and tim horton. we'll call it a day with our cat in the hat. check out caterpillar and red hats. you knew we had to do it. thank you so much for watching "street signs" this week. have a fantastic weekend, same time. previously on "closing bell" -- >> there's no question these are tough markets. and i think we view that they're going to be tough markets for the next couple of years. >> i think that you're always going to see some uptick when the economy begins recovery. today, on the "closing bell," stocks taking a breather. the major averages coming off multi-year highs on renewed concerns out of europe. is this rally running out of steam. plus, a red-hot trading debut for yelp. but a social media stock starting to form a bubble.

live, from post 9 on the floor of the new york stock exchange, this is the final and most important hour of the trading day. >> and happy friday, tgif. it's dr. seuss' birthday. i'm a little slow on the uptick sometimes, but i figured it out at the last minute and mandy just confirmed it for us, this is dr. seuss ''s 108th birthday. the lorax is opening and yelp, it all came together at the last minute here. >> it really did. yelp really doing well today, as we expected. >> skyrocketing. and trading right behind you there, as you can probably tell, at the post, at the new york stock exchange. >> yes. >> and the ceo came down and rang the opening bell and it all came together today. >> it did. and he came here to this set, and spoke to the folks on "squawk on the street." it was great. look at that move at 64% higher on yelp. we were talking last night that we were going to see a pricing

that went up, but it skyrocketed. >> we'll talk about whether or not we're seeing a bubble forming for the social media stocks coming up in a little bit. >> this is really the talk. i spoke with one leading technology executive recently, and i said, what do you think about valuations? he said, is it a bubble, is that what you're asking? i said yes. and he said, yes, the answer is yes, and it will burst when facebook goes public. apple went down, only to skyrocket back up again. by the way, happy friday to you as well from me, as well. in the markets we have weakness for the broader averages, stocks modestly lower with weakness in the energy sector. oil stocks down across the board today as oil prices have tumbled from the 11-month highs. it's hard to call it a tumble when you're still talking about $105 barrel, bill. spain raised the budget deficit target for this year. >> some of your -- somebody

mentioned earlier today they could see $50 oil. wouldn't we love to see that. kind of a zigzag day for this friday, with oil in part calling the shots. the stronger dollar. right now the dow is well off the lows, trying to get back to neutral, which we have not seen much of today, down four points right now at 12,975. the nasdaq at this hour, is trading down 9 points, about a third of a percent at 2979. and then we've got the s&p 500 index down three points at 1370. >> europe back in the spotlight, of course. spanish yields rising today. higher than italian yields actually. >> uh-oh. >> bringing in bob pisani, and chief international correspondent michelle caruso-cabrera back at headquarters. michelle, let's talk about the yields in spain and italy, what's going on? >> the spanish minister said by the way, our deficit, it's going

to be a lot bigger than we expected, 5.8% of gdp. and he blamed it on the previous government, who said, he said they didn't hit their target. we've seen this movie before. what we saw was a continued rally in italian yields. those seem to get better. so they're starting to meet spanish yields, they were higher. people are concerned about whether or not now we have yet another issue when it comes to europe. >> a great point. the markets under pressure today. i want to know really when we're fully going to start seeing this market focus on earnings. we're in march. the final month of the quarter. we're going to be able to get a great sort of window into what's going on in the corporate sector. the word out is the earnings are way too high. >> there's that talk. although lynn sanders feels earnings will be able to meet those expectations. and there are plenty of people who feel the economy is stronger than some of the numbers suggest right now.

>> bob pisani, weigh in here. >> i think the important thing is, look what happened. we had an opportunity to take down numbers in the beginning of january, maria. a lot of people said they were too high. nobody did. none of the ceos, did you notice, came out and said your numbers are too high, you need to bring them down. that's one of the reasons the stock market held up. i know it was a fear out there, but nobody's taking the bait. you would think these guys would be as cautious as they possibly can. the s&p $125 for 2012 and it's not dropping. did you see yelp today, guys? i was so happy to see these guys, young people coming out here, run a clip here of jeremy stopleman coming to the nyse. they're all walking down on the floor right past our news set. we set up to exactly do that. the people coming down. there he is walking around. not only did he bring his people with him, he brought his mom with him. this is the kind of thing that happens here. they bring their families in. they make the first trade, they bring the employees down who are

the new members. they're so young, 18, 19, 20 years old, all san jose, california, many of them. it's exciting to watch them do it. >> i want to know where he's eating dinner tonight and what he thought of it. >> somebody can buy him a nice dinner. you know what they got? put this up. look at this, bill, and maria. trading at $24. you know what the oldest stock got? $1.12. >> how nice. that would be just fine. michelle, do you use yelp? >> i do not use yelp. >> oh, really? >> i do not. >> i bet you do tonight. >> one other point maria brought up earnings to suggest on whether or not we should be focused on more u.s. domestic issues. one week from today is going to be crucial. because one week from today we're going to get the u.s. jobs report, right? so focus on the message. and it's the same day we'll likely find out whether or not greece is going to trigger that feared credit default swap

event, post-lehman-like potential, you know, the situation that the european union was so worried about. one week from today we should be really watching that situation. and it's going to tell us what investors are more focused on, the u.s. domestic situation or europe. >> it's the old fear of fundamentals. >> that's a great point. let's not forget oil and how that plays into this. because oil affects the fundamental story, bill, if we start seeing people, you know, pulling in in terms of spending because they're spending too much money on gas. >> i still think that just by talking about having $5 gasoline, it becomes a self-fulfilling prove es si at one point. i flipped when i saw the headline on the front page of "the new york times" this week, talking about the possibility of $5 gasoline. >> maria, remember, leon cooperman was with you the other day and felt brent crude could go to $135. i think it's at $124. >> exactly. >> obviously, it's not killing

the stock market. it might be hurting some oil stocks, but even high oil -- >> even a report on the show this week, once we see $120, that's going to start. >> $120 wti. >> and right now we're at $106. >> we're so subject to any kind of risk that comes out of the middle east. we'll see president obama speak over the weekend to the pro-israel lobby. he does this speech every year. every president does it every year. we'll see what kind of line he's willing to draw or not draw in the sand when it comes to iran. that could affect oil prices. >> can we believe the iranian elections, michelle, before we let you go? >> turnout was extremely poor. they were trying to get everybody out there to prove to the world that people were participating, so they failed at least on that front. >> let's not forget the russian elections this weekend also. we'll be talking with gary kasparov in the program about mr. putin going back into power.

thanks, everybody. see you a little later. bill? >> let's get to the movers and shakers this friday. so far brian shactman is here. >> now we're down -- tripled the losses, down 14 points. we obviously are more negative than positive. only one stock up more than 1%, at&t. i guess that restriction on data and slow on the system is a net positive. you have caterpillar down more than 1%. you have ge down close to it, below $19 a share. i want to take a look at the sector heat map quickly to see how that -- basically telecom has been up all day and utilities have been positive in the last little bit. energy is by far the laggard, double the decline of industrials. let's look at a couple names there. weakest names are alpha natural and pea body.

you have alpha natural down 14.5% for the year. coal, a little out of favor. pea body down a quarter of a percent for the year. energy up 6%. big lots, discounter over discounts, it hurts, and the stock gets sold off. on the russell 2000, micro electric is down. sears up another 9.5%. 138 1/2% year-to-date, maria. can't explain a lot of it. big moves. >> big moves for sure on sears holding. see you later, brian. treasury prices, we're getting some of the week's losses on the renewed fears about europe. let's get to rick santelli in chicago on that angle. >> going in front of a weekend, it seems almost normal operating procedure to see a bit of a rally in treasuries.

today's no exception. we're down about four basis points as you look at the interday. longer time frames, a bit of a different scenario, although not too different. on the week we're virtually unchanged on the week. and the process is pretty much like the process has been. look at the year-to-date chart. they've been buying puts in the treasuries. as you can see by the chart that we're going nowhere quick, all things considered. if you really look at what the big mover today and on the week has been, it's the euro versus the dollar. here we sit just a whisker under $132. as you look at the weekly chart, yes, we were 13450 last week. i heard you said you want $50 oil. you don't need a political candidate -- i can get you there in two minutes. think consumer staples marketing. like orange juice, just put them in half barrels. back to you. >> that's all we need. i'll take $50 for a half a gallon. okay. that's what it's going to take. thank you, rick. way to go. about 50 minutes to go. the dow trying to get back to

neutral. ten-point decline right now, well off the lows of the session. >> and then there's yelp, skyrocketing in the debut today. is this an example of a bubble forming in social media stock. >> financials continue to outperform this market, in "talking numbers" we'll show you which bank stocks still look attractive despite the recent big rally. >> after the bell, what impact will vladimir putin have on russia if he does become president this weekend. gary kasparov, the famed chess player turned political activist will join me live from moscow. >> i dare you to play chess with him during that time. >> i'd love to. >> as we head to the break, here's how the s&p 500 heat map is shaping up for a friday. you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide. back after this. also ahead, a look at next week's key reports on housing and consumer sentiment. find out what else is on tap in the u.s. and europe that could

impact your investments. that's coming up, right here, on the "closing bell."

welcome back. we're in the final stretch for the day, for the week. let's take a quick look at the market and the stat check on the dow. the dow industrials trading in a narrow range, 55-point range today coming off session lows at 130 this afternoon. right now, the market is under pressure, but just barely, down about six points, as i mention. the low is down 53, 55 points earlier. a snapshot of the big winners and losers on the dow. as you can see, at&t and verizon doing well in an overall strong telecom sector. >> but the stock of the day is yelp. shares up more than 60% on its first day of trading. right over there here at the new york stock exchange. this is still a company that has yet to turn a profit during its eight years in business. earlier on cnbc, we asked ceo jerry stopleman why take the company public at this point in time. >> this is just the single step in the life of a company. it's a chapter in a very long

book that's to be written. we have a grand vision. we want to bring yelp to the world. we want to play a big part of that. we want to be the broadest and deepest content source for local information, really the amazon of local when we think about it. >> the amazon of local. whether that happens or not remains to be seen. we're wondering whether social media businesses are worth investing in to begin with. aaron is here, and porter is back with us, managing partner with media tech capital partners. porter, it helps they only sold 10% of yelp. that helped the shares today, didn't it? >> well, that's why there are no shorts out there. you can't short this stock, and give jerry stopleman a lot of credit. he turned down an offer a little over a year ago from google when they wanted to buy him. i think he's extremely vulnerable right now, and he's never going to be the amazon of local whatever. i couldn't understand what he was saying there either.

neither could you. >> that's why we don't run companies like yelp at this point. aaron, would you buy yelp here? >> we don't cover it currently. they do have a lot of traffic on yelp, over 50 million users worldwide. >> 62 million actually. >> all right. >> over 50. so modernization remains fairly low, if you look at yelp compared to other sites like linkedin. it's a wait-and-see. they're in the early phases as jeremy said. >> you would rather buy, what, group groupon? >> groupon is an early model as well. but i think linkedin has shown they're the dominant player in the social media arena. >> porter, would you buy any of these? >> i think social media as a category is very but owant and is only going to get bigger. the problem i have with some of the individual stocks, look at

yelp. they turned down an offer from google last year. google goes out and buys zaggot. zaggot is going to crush yelp when they make up its mind. they've got all the means to do that. yelp is getting 50% of their traffic from google right now. that's their vulnerability. >> am i any evnaive that a comp like yelp or linkedin or groupon that you would find it difficult to monetize these social media companies there? >> you're right on the money. that's where they will end up. >> so i'm a future investment banker here, i guess, that's what's going on. aaron, what do you think? am i off base on that? >> no, i think for some companies it makes sense. we know google took a shot at acquiring yelp. i think there is value to the independent company to be able to brand yourself. there is value to be a very

focused, independent company such as yelp. i think it's easy to say the bigger company is going to crush the smaller company, but that's not always the case. >> the ipo of facebook, is that the peak for this sector, porter? >> i don't think it's the peak. i think it's going to show the way, because it is going to be the biggest ipo, the biggest tech ipo in history, and probably one of the biggest ipos ever. they have demonstrated an ability to monetize the technology and the traffic, which most of the other social media sites have not. >> right. >> but i think social media as a category is only going to get bigger and bigger and more profitable. >> that's the thing, can you get bigger and profitable at the same time. we'll find out. >> if you're well managed and have a good business model, you'll be able to do that. >> thank you both. have a good weekend. >> we're in the final stretch on trading for the week. the dow jones industrial average

down just a fraction here with just about 40 minutes before the closing bell sounds. >> we'll get the options action trade on which sector could be the big winner if the markets move higher from here. >> the financials up better than 14% year to date. in "talking numbers," we're telling you why the rally may just be getting started for the financials. >> here's how the heat map is shaping up for this friday as we head toward the close with the industrial average down about eight points. back after this.

welcome back. i'm sharon epperson at the nymex, eerily quiet after yesterday, a volatile after-hours session. oil prices and electronic trading lower by $2. a lot of that drama has dissipated from the oil markets. we know the report about the saudi oil pipeline was false. we're hearing from president obama of reports of a preeminent strike against iran is not going to happen anytime soon. a lot of traders saying it is taking a lot of the geopolitical risk out of the marketplace. of course, we have the nonfarm payroll number to look at, that is something traders will be paying attention to. when you look at how prices have moved this week, the fact that we're lower on the week, we're going to be paying a lot more at the pump in the week ahead. already, 9 cents higher than it was a week ago, $3.74 a gallon

is the national average. >> sharon, thank you very much. sharon epperson with the latest there. we've got about 30 minutes left in the trading session. and a lot of people watching financials. financials, certainly one of the stronger groups in this market right here. we want to look at bank stocks hitting the highest level since july today. is it too late to get in or should we be committing new capital to the banks right here? let's start talking numbers with rich ross, good to see you. thank you very much for joining us. you're watching the chart of the xlf. what is it showing you? >> that it's not too late at all to get into the financials. in fact, you want to be adding to your exposure right here. >> why? why does this move here tell you that? >> well, this is a long-term weekly chart that takes us all the way back to 2007. back to the glory days when we hit 1500-plus on the s&p 500. we've taken out a multi-trend line. we're going to pull up a

long-term weekly moving average. >> but i think this is something to look at right there. where we took it out. >> that's exactly what we want to talk about. just this week, we've broken above that 200-week moving average. if you note back in 2007, the s&p watt as 1509, we broke below that moving average. financial etf fell 80%, some financial companies fell 100%. we think that is a signal that could be equally compelling as the buy signal. we like financials. it has implications on a global scale. >> if you wanted to buy one thing, which bank would it be? let's say you're looking at valuations as well as the fundamental side. >> we like jpmorgan. if you want to beat your benchmark, you have to pick your stocks. every good advance starts wa strong foundation. here we have a textbook double bottom. we've seen bullish trend

acceleration. just last week we saw the breakout up $38, that took out that resistance there, a confirmed base breakout. what i like about this chart is the month-long pattern of sideways consolidation. it's the pause that refreshes. we've reasserted ourselves. we think jpmorgan has upside to $48. >> this is an interesting move, just like basically vat up in the last several weeks. thank you very much. we appreciate it. rich ross on financials. bill, back to you. >> nice work with the telestrator there, partner. good job. we're heading to the close here. the dow up three points. we have turned positive as we head to the close here. we'll get more coverage on that coming up. despite ben bernanke's testimony of what he didn't say to congress this week, our next guest believes the qe-3 is on its way. we'll find out why and how you should invest as we go ahead. here's standout performers in the s&p 500 today. back after this.

welcome back. bob pisani down on the floor of the new york stock exchange. well, just positive now a few minutes ago, but the important

thing is energy is under pressure because oil keeps moving up. it's not hurting the stock market, not yet. but clearly starting to affect some of the energy stocks. you'll notice the defensive names, telecom and consumer staples. gold looking a little toppy here. gold stocks again down. this is a group that had no energy for months on end here. whatever rally they had in the middle of last year certainly is long gone. bill and maria, back to you. >> bob, thank you. another round of quantitative easing in store? why our next guest believes so, and what will more qe mean for the risk assets out there, bill. >> joining us with their thoughts on that, jason, and thomas lee chief equity strategist at jpmorgan. who sees this qe-3 coming here? >> i do. >> ben bernanke didn't say anything about it this week. >> i think, bill, it cannot be off the table. i think if you get any sort of

sense of weakness, the fed will be back in there sooner than you think. the weighted average cost of our debt right now is less than 2.3%. if you get any backup in interest rates, interest expense, and by extension the deficit and debt will explode. in a certain sense it will have a very difficult time stepping away from the table. >> in the past, the previous two times, especially the first time when the fed announced the quantitative easing, markets took off. the cavalry is on the way here, oh boy. is it possible they announce a qe-3, it could be interpreted as a sign of weakness in the economy and we're in for trouble here? >> i don't think so. i think financial assets, at least for a while, are driven by lick idity. it's hard to short stocks in that environment. having said that, i think there's a fundamental reason why the fed is continuing to be in there. because the structural problems of the economy have not been solved, as the chairman said earlier this week. >> then you've got europe,

right, tom? do you feel better about europe spilling onto the united states, given what mario draghi has just done this week, another level of ltro? >> that's exactly right. to jason's point, i think one reason qe-3 has lower probabilities, europe has essentially opened the liquidity spigot. in some ways, we've got a really kind of a global easing cycle under way. i think that's helping all dpngs assets globally. >> so you want to be invested in stocks? >> yes, absolutely. and i think one of the things i took away from our ohio conference this week, microfunds are really still pretty holding on to fixed income positions. but fund managers are underweight cyclicals. a recent survey, 50% of fund managers are underweight cyclicals today. tech has been the best performing group year-to-date. >> i like tech. one of my --

>> who doesn't like tech, right? >> the fact of the matter is, the multiples are still very reasonable valuations. >> they really are. >> even let's say apple -- >> how can that be. not a single person comes up here and says i don't like technology, it's too expensive, i wouldn't touch it. if everybody loves technology, presumably they're all in technology stocks, so why aren't they expensive? >> if you look at mutual fund flows to date, over the past five years, it's the net redemptions that are selling of the equity market -- >> to what tom is saying. >> it's fixed income, maria. i think there's still a long way for people to go. a lot of the hedge fund clients have missed the rally in many senses of the word. they're having to catch up. i know it seems hard to believe, but i think the multiples are probably one of the best indications in sentiment out there. >> where are your earnings? do you think earnings estimates are too high? do you think that the corporate sector slows down in 2012? >> you know, i actually think

that we might see a revival of earnings growth this year from corporates. part of it related to u.s. housing. i think this is the year housing recovers. we have to remember, 250,000 increase in u.s. housing starts is about $4 s&p upside. that's a real leverage to that component. europe looks like it's expanding this year. that's an upside for all the cyclicals. in some ways i think s&p profits, our forecast is 105. i think there's a couple of dollars upside for this year. >> it has turned positive there. i'm told the dow is now positive for the week. so after all this sturm and drang, we are going to finish positive here. what would you avoid? >> i'm not quite as sanguine on earnings. i think there's a decent chance you'll get a mild recession in the u.s. next year simply from fiscal drag. what worries me a little bit is i think this year is setting up to look a lot like last year, strong first half, weak second half. i don't want to offend anyone's

politics, but the election, if barack obama were to be reelected, that creates a whole other source of issues. i think as far as the bush tax cuts are concerned, especially on dividends and capital gains, that's a worry for me. it be hard to get another round of fiscal stimulus. there are things in the second half of the year that will be somewhat problematic. >> good insights, jason. thank you, tom. good to see you. >> we'll see you both later, as a matter of fact, here on the "closing bell." >> we approach the close, up about 20 points on the dow jones industrial average. off of the lows, which was a decline of 53. >> get ready to trade the close when we come back. what the recent breakdown in the russell 2000, the small cap index means for the markets. >> and the february employment report will dominate headlines next week. after the bell we round up the economic data in the u.s. and data that you should be watching. >> as we head to the break right now, here's how the major currencies have been trading so far today. back after this.

but first, before we go to break, the "dividend." which dow component is up the most this year? dupont, 3m, or united technologies? the different debd pays off the different debd pays off after the break.

just before the break, as part of the "dividend," we asked, which dow component is up the most this year? dupont, 3m or united technologies? now, the payoff. united technologies. welcome back to "closing bell." seema mody here. technology stocks, which have been providing the leadership this week, are slipping in today's trade. perhaps seeing some profit taking. now, with all that talk around yelp, we're closely watching other recently listed talk, including zynga, which reached an all-time high today, but pulled back at 1:00 p.m.

zynga's lead game designer is leaving the company to become a director at a different startup. lastly, a look at spectrum pharmaceuticals, missing street estimates. the company has a drug on the market used to treat the side effects associated with chemotherapy. bill, back over to you. >> seema, thank you very much. about 20 minutes to go. i jinxed it when i pointed out before the break, that the dow had turned positive, not only for the day, but for the week. because during the commercial break, it turned around and headed lower again. it happens every time, doesn't it? the dow now down about four points. time for a quick market stat che check. right now, the composite index is down 11 points. it was down 21 at one point. the volatility index edging higher today, just a fraction of a point, though, at 1737. we haven't seen 20 since the middle of february. the dow itself, as i mentioned,

was higher. now it's starting to turn lower again. the stock of the day, though, has been yelp. the social media company that does things like restaurant reviews, you know it, if you use it, it's up about 60% today on its first day of trading here at the new york stock exchange. there it is with that 9-plus dollar gain at $24.78, after pricing the ipo last night at $15 a share. all right. as we head toward the close, the dow down three-plus points right now. coming up, investors scratching their heads when shares of wind resorts were halted today. >> i'm jam wells in los angeles. as if there isn't enough drama around wind resorts. a snafu suggests the company's on the verge of clinching a deal. or maybe not. we'll have the latest on the "closing bell." >> and when we come back, the options action trade of how you can profit from the rally, if it has more room to run. maria and i are back from post 9

right after this. the biggest things in business -- >> not a shortage of investment funds in the united states in any way, shape or form. and not a shortage of opportunities. >> minds that move markets. >> clean up, eliminate, reduce. dozens of special tax breaks in the tax code today. >> equity represents the best house in the financial asset neighborhood. >> one place to find them all -- >> the way to manage money, it's an evolution, not a revolution. an evolution, not a revolution. >> cnbc, capitalize on it.

okay. i'm back on the floor of the new york stock exchange here. this is the post to keep an eye on today, this is where they trade shares of today's high-profile ipo, yelp. my friend michael o'connor making a mark in the stock at this hour. the website soaring on its debut after pricing $15 a share last

night. exceeded the top end of the target range twens $12 and $14. it just took off from there. yelp's offering value at a company of about $900 million, it raises $96 million for the company after expenses. not bad for a company that is yet to turn a profit in the past eight years that it's been in existence. yelp did manage to book $83 million in revenue last year which was up 74% from 2010. so they are making some progress, but still no profit. they do make money, their model is they make money from advertising. so far, so good on day one here, maria. >> small caps, a real breakdown going on right now in small caps. they're trading in a very tight range. but we are looking at the russell 2000 index on the brink of closing at the lowest level since february. our next guest has been keeping a close eye on these moves. he joins me to tell us what that means for the market.

michael, good to see you. thank you very much so much for joining us. let's talk about the russell 2000 here. it's certainly breaking down. how do you see this? >> on february 1, the russell broke out basically. if you punch up the iwm, which is one of the etfs that tracks that, you can see where it breaks out. and that's basically all month long, it traded 81, 83, 81, 83, 81, 83. back to 81. and then we've been waiting to see where this thing really wants to go. whether or not we're going to break out even higher out of this now new range or break lower. as it turns out, all the technical indicators gave us a little bit of an idea. and today, we break lower. i think what it means is that small caps and the russell in general, when the market is feeling good about itself, you'll see money roll into small caps and get out of some value stocks. >> i see. >> now that we've got this thing

breaking down a little bit, you're thinking, maybe this rally is getting a little long in the tooth. and it wouldn't be surprising if that's the case. >> it could be an indicator that things are turning negative then after this huge run-up, an indicator of action to come? >> yeah. >> in the rest of the market? >> yeah. because there's a lot of these competing indicators, technically, on virtually every index, including the s&p 500. so now what we're going to see is, what continues to happen going forward, and whether or not we actually have real reasons why this rally can keep going. but this rally feels like it's a long-only participant value. >> michael, real quick on volume, is it an issue? i mean, light obviously, volume, what does that tell you? >> exactly. what it tells me is that it's the long-only guys pushing it

up, without supply this market is going to need everybody else to get involved in order to go one way or the other. a lot of people on the sidelines waiting for an entry point. >> michael, thank you. we'll be watching that index. u.s. averages hovering near the best levels since 2008. our next guest is taking a look at one particular sector to play it. brian stutland. >> look, maria, if you're looking to get into the market and play to the upside, we see real gdp come in at 3, durable goods 8% year over year. consumer confidence continues to improve. the markets have trading on low volatility. it's a reason for the market to maybe trend higher. the xli is a sector that continues to do well in 2012. it's definitely outperformed the year-to-date. i want to continue to stick with

that trade, be long the xli. i need to protect myself, a pullback is imminent coming in this market. i need to take some steps against that. what i want to do is sell a june 39 call against the long stock position in the xli. i can collect about 75 cents. roughly 2% to the downside. i have a little bit of cushion in case the market turns back down. to the upside here, i get called away 39 or above. i'll look to asset allocate to another sector at that time. this is a great way to continue to play to the upside in this market. now, back to you guys. >> brian, thank you very much. catch more options action tonight at 5:00 followed by "money in motion" at 5:30. both programs right after the "closing bell." we'll take a short break and we're back with the closing countdown right before the bell closes for the week. political activist garry kasparov is here. you're watching the "closing bell" on cnbc, first in business

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coming up at the five-minute mark here, as we close out this trading week on the floor of the new york stock exchange. and it looks like the dow's going to finish lower. so that means it will just be the s&p and the nasdaq that will be higher for the week. in fact, this will be the third straight week of gains for both the s&p and nasdaq. this week, it seemed to be the dollar that was calling the shots. here's the dollar index for the week with a gain of almost 1%. off the highs of the session for the week earlier in the day, it was up more than 1%. but what this served to do was to bring lower the value of those companies that had -- that are involving dollar denominated assets. look at the worst-performing sectors for the s&p 500 this week. and you see a lot of these, the energy, the materials, even the utilities that can be affected by the higher dollar. that's what was going on there. and of course, oil, this is a big week for the price of oil. a lot of volatility there. and when all was said and done,

i mean, here was the spike we saw earlier this week on talk that there was an explosion at that saudi oil pipeline which the saudis now are denying. and this is the sell-off with that saudi denial here, and for the week, price of crude oil is lower. i think the stronger dollar helped with that as well. and then the price of gold also affected by that. look at this, a huge sell-off on wednesday for gold. and we never really saw a comeback there. so you have to wonder whether 1800 was a major resistance level for that. i've got plenty of people telling me they are still convinced that the price of oil is going to go higher. you'll have to see a lower dollar for that to happen here. the best performing sectors for the week, the financials were pinned to the top there. even now, we're starting to see some weakness in that category there. financials, consumer discreti discretionary and telecom all doing well. let's get your view, what do you see for the dollar this year? does it go higher or lower?

>> a lot of it depends on what we're talking about. in terms of the quantitative easing. i think the dollar has been hanging in there lately, because the ucb has been the one that's been the marginal provider of the liquidity in the world. i think the fed has to get back in the game, as we said before we think is possible. you could see another round of weakness for the dollar later on. >> i was going to say, how would the dollar go higher anyway if the fed is keeping rates -- what could be argued as artificially lower anyway? >> that's true. listen, i think we're looking at negative real yields, negative real interest rates. for probably the next three or four years. i think it's going to be very, very difficult for the fed or the administration to extricate itself out of this situation. >> what about that inflation rate, though? gold is a prime example of those who are anticipating that these very, very low rates, the easy money that we've seen for the last years and will see for the next few years could lead to a higher rate of inflation.

>> i believe that. i think that's the plan, bill. because i think chairman bernanke has been the most transparent in a good way. he came in as helicopter, still helicopter, and always maintained that if you have a choice between inflation and deflation, you choose inflation. what's interesting is that draghi, there was concerns because he was italian, would be more german than italian. he's clearly very much closer intellectually to ben bernanke. he's not afraid. he's worried about having a victory over inflation where you take the gir economy with you. >> would you buy gold here? >> i would. until i see real reforms in spending, i think gold grinds higher. it pains me to say that, because i'm a stock guy, but by the same token, until you get ahold of the spending, it will continue to move higher. >> jason, always good seeing you. bob pisani, how about that yelp

today? >> i just want to be a yelp insider, is that too much to ask? >> are there any? >> $24 and change. insiders own it at $1.12. that's not a typo. that's not a misstatement. $1.12. at any rate -- >> successful ipo. as porter pointed out earlier, they only sold 10% of the company. >> you've got to admit, it's worked for a lot of these tech ipos so far. control the amount and the price holds up. we're going to eke out a very small gain on the week on the s&p 500. i'll tell you something that bugs me. the russell 2000 is down 3% this week. small cap stocks are rolling over a little bit. that means the leadership gets very narrow into the big cap stocks. we've been talking about that for a while. that's the one thing i don't like about the markets. >> thank you, my friend. see you later.