are grumpy but we've got them onto figure out why they're so upset about groupon's balance sheet. right now the dow and s&p just off session lows. investors are awaiting fed minutes. you don't have to wait any longer. they are now here. let's dig in to find out what market moving information might be contained within the pages. >> brian, thank you very much. >> i stalled as long as i could. >> we get our first look at the fomc members' outlook for the critical tool they have now for interest rates, the balance sheet. and a few members assume additional quantitative easing in their outlook we learned from these minutes. meanwhile, a number of fomc members remain open to considering new qe if the outlook were to deteriorate. jeff lacquer, remember, he decented at the last meeting. he anticipates "preemptive tightening to 2013." he's not alone there. the fed voted to drop or keep in the statement, they not only

kept it and extended it from 2013, 18 months to 2014. some fomc members say late 2014. subject to revision. the fed also debated the idea we've talked about whether or not to put unemployment or inflation for changing weights so inflation would hit a certain number or unemployment, they could change rates. they did not make a decision on that. what's interesting here is we had a question going into these minutes, what would they say about the better data? the most you can see fed members noted the better than expected data and then went onto emphasize less favorable data out there. what concerned them? they were concerned about fiscal tightening in the u.s., weak housing market and deleveraging from the consumer. also strange financial post "significant downside risk to the economy." also concern that consumer spending growth could slow. there were few members on the

upside said job gains could lead to higher incomes and therefore higher spending. inflation overall expected to remained subdued, but of course the hawks expressing their concerns. just a couple quick notes on the staff forecast because it's something that's followed by many of the fed members, the staff lowered in the face of this higher -- better than expected economic data, they lowered their near-term gdp forecast. they still expect the economy to gain in 2012 and 2013. takeaw takeaway, brian, some members see additional qe. a number open to it. there's a couple hard core guys already pencilled it in. >> more on that in a second. we have breaking news right now. government has just rested in the case of the $7 billion ponzi scheme, scott cohn with breaking news. >> the government has moments ago rested its case in houston. alan faces 14 counts in what prosecutors have called one of the biggest financial frauds in u.s. history.

the prosecution case lasted about three weeks and included 17 witnesses wrapping up with an fbi agent who detailed some $280 million in customer funds allegedly diverted into a secret swiss bank account for his personal use. part of an estimated $2 billion the government says that stanford skimmed from customers. the star government witness chief financial officer james davis, he spent four days on the stand, pleaded guilty to three counts. he said he was acting in stanford's best. now of course it's the defense's turn. will stanford himself take the stand? we are told by a close source that as of today that decision has not been made. we'll see. brian, back to you. >> scott cohn, thanks very much. and we join steve liesman, a comment on the fed. i hear what you're saying about the hard core members, right. there is some policy disagreement. looks like it's still bernanke show. i want to ask you a broader question. i'm looking into minutes now, the fed website is finally back up after everybody tried to access them at the same time,

they're very different than how they use today look. this is a different fed in terms of transparency. do you like it? do you like this new fed and the way they are communicating information and data projections? >> i don't know, brian. there's been so much new information so quickly. in fact, i'm so glad you asked me this question because i didn't get to tell you all the new stuff in there. there's new stuff that tells you what their risks are to gdp, do they think they're to the upside or downside. new stuff there on the risks to inflation and risks to unemployment forecast. that's all new. whole new discussion for the balance sheet and outlook for the balance sheet and also new information that says if we -- the guys who think rates are going to do this also think this about different parts of the economy. very hard to digest. hard to know what the market's going to do. this leads to more perfect anticipation of monetary policy which is all anybody is really after here. >> so the press conference didn't reveal everything. there's still surprises in the minutes today. >> that's been the course,

courtney. ben bernanke will tell us a little bit and then we'll learn more. in fact, they're announcing stuff in the minutes. maybe this upside, downside thing has been there all along. i think you ask a good question. i'm still trying to process it. my guess there are a lot of market guys scratching their heads trying to deal with all this new fed info. >> nowhere to go for certain things and now looks completely different. >> you should emphasize that point. >> i just did. we're on national television. >> that's true. there was one paragraph, committee policy, actually go to the last page -- >> it was the cliff notes. >> now you have to read there's whole new section we didn't talk about. >> i have to read the whole thing. what good is the tv business? reading? come on. let's bring in bob and rick. bob, you first. any instant reaction? >> there was. steve, we want you to clarify something. a bunch of the guys came over to me, the big headline here that's

got everyone's attention is initiates preemptive tightening before 2014. put up the dollar. the dollar moved up here and the markets moved down a little bit on looks of that news. was this just lack er who just made this? >> yes. bob, it gets to my point, fabulous new monic, does the decent lead you away lead the way or away. >> just lack er. >> he initiates preemptive tightening before 2014. >> thank you for clarifying. and did you see qe-3 is a wall street fantasy? that got a lot of play on the floor. >> i don't think he's speaking for the bulk of the board. if you look at these minutes, you know a little more precisely now where they stand. a few guys have it in the books already. a number are open to it. i'd say there's eight or nine or ten votes in that camp right there that i just described. >> rick santelli, rick, i want

to ask you the same question basically i asked steve liesman because you trade on instant analysis, instant information and you trade very rapidly and of size. do you like this new fed? how does it effect bond, gold, futures, whatever, how does it impact trading the way the fed is communicating data differently? >> i think in my opinion what interests me or disinterests me about the fed has very little to do with communications. there was a point in time where i thought transparency was a positive, but at this point it just creates a bigger roar shack diagram. and i think that the decenters aren't necessarily leading or misleading. i think that you have your charles evans on one side that thinks we need bigger puddles in the kitchen. you have fisher who thinks we need to get the mop out. in the end ben's going to get what he wants. i think the one thing in the minutes that you can't dispute is the get away car is still in the driveway idling.

there's nothing concrete one way or the other. and i do think they're going to continue to underpromise in terms of the economy, i think that's their strategy. >> i thought the exchange was excellent because it sort of dug into maybe who the market may or may not be listening to inside the fed. are you willing on national tv, as i remind our viewers, to say which fed member you would listen to the most if it's not bernanke? >> you know, i think i'd put all of them in the same grouping. i seem to personally relate more to mr. fisher's view of the world, but i think, you know, central bankers are central bankers. bring your car to a muffler shop, they'll you you need a new muffler. you go to any central banker, they're going to micromanage. end of story. >> i would like to point out that i think rick in comparing fed governors to muffler repairmen are insulting the muffler repairmen. >> steve, that was good.

>> i knew i could bring you and him together. now i can retire. >> but you can have your favorite guy, but that guy's not leading the way to policy. and the investment, right? bernanke, the chairman, leads the way. but you can have your favorite guy like fisher. >> there you go. we all knew mr. brady ran the house but jan and peter had a say as well. one trend over the past few years the growing importance of dividends investors buying stocks looking for those stocks with high and hopefully safe dividend yields. is there more to the dividend story than meets the eye? joining us courtney reagan joining us for the entire hour, shame on me for not saying at the top, i was in skonsed. i want to ask about dividend. people rushing into dividends. something like six companies pay 6%, 70 companies pay over 4% in

the s&p 500, how important or not is the dividend story to investors right now? >> certainly given the very low interest rates we're seeing courtesy of the federal reserve and bond markets generally, higher dividend yielding anything has a lot of riel venn relevant relevancy. doesn't mean the company's fundamentals are sound. just indicates they're paying a certain percentage of free cash flow in dividends. you have to look for sustainability and growth in that dividend stream in order to feel good that that's a relevant investment for you replacing a lower yielding bond for example. >> and, rob, i would like to ask you, what companies or names are you referring to clients if they're looking for a steady stream of income from a company that's paying dividends? >> well, courtney, number one, i'd like to say that you know over the last 20 years tax policies really encouraged more share buybacks than dividends.

so this is just as the other guest just mentioned this is just really starting to come to a full -- we run a favorite stock list for clients that doesn't incorporate dividends as all, but we're being requested by numerous clients to incorporate dividends. we're contemplating doing that, but we actually have not come out with a particular list yet on that. >> if you thought, rob, if you think that current tax policy dissuades people, what if obama gets what he's asking for in the budget? what's that going to do? what's the point? you're double taxed. boom. >> brian, i think the important point to make is that it's really for existing shareholders where, you know, the capital gains of share buybacks makes the most sense. but there are so many potentially new shareholders out there that are looking for yield -- >> bingo. >> nick, this is herb. rob just made a great point. the question is how many investors that are getting into this thing now because they're chasing the dividends understand

the risks? do you have the concern that some just really think it's like a bond? >> yeah. you're absolutely hitting on the right point. we actually just finished a survey of all the major etf families that offer dividend-oriented etfs and asked that question. thankfully, year-to-date, the money flows that they're seeing at the dividend-paying etfs are coming in fresh money. they're not coming in swaps from bond funds but really critical point it's not the same thing. >> one of the things i note when i look at these etfs and i try to look at them, i was concerned even months and months ago that some of the dividend etfs were trading at five-year highs. you know, so i kept thinking to myself what is the risk if everything doesn't go quite right. >> yeah. you've got it right. the first, there's two sectors that are not really exposed in dividend-oriented portfolios of any kind, mutual funds or etfs. when it's technology, tech stocks don't pay high dividends and the other is financial services sector, banking in particular. those are the two better performing sectors year-to-date.

you're going to get less exposure to those areas that are doing particularly well in 2012. so there's a chance of tracking error versus what you might expect from equity returns. >> gentlemen, both, thank you so much for joining us on "street signs." see you again. >> thanks, brian. >> all right. on deck, we found some hope in housing of all places. home builders feeling pretty strong this year. can they pull the weight of recovery? and raising red flag at groupon. we're going to talk to grumpy old blogger battling the company over what he calls questionable cash flow. we're also going to talk about what it might mean for the stock. "street signs" returns right after this. ♪ [ male announcer ] offering four distinct driving modes and lexus' dynamic handling, the next generation of lexus will not be contained. the all-new 2013 lexus gs.

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this week we have been peeling back the market wallpaper to find companies betting on recovery. one of those -- two of those, have to be paint makers, valspar and sherwin-williams. by the way, 34th consecutive year of increased dividend for old sherwin williams. home builder sentiment at highest level in nearly five years. and they're using that confidence to battle each other over land. diana olick is here now with the great land grab story. diana. >> well, that's right, brian. you know, the builder number out this morning was huge and it was even bigger because a lot of folks consider this coming president's day weekend as the official start to the spring housing market. so since september builders sentiment has actually doubled.

caution though that this is still well below the positive line. that said, if builders think the market is about to move, then they need to get moving on construction, right? now you see the stocks of the big builders moving already. the big public guys are especially well-positioned with land because they have the cash on the sidelines ready to buy those finished premium lots. take tampa, florida, for example. the national builders have taken a huge jump in market share there since the height of the housing boom. now, land prices especially, again, those finished premium lots that have already been permitted are going at a premium and have been so for the last couple years. but the builders, they're still running really lean. for example, at the height of the housing boom, pulte had 685,000 lots. what does that mean today? that's two full years of new home sales. again, way off those highs, but they need to get back in and start building. that is if this sentiment continues on a run-up, brian. >> thanks, diana. i'll take it from here. let's get to the stock side of the home builder story.

joining us bob with us onset. home building analyst with rbc. we just heard from the fed and their minutes they're still concerned about housing. we're seeing data points come out. who's right? >> i think you have to be undeny b bl happy. our view is unabatchedly constructive on outlook. we saw strong fourth quarter trends. unemployment going down, consumer confidence in up. and in terms of what we saw today it's just really turning a corner. albeit it's off a low base, the recovery is fragile. having said that, you have to look forward and think about where we're going to be in 12 months. there's a healing process in the housing market. it is officially begun. >> but it's still about location, location, location even when it comes to building or buying, is that not correct? so you have to be careful with the names you buy into here. >> that never changed. the key thing from a stock

perspective you want to recognize and highlight to the viewers is that stocks have had a tremendous run. the question is that run going to continue as we move through the year? our view is that we continue to get data which reaffirms the thesis that the housing market's recovering get positive share price appreciation. >> let's dig into what the balance sheets are telling us. okay. we just talked about dividends. the only beef you might be able to have with dividends and you can agree with this herb, you're saying basically i don't have a better use for the cash. i'm going to give back to shareholders, which is a good thing. in the home building sector, they've done things with usable capital. lennar growing in tough times. others have gotten leaner. as an investing analyst, what would you advice your clients to do when they look at home builders? go for lennar or companys that are hoarding cash and hiding? >> great question. we have defensive plays and

offensive plays and we're starting with the assumption you're going to hold a stock for three to five years. if you're a cautious investor, you want best of breed, you're going to look for a management team like lennar which has a terrific investment approach buying cheap assets distressed out of foreclosure and big land product. these guys are geared up for recovery. if you want to shift out on the risk curve, we're very excited about kb home. world class management team as well. strong position coastal california and texas. look at the nhab growth numbers today. those are the areas popping. kbh just addressed concerns also posed for a big run. overall highlight these stocks trade together. so at this point in time everything's up a lot, you want to take a little caution -- >> who's up too much? >> i think there's general recognition if you look on a 12-month basis reasonable amount of appreciation given what's going on. we're kind of neutral view as we get more data coming out we're going to get more excited.

>> bottom line still love lennar. >> love lennar and kb. >> thank you very much. before we go to break, we have to look at the markets. we are sitting on session lows right now. in fact, the dow down 105 points. one of the few triple digit down days we have seen so far. 28 of the dow 30 are indeed down. a lot of headlines coming from greece, party politicians of all shapes and colors saying let's do this, let's do that, will germany give them the money, or not? will the riots continue? we're not talking a lot about greece this hour, but folks it's out there and you must pay attention to it. that said, on this date in 1965, the canadians introduced the now famous maple leaf flag. since we love our neighbors to the north, they're not just america's hat. we're going to look at the best performing stocks that hail for the great white north. and we're airing our own dirty laundry on "street signs." we're going to look at dirtiest shirts in the clean basket of stocks. "street signs" back after the break. ♪

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back in 1965. so in honor of them, we have decided to take a look at canadian companies that trade here in america. and then just absolutely rocked it. mining up 51% year-to-date. lululemon, did not know it was a canadian company, they're up 42%. oh, right behind me. there we go. imax up. silver wheaton, you got it, silver company. and suncorp energy up 18%. so those are the good names. canada rocking it except for this company you might have heard about called research in motion based in waterloo, ontario. done nada this year. it's higher actually given what it went through last year. and this is also a perfect segue to herb's disaster du jour because he is clearly still basking in the maple syrup of his big win. >> you still owe me a dinner. >> we're going to tim horton,

it's all good. >> we're talking a company we've talked about a generator making company. we've talked about this positively. i've talked about it positively when it was much lower. company reported yesterday stock off for two straight days. baird downgraded the stock. i want to point out here what i found interesting is that the guidance was a little below what investors expected. but most importantly is the company did mention that if there weren't comparable outage events, that can make comps difficult. this is a company that benefits from, obviously, outages, storms, things like that. >> one of the rare companys that can actually blame the weather and you believe it. >> yes. >> unlike every other company in america. >> this is the only one. >> they're up front. >> break it up. moving on. from disaster to sparkle for today's sunshine stock, harlwin up. this stock up around 20% this

year, 6% over the last 52 weeks. perfect timing, the day after valentine's day, hopefully a lot of ladies got some harry winston diamonds. >> is that what you're wearing? >> not quite. but it's still pretty. airline stocks soaring so far this year. is the smooth saili ining going last? >> yesterday was the honey badger market. today herb's sniffed out honey badger stocks. "street signs" back in a moment. so i used my citi thank you card to pick up some accessories. a new belt. some nylons.

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welcome back to "street signs." time for today's street talk. let's do a quick check in. oh, come on. there we go. checking on commodities. final oil trades of the day happening right now. crude hovering around $101.71. meanwhile gold and silver both near flat. we'll talk more about those metals and what's going on with the big miner in just a minute. apple. apple keeps climbing for the ninth day in a row and up 25% this year. another story for the major averages but less than 90 minutes left in the trading day today.

and last but not least, low fliers. u.s. airlines operating the fewest flights in a decade declining passenger travel behind that slide. lowest since 2002. unbelievable. i've taken a lot of flights. brian, i don't know about you. >> i can't fit in the planes. that's my problem. i'm in cargo, usually. thanks very much. bring in philip lebeau for a closer look at the airline stocks. we know they've had a big rebound this year. oil is also still where it is. what's the reality? what's going on with the airline stoc stocks? it just doesn't make sense? >> it's primarily being driven by two things. talk of consolidation. everybody expecting at some point we'll see mergers play out particularly with u.s. air. and when you look at the revenue they're driving per those passengers flying, it continues to climb. people are looking at this saying they're kpeeeping a lid capacity and ultimately that's what's driving profitability. >> we have the fees that we talk about.

some airlines like southwest they go after it and say we're not going to charge fees and they make fun of other airlines that they do -- >> they don't charge for baggage. >> fair enough. >> but they also have fees there. >> i'm going to put you on the spot then because i see the commercials and i see a southwest stock stuck for about five years and i'm thinking at some point gary kelly is going to have to make the hard call that they have to start charges for bags, yes or no? >> i don't think they will. marketing and customer loyalty. and call up a chart of love if we could over the last three months. it's had a decent rise. people are going to say well that's only because -- that's a longer chart. but only because of consolidation. you look at where southwest is and where they're going, i think they'll be a player in the consolidation game. >> we have to let you goe, but we know when all is said and done there will be one airline left in this country. >> not pan am? >> psa, western, twa, pan am,

three times. thank you very much. we had commodities at the top. what exactly is up or down with the metals miner down nearly 50% in just the past six months. let's bring in john bridges, commodities analyst at jpmorgan. john, i understand that things have not been great. they had some operational issues in a couple of mines, but when i see a company that's lost 50% of its value in six months, what is the more underlying problem here? >> i think basically what's happening is an underlying overvalued stock has been, you know, these problems have highlighted -- >> are you trying to say in a polite way it's been exposed? >> you could use that word, yes. >> just did. >> the stock had a tremendous run in the latter half of the 2000s. it gave, you know, the production troubled, which is a great thing to pull off, very difficult thing to pull off. pulled it off almost flawlessly.

unfortunately, the stock continued with that growth valuation multiple even though the growth sort of went away. and then we've had these other problems which have popped up. the costs at metal bank, problems at goldex. putting those things together it's been one thing after another. >> bottom line, is it worth buying at these well-discounted price sns. >> well, we have a neutral on it. we love the stock. we had a great run with it at the end of the 2000s, but we see it probably gaining into value territory now. we have a $43 value on it but not as much upside as some of our other stocks. it's in value territory. >> we have to go there. little brief because of the fed minutes. appreciate your time today, sir. thank you. >> thank you. >> yesterday we laid out our honey badger market. now we have names that go up no matter what comes their way. >> sort of. and here's the deal.

i call this the silly season, 'tis the season to be silly. these stocks prove it. take pete's stock lifted $10 in recent weeks after the stake boosted. then last night the company reported like numbers and weak guidance saying they would make up for it in the back half of the year. well, stock's reaction off only $3. weight watchers stock up 44% year-to-date. the company reported light numbers last night and guided down for the year. its stock off about 3%. then there's interoil. a controversial company that's exploring for oil and natural gas in new guinea. increase a stake in the stock that lifted 5% that day. then 34% for the next month. then a few days ago he filed he cut his stake 64% the stock has

come off symptom bsome but remains well above where it was. this kind of action i might tell you really tells you so much about the market and these stocks. i talk to guys short stocks tell me they're ripping their hair out not because -- they see the fundamentals so differently and the stock market just wants to ignore it right now. and squeeze out the short sales, say it again and again and again. squeeze out the shorts and stocks go in the vacuum. >> you are right far more than you are wrong and i'm going to give you credit for that. the problem is as you know i'm going to paraphrase that old saying whatever it is basically the market can remain irrational longer than many people can remain solvent. the same way with independent stocks even if as john said expose them. people can trade them up. >> this market -- we got to go but just say this market is best summed up by the tvix. for several days this etf has been among the most shouted about and traded etfs out there.

>> you stumble the over the word velocity -- >> what'd i say? >> there was an h in there. put it that way. does your retirement equation need a tweak? up next what you can learn from the latest 401k trends. and search for the dirty shirts in the clean laundry. we're looking for soiled stocks in sparkling sectors. stocks that just stink. that's coming up next. with a new view of the market, you could see an investment opportunity you didn't see before.

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go. >> time now for your retirement equation. here some headlines that could impact your plan. gm announcing it is ending pension contributions for 19,000 u.s. workers. instead it will switch to 401k contributions. some are saying is retirement a thing of the past? a new career builder survey shows more than half of workers 60 and over plan to look for a new job after retiring. additionally one in ten surveyed think they will ever be able to retire. and those of you who are planning to retire, you're probably saving more. fidelity investment says 401conclusive contributi401k contributions are now on the rise more than 8% in just three months. is this a sign of a retirement recovery? joining us now is vice president fidelity market insides. beth, welcome. >> thank you. >> we know that people are getting back into their 401ks. >> yes. >> are companies who ended their 401k matching programs during the downturn starting to

re-allocate those matches? are they back in the market? companies, not people. >> right. so what our latest data has shown and we look every quarter at about 20,000 companies representing about 11 million participants. and those companies over 80% of the companies that had maybe suspended or reduced their company contribution have actually reinstated that. >> that's interesting. i tell you, i was fascinated, you talk about target funds here. i want to be very dubious of target funds and you say they're growing. i look at my own 401k, i go into a target fund, suze orman tells me i'm nuts, but it was the best performer. am i being taken by a product or is there reason to be in those? >> no. i think our data has shown, in fact, the big interesting finding for us this quarter was that one out of four workers in a retirement program at fidelity is in a target date fund?

>> is it because of default? >> much is driven by fund. you can estimate people are defaulting into these investments, but they are staying in them. and it is helping them with what is a more age appropriate asset allocation which really means that younger employees are getting in. they're getting in not overly you know conservative. and older employees who are getting in are getting in at an appropriate balanced allocation. >> you know, i mean this with all due respect to our viewers, but retail investors tend to do the wrong things at the wrong time. they sell at the bottoms and when things are good they get back in. >> yes. >> that's the opposite of what you should be. how do you at fidelity, how does your industry, work to convince people you're 25, put money in every month. don't look at it until you're 65 years old. don't git out. you'll mistime it. >> it's so true. when you look at volatile markets, you can see the importance of contributions. so your contributions accounting for that much more of your overall earnings.

and you can see that, you know, two-thirds of your contributions versus one-third of market performance can really make a difference especially for the younger employees. >> beth, it was a pleasure. >> thank you. >> you're welcome back any time. >> thank you. >> even if he's still here. >> all right. sounds good. thank you. >> if you were watching cnbc, you've likely heard some of our guests call the u.s. the cleanest shirt in the dirty laundry. today we're looking at the dirtiest shirts in our clean laundry pile. these are the worst performing stocks in the best-performing sectors year-to-date. start with the sector stud, technology. it's the -performing sector up 13% since the start of the year. but its dirtiest shirt, ea. totally underperforming. down 14%. moving on to the second biggest sector year-to-date, financials. up 12% this year. and its dirtiest shirt, excel group. that's down 2%. and rounding out the top three, industrials. up 10% year-to-date. but look at rr donnelly down 7%

so far this year. brian and herb, three big underperformers. i know you have an opinion, at least one or two, on some of them. >> not an opinion, courtney. i bring stats, facts and data. >> for sure. >> ea best-performing apps, top selling apps on the i tune store, ea's first ap is 26 game of life 99 cents. xl capital, one of the big insurers of the costa concordia cruise ship. and an article questioning the cash flow of rr donnelly and sons questioning the quality, so i found that nugget for you. >> and their business, which some people think is like a melting ice cube. >> next up on "street signs," profiting from lin-sanity. and groupon top to bottom from

their once-in-a-lifetime deals that are new. issues raised by herb's grumpy accountants. but first, bill, what's ahead on "closing bell"? >> as you know, digital gaming has been red hot. the ceo of gamestop will tell us what the retailer is trying to do right now to cash in on that trend. and media stocks have been rallying. and we have the names of some of the companies that may be best-position today head even higher. and i love this story. dallas fed president biggest inflation hawk on the fed has been buying uranium with his own money. is it a better inflation hedge than gold? uranium? we'll find out. mandy's with me here at the new york stock exchange. we'll see you at the top of the hour. in the mean "street signs" is back after this.

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check out shares of zynga. ouch. falling like a rock. down 14%. facebook's most popular game provider issued its first earnings report as a public company. but the street clearly did not like it very much.

a number of firms downgraded the stock. analysts concerned about slowing growth in spending on its gains. >> groupon, another hot name, has been under a microscope since its much-hyped ipo back in december. it's had about 5% year-to-date. if you go deeper into the fundamentals, there are new questions. bloggers raising red flags about accounting practices at groupon. now the cfo is firing back. we'll get to that in a minute. but for the first time they're offering charitable deals. we're bringing in our sports reporter extraordinaire, because this is a sports related -- >> that's where it starts today with the sports related story. i've got to talk about obviously groupon has made their whole business in the idea of lower prices. but now they're getting into the epic deals. they've had these epic deals before, but now it's toward charity. groupon getting into this charity business, basically

helping charities maximize these type of premium experiences, which are often undersold because of a lackluster data base. they teamed up with graham mcdowell. they sold 16 packages for twosomes, and a mini golf tournament. that's taking place today. if groupon isn't getting a piece of the pie from the charity, how is this good business? well, they say by selling packages to higher net worth individuals, they're hoping they'll make connections with the people that own the big businesses. >> herb, what do you think of that type of bet? >> i think it's not anything that's going to affect the stock, i can tell you that much. >> do you think it's a big deal? >> i think a lot of charities are going to engage in this. but from a business perspective, it's obviously secondary. can they get someone who's going to spend $4,000 on a sports experience to be with jack

nicolas, to then say, i have a $400 million company, and now i want to, you know, steer it towards -- deals towards groupon. >> we're sitting here talking about it. >> that's right. >> let's bring in ed katz at penn state university. and a proud virginia tech hokey like this humble anchor. ed, welcome to the program. thanks for coming on. listen, the last time you wrote about this was back in june, and you questioned about the equity of the shareholders. i looked on capital iq, groupon is saying they have about $170 million in net shareholder equity. do you buy that? >> well, the issue is going to be, what can they do, and what the income's going to be, and where it's going to be driving value, if at all. as you know, the fourth quarter earnings report is negative. and that does not bode well for the firm. revenue growth is positive, but again, earnings is taking a hit.

>> hey, ed, this is herb. you know, big part of your argument has been gap versus nongap. we go over this all the time. and all these companies. if this company, and if analysts wanted to look at this as a gap company, what do you think the end result would be? >> if they look at it on a gaap basis, i think there are significant problems, significant questions that would be raised. it makes me think of the 1990s when we had the dotcom craze and you had all of these firms that were having negative earnings, and they were saying we should forget gaap earnings, there were problems. >> but what you've got here is analysts basically saying, they want us to look at them non-gaap. as long as the analysts do that, wall street doesn't seem to care. you know, why don't the analysts look at this on a gaap basis? >> there's one great

investigator who said, stupid is as stupid does. >> what is the revenue up, 11,000% in a couple of years, but they're not up as much as sales are up. do you think maybe wall street is turning a blind eye to these issues because there's such amazing growth, it's easier to sell? >> yes, i think that's a good read on this, that with the sales growth, they are hoping that it will drive more and more business to groupon, and that eventually they'll be able to turn this loss into a profit. so they're hoping that profit will be coming along in positive cash flows as well. >> ed, thank you very much. appreciate it. glad to have a hokie on. we contacted groupon and they decided not to issue a statement today. we offered them a chance to come on. >> let's get to the stock side of the story. herman is on the newsline, and

if i could ask you right away, herman, i'm interested in the economic model that groupon uses. they rely on e-mail to reach their consumers. but so many of those consumers are unsubscribing, or just maybe flat-out not reading. possibly subscribing to ten other daily deal sites. isn't this leaky bucket a problem going forward for the growth, perhaps more consumers leaving than are coming in? >> i think there are still a lot of subscribers going onto the groupon site. when people are unsubscribing, they're actually unsubscribing to some of the smaller sites and keeping more of the living social and groupon sites. >> you heard what ed ketz had to say, herman. what do you make of it? do you have a problem with groupon's gaap or non-gaap sting? >> i agree that i think part of the reason why the stock was

actually acting weak was because, you know, it lacked a lot of metrics, transparency. a lot of the transparency that they had given in the past, such as groupon -- or a breakout between international and domestic bookings was not provided. just on the non-gaap, i would say both numbers are there for investors to -- that are fully disclosed. we're valuing stocks based on more cash flow metrics and. >> thanks so much, herman. i'm sorry we have to wrap up a little bit early. >> all right. latest run at the money making. that's coming up. [ male announcer ] the draw of the past is a powerful thing.

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things jeremy lynn lappedi ilan the door of the patent office. the knicks sensation rushed toronto fans last night with a three-point winner. madison square garden stock is riding the lin wave. shares up 10%. in the first trading day after the lin streak started on saturday, february 4th. do you have an opinion on jeremy lin? >> i just want him to succeed.