all right you could see stocks are higher right now, highest levels of the session, this coming as a highly unusual thing that has happened. a lot of people talking about that on wall street. let's understand that off to the "closing bell." wall street holding onto

gains as the tortoise rally continues. the dow, now within strike distance of 11,000. so, is the recent rally for real? live from the new york stock exchange, this is the final and most important hour of the trading day. and good to see you. welcome, i'm bob pisani for the "closing bell" and look at who is here. >> yes! >> cheerful. >> good to see you again, bob. i'm trish regan in for maria bartiromo today and here we are watching in tortoise rally, seeing it continue up a bit, up 60 points right now on the dow. we are now at new 18-month highs here. >> this is the most unloved rally i have seen in years. >> that's one way to put it. >> low volume. the traders aren't making any money, but viewers are making money if you look. >> well, that's the good news, yeah, people need to make some money here. we are, what, about 150 points or so, 155 away from that key 11,000 mark. and wall street's certainly seen these gains despite that report that we saw earlier that was

three consecutive months of declines in existing home sales. >> yeah, a bit of a disappointment and we need to talk about that, i think, in the next couple of minutes. >> we will do that. >> the street needs to see some better numbers. >> okay we want to break down all of these themes today but first take a quick look at these numbers. up now 60 points a gain. half of a percentage point 10844. like we said getting awfully close to that 11,000 level. we've seen some inside in some of the telecom, industrial shares, health care not doing quite as well as yesterday. nasdaq composite a gain of nearly half a percent there 2405. meanwhile on the s&p, we are up three points, better than three points a gain of 0.3%. right now to break down all of the themes of the day we've got the whole crew. we've got bob pisani right here with me. right here at the new york stock exchange. we've got bertha coombs over at the nasdaq. and mr. steve liesman, cnbc's senior economics reporter live at hq.

let's start with you, bob. we were just talking about that housing number that came out. and some people actually read this as a positive sign. but reality is, three straight months of declines. the worst level in eight months. in's a lot of negative in there too. >> right, when you see the market, sales decline for three months, even if just fractionally that's a little disappointing. when you see inventory levels go up dramatically in the last two months they have gone up. that's disappointing. see k.b. homes announce all right numbers but sales only increased 5% year over year when one of the worst years ever last year at that time that's disappointing. we have to get better numbers from the housing market. >> add to that, the reason that people saw this as an optimistic sign, well guess what, it came in better than people thought. so it was bad, but still a little bit, you know not as bad as people had anticipated. >> the question, does front-end loading housing help or hurt? the first time home bare. it did dramatically help.

front-end load and suffering consequences although extended until april now we need to see some real demand out there. >> steve, can this economy recover without housing? >> reporter: you know, it can, trish. the story here is that housing has to stop being a dramatic negative for the economy. when we talk about existing home sales, that -- that doesn't really feed into gdp, per se. it's the new home sales that really matter the most. and housing subtracted i don't know, up 1 percentage point for gdp for several quarters and sort stopped subtracting, even added a little bit in the last quarter. we wouldn't expect it to be something dramatically going to be a turnaround for the economy, but if it stops being negative, things like manufacturie ining also, trish, an x-factor and has do with confidence. if housing values will keep going down that will keep the consumer at bay. >> the good news, steve, the price declines were relatively

new. we'll get the new home sales numbers tomorrow. we'll see how that goes. >> well, bob, as you know, economically, you can get it one way or the other. >> yeah. >> you can keep sales down and prices pretty even. or you can lower prices and keep that sales number a little bit higher. >> you know, diana olick was on earlier with us, steve you were on that show as well, on "the call" saying that you know this was a bit of an overhang in terms of the gses, and if people perceive a ton of reform coming for the gses, or potentially a privatization of the gses, then that was a negative for housing. >> yeah. i mean, the story with the gses, trish, is that today they had a hearing to think about, think about it, thinking about, thinking about it, gse reform. >> well, we could still about it, right. >> still several months that white paper that treasury would put out and several months before -- after that, a bill would come out and then taken up by congress, which probablyines in you're several years from any reform of the gses, which

probably means the government's going to be out there basically guaranteeing mortgage for a very long time. >> you know, bertha, let me get to the greece situation with you. can you tell me what effect the euro and greece are having on oil prices in commodities right n now. >> reporter: doesn't seem to want to go below $81 or $80. that said, it's not moving higher. and traders are watching the currency fluctuations. a little bit of traction today when we saw some covering in the euro midday. it got down to a couple -- a low -- of about 134.75 and that saw the euro move higher the dollar index move lower and started to see the stocks take off midday when that corrected itself. after midday, things evened out. the dollar is a big factor, but a number of traders are also talking about the fundamentals here in terms of demand. we're going to start watching gasoline now a lot more closely in terms of where the consumer

is and where demand on the fundamentals are now because we're moving into the driving season. the most recent figures are shown that the demand for gasoline is down. trish, we talk about the taxes on the consumer. we're now at $2.81, nearly a dollar higher than we were a year ago this time. and as we get to the summer, you wonder if we get a little resistance from the consumers as we get closer to a $3 handle on retail gasoline. >> i think, bertha, if you -- once we get the eu meeting over, it's coming in a few days, i think you'll find they'll be much more definitive in their commentary if they will provide any support, if any, for greece. when you see these fluctuations from the euro and the dollar and i think that will be a positive overall. >> bob, the overriding sentiment -- hang on one second, bertha, that most people, most traders assume that there will be some kind of positive conclusion to all of this. >> yes, despite the intranscents of the german, seems to be

little doubt over there that they'll be kick, screaming, providing some kind of backstop, some currencies on the greek debt. would that create doubt about the stability about the whole euro zone partnership. >> but what if we get another one of these, yes, in principle, closer to helping you, but no concrete. i mean how much more can this market go? >> would that be negative. >> on the principle. >> the euro. ane positive for the dollar. we'll see the same kind of flutterings that we'll continue to see. there will be some kind of consensus one way or another and i think that the betting is germany will be dragged along. >> steve, what will that mean for the u.s. dollar? >> it depends on how it happens. i think that bob is right, although, i'm a little confused, bob's logic and today's news seem to be a little bit at odds. no offense to bob on that one. where germany and france are saying that they're going to be behind an imf conclusion. i think bob is 100% right that they're crazy to allow that to happen because of how it undermines the euro. so, trish, the answer to your

question is really dependent upon how they work in situation out. if they work it out throughout the imf i think that's positive for the euro. neutral for the dollar because i think that dollar was oversold because of the -- before the whole greece situation i think that dollar was oversold. i think part of the bounceback is fundamental, more than jfrpt a reaction to greece. >> okay, interesting point. >> you can't blame the germans for being intransient on this. the poll numbers are tomorrow for germans over there. the citizens don't want germans involved. >> i think that the market, if the politicians don't come up with a solution, the market will force a solution because they'll only sit there and kind of buy their time with the greek debt for so long. >> okay, before i let you go, and we're short on time, but tell me, steve, what's going on with treasuries, why are they looking cheaper than corporate debt right now. >> you know you can say cheaper and say appropriately priced but one thing that the markets have

made most is how particularly triple corporate bonds are trading closer spreads to the treasury than we have ever seen leading to one marked story you know maybe buffett is a better bet than uncle sam. we've been here before, just to be clear. it'snate first-time ever. if i took that chart back a little further on the spread and then you know things would go back to where things were really nutty but right now that's where we are. a need for corporate debt and not so much maybe for the tradings. >> because the triple rating for the u.s. government is in trouble? or priva >> you could take, bob, one of the commentaries to the extremists and say, yes. what people are saying an awful lot of treasuries around. whether that means a triple a question that's a different story. a different side of the same coin. >> good point. >> mr. liesman, ms. coombs, a

pleasure. thanks so much. >> 50 minutes to go before the closing bell. dow jones industrials sitting at the highs on the day here and the nasdaq up nicely here. intel, cisco, big names all at new highs. >> yeah looking good and a tough start that it's been, certainly, for the ipos and tough start to the year but with two hot ipos pricing at the trade of the close, the big question is, are folks trading around? are traders coming around on this? we'll have answers from just a moment. and after the bell, president obama signing the health care bill into the law. giving an exuberance speech. will cost democrats dearly at polls in november. but first, let's take a look at the most active stocks on the new york stock exchange led by citi, up better than 2% right now.

welcome back. ipos had a lousy start to the year but tide could be turning here. this week represents the busiest week of the year.

the two hottest ipos set the trade at close. the sign that the market is starting to join around. david menlow. an old friend of mine. and kathleen smith greenwich capital. thanks for joining us. david, i'd been waiting a couple of months for the ipo market to turn around. >> maybe because i have a little less gray hair, that would be one sign. clearly, the signs are -- it got started last week with financial engines. a stock that ended up pricing above its initial range and basically filled out the trifecta that we like which is pricing at the upper end of the range or above, opening above the pricing range, and then closing above the opening. and that really sent a shock wave of, pay attention to all of the investors in the ipo market. >> kathleen, is there signs that the number of ipos is increasing? i know what we've got, how many,

15, 16 so far this year? a heck of a lot better than last year but last year was a disaster. >> yes. well, 16 in march everybody that's the most ipos in any month that we've seen since november '07. but we also look at the returns on ipos, and in 2009, the ipo market returned over 50% compared to about 25% for the other indices. that's based on the ftse renaissance index so returns have been good and the numbers are picking up. >> you have an ipo index, right? the ftse renaissance index, right? but there's no investables right? no traded fund to invest. if i wanted to buy an ipo i couldn't do it right now. >> used as a measure of performance but it is expected to be used as the basis for an etf and for indexing products. >> so we'll be able to do that in the future, we'll be able to buy an exchange-traded fund for ipos. >> yes coming in the near future. >> that's great. >> yes. >> max linear talking about that in the last couply of days 5.3

million shares to 11-13. this is, is a specialty tech company, right. >> it is and i think what's interesting about crop of stocks that we're seeing now come into the marketplace is, these are companies that have had losses over the previous years and they are now first, putting everything on the front, i guess the front seat. we're seeing gains that are going to turn into even greater gains. deleveraging of the balance sheets which are just going to naturally added to their earnings per share. we're getting the good underwriters, morgan stanley and goldman sachs with these two deals for this week and things are just turning around, a wonderful pace. >> you mentioned two deals calex network is the next one. all cisco guys the kaelex network guys. >> for me? >> yeah. >> that is correct, yes. >> the important thing here is that they're broadband access equipment, right? >> not so nautch it's broadband access equipment it's that serve getting hit with the sweet into some marketplace between

maxlinear and the calix network. if we were to get a medical technology stock in the marketplace right now or some limited partnership we're not going to see the kind of excitement that's generated by these two stocks. >> kathleen, a little bit of excitement about these two. is it because they're in a good space, specialty tech, or because they're pricing right, or more reasonable? what's generating the interest here? >> i would say, overall, it's that investors are turning their eyes toward more growth-oriented companies with the fed keeping rate low and feeling bad to be in fixed income. investors are looking for stocks that can outgrow the gdp, and tech has always been the bread and butter of the ipo market. it's been a while since we've seen it. it's starting to increase its share of ipos now. i think that the typical -- typically about a third of ipos are usually tech companies. these are very interesting deals. the pricing is -- always a challenge, because they're small ipos and they tend -- a little

demand in supply early on. >> a spin-off in from citigroup. >> next week. 18 million shares coming from citi with ubs, deutsche bank, morgan stanley and host of other names. 2.2 billion in sales. making money. but it just doesn't have the sex appeal and the fire, marine industry. if you take a look at the calix network an average cost for the inside shareholders that is going to be above what the ipo price is. so valuations are really skidoth ground that the point. making everything relatively cheap. >> guys, we've got to go, but kathleen, gm is going to come eventually, right? the government's going to spin-off gm. that's going to be huge down the road. >> it's hard to believe, but we're going to see the type of thing we used to see in emerging markets happen here in the u.s.

>> great. guys, thanks very much. kathleen, david, always a pleasure to see both of you. 40 minutes to go before the closing bell. trish, look it here at the highs of the day. caterpillar is up. kraft up about 3% as well. >> closer and closer to that 11,000 mark. 10867 on the dow. steel stocks outperforming the broader market so far this year. our next guest sees even more opportunities for one big steel stock. find out which one in just a moment. brufirut first a look at bo brufirut first a look at bo prices today. tocks online,

welcome back. take a look at some of the widely held stocks trading here today. the financials are doing well here. take a look at some other ones that are out there. the important thing that we're hitting the highs today. like caterpillar do well. and the tech stocks are also doing very relhere. exxon's lagging, been lagging for a while. ge's finally starting to assert itself. pfizer's doing okay but that's been a real drag on the dow for a while. at&t and verizon have not been market leaders here. the market leaders right now, intel, cisco and caterpillar. trish? >> okay we've got time for the "fast money" final call. the market's on the move right here, so how do you play with it? with me on the floor of the new york stock exchange, mr. steve grasso. we want to get some answers here on how you get in on this rally. is it too late or is there still opportunity? >> well, you and bob were just

discussing the 18-month high on the s&p which is 1170, basically. so we pop through that. so everyone is saying why are we rallying? rallying on a technical base but some underpinnings on this marketplace. >> iron/ore have kept the materials moving high. clf. >> okay, we're zoning in here on this one company. >> i like the market as a whole because you have to remember guys rushed in and bought the leader recaearly. then they turned around and bought the laggards. then you see that reverse being put back in. they're still buying the lagar. >> so how does this affect the iron/ore steel space. >> iron/ore is going higher because they want to get to a quarterly contract price verse withus an annual price. that will benefit clf because clf has its own ming of iron/ore. the only north america independent iron/ore player in the space so it benefits them. >> do we have a chart, i wonder,

of the stock? tell me the story of how it all fits -- performed. >> it's been on fire for the last six months. it's been on fire but you still see a lot of money going into it. people will say the space is overbought. that could be, but it was also overbought $5 lower and $10 lower. so the market still moves higher in this space. if you approach this and buy it you have to be weary about movement in the stock price as well, of course. >> how much more room does you really think that this market has right now? i was talking to a guy the other day who works in the personal wealth space. he says what's interesting is he's getting a lot of calls from clients right now that had been on the sidelines for so long. now they're rushing back in, trying to get some bit of this upside. so does that suggest a top in any way or does that mean that we could see one final push? >> well, it would suggest the top if everyone felt that way but problem is the naysayers still hate this rally. people are not unanimous on this view.

equal amount of people thinking it is going down as it is going higher. you want to see that. that fosters higher stock prices. the volume has been light. so not everyone who wants to be in this market is in this market so i think we can approach that 1200 market in the s&p. get caught in that vacuum going high are so i do see equities moving higher from here. >> steve, thanks so much and we'll see you on "fast money", tonight, right? >> not tonight. friday night. >> all eyes are on health care and financial reform. the traders are turning their attention to some "under the radar" names that you maybe overlooking and plus a top wall street analyst makes the case for why this market is -- overvalued. you can join melissa and the traders live at 5:00. here we are, bob. we're at highs of the day. 10874. as we get closer and closer, just about 34 minutes from that closing bell. >> and the important thing here is just a few steps away from 11,000 on the dow jones industrial average. industrials, tech, leading the

way here. markets keep heading higher. tortoise rally call it. still more room to run?

well, it's really all how you look at things. and today traders like the way they see this economy looking. right now, up 94 points on the dow. 10880. and i say that because existing home sales came in. and for the third month in a row, we saw a decline in those home sales, and yet we started to see some upside in this market despite that news. it was the eight-month low for the existing home sales. we've got the dow trading up 93 points. awfully close to 11,000. we've got s&p higher right now as well as the nasdaq. well, pay czar ken feinberg is announcing plans to take a look back at economic compensation paid to top executives at every firm that took t.a.r.p. money. our mary thompson just spoke to feinberg, she joins us with more on this. hey, mary. >> reporter: hey there, trish. you know he also issued his rulings on 2010 pay for top

executive executives at five companies that he continues to oversee, and in keeping with the 2009 rulings that he issued in the fall of last year, essentially for those top 25 executive at five firm total pay for 2010 is going to be down 15%. cash salaries as a portion of total compensation down 33%. again, the five firms under his watch, aig, gm, chrysler and the finance arms of both of those auto companies. of course we what we wanted to know when we spoke to feinberg is why he's reviewing that pay issued between october of 2008 and february 2009 to the top executives of those 419 t.a.r.p. companies, some of which have already repaid the money? here's what he had to say. >> statute requires it. the recovery act says that these 419 companies that received t.a.r.p. assistance at any time are subject to this lookback

review. >> reporter: something that you initially planned to do or something that you discovered during your -- during your time as pay czar that made you decide, this time period merits further review? nope, strictly pursuant to statute. i'm just following the law. >> reporter: now, you said that this is going to be more, for lack of a better term, invasive for the five companies that you already oversee, their pay. how about for companies who have repaid t.a.r.p., some of the bigger firms, such as goldman sachs or jpmorgan? >> they're not exempt. any company that received t.a.r.p., evfen if it repaid, must comply in 30 days providing me the data concerning compensation that was paid to top 25 employees between october and february 17th, 2009. >> reporter: do banks get any bonus points for having repaid t.a.r.p.? >> no. they don't get any bonus points. i must say, as i said earlier, if a bank or any institution has totally repaid t.a.r.p. and

returned everything to the taxpayer, there's a presumption, at least in my mind, that they've complied with the public interest. >> reporter: what exactly are you looking for when you review this pay? >> i'm looking for compensation paid during this window that is inconsistent with the public interest. how much was paid? was it paid in guaranteed cash? was it paid over long-term stock, tied to performance? the very principles that have guided me prospectively in 2009 and '10 will also guide me in breathing life into the term inconsistent with the public interest. >> reporter: as pay czar you don't have the authority to clawback this pay, though. so how would you intend to get the money back, if indeed you found some of this was not in the public interest? >> do not underestimate the value of the bully pulpit. the fact that in the last nine months the bully pulpit has been fairly successful, not only with the companies, subject to my mandatory jurisdiction, but also companies that have voluntarily

complied with my concerns. so we shall see. >> reporter: when you issue your report, which is expected in about 90 days or so -- >> right. >> reporter: -- will you be naming names of people whose compensation you felt was not in the public interest during this time period? >> no. i think that the privacy act and federal law precludes that, but i do think we'll be naming companies and types of corporate officials, cfos, ceos, et cetera. i don't think we will actually name the individual in my report. >> reporter: have you already contacted the companies, and if so, what were their response -- or what was their response, if anies, to the news that they're -- that you're going to be reviewing pay? and again we want to be specific here for the time period of october 2008 through february of 2009. >> that's correct. the letters went out today, stand-by. we expect there lake number of inquiries which we'll respond quickly. they have 30 days to give us the data we need, the extensive data that we require.

>> of course, we will be standing by. now coming up at 4:20 eastern i'll have the second part of my interview with feinberg where he talks about his decisions concerning 2010 pay and has some favorable thing to say about aig's ceo robert ben moshet that's coming up at 4:20 on the "closing bell." back to you. >> seeing you shortly, thank you very much, mary thompson. do a quick market check. we're up 93 points, 10879 right there on the dow. now, san francisco fed president jan yellen making news today. economics reporter steve liesman is work nag story. >> reporter: hey, trish. thank you very much. janet yellen is giving a speech now the california today and we're paying particular close to what yell sen saying because she's president obama's nominee to be vice chair to take over over in june. she says moderate growth will continue. inflation will remain subdued

and unemployment will inch down. yellen says we cannot count on a v-shaped recovery but she sees 3.5% growth in 2010 and 4.5% in 2011. business contacts telling yellen that consumers are clearly in a better mood, but she's worried about significant rise, a significant rise in mortgages that could create risk for the housing recovery. think of that as whether or not she might vote -- or number favor of the fed coming back in after it ends its purchases in march, if mortgage rates rise too much. she sees the turnaround in the job market, but unemployment remaining high for several years to come. there is the forecast from yellen right there that we talked about earlier. the economy will operate below potential for several years and she says a 6% output gap that will remain until 2013. so, trish, let me send it back to you with those headlines from janet yellen, that she sees an output gap that is going to be around for a long time, suggesting that federal reserve, she thinks, should remain relatively easy for several years to come.

bob? >> thank you so much, steve liesman. bob? >> gdp growth, still not bad here. talk about the markets here. stocks resuming their upward march here. talk with two guys who are involved here clark winter chief investment officer, sk capital partners and tim freeman, head of u.s. equity derivsales at capstone global markets. i've been calling this the most unloved market in many years by professional stock traders. volatility low, volume is low, yet we keep advancing here across a very broad swath of the stock markets. >> who would have thought that after monday's news we would have a rise as big as we'd had? the climb of the wall of worry? people don't like it. they're ready to put money back to work. >> tim, let me something about what is going to in the options market. all i see is volatility keeps dropping. the vix keeps dropping, this tells me that the privacy buying protection keeps dropping. why the market, why are traders so complacent right now given the huge run-up in prices that we've had. >> we've got huge balance sheet cash that's been built up on balance sheets. companies are starting to look at buying other companies.

investors are looking at all of this cash and saying it has to go someplace. share purchases, increase in dividend. companies will buy other companies and support valuations in the marketplace. >> why isn't there more put buying though? you didn't quite answer question. look the s&p, we're heading towards 1200 here on the. >> right. >> don't you think at least more active trading around certain levels around the 1170, the 1200 level i just don't see it. >> you would think but a tremendous amount of cash flushed into the market by the fed and i think it's meaningful. it's clearly evident in the prices that we're seeing in the cost of insurance in puts today. investors are clearly not worried about this rally and they're leaning long. >> yep, i think that that may be a bit of a mistake. it's really striking as a market observer for 15 years here on the floor it's been very striking. let me ask you about google. did sergey brin do the right thing? people fail to than sergey brin is a russian. >> he was there. >> he was born in russia, left russia, he grew up under

censorship, he knows a lot about blah this is about. he is making a statement of what the world should or shouldn't do. the fact that we're having this discussion is remarkable. did you think 15 years that we would have a debate like this with china as a protagonist. they're saying we're back, do it on our prooims think as a nation this country has to be real careful about blaming everything on the chinese. >> is google on the right side of history in taking this stand? >> i think that history will show that they're on the right side. they've made the right decision, because it's all about porous information. i think in the long run they will win on this. >> yeah. so we're just knocking on the door of 11,000 for the dow jones industrial average. again, it's been technology stocks as well as the big industrial names. look at what caterpillar is doing here today. general electric, our parent company, moving forward. what other market leaders are there, given how much a broad advance that we've had recently? >> i guess the question is, what other parts the market can you put money into now that aren't overbought? >> money wants to go to work and money will go to work with what is unfettered.

i think that banks are suffering from uncertainty. whether you like or health care, it's resochlved and go back to work and focus on your own business. i would expect to see various government to declare a profit. when things don't go your way, pick up the flag and chatter a parade. >> we still don't see the numbers. the numbers that indicate a real turnaround. we need to get the strong jobs number for march next week, will we actually she. >> we might but we need to put these numbers into a longer term context. the economy is healing. we're in a v-shape rover. that's why we're not seeing high-realized volatility, movement in the equity market. that's why volatile levels continue to come in and why i think we'll know to grind higher. >> whole world is seeing if the u.s. can move on and put people back to work. it's not a question of government decree, it's individuals hiring other individuals. that's confidence.

>> clark winter, tim freeman, also a pleasure. thanks very much. look here, trish, what, 20 minutes to go? up almost 100 points. 120 points away from dow 11,000. >> yeah closer and closer. >> new highs on cisco. new highs on intel. new highs on oracle. >> all kinds of new highs. the agricultural department forecast food prices could -- increase as much as 3.5% this year after growing just under 2% last year. coming up next we're going to tell you which five stocks can help you cash in on food inflation. and then coming up after the bell we'll have saks chairman and ceo steve sadove. whether he's starting to see luxury consumers spending again, hm?

welcome back. let's take a look at some of today's "under the radar" stocks. integrated silicon more than doubling its first profit

forecast. and office furnituremaker steelcase narrowing its fourth quarter loss. after losing $66 million a year ago. excluding restructuring costs and expenses, the company lost five cents a share. but wall street was expecting steelcase to break-even. see on the downside there. and aerospace company. triumph group. stock and debt the deal will give carlisle 31% stake in triumph once that deal close. trish? >> okay, with the economy on the road to recovery, it's not surprising that demand for meats, grain and dairy are also increasing, expected to increase. in fact the u.s. department of agricultural is forecasting a 2 1/2 to 3 1/2% rise in food prices this year and my next guest has identified five stocks that will thrive in this environment. tom anderson, associated editor at ken linger personal finance joins me now. hi, tom. >> hello, trish, thanks for

having me. >> our pleasure. food inflation are certainly one things that people are keeping an eye on in this rover environment. goldman sachs came out and named one of its top nine investing themes for 2010. how's it playing out thus far? >> well, food inflation really won't kick in until the second half of this year, but you know, the market is discounting mechanism and looking nine months out, you can really see that it will start to take effect. just look at potash prices, which are a key fertilizer. they bottomed in january and now -- now they're up from 350 per nun january to more than 400 per ton in march. >> and didn't the company also raise its earnings guidance? foo yes. oh, i was talking about potash the commodity, but yes, you're right, potash coach corporation of saskatchewan one of our five stocks for food inflation did raise their first quarter earnings per share forecast from 70 cents to a dollar, up to a buck 30 to a buck 50.

>> let's talk about what you're exactly seeing in terms of trends, in terms of the food prices themselves for this year if you're to look out over the course of the next eight months, what's anticipated, 2.5% to 3.5%? >> i actually think that bill lapp who is a -- an agricultural economists just said last week at the reuters food summit that the number's probably more around 4%, 5% this year. so i mean you're going to see a modern amount of food inflation and i think that fertilizer stocks potash corporation of saskatchewan, mosaic, agram, will really benefit from this because potash is a key fertilizer and it also has very high margins compared to phosphates and nitrogen fertilizers. and so it's going to benefit from this trend a lot. and that's why we like the three top potash producers. >> okay, let's go through each of these stocks here. >> sure. >> just name the five, if you

would. >> sure. well, there are three potash producers. that's potash, mosaic, agrium, and then you know, with food inflation brings demand for more yield, more crop yields. >> so you need seeds. >> so you need seed, exactly, trish and that's why we like monsanto. monsanto's kind of gone sideways since march of 2009, but the reason we like it is it is so dominant in the corn, in the soybean markets, and that's really -- those are growing markets and that's where you're going to see a monsanto really shine and have good prospects over the next 12 months. >> let's talk about what this moderate increase in food prices means for the grocers. i was speaking with a banker the other day, an investment banker, who said the one good thing about this is some of these company, the food producers themselves benefit because once the food prices go up, they can pretty much stay up so they get

to the grocery store shelves and people pay a little bit more, and pretty much they stay at that level. it's rare that you see a lot of those processed foods come down in their price. what's your take on that? >> well, you're exactly right, trish. i mean the thing is that with a modern amount of food inflation, safeway can pass along the cost of rising food prices to customers and the reason we like safeway is that it made a lot of the tough decisions last year. it cut costs aggressively and because of that it's going to generate -- it's expected to generate up to a billion dollars in free cash flow which it can then pass onto shareholders in the form of stock buybacks and dividends. >> tom, a pleasure. thank you so much for joining us and for giving united states those tips on the five. >> thanks for having me, trish. okay, here we are, getting closer and closer to that closing bell. about 20 -- ten minutes here to go. boy, time flies when you are having fun and you're up triple-digit right. >> techs leading the way. nasdaq's at a new high and s&p

500 also at a new high. forget the smartphone war, fo folks, the race to develop the next generation of chips to run the device. up next find out which companies are involved in that and why it's getting more heated by the way.

okay, there you go, the dow jones industrial average up 96 points to 10882. this was despite that existing home sales figure that showed existing home sales had fallen for three straight months to its lowest level in eight months. nonetheless, investors saying, well, it's better than they thought it was going to be, and definitely we're seeing a lot of upside here throughout the market. really, you know, every sector, industrials, materials, technology, all moving higher. energy and health care, the only laggards here. some the widely helds. mostly green there across the board. continuing on there, microsoft up almost 1%, intel higher. this is the technology story i was just telling you. ibm, apple, google's the only one getting hurt and of course we all know the china story over there. bob, over to you. >> 5-to 2 advancing to declining

stocks improving throughout the day and the key story behind this tape has been advancers continuing to lead decliners. new highs show no signs of abating. the stakes to develop the next generation of computer chips is enormous a competitive tech war. scott cohen is at the wireless tent twen show in vegas with the details. do you got any gadgets on there you, scott? >> reporter: absolutely, bob. you and i were old enough to remember dick tracy. check out my watch here, ooh, but it's not a watch. wait a minute, it's a phone! it's an mp3 player. and yes, it is shades of dick tracy, a two-way risk tv. lots and lots of gadgets here but one ofs things that you know as you walk around this show is a lot of about is what makes this stuff happen, the infrastructure, whether it's the routers nowadays.

the chips in a typical old style phone maybe four, five chips and a smartphone that makes up 25% or so of the mobile market they might have 20 chips and someone has got make these. it is a big, big deal. a lot of the chip companies -- all of the chip companies really, lining up to compete for what many expect is going to be a huge market. >> from a semiconductor viewpoint the smartphone market represents closely 40% the actual silicon opportunity. the total value, again, analysts have numbers at $15, $17 billion of value. >> reporter: that is a lot of money. that's a lot of chips, and noticeably absent from the smartphone chip area has been bell. of course the dominant chipmaker, but they are getting into it now in a big, big way with their own architecture and going into this market with a great deal of confidence.

>> it is all fundamentally about computing, it's about applications, it's about computing and it's also about performance right. all of those traits play directly into assets that intel has -- has core technologies. >> reporter: so it is a war that is shaping up here, and the challenge is chips that don't pull a whole lot of power and don't heat things up so that this wristwatch burns all on your wrist. it is a very difficult technological issue and now just about everybody is jumping on board. guys? >> thanks very much, scott. later on "fast money", more coverage from the international ctia wireless 2010 show in las vegas how smartphone prices may be a strong for palm? that's ahead 5:00 p.m. eastern time. >> that's a cool watch he had. >> i know the dick tracy thing -- we're not surprised by it now. that's how advanced technology has come. after the bell former commerce secretary carlos gutierrez tells us if he thinks

that google's battle with china over censorship will have broader implications for other american businesses do business in china. you don't want to miss that. i've been growing algae for 35 years. most people try to get rid of algae, and we're trying to grow it. the algae are very beautiful. they come in blue or red, golden, green. algae could be converted into biofuels... that we could someday run our cars on. in using algae to form biofuels, we're not competing with the food supply. and they absorb co2, so they help solve the greenhouse problem, as well. we're making a big commitment to finding out... just how much algae can help to meet... the fuel demands of the world.

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