$10,010. but like i said, it comes with the pizza. >> do you have to like dig through the pizza and pepperoni to find the ruby ring? >> thanks for watching "street signs," everybody. >> "closing bell" is coming up next. see you tomorrow. today, on the "closing bell," signs of hope in greece. what will a debt deal there mean for your money? we'll get investor reaction. plus, new york's attorney general talks to cnbc first about a landmark foreclosure settlement aimed at helping homeowners. live from the new york stock exchange, this is the final and most important hour of the trading day. >> hi, everybody. welcome to the "closing bell." i'm maria bartiromo at the new york stock exchange. >> and bill griffeth. cautious optimism, that's what's holding the street right now. we head into the home stretch. wall street getting a bit of a lift on news that greek

officials have agreed on austerity measures and securing the rescue package from the eu and imf that they've been aiming for. however, we've only seen leadership from the technology sector today. that's helping to drive the gain in the nasdaq, especially, which we'll talk about. speaking of technology, apple shares up nearly 4% again today. the move helping that tech giant reach striking distance of $500 a share. apple is higher on the back of upbeat analyst comments, and speculation about a march announcement about i pad 3. more on that story straight ahead here. maria? >> let's take a look at the major indices. there we are, the dow at 12,899. a gain on the session about 15 points. just shy of the high of the day which really happened about 10:00 a.m. this morning. nasdaq up 11 points. money moving into technology, as that is the winner in 2012. s&p 500 looks like this. similar chart pattern. s&p just shy of the high as well with a gain on the session just

barely 2.5 points. >> here is the cautiously optimistic bob pisani. >> well, by any standards, it's been a good day. the announcements overall -- put up the list here. five items that i think were good news for the stock market today. starting with the fact that we have a tentative greek deal. we had good jobless claims numbers. apple, the greatest stock since the invention of the wheel, up 4%. we have a mortgage bank settlement. we've got the bank of england pumping money all over. guys, you would think we should be up 300 points on the dow. yet, nothing. when this happened, people call up and say, so what, bob? why isn't the market responding? you've got to say, it already has. what a great year we've had. put up the numbers so far year-to-date. yes, i know everybody thinks it's apple. but the nasdaq up 12 points. the russell, small cap, that's not apple, folks, up 11.6%. s&p, yes, apple is 15% of the

nasdaq. we've been pointing this out. apple is dragging up the tech sector. but my point is, we've had a great rally so far. >> the news is catching up to the market right now basically. >> i think so. i think the news was unequivocally good. the only reason i can give people about why we're not seeing a better reaction is, we've been getting it every single day. >> a slow crawl up. >> yeah. i think maybe that's a good idea for the market. i know it's not terribly exciting. we're not getting 200 points moving up and down like the middle of last year. like a bowling alley installed in our brains every day. but hopefully this is good for the market. >> the volume not as bad as yesterday. >> cut the volume. the. >> let's look at the movers and shakers in the market that has the dow just about 17 points. courtney reagan at the cnbc realtime exchange right now. >> good afternoon, maria. we're still green across the

board. like bob said, tech is the outperformer. just shy of half a percent. that's the same thing that we saw yesterday as well. if we can check in on the fear index, that volatility index is higher, but still below 19. and if we can move all the way over to the bottom, the other side, crude oil flirting with $100 but settling just under that number today in the nymex trading. gold is higher. flipping back and forth here just in the last couple of moments from positive to the negative in the gold trade. look at the yield on the ten-year note. we're a little bit lower from about midday, but still about 2%. nice movement if you're in the ten-year treasury. let's look at some of the bigger movers and shakers. you have to mention apple, another winner today, up about 4%. potentially a little bit more, about 4% right now, inching its way closer to 500. some of the market rumors talk about the potential for that ipad 3 announcement. we're waiting to see if that

does come about. iphone forecasts by almost 10%. trip adviser moving the other direction today. the biggest loser in the s&p 500. as you can see, down almost 15%. this is the first earnings release since separating from expedia. those earnings were disappointing. three downgrades today, that pours salt in the wounds. let's take a look at equifax, almost up 7%. a nice little spike towards the end of the day. nice earnings there. we'll see if this can close that way, as we move toward the end of trading today. >> thank you so much, court. let's check treasury prices, drifting lower today after greek leaders agreed to some new austerity measures. rick santelli on that angle right now. over to you, rick. >> thanks, maria. if it was just greece, and let's say we did have the detailed paper in hand that bob so

eloquently talks about, i don't know that yields would have been all that much higher. some of the other winds blowing through, we had a 30-year auction today, we had auctions the last several days. corporate supply is picking up, and sometimes there's distort n distortions based on hedging that supply investors buy. but to cut through it all, if you look at the interday of 30s, it's up five basis points. more interesting is the comp goes now back to third week in october since we had yields this high. we're over 320 at one point. maybe the biggest story of the day continues to be the euro currency. granted, a little under $127 in mid-january. maybe 133 or 132, 92 doesn't seem high enough considering we're probably close to some form of the world's largest band-aid to stabilize this marketplace. but these events continue to go on. of course, february's the month. bailouts always seem to occur in

february. so there's a lot more out there that landmark housing negotiation, for example, all these issues are having some effect in the credit markets. back to you. >> speaking of which, maria and i'll be talking about that mortgage settlement coming up. you're tagoing to be talking abt that in a few minutes. rick, i've got a question for you. isn't it as simple as we see yields rise in the treasuries, that more people are willing to take on more risks so they're buying more stocks, so we had a little less demand for the treasuries in the auctions this week, for example? do you think it's more simple that people are trying to buy stocks as said? >> there's a lot of truth there. but the real issue becomes relative value. you know, moving up towards the highest yield since the third week in october, there's a lot more room to the upside.

is this just investors a little nervous? many people i've talked to on the trading floors, bill, they would have expected 30, 35, 40 basis points if the greek headwinds were heavy in terms of that other landmark deal. li financial or gmac, whatever you want to call them now, they owe taxpayers $6.3 billion. how do we actually look at this deal with a straight face and say they're paying $5 billion. that's what i want to know. >> all right. maybe we'll bring those questions up there. brian, speaking of taking on more risk, the economy still shows signs of recovery here. those jobless claims looked pretty good this morning. >> i wanted to point out, i don't think we're paying enough attention to it. we're talking so much about greece, about the deal with the banks, over mortgages. but we continue this trend. and we had a great jobs report last month. it takes care of housing. it takes care of growth. it even helps with debt. of course, we have structural problems with both jobs and

debt. but if that is the trend, and we see the trend, you can't ignore it. it's going to help everything. so i think it's underplayed by a wide margin in all the discussion today. >> maria, we bemoan the incremental gains in the market. we're waiting for some big rally at some point. but we're making incremental gains on the economy, on the greek settlement, everything's happening bit by bit. we're not getting any major break-throughs right now. >> that's essentially right. the banking sector is one area we're not seeing the incremental gains because of the uncertainty around the regulatory environment. that's one area that is getting hit negatively as a result of this volume, and as a result of the uncertainty in the regulatory environment. that's one area we need to watch. >> maria, go back to the lows from '09, you talk about volume, forgetting that for a second, a lot of the gains we had up from the bottom, that was incremental. even though traders, some people

might be bored with the volume, it's the trend is your friend, and it's in the right direction. >> look at that volume chart there. >> that is amazing. rick, always good to see you. brian, thank you. >> the market is fractionally better on the session with 20 points on the dow jones industrial average. nasdaq doing well with money moving into tech once again. >> pepsi's new structuring plan announced. should you buy the stock on today's dip? pepsi challenge stock brawl is coming up next. >> he was one of the biggest critics of the mortgage settlement. eric schneiderman signed onto the deal. >> later we'll get the white house's take on that settlement. a first on cnbc interview with shaun donovan. >> we'll tell you how the heat map is shaping up here as we approach the final stretch. we're back on the "closing bell." you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide.

about 45 minutes left in the trading session, time for a quick market stat check on the market itself. fresh four-year highs, although gains have been muted. greek leaders unleashing a second bailout package. parliament votes on those cuts sunday. we had the mortgage settlement. a lot of things going on right now. but the dow is up just 23 points, 21 points right now. the high of the day the dow was up 41. here's a look at some of the leaders at this hour. united technologies, there's a bank of america continuing higher, another 1% gain today followed by american express, dupont and pfizer. >> bill, time for the stock brawl of the day. we take the gloves off for pepsico, the largest snack food maker. fourth quarter net income up 4%,

revenue up 11% for the quarter. company also held an analysts day in new york today. among the biggest announcements, the company will cut nearly 9,000 jobs, pumping more money into advertising in the pepsi and mountain dew brands. the ceo appeared on cnbc to address some calls for the snack food business from the beverage business. >> our estimate is that the synergies from these two businesses being together in the range of $800 million to $1 billion. and the cost of splitting them is enormous, and will create untold disruption. >> take a look at the stock trading lower on the session, about 3.5% lower. it has been relatively flat over the last year. should you be a buyer or seller of this stock. in the bullish corner today is president and chief investment officer of yakman asset

development. good to see you gentlemen. thanks very much for joining us. >> nice to be here. >> donald, you like pepsico so much, you increased your holdings in the company by 29%. what makes you so bullish in the stock? >> remember, we've had a lot of increased assets. i would put this in terms of time horizon. a long-term investor will be happy to see the opportunity to buy a great business at a lower price. a short-term speculator will probably view this as a great opportunity to short it or not hold it, or not buy it. >> but what -- >> because of the short-term problems. >> but why do you think this stock goes higher over the mid or longer term? you took your holding up in it. what are you seeing that the shorts aren't? >> we buy companies based on very long-term horizon times. we buy risk adjusted forward rates of return. this company has a great business model. high return on assets, growth and just a great future return.

i would view this as like a aaa bond, and when you can get a aaa bond like this with a yield above 30-year treasuries, i think this is a great buy. >> mark, you were an the analysts meeting today. why do you have a hold on the stock here? >> i agree with the set of framework donald is using, but i would point out returns on capital have gone down for several years now for pepsi. 2012 will be yet another year of those returns going down. i would describe it as early at best to be buying this stock. we have a hold on it. we think it's a fairly valued stock. in terms of our concerns, i think our number one concern is what i just mentioned, returns going down again. and so we have questions about management's discipline in allocating capital. they say we should look for returns to start going up next year. we don't think that this time next year we'll be talking about them going down in '13.

but we have this multi-year pattern in capital going down. that's generally not a good basis for seeing a multiple expand which we think is going to be essential. >> it's at $64.35. what do you think the best price i'm going to be able to get it at in the next couple of years? how much lower can this stock go? >> i think we're probably looking at risk -- obviously making assumptions about the market, maybe 5% down side risk. up side risk is similar if you're a 12-month type investor. >> donald, one area you think the company needs to improve is the refinement of the brand and productivity. tell me about that. >> i wouldn't give the management an "a" on their report card. i just think that this is a great business. it generates a lot of excess cash. and if the company were to use the decline in stock price to buy back shares as an example, given where interest rates are, that would be a great opportunity to improve all of the basic numbers.

>> and donald, real quick, how much higher do you think this stock can go? >> depends on the time horizon. i would say if you're -- we look in terms of a ten-year time frame. and i wouldn't be surprised to see between the dividends, and the price appreciation to make 150% over ten years. >> all right. we'll leave it there. gentlemen, good to have you on the program. thanks so much. >> thanks for having us, maria. about 40 minutes to go with the dow just up 12 points at this point. >> what about the tech sector. nasdaq strong. >> the section for all seasons right now. >> it really is. it's at an 11-year high right now. we're talking numbers to tell you why technology could continue this breakout. >> the co-president of the private equity giant thl partners is increasingly optimistic about investing here in north america in the equity market. find out where scott sperling is putting his money to work at 4:15 eastern time. >> we'll show you what's moving and shaking on the red and green

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welcome back to "closing

bell." i'm seema mody. another day, and another all-time high for apple. reports suggesting an ipad 3 launch in the first week of march, that's helping shares of apple today. also in the news, take a look at google. the doj is expected to give antitrust approval for the motorola mobility bid sometime early next week. oracle announcing the acquisition of aleo. it would give them a stronger foothold in the cloud computing space. that's certainly the trend in 2012. it's all about the cloud. also, take a look at yahoo!. that company making the headlines. "wall street journal" reporting that alibaba will buy back shares from yahoo!. maria and bill, over to you. >> seema, thank you very much. we are heading toward the close with about 35 minutes left in the day. we're watching technology. aren't we all. the nasdaq near that 11-year high, within 100 points of the

3,000 level now. so what's the best way to play it these days. let's start talking numbers. chris is here with us, head of technical analysis. what a juggernaut, the technology sector has been lately. >> if you compare it to the s&p, or the dow transport for the russell 2000, it's the strongest looking chart. if you look at ten years, a lot of memory in the $50 to $60 level. we've rallied there, failed in the past, rallied there, failed in the past. but we're up to the $60 level right now. we would use any weakness in the interim to step in. we think it's one of the stro strongest sectors of the market right now. >> there was a lot of repair work to be done after the crash of the bubble ten years ago. amazing. intel, there's one you're looking at specifically right now. would you like it here? >> the index is the whole.

let's analyze the parts. intel is an important part of the segment right here. look at it three, four, five sex of m or six years of memory, that can break higher here, average upward sloping. >> are you throwing darts at technology or are there charts you don't like right now? >> for as strong as the overall sector is, we don't think this is the time to try and be a hero with some charts that don't have the setup that we want to be buyers of. take like a sales force for crm, the only thing you have to know about the chart is the moving average when the rest of the sector is in a much stronger technical spot here. selling on rallies. a nice move back from 100 to 120. >> but you don't think overall the technology is in a bubble phase at this point. >> certainly doesn't seem that way. again, ten years in technical

purgatory here. ten years to repair. a lot of the stocks are just beginning to break out. microsofts of the world, googles of the world, healthy looking chart. >> chris, good to see you as always. thank you for joining us on "talking numbers." >> 30 minutes until the closing bell sounds. the market taking a breather this week. market experts tell us whether they expect the market to move higher or lower from here. and what will be the catalysts in the coming week. another big slate of earnings after the bell tonight. we have results from linkedin, expedia, ak tivision and lionsgate. you're watching the "closing bell." and tomorrow, he's won praise for italy's ket fighting efforts. prime minister mario monte explains how he's combating italy's $2.5 trillion debt to avoid greece's fate. it's an exclusive interview

tomorrow on the "closing bell." you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide.

welcome back. bob pisani down on the floor of the new york stock exchange. a lot of good news today. good news on the jobless claims front, good news about a tentative greek deal. yet the market's not really doing much. my response to this is, every day the dow is up. s&p up 7%. nasdaq roaring right now. we've had a substantial rally so far this year. i think people should be quite happy with that. after the close, i know everyone's talking about groupon today. linkedin, talk about a nice stock moving through there, there it is, $76 right now. guys, back to you. >> really nice looking there, bob. and groupon as well moving up since going public. making the biggest moves today, courtney reagan. >> take a look here at the big board. we'll look all the way across and see where we are in the broader index. we're up just p three points. a little more advancers than decliners right here.

we'll drill down to some specifics here, if we can take a look at the sectors and see exactly what's happening. tech and consumer staples all the way over at the far end doing the best today. flip over to the other side, utilities and health care doing the worst. but not by that big of a margin. if we look at some of the names moving within the sectors, let's start first with tech. look at these names, all the way over on the far side, akamai up 10%. same thing with teradata. first solar is more than likely getting a lift with the group. some speculate it's the bears covering their shorts. let's take a look at the other end of the spectrum when we look at the utility names. right across the board, but not by huge margins. the biggest loser, in fact, down by less than 2% over on that corner. pg&e down just 1.15%. by and large, not a bad day across the board.

bob pisani just noted there, overall, we're actually looking pretty good, besides we haven't seen the big upswings or downswings. but hey, we'll take little gains now and then. >> let's get more on the markets here. our next guest says a european downturn is in store, and the other says greece may slip out of the euro by the end of the year. >> here to weigh in, brian jacobson at wells fargo advantage funds, along with steve, manager at sun america asset management. >> i don't think greece will slip out of the euro. i think they'll -- >> oh, okay. you do have a long list of concerns, though, things to be wary of for this market, right? >> there are plenty of concerns, but there's plenty to be optimistic of. i don't think greece will slip out of the euro. there's lots of conflicting

headlines. in typical european fashion, i think that they're just trying to be fashionably late with some of their solutions. >> that's real fashion, high fashion at this point. steve, let's talk about the implications of greece getting out of the euro. i think most people do expect a default of greece. it just is a matter of is it going to be an orderly default and do they get out of the euro. and if they do get out of the euro, what does that mean for spain? isn't that the worry? >> we've been thinking about that for the last two weeks. people have been talking today about the implications for the cds collapsing. it looks like a deal will be done for greece. it's sloppy. the austerity measures they're implementing seem very weak. something will be allowed to let them kick the can down the road for a few more months. we're hearing chatter out of portugal and ireland that they would like a reduction as well. so there is a risk that spirals out of control. and it is disappointing to u.s.

investors who think about overseas investments. that the deal isn't getting done. there's a problem with the implementation of austerity. >> i think this is why the negotiations with greece have dragged on as long as they have, because they're not negotiating just with greece, they've got portugal and ireland behind them at this point. what would you buy now? you said there are reasons to be optimistic. >> if you look in the united states, there are good opportunities in consumer staples would derive 60% of their revenues from outside the united states. there's energy in the united states. a lot of it is u.s. focused. i like some of the emerging markets, as long as you stay out of the traditional bric companies. i think for investors, you can look into the equity markets, but let's not forget about the high yield market. high yield bonds present a good attractive return. >> still buying dividend payers? >> not so much now. it's a crowded trade. dividend stocks have not worked as the growth names year-to-date. we think the reflation -- we

like gold right now. we just bought a couple kould miners. but we like the reflation trade. bonds are rolling over. i think bonds get a lot weaker. we're seeing inflation in china, employment growth here, inflation and food companies, the reflation trade is on. what do you want to buy? you want to buy things like energy, natural gas, mining, and energy. we own gold companies, and we own natural gas companies. we want to buy companies that are trading at big discounts on commodity prices. natural gas is very low. >> you're not going into tech? >> we've owned tech. microsoft is at ten times earnings, probably up 25% year-to-date. we're sticking with it. cisco didn't have a great number, the stock isn't doing anything. i think the tech trade is off. up 13% year-to-date. >> good to see you, steve. and thanks for joining us, brian. we head toward the close, the dow is up just 14 points,

but the nasdaq has the better percentage gain right now. >> 13% year-to-date. up next, he was one of the last holdouts on the mortgage settlement. eric schneiderman explains why he finally signed on to this deal. shaun donovan tells us what relief distressed homeowners can expect from this deal, coming up next hour. take a look at the banks and how they are trading. back in a moment. but first, before we go to break, the "dividend." which small cap stock is the better performer this year? coin star, hot topic, or jamba? the "dividend" pays off after the "dividend" pays off after the break. eate it.

just before the break, as part of the "dividend," we asked, which small cap stock is the better performer this year? coinstar, hot topic or jamba? now, the payoff. jamba. welcome back. 20 minutes left in today's trading session. the nasdaq, of course, on pace for a three-day winning streak today, and a fresh 11-year high

at 2,929. it had been up 15 points at the high. very close to the high of the day right here. as we approach the final stretch. the volatility index edging up today. it has been trading below 20, though, for more than three weeks now. the vix is now at 1848. it last settled above 20 on january 18th, bill. >> maria, one of our top stories today, five of the largest home lenders agreeing to the $5 billion mortgage settlement with various federal and state officials. the only state not participating, oklahoma. what does this mean for both the banks and the homeowners, where do we go from here? let's ask a man who was probably the highest profile holdout to sign on to this deal. new york state attorney general eric schneiderman. welcome back. >> good to be here. >> a couple of quick housekeeping questions first. first, what was the sticking point? we heard earlier this week you might have signed on, but then pulled back at the last minute.

what were the sticking points, and what held it up? >> well, the most important issues from my point of view have always been that whatever relief we provide, we conclude our investigations into misconduct in the financial services industry that led to the meltdown of the economy. we have some degree of accountability to identify the folks who actually engaged in the misconduct and make it clear that most of the people in financial services just want to make money for themselves and their clients, but there were some folks that engaged in misconduct and they have to be held accountable. the second is relief for the homeowners. and to air out the facts to make sure this never happens again. the objection i had to the earlier forms of a settlement really were that the level of relief provided, the amount of money provided for principal reduction for homeowners and for states for legal services and things like that, was really not con mens commensurate for the r

sought. it wasn't the subject of the settlement. i'm satisfied in the last few months we've had tough negotiations, and working with my federal and state counterparts, the banks have been released from conduct about things like robo signing and flaws in their notarization process, in the foreclosure conduct. the conduct that led to the meltdown of the economy is all fair game for investigation. president obama has unveiled this joint working group that i'm one of the co-chairs of, we're digging into issues related to possible tax fraud and other misconduct pre-crash. that's all been preserved. all criminal prosecutions have been preserved. and my claims about the shadow mortgage system, really computerized rather than going through county clerk offices have been preserved. from my point of view it's about guaranteeing that this settlement, as big as it is, is just a down payment on the way to broader relief, and just

identifying the folks that engaged in misconduct separating them out from most folks. >> you've given me a lot to work with here and so little time. are you saying that you are convinced after four years that there will be criminal charges brought against some people involved in the robo signing, or other issues that brought the housing market down? >> i can't comment onion going investigations. but there certainly will be further liability, the joint working group has just started a couple of weeks ago, subpoenas have already gone out. some claims have already been filed. you'll see more in the weeks and months ahead. this is a down payment, as i say. this settlement resolves a few issues like robo signing, more issues still to resolve. but i think the framework that's been set up of accountability, principal reduction for homeowners, we have to get relief for investors, too. >> there are sources that told our real estate correspondent

that not all of the issues have been made public. in other words, the liabilities that the banks and mortgage lenders have been released from. are there others that we don't know about yet? beyond what's been announced? >> certainly not as relates to new york. our deal is very clear. we got $136 million that my office is going to be able to use to ensure legal services and housing counseling for homeowners. we've got what hud estimates could be as much as $700 million in relief for homeowners by way of principal reductions. the releases are narrowly tailored. at least as far as new york is concerned, what you see is what you get. i don't know there are other things to be revealed. >> where do you stand on the moral hazard issue? those homeowners who have been making their payments, that they had to get a second job to keep up with their mortgage, that even though they are underwater, they's not likely to get relief because they are -- you know, all those issues facing those homeowners who have not been

caught up in this mess, that caused all the foreclosures, and the collapse of the housing market, where do you stand on those people who will not receive any relief as a result of this settlement? >> well, actually, this settlement does provide relief for people who are underwater, without regard to whether or not they're in default or foreclosure. this is something that tries to deal with the issue that, up until 2003, the market was working the way the markets were supposed to work. but negative amortization, documentation loans that took place in the years after that, there was an artificial inflation of the housing bubble. there was market abuse. some of it might have been legal, in which case we should change the rules, change the laws, some of it was illegal and people should be held to account for that. the goal here is to help as many homeowners as possible, and certainly people who are underwater because the housing bubble was artificially inflated and then crashed, are the kinds of people we want to be helping.

keep in mind, a foreclosure hurts the entire community. and people who are struggling to keep up with underwater mortgages, they're not out spending money, out buying dinner, out moving the economy forward. we think this is in everyone's interest going forward. >> i'm almost out of time, but what's next? for example, going after fannie and freddie? or what's the next phase of the legal procedure to try to clean up this mess? >> well, our joint investigation is going forward, really focused now much more on the conduct that contributed to the artificial inflation of the housing bubble, and the crash. and your point about fannie and freddie is well taken. it needs to be addressed if we want to get economic relief. that's at issue in the settlement announced today, mortgages held by investors, the investors have their right to get payment, too. and the largest pool are the mortgages held by freddie and fannie by the government entities, they have to be a part of any final res ligs of this

crisis. >> new york attorney general eric schneiderman, thank you for your time. >> my pleasure. we've got a market that is losing momentum pretty fast here. up just about nine points on the dow industrials. >> brian shactman tells us what to expect from the big slate of earnings due out after the bell. later, is austerity in greece just a temporary fix? we'll talk with thl partner scott sperling, he weighs in and tells us how he's investing in this uncertainty in europe. strong day for the euro against the dollar. back after this.

welcome back to the "closing bell." coming to you right here from the floor of the new york stock exchange. visa at an all-time high right now. the string of investment banks say raising their price targets

in the largest debit and credit card profit company. the stock up better than $4. heavier than usual volume today. beat the expectations. raised the 2012 guidance, that happened late yesterday. saying credit card spending remains strong. joseph saunders calling the impact of regulations on debit cards modestly better than he actually expected. as far as the impact on visa, of course. moore saying it expects a brunt of durbin related headwinds this year. let's take a look at the stock here. visa, mastercard have outperformed rivals in the credit and debit card space over the last year. you can see there, although american express and discovery financial also at now 52-week gains. looking at 52-week highs in this space. bill, over to you. >> maria, thank you. let's go to john harwood. he has more between the meeting between president obama and

prime minister mario monti. >> president obama wanted to lend a symbolic show of support to mario monti, who is actually behind me in the white house driveway talking to reporters, having come out of the white house after the meeting. mario monti has made some very difficult, necessary reforms to try to deal with italy's debt. but also cut regulations to spur economic growth. that's the formula they're hoping is a way out of the crisis in europe. and just as greece appears to be edging closer to a settlement in advance of the meeting in brussels, the administration wants to do everything it can to encourage what it believes are responsible actors in europe trying to get on top of a problem that, of course, if it blows up, could threaten not only the economy in the eurozone, but also the united states economy, and the president's own re-election, bill. >> a reminder as you saw graphically, mario monti will be our guest on the "closing bell" tomorrow at 4:00 eastern time. countdown to another big slate

of earnings after the bell. brian shactman standing by with that right now. >> let's start with nuance, up about 4% as we head into earnings. maybe you'd like nuance communication. a nice run. if they beat 36 cents a share and $392 million, it could keep going. yesterday we had groupon. today linkedin. the stock is up 20% year-to-date. with the zyngas of the world, traditional gaming has had to change fast. profits are expected to be 56 cents a share for activision. look for the international revenue on this one, folks. could give insight into europe. they have big overseas exposure. pitney bowe yields almost 8%. 60 cents is the expectation on $1.4 billion in revenue. >> brian, thank you. we'll have all the numbers coming up after the bell. we're coming back with the

closing "countdown," though, and what's next for the markets now that greece has reached that austerity deal. scott sperling gives us his take on that. here's how the major averages are now trading as we head toward the close. starting to slip here toward the end. and tomorrow, he's won praise for italy's debt fighting effort. prime minister mario monti explains how he's combating italy's $2.5 trillion debt to avoid greece's fate. it's an exclusive interview tomorrow on the "closing bell." you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide. 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.

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we'll even throw in up to $600 when you open a new account or roll over an old 401(k). so who's in control now, mayans? about two and a half minutes before the close here. the nasdaq and s&p are trying for their first consecutive week of gains. no great power there. and we're getting close to some round numbers again. the dow within 100 points of 13,000. the last time we were above that was may 19th of 2008. so going back four years for

that. the nasdaq getting close to the 3,000 level at this point. the euro, again, was the key mover today. and it was pretty strong. it didn't give up many of those gain gains. what's interesting is the gold market, which should have continued to power higher with the euro, gave up the ghost late today and actually finished negative. it was up to about $1750, but settled at $1730 late if the day's session here. oil continued higher. there's another round number we're approaching, almost back to $100 a barrel on wti. but that spread between brent north sea and wti is still very wide right now. the 30-year auction today, soft again, just as the ten-year and three-year were earlier this week. and i maintain it's because so many are buying stocks and taking on risk right now, where they'rt buying bonds at this point. brian jacobsen, we'll look at the strength of the day here. technology was the leader. would you buy technology right

here? >> i would buy some technology stocks. i don't think i would just dump all into technology, because i think what you really need to do is be aware of those companies that are actually selling to enterprises. that's where i think that some of the gains can still be had, is the big large caps. not necessarily that have a lot of focus on the retail sector, but more on the business sector. >> financials is another hot button right now. they've had a good year. >> they certainly have. but i think they're probably due for a little bit of a pullback, mainly because they seem like a barometer as to whether or not things will get resolved in europe. i don't think things are being resolved in europe, and as a result, we might see some sort of deflation within the financial sector. >> all right. very good. thank you, brian, for joining us today. another slate of earnings coming out after the bell today. >> i tell you what i want to hear from linkedin, they've been gaining market share from, i guess you would call them the