context, 8% unemployment is horrific, particularly when you look at how many people have dropped out of the workforce. there are tens of millions of americans who need to be better employed. the right policies would let that happen. >> governor pa at that timi -- pataki, thank you for your time this morning. ♪ then i saw her fate ♪ now i'm a believer ♪ not a trace ♪ of doubt in my mind the music of monkees, davy jones passed away yesterday at the age of 66. good morning, i'm melissa lee. let's look at futures on the first trading day of march, we gave up the 13,000 mark yesterday, but we're looking to open with a 32-point gain on the dow and 3.5 point gain on the s&p 500 europe financial

minister are meeting, and we're seeing green arrows across the board with with a gain in germany. sglool markets begin the month of march with their best february in 14 years. zen sits exactly 200 points below its record high. >> gold traders still dizzy, down 77 bucks following bernanke's testimony. some staggering surprises in retail today. gap scores with a 4% jump in the month of february. where did that come from? target sales up 7% as it refuses to engage in price wards with competitors. >> bank of america considering new fees again. this time the plan would charge nearly $9 a month unless you keep a minimum balance. will consumers stand for it this time around. and cuts the target on r.i.m., says the launch of the iphone 5 will be particularly troubling, in their words, for

the blackberry 10. a lot of people would not be surprised to see that be troubling for r.i.m. we'll talk about that. a week of milestones so far, the dow closing above 13,000, the nasdaq crossing 3,000 for the first time since late 2000. the question is whether the bullish trent will continue. jim, the transports were the troubling sign here, in that the s&p 500, which is really the benchmark of note, of record, not at these milestone levels. >> look, the transports are trains, and yesterday joy global reported mike sutherland directly pointing out that winter did not happen. i also think the fact that winter did not happen is boosting some of these same-store sales, when you don't have winter and natural gas is low anyway, maybe enough to offset gasoline. that's what i'm thinking. >> march is the fourth best month historically of the year,

according to sam stovel. i wonder if you think we'll be buying into spring, selling into may, something like that. i his tailed after a day like yesterday. i went home -- you know, i don't lead all that an exciting life, i parsed what ben bernanke says and i got to tell you there was nothing new. >> but the order in what he said, what was included in the statement as opposed to previous statements. >> but i still think he's not your enemy. if he's not your enemy and europe is your friend, a couple stories with firewalls being erected, it's just not as bad as it should be. how about that? that's my take. >> not as bad -- >> as it could be. >> as it could be, because gasoline, is there anyone here who really thinks that $5 gasoline is bad? petsmart last night says that they watch cnbc to see if --

they watch cnbc, they see oil up and he's got to be concerned, we're in a continuous loop ourselves. >> of course, it is winter, you pointed it out, people don't drive as much as winter, so the summer will be a more telling perhaps time for us in terms of the impact of $4 or $5 a gallon gasoline, and don't forget people continue to talk about iran. i was at a dinner last night with lots of ceos and the like, and iran comes up time and again as the question mark. it's got to be the key question mark when we look at those gasoline prices. >> how about the piece today in "wall street journal"? a pilot from the iraq bombing says now is the time for israel to strike. the guy has a lot of gravitas, and they said after they did it -- and i saw if you don't keep that atop of your mind, you're not doing your jobs. >> and some senators are saying the ties to saudi arabia and 9/11, some things as steve

ratner said, you just don't want to know more about, but that will weigh on the market longer term. here as the official statement from isda, and all the voting members. who say that swatch with the ecb, david, is not a credit event, and therefore will not pay. that will get a lot of chatter today. >> it is, but again it appears they're putting it off. it doesn't mean it won't ultimately be a credit event, but not overall a potential default. still down the road and triggers those -- but those who are saying, again, this idea well the cds doesn't work, i bought insurance, now i can't collect, your point -- i got 20% of my house left, that's what i've got to live in. it raises a question to whether these are effective mechanisms to actually hedge. the biggest criticism is buying insurance on her home, and then

burning it down, which always will be a key part of this conversation. >> and whose is, though? that's another part of the conversation. there's another article in the journal about the secretive body, who these members are, and how they as an institution stand to gain on any given judgment. there are three banks that sod more cds than they bought. >> we're the gross is bigger, and you don't notice that everybody will be able to deliver or recover, but it's not a big number. i thought spain was supposed to be bankrupt. i thought it was death's door and they would have to borrow at 7%. guess what? they're more likely to borrow 2% on a 7-year, you know, for a couple year -- these are pieces of paper that i thought were worthless, so on the one hand we have worthless greek debt. on the other hand you have paper from spain that's like, wow,

pain's back. >> i know, we're looking at spain right now under 4.9, and italy is now belound 4.5 for the first time since august. that's a big move for italy. so much so much of it is left at the footstep -- sometimes i have trouble -- >> that's all right, it's early. >> the ltro, the long-term refinancing operation, certainly credited with helping to bring those yields back. >> certainly it doesn't help that in the times today, a banker in barcelona literally fending off a protester with a ten-foot pole, it looks like, who has a knife. >> if that is not the contrast between what we're seeing in europe with these bond yields and troops on the ground, first i said, what part of america is this happening in? when you see this kind of action, rocks thrown at windows, it's always european banks and european bankers. >> let's not forget what the

european unemployment rate is in spain. >> 20%? >> right. that's a lot of people not working. >> euro zone 10.7, 15-year high. meanwhile, gold, the watch is on. biggest one-day drop for gold since the collapse of lehman brothers back in 2008. there were a bunch of fat-fingered theories yesterday that got knocked down. >> technically i was looking at the chart. short term it's a hideous chart. >> hideous. >> and i think a lot of gold is literally traded off the chart. i remain positive about gold, because of all the reasons it got here. not a lot of supply, still demand. nothing has changed along those lines except for the chart being so ugly. >> just because all those things exist doesn't mean gold should trade higher. wasn't it trading on the hope

that ben bernanke would say yes, we'll be printing more paper? >> those that felt like that i think were not in tune. it reminds me there's so many wrong stories about gold. how about warning buffett saying how horrible is gold? meanwhile, the best-performing assets in the last 12 years. if he had gone into gold and apple, that report would be different. >> will acknowledge it spiff involved somewhat around bernanke's testimony? >> one of the things that we've seen when we have gold hit these moves is that immediately everyone says gold is over. i mean, i have seen gold pronounced over as much as spain pronounced over. this gold is over, that has to deal with the fact that the chinese love gold. they have a lot of people in china. that may not be a new piece of information but there's a lot of buyers in china. >> but the seasonal pulls are

gone out of china and india. >> true, but -- like i have gold -- what is the overall theme? we can't find any more, it costs too much money. it's only in places you don't want to go. it's the guy calling you a sissy for not being where the gold is. >> he wouldn't call you a sissy. >> i said, i would never go to those places you found gold. >> he said gold is not for sissies. >> -- when i did my background, i'm a sissy. >> clearly it's not worked out with you at 4:00 in the morning. >> though he is up, but that could be a time zone difference. i tweeted today at 4:00, and he was on at 3:45. it really was daunting. >> really? 3:45. >> a 3:45 tweet. it was dynamite, too. >> sometimes you're up in the morning -- >> i wouldn't even call that the morning. that's still the night.

>> i think the switching -- i'm a member of the sierra club, we just shuttered a coal plant in this country, yippee, coal has a lot of enemies, coal's friend is china. he goes, there's a 14% increase in electricity year over year in china, and he talks about the western grid being turned on. i defy our viewers to name ten cities in the western part of china that are over a million people. >> there's 200, in fact. >> and compared to the united states where i think it's only ten. >> and we only have about two kfcs in those countries. the colonel outranks a lot of generals over there. >> i just picked that one up. >> i like yum.

>> there's so much i miss. >> i'm only halfway through my country. the only thing the chinese didn't buy is our treasuries. hey, listen, 100 million bucks between friends, 1.3 trillion and 1.2 trillion, it went down, yet the u.s. treasury managed to go below 2% without the chinese buying. >> don't you love how people say i'm not confused. gold goes down big on a day when the europeans earp printing money, retail sales are extraordinary. none of this is supposed to happen, none of t. >> right. meantime we have to switch to retail for a minute. tronger than expected retail sales, including the gap, which is about 10% higher in the premarket thanks to a surprise sales jump. the real surprise here was banana republic sales were up 12%. >> no kidding? >> i walked by it this morning. they're doing a "mad men" thing.

>> everything is on sale all the time. >> right here is when gap sent me a proposal to be the spokesperson for olympic navy jeans. >> you see do looks good in jeans. >> a fine model. >> really? >> saturday you were sporting some jeans. >> i don't even wear jeans. >> you turned them down? >> we're not allow to do do stuff like that, but i was deeply flattered that i was considered. a box came do my house, and saying we like you. i was the rock port spokesperson before i got into this game. >> they look comfortable and practical. >> but i thought it was a bizarre thing -- >> so you're saying that was the absolute bottom. this could not go any lower. cramer spokesperson. yeah. >> you needed that piece of data. >> you know, the weather is really not whether or not you

were the spokesperson -- >> just minimize me. you know, the weather -- >> minimize you. >> i would have go the to old navy if you were wearing them. >> i like that t-shirts, actually. just their white ones, nice, simple cotton. >> too much information there. >> that's a huge number. the weather better and then there's a theory out there. j.c. penney not reporting numbers anymore. big change in terms of the way they -- >> ron johnson not playing the game? >> the question is, are people stealing sales from jcp? >> yen. >> we don't know, but they're going through a significant change. one day, everyday low price, who knows? but we don't know. >> when i bought my trousers, also known as slack at j.c. penn penney's to see if there was any change, j.c. penney has a lot of inventory, what are they doing

with it? >> i don't floe. you get it out the door and change things up. >> yet it didn't hurt the sales of other guys. >> why is it the weather will help still in february when it had hurt in january. simplgts now they're buying spring and they're getting out and nobody's having any trouble getting anywhere, and you're feeling good and the sun is out. >> you are so right. just listen to the petsmart call. people did not buy warm apparel for their pets in the month of january. >> for the pets. >> which is one of the reason -- the december dog apparel was way down, they ended up with a lot of dog inventory. >> did you not buy dog apparel -- >> no, we bought dog apparel. christmas, you're going to dress your dog. >> stock's off. i want to buy it, because i don't think it can stay warm that long and dogs need to be clothed. >> walmart increased the

dividend. i was trying to do some math, because i think the walton family now controls roughly 50% of the outstanding, $225 million a month in dividend payments -- that's an estimate. >> holy cow. the rich get richer. >> that's not bad. let's skip ahead to blackberry, it is question is are there more blues ahead. jeffries cutting their estimates, and, because of falling mobile phone sales. jim, targets down to 12, and says that -- i mean, if the iphone 5 hurts the blackberry 10 and the ipad 3, which may have a smaller screen hurts the kindle fire, can apple kill or hurt rivals with one shot? >> nokia was like the biggest company at one point, memo to research in motion analysts. this is what i used to scream when i was a hedge fund manager --

>> you screamed when you are a hedge fund manager? >> at that point i didn't have my temper under control. bozo, please take your numbers to dollar loss, and then they would beat it and the stock would go higher. >> i met a woman over the weekend who worked at a bank and said i was often at the other end of the line with jim cramer, and she still had the shakes. >> that was a before the revolution in pharmacology. it's made -- >> they were launched across the trading floor, that could -- >> chairs are heavy. >> very heavy. >> when you throe an iphone, you won't hit anybody, but a big old phone, that really hurt. >> the monitors are lighter, so when you throw them against the windows -- you know the windows are sealed at most wall street buildings. >> it's a new set, so be genting. if you want to throw stuff later on, i would love to see that. >> too fired up. >> david's direction. >> he's good.

he's good. when we come back, the manager of the world's biggest -- bill gross with an etf in the mix. we'll be right back. you have to dig a little. fidelity's etf market tracker shows you the big picture on how different asset classes are performing, and it lets you go in for a closer look at areas within a class or sector that may be bucking a larger trend. i'm stephen hett of fidelity investments. the etf market tracker is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. get 200 free trades today and explore your next investing idea. oh! [ baby crying ]

♪ what started as a whisper ♪ every day, millions of people choose to do the right thing. ♪ slowly turned to a scream ♪ there's an insurance company that does that, too. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? ♪ amen, omen

but maybe the news continues to be rates, liquidity and what i call the mark mcgwire effect. look at they charts, you can see the range established getting to the top of the range. you can look at the uk, the guilt, boy, they were the most honest about this queismt stuff we have to show down about. here they are approaches 2.25, but your mark mcgwire moment is the fact that at 1.87 is in the europo zone. melissa lee, back to you. >> rick santelli, we showed you this photo before, but here it is again, on the front page of "new york times." it. a banco populare banker

confronting a protester. we're asking you this morning how you would caption this photo. we'll air your responses throughout the morning. the question i have looking at that photo, who keeps a long pole on hand just in case. >> art cashin just walked up and said it could be a reaction to the greek pmi, which he said was 37 today? >> is anyone doing anything? >> an economy just imploding. love to get your responses. in the meantime up next, new opportunities in a new months of march, get ready for cramer's mad dash. one more look at futures. of course, ism about 40 minutes away.

carfirmation.

only hertz gives you a carfirmation. hey. this is challenger. i'll be waiting for you in stall 5. it confirms your reservation and the location your car is in, the moment you land. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz.

time for cramer's mad dash. dib bove yesterday putting the price target on the stock. >> and citi doing the same. if we're going to get revenue growth, interesting, bank of america another day where it's -- jpmorgan has actual revenue growth and expense control. those numbers about bonuses, jpmorgan could blow away the numbers in 2012. >> blow away the numbers. >> i want to make that prediction. there's too much enthusiasm coming from jamie dimon for me to believe the stock can holds

under that level. >> the question is if dimon can blow away the numbers and everything in the economy is buoying the stock, won't that do the same for bank the america? >> conceivably, but i've got to go with best the breed. >> instead of beta, because theoretically a lot of people are saying it never should have gone to the depths -- >> i disagree, but i get surprised to the positive with jamie dimon. a lot more stocks to talk about, but meantime, carl? when we come back, opening bell will be a coast to coast phenomenon today, bill gross doing the honors. we'll talk live with the manager of the world ace biggest bond fund with the firm's etf launch as the crowd is building in a big way today. don't go away. coming up, with the march markets come in like a lion? let's hope they get your

portfolio roaring. which of these stocks are ready to pounce on? the opening bell is next. we'll be right back. it saves us so much time and money. postage meters are a lot more expensive. can you print only stamps? no. first class. priority mail.

certified. international. and the mailman picks it up. i don't leave the shop anymore. now it's all under my control. and i like that. [ male announcer ] learn more at stamps.com/tv and get a 4-week trial plus $100 in extras including a scale and free postage to use during your trial. go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again.  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.

[ male announcer ] what if you had thermal night-vision goggles, like in a special ops mission? you'd spot movement, gather intelligence with minimal collateral damage. but rather than neutralizing enemies in their sleep, you'd be targeting stocks to trade. well, that's what trade architect's heat maps do. they make you a trading assassin. trade architect. td ameritrade's empowering web-based trading platform. trade commission-free for 60 days, and we'll throw in up to $600 when you open an account.

you're walshing "squawk on the street". at the new york stock exchange. there is the opening bell. an interesting -- if they don't do it too often today, a bicoastal opening bell. at the big board, pimco ringing the bell from their newport beach headquarters. we're going to talk to bill gross in a moment and over at the nasdaq, the national council for adoption. a fresh record high, 548.21 is the new one here. >> did you know that apple did not give up the ghost? this is one of those stocks where every day i expect to see something good and continually -- to me, can i say i thought the research in motion notion that the two guys talked

about, which is if research in motion is falling apart, who is getting that stuff in it's apple. it's apple. >> at this point, though, if r.i.m. is losing share and apple is gaining, isn't it incremental? >> i don't know. we're seeing some number about ipad starting to become the standard. i think that what we're really seeing is perhaps a wholesale adoption, no adoption, the wholesale adoption of corporate enterprise to apple. i think that's important. he's directly relating the big change in corporate americas. a little hyperbole, but it did cement corporate spin going this way umplts this means absolutely nothing, but my corporate contract of my blackberry is expiring. this time around i had an option tattle an iphone. that's probably what i'll do. we have this discussion every morning. it's not ilextra tiff of

anything other than what's happening at a lot of different companies. >> i think that rollover is why you don't see it instant. each month it's an annuity stream for -- if you've got the enterprise to kick out hewlett-packard and really decide we don't go with dell, boom. >> it's going to be a big day for auto sales. ford and gm, phil lebeau bringing us up to speed. phil? >> good morning, increase of 14.4% in february, just a hair below what the street was expecting. but make no mistake as we look at they numbers, what we'll see from ford, from all the auto maker, the sales rate expected to come in somewhere in that 14.3 to 14.5 million range. ford showing that with an increase of 14.4% last month.

guys, we'll be back in a bit. >> ford shares up by about 4% -- >> by the way, if the annual run rate is 14 million plus, it will be the first back to back months january and february since 2008. >> that's incredible. >> at that level. >> remember the depths of where we were in that industry? i talked to al mulally, they're hoping for even 14.5. >> volkswagen saying similar. i'm watching in orders to try to track auto sales, i'm looking at jjc. copper will tell me whether there's a move to this watch. >> and you're also watching finisar, down not so badly, but another victim of weak telco spending. we've been hearing this again and again. >> don't you find this amazing,

when you want to you knead optical product. it obviously even though we know there's tremendous demand for broadband, it's not happening. they're not spending, and it's killing these companies. fiber is a loser. let's send it over to david. >> very crowded. a lot of people here for the opening bell. >> a lot of -- they're gawking at you, and of course jim and melissa, carl, we're just having a great time with this new set. the eu summit is beginning today. leaders of europe are meeting in brussels, you know what's happening? nothing. for ages and ages, the future of europe is not dependants. no votes on the future of mankind hanging in the balance, no votes on austerity treaties

bailout funds, they are going to get a report on greece, of course, they'll give a nod toward the second bailout, but not a sense of crisis going on. very subdued. they're going to mean behind closed doors and pat each other on the back, and avoided a crisis, at least for the moment. >> you know, what is the ecb really saying here as when is it going to go back -- when it comes to collateral. >> you're right, but for the most, hopefully nobody will -- knelt you were talking about the isda, and of course what's going on with -- when i have a problem explaining this, i call her up

and say among, they're like insurance, 75% of your house burns down, should you be able to collect any insurance on that, and her answer -- robert, of course you should. that doesn't make any sense. in other words, mom gets it. those people over there apparently have problems. talk to your mom when you have trouble understanding this. >> we all know it was nice weather, though nice weather -- it-a great deal. >> numbers were off the chart good. it's closer -- this is correspondent to look at this, tjx up 9%. costco, buckle, zumiez.

we didn't just have warm weather, but approving jobs situation. let me address this question, because melissa brought it up. why is good weather a hindrance, in january, you still have -- by the middle of february, a lot of stores are transitioning to warmer weather, particularly in the south, so the mix changes a bit. there is some logic behind this idea. everybody seems to know this. all the retailers are at new highs. stocks have been huge outperformers, nordstrom's, macy's lowe's tjx, the s&p retail index hit an historic high yesterday, because -- this isn't like today -- the bottom like is -- >> where are we on a multiple on that, too?

important thing is there's still a lot of room for top-line growth. >> these guys are champs. american retailers champions managing a tough economy. >> you heard it there. back to you guys. let's check out the latest news in energy and metals, going to sharon epperson. >> definitely a great month for oil, silver, gold, for hard assets across the board, but here in the a lot of traders are dazed and confused after the big rout from yesterday, and today we're looking at prices trying to ease a bit after what we saw in that session. keep in mind that central banks generally traditionally, as they analysts point out, they don't usually like to favor gold, and so now with the likelihood we won't see more quantitative

easing, we could see -- another factor we're seeing in the gold market, it's in the oil market as well, and that is lower highs, and lower lows. that's what we saw in the previous session. that's why such -- there's likelihood we could see less momentum here in the crude oil market. what we're waiting for now is to see the natural gas right above 250, but we are waiting for that energy data to come out. carl, back to you. >> sharon epperson, thanks very much. >> we haven't talked banks yet. >> stock tells me this time maybe they stick. >> up 1.8% so far. >> the facebook bank spring doesn't seem to be happening. >> look at some of these regional banks, i think really

taking on -- >> a lot of j.p. -- the 70% of customers are unprofitable. they need a higher percentage of the wallet, maybe their business account in addition to their personal, their mortgage, brokerage accounts. >> that's wells fargo stock-in-trade, they have the double-digit cross-sell thing going. the one thing i would say that i find exciting here, goldman sachs gets the wells notice, put out these numbers saying the trading is not good, the stock does not goat hit. does this tell you something? is likely to take again.

we'll see when the news actually hinges whether there will be an impact, but jim, you're right. it had no impact whatsoever. >> what are you hearing about jon corzine. i'm reading cindy adams, saying the justice department will go against corzine. hey, i've never gone against adams. >> only in new york, jim. only in new york. that was the strangest gossip column ever. >> did you find that odd to be the news of the day. >> i haven't gone around to it yet. >> i learned from kernen, read the post first. >> you think he's not going to let you forget that. >> they're going to use that in a promo. we have to take a break. coming up, we are still waiting for bill gross who just came off

of ringing the opening bell out on the west coast. we'll have him after that. we are asking you this morning to capture this photo of an altercation at a spanish bank. let es know what you think. we have your responses coming up. at we head to break, this morning's early movers on this thursday. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 checking the charts. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 looking for support, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 resistance, breakouts, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 a few other tricks that i'll keep to myself. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 that's how i trade. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and i do it all with charles schwab, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 because their streetsmart edge platform tdd# 1-800-345-2550 helps me trade quickly, intuitively. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 staying on top of the market is key! tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and the momentum tool, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 it lets me do it at a glance, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 so when things shift, i'm ready. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 then to track the stocks i have my eye on,

tdd# 1-800-345-2550 i turn to schwab's high/low ticker. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 so i can spot a potential breakout tdd# 1-800-345-2550 before it breaks out. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and get this...i can even trade, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 change my orders or check out my positions tdd# 1-800-345-2550 right on my chart. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 my system works for me. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 does yours work for you? tdd# 1-800-345-2550 get streetsmart edge tdd# 1-800-345-2550 from charles schwab for $8.95 a trade. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 open an account and trade up tdd# 1-800-345-2550 to 6 months commission-free. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 call 1-877-586-5928 tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and get started today.

the oil we change the filter...e tire rotation, suspension, we make suspension checks... what we have here is the multi-point inspection. every time a vehicle comes into a ford dealership you'll be presented with one of these. we check the belts, hoses... brakes. tires and the pressures... battery, all your fluids... exhaust system, transmission... we inspect your air filter... it gets done,it gets done quickly and it gets done correctly. the works. oil change, tire rotation and more: $29.95 or less after rebate - at your ford dealer. you're a doctor... you're a car doctor.

maybe a car doctor... andrew breitbart has died. bank of america the biggest gainer up almost 2%. urban outfitters is going sued

by the navajo native-american tried, accused of trademark but using their name ♪ jim, on your list, we have gotten through the banks, through some of the retail. last night on mad you're said if you're looking for a bubble, you might want to look to the bond side of the aisle for something like that. >> and a lot of people come back saying you get your money back with a bond. i get that, but i have mixed emotions about some of the things that warren buffett said. he did say that he thought bonds were dangerous. >> bonds an in treasury bonds? you know, you see a lot of opportunities there. >> what was clearchannel -- how could they raise all that money yesterday? i've seen that company just dwindle, anybody can raise money.

>> is that worrisome? >> that's one of the reasons -- >> but isn't it enough? does everybody have to be saved? >> yes, everybody has to be saved. >> all over nothing. >> i think it's poetic we're just at 13,000, just at 1371, we've been wrestling with these levels for weeks, and what's it going to take to bust through them? and what happens if we do? >> the banks. you mentioned bank of america up a couple%. it's a cap weighted index, ibm goes to 215, but i do believe that the banks as a class it won't be the j & js, the

caterpillar, nicely -- >> you mean something beyond your regional sweet spot, yes? >> we need to see jpmorgan definitively go to 45, 46, that stock has done a lot of legwork right at this level. i think it would shock people if it breaks out. >> that would be a big move and important move. nobody is saying we're getting back to that tradition. that's still a ways away in the opinion of many people, including, by the way, the. >> i know. remember when we were last at this level, we had a pair of 44s, right? alcoa 44, bank of america at 44. now acoa 10, bank of america 8, talk about guys not pulling their own weight. >> ibm at 200 almost. >> citi raising their price target, largely surrounding

their price controls. >> who is selling -- who is just offering that stock at 40 constantly that keeps a lid on it. i don't get that. >> it's a -- come on, you do get it. ran a hedge fund before. >> i think he's going to be overrun. i think that stock is an up stock here. apple, what is this? apple -- it was up higher. >> 544. >> we'll continue the discussion. a lot more "squawk on the street" is back in a moment. 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. carfirmation. only hertz gives you a carfirmation. hey. this is challenger. i'll be waiting for you in stall 5. it confirms your reservation and the location your car is in, the moment you land.

it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz.

it has been labeled the iphone of etfs. the pimco total return fund is available to investors on this historic moment for pimco, bill, because you rang it with a specific bell. can you talk about that?

>> it was a bell -- when we got a client, we rang the bell, a small group of people, 10 to 15 people gathered around the stairs, we range it, had a celebratory drink of coffee or coke, and wen about our business for the next one. >> very nice. 6

6. active management does make a difference. we've shown that over the past few decades. >> is there any fear it might cannibalize from your original fund? >> we're going to have to see. we've set the fees such that the annual expenses are a bit higher than the total return fund, so investors will choose. this will offer them the advantage of liquidity relative to the total return fund but as a slightly higher fee. >> jim cramer here. good to see you. concern here, i trust you on bonds, i trust warren buffett on bonds. he is basically saying you've got to sell your bonds, your treasuries. he is someone i look up to. is he just misplaced in his thinking here? >> well, i think warren has a point.

interest rates are at historic lows, artificially depressed by quantitative easing programs on a gloobl basis. that's certainly a fact. the other certainty, however, is people are getting older demographically. they want certainty as opposed to up 10, down 15, so fixed income will always have a place even at a 3% to had% type of return, which we hope it will provide over a longer-term basis. >> a lot of people have problems with the ruling on the ecb debt swat, no payout, how do you defend the decision? >> well, let's put it this way, it's not over until it's over there. we suspect that the committee was asked to rule on a specific portion of the agreement. perhaps there's more to come. that's not a hint, but a possibility. having said that, you know, if

insurance for cds and protection against default for countries is invalidated, that would be much like taking out an insurance policy on flood insurance, having the companies basically say it was rain as opposed to flood damage that produced the carnage. >> it sounds like you think there are questions where there would be a ruling such that it would constitute a credit event. am i reading between the lines too much? >> i don't think so. these are legal agreements. they were drawn up and interpreted, you know, to a certain extent to favor the ecb and to favor the eu in terms of selective as opposed to default

per se. we'll have to see the interpretation and the language then, you know, i would be upset. >> bill, thank you very much. congratulations, bill gross at pimco out in newport beach. >> thanks for having me. don't go away. ♪ [ female announcer ] you're the boss of your life. in charge of long weekends and longer retirements. ♪ ask your financial professional how lincoln financial can help you take charge of your future. ♪

my dad and grandfather spent their whole careers here. [ charlie ] we're the heartbeat of this place, the people on the line. we take pride in what we do. when that refrigerator ships out the door, it's us that work out here. [ michael ] we're on the forefront of revitalizing manufacturing. we're proving that it can be done here, and it can be done well. [ ilona ] i came to ge after the plant i was working at closed after 33 years. ge's giving me the chance to start back over. [ cindy ] there's construction workers everywhere. so what does that mean? it means work. it means work for more people. [ brian ] there's a bright future here, and there's a chance to get on the ground floor of something big, something that will bring us back. not only this company, but this country. ♪

we're going to kick it off with hampton about the latest of better nangies's testimony. hampton? >> carl, this is day 2 of the semiannual report to congress on the economy and monetary policy. i think the questions from the senate banks members will be a lot sharper than what we saw yesterday, specifically since we've seen the weekly jobless claims, is there any change in the fed chairman's view that perhaps unemployment and job

growth is picking up faster, therefore does the fed begin to rethink its late 2014 overall strategy. the great unanswered question from yesterday, what about the possibility of any additional qe-type monetary stimulus going forward? i think the senators will be more precise and sharp about their questioning on that. what happens at the end of the year when you've got this cliff that the fed chairman talked about yesterday of the possible sxir ailing of the bush tax cuts, the payroll tax credit, all heading for the january 1 deadline there. back over to you. >> all right. thank you very much, hampton pearson. rick santelli has the numbers from chicago. >> we're looking at a fourth up number in sequence, we ended up with 52.4, following an unrevised 54.1. that's the lowest level since

november, which is only a handful of months, but let me tell you, this is what important, we know the feel-good indexes like confidence have been moving up, whether there is impacted by energy, we'll have to dig through it, but boy did it zonk a boatload of positive off the stock market. interest rates have moved two or three basis points lower, and the long maturity, very key number. back to you. >> let's continue with the breaks news phil lebeau has the later. >> simon, good morning, general motors reporting a slight increase in february sales up 1.1%. that's better than the street was expecting. the street was expecting a decline of 5 parse. also, if we can, ford has moving up after the company reported sales for february, they also released their second quarter production.

their production p. the second car last year, that's what we're looking for from the automakers. will they increase production because of the demand in sales, we're going to be on the calls today and certainly giving you reports throughout the days. >> one big reason cramer said watch copper today. road map for this spending his first day of march. live coverage in just a matter of moments. the s&p finishing off the best performance, as the markets await, we'll caulk to mario gabelli. retailer turns in solid february numbers.

all right. wall matt, we mentioned the dividend a bit earlier. >> 159 a year, we're talking about a significant yield there, one of the stocks that has become to a certainly extent interesting because of that yield. the walton family takes home an enormous amount of money in different of quarter and is paying, what, 50% on it too. you know, that sort of adds in, but it is an amazing amount of money. >> if you were a dividend seeker, you might lock into the stock for that very reason, no? >> absolutely. >> at the same time the dividend increase comes at an interesting time. we did get the sales much better than expected, helped by the warmer weather that we have seen across the country. versus 1.8% a year earlier.

a lot of analysts saying this morning today's results are showing it's not willing to go head to head and actually several as a result of it just to get share. they're actually willing to defend some prices, that is paying off for the likes of a target to the detriment of a wall matt. >> we couldn't go too long without mentioning facebook, marketing messages to mobile users, the new move hoping to capitalize on the hundreds of millions who use mobile platform devices to gain ad revenues as we wait for that pending ipo later this year. >> do you click on any ads? i'm wondering in terms of the facebook model. >> we'll talk about that this morning as they had a big confab basically for marketers yesterday, trying to make that argument that people in fact will click through. >> some important comments from martin sorrow, did you see him on "squawk box" this morning, saying display is a much more

robust model that is social networking, because they're not sure people will accept you interrupting a social networking conversation. >> mobile will become more and more important, figuring it out on the social and mobile front together. meantime we're watching the financials getting a midmorning boost. bank of america leading the sector the xlf rallies nearly 1% as well. of course, this is in an effort to sort of make those lower depos deposit-based customers more profitable. you've heard this time and time again. politically can they get that through? >> not so much a question of politics as a matter of public opinion. they got smacked down heart. they've lot a number of important fees along the way, as we know.

>> at the same time maybe these are the customers they don't mind losing. as long as they keep the customers that keep the minimum balance high enough, those are the most profitable high enough. >> i have never understood why free market capitalists and people abandon their principles at the door when it comes to universal banking. i think people pay for their checking accounts if they're not profitable customers, that's the free market system. look at all the real estate that's empty, these empty buildings through manhattan with nobody sitting in them. it's got to go. >> i love it when you bring the fire. >> he's fiery this morning. >> i am fiery. it's the caffeine. i'm set to go. >> a check on the markets. the ism hitting the markets, though we have bounce the back originally now just below -- our

next guest needs no introduction. mario ga belli, chairman and ceo and cio of. >> getting your wallet out? >> i was looking at my credit cards. i'm going to cut them off saying i'm after you saying i'm paying higher fees. >> you keep high balances, mario. nobody is worried about you. >> that assumes i have any balances. >> true. >> you made an assumption i won't subscribe to. >> you will not pay any fees -- >> they haven't invented a color for your am excard yet. >> you're still cash, aren't you? >> always. >> it seems very fashionable to believe we are in for some sort of pullback. >> there are a lot of reasons. it's a function of earnings and multiples. the last two or really

important. so i subscribe to the philosophy that if you have a bask of high initial whether they have lost an awful lot of money sitting in very decent companies? >> i don't agree with that at all. there are always outliers that lose money even in bull markets.

in that regard it's a loaded laggard, so there's a lot of ways to earn money and what focus -- vendors to boeing and airbus, how do we make money? rolls-royce, maybe you don't have a car, but maybe you have a jet engine that you use that's powered by ross. >> in the backyard. >> you have a big backyard. in the context we like those companies. >> i want to come back to capablevision. you've been a big promondayant of this company a long time. you know management extraordinarily well. are you concerned tom rutledge, a number of significant execs out there, a lot of competition from verizon's fios. >> i like competition with david, because that mean no price controls. charter, comcast, time warner cable, they're all hitting new highs, so cable vision at 1425.

they spun off amc, we know that one will be sold. that's done a fabulous job, whether it's "mad men" or "the walking dead" i don't want to talk about walking dead in this room, but -- >> out of. >> but elf jeremy lin that's lit up msg, so now we go back to cablevision. 270 million shares are out, our clients own a fairly significant position, but we own a lot of cable keys. fios is important. >> it also brings prices down and doesn't allow them to. >> that's not correct, because they have $10 billion of debt, ebitda of better -- they can sell off the acquisition they made -- >> just made the acquisition, they're going to sell it off? >> already enhanced the economic value. there's three or four other --

stay tuned, david. >> okay. do you ever sell the stock? you've owned the thing -- >> we were down to zero a few years ago. we voted again -- >> you voted against the deal. >> the only one that doesn't like me is mayor mike. if they had done the deal, they would have been in financial stress, would not have fought over locating the jets and giants in manhattan. it is what it is. so in that regard, spin-offs, kraft is spinning off pieces. they're going to have a snack business. irene roosevelt will run that. the snack business is $110 billion. we like companies they're going to want to buy at some point in time. for example, the lance snyder's deal that was put together. they have a wonderful business of potato chips and pretzels. you like snyder's sourdough -- oh, you like the crackers part. >> peanut butter and cheese? >> you know, everyone has

different tastes. i'm a bourbon guy, so i'm glaic that they spun off two companies, home and hardware, so we're not looking where the hockey puck is not where it is now, but where it will be, look at the notion of financial engineering, how do we allow capital to go to the highest return. as long as that is a driver of the system that's very good. once government trying to allocate capital, it doesn't work. >> what are the companies you think will benefit the most that may not see that hockey puck out there right now, but you see it? >> simple company, running pepsi cola. >> she should break it up? >> not necessarily. if she doesn't success, however, and i think she will in terms of repositioning the marketing focus on these top five other six brands, then she can split it up. either way, it's a win/win. >> so you what invest based that she might fail. >> it's a win/win. >> let me give what you i said.

i said that she can focus her energies on five top brands, come back to the basics and could succeed. if she doesn't successes, the shareholders would then have the opportunity of having a split-up. either way it's a win/win. as a result of that you have a terrific catch-generating company, but abbott is splitting into two parts. there are other companies in queue on doing that. >> itt, tyco. they're not all the same. >> well, i'll give you something honey bunch and oats. >> again, delicious. >> there is a large market that likes that. bill was the engineer and the guiding light behind ralston purina, so they spun that off and it's a bit ondollar -- we are excited every day. the european economy is 20% of the world gdp, s&p earnings,

obviously depends -- last year it was 145, so you have some challenges. >> mario, we've got to leave it there. thank you for stopping by. >> it's delighted to see this great new home of yours. i'm glad you didn't ask about news corp. >> i was going to. >> he is a friend of rupert. he told me that before he went on. >> how do you know? >> that's what he said. >> simon, i was there when they had silent movies. >> it's true, there before "star wars," he told me. >>. >> just think about the fact i'm we have those techie guys that still thinks of silent movies. >> they do very well these days. >> they're back big. >> thank you, take care. of course we're still awaiting ben bernanke's testimony in front of the senate committee. we will go live to capitol hill,

but first february same-store sales, we're going to sort through the day and whether you have be caffeining in on the comeback. "squawk on the street" hits sweet home chicago. carl, cubs owner tom rickens, austan goolsbee, all live and in the loop at the cme group. that's tomorrow on "squawk on the street." ant to protect the . right. but... home security systems can be really expensive. so to save money, we actually just adopted a rescue panther. i think i'm goin-... shhh! we find that we don't need to sleep that much. there's an easier way to save. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more.

that's actually the real al green, not the president, just so we're clear. stocks to watch. frankly resources initiated outperform for walgreen cut to still on the expected closing of the special -- and toronto dominion, also beating estimates today. >> the retailers are reporting strong chain store sales for february, the mild weather obviously helping out. here to take a closer look is adrian shapiro, good morning. where do we make money from what you're now seeing? >> good morning. as you mentioned we definitely

saw sales accelerate. i think what you're seeing is what people didn't spend on snow shovels, they're definitely shopping for t-shirts. it's encouraging. i think the big question is, did it pull forward demand or should we see a continuation throughout the spring season? >> adrian, your rain or shine index -- wetter month, so who would be most at risk when we see next month's numbers because of that pull forward? >> it's not just weather. weather clearly very accommodating. as you saw, a lot of people moan about the holiday season, we really didn't see winter, so you had a lot of coats building up that never got sold. so the fact is spring is coming early, a bit of an earlier easter, that's also helping, but you're also seeing a strong new color trend, so there is a catalyst driving some pent-up demand. which are your favorite

stocks at the moment? >> target is a name we called out heading into today. what we're seeing in target is some very strong momentum. coming out of the holiday they've been above plans and today's plan illustrates not only is the defensive side of the store doing well like food, but apparel running up double digits. the stock was strong heading in today, but i think there was some anticipate that comps would be above plan, but i think there continues to be an opportunity, especially as they come into march, so that's one where we believe there continues to be opportunity in the stock. >> target was at a 14-month high yesterday. >> is there any way you can help give us clarity on how gap put together the month they did. >> sure. i think what's going on, colored denim is a very strong trend and

i think you're seeing old navy's comps were particularly strong. the depend store, there's a lot of reshuffling of share. with j.c. penney toning down couponing and promotions, i think gap and especially old navy probably a beneficiary of some of that share shift. >> adriane, thanks very much. facebook is looking to beef up ad prospects. will it be enough to successfully pave the way? we'll break down facebook's latest move in just a moment. student. stay tuned. a ben bernanke not really mentioning further easing, qe-3. >> big ben steering clear of stimulus talks certainly caused commodities to crumble, particularly gold. >> the euro just completely

collapsed here. even apple dropped at 10:00 eastern time. i'd race down that hill without a helmet. i took some steep risks in my teens. i'd never ride without one now. and since my doctor prescribed lipitor, i won't go without it for my high cholesterol. why kid myself? diet and exercise weren't lowering my cholesterol enough. now i'm eating healthier, exercising more, taking lipitor. numbers don't lie. my cholesterol has stayed down. and here's another number you might be interested in. lipitor may be available for as little as $4 a month with the lipitor co-pay card. terms and conditions apply. visit lipitor.com for details. [ female announcer ] lipitor is not for everyone, including people with liver problems and women who are nursing, pregnant, or may become pregnant. you need simple blood tests to check for liver problems. tell your doctor if you are taking other medications or if you have any muscle pain or weakness. this may be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. [ man ] still love that wind in my face! talk to your doctor. if lipitor has been working for you, stay with it. don't wait. lipitor may be available for as little as $4 a month.

get your lipitor co-pay card today at lipitor.com.  you have to dig a little. fidelity's etf market tracker shows you the big picture on how different asset classes are performing, and it lets you go in for a closer look at areas within a class or sector that may be bucking a larger trend. i'm stephen hett of fidelity investments. the etf market tracker is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. get 200 free trades today and explore your next investing idea. are you still sleeping? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule. the first technology of its kind... mom and dad, i have great news. is now providing answers families need.

siemens. answers. 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. call now for our free guide and tips on planning for your retirement this tax season.

facebook is offering advertisers new ways to reach the 845 million users. the social network looking to pump up ad revenue ahead of their multibillion ipo this spring. sir martin soro sounded off this morning on the potential pitfalls of monetizing a social net york earlier on squawk. >> facebook is a social network. it's about social interactions, social communication between people. if you interrupt that social community indication, if you try to monetize it, as they insist on calling it, is it as potent

as search, or indeed as display or mobile. i don't think so. >> sandy rice is a reporter for "wall street journal." she joins us this morning here on post 9. good morning. >> great to be here. >> what do you make of sorrell's point. if you corrupt it, users flee? >> that's exactly what mark zuckerberg has always been confused about. it's very clear that he tried to make very clear to investors the biggest risk they're going to take is he claims they only care about the using experience, of course, what we heard yesterday is that that may not be the case. they rolled out a series of new ad products, and they'll be getting ads in the news feed which they have never had before

they won't necessarily know those are not ads. >> the way facebook does it is called sponsored stories. if you and i are friends, if you like starbucks, starbucks can pay to have that message amplified and i'll -- actually the advertiser is paying for that message to go in your newsfeed. >> very sneaky. >> is it possible both camps are satisfied at the same time? >> uh, no, i don't think so. i think that will be a struggle for facebook for a long time. i think you'll have mark zuckerberg on the one hand pushing for a pure experience and marketers who want more space. i spoke with marketers very excited about the logout page, this is the first time they get a big display ad. when you log out, a big promo for a movie can come out.

>> as you're leaving the service. >> exactly. >> i know that you follow facebook extremely closely, do you have any concept from them the degree to which politicians on either side can torpedo a big hole in their business model as a result of the privacy push? if you just look at what the european commission is thinking about now, rules that basically you'll have to ask people if you can use their data, and indeed this other idea there's a right to be forgotten, so if i surf through an engine, i can ensure they don't record where i go. if you they don't have that data, google, yahoo! facebook are in trouble, aren't they? >> that's absolutely true. the key to this entire system is data.

what mark zuckerberg owns is that information. he's not doing something unique. he just happens to have so much more information about you than anybody else does. so absolutely, if politicians and any country cut off that data or limit that ability to have that data -- he wants everybody to be sharing information what they like, sharing what they do, sharing what they buy, what music they listen to, that's his goal. >> to what extent is any of these related to the timing of the ipo. >> he claims they doesn't care about being profitable. >> and completely controls the company, but it will be a public company, and people buying the shoulders will expect it to grow very quickly. >> facebook inside has tried to make this delineation between sheryl sandburg, who thinks about the money and mark

zuckerberg who thinks about the product? is that really the reality? to what i hear, it is to some extent. mark zuckerberg was not at the event yet, this big event. the most important questions that investors are looking at. >> he's not a madison avenue natural. >> so he keeps himself pure in some ways. >> he keeps himself pure. he trying very hard to craft that image, absolutely. >> thank you very much, sandy. we want to take you to capitol hill. we believe the fed chairman in front of the senate banking committee has wrapped up his testimony and q&a has now begin. >> having southbound hit by both of these factors, with housing problems still being important some of the stresses coming from

europe still being drabbed to some extent on economic activity, we have had a slower recovery than we otherwise would have anticipated. never, of course, we have had now growth since mid 2009 and unemployment has come down, but of course not -- the growth is not as strong and the improvement in the unemployment rate is not at quick as obviously we would like. >> and fills cal policy has bud gun to tighten. as we consider economic growth in the near and long term, should congress enact drastic spending cuts, or would a plan to curb deficits and address structural issues over a longer time horizon make more sense

economically? also, what sectors of our economy could provide sustainable growth over the long term? >> mr. chairman, in the broad context, let me make two points the united states is on an unsustainable fiscal path looking out over the next couple decades. if we continue along that path eventually we will face a fiscal and financial crisis that would be very bad for growth and stability so therefore it's important we be planning now for

long-term improvement. at the same time, i think it is important that we keep in mind that the recovery is not yet complete, unemployment remains high, the rate of growth is modest. under current law, as you know, on january 1st of 2013 there will be a major shift in the fiscal position of the united states, including the expiration of a number of tax cuts and other tax provisions together with the sequestration and other provisions that together a very sharp shift in the fiscal stance of the federal government. i think we could achieve the very desirable long-run fiscal consolidation that we definitely need, and we need to do soon, but we can do that in a way that doesn't provide such a major shock to the recovery in the near term. so i'm sure congress will be debating details of this over the next year and trying to take

into account both the need for protecting the recovery, at the same time ensuring that we do achieve fiscal sustainability in the long term. on the second part of your question, mr. chairman we are seeing manufacturing and industrial production in general have been leading the recovery. housing which normally does lead the recovery is of course lagging, but generally it's an automobile it is, of course is part of manufacturing, but generally it's hard to predict, of course, what sectors will be most -- have the greatest growth in the longer term. we don't see at this point the very severe recession has permanently -- growth potential of the u.s. economy.

one concern we do have is more than 40% have been unemploy or having their decides eroded. and though if it persists much longer -- >> i have been working with my colleagues in the senate to move forward a set of proposals to update securities laws and make it easier for start-up and small business to raise capital while maintaining critical investor protections. do you generally agree -- >> mr. chairman, i don't know the specific proposals, but it is certainly true that start-up

companies, companies under 5 years old create a very substantial part of the jobs that are added in our economy. of course if there's anything that can be done to encourage startups, whether it's reducing burdensome regulation or providing other finds of assistance, of course, congress makes all the decisions and about the specification, but again promoting startups is important it's one of the reasons that job creation has lagged behind the unusual recoveries pattern. >> at our last hearing right here on the european debt crisis, i asked the federal

reserve witness about the -- the fed is yet to respond to my request for this information. will you provide the committee with this information regarding the individual exposures of our largest banks for krurp? >> of course supervisory information has legal protections, but we would be happy -- >> we need to know what's going on sxars our exposures to banks -- >> we want to make sure you understand the information, unfortunate all the information you need to make good decisions. the s.e.c. working with out agencies has provided some guidance and templates to banks to provide public information on a quarterly basis, but yes we can work with you to help you to

understand what you need to know to make good decisions. >> are you concerned about some exposure of our larger banks to europe. >> we're concerned in the sense we're paying a lot of attention to it. our sense is, having done a lot of work on this, including -- in their current capital stress tests that they're doing now, our sense is that it is direct exposures of u.s. barons to sovereign debt in europe, particularly that of the weaker countries is quite limited and is well hedged. those hedges in turn are pretty good hedges, the counter-parties are diversified and financially stront. so if you look more broadly, of course, our banks are exposed to european countries and banks inevitably they're major trading and financial partners. again they have been working

hard to have -- to provide adequate hedges, but let me just say, i think it's important to note if there is a major financial problem in europe, there's so much different channels that would affect the stability of our financial system, i wouldn't want to take too much comfort from that. >> could you explain to the committee, to the situation as far as credit default swaps and why they're not deemed to certain nations default, to trigger the act on that, what's going on here? is this a government intervention? >> knolls. there is -- >> when a default happens -- >> when a default occurs. in the case of greece, which is the relevant sure, thus far there lab a so-called private

sector involvement purportedly voluntary agreement with the private sector bondholders, and there's also been an exchange of bonds by ecb and other government agency with greece that essentially gives some protection to the ecb for its greek debt holdings. the news this morning i believe was that the isda had determined those two events did not constitute a credit event from for the purpose of a cds activation. >> and why did it not create the dynam dynamic? >> their view is that so far that the negotiations have been voluntary. now, the possibility exists, the greek government has retroactive created so-called collective action clauses, which it could use in the future to force other

private sector investors to take losses, even if they haven't agreed to this voluntary deal. in that case, the isda would look at it glen, perhaps in that case it would declare a default had occurred. but that hasn't occurred yet. the dodd will frank act created it's almost two years later. the president has still not gnome -- who's currently fulfilling those duties as vice chairman of super vision would have. >> they are of course being done, and the duties are distributed across the governors and the staff. i would say the point person, as you know is governor turullo, who is head of the bank supervision committee, and has on many indications testified

before this committee on regulatory matters. >> do you believe that position should be nominated and filled? >> well, congress created the position and yes, i'd like to see it filled. i would also like to see the board filled as well. >> my last question has to do with the balance sheet, which is about the fed, which is approximately my understanding about $2.9 trillion. how are you going to shrink that? do you have a plan? i'm sure you've talked about it. we've talked about it a little bit at times, but that is a huge balance sheet to start shrinks, probably is not the time to shrink it now, i don't have any information on that, but how are you going to do that? >> senator, we have provided in numerous occasions an exit plan, for example the minutes, i think, some time ago, we provided an agreement of the

committee about how we would proceed. in the very short term, we can both, of course, allow securities to run off, which we have been reinvesting them at this point, and we can reduce the impact of the those securities on the economy, both on measures and the interest rates to keep those reserves locked up at the fed. over a longer period of time, of course, we'll have to sell some of the securities and of course we will. our goal is to get back to eventually at the appropriate time, our goal is to get back to a more normal sized balance sheet consisting only of treasury securities. >> thank you. senator reid? >> thank you very much. okay. that's the chairman of the federal reserve in front of senate banks committee answering q&a, saying a lot of what he said yesterday in front of the house.

kelly evans joins us. it is a bit of an echo what he told the house, and -- or if after seeing the reaction yesterday, which some thought was a big of an overreaction. another six box. >> and risk creeping a big back on today. the dollar down a bit, so plays into the yesterday he might walk back from some of that tone. >> i think the line of questionings yesterday and answers sort of inflationary in nature. that was very interesting. it will be interesting to see if they key off that more. >> and following that report, a

report we saw drops in new orders, and that's something that's going to hit home going forward. >> back in a moment with a lot more of bernanke coverage. "squawk on the street" is back in just two minutes. any way you want. fully customize it for your trading process -- from thought to trade, on every screen. and all in real time. which makes it just like having your own trading floor, right at your fingertips. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. try our easy-to-use scottrader streaming quotes. it's another reason more investors are saying... [ all ] i'm with scottrade. (

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. ♪ there'll be the usual presentations on research. and development. some new members of the team will be introduced. the chairman emeritus will distribute his usual wisdom. and you? well, you're the chief life officer.

you just need the right professional to help you take charge. ♪ that the it's lower? no. they'll have much -- >> oh, i see. at the moment, there's several issues. in principles we're all agreeing to the same set of rules, the basel 3 rules. the question is are some supervisors allowing some lower risk wages.

it has a process under way to verify the two operating compare bly. the other issue is that the rules have not yet been implemented or of course in the united states either. there is a european union directive in process which we are looking at carefully. it does not, in our view, completely -- it's not completely consistent with the agreements, but it's not a final document. but we want to be sure that the capital rules of europe do in fact adhere to the agreement that we all signed on to. >> just a quick point, in the context, you are still looking very closely at these differentials between european treatment of your sovereign debt and ultimately, the way the role is created. >> the issue that the europeans, canadians and japanese and

others have raised, because there's exception for you as treasuries but not for foreign sovereigns in the volcker rule, the volcker rule might affect the liquidity of their sovereign debt markets. we take this very seriously, are in close decisions with those counterparts and looking carefully to see if changes are needed and necessary. >> thank you. >> thank you, mr. chairman and chairman bernanke, i want to work on the volcker rule. i led with comments yesterday, frankly candid comment that the regulators will not be ready to issue a rule by the deadline of july, which i think is becoming more and more self-evident. i assume the reason for that is because you have 17,000 comments, you have issues that were just raised by senator reid with regard to the reaction of other markets in the world to

what we may do with that rule and we need to conduct a cost benefit analysis. just not going to happen by the time we hit the statutory deadline in july, is that correct? >> yes, and in addition, it's a multiagency rule and requires coordination. we'll be working as quickly as we can to get it done. >> i appreciate that. the question i have is as i read the statute, there's a deadline in july for the agencies to act, but if they don't act to rule whatever it is goes into affect and the market participants are understandably concerned about what they should do on july 1st if not coordinated. the question i have to you is wouldn't it be helpful if congress were to correct that aspect of the statute and make it clear that on july 21st, we are not going to have a volcker

rule go into effect that does not have the clarification and cost benefit analysis and fine tuning that the agencies are now trying to give it. >> well, senator, we certainly don't expect people to obey a rule that doesn't exist. there is a two-year performance period built into the statute that lasts two years from the end of july of this year before they have to conform to the rule and we will certainly make sure that the firms have all the time they to respond. >> i'd like to shift, me questions to the topic that the chairman asked you about. whether it is time for us to begin more aggressively controlling the spend out rate in congresses spending habits or whether we need to continue to hold off because of the impact on the economy. and i believe as i understood your response, you indicated

that in january, we're going to see tax relief or tax cuts expire and we're going to see the sequestration impact, a number of other things will happen. and i believe your answer was that soon, we need to take some action and i want to per sue that with you a little bit more in this context. we've been having this debate in congress now for a number of years, but i want to go back to the bowles simpson commission and in that report, it was recognized that there needed to be an easing into the aggressive control of spending in washington. and immediately following that, we had the debate over the $800 billion stimulus bill where the argument was made you know, it's not time to control federal spending yet. we need another year or two before we start getting into the serious control of spending and between then and now, we have basically put another $5 trillion on the national debt,

not to count the trillions of dollars that have been used to help sustain economic activity and whether we agree with them or not from the fed's actions and we still see the argument being made that it's not time yet. for us to become aggressively engaged in controlling the spending excesses in washington. even though we have over 40 cents of every dollar borrowed today. and the budgets that are being proposed continue that trend for the next decade. i know you don't get heavily engaged in fiscal policy, but you've already tiptoed a little bit into those waters. when will it be time? i believe it's past time. for us to start aggressively dealing with the fiscal structure of our country on the spending side of the equation? >> just a word on the fed. the fed's purchased securities actually reduce the deficit because of the interest that comes back to the treasury.

the two things are not incompatible. you can moderate the very near term impact at the same time you make strong and decisive actions to put us on a path. you haven't taken the actions. you haven't passed the laws that will bring us on a glide path into sustainability over the next decade or so and i would add that i think one concern there is as i mentioned yesterday, the ten-year budget window may artificially constrain some of the things that congress should be about. because a lot of the issues we face are multidecade issues. i think you could take strong actions that could take place over time. i think about the early '80s social security reform that phased in things.

you could get the benefit of the conference here, but it wouldn't have as big as an impact as the very big shock that would otherwise occur next january 1st. i'm not saying that you can't do it and take serious action, i just think you should balance those objectives. >> thank you. i take it you're saying that we need to adopt -- >> you've been listening to fed chief ben bernanke. we'll continue with our coverage after a quick break. stay tuned. [ mujahid ] there was a little bit of trepidation, not quite knowing what the next phase was going to be, you know, because you been, you know, this is what you had been doing. you know, working, working, working, working, working, working. and now you're talking about, well you know, i won't be, and i get the chance to spend more time with my wife and my kids. it's my world. that's my world. ♪

how about some facts? the chevy volt was one of the most awarded cars in 2011. the volt's battery has been tested for more than 395,000 hours. ♪ and, most importantly, the volt has received the highest overall vehicle score for safety possible. [ cheers and applause ] the extended-range electric chevy volt. hard to argue with the facts. ♪ [ male announcer ] ylord of the carry-on.. sovereign of the security line. you never take an upgrade for granted. and you rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. and go. you can even take a full-size or above. and still pay the mid-size price. i deserve this. [ male announcer ] you do, business pro. you do. go national. go like a pro.

we've been watch iing the f chairman on the hill. want to get reaction, analysis of what he's been saying and how a difference from his house testimony yesterday. once again, kelly evans, newest member of our family. he's covered a lot of ground. >> lot of wonky ground. a lot of technical stuff. >> long-term goal of the fed, get the balance sheet back to normal. among u.s. banks relatively limited, well hedged and a bit oyefu of a tit for tat among some of the senators, trying to get them to create some long-term plans for fiscal responsibility.

>> you've got to love how he jumps in there and says qe has reduced the deficit because of interest payments the treasury received on that. not a lot of news this morning. we're not hearing necessarily the comments about qe2 or the state of the economy that might come in a little bit of time here. >> of course, it comes after a busy day for data earlier today. a busy week. today, we get this ism number that doesn't correlate with chicago the way it normally does in other months. >> you saw not only one category pulling it down, really new weakness. an increase in the prices paid index, which paints more of a stagflation picture. not necessarily the strongest one you can imagine. at the same time, we had weaker personal income. spending reports. for the third month in a row, spending in real terms flat for the second out of third month, three months, you had personal

disposable income down. in a vehicle and the car sales reports and chain stores sales reports, which have been stronger this morning. which is why we've had a hard time getting a strong market. >> if we put together a 14 million annual run rate for february the way we did in january, we haven't done that back-to-back since may of 2008. it's been a while. >> exactly. >> it's funny. there's more and more data coming in, we're saying first time since 2008, we haven't seen this since 2008. that's a good sign. but the question is sustainability. >> i think we're going to go back to the fed chairman. once again, here's ben bernanke. >> i think there's a big element here trying to figure out what works best per dollar of cost and we may not all agree on their particular actions, but i think they are trying some things and we'll see what benefits accrue from them.

>> a final note there's two ways of preserving the corpus of your interest. one is through foreclosure. the other one is through looking at the whole process of refinancing and where appropriate, the private sector has taken about 20% of its portfolio in the banks and said makes sense to do you know, reductions in principle. i just worry that our whole focus seems to be in those entities. preserving the corpus through foreclosure, which at the end of the day, has a whole other disstabilizing element. >> foreclosure is very costly. not only for the borrower and the community, but for the lender and the country. what i was discussing was not whether the foreclosures. i was talking about what are the best ways to address the foreclosure issue. >> thank you, mr. chairman and you, mr. chairman, for being here.

we alternate between the house and senate going forward. we thank you for being here. we want to hone in on the volcker rule. quantita quantitate easing. over the last day and a half, let me just ask you, with the volcker rule, i think most of us are in a place where we're just trying to make it work now. we understand it's passed. why were treasuries and mortgage-backed securities excluded in the first place? >> of course, congress made that decision. i assume it had to do with the desire to maintain the liquidity of the treasury market. >> so by that statement you just made, we've taken away the depth of liquidity and all other instruments and thus, we've had

an outcry from foreign governments and middle american companies that are going to realize they're not going to have the depth of liquidity. i know you focus on economic issues. you're a renowned economist. is that something that's good for our country to lose liquidity with those other instruments or would we be better off moving them into the volcker arraignment? >> well, there's certainly a trade off. there's going to be at least some marginal effect on markets in principle. there's a market making exception and we're going to do our best -- >> and you think market making is a good thing for our country and by these entities by virtue of that statement, is that correct? >> i do. and it's exempted from the volcker rule, but of course,

weather got to draw that line in a way it doesn't inhibit good market making. >> i talked with some of the folks who are advocates for the volcker rule and we've tried to come up with a solution to allow appropriate market making. some of the people we've talked to want to see the volcker rule used as a way to get to glass-steagall through the back door. by virtue of what you just said, i believe you would believe that to be not a good thing, is that correct, or at least as it relates to market making? >> i haven't been an advocate because if you look back at the crisis, the separation of investment banking is not particularly helpful. investment banks were a big source of the problem by themselves separately. but again, as we were saying before, there's trade offs. the goal of volcker rule is to

reduce risk taking by institutions and we're trying to do that in a way that will permit hedging and marketing. >> when you have a rule that people describe like in many ways pornography, you know it when you see it, when you make a rule, would it be helpful if congress clarified the fact that market making is not intended to be overturn ed by virtue of volcker rule. that market making is a very valid and appropriate process for these regulated entities to be involved in and do you think that might help? you've had all these comments, you've got all these regulators trying to come to conclusion, each being pushed by various constituencies by congress and outside. would it be helpful to you if we clarified if we as a congress do believe that market making should not be negatively impacted by the volcker rule?

>> congress pushed for these emt sepgss and the statute is clear that market making is exempt and we want to do our best. i understand your intent, i hear your intent that market making and hedging should be excluded from proprietary trading or distinguished. >> so, i think we're generally speaking, on the same page. as it relates to the volcker rule. we don't want it to do damage to the liquidity for lending activities in this country. is that correct? >> that's correct. >> and i think we're on the same page that it's a legitimate concern, that this is incredibly unfair for the largest economy in the world to place a tremendous bias on liquidity of treasuries and march backed securities, but not our own sovereign debt. would you agree there's a little bit of a problem? >> there's an issue, when we're

in conversation with our partners there, there's one difference, which is that primary markets for japanese are in japan and of course, therefore not broadly affected by the volcker rule, except to the extent u.s. banks are doing it. i agree we want to make sure we're not doing unnecessary damage to those markets. >> do you agree that zero waiting that we place on sovereign debt especially in this world and especially in light of the fact that we are our own worst enemy in this country and we still have not been able to as senator kra pau was alluding, to deal with our long-term issues with the bozel rules in place. should there be a zero waiting for any other treasuries or solve erp debt? >> none of those securities is completely riskless, that's true.

we have in the case of non u.s., we've approached this in various ways. in the case of non u.s. sovereign debt, the europeans have asked the banks to write down the value of that debt, so in some senses, it's subtracted from capital one for one and in the united states, we have been making banks, we're not just relying on the capital ratio or making banks do stress tests or look at their european holdings and make sure they're safe and sound, so we're not ignoring that by any means. in the case of u.s. treasuries, our assumption is that the biggest source of risk is interest rate risk as opposed to default risk. under default, i think the whole financial system would be in enormous trouble. but we do ask banks to stress their interest rate risk, including their holdings of treasuries and municipalities and so on. >> thank you.

i know you've received some criticism over the housing white paper and i know we had a brief con ser sags about it and those weren't your ideas necessarily. i do hope in your core area since the fed's been pretty active in giving advice, i would love to see a white paper on the effect of financial regulation that we just passed on our country and i don't know if that would be forthcoming, but i would just suggest it's in your core area, that it would be very useful to us. thank you for your testimony. >> thank you, mr. chairman. chairman bernanke, this is a question that is a follow up, this question with chairman johnson and senator crepo. in your testimony, you note there has been some modestly encouraging data recently

including slightly better performance in the labor market, improved consumer sentiment and some increases in manufacturing. but these signs of economic recovery are are not necessarily reflected yet in the experiences of all workers and families in the communities. putting aside a question in the euro zone, what possible setbacks concern you the most with respect to risks in our economic recovery? for instance, the action to cut critical investments could quickly send the economy back into a sloughdow . >> welllet me say first that one of the points i talked about in

my remarks is there is a little bit of contradiction in speeds of recovery and growth. i mentioned that income had been flat for consumers in 2011. the revised data from yesterday said it was a little better than flat, but still less than 1%, so you've still got consumers, consumption spending growing relatively weakly. you've got the fiscal issues there hanging over our heads, so in order to make this a sustainable, strong recovery, strong growth in demand and production. i think that's something we have to watch closely. in terms of the risk to that, i think that's important. another is the oil prices. we've seen a number of movements up and down in energy prices.

to some extent is inevitable because the world economy is growing. the demand goes up and that's going to create some demand towards higher commodity prices, but when you have shocks arising from geopolitical events, those are negative and bad for households and the broader economy. housing, i think, remains a very difficult area. we're hoping for price stabilization. we think once people have gotten a sense that the house markets have stabilized, they'll be much more willing to buy and the banks much more willing to lend, but i think now, there's still uncertainty on the housing market and i guess finally, i would mention fiscal policy, which both in the short-term, terms of uncertainty about where fiscal policy is going to go

over the next year and in terms of the long-term, whether or not congress will have a sustainable path, i think both of things are creating uncertainty and do pose some risk to the economy. so there are a number of different things, but overall, of course, there has been some good news and of course, that's welcome. >> thank you for that response. chairman bernanke -- >> the fed chairman there, we continue to watch the testimony, discussing among other things, the volcker rule, saying they have a fair amount of time, but on the margin, there might be some effect. a lot of the banks still trading higher. >> we've already seen an effect on the markets. again, bernanke indicating july is not going to be some hard and fast deadline.

banks will have plenty of time to comply. >> what do you think overall his goal is today? with hawkins, it's about getting in and out in one piece. >> without making headlines. his goal is to not make headlines. yesterday, the reaction, this idea that the door had been shut on qe2, some saying that was probably a bit overdone. the question was whether he would come out and try to bat against that and cite the weakness in housing and some of the economy and say that this is a possibility. we didn't really hear a lot of that. he didn't necessarily feel he had to come out and say that too strongly. >> and overall, the structure of his opening testimony yesterday was a little different than in the previous three or so, right? >> well, at this point, he's out there talking so much, so humphrey hawkins is evolving. the fed is thinking about

different ways to use the platform. it's not the only time they go before people. they have the press conferences four times a year. >> thai going to hang around with us. walk us through the european close with simon in a few minutes. we will take a quick break. back with a lot more testimony and more general news when we continue in two minutes. what happened.o -- n 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. ♪

eeeeeee! whee! whee! wheeeeeeeee! ah heads up. wheeeeeeeeeeee! everything you love about geico, now mobile. download the new geico app today.

vad mir putin has accused the u.s. of -- even blames the state department for street protests in moscow. russia's middle class is high on american grants and consumers are hungry for fast food chains like papa john's. steve liesman, good morning, good evening to you. >> yes, carl, thanks very much. before i get to one of the russian favorites, cheeseburger pizza with thousand island dressing. congress right now is consider removing cold war era trade restrictions and it's going to hurt u.s. businesses here in

russia. among those doing well are the franchises. mcdonald's, kfc, burger king and subway. we caught up with one of the newest entrants to this market. papa john's. 30,000 pieces a week and the biggest topping right now is profits. american businesses have big results in russia. but papa john's tried something new. russians love pizza and they sell 30,000 pies a week in moscow. russian's love of pizza should never been that surprising. the country's diet is based on meat, cheese and bread and he says russians associate american products with quality. >> we've had significant units. we have 30. when i bought the business, we had four. it has to import the sausage

with pep roany and the sauce. russians never had a culture of take out. they're delivered or carried out. >> we want to identify with the culture. this woman here, what's she putting on the pizza? that's not normal. chicken ranch pizza and cheeseburger pizza with thousand island dressing are two of the unique best sellers. the next thing, getting the pepperoni. do you mind if i join you? >> yes. >> time to eat. >> and carl, you're exactly right. it's that growing middle class in russia that's eating all the pizzas and that's also the same problem president putin is having. take a look at some of the franchises here.

mcdonald's has 300. subway, 300. papa john's with 30 is one of the up and comers, but they say that the growing middle class here even though they may want more political freedom, likes their pizza coming from papa john's just fine. >> coming up on some historic moments in that country. fascinating look at it. your promotional shot though in the front of the red square is a gorgeous, gorgeous shot. look forward to a lot more. steve liesman from moscow. back to a story that steve would normally be reporting on if he were here in this country. ben bernanke with part two of his testimony. >> i hope that will be sort of a trigger point to force congress to say how are are we going to solve this problem and so i of course realize how difficult it is politically, but i encourage you to make every effort to help restore fiscal sustainability in the united states. >> my concern is that i'm --

believe that we wouldn't have 25 or whatever the projections are, if we had not been irresponsible as policymakers over many years and i'm not blaming that on any president or party, but it's clearly a problem. it's been pointed out by "the wall street journal" today and in other articles in financial magazines that the loose monetary policy is compounding the potential problems in the future. and i think as senator shelby talked about the need for transparency, the need to understand where we're headed with this, is pretty important to us as policymakers. for for you to be brutally honest and more than you've been today, that we are on an unsustainable path. it hurts me to hear you say ten or 20 years. we need to bring it under control when the analysis i've

seen of worldwide available credit suggests a five-year window may be tough for us as far as bow borrowing the money. we seem to have a compounding and growing problem. from the political side and now a monetary system around the world. it seems to be making that much worth. i'll let you xhenlt and i'll yield back. >> i don't mean mean that no action should be taken for 10 to 20 years. i mean that the plan needs to be a long run plan and looking only at 2013 is not going to be helpful. you need to look at the whole horizon. >> senator, there have been -- >> thank you, mr. chairman and thank you, mr. chairman, for being here today. i wanted to focus my questions on the economy with you since you actually know what you're talking about, but before i do

that, i want to go back to an answer that you made earlier on interest rates. you said that you thought the risk of default was not a serious one, but that the risk you're worrying about is interest rate risk for the economy. can you talk more about that? what would cause that risk and what the effects would be of a more normalized interest rate than the one we have today? which is at a historic low, isn't it? >> right, so both short-term and long-term interest rates are quite low. >> before that, let's get a commercial break in. a few minutes left in europe's trading day. we'll get that and the impact on the u.s.a., plus more of bernanke's testimony on the hill. at we make here, you wouldn't be able to walk in your house and flip on your lights. [ brad ] at ge we build turbines that power the world. they go into power plants which take some form of energy, harness it,

and turn it into more efficient electricity. [ ron ] when i was a kid i wanted to work with my hands, that was my thing. i really enjoy building turbines. it's nice to know that what you're building is gonna do something for the world. when people think of ge, they typically don't think about beer. a lot of people may not realize that the power needed to keep their budweiser cold and even to make their beer comes from turbines made right here. wait, so you guys make the beer? no, we make the power that makes the beer. so without you there'd be no bud? that's right. well, we like you. [ laughter ] ♪  we were just driving along,er comin' back from the lake,ng. and all of a sudden, ka-plam. it blindsided us. what is it? our college savings account. how do you think it happened? not sure. i think something we bought a while ago

turned out to be something else, annnnnd, i remember a lot of other stuff in there had the word "aggressive" in it. is everyone okay? well, now, yeah. who knows later. ♪

another interesting day in europe. manufacturing, inflation, unemployment. the italian ten-year, below five. simon hobbs. >> a triple whammy of bad news, but we're making decent gains. they've been able to add to the longs through. we've had a little bit of trouble here when data came out of the united states. down to about 40.

so that was a concern, but as you can see, we're closing out virtually on the highs of the session. let's talk about the market. it's still very much the eye of the storm or eye of the heaven i guess. >> markets are closing now. >> you see that positive territory right the way across the board? more or less. let me show you where we are on the bond markets. of course, today is the day that you have that $720 billion dumped into 800 banks. they have the cash in their accounts to spend and we have some auctions today. government auctions in both france and spain and you can see the way in which you can't to debt. this is a weekly chart. the yields coming further and further down into negative territory. good news despite spain. what's happening on the short end of the italian market, on the two years, you've had a very dramatic move and i'm going to paint this in red because i

think this is potentially a warning sign. we have gone from almost three -- this is a weekly chart. almost 3% yields to now below a 2% yield in just this one week. that is a collapse in yields at the short end where banks are more likely to dump their cash. it's like the currency count if you like for many of those governments. some are suggesting that is unsustainable. we have the finance ministers meeting in brussels and the 27 heads of state will meet very shortly from across the european union in brussels and into tomorrow. it isn't expected to be market moving. the commission recently saying we need to liberalize the markets. >> where did you learn how to do all the fancy ar rories --

suddenly, you could do this. thank you, simon. hop over to rick santelli in chicago. cannot wait for that show. >> every 2500 high cholesterol breakfast to be part of the chicago scene. waiting for you when you get here. listen, my guest today, truly and i'm not just saying this, one of the smarter guys i know. phil, tell me about yourself and what letters you have after your name. >> well, i spent 20 years trading at the board of trade. i'm a financial adviser to traders. having said that, try to give me a quickie about type of clients you deal with in terms of size r or strength. >> entrepreneurial, a lot of traders have traded first. >> we now debate whether europe's in recession, asia's

slowing down. what do you think is a head wind with regard to what your clients are experiencing regarding the u.s. economy? >> i think the biggest issue for them is the complexity. it's really regulation. they're overregulated. they've got all these new rules coming down the pipe. you have 1% of people, business owners doing the wrong thing and the 99% are paying for that. filling out paperwork instead of focusing on their business. if they could focus on their business and generate revenue, they could hire more employees and buy a home. >> how much time do you spend as a small business person dealing with compliance issue. >> it can go up to 100% for a couple of weeks at a time. >> give me a concrete example about how some of these issues let's take government regulation. just are are gruelling and distorting activities and

something that should be more simple. >> well, i think the simplest one, the one that will appeal to people, if you have a college savings plan. in 2008, the rule was you could make one change a year. up to two now. so, in january of 2008, if you had made a plan to your college savings plan and thought, you know what? the market's going down. my kid's two years away from college. i'd like to move to bonds. you have to wait to january of 2009 to make that move, so the government is trying to protect you, cost you 25%, maybe a year of college for your child. they need the help. the unintended commercial. >> no matter how smart you are, if you believe that in this example, that in order to adequately fund your kid's college, you need to do something. they prohibit you from doing that. what is the rationale? >> that they're saying we don't want you trading stocks are

risky investments in your kid's college account, and putting it in their own. >> before i kick it to you, carl, today with regard to credit default swipes, it's not a matter of whether we agree or disagree with the decision to have a credit event. buyer beware. this is the way it's supposed to be. if you don't like their decision, it's a private market. don't buy anymore. that's the way it's supposed to work. i wish it worked that way with regard to illinois. back to you. >> great point. we will see you tomorrow when we take the show to the floor of the cme. meanwhile, bernanke's been making a couple of headlines. expect short-term rates to be low in his words for quote a good bit more time and wants banks to be aware of higher interest rates when they do come. >> if you said 2015 -- so i don't know what the phrase short-term. we already indicated from them they expect to keep rates low

through 2014. simon was headlining the fact that yields collapsed, wu here's the one that really caught my eye. the italian ten-year, when it was over 7%. right here. look at this. we're at the holy grail right now. we're below 5%. everybody said good heavens, if we could only get it below, the italians would finance themselves, thipgs would be a lot better. do you sell the trade? with the yields this low now, is this really an indication of some kind of top in the market? i don't know, but it's a very important point that we pass that. i'll tell you something that bugs me a little bit, guys, about today. about a stock market. put up what i'm seeing because what we've got here is major indices at new highs. more advancing than declining stocks have been happening, but wait a minute, what's happened to the new highs?

they're receding. we've been going in the other direction. that bothers me a little bit. put up a chart of new highs at the new york stock exchange. right now, we hit highs beginning in february, put that chart up. and since then, we've been receding. what that means is that the new advancers, the stocks that were the market leaders aren't really helping us as much as they used to. january in the beginning of february and since then, here we are today. this is what the markets are at new highs. that's a little bit disturbing. the reason that's happening is because the big names, your apples and microsofts are the ones pushing the market forward to new highs. this looks a little confusing. there's the s&p, moving up all through january and february, here's the russell.

it's going nowhere. it's going down today. in other words, the small names aren't advancing as much. we want to see more market participation and that's what we're not getting right now. meantime, take a look at the economic data. little choppy. retail sales has been just great today, but the isms been light % personal income is light. so r far this week, thing rs a little on the choppy side. i'd like to see more improvement on that front. let's take a look at the retail sales numbers. here's your real big bright spot. we saw reasonable strength in the south. the warm weather is helping down there. accessories, shoes for men and women, handbags have been really strong. i think that's an interesting sign. these are not necessaries to buy handbags and the fashion stretch, bold colors, i don't

know what that means. >> that's you with the regis purple shirt and tie today. >> as my wife says, it takes a strong man to wear a purple shirt. >> on fighting talk, but handbags aren't necessary for the females watching as well. >> yes, and we don't discuss what we're doing on the weekends. back in a moment with more on bernan bernanke's testimony on chill. plus, the ceo of cartier americas. a look at some winners and losers of europe's trading day just now coming to an end.

like in a special ops mission? you'd spot movement, gather intelligence with minimal collateral damage. but rather than neutralizing enemies in their sleep, you'd be targeting stocks to trade. well, that's what trade architect's heat maps do. they make you a trading assassin. trade architect. td ameritrade's empowering web-based trading platform. trade commission-free for 60 days, and we'll throw in up to $600 when you open an account.

only hertz gives you a carfirmation. hey. this is challenger. i'll be waiting for you in stall 5. it confirms your reservation and the location your car is in, the moment you land. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz.

coming up next t call of the day. will research in motion issue a negative preannouncement? one analyst thinks so. plus, it's the biggest year for microsoft since windows one. dan niles tells us how to play it now and what happens to the gold trade if qe3 really is off the table? the trader rs will weigh in. now back to carl on "squawk on the street." >> scott losing the jacket today. cartier is a brand synonymous with luxury spending. it's brand has been up 17%. now shifting its marketing vat

ji, taking its company to the big screen. joining us today, the president and ceo. good to see you. >> thanks for having me. >> it's a film project, but it's an advertisement, which is going to break on sunday, correct? >> on sunday on the national networks. it's two years in the making, so it's quite an undertaking for a three and a half minute short film, a crew of 60 people, location. we did the right way, the same way we approach making jewelry. >> what does it say about the tactics, the strategy behind markets right now where you are? >> it's telling the story. it's not a business strategy where we expect a director to learn investment on presenting a project. it's really going on the footsteps of the couch brothers, who are the ones that took cartier internationally. traveled to russia, to india, to the middle east.

we're following our iconic panther, who also takes you into a mythical, magical dream world back and forth into reality. >> sounds like the shoot was rather involved. many locations actually following three young panthers. >> absolutely. again, 60 people, two years in the making. some movies are blockbusters of two hours. take less than two years to make. i think the fact that cartier is used to doing that in creating its pieces of jewelry and watches, if it's not done right, we take the time to fix it until it's perfect and that's really the approach we had with this film. >> you're joining us on a day where we're getting retail sales from the targets and kohl's of the world. where is the high-end? we've seen some spotty metrics out of some rivals of yours. even some manhattan stores not doing as well as they typically

have. is it reflective of the whole sector? >> you've announced the latest statement that we had. what we see, especially after '08 and '09 is really from our clients. they want to make sure we'll make their purchase count. the person we give it to will preesh kuwa appreciate it. we've seen on the unique piece on the very high-end, a much stronger demand on special orders and custom orders from our plants. >> with the dow getting close to some highs it hasn't set in a number of years, the mothers days and summer season? >> psychologically, it always help when you want to celebrate and make a nice purchase. >> nothing -- there's no substitute for ice as my wife

likes to say. looking forword to it on sunday. tune in the luxury boom, premiering monday, march 5th. we'll take a short break and get back to the chairman and the fed. don't go away.

the fed chairman has wrapped up his testimony. i'm sure it was a lot of fun. both today and yesterday. kelly evans joins us to put his couple of days in context, then we'll talk about some data in a moment. but overall, are we going to look back in six months and find this batch of testimony pivotal? >> no. i don't think so. even though we had a big move yesterday. there wasn't a lot today to junl. a couple of questions from charles schumer asking about the highway bill, making sure we didn't do anything else in terms of austerity. then money market funds in the u.s. he said i see them as part of our future, but europe doesn't have indicating that they're not critical. there weren't any major headlines. >> they tried to pin him down on rates toward the end and his words, a good bit more time.

>> yeah. and they said let's talk about this interest rate risk and what this could mean for banks and the economy if rates start to increase, but we're testing the 2% level and we can barely break above there. >> then there's the data. just looking over some of the retail sales numbers. >> strong. >> overall, 67 in february. is the fastest since june. and people will try to say it was weather. others will try to divorce it from weather. how much of this is the fact that it was warm? >> i think the weather does play a role. we saw it hurting sales in january. people weren't buying those winter jackets, but in february, it's nicer weather, you want to get out. you're hitting the stores a little bit. march and april get tougher. we had really strong months. the easter seasonal playing a role. >> couple of moments ago, bob pisani was building an argument for some of the weaker data over the last few days. >> we're gettinging those key

components of the economy. we're looking at industrial production, consumer spending and they're not sending a message of strength right now. for the first quarter, gross domestic products only tracking about a 2% rate. we still had fiscal tightening that's happening, so even though the data's been better, it's still relative. >> and even though claims today were almost right on the money at 3.51 and the best decline in about ten years. >> no, and remember, we've seen stronger data seasonally last year. 2010 in the spring and then the economy's rolled over. it's weakened a bit into the summer. i think that's why people are he has trant to buy into that. >> did we pull a lot of demand forward? >> there's a lot of questions about the timing of the recession, if that hurt the seasonal data.

i think it's more a case of you start to get oil prices. >> national average, 3.72. 3.73. hearing $5, that's really in some selected markets. >> no one's doing full service at the new jersey gas stations. >> but i imagine if you were still writing ahead -- >> i'd write it in my head. >> i'd assume you would argue no real damage to the economy until crude hits 140. >> if you look at the real disposable income, i do think it's doing damage. people feel better about the economy, but a difficult position where prices will hurt discretionary spending. it does weigh on the economy. it's not showing up the way it has in the past. >> so if walmart gave us sales figures in something like that. >> we start to look at the march

data. it's really the last four weeks that this has been all over the news, in people's minds and even though sales can still look strong, i don't think we should get too carried away here. it does do damage. >> on the bright side, auto sales, pretty good. >> good time to buy a fuel efficient car. some of those smaller vehicles that have better fuel mile age. >> if you're watching production of things like cars, you're going to want to keep your eye on copper. got thoughts on where that's going? >> doctor, the metal with the ph.d. my former colleagues are probably going to roll their eyes. watch ism. with that weakening, it's more a bearish sign for things like copper. keep supporting those prices. >> you're liking the new digs? >> pretty nice get up.

>> we didn't want to underwhelm you. don't forget to tweet us a photo on the front page of today's "new york times" really captures the anger over austerity. in this case, in barcelona spain. this employee confronted a protester who broke a window during a demonstration against education cuts. how would you caption this? tweet us. get some of your suggestions after this short break. [ dog barks ] for our country. ♪ for our future. ♪ this isn't just the car we wanted to build. it's the car america had to build. ♪ the extended range electric chevy volt. from the heart of detroit to the health of the country, chevy runs deep.

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. ♪

tdd# 1-800-345-2550 checking the charts. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 looking for support, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 resistance, breakouts, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 a few other tricks that i'll keep to myself. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 that's how i trade. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and i do it all with charles schwab, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 because their streetsmart edge platform tdd# 1-800-345-2550 helps me trade quickly, intuitively. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 staying on top of the market is key! tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and the momentum tool, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 it lets me do it at a glance, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 so when things shift, i'm ready. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 then to track the stocks i have my eye on, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 i turn to schwab's high/low ticker. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 so i can spot a potential breakout tdd# 1-800-345-2550 before it breaks out. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and get this...i can even trade, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 change my orders or check out my positions tdd# 1-800-345-2550 right on my chart. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 my system works for me. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 does yours work for you? tdd# 1-800-345-2550 get streetsmart edge tdd# 1-800-345-2550 from charles schwab for $8.95 a trade. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 open an account and trade up tdd# 1-800-345-2550 to 6 months commission-free. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 call 1-877-586-5928 tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and get started today.

this photo on the front page of the times captures some of the anger over austerity in europe. the guy on the right, an employee of a bank, trying to fend off a protester angry about education cuts. brent writes keeping anarchy beyond an arm's length. if banana peels and lound kenny g. music doesn't work, use a ten-foot metal pole and jim lied, i lied. i would touch you with my ten-foot pole. the protester on the left is

brandishing a knife, but thanks for your good suggestions. let's get to rick santelli. a gentleman what was going to coach with me tomorrow you are still very much interested in this decision. >> i am. listen, you had bill gross on earlier. we did. i didn't hear all of it, but didn't you get the impression, maybe i wrongly did, that he thought maybe it could be a credit even or should be? >> he definitely did not rule it out all together. >> i'll tell you what. thanks to my buddy, who's a guest every now and then. he went to the website and printed out the votes. i was kind of shocked. who wants to call it a credit event? 15 noes. -- morgan stanley, ubs, society general, citadel, blue mountain capital, blue mountain management and pimco.

they voted no. i don't personally care, buyer beware. i think if this is unregulated between smart private parties and they want to buy it again in the future, let them waste their own money or if they don't think they're wasting it, that's fine. as far as tomorrow, wow, with that lineup, being a fan of card late is a card played, austan goolsbee, we're going to have some fun tomorrow. >> you got any advice on how to avoid the fights in the pits? if i get in a fight, am i going to have to pay a fine? >> fines are small and the gratification of not taking home negative energy is large. draw your own con chugss. >> we'll get our own sledgehammers. >> i still have the hammer up there. i still have the hammer. >> look forward to it. see you tomorrow. really quickly before we go, some of these retail names really interesting. gap is up almost 8%. again, we were expecting a negative comp for february.