but we've still got a ways to go before the end of the trading day. we'll just have to see how it closes out. thank you so much for watching "street signs." the "closing bell" is coming up next. and i hope to see you the same time tomorrow. have a good afternoon. hi, everybody, good afternoon. welcome to the "closing bell." i'm maria bartiromo at the new york stock exchange. >> i'm bill griffeth. it's a squeaker here, will it be six for six for the dow, posting best gains for the year. the blue chip average is flirting with the best six-day win streak going back to july of 2010. that would be nice to see, wouldn't it. right now, after a midday rally, we're seeing stocks lose some steam heading into the home stretch. that was led by a lower dip in energy stocks.

oil prices fell rather precipitously. we'll talk with the market experts and get strategy from them coming up here in a few minutes. but first a look at where we stand at the moment. the dow, a zigzag day as it tries to follow through on yesterday's gains. right now up nine points on the industrial average at 13,187. the nasdaq has been struggling, despite gains again today for apple. nasdaq down five points at 3,034. and the s&p 500 index, at this hour, is down to 1,392. >> the market lost a lot of its momentum. the big movers this hour, financials mixed on the heels of that big rally yesterday. citibank, the big decliner. the stock trading lower after failing those stress tests by the federal reserve. the fed objecting to the company's capital plans amid worries that it can weather another economic severe crisis.

however, ceo vikram pandit told employees today that their capital goals have not changed. we'll get reaction to the results of the fed's latest stress test with noted analyst meredith whitney. former fdic chairman will give her reaction to the tests and banking sector. unless the next hour, we'll talk about the future of oil and gas prices when i sit down with john watson. big show ahead. >> a lot to get to. yields and ten-year, and 30-year at their highest levels since october. so how far will this momentum take those yields to this point. that's our "closing bell" exchange today. we have bob pisani here at the new york stock exchange, of course, and rick santelli is standing by at ecb headquarters. rick, i'm struck by the fact that the yields are at levels that we last saw, the last time the stock market had a meaningful bottom. any significance to that? do you see yields going much

higher here? >> i think i'd be very nervous to fade momentum on a market, the treasury market especially long, bill. that's been in a very tight 20, 30-basis range in four months. now that we've broken out of that mid-november range, whether it's testing at 240 yield in the tens or testing 350 in the 30s, i wouldn't jump in front of this. i think maybe one way you can tell that it's the right play looking for higher yields is how aggressive quicker issuance has been for the month of february. we had the fifth largest month ever in investment grade. and the third largest month ever in high yields. >> bob, no follow-through as we mentioned today to speak of on the big rally. some of that may be the expiration coming up on friday. some of the higher yields today, right? >> this is a very, very tricky moment for the markets in general. people aren't sure what to do. the only thing we know for sure, put up the tlt, money is coming out of the bond market. but where the heck is it going? folks, it's sure not going into

stocks today and it's not going into commodities. this is the tlt, the etf for -- look at that. this is the etf for the bond market. money's coming out. volume has been huge in the last few days. but where is it going. the dollar's been going up almost every single day this month. that's what you want to see there. that's putting pressure on the commodity market, putting pressure on commodity stocks. gold weak today. look at all the commodities to the downside. the corresponding commodity sox are weak as well. the s&p 500, look, it's only down fractionally today. it's 3-to-1 declining. the market is very weak today. one factor might be this right here. know what happened right there? put up apple. apple, after blowing up in the early part of the day, look at that. and down there. that put pressure on the stock market. >> $17. >> that's right. it moved $17. >> isn't that something? >> that actually affected the

overall market late in the day. >> maria, we'll spend a lot of time over the next couple of hours focusing on the bank stocks from a fundamental and technical standpoint. >> i want to hear what sheila bair has to say about that. and meredith whitney was the first to call the dividend cut at citigroup. so long ago. so we'll see what she has to say about that. but you know, this transparency that we're talking about, the federal reserve is actually identifying the four banks that failed these tests. you know, it can go both ways. look what happened with met life last night, trading down. and you have to wonder if this action does impact these businesses going forward. a financial services company, not up to the standards, according to the federal reserve. interesting. >> you would think, rick, we were out of the fed's comfort zone where the yields are right now, yes? >> just asking the question puts me out of my comfort zone. to think that a government entity is looking at what's comfortable or not comfortable for investors. gets you down the road of how tricky it is going to be for the

fed to maneuver, as asset changes and me rens moves, even as the economy, at a slow clip, does move. >> rick, everybody says down here, the fed's not going to worry if the fed goes to 2.25%. when do the feds start worrying? do we wake up one morning at 3%? when will ben bernanke really start to sweat? >> i think that's a loaded question. if we get up to 4% because the economy's cooking in greece, i'd like to see ben take a hiatus or a three-week vacation. if we move higher because there's a perception that there isn't another sugar buzz coming from the fed or economy isn't really improving but rates are going up, then that becomes an issue. and i'm not sure what the fed should do or shouldn't do. one thing i can tell you, the closer you get to november, bob, the more reticent the fed's going to be, in my opinion, to do anything. >> tradition holds they will stay out of the way there. before the april meeting, when everybody expects some guidance on what they do when operation

twist goes out of the way, whether they provide more quantitative easing, it is going to be a nightmare for them if yields are much higher at that point. >> remember, these declines, bill, are coming as this operation twist is going on. they're buying at the long term, selling at the long end and selling at the short end. >> keep in mind, they have a problem. they're selling two years to keep the rate adjusted trade. there's not enough two-years for them to sell. as this program starts to move towards june, they really do need to make a decision. because if they want to extend twist, they have to do it in a different way. i think that's why this whole new process of sterilization has been evoked. >> there was a time when the markets liked the quantitative easing. check back with you a little bit later. >> the movers and shakers, for the averages, seema mody with that angle. >> about less than an hour left in the trading day. investors are running the numbers. relief about largely positive bank stress tests and upbeat economic data spilled over from

the prior session. but investors seem to be booking profits. we have the s&p 500 and nasdaq trading in negative territory. take a look at the ten-year note, treasury prices extending their losses, pushing yields to their highest levels since october. focusing in on those bank street tests, that has been the topic of discussion. all failed to meet at least one of the capital requirements under the stress test. take a look how the stocks are faring. all in negative territory except suntrust, up 3.9%. in tech, big moves in apple. the best performer on the nasdaq 100. morgan stanley raising its price target. the stock right now up 3%. given the outperformance of apple, some are saying we should label this as its own asset class. s&p tech sector is up 18.6% year-to-date. however, without apple, it's

only up 13.7%. just goes to show how much weight apple carries. last, look at bed bath & beyond. analysts at bernstein research raised their estimates for same-store sales growth. that stock trading down by 3%. bill, back over to you. >> seema, thank you very much. by the way, did you notice the volume was heavier today? >> yes, it was. it was heavy last night as well. i think that's encouraging. >> that would be encouraging for you, wouldn't it. as we head to the close, just about 50 minutes to go. here the dow jones industrial average still holding on it to a little gain of four points. >> coming up next, she has been called city group, would have to raise capital before the financial crisis. she was right on the citigroup dividend cut as well. she's been cautious on the banks ever since. meredith whitney tells us whether she's changing her tune following the mostly positive results from the stress tests. >> former fdic chair sheila bair, breaking up the big banks.

that's a question that maria is going to pose to her 4:30 eastern time. >> how the big banks are faring in the wake of the stress test results. what makes the sleep number store different? the sleep number bed. the magic of this bed is that you're sleeping on something that conforms to your individual shape. wow! that feels really good. in less than a minute i can get more support. if you change your mind once you get home you can adjust it. so whatever you feel like, the sleep number bed's going to provide it for you. at our semi-annual sleep sale, save $400 to $700 on our most popular bed sets. plus, free standard shipping - but only through march 18th! only at the sleep number store, where queen mattresses start at just $699

welcome back to "closing bell." i'm herb greenburg. as expected, the s.e.c. announced charges in the trading of private companies like facebook and twitter. it charged felix investments. i and its principal. saying they engaged in a proper self-dealing, among other things. earning secret commissions, among other things, and saying share post was engaged in security transactions without registering as a broker/dealer. still trying to sort of dig through this right now. just wanted to get that news out to you since we have been discussing that, going back several weeks here on cnbc. back to you guys. >> thanks very much, herb.

we're heading to the close here, about 47 minutes in the trading session. "state check" on the dow jones industrial average. pushing for its best six-day winning streak since july 2010. we've lost altitude in the last few minutes. dow was up 44 points at the high of the session this morning. financials have been among the better performers in the dow today. american express, bank of america, two of the blue chip averages stronger gainers, along with general electric and travelers corp. >> thank you so much, bill. we've got meredith whitney here. she rocked the world back in 2007 when she accurately predicted citigroup's cash crisis. four big banks failed the latest stress test. with 15 other banks getting the okay through the fed, what does this say about the health of the industry's recovery. we posed that question to meredith whitney. she's ceo of meredith whitney advisory group. good to see you. >> good to see you.

>> i want to get your take on where people are allocating money. what's your reaction to the bank stress tests? >> the assumptions were draconian. the severe scenarios that were imposed upon the banks. i don't know that it's surprising, other than it came two days earlier than expected. we had a buy on jpmorgan for a long time. we've had a sell on suntrust, which failed. and citi failed. i think citi failed because it asked for too much and maybe didn't have an appropriate accepts of what the fed was expecting. they can resubmit and pass. >> so you think citi has enough capital? >> i don't know that -- citi is -- citi's not creating a lot of capital. they still have that sizeable deferred tax asset. so the quality of their capital is not terrific. and they have risky assets, which is clearly demonstrated in the stress test. i found the stress test

illuminating to read. in march of '08 when i first started coming on your show, i said the banks should trade at best tangible book. or a little bit better. but that doesn't mean they're off to the races and there's tremendous momentum behind the fundamental models of these banks. so they still have to hold more capital. the leverage is lower. which is a huge challenge to higher returns on capital. so you get -- you'll get long in the tooth these large cap banks, if you get, you know, 20%, 30% returns. because people are really going to pay attention to what are these guys earnings. the earnings outlooks are not that strong. >> you say the banks are oversold. >> they were oversold. they've come a long way in the last two days. bank america still oversold, you know, i think $10, $11, people are going to start paying attention to what bank of

america earns. jpmorgan is still upside. but it's not like -- i'm a fundamental investor. so i want to know that there are legs to these stories. i don't see huge legs -- you're getting a value trade and that's just about it. now, the smaller banks are overvalued in my opinion. and they're not going to be able to demonstrate real earnings. and people don't want to buy them in terms of they're not a consolidation story. you've got the large cap banks that are oversold. and the mid-cap banks, small-cap banks that are overbought. >> let's talk about sort of the fundamentals here. because of the earnings power. we're not sure if and when the volcker rule is going to be implemented. that, of course, changes the revenue stream. you have a buy on jpmorgan, tell me about the earnings potential there. >> jpmorgan we upgraded, it was a value call. and i usually hate value calls because you get stuck too long in value calls.

but the stock was just too cheap. they'll have a great quarter in capital markets. fixed income has benefited enormously from the europe ltro program. so it's like the equivalent of the fed's purchase program. so they'll have a good capital markets quarter. and there are other businesses, maybe okay with asset writeups. for the last two years, anyway, you've had a strong first half and terrible second half. i expect you'll have a strong first -- you know, decently okay first half, and a far weaker send half. >> would you still sell citi and suntrust right here at these levels after the sell-off? >> i think sun trust is at -- you know, it's richly valued. so what's the trade here. are they going to -- you're just not going to make any money in my estimation on that name. and citi, it's difficult to move that ship. they're investing in a lot of regulatory processes, but it's

like the old broken-down victorian house, you have to put so much money in to get to a modern equivalent of a new house. it's just -- their investment span is prohibitive. it's not that exciting in terms from an investment scenario. people were way too optimistic about citi being able to earn a lot. >> are they going to be able to come back and get out of this this year? >> oh, yeah. but it's a fantastic home run investment, because they're still not going to grow. this was just a -- citi failing is not a huge deal. it's reflective of the fact that someone gave them really bad advice in terms of what to go to the fed with under the stress test. but i don't think it doesn't change the game. citi hasn't been investable in four years. >> what would it take for you to invest in citi? >> a new brain. they're stuck with what they have. it's just not going to happen. >> let me move on to the muni bond market.

on this program, and then you reiterated on "60 minutes," you talked about the possibility of defaults. are you writing a book about it? >> i am writing a book about it. look, you have stockton that is on the brink of bankruptcy. you have five citis, including detroit, which is on the brink of insolvency. it's fascinating, because there's been so much back room political maneuvering to keep these citis from going bust. california is trying to pass legislation to prevent municipalities from declaring bankruptcy. so there's been every effort on the part of the states to prevent the default. which will happen sooner or later. but look, it's happening at an accelerated pace. what's clear of what's happened, social services are being cut dramatically. taxes are going up. you're going to get into multi-billion-dollar fiscal gaps. and so you'll have to keep cutting programs. you see the migration of the country shift. that's what i'm most interested

in. >> where is it happening on an accelerated basis. we've only seen $2.6 billion in default and it's not happening as you predicted it. >> i would argue that the number is a lot higher than that. and they're not called technical defaults. it took how long for greece to become a technical default. so they're insolvent. they're not paying their bills. and they're not called defaults. a lot of understated defaults. and i think that this is prolific. you're either willing to see it or you'll shut your eyes. if people want to tell me, oh, i was wrong, because this hasn't weighed out, stay tuned. >> what is your take on europe right now? i mean, greece obviously officially in default. do you worry that europe is going to spill onto the u.s. markets and the economy here, or do you think that things have been stabilized enough in the eurozone to be contained? >> i think europe has already spilled onto the united states,

to the extent that economically, the slow growth in europe has impacted companies. it has also benefited many u.s. companies in terms of very low rates, because nowhere else to go. you've got capital influence on the u.s. because of the duress of europe. so ultimately, things will normalize out and we'll start looking behind the kimono of the u.s. and the u.s. doesn't look terrific. u.s. corporations look fantastic. u.s. banks look so much better than european banks. >> putting new money to work in u.s. stocks right here? >> there are u.s. stocks that i think are terrific. and there are some -- look, there's a whole group of names that have outperformed and will continue to outperform. look at discover. the stock has been up 30% every year for the past three years. there's real fundamental growth. someone mentioned american express earlier on the program. a terrific company. you've got heartland investments all through the u.s. central corridor that are doing really

well. >> agriculture related. >> agriculture, freight companies. there's a huge opportunity to invest in u.s. equities. and i'm very bullish on some. i just haven't been interested in financials for a while. >> thank you so much for being on the program. >> thank you. >> meredith whitney on the stress tests and the broader market. the market is really having given up an earlier rally, trading very close to break-even. the dow jones industrial average now down just about five points. reversing continue entirely. jpmorgan shares taking a breather as well after a surge. we'll show you why it's another big bank that could be ready to break out. stay with us on that. chevron shares at a one-year high tonight. chairman and ceo john watson will sit with me, talking about how the company can make a profit despite the collapse in the gas prices. from accounting. peter. i can see that you're busy... but you were gonna help us crunch the numbers

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welcome back. i'm sharon epperson at the nymex. a dramatic decline in precious metals today and it continues in the after-hours session. gold prices down more than $56. we actually brek below the $1635 an ounce level. there are some traders that are looking to see whether gold will be able to hold on to that $1600 psychological support. we're also looking at a steep

sell-off in the silver market, down about 5% or so. overall we've seen the strength in the dollar weighing on commodities across the board, and rotation traders saying out of commodities and into equities, even though we're seeing a little bit of weakness in the equities, not nearly what we're seeing in the commodities market. in the oil market, the trade really has been that brent crude spread. it blew out to a $20, nearly $20 level earlier today. so that's something the traders are watching very carefully. back to you. >> okay, sharon, thank you very much. we're heading to the last half hour of trading today. bank stocks very much in the spotlight after last night's monster rally after the stress tests were released. now today, most of them are down. so we're wondering whether last night's rally was a head fake, or is today's sell-off a chance to get back into these bank stocks at this point. joining us from the technical per speck sieve in "talking number numbers", rich ross is a strategist at auerbach grayson.

is this a head fake? >> we don't like financials in banks, we love them right now. that wasn't a head fake last night. that was just a sign of things to come. let's take a look at the chart of the bkx. that's your kbw bank index. >> this goes back to 2007. you're looking at a long perspective here. >> this is a five-year weekly chart. the orange line we see coursing through that chart, 200-week moving average. this is one of my favorite technical indicators. it gives you very few signals. but when you get those signals, you want to respect those signals. look at the green circle here. we see the first breakout above the 200-week moving average in over four and a half years. >> kind of hard to see, but i guess the chart, the index has gone above that average there. >> it has taken that out. trust me at home, we've moved above that 200-week moving average. now, let's go back to 2007, when we broke to the down side of that 200-week moving average. you literally called the top of the s&p 500 within five days.

that's a pretty compelling sell signal. of course, in hindsight. but i'm giving you foresight right now. i think we have an equally compelling buy opportunity in the financials, based on the breakout above the 200-week. >> all the focus last night was on jpmorgan chase because they were the first out of the chute to release their dividend. >> there are a lot of stocks that make up this index that we like. one stock in particular, u.s. bancorp. there are a number of things we like about this chart. for one, the stock had a nice relative strength against its peers. it held up very well in 2010. and once again in 2011. created a very nice double bottom. you'll see a very well-defined trading range. 21 on the low end, 29 on the high end. >> when do we break out of that range. >> a breakout which suggests we go significantly higher. when you have a multi-year trading range like this, think about it like a coiled spring. that inertia has been released

this week. 29, minus 21, add on the $8, brings us up to $37. that's almost 20% from current levels. >> are you throwing darts at the bank stocks? do you like them all? are you being selective? >> bill, i don't throw darts at a board. when my chart's like this, when they look like this, i know they're going higher. of course, you always have to be selective. we don't just throw caution into the wind. a lot of work goes into this. but we like those banks and we like those brokers. >> rich ross, thank you for joining us on "talking numbers" today. >> we've got a market that is fractionally moving after a huge rally has reversed course. we are just in the final stretch. we are up 12 points on the dow industrials. we have just about 30 minutes before the closing bell sounds. our next guest says there are tremendous overlooked opportunities in this market. we've got the details coming up. as we take a break, look at each member of the dow and how they're trading right now. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 i'm constantly working my screens.

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welcome back. bob pisani down on the floor of the new york stock exchange. this is a very tricky day.

what we know for sure, money's come out of the bond market, particularly the treasury market, but where is it going. it doesn't seem like it's going into the stock market or commodity market. s&p 500 doing nothing here. but more importantly, declining to advancing stocks on the new york stock exchange. that's not strength. here's another issue, the big kahuna, apple, around 1:30 eastern time it goes from $582 to $595, and then just drops down. is it going into corporate bonds? a lot of people think that's going to be a very favorite little sweet spot. doesn't seem like that's happened today. the big corporate bond etf that's out there, and there it is, the lqd, down 1% today. bill and maria, that's a big, big drop. looks to me money's going into cash because they're not quite certain what's going on. this is an inflection point for the overall economy now. >> thanks so much, bob. dow hanging on to positive territory by just a fraction. it is on track for the best six-day run since july of 2010.

one of our next guests expects the market to move higher and is looking at overlooked factors in this market. >> she is erin gibbs, the equity chief investment officer at iq. and jason trent at strategic research partners. thank you for joining us. what's everybody overlooking right now? >> one of the things we're looking at is how much of a percent of your revenues come from domestic sales versus foreign sales. we are more positive on the u.s. versus the rest of the world. and that's one of the factors that we include as an overlay. >> if the dollar strengthens as it has now suddenly here, won't that hurt their profits? >> what we prefer is actually companies that have more domestic steals. >> more domestic sales, i understand. >> that's an interesting take on things given the fact a lot of people are on the opposite in trade, looking at the international economies and saying that's where the hot spots of the world are and that's where we want our companies to be exposed to. >> we're looking at

risk-to-return. we're really looking for more of that reward. and we just feel there's too much volatility in a lot of the other markets. so if you want that long-term stability like we have in a lot of our portfolios, that's one of the views. >> jason, what do you think about the market right here? >> with what erin is saying, i think that's true in emerging markets versus small caps. the deviation of the returns has been a lot larger in the emerging markets. so you were taking a lot more risk for less return. as far as the overall market is concerned, there's an awful lot of liquidity out there. when you have 0% interest rates, it solves a lot of sins, but at a certain point, i think in the second half of the year i think the market will factor in what we view as a fiscal clip in 20123, and mild recession next year. >> which is what you told us last time you were here. we had yesterday's rally, this bank rally with the stress test results out. and we've had better jobs report. we've had good retail sales

numbers. you're not changing your tune in the meantime? >> if anything, it wouldn't surprise me if the market continued to move higher. once you start to get -- i know it sounds pat to say this, but i do think there's -- >> it worked last year. >> this year could mimic last year when you have a hard time getting the fed around an election, providing even more liquidity than they have already. >> what are the dividend payers? it seems like last night's use that jpmorgan was raising the different dent is sort of pushing other companies, not only other companies to institute dividends. >> a lot of this is going to come down to policy. the only thing problematic, and i'm big into equities as a source of yield, that this administration is saying that the bush tax cuts are going to expire. and therefore, you're going to triple the amount of taxes paid on dividends. >> should dividends taxes, they're going to triple? >> when include the payroll tax. >> you think that will make

people reluctant to buy dividend payers? >> i think it will make companies reluctant to pay dividends until they know what the next election holds. >> the question is, do we jump on the bank stocks now that they have passed the stress test. do you agree with that or not? >> we still look at fundamentals. there are certain bank stocks that are still very good. there are other stocks that are still much more riskier. >> who do you like? >> not so much i like. but i can name one i don't like, jenn-air financials. one of the stocks that has a high probability of default. and that's actually very predictive of the equity returns. at least in the past it has been. we used that as an overlay. that's one -- they had a nice run-up and i would take the money off the table. >> erin, thank you for joining us. jason, see you later on the program as well. >> see you at 4:00, jason. 20 minutes before the closing bell sounds for the day.

what was the catalyst, bill, to completely reverse an earlier pretty good move in this market? >> oil was one of the catalysts, as prices went lower here. we're going to get ready to trade the close here. citi, one of four banks to fail the fed's stress test last night. should you buy on that stock's weakness. >> after the bell, former fdic chair sheila bair giving us her take on what the fed stress test really says. >> one of the hottest stories on wall street these days, a former goldman sachs executive blasting the company in this morning's "new york times" op-ed page. stick around, we'll find out how goldman has responded to that. >> some of the standout performers in the s&p 500. (

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i'm bertha coombs. apple will close at a fresh all-time high today, but off of its interday high, came within 5 bucks of a six-handle after morgan stanley say they see this

stock going to $960 by the end of 2013. they think the market is underestimating its earnings potential here with the new introduction of the ipad later this week. meantime, apple's outside influence continues to grow. if you look today, look at what is up right now. outside of the dow. the tech sector, nasdaq triple qs, and that is because apple is a big gorilla within those indices. >> yeah, back up $20 at this point. we're heading to the close, about 17 minutes left in this session. time for a quick market "state check" on the nasdaq itself. the tech sector may be among the top performers today. but that hasn't held the nasdaq composite index after spending the last two hours in the red. it has made a comeback right around break-even. this will be a squeaker on the close. meanwhile, the volatility index making a comeback today after a dip below 14 on tuesday for the first time since june of '07.

a few months before the market peaked at that time. now it's up a fraction at this hour. there's the nasdaq down right now. maria? >> thank you so much. >> certainly. >> one of the big names failing those stress tests, citi down better than 3% today. so what do you want to do with citi as an international holding here? john is director of instituti institutional sales at gfi group, joining us now with this trade. john, let's talk about this. what would you be doing with citi? a lot of debate about this stock today. >> a lot of debate. i think that a little bit overestimated what they were going to get back from the fed. so when the fed denied them, this stock obviously sold off yesterday after hours. i think vikram is maybe not as good of a banker as moynahan. moynahan had a much worse legacy asset on his balance sheet. he didn't try to overplay his hand. to have bank of america's balance sheet withstand a 21%

decrease in home values, 50% stock market decrease, and then also 13% unemployment, i think that speaks to what a job he's done at bank of america. citi, we're basically neutral on citi. >> meredith whitney just said the real problem was the company asked for too much. they wanted to move on the dividend and buyback, et cetera, and they were just too aggressive. but what were you just saying? you were saying that -- what's your ratings on these stocks? >> well, like i said, citi is more of a neutral. bank of america i think was a play from yesterday. it acted really well all day. it hung in there, actually, with some of the core companies. i think that bank of america really was the play. what we did see today in citibank was a lot of put selling in the 35 strike. which seems to be the support. 35, equivalent to $3.50 on the 10-for-1 split. that strike seems to be active both in march and in april. you can sell the april 35s for $1.40 today, which basically

gets you in the stock at $43.50. that's the best way to play citi. bank of america, basically outright buying because the stock is so cheap. it's $4 under book. so if it trades anywhere close to $12, $13, that would be the better play. >> it really is interesting that b of a did pass and now we have the questions around citi. john, thank you for joining us at cnbc. >> we're strengthening a little bit. let's see if the nasdaq and s&p can finish positive here. tech cash cows, does a big cash stockpile and next to no debt really add up to a winning combination for your portfolio? we'll break down the charts of one stock that meets those criteria. seema mody is standing by with her list of "under the radar" stocks. >> it's all about tech and financials. i'll walk you through a couple of the regional banks that have posted stock buybacks.

that's coming up on the "closing bell." back in a flash. the market seems to be starting to say, we may be in charge, not necessarily the fed. >> just moments ago jpmorgan announced it is increasing its dividend to 30 cents a share, up from 25 cents a share. >> this is not what the fed meant to do. >> four banks did not pass the stress test.

i'm back on the floor of the new york stock exchange here in front of the post where they trade shares of rite-aid. they put the logo up there with the stock. trading sharply higher. that's a 52-week high. they had a contract dispute which centers around how much

the benefit manager reimburses pharmacies. credit suisse said a walgreen takeover of rite-aid would cost between $400 million and $500 million. despite of sizeable hurdles, such a deal would raise major antitrust concerns. puts the odds of a deal between walgreen and rite-aid happening about one in three. rite-aid has surged in the last year, up 80%, while shares of walgreen have been in the red in that time frame. maria? >> bill, thank you. they may not be stealing the headlines, but there are some "under the radar" stocks making some moves today. seema? >> a number of banks issued stock buyback announcements after the results of the stress tests. a couple banks we don't focus on normally, let's look at a couple of the names. discover financial services announcing that its board approved a $2 billion share repurchase program. the stock was actually flat. let's go to reagan's financial. it had begun a public offering of about $900 million of common

stock as a part of the plan to buy back $3.5 billion of series "a" preferred stock issued under the t.a.r.p. program. the stock up almost 7%. let's also look at key corp, saying it would buy bt $344 million in stock. and said the board will evaluate an increase in the dividend. zion bank corp said it won't have to raise equity in order to repay the $1.4 billion of t.a.r.p. aid. that news sending shares of zion's higher in today's trade, up better than 10%. maria, back to you. >> seema, thank you so much. we'll take a short break and get to the closing countdown after the break. [ tom ] we invented the turbine business right here in schenectady. without the stuff that we make here,

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welcome back. we are just a few minutes away from the closing bell. we're looking at the market trade fractionally. a lot of focus on the bank stocks today, given the stress test results yesterday. citi has been down all day. one of the four banks that failed those stress tests. jpmorgan also rolling over today on the heels of a big rally yesterday. of course, that powered this market. let's look at some of the averages here with the dow jones industrial average, as we approach this close. higher by just a fraction. volume picked up today, that's on the heels, of course, of yesterday, where we saw incredibly heavy volume on all of the news regarding the stress test. bill, over to you on the floor. >> volume was heavier today, wasn't it, maria. i'll ask mary ann about that in just a moment. the dow is trying to remain positive here. it would be six days in a row, best six-day win streak for the dow going back a couple of years

here. but you wonder if we're going to see some competition facing the stock market at some point. for example, the ten-year yield. if it goes high enough. we're back to highs now on the yield of the ten-year that we last saw in october when the stock market set a meaningful low at that time. here we are at 227 on the ten-year. the 30-year, which had its own auction today is now at 3.41%. and you wonder how much higher it goes before it starts to pose some competition. so far, right now, what we're seeing is money come out of treasuries and go somewhere. i guess to some degree in stocks. gold, big hit today on the price of gold. down $51, just off the lows for the day now at $1643. it's looking for some sort of support level right now. and the price of oil, that was calling the shots in the afternoon here. we had a decent little rally here, even though the inventory data this morning was rather

bearish. supply was up, demand was down. but late in the day they came to their senses and the price of oil and gasoline futures were coming down. and that took a toll on the stock market to some degree. some of the sectors we saw among the s&p today, technology. the sector for all seasons was the lone gainer. everybody else neck tiff today. health care, there's the financials that were so strong yesterday. followed by the usuals, and utilities. you usually find the utilities here on the high side or on the low side these days. as we head to the close here, mary ann bartels is here. is this the beginning of a new move higher for the market, yesterday's rally? what do you make of this? >> yes, we got great breakouts yes. volume was above its three-month moving average. so we got volume. the s&p hit a new high. we got a breakout on the financials. that was big. it's across all the banks. the large banks, the regionals, the broker/dealers.

now we're going to be facing fairly shortly first-quarter performance. and i do think we can be in the early stages of an asset allocation shift, bonds into stocks. i'm liking this action, bill. >> how much higher do you think we could go? we are coming off the lows in october. we already had a pretty good move since october 3rd. >> yes, we have, but we can still get up to 1440. we can still struggle around 1400. but i think by the end of the quarter we'll see closer to 1440. >> heading to the close here. >> not a lot of follow-through. the action wasn't all in the stock market. it was in the bond market. money is coming out of the bond market. what we've been trying to figure out all afternoon, is where it is going. >> exactly. >> it isn't going into stocks. a few big cap stocks. not going into commodities. traders feel we're at an inflection point. not sure if