don't forget to catch more tonight. follow me on twitter. interesting day in the market. again, a big reversal. the s&p right at the 2011 intraday highs. we'll follow it on "power lunch," which begins right now. thank you, scott. and indeed we will follow it because there are now three hours to go in the trading day. and the bulls are trying to figure out that bounce back above 13,000. good news, contracts for home sales near a two-year high. the bad news, the g-20 says no more help for europe. market's made a big late-morning turnaround. does this powerful rally still have legs or not,ty? >> most of us would rather invest like buffett. his takes on his favorite bank stock today. >> and pain at the pump. gasoline prices soaring putting the pinch on consumers. also means opportunity for you the investor. we'll tell you how to make some gain amidst all the pain. >> along with sue herera, i'm

tyler mathisen. welcome everybody. "power lunch" begins right now. welcome to "power lunch." take a look at the markets right now. stocks are rebounding from a 1% loss. the dow down triple digits at one point. reversing trading above 13,000 as you can see here we are up 13,014. really close to the key 13,070 level. watch that as trading continues throughout the day. the nasdaq also higher by about .3%. consumer discretionary and tech leading the way here today. here's where we stand right now as we took a look at that. i want to get you quickly to crude. as you can see here we're above $109 a barrel, but lower on the session. rbob gasoline also lower on the session. some think it could be went too far, too fast. the 10-year yield is below 2% right now. watch that one. that's moving too. our midday movers, she near energy partners. micron technology higher as well

by almost 8%. competitive memory filed for bankruptcy, so micron now in a stronger position. and whirlpool also up more than 6.5%. could be getting a bounce off of the good housing data. on the downside, alpha natural resources lower by 4.3%. citi and barclays cut the price target. moody's cut its outlook as well. quicksilver resources down on an 85% drop and fourth kwartder earnings down about 5.2%. and netflix cut to underperform by raymond james. for now let's head to bob pisani on the floor of the new york stock exchange. he's got many more movers to come, bob. >> and our new platform right here on the floor. important thing about today all the major indices are essentially sitting right near multi-year highs. two events happened throughout the day that i think moved stocks. first look around 10:00. that's when the new home sales numbers -- or excuse me january

pending home sales numbers, those are contracts not closings, they came out a little better than expected. then right here we saw the german parliament approving the greek bailout. not unexpected, but perhaps a little less fireworks than people expected from there. not as fiery rhetoric as some people were expecting. some of the people arguing no more aid for greece were a little quieter than some anticipated. bottom line we moved right to the highs of the day just about one hour ago. home builders all moved up on the information on the january pending home sales. get more on that orveg from diana. but you can see here 4%, 5%, 3% in some of the big ones. ryland throughout the day. big turnaround. all the major financials were negative until just going into the european close we started moving into positive territory. you see all the major financials today are sitting at the highs for the day. look at the big sectors. important thing is, well, we've led by the groups that would

matter. financials, technologies, industrials and materials. not big on the plus side, but most of them were negative early on. some of them were down even as much as 2% some of the big stocks in this group. bottom line is all of these groups are in positive territory. what's going to be happening next couple days of course we're going to have more news over in europe. we're going to have the eurozone finance ministers all meeting on thursday and friday. and, courtney, on wednesday the ltro. the three-year funding mechanism for the ecb. we're expecting a very big uptake for that. the banks will take advantage of all that. the german dax index topped out a while ago, but right now still not far from its highs. courtney, back to you. >> very good points, bob. busy day but more to come this week. oil hovering around nine-month highs and gas prices continue to rise. sharon epperson tracking all the action at the nymex and so much more. sharon, back to you. >> courtney, we're looking at a pullback across the board in the energy complex, but we have seen wti oil futures come off of their lows significantly. brent still under pressure.

of course we're seeing more exports from saudi arabia and nigeria. that might be pressuring global prices a bit. keep in mind we're still looking at gasoline futures at their highest level in zempb months despite the brief pullback we've seen today. a couple factors for the rise. we know about the rise in oil due in large part to the geopolitical risk from iran. add to that gasoline is rising on its own merit due to the loss of refining capacity particularly on the east coast. about 860,000 barrels per day of gasoline that we've been counting oncoming to the east coast either with our own refineries or key refinery in the caribbean are now gone. that is contributing to what we're seeing in the spike in prices on the east coast for sure. but the national average as well. we're also looking at the fact that wall street money is betting on a higher outcome for gasoline. gasoline futures and options, the long positions there are at the highest level we've seen actually on record, sue. so wall street also having an impact on what is happening to

prices at the pump. back to you. >> indeed very much so. thank you, sharon. now let's switch on the "power lunch" power surge and drill down on the stories driving the day. contracts for home sales hitting a two-year high. and billionaire investor warren buffett telling cnbc that's where he would put his money. so what's fueling his optimism? diana olick is in washington with some of the details. hi, diana. >> hey, sue. the numbers are going up and that's enough to fuel optimism in this market. but remember we're coming off some real historic lows here in sales. that said though the numbers today bay based on contract signs, not closings, pending home sales rose 2% from a downwardly revised december number. the pending index up 8% from a year ago and hitting highs not seen since 2010 when the home buyer tax credit was in play. one caveat is cancellations are running historically high at 33% in january. so all these pending sales will not necessarily turn into closings. now, as for the optimism at least on the part of mr. buffett, it appears to be all about affordability.

record low mortgage rates and bargain basement prices are leading him to say if you can, get in. >> if i had a way of buying a couple hundred thousand single family homes and had a way of managing them -- the management is really the problem because they're one by one, not like apartment houses, but i would load up on it. >> now you noted his optimism an investor taking advantage of these distressed properties to turn them around as rentals. that of course implies he doesn't expect rental demand to fall off any time soon. while sales have begun to rerebound, home prices have not. we'll get the latest reading tomorrow morning. kp expectations there not quite so bullish. >> diana, if as mr. buffett says it's such a great time to get in and buy, what's holding back the bulk of the ordinary market from getting in? >> getting a mortgage, sue. that's what i hear every single day. a lot of folks are not qualifying for those low rates on mortgages. they either don't have enough money to put down or they don't have enough credit.

and that's leading a lot more buyers to be all cash buyers. in fact, we saw a new study out today saw a big jump in the number of all cash buyers. i'm not talking about investors. i'm talking about repeat existing home sales buyers to occupy those homes. a study found a big jump from october to january because people need to use cash to get in on the deals. >> diana, thanks a million. >> we're keeping a separate eye, close eye, on dell today. the stock is having a good run lately, but what is the growth strategy there? dell's ceo spoke exclusively with our jon fortt who is with us now. jon, what'd he tell you? >> good morning, tyler. intent to run out latest commercial products i sat down to understand strategy a little better. headline, he's not thinking about consumer very much even with smartphones and tablets hot and windows 8 coming later this year. listen. >> within the context of the $3 trillion industry, consumer's about $250 billion and commercial and public sectors $2.75 trillion.

so that's kind of how i think about it. >> he did say he's excited about windows 8 later this year and expects it will help profits. his focus is on small and medium size business providing them with not just service and pcs but storage, networking, services. here's what i found most interesting about our conversations this morning, he sounded more optimistic even than he did on the earnings call when i talked about the thailand floods which caused hard drive shortages that hit dell's margins off camera. he said those are clearing up and thinks he can go after a small and medium business customer ibm and cisco can't reach effectively. also m&a. i get the sense that dell's going to be buying more this year than last with software a big category, tyler. >> maybe you didn't go here with him, jon, but dell's business has largely -- a big part of dell's business has been government, public sector. as he said there. but governments are cutting back a lot. >> absolutely. that has hurt him. they're trying to make up for that in some other areas

particular particularly profitswise moving more towards selling their own technology. so they're selling less emc storage, for example, selling more of their own from compel and others. that's definitely hurt them particularly on the revenue line. >> all right. jon, thank you very much. jon fortt. >> back to the markets and specifically the dow which is trading back above the 13,000 mark again. warren buffett also telling cnbc he's bullish on stocks. headlines like those have people starting to tiptoe back into the market. our kayla tausche has been tracking the money moves lately. hi, kayla. >> hi, sue. it's hard to remember a time when warren buffett wasn't bullish on stocks. that being said, retail investors are starting to believe that story line even if they're tentative in moving their money here. for the week ending february 22nd, mutual funds saw $6.2 billion coming in with about

$1.3 billion going to equity funds both investing in stocks here in the u.s. and abroad according to data from lipper. certain headlines have helped this. the lack of a disorderly default in greece, the bank of japan increasing bond buying, better u.s. jobless claims numbers not to mention favorable corporate tax moves here in the u.s. that's according to to barclays head of u.s. equity portfolio strategy. but of course it takes several weeks to be able to read the tea leaves in these fund flows because even as the market has been in a nay sant recovery mode for the last three months with the dow up 15%, the s&p up 18%, full week average inflows to equity have been negative since april of 2011. everyone the week before last $280 million flowed out of equity funds as the s&p went relatively flat. now, the most consistent in flows data show have gone towards the bond market. namely high yield bonds as risks dwindle and investors keep reaching for yield. of course there are critics of hanging hopes on these fund flow numbers since they don't account for institutional investors or

non-u.s. fund managers, but there's still a good barometer of the direction of confidence and right now, sue, that's a good direction. >> if they are indeed moving slowly back into the equity side of things, what are they liquidating to move that money into equities? >> this is really interesting. they're taking money out of money market funds. in january of this year more than $23 billion flowed out of money market funds. and a lot of that went into bond funds. high-yield bond funds, especially as they're reaching for this yield when they realize that this is going to be a very low interest rate environment for some time. that's the biggest outflow from money market funds since july of last year when we saw them taking their money out in mass. sue, i don't think that's going to stop any time soon because of these interest rates. >> it certainly doesn't seem to be. kayla, thanks. >> and up next, the markets pulling back initially today and bulling ahead all the major averages are up more than 20% since the october low. nasdaq up 27%. well into bull market territory.

so what's next? our continued bull charge or are we do for a correction? >> let's check out the commodities complex as we head to the break. we are seeing some profit taking and selling in gasoline, nat gas and heating oil. but the copper market is up .5% and we're seeing gre ining grai participate today. [ male announcer ] what if you had thermal night-vision goggles, like in a special ops mission? you'd spot movement, gather intelligence with minimal collateral damage. but rather than neutralizing enemies in their sleep, you'd be targeting stocks to trade.

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treasury prices climbed in early trade over the rising price of oil and fears in europe. let's get the latest from the cme with holly.

good afternoon. what's the action telling you? >> well, it's interesting that you mentioned oil, tyler. there used to be a time where higher oil prices tended to ignite inflation fares particularly in the treasury market. however, we have not seen that type of event in the last five to six months. sot higher that we tend to see oil go, the more that you're putting a bid in the treasury market. i think you're still seeing that today. so people are talking about 110 and even higher. i think as long as that happens you're going to keep the bid in the treasure market like we've seen here and could see lower yeelgds over the next several months. >> you look at the reasons, holly, for that higher oil price and traces back largely to concerns about iran and what might happen there. and that sort of derivatively might push people into a safety trade in treasuries, right? >> exactly. so you've got that safe haven bid that's going on in treasuries. and a little bit of greece has been resolved. germany voted, things look a bit more calm as you might say for

the time being. but you still have that safe haven. you've got other things going on domestically. you've got treasury with a buyback this week. so you're buying up the supply. you have no new coupon supply coming out from the treasury via any auctions this week. so you've got reduced supply there also keeping the bidding. you've got chairman bernanke's testimony later in the week and also quite a few fed speakers this week all on the dovish camp to neutral at best. so all of those are keeping a bid in the market and i think we could continue to see lower yields here. >> holly, thanks very much. i've given up talking about greece for lent. thanks very much, holly liss. all right. stocks turning a little bit higher this afternoon after those early losses. but how long will this latest surge last? and can we close above the 13,000 mark? is this rally in fatigue, or is the bulls simply taking a bit of a pause before regaining momentum? thoughts now from non-u.s. equity for american century

investments which has nearly $120 billion under management. and dan is btig's chief global strategist and cnbc contributor. welcome, gentlemen. good to see you. >> hi. thank you. >> marc, you do think there's more room for this rally to run even though we've had such a significant advance. what leads you to that? what evidence do you point to? >> i think it's earnings. earnings have come in very strong so far this year. not only in the u.s. but also outside the united states. and the market is still cheap. >> dan, you know what worries me though? i was just on vacation last week, ran into a few people in beautiful newport, rhode island, and they came up and said i really feel like i need to get into this market, but i'm nervous. whenever the retail investor starts to commit to this market, it worries me that they're getting in at a time when the market is peaking. what do you think? >> i don't know newport, rhode island, is the necessary retail investor. >> i'm talking the tourists

visiting there. they didn't live there. >> i think the last report is particularly accurate in the sense that the retail investor has not come back to this market. the fund flow data supports that. largely speaking, the retail investor really hasn't come back to equities since the dotcom bubble. it's never really gone back to where it was obviously largely due to valuations, but it's never gone back to what you saw in the '90s that consumers have shied away from equities for the better part of ten years now. >> are there individual companies or sectors that you think represent value today? >> i think you can still get a lot of value out of the energy, especially the energy sector as regards to infrastructure spending. there's some really good technology companies out there on a global basis that we have this movement towards what i call the mobile wallet. today we have the mobile congress meeting in barcelona. we're going to get a lot of new regulations and new protocols around the mobile wallet that i

think will drive sort of a whole new surge and whole new different type of spending team. >> who does that help and hurt? >> i think it probably hurts the credit card companies a little bit. so depending on how the structure is, but it could benefit anyone from apple to the smaller companies that sell the chips that go inside the phone. >> let me also add, despite the fact that we tend to follow this market from sort of a macro top down framework, you've seen a total breakdown in correlations over the last several weeks nonsystemic risk has come to the floor again. lng is really particularly important. the black rock -- doesn't matter. the $19 price target on lng. this stock's up 50% or so since we initiated. there's, you know, people get bogged down in the details of greece or whomever, but the fact is companies are executing and executing in not the best

environment. if we get anything resembling a normalized environment, some of these companies are really going to take off. >> what sectors do you like specifically, dan -- or company specific, that you would be willing to place that bet on? >> from a macro standpoint, we've liked the tech sector for a long time. it hasn't exactly been a sterling outperformer, but i think, you know, there's a generational shift here away from labor towards, you know, technology and things that make input costs cheaper for businesses. and the companies that are doing that are likely to benefit. but from a sector specific standpoint, we have buys on a host of companies. mark palmer follows the regional banks for us. he has buys on some of the regional names. there's definitely places that will benefit from the improves housing market for instance. we agree on that. and then again today is a perfect example with lng. >> mark, quick thought on china. there's the changeover there taking place for the next 12 to 15 months. how likely is that to change the

economy there? >> this spring we have the announcement of the bureau. there are only going to be two members of the old one that will be in the new. so that's a big change. and i think the focus will be more on housing and a more affordability of housing. so the chinese will declare probably victory against the housing bubble, but then i think they'll expand the availability for the lower middle class to be able to purchase homes whether that's subsidy from the government or comes from social housing like we have in singapore. >> very interesting, guys. thanks very much. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> coming up next, the answer to a very big question. what is scott wapner watching these days? >> and in the next 24 hours we'll get answers to even bigger questions. will mitt romney win the gop primary in his home state of michigan? and has rick santorum gone too far in pushing his social agenda? we'll talk to john harwood on the other side of this break. look at all this stuff for coffee.

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welcome back to "power lunch." let's check in with scott wapner and see what's on his radar today. >> sue, thanks so much. we're looking at shares of what else but apple. reason why stock hitting another new all-time high today. market cap approaching half a trillion dollars. all of this coming after what could be perceived as two negative articles over the weekend in a couple papers. "the wall street journal"

raising the question of iphone crutch of subsidies wondering what would happen if the subsidies that the carriers are paying are cut back, whether the iphone would then be more expensive for consumers. and jim stewart in the "new york times" raising some interesting questions about the law of large numbers that a lot of people talk about. investors though seem undeterred. the stock is up yet again. year-to-date up 30%. all of this now on optimism that another ipad, the ipad 3 is coming down the pike, whether there's going to be a dividend paid out by apple. whether they have a stock put or something like that in the near future. we're watching shares of apple today $525, a new high, ty. >> that will buy a nice ipad. thanks very much, scott wapner. to politics now. a tossup in michigan according to the latest polls in that state. romney has a two-point lead over rick santorum on the eve of the primary. but mitchell says santorum has a two-point edge there. and our chief washington correspondent, john harwood, has

just gotten to detroit with the latest on the race. who's right here, john? i guess it's basically a dead heat. >> reporter: it is a dead heat although most people expect and i think both campaigns expect mitt romney to have a slight advantage right now. that poll that you mentioned showed a narrowing of the romney advantage, which was six points a few days ago. so there's no question that mitt romney's attacks on rick santorum, his advertisements, rick santorum's poor debate performance last week has taken a toll on santorum who was once leading in this home state. a close race. mitt romney needs to win it as you noted this is his home state. >> he grew up the son of a governor there but more of course known for his time in massachusetts and also out in salt lake. mr. santorum over the weekend made lots of statements about the separation of church and state and also that jfk's famous speech on religion at a different time when there had never been a catholic as

president of the united states he said that portions of that speech made him want to throw up. has he backed off that a little bit? or is this really the truth about mr. santorum and how he feels? >> reporter: talk about going for the gut with a visceral appeal talk about wanting to throw up when you hear that speech. no, he hasn't backed off. what rick santorum is trying to do -- he's not leading his campaign speeches with that rhetoric, but what he hopes it to do is to touch a lot of the conservative christians, evangelical voters in the western part of michigan. mitt romney is more targeted here around detroit and detroit suburbs. higher income voters. rick santorum is trying to appeal to people who feel their views are disrespected by much of mainstream society. and those voters are key to him getting some sort of a turn out. he doesn't have the organization that mitt romney has, but if he can sort of light a fire among some of those evangelical voters as he has in other places, he could benefit and do better than

some polls are indicating. >> whatever you think of rick santorum, you have to say he does say what he thinks as you've said yourself, john. president obama in the 2008 campaign he had to weight into matters of his religion and his pastor in chicago and he had to defend his religion -- his credentials as a christian. where does the president stand on all of this? >> reporter: it's interesting. he was defending himself from rick santorum on another point. remember he talked about president obama as a snob for suggesting all americans needed a four-year college education. that is not exactly the president's position. he said so today in talking to the nation's governors. he came back at mr. santorum and said to clarify i want everybody to have education beyond high school, but not necessarily four-year college. some vocational and community college training is also in keeping with what the president's envisioning and what his budget calls for. so he's responding back. but he's confident that the longer this fight goes on

between rick santorum and mitt romney, the more likely it is to pull republicans toward the right, help him in his re-election campaign which the polls show he's leading both republican challengers. >> quickly, john, is gingrich even competing in michigan? >> reporter: no. newt gingrich is trying to raise money this week and also compete in his super tuesday targets. first among them is georgia. his own native state. but also tennessee, oklahoma. the southern states on the ballot although one of the special prizes is virginia. neither rick santorum or newt gingrich able to get on that ballot. >> thanks, john harwood. you saw him this morning on cnbc. warren buffett sounding off on taxes to single family housing from the stock markets to the banks. >> he likes one bank in particular. we'll tell you which one. and should you bet like buffett with your own investments? the experts weigh in on the other side of a very quick break. ty and i are back in two. ♪

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welcome back to "power lunch." major indices hanging onto positive territory after relatively steady climb throughout the trading day. the dow above 13,000. advancers and decliners about equal for the s&p 500. still off slightly from the 13,070 level. look at the vix index. higher by more than 3.2% but off

the intraday high of 19. wti crude oil lower for the day but right around the $109 level. the yield on the 10-year she tried to say is below that 2% mark. let's drill down on a couple movers today. starting with dendreon. investors not liking thachlt shares of lennar are higher by more than 2.4% or so gaining on those better than expected pending home sales numbers. now, before we move on to the metal market close, tiffany has developed a new metal by combining gold, silver and copper. the high-end jeweler is calling the alloy rubedo latin for redness. you can see some of the examples. sure, gold is trading above $170 an ounce. silver though as you can see about $35 an ounce. and copper just about $3.90 a pound. that 1837 ultrawide cuff retails

for $7,500. gold and metal prices are getting ready to close right now. let's go to sharon epperson live at the nymex. >> that looks like a piece of jewelry i would like to have, courtney. we are looking at gold prices right now that are basically closing almost flat. down just about $2 right around $1774 an ounce. keep in mind we saw the big gain in commodities across the board including gold. and a lot of that had to do last week with the increase in mine positions. and that for gold was up about 10% just in the past week and at highest levels we've seen since september. now we're seeing gold take a bit of a breather along with some of the other metals. we're still seeing gains in silver and copper. keeping mind as well that we have seen significant etf action in silver and gold in particular. and copper prices still at 10% or 11% this year. >> i think that really pretty cuff would look great on your, sharon. >> i think so too. >> all right. warren buffett live on cnbc

"squawk box" this morning for his annual three-hour ask warren marathon. he picked the best cherries including the stock market. take a listen. >> i think it's obvious that owning really first-rate productive businesses -- and there's hundreds of them, you just, you know, you have to compound over time. either pay the money out, they reinvest, buy in shares so your ownership interest goes up. equities are still cheap relative to any other asset class. >> some thoughts now from long-time buffett watchers thomas russo and chief investment officer for greenwich wealth management. nice to see you both. >> thank you very much. >> thomas, i think you agree with warren buffett, but it must be said he usually does like some positions in the equity markets. he's liked stocks for a long time. >> he spoke extremely bullishly about stocks this share hold letter. i think it's in part because

he's anxious to make sure that all of his readers, all of his shareholders, know just what a valuable treasure he has within berkshire, his holdings, his businesses and the stock itself because over times equities go up, berkshire shares will probably go up. and berkshire right now at the moment is in the market for share repurchase. i think warren's tried very hard to paint an optimistic view of what it means to be a long-term shareholder so those who consider selling back to berkshire don't step on the wrong feet. >> i want to play a little bit of sound about the banks and one bank in particular. let's listen in and i want to get your reaction to it. >> thank you. >> if i had to just own one bank, i would probably own wells. the biggest single asset that wells has is its deposit base, as is true with bank of america. they have a consumer based small business-type base that's just huge more so than would be the

case with morgan or citi group. that's a terrific asset. >> he's been a long-term holder of wells and more recent buyer of bank of america. what is it about those two banks that you see that makes him so attracted to them? >> in full disclosure, we own a considerable amount of wells fargo and have done so for -- >> actually, that was for don -- tom. >> yes. >> i would like to get von on this. >> i think in general warren buffett's been very bullish on banks for the last few years or so. and it's not just bank of america that he recently made an investment in as you pointed out. he also bought a billion dollars worth of wells fargo last year bringing his total investment up to well over $9 billion. wells fargo is a little bit unique compared to jpmorgan and bank of america. total assets about half the size. a lot of potential to grow.

i think warren buffett is focusing on the fact this particular bank has a lot of room to grow. yet he's not discounting the other banks. he also pointed out that he made a personal investment in jpmorgan chase. >> does it work for the average investor to mirror his investments or not? >> you know, i think sometimes it does. but i think it really depends on how he makes that investment. for example in bank of america he bought pipes. he was not buying the stock directly. he bought a special type of security that gave him warrants and a very high dividend while he waits. but in wells fargo, he made a direct investment into the equity. and i would feel much more comfortable buying a stock where he's actually buying the stock himself rather than using a special type of vehicle. >> tom, let me turn to you. he also had some very interesting things to say about u.s. housing. is there any play that you would make based on his embracing of the idea that u.s. housing is

under valued? >> well, i think there are two. one is berkshire hathaway itself. i think berkshire might have 40% of business tied up in one way or another with the housing market. whether it's carpets or bedroom or paint. >> interesting point. >> they have a very, very big exposure to the housing market. wells would be certainly involved with lending. and in fact i almost thought that warren might have been taking on the role of chief loan officer -- chief mortgage banker at wells fargo he spoke so glowingly about the virtues of taking out a 30-year fixed both for your own home and for rental properties. but berkshire would be a terrific beneficiary. wells would be because in the event that the world was better for housing, i suspect the yield curve would become a little more steep in which case berkshire -- wells fargo's enormous deposit base would be worth more. >> indeed. gentlemen, thank you very much. appreciate it.

>> thank you. >> and from billionaires to millionaires, tonight on "how i made my millions" we're going to look through the martini glass. hand painted martini glasses into a multi-billion business. take a look. >> on a night unlike this back in 2000. >> girls night out. having a great time. >> she and some friends went martini sampling. >> one order of the chocolate, one order of the palm. >> while they quenched her thirst, creatively she craved something more. >> that class looked naked. and it needed a pattern on it. >> her idea, paint designs on the glasses unique to each cocktail and write the recipe underneath. her friends had their doubts. >> they were like you're crazy. you can't put a recipe on the bottom because people will spill their drinks. >> she didn't listen. >> i went to the store and found some clear crystal martini glasses, got some paints and this is my cosmo. this is one of my very first

designs. >> soon she had a small following. >> i was creating them selling them to friends and it completely snowballed. >> i too have had some very creative ideas over martinis, but none of them alas have helped me make a lot of money. at a very early age she learned the importance of protecting her idea. she now has about 700 copyrights most on her glass designs and her brand name is also trademarked. we'll tell you all about it tonight on "how i made my millions" at 9:00 eastern and pacific time. >> and we'll say cheers to that, ty. breaking news now with diana olick. a new program to perhaps help the housing market? >> yeah. interesting, sue, you were just talking about warren buffett and him saying he wanted to get in on investing and rental properties. the fhfa announcing the next step in the reo to rent almost 2,500 properties putting up for sale saying investors can now

get access to look at these properties if they go through the qualification process. interestingly 23% of these properties are in atlanta, georgia. not a market we often talk about, but a lot of distressed homes there. the rest largely in l.a., parts of florida, chicago, las vegas and phoenix of course. the pilot program that started in the beginning of this month has investors come in, show they have the where with all, the experience to buy up the properties they're now saying people who do can now get in and get access to where these properties are and take a look at them. bulk sales 2,500 properties gone on the block. >> diana, thanks a million. appreciate it. up next on "power lunch," you probably know this firsthand. gasoline prices are soaring. are speculators to blame for your pain at the pump? >> and how can you make some money on high oil? two stocks that need to be on your radar. and the one big out of the box investment play that could take off next. (

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coming up on "street signs" at the top of the hour, the oracle of omaha says stocks are cheap. so should you be buying buffett's lead and stock up? and the happiest stock on earth, disney getting a big upgrade. so is it time to buy? and rise of the super commuters. the new trend that could be taking a real bite out of the real estate market. that's all coming up next 2:00 p.m. eastern on "street signs." sue and tyler, back to you on "power lunch." >> thank you, mandy. gas prices on the boil right now. the national average rising to $3.59 a gallon. you're pretty lucky if you're finding it for that. well over $4 in parts of the u.s. now. a number of folks blame wall street for last year's oil surge. and for the one back in 2008. so is speculation to blame for high oil now? and eamon javers is on that trail. hey, eamon. >> hey, tyler. if you're the president of the united states, high gas prices

are a political problem heading into an election year. the president was talking about that in a speech last week. and he invoked the specter. >> just like last year, the single biggest thing causing oil to spike right now is instability in the middle east. this time around iran. when uncertainty increases, speculative trading on wall street increases. and that drives prices up even more. >> now, the problem with blaming excessive speculation in the oil market for high gas prices though can be a very difficult thi thing to prove. the last time it was in 2008 the government conducted this report looking to see whether they could find excessive speculation was driving up prices. they found that, no, it was basically the fundamentals of the oil market that were to blame. so what else does the obama administration have up its sleeve? on friday treasury secretary tim

geithner suggested the administration's open to using this strategic petroleum reserve maybe releasing barrels out of that reserve facility that's design today headoff any kind of supply crisis in the united states. that one could be politically dicey as well. not a lot of options for the obama administration. >> thank you very much. if this crude reality continues, what are your best bets for playing the high oil and gas pric prices? joining me with his picks and one out of the box idea you might not have thought of is dan dicker. where would you put cash to work in this environment? it looks like prices are indeed headed higher. >> i think they're headed up. i really do. the most historically correct way to play this is the correlated way. that's been with a big integrated oil stocks. they have historically correlated very well with the price of the crude barrel. i think you have to be careful this round in which stocks you pick. what i think is going to happen is clearly one way or the other

by july 1st when the boycott of iranian crude goes into effect, there's going to be a removal of a certain number of those 3.5 million barrels a day coming out of iran. much is the same as what happened in libya last year with their 1.4 million barrels comelicoming out of the season. those barrels that are going to be lost from the iranians. those i think will be the best that you can look at. >> so you gave us three. apache, eni and total e. >> right. an italian international and to tale is the french. some things you didn't want to be in them during the libyan crisis because they were engaged in egypt. they had so much difficulty with the arab spring going on in egypt may play this time around because they can perhaps ramp up production in some of those other states that can make up for the shortfall that will come in iranian barrels lost. >> quickly, your out of the box

thought. >> here's my idea. you can go and you can convert a dodge car or truck -- in fact honda offers a civic for natural gas. washington clearly doesn't have much of an appetite for natural gas right now. but i think if you get to $5 a gallon, which i think is probable, you're going to have to start consumers looking not for a first car but maybe a second car a natural gas car where the equivalent price is $1.65 a gallon. you can buy a natural gas car today and you can put in a home system to home fuel it. it will cost you about 4,000 for that system. it is for some intrepid souls i think it's going to inspire a number of people to get involved in getting natural gas at least as a second vehicle. >> a couple names are devin, san ridge energy. >> anything that fuels the natural gas spice gives a little excitement you want to be in when this happens. >> thanks, dan. all right, ty.

too bad you just bought your new car. >> that's right. and it takes a lot of gas. up next, "the artist" among the big winners at last night's oscars. who will be the big money winners coming off? and disney's $250 million gamble. john carter hasn't been released yet, but it's already getting panned. will it turn into the most expensive bomb in hollywood history or something else? we'll look at that when we come back. today is gonna be an important day for us. you ready? we wanna be our brother's keeper. what's number two we wanna do? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online. attention on site, attention on site. now starting unit nine. some of the world's cleanest gas turbines are now powering some of america's biggest cities. siemens. answers. then don't get nickle and dimed by high cost investments

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welcome back po "power lunch." i'm seema mody. time for three stocks in 30 seconds. start with the most active stock here at the nasdaq. that's dendreon. roesh extended tender offer but did not raise its bid. aillumina replying back saying the offer does not reflect the unique leadership position. and vivus climbing telling the company fda approval by april 16th. tyler, back to you. >> a lot of drug stocks in the news. seema, thank you very much. looks like silence is golden. "the artist" coming up big, but moneyball struck out. does an oscar win translate into big money? here to talk about that and more

is julia boorstin in los ange s angeles. i think of the best picture nominees only "the help" was over $100 million in the box office. is that going to propel the winners to make more money? >> tyler, the answer is yes. but not a huge amount more. in general winning an award and specifically best picture does generate higher returns at the box office and higher home video sales. on average the films that won best picture over a 10-year period brought home an average of their total box office after the awards ceremony. we should see the office gross about $32 million bring in another couple million because of the attention it's getting from this win. this is not a mainstream movie. >> talk about john carter. a disney movie about to be one of the most expensive movies coming out. what are the chances of success commercially? or is it going to be a bomb? >> it is too soon to say, tyler. i haven't seen the movie myself. there have not been a huge number of reviews out quite yet.

$250 million is a lot of money, but we have to remember that the writer/director, he directed two of pixar's biggest hits. and he wrote a slew of pixar movies including all three toy story movies. i wouldn't count this out yet. and i think some oflt new trailers in the marketing push might help people have a better sense of what it's about. >> julia, we have to leave it there. thanks very much. >> coming up just over two hours left in the trading day. charts of the day and ty and i back in two minutes. looking for a better place to put your cash? here's one you may not have thought of: fidelity. now you don't have to go to a bank to get the things you want from a bank. like no-fee atms -- all over the world. free checkwriting and mobile deposits.

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quick check of the market. we were up above the 13,000 mark. we've moved just a tad below it. the dow jones industrial average is up 14 points on the day. and the s&p, everybody's watching that 1370 mark. we had moved above it briefly. we're back down below it. so they're flirting with key levels. >> talking about flirting, let's look at disney here. intraday getting a conviction -- on the conviction buy list at goldman up $41.83. >> i picked soybeans because if you look at this chart, it's the sixth straight day of gains. it's up 1%. it was