no love for the 13,000. thanks for watching "street signs." "closing bell" is coming up next. previously on "closing bell." >> i think what the ecb has given is europe time to fix the problem. there's been a lot of regulation. and strong banks want strong regulations. >> we could still raise rates somewhat and still be a policy state. today, on the "closing bell," treading water, mixed economic news has the market in a holding pattern. plus, buying into europe. now that the greece deal is finally done, is it worth the risk to buy stocks from across the pond. and, oh, canada, td bank ceo ed clark talks earnings. another banking system north of

the border has been able to survive during this tough time for financials. next, on the floor of the new york stock exchange, this is the final and most important hour of the trading day. >> and we do welcome you. as you said to me earlier, it's march already. >> march 1st. >> when did that happen. welcome to the big board. i'm bill griffeth. >> hi, everybody, i'm maria bartiromo. we're coming from post 9 of the floor of the nyse. >> it's a risk on day. you know how i know that? yesterday the leading sector of the s&p 500 sectors was a defensive sector. consumer discretionary, staple discretionaries. you know what the lagging is? the consumer discretionaries. >> we heard from bernanke earlier, a lot of commentary in the bernanke speech earlier today about the volcker rule. we now know that the volcker rule will not be implemented right now in july. we're waiting for more clarity

on that. but clearly, not enough information. and not enough distinction between what is proprietary trading versus float trading. that could be one of the boosts for the financials today. >> at least they'll prolong it until we know for sure what regulations will be placed on the banks. >> we approach the final stretch on a thursday afternoon. financials helping to move the market higher despite mixed economic data this morning. we have come off of the highs, just in the last hour or so. take a look at where we stand. oil prices one of the issues, rallying nearly $2 a barrel to settle at $108.84 a barrel. that's due to news in china. oil front and center in the markets today. >> a pattern we've seen lately, where you get a lot of action on the open, and then we drift for a while. the action was to the upside this morning. we have been drifting here up 36 points off the highs at 12,988.

nasdaq continues higher. we're a sand wedge away from 3,000 on the nasdaq. 2993. that means we're close, maria. the s&p 500 is up 9 points by two-thirds of a percent at 1374. >> let's see the banks leading the charge on wall street, and the nasdaq trying to hit that close above 3,000. the dow needs a strong run here in the final hour to finish above 13,000. we get to the "closing bell" exchange, we have bob pisani with us, of course, and michelle caruso-cabrera. we're focused on greece, approaching that deadline of march 30th for that next bond payment. >> a simple story to relate, isn't it? >> the big headline today was, this is the institute that decides on credit default swaps and whether or not they're going to be triggered. a headline today, making a decision that there's no credit event in greece. i would say the better headline is, there's no credit event in greece -- yet. when the headline first came

out, a lot of people said, how is this possible? they told us they're only going to pay 47.5 cents on the euro. how could this not be a credit event. the fact is, nothing could actually -- right now, we've been told that something is going to happen. but for credit events to really occur, one of two things need to happen. either somebody needs to not get paid, and thus far, everybody's still gotten paid, right? or there needs to be a decision that is binding on all bond holders. that hasn't happened either. that could very well happen a week from today. but it hasn't happened yet. so a lot of people think, oh, there's not going to be any credit default swaps triggered on this deal, maybe not yet. we don't know the answer to that yet today. the announcement was based on two questions posed to them, but we're still waiting to see what the final uptick is. >> there was a rally in the financials today as a result of this development today. is that premature? >> oh, absolutely.

i don't think today's announcements are in any way relevant to what the final outcome will be, whether or not there's a credit event related to greece. if greece, and a week today we find out how many bond holders participate, if more than two-thirds accept, greece has now passed a law that gives them the right to impose this on every single bond holder. if they decide to do that, if they get permission from brussels, then you have an event that is binding on all bond holders and israel will probably reexamine the question. bob pisani is there as well. bob, does the market act like it kargs at all? i'm not sure it cares either way. >> you know what's beautiful, michelle, the eu summit meeting is today. the summit heads are meeting in brussels, along with the finance ministers. and there's no drama at all. i think that's a sign of how quiet the markets are. they're not voting on a new treaty, trying to figure out some new austerity bill or anything like that. they're sort of patting

themselves on the back. today we're more concerned with the economic news in the united states. i'd say, yes, less concern about greece. >> you know what else, bob, let's not forget here we are in the beginning of march, we are approaching the end of the quarter, and in a couple of weeks we'll really turn the focus toward corporates and toward the end of the quarter and any announcements we might hear through the rest of the year. >> we haven't had an earnings meltdown. there's been no warnings. remember, in january, a lot of guys came out and said, we're going to have to take the earnings numbers down, because it looks like the economy might not be as strong. today's numbers are holding up very well. can i bring up one thing. >> i know what you're going to say, a lot of buzz tonight. >> around yelp. they'll trade tomorrow at the new york stock exchange. put up yelp here. guess what they've done. folks, they've closed the book off here. notice the retailers and

technologies are on the upside. i want to show you this. here's what's important. this big tech name here is one of the biggest names we've seen in a while that's been coming down anywhere in the new york stock exchange. i'm hearing this number could go up rather noticeably at the open. keep an eye on that. of course, a local business review site. the ipos so far this year, there's been a slow flurry of them. not an awful lot. but it's what's in the pipeline that matters. look at this, 100 ipos are in the pipeline right now waiting to go public. that's a pretty high number. if these do well, we'll certainly see more ipos. put up recent ipos in the tech area. up 74, 48, 38. the two differences here, these are all cloud computing stocks. yelp is not a cloud computing

stock. we'll see how it performs. so far, the indications are demand is very strong. >> got to be very strong. you know, bill, when you look at what's going on in the vibrancy and technology, you've got three legs to the stool. one is social media, one, of course, is mobility, and one is cloud computing as bob said. these are the buzz words and the hot spots within tech. no doubt we're going to see demand. >> imagine a company that's -- in all three of those at once, that would be the golden egg right there. >> the question is, do we see a bit of a bursting when facebook goes public. >> yelp, by the way, is this something that my daughter is going to make me subscribe to? i don't know what that's all about. thank you, michelle and bob, we'll be checking back with you later. bertha coombs check in now from the realtime exchange. >> bill, you use yelp anytime you're looking for a restaurant. it would get the most stars to the small caps and russell 2000. the dow right now, kind of flat, up about 24 points.

s&p up a little more than half a percent. nasdaq, about a chip shot, let's call it, away from the nasdaq 3k. interesting thing today, we are bouncing back in commodities after ben bernanke's comments yesterday. the feeling that there was not going to be any more qe-3. wti, $109. and brent above $126 a barrel. in spite of the fact that we've got some strength in the dollar. and it's definitely a risk-on day with the treasury note above 2%. monster worldwide, up huge, nearly 13% with the ceo saying they're exploring at tifls. goldman sachs, leaders of the financials today on fire. goldman sachs acquiring ri holdings insurance properties. first solar, boy, this stock down 15% just this week. now disappointing earnings, taking it down another 6% today. procter & gamble among the consumer staples that are weighing on the market.

we had good numbers on the retail front. a number of retailers today, new highs, a number at all-time highs. gap, one of the best performers. macy's at a new high. liz claiborne today, 13% boost. small caps getting a big boost. >> we'll watch that, bertha. thank you. better than expected jobless claims data out this morning. rick santelli in chicago, he's got that angle. over to you, rick. >> maria, i think it's interesting, you're absolutely correct, yields are up about half a dozen basis points. nowhere we haven't been, if you look at a year-to-date chart, this really says it all. the tens move at the right times. the world pulling back on quantitative easing, the ten-year yield goes up. but in the here and now of it, it is still in a range. and i think this is very important to drum home. and if you look at another chart that i like, and this is a two-day chart of the portuguese ten-year, you can see yesterday

it moved up a lot. today it didn't come back down. it's still 100 basis points at 1370, above where it closed last friday. now, a horse of a completely different color, look at the ten-year in italy on the two-day chart. it is becoming less and less aggressive in terms of those borrowing costs. it's going to close under 5% for the first time since august. does that mean it's going to be under 5% three months from now? the rtos have done something good. where would these rates be down the road, is the big question, and there's no way to ascertain that at this point in time. back to you. >> rick, thanks very much. heading toward the close with 50 minutes to go. we're a little more than a sand wedge now from dow 13,000. >> yes, we are. we're talking about social media and ecommerce. we have an exclusive interview

coming up. susan gives us her strategy in competing in the popular daily deals domain. >> plus, mining for profits, is it time to dig back into gold miners after the plunge in gold prices. that's our "talking numbers" trade still coming up here. >> second time in less than a year, ceo ed clark is with us, giving his secrets to success. that's an exclusive coming your way. >> here's how the s&p 500 heat map is shaping up.

welcome back. the american consumer back in action. warmer weather lured shoppers out to the stores. they rose 6.4% in the month of

february, better than the 4.8% analysts were looking for. >> what people didn't spend on snow shovels, they're definitely shopping for t-shirts. it's encouraging. i think the big question is, this favorable weather, did it pull forward demand or should we see a continuation throughout the spring season. >> analysts say valentine's day, the extended president's day holiday, did help boost sales also. gap, limited brands, macy's, nordstrom, saks and target. >> if you think those brick-and-mortar sales are impressive, forester research said americans spent $200 billion, with a "b," online last year. and they're expected to shell out $327 billion on internet stores by 2016. the study also predicts online sales will make up almost 9% of overall retail sales by 2016, up from 7% today.

so what's driving the sales online? innovation such as flash sales are responsible in part for that growth. and in a cnbc exclusive, we welcome susan, the innovative ecommerce company that pioneered flash sales. i forgot to look at noon today to see what was for sale. >> you should have been there. >> good to see you. >> good to see you, too. >> we were just talking, tough time for retail today. very competitive. if you're up on the innovations that are going onion line, you're on top of things, aren't you? >> absolutely. but i think, you know, clearly retail had a pretty good month last month. and that's good news for all of us. because that means the economy is coming back. >> you don't think that's an aberration? >> no. i think you're always going to see some uptick when the economy begins recovering. no question about that. but ecommerce is just growing so much faster than retail, that it is making it harder for retail

stores to compete. unless they have a strong ecommerce business. >> the growth in ecommerce, is that because there are so many more ways to access the internet now to buy things is this. >> absolutely. there's no question. mobile has had a huge impact on ecommerce, on any given day right now, 20% to 30% of our revenue is coming from iphones, ipads. the fact that you have your phone with you all the time, that's a store that's in your pocket. >> you pioneered the flash sale. now everybody's doing it. you've got a lot of competition in that area right now. so what's next for you? how do you distinguish yourself down the road? >> you know, we've done i think something smart, which is to not just focus on one category, but to focus on a customer. and so urban, young, affluent, or very aspirational, and we're delivering all the coveted product categories they care about, whether it's vacation

travel or gourmet food and wine, home goods, kids, and obviously women's fashions and men's fashions and accessories. >> as a company, the talk is, you will want to go public at some point. maybe as early as next year, early next year. but you're not profitable yet. what are you doing to try and change that? >> that's been a big focus for us all year is to really get our margins up, make sure that we're not just perceived as a high growth company but as a profitable company, too. so very much on our minds, and very much on the minds of all of our team. >> was it by design that you were not profitable -- that sounds like a strange question -- but there will be companies early on that will want to go for market share at the expense of profitability. are you changing that around? >> no, we're still very much a high growth company, but we also need to focus people, not just top line, but also on margin. and we will continue investing in new businesses, and new ideas as we go forward.

but the parts of our business that have been around for three, four years now needs to start thinking about profitability. >> yelp prices tonight, goes public tomorrow here at the new york stock exchange. we all know that facebook is coming at some point. is it possible you will want to go earlier to take advantage of a sweet spot in the ipo market right now? >> no, we think the sweet spot is going to be there for a while. and we'll go when the time is right. and in all likelihood, that will be next year. >> between now and '16, when we see this tremendous growth, what is it, what did i say, 10% of sales will be online at that point? >> right. >> what will be different then? i can't imagine -- i don't want to be the guy that says that everything's been invented has been invented. how will we access online sales that we aren't right now do you think? >> i think you don't know. the interesting thing, and i always point to it, is we are perceived as a brand-new

company, four years old. when we launched, there was no ipad, there was no twitter, there was no four square, there was no like button, there was no android. you know, this world is changing so fast, and so much innovation is taking place, that it is driving a lot of interest. >> one of the ways people are finding things to buy are using social media right now. pinterrest is big right now. >> this is such a sweet spot that you're in this conversation. you can reach 15% of the planet, 2 billion people online, where does the customer base come from, and are you expecting an increase outside of the u.s.? because of that population growth? >> we are. and we've just recently allowed people to start purchasing with credit cards all over the world. we ship all over the world now. that's very recent. but yes, obviously there's a big market out there. >> it's going to be a big year

for gilt group. >> thank you so much. >> good to see you, susan. we have turned negative in the last few moments of trading. we are in the final stretch, about 40 minutes to go until the closing bell sounds. the dow jones industrial average going negative, down five points. it looks like financials is rolling over. >> was it something we said? i don't know. is gold cheap following wednesday's big sell-off? we'll break down the charts coming up in "talking numbers" coming up next here. >> we'll show you why it may be time to take profits in energy. >> how the major commodities are trading so far today. back after this.

welcome back. i'm sharon epperson. oil prices are surging. brent crude futures at a four-year high. up nearly $5, topping $128 a barrel. there are reports that there's been a major explosion on a pipeline, a crude pipeline in saudi arabia, and traders say that was the catalyst to take oil prices to these heights. wti futures above $110 a barrel. that was where they rallied to a little below that at this moment. but we are seeing a rally across the board in the energy complex. gasoline seeing huge gains in this session. keep in mind that, of course, geopolitical risk adds to risk

appetite for other commodities as well. metals also on fire. gold at session highs here, near $1725 an ounce. we're also looking at the surge here in silver at the top of the range. and copper as well seeing big gains. again, these reports of a possible explosion of an oil pipeline in saudi arabia. definitely the catalyst for this after-hours surge in commodities. >> sharon, thank you. there it is, up $12.90 on gold. pretty good boost today. of course, we know that yesterday we had a pretty significant route in gold, down about 5% on the session. we've got 30 minutes left in the trading session and we're already seeing money continue to move into gold. let's see what's behind it. mark newton is with me, chief technical analyst at gray wolf execution partners. mark, good to see you. thank you for walking you through this. >> sure. >> what are the charts on gold right now? >> the short term is a little bit of a technical on gold. we'll start off looking at the daily chart. gold made a new high above the

february high. we actually went lower in momentum. trend lines from the december lows, those were also broken. trend line deterioration. momentum has turned negative also on daily charts. that's also a short term negative for the time being. what's important to note is we look at the weekly charts, the longer term trend is very much intact. this is only a short-term phenomenon. >> you've got issues short term here. longer term, would you put new money to work on any weakness then? >> absolutely. if you look at the longer term trend, this is only since '08. gold has been almost a 12-year uptrend. so pullbacks, down to $1600 initially, $1500 is a better level would be a buying opportunity for gold. i still think we can push higher into year end. >> what technical levels do you want to focus on to believe that that story is intact. >> i like to look at longer term trend lines. that hits right around $1600. as long as gold can remain above that level, that's key. if you start to see signs of

gold making new quarterly lows, dropping to new lows, that's a real concern. right now we're seeing that on a short term basis. >> mark, good to talk with you. >> thank you very much. >> we appreciate your insights. bill, back to you. >> trying to find a base for the dow with oil moving higher on the talk that sharon was just talking about. that took the price down. the industrial average is up ten points. everybody's been talking about the u.s. stock market rally. but are european stocks actually more attractive right now. we'll get the trade on that straight ahead. as we head to the break, here's how each member of the dow has been trading so far this thursday. back after this.

welcome back. bob pisani on the floor of the new york stock exchange. a little weakness in the last half hour as we drop below the lows we hit earlier in the day. but the market's not that worried, because most of the weakness is in consumer names. put up procter & gamble, you'll see what i mean here. sitting at the lows today. johnson & johnson, this is why the dow turned negative. it's mostly the consumer names

that have been down on the day. then we've got companies like coke as well. also having kind of a tough day. see that sitting near the lows? and merck, looking very toppy. and has been for a number of days now. there it is, sitting at the lows for the day. >> bob, thank you very much. stocks steadying now as mixed economic news keeps the market in a holding pattern. is the u.s. economy self-sustaining at this point or not? and if so, shus investors be putting new money to work into risk assets? >> chris is chief investment officer at u.s. trust, and liz is chief investment strategist with charles schwab. thank you so much for joining us. your clientele large end, what are you seeing? >> they've been risk averse to this whole process. in 2008 and early 2009, they're willing to look for yield here and there, picking your spots across the whole capital

structure. in terms of putting new money to work right now with the run we've made in the last few months, no. >> reading between the lines yesterday, it seemed the fed was suggesting no qe-3 in the offing anytime soon, and maybe the ltro in europe was the last one in europe for the foreseeable future. what does that do for equities? >> i'm not so sure that's a problem for the market. i'm in the camp that would like to see the fed start to get on a path to normalization. i think that would send an appropriate message about the economy, and reflect the fact that they're not treating the patient like it's still in the emergency room. the ecb i think will largely watch the environment. if there's any kind of constraints on liquidity, if there's any likelihood of another crisis, i think they'll step back in. i'm not so sure they're finished yet. >> let me get both your takes on the technology. the winner this year, last year, a lot of excitement around the facebook ipo, yelp pricing tonight. do you want to put money in tech

right here? >> social media is a different thing, it's hard to value. outside into the tech that has real earnings growth, real cash flow, has lengths of stay that's been around for a while, that has a lot of earnings growth coming from somewhere else in the world, absolutely. we'll put money to work as markets pull back. technology is still a favorite sector for us. it has a ton of cash and a lot of growth. a lot of other people mentioned valuations. you've got certain stocks, even though you're seeing this huge run-up, you're talking about valuations between 6 and 10 or 11. >> i would never ask you to buy apple at these levels. >> i'm not an individual stock person. >> i know, but even apple is trading at a lower multiple. >> not that 1999 is an appropriate comparison, but to those who say this is another bubble, the similar val you lags was near 100 in 1999. i don't think this has any

resemblance of the peak of the bubble. it's been an outperformer for us. >> you still think we're destined for some sort of correction? >> we're two months into the year. policy cloud has yet to come into the forefront. like we saw in prior summer months. that's about to hit in the summer months. when you actually pull back, into the mid-1200s, that's when you start to see a little bit more of the money that sticks for a three-year period, starting to come back in. when you get those pullbacks. the only thing i'm concerned about, what happens when ltro 2 ends, like it did just there and the money gets put to work, and quantitative easing 3 talks happens, but the action doesn't, and ltro 3 doesn't happen. people are going to be accustomed to the extra liquidity market when it's not there. >> are earnings estimates too high? >> i don't think so. i think the notion we'll see declining earnings as early as this year, i think that's a

little pessimistic. i think we'll still have positive growth this year. >> thank you so much for joining us. >> we'll see you both later on the program here. >> and we are in the final stretch here. back in positive territory. 20 minutes before the closing bell sounds, bill. >> oil may be higher today, but our next guest will explain why we could see a big sell-off on the horizon. >> is this market due for a correction? >> standout performers among the s&p 500. back from post 9 right after this. but first, before we go to break, the "dividend." which nasdaq 100 stock is outperforming the others so far this year? comcast, the parent company of this network, intuit, or oracle?

just before the break as part of the "dividend," we asked, which nasdaq 100 stock is outperforming the others so far this year? comcast, the parent company of this network, intuit, or oracle? now, the payoff. comcast.

welcome back. sharon epperson here once again. as oil prices are retesting the highs of the day, keep in mind we told you about the report that there have been a major explosion on an oil pipeline in saudi arabia. this is an unconfirmed report, it's coming from an iranian news source. it's not been confirmed by a u.s. news agency. but it's taken prices up $5 in the brent market, up $3 in the wti market to over $110 a barrel. we had also seen a strong surge, or at least a bit of a bounce in the appreciate metals market throughout the session. but actually saw highs of the session posted as this news was coming out. that high in the session for gold, silver, for copper as well. we're continuing to monitor these headlines about this explosion in saudi arabia. again, it's coming from one news source and has not been confirmed by others. but we will bring you the latest as it happened.

it is certainly affectinging the price action here. >> we want to get to the trade of the close segment today. we want to talk about what to do with oil at this point. joining us is john, director of institutional sales and trading. we have reports of this explosion, a pipeline, not confirmed yet. but the markets have responded. so what do you do with this, john? >> i think -- i saw the report a little bit, out of a website out of london, i think. it was a little bit earlier, so once the floor closed, we went to the electronic trading and i think there were stops at $110 in the wti. i think there are stops at $130 in the brent. i think we're just pushing the upper ranges today. there's also the march-june roll we have to worry about. but i don't think saudi arabia is under attack. i think right now, until this clears up, we could be pretty sure that we're okay here. >> you sound like you aren't expecting oil to go much higher from here.

>> i'm not expecting oil to go much higher? >> i asked you first. >> no, i didn't hear what you said, i'm sorry. obviously a supply shock would be unwelcome. i think the magnitude of the move is what people watch right now. so i think as long as the move is gradual, i don't think we want brent up to $150. but i think that $145 range is really the top. we don't want a spike obviously. but at the moment i think the market is handling the news right well. after the story broke, crude and brent did go up, but the spis were unchanged. >> the spread has been relatively wide between brent and wti. do you expect that to remain there, or are we going to get a narrowing? and if so, who has to move the most, do you think? >> i think we have to move the xl pipeline the most is what we have to do. until we have that on board, you're going to continue to have the problem where there's not

enough -- there's plenty of oil, but we just cast get it where we need it. that's a big issue going forward. i think it will be a big issue in the fall. >> so your targets then for oil. let me keep it to brent. that's what affects our gasoline prices here in the united states. what do you see happening to brent in the near term? what are you going to do with it? >> i think right now we're going to watch it. i think at the moment, we have an election coming up. obviously gas prices are a big issue. we had schumer on cnbc just the other day saying saudi should increase production, they should raise their production levels, which would help a lot. we had some news out of israel last night that said that they won't inform the united states if they did attack iran. there was a lot of big geopolitical ifs that we have to deal with. but i think the market is just really trading on rumor. there's a lot of spread trading going on. it is a roll. so at the moment i think we could just stand pat and watch and watch the geopolitical

events right now. >> john, good to see you. thanks for joining us today. >> thank you. >> bill, the housing market has shown signs of life recently. we're waiting on evidence of a return. foreclosure sales ramped up in the fourth quarter of last year. diana, over to you. >> that's right. home sales are improving slightly, as potential buyers test the housing waters. but the damage done by the robo signing foreclosure scandal is still wreaking havoc on home prices, as banks pushed through a huge backlog of delinquent loans. this home sold after a price reduction. two reports out today really show the evidence. sales of properties in some stage of foreclosure, made up a full 24% of all home sales in q 4, up from 20% in q 3. that's because of all the delays in processing throughout last year, thanks again to robo signing. increased foreclosure sales put

downward pressure on prices. we saw that in the report. today we learned that negative equity, that is, owing more on your mortgage than your home is currently worth, rose in q-4, to 11.1 million homes, or 22.8% of all residential properties with a mortgage, according to core logic. it's up 22% in q-3. another 2.5 million borrowers had less than 5% equity. put it together and nearly a third of all homes nationwide can't sell unless the bank agrees to take a loss on the loans. that, of course, is called a short sale. short sales are in fact ramping up, increasing 15-piece in q-4 annually, while sales of bank-owned homes fell 12%. short sales outnumbered reo sales, including los angeles, miami and phoenix where reo sales had outnumbered short sales just a year ago. negative equity, of course, is still the worst in the markets. we always talk about the sand states. but across the nation, at least

10% of all states of borrowers in all states with a mortgage are in a negative equity position. we've got plenty more information of this on the blog, realty check.cnbc.com. >> thank you so much. diana olick. >> 15 minutes to go. we're up 17 points. we've had volatility here in the last few minutes which we'll get to more, because of what oil is doing to the stock market. >> tonight is the pricing for yelp. it will start trading tomorrow. should see $12 to $14 a share is what bob was saying earlier in terms of the range. bertha coombs rounding up the "under the radar" stocks for us. stay with us. the recovery of the u.s. economy has continued. >> this is the feks, though, on european equity markets. i'm freaking out man.

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welcome back to the "closing bell." i'm coming to you straight from the post of sotheby's right now, having a very rough day, in very heavy volume. check it out. down better than 9%. that's $3.61 lower. the stock dropping the most since last september because of disappointing fourth-quarter earnings. the cfo of sotheby's says uncertainty over southern europe's debt crisis has kept potential sellers on the sidelines. for the full year, the numbers were strong, boasting more than $171 million in profit for 2011.

that actually was the best year since 2007 for sotheby's. nonetheless, tough day today because of the fourth-quarter numbers. it's dragging shares lower on a 52-week basis. the stock has wiped out about a quarter of the value. today alone with the 9% sell-off on bid sotheby's. not a good day for that stock. >> no, bid getting a lower bid, that's for sure. thank you, maria, very much. they may not be stealing the headlines right now, but there are some "under the radar" stocks making moves that you need to know about. bertha coombs has the case details. >> we know how important facebook is to zynga and vice versa, the company's going to start beta testing a new platform next week. zynga.com will let players its game but also social games by third-party developers. rich greenfield said this will create an all zynga ecosystem.

it will give them a little independence. biotechs are among the day's best performers. signs pending acquisition could be in doubt, it's waived provisions saying we understand eby ebuy yo sciences could delay this. part of the issue, a $40 million insurance payment from the death of their former chairman and ceo. saying the pace of existing home sales is also bullish for them. but one of the big movers yesterday to the upside, following strong results, today getting a second look. some investors thinking maybe the fact they're going to be spending more to win more revenue and more shares, not so

good. too much of a drag on its earnings. >> bertha, thank you very much. we're going to take a break, come back with the closing countdown. go over what has gone on in the last hour here. we're waiting for yelp's ipo that could price anytime after the close of trade in a few minutes. we'll have all the details as they break. but first, here's how the major averages are trading as we head to the close. [ male announcer ] if you believe the mayan calendar, on december 21st, polar shifts will reverse the earth's gravitational pull and hurtle us all into space, which would render retirement planning unnecessary. but say the sun rises on december 22nd and you still need to retire, td ameritrade's investment consultants 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? the other office devices? they don't get me.

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about four minutes to go before the closing bell here. i'm seeing these charts for the first time, as we change things around because of the news developments in the last few minutes here. the rumors, the reports, unconfirmed reports is probably the best way to put it, that there was an explosion of an oil pipeline in saudi arabia. that sent oil prices higher, and you see here the price of -- this is wti crude here in new york. as it moved higher, above $110 briefly. it has since been coming back. whether this means that there's some skepticism about this remains to be seen. show me brent.

we got to, i think, $127 on that. we're at $127. we're going back to the high on brent north sea. the markets are trying to figure out the veracity of this report. as oil went higher, you saw stocks go lower, we shows the dow represents that. the spike right here. and we had a bottom with the market coming back. we're up 27 points, about the mid point of the range for this trading day today. it was very much a risk-on day. you did not see the transports suffer much as oil prices were going higher today. usually the very energy sensitive transports would go lower. but we were moving higher today. we did see them come off the highs of the session. but still, a pretty good gain of 1.1% for the transportation sector on a day when the oil prices were sharply higher. risk-on day, riskoff assets go lower. we're comfortably back above 2% today. we started the day at the 1.99

mark here. the vix also moved lower, wer back below 18. we did see a little hiccup there when we got the oil report come out there. i want to show you the sectors. this is what told me we had a very risk-on day today. the financials led the day today, up 1.25% right now, followed by materials, and everybody's favorite, technology. i'll show you the other side. the consumer staples were the leading sector yesterday, to the upside. and today, this defensive sector was to the down side. we had people with a greater risk appetite than they did the previous day. i want to go to chris. you're expecting something of a correction at some point this year. what about oil? if oil continues higher, at some point, that could cause a correction, couldn't it? >> no question about it, bill. gasoline as a derivative coming off the price of oil as well. highest gasoline prices we've seen at this point of the time of the year ever.

what happens this summer as the economy continues to improve. you'll see that. one of the major fault lines out there. but it becomes self-limiting. if it sticks up there in those prices for a few months, to six months, it starts to roll things back. so it is transitory. but it is a concern. >> do you like energy here? >> we like certain energy companies that are more of those who transport the good, or the commodity, not those who particularly own the commodity. it becomes self-limiting, so their earnings start to suffer. >> they make money no matter what the price. >> >> a cash-flow producing entity. >> some excitement after the bell. we get the pricing of yelp apparently. >> and tech stock is on a little bit of a roll recently. that's because consumer stocks around the cloud computing area have been so strong. this sa company that's been so famous, the most famous one this