apple's. >> that's right. on a percentage basis they had a great 2010, pullback in 2011 and back full guns. >> that's it for "power lunch." thank you very much for watching. "street signs" begins right now. welcome to "street signs." i'm brian sullivan. well, the greek debt deal close tore being done, rioters aren't though. and the wild ride for your money may not be over either. the eurozone politics to a hard landing in china, we'll look at what might be the next wild card for this wild market. here at home, we're betting on recovery. all this week we are digging into companies and stocks in the front lines of american business. today it's automatic, but it's not ford or gm. and apple, $500. if apple's in the dow, we'd be at around 15,000. can anything stop this force of nature, mandy? >> hello, everybody. this is what else we're watching at this hour. president obama unveils a proposed $3.8 trillion budget

that aims to cut $4 trillion from the fiscal deficit over the next decade. meantime americans are getting plenty of their spending money from atms. 2012 forecast beat estimates. and owners of new york's iconic empire state building are hoping their latest financial effort isn't such a tall order. they're selling a piece of the building to the public for a $1 billion initial public offering. brian. >> thanks, mandy. that greek debt deal is your lead story. it's one step closer to being over, but remember it's not over because you still have a big meeting of eurozone finance ministers on wednesday. even if the greek people are not done with this, the market starting to begin to put greece a little more in the rearview mirror. but that doesn't mean there are still not major worries for your money. here are the four wild cards in the macro market. number one, greek riots. all the video will the people's anger in greece force the politician there is to maybe

change their mind? reverse austerity and simply do a hard default to keep civil peace? only time will tell. portugal, one of the p in pigs, so call the next greece. they have major debt problems as well. current account deficit is about the same as greece. and we'll find out what the world's appetite on portuguese debt will be on wednesday. major debt auction. china, perhaps the third wild card if not the biggest, will they suffer a so-called hard landing as europe slows down dramatically, the world is watching. china's continued growth is a big part of any global recovery. and corporate earnings. anxiety. earnings for u.s. companies continue to grow. on average growth rates are slowing in about the slowest in two years. if earnings keep slowing, investors may be less likely to put more money in stocks. if that happens, multiples may start to look pricey. and as herb pointed out, if you take s&p or apple out of the s&p

500, earnings for the overall index will look even worse. i believe mr. g will have more on that later on. let's bring in gina sanchez, director of equity allocation and jpmorgan private bank global market strategist as always on "street signs," ladies first. gina, to you. you heard our four wild cards. how do you rank them? and what do you see if not one of these as the biggest concern for u.s. stock investors right now? >> i think probably the biggest concern is going to be execution risk in greece because a lot of the multiple expansion and the reason we have a moderate overweight or really slight overweight in equities right now really has to do with the fact there's a huge commitment to making sure it gets done. but that doesn't mean it's actually going to follow through at the other end. riots in greece tell you there will be concern about that. i think the second biggest concern we have is going to be earnings. i think that earnings really are something that we're looking at. we have a $99 earnings compared to $104 to $106 bottom up

earnings. there's a lot of room for some narrowing there. and china's definitely real risk. the potential for chinese hard landing. i'm going to put that though behind the others. i forgot what the fourth one is. >> so did i. >> let me bring in stu here. over the past few months we've seen the market go up on the assumption a deal would eventually get done in greece. let's say to use gina's phraseology, if there is, what is there for the markets to be propelled higher? >> oh my gosh. well, i think it's all about confidence and economic growth, mandy. and, you know, that list of worries, i wish it was even a little longer because markets love to go up when they're climbing a wall of worry. so, sure, there are plenty of risks. there are risks around greece. let's face it, whatever they agree to now, there are elections coming in a couple of

months. so some of it will have to be renegotiated after the elections, i would expect. china's going to remain an issue. earnings are going to remain an issue. but the economy here is looking better. europe is looking less weak. and i think asia's beginning to look a little better for that part as well. >> and as the economy gets better here in the united states, what's going to happen to yields? what's going to happen to the dollar? might a stronger dollar and higher yields present headwinds? >> well, i think yields should go up as the economy gets stronger, but to worry about higher yields being a headwind i think it's just way too early for that. not when short-term interest rates are near zero, when 10-year u.s. government bond yields are right in the neighborhood of 2%. that said, i do think that for investors looking to be in fixed income or for that part of their portfolio that is in fixed income, i think the risk/reward trade-off is much better in corporate bonds particularly

high-yield bonds than it is in higher grades. >> and, gina, i know you guys being a little optimistic, believe it or not, on this stock rally. you think it might have some legs going forward. we pointed out some of the big macro concerns sitting out there. so for our viewers wondering all these things going on in the world but yet how can we be optimistic about u.s. stocks? tie those two together. >> the optimism has to do with the fact that when moourl went to davos, he heard a change in rhetoric and commitment by the ecb to get this deal done and to make sure greece doesn't fall over the edge and take portugal and italy and spain with it. that's important. i think that was really priced into the market. i think what we were talking about where the optimism was coming from was that there was just far too much fear in the markets that were priced in the multiples. people were just scared to buy stocks because at any moment we could have a lehman-like failure in europe. and now we e, you know, the long-term refinancing operation.

we have real commitment to make sure that that doesn't happen. so that's where the optimism comes from. we're still not long-term optimistic. we think there are real issues. that's why our view's a more balanced view. we have a slight overweight toward exquities but also a position in 6 month vix. >> you're completely the opposite here, stu. you're advising clients to be underweight in equities and yet a moment ago you sounded reasonably optimistic. there seems to be a disconnect there. >> well, first of all, no disconnect. let's remember that so many investors, mandy, have just a boat load of cash sitting on the sidelines earning virtually nothing. and so the issue i think that the typical investor faces is with all that extra cash does it make sense to keep it on the sidelines or begin to put it to work? that's where my emphasis is that people just have a lot of ways that they can earn perspectively a decent return in both equity and in fixed income and

corporate fixed income particularly high-yield and mezzanine so on. and also by the way commodities. have you seen oil prices today? they're moving up. i think that reflects the economy. >> let's dig into the idea that cash is safe. warren buffett points out that inflation is actually the greatest enemy of all, right? i think $1.75 years ago is now worth about three cents in terms of buying power. do we overestimate the safety of cash? >> well, brian, cash does feel really safe when things are melting down. and now that the economy is doing better, i think cash should no longer feel like such a safe haven kind of asset. let's face it, the fed, the bank of england, even the ecb at some point they're going to need to turn the spigot other way. they're pumping all sorts of liquidity in and by the way looking very smart for doing so, but the day's going to come as

the economy begins to do better when inflation risks will go right back up and people sitting with a lot of cash are going to regret it, i believe. >> indeed. gina and stu, thank you very much for joining us on this monday afternoon. let's find out now what the buzz on the trading floor is. mary thompson is in bob pisani's shoes at the nyse. rick is in chicago. mary, what are you watching right now? >> right now we're about 12 points from the highs of the day. the dow up 73 points. what we've seen today, mandy, is pretty much a continuation of what we've seen throughout the year. today volume very light right now consolidated volume about two billion. keep in mind on average through january average daily volume has been a little less than four billion. so, again, not a lot of participation today. nevertheless, what we're seeing is financial and telecom stocks pacing gains throughout the day. look at some of the dow components leading the way. the retail index hit a multi-year high today and at&t

and verizon contributing to the gains in telecom stocks. the area that hasn't really participated today, that being the utilities. they've been a bit weaker amid an overall upward trend in large part because we had positive news with the greek parliament passing that austerity budget earlier today providing some relief about the concerns over europe. certainly they are not completely -- they haven't completely disappeared and will probably come to the floor again this week with more meetings and news for thachlt a couple other stocks we're watching, chesapeake, company saying it's going to be doing transactions and it expects to be worth anywhere from $10 billion to $12 billion. using proceeds to pay down debt. and we want to talk about diebold. a strong forecast for the rest of the year. right now the dow up 74. guys, back to you. >> mary thompson, thank you. rick santelli in chicago. okay, rick, everybody says oh, the greek deal is done.

that's sort of what the main headlines say, but if you look deeper, it's not done. the eurozone ministers are meeting on wednesday. still have people complaining about really the terms of this thing. to the guys and you in the pits of chicago, is this greek thing finally over? >> no. it's a long way from over. i think that most of the guys in the pit think that there is going to be some form of a payment made so they can make their march 20th payment without defaulting. they being greece. but that ultimately it's the behavior of greece that carries forward the modifications whether they actually deliver that are going to have a big effect on other countries. we know the ones. so here we sit with a greek 10-year still at 33%. forget that. you know, tuesday and thursday we have auctions in italy, spain and france. and i think if you look at some of the rates in spain and italy, for example, yes, they've come off. but they are still more than double some of their counterparts like bunds, like

gilts, like treasuries. i think that will prove to be an area of contention in the marketplace and i think we'll see it play out as we go through the supply issues throughout the week. >> a dose of reality from rick santelli. thank you very much. >> all right. well, let's get a more micro look at what's moving out there, what people are talking about. what all the twitter chatter. >> well, you know, in stocktwits there was a chatter this morning and a little bit ago on diamond foods which we've talked a lot about here. just because there was a story over the weekend that reuters had an exclusive putting out the -- i keep saying diamond growers, walnut growers, that they want to leave -- >> i want one of those trees. >> so do i. especially if it increases in value. want to leave cooperative and that's hit the stock. also priceline.com, i can't tell you why. there's no news. the company doesn't report until february 27th although there was that fabulous new shatner commercial during the super bowl. i have no idea.

pet smart, why was that being chatted about today? there was some chatter unrelated to it really from one of the brokerage houses. i keep thinking jane wells mentioned it on something she's doing with dogs. and fasal, that's a long-time bull-bear tug of war stock. the short squeezes going on. the short squeeze they see in some of these unlike anything they've seen since 1999. >> it's not a new name to "street signs" viewers. it was on the short list for the ill-fated berbie awards. it's come up in two -- two of the stock screeners we have done, right? it's been a name we have talked about. it's one of those unsexy industrial companies which have just quietly soared. >> right. >> while everybody's talking apple, fastenal made money in

the coming months. >> up next on "street signs," betting on america's recovery all week. we are digging into companies and stocks being powered by an improving economy. the ceo of group one automotive hitting the car story ahead. >> and the kids are all grown up. a cool look at stocks that are turning 18 this year. is it time to get in on of age names? stick around. [ male announcer ] what if you had thermal night-vision goggles, like in a special ops mission? you'd spot movement, gather intelligence with minimal collateral damage. but rather than neutralizing enemies in their sleep, you'd be targeting stocks to trade. well, that's what trade architect's heat maps do. they make you a trading assassin.

trade architect. td ameritrade's empowering, web-based trading platform. trade commission-free for 60 days, and we'll throw in up to $600 when you open an account. trade commission-free for 60 days,

check out auto zone. trading at all-time highs currently up by 1.5%. >> from bumpers to a whole bmw, they own 111 auto dealerships comprising of 143 franchises as well as 28 collision centers in the u.s. and uk. and as the economy improves, so has the stock. gpi shares up over 34% in the past year. group 1 president and ceo joining us now from houston. mr. hesterberg, thank you very much for joining us as we begin our betting on recovery week. obviously the autos have recovered greatly. are you optimistic that as a whole the united states can sell 14 million cars and trucks this year? >> absolutely, brian. we grew about 10% as an industry last year. and there's just an awful lot of pentup demand. the average age of car getting now 11 years in the u.s. i don't remember it ever being that old. we're seeing a very lot of old

trade-ins. people need new cars. they've held off as long as they can. and now this year there's a lot of new product coming into the market from much stronger manufacturers. so we believe 14 million is a very viable number this year for the u.s. auto industry. >> i know that you don't give financial guidance, but give us a little nugget. last year for 2011 you had record yearly profit. how much better is this year going to be? >> well, for us we think it can be better. historically about almost 50% of our business has been in toyota and honda. and we were severely restrained on our inventory last year after the earthquake and tsunami. and our business really shifted. we were lucky that bmw is very powerful for us last year, ford was very powerful. and this year we think we can exceed the average industry sales because we should have better availability on brands like toyota, lexus and honda. we're pretty excited about this year. >> nonetheless, do you feel there's some kind of need to diversify your revenue base away

from the japanese automakers? >> well, yes. in our business, you know, we're always trying to over invest in the growth brands. and for more than a decade it was the japanese import brands. i think now we're seeing that shift a little bit. clearly the luxury brands are still quite powerful. bmw's big in our portfolio and we like that. but ford, we bought two ford dealerships last year and for the previous five years we were selling ford dealerships. we think ford's great. chrysler sales up almost 50% last year even though we only own six dealerships. and general motors has become a better business for us as they've recovered. we're more wide open than we've ever been. >> you're able to grow profits as sales fell because you got leaner, right? you cut costs and got leaner. >> absolutely. >> now sales are regaining. they're moving back up to pre-recession levels. can you stay as lean now and grow profitability, or are you

going to have to fatten up as far as adding more people and capital expenditures to meet up? >> clearly that's a challenge and a valid point. our goal as a management team is to not add the cost back in as fast as the revenue and gross products come. we did get very lean. if you would ask us four years ago how we would fair in a $13 million a unit industry, which is what we had last year, we would have said, gosh, i hope we can break even. we have leaned down the company and much more efficient than we were three or four years ago. >> earl, it's been a pleasure having you on the show. thanks for joining us. >> my pleasure. >> just ahead on "street signs," we are going whale watching. one of the biggest hedge funds in the world revealing what it is holding. we have dug through the documents and we're going to show you the stocks it's betting on the most. >> best in breed, forget about spaniels and poodles, best of stock. "and i got a one-hundred dollar cash bonus for rolling over by

april 16th." "i like bonuses." "plus at scottrade, there are thousands of commission-free investments." "and if i need help, i can find it online, by phone or at one of over five-hundred scottrade locations." "it's why more investors with i.r.a.s are saying.." "i'm with scottrade." ♪ [music] my dad and grandfather spent their whole careers here. [ charlie ] we're the heartbeat of this place, the people on the line. we take pride in what we do. when that refrigerator ships out the door, it's us that work out here. [ michael ] we're on the forefront of revitalizing manufacturing. we're proving that it can be done here, and it can be done well. [ ilona ] i come to ge after the plant i was working at closed after 33 years. ge's giving me the chance to start back over. [ cindy ] there's construction workers everywhere. so what does that mean? it means work. it means work for more people. [ brian ] there's a bright future here, and there's a chance to get on the ground floor of something big,

something that will bring us back. not only this company, but this country. ♪

shares of madison square garden up sharply today. the stock has been on a roll along with the knicks and their new star, jeremy lin. msg shares are up 10% since linmania started earlier on this month. the garden also the psych this week of the fame of the

westminster kennel club dog show. cnbc will carry it tonight. the day belongs to the dog eat dog world of wall street. our look at best in breed in the market, cnbc's brian shactman is here with the top sectors pushing stocks to recent highs. i love this graphic. >> this is the coolest one of the day in some respects. best of breed, listen, it's easy to do a sort and see which sectors are the best in 2012. here they are. the key is which of these six is best positioned to keep it going. pretty intense race with all the gains we've had in 2012. a few separate themselves from the pack. now, tech has outperformed in 2012, although many are still bullish on the space, others think there could be profit pressure moving forward especially if your name is not apple. they fall behind. materials, the global economy not as weak as once thought except in europe maybe. chemicals, miners, even steel has done well. we might be in the early stages of a cyclical pickup. same thesis for industrials. companies that build big machines, caterpillar,

dominating the sector. outside of bank of america cat is the best in the dow for 2012. all this comes with the consensus that the second half of the year could yield stronger domestic growth. they get a little bit of a boost. now, industrials move up. even ahead of materials. that brings us to financials. morgan stanley, citi, up about 30%. regionals, insurance names, also up double digits. further runup feels risky but a lot of money managers we talk to strongly embrace this potential risk. balance sheets look nothing like they did in 2008. capital, they have it, liquidity, they have it. confidence seems to be building within the economy. look at commercial loan growth. this confirms materials and industrials move. and all these reasons are why financials will keep pulling the leash of these running markets. and they are our winners. coming up on "closing bell," best in show. three financials you should look at for the rest of 2012. >> that is a very, very cool

graphic. brian, thanks very much. do not forget, you can see the opening night of the big dog show tonight live at 9:00 eastern time. i'm happy, guys, my new breed making its first appearance in the westminster kennel club dog show. if they don't win, hopefully they bite the other dogs. >> herb, you switched your disaster du jour. it was a bit of a toss up. >> it was going to be rail america but i decided we should really talk about groupon because groupon's take ago hit here increasingly as the day goes on. this is just a follow on from last week's decline after the company came out with results that didn't meet what wall street was expecting. as people are trying to extrapolate what the real growth of that company is. >> ouch. a chilly dose of sunshine today. arctic cat is hitting an all-time high. the company makes snow mobiles and all terrain vehicles. that stock is up 136% over the last year. wow. that's quite a performance. i didn't know there was a company called arctic cat.

>> snow mobiles, all the fun stuff. >> how many do you have? i know you're a snow mobile type of a guy. >> i do not own one, but i enjoy riding them. they have stop signs three feet high. they have a whole interstate system for snow mobiles. it's a great time. just bring a gps device. learned that the horard way. >> on the second half of "street signs"? herb goes good will hunting. >> and apple at $500 a share. perhaps the one thing that can hold that meteor back. "street signs" will be back in a moment. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] not everything powerful has to guzzle fuel. the 2012 e-class bluetec from mercedes-benz.

see your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for exceptional offers through mercedes-benz financial services. 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 clearly categorized, highly customizable technical studies. i'm looking for two things-where to get in, where to get out, so i find the study i want and make it look exactly how i want. plus, scan any stock or etf against time-tested indicators with built-in chart pattern recognition. you've gotta go beyond gut and get to the data. now i can see if a stock might go where i think it will go. customized charts. intuitive control. get started with streetsmart edge and get it all for the schwab price of $8.95 per trade. call 1-888-800-8026.

open an account and trade up to 6 months commission-free. talk to chuck and get started with streetsmart edge today.

welcome back to "street signs." 19 minutes left in the trading day. >> all right. sorry, mandy. got to jump in. little bit of breaking news on wti crude. it is not trading right now because there's apparently some sort of a technical glitch. couple of trades, maybe fat fingers, whatever it is, crude oil right now, wti is halted for what they are calling at the cme group a "technical issue." we'll get you restarted, mandy, when it restarts. >> technical issue covers lots

of terms. let's see what the street is talking about. markets are moving higher. traders welcome the news that a debt deal is supposedly done. we'll wait and see on the greece front. dow, nasdaq and s&p are solidly in the green. meantime, whitney houston album sales are soaring in the wake of her sudden death over the weekend. the pop icon's "i will always love you" is the top selling song on itunes. we'll have more on that story in just a minute. in the meantime, glg partners, one of the world's biggest hedge funds out with filing. document showing interesting pic,s i know you don't have much excitement over the weekend and you sit around reading these instead. i know herb does not like them and maybe he has more action in his life. but what's with the biggest stock holdings reveal snd. >> we'll get into that in a second. let's clear something up right now. i did not watch the grammys.

i didn't know who adele was this morning because i was going through 13 fs for our viewers last night. >> under that massive rock you've been living under. >> come on. i'm more of a pavement guy. i don't care about adele. >> truth be told they came over and said herb, do you know who adele is and i said yes. and he didn't know. >> put out a list of holdings, the data is six weeks old because it's as of the end of last quarter. i like them because you get an idea where bets are. glg, one of the biggest hedge fund families in the world biggest holdings as of the end of last quarter, you guessed it. number one, apple. twice as big as their next biggest holding which was citi group and then goodrich. and $180 million call, in other words a long option bet, on the

spider. glg long the market. >> what you want to know are they increasing their stake in google? >> they increased in all four of those by the way. >> i'm glad you did that. very impressed. >> what's next, professor? >> more on apple later in the show. in the meantime the whitney houston story is a terrible tragedy, but often in a case like this her album sales going off the charts following news of her death. let's bring in our own julia boorstin. what more do we know about this, julia? >> mandy, news of her death did reignite music interests. 42 of whitney houston songs were in the top 200 on itunes. and on amazon her albums now looks like they're in half of the top 20 spots. the greatest hits album could sell over 50,000 copies just in the day and a half after news of her death came out, which would put it in the billboard top ten. now, they call this phenomenon a death bounce. we saw it after amy winehouse

died last year. and of course michael jackson's music saw a huge bounce after his death. in the u.s. alone, thriller, the thriller album, sold a million copies. and in the 12 months after his death, the michael jackson estate made $279 million. so it just shows that even though she's gone, she will not be forgotten. >> is her movie out this summer? what's going to happen with that? >> the movie is called "sparkle." she's co-starring in the movie with jordan sparks, who is a young star from american "amer." sony should benefit from this because there's so much attention on this movie. she sings a gospel song in it and sounds like the sound track to this movie should be pretty phenomenal. we'll have to see how sony handles the distribution of the movie, it's just in post production right now due out later this year. >> all right. julia, before you go, that chipotle ad that apparently

aired last night during the gramm grammys, here's a look for people wlo missed it, like me. ♪ >> got a lot of buzz on twitter. kind of looks like a zynga game to me. what was your reaction? >> well, it got a huge buzz on twitter. some people love it. some people hate it. some people are trying to figure out what the message was. i think it was visually arresting. and the fact that it got people talking really means that it worked. that old adage all publicity is good publicity. then this did the trick. a two-minute long ad. this is chipotle distancing itself from mcdonald's, which it was spunoff of. this is saying we're not another ordinary fast food chain. we're really about -- >> julia. >> like free range animals. >> julia, when i saw it, i knew

one thing, those pigs were going to die. >> but they had a good life before they died, herb. >> of course they did. >> they're in a better place. they're in a better place now, my stomach. >> and they were yummy. thank you, julia. >> i have to say, brian, i don't know where you've been for the past year or so that you don't know who adele. you have to watch snl. you'll get all your cultural references. there's a great adele skit. >> i'm getting killed today but i'm totally fine with that. who? i'll check her out tonight. i promise. >> going to end right there. >> see brian crying. >> driving and crying. that's a good band. atlanta, georgia, old stuff. come on. >> thanks, julia. in the meantime, herb, you are doing some good will hunting. what does that mean? >> this is actually a very important story getting more important as we go along.

look, last week, some pretty astounding news, wrote off more than half the price it paid for al can. that good writeoff may be the tip of the iceberg and here's why. the deal was done in 2007. right at the peak of the market. and rio tinto wasn't the only company buying at the top. transocean bought global santa fe and so many private equity companies were just buying companies like money was burning a hole in their pockets. the kicker to this is take a look at this chart. good will writeoffs are off the charts compared with a year ago. chart did not come up, but i can guarantee you they were off the charts. >> that's why they didn't come up. it went off. >> what you have here is that financial services firms blow up, you know, we had that happen. now let's keep an eye on corporations and the hangover. when good will is written off, it tells you what companies are thinking about the future of these deals that they bought.

and i think you're going to see this. some people say it's noncash, doesn't matter. but the accounting is very liberal. we'll see if this is all revisit and had how this has an impact going forward. my friend peter atwater says s&p earnings will have to come down. >> then i'll give you kudos because what you've been saying since this fine show relaunched back about a year ago which is this, it's not the quantity, it's the quality of the earnings. and you got to dig into what is being wiped out in order to goose that eps number. >> absolutely though i will tell you there is a concern i have that i talk about something like this and people say, herb, we don't care. just tell us what the next tick is. and in this market, that's all people care about. i'm telling you, just like people were talking about pensions a year and a half ago, they're going to be talking about goodwill write offs. >> you've been ahead of the game so many times herb. >> thank you. >> another roadblock for apple in china. will this new wrinkle complicate their expansion?

>> plus a live trip to toyland. why it's not all fun and games for an industry searching for the next big thing.

laces? really? slip-on's the way to go. more people do that, security would be like -- there's no charge for the bag. thanks. i know a quiet little place where we can get some work done. there's a three-prong plug. i have club passes. [ male announcer ] now there's a mileage card that offers special perks on united, like a free checked bag, united club passes, and priority boarding. thanks. ♪ okay. what's your secret? ♪ [ male announcer ] the new united mileageplus explorer card. get it and you're in. want to protect the house. explorer card. right. but... home security systems can be really expensive. so to save money, we actually just adopted a rescue panther. i think i'm goin-... shhh!

we find that we don't need to sleep that much. there's an easier way to save. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. a little retail therapy clearly. america is shopping again. check out the s&p retail index hitting an all-time high today. now take a look at the five best-performing stocks in the index. netflix -- not a retailer but in the index. up 17% year-to-date. sears, herb's company, up 14%. jc penney, herb's other company, and trip advisor up 18%. other names, dollar tree, limited brands and home depot all hitting new fresh 52-week or

multi-year highs today. >> brian, we thought it would be fun to check in on some stocks passing from kids to adults turning 18. we thought we'd throw them a birthday party. they're all grown up, how are some of these companies fairing? if you do the math back in 1994, all of these ipoed some time in 1994. let's start with american eagle outfitters. it's up 1700% since '94. traded on the nasdaq back in 2007 american eagle moved to the nyse. happy birthday to office max. down 75% since its ipo. shares initially offered at $19. now trading at less than $6. next one is capital one. let's blow out the candle there. it's currently up 813% since going public. ak steel not a great birthday celebration. it is down 31% since '94. the big winner of the bunch

though is a huge big happy birthday to apollo group. you're not misreading it. up nearly 7,000% since its ipo on december 6, 1984. herb, you often talk about that stock, don't you. >> yeah. i was going to look at the chart been up so tremendously. but of course the leader of for profit education took such a hit last year and trying to struggle back after all the issues that hit the industry. also intrigued, i have to tell you about omx, office max, you can argue one of the great laggards now of that industry. and people want to think it's going to merge with office depot. >> and two macro points on that. first off, number one, herb, you done came up and you ain't changed. okay. you don't even know what that means. number two, it just goes to show you that even in the worst of times you can make money in equities. it's harder. if you buy the indexes, you might get walloped, but there

are always stocks. this is jesse livermore right here. you can always find stocks performing even in lousy markets. >> of course. >> mandy, remember everyone went crazy for that one toy? >> uh-huh. >> the cabbage patch -- that's actually a dance. as toyland opens in new york city, my friends, that's a problem. courtney reagan is live with a little show and tell. toys are recession resistant, so what's the cause for concern here? >> you know, brian, i mean, toys are a big industry, right? but it's a business. a multi, multibillion dollar business and there are fundamental concerns. number one is demand. this past holiday season demand in the u.s. and canada was somewhat weak. weaker than expected for hasbro and mattel. down about 2% over the holiday season. european growth pretty flat. also concerns about the birthrate in europe lower than what toymakers would like to

see. international growth, however, is strong. we talk about demand. you have to talk about supply too. all of the input costs that go into toys can be volatile, especially for these 18-month lead times. talking about transportation costs that increase in minimum wage in china, all major concerns for many of these toymakers. >> i'm sorry. we're not laughing at you, courtney. fantastic reporting as always. it's the little guys behind you. the blue one taking a bit of a dance. >> i know. it's great. we're here at the tide booth. we've got lots of fun little friends that decided to join us here for our hit. they've been really good sports as we've been talking about all sorts of toys. theirs and many other toys too. >> they're having a really good time. >> i want a toy like that. >> mated with bunny wrapped in a willy wonka guy. >> i wish we could buy them and take them home with us. they're here with the human it

ration in the shows for the coming months and coming christmas season. you can tell they'll probably be a big hit. you're laughing, we're laughing, they're cute and really touchable. other things will be big hits too. look at this. this if you can see it as i have to restart it here, it's a car game that uses an ipod. so you can use mom and dad's ipod and you can race this track. >> that's cool. >> really interesting stuff. so it's enhancing toys. you still have to buy this. this is $20, the app comes for free. >> you're making a great point too indirectly as well, courtney, my daughter is years old and already all over my ipod and ipad all the time. she's asking for those types of things. she's not saying give me littlest pet shops or calico critters or whatever she wanted last year. now it's all about technology. >> it is. and that's what the smart toymakers are doing here. they're using technology to enhance their products. there's a barbie we saw.

you can take about 100 pictures, upload those onto usb so you can play with barbie classically, but then you have this new technological twist. you can take pictures of the barbie house that you created. that's what kids are looking for. they want a multiplatinum experience when it comes to toys. >> it's incredible, isn't it? a little creepy. but you know. >> okay. thank you, courtney. go and play with those little dudes, whatever they are. >> i know. i will. >> from cute toys to big boys -- [ laughter ] >> i know. i know. the big boys toys -- >> even that guy knew who adele was. >> he was dancing to adele. he was humming while courtney was reporting. the big boys toys, yeah, we're talking about the really big boys toys, the expo just wrapped up in dubai with a huge display of luxury gadgets and toys included everything from gold

plaited ipods to custom made cars. some of the biggest draws $2.5 million motor home with and a slight simulator. you boys salivating or too busy being on the twitter verse or chatter sphere or whatever? >> no. any time you mention harley and rv, you got my attention. >> i was just going to put out to my twitter sphere that brian did not know -- >> i'm comfortable in my own music skin, big boy. tech toys driving apple stocks even higher. >> how much longer can this roll last? that is our question. but first, bill, what's going to be ahead on "closing bell" for us? >> we have many questions as well, mandy. is greece now in the rearview mirror for wall street? and if so, are the markets on the verge of another big rally? we'll look at that plus best in show. we're doing this all day. are you better off betting on the big banks or the regionals right now? look at both sides of that. and acting omb director explains

why the president's budget unveiled today calls for more than doubling the dividend tax rate on many why the president' budget unvald today -- >> street signs back after this.

an historic day for apple, the trades are trading for over $500 and their market cap is now worth more than a trillion dollars, we are going to ask the director of capitol markers what do you think? >> yeah, we think that they have a lots of room to run. the target is $600. >> why? >> well, because they have three large markets all of which they are being pro pelled by, certainly this quarter was a record quarter, but the penetration of ipods is sill only a small fraction of the total phones sold across the world. tablets are just getting started. so, and to some extent, apple has a strong product lineup. these are huge markets and

highly under penetrated. healthy margins and attract valuation. >> i'm going to ask you a question i asked you last year. at the end of fiscal 2008, apple did about 9 in ebitda, revenue 37.5 billion dollars and will be somewhere closer to $160 billion, how long can those growth rates be sustained as the numbers get larger and larger? >> it's interesting, because, streets looking for 22% ftmeps growing, last year they were looking for 34% and apple delivered almost 100% growth. believe it or not, expectations are conservative relative to the

earnings power and the growth power of those markets. apple has only about, call it, say, about 13%, excuse me, 6% of all hand sets. they should get to 13%. those are small numbers in the overall handset market and in the tablet market, there are competitors but apple is positioned to hold the lion's share of that market. >> apple is launching another legal assault, this this time over patents against samsung, is there anything there, that is other than just noise? i mean is there anything that could potentially knock the crown off of apple and be a cloud over its stock? >> it's always possible. but these are offensive, not def defensive move on apple's part. if they are successful in

getting samsung everyone temporarily blocked from the market, which is a shot against android, not just samsung, samsung hold as significant share of the market, but it's really a shot against android. >> thank you for joining us. apple, it is up 24% since it's first close above $400 back in july of last year. we crunched the numbers to see which stocks have done better than apple in the same timeframe. tech stocks motorola, mobility. novellu systems and on the nasdaq, seegate. and fastenal and o'reilly automotive and ross stores. >> and let's mention, apple did so much on this. if you take out apple out of the s&p 500, boy, a different picture. >> you know, s&p said that the tech sector is over bought right now. >> you up next, student loans,

on fire. literally. in a new, faster-acting formula. zero-to-sixty in less time than a porsche panamera s. the 429 horsepower genesis r-spec. from hyundai. are you still sleeping? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule. the first technology of its kind... mom and dad, i have great news. is now providing answers families need.

siemens. answers.

well fire tearing through an office at the university of hawaii, instead student loans and financial records, the records for more than 60,000 students gone up in smoke. some records are stored on