up 77 points, the s&p is up eight points, and the nasdaq composite is up four points. so there is some confirmation to this move. see you when you get back. that will do it for "power lunch." >> "streets signs" begins right now. "s signs" time, and the incredible run for the dow continues. it is now up. get this. 17 straight tuesdays. i think we speak for all america by asking why! microsoft's mea culpa, the company making a huge turn. why has the stock been on fire. is it possible housing is in a new bubble? out of all the retailers in the world, wells fargo loves five. mandy, i'm going to come to you with a trivia question.

where does that rank on the lists? >> the answer is coming up ahead. okay. it takes two to tango, guys. both the dow and the s&p setting new intraday report highs. up for the 11th time. up 20% since mid-november. by my calculations, folks. that equals a bull market. but here's my favorite stat of the day. the dow's gain is now twice what it gained for all of last year on a percentage base. with all due respect, let's call this the tale of two microsofts. on the one side is the stock. it's been killing it lately, up 20%. but why? because on the other side you've got this, the microsoft hall of name. products that failed to take off. radio listeners, and we're

adding a new product windows 8. microsoft announcing today a complete makeover of the operating system. that cannot bode well for mr. steve imbalance maniers. i'm going to do it like you do, herb, and by the way, herb put steve balmer on the worst co list. take a listen to what he had to say then. >> this was so stuff. the runner-up -- steve balmer of microsoft. just so stuff. here's the situation. windows eight is not dwight the home run people thought it was going to be. >> that was a great call, buddy. why the seemingly different stories. joining us is yun kim, and todd hazel ton, and obviously mr. herb greenberg. first to you, how do we explain this, the windows 8 seeming failure, others are calling that today, with a symptom that's

finally a couple bucks above 30. >> is the fundamentals have not changed, the stock has been running. we see a lot of disappointing results. that's basically we are seeing a classic reaction on the flight to quality. windows 8 has not been doing well, so basically basically from a stock point of view, it's reflected. that's why it's trading at only 11 times next year's earnings, yet there's some safety in cheap valuation. >> okay. can't get any worse. that's putting it lightly. the stock is it curtains for balmer? >> i think what we're looking at here is, okay, maybe it should be, but we're looking at a ink cha in the operating system. he's looking at it, saying, consumers didn't like it as much, maybe we'll do some things

weapon and holefully agents success. one of the problems is the cost of the devices. they need to compete with amazon, the $200 tab lett market. it's possible with their new chips to have windows 8 products. so where are they? >> herb? >> well, i think the reality on balmer is it's time for a refresh, not just of windows 8, but of the ceo. one of the great points was actually made this morning by none other than bill george and medtronic. i was surprised to hear him say that balmer should go. he's a fairly conservative, not the kind of guy that will stir it up, and he talked with fascination about the need to bring in new blood and how it tends to help companies that have been in the muck like ibm before they made the changes. >> so i'm going to pick the other side. i want to ask you something, is it possible we do not understand

microsoft, because look at this. i'm going to show our viewers, microsoft's revenues the last few years, gone for 58.4 billion in fiscal year 2009, to almost $74 billion in fills k58 year 2012. is this a company we misunder? >> to a turn degree, yes. about 65 to70% of the business is on the enterprise side, which does not get a lot of attention from the media side. obviously the focus is on the consumers side, which is about 30 to 35% of the business, mainly around windows 8, this obviously is not doing as well. again, the revenue is predominated by the corporate side, which is doing very well. >> you make a great point. he talks about the ear side of the business. >> wait a minute, wait a minute. he said the same thing i did, and you say it's a great point.

>> what i find fascinating is now the stock is going up and suddenly it's not so badly managed as we thought. that tells you more about the stock market than about what people were saying when i made this call back then. >> when you talk about the potential for new blood, who would that new blood be. it's not just who would the new blood be, but what would they do in terms of splitting up different. >> what i want to see from a consumer standpoint, i want to see ios and android version of office. that's a lot of money could be made right there. what else are they doing on the consumer side that can actually boost the share of what yuen was

talking about. >> and will they do what adobe did, and get rid of packaged software, and all of the cloud. >> what do you think? >> yeah, i mean, microsoft has a clear consumer marketing strategy, which is like apple and other players in the market like google and amazon to a certain degree, it does have an -- it wants too offer integrated consumers experience across all devices any time anywhere. it's the only system that -- windows 8 is an operating system that is it willy made to work on all those devices. ios does not. it has a special operating system for each device out there. >> bottom line, herb? >> one kind work. that is in the end, it could be the old long term that wall street doesn't want to see. he's saying he's been spending all this time getting ready for the future and will ultimately prove out to have been done a good job, just not on wall street's clock. >> we've got to leave it there, guys. thank you very much. all right. on deck we are going to dig more into the seemingly unstoppable

stock market, and are you looking for a retail name to buy? wells fargo has five names they love. like elaine in "seinfeld" we're going to name names, coming up. trivia time -- how much would a woman make if she was paid for everything she does at home. this is not hypothetical, by the way. we're also going to give you the world's worst mother's day gift ever. but we can still help you see your big picture. with the fidelity guided portfolio summary, you choose which accounts to track and use fidelity's analytics to spot trends, gain insights, and figure out what you want to do next. all in one place. i'm meredith stoddard and i helped create the fidelity guided portfolio summary. it's one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. now get 200 free trades when you open an account.

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the markets are hitting record high after record high. how much further can we push it? let's try and find out. bob pisani has lots of traders whispering in his ear. what are they saying? >> they're saying as long as you get rotation like we see. one week is defensive names up, and the last week and a half has been cyclical names. the market can continue to go higher. we're sitting near the highs of the days, and the risk-on sectors, all leading the way. here's something interesting. tech has been a giant for the last few weeks. it's showing some sinds of getting a little tired. i've been mentioning all days we're at history highing, but 2% accomplice here from fedex. these are the guys who did the various transportation, expediters international, u.p.s., ryder, a really broad group moving to the up side. they seem to be happy about the

affect they're going modest growth. up 2% to 4%. container shippers up 2 do 4. europe, there's no growth in europe. that's where some of these companies are stumbling. they seem to be pretty happy. mandy, back to you. >> so did that rotation into the large-tech stocks. thanks, bob. >>. okay. time for the answer to our trivial question at the top of the show. this is unbelievable. the s&p 500 has gained 13.7% in just 87 trading days this year. that's great, but according to the good guys, it is only the 11th best beginning to a year since -- you'd think it would be like fourth, third or fifth. that's a darn good gain, actually only the 11th. more importantly, generally as you might imagine, we almost end the year higher as well. >> we front load it, right? >> yeah. joining us brian piskarowski

and peter kenny. brian, in 11th place? it's kind of unbelievable. >> well, there's that. i think you need to take into effect the s&p was up 156% last year, so wee seen a nice encore performance here. i think the thing is you have the market discounting, the fact we're not going to see a global downturn. europe obviously had their issues. we've seen china looking like they're averting a hard landing, here in the understanding we've been muddling through. by and large we look lie the best of the dwarfs, and money has flowed. i think that change has been an underlying driver for equity marks. >> about you if you look at some of the reasons we got to where we are, peter, you no the largess of the fair, and some pretty darn good earnings, how much of that is priced in? how much more can we eke out? >> we're priced in with s&p, p. & e trailing.

if you factor in the current rate of inflation, which is just sub-2%, that puts us at that magical 20 number, which is often the rule of thumb for any sort of expansion and increase in revenues and profits, and bottom-line growth for corporations here in the united states. so we're priced in very nicely now. that said, guidance has remained fairly optimistic. that should give the market continued momentum. foundationally speaking, it's not as if we don't have a reason to be where we are right now. we do have the earnings and some modest improving macroeconomics. >> revenues have been misting. >> they have been missing consistently. to the point that brian just made. if you're seeing 2% growth, and you're seeing some sort of just revenue flat line, just let's assume we won't get any misses moving forward, which i don't think is a big assumption, you could see some significant gains in terms of earnings. >> brian, you heard -- listen, i don't even know what to ask

anymore about this market. i'm getting nervous about it. i don't know what to say. i'm just going to be honest about that. i don't know what to say about this market. all the questions are the same. it's getting difficult. what would you ask yourself, man? >> well, i think there's a couple things. i dig the suit, by the way. >> thank you. >> we know you have the violin case with the tommy gun in it. >> we've been dealing with these levels in the market for the last 13 years. since the first pass during the tech bubble, you've seen a much bigger pickup in the underlying earnings. i would argue with the run we've had as of late is way more democratic. the first time we took a shot at 100 we were looking at tech, the second time was financials. this run this year has been more on the defensive side. so from our perspective, we think that trade is in pot trade, so we want to be looking at some of the underperforming areas, like materials, even info tech, which had a nice pickup of

late, and help buy a couple big names, but i think that's the kind of scenarios we should by looking at. main internal rotations, cognizant of what's going on on bondland. last week on the ten-year and now you're seeing rates back up a bit here too. >> and remember buffett said it was a terrible investment, bonds. brian, peter, thank you very much for joining us. i think for now on, all of our guests have to wear a site like that. >> yes, absolutely. despite the rallies, american ceos are not impressed. first a cnbc, 9 result of this quarter's y. p. on, young presidents organization, a pulse index. it measures ceo confidence. it's remained flat over the last three quarters, despite these record markets, ceos think the economy will grow at just a moderate pace. by the way, we have an exclusive editorial partnership. check out ypo.cnbc.com for great

ceo perspective on the economy. ceos may think the economy is just chugging along, but there are bright spots in housing. according to a new report by trulia, will asking prices continue to rise? let's bring in the chief economist. we're watching what's happening with the stock market. hopefully people are feeling more confident. is that helping housing? >> the rising stock market boosts confidence. that's good for the housing market. some people might also decide to take the gains they have made in the stock market and use that for a down payment. but the housing market doesn't swing as fast as the stock market does. 1% swing might common for some days in the stock market, but it's rare that the housing prices swing by 1% even in a month. so the housing market is much more tied to fundamentals, like household formation and job growth. >> are the fundamentals good

right now, do you think? >> right now we're seeing job growth really boosting home prices in a lot of markets. even in places that investors love like phoenix and las vegas are also seeing job gains, faster than the national average. most of the biggest local price gainers on the home price side are seeing bigger than average job gains, too. that's a strong fundamental. >> okay. one question in two parts. are we overstating the gain in housing because of all the institutional buyers you just referenced, jed? and number two, is it possible in some locations we have a new housing bubble? >> well, as prices keep rising, we'll start to see some of that investor interest fade. in markets where those price gains are driven by investors like detroit, we'll see the prices slow down, but the question of whether we're seeing a new bubble, we've got to ask about the three things that indicate a bubble. first of all, are prices high relative to fundamentals. no, they're in the normal range. also, construction is still

below normal levels, so we're not seeing the overbuilding that we saw in the last decade's double. the third thing is consumers aren't borrows beyond their means 679 mortgage credit remains tight. it's hard to borer for more than they could repay even if they wanted to. >> thank you very much, yesterday. today's sign of the times, more work and less pay for moijts. the tame home pay a mother would earn dropped this year. the mother's day index tallies the pay for 14 jobs that moms might perform if. this year salary, there 59,000862, down more than $300 from last year, and down $600. insure.com has put together the index based on government data on hourly is wages. this is not something wonky in the wings. this is true hard data. i have to say i personally think that a moment or a pop's job is

the hardest thing to do. >> i have two of my good buddies are stay-at-home dads. thank you for throwing that in. the work -- >> it's tough. >> i couldn't do it. there's also a father's day index, and i don't know what kind of tally, what kind of money they're supposedly making for the things they do in the house. we will find out next month, though. we have to way for that. stay mannys. >> i have two mannys at home. on a rotating basis. i'm giving away way too much information. >> it's for your kids, right? >> no, for for me -- no, no, for the kids. for the kids. >> applications welcome. still ahead, the worth mohr ate day, disney at an all-time high. the powerhouse mouse is playing a game to go even higher.

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up for auction. it's expected to sell where between 8.5 and $12.5 million. i'm going to be guessing there are not too many moms who will get a gift like that. jiminy cricket, the symptom is you will at an all-time high. and a just gigantic box office hit. julie? >> that's right, brian. disney is trading at an all-time high, it's also about the power of disney's big brands, the marvel and "star wars" acquisitions in particular. disney is issue its ability to exploit the acquisitions across multiple platforms from the box office to consumer products. yesterday afternoon disney announced a multiyear licensing deal for electronics arts to make and publish "star wars" video games. disney's outsourcing game development a month after

shuttering lucasarts in-house. while cashing in on the $4 billion acquisition of luc lucasfilm. another $4 billion acquisition, marvel, which it brought back this 2009, is also paid off in spades. "ironman 3" has grossed $680 million worldwide, $175 million is in the u.s. that makes it the second biggest opening of all time. no now on disney's earnings call in a few hours, we're sure to hear plenty of questions, but what kind of impact could we see from the "ironman 3" succeed and how much it had boost future quarters, and after the earnings, cross the why, phil and mandy, i'll be breaking down the numbers, and we'll have an exclusive interview with bob iger. you won't want to miss it. back over to you. >> thank you very much. let's bring in allen gould. i mean, is ironman 3 already

priced into the stock? >> disney is doing very well with all their product. "ironman 3" my guess probably makes $250 million for disney. i think the avengers grossed a billion and a half at the box office. why only $250 million. i know it's not the gross, but the movie has probably grossed well above that, right? >> sure. if it does a billion, probably 500 million goes to disney, and 500 million to the exhibitors. another 175 plus million or so to market. >> what is the key thing we need to look on the for that could move the needle for this, allen? >> i think the two things are -- disney spend a lot of money in the theme parks.

in terms of espn and the various other channels, vent the ratings been dropping? >> ratings were down about 5%, our estimate. espn was down 1%, espn2 down about 5%. but remember, espn gets most of its revenues from affiliate fees. we think the affiliate feets are growing as a high sing of-digit rate. >> what are you worried about? >> you worry about a film not working. last year "john carter" lost for the company. >> is there another film like that that could -- i don't know their film schedule, i probably should -- is there another film out there that's that big that could bring it down? >> i don't think so, the next

one will be monsters university in june, and they've got the "lone ranger"? ual, which was a relatively expensive film. that's one some people are concerned about, but nowhere kneel the level of concern with "john carter" last year. you also have to look at the economy. when you add in the theme parks and consumer products, disney is as economically sensitive as any of big-cap companies. >> a price target of 68 bucks. alan gould, thank you for joining us today. as julia mentioned, a can't-miss interview. we'll hear from the chief mouseketeer. there's no shortage of bad blood between oracle and s.a.p., up next we'll speak exclusively to the chairman of s.a.p., to find out their next plan of

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welcome back to "street signs" if you're looking for a retailer to buy, wells fargo has

some names. >> they only love a handful, literally. first is abercrombie & fitch. they say they have the best free cash flow yield. trades at 13 times the full-year eps. high single digits, square footage growth rate. that's what wells says. that's not bad, and there's a brad called soma? an intimates brand apparently they call it a hidden gem. shouldn't intimates be a hidden gem. >> certainly not wearing it on the outside of my dress. up next, the gap. >> this is a classic risk/rewards story, they say. gap has many ways to drive the top line. >> and michael kors. >> it says, quote, it has it all. double-digit square footage

growth in the u.s., also overseas, likely for years to come, the best sales and eps momentum in all of retail. >> very hot right now. the final pick, though, is also their number one top pick. that is urban outfitters. >> of all the 19 stocks in their university, we gave you the four they love. this one they super-love. urban outfitters, the momentum is big. comp store sails are up in the high single. so of all the 19 stocks, only one can be number one. that would be urban outfitters, according to wells fargo. no shortage of bad into between s.a.p. and oracle. now the chairman of s.a.p. is ready to tell us his next plan of attack. jon fortt, you have an exclusive. >> that's right, mandy. always good to have him here, chairman of s.a.p., also majority other than of the san jose sharks team. hope to taye about that at the end of this, but first today

s.a.p. intersurprise cloud, sounds like a service for high-end customers, kind of low latency, very specific market. tell me, is this a way mainly to showcase what your database can do, or do you expect it to be a big part of s.a.p.'s growth going forward? >> it will be a big part of s.a.p.'s growth, but it's a hanna cloud, so it would be hanna and mania only. for any kind of application from s.a.p. or s.a.p. partners or anybody else so we will take the applications on hana, we'll do the monitoring, everything, and the biggest advantage is that we basically can deliver within hours a complicated system, can start a project. we've overcome the latency. after the decision has been mae

to go towards hana by a s.a.p. or non-s.a.p. hana. we can shorten it to basically minutes. >> tell me how this has been going. oracle is the big name in database. you're taking them on. you've never been shy about doing that, but we keep hearing mark hurd saying good luck if they think they can steal customers. are you really -- what kind of color can you put on that? >> we're not stealing. they are leaving oracle. i just got an e-mail today, where a well-known automotive company was in the process of migrating from database a to b, and simultaneously they launched a warehouse on hana. the success was so outstanding, they stopped the project, contacted s.a.p. and they go

straight to hana. what i hope will hatch and i predicted would happen because we can shorten the deployment of systems, provisioning of systems, that the effect of the growth will be much faster, because from first point of interest to system is up and running and there's positive feedback, le are will shorten this time. sharks in the playoffs, looking stronger, but you're off a really complicated season, let's put it that way. what's it like being an owner in this environment? are fans spending money? how does the business look? >> you know, the owners spent also some money, in our case also some losses, but let's talk about the positive thing. they turn -- they turned the season around, unbelievable job by the coaching staff.

the general manager made some crucial trades. everybody can see what he brings to the team. everybody is accelerating the steps a bit. so from an ownership perspective, it's pretty rewarding to see how the team goes, but we haven't done yet anything, so -- >> you still got to get through the playoffs. >> you know you have to make the last point and win the fourth game. >> that's right. >> that's what we hope for tonight, and i would love to see them play. hasso plat ner, thank you for joining us exclusively. >> thank you very much. up next, the earnings court is back in action and they have three names to watch for after the bell. later on, we're playing wheel of fortune with your paycheck. while buying a vowel in your name will cost you.

first to bill griffeth with what's coming up on "closing bell." >> thanks for asking. we have three huge interviews coming your way, first blackrock's larry fink, he manages more money than the fed. where he sees opportunities in this market even at it hits record highs. qualcomm's ceo paul jacobs, the chip maker is being hurt by the maturation of the high-end smartphone market, and bob iger breaks out the media giant's earnings just moments after they are released. you'll hear from him exclusively. maria and i look forward to seeing you at the top of the hour. in the meantime, more "streets signs" coming your way and while of fortune, parent, right after this. ♪

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trade the stories you may have missed. i'm here with herb greenberg and mary thompson joins us today. let's begin with the scorecard. 85% of the companies have reported so far, 67% beat estimates. we're looking at a number of food hef related companies out with earnings after the bell today. and let's start off with mondalees. and mary has been looking into this one. >> you think it's -- will -- in addition to declines profits they have missed in the prior two quarters, so analysts are watching that. revenue also expected to pull back a little. let's look at three things we're going to be the kraft legacy sales in the emerging markets. basically the acquisition of cad bury gave them the funnel to sell into the emerging markets. analysts want to know how well they're doing. gum sales have been a drag on the past couple quarters.

part of the problem i pple in the developing world don't chew gum as much my mother always told me don't chew gum. i think that's a positive. of course they don't. they don't care what my mother says. but also is there any charter, again they have a stake in mondeles and pepsi. there's charter about this is snack food giants together, what do you get? you get salty and sweet. >> some people think that's a great combination. i feel some snark coming over about the name. mondelez. >> i've that snark -- the fact that no one knows the pronunciation. >> we've had a conversation about it. okay. let's move on to whole foods. set to record after the bell s of course, the major question here, when it comes to this company is usually when it comes to valuation, what kind of

growth you're getting, even if the company reports an in-line eps. and that would be the slowest rate of earnings growth since 2009. that's the major issue here. 35 times p.e.? so you're paying 35 times p.e. for a company that is growing at the same rate as 2009 levels? >> i think some people want to know, and then are they setting themselves up for some sort of good news here? >> if you want to join the conversation, tweet me at melissalease@cnbc.com. back tomorrow morning. in the meantime, "streets signs" continuing right after this. time now for today's return on retirement. the worst places revealed. according to "u.s. news ard world report" california isn't a great place to spend your golden years, based on high taxes and high cost of living. los angeles, oxnard, san diego,

san francisco, and san jose all make the list. what are the others? find out in just a second.

back now with today's return on retirement. the rest of the cities on the new list are the worst places to retire based on high taxes and high costs. bridgeport, connecticut, new york city, poughkeepsie, new york, washington, d.c. and honolulu. yes, even though you've got the weather, the ocean, food and housing, make it not quite the retyrant it seems to be. chect for a retirement portfolio advice for all ageses action and retirement.cnbc.com for more tips on how to prepare for your golden years. poughkeepsie? what is this the facts of life, going to hang out with blare, attitudi -- that was peakskill. what's in a names -- this is a

bizarre story. the fewer letters in your name, the more zeros there are in the paycheck. the a new stilledy, and for some reason somebody is studying, every extra her in a person's first name reduces his or her salary by 3600 a year. the job site, the ladders, tested 24 pairs of names like bill and william. in all but one case, the one exception, lawrence made more money than larry. okay. i get it. what they're saying it's not if you have a short name like oz. it's you want to shorten your name. if you're alexandre, don't call yourself alexandre, because people probably perceive you as a snob. you're alex. >> if you're lawrence, you probably come from a poach background maybe, so maybe a higher degree, a higher pay. i don't know. it doesn't seem scientific to me. >> you could have amanda and

shorten it to like -- >> mandy. >> you just gave yourself a raise. >> that's going to catch on. >> genius. first solar posted a profit during the first quarter, but it fell short of expectations. the stock is getting hammered today. do you think more than getting today, down more than 9%. however, first solar has been one of the best performers during the rally, up 30% this year, far outpacing stae ining . let's bring in gordon johndon at axiom capital management. he has been a longtime bear on the stock. let me think. i think you're going to say, stay away. >> your name is now gord, based on that last story. >> first solar, there's a lot of risk in the name. and i think what people don't understand, there's projects for which they're recognizing, for which they purchased a long time ago. there's a lot of risk around these projects. a project got delayed a long time from q4 '11 to q2 '11.

over that time frame, the stock got hit. there's risks around these large projects getting done. and thus we think their earnings are going to be volatile. so overall, we think, number one, they're going to be volatile. and number two, once these projects are over, we think they're going to lose money. we still think you want to be short the name. >> how much of the accounting problem is still in the stock? >> that's a good yes. the stock is up 40% year-to-date. what happened is effectively a new management team came in. they pulled in a project they were going to originally recognize in 2015 to 2013. thus, they were able to take up their eps guidance, and that's what drove the rally and the stock. that's an accounting rule change. it wasn't real demand that's driving this. >> and you talk a little bit about the ceo. it's tough to go in the ceo's background. you don't want to make -- but you put that in your note, why? >> because he's an unindicted co-conspirator, according to an article that was released on "usa today," january 29th, 2006.

and basically following this company has become possible, because they do not provide you disclosure on the projects. and they've actually reduced the disclosure around these projects they provide. the projects are 100% of their revenue. and when you have a ceo taking over from that type of background, and it becomes very hard to model. >> but unindicted is the key word, right? you believe that there are some fundamental accounting questions with this corporation? >> absolutely, 100%. if you can find me an analyst who can model this company accurately on a quarterly basis, i'll find you one that can't. >> so why have a rating on it at all? we don't understand the company, right? >> it's very simple. this is a commoditized industry. the chinese clearly run this industry. the cost to produce for first solar was up again this quarter from 68 cents a watt. chinese module makers are selling their panels at 58 cents a watt. they're better performing, more

efficient, and cheaper than first solar. first solar is the high-cost guy. you want to be short the stock. this will eventually play out. >> you have a sell price target of 13 bucks. thank you very much for coming on again. >> go is actually your name. keep shortening it until you get a raise. gordon, thank you very much. natural gas, another alternative fuel source. that's almost almost 20% this year. joining us now, andrew littlefair. the company provides more natural gas as a transportation, it's called mansfield partners. andrew, thank you very much for joining us. i sat on a panel last week in l.a. with boone pickens, who i know clean energy is kind of his company, at least gave the idea for it. we talked about natural gas as a transportation fuel, but the service stations are so far apart, only big, long haul trucks can make it to and from. when do we change that? when do we get to a point where mom and pop can actually say, i can find compressed natural gas? i'm not afraid to hit the road? >> brian, thanks for having me on. we're really focused. because of the economics in

natural gas, we've been targeting vehicles that use more fuel. and so that's really going to -- you'll see for right now, those are going to be the vehicles that will move this way. that's why we built the nationwide network of these l&g truck stops. today's announcement's important, because we're kind of moving towards what you're asking. mansfield oil sells $3 billion gallons of diesel. to more urban environments, more hub and spoke-type trucking. today's announcement, we have a strategic partnership with them, where we're going to be able to put natural gas fueling for their customers, for urban trucking. and they have 3,500 customers, fleet customers. so we think this is very important. they operate in 50 states. and what i think is interesting, brian, here we have the largest proprietary, kind of behind the gate diesel fueling company moving to natural gas and they're going to work with us. >> but you have some competition in this space, andrew. royal dutch shell has teamed up to also provide natural gas

fueling. so you're not going to be the only distribution system across the country. does that concern you? >> no, no, of course not. look, there's a lot of room here. there's 35 to 37 billion gallons of fuel being used in this market. we're the leader. royal dutch shell will have one station built this year. we'll have 110 or 115, so we're way ahead of them. but there's plenty of room for both of us to operate in this market. it's a big market. >> right now, natural gas clearly has a cost and price benefit to gasoline. however, if you succeed in doing what you're trying to do, andrew, and i hope you. >> yeah. >> won't that increase demand, drive the price up to where it is not competitive? >> brian, you have so much natural gas in the country, it's really, it's overwhelming. >> 2.3 trillion cubic feet or something -- >> it's amazing. think about it this way. i've been working with pickens for 27 years. going back 20 years ago, and

even five years ago, the united states had a 20-year reserve life index in natural gas. today that means, in 20 years, you'd use up what we have, okay? today we have a 200-year reserve index of natural gas. you're going to have lots of natural gas that's going to be very competitively priced with diesel for a long time. and you can export it and use it to replace coal. you have natural gas running out your ears. so brian and mandy, we're not trying to fit into a place here to save a dime. i mean, today, natural gas is $1.50 to $2 cheaper than the other fuels. >> well, with these ears, that would be a lot of natural gas flowing through. >> it's really a revolution, isn't it? if it happens. the transportation industry is revolutionizing it. up next, nothing says, "i love you, mom," like a trip to hooters. everybody has different investment objectives,

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>> applebees. >> i saw a discount for a mother's day -- who doesn't need an urn for mother's day? and you can't be given an urn. you've got to earn your urn. >> anyway, thanks for watching -- free wings to watchers of "street signs" tomorrow, but i don't know where they would come from. >> and you've got to buy your drink as well. "closing bell" is coming up next. hi, everybody. we're into the final stretch. welcome to the "closing bell." i'm maria bartiromo at the new york stock exchange. we are on dow 15,000 watch once again and over it. >> i tweeted a little while ago, i said, forget this sell in may and go away. what you should do is buy tuesday morning and sell tuesday night. this is the 17th consecutive tuesday -- >> that is very funny. >> that the dow's been higher, right? by the way, i'm bill griffeth. coming up on today's program, we have traded above it, but we have never closed above 15,000. and yes, it looks like thisay