tv Power Lunch CNBC April 10, 2012 1:00pm-2:00pm EDT
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money" tonight at 5:00 p.m. follow me on twitter as always. keep a close eye on that 1370 le level as well which we breached. the selloff accelerated. "power lunch" continues coverage now. scott, thank you very much. 2 hours, 59 minutes and 56 seconds to go in the trading day. and weakness in overseas markets plus the start of the earnings season right here have investors on edge this day. stocks on the worst losing streak of the year. major averages down more than 1% today. but volume is light. and the decline comes after a big runup, of course, in the first quarter. are we heading for a spring selloff or not? we're going to talk correction protection, kayla. >> ty, investing in america is exactly what the world's top selling tire brand is doing. michelin creating hundreds of jobs. they're top executive in the u.s. will tell you all about it.
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also ahead in the show, he's everybody's all-american this week. masters champion bubba watson. he's here in the house. he'll tell you why a green jacket and a pink driver have the bubba business booming, ty. >> green jackets. pink drivers. i'm tyler mathisen along with kayla tausche and simon hobbs. welcome, everybody. "power lunch" teeing off, right now. so earnings in europe triggering another storm on stocks. you can see we're attempting to stabilize here. the dow was down 170 points a few seconds ago. we've now come back from that. investors clearly worried that earnings are going to come up short. the other issue, that the spanish government is potentially losing the confidence of its bond investors. let's just have a look then at the nasdaq, down 1.4%. s&p down 1.3%. the dow down 1.25%. taking the pulse of the markets, the euro is very interesting. it is not getting as hard hit as
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you might have expected given where we are on yields both in germany and the likes of spain and italy. here we are. we're trading currently at 1.3092. if it doesn't dive, when you reconsider the extent to which asian central banks are supporting it. here in the united states yields on u.s. 10-year dipping below 2%. again today for the first time since march 7, who knew we'd go back down. and the vix as you might expect is also higher this tuesday lunchtime. having a look at the midday movers, apple, well, for much of the session defying the decline before ultimately backing off during the course of today's session. we actually hit another high. a market cap of $600 billion. for now tim cook's business. dell ticking higher on an upgrade from morgan stanley. super value searches. earnings have full year guidance better than expected. on the downside so far on the session, well, sony is sinking. it slashed its earnings outlook and said it expects to post-its
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biggest ever loss at $6.4 billion. stock is down over 9%. alcoa is lower ahead of its earnings after the bell tonight. chesapeake energy also down in negative territory. not really much more than the general market despite selling assets in oklahoma to exxon mobil for $590 million. we have breaking news right now. a bond auction with rick santelli. over to you. >> thank you, simon. 32 billion 3-year notes just hit the street. one issued market was trading 42.5 bid offered at 42. the ultimate yield after the auction, dutch auction, .427. so pretty much right where the wi was trading. if you look at the bid to cover, a very important metric, the bid to cover was 3.36. $3.36. chasing every dollar securitying available. that pretty much is the 1
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10-auction average. a little light on directs at 7.8. we give this a "b" minus. it was pretty good demand. all within where it was trading. "b" minus on the auction. now to the nyse. >> just off session lows. the dow down about 165 points. all of the major s&p sectors are lower. industrial and consumer discretionary fairing the worst of the bunch. taking a look at commodity stocks, dollar is higher. gold and silver are higher. some of these commodity names are lower. alcoa, they report after the bell today to kick us off for earnings season. i want to drill down on energy. yes, that bpun was intended. crude lower for a second straight day despite hawkish comments out of iran. remember, china said their march imports for crude lower by 6%. natural gas also seeing ten-year lows. take a look at oil services, fairing the worst. the worst day they've seen since
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december 14th of just this past year. look at some of these refining names. really getting hit hard in today's session. western refining, holly frontier and valero some of the names seeing big moves to the downside. kayla, back to you. >> let's switch on the power lunch power surge and drill down on the stories driving our day. first, yahoo!'s new ceo holding an all hands on deck meeting with employees at this hour to youth line his bould plan to revive the struggling web giant. it comes on the heels of yahoo!'s deepest job cuts in years. the chart really tells the story here. yahoo! shares down more than 50% in the past five years. its main rival, google, has jumped 35%. our jon fortt is live outside yahoo!'s meeting in sunnyvale, california. what are you hearing? >> reporter: it's quiet out here right now. they're still in the meeting. the meeting is about halfway done. what i'm hearing is what they're talking about is, in fact, this memo and the changes scott thompson has outlined. these changes not that dramatic.
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we're not talking about lopping off any large businesses here. mainly a reorganization that has engineering, marketing, all those product functions together in one group under consumer. then we've got a technology group that's handling infrastructure. then a sales group called regions that's responsible for all revenue. now, that means that mail and media, some of the old line yahoo! mainstays, are still very important to this structure. a key part that's missing, at least in terms of emphasis in this, is search. remember, search used to be yahoo!'s biggest business. they did a deal with microsoft because they felt like the infrastructure to compete with google would be too expensive. that deal with microsoft has not paid off up to this point. people just aren't clicking on the ads that are represented there. yahoo! had been invested and trying to differentiate the consumer experience in search. but that's not something that scott thompson has emphasized in this memo. tyler? >> all right, jon fortt, thank you very much. of course, yahoo! not the only company struggling to turn
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itself around. so is best buy. today the electronics retailer announcing its ceo brian dunn is resigning after three years at the helm. best buy shares, new 52-week low at 21.61. the stock has lost almost half its value over the past three years. i had a chance to interview dunn about six months ago as part of our original cnbc documentary on the company. i asked him at that time what worried him the most. >> of course there are things i worry about as ceo. i worry about economic backslide. i worry about things like double dips and all those things. i get paid to worry about those things. but what i really focus on is how do we make sure we're staying relevant with our customers, that we have our balance sheet in a position so that we can weather any storm and we stay on the long march we've been on. >> today that long march ended for mr. dunn. let's talk more about best buy and its future.
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joining me on the phone is r. h r.j.hottovy. good to hear from you. >> thanks, tyler. >> there was a guy in that sound bite, you could hear glimpses of it. he was either putting on a very strong, brave game face or he was a little bit in denial. which was it? >> yeah. i'd probably pick the latter in that case. i think best buy struggled with a number of things in the past couple years. the one thing i didn't hear the most obvious competitive threat by amazon and other price leaders like walmart and costco who in my mind have taken considerable share from best buy in the past couple of years. in my mind you can't focus on the most pressing thing facing your business. maybe it was time for a change in this case. >> when the company came out with earnings for the fourth quarter they announced a net loss. they also said their same store sales were down. they said they were going to close 50 stores, take $800 million in costs out of the operation. is that in any sense enough to turn this big battleship around?
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>> in my mind, it's not enough. i think the company's got to look at more aggressive cost cutting measures out there. the way i look at it is if 30% to 40% of your stores were for media products that are now going digital, that means 30% to 40% of your stores are now unproductive. i think that's the kind of aggressive cost cutting measures the company's got to look at to really right the ship. i think a lot of the headline aspects of the transformation strategy, the right idea, looking at cost, looking at price. at the end of the day i don't think it was enough. i think new leadership in this case may have been needed. >> was this a surprise to you, in other words, that he would resign? that's number one. number two, is there anybody on your short list of potential candidates that comes to mind? >> the timing of the announcement was a bit of a surprise. i thought they would have let some of the transformational strategy play out before making any changes. but the announcement itself, at the end of the day, isn't that big of a surprise. shareholders are getting pretty
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restless. i think new leadership was needed. in terms of who they bring in from here, i don't have anybody in particular in mind. but i think they need to look at two things. i think they need to have somebody who has retail transformational background. and also somebody who knows a little bit about e-commerce and fwlo global commerce. those are the two things that the board has to look at for replacement here. >> all right. r.j., thank you very much. good to be with you. >> you, too. ty, are you surprised by this? if you live by the sword, you die by the sword. they were going for low price proposition. that's what they were after. inevitably as technology changes, you're going to get undercut if you do that. >> absolute. >> look at the amount of investment even amazon is putting into what it does to ensure it's still the cost leader. >> absolutely. there were as you probably recall some slip-ups during the christmas holiday season where some orders did not get fulfilled correctly. as i was finishing the reporting on that, look, i like brian dunn. he's a nice, affable guy. i thought if that fourth quarter
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comes in poorly, and it did, he's going to have a hard time hanging on when you get put on herb greenburg's list of five worst ceos you've got a serious problem. >> he was also on herb's list for potential leverage buyouts. do you think being ceo list puts a target on him? >> tlhere's a lot of talk on that. maybe one of the big buyout companies could come in. s.l. green? >> leonard green. >> one of them might come in. and that this would be an attractive candidate for them. that was the talk a few months ago that i was hearing. haven't heard it since. >> we'll certainly be following that. and we are following housing stocks as well. after a rare upgrade from goldman sachs. is that the best buy for investors? real estate still struggling. goldman getting bullish on the high end. builders, at least. diana olick in washington with more. >> that's right, kayla. the stocks aren't exactly responding that well given the overall downturn in the market. but both toll brothers and pulte homes should have gotten a boost. that positive sentiment is
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strongest in the high end say goldman analysts who view toll brothers and pulte as best positioned there. the survey shows 63% of consumers expecting home prices to be either stable or positive compared to 58% just six months ago. for the high-end buyer 83% of respondents with $120,000 or more in income expect prices to be stable or to rise. that's up from 75% six months ago. that group is also more positive about the overall economy. and that group also favors new construction over existing homes. they, of course, also have better access to credit given their higher income. so the home builders have been on a tear lately with some analysts concerned they may be overvalued. shares of toll up nearly 45% in the past six months. shares of pulte up over 85%. again, how high can you go? simon? >> diana, thank you very much. meantime, get ready for one of the most important earnings seasons we've had for a while. that's for sure. it all kicks off in three hours
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when alcoa reports. overall wall street expectations are pretty low and indeed falling in some cases. what will companies blame this time for their results? bob pisani has the top three excuses. bob? >> earnings growth is slowing down. that's good and bad news. already you can see people trying to justify what's going on. the fact that we're only going to grow 1% in earnings this year. the top three shows up are number one, what's going on in europe. that makes an awful lot of sense. the other is the recent strength in the dollar. the third is higher energy and commodity costs. all three will come together this afternoon when alcoa reports. a global company deals with higher energy costs, dealing with the stronger dollar and tealing with the weaker europe. >> they blamed europe the last quarter, too. >> that's right. they're going to be blaming it for the next couple of quarters. that's a good point, kayla. i think the main reason we're seeing earnings slowing down, though, is because good evens, we've had three years of absolutely -- historically great numbers here. let's put up here. 2008 was a disaster.
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look at this earnings growth. double digit for the last three years. we're going to be 6% in 2012. now here in the first quarter only 1%. my point here is you can't keep growing double digits into the sky. law of larm number takes over. eventually you get a cycle where you just have to slow down a little bit even if you didn't have europe as a weight that's sitting there. you're going to have to slow down a little bit. >> here's my question. a lot of people are saying what we're banking on now is an upturn at the end of the year. >> that's right. >> the fourth quarter. if they've got all these excuses, are they going to put it on the line and say actually, yes, we do expect things to get better or stand back and say, well, too much uncertainty? >> no. they're going to put it on the fourth quarter. put up the full screen. you braulgt up a very good point. all the earnings for the full year of 2012 are back end loaded. expected to get 6% growth. all of it, 16% growth in the fourth quarter. that's because analysts now believe europe is going to come back online. they believe europe will come out of the mild recession that it's in already and it's going to start growing a little bit by the fourth quarter of next year. and the u.s. economy will also come up.
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there's a lot of suppositions that could easily be challenged that are built into the fourth quarter. i think that's the thing that's got people a little worried. i want to end on a positive note. we've up in january and february big time. only 25 times sinxxv times sinc ii has this ever happened. all 25 times we have been up for the full year. and on average 24%. historically it's very rare to get january and february up, and when they're up this much, usually you get a pretty good year overall. >> thank you very much for that. straight ahead, markets under heavy pressure today. doesn't look like they'll snap a four-day losing streak. not with the dow down 180. do bear in mind, yesterday's selloff came on the second lowest volume day of the year. so do you need correction protection or not? we've got a game plan for you, next. as we head to break, a check of the s&p sectors right now. take a look, all of them in the red. consumer staples fairing the best, but still down about 1%.
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acquiring kai pharmaceuticals. lastly, vivus. a question still looms. when will an anti-obesity pill hit the market? fda delays their response on their drug by three months. investors scared on that news. stock down almost 5%. back to you. >> thank you very much. another big down day for stocks. and it is worsening as we watch it. down now 186 points or about 1.5%. the nasdaq off 51. and the s&p 500 is down. is this the beginning of a correction or are we midway in it? to talk about this and more and what you should do now, sandy lincoln, chief market strategist with bmo asset management u.s. and mark kajita, baker boyer national bank cio of wealth management. gentlemen, welcome.
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sandy, let me begin with you. you heard the discussion we just had with bob pisani about corporate earnings. worry number one. europe, worry number two. today the u.s. bond yield, 10-year yield back below 2%. don't know whether it still is. 1.97%. not a good sign, is it, sandy? >> that's a trifecta there, tyler. yeah. those are plenty of worries. i think you're right. as you led into this about the correction and what's going on with the correction, is it a correction. and the light volume. cobble those things together there. a little of apples and oranges, i guess. you see these light volumes. people say you can't confirm a market move if you don't have high volume. i thipg that's a bit of a fallacy, quite truthfully. frequently you do see volumes collapse. particularly when volatility collapsed. volatility, fix was at 45 or 50. now it's at 20. less opportunity in trading. the second thing is, tyler, a lot of people sat on the sidelines at the start of the
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year. you've got hedge funds, institutional investors, quote, smart money that's waiting to get back in. and the price correction that we're getting now, assuming we don't get a european implosion or middle east explosion, you know, there's going to be opportunities in here and you're going to see money, i think, come back into the market. it's going to truncate any correction we get. >> you talk about the vix. mark, i'd like your take on this as well. in each of the last two summer selloffs triggered by concerns in europe, they both started with a sharp shooting vix in april. is that our leading indicator? >> i don't think -- go ahead, mark. >> one of the big things we're looking at right now is just the strength of the u.s. economy as compared to europe. we really do believe that we've had kind of a decoupling happen between what's going on in europe. that is essentially really contained within europe. and this movement that the u.s. has made over the last decade towards more of a pacific -- economic pacific charter. that's what we believe is growing and continuing to strengthen the u.s. economy.
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however, there are some, you know, just like you said, there are some issues right now with corporate earnings. you know, if you take that out of context, just like you said prior to the actual commercial here, you've had huge gains in corporate earnings here. what we're looking at right now is those gains are pretty much because of expense holddowns. and at this point with capacity utilization coming up and employment going down, you're going to see some pressure on corporate earnings. >> mark, it all depends on your perspective, doesn't it? yes, the earnings have come back phenomenally. they've come back from an extremely low base. >> yeah. >> yes, the u.s. economy might be doing better. frankly the jobs data that we had on friday and the analysis over the weekend as to whether we'd have a pull forward on the seasonal employment for january and february is quite worrying to some people. i know it's great to be patriotic and bang the drum for america. but do you not see a reality check in either of those? >> i agree with you, believe me, i'm not patriotic banging on the
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drums here. i'm just being realistic here. you cannot see a decrease and te klein in employment until you saw capacity utilization go back up and you see the average hour workweek go back up as well. we're starting to see that. as that happens, as you hire new employees, you are going to be less productive for a period of time. i think that's what's going to affect corporate earnings. >> sandy, very quickly, tell me the one smartest move i can make to protect my profits and maybe leave a little room for more. >> first of all, i think you do want to act on a correction, number one. if you've been waiting to buy a company, now is the time. things are getting more granular. the market has extended itself. you want to be very careful to get a company and not overpay for the company. get a catalyst that's going to drive earnings higher. make sure the execution is strong. but be careful not to overpay. that's the critical message here. i think absent an implosion in europe or an explosion in the middle east, as i said, i think
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you've fwot some opportunities here if we'd get this correction and we don't get those kind of implosions, i think they're good opportunities ahead. you want to buy into this correction, not sell into this correction. >> sandy, a call for careful and smart offense at a time when a lot of people might be thinking defense. thanks, guys. straight ahead, president obama ramping up the hard sell on the buffett rule today. that's his bill to have people who make more than $1 million pay a minimum of 30% in federal tax. >> yes. he says it's all about tax service. republicans say it's a gimmick. so is the buffett rule policy or politics? both sides of the debate will weigh in in two minutes on cnbc. and on small business saturday they remind a nation of the benefits of shopping small. on just one day, 100 million of us joined a movement... and main street found its might again. and main street found its fight again. and we, the locals, found delight again. that's the power of all of us. that's the power of all of us.
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let's take a look at where we stand in the markets right now. all three indices still sitting in negative territory. dow coming off its lows down about 182 points. nasdaq fairing the worst down 1.6% or 49 point spoints. s&p also sitting lower. scott bubba wapner, which stock is on your radar? you fwot a hole in one? >> golf game, i wish it was like bubba watson's. probably more bubba gump. joe terranova leaving the set yesterday. he was ready to buy the stock and add to it right then and there. he likes it. it does pay a dividend. some may say the turn around of meg whitman is taking longer than some people had anticipated. it's certainly an interesting --
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maybe it's higher today on the patent play, right? aol does this billion dollar deal or there abouts with microsoft. now all sorts of talk is going on about patents and whose patents are worth what. perhaps it's up a little bit because of that. it's notable if for only it's up in a really down tape today, guys. simon, that's why i'm watching it. president obama making his case today for the buffett rule. under the proposal which is, of course, named after billionaire investor warren buffett, nobody who has an income of $1 million should pay less than 30% tax, federal tax, on that income. the president calls this a basic principle of tax fairness. but is this good policy or pure politics? that debate now with jared bernstein, former economic adviser to vice president biden. and dan mitchell also joins us. senior fellow at kato. dan, whatever you personally think about it, it's real good politics. if obama can stand up, let's say
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sum, with mitt romney in a debate and say you don't pay enough tax and i'm going to make you pay a fair rate of tax, for a lot of people that is an election winner. >> it may very well be. i'm not an expert on the politic. but on the economics i can tell you this much. anl of the income that these so-called rich people are getting, interest, capital gains, dividends, it's all been taxed at the corporate level already 35%. the highest corporate tax rate in the world. now obama and buffett, i guess, want to increase the double taxation on that. we already have the fourth highest dividend and capital gains tax rate in the world. under obama's plan, not even counting the buffett rule, just counting the stuff in his budget, we'd have the highest dividend tax rate in the world and the second or third highest capital gains tax rate in the world. and i don't care whether you're a liberal or conservative, free market or status, that is not good in a competitive global economy if we want jobs and prosperity in america. >> jared, is there double taxation here?
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i know in the uk you actually get a tax credit for your dividends in order that they're not double taxed. does that not happen here at the federal level? >> that's largely a ki nard. most of the income, particularly if you talk about small businesses, is pass through income. it doesn't go through the corporate side of the tax code. it certainly doesn't face double taxation. by the way, if you want to get worried about double taxation talk about wage earners who pay a payroll tax and sales tax as well. this is about fairness. it just doesn't make sense. you had it exactly right, simon. for folks whose incomes are in this stratosphere to be paying rates of 15% or less. one of the things we learned from this discussion today is there are about 22,000 millionaires out there who in the most recent data paid about 15% or less in their income tax, in their federal income tax, and about 1,500 of them paid zero. now, you know, the typical middle-class person is facing a
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tax rate in the neighborhood of 15%, 18%. it's just not fair. >> dan, we were showing a graphic just now that also demonstrated that since the 1960s, the take -- the average percentage that taxpayers within that top range have paid has fallen very, very dramatically. that we have seen as a matter of fact, have we not, less taxes being paid by the rich over that period? >> no, no. the key distinction there. their tax rate has fallen, but the share of taxes they paid has gone up. what we see in action is a laugher curve. when we lower the tax rate on the richer people, let's face it, they have lots of accountants and lawyers and lobbyists and financial planners. when we lowed the tax rate on them from 91%. kennedy lowered it to 70%. kennedy brought it down to 28%. rich people decided to go ahead, earn their income, declare their income. that's why today we get more revenue from the rich as a share of taxes paid than any other country in the world. even some of those left wing
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welfare states in europe. >> let me clear this up. first of all, just to be very clear about this, the idea of the laffer curve which i kind of think is laughable is not that it would end up with rich people having a whole lot more money. the idea is it would generate more growth and jobs and it demonostra bli has failed on that measure. you're absolutely right, sumen. what's happened here, the reason the average tax rate of rich people has gone down so much is because taxes have been cut quite dramatically at the top of the tax code here. >> but they're paying more income. they're paying more -- >> while their incomes have gone up so much. the reason they're paying a larger share of the taxes is because the vast bulk of the growth has gone their way. and that's why we have these 15%, 10%, 0% tax rates -- >> jared -- >> would you rather have the rich have a high tax rate and not collect any revenue or a low tax rate and collect more revenue? >> this is a really important
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debate. unfortunately, we sit ut. we got you both in. and we ran out of time. thank you, both of you. president obama outlining details of the so-called buffett rule today at 2:55 eastern. cnbc will carry that live followed by instant reaction and analysis. a very important debate that will continue, kayla, through to november for sure. we'll also update all -- >> you think? >> oh, yeah. >> we'll have to wait for that one, though. in the meantime, we'll update all the market action for you. we'll go live to the nymex for closing metal prices. plus, the athlete the whole world is talking about is live in the studio. we are, of course, talking about the masters champion. the most creative golfer playing today, bubba watson. he's got a pink driver, a green jacket and plenty more green on the way. we'll tee it up with bubba on the other side of this break. th. since 1894, ameriprise financial has been working hard for their clients' futures. never taking a bailout. helping generations achieve dreams.
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welcome back to "power lunch." let's get you caught up on the latest market action. all three indices still in the red. nasdaq in the afternoon session now the worst performer at 2,994. if it closes below 3,000 that would be the first time in almost a month. with the vix up 11% it's the safe havens that are the safe
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place today. gold up 1%. the 10-year yield below 2%. u.s. dollar is edging higher as well. guys, back to you. we're going to go to bertha. gold and other metal prices getting ready to close right now. bertha at the nymex. >> reporter: that 1% gain in gold doesn't really tell the whole story, kayla. we started the day higher, swooned along with the rest of the market following that european close. in fact, the gold intex touching a new 52-week low. end up near the highs of the session. gold more of the safe haven play than silver. gold/silver ratio widening out as gold is extending its gains more so to the upside, especially on etfs. copper sitting out with the soft data out of china. demand for copper out of china, copper today at a three-month low. back to you. >> thank you very much. very special guest now, bubba watson. he won the masters, of course, on the second hole in a really exciting sudden death playoff sunday. since then the golf and the business world have been buzzing about the latest star in sports
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marketing. joining us now in studio is our sports business reporter darren rovell who is here with bubba watson himself. darren? >> thanks, tyler. like the jacket. thanks for being here in studio. means a lot to us. i'm going to start out with your name. bubba. your real name is gary. how much more marketable are you as bubba, do you think? >> gary's boring. it was the name i was given when i was first born. bubba about ten seconds after. my dad said i looked like a football player so he named me bubba. it's been my name ever since. i think it's more fun for kids and people to say bubba than gary, you know. >> what's your thoughts on the state of golf right now? we had a masters, your masters that you won, it was the lowest rated in eight years. was it easter? was it tiger? at the same time, you have the fact that 14 different winners in 14 different pga tournaments this year, ratings up 33%. what's your thoughts on the state of golf at this point? >> i think the state of golf is great. you know, i think there's a lot of things going on in this world
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that's causing people to get away from sports. they've got other things, other agendas to worry about. think about their money, obviously. there's other things going on that's causing our u.s. some problems that we should be figuring out. and golf just has to be on the back burner right now. but i think the young game, the youngsters coming up are going to grow the game. it's going to get back to where it was. hopefully i can influence some kids to start playing and build the game bigger and bigger. countries coming to the olympics, more countries are playing it. i think it's going to keep building. the fwam of golf is still growing. >> you play the role of "happy gilmore" a little bit. never took a golf lesson. practiced a whiffle ball in your backyard. >> i embrace it a lot. that's who i am. i haven't changed anything. i haven't changed who i am, who my character is or what i do on and off the golf course. i'm bubba. for me it's just natural. it's just who i am. i don't -- i think that people are going to enjoy it more. i think people are going to see
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the everyday man learning how to play golf himself coming from the family i came from, the small town that i came from. they're going to realize that everybody has a chance to do this. you don't need the expensive golf coaches. krou don't need the expensive golf courses. you don't need all that. you can just learn to play in your backyard and go to the municipal courses and learn to play. >> business is buzzing around you. we have ping, pink driver. how long have you had that for? >> i've used it all year. i started beginning of the year for charity, trying to raise some charity dollars. now we yus releasted it to the public so they can buy it. >> 5,000 limited edition. your watch. you play with a 525,0$525,000 w i think. there it is right there. doesn't even have the numbers, though. >> no. >> you can tell the time? >> i can. yes. for sure. >> gary, or bubba, are there rules as to -- >> there's 38 of these. if you want one. if you want one, i can -- >> no. are there rules as to where you can wear the green jacket? do you have to -- or who can wear the green jacket? >> there's always rules in
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everything. but rules sometimes can be broken. you know, out of respect for augusta, out of respect for the masters, out of respect for all the members there, all the workers, they want you to be presentable. they want you to be -- >> that's a word my mother would have used. be presentable. >> so my blue jeans and t-shirts wouldn't work today. >> i use a big ping driver. love the thing. i can hook it just like you. i just can't do it when i want to hook it. what is the biggest error most 15 or 20 handicappers make on a golf course? what's the best tip you could give them. >> like most 15 handicappers, they work a lot. so it's practice. i've been practicing since i was 6 years old. been on the range. been on the golf course. i do it time and time again. >> practice, practice, practice. >> practice, practice, practice. it makes you a little bit better. spending more time in the areas that i need work in. that's where it's going to help everybody. i know it's hard to say that to the public. the public, just practice more. short game is the biggest area. work on your short game the
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most. >> i got to conclude with this question. there's the whole idea, augusta, they can legally exclude women. what are your thoughts? i know you've said in the past that you were against that. what are your thoughts on the whole thing? >> my first thought is, i'm not a member. so why don't they get me a membership, you know? i've won there. be the pro golfer, get a membership there. let's start with that. let's go with bubba first and figure out the rest after that. >> bubba watson, thank you very much. >> will you putt one for us? we don't have a lefty club. >> i'm talented. just like the masters. two putts to win. >> come on. >> three feet. >> i did it! >> congratulations again. >> thanks so much. >> it was a much tougher green than augusta's. >> of course, what the viewer can't see is the collection of women that has assembled here at this end of the newsroom. >> he's married with a child. up next on the program, investing in america.
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just over two hours to go in trading today. here's where we stand with the markets. all three indices still in the red by just about 1.5% for each of them. dow down 181 points right now. the world's largest tire maker michelin is building its first north american plant in 15 years, creating 500 jobs in the process. construction on the $750 million facility starts next week in south carolina. where it will produce massive earth mover tires. that's tough to say. yooused by the construction and mining industries. first on cnbc, let's go to michelin north america's chairman and ceo pete selik.
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i want to talk about this south carolina investment. michelin north america has invested $5 billion in south carolina. i'm from the south. i know the cost of living there isn't as high as it is maybe in new york city. how far does that get you and how much more are you guys going to invest there? >> michelin could have made this investment anywhere in the world. this plant is going to make tires not just for north america but actually 80% of what we make here in south carolina is going to be exported to the rest of the world. we looked all over. we considered all of the factors. and we decided that michelin could best make this investment here in south carolina. now, we've been here for 40 years. this is the ninth plant that we're starting up here in the state. it really reflects the fact there's an excellent infrastructure. the workforce here is skilled, it's competent, it's dedicated and it's very focused and dedicated to our company. we're very, very pleased to be able to announce today the expansion of our existing earth mover tire plant in lexington and the creation of a brand-new plant in anderson county, south carolina. >> the new plant will create 500 new jobs. are those net jobs or coming
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from elsewhere, say, maybe abroad. >> this is brand-new expansion. the large earth mover tire that you see behind me is the largest tire in the world. it's 12.5 feet tall. weighs five tons. it requires a tremendous amount of technology in order to achieve the performance, particularly the fact it goes on vehicles that operate 24/7. operating time is very important. to get that you've got to have technology. technology in terms of rubber mixing. technology in terms of steel cord. technology in terms of the fabrication of the tire. very few companies have that level of technology. in tires michelin clear sli a technology leader. >> as indeed it has been for many decades. presumably you're feeding in, though, to what is a growing demand from the mining industry, from the lines of caterpillar, essentially? >> that's exactly right. these tires go on large pieces of equipment. that on the one hand are involved in construction and in mining to basically satisfy the world's growth.
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and on the other hand it's going on large vehicles that are replacing smaller vehicles that improve the productivity of mining and construction around the world. >> interesting. interesting. one of the other reasons, of course, and it's great that you're creating jobs here. you will contribute to american growth, quite clearly. one of the other reasons that you might after so long have decided to site a production facility in america is if you felt the american dollar was in long-term structural decline and that was a place, therefore, that you should be exporting from. is that the bet of michelin, that the dollar is in long-term structural decline? >> in general we try to position our manufacturing planting where the markets are to try to offset all the logistics costs and also the currency fluctuations that we can't control. but in the case, as you said, for a plant where we're going to export all over the world, we decided to do it here for a number of reasons. we don't necessarily think that the dollar's going to get stronger long term. but fundamentally we've got an environment where we can continue to improve productivity and we can have a successful
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operation exporting from south carolina. >> pete, thank you so much for being with us. pete selleck, chairman and president of michelin north america. up next on the program, a breakdown of today's market decline. dow dipping to its lowest level since february 2nd, believe it or not. stay with us on cnbc. a big day for the markets. or creates another laptop bag or hires another employee, it's not just good for business, it's good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know the impact that local businesses have on communities. that's why we extended $6.4 billion in new credit to small businesses across the country last year. because the more we help them, the more we help make opportunity possible. you know, those farmers, those foragers, those fishermen.... for me, it's really about building this extraordinary community. american express is passionate about the same thing. they're one of those partners that i would really rely on
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zbrnchts let's take a look at the declining market now down 173 points. a little bit off that low that we hit maybe 25 minutes ago. it stands at 12755. the nasdaq composite almost right at the 3,000 level. down 45 points. or 1.5%. the s&p 500 at 1363.45. this will be the worst five-day stretch were we to close at this -- at this level since late november. which may be more of a comment on how good the market has been. >> that's a very good point. i want to put up an intraday of the s&p 500. because two unusual things have happened today. first, we've been straight down. look at that chart. now, that has not happened much this year. normally the pattern is we are weak at the open and then it stabilizes. or we are continued weak going into the european close and we bounce off the european close. that's not what's happening
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today. we've been essentially straight down. this is an unusual pattern. the other thing that happened, i think this is an important factor, the 50-day moving average on the s&p 500 was 1370. we breached that about 11:45. right after the european close. as soon as that happened, i mean as soon as that happened, we saw s volume pick up in the spidr. and the market overall dropped. my point here is that while sometimes technical analysis is not that important, on a day like today it was. there was obviously some selling as we breached that particular limit. you can see all of the, i guess you would call them, ris-off trades. industrials, materials, consumer discretionary stocks on the downside. some of the more defensive names a little bit on the upside. there's your main culprits down today. i want to note, too, a lot of people are making a lot of the fact copper is down two days in a row. we're at a three mf month low on copper. that's sort of the global -- that gets the global growth people foaming at the mouth and a little bit worried.
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the final point i would make about this before everybody starts getting concerned, we just haven't seen a couple or few down days. s&p is only 4.2% off of its four-year high that we hit five days ago. we haven't seen five down days in a long time. there's an intraday. if you put up a one-month chart of the s&p, we hit a four-year high five days ago. people are shocked. my heavens, we're down. there's a one-month chart of the s&p. >> we've changed direction. >> yes. we haven't seen that. >> we had a 32% rally since the october low. >> there you go. >> through the peak there. and now should anybody really be surprised that we have a bit of a tailoff given the economic numbers from last week, given the fact that europe is soggy and so on and so forth? >> really it's the from october that we should be looking at and really anticipating. >> that's right. that's his point there. there are a number of people who've been saying, oh, we're due for -- i think the market's going to correct. good evens. this is not a pres yan call at
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this point. when you're up as much as tyler was talking about, the average correction in the middle of the year is about 9%. since world war ii from the close in december, sometime in the middle of the year stocks will on average, the s&p will drop 9% below where it was on december 31st. that is the average. we have been straight up for months on end. suddenly we think we've repealed the law of gravity. >> so the correction arguably should be greater then? >> it may be. it may turn out to be. >> we were talking about volume during the break -- >> you could make that argument. all i'm saying is the historical averages, at some point in the year it drops 9% below where it was on december 31st. >> as simon pointed out, whenever you're here bad things seem to happen. whenever i start to feel better about my 401(k), then bad things start to happen. i've been starting to feel a little better -- >> good thing you can only reallocate once a year. they do that for a reason. >> this is the last time i'm
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back here for a long time. >> the basic rule is never work at a company that i work for. i've been the great krip ler of all stocks. may comcast be the exception, please. for all of us. coming up, just over two hours left of the trading day. our charts of the day. "power lunch" is back in two. [ tires squeal, engine revs ] ♪ ♪
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we're watching these markets like a hawk. only silver, gold and the u.s. dollar are higher. stocks down now 183 points on the dow. it would appear we're beginning to fall yet again. a lot of focus on best buy as that company replaced its ceo today or began a search, letting go on brian dunn. let's look at a three-year chart. that roughly parallels the time when mr. dunn took over. a three-year decline of 47%. a 47% decline is not a recipe for job security. >> they weren't selling, i think, tvs. let's get some green in here. super value very bullish on 2013. investors bullish on that name. up 13% today for the super market. >> one of the troubled supermarket chains. we're here on the green. can you take a shot of the putting green th
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