>> but who knows. there are a lot of folks who could benefit from vivus. thank you all for being with us on "power lunch" today. and this week, mandy, been fun having you around. >> it's been fun. but "street signs," fantastic show and i'm back on it next week as well, it begins right now. today's the day that everything changes. one way or another. >> and how's that for a friday pick-me-up? welcome to "street signs" everybody. i'm brian sullivan. on wall street it seems like nobody wants to be the first man to go out on the ledge and say i'm going all in on this rally. what is it going to take to get some bold calls and bold action?

battleground nokia. a new phone coming out to market this summer. and new critical buzz about it. new hopes that this could revive their sinking stock. and recovery roller coaster, why a little free fall in your portfolio could be a good thing. courtney. >> i'm courtney reagan. here's what else we're watching at this hour. won't go down as one of google's better investments. it's selling clearwire. it invested $500 million in 2008. shares are down 5.5%. investors walking away from crocs and decker outdoor. gives first quarter earnings forecast below wall street estimates. crocs down 6.5%, decker about 12%. and successful debuts for two initial public offerings. bazaar voice up nearly 40%. plastic parks maker chalking up nearly an 80% gain. how is that for a runup? >> that's not bad for a friday. courtney, thank you. why don't we go on a ledge now with bob pisani and rick santelli.

all right. bob, stocks have been on a big run for months, but volume as you know better than anybody is exceptional exceptionally anemic. the whole theme of this program is basically when do we get people to take a chance on stocks again? in other words to quote the red sox i guess, when do retail investors cowboy-up? >> i think the problem is going to be -- you'll see that change when we get more certainty on the global economy and more certainty on the u.s. economy. what's going on in europe, the clients in europe aren't trading because of the uncertainty here. the retail guys here aren't trading because of the uncertainty here. and the high frequency guys aren't even trading for even sake because the volatility is so low. i think this will change when we get more certainty on the global economy. brian, meanwhile the s&p just hit a three and a half year high. i know the volume we'll see. i know the price action isn't particularly fantastic. technology's up. energy's been a great performer. materials were falling off and it's gotten a little better this

week. the financials have sort of been moving sideways. overall, the market i think is holding up pretty darn well right now. >> rick santelli, do you agree with that? i mean, from any market's perspective? stocks, bonds, currencies, index futures, whatever it is, do you feel there's enough participation out there? >> well, first of all, you know, looking at all the other venues you can trade equities on and the dark pools, i'm not so su sure -- i understand volume is light. there's a whole world of equity trading that doesn't necessarily go through the nyse. to me the biggest problem we have with the markets and i always have been rather friendly equity not because i necessarily like them but because all the capital in the world created by central banks is going to go into equities. but when you have things with policy in them that are going awry, that's a game changer. the policy i'm talking about, whether you agree or disagree with what it is, it's foreign policy. which is really at the epicenter

of what's going on with iran. whether they sell it to their friends or other friends, it's not the key issue. it's foreign policy. and the other issue is energy policy that we're in this predicament at all. when the word policy is there, you can't fix it overnight. the president and tim geithner are right about that. they say drill, drill, drill won't work. they're right, but it would have worked if you'd done it in '08. and it would work in three years if you do it today. and if you're an author and never write the first sentence, you'll never sell any books. >> drill, drill, drill doesn't work politically either. >> let the environmentalists prove to me that natural gas is a negative on the economy and that their windmills ready to put on top of my bonneville to get me to work. >> bonneville? learn something new about him every day. >> i didn't say it was new. it's a '64. >> i figured you for an ltd or

gran torrino kind of guy. investors in terms of risk are about as far from the ledge as they can be. the new york stock exchange weekly volume lowest level so far this year. let's bring in the portfolio manager of the four-star rated jensen fund. rob, first to you. is the new york stock exchange volume even relevant at this point given what bob and rick were talking about with dark pools and everything, should we even be looking at that volume as a metric of market activity and interest? >> i think it is, actually, brian, it is. it's an indication of just how much real activity there is going on in the market. at times like these when there's potential threat and uncertainty to the strength and durability of our recovery, it's pretty telling. having said that, we do see some real value in the marketplace at this time. >> well, number one, where? number two, how do you then as

somebody that makes a living advising people what to do with their money first get people to say i'm going to do with my money rather than keep it in the mattress or getting it 1% interest, if that, from some sort of cd? >> very good question. the answer to that, i think, is in your time horizon. at jensen we're long-term investors. we think in terms of 10-year histories of company's performance. we're looking for high-quality companies that have durable competitive advantages that allows them to work through the peaks and troughs of the economic cycle. so that end, we're looking to high degrees of profitability, lots of cash flow and pricing power. we see that in a number of our companies. and as i mentioned earlier, the valuations are looking pretty undemanded at the moment. >> and, nick, valuations look relatively good if earnings continue on their pace. housing is up. we've seen the job market improve. we know that interest rates remain low. whatever you think about those things, it seems like we've got a pretty good perfect storm for

a somewhat recovery here. but yet we're not seeing people take advantage of it. have we burned a decade's worth of investors? they're just not coming back? >> yeah, brian, i think you've got it right. that's a big issue in the marketplace. we've had ten years of very slack returns. you've had a financial crisis that took a lot of money out of people's pockets. even though we've had a textbook rally from the bottom in october, every sector you want to see work has worked. people still feel reluctant to put money in the market. they still worry that the next crisis can come along. >> again, my same question to rob. how do you then overcome that? how do we re-engage interest? ultimately stocks will only continue to power up if there are more buyers than sellers. bottom line. >> that's absolutely right. what we need to have is some more period of reduced volatility like we're getting now. the analog to the low volume you're talking about is volatility has dropped. the vix is below 17. if people, investors see another month, two, three, four, five

months of continued improvement in the economy combined with low volatility, that's the recipe for the next leg up. >> rob, you said you had some picks for us, some places to go with relative safety and possibly decent returns. can you give us those now, please? >> absolutely. we see value in the global industry sector. united technology a prime example of that. world leader in x-ray technology and radiation therapy. and amphenol, all those companies have the same sort of characteristics we're looking for. balance sheets, durable competitive advantages and real pricing power as well as a strong and growing international exposure. >> nick, can you follow-up on that? help our viewers make money the next six years or whatever it might be. >> absolutely. i think you have to focus on technology. it's had a great run from the bottom, but that's where the

excitement is. it's where the energy is and higher than one beta group. as the market continues to climb, technology should be better. i'd be more cautious on financials. the story is particularly the political horizon we're facing this year. >> gentlemen, thank you very much. you have a great weekend. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> here's a shocker. herb would like to talk more about green mountain coffee roasters. in tv we call something like this the story that just won't stop giving. >> at least for me it doesn't stop. i think this is interesting. and not one to roll your eyes on because this news just broke a little bit ago. a big italian coffee company is starting to reduce its stake in green mountain. it actually owned 7% of the stock, bought it in august of 2010 for about $250 million. the stock of green mountain was 30, they bought more around $71 when green mountain did an offering. the stock went way up -- i'm not looking at a chart right now. but what's interesting here is that lavazza saying they're

reducing their stake from above 7% to below 5%. they're putting in a hedging strategy. it's all kind of interesting because this was supposed to be really quite a partnership as green mountain moved forward into more single serve machines. so we'll see what happens. the stock hasn't really reacted much to this news. perhaps people haven't seen it because we just hit in the middle of the day. anyway, that's my green mountain news for the day. also want to hit on sears. >> go ahead. hit on sears. were you waiting for ann invitation? >> trying to have a discussion with you. i think the story yesterday they're going to sell 25 stores -- i mean 11 stores for $270 million. that came out to about $25 million a store. "the wall street journal" had an interesting piece that one of those stores will sell for about $250 million, that's the store in honolulu which is quite a mall and great piece of property. that leads to the question how many of those other store ifs they indeed have the liquidity to sell them aren't worth that much? in other words -- >> average it out over the

stores sold because the one hawaii store was half so the other nine essentially have very little value, relatively. >> it appears that way. when i look at those stores i say what about costa mesa. but they're far and few between. >> we'll talk more about jc penney i believe later in the show as well. >> yes, we are. >> herb, thank you. on deck, asia's super market. we talk a lot about china on this program, but coming up we're going to show you what a really best performing markets in the pac rim, the names will surprise you. we'll also talk how to play them. and battleground stock nokia. its newest phone, really a love child of microsoft, may finally be a game changer and a stock price changer. we'll tell you why coming up. yeah, you -- you know, everything can cost upwards of...[ whistles ] i did not want to think about that. relax, relax, relax. look at me, look at me. three words, dad -- e-trade financial consultants.

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check out kaden. up 5%. out with so-so earnings. here's the big headline. kaydon is paying a $150 special event one-time dividend. companies return to shareholders over the last five years. now if you own kaydon, you get $10.50 a share. not bad. america's airlines keeping a close eye on rising oil prices because jet fuel costs are also spiking, which is sure to mean one thing, higher ticket prices. is there a point to which fliers

say enough's enough. i'm driving. or maybe are we already there already? let's bring in philip lebeau. this week united pushed a $10 round trip fare hike. they kind of let it float, see if the others do it. >> some have matched and some have not. and your question is are we going to see more of this this year? absolutely. this is just the beginning. we already saw one $10 fare increase stick for this year. look what we saw last year. there were 22 attempted fare hikes. of those 10 went through. and when you factor in depending on the routes being flown, the fares were up between $75, $76 and $130 round trip. but that's not the end of this. the other story is what's happening with fees because, brian, as we all know this is where the airlines are making up for losses. ancillary fees. starts with baggage and goes onto other things as well. that's really where the airlines are going to be making up for the high cost of jet fuel. >> okay. most airlines, not all, most made a profit last year. given the environment for jet fuel, can they make profits this

year? >> at the current rate, yes. earlier today a note saying i think they can make money up to $125 a barrel. when it hits there, then we might have some problems. as you take a look at jet fuel -- or crude oil, we're about $109. so we've got a little bit of wiggle room there. they can cut capacity, they can raise fares. but look at jet fuel. it's already approaching the high of last year. and we're not far away from where we were back in, what, 2008? which was the high $436. it's reasonable to think they could get there if we continue to see fuel prices increase. if that happens, then we're going to see these minor profits we're seeing from these guys turn into big losses. >> philip lebeau, thank you very much. the cycle turns for airlines once again. turning now from america's airports to america's ports. the nation's mayors meeting in jacksonville, florida, today. they've gathered there to talk about infrastructure like ports and how to boost the american

cities' fortunes. let's bring in jacksonville mayor, alvin brown. mayor brown, thank you for joining us on cnbc. what are the primary goals of your conference? >> first of all, thanks for having me, brian. our primary goal is to make sure we come up with a national policy as they look at investing in america's cities that we become a top priority for those investments particularly now that the president has called for the end of war in iraq and afghanistan, we're going to take those resources and invest them in our ports and exports to put america back to work. >> and so what do you need to do that? i assume money is a part of the equation, mayor brown. >> absolutely. >> just an assumption. >> money is the key. i mean, at the end of the day we want to make sure we invest in ports. here in jacksonville it's a $19 billion economic engine. it's already created 65,000 direct to indirect jobs. the average salary is $44,000 a year. it is really, really the key. and we want to remain competitive in the marketplace. i mean, when you really think

about it, cities are the key. investing in ports and exports to remain competitive in a global economy to make sure we can compete all around the world is important. so we have mayors here from all around the country really focusing oncoming up with our agenda that we'll present to the mayors in orlando to make sure that congress and the presidential candidates really focus on ports and exports. >> i figured you were going to war with orlando. like florence and sienna in ancient italy. we like to take a pulse of the cities and areas on the show. are things better now than they were one year ago in jacksonville? >> well, we're improving. you know, we -- our unemployment rate was at 10.5% over a year and a half ago. it's 9.2%. so we're moving in the right direction. and i think part of it, my strategy locally, is working with the private sector. i inherited a deficit of $58 million. i balanced our budget without raising taxes and fees and

tapping into the city reserve. i myself as mayor took a 20% pay cut. i'm not taking a city pension. so creating that environment that's going to force economic growth and development. i've partnered with the business community to create jobs because government don't create jobs, but we can create the environment to foster economic growth and opportunity. so working with our chamber, working with the private sector forging those partnerships i think are the key. and live within your means. i just got a settlement with the unions here that the police officers took a 3% pay cut and contributed 5% to contributions to their health care plan. really making sure that we focus on a long-term sustainable development. and also so the port is a part of that, military affairs, which is a $14 billion economic engine in our city. making sure that we're military friendly and really building that skilled work force. all of those things are very, very important. we're headed in the right direction because that's because of the private sector. the other thing is public-private partnerships.

that's what i've been focusing on mayor partnering with the private sector to create economic opportunities. in our city i have four or five executives working for me for $1. that's all. so i've partnered with the private sector to tap into the best minds to move our city forward. i think that's what we have to do. but really focusing on those things that taxpayers can get a return on their investment. >> i can't let you go without asking you this, i was born in los angeles, they do not have a current football team. i did watch the l.a. rams unfortunately as a kid. can you keep the jaguars in jacksonville? or is it a done deal that they're gone? >> jaguars is here to stay, baby. the mayor is going to make sure that the jaguars is going to stay. i believe in our new owner. he's investing in our city, not just with the jaguars but doing other things. we just left the jax chamber luncheon together where i spoke, he spoke. i just introduced him to all the mayors from around the country. many of them are here. he just spoke at our national meeting. he's committed to jacksonville.

it's going to be here. and my good friend who is the president of the u.s. conference of mayors is going to be here tonight and speak tomorrow. at the end of the day, the jaguars will be in jacksonville. you can take that to the bank. >> people in los angeles are sweating right now because they were hoping for a football team. good luck keeping the jags there, mayor. we like the jaguars. maybe one day tim tebow will come back home and be -- >> hey. >> i'm throwing it out there. >> i hear you man. >> you could use a little star power. no offense to blaine gab ert. >> he's given the team an open checkbook. so we're going to recruit the best players and put together a winning team. we love tim tebow. i love tim tebow. he's a jacksonville, north florida guy, an international star and we love him. and, sure, tim tebow's with us every day in spirit. >> mayor brown, thank you so much. have a good conference and a good weekend. >> thank you. >> all right. before we take the break, herb, i know you're a big nascar guy. i was watching the daytona duals

last night. did you see danica patrick's wreck last night? watch this. oh. we only show it to you because danica thankfully was fine. she hopped right out of the car. she said quite a wreck but totally okay. thank goodness for the barriers. that's a little south of jacksonville, florida. that's a welcome introduction to the daytona 500 from danica patrick. the accident not her fault at all. she got totally whacked. thankfully she is all right. still ahead, what one american president and a mcdonald's chicken mcnugget have in common. we mean it. and riding the recovery roller coaster. one sector's wild ride in the downturn and now it could be set to pop. "street signs" back after the break. but we couldn't simply repeat history. we had to create it. introducing the 2013 lexus gs, with leading-edge safety technology, like available blind spot monitor... [ tires screech ] ...night view... and heads-up display.

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pradaxa is progress. if you have afib not caused by a heart valve problem, ask your doctor if you can reduce your risk of stroke with pradaxa. all right. look at oil, folks. just keeps creeping higher. in fact, we are 28 cents now away from $110 a barrel. big spike up as we head into the close of oil trading. we're up $1.86. guess what's going to happen at the pump. you've already sent pictures. $4, maybe $5. by the way, anybody out there, if you see $5 -- not for premium, just for regular, send it to us whatever, send it to

us. we want to see it. all right. you heard us start talking about it on this show last summer how america was indeed beginning to recover from stocks to housing to jobs, things are up. but some are suggesting that we could be ready to see even more groups take off as we begin an upward spiral. now, brian shactman has been breaking down what we are calling sectornomics all day. >> that indeed, brian. gas prices and oil have a lot to do with this sector. who doesn't like a good roller coaster? look at this one. we modelled this on one of my old favorites from childhood. theme parks, they have fewer players than the others that we looked at in sectornomics but none give better insight into the american consumer. first stop our parent company, comcast. it's the smallest of the company's four segments, but the key is it's actually growing thanks in large part to harry potter in florida, king kong,

and fourth quarter saw 4% growth. harry potter will head to california too. and he seems bankable these days. for disney, a double importance when it comes to their theme parks. stock flat for the day up 10% for the year. major source of revenue, more dependent than comcast and extend to new generations like my kids. last quarter profits up 18% at disney parks and the trend is reliant on the u.s. recovery. the next challenge, whether gas prices will have an impact on this upcoming spring school vacation period, which is just coming upon us. business hedging with these guys most recently reported strong revenue but an eps miss. they're losing money. the company's still investing in new rides and they remain committed to maintaining a dividend. they said we will still pay a dividend even though we're losing money. of course they were in chapter

11 in 2010. next stop, "closing bell," we go from rides to refrigerators. the appliance business is telling us about the economy. not quite as fun as the roller coasters. back to you guys. >> it certainly is not. from the happy fun theme parks to herb of doom. rubicon. >> a technology company. >> who is that? i memorize all 4,000 stocks. >> neither have. every day i come across one i didn't really know was there because there are so many. this one's hitting take a look at the chart. ouch. the company came out with earnings weaker than expected, projected surprisingly down beat current quarter. and that is why rubicon today is the disaster du jour. >> down nearly 18%. today's sunshine stock really darkened herb's day because it is his favorite company in the world. salesforce.com. >> oh, please. >> i know. look at that. double-digit gain. >> that's great. >> solid earnings.

revenue continues to grow. signed numerous seven-figure deals. analysts out with positive comments. couple firms at least raising their price target on salesforce.com. stock's up more than 40% year-to-date and performing better than apple on a year-to-date basis. >> and i got to just say -- >> are you ready to throw in? >> no. you had, you know, cramer had on marc benioff last night. marc was very positive as he always is. so is jim in this one. but i'll say take a look at the quality of earnings. in this market nobody cares about the quality of the earnings. but you know, some time it may actually matter. >> i will back you up on "fast money" "halftime report" i had the privilege of hosting, had an analyst on that said exactly what you just said. he said look at the numbers. dig into them. he thought the numbers were cheaply gotten. he agrees with you and so do i. london bridge's pants are falling down.

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all right. it is getting interesting with about 90 minutes left to go in the trading day, look at the dow industrial average. we're not down big but we are down. we're off 25 points right now. we have seen a decided turn in a few things in the last few minutes. seems like people may be getting a little nervous heading into the weekend. that's the dow industrials. now let's look at the vix, the volatility index. look at the last few minutes. we are seeing a spike up in the vix really in just the last five to ten minutes. some of them -- some of that might have to do with this, which is the price of oil as we just showed you. it merits repeating. crude oil at $109.58. so we've seen the price of oil spike as well the last few minutes. we've seen the vix spike. and we have seen the dow turn down. could be a very interesting 90-odd minutes as we head into the weekend. let's talk more now about this

oil move. sharon epperson at the nymex joining us now. sharon. >> brian, with nearly $110 a barrel here at the nymex with the final trades coming in and keep in mind this is the high of the week, the high of the month, the high of the year, the highs that we've seen since may and a lot of course major factor contributing to what we've seen at the nymex. u.n. watchdog group about nuclear international atomic energy saying it has stepped up uranium enrichment more than earlier thought. there are other factors contributing in addition to iran and that is the fact that we are looking at a weaker dollar and momentum buyers that have been piling into this market. we're going to find out the exact statistics in a couple hours from the cftc. suffice to say we have seen record long positions across the board in the petroleum complex and that is likely to have continued in this week. when you look at the type of geopolitical risk that is in this market and you go into a

weekend, traders do not want to be short of course in this marketplace. in fact, we expect this trend to continue with about two and a half hours left in the electronic session for trading crude. >> sharon, thank you very much. all right. let's move onto a company that might be impacted by higher oil and gas prices, jc penney. courtney reagan is with us now to break it down. >> thanks, brian. so in its first earnings release since announcing plans for complete transformation, jcp posted a gain of 74 cents a share, beating the street. but the key, sales fell again down nearly 5% year over year. internet sales fell too. 3%. that's a weak point as it competes with macy's whose fourth quarter online sales grew 40%. in a pre-recorded earnings web cast ceo ron johnson says consumers so far responding positively to the changes, fashion apparel pricing highlighted ntd monthly book as hope. the shops posting strong double-digit comp increases. lastly johnson notes meaningful improvements and perception from

surveys. there's a lot to talk about here. boys, have at it. >> when you said the earnings call -- his beef was that it was recorded -- >> no questions. >> meaningless. why have an earnings call? that's meaningless. i also don't like the fact the company's coming out continues to reiterate guidance. why do they give guidance? we know they're going to beat guidance because they're cutting the sgna. this is going to take time to turn if it's going to turn. >> they need time, right, courtney? as i read -- i read the fourth quarter transcript, overall same store and even internet stores were down. first margins tanked as they had to discount heavily. and you saw sg & a koosts change because reducing. >> it might take a long time for consumers to respond to. >> remember, ron johnson said -- >> remember this, you guys agree with each other. [ laughter ] >> you're on the same team.

>> there's only one point i want to say here. he said three to four years. >> uh-huh. >> that's significant. in a stock market geared quarter-to-quarter, day-to-day, people just want to see what's going to happen in the quarter. >> why back himself into a corner like that? >> he feels he can make it. >> think about the long run, if this works, if it works, it could be brilliant. it could change retail. 100 separate shops. get rid of the clutter. put it on the walls. >> okay, courtney, you're our retail expert here. so if they're gaining share and they're not yet, but let's say th they do. let's say your boy's plan works out, who are they taking out? everyone seems to think it's kohl's. >> i don't know about that. >> is it montgomery ward, maybe? [ laughter ] >> let me tell you, if this works -- >> courtney's like who's montgomery ward. they went bankrupt before your

time. >> if this works, it's disruptive to the industry. but we'll see. look, we haven't seen it. we're asking what they can do. we know there's going to be everyday low pricing. if everyday low pricing doesn't work, a lot of analysts don't believe it will, then you have bigger issues. >> remember, remember, apple, everybody thought apple was down how many years ago? completely turned around with the ipod. who thought the ipod was going to save that company? >> this is how "street signs" works, we like to completely bash and humiliate everybody onset all the time, do you think that jc penney will at some point ever sell apple products? just take a wild stab. >> yes. >> it will be recorded on national tv forever. >> yes. i believe at some point jc penney will sell apple products. >> everybody's going to start selling apple products. >> but it's ron johnson. now courtney reagan is on record nationally, we have recorded it, as saying jc penney -- it's a total guess. but on the record. fantastic, courtney, thank you. >> thank you. >> herb, you're calling this the heads, i win, tails, you lose

market. >> i just see so much of this -- look, for many companies -- for no chance of victories, talking about our jc penney bet. i'm still in the money for now. for many companies this remains heads i win, tails you lose market. take a company like smart balance which makes butter spreads. the company reported earnings the other day that were just okay, not okay enough that two analysts lowered their estimates. the stock, don't care about what the analyst said, up 27% since then. then here's hollysys automate technology. they make many things including the railway industries. the analyst that knows the company best lowered his price target citing deteriorated earnings quality and lack of visibility. turns out nearly two-thirds of their revenues last quarter came from government subsidies. the stock up 16%. brian, it's just those kind of

things in this kind of market that's momentum-driven that just drive me absolutelieabsoluteliy >> diamond foods drive you nuts too. >> a lot of things drive me nuts. >> check this out. mother teresa cinnabon. meet the george washington mcnugget. look closely, folks. a nebraska woman noticed one of her kids' chicken mcnuggets looked like george washington. put it back up. she kept it for three years. okay. three years. she put it on e bay. the winning big was $100. i'm not sure what's more frightening. the fact someone paid $100 for this mcnugget or the fact it was still in good condition after three years. if you see it on the web, you can sort of see the wig and the nose and the prominent jaw of george washington. still. >> it's absolutely frightening. >> yeah. look at that. all right. still ahead, battleground nokia. remember them? wired magazine actually giving pretty good reviews to the new phone which runs windows by the

way. we'll have a guest onto talk about nokia. and you certainly do not want your portfolio to crumble like this. give your investments a healthy look. cnbc celebrates black history month. willie bar row, pioneer and civil rights activist for 60 years, she would go onto become a key field coordinator for dr. martin luther king jr. including the legendary march in sell ma, illinois. she pushed the coalition along with jesse jackson. >> i knew my purpose early in life and i committed my purpose to man's humanity. ♪

our machines help identify early stages of cancer and it's something that we're extremely proud of. you see someone who is saved because of this technology, you know that the things that you do in your life, matter. if i did have an opportunity to meet a cancer survivor, i'm sure i could take something positive away from that. [ jocelyn ] my name is jocelyn, and i'm a cancer survivor. [ mimi ] i had cancer. i have no evidence of disease now. [ erica ] i would love to meet the people that made the machines. i had such an amazing group of doctors and nurses, it would just make such a complete picture of why i'm sitting here today. ♪ [ herb ] from the moment we walked in the front door, just to see me -- not as a cancer patient, but as a person that had been helped by their work, i was just blown away. life's been good to me. i feel like one of the luckiest guys in the world. ♪

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shaky dis-i objeintegrating eco. asian markets are flying this year. greece has done well this year, but maybe for different reasons. we'll get to that. but look at some of the returns on the asian markets. forget about japan and china. the malaysia market is odd given it trades with oil. jakarta, korea, look at the returns. and then into the big time, philippines, singapore, taiwan index and nikkei in japan's done well, but the best performing asian market year-to-date, vietnam, pulling jobs out of china and into vietnam. so overall the asian markets to some looking fairly attractive. and now for some discussion and comparison, let's talk about how to get into these markets and whether or not they deem worthy of your hard-earned cash. joining us now is managing director at knight equity. should i sell everything and buy every stock on the hochiminh

index? >> no. but look next door to laos and cause ek tan. >> i couldn't find a la ocean index to bring up. the point is how do american investors buy into these market sns. >> there are several ways. of course you can buy the actual equities, but i personally like a more homogenized approach to risk management. i'm more inclined towards an etf discipline partially because the people managing the etfs are more feet on the ground there and have more local knowledge about what's going on. so that manages the risk, but also you can homogenize because you have multiple holdings. and several of those are hao which is the guggenheim china

small cap up 23% year-to-date. definitely a high-flier. gxe and fxi which is actually the most liquid of those three. fxi has a concentration in telecom, energy, importantly agriculture and insurance. so not all energy, but a really nice stratified approach to investing in china. you say should we sell everything and jump in? no, absolutely not. this is a play that really speaks to volatility, risk management. that's why you want to go in with a homogenized discipline like etfs. and there are others. >> what was the second one? you mentioned the hoa. what's the ticker on the second one again? >> gxc. >> and what's the risk on these, if china does slowdown, whether a hard or soft landing, do you see sort of negative repercussions throughout asia? >> there's no question that any slowdown in china is going to

have a very direct impact on the entire region, especially the high fliers without much infrastructure. so china definitely has that ability to have a much wider wake than some of the other markets in the region like we've been mentioning earlier. but keep in mind that china's out performance relative to global markets is i think in large part due to the fact that the eu now turned its largest trading partner as of october 2011 is stabilizing. greece-specific. and there are some policies being implemented by the eu central bank to sort of broaden out the approach of austerity to the eu, which should help that dynamic between china and asia and the eu. >> i'm take ago trip tomorrow to singapore and hong kong. i'll get some man on the street perspective and bring it back for you. >> awesome. thank you, brian. >> with just over an hour to go in the trading day, we're not down big, we're down 15. but you can see from the chart in the last 15, 20 minutes, a certain turndown and a certain

turn up for the volatility index. in other words, the risk -- the fear, again, it's not high. we're at 17.5. but it has spiked up as we head toward the close. people clearly a little nervous heading into this weekend. well, the new nokia phone more hot than not. that's right. we used the term hot and nokia in the same sentence. why the normally tough critics and "wired" magazine giving some of these nokia phones a thumb's up. first, bill griffeth, what's coming up on "closing bell"? >> also on dow 13,000 watch as you are, brian. and anything is possible in the last hour or so. come on and join us. we'll follow the last hour of trade. also can oil's rally rage on? that's the talking numbers trade as we approach $110 a barrel here in new york. plus refiners are feeling the margin squeeze of sky-high oil prices. should you stay away from that group as an investment? we'll look at that. and inside the fda. commissioner dr. margaret

hemberg talks about how the agency is trying to fix the log jam in getting red hot generic drugs to the market. all that and more when at the n stock exchange at the top of the hour. brian is back with more "street signs" after this. stay tuned. the s&p 1500 retail industry index reached an all-time high this week and is up 9.78% year-to-date. so, will it go even higher? it's sectornomices coming up on "closing bell," appliance maker. forty years ago, he wasn't looking for financial advice. back then he had something more important to do. he wasn't focused on his future. but fortunately, somebody else was. at usaa we provide retirement planning for our military, veterans and their families. now more than ever, it's important to get financial advice from people who share your military values. for our free usaa retirement guide, call 877-242-usaa.

 so -- tell me again what happened. i was downstairs making coffee, and we heard it. it just came crashing through the roof, out of nowhere. what is it? it's our ira. any idea what coulda caused this? maybe. i just sorta threw a little money here, a little money there. and i loaded up on something my dentist told me was hot. yeah. ♪

battleground nokia. because did you know that nokia sells more phones worldwide than apple and r.i.m. combined? apple and samsung combined, which is why this is a big deal. you look at the nokia lumia 900, it's going to hit the u.s. market this summer. it's already being called the best window's mobile phone yet. what exactly does that say? could this be a device, a game changer for nokia? mike isaac is here, as well as scott sutherland. mike, listen, my desert island magazine, if there's one i can

take, i'll tak"wired." you reviewed the lumia, compared it to some of the other smartphones. the magazine gave it an 8 out of 10. why do you like this phone so much? i was shocked. >> you're not used to nokia phones as the newest, greatest phones out there. nokia is basically betting the entire company on windows phone. and them being the operating system for their smartphones, right? so the emphasis on nokia is on design. everything goes into the hardware design on the phone. they've got this sort of bow house funky look that's not like any of the android phones you see out there right now. they have their oun apps that they make, that you can't get on other hardware manufacturers, like htc or samsung. it just looks different. you know, it's very design heavy. and that's something that microsoft is really trying to do with their windows phone. >> mike, you have a lot of influence, right? people buy products based on what you say. but is it too little too late for nokia?

>> they're also regarding some of the lower end phones, dumb phone customers as they call it. there's another phone called the 710, that is a $50 phone with a two-year contract that if you're not used to the whole smartphone market, you can try that out. so you can get into windows phone, if you've never had an iphone or android phone before. >> mike, thank you very much. cut it a little bit short because of what's going on. i'll go to scott sutherland. a stock that was $40 about five years ago. do you think lumia can turn around the stock price or is it too late? >> i don't think it's too late for nokia. i think them, as well as microsoft has positioned them to be the ecosystem in the mobile device environment. but they have a tough transition moving from sindian toward the smartphones. >> a lot of our viewers who tweeted to us about nokia make a good point, they sell the dumb phones, these are low margin products. can nokia, a, sell more of the

lumia, but also make more on what they sell? >> i think obviously this relation with microsoft, they can get some scale in the manufacturing and make more on these devices down the road. i think the new device is a good start with it, and i think they need to do more with the software assets that they and microsoft have moving from location, to all the internet services, and the user interface that microsoft is bringing to the device. this could really help them. apple and samsung are showing a move in the market. >> are you recommending your clients own nokia shares or sell them if they own them? >> at this point in time we're still staying on the sidelines. we think nokia is an interesting stock in a transition period. we want to see how some of the new phones start. we think they've obviously done a good improvement in the development cycles and think they have interesting products out there. it's just too early yet for the stock. >> all right. scott, thank you very much. and mike, thank you, too.

>> thank you. >> nokia and microsoft in the same device in the same sentence. coming up, call it the credit crunch diet.

the financial crisis leading to belt tightening in england. literally, a top london tailor said british men have lost more than an inch and a half on their waist since the financial crisis began. the reason? shrinking expense accounts, and fewer business lunches.