tv Power Lunch CNBC August 2, 2012 1:00pm-2:00pm EDT
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your attention to guy. the ironman team raising money to make a donation, please go to the website iron-team.com. that's all for us. "power lunch" begins now. "halftime's" over. the second half of your trading day begins now. if you had mario draghi and the points, you lose! europe moving lower as draghi doesn't give the markets the juice they were looking for. and those declines over in europe, 2% in paris, 2% in germany, 4% in italy and 6% in spain leading the markets lower, too. knight trading hammered again after yesterday's glitch. shares below $3 at one point. what's next for this wall street
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firm? one week almost 70% off. and the four corners of housing. almost four. we're going to get four unique perspectives from the ground in four very different real estate markets. that's coming up. but first to sue at the nyse. >> thank you very much, ty. we'll follow knight trading throughout the show here on "power lunch" but let's get you up to date on the markets right now. the dow jones industrial average down 149 points. however, we are off the worst levels of the trading session. s&p 500 is off 16 points. the nasdaq is down just about three quarters of a percent. gold down 18 bucks and our senior economics reporter steve liesman is following the comments of mr. draghi today. could one not argue he's laid out a bigger master plan taking the organizations in to slightly
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different territory than they were willing to go in to before? >> i think so, sue. i think that down the road this could be a positive for the moment. it's a big disappointment from the ecb. he spoke boldly last week of doing whatever it takes to save the euro. he delivered weakly today. instead of massive, it's maybes. ecb may undertake sizable purchases of short-term bonds. the mechanism developed in next several weeks. purchases tied to rescue fund conditionality. that's a key for the market and the ecb may drop demand for seniority. in addition, draghi made clear the germans don't like the idea much and unclear how much of a setback that's going to be. the bigger setback could be spain and any other country has to ask for a rescue before ecb will act. the international monetary fund did not mince words in a statement criticizing the conditionality here.
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i quote, further monetary easing would unconventional support would ease tensions. the potential positive which is what sue was talking about is the ecb action alongside the rescue fund could be powerful in bringing down rates. the hint of action could bring the rates down. the trouble is that rates are spiking now. the problem is now markets want action now. and once again, for europe, the solution is later. sue? >> indeed it is. steve, does it change the dynamic at all for our fed? >> i don't think so. i mean, i think the fed's going to have to act if europe remains weak and that's something that bernanke has done all along. i think that he's going to have to come in. unless he can be relatively sure that ecb will act. i think right now, sue, what everybody should be watching is any hint of a request by spain for efs funds. that's the next most important action here. >> thank you so much.
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the draghi remarks were causing a rally in the bond market pushing the yields on 10-year sharply to the downside. rick santelli is following that for us, as always. how do we look right now is. >> it was a major reversal in so many markets. let's look at this. close to home. a 10-year. what a range. if you look at the two-day charts, you will see we moved up to 158 yield before mario draghi really got in to the meat of the press conference which lad little meat, and boom, dropped down to 144 yield now at 146. the bund. 144, that was the high yield. 144 and then they dropped over 20 basis points down to around a 122. remember, right around 116 is their low yield close as they have several. it's a double bottom on the yield charts. now move over to italy. where really gets wild. italy had over a 65 basis point
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range during the draghi comment time and ended up at a 635 yield on their 10s. as far as spain, the good news is the curve flattened in 2s to 10s. selling is rampant in the longer maturities. look at their 10-year. right around 720. they had close to a 50 basis point reversal. now let's contrast that with the liquidity side. swiss 2-year is the benchmark of negative yields and continues to hover in the low 40s. that's negative 42 basis points. sue, tyler, back to you. >> all right. rick, thank you very much. the third big item on the economicalen car this week is of course tomorrow when we get the monthly jobs report. but will that number really tell us how the job market is truly doing? our cnbc.com editor jeff cox did some fine reporting on what he called the real unemployment number. jeff? >> tomorrow we get the big
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report. they're releasing the july numbers tomorrow but there's a different number that some economists rely on, it's the u6 number, it measured by state by state unemployed and underemployed. there's a note about this. recently unemployment and underemployment is worse in nevada, 22.1%, california 20.3%, and 18.9% in rhode island. which means that about 1 out of 5 people in those states either out of a job or doesn't have enough work. the national average comes out to 15.3% for that u6. three more states to mention because there's key swing states in the election this year. florida, they're above the national average at 17%. now, ohio and pennsylvania little bit below the national average around 14% apiece. big numbers to watch and i'll be watching for you and we'll have those tomorrow. >> thank you very much.
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>> absolutely. >> down to you, sue. >> thank you very much. you know, we're taking a look at knight capital again today. down almost $4, a 56% move to the downside in today's trarding session. and the knight trading post is right behind us here off of our set down here at post 9. bob is here to give us the latest. it's a very difficult situation for the guy who is work right behind us. >> it is. >> it's a difficult situation for investors in knight. publicly traded company. a difficult week. >> this is a key couple of days. they're going to make it or something else will happen in the next few days. we want to give you headlines. "wall street journal" saying knights is in talks. i did contact the executives. they have no comment. a big electronic trading firm and a competitor to knight. if they're reaching out for financing or maybe even to be sold -- >> trying to build up the capital base right now. >> makes sense to approach a company like that for whatever needs they have. what's next? two ways they're going to go. they're going to get financing and restore the reputation.
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i emphasize that. or sell here. the problem is very simple. they have probably lost all of their cash on their balance sheet because of that $440 million loss. the other problem is restoring the reputation. do people want to trade with them? that's the hard thing to figure out. look at this. there's a number of analyst comments out about this this morning. some more aggressive. we think the board needs to sell the company asap in our opinion if it can't get private financing or shore up capital. there's a number of notes like this. you can see they're at a pivotal point right now. the thing to emphasize is the reputation now, knight was a $1 billion company. three days ago. >> it was. >> now $300 million company. what happened here? he called it a coding error. there's a problem with the software written to interwakt a new problem at the new york stock exchange and the company is in danger as a result of that. what's that tell you?
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>> comes after the flash crash. comes after the debacle of the facebook ipo. and some very public and very strident comments of knight's ceo as to the technology issues that nasdaq faced. >> my point is that this was a mess-up. somebody caught to be fired over this and the company should be in danger, that is remarkable to me. >> i think so. >> most unfortunate. >> it is most unfortunate and especially for those holding the stock and the people behind us here at knight. following that story throughout the hour. now kenny polcari is joining us now. he is the managing director at icap and gives us thoughts on the top three stories that we just talked about. you know, mario draghi made some very bold statements last week about what the street could expect from him. he's obviously in the short term disappointed. are you at all encouraged by the fact he's laid out somewhat of a master plan? >> i'm not because this is not the first time that we've seen this happen. right? they create the hype. the market is excited.
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they lay out the master plan. kick the can down the road and then nothing happens so once again, you know, he whipped the markets in to a frenzy last wednesday with the way that he came out and said it so you saw what happened thursday and friday. people excited. maybe this was the light at the end of the tunnel. and then, you know, the market to a place where it needed to digest the move. it was waiting and waiting. so all week long it just churned right until today waited for what he was going to say. disappointed again. >> how much more emphasis is put on the job report tomorrow because the ecb, mr. draghi, the disappointment? >> the shift back for americans and for investor that is are investing here in the u.s. the shift, focus shifts back to the u.s. macro data. the jobs report right to the surface again. consensus is 100,000. i think some estimates as high as 160,000. that's still well below the 250 or 275 we need to get us out. >> you're watching the underemployed, as well. >> very interesting. we're talking about this.
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a number not a lot of people pay attention to but should because it's much more reflective of what's going on in really the country of people underemployed or in fact unemployed. 15% and 18% is much more reality than the number of the headline. >> all right. we'll see you later. this is a tough market today. on the downside. off of the lows, though. back up to you. >> thank you very much. numbers of gm showing a stronger than expected profit there. let's look at the stock and where it stands. you see it down half a buck at $19.13. year to date, down about looks like 3%. i can't see it. all right. phil lebeau live at gm headquarters in detroit, phil? >> reporter: tyler, this is a case it doesn't matter if you beat the street. gm beat the street by at least 16 cents. they have no confidence in predicting what happens in europe and why the stock is lower. run through the numbers. gm posting 90 cents a share profit for the second quarter. 16 cents better than the street
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expecting. revenue lighter than expecting. not by a lot. but people had questions. in north america, this is driving the profits of the company earning $2 billion. a little more than the street expecting in the second quarter and the retail share, it's dropped despite higher incentives in the second quarter for general motors here in north america. here's the real story. it all revolves around europe. gm lost $361 million last quarter in europe. more than $600 million year to date and even worse, the cfo told us this morning on "squawk box" he can't predict when they're going to stop the losses. >> we're not going to make predictions about the second half of the year in terms of profitability. it is a very challenging environment. you've seen the results for the first half of the year. you have seen the actions we are taking. we are doing everything that we can. >> and as you take a look at shares of general motors, yes, a you will of the auto stocks down but the bottom line, until general motors can at least give some rough estimate in terms of
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when it might break even in europe which they cannot do and unlikely to do any time soon, until that happens, don't expect the stock to move very much. back to you. >> phil, thank you very much. all day here on cnbc we pay special attention to the fledgling housing recovery. the imf says that it, the housing market, holds the key to a broader economic recovery and this hour we focus on first-time home buyers looking at homes up to about $300,000. that cohort is historically very important but it is falling out of the market now. real estate reporter diana olick is here in the house to explain why. diana? >> reporter: that's right. the first-time home buyer is 40% to 45% of the market. today down at 32% and the reasons are many fold. higher unemployment. tighter mortgage standards. a shift in sentiment away from home ownership and perhaps toughest of all is competition of investors on the best deals.
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the bright side, though, is that those who still want to buy are going back to basics. that is back to the builders. first-time home buyer clint blain spent nearly two years searching for a bargain. >> put a bid in, you have to wait and outbid. >> reporter: in phoenix, you would think blain would have no problem but the competition from investors is now fierce and supplies of distressed properties are half of a year ago. >> inventory's low. we have more home buyers in the market than homes available in the market. >> reporter: blain wasn't just looking far bargain. he was looking for roots, a place to raise his young son and join a community. >> family's, that's what it's all about. i want my little boy to have a home. >> reporter: he turned to new construction and with a usda rural home loan, he was able to put just $500 down on a 3.87% morlt. >> the new home is a way to go
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because a foreclosed home, you put your money down for down payment and you will have to pay closing costs. you're probably not going to get a great deal. >> reporter: this is precisely why we're seeing such big gains in new orders of the big public home builders. q2 earns so good they sent the stocks on a tear even higher. and competition from distressed homes as waning because banks are slowing the process and putting out fewer repossessed homes. good for the big builders. look at what we're seeing here. mdc, up over 80% year to date. very good. overall, they're building smaller homes at lower price points and even higher with toll with the higher niche market on the higher end. nvr struggling with a lack of land and beazer very small for the big investors but overall with stocks a lot running on momentum. that's the big gains and some
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analysts are throwing out a little caution. tyler? >> thank you very much. in the next half hour, we'll go to four corners of real estate. we'll talk with agents on the ground in atlanta, st. louis, dallas and albuquerque. the goal, to bring you a realistic example of what's out there and where prices stand and are heading. that's coming up in about 30 minutes, sue. indeed, it is, ty. before that, let's talk about playing the housing market. kim forest of fort pitt capital group with us all week. i wonder, given the percentage gains that diana outlined in some of those housing stocks, would you step in? >> not directly. we're, you know, adverse to momentum markets and stay away from that but there's other ways to play the housing boom. >> how would you do it? >> well, we would look at companies with some exposure. not only to other industries but housing. and then, we'd also look for companies with exposure to both existing homes and new homes so
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a company like ingersol rand and a security company, as well as ge that used to be the parent of this company -- >> right. >> you know, again, with security and appliances. so everybody needs appliances and security regardless of if they have a new or existing home. >> i got a lot of those appliances in my house. kim, thank you very much. see you in a few. ty? for companies ipo'g these days and who knew you could verb an acronym? there's a lot to consider. technology problems at the exchanges. the market for ipos. of course, the market at-large. we'll see whether the ceo is po'd or not. and more real estate for four markets. one atlanta. this is what you get in atlanta for $199,000 on roseclair drive.
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two beds, two baths and a nice little staircase. before the break, five thursday movers. look at caterpillar. walmart's up 12 cents, though. [ male announcer ] when she takes the starting block this summer, she's not just natalie coughlin. she's every 5-year-old who ever jumped in a pool and didn't want to get out. ♪ every coach, every rival who ever pushed her. she's the tip of a spear that goes all the way back to the beginning. it's amazing how far you can go with a little help along the way. td ameritrade. proud sponsor of the 2012 u.s. olympic team.
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end of the range. last trade up almost 14% at $14.09. here's the ceo joe payne. welcome. congratulations and an otherwise down market you seem to be a bright and shining light on the nasdaq. congratulations on your ipo. >> thanks so much, sue. there seems to be interest in the marketplace for growth. >> yeah. there's interest for growth. there are also a lot of talk about the fact that certain parts of technology may be forming a bubble, topping out. you know, facebook down well below the offering price hitting new lows almost on a daily basis. do you worry at all about what? >> well, as i said eloqua is growing wonderfully over the last few years. we have a great group of clients, people like americanexpress and wells fargo and a key system of record in marketinging for those folks and so we figure if we keep growing our business and providing them great value the market will take
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care of itself. >> what about listing at the nasdaq? there was some speculation after the facebook ipo was deemed a debac debacle, the shares not performing well and now knight capital with some technology issues in the market, as well. you chose to list on the nasdaq. did you have any concerns about the mechanics of trading there and the ipo process? >> well, the nasdaq has been a really great partner for us throughout our time in joining the markets. they've been supportive. we're really excited about them as a parter in going forward. i've always thought of the best technology companies in the world, you know, list on the nasdaq and so we wanted to be part of that proud tradition. >> the knight capital trading sna f snafu the other day brings up the electronic system versus theothe outcry system. do you have confidence in the way your stock will be traded on
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the nasdaq and in electronic trading in general? >> sue, certainly, it's been trading just fine this morning so i might not be the exfoert ask but ask me in a year or two and i'll tell you how i feel about it but we're pleased with the results. >> all right. we'll call you in a year. promise? >> absolutely. >> thank you, mr. payne. congratulations again. >> thank you so much. >> joe payne, ceo of eloqua. ty, back to you. >> that are vur much. much more from london including a look at a new event getting sponsor attention. the event is drug testing. and i'm not kidding. next, analyze the analyst on the list today, first solar, dryships and garmin. on cnbc's buy, sell or rent day, we have four retailers. check out this home in dallas, how much you think?
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it's something you're born with. and inspires the things you choose to do. you do what you do... because it matters. at hp we don't just believe in the power of technology. we believe in the power of people when technology works for you. to dream. to create. to work. if you're going to do something. make it matter. welcome back to "power lunch." i'm mary thompson with a market flash. the facebook free fall, the social media swoon, the face-plant continues dropping below $20 a share. facebook to a low of $19.91. of course, well below the ipo price of $38 a share.
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today first time it's dropped below $20 a share since it debuted on the public markets. back the you. >> thank you. time to analyze this and with kim forrest of fort pitt capital group. first solar getting an upgrade. we believe the shares are undervalued at current levels. the shares have fallen over 80% over the last year. buy to hold. what do you say? >> looking at the inventory is stable and that they had higher bookings, i'd say i'd take a look at it. it's very speculative. very dependent on subsidies but take a look at it. >> look at it move today up 25%. maybe on the upgrade. talk about deutsche banc. downgrading dryships noting we expect weak dry bulk and tanker rates to persist. the stock fallen nearly 30%. what do you say here? >> it is in the dead sea. i would get out of it and, you know, i just leave it behind. that's a lot of capacity in the shipping area and it looks like
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there's not a whole lot of demabd. >> a hold from buy. you go further there. >> i would. >> get the heck out of there, dryships. wedbush securities upgrading garmin to outperform from neutral. well expects on better revenue, margins and one-time items. over a year, about a 25% gain. so a little upgrade there. >> i'd take a look at garmin again. probably agree with this analyst. they did a great acquisition with tri-tronnics and can expand the market in to monitoring kids and maybe seniors and monitoring things. >> you say go with garmin. >> yes. >> fantastic, kim. metals markets closing in a minute. we'll hit the floor of the ny x nymex. before the break, $265,000 in albuquerque, new mexico. a nice play. five bedrooms, three baths. sign me up. gets more complex. and this is what inspires us to create new technology.
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>> not really. down by 15 or 16 bucks. we have seen the selloff across the board in the commodities sector intensify throughout the day after ecb president mario draghi's comments. the fact there's no central bank interaction immediately disappointed the markets and for gold a market already stuck in a trading range between about 16.20 an ounce and 15.70 an ounce and really little policy action to get the market out of that range. traders say that's what's needed and now of course looking to september to see if there's going to be any change and open interest growing in long positions dproeing and perhaps seeing the positions now liquidated in today's trade. the global growth story called in to question if the ecb won't intervene at the moment. what will happen in terms of copper and the other metals. silver very hard hit. but across the board a selloff here in the commodities sector. back the you.
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>> indeed. thank you very much. a selloff here on the floor of new york stock exchange. bob pisani is back with me. >> what the heck? obsessed with knight, of course. >> yes. >> correctly so and down four days in a row now. we go home on friday. we were at 13,100? now at 12,800. >> that's right. >> near the lows for the day here. obviously mr. draghi not delivering on what the street expected and we have the nonfarm payrolls tomorrow. what's hard is 95,000? that's the expectations. a fourth month below 100,000. hardly awe-inspiring. look at the major sectors and the downside leadership are the big global names. industrial names. material names here. those are the big losers. of course, your more defensive names down 1% in the telecom sector. >> hard to find a reason to go aggressively long this market ahead of tomorrow. and ahead of a weekend in europe where you have spanish and italian bond yields spiking again. >> it's tougher than that.
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we have earnings over. we know that the third and fourth quarter numbers coming down. and tomorrow after that major nonfarm payrolls over. even coming in at 95, hardly inspiring. >> indeed. bob, thank you very much, i think. for those who are bullish. >> better news. >> we hope so. we showed you facebook having a very hard time today. well, linkedin a success stir in social reports after the bell today. julia boorstin is live in los angeles. julia? >> reporter: well, sue, linked is the stand-out ipo in the social sector. up more than 100% since trading last may. its appeal is fact of three ways it's making money right now. it's biggest is hiring solutionless, recruiting tools for companies followed by marketing and then premium subscripti subscriptions. the sock is hit by concerns of economic weakness, dampening recruiting spending and dragged down by the sector. wall street looking for earnings
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to grow to 16 cents on 79% higher revenue of $216 million. linkedin's expected to report over 175 million members around the world. that's up from just 116 million members a year ago. now, linkedin always far less sexy than facebook. the market cap around $10 billion but, sue, it seems like the fact that its revenue and the profits are a little bit more predictable and something that investors like right now. >> indeed. thank you very much. to the nasdaq now where we have losses but bertha coombs is following the bigger movers on the downside and hopefully upside, as well. hi, bertha. >> we do have upside and why the nasdaq is marginally better. research in motion, rim, launching the new version of the tablet. not getting much buzz on that. stock down 3%. and then we've got the legal battles, oracle losing a round in court against hp over the
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software excludeing the i-tanium chip. meantime, apple requesting an injunction against samsung for releasing evidence that the judge said to be excluded from the trial. meantime, gilead the beneficiary of the bad news on bristol-myers with the problems of the drug in trials. and yelp coming back, regaining more of a losses that it saw yesterday in collateral damage of facebook after the mobile a 3ps better as facebook goes lower. some of the friends like zynga and groupon also plumbing all-time lows post ipo. >> all right. thank you very much, bertha coombs. you don't get a medal for this event but drug testing is capturing so much attention that sponsors are now buying in to it. kelly evans live in london for us. kelly? >> reporter: tyler, hello from
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london. yes, one of the hot topics over the last couple of days is performance of 16-year-old chinese swimmer yi she-wen. he won over the second smashing not only her own record and beating the time of america's ryan lochte in the last lap. that unbelievable performance not surprisingly drawing questions. she's passed every drug test but the controversy is putting extra focus on the game's anti-doping effort and no surprise that is bigger than ever this year. east of london, over a thousand people are working around the clock to make london 2012 the fairest olympic games in history. in a facility the size of seven tennis courts, the official anti-doping lab of the olympics is operating 24 hours a day. the host is london-based giant glaxosmithkline and the first time a commercial company sponsored the olympics
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anti-doping effort. they spent 20 million pounds on the renovated lab, infrastructure and equipment. but the company does not employ any of the lab's technicians. >> we are working closely with our colleagues at kings college london. they're experts in anti-doping. it is their scientist that is are actually in the lab as we speak. but gsk provides the infrastructure and the know-how and why that's so important is that kings would usually do 6,000 drug tests in a year. during games time, we have to do over 6,000 drug tests within just a 6-week period. >> reporter: nearly half the athletes at the games will be tested including every person with a medal. those who win multiple win medals tested multiple times. the lab processes about 400 samples per day with most results within 24 hours. and so far, the lab hasn't returned a positive result since competition began. well, this is the first foray in
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drug testing and better known, of course, for medications but following the games, they plan to work with the world anti-doping agency to share information about drugs that have the potential for misuse in the future. back over to you. >> kelly evans in london, thank you very much. coming up, four realtors, four markets, four opinions on housing in the usa. one market on the list, st. louis, missouri. check out this house. $600,000. three beds and three baths. it's on three quarters of an acre. in st. louis. go vote in the finance.yahoo.com poll. is the housing market getting better in your area or not? we'll be right back. ♪ i want to go ♪ i want to win [ breathes deeply ] ♪ this is where the dream begins ♪ ♪ i want to grow ♪ i want to try ♪ i can almost touch the sky
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sleep number. enjoy introductory savings of $500. plus, two free coolfit pillows. only at one of our 400 sleep number stores, where queen mattresses start at just $699. in today's yahoo! finance poll, we asked if you feel like the housing market in your area is getting better. 35% of you said, yes. 21% of you said, no.
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44% say they don't see a change. interesting, ty, to say the least. all right. sue, thank you very much. all day here on cnbc we are taking a closer look at the housing market and what better way to get the real pulse of the housing market than to speak to several real estate agents? we go from region to region. albuquerque, new mexico, janice finnister, in texas, laura barnett, in st. louis, craig andrews and in atlanta, leslie ericsson. sue? >> all right. ty, thank you very much. all right. let's start out now if we could and taking basically a thumbnail sketch of how everything is working. we'll go to albuquerque first and find out how things are faring there, janice. do you think that the market in your eparticular area has bottomed out? >> yes, absolutely, absolutely. >> why?
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>> there's just since last year, we have definitely bottomed out and we've seen a good improvement just i'd say basically in the last four months. you can tell from open houses. a year ago, 16 months ago you would have three people come through an open house. now you have 20, 30 people in an open house. it's hard to keep track of almost. >> that's good. >> laura barnett in dallas, is the market getting better and are you finding that you're either seeing deals stalled or losing them because both mortgage underwriting and appraise ls are getting tougher? >> yes to all of those. yes. >> yes, yes, and yes. all right. >> consumer confidence is definitely up. i've got buyers. i even have multiple offers on several of my listings. appraisers, unfortunately, can shoot down a deal and even though five buyers can say a house is worth something, an
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appraiser is the ultimate power that gets to shoot it down and say it's not worth it and i think we're all pretty dismayed about that. but lenders, i think, they're still trying to get their footing. so many things have changed in the market as far as what their regulations and guidelines are and they're not even for sure on what they're doing so usually even though we're set to close on a certain day, it can be a week or two sometimes after closing that we close. >> you know, craig andrews, to you now in st. louis. i'm interested to see whether or not you think it's hit bottom, but also, my sense is that you did not have the boom and bust cycle that other parts of the country had so i'm interested to see what you're feeling about the market. >> i think that's true. st. louis doesn't have the dramatic peaks and valleys that perhaps other parts of the country have but i think we have weathered the storm. the past two years were a little long but now there's a lot more activity and sales. more showings for listings.
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open houses are busier so i think life is good. >> leslie ericsson in atlanta, i believe it's kay shiller pointed to atlanta as one of the least well performing markets in the u.s. are you seeing something different? >> tyler, of course, i disagree with those numbers. well, technically, those numbers are accurate, but it's analyzed. it's the return. if you look at the here and now the last six months year to date, atlanta, unit sales are up. average sales price is up. multiple offers are there. it's all good. that double-digit increase when we factor in the bottom of last year is to be expected. >> you have a lot of foreclosures there, don't you? >> they have been down. the reo sales have been up. the auctions are up. that inventory's getting absorbed. those prices are going up. it's just all up. >> you know, janice, i'd like to
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go back to you because you said that you are getting a number of people at open houses. are you finding that sellers have a little bit more pricing power than they used to? and the people who are buying homes, are they buying them as -- to live in or investor who is are trying to buy investment property? >> myself, i'm finding a lot of first-time home buyers. i'm also seeing people that want to step up because we can afford more of a house for less of an interest rate right now. and it's terrific. you can -- i mean, you can get close to a 3,000 square foot home for less than $300,000 in a mature area. if your home is priced right, your home is going to sell. >> are there lenders lending? are the underwriting standards at the right level so people get loans? >> i believe they are. i mean, yes, you have to have an appropriate credit score. you still get checked probably
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more so than you would have been five years ago. which is all good. it's the way it should be. but it's just really a great time to buy whether buy, sell or if i could in the market for a house, it's -- you just can't beat it. >> laura in dallas, real estate can go neighborhood by neighborhood or income or price point by price point. take me through the dallas market right now. very briefly. tell me which areas are the hottest in terms of price. is it the high end, middle, first time? which is the coldest and why? >> it's different for different people. for investors, mostly the low end. buying the low end and turning around and renting them out and we have foreign investors. we have local investors. we have investors in the same city. people are really buying. >> which price point is moving up the fastest. which is the demand great semest. >> perhaps different realtors tell you different areas.
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i usually work in a price range that i don't go to the lowest of the low areas. i will tell you everything -- i'm seeing everything from 150 to 300 just we can hardly keep it on the shelves. it has a short shelf life but as far as after that, then we have a lot of baby boomer who is are downsizing, so quite a few people looking for the one stories and things like that. just to try to be more comfortable. price, all price points are moving. but the higher price points are not moving as fast. >> craig, i want a final word from you. when's the hottest sector of the market for you in terms of price point? >> sue, i think it's the 150 to 350 because we've got first-time buyers purchasing and people downsizi downsizing. so we have coming at that from two directions. >> all right. thank you all. >> thank you all. call me maybe, laura, if you have a good deal out there. i'd listen. all right.
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cnbc's real estate correspondent shaking her head in that conversation joins me now with a unique way, one person is trying to sell their house. we'll talk more later. >> we'll talk about it. this is about somebody trying to sell a $35 million price. at that price point and live in malibu, california, with a lot of competition at that price point, you want to make a splash or a movie. that's what diana stots did. shot this three-minute action firm in the 9,500 square foot home and then created a custom ipad app so users visit malibu and explore all the rooms in the house, nine bathrooms by the way. i don't know if they're all on the app and for a select few sending a gift wrapped ipad with the app on it. if you're selected for this, you probably don't need someone to give you an ipad. you probably have one -- >> i have mine.
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>> in that change. >> i like that house. all right. sue? >> all right. on a more serious note, ty, coming up, is identity theft a big worry of yourls? if so, yours? if so, we'll give you details of a new government report that will surprise you and it has to do with filing your income taxes. we're back in a minute. what ? customers didn't like it. so why do banks do it ? hello ? hello ?! if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally. hello ? ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. with the fidelity stock screener, you can try strategies from independent experts and see what criteria they use. such as a 5% yield on dividend-paying stocks. then you can customize the strategies
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listen up to this story. the irs inspector general is releasing some new information on identity theft. we all know it's a big problem but apparently it is bigger than just about anyone thought. eamon has some pretty chilling details. >> reporter: the irs inspector general saying this is a new type of fraud but it's growing exponentially. it involved identity thieves who get your information, social security number and others and file bogus tax returns on your behalf and redirect the refunds into their accounts. he says it could cost the irs up to $21 billion in fraudulent refund payments over the next five years. take a look at some of the specifics in this new report. you'll get a sense of exactly how brazen these thieves are. at one address, one residential address in lansing, michigan,
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2,137 tax returns were filed from just that one address. and the irs sent over $3 million in refunds to that particular address. again, in chicago, another address, 765 returns. under $1 million sent to just that one address in potentially bogus refund payments. take a look at where this is happening across the country and you see that florida seems to be the hotbed here. tampa, florida, 88,724 potential bogus tax returns filed just from that one city and the irs issued a whopping $468 million plus in potentially bogus refunds. you can also see there miami, florida, a hotbed and atlanta, georgia, is where this is happening as well. the treasury inspector general called all of this disheartening. >> if they use the identity of someone who does not have a filing obligation or someone who's a minor or even someone
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who's deceased, it will take the irs a very long time to catch up with them. and so once the money is out the door, it's almost impossible for the irs to recover it. >> now, sue, in its defense, the irs says they have instituted some reforms just since this study was effected in calendar year 2011. they say that the estimate of $21 billion over five years is greatly exaggerated, sue. >> thank you very much. thank you, sue. coming up, it's man against the machine. maybe it's rage against the machine. should we get rid of all the machines and bring the traders back? that debate is on its way after the top of the power. meantime "power lunch" will be right back. 0 investing dashboar. e-trade 360 is the world's first investing homepage that shows you where all your investments are and what they're doing with free streaming quotes, news, analysis
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a driving progress is what we do every day. ♪ ♪ kenny is back with me. before i talk with you about man versus machine, do you think we're going to get a little weaker? >> i think we are. i think the market will get softer as the day wears on. there's no reason to buy it. we're almost to 1357 so it's not going to be a complete disaster. man versus machine. i know you cannot specifically address nights. but it is bringing up the debate
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of machines versus the outcry system. >> i've lived through this transition going through human-based to a combination of machine and man. i think there has to be a happy medium, right? we see what if it gets too much electronic, if it's not efficient enough and human based. there has to be more of that happy medium and i think we're making progress to get there. >> you think we're going that direction? >> i think we will get there. >> kenny, thank you very much. what's for dinner? >> a draghi special, it's an easy recipe. >> we've got to put those on the website. not to mention the red wine, ty. >> i am all in with him. we just wish draghi could be as good a cook -- or imf guy, ecp as he is a cook. >> i think what draghi did that was inexcusable, he overpromised and underdelivered. that is the inverse for
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