money" from the nasdaq. i look forward to that. really tight range for the dow industrials. power lunch begins right now. >> indeed it does, scotty. three hours to go in the trading day. the fed and financials are in focus. the fed meets tomorrow. no drama expected there, but ben bernanke and company also release the results of the new stress test results this week. that is a big deal. the banks could raise dif denlds as a result. which banks should you buy right now, sue? >> hi, bill. i'm here at the common fund forum in florida. we are talking to institutional investors who manage half a trillion dollars for big pension funds, foundations and endowments. we bring you their take on investing in these markets. >> urban outfitters reporting after the bell, american eagle getting upgrades. which teen retail stock should be on your shopping list. >> i'm bill griffeth. a special edition of "power

lunch" begins right now. as they say on the blues brothers, getting the band back together. mr. griffith to the studio wall, and a big week for economic data. overseas china posting the biggest trade deficit in 12 years. the dow has been up for most of the session 28 points, the s&p fractionally down with same with the nasdaq tech lagging behind a quarter of a percent. oil is lower on the china news and below 107 a barrel. we have nat gas getting hit yet again, warm weather is the key. we've traveled the vix before bouncing back a bit, still down 4%. midday movers, let's talk about deals. medical equipment maker zole is up big up 23.5%.

tudo holdings are up 145%. merrill lynch is upgrading the stock and doubling the price target of 14%. both cabot and murphy oil are lower today. energy is one of the worst performing sectors on the day. oracle is down 2% after a downgrade at jeffries. let's get inside the market more with mr. pasani at the fyc. everybody is talking about the tight range, bob. >> the important thing is china, brian. we're up on the markets, but look carefully. you see the more defensive consumer oriented names and the pharmaceutical stocks on the onside, the risk on trade is not so much up. financials down, energy down, consumer discretionary. all of these are affected by the china news. i'll show you what's going on in the a and p sectors. all the big oil names are trade

dou ing down 2 to 3%. all of this on the news about china and the trade deficits being wider than anticipated. same situation with some of the other big names in this group. for example, some of the exploration and production names in the oil services names, cabot, murphy, eog. when china starts weakening, global economy concerns might slow down. while most think china is a soft landing, not a hard landing, you get intraday moves like this. one sector is still up today. the money is in the home building stocks. we're not getting big economic data around home building this week, but the numbers last week. there were preliminary numbers that indicated that the spring home buying season is at least as good as expectations. most people estimate orders will be up 20% to 30%. that's about where the numbers are coming in. the question is these are new highs for the stocks, but the question is how much further do the stocks have to go given they're fayely priced right now. back to you.

>> we economic in with you later as well. as we know ben bernanke and federal policymakers talk about policy makers in the economy. jim is cnbc contributor, director with tjm institutional services to talk about things all fixed income right now. how did it go? >> it went okay. this is interesting coming the day before the fed, too. last week they floated some talk about perhaps more twisting, selling the shortened of things and buying long end thinged. we had a fed meeting tomorrow. the question is is that where the risk is where they talk about extending maturities and flattening the yield curve? i don't think it will be, because the current twist doesn't stop happening until june. it would seem like they're ahead of themselves, particularly with the decent economic data coming in. >> the last time bernanke spoke publicly was before congress, and the whole market sold off because they were disappointed

apparently he didn't mention the possibility of qe-3. isn't that off the abtable at ts point? >> they're a very dovish fed. they're off the table right now because the numbers are coming in good and the stock market is doing well. if we had a couple weeks of declining stock market and the numbers turned, the fed would be back in. they're willing to throw whatever to get us going that they have to. >> they have a lot of firepower in that regard. jim, thank you very much. let's switch now to the "power lunch "the "power surge and we drill down on the stories driving today. we hone in on housing right now. it's the new american dream. we're talking about renting now instead of owning, and today we get a new report on the state of the rental market with diana olick in washington. >> reporter: in a normal housing market, this wouldn't make sense. as home values continue to fall, rents are rising. we get an exclusive preview of a

brand-new rental index from zillo.com. compare it to home values. rents are up 3% nationwide in january year over year while home prices are down 4.6%. look at chicago, though. rent's up over 9%. home values are down 10%. minneapolis is much the same story. in san francisco, st. louis and detroit rents are up as much as home values are down. usually you would see rents falling along with home prices as affordability draws more people to buy as opposed to rent. these are not normal times, and things like mortgage availability, still high unemployment and generally weak consumer confidence keep buyers odd sidelines and rental demand high. are we looking at the makings of a rental bubble? are rents too high for the fundamentals of demand? with sky-high housing affordability and so many investors rushing to buy up foreclosures, are these high rents sustainable and for how

long? all questions we put to zillo's chief economist. a bit of breaking news. that $25 billion robosigning mortgage settlement with the five major banks and the 49 attorneys general and justice department, it was officially filed late this morning about an hour ago in district court in d.c. we'll have more details. it's stuff we reported about the settlement, but we could get more details about what specific states will do with the money they get from this $25 billion settlement. >> slowly they make the progress there. from housing to autos. americans continue to feel pain at the pump. the latest survey shows gasoline rising 12 cents in the last three weeks. toyota is looking to cash in on these soaring prices with its latest prius hybrid. will consumers plug into that? phil la bow is behind the kwheel for us in chicago.

phil. >> this is an important rollout for toyota because it's the degree next brand of hybrids in the united states. look at the percentage of hybrids that are going to toyota. in other words, all the hybrids being sold have about 47% of the market. the latest hybrid from toyota is the new prius c, c standing for city. it goes on sale for under $19,000 today. it offers up to 53 miles per gallon in the city, 46 on the highway. for toyota the importance of this vehicle brings more people into the showroom right now is that with gas prices moving higher, it's going to be tough in this market to bring those people into the showroom, but another hybrid, the idea being toyota should pick up market share. the market share was down to 12.9% last year. within the hybrids or overall sales, look at hi brids. in the kournts intuitive. you would think hybrid sales would increase. they have decreased in terms of percentage of overall sales. toyota is targeting 200,000 in

annual sales this year for the prius line-up. sold mothre than 20,000 last month. the c model is going on sale today. with the c and the standard prius v model, they can achieve 200,000 in annual sales. >> interesting. this is something counterintuitive with europeans dmeep depth, vw is on fire right now. what's going on right there? >> sfrong in germany, which is the one market in europe doing well number one or number two in china and strong in latin america. when you look at volkswagen is strong compared to general motors, look at the luxury division. the audi brand is number 16 in the world, and that's the number one profit driver for all the brands at volkswagen. that's really where the strength is coming. $20.1 billion annual profit last year, bill. the profit margins in the auto division, 17.7%. not bad. >> not bad at all.

thanks very much. pain at the pump for many americans is causing pain for president obama at the polls. how big a problem could soaring gas prices be for him? our chief washington correspondent john harwood has the latest on that. john. >> it could be a significant problem because president obama is counting on a rising spirit of economic optimism to lift his chances in the election. the more prices at the pump rise here at the spring dime before the summer driving season, which is expected to take it higher, the more difficulty that's reflected. you look at the nbc -- excuse me. the abc "washington post" poll out today showing the president's approval rating at 46, but showing a significant number of people and an increase in the number of people that disaapprove of the handling of the economy. that's why you have the administration out today talking about their energy accomplishments, trying to defuse some of the atacts from republicans. republicans are aggressive about this, especially as the job picture gets better. >> i don't know what they expect

any president to do about gasoline prices, but that's just a me. in the election season everyone is talking about delegate math right now. what happens if santorum wins tomorrow in alabama and mississippi, those two states that newt gingrich covets? of course, he won kansas over the weekend, santorum did. >> if rick santorum can win both alabama and mississippi, he will both hurt romney and also potentially cripple newt gingrich, perhaps getting that one on one match he needs to try to stop romney. the talk of the delegate math is once you get a lead in this process, it's difficult to erase a lead, especially since the only winner-take-all states coming up in a big way are states favorable to mitt romney as opposed to santorum. what santorum's hope is if he can get on a roll, get a one on one match-up and get a disproceed portionate amount of delegates, he could deny romney clears that mark. that would create a situation

where there would be some negotiations. i don't expect it to happen. i think romney will get there, but that's santorum's hope. >> not a straight road. we'll take a break and come back with half a trillion dollars. that's how much the investors at the common fund manage right now. sue is there with a special guest from accel partners. as we head to the break, a check of the s&p sectors right now. the defensive plays are doing well so far today on "power lunch." ♪

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welcome back to welcome back to "power lunch." a couple stocks on the radar. zoll medical is up 23%, being acquired by a japanese firm. a 93% premium. this is a medical equipment maker known for defibrillatorde. this is deal monday. we have tudo up 447%, topping the nasdaq today after announcing a merger. they're known for youtubes of china. the deal is estimated at $100 billion. oracle is downgraded by jeffries. the firm citing competition. sue, over to you in orlando. >> thank you very much, sima. accel partners is one of the

venture capital firms in silicon valley and in the country. joining me live from the common fund conference in orlando today, i'm here with accel partners joe shoendorf to tell us why they're booming these days. you on told me on the phone the other day you've done business in the valley for 46 years, and it's hotter than ever. this is one of the best years you can remember. >> i had a chance to get ready for what we did at common fund today to do the math. this is the end of the seventh recession. i started correlating what happens at the end of the previous six. whether it was the start of intel or start of apple or start of cisco or microsoft. none of which existed when i got there. i see more true innovation going on right now than at any point i've been there. >> why do you think that is,

though? >> probably a lot of reasons. if you want a job today, probably the best way too get one is to start a company. think about it from a big point of view. when i got out of school 46 years ago just about in june, there were a lot of choices and big companies where i could go to work. i was fortunate to be hired by hp, but you have somebody graduating today, the choices of what they can do because of our global economic situation, this is kind of one of these best of time worst of times. what happens historically is when you get into the worst of time is when the sbree prentrep say i've got an idea and this is the way to do it. it's better to start at the bottom of the cycle than at the peak. >> let's talk about the areas that you see now that are the most investable, that are the hottest and up and coming companies.

what sectors do you like best? >> i think there's two that are going -- that are going, and we think they're big now but i think they just started. i'll call one mobile, and i'll call the other social. ten years ago we crossed a billion phones at this time. what it means is in the next eight or nine years we've going to add 3 billion people to the global network, and with the multiplier effect that you think about, what happens to the power of the net as you add people and you look at the opportunity for education, you look at the opportunity for entertainment, you look at the opportunity for e-commerce, i don't think the most optimistic of us can figure out how interesting it could be. >> you also said you like social, and i think you like cloud as well. >> well, the cloud is the next

big platform. i mean, because i'm getting on there in age, i've had a chance to start. when i came in, i was hired at hp to first introduce their first mini-computer in '66. we were a $22 million in company. hp is selling $500 million a day right now. the cloud is a new platform. every time we have a new platform, whether it was the movement to mini computers or personal computers, we ended up creating a raft of new for ftun 500 companies. that's going to happen again. just don't ask me which ones they're going to be. >> that's juryour job to figuret which ones they'll be. it may be the best of times in silicon valley. you say there's plenty of talent, but they're not innovative or educated in the way you need them to be

educated, correct? >> numbers that i think are very accurate is while we say we have an unemployment problem and we do and it is serious, we have opening in america today for 150,000 engineers that we cannot fill. i would invite your listeners to just as a sampling for that go on our website, accel.com. i look at it maybe every week or two, and on the first page there's a thing called careers. we list the jobs for most of our portfolio companies, and there's always a number in the upper left hand corner. i think friday it was at 1710. these are good jobs. a month ago i think it was probably 1500. i've never gone on the site when the number hasn't gone up. so the challenge we have now is finding particularly the engineers we need. i've asked all of my venture

friends, can you find enough tal lenlt lented engineers to fill your companies, and i can't get anybody to say yes. >> that means there's opportunity for those out there. thank you for joining us today. we appreciate it. >> i like being here. thank you. >> coming up next we interview a gentleman that runs about $9 billion worth of capital and we'll find out where he's investing right now. he's a global strategist. it should be great. >> looking forward to that. results of the new fed stress test come out any day now this week. assuming the pass, banks are expected to increase the dividends. which banks will boost their payouts the most and should you buy right now? this is how the big banks have been trading so far this monday. back with more "power lunch" after this. hey, did you ever finish last month's invoices? sadly, no. oh. but i did pick up your dry cleaning and had your shoes shined. well, i made you a reservation at the sushi place around the corner. well, in that case,

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which would render retirement planning unnecessary. but say the sun rises on december 22nd and you still need to retire, td ameritrade's investment consultants can help you build a plan that fits your life. we'll even throw in up to $600 when you open a new account or roll over an old 401(k). so who's in control now, mayans? you you may have heard that the volatility index hit a low this morning we haven't seen since last july before all the mayhem of august. we were in the 15 1/2 range before a blip-up earlier this morning. now we're at the 1629. right now the cost of hedging has continued to go lower. let's check in with scott wapner to see which stocks are on his radar right now. >> the nasdaq isn't do so poorly today. oracle is down 1 2/3 aa percent today. it's to a hold from a buyover

there. they say the growth strategy of the company is falling behind. threats of core business from s.a.p. among others. it says their field checks have been underwhelming. the stock has had a good year. i watch it a lot. it's up 15 1/2% year to date. oracle is up 3%, but right now that downgrade is weighing on shares of oracle, orcl is what i'm watching today. bill. >> thank you, sir. financials also the focus this week. the fed will release stret test results of the nation's biggest banks this week. aman is in washington looking at the par meters of those tests. >> once again, we're waiting on the federal reserve. it seems like we're in a waiting pattern with the fed here. what we're expecting this week is we will release the results of the stress tests later on in the week perhaps as early as thursday, but perhaps as early as today release the metrics by which the fed is judging these

banks. as a result of a dodd-frank, this is an annual exercise in washington where the fed goes in and measures the banks against some kind of adverse snare yore, and already we're seeing from the financial industry a little bit of a prebuttal here of these stress tests going forward to this week. look what the financial services had to say on a note on friday. they said the stress tests are not a reflection of the current solvency of any particular bank, and the fed's hypothetical economic scenario itself is highly, highly unlikely. bill, two highlies there making the point what's the adverse scenario is here in these tests is not likely it to happen, bill. >> a prebuttal. i like that. very good. >> you see it in politics, and now you see it in banking. >> i like that. with the banks expected to pass the stress tests, that opens the door. which banks are likely to to increase the payouts the most and which are the best banks to buy right now.

joining us with our picks, we have s&p capital i.q. thanks for joining us. >> you expect them to pass these tests. these are stringent, aren't they? >> they are stringent, and we don't know what the results will be. they will be more stringent than last year. this year they'll be the mortgages and credit cards we've heard that they'll be much tougher than they were last year. >> we all assume they'll raid dividends and there's every reason to believe they will but maybe not as much you feel because these guys are trying to raise capital reserves to meet the new basil 3 requirements when they kick it in, right? >> sure. the ones we think raise dividends the most are clearly high capitalized right now. >> like who? >> the ones well capitalized are wells fargo, pnc, u.s. bancorp and serve of the large regional banks. >> earlier on "fast money" dick

bovie had this to say about one other major bank and what he feels it will do this year. watch. >> citi, i think, is going to be the most active of all of the banks, of the big bank stocks in terms of growth this year. i think that you're going to see citi grow at least 25% this year. >> do you aagrgragree, disagree? >> we think citi should have aa better year this year than last year. we think their expenses, though, are very high and there's no clear plan on reducing expenses. we have a lower growth estimate. >> one last. jpmorgan chase has been the poster child for growth in this industry to this point. what are your expectations from them? >> for the dividend increase we expect they raise their dividend to 30 cents. they're fairly well capitalized, and they should be able to grow capital well this year. of course, because they're so systemically important and large, they're held to a higher standard than most u.s. banks.

>> thank you for your insights today. take a break and come back, going for the gold. sharon has the medals close and bob is on the new york stock exchange floor with two pure gold bars and some very beefy armed guards to go with it. we're not sure if they're watching the gold or bob. plus, upgrades for american eagle. earnings after the bell tonight from urban outfitters, and we'll have your best bets in the feisty teen retail space coming up. "power lunch" back in a flash. [ male announcer ] the draw of the past is a powerful thing.

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welcome back. i want to look at a few things here as we're two and a half hours away from the close of the nyse. right there in the s&p 500 we're close to going positive here. only 0.06%. the dow the only index in p positive territory for the moment. you have exxon at the top 1.75%. coke and walmart snuck in there.

ail c alcoa has been up for most of the day. financials at the bottom. bank of america and jpmorgan two of the weakest. e eqifax. gold prices getting ready to close in battle. we'll get to sharon. i believe we want to go to mr. pasani with a question here. gold is up about 20% in the last year, but how much is a gold bar worth today? i'm kind of waiting to see this? i've been waiting for in special of yours for a long time now, bob. >> twoif friends staring at my ma neve lently all day. this is angel and sylvester. every time i go for this, they get a little nervous. look at these. these bars here are london good delivery gold bars. what does that mean? they're 400 troy ounces each.

that's about 27 pounds, and believe me, if you have questions about the density of gold, you don't after you pick these up. these are at the at least 99.95% pure gold. this is the standard recognized by dealers worldwide that send these bars to the banks jewelers all over the world. the question is how much is this one gold bar worth based on the gold price today? it's going to close shortly. the viewers have been guessing all day for a chance to win a cnbc prize. we'll reveal the winner later on "street signs" and follow me on twitter. don't miss the exclusive look inside the secret vault backing the spider gold trust tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern and pacific. for more on why gold is going right now, economic out the interview with kyle bass at gold.cnbc.com. my favorite part of this whole thing, going 2.2 miles below the surface to the deepest mine in the world.

we show it tonight. when i walked into that mine, there was a guy standing there that made me sign a document, my producer kelly and mike our cameraman that said if you don't come out, we're not responsible. i have a lot more respect for people in the mining industry. it's very dangerous, 2.2 miles down and over 100 degrees down there and a lot of physical danger. i show those problems and issues on the special tonight. >> going down the elevator to the shaft was the best standup on cnbc. how prices are faring right now, let's go to sharon epperson. >> brian, we're here right now at the close looking at gold prices actually below $1700 an ounce. we're down about 13 bucks or so. there are concerns about china's growth and the export growth from china and also a locality of traders wondering what will come of the fomc meeting this weekend. what the fed will determine because of qe-3. a lot of mixed messages here.

barclays doesn't expect much from the next meeting in terms of the policy change. others say we could see more quantitative easing and morgan stlan expe stanley expecting that in the first part of the year. we have a mixed picture here, and down a decline here, the first time in four sessions. the only strength we see is in gold exchange trade funds, holdings at a record level. back to you. >> thank you very much. elsewhere, lots of action in teen retail right now. there's an upgrade on american eagle and earnings from american outfitters after the bell today. what's the outlook of this key sector of teen retail, and how do you make money in the sfas? kimberly green burger is managing director at morgan stanley and i should point out neither of you is a big fan of teen retail right now. s why that, stacy? >> it's a tough space. you look at last year, and certainly retailers dealt with

high cotton prices. so gross margins were down from 500 to 1,000 basis points. so you have to look at the sfoer next year. we're facing the easy comparison with cotton as the price goes down, but the environment is incredibly promotional and that may not go away. >> if you had to pick one teen retailer right now, who would it be? >> we're getting more constructive on american eagle outfitters. we did upgrade the stock in early december from underweight to equal weight. we share stacy's concerns about the intensive competitive pricing dynamic in the mall right now among teen retailers, so it's tough to make a lot of money for any of them at the current moment. i would point out, however, that american eagle has a new ceo. we were very encouraged last week to hear his views on controlling inventory, far more going forward than the company has in the past and also returning the organization to a focus on invest in capital, both

of which are very positive for shareholders. >> that's your favorite. sta stacy, we hear from urban outfitters after the bell today on earnings. what are your expectations there? >> no huge surprises aahead. they said the same store sales are up 2%. they've tried to clear the extra inventory at a cost. gross margins may be down close to 1,000 basis points. certainly the weather has been a great factor helping most of retailers. we heard february same-store sales. we expect to hear positive comments about the starm to spring. >> yes, the weather. finally, kimberly you feel jcpenney and the revampliing is helping some competitors in the teen retail space. how? >> absolutely. jcpenney is undergoing a very business transition in terms of pricing and vendor competition.

we looked at the overlap in geography and neck demographic between jcpenney and other retailers out there, particularly old navy looks like it could pick up share, gap division as well. also aeropostale. at the lower end of the pricing, you can see share gain there. >> good to see you both. thank you for your thoughts today. >> thank you. you too. >> we'll take a break and come back to "power lunch" live back to sue in orlando where wall street's top investing power players are meeting. what do you have this time? >> we have a terrific guest next. i speak with john armitage. he helps manage $5 billion. we'll find out why he's bullish on the markets despite the run-up and some uncertainty and risk out there. we'll find out what stocks he's going long on when we come back. 3q

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coming up on "street signs" in 20 minutes from now, ibm is an all time high. is apple really killing the pc? a "street signs" debate. sure we need oil, but we can't live without water. how can can you profit from this must have liquid asset? how much is a bar of gold worth, and is now the time to buy one. now it's back to sue and bill on "power lunch." >> thank you very much, mandy. i'm here at the common fund in orlando, florida where the most sophisticated institutional vendors are talking about where the best places are to invest right now. joining any now is john armitage, he's the co-founder of

the of armitage capital which has $5 billion under management. you are bullish but see a high-risk environment. where the risks still? >> there's too much debt in europe. there's no way to get rid of that debt. and that the euro zone is a construct really not to exist because it doesn't make sense. the ties that bind spain and germany are just very different from the ties that bind florida and new york, for example. but, of course, it would be impossible to unwind. so you have the ecb extending billions and billions and billions of dollars to support the banks. anytime you have that environment, it's a high-risk environment. >> it's a bullish environment as well. where do you see opportunity in terms of particular stocks? >> it's a bullish environment. i agree. we like many american equities. one i focus on is a company called signet.

the strat line for signet is every kiss begins with a k. it's the leading jeweler in the united states. it's a really attractive sector because 50% is bridal and people want to give rings to their f fiance fiancees. the jewellers are slowly going out of business, so the number of small, independent jewellers has contracted 10% in the last three years. and they're attractively positioned because the chains are unprofitable and/or highly lev leveraged and cannot invest to make money. >> do you tend to buy smaller cap stocks or niche stocks, or do you run the gamut between the larger stocks in either europe or the united states and look for the big multi-nationals? is it a blend? >> we like to buy a mixture.

we like to buy what we think is attractive. we don't want to end lobster pa pots which are stocks you can get into and not get out of. >> corporations have an awful lot the cash on their balance sheets here and in europe for that matter. what are the prerequisites that attract you to a stock? >> i think in today's world balance sheet strength is something the markets don't pay for. that's because balance sheet strength, cash, yields no interest so it contributes nothing to eps. signet has $6 a share on cash, and to maintain its cash target at its desired $250 million level, we'll have to buy in 5% of the equity every year. when you start from that position, obviously, you have some kind of i don't want to say free put but you have some kind of underpinning. balance sheet strength is a tremendous thing for us, as is competitive positions.

as i said about signet it has weak competitors and has invested very, very well in systems in infantry, in national tv advertising, and so competitive strength is also very important. >> as you look very quickly across the globe, specifically the u.s. and europe, we've had a big run-up in the u.s. do you see room in general for stocks to run? >> yes. >> how much? >> i think it's a question of picking stocks, and i think the right stocks should be able to generate much superior returns to genuine risk-free assets. that's not saying much, because genuine risk-free assets yield minimal amounts. >> thank you very much. pleasure to have you with us. >> thank you, very much. >> bill, over to you. coming up on "power lunch" from rick to brazil. brazil is a go-to place for many market investors over the past few years. with slower growth and government restrictions there, is brazil still worth investing

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isthat if you can tell . >> that if you can tell is prince harry. oefs a recent trip to rio to promote economic ties with the world's sixth largest economy and to play volleyball while he was at it. some on wall street argue that the latin nation fell victim to its own success. they have soaring taxes rights now, tight labor markets. they're slow to build infrastructure plus an economy which gree 2.7% last year. so here to tell us why brazil remains stuck in a bottleneck is mr. lombardi. thank you for joining us today. they're going to host the world cup and have want olympics coming their way. they're very busy getting ready for that. is that part of the problem right now? they're frantically trying to build their infrastructure out? >> the economy is definitely going through a process of moderation. things are weakening a lot. we saw weak growth last year and probably this year well. that's not too concerning. we're going to end up

accelerating already in q-2, and we'll see a better second half. >> look at the stocks. here's what we're showing over the last year. very much like our market it bottomed out in october and hasn't looked back since. the stock market reflecting what's going on in the economy right now? >> it is. overall i think long term things will turn out quite well. i think the prospects for long-term growth in brazil are good at this point. as you mentioned, infrastructure investment, the second part of the growth accelerating program that the government is putting through. if you put them together and all the investment in oiling and mining, this will come as a very large increase in growth over the coming four or five years. >> what's the biggest hurdle they face right now economically? >> well, the economy went through a monetary tightening last year, and now -- which was induced so that, you know, inflation wouldn't become a problem, and they're facing this right now. they will come out of this.

i think the main challenges is really if it is the country able to grow for a sustained period of time without an inflationi iss issue. >> right now they're very rich in natural resources, so they would benefit from higher prices around the world. that would seem to be a tailwind for them right now, wouldn't it? >> absolutely. it's definitely something to watch for. on the long term we're bullish on commodities as the world needs them. this should be very good for the country. also something to look at is the size of the market in brazil. it's pretty large. we see a significant increase in the size of the middle class, which needs to consume. that's positive for the country in the long term. >> what do you think the impact will be on the country to be hosting such high profile global events like the olympics and the world cup? net-to-net will it be a positive or not, some countries have

overbilled and overspent and borrowed to do that. do you think they're in danger of doing the same thing? >> i don't think so. there's such a lack of infrastructure in highways, sports, airports, so it's a huge demand. i hope they do enough. that's really what's the concern at this point right now. >> we luf them with the other developing countries out there, the brick nations, the russias and indias and chinas. where do you rank them in and out in that category right now? >> it's still pretty high in the top. brazil is still pretty attractive. i wouldn't -- you know, we'll probably add some countries in the bricks category, maybe indonesia. we wouldn't remove brazil at in the point. i think the long term looks still pretty good. >> we just need one that starts with a vowel, though, that fits well. we have all the consonants we need now in that acronym. thank you for joining us today. >> thank you. >> brian, what's the take-away here? >> let's look at the stocks,

bill. i want to look at four names in particular. a lot stems from growth concerns in china. petrobras and vale and ambev and net services. you want to look over time and compare it to american colleagues. even with the losses outperforming exxon mobile by more than 8% in 2012. vale is fascinates because the mining joint is closer to a 52-week low and has a 5% dividend yield right now. word on the street is it could be oversold. there's ambev, the huge beverage company. compare it to anheuser-busch, it's yields close to 4%. net services, smaller cap growth play, huge year so far. as you can see, up about 45%, and as brazil continues to develop the middle class, the assumption is that cable tv and

broadband should grow along with it. >> just two hours lefting in the trading session, charts of the day p and what some money managers are saying about the markets right now. "power lunch" is back in two minutes. people with a machine.

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we've seen some strengthening in the market since we came on the air. the s&p has turned positive, so we're trending toward the green, bill. >> look at the volume there. our charts of the day, that's what i'm looking at, the new york stock exchange volume. maria and i had this friendly feud. as the market has gone higher this year, 2012, volume at the new york stock exchange went lower and lower. somedays have been the lowest volume days in decades. i maintain we're going back to the old normal. the new normal is the old normal. we have a guest on closing bell. it's a plug shamelessly for closing bell. an analyst to talk about volume and what it means for the markets. do you think i would mention it if he disagreed with me? >> froeprobably not. we're down since want financial

crisis. >> i don't think it's a problem. >> i wanted six months actually. it's over 100% i believe. i'm amazed at the housing stocks up four straight days. clearly investigators think this spring is a good selling season and we're going to move forward. >> we can only hope, but that is an impressive chart over the last six months. sue, what are they talking about at the common fund? are they bullish right now or not? >> they generally are bullish on u.s. equities. the focus has been on a lot of the emerging markets and europe. richard bernstein was on one of my panels earlier this morning. he thinks that's an interesting development because he's not bullish on markets. there's a credit bubble and he's most bullish on u.s. markets. he thinks it's one of the bullish years we've seen in some times and he's underweighting he emerging markets. that's against the lion's share of the analysts and investors here looking for yield and