washington post." scott, how do these figures look to you over there? >> well, they look pretty good. you know, we're expecting that the weather, decline in jobless claims and the census hiring will all lead to some positive job numbers on friday. >> neil? >> yeah, this certainly is consistent with the idea that we're going to see a nice number on friday. the adp report yesterday was pretty disappointing and led to some second guessing, but you know, there's no reason there shouldn't be a six-figure gain tomorrow. we'll see if that's what happens, but there's no reason there shouldn't be that. >> scott anderson, i have to ask you about comments that the treasury secretary made to the "today" show this morning, and that is that the jobless number, the unemployment rate will remain unacceptably high for a very long time, and i'm just curious, to sort of dovetail what neil wrote about in "the washington post" yesterday, that productivity gains are hampering companies or not really giving them an incentive to hire, how long actually is unacceptable, in your view? >> well, yeah, you know, we're

projecting maybe four or five years before we get the unemployment rate back down to what we consider a fully employed economy. it's going to take an awful long time. a lot of people are long-term unemployed at this point. so, it's going to be a long, slow slog. you know, small businesses right now are not hiring. you look at all the small business surveys, and maybe 4% to 7% are expecting to expand their payrolls in the next 12 months. so, it's going to be a slow go at first, but we'll start to see some positive numbers coming out of the net payrolls. >> i'm pretty flabbergasted, scott, at your prediction of four to five years. what happens to the rest of the economy? i mean, i'm wondering, because we have seen quite a run, for instance, in consumer discretionary stocks, the retailers, the notion that the consumer will continue to spend and yet, you say that it will take four or five good years before we reach full employment in this economy. >> and that's why we're predicting a below-average recovery, melissa. it's going to be a slow go. the growth rate's going to be below normal coming out of such

a deep downturn. we've just opened up so much slack in the economy, the output gap is very large and it's going to take a long time, a lot of growth to get back to where we were before this thing happened. >> neil, let me take it down, if i may, purely to a stock market view of the world, and our main concern is whether we go back into double dip. >> right. >> what sort of figure do we need to get tomorrow, or maybe next month or possibly the month after, to convince us that is not going to happen? >> well, the market seems to have priced in the idea of a nice, slow, steady recovery, and that seems to be what's happening, and we seem to be ready for employment gains in march, and hopefully, continued gains as the spring and summer progress. if that expectation's undermined, that's what will cause problems in the equity markets. >> so, what figure tomorrow, in a worst-case scenario, what figure should actually raise my concern that this market has got it wrong and that is assuming that it's going to be too smooth? at what point does it trigger fear for me?

>> yeah, con census is about 200,000 gain. i think if you have a five-figure number in payroll gains, given the bounceback in snow, the momentum you have from census hiring, if we only see a 50,000, 60,000 number of job gains, you know, six months ago, that would have been a thrilling number, but right now that will be a disappointment and cause second guessing of what's going on in this job recovery. >> scots, we have certainly seen a pickup in merger and acquisition activity and i'm curious to get your view on when we usually see increased hiring in this part of the cycle and the fact that companies are buying other companies, does that sort of push out the estimate as to when companies will actually start hiring themselves? >> well, there's still a lot of cannibalization that has to go on. a lot of companies are going to look at acquisitions for growth right now, given that demand isn't going to be growing that strongly. so, you're right. you know, one thing i'm looking for in the payroll report on friday is to see better working hours, and perhaps a gain in hourly earnings to kind of

confirm the strengthening tone in the labor market. i mean, that is almost as important as creating jobs right now in terms of building income growth and getting the consumer to spend again. >> okay. all right, gentlemen, we'll leave it there. scott, neil, thank you very much. have a great weekend. let's get down to the floor as we count you down to the open. 24 minutes to trade. bob pisani looking at reaction to that. and also overnight, bob, good moves on commodities, from china with the data there and japan with the data they came up with. >> that's right. manufacturing surveys in china were up, the tankan survey in japan were up, asian markets were up nicely. futures markets here were up, simon, as the jobless claims number came in about in line with expectations. we had a big ipo pricing. ipos are back over the last few weeks. pri america pricing at $21.36 million. i'll have a interview with the co-ceos at 9:35 eastern time. carmax reported better earnings.

used car sales were up, prices were up and market shares were up, a trifecta for carmax. micron also up nicely, better-than-expected earnings. dram memory volumes also higher than anticipated. borders is up. it's only a $2 stock, but earnings are better than expected and they repaid a loan from pershing square capital management. tradertalk.cnbc.com. melissa, back to you. >> thank you very much, bob pisani. also "front & center" this morning, a "new york times" report saying the top hedge fund managers are back in business and back in business big time. david tepper ranking at the top of the fund managers. his flagship fund reportedly up 130% last year. the runner-up, george soros, rank i ranking $3.3 billion as his fund shot up about 20%. jpmorgan's jamie dimon attacking what he calls the demonization of big banks by the political establishment. defense of his industry came in a letter to shareholders. and let's check on the futures right now. and --

>> wow! >> looks like as we go into the long weekend, people are feeling optimistic. >> i thought we would be in no man's land, sandwiched between the end of the quarter and the unemployment report. >> especially with the claims number coming in pretty much in line. so there was no reason to rally off of that. >> i think the good data from china, moves on the commodities overnight has obviously buoyed the international markets and that seems to be feeding through. let's get to the nasdaq and see where we are with bertha coombs and, no doubt, bertha, the excitement over the ipad on saturday. >> that's right. 48 hours away, it will be available 48 hours from now in stores, and this morning, though, apple's rival research in motion is getting clobbered. this stock down over 4.5%. the company yesterday with its earnings missed by a penny, but even worse, the revenues were shy and it sees its revenues coming in as perhaps a little bit below the consensus to perhaps a little bit higher. nonetheless, it's a very negative reaction this morning on the street. but bob told you about micron,

and that's having a nice effect this morning on the chip sector. micron, its dram prices were strong. its flash memory was a little weak, but think equity this morning saying they think that the ipad ramp-up will be good for them. and apple coming back up after slipping a bit yesterday, right now at $237. xyratex, a storage maker blowing out the street and raising its outlook well above expectations. its biggest supplier to network appliance and it's feeling a behavioral effect this morning. skillsoft also higher after it says its acquisition deal has been up, now valued at $11.25 a share, putting the price at $1.2 billion. meanwhile, look at this biotech firm. ardea sees positive stage two results for a drug to treat gout, up 14% on that news. melissa, back to you. >> thank you so much, bertha coombs. got to take a break here, but "the faber report" is up next. plus, the top-performing s&p

stock for q-1. also, expectations are high for the ipad, as we've heard, hitting stores on saturday. which brings us to our street poll this morning. do you plan to buy one? go to squawkonthestreet.cnbc.com. david power writing in today's "the new york times" that haters tend to be techies, fans tend to be regular folks. >> i like the last choice -- "i wouldn't know an ipad if it hit me in the head." afterwards, you would take a look, i'm sure. >> and as we head into break, let's look at the overseas markets today. as i mentioned to you, good days here from china and japan today, commodities riding high and an 18-month high on the emerging markets. natural gas is a cleaner burning fuel,

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welcome back. take a look. dow futures right now indicating a higher open as we begin the last trading session of the week. >> and boy, it's been a big week in the energy markets. oil soaring nearly 4% on a weaker greenback. the dollar index, as you might be aware, down about 1%. let's get the buzz from the big board. sharon epperson is in the oil pits. rick santelli at the cme. sharon? >> a new high for oil prices for 2010 hit just a few minutes ago, $85 a barrel for the price of crude. we are looking at it, even though we've seen a slight rebound for the dollar today, seems like we're looking at the

highest price we've seen since october of 2008, and the climb in oil prices seems to belie what we're seeing on the fundamental basis. we had bearish supply data yesterday for u.s. oil supplies. we had that new drilling plan from the obama administration. we had a slight rebound in the dollar, and yet, oil prices continue to climb. a lot of traders looking at the fact that oil's up $4, more than $4 just this week, are looking at the fact that, yes, we did have some positive data overnight out of asia in terms of manufacturing and also positive from the eurozone in terms of manufacturing, but it's really investment flows that are moving this market higher. hedge fund manager michael masters has been one to always talk about the role of speculators in this market, and as he points out, financial interest, whether you believe in the speculation argument or not, are certainly helping to drive this price. we're looking at investment close for the start of the quarter. we're also looking at a lot of people trying to bet on which way the dollar's going and they're betting on commodities. we're seeing prices here near $85 a barrel. expect $90 next. rick santelli, to you in

chicago. >> well, thank you, sharon. let's stick with that strong dollar theme, because it looks strong, especially when you look at this chart. the dollar versus the yen. we haven't been up at $93.75 since probably the end of august of last year, and indeed, the fiscal year end, end of march, which, of course, was yesterday, is a big deal in japan, and the market was really very quiet for a good stretch towards the end of march, hanging around 92.5. so, this is a big deal, but it's a mixed bag. dollar index is virtually unchanged. we're having a lot of gains in the yen and the euro but loss against the pound. rates slightly higher. we're awaiting ism data. david faber, what are you working on today? well, rick, you know, of course, we all know the s&p is up well over 70% in the last year. we know the credit markets have been very kind in terms of high yield being up even more, many funds, than the stock market, and even the investment grade.

also, leveraged loans, to add to that. you may recall back in late '07, certainly through '08, there was an expectation of a wave of bankruptcies through many of the private equity deals that had been done in that '06-'07 time period. it never really came. certainly, we have seen some, but not nearly as many as might have been anticipated. but loans backing those deals have been written down very aggressively in many cases by the banks that gave them. and yet, we've watched as leveraged loans have also come back and come back sharply. in fact, hitting what is a 21-month high this week in terms of that important index that we watched, it would seem, every day during the height of this crisis. what does that mean? well, one thing it means is that you're going to start to potentially see more clos. remember those? but leveraged loan prices up to 91.7% of face value. that's the highest since '08.

low was 59%. that was december of '08 that we saw the low. it looks something like this. here, let me show you. right here. there it is. see? can you see the line? that's what it looks like. that's the graph. what does it mean? well, it also means that loan defaults, of course, are down, things are running off. you have a big bankruptcy, but ultimately, that runs out of a lot of these clo portfolios, runs out of the index. loan defaults down now to a rate of 5.7% at the end of q-1. that's from a record 11% in november and forecasts now, according to citigroup, which put a long report out on this yesterday, are down to a rate of about 3% to 4% this year. what does that mean? i mentioned it already. clos -- remember cdos? well, we also had clos, namely collateralized loan obligations. they bought the leveraged loans from the banks, packaged them and sold them as securities to investors around the world. that business dried up

completely during the crisis. it is starting to inch back. in fact, we saw the first clo deal done earlier this week for 2010, the first one in a year. what does all that mean? well, it means that there is financing available for lbos. the question is, of course, whether it will be used and how it will be used. take a listen to scott sperling, who runs the large lbo firm th lee. >> the high yield market is better than it's ever been in history. we've now set records in each of the last three months both globally in the united states for the number of high yield raised and set a record for the quarter relative to the next best quarter, which was in late '06. so, the financing markets have come back strongly, led by high yield, but now the bank market is there. i think the thing we need to be careful about is not to make the mistake that we as an industry made in '07, which is we used better financing in order to pay more for companies beyond their inherent fundamental values.

>> that's right. that basically means we leveraged up balance sheets to pay for companies way above what they were worth. we saw what happened there. now, here, i've told you in recent weeks, bankers tell me they could go as high as $10 billion for a particular deal, let's say as high as $15 billion. will we see it? well, when i talked with private equity guys, they say, listen, we're not probably going to be going to that level. we're still looking in that $3 billion to $5 billion range as our sweet spot right now, but given where we are in the financing markets, given the comeback of clos, the comeback of leverage loans, certainly, we can anticipate seeing more activity on that front. simon, back to you. >> okay, david, talk to you later. thank you very much for that. coming up next on the program, topping the charts, zion's bancorp. the best of the best in the s&p for the first quarter. a lot of chatter about them as a takeover target. we'll talk about their potential success in your portfolio. and later on, shares of r.i.m. down about 9% on the premarket trade. does this pull back your buying opportunity or is this simply losing out to apple and motorola?

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eight minutes to trade then. this thursday afternoon on the new york stock exchange, s&p minis still looking at a higher open. zions bancorp shares surging, making it the best performing stock in the s&p 500 in the first quarter. shares of zions up more than 225% since the bottom.

can you still profit in this bank stock? joining us on the newsline, bob patten, managing director and senior bank analyst at morgan keegan. bob, great to have you. >> hey, melissa, how are you? >> good. common sense tells me you want to cycle out of this stock and move into another. >> that's a good read. obviously, the stock's been up big. the market misunderestimated the recovery here. it's really about visibility, it's about credit getting better. i wouldn't chase it here, though. we have a hold rating on the stock at this time. we clearly missed this rally in zions. we didn't think it would be this strong. we would push investors to other names like huntington, fifth third or bb&t at this point. >> it's obviously a recovery from the position of near failure, but to take it to the next level, bob, there is that possibility, that very real possibility that the japanese or barclays from the uk will start stalking some of these bank assets, and zions' right at the helm of that as a potential

target, is it not? >> well, zions has been one of the fastest five-year growth footprints in banking at about 10%. so, clearly, that's an attraction. two, the fact that it is in a market that will have significant consolidation, both in fdic-assisted transactions and non. there's a lot of banks in this market that have tripled. so, owning zions or trying to buy a zions bank would put you in a key position for further consolidation. >> if these inquirers, particularly from overseas, arrive, what will they be looking for? what will draw them? is it deposits? >> well, the key issue here is when is that going to happen? there's a lot of rumors about it. we're still in a credit cycle and the banks are working out and you have to be very careful about buying another bank's portfolio. i think some of the non-fdic bank m&a rumors may be a little overheated. obviously, the canadian banks want to get into here. >> right. >> some of the european banks. and it's viewed that the u.s. was first in, first out. >> bob, can you just bottom line it for us in terms of the takeover chatter? what would you put in terms of

the odds of it being taken out in the next 12 months? >> zero. >> zero. okay. bob patten, thank you very much. >> that was concise. >> yep. next, the countdown to the opening bell and the first on cnbc, an interview with the co-ceos of primerica, shares of the citi spinoff minutes away from floating. >> and we've got more bad news for r.i.m., downgraded to a accelerating by goldman sachs. we'll talk about what's ahead for the blackberry maker after missing q-4 estimates. "squawk on the street" will be back in a couple minutes.

in the headlines at this hour, jobless claims fall 6,000 ahead of tomorrow's big employment report. oil hitting the $85 a barrel mark, and the "wall street journal" cutting new

subscription prices by 80% in some cases as it attempts to better take on "the new york times." all right, as we count you down to that opening bell, let's take a closer look at research in motion. shares are lower by just about 5% in the premarket following its fourth quarter earnings report. joining me with his take is will power, telecom analyst at robert w. baird. will, the bulls point to margins that came in better than expected, but it looks like research in motion may be losing market share, and we knew that also prior to going into this quarterly report. what would you do here with r.i.m. on the pullback? >> we'd be buyers on the weakness. you know, we actually had some concerns going into the quarter with regard to shipments, actually, probably more for the may quarter than for the february quarter, as it turned out, due in part to slowing base subscriber growth in the u.s., but we feel good about the medium-term growth prospects top line and bottom line. we think growth will rebound and international growth seems to be good for them now. >> but in terms of market share, it can't be denied that other

devices, namely apple, gained 1% market share in the fourth quarter versus the third quarter. android devices gained 2.7%, while research in motion lost 1%. what do you think research in motion is doing, based on the conference call, to address the share slippage problem? >> well, there's no question, that's the biggest source of concern, you know, for investors moving forward and rightly so. it's a very fluid market out there. i think as we all know. we all know the iphone's a great device, android's coming out strong, as you noted. but keep in mind, if you step back and look at verizon wireless, which is the biggest source of concern, and the assumption is they'll get the iphone here at some point -- just 15% of verizon's customers have a smartphone today. that means there's still 80 million verizon wireless customers who still don't have a smartphone. we think most of those will over the next three to five years, even if r.i.m. just gets 10% of that, that's a significant growth opportunity for them within that customers. i think we're still at the early stages of the secular growth story. >> right. >> and even if they lose some share, we think there's still

good growth ahead. >> we'll take a pause here and see how the stock opens. >> you are watching, yes, the opening bells. here at the big boards, autism speaks, marking the third annual autism awareness day. we'll talk to the co-founders of the organization, bob and susan wright. and at the nasdaq, u.s. physical therapy, ticker usph and operator of physical and occupational therapy clinics in the united states. all right, seeing how the markets are opening right now, research in motion, the stock we were just talking about, down by 5.7%. bob pisani, what do you have down there? >> well, the important thing is, the futures are up nicely here. we had some good manufacturing survey numbers over in asia. that lifted asia. europe is on the upside rather nicely, and let's face it, the jobless claims number about in line with expectations, but no real signs of actual job growth that's going on here. primerica, this is the big topic this morning. here's the crowd here, pricing above the initial price target, $12 to $14, priced at $15 and more shares on the deal. i'll be talking to the co-ceos

in just about 15 minutes. you'll want to hear all about that. earnings commentary pretty good today. carmax not only reported better used car comparable store sales, and that's certainly good news, used car prisices were up and market share was up. really good report. that stock's opening to the upside. micron also on the up side. bottom line is simple -- dram memory volumes were on the upside. that's helping them. another sign of a tech rebound. finally, just want to note, borders group is up nicely here. it's only a $2 stock, but their earnings were above expectations and they repaid a big loan from pershing square capital management. tradertalk.cnbc.com. and remember, primerica's ceos coming up. bertha, how's the nasdaq? >> it's such a great week for ipos, but this morning it's research in motion, goldman sachs cutting it to a sell, basically saying the story now is about ask. they may still be great when it comes to e-mail and enterprise, but they're not going to get growth from there. meantime, though, over at credit suisse, at rbs, ubs and thomas

weisel, all boosting their price target on research in motion. goldman says apple and google are positioned when it comes to apps and both are rising. and here we have apple yet again at a fresh high, closing in on $238 a share. palm also looking higher as more people speculate that perhaps research in motion might buy the ailing handset maker for its os. meantime, micron is setting a nice halo effect when it comes to chips. right now we have the philadelphia semiconductor index up nearly 1.5%. r rambus also higher after settling its license agreements. >> thank you very much for that. let's look at the markets two minutes into trade. we've had a lovely little bounce there at the open. let's get the "cnbc edge" now. mike holland is chairman of holland and company and gene peroni is senior vp and portfolio manager of advisers asset management. good morning to you both. gene, i want to kick off with you. a fascinating reframing in your notes of the correction that we

had last year, and as you described, the leadership actually not changing from before the correction to after it and what that means about the future. how much, perhaps, the big picture we may have lost in the woods. >> well, i think it's just that it was a severe correction rather than a traditional bear market. most bear markets caused a seat change in leadership. this one did not, and many of the technical characteristics present at the 2002 bottom, also very present between october of 2008 and march of 2009. the fact that the leadership still is very much intact from the 2002 period suggests to me that we're still in that post 2002 market cycle -- commodities, technology, health care, manufacturing and so on. >> yet, the disconnect, the degree of the fall, the severity of what happened would seem to me that you've broken all etrends because everything kind of melted down in the middle of it. that's not the same dynamic, is

it? >> well, the severity of the decline brought about incredible liquidity, the fed acting aggressively to lower rates, and now we have the earnings really starting to come in here very nicely. nothing more powerful for the stock market than earnings and interest rates, and both of those things are coming into focus very nicely in the same categories that we saw years ago, seven or eight years ago. >> mike, let me get a second opinion on what gene's saying. >> well, i hope he's right, simon, and i hope that we continue the way we are. over the next year or two, the jobs picture -- and we're going to obviously get news tomorrow and the focus will be on jobs, jobs, jobs for the short term. if we don't get a follow-through in the jobs picture, which will then but recess housing, which will buttress a lot of other things, we'll have a harder slog than we've had during the past year. having said that, far more important than some of the things we're talking about is what people have not been focused on, and that's the federal reserve yesterday was the last day that they're going

to be in the market for buying bonds. last year, the federal reserve bought 90% of all net new issuance in the u.s. fixed income markets, 90%. they're not going to be there in the coming year. it will be interesting to see what happens. we need jobs. we need the economic recovery that gene's talking about. >> but follow through on that. what do you think that the fallout from that will be from the not buying down? i mean, do you see people who might be overweight treasuries moving out yields, perhaps rising? how do you think that will shake down, having pointed that out? >> yes, i think we will get, you know, a meaningful move out of treasuries and probably into common stocks, to gene's point, and maybe this will be the buttress for the stock market in the coming year or two. >> okay. got to leave it there, guys. thank you very much, mike, gene. thank you. have a good weekend. ringing the opening bell today, autism speaks, marking the third annual world autism awareness day and the launch of the light

it up blue campaign. melissa is down on the floor. >> thank you, simon. we have bob and suzanne wright, the co-founders of autism speaks. bob, of course, is also the former vice chairman of general electric, the parent company of cnbc. we're also joined by the ceo of the nyse euronext, duncan nee r neiderhauer and we have a number of guests. >> liam. >> and why are you here? >> because my brother has autism. >> very well said. autism has been getting more coverage these days. there seems to be a lot more awareness. how close are we at this point, bob, to finding a cure? >> well, we're doing everything we can, first of all, to build awareness, because that's how you drive research. i'd say we're starting to get to the point now we're seeing translational work, research, some of which we fund, some of which we haven't, is now getting attention of venture capital firms and medical venture

capital firms. i'd say the progress in the last four or five months in that area is very strong and you may see something in the next eight or nine months, which is quite surprising. >> suzanne, what have you noticed since you and bob founded autism speaks in terms of the strides being made towards finding a cure or awa awareness? what makes you the most hopeful? >> what makes me the most hopeful is that we have the world's attention now. as you know, tomorrow's the world day and that's very exciting because the world is now paying attention to autism, but the most serious thing is that the numbers are still going up. cdc numbers are now 1 in 110. when we got it, it was 1 in 166, then 1 in 150, now it's 1 in 70 boys. so we have to put all our efforts to put the awareness out there and find the cause and cure of autism. >> duncan, this is a cause near and dear to your heart as well. >> it is, and this is our third year of doing it and this is liam's third year being here with us as well. and it's the small thing we can do to make sure that the rest of the world, as suzanne says, pays attention. >> something you want to add? >> yes. >> go ahead. >> i just want to shout out a

big thank you to all my friends who are watching this and juwan to say thanks. >> that's very good. and you did a good job holding the mike as well, liam. all right, bob and suzanne wright as well as matisse and duncan niederauer along with his son, liam. simon, back to you. >> thank you very much. citigroup spinning off its unit primerica, has opened for trade after the ipo priced in above the range. the co-ceos will join us in a moment. plus, breaking economic data. we'll have the ism manufacturing figures coming out at the top of the hour and if you've just arrived from another planet, the ipad, of course, arrives in stores on saturday. the street poll -- are you buying an ipad? yes, no or i wouldn't know one if it hit me in the head. go vote, squawkonthestreet.cnbc.com.

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good morning, folks. welcome back to "squawk on the street." matt nesto here. did you see ford here? their u.s. march sales are coming out around noon today, but wow, china for the first quarter up 84% to an all-time high. they also tripled their sales in india in march. so, if that's an indicator, the stock is up 2.5% ahead of those announcements. we'll get all of the auto results coming out throughout the early afternoon, around lunchtime and after. legg mason raised to out-perform from market perform at kbw. $37 is the new price target, number one on the s&p with a 6% pop on the news. blackrock, at the same time, downgraded at deutsche bank and citigroup, citigroup to sell from buy, deutsche bank to hold from buy. it's down 3% here this morning. beamis as well as pactive initiated to outperform by credit suisse. beamis is stronger 2% on the

news. and ryanair, i know it's european, folks, but it's in the airline index. in fact, it's the third largest player and far and away the best performer today with a big 8.5% jump here this morning, better-than-expected bookings and yields see this airline raising their full-year forecast and a big move in the marketplace. $8.8 billion market cap. simon, back to you. >> thank you very much for that, matt. time for "commodities corner." and we're talking about two of the top metals for q-1. palladium up and platinum up 12% from q-1 prices from a year ago, skyrocketing, as you can see, 120% for palladium, platinum not doing so well, but still a relatively good return, up 44%. well, "the new york times," in case you haven't caught this yet, really interesting report, saying hedge funds are back, in

fact, after having a big year. david tepper, the new reigning hedge fund champ. his fund is up 130%. meantime, george soros also up big, right, simon? raking in about $3.3 billion. >> interesting with the former that it was a big bet that the banks wouldn't fail. >> right. >> coming in and buying right at the bottom there. >> absolutely. we want to go straight to bob pisani, who's got some information, i believe, primerica, did it start trading, bob? >> we're waiting for it to open and i'm standing away from the post, which is behind us. 19.5% to 20.5% is what i was hearing moments ago. we'll see if we can get a number. the important thing is we have the two ceos here, john addison on my left. rick is also here, rick williams here. both co-ceos of primerica. just went public today, since you spun off from citigroup. congratulations, you caught a little ipo wave here, gentlemen. $12 to $14 is the price talk, $15, open close to $20. how is business doing? >> business is very good, and bob, this is an unbelievable day

for all of the stakeholders of primerica. our 100,000 representatives, our 2,000 employees. this is a historic day. refounding our company. business is great. we help middle-income families solve their financial problems, and that's a great business to be in. >> you know, rick, you guys have a really old-fashioned business model. for viewers who don't know it, basically, it's friends and families. primerica employees are mostly part-time. they bring in their friends and their family, they sell them insurance, they sell them mutual funds, they sell them financial products. does this model still work? >> this model works perfectly. no one else focused on the middle-income market like we do. we have a distribution model that effectively reaches them. other people have to go to the consumers, we can go to the middle market and sell them products and help them solve their financial problems. >> are you staying with that business model? is there -- i noticed, i looked at the revenue growth, it's been choppy in the last few years. it's been a little tough in 2008, but how do you grow

revenues at this point? >> we grow revenues by growing distribution. we help families achieve financial independence. that is our goal. we're going to build our distribution system. we're going to grow our sales force and we're going to help thousands more families. bob, this is an exciting day for the members of primerica. >> tell us a little bit about where the stock's going here. i know you have a side deal with warburg pincus, also a big investor. what percentage of the total stock is available to the public? >> warburg pincus owns 32%, citi will own 32% and public -- actually, i don't know what percentage is the public. >> 15% at this point. >> what's the relationship with citigroup? are you paying them dividends? how is that relationship with citigroup working out in terms of the finances? >> okay, we structured the transaction where citigroup reinsures 80% of our end force block of business and retain 80% of the earnings on the existing company, but we have a smaller, faster growing company going forward. >> you also have -- one of the

things i also notice is you have a turnover in the employment force. i guess that's to be expected, part-time employees. >> right. >> is that an issue? are you always able to simply find new people to keep bringing in to replenish the sales force or do you need to look at another model? >> no, bob, no new model. look, a lot of people join things just like they join a health club and then don't stick to it, but let me tell you what we wind up with. we have 20,000 representatives with over ten years with our company. that's bigger than just about any financial services distribution company. there are 7,000 have been with us over 20 years. we have a lot of people join, but we build great loyalty, and for all of those people, it's a great day in primerica. >> and it certainly is. i just want to check, hey, can you check for us on primerica? can you check on that for me real quick? the important things are the growth prospects for the company. when i called the trading desk, they said what kind of growth can we expect? what kind of top-line growth are you expecting this year and the next couple years? >> our objective is to be able

to grow our sales force significantly, and when we grow the sales force, our underlying sales grow as well. >> it's a very mathematically predictable model, bob, very mathematically predictable model. and this new day, our refounding is going to lead to great growth in primerica. >> john addison and rick williams, co-ceos of primerica. congratulations. $19 is what it currently looks like where it's going to open. remember, price talk $12 to $14, priced at $15. looks like it's going to open at $19. these guys have got to go over there and traditionally make the first trade of 100 shares. back to you guys in the studio. >> wow. >> thank you, bob pisani. >> that's a decent premium at the opening. >> decent premium. it could be read two ways. one -- >> priced too low. >> priced too low. maybe for citi skeptics, maybe citi left too much money on the table. i mean, if they want to raise as much as they can in terms of funding, maybe they could have waited for the assets to appreciate to be priced fairly. just throwing that out there. coming up next, is your body

vulnerable to hackers? may sound like a syfy movie, but a prestigious medical journal is raising concern over medical devices. details on preventing a hack attack. that's next. >> oh, wow. with fidelity, you can take your trading around the world, because now you can trade u.s. and foreign stocks online, in 12 markets, 24 hours a day, all from the same account, and settle in u.s. dollars or the local currency. plus, we'll guide you with international research and realtime quotes,

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well, in a much anticipated report from the u.s. department of agriculture this week, it's projected that farmers will be focusing on corn production and the soybean crop in the year ahead. in the last year, you will an wear, corn is down about 13%, soy down about 1% during the course of the last 12 months. it's an important report, because it indicates to everyone elsewhere the capacity in the industry is likely to be during the course of the next year. >> and this underscores why some of the top performers in the s&p 500 in the last quarter were the top performers. tyson foods, for instance, benefiting from those lower corn prices. so, that's the silver lining in all this. meantime, as if there wasn't enough to make you worried about your health, the new england

journal of medicine has found something new to fret about, a hack attack. in your body. cnbc's pharmaceuticals reporter mike huckman is back at hq with this terrifying report. mike? >> good morning, melissa. from farmers to pharma. we are all familiar, of course, with the nuisance and frustration of our pcs getting hacked or infected with a malicious virus or worm, but this article in the latest issue of the new england journal of medicine says hacking has the potential to also literally become a matter of life and death. researchers are sounding the alarm about the risk of an intentional or inadvertent security breaches are computerized implantable medical devices. we're talking about life-saving electronic gadgets, defibrilators and pace makers, that hundreds of people in this country are walking around with. and as those devices have gone wireless now, sending personal medical data back and forth from the patient to their doctor -- calls telemedicine, by the way -- security experts say the chances of that information being intercepted have

increased, but researchers have also shown that somebody could remotely disable or even amp up a device with potentially fatal consequences. university of washington computer science professor yoshi kono is one of the authors of this new england journal of medicine paper. >> we are raising a red flag saying look out. security privacy for medical devices could be an incredibly important issue in the future and we want to make sure we don't have an oops moment, the saying five years from now, saying i wish we had thought about security earlier. >> medtronic, st. jude and boston scientific say their products are safe, life-saving, and the risk of them getting hacked is extremely low. nonetheless, they're working to increase security and are open to working with the fda to come up with specific security guidelines. there has not been a single documented incident of medical device hacking in the real world. so far, it's only been done in a lab. researchers say they are not trying to scare anybody, they're just trying to get the fda and the industry to tighten up

security to better prevent hacking before it happens. for more, check out farmersmarket.cnbc.com. follow me on twitter at mhuckman. melissa, back to you. >> that seems absolutely extraordinary, particularly to describe it as an oops moment, that there is even a possibility that that could happen, mike. why did -- surely, it's a closed system. you've got to make it a closed system. there shouldn't be any risk -- >> correct. >> -- that somebody else should get in there. >> correct. and in fact, st. jude for one says that at least one of its devices is entirely data encrypted, but again, they say they're just raising a red flag here. they have done this in the lab. fortunately, it hasn't happened in the real world, and some people, simon, are saying that just by this publication of this article and us covering it, that we might be putting the idea in somebody's head. >> wow. all right, mike huckman, thank you very much. i mean, it's fascinating these days what hackers will hack into, and anything electronic, i

guess, is at risk. >> but not a pacemaker. it's not quite the same. >> you're right. you're right. all right, breaking economic data, ism manufacturing, construction spending, we have full market action as the dow moves closer right now to 11,000. and the tale of two automakers. toyota and ford are both expected to post monthly sales profits. and whether you're waiting for a shipment or waiting online, the ipad frenzy is under way. we'll check all the hype, next on cnbc. ♪

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welcome back to "squawk." we're a few seconds from the release of march ism, and of course, february construction. both numbers can be important. on construction spending, down 1.3%. that's a beggar drop than expected, and they doubled down plus in terms of a negative revision to january from originally reported down 0.6% to down 1.4%. now, if we look at the 75.0's prices paid on the ism in the headline number is a strong 59.6. so, we went from 56.5 to 59.6, a very healthy jump. and it will be interpreted as such. and of course, people will dig down into the subindices, which i can't see on the headline side. employment index, new orders all key. the market responds. actually, we're seeing the yields move up a couple of basis points and equities move up as well, which makes sense, given the day job. now, let's go back to -- i believe we're going back to

simon? melissa. i'm sorry. back to melissa. >> hi there, rick. thanks very much for that update. down here on the floor of the stock exchange with bob pisani. and bob, i haven't seen a crowd down here in a very long time. >> get pictures here. we're waiting for primerica to open. story is very simple. right now -- we just opened, $19. we just opened at $19.15. and melissa, price talk was $12 to $14. >> so this is way above. >> priced at $15, opens at $19.15. and there you see the crowd. everybody had all these orders to buy here. >> i've got to ask you, bob, this has been a spinoff from citi, and you've got to wonder, if you're a citi skept skeptic, you're thinking, citi wants to try to raise as much money as possible, so why is it pricing below what the market would handle? why wouldn't it price it higher so it can take some of that money, instead of leaving it on the table? >> i'll tell you what i think. pricing has been very reasonable in the last few weeks on these

ipos. demand has been high and the market has been responding. i think this is always a debate. i think people said, listen, let's see what we can do here. the market is so far looking very good. if we price it above and it opens down, that's a terrible sign overall. i think this was a very reasonable way to do it. you leave a little money on the table for everybody, and everybody on the street is happy. there was nothing but smiles here. the ceos were happy and -- >> so, you're not -- >> citi made a lot of money today. don't kid yourself. >> so you're not a citi skeptic -- >> you know, if they would have priced it at $16 and the stock would have opened at $14.50, we all would have said, oh, my heavens, what a mistake they made. this is the smart way to do things. this makes everybody on the street happy. leave a little money on the table. >> i've got to tell you, i'm getting a lot of pings this morning about pricing and how citi left money on the table, but anyway, moving on. last trading session of the week -- >> by the way, the ism numbers, $57 was the estimate, $59? that's an excellent number. and 56.5 still in february here.

the market's up nicely here on the first day of trading. and remember the theory, great movement throughout the first quarter and then you take a little bit of profits going into the first quarter. we saw that yesterday with a few stocks, but not many. frankly, the close was kind of quiet yesterday. this is all good news. i know traders want more volatility. >> yes. >> and you've been talking about it, of course. >> and more volume, for that matter. >> more volume, yes. >> for any stock market. >> the low volatility is begetting low volume, however, this is certainly a good start to the quarter, given the momentum we've had and the run-up in stock prices. nice move up today. very encouraging. >> bob pisani, thank you. >> pleasure. >> all right, let's head to the nasdaq market site. bertha coombs is standing by. i bet you're checking on r.i.m. >> i'm checking on r.i.m., but first, check out apple. a new month, a new quarter and a fresh all-time high for apple, just high of $239 a share, putting its market cap now at $216 billion, ahead of the ipad launch here on saturday.

research in motion is suffering, though, although coming off of the lows. take a look. it's now down only about 4% or so. the story there, research in motion disappointed particularly when it came to the revenues, and that's because they cut prices on the blackberry, and that is the concern here. while they have a lock on enterprise, they can't really find growth, especially in a world where people like the apps on the iphone and on the new droid, which is gaining market share. meantime, take a look at the storage of peripherals. we got a good number out of micron, so that's good for chips. and for memory makers. xyratex had a blowout quarter and blowout outlook, and that has moved that sector up to be the best performers among techs today. simon and melissa, back to you. >> thank you very much, bertha coombs. oil has been trading higher all morning. global recovery story under way here. china manufacturing data coming in stronger than expected. we had the highest levels in crude since october '08. sharon epperson's at the nymex.

sharon, what has been the reaction since the hotter-than-expected ism numbers. >> well, we're still looking at oil prices higher. we're also at the session highs. we did cross above $85 a barrel, but we're still seeing a lot of money being put to work here in the oil market, and we're also looking at crude prices at an 18-month high. keep in mind, we're seeing open interest on the exchange for crude and surpassing the cme/nymex, so that's led some analysts to look at perhaps the question of liquidity with the wti contract. that, they say, could impact commodity indices, but when you look at the uso and look at crude prices here today, it's been a pretty nice run for the uso as well, and traders are looking at the breakout in oil prices to help that large oil etf also. but when it comes to the broader commodity indexes and etfs and etns, not such a great picture for the year so far. what's going on here? well, the stronger dollar has really weighed down the agricultural commodities, soft

commodities, and that is weighing on these broader indices. so, if you're invested in gsg, you're wondering why you're not getting the benefit of the oil price gains, that is the reason why. simon, back to you. >> thank you very much for that. absolutely lovely move if you're long the market, up almost triple-digit gains with the better-than-expected ism figure. meanwhile, secretary of the treasury, tim geithner, on the "today" show this morning, talking about the unemployment rate. >> well, i think the key thing that's going to happen is the economy's going to start creating jobs again. you're going to start to see businesses across the country start to add to payroll again. that's going to come -- the economy's growing now. that's the first step. with growth, more jobs will come. but the unemployment rate is still terribly high and it's going to stay unacceptably high for a long period of time. it's going to take a long time to bring it down just because of the damage caused by the recession. >> tim geithner. well, obviously, you've got the employment report coming out at 8:30 eastern tomorrow morning. most of the markets closed. bond market open.

"squawk box" will be broadcasting that live. let's bring in this program's daily jobs report now. bruce casmin, chief economist at jpmorg jpmorgan. good morning, bruce. to pick up on what geithner was saying, let's not get it wrong. the expectation, according to the cbo, is that we are not going to get to a normal rate of unemployment, about 5%, until 2016. it's going to take a long time to snap back fully, isn't it? >> oh, there's no doubt about that. the damage done in this recession is enormous, and i think we're going to see permanent losses in jobs with an economy that i think will be growing quite well, but we'll only slowly bring the unemployment rate down. >> and why do you think there is that damage, because they're financial sector jobs, financial services or auto jobs that basically parts of an industry that have been destroyed or because ceos have used the cyclical downturn as an excuse to cut jobs for structural reasons, because chinese workers are cheaper and because it was

unpatriotic to be seen doing that in boom times? >> well, i think the force, as you mentioned, are there, but i think the basic force is, we're getting a strong cyclical lift, but one which is definitely being tempered by continued difficulties in credit markets, continued drags on public finances. so, the simple point is, we're going to need something like 5%, 6% growth to really heal this economy relatively quickly. i think we're going to get good growth. it's going to be about 4% or so, and that means you're just going to have a slower move in terms of job creation and bringing the unemployment rate down. it's a simple math of getting enough growth here in a world in which there are drags, even though the business cycle is working. >> but what you're saying is, if i read between the lines, knowing what we know of how the market is pricing at the moment, that there may be a disconnect between a stock market that is rocking higher, because it's changed its opinions on a nice, smooth recovery, and what i think you're saying to me is, yes, it is going to come, but it may come much later? >> no, i don't think there's a

disconnect. i don't think the stock market is determined by the level of unemployment. i think the stock market is determined by the flow change in growth and corporate earnings, and i think in flow terms, we're actually going to see an economy that, if anything, will both exceed expectations and i think is going to definitely reduce people's concerns that it's going to be short-lived. this is a recovery which has got legs. it's going to generate over 4% growth over the next couple quarters, is going to see income growth for households and very strong gains for corporates. >> okay, bruce, thank you very much for that. bruce kasman at jpmorgan. >> it is interesting to hear an economist saying there can be a disconnect between jobs as well as corporate profits and jobs and growth and the economy. >> i disagree with him, because what we need to eradicate is that fear of double dip. that changes all the perceptions of earnings growth moving forward, but he's the expert. we've got to bring to your attention apple right now, hitting a new 52-week high. and this, of course, just ahead of the much-anticipated release of the ipad at retail stores. preorders, as we all know, have

been overwhelming. pushing back that ship date on saturday. they will be in the stores. brian shactman is already queueing up, as simon would say, outside the apple stores in new york. you're really itching to get one, huh? >> reporter: i actually saw one of the guys. i covered the iphone story more than 2 1/2 years ago, when there were lines all around the building for days. if you look down here, there's no lines yet, but they do have the barriers here set up for late tomorrow night, when they do anticipate a crowd here for the 9:00 a.m. saturday opening for when you can buy it. even though there isn't the mass hysteria situation at the store, there's still millions of people all across the world that will buy anything that apple makes. now, there would be people out here staying overnight to buy the itoenail clipper, if you will, but this is not a toenail clipper. this is a 9.7-inch screen tablet computer. it starts at $499 for the most basic version to up to over $800 for the wi-fi 3g with the most memory. now, the situation with this is,

basically, you fill in the gap between smartphone and laptop computer. now, the question, is the gap big enough to make it a game-changer like, you know, the ipod or the iphone? and it's a definite debate so far. >> we all have computers, we have desktop computers, we have laptop computers, we have iphones, and now this fits into another category, but again, a much more limited space. >> it's a different way of delivering media and a different way of delivering software, and if this device is successful, it's going to force players in both the media, the software segment as well as the hardware segment to change the way they do things. >> reporter: a lot of people are hailing this as a savior for the publishing industry. now, that remains to be seen. how will the apps develop? how will sales develop? next hour we're going to talk specifically about the impact on amazon's kindle, but one thing lost to this conversation is the college campus. seton hall university in pennsylvania has already said

every incoming freshman next year will have an ipad. now, if you get the textbook business involved here, you have hundreds of thousands of customers for a long time. and that kind of business could make this product in the pretty sleepy tablet space a huge boom for apple. back to you. >> brian, seton hall is actually giving every single student an ipad? >> reporter: every undergrad at seton hall next year will get an ipad. and if that's repeated and if they get the textbooks to sell all of their products on the ipad, that is a huge incremental business. >> i'd hate to be the person in charge of the kindle or the nook, the person who lost that contract. >> reporter: they're going to start giving them away. >> exactly. brian shactman, thank you. >> yeah, what, of course, is happening here is that we are participating in the hype and accelerating -- we are actually reporting on whether they've got the barriers out yet. and this is from a trading perspective, you know from "fast money," this is classic, classic

by the rumor seller fact. isn't it? classic. >> that is absolutely true, simon. if you take a look at apple's launches in the past for their pluk products. there has been a stock run-up ahead and a sell-off on the release. but still, you cannot deny that right now the stock is pretty much sitting at an all-time high. so, even though there is that pullback after the release of a product, the stock continues to go higher. and we talk about it not just because it's fun to talk about, but because it's the most followed stock on wall street. the catalyst -- >> i'm not saying it's what we're doing is wrong in the reporting. i'm just noting that we are part of the process in 24-hour news that hypes these things up, and that's why you get that buying on the way up and selling. >> that's absolutely true. market cap on apple bigger right now than the world's largest retailer, walmart. so. >> do you remember when aol bought time warner? not that it's quite the same -- >> i worked for time warner at that time, yes. so, i do remember it quite well.

>> we'd like to know if you're planning to buy an ipad, yes, no way or you're not really sure what an ipad is. go vote. squawkonthestreet.cnbc.com. just ahead, this morning's top movers. >> plus, the government gets set to make some major changes on fuel standards. see how it will impact your car. and take a look at the new 52-week high list on the board. there you have it. apple computer up by 1.1%. stay tuned. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 to help with my investments. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 so where's that help when i need it? tdd# 1-800-345-2550 if i could change one thing... tdd# 1-800-345-2550 we'd all get a ton of great advice tdd# 1-800-345-2550 just for being a client. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 i mean, shouldn't i be able to talk about my money tdd# 1-800-345-2550 without it costing me a fortune? tdd# 1-800-345-2550 if i had my way, investment firms would be tdd# 1-800-345-2550 falling all over themselves to help me with my investments. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 (announcer) at schwab investors rule.

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welcome back. michael lewit is the author of the hcm market letter and helps run the money management firm of harch capital management. if his market prognostications aren't always on the money, his analysis of broader trends in both the equity and debt markets usually is. his book "the death of capital" will be out this spring. michael, thanks for coming in. earlier in my report, i was talking about more than a bounceback, the true rebound in the leverage loan market. your firm runs a clo. i'm curious as to what your perspective is on the overall debt markets, given the incredible rally we've seen over the last year? >> sure. well, the debt markets are enjoying an enormous comeback,

and i think it will continue. the clo market is starting to, you know, come back from the dead. there was a deal price this week, i believe by citibank, citigroup. >> right. >> and i'm not sure that you're going to see a lot of clos down the pricing on the liabilities is still not that efficient, but you have to remember that the sell-off in bank debt was largely technical. while there was a deterioration in credit quality, the real reason the bank loan market sold off is because the buyers disappeared, the buyers being clos. now that the market has worked through that backlog, you know, these loans confined to home and the market has come back from an average price of 65 cents to probably 95 or higher. >> right. >> and i think that it's back in balance. >> at the same time, of course, you know, there was an expectation that we would see a lot of bankruptcies amongst the portfolio companies, private equity firms, but we didn't see nearly as many as anticipated. >> no, and that's because the markets opened again. i think the fear of the bankruptcies was due to the fact that the capital markets just

closed and people got the feeling there would never be another financing. the markets opened. i think the fear now is that between 2012 and 2014 there is, you know -- >> that cliff. the maturity cliff we've talked a good deal about. >> right. but they're working through that. and i now think that is probably going to be worked through and not be quite as much of a concern as people think. >> yep. well, given those numbers, we're seeing that high yield. what's your take overall in outlook for high yield the rest of the year? >> i think high yield will perform reasonably well. spreads are close to 600. they did widen a bit to 700 earlier in the year -- >> on greece. >> on fears of greece and other stuff. i expect high yield to continue to perform well. unfortuna unfortunately, with that comes excess again, covenant light loans, you know, low spreads. >> pick to toggles, which we're starting to see again. >> pick toggles. yeah, these are amazing things -- >> it's amazing how they never get rid of them. >> i think i've written the mass kizm of the markets in credit never cease to amaze me.

investors keep coming back for more. >> why is that? why are memories so short when it comes to these things that do seem to be leading us down a road that gets us in serious trouble? >> you know, i don't know, maybe it's because i'm getting older -- >> aren't you a history major? you're supposed to know these things. >> i think i'm getting older and the history majors are getting younger. i don't know. i think there's plenty to buy out there. you don't have to buy debt from sponsors that abuse you. you don't have to buy picfogles, covenant light loans. there are other alternatives, but people can't help themselves, and i guess it's human nature. >> your newsletter covers the global markets, you write about china and the broader economy. where do you think we are, given the jobs number coming out tomorrow that a lot of people are focused on? >> well, i think the markets are clearly ahead of the economy. i do think the economy is showing some very promising signs of -- it's certainly stabilized. i think there are signs in the u.s. that there is going to be growth. the question is whether it's

going to be sustainable. on the consumer side, a lot of this is being supported by transfer payments from the government. on the corporate side, companies have done a good job of getting their balance sheets in order, and i don't think we're going to see a lot of defaults on the corporate side at all. so, i think things are okay in the short term and on the surface. but there's still this, this, this you know, mountain of debt, you know, the fiscal problems at every level -- federal, state, local -- are monstrous. they're not being dealt with. and at some point, we're going to have to deal with that. >> finally on that topic of dealing with the debt and raising taxes, interesting, you write a lot in your book about private equity. >> yes. >> it's a focus. they manage to skate by us, the hedge fund industry, where we're hearing about enormous pay days yet again today. with this not repealing the carrot interest tax as a capital gain. does that surprise you? >> it surprises me, and it, frankly, appalls me. i view the carried interest as something that is earned by

labor. it's a tax on labor. it's not a tax on capital. it did pass the house. it did not pass the senate. i'm fairly confident it will get through at some point with this president, but it did surprise me and it really disappointed me. i don't think it's appropriate and it needs to be changed. >> you've written, i know, a lot about it. finally, hedge fund compensation back in the spotlight again. "alpha" magazine, every year we pay attention to this magazine for this one list of how much money people earn in the hedge fund industry, which is truly remarkable. >> yes. >> justified? >> well, look, a lot of that money was earned on their capital and they took risk, so, i don't have a problem with that. what i do think has to be examined is the fact that there is this tax deferral scheme that's available to hedge fund managers that doesn't appear to be available to the rest of us mortals -- >> until 2017, at this point -- >> yes. >> and that's just been legislated. >> yes. so, that's been legislated and that's been dealt with, but these are people who do take risks with their capital, so i

think a lot of those earnings were returns on their capital. you know, their fees are high and a lot of these people are philanthropists, so i give them credit for that, but i still think -- >> yeah, but at the same time, are investors benefiting as much as the managers are? and i asked the same question in private equity in many ways. is there symmetry there? >> well, i think the private equity industry has a special problem, which is that they charge fees for everything they do. they charge fees -- they not only charge 2 and 20 for their managed funds, they charge fees every time they sell a company, buy a company, do a financing. i mean, it's ridiculous. hedge funds do not, i believe, charge fees every time they buy a stock, sell a stock. you know, i think that the private equity firms have perfected the idea of charging their fees clients, and i think that's very wrong. hedge funds generally have high water marks and other provisions that do more effectively align their clients' interests with their own. >> although at the same time, you can be a manager and come out over five years and he'll have made $1 billion. >> yes, and that's not, i think,

appropriate. >> michael, we'll leave it there. thank you. >> my pleasure. >> michael lewitt. back to you, simon. >> your hat's off to david tepper, though, the highest earner in "the new york times" article today, earning $4 billion. you've got to have body parts of steel to be in there for 2009 -- >> i like how you used body parts. >> -- to not be buying the preferred shares of the big banks when, david, you know, they could have easily gone under. i mean, that's -- >> you're absolutely right. tepper, listen, he's an expert investor, particularly in that distressed area where he has made billions in the past. and a year ago -- it's easy to say now in hindsight, but many people were talking about naturalization, as improbable as that might have seemed, with those banks trading -- bank of america, what, $3? and citigroup at $1. he delved in, and all parts of the capital structure, and benefited enormously. and you're right, it took a lot of guts. >> and this is the time, this past year was the time to prove your metal, essentially. i mean, this was the opportunity of a lifetime. so, if you're a big hedge fund

manager out there and you didn't make huge gains for your investors -- >> but a lot are having pay days. there's a big divergence -- >> but the point is, and michael just pointed this out here as well, he lost a lot of money the year before. a lot of these guys did. >> right. >> griffin lost a lot of money the year before. so, these were big comeback years. i should say, '09 was a huge comeback year for a lot of funds that suffered greatly. if you were an investor in those funds and possibly pulled out, if you could have gotten out -- let's not forget all the gates that came down -- >> right. >> then you, of course, did not benefit. >> but it's a rare investor that can actually turn 180 degrees this year. they tend to an awful lot be one-trick ponies. so, they're bearish on situations or bullish, and like a clock that's stuck, it comes around in their favor every now and then. the nimble ones, paulson, for example, would know when to sbi switch. that's the difficult thing to achieve. >> true enough. when you manage $30 billion like a paulson, let's not forget, if you're just up 10%, the numbers alone are staggering.

you're talking about an enormous $3 billion, then he takes 20% of that. that's $600 million payday on an up 10% year. so, asset gathering certainly an important part of the overall compensation structure on hedge funds. >> david, we've got to leave it there, unfortunately. we'll seeout later on. thank you. an estimated $2 trillion in swiss bank accounts and the irs says it wants its fair share. we'll have the new rules to legally avoid the tax man in a moment. >> key word is legally. >> yes. and the government's push to go green. how it might impact what you drive and do. go to the "squawk on the stre " squawkonthestreet.cnbc.com poll to vote. do you plan on buying an ipad? let us know what you think. back in two minutes.

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for a long time, offshore accounts in countries like switzerland were a way for wealthy americans to avoid heavy taxes. now those accounts must be disclosed and taxes still have to be paid. so, what are the advantages of an offshore account today and what kind of penalties are you in for if you don't disclose to the irs? for more, we go to our financial adviser network and asher

rubinstein, a partner with rubinstein and rubinstein. asher, if you're looking at the segment right now and you've got offshore accounts, is it too late to do something in terms of the taxes? i mean, is there a way to shuffle your money around in some fashion to lessen the tax burden? >> well, not so much to lessen the tax burden. there are some sophisticated financial products that an american with an offshore account can place their assets into in order to avail themselves of tax minimization, but the days of going offshore and having a swiss bank account in order to hide assets from the irs, or indeed from revenue canada or the uk tax authority, those days are now over. >> you mentioned some sophisticated financial instruments. it sounds like, perhaps, congress overlooked this. is that a feasible way to avoid the tax man, by shifting into these so-called financial instruments that you mentioned? what sorts of instruments, by the way, are these? >> look, whether on the domestic

level or on the offshore level, there are strategies that are legal, that are sanctioned by congress and recognized as proper by the irs. on the domestic level, you have -- >> asher, we're going to pause right here. we have breaking news on nat gas. go to sharon epperson at the nymex. >> we had the second injection of the season. natural gas supplies up 12 bcfs, less than the increase that was expected. as a result, we are looking at natural gas prices rallying a bit here. we're above $4 once again, but keep in mind that this is a market that is destined for the down side, most analysts say, with the weather that we're seeing, very mild temperatures, 70 degrees expected here in new york city today. add to that ample supply. supplies about 8% above the five-year average. and so, we are looking at prices hovering around that $4 mark, but rallying a bit as we did get an injection that was less than expected. back to you. >> thank you very much, sharon epperson. you can see on that chart right there the spike that we are seeing in natural -- >> wow.

on the delay, if you watch sharon, you get -- it happens quite often. >> yeah, it's amazing. we do want to finish one asher here. sorry to interrupt you, asher. we did have that breaking news, but in terms of those financial instruments, what are those? >> well, on the global level, you have things like foreign annuities that provide excellent asset protection, they provide excellent global diversification of investments and they do provide tax deferral to an american investor. >> okay. asher, we're going to leave it there. thanks so much for joining us. asher rubinstein. the ung, the etf that tracks nat gas, is up by about 5%. a lot of the nat gas stocks, equities, that is, are trading higher, such as apache, up by about 2%. >> 75 degrees in man that the they predict this weekend. >> this afternoon, so, yeah. >> fantastic. new auto standards are due out today. we'll talk about what that may mean for what you're driving, next.

10:35 on the east coast, 7:35 on the west. good morning. these are your headlines this hour. 46 s&p 500 stocks hitting new 52-week highs this thursday with apple reaching yet another record high in advance of their launch on saturday. the ism index, another good piece of data, rising to 59.6 in

march, showing the manufacturing sector is expanding at a faster pace than we thought, and indeed, its fastest pace for five years. and new filings for jobless claims dropped by 6,000 to 439,000 last week. melissa? all right, let's take a look at ford and toyota. one company seeing a resurgence, the other a fall from grace. ford shares are up 115% over the last two years. toyota, meantime, down 21%. let's take a closer look at those charts. ford, despite not taking government money, hit a closing low of $1.26 a share back in november '08 after the big three ceo testified on capitol hill. now, the company's stock saw a resurgence with the company reporting a 2009 yearly profit earlier this year, its first in four years. meantime, toyota, also unable to escape the financial crisis. shares plummeted as low as $61.25 in october '08, following a dismal earnings report. the company able to bounce back, though, the stock hitting a 52-week high of $91.97 in

mid-january. that, of course, though, before the massive recall. that has taken a toll on the stock, with it currently trading at around $80. simon. the federal government is set to issue new fuel standards today for the automotive makers, and indeed, for drivers. hampton pearson is live in washington with the details. good morning, hamp. >> reporter: hi, simon. as a matter of fact, in about 90 minutes, we're going to get a readout on the environmental protection agency and the department of transportation getting ready to sign off on what could be a landmark set of new fuel standards for cars and trucks heading into the future, all designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. all signs point to 35.6 miles per gallon combined for cars and trucks by 2016. that would be an increase of ten miles per gallon over the current standard. that gives a big boost for developing next-generation gas-electric hybrids, more efficient engines and electric cars.

now, the epa, which got more power to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, thanks to a 2007 supreme court ruling, will issue its first ever rules on vehicle greenhouse gas emissions. that standard of 250 grams or 8.75 ounces of carbon dioxide per mile per vehicle sold in 2016 is designed to match that higher fuel efficiency standard. each auto company will have different targets based on its vehicle units, automakers that build more small cars will have a higher target than those that have a mix of both trucks and cars. now, the actual standard could be lower because the automakers can actually earn greenhouse gas emission credits in other ways, like, for example, preventing leaking air conditioning coolant. the other real headline here, it's moving up the timetable for the new standards from 2020 to 2016. it's estimated it could add about $1,000 to the cost of a new vehicle four years from now,

but government officials, safety officials say consumers could save about $3,300 over the life of the vehicle in better gas mileage. president obama yesterday endorsing this reversal, saying it's about time to have a reversal of this policy after decades of doing very little as far as fuel efficiency goes and in the long run, it should reduce the dependence on oil. back to you. >> thank you very much, hampton pearson. coming up -- >> today it's emissions, tomorrow it's cap-and-trade. you wait. it's on the way. >> we'll see. >> oh, yes. oh, yes. all right, we've got options action coming up. oftentimes, the options market is a good predictor of big movements in stocks and we have three stocks we'll talk about. two options that are signaling a breakdown, one signaling a breakout. we will name names. plus, a car that has the ability to prevent a catastrophe. the ceo of volvo north america on some life-saving technology now presumably owned by the chinese. and as we head into the break, a check on nat gas

following that inventory report. hi, ellen! hi, ellen! hi, ellen! hi, ellen! we're going on a field trip to china! wow. [ chuckles ] when i was a kid, we -- we would just go to the -- the farm. [ cow moos ] [ laughter ] no, seriously, where are you guys going? ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! [ female announcer ] the new classroom. see it. live it. share it. on the human network. cisco.

well, you don't need to trade options to be able to use them to your advantage. activity in the pits can often be your clue as to what a single stock might do next. breaking down three names, the options market is betting on a drastic move in the near future, is mike coe, cantor fitzgerald's director of trading as well as an options actions contributor. nice to see you. >> hi, melissa. >> let's talk about the two bearish indicators and start with cit, because that stock has been in the news, a lot of bullishness surrounding john thain going to run the company. >> sure. when we look at situations, one things options can be revealing

about is, if we know somebody could be buying or selling a stock that could be expressing a bullish or bearish view, with options, we get a more detailed window because options have a defined expiration and we can see the strike price. essentially, we get some sense of the magnitude of the move somebody might be anticipating. and in the case of cit yesterday, we saw a lot of activity in the january 11 20 puts. they were trading at a pretty big bet. we saw about 7,000 of the contracts trading that the stock would see a material decline, and that's obviously running contrary to the way the stock's been behaving of late. >> the fact that the stock prices out to january 2011, does that make you more skeptical about this sort of big activity? >> well, you know, it can, but actually, i think a lot of intelligent options traders sometimes do try to make sure, especially when focusing on big magnitude moves, that they give themselves enough time to be right. it obviously would be disappointing to put on a big options trade and have it expire in three weeks only to see,

basically, the thesis that you had thought would take place with a stock occur in three months. so, a lot of times, what you will see is that if someone's anticipating a big move, that they give themselves a little time to play out. so, i would view this as a bearish bet. >> so, for itt, what are the options markets predicting in terms of a drop there? >> yeah, ticker symbol esi, itt tech. this is an interesting trade. what we saw was somebody selling 500 of the july 1 '01 puts and using the premium to purchase 3,500 of the july puts. this is also a bearish bet and a fairly nuanced one. for one thing, if the stock were to fall very, very sharply, this is a trade that would be extremely profitable, but another important point -- this is a company that's announcing earnings on the 22nd, and these for-profit education companies, like itt, like apollo and devry,

have had profitable earnings and this could be profitable for a minimal outlay. >> mike, we're just about out of time. quickly on jetblue, what's the percentage move here? we're up against the clock, though. >> sure thing. it was the june 6th call. somebody was buying those things back. basically, the stock's trading $5.50, so we're looking at about a 10% increase there. >> all right, so a bullish reading on jetblue. mike, thank you so much for that. you can catch mike and me on options action every friday night at 5:30 p.m. eastern time and every night we've got options strategies on "fast money" at 5:00 p.m. eastern time. straight ahead now, a new detection system designed to prevent accidents. volvo's north american chief is here next. 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.

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all right, coming up at the top of the hour, we'll preview march's job report, which comes out tomorrow. we'll debate whether we've turned the corner in employment or not. and then jamie dimon complaining that politicians have demonized large banks. we'll debate whether he's right. and have you seen some of the top salaries some of the top fund managers are making? we'll debate whether it's justify aid or business as usual

on wall street. lots ahead only on "the call" at the top of the hour. first, let's go to matt nesto with breaking news. matt? we've got the first of the march auto sales out and general motors coming early at 10:45 today. march sales up 43% from a year ago, 185,000. the thomson reuters estimate of estimates was from plus 20 to plus 40. the most optimistic analysts here today and also at the same time fuel efficiency standard breaches 35 miles per gallon. 35.5 miles. gm march sales up to 185 and buick up 76% and cadillac up 42% and gmc up 45%. let's get to david faber for the latest from him. >> talking about automobile and automobile sales, chinese automa

automaker to require volvo. it features a pedestrian detection system designed to help preadventure cars from hitting people. that's a good thing. first "squawk on the street" we have doug who is president and ceo. let me start following on what we just heard from gm. what has volvo seen in terms of sales in north america? >> actually, year to date, we're up about 12%. right on targt and the sales growth that we've seen has been led by actually the car we introduced a year ago, which has been a big launch for us. >> tell us about the launch of the x 360 and how important is this to volvo's future? >> this is a critical car for us. the segment that s differe60 wi compete. it should be the volume car in

our range as we move forward. >> you would expect it to be the volume car, meaning, what, the sales volume in that area? >> the sales leader within our product range in north america. >> oh, right, within your product range. you haven't priced it yet, have you? >> no, actually, we'll announce prices some time in the next 90 days. >> i wonder given the change and control of the company, financing so important for so many buyers, do you have captive finance arms with the chinese owner or what about the financing side of things about people stepping into a showroom and being able to buy these automobiles? >> a strategic relationship with u.s. banks whereby, they are our preferred provider and it is quite a strong relationship. for us, financing isn't an issue. >> does this pedestrian detection system help to drive sales or just help volvo's image being so cemented as it has for so many years as it has in

safety? >> great question. actually, it does both. as you said, volvo has been acknowledged as a safety leader in the car business for over 80 year. we keep pushing the edge of the envelope forward. pedestrian detection with full auto brake is the next evolution of safety. it reads the environment in front of the car and recognizes pedestrians and determines whether a pedestrian might be at risk to be hit by the automobile and if it says it is going to be, it can activate the brakes and at 22 miles per hour or less it could stop from hitting the pedestrian. >> a constant battle between automobiles and pedestrians. if you drive in one of these things, will it shut down every time you cross the street? >> no, essentially what it does is reads the behavior of the driver. if the driver is in control of the car and it reads that the car isn't in danger, it won't activate. it only becomes intrusive when

the situation requires it. >> sounds like interesting technology. finally, you know, you're a guy running a u.s. division for a company owned by u.s. corporation based in sweden and now running a u.s. division based in sweden owned by chinese. how is your job going to change? >> honestly, my operation and my network here in america, we won't be affected by this change significantly, as mr. lee announced to the gentlemen that holds the holding company, we will continue to be a swedish company and continue to be headquartered in sweden and primary research, design, manufacturing will all continue to be scandinavian based and the real opportunity will come from the opportunity to grow in china, which is significant. >> thanks for joining us. >> thank you for having me on today. back to you, melissa. >> thank you very much, david faber. there is -- >> a computer interfering with the way i drive a car.

after toyota -- >> maybe smoodrivers want the safety net of knowing that a computer will kick in. >> they want a computer to override their own reactions and ability to drive a car. >> we had mike huckman talking about a heart attack into a medical device, you have to connect the dots and wonder about that. there is still time in today's street poll and the question is, do you plan on buying an ipad? >> i think it says here, simon, yes, no way. i wouldn't know an ipad if it hit me in the head.

all right, here are the results of the street poll. we asked you if you plan on buying an ipad. drum roll, please. 54% of you said yes. 35% said no way and 11% of you wouldn't know what an irbs pad was if it hit you in the head. >> that's a very bullish. it points to cnbc viewers being upmarket and afffluent. >> that makes sense. >> you wouldn't expect over half of americans to buy an ipad, would you? >> half of the people we asked.

>> interesting. we had a poll on buy agnew car last week when mark was on or this week when mark was on. a third of people thought they'd buy a new car of the audience, which i thought was really interesting. let's just mention the fact that we're off our highs, but we had a great open. the isn figure came through stronger than expected and a rebound in japan, china and further highlighted overnight and in the united states and we continue to make gains. you may have thought, melissa, that the end of the first quarter last night was window dressing and so forth. to actually lept through in advance of the unemployment report tomorrow on relatively decent volume. >> we saw that runp prior to the last day of the quarter. take a look because the s&p 500 hit a new intra day high for the year. look at the big gainers. material stocks no surprise and simon mentioned the strong manufacturing data out of china and sending material stocks higher. cleveland cliffs, now called cliffs natural one of the top

performers continuing its run with a 3% gain in today's session. >> thank you for joining us on "squawk on the street." >> see you this afternoon. "the call" is next. this is "the call." good morning, everyone. as we head into this long weekend, i'm trish reggen and we are looking at a market that is moving higher thanks to the weekly jobless report and we'll discuss whether more and more americans are getting back to work and what it will mean for your investments. good morning, larry. >> don't forget that high ism number. the top 20 hedge fund managers earning $1 billion each in 2009. why didn't i do it? in the call of the wild are these salaries justified or just business as usual on wall street? >> what's wrong with business as usual? i'm melissa francis, jamie dimen

says they're demonizing the large banks. we'll discuss whether he's right. this is "the call" on cnbc. some positive economic reports helping push stocks higher and the dow closer to 11,000 weakless