there's lionsgate up 7.5% in the past two weeks. the past couple of days have been on the downside for lionsgate. >> you have a great weekend. rest up. >> i will. that will do it for "power lunch." >> "street signs" begins right now. have a great weekend. happy friday everybody. i am brian sullivan. we have "street signs" of life all across america. what are the real world indicators telling us about the economy. and are things really getting better? we're going to show you and we want you to send us yours. rim just refuses to rebound. the stock still stuck under $14. and we've got a citi analyst with ten reasons that rim is going to get worse. and this story is anything but full of hot air. helium prices are soaring because of a shortage of the gas. going to ask the ceo of air gas if he is benefitting, mandy.

>> we certainly will. hi, brian, hi, everybody. dow is s&p on track for the worst week of the year. the indices are trying to avoid their fourth straight losing day. the dow is working on its fourth losing week of the year. the s&p has only had one losing week this year, guys. but it looks like it will have one this week as well. as for the nasdaq, it's now barely positive for the week trying to avoid what would be only its second losing week of the year. despite today's drop, nasdaq still working on best quarter since q-2 of 2009. did you know -- throw in a stat for you as well, that $340 million went to technology sector funds, maybe not so surprising, making it their second best week year-to-date and the third best since the q-2 of 2011. straight down to bob pisani at the nyse. i don't know which is the biggest clunker today, i know on your radar screen, bob, the ipo of bats and the numbers out of kb home. >> the housing numbers were disappointing and all the home builders are down on that. i think that's a bit of an outliar.

want to hear what lennar has to say on tuesday. then we'll find out whether the disappointments is really for the whole industry. i want to focus on bats because let's just call it an embarrassment here. bats is a stock exchange competition with the nyse nasdaq. we're young, fast, efficient, we have better systems. so they go public today. ipo $16. comes out first trade that happens in the morning $15.25. that's a disappointment, but what's really a disappointment. put it up. there was effectively only one trade. the initial trade. after that the system crashed over there. we're trying to figure out exactly what happened, mandy. frankly, we don't know. i tell you, there was only one trade right there at 15.25. th series of trades at pennies. now it's not possible, mandy, you have a series of trades with pennies. they were obviously erroneous. regardless, this is an embarrassment. you're a stock exchange, you're going public, and you're trading your stock on your own exchange

and it's the only stock on your exchange. you got to figure out what happened here. we're waiting, mandy, for some kind of comment from them. >> it really is embarrassing. i think it really could be called a clunker. thank you very much for that, bob pisani. >> bad story. all right. moving on. nobody can predict with absolute precision what's going to happen in the future with the markets, but you can certainly pay attention to some warning shots when they're fired. and our good friends at cnbc.com came up with a list of stocks that are currently firing shots loud and clear that they could drop in a big way. here's the criteria that they used. pay attention. maybe you want to get your pens and pencils out right now. these are stocks that are, a, in the s&p 500. they have an average short interest of at least 3.86%. meaning about 4% of the people that own the stock are betting that it will drop. plus, the average analyst estimate has to be far below the stock's current trading price. in other words, wall street is negative on the prospects at least as far as earnings go. so one of the stocks that those

folks found that might be poised to drop, here are the names. you've got whirlpool, the gap, chipotle mexican grill, herb's favorite, netflix and also sears. you can see some of these stocks have already had some tanks. again, guys, these are five stocks that identified by our friends at cnbc.com of maybe having characteristics of set to drop. they have been big momentum plays. the question is how do you stay on the right side of the mojo? let's ask steve weiss and our very own herb greenberg as well. but i want to start with apple. a name that is not on our list but certainly a high-flier recently. steve, i want to start with you. did they just have a flash crash today? and therefore is this showing the danger of momentum stocks? >> well, apple is momentum stock. i don't think that flash crash had anything to do nor does a presage fundamentals or action

in the stock. facts are apple's done very well. but when you buy momentum stock, you have to look at the fundamentals and valuation. i would argue that apple is still very cheap at this level despite momentum. so i'm careful owning apple here. >> is there any danger, though, steve, momentum investors come in late to the party. they watch the momentum and think i want a piece of that and they come in and bang and wham, it's done. >> that's absolutely true. to me a stock like apple would be a momentary dislocation versus a stock like netflix, which we saw got up to around $300 now is trading about $118 where the valuation and the fundamentals didn't support that stock price. it was pure momentum. and the people get in last drive it up the most and have no idea of the fundamentals they own. you have to separate what the underlying fundamentals are. if apple did trade down, people would look at a huge buying opportunity because i don't buy overowned, underowned type of

analysis when you're looking at a stock. >> peter, the names on our list are very different. there's a huge difference between sears holding and chipotle. when you buy into a high beta growth stock like a chipotle, how big today can it be with a drop assuming they miss earnings or don't beat with these kinds of valuations, are these stocks at risk of dropping 20% and 30% in a day? >> any stock that goes parabolic, in other words it gets so far away from its technical support and its fundamental valuations as a former guest just mentioned gets so far away that it goes in a straight line higher, you've got to be taking some chips off the table. i don't care what sector that is. i don't care whether it's consumer driven sector, restaurants, retail, real estate, you just simply got to be very, very careful. >> herb, nothing is a guarantee in life except for death and taxes. how can you hope to guarantee that you're on the right side of a momentum trade? >> you need to know what you own. but what i've noticed over the

years is two things, one is when people get excited and these things get squeezed up, the short sellers often get squeezed out. that creates a lack of natural buying. so these stocks can fall in a vacuum. the other thing that i've noticed is this often has nothing to do people say the accounting's bad or something, in this environment it really comes down to what we saw with netflix, green mountain, we've seen some of these it's when the company comes out on its earnings call and says something's not quite right. and that's when the bubble pops. >> boom. so are there any particular momentum stocks out there that are still working for now, steve, that you would nonetheless avoid? >> i would avoid sears. sears, i was short sears, but the cost to borrow shares is 53% a year. so it's very tight to borrow because eddie lam pert owns so much and so much is short. i think sears goes down. i wouldn't short because of technical screens. i would not own chipotle. the reason is valuation is just so aggressive. right now you're looking at 60

times this year's earnings, 45 times next. i don't care how good those fundamentals are, the valuation is trouble. that stock could get cut in half if it misses. i would stay away from those two for sure. >> peter, are you guys seeing more interest in short selling right now with your client sns. >> not seeing so much anything out of the ordinary. just seeing lighter volume. a little less conviction. momentum bid is still very much in place. we saw the weakness this morning which was kicked up by this momentum bid we've traded higher. there were reasons for the market to selloff this morning, whether it was contracting manufacturing overseas, weakness in new home sales, there were all sorts of reasons for it. but the bottom line is the momentum bid has lifted the market yet again. >> uh-huh. and of course in the overall markets since october imperviousness they've had to any bad news. thank you very much, peter, steve and of course, herb, i know you're going to be back. coming up next on "street signs," could rim go from bad to worse? >> we've got a citi analyst who has ten reasons why it's about to get even uglier for research

in motion. >> plus, did you know the world is running out of helium? i bet you didn't know that. now the price of gas has gone up, up, up and away. we're going to talk to the ceo of air gas, that's one of the top helium distributors, coming up in the show. [ male announcer ] aggressive new styling. a more fuel-efficient turbocharged engine. and a completely redesigned interior. ♪ the new c-class with over 2,000 refinements. it's amazing...inside and out. see your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for exceptional offers through mercedes-benz financial services.

do take a look at shares of research in motion, down 1% exactly right now. not a huge drop today, but we all know what's happened over the past year, especially me, i still haven't paid up my bet to

herb by the way. i may not. the stock is down about 80% over the past year. citi group is all the note this morning saying for rim it might be going from bad to worse. joining us now is director of citi investment research with ten reasons on why they are so grim on rim. obviously, jim, not going to have time to get to all ten, but in your mind, what are the one, two or three things, the biggest problems, with research in motion right now? >> good afternoon. the biggest problem is things are going to get worse mainly because they're not innovating to the extent that competition is such as samsung and apple innovating much faster. and importantly enterprises, the company's strength in the past is deteriorating as they're letting employees bring and buy their own devices and connect them to corporate e-mails. that is really hurting rim. we think things get much worse rather than better. it's going to be a cold summer up in canada, we think. >> how much worse? what's the end game for research in motion? do they end up in bankruptcy? do they end up being bought out

or broken up? >> we don't think it's that terrible. but we see for the end game earnings per share probably going to go down 30% to 40% year over year in a market that's growing. their margins are going to be under pressure, their units will be under pressure. it's going to get worse, much worse. we do not see bankruptcy, the company has no debt. we simply think the valuation of the shares consensus have too high expectations. that needs to come lower. our target price is actually $12. >> jim, we have the ceo, the new ceo, into cnbc, we got a look at some of the new software and features coming out. i got to say, they looked pretty impressive. the graphics capability, products aren't out yet, but they looked good. if they came out with an absolute stunner of a product, would it matter? >> such a smart observation you said, it looks good. it looks good today. by the time they come out, the whole game is going to change.

the whole industry is going to innovate so much more. great observation today. they need to have those products on the market today, not six months from now. but great observation, but the market is innovating and really getting a lot more competitive. that's why we think things are also going to keep getting worse. >> what would you do if you just had your two cents worth to be able to sit down with rimm's management and give them a couple of pieces of your mind? what do you think they should do to try to stem these losses? >> rather than firing people and laying off people to protect margins, they should forget about margins near-term, hire people, innovate, come out with new compelling products sooner rather than later to solve the problem. >> do you think they're going to do that? >> i do not. >> all right. so i guess i go back to mandy's point about an end game. buyout? lbo? microsoft buyer? >> i think what we're going to see is the shareholder activism which is pushing to go from two ceos to one ceo.

that kind of calm itself and reinvigorate itself since they solved it -- >> sorry. can you see a day where research in motion is merely a software provider that there's no hardware associated with the company? >> yes, i can. absolutely. that's the end game. but that's probably a couple years down the road. >> jim, super. thank you very much for joining us. helium prices soaring sky high making it hotter and more expensive to fill balloons like these beautiful balloons here. is it an opportunity for investors to get in on supplies? well, air gas is one of them. the stock also hit an all-time high on wednesday of this week. joining us from philadelphia, peter, the ceo of air gas. great to have you with us today, peter. i was just reading through some of the facts and figures about helium. one thing that struck me is there's a professor at cornell that said if we properly priced helium in the market, one of the balloons behind me a moment ago would be $100 as opposed to $1 because we are essentially

running out of this gas. do you agree with that? >> i'm not sure we're running out of the gas, but there is a worldwide shortage right now. and there's a bill -- or a law passed in 1996 that provided that the u.s. government would sell off its helium reserves. and the original intention was that all companies would have access to those reserves. as it turns out, it really hasn't happened. and the bom, which is the bureau of land management that has these reserves and administers them has had some production dwif difficulties. and there's been some sources around the world, because it's a global product, that have also had difficulties. so we have a shortage that's probably going to last a couple of years here before new production comes on stream. >> peter, i'm a little confused only because helium created as a

by-product often of drilling, we know there's been a drilling boom in north dakota, we've talked about fracking natural gas. what's the problem? >> well, it does occur naturally in natural gas. it's part of the string that comes off. and there's some natural gas streams -- they all have some helium, but some are rich enough in helium which requires i think somewhere around 3% or 4%, to actually to be able to refine it, to make it economical. so there aren't that many natural gas streams that are rich enough in helium to be refined. >> if we talk about prices -- i'm going to put you on the spot and see if i can get your estimates for what you think prices are going to do this year and maybe next. helium prices went up just 12% last year alone. and i understand a lot of your customers aren't even receiving all the helium they need or want. where do you think prices are going? >> they're going north. they've been going north for quite some time, at least a

year. and we've just received another allocation. so we're going to be cut back to i think somewhere around 70% of what our peak demand was. we have a lot of customers in critical industries like health care and research and refining and metal fabrication that really need this helium. and we sell 20% of the helium in the united states. one problem is that half of the helium that is refined in the united states is actually exported. >> should we stop exporting it? >> to other countries. and half of the helium that is actually refined and sold is actually owned by the united states government. the u.s. taxpayers, because the government bought this helium after the second world war. so there's plenty of helium to meet u.s. demand. but our customers aren't getting it because it's for all practical purposes, it's controlled by four or five companies who have access to

this reserve. >> so what do you see is the solution, peter? >> well, the first solution is the act that was passed in 1996 to allow for the sale of these reserves needs to be extended. number one. otherwise it will be a disaster for the u.s. economy. a lot of critical applications need helium and won't get it. and the u.s. reserves represent about 30%, i think, of worldwide reserves. so they're significant. you just can't take that much off the market. so we need an extension. we need an extension that's equitable and original with the intent of the 1996 act and that was for all companies to have access to the reserves with refining -- >> we have to jump in there. thank you very much for joining us. to once again reiterate air gas the company we're talking about

distributes but does not produce helium. we were sort of talking about the segment before the show about how do you export helium? >> over to other countries? >> this was our idea. that's the export device for helium. not a good idea. don't try that at home. >> that was not our idea. that was your idea. it could be fairly on the mark. >> that's clearly a professional doing that. don't do it at home. >> just ahead on "street signs," imagine being told you just won a $3 billion jackpot only to be told just a short time later that it was a big fat mistake? the story of the two-hour billionaires. >> a california guy really hopes you will like his house. his desperate move to get in on facebook's ipo. a fascinating story coming up when "street signs" returns. th. how they'll live tomorrow. for more than 116 years, ameriprise financial has worked for their clients' futures. helping millions of americans retire on their terms. when they want.

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social gaming stock, zynga, seeing action on reports that largest insider stake holders could be able to sell up to 43 million shares. zynga shares down by about 3.7%. brian. >> well, if you're wondering just how hot facebook pre-ipo

shares are, check this out. a california guy wants to trade his $29 million home for a piece of facebook just to get in on the action. jane wells in los angeles with the wild story. that can only occur in california, jane. you know that. >> of course it could because we're brilliant out here. or crazy. ken and linda promise this is not a gimmick to get publicity though they don't mind the publicity. they really want to swap the house they bought in 1997 for $3.7 for pre-ipo facebook shares. 10,000 square feet over 11 acres dotted with thomas kinkaid originals. how did they get this idea? >> the idea really came from seeing another home not too far from here up in los altos sold for a hefty sum and turned out it was somebody an investor in facebook. and that brought the idea to mind that maybe there's an opportunity for someone who's a

founder or a venture capitalist that has some pre-ipo shares if they would be willing to trade, i would do that. i'm interested. >> he says they've gotten two e-mails, preliminary including one wanting to know how many shares it would take. well, i guess $29 million worth. is this even allow bl? lawyers including one who's done private market transactions for facebook insider say facebook might have to approve it. the company may have first refuse sal in shares before the ipo, though if it's for a house, then you would have to figure the taxes, capital gains and property taxes both probably would be assessed on the appraised value of the house. >> why would any facebook pre-ipo shareholder want to make this -- it's a lovely home i'm sure, jane. but why would you want to do it if you own the facebook stock now? >> well, yeah. unless you don't think the shares are going to do very well, which sort of would be counterintuitive. the only reason i can think of doing it is that there's a sense in silicon valley that there's

going to be a somewhat rush for high-end real estate once everybody's shares unlock and they have cash. and it will drive prices up. and here's a way to get the house ahead of time. >> it's a great story. jane wells, thank you very much. >> you bet. >> call it the billion dollar oops. get this, the national lottery in denmark accidentally e-mailed hundreds of people congratulating them on winning the lottery. not just any jackpot though, we are talking $3.8 billion. 302 people got that e-mail. and of course all of them thought they won. two hours later another e-mail came in that simply read, oops, sorry, there's been an error. so for two whole hours people thought they were brand new overnight billionaires. denmark claims human error is to blame. i wonder if someone still has their job. all of the winners won something but it was like $35 to $70. >> here's the thing in denmark, they'll get it. they'll get on their bike, they'll go down to the pub and

everything's fine. in america, all would sue for intentional infliction of emotional distress. >> i think australia -- >> psychologically damaged by the non-win. the danes, they'll go drink and say how they discovered america and not columbus. >> nationality a differences for you. >> and everything in australia's deadly. up next on "street signs," could you be investing in a hidden time bomb and not even know it? we'll explain. >> and yesterday herb said it was game over for gamestop, but does the stock have an extra life? it's game on for battleground stock when "street signs" returns. is moving backward. [ engine turns over, tires squeal ] introducing the lexus enform app suite -- available now on the all-new 2013 lexus gs. there's no going back. see your lexus dealer. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 we're hitting new highs. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and i'm on top of it all with charles schwab. tdd# 1-800-345-2550

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beautiful day in washington with the cherry blossoms in full bloom. 90 minutes left in the trading week, so why don't we see what the street is talking about? here we go. dow and s&p still positive today but with slower than expected new home sales weighing a bit on the market, can they hold on and break their three-day losing

streak? of course we shall see. and also the final oil trades just coming in. why don't we get straight down to sharon epperson in the oil -- excuse me, we're have a little bit of a technical problem here. what are we seeing with regards to oil? i think there was a big rally going on. >> there was a big rally this morning. we're still hanging onto much of those gains. we are looking at oil prices that are coming in steadily right now just under $107 a barrel here for nymex crude futures. keep in mind any time you hear rumors about iran or israel and all that tension definitely in the marketplace. that risk premium definitely in effect in this trading session. but then when you look at what's happened over the course of the week, basically wti and brent prices are flat on the week. we've been in the same trading range for the last couple of sessions. just on friday going into the weekend with all of this

uncertainty with what could happen in the middle east often we see prices rise. not good news for those who are driving over the weekend because that means higher prices for the pump usually as you go into the weekend as well. >> indeed it does. sharon epperson, thank you very much for that. we are wrapping up our out of this world stock series with today it's dollar thrifty. the car rental company seen shares increase by more than 7,400%. the question is can you still make money renting shares at this price? let's ask equity research analyst at north coast research. john, good to have you on the show. you've only got a neutral rating on this stock. why? >> i think the summer is the key point for dollar thrifty. most of their business is done in the leisure rental segment. so 2-q and 3-q is where the company makes the bulk of its profits. hard to make a call on the spring or summer for dollar thrifty. key things we're watching in the industry right now are the volumes in the industry. are people going on spring break this year? are people going out on summer

vacations? and with that comes a deep focus on pricing. and that's where we spend a lot of our time monitoring. >> could there be some thing that would alleviate the pricing pressure? i'm wondering just enjoy stronger than expected quarterly earnings, maybe it will dust off its acquisition offer for dollar thrifty. maybe that would alleviate pricing. >> i think pricing is something that is a bit transient. you know, you have four big players in the industry of 95% of the market. the business is really a business where you're long a depreciating financed asset. and if one player overfleets for the demand environment, typically the industry moves pricing down because you can't really stimulate demand in the rental car business. you kind of take what the market gives you. it's really an issue if the industry is a right size. not necessarily the motives of dollar or hertz, it's of all the players in the industry have planned fleets appropriately. >> john, thank you very much. do appreciate your time.

>> thank you. >> all right. herb calls it one of this year's really great battleground stocks. and he sort of predicts game over for gamestop. the shares trading up today making back some of yesterday's steep losses. the real question is, will social gaming ie all those apps you're buying for your ipad or others out there, the bull case and bear cases. let's talk more now about gamestop. bill, i want to go to you first. what is the bear case on gamestop? >> well, first we have a sell rating. and $20 target which really has two prongs to it. one is longer term. issues at gamestop faces over the next couple years. and the catalyst we see for that is that i think gamestop's numbers are too high for this year. the problems they're facing comes down to i'll make it simple, two things.

their customers going elsewhere and suppliers under extreme pressure. customers so-called casual gamers, people who like to play handheld games and don't want to invest hundreds of dollars and hours into hard core consoles are going to the internet, they're playing on their phones, they're playing on tablets. they're gone and probably not coming back. >> okay. let's stop there for a second. tony onset with us here. i hear what he's saying but i go on gamestop's website, they're trading in the ipad business, they have a pc game download business. you don't agree with what he's saying. >> i think they're going to be a leader. platforms matter. gamestop knows how to get the right games in front of the right person at the right time. the gross profit dollars are up 6% this past year. and also when you think about gamestop, they have 17 million people now in kind of their ecosystem in just the last year. compare that to zynga which only has about 3.5 million paid people, i think gamestop will be a leader in digital and i think the story is similar to netflix

where they're at this transition point going between packaged media to traditional goods. >> we know what happened with netflix stock. bill, are there any arguments against what tony just said in regards to gamestop becoming a leader in digital. >> digital is still a very small part of the business. the second part i wanted to make goes to tony's point. we have to talk not just customers but suppliers. the most important suppliers are the publishers like electronic arts and take 2. they're under treasure pressure for number one, the reasons i laid out earlier. some are going to other forms of gaming and not coming back. number two, development costs are enormous. they're enormous and operating margins are down. electronic arts will probably do 10% operates margin last year. they did 27% in 2004. where is this all going? they're under pressure to take back margin. that means two things, one, they real really despise gamestop -- let

me finish. publishers increasingly looking to bring back and in the next cycle it will get worse. more expensive to develop boxes for. so i think the publishers over time are going to get more hostile towards gamestop on the yuszed business. >> tony. >> it's like getting rid of the used part of the auto market. you need use today buy new. i think what the data shows when you have software sales decline 14% in the holiday and gamestop growing 10% in the same time period, you sell your games to gamestop. all these others are clueless to who they're selling to. gamestop knows the end customer. >> let me jump in on that. i have a question. why does the industry need a middleman at all? >> there's been no instance in the history of media of people going to -- you don't go to columbia for your music or time warner for movies.

distributors matter because they help get the right content at the right time. >> do you agree, bill? >> absolutely. if people think it's the next blockbuster, i think the comparison is way overdone. our call is the stock is going down quite a lot. i agree with tony, middlemen matter. >> define a lot. >> we have a $20 price target -- >> you've got 40% of the float already short here. >> tony, let me finish. i appreciate -- i looked at this stock at $19 two years ago and didn't make this move because i didn't see a disconnect between what they're going to earn and what the street expects. the difference now is i think there's a big disconnect. i think their guidance yesterday was courageous and optimistic and i'm being charitable. so i think there's a miss coming up in the stock. is the stock going to zero? no, it's not. i think this is the year though where they really disappoint. i think they put themselves in a box yesterday. >> you see it going to basically only $3 below where it is right now. you see a fair value estimate of what $34.50, a lot higher than it is now. >> that's just the tipping

point. think about this company doing apple trade-in products, leader in digital $2 billion of incremental revenue coming their way in a very high incremental margin. take that in conjunction with the fact this company is buying back so much stock, they have no debt. a tremendous amount of eps lemplg put a 10 multiple on a $6 eps number out there $60 is there. >> guys, good debate. both very polite and nice on a friday. thank you very much for coming on. see you again. up next, roots of recovery. we need your help to find "street signs" of life around america. a big one we found here in the garden state, new jersey. >> plus, pampering your portfolio with the pet trade. how to profit from billions and billions spent on our very lovable furry friends. that's coming up. people with a machine.

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if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally. hello ? ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. and people. and the planes can seem the same so, it comes down to the people. because, bad weather the price of oil those are every airlines reality. and solutions won't come from 500 tons of metal and a paint job. they'll come from people. delta people. who made us one of the biggest airlines in the world. and then decided that wasn't enough.

there's some action happening maybe a mustard seed. almost stock sage phil collins like i can feel it comes in the air but i can't pin it down. when your friends stop you at a party and say i have seen a ton of trucks on interstate 78, many more than the last couple years. in florida says the number of brand new expensive yachts going down like 30 times more than last year. it's when your trainer says you can't get on the yacht with the bed bath and gym source are, get a parking spot right in front was a cinch last year. it's when you go to the mall and think nothing of waiting in line, being number 47 to get an opportunity to pay apple for an ipad the black one when i wanted a white one, you know it, i know

it. pretty soon everyone will know it. >> and, cramer, baby, we know it too. because if you've been watching "street signs" for the last nine months, you know that we have been hopped up on hopium for quite some time. now we're hearing more and more anecdotal evidence that as hard as i tohings are looking better. for example our own patty points out she's seeing more and more trucks on new jersey highways says they're not just new jersey or new york or pennsylvania trucks either. they're from places as far away as tennessee and indiana and montreal and some place called canada and they're big trucks too, mandy. >> they're moving sheet rock, furniture, flooring materials. there are tankers, piggy backing u.p.s. trucks. every kind of truck you can possibly imagine. >> are you seeing signs of life in your neighborhood, town, city, whatever? we want to know what's going on across america. since we don't have time to

drive the country ourself, we need your help. e-mail us or tweet us. we don't have a tumbler page. >> okay. here are some of your responses, folks. joseph tweets my hair stylist has never been busier. in my opinion that's the best local indicator. >> lots of construction, spec homes going up. days on the market is shrinking and percentage of asking is on the rise. >> and michael says hey, sully, i'm a franchisee in orlando. my store has been substantially more busy in the last few months. >> a company profiled on how i made my millions. keep your e-mails and tweets coming. a crowded restaurant, mall, parking lot, that type of stuff. we're looking for the real signs, the meaningful stuff that cramer was talking about to show signs of life, or the opposite. just make sure the mall's open. >> yeah. we're obviously open to both sides and ofblg anecdotal as well but nonetheless we want it

to come in. we're also seeing a huge sign of life in our four-legged friends. pet spending is at an all-time high in this country. in fact, americans dished out nearly $51 billion on their pets just last year. >> food the biggest cost totalling nearly $20 billion that's followed by vet care at $13.5 billion. but the services category, the one that includes grooming, boarding, manicures, pedicures. >> pet sitting. >> is that supposed to be a joke? >> it was a terrible pun. >> pet-icure. i tried. >> up 8% to $3.8 billion. >> who's profiting from this spending? look at shares of petsmart. up 40% over the last year. pet smart analyst at needham and company.

i understand the spending is up, shawn, how do we know that petsmart is going to profit from this? there's a lot of competition locally and also the fast growing online site wag.com. >> their business has been extremely strong and been driven by a couple things. first of all, yeah, i thought your joke was very, very funny. >> thank you. >> don't feed the animal. >> the thing there the pet business is actually relatively resilient in a recession because unless you're going to get rid of the pets, the biggest trend behind all this is humans treating the pets almost like their children. it's been going on for a while and just getting worse as kids leave for college, parents look to maybe have their children take their place. so they're willing to spend on services and not just premium food but the newest category, super premium. food that's good enough for humans to consume. what petsmart is doing in a bunch of their stores is putting

in ksh. >> sean, just a second. when we were looking at stocks that might benefit from this particular trend, it seems like quite a small space to play. tell us about some of the other ways you can potentially play it? there used to be petco. used to be public but not anymore. rumors it's going to go public again. >> i wouldn't be surprised. it's come in and out of being a public company several times in its life. brought in when it was struggling and shortly after petsmart began to struggle when they opened too many stores. i would suspect petco has done well. it bounces back when the economy is better and the trend spending more on pets has got to be benefitting them as well. >> sean -- >> there is a tiny pet company that sells medicines for pets. >> 1-800-pet meds. gave them a free plug. sean, thank you very much. appreciate you joining us. a picture of a dog on a bed

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yesterday herb told us about trouble with tvex. the value was cut in half. yesterday it plunged 29% or something. it's raised a lot of questions. >> indeed. a big part of that latest leg of that decline is down about 50% over the past few days. as i was started to talk about this as yesterday's disaster dejour. tvix is a traded note, not fund, but note. that trades on not the conviction which measures the implied volatility but the futures. confused? well, those derivatives of derivatives are not meant for ma and pa. and very sophisticated investors have learned the hard way in recent days it may be too risky

for them. but you cannot say that you were not warned. here's what they display in their prospectus. the long-term value of your etn is 0. if you hold it as a long-term investment, it's likely that you will lose large or a portion of your investment. makes you wonder why does the s.e.c. approve these. i asked them and their bottom line is it is not their job to weigh the merits of an investment. >> so what's the bottom line for the exchanges, the exchange products and the investor and what the s.e.c. should be doing about it? isabella, great to have you on the set with us for today. what do you feel their role ought to be in this?

i don't see why in this case they shouldn't move as well and there are things going on as well. there are disruptions and people upset. these things -- we don't know what is happening behind the scenes. >> isabella, how do you prevent to herb's point people from getting burned? is there a way to firewall that? >> or perhaps it's not even allowed. >> well, i think the professional investors would get upset if you told them, well, you can't trade this because retail investors might not understand it. but -- so that wouldn't be fair on them. again, we need to protect the retail investor. perhaps there should be a firewall. >> when i talk about these in the past, i've talked about, is the tail wagging the dog?

the pros tell me that is not the case. >> exactly and when you look at what has been going on in the vix futures, not to get complicated about t. but it's not performing how you might expect it to perform. there's definitely a anomalies and volatility trade is telling me that, you know, they can't predict these things. >> so if the guys that trade volatility for a living cannot predict the way that tvix is moving, that tells me that the product is fundamentally flawed? >> yeah. i think that's a very good point. it's a mystery to them as much as to us. >> is it flawed or just too complicated and perhaps if the

prospect tus was clear and had the clear risks involved, would that be a better way of doing it? >> i think it's a question of complexity. and, yes, i think it would definitely help if the prospect tus was clearer. the risk factors are huge. >> no one is going to read a risk factor section of an etf or an etn. i can tell you that. >> and they are probably writing it in a way that the first two sentences, your eyes glaze over. >> i have spent a lot of time reading these prospectuses and i came away with it on its own and was stumped. >> so that's how you spend your saturday nights? thank you, isabella, for joining us today. we're bringing you a whole different kind of sparkle. check out this bad boy. it's being called the world's first all diamond ring. it's no band. it's just all diamond. this 150 carat jeweller is going

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