please. that's me in heels. >> this is me without heels. >> have a great weekend, everybody. thanks for watching. we'll see you on monday. "closing bell" is coming up next. hi, everybody, happy friday to you. welcome to the final stretch of the week. i'm maria bartiromo. hey, scott. >> it's good to be with you. i'm scott wapner here at the exchange. what an interesting trading day. gdp disappointses. you had spain downgraded by the s&p. by the way, the market is up. >> it's up because corporate earnings are back in charge. fundamentals are driving the rally. stock market it continuing to rally. bad news out of spain. a rally under way on the close in the back of those strong earnings, scott. >> that's right. amazon after the bell last night was good.

>> blow without. >> the blue chip index closes above 13,264.49. get out your pens and pencils. right that number down. it will be a closing high for 2012. let's get a check on where the major averages sit right now. dow industrials 1422. that's a gain of nearly 39 points. nasdaq is strong today. amazon giving a boost to technology shares and the s&p 500 is in positive territory as well as this week winds down. >> we've got two names among the big gainers. amazon.com. sharply today. big move. it's amazing when you look at this quarter. it almost feels like the company is not focused on earnings but focused on revenue which is soaring. reported earnings of top estimates, thanks to the runway success of the latest kindle fire tablet. growing revenues substantially year over year. it indicates that strength in shopping on the internet and this biforcation going on in

retail right now. upper end doing well, the middle place in retail is sort of dead in the water right now. another stock surging today on earnings news, expedia, check out the shares. the company posting strong results on the back of the strong gains from hotel room bookings. another indicator for the economy that much more on these two movers in just a minute because this is really what is driving this market today. we've got less an hour to go. some of the key market themes that i've been watching, a roll on track offsetting that mixed bag that scott told us about earlier and they have reported earnings and 80% have topped expectations. very much an earnings-driven market since the beginning of the first quarter season. strong earnings helping investors overcome lackluster economic data. today's government report showing gdp. that was a disa.ment.

up 2.2, just below what analysts were expecting. indicating you should be seeing stronger growth at this point in the recovery than we actually are. s&p and the knanasdaq on track. rates moving higher. unemployment in spain soaring to 24.4%. that doesn't even indicate the youth story. and s&p cutting the credit rating by two notches late yesterday on spain. scott? market in the u.s. clearly ignores the deepening crisis in spain. although you could make that argument, scott, but at the same time, once again, europe is front and center once again. maybe today we ignore it. this is the issue for investors. spain and the euro zone. >> and that issue is not going away, obviously. let's survey the situation in today's "closing bell" situation. bob pisani is here at the new york stock exchange and simon

hobbs. i'll break earnings season down in two parts. preapple, post apple. since apple reported up 2%, it's taken a while for the market to pay attention are we going to get an earnings rally now? >> i would say in the last two days it's very clear that since mr. bernanke spoke, the market has been moving up. gold rallied on the news immediately at 8:30. the stock market dropped and rallied back. it's strange, scott. next week, watch what happens. nonfarm payrolls is going to be out. we get 170,000 on expectations, or 165. if we get a great number, 250,000 on nonfarm payrolls.

little reaction in the stock market. wouldn't that be disappointing? >> yes. >> my question is, why do we get a great number? where are you getting this job creation? >> i'm not going to discuss that. let's say we get a great number we should be up. right? >> it should be flat. >> people think that qe 3 moves further. that's what i'm saying. these prospects are distorting the stock market. i agree it's unlikely. >> hopefully we will. that's obviously what we want. simon, what about europe? it rallied today despite the numbers we're seeing out of spain and the downgrade. >> for sure. the issue is that it's beaten down 7%. what's happened is that the fear has soared through the market and the agency has moved. rightly from their speperspecti

they are behind the curve. the thing to watch now is what happens to spain's bampging system and how you inject more money into it the the european central bank and imf would like the money to come externally from the safety net straight through to the spanish banks, not by the government. if they are really going to bite the bullet on recapitalization, spain will be asking for bailout which kind of puts it in the same bucket as all of those other countries and that's really not where you want to be if you're trying to maintain confidence on italian and spanish sovereign debt. that's really what we're looking to now, maria. >> what are we looking for in terms of the economic story in these countries? are you expecting recessionary numbers coming out of spain, italy, portugal? >> spain has already double dipped. it's back in recession. the question becomes what happens in the second half of the year and how bad do things get? and obviously you're in an

environment where you have the as staur tea that is bringing back a loop. there is a discussion about a growth strategy but i doubt it's going to bite to the extent that you have the banks and pressure coming out of europe. on the other side of the coin, amazon, apple, the internet vibrancy, the money moving into tech. >> look, elsewhere, consumer discretionary, it hits an all-time high. if you continue to have the focus on u.s. centric names, those may be the names that continue the market going higher until something worse happens. >> with prok store and gamble, with all of the big brands that they have, you know, if feeds around the point rapidly and the fear, of course, is that you get deflation, which is not a good

idea for profits if it starts em mate nating from europe. >> amazon is the big kahuna. >> and the discounter is doing well. >> we are, again, this week, the s&p is the best performing of the major indexes. >> and yet you get -- i get hate mail when i talk about biforcation because there's a certain group of people invested in the idea that there's too much debt in the world and the whole world is in trouble. you can't move forward. >> not to mention the fact that china is not behaving as bad or fear that it will. >> retailers on the role and cnbc bertha coombs rounds up the

movers and and shakers and dividend paying telecom, utilities, today they are down here, consumer staples as well with the proctor gamble statement. consumer discretionary is the strongest today or we got the consumer sentiment ticking up last month. monster gains are the biggest driver and amazon is at 170 p.e. it's up nearly 16%. expedia, meantime, a big post earnings gain there as well with a 14% -- 14 p.e., by the way, by comparison, and it's at an all-time high today. it's one of more than three dozen highs within the s&p and a number of them, majority of them are retail and consumer-related.

riley automotive posting a much better than expected first quarter margins, dollar thrift tea getting an upgrade. simon property group is reported better than expected sale, double the full-year guidance after it is profits had tripled and it's seeing a lot of folks coming into those malls, maria. >> bertha, thank you so much. bertha coombs with the latest there. treasury prices pulling back despite better than expected gdp. rick santelli is at the cme group. rick? >> i tell you we're at a 188 yield at 2:00 a.m. eastern. definitely we're higher at 193. at 193, we're lower on the day as you look on the intraday. as we go out to the week, we're several basis points out on the week and we're going to make a fresh, low closing yield going

back to the first part of february. even though we're not at the lows, we're pushing back the comps again as data and nervousness over europe continue to show up big in the credit markets. look at the dollar index. a dollar is weaker and inflation is up. the dollar will look better. this is going to be the lowest close since early -- excuse me. since the last week in february and underscores even currencies like the yen and the pound. economies worst off than we are, our currencies are doing better versus the dollar. rick, back to you. >> five minutes to go before we he is enclose the bell on this wall street. take a look at dow industrials higher by 44 points. nasdaq s&p higher as well. i was looking to see. i don't know where you're supposed to look. >> nasdaq was right there, up 22.5 points. we're going to take a break and run through the earnings score card. we're rounding up all of the winners and losers and tell you

what it means for the market going forward. >> is it time to sell in may and go away? we'll breakdown the charts in talking numbers. >> there is spain, the credit rating got cut again last night. are there any areas in europe that are worth investing in? do you want to buy bargains or avoid europe at all costs? answers are up next. >> and here is how the heat map is shaping up. you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide.

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with about 45 minutes to go in today's trading session, time now for a quick market stat check on the dow. industrials checking a high for about an hour and a half ago. dour on course for the first four-day winning streak since mid-march. the dow has shot up about 2.5% since tuesday. by the way, that was when apple

reported its numbers after the bell. let's check out the sectors leading today's charge. consumer discretionary, industrials, materials all posting sharp gains, maria. >> scott, thank you. first quarter off to a strong start from the s&p 500 companies more than 80% beating wall street expectations with their earnings for the quarter. that was last week. this week that number fell to 65% because of a few misses. technology is the clear front-runner. take a look. eps up better than 23.8%. better than 18% year over year for the first quarter. and then there's utilities at the bottom with a loss of more than 20% declining earnings there from utilities. what does this signal about the second quarter as we look forward to the rest of the year? joining me now is director of research with key private bank. mark helps to oversee some $15 billion in assets. always a pleasure to have you on

the program. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> let's look ahead. we saw the first quarter technology, the clear winner here. utility is the clear strug gler in terms of sector. >> the expectations for the second and third quarter are pretty reasonable. you only look at 16% growth for the s&p. we think the companies have a chance to beat and raise guidance and companies are beating estimate. >> you think the economy gets better rest of the year and doesn't continue to soften because what we've seen from the beginning of 2012 to now is a bit of a softening because of issues like europe, like china, et cetera. you think that turns around? >> well, the rate of growth is slowing towards a more normalized trend.

stimulus is heading into the economy across the world. expectations out there in the marketplace is by the time we get to the fourth quarter, the street is expecting 14% earnings growth for the fourth quarter versus last year's fourth quarter. >> mark, better than expected, what's your overall take on the earnings story and the biforcation that we're seeing? >> earnings this quarter been pretty strong across the board. there have been a few sectors where earnings have not been strong. utilities also in the staples sector, they are raising prices to offset inflation and volumes have not been keeping up. other than those two, earnings throughout all of the other sectors of the economy have been really strong. it's very broadbased. it's a reflex of the u.s. economy being led by, you know, a lot more things than it was last year, manufacturing, services, housing, auto, so i

think there's a lot of different drivers here keeping corporate profits heading higher. >> let me push back, and the companies had to lower the second quarter outlook. so what am i missing here? >> i think companies are just being a little more cautious. you know, obviously they got kind of a scare in the second half of last year. analysts brought the numbers down. the first quarter obviously came in and up to look to weather demand. there was a pull. that's primarily why companies are giving a little bit lower estimate for the second quarter but it's going to be more of a blip and things will go on at a pretty big clip. >> margins coming under pressure because of what we're seeing,

companies lower guidance? >> last quarter when companies reported fourth quarter, 60% were lowering the first quarter. we saw those get drastically reduced. the rate it's getting cut is only half of a percent. two, three months ago they were cutting estimates by 4 to 6 percentage points. the rate of the cut is not nearly as bad. that's the upward that is moving the market higher. >> gentlemen, appreciate your time tonight. thank you so much. we'll see you soon. got a market up 38 points right now on the dow jones industrial average. nasdaq up 20. 40 minutes until the "closing bell" sounds for the day and for the week, friday it is. >> speaking of the week and thinking of the nasdaq, when you get a blowoff from apple and nasdaq, you have them on pace for the best week in nearly three months as well. that shows you what technology has done. >> shows you where the money is moving, too, doesn't it? >> absolutely. >> consumer discretionary, etf, take a look at an all-time high today. can the rally roll on here?

>> and speaking of rel tail, a look at top-performing retailers and whether they keep ringing up more gains. >> as we look at the s&p, we're back with the "closing bell" in two minutes time. with rent2buy from hertz car sales, you skip the lots... and pushy sales people... it's a fast, easy way to buy a used car. three days to try. zero pressure to buy. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz.

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sharon epperson here at the nymex. gold prices are shining a bit brighter. gold prices near the top end of the recent rank. just around 1665 an ounce. we've seen a big jump up since wednesday's low of 1625. the interpretation now that we could see more qe 3 if the fed uses the additional tools at its disposal as chairman bernanke said it would do if necessary. that is something the market is looking at. the gdp data looking deeper into that personal consumption. look for perhaps 1700 on the upside if the momentum continues in the week ahead. back to you. >> sharon, thanks so much. sharon epperson in the final stretch of trading. with april nearly in the books, will sell in may be on minds next week? we'll see if the charts provide

any clue. great to have you here. what is it going to be? sell in may, go away? i'm not necessarily sure it's going to be. >> i think it's too early to talk about selling. it's on a lot of people's minds and we have correction in april. people expecting that to be the start. but the market bends but didn't break. >> what are the charts telling us? >> earnings have been good. >> that's one of the primary reasons between this may and last may. earnings expect takings were very subdued and it was easy to jump over that hurdle. we have a bottom at 1360 on the s&p 500. now we're pushing back up. you get up near 1430 to new highs, essentially, which would bring you back towards the upper end of the dominant trend channel. we've been in this since the start of the bull market. >> maria and i talked about money moving into technology and other areas where money is flowing. it's certainly flowing into consumer discretionary names because the xly, it's at an

all-time high today. what are the charts telling us about that? >> they are still in a leadership area. il it's made a strength and in the deleveraging that we've been in, it's been the bull market leadership. it continues to hold the trend line above the two-day moving average and it's strong. >> better than expected, i guess it depends on what happens in the jobs market. >> yeah, that's the key next week. adp and jobs report next friday. >> andrew, good to talk to you, as always. >> good to see you. >> equity strategy. thank you. we're losing momentum. dow industrials up 37 points. nasdaq up also higher here. technology is the best performer on the day. up neck, companies ramping up their dividend payments, that's what we are checking out. will that help fuel another rally, get investor money off the side lines and fuel a big

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welcome back. bob pisani on the floor of the new york stock exchange. consumer discretionary stocks leading, housing stocks an important component. excellent earnings reports this week and low interest rates continuing to help a little bit. they are taking a bigger share of the pie of new homes from those smaller not publicly traded home builders. elsewhere, you hate the idea of decoupling. the global sector this week up 1.5% and, of course, we're

seeing brazil and china to the downside. the s&p is up 1.6% this week. guys, back to you. >> guys, it's been a pretty big week. earnings and giving equities a lift. more than 176 companies have announced dividend increases so far this year and of those companies, 60% is made up of financials, consumer discretionary, and tech names. >> will the dividend payouts be the catalyst in this second half? joining us now is steven gallagher along with morgan stanley smith barney. always good to have you on the program. thank you for joining us. steven, kick us off. what is the impact of the dividend increases? what are you expecting? >> you're seeing a drying up of other factors which contribute to an equity market rally. earnings, margins, they are not going to grow much further. what distinguishes one company from another, it's really dividend earnings who has the cash, who can sustain a dividend growth model and those are the

companies companies you want to aim for. it's a signaling device for investors. it's where we know the companies are going to be strong going forward in a relatively weak or moderate growth economy. >> i love the idea that we're seeing technology companies put this to work, but i wonder if all of that goes up in smoke if and when the bush tax cuts expire. what do you think? >> you want to look at your energy companies as well. exxonmobil, williams companies, williams partners, which is their mlp, mass limited partnership. also look at the real estate investment trusts. >> which have done great. >> quietly they've had a phenomenal month. the market is off a percent or two for the month of april. they are up 3% for the month of april. they got ahead of the s&p 500. so maria, you said earlier, they are going to go from 15% to 43%. >> ouch. >> and that will hurt. a large part of the market is still owned by institutions who

are tax exempt but will crumble the appetite. i highly recommend that they reconsider and not let this go up, almost tripling. over long periods of time, dividends are 40% of the total return from holding equities and the reinvestment of dividend takes that up to 70% of the total return from owns stocks. if you put $100 in the stock market in the 1920s, it's $3,000 if you reinvest the dividend. today, if you don't, that $100 is $300. ten times difference between the reinvestment of the dividend and that dividend. it's extremely important. buy some necessarily, as stra zin ka, glaxo-smith kline. >> you raised an interesting question. if you want to buy dividend-paying stocks, you want to buy u.s.-focused dividend payers because of what's going

on in europe. >> yes and no. i'm coming from a european barveg. >> you have to face reality regard regardless of who you're working for. >> you're paying a dividend yield of 4, 5%. traditionally they are more focused on dividend payments. investors are far more attracted to higher dividend companies and by nature. i have to agree, looking out in the next year or two, it's because of dividend growth in the u.s. and starting from a low base and the fact that companies have such large cash positions that they want to put to work, either invest in their own companieses, buy other companies or start paying a dividend, i think the ones who start paying the dividend are going to be really attractive. >> i wonder if companies start paying out dividends if taxes are going to be raised so much. >> payout ratios are at an historic low of 20%. long-term average is closer to

45%. they are sitting on tons of cash. you said it earlier, you want a combination of the dividend yield plus the stock buyback. there's a sweet spot between 3 and 6% yield. it's if above 6%, something is wrong with it. if it's below 3%, they are -- you want stock dividend between 3 and 6% yield, plus corporate buy backs. that's your sweet spot. that's the best. >> coca-cola raised the dividend this week, did they not? >> 26 percentage. >> 26% this week. >> and you like energy place? >> energy place. that might be separate from the dividend. exxon may fall into that. that's an fundamental huge piles of cash. if they are not giving it back

to the shareholders, they may be making really terrible investment decisions on their own reinvesting in their own company or buying companies at very high multiples. they might just waste that money if they are not giving it back. it's a good thing back to cash. >> thank you very much. for the final stretch, 20 minutes until the "closing bell" sounds. 20 points on nasdaq. up next, the s&p index may be hitting new highs but one top trader will tell us why this rally may be running out of steam. >> and after the bell we chip away at taiwans red hot chip making industry. are you better off investing in semi or intel in the u.s. here's a look at stand-out performers in the s&p 500 today. expedia really soaring on

amazon. >> internet and retail. before we go to break, the dividend. which stock leads the auto pack so far this year? ford, general motors, or toyota? the dividend pays off after the break. arrival. with hertz gold plus rewards, you skip the counters, the lines, and the paperwork. zap. it's our fastest and easiest way to get you into your car. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz.

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just before the break as part of the dividend, we asked which stock leads the auto pack so far this year? ford, general motors, or toyota? now the payoff. toyota, which is up more than 20% year to date. welcome back. i'm seema mody. let's look at travel stocks on fire today. expedia, which owns hotwire and hotels.com is leading the pack with the strong quarterly report which is providing a lift to other travel online-related companies. ariba posted a strong quarterly profit. the revenue came in up 49% year

over year. a strong report from ariba. scott, over to you. >> seema, thank you so much. let's go to brian shactman. brian? >> it's just on opening trade. it's up 6%. of course, it was halted. the fda approved a new erectile dysfunction drug call and you take it 30 minutes before trying to keep a straight face so they halted this and it's up 4.75%. we'll keep an eye on it if it spikes even more. >> that was a great straight face. >> i'lli be going now. >> see you. >> bye, brian. >> time now for a quick mark set stat check. let's start with the leading sectors, telecoms, consumer

discretionaries and s&p technology. the nasdaq is higher by 20 points, on track for the best weekly gain since february. >> hey, scotty, i'm loving this retail story. hitting a record high, six of top ten holdings in the retail etf. >> the xrt hit yearly highs, like gnc, and money is moving into parts of retail in a big way. not all retail but certainly a big part. what is behind the surge and is there more room to the upside? joining me to weigh in is warren myers at d and p securities. what are you seeing in terms of retail? why this activity in the high end and value part of it. >> i think it's a combination of things. it's a pent-up demand for a lot of consumer goods that purchases consumers have put off for quite some time. i think that's part of it. the warm weather has led to maybe forward buying early. and in helping sales with these

companies and, you know, there may be more underlying strength in the economy that all of us don't quite see yet. it may be a little bit mix of all of those. >> where do you see the conviction, warren? where is sort of the consistent buying in the retail market right now? >> if you look over the last six months or a year, a couple areas that are strong makes sense, like the auto supply companies. that makes sense. people are holding off purchasing a new car and so they are buying auto parts and extending the life of their existing cars. you're seeing that. you're seeing very high end names doing very well. it's a mixed bag and i think it just shows maybe the dichotomy of the way the economy is and the way people are making it in this environment. some are doing very well and some are struggling and some are doing what they can to make ends think. >> i was talking to a private equity guy. he said people want value, no doubt about t they are willing to spend extra money on something that they want,

provided they believe they are getting value, they will pay up for it. so they are discerning but they are paying up for things like coach and tiffany, high end doing really well. >> absolutely. you look at apple and that's been a jugernaut for the last couple of years. if people want something, they are going to pay for it. >> warren, thank you very much. >> thank you. 15 minutes to go before the bell rings on wall street. holding on to gains across the board. up next, the options trade on one stock that looks set to take off. here's how the big names in tech are trading.

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welcome back to the floor of the new york stock exchange. let's get back to darren rovell regarding the nba and player's association. darren? >> the nba was reported earlier, the players association is under investigation by u.s. attorney reviewing some of their finances earlier in the week. there was a report that billy hunter, the executive director of the players union, the union paid $4.8 million to hunter's family members. he actually has a daughter and daughter-in-law on staff within the union and he also has a daughter within a law firm that the union used and a son who provides financial planning to players, financial awareness

program. this had not really been known or disclosed by many people prior to this. and the nba players association now says that they will cooperate with the u.s. attorney's office in manhattan. the conference quarterfinals on the nbc family of networks are the most watched in stanley cup playoff histories, with the second round starting tonight. >> thank you very much, darren rovell with breaking news on that. goodyear stock is down 5%. the tire maker reported red ink for q1, the first quarterly loss in more than one year. the economic slow down in europe helped push volumes down 8%. the company now expects this year's tire volume to come in below 2011 volume. among the bright spots, operating profits in north

america doubling to $80 million and price increases for tires sold. today's drop pushes goodyear's 52-week drop. active shares in gt. >> thanks, scott. most of the season's big technology reports, meanwhile, are behind us at this point. our next guest says if there is one more that you should have your eye on. he's making the case that it should soon be a leader. joining us now is brian stutland. take it away. >> hi, maria, down 38%. that was a negativity for the stock and now the stock trading at 1.26 price to book value, having $8.5 billion of cash on hand, roughly 16% of the value of the stock. a stock is getting cheap enough to own here and heading into earnings, there's an option play for you. i'm looking to do it for

clients. selling a june 24 put at hq, i get to collect money on that. i'm going to take proceeds and buy the june 26th call. i'll leave cash to the side lines because i have risk below there. above 26 i get to participate. while the stock trades in between, if it's stuck in the middle, i basically collect 20 cents, which is roughly 1% value of the stock. it's a great way to play hbq. it's a great way to play to the stock that to me seems undervalued. >> brian stutland, thank you so much. money in motion currency trading at 5:30 p.m. we have a market losing some momentum. 26 points higher on the dow industrials. showing a gain. we've got strength in financials. handful of financials. some of the big banks are mostly lower. we'll be right back with the closing countdown and after the break, the big global asset

allocation is what we're talking about. we will go on a tour to find the best global opportunities. as we take a break, look at the major averages and how they are trading minutes before the close. you're watching the "closing bell," first on cnbc in business worldwide.

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and welcome back to the floor of the new york stock exchange. time now for the closing countdown. yes, we're holding on to gains here with the dow up 19 points. i'll take you to the board here. what an interesting week it's been, especially today. s&p downgrades spain. gdp comes in worst than expected. we have a gain here and what has been a pretty good week. i'm going to tell you why and show you here first off. the chart of apple just continued to really blowout those numbers yet again this week. yes, the stock is down today but it had great earnings and the stock was up certainly on the week by, as you see, 5%. amazon after the bell on the back of that and you had a pretty good look at what the consumer feels like right now.

as a matter of fact, ron johnson, the ceo of jcpenney is ringing the bell. got a quick comment from them. that matches the sentiment number. interesting comment from a guy who has a real good bird's eye view of what is happening for the consumer right now. let's go to david with morgan stanley. how do you feel about things right now, by and large? >> scott, we've got the personal income and personal consumption numbers on monday and it would be wonderful if these ceo comments that you just cited are born out because february was up .08%, nice and strong. we'd love to be surprised to the upside. next week you also have the ism manufacturing and nonmanufacturing and then the big numbers on friday, jobs. the consensus is 170,000 , scot. morgan stanley is looking for 140,000. a payback from the warm weather

boost that we got in january and february. >> is that going to determine, the data that you mentioned last week, whether it's realized as a sell in may and go away or not? will we focus on the earnings story which has been good, 70 to 80% of companies that have reported have beaten expectations. now you've got data to match up with that? >> we have watched you and listened to you. january was up 4.2%. february was 4.1. march was up 3. it's time for a breather. all of the things thaw just cited in terms of the profits, the market has acquitted itself quite well. down four days of this week and up in the fifth day to close out the week. so we see better strength there. the market is telling us something. the news doesn't say -- the market doesn't make the news. the news makes the market. and thereforewe would say, you can use this as an opportunity

to rotate into dividend stocks that we were talking about earlier in the show. >> what other areas of the market do you like? i know you've liked technology, microsoft, amazon. you like apple. >> you just cited apple. we have a $720 price target. we think they could earn $60 this year. they could put a multiple of 12 times earnings on it and give you 720. so china demand was the big surprise here. that's one of the big pillars of growth. china, low-priced iphone, new ipod adoption by corporations. and the possibility of smart television, scott, where you'll be able to watch the internet over tv and program it in a very nice way. so this sir jonathan, he's the design genius behind steve jobs. he doesn't get a lot of credit. he sort of is like nasa, which brought us the enterprise and we're going to have the space shuttle here and we're happy to have that. he's been the quiet person

that's been behind the scenes there. so we see a good things for apple. we like that stock quite a bit. >> apple has picked up nicely. it's picked up quite nicely since that gentleman from jcpenney, mr. johnson, left as well. that's raised a lot of issues. what is the one risk that you see? is it europe? let's not forget you've got spain, the uk back in the recession. s&p downgrading spain. that issue may not be right on our windshield but certainly not in the rear-view mirror either. >> scott, i think you put your finger on it. it's the spain and portugal complex. that's fantastic. and if they begin to disappoint for the last 300, that's a second one. joblessness is a third one and the new claims, 389,000,