probably see volatility. longer term, stay with us. we'll see exports of natural gas, a lot of technology's taking advantage of it it's a buy. >> thank you very much. that will do it for "power lunch." >> "street signs" begins right now. thank you, sue and tyler squared. so much for the big fat greek relief rally. oopa turned in to oh no as they go after spain. we have got your trade. gas gains. across america, the price at the pump plunging and that means more money in your pocket. how much hopium does that give to the market? another sign of how much we love our pets and what niagara falls is doing to ease the college debt burden. mandy? been a real back and fort day for the markets and what's

so far a muted reaction to the greek elections. the dow is weakest and best performer among them for month of june with a 3% gain. the s&p 500 and nasdaq composite gaming for an eighth day of gains in 11 sessions. the nasdaq is today's best performer by a considerable margin and leads with a year to date of 11%. brian? irks thank you very much. as you noted after the successful greek elections europe still driving the market bus and while investors did get the results they wanted their excitement sure didn't last very long. michelle caruso-cabrera is on the ground in athens. excellent special last night. learned a lot from it. >> reporter: thank you. >> tell us why the enthusiasm turned in to skepticism there. >> reporter: i think pretty simply, brian, that you should look at the greek election as lack of a negative rather than a

positive. right? we have a guest here and working on their ifb in a second. if things turned out differently, i think you would have seen a big negative but at this point the fact that it didn't go as badly as the markets expected. let's bring our guest actually. he is here on set who i've been chatting with you. good to have you here. he has joined us from the young president's organization, cnbc has a great relationship with ypo and he is involved in trading, in shipping, in all kinds of businesses. the greek election. markets got the result they wanted but the response isn't that great in the markets. why? >> i think it was to be expected. we have the volatility coming up. there is a government of gaining control, has most of the votes and needs to form a coalition government and i presume by now europe is tired of a government. they need action. >> how much time have you gotten

as a result of this election? >> in my mind we have bought time until october. major revision of the troika and at that level that either the government is able to proceed with privatizations, to try and finish the recapitalization of the banks and to proceed with the key steps of the original austerity measures and by which point to continue or if not i think in october we're probably going to have a very unstable government and perhaps another election. >> i'm not sure this government can achieve much of what you said. >> i think that hopes are so much to the negative side that we might actually be in for a pleasant surprise. actually, right now all it takes is very few things of action to be put in place. >> okay. brian and mandy, do you have questions? >> yeah. if you believe the market reaction, it really feels -- >> do you mandy right now? >> no, unfortunately. >> can i ask you, michelle? >> reporter: go ahead. >> the question essentially is

the market feels very skeptical. they feel an essentially to continue to see political paralysis than does he feel that's a possibility? >> reporter: after all of this, a lot of traders think that in the end greece is still going to end up leaving the euro. do you think that's a possibility at this point and if so when? >> i think it is a possibility. its always a possibility. if it leaves i think it will be after the year end and after europe ring fenced itself. i think we'll know more within the next month if the government starts acting, greece will stay within the euro and cheaper to do so and it just makes sense. >> reporter: we had larry lindsay on earlier saying it was better if syriza left and germany has a chance, stop spending the money. et cetera. what do you say to that? >> i think it's cheaper for germany to give $5 billion, $10

billion here. instead of keep putting 100 and another 100 and there's panic in the markets is not a good thing. i think right now much better for all of this to subside, for markets to believe euro stays as a bloc and proceed and be done with this. >> brian, do you have a question to send to me? >> yeah. you know. listen. should -- do the greek haves a point of being angry at germany because germany benefited from such low interest rates for so long when greece and other nations came in to the euro? do greek haves the right to be angry at germany? >> reporter: do you think the greeks have the right to be angry at germany? germany benefited from the depressed currency they otherwise would have. do the griks have a right to be angry? >> i think germans are acknowledging the benefit and what's happening is saying we'll

foot the bill but we would like to make sure that it doesn't happen again and i think right now the greeks recognize that the germans are footing the bill. i guess the only difference is the extent of the austerity. i think it's a question of magnitude as opposed to principle. >> thank you so much for joining us. really appreciate. apologies for the technical issues with the sound, guys. back to you. >> things happen. fantastic job as always. thank you, michelle. should we feel more or less insulated from europe? dallas mavericks owner mark cuban doesn't think so. he was here saying we could be in for a rocky summer. >> i think right now the market is gambling. you can look at europe and no different than the united states. you have no idea how the politicians execute on the things they got elected to do. >> well, let's get a take on this, president of trade aviator and jay bryson from wells fargo.

i think there's a bit of a letdown in the markets today. i was reading the notes and, andre, you say it's a choppy ride for the rest of the year and, jay, you say most likely scenario is muddle through with periods of turbulence. feels like nothing's been solved. as an investor, i would be very disappointed to think to muddle through for the rest of the year. how do you insulate yourself against that? >> you have to remember that risk appetite has to be created and so many situations with europe, obviously with the fed. talking over the next couple of days it is tough and for us you need to go in to the markets, go in to the sectors that have been defensive. like the consumer staples and health care. because at least that dividend and a big play for us. looking at the dividends and then also looking at company that is have exposure to the emerging nations moving forward and ones that had that exposure. the two things combined insulate you from the problems right now.

>> let's get to the nuts and bolts of this. you say defensive and utilities have been one of the best performing sectors this quarter. so many people wanted to jump on to the same strategy as you just mentioned. >> yeah. i mean, again, they're starting to get top heavy and you have a dividend coming in and starting to rotate a lot of consumer staples. there's values in a company like unilever. you go to alcohol and tobacco. phillip morris with great expansion plans in china. they own 28% of the market share plus and partnering and world's biggest tobacco manufacturer and marketing marlboro there and a buyback share program they announced a few days ago. if you want a specific and they have a 3.5% dividend yield and helps a lot. >> next two quees to you, jay.

we'll play a game of true or false. because it's game monday here on "street signs" as of right now. true or false, the world's problems will benefit the united states. >> false. we are definitely tied in with the rest of the world and if there's a break-up in fact euro zone or continuation of this crisis we'll feel it here. >> true or false, the united states by this time next year will be in recession. >> false. we think that the united states will continue to grow but a slow clip and i guess i would hedge it a little bit saying it depends on the outlook for the euro zone. there's a major blow-up, there's another lehman-like moment and we remember what happened after lehman brothers. we don't think it's going to blow up but the probability of that is not insignificant either. >> do you feel that the problems of the world at the moment push cash to the united states?

>> yeah. i mean, we have a global economy. it is tough. you look at a situation of europe right now. they're running out of money. you have spanish yields above the 7% and supposed to sound the alarms for everybody. we are in a situation where the countries, the banks are actually buying that sovereign debt and although they're trying to get out of that scenario, it is just too difficult for them right now. so you are left with nothing but a bailout. including the banks here in the united states, central bank here, they're basically printing money, printing money hoping that the problem will go away and growth will come back before we run out of money and massive inflation comes in and so really playing a timing game and it's a tough game to be playing in. >> final question, to jay, and continuing the game, jay. true or false, the fed on wednesday will announce another round of quantitative easing. >> false. i think it's a close call. the end of the day we don't think they do qe-3 on wednesday.

maybe operation twist but qe-3, we need more signs of inflation coming down here or more stalling in terms of growth an we don't think it's here in play on wednesday. >> i lied. the fed is powerless right now. >> false. they don't have a lot of power but they can continue to leverage up the balance sheet if necessary. not as good as a bunch of rate cuts but not completely powerless at this point. >> thank you for playing. four falses in a row. kind of like my love life. thank you. >> thank you. gas prices are falling. and a bargain basement in new jersey. how important are the drops in the economy? plus, millions of you watched the high wire act on friday night. how much of a boost to the economy was that stunt and what else is the mayor of niagara

falls doing? we are flying without a net here on "street signs." or treat gas with these after you get it. now that's like sunblock before or sun burn cream later. oh, somebody out there's saying, now i get it! take beano before and there'll be no gas. like in a special ops mission? you'd spot movement, gather intelligence with minimal collateral damage. but rather than neutralizing enemies in their sleep, you'd be targeting stocks to trade. well, that's what trade architect's heat maps do. they make you a trading assassin. trade architect. td ameritrade's empowering, web-based trading platform. trade commission-free for 60 days, and we'll throw in up to $600 when you open an account. [ engine turns over ] [ male announcer ] we created the luxury crossover and kept turning the page, writing the next chapter for the rx and lexus.

see your lexus dealer.

do check out the price of crude oil. this is the kind of decline we like to see. down close to 20% and gas prices are coming down with it. okay. california's average gas price below $4 to $3.99 for the first

time since mid-february. so, how much of a jolt can cheaper gas prices be for the economy and how much lower to expect prices to go? let's bring in dan dicker, president of merck black and our own sharon epperson. you know, it is kind of interesting. we're moving in to the peak travel season and yet trending downwards in terms of gasoline. will that continue to be the case? and is it helping at all in terms of consumer or not yet? >> well, first of all, i think that we are going to see a little bit lower prices but what i don't expect to see is an at least as good a drop in prices as 2011 and 2010. that's the first thing. i think that prices, in fact, are getting close to what's the summertime low for the year and that's the first question you got to take care of. second one is how much does it help? it's not helped enough. what we'd like to see is what we saw 11 months ago, 9 months ago with national prices around

$2.50. we haven't had the same jolt as the went we are a very warm winter, very low heating oil prices. that spurred a great rally in the stock market. >> come on, dan. you got -- $3.50 a gallon a year ago with inflation. natural gas decline you referenced, the heating bills went down in the winter. this is free found money in people's pockets. >> it is. it's -- you're absolutely right, brian. in the wintertime it was really a terrific tax rebate for everybody and the consumers we showed it with the consumering stocks and doing well. their numbers for the quarters were fantastic. we are not getting the same kind of bump out of gasoline. we have to break the lows of 2011 an see crude prices and then look at them for the bump we need.

>> sharon? >> mandy, you have to keep in mind that consumers are not feeling as wealthy as they did perhaps in 2010 and 2011 and if they don't have a job and housing value goes down, free money in the pocket but money they need to make up for with the loss of money elsewhere, because the wages are stagnant or lost a job. that's a major factor. you have to look at where we might continue to see the price decli declines. we probably won't see the national average down ten cents or more but living in california and paying $4.35, that means a lot and so there in certain areas you may see a significant increase in consumer spending. because the prices dropped so dramatically. >> the appreciation of gas prices is avoided that $5 prediction of the spring going to $5 and when the price -- >> psychologically snapped the

confidence. >> everybody's happy about $3 ant 50. >> can anybody remember, please, we had a 2% payroll tax cut? that's what the gap is. right? everybody's getting that money back in the wallet so, yeah, they're paying less. three things. lower interest rates, lower energy prices and that's a couple hundred bucks a month. >> exactly. if you have an income. it's great. >> 90% of the country is working. >> that's true but an income level they were working at ten years ago, five years ago. it is not increasing as the costs increase and something -- >> income tax rates have come down by 50% for the middle class. >> is this making a big debt paying 20 cents an a gallon last month. >> i didn't say a big dent. >> but it feels like lining up the factors side by side, there

seems to be bearish factors. >> no doubt about it. there's overproduction in iraq, in libya. we have a lot of reasons -- there's gdp obviously is slowing. reasons why oil should be lower than it is right now and it's not. doesn't get below the lows of 2011 before that in 2010 you won't get that wealth factor. >> they won't rein in saudi arabia. >> they ran screaming from the room. >> opec is not on our side in i'm shocked! >> they're on our side, brian. we should be happy about this. >> sharon, come on! agree with me on this, right? opec wants 85 buck a barrel oil. >> yes or no? >> opec is saudi arabia, saudi arabia continues to do what they're doing and don't seem to be making any changes but i'll say there's been really big divergences in the opinion on the big investment banks as to what will happen continuing to

see prices drop here and some saying we won't see prices drop with the iranian situation and that's going to be something to keep the prices supported and others say that even though we'll see the loss it's the same as saudi produce. so we'll don't see perhaps prices under pressure. >> right. tense negotiations continuing. >> exactly. thank you so much dan and sharon. >> sure. >> teleprompter says sully toss to shactman. i am. >> i appreciate it. look at lazard. showing that they have a 5.1% stake in the company saying it is significantly undervalued. people piling on top of that. back to you. >> thank you very much. just ahead, a hunt for a wedding ring created an internet business. and shares of barnes &

noble. yeah, not part of today's microsoft announcement but what's bks going to do to get the stock unstuck? we'll analyze coming up. [ male announcer ] this is genco services -- mcallen, texas. in here, heavy rental equipment in the middle of nowhere, is always headed somewhere. to give it a sense of direction, at&t created a mobile asset solution to protect and track everything. so every piece of equipment knows where it is, how it's doing or where it goes next.

♪ this is the bell on the cat. [ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ helping you do what you do... even better. if you made a list of countries from around the world... ...with the best math scores. ...the united states would be on that list. in 25th place. let's raise academic standards across the nation.

let's get back to the head of the class. let's solve this.

9:00 9:00 p.m. eastern on cnbc all new episode of "how i made my millions" and tonight tyler mathson shows us how a man took a small website selling diamonds and reshaped the diamond business with blue nile. take a look. >> i was your typical clueless male with jewelry. >> they were finding information on the internet and stumbled upon a small site in seattle. convinced a deal, he bit and bought his ring. >> i felt like i'd beat the system. got a better product for a lower price and out of that was born the idea for blue nile. >> jewelry married to internet retail. experts said it would be a disaster. >> people didn't think it would sell over the internet. >> blue nile claims to be the world's largest online retailer of diamonds and fine jewelry. >> the revenue roughly $300

million to $400 million. aur aspirations to be a billion dollar brand. >> tyler mathson whom we heard from is here in person. did you bring the diamonds with you? >> not this time. i'll have some sent over immediately for you. this is a company started, $5 million, bought a little internet diamond company in seattle and worth some $660 million in the market. he said $400 million. i'm not sure i'd have the confidence to buy a diamond over the internet. would you? >> i would. >> have you? >> you know what? i actually -- i'm trying not to reveal my wife's ring. i would. as long as with protection. you have the certificates that guarantee the certain cut and clarity. >> cut, clarity and carat. >> i wouldn't buy from diamonds r us or shiny diamonds.com. >> you would -- >> yeah.

>> you know what i loved about that is something that a lot -- we hear about, guys successful, women -- whoever is successful, everyone said i was nuts. >> yes. >> we hear that so much. i'm crazy for this starting this and successful. i love this. >> that's absolutely a common thread in so many stories for how i made my millions. people said i couldn't do it. i'll prove i can. >> i'd love to know the percentage. for those that succeed -- >> a lot fail. but two thirds or more of businesses fail, probably four out of five in three years but the ones that succeed almost always had this burning desire to prove that their idea was right. and it wasn't so much that they went in to it expecting to be rich. they wanted to prove that their idea worked. >> well, the passion that motivation pays off in the end. thank you so much for that. watching tonight 9:00 p.m. eastern and pacific for this

all-new episode of "how i made my millions." all right. on deck. the man at the helm of citigroup speaking with maria. how what you buy says a whole lot about how you vote. are jeep lovers democrats or republicans? how about subway? the list and the leanings when we return. wlang blank [ male announcer ] aggressive styling. a more fuel-efficient turbocharged engine. and a completely redesigned interior. ♪ the 2012 c-class with over 2,000 refinements. it's amazing...inside and out. see your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for exceptional offers through mercedes-benz financial services. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 let's talk about the cookie-cutter retirement advice ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 you get at some places.

ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 they say you have to do this, have that, invest here ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 you know what? ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 you can't create a retirement plan based on ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 a predetermined script. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 at charles schwab, we actually take the time to listen - ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 to understand you and your goals... ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 ...so together we can find real-life answers for your ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 real-life retirement. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 talk to chuck ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 and let's write a script based on your life story. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 but they can be really well thexpensive.ted a puppy, so to save money i just found them a possum. dad, i think he's dead. probably just playin' possum. sfx: possum hisses there he is. there's an easier way to save. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.

welcome back to "street talk" first up a look at interdigital. look at it up 30% right now. >> too bad is herb is not here. it's intellectual property company, right? they made a deal with intel. sold patents. still working on the accounting. most will be recognized as revenue. investors love it. >> love it. dsw. >> you love shoes. >> myself included. projecting weak fiscal second quarter earnings. >> the stock, you look at it, down 11.2%.

bad news story. yes, and they did have some more markdowns but they're still planning to open 35 to 40 new stores. growing 2% to 4% and profits are getting hit by the cost of expansion s. that a bad thing? stock's up 30% year to late. >> coming off a high base and i think in the seasonally slow season. merrill lynch is encouraged by pit industry data. >> briefly, this week i was in the market for a rabbit cage and judging by petsmart, they are right. stock up 30% year to date. bank of america, merrill lynch likes it. morgan stanley with a $75 price target on petsmart. the rabbit cage did not pass thanks to my dog. >> steel dynamics blaming recent

steel prices. >> now 15 to 20 cents a share. i think the street's around 23. more imports hurting prices a. few weeks ago a private steel company filed for chapter 11. tough times. >> really tough times. and now the last stock and it is leaving us with a bit of controversy. >> controversy. yes. buckeye technology. never heard of it. they're not a tech company. they're like a pulp and paper type company and closed a florida plant because a steam drum failed. no injuries the company said. sounds like it really let go when it let go and the point is buckeye technology having to shut down one of the florida plant. stock's down. >> okay. great. we have some news on facebook. julia boorstin with the headlines. julia? >> purchased facial recognition

company for an undisclosed sum. facebook shares up sharply today. now the acquisition is small and shows the commitment to photo sharing following the acquisition of insta-gram. anything on photos helps the mobile offering. people like to take a picture and share them instantly. facebook has used face.com's technologies for two years now and except for the executives, making easier to share photos with the people in them. the other big thing in groupon, shares up 10% after an upgrade to overweight of morgan stanley putting a $18 price target on the stock. so what's so great about it now? analyst points to the fact that the rivals including living social backed by amazon googles offers failed to eat in to the

business and revenue is growing quickly. mandy? >> thank you. now to brian shactman. >> take a look at the vix. down about 11.5%. down 10 of the last trading sessions of the month. on the worst track since october if you're long the vix. interesting the relationship of the voluntarilitity and the market not quite what it was five years ago. down big time today. >> certainly is down big time today. >> with the chaos around europe, you would think that voluntarilitity soars. you know? it goes back to the theme. you don't want to brag about this but saying for a year on the show about capital's going to flow back to the u.s. and coined the term hopium and "the journal" had a story about capital. the capital's coming here. >> yeah. >> is that what you're hearing around the world? >> this is exactly what i'm

hearing. the least dirty sheet in the basket philosophy but a lot of problems of our own and sorted out still and just waiting to see. >> chugging along. >> chugging along. >> except for the disaster du jour. we have a name taking a body blow that would make manny pacquiao win. tighting the economic tightrope. we'll talk to the mayor about the stunt and pitch to bring in more clever residents. stick around. or sun burn cream later. sue oh, somebody out there's saying, now i get it! take beano before and there'll be no gas.

wanted to provide better employee benefits while balancing the company's bottom line, their very first word was... [ to the tune of "lullaby and good night" ] ♪ af-lac ♪ aflac [ male announcer ] find out more at... [ duck ] aflac! [ male announcer ] ...forbusiness.com. [ yawning sound ]

k k ddj time. it was a bot bigger before today. because the stock is down, look at that chart. down 48%. discounting heavily. same store sales dropping 79% this quarter. it's down 65% year to date. josh brown said it's good it's body central. looks like a cadaver. >> or a body blow. kind of sad. selling at value prices and you would think it's doing quite well. the weakening laboring market. this is for herb today.

where is herb? anyway, he might be home watching. take a look at ventas. new high, just over 1% to the upside and over the last three years it's more than doubled. this is an rtz of health care facilities of hospitals, senior housing facilities, medical office buildings. more. maybe herb's, i don't know -- where is herb? >> i have no idea. >> is he -- on assignment? >> his boat name or whatever. we ran a screener eight months in chicago and ventas came on. that stock's been a rocketship. >> a lot of them done well recently. shares of citi struggling and down close to 2%. i guess they're sensitive with the banking system in europe, as well. this is a really ugly chart for citi. the stock falling north of 27%.

>> earlier today maria sat down were an exclusive interview with the man at the helm of the giant. pandit. >> you stood up but when's the sense of how pandit views the economy and more importantly the health of his gigantic bank in. >> you know, brian, i think so many issues right now that the company is grappling with and a headline that come out of my interview is a dividend and seeing a dividend in 2012. i would say no. it's coming out of citi, hopefully in 2013. but between what's happening in europe with a slowdown in china, with a new regulatory environment, with capital markets dead in the water in the united states, there are a fair amount of issues that pandit is focused on. one area i focused on with him was the idea of head count reductions. we have seen this company shed

assets aggressively in 18 months. i asked him if they were done with that. from that answer i get the sense he is there's close to being done in terms of cutting jobs but the issues are very, very high in terms of what this bank is facing and the industry is facing as we go forward. of course, he was at the new york stock exchange today to celebrate 200 years at -- for the company. citi. celebrating 200 years. this is an obviously historic moment for the company and it's evolved so dramatically in the last couple of years. but it will continue to evolve. here's what he had to say about head count reductions. >> are you done with the head count cuts or are there more kutds coming to head count? >> third, fourth quarter last year and earlier this year decided that we had to retruck which you are some of our businesses and this by the way part of a long retruck which you aring project we have been on for three years and we have done

a lot of that. we cut back in some of the trading businesses. some of the capital markets businesses but where we are today we think is correct. we have to keep an eye out for what capacity we need and serving the clients and ongoing process. >> reporter: and of course, we are also keeping an eye on capital levels as the bank gets set to become compliant with basil 3 levels. as well as the derivatives portfolio's. everybody's trying to figure out the comfort level and his portfolio out of jp morgan. so that all is big discussion points in the conversation which, of course, will run today at 4:00 p.m. eastern on "the closing bell." >> that was a sitdown. i saw the stand up and the sitdown. >> i wasn't sure what you said. you were talking about we me talking with him on "squawk on the street" this morning. >> that's right.

is it your sense that in five years, ten years, three years that citigroup will be massively smaller than it is today? >> reporter: yeah. i don't know about massive smaller. it is massively smaller than it was five years ago and i think continues to get smaller. how much of a drag are the citi holdings, the assets that he's been shedding, how much is that going to be a drag on earnings going forward? they're not done, you know, slimming down this firm. will will be more asset sales and i think it looks different than the company we know of five years ago. certainly that shedding of the assets have been quite aggressive in 18 months. i think he is still in it in terms of selling assets. >> thank you for that. isn't massively smaller an oxymor oxymoron. i had a slip of the tongue. the year chart and said two weeks, it was the year chart down over 27% for citi. politics not the only thing

democrats an republicans can't seem to agree on. next, blue brands and red brands. >> people will be surprised by this. all right. barnes & noble not a part of the rumored tablet announcement today. what signal does that send to bks investors? we'll find out coming up. [ male announcer ] trophies and awards lift you up. but they can also hold you back. unless you ask, what's next? [ zapping ] [ clang ] this is the next level of performance. the next level of innovation. the next rx. the all-new f sport. this is the pursuit of perfection.

[ male announcer ] how do you trade? with scottrader streaming quotes, any way you want. fully customize it for your trading process -- from thought to trade, on every screen. and all in real time. which makes it just like having your own trading floor, right at your fingertips. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. try our easy-to-use scottrader streaming quotes. it's another reason more investors are saying... [ all ] i'm with scottrade.

well, we are keeping a close eye on shares of microsoft today. they're down slightly. the tech giant could announce the very own tablet later this afternoon. would be microsoft's first fully pledged tablet to hit the market. the shares trading lower ahead of that announcement but there's lots of speculation of what is going to be announced. >> yes. shares of barnes & noble surged this morning of rumors being part of the microsoft announcement. look at that tape. but the tape says it all. the stock tanked after the rumors were shot down. why isn't microsoft using its partnership with barnes & noble for a new partnership? let's bring in two guests. all right. john, first to you. so if barnes & noble is not involved this announcement today

and it is a tablet announcement, when's the strategy? >> when microsoft invested in barnes & noble, the report we pub lishled is they basically -- barnes & noble received a $300 million app which from their perspective was a win-win. the part that microsoft had invested in, nook, and the college bookstore opposed to the retail stores, we then call eed nuco. it's still very uncertain as to what's happening but what's most important is that the share of the content side is about 27% to 30% for ebooks. and if they can keep that share of the content side and another tablet out there, they still may well sell on that. >> you know what i think is really interesting about this, it really has a lot of people, myself included, scratching their heads, todd. i mean, barnes & noble and

microsoft announced a $300 million jv in april, right? why on earth would microsoft want to come out with its sort of form of an ereader and then not leverage that jv and possibly even cannibalize the reader? >> that's a good point. i think it will be a watered down version of windows 8. bad part on their part for a tablet not up to snuff yet and no reason for them to introduce a tablet to interfere with the kindle. against the ipad. at best, barnes & noble content and maybe xbox live integration, as well. i don't think the rumors of a gaming device are correct by any means. i think basically -- >> that would be huge, wouldn't it? wouldn't that be a big thing? >> no. there's smartphone applications not quite that great and gives you a little bit to control.

they have to bring in the content. that makes it slightly more compelling and then the kindle fire and the market is so crowded. i don't see already so crowded. i don't see a win situation here. >> john, amazon.com went after borders and has won on a lot of levels. it leaks like barnes & noble is now going after amazon on the digital side. can they compete? >> they are already competing. the result came out over the weekend suggesting in terms of internet streaming time that the nook is actually beating the kindle. and say from the publisher's perspective, it's absolutely critical that barnes & noble win. soap so as the products become better, you'll see publishers come out with far more interesting books, which should help barnes & noble because they can leverage off their book stores and author visits. >> what is going to happen to the share price? you have amazon some would argue

fighting for its life. is it going to have a decent life? >> the market cap is about $1 billion, trading at about five, six times a depressed cash flow. so there's very little expectation in the company. secondly, the numbers are very, very hard to understand with the way they allocate their costs. they should be reporting numbers tomorrow. they have a new cfo who is experienced with spin-outs and hopefully they'll provide some greater clarity so people can get their hands around the numbers. if you're a tech investor, you might be interested in the nook, you are wouldn't touch the book stores. if you're a value investors, you would be interested in the book stores and wouldn't touch the nook. >> thank you very much. we'll be looking forward the announcement, i think it's going to be a 6:30 p.m. announcement.

>> nick wallenda became the first to walk a tightrope across niagara falls. >> it's not the only event going on in niagara falls. the town is hoping to help college grads get out of debt. if you move to niagara falls, they will help you pay off college debt. live with us is the mayor of niagara falls, paul dyster. thank you for being here. >> good to be here. >> this is not out of the kindness of your heart, you're trying to attract people and boost your local economy. it's a win-win. >> yes. people know niagara falls is famous for tournamentism.

it's a industrial city that's lost half of its population over the last 40 years, including many of its graduates. we have a very selfish interest as well. >> how many people are you hoping to attract? >> we figure we can afford to do 20 people in the pilot program that, requires an investment of about $200,000. >> have any people signed up yet? >> it has to be approved by the urban renewal agency. we hope that's going to happen later had week. we're getting a huge number of inquiries. i have to believe the wallenda publicity didn't hurt. >> it's great thing you're doing, i hope it works out four but you got to have the jobs to get the kids to want to come there in the first place. how do you get the jobs there? >> our tourism economy we finally taking seriously, that's creating new jobs. we also have a number of green industrial projects to replace the old shuttered rust belt factory, a high tech paper mill, $450 million industrial project

building now in niagara falls. >> i believe in return for receiving the student loan payments, they have to stay or commit for saying for a minimum of two years, right, in the niagara falls area. >> in a targeted neighborhood that we select. and we're picking a neighborhood that's sort of on the tipping point, right, no pun intended with the wallenda walk still fresh in our minds, it could go either way so it's some risk to them. there are some beautiful buildings available in this neighborhood. we home some will become homeowners under this incentive and others will by using the incentive to leverage landlords will live in a lot better conditions than exist there today. >> that wallenda walk was a few things.agara falls, if you haven't seen it, it's spectacular. how do you compete with canada?

that's what the show is about, how to defeat canada. >> we've had an indian gaming facility in niagara falls since 2003. unfortunately as a result of a dispute between the state and the seneca tribe of which we are not a party, we have not been paid casino revenues since march of 2010. that's starting to be a drag on economic development in doesn't niagara falls. we're hoping they get at that resolved and casino dollars start flowing again soon. >> thank you for being on the show. >> democrats and republicans having a hard time agreeing on anything nowadays, even when it comes to brand names. they both seem to like coke and google but have few other in common. toe decision making firm called buy ology conducted a study. democrats like jeep republicans like bmw.

democrats like sony and republicans sharp. >> it's football for the democrats and baseball for the republicans and starbucks for the democrats and dunkin' donuts for the republicans. what do you think? >> you have windy subway, animal planet, history channel. i don't know. much of a muchness. >> what does that even mean? >> it's essentially a similar product. >> much of a muchness. you don't say that? >> i'm going deaf from years of car racing. i'm going to talk like this now. >> you're going to be a low talker. >> coming up next, the battle of the bulge. does that work? >> not really. try the high talking again. >> how many aircraft carriers of weight do you think the world's population needs to lose?

>> we're going to have the answer when "stree signs" returns. with the spark cash card from capital one, olaf's pizza palace gets the most rewards of any small business credit card! pizza!!!!! [ garth ] olaf's small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! put it on my spark card! [ high-pitched ] nice doin' business with you! [ garth ] why settle for less? great businesses deserve the most rewards! awesome!!!

[ male announcer ] the spark business card from capital one. choose unlimited rewards with 2% cash back or double miles on every purchase, every day! what's in your wallet? 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 tdd# 1-800-345-2550 i use streetsmart edge and its tools like... tdd# 1-800-345-2550 screener plus. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 i can custom build my own screens tdd# 1-800-345-2550 or use predefined ones to help me find tdd# 1-800-345-2550 possible trading opportunities quickly. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 i can also bounce my ideas off their trading specialists - tdd# 1-800-345-2550 on the phone or face-to-face. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and i can trade wherever i want, whenever i want. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 tdd# 1-800-345-2550 the kicker? tdd# 1-800-345-2550 i pay $8.95 a trade. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 that's a deal in any language. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 hey... a breakout on a head and shoulders bottom! tdd# 1-800-345-2550 that's what i'm talking about.

tdd# 1-800-345-2550 open an account and trade up tdd# 1-800-345-2550 to 6 months commission-free. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 call 1-800-540-0098 tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and start trading today. and somebody asks me a question about the volt. what really blows them away is when i tell them i almost never go to the gas station, despite the fact that they see me driving to work every day. i fill the volt up once every -- maybe once every couple of months. and that feels absolutely wonderful. i'm hardly using gas, but it's there when i need it. anybody that thinks that this car doesn't have solid performance, hasn't driven it. there's no other car like this on the road. ♪ welcome back to "street signs." looks likes there's a bidding war for quest software.