why is there so much silence? deafening on this set. have you had your shots today, brian? >> shhh. yeah. no comment. >> uncomfortable? >> yeah, it is. thanks for watching "street signs," everybody. >> "closing bell" is coming up next. today, on the "closing bell," the specter of greece is back. the eurozone finance ministers throw another fly in the ointment. we'll break down what the latest setback means for your money. italy, front and center. is the nation on the right track? is it getting its fiscal house back in order? maria talks exclusively with italian prime minister mario monti straight ahead. live, from the new york stock exchange, this is the final and most important hour of the trading day. tgif, everybody.

i'm bill griffeth at the new york stock exchange. >> we're in the final stretch for the week. i'm maria bartiromo. stocks on track to close out the week on a down note once again. down about 130 points on the dow. market really having the worst day in about six weeks today. amid new concerns that the greek debt solution is far away after european officials demanded deeper spending cuts before the nation can get its hands on a bailout package. italy's banks were downgraded 4 of the 37 banks that poor's & and standards rates. we'll get mario monti reaction to the downgrade and exclusive interview about where he is on the austerity plan. mario monti joins us in an

exclusive today at 4:00 p.m. eastern, bill. >> let's look at the major averages, sell-off first thing this morning. they haven't really looked back yet. the dow down 129 points at 12,761. we're certainly not talking about down 13,000 anymore. the nasdaq's down 25 points to 2,901. we were talking nasdaq 3,000 not too long ago. now the s&p is down about a percent, or 12 points at 1,339. i guess we know what traders are talking about today, bob pisani. >> they're talking about mario monti being down here on the floor at 4:00. we'll all be watching tonight. here's the man who has brought some confidence back to europe, in some sense that there might be some way out of this. still a long way to go, but it's very important, his contribution already today. the other thing, of course, is greece. the parliament, the greek groups in parliament control them. the coalition controls the

parliament. there's a feeling there coalition may fall apart this weekend. that's why we're weak today. take a look at the big winners and losers. there's mostly losers. materials and financial stocks have been the big gainers all throughout the year. this is a very unusual day. we haven't seen days where stocks, big leadership stocks are down 3% to 4% all year. we're seeing it today, not just in materials, but in financials as well. they were the big losers last year. but these have been the big winners this year. again, very unusual here. just european banks as well as u.s. banks, like morgan stanley and citigroup. the other big leadership group, housing stocks where we've seen 10, 12, 14, 20% moves in the big names. a lot of profit taking going on here. this is a little unusual. believe it or not, there's not a single day this year where the s&p was down 1%, closed down at 1%. it's been pretty much straight up. >> tough moves there.

hovananian down, too. >> tremendous moves. >> we'll see you a little later. let's look at the movers and shakers in the market that has the stocks down so sharply, 130 on the dow. over to you, seema. >> after four days of consecutive gains today, a sea of red, all 30 dow stocks trading lower. investors pretty jittery over greece. the dow indicating triple-digit losses. some say it's a reality of the market environment. the leadership today, the nasdaq, taking a breather. currently down 28 points. taking a look at the fear index, the vix moving forward. let's look at some of the movers and shakers for today. linkedin impressing the street last night after fourth-quarter

earnings. also take a look at arch coal, coming in after the company slashed its full year adjusted forecast twice last year. to the losers, game stop reports nearly flat sales for a nine-week holiday period that ended on december 31st. that's concerning investors seeing weakness across the board. >> seema, thank you. >> seema, thank you very much. today's "closing bell" exchange, we turn our attention to greece. where else, bailout deal falling apart, riots erupt in the capital city, and lucky julia chatterly of cnbc of europe has been covering the great soap opera that has been going on in athens. what's going on, julia? what's the outlook for the weekend? >> well, we estimate around 5,000 people took to the streets today in protest, chanting

things like you're setting us back 50 years, and things like hang the politicians. it actually started quite peacefully but it ended rather violent. the police had to use tear gas to disperse the crowd. the protests were called before the meeting when it was told deeper cuts were going to be put in. more protests called for tomorrow. and again, on sunday, ahead of what was expected to be this key meeting of the politicians in parliament to vote on this reform deal. we heard this afternoon that five cabinet ministers have now resigned. the question we're asking is, will this mean a cabinet reshuffle and see yet another delay again on this vote that it's expected in parliament on sunday. that's what we're waiting for here in athens. back to you. >> thank you. the waiting continues. it's really getting pretty

nerve-racking for the markets, because we are once again going into a weekend. we've got the meeting on sunday. so we've got these renewed concerns out of greece, helping treasury prices rally today. let's get to cnbc's rick santelli in chicago with the latest there. >> you know, it's been actually a fairly range-bound week when you consider where we're at today. it didn't feel like it when you were riding the roller coaster to get to friday's close. look at a one-week chart of ten-year. we're up several basis points. even that move didn't take you beyond what the top of the range is since november. somewhere just shy of a yield of 210. the two-year, a bit of a different picture. keep in mind for a variety of ropes, the longest maturity, the twist, a lot of reasons, it is virtually unchanged on the week. if we switch gears and think corporate bonds, let's look at the investment grade egf that

reflects price. year-to-date you can certainly see it has had a little bit of a bump today. since the beginning of the year, it's a tear. if you look at the spread relationship to treasuries, as expressed in this barclays investment grade index, you can see as well that we are now under 200. if you think equities will be in down moves only with european bad news, but ultimately it's a good market and treasuries seem to be in a range, it seems all roads lead to corporate securities. bill, maria, back to you. >> rick, thank you very much. well, we've got two hours coming here. we're hardly slinking into the weekend. stick around, we've got a lot to get to. the dow, another move lower as we head to the close with about 50 minutes to go with the index down about 138 points right now. >> is it time to bail or is there more moves on the upside for denddreon. that's coming up. >> real concerns about the situation in greece, and oil

prices plunging. talking numbers trade ahead on crude 0i68. >> we're waiting for mario monti to come here to the new york stock exchange. italian prime minister mario monti will be with me exclusively to talk about how he's tackling his country's massive debt load. >> here's a look at the sea of red. the s&p 500 heat map, very little green today. you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide.

48 minutes left in the trading day. a stat check on the dow, if you're just joining us, the major averages hit the skids on renewed information about greece and whether it can secure the second bailout package. we're setting new lows again, another push lower right now, with the dow down 142 points. we were down 145 at the lows of the session earlier.

here's a look at the worst performers among the dow components. when last i checked, all 30 dow components are lower today. these are the hardest hit, with alcoa down almost 4%, followed by du point, hewlett-packard, exxon mobil and boeing. a broad sell-off today. >> pretty significant moves today. we're taking the gloves off today for biotech drug maker dendreon. up nearly 90% so far this year. pretty sweet return for just a few weeks. what's behind this run-up, and is it justified. in the bears corner today, douglas deetre. there it is $13.892. and george in the other corner. thank you for joining us. >> thang. >> you're the bull in this debate. it's already up 90%.

what's behind the run, first up? >> we've got a lot of clarity from management. earlier part of january, that the fourth quarter of '11 was going to be much better than street expectations. we're seeing hints that reimbursement concerns and demands may not be as terrible as they were back last year. >> and you think this is justified? >> i do think it's justified. we just got back from a prostate cancer conference. recall, this company is developing a prostate cancer vaccine which has been the big controversial product around this stock. and we're getting very good feedback from positions. >> douglas, you're the bear in this group. you're expecting this stock to plummet, huh? >> the price of the stock is well above where it should be right now. we think investors should be taking their profits -- we think that the stock right now currently prices in a european approval later this year, with a

very good adoption of the product in europe. we also believe that overall, the cost of the product is going to end up being a prohibitive issue for many clinicians. and we're also concerned in the short run about how physicians are being contacted by the salesmen of the company. we think the salesmen are being paid for signing up new accounts. we think there are incentives there that are somewhat problematic. it's time to take a profit on the stock. >> what's your timing on this? this target of $4 a share, it's at $13 right now. do you think it plummets soon, this year sf what's your timing? >> yeah, maria, we look at this -- we don't look at this -- we're looking at this as an asset. we think a lot of people on the street right now are thinking about the fact that they're giving multiples on 15 and 16 estimates. and the way we look at this is we say, okay, we've modeled this out and at best, in our dcf analysis of this drug, over ten

years, if this drug does $8 billion of cumulative sales, using the company's cost estimates, and sgna estimates, that the stock is only worth $4 to $5 a share. on top of that, we actually also believe the company will end up having to come to market in the next one to two years in order to raise capital, because we expect a $300 million to $400 million cash burn. >> one drug on the market, another is being tested right now, shus investors be hanging their hat on the potential upside of that one drug, buying this stock at $13 right now that you think it's going to $18? >> this is biotech. lots of small tech biotech companies like dende ron are driven by one product. we know prostate cancer is an

enormous market. progen is the only product in this niche of prostate cancer that is fda approved and provided an overall survival advantage. i agree there are lots of other issues with the drug, as far as costs, and as far as manufacturing and distribution, et cetera. but we're getting a feel that there's high desire from the physicians' communities to start ramping up and start prescribing this drug. and also vis-a-vis other competitive threats that other people have talked about, we think everything will be fine. >> we'll leave it there. gentlemen, i guess that's what makes a market. we appreciate your willingness to present both sides. thanks, guys. >> sure, thank you. >> thanks so much. 43 minutes to the closing bell, the dow still down 143 points. it's the weakest of the three major averages right now, down over 1% right now. >> bill, that's a very sharp suit you have on. >> why, thank you, maria.

oil prices fell from a three-week high on concerns about the greek debt deal. should you be buying on this dip? we're going to break down the charts on oil coming up next i." >> mario monti about to join us, prime minister from italy. stay with us for that exclusive interview. since ameriprise financial was founded back in 1894, they've been committed to putting clients first. helping generations through tough times. good times. never taking a bailout. there when you need them. helping millions of americans over the centuries. the strength of a global financial leader. the heart of a one-to-one relationship. together for your future. ♪ our machines help identify early stages of cancer and it's something that we're extremely proud of. you see someone who is saved because of this technology,

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welcome back. i'm sharon epperson. the euro certainly weighing on commodities pretty much across the board, although we are off of the lows of the session. there's still a great deal of concern about sovereign debt issues in the eurozone, whether we're talking about the optimism that has now faded in terms of the greek deal situation, as well as what's happening with the italian banks. we're also looking at what's happened over the course of the week to some of the metals, particularly the precious metals, and the fall that we've seen there. some traders saying taking risk right now, even gold as a risk asset, is just not palatable at this time in what may happen over the weekend. we're also watching energy prices. when you look, despite the sell-off that we saw in today's session, we are looking at a week of strength for energy across the board, whether it's crude oil or refined fuels.

look what's happened to gasoline futures over the course of this week. that is why the national average is right now $3.50 a gallon nationwide. back to you guys. >> thank you very much, i think, sharon. less than an hour of trade to go here. we are talking about crude oil, which is down today, as you saw, after the iaea lowered its forecast for oil demand for this year. how do you trade the commodity into next week. let's see what the charts say, start talking numbers with our friend, greg. the price of crude oil approached $100 this week. but failed today. >> i think overall, there's a floor in the price of crude oil. let me explain. you look at the chart i brought, last october to november, within a six-week period, crude rallied from $77 to $103 a barrel, 33% gain in six weeks. parabolic move. since then, the last three and a half, four months, it has traded in a range from $103 to about $94.5.

even if there's near term pressure, bill, i think support is in here at $94.50. also, the situation in the middle east could be a powder keg at any moment. i think buyers come in and protect that area. >> brent, with the spread we were talking about -- >> it is absolutely incredible. that spread i think contracts a little bit, but i certainly think it adds as a magnitude coming up a little bit. >> how about exxon, for example. >> same type of thing, exxon went from $69 to $87.50. that was a 26% move in the last six months, to the upside. and then it formed atop the last two months that i'm looking at. could be a little bit worrisome. however, there's a horizontal line here. old resistance now becomes new support in exxon. that comes in at about $80.50. i would be a buyer if it dips down there. we're only talking a $3 dip. i like it as well. >> very good. greg, always good to see you. >> thank you, bill. >> joining us on "talking

numbers" today. >> bill, thank you. we've got about 40 minutes before the "closing bell" sounds for the day and the week. the dow jones industrial average down about 131 points. is this decline in opportunity to get back into this market, or a sign of a larger pullback on the horizon? our market experts weigh in next. and then in the next hour, the eurozone, is it sustainable in its current form? we've got an exclusive coming your way with italian prime minister mario monti. we head to a break, take a look at the stand-ups in the s&p 500.

welcome back. bob pisani down on the floor of the new york stock exchange. vix has popped up late in the day. we were hovering around 21 most of the day, then all of a sudden just after 3:00, boom, we just about hit 22. we're touching it very closely. i think that happened because the s&p hit the lows for the day. we were down about 1% earlier in the day. we essentially put the s&p up, we essentially moved back down to the lows just after 3:00. haven't seen these days very often. only three days where the s&p's been down 1% or more interday

since the start of the year. and there is no day when it's closed down 1%. the worst day is down 0.6% back on a day in january. >> bob, before you go, i guess it's no coincidence the sell-off is occurring on a friday. maybe some traders are concerned about what will happen in greece over the weekend as we heard from julia chatterly there in athens. the expectations is there will be more violence in the streets tomorrow. who knows if they'll lose more cabinet ministers as they did today. >> the coalition that runs the greek parliament controls it 252, 300 seats. they're going to vote on this austerity bill. in theory, they have the votes. the problem is the coalition. there are three coalition partners. that coalition may not survive the weekend. there are already indications some people may be pulling out. maybe individual members of the parliament that may vote against it. that's why the whole situation is very fluid right now, bill.

>> we wait for guidance as well from brussels to figure out -- i guess they'll wait on their hands and wait for greece. >> they'll wait on a vote. they will do anything until the greek government gets an aster ti bill. and that they'll enforce the bill even if they pass it. that's why people are talking about these escrow accounts. and all this, again, just still very, very fluid. >> of course, once we have a solution, or resolution in greece, that certainly dictates what happens in italy, among other countries in the eurozone. we'll be talking with mario monti in an exclusive interview, the prime minister of italy. throughout all of this, we've got violence in the street of athens, as we speak. greece plunged into political turmoil. today its lawmakers continuing to wrangle over the country's austerity. on top of that, today, late in the day, s&p downgraded 34 out of the 37 italian banks today,

bill. >> yeah. so will these new developments force investors to take profits and get out of the stock market right now, as we're seeing today. we've got david dars at morgan stanley smith barney, and meg mcclelland joins us also. is this a one-day wonder do you think? >> you're asking the great people, unemployment there's 21%. youth unemployment is 40%. >> wow. >> over the 2009 through 2012, the economy's going to shrink by 21%, 22%. they're taking a lot of hardship. most people, the people, the government, the private sector creditors, and the public sector creditors, all of them feel they're being asked to do a lot with nothing in return. and this does not really put you on the track to growth. so it could go into further deterioration over the weekend, bill, as you just said. however, we would use this to stay with these defensive

dividend paying gor ril that stocks we emphasized. apple was $320, now it's much higher, moving in on $500. >> amazing, actually. what a great point, david. meg, let's talk about the federal government leaving interest rates at a low until 2014. >> just like david said in the stock ideas, we're really focused on places where we can generate yields. focusing on corporate credit, strong balance sheets. we see a lot of people sometimes extend duration or down in credit to add yield to a portfolio. we don't think that's very smart in an experience like this where you've got a lot of uncertainty. we want to stay a little bit short, and if we get a big pullback in financials on this news, we would add some quality names. >> it's incredibly cheap right now. >> it is. one of the fundamentals that is

really pushing the corporate debt technical in the market is corporations aren't issuing as much debt. they're deleveraging much like the consumer. so supply is detracting. >> wait a minute, you just said if the financials take a hit, you want to be buying the financials. >> specifically. >> are you afraid that the dividends are not going to materialize in the financials? we've got the stress test happening in march. you've got basel 3 on the horizon. do you think we'll see dividends from the financials this year? >> i focus on the financials from an income perspective, and i focus on the debts. i'm hiappy with the higher capital ratio. >> do you have an answer to mari maria's question? >> we've stayed away from the financials. they've run up in the u.s. the bank stocks in the u.s. until today were up 14%. in europe, they were up 25%. so they've run up. you've had five weeks in a row. the markets are due for a breather, please. it was overbought, if anything. one little message to every man

watching this show, if your wife, girlfriend, daughter or mother says they don't want something for valentine's day, they don't mean it. >> they all agree with you apparently. all the traders on the floor there. >> you said buy those dividend payers. the dividend payers haven't worked out all that well. they've traded down, right? >> that's right. not this year. the materials, you all have pointed out here on the show, it's been materials and financials. it's been the high beta stocks. the defensive stocks have not worked that well. another high beta area that's -- >> still the dividend payers? >> we like the dividend payers. buy the cheap stocks that have low global exposure. the emerging stocks that have been overweight have done phenomenally earlier this year. the emerging market currency index is up 7% against the u.s. dollar. >> last question. i don't know whether you go out of the united states, but would

you look overseas in the fixed income arena? >> absolutely. for us it's the same story, you've got a massive growth in the massive market. >> you want to buy asia local debt? >> diversified local debt outside of the developed market countries with low growth and low interest rates. over time, the structural shift in growth is going to mean a weaker u.s. dollar. we would absolutely diversify out of u.s. dollars into fixed-nm growth. >> david, i'll see you on the "countdown" coming up in about 20 minutes. my co-anchor hosts the very popular syndicated program the "wall street journal" report seen over the weekend all over the country. and in parts of the world as well. and you had a very special guest. >> i did. >> this week on "wall street journal" report. >> it was an amacing interview. i got a private basketball lesson from the one and only kareem abdul-jabbar. he's going to be my guest this

weekend. that was my sky hook. >> that was the sky hook right there. there you go, huh? >> thank you. >> what's the secret to making the sky hook? >> i'll tell you. he taught me how to do it, and i got it in because of his direction. you have to keep your fingers on the ball, not your palms. very important the way you hold the basketball. you've got to keep your fingers on the ball, not the palms. and then on the right side, you go right foot, left throw, and on the left side, you go left foot, right hand. in terms of -- >> could you demonstrate that for us? >> i just sort of did. i got it in three times. what are you doing tonight? the lakers could use your help tonight at the garden against the knicks. kareem with maria. making sky hooks this weekend on the "wall street journal" report. >> thank you for that, bill. 20 minutes away from the closing bell. once again, words over the eurozone, we're speaking to

mario monti, the prime minister of italy coming up in the program. >> our next guest says why investors should keep a close eye on the euro's current level. >> after the bell, how is italian prime minister mario monti can convince investors about the european debt load. [ horn honks ] hey, it's sandra -- from accounting. peter. i can see that you're busy... but you were gonna help us crunch the numbers for accounts receivable today.

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i'm bertha coombs at the nasdaq. after hitting an 11-year high, the nasdaq is on pace to close down fractionally lower this week. the downdraft today coming from stocks that received negative analyst comments. first solar, net app, and some of the gamers. the nasdaq 100, though, still going to be fractionally positive for the week. the only major average to have that distinction, if we continue at this pace. the reason why, apple continuing towards those record highs. today, nearly reaching $500 a share. but it's not $500 a share, but

$500 billion in market cap that will really put it in the big leagues. check out my piece on cnbc.com about where it ranks among the all-time most expensive stocks. >> bertha, thank you very much. heading to the closing, exactly 20 minutes before the trade of the bell rings. a stat check on the nasdaq. the composite, as ber thae mentioned, was at 11-year highs for the day. concerns in greece, the nasdaq down 26 points, almost a percent, now at 2900. it was down 32 points at its low of the day. the fear index has reared its head today. volatility index spiking by -- up to 20 again, now to 21. a gain of 16.5%. the biggest gain weep see in three months. the ziks at 21.72. >> the euro/dollar not reacting

much, after continuing turmoil over the greek debt. john is with us from gfi group. he's been keeping an eye on this situation. john, what should investors be focused on in terms of currencies right now? >> i think the 132 pivot in the euro is obviously a very important level. today we dipped a little bit below 132. a lot of big shorts on the market. cmad says that a lot of people are still short the euro. so we haven't had that much of a pullback. we're using that 132 as a guide to tell us how those conditions in greece are going. and what exactly to expect next week. >> and does the weekend talks in terms of creditors and officials in greece dictate where currencies go next week? are you watching what developments, what kind of a development would you like to see? >> we don't think that this weekend's going to hold that much for us. just because the real date that

we're real watching is the march 20th date, which is actually when greece has a big euro payment due. so that's the really big day. in terms of this weekend, i think they'll have the votes on sunday. i won't see it as a big problem. i think people are more excited about the lakers tonight against the knicks, so i think that's going to be a very exciting game. next week we have fed minutes. a lot of liquidity out there. ben bernanke spoke in orlando, florida, today, told us that the housing market is still one of the biggest drags on the economy. so he's going to do everything in his power to get that going. i think a lot of the things that are out there are still positive. we had apple go from $460 on monday to close to $500 today. visa is at an all-time high. consumer credit is high. i think going forward, the people i speak to are looking to buy bids, and not looking to sell rallies at this point. >> john, thank you very much. >> thank you, maria. have a good weekend. >> you, too. >> about 17 minutes left in the trading day. we're just coming off the lows

here, don't want to make too much of that with the dow down 122 points. >> specific industry within the financial services sector that could help investors looking for yields. >> and as we head to the break here, here's how the treasury market is trading right now. back after this.

i'm back on the floor of the new york stock exchange here, standing in front of the post where they trade shares of cobamt energy. you saw cobalt international is skyrocketing today. you'll see it on the post up there, ticker symbol cie, on heavy volume after the oil explorer announced better than expected tested results on a discovery off the coast of angola. analysts say the well may have the potential to produce 20,000 barrels a day. goldman sachs and river stone holdings reportedly each have a 19% stake in cobalt. howard whas raised that rating n

there. they raised the target from $18 to $41 a share. it's up sharper today to $31 right now. cobalt stock has more than doubled since late december, early january. here's another one that has just boomed since the beginning of the year, making an outperformer among the rivals like exxon mobil and noble energy on a 52-week basis. big mover there, ha ri a. >> they may not be stealing the headlines, but there are "under the radar" stocks making the move today. over to you, seema. >> rather than just focusing on the usual suspects, let's take a look at some of the "under the radar" names. a blockbuster report on alex yon. better than 3.5%. amtech systems, shares falling after the solar equipment supplier projected second-quarter sales that fell short of expectations, down

better than 17%. also, take a look at amyris. it said it would sell as much as $60 million in stock. another one, leapfrog enterprise, shares falling, the educational toy maker reported margins that declined in the fourth quarter. sucked down better than 3.5%. nuance communications, provides dictation software for smartphones. reaching its lowest level since august 2010. back over to you. >> thank you so much, seema. if you're on the hunt to add yield to your portfolio, the next guest says the way to do it is private equity. we have brian stutland with stutland volatility group. brian, over to you. >> thanks, maria. private equity is certainly an area i want to be in the financial space. kkr just announced earnings the other day, announcing they've

already raised # billion in their private equity fund, more could be flowing today. >> we're going to get back to brian stutland as soon as we fix that editing issue there. we're waiting on mario monti, the prime minister of italy is here with us exclusively on the "closing bell." we'll be back with the closing countdown. we'll have that conversation with the prime minister. we'll talk about the eurozone crisis and the downgrade of several italian banks today. he'll give us his take on the capitalization going on in the banking sector. first, take a look at the major averages as we're approaching the close.

welcome back. we were listening to brian stutland of stutland equities. let's gak to brian with his ideas on the trades going into the weekend. brian? >> thanks, maria. private equity is certainly an area i want to be in the financial space. take a look at kkr who just announced earnings the other day, announcing they've already

raised $6 billion in their private equity fund. more could be flowing into that area. pension funds will be flowing into private equities. rather than buy private equity, i want to own a firm that is private equity. what i could do here to have a bullish sentiment on kkr is pie the march 15th calls, and at the same time offset the calls for the march 17th calls. i pay about 35 cents. i'm called away, yes, at 17 cents, but risking only 35 cents to make $1.65. a great risk/reward profile here to play private equity. this is an area i want to be in for clients and myself. playing it on the close here, or into next week, maria, now back to you. >> thank you so much, brian. let's get to bill on the floor, with just about seven minutes before the closing bell sounds. >> maria, this is one of those days, a sell-off today. no question about that. all 30 components of the dow jones industrial average trading lower today on those concerns about greece, the waiting game, you know, the market's becoming

very impatient about this. over 85% of the s&p 500 has been trading lower, the components of the s&p 500. the nasdaq and s&p with the sell-off today, now in danger of breaking their five-week win streak. up to this point, it looked like we were going to be up for the week, but now that's in danger. let's start with the market that's been the key all week, the euro. it rallied as there were expectations that we were going to see -- weekly charts obviously -- expectations we would see some resolution of the greek debt crisis, now back down again on the euro. the price of gold has acted like a risk asset this week. it's been keying off the euro as well. we had a pretty good rally earlier in the week. now we're down to $1721. many traders are watching that $1710 level as support. we'll have to wait to see next week what it does with that. oil has been very interesting. our market here in new york, wti crude, approached the $100 a

barrel level, failed to get above that. and has pulled back today. more interesting has been the brent crude contract in london. that has just been bulling an eight-day rally until today. the spread between brent and crude is almost $20 a barrel. because of what's going on with iran and with syria. so you wonder, is our market going to catch up, or will there be a contraction in brent. that remains to be seen. the other thing, by the way, don't forget you and i pay gasoline costs based on the brent contract. lucky us, as that goes up. it's pretty clear that gasoline prices are going to go higher. treasuries this week, you had rather soft auctions for the three, the ten and 30-year bonds this week. but if you bought into those, you have a profit already. because yields came down today as the risk off trades were put

into place and they were buying treasuries once again today. let's bring in david as we look at some of the sectors that did well this week. technology is pinned at the top, mr. darst. i call it the sector for all seasons here. >> bill, as you pointed out on the show that 20% of the s&p 500 market cap today is tech now. it's the leading sector of the ten sectors. also on your comment about oil a moment ago, the bitter cold weather in europe has been another factor driving up those oil prices. and driving up our gas prices over here at the pump. >> it snows in europe and we pay more at the gas pump here, how do you like that. >> we like qualcomm, we like apple, bisibms of the world. >> you have liked apple forever. as we know, i mean, everybody's been raising their price targets and now up to the $500 level. this is one of the only stocks trading higher today. now it's pulled back a little bit. what are you waiting for on ap

pal? >> you'll have the smart tv. everybody expecting a smart tv. we think they'll go down to lower price points. they're going to sell at $300, $200 phone over in china. you've got one-sixth of their sales, bill, are in china, with only five stores. they had riots, they had to close the stores because the people get so excited over it. we think the international expansion is still there f apple. no question about its revenue and growth opportunities. what are they going to do with that cash? that's why it sells so cheaply. still sells for 11 times earnings. but they've got $100 billion in cash, about, on their balance sheet. >> and nobody splits their stock anymore. remember the old days when -- any stock getting close to 500, much less to # $00 would think about splitting the shares. they don't do that anymore. >> it's an indication, i think, of the institutionalization of the market. mr. buffett has refused to split his. >> famously so. >> he issued the baby shares. but you basically have this love

affair with high-priced stocks. >> speaking of mr. buffett, bircher hathaway reports after the close today. so we'll see how things are going in omaha these days. >> only 60% have beaten expectations. normally it's about 75%. >> expectations were too high, weren't they? >> yes, they were. companies are lower. they've said pressures are going to continue on margins, and as you know, the fourth quarter earnings are supposed to come in at 9.3%. bill, if you take out apple, fourth-quarter earnings are up only 3.7%. two-thirds of the gain is one company. >> by the way, i forgot to mention, that vix is back to 21 right now, the biggest jump in three months. so the volatility index is starting to signal that we're back in yellow flag territory right now. a little caution right there. >> we had a light nose blow this

week, except for today. next week, retail sales on tuesday. industrial production, you've got philly fed, new york empire state index. just want to wish a very successful, peaceful, diplomatic visit for jingping staying at the white house, where he stayed as a young student years ago, and he'll be going to california. we hope that visit goes well. because we want the china/u.s. relationship to be a good profitable, fruitful one for both parties. >> mario monti can't be far away. what do you do with european shares right now? >> well, i think the european shares, we think have come down to a buying level. they're on the cheap side. we've been underweight. the 5.55% italian ten-year bond yield is