>> no. can't even find them here. quick, man, we got to go to sue. >> all about starbucks. jack in the box, starbucks. >> that does it for us. "power lunch" begins right now. three hours to go in the trading day and investors have one eye on the market and one eye on washington. president obama blasting the republican budget that passed the house. some say he's playing the class warfare card. others say he's speaking up for the middle class. we'll have the very latest. march minutes madness. the minutes from the most recent fed meeting out in less than an hour. investors are going to parse every word for clues about any more easing. we'll look ahead. mobile wars. with rim on the ropes will apple, google or microsoft win the battle for the big bucks? yes, enterprise business. i'm sue herera with the very charming simon hobbs, and "power lunch" begins right now.

i'm kayla tausche at the realtime exchange. car sales solid. factory numbers a little softer than expected. markets in a wait and see mode ahead of those fed minutes. here's where we stand now. all indices to the downside. nasdaq fairing the best do down .1%. s&p losing six points and dow losing just about 54. midday movers, urban outfitters higher. an upgrade from citi. express scripts put on the conviction buy list from goldman. cvr energy also higher. carl ikahn. that up better than 6% today. take a look at the downside. moison coors lower. valero energy down about 3.5%. netflix downgraded at barclays.

that stock down more than 50% in the last year. even though it had a great first quarter. guys, back to you. >> thank you very much, kayla. all right. right now the president is speaking in washington. he's speaking to members of the associated press who is hosting this event and other media members. our john harwood joins us right now. john, the president had some very interesting comments on a variety of subjects yesterday. it's going to be interesting to see how he uses his position in this address today. >> sue, he's already using -- i've been watching for the last few minutes. he's getting ready to take questions in a few moments. he's going very hard after the paul ryan budget which by extension is the mitt romney budget. he's endorsed it. it's the president's attempt to frame general election argument. he's essentially saying what republicans would do with their budget, paul ryan would do, leave seniors to bear the risk of higher health care costs over time by cutting medicare, cut off people who rely on medicaid, people with disabilities, people

with severe financial and health care difficulties. and also would cut the discretionary parts of the budget. education, job training. that he says is necessary for future economic growth. and he's going hard after it. republicans have their own arguments. their argument is the president is not serious about the budget deficit which is over $1 trillion and has been for the last several years. this is really posting up the two cases that the sides are going to take to the voters. we're getting one side right now. >> has he mentioned as he did yesterday the health care hearings in front of the supreme court? yesterday he threw down a challenge. >> he did. >> basically. which was interesting to say the least. provocati provocative, certainly. he hasn't mentioned that yet. do you anticipate that he might follow up on his comments of yesterday? >> he may get a question from the editors of the associated press when the q & a starts. in the prepared speech, this a budget speech. he's defending his priorities. contrasting them with republicans. of course, he tried to strike that grand bargain with john boehner, the house speaker, last

year. didn't work out. we wouldn't be having quite the same argument had that deal workut last summer, but it didn't. >> exactly. >> but on the supreme court decision, the president yesterday really was preparing an argument to take to the voters if, in fact, that individual mandate struck down, saying, you know, i can't imagine as a constitutional law professor they would strike it down because it would be so outrageous if they did it would be a case of judicial overreach conservatives usually complain about. interesting for the president who could have said no comment. we'll wait to see what they do. he went hard at it. >> he sure did. >> we're going to leave you for the moment. obviously as soon as he takes these three questions put forward by ap, we'll go back to the president. let's switch on the power lunch power surge and drill down on stories drives the day. fed minutes on tap. they'll be released in just under an hour. should investors expect more quantitytive easing? what would that mean for the markets? senior economics reporter steve liesman joins us now. steve, i understand from your analysis you've basically been able to divide the members of

the fomc into three camps. >> yeah. >> into which does the man himself fall? >> let me show you the camps. there is a substantial debate in the markets right now over the fed's next steps. operation twist comes to an end. we hope in the next hour to learn more about what each of these three camps we're going to talk about are thinking about the way forward. here's a way to think about it. the even if camp. more qe even if economic growth continues as the forecast envisions. the only if camp. more qe only if the economy deteriorates. and the no ifs, ands or qe camp. the fed has done enough. no qe under any scenario. fed chairman ben bernanke hasn't specifically told us where he stands moamong these camps. markets are not anticipating

additional quantitative easing from the fed. the probability fell from 48% in january to 33% in march. there were three possible fed decisions. more qe. sterilized qe. or continue operation twist. but there's a problem here. the fed is running out of short-term securities with which to conduct twist. when it sells short term and buying long term in order to push down those long-term rates. guys, a technical factor could limit the next policy step. we'll get a read on that as well as how the fed may work around that, simon. on the issue of which camp bernanke is in, i would say he would want to do more. all other things being equal. and would be in the even if camp. but i think he sees the politics and i also think he's afraid, simon, of sort of using that bullet in case there's something worse coming from europe or another shock to the economy. >> yes, in public he's as we saw recently, he's -- at the moment he is stressing the downside risk. that's the public face that we get from him. which is a little contrasted from the fomc overall. >> yeah.

he is definitely ramping up or emphasizing the downside to the economy. taking a bit of criticism for that as well, simon. i think what we'll be watching for not in these minutes but in the months to come, april is the big meeting where they're going to have to decide what to do with twist. i'm thinking it's probably 50/50 that they don't continue it now. >> what time are the minutes outs? >> 2 p.m. >> excellent, sir. a market update with bob pisani down at the nyse. >> sue, as you all know over there, it's all about europe. as europe was moving down and simon noted earlier we closed right near the lows on europe, our markets continue to move down. in fact, strangely, we continue to move down even after europe closed here. we've now bounced off of that. it's all about europe, by and large. we see some of the risk off factors today. the energy stocks. some of the technology stocks are a little bit on the weaker side. put up some of the major sectors and you can see there what i'm talking about. energies, financials, materials and industrials all to the

downside. european banks to the downside. this has been going on for several weeks. italian banks, spanish banks, fre french banks, all of them moving to the downside. 4, 5, 6. big declines. italy, spain. even dutch banks. sue and simon, tomorrow we're going to be getting the ecb meeting tomorrow here. a lot of people, the big issue is going to be wlrnt the ecb is going to revive its growth estimates to the downside. they have modest growth. a lot of people have asked me, is the u.s. going to outperform europe? the bottom line is u.s. is outperforming europe. has been. this is the last six month. here's the s&p 500 on the white line. here's the msci europe index. while they are both to the upside. you can see a substantial outperformance by the united states. bottom line, sue, we're still doing well. still outperforming. but europe continues to weigh on us on almost a daily basis. back to you. >> thanks, bob, very much.

within that bright story here in the united states, a surge in the auto sales. monthly sales coming out today. some, quite frankly, are through the roof. phil lebeau covers the car industry, of course, for us. he's been crunching those numbers. back to you, phil. >> simon, generally strong numbers from the automakers last month. let's take a look at the numbers we've seen so far. all of these automakers reporting increased sales last month. a few, gm and toyota, not quite to expectations. we should point out most of these guys reporting their best march in three or four years. a couple stories. march auto sales, while they are strong, they are not quite as strong as many were hoping. in part because they're being driven by strong fleet and rental orders. dealers are saying they're seeing increased demand, not surprisingly, for small cars, fuel efficient models. two individual stories standing out, let's talk first about the chevy volt. last month 2,286 sold by general motors.

best month ever. hyundai, no surprise. setting a monthly sales record again. this time for the month of march. as you take a look at shares of gm, ford, really all the automakers, i don't think we're going to see a huge movement, guys. in part because we knew these were going to be strong sales. but the story here, watch for sales estimates for the remainder of this year to be ratcheted higher. today and tomorrow at the new york auto show. guys, back to you. >> thanks, phil. appreciate it very much. let's check in on interest rates right now. time for the bond report. that means it's time for rick santelli. he's tracking all the action at the cme group. >> hi, sue. let's start right out with the notion that supply, whether it's investment grade or high yield, continues to come into the marketplace by corporations. close to 5 billion high yield should be close to pricing today. investment grade. also building. you have companies like vivendi coming with multipart deals. a company called heckman with six-year notes. those junk notes high yield

could reach over 9%. intraday of 5s. yield slipping under 1%. a one month chart reveals that will be a fresh low close yield. should we stay under 1% going back to the fed meeting, then we get the minutes today. the curve is steepening. if you go the long end and intraday 30, yields move down a bit. as you open up the chart we are not going to be making strides into fresh low closing yields going back to the 13th. so the steepening trade whether it's via the long end selling off or the short end, like today, getting a little bit more robust on the buy side, it seems to be the trade du jour. back to you. >> thank you very much, rick. we appreciate it. we're continuing to monitor the president's address in washington. he'll be taking three questions to the associated press audience. when he does that, we will go to him. but we have john harwood here monitoring what the president is talking about. john, you said that he's basically framing the campaign debate for later this fall. it's going to be a tough one. because some of the language

that he is using is very tough. very tough, indeed. especially on health care. >> the president has a lead in the polls. some people have taken his recent rise in approval ratings to say, oh, this is a slam dump for the incumbent president. it's not a slam dunk. the obama campaign understands that. this is a very competitive president. he realizes he's been taking a beating on the campaign trail from republicans. he's hitting back very, very hard. we saw the indication as we discussed on the supreme court yesterday. what he's trying to say in this speech today is here's what happens to the federal budget and to people who depend on the federal budget and to an economy that depends to some degree on the federal budget if we don't get more revenue from people at the top end. and the republicans are protecting the top 1%. they're not willing to raise taxes on anybody even at the top. he, of course, is advocating the buffet rule and embracing support from warren buffett. people at the top need to pay more.

this is in direct contrast to the republicans who are saying this is a tax increasing president. we need to reduce the size and scope of government. we need to rein in our deficits. that's the argument they're making with an eye toward the independent voters who are ultimately going to decide the outcome. >> it also is interesting because the latest poll numbers, i think you were on "power lunch" the other day saying the president seems to be resonates more with women. i think that also will be a very important component of the fall campaign. because the issues that are front and center are very important issues certainly to all americans, but especially to women voters. >> no question. of course we need to keep in mind the flip side to that. the president and democrats resonate with women. republicans and mitt romney will resonate with men. >> can i sfwruinterrupt you? i think we're getting the questions. >> republicans have been sharply critical about your budget ideas as well. why can you say to the americans that just want both sides to

stop fighting and get some work done? >> well, i completely understand the american people's frustrations. because the truth is that these are imminently solvable problems. i know christine lagarde is here from the imf. she's looking at the books of a lot of other countries around the world. the kinds of challenges they face fiscally are so much more severe than anything that we can -- that we confront if we make some sensible decisions. so the american people's impulses are absolutely right. these are solvable problems if people of good faith came together and were willing to compromise. the challenge we have right now

is that we have on one side a party that will brook no compromise. and this is not just my assertion. i mean, we had presidential candidates who stood on a stage and were asked, would you accept a budget package, a deficit reduction plan, that involved $10 of cuts for every $1 in revenue increases? 10 to 1 ratio. spending cuts to revenue. not one of them raised their hand. think about that. ronald reagan, who, as i recall, is not accused of being a tax

and spend socialist, understood repeatedly that when the deficit started to get out of control, that for him to make a deal, he would have to propose both spending cuts and tax increases. did it multiple times. he could not get through a republican primary today. so let's look at bowles-simpson. essentially, my differences with bowles-simpson were i actually proposed less revenue and slightly lower defense spending cuts. the republicans want to increase defense spending and take in no revenue, which makes it

impossible to balance the deficit under the terms that bowles-simpson laid out. unless you essentially eliminate discretionary spending. you don't just cut discretionary spending. everything we think of as being pretty important, from education to basic science and research to transportation spending to national parks to environmental protection, we'd essentially have to eliminate. i guess another way of thinking about this is, and this bears on your reporting. i think that there is oftentimes the impulse to suggest that if the two parties are disagreeing, then they're equally at fault and the truth lies somewhere in the middle. and -- and an equivalence is presented. which is -- reinforces, i think,

people's cynicism about washington generally. this is not one of those situations where there's an equivalence. i've got some of the most liberal democrats in congress who are prepared to make significant changes to entitlements that go against their political interests. and who said they were willing to do it. and we couldn't get a republican to stand up and say, we'll raise some revenue or even to suggest that we won't give more tax cuts to people who don't need them. and so i think it's important to put the current debate in some historical context. it's not just true, by the way, of the budget. it's true of a lot of the debates that we're having out here. cap and trade was originally

proposed by conservatives and republicans as a market-based solution to solving environmental problems. the first president to talk about cap and trade was george h.w. bush. now you've got the other party essentially saying we shouldn't even be thinking about environmental protection. let's gut the epa. health care, which is in the news right now. there's a reason why there's a little bit of confusion in the republican primary about health care and the individual mandate since it originated as a conservative idea to preserve the private marketplace in health care while still assuring that everybody got coverage in contrast to a single payer plan. now suddenly this is some

socialist overreach. so as all of you are doing your reporting, i think it's important to remember that the positions i'm taking now on the budget and a host of other issues, if we had been having this discussion 20 years ago, or even 15 years ago, would have been considered squarely centrist positions. what's changed is the center of the republican party. and that's certainly true with the budget.

>> -- underscore the need for a lower deficit and lower debt. how can we respond to that? >> look, she's absolutely right. it's interesting when i travel around the world at these international fora, and i've said this before, the degree to which america is still the one indispensable nation. the degree to which, even as other countries are rising and their economies are expanding, we are still looked to for leadership. for agenda setting. not just because of our size. not just because of our military power. but because there is a sense that unlike most super powers in the past, we try to set out a set of universal rules. a set of principles by which

everybody can benefit. and that's true on the economic front as well. we continue to be the world's largest market. an important engine for economic growth. we can't return to a time when by simply borrowing and consuming, we end up driving global economic growth. i said this a few months after i was elected at the first g-20 summit. i said the days when americans using their credit cards and home equity loans finance the rest of the world's growth by taking in imports from every place else, those days are over. on the other hand, we continue to be an extraordinarily important market and foundation for global economic growth. we to have to take care of our

deficits. i think christine has spoken before. and i think most economists would argue as well that the challenge when it comes to our deficits is not short-term discretionary spending, which is manageable. as i said before, and i want to repeat, as a percentage of our gdp, our discretionary spending, all the things that the republicans are proposing cutting, is actually lower than it's been since dwight eisenhower. there has not been some massive expansion of social programs, programs that help the poor, environmental programs, education programs. that's not -- that's not our problem. our problem is that our revenue has dropped down to between 15% and 16%. far lower than it has been historically. certainly far lower than it was under ronald reagan. at the same time as our health care costs have surged and our

demographics mean that there's more and more pressure being placed on financing our medicare, medicaid and social security programs. so at a time when the recovery is still gaining steam and unemployment is still very high, the solution should be pretty apparent. and that is even as we continue to make investments in growth today, for example, putting some of our construction workers back to work rebuilding schools and roads and bridges, or helping states to rehire teachers at a time when schools are having a huge difficulty retaining quality teachers in the classroom, all of which would b benefit our economy, we focus on a long-term plan to stabilize

our revenues at a responsible level and to deal with our health care programs in a responsible way. and that's exactly what i'm proposing. what we've proposed is, let's go back for folks who are making more than $250,000 a year to levels that were in place during the clinton era. when wealthy people were doing just fine. and the economy was growing a lot stronger than it did after they were cut. and let's take on medicare and medicaid in a serious way which is not just a matter of taking those costs off the books, off the federal books, and pushing them on to individual seniors, but let's actually reduce health care costs. because we spend more on health

care with not as good outcomes as any other advanced, developed nation on earth. and that would seem to be a sensible proposal. the problem right now is not the technical means to solve it. the problem is our politics. and it shall and that's part of what this election and what this debate will need to be able. is are we, as a country, willing to get back to common sense, balance, fair solutions that encourage our long-term economic growth and stabilize our budget. and it can be done. one last point i want to make, dean, that i think is important. because it goes to the growth issue. if state and local government hiring were basically on par to what our current recovery -- on

par to pass recoveries, the unemployment rate would probably be about a point lower than it is right now. if the construction industry were going through what we normally go through, that would be another point lower. the challenge we have right now, part of the challenge we have in terms of growth, has to do with the very specific issues of huge cuts at state and local government and the housing market still recovering from this massive bubble. and that -- those two things are huge headwinds in terms of growth. i say this because if we, for example, put some of those construction workers back to work or we put some of those teachers back in the classroom, that could actually help create the kind of virtuous cycle that would bring in more revenues

just because of economic growth, would benefit the private sec r er in significant ways and that could help contribute to deficit reduction in the short term. even as we still have to do these important changes to our health care programs over the long term. >> mr. president, you said yesterday it would be unprecedented for a supreme court to overturn laws passed by an elected congress. that is exactly what the court has done during its entire existence. if the court were to overturn individual mandate, what would you do or propose to do for the 30 million people who wouldn't have health care after that ruling? >> well, first of all, let me be very specific. we have not seen a court overturn a law that was passed

by congress on an economic issue like health care that i think most people would clearly consider commerce, a law like that has not been overturned at least since loughner. we're going back to the '30s, pre-new deal. the point i was making is that the supreme court is the final say on our constitution and our laws. and all of us have to respect it. but it's precisely because of that extraordinary power that the court has traditionally exercised significant restraint and deference to our duly

elected legislature, our congress. and so the burden is on those who would overturn a law like this. now, as i said, i expect congress -- i expect the supreme court, actually, to -- to recognize that and to abide by well-established precedence out there. i have enormous confidence that in looking at this law, not only is it constitutional, but that the court is going to exercise i its jurisprudence carefully because of the profound power that our supreme court has. as a consequence, we're not spending a whole bunch of time planning for contingencies.

what i did emphasize yesterday is there is a human element to this that everybody has to remember. this is not an abstract exercise. i get letters every day from people who are affected by the health care law right now even though it's not fully implemented. young people who are 24, 25, who say, you know what? i just got diagnosed with a tumor. first of all, i would have not gone to get a check-up if i hadn't had health insurance. second of all, i wouldn't have been able to afford to get it treated had i not been on my parents' plan. thank you and thank congress for getting this done. i get letters from folks who have just lost their job. their cobra is running out. they're in the middle of treatment for colon cancer. or breast cancer.

and they're worried when their cobra runs out, if they're still sick, what are they going to be able to do because they're not going to be able to get health insurance. and the point i think that was made very ably before the supreme court, but i think most health care economists who've looked at this have acknowledged, is there are basically two ways to cover people with pre-existing conditions or assure that people can always get coverage even when they have bad illnesses. one way is a single payer plan. everybody is under a single system like medicare. the other way is to set up a system in which you don't have people who are healthy, but don't bother to get health insurance, and then we all have to pay for them in the emergency

room. that doesn't work. so as a consequence, we've got to make sure that those folks are taking the responsibility seriously. which is what the individual mandate does. so i don't anticipate the court striking this down. i think they take their responsibilities very seriously. but i think what's more important is for all of us, democrats and republicans, to recognize that in a country like ours, the wealthiest, most powerful country on earth, we shouldn't have a system in which millions of people are at risk of bankruptcy because they get sick. or end up waiting until they do get sick and then go to the emergency room which involves all of us paying for it.

>> mr. president, you've been very, very generous with your time. we appreciate very much you being here. >> thank you so much, everybody. thank you. >> we leave the president speaking to the lunch at the associated press where, of course, he's just been speaking about health care and very much framing his argument for the election or certainly for the supreme court justice ruling that it would be a case of regulatory overreach if it were to go against the white house. meanwhile, of course, speaking about spending cuts, taxes and the budget in which he attempted to paint the gop as moving generations to the right. let's talk about the markets and bring in power player jim dunigan. good to have you back with us, jim. >> hi, sue. >> you know, one of the questions to the president was about the inability of the two sides, republicans and democrats, to come together to deal with the deficit and to deal with other monetary issues in the united states. a lot of people think that will continue to be an overhang in the market, specifically as we

get closer to the election. as you listen to the president, to you think it will continue to be an overhang to the market, or we've had a big rally, is the market looking past that? >> no. i do think as we head into the presidential cycle and the election cycle, certainly the republican candidate becomes clear, those point of view will be, as we have seen that are firmly entrenched, will be hotly debated. i do think that will be an overhang. i think the american public will tds whether -- on a referendum whether we are better off than we were four years ago or whether it's time for a change. but those will be hotly debated topics. and i think that will be, as we saw when we went into that debt ceiling debate last august, it will be distracting. and i don't think will be a positive for a market environment going forward. if the market were to move forward i think it's post the election results as we've seen. but to your point we've gotten out of the box here pretty fast.

up some almost 30% from the low we saw in october. so it wouldn't be surprising here to see some pause. but maybe as we get into the early summer months we could grind higher. i think the focus will soon turn to that debate. >> it's fascinating, isn't it, when you look back at the history of presidents. he scores very badly, obama scores very badly on growth. but actually on moves in the market, he scores extraordinarily well for all the reasons that we know. a lot of that has to do with qe. bank of america is saying to people, look, we think that the fundament ams are very good for american stocks. but don't buy now. stay neutral. because of the tax war that we could hit at the end of the year. what do you make of that, jim? >> i do think that's one of the biggest challenges we face. the debate around tax reform. all of the stimulus that's out there by way of tax reform. and the stimulus we've seen in the global accommodation that it will have to be resolved.

i, again, on back of a 30% increase from the low we saw in october, i wouldn't rush into equities here. but based upon the low interest rate environment and the move to risk assets, any pullback i would use opportunities to be invested. particularly in those areas we focus on, dividend stocks, high quality stocks, which over an economic period if the fed is successful, and we think they will be in promoting economic growth, that will be the place to be going forward. >> you know, jim -- >> particularly as you see higher inflation, which is probably a couple years out. >> you know, jim, i see that you like the health care sector. it's so interesting at this point, because those stocks are being pushed and pulled either which way because of the talk in washington, the case before the supreme court, et cetera. what specific areas of health care do you think might be safe to wade into given all the rhetoric that's out there? >> it is one of the sectors that we have a modest overweight to.

they would include the consumer discretionary, info tech and health care. in health care we'd probably look for the specialty areas. although there are some attractive names in the large pharmas, particularly health care in the specialty areas is where we would focus on in this environment as that debate plays out. >> you mentioned dividend paying stocks. there are a number of analysts out there and money managers out there who think that that sector is played out. because they had such a big run last year. what makes you convinced that, perhaps, there's more room in that particular area? >> yeah. we've seen those debates and those comments, particularly around -- we saw almost a 15% increase in s&p dividends in the first quarter. and we still have pay oout rati at historic lows. a lot of cash remains on balance sheets. corporations uses are dividends, buybacks. we see a pickup in m & a.

historically low payout ratios, we think going forward companies will continue to be favorable toward dividend increases. we still think that's an area for investors that has some runway ahead of it and time to play out. >> thanks, jim. thanks for your patience. thanks for listening into the president. we appreciate your perspective as always. come back soon. >> you bet, sue. coming up on the program, the mobile wars. which company can win the battle for the lucrative enterprise market if blackberry fades to black. apple, google, or microsoft? we'll talk about it in two minutes. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 i'm constantly working my screens.

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top? jon fortt maybe has some answers. >> reporter: right across the golden gate bridge from san francisco, california, a number of mobile executives here from some of the most influential companies. google, linkedin, at&t, just to name a few i talked to. one of the things they're talking about is who's likely to make inroads in mobile. microsoft certainly has a big opportunity here. rim's misfortune is their opportunity. let's take a look at numbers of smartphone share in the u.s. right now. what's been happening. three month average from comscore. rim is down two points. google and apple both up. right now they appear to be gaining share. the issue overall is that blackberry is losing share both in the consumer and the enterprise markets. they've been losing share on stale hardware and a stale platform. they're trying to fix that later this year. now, a survey from an enterprise organization found that 30% of blackberry users in the

enterprise plan to ditch that platform in the next year. this is a real issue. two-thirds, though, of rim's installed base is consumer. that's why you see books like apple able to pick up some of that share. one of the things that complicates this, too, is enterprise buyers for smartphones are harder to target now than, say, three or four years ago. that's because of bring your own device in consumerization. it used to be i.t. bought the device all the time and handed it to people. now a lot of times instead of being the one that says yes i.t. have to decide whether or not they're going to say no. consumers bring in the division. one of the people i talked to today said android in particular might have some trouble gaining share in the enterprise on security concerns and concerns that google is looking over the shoulder of a lot of the users. back to you. >> jon, stay where you are. let's focus in on research in motion. obviously pretty much controlled the business workplace market

for over a decade. the once mighty blackberry is no longer. the must-have devices as more companies turn to the iphone and androids as the go-to platform. despite moves like rim's brand-new software launch today that allows enterprise customers to manage rival devices on the same server to the point that jon was just making. more on the mobile enterprise door now from c net's maggie rearden. let's deal with that issue first easier, amir, for investors to dump stock in rim and to buy into apple than even with the software release that we have today for actually enterprise managers who are such much more invested with the infrastructure that they have to switch away from blackberry. amir, how do you rate rim's chances? >> well, obviously as jon was pointing out, what's happening in the consumer market is mirrored in the enterprise market in part because of bring your own device theme that we're

hearing so much about. thousands and thousands of companies are allowing people to bring their personal devices to work, use those devices for work purposes. what's really interesting here, there's a huge industry that's cropped up of mobile device management companies that help i.t. managers give companies the tools to be able to manage these devices for work. you've got mobile iron, good technology, 3lm. air watch. all these companies out there helping to make this transition take place. helping android and will help apple and microsoft windows plal form to succeed and take more market share from rim. >> how would you boil that down? what's the conclusion from your point of view? >> the conclusion is there's no reason to think rim's market share will be able to grow. it seems that everyone, you know, if you look at idc came out with a report late last year showing that, you know, the market share for rim in the enterprise market is -- is taking a nose dive. there's no reason to think that

that will not continue to happen. >> maggie, i know people who would say actually i like using the blackberry keyboard. can it hang on? >> well, i mean, the problem is, is that there are lots of android phones now that also have key boards. there's a lot of competition. i think one to really watch out for is microsoft. they don't have much market share now. but that platform really is built for enterprise users. microsoft still sells a lot of software to all these companies. and it's done a very good job of integrating that same software, that same e-mail support into their mobile platform. >> jon, rim still has a lot of patents, of course. what are the chances that microsoft might buy it? >> reporter: well, more and more i'm hearing buzz about that, again, as rim's value goes down. not just because of the patents. microsoft has plenty of those. but because of brand equity and installed base within the enterprise, so long as they still have that. microsoft looks likely to try to

go it alone at first with windows phone 7 and, of course, windows 8 as that comes along. if they stumble with that or have trouble, they always have the option of trying to pick up rim as long as they can hold on to some portion of this base. can't emphasize enough, though, it's about the consumer at this point. i.t. is no longer the gate keeper. >> amir, importantly, of course, this week we had the new ceo of blackberry saying he would consider now all strategic options. everything is on the table. you're not a stock picking guy. but do you think that microsoft might buy or someone else and could there be a premium in that? >> there certainly could be some advantages. obviously microsoft already has a lot of mobile patents. it's got this massive deal with nokia. i don't know if you've seen the nokia lumia phone that's come out with one of the latest microsoft pieces of software. it's very, very good. i think that microsoft as it stands right now is expected to do very well over the next year. both manufacturers like nokia

and htc and others are really going to make a huge push here as they'd like to create another alternative to apple in addition to google's android platform. i think -- >> absolutely fascinating. i at no time mean to interrupt you there, ami, but we have to leave it. thank you, maggie, amir and jon. fascinating times. up next on the program, as jim nance likes to say, it's a tradition unlike any other. we're talking about the masters tournament at augusta national. it's the premier event in golf. >> folks at augusta have a tricky issue to deal with this year. they have a policy of no women. what will they do? opinions in two minutes' time. g g according to the signs, ford is having some sort of big tire event. i just want to confirm a few things with fiona. how would you describe the event? it's big. no,i mean in terms of savings how would you sum it up? big

in your own words, with respect to selection, what would you say? big okay, let's talk rebates mike, they're big they're big get $100 rebate, plus the low price tire guarantee during the big tire event. so, in other words, we can agree that ford's tire event is a good size? big big does any mother ever feel like their kids are adults? i have twins, 21 years old. each kid has their own path. they grow up, and they're out having their life.

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♪ [ continues ] [ gasping ] the eyes of the sports world turning to augusta for the masters golf tournament. attention also turning to the

famed golf club's policy of not admitting women. ibm is a major sponsor of the masters and the last four ceos of ibm were invited to join that club. will they extend that invitation to ibm's new ceo? joining us is mike walker, senior editor at "golf magazine." he edited this week's article of augusta in "sports illustrated." also darren rovell. will they extend the invitation, mike? >> we don't know if they have or not. i think they will invite a member. i don't know if in this situation they will. it's kind of like they're in a difficult bind. for a tournament tradition, they have the tradition of always offering the membership to the ibmceo. i think they will invite a woman to be a member. it's not something we'll get a press release about. >> am i reading you correctly it

might not be ms. rometty? >> honestly, i don't know if they're going to extend it to her or not. i think they should. i think their position in the game as the flagship tournament in golf means they're held to a higher standard. as far as extending the membership to her, like i said, they might have already. they might not. i don't think they will do it if they feel like they're being pressured into it. >> darren, what do you think? >> everyone's in a tough position. you have augusta national who obviously doesn't like to be in this position. they don't want to be forced. as mike said, they might have e tended the invitation. we don't know. ibm is in a tough position. because they're also the sponsors. they don't want to say anything. we asked for virginia rometty to come on. she declined. ibm has not issued any sort of statement. ms. rometty is in a tough position as well because she's been asked to carry the flag for all women. this was an issue in 2003. there were no sponsors that year because martha burk was putting the pressure on.

tomorrow i don't except when billy paine has his press conference, knowing billy paine, i don't expect him to have a comment for the press. >> the club's insistence on keeping its membership estrogen free puts romette in the strange position of having to explain to her female co-workers and her shareholders why they are supporting a club that excludes them. as in women. really, that's the finer point on the argument, is it not? >> yeah. i mean, that's -- and it really goes back to the stature of the event in the game. legally they have the right. it's been upheld to exclude -- to have anybody they want to be a member. but certainly its position in being such a high-profile club and membership. and it's a very sophisticated membership. bill gates, warren buffett, brian roberts. it's more than just a golf club. it raises the stakes. absolutely. i'm sure this is the last thing she thought of or wanted when she became ceo.

yeah. it's definitely become an issue. >> it is, darren, difficult for her on a corporate level. it's difficult for her, i would think, for the board as well. i'm sure they probably do not want one of her first public appearances, if indeed she does attend, to be mired in this particular controversy. >> yeah. i certainly agree. from a business standpoint, from a shareholder standpoint, sue, this doesn't really make great business sense, potentially. you only have four minutes of commercials an hour. 180-page program for the masters. there's only four ads. they're all ibm, by the way. from the shareholders' standpoint, from the money standpoint, it might not make the best sense. this is more of a thing that's a tradition. in some way maybe that puts more pressure on ibm. >> mike, very quickly, do you think that mr. paine will address it when he holds his news conference or not? >> i think he will talk about the club not talking about members. i do think one thing to point

out here is that women are al w allowed to play augusta national. allowed to be in the club. i think they should admit her. i think they should admit women. i'm not defending it. i think that is a distinction that gets a little lost. i think paine will talk about it. i think he will say that, you know, we're not going to discuss our membership policy. maybe we'll see virginia rometty wearing a green jacket, maybe we won't. coming up next, two hours to go in the trading day. final check on the markets. you know what that means. >> oh, yes. >> chart of the day. back in a bit. americans believe they should be in charge of their own future. 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. where they want. doing what they want. ameriprise. the strength of a leader in retirement planning. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you one-to-one.

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it's the at&t network -- doing more with data to help business do more for customers. ♪ let's have a quick check on the markets. of course, we're now counting you down to the rhee lease of the fomc minutes. these markets could move big time on that. >> that's it for us on "power lunch." "street signs" begins right now. all right. welcome to "street signs," everybody. i'm brian sullivan. fed minutes due out in just a minute. this is a big one. we sit around the table to