the financials. look at the moves in all of those big money center banks. 4% for morgan stanley. more than that for goldman sachs. an interesting day for the financials. that will do it for "power lunch." >> "street signs" begins right now. we'll sew ye you tomorrow. have a great afternoon. and welcome to "street signs." i'm mandy drury. hello everybody. we're really skiddish on the street. sure, stocks are higher and we're around 13 k for the dow again, but seems like investors are just looking for any reason to sell. why is it so hard to believe in the hopium? we'll debate that. oh, baby, the beeb's birthday. today justin bieber becomes a man turning 18. so sweet. so in his honor we're going to bring the justin bieber economy and our favorite stocks starting with the letter b. and to the word of apple, sully went one-on-one with the company's co-founder, steve

wozniak, in this exclusive interview. they talked market cap, google, keeping america great and apple going from $500 to a $1,000 stock. that's a must-see interview and only minutes away. in the meantime let's start with the markets. we're not looking for any cheer leaders. but where in the world is the enthusiasm? why is the street so eh? bob pisani at the nyse, rick santelli in chicago. how many are saying that to you, bob, today? >> actually, i'm looking for cheerleaders. i have plenty of enthusiasm. i'm a little concerned with the way the market looks. there are some weird divergences in the stock market. you want to know what's moving the stock market? two sectors, tech stocks and retail stocks here. bring it up for us here. we had the great retail sales reports today, a lot of new highs in the retail group. and technology, well, you know what that's been doing. that's been the market leadership group all throughout the year. move past here. remember all these other

leadership groups that used to be out there. like home builders? home builders were at new highs. forget about it. they've been doing nothing for the last month. the hopes and dreams -- look, nowhere for the last month. the hopes and dreams aren't emerging in home building. airlines the same thing. we did have a great runup in january, but the higher oil prices, look at that, killed the airlines. finally i'll just point out, steel stocks. another small cap group. everybody was hoping the global economy would improve. it did go up a little bit. but the last month nowhere because, well, it's just not going up as much as people had hoped. so a lot of leadership groups are kind of falling back here right now. >> it certainly looks like that, bob. what about you, rick santelli? are you hearing much in the bond pits? >> what i hear in the bond pits is twofold. may be long treasuries but still amazed interest rates have been at the low levels for so long. the second issue is they say things like how much is health care going to cost?

is obama care going to be constitutional? what's my tax rate going to be? is the state of illinois fiscal going to put us in the drain? are we moving to indiana? there are so many eno uncertainties. i'm very impressed with the dow at 13,070. quantitative easing and an election year in many countries around the world including the u.s. i think has given pause by central bankers because energy prices are probably the worst issue if you're going into a ballot box. >> they certainly are the worst issue. we're going to keep an eye on oil. and we're also keeping a close eye on the nasdaq which is really only a matter of points -- six points to be exact away from 30,000. why are investors looking for reasons to run away like a nervous bride with cold feet? joining us is managing partner of strategic wealth partners and chief market strategist. robert, i know you sent out a note just last night which really highlights all the

reasons why there are so-called afraid cats that like to climb the wall of worry. why? >> everybody and their mother seems to be calling for some type of pullback. you watch television, read the newspapers, the market's had a tremendous runup. we're still faced with some concerns. concerns about interest rates, what's fed going to do about interest rates? lingering concerns about europe. and there's questions about growth rates and earnings and whether or not we can trust analyst estimates. i think a lot of folks who've been in this party since october 3 are sort of waiting to see what type of direction that the market gives us. >> it's a real pity if you've missed out on that party if you've been out since early market lows. mark, i want to get to you. how much of this psychology is just that. people being burned say back in 2008 and don't want to go through all that again even if they're faced with good reasons to be in the market. >> exactly.

investors have just been crushed psychologically over the course of the past few years. one of the things that our clients are saying to us and i'm typically working with business owners that have recently experienced a life-changing liquidity event is that, mark, i don't need a home run, just get me on base and avoid strikeouts. that's really been our strategy. and i agree with robert. there's a ton of macro economic risks out there. this is probably the worst earnings season we've seen since 2007-2008. the eurozone issues rnts all the way behind us. one of the things no one is talking about is the fact that japan this month alone has to rollover $3 trillion worth of sovereign debt. that's a lot of money. >> uh-huh. it sure is a lot of money. okay. so let's talk about the good things that are out there. how much of it do you think is already priced into the market? bob, how much more upside do you think there is? or do you think maybe we've, you know, run out of good things to latch onto. >> i think there's a lot more upside potential. i think this market could easily sell at 14, 14.5 times earnings,

maybe even 15 times. i mean, we're using $105.19. i think we could easily get there especially given the macro economic picture. look at employment. look at housing starting to show signs of stability. look at the manufacturing environment. the service sector. we're continuing to see these great trends macrowise but people are getting nervous because of all the calls for a pullback. i think if we get a pullback, the depth of the pullback is really going to be dependent upon what causes the pullback. i know it sounds a little bit similar poliplistic simplistic. if you miss a minor report probably see a 5% to 7% correction. if you get a significant event that creates a pullback, then i think you start to see maybe a normal pullback or normal correction of 10%. i think a lot of folks will probably step in, the folks waiting on the sidelines. >> right. >> but if it's something significant like israel dropping bombs on iran because they're

worried about the nuclear program over there, then i think you're going to see a lot of the recent buyers start to become sellers taking profit. and i think the people waiting on the sideline wills continue to wait. >> a pullback could be healthy depending on what triggers it. mark, some are calling for pullback, others calling for 1,700 on the s&p. one of those people says they continue to be bullish. 1700 later this year on the s&p. what do you think? >> not going to happen. no way. in order for that to happen -- right now we're expecting earnings per shares on the s&p 500 of maybe $100 to $102. and in order for us to get to 1,700, we'd have to see some serious multiple expansion. earnings are only projected to grow 5% to 7% this year. in the face of growth swelling and inflation accelerating, the cost of oil up above $100 a barrel, gas at the pump now around $5 a gallon and consumer spending makes up 71% of our

economy. i don't see any multiple expansion coming our way this year. >> to both of you, great to have you on the show. we're just about five points away from cracking 3,000 on the nasdaq. we are on nasdaq watch. courtney reagan is also on watch fofofofofofofothe other headlin news at this hour. what have you got, court? >> thanks, mandy. shares of monster worldwide soaring today. the company is considering all strategic alternatives in hopes of better returns for shareholde shareholders. 30-year mortgage rates back near record lows. freddie mac says the average 30-year is at 3.9% down from 3.95% last week. and walmart increasing annual dividend by 9% to $1.59 from $1.46. walmart has upped its payout every year since the first institution of a dividend in 1974. pretty impressive stuff. >> sticking with retail, before we let you go, i know the gap posting a 4% increase of same store sales which was a real surprise, what changed there? what are they doing right now to get that kind of result?

>> it wasn't just weather because that helped everyone, but it appears the colored denim is striking a positive cord with shoppers at the gap at least right now. street expected a decrease but for february the first positive year over year for gap since june 2011 and only the third positive number in 12 months. investors are responding. they're buying into shares. shares are up more than 7% today. up nicely year-to-date too. there are some believers out there. gap's banana republic performing the best in february up a solid 12%. and some analysts are starting to think old navy is taking some share from jc penney as it goes through a transformation. international though posting another declining same store sales number. that's a concern because international is considered the retailer's growth division. that's a number i'll watch as the months move forward. >> you can't underestimate colored denim. i have two of their multicolored pairs. thank you very much.

herb, where have you been all my life? what's on tap today? >> disasters are, you know, in the eye of the beholder and i am that beholder. today all scripts, medical technology company getting hit after the company disclosed its 10 k that it received a subpoena tied into federal probe in third party. a software licensing revenue adjustment of $5 million is. and battleground stock northern oil, which focuses on the bakken. i've talked about it a long time here, it's been falling for several days. there's an interesting twist to this one. the good news front, the company's 10 k shows northern oil got a clean bill of health from its auditors. that cleared up some accounting issues. bad news, the company said it's discontinued giving quarterly guidance. that kind of change, always, mandy, a red flag. >> is that deloitte or deloitte?

>> coming up next, apple will hit $1,000? apple's cohfr founder says yes. >> could apple computer, the old apple computer start today in california or the united states? >> hear what he has to say about that. plus, does he think apple is getting too big for its britches? sully's interview is straight ahead with instant analysis from a five-star fund manager who has apple at the top. and baby no more. we're celebrating birthday with stocks to watch. americans believe they should be in charge of their own future. how they'll live tomorrow. for more than 116 years, ameriprise financial has worked for their clients' futures. helping millions of americans retire on their terms. when they want. where they want. doing what they want. ameriprise. the strength of a leader in retirement planning.

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we're exactly five points away from 3,000 on the nasdaq. for what it's worth, currently up by nearly 1% of the highs for the day. we'll keep an eye on it for you. in the meantime, can anything stop apple? the stock hitting another all-time high today. i'm going to put that on record so i can play it out every day if i need to. the question now is could it hit the 1,000 mark? apple co-founder steve wozniak says yes. sully sat down with him exclusively at the ypo leadership summit in singapore. they talked about apple, the future, its stock and major market cap. >> $500 billion market.

did you ever believe that apple could reach half a trillion dollars in market cap? >> i got to be honest, i'm an engineer. i don't keep track -- i don't want to worry about money and amounts. >> but you are a stockholder. and you're still an honorary employee of the company. >> i am so honored that the company that i started is the largest cap market -- market cap whatever you say in the world. yeah. it's a huge company. and it's actually a lot of companies in one. every one is so excellent. the retail stores is a company. the itunes music is a company. the ipods are a company, the ipad is a huge company. we've got all these companies -- and we still have computers. >> it doesn't stink if you're a stockholder to have that kind of run. >> apple has large room for growth. people talk about -- >> okay. >> -- $1,000 stock price, first you want to doubt it, but i actually believe that and i don't really follow stock markets. >> a thousand bucks you think is possible? >> apple has that much growth left because we're talking something like apple tv that

works with all these great companies and products all in the same sphere. it's not like a side project we're going to start a tv company. no, we're going to start tv within the whole apple world. assuming that we are going to. i don't know. >> nature's raging outside, right. so the gods are maybe a little unhappy that i'm going to press the same question. >> okay. >> how about this, instead of you saying, no or yes, in a year -- in two years, am i going to be able to talk to my television, whoever makes it, and have it access anything i want at any time? >> i'm going to use my best guess as an engineer. and i'm going to say that almost all the major products out involve an awful lot of speech availabilities, whether they be like the apple stuff or the android stuff. it's coming to product. it's gotten more reliable than i as an engineer ever thought voice detection ever would be as far as getting your words correct. even at a loud concert where the person next to you can't hear

you, it gets the words right. that means one thing different, if your tv's across the room, talking to the tv across the room is a technical challenge i don't think will be solved in the next two years. i think you'll be talking to something closer to the tv just to operate it just because voice operation is more natural. you can do a lot of things with your voice having to step through channel by channel by channel or method with buttons, they got to be going out. >> can android and apple's os -- there's a big storm outside. >> you're on the right topic. >> can they both succeed? >> of course they can. i mean, apple will succeed no matter what just based on the reputation, the brand, the ease of use, comfort, niceness of all the products. >> we shouldn't make it one against the other, there's room for both to succeed. >> there are different customers. one of the places they say android is going more to the tech-type, the people who like to be little programmers on their own, the open source community, and iphones or ipads

to maybe the people that never touched a computer and scared of the word computing, they know apple is the safe haven. there's room for both people in the world. i kind of wish that android had never happened, but i'm not going to say android's bad. >> given the way the regulatory environment is, given the way that the united states is today and california in particular as a state, could apple be invented today? could apple computer -- could the old apple computer start today in california or the united states? >> of course. look how many recent companies like apple. talk about facebook, twitter, e bay, all these companies got started here in silicon valley. >> a little later on sully hit the streets of singapore to draw up a little surprise for me. i still don't know what it is. producers will not tell me. you're going to have to stick around like i do and find out what the big man has up his big sleeves. you just heard the woz say he

believes apple cohit the $1,000 mark. your next guest is probably pretty happy about apple since it is his top holding. his name is john bernham. john, we have to play the devil's advocate here because everybody we have on the show, everybody we talk to is so bullish on apple. give me an argument not to be bullish about apple. >> i don't have one. >> come on. what happened when the current product cycle runs out? what happens when it becomes another product company people fall out of love with? >> i don't think that would happen. one thing that would worry me about apple is somebody comes along with a technological development and a new type of phone or ipad. >> android? >> well, it could be. i don't think it is. but it could be. but comes up with a product that's so much better than anything that apple has, that's the thing i would be worried about. in fact, tim cook actually said that publicly himself. but right now i don't see any reason to be pessimistic. the stock's cheap.

really cheap. it's selling at like 10 or 12 times. >> what about if it's something not on the innovation side but something as simple as not enough supply, for example, they can't ramp up enough supply of ipad 3s or something really logistically like that that actually starts to just maybe slightly take a little chin k out of its armor. >> that could hurt them short-term, but long-term they'll figure out how to solve that. they manufacture these products all over the world. the company -- forget the name right now, manufactures their phones in china is nuts place. there's nothing like that in the united states. that's been one of the great geniuses of the company that they can meet this enormous demand. but a new phone like the 4s was. >> jon, law of large numbers. that's got people saying at some point that works against them. where does that get you concerned? >> you know, i've been around for 52 years in this business. and i don't really worry about

that. there have been other companies that have had microsoft had similar growth. you know, years ago the one thing that would worry me a little is they need to do something with this $100 billion. >> yes. let's talk about that. the cash pile is what do they do with it. if they don't give you a dividend, are you concerned? >> not really. the stock's up 60 points or so in the last couple months. that's a nice size dividend. that doesn't worry me. i have a son-in-law in silicon valley, really knows. and i spoke to him and he said to many no company in silicon valley likes to pay dividends. they don't like to spend their cash. >> right. >> and companies that have spent them on acquisitions have not always done that great. so i don't know what they're going to do with it. the trouble though, i guess it's about $100 a share in cash that they have earning them next to nothing. so they should do something. i would expect them to pay a dividend. a special dividend. maybe both.

>> real quick $1,000 possible? >> sure it's possible. not tomorrow. but sure it's possible. >> would you give a time frame? >> with a stock at 10 or 11 times earnings, could happen reasonably quickly as long as earnings keep moving up, i think they will. >> thank you very much for joining us today. >> thank you. nice to be here. >> zynga is launching a new game service that allows users to play popular games away from facebook. currently zynga gets 90% of revenue from facebook. the site will come online later this month including popular games line farmville and citiville. however, users will still need to use their facebook ids to log on. the service is not intended to migrate users away from facebook though. just ahead on "street signs," facebook's $3 billion, yeah, with a b, tax break inside the fight to defriend the megaloophole. and these little pigs are squealing.

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welcome back to "street signs." it's time for street talk. what is it going to take for the dow to stay above 13,000? blue chips bouncing on either side of that key level again today after closing above it on tuesday for the first time since

may 2008. let's ask matt cheslock. do you feel that the level of 13,000 is becoming a whole lot more than just psychological? >> oh, absolutely. you know, i started to think that with so many sectors up today and act so well, one sector that's down is the most defensive one, consumer staples. obviously people are optimistic about this market and the economy. and they're showing it here. the 13,000's obviously becoming something more of a technical resistance than psychological. >> what's going to push us above 13,000 and help us stay there? >> well, i'm actually a little more negative than most. i think this trade has gotten a little crowded. everyone's kind of buying everything right now. if you look at today's breath three to one on the upside in volume. people a little too optimistic in my taste. i would like to see a pullback and see it bought with consistency. >> what's fueling that what you call too much optimism and feels you can throw any amount of negative news at the market be it something like bernanke not

being dovish enough for the market and the market shrugs it off on the whole. >> today's a new day of the month. i'm not surprise today see buying going off the first two. performance has to be driven by expectations of people looking to buy things and looking to get this market higher for performance sake. that's why the market keeps going higher. i really think we're ready for a pullback. we need a pullback i think to slow it down here a little bit. catch our breath. we don't have much as far as catalyst to take us higher. i think a lot of things have been solved at least in the short-term and we have to see what plays out toward the end of the year. >> what depth of pullback would you expect? >> i think if we get like 100 or 200-point pullback, that will be bought. but if we sell off more than 200 or 300 points, we might see profits locked in and that's where you get to dangerous territory where people would be forced to sell or more inclined to sell to lock in those profits. >> matt, thanks for joining us. the nasdaq is trying to close above this mark here, 3k for the

first time since december 2000. the talk has been about apple's record run, microsoft, parent to another 52-week high today now up 24% year-to-date. here is seema mody with a look at what else is moving on the nasdaq. seema. >> that's right, mandy. six points away from hitting 3,000. it's not just apple and microsoft making big moves. let's stick with tech. look at seagate technologies. the company recapturing the lead in the hard disk drive shipments during the fourth quarter ousting western digital which has suffered heavy losses from the thai floods. that's a stock to watch. on to the best performer of the nasdaq 100. you might not know this. it's wynn resorts. gaming revenue in macau coming in by 22% for the month of february boosting investor confidence telling us casinos are performing well. year-to-date the stock is up around 11%. also look at retail stocks. they've been on a tear on the upbeat retail sales data.

stock up better than 1%. not to be a debbie downer but look at research in motion. jeffrey's saying rim will most likely not compete with the popularity of the apple iphone sk. >> you probably heard matt say 13,000 on the dow becoming not psychological. what are people saying about 3,000 for the number for the nas? >> i think it's possible. hit 13k and retraced its gain. that might be similar to what we're seeing with the 3k. hit it and come down and see if we can actually close above that in the next coming days. >> thank you so much, seema mody. in the meantime gop presidential candidate rick santorum running strong in the southern states ahead of the super tuesday contests which are next week. will cnbc chief washington correspondent john harwood caught up with him today for an exclusive interview. you really pressed him on some

of the things he said on the campaign trail. >> reporter: i did, mandy. you know, senator santorum's trying to focus more attention on his economic views, but those have gotten some criticism. he repeated recent statements that president obama is purposefully putting americans on government programs. and he defended his own record, his own tax cut proposals against charges by governor romney and by the committee for responsible federal budget that he would add $4.5 trillion to the nation's deficit over the next ten years. here's rick santorum. >> that committee is not a nonpartisan group. it certainly has its ied logical bend. we've been very specific about the tax -- the changes we will make in the entitlement programs -- >> short-term increase in deficits? >> i don't think there will be a short-term. this is a group that believes the world is flat. when you change the tax code and the regulatory environment, the businesses won't react and produce more jobs and create

more economic activity. i don't buy that. >> you said at the end of the day president obama wasn't just incompetent on economic policy but he actually wanted unemployment to be higher. that doesn't make sense to me. isn't it more likely that you and republicans want unemployment to be higher right now so it's easier to beat him? >> well, what we've seen is the president dramatically increase the scale of dependency in this country. >> do you think that's purposeful? >> we almost have half the people in this country on some kind of government dependent program. this is a reality that people who are dependent upon government programs particularly if you're not paying taxes i think that, you know, there's at least a question mark whether folks in that situation might be more likely to support someone who is -- >> so you think he's doing this on purpose? >> i think the president doesn't

believe in the private sector. i think he believes government can create jobs and economic opportunity. so, yes, i believe his policies are purposefully focusing his energy and his resources on government-oriented policies and government programs like, you know, whether it's solyndra, all these government managements in the economy. >> governor romney said yesterday you're an economic lightweight. is an example of that that you blame the recession and financial crisis on gas prices when most of the experts you talk to say the housing crash began well before the gas price spikes in 2008. >> well, someone who was involved in the housing market and saw a house go down in value over the past few years, sure, there were things going on in the housing market and the housing market was starting to soften. but i don't think there's any question that the spike in gas prices had a horrible effect on the economy and led this to be a much, much deeper and harsher recession than otherwise would have been and certainly had an impact on the housing market.

whether it commenced it, okay, fine, that means certainly we had high gas prices, $3.50 was the price of gas when the recession started. that was record high prices back then. but it spiked even more and caused even more economic destruction after -- i would agree, after the housing crisis and recession started. >> so, mandy, there you can see rick santorum walking back this idea that he was blaming the financial crisis on gas prices, which most experts think is not true at all. and there's little evidence for it. >> john, i noted that romney took a usual shot at his rival calling santorum an economic lightweight saying he's primarily just been a government man his whole life. i'm interest today know what is santorum's manufacturing agenda? >> he's proposing a 0 tax rate on manufacturers. this draws criticism from democrats and republicans who say that it gives government too great a role, distorts

investment and encourages businesses to play games in order to get themselves defined as manufacturers. he said, no, that's not the case because we're competing against other countries who are aggressively helping their manufacturers. we've got to do the same if we're going to keep up. and on this question, mandy, about his role as a government man as you mentioned and mitt romney having come from the private sector, he said there are some skills that private sector people have to translate into government, but there are also some political skills that maybe governor romney doesn't have that he has will translate. >> i would imagine at the end of the day it's good to have a bit of both. thanks so much. >> exactly. >> talking gas prices, let's look at wti, west texas crude oil. $1.77 and $108.84 a barrel today. so much for the respite we had the past couple days. this is shy of over $1 -- let me see, hit the high last friday.

check out brent up another 2% at almost $126 a barrel. we're going to check in on the nymex in just a moment's time. in the meantime up next on "street signs," facebook's $3 billion tax break. how the social media giant may be losing friends over a loophole. and then america's happy at work another facebook, you're going to be shocked when you find out where they work. the recovery of the u.s. economy continues. we have seen some positive developments in the labor market. >> this is the effect on european equity markets of ben bernanke not really mentioning further easing qe-3. >> big ben steering clear of stimulus talk certainly caused commodities to crumble. particularly gold. >> the euro just completely collapsed here. even apple dropped at 10:00 eastern time.

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i'm bill griffeth here at the new york stock exchange. coming up on "closing bell," is gold cheap in the wake of yesterday's big selloff? we'll get the talking numbers

trades on the precious metals. and can this rally in stocks continue or are the markets about to take a break? we break down tick by tick. and the outlook for the banking industry in an exclusive interview with ceo ed clark. all that and more when maria and i see you from post 9 here at the big board coming up at the top of the hour. >> thanks very much, bill. facebook getting unwanted attention on capitol hill, it's over a tax loophole that could mean billions for the soon to be public company. our eamon javers joins us from washington. what's exactly the deal here? >> this is a complicated one. it goes to the issue of whether companies are saying one thing to their shareholders and an entirely different thing to folks over at the irs. let me walk through the so-called stock option loophole. starting with the stock options themselves, the expenses reported to shareholders by most companies at the strike price are usually much more below that. but years later the companies

after the ipo can tell the irs that the cost was much higher to them. the current market share price, which can be much, much higher when these companies are very successful. the companies then take tax deductions that are much higher than they're actually expenses. for successful companies, that could be so much higher it's bigger than their entire tax bill. look at the marc zuckerberg effect and exactly how this would play out in the case of facebook ceo. he's expected to exercise options for 120 million shares at about 6 cents per share. so the expense on the company's books is no higher than 6 cents per share or $7 million. facebook, however, can claim options expenses up to $40 a share or whatever the market price is when they file their tax return with the irs. now, senator carl even says that represents a $3 billion tax break for facebook and he took to the senate floor yesterday to blast that. >> all together this loophole could give facebook a tax break

of up to $3 billion. now, the end result is that a profitable u.s. corporation, a success story, could end up paying no taxes at all for years, even decades. >> now, mandy, we should note that we reached out to several facebook pr folks. none of them responded to us by the time of our hit here just now. but we should also say that senator levin's bill what it would do is make sure companies can't deduct more in expenses than they told their shareholders they were worth in the first place, mandy. >> it's fascinating. a few billion dollars is no small -- >> yeah. >> thanks very much, eamon javers, from washington. if you want to be happy on the job. forget facebook. go work for uncle sam. a new survey says the happiest workers in america work for the government. the survey showed government employees said they were more than satisfied with the people they work with and their daily tasks. you'll find the second happy is

education. other so-called happy jobs in telecommunications, construction or financial services. on the flip side, the gloomiest workers are in agriculture and mining followed by those in software, nonprofits and the media. well, we're not sure about that one. i'm personally not sure about that one. i don't know about you, but the people i work with here in media are pretty chipper, pretty happy people. in the mean just ahead on "street signs," a healthy dose of sunshine inside the cubicle. but first russians are ridiculously rich. not just a little rich, ridiculously rich. steve liesman is live in moscow with the mind numbing numbers behind russia's very fortunate. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro.

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gaining $1.77 on the day today. sharon? >> that is on the wrgs ti contract, mandy. but traders are focused on the move we've seen in brent. up $3.50 right now, topping the $125 level as some of the brokers here are finalizing those last orders that have come in. i am here with peter donovan to talk about this surge that we've seen today in oil prices, particularly in the brent

market. what's accounted for today's surge? >> we hit a few technical levels. certainly we're exacerbated by fears -- continued fears coming out of iran. particularly, there was a chatter about the united states. the other day there were comments from dempsey to the effect that, wait, not so aggressive on iran. that kind of got reversed today. >> we can't downplay the technical levels, too. now we see more momentum building. >> yeah. we're really poised for a bounce back as we saw monday and tuesday of this week. brent market was down over $2 each day. s wti market was down. we really pulled back. the way the market bounced a little bit today and certainly aggressively today, created a little bit of a technical bottom and gave traders confidence on the upside. >> in the brent market, also influencing the gasoline futures

market. keep in mind, with prices that we're seeing right now, the 2% or more surging, gasoline prices, you're going to pay a lot more at the pump. >> all i can say is ouch. thank you for that. one-third of billionaires call russia home. who are they and what do they own and how much are they worth? steve liesman joins us now from moscow. i've been working on my russian today as well. i don't know if this is any good, but -- [ speaking russian ] >> how is that? >> i said, very good, mandy. you speak russian very well. and that could actually help you meet some of the billionaires on our list here. the russian super, super rich, and super probably understates it, these people have untold billions. now there's 110 billionaires.

they're an economic force to be reckoned with, both in russia and around the world. how rich are russia's super rich? take this man, his $17.7 billion fortune ranks him only always the fifth richest man. he has money left over to hold a 29% stake in england's soccer club. in the number four post is va maryland i mar. he's spending his fortunes on franchises, for even his three children. russia's fourth richest man will give his billions to charity. take jet setter and third richest man, the 6'8" playboy, with a part ownership in a basketball team. and he's running for president against vladimir putin.

and there's russia's second richest man. he made his billions last year after a rebound in steel prices. and the number one title belongs to a help vladimir lisin made his money in steel. when vladimir putin first became president, there was a famous barbecue between russia's richest men and the president, who said, you can keep the assets that you got from the soviet empire if you stay out of politics. one didn't listen to him. he's now in jail. now, he's one of the first billionaires to venture into politics. the initial story was that he got in at the behest of the kremlin. but recently he's got a little rogue and there's talk that maybe his campaign is for real.

not expected to win this weekend, but he might be a force in russian politics in the coming years. back to you guys. >> certainly don't muck about, do they. thanks for that, steve liesman. office depot, up 3% today. and popped as much as 6% earlier in the session. the shares are up on solid earnings earlier this week, which included a positive clear outlook and jump in same-store sales. on a side note, though, office depot was also named as one of the best companies for women executives, female execs there, and 36% of all promotions to senior management. coming up, singapore's shining star. don't go away.

reporting from singapore, my old stomping grounds of eight years, before he took off, though, he sent me a little surprise. >> all right, mandy, we've heard you're a big deal in singapore and asia, so we wanted to find out the pulse of the people. what better place to do that than one of the most famous food courts in singapore. it's lunchtime here. hi, sorry to interrupt. >> hi. >> do you watch cnbc? >> yes. >> and who is your favorite cnbc anchor? >> mandy drury. >> do you watch cnbc? >> all the time. >> who is your favorite anchor? >> mandy.

>> mandy drury. >> i'll say mandy. >> mandy. >> mandy, of course. >> mandy is number one. >> what do you think about brian sullivan? >> never heard of him. >> what do you think of brian sullivan? >> never heard of him. >> what about herb greenburg? >> never heard of him. >> no one knows who i am. it's 100 degrees and i'm sitting eating by myself. but at least i've got one thing in my favor, fried pork knuckle. >> how much did he pay people to say that. >> no, it's no so surprise. you left them wanting more. >> that was so set up. that was so set up. oh, well, at least you got a mention. >> a mention. they don't know who i am. >> and he got pork knuckles. we're all happy. looks like the frady cats are coming out in force. the nasdaq is now about 9 points away from 3,000, it was closer to that earlier on. the dow is upy