they're up almost 3%. >> little salty nuts to go with the pringles. great to be back, sue. great to be with you. >> "street signs" begins right now. see you tomorrow. all right, everybody. welcome to "street signs." wall street telling greece to take their bailout and, you know, well, sort of. more housing hopium driving the bailout bonanza burner. is there a magic number to get mom and pop back into the stock market? how do we get fired up about the future? we'll find out. and snickers going on a diet saying so long to the king size candy bar. is this a good business move or just the food police gone wild? we are going to chew on that, mandy, later in the show. >> we will indeed. i'm mandy drury. coca-cola stock is getting a pop today. sorry for the pun. as the dow component raises its

quarterly dividend 8.5% to 51 cents a share, it's the 50th straight year coke has raised its dividend. apple announced a new version of the company's macintosh operating system. part of the reason amazon.com is trading lower in the midst of a market rally. morgan stanley has downgraded amazon from equal weight to overweight on concern about, yeah, competition from apple. we're also following some breaking news out of the federal reserve. we've got steve liesman at the set ready for us. what are we seeing? >> breaking news from the fed that despite radical efforts by the central bank to increase clarity and transparency, some of wall street's biggest banks are telling the fed they are more confused. the new york fed survey of primary dealers, the fed gets this before its meetings and uses it to gauge sentiment in the market. but it's now released to the public three weeks later. it shows that a couple of dealers noted uncertainty in the market around what information

would be released at the meeting. that's a story we reported on cnbc. a few said the range of views expressed by fomc members "contributed to a lack of clarity." a couple said they believed qe-3 was likely. that didn't happen. a couple want to hear more from fed chairman ben bernanke more frequently. that's something we can echo. i think brian sullivan has a spot for him on the show. a few dealers were concerned that new fed communication "could be misinterpreted by the market" and other comments, check this out. several expect to drop the calendar date reference. that didn't happen. a couple expected guidance on the fed balance sheet. that didn't happen. a few expected upgrade to the economic conditions, that didn't happen. things they were forecasting. wall street saw the first rate increase in the second half of 2014. in that sense the wall street and the fed are aligned. the recession probability dropped to 20% from 25%. and wall street sees the second half of '14 the funds rate 75 basis points rising to 2.5% in the first half of '16.

this is exactly what we were talking about yesterday, brian and mandy. >> bottom line it for investors, what does it mean? >> it means two pieces happening here, mandy. the first thing is the communication of the fed as to what was going to happen when they were going to enhance their communication was not that clear. okay. the second thing is all of the information that's out there it seems like it's not calibrated yet. wall street has a problem processing it. >> is it too much information? this whole new very transparent, maybe it's just too much information. >> i think that's part of it. there's another thing to me as maybe a fundamental difference. the expectation for an upgrade to the economic conditions, that didn't happen. that's not a communications issue. >> that's a disconnect for what -- >> i don't know how it works in there, but in washington they don't do things very well. this is another example of d.c. not doing something very well. >> fair enough. also an interesting aspect, brian, all the other fed executives are out there

speaking and the chairman doesn't speak that much. he's allowing more speaking happen in the press conference. that may not be sufficient to tell the market where he thinks the fomc is going. >> it's such a divided fair that there's a goulash of messages out there hard to believe which ones to latch onto. >> especially at a turning point right now. >> we've seen a lot of signs of hope, will it be enough to lure the average investor back to the market? is there a magic number we should pluck out of the sky for the dow? bob pisani, what do you think about that? magic number, 13,000, 14,000? >> look at it now. i mean, we're at what? three and a half year highs. the dow jones industrial average -- put up a five-year chart. we're there. the market has already spoken. where's the checklist here? better news on the u.s. economy, check. absolutely. is there a greek deal? no. is there -- can we say the threat of contagion is contained? i don't think so yet. so there's a yes, a no and i don't think so yet. still a lot of uncertainties.

if we can tie up other two issues, i think we can definitely move higher. can i say one thing about what steve was talking about? i cannot believe that after years of wall street bitterly complaining the fed doesn't tell us enough they turn around and say we're confused. please, i'm happy with more information. i would rather have trouble processing than not enough information. >> no one's ever happy. that's the bottom line there. >> give me a break. they complained for years we don't know what the fed's doing. now they're telling us too much? please. >> okay. point taken. thanks, bob. >> all right. a little good news for stocks last week. the recent runup appears to finally be getting some attention. equity fund flows jumped last week to $3.62 billion of net new money coming in. bonds though still saw more inflows over the past year. but look at these numbers, folks. since this week last year more than $150 billion has been taken out of domestic stock mutual funds. $150 billion. as we ask bob, let's bring in

our next guest what will it take to get investors again? senior asset manager. peter, $150 billion in net outflows from stock mutual funds in the past year. $170 billion in net inflows to bond funds. we always talk about cash on the sidelines. that's it, right? what's it going to take to get it back into equities? >> i think we're starting to see signs of that right now. i think, you know, the checklist that we talked about just minutes ago, i actually have two checklists. i have a domestic checklist and a national checklist. and the domestic checklist actually differs from the international one in that things look like all green lights in the u.s. i think when you look across the atlantic, it's a different story. so if you practice like an isolation investing approach meaning stay in the u.s. and invest in u.s.-based companies, i think we're really off to the races already.

and as far as the dow jones level, i would say that we are right at the beginning of a fairly strong rally. that psychological level of 13,000, for instance, will really bring more sideline players into the market. and as you've said, there is a ton of cash out there just waiting for an excuse to get invested. and i think we're going to see that in the second or third quarters of this year. >> i'm going to ban that phrase, whole pile of cash on the sidelines. if we start to see the retail investor come back in this market in a big way, is that a sign of the top? in other words, kind of like the water cooler effect. people around the office might say bob's earning a lot of money in the stock market, maybe i should do that too. but a lot of the big money's already been made. >> well, mandy, i think we have a long way to go before we can worry about whether the retail investor coming in is a signal of a top because so much money has been taken out. so much money is on the sidelines. and in bond funds as well, which a lot of that is a quasi fund.

we need better headlines. and i think we're going to get better headlines because fundamentally the news has been very good. and i think with an election year and a media that lets face it is a little biassed to the left. i think you're going to see a lot more focus on good news here through the election. >> yeah. because if you track the numbers, $170 billion into bond funds, $150 billion some out of equity funds, grant it they're not perfectly meshed but pretty dog on close. you can imagine a lot of people taking money out of stocks and putting into bonds. but 2% yields on a 10-year get pretty old pretty fast. is there a magic number, hank, that we need to hit? 13,000, 14,000, 15,000, where it's on the cover of "usa today" and "time" magazine that people pour in.

>> would that be the signal to sell? >> i think there are two magic numbers. near-term 13,000 because for some reason century marks have a certain allure to them. but the next one is 14,164. and that was the previous peak in october of '07. and if we get through that -- and that's only 9.5% away from here, if we get through that, maybe people will start believing that all of that horrendous financial crisis is behind us. >> so, peter, back to you when you were saying you think the market is doing a great job of separating the eurozone's problems from the better and better headlines we're getting here in the states, if we are at the start of a big rally, what magic number do you think we can hit realistically from here? >> well, as i said, first off, i don't think we should trash talk bonds. i've heard a lot of talk about the inflows and outflows of bonds. i think there's a place in everybody's portfolio for fixed income. that aside, mandy, i think our 13,000 is an attractive level that will start to raise some eyebrows.

in fact, you can see as we approach that level already there's no real magic number. it's more graduation. people folding in. you have all kinds of investors out there. the early adapters, the late comers, et cetera, so when you smear that onto a spectrum, i think what you're seeing is gradually they're coming back into the market. i don't think you're going to see a sudden deluge of investors where they say, aha, this is my magic number, i'm in on the market. i think that's actually kind of dangerous to invest like that. instead, watch it closely and leg in as the market moves in your favor. >> we're only a stone's throw away from cracking the 13,000 mark, peter. so if we start to see more people coming in at that mark, how much more upside in percentage terms would you see from there? >> i think it depends on how well the consumer responds. 70% of the economy is driven by the consumer. and the consumer is finally starting to recover. you know, we're seeing the employment numbers look better. they're actually spending on

their credit cards and not excessively. they're raising their income. they've got their increased spending rate. so all those things bode very well fundamentally for an underpinning for a stronger market. i could see the range of 13,000 to 14,000 in the next year or so. >> bottom line it for us, hank. what's it going to take to get to 13,000? what's it going to take to get to 14,000. and please do not say more buyers and sellers. >> no, an improved sentiment because we've had improved fundamentals, but the fact is fundamentals have outpaced returns over the past two and a half years. and now it's time for returns to catch up to fundamentals. so we need improved sentiment. >> hank and peter, thank you so much for joining us today. >> you're welcome. >> herb has a rant ready on heavily shorted stocks. understandable. but yet you've also got a beef with ancestry.com. are they related? >> they're so related. >> did you get it? ancestry.com, are they related? >> that was good.

>> i don't want to go there. >> i can hear the laughter around the homes of america. >> channels changing everywhere. >> click. >> here's the deal, i've been on this broadcast and all over the network for a long time reminding people, trying to remind them, what happens when the shorts get squeezed out? everybody's saying it's great the shorts are getting squeezed. i always say stocks will fall in a vacuum. that chart is an example of stocks flowing in an example. ancestry.com came out, not such great numbers, other issues that sort of you might say subscribers issues -- slowing subscribers issues and no natural buyer. that's what happens with these companies no natural buyers. it's the mechanics of the markets. ancestry is that today. i want to keep using that over and over when people just keep saying it's going higher, pair bollically higher, this is what happens. >> thank you very much for relating that back to what it means for the investor. click. >> i got to say uncle on these puns. all right. on deck, the single most optimistic headline i have seen on housing in years.

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check out the wild ride shares of n vid ya taken today. first quarter outlook fell below analyst estimates. but as you can see on the chart, nvidia turned around after an analyst said microsoft upcoming

windows 8 for tablet could be a catalyst for the stock. now up 1.5%. >> well, we have a housing hat trick helping to keep us in the green today. housing starts a better than expected 1.5% in january. mortgage rates held at a record low for a third straight week. and mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures fell in the final three months of last year tochlt cap that all off, the ceo of zillo was on our air saying his site drew 31 million viewers last month. to me that's the most positive comment whatever i've seen in housing in a long time. let's break this down further with diana olick. how good is it? >> i'm going to agree with you for once on that last point. i do think it's a good sign they're seeing traffic at zillo rising. i've heard other websites saying the same thing that people are out there testing the waters. as for other data you're talking about, you have to be really careful. housing starts came up a bit, but it was based on multifamily. a big jump in multifamily construction. single family came down.

it's not as terrible as it sounds because there were revisions and single family construction rose in december higher than we thought. a lot of folks blaming it on great weather. but i wouldn't go so far as to say single family is surging back. multifamily is and that's because of rental demand. again, multifamily construction, that's a job right there. it's not a bad thing. when we look at the foreclosure numbers you talked about though, yes, delinquencies are easing a bit. but the foreclosure pipeline is still very big. and we got to work through all those loans, got to get them either through the banks, out on to the market again and sold. so you've got a lot of headwinds, but, look, record low mortgage rates. can't fight that. >> no. you certainly can't. diana olick, thank you very much. so, are we in a full tilt housing recovery? let's bring in lindsey and our very own rick santelli. lindsey, welcome to the program. good to see you. >> thank you. good to see you. >> let's talk about housing numbers. diana mentioned most is multifamily, single family's not that great. a lot of foreclosures. is it just as easy to make the

negative case on housing, or are we finally seeing a real recovery? >> i think it's much easier to make the negative case. i don't want to completely discount what we saw this morning. we had a nice pop in starts and permits, but none of this is a game changer. we're still seeing the same trend in housing bouncing along those lows just with increased volatility. so what we're seeing is month-to-month increases followed by equally sized declines the following month. i think you're right majority of the demand is coming from the multiunit sector or rental unit. a healthy rental unit is a far cry from restoring the equity demand we need. i would much rather see a recovery in single families rather than demand from the multifamily. >> yes. a much more important number than multifamily starts. but, rick, this is what i'm concerned about. look at some of the home building stocks and the home construction index up about 50% or more since october lows, there's a lot of optimism, a lot

of hope built into the prices. i don't know whether the market out there is 50% better. so i think that the possibility for disappointment is kind of high right now, don't you think? >> it's the same argument i hear sometimes when you look at gold mining companies versus gold the commodity. you know, there's a whole business that has a whole raft of issues versus just kind of the naked commodity. i think this is a similar argument that when you look at what's going on with some of these etfs, yes, there's optimism because the best trades are always trying to pick the bottom of the something that's had an extreme move. but i think that our guests and diana nailed it. the issue is all these foreclosures, all these empty houses, all these people that can't sell their houses and they're not going to be better off because we're changing the culture of our society into not building a big house but living in an apartment or renting. it's a good thing we're building anything. we're putting people to work. but there's still the looming issue and it's not being curved by interest rates because as i

said three years ago you could make them negative, you really aren't creating the solution. the solution would be to let the price go down 30% for the housing market and let the chips fall where they may. maybe some of these young people down here that can't afford it at $130,000 can afford it at $100,000. >> there's a risk, lindsey, i was on smart money.com last night or this morning, i can't remember what basically the five hottest housing markets and showed in the d.c. area building permits were up 400%. baltimore 160%. >> sure. >> what is the risk of us overestimating the recovery? overshooting, overbuilding and basically overindulging ourselves. [ overlapping speakers ] >> the national market is still a ways away, five to ten years before we see recovery in the national market. but we will continue to see pockets. as you mentioned the d.c. area, some of the least hit areas will begin to recover and we've seen price appreciation across states in the midwest but nevada,

california, arizona, these areas will lag the national market. >> lindsey, this is herb. i have to chime in here and mention something to brian. >> you're both chiming in. >> getting excited. >> you mentioned something about the d.c. market and how there's strength there, yet we had the ceo of marijuaon talking about that's his weakest market -- >> i didn't say strength. i said building permits were up. overestimating the recovery? >> oh, absolutely. i think overestimating, but once again, listen, we can't go from being on monitors in terms of intensive care and then running a triathlon. everything has to come in small steps. the news today is good news. is it big enough news for me to go borrow money to invest in housing? not in my book it isn't. >> i was wondering, you have 30-year fixed mortgages at record lows, it's been at record lows for god knows how many

weeks now, lindsey. how much in terms of problems of the recovery are banks not being so willing to lend. maybe that's a good thing if they let the flood gates open and anybody can get a mortgage, we're back to where we started. but nonetheless someone like myself i'm trying to refi, the amount of documentation you need to present is just a can i recall. it's very offputting i have to say for a lot of people. >> that's really a good point. the motivation now to refi is not to take out enough spending to supplement vacations or car purchases. it's to save an extra $20 or $40 a month which to some people isn't worth it when you talk about the amount of documentation you have to fill out. back to the bank point, it's a double edged sword because banks do want to lend. the only people they're willing to lend to aren't those at their door knocking for loans. we are seeing difference between supply and demand on the bank lending side. >> lindsey, rick santelli, diana olick, thank you to all. good housing discussion. maybe finally something will stick. >> yeah. sticking with housing, the fixer

upper trend continues. both home depot and lowe's trading at multi-year highs. and lowe's off its high of the day but still at a level not seen since may of 2010. just ahead on "street signs," a diamond stock that's losing its luster. >> and another black eye maybe for blackberry. we're going to take a new look at how buyers are hanging up on the company in a big way. what they want to buy and what they certainly do not want to buy. "street signs" back after the break. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 what every trader needs. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 like streetsmart edge, ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 the intuitive trading platform that thinks like a trader. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 access dozens of workshops and webinars ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 -and talk over your strategy with dedicated ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 schwab trading specialists. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 plus, traders get up and running faster ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 with a personalized introduction to all that schwab has to offer. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 talk to chuck and get it all for $8.95 per trade. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 open an account and trade up to 6 months commission-free. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 call 1-800-979-9011 today. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 ♪

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we have a good old fashion takeover fight on our hands with regards to cvr energy. carl icahn announcing a tender offer for all the outstanding shares. cvr $30. and a contingent value right. forget about the name, basically part of this offer from icahn is this, if the board of directors puts the company up for sale before the tender offer is complete, icahn has the ability to withdraw said offer. so look at that. nice pop. cvr energy, carl icahn going

after it. >> okay, herb, another failing grade for a for profit stock. >> what's down with strayer is its stock. weak numbers all the way around. what's more important is the new student starts were down for the fifth straight quarter. so you can see strayer taking a bit of a hit there. also today i want to talk about digital generation. this is a digital advertising company. the company came out, missed on revenue and eps, but this is what really got me. in its press release the company didn't say anything about any executive changes. in the conference call, bottom of prepared text, the company said by the way our cfo is leaving. there you go. >> so shame on them for doing that in the release no mention, on the conference call prepared remarks. which, by the way, as you say how many people are going to read the conference call transcript versus the press release? it's a much smaller percentage. bearing information that all investors deserve and need to know. >> absolutely. but the stock, by the way, actually caught up with it obviously somewhere along the lines there but worth knowing.

>> it is worth knowing. here's something else worth knowing. today's sunshine stock. itron up 90% on earnings. the smart grid company is doing very well today. it's up 21%. incredible. it makes grids for energy and water companies. the stock is down, however, about 23% over the last year. well, yesterday harry winston was our sparkly sunshine stock. but today there's another diamond stock that's looking a little rough though. blue nile is currently down about 12% on its earnings. >> up next on "street signs," snickers downsized. companies are finally getting serious about slimming down. >> and also gm is revving up. the big quarter for the bailed out automaker, but there is one place that could stall its comeback. you have to stick with us here on "street signs" to find out what it is. [ male announcer ] we know you don't wait

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welcome back to "street signs." it is time for today's street talk. and the markets are moving to the upside right now. the average aiming for fresh multi-year highs. the dow aiming for its highest close since may of 2008. the nasdaq since december 2000. the s&p still not broken 2011 high though it is nonetheless at multimonth highs. we'll take what we can get.

march madness is around the corner. in just two years after bankruptcy, general motors, gm, posted its biggest annual profit ever. brian. >> mandy, thank you very much. let's talk more about gm and bring in brian johnson, senior equity research analyst at barclays. he has an overweight rating. i'm not trying to pick on gm. i'm looking at latin america. tough there. i'm looking at some of the other markets that maybe didn't grow as quickly. how much more growth does gm have left in it and why? >> well, the biggest surprise in the quarter i think why the stock's up so sharply today is it got to the consensus number but it got there with a significantly better north america that offset some of that weakness in south america and europe. both of those -- europe's a well-known weakness on a macro basis. we're fairly confident gm will restructure there. it's not a growth story. it's a cost takeout story in

europe. in south america, gm's really had an old product cycle there. they've bled it for cash prior to the bankruptcy. their best selling car a year ago was 17 years old. so they're bringing out some new products. so even with the slower macro growth in south america, we're comfortable they're going to gain some share and some price. >> did it bother you at all, brian, there was no detailed 2012 forecast? and to what degree would that be due to things completely out of its control like the macro economic environment? >> i think the lack of the 2012 forecast is in part a way for the new management team to break from the pre-bankruptcy practices where there was annual guidance. it was very financially driven management team. and i think this is a team that would rather see where the markets go, do their best to bring down costs, gain market share and improve pricing rather than putting a target out there that they have to twist themselves to make. >> i know things got better on the pension side. we always talk about selling cars, but let's talk about what gm used to be which is basically a pension company that also

happened to sell cars on the side. is the pension problem, brian, resolved? >> the pension isn't as bad as people would have feared mid-year. underfunding grew by a billion and a half. great asset returns, 11.1%. it's on its way to working down. there's potential perhaps they could do some lump sum buyouts to further take down the overall size of it. it's not the bright spot, but we think the valuation makes up for that. >> you've got a price target of $36. so there's quite a lot of upside to go from where it's sitting right now. how do you like gm in comparison with some of the others in its sector? >> well, compare to ford what we're seeing is some tighter cost controls at gm. gm was arguably fatter coming in to 2010 than ford, which was pretty lean. it had to survive on its own without taxpayer assistance. so it seems to be happening as we're getting better cost discipline at gm relative to a year ago, which is really helping it. as a stock, it's just been hated for most of 2011. it's been hated because of

europe and the pension. so partly what we're seeing is a little bit of the dogs of the former dow member. just some of that heat coming off. we think that makes it an attractive stock. >> brian john john, a real pleasure to get your insight. now to darren rovell. all right, ncaa, march madness, insanity, used to be free partly online. it can no longer be. what's going on? >> people are freaking out -- >> i'm freaking out we have to pay for it. >> people were freaking out on twitter this morning because cbs sent out a very confusing release. i'll break it down. you know when you watch the streaming online, those four games at the same time? you could do that for free. if you want that exact same product for this upcoming march madness, you're now going to pay $3.99 for it. there's a way you can view it for free. you have to authenticate yourself, which is basically just putting in that you have trutv, cbs on your cable and put

it online and you can go to those individual websites, tbs.com, cbs.com, and watch the games for free. i know -- >> i'm trying -- okay, okay. >> it's called tv anywhere. >> are they trying -- some of those i would imagine are premium tier channels. i'm guessing, right? >> tru tv. >> but you have to pay up on the cable spectrum to receive one of those channels generally, right? are they trying to prove you've paid on the back end and it's okay you have all four? i think this is a scavenger hunt. >> i think this is the experimentation of pay. this is not the -- the primary goal is not to be about money. will it work? i think people will love it because you know what, for 67 games and $3.99, that's less than 6 cents a game. i think they might even test the threshold. >> when you put it like that, less than 6 cents a game, it's not that bad at all. >> tbs and cbs and turner paid

$10.8 billion for 14 years. they need to make their money back. they've been doing well with ads. >> thank you so much for coming on the set. we're all really wired here on "street signs." in sully's case it's not enough caffeine. in my case it's way too much caffeine. i don't know what herb's problem is. maybe just really he's bothered about chesapeake. >> the goldilocks. >> keep an eye on chesapeake energy which reports earnings next week. but it is not the earnings i'm talking about. it's everything else. the best description i've seen yet of chesapeake is this headline from bernstein analyst latest report referring to various financing vehicles the company has. complex alphabet soup a leading indicator off ind digestion.

enough to make my head explode. i started getting a ton of incoming this week that i should really take a look at chesapeake, which my colleague had focused on about a year ago. on monday the company announced a billion dollar refinancing to help reduce its debt. he told his clients he believes this latest offering actually increased his debt. so does jpmorgan's joseph alman went on the question which appears to be a changing roster of asset sales. bottom line here, really confusing stuff. that's always a big red flag to me. i want to tell you, guys, if you go out and look at what they're talking about in the local newspapers up in north dakota, there's even talks in the recent story chesapeake pulling back. won't honor lease agreements. there's a lot going on here. got to keep an eye on it. >> so not just right goldilocks

right now. >> by the way, one other thing, hanes brand totally whiffed it last night at least with their guidance. stock barely budged. >> you completely whiffed on mandy's comment too. just right over. >> right over. >> we haven't completed our course in the art of the joke. 1.10. >> i need to get something serious on a serious note, herb always talks about paying attention. you have to pay attention to the ticker, folks. we told you, carl icahn making a tender offer for cvr energy, its ticker, cvi. apparently people out there confused cvr, the ticker, cvr, with the company icahn is making a bid for. he's not making a bid for chicago rivet and machine. he's making a bid for cvr energy which has a ticker of cvi, not cvr, okay? >> point taken. >> be careful of the ticker. and by the way, cvr, the

company, the ticker, had no trades before the icahn headline. suddenly everybody's interested in chicago machine rivet. >> he's done them a service then. >> he really has. i'm telling you chicago machine rivet folks. >> maybe he'll look at them soon. >> why not. rivets are very riveting. >> yeah. up next, this is not a joke. >> and a popular candy goes on a diet. responsible move for your health or food police running amuck? >> cnbc celebrates black history month. er erny ernie banks became the first chicago cubs player to have his jersey retired. >> everybody would refer to me here's mr. cub. mr. cub this, mr. cub that. >> he was known for his positive attitude and famous quote "what

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we have to take a look at crude for you because it's above $102 a barrel. that's up about .5% on the day.

brent also posting gains on the day up to 120.15. of course the premium that brent is bringing you over wti is getting wider and wider because of that saber rattling going on in iran. >> all right. from oil to candy, how's that for a segue? mars is about to oust the king. the king size candy bar that is. going to phase out chocolate bars that exceed 250 calories. the latest company to put an obese out in front. let's discuss with founder and president with the national action against obesity. you've got to give a little props to mars here. >> i agree. >> you hate them. you got to say good job, mars, on this one. >> good job mars on this one. >> there you go. >> i don't think the world would be a better place without candy. i think there's room for candy. but if you're going to have a 250 or 500 calorie treat, you have to compensate for it. americans refuse to compensate for it.

>> what do you think is driving this? is it the consumers saying to mars we want a healthier choice? >> it absolutely is. >> or is it the food police, regulators, saying you need to be healthier in terms of what product you offer. >> all of us here as food police are table failures. no one listens to us other than it makes good business sense. americans are realizing they're really fat and sick and all of us are picking up that tab and it's unfair. i think that rather than all you can eat being perceived as a value, they're finally saying help us out. give us a portion size that's reasonable. 250 calories versus 500. >> we're on the same page on the cost side, but i got to say i'm worried about this. mars is a private company. but say you're applebee's. you say nothing will be sold over 1,000 calories. guess what, you're probably going to lose a lot of business to ruby tuesday and chili's because people want to eat what they want to eat. >> i think consumer demand will drive what happens. a year from now we may be having

a discussion where they're back with triple king size because if it doesn't work for mars, it won't work. but i think that when the consumer speaks, the industry delivers. and that's what's happening here. this is not for the purposes of charity. they're doing this for business. >> do we have any stats, basically, backing up this all leads to higher sales for a lot of these companies as well? >> well, it's less in the package. i wonder if they're going to reduce calories in what's in the package so we get a cost savings too. >> people are just going to eat more. they'll figure it out. >> herb, you're onto something. no matter what people do it creates a halo effect. if you get two of the 250, they don't feel as guilty. >> like lower calorie cookies. people say i'll just have three. >> right. they're not taking anything off the shelf. i would not be surprised if they sell more, people eat more and feel less guilty. but i hope for the best. and it does give people a better option. and i'm about transparency. if the industry tells us what's in the package, tells us how many calories, i can say, hey,

herb, that was 250 calories, let's hit a run. >> you can eat seven and not have the same caloric intake as the chicken and broccoli pasta at ruby tuesday or you could have 12 from some of these other things. >> they put broccoli in the title so you think i'll go for that because it's super healthy. and you're having one of the most -- >> it's delicious. >> i'm glad to see any of these cuts. i don't think that the quote unquote food police are the bad guys. i think many of us truly do it because we are concerned about people's health. many of us don't make a cent. many of us are just volunteers. so i think that it's a good change. i think there will be a benefit from it. i think mars will get this nice halo effect. >> okay. >> we're trying. >> here's to a healthier america. >> thank you. >> can you please go to australia and work on them as well? >> every country in the world now. only in sin city where the celebration of excess is stock and trade can we get this story. it's not a good one. a guy goes to the heart attack

grill, it's a restaurant. there it is. he eats there 6,000 calorie triple bypass burger and actually has a heart attack in the restaurant. it was caught on cell phone video. guy being wheeled out by paramedics. vegas fire and rescue officials say it was not a publicity stunt. and the only reason we're showing you this is because the guy is recovering. he's going to be fine. otherwise we wouldn't show it to you. just be careful. >> yeah. let's take a quick look what's happening with the markets. we're just off session highs right now, but we are still on track for our best day in about two weeks. the dow is just 100 points shy from cracking that 13,000 as we were speaking about earlier on whether or not that is the magic number to bring more people into the market remains to be seen. there you have it. there are the facts. that's what we do. next, though, the smartphone battle royal. >> iphone, android, something called the blackberry, and microsoft apparently makes a cell phone. who knew? we're going to show you the winners and losers and why americans are so emphatic about their choices.

before we do that, bill griffeth, what is ahead on "closing bell"? >> on an up day like this we're going to talk about bearish sentiment and how it's been recently, brian. it's actually at the highest level since the end of the year. we're going to talk on this rally day with one of the biggest bears on the street, morgan stanley chief equity strategist adam parker will tell us why he's so cautious about this market right now. and then later is the cme group eyeing another acquisition now that the new york stock exchange deutsche deal has been killed? executive chairman terry duffy will join us. optionsxpress, where you can trade your favorite products

all in one account. it's powerful, easy to use technology for trading stocks, options, and futures. optionsxpress, the broker smart traders deserve. open an account today at optionsxpress.com. we asked total strangers to watch it for us. thank you so much, i appreciate it, i'll be right back. they didn't take a dime. how much in fees does your bank take to watch your money ? if your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense.

sgloinchs here's a question for you. could microsoft regain its status as the wall street darling? microsoft touched a four-year high today. among many big tech highs this year. in fact, microsoft is up 21% for the year-to-date, trailing only bank of america and caterpillar, among the dow stocks. this is a company that at one time, i think it was, what, back in 1999, the year 2000, it definitely took the crown as the most valuable company ever. >> and it's trying to regain that, whether -- well, anyway, the last time it had a move like

this, a 5% move, was january 20th. last down day was august 20th. >> mandy's point, it had a $635 billion cap in 1999. bill gates was making like $10 million a second or something like this. since it's gone below 30, it's hard sticking around that mark. if it could hang out around 30 for any period of time, people might get reconvinced of the microsoft story. stock is up 8% since we todd about it last week. >> incredible how far it has come. >> consumers are hanging up their blackberries. we know that, all too painfully. only 5% of smartphone buyers are purchasing blackberries. robert joins us now for more on his smartphone survey, and he is joining us by a phone of some kind. thanks for joining us, will.

which device, we know the plaque berry is weak, which devices are in the most demand? >> good afternoon. thanks for having me. as the survey pointed out yesterday, and this isn't altogether surprising, but iphone android devices remain in hot demand. in fact, according to our survey, 90% plan to purchase an iphone or android device. >> if there's any scraps left over, what's your prognostication for this company? >> i think it's still tough ahead for them. we've been underperforming for some time now. i think there's still further a down side in the shares here. as you pointed out, according to our survey, only 5% planned to purchase a blackberry going forward. the current blackberry base, a quarter of somebody scribers plan to hold on or purchase a new blackberry.

so i think you're going to continue to see migration away from blackberry to iphone. >> it's a very competitive market. it's a crowded market, will. why would amazon and facebook talk about bringping on a sma smartphone of their own? >> we'll see what path they take. i don't think either of those two companies have made announcements yet. there's a lot of speculation in the market that one or both could roll out their own smartphone. i think mobile is the future. i guess the future is now. so i think netting, mobility, social networking, they're all trying to find out how to be best positioned in the marketplace. >> microsoft, we just talked about it. according to your survey, 3% of smartphone buyers are looking at a microsoft swap. 3%. >> microsoft's completely fallen off the map. they are planning to make a big

bet, and have made a big bet on windows phone 7. nokia is rolling out an item with at&t in march. we'll see a push from nokia and microsoft and some of the carriers. ultimately it will benefit the carriers to have multiple operating systems. but it's going to be an uphill battle for them. >> there's only one thing to do, instead of all of us having two smartphones, we'll have ten to accommodate all these players. will power, thank you for joining us today. up next, stock trouble in toyland. >> we're going to find out who the top dog is among carmakers. we're staying out of the shop, that is. still not sure how that cat won the dog show. >> and that cat was on "squawk on the street" this morning down at the nyse. at the nyse. meow.

down 26%, ouch. sales were down more than 5% last quarter. it will be unveiling a new store design that has been two years in the making. they'll close 15 to 20 stores in north america. but mattel is on a tear, trading at levels not seen since 1998. sad about build-a-bear. >> yeah, that was a grisly looking chart. grisly looking chart. >> yeah, hilarious. >> j.d. power and associates, lexus is