>> allen, it has been a pleasure, tremendous pleasure to have you for the past two hours. we haven't had a chance to talk about a couple of businesses that were pitched to you that you didn't take. it has to do with coffee on every corner. >> at least i admit it. >> make sure you join us tomorrow. "squawk on the street" begins right now. good monday morning. welcome to "squawk on the street." live from the new york stock exchange. global concerns taking center stage. futures are moving low. seeing red arrows across the board. markets in europe pulling back. let's get to the road map. we start with china.

back to 7.5%. we have the latest on the bank trade. banks are awaiting the results of the latest fed stress test. wells fargo is planning a major international expansion. and a golden age for gnat gas? general motors will start taking orders for pickups that will run on gas and compressed natural gas. and a big week for apple ahead of the ipad 3 launch on wednesday. apple says more than 25 billion apps have been downloaded. not bad for apple as it approaches once again its record high. we have to start with the story in china. cutting the 2012 growth target to eight year low. making boosting consumer demand this year's priority. wanting to wean off reliance.

so again we hear the transition to the domestic consumer economy away from the export economy. >> look. china is not going to be able to slow its growth for too long. one of the things people don't understand about china is you have to go back to what happened in our country between the 1830s and the 1880s which was the industrial revolution. you have western china beginning to have industry and that requires a big buildout. it requires a 14% increase in electricity. i do not think we should be fretting too much about china. i think we must be fretting about oil because oil is the thing that i think can really take us off track here. we are picking up the slack for china right now. >> so are you saying that there will be a slow down in china or there will not be a slow down in china? because you are saying we can pick up the slak. >> i think china has been very

wrong. china hasn't been a great forecaster of itself. if china declined of a half percent can be made up by the united states. >> so there is a slow down going on but we can make up for it in terms of demand. >> remember, copper 12 years ago 30% of the use was united states. 10% was china. 40% is now china and 10% is now united states mptd united states can pick up some of the slack. you see what is rolling over. all the industrials, caterpillar rolling over. free port is going over. undeniable pressure on that group. there is a decline on chinese goods. i don't want to overlook the fact that there is a great

growth story in china that the is not going to be cool whether they import or export. >> a report today says the supercycle for commodity for china is over and the demand has peaked and the shift is moving away from exports. the one thing that can keep commodity demand potentially relatively high still is a subsidized housing program that will end in 2015. that will put 26 million public housing units. that's a lot of pipes, a lot of wiring to go into these homes. >> copper is $340 worth a copper in a home. that's way too much. over the weekend we heard china is boosting the military. i feel that is a story planted by people who want to sell more

goods to the military in our country. i am cynical about this because that is proven to be right. i really want to point out once again that the chinese are not able to take their economy down too much. they don't have elections over there. they have executions over there. this party has been worried about whether they keep their heads and not whether they keep their jobs. let's not focus so much on china. i'm sick of the big calls by these brokerage houses that are based on a guy saying today is the day. >> this guy is doing this in china. he is on the ground in china and doing the channel checks. david, i don't know. >> today is the day. >> it's informational. >> you got to take it into account along with so many other things you do. by the way, getting very good sense of what really is going on in china is very, very difficult. in fact, people who have been

there for years aren't quite sure what is going on. >> who knows more than credit sweeps? when you think about china don't you think of them? not. >> j.p., morgan, what do they know about china? >> not that much. what do these guys pay versus what they used to. i come back to when you make a huge sell whether saying sell gold. the big sweeping call is a phenomenon. we don't know what is happening in china other than it is slowing. i remember when peabody energy came on my show and said we are selling -- >> i try to pick up things from talking to people who do business there and an opportunity talk to ceos who did

a lot of manufacturing there last week. these are the anecdotes i can share. one said i have pulled back 600 workers who were making a product there. it was off the record so i won't go into great detail because wages are going up about 20% a year. that could be great for when they seem focused to try to stimulate demand internally and try to create a domestic consumption economy. that has to be an issue when you look at it broadly speaking. the idea that manufacturing jobs are coming back to the united states to a certain extent appears to be true and to mexico. they say it is equal in terms of wages at this point. >> you made that call. >> the analogy with the industrial revolution tlmpt is a transition where they are developing and get rid of the

lower wage jobs. here in the united states when do we get rid of the cotton gins? there is a time in every country's development, economic development where you progress to the higher paying jobs which are typically not manufacturing jobs. i'm not saying it is right but it has happened. >> pvh is going to tell you they are going to shift it to egypt. the auto companies love to build back in mexico despite the cartel labor can go wherever the cheapest is. the vietnam economy is heated. i just don't want to decide today that the super cycle is over. these have been really terrible calls. >> there comes a time in economies where people are happy to take a $15 an hour job again right here in the united states which is one reason why manufacturing seems to be -- it is not a sweeping call at all.

>> i don't want to make a sweeping call. >> a percentage of business because he makes the big call, heavily weighted twarbds china and talking about a rather dramatic pickup in chinese orders. he has clearly not read the piece because he is selling machines. may i suggest that he reads it. so now he knows where the real business is. >> you are giving him plenty of attention. >> the guy has to be half my age which means he is rather old. >> half our age used to be young but it is not even close anymore. >> it means you have to retire from the nba. >> let's talk banks. the financial times reporting that wells fargo has drawn up plans to build up the international operations. the expansion plan involved 20 markets around the world involving uk, china, japan,

singapore all the brain child of the head of wells fargo head of operations which used to be the head of the bank's china. interesting time trying to get the banks to believe to expand international. they have indicated that j.p., morgan is not interested in making global huge acquisitions in the future. here we are with wells fargo saying let's go. >> wells fargo has a reputation for having fantastic service. i think they are ready for the same time that the european banks are not as healthy. the amount of money coming out of greece to other banks is rather staggering. wells fargo waited and waited until they saw the whites of their eyes and now they are expanding. i think they are going to take share rather quickly. they are a sales bank. they are not sitting back and waiting for the phone to ring.

they make sales. they took a huge amount of the mortgage market in the country. they are very well run and will be very well run overseas. >> interesting, too, the financial times report indicated the reason and the drive behind wells fargo is to provide corporate banking services to u.s. customers who expand abroad. they want to help the u.s. companies who are moving. >> you want to follow your customer. that has been the basic theme behind all the banks that have expanded and try to have a global foot print. the ones that succeeded, j.p., morgan, citi group. many of them started out with following the clients wherever they go. many of them cross many borders around the world. >> one of your favorite companies, yahoo preparing for the 48,000 massive restructuring.

>> i did see that. usually has a good feel on things. that's the new ceo who is trying to put his mark on this company. as i had warned people previously in terms of the hope for spins of their properties in a tax advantage way of both the stake in yahoo japan and the huge stake in ali bobba not going to happen. pay pal has come over and he is trying to put his mark on the company trying to turn it around. he is also in the early stages of a proxy fight over four board seats. unclear where that is going to go. some would say and i don't know but perhaps a settlement where he takes two seats. does he want to go all the way to the meeting and see this thing voted on. that's a company, so many different cross currents including the questions about

its core business and give what all things digitals reporting. >> i think it is amazing to me thousands of people to be laid off. what happen today yahoo that they have thousands of people to be laid off. one thing we see about facebook and about a google is they just don't have thousands of people sitting and doing nothing. how can there be dead wood for such a young company like yahoo. it's like the amazon rain forest. >> interesting that the stock is not moving premarket much. >> we want revenue growth. weep don't want tuna with good taste. we want good tasting tuna. >> the real question is whether he has the time and there is an ability to truly change the direction of this company. so much of the value is still tied up in ownership stakes and it doesn't appear as i have said and reported that they are going

to be able to spend them in a tax advantage way. the question then becomes do you do it in a way where you pay the taxes but still take in something and make it a simpler transaction. nothing seems to be going on in terms of conversations even though they are trying to talk solely to japan to see if he would do that. he wants to do transactions. >> look, the way the internet works right now is you need mobile. you need social. you need cloud. yahoo 0 for 3. >> we'll bring you the developments. we want to talk about auto makers. according toor the wall street journal general motoricize expected today that it will offer bifuel silverado and gmc sierra pickups on tuesday. one limitation, of course, is

that a natural gas, when was the last time you saw a natural gas filling station? >> this is a nice one in long beach, clean energy fuel put up hundreds of these stations. exxon has not supported this. exxon is one of the largest natural gas company and decided that is not good use for natural gas. >> why should they care? as long as somebody uses the natural gas? >> what do they pay? like $36 billion for it? exxon is always regarded as a premiere oil company. i will say this. i looked at a 4250 natural gas truck, 16 diesel, 16 times natural gas in price, if we were to build out the natural gas industry, this truck looked a lot like the other 4250s that we

have seen. it doesn't have the horsepower in natural gas. i think this is going to take the country by storm and doesn't need government subsidies. it doesn't raise price. >> $2.38. unbelievable. this could fundamentally change the country, though, what we're talking about. >> i have been saying for so long that people think i'm part of some sort of nat gas party/pajama party. the president did attend a clean gas party. i think it will be the way that we become an energy self-sufficient country, combination of oil from canada and natural gas from the united states but the government is doing it kicking and screaming. why is the post office not on natural gas. >> gm says it could save 6 to

$10,000 over three years. >> i think they will overcharge. >> you mean the trucks themselves. >> that happens with new energy sources. the initial model is expensive and the cost benefit is a little bit -- >> engines has a one year payback according to waste management's david steiner. the trash company under pressure to cut back on diesel fuels. >> we got to take a break, guys. coming up it is day number two on wall street for yelp which is indicated to open higher. we will get a unique perspective. >> suckers born every minute. it's been a month since caesar's entertainment went public. david as an exclusive interview with the ceo and president gary loveman.

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welcome back to "squawk on the street." if you look at two day charts we

have definitely touched and traded towards the top of the yield range but still in a range. ranges really going back to around thanksgiving, if not a week or so earlier. this week in particular is what many technicians are going to see if we can move out of the range in the two data points that could be the catalyst in that, our wednesday adp. eechben though the former doesn't include government hiring and firing the expectations are roughly the same, around 200,000. we have seen on the fx side the euro is coming down but at the lower end of its grades. >> rick santelli, thank you. the financial times reporting no new bank was incorporated in the u.s. last year. that hasn't happened since the 1880s. if a new bank opened in the u.s. it better offer?

fill in the blank. could be free checking to toasters to i don't know what. >> my first account in 1977. i wanted to see what else i could get. there was a time in this country where they used to bid before regulation q. >> they used to offer all sorts of things, coins and calculators. >> my entire studio 44th street. i was also the youngest person then. a good time to get a toaster. >> how can you get off to a fast start keeping up with kramer? his mad dash is coming up next. futures does look like red arrows across the board on the dow. stay tuned. choose control.

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kramer's mad dash ahead of the opening. how about high gas price snz. >> should be impacted. they are talking about stabilization in olive garden. it had been a yield pay at 42.43. ever since then people are becoming adhered to it. people come into it a little late, guys.

>> credit squeeze got it wrong on china today. >> talking about what amounts to -- i regard this as a casino supercycle. the las vegas sands, when i look at the chart i say most extended. i would take profits in that. i would use the supercycle in gambling to take profits once again. >> the irony is saying there is a super cycle over for commodity demand in china. >> if that is the case they are not going to the cow. i do like las vegas sands. i would point out that you do not buy the casino stocks if you think there is something in china. >> minutes to go before the bell rings here on wall street. another big day of trading.

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crowds gathered for the opening bell. there you go. the ceo of taser international. just on friday dealing with the big ipo. it is 24.75. >> couldn't resist. >> there is a call on zinga today. >> one of the things i love is when he holds up ad week, zinga has a real strategy. those of us who play words with friends know there are ads there. we tend to i think dismiss the ads. our eyes do see them

subliminally. it's like let's go to the lobby and have 7 up in the movie theater when they show that. starts low and then goes up versus home away. >> you like the fundamental. zinga hast week launched its own platform to try to get people to go straight to the platform. >> it was very easy. i think that zinga is a remarkable product. i remember very much here in 1998 and 1999 i would love a product but it never translated into a company. i have to see whether they can monetize the ads. if you are at a train station and you're waiting, people going home you'll hear that sound. if you don't know it that is people playing words with friends or scramble with friends. these are very compelling and addictive games. >> let's talk about apple. 25 billion apps have been

downloaded. >> and this is again 100 million ipads about to be sold. i come back to why is apple going out here. why is it going up here? it is because not only because they have an introduction of a new product but because the tablet game was won. it was won. there was a tablet -- >> you're calling it. sorry other people with tablets out there. you are lost. you are done. >> you have your ipod. the new resolution ipad i think is going to be quite exciting especially if they have 4 gnchlths. >> the expectation that apple is going to introduce a smaller tablet, that is a concession that there is demand for smaller tablets like the nook and the fire out there that apple is not addressing. it is addressing with the launch of this product. >> those companies are pioneers in the number of arrows are

legion. apple can come in and basically destroy what it has. why is apple so successful? because it is an ecosystem. when you are on apple you are on all of apple. when i went to zynga so quick to have it in my ituness. the bill arrives if i chose to pay. the concept of ecosystem pioneered by steve jobs is going to be with us for some time. there is no ecosystem on nook. hewlett-packard is an entire dead end. there is a list of companies adopting the ipad who are all corporate. hewlett-packard breaking down horbly. that stock can still go lower. >> take a look at ibm. it did hit a record high here. 199.85. >> it is not that interesting.

they have these systems for cities that are growing that basically run the management of a whole infrastructure of a city. ibm wonderful company. i like revenue growth. warren, i love you. you hate gold and favor buybacks. buybacks have really been sucker placed. other than for auto zone and perhaps ibm. >> we are going to be in $200 a share watch at 199.87. we are almost there. in terms of taking a look at the action here. not too much movement. i want to take a look one more time at home builders. >> look at caterpillar and the companies that are related to china and you know those charts were last week all bad and now you see why. i don't want to get in front of that. i don't know how youone alcoa.

these are china place. i think being up is not something you want to chase here. wait until the stock comes back. i think the hoopla is not going to extend multiple days. >> let's check in with bob. >> i'm right behind you. the bottom line is a pretty modest opening. you want to watch the material stocks because that is china getting real on their global growth. 7.5% they are talking about. whenever china starts talking about growth below 8% there is talk about a hard landing. that is where we are seeing names. those are sort of the weak players around here. i think there is a lot of reason to believe this may not be as bad as it sounds with the seven

handle. take a look at las vegas sands. about 80% of their revenues is mccalor singapore. las vegas sands is only down fractionally and they hit a four year high one or two days ago. that is sort of signaling to me that the hard landing some are fearing for china is not going to materialize as much. >> you are completely right. what we are doing is we are seeing a soft landing in china. bob, the stock is overextended. wen was up ten points and it has legal issues. i'm not going to write off china. i think you have to ratchet down a bit. >> did you hear what he said? the premier, they are all going to be out next year so there is a leadership transition. he said we are going to improve

consumetion. what happened to talk about inflation and letting down the real estate bubble? all of that talk is going to go away. >> if you are going to boost consumption you have to reduce interest rates. you are going to have to -- let's wait a week because i think the employment number is going to be okay. united states can be a driver. we think we are second-rate in this country. i think we are first-rate. i think i'm alone in that call. >> our economy is improving. expect more talk on easing and infrastructure investment over there. that's why i'm not so pe pessimistic. it's crunch time on the psi this week. thursday all private bond holders will find out how they are voting on the debt swap. they have to get above 66% and somewhere below 90%.

below 90% will trigger the collective action clauses. most people feel that is a bit incomplete. if they don't get 66% they can't enforce the deal. the whole thing tethers on 66 or 90%. i guess the question is if it is good or bad. most traders i talked to think that is part of the deal. the whole thing below 66% tethering is not built into the market. did you see what moody's said about ireland? said ireland may need a second bailout. these are the guys everyone loves in europe. their gdp is not going to grow as strongly as thought. they will be negative again. >> they are very unaware that i'm going to ireland in the first week. expanding a week just doing a gigantic a to z pub crawl.

>> pubs are closing down. there is a massive cratering in pubs. maybe you can help them out a little bit. >> four or five places i wanted to hit. it's too early. >> we have to shift to bonds and dollar. sorry, bob. rick santelli, what is up? >> it's fascinating to listen to the conversations about spain and ireland especially in the ireland part because they're talking about a vote. so it seems as though the press was a little tougher on them this weekend. if you look at the five year notes both spain and ireland even with all the press and the press in ireland you just heard. in terms of spain moody's hinting that their numbers are deteriorating. of course they are. it is just that everybody puts a good spin on various parts of the algorithms that they measure things. we do the same thing when we talk about our budget. we assume a certain rate of growth probably on the high

side. over time we go through the points they come back to hurt us a bit. you are not seeing it in the fixed income market. we are watching march 20 to see what happens with the check. bob's pointing. my fixed income world we are highly unchanged whether because the fed is on one side and the slowing of the globe is on the same side. it keeps it very difficult. a lot of corporate supply so that's in a way if all of it gets swapped out as much of it has it keeps treasuries where they are. >> we're joined by the chairman and ceo of pacific properties, the owner of office complexes. shares of hpp up. interesting mix of revenues. 70% of your revenues are from office leases and 30% approximately are from studios

which are shorter term leases. >> our studio leases are primarily on properties that we have media assets. they are television media, movies, feature films. the restsis longer term leases. >> i would imagine that the studio leases may be higher in terms of price per square foot. >> absolutely. they pay ancillary revenues which is everything you can think of when you need to produce editing facilities. >> what do you notice in terms of office market? >> mostly california is on sort of two sides of the coin. southern california is a shorter growth. rental rates have increased over 30%. we are seeing great growth. hopefully that will trickle to southern california with the media and technology that we are seeing. >> in terms of studio leases you mentioned a lot of major tv

networks rent them out for season to season. are you getting interest from online content provider snz. >> absolutely. what we have seen is a huge shift in media. what was your majors was primarily focusing on development and growth. started with hbo and show time and now to youtube and google. it has been great. >> you are the ceo of another company which you sold. this is a $500 million market. are you open to potentially selling this company? >> i think the opportunity now is for us to grow this vehicle. there is great opportunity in california and all of the pacific northwest. we are going to be growing this vehicle going forward. >> sounds like no. >> exactly. >> victor coleman, the ceo of hpp. today noting no other bank was incorporated in the u.s. that hasn't happened since the

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president obama meets with the israeli president and that is what is winning out in terms of rent prices. we have seen weaker prices in energy but they have bounced back. we have seen a turn around on the dollar. gasoline and heating oil a little bit of pressure because we have a pipeline in illinois which was damaged over the weekend after a deadly car accident. one of them has been returned to production. and the spokesperson tells us that tomorrow we'll have one of them back and by thursday morning the third will be back but that represents about 320,000 barrels a day of oil that is pushed through those pipelines in illinois from canada. for the moment a little bit of tightness there. back to you guys. >> time now for "squawk on the

tweet". this morning we are asking you if a new bank is open in the u.s. it better offer? you fill in the blank. michael tweets free umbrellas to protect from falling closed banks signs. john tweets maybe when the economy is better. we don't need another bailout. jessica tweets sale of apple with deposit. i wonder how much a bank spends. we give you a share of apple. they give you whatever it is trading that day, two shares of ibm. >> i think they would be crushed. ing i think is the way of the future. i think a lot of people like online banking. i would say if you open a bank account which costs less to service, we will pay you the fee that we would pay someone offline.

>> that's a good one. online banks are still low but have a higher savings rate. >> i think ing -- ing is hot. it has traded up week and week. ing online spent a fortune doing capit capital one's work. >> we mentioned before ibm around the $200 share mark. $200.84. >> they keep hitting the numbers. this is about earnings per share and putting a multiple on a $15 number. this stock is not done going up. let's focus on the fact that hewlett-packard is a consulting company. all their businesses up for grabs. hewlett-packard is the gift that keeps on giving to everybody else.

johnson & johnson was really helped. there are ceos who do unbelievable work for other companies at their company. ceo of hewlett-packard, greatest american company. >> that's how apple and ibm and microsoft. >> 120 billion revenues up for grabs. >> remember the apple jobs multiplier that came out on friday, imagine if somebody figured out the hewlett-packard jobs multiplier, how many jobs hewlett-packard helped create. >> hewlett-packard is troubled. the desktop is troubled. tech data is a good pressure of peripherals. the peripherals are on fire in europe. mostly norway and netherlands and germany. i come back to this is a little bit 0 sum here. hewlett losing, apple winning.

watch s.a.p. they are doing well.

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a look at what is coming up in the next big hour of "squawk on the street." >> good morning to you. david is going to pull out his first exclusive of the week, the ceo of caesar's entertainment is here. a big call. he thinks stocks are going to rise 24% from here. 1700 on the s&p 500. and we are going to talk about luxury talks and how you can profit there. back to you. time for six in 60. six stocks in 60 seconds. lockheed martin. the nurm creasing the price target.

>> 30% dividend last year. they can't stop this fight with express scripts. i would tell you it is all olive garden driven. >> pier one. >> the website should go live this summer. this company, it is a remarkable turn around. >> leak wireless. >> they need more capital. >> strong sales nike. underarmer a tech stock. these companies are remarkable innovators. when you think about technology you shouldn't just be thinking about what people think about what it comes to peripherals or

information technology. there is a lot of companies including under armour and nike. i like these stocks. >> for more on these stocks go to the website. very little market action in terms of china reaction. there is not reaction there. >> watch the jjc. copper trying to rally last week. i know that the inventories are really way, way -- there is a less copper. the demand will outstrip the supply because the supply is too hard to get. >> one of the biggest losers in the s&p 500 we showed you before is free port mcmoran.

3%. >> a nice basis. can it come down? it is very share friendly. keep in mind the fact that it is just impossible, hard to find copper. the mine that free port has has been a great servicer of the chinese market. let the stock come in. there is no hurry to own the stock. tech data has the greatest polls of how technology is doing world wide. let's listen to see how good or bad technology is going into the summer weakness. don't go anywhere. ism services data will be out. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 let's talk about how some companies like to get between ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 you and your money. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 at charles schwab, we believe your money should be available ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 to you whenever and wherever you want.

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we have february nonmanufacturing service sector coming in at 57.3. if you look at prices paid it moved higher at 68.4.

let's regresz in terms of time and look at january factory orders. we were looking to closer to down 1.5%. even though it is a negative it beat expectations. last month up 1.1 originally reported now up 1.4. down 1% for january. we see equities improve. they are less negative. interest rates ticked up. the 30 year from 3.10. back to you. let's get to the road map for the next hour "squawk on the street." making a bold call saying the s&p 500 has much more room to run and could hit 1700 sometime this year. we'll be talking to birinyi. showing initial strength in the high retail end in particular. the pain at the pump pinching

consumers. is the luxury boom heading for a crash? >> and viva las vegas. we have an interview with gary loveman on the back of casino operator's public debut. oil prices join this week on supply shortages. how long can crude prices trade on middle eastern politics. netanyahu and the president meeting. we will bring it to you. >> bp shares reaching the highest level in over a year after the oil giant announce tornado has reached a $7.8 billion settlement with victims of the gulf oil spill. cotton futures jumping earlier this morning. yahoo announcing this

morning a massive restructuring of its business. thousands of employees could be laid off according to all things digital. clearly the main interest there will still be the assets that they have in asia. >> it is interesting to see that the stock hasn't really reacted too much to the news of a massive restructuring. this is the new ceo's first major effort to bring structure to the company. this is cutting of thousands of people is not the way this company is going to survive, though. >> i mean, thompson is setting his own agenda. he is putting his mark on yahoo. it remains to be seen what his overall plan is going to be. certainly it appears there are a lot of people he feels can be cut. cutting costs is always something embarked on by so many ceos who take over. >> not growth stocks. it hammers home the message. >> yahoo has not been in growth

mode for some time. that's a fair statement tlmpt are plenty of investor whose will embrace some ort of plan that they think has a chance of getting it to growth. that will require a significant change in strategy. we know that. you mentioned so much of the value at least from the perspective of many investors is tide uch tied up in the separate state. no new talks have taken place at this point that i'm aware of. appears thompson want today have his mandate in a sense on how that progressed and how it was done and it caused the whole thing to kind of collapse right now. he is also in a proxy fight with dan lobe who is seeking four board seats. >> did we get an idea of what

private account plequity player have done? >> i'm not sure there was a grand plan on the part of private equity. they saw a chance to get somebody to trim and turn around. i wouldn't say any of them embraced some sort of secret plan that was going to be pursued. >> yahoo shares up by about 3 quarters of a percent. >> saying s&p 500 could go above 1700 by year end. the president of birnyi associates. you actually compare this market rally that we are in to '82 and

'90. what do you similarly to those periods? >> markets got off to a very strong start. so far there has been nothing better to gauge the market since '09 than historical. at this point both '82 and '90 the market did very well. we were especially intrigued to '94 when we had s&p 500 which did very little. in 1985 the sun census was that the stock market wasn't going to do anything and the bond market would do worse. interest rapts went down and everybody felt they made the wrong bet and the market went up 35%. this year the bet is that the gdp is 2 #.5%. i look at the mark skptet and i

stocks at 24 and 30% it makes me question maybe the market is saying about a good economy. i think we can again have a mirror of 1995 where market surprises everybody. >> you had mentioned a few stocks for us, microsoft had tremendous runs so far. should we see this rise, in what form will we see the rise? certain stocks like a microsoft or ibm and apple? or will it be the kind of market rally that will lift all? >> i think we could do very well with stocks which focus on the high correlations. we found in the fourth quarter for example while the s&p 500 was up 10% almost 20% of stocks doubled the return of the 500.

i think it's going to be a lot of the same names. even apple after is trading at a discount. ibm broke 200 today. it's just the possibility that no one has considered which is a better economy which is what i think some of these stocks are telling us. >> but in essence -- it's very exciting to say we can rise 24% from here. that's really an exciting thing to say. but to base on it pattern matching would leave a lot of people -- let's look for example, at the fact that we have massive deleveraging around the world and pumping massive amounts of liquiddity in, doesn't that give you pause for thought when you pattern match back to the 1980s?

>> not really because the strength i see is around the world. people still worried about europe but it is up 17 and 18%. again, i'm an old market guy and when i see what is going on in the market. remember as i have often said the negative case is always more reasonable because we see it. market is looking ahead. i contend that a lot of stocks are telling us there is a possibility. i think it is a fairly good possibility that something positive is going to develop and market has already surprised us in so many ways. >> how have these stocks doubled in the last three years? >> i don't think so. i think the other part of the stock market equation which i find intriguing here is what is not happening, dogs that rpant

barking. last october and november the conventionalest whose buy the defensive stocks, they have fallen off the chart. proctor & gamble, coca-cola down this year. this isn't just people coming into the market willy-nilly. i think the market is giving really good suggestions that perhaps we are under estimating the economy. and i think not insisting on that number but i am suggesting that you don't take that off the table. you don't disregard the possibility of something good happening. and that you leave that door open. that is what we are trying to suggest. >> thanks so much for your time. we do appreciate it. making a bullish call for s&p. the course of his note he talks about being cautious of ets because they don't necessarily track indexes. the xlk that tracks technology has under performed the actual

index because it includes things like verizon and at&t. >> let's hope the call is right. last week same store sales numbers requested the high end retail rally has more room to run. we are going to break down the luxury boom in two minutes.

stocks to watch. wendy's added to the short term sale list. big lots getting an update to a buy. the price target at 53 bucks a share. pandora, the price target $18 trading at 14.50. the midwest getting pommelled by the deadly storms as tornadoes ripped through. let's take a look at the impact now on insurance stocks. mary thompson has more on that story. >> good morning to you. it is too soon to estimate the damage from the weekend's tornadoes that cut across the south and midwest. what we do know is that so far tornado activity started earlier this year and as of march 1 is

running about 33% above the average activity levels for the last six years, all of this according to the risk modeler, a number that spiked after friday and saturday's storms thmpt weather channel's preliminary count puts 80 tornadoes touching down. the twisters coming on top of the 122 tornadoes counted as of march 1. the tornadoes impacted 17 million people but this morning having little impact on insurance stocks even though the firms could face the trend. insured losses from tornadoes and thunderstorms came close to $10 billion. that number repeated in 2009 and 2010 before spiking to a record $25.8 billion in 2011 when tornadoes levelled joplin, missouri. increasingly tornadoes are causing big one time hits for insurers. before 1994 only one cluster

storms causing more than a billion dollars in damages. since then there have been more than 11 of these types of events. with tornado season from march to may in the south and late spring to summer in the north the storms has the insurance industry bracing for a costly spring. let's talk that violent midwest weather and the latest is the weather channel's mike bets. >> good morning to you. the unfortunate news this morning is that three inches of fresh snow has blanketed places like west liberty kentucky. this is a place where a tornado touched down. this tornado was a mile wide and came right through the middle of town. there was not one building left untouched by this. now the task begins with restoring power. they have been at it for three days now. that gives you the scope of how devastating this tornado was and how hard a task it is going to

be to clean up. crews up and down the streets here along main street. we have water tanks, gas trucks, you name it it is coming to assist. for so many people this has been a devastating hit. 3600 different buildings damaged by this tornado including the courthouse. you can see it is significant damage right now. no one will be operating in this building. the fire house, the police station, churches, banks have all been hit. we are told they hope to have power restored maybe as late as today. that may be the one bit of good news they have had in this town in the last few days. caesar's making its debut. what's the read on las vegas 2012 gaming now? interview with gary loveman ahead on "squawk on the street."

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a quick check as we are just about an hour into trading. consumer staples leading as the worst performing sector. take a look at caterpillar shares here trading lower in today's session. free port mcmoran hit a little hard. >> let's talk about the high end retail trade.

we are going inside the luxury boom today. a look at the high end retailers that i guess you can say struck gold recently. >> that's right. since the end of the financial crisis in 2009 big spenders are on a high end shopping spree setting the luxury world on fire. stocks have really soared. up more than 150% in less than three years. american retailer, coach, also posted staggering growth. its stock price up more than 420%. and saks moved up more than 444%. >> unbelievable numbers. phenomenal growth and demand continues to grow for super luxury cars.

which company is cashing in on the man bag here in the u.s. and abroad. >> he likes a good conversation about man bags. >> he has extensive knowledge of the man bag category. >> the luxury boom. >> 9:00 p.m. an original. lots and lots of content talking about the new big spenders. lots of interesting nuggets. >> who else to do it with but you, courtney. >> let's go to ceo and chief research officer to talk more about this end of the market. where do we go moving forward after the huge gains over the last three years? is it sustainable particularly on a day when we are talking about chinese growth slowing? >> yes, you do have tougher comparisons coming in 2012 than 2011. certainly we did have a little bit of volatility in 2011

particularly in the back half. it feels like setting up for 2012 is a little bit more stability. you certainly have in the u.s. inflation easing. stock markets doing well. in europe it seems like the greatest fears overall have been told. and it is asia that is the next for the luxury players. >> even though hearing about china slowing the tradition to the domestic chinese consumer can keep the demand going. i am thinking about this article saying tiffany shares could reach because even though most stores are outside the united states that's exactly why you want it. at the same time you were mentioning the luxury retailers are going to benefit from the fact that the united states is improving. >> also the growth for them is overseas. so the growth definitely is asia. i think the slowing of china has been talked about. it has been expected and baked into some stock prices.

>> i think that is very important. if you look at the suggestion that tiffany's could reach $70. it is basically 67 and change. i think it is dangerous when you hear people talk about demographics, huge booms particularly after you have had this sort of gains in the stock. how do you know how much is already factored into what we are? what is the next propellant than the same argument coming out? what is the next derivative? >> what is happening overall is certainly you have more people being able to buy. you have tiffany having a wider price point. you have new product entries like new metals just introduced this past week given the 175th birthday. it is about geography. with watches and jewelry you

will see newness. >> it is about who is going to return to eat their lunch in china. i think it is hard to know who is likely to eat their lunch over there. i don't think investors have enough information on that. >> the american investor may not be aware of huge jewellers in china that sell lots and lots of jewelry in the streets of hong kong. like starbucks here in the united states in terms of the number of locations. >> the bulk of the businesses are not solely from china yet. you have to put it in perspective as to what the opportunity is on the top line or bottom line. margins are improving as these companies get their sales from stores and online. there is a wider customer base. tiffany had a tough holiday season. for all the luxury goods companyatize is the drive of the product that allows them to keep moving. >> since we are talking about

luxury let's remind you again that tonight you can catch luxury boom, the new big spenders with courtney reagan on cnbc at 9:00 eastern. crude oil has had a violent run. we have the trade here amid the latest moves in the energy market in just a moment. how did we do it last time? i don't know... i forget.

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10:30 here on wall street. nonmanufacturing index rising a half point in february to 57.3. shares of ibm hit a new all time high surpassing the $200 mark. cigna announcing the ceo received $19 million in compensation last year. china is downgrading its growth estimate to below 8%. materials really taking it on the chin so far today.

let's look at the breadth of the move. it is relatively broad based. >> three to one. slightly different than what we normally have. we usually don't have those things in the bottom in parenthesis. this is a completely different chart. >> and at the nasdaq two to one. >> it is different. >> you are looking at hd outpresideoutput today. >> it's different. decliners of the nasdaq by about two to one. >> let's get more insight on how crude oil climbs and whether we can see a considerable pullback. let's bring in kyle cooper director of research. we have had a big rally here. what is your thinking moving forward? >> certainly last couple of weeks predicated on the

situation in iran and fears that there could be disruption there. the u.s. economic data could look upbeat. it is certainly soring. >> do you think that the risks are to the upside or the down side. on the one hand with netanyahu meeting president obama and the fact that we have the employment report out in the united states on friday. >> clearly any type of situation in the middle east involving iran would have prices spike most likely in the 1.25 range. world markets are at the 1.25 level. markers here in the u.s. along the gulf coast. i think there will be relaxation. despite positive economic data u.s. petroleum demand very poor. 18 million barrels reported last week, petroleum demand hasn't

been this low in the u.s. since thep late '90s. if you are bullish on petroleum you have to look to china or brazil for the demand growth because it is not apparent in the u.s. or europe. >> $3.72 a gallon is clearly a political event. something the white house doesn't want. if you are in charge of the strategic petroleum reserve what theory would you employ to keep prices down? how would you play that? >> the strategic petroleum reserve was not intended as a price manipulation tool. it becomes a political issue. right now the u.s. has some of the highest refinery capacity that they have ever listed and the units here in the u.s. are running very efficiently. u.s. refining systems spent billions of dollars a few years

ago to upgrade their units to make gasoline. the u.s. has added exporter to other world markets. do you want to have the u.s. put up trade tariffs and not be a really proponent of capital free markets or do you want it to be a protection? >> can i ask you a question? if demand is so low why are prices that high? is this truly a political issue of demand for gasoline in the united states? >> it is clearly a world market. it's a world market. we are exporting over 600,000 barrels a day of refined gasoline to other parts of the world. the u.s. manufacturer is one of the premier locations for energy intensive manufacturing, that being petroleum, petrochemicals

and everything else. the u.s. made billions of dollars in investments. they are taking in crude from other places, refining it and making a product that the whole world wants. it comes down to a situation while demand here is very, very poor, across the world it is very strong. and we are supplying the world with gasoline and diesel fuel. >> thank you very much. have a great week. >> i'm sorry. in all of those political discussions about high gas prices the fact that the u.s. exports tremendous amounts of gasoline has not come up. >> i think increasingly it will. after the break an exclusive interview with caesar's chairman and ceo, gary loveman. [ male announcer ] how do you trade? with scottrader streaming quotes, any way you want. fully customize it for your trading process -- from thought to trade, on every screen.

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in with david. >> we are going to do a quick couple of things here and move on to an interview. a few things. leap wireless not a particularly large company, had been a much larger wireless company. interesting to note that chairman has registered to sell 23.5 million shares about 29.72% of all shares outstanding. he is the chairman of the company and has not sold previously. that is a lot of stock. the s-3 was filed late friday if you missed it. let's take a look at leap shares because they are down. about 8.5%. not sure why he is selling. haven't had a chance to speak with him but certainly worth noting. he has done quite well in the holdings of lions gate which melissa can tell you more about. want to move on to one of the few contested situations and that is the all cash bid for alum nu.

a record hearing has been set. it means it is going to hold the annual meeting between now and 60 days from march 8. as well given settlement you are stuck with the composition of share holder base you have right now. how many long ones? you have two large share holders. roche has to figure out the strategy here between now and the annual meeting. they have been spending a lot of time talking and have had a large forum. they at least have a good sense as to what people will accept to try to get more than 50% of the votes so they can take four board seats when that annual meeting happens. just want to update people on that. let's move on now to more important business, if you will. caesar's entertainment, the very large and largely domestic

gametic company went public last month with a decidedly small offering of stock. it is 1.4 shares. there may be more shares of that strading and more to come. gary loveman is the long time ceo of caesars having guided it through the $90 a share in '96 and the debt laden years. debt, debt, debt. first time since the company went public for you to speak publicly. let's talk about that. 1.4% is a small amount of stock to send to the market. why did you do it and are there more shares right now? >> there are probably more shares out there now. we don't know how many and which have begun to sell. imagine you have a very large company that carries a

substantial debt load. the problem we face is one of getting the capital structure better suited. we have more debt than we would like to have and too little equity below it. there is not a lot of precedent for very large companies of this sort doing very large ipos. >> you tried to do an ipo a little more than a year ago and ultimately did not move. >> really for that reason. if you look back add companies that carry this leverage of our scale traditional ipos may not be the way to go. instead we ask our existing co investors who owned about 47% of the equity if they wanted the right to register their shares and sell them if they chose to do so. we charged a commission to them for the right to register and make their shares liquid. that commission generated the small number of shares that were ultimately sold. that is where the modest amount

of equity was from. the share price that is not yet where we like it to be for a larger sale of equities. that is the story behind the effort. >> another story is the idea that now you have a public currency, a very small float it does put you in a position to exchange more equity for your existing debt. is that part of your strategy for that capital structure you mentioned? >> it certainly is over time. imagine there is debt that sells at less than par you are selling new equity at a price equal to the posted price divided by the value of debt. so you wind up moving from debt into equity at an attractive price. over a period of time that is something we consider. >> your bonds have moved up, though. i am curious, does that prevent you from being as aggressive as you might have hoped in terms of taking down some of that debt? >> as the bonds trade up the

value available to us through that process is mitigated a bit. there is still quite a lot of tunlt. >> you spend an enormous amount of time looking at that structure. you managed to manage it. i still look, you still have 3 billion in debt maturing 2015. another 5 billion at the prop co. it is still front and center you. >> sure it is and we attack it every day. we cut five billion off the debt stack. we extended the maturities of the debt. the vast majority is now substantially beyond that. we continue to work at it all the time. it is slaernly front and center but also quite manageable, now. >> vegas seem today look a bit better. atlantic city not so much. give us a sense as to what you are seeing given so much of your business is obviously here in

the u.s. >> it's encouraging starting with vegas which is in the midst of a nice recovery driven by all facets of the business, the recovery of the business which we can predict now. strong activity in all the other forms of revenue. atlantic city has been the victim of a tremendous increase in competition. stability is a goal in atlantic city. nobody is expecting a heroic result there. we did result improvements. >> trips were down, i believe, but spending was up certainly when it comes to vegas. is the turn around really in place there? >> it certainly. we are seeing very substantial improvements in cash flows as are our competitors in las vegas. >> room rate was about $90 up 7%. >> the demand that comes first from the convention and meeting business allows better pricing.

>> you also have project renewal in place which is a nice way of saying you are cutting expenses. >> it is really asking if there is a new model? >> is there a new model? >> new to us and not new to the history of american business but the notion to have a much more effective core operating system that allows a much more stelt cost structure. we can take planning and analysis and the management of our charter airplane program and have them run economically through the center and have much less burden of cost on the operating business. this isn't just fewer people at the hotel front desk or fewer people parking your car. >> you said we didn't want to dilute share holders at a price we didn't feel was reflective of the value we want to have. what price is that at a stock that moved up? >> higher.

>> higher. and how are you feeling? you have run this company for a long time. you took it private. i could assume perhaps vast riches were part of the plan. that typically is the case. that has not been the case. are you tired? exhausted? had enough in terms of dealing with a company laden with debt? >> if you looked at the way in which our various derivatives occurred a lot of people thought it might be true. when you compare to other companies many hit that. we are pleased with where the company has come. the casino industry has seen equity values take a substantial tradeoff. sure it has been tiring. nobody wants to get up and try to handle these sorts of challenges. i'm pleased with the fact that the company has a big growth agenda. we are hopening a casino in cleveland. we have one in cincinnati and

big opportunities in baltimore and boston. this online category, i think we are right on the edge of that. >> we are going to have to talk about that at a future time. as always appreciate it. gary loveman, ceo of caesar's. on the eve of super tuesday some big guns are booking on. moments ago from speaking with mitt romney. good morning. >> good morning, simon. we talked some about the economy and i think i have some tape. let's just run that tape and take a listen. >> we sure hope the kplae gets better but this has been the slowest recovery since hoover. this president has failed us. it has taken much longer for this economy to reboot. 8% is not the new normal.

this president has a long way to go. >> one of the things i was asking him is this new conventional in washington that because the economy has improved the election is already over and obama's going to defeat romney or whoever he runs against. obviously governor romney does not agree with that and made the case today why he should be president. >> thank you very much. we are going to get the full interview later. larry's complete interview will be tonight at 7:00 p.m. eastern. thank you very much. straight ahead this morning still hanging out in russia on the back of putin's victory last night. we'll talk also the social media on the back of zynga's big run. us but first rick santelli. >> we want to continue to monitor what everybody is talking about today, china. shaving a little bit of growth

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vladimir putin preparing to preoccupy the kremlin after a big presidential election victory. steve liesman in moscow with more. certainly there are a lot of people disputing the results of this election. >> absolutely, melissa. in one of the strange things about this country, the russians voted yesterday, but they're demonstrating today. the streets of moscow alive with demonstrations right now at this hour. a couple hundred yards away from us is a pro putin rally. a massive stage with what we're told are some demonstrators out there waving russian flags of putin. and people screaming "putin russia" almost a hark back to soviet times. up the road from there is a much quieter rally. they apparently don't have a stage or a loudspeaker system of

anti-putin protesters. hard to gauge the number of people. but they're about half a kilometer apart. and then of course, there's a massive police presence here in downtown moscow. there are trucks full of soldiers, everything so far is peaceful. they've cut off red square earlier today. we saw a phalanx of militiamen go by us. all of this comes after yesterday's poll, where putin won 63% of the poll in disputed elections. the communist candidate got 17%. and prokorov, the owner of the new jersey nets, got around 7% or 8%. yetd yesterday at a polling station they had web cams to try to avoid fraud. and we talked to a pro putin supporter who is not hard to find. >> translator:

>> okay, and the russian stock market likes the idea that putin won the election. it was up 1.5%. melissa, back to you. >> thank you very much, steve liesman, these are seven-month highs for russian stocks. it seems that putin will continue with a pledge to continue to privatize stayed-owned companies. >> tweet time here on "squawk on the street." no new banks were incorporated here in the united states last year. we're asking you guys to fill in the bank. if a new bank were opened in the u.s., it better off black? our handle, @cnbc@sd.

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time for squawk on the tweet. the ft reporting that no new bank was incorporated in the u.s. last year. that hasn't happened since the early 1980s. this morning we're asking you if a new bank is opened in the u.s., it better offer blank. so devour tweets to us, it better offer free lottery tickets, so at least there's a chance for a 1% yield. darrell tweets it should be apple that opens the new bank. the next big thing. can you imagine the i-bank? and timmy tweets, decent cash

back, 5% or more if you want my money in the bank, pay me for it. that's a good point. because rates are so low. it almost gives you nothing. >> and the fed doesn't care, according to what we had at the end of last week. you mentioned apple. >> apple is trading lower right now but obviously there's news about the 25 billionth download that happened over the weekend. brian marshall over at isi sending this note this morning, if you calculate it, there has been an average of 37 million annapolis downloaded per day since 1-22-11. >> 37 million a day? >> a day since january 22, 2011. >> and wednesday that they launch the ipad 3? >> it is on wednesday. >> what's the cutting edge thought? >> the cutting edge in terms of what it offers. >> it's got a quad core processor, siri, all of these new things, more powerful

graphics, chips, for gaming, video. >> do we think they'll relaunch the ipad ii as a lower cost model? >> they've cut the price, the prices have been coming down alrea already. on wednesday, in the meantime, markets lower across the board this monday morning. >> here's what you might have missed, good morning. >> welcome to hour three of "squawk on the street." here's what's happening so far. >> i want the united states to become the leading manufacturing country in the world and i want our economy to become the most rebust, the most job-creating, the most energy independent in the world. and i think that my tax plan carries you much further. >> we want to make sure we're the place for ipos, for venture capital, we are the place for entrepreneurialism. that's what we're about in terms of doing what we're doing in the house. that's what mitt romney's plan

is about. >> if we get another policy supplies, i think it raises the possibility of another material valley in the s&p. >> i do think that what i'm saying is that a china decline of .5% can be made up by the united states, as long as oil calms down. if oil doesn't calm down, then we can't make it up. >> there's a look at scott thompson, ebay has try to come over put his mark on this company, trying to turn it around. >> the way the internet works is you need mobile. you need social. you need clout. yahoo, 0-3. >> crowd gathering for the opening bell. there you go. >> we have february ism, nonmanufacturing service sector. much better than expected. coming in at 57.3. good monday morning, welcome to the third hour of "squawk on

the street." let's get you caught up on the markets, where they stand now. we've got red arrows across the board, the dow is at 12,916, down about .5%. so is the s&p 500 at 1362 and the nasdaq is down by 16, at 2959. we're watching gold also extending losses today. briefly falling below $1700 annous. also got lots of new highs, despite the market losses, tjx, the parent of tj maxx, nike, chipotle all trading higher. and there's one dow component making that list, and that's ibm, trading at $200 a share. >> the road map for the next 60 minutes, pandora on the rise, versus zynga, find out which internet ipo is the best one now for your money. plus, apple hits yet another milestone. the company boasting 25 billion app downloads to date ahead of its highly-anticipated event in

new york on wednesday. find out how soon you could see apple hit 600 according to insiders. and with less than half an hour away from the european close, we'll talk to a top global economist about what's next for markets overseas and what it means to markets here in the united states. then, real estate is a million-dollar market in new york. if not more. million dollar listing will be here with an inside look at the high-stakes world of luxury properties. all of that and more coming up in the third hour of "squawk on the street" this monday morning. >> we're joking before, how a million dollar listing is like a one-bedroom here in new york. sadly. >> you can cross the river and you'll get two bedrooms. >> let's start with squawk on the beat this morning. it's a day before super tuesday, a new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll shows the heavily combative primary season may have damaged the republican party and its candidates, john harwood is here with more.

>> great to see the set, this is awesome. >> we're glad you think so. >> we think it's pretty cool. >> look, this is a good news/bad news poll for mitt romney before super tuesday. he's got a national lead over rick santorum, 38-32. he had been trailing santorum after santorum's breakthrough victories a couple of weeks ago. but on the other hand he's looking at barack obama, the president, who as the economy improves, is now up to 50% in his job approval rating. that's a critical number for a president seeking re-election. and in a head-to-head matchup with mitt romney, he's leading 50-44. a solid advantage, the best advantage that the president has had against romney in some time. but romney is not too focused on the general at this moment. he's got these ten states to worry about tomorrow. he's got a couple of slam-dunks in massachusetts where he served as governor. in virginia, where rick santorum and newt gingrich didn't even get on the ballot. the real state to watch is the state of ohio. where rick santorum has had a

lead, it's been eroding and what mitt romney hopes to do is come from behind, beat rick santorum in ohio, the same way he did in michigan, his native state. if he can do that, he is rolling towards this nomination. >> on that broader point. for as long as this battle is as fierce as it is. he has to -- mitt romney has to appeal to the conservative base as best he can. and therefore, he can't turn to the general population, can he? that lead from obama becomes potentially more sustainable moving forward. or the fear for them would be. >> that's why ohio is so important tomorrow. if mitt romney can win that state, he begins sort of turning the lights out on this race. the race will go on for some time. but people will, will increasingly accept his inevitability as the republican nominee. that will make it easier, give him more latitude. because you're right, simon, as we've seen, as the contest has gone on, and it has involved an intensifying competition for votes on the right, it has alienated votes in the center,

among independents, mitt romney has a negative rating right now. republicans have a negative rating, that's a big problem. >> at the same time, in terms of you know, basically obama is running against himself. that sort of notion. historically, what has been the precedent in terms of a sitting president with an improving economy? i would think that historically, that president will win. >> yes, that is it. that is the perfect scenario for a president, when it's really robust, like it was for ronald reagan in '84, you win big. when it's just beginning to turn the corner and getting better for bill clinton, in 1996, you win, but not much of a margin. what the president has to hope, that the situation in iran doesn't blow up in a way that derails this recovery, that slows down the recovery and the job market 678 if he can do that, he can play from the high point of the field. >> just on that subject, does the white house feel they've got benjamin netanyahu and israel under control? or is that a major wild card for them? >> i think it's still a wild

card. the president tried yesterday to make clear that there isn't as much daylight between the united states and israel, which is a national security issue. it's also a political issue. republicans have been trying to exploit that. but he still has to persuade israel, persuade the rest of the world that he's making a credible threat to leave military action on the table without perpetuating what he called yesterday, loose talk about war. >> all right. john, thanks so much for stopping by, we appreciate it. >> enjoy the coverage. >>le it be fun. >> you can tune in tomorrow for cnbc's special coverage of super tuesday, starting at 8:00 p.m. with john harwood and our own maria bartiromo. let's get to the cme group. rick santelli has the "santelli exchange." over to you, rick. >> thank you, simon. in november, a lot of the traders down here i like to talk to were talking about the once every five-year or ten-year, master plan in china that

changes. we see all the changes. today we learned a bit more. with regard to gdp, .5% getting shaved off towards the 7.5 versus 8%. easing some price rules. lots of changes. well, look at the u.s. when you talk to many traders that are trading fixed income or equities, what you always hear when you ask them where the market is going is, well, you know, we're unsure of regulation, we're unsure of obama care. now add china in terms of are they accurate with some of these numbers, will it make a difference? if there is slowing in china, 1.3 billion people, the leadership needs to take care of those individuals. social unrest is always at the peripheral of any decisions made in china. but when the top growth engine gets cut back a bit, things start to filter down. so put it as another question mark in the uncertainty box. also, with regard to greece. there's been four stories in the last hour about the collective action clause. which means if we don't go for this orderly default, there is a plan b, albeit, just think p

some of the ramifications for haircuts with the ecb alone and how much actual horsepower they have on their balance sheet to eat those larger losses. so this is probably more of a marketing tool to get everybody to fall in line. just like when ireland last week announced it wanted to take a referendum and all of a sudden there's stories and many of the european papers that if they vote the wrong way of course, there may be no bailout money in the future. and last but not least. all of those funnel down to jobs, jobs this week. we know that there used to be a time where the u.s. was top of the mountain. now when other countries get the sniffles like china, it's going to make a difference. we're expecting 200,000 on both adp and the bos. but the real issue will be, is there going to be more people employed than there was last year, two years ago, five years ago. the market is getting smart and it digs down deep on many of these data points. back to you. >> and goldman's jim o'neal on "squawk box" this morning suggesting another blowout on friday could give us another leg

up on the equity markets. a major move as people perhaps reassess their doubts about the american economy. >> i agree, simon. and i think you know, any improvement, just like today's ism, best in a year, there are bright spots, we want to make sure that the eraser of uncertainty doesn't take them off the chalkboard. >> thank you very much, rick, we'll come back to you in chicago in a few minutes' time. let's focus on the internet ipo fever, yelp, after a strong start, surging 50% in its first day of trading friday. zynga has been on a great run since going public in december. so can we expect the same from facebook when it makes its big debut this spring? michael pacter is managing director of equity research at webb bush securities, good morning to you, michael. >> good morning, simon. thanks for having me. >> have you been swept up in this ipo fever? >> yes, i think that the hype is actually pretty real. i think people are really interested in the power of social media. they're seeing that there's just

a lot of value to be unlocked with you know, business models like yelp. facebook a much more robust business model. a lot more users and they monetize them. people interested in facebook right now, we're doing lot of business in the private shares group. >> on the subject of yelp. should they be interested in a billion and a half in market capitalization? does that represent value for a company that doesn't actually make any profits? >> yeah. it's 20 times revenues. so that's making a really bold bet that they're going to grow revenue really fast. and they're going to monetize it even faster. you know, turning profits even faster. i think it's a ahead of itself. i can see these guys generating a lot more revenue, because they've just scratched the surface of advertisers, but it's hard to see if they're going to get profitable until we see if they can do what they say they're going to do, cut down marketing as a percentage of revenue. >> what makes you the most skeptical, michael about the yelp story? the competitors, the vast number of competitors, it seems a very

low barrier to entry sort of business. i don't use yelp, what would i know. >> i don't agree. i think that delivering deals, the groupon model is a low-barrier entry. yelp has 66 million users that show up every month and rate something. that's a lot of people. that's a big customer list. the only guys who are close to that are facebook and amazon and neither is trying to angle. i could see facebook competing, i don't see amazon competing. you have 66 million people showing up, that's a competitive mode. i think yelp is okay. the question is can they monetize. and the number that jumps out to me is 24,000 businesses have paid money to yelp. that's not very many out of 27 million that have rated. so potential, but not there yet. hard to tell when it's going to be there. >> i wants to talk about zynga, down by 5% on the jp morgan downgrade. they say it's overvalued, you stick with your outperform rating on the stock. they just launched a new platform. the assumption is that this will

attract new nonfacebook sort of users to zynga. to game. do you have any sort of kwaent tative analysis as to how many people out there don't use facebook and how many more customers they will get just through this new zynga platform? >> that number is easy, six billion don't use facebook. so the opportunity is pretty great. i think the bigger opportunity is, if you remember back to about a year and a half ago when facebook changed the rules. people used to spam you all the time when they played zynga games, you would constantly be getting asked for stuff. so zynga changed the rules so you had to opt into that instead of opting out. i still have a problem, i'm probably the only cellside analyst that regularly plays zynga games. my wife has monitored my zynga game play and is constantly posting on my wall. i would prefer to play zynga games and not have my wife know about it. but i can't block her as a facebook friend. for me, if i move onto the zynga.com platform, not only am i going to isolate my activity

to people who actually want to play games, but i can bring in people who don't want to deal with facebook. and that's a big audience, there are a lot of older people. >> which becomes more important, if you talk about zynga accessing gambling. the gambling platforms online. we're going to leave it there, michael, thank you very much for joining us, regards to your wife. >> can you imagine your spouse monitoring everything you did. >> that's one reason i don't have one. to be honest. too easy. >> straight ahead, apple boasting billions of app downloads, now claiming it's creating millions of jobs, we get the trade on the seemingly unstoppable stock after this. coming up, apple revving up for their event on wednesday. what can we expect to see, hear and touch? will there be talk of the rumored apple tv? the anticipation is killing us. we'll be right back.

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i'm hamilton pierce, welcome back to squawk on the street, i'm live at the white house where a meeting is under way between president barack obama and prime minister beng engine netanyahu of israel. topic a, iran, we heard from both leaders prior to the start of the meeting. on the question of iran, the president saying of course, it is unacceptable for israel to face a threat of a country with a nuclear weapon right next door to it.

but, the president going on to say. it is in our interest to keep the nuclear threat from iran, that's why we've set up sanctions, there's still a window for a diplomatic solution. but it is up to iran and he says he reserves all options, the israel prime minister reiterating that bottom line, israel always has the right to defend itself. >> hamilton pearson, thanks so much. for more on all things apple. a ton of buzz being generated by the latest milestone. generating 25 million app downloads. we have a tech and hardware analyst with evercore partners. in terms of the 25 billion annapolis, how much of them do you think are paid for? >> the majority of free. but if you look at the meaningful number is not so much you know, the revenue to apple.

i think apple's revenue from annapolis is two to 300 million per quarter. which seems like a lot. what's meaningful is billions of apps are shipping each quarter. people are gobbling up millions of apps each quarter. driving sales. >> this is part of the ecosystem. it's like raizor blades and razors. >> absolutely. except you're giving the blades away for free. you almost flip it on its head, actually. >> in terms of the product launch on wednesday, what do you anticipate? the historical pattern of the stock trading has been a ramp-up. we're seeing apple shares down by more than 2%. we've seen it in the past happen early. >> there are typically to your point. a news attitude. whenever apple. >> to try to play it around.

>> but, boy, if you had bought the stock that day, you would be happy now. so i think that it's been well telegraphed that we're going to get a refresh of the ipad on wednesday. i think, it will frankly look like the ipad looks now, a higher-resolution display, it will still be about a ten-inch rectangle. i don't know if in and of itself that's a reason to own or not own the stock. >> apple keeps its cadence of refreshing products, to the point today. >> you've got to price in $650 so you're an apple bull at this point in terms of ipad 3, the initial weekend is usually very, very closely watched. what is that number for you?

>> i think if they can do, we'll look for sort of a million units to ship within the first short period of time. i think a quarterly run rate we'll be looking for ten per quarter to 15 million per quarter going forward. and i'm looking for over almost 60 million i-pads to ship this calendar year. that's the number that really matters. >> all right, rob, gra et to speak with you, rob sera of evercore. apple shares, we showed you the interday chart. we're hitting lows on apple shares and hitting the interday session lows on the nasdaq, which is down by 1%. apple being the heaviest weight in the nasdaq, we saw it dip moments ago as we were talking to rob sera about apple's product launch on wednesday. we're counting down to the close in europe. just about nine minutes ago. see what it means for your money, right here at home. but first, what disappointing data reports around the world mean for the american economy,

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very different story. kelly, what are you finding? >> a positive surprise on the u.s. side. after we saw a big increase in the previous month. unfortunately the details of the u.s. survey weren't quite encouraging. we saw declines in exports. that really is the theme across the board. whether it's the u.s., whether it's europe. even china, the squeeze on profits basically is what it amounts to. companies are having to pay more. they're seeing pricing pressure, but they're not able to raise prices these sarly. slipping into contraction there. china was the opposite. there we saw a move above 50, but as we know, growth worries still dominate with the government lowering its gdp forecast. not enough for people to get the hard soft landing question totally out of their minds. >> it seems a little confusing in that you take a look at corporate profits, they seem to be better. yet you're saying, companies

can't raise prices. >> there's a question about how much better profit margins can get from here. it looks like they might step back on a quarter-on-quarter basis. at least during earnings season, that will be a harder thing for the market to respond well to, if profit marges are coming in. >> kelly, thanks for coming down. >> bells are about to ring. markets overseas will be we'll bring you more after the break.

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okay, we're coming up to the close of the european markets. a reminder that for u.s. players, this is now the worst performance we've had from the nasdaq with the sharp move down by apple. since december 28. so bear that in mind. europe being battered by events overseas, namely with that downgrade we got from the chinese overnight on their growth expectations falling below 8% is the projection. so those big global minors in london have been badly affected and extended their losses to the end of the session. certainliy the likes of copper. in general, it's an interesting session for the european markets, we were cutting our losses. but then as you can see, the end as we got this move down. particularly from the nasdaq, with the 70-point fall in the dow, so that is obviously taking us furs into negative territory.

around europe, so there we go, as we count you out, let's wait for the bells and just count you out for the first session of the week over in europe. >> take look at the map, the european -- sea of red. i want to emphasize to you that some markets have done worse, notice that spain has disproportionately performed today. we have the data out in spain and the indication is that perhaps the contraction there is accelerating. so that obviously is not good. is taken a relatively broad-based look on the spanish market. melissa, back to you. >> let's head over to rick santelli in chicago. rick? >> i'll tell you what, it is very interesting to note that today in particular, as we get ready for the jobs reports, we have so many stories that are hard to get a handle on, melissa lee. and whether it's you know, china kind of tweaking their growth numbers, their inflation numbers, or what will happen with greece with regard to a default as it going to be an

organized default or is it going to start to get messy. then you see headlines coming off from portugal a few minutes ago. that unlike some of the other countries like ireland and spain, whose numbers may not be working out, spain in particular, with regard to recent information about their debt it their budget or debt to their gdp, portugal says that's not going to affect us, i guess where i'm going with this is, as a former trader who hangs out on trading floors all day, trying to get a handle on wednesday and friday's jobs information, there's so many fill in the blanks that are so hard to nail down. because there's this giant government buffer in the middle. you know, if there's issues regarding default, it goes into a eurocratic situation. if there's a headline regarding deficits in portugal, where they may not be able to bind their numbers or in spain, these things don't move markets the way they used to. look at the five-year paper in all the countries i've mentioned, hardly budging. it gets caught up in the mess where we're not sure we can

trade it from a market vantage point. or do we need to let the central banks or the bureaucrats digest it and interpret it for us. this is one of the reasons it gets very difficult to look at a 2% ten-year note and really discern what information can we gather from it. back to you. >> as it was put into swamp at the end of last week, europe has moved from crisis to kind of a chronic illness. let's bring in bob pasani who is watching the markets on both sides of the atlantic. >> there's a certain thesis on which the market has been working on, silen. the thesis is a little bit weaker in the last couple of days. let's put up the key points. the key thesis, the markets have been holding up, take a tight shot of this. we've gotten u.s. growth accelerating. china is go to slow due to slower growth, but internal growth is going to help them out. the eu and the ecb are going to provide a lot of stimulus to europe and still help them out. this is the whole theory on which the market run-up we've

seen in the last couple of months has been based on. now look what's happening today, some of the key headlines about what's happening. number one, china cutting the growth target. i think it's a little stronger thatten some people expected, the 7.5%. the eurozone pmi is a little weaker than expected. ism headlines, strong but rising, costs were a big issue, that was a big effect in the morning and greece came out warning they may trigger the collective action clause today. not a big surprise, but i think the important thing is put it together and maybe the picture about a nice quiet move to the upside holding is not quite as strong as it used to be. so look what's rolling over. we talked about this a lot, all of us last week. look at the bkx, bank stocks have intent moving sideways for the last month. showing some signs of rolling over. there you go, right there on the sideway move. also take a look at some of the other sectors in here. you've got of course some of the other ones like material stocks, they are notably weaker today. that is showing signs of now rolling over in the last couple of days. you can look at some of the

other sectors as well. we've got transportation stocks, that was widely discussed last week. it wasn't just airline stocks. this is a one-month chart. moving to the downside. not just airline stocks moving down. all the railroads have been notably weaker in the last month. take a look at energy, we had stronger energy, higher oil, helping support energy stocks throughout the last several weeks. but in the last several days, energy stocks have also started rolling to the down side. that's another pressure on the market. finally i just want to mention the home builders, that was a market leader. remember early on, that really helped in the beginning of january. but it started rolling over and as you can see, those have gone virtually nowhere in the last couple of days. finally the russell 2000, airline small cap stocks, home builder small cap stocks, other parts of that are also weak. moving to the downside. we're down at a multi-week low in that particular group. can you see we're starting to roll over here in some key components. >> maybe the writing was on the wall with the small caps, we started underperforming the

larger-cap stocks, the s&p 100 for the whole month of february when they had been leaders on the way up. >> that happened a week ago, technicians pointsed that out. >> bob pasani, thanks. let's bring in bob riding, the chick economist and co-founder of. we want to talk about china ratcheting down the forecast to 7.5% gdp this year. the lowest forecast since 2004. let's say that happens. what happens here? >> well i don't think there's anything particularly disastrous about 7.5% growth in china. maybe it's a case of lowering expectations as much politically as anything else. because it's a very important year as china hands over on the leadership. and i wouldn't be surprised to see that china growth be stronger. sort of beating those lowered expectations. but as far as the u.s. is concerned, we are, i think, experiencing a growth dynamic,

that was we got into the early part of last year, was interrupted by the tsunami, was interrupted by the knock-on effects to the auto industry. and we're now getting back to the growth dynamic as this morning's pmi suggests. >> and do you think that is fully factored into markets as we have them now? where is the risk to the upside or the down side of the equity market? bob's just again pointed out that we may be rolling over here. do we have a day of reckoning ahead? of the payrolls report on friday? >> well if you think we've come from simon, it was only october 3rd, that people were talking about a bear market in equities and we were down 20% from the highs. now we are in early march, and -- >> we've rallied phenomenally since that. >> terrifically. we went through the highs we saw in april of last year. so it's perhaps natural for markets to be taking something of a breather. and reassessing and see if the growth thesis is intact. i think the friday job numbers

will show the growth thesis intact. i think we'll see another above 2,000 gain on private payrolls, our confidence in that was cemented somewhat by this morning's nonmanufacturing ism report. >> does that trend continue in your view? what should we be watching for going forward in terms of signs that the economy is in fact continuing to grow that we are resuming that upward trajectory that we started and that was interrupted last year? >> in february, it's off to a very strong start in terms of auto sales, which were up 6.5% following on from a fairly strong rate in january. that was is in the growth interrupted resume mode. i think the key is jobs, and the jobless claims data is probably our best-leading indicator. we get them with only a one-week lag, they've come down to 350,000 area. it looks like payrolls are following that. if i had to pick any one thing to see that the growth momentum is being maintained. i would just judge it in terms of jobs and look at the weekly

jobless claims as the earliest read that we get on that. >> ha does that mean, how does that follow through to monetary policy and the idea that they will withdraw or not do qe 3. a lot of people here believe that qe3 will save them. will keep all of those boats floating. if the jobs report comes in strongly, you potentially take that further off the table, don't you? >> i think you do. the question is what's best for the long run. is it underlining growth fundamentals improving or artificial support from the central banks. the problem with qe3 like many drugs and qe2, it may have positive effects for the equity market. but negative effects for the economy, in terms of higher inflation, higher commodity prices. the commodity markets and the equity markets have been extremely highly correlated since the fed got into the whole quantitative easing game. soy think in the longer run, may not be as good for the short-run burst -- >> but there's a danger, that transition is a dang fehr you're

sitting in the market. that's the bit you're skipping over. >> there's a danger. as we know, markets go up and down as we discussed in terms of the last six months. the question is, what is the underlying trend. if we are getting back to a stronger growth dynamic, which will give us sustained profit -- not of the kind that we have seen in the last couple of years. which has been a really profit margin expansion story. now we need a, a top-line revenue growth expansion story. and that will come with underlying growth and come with job creation. >> john, thank you very much for stopping by. john oliver. >> straight ahead, gm making natural gas its newest source of fuel. find out how soon you'll be able to potentially pick up a truck powered by natural gas on the open market, next, but first, a look at the winning and losesing stocks from europe's trading day, which is just coming to a close. coming off a big week, not least for greece. i had a print out of how many hours

i have actually put in over my career. and it's 168,000 hours. so just think, if you had an 8-hour job, i'm like a man of 100 and something years old. i've worked very hard to support my family. and i finally reached that point where i'm going to retire. ♪ ♪ coming up next on the "halftime report" ibm is up. we're looking behind the numbers of this historic high. and analyzing the commodity-driven china super cycle, has it peaked? and what happens in vegas

comes to the halftime report. the stock one analyst calls a real fast money name, next up on the halftime show. now back to simon on "squawk on the street." just as it halts production of its battery-powered volt. general motors announces it will offer two different models with pickup trucks powered by natural gas. phil lebeau is live in chicago with details. was this expected, or is it a bolt from the blue? >> it's not a bolt out of the blue. and i think they've been talking about some time and it's the right time right now for both gm and chrysler. take a look at what we're seeing when it comes to nat gas prices. we're looking at nat gas coming close to a decade low. and as a result, the automakers are saying, hey, listen, is this the time for us to come out with some bi-fuel pickup trucks. general motors offering a bi-fuel chevy civiled ao. this is one that can be switched to regular gas when the nat gas tank is empty.

they haven't put a projection out there in terms of total sales. as for the ram 2500 pickup, it will be sold to fleet and commercial customers, and nat gas going to be powering this vehicle. they've already got commitments for more than 2,000. so there's certainly a lot of demand out there. what kind of mileage are you looking at with these two models? well for the silverado. you're looking at 650 miles, for the ram 2500, most of the 367 will come from the nat gas. here's the issue and the reason that the sales expectations are so limited. there are not a whole lot of places where you can buy nat gas at public fueling stations in the u.s. less than 400, actually. compare it with regular gas stations. there are more than 157,000 in the u.s. it's always been about infrastructure simon and melissa. we've talked about this time and again, you're going to see the automakers take a very small step into nat gas-powered vehicles and primarily with your fleet customers, because those guys are on a designated route where they know the fueling

station is at. for the general public, it's going to be a while before we see real explosive demand for nat gas-powered vehicles. >> the argument goes, phil, does it not. that henry ford didn't stop making cars when they first came on the market, because there weren't places to refuel. if the cost savings are so great and tell me what those cost savings might be, if we have any idea of using natural gas, they will mushroom of their own accord. that is the american way, is it not? >> let's think about the silverado. it's going to cost you about half what it would cost to fill up a regular silverado with regular gasoline. the bifuel will cost you about half of that. there are cost savings right now with the price of natural gas. but simon, you have to have somebody who going to commit to putting in a public nat gas fueling station. easier said than done. somebody is got to do it the automakers won't do it. >> why does it have to be public? why can't it be private.

>> i'm talking about a place where the public can go. by that you've got to have a place, a quick trip around the corner or somewhere elsewhere the public can say, i no i can get nat gas there. there's less than 400 of those places in the united states. >> would the automakers ever consider entering any kind of a partnership to help build out the cnp network? >> i think they would be hesitant. if they said we'll be willing to build x number of models. if the demand is not there, they don't want to get out in front of it. >> phil lebeau, thank you for that report. coming up, the aggressive world of new york real estate. we get the lowdown on new york's most luxurious living spaces.

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. the new bravo series, "million dollar listing new york" gives viewers a look into the high-stakes world of new york real estate. with us is the cast, michael lorber, frederick eklund. has anything changed in the course of the shooting until now in the real estate market in new york? >> things have gotten better and

better since the end of the world it 2007. we've seen a tremendous influx of our bricks, our brazilian, russian, indian, chinese customers that are the most important to us these days. >> we're talking about this very large properties, multimillion-dollar listings, are they mostly foreign buyers at this point? are we seeing most recent example of one of the biggest deals ever, the $88 million sale penthouse to a russian billionaire. is that the trend? >> we're seeing an influx of foreign buyers because we have a weak dollar. a safe investment when you're looking at the world cities and place your capital into real estate. i think our buyer base is very diversified. we have a lot of local buyers, a lot of people working on wall street purchasing apartments. >> what's happening to prices? >> prices are up from last year. >> by how much? >> well the luxury segment is doing really well. i say the sweet spot for me, $2 million to $5 million is a

little more flat than last year. it has to do with wall street. all of people are getting laid off on wall street. the bonuses are capped at $125,000. the spring season, february-march, used to be super hot and this year, it hasn't. >> i was going to say michael, i think the case shiller index is indicating there are overall price falls within new york. is that correct? >> you know -- >> from the top end? >> i think a little bit. i think we're still seeing in the $4 million plus market, a tremendous activity, volume. i mean our numbers, what we're seeing now is stuff that sold three months ago. so it changes so quickly here in new york. and as you'll see on the show. but you know, with wall street bonuses being capped, i don't think that's going to have the effect that people think it does here. i think that's going to affect more the secondary markets like the hamiltptons and your luxury purchases. >> it looks like you're disagreeing. why? >> i think when you take money out of the pockets of the people who live in the city who are working incredibly hard, you're going to affect demand. so yes, there's liquidity there

and yes, people are buying apartments and prices are coming up. but you know, this is financial sector of the world. >> so they, they tested thousands of realtors to pick you three. >> realtors. >> we call them estate agents in the uk. fred, why did they pick you three? what do you bring to the table? >> me, because i say what i think. and also i do a lot of deals. the show is very real. in new york, you can't fake anything, everything is so transparent. it goes straight into the databases. so every deal that we do on the show has now closed. these buyers and sellers have been filmed, have moved in. so you need agents that produce a lot. and that, we do. >> are you concerned that some of your clients are going to see what the other side of the conversation was? >> do you think maybe their privacy could be breached? >> i think that's one of the great things i love about the show, i mean our listing in new york, it gives a human face to that process, to the deal process. >> are the tantrums? >> yes, more tantrums the higher

priceded real estate is? >> you know, i think a million-dollar deal is just as hard as a $10 million deal. >> i do a $17 million deal and it was a very stressful, it was like a $500,000 commission. >> for you or the clients? >> for all of us. it was a difficult, complex deal. >> you earned your commission in that? >> yes. >> in terms of the sweet spot, if you had to advise somebody to invest in real estate today in new york, what is the price point? what's the great price point right now that you see, ryan? >> i think we've seen if you look at the statistics, i think in the last month alone, you've seen you know, it was a little over 18% more first-time buyers entering the market than last year. i think if you have the money, if you can invest in the best, right, the luxury market will never falter. >> yes. >> what is the luxury market? >> what price range? >> it's above $3 million. >> i think $4 million and up is luxury in new york.

the best deals are the co-opps, you can't finance anything. are the fixer-uppers are the best bang for the buck. but you'll have to pay all cash. >> that's the toughest to find. >> it's usually impossible to finance. >> guys, thanks. >> the premiere on bravo wednesday. >> keep the tweets coming this morning. the pt reporting that no new bank was incorporated here in the united states last year. we're asking you to fill in the blank. if a new bank is open in the u.s., it better offer -- blank? tweet us @cncbsquawkst. without the stuff that we make here, you wouldn't be able to walk in your house and flip on your lights. [ brad ] at ge we build turbines that power the world. they go into power plants which take some form of energy, harness it, and turn it into more efficient electricity. [ ron ] when i was a kid i wanted to work with my hands, that was my thing. i really enjoy building turbines. it's nice to know that what you're building is gonna do something for the world.

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this morning we're asking if a new bank is opened in the u.s., it better offer -- black? so lorcan tweets, be regulated in canada. george tweets, any new bank would have to take these hungarian foreigns off my hand and have gold-dispensing drive-throughs. and one tweet, higher interest rates so we can afford to plug in the toaster. i think the higher interest rate

part is what a lot of people would say. >> again and again. and arguably, that's why people suggest that monetary policy may be failing this time around. because those that should benefit. can't access the credit. those that are taking the pain, simply taking the pain for the entire economy. >> let's check in with rick santelli as to what he's looking at as we come to the end of the show. hi, rick. >> i continue to talk about the same issues i have the last two spots for "squawk on the street." and that is, some of the headlines coming out of portugal, spain, even china. as we continue to see how, whether it's central banks, or central planning or agreements with bureaucrats, kind of suck up some information that used to move markets, they don't move nearly as much any more. i do think that there's something to be said for the only things that really are going to get the market at this point are unexpected issues. and we know what's going on with europe isn't falling in that

category. except for what starts to fall out of the system for what is supposedly contained. i think we need to continue to monitor the issues of the populations of many of the negatively-affected countries like spain, portugal, and even ireland. i think that's where the next trade is going to come from, simon. people aren't going to buy into some of these programs. >> and there are many people that would agree with you. rick, have a great afternoon. what have you got on "fast money" tonight? >> today gm is announcing a natural gas-fuelled car. we've got the president of southwestern energy. we'll see about what the anticipated build-out. they're saying that there aren't stations to fill up these trucks. >> would they consider doing retail operations? >> we'll ask him tonight. that could be a huge driver for demand for these pickups and the price of natural gas. we've seen it at $2.38