geepolitical tension. uso play. >> thank you very much. everybody have a great weekend. i'll be off for a couple of weeks. see you in september, sue. >> have a great vacation, ty. i'll miss you. "street signs" begins right now. and welcome to "street signs." oil creeping back toward 100 bucks a barrel as new reports say america's reliance on saudi oil on the rise again and with violence sweeping the persian gulf this year are we just one misstep away from $200 crude? mitt romney's 13% tax rate sparking outrage and calls for tax reform. but just how many deductions are you really ready to give up to get it? plus the dow gaining back the spring losses. how to play the stealth rally. who doesn't love freebies? we take you inside the free food revolution sweeping silicon. >> i like it. a recent trend of very

little movement returned to the stock market with a vengeance. the dow in a 30-point range today and if that holds up it's the smallest in 5 1/2 years. a similar story over on the s&p 500 trading in a 3-point range. both the dow and the s&p headed for sixth straight week of gains. the nasdaq had the largest intraday trading range today. it's on track for the fifth consecutive weekly gain. what is happening down on the floor of the new york stock exchange? let's check in with the very lovely courtney regan. hi. >> reporter: hi, mandy. it's been a relatively quiet albeit positive week for equities here and take a look at the s&p 500. trading in a 3-point range today and certainly summer friday. we have got sectors like consumer discretionary and technology leading the way and split advancers to decliners in the 13500 stocks and taken a lot

of notice of retailer this is week with the earnings but take a look at shares of jm smucker. a consumer name. they sell the products we love so much, the jiff peanut butter. they cut prices to lure customers back and it worked. a good forecast going forward and the shares are trading at all-time highs. levels we haven't seen since the ipo in 19 59d. unbelievable. we can't ignore financials either. european banks particularly strong thanks to comments of merkle reiterating that germany will do what it can to maintain the euro. bank of america up better than many of the other dow performers leading the way. mandy? >> okay. thanks very much for that, courtney. bullish sentiment of individual nevainvestors is creeping up. brian? america, while you were having fun in the sun, did you know that stocks are red hot this summer?

talk about your stealth rallies. >> lightning strikes again. slow and steady the name of the game this summer. the dow and s&p 500 just inches away from four and a half-year highs. blue chips up nearly 7% since june 1st. cisco, merck, chevron, the topper formers. the s&p up 8%. sprint nextel, tesoro, first solar, the winners there. the nasdaq's got more work to do to reach new highs though up more than 8% this summer. tops in the nasdaq 100, seagate second too long, sirius xm radio and sandisk. and don't sleep on apple. after some stumbles, the stock is up 12% this summer. back at all-time highs.and if i

be unstoppable. you have to love lightning the tortoise, everybody. we had to bring him back and here in march of 2010, the dow's up almost 24%. is it too late for you to get in? let's ask andre julian, president of -- i can't keep that up. scott ren sr. at wells fargo. got to have fun here, andre. trying to understand about the rally is why. >> i mean, if you look at it, we have a lot of bad news. obviously high unemployment. slow gdp. china's slowing. the's bad news. you have a little good news comes in now and again but looking at it it's a statements of draghi. he said -- pulled a bernanke. going to support the euro no what and then merkle out of the shadows today and support it and you have bernanke saying that the fed is going to support the economy no matter what and i

think due to the stimulus. >> oh no. >> i know you hate that. >> i don't hate it. >> what else is there? >> lightning for the wrong reasons. >> exactly. i don't hate it, andre. i worry about earnings and revenues and you are telling me that two central bankers driven us up 24%. is that it? >> i think that's really a lot of it. i mean, without the fed, without the central banks i don't think you would have had this rally. stocks would be lower for the past three years. look what's happening. bad news the fed steps in and we expect it and so i think that the fed's now caught in a trap where they have to continue supporting the rallies and hope that these headwinds, economic headwinds fix themselves before they run out of bullets. >> feels terribly dangerous to hang all of your hats on the possibility of stimulus may or may not come. scott, this feels to me like one of the weirdest rallies of a long time. we are rallying and same time

almost no volume. volume and trading volatility are basically at their lowest in years. is this a calm before the storm? is this the new normal? >> well, mandy, looking back over the past few years, volume isn't what it used to be. really ten years ago. volume's jumped, been thinner. there hasn't been as much retail investor interest. and, you know, of course the market usually does what it needs to do to confound the most people and so certainly this rally, it's been a little stealthy. talking to people if you're at a cocktail party, something like that, the topic of conversation is not, gee, you know, the market's up 13% this year. i'm waiting for the financial implosion in europe. our economy stinks. people are afraid of stocks. they're not talking about the stock market and that's one reason we're going up. >> people always climb that wall of worry. is it justified?

is the rally going to continue? >> mandy, for me, i think when i look historically, i have a pretty good feel on the climb the wall of worry market and for some reason this hasn't felt like it to me and i think the main reason is because, you know, in a typical climb the wall of worry kind of market, you know, retail investors are worried about missing the boat. they're worried about getting in, they're waiting for the pullback. talking about it. and they definitely miss it. but this time around, you know, i'm not getting that same feel only because most retail investors and that's the bread and butter here of wells fargo advisers. their attitude is, i don't care if i miss a little upside. i don't want to lose any money. been that way for two years. and i just don't see that attitude changing any time soon. >> andre, i understand everybody's point about lack of volume. however, you go to a cocktail party tonight. someone's not going to say, my 401(k)'s up 10% this year but on

low volume. do we care that much about the volume? >> we do care about the volume because that's what helps drive the market and then when's investing in this market and driving this market. how much of the market right now is being moved by high frequency trading, how much is moved by short-term trading. looking at the rally of a month it's been choppy. the market's moved up and then 12,500 level in the dow and keeps on testing that so it leads to volatility and really in order to have a sustainable rally we need to see a breakthrough, a real breakthrough where you have the volume come back in the market and get up above the 4 1/2-year high and then if we have -- we don't have any short covering might see it fail again. there's variables in to it. volume's definitely important. >> what are we investing in. if you had money today, a thousand dollars today, andre, what would you put it in to? >> i said this before. i like to be safe rather than sexy. i like utility stocks, things

that will give you obviously upside potential but the downside risk is, you know, not eliminated. >> haven't defenses had a pretty good move? >> tlak continue moving. obviously, a company like novartis, they're expanding. they're diversed in oncology. a huge segment of the medical field with cancer research and diversified in vaccines and huge in the emerging market and it's a great company to look at. look at american water works. they have very little to do with the economy, with the global economy. at the end of the day, i don't care about china. you have the wash your dishes and flush the toilet. tough take a bath. that's -- >> you do? >> well, some of us do. i have to. at least once a week. that's a company that can continue to grow, especially with the inroads in to the patents with water recla mags and you can get the upside. >> scott, to mandy's point,

everybody's piling in to the defenses, the dividend payers. are we ignoring hundreds if not thousands of great, smaller or mid-sized american companies? >> i think, brian, in my opinion we started the second upleg of the cyclical bull market off the october lows and looking at it differently. we don't want to be defensive. we want to be in the consumer discretionary sector, materials hammered here and slowdown and our slowdown and things like that. we want to look at pullbacks like the april high and reasons to pound the table. below 1300, we were pounding the table. we are looking for a pullback. we expect one. getting these levels, you need to be stepping in here and so we're going to continue to do that. we want to be cyclically oriented. i think the recovery here and globally while it's going to be slower than a normal recovery it's going to continue.

valuations aren't excessive so i mean we are going to be pounding the table. i want to see a pullback here. i think we are going to see a pullback and we want to use that as an opportunity because i think, you know, this cyclical bull while it may be a grind in the second half than the move off the march '09 lows i think the mrkt's still going to work higher over the next couple of years. >> all right. who doesn't want to get their goods cheaper? thank you for kicking off the show. >> thanks, guys. now jackie deangelis with a market flash. >> good afternoon. shares of metro pcs making a near 6% move today. and it's all about talk of wireless consolidation. jpmorgan noting that the price is a better position to buy leap wireless potentially. look at the companies. metropcs up 6%. leap wireless 0.4%. and sears holdings.

shld. good news of s&p. they revised the outlook, not the rating, they affirmed the credit rating. but they revised the outlook to adequate from less than adequate and to stable from negative. so not a giant move by s&p and what the firm is zoing is saying the financial situation at sears because of planned spinoffs is stronger now than it was yesterday. not moving the stock now but the you news just crossed. on deck, we talked about the stealth rally but there's a big red flag for the markets that few others may be talking about but we will and why the biggest global risk may be in saudi arabia. and mitt romney says he paid at least 13% in taxes for a decade. we'll lay out the road map to get you to 13%. why it might be harder than you think. when a major hospital 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

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we have been very transparent to what's legally required of us. but the more we release the more we get attacked. the more we getted questioned. the more we pushed. we have done what's legally required an enthere's going to be no more tax releases given. >> that was ann romney last night on "rock center" saying

when romney was governor there was financial disclosures and available and mitt romney's saying he never paid less than a 13% effective federal tax rate in the last 10 years and isn't what every american aims to accomplish? eamon javers joins us from washington, d.c. with a great look at how we can all maybe do it, too. eamon? >> reporter: you know, brian, everybody hates paying taxes, including rich and poor alike, but if you want to get your tax rate down to an effective level federally of just 13% as mitt romney says he's been able to do over the past ten years, you are going to have to stretch if y you're a high income person to make that happen. there's a gap between the two different types of rich people. those rich people who work for a living and collect a salary will have a very hard time as high income earners down to 13% but if you're making most of the income off of investment returns, capital gains tax rate of 15%, you can do it.

let's walk through the numbers. how can you get your rate down to 13%? well, the first tip is be poor or middle class because a family of four at the median u.s. income of $75,648 in 2011 paid an average rate of just 5.6%. so that's right. most americans pay a lower federal effective rate than mitt romney says he paid. another one, you don't want to make over about $151,000 in salary. a family of four earning just over that would have paid an average rate of 12.93% in 2011. above about $151,000 you took in to 13% and above territory. another way to 13% is be unemployed but rich because investment income is taxed at 15% capital gains rate and give to charity and just don't give it yet. rhee yate a remainder trust that promises to give assets to charity maybe when you die and still collect investment income

of assets for years and years and goes to you and not the charity. at the end, the remainder to charity and stash money offshore. you can avoid some tax rules and save on taxes. so bottom line here is if you're a high income earner, brian, making like $500,000, very, very good salary, most americans consider you to be rich and donate $175,000 to charity to get your effective federal rate down to that 13% level and that's very tough for a lot of high earners do do. >> you bring up an important point, too. which is why you get the article and somebody making a few hundred thousands a year, president obama, don't pick on me i'm rich and then everybody kills that person aez gone in to hiding. you make a good point. the working rich, the doctor, a lawyer, whatever, they don't have many deductions unless they're self employed, right? looks like the capital gains side of this is where we need to do some work. >> reporter: that's the key to

it. like i say, two kinds of rich people. rich people who work for a living and there are rich people whose money works for a living. if you're one of those people in the second group and like mitt romney who does not have full-time salary coming in, you can use deductions and other things to get down below that 15% to something like 13%. but those guys are earning hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars of salary it's hard to get it to 13%. >> it's a cruel irony. thank you very much. >> that's right. does the romney tax return issue, the bc and forth, highlight the need for tax reform? let's ask j.d. foster, senior fellow at the heritage foundation and david callahan at the dmas. david, let's get to you first of all. right or left, the goal is the same, right? most revenue and economically sound way. how do we do that? >> 13% tax rate for mitt romney

says it all. we are losing so much revenue to these low capital gains tax rates and i think it really speaks to who's in control of our political system. you know, the wealthy have had so much influence in washington. they have gotten the capital gains and dividends tax rate way down and think eve been reaping huge benefits and in part this is a political problem. it's about who has power and right now it's not ordinary americans. the working people who are paying that higher rate. >> j.d. why do you say -- sorry. did you want to jump in there? >> i did a double take in a way because -- and i understand what david is saying but, david, the higher rate thing, warren buffett thing, right? that's not true. the average middle class family pays 5.5%. >> you know that -- >> i'm not saying that it's too high or -- >> j.d. you know that figure doesn't include payroll taxes and exacts a huge hit. any working person looking at the pay stub looks at the huge

take that social security and made care. >> first off, sorry, it's brian. i know you expected to be attacked by j.d. an you're attacked by the anchor, brian. i'm not attacking but a myth. put that graphic back up. we need to be honest about tax rates and i hear you about medicare and medicaid but they're entitlements going to be spent lark largely by the peopl. the money goes out more than in and funding things like the fda and education. right? and defense. >> you know, overall we need to -- overall we need to increase the amount of revenue coming in. look. we have the boomers are retiring. taxes are at the lowest level they have been in almost 80 years and i mean this country needs more revenue so we need to not only go back to the pre-bush tax rates under clinton, those booming 1990s you might recall and need to close the loopholes, particularly for the rich and go after some of those popular tax deductions.

go down the list. the biggest tax expenditures. the bigse ebiggest is employer d health insurance. >> let's get j.d. in here, too. with breaks and loopholes and we have a democratic system herement the democratic system breeds that kind of thing, right? it is like a little lure to voters if you like. very difficult thing to pay it back. this is why in a nondemocratic city like singapore you don't get that kind of break. is this something which is going to be feez to believe do under our system? >> well, it is feasible to simplify the system, clean it up. we did that in 1986. i think there's a growing interest in doing that again with respect to the individual income tax. it tends to accumulate car bunk ls and barnacles and nonsense. we have members proposing it every year to add more and more and then we have to go through a cleansing exercise and we clean up the tax code and hopefully

broaden the base, lower the rate so the economy can grow at a stronger rate. i think that's the basic goal of tax reform. not to raise revenue. have a debate. the point of tax reform is a distributionally neutral exercise that simplifies the tax code and allows the economy to grow at a stronger rate. >> j.d. to my point to david, i'm not saying to raise taxes on middle class right now but if spending stays where it is and comes down a few percent you know as well as i do the money won't be there and taxes will have to go up on the middle class. correct? >> there's no question. >> the middle class is not paying enough under current spe spending. >> if we don't get the spending down, we have to raise our taxes. our point is get the spending down. almost 25% of gdp at the federal level. normal is about 20%. back down to 20% where we belong

or lower, you don't need to raise taxes. do you want big government and high taxes or smaller government and lower taxes f. you think you get your money's worth then you support a higher taxes, more government proposal. if you don't think that, if you think you paid too much in taxes already and government doesn't spend money wisely you should support a sller government solution but that's the basic choice we have to face. >> j.d. david, thank you very much for weighing in. it's a situation of taxes that pretty much you have to just agree to disagree. >> just quickly before we go, too, by the way, folks, i understand david's point about the clinton era tax rates and great and remembering the good time. expenses as a percentage of gdp for the government also steadily came down. i'm going to tweet out the graphic that shows that so tax revenues went up. spending down and there was your surplus. >> right. tweet it out. looking forward to it. hanging on it. could that good news headline to dump the dividend

trade? next, get ready to drool. i mean, just drool. we head to pebble beach for the rarest, most expensivest most beautifulest cars in the world. >> shiniest, too. that was a real word. >> we're back after this. why not take a day to explore your own backyard? with two times the points on travel, you may find yourself asking why not, a lot. chase sapphire preferred. there's more to enjoy. [ engine revs, tires squeal ]

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car enthusiasts around the world gather in pebble beach, california, to gaze, drool and hopefully bid and robert frank sucked it up and managed to make the tough assignment out there. i have been never been more jealous in my life, robert. >> reporter: thanks, brian. i wish you were here. somebody has to drool over the cars. a star of the auction has some real hollywood glamour. 1935 dusenberg owned by clark gable and played a great role in the romance of beverly hills. drove her back from the ball in this car and told that the two courted in this car. and it played such a strong role in their romance that when carol lumbird died he never wanted to see the car again. it's up for auction this weekend between $5 million and $7

million. may sell for more. another mercedes benz this week, a special roadster, could sell for $15 million or more or could become the most expensive car ever sold at auction. this weekend's not just about big money but big entertainment and big style. >> with a painting, you'll have a painting and it might be that size on an easel. but with the car, you get the noise, the smoke, the excitement. the car comes on and if it's exciting car, everybody applauds and it's, again, it's a show. so there's much more schoemanship in a car sale than perhaps a fine art sale or a furniture sale. >> reporter: you know, really standing re, it is more like a gallery or these great sculptures. the great rolling sculptures. these cars are stunning. and it really is more like a gallery than a car show. brian? >> i want to hit ferraris in a

second. i heard you earlier today, robert. you talked about that mercedes. we think it's probably the most beautiful ever built. you said found in a barn and some guy, david gooding called saying i think i have a nice car here? how did that car end up in a barn? >> reporter: yeah. well, you know, i think mandy would look great in that car. i'll see if we can bring it home for her. this car had a world trip. went to paris, went to switzerland. back to a garage in connecticut where it sat for 30 years while the owner was living in switzerland. she passed away in switzerland. it was hunted down and recovered eventually 30 years later by car buffs. now for sale. could be the most expensive car ever sold. but brian, you would look better in some of these racing ferraris behind me. sherman wolf lived outside of boston. passed an i way and left the world the incredible cars.

these 1950s cars. ten ferraris to sell for more than a million dollars this weekend. >> wow. >> go and wipe the swelt off of your brow an put your feet up. it's been a tough job for you. thanks so much, robert. see everybody running to the barns, right? >> amazing, amazing. up next, the big threat that could have oil and gas prices maybe doubling. and turning techies in to foodies. the company that's cooking up delicious perks in silicon valley. that's all coming back in a moment. here's today's "return on retirement." a recent aarp survey reveals that nonretired boomer voters have high anxiety about the economy. among their concerns, health care costs. delayed retirement. high taxes. and financial security. so what financial worry tops the list? the answer when we return. when we got married.

i had three kids. and she became the full time mother of three. it was soccer, and ballet, and cheerleading, and baseball. those years were crazy. so, as we go into this next phase, you know, a big part of it for us is that there isn't anything on the schedule. that's a good thing, but it doesn't cover everything. only about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. so consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement plans, they help save you up to thousands in out-of-pocket costs. call today to request a free decision guide. with these types of plans, you'll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients...

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today's "return on retirement." what is the top financial concern of non-retired boomers'

concerns? inflation. for more on retirement go to retirement.cnbc.com. it is "street talk" time. we'll run you through the under the radar stocks of the day. first francesca. >> we have sears. point is it's up. women's clothing retailer. it boosted guidance. stock's up 9.5%. driven by strong sales and higher than expected margin. what that means, less discounting. that's good news for francesca's and shareholders today. >> stock number two is ann taylor and soaring on a huge earnings beat and slight guidance raise. >> it was put on the scrap heap. it's back. earnings 63 cents.

beat by 12 cents. operating margin rose again. less discounting there, too. all around solid quarter. upgraded to overweight from underweight and up 38% year to did it. >> where there's discounting and it's hurt, aeropostale. >> amazing to see them going in operation. starting to see the good management and maybe who is not. aeropostale down. almost all the percent and gave a weak outlook this quarter, as well. back to school looks pretty bad. expenses continue to rise. the stock down, down 3% over 1 year and 19% i think year to date. >> here's a stock that was actually potentially going to be a contender for disaster du jour. it's a "street talk" stock down by 8%. down 8%. it's crushed. kind of a thanks for nothing call of the day. ever core partners cutting the

target to 3 from 6.50. 4.60 right now. they see it going down another buck 60 a share. 77% down year 0 date. >> every day my inbox things of amazon local, groupon, as well. just a lot of stuff. >> questioning their accounting. it's out there. you know? >> it's out there. dividends meantime the highest level in almost 13 years but is it time to stay or go coming to the dividend trade? paul hickey joins us now. what do you think, paul? >> hey, mandy. you know, when you want to look at the dividend paying stocks look at the alternatives. two, three weeks ago when the 10-year yield at under 1.4% you had more than 60% of the stocks in the s&p 500 yielding more than the 10-year an seeing interest rates go up you're seeing less and less stocks

yieldi ining more than the 10-y. where do you think interest rates are going? and right now, we have had a big spike in interest rates, 30, 40 basis points but we are still below the 200-day moving average on the yield on the 10-year so, i mean, still until we get, say, 2% yield we'll still have more than half the stocks in the s&p 500 yielding more than the 10-year. >> yeah. definitely with the yields creeping higher and seems if there's an asset allcation reset but what happens with a dividend tax hike? a big rush to the exits from the sector? >> well, i mean, i think that's what determines the def depend play, too. you have taxes. a lot of investors are not taxable investors. they have i.r.a.s and not as big an impact and right now the s&p is yielding 2%. historically closer to more than 4%. so, companies should still be increasing their dividends and because investors like baby

boomers are becoming more demanding of income paying assets so depending on the tax and the election coming on this fall, and, you know, that's going to determine, a, what dividend treatment will be, but b, how are foreign profits going to be taxed? if we see a lowering in that rate, bringing more cash on shore, and then that could really lead to more payouts by companies. >> you hit the "t" word, paul. if the president get it is wish and capital gains or dividend income rates go up 25%, 35%, whatever it is, should you dump dividend paying stocks or will they get dumped? >> i think you're going to see some selloff in dividend paying stocks. if you do see the president get his wish but the counter to that is if the, you know, if the president gets the wish, when a lot of people think bad for the market you'll see more of a migration back in to defensive sectors which are normally the high yielders so you have a

point and counter point there so may balance each other out. >> yesterday we were talking about the big techs returning more and more crash to shareholders. what does that say about the growth outlook for the stocks? >> tease are mature companies. cisco is not a hyper growth company of ten years ago but if you can get cisco yielding about 3% and intel, another company, intel yielding 3%, i mean, those are attractive payouts. 3% is especially compared to theal tuthe theal terntives and dividends i think very safe dividends and going to be, you know, you're not worrying about those dividend payouts in a year or two down the road. >> 75% hike in the dividend of cisco. thank you. >> thanks. next, we'll show you a stock chart that's got herb's hair on fire and he's got a lot of hair. >> he does. plus, the power of free food in silicon valley, as well. the chef behind the kitchens of

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i've got a nice long life ahead. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i got a medicare supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if you're eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. call and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement plans, it could save you thousands in out-of-pocket costs. call now to request your free decision guide. i've been with my doctor for 12 years. now i know i'll be able to stick with him. you'll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients.

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simps simpson/bowles believe in the blan? alan simpson weighs in. former firm mf global lost but would you invest in jon corzine with a hedge fund? we found somebody that kabt wait to do just that. >> you probably heard of a study finding women lack confidence with investing. a guest says women are just as good if not better at investing than men. we look forward to seeing you for "closing bell" here at the new york stock exchange at the top of the hour. see you then. have a good weekend. >> i love a good old gender fight. thank you. molycorp is smacked around the chops and really pique's herb's interest. >> you should see this. off 11% or so. on monday, morgan stanley resumed coverage of molycorp with an overweight rating and then lo and behold the rare earth miner announced it raised

$480 million in stock and note offerings by morgan stanley. they tell me the timing of those deals and the analyst recommendations is just a coincidence. in reality, the stock falling since upgrade. it was whacked even further today on the announcement of the deal which included the sale of stock at a discount to yesterday's price. adding insult to injury, a bullish analyst downgraded the stock to a hold on the sheer size of the offering. now, molycorp, of course, is a long-time battleground stock. and look at this chart. the stock was $80 in april of 2011. it is now $9. the stock's collapse pretty much follows a tumble in rare earth prices. and it's happening just as the company is in the middle of an enormous expansion project at the main production facility in california. the story can best be summed up in molycorp's gross margin which last quarter was negative.

add a financing on top of that. the rest as you can see right now is history. oh, by the way, that morgan stanley analyst thought everything and the financing is priced in to the stock around a week ago at $13. and you know, this whole story's going to hinge on the prices of rare earths and whether china dumps more of this -- more of these rare earth minerals on the market. >> how much does basically the pricing for rare earth materials rest in chi in's hand many. >> well, right now, it depends on whether, again, they decide to flood the market. if they can't flood the market, then, of course, the pricing could come back but remember this was such a hot story. this thing, people were -- thought rare earths were going to continue to just go up. >> it was a bubble, remember? everyone talking about the bubble and now -- it popped. >> no such thing as a bubble. >> really? >> no. of course not. >> thank you, herb.

in the bidding war for top talent, nothing is off the table. when's the most important incentive for most of us? it is food. and our own jon fortt is taking an inside look at the catering world of silicon valley's hottest player. >> reporter: google made food a cultural touchstone offering it free to employees more than a decade ago. twitter, facebook and now yahoo! have all followed suit. >> this is unique. >> reporter: the man behind the infamous food culture here, co-founder of caterer bon appetite. the radical vision 25 years ago was to make restaurant quality food on a massive scale. >> my dream was to create a restaurant company with great flavor, great chefs that could customize every location and food was going to be the cornerstone of the company. >> reporter: how? he hires top flight chefs, res

the demographics like ebay. >> how's the indian food here? >> great. >> good? >> reporter: his achievement is itself a silicon valley success story. it was founded in palo al to serving 140 million companies inside schools and corporations around the country. the sources food from local farms and gives chefs a lot of discretion over what they cook. so, why do companies pay? what do they get out of it? >> they care a lot about the employees. not just about coming here and doing your work. it is about the whole experience. >> reporter: and you know, guys, it is funny. not everybody here, not every big company does free food. apple, for example, doesn't do it free but very focused on quality. steve jobs had a favorite tsuyoshi restaurant here and apple after he passed away hired the chef from the restaurant. now, working at apple. they have great sushi there. >> you're right.

not every company in silicon valley offers free food but i hear it's so popular it's an absolute given. so much so that the company has to go over and beyond offering other perks like free hair cuts and a nook for your dog and stuff like that. >> reporter: absolutely. car detailing. all kinds of little perks like that. as a matter of fact, just to pick on apple a little bit. they're doing an even more advanced eatery planning in the campus to keep people from going out and chatting about secrets outside. >> bingo! that's it. it's not a perk but anything to keep you working. do not leave the facility. >> reporter: yes. >> go back to your desk and start typing. >> we don't get free food and we eat at the desks. losers or very hard working employees. i'll take the latter. thanks a lot, jon. >> now i'm bitter. coming up, the one thing that could push oil and gas prices way, way up. okay. we'll be coming back with that story. do not change the channel.

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while the world watches and worries, the biggest global risk could be 2,000 miles to the southeast of athens in saudi

arabia. our dependence on their oil is growing once again, and if violence spreads to that nation, prices could soar and maybe even double. let's ask fadel gheit. it worried me because i see what's going on, is there a real risk or is that oil safe? >> there's always risk, but we have been through upheavals, and saudi arabia seems to be stable. they're able to put down any hunt of a uprising, and at the end of the day, they will not let saudi oil be cut off. i have a lot of faith in our military. >> yeah, we had richard hoss on

this morning, and he thought saudi arabia was at risk of problems and that could mean the oil doubling. >> could oil double? >> absolutely, you're talking about something -- saudi arabia is basically, you know, think of it as a gas station for the rest of the world. so the gas stations, if they stop pumping gas, we'll have a real, real problem here. >> in terms of what we're facing right now, how do we bring oil prices down. we have the obama administration, i want to know what would be the point in that and what would bring down price. the last time we did it was in june of 2011. and in ten days we were back up to the same price again. >> you have a lot of

speculation, and that's not going our way. that will become part of the dna of oil pricing. all you have to do is watch the news and see the upheaval. it has been and will continue to be tough for a long time. so we're getting used to it, but every now and then, it's going to layer up, obviously. the one thing that you can keep in mind here, oil prices are much higher than what they thought be. they should be $20 to $30 below that. and they're not coming down because of the speculation in the marketplace. that's not going to change. so how do we bring the prices down? that's the $64 question. >> they say the market is fine,

there is no release knead, do you agree with that? >> the market has been light, but the thought here is that because we have plenty of oil now, it doesn't mean that it's guaranteed six months, you know, or a year or two. so, the concern is obviously a major factor. and i don't really see how that's going to change any time soon. we have the threat of war in the neighborhood and they're trying to get to them. >> right. >> and it can spill over into the neighborhood. >> fadel, i have to jump in, next, the strangest themed barbie yet. >> and tonight on cnbc sports biz, in the camp of the giants.

they think the new collective bargaining agreement is askting the prep for the season. that's at 7:00 p.m. eastern time tonight. ♪ the goose drank wine ♪ the monkey chew tobacco on the streetcar line ♪ ♪ ♪ clap, pat, clap your hand ♪ pat it on your partner's hand ♪ ♪ right hand ♪ clap, pat, clap your hand ♪ cross it with your left arm ♪ pat your partner's left palm ♪ clap, pat, clap your hand, pat your partner's right palm ♪ [ male announcer ] it's back. the volkswagen beetle. that's the power of german g.

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