interestingly enough, it's the most chatted-about stock. chipotle showing up, they had some news today. >> thanks for watching "street signs," everybody. see you at the same time tomorrow. today, on the "closing bell," economic reality check. weak reports hook investors on wall street. is the latest data a sign of things to come? we'll talk investor strategy. and companies may be a good bet right now. plus, eye on metals. should investors seek safety in these commodities? we'll dig into that angle. and amazon after the bell. instant analysis and investor reaction straight ahead. live, from the new york stock exchange, this is the final and most important hour of the trading day. hi, everybody. we enter the final stretch. welcome to the "closing bell."

i'm maria bartiromo at the new york stock exchange. >> i'm bill griffeth. the nasdaq has turned positive. modest declines in the home stretch. we are off the lows of the session right now. earlier equities fell on weak reports on the u.s. economic data. however, stocks are still poised. get this, for the best january we've had in about 15 years. that's kind of hard to believe. but that's true. a couple of high-profile names are under pressure in the final hour. shares of netflix lower following news that sky is planning an internet movie streaming service of its own in the uk. that movie seen as a negative for netflix, which launched its own streaming service in the uk and ireland just three weeks ago. also under pressure right now, shares of sears holding. that stock down on reports that cit group is once again cutting off loans to sears suppliers. we'll have more on those stories straight ahead here.

>> let's take a look at these averages here. we've got a great month of january. not a great day today, though. the dow jones industrial average down about 31 points. it is off of the worst levels of the afternoon. but nonetheless, double-digit decline there. nasdaq, technology the best performer in 2012. let's check the s&p 500. best s&p month as you heard, since 1997. s&p down about a point here, point and a half at 1,311. what are traders talking about today? bob pisani on the floor right now. >> search on the euro crisis, key west, florida, hotbed of international research into the euro. you know what's happening? you know what they're talking about? it's this sort of the best it's going to be for a while. the economic data is weakening a little bit.

we've got months where the u.s. economic has been better than the european. recently, the gdp data last week kind of disappointing. and again today, we had numbers below expectations. chicago pmi, consumer sentiment well below expectations. we had a great start. these are the guys we're talking about. >> those numbers were front loaded. they were much better in the beginning of the month and fell off the last week or so. >> that's right. as earnings have come in, notice. we had a number of companies beating, like pfizer and exxon, all of them trading a little to the down side. i think that's the problem right now. i think the problem is, how are we going to get over this economic hump that's been occurring. europe isn't any better. there are a number of countries that if are not in a recession, certainly on the edge of it, germany the one exception. over the weekend as i was coming back, we were talking about

central bank intervention, the three-year facility the end of february. they're talking about $1 trillion. ft had a very good article today on this. they're going to back the truck up. ever since they did that facility, things have been calmer in europe. >> most people said it really moved the funding issues for the european banks. i think for the near term. >> but the problem is, we're down to this again. we're down to the central bank saving the world again. why don't we get better economic data. that's part of 9 problem. there's the crux of the debate right now. >> the fed is not going to move on interest rates until at least 2014. they made that very clear. bob, thank you so much. see you later. bob pisani. >> let's see what's moving and shaking so far today. brian shactman has all the details. >> we talked about tech doing so well. but when you look at the nasdaq 100 which just creeped into negative territory, it's been in the strongest indices. when we look at them, some of

the key names aren't tech companies. vertex is up, just off its high. the drug for cystic fibrosis was just approved. mattel up on earnings. electronic arts doing well. so a lot of the strength isn't even tech in the nasdaq 100. on the flip side, we're watching netflix, and sears holding. that increased competition in the uk not received well. it's down 4% on the day. and sears holdings is down 4.25%. basically suppliers of sears not getting loans from cit, the firm wants more financial information. take a look at the dow. off the lows at one point. i thought would go positive. now down 37 points. american express, jpm, so financials we talked about that midday turn-around. but what i want to focus on is what's at the bottom. the real drags are exxon and

pfizer. exxon, the cap ex is just unbelievably large. that stock down 2%. pfizer down 1% right now. solid numbers. but this is yet another company, i want people to be aware of this, as the dollar's gotten stronger, a lot of u.s.-based companies that do international business are going to get hurt. u.s. steel was an absolute dog last year. the materials sector has done extremely well. down 54% last year, and up double digits this year, and up another 5.5% today. strength in steel. bill, over to you. >> brian, thank you. let's look to the treasury prices now rallying again. rick santelli is in chicago with the details. >> yeah, definitely, bill, not only were today's data points on the weak side, but bob nailed it. the gdp report last week really puts a somewhat less of a smiley face on the economy. look at the two-day chart of fives. everybody's eyes are on fives.

the real financial part of the yield curve, where all the financing is done. you can see, here we hover at 71 basis points. that's the lowest yield, historic. if you look at a 20-year chart of ten-year note futures, you can see their rates have gone down as well. however, lost on this monthly is we're still nine basis points away from a historic ten-year low yield at 171. let's flip this. let's look at prices of futures. remember, ten-year futures yields are predicated off the new issue. the auction ten-year. even though futures prices are at their all-time highs, we're still nine basis points away in the cash. last chart euro versus the dollar, the euro took it on the chin today. you can clearly see we're at a lofty level since december. >> stay with us as we get into the "closing bell" exchange. join the conversation. are john, let me kick it off

with you. bill and i were just talking about the big momentum, amazon after the bell. what are the expectations for amazon.com? >> they're loquestioning the impact of the kindle fire. they're expecting to have sold around 5 million or 6 million units of that tablet. but right about at cost. so the question is, what will that do to eps going forward. so usually the guidance for q-1 isn't that much. i think in this case we want to see if they expect to start making money on that. people will be looking at broadcom 2. the enterprise has been holding up better than some people had hoped. but on the other hand, consumerwise, you have an amazing quarter from apple. but some of the other players are more mixed, like motorola, mobility and so forth. >> let's talk about this momentum within technology. amazon after the bell.

you've got facebook going to be pricing for an ipo. >> all-time high earlier this week. >> and technology was the leadership group in 2011. it's up 8% on nasdaq in 2012. followed by 7% move on the russell 2000. that's where the money is. >> we're going to talk with mr. horowitz, they just raised another $1.5 billion for a third venture capital fund. that's where the money's going these days. >> you have to expect investors looking for a growth in slow growth environment. rick, let's talk about the economic data. we had consumer confidence data on investor sentiment. you said it takes a little of the smiley face off the economy. >> it absolutely does. tomorrow with adp, we're looking for significantly less, at 325,000. and many believe that the fourth quarter was just a barn burner, as everybody was in the holiday spirit. but that's dissipating so quickly.

>> rick, thank you so much. rick santelli with the latest. jon fortt, we'll check in later with the amazon numbers. the dow jones industrial average down about 24 points. nasdaq positive. >> hope you can stick around, because we've got a big show still ahead here on the "closing bell." coming up, stocks posting solid gains this month. does the january barometer signal a sustained rally ahead? or will it lead investors in the cold this year? plus, metal mania. gold, silver and copper have all been rocking this year. and we'll show you how these heavy metals can keep producing profits for your portfolio. and will the kindle fire fire up amazon's earnings? the results are coming up. you're watching cnbc. first in business worldwide.

welcome back. sharon epperson at the nymex. we dropped below the $100 a barrel level. we're watching what's happening in terms of refiners, because we are seeing a little bit of pop on ex ppiration on oil. possible strike could be possible, and that could impact futures in the coming days. we're also watching what's happening in terms of the gold price, where gold over the past month has served 11%. a lot of buying action there. key levels being reached. gold, silver, even greater, up 19% so far this month. back to you guys. >> a perfect segway, sharon epperson, thank you. because we're going to ponder where gold and silver go from here. and is this the time you should be buying other metals as a

place in your portfolio. let's ask the experts right now. joining us with cpm group, and jim steele at hsbc. gentlemen, good to see you both. jim steele, gold and silver, a lot of the metals have been very strong to begin this year. is this going to continue, do you think? >> i think it is. we have the twin issues of accommodative policy. and we also have come back -- little comeback, not so much today, but overall in the euro. and we have the reestablishment of some net long position that is were drawn down at the end of last year. we still have good retail demand in the coin and bar space. so it looks to me as if this rally does have legs, yes. >> but jeffrey, you sense a top could be coming, yes? >> actually, we think the cyclical beat was probably raechd in september for gold. and last may for silver. we think on a short-term basis, we're probably at a top, maybe even today. but this week we think the

prices will come off, and probably what we're seeing right now are the highs for the year. >> where do you differ from jim steele then? he's itemizing a lot of the fundamentals that would seem to be supportive of metals prices right now. where do you differ, do you think? >> i think the key difference is an investment demand. investment demand is the big driver. we're seeing rising mine production on a worldwide basis. we're seeing high levels of scrap recovery, as people sell their gold jewelry, and decorative items, to take advantage of the high prices. we're seeing some price resistance on the part of investors. >> okay. >> our view is that investors are moving away from the unbridled fear of economic collapse. to a more subtle view of economic problems. and that will take some of the steam off of the gold frenzy. >> which assumes it's more of an investment rather than a hedge right now. jim, what do you think of what jeff's saying? >> i would certainly agree about the increase in mine supply. and also very strong, at least

historically high mine increase, and scrap issues. our view is that this is more likely to weigh, or present headwinds to a future rally rather than actually deter them. and i think as we get further along, and emphasis begins to switch in the financial markets from the situation in the eurozone, which weakened the euro last year and helped drag gold down, as they -- as that shifts toward the west, and our fiscal problems, particularly as we're going into an election year, we could get some geopolitical risk and consequently rising gold prices in the middle to second half of the year especially. >> please tell me we can stop focusing so much on the eurozone and greece and all that. jeff, what would you buy right now? >> we're interested in copper on a short-term basis, aluminum from a two-year horizon, and we like platinum and palladium as well.

>> they took quite a decline by the end of last year, and particularly from a supply side. they're very limited supply levels just from two countries. anything can go wrong. when you get a mine issue that you don't see in the gold market. i'm quite positive on both of those metals as well. i'm certainly in agreement with jeff on that. >> jeff, your bullishness on the industrials suggest you would see growth in some parts of the world. >> you're seeing economic growth in almost all parts of the world except for europe. and europe is problematic. our expectation has been a negative .3% contraction in gdp this year. it was much more optimistic than the consensus a month ago, which speaks volumes about the volatility of investor attitudes. so we're seeing growth in the auto industry, on a global basis. and that's where platinum and palladium are used. >> jeffrey, jim, good to see you

both. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. >> 40 minutes, just about the s&p has now turned positive. to join the nasdaq and dow down about 16 points. >> amazon.com, since its ipo in 1997, the valuation has risen from $430 million to 15 years later market cap of $87 billion. >> i guess it's going to work out for jeff after all. >> stock is up 10% year-to-date. should you be committing your capital right here? we'll break down the charts in talking numbers. >> his firm has invested in facebook, group-on, and ben horowitz will join us. why his company is launching a new $1.5 billion fund, even though some say a bubble may be forming in technology right now. >> let's look at the s&p 500. that heat map, let's show you how it's heating up right now. dow industrials down 16 points. back in a moment.

welcome back. 35 minutes until the closing bell sounds for the day. the dow industrials is negative, but well off the lows. the dow drifting lower today. the industrials still on pace for a four-session losing streak. this morning's weaker than expected readings on chicago purchasing, as well as consumer confidence, knocked the wind out of the market early on. the dow down about 27 points. we're still looking at the best

january since 1997. earlier the dow went down as much as 86 points. the market well off the lows of the day. take a look what's dragging on the market today, the dow lower because of exxon mobil. company reporting earnings today. merck, intel, alcoa, 3m, also posting losses at this time. less than an hour to go in trading. traders are watching shares of amazon.com. the numbers after the close tonight for the quarterly earnin earnings. what does that mean about tonight ahead of those numbers? we now look at the charts and start talking numbers. on the technical side of things, abigail doolittle back with us on the fundamental side, gene munster covers the name for piper jaffray. thank you so much for joining us. >> hello. >> abigail, you've been reading this chart for a long time as you look at all the charts. what is the amazon.com chart telling you? the company with the ipo of over $30 million, now 15 years later,

$87 billion. done very well. >> that's amazing. it has done very well. in the near term, the technical perspective is pretty mixed. when we look at the one-year daily chart, it's fraught with bull and bear aspects. it's currently fulfilling a wedge pattern. that pattern carries a target of $2.40. but it comes in the context of a volatile sideways trend, that's reflected in the stock being the 50-day moving average below the two-day moving average. it's fulfilling the pattern that could turn out to be either a bullish ascending triangle or bearish double top. if the triangle, it confirms at 186, double top confirms at 184 for a target of 174. 8% move in either direction. unfortunately, the double top looks light to me. unfortunately we won't know how it goes until one side confirms. that is the main thing about a sideways trend that you have to wait for it to break.

investors probably want to see it above the 200-day before committing. >> it could go either way right now. >> we need more information. >> let's talk about the information on the fundamental side. gene you wrote a report yesterday, remaining positive and anticipating the quarterly revenue in line slightly ahead of the street's expectations. we're seeing expectation of revenue growth. do you think the company will temper expectations? what are you expecting tonight out of earnings? >> we expect the focus is going to be all about revenue. the 41%, beating that 41% top line growth is going to be the magic number. we think they can do that based on kindle and core business. as far as the outlook, you've kind of got to throw amazon's outlook away. they're so conservative when they talk about their outlook. it's really, can they, all this spending they've been doing, deliver better than expected top

line results. that's going to be the focus tonight. >> so gene, bottom line is, you want to commit new capital to amazon right here? >> absolutely. this is the secular ten-year growth story. you need to own it when people talk about the technicals. now is a good time to own amazon. >> abigail, let's look long-term. we're talking 1999 to 2012. >> this is also fraught with bear and bull tension. it's comprised of bearish rising wedges. it creates the bottom of that channel, right now amazon is trading in a confirmed rising wedge. talking numbers, the target on amazon's rising wedge pattern, 96. nearly a 50% drop. suggesting investors are not going to be so happy with the current investment cycle and eating away at the margin. supporting that outrageous target is a huge gap put in at the end of 2009, along with the

fact that the trend channel will exert target-like pull. long-term, it looks like you could have that bullish scenario. but over the next year or two, it looks like amazon could be hit by the macro environment or building out their business. >> you're negative over the near term. that's what makes the market. abigail, gene, we'll be watching those numbers. we hope to talk with you again, and get your handicapping on that quarter. thanks so much. bill, over to you. >> coming up in the last 30 minutes of trading here, the dow still lower at this hour. however, nasdaq trying to ring positive. strong january for the markets. looks to set on a down note. when we come back, our market experts will tell you how you should be investing heading into the month of february. plus we've got the names of four stocks that have been outperforming this market. they have no debt and tons of cash. we'll show you why these stocks may still be cheap at these levels. and as we head to the break, here's how the dow heat map is shaping up right now.

welcome back. bob pisani down on the floor of the new york stock exchange.

what a great start to the year. look at the numbers here. the nasdaq up over 7%. you can thank apple for a good part of that. but even the s&p 500, one of the best januarys in over ten years. terrific numbers. now, the problem is, the economic data has been a little on the weak side recently. chicago pmi today, consumer sentiment and case schiller home price index down three months in a row. look at the -- many of them had double-digit gains in the last month and a half. all of them showing signs of slowing down a little bit. how about the volume, i keep getting asked about the volume. bottom line is this, volume's been light, even in january. we haven't had a big bounceback. i think there are some concerns there for what's going on in february. guys, back to you. >> bob, thank you so much. so the market is up in january. the best performance since -- >> 1997. >> -- 1997. 15 years. so as the saying goes, as january goes, so goes the year. does that hold true? our cnbc data team crunched the numbers and found in the last

five januarys, when the s&p 500 saw gains of 4% or greater, that the index ended with double-digit returns for the year. pretty sweet. >> can the s&p hold on to its gains this month and how should you invest going into february? the onus is on these two gentlemen to answer those questions. that would be brian, and on the left is mike ryan from ubs wealth management. what do you think, guys? admittedly a lot of these gains were at the beginning of the month. we've tapered off at the end of the month. we're going into february. what do you think, brian? >> i'll throw the question back to you. we had a positive 4% in january last year. how did the work work out? not very good. i think sometimes when you look at these statistics and we love to play around with them. last year was a pre-year presidential cycle. let's take it for what it's worth. we think simply what's going on right now is a game of institutional catch-up. we had so many institutional managers that underperformed last year. that's why the market's gone up so strong as it has so far this

year. >> mike, it doesn't matter what the statistics say. you've got to manage client portfolios despite the economic market. how are you allocating capital today? >> i would echo a lot of what brian said. when you don't have a global sovereign risk crisis, it's still looming. we've walked into this year defensive. we're not going to get caught up in the euphoria of this rally. i think it's been largely about the shift in central bank policies, an inflation rally. we think at the end of the day, here's what's going to happen. as earnings become more challenging, and as we start to see some of the near-term that runs off the economic release calendar, i think this rally is likely to spill out. >> you're sounding more defensive than you have lately. >> we're within a couple percentage points of our target of 1400. we're neutral for all sectors in the market for the next 6 to 12 months. we want voefrs to focus on active stock strategies, where

they don't worry about suckers, and the theme, from a three to five-year perspective we have sector best. we want them to look how they're running their portfolio. >> it seems like the eurozone crisis, you don't know what's going to happen. that's an amazing challenge. are there any headlines, any instincts that you have coming out of europe that might lead you to believe that this goes one way or the other? or are we still in the unknown period? >> i think there was a game changing moment in terms of the ecb and their commitment to basically fund the next rio. but it doesn't change the economic fundamentals, nor does it change the political dysfunction in the eurozone. we still have to work through bank deleveraging, and passage of acts through the legislature. it changes the financial aspects with the banking system. >> i echo a lot of things mike is saying. i was there last week, and i had

50-plus one-on-ones in the uk and tel aviv as well. the u.s. is a reluctant buy. the u.s. is the most stable asset in the world. i'm telling you with any kind of sniff of good news out of europe, those assets will leave the u.s. and back to europe. they're just waiting to get in. >> the question is, does the european crisis impact the u.s. given the fact that the european region is the largest trading partner of the u.s.? >> we'll know when things turn more positive. >> gentlemen, thank you so much. we appreciate it. >> coming up with the "countdown" in a few minutes here. >> just about, what, 25 minutes before the closing bell sounds. the market is fracturing down, lower 25 points. technology still 9 the winner. >> we hear facebook reportedly will file for its ipo as early as tomorrow. when we come back, we'll let you know what investors can expect. >> that's going to be a hot

deal. speaking of facebook, ben horowitz will detail the latest on the company in silicon value. >> here's some come of the big names are trading so far today. but first, before we go to break, the "dividend." according to neilsen, what percentage of americans online visited amazon's website in september? 33%? 40%? or 50%? that "dividend" pays off after the break. ♪ [ male announcer ] for our town. [ dog barks ] for our country. ♪ for our future. ♪ this isn't just the car we wanted to build. it's the car america had to build. ♪ the extended range electric chevy volt.

from the heart of detroit to the health of the country, chevy runs deep.

just before the break as part of the "dividend," we asked according to neilsen, what percentage of americans online visited amazon's website in september? 33%? 40%? or 50%? now, the payoff. 33%. welcome back to "closing bell." i'm seema mody. shares on netflix moving lower. british sky broadcasting launching an internet movie

streaming service in the uk, steaming up the competition with netflix. while the stock is down today, it's still up 70% year-to-date. switching focus to the biotech space, vertex pharmaceuticals, no longer a one-hit wonder. its cystic fibrosis drug will cost $294,000 a year. those uninsured and make less than $150,000 will get the drug for free. >> seema, thanks so much. we're in the final stretch on wall street for the day. 20 minutes before the closing day sounds for the day. let's get a check on the nasdaq, which is the winner this year and last. nasdaq composite is on course for the best monthly gain since october for the nasdaq. the gain on the sex of just a fraction at 2,813. it had dropped 13 points at the day's low. we're certainly off the lowest levels of the day. vix edging toward 20. there, the vix is now at 1947.

it has not settled above 20 since january 18th. let's stick with technology. investors anxiously awaiting facebook's ipo filing, of course. we are expecting that filing for the ipo to happen as early as tomorrow. kayla joins us now with what we should be expecting. kayla, what are you looking for in that s-1? >> i've seen them as high as 400 pages, so you can get it's not a lot of stuff that guess excluded from these. first and foremost, look for the financials of a company that's largely been opaque about this kind of stuff. facebook is expected to disclose earnings for the last three years. they'll also disclose growth measures, which could make the trading go berserk, and they'll break down their operating margins. if it's anything like its google margins, it will be around 40% or higher. you'll also see an outline of corporate strategy. acquisitions the company's done,

patents it owns and very likely an opening memo from mark zuckerberg about the future of the company, and details about who's already on the facebook. right now the list stands at dst partners from the original harvard brain trust. so that's what we're expecting as far as what we're going to see a little bit later this week. >> what do we know about investment banks, who's doing the deal, the exchanges, where will the company list? >> there are reports they won't list an exchange on the filing that we'll see a little bit later this week. it's also likely if that happens, they won't list investment bankers either, because these two institutions, they'll fight voraciously, especially on price. especially with such a large ipo. and not listing these institutions formally will keep them fighting. facebook can definitely drive that competition for a little while longer. the price tag also won't be

disclosed for such a giant jumbo ipo. >> we'll be watching. thank you so much. >> let's keep this conversation going and talk to one facebook investor who has exposure to other big names in technology. his firm raised $2.7 billion since its inception. the firm's latest move just announced today a new $1.5 billion fund. first on cnbc interview, we welcome back ben horowitz. welcome back. >> thanks very much. it's great to be here. >> what are your expectations for facebook? let me ask you that first. since we're all talking about the possibility as a filing as early as tomorrow. >> yeah, i can't comment on that, unfortunately, as my partner, mark, is on the board. >> and he's going to leave it right there, with a thud. i can't have a long conversation. >> that's right. >> at this point, what are your expectations for technology this year? there are fears that with some

of these high-profile ipos coming to market that we could be in the midst of another technology bubble given for -- for example, the growth we've seen in the nasdaq? >> i think that's a misperception. i think that when you look at the companies, the multiples for technology, companies are pretty reasonable right now. you know, certainly on a historical basis, and versus other sectors, they think people's expectations are probably, you know, too low rather than too high. and in the last technology bubble, you know, there are significant changes since then. for example, there were, in the last bubble, there were about 50 million people on the internet. there are now over 2 billion people on the internet. the businesses are clearly working a lot better than the last generations. >> but there have been some high-profile ipos in the last year that haven't met expectations. you just wonder, facebook will

probably be the exception to the rule, he said, knock on wood for those who would want to get this on that one. but you haven't seen the kind of performance from some of those on a high-profile ipo that you might have expected, right? >> well, i think that you're talking about stock price performance prior to even one quarter of earnings coming out. so if you're -- when you look at recent ipos, and look at, okay, how are the businesses performing, what does revenue look like, what do earnings look like, particularly given the age of these companies, which are extremely young companies with over $1 billion in revenue, you know, people are, i think, judging them on what they think might happen with earnings. but we haven't seen the earnings yet. >> right. >> and actually, i'm quite bullish on the sector and i think a lot of the companies are finding the ipos will be excited, those on the long side.

>> let's talk about today's news. where do you expect to invest? what do you think is the new trend you need to invest in right now? >> in general, we think this is a really good time to be investing in technology, in that technology tends to cascade. so when certain things are successful, they're successful in their own right, like social networking. but in addition to that, they create a broad set of opportunities for other kinds of innovations that take advantage of that platform. >> give us a for instance on that. >> well, you know, for example, with social networking, it took off, and then you have zynga, which is a new kind of gaming company, which without the kind of rise to facebook was an impossible company to build, and is now at over $1 billion in revenue. so that's the kind of thing that we see happening a lot. you kind of saw that with the pc platform. you've seen that with the internet platform. and so as these platforms come in now, you're going to see the

same kind of thing with the smartphone and tablet platform that are rising at really astronomical rates. >> right. >> so we think all those trends are like very, very interesting for us. and then, you know, kind of in addition to that, we're seeing the ability now with a number of people on the internet and the advance of technology for software to really consume, or eat other industries. and we call it software eats the world. but we think there's big, big opportunities for that going forward. >> let me ask you about employment trends. certainly wall street's been struggling. they're laying some people off. what about silicon valley? are you seeing more job applications coming your way? and what about the notion, steve jobs famously told the president last year that he would bring more manufacturing to the united states if he could find more skilled workers. are you finding it difficult to find skilled workers in silicon valley right now? >> yeah, we're definitely finding it difficult to find

skilled workers. we've got -- for engineers, there's almost zero unemployment. it's very, very low. for top-end engineer, they usually have five or six job offers. so there's no question about that. particularly people with engineering skills are super, super high in demand right now. >> ben horowitz, good to see you. good luck with the new fund. thank you for joining us today. >> okay. thank you. >> ben horowitz with andreessen horowitz in silicon valley. >> just another little stat for you from our dear friend at standard and poor's, back in 1997, jeff was worth $178 million. today, 15 years later, he controls over 88 million shares, worth $17 billion. pretty sweet. i do think he is -- >> good for you. >> ten minutes before the close right here. we've got a mark off of the lows

for sure. >> did you notice a short time ago we showed you radio shack shares hitting a three-year low earlier today. what's behind that price plunge, straight ahead. >> and companies with exposure to facebook. are trading today. back in a moment on "closing bell." mitt romney, born on march 12th, 1947, in detroit, michigan. romney is co-founder and former ceo of bain capital, and former president and ceo of the salt lake winter olympics organizing committee. romney was governor of massachusetts, and shared the republican governor's association. he was a candidate for president in 2008. romney took second place in the south carolina primary. watch cnbc's special coverage of the florida presidential primary, tonight at 7:00 p.m. until the end of the quarter to think about your money... ♪ that right now, you want to know where you are,

and where you'd like to be. we know you'd like to see the same information your advisor does so you can get a deeper understanding of what's going on with your portfolio. we know all this because we asked you, and what we heard helped us create pnc wealth insight, a smarter way to work with your pnc advisor, so you can make better decisions and live achievement.

we're back. coming to you from the post here of radio shack.

hitting the lowest level in near three years. a string of downgrades today on radio shack. one of the issues, the price cuts, following yesterday's kiss appoi disappointing news. let's show the people the damage here on rsh. the stock down sharply, in very heavy volume. $7.18 a share, down better than $3 a share. radio shack weakness in the wireless business. among those downgrading shares today, a whole bandwagon. analysts say they're concerned about when the margins will hit bottom at radio shack,. among those cutting the price targets, the lean cost structure gives it little wiggle room, to do more in terms of maneuvering to preserve margins there. the free-fall today putting radio shack well behind industry rivals. best buy and walmart on a

52-week basis. the stock one of the big losers today in heavy volume. bill, back to you. >> tanking today. thanks, maria. we're coming back with the closing "countdown." we're just moments away from amazon's fourth quarter earnings report. here's how the major averages are trading as we head toward the close.

welcome back. three minutes to go. a personal note first, happy 95th birthday to my mom out in california. happy birth, mom. you get to be a certain age, you don't mind telling your age. love you, mom. talk to you later. get this, the best start for the s&p in 15 years, going back to 1997, for the nasdaq, best january since 2001. we all know what was going on at that time. the major averages on track, more pertaining to the more recent activity, best monthly gain we've seen since october. so here we go. the ten-year note. the yield now is at the lowest level of the month. so we started in the 2% range, now we're down to 1.8%.

gold now at the highest portion of its -- had a pretty good rally in the month of january. and now we're finishing here at $1,741. the vix, i'll point out that we are starting to trend higher here. maybe getting back to 20. the s&p, the critical moment for the charts will be remaining above the 1,300 level. here's what i find interesting. last year at this time, expectations were so high for the markets, and this year they are so low for the market. and brian, when you look at the comparisons to last year, the gains are much better this year than last year. it's about expectations, isn't it? >> it really is. last year we thought people are way too bull ir and this year they're way too bearish. the other thing i caution is consensus has been wrong for a couple of years in this market. do your fundamental work, find

things on a contrarian basis. things that look undervalued, have great franchise behind them, those stocks be still buy. >> do you think there will still be more quantitative easing from the fed? >> i actually don't think there's going to be qe-3. i think that would be negative qe-3. >> thanks, brian. always good to see you. bob pisani, we wait for amazon's earnings. that could be very interesting. >> well, i think the one thing is they don't break out a lot of the kindle numbers we want. >> they have, because of the competition lately, they've been telling us how many kindles they've been selling. >> particularly on how the fire is doing. i don't think they'll break it down with that specificity. there was a great story in "the new york times" over the weekend as the barnes & noble being the best on there. it was very important. >> thank you, bob. see you in a little bit here.