the banks and the lenders. rising 18%, almost 19%, sue. >> they have been hot. this is fun. come back and do it tomorrow. >> okay. if you insist. that's it for "power lunch." thank you for watching. >> "street signs" begins right now. nchs welcome to "street signs." i'm brian sullivan. so what exactly is the deal? a lot of people thought greek deal is what the market needed. so where's the rally? of course that is if a deal gets done. america's new nuclear age. for the first time in 33 years the government green lighting plans to build a new plant in america. the ceo of southern company is here with why it matters and how many jobs will be created. say what? a photo finish for kodak has all of us scratching our heads. we'll explain, mandy. >> indeed we will. hello everybody. i'm mandy drury. let's look at what else we're

watching. freddie mac says mortgage rates remain at record lows. the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate coming in at 3.7%. the house passed a measure banning securities based on knowledge of nonpublic information. differences between the house and senate versions need to be worked out though. and cfo and global product chief will leave on april 1st to be replaced by controller bob shank while engineering will replace him. >> mandy, thank you. finally, a greek debt deal is on the table. headlines this morning saying that a deal has indeed been reached. but maybe not so fast. germany's finance minister adding that this deal may not meet all the required parameters. with that said, we keep hearing that what this market needed was a deal. right? to really rally? and at least it looks like we've got one between greece and the so-called troika. so why aren't stocks soaring?

look where we are now. up a little bit. dow up 23 points, nasdaq up 3. what is the deal with this supposed deal? where's the rally? cnbc contributor peter brook bar and analyst at miller taback. all right, peter, you know, it looks like fingers crossed, we have a deal, where's the rally? >> the market's been rallying for months now because of the drop in yields in italy and spain. that's what the market cared about. yes, we focus on greece, but the fear is that it would spill over into italy and spain. we've seen a dramatic reduction in risk appearance in those two countries. so, yes, greece is obviously in the headlines. we hope that there's some resolution. but as long as yields in italy and spain continue to remain somewhat benign relative to where they were, the market's okay with that. >> do you think it's going to be signed up eventually? >> i would say a couple things about this.

first of all, i agree with peter's general tone is that this contagion risk coming out of the market is evidence by things like the fall in the vix, fallen correlation. that's been going on since the beginning of january. so for the large part the disorderly european banking leveraging has been -- or the lack thereof, has been priced in the markets. additionally, the greeks have broken promise after promise with this whole it shall through this whole saga. i heard from our european economist yesterday that public sector employment in greece has basically fallen by 12,000 since the peak in 2008 while private sector employment's fallen by 465,000. so if you really believe that the greeks are going to do everything they say they're going to do and do all those structural reforms to the bloated public sector, you should probably buy a bridge in brooklyn. [ laughter ] >> listen, we hear you on that, right? but, barry, what it sounds like

you're saying is that even if we get something signed, sealed and delivered, germany agrees, ecb agrees, it's done. sounds like you're saying barclays ain't buying it. >> that's probably right. i think the problems in europe go a lot deeper than just greece as well. i mean, you've got massive current account imbalances within europe. those have morphed into capital account imbalances. labor costs have been flat in germany for ten years. they've been rising in italy for ten years to about a 30% differential. you know the ltro, all the monetary actions have sort of papered over these core problems, but greece is still running a primary deficit of 9%, for example. so even if you get it sorted out, unless their economy stabilizes and they really do restructure their public sector, they're going to be right back at the trough in a couple month's time. >> peter, looking at the numbers here on the dow. so far away from cracking 13,000, the last time we closed

above 13,000 was back in may of 2008. if i'm not wrong, what about four months before the collapse of lehman brothers, what is going to get us not just over the line of 13,000 but to give us the next leg of a rally? we've had a good rally so far, if not brief, what else is there? >> well, we've had the amazing magic of qe. basically taken europe away from the brink and that's lifted all markets. >> and -- yes, the boe signaling that as well. is it already factored in at this stage? >> that's the major question. qe can do major things to asset prices. whether the underlying fundamentals match that is a different story, but qe lifts asset stories and we've seen that and currently witnessing it. but at some point we need to see sustainability in the u.s. and how deep the recession is in europe. that remains to be seen. >> outside of that, barry, i want to touch on evaluation.

we always hear we need multiple expansion to be believers in this market. going up without multiple expansion doesn't really add to conviction. on "squawk box" this morning, listen to what he had to say on market valuation. >> the last ten years, the last decade, has been the worst decade in the entire united states in the stock market. worst than 1930s. as a result of that what's happened in the past ten years stock earnings have gone up 2.5 times stock prices have run up 20%, so stock prices are half of what they were then valuations. >> ron baron making a case why this market is fundamentally undervalued. barry, do you agree? >> no. not at all. >> why? >> we have come off the richest equity market we've seen. that period he's describing the tech bubble valuations the likes of which never been observed and 125 years in the s&p, it's a lot

more common is the single digit p/es of the late 70s, early '80s or late '40s, early '50s. the market fairly priced against long-term valuation metrics whether you're talking balance sheet metrics or earnings related metrics, it's only fair. it's not cheap. >> only fair. what say you, peter? bottom line it. what do you think? >> just another stat. the dividend yield is 2%. we've seen times in history it's been 6%. so it looks cheap, but we're talking peak profit margins too. >> all right. thank you both very much. see you again no doubt on "street signs." take care gentlemen, have a great weekend. >> all right. thanks. >> let's stay on the stock stream and get down to the trading floors. bob pisani's at the nyse. rick santelli at his usual pit in chicago. bob, what are traders saying about this so-called deal or no deal that may or may not be coming out of greece?

>> there is no deal. no one has seen a single statement that the leaders, the greek leaders, have actually signed off on other than a vague statement they've agreed in principle, in other words there's lots of room to slip and slide. i'll believe it when i see it and everybody else down here will. one point about today's trading, one leadership group day after day after day and people are so excited about, that's technology. the tech sectors big market leader. there it is. every day it outperforms. nasdaq 100 is up 12% this year. my only comment about this because everyone gets so excited about it is apple is 25% of the gains in the nasdaq 100. that's how big apple has become. it virtually dominates all the tech indexes. bear that in mind, mandy, without apple, tech earnings and tech stock indexes would be a lot less impressive. >> i'm so glad you brought this us. we were talking about this on squawk this morning.

cisco's earnings, they're actually pretty good. yet the stock kind of went nah. it's because a lot of these huge big tech names have come so far so fast. cisco up over 50% since august of last year, the earnings really have to justify these price gains. >> remember, it's market cap waiting in these indexes. apple is 15% of the nasdaq 100. one stock -- 100 stocks and one stock is 15% of the weighting. when that stock moves like it has been, $460 billion market cap, it drags the indexes with it. >> bob, thank you. rick, to you. i have two simple questions for you my friend. a, rick, do you and the traders believe there is a deal? and, b, do you give a -- you know? >> first of all, i never give up. >> no, do you give a -- do you care is the nice way to say it? >> oh.

well, we all have to care. we all have to care because even though i've heard the greece analogy of equivalent sides of delaware all that's wonderful, but they truly are the canary in the insolvency coal mine we call earth. to me there was no doubt in my mind that they're going to come up with something to get that check before march 20th. i have little doubt about that. but do i think they're going to deliver on the promises they're going to make to get that check? no way on the planet. so do with that as you will. >> absolutely. we will. thank you very much, rick. herb on the street time. g-men will have new details in diamond foods call in just a bit. first of all there's something else herb has a little bit churning away inside his brain right now. >> there's a story i'm working on waiting for a company to confirm it. if they would just get back to me -- anyway. >> what a tease? what was that? >> i hope later in the show i have it. it's a good little nugget.

>> do it in another show -- >> we'll do it after the company confirms or doesn't confirm. we'll work on it. anyway, i'm looking at companies being chatted about right now. nuance announces after the close with an alert on, you're going to want to look at the earnings quality here. people are really excited about this because of the voice recognition. there's more to this company than just that. you need to know the economics of it. also, sea trip, which is a chinese travel reservation company showing up being chatted about now. a lot of talk on homes and htg gregg, the electronics firm down south, come out with earnings and people like them. >> indianapolis-based hh gregg. >> there you go. >> that is not the south. as a southerner by heritage take great aum barrage.

>> i wanted to say a little shout out to herb because you were not singing your own praises, i will do it instead. well done on diamond foods. >> thank you. a lot of people nailed this earlier. mark roberts off wall street who was first and i have to give him credit. >> i told you, way too humble. >> he will wrap his own praises. i've heard him rap. still ahead on "street signs," america getting the go ahead to build the first nuke plant in more than three decades. the big jobs impact and why it might be the dawn of a new nuclear age. >> next, we're going to talk to the man behind america's new plant, the ceo of southern company. you're about to find out why you might want to hold off buying an ipad. the reason in two minutes. [ male announcer ] let's level the playing field.

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all right. you heard about us talking about it with bob pisani. another day, another new high for apple. this new move coming as "the wall street journal" reports the ipad 3 likely to be announced the first week of march. if the latest release is any indication, the new generation could be in stores about a week later. >> big news for the nuclear industry today after a wait of more than 30 years, yeah, three decades, the u.s. is moving forward with new nuclear plants. they're down in georgia. and brian shactman is here on the desk with the full story. >> it's a big deal. >> yeah. >> i mean, we're talking since the late '70s they haven't had a

newly designed plant. prechernobyl, prefukushima. everyone anticipated this news that the regulatory commission would approve licenses for southern company to complete two new reactors in georgia. this might surprise people since we're less than a year from japan, but we already have higher safety standards, confidence is high in the industry and in the government. now, a project license today should create r5,000 jobs at its peak, as many as 5,000 indirect jobs. and once finishes, indirect says it will take 800 people to run the facilities. look at the stocks involved. southern owned georgia plant scheduled to get licenses for two more plants in south carolina perhaps later this month. shaw group is supposed to build them both. here's key, don't expect a boom in nuclear plant construction. it's not because of sentiment or fear, two simple reasons.

nat gas prices are so cheap and overall demand is so low that it just doesn't make economic sense right now. both of these projects were already under construction, they just needed licenses for some of the key parts. they're hoping to get things cranked up. >> i'm guessing when they started that licensing process it did economically speaking make a lot of sense. conditions were more favorable back then. >> southern energy has scrapped some plans. long-term -- these are 60-year facilities. long-term nat gas can't stay that long. >> okay. >> brian shactman, thank you very much. let's bring in the man behind this big news, ceo of southern company, thomas joining us now. tom, great to have you on. congratulations. i know this has been a multi-year process but it remains so you're going to be spending about $6.1 billion for your 47% or so of this plant. what's it going to mean for southern company that you're spending $6 billion. how much do you expect to recover over the life of that say 60 years? >> oh, we'll recover the costs. i think the real benefit goes to our customers in the southeast. we believe that the energy price

coming out of these projects once they're in service in 2016, 2017, will be about 0.7 cents per kilowatt hour. so that's going to be very attractive, reliable, safe, clean energy. >> you know, too, brian shactman's point just a moment ago, tom, about conditions being more favorable back in 2008 as opposed to now for nuclear reactors, does it make more sense to build new ones as opposed to say retro fitting old ones? >> well, mandy, it absolutely makes sense to continue to add to this nation's energy portfolio. there has been a general trend away from coal towards natural gas. and we share in that. but as we've said on this show before and continue to say and going back to president obama's reference to an all-of-the-above energy policy. what we need nuclear 21st century coal gas you cannot afford as a matter of building an efficient energy portfolio for the future to put all your

eggs in one basket. nuclear in our view is a dominant solution. there is no assurance today that gas prices will remain low and lower volatility. >> tom, at the beginning you talked about the cost per kilowatt hour. forgive me, i don't know what that means in terms of where that stands in a cost structure. brian shactman said nat gas is simply a lot cheaper right now. so let's say gas price nat gas normalizes or goes higher from where it is, how competitive on a cost basis will that be? >> so in 2011 our natural gas and oil plants produced kilowatt hour cost of around 5 or 6 cents. this is below a cent. >> so these are very attractive plants. >> can you quantify what kind of demand growth you see in the future and, for example, as to what the nuclear energy will take over some of the other energy sources more popular and mainstream right now. >> mandy, that's a very

interesting question. southern company produced about 17% from nuclear, about 12% from gas. and the balance from hydro. in the fourth quarter of 2011, 40% from coal, 39% from natural gas, 17% nuclear and the balance hydro. we're already moving in the direction of a transition from coal to gas. in order to build these plants, we are just maintaining our share of energy production out of nuclear. >> okay. totally off that topic, tom, just a quick bottom line in terms of the economies where you guys operate. obviously electricity generation is a big indicator of leading economic activity, right? >> you bet. >> based on your volumes, then, what can you say about the economies of the areas that southern company operates in? >> slow growth. we're seeing a sustained leading recovery in industrial sector. we have seen a blessing there. and that is they've been

increasing in their production efficiency, the negative on that side of the coin is they have not added jobs. we think now that we're starting to see the beginnings of job creation. so we expect our electric sales increase to be about 1.8% for this year going forward. we think the economy is going to be around 2.3% or a little bit more. >> tom, thank you very much for joining us today on a first on cnbc interview. >> super. thank you. >> all right. just ahead on "street signs," the possible sign that america is racking up credit card debt again. plus, herb is going to do the robot. sort of. >> sort of. and then the stealth stocks of 2012. we went searching for the little-known stocks up more than 40% year-to-date. "street signs" is back after this break. you have to dig a little. fidelity's etf market tracker shows you the big picture on how different asset classes are performing, and it lets you go in for a closer look at areas within a class or sector that may be bucking a larger trend.

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ah heads up. wheeeeeeeeeeee! everything you love about geico, now mobile. download the new geico app today. let's check the market internals. 145 new highs. 5 new lows. the nasdaq similar there. we're seeing 87 to 7. and by the way, check out "squawk box" tomorrow morning. is that again tomorrow? >> no. but next tuesday i'll be back on. >> okay. well, it's been a long day for her. it's the battle of the vegas tycoons. steve wynn and his biggest

investor and former best friend, by the way, battling it out in court for control of the $15 billion wynn empire. jane wells just got out of the courtroom and joins us now. >> brian, this is just a little bit of the paperwork. a lot of lawyers in there. court ended shortly with the judge hinting that she may have some sympathy for at least some of his requests. if you look at the tape with robert schapiro, wynn was arguing he was the company's largest shareholder, a chinese billionaire, does not have a right either as a director or shareholder to sue for access to the company's books. he wants more information on hundreds of millions of dollars in expenditures going back 12 years. the judge will determine in two weeks which of those requests are reasonable hinting she thinks some are and some are not. listen. >> we're going to go back to the board of directors of wynn. consider those requests. and the reasonableness of them. and report back to judge gonzalez in two weeks as she has

asked us to do. >> now, wynn's team argues this is all a red herring that okada is angry that his one-time best friend refuse today build a casino in the philippines with him, a venture he has pursued on his own, which now makes him a competitor with steve wynn. and the next court date is the same day of the wynn board meeting here in town. >> how about that. what a coincidence. thank you very much. great reporting, jane wells. a two-for-one in today's disaster du jour. talking vacations and robots. get a half price discount deal as well? >> as are the investors in these companies. the trip advisor, take a look, earnings not so great. the stock getting pummelled today. more look at high robot. that's the one really getting hit here. that's the company that makes that robot that brian uses to mow his lawn while he's sitting in the lounge. but they're getting hit. they're selling enough of those

they're getting hit on the defense side of the business because they sell to the defense department. >> okay. visa bringing up some sunshine. the stock hitting an all-time high. shares up 54% over the last year because more people are saying charge it. i don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing. >> credit card debt's going up, but the good news is that cashout refis are also going up. >> right. [ laughter ] >> you can't get that one out of your head. >> no. i'm just trying to understand -- >> i agree with you. >> if we learn anything from history. >> of course we don't. >> this is why everybody said the economy is doomed for years. and last year on this show we said maybe things are turning because americans have shown an incredible psychological propensity for good or ill to spend, period. >> and the government wants you to spend to get the economy back on its foot. >> and if we spend too much, the government will cut your mortgage principle payments even if the people who pay their

bills on time don't pay their bills. >> there's the vicious cycle. >> some people actually can probably afford qualify for the cashouts. they're genuinely qualified and can show the numbers. so, you know, there is that. >> let's have a little fun. that's well-said. i think we have good comments with a little snip of sarcasm there. up next on "street signs," we're going to show you something. if you're thinking about proposing to your girlfriend, we've just found the proposal perhaps for you. it involves ruby rings. >> uh-huh. >> limos, fireworks and sausage. >> and sausage? >> yep. and pizza. >> okay. no double [ inaudible ] if starbucks stops serving coffee and xerox stops making copies, it sounds crazy, right, but one company is about to stop selling the one thing they invented. the story you just have to see to believe. that's coming up next. ♪

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welcome back to "street signs." half past the hour. there are some very big headlines that have the street talking. greece is the word. it's been the word for a very long time, actually. greek lawmakers technically reaching a debt deal, but it still needs approval. the u.s. market highly reacting to the news. kind of a case of we'll believe it when we see it. nasdaq and s&p trading higher. back here in the united states we have a deal of our own. and president obama is calling it a landmark the federal government reached a $25 billion agreement with the nation's biggest banks to help under water homeowners pay their mortgages. not everyone is happy though. here is dick bove sounding off earlier on cnbc. >> every american should stop making his payments on his mortgages, send a letter into the attorney general in his state and say i qualify to have

my principle reduced because i'm not going to make anymore payments on my house. >> and picture this, it's kind of sad, kodak is getting out of cameras. the bankrupt company says it's going to stop producing digital cameras and going to focus on printing instead. the move is expected to save the company more than $100 million a year. and oracle internet sky high deal in the cloud. the company announcing plans to buy business software maker for $1.9 billion. that comes after oracle's rival stuck a $3 billion deal for a similar firm. of course this is, i believe, according to s&p capital iq data, herb and sully, the purchase of $1.9 billion purchase now ranks as the largest u.s. tick m&a deal to date in 2012. to date, we're only one month in. but there you go. pretty big deal. >> it is. and it follows up -- >> everyone wants to control the cloud. >> that's right. they'll drive each other into the ground in pricing and nobody will make any money.

let's bring jon fortt into the conversation. s.a.p. making a deal back in december. jon, is this a case of, you know, s.a.p. see oracle do? that didn't work out well. >> well, i know what you meant. >> hope he gets it because i didn't. >> in a way, yes. oracle's playing catchup in the cloud, but i don't think they're playing catchup to s.a.p. there's a bigger picture here. there's another start-up called workday run by the guy who did people soft. got bought out by larry ellison. they're doing really well probably going to go public late they are year, early next. that's one to look at as far as a lot of people in this space are concerned about. it's a battle for the hr cloud. it's going to be a broader battle even. this cloud consolidation is not over. >> can you tell me who you think is ruling the cloud right now? you ask some people names like google, amazon, sales force comes up.

who do you think is in the cloud? >> i stick to cloud doesn't mean much of anything anymore. are you talking about software as a service or platform as a service. they're all very different. salesforce is strong in another area. >> microsoft. >> you have to buckle down and think -- >> microsoft. >> microsoft -- good. as far as the impact it's going to have on microsoft's overall business, that's debatable, but they certainly do have a play there. they're not by any means dominant at this point. amazon has got a stronger play at this point. we'll see where it goes. >> cloud wars, jon, thank you very much for joining us. >> let's get back now to that kodak story as mandy talked about. the company saying it is getting out of the digital camera business. it will focus on its printing solutions. herb, what do you make of this? >> i was surprised -- >> they invented the digital camera.

>> i know. i understood but you have to look at what comes next. >> only recently in las vegas at the ces, didn't they just unveil six new cameras? they showed off six new cameras. it almost feels like at that stage they still hadn't got their head around the idea that they're going to have to do this and then the opportunity for chapter 11 on january 19th. so it's all very fresh and very real. still, you feel like this is just maybe a sudden decision because they certainly didn't -- >> among capital iq, kodak's revenue gone from $10.5 billion to just over $6 billion to probably below $6 billion by the end of this year. >> people use their phones now. especially for that level of -- >> you know, that's a great discussion. i was arguing with a friend of mine because i never have a conversation, it's always an argument with everybody about everything. >> which you always win. >> of course i do. in my own head. >> yes. >> are cameras in general buggy

whips? i don't take my camera anymore. i take the phone. >> it depends. it depends. i think they're somewhat, but i think the higher end is still there. >> you know what i like? the old polaroid. just bid on e-bay -- >> moving on. >> i choose to keep this a family channel and i choose to ignore what i want to ignore. we are still following the diamond foods story. >> before i get to this story, i want to point out keep an eye on lows. this is a company i was talking about earlier. we have a copy of a letter and a few of us here have talked to different people about it. and lowe's is actually getting rid of commissions for its appliance and other incentivized associates. this is kind of interesting. it is just a -- >> is this loews? >> no. home depot. >> right.

so i think it's interesting. we called the company trying to get confirmation of this. sent them a letter. we'll get back to you. either you know or you don't. i believe it's something and they're obviously looking at a way to cut costs as part of by the way their multi-channel home improvement company that they're trying to create as they try to compete. diamond foods just is amazing. who do you think bought into lowe's, filed yesterday that as of january 31st they own more than 7% of this thing? tia kraft and two related entities. the college retirement fund and teachers advisors filed yesterday. question is why would they buy now -- >> you said bought into lowe's, you mean diamond foods. >> i'm sorry. i have so much going on. >> i know. >> they bought into diamond foods. why would they buy into diamond foods? we called the company, they did not say. but it is interesting because this is a pension fund. there's so much going on at this company. so much controversy.

that's not where i expect the pension fund to go my opinion. >> that's not just your opinion. this is a retirement and annuity fund you are supposed to invest in safe stocks, as safe as they can be. not all stocks are safe. annuities, dividend payers, bonds, whatever. the fact diamond foods -- maybe they saw value in it, but when you have a chart that looks like that -- and i don't mean this in any kind of a controversial way, but it's true, a suicide on the board a few weeks ago that you reported. you've got the ceo and cfo who were under fire before they were basically pushed out or suspended last night, this has been going on for months. even though the reporting is just coming out, they couldn't have invested in this six months ago. it was fairly recently. and i think shame on them for making an investment like this. [ overlapping speakers ] >> that's what it appears. i'm just hearing back from lowe's corporation saying they evaluate compensation periodically and offer employees pay and benefits competitive in

the marketplace as you know compensation is whatever they're saying. i'm so sorry i'm unable to confirm specifics of the e-mail below. that is from lowe's. thank you so much for getting back to me. finally. >> all right. i did appreciate the sort of cut-and-paste nature of the initial e-mail there. coming up, getting stuff from here to there and what it says about the global consumer with the ceo of container ship company. >> and steeped in history and even vampire legends. it's here-streetsmart edge from charles schwab, the advanced, intuitive trading platform that thinks like a trader. fine-tune technical analysis with the integrated chart tools sidebar. to seize an opportunity, i have to see it. with this, there's no more hide and seek. pinpoint your target more efficiently with

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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 ] ♪

that's the most troublesome chat we've seen recently is a steep drop in the bdi. it is trading at 20-year lows. the bdi tracks freight costs of dry bulk goods things like coal and fertilizer. year-to-date down more than 60%. the baltic dry index of course tracks the cost of transporting goods like grains and metals and coal and fertilizer. despite the decline in the commodities side, shares of sea span, a container ship company up year-to-date. and the ceo joining us from vancouver. thank you very much for joining us on "street signs."

based on your view, which is really the single front line for global economic health or weakness and container ship volumes, what are you seeing with regards to the global economy? slow down or no? >> well, as far as volume's concerned, we've seen an increase anywhere between 5% to 10% starting from this year. last year we had an increase of 8% on global basis. so we have seen a pretty healthy coming back in terms of volume. demand is pretty strong. >> and how is that effecting your freight rate? >> well, freight rates are moving up once demand is moving up. >> so are they moving in the right direction for you? >> yes. and the fare rates have gone up quite a bit. we're looking at anywhere between 30% to 40% for the main ship to europe and north

america. and as volume continues to strengthen, we see the rates will continue to climb. >> so mr. wang, dig into that one a little more. asia to north america, obviously apple, we talk a lot about that being made in china coming here. what are we seeing from the specific types of freight that you're ships are carrying are electronics, hot or have they cooled off? and if not, what is hot? >> electronics is very hot. iphone and ipad very hot. in terms of volume for finishes in terms of closing and electron kal gears for like refrigerators and household items as well. basically the volume is moving up across the board for everything. >> i want to address something that wells fargo put out when they downgraded you earlier on this week, gerry. they were saying one of the things that might be a constraint on your near-term growth is hiked financing. can you address that for us?

>> financing has been pretty tight. i think that's just part of the reflection of the overall financial institutions across the world. europe is struggling and that's traditionally where the ship finances come from. but good companies get good financing. we don't really have a problem with it. as far as we're concerned, we're actually quite happy to see where it is right now because that really puts off a lot of new engines coming to the market to compete. >> while we're on the topic of financials, i mean, obviously fuel is a huge cost for you. what's bunker fuel doing right now? and how well are you hedged against it? >> the bunker fuel is a big issue for our industry because oil prices up. as far as we're concerned we have a long-term contract with the suppliers, with the operators for 10, 12 years, we don't really have any exposure

in that regard at all. >> gerry wang, we appreciate you coming on "street signs" and cnbc. thanks very much, sir. >> thank you very much for having me. >> take care. >> okay, well, shipping is now at a standstill on europe's busiest waterway. and this is why. thick ice shut down the river in six different countries. it flows through nine countries and out to the black sea. the shipping ban is expected to last at least ten days. the river is vital to commerce in places like bulgaria, croatia and it's up to five inches thick. we have an extraordinarily warm and mild winter here in the united states, very, very cold out there. and from one european extreme to the other, europe's most active volcano back at it again. italy's mount etna erupting. actually shut down the weather. >> extreme weather. coming up next on "street signs," giant waves. all right, up next, under the

radar stocks. something we like to do a lot of here on "street signs," finding names not really making headlines but moving nonetheless. >> and five companies that have been reaching for the skies. maybe not the sexiest names we can find, but they are popping nonetheless in terms of their returns. first though we've got bill. what's ahead on the "closing bell." >> mandy, we're going to come up at the top of the hour we have two important names in the mortgage settlement deal. we'll talk about the settlement and what it means for homeowners. housing secretary and new york attorney general will be joining us. and one of the names in private equity tells us why he's still bullish on the stock market. scott sperling joins us at 4:15 p.m. eastern time. we look forward to seeing you at the top of the hour on "closing bell." in the meantime "street signs" is back right after this. (

you know, as we like to do here on "street signs," we like to find names flying "under the radar," soaring stocks without a lot of love for the media. these companies have all the larger caps of larger than $1 billion and are on fire this year. here are the top five "under the

radar" stocks. terex makes big stuff, mining gear, stuff like that, bulldozers. they're up 65% year-to-date. and manitowoc, makes cranes, et cetera. up 78% year-to-date. inconvenientsense, they make electronic stuff. electronic parts. they're up 81% year-to-date. you've got regenorron pharmaceuticals. they are indeed a biotech company up 85%. and another name, the drug proving is fought over on the street, dendreon up more than 100% this year. probably the most volatile stock of all-time. >> let's go deeper into one of those "under the radar" stocks, brian. manitowow -- how do you say it?

>> manitowoc. >> potato, potato. great to have you with us today, charles. we've got two main segments, the crane segment that has been performing better than expected. the food service sector, however, has been weaker than expected. what needs to happen for the food service to start pulling its weight more? >> i think the dynamics between twot segments are fairly different. the food service tends to be a more steadier state company. if you look at the operating margins, they've been showing some improvement on a year-over-year basis. it's growing in excess of the restaurant spending going on in north america today. >> charles, this is herb greenburg. i never understood how they got into the food service. this seems so different from its main business. when you look at the crane business growing, or gaining some steam here, you wonder how sustainable that is, because

you're coming off such a deep trough. >> i think we're probably in the recovery here, looking in 2012. i think we've probably got three, four years of decent growth ahead of us. first few years out of the box will be stronger. if you look at a crepe cycle, you're typically going to get five to seven years of up before you start peaking out and coming back in towards trough again. we're in the early days of that recovery right now. >> just below $17, it has moved to $19 from $17. charles, thanks for your thoughts. >> thank you. >> up next, some would-be brides might call this an indecent proposal. we've got a rather cheesy valentine's day offer. and it is not -- trust me, folks, you are going to want to see what we have coming up. it involves marriage proposals. >> it's valentine's day very soon. i'm sure the ladies will be very happy to receive this proposal. sticking with the love bug,

cupid more geek than greek. >> what works and what doesn't. >> the signs behind finding mrs., or mr. right when we return. ss the golden state, where everyone has been unbelievably nice. mornin'. i guess i'm helping them save hundreds on car insurance. it probably also doesn't hurt that i'm a world-famous advertising icon. cheers! i mean, who wouldn't want a piece of that? geico. ah... fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent oh dear... or more on car insurance. we were just driving along,er comin' back from the lake,ng. and all of a sudden, ka-plam. it blindsided us. what is it? our college savings account. how do you think it happened? not sure. i think something we bought a while ago turned out to be something else, annnnnd, i remember a lot of other stuff in there had the word "aggressive" in it.

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iac interactive, once you have the date, what about flowers, right? 1-800 flowers.com. owns floral service std. don't forget the chocolate. maybe that comes from hershey. >> i would say 80% of holidays are made up around the world, and it's all about spending money. falling in love for many people is not left to chance. for a new cnbc documentary, amy profiles a new breed of scientists and mathematicians driving the growing online dating industry. take a look. >> like digital anthropologists, they're charting the finer points of their customers' dating habits from afar. and mining that data to refine the formulas they use to generate compatible matches. >> imagine if you had a video camera in every bar in the country and you could watch every time a guy tried to pick up a girl. and you could figure out what he was wearing, what she was wearing, what he was drinking

and what pickup line you used. we have every message that's been communicated between two people. we have every word that's been written in a profile. we have all the statistics on every body type and everything else. so we can actually run through all that data and come up with statistically valid conclusions in what works in dating and what doesn't. >> do not miss the premiere of love at first byte. >> thank you to "nightly news" and courtney reagan. we confirmed this is real, right? tie the knot with the $10 dinner box. but it's $10,000. you get a limo, videographer, photographer, any $10 pizza bog. >> the deal is real. can't confirm if they've sold any packages yet. why not? >> there are only ten available. so rush in