play on efficiency and housing. >> come back? >> absolutely. >> that does it for us. don't forget to catch more "fast money" tonight. about plus 50 on the dow jones industrial average. and "power lunch" begins right now. >> thank you, scotty. three hours to go in the trading day and a new month begins with a slew of economic numbers. jobless claims, chain store sales, auto sales encouraging, but a surprise slump in factory activity raising some doubts about recovery. is a correction coming, ty? >> sue, bank of america the best performing stock in the dow in february. how about that? but remember the pr debacle when they tried to hike debit card fees last year? they're thinking about raising other fees. this time smart move or not? >> plus, santorum sounds off. he's been talking about social issues like birth control, abortion, gay rights. now you'll hear what he just told our john harwood about the economy.

>> and i'm tyler mathisen along with sue herera. "power lunch" begins right now. >> i'm courtney reagan at the realtime exchange. welcome to "power lunch." a mixed bag of economic news. ben bernanke not changing his tune on dropping new hints about qe-3. but markets on the upside. take a look, green across the board the dow just under a hair of the 13,000. and the nasdaq less than ten points from 3,000. let's see if we can do it. let's take a pulse of the market. the vix as you can see is lower by about 5.2% under that 18 mark. the 10-year treasury above 2% on the yield again today. natural gas falling further down almost 6%. getting crushed on those inventory numbers. midday movers, take a look at these green arrows. gap surging to new high for the year. sales beat estimates. that was a surprise. goldman sachs up as well. raising price target on the

stock. and monster worldwide way up as you can see more than 20%. their ceo says the company is considering "strategic alternatives." also on the move first solar continuing its downturn after weak earnings guidance and downgrades too. down 6%. blackberry maker, rim, down 4%. they may preannounce a weak order. and you can see over here down nearly 9%. sue, back to you. >> courtney, thanks so much. let's head to the trading floor as we have full team coverage here on "power lunch." we'll start with bob pisani on the floor of the nyse. >> hello, sue. certain trends are continuing. treasury yields, for example, up across the board. the dollar's up in the middle of the day. we were down on it earlier. that's a very interesting trend. still not quite clear whether the dollar is trending up long-term or down long-term. can go either way right now. elsewhere look at the major sectors on the stock market here. doesn't this look like the old

risk-on trades back here? the financials, materials, energies and technology stocks all advancing today. certainly looks that way. you think good heavens must be great economic news. that's very mixed data and courtney referenced that. put up what's been going on today. retail sales, just terrific. knock your socks off excellent. there's the retailers. new highs. liz claiborne new high. buckle, macy's and lowe's all at new highs here just off of that for them. but the bottom line is the economic news has been very mixed here. put the economic data back up and i'll show you what happened here. retail was great, but if you look at some other things, for example the ism, durable goods, personal income, personal spending, all was very much on the light side. there you go. that's the concern people have had today. we have to get a little better, the trend has to get back to better economic news. finally mention retail sales numbers, sue, 82% beat expectation. certainly better than anybody expected. sharon, how's it looking at the nymex? >> well, the trend is for warmer

temperatures here when the last winter month of the year and we are looking at natural gas taking a huge punch today as courtney mentioned down about 6% on that data we got from the energy department showing a smaller than expected decline in supply. but the big story of the moment right now is brent crude because brent crude has been popping. it's up about $2. it topped $125 a barrel. and a lot of traders reading more of the positive data from the u.s. in support of brent crude prices as well as the positive pmi data from china. keep in mind as well there's more focus today on gasoline exports because we did get data yesterday from the energy department showing a big increase in gasoline exports from this country. in fact, the highest on record. and big increases in exports to south america. particularly mexico and venezuela. venezuela used to be a net exporter themselves, now they're importing a lot of gasoline from the u.s. this is the reason some are also saying that we're looking at higher gasoline prices at the

pump. $3.74 a gallon, seema, now is the national average. over to you at the nasdaq. >> sharon, you know the nasdaq breaking 3,000 threshold yesterday. right now about 10 points shy in terms of technology we have advanced microdevices being the outperformer in trade. the company announcing the acquisition of c micro for around $340 million. this move is seen as a way to heighten the competition with intel. so that's a stock to watch. one stock that's not participating in the gains that we've seen at the nasdaq, research in motion. a big decliner. analysts at jefferies making pretty bearish call saying rimm will most likely not meet q-4 estimates. the company continues to compete of course with the popularity of the apple ipad and iphone. actually, on that note let's take a look at apple. hit a fresh new all-time high this morning at $548. right now at $543. tyler, back to you. >> seema, thank you very much. let's switch on the "power lunch" power surge and drill down on some of the stories that are driving this day. big automakers revving up sales,

chrysler best february since before the financial crisis. and it's not alone. our philip lebeau behind the wheel for us in chicago. phil. >> tyler, these are much better than expected numbers. in fact, we are hearing automakers talking about a sales pace close to 15 million as far as a pace. we're not going to get there, but take a look at the automakers and how they did. the big surprise here look at the number from chrysler. up 40%. and when you look at what chrysler is doing, it's impressive because remember they skewed towards trudcks and suvs. those are not the fuel efficient vehicles we would be selling up but grand cherokee up 46%. best february in years for that vehicle. chrysler group sales surging despite incentives being cut by 24%. what about the demand for small cars? they did see some rotation there. ford saying that its small car, small crossover utility vehicle sales up 35% last month. also demand for the six cylinder ecoboost engines which get

better mileage up 43%. one other note about ford as we look at shares, the company boosting its 2 q production by 20%. and they're not alone in terms of increasing production. toyota out today saying that it is going to be boosting transmission production here in the united states. so, sue, what we're seeing is better than expected sales. and that rotation towards more production here to meet that demand. we're seeing the automakers increase it. i wouldn't be surprised if this is the end of it. >> phil, thanks a million. appreciate it. >> you bet. >> of course as you know auto sales only one part of the economic recovery. personal income and spending on the rise. but there are concerns about manufacturing. we also have jobs and bernanke on the hill. so what's it all saying about the health of the u.s.? we welcome a new addition to the cnbc family, kelly evans. good to have you here. >> good to be here. >> you listened to mr. bernanke. what stuck out to you in terms of his testimony? >> there wasn't a lot. yesterday he caught the market's attention when he try today play down any talk about another round of quantitative easing.

today even despite that reaction, overreaction some say, he didn't do a lot to walk it back and didn't talk a lot about monetary policy. a lot of questions from the senate really had to do with differences in how the volcker rule being implemented, it was a lot different tone than what we saw yesterday. less focus on monetary policy. he did though talk about weakness in the housing market. i think this is one area to watch when you're talking about how likely it is for another round of quantitative easing. the more likely that is, the more the fed's probably going to talk about the weakness in housing and they may target housing in particular with the next round of purchases. >> on another note, we've all heard about the lipstick indicator. you've come up with a different take. we're going to name it the dentist indicator. >> i was at the dentist earlier this week and he mentioned seeing new patients. i wanted to sort of see we've seen dentists have increases in appointments when people are leaving work and trying to cram it in before they lose insurance. this is different.

talking about new patients. called around the country, talked to half a dozen dentists and we've got dentists in atlanta talking about increases, people in the west coast and east coast. what is happening they say anecdotely based is when people are hired for full-time work they have those benefits and start going to the dentist. this isn't just a flurry of appointments before people lose coverage, this is new patients. tends to be a good sign they have benefits and full-time jobs. >> that kind of confirms in what we're seeing in some of the economic numbers out today and this week. as you look at the dentist indicator, look at the economic indicators as well. what sticks out to you there? >> just want to mention all the pmi data today, none of it really grabbed the headlines, but in the u.s. first of all you saw a surprising decline. pmi's correlated with everything from base metals to, you know, the global stock market to just generally risk sentiment. keeping an eye there. a bit of a decline could be a headwind for some industrial

stocks going forward. again, setting the tone for the month we saw some of the components there dropping even though prices rose. real quick, china and the eurozone saw a bit of an improvement. greece, i wanted to mention, it fell from a level in the 40s to 37. they've now been below that 50 line that indicates expansion for 30 months the economy shrank 7% last year. unemployment at 20%. if you thought austerity was going to work, look at greece. think again. >> kelly, welcome. which is more painful, trip to the dentist or "power lunch"? >> stop. >> this has been nothing but a pleasure. >> okay. thanks very much. up next, here's the score card as of march 1, nasdaq up 14% for the year. s&p up almost 9. dow 6%. can the bulls keep charging, or is it time for some correction protection? >> here's the action in the s&p sectors as they stand right now. pretty much all the way across the board in the green with the exception of consumer staples. but they are really only off less than a quarter of a percent. ty and i are back in a minute.

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european union leaders holding a summit, yes, yet another summit today in brussels trying to find new ways to boost growth in an effort to get out of the debt crisis. president of the european commission indicating europe may be turning the page although he's warning against over optimism. the big meeting comes as the isda, the organization that determines when a credit event

has occurred, says a credit event has not yet -- emphasize yet, occurred in greece. a declaration that would have triggered payouts of more than $3 billion in greek credit default swaps. well, china has pledged to help the debt-stricken region by buying up european bonds, but it's going the other way here. china now cutting its holdings of u.s. treasuries. so how big a deal is this? rick santelli is tracking the action at the cme. rick, what are you hearing from traders? how concerned are they or not concerned are they about this? >> you know, i will tell you this. when it comes to what's going on in greece, traders care about one thing. and that is to keep on top of which way various votes are going, will they get the check in time for march 20th, when it comes to things like the isda and whether it's a credit event or not, traders really -- you know, they're pretty much an entrepreneurial capitalist bunch. buyer be ware. if you bought these contracts -- you know, they put on their website all the different

entities that get to vote on this and the procedure. truly it takes you about five, ten minutes just to kind of get through it. then you have to read it ten times to understand it. but the traders don't have a sense that that's a good thing or a bad thing because most of the traders i deal with aren't really involved in owning credit default swaps. if they are, they understand. >> what about the china aspect of things? china has for years and years been long u.s. treasuries. and now if they're cutting back, is that a concern, do you think? or not? >> well, you're real sharp there, sue, because the treasury international capital flow data had their annual revisions as many data points due this time of year. and it showed a bigger dropoff in the holdings of china. i personally think that the unraveling of anything that could go wrong in the treasury complex in my opinion isn't going to be based on who's buying and who's holding as much as what happens when everybody no matter who you are and

whether your position's big or smaller, see a potential digital move or we see interest rates realign for safety issues or if the global economy actually can get into high gear. >> all right. ricky, thanks a million. appreciate it. >> thank you, sue. >> u.s. markets made extra use of that extra day last month. the s&p had its best february close since 1998 up 4%. the nasdaq crossed the 3,000 threshold for the first time since 2000. and the dow turned in its fifth consecutive month of gains. despite today's little rally is now the time to take profits ahead of a possible correction? let's bring in sandy lincoln, chief market strategist with beamo. and chief strategist with the wells fargo advantage funds. brian, let me start with you. we've had a very nice runup certainly in the first two months of this year since october of last year. no one would be surprised if there was a little pullback, but

does that necessarily mean that now would be the time to trim some winners and bank some profits? >> well, first i'd like to say that i'm honored to be on with sandy lincoln. he's one of my heroes. >> awe. >> thanks for having me on. i do think that in general we're up towards the top of what we would consider our tradiing range. seems like there's a lot of technical resistance there. the runup we've seen has been driven by fundamentals. but it might be prudent to start trimming some of your profits, reinvesting in your losers. just to give you an example that has worked so far this year if you followed that advice, if you look at the s&p 500 as it's normally calculated and then an equally weighted basket made up of the same stocks, the equally weighted basket which involves effectively rebalancing has outperformed by 1.1% year-to-date. >> sandy, rebalancing time. >> first of all, thanks for the shoutout. i appreciate that. i don't know about rebalancing, tyler. i think a correction, it's like

night follows day. we're apt to get a correction in here. look at the last 40 or 50 years. every time we've had an up year in the market, 90% or 95% of the time there's been an intrayear correction of some sort. i think the question is how big. if it's garden variety, which we think, we don't think you get an explosion in iran or an implosion in europe, therefore sea biscuit is out of the gate very fast this year for sure. so you're waiting for the range to be pulled in because there's some really good quality companies. and you want to buy them, but you watch the prices runup. so we don't think it's time to be cute and try and take your profits and get out. we think profits will be nice for the end of the year as well. but we just think there will be some likelihood correction. you want to be ready with good companies to step in and buy those companys that are executing. >> like what? what would you buy, sandy? >> two we really like. we like them both. one is united rentals. it's a small company. $ 2.5 billion.

they dominate the equipment leasing business in america. forklift, whatever, they lease it. pricing is strong. forward multiple is only ten time earnings. so you're not overpaying for it. but the stock has just been heroic this year. if you have a 5% or 10% pullback, sort of a garden variety pullback, that would be a name we like. a second one we like is mattel, the toy company. everybody knows that name. really good job of managing -- >> especially ty and me. >> i know. american girl, who's going to skip on the kids, right? and it's a really good story. good job on margin protection in their case and improving margins, good brand names, valuation still reasonable at 12 time forward earnings. good size company 10 or 11. 4% dividend yield. those are the kinds of companys that if you get a pullback, step in and take the bait. >> a sis sor lift sounds like an abdominal exercise. i want to stay away from that.

brian, you said now is the time to rebalance. let me ask you if i'm taking money out of some of my winners that may have gotten a little overextended, where do i redeploy it? what specific areas might i look to where there might be better values? >> well, a few of my favorite sectors are actually some that have performed quite well. it's just i think in any given sector if you want exposure to say technology, you should consider perhaps looking at who it is that outperforms recently and reinvest in some of those that have been lagging because i think that as sandy brought up, some of the valuations on these companies make it look like they're dirt cheap. for the first quarter i think that we might see some -- little bit of maybe nail biting on the part of investors as they're concerned how oil prices might effect profits for some businesses. but i think that technology is a great area to be looking at. energy is also another area. health care is one of the areas that we've been fairly bullish on, which unfortunately has been one of the laggards. but that might be one of the

areas to be looking to add to as opposed to just running away from. >> very quickly, brian, when you mention technology there and stocks that have run up, obviously what came into my mind instantly was apple. what do i do with it if i own it? >> i don't make recommendations on specific stocks. we leave that up to the portfolio managers. but in general i think that's why you need to be very aware about what size of your portfolio does that one investment represent. >> uh-huh. >> if it's a growing share, that's where i think that perhaps you can take some of the profits and reinvest it in some of those that have been dragging behind. those businesses that are more business-oriented as opposed to consumer facing i think are the ones that will have the more robust earnings -- >> that was an artful subtle answer. thank you very much. appreciate it. sandy, good to see you. >> good to see you, ty. >> straight ahead, the santorum surge. surprised both campaigns. the former pennsylvania senator firing up the gop base with his stance on social issues. >> but the economy is front and center for millions of

americans. john harwood just spoke to mr. santorum about it. and we'll show you what he said. stick with us. back in two minutes. all in one account. keep watch on the markets. or use our exclusive tools to help find ideas. it's powerful, easy-to-use technology for trading stocks, options, and futures. keep trading whether you're at home, in the office, or on the go. optionsxpress, the broker smart traders deserve. open an account today at optionsxpress.com.

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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. welcome back to "power lunch." let's check in with scott wapner and see what stock's on his radar today. >> fio. it's fusion io. the computer memory maker. we were kicking it around on the "fast money" "halftime report" today. the stock having a good day. look on your screen i have it behind me. it's up nearly 10%. it was down big in january on earnings. a loss widen profit margins

decline. who are their customers? apple, facebook, salesforce.com. some of the biggest names around. who's their chief scientist? steve wozniak. the apple co-founder, which makes it an interesting story. that's why people keep following this company. it was one of the most successful ipos of last year in terms of the stock performance. got brought back down to earth a bit. but now seems to be on the upswing. credit suisse today initiating or reinstating the outperform on the shares. that's what's giving it the sizzle today, ty. >> scott, thank you very much. counting down to super tuesday. mitt romney, rick santorum hitting the road to spread their economic message across ten states ahead of next week's big primaries. and our chief washington correspondent, john harwood, got a one-on-one with mr. santorum down in atlanta. what's his growth plan, john? >> reporter: well, tyler, rick santorum's trying to grow his vote going into super tuesday. ten states are on the ballot. he lost two states to mitt romney the other day.

i sat down with him here at the atlanta airport where he had a rally. he went after mitt romney saying he practices class warfare in his economic plan, but he also defended his own economic plan, which is to give a zero tax rate for manufacturers. i asked him about the comments from a republican comment that said this is a terrible idea because you can't define what's a manufacture. he said not at all. >> i think markets work. but you have to understand there are different competitive marketplaces out there. and manufacturing is unique in that we have to compete against direct international competition. so it's not like you're creating a level playing field for, you know, for the airline industry. yeah, they have to compete, but they have to compete under the same rules here if they want to fly here or not fly here. so everybody's competing who's competing on the same ground. if you want to fly international, everybody has to compete with the same rules flying international. it's different in manufacturing. you have countries that desperately want to make things in their country because of the

tremendous impact manufacturing has on wealth in a community. and the opportunities it has to employ workers who are not necessarily, you know, the most highest educated. certainly employs people who are highly educated too, but it creates a ladder of success that really very few industries do. and at the same time create good wages up through that process. and so that's why we are on a playing field right now that we are not competitive. >> you've criticized governor romney for using occupy wall street rhetoric when he says he would pay for his tax cuts through people at the upper end of the scale. >> i think he used the term top 1%. >> right. now from what i understand he said simply he was going to pay for the tax cuts by broadening the base and that the burden of that was not going to fall on some of the working class people that you are speaking for in the campaign. so what's wrong with that? >> he is saying, well, we're going to shift -- again, which

is already being done, shift more tax burden to higher incomes. he does it in a way that's particularly damaging by eliminating the deductibility of certain things. this is one of the key parts of how america's been able to build a great society with limited government is through our nonprofit sector. through community and civic organizations that are funded, educational organizations that are funded. and a lot of cases by people who are higher income, you know, philanthropically giving back to the community and country what they've been able to reap out of the system. now governor romney is in a sense undermining the very institutions that have to be growing if we're going to reduce the size of government. he's taking money away from the people that organizations will have to replace this limited government. so he's creating a very difficult environment for america to continue to be prosperous.

>> reporter: tyler, as you know, a lot of republicans in washington and on wall street believe governor romney's going to be the nominee, want this process to end so he can take on president obama. i asked rick santorum if he's going to make it stop, he said i'm not going to make it stop because i'm going to be the nominee. we'll see how that plays out. >> indeed we will. did he talk to you at all about the hot button social issues he's discussed previously? >> reporter: well, what he said, sue, was that the social issues, contraception, college education, the jfk speech on church and state, they're not all settled issues as many people have come to believe. and he said on contraception, for example, the idea that because i believe something that i'm going to try to impose it on the country is offensive. he's clearly trying to down play, get away from those and focus on the economy. >> john, thanks a million. >> and when we return, the pulse of the economy, chain store sales better than expected in february, good news from target, gap and others. you heard about auto sales.

and new numbers on foreclosures. they accounted for nearly one in four home sales in the fourth quarter. we're going to drill down on both of those things. and we'll also continue our pulse check on the economy with three mayors from around the country. we'll get their take on housing, also jobs and a lot more when tyler and i return on "power lunch." 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. ♪

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welcome back. i'm sharon epperson. we're live at the close here for gold trading on the floor. and we're looking at gold prices that are higher close to that 1720 level. we told you that up trend in gold was in tact despite that huge selloff we saw in the prior day's session down to a low of 1688. but keep in mind we are looking at the uptrend as well in the silver market once again. it's one of the best performing commodities here at the nymex. and also keep your eye on copper. that positive data on china pmi definitely helping this commodity as well. copper up on the day. back to you guys. >> sharon, thanks. warmer weather helping retailers ring up some very solid sales. latest figures on the back of a new survey shows americans can barely afford the basic, even high-earners are pretty cautious. courtney reagan has the details. >> february marks the 30th

straight month of same store sales increases with comp scanning 6.4% for those 18 nondrugstore reporting retailers that thompson reuters tracks. not all of them do report monthly. mild weather, vld easy comps helping retailers to post strong sales. gap's 4% increase was perhaps the biggest surprise. the street expected a decrease of 1.4%. analysts credit strong shopper response to the new spring products. the colored jeans are actually doing well. nordstrom's 10.2% gain shows continued strength in that high-end. remember, we talk a lot about the barbell consumer market. but wsl strategic retail tells cnbc exclusively 52% of americans feel they can only afford the basics. >> the dividing line has moved up. officially middle income may be around $50,000, but people with $100,000 incomes are nervous about buying and getting basics

covered. >> willing to shop again but with limits. that's helping ross stores, tjx and target all beat expectations this month. same store sales increases greater than 14%. benefitting from teens trading down from the now aspirational abercrombie & fitch. shares of the buckle trading up nicely. buckle shares up almost 9%. remember walmart no longer reports same store sales but the world's largest retailer announced 38th straight annual dividend increase. shares are taking a bit of a hit, down .5%. tyler. >> thank you very much, courtney. we appreciate that report. housing continues to be a major drag on americans and the economy. new data out today showing despite delays in processing, sales of foreclosed homes are ramping up. so what's this mean for the housing market? diana olick joins us. diana. >> well, tyler, you're right. there are some delays still do

exist. but banks are really starting to motor through millions of delinquent loans now. that has led to a rise in foreclosure sales in q-4. that has a direct effect on home prices in neighborhoods like this one across america. in fact we learned today that negative equity rose from 10.7 million homes in q-3 to 11.4 million in q-4. that's all about price erosion. sales of properties in some stage of foreclosure made up a full 24% of all home sales in q-4. that's up 20% from q-3 but down 26% from a year ago. that's because of all the delays in processing we saw throughout 2011, thanks of course to the robo signing scandal. that's all about to change. experts at realty track say they expect to see a surge in foreclosure sales, both foreclosures and short sales throughout 2012. and short sales are really ramping up. that's when the bank allows you to sell the home for less than the value of the mortgage. and that's of course a less costly alternative to

foreclosure. short sales increased 15% in q-4 annually while sales of reos fell 12%. short sales outnumbered reos in several markets where reo sales had outnumbered short sales just a year ago. short sales sell at an average discount of 21% while reos, that is foreclosed properties, sell at a discount of 36%. but the short sales of course take a whole lot longer. there's plenty more on this on the blog. >> diana, thank you very much. well, foreclosures, housing and jobs among the top issues impacting local economies. "power lunch" is going across america now for a take of the pulse of the nation's cities. we're going to convene our mayor's round table. mayor of huntsville, alabama, aka the rocket city thanks to its bustling aerospace industry. joining us momentarily on the phone will be joe rilely of charleston, south carolina. the state's second largest city and home of the citadel.

and a notch on the rust belt and home to several fortune 500 firms. welcome gentlemen all to "power lunch." mayor battle, i'm going to start with you. because diana just left off with housing, let me ask you, how is the state of housing in your neck of the woods? and do you see a bit of a recovery there? >> our housing's been doing very well. we've done very well the past three years. 35% of our housing across the market is new home sales. and you don't see that in a lot of other markets throughout the u.s. we've been very, very fortunate. we've gotten through this very well through the recession. and we're seeing our community come back. >> is that because prices did not run up as dramatically as they did in other parts of the country? or is there another reason for it, do you think? >> i think a lot of what you're seeing right now is that people are downsizing. people are taking a little bit less. people are doing a little bit more savings. and it all comes back to consumer confidence.

as you look at consumer confidence across the board, they're being cautious. we are optimistic, but we are cautiously optimistic in huntsville. i think a lot of people are that way. >> mayor bill, how are things going in terms of housing specifically? >> well, basically the housing market is from the standpoint of cost is down a little bit. but it's fairly stable. but what the pattern we're seeing in our city i think it goes back to the conservatism that the former mayor was just speaking about. we do see a rise in rentals. and people not necessarily wanting to commit long-term but still getting into the market. so the rental space that we've had inside our city has actually decreased although our housing market hasn't increased in a large way during this period of time last few years. >> mayor bell, let me turn you to jobs. your unemployment rate is now about 8.6% according to the facts that i have. that's down significantly from a year ago when it was over 11%.

who's hiring? and what does that hiring due to the level of confidence to the tax receipts you're able to collect and the general business vitality of toledo. >> one of the two biggest markets hiring are actually automotive industry. we have chrysler and general motors inside toledo. and both have come up with some very creative stimulus initiatives that they're going to do inside the city. chrysler's hiring over 1,100 people. general motors is probably hiring somewhere between 300 to 500 people. those are new jobs. and that is really actually giving our economy a kick in the arm. when you get a lot of spin-off businesses that start to occur because of the automobile industry, it just adds to the revenues that come into the city. >> all right. let me turn now to mayor riley of charleston, south carolina, who's joined us on the phone.

we're talking jobs. your local unemployment rate is lower than the national average. how is hiring going? are companies adding employees? and if so, what sorts of companies? >> across the board really things have picked up dramatically. we have a wonderful new boeing assembly plant here. one of the three wide body aircraft assembly plants in the world. and 3,800 employees there. we expect 11,000 supplier companies coming in over the next three years. and then our port is the most efficient port in the country. port activity is up. our cargo is up. and then biotech knowledge-based economy is really on the uptick. we just brought in a national headquarters of a computer software company locating right in the heart of downtown. >> uh-huh. >> so across the board things are really on a substantial uptick. >> that's nice to here. mayor battle, how about you?

your unemployment rate, one of the notes i saw you have more jobs than people to fill them. >> we are looking -- yeah, we do what we call work force development. that means we're out seeking people to fill certain jobs. we're sitting at 6.4% which is a good unemployment rate for us. we still have a little ways to go to get back to what we would call full employment. >> has nasa's winddown effected you at all? >> no. not at all. we're building the sls rockets to put man back into deep space. we're the only community in the world that has experience at putting man back into deep space. this is working very well for us. >> all righty. gentlemen, thank you very much. and continued good luck to you. we're glad to hear the rather more encouraging news. >> i was going to say isn't it nice to end on an up note. >> up next on "power lunch," the rise of russia's super rich. steve liesman in moscow ahead of

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can help you build a plan that fits your life. we'll even throw in up to $600 when you open a new account or roll over an old 401(k). so who's in control now, mayans? coming up on "street signs," good news for the market. we keep on seeing it, but where's the enthusiasm? why some investors are looking for reasons to run. and brian sullivan's exclusive interview with apple co-founder steve wozniak. his views on apple's megamarket cap for the stock to hit $1,000, the future of apple tv and plenty more. do join us for "street signs" just minutes away folks. back to you, sue and tyler, on "power lunch." >> you too, mandy. thank you. vladimir puttin is expected to win this weekend's election in russia. but the opposition is making his own run for the presidency. he's the owner of the new jersey nets and said to be worth some

$18 billion. cnbc's senior economics reporter, steve liesman, is live in moscow covering those elections. with a little detour into the land of the super rich. steve. >> hey, sue, good evening from moscow. you're right. a select few have made unaccountable wealth since the fall of the soviet union. but where the first millionaires, they took their money out of the country, new millionaires are sticking it into the ground. building homes whose square footage is as difficult to count as their wealth. russia's wealthy have secluded themselves in the woods outside of moscow in the same gated communities and on the same land where certain ministers used to live. of course they've torn the old homes down. it was only in the mid-90s russians had enough money to build a mansion like this. now there's enough wealth in the country to resell it. asking price for this place? a cool $15 million to $20

million. >> if it's the right place, you definitely will find a buyer, but it will take maybe some time. you will definitely sell it. >> a few years ago this was the woods with just a few small kiosks. now it's home to some of the world's most luxurious brands where the rich of russia live, now they also shop. just like in the u.s., russia's market for mansions has seen better days. but it's slowly coming back with the price of oil and other commodities. unlike in america, here they're still building. now, some of these same millionaires interestingly enough are those who are agitating for change in russia even though they made their millions, they're among those who are discontented with political freedoms here. the protest the opposition is real even though putin is not going to lose it. originally thought to be a stooj of the kremlin gone a little off

rogue and looks a little more for real as a candidate. sue. >> steve, thanks a million. terrific stuff. we appreciate it. steve will be reporting from russia all week. up next, it came under fire the last time bank of america giving it another go. new ways to hit customers with new fees. >> but will there be another backlash? plus, it was the best dow stock in february. so where does the stock of b of a go from here? we'll talk about that in a minute. [ male announcer ] at scottrade,

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all right. a stock that got our attention, foot locker. the athletic retailer hitting a new 52-week high ahead of earnings which are after the bell today. the stock is up more than 50% in the past year. and up 23% in 2012. ty. >> sue, from the if at first you don't succeed category, bank of america attempting now to push through new checking fees again after failing with a plan to hike fees on debit cards last fall. so will it be another pr hit? or is the strengthening stock in a better position to weather such a hit? b of a, the best performing stock in the dow in february up 12%. look at that. joining us to discuss, dennis burrman with "the wall street

journal" and neil. let's talk about the imposition of these fees. what got people so riled up the last time b of a tried to do this was the idea that they were going to be asked to pay a fee for using the debit cards, the very cards that the banks were encouraging you to use. this set of fees feels different to me qualitatively because they are the kinds of fees that have been historically assessed on people who carry lowball lanc bn the checking account. >> bank of america's learned a lesson. you can't just force this down people's throat. you have to give them the sense that they have some choice. i think that's what bank of america is trying to do here. namely they're saying if you have certain balances or a mortgage with us or you meet certain other requirements, you jump through so many hoops, you can avoid this fee. gives people a sense of control even though they don't really have it. and also point out this isn't altogether new. "the wall street journal" itself reported january 6, 2011, well

over a year ago, that bank of america was experimenting with this. so i think this is not coming as a huge surprise to people. >> do you agree with that, dennis? will others follow if indeed bank of america is able to push these new fees through? >> guys, the banking industry has been destroyed in part by its own making and in part by the rules imposed on it by congress. it has to find money somewhere. and the best place to find money is from the money that's already in its customers' pockets. if we look at how much bank of america has lost in terms of revenues, its fee income itself is down, i believe, by about 22% $26 billion overall. there's just not enough money to go around to make a bank as large as bank of america profitable right now. it basically has one tenth -- at least in 2011 one-tenth the profitability it had in 2003. >> so they have to make up for that. they lost significant amounts of

revenue, neil, with respect to the debit card interchange fees. there were charges they had been able to charge on overdraft. so they make it up. and yet as dennis points out, banks just aren't the money machines they used to be, are they? >> no. they're not. they're living in a cold world these days and they are shrinking as dennis rightly points out. personally, i think when it comes to these fees, i think it's something consumers and regulators should embrace. we should welcome this. as you were pointing out, if they are going to sneak all sorts of nasty fees on us that we didn't know were coming, we get angry and feel like we're getting ripped off and giving the banks incentives to find sneaky ways to rip us off. here if you have a choice and have a menu and you can say i can put so much in the bank and charged this much if i put more in the bank i'll be charged less per month -- so, dennis, why is the stock moving up by another 2% today? >> well, as the u.s. economy goes, so goes bank of america.

we like to think that the great minds in charlotte and new york can come up with great plans for making money, but let's be honest. bank of america is leveraged to the u.s. economy almost full stop. and if we view the economy as performing well, we've seen some preliminary job numbers today that suggest perhaps that the economy's picking up pace. if the gdp numbers come in well for the next few months, i think bank of america will continue to do well. but should there be a retreat in overall economic indicators, b of a will follow accordingly. >> so, neil, tell me how b of a should finesse this this time so that it doesn't cause the uproar that it did the last? you kind of touched on it a little bit. but what specifically should they do differently this time if anything? >> a couple things. one, when they were trying to impose a fee just for using your debit card, people felt this is horrible. i use it once in a month and get charged $5. nobody likes that. so instead you say you get all

these services with your checking account and it's going to cost you this much. you get a choice in what you're going to pay based on whether you want to consolidate your bank accounts. it gives people a sense even if they don't have a choice. kind of like airlines. you can carry your bag or check it. >> right. as neil points out, it's all slide of hand. it's all about how we feel mentally about these fees. but before you are paying an impolice sit. >> thank you very much. >> it's a power lunch. >> it's a free lunch at "power lunch." low calorie too. >> indeed. just over two hours in trading day. charts of the day in two minutes. i've been riding since i was 17. flat out my whole life. ran into a pretty serious medical issue. i was prescribed one drug one place, another somewhere else.

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lrlt. let's get you up to date on the markets. the dow jones industrial average above the 13,000 mark again. 13,006 to be exact. nasdaq up almost a full 1%. and the s&p 500 is at 1,375. >> correction, no evidence of it today and cin