holding their own, relatively flat after, of course, a really poor august for the market. we're looking forward to hopefully being able to get some leverage during the course of this month. let's have a look very quickly at today's big winner, or maybe not. >> how about regeneron, biogen. >> i have a preview monitor. "street signs" begins right now. >> you know, today really does give new meaning to the words pay phone. nearly 140 billion in telecom deals sparking a fee frenzy. we'll talk about what all these changes mean, but also who is getting paid and i may have to eat humble pie. how hot are car sales, so hot you may not be able to get the car that you want. we'll lay out hottest of the hot models, plus forget about these

strategic oil reserves, mandy, we'll talk about why some california farmers are rasin hell. >> a clever one. hello, everybody. good afternoon. we were on track for the best in august until president obama and speaker boehner weighed in on syria. we'll have secretary of state john kerry and defense secretary chuck hagel testifying in front of congress to make their case. the prospects of a u.s. strike against syria did help push the dow down 1.8% over the course of last week and the biggest drag on the dow right now, probably noticed the dow is in negative territory, microsoft. we're on that one later. straight down to the nyse. mary thompson, what are you watching at the start of this

week? >> reporter: watching a lot of things, mostly syria, mandy. the positive data we received today on manufacturing on yields of good manufacturing data from overseas over the weekend, it's also overshadowing all those deals you'll be talking about. take a look at the ten-year note because earlier we saw it move above the 10.91 area. pulled back again. speaker boehner started talking about syria, investors in a bit of a flight to quality so the yield has been dropping since then. oil the same story, moving in the opposite director. comments that members of congress are increasing the support of the president's desire to take action against syria. oil prices moved higher today as well. what is moving? to the downside, interest rates and stocks. despite the fact that the ten-year yield has come off the higher levels on the day. telecom, of course, also being dragged lower by verizon and vodafone and utilities under

pressure. telecons and verizon and vodafone not getting a lift on news that they will done with the deal to allow verizon to bite rest of the wireless units they own together. one winner in the group, the defense stocks, united technology in particular was stronger in today's session. brian, back to you. >> mary thompson, thank you very much. verizon and vodafone may be bigg bigger, but the deal getting all the attention is microsoft buying nokia's phone business for more than $7 billion. with microsoft's share in the telecom market will one plus one really equal two? jon, what say you, will this make a strong contender? >> don't count microsoft and nokia out just yet. investors clearly aren't convinced, but nokia sold 1.4

million units while rivals like blackberry floundered. their market share is slipping. now, nokia, if -- look at nokia's chart here. clearly it's been on the decline. you don't want this deal, but if microsoft is going to hang on to pcs and have hope in tablets it need a hardware partner, and as far as those go nokia is not a bad one, plus the ceo of nok nokia -- >> we need to make sure that the acquisition goes flawlessly, that we not only sustain momentum but accelerate. we know how to work together through our partnership. we're glad to have steven come to microsoft, back to microsoft. much of the nokia executive steam, most of the nokia executive team on devices and services will join us, and that

will form the core of a variety of things that we're going to do in devices. >> well, are they going to look at the next microsoft? here's the wrinkle. apple's iphone event got announced day. it's for september 10th. these are going to be colorful iphones that we expect will look a lot like lumia's. >> you know i'm a big guy, frequently hungry, like to eat. are you going to serve me up a nice humble steaming dish of humble pie? you should, past last week i pooh-poohed your whole elop idea. go ahead >> you didn't say they were going to do it, you said it was a bad idea. might still be a bad idea, but it looks like they are closing to doing it than they looked a year ago. i think it's not such a bad idea but we'll see where the chips fall. >> all the possible contenders to be the new ceo of microsoft,

one of either three things, friend, foe or family and you said elop would actually be both a friend and a family, right? >> yeah. because he's in that friend and microsoft tied up their future together. nokia's got well over 80% of window's phone share. getting ready to come out with a tablet. he ran the business division, a big chunk of revenue and lion's share as far as the profits go. he knows the consumer side and the corporate side and how to work with microsoft and how that can be better. they had a pretty good picture. >> jon, thank you very much for that. joining us now is senior analyst and christina warren. great to have you on the show. dan, you're scratching your head over this deal. why? >> i mean, this is not the news microsoft folks were hoping to see this morning. at the end of the day this is going to be a big uphill bat.

i mean, mobile has continued to be weak for microsoft and i don't see this acquisition as significantly moving the need. i think it will be a tough integration. this is not the area that microsoft investors wanted to see the company go. >> you are don't think it's going to move the need. net-net do you think it's mutual, or will it actually hurt? >> i think net-net it might be mutual on the mobile side, but when it comes down to strategically, what do you think? >> the reorganization of microsoft and balmer who is departing. you start having optimism and investors want to see the same old microsoft so nokia, not what investors were looking at this morning. >> is this a case of one plus one equals two, three or one? >> i think it's one plus one equals one and a half. when you look at where they are right now it's mostly lumia phone. nokia has 80%, 85% of the

windows phone market and far and away make the best windows phone devices and built a lot of loyalty and brand affinity around it. >> that's like saying you're the number one studebaker dealer in america. >> fair enough, but better than being blackberry and the phones are getting better. when you look at market share, it's actually going up. it's more of a net positive on the whole. if microsoft is serious about staying involved in mobile, they need good partners with careers in around the world. that's something that mast hasn't had. if they are serious about saying normal -- >> glad you've raised the event. macbly is higher today. >> microsoft going to nokia, that takes them out of direction to going towards blackberry. i think you could do some on the

microsoft shareholders. >> they sniffed around a few years ago. >> sniffed around, and now it seems the direction they have gone is nokia, so the big thing is, look, definitely on the smartphone side. had their back against the wall and went after nokia, and now the big question is going to be whether it's blackberry, apple, samsung. >> and i guess it's an anti-prescription because if blackberry didn't stick out like a sore thumb before, they certainly do now, out there by themselves, literally and figuratively in waterloo, ontario, canada, unloved and in trouble. what happens? >> i think someone boys them for their patents and maybe they try to stay in this business, you a they are cutting sales and maybe even moving into third parties. i don't know anybody who wants the operating system. they are getting nokia's great hardware. not as if they are taking on another system. they have been basically keeping

nokia afloat with for the last two and a half years. >> bottom line, microsoft this year hasn't done badly at all in terms of the stock price, do you feel it will be an uphill battle in terms of reaccelerating the miss. >> regardless of new ceos? >> superman is not going to come in with a cape. it will be a major uphill battle. nokia is not the answer in our opinion. >> okay. daniel and christina, thank you very much for joining us. >> they are your other huge deal of the day, verizon striking 130 billion with a "b," dollar deal with vodafone to buy back its american assets. these are big numbers but so are the fees for the deals. some bankers, some lawyers are going to get paid. kayla tausche is digging in on who is getting rich on this deal. we're making the yield and

making the decade with this deal, kayla. >> i think a lot of bankers will drop the mike. a major pay day in over a decade and it's deed most lucrative on record. expected to reap $650 million for frees on wall street and $130 billion including lawyers and other expenses. it's also flanked by other megadeals in the telecom space which often sees the big ticket prices. with the split among six advisers on the deal but there's one notable name taking home a big slice and that's paul taubman. he came out of retirement this year to advise verizon and is taking home an eight-figure paycheck. not bad for doing a deal in hits pajamas. why the dole? just wanted the money to do it so the most lucrative part of the transaction is that the

financing it will continue to take out. verizon is issuing 60 billion in new stock. they are issues bonds to offset the loan from now until next year. all of the numbers will be records. two banks have taken the lion's share, morgan stanley and jpmorgan. jpmorgan bankers are feeling good today. they will have the biggest pay day on verizon after crunching the numbers on a monthly basis for the last three years to make sure the debt market can handle something that big. even jamie attended verizon's board meeting to feel confident. they did have a big stake in this deal and big pay day but certainly exciting to see that for those banks to come out of pipeline. a lot of those guys will be celebrating throughout the week. >> indeed, and i'm sure many of the best deals out there are done in pajamas. thank you very much, kayla tausche. coming up next, what's happening in the car lot that could put the economy into

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car sales are so hot, how hot are they? so hot you might not be able to get the car that you want. dealers, actually shortages of certain models. >> what, you're kidding?

>> i heard model shortage, got tearified and then i realized it was about cars and so it was fine. phil lebeau, what's hot right now? >> clearly the suvs and cuvs, and the thing to keep in mind we've got some numbers we gathered from the folks at truecars.com. the thing to keep in mind is 60 to 70-day supply. that's the target for automakers, but if you look at the hot cars right now in terms of those with the lowest day supply, well, you have to look first off at the subaru impreza wagon, just 15-day supply. next up, the mercedes g-class, talking about a lot of suvs. again, 15-day supply. the buick encore, just 16-day supply, and then you have the lincoln navigator, and, yes, lincoln's navigator in demand, 16-day supply and then the nissan xtera, 17-day supply, those are the hottest sellers in the market right now and a number of dealers around the country reporting spot shortages

on certain models. it really depends on what you're looking for and how many that dealer has in stock. the tight supply means the dealers are offering few discounts so if you're going in and looking for a deal, forget about it, probably won't find t.meanwhile, autodealers are increasing models of popular models. in detroit they are starting up fusion production because they can't get enough out of the production in mexico and as a result that's what we're seeing from automakers, gladly increasing production. that is not selling right now. starting off with the monster six, day supplies, 282. remember, the target is 60 to 70, so way above target. the kia sorrento, 261-day supply. next you have the mitsubishi outlander, 245-day supply, and then the acura ilx. coming down a little bi, still over a 200-day supply and finally the chevy core vest, 201-day supply. the thing to keep in mind, guys,

these cars that have well over a 200-day supply, in many cases it's a model that will be phased out for a newer model like the corvette or for some reason that mod sell not selling right now. bottom line, certain hot sellers, tough to find them at dealerships exactly with the kind of detailing and equipment that you want in that particular model. >> wow. phil lebeau, is that the mercedes g or c? >>. >> thank. >> the big one. >> i want to tweet that out. >> thanks very much, phil, great stuff. perfect transition to steve liesman with an alphabet soup of economic data coming out this week but you've got something more wonkier or in the weeds than the ism, something called the gdi, and g series, as you said with phil for a perfect transiti transition. >> i want to talk about two measures of growth, gross domestic pop and gdi, gross

domestic income. they are telling two different stories of what's going on in the economy. today's better than expected manufacturing data favors one case over the other. the government takes up and tallies the value of everything we produce. gross domestic income, how much we all earn. that's supposed to equal each other over time and sometimes they get out of whack. let's take a look at the recent data. over two of the last three quarters, that's the yellow line, gdi has been running higher and what's interesting is look how low the white line is, touching the zero line while the yellow line was touching near hi 4%. same thing next quarter, 2% on gdi, together now but still questions because gdi, gross domestic income explains better job numbers around the 1-2-hundred, 180k average, and jobless claims down to 330 and the manufacturing claim we got today around 55 but weaker consumer, government and

business spending. usually the two end up trending together over time, even through revisions to one or outperformance of one over the other over time. some are thinking gdi is more accurate these days because the government is doing a better job of collecting income data electronically, and i think the fed is well aware of that split and certainly if you follow payrolls you have to say you know what, the gdi and income numbers do a better job explaining why payrolls have been stronger rather than the gdp numbers which were revised up a little bit. >> gdi perhaps a better indicator of the economy. stick around, steve liesman, a really big week for economic data. if you like it, we've got it for you, we have a global economist with principal global investors. good to have you with us, bob. >> good to see you. >> what's the most important thing for you, and will it change the equation in terms of whether or not the fed will go ahead and taper this month? >> oh, think the payroll report on friday is most likely the

most important piece of information this week and it could change things if it was very weak, if it was in the 125 range or something like that, 125,000. that would be really weak, and it might change the dynamic that the fed is considering. our view is that it will probably be in the 110 to 200,000 range which i think would be viewed fairly positively and continue the trend that we've seen for several months, so we think we'll see a positive report. >> how positive, bob? like super good? >> well, i don't know about super good, but we think we could easily see 200000, perhaps a little above, and, you know, the real way this is calculated is you've got like, what, 4.5 million people get laid off or quit every month and you get 4.7 million people getting hired and that payroll number is just the residual of those two, now, with jobless claims during the last month really, almost lowest on record if you adjust them for the labor force growth, that

means we have less people not working, more people working, we think that could be a positive push on the jobs number. >> hey, bob, does it make you nervous that we're really so much on the razor's edge here, that one jobs report stands between the fed and a major policy move? i agree with you. i think the fed will do this if this number is anywhere close, but a couple of things we both know about the up in. it could come in at any point and be revised substantially higher or lower in the next month, in the next year. in fact, numbers have been running about 30,000 below where they are eventually revised to, that's one, so i guess i have to ask you whether or not you think there ought to be more of a substantial case in hand before the fed acts here? >> i think the fed has a pretty good case for acting today. if you look at the broad swath of economic indicators over the last several months, we think it's pretty clear that the economy is resilient and on pretty good footing. we think we'll see pent-up demand emerge from consumers.

i think we're seeing it now in autos and housing, and i think we'll see it eventually in leisure activity so i think it's the right thing to do for the fed to reduce its rate of bond purchases unless some drastically poor number comes in. >> thank you very much. we do appreciate you coming on the show. >> my pleasure. >> if you were on vacation last week you missed quite possibly the most single revolutionary ri concept in the history of financial television. espines taper-ometer, when the fed will stop its bond buying binge, one means no chance in heck t.debuted at a comfortable 7. steve liesman, since you were off last week, or at least we didn't see you, where would you put the taper-ometer right now, who whammies. >> i want to put it now around 7, 7.5 is where i will put it.

>> right now, and after today's data, i think that's a nudge along the way. about a 70% chance, is how i'm looking at it as a taper of it. i don't think larry summers' appointment plays too much of what the fed does in september, what happens at the next meeting. i would say there's a pretty good chance the fed is going to taper but i think it's conventional wisdom. >> what happens. >> he owes a buck. >> every tape you say taper you've got to put $1 in here. >> what happens to the money? i'm happy to contribute. >> coming up in the center court, the big money of tennis, that camera. we're heading out to the u.s. open where you'll find the world's second highest paid athlete and the world's most expensive lock. >> more "street signs" after the break. by clinging to the past.

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the u.s. open is serving up some very big money this year. robert frank is out there, and he joins us now. robert, what kind of big money are we talking? >> reporter: hey, mandy. ten thinks, some of the biggest money in tennis still going to two of its greatest rivals,

raphael nadal and roger federer. nadal was the second highest paid, sponsors including nike, moet and credit suisse. he lost yesterday before the quarters. he's, of course, a legend, but it remains to see how long the sponsors will stick by him. nadal, on the other hand, will be ranked number one if he wins in the finals, won around $32 million last career in earings. does win with the most expensive watch on the tour. it's a $690,000 watch. getting the obsessive nadal to wear a watch was not easy. take a listen. >> he come to me and said i want to make a watch for rafa to play with, and he said no way. it's complicated. >> reporter: he's not only playing with the watch, he's winning with it and tell us on the court that he really can't

imagine playing without it. take a listen. >> if i don't play with the watch, i feel that something is not working. >> reporter: and guys, that standard issue watch, $690,000. it comes with a velcro strap. back to you guys. >> a velcro strap. thank you very much, robert. looks a whole lot nicer than it was over the weekend when i was at the u.s. open. it was pouring. coming up on "street signs," the senate about to kick off a key hearing on syria. we'll bring you the headlines when they say. >> and what we're calling the diana nyad stocks, names that failed and never gave up and now they are succeeding. we'll give you those names and have a little talk about it when "street signs" returns. ♪

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all right. welcome back. just to bring you up to speed on what's happening in washington, d.c., and we're showing you a live view on capitol hill. the senate foreign relations committee holding a hearing on syria. secretary of state john kerry and defense secretary chuck hagel are set to testify. when that happens we'll dip in and out of it. senator john mccain and a check with eamon javers about what we can expect. eamon, you there? >> reporter: i'm here, can you hear me now? >> yes. >> reporter: been a busy day here in washington so far in terms of syria. already today we heard from the president of the united states who explained why it is that he decided over the weekend in kind of a surprising move that he's going to go to congress and ask for a vote to authorize the use of force in syria. here's the president earlier today. >> i've made a decision that america should take action, but

i also believe that we will be much more effective, we will be stronger if we take advantages together as one nation. >> that meeting took place at the white house this morning. it was with congressional leaders, a bipartisan group including republicans, and mainly from the president's perspective, including the speaker of the house, john boehner, who came out to talk to reporters after the meeting and said that he is throwing his support behind the president on the question of syria. take a listen to that, too. >> i'm going to support the president's call for action. i believe that my colleagues should support this call for action. we have enemies around the world that need to understand that we're not going to tolerate this type of behavior. >> reporter: the speaker's office shortly after that put out a statement saying that this will be a vote of conscience for members up on capitol hill meaning they won't lobby this one as hard as they lobby their own members so that means this is not necessarily a done deal

which is why today's hearing which is about to kick off in a matter of moments is so important. this is the opportunity for the administration to lay out its case to a body of the senate which is still somewhat skeptical here, and recent poll results have put the bombing attack in syria if it happens as very unpopular among americans. a lot of americans do not want to get involved in another situation. they are war weary, as the president has said. this is the administration's opportunity to change that conversation. we'll see if they can do it. >> eamon, thank you very much. >> reporter: you bet. >> joining us here is senior and political strategist, great to have you here. >> thanks. >> how does this play out, financial markets? >> the oil markets if it gets congressional approval they will rise, nervous of what military action will look like, will the middle east more unstable? will it be spilling over to key regional producers, so i think we'll see upward movement based on if there is military action i

think you'll see it in terms of potential. >> these are the unknowns but what we're already seeing, iraq, as we did a great graphic of last week, opec's second largest oil producer, seeing their security situation deteriorate significantly because of what's going on in syria. what is that doing to its oil and what will it do in terms of question? >> violence in iraq is at a five-year high, and we've seen significant attacks on the kirkuk pipeline by insurgents based out of syria and the big question is do we see more attacks on the southern energy infrastructure? a key port was targeted, do we see that pick up, very nerve-racking for the market because there's significant outages right now, 3 billion barrels in unplanned outages. >> we've seen protesters come into the senate foreign relations committee. people holding up pink signs. four to six people holding up

signs, pink t-shirts, protesting and being escorted out now by police from that committee room. >> getting back to what you were saying about iraq as well, what's the worst case scenario in terms of how many barrels could be taken off the market and what would that do in terms of a spike of oil markets? >> we figure it's a couple hundred thousand. what you want to watch for is a potential attack on a big energy southern facility, northwest facility, several hundred thousand, 500,000 or 600,000 barrels off the market if there's an attack on one of those facilities. >> we learned from one of our guests that they can rebuild a pipeline in 72 hours, they are good at it. >> right. >> so that would be a temporary blip so your concern, just to reiterate is a facility. pipelines may cause a very short term. >> right, with the pipelines if you continually damage it that makes it almost inoperable, but if you have a facility attack, will western oil companies sort of shut down operations because they don't want their workers put at risk. >> just to give the tally of

what we saw in august, crude prices rose 2.5% in august partly on concerns of what kind of supply disruption. thanks for coming on set. >> thanks for having me. street talk, endurance talks and the analyst who thinks coca-cola may be making a big marketing mistake. and later on why one california farmer is rasin hell with uncle sam, but first scott wapner, what's coming up on "closing bell"? >> thanks so much. coming up on the "closing bell," we'll certainly be following what's taking place in the nation's capital with that hearing. we're going to talk about the microsoft/nokia deal and what it means for both of those companies if microsoft can really get its mojo back as a result of that and we'll be following the market and all that lies ahead. that's what we're following for you in the top of the hour. to make their money do more. (ann) to help me plan my next move, i take scottrade's free, in-branch seminars... plus, their live webinars. i use daily market commentary to improve my strategy. and my local scottrade office guides my learning

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welcome back, everybody. let get to street talk right now. first up we have apache which is moving down despite an upgrade. >> despite a couple of upgrades here. here's the news and it's not helping the stock, down 1.3%. they got upgraded by overweight to equal weight and boosted by zoho securities. apache sold egyptian assets to

sono-pac. political instability obviously has been a concern, and analysts like the fact that this deal, the sale validates the value of the remaining asset. in other words, they have value. >> next up we have leapfrog, the educational toy-maker. >> yeah, it's getting schooled, downgraded to a market perform from outperform from bmo capital. their disappointing new pad called the ultra, they found some glitches in it. bmo went so far as to caution that if the bugs are not affected they could affect the company's brand and reputation and lowered the estimates on leapfrog and the target down to 10 bucks. >> and the last stock which is our under the radar name cvent, incorporated. >> never heard of them. online event management company, apparently. just had an ipo. research is now out, and they got quadruple initiation with a

buy rating. moralan stanley as an equal weight and goldman sachs with a neutral. morgan and goldman not overly hot on this ipo know vhaven't, cvnt, the stock up 3%. >> very nice run. >> and another big call today is on a big company. clsa analyst carolyn levy downgraded coca-cola and cutting her price target to 40 bucks a share and though that's higher than where coke is now, hardly a vote of confidence and has a number of reasons, including one really interesting one as part of her thesis. caroline, thanks for joining us on cnbc. i'm going to show our viewers, and i wrote on the back of it stupidly with a sharpie something else, it's meant to soothe coca-cola's drinkers concerns potential concern over at -- over aspartami.

>> when campbell's soups offered low sodium soups all of those enjoying full sodium soups thought there's too much sodium in my soup. coke is aware it is a risk they are taking but they are worried enough about the declines in their diet drinks that they must take action. >> the diet drinks are down more than the sugar drinks. whales is concerning you about coca-cola right n.o.w. now? >> first and foremove the u.s. trends, instead of getting better as the weather stabilized has continued to be very weak for carbonated soft drinks and with diets worse than regular that's bad for u.s. marginsch the second thing china, which is csla's area of expertise in particular, where we've been watching a price war erupt in the liquid beverage market, so it's teas, juices, waters and carbonated soft drinks really pounding each other out. those are two concerns. >> yeah, coca-cola has a brand premium for its name, for its soda, diet coke and coca-cola,

but do you find, caroline, that most people own certain types of water and certain types of orange juice and brands of non-soda drinks because they are the brand premium won't matter unless you're talking about just straight market thing? >> well, i think in some ways coke is working quite hard to make sure they have a portfolio of healthier products or, you know, choice as they call it. so they are very aware that public pressure is building. one could even argue we're at a tipping point because the third reason for our downgrade was news out of mexico that they like new york city have starting running ads saying did you know coke had 12 teaspoons of sugar. i don't know what size of coke that is but certainly rising awareness, but in some cases some markets, people are more concerned about health than americans are >> you know, you could extrapolate that a lot of headwinds that you just pointed out, coca-cola would apply to peps and yet you favor pepsi, why? >> pepsi does have a snack business and i can't argue it's particularly good for you to have salty snacks which is their forte, but it is not being

villainized in the same way that sugar drinks are. and pepsi is the market leader "globe" globally in snacks and a business that's still growing. pepsi also has an activist investor involved so there's a lot of pressure on them to maximize use of cash and return it to shareholders so we think that's the better stock to own right now. >> when you have a salty snack, you just want more, right? >> oh, yeah. >> caroline, thanks very much for joining us. >> that's what miley cyrus was singing about, we can't stop. >> talking about salty snacks. >> of course she was. >> the new frito lay twerk. coming up, a money manage we are her three top stock picks. i want you to think railroads and retail. >> plus, a 64-year-old woman proves persistence pays off after she swims from cuba to florida. we went on a mission to see if there are any stocks out there that proved the same kind of endurance.

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by now i'm sure you've seen this amazing headline. we've got diana nyad, the american swimmer, the first person to swim from cuba to florida without a shark cage. the 64-year-old says it was a lifelong dream, and she proved persistence pays o.brian? >> somebody had done it before, by the way, an australian woman.

>> that's right. >> but she, you know, cowardly, as she was, she wore a shark cage. >> what a soured. >> still amazing. >> honestly. >> in honor of the amazing feat we'll take a look at some endurance stocks, stocks swimming against the tide maybe for a long time but finallytop. dominic chu joining us with three names. who's number one? >> let's kick it off with boston scientific. shares up around 80% so far this year. the most recent earnings report was back in july. it gave investors a reason for optimism. bsx shares, they're growing the product portfolio. maybe that's a good thing for sales growth going forward. and also a big issue, emerging market for all of the device makers. that's a big one, for sure. >> scientific. >> so boston scientific, okay. the other name is one that needs no introduction to our viewers, bhaus this has been a stock, especially 10 years ago, so traded forever, alcatel. >> yes, you have to look at this. computer networking and communication devices, that's

the big thing, right? alcatel lucent, a standout this year. also up 80%. the company is trying to transform itself into a wireless specialist company. it's working with wireless chipmaker qualcomm on new technology and it's a big china story. it will be huge, too. if they can get a foothold in china, it will be big. the stock is big -- >> i know, i know, i know, but when i see it's up, it's doubled this year. >> yes. >> that's great. then i look at the history of disappointment around this name. i remember when lucent was trading, you know, late '90s, who was the woman that ran it, patricia -- >> russo. >> russo. man, you're good. >> it's been a long time. >> he's really good. >> so with this company, though, it's up big, though, because you also have companies like nokia, right, trying to get more into their services business, they've spun off handsets, and this could be an acquisition target. >> and also one hot on the cbs-time warner deal, newly inked. >> starz, networks, the cable company, the one that provides

content, encore, starz, up 80% so far in 2013. is content king? people are paying up big for them, and maybe investors will be rewarded by some of the media names. starz is one that a lot of people are watching right now. >> content is king. thank you very much, dominic. >> or queen. >> or queen, or princess, or prince. >> yeah. the next guest says three dividend-paying stocks outpacing the market this year. but is it too late to get in on the names given some of them have had a run? let's ask susan fulton, president of bb partners. welcome to "street signs." >> thank you. >> the first pick is, with a drumroll? >> my first statement is that the three stocks that were previously mentioned are not stars. >> they're not stars? >> they are not stars. they have managed to go up this year, but they've all been consistent disappointors for a long time. the woman who swam from cuba to miami -- to key west was a star. she swam all those miles. she did it on purpose. she did it with intention.

and she did it with a steady stroke. none of those stories have a steady stroke. i like union pacific. it's a great company. it isn't wedded to coal, which most of them are. i like lowe's, it's a building company that sells to -- not only homebuilders but builder-supply people, and i think that that's an industry -- as houses return to their normal values, people will be wanting to put more money into them. >> sow -- >> and i like vf -- i like vf, which is a big retailer, northface, timberland. yeah, it takes the assets it has, and it has used them consistently. we like consistent, solid, dividend-growing stocks. we don't want stocks that sat on the beach for five years and now have managed to swim out to the island. >> all good criteria for stock picking. susan, i want to pick up on

lowe's. can it still outperform as a slower housing growth environment? has history shown us, for example, that even if people, for example, don't want to buy a new house, they might just upgrade the old -- the old one? >> well, i think that's what we're going to watch with lowe's in the next two or three years, is a lot of people, as their houses regain value, want to put money into them again, i think when houses were tanking and every year they were worth tens of thousands less than they had the year before, there wasn't that much impetus to put in a new bathroom, put in a new kitchen, put on a porch. but i think -- i think that's changed now, and think i we're going to see more of that. >> lowe's, the last quarter, by the way, did not have the same growth as home depot, but the closest growth to home depot in about 2 1/2 years. do you think lowe's from a stop perspective is a much better deal than home depot? >> we like lowe's much better than home depot. >> just real quickly, you reckon they could see an acquisition at vf corp.? what kind of acquisition? >> that's hard to say. if they were telling us the

stock (unintelligible). you know, that's the future. >> that's the future. >> that's the business model is buying good brands -- >> we know that -- we know they buy good brands, they have the money to do it, and we know when they buy a brand, they take advantage of it. and so, we don't know what's going to happen any more you know whether lucent is finally going to get a brain in its head. >> do you hope -- by the way -- you heard that. do you own lucent, alcatel lucent, whatever it's called? >> no. >> susan fault, i like short, concise answers. thank you very much. >> yes indeed. >> all right. coming up next, two scoops of crazy. it's going to blow your mind. ♪ i heard it through the grapevine ♪

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a california raisin farmer is fed up with forking up a portion of his crop to the national raisin reserve. you heard that right. the national raisin reserve. jane wells, what is the national raisin reserve? >> reporter: uh, brian, let me explain. these drying california grapes are going to turn into these raisins, but the farmer growing them is razin' hell in which the government can forcibly take 42% of your crop without paying you and put it in a raisin reserve to prop up prices. >> it's communism. when you take something you don't pay for it, what is it?

>> reporter: the horns -- marvin and laura -- decided to stop forking over the grapes. they kept them all. the result, a federal investigation was launched, bent on driving them out of business. >> they came out, they photographed our kids -- >> our grandchildren, our employees' children, getting on the school bus, made the kids afraid. they didn't even want to go out in front of the facility and catch the bus. >> reporter: now, the horns argued in court that this program violates a constitutional amendment about taking property -- against taking property without compensation. it went to the supreme court, which ruled that the horns had a point. they kicked it back down to the 9th circuit. now, the head of the usda agency involved in this, the raisin administrative committee, said he had no comment. i asked mr. horn about the other raisin farmers who have been playing by the rules for the last decade, because he's been selling 100% of his crop. >> i'm not getting away with anything. i'm abiding by the constitution, and they had the same chance to do the same thing i'm doing.

and now that this has come out in the open, i'll guarantee you 95% of the raisin growers are behind us and now they want to get paid for all their lost crop. >> reporter: they're both now waiting, guys, for the 9th circuit to set a date. horn says if he loses, he could be on the hook for $1.5 million worth of raisins he never forked over. back to you. >> thank you very much, jane wells. that does it for us on "street signs." >> thanks for watching, everybody. "closing bell" right now. hi, everybody, happy september. welcome to the "closing bell." i'm maria bartiromo at the new york stock exchange, where the market is trading on what may not happen half a world away, in syria, major reversal for the market as we approach the close. >> welcome back. i'm in today for scott wapner -- i mean, for bill griffeth. i am scott wapner. [ laughter ] >>ou