almost 3% and tenet health care. not a bad start. >> always great to have you in the building. >> don't let us stand next to each other. >> no. >> even when doing this shot there's a gray left. >> you on the left, tyler on the right. >> that's it. >> she's here with me. that will do it for "power lunch." "street signs" starts now. ♪ ♪ you make my dreams come true >> i certainly don't know if we can make your dreams come true but we're going to try. happy friday. welcome to "street signs." we're going to go heavy on new ideas for you. got some savvy stock pickers with their best idea and your other hot topics the deal rocking one sector and stock in particular. what car sales are telling us about the state of the u.s. economy right now and the hottest tech start-ups of the year. i want you to think about a $200 hockey puck for medicine.

plus, mandy, you might have heard about the weather, so here you go, yeah, that's a live picture from los angeles. it is currently 65 degrees. i want our audience to know despite what they may have heard there is no east coast media bias on this show. >> they've got the smug smiles thinking how nice is it out here in los angeles. take a look at the markets. there is a reason we note the seasonalities in these markets. clearly not a guaranteed outcome but history has given us some clue. bob pisani, you know the old saying, as goes january goes the rest of the year. >> yeah. >> i don't know what kind of conclusions we should draw for that of the year so far, though? >> everybody was asking me yesterday, oh, first time into years there was a first down day of the year. nobody pays attention to that. january has a couple barometers part of wall street lor and a good track record. let me tell you about the first one, the first five-day barometer, when stocks are up in the first five days, the full

year gains have logged for the market 84% of the time. that's a great number here, this goes back 40 years. there's one. the other one the one you mentioned as goes january so goes the year. as goes january so goes the year since 1950 has a 75% accuracy rate. that's pretty good. if you exclude the years when the markets were flat and you could either side in terms of whether this works or not then you have an 88% accuracy level. see how we dropped here. this is the daily chart of the dow. charles plauser a hawk voting member this year sid the fed must be prepared for a rapid tightening campaign if necessary and the markets came off the high. you can see fed officials still moving the markets. bernanke is going to be speaking shortly. >> i like that. 88% of the time, january, bob. that's -- that's like 8.8 out of every 10. >> that's right. exclude the flat -- few flat years that went either way. even if you exclude them, 75% of

the time it's been accurate. >> wow. that's almost three-fourths. showing off my math skills. the age-old question about the markets is this. you've heard this, should you risk it, do your research and buy individual names or just buy an index fund and let it ride? the conventional wisdom most people simply cannot beat the market. but, check this out. looking back over the last year, the s&p is up about 26%. that's nice. however, in that same time period more than half the companies that make up the index, 272 by my account have outperformed the index itself 99 of them one of five, have doubled over the past year and nine are up more than 100% only 52 companies posted negative returns, fewer than that counting the dividend. the question now is, is it really back to being a stock picker's market? bring in some stock pickers. four star fund manager michael and david. michael beginning with you. >> hi, brian.

>> you will say yeah, of course you can because that's what you get paid to do is find the outlying opportunities for your clients. michael, where are you finding them right now? >> well, i think in areas that haven't participated to the same degree in the broader market overreach and looking at companies that we think are going to grow top line. u.s. energy we think is a growth industry, technology, natural resources and commodity type stocks, based on maybe a more healthy growth, economic growth environment going forward in the new year. those would be some broad areas. >> do you have any specific names within those broad areas, michael? >> sure. freeport comes to mind in the natural resource. co metal sector. a smaller name, epl domestic u.s. energy producer, and i would say in technology we like facebook. and semantic corp in the software. >> what about you, david? >> i think it's always an environment that's going to be positive for the good stock

picker. you know, simply put my parents didn't bring me up to play for a tie in the pasive indexing approve and we saw last year as an example. the median stock in the s&p 500 returned 34%. that's about 5 percentage points better than the cap weighted index did. i think it tells you that last year was again another better year for active stock pickers. and then in that spirit a few names of 2014 and beyond on the retail side, family dollar. i think the dollar stores represent value and there's going to be continued expansion there, particularly in california. that represents value. on a tech side, qualcomm was a bit of a laggard last year but longer term they're on the right side of chips, particularly in the mobile space. energy lagged last year, qe p resources, oil and gas exploration, smaller cap stock but one that represents value and finally in health care,

mallinkrodt. spinouts have been a traditional great way to add excess return over the long term and i think that's a great idea as well. >> four good names. family dollar, qualcomm, mallinckrodt and qep. how much of your portfolio might be passive, if any at all? >> well, i mean in our equity strategy we're talking stocks, we run several, but it's not passive at all. we're looking to beat the broad index all the time and so i think we're looking for areas to ride the winners as much as we can. to lack for areas that are trading more cheaply than the broader market and when we take profits try to do it on a longer term tax efficient rate so that the shareholder distribution is less than an ordinary income rate. >> i was reading this paper today, i agree, we have smart people on the show that consistently beat the market. but statistically it's shown it's hard to do over the long

haul. i was reading this white paper today from ucal berkley pro fer, long, boring thing, and says this, i'll summarize people tend to overstate their abilities. many apparently uninformed investors trade to their detriment and as a group individual investors make systemic and not random and buying selling decisions. that's from ucal. how do you then counter the idea that you can't consistently beat the market? that is out there, right? >> we're paid to outperform the market so hopefully we do. >> we've done it over multiple years many times, adding value there. for the individual investor it's a little more difficult because they could chase the hot names, trading quite a bit, not making money, being behind the curve, and incurring huge taxes if they're making money along the way. in the end from a wealth creation and wealth growth standpoint it's actually losing and so from that standpoint a

more buy and hold, you know, more relaxed strategy if you will or more patient strategy. it may be a combination of the approaches that works best for the individual investor. >> thank you very much for your advice. >> my pleasure. >> one of the biggest benefits a boom in corporate pension funds. mary thompson digging in on this. i hear 2013 saw the best improvement in 15 years. >> it did for the s&p 1500 stocks. now a rising stock market and rising interest rates provided record relief for corporate pensions in 2013. two studies one by mercer and another by towers watson finds that pension funding for s&p 1500 and fortune 1,000 companies both top 90% last year, rising to their highest levels since 2007. the s&p's 29% rally in '13 boosting the value of the fund's equity assets rising high grade corporate bond yields helped liability. a liability is a present value

of a future benefit. underpension accounting as rates go up liabilities go down and overall funding increases. the senior retirement consultant for towers watson estimates this should improve the balance sheets of the companies to the tune of $285 billion. >> that improved balance sheet has an impact on the charge against profits that these companies will calculate for 2014 so it will improve their earnings picture by lowering their cost of pensions. >> now not all firms will benefit equally as it impacts those with bigger pension funds, companies like telecom financials and old industrial firms benefit the most. consultants are expecting more firms to derisk as the funds approach or exceed fully funded status that means they will be moving out of stocks and probably buying bonds and annuities instead. see some of them offer cashouts to their employees as the firms look to cut any pension expenses. back to you. >> thank you very much.

still ahead on this friday, a big miss for the big three in december, but as we tend to say here on the show, everything is fine. the silver lining to an otherwise gloomy auto headline ahead. >> plus, early bird specials, skinny jeans and the lido deck. how the three can make you money in 2014. "street signs" will be right back. aflac! aflac! got 'em. ♪ yeah, he's clean, boss. now listen to me, duck. i have an associate that met with, uh, an unfortunate accident. while he's been incapacitated, somebody's been paying him cash. now, is this your doing? aflac? now, if i met with some such accident, would aflac pay me? ♪ nice. this is your stop. [ male announcer ] find out what aflac can do for you and your family... aflac? [ male announcer ] ...at aflac.com. we are the thinkers. the job jugglers. the up all-nighters.

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the big three automakers

reporting december sales that fell below estimates but maybe we should forget december, phil lebeau. because there's two ways to look at this. okay, we didn't make the numbers so it's terrible or hey, guess what, 16 million cars sold this year, is a pretty dog gone good number compared to a few years ago. >> what you're talking about is let's look at the rolling average. if you look at the rolling average it continues to move higher. a rolling average we take three months at a time. a lot of people were saying, what happened in december because these sales numbers were well below expectations with gm and toyota actually they're reporting negative sales when you compare december of 2013 with december of 2012. two things are coming up when you listen to the conference calls today with the automakers. first of all, some of them are blaming winter storms, particularly here in the upper midwest and along the east coast, for creating weaker sales in the month. also, black friday and thanksgiving weekend were so incredibly strong, that many believe there was some payback here. i buy into this more than into the winter storm.

real quick want to talk about the luxury auto sales race because this is always one of the interesting stories when we get to the end of the year, the battle between auto mercedes and bmw and lexus. mercedes numbers are out, up 17% last month. sales for the mercedes brand, 290,938. that is a record in the u.s. for one year for that brand. we're waiting to hear from bmw. they had to make up ground if they were going to catch mercedes by the end of the year. no comparison when you compare daimler versus bmw. the money you should have been invested was with daimler over that time period. the bottom line is this, look at those three-month averages that continue to trend higher. >> you know we heard phil, so much about cars being 11 years old on average. it makes people. >> they still are. >> yeah. and you have to go out and get a car. so with all the cars purchased this year, does that mean that this year could be it terrible? >> no. i don't think so. >> bought one already -- >> because the average age is it

continuing to stay around 11 years. i talked to the people at polk, they measure how many vehicles are out on the road and average age. they don't see that average age coming down for some time. many years, in fact. and so as a result, you're going to see strong demand out there for a while. >> phil, thank you very much. if in doubt blame the weather, right if what's the best auto make for 2014. let's bring in morning star's dave. i believe the top of your list is general motors. tell us why? >> yes. gm's been a best idea for our clients for quite a while. a couple reasons really. i don't think people have really for many reasons they've kind of shunned the new gm and there's some reasons like the pension in europe and the government ownership, but ever since the ipo i've been looking past that and saying where is this company going to be several years out once the right the ship and get the cost structure if place and it's a really attractive story. that's why i stuck with it when it sank after the ipo to $18.72

my fair value estimate is 56. they don't get enough economies of sail. they've admitted that themselves this past year and last year now. and when you look at the global vehicle platform story there, they're going to get a lot more economies of scale coming, insourcing their i.t., saving money on logistics and they've got a dramatic product revamp and hourly labor costs in north america have fallen by $11 billion from $16 billion down to $5 billion. it's a leaner company. you combine it with better product and healthy er pricing and incentive levels, a bad month like today it's not that big of a deal. >> 17 analysts cover the stock, the average target price $48 and change right now which is about $8.5 ahead of where the current price is. the street is very optimistic on general motors. however, dave, what's the biggest risk to the stock and the company's earnings? >> i'd say right now would be either a reversal of the gradual bottoming out process we're

seeing in europe or some very bad news on the pension or frankly probably the biggest risk would be a broad shock to u.s. consumer health or chinese consumer spending. >> aren't they still losing money in europe? isn't that something that's going to be a drag or do you say this is only temporary? >> their goal is to break even by i believe about mid decade. there is actually improvement in gm europe. they are still losing money. they've been losing money since i believe very late '90s. it's really it's icing on the cake if they can turn it around. the u.s. and china is what i care about. losses there are down through third quarter $499 million for the year, compared to well over a billion at this time. they lost $1.8 billion in europe in 2012. it should be better once you exclude any restructuring charges in q4. >> thank you for joining us, dave winston talking about the new gm. the consumer discretionary sector was the hottest sector in 2013. the sector's best year in more than two decades and many

believe 2014 could be even better. so guys, we came up with this wall and we picked out three of our favorite subsectors to focus on and we came up with restaurants, retail, and also relaxation. one of my personal favorites. these are the average gains up here on the board for the biggest companies in each. for example, dining up 47%. retail 28%. and leisure 38%. so, what are the best bets for each of these in the new year? we have three all-star analysts and lined up for us. let's dig in. i always put my stomach first. kick it off with restaurants. bob, you cover the sector from wonderlic securities. bob, panera bread is your pick but the stock has had a roller coaster year when you look at the chart. why do you believe that 2014 is not necessarily going to be just stable, but better? >> you know, that's a fair point, mandy. they've been a laggard this past year and i think they ran into some issues where they simply didn't perform as well as they have and they've spoiled us over

time. but if i look at what they've got cooking up in their test kitchens i think they've got pretty intriguing stew initiatives i think they'll roll out this year, making it easier for the consumer to use the brand and ultimately that's going to be a catalyst for not only sales but more confidence by irnvestors this company is back on track and see a valuation improvement for the company as well. >> you have a buy rating on panera bread, price target of $205. what do you think is the biggest head wind that faces this company, bob? >> mandy, that's fair. it's competitive category. no doubt about that. i think panera bread has had issues and i think, you know, when we look back at the last year, competition has gotten better and i think the company is clearly focused on its operations, how consumers can use the brand, the price they offer their product and especially new items which i think combined are going to be a catalyst for sales which ultimately will be a catalyst for the bottom line and stock price performance.

>> all right. bob, thank you very much. now let's move on to the second bar, retail. matthew from jpmorgan chase is with us. and matthew, you like macy's and no doubt the best run big department store out there. the average target price of the analyst that cover it is 54. the stock is basically there. it looks like it's already met most of wall street's expectations. why do you see it going above that? >> look, to me, macy's is the kind of story over the last two years they've now set the boat back in motion, but i think you have a multiyear run ahead of you. i think the algorithm of this stock is a mid teens compounding earnings growth story. you get a 2% dividend on top of it. to me, you know, i'm looking out to 2015 and i think we have a potential five handle on earnings. at any kind of a reasonable multiple, somewhere between, you know, 12 plus, i mean i think you have a stock that's in the low to mid 60s here, 12 to 18 months out.

>> i spoke wait retail executive about two weeks ago over the weekend and he said basically, listen, things aren't going to be that good over krichls because everybody is buying homes and cars. this guy said we can feel it, when people buy cars and homes they're not shopping at our department store. do you feel like we could see some softness in basy's because of that which would then provide a longer term opportunity? >> you know, i think you're exactly on the right path. >> don't say actually. >> actually. >> actually right. i get -- >> actually. >> my view on macy's is that they're setting themselves apart. i think you are going to see choppiness through the holiday here in retail. i think into 2014 particularly in the first half. i think we have head windses from some of the health care initiatives. gas prices along with you have some of the spending headwinds which housing is improving but you do have this durable shift that's away from some of the core retail. to your point i think that this could prove a great buying

opportunity for a name like macy's because i think they've set themselves apart from an omni channel and on-line perspective and they've made the investments and again, kind of likening it to the titanic turning in the hudson river, that's actually a line directly from terry lundgren when we had them up in boston a couple weeks back. i think that to me is what they've done and now i think they're really set for this like i said a multiyear track that i think is really going to put them in a nice place. >> thank you very much for joining us. finally it is time to relax. so let's bring in tim from wells fargo. tim, we are going on a cruise, royal caribbean cruise that is, why? >> great. thanks, mandy. well, first of all, i think the wonderful winter weather you're having in the northeast is very conducive to people wanting to get out of the cabin fever and out and take a cruise. it's a historically been good for cruise bookings for the industry in general. royal in particular, we think they're a confluence of a couple

things going on here. on the revenue side at the last two years they made some significant upgrades to their crm and it systems that will have already started and continue to help them and then also in their celebrity brand, second largest brand. they've had some new leadership in the last two years and sources outside of the company are telling us they're really starting to turn the ship there, pardon the pun, but that will move the needle on the revenue side for them. on the cost side, their european infrastructure, making a step down function with some costs there that should benefit 2014. and then on the interest expense side, have about a $30 million tailwind due to debt reduction as well as refinancing. and then finally, there could be a potential here given where fuel prices are, that may turn into a little tailwind. we'll have to watch that one. >> we'll see if the fuel prices come down. thank you very much for joining us. you know what, i actually learned a lot from that segment. >> i get enough of that here at

the office. i don't need to guess. you're actually right on that one. thanks a lot, matt. hope you enjoyed your last aperformance on cnbc. i'm kidding. a big sign of the times in cyber security land. who's really making money off hack attacks? >> later on our three outragers of the week why this girl has been fired. ♪ [ cellphones beeping ] ♪ [ cellphone rings ] hello? [ male announcer ] over 12,000 financial advisors. good, good. good. over $700 billion dollars in assets under care. let me just put this away. [ male announcer ] how did edward jones get so big? could you teach our kids that trick? [ male announcer ] by not acting that way. ok, last quarter... [ male announcer ] it's how edward jones makes sense of investing. ♪

a really big deal in the cyber security world. fireeye buying firm manedyen. this appears to be a game changer for the industry. >> yeah. we know hacking is a huge problem for companies in the u.s. and worldwide. there was that massive attack on target's customers and just this week skype and snapchat. now there is a deal that could shake up the cyber security landscape. fireeye buying mandiant. it knows whether your company has been hacked, mandiant can tell you who attacked you and the damage done fireeye's ceo was on cnbc this morning, he was talking about the deal and the broader cyber

security threat. >> just yesterday, we saw the syrian electronic army bringing down obviously skype, we're seeing a lot of infrastructure attacks like that, twitter, associated press and some are very successful, sometimes they're not but a lot of egregious activity happening in the world right now. >> analysts generally responding positively to this news today saying the acquisition broadens the scope of fireeye's offerings and say this deal creates a security platform that poses a challenge to rivals in the sector like palo alto networks, symantec and mcafee and investors were excited. fireeye stock surging higher up 175% since it went public last september. some might have considered fireeye itself as a possible acquisition candidate but the company analysts saying seeming to signal it's a consolidator not a takeout target itself. another bit of good news for fireeye bulls, the company also raising its revenue outlook for

the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013 expecting revenue between 55 and $57 million. brian, back to you. >> josh lipton, thank you very much, buddy. so folks, fireeye is up, you might have missed this one, but there will be more deals down the road from the sector. let's find out who you may still be able to profit from and bring in fbr capital dan ooivs. who looks as attractive as a fireeye, mandiant whoever it may be. >> tip of the iceberg. i look at proof point, fortnet and imperva. only a handful of players out there. fireeye and mandiant together and i view one of those guys as not being around in 2014. >> who are the likely acquirers. >> look at the bigger tech players with cash that would work for an emc, oracle, a microsoft, or an ibm, again i view this like a sixth grade

prom. one side you have the 200 bill. in cash the other side of hyper growth. now who makes the first move and again, i expect a lot more m and a over the next six to nine months. >> we're not done but breaking news from the fed chiefs. can you sit tight and come back? our apologies. ben bernanke, his speech, last one kicking off. steve liesman at the american economic association. what is the fed chairman expected to say? >> brian, thanks very much. the fed chairman will spend his last major policy speech as chairman lauding the accomplishments during his tenure in transparency, financial stabilization and in monetary policy. but just in case you haven't heard enough times, he will stay one more time that a taper does not mean a change in the fed's commitment to low policy rates in the years ahead. he said the taper decision reflected progress towards the economic goals of the fed and the improvement in the unemployment market. the fed he said has the tools to

handle all these excess reserves that were created in the -- under quantitative easing when policy does normalize. the recovery he says is still in xwee complete, anticipation rate too low and talks about productivity growth too slow and the recovery has been held back by the euro crisis, euro debt crisis, natural disasters and fiscal restraint. the financial crisis is another reason why the u.s. recovery has been slow. but the economy, he says, has made considerable progress since the recovery began. the banking system has been recapitalized and the financial system is, in fact, safer. economic head wind hess says are abating and and policy is -- fiscal policy is less restrictive. the after effects of the housing bust appear to have eased and the household balance sheets have also strengthened. overall he's ending on whats seems to be a positive note saying the u.s. recovery is

ahead of other economies abroad, but he also sees positive effects abroad, for example, other emerging markets seem to be doing better and he sees ground for cautious optimism there. finally he credits the fed staff and the institution itself for anything that happened that was good under his watch. guys, i think bernanke, spending a little time going over the history of things that happened under his it tenure and explai the reasons he took the decisions he did but ending on an optimistic note on the economy. >> if there is any market reaction it's negligible. watching the tape, bouncing within the range of one or two points. let's say not much market reaction at all. i do want to say to our viewers that the speech will be carried live on cnbc.com for those interested, they can tune in. it is potentially, right, his last speech as fed chairman so an historic event of sorts. thank you very much, st. louis. dan ives, you were talking about how the deal between fireeye and

mandiant could be the tip of the iceberg in further m and a. we could see likely buys like ibm, oracle, emc, microsoft. what pairings do you think would be the best in terms of acqui r acquirers and acquiries. >> specifically i view microsoft and imperva as one. emc at a fortnet. how they're focused on the cloud that would fit well. and then, you know, and then again, ibm i view as any one of those sort of three acquisitions. again, you can view palo alto as an acquisition candidate but there's the overhang with the lawsuit. i don't throw them in that bucket. >> can any of these companies develop their own cyber security. why do they have to buy these names? >> they have cyber security, but it comes down to, you want the nicest car out there, the one with the most advanced threat analysis.

and at the end of the day these companies have basically built a niche market where there's four to five companies that do what no other company does. for a lot of these bigger players, the oracles -- >> i know cyber security, we see the denial of service attacks and i'm sure there's a big threat out there, but part of me that just -- this is going to sound creepy, part of me like if you run a cyber security company hire bulgarian hackers to bust into your system. >> great business for you. >> you need us, you need us. how big of a real threat -- we hear about it, but you do wonder, are companies going to overpay and over -- you know, over fear cyber hacking and the industry could collapse into itself. >> i agree. a few years ago there was a little more hype, a little more hype than reality. today, for the first time covering the space 14 years, there's a lot more threats and the level has become more an more sophisticated. >> where are they coming from? >> not picking on bulgaria

eastern european gangs, chinese threats. >> i think it's coming from the international threats, right. as we've seen in terms of china hacking. and then more importantly, a the lot of enterprises as they have more data on the enterprise, on the networks, especially as more move to the cloud, both enterprising and consumers as you see with the hacking continues to be an issue. >> don't want to get in trouble with our producer because we're tight on time, brian threw out a prediction on the cloud and run it past den and see what he thinks. >> i think the cloud is a bunch of bunk. >> i think -- >> i think the cloud is computing. >> an overused word. >> no more cloud computing. if you're not cloud computing -- by the way, hot mail is cloud computing. >> it is an overused term. every company says they're a cloud vendor. >> give me a 5.25 floppy to install windows 3.1 on my pizza

box. >> there is enoufluff there. distinguishing who the cloud data players versus the ones -- >> we'll see weeding out from the oates. >> 2014 will be a big year for the strong versus the weak. >> dan, great to talk to you as always. up next, indy music and organic foods are hipster edition of street talk coming up. >> the three hottest startups to keep an eye on this year. one guest says one may ipo by the end of the year. we'll hear that when "street signs" comes right back. to prove to you that aleve is the better choice for him, he's agreed to give it up. that's today? [ male announcer ] we'll be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol. i was okay, but after lunch my knee started to hurt again. and now i've got to take more pills. ♪ yup. another pill stop. can i get my aleve back yet? ♪ for my pain, i want my aleve. ♪ [ male announcer ] look for the easy-open red arthritis cap.

over the pizza place on chestnut street the modest first floor bedroom in tallinn, estonia and the southbound bus barreling down i-95. ♪ this magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins. and of those who believed they had the power to do more. dell is honored to be part of some of the world's great stories. that began much the same way ours did. in a little dorm room -- 2713. ♪ this magic moment ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ tires screech ] chewley's finds itself in a sticky situation today after recalling its new gum. [ male announcer ] stick it to the market before you get stuck. get the most extensive charting wherever you are with the mobile trader app from td ameritrade.

street talk time hitting the stock stories and invest mnt recommendation you may have missed but we found. ge downgraded. >> not hurting the stock today. ge up about 0.8%. downgraded by oppenheimer. probably why it's not hurting. the ap lists, two that cover it, say the shares are a solid longer term value for the name but think the company shift to a higher industrial mix. by the way, listening to squawk on the street and jim cramer said he thought ge was probably the most important stock reflective of the entire market right now. so something to watch from jim. >> we've got dueling calls on

micron tech. downgraded at rbc, they think the valuation appears ahead of the fundamental improvements of the company. however, drexel hamilton, upping their estimates, their target 30 bucks. that's nine bucks more than the stock is right now. >> stock up 205% over the past 12 months. stock three sirius xm radio an upgrade. >> the note says it's time to get bullish on sirius. the valuation call, they like the core growth prospects. the stock down about 15% since their weaker than hoped last earnings call. however, the analyst here at evercorp loves the fact that almost every car is connected to the web or satellite. they think that once people get into -- i can never live without sirius again. trying to get my dad involved as well. cnbc, music stations, you got college sports. >> yep. >> it's a great company. >> indeed.

okay. receiving a nice target boost. >> goldman sachs upping their target to 49 from 43. the stock. they think margin expansion will come, easier comps. still on their conviction buy list. >> and then this is the hipster part, by the way, white wave. under the radar pick, good m and a story. it is a -- >> yofr beganic food company. >> based in brooklyn. >> so you can't get more hipster than that. >> are my jeans skinny enough? black rimmed glasses and a bicycle. they like the name after completing its acquisition of another firm called earthbound farms. this is true, they think that organic milk is, quote, an important gateway. >> love that. >> important gateway for consumers. >> the best i can understand from that call the analyst is saying this, whitewave's buyout was an organic milk company.

if thinking about going organic milk would be what you would start with before full into the call chips i guess. >> like just dipping your toe in the water. >> the milk. >> than the whole organic hog. fed chairman ben bernanke has begun speaking in philadelphia. we're talking about that a moment ago with st. louieve lie. watch the entire speech live on cnbc.com. there will be a q and a session after the speech. live right here on cnbc when it begins and it could be his very last speech as chairman of the central bank. so important one to watch. >> we are watching it. if any meat comes from it it will be organic freerange. >> coming up we have metal on the mind, specifically gold, gold tough three years. is this the year it turns around. we'll be talking gold after the break. >> the hotter the ceo the hotter the stock? the scientists say the numbers don't lie. we'll bring you the full story. we're on the case after the break.

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merrill lynch. >> the shares are down today. find out what's going on here, if there's more room to run or more of a sell-off is lurking and a top white house official reacting to a study that find obama care costs could rise because newly insured americans are using emergency rooms more than expected. >> and we'll bring you ben bernanke's entire q and a, coming up live, could move the markets so stay tuned for that. >> don't want to miss that one. all that and more coming up on the "closing bell" at the top of the hour. >> we can't wait. thank you very much. but right now, it is time for our talking numbers segment. today we're not talking a stock, talking about gold and on the technicals, jeff with bell point, on the fundamentals jon with first investment or asset investment. jeff, start with you on the charts. any hope for gold technically? >> yes. i think so. if you look, i put up a 20-year chart of gold and you can see that 1200 has been that level. and what we've seen on a shorter term chart over the last about month, that gold might have put

in a double bottom. it tried to break through the 1200, it couldn't do it and now it's about 5% up from its lows. >> but jeff, be careful what you say here on the show because actually one of brian's 2014 predictions i is gold will continue to be a rented mule. do you agree with what jeff said about the possibility of it having upside or is it still going down? >> still going down. you know, maybe put in a double bottom but going down. it's like any enamored with one and jilted by, any little hopeful sign you might cling to. it serves no useful purpose, down 28% last year. it's been acting as a fear gauge over the last number of years. things are looking good. tuesday's numbers came up case-shiller best performance on housing market in the u.s. in seven years, and i think the u.s. economy will track around 3% next year which will make it the best in a decade. so i think you've got an improving u.s. economy that's not good for gold and the u.s. dollar strengthening, all those things are bearish for gold. i think gold continues to go

down and a great shorting opportunity in the stock but otherwise you should avoid it. >> different views there. that's what it's about. tight on time, going to say good-bye. see you soon. check out the on-line edition of talking numbers part of our partnership with yahoo! finance. >> counting down 2014's hottest tech startups. it's not late to get in on these names. find out how coming up. >> while you were busy ringing in the new year with the funny hat and little thing, you might have missed the three most outrageous headlines of the week. we've got them with our own "street signs" take coming up. . i needed a new laptop for my pre-med classes, something that runs office and has a keyboard. but i wanted a tablet for me, for stuff like twitter and xbox, so my downtime can be more like uptime. that's why i got a windows 2 in 1 which does both -- works as a laptop and a tablet. so i can manage my crazy life, and also have a life. [ beep ] gotta go. ♪

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this year will undoubtedly be a hot one for startups. which one do you need to watch on that may eventually go public? let's bring in dillon tweeny. some hot names, and i teased, object tuesda obtuse, a hockey puck like device. what are you talking about? >> scanadoo, basically a little device you hold up to your temple and it can scan your

blood pressure, respiration, even tell if you're stressed. that will sync with an app on your phone and you can understand more about your health and take to your doctor. i think it has a lot of potential. >> that sounds awesome. we also have -- excuse me if i'm pronouncing it wrong -- cyanogene which completely replaces the device on your android device. why do you want to do that. >> the first reason most people do it, when you buy a phone from a carrier, you get samsung, they have junked it up with apps they want you to use. they have content of their application, junk on the home screen. if you don't like that and you want a simpler, cleaner, more reliable android experience you might install cyanogen and take control of your own phone.

this is something real hackers would only do up until last year when cyanogen decided to be a regular company and they raised $30 million in venture capital. they'll be interesting to watch. >> the one you believe could go public is cast light health. who are they and why do you think they'll become public? >> they've raised $160 million so far. they're a company that basically collects data on the quality and cost of health care services from various doctors and hospitals. it's interesting because the health care market is completely nontransparent. so, a service like this is helpful because it could help you decide whether you want to go to one hospital or another before you get a bypass operation or what have you. they're selling their service to employers who then give it to their employees. so the employers can keep their health care costs down. i think they're in a good position to benefit from the positions going on in the health care market right now.

>> they've already raised a substantial amount of money. $160 million in four rounds. that's an ipo to potentially watch for this year. thank you for joining us. interesting stuff. what do you get when you combine a donkey with a fox? a big recall is what you get. week three's most outrageous headlines.

fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. yeah. everybody knows that. did you know there is an oldest trick in the book? what? trick number one. look-est over there. ha ha. made-est thou look. so end-eth the trick. hey.... yes.... geico. fifteen minutes could save you... well, you know. it is friday.

that means that's outrageous time. our take on the week's headline. pop culture commentator, brian. first up, blackberry. dropping or maybe the other way around? alicia keys as global creative director? >> she just got fired. this proves you can't just slap a celebrity with a brand that's not relevant. slap miley cyrus with wrecking balls, you've got something. >> didn't she tweet something -- >> everybody was hacked. who has really been hacked? only people who do stupid stuff have suddenly been hacked. >> a study showing there's a correlation between good looking ceos and stock performance. what do you make of this? >> this is what blackberry should have done. made alicia keys as their ceo. she's gorgeous. this isn't a news flash that

good people make more money, get better jobs. >> i don't know what you're talking about. >> oh, please. >> it's not like -- television? what are you talking about? what? >> it's a visual medium. >> you put semiattractive people on tv? >> you have half the people -- >> it's note to say stock pops in the first day. it wasn't a long-term study. it's like, oh, he's good looking, let's buy the stock. next week he's a mo rochlt n -- >> he has to be on television. he has to be out there in the public realm. >> note to ceos, shower and comb your hair. >> next study, attractive people more likely to end up on television. >> this just in. how did i get here? >> sometimes it snows in the winter. >> then we have walmart, the world's largest retailer, recalling donkey meat in china. not because it was donkey meat. it was after fox meat was detected in it. >> you're recalling what for what now?

there's something many jokes here that i can't say. all inappropriate. the other world for donkey, i can't say that. >> burrow. it's a burrowito. >> this doesn't taste like meat. the name of the meat was called five spice meat. it lends yourself to believe there might be a few other elements in there. >> if donkey meat is okay, what's wrong with fox? why is one animal better than the other in that situation? >> what does the fox taste like? maybe that's the next song. it's a very fine line. we're not recalling it because it's burrow, but because it's fox. but you're trying to feed a nation of 1.5 billion. >> one analyst said they're worried walmart will disillusion wealthy customers. that says something because walmart is not wealthy customers. it's mid to low range consumer. >> walmart is trying to gain traction because they already

have wearmart. >> are you saying chinese would pirate somebody else's idea? that's shocking. that's outrageous! >> that would be it for "that's outrageous." great to have you with us. great to have you with us as well. thanks for watching "street signs". >> now we're going to send it to a show 100% fox meat free. "closing bell." have a great weekend, everybody. >> welcome to the "closing bell." i'm kelly evans on this friday at the new york stock exchange. where a few brave souls, including this one, made it in today. >> maybe we should have shown the photo i tweeted a little while ago. >> it's empty out there. >> i took a picture of wall street. it's 14 degrees. i said, where are all the tourists? it's empty. >> not the hardiest of souls. >> day two of 2014 for the stock market. if only we could call yesterday a mulligan for stocks. they're looking to close the week with some gains. we do have a gain t