stay quiet with the doritos. i thought it was the best of the super bowl. >> all right. that does it for us on "power lunch." >> and "street signs" begins right now. yeah. and our second half's about to begin. >> oh, yeah. and now that you're all fired up, welcome to "street signs." i'm brian sullivan. maybe we'll call it the eastwood bump. automakers on the move today with some saying it could be a very good year for gm and ford. so rev up the grand torino and pink cadillac. iran walking the tight rope. the president ordering new sanctions against the country. and you will not believe what iran is doing right now. and don't go any which way but loose, go big or go home. your all star market guests on why the biggest of the big caps are the best investments right now, brian. >> hi there, brian.

good morning, everybody. look at what we're watching at this hour. stocks are modestly lower fol ling friday's big gain. and did you notice the movement after the super bowl is virtually nothing at all. well, health insurer, humana down. raised forecast for 2012. that raised forecast is still well-below analyst estimates. there is a big winner in the health space as well. and that is hospital operator hca better than expected earnings, but the big crowd pleaser here a $2 push special dividend. the stock up about 6%. brian. >> all right. things keep getting better for the automakers, both gm and ford shares higher today. those moves attributed to really a few things. first up, some upbeat comments by auto dealers at a huge conference in las vegas. there is some optimism out there that the overall u.s. auto industry could move 14 million cars and trucks this year. the official projection 13.9, 14 being the whisper number. that would be very strong compared to a couple of years ago. next, reports that gm's profit

could hit a record of $10 billion a year. also, maybe just a hint of momentum from all those ads last night. now, philip lebeau is all over this. phil, is this a clint eastwood auto stock rally or something more substantial? >> i think it's more substantial than that, brian. really, you can look at this bump coming from the shop floor to the trading floor to the show floor. and really we're seeing it with almost every automaker. last thursday we're in illinois just outside of rockford. sergio was talking about how they've added over 4,000 jobs since coming out of bankruptcy. chrysler sales were up 44% in january. that's one of the reasons that they're adding second shifts at their plants around the country. let's trade this story. the trading story is when you look at general motors year-to-date. wow. look at that return. that is a staggering return and a gain of 29%. and by the way, the optimistic goals that we're hearing from gm ceos in the articles today were from ford executives in the past about improvement in terms of

industry sales estimates or we're seeing this across the board in the industry. so bhen you hear gm say, listen, we think $10 billion in net profits, there are many people when they first said this last summer said i think they can get there, the question is whether or not they can get to improved profit margins. by the way, we'll also take a look at the auto plays in terms of the parts suppliers. the return you're seeing from them as we take a look at ford it raised industry sales estimate. the part suppliers, look at these returns. year-to-date, you're seeing double digit gains for the most part across the board. johnson controls lagging at 7%. by the way, guys, the dow up 5%. so really we're seeing it across the board. people are buying into what they're seeing from the automakers. keep in mind, a lot of this is just because they were slammed last year. >> absolutely. okay. thank you very much for that, philip lebeau. another big week for earnings. quite a few big caps reporting as well. yum brands reports after the bell today. coca-cola and disney report

tomorrow. and tech giant cisco reports on wednesday. so are big cap stocks the biggest and safest place to invest right now? let's bring in some analysts. before we get to the big caps, boys, charlie, you're going defensive on us. and ed you reckon we'll be in a trading range for the next few years. i want to know why you're not buying into the bullishness in the market right now. charlie, what's your stance? >> well, we think policy disarray on both sides of the atlantic have put europe in a recession. there will be some knockon effects for the u.s. we don't want to get too giddy as a result of the good news that's come about in the last few months. we think it's going to be a challenging time ahead. so we're looking for quality. and part of that leads us to large cap growth. >> ed, how do you explain your stance? a trading range for the next few years. no breakout? >> i don't think so, amanda. i think this market has got a bottom on it based on valuation. if you look at absolute levels

of valuation, it's pretty good. it's not fantastic. about 13 times earnings for the s&p is pretty good. but if you look at relative valuation versus fixed income or versus 0 yielding money market instruments, the relative valuation is about as good as it gets. so i think that puts a bottom in the market. i agree with charlie -- with what charlie said about the policy indecision, the policy issues all around the world right now. i think that puts a top on a great bull markets are made of priced earnings ratios going up. >> right. >> i think in this environment it's tough to see p/e going up. i think there will be a slight upward bias to the market but i don't look to a one-way move here. >> about 14 times in the s&p 500 below the historical average. so what is it going to make it a

bull market? to have valuations go up? what do we need? >> you need some of the risks that are out there. and some of the lack of visibility to clear up. we don't think that's going to happen, necessarily, this year. we think it's going to be a challenging environment. but ultimately if you've got inflation in check and if growth picks up and you think you're on a sustainable fiscal footing and you have monetary policy which with an eye towards growth, everything can line up. we don't think it's going to line up right now. >> what are the stocks you're looking at then, ed? >> well, we've got three names that we wanted to highlight today. one is jpmorgan. this is one of the biggest and strongest of the big financial services companies. as jamie diamond says, they have a fortress balance sheet. we agree with that. capital levels, whatever the new capital regulations bring. >> uh-huh. >> they're in great shape. they'll pick up share from the weaker competitors. and this is a company we think

can raise their dividend probably another 50% over the next year and a half or so. another name is emerson electric. we call this an industrial technology company. >> uh-huh. >> involved in industrial automation, process controls, network, power, all with a view towards making the factory more efficient substituting machines for men in a very effective and productivity balancing way. the third name i like to mention is one that's a little bit off the beaten track. it's totale petroleum. a name underloved in this country. it's a french company set up to have one of the best production growth profiles of all the big international companies over the next couple years. >> okay. charlie, you might not go into individual names but quickly can't let you go without bottom lining this. what's the sing the best

investment line from you right now? >> we have ten, but i'll give you one. dividend aristocrats. these are companies that pay and grow dividends. and for the other ideas included in a report we put out with our top ideas for 2012. >> fantastic. thank you for kicking off our monday here on "street signs." medco and express scripts both dropping sharply today on speculation that their $29 billion deal may be running into regulatory roadblocks. herb greenberg and david faber reporting on this now. herb, what's your take? >> my take is that the criticism of this deal from community pharmacies and other chains has been something that has been in the works, but we don't know based on this. remember, this is from reuters report, right, david? that's the key thing at this point. >> having a very significant influence on that stock particularly that of medco. express not down that much. but they're citing a source closely watching the situation.

i've been in the business a long time and i've done a lot of different atrixs, but there's a lot of different fear out there right now. omni care went down in a similar industry. that's exacerbating fears, introduce a story like this ech with that weak atrix, you don't know who that source is. >> potentially how much of a win is this for walgreens? >> if the deal would be opposed by the ftc, it would be a benefit potentially to walgreens. there's a lot here. we'll know a lot more in the weeks and months to come. if we see if there's ftc action, gets back, herb, basic things are larger companies market to themselves or enough small pbms to service them. >> or assi i've put out there's still whether it's at the peak -- >> but the industry can't figure out what it wants to be. rite aid had one, cvs bought one

then you have medco spun off of merck. doesn't seem to me they can figure out exactly where pbms fit in. c slrks s believes it's better inside them. others say they should get bigger on their own. >> express has had a successful run choosing to be -- and medco itself. >> let's not forget the walgreens-express scripts battle further fuel here that has people looking at that. >> certainly one of their biggest deals announced last year if in fact it were to be opposed, that would be significant. most investors still expect this will go through but certainly a lot of fear out there. again, all it takes with a headline with week attribution. >> thanks for jumping onset at the last second. >> turkey says an attack on iran would be a disaster.

now reports iranians are stealing oil from iraq are coming out. a live report from inside iran after the break. >> and the giants are the world champs. eli manning's a two-time mvp. is bottom line going to pay the price today? steve liesman is crunching those numbers. >> and in mandy's homeland, what else? chasing goats. a national hobby. is that what netflix is doing essentially by launching original shows? chasing goats? herding cats? >> i'm heading back for the championship later this week. >> that goat is delicious. we're back right after this. today is gonna be an important day for us. you ready? we wanna be our brother's keeper. what's number two we wanna do? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online. attention on site, attention on site. now starting unit nine. some of the world's cleanest gas turbines

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check out the contract for brent crude. cold weather in europe and also rising tensions with iran and the broader middle east behind that move. well, here to take a closer look at iran is the nbc bureau chief there. president obama announcing new sanctions today against the nation. what is the response from tehran? >> well, amanda, tehran's response the last several weeks since america's imposed sanctions and the 27 eu countries have imposed sanctions have begun to dig in. they don't want to compromise. they say it's a concerted campaign against iran. and the latest move so far has been that the oil minister announced iran is going to stop supplying crude to many

countries in europe, primarily the countries they think have been implementing sanctions against iran. so they didn't mention more countries or when, but they had a meeting and a press conference yesterday to say that they wanted to stop selling crude to iran. iran's very powerful militia outside the parliament today trying to persuade parliament to expedite this ban. not in a compromising mood digging in quite hard. >> thank you very much for the update, ali. >> thank you. >> all right. well, continuing with iran. sorry, i wasn't sure if we were supposed to ask him another question or not. let's bring in director of strategic intelligence at strike that 4 also the author of the report. tell us what iran is doing exactly in iraq right now according to your information. >> well, iran has long had a very extensive smuggling network in southern iraq. that's where you have a shiite

majority concentration in population where iran has been able to exert tremendous influence for years. it's really no surprise that iran extracts a significant amount of profit from the oil revenues from central iraq. but the fact that iraq is under a very ambitious time line to greatly expand its production in the south. and iran is currently one of the biggest beneficiaries of that. >> there's no real incentive for iraq to stop this, is there? >> well, iran has a very extensive network full of militias, iraqi oil union members and so on. it takes a lot of work to manage all these different players. also a lot of money. you can imagine the amount of middlemen involved in this process. but i think what's missing from part of that sanctions narrative is the fact that iran is able to extract a good deal of money through ie lis it channels.

>> is there any way of being able to stop this? >> no. there really isn't a great way for anyone to do anything about it. there are always impediments to any sanctions regime. you can see trying to embargo iranian oil especially when iran's energy clients don't really have elsewhere to go. saudi arabia can only do so much in terms of its spare capacity. so, no, there's really no good way to lock down pretty rampant smuggling that goes on in the south. >> yeah. when you look at the numbers -- i was looking about $20 million estimated a day in oiling. the numbers aren't gigantic at least for now. if we don't do something or iraq does something about it, do you perceive it to be bigger or a petty smuggling operation? >> remember, iraq's oil lies in very large, shallow, close-to-surface fields, it's very easy to extract it. and iraq has the potential to rival saudi arabia in 10 million

barrels per day for production within a decade so they have a timeline to augment their production. while now maybe those numbers don't sound like that much and you have to pay a lot of middlemen in the process that undercut the profit, but if they realize potential, certainly iran will benefit from that. >> indeed. thank you very much for bringing us that very interesting story. we want to go from iraqi oil now to american oil. some of the new so-called crude realities we face in the oil boom of north dakota. brian shactman has always been covering the story from all angles. it can't all be about the land of jobs and money, can it? >> what happens when you bring thousands of men into an area, give them a lot of money and nothing to do outside of work? >> do you want the tv answer to that? [ laughter ] >> the non-tv answer is the answer. >> i've got some things in my head. >> listen. >> keep it clean. >> calls into the police department up 250%. >> what is?

>> calls into the police department up 250%. they're like old school western stories of melees. it doesn't happen very often, but this has happened. it's a small town of wilson, north dakota, 20,000 people dealing with problems they've never seen. the growth is just so big. on the flip side, take it from the family perspective, if someone gets a huge oil job -- [ overlapping speakers ] >> the wife is not working, say. and there's no retail out there yet. there's a lot of domestic tension. they get domestic calls. they get duis in the afternoon now. there's definitely a downside. they're trying to manage it and trying to grow the hospital and hire more police officers and keep the community. what i noticed the last time is the sense of community has faded a little bit. >> really? >> there's less of a feeling -- >> this is a span of how many months? >> the last year it's absolutely blown up. part of the problem has been the media. people are literally packing up and going there. >> i know that was a joke, but it does kind of sound like a modern day deadwood. real frontier town stuff.

>> people are literally living on top of each other as well in some of these temporary laplace? >> it's not happening fast enough. >> in together drinking. >> seniors paying $500 a month gets forced out because someone else will pay $3,000. oil companies will pay whatever it takes to get a house. so whole families are renting out basements and on top of each other. there's a lot -- they're trying to catch up. it's a difficult situation to grow as quickly as the demand. >> but it's fascinating. you can catch it right? "america's oil rush" premiers at 9:00 p.m. eastern. be sure to tune in. >> thanks, guys. >> coming up in "closing bell," a huge interview. maria sits down with saudi prime minister. also what he is eyeing as a next investment. that is on "closing bell." still to come right here on "street signs," did ahmad

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shares moving. the company has a "compelling second act" it cites intellectual property besides the possibility of a takeover f ofof tivo. >> wanting to give away so badly they're offering free tablets. free to developers who would turn android apps into blackberry apps. developers have complained it's not been easy to create apps for the blackberry. this would be a quick way for rim to expand catalog and compete with android and apple. developers have until next week to submit new apps. rim meantime down 75% over the last year. it is, however, making somewhat of a comeback in 2012. it's up around 15%. why are you laughing? >> i was just thinking it's

still too little, too late. i don't think that's going to make the big difference as much as they want it to. >> well, maybe. little steps. baby steps. >> now we know the giants won the super bowl. the question is how did las vegas do? and what were some of the oddest wagers of the weekend? darren rovell knows all those things. and he is joining us. >> you know how herb hates a story that's supposed to be a story but isn't? this is one of these stories. they say, oh, the giants, they were 100 to 1, a lot of people took that after they lost to the packers and now vegas is getting killed. i called five big bookmakers and none of them said they'll lose money. so the story is not the story there. but the odds -- this is probably the best odds that have come through on the prop bets. i'm going to start you off with the first score would be a safety, which it was. 50 to 1. some guy got that. he bet $1,000, posted it on twitter. $1,000 bet, $50,000 return. there it is. now, if you're betting $1,000 on a safety --

>> you got to have money. >> that guy has a lot of money or made some really bad bets. >> right. >> then i love the national anthem bet. the kelly clarkson how long would the national anthem go? now, this is interesting, bet online sports book.com has the over under at 1:35 seconds. bet online had the she sang 1:34:5. you got it if you hatted over. >> and she did a beautiful job. >> last year, by the way, the odds makers hit christina aguilera at 1:53 exactly. >> papa john's. >> this coin toss. a couple weeks before the game they said america has to vote heads or tails. after that whoever wins that, you have to then sign up on free papa john's.com. and if it comes, whatever it is, so it was heads, you win a free one-topping pizza and a two-liter pepsi max. america voted heads, it lands on

heads. and they've just told me that you'll have until march 4th, it's not really a trick, they'll send you at 4:00 p.m. today if you signed up day-to-day marketing it's very valuable, if you signed up, you'll get a little redemption. i'm trying to figure out how much that costs papa john's. i was told it's about 25% of what they charge. so like pizza plus box plus pepsi max -- >> is it buy something else also? >> no. no. the way i think it's about $3. and all they'll tell me is there's millions. now, what's the redemption rate? >> absolutely. >> typical redemption rate i think is 3%, 2%. >> by the way, right, they deliver, right? >> they deliver, yeah. >> got to tip the delivery person a little more. >> people always sting. >> if something free comes your door, give extra. >> i delivered pap pa john's for one day. >> one day? >> i dropped the sprite zero -- a two liter and it rolled all the way down the driveway.

and then one time i forgot to take the money. >> wow. so you ended up -- as a cnbc anchor instead. >> i fired myself. >> thank you. don't stiff the delivery guy. or girl. up next, why in the world is a financial firm buying a restaurant chain? we're going to chew on o charley's, major monday mover when we come back. >> and scientists say sugar needs to be regulated. it's bad because it's just to blame for chronic disease around the world. is this the government gone wild? a very sweet street fight coming up on that very topic. we believe the more you know, the better you trade. so we have ongoing webinars and interactive learning, plus, in-branch seminars at over 500 locations,

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it's time for street talk. we catch you up on a few of the day's big stories. big win for big blue in indy last night. the dow, s&p and nasdaq lower fears of a lack of a debt greek deal. don't no why anyone is particularly surprised. fidelity, national financial getting hungry for more restaurants. a deal to buy the food service chain o charley's. already earned a stake in the bakers square restaurant. and netflix up more than 80% in

2012 despite today's minor pullback. it is the top performer for the year so far starting today the company getting into the original content game in a big way. our own julia boorstin is in los angeles with more on that. julia. >> mandy, today netflix launches its first original series, a show called lil' hammer. part of a strategy to help build its streaming business and shift focus away from dvd rentals. take a listen to what the show sounds like. >> i'm the boss now. you better make sure your people keep in line. >> don't worry about my people. >> give you a little hint it's about a new york gangster in witness protection in norway. all eight episodes are available today for what ceo reed hastings calls binge viewing. it's one of five original series netflix has in the works along with arrested develop and house of cards starring kevin spacey which costs a reported $100 million.

now, netflix says it's spending less than 5% of its content budget on originals but they will weigh on free cash flow because they demand more upfront payments. netflix is looking to beef up its premium content. it does lose its deal with starz, which has sony and disney movies, at the end of this month. >> who is netflix trying to compete with by launching these original shows? >> i think they want to go head-to-head with hbo. in the most recent earnings call, reed hastings talked a lot about how they see hbo-go as the main competitor. doing this service where they offer content on demand streaming. so by creating original content, they're becoming a next generation showtime or hbo for the web. we'll see how successful it is. it's interesting that shows you order one or two episodes and see if the ratings are good and then you decide if you're going to order the rest of the season. netflix is counting on this to

work it seems like because they ordered this first season. but they've already committed to a second season without seeing how it's going to even do. so they are going up against these cable channels as the cable channels shift more online and compete more with netflix. >> julia, thank you very much. all right. next up, more competition for netflix. this time from redbox. ceo of coinstar earlier on cnbc talking about redbox's new streaming deal with verizon. >> you think about our ubiquitous footprint, we have 35,000 kiosks against the u.s. we are where consumers go every day. we have 30 million consumers and those consumers have told us time and again that what they're really interested in is beyond our redbox service and beyond offerings. >> is this a game-changer? joining us on the phone is justin patterson, senior analyst at morgan keegan. what do you think? >> for right now it's

insignatui insignificant. we don't know about pricing or what content will be featured on the surface. until you see those variables, looks like also another run in the streaming market. >> is it possible redbox and verizon getting in a little too late? >> yeah. the next closer, hulu plus has 1.5 million, netflix has a pretty big lead at this point. >> where do we go then, justin? say they come out and price simulated. let's say we learned the pricing and the availability and it's similar, right? are they going to be a competitor? what do they have right now that should make netflix or apple or whatever it might be, subscribers and shareholders, notice, if anything? >> well, as we were discussing before bringing me in, netflix is moving to original programming. so that right there is a pretty meaningful differentiator. if you look at streaming as a whole, a lot of the content is very similar whether it's hulu,

amazon, netflix or blockbuster. and verizon will likely be bidding for that same content with redbox. to the extent this market gets more exclusive and unique over time, verizon and redbox will have to take on significant content risk. and if you go back to 2011 with netflix, you saw what happens if you start licensing a lot of content ahead of subscriber growth. you risk having pretty meaningful losses. >> super quick, justin, who do you think netflix should be most scared of in any particular space now. i'm going to ask herb the same question? >> i think they're completely right about hbo being the biggest long-term for that. >> i got to point out to everybody here, if you look at the trading in netflix today, the stock was down on this news early in the day and then it came back because of the story that -- one of the stories that had run about whether netflix was going to have a -- be included in the new apple tv. the hd tv part of that. so the stock -- >> because it's already in apple

tv, the box. for $99, it's in there. >> yeah. >> it's one of the options. >> you're right. >> why do we keep hearing about netflix might be in apple tv? it is in apple tv. i use it. >> we're talking about in the actual tv, brian. i pointed out that's laughable because of course it's going to be in that just as netflix is currently in my lg tv and so many other tvs as a streaming option. >> justin, thanks for joining us. netflix also market perform target $90. >> all right. well, back to that o charley's story for a moment. the story is this if you haven't missed it, fidelity, essentially an insurance company, or at least was, is going to buy the rest of o charley's, publicly traded that it doesn't already own. it already owned about 90% of the company. couple things come to mind, what the heck is fidelity financial doing? >> it's already into restaurant -- >> you've got to you said this.

the chairman of the company used to also be the ceo going way back of hardee's before it was bought by carl's juniors. he's had a great interest in the restaurant industry. you have to remember that in the process. >> but you got to admit, it's basically an insurance company which now they have another insurance part, american blue ribbon holdings, they already owned a little bit of chuck's, but they're completely changing the company. >> because it was focused on mortgage insurance. you have to understand, that business the last time i looked was not necessarily booming. >> i wonder also if this is a play on the comeback of the lower to middle income consumer. >> potentially. that's a very good point. but i wonder if shareholders should be ticked here. you bring up a five or ten-year chart, yes, it's a fat premium and this year. this was a $10 to $20 stock for about a 10-year period. look at that chart. >> look at it. >> yeah, you have a nice bid today. you have a nice premium -- >> i wouldn't bet against --

>> shareholders aren't going to be satisfied. >> i would not bet against him in the restaurant space. even if this company morphs itself into whatever it's going to be. it's an investment. that's what insurance companies do. they invest. >> don't bet against them. >> why don't we keep with you herb because it's herb on the street time. the ipo filing last wednesday getting the thumb's up from your grumpy old accounting friends. >> absolutely. our accounting professor that grumpy old account's blog, but their piece on facebook today shows they do have a heart. now, these are the same guys who called groupon insolvent giving it basically an f. but after reading facebook's financials, they give the company an a. topping the list of reasons transparency. here's what they say, no games, no hype, no spin. just quality detailed investor-riel vent disclosures not commonly found in most internet company ipos. that's not all. no use of the term ebitda.

no gross or net revenues like groupon. just straight revenues. oh, and facebook is making money on a gap basis. does not get better than that. and what this means is that if you're an investor in facebook, you can pay attention to how the company's doing. you can fight the battles over valuation, but you can really focus on how they're going to get their growth. you don't have to worry about accounting shenanigans, at least not right now. but i think it's great that these guys came out and actually gave them an a on that. >> they like it. >> they do. >> not so grumpy. stat ler and waldorf get nice. >> there you go. >> call them yard sale stocks. beat up shares relegated really to the investment basement until today. we'll show you some odd trends in the stock market today. >> also, creating a winter wonderland in the middle east is amazon thinking about defying the laws of nature. stick around. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 let's talk about how some companies like to get between ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 you and your money. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 at charles schwab, we believe your money should be available

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sprint, nextel, first solar, cablevision, those are some of the best performing stocks in the s&p 500. but, and as you say there's always a but, not one of them, sometimes there's a big but, not one of them is down less than 40% over the past 52 weeks. so they've been ignored, destroyed, sold, whatever, but today doing all right. no time to discuss, but i wanted to point that out. >> bricks and mortar bookstores may soon have another reason to loathe amazon.com. the world's biggest online retailer reportedly planning to open its first ever retail store. the blog, good e reader claims amazon will roll out a retail store in seattle within the next few months. the store would sell amazon-published books which chains like barnes & noble will not sell. >> the giants won the super bowl. >> did they? >> millions upon millions watched. >> why don't you follow that for me. >> what? >> i'm kidding.

you tivoed the game. and today all i want to do is talk about big blue's big win or maybe the pats loss. steve liesman is set to tell us that is bad for the bottom line. productivity is a bad thing. >> are you watching this broadcast from home instead of in the office? did you come down maybe with a sudden bout of the flu? if so, you are not alone. the day after the super bowl could count as one of the lowest productivity working days of the year. with workers staying up late to watch the post game and general holiday-like revelry, sure. super bowl distracts workers as we reported last week, with all the expert coaching at the water cooler, but the real drag on productivity comes the day after what's called super bowl hangover day. when workers do come to work, employers lose an average $3.16 for every ten minutes that spend talking football. that works out to $205 million

for every ten minutes chewing the super bowl fat. more americans call in sick or waste time in the super bowl than any other working day of the year. hold on, sully. hold your comments. one in ten take a vacation day, and 3% call in sick. 4.4 million americans will arrive at work late today. march madness the worst super bowl -- worst productivity sdaping, march madness tops the list, nfl fantasy football, super bowl, world cup socker and college football bowl season. this comes after strong gains throughout the recession, but hold on, the u.s. remains one of the world's leaders among countries in productivity compared for example to europe. u.s. productivity has grown much faster in europe since '09. what does that mean? it means the super bowl does zap

productivity. and don't forget all of the commerce created. >> i can solve the problem right now. >> make it a national holiday. >> make the super bowl saturday night. why is it sunday? saturday night super bowl. >> i hope darren rovell has a reason for you. >> i want to see what the most popular excuse is when people call in sick. i hope people don't call in and say i'm hungover from the super bowl. they say -- >> we'll do a survey next year on that. >> and not to mention what happens tomorrow in new york. >> parade. >> you're right. >> what does that do for productivity? >> that's during the day, right? 11:00 or something? >> i did a report this morning about how they raised their gdp forecasts. it's going away. gdp is moving now. >> solve the problem. >> is that what you want to do on a saturday night? >> it would be more fun. you don't have to worry about getting back et cetera. >> no, you wouldn't. >> new evidence there should be some kind of support group for twitt twitter junkies.

moving on. >> should sugar be regulated like alcohol or prescription drugs? but first, bill, what's ahead on "closing bell"? >> we're going to look at coke and pepsi. could they give you portfolio a pop of sorts? we're going to look at that ahead of earnings out this. and then a first on cnbc interview with one of the world's richest men, one of the savviest investors around. we'll find out where he's investing right now and if he thinks a bubble is forming in the social media industry. always an instructive conversation with prince alwaleed. we look for that coming up today on "closing bell." maria and i will see you at the top of the hour from the new york stock exchange. in the pemeantime, "street sign back after this. rds of...[ whis] i did not want to think about that. relax, relax, relax. look at me, look at me. three words, dad -- e-trade financial consultants. so i can just go talk to 'em? just walk right in and talk to 'em. dude, those guys are pros. they'll hook you up with a solid plan.

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researchers at uc san francisco argue that sugar should be taxed and regulated like tobacco and alcohol. the average american consume 2s 2 tea san spoons of sugar a day, according to the american heart association that equates to, guys, 75 pounds of sugar a year. with us now, justin wilson from the center from consumer freedom and jennifer bomb rants from yale's center for food, policy and obesity. jennifer, let me start with you, usa, yeah, tax it regulate it,

why? >> yes, let's regulate t sugar has addictive properties it raises bad cholesterol and it has cardiovascular effects, metabolic changes from high consumption and it's -- causes weight gain and obesity t is time to regulate it. >> justin, you go after the authors of the report themselves, right? hey, these people are rogue, probably serving some greater interest. why do you say that? why do you believe that? saying sugar should be regulated it is a drug. >> come on, they called sugar toxic and that does nothing but flag some -- create some fear that's completely unwarranted. this notion that we are addicted to sugar is a joke. we enjoy things that taste good and that doesn't make it addictive. fundamentally, the glad we should tax sugar is just government regulation and it is trying to protect us from ourselves and that kind of government paternalism doesn't belong. >> just.you cannot deny that obeseity, the milken institute, very respected, obesity costs us about $1 trillion because of

chronic diseases like pulmonary disease, hypertension, stroke, diabetes, et cetera. a lot falls to the taxpayer through medicaid, medicare what is wrong with adding a tax to it you can pay for it on the back end. you can't deny obesity is not a gigantic problem and only growing bigger? >> that is not an argument for taxing or regulating something but rather an argument against creating a single-payer health care system where we have to bear the burdens of other people's risking taking. fundamentally we need to focus on the fact what your argument seems to justify, we should lower the -- >> just trying to avoid the actual topic, justin, by bringing up health care. >> no he is saying -- his argument is it costs us $1 billion every year. >> exactly. [ overlapping speakers ] . >> you want your taxes to keep going up so you can fund things? >> unhealthy products are so -- >> gas taxes pay for roads. [ overlapping speakers ]

>> so we have to increeps the price of the effects of society reflected in the price. >> you guys are all losing track of is that sugar costs twice as much as it already should because of our backwards sugar policy. >>ed products that sugar is in cheap. sugary beverages account for 47% in the american diet. >> 6% of our total daily caloric intake and the last study on soda taxes, if you taxed soda at the rate the yale center is suggesting, reduce it by nine calories a day, equal to standing up and doing dishes for a few minutes. >> have higher taxes. >> jennifer this is herb greenberg, the question i have for you giving you everything you have mention there had, all very interesting, realistically, do you really think they are gonna ban sugar? >> i would never call for a ban of sugar. sugar is an ingredient what we need to do is disclose factual

information have a disqualifying level to make health claims on products, especially for children, maybe reduce the amount of sugar added to products, is he is specially for -- >> that is a ban, reducing the amount of sugar sharks a ban. we have a nutrition facts panel on the back f a consumer want was to something that tastes sweet that is their fundamental right. >> still have a health claim. >> convince a bureaucrat to make it impossible or much more expensive to do that is social engineering. >> final word to you, jennifer. >> is time to regulate sugar t causes grate health effects and the products containing it independently associated with health problems including weight gain and metabolic problems and cardiovascular disease. >> justin and jennifer, great debate. thanks for joining us. first sugar, now twitter. a new study claims twitter is more addictive than drinking, smoking and eating sugary cereal. it is the hardest habit to

break. >> i agree with that. >> no. no. no. >> herb doesn't know. >> some of our followers tweeting in, i don't smoke or drink but since i joined twitter in september, i rarely look at my facebook, don't get a lot of sleep. the facebook thing. >> strictly numbers said twitter is not as addictive, not going to read that -- >> you have to read it. it fell to you. an odd-numbered thing. >> fascinating during the game last night, going down the twitter stream, especially about the ads, people -- i was wondering what are they doing? watching -- >> is twitter the new thing? >> i was on it, too. >> twitter instagram. >> tweeting more than i was answering the game. >> so was jack welch, during the game. up next, your disaster and your sunshine stocks. ♪

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okay, time for herb's disaster du jour. a chinese whip company is hitting the skids? >> the company sohu.com. >> that was quick. >> yes. >> my fashionable sunshine stock, michael kohrs up 11%, since the start of the year, jumped 21%, 33.36. >> you there go and hey, by the way, everybody, thanks for watching ""street