tv Street Signs CNBC February 14, 2014 2:00pm-3:01pm EST
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long weekend this time around. we have seen this steady drift up and also some action we have seen in the markets, weaker open and strength as we build. some traders pointing out we have a fairly light volume day. don't read too much into it. but the trend is your friend. it has been upward. very strong two week period continued today. >> that does it for "power lunch." >> happy valentine's day, everybody. enjoy the long weekend. safe travels to our friend brian sullivan. "street signs" begins right now. thank you very much, tyler. after a brief spat, the love affair with stocks appears hot and heavy once again. the dow is higher. we've got some of the stocks, a few of the world's biggest hedge funds have partnered up with recently. happy friday, everybody. all that, plus even more stock picks for you from our guests. why microsoft is picking a fight with the "new york times" and as we do prepare for sochi, this
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happens. >> you ain't kidding. that's hot. whew! >> if you want more of that, we got more of that later on in the show. i can imagine every single viewer is going say what right now. >> none of that was planned. the butt smack was not planned. more of that coming. >> yeah, lots more of that coming. stay tuned. okay, guys. lots of reasons to honor the removal of st. valentine's day, well, it was the removal of his head from his body on this day in the year 278. firstly -- >> that's romantic. >> maybe he forgot to give his wife a box of chocolates. the dow and s&p are all up for the second week. this is in fact the first two week streak for the dow and s&p this year. the nasdaq is likely to post its very best week in four months. if it can close positive, it's looking only slightly positive right now, but nonetheless that would be its first seven day
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winning streak since last july. as for gold, it is currently at three month highs, looking well placed to post its biggest weekly gain in six months for a gain of about 9% year-to-date. more on gold later in the show. last but not least, we are celebrating the fact that it is friday. >> but we begin with breaking news right now actually out of washington, d.c. federal rules with regard to legalized marijuana are changing. pete williams has the story. pete? >> reporter: these rules deal with the fact that the same federal government that regulates banking transaction also says that producing, possessing or selling marijuana is a crime so marijuana dealers have been unable to get the banks to do any business with them. as a result, dealers operate strictly with cash and that creates a tempting target for thieves. treasury department officials say these revised rules should help with that so under the new rules, banks that want to do business with marijuana dealers can, if they verify that those dealers are properly licensed and if the banks gather information about the type of products they sell and the nature of the customers they
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serve, and the banks also have to be on alert for any signs that the dealers are engaged in improper transactions. now, as you know, current rules require any bank to notify federal regulators of suspicious activity. these are the reports. anything by their customers, that would of course include marijuana dealers because of prohibitions under federal law. under these new rules, the s.a.r. notices will still be required but now there are two kinds. banks that believe a marijuana dealer is reputable will file a marijuana limited report. if a bank thinks the dealer isn't behaving under the guidelines, they file a marijuana guideline priority report. banks in the past have been skeptical at rule changes alone would solve this problem and they want congress to change the law. what administration officials say, this may not be for everyone, these new rules, but banks will have to assess the risk. they expect, though, that demand will be heavy from banks in both colorado and washington to try to do this under these new
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rules. >> that's fantastic stuff. thank you very much. i want to bring in jane wells, who has been covering the booming marijuana industry. what do you see as being the big impact here? >> reporter: well, it sounds like it is an important start but it creates these new rules, a lot of work for these bankers in due diligence. i have been talking to the colorado bankers association, where the business is fully up and running. what they're telling me is that what the federal government is suggesting will probably not change much of anything. most banks will still avoid knowingly handling cash for pot businesses. for one thing, they have other regulators. there's not one. they have like three regulators which have not all said they will look the other way. bankers could face loads of issues with bank examination reports, cease and desist orders and other regulators concerned about money laundering. the association says quote, banking marijuana businesses is not a big business opportunity. they are saying this in colorado. some banks want this business, others won't do it even if
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legal, and most don't know and it isn't a high priority for them. not a big business opportunity? look at this. the group which invests in it says legal marijuana will top $2 billion, legal pot, top $10 billion by 2018. the bankers association, bankers want congressional action because any federal agency's policy could change. here in california, they are really watching this closely because voters here will again able to soon choose whether or not they want to legalize recreational pot. this is the biggest market for legal and illegal marijuana. back to you. >> thank you very much, jane. i guess last week, i felt really dumb when we talked about pot security and i said why would they want to steal something or protect something legal, not realizing it was an only cash business and they were going after the cash, not the dope. now i guess it won't be an all cash. so that segment we did on this security, that could reduce a lot of demand for the security guys.
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>> the guys showcased in that particular feature, that was his sole business. that's what he does. he looks after all the cash moving around. as you say, if it's not going to be so much of an issue anymore, what happens to these guys? >> the government giveth and taketh away. the stock market this year has certainly had ups and downs pretty much like a high school relationship. let's go steady this month. the dow is up 2.5%. last month it was maybe we should take some time off, bobby. so forget the market. let's get specific. if you wanted to beat the indexes, which stocks should you have picked? it is quiz dom chu time. >> all right, guys. now more than the last few years, stocks have been trading more independently of each other, more on basic company fundamentals. that's a good sign. it means people are actually picking stocks all over again. i thought i would give you guys this quiz. we have a couple different industries. this is the food show, right? let's talk about the restaurant business. a couple different stocks moving in opposite directions. this one here is up 4%, this is
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down 11% year to date. this one was a former, former company mcdonald's invested in. this one is headquartered in orlando. this one has food with integrity as its slogan and this one has seafood differently. can you figure out which is the up one -- >> is it darden, the down one? >> yes. what's the up one? mcdonald's big investor? they do a lot of burritos. >> chipotle. >> stock picking matters. fundamentals matter. now, media companies. one up 3%, one down 7%. this one here interestingly enough, founded in 1923, storied history. this one here has road runner and wiley coyote among its ranks. >> acme? >> saving mr. banks, oscar worthy movie. this is the home of turner networks.
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maybe a little bit of sign here. >> disney is green. >> that's right. disney is green. >> this guy is? >> i don't know. >> time warner. okay. >> time warner. all that stuff, warner brothers. two different media companies, very large, moving in opposite directions. stock picking matters and that's the reason why a lot of investors feel like this is a market that's getting back to some semblance of normal. >> fantastic. thank you very much, dominic chu. so which stocks should you consider marrying with your portfolio? let's ask robert luna and matt mccormick. great to see you. i'm going to go straight to disney. we didn't actually know we would be talking about that because it was a live quiz and we weren't given the answers in advance but robert, you have disney as one of your top picks. for full disclosure, i think it is your personal largest position, right? >> it is. i'm definitely talking my book. it's my personal largest holding and our clients' largest holding also. the reason is, i think mandy,
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disney epitomizes the type of stock you want to own right now in a year where the s&p 500 is pretty much trading at fair valuations and what the market's looking for is companies that could be on the top line, bottom line and really importantly today, you have to have a robust pipeline and roadmap for future growth. if you look at disney, they just reported earnings, all five of their segments double digits. look at "frozen." that movie is heading towards $1 billion global box office. they are the ultimate monetizing machine. they will take that movie, move it to blu-ray, put it in merchandise, it will hit theme parks and cruise lines. this is a stock you want to own. looking out in the future, shanghai disney, lucas films, a lot of things to get excited about right now. >> so matt, you heard the disney take. for years, the texas banking sector has been sort of the one that's been doing great. i thought that sort of pony might be ridden already. you beg to differ. cullen frost, still a pick. >> i think that pony has some
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more legs. i think when you look at the texas economy, it's very strong and part of that reason is the continued success of the energy sector that continues to grow and grow and grow. when you look at texas, i like being conservative. cullen frost is one of the most conservative banks out there in texas. never took t.a.r.p. very conservative on its lending pattern. has a very strong dividend yield of 2.7%. they actually have strong revenue growth and earnings growth with a lot of banks, particularly money center banks, seem to lack. i think this is a very good conservative play. it's a texas play. it's an energy play. it's a dividend play. we like it. >> if we just talk in general about your investment positioning right now, matt, you feel you need to be a bit defensive, maybe should go for something that will give you downside protection so you're liking tech but particularly apple, and you reckon it will be a dividend hike coming our way come april? >> right. when you look at technology, our firm specializes in dividend growth, we think that has the best opportunity, the best sector for the best opportunity for dividend growth this year.
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so when you look at apple, it has strong fundamentals, very reasonable valuations, great growth prospects. when you look at its p.e., it's trading at 13,200 versus the s&p so it's cheaper than the market, has a dividend yield that we think is going to grow roughly 15%. they will announce in april. there's a lot of catalysts for growth, whether it be china mobile or the iphone 6, the watch or potentially the new apple tv. i think if you're looking at the market right now, i think i would be a little more conservative versus aggressive, i would look for growth opportunities and i would definitely get paid to own it. >> before we go back to robert, i want to follow up on that. when microsoft in 2004 issued that fat dividend, i think $4 a share, they were sitting on $50 billion in cash. everybody pressured them to do something, they did. here we are ten years later, apple has three times that amount, $150 billion in cash, arguably much of it overseas, but has not given that big one-time dividend, hasn't made a
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big deal. how much longer are you willing to wait for apple to do something before someone's got to put some pressure on them because money on the books is shareholder money. it ultimately does not belong to the corporation. >> absolutely agree with you. we are not big on special dividends because their very definition, it's a one time event. we like consistent dividend growth. you look at apple, that will soon have three dividend increases in a row. every time they have done it the stock has moved up. they have the ability to give a very large but also very consistent dividend increase. we recommend they do it. i think when you look at what icahn is talking about with the buy-back, that's okay but i like our clients to have cash in hand that they can spend and go to disney and help robert's stock out as well. >> avalon bay, a few weeks back, you talked about this stock. do you still like it? >> yeah. it moved up about 10% but i do really like it a lot. matt's talking about increasing dividends. this is a stock right now that pays a 3.6% dividend. what's really nice is for the last 20 years, they have
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increased that 5% at least compounded annually. when you're talking about dividend growth, you have it right there. a lot of people are concerned right now with inflation. i agree, could be an issue. we saw a little of that last night out of china. but if you look at inflationary hedges, real estate's a great hedge. these are apartment, multi-family units they own in markets like new york, los angeles. i think it's a great stock to have as part of your portfolio where you're looking to generate some income which a lot of our clients are right now. >> great to see you both. have a good long weekend. >> thanks, guys. still to come, what big money is buying and whether or not you should follow the lead. plus, microsoft getting heated and apple in our eye. we will talk about why. brian is getting a crash course in all things russian. we had a sneak peek. before he heads off to sochi tomorrow. here's a hint. it always starts and i'm guessing it always ends with vodka.
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welcome back, everybody. that nasty weather system that pounded much of the country this week being blamed for a massive car crash in pennsylvania. officials estimate that as many as 100 vehicles were involved in the crash on the pennsylvania turnpike this morning. it happened in bucks county. that was compounded by snow and
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wicked temperatures. three people reportedly sustained minor injuries. airlines getting back up and running after yesterday's storm really just crushed travel all over the east coast, not just the northeast but in the south and everywhere. let's get to phil lebeau with the latest numbers. before you give us the latest numbers, we were debating on the team whether or not that delays and cancellations were necessarily bad news for airlines. they sound like it but if i have already bought the ticket, they don't have to give me a hotel room, i'm going to get a plane seat some place else anyway, is it some ways a good thing for them? >> reporter: no. not at all. i don't think there would be anybody in the industry would consider it a good thing. i also think you are sort of generalizing the impact of this. let's run down the numbers. we will talk more about that in a little bit. so far today, there have been more than 2,000 cancellations according to flightaware.com. that's certainly an improvement over yesterday but any day you have 2,000 or more cancellations, that's a heavy cancellation rate.
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delays totalling more than 6300. most impacted airlines, not surprising, express jet, usairways and you might be saying why all nippon. as for where the u.s. airports are in terms of getting back up and running, d.c. has been a big focus over the last 24 to 48 hours. flight schedules are starting to improve gradually. dulles cancellation rate today, just 9% compared to where it was yesterday. that's a big improvement. reagan not quite as good, cancellation rate of 18%. all right. most impacted airports because of all the weather delays around the world today, yes, tokyo haneda, 24% cancellation rate up there among the leaders. they've had the heaviest snowstorm there in 45 years. then you see the airports in the u.s. including charlotte, which has just been rocked over the last couple days. there you see laguardia and philadelphia. we have been showing this chart the last couple days because i still think a lot of people don't fully understand that the
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airline index has just been on a tear over the last three months. look at how it's done compared to the s&p 500. as well as the dow jones industrial average. no comparison over the last three months despite that little bit of drop there at the end. the bottom line is this. cancellations are never good for the industry. there will be tens of millions of dollars of losses. i know you will talk to hunter kaye in a little bit but it's not as though this is funny money and they will get it back in the future. they have done better at mitigating the cost impact but it will hurt them. >> fair point. good point. thank you very much. i love that list as two airlines we are both flying out of separately this weekend on that list. just fantastic. >> i'm flying out of newark this evening. maybe. actually, i'm not. maybe by monday. >> quarter percent chance. what is the real impact on the stocks? joining us on the cnbc newsline is hunter kaye. phil basically said my thesis was completely wrong and i get it. i guess what i'm confused by is record cancellations or near record cancellations, yet the
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stocks continue to move higher. please put those two pieces together for us. >> sure. well, they have lagged over the last week or two since the real weather moved in over the last couple weeks. the airlines have lagged the overall broader markets the last couple weeks. i think the market's smart enough to look past the weather incidents as being just one time in nature. it's beyond the control of the airlines and the impact is just, it is what it is. it's not going to be a nonrecurring item that will take out of earnings by any measure but it's weather. what are you going to do about it. nobody's talking about adding the rational capacity here or giving raises to labor or buying new aircraft. it's weather. the market tends to look through that when the operating business is very stable. >> you say the market tends to look through it but what about an airline analyst such as yourself? are you changing any recommendations on the stocks of these airlines as a result? >> god, no. we have a much longer term horizon than that. we are going to -- all our
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people make rating changes based on valuation over the next 18 to 24 months. we will look at how aggressive airlines are being on pricing and ancillary revenues and how maybe lazy they're being on deploying capital and adding capacity, those types of things matter. weather is not even on the radar. >> ten seconds, what's your top pick? >> american airlines is our top pick because of the margin expansion and the earnings growth. we think the merger integration will do a lot better than people think. >> thank you very much for joining us. still ahead, street signs has a sweet tooth just in time for valentine's day. should you be taking a bite out of the cocoa trade? there's one thing that's really bothering me about the rumors surrounding the new iphone 6. it's maybe something that could take a bite out of the sales if the phone does come out with a bigger screen. we'll talk about it. we want to hear from you. you can tweet either of us. switchgrass in argentina, annod change engineering in dubai, aluminum production in south africa,
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♪ cheesesteak, cheesesteak ♪ ♪ it's the cheesesteak shuffle! huh! ♪ ♪ every day, all day, cheesesteak, cheesesteak! ♪ ♪ every night, all night cheesesteak, cheesesteak! ♪ ♪ 9 a.m. cheesesteak! ♪ 2 p.m. cheesesteak! ♪ 4 a.m. cheesesteak! ♪ any time (ruh!) >>geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. happy friday, everybody. time for our daily street news and views segment we call "street talk." our first stock is tanking to the tune of 18%. what happened? >> down to $29.84 a share.
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what happened? losses in the fourth quarter, costs and expenses more than doubled. analysts community, where are you? they have to talk trulia because the average target is $42 and change. stock's under $30. either analysts rachet down target prices or someone has to come to the defense of trulia. >> gnc downgraded to neutral from buy at goldman sachs. >> getting whacked almost 14%, it's at $45.20 a share, down $7. they cut their target to $54 from $72. fourth quarter revenue less than expected. gnc plans on distributing more free memberships than previously expected. deutsche bank and ag disagree, they kept their buy rating. >> look at this. not a happy friday street talk, is it? massive moves down. >> down 19% to $6.42 a share. textbook rental company. the target was cut to eight, still above where it is now, from 11.50.
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beat fourth quarter estimates but here's the problem. gross margin expected to drop to 25% from last year's 32%. the stock's been walloped, down 23%. >> and the american clothing corporation was downgraded to market perform in late january. >> i guess that was a good call. the stock is down nearly 6%. we talk about the weather, lot of the concern here is about the weather that maybe there's some issues around north face. they make all kinds of products. fourth quarter revenue was less than expected, $3.2 billion. vfc down 10% year to date. >> our under the radar stock is lock me in. nice to end on an up note. it posted some earnings that came out and as a result, it's soaring to the tune of 21%. >> logmein doing very, very well. got an upgrade here. they are basically a cloud computing company. they do remote file sharing,
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data backup, whatever. they recently scrapped their free service, forcing users to pay if they wanted to keep access to the remote desktop. needham upgrading it to a buy. their target, $48. that is still about 17% above where the price is now even with the 21% gain today. so if you own logmein, sell a share, take your significant other out for dinner and flowers. >> over the past year it's been up by 70%. you made a nice chunk of change. coming up on "street signs" what stocks are some of the biggest hedge funds buying? we have not only got a list of some of the names but there's one particular trend in what sector many are buying that may surprise you. also, under armour under fire for its olympic gear. we will talk the numbers behind the stock when "street signs" returns. opportunities aren't always obvious.
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we have the s&p 500 there, only about half a percent within reaching its record close at 1839 right now. as for the nasdaq here, it has now passed its january 22nd high. it's hit its highest intraday level since september 1st of 2000 and looks like it might be able to close positive as well which i think would make it seven positive days for the nasdaq. >> what a turn from january. remember january, we were all doomed, everything was -- >> what correction. yeah. we're all doomed. the eye of the storm. got to wait and see. >> guess what? little bit of storm going on in the world of chocolate, because the cold weather could make us all chocolate losers. cocoa prices have been soaring since the beginning of the year. let's get more to morgan brennan. >> reporter: we are standing in front of jacques torres chocolates. they say valentine's is the single busiest day of the year for them. the american confectioners association is calling for americans to spend nearly $800
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million on chocolate sales just for this valentine's day. this is one reason we are seeing cocoa prices up over 35% over the past 12 months. there are actually three other reasons we are seeing cocoa prices jump as well. the first is increasing demand for emerging markets like india. the second reason is here in the u.s., we are seeing shifting consumer tastes to dark chocolate so the darker the chocolate, the higher the cocoa count. also, we are seeing supply shortages. about 70% of the world's cocoa comes from west africa. really harsh climate there right now as well as political instability, all pressuring crops. analysts are calling for about 100,000 tons shortfall just this season alone. all of this pushing cocoa prices to near 2 1/2 year highs. we are standing in front of jacques torres. what does this mean for them? higher input costs. >> a bag like that is about $350, $250. the room that you saw is physically our bank.
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a pallet of chocolate is a lot of money, about $15,000. >> the room he is referring to is where he stores all of his cocoa. so much of the company's value is tied up in that room, that jacques actually refers to it as the vault. back to you guys. >> thank you very much for that, morgan. hope you get some samples there. >> thank you very much, morgan. we have breaking news right now. you might be familiar with a little bit of controversy around the u.s. speed skating team, basically some concerns that maybe the suit made by under armour and lockheed martin was slowing the team down. they denied that. right now, just in, the u.s. speed skating federation is asking the u.s. olympic committee and the ioc for an option to switch out of their under armour suits, presumably into the suits they wore at the world cup. you got to remember, these suits while tested have not been worn in competition. this is the first time u.s. speed skaters have been disappointing, to say the least. there were concerns about the
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venting perhaps slowing down the skaters in the back of the suit so it is official. u.s. speed skating federation making a request to olympic officials late today, obviously it's late in sochi, russia right now. we'll have to wait and see if that request is indeed approved. under armour shares down 2.8%. under armour has done a great job here at sponsoring speed skating. they have helped some of the skaters, both in terms of financing and supporting. they have made the suit. this is not the kind of press that you want around your product at the olympics. >> it is definitely not the kind of press they want. in the meantime, why don't we pull up that chart once again and talk about both the fundamental and the technical side of where it goes from here. we've got under armour currently down by 10% on the technicals. great to have you gentlemen with us. it's a pity about the headlines. unfortunate circumstances. nonetheless, paul, to you first,
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what does the speed skating controversy ultimately mean for under armour? >> i actually think it's a positive, because they are the small player here. if they weren't being talked about, that would be a big negative. now if they come back and win in the old suit, the old suit is made by under armour, this is getting them publicity around the globe. i actually think it's a positive. >> publicity around the globe but isn't this negative publicity? just have to push back on that. >> if you're dutch, you're laughing not because of the suit, you're laughing because it's an insult to say that the suit made the americans slower, not the dutch legs. >> okay. ryan, what are the charts telling us now? >> we have liked this for awhile, we still like it. we could argue the suits maybe cost the u.s. some gold medals, potentially. at the same time that doesn't mean you don't want to buy it. looking at that chart, what we really like about it, five months last year, the chart was a nice sideways consolidation. what happened recently, it
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gapped higher on fundamental news, good earnings. i'm a technical guy but i still like to see good earnings coming in. you have that foundation, now it's making new highs. what we have seen the last couple years, when the momentum names get moving, we are seeing it here, in this name 10% of the float is sold short. to me this is a name you don't want to short, i don't think. you very well could still ride it here. >> so maybe not a longer term negative. not sure a lot of the people that buy under armour gear necessarily go speed skating on the weekend. i get the point, they want running shorts. >> minority of the population goes speed skating. >> still, yeah, even if the old suits are made by under armour, i'm not sure -- this is not good press for you. there's no way to spin this. >> which is why i had to push back on paul. point is made. >> be sure to check out our online edition. we do two, three, four stocks, indexes every day. we looked at russia today. check it out, part of our partnership with yahoo! finance.
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if you're running windows xp on your computer, you better listen up. microsoft is about to leave you hanging. josh lipton, what on earth is going on here? if you happen to be one of the people that still have windows xp, what's going to happen come april 8th? >> reporter: yeah, well, microsoft has basically decided here it's time to upgrade your pc operating system, whether you like it or not. microsoft plans to end technical assistance for windows xp users on april 8th. the software giant will phase out technical support for the old operating system which is still being used by a lot of consumers and companies, so
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people using windows xp will no longer receive security updates. that means if you don't upgrade to the new operating system, you are an easier target for hackers. >> on the april date they will pull back their own support because the product is now obsolete in more than three versions back. that means you're kind of on your own. even companies can't handle that so -- can't pick up the slack, so the end result is the guys that are writing malware realize that here's a bunch of folks that will not be protected and they will be malware magnets. >> reporter: microsoft essentially forcing customers to upgrade. analysts say the relatively slow sales of windows 8.1 reflects the big decline in pcs. the question is how many users will upgrade before the april deadline and how essential this new pc operating system really is in a world increasingly dominated of course by smartphones and tablets. back to you. >> thank you very much. sometimes it is not so much what is said as what isn't said
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unless you host a tv show. in his first column for the "new york times" an analyst offered that apple products, google apps and amazon media, conspicuously missing from the list, microsoft. microsoft didn't at a titake it lightly. their p.r. chief saying the recommendations were kind of like picking myspace and blackberry because they were market leaders a few years ago. joining us, rocky avarall and john forte. john, i know you dealt with frank shaw. i give him props for sort of going back at it. what do you make -- is this a fight brewing? >> well, frank is not shy about letting you know what he thinks. i know he watches cnbc. >> hi, frank. >> be careful what you say. >> first of all, his argument was a nice one but it didn't address what was said, which is that if you want to get into the right ecosystem, here are the choices you should make.
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the column said you want to be able to take your data with you and here are the services that will allow you to do that. if you are on apple you can use apps, et cetera. it wasn't really the argument frank shaw was making about don't just go with the biggest, go with the most innovative. >> what do you think? >> i read frank's response before i read the original piece and i thought frank might have been upset it mentions microsoft failures and farhad didn't mention that. he just talked about other companies that are doing the right thing. mandy mentioned love and that's one thing missing from microsoft. people love apple products. people love google products. i tweeted out before i came on air how many products other than xbox do people love from microsoft. i think the microsoft mice is the only thing we came up with. >> how does the new ceo fix that? how do you put the love back in microsoft? >> they've got to focus on what
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consumers actually want instead of what microsoft wants to sell. when i look at microsoft products, it's like they're going through the spare parts bin of various divisions like windows, office and skype and pasting them together instead of figuring out what consumers want and how to deliver it to them. >> i take some issue with the idea the only thing people love is xbox. got to give them some credit for xbox live which isn't just the xbox, give them credit for connect which connects to the xbox. then you were talking about just consumer products here. i think there are a number of enterprise products that have done pretty well. i certainly -- it's not the sort of thing you have a lot of natural affection for. >> a lot of their products are utilities. you don't love your phone company or cable company, although i'm beginning to develop a mad crush -- >> i love my cable company at least a couple times a month. >> let's move on. let's move on.
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i want to talk about the iphone 6. a lot has been made about how people choose android products because they have this giant screen and sometimes there's stuff coming out for the giant screen. i had the iphone 5. they ticked me off when they changed from the 30 pin to the lightning connector. i was a sucker. i bought about 18 new chargers, spent hundreds of dollars doing so. all the stuff you buy, the accessories, whatever it is, the alarm clock, the speaker, they all fit this size phone. if apple changes to a bigger phone, a different size, is that going to hurt their sales? >> no. i tell you, every couple years, we have been coached to expect the design of the iphone changes anyway. they generally, there's the 4 and 4s, 5 and 5s. go to the 6, there will probably be some change. not the connector, they just moved to the lightning connector. if they did a size change, certain things won't fit, the cases don't fit. >> they can lose that marginal buyer. we have the disposable income.
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i can buy a new charger. it ticks me off but i can afford it. other people, $30 here, $30 there. everything made for this size phone. >> those people bought cheap phones. they didn't buy iphones. they are going into the apple store anyway. granted the phone has to be great. it has to be so great you want to buy it and don't mind spending the extra $20, $30, $100. >> like it or lump it. if you're going to have an iphone suck it up and buy the accessories is what you're saying. rocky, great to see you. jon, thanks for jumping in. next, we go whale watching. we will tell you what big money has been buying in this market. and selling, for that matter.
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tracking what hedge funds are buying and selling isn't easy. they don't want you to know but each quarter they got to put out a list of what they own. if you compare it to past lists, you can tell what they're buying and selling. keep this in mind. the data comes out about six weeks after the end of the quarter so things could certainly change. still interesting. here are some things the team plucked out of the latest filing. this is interesting. a lot of mortgage company buying, either mortgage insurors or servicers. look at this.
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baupost buying fidelity. hayman capital, orbis, perry capital, another dallas-based fund buying national. there you go. the other big trends, some of the tech buys, bridgewater, th biggest of them all, buying microsoft. maxim integrated products, another buy of bridgewater and jana capital. this is just a small list. it's six weeks old, but, herb, anything to make of it? >> well, you know what i think of watching whales but since we watch them. i think, look, mortgage servicing rights have been where a lot of smart money has gone in the past. the person there i would look at carefully is seth because he's considered one of the smartest guys in the room always. if you look at kyle bass, some of the other things at hayman group that he did, he sold his herbalife. if you followed him into it, you didn't know he had sold it.
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meanwhile, perry capital, which had caug had bought herbalife had added to it. based on this, we don't know where they are today. a lot of these guys seek the sage good opportunities because they are good opportunities. but beyond that, you know, you just have to be very careful. >> remind us exactly what you do think of whale watching. people sitting at home -- >> i think, look, there are good ideas out there. you have to understand the idea. there was a guy on cnbc earlier today. he was talking about the difference between 13-ds that somebody files when they go over 5% of a company versus a 13-f. 13-d you can say is far nor compelling than a 13-f but it means we get to see what the big guys are watching. >> thank you so much. looks some whales out the back. >> the perry capital one, that was a 13-d.
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plus has a fast-acting antihistamine. (voseeker of the sublime.ro. you can separate runway ridiculousness... from fashion that flies off the shelves. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. and only national is ranked highest in car rental customer satisfaction by j.d. power. (natalie) ooooh, i like your style. (vo) so do we, business pro. so do we. go national. go like a pro. we told you about the u.s. speed skating federation seeking the operation to switch to under armour suits. kazakhstan won the bronze. you're going to watch meredith vieira's anchoring of coverage.
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i can't give away too much. it's shaping up to be the season of the fall. everybody is crashing. so actually let's watch michelle caruso-cabrera right now. >> hey, brian. team c nbc is exciting for your arrival this weekend. so many exciting sports events still to come. hockey will be huge next week. tomorrow the men's team faces off against the russians. a huge rivalry, and then figure skating for the women next week with this superstar from russia. she's only 15 years old. yulia lit sky ya. it's pretty warm down here at sea level and even up in the mountains we've seen people walking around int shir t-shirt during some of the events. bring some boots, too. it's warmer than a lot of people
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expected and we have even seen some people swimming at the beach. looking forward to you arriving, brian. can't wait. see you on tuesday. >> as we've seen, you've already become familiar with bathing suits. in just a couple hours, you will be jetting off to sochi and broadcasting live there all next week and to prep for your trip, i hear you had a quick lesson on all things russia. >> it was quite a lesson thanks to our producer who was native russian born. this place is just about an hour away from where we sit right now. take a look. >> we may be in america, but you'd every know never know it here. my producer is a native russian. she took me to brighton beach in new york. >> it's a cranberry infused -- >> grocery shopping to get a taste of russia.
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>> preshow snack tomorrow. >> yeah. it looks delicious. >> so what do the russians buy? i would eat the whole thing. do you have a lipitor i could have? >> you're going to need it. >> before you buy it, you got to try it. could you give us your most delicious meat? i made a promise to nina and i kept it. try the tongue kielbasa known to me at least as meat jelly in sliced form. it's good. >> say that again. i want this on the record. >> that is good. >> meat jelly. >> i think it's the tongue. it's good. now that i have got my russian deli meats down, it's off to -- >> the legend of soviet entertainment. this is brighton's biggest russian book, cd, and souvenir
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store. we made some friends in brooklyn's st. petersburg. >> we're going to sochi, baby. >> it looks great. >> fantastic. and all that russian culture made me very hungry. >> this was my name in russian. >> i got that. >> why are you crying, brian? >> that mustard -- i can eat spicy food. that is really spicy. here is to you and your family's long health, happiness, and prosperity and whatever else i can muster after about six shots of vodka. finally, i had to cleanse myself and where better to do that than brooklyn banya or bath house. >> what's this?
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>> they're going to heat you, they're going to freeze you, and then they're going to beat you. >> well, when in brooklyn -- >> what is boris doing? >> you're fine, you're fine. are you okay, brian? >> it feels good, actually. you aren't kidding. that's hot. >> now the hot tub. >> to america, to russia, and to a great trip to sochi. >> and judging from all the laughter out there in the newsroom as everyone was watching that, brian, i think everyone was really enjoying watch you getting beaten, then frozen, then beaten again. >> i got to give a shut out to nina. it was a great trip. it's only an hour from here. you should go check it out. that woman in the fur coat. she's patting me on the stomach. it was spectacular. the people were really warm. and howie, thank you for the
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chinchilla coat. i don't know why it fit him considering it also fit me. >> the biggest question is to prep you for sochi, are you prepped? >> i do feel ready. the coverage has been spectacular across all the properties. carl has done just a killer job. i'm going to try to pick up the torch from carl. >> so to speak. keep the pun alive. thanks for watching "street signs," everybody. "the closing bell" is next. and welcome to "the closing bell." look at these markets. i'm kelly evans at the new york stock exchange. we're having a pretty good session, bill. >> to say the least, kelly. i'm bill griffeth. as the trading week nears an end, those fears of a correction seem to be fading by the hour right now, at least in the near term right now. the weather
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