microsoft, ibm, mcdonald's, american express. >> big upgrade today for ibm. that does it for us. more "fast" at 5:00. follow me on twitter. "power lunch" begins right now. thank you very much, scott. three hours to go in the trading today. investors are watching wall street, athens. more than half of the s&p is in with earnings. bernanke issues a challenge on capitol hill. greece moving closer, so it says right here to a deal. does it all add up for the bulls? martha stewart launching another line. this time, it's home office products for staples. but is the domestic diva covering all her bases or simply watering down her brand. and earnings at ag coat triple. can they ride it to even higher profits? we'll talk directly to the ceo. >> along with sue herera and brian shactman, i'm tyler mathisen. "power lunch" is served right here, right now.

>> we serve it hot. greek leaders reportedly closer to backing tough austerity measures which should open the door to getting more bailout money. that news did turn the markets around. 39 points to the upside in the dow. the s&p 500 up almost three points. and the nasdaq composite up a little less than .25%. the pulse of the markets, europe got a bounce on that greek news. oil inching back towards $99 a barrel. and the ten-year moving up. coinstar up. 19% to the upside. anadarko petroleum beat on the top and the bottom line and yum! brands up almost 3% and touching all-time highs. on the downside, the drag is

with eps guidance, good for 4% to the downside. unum lower on q4 losses. and fed rated down on worries that new rules could hurt its business. mr. pisani, did you run inside after taking that picture at the giants parade? are you out of breath? >> it was all about research today. and half of the floor was standing out in front -- the ticker-tape parade was literally right out in front of us. everybody heading out to the stadium right now. big rally going on there. lots of moving parts today. fascinating day. you've heard about the euro from brian. take a look at the s&p 500. stocks lagged the rally. didn't catch up till after 10:00. obviously a little bit of help from greece. some people were talking about mr. bernanke giving some help because he refused to sort of rule out further, perhaps, quantitative easing. he said that indirectly. but people took that to be not definitively a no.

that may have helped the market as well. take a look at the major sectors. on either side of positive or negative for both of them. but we were much weaker earlier in the day. technology clearly moved into positive territory. besides oil, as brian touched on, saw a nice rally in a number of the precious metals. gold has a nice move to the upside. this may have been helped a little bit by mr. bernanke. finally, homebuilders all on the upside today. standard pacific has a terrific and surprising earnings report. that stock up rather surprisingly here, 17% today. sue, a lot of the homebuilders are near 52-week highs. >> that's been a great story for the last week or so. bob, thanks so much. breaking news right now, more than $30 billion in three-year notes up for auction. rick santelli is at the cme with the results. what kind of grade are you going to give it, ricky? >> before we give the grade and this grade is the demand snapshot at 1:00 eastern. let's go over all the details. $32 billion, the ultimate yield at the dutch auction, .347.

a bit higher than 34.5 basis points. pretty much right there, 35 basis-point bid offered at .345. but here's where it starts to get a little dicey. 3.35, the average bid cover, last ten auctions. this was 3.3. just to give you some perspective on that, you have to go to october's auction, equal 3.3, september's auction to find a lower 3.15 bid to cover. also below the 37% ten auction average on indirect which were 27.7 and even light on direct bids which came out 8.5 versus 11%, ten auction average. we're going to give this one a c-plus. and it priced well based on the w.i. market. but it was average on pretty much every metric. >> thank you so much, rick. now let's witch on the "power lunch" power surge and drill down on the stories today.

ben bernanke getting drilled by lawmakers on capitol hill. the economy, topic number one. europe's debt, topic number two. that threat causing him concern. our steve liesman listening in. what's the latest, steve? >> i'm going to spend a little more time on topic two here. the fed chairman telling the senate budget committee that southern countries in europe are already in recession, that europe was growing at zero in the second half of 2011 and that the ecb, the european central bank, is predicting a recession. translation, if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, it's probably a recession. he was then asked about the exposure of u.s. banks to europe. >> there has been progress made both by banks and by money market mutual funds by improving hedging. but, again, i don't want this to be interpreted as a complacent statement. i think that if there were major problems in europe, the risk aversion, the volatility, the uncertainty, all those things

would have a powerful impact on our financial system. >> bernanke added the u.s. economy's already seen some impact from europe's troubles. he added trade with europe as not, quote, make or break for the u.s. but does have an influence. on the u.s. economy, tyler's topic number one, he said that the 8.5% unemployment rate understates weakness in the job market because it doesn't include those working part-time for economic reasons or discouraged workers. but that was pretty much about it on that very interesting jobs report from last friday. >> steve, you chaired your own fomc meeting where you played all three roles. >> right. >> what wasn't bernanke asked today that he should have been? >> he was not asked about the jobs report. there was no point-blank question, mr. chairman, what did you make of the decline of the unemployment rate, the 243,000 jobs created, the upward revisions to the prior, does this change your policy outlook, does it change the forecast that you remain low until 2014? why or why not?

i think it was a very simple question that markets wanted to hear from the senators. they didn't get it. a little bit surprised. the senators tend to ask better questions than they do on the house of representatives. but paul ryan last week on our behalf asked market-type questions. >> steve, thank you. >> my pleasure. as you know, mr. bernanke renewing his pledge to keep the u.s. safe from europe's debt crisis. today, two of greece's biggest unions hold a massive strike to protest those austerity measures. cnbc's julia chatterly is live in athens. how close do we think fwrees is greece is to a debt deal? obviously we're having an issue with her shot. why don't we go to diana olick right now. and talk about the housing market. it's a big overhang in the economy after more than a year of talk. we may soon be to a settlement. diana olick has the answers.

diana? >> reporter: i hope so, sue. from what we know, this settlement could help close to 1 million troubled borrowers with mortgage implications of a principal reduction. but this deal only addresses foreclosure paperwork abuses. it's not going to help anyone buy or sell a house this year. for the five banks in the settlement, b of a, jpmorgan, citigroup, wells fargo and al lied financial, it's one of still of a growing number of legal actions. bank of america alone which took on countrywide is facing or has settled more than a dozen lawsuits. the same five banks are being sued by fannie mae and freddie mac's regulator, the fhfa for allegely misleading the government-sponsored entities about the mortgages they were buying. just last friday, the new york state attorney general sued wells fargo, b of a. the three are demanding the suit

be dropped as a condition of this state a.g. settlement. massachusetts attorney general, martha coakley filed suits over allegedly fraudulent foreclosures. it could put an end to some state suits but doesn't release the states by other actions from the federal government, private investors or any individual borrowers. sue and tyler? >> thank you very much, diana. let's go back now and try and connect with julia in athens where the audio engineers have gone on strike, clearly. let's check in with julia to find out what the latest is on that debt deal over there. >> reporter: i've got you now. some people are strike, i can assure you. the local media reports here are that the draft agreement has been completed and now with the coalition leaders of the government here in greece, they're set to meet the prime

minister in around an hour's time. at the same time around an hour ago, the finance minister and the prime minister met with one of the key representatives of the private creditors here, of the bond swap deals. the pieces do appear to be coming together. but we are still waiting for that agreement from the coalition leaders of the government. now, at the same time, we've had the strikes going on here, the two leading unions representing around 50% of the workforce. we've also had protests in the central square. at one time, the protesters set fire to a german flag outside the parliament building. and perhaps symbolizing the ongoing concern here about germany's role, not just in the details of the bailout process but also the pressure that was heard from merkel yesterday about the need for further reforms here. there's also been an article that's being circulated in the local press here. it's titled "stop the bailout

farce." not only does it address the idea of a greek default, but it also gives the idea of a ecb or eurozone nation participation in the bond swap deal. which is a highly contentious point and much discussed here in europe. now at least, though, we await decisions from that meeting later today. and it could be another long evening. guys, back to you. >> julia, thank you very much. forget occupy wall street. there's a different kind of crowd taking over lower manhattan today. a giants homecoming for the super bowl champs. as many as 1 million fans turning out for big blue's ticker-tape parade, it's a victory parade as eli manning and company headed up the canyon of heroes. it was followed by a ceremony at the city hall. the parade is expected to have a positive economic impact of up to $38 million for the city of new york.

they're crossing to river for an afternoon pep rally at the giants' stadium in new jersey. >> that is going to be quite an afternoon. governor christie will be there for that. straight ahead, almost 60% of the s&p 500 have reported their earnings. more than half beat estimates. that's not bad. not great, though. can this kind of profit picture support a rally? the chief equity strategist, one of our favorites, at ubs is going to weigh in. here's the action in the s&p sectors today. most of it solidly in the green. the exception, the industrials, which are down a little bit more than .1%. and telecom is off .25%. we're back in two. want to prot. right. but... home security systems can be really expensive. so to save money, we actually just adopted a rescue panther.

i think i'm goin-... shhh! we find that we don't need to sleep that much. there's an easier way to save. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. take the privileged investing tools of wall street and make them simple, intuitive, and available to all. distill all that data. make information instinctual, visual. introducing trade architect, td ameritrade's empowering web-based trading platform. take control of your portfolio today. trade commission-free for 60 days, and we'll throw in up $600 when you open an account.

welcome back to "power lunch." i'm bertha coombs at the nasdaq. time now for "3 in 30." three stocks stories in 30 seconds. an apple, new high a day helps propel the nasdaq higher. apple right now up over 1%, closing in at $470 a share. and closing in on more enterprise clients. dow jones reporting that halliburton now is switching over from blackberries to iphones. meantime, sears holdings, that momentum continues as it approaches its earnings on february 23rd. the company's announced it's closing a number of stores. a lot of speculation about potential restructuring there. and mattel hitting a 13-year high, set to launch a new barbie

tv campaign, too. you better watch out. apparently that's going to include not just clothes for barbie but clothes for girls. >> oh, yes. yes, we already have a few of those outfits in our home. thank you, bertha. and we are about halfway through the earnings season. 60% of the companies have beaten consensus estimates. a little weaker than it's been recently. will earnings be able to propel this market rally? let's bring in jonathan golib. welcome back. >> hi, tyler. >> if you were trying to build a fundamentally strong market, you would prefer it to be built on earnings rather than sentiment. >> sure. >> but it feels to me like we're transitioning from that place where earnings were the foundation to where sentiment is? >> the good news was last year you had great fundamentals. the earnings came in very strong and the market didn't want to pay any attention.

now you have earnings which are really decelerating pretty rapidly and the sentiment has turned more positive on europe and the market's celebrating. it's really interesting, for those investors who focus on the fundamentals, it's been a really hard environment. >> some of those fundamentals have been skewed, too. you take a look at apple, which is hitting another new 52-week high, another new all-time high. yet the percentage that it contributes skews the numbers, doesn't it? >> yeah, and you hate to say the market x-apple. >> like x-japan. >> right. but earnings year over year are up about 2%. that's earnings growth. if you add apple into that, it's about 6%, 7%. so it really is the whole earnings story. the market x-apple, not so good. with apple, it's pretty good.

we started the report that if you took out the three worst trading days last year, you got a 17% return. >> if they were gone, you would have had a 17% return in the s&p? >> find somebody who's good enough to pick those three days. >> right. the devil's in the details. >> if i'm not good enough to do that, of course, i am. but let's say i'm not, where should i put money to maximize the chance of getting that higher return? >> there's three themes we're focused on. the first is, as much as we had a great january and looks like we're starting february off as well, i think this year is going to be one where we're going to have continued volatility. i like to see balance in a portfolio. in terms of cyclical and noncyclical stocks, i want them to be balanced against each other. there are pockets of strength here in the u.s., i want to be exposed to those. we saw friday a great jobs report. we've had really good jobs data over the last couple of weeks even though it's been a weakish economy. i want to be exposed to the american consumer, that's an area of strength. those areas that are most at

risk -- if europe goes south a little bit, i want to be light on those. areas like financials and energy and materials, a bit more exposed to european stress, for good or for bad, i'd rather avoid those a little bit. >> last time you were here, europe was kind of teetering. it seems as though they've made some progress. things seem to feel a little bit better. are you less worried about europe now than the last time we saw you or the same? >> it's interesting. in november/december, when you had this announcement of the ltro where the ecb was going to provide a three-year lifeline to the european banks, the market's really embraced that as a risk-on type of event and it's been a game changer. long term, i think we all agree it doesn't. but when you have three years where you don't have to worry about european banks, the market is celebrating that. >> and the ltro have access to money and liquidity? >> exactly correct. >> in the global arena, i know

you don't do the international side of things. but does the u.s. still look as compelling to you as some of the other foreign markets? >> i think it does. the other area that's attractive are emerging markets. you have companies with strong balance sheetings, strong growth rates and they're selling at really low multiples. that's an area if you bet on it last year, you didn't get paid, i think this is a year where u.s. is going to do well relative to the world. and i think emerging will as well. >> jonathan, thank you very much. good to see you again. >> always a pleasure. coming up, when we come back, martha stewart launching a new line. this one's home office products. she has some of this, but this is specific to staples on top of her deals with macy's, jcpenney and home depot and many more. is it a good thing or is she diluting her brand? hear what martha told us. shares of martha stewart living on the media have had a pretty good run in the last 12 months. up about 23%. back in two. [ male announcer ] succeeding in today's market

requires more than wishful thinking. it requires determination and decisive action. i go to e-trade and get unbiased analyst ratings and 24/7 help from award-winning customer support to take control of my finances and my life. i tap into the power of revolutionary mobile apps.

to trade wherever. whenever. life isn't fully experienced sitting idly by. neither is investing. [ birds chirping ] hyundai genesis. in a new, faster-acting formula. zero-to-sixty in less time than a porsche panamera s. the 429 horsepower genesis r-spec. from hyundai. are you still sleeping? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule.

the first technology of its kind... mom and dad, i have great news. is now providing answers families need. siemens. answers. let's check in with the judge and see which stocks wapner's watching today. scott? >> thanks so much. i'm watching mastercard, shares of m.a. doubling the dividend to 30 cents a share. up 19% or so over the past six

months. and a lot of wall street firms are talking about this stock this week. bank of america/merrill lynch said it seems well-positioned for 2012. sees robust eps growth and meredith whitney raised the price target up to $410 saying the european weakness hasn't been showing up yet. so people still like mastercard. there's a look at the stock and the run its had. year to date up 5%. but doubling the dividend, you don't see that often, a company coming out and doubling their dividend up to 30 cents a share is what mastercard does today. >> i can't remember the last time a company actually doubled down on the dividend. >> it's a big move relatively speaking. martha stewart, a household name, fournd ander and director martha stewart omni media. deals with jcpenney, home depot, macy's, petsmart and now she's

adding staples. we talked to her this morning about her deal with avery dennison and staples and what the market is. take a listen. >> home organizing is a $21 billion business in the united states. there are 20 million home-based businesses in the united states and 17 million of those are operated by women. so we thought that this was probably a pretty safe area in which to design product. >> one would think so with those numbers. let's take a look at some of the new martha stewart-branded products at staples stores nationwide. in a world of smartphones and tablets, the so-called paperless home, martha points out herself, she's trying to find profits in good, old-fashioned paper. here's how shares of her company and staples and avery are trading right now. martha stewart down a fraction on the trading session, about 3%. staples is up .5%. and avery dennison up 1.3%. we also asked her if she's

worried about brand delusion now that she had so many partnerships across so many retail outlets. >> ralph lauren is everywhere. calvin klein is everywhere. estee lauder is everywhere. donna karan is everywhere. tommy hilfiger is everywhere. people come in and say, do you have louis vuitton. macy's sells louis vuitton, so does madison avenue. i want to be where the customer wants us and needs us. >> martha has a huge presence on the web as well. some of the best-selling apps on itunes not to mention social media. and basically with about 250 million twitter followers, i think, martha stewart, inc., pretty much a good thing, at least for investors for the last 12 months. before that, the stock had had some trouble.

but it seems to be rebounding. >> did she talk to you at all about the dust-up involving jcpenney and macy's? >> she says macy's has renewed their arrangement for the next five years and she made the point that she thinks retail is changing. and as a result of that, jcpenney is going to the store -- in the store concept. macy's will continue their relationship with martha because she feels that people pick stores -- maybe you know this after the supermarket documentary you did. people have their favorite stores. therefore you have your brands in every single store. >> i think of her as a ralph lauren kind of person in the since that her products are different lines in different stores but they're everywhere and it seems to work for him. >> it's working for her, at least so far. straight ahead, commodities are in focus today on the heels of that big estrada/glencorp deal. we go live to the nymex for the gold close. and shares of agco up more than 40%.

q4 earnings more than tripled. we'll talk to the ceo and ask if high commodity prices can keep fattening up that bottom line. "power lunch" is back in two. om. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 they say you have to do this, have that, invest here ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 you know what? ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 you can't create a retirement plan based on ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 a predetermined script. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 at charles schwab, we actually take the time to listen - ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 to understand you and your goals... ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 ...so together we can find real-life answers for your ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 real-life retirement. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 talk to chuck ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 and let's write a script based on your life story. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 without the stuff that we make here, you wouldn't be able to walk in your house and flip on your lights. [ brad ] at ge we build turbines that power the world. they go into power plants which take some form of energy, harness it, and turn it into more efficient electricity. [ ron ] when i was a kid i wanted to work with my hands, that was my thing. i really enjoy building turbines. it's nice to know that what you're building is gonna do something for the world. when people think of ge, they typically don't think about beer.

a lot of people may not realize that the power needed to keep their budweiser cold and even to make their beer comes from turbines made right here. wait, so you guys make the beer? no, we make the power that makes the beer. so without you there'd be no bud? that's right. well, we like you. [ laughter ] ♪

welcome back to "power lunch" here. about 2 1/2 hours away from the

close here. i want to reset you for the market here. the ten-year note, still just under 2%. i just got off the phone with somebody who said until we get to 2.5%, we don't really see that much risk appetite. still below 2% here. weaker dollar, we'll get to gold and sharon epperson in a minute. but a big move today, we need explanations whether it's just dollar-focused. the three major indices slightly to the upside. but we are off of the highs. we began down, reversed it. now we're just easing back just a little bit. i want to talk about something that hasn't gotten a lot of exposure. xstrata and glencore's partnership is a concern. these are names that might be out there looking for acquisition.

iron ore looks to be the target here. if a collective set of investors think there's a bona fide set of possibilities, you'd see them looking into this. cliffs natural getting a pop. but 2% is not the kind of pop that people think maybe taken out anytime soon. alpha natural is another one. down 4%. and consol down 1%. you see a lot more money flowing into these names if they were bona fide targets. speaking of commodities, gold about to shut down. let's get to sharon epperson at the nymex. >> big interview today and a close right near a key psychological level here. gold prices here are moving a couple of factors at work starting the day with that greek bailout draft agreement. the optimism in the euro helping to fuel a little bit perhaps of the optimism in gold. but it really comes down to dollar weakness. that's what is helping gold and the commodity sector overall. and the fact that during

bernanke's comments and his testimony, really nothing has changed in the fed's view. as we know, the fed effect has been very sharp in the last month. of course, year to date, gold up over 10%. we're also watching what is happening in terms of the second day that we are seeing here -- the first day after a two-day dip of gold prices higher and whether we can break through that 1750 level and go up to 1769. i'm joined now by a trader from arbitrage trader here, watching this market closely. what is the main factor here? is it greece? is it the dollar weakness and bernanke? what is driving gold prices here? >> ting catalyst this morning was the greece information. i think that was the first catalyst. but bernanke's affirmation that they're going to keep rates low is kind of another q.e. 3, the ability to borrow money at low rates are very important in this

market. even after seeing jobs data and other data that's come out already. >> across our way here where they're trading oil, they're very concerned about iran. we're seeing oil prices heating up as well. is that a concern in the gold market? how much will that play into the gold price? >> it does. today, there were two factors that i was looking at when i was buying and selling gold. and one of them was crude and the other one was the euro. >> there you have it. where do you see gold going in the after hours? >> right now, we're at 1,750. if we can get back above 1,767, i like this commodity to be around 1,850 in the next couple of months. >> there you have it here on the floor with the close right now. looking at 1,748 for the gold price. back to you. >> sharon, thank you very much. coming off a record year, agco beats the street, posts a 33% price in fourth-quarter net today. in afternoon trading, agco shares a little bit lower by 3%.

first on cnbc is chairman and ceo martin richenhagen. good to see you. >> good day from atlanta. >> congratulations. i'd like to begin with a question about europe where the region that includes europe, you call it the middle east africa, and europe, saw gains of 32% when you sweat out any currency changes. why was europe's stronger than many of us would have expected for you? >> the farm income for european farmers was pretty strong. commodity prices were high. less volatile than in the past. and european farmers made a lot of money. they have de-leveraged their firms and they're willing to invest this year. >> that sector of the economy in europe, unlike the financial sector, has de-leveraged and is in good shape. how do you see it now for 2012?

>> well, i'm very positive and bullish. and actually the rapidly growing world population, changing diets in emerging markets, renewable fuels, they really help and demand is stronger than supply. and this helps our brands. massey ferguson, distributed by cat. and of course our high-tech world market leaders are in a very strong position. we have invested a lot in engineering during the last years. and that helps us to sell. >> what part of the globe do you see the best demand? where is the most strength? >> well, actually the biggest market, of course, still is north america, the u.s. then brazil, south america, they're very strong as well. they are the market leader in some produce like oranges and

soybeans and corn. and then, of course, the markets are moving towards east on europe and long term, i think odds are africa is an area which should be considered because only 20% of africa's farmland is used today. and we have already 1 billion people living in africa. and this population will double through 50z. so there is a need for food security and for modern farming. >> how do you beat the conundrum or the box that africa is in? they need the food. they have the land. they have the population. but they don't have the money to buy expensive equipment like yours. >> well, actually, you need to talk to the guys, you need to talk to politicians, which we did last week. i think the solution has to be somewhat tailor-made for the various countries. we talk about africa, but it's actually a big continent divided into many, many countries.

and what we plan to do -- that's what we already do this year -- we go there with pilots, demonstration farms where we teach farmers modern farming. and i think money is not the biggest problem because you have so much aid money going into africa. you just need to use knit a better way. and i think you should use it for farm equipment, of course. >> let me get one final question in here. your company has recently been an acquirer of other companies. but there's been speculation that your company could be an acquiree. i gather you had comments about that to a german publication not long ago. can you envision selling your company over the next year to two years? >> well, not really. i don't normally comment on market rumors like this. and, therefore, i think we are doing fine. we need to make sure that we are -- we did do a big acquisition last year.

we bought a grain handling and chicken and pig stable business called gsi american business in order to broaden our footprint in the u.s. and this helps also to bring not only farm equipment to emerging markets but also infrastructure, which is desperately needed. >> mr. richenhagen, thank you very much. >> you're welcome. speaking of commodities, "closing bell" will be drilling down later on copper. >> indeed, which has had quite a big move. still ahead, hunting for yield, investors who are piling into dividend stocks. but are high-yield bonds maybe a better way to go? plus, the mouse house, disney reports earnings in just a few hours. time warner and news corp. tomorrow. should you buy the media stocks ahead of their results? we'll talk about that in a moment. i was downstairs making coffee, and we heard it. it just came crashing through the roof, out of nowhere. what is it? it's our ira. any idea what coulda caused this? maybe. i just sorta threw a little money here,

a little money there. and i loaded up on something my dentist told me was hot. yeah. ♪

coming up next on "street signs," what part of the world are global ceos the most confident in investing in right

now? the answers might surprise you. and we have them. three industries with the most new "help wanted" signs. see who's hiring now. and should blue-chips hike their dividends to attract more investors? "street signs" is next. now back to sue and tyler on "power lunch." >> thank you very much, brian sullivan. let's check out the euro because it's been moving. it's backing off from an eight-week high following reports that a meeting of greek political leaders has been postponed till tomorrow. they haven't yet received a draft at 130 billion euro bailout agreement that includes details of those various austerity measures. so the euro right now has moved up about .75%. now let's head to brian shactman. >> thank you very much. i want to show you a stock that lost 1.18 a share. scotts miracle-gro. loss was less than expected.

revenue beat and they expect 6% sales growth. a clearer sound coming from harman. little bit of margin compression but not a concern at all to investors. up 4.5%. a lot of people asking, well, this coinstar news, what's the impact on netflix? well, it's funny because they were up 2% earlier. they've had a pretty much complete reversal during the day. they were positive and they are now negative, although still about 35% or 40% better than the next best in the s&p year to date. big week for media earnings starting with disney after the closing bell today. can you still make money in big media? joining us is the director of equity research at standard & poor's. welcome back. >> thanks for having me. >> you have a strong buy on disney and you think in general the media stocks are going to do pretty well. >> that's right. we have, as a matter of fact, buy or strong buy recommendations across the group. we see a number of tailwinds as

we think about fourth-quarter results. clearly, advertising has been on the rebound, although it's softened lately. content licensing is going to be a major driver of these results for disney and others, international growth, emerging markets and of course we also believe that the box office, particularly for disney and time warner is also going to be a major factor as we think about q4. >> let's talk about the theme parks, though, because there's been some talk that perhaps there might have to be or has been some discounting in order to get families to come to the theme parks. are you worried about that at all? how important will that be on the call? >> in fact, that has been a recurring issue in the past several quarters for disney. one thing i think that happened last quarter on the last call for disney, i think they were able to pretty much convince analysts that the discounting has been abating, they're gradually weaning the consumers off the discounts.

we think this quarter is going to continue to show that trend as the indicators have shown. while consumer spending is still relatively weak, it's still pretty much a significantly better than it was a year ago. >> what do you make of their possibly teaming up and launching a new cable channel with univision, targeted at the hispanic audience, but in english, not in spanish? >> no surprise there. we put out a note earlier this morning saying that it makes sense on paper. however, we believe that it's a very, very competitive niche market, the cable news market, with cnn and fox news and a number of others, msnbc, of course. it's by no means a slam dunk. >> good to see you, thank you for joining us. >> thanks. >> disney reports after the bill. bob iger speaks exclusively with

julia boorstin and maria bartiromo before he speaks with analysts. that's coming up today at 4:00 p.m. eastern time. hunting for yield, forget dividend stocks. we'll give you the best plays in high-yield bonds. and lousy investment choices and sky-high fees. congress now doing something about it. what new 401(k) rules mean for you. we'll be right back. we had to create it. introducing the 2013 lexus gs, with leading-edge safety technology, like available blind spot monitor... [ tires screech ] ...night view... and heads-up display. [ engine revving ] the all-new 2013 lexus gs. there's no going back.

investors continue to clamor for high-yield bonds with a record $20 billion in junk offerings. coming onto the market just last week through nearly 30 different deals. here to talk about junk bond surge and where we go from here is ray kennedy. mr. kennedy, welcome. good to have you with us. >> good afternoon, tyler. >> why are all those bond issuers coming out of the woodwork now? >> a lot of demand by investors. >> are they mostly good issues? in other words, with sound quality, even though they may be high yield? >> it's mixed. in some instances, you have a lot of high-quality bb names coming into the market doing three, five or seven-year maturities. other times you get a low "b" or

ccc names. right now, the market is open and issuers are dleftefinitely clamoring to get the deal done today. >> what's your yield today? >> about 8%. >> if you were to segment your fund in terms of the industries which from most of your issues come, where would they be? where would the lion's share of your holdings be concentrated? >> the largest as a percentage of the fund is going to be in financials because it represents a large part of the market. but it's pretty well diversified. the one sector we do like that we have focused on a bit are the automotive names, whether it's in alli finance or american axle bond. >> if i were hunting for yield, what would you tell me about your fund and the trade-off between safety and pay-off in your fund? >> i think for investors, the best thing about high yield right now is that it fundamentally, our companies are in good shape.

a lot of cash, debt's been coming down as a percentage of equity, as well as just as a multiple of earnings. so from that standpoint, we, like many funds, are focused on improving credits. so there's a lot of gains that you can get from that approach in itself. but i think really for investors, it really comes down to the alternative. what are you going to do with your money? put it in treasuries? that's not really a good alternative. you can do munis, i guess. but otherwise, you have to stretch for going overseas which is probably not a good decision at this point. otherwise, it's equities. really, high yield becomes the default safe asset class. >> how do you choose between an issue that is going to give you a certain yield and one that you're going to buy because you think there may be capital appreciation? another way to ask the question, if you were to look at your fund's total return, what percent comes from the yield, the payout on the issues and what percent from capital appreciation? >> that's a great question.

in general, about 75% of the return is going to come from the actual income. the rest is going to come from total return or some sort of gain of appreciation. the way we look at names in the portfolio is there are certain names that we use for carry that generate the income. and then we take risk by adding other names that are trading 10 to 20 cents below par. that's where you get your total return appreciation. it's all about balance. that's what we try to do. >> and choosing the right ones. mr. kennedy, thank you very much. >> okay, thank you. >> great to have you with us. well, some new 401(k) options and greater transparency over fees are designed to give workers and retirees more control over their retirement savings. sharon epperson is here with more on what you need to know about how these provisions will impact the new retirement. >> many 401(k) plans have poor investment choices and some very high fees. but there are some new rules that are out now disclosing those fees. that's an attempt to change all

that. >> this will be a very, very positive thing for consumers because i believe that when you have this kind of transparency in fees, the transparency will lead to more competitive pricing. the end result will be lower fees that will be passed along to the consumer, which is a very positive thing in terms of them having more for their retirement. >> now, this is not going to happen immediately. 401(k) service providers can actually wait until july 1st to tell employers the cost of their 401(k) plans and participants may be kept in the dark even a few months longer until the rules are fully imed. but you can actually get a look at the fees in your 401(k) now by getting a free report from brightscope.com. it's worth it to know in advance. it can slash your 401(k) savings at retirement by as much as 10%. now, there are other rules coming out from the treasury department that may have an even greater effect for retirees who want a secure income stream for

life. >> the new proposal would actually reduce treasury regulations in terms of creating a longevity annuity. so they could take part of a lump sum distribution at age 65 and defer it for 20 years. that would save them an enormous amount of money. >> now, being able to convert your money into an annuity like this and taking the payout at 85, that is a way they say that many retirees will be able to prevent themselves from outliving their savings. >> that's really interesting, sharon, because in the past, a lot of people really shunned annuities because they are expensive and in some cases really difficult to understand. what's changed? >> what's changed here is the ability to now take this payout at age 85. and what's interesting is if you do this and take an annuity at 65, a $20,000 annuity could cost you $277,000. if you waitened a get the payout at 85, that cost is reduced to about $35,000.

so it's a big difference in the cost there. that's why it's so attractive to many advisers as well as many of the participants. they all have this option. >> to the disclosure rules, when will i eventually start to see those fees listed on my 401(k) statement? >> i know you read those statements all the time. >> unfortunately i do. some months are better than others. >> exactly. it's going to come out in your quarterly statement by november. those fees listed from july to september, whether it's the mutual fund fees or the administrative fees of the plan, they're going to be in a comparison chart listed in your quarterly statement. you need to get that by november. that's what the new rules say. >> terrific, thanks, sharon. >> sure. and coming up, just over two hours left in the trading day. we'll get a check on the markets and our selections for charts of the day. back in a couple of minutes. americans believe they should be in charge of their own future. how they'll live tomorrow. for more than 116 years, ameriprise financial has worked for their clients' futures.

helping millions of americans retire on their terms. when they want. where they want. doing what they want. ameriprise. the strength of a leader in retirement planning. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you one-to-one. together for your future. ♪ [ male announcer ] what if we told you that cadillac borrowed technology from ferrari to develop its suspension system? or what if we told you that ferrari borrowed technology

from cadillac to develop its suspension system? magnetic ride control -- pioneered by cadillac, perfected in the 556-horsepower cts-v. we don't just make luxury cars. we make cadillacs. ♪ a refrigerator has never been hacked. an online virus has never attacked a corkboard. ♪ give your customers the added feeling of security a printed statement or receipt provides... ...with mail. it's good for your business. ♪ and even better for your customers. ♪ for safe and secure ways to stay connected, visit usps.com/mail

the dow is basically right where we started when we came on the air. pulled back by 10 or 15 minutes. but getting a little bit of strength. the nasdaq almost went negative during "power lunch." it's only up about .1%. let's look at our charts of the day.

i thought it might be a good day to look at a six-month return for three of the biggest players in the agricultural equipment space. and look at the gains you would have had there. better than 21% for each of them. that shows you a pocket of real strength in the american manufacturing economy. >> and the global growth story. >> that's a good chart. >> it is a good chart. mine's not as positive. i went negative, baby. fed rat federated is a huge manager of money, specifically money market accounts, one of the biggest there. the s.e.c. is considering changing some of the rules that govern money market accounts after the crisis in '08. and that would hit federated very hard. >> you could make big money off of kids. leapfrog up 99%. that's not a stock people talk about very much. and look at that return.