and he can go home and

say look, i'm trying to do this. >> i'm with you in the following sense. after what this nation has been through, the idea that bipartisanship and regulatory reform was off the table was to me always beyond the pale. you can imagine the government being dysfunctional in so many ways and dysfunctional on this issue was way too far. >> did i hear you right, did you say part of this bipartisan push here is both sides have agreed we're going to table. we're not going to push consumer protection financial. that's been delegg the bigger things and the thing i want is distressed assets and swaps. will this do anything to help that? >> that's precisely the point, right? is if we want to get to an agreement, how do we do that? do we put up the thing that separates us first or do it last? is. >> does it become the public option just like the public option was the thing that stumbled everything in health care? >> tyler, ask yourself, i think it's a great question, but ask yourself this, about if you want a health care bill, do you put

the public option first or last? maybe we do, if you want it, then you put it last. >> to david faber, right. >> we'll go to david faber. thank you very much, steve. he's at the ceo summit. he's there with a special guest, hey, david. >> hey, tyler. that's right. we here at the business council meeting in fort lauderdale and i'm very happy to be joined by the chairman of the business council and chairman and ceo of caterpillar, james owens. >> jim for you. >> jim. job growth long term is one of the key focuses here in the discussions you'll be having amongst the ceos. why? >> well, clearly, job growth is very important to our country and the health of our economy. we're very concerned as american citizens about the very high level of unemployment and underemployment in our country. at the end of day, the wealth of nations is kind of a function of what kind of opportunity there are for our citizens to be

gainfully employed and so we were concerned about the health of the economy. we want to have a good dialogue and discussion about it among ourselves and with people from the administration that are here and thought leaders in the country. to think about how do we create the macro economic environment, if you will, to get back to a fully employed economy. >> in your remarks earlier today you had focussed in part on washington and on a lack of clarity and certainty in terms of legislative initiatives. how important is that in terms of the decision making that you and other ceos are making when they don't know what the landscape will play? >> think it is very important. willingness to invest, willingness to hire and think about growing your business really comes down to -- ask our surveys would reflect this. the confidence in the strength of the economy is first on that list. the business confidence in general, and then stability of

policies. certainty, if you will, and clarity about exactly where policy is going and that would be monetary and fiscal policy, taxation policy and all these things, if there's uncertainty, it diminishes people's willingness to invest. >> give me just one perhaps where there might be a delayed investment. >> i'll give you a good example. i was with a large eight of road contractors and the stimulus money has been out in short-term increments, six to 12 months maximum and they tell me, jim, i'm not going to be in a position to invest in equipment or hire people because i don't have a certainty of where we're going here. the highway bill expired in september, we're so caught up legislatively on the -- looking at the long-term health care plans and debate that that we didn't get past the highway bill. so, in fact, this is the sector that's got 20% plus unemployment. so this is a case where government -- the lack of moving

forward with a new authorization bill for highways, for example -- diminishes people's willingness to invest and to hire people and it's those kinds of things, i think, uncertainty about taxation, whe are we going with taxation of corporations? and you know, one of the things i think that we miss sometimes politically, we like to be populist and think about small companies. they're very important. the membership of the business -- >> many times with the job growth occurs or much of it in small business. >> we know a lot of employment is in small business, but here's another reality that members of the business council collectively. we employ 10 million people arne the world. 10 million and every job we create in a large company creates four or five jobs in small businesses. so as large companies are successful in maybe in the global economy and exporting or our businesses around the world, and we hire people, then that has a spin-off effect of us buying from suppliers, us buying

from other businesses in our communities and this creates job opportunities those businesses. so there's no clear line here between big and small and virtuous or non-virtuous. this is about the health of the economy. >> with that being said, we've lost over $7 million sdobs since this recession began and 2.2 million in the manufacturing sector of which your company is such an important component. how can you really imagine that we're going to get back to levels of employment that we saw, let's call it 2004-2005? >> it's not ancient history. in '04 to '07 our country was pretty close to full employment and we need to get back to a stable economic growth and it will take a couple of years of 3.5% to 4.5% real growth to get back to full employment levels that we had. >> do you have confidence that that's something that can be achieved given all of the different challenges that we face? ? members of the business council have concern that we'll have a sluggish recovery.

our surveys would suggest that somewhere in the 2.5% to 3.5% growth is about all we can expect this year. >> and no real job growth according to the survey? >> although, if i looked at the survey i would look at the glass as half full and very few people are looking at reducing employment and at least a significant number are looking at slight increases in employment. i think the unemployment has probably peaked, but our membership would suggest it's still going to be around 9% or somewhat higher at end of the year even with real growth at 2.5% to 3%. >> talking about retractible problem, one of the things mentioned here is deficits. we're dealing with that globally right now. so much focus on greece and the eu, but here in the say ttates, course, we have enormous deficits of our own and some of it to take us out of the economic morass. what do you think about that? >> there is a macro economic case to run a significant fiscal

deficit in a severe recession and then we have to keep in mind, this is the most severe economic correction we've seen since the 1930s. we're kind of off the charts here in anybody's business or political experience in dealing with it, i personally think the fed's done a very good job and they've put a tremendous amount of liquidity in the system to deep the freefall from being worse than it was. the fiscal stimulus, people debate about the jobs not clearly, it created some jobs and it caused the drop in job loss less than it might have been. we are focused on in this discussion to create long-term sustainable jobs. 80% of the jobs are in the private sector. we need to find ways to create stable, economic growth that gives people confidence to invest and we need clarity and stability in both monetary and fiscal policy and taxation policy in our global trading environment to stimulate that kind of growth, and i hope we

can get that. we need a good dialogue between the business community and the administration and congress, our political leadership. >> you think you've got it? we have to end there, but do you think you've got it? >> we have to get out of the got you world of bipartisanship. there are some very, very tough decisions that have to be taken. as a country, i think most drinking people realize we have to save more, we've got to invest more and we've got to grow our experts and the fiscal deficit and trade deficits are not sustainable. i'm thinking people know that, but there will be sacrifice and hard decisions to get back to a healthy, economic environment that we all want. >> we have to leave it there. thank you for joining us. >> jim owens, chairman and ceo of caterpillar. back to you guys. >> you must know howe how envious we all feel about your location at this moment in snow bound new jersey. sdmroot dow up triple digits

right now caterpillar, it just so happens, is the biggest winner at 3-plus percent. >> plus the call of duty of blockbuster game of activision's blizzard and bobby will join us to tell us if that is a sign of the consumer is on the comeback trail. senator mark warner, a key player in the battle over financial reform is waiting in the wings to talk us to live. plus matt nesto, what's jumping off your radar, babe. it looked like my commute in the snow mobile footage, but i have a particular play for you without the litigation risk. the stock is at a 52-week high today following philip morris's big announcement and i'll give you details on that and "power lunch, " by the way, back in two minutes. with fidelity, you can take your trading around the world, because now you can trade u.s. and foreign stocks online,

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welcome back to "power lunch." i'm meteorologist mike seidel in the nation's capital. the big dig continues after another record-setting snowst m snowstorm. wah we're getting now -- temperatures in washington is 35 degrees and we still have a biting wind and we'll have refreeze and black ice each and every morning. we will have some snow next monday, but right now it's looking like just a little bit of snow and maybe an inch or two. meanwhile this morning, dallas fort worth is getting hammered in a city that rarely gets any snow and that is heading along the gulf coast. jackson, mississippi, will be shoveling snow and atlanta may get an inch or two of snow and tyler, here's a fact for you. right now 48 of the 50 states

have snow on the ground. we'll take care of louisiana and even parts of the florida panhandle may get a dusting of snow tonight or tomorrow morning. >> i grew up in that town, mike, and i've never, ever seen anything like that. anyhow, let's move on to the major indexes and they are rallying right now. our "power lunch" market insiders at this hour include tommy williams. president of william financial advisers and from the cme, john brady, mf global senior vice president. let me start by asking you whether you think the market is going make headway this year. we're going to be higher at year end than we are today? >> well, i think so. i think this is a time when we're reminded that buy hold and hope is a dead philosophy that we have to have a sell discipline and some sort of advance and protect type strategy that when you have the earnings reports that we've had recently where the majority come out, beating expectations and yet the market goes down because of side winds and i think that

tells you that this is going to be a choppy year, but by the end of the year i think we'll be up. incidentally, we're sitting in shreveport, louisiana, right between dallas and jackson. so thank you for that weather report. >> tommy, quick question. yesterday, one of our guests said that he would recommend that people, if they have that sell discipline, that they sell their laggards. do you agree with that or is it time to take some money off the table for those things that have run up? what do you think? i think if you have a profit, you have an investment process, a specific process that takes the emotion out of it and then if your process tells you to sell, i think you should sell and probably the stocks that you're going to sell are going to be the ones that have made money. >> okay. >> and a lot of them have. >> john brady -- >> the s&p 500 -- i'm sorry. go ahead. >> very quickly because we're running a little short on time.

john, we have a lot of crosscurrents in your market especially as it it relates to the currency market, the gold market and the bond market with the disagreement in greece. what's the best trade right now? we have gold going up and we have the dollar going down and huge, short, speculative positions in the currency futures. can you make sense of it all? >> it's tough, sue, and at times like this when there's a lack of clarity, investors are best to move to the side lines and maintain a slightly more defensive position than they otherwise would. as we finish out this week there is the propensity for light trade which is currently driving this move higher in equities for the day. likewise, there is the propensity and the potential for exotic and bermuda, single strike ogzs to take effect in the currency markets and most traders will be wise to keep it around the 135 level in the dollar euro, in the fact that thin, holiday trading will have the propensity in light of a larger disagreement in europe

regarding greece does have the potential to drive the euro currency lower regarding the dollar. >> when you say take a neutral position, take a short end of the curve and go into cash? >> probably cash, sue. i know it's not sexy or attractive, but the fact of the matter is with a lack of clarity, you want to have the return of capital rather than the return on capital right now. >> who cares about sexy and attractive? i want safe, baby. >> i want safe, and i want my money back. thanks very much. appreciate it. >> coming up next, call of duty, guitar hero, my personal favorite. hom talk, activision's blizzard has some of the hottest video games on the market, but are they pumping up the bottom line? we'll talk to the ceo. >> plus the potential news on the foreclosure front. new realty track numbers on the other side of the break. "power lunch" returns in two minutes.

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>> activision blizzard's fourth-quarter loss widen, but the results still beat analyst expectations. gamemaker behind "call of duty" is turning a profit of 49 cents a share, that was 6 cents above estimate, highest in company history. revenue climbed 6.4% and the 4.5 billion adjusted versus $2.3 billion a year ago. shares were up 7% at one point and they're up 8% now. we have ceo bobby cotock in los angeles. welcome back, bobby. >> thanks for having me, dennis. >> you scheduled a $1 billion buyback. the whole company has 14 billion and that's pretty aggressive and you gave kind of a cautious outlook. please reconcile those two things for me. >> well, we've always said that if we can't put capital that we have in the business to good work in the business we'll return it to the shareholders. we brought back over $1 billion worth of stock in the last 12 months. we intend to buy back another $1 billion worth of stock this year and for the first time in a

software company like our history, we announced the dividends. it is for the very first time. that's great. tell me what's wrong with this picture because stocks hit lows last march. they're up 60% or so. activision still seens in that stubborn $10 range. are you guys in that much of a problem or are investors wrong about you? >> no, we had record cash flows and record operating margins. record market share. our business did better last year than any of our competitors. i think the challenge we face is that we're misperceived as a company to be just a console software publisher which is largely the universe of public companies and those companies, many of our compet o have not done particularly well. when you look, though, at our online revenues and our high margin digital download revenues, the bulk of our operating profits are coming from extremely high margin non-cyclical categories. >> right. >> and i think we just need to

do a better job of communicating that. >> and hence you come on cnbc, babe. >> what percentage of the total revenue of the company is online-based games. that's the future of the business versus revenue coming from boxes? >> well, we're the number one online company in the world, but now people are calling these revenues digital revenues. i didn't know that they used to be analog, but our digital revenues will be the highest in the industry. over 50% of our operating profits this year will come from online revenues. >> what percentage of revenue? >> about the same. although you think the leverage would be higher. >> on revenues, revenues, if you're asking revenues would be a little less. >> let's talk blockbuster. >> it is 40% to 50% operating margin. let's talk about the blockbuster addiction. you came out with "modern warfa warfare." that's better than avatar and box office in the first five days. can you do anything to get less

blockbuster addicted and more of an ongoing, reduring business? >> well, world of warcraft is an ongoing predictive business that generates monthly subscriptions. our downloadable content is a much more predictable business. when you look at the direction that we're taking a lot of the franchises, we're moving to less packaged goods and more of an online subscription-based business. so we're one of the leaders in very high margin subscription-based predictable businesses which is why we felt so confident about having a dividend. >> thanks very much for being with us. bobby kotock of activision blizzard. for the audience out there, what you just heard even though bobby can't admit it directly. he says his stock is undervalued. thanks very much. sue, over to you. >> thank you, dennis. coming up next, we have a very interesting segment on stocks that may be off the radar. plus it is washington, versus wall street and is financial reform dead or alive? >> a critical player on the banking committee and senator

mark warner will join us live and "fast money" waiting in the wings. ell ellisa, what are you watching? the commodity stocks are very strong even though the dollar is hanging in. we'll give you the trade and we'll take the position on the casual dining stocks and a bunch of them out with earnings and all of that out on "the halftime report and first, more "power lunch" right after this. whwhwhwh

welcome back, everyone. in the headlines at this hour. caterpillar leading the dow, trading up about 4%. you saw the ceo on "power lunch." a few moments ago. allegheny up about 11% on news that first energy corp plans to buy allegheny in an all-stock deal worth $4.7 billion. that would create one of the nation's largest utilities and initial claims for jobless benefits plunging to a surprising 4 -- by a surprising 43,000 last week. economists were expecting claims to fall by 12,000. >> financial reform getting back on track today with senator dodd negotiating with senator cork or a bipartisan bill. joining us from capitol hill is democratic senator mark warner of virginia. he's also been working on this issue with senator corker. welcome, sir. it's a pleasure for having you here. >> thanks for having me on today. >> know you have high hopes for this adyou undertake getting

financial reform back on track. what issues will you be tackling first. i know you were putting some rather controversial issues in this particular scenario toward the end of the negotiating process. what would you want to tackle first?corker and i have been working literally for months together on systemic risk on making sure that we never have to expose the taxpayer and that we can perhaps expunge from the american vocabulary too big to fail. trying to put in place an ability for a preference toward bankruptcy and trying to make sure that we have the appropriate speed bumps in place for those systemically risky institutions and we're about 98% of the way done with our sections of the bill. senator dodd has said that he will take those sections and they will be incorporated into the product he puts together. there have been concerns around consumer protection and how we have enhanced consumer protection, but that we don't have the unduly interfere with the basic safety and soundness

with prudential regulation, and i think there's a way to sort through that. >> so that's not a deal breaker? you don't think that remains a deal breaker? that's been one that's been thorny, and i think reasonable people can find a way to enhance consumer protection and make sure that safety and soundness is the sole responsibility of prudential regulators. there is a way through this, and i'm glad that we're going to end up with a bipartisan bill here, because at the end of day we're 18 months after aig and lehman. this is an area that's too important to fail. so we've got to make sure we've got to get a bill here. >> so and senator corker are 98% of the way there on too big to fail, let's call it. where does the volcker rule fit in any of this had and is it a part of this bill at all? >> listen, i think i have enormous respect for chairman volcker. i think he raised an important point that needs to be considered. >> the challenge is when you start talking as you guys know about proprietary trading and private equity which used to be my business for 20 years before

i got in politics, hedge funds. there's definitional issues here. so i think there's a recognition that within normal prudential regulation for these large financial firms, you need to take a special look at the proprietary trading activities and the private equity activities and making sure we don't commingle those functions, but to have an outright ban is a more challenging proposition. >> that sounds like a no that it's not contained in this particular. >> listen, for my part it's still under discussion, but there are ways again to get this issue that chairman volcker has addressed and get it into the mix, but there are clearly, problems in terms of where you put the definitions in these areas and can you do it within the existing prudential regulatory structure? >> is your view one that is shared by post of your colleagues on the democratic side? on the committee? >> i know that -- i've been spending most of my time with senator corker over the last couple of months as we kind of

sort through our areas and we've gotten into some of the other areas in the discussion basis, but i think you saw at the hearing the other day with chairman volcker, a lot of respect for him raising this issue, but some real questions about how you would actually write legislation that would draw bright lines. i mean, making a market in the stock versus proprietary trading, it's a challenge to draw a bright line there. >> let me come back, if i might to the question of consumer protection. >> sure. this has opinion a key thing, i described it earlier as potentially the public option in this bill. an area of great contention. how far are democrats willing to compromise on that specifically with respect to the area that senator shelby was most concerned about which was the writing of rules. >> listen, i can only speak for myself on this issue. it's important that you have a way to resolve challenges with consumer protection, safety and sound happens. i can live with this being within a single agency.

i also think it's important and when i hear from the regulated half of the banking industry. we want to make sure that a lot of the non-regulated half and a lot of the problems emerged in the mortgage lending area that the rule making will apply to the regulator half and the non-regulator half. when you get to the question of enforcement and who enforces these rules, that's where there will be ongoing debate upon. thery is a way to get to yes if we all agree that this is too important to let fall into the partisan trap that so many other importantes poohes of legislation have fallen into. >> you're 98% of the way there. when you get to 100%, please joining us "power lunch." 98 around systemic risk and too big to fail and areas about resolution. i think if you can check your dnr hats at the door and say how do we make sure we don't mess up the financial system and put new rules in the place, i think we can get there. >> thank you very much, senator for joining us. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> coming up next on "power lunch" we take a look at beyond

the big caps with matt nesto.

hi, folks. welcome back to "power lunch." i'm matt nesto tracking the lesser known stocks. look at mid-caps versus the s&p so far this week. they are outperforming, a little bit of risk appetite coming into the marketplace. you'll see it's not a big margin, but in percentage terms that adds up quick. that's just over four days, folks. so mid-caps are coming back.

i mentioned the tobacco stock that doesn't have the litigation risk. it's universal corp, uvv. kind of has a nice ring in our house here. you can see it is up 3% here today. big, big volume. it's the world's biggest leaf tobacco merchant. they go out of their way to say we don't make or sell consumer products. we just process them and move them right on. universal, uvv, 52-week high. >> thanks, matt. coming up, the ceo of the company whose stock is up nearly 600% from the bottom and from pucks to fox. one of the miracle stars of the wonderful u.s. team that beat the russians, trading now on wall street, we'll have him, but first, "the fast money halftime report."

welcome to "the fast money halftime report." we are getting to the heart of the action as it is happening. we have a rally on the highs of the session on a mystifying dollar strength. the dollar's strength paired with a commodities rally. the euro slipping despite a greek bailout in the works. let's get straight to the word on the street. your fast money crew today, guy adami of drake and capital. john najarian and todd gordon of forex.com and mike gurhka from global funds. mike, you're the international guy and we're seeing the euro at levels we saw on monday, pre-bail out news.

a lot of people are saying it's simply because we don't have details. is that really the reason? >> absolutely. one of the reasons why you don't have details is they have to decipher what exactly is on these balance sheets and what the credit quality of some of these instruments are. i think in the sovereign scenario where we're looking so much at what's behind it with spain and portugal, all of a sudden we have a dynamic that we could see this euro currency with the dollar come off more. there are a lot of short positions that are not willing to take profits just yet because they feel there's more room out there. >> from a trader's perspective, wouldn't you say that the market should be pricing. a lot of people should be saying that one you go greece, you go portugal and once you go portugal, you go spain and down the line. why aren't we just jumping to that conclusion right now? >> that's a great point, mel. it's a slippery slope, you're right. spain, portugal, italy. i still think there are a lot of storm clouds out there, and the market was looking for a reason to get a relief rally.

the debt out of china was good and the market was looking for a reason to buy it right now. we've had a big sell-off and the 1075 level in the s&p is still critical. i think we're seeing a natural balance off an oversold market. >> dr. jay, semiconductors doing quite nicely and amazon.com still powering higher and what do you make of the market action, given the concerns that linger about the sovereign debt crisis? i never thought sovereign debt was as big a deal and that's what i said on your show thursday night. in fact. >> as far as what we're seeing here, i'm not surprised germany is selling off. you look at how the european complex moved and it didn't rally like we're rallying right now. instead the european complex was lack lust tore down. i wouldn't be surprised if we see a blip up in volatility after the vol has come in so severely right you in. minute, i think we go right back to selling volatility and we test down to the low 20 numbers for the vix last week. >> take a look at the euro chart

for us, there are a lot of, as we mentioned earlier a lot of shorts at this point in time. what are you seeing in terms of the downside here. >> the downside is limited right now. we've had a got bout of euro weakness. as we said, there is some kind of finality in the greek situation. they're shifting responsibility to german taxpayers. as dr. j said, we see bond yields all of a sudden ticking down in the german bond and now we're seeing this commodity ralel that put a floor under the euro for now. >> there was one man who came on our show and he said he was shorting the yield. take a listen to dennis gartman last night. >> they'll relief the pressure and the problem everyone faces, though, as soon as you take care of greece, portugal will say how about us. portugal is even smaller than greece, if portugal gets taken care of, spain says what about us? you have one after another after another and that's the problem. i'm long canadian dollars and i'm short euro.

>> let's bring in dennis and he is on the fast line. how long does this trade last n your view? >> well, the problem is everybody -- there are an awful lot of people who are now short the euro. the whole world know about the greek problem. there's probably going to be some resolution to it. i'm looking at my screen, lik g looking at the relationship between the australian and the . normally something moves 0.2 of a big figure. huge moves that have occurred. i would not tell anybody to sell the euro short, if they're not short of it, don't sell it today. you'll get a bounce. i would stand aside at this point. there are some resolution to the problem but again the same thing i said last night, as soon as they take care of the greek problem, there will be a portuguese problem. as soon as they take care of that, there will be a spanish problem. the euro is clearly oversold.

>> dennis, got to leave it there. >> who is michelle? >> i can see dr. j. snickering. >> it wasn't me. >> i'll say it. >> dennis gartman, a pleasure, even if you call me by the wrong name. as long as it's not an insult, i'm okay with it. metal stocks, deutsche bank adding u.s. steel. all of the names are in fact trading higher. guy, a bit of a conundrum for us, typical relationships thrown out the window because we're oversold on metals. >> i hate beating this horse, relief rally. flash will talk about scx. february 5th, huge volume for the stock. we said about three weeks ago it was broken when it closed below 75.44. people are taking shots now. i won't get bullish until it closes above 75.50.

but that's flash's area. >> flash, fcx? >> you can be my wing man any time. >> right on. >> the commodity rally is the real deal. chinese pricing data, below on the consumer side. onus for china to tighten is off for now. fcx broke 72.5. if we can make our way up to 74 in freeport we might have a nice vacuum move around 80. a like the commodity move higher. >> dr. j.? >> it's great right now because you've got allegheny and first energy getting together. >> right. >> that's putting more pressure on because you've got consolidation going on. and it's back to supply and demand. it's not based on currency now. supply and demand are bigger factors. that's why gold is up $19 and that's why the focus on the sector's so important. >> would you ride the metal stocks higher, specifically freeport mcmoran? if we're going to bet the house, not literally, but if you get in

the name on thought that chinese tighten is put off and tomorrow china could say we need to tighten, you lost it, you lost the wind at your sales. >> the concept the global engine, being china now, i didn't see the advent of having commodity space come off as much as it could. freeport, any dip there, smart money was in the market. anything to do with infrastructure off of what we're seeing from china, from steel, to copper, i think has a lot of legs. i think that's going to be the story out of 2010 out of china as the commodities play. >> topping the tape, home builders, lennar, $3 billion worth of loans from the fdic. is there a trade here? xhb options? >> could be. i like home builder story, the rec recove recovery. disney a couple days ago about the consumer, i think, also was positive. there's a lot going back to vegas. again, guy and i are on

together. so whenever we're together we talk about vegas. vegas is seeing a resurgence. look at stocks, wynn, las vegas sands, making 5% moves today. very oversold, in my opinion, down double digits for the month, now a 5% gain in a single session. watch those names because that's where people are betting on the consumer coming back as well as airlines and housing. >> must have been quite a trip. even months afterwards you're still talking about it. >> it was. >> guy adami, hd, you're way of playing home building sector? >> right. microso morgan stanley gave it some love the other day. frank blake's done a great job. balance sheet's in great shape. reduces the number of stores out there. running it better operationally. i like home depot. it's not going to move like lennars and dhis, it's not ta type of casino play but it's a

great company, well-run company, a great-performing stock. >> quickly, let's take our position on a trio of casual dining stocks out from hours. cake, panera, do you like the notion the consumer's spending on on trays and appetizers. >> i like the fact they're coming back, like you talked about yum last week. i don't see it yet. i do have to comment, though, matt nesto's report on the mid caps performing well, that's a sign credit is starting to look easier. that's bullish for the market. >> going to take a pause on "the halftime report." on the "fast," chart master, names that are key to the breakout. weather shutting down d.c. for three days, should obama use the opportunity to reboot his agenda? "halftime" continues after this. correction protection plan. a greek tragedy may have been averted, and a regulatory policy's in the works, yet this market keeps going down.

why you shouldn't fight the tape. can you have you your cake and eat it, too? real-time trades in the restaurant chain afterhours. the most-watched stocks. are they signaling a further sell-off? how to chart the choppy waters. the break down from the chart center on america's post-market show. your trading around the world,

time for an abbreviated call of the close. guy, what do you say? >> i think we're going to fizzle out. finerman's back from california. you're back, after buying an apartment. we have timmy, joe, lively debate. we all get along. there's some battle. tune in at 5:00. check it out. >> see you all at 5:00. thanks to our traders.

sue what are you working on? >> watching the market, up almost triple digits. that, plus a ceo summit here on "power lunch" and a whole lot more. two-thirds of americans are downright angry with the government. what can and should the president do to turn the tide from hostility to happiness? plus, the ceo of a company that's helping investors sleep really well at night, both on their bed and on their wallets. the stock is up nearly 600% since the bottom. and what's in a name? snowmageddon, storm of the century. why does everything need an name? an event without a label? "power lunch" kicks off its second hour right now. >> the best brand in television, you've got it right. welcome to the second hour of "power lunch." i'm tyler mathisen. moments ago, if our first on cnbc interview with mark warner of virginia, he seems to indicate the volcker rule could be in trouble.

a kcasualty on the road to reform. caterpillar's ceo jim owens says, a better dialogue between business and washington is critical to the economic recovery getting stronger. >> dennis kneale. stocks at this hour, sneaking up on a triple-digit gain. we'll take it. >> new "the washington post" poll finds two-thirds of us are angry at government and dissatisfied with both republicans and democrats. surprise, surprise. does washington need a management reboot? a yale school of management, bill george and john harwood in d.c., welcome to all of you. mr. george, let me begin by asking you, do you think that the system, the government system, the way it is operating, is broken beyond repair? >> well, i don't know if it's beyond repair. i met a number of people at davos very concerned about that. we seem to be so polarizes it's

almost impossible to get real problems solved at the national level. and i think we're focusing on too many problems. we have a massive job crisis in the country and i think that's where we need to put our energies and focus. the split between republicans and democrats is going nowhere. the president needs to bring people together in the center, as president clinton did a decades and a half ago. >> there's the issue of instability and whether or not that is creating uncertainty on the global stage, if you will. you know, we polled some quotes from tom friedman's column just a short while ago, he was in davos, maybe you ran into each other. >> we did. >> one of quotes, political instability was a phrase normally reserved for russia, iran, honduras. an american businessman asked me, people asked me about the political instability in the u.s. we've become unpredictable to the world. we are making people nervous. what are the ramifications of

that. >> i heard a lot of that from davos, from ceos, bankers, and from political leaders around the world, that there is that real concern that we don't know where the u.s. is going. and i think we need clear leadership in washington to say here's we're we're going. we're not focusing on ten things, we're focusing on one. a year ago, president obama inherited a mess. i remember a year ago we were concerned we weren't focusing on jobs. but now 25 million americans looking for full-time jobs we've got a problem. the rest of the world needs to know where america's going. >> inside the beltway. john harwood, i've got to tell you, this talk of instability is simply wrong. what we have, what we're seeing is democracy. i mean that kind of debate is part of what our government is entirely about. >> that's true. look, the way our system is evolved in recent years, dennis,

the parties have moved toward each pole, the center, as many people think of it as a bit of a no man's land at moment. what dou have with president obama, he got majority of the vote, strong majorities in the house and the senate, and we have a test whether democrats can govern. we don't know the answer to the test. they may pass comprehensive health reform, some energy bill. i think the uncertainty talk is a little bit of like nervous nellie stuff from people who are impatient to watch the democratic process in action. but i do think, with the republicans having had eight years under president bush, having not achieved most of the goals, now we have a moment to find out whether democrats can do that. >> i have interrupt you briefly. we'll continue the discussion in a moment. breaking news on the 30-year bond auction. ricky, how did it go? >> reporter: it was so bad when i wrote down the results i broke

my pen. this gets an" f" for all very simple reasons. the bid to cover, average is around 2.5. thank you, peter. this is at 2.36. that's not good. the yield at 4.72. the highest wi i saw around 67, so it priced through that. higher yield, lower price. maybe the most bothering of all is that the indirect central banks that was only 28%. and the directs, a whopper number. direct bids 24%. that means that we have no transparency, not sure who it is. this invisible direct bidder shows up at every auction to pick up the slack. that makes many investors are nervous. i don't what to dismiss the weather and factors that probably contributed but from a demand side, no other grade i could give it. >> the treasury bond market is selling off. a backup in yields in the

30-year. we'll keep an eye on that. dennis, you have a question for the panel. >> jeff, we titled the segment, does government in washington need to reboot? jeff, do you think that washington realizes people outside of washington think they need to reboot? >> no. i think to them this is business as usual and there's an insulg lated view there. i agree on the tone of the question. thanks for not asking me about the t-bill market. what i do worry about -- >> that's next. >> -- it was a year ago i was on with bill george. but the righteousness and the ideology that's on both sides of the aisle, especially some of the republicans intransigents right now, it is horrifying. when you see guys like the underwear bomber, abdulmutallab, talking and giving us all authorities tell us, he's giving us what we need to know, we're seeing the sabre rattling, the u.s. is weak or representative ryan or bachmann saying we need

to get rid of these, you know, major social programs, such as medicare and social security, leading confusion in their own party, the democrats aren't capitalizing on that, but trying to somehow plmake indicate a lo of ideology. sam rayburn said, any jackass can knock down a bar but it takes a carpenter to build one. we need people to be carpenters and build. we need leadership. >> if i can jump in there? >> go ahead, mr. george. >> i agree with what you're saying, jeff. john harwood, democracy is messy but it requires compromise on both sides. democrats have come to the party, they have to come to the center. the president has to lead that. i hope and pray the republicans come mr. the american people i talk to in the midwest, where i'm in minneapolis today, are losing confidence that the politicians can get it done. they think there are more about

themselves than they are about solving the nation's problems. >> isn't the bigger issue, though, that the world seems to be losing confidence? i mean, the implications of that if the chinese decide not to buy our debt, we just had a failed auction, this is the second one that didn't go well this week, you know, there are a lot of other places where they might be able to put their money, maybe not with as much safety. what are the implications of that? >> we need -- >> let me make a point on that, sue. that is, the fundamental cause of discontent around the world as well as here is the state of the economy. it's not about our political process. and until we see some recovery in the economy, recovery in jobs, you're going to have that. and i would say, by the way, it is not true that the obama administration has not focused on jobs. you can argue about their solutions but they diddisment the financial stability plan, the stimulus package. all of the things the president's doing on health, energy, financial regulation, he sees as part of an effort to

build a stronger foundation for the economy. that is about jobs. and the question is whether it's going to work and also whether his own democratic party is going to give him that program. >> mr. george, let me jump in. one last question for mr. george before we go, and it is this, i know that you believe that the president should have some business people in his inner circle advising him and that he does not, at this point. i wonder if you think that he has spent too much time banging on the banks, specifically, banker bonuses, and in light of the bonus that mr. blankfein, the chairman of the company that you serve on its board just took, do you think that banging on the bankers caused mr. blankfein to take less money than he otherwise would have? >> well, let me say, i think goldman sachs, the board, the management's very conscious of the public upset and the concerns, and the fact that the government was there for goelg and every other bank in the fall of 2008. i think showed considerable restraint. beyond that, i talked to a lot

of business people in different businesses, small business, large businesses, they're afraid to hire because they don't know where the president is. listen to them but they'll come out and hammer at them the next day. people are unttoo uncertain abo health care, what their costs are going to be, added taxes. >> i want to add one point on that. there is there is a general incohance to the upset we can't ignore. one reason you can't take it seriously. for example, significant parts of the world upset with the united states because we're not moving faster to cap carbon emissions as part of an energy plan, as the rest of the world is doing. they are also, big parts of europe, want us to go further on going after banks, right? so, to -- you can sort of throw it altogether in the stew and say people are angry about everything, but it doesn't necessarily produce any

prescription like, well they need to do this or stop criticizing the banks or drop the energy policy. it's all over the place until the economy recovers. >> john, the first job as a leader, people have to follow them. you have to give them clear vision. >> he's on a 5 yard line on health care reform. see if they can deliver. >> the hard part, he's being beaten by sloganeering. the hard part is he's relying on some of the distance. it's almost a michael dukakis style of ka riz mark heqaqakqak. >> he can speak in more -- >> there will nobody sniping on my show, gentlemen. we thank you both very much. we're going to continue the discussion in a5(bkx slightly different way as it pertains to the shares of progress energy, trading lower after company issued full year guidance below estimates. progress energy down 1% on the

news, fourth quarter earnings, though, were in line. joining us with more on the numbers and outlook for the utility sector, bill johnson of progress energy. welcome. it's a pleasure to have you here. i don't flow whether you were able to hear the discussion that was going on, but one of the i'ves that we were talking about is kind of the mixed message that is coming from washington. and the reason i start there, rather than with your earnings, because you made a comment in the conference call saying that you were not going to go through yet or at least looking taking a second look at building a nuclear plant because, quote, the federal signals for new nuclear are decidedly mixed. on the state level, it's not clear that the current atmosphere is conducive for an investment of this type and size. do you find that what's goingen in washington is hindering your ability to make decisions about the future of your company because of some of the confusion? >> absolutely. it's one of the biggest concerns we have, which is clarity on energy policy. what the rules are going to be.

and particularly what the role of carbon's going to be and the role of new nuclear. the president spoke in the state of the union positively about nuclear. we think he's going in right direction there. signals are very mixed in washington and it's holding the entire industry back in making decisions on investments. >> do you find that the signals are mixes from the administration per se or is it the gridlock that we're finding on the congressional side? >> i think both. mixes signals otherwise of the administration as much as a year ago the agencies in the administration, the epa, others said we need to build dozens of nuclear plants, 50 by the year 2030 to meet the carbon reduction targets that the administration has. i think the administration's senior leadership is catching up where with their own agencies have been but it's a mixes picture. >> you said, as a rulths esult e of that, it's going to be a challenging year. how do you meet the headwinds

and continue to grow the company for shareholders. >> we have basic obligations to keep your lights on, grow the company for investors. we're going to manage it the old fashioned way, watch every nickel we spend, make investments the best we can, based on what we think national energy policy's going to. >> one word of advice to either congress or the administration in terms of straightening things out, that would allow you to make some business decisions with some foresight, what would it be. >> two piece of advice. one we send you to washington to do things, not to fight with each other. so enough of this bipartisan or bickering or whatever it is. and the second point is, i think one of the things that's holding everybody back is a lack of clarity on policy decisions they're trying to make. so, for example, follow health care, it's very hard for me, as a casual consumer of the news to figure out what problem it is we're trying to solve.

so clarity of what you're trying to do, i think it's easier to figure out what the steps are to make that happen. >> sir, thank you very inch. appreciate it, mr. johnson. >> my pleasure. next, from pucks to bucks, say that very carefully, from gold medal hockey hero to the miracle on ice story. on the anniversary of the revolution in iran, crackdowns and protests continue. e-mail and the net at center of the storm. we will explain why that is very important.

welcome back, bob pisani on the floor of the new york stock exchange. all about the euro, what's coming out in terms of the greece. euro etf, actively traded. sold the euro going into the eu press on conference. that ended 11:000. oversold conditions for the euro, it's bounce, that of course means dollar weakness. strength in commodities throughout the morning. a lot of talk of copper, up 4%. that's an unusual move. stronger than even gold. important thing here, an oversold bounce here. some are talking about reflation trade. i don't think that's got a lot of traction yet. commodity stocks, freeport, rio tinto, bhp up 3%. the coal stocks are also strong here. remember, those are largely

plays on china, the international ones at least about tradertalk.cnbc.com. nasdaq off their highs. >> yeah, off of our highs but the big caps are performing better than the composite. call it a beta bounce. art hogan saying people are nibbling at the bigger oversold names, intech. microsoft up 1%. it's issuing its new office for mac. apple is up 2%. activision, the best performer in the nasdaq 100. it beat the street on its earning. cautious on its outlook, but it also is going to issue dividend now and $1 billion buyback. chips are strong today. nvidia very strong. one of the leader there's, that's helping to move higher. a couple of stocks trading to the downside following earnings, expedia, despite putting in good numbers, cephalon, street looking for 1.58. >> reporter: gold prices up $17. we're looking at one-week highs

for both gold and crude oil. momentum in the metals market has to do with hsbc jim steel says a market view that sovereign risk may be bullic for good. flight to quality taking effect. pointing out that relief that greece will be handled without having to sell gold as the ecb turns to annual gold sales is significant as well. in terms of copper prices, in addition to what bob mentioned, consider the fact that the international energy agency has raised its oil demand forecast due to emerging market growth. emerging market growth for crude oil and for copper is what has been driving that growth in both of those prices today. and now i'm going to turn it over toyou, dennis. 30 long years ago, the u.s. men's olympic hockey team, upset the mighty soviet union in the miracle on ice. the u.s. guys defeat finland,

win the gold medal. the movie for trade american as aamateurs. some of the players have parlayed that success into success in other fields. joining us is a member of the miracle on ice team, rob mclanahan. he's sales trader at agency group -- agency trading group. let's talk olympics, they're starting friday. the hockey team, remember, that was real amateurs. nowadays, in the summer olympics you have the basketball team with the superstars. it's not in the same. >> not on the men's side. you have the women hockey's team, true amateurs. the men are professionals. you get the best hockey with professionals. the problem is they're playing together for two weeks instead of creating a team that starts in the fall. >> rob, hockey is now, i would argue, as international a game as any. more so than the nba. and this is one of the best hockey tournaments of all.

we're going to have a lot of it on cnbc, by the way. how do you handicap? i want to talk about the market but was i want to know about the usa team. >> usa teams a zbrats team, a great goalie in miller. he should help them very well. it's -- a a lot will be said depending upon young kids. za pas rezi is a leader. >> you have had a successful career on the ice but on the street on wall street. give us, you know, weigh in on what's happened in the last year in the financial industry as it pertains to intervention that we saw and the ripple effects in the market right out in. i don't think think you're in favor of the intervention. >> i'm not a proverbial bull right now. i think a lot will come to roost. i think that the help the government's prided we're going to see inflation, commodity prices go higher. i'm not going to begin to say when that's going to happen. that's not my expertise. i think a lot will come back to

roost and we're going to pay for it. >> you say in your notes one reason you got hired into wall street because of a parallel between the competitiveness of sports and the competitiveness on wall street. has that help you'd in your career? >> there's no question about it. i think, grant it, it's been 25 years i've enters wall street, i was given the opportunity to see if i was worth my salt and i'm still grinding away. i think that the game is so much different today in this profession. and you have to be -- you've got to be on your toes to make adjustments. >> one last thing. the attention span is so much shorter today. feels like stars happen overnight and then they're gone. how long did it last for you? i get the feeling you're still enjoying it, from a win 30 years ago. >> are you kidding me? 30 years, we're still talking about this. come on, it's a party. >> we're having a lot of fun with it. we've been very blessed with the fact that, you know, there hasn't been a u.s. team that's

won the gold since. and we've had a lot of fun with this, not just with our -- my teammates but with families as well. >> i'm sure you'll be watching the olympics on nbc every minute of it right? >> absolutely. nothing but hockey. >> you got it. >> cnbc is the nothing but hockey channel. >> exactly right. >> you stole my transition. >> how about that? >> straight ahead -- luxury lodging ramps up. ceo of rose wood hotels and resorts, we'll tell you why he's expanding into new locations from vancouver to abu dhabi. >> two tight tans teaming up to promote family-friendly tv. why walmart and proctor & gamble think promoting morals and values is good business.

votewood hotels and resorts opening foluxury products one i vancouver, one in abu dhabi, one in dubai. joining us, john scott, president, chief executive officer of rosewood hotels and resorts. welcome, mr. scott. how much your business is back to where it united statwas befop of the last year. >> i appreciate it. listen, it's been a tough year, year and a half for the luxury hospitality industry. the luxury hotels down 30%. we were down 20%. i consider that a relative victory. you flow, as i look forward, people keep asking the question, is there a light at the end of the tunnel? i think there is. our booking pace for the year is up 10%. january came in over 10% ahead of the prior year, so that's

building. but that light is a long way down the tunnel, i think. the problem is that rate is still low. and business demand is still recovering but recovering slowly. so there is a light but the tunnel, i think, is fairly long. >> is there -- do you, to try to attract business, do you cut prices, because once you cut prices, it's hard to tgo back? do you do other things to attract the luxury traveler? >> in our industry, there is, you know, a reluctance to cut price because ultimately that's a difficult thing to regain. so what we've tried do, we think the consumer's look for value. what is value? we're offering them longer stays for the price of a three-day stay, we'll give four and five days. for the price of a five-day, we'll give seven day stay. we are giving value. we're not cutting the price and the rate that we're charging people but we're giving more value in terms of longer stays

the things that we include in our stays. they're seeking out value and not looking for the cheapest price 2in luxury. >> i asked a ceo last week how confident he was about business conditions and he said i'm not confident as i am optimistic. are you confident or just optimistic? >> i am optimistic. i try to keep my team focused on positives we see but i see a lot of challenges. gdp, unemployment, consumer confidence, those things all relate to how people feel about traveling, in particular, how do they feel about staying in a luxury hotel. those are not improved dramatically. it may be longer recovery than we all had expected. >> are you worried, as some of your ceo colleagues are, that government policies are going to dampen somehow the business cycle or that there is, as tom friedman put it, a pchlth alo o uncertainty.

>> the impact on thor toism industry is one of damages our industry when they make comments like traveling to las vegas or having a group function at a luxury hotel or resort is the wrong thing to do. businesses do that. there's an economic return on it for them. and it helps our industry. our industry employs a tremendous number of people. and, therefore, i think the government should be more positive, as it relates to supporting an industry which is critical, economic driver in our country. >> thank you for joining us. good luck with openings in vancouver, dubai and abu dhabi. >> meantime, security forces and protests are clashing in iran today. it's the 31st anniversary of the islamic revolution. internet users reported interruption of services including g-mail and yahoo!

services. >> the crackdown on these services that we've seen in china, but i would argue, once the jeanen genie's out of the bottle it's hard to put back in. >> unstoppable. the chinese, as repressive and oppressive, have capitalism starting to expand where iran, what do they have on their side? you can cut google g-mail and think you're going to cut off the population but it didn't help when they tried too cut off twitter during the last round of violence. >> when did censorship become a human rights issue? >> the obama administration wants to argue it is, given what hillary clinton said to china, ultimately, it isn't about that. people would rather make sure they don't get imprisoned without charges and have food to eat. i don't want to overpressurize this. >> exactly. but the idea that the inability to tweets a human rights vierativi

vierati violation stretches it. repressive regimes, whether cube bark iran, china, are going to try to repress communications. >> it was great when they wanted to take down the tv network, one tv network in the country prp but when it's the internet and you have multiple headed hydra everywhere -- >> everybody's a broadcaster. >> it's basically -- >> fascinating to watch -- >> david faber with the only person to put together three fortune 1,000 companies. business legend standing by. in a minute, their stock is up almost 600% since the bottom. ad campaign dares to ask you to check them out with customers on facebook and twitter. we'll ask the ceo of tempur-pedic if friending customers is paying off. 

welcome back to "power lunch." burlington northern, trading at high levels not seen since september as '08. shareholders in the number two railroad, approve the takeover of berkshire hathsaway. crude oil rising for the fourth

day. number within video gamemaker, activision blizzard, top gainer on the nasdaq, reporting better than expected fourth quarter results. >> let's take a look at triple digit advance in the markets. fairly broad-based with the dow jones industrial average at last check up 117 points better than 1.10%. s&p up better than 1% at 1079.90. the nasdaq stronger activision one of the participants there. and it is up about almost 1.5% at 2178. >> david faber, they don't call him the brain for nothing in ft. lauderdale. we're under two feet of snow. live at ceo summit with a special guest. >> reporter: thanks, tyler. you mentioned it earlier, of course, joined by one of america's great entrepreneurs, he'd say he's lucky, but three times maybe luck has just something to do with it.

wayne hiuizenga, waste managerment, autonation. you're a native of ft. lauderdale. florida, so hard hit by the housing bubble, of course, up and down. where does this area stand right now, in terms of digging out from that problem? >> it's tough down here. this has been real estate haven for many years and right now we have about one home in every 100 that gets foreclosed. 1 in 100 doesn't sound a lot but 1 in every 100 homes foreclosed on that's a tough market for us. fortunately for us, tourism's been good. by the way, on housing, housing prices are down 30%, 40%, still not selling. >> still not selling? there may be more to go down here. >> it's a tough road to go here. tourism this year's been great. really surprised but it has been strong. of course the last couple of weeks with the pro bowl and the super bowl, weather was fanta fantast fantastic. it was great.

hotels are jammed. so it's been a real, real good tourism year for us. of course, here we sit, you know, sun is out, there's no snow, we're out here by the ocean, what could be better than being in ft. lauderdale right now? >> so long term, you're bull irk on the prospects for the area? >> i'm bullish on south florida and all of florida. people keep moving here. you know if you're sitting up north in new jersey, new york, washington, sitting there in the snow, thinking, maybe we ought to move down there, be down there with david and wayne. >> it's a good time potentially. at the same time you, do have people who can't get out from under their homes, who obviously have less equity in their homes than they have debt, certainly. >> yeah. >> and that impacts their ability to spend. i would expect that would be a feature go on in the economy. >> i would say that, over the last six, eight, 12 months, things have been flat for us. i haven't seen them get any worse, but they're not getting much better. you know, you hear about the economic recovery, but it's pretty flat here yet, david. >> what about you? you have exited a lot of

investments. where are you focpoe focuses no terms of spending your money our your next endeavor? >> my wife spends the money, we're out looking for businesses to buy. >> you are? >> yes. we have sole some businesses here recently. frankly i thought with the cash we have, we'd be able to buy something but our guys are on the road looking and so far they've come back empty handed. we haven't been able to find what we're looking for? >> why that is? >> not finding the right thing. we have a great company. george johnson and i are partners in south carolina, we have hotels, we have 35, 40 hotels, probably 11, 12 under construction, and that's going well. george johnson, couldn't have a better partner than george. steve is running a company in spartanburg. that's growing left and right. other than that, we're looking. we have a lot of real estate but nothing's happening in real estate. >> you made a decision, not that long ago to sell the miami dolphins.

you still wear the lapel, still own 5%. why did you sell the team? >> always be a dolphins fan, you know? it was a tough decision. my wife and i, we love the dolphins, it's great. it's number one with us. but you know, i'm a business man at heart. when the price got to a certain level i said, fine, time to take money off the table. we were owners for 19 years. we still go to every game. we still have our suites. we still fly in and out every game. nothing's changes for us. >> except you got $1.1 billion. >> a billion is nice. >> especially when you spend $130 million to buy the team, right? >> yeah, yeah. it was fun. you know, we made a lot of friends along the way in football. like i said, it was a tough decision. the businessman in you comes out and says, this is something you should do. >> you seem to be husband in capital and not spending it. >> we are looking to spend it.

we haven't found the right opportunity yet. so, no, we're not trying to sit on our money or just invest. we're trying to buy some businesses. >> what's your sense of the overall economy here in the states? >> flat. yeah, nothing much happening. i hear about the recovery but i don't see it. >> you don't see it. >> what would be evidence? >> i don't see it going down. we're kind of into the right now. of course, down here in florida, it's a little different. like i said, you still see the tourists coming down here, people spending money. florida's doing well. we've got something that most places don't have, so you know, we're happy here. >> all right. so and r. we, at least for now. everybody back in engelwood cliffs is not happy with me. appreciate it. >> love you, anyway, david. quote of the day, a billion dollars is nice. >> that was great stuff. >> perfect. next, speaking of nice, this stock up almost 600% since the bottom. the ad campaign dares you to

check them out with customers on facebook. ceo of tempur-pedic will tell you if friending customers is paying off. dow up 109 points. the most actively traded stocks on the nyse right now. national car rental? that's my choice. because with national, i roll past the counter... and choose any car in the aisle. choosing your own car? now, that's a good call. go national. go like a pro. at the end of the day in sitka, alaska, the fishermen bring in the catch. and cargill brings in the sea salt to help them preserve it, shipped in an efficient supply chain to save the fishermen money and their catch. this is how cargill works with customers.

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some headlines now from the white house. as it pertains to the story we just told you about, the white house spokesman robert gibbs says that iran has unplugged google and other media. he spoke at daily white house briefing at which he criticized

iran for actions as well as its justifications for nuclear enrichment activities. he also says the iranian government appears to fear its own people. take a look at shares of google right now. the stock is up about half a percent at 537.23. >> you can see how effect inthat ban is we are showing video from february 11th, despite the media ban in iran. a new tempur-pedic ad caught our attention. it does something unthinkable in marketing, urges you to go online to hear customers unsensored opinions but that's a conversation no marketer can control. is t. wise? take a look. >> ask me about my tempur-pedic. >> ask me how fast i fall asleep. >> ask me about staying asleep. >> ask someone you know. >> check out twitter. >> try your friends on facebook, you'll hear it all. >> we're going it take it to the mattresses and talk social media with ceo mark sovery. thanks for being wirth us. i can't think over team when a

marketer has clearly taken the risk of saying, let others talk about us, we're certain they're going to say good things. did you think about this all that hard or did you figure, let's just say it? >> we thought about it very hard. but you know the main thing is, people really care how well they sleep. when they find a way to sleep better, they love telling other people. we know -- we've known this for some time, tempur-pedic owners tell on average 14 people about how well they sleep. but what social media has done, has allowed them to tell many more people, people that they don't know. but the big change is, people now are going online to find out what other people say about products such as our mattresses and it really works in our favor. 9 out of 10 people say good stuff about tempur-pedic. >> do you think at some point it could become a badge of honor for every marketer to say, check us out on twitter facebook and the marketers that don't tell people that will lose out? >> i think that's an interesting point. i think that increasingly, we

have to expect consumers are going to check us out on the internet, i know i do. almost all of our buyers do. so i think, in the end, it's going to happen. i think it's going to prove when you have a product that stands up to the criticism and the comments of people from, you know, across the board, that's when you have a powerful product. that's what we're proud to say we have. >> is this campaign working? how much have you spent on it? is it cheaper than tv media? >> it is working. i've come back from a big industry conference in las vegas, and there we were speaking to our major retailers and they were reporting people are coming into stores speaking about it. we're seeing a spike in people coming to the website. that has helped. one of the most interesting things, facebook. we have a facebook page. the number of people who are coming to visit us on facebooks growing every day. people are talking about it now. >> they don't have enough friends of their own. the big pr agency out with a

survey today and find the credibility of the people that you meet, peers online, people believe in only 20 25% of the time and that is down from two years ago. worried the more we get the more online thing institutionalized the less consumers believe in it. >> this online phenomenon is evolving. what's happening is, the people who are online, community of online people, self-correct. we find that, when there's somebody -- people can quickly tell whether something is colors, how they're positions. and the other people who are online will correct it. and you quickly see the system becomes self-correcting. i think that's going to build trust over time. in the en, i think that is the only way we'll build or that's the way the trust will continue to build. >> put something up on youtube, you see comments and you can see juvenile stuff even for a fantastic mattress. commodities, you have talked about rising oil prices, because

there's a lot of oil in your mattress to have it rebound ability, i can put a glass of wine on it oil prices are going up. is that going to hurt you? if they go down, will that help you? >> last quarter we did have some increases in our raw material prices. as we expects, we're having some this quarter. but beyond that, we're not having -- we're not projecting any big changes as a result of it. we think it may be more benign. but right now it's not having a big impact on us. >> thank you very much for being with us. appreciate you're coming on. next -- snowmageddon, i'm a snow poke. not to mention every minor scandal gets a "gate" attached to it. why do we need to name and brand everything? >> it's fun, dennis. plus, two blue chip biggies teaming up to promote family friendly tv. will standing up for morals and values be good business for

walmart and proctor & gamble? with an a+ credit rating in good times and bad, sun life financial should be famous. we're working on it. so you're seriously proposing we change our name to sun life valley? do we still get to go skiing? (announcer) sooner or later, you'll know our name. sun life financial. whwhwhwhwhwhwhwhwhwhwhwhwhwhwhwh

>> snowmageddon, snowpocalypse, the country seems to have a need, a need, to come up with catchy nicknames and brands for

almost every story. so what's in a name? why do we do this. the ceo and creative director with demasimo brand advertising has perspectives. why do we do this, other than that we can? >> look, names have value. take as an example, coke. coke, basically, has a propriety flab somewhere they have a name, right? and in fact, when pepsi proved that people likes the taste of pepsi better than coke, what happened to coke's market share? nothing. in fact, coke kept on moving up. coke's brand name is valued and it's incredibly valuable. >> isn't that different than snowmageddon, you know, snowpocalypse? yes, i take your point with coke versus pepsi, those are products that you want people to buy and associate with the name. talking about the fact, you turn around, everything's got a mo y moniker. >> if you want to be part of it, you name it.

brangelina, for example, worth more as a brand than brad pitt or angelina jolie. >> mark, this look likes part of what this is, the tvization of america and that tv does that we come up with slogans all the time. >> we have to mutt a chiron at the bottom. >> if you want to communicate well on line, the other thing online that twitter, goes to hash tags and good buzz phrases. but aren't we overdoing it to where it's all the same? >> look, you know, overdoing it, we're overdoing it to the fact that we're talking about it. but it's also the tabloidization, too. i mean, you need -- you need to have tags, you need to have handles for things. but what we're talking about is the way the mind works. and people strategizing and trying to get a handle on people's psychologies. and without a handle, we don't know what to call something. if the handle itself is interesting, if it's fun to say,

then it's going to get more play in the mind. and so, with all of the people competing for attention, handles are in and they're not going anywhere. >> mark, the biggest brander in the world, proctor & gamble, joining up with the biggest retailer in the world, walmarter to do family-oriented programming, a made for tv movie that is going to air in i believe april on nbc. why would they be doing is does wholesome sell? >> well, think about it. you know, take hallmark and change two letters, the first and the last, you have walmart. you know, hallmark did this for years, and it helped to brand them. disney as well. make sense for walmart and p&g to get in the game. of course, these are very, very big companies, touch all of our lives. and, therefore, of course they want to produce for the largest audience, the most family-friendly fare. makes sense for their brans. >> seems like you can run reruns

of the waltons or "touched by an angel." >> thanks, mark. >> thank you very much. and here's a left turn for you. from wholesomeness to cheating spouses, listen up, folks. divorce lawyers are using facebook to get the goods on you. >> sounds like a very appetizing empty calories coming up.