budget cuts. and on a day where j.c. penney is so much in the news, simon, as you mentioned earlier, walmart one of the biggest-performing stocks in the dow. that stock actually at an all-time high of about $78 share. that will do it for "power lunch." always great to be with you. >> always great to be here. "street signs" begins right now. we're kicking off our opportunity usa road trip in one of the hottest cities in america, houston, texas, and we're at pass & provisions. nothing seven months ago. now they have 60 employees. all this hour, as we kick off the show from houston, we're going to tell you why we're here, what's made houston such a leader in business. we have the mayor, anise parker, a groundbreaker, local investors

to provide you with down-home houston investment ideas. we've got all the news you need. this is going to be a big hour, as we kick off a three-city, three-day road trip. guys, here's why we're here. look at they stats. jobs up and unemployment down. you've got gdp at 3.7%, one of the fastest growing major metropolitan areas in america, property sales up a staggers 17.2% year over year, and by the way, you've got an area that has a very, very business-friendly climate. you have high wages and no state income tax. mandy, that sounds pretty good. a surprise from here to show you how multicultural this city is. i know one of our top stories also comes from this state in plano, texas, j.c. penney. >> absolutely. i love surprises. it sounds like this show will be literally as big as texas. welcome, everybody. i am back at the cnbc

headquarters, back at the mother ship. we have two huge stories we're following for you. first up, kpmg stepping down herbalife just minutes ago getting a huge downgrade. we've bring you the impact. it's the second story, which is of course j.c. penney. ron johnson is out, the stock trading near a 12-year low. we are hitting both these stories big and hard throughout the next hour. let es start with story number one. kayla tausche, you've been digging in. >> kpmg first learned last friday a a senior partner had leaked confidentable information to a third party to two clients, her alive and skechers. the source said it was out within 24 hours, the clients notified yesterday. federal authorities are currently investigating the matter. the firm, a source says, believes the probe concerns the individual actions, not those of the firm. kpmg won't identify the individual, but it has

categorizesed him or her as a bad apple, saying in the statement that the firm and the employees unequivocally condemn this individual's rogue actions. kpmg is one of the big four accounting firms. the firms do the bulk of the world's blue chip corporations, editing things like prospectuses, every sing the earnings filing you ever see, so the biggest risk is the loss of confidence by corporations. that being said, there still could be some fallout for kpmg on the legal front, depending on whether the matter was discovered by authorities or by kpmg. that would lessen nen penalty, and also, of course, mandy, whether herbalife or skechers decides to sue. >> kayla, you stick around. i'm going to bring in herb for reaction as well as sully. herb, you're the king of red flags. to what degree do resigning raise a.

>> normally a lot of red flags. given the events with insider trading allegations, you know, you would sort of look at it a different way. accounting was never one of the big parts of the story, mohr about the underlying business model, but then the story gets the strangers twist of all, just a bit ago when tim rainey came out and downgraded it to a neutral. he cut his price target from $180 to $190, this is trading at $36 or so. so you sort of look and wonder -- >> he's been defending it for a long time. >> my good pal, tim ramie, we go bam and forth on this thing, has been defending this thing. if you look at his report, what he says, he assumes the company will get a delisting notice, assumes there will be violation of loan covenants, won't be able to buy back stocks. this has all sort of piled on top of something that is unrelated to our original story.

>> what do you reckon about this, brian? >> well, here's the thing you have for herb. one statement, one estimate. ramie cut the long-term targets in half. he does have a short-term targets, which he cut from 78 to 37. here's what i have a question for you, herb. you've been doing this kind of journalism forever. why are we distrusting the results of herbalife when by all accounts right now the story seems to be what they call a rogue kpmg auditor who maw oy may not have given up information. why are we calling into question the balance sheets and audits when we're talking about, i thought, an insider trading allegation? itches that's a great question, because again the audit is theoretically the audit. it depends on which conspiracy theory up to follow here, brian. the question is, why would they disavow the prior audits. look, there's something about this story that for some reason isn't adding up.

i have to say something. had they not had this long, long halt in trading today, this would have been a very different outcome. you wouldn't have seen all the people piling around this thing. that really created an event out of something. >> and brian, to your point, hlf was very quick to say in a statement this has nothing to do with their accounting practices, has nothing to do with the integrity of their management. what more do you think is to this story that we haven't yet brought up, kayla? >> mandy, i think what no one knows is what was done with that information. was it leaked veselily and wasn't traded on? was it traded on recently, but not something that moved the stocked? or was it months and months ago? by all accounts it could well be that the current information that this auditor had given to an investor and had been planning to use and perhaps something that ramie and his

various meetings with analysts also had caught his attention. >> you know what's interesting here, kayla, and you bring up something interesting. remember, we have the insider trading story here, and then we've got the issues that i certainly raised in my documentary, and i have been talking about all along, totally unrelated, or so it seems at this point. >> or so it seems. brian? >> well, that's the point, right? or so it seems. i think you're spot on. to herb's point as well, why are we punishing the stock for this news, this company has a lot of drama around it, it has a lot of nervous investors around it, the one thing in ramie's note waufle hess says -- and thinks tim ramie's point of view, by the way, i want to make that clear, that he assumes herbalife will get a delisting notice, though he's very clear to say he does not believe this would happen, he calls it highly unlikely, but

there's a lot 6 language being used by ramie. others say, herb, which i find shocking. >> he says there's no reason to feel differently about herbalife. the stock -- >> strong words to use when you don't want to feel differently about it, though. >> everyone is scratching their heads on this one. i feel there's more to come, and we'll be following it right here on "street signs." story number two, this is j.c. penney and it's a big one. liz dunn is joining us. great to have you here on the show show. everyone who's an investor is asking one big question -- is the company near death? is it going to go out of business? >> i don't think in the near term they're going out of business. i think they have adequate liquidity, but this is obviously a very bad sign, getting rid of ron johnson. when mike ullman joined the company, the press release said we don't have a plan yet. we have to do some works to

figure out what the plan will be, but i don't think they go out of business. >> they're burning through that liquidity real fast. >> they are. they'll likely, i think, draw down on the revolver in the first quarter, certainly in the first half, but it seems like ullman may pull back on some of the capital plans, so that's good news, you know, from a liquidity standpoint. there aren't aren't a lot of protective covenants for the bonds. >> my question is, why should investors have any faith in mike ullman, when it's not like he led them to the promised land from 2004 to 2011. >> i think that's true. until hi prior tenure, the stock was not successful. the company definitely had some troubles, but i think he understands the company, i think he understands the customer and the brands and promotional cadence. what the company said to me last fight when i spoke with them, execution was the real problem. it doesn't sound like they're

necessarily backing away from the strategy, but more they feel like the execution was extremely poor and there were a lot of nuanced things that ron johnson maybe didn't understand about the business. >> but j.c. penney burned through over $900 million in cash, just under a billion in cash and short terms on the books. you say there's no concern, but why not? >> well, just because they have a big revolver and they can tap the revolver to tap that capital plans. one of the reasons we have you, herb and you're sticking around on this story, is the fact that ron johnson was on this year's worst lest, and now it's this year's worst ex-ceos. >> he was on the list, because he came out, i was a big supporter of him early on. i think when you look at how he performed, especially after the analyst day. what i pointed out, the analyst day, january 26th last year, he

came out and offered guidance. to me that's when i started saying he doesn't understand -- why would you give guidance? why would the company give guidance if you're in a turnaround situation when you can't even -- it's going to take several years. i think that was a telltale sign at that point. >> yeah. i think he just didn't understand the magnitude of the changes they were making. >> how could he not have -- that's still the thing you go back to here. a guy whose legacy was at stake. why would he takes this job? he had been at apple, target, started at mervin's. maybe he knows i don't know how much his ego played into this. >> a lot. a lot. i think he had done a great job at apple, and was looking for a new challenge. >> what do investors want ullman

to do. >> i think investors are hoping somehow they can blink that are eyes and everything will be all better again. that's not going to happen. i think a return to discounting certainly important. i think that reconnecting with customers, figuring out the brands they actually want and offering them value to regain some of the lost sales, that's really what people are looking for, but also a reduction in the capital plans so they can interrupt some of that liquidity. >> it certainly feels like you think the jury is still out. so thank you very much for joining us today, liz. we'll bring you more later in the show and what needs to be done right now to turn that ship around. but let's get to the other big thing that's happening this our. brian, what do you have on tap for us? >> there's a lot of beers on tap. i'm not sure i'll have one in the next 45 minutes, though you never know. the commercial breaks are long.

the groundbreaking mayor of houston, anise parker, she'll tell i why this city has crushed it. houston is home to the second-most fortune 500 companies in america behind new york city. i'm betting some ceos are thinking about coming down this way. we have a lot more to do here. we're live at path & provision, a hot spot in houston. "opportunity usa" rolls on after this short break. ity, we do it by merging two tools into one. combining your customized charts with leading-edge analysis tools from recognia so you can quickly spot key trends and possible entry and exit points. we like this idea so much that we've applied for a patent. i'm colin beck of fidelity investments. our integrated technical analysis is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. now get 200 free trades when you open an account.

welcome back to a special "opportunity usa" cnbc road trip. three cities in three days. we're beginning in houston, texas. i'll tell you what, folks, this city has surprised me in the short time with the diversity and culture. we'll chat with the mayor in just a second, but janet put together this piece. >> reporter: white energy companies, transportation, technology and health care are gaining, with more than 92,000 employees, and some 7 million patient visits each year. the texas medical center is the world's largest med center. the cancer center attracts patients and talent from all over the world.

>> it's really the people that are here. we have, you know, just a number of hospitals, the size, the scale, it's unparallel, unmatched anywhere else. >> reporter: the unemployment rate hovers just above 6%, well below the national average, driven in part by an explosion in tech jobs and the demand for new and clean energy. it's fueling a population boom. according to the census, some 80,000 moved to houston's county during 2011 and 2012. jim crain has been doing business in houston for 30 years, so bullish on the city he really bought the houston astros. >> basically nobody is from houston, there's a core base, but almost all of us are transplants in some form or another. >> reporter: just one of seven states with no income state, and housing costs 30% below the average, it's no wonder.

so we've got to own up to it. the summers are sweltering, but "forbes" called houston americas's coolest city because of the amazing world-class museums, a vie brandt arts scene. and my favorite -- the restaurants like this one. i hope you get to sample a lot of them. back to you, brian. >> janet shamblin, thank you. you have 17 pushes europe in home sales, fastest growing metropolitan area in the united states, and a lot of companies moving here. you don't need to sell houston, but if you had to convince a kriismt o to move here, how would you do? >> great quality of life, low cost of lives, easy regulatory environment, everything you said in a big city. aggressive entrepreneurial workforce, and international flair, all in one package.

>> a lot of big companies and cities in the northeast are not doing some of that. >> some of that is being in texas. you know, the culture of texas, this is a business-friendly state, but houston was founded on business. there's no reason being the fourth largest city and being where we are, it's a lot of things coming together, and the underlying strength in the sector we just described helps fuel it. >> by the way, this restaurant -- >> hot food town. >> three-month wait to get a table here. probably not for you at this restaurant. look at the culture, the museums, the science scene, the medical -- i was joking yesterday that i was going to wear a bolo tie, sort of the old stereotype of houston. this city is not a stereotype. >> 20% of houstonians are foreign-born. we attract the best and brightest from all over the world. more engineers per capita than any other city in the world. >> how do youty that?

how do you put plans in place for make scherr all those things continue? ivities we want to protect the quality of life. we want to protect our low cost of living and good tax structure. the only big challenge we have is to make sure our own compete. we have to have a strong school system. we have to have our home-grown tal president. >> you're seeing that as well. you know, no problems on the horizon for houston, no big once financially. >> it's still a tough economy, but our sectors, oil, gas, medicine, port, nasa, area other space, all going well. >> mayor parker, thank you very much. mandy, i've been here a few times in the past. it just defies expectation. i was jockeying around about the bolo tie and cowboy hat, but look behind us, this is a place that you would even go to. you would actually even go to this restaurant. >> i would even go to that straupt restaurant. i would eat anywhere.

remember the comment that no one in houston is not from houston. i wonder how many australian ex-pats. >> here ace my surprise. angela moore is general manager here? events director here. angela, we didn't know this, mandy, is from melbourne. >> hello. >> you have to come down and visit us. jalong, just outseat melbourne. what's better, your school? >> jalong college all the way. >> a very good school. >> melbournian working here. it goes to show what the mayor was saying. even people from australia find their way here. >> prince charles i believe spent some time at jalong grammar. many more coming up here. street talk as well. we found five stocks that need

to be on your radar right now. the markets's on the move. you also have the s&p 500 sitting there at 1571. guess what? we've now crossed one point over that closing high that we hit last tuesday of 1570. this of course is the big question. stick around to find out. ♪ ♪ here we are, me and you ♪ on the road ♪ and we know that it goes on and on ♪ [ female announcer ] you're the boss of your life. in charge of making memories and keeping promises. ask your financial professional how lincoln financial can help you take charge of your future. ♪ ♪ oh, oh, all the way ♪ oh, oh ♪ oh, oh, all the way are you still sleeping? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule.

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welcome back to "street signs" we have just learned the kpmg partner that was ousted was a lead auditor for herbalife and sketcher, scott london. the skechers cfo telling reuters it was london, confirming suspicion that a lot of reports had been out. we have now learned definitively it was scott london. according to london's linkedin profile he was the partner in charge of the audit practice in southern california. no small job by any means.

i did pull in a call to scott london's office, but we have now learned that he was the partner who resigned. mandy? >> we do have a name. thank you very much for the breaking news. up nearly 40%. in part you're seeing recognize the revenue from a big california power plant. >> i'm going to say with the pops rather than the drops, gil adis enjoying it. >> analysts at rbc basically saying we think this thing could keep outperforming for the next one to three years, telling them about growth of the hepatitis-c franchise. they raised the target, and gil adhas been a monster, too. a good time to be an owner of shares of a prism rater? >> the prison ratter, he's the

news, basically paying a special defend of 675 million or about 6.63 per share. they qualify as a reit. what's happens with cliffs natural resources? >> clf, a big move here. i talked to analysts, they're chocking it up to a -- that means policy makers in china have more of a runway if they need it. short interest is high, you could be seeing some short covering there as well. thank you very much for that. thanks for joining us as well, josh. coming up next on "street signs" planes, trains and automobiles, then back out to houston where brian is finding some big opportunity in the big state over the skies of texas. "street signs" is back in two. [ indistinct shouting ] ♪ [ indistinct shouting ]

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data done differently. you have the dow in front of you, but intel, microsoft and top loser is mickey d's. clearly we are not eating numb hamburgers. let's get right to the trading

floor the brian schactman is engining us. what's the world down there on the floor, brian? >> you just mentioned the dow, over 14,700. i wanted to point out the s&p, because it's really in between two key levels. of course, the closing high is 1570.25. we are above that. the intraday high is 1576.09. we are right smack dab in the middle if we end these levels, it will be a new closing high. in terms of what's really going on in the internals, some people don't love the term risk on or risk off, but if you look at it, it's risk off. the best performers of the day, tech is up as well, and i want to point out hmo stocks all strongly to the up side, back to you. >> great stuff, thank you very much. down to the other brian.

how many brians can we cram into one show? brian, you're down in texas. what are you talking about now? >> one thing on the "opportunity usa" trip is to talk about opportunities that they are finding in their hometown. on the ground knowledge. soliz lockwood is with us, and scott, they're both houston natives, liz, you and i were chatting before the show, you pick investments all over the world, but you find plenty of investing opportunities right here. >> lots of investment opportunities. we're a very diverse city. we have a diverse client base, lots of diverse economic sectors. houston is a great place. >> i know oar -- but as you and i talked about, this is not just an oil and gas city.

>> yes, lots of non-oil and gas. >> what types of sectors? >> in the health care sector, the real estate sector. we're very diverse. we consider ourselves a 24-hour city now. we have good private equity. all sorts of access. >> scott, you're also a native, so give us log knowledge. in our viewers in new york or california are watching this, how would you tell them to take advantage? >> at the end of the day, oil and gas is the lifeblood of houston. our business personally, houston has grown based on the oil and gas industry. we are seeing more and more oil and gas companies with private equity, to take advantage of that. so one of the things that we continue to stay abreast of is that industry, and we focus on that. >> like what? give us some specific ideas that you guys like?

>> a lot of our clients are focusing on really the emper. >> exploration and production. >> absolutely. we've lots and lots are plans, and property down there, and we offer lots and lots of money -- >> how do you play that? what what kind of companies would be the best way to take advantage? >> absolutely. so the natural gas companies, the ones that you would expect that will be drillers in those areas, are leasing lots and lots of property. as soon as we see, we'll see lots and lots of pop in the stock. >> liz, before we let you go, i know things are good for you, for houston, but i think your clients, who are smart and successful, they have concerns. what are some of the biggest worries you hear from them right now? >> i think the biggest worries are they worry about making

their money. they want an investment plan that will provide enough cash flow to meet their needs. they worry about long-term health care. these are the things they worry about. it's not really the macroglobal -- >> they're not saying liz, cyprus is blowing up. >> right. we work hard up front to put a financial plan designed specifically for wealthy individuals and their families and keep them in the driver's seat, make sure they stay engaged in that plan and very confident in the plan. >> liz, scott, both thank you so much. thank you for have you us in your town. >> thank you for being here. mid-level e & p drillers, still an oil and gas town, but you heard of lots of students. it's not just oil and gas though, as scott said, that's still the lifeblood like gold or kangaroos is the lifeblood. >> and magpie and veg amight.

>> and crocodile dundee. >> you're not wearing the hat, disappointed. up next on "street signs" planes, trains and automobiles. and then back out to houston, where brian will sit down with the ceo of flightaware and how they're creating big opportunities. ♪ [ laughter ] ♪ [ female announcer ] each one of us is our own boss. ♪ and no matter where you are in life, ask your financial professional how lincoln financial can help you take charge of your future. ♪

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coming up on "closing bell," ford's focus turned out to be the world's best-selling car last year. also the man who oversees

nearly 8 billion bonds at blackrock, warning the fed it needs to cut the stimulus in half now, and he'll tell us why. and back with us reacting to the insider trading scandal at kpmg. all that and more with another rally on wall street. we look forward to seeing you at the top of the hour. see you then, mandy. indeed we will. it is a record-breaking rally we're seeing right now, picking up steam. a trio of transportation headlines out there today as well, from planes to trains to automobiles. well, first the planes. united continental reporting it's consolidated traffic and a number of passengers fell last month. ual is the largest airline by traffic. now to the trains, am extra posting the busiest month ever. capped six straight mondays of ridership, more than 31 million passengers traveled on am track. as for the autos, ford's focus is crowned the world's most popular car.

more than a million of the vehicles were sold last year, with almost a third coming from china. that's it for transports. let's get straight down to houston. i apologize. i nearly said house-ton. apologies to all those houston dwellers. >> i think you would like this town. like we're saying, this is kind of your place. all right. so let's talk to a guy, and we always are saying in the show, hey this is a town it's not just about oil and gas. it's about opportunity in software and the web, so instead of just telling you, we're going to show you daniel baker, ceo of flightaware. many of you have probably used it. congratulations, your company is now 8 years old, starting with just yourself. now 32 employees. >> 32. >> so it is true a nonoil and

gas company can success in houston. >> believe it or not. we got started here, because i lived here, but the reality is there's a huge advantage to being here. office space is pawlentiful, a great deal, no city income tax, no state income tax. >> why not pack up silicon valley. >> we can cover both costs here. i can do day trips to either coast. it's. you can fly in the morning, do a meeting there, be back home in time for dinner. next day you can do the west coast. three hours from virtually anywhere in the continental united states. >> i'm sure you investigated when you started a city up. how does houston compare? >> it's absolutely incredible. we've done some small offices in new york as well, paying maybe twice as much, three times as much for office space that isn't as nice. folks have to pay the city and

state they have to pay more for the cost of living. so it's very, very expensive. we can do things very inexpensively here. there's not only a lot of people from houston, but people who pack up and move. they say the job market isn't so good where i am. maybe they hear about energy, and then the opportunities in technology and aviation, and there's a lot of other -- >> outside of houston, a 32-employee company. what are some of your concerns? what are you worried about right now, as far as flightaware is. >> one challenge we have, like you want is the competition from other start-ups, so we're trying to find new people that are innovative, they want to do really cool things. that's a competitive space. a few years ago when we were starting, the idea of selling services, online solutions was a big element, but now we're talking about -- so we're having to show people that kell can do really cool things, maybe not in social media, but can have an

impact on the economy and efficiency in travel. >> you're 8 years old now, hey, happy birthday. eight drinks before you go. >> on you, right? >> yes, in about 12 minutes. actually before we're done, we have a lot more coming up. we'll talk about this restaurant, the owner, the guy right there. seth, wave and say hi, left new york city to start this place. it is absolutely booming. we're going to interview him. we have a lot more to do from pass & provision. >> just think of the nontax tips. thanks a lot. still ahead, what is next for j.c. penney? big story, big question, we need some answers, coming up next. [ female announcer ] it's time for the annual shareholders meeting. ♪ there'll be the usual presentations on research. and development. some new members of the team will be introduced.

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welcome back. we have breaking news on adobe. it's announcing 'doblee primetime. the bundle of tools manages everything from streaming to computers and mobile devices to protecting from piracy to making money by inserting ads, and then

measuring their impact. melissa webs sister says it expects to boost the bottom line, saying it's a multibillion dollar market. adobe is also releasing new data showing that tv everywhere grew 12fold last year in the u.s., while mobile video viewing grew 300%. it says the new software will drive more streaming and present subscribers from cutting the cord. >> providers with an opportunity to deliver that content wherever the consumers want to. so as they evolved their offers to consumers, it allows them to deepen the relationship they have with their subscribers. a dobli primetime is launching with comcast and nbc sports, and adobe's various tools do face a number of rivals. we'll have to see if bundling them together gives them an advantage. julia, thank you. let's get back to j.c. penney with courtney reagan, at

one of the retail stores in new york city. what have you found? what are you hearing? >> it's a lot of interesting information here in the numbers, mandy. we know that j.c. penney investors have been through a lot. today the drama continues. ron johnson's predecessor becomes his successor. the company he inherits does not have the prettiest financial picture. they own 426 of its 1100 stores. jpmorgan values those at -- which works out to about $11 a share. when it comes to cash, j.c. penney has $930 million on the books. it's estimated they burned through $600 million more in the current quarter, which assumes same-store sales are down 50%.

under johnson, they fell to 116 per square foot. to get back to the 2011 level, j.c. penney would have to average a 30 to 35% com store sales for the entire year, practically an impossible scenario. in 2012, j.c. penney they loss $25 million under alleman. jcpenney shares have lost 51% of their value under johnson's 17 months as ceo, but they lost 17% under alleman's seven-year reign. this is a mess. >> that's an excellent way of describing it. thank you very much for that, courtney reagan. let's take a look, meantime, how jcpenney shares are trading right now. it is currently down by 11% at 1409, which clearly showses what investors are feeling about all of this. joining us now for what is next for the company, gena chan, and

sully is in houston, herb is back with us as well. gena, let's talk about how this company is going to fare under the new old guy. you say you don't think the board did a proper ceo search. i would counter and say, would anyone else really want this job? >> well, that was the big question, as well. but it seems like the board didn't even giver anybody a chance to try it out. normally, if you're going to bring in a new ceo, you'll have some intern person and then you have a proper search. this just looked like an act of desperation. bringing back a guy who's already in trouble, and that's why johnson was brought in. >> and yet if you look at the upside of this, jan, alleman can come in again and look like the hero instead of the goat. >> that's where i am. ting the board probably made two phone calls, they said no, mike said yes. and i think that he does comes in and he becomes the hero. and i think they'll have positive comps in the back half of the year, even with all the problems. >> why? why? >> because they won't have the

stores disrupted. they get all the shops open may 5th. by back-to-school, he's running coupons, he's running promotions. and they had a horrible third and fourth quarter last year. i suspect they'll see a little better numbers. and when they do, the world will go, wow, this guy has done this fabulous job, and my guess will be, that's probably not really what happened, but it's a good start. and i think he's got the story he's always wanted. he's wanted better stores with better shops and better vendors. he brought in sephoria, which roel worked well, he brought in american living, which was a disaster. but he's got that store now, and he didn't have to go through the pain and agony of watching the stock crash. >> jan, you're a former department store executive. you've now lost, let's say, if you're mike allman, you've lost 10 to 20% of your customer base. how do you get them back in the stores? >> well, you probably don't, but you can still start to grow sales off of the new base. they've dropped $4 billion in sales.

you don't have to get a heck of a lot of customers back to start growing the business. especially if they can raise the aur a little bit. >> if they start the old promotions, can they bring their people back? if people start opening up newspapers and start seeing the ads again or start getting the coupons again, does that bring them back in the stores? >> yes, but they only come in about four times a year, so you have to get their attention. but customers will come back. there's no real loyalty in retailing, especially that kind of retailing, where it's price driven. yes, they will come back. but it will take a while. >> gina, what do you say about bill ackman and his various divisions when it comes to investments in retail. target, a bust, another one that was a bust, borders was a bust. now jcp. is he eating crow? >> yes, he definitely is. i mean, he brought johnson in, hailed him as this great retail guru, said he would give him three years to turn the congressmen around, even when jcpenney was falling and, obviously, he ran out of time, just like johnson did.

so this doesn't look good for him in the future. >> maybe he should stick to other sectors. brian? >> well, i was wondering from gina, you know, you talk about a company like this. and we tend to look at it in very binary ways, right? it's either going to be a boom or a total bust. gina, is it possible, is it probable that jcpenney just doesn't lie there? it just limps along for years? >> i think that's actually a big possibility. because it's really, actually, hard to kill these brands. i mean, blockbuster is still around, even though it sort of seems to be, yeah, limping towards its death. >> very strange sounds coming from this -- >> montgomery ward does come to mind. and, you know, you -- circuit city did go away. >> exactly. >> so, look, i think, you can only muddle along for so long and then you get stale. jan, you were involved in a retailer that, as best i recall, is no longer around. >> and neither is a lot of others you can name. but i don't think these guys are going away.

the bonds are actually trading up on this news. the stock's trading down. what does that tell you? they're probably not going broke. >> very quick question. there have been at least one call for the entire board to resign on this allman decision. will they? >> no. >> no. i think it will take shareholders to take up a campaign and i think they're just sick of it and they're, you know, voting with their feet in terms of the stock. but another big question for them is how the vendors feel. that's what happened with circuit city. it wasn't the liquidity, it was that vendors said, forget it, your sales are too low, and we're cutting off your credit. and that's what caused them into bankruptcy. so could the same thing happen in jcpenney? the ceo search doesn't give confidence. >> best of luck to allman, that's all i'm going to say. hopefully he can keep the company alive and keep all those people employed. thank you to all of you for joining us, gina, jan, herb, and we'll get back to brian in just a second with some final thoughts from houston. veryone'sm is different; how we get there is not. we're americans.

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the texas outfit is no longer, the cowboy hat, it's the chef's apron. because this is a food hot spot, and these guys are behind passive provisions. this is a three-month wait for a table. we'll get out of your hair in a second, but you guys both worked in new york and came here. great chefs, aren't they supposed to go from here to new

york. why come back to houston, why come to houston? >> well, terence is from here, so that was an easy for himself. and for myself, we were looking for a long time about our own project. and after coming here and doing a pop-up restaurant, it became a de facto market test for us and people really responded to it and the economy is great, people are great here, the weather is great eight months out of the year. >> this is a food culture now. this is a food destination. >> it's a very diverse city and it's one of the most diverse cultures we have here in terms of food. but there's really been a resurgence in the last year and a half. >> well, they say, i mean, listen, manny, they say, if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. we're literally in the kitchen. these guys, this restaurant is unbelievable. i came here last night, it was packed, it's packed right now. and after show is over, i'm going to figure out how to do that. that's a new skill for the show. >> what's their signature dish? what's something that is