sue, all right. that's going to do it for "power lunch." >> i agree with jim. >> terrific. that will do it for "power lunch." >> we'll see you back here tomorrow. have a great afternoon. "street signs" begins right now. and welcome to "street signs." i'm brian sullivan. america, the beautiful. in a sea of red, we, we america, are we an oasis, an investing paradise? we'll show you the numbers that say a definite maybe. even though we're down again today. battleground priceline. it's been a teflon stock in this turbulent market. is it finally tapped out? a top analyst on tap to tell you. and bank of america feeling the heat from outside and inside. and now most of you say the latest fix is unfair. we're going to keep the housing debate going. and, mandy, more on weak banana pricing. >> the show is not a show without a banana. on another note, a wild day out there on wall street.

the dow down 183 points early on and is now well on its way back to even trying to avoid a six-day losing streak. the same story goes for the s&p 500, which was close to a two-month low. back to near break even. and nasdaq had the distinction to first wipe out the day's negative. >> thanks, mandy. let's talk spain. not about their problems. you're tired of hearing about that. but about whether their market matters to you and your money. the spanish ibex 35, their dow industrial average has been crushed this year. it's down 20% just in 2012. certainly one of the worst if not the single worst performing developed market in the world. it doesn't matter. doesn't look like it lately. we're going back a couple years here. the ibex versus the dow jones industrial average. the dow is in blue. red, white and blue. we track closely with the ibex.

we fell together in the summer of 2011. we rose together at the end of last year. and into this year. but look at very lately, folks. the ibex has been going down while the dow jones industrial average, yeah, the last couple days has bulled over, but the divergence has really begun between our markets and spain. the question is, bob pisani, leader or follower? is spain going to lead us down? or can we lift the world? >> there is -- it is argued that there's no such thing as decoupling, brian. it's not possible for the u.s. to outperform countries like spain. but the answer is that it can. in fact, we're down only 4%. spain's down 24% from its recent highs. here's why. the s&p 500 look at the companies, half of their earnings come overseas. many of these companies half of their earnings are over in europe where major exporters to europe. so it does matter, but it depends on which sectors you're

talking about and which companies. is it relevant? it's absolutely relevant. when real chaos hits, you can see our markets move on that. for other companies, it kind of depends on what industry you're talking about. >> it's interesting you talk about specific sectors here. i want you to talk about what's going on with the energy sector, particularly nat gas, which really seems to be showing a lot of life after, what, three years in decline? are people now feeling they're buying a bottom here? >> yes. i don't know if we're seeing it -- but we're seeing it because people are picking nat gas stocks and trying to pick a bottom. it was $4 back in august. it's went straight down chlgt but just in the last two weeks, obviously some people are betting that things are going to improve or at least they're going to work off the huge inventories out there. so look at the nat gas stocks out there. pure plays or close to pure plays like encanna. again, you have drilling for natural gas. there's no pure plays. but just in the last week here a good stock very heavy in nat gas. look at another one.

cabot oil and gas very heavy in the oil business here. just in the last two weeks and up again. nicely today. range is another one. there's seven or eight relatively smaller companies. >> very interesting. and, bob, again, please use the formal name. i don't think we know him that well yet. bob, thanks very much. so what is the safest strategy for your money in this market? sri, good friend of the show, you saw my sha moz l on spain versus us, are we the leader? or we the follower? is spain going to bring us down? >> i think spain and europe bring us down a little bit. but as you had in the discussion with bob a minute ago, u.s. is still going to be the best address in a bad neighborhood. so in other words we cannot be unaffected by what's taking place in europe, but i think we're going to do much better than europe is going to do. >> we kind of face danger straight on. if we say what is the worst case

scenario, what is the worst thing that could happen in europe? get it out of our system, realize what it would be and move on. what do you think it is? >> what would be very good, mandy, would be if the europeans would face up to the fact that greece is essentially going to default. they have postponed it for two years. they are likely to postpone it a bit longer. we heard about 15 minutes ago that the european union decided to give them the money to pay interest the following week. which is essentially postponing the inevitable. >> has any of this already been priced into the u.s. hence the resilience we're seeing in the stock market today? >> i think a very good question. i don't think it is priced in. that's why it's been coming back. the market has been coming back after being down 184 points. i think what you're going to see in future weeks is that more and more gets priced in. so on the u.s. side, the impact is much more gradual than i would like to see. >> clear it up for our viewers too. our viewers are probably thinking didn't greece already default?

it was declared a credit event. they just took a big haircut on the debt. you're talking about literally i can't pay you back. >> a disorderly default, right? >> athens -- everything's disorderly. >> disorderly in the sense we call it unilateral. >> whatever it is. >> you have the socialist leader second in line in terms of forming the government. the top parties cannot do it. he has clearly indicated he's not going to continue the austerity program. that, mandy, i think sets a stage for the default we are talking about. >> let's talk about how this effects us and what we do with our money today. i noted last time you were on with us was back in march. you said take an aggressive position. you short the euro, you short gold. gold has gone down. would you you, number one, be sticking to this or change? >> that process is in motion. but it's not over yet. i see the euro going to about 125 by mid-year, 120 by the end

of the year. there's a long way to go. >> it's your forecast. >> mine's more bearish for the year. i think we'll be more close to parody by the end of the year. >> you may be right. i have to be more careful and conservative in the approach. >> what about viewers sitting at home going, gosh, okay, i trust sri. >> i think you need to be defensive ones. i wouldn't be speaking specifically on a company, but i would say if you're looking at consumer staples, utilities, health care, be in it. emerging market debt that still offers a lot of value. and distressed side, if you have a good manager who can look at distressed european companies go into it. bottom line is do not be in cash. there are so many things you can do with your cash in this time. >> and which sectors in particular would you avoid? the same question for the guy at home watching saying, okay, great, thanks for the advice on where i put my money, but what should i avoid?

>> a few things. >> apart from cash. >> or the lady at home watching. >> or the lady, or the dog. whoever's the investor decider. >> don't be a chauvinist. >> you said don't go into consumer discretionary, don't take too much risk. second, with greece trading about 25 cents on the euro, it looks as if this is a good time to go into the debt -- straight debt. >> right. >> don't do it. i remember a time in peru in 1985 when they stopped making interest payments and the debt went to 5 cents on the dollar. so you have a long lost -- >> before i let you go, look at this e-mail i just got now. the greek headline. unbelievable. i want to ask you something. i showed viewers about six months ago. stock markets of countries that have defaulted. it's in their own currencies but they always soar. every time it defaults, the stock market doubles or triples. i know greece is not in the euro, so they can't devalue to work their way out of it. if greece defaults, would you buy the greek equity market

aggressively? >> once greece defaults and it's probably within about two to three weeks after that i would start seriously examining going into it. you know why? the same reason you mentioned. >> they don't have the -- that's the difference historically in this country. >> right. they will have a new drachma. stock market takes a hit, that's the time you want to be in it. you know why growth picks up? they don't have to make big payments to foreigners anymore. >> history does have a way of repeating itself. sri, thank you for being on the show. >> happy to be back on your program. >> ceo confidence is near a three-year high according to a new survey by the young presidents organization. well, alan is founding partner of investment firm luminous capital, david ellis is

co-founder of gem-cap. both members of the chief executive network. to both of you, great to have you with us today. alan, let me get to you first of all. it says here enthusiasm among u.s. ceos is as high as it's ever been in the history of the ypo survey. and yet, we're, i don't know. seeing gloomy headlines every day. is there a disconnect? >> there's not a disconnect. what ceos have done, they did remarkably well in the demise of 2008. we restructured our balance sheets to the point where we have very low costs. and now we're operating with record margins. we feel coiled and ready to act. the question is can we find the skilled employees to fit the jobs we need to continue to grow? that's the mismatch. it's the mismatch we find having an attractive business proposition and not having the right set of workers to fill the jobs i need to further grow my business. >> how do you close that gap? >> i tell you, germany's a great example of how they close it. they have a very effective

public/private partnership. secondary school, vocational schools, the government and employers jointly pay for salaries or students part-time during the week actually work at companies where they're learning practical trades they might employ in the future. the problem here in america we have a completely misguided educational system. so when i'm an employer, i don't know how well someone's going to fit in this new job. it's a real dilemma to know whether i'm better off hiring that employee or he's going to be so dysfunctional bet tore leave my business as is. >> david, come in on this conversation. your company finances small and mid-size businesses and employ about 90% of america. are the companies that you're dealing with, are they hiring? are they having a problem with the mismatch? >> they're not hiring. they're hiring a little bit. we've been bouncing along a fragile bottom. and the small and mid-size businessman is frightened. they've gotten rid of secretaries and assistants. and right now what they're saying is i have to really get something that's going to boost my confidence before i'm going to go hire more people. and i don't think that that's a wrong move, necessarily. >> but what's going to get that

confidence back? why aren't they confident? >> well, they're really not confident. they haven't seen a lot of liquidity in the market. and this last bump that we got was really a pent-up demand because we haven't been spending time refurbishing, we haven't spent any money maintaining and we haven't been spending money on cap x. what you finally got is spending on that because we had to, not because we want to. so it's really defensive spending and not growth spending that we've been seeing here. >> david and alan, thank you very much for your snapshot of how things are sitting. in the meantime, still to come, from pink slime to mad cow, there have been a lot of headlines about the safety of our food, but is it just hype or something more? we're going to ask the agricultural secretary, tom vilsack, next. >> mostly about farm subsidies as well. that's where your money goes. and anger erupts outside and inside b of a charlotte meeting. nothing says anger like a giant paper head. >> that's anger. that's anger all right. we asked total strangers to watch it for us.

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do check out shares of dean foods, df. it's up 12.5% beating consensus earnings by a dime. it raised its forecast for the year. fresh dairy sales, unlike unfresh dairy sales, are up as well. that stock's up 24% year-to-date. okay. staying on the farm now, concerns about mad cow disease and pink slime raising recent questions about food safety. but should there be? let's ask u.s. agricultural

secretary, tom vilsack. mr. secretary, great to have you with us at the moment. live cattle features rebounding when the rumors about mad cow first hit. you've got however two farms under quarantine. you know, your beef exports have really been a bright spot -- u.s. beef exports hitting a record, i think, last year. do you feel there's any risk here in terms of the export market? do you feel there's any risk to the u.s. consumer? >> not at all. beef is safe. and it's a quality product, which we're going to be able to sell to folks around the world. very appreciative of our trading partners understanding that our system worked, the surveillance system worked. and i can assure your viewers that beef is safe and hope that they go home and enjoy a steak tonight. >> all right. so i want to ask you something. we've talked a lot, mr. secretary, about obesity and the cost of obesity. a lot of people say farms are the source of obesity, they grow foods we don't need, we eat more than we need. are farm subsidies to blame for

obesity? >> i honestly do not think so. i think basically it's a simple proposition. too many calories in and not enough calories out, which is why we're making a concerted effort at usda to reform late our school lunch program to reduce the amount of fat and sodium and sugar. why we have new dietary guidelines encouraging more people more fruits, vegetables, low fat dairy, less sodium and fat and sugar. >> it's clearly not working, mr. secretary. >> well, it is. >> with respect, 30% of the country's overweight or obese and we weren't 30 years ago. it's not genetics, everybody knows that. it's what we're eating. how do we fix that? >> first of all i think it is working. the system we put in place the last couple years we're seeing a plateauing of obesity rates which is the first step in the process. secondly, we are reformlating the school lunch where youngsters get half of their daily calories. they'll have a much more nutritious meal. first time in 30 years we've provided additional resources for schools.

we have new di tear guidelines. we have a new my plate icon that makes people understand what a nutritious meal looks like. i think you are going to see that together with the first lady's let's move initiative where people are having more physical activity. we are going to build a healthier generation of americans. i have no doubt about that. >> mr. secretary, the current $284 billion farm bill, i believe, expires in september of this year. earlier today on "squawk box" the ceo of dean foods had a question for you regarding the farm bill. let's have a listen. >> okay. >> so the next farm bill is whether or not we want to move to a more market-oriented system of pricing, particularly around dairy. or whether we're going to take a step in the direction of policies that frankly even europe is walking away from now in terms of supply management and quotas. and, frankly, within the dairy farm community there is some push for moving towards a supply managed system. we think that's the wrong answer for the american farm community

because we are very competitive globally in dairy. and we think it's the wrong answer for consumers because it ultimately leads to higher prices. >> mr. secretary, do you have a response? >> here's the problem. what we've seen in dairy particularly from producers are significant lows, a price ban that's not as broad, volatile -- a very volatile market. what we're trying to do is create greater stability. there's been a proposal to create that stability in the food, farm and jobs bill before the senate. obviously there's going to be a lot of conversation and discussion about it. there's no question that we're headed towards declining dairy prices. if we get to 2009 lows again, we're going to see a lot of producers go out of business. and that's not good for anyone. >> mr. secretary, thank you very much for coming on the show. >> thank you. >> well, food stamps now accepted down on the farm. the government is now spending $4 million to install food stamp readers at farmer markets around the country. until now, only a few of the 7,000 markets are currently set up to use the food stamp system. what do you think of that, brian? >> i mean, you want people to

have access to fresh food. and they talk about, you know, inner cities being basically decemb deserts of freshness. i think it's a good idea. i was reading about a test farm in oregon. the reality is if you're a poor person living in the city, how do you get to the farm to use it anyway? >> there are a lotd of markets in the city. >> i understand that. i think it's a good program. i hope they don't spend too much on. >> it quite often costs more to make a healthy salad and healthy diet as opposed to getting the family bucket plan. >> you ever go to a whole foods markts? i love whole foods. but i joke, it's $100 a bag. take away one bag, it's a hundred bucks. >> it's a pity. >> from food stampls to social security, there's talk in washington about hiking the retirement age as a way to help reduce the budget deficit. currently you have to be 66 to collect full benefits. so that brings us to today's street poll question. should the eligibility age for social security benefits be

raised again? vote yes, no or yes or no. there's no unsure on "street signs." have an opinion. i have a lot of them. >> just ahead on "street signs," from the highways to the airways, signs of life are popping up everywhere. folks, phil lebeau is chasing the hopium for us next. >> what happens when he catches it? plus, donuts, diamonds and dough. we have the trade -- >> going to put in the little cage and not let him out. >> here's what donuts can't do. [ female announcer ] the next generation of investing technology is now within your grasp with the all-new e-trade 360 investing dashboard. e-trade 360 is the world's first investing homepage that shows you where all your investments are

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stocktology time. snap. 1800 decliners, 1100 advancers. decliners 1450, advancers 920. you know, we got some comments about my whole foods thing. a guy been e-mailing me -- there's another brian sullivan at nbc. he gets all of my hate mail. my e-mail is not the normal nbc thing. so i don't get all the good stuff from the viewers. but i don't think $100 a bag at whole foods market is incorrect. do you? >> i would easily spend when i go into a family shop, i would easily spend close to $200.

honestly. >> a hundred bucks a bag at a grocery store, harry, been e-mailing the wrong guy this whole time. >> he e-mails me too sometimes in the hope i'm going to pass it onto you. >> you just did. thank you. >> we've been finding good signs of life out there. from ford's move to boost production to hopium in the skies this summer, signs of life are popping up everywhere. and phil lebeau is here to break down the headlines with us. we have a lot of headlines to get through. i want to go first of all to this one about the ford, you know, the fact that normally they would go on, what, a two-week break? >> correct. >> chrysler of course is going to cut that down. ford going to cut that down as well because essentially demand is there. so why shut down? this is a good sign, isn't it? >> absolutely. instead of the automakers coming out saying we're going to raise production in dramatic amounts, you know, we usually get that in the first quarter. what we're seeing now is meeting demand in the market. the fact that they held off until now to say that they're

going to increase production by 40,000, that's an indication that the demand is there. and it is there, mandy. we are seeing the pent-up demand we've talked about for months. it continues. if you look at the age of the vehicles on the road and what people are bringing into showrooms to trade in, it's the older vehicles. that's what they're trading in. that's why ford is increasing production. >> and over of course on the sky side of things you have the airlines of america which represents all of the u.s. airlines saying this summer we're going to see a record number of people flying internationally as well. >> right. international travel continues to be the one area where you see all the airlines realizing it's in demand, people want to go. relatively speaking the fares -- while we've seen fare increases there, the fare increases are not as great as what we've seen inflation do over the last 15 years. so people are saying, hey, it's relatively inexpensive, so to speak, to fly internationally. and there are more options available because the airlines realizing that demand adding more routes. and all of this is feeding into a record number of people

traveling overseas. >> hoping jet fuel prices come down as well. gasoline prices coming down. yesterday the government essentially cutting the forecast for what the average price of gasoline will be for the summer driving season from april to september. it's not huge. it's from $3.95 a gallon to $3.79. >> but it's not $5 a gallon. that's the key. >> it helps and it's not going up to what was of course the scary prediction earlier on this year that it could be at $5. >> you know where it really helps, mandy? consumer confidence. consumer confidence in the auto industry, that's what drives sales. it's not gas prices at the pump. it's consumer confidence and whether or not you feel you can make that monthly payment. lower gas prices help with that confidence. >> okay. phil lebeau, thank you very much for joining us. >> you bet. >> all right. up next on "street signs," weak banana pricing and sluggish salads. how one food company is getting minced, sliced, diced and shamwowed today. >> price line is leading the race to 1,000. but does it still have room to fly?

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what a comeback the market has made. it's quite incredible despite the beginning of trade we saw

steep losses, fears about the political disarray in greece and the vulnerability of spanish banks. but look at this. we've made quite a comeback with the nasdaq pretty much unchanged. in the meantime let's get to mary thompson with breaking news. >> mandy, for the first time ever the federal reserve is approving the acquisition of a u.s. bank by a chinese bank. it has approved the fed that is has approved acquisitions of u.s. banks by a chinese bank. this is the first time being bought outright by a chinese bank. buying an 80% stake in new york east of asia. icbc and cic and hujin will become partners via this acquisition. and icbc's operations will be remain subject to revision. the largest bank in china with

$2.5 trillion in assets. it's supervisor will continue to be the chinese banks authorities there. in the order of consent, the fed made a detailed argument about improvements that have been made to china's banking system in the last couple years noting standards to that means icbc is subject to comprehensive consolidated supervision by home country. >> i wonder if this is going to open the flood gates. i would imagine there are a lot of chinese banks and companies interested in getting a further foothold in the u.s. maybe it's a furthering. >> they can buy rockefeller center because it worked for the japanese. >> everything has its bubble. >> market top. did you see the chinese demographic profile in 30 years what they're going to look like because of their one-child policy? it's not good. >> i totally understand. but that's a totally different topic for totally different day.

we have a few stocks on the move right now. so why don't we start with chiquita banana. >> austerity means eating fewer bananas. weak banana pricing and sluggish salad sales. they're own words. >> i don't get it. >> talking about europe. a couple analysts downgrading the stock seriously worried about european banana sales. again, we talked about it yesterday, why is a safe food company consumer staple falling some 30%? again, kind of goes to the point the market may be a little broken here. >> i think the market feels it's being driven by machines and also very jittery hence these incredibly oversized drops on earnings. from bananas to banana cream, donuts crispy cream also on the move here. >> interesting story, herb, if you're out there, buddy, this one for you. bob stiller now the ousted

chairman of green mountain owned 8 million shares a filing shows he dumped it all. $8 million average price i think 16 got out completely. probably more -- bob stiller i think it is, either way, raising money. he's been ousted, now he's selling this. something interesting going on there. >> ingersoll rand seeing buying action today. >> nelson pelts, a very well-known buyout guy used to own a big chunk of arby's and others, came in and took a big stake in ingersoll rand and said it's an undervalued company. again, one of these guys you kind of follow -- >> right. >> goes in, tweaks management, puts his imprint on it, been very successful, he owns 7.1% of ingersoll rand. >> as opposed to the bully that follows you around. and blue nile showing a big sign of hopium today. >> not a big stock but we throw

it in there bse of hopium. it's a jeweler. they sell stuff like that. i know that's solid faux gold. >> solid plastic with gold -- >> they sell real stuff like that. their sales forecast was at the high end of what analysts were expecting, so apparently spain's problems and greece's problems are not preventing all these people from buying bubbles from their moms. isn't mother's day coming up? >> it's sunday. reminding everybody. >> i love you mom. >> from stocks to oil breaking beyond 96 earlier today. back at 9670 down 8% on the week. let's get straight to sharon epperson at the nymex. >> hey, mandy. this is what it looks like after a major battle. that's what traders here were involved in today in the oil markets trying to defend the 200-day moving average around 9630. as you mentioned, we did see a drop to right above that $95 mark. but we closed closer to $97. yes, oil is down for the sixth

straight session, but the fact it's rallied or come up about $1.50 from the lows traders say is significant. what caused it? we did get the data from the energy department showing a drop in gasoline and distillate fuel supplies. it was much larger than expectation. gasoline is up on the day as is heating oil. and then you have to look at what's happened in the natural gas market as well here. we are looking at natural gas prices that continue higher up about 50 cents in three weeks' time. we'll get storage data tomorrow on natural gas. >> and of course our contributor was right on the money with that natural gas trade, wasn't he? >> that's right. >> let's get straight to jane wells with breaking news in the case of lockheed martin's claim of oxygen problems. what's the latest on this? >> well, mandy, i just heard from the lawyer for the two pilots who went on "60 minutes" have asked to resume and a

charcoal filter has been removed from the oxygen system. it still has "a serious and unidentified problem which causes pilots to become disoriented." problems one of the pilot's said became worse after the filter was added. they have told superiors they're willing to get back in the plane. captain wilson sumgted to formal discipline after a doctor recommended he not fly with the filter. they claim now the filter is gone after last week. and major gordon says he's prepare today fly to help the air force figure out the problem, but only with close medical scrutiny. the air guard has no comment except to say that the wing was flying f-22s last weekend and the two men have not been subjected to any reprisals. i also heard from honeywell which makes the oxygen system on board. "the air force testing has indicated that the honeywell obogs is not a contributing factor." but, guys, what has caused the problem remains a mystery. >> a mystery hopefully to be revealed.

thank you, jane. let's get to kate kelly live at the salt conference. >> thanks, mandy. i'm here in las vegas where we just listened to harbinger head fudge manager phil falcon make his first comments in weeks where he's been embattled over his company light squared which may be seeking bankruptcy due to ongoing debates with competitors. speaking about his main company that has struggled with the setbacks of this company ever since the fcc denied them a key approval they needed in order to use spectrum, he said harbinger is actually considering getting more capital, which to me is code for possible ipo. he implied he might be taking harbinger public because i'm moving toward a more focus on control. unless you have 100% control of a company you're invested in or something close to it, it's hard to make any moves. the other thing he said is the regulatory environment has gotten almost unanalyzable and that it's become an increasing problem for business. he said personally i'm going

through an issue right now where because of a policy change it creates investment issues. we saw it happen in 2008. he went on about that. it's affecting real market enterprise that really got us to this point of growth and succ s success. i think there should always be some regulators, but the more regulatory issues we're dealing with, regulatory intervention, he said guys, is bad for the market. >> kate kelly at the salt conference with exclusive comments from phil fall kon, thanks very much. check in on the race to a thousand bucks a share. priceline with a commanding lead over apple and google. and citi's top analyst says the company has more room to grow. what to expect and what should you buy? mark mahaney joining us now. make the case for more price gains for priceline? >> i won't make the $1,000 price target claim, but i'll make the $850 price target claim. that would be a 20 multiple on a $42 to $43 in earnings last

year. priceline is sustainable 30% earnings grower. we think it well merits that multiple. this is the clear market leader. >> understood geographically they're heavily focused in europe. every day on this show we talk about the pain of europe, the doom of europe, greece, spain, portugal, you name it. doesn't sound like those problems will impact the travel business in or to europe? >> no. they very well could. being impacted by european recessions before. that's a very large market for priceline. more than 50% of their bookings cofrom that market. so we may have to cycle through some issues there. the one advantage that priceline has is one -- or two advantages is for europeans it seems like leisure travel is a fixed expense, not a discretionary expense. and this is a low budget alternative. this is for cheap inexpensive leisure travel. and still people will book a hotel room as they travel within europe. priceline has a decent hedge on that. >> of course earlier on we were

speaking with phil lebeau about how we're going to see this summer record international travel. so i wonder if that will benefit priceline. my question to you is, mark, we've been seeing some companies miss their earnings estimates and being really severely punished by wall street with oversized drops of like 20% to 30%. when priceline comes out after the bell today, if it misses estimates, is it vulnerable to that kind of drop considering it's done very well this year, up 53%? >> i think the simple answer, mandy, is yes. the key numbers to focus on are about $3.90 in earnings. the international bookings growth needs to be more than 40% year over year. if you saw that crack, it could be for market reasons probably not near-term. it could be for competitive reasons. could be from intermediary pressure from google the stock would crack. we don't think that will happen, but there is the risk. >> the float is small. not a lot of shares outstanding. should priceline sell more stock, lower the price, make it easier for the retail investor to get in?

>> i don't think so. i think there's a reasonable float in priceline shares. again, i want to get back to the valuation. this stock trades about 20, 21 times earnings. >> which is a premium to the peer group. expedia's about 14.5. >> i'm not sure i would be travelzoo as a peer group play, but expedia has less than half the growth rate of priceline. priceline will grow earnings well over 30%. expedia less than 10%. priceline should continue to do so. >> mark, thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you, mandy. >> up next, call him guy disaster du jour adami. his pick is like the cleveland browns of our stock draft. >> and herb can pick them blindfolded, but it's all sunshine today for one of his favorite punching bags. herb, hope you're watching.

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i'm bill griffeth. coming up at the top of the hour on "closing bell," treasury yields back to lowest levels in months. are we in the midst of a bond bubble? if it's about to burst, what does that do to the rest of the market? we'll look at that. and we go inside the occupy wall street movement with one of the organizers outside ft bank of america shareholder meeting. cisco reports after the bell tonight. who better to break down those numbers than ceo john chambers. that coming up at 4:00 p.m. eastern time. maria and i look forward to seeing you at the top of the hour. in the meantime to brian shactman with this hour's market

flash. >> another leg up in just the last 20 minutes or so, reports are entering into a third amendment with microsoft. i want to read something because i want to get it right. the third amendment contemplates the expansion of the business relationship where digital river and affiliated companies may build, host and manage the microsoft store, an e commerce store that supports the sales of microsoft and third party software as well as consumer electronics products. of course digital great to have microsoft as a partner, but maybe guys a signal of more ambitious plans on the retail side for microsoft who also got a pop on this wire. back to you. >> interesting story, thank you very much. get our ear muffs. guy adami your draft pick on the disaster menu today. >> radioshack, hitting a 25-year low. stock down nearly 50% year-to-date. almost 70% over the last year. really, i mean, it's been tough. and management, we haven't heard from them. if you're listening out there, i

think someone's going to have to get out ahead of this story. the stock's being slaughtered. >> maybe get guy adami to get on and giff his two cents worth it. >> let's do it. >> he's got somewhere to go. so, you know, learning to panic just yet. herb, if you're out there, hold onto your pants. sun is shining on sodastream today. ticker so da up 25% on earnings. the stock is down about 12% over the last year. and let's take a trip down memory lane. remember that sodastream taste test we did with cramer? well, it was the middle of last year. >> the good old days. >> the good old days. we were younger, fresher, less jaded. who won it? cramer? >> yeah. cramer crushed him. listen, i had my sodastream and i use it as well at home, i'll tell you this much, when you make the carbonation right then, it's going to be more fizzy than anything out of a can. so i think it had a little bit of edge over canned stuff because it's fresh ir.

if you want to call carbonation fresh. i don't know. >> did you see herb's hair? quite lush. >> i would love to run my -- herb, if your there, when you come back first thing i'm going to do is run my fingers through your hair. >> looking forward to it. >> we miss you herb. >> we do. coming up, anger over foreclosure practices. most say you do not like the latest solution either. so we debate, does the fix need fixin? what makes the most sense for b of a investors? tdd# 1-800-345-2550 we're hitting new highs. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 the spx is on my radar. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and i'm on top of it all with charles schwab. tdd# 1-800-345-2550

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welcome back. look at the pfizer shares up better than 2%. the fda in favor of getting the drug for arthritis approved. >> protesters from the occupy movement are setting up camp and police are set to arrest people. >> this comes after the robosigning settlement. we've been asking, is it fair

that underwater b of a customers that are behind on their mortgages already may be eligible for a principal reduction of up to 150,000? 14% say yes and 86% say no. >> look at the b of a settlement. they are going to give it to the people who are the least worthy borrowers. >> have you got a fix for that? >> yes. reverse it. make sure that their debt to income went up, give them the first right to get that $100,000 modification. >> so is b of a's deal the best thing for the crisis? professor rosen, what do you make of the views here? why seemingly help the people

that have not been paying? why not help the people that have been paying even through tough times? >> i think you should realize, this is just one of the programs out there. this is a small, additional positive step. doug's idea, people are doing that already. b of a is doing that already. we've had a lot of different programs here. this is one additional step in the right direction. i think that the worry that we all have is we want to reward those that have paid over time and who are not exercising a default. there's no question that he has a point, a good point. what we suggest is when you write down the first mortgage, when house prices go up, both the bank, investors, whoever is doing the testing. >> it this money well spent? more than 30% of loan modifications for fha loans for

2010 redefaulted within a year. >> i think the big problem is this certainly shows that if you move principal down, the person feels like they are a homeowner again. i think this is one of different ideas that they are having and we should realize that this is not really an inherit problem from countrywide, trying to be equitable and fair as possible. it's a one by one solution. there's no mass silver bullet solution. it may have sounded like this in the press release but it's putting more money in the pot for those that are worthy.

>> other people are going to end up paying for this on the back end. b of a is going a $5 billion hit and make it up. >> first of all, it's equivalent of a payment that is five large services have to make so that money is already -- has to be alt located over the next two years for this. there is t.a.r.p. money for this program. this is in three ways. you have to start with a refinance. if you can start with a person with a refinance, everyone wins. you can capture it at the back end. if that doesn't work, you go the final step. it's only for people who put a substantial equity in their house. you don't want to reward investors. it's really a very good and it's important to say that. >> thank you for weighing in on this controversial discussion. earlier we asked you about raising the retirement age.

right now you need to be 66 to collect full benefits. should the eligibility age be raised again? we asked you to vote. go to streetsigns.com. 60% said yes and 35% said no and the 1% missing? >> it was 60, 35, 4. so 1% couldn't -- >> couldn't be bored. >> at least they are watching. >> the one percenters are so privileged they don't even vote in polls. >> thanks for watching us, guys. "closing bell" is next.

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