trading session include advanced microdevices, office depot, must be back to school shopping, chevron and blackberry. simon, it was a pleasure. >> indeed. i've got william sonoma and guess are reporting tonight. brits as they lay out their case for action. that's it for "power lunch," sue. >> "street signs" begins now. stocks are shaking off syria for now. the dow is up even as oil climbs again. folks, we have got your full oil playbook. we'll show you exactly who's producing how much oil and where, more importantly, the key flash points are right now. plus, the very interesting name that some are saying should be bought, mandy, by none other than amazon.com. >> okay, everybody, let's take a look at those markets. fear lifting a couple out there right now. oil and gold, for example, are on the rise. and that gain in energy shares hoping to push up the overall

market. yet despite today's gains, the dow and s&p are still on track for their worst month since may 2012. put another way, dow is up only the third time in 11 sessions. and this is your bonus stat for today, the dow is now 5% it's all-time high. the s&p is about 4% below it's all-time high. those are the statistics. let's get to the trading floor for more color. bob, rick santelli and courtney at the nymex. bob, if a potential syria strike doesn't end after 48 hours, i believe there are concerns it could hamper global growth. could that have an impact on the fed's timing for tapering? >> certainly could. that's what we've been talking about unknowns, unknowns existing out there. it's an issue. for the moment we're stable. there's a long history of markets selling off going into geopolitical crisis and then coming back as the crisis unfolding and immediately thereafter. so, a little of this is going on today. sell offgoi

selloff going into it. a lot will be thrown into the united nations, as can you see. i think a lot of this today is partly due to some of the rise in oil weave seen. a lot of the reason the indices is up because oil stocks are heavily on the upside. exxon and mobile are helping chevron -- helping the s&p and the dow jones industrial average. another thing the bulls are kind of happy about is we've had a crummy month. the s&p's down a little over 3% on the month. so, put up the s&p. i think what's important here is you've already got half decline due to fundamental decline. the bottom line is, we have a lot of room for economic weakness. the market's already down and that will give us a little breathing room in the next couple of weeks. back to you. >> we need breathing room. everyone needs to breathe. rick santelli, it's kind of interesting. i was watching this morning, yields were higher. find of feels like like an unwind of the recent flight to safety trade. what do you make of this reaction in bonds?

>> i think the market's attention span for anything in the middle east is just short lived. many traders i talked to were part of that crew, selling stocks yesterday, buying treasuries. and i would take the dollar out of it. i thought the yen was more the flight to safety currency yesterday. as i talked to them today, i hear things like, well, the middle east has always been a dangerous spot the last couple of years. i think that what we're going to do is going to be short-lived. they talked themselves out of the positions, mostly because there was no market follow-through. i think it's kind of a u-turn wednesday in that regard. and i suspect we'll pay a whole lot more attention to gdp revisions, for example, than any lingering issues, at least what we know at this point in time, based on syria. >> you're absolutely right. very short attention span, jumping from headline to headline. thank you, rick. the headline for today with regards to oil, courtney reagan, we've got wti up. i think it's around over two-year highs now. >> yeah, you know, it's interesting, mandy.

it's inventory day at nymex and usually that's the data point that moves the needle. today it didn't at all, even though we had a surprise build in crude stocks and a smaller than expected draw down in gasoline stocks. down here the focus is definitely on syria. and the middle east. more actually significantly is the spillover into the impact of the other oil exporting countries that neighbor syria. overnight we did see wti hit highs not seen since may of 2011. however, we have since retreated and traded in a fairly narrow range, hovering in 110. brent hitting six-month highs we haven't seen in some time. andy says the issue as we look at syria is what could potentially happen in those countries that neighbor syria. the oil-rich exporting countries i know you guys are going to detail. that's the potential problem. any kind of a strike that happens by the u.s. or britain, that's when we could see those fundamental impacts.

lipow joins other traders that thinks we continue to see crude oil rises until we see a change in the news. >> we'll follow up on what you just said. excellent report. who are the big oil-exporting nations? you probably have a knowledge of it because we've talked about it. now they're back in focus more than ever. saudi arabia, the biggest net oil exporter by far. about 8.6 million barrels a day. russia, number two, 7.2. russia and saudi arabia today, nearly 16 million barrels of oil a day, folks. we're producing 88 million barrels a day worldwide. kuwait, nigeria and uae. syria is not even in the top 15. here's why we care about syria. we also care about iraq. we care about turkey. we care about egypt. because of these two flash points. if you're listening on the radio, here's what we care about. the suez canal, controlled by

egypt, really, although the u.s. navy is in charge of the suez canal. 7% of all the oil in the world every day is going through that thin stretch of water. the u.s. 6th and 7th fleet that goes back and forth. syria, not a big oil producer on its own. in fact, much of its slight capacity is down half since march 2011 because of the fighting and electricity being cut off on some key export areas. pipelines, though, are what you want to watch. in particular one, get to know this name, the kirkuk-ceyhan pipeline. it goes from a iraq and goes across the top of syria, ushg turkey, to mediterranean. it's been the victim of sabotage many times over the past few years. if you see kirkuk-ceyhan in the news again, you need to watch

the price. anything you want to add to the analysis? >> brian, fundamentally very little reason as lipow has said in your intro, syria makes about 350,000 barrels of oil a day, less than 0.4% of the global supply. in addition to that, most of that supply comes from the east, exactly where you were talking about, on the border with iraq. therefore, it really doesn't really figure into whatever military activity may happen. >> unless this sparks something with iraq. >> that is why you see oil -- >> that's why we care. no offense to syria, we care about the people and what's happening, but from an oil and energy perspective, it is the neighbors to courtney's point. it iraq, iran, pipelines that go through turkey that matter the most. >> precisely. it is that contagion risk that you've seen drive oil so much higher over the last several sessions. including today we saw t.i. over 110 and brent more

significantly, because that's the grade that matters, over 116. >> how much does the price escalation mitigated by the fact that u.s. is whole lot less reliant on imported oil, like mrass from the middle east, because it's been ramping up its own oil production? >> sadly, not much. we've seen this in libya where we had the saudis take up whatever shortfall libyans might have made over the course of their issues. in fact, it wasn't a fundamental issue about supply that made the prices go higher, in fact, this kind of psychological contagion effect -- >> push back, dan. if i heard you right, you disagreed with my co-host. >> yeah. >> that didn't -- that means you disagree with me, so these are fighting words! >> the fact u.s. has ramped up -- >> permian, shale, that doesn't help? >> you see a bigger spread now that's developing between t.i. and brent. brent representing what is the crude benchmark that will represent what's going on in terms of the middle east.

here in the u.s., less of an effect. i would point to you that the financials are much more important than the fundamental supply risk. you have people running into an oil market, the same way they ran into the libyan oil market. that's why many analysts think this will be a short-lived rally. in fact, whenever assad finally yieldings power, we will have, again, a draw back down to more normal. >> actionable advice, what's the trade on the back of this? >> if we're going to talk about oil specifically, are on the upside. you could take advantage of that spread widening by going back to some domestic mid con refineries. >> have to mention gas, syria has 8.5 million cubic feet of natural gas. we can't forget about our lowly friend, natural gas. >> a localized product and therefore, will affect those players in the region and in the mediterranean around europe whereas oil is obviously global,

will affect us all. >> well said, dan. >> well, thanks. >> it was a polite fight. >> i'm glad for once you were on the same page as me. you agree. a special moment. light trading volume at this hour leading up to the holiday weekend. still, stocks are higher as we can see despite yesterday's selloff. of course, the ongoing uncertainty in syria as a back drop. let's bring in four-star fund manager mark travis. is this the calm before the storm or are those fears of a storm overplayed? >> well, manned y i think we're lining up for a september to remember. you know, we've got hurricane season, sandy up by you, down here in florida we're more used to tropical storms and hurricanes. you know, you've got the fed meeting coming up. bhus going to be the next fed chair is to be debated and continued to be debated. and in our view at intrepid capital, you know, prices are up appreciably over the past couple of years since march '09, the

low -- >> hold on. you mentioned hurricanes, the fed, valuations. you haven't mentioned anything about syria. is this not feeding into your investment thesis right now? it doesn't bother you? >> well, mandy, the only suggestion i have for you and brian is maybe we should drill in anwar, and maybe we would be up there with saudi arabia and russia in terms of oil production, but -- >> that would damage, mark, the nesting of three linxs. can't do that. >> i will wager you've never visited the arctic natural wildlife preserve and you will never visit it. >> that's right. >> we tend to traffic in less efficient parts of the capital markets, smaller cap equity, which is done extremely well. >> give us some names for now. >> well, things that are a little off the radar and hard to

find in a market that's up this much, a name we own is pan american silver. you know, gold is kind of yo-yo'd around since april. and pan-am has mines up and around south america. i tend to think of silver as gold on steroids. we think those shares are at a discount from a private market value. so, that's the kind of obscure thing we're having to dig around and find in on you view, what's an expensive market. >> thank you for joining us. mark travis, as always. as we continue to monitor the situation in syria, several media sites are trying to figure out how a group calling itself the syrian electronic army compromised their sites yesterday. are we already at war with syria but battle lines being redrawn through cyberspace? amman javers is here. they have ties to the assad

regime. was yesterday a warning shot across the bow? >> it could have been. here's the trick, it has ties to the assad regime but they claim to be independent, young patriotic hackers who are doing their own thing in support of the syrian regime. what was it really? effectively they were able to bring down "the new york times" website for a period of time. not a huge consequence to that, unless you're "the new york times." but it is a reminder of what you call the asymmetric threat response, which is when you have a small country with a small military like syria relative to the size of the united states, have you to worry a little bit about what's going to happen if the united states comes after you. how do you respond to that? well, hacking, terrorism, other things that are not a military-to-military fight. that's what syria's options are to fight back against the united states. that's what we could see. might be a little reminder. in that way maybe it is a shot across the bow. >> like twitter and "new york times" is one thing, media sites is one thing. whether or not they've got capacity to hack into like something the pentagon -- >> who's they? >> syrian electronic army.

>> i thought it was one guy in his underwear in his basement in damascus. >> we don't know. >> i could call myself the sullivan electronic army and it's just me. i'm going to rescue the princess by jumping over barelies and hitting turtles with a hammer. >> i've seen your tweets. you might be. >> losing war. >> this question of attribution is really a tough one in this whole cyber war arena. "the new york times" said yesterday the result was -- this attack was the result of a malicious external attack carried out by a group known as syrian electronic army or someone trying hard to be them. they don't even know who did this. it could be someone wanting you to think it's the syrian electronic army. given the timing, it's a reminder of the possible activity we could see as a result of a u.s. strike on syria. what are the options for the syrian regime to hit back at the united states? they're not going to go against the 101st airborne division. they're going after softer -- >> financial institutions,

infrastructure. >> to make a political point, economic point or otherwise. >> thank you very much. >> should we just get used to this now, eamon? >> yes. >> news is what is uncommon, right, the definition of. this is becoming so common. >> it is becoming common, but i think we have to think about it in a way in which we build it into our daily loves. >> sullivan electronic army, unleash your power in the twitter world. looking forward to the first tweet. you know there will be a parody later on tonight. >> and mandy will set it up. >> she doesn't know how to use the internet. a double whammy of real estate news. are you looking at live pictures from the lincoln memorial where commemoration for the march on washington anniversary is taking place. we're awaiting remarks from president obama, so we'll bring those to you live here on "street signs qult."

you can tweet u us @streetsignscnbc, e-mail us at streetsigns@cnbc.com or join our facebook page. ppen in a sec. with fidelity's guaranteed one-second trade execution, we route your order to up to 75 market centers to look for the best possible price -- maybe even better than you expected. it's all part of our goal to execute your trade in one second. i'm derrick chan of fidelity investments. our one-second trade execution is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. now get 200 free trades when you open an account.

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clear it all up for us. >> we are seeing a slowdown. we've been talking about that a lot. not too terrible, though. more news today. signed contracts to buy existing homes fell 1.3% in july month to month. according to the realtors. that was a little worse than the street expected but not much. these so-called pending home sales, which are an karat of closed sales in october and september. pending sales have seen annual gains for the past 27 months and realtors blame rising rates for the slowdowns but they say it's not yet concerning. higher rates are hitting higher cost areas more dramatically. pending home sales were down 6% month to month in the northeast, 5% in the west. lower cost south, they were up 2.6%. in the midwest down just about 1%. you see the discrepancies there. now, mortgage rates rose last week to the highest level since april of 2011, according to the moeshlg ba mortgage bankers. still purchase applications rose week to week.

that's a good sign. we also have to remember that historically high one-third of today's housing market is all cash. so, that's helping sales as well. refis continue to tank, down 5% week to week. down 57% from a year ago. that is less cash in your pocket. guys? >> diana, thank you very much. for more on housing let's bring in president and chief economist at nariff economic advisers. joel, with all due respect to a story we've been doing all day on this network. here are our thoughts on "street signs," at least mine. too few are talking about inventory. inventory is so low. national association of realtors saying 45% of all homes sold are sold in less than a month. a place like seattle has just 1 1/2 months of inventory. of course, pending home sales are going to drop if there's no homes to sell. >> that's exactly the issue that's going on here. that's what's driving prices up.

that's what's keeping sales down. really, that's why when people talk about their fears about housing prices rising too quickly, we can't keep up double digit increasing, i think bring it on, the more the measurier. the reason is, we've got so many people that are still under water or have a minimal amount of equity. we're not back to the normal churn where people basically buy houses because they want to rather than because they have to. let those prices keep going up, get inventory up and things will settle down. >> what do you see in the next six months in the housing market? >> i think what we're going through right now is what we expected to go through once you get the increase in mortgages. you have people sitting on the fence who jump off. some people who no longer qualify. you get a lot of uncertain data. i think we'll see a fairly decent housing market but these days of double digit increases in sales, double digit increases

in starts, prices are probably over, we'll move back to more normal pace. i think the housing market's solid but not robust as it had been. >> bottom line to mandy's point, then, 4.5%, 30-year fixed rate mortgages, will they or won't they destroy the u.s. housing market? >> not going to destroy the housing market. going to slow it. we'll still have improvement and i think that's going to be the key. those are low rates. i took out a mortgage at 17.5% in 1981. so, 4.5% looks pretty good right now. >> history's on our side then, joel. thank you for joining us today. just ahead on "street signs" we're going global. emerging markets are kind of getting beaten like rented mules recently but we'll see if there's argument to add south korea.

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♪ here in south korea the export market has six-week low and pull back by the federal

reserve. the u.s. is one of our largest trading partners and a major market for our tech giants like samsung electronics. that's not all, risk aversion is hurting emerging markets in southeast asia which is as an important market as u.s. bear in mind, south korea has a big current account surplus, around $7 billion. and a $326 billion in fx reserves so plenty of ammunition there. for cnbc business news, seoul. >> cloeg closer to home, groupon weighing the idea of building warehouses for its physical goods business, which could create more competition for amazon or, here's another idea, maybe amazon should just buy groupon. joining us is morning star's r.j. hart. how much of a competitive threat to amazon is this potential move by groupon? >> it's a sensible move but it's tough to see this becoming more

of a niche business. even the ceo said they're not going to distribute all products. i don't think it will be much of a disruption. amazon set the bar high with delivery speed, customer service, selection of products, i don't see it being a threat. >> if groupon isn't a competitive threat to amazon s there any reason for amazon to buy groupon? >> i don't think so either there. the company bought wooten in 2010, have a stake in living social. an we significance acquisition of groupon would be redundant. >> you remember like 2011 and 2012 when daily deal sites were all the rage. remember the good old day of those things. >> yeah, exactly. >> you get my point. is that over? >> yeah, i think from groupon's point they admit they have to evolve their business model and change it around. that's certainly acknowledgment -- >> as you know better than i do, have to evolve and can evolve

are very different things. >> exactly. and i don't directly follow groupon but i think they'll have difficulties evolving that business. it will be difficult especially when amazon has a foothold in just about every part of the landscape in the internet right now. >> i bought a bunch of groupon and amazon local coupons in the early day. they sat around the house for a while until they basically expired. if groupon isn't able to evolve, what does it have to fofall bac in terms of profitability? what does it have? >> that's a good question. that's a core part of the business. this is a move the company has to make. in looking at a type of deal like this. conversely they could look to partner with retailers and use retailer stores as a channel of distribution. that might be creative to make them more sustainable over a longer horizon. >> great to see you. still ahead on "street signs" we have the shoe edition of "street talk" coming up.

did you build that for me? >> no. i'm curious as to what all these coupons were you buying were for. >> don't ask. >> i just did. >> can you ask me later. >> live at lincoln memorial. the president will soon be speaking. commemorating the 50th anniversary on the march of washington, d.c. ♪

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welcome back to "street signs" with the cnbc market flash. regis getting a haircut after the company behind it's namesake salons, supercuts, cost cutters missed analyst siments. same store sales fell by 3%. current store sales were down 3.5%. so far it looks like fewer cuts are getting haircuts at their salons. >> thank you. good to have you on our show. let's take a look at what's happening in "street talk." number one, today decker, getting his share of support. a lot of brand under it. >> 1.6% gain as the fight over

this company continues. piper jaffray making positive comments. they think margins can recover. they reiterate overrate with $68 target. already up 48% year to date. >> stock number two, shoe related, dsw shoe warehouse. >> i figure you're driving half their business right there. >> i am. >> let's focus on dsw. green capital gets dsw to a sell. their target $72, the stock's at $85.50. they see the stock down another 18% below where it is right now. we should get that analyst on. that's a big call. >> we should get them on, because they came out with a second quarter better than expected in term of the improvement in their second quarter earning. yet we're still getting this call. i invite them on. that's an official invitation.

usg upped. >> valuation call here on usg. they cite stronger raw board, and stabilizing commercial trends. their target is 28 bucks a share. they see a little more upside. not a whole lot. stock is already down 15% year to date. peaked in january. one of those home builder type concerns. >> we don't often talk about it, but it's an interesting company, ovago. >> they are based in singapore. >> my old stomping grounds. >> the reason i mentioned it. they make semiconductors used in apple products. eps 67 cents, revenue ahead. we call that a triple whammy in this business. gone up 30, 35 bucks in the last six years.

very volatile. >> can you see the volatility. like my ekg right before the show. >> stock number five is our you should the radar name, tortis energy. slow and steady wins the race? not really because it's not a company. tortoise energy is like partnerships, like a guy in a suite. in kansas city, leewood, kansas, nice suburb. stock at 45.27. about a 5% dividend. how often do you get to talk about companies named after reptiles. >> turtle. >> is a tortoise a reptile? turtle is an amphibian. >> i'm going with reptile. >> we are live remarks from the president, commemorating the

50s% anniversary of the march on washington. plus, jewelry. we're going to talk more about that as well. first, bill griffeth, what's coming up on "the closing bell". >> we'll be turning our attention back to syria. we'll look at the impact potential military action is having on the markets and hear from a former ambassador in that region as as well as a member of house foreign relations committee on what may and should happen next. next, cats and dogs, oil and water. the government and jpmorgan chase. they all share something in common. they're not getting along right now. we'll take a look at what's behind the latest scrutiny and what the banking giant may need to do to end it. part three of our weekly series "school days," changing face of college. higher education may prepare your students for life but we'll tell them what classes to take to get an actual job. we'll see you at the top of the hour on "closing bell." i hav

e low testosterone. there, i said it. see, i knew testosterone could affect sex drive, but not energy or even my mood. that's when i talked with my doctor. he gave me some blood tests... showed it was low t. that's it. it was a number. [ male announcer ] today, men with low t have androgel 1.62% testosterone gel. the #1 prescribed topical testosterone replacement therapy increases testosterone when used daily. women and children should avoid contact with application sites. discontinue androgel and call your doctor if you see unexpected signs of early puberty in a child, or signs in a woman, which may include changes in body hair or a large increase in acne, possibly due to accidental exposure. men with breast cancer or who have or might have prostate cancer, and women who are or may become pregnant or are breast-feeding, should not use androgel. serious side effects include worsening of an enlarged prostate, possible increased risk of prostate cancer, lower sperm count, swelling of ankles, feet, or body, enlarged or painful breasts, problems breathing during sleep, and blood clots in the legs.

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zale corporation. $350 million market cap. we're bringing it to you because it is a household name. numerous brands, people's up in canada, a few others and that stock is on fire. this is today's move. it's up 24.5% today. retail reporter courtney reagan is digging in on zale's. we notice other jewelry names are down this month. zale's is kicking butt. what's going on? >> that's true. tiffany reported efarlier this week and they reported a strong earnings report. i think what's interesting about this one is this is a company that's sort of still in the mid- of a turn around. it hasn't been profitable since the financial crisis. that's the big headline zale's put out today. it looks like they have the new branded lines, vera wang line, love line. they are expanding the fire line

from 600 stores from 220 because of the recent success. they're getting a better handle on debt load which hept profitability in the end. i think they're making good progress going forward. it is a smaller company. is-t signals people are ready to buy jewelry. it's a good, it lasts for a long time. we know there have been fickle buyers when it comes to apparel, if at all. but it's the hard goods, the durable goods, longer lasting goods that folks are finally opening up their wallets and willing to spend a little on. >> it certainly makes economic sense. ip to ask you because brian was on the website for zales and he found this -- don't ask me why. he was on the website -- >> research. >> research, research. he was looking for some bling for himself. nice, big gold chain with a love heart or something on it. and he found the $45,000 ring from, supposedly, i don't want to call it a discount of zale's but they offer decent price point jewelry out there.

$45,000. what do you make of what they're trying to achieve here? >> yeah, i think it is a little confusing, i guess, when you're looking at zales as a brand. it's sort of hard to sell yourself as a reasonable priced jeweler and then offer something that's $45,000, but that being said, there is an appetite for that type of thing. tiffany actually said within its sales, the strongest sales it's seeing is its statement pieces and fine jewelry. statement pieces are the ones that retail for $350,050,000 an higher. there is demand for that. zales doesn't want to be left out. >> the reason why i was looking that up. there's a -- >> because you're looking to gift to your -- >> a $45,000 ring, are you kidding? >> we're worth it. >> mrs. sullivan? >> she's lucky but she's not getting that ring. remember you talked about a story where sears was selling a $30,000 rolex --

>> in their marketplace. >> i was looking to see if other retailers we perceive as midprice like zales are looking to go upscale. it looks like they are. high end is where income growth has been and where consumer spending growth has been. everybody wants a little piece of that top end, do they not? >> that's true. i don't necessarily think it's a strong strategy. in my personal opinion i think they need to stay in their line and go where consumers expect from them. i think that's a confusing brand message. i'm just one person. maybe there is a buyer for a $45,000 ring. >> in a month's time we can ask them what demand has been like for the $45,000 ring, how many they have sold. thank you, courtney. are you looking at live pictures of lincoln memorial where commemoration is under way for the 50th anniversary of martin luther king jr.'s world famous "i have a dream" speech. one of the most famous in

american history as well. john harwood is in our d.c. bureau. it's a big day, a wonderful day, celebration in washington, d.c. today. >> it is. and the president of the united states is going to speak in a few minutes. we've already heard from bill clinton, jimmy carter as well as a string of celebrities and other politicians, including john lewis, whes who's still a member of congress from georgia. he was the youngest person to speak at that march in 1963. and, you know, it's a moment to reflect on what's changed and what hasn't. obviously we've had tremendous change politically with voting rights and with the advent of african-americans really becoming a part of the political process. we have the first afric african-american president elected in 2008. he's going to address this march where 50 years ago john f. kennedy discouraged the march. he thought it might cause a backlash. so, that's going to happen. but on the other hand, the wealth gap is immense. the wealth of african-americans is one-sixth that of white

households. . african-americans earn 66 cents for every dollar that whites earn. so, you know, you've got huge disparities. and a very large civil rights agenda in front of us. >> mr. and mrs. obama, president clinton, president carter, other distinguished program participants. >> all right. i thought we were going to go into the live feed here. john, the -- what you talked about income disparity, 66 cents on the dollar. we've talked about it from the female side of the workforce as well. has there been any gains? is there any sign that we will reach full income equality, not just with women and men, but with all races, all creeds, all colors, at least the united states? >> no. the gap has been remarkably persistent over the decades.

it was 55 cents on the dollar in '93. it's now 66 so it's crept up a little bit. you do have significant growth of an african-american middle class, which is something that is positive, but you don't have anywhere near comparability. one of the goals that the president has set out, and he doesn't do this in rarm term or civil rights issue but it would have that effect, ways to expend exoccasional opportunity and achievement, improve job training, improve the ability of more people to move up the ladder. given the disparities in our country, a disproportionate number of those at the bottom end of the ladder are african-american. >> john harwood in washington, d.c. thank you for joining us. a reminder, folks, we'll bring you remarks when the president come up to the podium, which should be hopefully very

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don't tell anybody because it's been a secret. while nobody was looking, shares of blackberry are up 19% so far this month. guess what? tivo, another name people have largely forgotten about, is up 6% over the past week. how come? week. how come? here to explain both our own josh lipton and john ford. >> tivo just -- >> you're the tivo guy. >> i'll talk about tivo. >> answer me one quick question. what is tivo. i know what it is but who uses it. >> i use it. >> he uses it. >> i've never met anybody except you who uses the tivo box. >> not to this comcast at all because they are a wonderful company. >> great employer. >> there's no comparison dvd experience why. i had a tivo croak about six to

nine months. i'm going to best buy and buy a new tivo. the interface is fast. the recommendations are good. the mobile experience is good. though some other competitors are working on that. their subscribers are up. part of what they've been doing is working more with the comcasts of the world and what those carriers are finding tivo users churn less, more loyal, if that sounds familiar it's the iphone effect potentially happening in tv. that's tivo's hope right now. >> understand there was a few legal settlements in their favor as well and as a result of that that might help their licensing revenue. >> that helps them too but they were very careful in their earnings report to say okay my ingenuous those legal settlements here's how we did and here's why that's better than what we projected. >> will it help in terms of going forward? >> it will. they want to focus on the core

business and their technology advantage. a lot of tivo loyalists of which you can count me the experience is better but didn't seem to matter from a business experience because people were going with the cheaper satellite set box top. >> good to know. you're the one. i've met the tivo user. i never met -- >> there's 3.6 million more where this comes from. >> they added something subscribers for eight straight quarters. there's more jobs out there. >> you must be mr. blackberry. >> you're right. i stand corrected. >> you're right. >> mr. tivo meet mr. blackberry. what's going on >> blackberry, brian mentioned the move up 20% this month. to put that in contrast you're trying to break a three month losing streak where the stock fell 40%. one you got the headlines. they are considering strategic

alternatives. short interest in the name is around 30%, 31%. the headlines continue move to. just this week reports they might spin off their messaging service. are people interested in patent, instant message. maybe guys with some cash pull a dell here. >> the blackberry thing, i'm starting to get a headache to follow this story. some people say blackberry has all this intellectual property. billions and billion, carl sagan stuff. others say no. >> you always talk about the patent portfolio, the numbers are all over the place. i was talking to john earlier and he was pointsing out the question also is how relevant are those patents. >> that's the real question. a lot of blackberries patent have been in keyboard and security. nobody uses keyboard and security wise -- a lot of people wish they did.

the carriers aren't willing to pay for special features that blackberry brought. >> out of interest, you guys follow the news and you'll be switching spots like freaky friday exsegment friday that keeps on going and going and going. josh is going home to be the tech reporter the tech reporter is coming here to the mother ship to be the everything reporter. >> i don't know. >> you'll be switching spots. but do any of you know in light of the fact that blackberry put it out there looking at all the options, if anyone has shown any interest in buying it? >> here's what i hear. quite a few years ago there was quite a bit of interest. blackberry told them to go away now there's zero interest. some people are waiting to see how far this will fall. no one is looking to pay for a premium. >> i agree. i've heard the same commentary from private equity guys. microsoft, a number of years

ago, can you imagine if made that deal. who knows. we got to go. we accessed android operating systems on a blackberry hardware device. is that possible? >> the blackberry hardware device is one of the first things to go. >> you don't mean we have htc, we have mobility. they are not farming it out. >> not unless some chinese company buys the brand and decides to put out, you know, generic phones using it. >> thank you. thank you mr. tivo, thank you mr. blackberry. more than 40,000 electric cars are expected to be sold this year in the united states. but a crucial shortage could leave drivers fuming. phil lebeau what's going on? >> reporter: it depends how much demand ramps up.

we're talking about battery cells that go know the battery packs. you're looking at least 50,000, not just 40,000, 50,000 electric vehicles sold here in the u.s. this year. the bulk of those are going to be out in california. but you go out a few years, depending how quickly demand ramps up for the tesla model s, the chevy volts and others it raises the question is there a potential for a shortage. last week when we were out in fremont, california, a tesla ceo said he's concerned right now if they had all -- sales were through the roof they could only sell 200,000 because of the battery cell situation. they are working on this. this is one of those situations where you're going to see kinks in the growing pains. this is one of those that they will be working on over the next couple of years. >> all right. phil lebeau, thank you very

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thank you very much for watching "street signs". we'll hand it over to the close bell including a speech from the president who will close out a

special day of speakers. over to you. we do welcome you to closing bill. i'm bill griffeth. >> i'm michelle caruso-cabrera at the new york stock exchange in today for maria bartiromo. >> as we all know today a special day in washington. we've been watching the events there is your troun there surrounding the 50th anniversary of martin luther king i have a dream speech. we will be momentarily hearing a pealing of bills to mark that moment. after that president obama will be speaking to commemorate that moment. let's bring in john harwood in washington who has been following the day's moments. a poignant moment coming up with the nation's first african-american president. >> no