in the hand. michelle, we'll see what happens tomorrow. back to you. >> thank you so much, kayla. time for the final trade. let's go around the horn. steve? >> michelle, speaking of drugs, say yes to drugs here. i like the breakout on pharma. long pph. >> simon, i don't live at 221 baker. >> go higher. >> we're out of time. go to "power lunch." we're at the market session highs. you got to stay tuned. thank you, michelle. three hours to go in the trading day. and the markets are off to the races. strong earnings reports. a bit of good news from spain. and away we go. we'll find out if this rally still has room to run. the president declares war on speculators. oil speculators. he blames manipulation for those higher prices. we'll go live to the trading floors for reaction, sue. of course, ty, we're also going to be following this story. it has been one of the darlings of the tech chip world. qualcomm reports earnings tomorrow. how to play the stock today. with tyler mathisen, i'm sue

herera. "power lunch" begins right now. hello. welcome to power lunch. i'm bertha coombs at the realtime exchange. a sea of green on the wall. dow industrials up 1.5%. s&p following suit. they're both up exactly the same. but it's the nasdaq that is up nearly 2% on the day because apple today is recovering. taking the pulse of the market, oil is higher even as the president takes aim at speculators. speaks as speculators are unwinding bets on brent. leaving wti up more than 1.5%. and that brent premium has come down to less than $14. gold also edging higher today as well. continuing its positive move to the upside. and the 10-year yield here is above 2% as we are seeing folks move into stocks today. and our midday movers, first solar announcing layoffs as part of a restructuring and the market seems to like it. it's up over 10%.

coca-cola up more than 2.5%. coke is more expensive, which means bigger profits. meantime, starbucks, you know, i didn't have my latte this morning. i don't know why that's causing some profit taking, perhaps. it's down 2% today. one of the biggest decliners in the s&p. let's head on down to the trading floors and see what bob pisani is looking at down at the nyse. >> hello, bertha. there's an old rule, folks, i've had for 15 years. don't yell at the stock market. don't yell it when it's doing something you either don't understand or don't like. i'm suppressing that desire today. frankly this is a little bit of a strange one. we had a great european open and a great european close. all the major european markets -- france, germany, spain, italy -- all closed essentially at the highs. look at these great gains. 2% and 3%. big up moves. all of this because spain had a decent auction of bills? 12 and 18 months? that seems a little strange.

that's, in fact, what's been going on. here in the united states a continuation of that. major sectors up 4-1 advancing to declining stocks. it's only gotten stronger since the european close. techs are up here as the market leader. energies, material, strindustri. healthy across the board advance. not any one company doing anything. speaking of one company, you want to know about apple. the amazing thing about apple, it goes from 605 on monday all the way down to 580 yesterday and guess what? we're back at 605. again, essentially at 605. let's not quibble about a dollar. 605 to 580 back to 605. 25 million shares. about average. it's going to do heavy volume again today. the s&p 500, had the drop in the beginning of april. we are moving to the downside. in the last few days we have retraced half of all the losses. it was never a big drop to begin with. we were only down about 3% from the highs in april. those were four-year highs.

to the bottom here. we've even retraced that. let me start saying, we get another day like this, tomorrow i'll start talking to be within reach of new highs. sue, that's how strange the market is right now. >> all right. bob, thanks a million. all right. let's switch on the "power lunch" power surge and drill down on the stories that are driving this day as well as this major stock market rally. we're also watching oil very closely. the president earlier announcing his big plan to crack down on oil speculators. eamon javers is in washington with the details on that part of the story. sharon epperson is at the nymex with the pit reaction to that. eamon, we'll start with you. >> reporter: the president's been getting clobbered out on the campaign trail by republicans who blame him for the spike in gas prices at the pump. that might have had a little something to do with why the president came out today and he really came out swinging hard against market manipulation in the oil markets. take a listen. >> we can't afford a situation where speculators artificially manipulate markets by buying up oil, creating the perception of

a shortage and driving prices higher. only to flip the oil for a quick profit. >> reporter: here's what the president wants to do. he laid out a five-point plan. the key points, he wants more funding from congress for more cops on the beat at the cftc. tech upgrades for regulators so they can keep up with the pace of high-speed trading computers. he'd like to boost civil and criminal penalties for market manipulation up to $10 million a day per violation in some cases. and he'd like to raise margin requirements in the oil futures market. most of that, sue, would require approval by congress. that's why this is not likely to necessarily get passed into law any time soon. remember, republicans still control the house of representatives. the president here making more of a political argument about what ought to be done and is calling on congress to take some action here, sue. >> that's a very interesting point to leave you with, eamon. thank you very much. let's switch to sharon epperson and find out how this is playing in the oil pits. i think eamon's point about the

fact that it has to go through congress, maybe the market already knows that. maybe that's why we didn't get the vehement reaction in the markets we thought we would. >> the market absolutely knows that. that's why we're looking at oil prices that are basically where they were before president obama started speaking. many more factors going into what the driving prices. obama did point to the fact he realizes there are global issues at work that influence oil prices as well. in terms of the market manipulation commentary, you would perhaps assume that the traders here believe that that is really ill founded. and when they look at speculation, they look at speculation as a reason for the volatility in the marketplace. when you look at the actual prices that we're seeing, we've actually seen gasoline and brent crude futures, which really drive the price of gasoline even more than wti, come down. and when you look at the actual speculation data that comes from the cftc in terms of the long positions of money managers and the managed money there, we are also looking at that trending

lower for the overall petroleum complex over the last ten weeks. so even though the rbom managed money is at an all-time high, it's a smaller part of the pie. that may come down as well as we have seen gas prices and gasoline futures come down over the last several days. back to you. >> thank you very much. mixed news on one of the economy's ongoing weak links. housing. builders began work on fewer than expected homes in the most recent month. but permits for future projects jumped to a 3 1/2 year high. real estate correspondent diana olick looking at what it means for the recovery. diana, are these numbers as bad as they seem? >> it's hard to say, tyler. again, it's this tale of two housing markets. single family homes and multifamily apartments. a drop in multifamily starts brought the overall number down. multifamily permits were up which was a better indicator of construction going forward because it's not based on any weather issues. single family starts down 5.8% in march from february. still 10% higher than last year. but last year, by the way, was

the worst on record. permits, again, a better indicator for single family, down 3.5% month to month. we are essentially in a restocking mode for single family. that's from morgan stanley's oliver chang on cnbc this morning. builders have sold off what they had. they're not seeing huge new demand. we got that message in the home builders sentiment number yesterday. with multifamily you have to remember, this is a very volatile number. it can swing 20% to 30% month to month. but the trend overall is rising. still multifamily construction is well below the 20-year average despite big demand for renta rentals. that may be because there's so much single family renting going on now. that's the crux of it all for the builders. all this distressed supply is now turning into rentals. credit for new home buyers is still very tight. that's steep competition for the builders. to put it in perspective, this drop in starts this month means about one-third of the past year's improvement in home building has now been undone. that was from capital economics. there's much more like it on the

blog. realtycheck.cnbc pn realtycheck.cnbc.com. citigroup is in the spotlight for a second day running. the stock getting upgraded to a hold from underperform by meredith whitney. the stock is responding with a pretty decent percentage gain. mary thompson is live at the big meeting in dallas. mary, let's start with ms. whitney's call. what's the reasoning behind it? >> reporter: this is significant for a couple of reasons, sue. we just want to point out, of course, meredith whitney was the one back in 2007 who first said that citi was going to have to cut its dividend on the very pressuren't call there. she told maria bartiromo she's been a long critic of citi. it would take a new brain for her to invest in this company. that being said in the wake of the company's better than expected earnings reported yesterday, she said the company's improving metrics as well as its historically low valuation, it's trading at about a 30% discount to book, makes it unlikely we'll see any significant share price

depreciation. that being said, she says one critical area for citi remains its expense management. the bank has promised to cut $2.5 billion to $3 billion in expenses this year. she says the company will have to hold to that as one of the areas she's watching right now. again, meredith whitney upgrading the stock to a hold from an underperform. tyler? >> mary, you're at the meeting, of course. it looks like two things have happened. one, a new chairman. two, it looks like citi's taking something of a stand on executive pay. >> reporter: that's right. first of all, michael o'neil as expected named the chairmancomp. you know what, tyler? this was the first year since 2009 that ceo vikram pandit had a salary of more than $1 a share. he was paid $14 million last year. the other four top executives paid between $7 million and $13 million for 2011.

parsons talked to cnbc afterwards and said investors concerns about pay focused on a lack of or the type of metrics used to determine the pay. he said the board will continue to work with these shareholders on their concerns about compensation going into the coming year. parsons also talked with cnbc about the fed's decision to reject most of citi's capital plan for 2012. he said the fed's concerns focused mostly on the fact that citi asked to return too much capital to its shareholders. listen in. >> we didn't fail to achieve the capital levels that are required. it's just that given the capital plan and the amount of capital we want to give back to shareholders in that capital planning period, the fed felt a little uncomfortable with that. >> pandit repeated his comments from yesterday saying that citi will consider resubmitting the capital plan for 2012. however, it might wait until 2013 to ask for another dividend

increase. guys, back to you. >> mary, thank you very much. meantime, citi rival bank of america selling its wealth management business outside of the u.s. kate kelly is on that story. what's behind the move, kate? >> i think a couple of things are going on here. i think primarily it's an effort on ceo brian moynahan's part to execute on the plan new bac he unveiled last year. which is essentially a streamlining effort, a cost cutting effort. they're going to be getting rid of noncore assets. they've been doing that for the last year plus. unfortunately also they're making a number of head count reductions. that's been an ongoing effort. what we're seeing today is news that they're going to be taking bids to sell their non-u.s. wealth management business. that's everything except the latin american piece from what i understand. it sounds as though the valuation on this business is somewhere between $1.5 billion and $2 billion, although, of course, we'll see what happens in the bidding process. they expect, i think, to see fairly traditional wealth management entities making a play for it. maybe a julius bear type

company. maybe deutsche bank. it's been emphasized with me as i've talked to people about it, you know, this is not a core part of their wealth manageme business. that's probably one reason that they are going to sell it. and we should hear more about it on thursday. but the vast majority of their assets and the vast majority of their fa presence is in the u.s. even for clients who live overseas, but are represented by bank of america in terms of wealth management. those folks in many cases are represented by people here, sue and tyler. so it makes sense, i guess, to focus on the u.s. business if you're thinking about it that way. >> kate, thank you very much. up next on "power lunch," how to play the three es. stronger than expected earnings. weaker than expected economic data. and renewed fears about europe's debt crisis. strong day in the markets. we are up just under 200 points. as we head out, here's a look at how the other major averages are shaping up. and to show you how broad based this is, the russell 2,000 is up almost 2% on the trading session. we're back in a moment. [ male announcer ] we imagined a vehicle

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welcome back to "power lunch." rick santelli on the floor of the cme group in chicago. if you look at a 10-year note intraday, we really haven't moved much. but that 24-hour chart, it's fascinating. if can you look at what was going on on the far left side of that chart around 1:00, 2:00 in the morning, you'll see that the next chart of the bund yields gives you pretty much the reason why. bund yields started to move up about the same time. obviously this stuff correlates to a high degree.

at the epicenter of that move is that the auctions in some of the situations on short dated bills that were auctioned off supposedly went pretty well. pretty well to me means investors have an appetite. not the banks of the particular country that has the funding issue to begin with. we really need to monitor this dynam dynamic. there's one issue that has no debate today. the bank of canada, about 9:00 eastern, did not raise rates. but they certainly talked a lot about how the next move may be to raise rates. and at the epicenter of that discussion was inflation. look at the chart of the dollar versus canada. boy, if you want to strengthen your currency, just talk about inflation and as a central bank your ability to deal with it. back to you, sue or tyler. i can't remember, one or the other. >> we'll both take it, ricky. thank you. >> we're both here, rick. doesn't matter. we're both here. look at that dow. up nearly 200 points now. the s&p up 20. the nasdaq higher by 54.

almost 2%. earnings, europe, big u.s. companies scheduled to report this week. ibm, bank of america, mcdonald's among them. positivity is what we're talking about here. is the positivity going to continue and keep this rally over the past couple of days going? carmine grigoli and bert white. what do you say, carmine? is the rally for real, as my 6-year-old says? for real? >> absolutely. i do think this market moves substantially higher over the course of the next year based on a number of factors. earnings will rise in the vicinity of 8% to 10%. you also have an increased appetite by the corporate sector. corporations will come in and buy $550 billion of stock this year. valuation in the equity market relative to interest rates have not been this low in over 50 years. what's not to like? i do understand europe is an issue. it's going to be ongoing. not going to disappear any time soon. but that creates reoccurring

concerns, pullbacks. buy the pullbacks and i think over the course of the next year it should be fine. >> you know, bert, there is that push and pull. we do have, you know, better than expected performance in a number of stock sectors. yet we have the overhang of europe. what's going to break the tie? is it the economic data? is it the monetary policy? what will it be that will move -- allow the market to move smartly higher? >> you're right. there is a huge tug of war between europe and earnings. right now earnings is winning. i think the economic data is going to be a really important factor here. you're starting to see some cracks in the foundation. the labor market, we have not so great payrolls. claims have been ticking up a little bit. manufacturing data is starting to show some cracks. today the housing numbers was a little bit mixed. at the end of the day we've got to watch that very carefully and be careful if we're going to get a soft spot like we have the last three summers. we're sitting right smack dab in the best time to invest. the two weeks after alcoa reports, earnings has really driven stock prices. we're sitting right in the middle of that.

11 of the last 12 quarters we've seen positive gains for the market in the two weeks after alcoa. we're only five days post. i think we've got another week of this going. the real question is, europe. and i do think there is some things to worry about there with europe and the fact that may is not too far away. >> best -- smack dab in the best time to invest, carmine. that's what bert says. i want you to come down from our macro towers here and give me the one sector that you ning is going to be the best place to put money over the next 52 weeks and one that you would shy away from. >> technology, clearly the sector that's going to show the earnings growth. i am a little concerned in the near term. i think that guidance is going to be a little bit tepid. stocks have had a good run. i would be looking for a pullback into earnings season. any stock, mostly stocks, and would accumulate positions going into it. there is a tendency out there to want to take profits in the tech sector. apple is the most recent example. i thipg longer term this is a

sector that will drive the economy. in terms of basically sectors that i would avoid, the natural resource sector, energy, i do not believe that the gains that we're seeing, i don't think that these stocks are going to be sustained for very long term. europe is likely to get weaker, not stronger any time soon. >> do you agree with those calls, bert, or would you take a different approach to allocating capital? >> i definitely like the technology call. i think businesses and consumers are both spending pretty well. you're at a really important part of the reinvestment cycle for businesses. i think you're going to see technology continue to do well. it's been the best sector year to date. i think it will continue to be one of the best sectors. we like materials. we think buying here is a good opportunity. em has been slaughtered here lately. we think that's a big driver of why materials and energy companies have been struggling. >> em is emerging markets, correct? >> exactly. i think i merge k markets are going to start to see that growth continue to do well. we don't think you're going to have a hard landing in china.

but a soft landing. lastly, you're going to have accommodative fed policies and monetary policies in emerging markets which should drive those stocks higher. >> carmine, let me ask you one quick question. if i've got a lot of bonds, treasuries, like a lot of americans to, what do i do with it right here? very quick. >> i'd sell them. you've not seen -- with 2% bond yields, you cannot finance a retirement. just keep in mind that if you look at the earnings yield at 7, the difference between those two is at basically a 50-year high. stocks have not been this attractive relative to interest rates in over 50 years. >> gentlemen, thank you very much. it is april 17th. it is tax day. >> it is tax day. >> how about that? >> it is a taxing day. >> it's also the anniversary of cnbc. first day airing on april 17th. how is that for a confluence. the stars align there. when we come back, a new warning for the 57 million people who e-file their taxes. what you need to know about a huge jump in identity theft.

even though it is cnbc's anniversary, no, we are not going to show you what my hair looked like 23 years ago, mercifully. after a year of surging higher, chip maker qualcomm reports its earnings tomorrow. but we'll tell you what the play is today. a little later on "power lunch."

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welcome back to "power lunch." i'm courtney reagan at the

nasdaq. 3 in 30. netflix shares up more than 4%. the company says 75% of what its users watch is based on recommendations from other users. a key differentiator from competitors. intel, shares up just under 1%. trading at levels not seen since july 2005. the company reports earnings after the bell today. last but not least, take a look at apple. up 4%. we're covering some of the ground loss over the last five days which were the company's worst five-day losing streak in three years. 12% weight in the nasdaq 100. back to you. >> condolences. it's tax day here. here are some interesting stats for you. 63 million people file u.s. tax returns. 57 million of them will e-file. 6 million will file the traditional paper way. as if filing taxes isn't already a headache, thousands of taxpayers are expecting refunds and are finding out that they can't even file their taxes because someone has already done it for them. identity theft is now rampant,

affecting hundreds of thousands of people. and investigations inc. is on the case. our senior correspondent scott cohen goes inside this world, looking at how fraudsters are getting your tax refund and what it takes to get it back. >> it's all about that electronic full-times. all it takes is a social security number to file a tax return electronically and claim a refund. angela beasley of miami goes to file her return via turbotax. she gets this. a screen that says a tax return with the same social security number has already been submitted. she quickly figures out that she is a victim of identity theft. the irs tells her, file your return by mail. fill out an affidavit. and call the police. the real fun begins. >> i called them. they said no, we don't even take the reports. we don't report that particular identity theft because it's so rampant and it's happened to so many people that they're overwhelmed and they can't even deal with it. just call the irs. but then the irs is asking you

if you have a police report. >> so you see where this is going. she's been told it can take anywhere from six months to two years to get this straightened out because angela is not alone. at the start of this year, the irs has active cases in 22 states. nearly half a million taxpayers affected since 2008. they know that's the tip of the iceberg. in tampa where they say drug dealers are turning to this kind of fraud because it's so much less risky, the police chief lays this at the feet of the irs. >> we can't investigate our way out of it. there has to be changes at the point of filing. there have to be changes made. it's just too easy for individuals to file these returns via the internet and, you know, to get the fraudulent tax money, the americans' money. >> both the irs and turbotax say they are working hard on fraud prevention. here's another wrinkle. the main federal agency dealing with identity theft is the federal trade commission. but by law, the irs can't share

taxpayer information, fraudulent or not, with the ftc. it is a huge issue and getting bigger. tyler? >> scott, where are these thieves getting the personal information? >> any place they can get a social security number. we just had a big bust in manhattan today. the manhattan district attorney says it's indicted 12 people. they have set up apparently a website where people can get jobs. they give their information not knowing this is a front to get social security numbers. people are going to work at medical offices just to get social security numbers to file tax returns. the incumbent thing on taxpayers is protect your identity. protect that social security number. because right now it is the key to fraud. >> that's frightening. scott, thank you very much. appreciate it. up next, headlines out of china almost every day moving the markets. of course, the question is whether or not they are engineering a hard landing or a soft landing. so next on "power lunch," the brand-new report out on china released today. find out why black rock says

china may, indeed, confound all those doomsayers. apple's dip. trading higher today. we'll look at what its dip in recent days means in real dollars. 00. we asked total strangers to watch it for us. thank you so much, i appreciate it, i'll be right back. they didn't take a dime. how much in fees does your bank take to watch your money ? if your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense.

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welcome back to "power lunch." i'm brian shactman. i want to reset the market. 10-year note back above 2%. not a lot going on with the dollar and gold today. crude up 1.5%. above $104 a barrel. just up 200 points in the dow. just a shade below. every big market day means an % move in the vix. this time to the downside. s&p winners and losers. energy a big winner. several energy names. newfield on the top. first solar. whirlpool is the biggest loser in the s&p 500 after a u.s. trade panel decided not to punish refrigerator makers in mexico and south korea. something that whr really wanted. i've wanted to use my tax return to get laser surgery. now i've got three kids. that money's not going towards my eyes, folks. we thought it would be interesting. the markets on tax day. s&p, week leading into tax day has been down three out of the

last five years. today obviously we're having a really good day. that'll skew the numbers for moving forward, of course. now, the most thought of tax-related stocks, h & r block and intuit, which has turbotax. wasn't easy to find a lot of patterns on tax day. these three stocks, goodyear, halliburton and omnicom have been up the last six consecutive days you could trade on. listen. i want to go now to the nymex. gold and other metals getting ready to close. sharon epperson at the nymex. >> you know, a lot of folks probably wondering where should i invest my tax refund?

if you'd have asked a lot of investors earlier this year, they likely would have said gold. i'm not so sure if they would say that now considering gold has been stuck in this range between 1620 and 1680 for several weeks now. in fact, we're looking at gold prices closing right now just up about $2. in the morning there was talk about the positive spanish bond auction and how that was helping the euro, helping gold. later in the session some saying maybe gold's getting a little bit of lift or will get more of a lift from the equity market with the dow up 200 points or from oil. oil up 150 for wti. still pretty much a lackluster market here for gold. we are looking, though, at some movement in silver and in palladium in particular. keep in mind that we did have the cme lowering margins on silver, copper and palladium effective at the close of business on monday. so effective this trading session. and that may be part of the reason that includes liquidity, tyler and sue, of why we're seeing a bit of activity in the palladium market. back to you guys. let's take a look at the

nasdaq. in particular, you know, the dow may be up almost 200 points. but the nasdaq is up almost two full percent. if it continues on this pace for the rest of the day, it is looking at perhaps its best one-day gain for the year. not bad if you're long that market. switching to china, its foreign direct investment dropped for the fifth straight month. underscoring a lot of fears out there that europe's debt crisis may be hurting growth. a new report from blackrock says despite a few bumps in the road, china will remain globally competitive and continue to confound the doomsayers out there. with $3.5 trillion under its belt, when blackrock talks trades are sure to follow. jeff chen, welcome to "power lunch." a pleasure to have you. >> thank you very much for having me. >> even though you think china will confound the doomsayers as you put it out there, they certainly do have an overhang of, you know, a real estate issue. they have energy demand that

they have to meet. they've had a credit boom. so there are some hurdles for them to overcome. what makes you so confident that they will be able to do that successfully? >> i think we're certainly quite bullish on china still. after the investment institute had a gathering of 50 investment professionals around the world, we're certainly faced with a bit less certainty. there's certainly quite a bit of volatility ahead china needs to manage well to deliver economic growth that's certainly been spectacular over the past three decades. on a forward looking basis, as you said, credit certainly is a bit of an issue. i think there was a bit of a credit binge in 2009. there's also a bit of, i think, a real estate slump that's certainly permeated on the coastal area. also when you look at the leadership change this year, those things are certainly presenting quite a bit of challenges for the country. but at the same time, the fundamental forces for economic growth, we think, is still in

place. and it was overall over the intermediate term still quite bullish on china. >> i just want to push a little harder there on that -- on the question. you know, when economies grow because of credit, and credit has expanded at a vast pace in china over the past half decade or so, and when economies grow because of tons of real estate investment largely fueled by that credit, it usually doesn't end well. why do you think china's different? >> i don't think china is going to be different in that regard. i do think that the nonperforming loan would actually go up over time. it's disgiese edisguised a litt the amount of loans that have actually been pumped out through the financial system. at the same time we do think that as the real estate slump is going on, overtime there will be nonperforming loans. that will impact the financial sectors. we are actually much more sanguine on the financial sectors, even though for the overall economy we do think that

as the chinese economy is transforming from an investment driven economy to a much more domestic consumption driven economy, the financial sector eventually will benefit from that transition. in the short term the real estate slump is certainly going to have a negative impact on financial sectors. that's a very much -- >> if you are right, then investors who are looking, perhaps, to put a little bit more capital to risk would probably be wise to step into this market relatively quickly. with that said, however, how do you do it? do you play it through china proxies? and by the companies that, perhaps, are domestically based but have exposure to china? or do you buy the hong kong listed chinese stocks? >> we actually think that the hong kong directly listed stocks is actually much more attractive from valuation perspective. the valuation of some of the multinational companies that have chinese exposure is certainly getting to be a bit more expensive.

so from an investment perspective, we think that if people are interested in getting into china, given some of the negative sentiment, the direct play is much more appropriate and also much more attractive from a valuation perspective. >> all right. jeff, thank you very much. jeff shen with blackrock. we appreciate you being with us. oops. there he went. >> just in time. >> glad i didn't ask that follow-up question. all righty. up next, apple shares bouncing back big after five days of selling by investors. we're going to look at the numbers and see what apple's recent slide really adds up to. plus, qualcomm is one stock making money on the apple economy. or i economy, if you will. the cell phone chip giant reports earnings after the bell. do you buy the stock ahead of the results or not? stick around and find out. power, standard keyless access, and standard leather-trimmed seats, then your choice is obvious. the lexus es. it's complete luxury in a class full of compromises. see your lexus dealer.

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certainly a nice rally on this tuesday. coming up on "street signs," we'll talk about if this market really does need an apple a day. we'll take to the charts to gauge the real impact of apple on these markets. plus, larry sits down for an exclusive interview with mitt romney. they're talking taxes. larry talking to us. i will argue why the gop should, should pass the buffett rule. and a serious defeat for the king of all media. a look at what is next for howard stern and sirius investors. now back to sue and tyler on "power lunch." >> see you at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. all right. after five days of losses, take a look at apple stock today. that's quite a nice v-shaped rebound. what do the recent losses, though, mean in the larger context of the markets and the economy? bertha coombs is here looking at apple's slide by the numbers for us. hi, bertha. >> on the sixth day the sellers rested. they say you take the stairs up and the elevator down when you

start getting this big. that's certainly true with apple. took about 20 sessions for the stock to gain $50 billion in market cap. top $600 billion in market value at its all-time high just six days ago. then that last five days saw that wiped out and then some. that 10% pullback for apple wiped out about $58 billion, $59 billion in market value. that's comparable -- comparable loss if you'd had for any of these stocks would have taken them to zero. u.s. bank corp., goldman sachs, aig, mastercard. all of them right in that neighborhood of about $60 billion in market cap. in terms of other nasdaq 100 stocks, you would need to combine the market cap of news corp. and dell together to equal that loss that we saw over the last few days in apple. and the sum of the parts certainly would still be fractionally worth what apple is worth right now. in terms of economic scale, it's in the ballpark of the gdps of

the state of new hampshire, state of idaho, and the dominican republic. if apple were a country, it's $540 billion market value would put it in the g-20 just ahead of switzerland. and with today's recovery, take a look at what's happening here. you've got apple up 4%. you've got the s&p and the nasdaq 100, the best performers both up around 2%. a little bit more for the s&p technology sector. and this year, they have been the outperformers. they have gained twice as much as the s&p overall. in no small part, tyler, because of apple. >> bertha, thank you very much. another big tech name on our radar today is qualcomm. the telecom equipment maker set to report its second quarter results tomorrow. that will come after the closing bell. shares up today. surging 23% this year. outperforming the broader tech sector. joining us to get ahead of the numbers is mark sue, an analyst with rbc capital markets. mark, you've had an outperform on this for at least two years.

and if i'd followed your advice over two years, my holdings would be up by 56%. are you still confident that this stock can go higher from here? >> we actually do. we think that the stock goes higher. qualcomm is in a very good position right now. the smartphone growth is very healthy for the overall market. qualcomm is seeing a lot of growth in the wireless space. and this year it's all about 4-glte. their chips are being increasingly designed into popular devices from apple, samsung and others. >> they're in a nice spot. they sell to all those big manufacturers of smartphones. they're sort of platform agnostic if you choose that word. your view of the numbers for tomorrow and into 2012 and 2013 are more conservative than the consensus view. why is that? >> we've just been a little bit conservative related to just kind of the seasonality of the smartphone business. also we haven't really factored

in a lot of the growth from later this year when we should see windows 8 ran. we also should see nokia as they go through a reboot help qualcomm in terms of revenue and earnings. just a little of conservative on our part. >> not by a huge amount, i should say. nevertheless, you think the stock can outperform. as we see the report tomorrow and as we listen to whatever the commentary and follow-up conference call, what should we be looking for? what should we be listening for? what would make you happy? what would alarm you? >> i think the positive sides, what we're looking for, continued growth in the smartphone market. if we look at the operating systems, for example, android is by far the fastest growing operating system. then you also have apple doing quite well here in the u.s. and also in china. we also want to see qualcomm diversify into the windows platform. that will add to the top line growth. also tablets. so far it's all about ipads from apple. but we do feel that the android tablet market should reboot itself for the back half of the

year. that should be incremental for qualcomm. the other thing is they are in a product cycle. qualcomm has a chip called the 8960 which is winning a lot of design wins in a lot of devices out there. >> in terms of 4-g lte. i don't mean to wallow into the highly technical. but indulge me for a moment. are the hand set makers, are the qualcomms of the world farther ahead than the data networks are at the ability to really deliver at those higher speeds? >> i think the chips are it shall chip sets are getting faster. the devices are getting faster. they're getting more plentiful. if you don't have an lte phone now for the carriers, you're going to be handicapped. networks are trying to cope as well. there's a lot of innovative solutions that are coming to make sure that the networks work more efficiently over the carrier, both on the wire line and also wireless networks out there. >> mark, thank you very much for your clarity. appreciate your being with us. let's take a look at nat gas right now. we have a 10-year low in natural gas. the percentage move today alone

down 2.68% on the trading session. the volume has been heavy in that particular part of the energy complex. a lot of energy stocks, however, that are more reliant on oil are rallying today. that's because the imf upgraded the global growth story today. that included the use of energy, which will increase. all right. the markets as you well know up about 200 points on the dow. rally mode today. a triple digit rally on the dow alone. nasdaq on pace to, perhaps, hit its best one-day gain this year. >> we are going to go back live to the trading floor for a look at what will drive the rest of the trading session. back after this. announcer ] you are a business pro. omnipotent of opportunity. you know how to mix business... with business. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. and go. you can even take a full-size or above.

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welcome back. i'm sima mody. stocks in rally mode. johnson & johnson the only stock in the s&p health care sector trading lower. first quarter revenue came in slightly light primarily due to to the patent expiration of two drugs, both of which brought in roughly $1 billion each prior to expiration. j & j also experienced weakness in medical device business. while analysts say the worst is

over, j & j does continue to lose millions of dollars a year on manufacturing issues and recalls. besides j & j the rest of the pharma pack having a pretty good day. >> thank you very much, seema. stocks are surging. triple digit gain for the dow jones industrial average. we just crossed the plus 200 mark on the dow. the nasdaq seems to be on pace for its best day of the year in terms of its gain. let's check in with bob pisani at the new york stock exchange. jonathan corpina. bob, you said you didn't want to yell at the stock market a bit earlier today. but you got to admit, it's a pretty sizable and broad-based rally if you look at, you know, the russell. if you look at the transports. if you look at some of the supporting indices. it seems to have legs. >> it does. i was very unhappy with the housing numbers this morning, the starts numbers, jon.

i thought they were really below expectations. we're supposed to be getting better housing numbers. but we did get spain with a successful short term auction setting up for the bigger one later in the week. the finance minister of germany came out late in the morning and said spain doesn't need a bailout. we moved audiota ed up a little that. european markets ended up highs for the morning. then apple up above $600 12:00 or so. markets lifted to the upside. >> i think the news coming out of europe today definitely eased some concerns on investors. we still have been trying to figure out exactly the total implication of what's happening there. i doept think people fudon't th totally understand. we've had positive headlines coming out of earnings. europe headlines helped markets. i would like to see a little more volume. right now 360 million shares. as we said before, that's like the opening on an expiration day. without this volume, there's no real feeling of conviction to

this market. >> i've been wanting to see a little more volume for a year and a half, actually. >> i was going to say, that's not unusual these days. >> we've been going around this for the last year and a half. >> exactly. jonathan, i guess my question is, has the u.s. market insulated itself to a certain extent from some of the problems in europe given the economic data has been better and the mood seems to be bett or not? >> right. when you look back six, nine months ago, every headline that we saw was coming out of europe was dictating our markets. i think investors kind of got tired of that after a bhwhile a started focusing back domestically, what was happening here. europe has become a second headline. investors haven't forgotten about the positive news that has happened here. jobs numbers have gotten better. earnings are getting better. investors look at earnings reports. they're looking at balance sheets. cash on hand. how companies will use cash on hand going forward. looking at positives here but

not forgetting what's in europe. >> decoupling is important. we are outperforming. only down 3% from the recent highs. >> when you look at europe, guys, i was looking at some of the indexes. over the past year some of the big ones are down only about 5%. if you think of that and how much turmoil we've gone through over that time, a 5% decline year over year in some of those major ind dexs, less in britain and germany, ain't so bad after all. >> considering those headlines, you take that selloff any day. >> exactly. thanks, guys, appreciate it. coming up, just over two hours left in an incredibly strong trading day so far despite the lack of volume. charts of the day up next.

the breaking news is all about the market rally. we're looking at the dow industrials up more than 200 points. 13,122. back above 13,000. nasdaq above 3,000 on the back of a nearly 60-point gain. almost 2%. may turn out to be the best gain of the year for nasdaq if it hangs on and the s&p is higher as well, sue. >> even though there isn't the volume a lot of people would