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cnbc, first in business news! >> all right. >> their mouths hopefully to your eyes. thanks for watching. time now for the "closing bell."

technology earnings back on the forefront and we are live here at the nasdaq covering the action in tech, microsoft leading the way, and investors are gearing up for another slew of technology results along with numbers from american express after the bell. hi, everybody. welcome to the "closing bell," i'm maria bartiromo today coming to you from the nasdaq marketside. it is busy afternoon in times square and investors keeping a close eye on the after-bell results out tonight from likes of microsoft, and amazon.com, and american express. we have instant analysis coming your way on the numbers and the investor reaction. the issue of the day is financial regulation taking center stage in new york after president obama spoke before executives in new york earlier today urging business leaders to support his push for more oversight. we will have more on that as it continues to develop coming up on the program. but first, how we are looking in

the market and the major averages as we approach the final stretch. we have mixed action here and the dow jones industrial average is down 25 points, although, this is among the best levels of the afternoon. down 11,098. and the nasdaq is looking at naaq, because we have numbers on after the bell, and that is the one group that seems to be outperforming on the upside. the nasdaq is up about five points on the session, as you can see, 2,509. and s&p 500 looks like this, declining on the session, down a point, and 1,205 last trade on the standard & poor's. and now to look at the themes in the trading action, my co-host, scott wapner, and bob pisani on the floor of the nyse, and rick santelli is in the bond pits in chicago, and sharon epperson at the merck, and steve liesman and

what is the news. >> well, it was not as nasty and loud as people were anticipating, and selling the banks going into it, but then the banks moved modestly, but no, the impact was modest, maria. >> well, scott, i was talking to john harwood who is going to join us in a little while here, and he said that the president is dialing it back a little. and the speech perhaps today showed a little more measured in terms of us versus them, and business being bad and the wall street being the evil doers. >> well, maria, the president was in the wall street backyard today and that is maybe why the tone was more measured, but this is clearly a president making the closing arguments more than anything to the american people, and using words to talk about his regulation saying it was common sense and reasonable, and also something else that we will maybe hear in a sound bite if we have that, but in talking about

unless the business is built on bilking people, you should be for this. so, it was pretty strong words as well. >> scott, can i start a little argument here just for fun. >> oh, why not? >> perhaps for profit. how much does this bill really matter to the street? when i have -- you know, watched this bill go up and down in the fortunes rise and fall, i have seen little correlation with the financials. they seem to have done nothing but go up as the fortunes for the bill have improved, so regardless of what is in bill, and regardless of what the president said today, whether it is words strong or weak, the market does not seem to think that the bill is going to at least right now substantially change the discount and net present value of future profits of the banks. >> well, maybe not, steve, but peel back the onion here and figure out what we are talking about, because if we have an excharge the exchange that is where the drif tiffs are traded, that is going to impact some of the banks'

revenue, and that is number one. >> well, some, yeah. >> you talked about the consumer protection agency will created a dissional fees that the banks may well pass them on to consumers. >> they might. but it does not mean they will affect the profits of the bank, maria. >> the derivatives piece, steve, is a problem for the banks. pulling the banks out of the ability to trade in the derivatives products will affect the bottom line of course. >> and then, of course, there is the idea that we could see the volcker rule coming into play. now, i don't believe this actually will become law, because it is hard to define what the proprietary trading is. >> it is in there now. >> i know, but if they can't define what proprietary trading is, they can't get the law through. >> well, the fact that the republicans are now sounding like they will play ball on this is encouraging to the street, to the sense that in the same way at the end of the day that health care bill was not as punitive on the insurers as

people had feared a year ago when we talked about, this at the end of the day, this may not be as punitive on the banks. >> well, that is a smart thing. well, for investors, they have to be very careful to divide or not listen to so much of the political rhetoric, and then making more hard cold investment decisions about what is the impact on the bottom line of the companies, because there is a political logic and a business logic, and sometimes those are separate. >> and a couple of things about the trading that you said -- >> and looking at the trading flow, part of what we are seeing is not so much what happens with financial regulatory reform and how far down the road that might be or in the case of my market, what happens with the position limits that the etfc is looking to propose and they are looking at where the money is going to go, and where they want to put their money and we saw with the fundamentally bearish news, the commodities started to turn around. >> well, i want you to hear what the president said downtown when

he made the speech, but let's not forget that the administration does not want to allow the court of public opinion to get out there with a negative opinion of financial reform the way we saw a situation unfold with health care, because you know -- >> that is a good point, maria. >> you know that health care got away from them, and the public turned negative on health care and divided the country. theed a mainistration does not want that. >> and the case against goldman sachs is helping to do just that by the way. it is absolutely helping the president to do just that. >> but there is a debate on where the fraud is on the goldman case, because there is a debate when you talk to the corporate lawyers as far as whether it is unethical or actual fraudulence. >> the mere fact that it is brought, maria, regardless of what happens in the case, and the mere fact that it is out there in the court of public opinion helps the president no doubt. >> no doubt about it, scott. i agree, and that is the point. >> but, maria, 1999 --

>> i want to say one more thing, because from an investment standpoint what is going on right now is very serious, and the fact is that investors are faced in some degree with a vacuum of information. we have no idea how many wells' notices there are out there right now? and we have no idea of the level of lawsuits that the banking sector is facing right now, and you know, there are increasing numbers out there saying, oh, really? they defrauded this one? well, maybe i was defraud and i will sue them. so there is probably a whole host of lawsuits out there and wells' notices that we don't know about because they are not material to profits, but of course, we know that in fact, they are material, so i think that right now investors are walking a real balance here, because they are faced with a vacuum of information. here is what the president said earlier today atz he tried to push the regulatory reform through. listen to this. >> we will empower consumers with clear and concise information when they are making financial decisions. so, instead of competing to

offer confusing products, companies will compete the old fashioned way by offering better products, and that means more choices for consumers, and more opportunities for businesses and more stability in the financial system. unless your business model depends on bilking people, there is little to fear from the new rules. >> well, the campaign is on, guys. the campaign to get financial regulatory reform through, and you are saying that you didn't have an impact. and rick santelli, any impact in chicago? >> well, yeah, an impacts, and the stocks were down 100, and the interest rates were down and now the interest rates are up, and the dow is down 20. in 1999, when we deregulated the market, one unintentional consequence is pushing the derivatives under the cloud of the regulatory blew up the economy a year and a half, two years ago. we have 225 pages, and steve said we don't know what is in

it, but mr.lacker said we will bail it out, and they said it was a sound byte from the cable channel, but i think that we are on dicey ground here just assuming it is going to work out. >> come on, rick. take the other half of what i said. i say regardless of what is it in it, the market is not selling off the bank stocks, rick, that is what i said. you want to roll back the tape, roll it back. >> no, i completely agree with you, nothing makes the stock market go down, but do we throw up the white flag that everything in the world is fixed? >> no, what my point is, rick, when you look inside of the bill, i'm not as sure that it is as negative as the banking sector as the political rhetoric has made it out to be. >> i'm not sure, either, but i don't know about the reform in it. i like mr. lacker's interview, because he said it will nationalize bailouts.

>> what he said was interesting, because lacker strikes me in a pure world where the government never comes in, and the fact is that, rick, you and i both know that in the fury of the final hour of the blowup of the financial system, the government will do something. what makes this bill interesting, rick, it proscribes what the government can do. if you want to live in that utopian world where the government never comes in, fine. >> you live in a utopian world where the government knows what is better for the public. >> that is not what i think -- >> you just said, that the president will pick what is better for the citizens to choose. how does he know what is better? >> the government does come in, rick. it always does. and >> and they always do the wrong thing. >> and the point that rick is making is that it does feel like some of these guys in the administration feel like they know better than what the public, and like they have in years saying that the -- >> i don't think that is accurate, mission.

>> th-- maria, that is not what said. the bill has three bankrupt attorneys. how many bankruptcy attorneys? >> well, i have read all 225 crazy pages of it. >> it involves three bankruptcy attorneys. >> and how many chrysler clients in the securities market are happy? >> i don't know what you are talking about, rick, it is a separate process. >> we have bankruptcy and everything we need for reform. >> and you need to look at what bob corker said from tennessee, because he is a republican. >> you think that matters to me? i don't think that the republicans and the democrats did a good job on it. >> you are entitled to your opinion, but in the imperfect world that we live in, this particular bailout regime prescribes what the government can do. it allows them to wipe out the regulators and lacker has a point that it allows discretion to the government, but the government always has discretion. >> it is a us versus them tone which is what unnerves me that all business is bad, and the

wall street is the evil doers and it is inaccurate, and we know that there were people who took advantage of the situation and took on all of the leverage, but there were also many who didn't. >> and if you had $100 left in the world, would you give it to the wall street firm or a government, and which in a year would you get more back from? >> does she have a real choice, rick? >> yeah, it is a real choice, steve. real. i would still give it to wall street. >> do you think that some 6 to tone is the reaction, and we saw the same thing after the internet bubble, and the analyst probe talking about wall street being bad then, and these things might fade as people start to feel the economy is doing better, and they forget about wall street. >> look, andrew cuomo said something important to me. he said to me, people do not go back into the water until they know that the shark is dead, period. so, yeah, when they feel that the shark is dead, and they feel that the policemen on the job are doing their job, then sentiment changes.

we will continue talking about this conversation, because this is obviously an impassioned conversation and important one. guys, see you later. thank you very much. listen to market down 23 points on the dow jones industrial average with 45 minutes before the bell sounds for the close. scott? >> and maria, just ahead, an exclusive closing bell interview with starbucks' chairman howard schultz. the stock is up after strong earnings we reported a of the bell last night. he will talk about the business strategy and the hiring plans next. >> and how about the corporate sector? a lot of positive talk about the balance sheet, and we are goelting microsoft, and amazon.com, and american express reporting tonight. we will look at that, and ahead of that looking at how investors are going forward in the names and stay with us on the numbers. >> after the bell, how will the tighter regulation impacts the coal mining business? we will talk about that and with the peabody energy ceo gregory boys. >> and also, the most heavily

traded stocks on the nyse is citigroup leading the list down about 1.5%.

you are watching a special edition of the "closing bell" from the new york stock exchange. >> welcome from new york times square in new york city. starbucks is up 7.5% after the company reported strong earnings last night. they reported $27 million which is up from last year, and they boosted the 2010 profit forecast. joining ne an cnbc exclusive to take us through the numbers is howard schultz who is chairman and ceo of starbucks. good to have you on the program. thanks for coming on howard. >> thank you for having me. >> can you characterize the quarter for us? >> well, it is big.

the big story is traffic returning to starbucks, and the transfer that the company has gone through in the last year and a half has demonstrated the resi resiliency of the brand, and the quality of the coffee differentiates itself, and despite the downturn of the economy, the business has returned and we are focusing our attention on all things international, and going to accelerate the growth of the company beyond north america. >> i want to ask you about the international story, because i know it is a good one. but are you saying that the traffic returned to the stores, and so that the earnings are coming out better than expected was not necessarily due to cost cutting, but end-market demand, is that what i hear you saying or still largely due to cost cuts? sgl >> well, it is not largely due to cost cutting, but we took out $600 millions of cost cuts, and getting leverage from the p&l, but the real story is comp store

sales at 7%, and 3% traffic, and i think that given the headwinds of the economy and all of the things that other people are dealing with, the fact that starbucks has demonstrated such resiliency really does show the power of the brand, and then the other thing is that we demonstrated such value with the starbucks card, and the loyalty program, and we got a big boost from the new product i introduced on the floor with you which is starbucks via. >> yes, we talked about that when you introduced it, and i know it is going very well. that is congratulations to you. can you break it down how important the via product is to the overall balance sheet? >> well, via was a catalyst for comp store growth, and the big headline about via is that as we speak, we are shipping it to 30,000 new points of distribution and grocery and in drugstores and grocery stores, so we will have ubiquitous distribution in north america,

and last week i was in japan for the launch of the vieia, and now we have success in canada, and the u.s. and japan. this is $1 billion of the market, and we have a big runway of growth outside of north america. >> let me ask you about the business outside of north america, and where in the world is the most important region for starbucks right now? >> well, we are concerned about western europe and the economy there, so our focus of attention is on asia. we have 800 stores in japan, and less than 700 in greater china, so specifically, we think that china will have thousands of starbucks' stores over time, but let me say it is a complicated market. we have to be very thoughtful and very disciplined. it is not going to happen overnight, but we have a big, big opportunity, and big prize in china. we are also looking to india and vietnam, two markets we are interested in that we are not in. so starbucks has a long runway

of growth, and also in addition to that, we are getting a great response from the secondary brand of seattle's best brand of coffee and announced a major deal with burger king, and subway and this is what old navy has been to gap, and seattle's best coffee can be a starbucks. >> that is an interesting storyline, and the growth in asia makes sense to certainly want to have the bigger stake there. are you actually seeing any change in the demand of the story coming out of asia? a lot of people wonder if the numbers coming out of china are real, and we are seeing the growth 11% or so in china or what are you seeing in asia in terms of the growth story? >> well, maria, i have been to china a dozen of times in the last two the three years, and let me tell you, it is real. it is real. it is powerful. the work ethic, and the commitment they have to building china and the consumer demand, and the aspirational demand of the middle-class, but having

said that, there are a lot of people who will rush to judgment in china, and there will be many winners, but there is a lot of people who don't get it right. you have to be highly locally relevant, and i thisnk be very respectful to the chinese consumer. one thing we have walked into the stores and see how many local chinese consumers are drinking the coffee and using the center as a meeting place. we are bullish on china. >> and using the store as sense of community is something that starbucks pioneered having people go to work on the computer over a coffee and buy things other than coffee, obviously you did it. and now you are pioneering something else and really using the technology quite effectively. i want to ask you about you this, because you are experiencing with a new mobile payment system at 1,000 stores, and how does that work, and you were one of the first of a handful of companies to buy ad

space on twitter. i guess that this is largely your demographic, so you have to be everywhere? >> well, a year and a half ago we realized early on that the rules of engagement in traditional marketing would change and we didn't want to lag behind. we made a significant investment in digital and social media and not an accident that starbucks is the leading brand on facebook and twitter. we look at mobile devices and the way that the consumer is embracing smartphones, and we realized that mobile technology and mobile payment is coming very, very fast to america, and we see it significantly in asia. we think that the demographic and the starbucks' brand is the perfect combinatiocombination. we want to be at the intersection of that and lead and give us a competitive advantage. the test with target in 1,000 stores is exceeding expectations. what i said on the conference call yesterday was stay tuned, because we will go after this in a very big way. >> we will be watching the

story, howard. thanks for talking to us about it. >> thank you, maria. see you soon. howard schultz is chairman and ceo of starbucks. we have a market changing course. we have a market going back into the positive territory. it is reversing earlier losses at 11,127, and the nasdaq is higher ahead of important earnings. it is a tale of two technology sectors. why are some names in the sector on a roll while others are facing challenges when it comes to profitability? we will take the look at a tale of two tech sectors when we come back to the market site.

well, let's take a look at the today's under the radar stocks. there is an all-time high of delcath on news from the fda. and meanwhile, baxter international is seeing its stock take a hit. it saw the first earnings grow, and cut the outlook with weak demanded on the plasma-based products. and the company said late wednesday night that queststar may spin off the production business. and now we have moved into positive territory and have a

half hour to go here on the thursday afternoon, and up 6.5 points for the dow jones industrial average, and the nasdaq is good for up 13 points and key earnings coming after the bell today. microsoft, and amazon, and american express as well. and up next we will get more on the pulse of the consumer with the ceo of office depot, and find out if the spending is getting back on track. plus, we will look at why the stocks are not posting a strong rally in the recent slew of positive earnings we are seeing. is it time to rethink the investments. in american express, and microsoft and amazon all set to report after the bell. we will get the "fast money" trade later on. we are back in a second.

welcome back to another busy day in bond pits today. we go right to chicago with rick santelli who is live. >> and it is a fascinating day,

maria. if you look at the way that the markets reacted the way that the president was done, it is a truly big effect. the 10-year rates popped up 7 basis points since he finished speaking, and looking at the s&p futures a big push forward and of course, the dollar index is goose egg and completely unaffected by anything going on outside, overseas. i'm not sure how to interpret, that because i think that the speech was thought by many to be harsher, but i don't know if it makes a statement about anything in the content or the further details with the regard to the further legislation, and we have to stay tune and continue to monitor the 1,335 pages. back to you. >> thank you, rick. we have a market turning right now with the dow jones industrial average up a fraction, although it is much better than what we were looking at earlier today, scott, because we are way off of the lows of course for much of the day, where we were looking at a negative performance. over to you. >> thank you, maria.

let's go over to michelle caruso-cabrera. >> evidence that the stock is coming back from dead. this is the prospectus filed from the redwood trust from the mortgage-backed security without government support for the first time in two years. we have not seen one of these since may of 2008. they filed a term sheet yesterday and we were all waiting to see if they would file a prospectus, and if they did, so they were seeing interest on wall street, and the people might want to buy some of this stuff. so there is 255 million loans within the portfolio and minimum credit score of 7.2, and the value to ratio is different than in the past. the average is 80, and the average loan size is $933,000 and those are jumbo loans, guys. we will see if it goes off next week and actually gets sold. >> thank you, michelle. it is the 40th anniversary

of earth day and in celebration of this and recognition of this, office depot is showcasing 40 new green initiatives. joining us is the ceo of office depot. 40 new initiatives, so clearly a company of yours who believes in green. do you know what the return on investment is? can you say that every dollar we put forward for green initiatives we get back x? >> well, we do track it, but office depot is green for a while. it started with customers who wanted to buy green products and tr track their carbon footprint. we have been working with all of our suppliers to increase the post green content, and make sure that the customers can track it. >> without putting you on the spot, what kind of roi are you getting, the return on investment, you get back? >> well, they all pay back. for instance, we have changed

all of the lightbulbs in the store, and we save over $1 million in electricity, and so you cannot only be green, but you can be financially efficacious as well. you can get into the paradigm that you are either green or financially astute, and we try to find the overlap and make sure we are focusing on it ourselves and for the customers. >> talking broader picture and you cannot talk earnings, because the company is in a quiet period, but more broadly, how much of the business success or the success of the business is tied to small business? >> well, most of it. i think that 80% or 85% of the customers are businesses. we have some consumer business in the stores, so the small and medium-sized business sector is critically important to us. these customers have had a difficult last couple of years. our business is tied to this success of small and medium businesses and to white collar employment. we are focused on the health of the customers and the health of

the employment. >> i want to point out the s&p 500 did turn positive here, so it is a decent turn around in the markets and i wanted to point that out for the investors out there, certainly. but, you know, when you talk about the small businesses, and they are a key part of what you do, and a week ago we had a survey out that talked to small business, they weren't seeing nearly as much optimism as maybe some others are in the economic turnaround and weren't in a position to start hiring again. that has to impact you? >> it does. it is something that we are concerned about. office depot has become known as a barometer for small businesses even though we are a large business. but our small business customers are worried, and they don't have the liquidity and the credit situation, because the business has come down and at the same time a lot of uncertainty in legislation of health care and cap and trade and the hiring costs and all of the uncertainty is keeping them back from hiring employment. >> and if the unemployment ticks

up, you will see your revenue tick down? >> well, there is a correlation we have seen in the last couple of years, and the question is how soon is the correlation as we get more employment back. >> do you have any idea when we will see the employment growth, and certainly some, but when will we see real growth in the employment? >> well, until the uncertainty is remove and the liquidity comes back. when you talk to small businesses and you say, how do you finance your business? they say a home mortgage or second mortgage or line of credit or credit card, and it is untraditional sources, and that is not available anymore and the small and medium-sized banks have had the capitals increased and the businesses have seen a falloff that has come down. >> how much did your business fall off in the recession? >> well, our sales are down materially in the last couple of years by 25%, and we have had to scale our employment to that.

>> are you hiring again? >> well, we are in a holding mode with the small business customers. >> not yet then? >> no, we have to wait until the small business customers come back to buy more. >> sir, greet to see you, and great to have you on the "closing bell," and thank you for coming on with us. we have 20 minutes to go on the "closing bell." we noted it is a modest gain, maria, but nonetheless, in the green across the board. the dow is up, and the s&p 500 positive by a point, and technology as you said earlier, maria, has led the market back and the nasdaq is good for a 12-point gain, and microsoft and amazon after the bell, and we have important earnings from right where you are. >> not only that, but the corporate sector is looking good from the first quarter. we are seeing strength from the corporate side of things, and still waiting for evidence that the consumer is there, so we will break it down in the next hour and give you estimates of what to expect from microsoft, amazon.com and american express, and we will tell you about that as well as regulation coming down the pike, scott. >> yes, and after the bell, the impact of the tighter regulation

and the coal industry, and we will hear from the ceo of peabody energy about that very topic. plus, we will discuss earnings and the company's ongoing efforts to buy macarthur coal, and we are back in a sec.

you are watching a special edition of the "closing bell" from the nasdaq marketsite. and now maria bartiromo. >> well, we are coming to you from times square in new york city today, and on wall street, modest gains. it is a positive story, because we were negative for much of the session and reversed course strongly. nasdaq is on track today for a third day of gain, and we are here, because we have important technology earnings after the close tonight. let's do some strategy tonight with jim kegan who is fund manager of the return bond fund, and along with tony dwyer, chief equity strategist at collin stewart, and nice to have you gentlemen on the program. tony, let me kick it off with you. amaz amazon, and american express, and microsoft, after the close

tonight, would you put new money there? >> well, i am long microsoft, and i should disclose that. i am a buyer of just about anything, maria. we continue to believe in the capital v recovery, and what the show is talking about earlier, michelle was talk about this new securitization that is going to go out. everything that is taking place now is typically what takes place. this is a human nature call. and every macroeconomic indicator that we can find and fundamental indicator showing a v-shape since last july and it will end up looking like a check mark. the fed at zero and the steepest yield in history and the government stimulating the economy via the infrastructure and a modest amount of money in corporate credit. that is stim lative. >> and jim, do you agree with that? are we talking about a bond market here with a fixed income bubble? >> well, i don't think so. i think that the point that tony

made with the fed having a zero interest rate policy is what is forcing the money into bond funds. we continue to be overweight, and like the corporate bond sector. we think that the fundamentals are strong, there and as long as the interest rates are very low, you will continue to see people being pushed out of bank accounts and money market funds and corporate bonds which seem to be a very good place to be. >> do you they the fed gets the exit strategy right? >> well, i mean, we are not seeing the fed exiting any time soon. we think that at this point they are not sure. they think that the recovery is fragile, and we would agree with that, because when you are really coming down to it, it is sustainable growth is really the question on the minds of people right now. this is a balance sheet recession. where the problem lies is in the consumer sector, and there is a lot of consumer debt that needs to be worked off. that is going to be a process that is going to take many, many years. >> well, it is a good point to make, and tony, i think that this is a problem when you look

at the consumer part of the economy. we know that the balance sheets on the corporate sector have improved quite a bit, but i believe it was meredith whitney the financial analyst and head of the meredith whitney, the head of her own company who said that consumer credit is down, 8% or so year over year, and she is talking about cash and home equity lines and talking about credit cards. if the consumer does not feel like they have the leverage, and the credit behind them, they are not going to be spending money. >> at this point in the cycle, maria, you don't need it. let me explain that. there are four progressions of expenditures coming out of the downturn. the first is lower interest expense in the mortgage in the last cycle. so that is the first source. and the second is turtle up, and spend some of the money you saved in the most dramatic recession, and then you have income growth later in the cycle and spend that income growth, and finally, you get to consumer

credit growth. if you look at the bank lending standards versus three months ago for consumer credit cards or consumer installment debt, credit standards are now into easier territory and not tougher. again, people forget about the impact of lower interest expense, and everybody on the street -- >> great point. gentlemen, thank you. great conversation, and appreciate it. we are ap proefproaching the cl bell, and watching a trio set to disclose after the closing bell, and when we look at microsoft, and amazon.com, and american express. we will look at the numbers right at 4:00. boss:hey, glad i caught you. i was on my way to present ideas

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just a few minutes before the closing bell sounds for the day. looking at the technology stocks, we have microsoft off with results and that is the third fiscal quarter for microsoft after the bell, and numbers from amazon.com and american express and as you can see on the widely held board mostly higher.

google though by the way is down almost $8 a share. scott? >> and maria, that is perfect segue, because with those companies set to report after the bell, how should investors play those numbers ahead and after those results come out? that is the key question. let's get a "fast money" trader's perspective, jon najarian, monsttrader for monst trader.com. this trade will tell you the optimism behind amazon.com going into the earnings. >> well, that is the thing since the apple earnings quite frankly, and that is just that there is a unbelievable surge of buying in the things on the ipad, so in particular, take a look at netflix on the move that stock has made, and full disclosure, i have a position in netflix and not trying to talk

it up, but it blew to the upside. it was soft, and the more people read into the proekjection of t ipad, it is on the highs of the day. same thing could happen with amazon.com. does this kill the kendal? yes, it does. i have said it over and over that the ipad is a kendal killer. >> well, that is a concern clearly. >> well, they don't make money selling the kendal, but the books and the rest of it on amazon.com. so this and the fact that there is another device out there causing people to be aggressive consumer of visual media on these devices, that is huge for amazon. >> and they continue, jon, to take the market share from ebay which we saw with the ebay earnings, they were down today. >> yes, this is the world's largest retailer on the internet, amazon, and when ebay is hitting on all cylinders, it is a great stock, but they are

not and one of the big reasons is amazon. so look for the ipad through apple as well as the market share they have taken from ebay to be reasons to long amazon. microsoft, i'm not getting a good foeel for microsoft frankl, because -- >> well, aim surprised, because we got a great report from intel and the upgrade cycle alone should be good for microsoft, right? you have windows 7 looking to be a good product for the company, and yet you are not all that optimistic? >> well, the reason i'm not is that the computers are saying that in the short term, there is a lot of people looking to hedge and or bet on the downside short term. last quarter the stock moved 3% and they are pricing a 6.5% move in microsoft right now, but the problem is that they are betting on puts right now, according to the systems, and they are buying an awful lot of puts just like they were doing in qualcomm last night, and we know how that ended up. >> well, you see, doc, that is

why it is important to watch the options action, right? >> yes, you have the watch the options. >> well, good to see you, and see you again, soon. coming up on "fast money," the best afterhours action on amazon.com, and american express, and microsoft. that is with melissa and the traders live at 5:00. pand president obama taking aim at wall street again today. we break down the president's greatest push with the obama economic advise ser austan goolsbee. today, is take your kids to work day. did you take your kids to work today? let's look at the sights and scenes around cnbc today. national car rental knows i'm picky.

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well, you just saw on the top of the screen, it was green across the board and in fact, the nasdaq as we talked about how technology has led the market into positive territory, the nasdaq at the highest level

since june of 2008. we have the key earnings on the nasdaq coming up right after the "closing bell" today. we said, there is moments away from trading today, with three minutes or, so and so let's break down the action with our guest. obama gives a speech, and the market is higher and for those looking to take a leg up, positive sign? >> well, yes, i think so. short term, the market is dom nalted by liquidity, and the feds are providing a tremendous amount of it via zero interest rates. there is a longer term story, too, and it does not have a great ending given how artificial the propping up of the economy and the market has been via the fed. >> you say that the market is being underappreciated at how soft it is. i take issue with that, because greece was out there wth