>> a couple. >> double in six months. that does it for "power lunch" for this day. >> "street signs" begins right now. see you later. >> with brian sullivan. >> yes, with brian sullivan. thank you, brian shactman. ♪ by now, you know my name. welcome to "street signs." but is tom petty right? is your money headed for a breakdown or a breakout? we'll take a trip inside the numbers and debate whether stocks have come too far too fast. where are the jobs? we know who's got the most "help wanted" signs out right now and we'll show you where america is hiring. and if you like facebook, you're going to love what andy kessler has to say about that little like button. he thinks it is the secret sauce to etch more facebook billions. he's here with why. >> good morning and good afternoon, everybody around the world. i'm mandy drury. this is what we're watching at this hour. stocks are wiping out their

early losses. ben bernanke getting part of the credit there as he says nothing in capitol hill testimony to discourage the notion of a q.e. 3. coinstar meantime making major coin for investors today, up 18% after trouncing street estimates with its latest earnings, fueled by growth in its redbox dvd rental business. and what is up with greece? a meeting of political leaders reportedly postponed until tomorrow as they await the final draft of a bailout plan. all this has been so-called hours away for what seems like i guess forever, brian. >> it's like the sign in the irish pubs, free beer tomorrow but it's always today. >> tomorrow never comes. >> no. 2012 has been a year of superlatives for stocks. and we love stats. the nasdaq up a staggering 11.5% so far. more than 25 stocks in the nasdaq are up more than 15% year to date. and more than 90% of the nasdaq

is higher on the year. 82% of the s&p higher for the year. 61 of those gainers at new highs. it's making some people a little nervous about the speed of this rally. >> so let's get the signs on the street now. bob pisani and rick santelli, what do you say, bob? traders talking breakout or breakdown at this stage? >> i'm getting some free bar, i'm sorry. and there's a lot of it -- well, you know what? i'm going to annoy you and annoy brian a little bit and say that the likelihood is that we're going to grind either way in the next couple of months. i'll tell you why. we're overbought. look what the sectors are doing so far this year. when was the last time you saw a start like this? financials are have overtaken materials as big leadership stocks. look at this, every one of the growth-on stocks are going through the roof here. you have three things going for you. we're moving towards some kind of greek resolution, still could break down but they're moving in that direction.

bernanke today wouldn't even rule out q.e. 3 with an improving economy. and a lot of traders are still underperforming. i think we're tired. i think we're due for some kind of pullback. but sideways grind seems more likely. >> everyone says we're potentially due for some kind of pullback. since october, i think the s&p is up about 25%. but the s&p has also gone 27 trading days, bob, without a 1% or more decline. that's its longest streak in over a year. is there any precedent in history to show that that could continue? >> sure. you can always do a little bit better. look, the low volume grind upward makes traders a lot more comfortable than sudden spikes up. remember on the days a year ago when we were up 200 and 300 points in a day and then down 200 and 300 points in a day? that makes people crazy. low grind on light volume makes people more comfortable with rallies, not less comfortable. >> let's bring in rick. rick, i want to talk to you about the federal reserve. we heard bernanke earlier today, did not say a whole lot.

rick, are you there? >> i'm here. >> fantastic. with any asset class, right, do you ever, ever want to fight the fed? >> i think fighting the fed can be treacherous. ask some big bond fund managers with regard to their performance in 2011. but i also think there comes a point where market logic, even with the markets being under siege to some extent by bureaucrats, is going to rise to express its opinion. and i think in that latter comment, there's going to be a point, in my opinion, in 2012, where you should be fighting the fed. but you need the markets to lead the way on that charge. >> i have to ask you as well, rick, even though the ten-year yield spiked sharply from, say, this time yesterday, still at below 2%, you can hardly feel there's the same kind of economic optimism is the equity market is sharing, right? >> absolutely. of friday's on-the-surface, good labor report, it's a real

paradox. we continue to see sub-2% yields in the ten-year but we continue to see that equities, although not forging ahead with yesterday or today's net changes, are still holding to rather historic gains. so i think we're going to have a break-up at least for the most part for the first half of the year with regard to stocks and a breakeven for most of the year with respect to treasuries. >> break up and breakeven are not two of the available options. but we're happy you wrote them in. paul hickey and josh brown joining the conversation now. guys, the same question. paul, mandy earlier referenced some of the details on how great this rally's been and how we've had a lack of a down day. paul, do you think based on history, technicals, charts, voodoo, whatever it is, that we are headed for a breakdown or a breakout? >> well, brian, i think it's a breakout here. the fact that mandy was just talking about the lack of 1% down days, 27 days, seems like a lot given what we've seen over the last year.

but you have to differentiate the short term from the long term. there's actually been 167 other streaks in the s&p 500 where we've gone more than 27 days without a 1% down day. and there's been number numerous times, more than ten, where we've gone over 100 days. this lack of volatility to the downside that we've seen certainly isn't uncommon. it's just uncommon relative to the last four or five months of 2011. >> really feels like, josh, that the market grinding higher, it seems impervious even to bad news. it kind of moves higher regardless of any sort of negative stuff you could possibly throw at it. do you feel poised for breakout? >> yeah, everything's fixed. so we should -- no, listen. i find it amazing that we're all lining up and trying to think of reasons for this to stop or reasons why it can't continue. i think we should take a step back, not worry so much about the day to day. one of the things we've been talking about for a little while

now is the fact that the market's rallying like you mentioned on both good and bad news. we're laughing at this greek news today. they're going to postpone a day. people bought on that news right when those headlines were hitting, that's when the market turned around. the more interesting thing, an index that we track to look at whether or not multiples are rising or falling is the russell 3000 value index. a lot of people don't understand this. but in order to get a market moving in the right direction, you don't just need earnings growth. you also need multiple expansion. you need people to be willing to say, okay, i'm willing to pay a higher multiple on earnings or book value, whatever the case may be. that's been the problem. that's why we've been stuck in this slump for so long. >> we had two guys on yesterday who said that policy uncertainty is putting a lid on that multiple expansion. >> that's a very old and scale thesis. look at the russell 3000 value index right now. you're seeing the biggest, cheapest companies, cheapest on the basis of price-to-book

value. you're seeing the chevrons, the berkshire's, the big liquid stocks that have seen their multiples get more and more and more depressed. now you're seeing liftoff based on our algorithm, that whole group, a big swath of the market, generated a buy signal on friday. you also had a golden cross there, the 50-day break above the 200. this is an interesting group of stocks to see, starting to take a leadership role. i think it's a positive. >> paul, do buyers beget more buyers? they see headlines starting to make the general news, not just the financial news, stocks had a good start. sit an upward spiral? >> you tend so see some of that. but the whole valuation argument for the market, versus average multiples, we're lower than average p/e multiples. and granted, the average, you never trade at the average multiple, by definition. but just look at what we saw last year. we saw earnings grow double digits. we saw the s&p 500 flat.

just to get back to the valuation we were at the start of 2011, we would have to see the s&p 500 trade above 1,440. if you look at where the u.s. economy is, for that matter and you want to focus on the u.s. here and u.s.-based companies, i think they're in a lot better shape than they were at this point last year. and second of all, you have this bunker mentality of sentiment. we haven't had a single day this year where more stocks have been upgraded by analysts than downgraded. so -- >> a lot of catch-up going on. >> and you tend to see there's a bunker mentality -- >> i'm sorry i have to cut in. but we're running short of time. paul and josh, always great to have you on the show. herb is here. herb, what are you tweeting about? >> when you look at it right now, and it's changing by the minute -- >> i like to look at cnbc.com. >> i like cnbc.com also. >> cnbc.com rocks. >> all right.

carbo ceramics, number two on the list, it's actually number one right now. this is a fracking company that had horrible earnings. why it's getting the chatter, like many of these, there are technical reasons. also top of the list, ralph lauren reports tomorrow. intuit, the tax software company, out of nowhere suddenly hitting the list. and cirrus logic, people chatting about who will be the next to take their chips. that is it right now, among many others. coming up next on the show, why this house may say everything you need to know about america's technology boom. we're going to talk about it with former hedge fund manager and silicon valley insider andy kessler. >> and why he is singing the praises of facebook. plus, it seems the only place investors think they can find safety is blue-chips and if that is the case, guys, isn't it time for the big names to hike their dividends?

you can't hold the breadman down. check out panera bread hitting a new all-time high. the company opened its 1,500th cafe today. it's also opened its very first shop here in manhattan. panera reports after the bell today. coming up on the closing bell, panera's been on a tear but is

it too hot now? is the stock too expensive? maybe forget about a tech bubble. is there a new housing bubble in techland? take a look at this. i saw this online. this house is what it is. and it is 1,000 square foot home in atherton, california. it's the only home in that zip code that was under $1 million. andy kessler is a former hedge fund manager and author and also a silicon valley author who recently wrote an op ed about facebook singing the praises of the little like button which he thinks could be a real addition for that company. before getting to the op ed, welcome to the show. i'm seeing these prices and thinking, is this 2000 all over again where you are? >> look, facebook's new headquarters is about two miles that way. and there's going to be a couple of thousand new millionaires and

billionaires so of course real estate is going to boom. if one gives me 1 million shares of facebook pre-ipo, they can buy my house. >> how high is high? that's the question everyone everywhere else in the country would want to ask. >> i've never made money owning real estate. i'd rather own stocks where there's fundamental profits going on. >> when we talk about whether or not we're sitting in a 2.0 tech bubble, the word facebook comes to mind. what's your call on this in terms of its valuation and what it says about what's going on? >> look, i always like to go back a little bit. we're in the third wave of computing. the first one which ibm dominated, you had hardware and software sold together. then intel and microsoft dominated. now it's completely different. you take computers, throw them in a dark room in the cloud and you attract as many users, millions of users to the same spot and then try to sell them something.

and google's done that. amazon's done that. apple has done that. now facebook comes along and what was just a funky place, a locker for your photos and videos and some words, now with this "like" button, the fact that you can tell others -- certainly tell facebook and certainly tell others what you like, now all of a sudden you've got this emotional sensor. and facebook' now an emotional locker. that's got advertisers drooling. >> i had a conversation with an analyst last night about facebook. we talked about how -- her point of view was, forget about what they do. this is a platform now. it's a platform for advertisers, for application developers. facebook doesn't care who advertises or who develops, if it's zynga or somebody else. do you agree with that thesis that in a way facebook is the new internet? >> well, it's a piece -- look, this game is not over, right? there's four or more contenders battling it out for those advertising dollars.

but facebook is the new leading contender, i think, because of this emotional aspect. that's what advertisers are interested -- with google, if you're searching for a flat screen tv, they pretty much figure out you're ready to buy one and they'll run ads against it. with facebook, it's much more subtle. advertisers like fiat, they spent $3.5 million for a 30-second spot to show off this new product. when you want to get somebody to the showroom, what do you do? that's where facebook comes in. if they like cars or italian cars, you can start targeting advertising dollars to them that you can't do on other platforms. >> what about google plus? it's gaining people every day. you're on google plus, right? how many hundreds of thousands of people do you have on google plus -- the next largest social network. they have some very smart people as well. isn't that a threat? >> it is, but i think everyone who has facebook or a lot of people on facebook say, let me

try google plus as well. i'm sure it's gaining the traction it needs. but it may over time. there's a lot of competitive threat. the biggest competitive threat for facebook is that half their users use a mobile device to get it. and they don't control the mobile device. apple does. google does via android and now amazon with kindle has some sort of mobile device. and facebook is out there. there's a lot of moving parts in this competition. >> andy, sit tight for one second. want to get a little bit more. we have breaking news right now. let's hit the cnbc news desk. actually, it's diana olick live in washington. we just wanted to tell you that new york state attorney general has just announced he'll make a statement at 6:00 tonight regarding the multistate a.g. settlement over the so-called robo-signing foreclosure practices. he had been one of the holdouts on this. we learned yesterday that more than 40 states did sign on when the deadline expired. he's going to say he did not want the banks to be released from securitization issues. he also filed a lawsuit last

friday against three of the five banks in the a.g. settlement over merst, electronic recording system for foreclosures. it was expected if he did decide to sign on, that he would have to drop that suit because it's also over robo-signing. some of the expectations are that the new york state attorney general will come back to the table and may announce he's joining it. if he does, he would likely have to drop the suit against merss. >> diana olick in washington, thank you very much. now let's go back to andy kessler. we led the show with this breakdown or breakout theme. would you buy this market right now? >> you know, i don't like buying entire markets or indexes. i like picking individual names. i like finding companies that have this secular growth story, companies selling components into the wireless space or

companies doing neat things in the cloud. valuations are always rich at the early stages of recovery. we have a pretty crappy economy but there are companies beating the numbers out there. >> andy, this is herb. back in 1999, we had -- you and i had that great conversation when i did that piece on all the risks out there and everybody wanted to come out and effectively kill me because i raised just a question that some of those high flyers might have problems. do you remember that? >> right, yeah, of course. >> and the question is, i know that we don't even have facebook public yet. but when do you get to that point in your mind that you start to raise those kind of issues and you get to that peakish level? where is that? >> well, i don't know. look, the companies that have come public so far have rich valuations but they have real businesses that are growing like a weed. i think you have to wait until companies just issue s-1s without any real business plan at all. and the pets.com or the

giftcertificate.c giftcertificate.comss and all these kind of things before you start calling a top. i think we're in the early stages. the economy is just starting to take off again. zero interest rates which muck up valuations. it's a false indicator that things are expensive. i'm not saying go out and buy the market. but you can pick individual names -- >> give us -- ten seconds, bottom-line it. talk about the stocks you pick. >> look in the cloud space, the wireless space, even in the enterprise software space, people are webifying their enterpri enterprise. >> andy, thank you very much for joining us today. always a pleasure to have you on the show. >> thank you. coming up in the second half of the show, the silicon valley index, from jobs to the kofs of living, a new look at life in

the nation's tech hub. also coming up next -- >> next, next. this is the least next. >> looking at buckets of chicken in a brand-new middle eastern market. could fried chicken give the peace process a shot in the arm. and martha's new partnership with staples. herb is champing at the bit maybe to shred this latest move. get your three-ring binder ready. ♪ [ male announcer ] offering four distinct driving modes and lexus' dynamic handling, the next generation of lexus will not be contained. the all-new 2013 lexus gs. there's no going back. ♪

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[ ilona ] i come to ge after the plant i was working at closed after 33 years. ge's giving me the chance to start back over. [ cindy ] there's construction workers everywhere. so what does that mean? it means work. it means work for more people. [ brian ] there's a bright future here, and there's a chance to get on the ground floor of something big, something that will bring us back. not only this company, but this country. ♪

look at that, 132 new highs, one new low. i'd love to know what the new low is. we have to point out the one. nasdaq, 71 to 4. it's like a cricket match. it's that time again. herb's "disaster du jour." big miss, huh? >> yeah, this is the sixth straight quarter of higher costs for this company where they've had revenue below market estimates. what i found interesting, who's on the board of this company? i was surprised. you have andrew tish, the chairman of the company, very well known. and also craig barrett, used to be the cfo of intel. so i found that worth noting.

>> worth noting. down 11%. today's sunshine stock is springing to life, however. scotts miracle gro up nearly 7% on its ownings. the company beating expectations on revenues. it also exceeded expectations on earnings per share. as a result, a nice little spike in scotts miracle. and thank you to our crack team behind the scenes. they do all the work. star gas partners, the one new low today. it's slightly higher right now. but earlier today, it was the one new low on the new york stock exchange. yum! brands says international expansion is behind a big fourth quarter. profits up 30% on overseas growth and they're even entering a new market. kfc is the first american fast-food chain to open in the palestinian territories. the new location opening in ramallah on the west bank. yum! plans to open up 1,500 new restaurants over the next year. yum! brands up 3% today. coming up next on "street signs," mastercard did it today.

is it time for other blue-chips to boost their dividend in a big way? and are ceos about to throw the big babies out with the bath water in one critical emerging market? "street signs" will be back in a moment. whee! whee! wheeeeeeeee! ah heads up. wheeeeeeeeeeee! everything you love about geico, now mobile. download the new geico app today. that is better than today. since 1894, ameriprise financial has been working hard for their clients' futures. never taking a bailout. helping generations achieve dreams. buy homes. put their kids through college. retire how they want to. ameriprise. the strength of america's largest financial planning company. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you, one-to-one.

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welcome back to "street

signs." what's the latest word on the street? well, it's find out in our "street talk." seeing a nice turnaround in the markets, the dow and the nasdaq trading near multiyear highs. but as our own bob pisani writes on his blog, there are lots of warning signs out there. and traders are simply warning. silicon valley out with its annual state of thevale report. the headline here, tech surmgs ahe surges ahead but the rest fall behind. shares of martha stewart omni media enjoying a late-day pop after she came on cnbc to talk about her newest line of office products debuting in staples. this is what she had to say. >> 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. >> i think both of us checked out the products that she was offering at staples online. i have to say -- and i love normally martha stewart products. but i have to say, these didn't really stand out for me. >> what's not to love about a three-ring binder? or post-it note? that's what it is. >> they didn't have any identifying factor. they weren't particularly special, put it that way. >> how do you make a three-ring binder unique? different colors, i guess. picture of herb on the cover. >> you're still using the -- i think the concern is more a staples issues than a martha issue on that because staples -- in fact, if i was going to look for the color that is she has in there, and i think the audience she's going after, i'm not convinced it's staples. i don't think it's the small businesses run by women that are

going to be looking for this. i think it's other people, perhaps a stationary store, a papyrus, something like that. >> is a martha stewarts/staples combo a good thing. alan rifkin joins us. you've hated this space for aeons. does this deal change your mind about the investing prospects for staples? >> it doesn't change our mind but it's a small positive. >> what would change your mind, alan? >> what would change our mind would be a greater uplift in the macroeconomic environment, number one. number two, we'd like to see staples take a more aggressive posture in rationalizing, number one, the number of stores that they have, and number two, the average size of their box, both of which we think are greater than they need to be right now. >> of course, there's a large cost to that. this is herb. there's a large cost to that. the bigger issue, i think, is when you go into a staples, i'm

still con vooiz fused what a staples is today. who they're competing with? they're competing all across the board. are they getting people in there to make up for that? it seems like a struggle. >> we would say they're competing with just about everyone. everyone has -- many retailers have targeted the office products space, ancillary product categories in which to expand their own assortment. and staples has felt a lot of that pressure. as you alluded to before, it is difficult to distinguish yourself in this very competitive environment. but we think that staples will need the benefits of a better macro backdrop before things can really improve at the company. >> alan, thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you. let's go back to that silicon valley survey for just a moment. our own jon fortt has been digging into those numbers. jon, how is life in thevale? >> reporter: well, let me give you the good news first.

tech is surging ahead again. here are interesting stats. jobs up 3.1% versus 1.1% a year ago. so jobs are up. people are still moving in net migration, more foreign immigrants moving in than domestic people moving in by about 4,000. v.c. investment is up 17% to $7.6 billion. and vacancy rates are down in two counties. but there is bad news. the people who put this report together said, we're becoming two valleys. the public sector, still suffering. median income is falling. opt one hand, tech is doing well. v.c. investment up. jobs up, particularly in tech. but on the other hand, folks like teachers, the housing sector, still not as strong as would be nice. >> we were showing that house that was nearly a million dollars. it's incredible what you don't get for a million dollars.

>> yeah, we've got video -- >> make you feel like millionaires. >> that's right. this house is going for just under $1 million. been on the market a little more than 100 days. for people who live out here, it's .15 acres, which is a big lot. atherton is a nice zip code to have. >> and you're not paying for the house, but for the zip code? >> real estate is at a premium. the land is valued at more than $800,000. the bungalow that's on it, not so much. >> i'm putting you on the spot completely, jon, but there are a couple of aussies in silicon valley starting up this -- it's called start-up house, it's like a start-up hub where a pile of people, tech entrepreneurs can go to try and co-work and share ideas and innovate. and the australian government is even supporting it.

have you heard anything about that? >> that's a popular idea, not just here but in new york. general assembly does something like that with co-working. it's an exciting idea because space is at a premium here as it is there. >> got to share the coffee pot. thanks, jon. >> yeah. dudes, from, like, the valley to, like, the mall. herb, you're looking at retail closures, bro. >> i am indeed. >> what's that mean? >> i don't think he's been a bro since he had a fro. >> bro is what he wears. >> there you go. not sure if you of you have noticed -- really, it's true. >> we notice nothing. >> not sure if any of you have noticed lots of retail stores are closing, especially in lower-end malls. sears is currently leading the charge on that front. who wins? who loses? this is a great report. it's from credit suisse's michael eckstein.

what really struck me in this report is the vacancy rates at general malls are now at all-time highs at about 8.2%. they're about 1.6% at outlet malls. falling rents are not helping at all. so far, you take a look at this, who are the winners? eckstein writes retailers like nike, under armour and vf corp. which makes the products earlier in the growth cycles, serve low-tier customers. on the flip side, he believes high-end retailers luke lululemon are at risk as are mature companies like limited brands and also bon-ton is a company we don't often talk about -- >> if you looked at simon property groups numbers the other day, the largest mall owner in the united states, they own the sort hills mall in new jersey, you look at their numbers and you say, everybody's shopping online, not the case. cramer talked about this. their revenues were up. their lease rates were up.

their sales rates for the stores at their malls were up. tanger outlets -- people are still hitting the ground going shopping. >> but what's critical here, you're talking a and b malls, c and d malls, there's going to be a potential influx and you're going to see the sort of tug of war that he was talking about. >> i still go to the malls. i do not like to online shop. i'm sure there are many of them out there. >> i'm just wondering in manhattan, which one are you going to? the manhattan hall? six stories of hat shops. the hottest parts of the globe, where the ceos are most confident about doing investing business right now. and the wave of foreclosures in america reaches new heights.

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welcome back here. we're talking about the malls and talking about some of these outlet centers. i know jim cramer who i referenced was talking about simon property group. so as he does sometimes, he's coming out on set. you love simon properties. >> i love simon. these are guys who have -- they've been able to raise rates. they've been -- frankly, they're constrained. one of the great stories in this country is that commercial real estate, there's not enough room. this is a remarkable story, particularly the way you phrased it. you think amazon's killed these guys. not at all. tanger, they actually need guys to go under so they can raise rates. steve tanger, one of the greatest shopping in these outlet centers -- >> explain the outlets. >> it's an outlet and there's --

shopping center. i love stocks that go higher. and don's got a great one. >> you've talked about his portfolio. i've seen many interviews you've done with him. i have one of his centers near where i live in new jersey. >> can you get near it? >> no, packed. 100% occupancy rate for the most part. how do we know -- it's so selection of site and being able to get the right lessors is the key. how do you know who's got the best portfolios out there? obviously you think federal realty does. >> i think you have to look at the ceo. it's the ceo. it's these guys who really know what they're doing. real estate is a very difficult business. and it's a foreign business for many of us. the guys you see that are years and years -- like steve tanger, his father was in it. they know where the action is. literally it's a feel. i know that sounds weird. but it's a feel. >> talk about some of the existing ones that are popular. but are they building more? are they investing in building more malls? >> now they are. we were overstored for a long time.

these guys are pros. they never overextended themselves. their balance sheets are really good. even when things got very tough, federal realty always gave you a dividend. >> here's what i learned about the harsh world of retailing -- >> overextender. >> when most big stores that are sophisticated when they go into a mall, they're going to put a provision into their lease that says they can leave or cut their rent if the mall goes beneath a certain occupancy rate. so let's say, two stores go out of business, the gap might come to you and see, we want a lease cut or we're out of here. it becomes a downward spiral. >> and that very issue happened to sears stores. >> i love this piece you're doing. it's very counterintuitive to people. here's tanger, one of the great growth stories i've seen with occupancy rates -- and federal realty at the height of the great recession. these guys are full.

it's remarkable. >> busting the myth. we have to leave it there, jim. thank you for dropping in. >> i love this -- the kessler interview was great. just a great show. >> you wouldn't give us a pick. but we had to ask him. >> it's a great show. now, "first on cbnc," the results of a brand-new worldwide survey of ceos reveals the confidence of a key emerging market, asia, is down. that's right. the hottest market in the world may be cooling off. this survey takes the pulse of the organization. 19,000 executives in the ypo who run companies that generate $6 trillion in annual revenue. joining us from san jose, california, is alan zafron. alan, very surprising study. asia confidence down. the americas on the rise. africa booming. what can we glean from this? >> well, take it in context. recognize that monetary policies

are being restricted in the first half of 2011 in asia. everyone was worried about inflation. so the consequence of slowing in the second half coupled with the european meltdown led all the ceos at asia to basically say, conditions don't look good, i'm going to pull back a little bit. meanwhile, in the u.s., we're sort of the cleanest shirt in the dirty laundry bag. conditions have improved. the fed/bernanke put is in place and the consumer is still pending. it's a contrast in where we are to where we've been. >> alan, what are the investment implications of the survey results? >> depends, again, where you are. if you're calling rich bernstein, the implication is stick with the u.s. right now, the u.s. is definitely growing. that's renewed confidence. if you look at the ceo survey, over half of them thought their sales in the economy would improve next year. less than 10% saw economic conditions worsening in the u.s. two-thirds of the ceos in the

saw increased spending. ceos are very confident in the u.s. in their businesses. they're less confident about the global economy right now. that's why they're not hiring aggressively and why they're not spending aggressively. >> what we can also glean from that, if they're not going to hire aggressively but they believe things are going to get better, you could surmise that profits will do better because their capital expenditures are going to be less. >> you would hope that. profits are still growing. but profit growth rates are actually decelerating. a concern is when we get into the latter half of this year, you're going to have heightened uncertainty. we don't know what the legislative and regulatory environment will be like in 2013. and we haven't mentioned oil prices, hard landing in china, the demise in europe. a lot of issues are still out there. it's not clear sailing yet. >> all the potential black swan events. alan, thank you for joining us. the foreclosure crisis goes sky high. atlanta's bank of america plaza hits the auction block today.

the 55-story building's landlord missed mortgage payments. the skyscraper was purchased back in 2006 for $500,000. it's the tallest building in any u.s. state capital. speaking of bank of america, interesting data point here. it's the top performing stock and the financials the best performing sector of the year. year to date, b of a is up 42%. financials are just booming, even better than technology so far. >> all of last year's laggards are really catching up. coming up, hunting for you, the list of blue-chip names that could or maybe even should raise their dividend. plus, where the jobs are in america. we'll look at the three hottest sectors with the most "help wanted" signs out right now. [ male announcer ] the draw of the past is a powerful thing.

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microsoft hitting a new 52-week high today. that stock is up 88% since its multi-year low back in 2009. apple trading at new all-time highs. there's talk apple could declare a dividend at its annual meeting later on this month. microsoft already paid a dividend of 20 cents per share. >> the new job opening survey is

out today. more jobs available in december than any month before. the strongest industries, and these are year over year, right? percentage jumps in the number of help wanted signs, construction, up 61%. job openings year over year, most since 2010. hotel and food services up 56% at well. manufacturing 43% more job openings last december than december of 2010. when we take a look at the number of new hires, a little bit of a different story. in construction, the number of people hired fell by 19% year over year. construction also down, manufacturing down, but only just 1%. hotel and food services industry actually hanging in there. it was up 16%. so lots of job openings, construction, manufacturing. but it seems the theme we've had, either they're having trouble finding people, finding the right people, or it's a geographical problem. if openings go up, hiring should

go up. there's a dichotomy either way. by the way, jobs aren't -- government. jobs down 13% year over year. >> mastercard announcing a big dividend boost, announcing it will double its dividend to 30 cents a share. it's up nearly 60% over last year. we kind of got us thinking. is it time for other blue chip names to hike their investments as well? investors are already looking for safe spots to park their moneys. joining us is allison, senior adviser. which blue chips would benefit from hiking their dividend? >> i think industry, companies that are in industries that are slower growth, so consumer staples, some aspects of health care. look at a company like j & j, around 9% a year. but right now, about -- much higher cash flow. i think they could boost their dividend a lot more since their growth spros expects are not

quite as strong. the whole consumer staples area, and consumer discretionary is an area that's due for slow growth. a lot of the stronger names there have pretty high cash yields. mcdonald's, staples, names like that. u.p.s., while somewhat cyclical, i think shareholders would prefer seeing more in the dividend side. >> it feels at the moment that the dividend stocks, a little out of favor. so far this year, i was looking at the stats that say the stocks that pay no dividend at all averaged a gain of about 8.3%. the dividend players really underperformed. >> i think it's a combination of -- you mentioned financials as being some of the best stocks. it looks like the rotations in the industries that are depressed. if the economy is going to be better, interest rates stay low. what could be the next area for a big boost. my sense is, longer term, the companies that have a strong balance sheet, high cash flow

yield, and give more back to the shareholders are very healthy companies, giving people attractive total returns, in a market, global economic growth environment that's going to be somewhat slow. >> what is your take on dividends? are they ever a bad thing? >> no, they're not a bad thing if they're paid -- if the company is strong enough to pay them. depends on the company. >> or is it a big red light saying we need to get enough capital appreciation. therefore, we're going to either keep you, luring you -- >> here's the deal. i had some companies run the s&p 500 to find out which ones oi might be likely to raise their dividend. it included viacom, korng. campbell's soup which might fit the dynamic, because it's got so many issues and scripps

interactive, they have the balance sheets to do it. those that would do it if they became low in price, they felt it would be coca-cola and 3m. not that they would do it for any other reason than perhaps their peers were better valued than they were. >> allison, any thoughts on that? >> my sense is, you had mentioned people might view these companies showing slower growth, my sense is, you can still pay out a decent amount, particularly after several years. the company is building up strong balance sheets and have healthy opportunities for growth. one thing that's concerned me about companies accumulating a lot of cash is there's reinvestment risk, which is allocating the dollars to the wrong area or merger risks, companies going out making acquisitions. and fewer than half of them with acquisitions are successful. having a high dividend, even if you're a company in a good growth mode, only make acquisitions when it's essential for enhancing the franchise. >> allison, thank you for

joining us today. turning jobs into a cash cow.

a sure sign some think the economy is still in the toilet, according to the website inside hired, several universities are selling naming rights to their bathroom also. dixie state college is the latest school that tried to offer up their porcelain thrones to donors. unfortunately there