abercrombie & fitch among those taking a hit today. courtney reagan is diving into the latest numbers. >> that's certainly true, sue. january is typically about 20% of the sales for the quarter but still a very important month for clearing inventory. the warmer than normal weather gave added incentive for promotions. overall same store sales grew 4.2%. much better than expected according to thompson reuters, but individual results were mixed. look at saks, but nordstrom disappointing. limited another stellar month, up 9%. triple what was expected. this one all over the map but zooming past expectations this time around up nearly 11%. now, a very disappointing december. target posted an increase of 4.3% for january estimates, better than expected, big disappointment out of wet seal. you can see here down 13% for the teen retailer. and while december was a great month for macy's, january wasn't. disappointing there as well. the volume of earnings updates today greater than expected. abercrombie & fitch, ann taylor and wet seal guiding lo

now today -- today, abercrombie says things are better than expected. the stock moved back to 48 and change. what do you have to say, abercrombie, to the people you shook out of your own stock with the lowering of the bar less than two weeks ago? that's not cricket, not at all and they're at the bottom of the amazon bond fracas. there are 10 million prime members and the numbers are less than half of that as the tremendous bloomberg story. shouldn't the amazon people feel like some need to clarify and straighten this issue out especially when the companies express the importantance of amazon prime to the future. is there a huge glut of kindles? just asking. heaven forbid that for once gear would report a terrific quarter and not somehow manage to screw it up on the conference call or the earnings release with some sort of downbeat forecast that almost never comes true as i predicted in last friday's game plan. i'm not saying management should only look at the world through rose-colored glasses. that's a recipe for disaster. deere shot itself in the foot

the best and worst today was the gap, and abercrombie and fitch. the gap shot up more than 10%. while sales fell, they didn't drop as bad as feared. its earnings outlook improved, as well. but abercrombie and fitch warned its fourth quarter earnings would be disappointing, due to heavy discounting. shares plunged almost 14%. the afterglow of the facebook stock offering news yesterday was on display today in shares of zynga. this is the video game company behind farmville and words with friends, huge games on facebook. shares soared almost 17%. it was among the most actively traded issues on the nasdaq. the stock came public in december at $10, and fell below the offering price until just last week. zynga was responsible for 12% of facebook's revenue last year indicating its importance to facebook's business model. while we're talking about video games, electronic ts shares mped 6 it's "star wars" internet game has sold two million units calling that a strong start. other consumer-focused stocks moving up-- sara lee added 4% to a new 52-week high after reporting better than expec

abercrombie is up. parent company comcast, almost 5%. not only do they have great numbers, but they increased the dividends and are buying back stock. fmc technology down 6%. deere down more than 5%. bill, back to you. >> brian, thank you very much. something tells me that as the stock market moves lower, now the dow's down more than 110 points, that treasury prices are moving higher. let's go to rick santelli in chicago with the very latest on what's happening there. yes, rick? >> you know, it is true for the short end, bill, but i have to tell you, maybe it's just that the credit markets have had it more correct with regard to disappointment on some of the issues, for example, going on in europe. or maybe in the minutes. because it isn't rallying as much as you would think, considering we're making new lows as we speak in the dow. let's look at interday of five years. yes, the short maturities like a three-year, like a five-year are definitely, as you can see on the chart, lower yield. not huge, but lower. but the further down the curv

abercrombie and fitch tumbled but it wasn't all bad news.ap projected better than expected earnings thanks to sales from banana republic. green mountain's shares up 14%. merger talks between xstrata which could create the third largest mining company in the world gave investors a doze of healthy optimism. swiss's older bank has been indicted by u.s. prosecutors on charges it helped wealthy americans stash more than $1.2 billion in secret accounts. talk about job satisfaction. a very lucky 21-year-old waitress in florida who won a million dollars in a scratchoff game says she has no plans to quit her day job. she says she likes working there that much. good for her. >>> coming up, the knicks battle the bulls. peyton manning can play next year. and the nba names its all-stars. plus has madonna tipped off who she is rooting for in the super bowl? your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. >>> a major winter storm in the middle of the country will head east this weekend. your forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today." >>>

no abercrombie, governor of hawaii. >> thank you, governor o'malley.general mckinley wonderful to see. a general mckinley, part of your statement was i believe the phrase was showed -- what the national guard should or might look like in the future, an administrator fugate come you indicated somehow pulling that were built that the funding fell short or would come up short on the funding at the risk of those of you who know me well on this committee repeating myself. but i've discovered it's the obvious that has to be repeated over and over because you tend to take it must for granted and first in this instance the national guard fits that description i'm sorry all too well. we had to struggle to get that star there in the congress of the united states we had to struggle in the armed services committee again and again to get the question before us of what does it mean now and in the future for the national guard when it becomes an operational force and starting back this is not a partisan situation, this goes back in a deep clinton administration, and

abercrombie and fitch tumbled 14% on weak sales forecast, wasn't all bad news. gap projected better than expected earnings thanks to sales of banana republic. >>> green mountain coffee, strong demand for keurig brewing system sent shares up 24%. merger between two swiss mining companies could create the third largest mining company in the world gave investors optimism. switzerland's oldest bank has been indicted by u.s. prosecutors on charges it helped wealthy americans stash more than $1.2 billion in secret accounts. >>> talk about job satisfaction, a very lucky 21-year-old waitress in florida who won a million dollars in a scratch off game says she has no plans to quit her day job. she likes it that much. you know how that feels, right, bill? >> exactly. >> smile and nod, bill. >>> the knicks battle the bulls, peyton manning can play next year and nba names the all stars. plus has ma danna tipped off who she is rooting for in the sup boerl. you're watching "first look" on mooes. blooip blooip mooes. smooes. nmooes. bmooes. cmooes. . >>> welcome back to first l

by the way, i think in washington, neil abercrombie who is a good friend, the governor of hawaii, i heard him speak about a month ago in los angeles where he said this whole thing turned around and got personal and nasty and by the way, 24-hour, even in between elections attack mode in the part of members of congress, the two parties against each other, it started in 1994 when newt gingrich became speaker, that he is the one who really turned the corner. and that's the -- and he came out -- if you recall, we talked about this on the show with a list of words. here are the words you use if you're talking about republicans. newt put this out as speaker, right. trustworthy, loyal, patriotic. and here is a list of words that you use if you're talking about democrats. lazy, traitors, all that. so i think we got to get back to the way it used to be when i first got involved in politics. you fight like hell with each other during the campaign to get elected. and then after the campaign, the winners and the losers, the winners of both parties i should say get together and say okay, what are the p

we're going to get earnings from retailers abercrombie & fitch and cnbc's parent company comcast as wellan mumy of mumy financials. when we look at earnings, they have been a big part of that. what are we going to see that gives us a hunt? we had the retail consumers yesterday. that left a lit toll be desired. >> yeah. retail sales over the holiday season, they weren't outstanding. they were okay. and i would expect that abercrombie and fifrp's earnings would reflect that, that they'll be around expectations. retail is traditionally a sector that does well after the economy's already off and running and people are spending money. we haven't seen that yet. we receive an increase in savings more so than spending at this point in the recovery. >> all right. let's switch gears for a second and talk about the eurozone crisis and greece specifically. of course, a lot of the headlines coming out saying that greece has totally blown it in terms of securing the next piece of its bailingout in a timely fashion. how focus dodd you think they're going to be coming out of greece and the conference ca

a rough day though for abercrombie and fitch which says high cotton costs would debt earnings.st 13%. that's it from cnbc. first in business worldwide. now back to chris and "hardball." >>> we are back. the end to an unpopular war seems on to near. the u.s. was looking to transition from a combat role in afghanistan to a training and advisory role by next year. that's a year of when nato agreed to end the mission and pull out all troops from the country. there's 90,000 troops still fighting that war. the american public is overwhelmingly uneasy with how things are going. what does this mean and how successful have we been? a former marine and steve clemmons is washington editor at large. it's great to have expertise on. i want to have an understanding. the understanding is the significance of this leak, the statement of the secretary of defense. >> it's a big change in policy. we were going to do combat until the end of 2014. we moved it up. it's a big change. it's a good thing. it's the right thing to do. >> what caused him to make the announcement? >> because escalating the w

certainly macy's and abercrombie & fitch really disappointing.reen mountain and qualcomm balancing that out with stellar earnings reports. >> if you look at the whole spectrum, looks like we're going to that risk on trade again. people are throwing out those real good quality names instead of using them as a source of funding. but to get back to your original question, gold to me seems like worries about fiat currencies around the globe versus qe-3 concerns because we would see as you said oil spiking, as well. >> cortez, what do you make of today's move? >> i think the most significant price action is in crude oil which you mentioned. it has badly has goned the risk rally particularly in shares and certainly in the pressure sus metals. i think the crude is now down assuming it closes lower today, down five days in a row. yesterday we had the lowest. i think it has a lot of geopolitical premium left in this that will come out. assuming and that's a big assumption, but assuming that there is no actual fight in the gulf which i'm willing to bet the

the biggest loser, though, on the s&p 500 today is abercrombie & fitch, down better than 13%.in trade to a 52-week low, after the company said their fourth-quarter results will not meet street estimates. that's due to weakness in u.s. sales. the retailer also expects margins to decline. two main reasons, lower than expected sales and higher markdowns. >> thank you very much. i'm back on the floor of the new york stock exchange with ak steel, which is aks, down sharply after bank of america, merrill lynch lynch underperforming from neutral and trimmed the price target to $9. which is about where it is right now. they may have to go back to the drawing board. b of a taking a more cautious view on the steel market and global supplies. in that back drop, the firm said it's highly likely ak steel is going to have to issue debt or equity to support a possible shortfall of at least half a billion dollars through 2014. b of a expects it to result from pension and vertical integration costs and it's taking a toll on its shares. in the last year, ak steel has wiped out half of its equit

and the gap, wal-mart, abercrombie & fitch, some retailers set to open stores this china and could beds. after all, china spending shot up more than 17% last year, spelling big potential bucks for american companies, at the same time they're closing hundreds of stores here in america. casy segle looking into the story from our los angeles bureau. >> there are two schools of thought here, first of all, some analysts say this this trend is a much needed shot in the arm for our own economy because although the stores are expanding in foreign countries, they are american businesses, meaning the profits are infused right back here into the united states and all eyes are on china, just as you were saying, the national retail federation, in fact, that's the country has the fastest growing consumer market in the world. in fact, its fashion market alone is predicted to tripple over the next ten years, luxury good sales in particular have been on the rise the climate is moving toward more middle of the road affordable goods so stores like wal-mart are getting on board. >> there's a lot of dispo

abercrombie & fitch 10.5%. earnings plunged but they warned earlier this month and took their bidding down and margins are improving. on the downside fmc technologies, deere earnings beat but guidance not great. zynga getting crushed. a little too sketchy for the street on 14 of 15 and a lot of details need to be flushed out. we're going to bob pisani at the nyse. we had a major move in the dow in the last hour. can you explain it? >> yeah, i can. apple. i know the first sort of move is to look at the euro. the euro did hit new lows on that. but i have to say the market leader is apple. when apple goes from 525 down to 511 and then all the sudden again here drops down into negative territory on the day, that gets the market attention. why? because it's a huge waiting in all the tech indexes. look at the qqqs here. nasdaq 100, it's about 15% of the market cap of the nasdaq 100. there you see the power shares, qqq moving into negative territory. this effected other stocks in the tech group as well. look at amazon

markdowns unraveling profits, teen tailer, abercrombie & fitch, a leading example. its shares down more than 10%. and yet another record low for mortgage rates. freddie mac now putting the average 30-year mortgage rate at a stunning 3.87%. of course, where are the buyers? all right. as we mentioned at the top, the major averages are not moving a whole lot. a whole host of individual stocks are surging. check this out. las vegas sands a new 52-week high, cummins, up. gap up 9%. mastercard and visa going gang buster. bob pisani always at the new york stock exchange, rick is in chicago. bob, i want to begin with you. another day with lack of volume, lack of volatility, but some big names on the move. >> well, i'll tell you what is amazing, we're at the halfway mark for earnings, brian, and earnings have been very choppy so far. that's the way i see it. and yet the market doesn't seem to think they're very worried about that or greece. the vix, take a look. it's the lowest since july 22nd right now. and i think, i called some trading desks, they seem to think the only r

on the bear side, tiffany, abercrombie & fitch and amazon. but because you have such strong arguments like ralph lauren and coach on the bull side, it tells me that's not a place to play. retail, i should point out, is a sector that is full of dispersion meaning it does not trade monolithically the way xle, energy stocks tend to all go up and down together. within retail, there's a lot of disparities. >> which is a great thing for a stock picker. i own nordstrom. i wouldn't own jcpenney because the stock's already reflecting success in the turnaround and you have ron johnson who is selling stock. if i owned that, i would definitely sell. it's too tough in that space. nordstrom, however, that's a unique offering. macy's also luxury is another good one. >>> time now for "pops & drops," sprint dropping 2%. b.k.? >> yeah, the iphone actually cost them. be careful what you wish for here. costing too much to have the iphone. that's the story of a lot of different places. stay away from sprint. >> it's the overarching story here. you have to have th

what's up with abercrombie other than the retail market?i have given up trying to call teen retail on "mad money." it is just impossible to gauge, it's so fickle, it's too hard. >> $1.10, the $1.15 estimate with 225. >> when you look at american eagle, when you look at these guys, it's hot, cold, hot, cold. who can deal with this month to month angst? >> limited, meanwhile, 9% versus a 2.9. >> victoria secret, that's their best month, valentine's day. >> "squawk on the street" continues in just two minutes. >> coming up, there are many things you could be doing this morning, water skiing. an obstacle course or going for a dip. but you chose to spend it with the opening bell. which of these 500 stocks are you waiting for? "squawk on the street" will be right back. in a new, faster-acting formula. zero-to-sixty in less time than a porsche panamera s. the 429 horsepower genesis r-spec. from hyundai. take the privileged investing tools of wall street and make them simple, intuitive, and available to all. distill all that data. make information

you said sell them. >> when you have abercrombie telling you 14 days ago that business is bad and theyome out yesterday and say business is good, when you have zynga coming out of the ipo shoot disappointing as per, let's say, michael kors which was fantastic. weight watchers, massive terrible quarter, terrible guidance. these are things that make people upset at home. people at home are so beaten, carl. they're so beaten. we've got to get them back in. we can't get them back in if it's a sucker's game. >> you want some consistency from some of these companies. >> yeah. i saw some real retail interest at the beginning of this year, carl. you can tell from the way it would bubble up. suddenly it seemed like, well, wait a second. have we gone too far too fast? professionals taking in -- professionals saying wait a second. apple 525. i'm not backing away from apple being an earnings story. i don't mind a little selloff, carl. i just don't mind it. >> yeah. earlier this week, gas prices, lead story on nbc nightly news. is that the function of an improving economy or is it something that de

abercrombie. let me introduce you to the chief of the national guard bureau. in his role as a member of the joint chiefs of staff coming serves as a military advisor to the president and secretary of defense. he provides direct communications with the department of defense, governors, and there are generals assembled here. he first received his commission and in 1974 upon graduating from the reserve officer training program at southern methodist university. a combat pilot, he served as the assistant deputy chief of staff for programs in washington and director of the mobilization and reserve affairs at the u.s.- european command in to to guard, germany. general mcanally serve as the director -- in stuttgart, germany. is joined byey the director of the air national guard. on behalf of my colleagues, thank you for doing this and we are interested in hearing from you. [applause] >> thank you. >> excuse me, general. that is what the script says. >> it is my pleasure to introduce crag few gate -- craig fugate, fema. he has worked with alachua county fire rescue. he

abercrombie & fitch and wal-mart are following suit to capitalize on china's flourishing economy.does this mean to the u.s. economy? casey siegel is live in los angeles. these companies may think it helps their bottom lines and it might but it certainly doesn't help america's unemployment figures. >> yeah, gregg, it doesn't help the unemployment figures but it is certainly good to beef up those companies' profits and they say the analysts that that was -- that actually will help the american economy. it's a little tricky. let me explain it first. why they're going to china. china is the world's fastest growing consumer market and the fashion market in particular is expected to triple in the next decade and u.s. retailers, the ones that are doing well and not doing so well see china as the golden opportunity because the national retail association says that 300 million chinese entered the middle class recently and that means there's demand for middle of the road, affordable retail experiences similar to what we have here. so think of those discount stores like wal-mart and shops at

guest: abercrombie, who is a good friend of hawaii, i heard him speak about a month ago in los angeleshe said, this whole thing turned around and got a personal and nasty -- and by the way, 24 hour even between elections attack mode on the part of members of congress, the two parties against each other, it started in 1994 when newt gingrich became speaker. and what he came out -- we talked about this on the show. there was a list of words of all that you save your republican. trusted, loyal, patriotic. and here are the words for liberals, lazy, not trustworthy. the winners of both parties should get together and say, ok, what are the problems we have in front of us and how are we going to fix them? are they willing to reach across the aisle? right now, it is 24 hour campaign. there is no letting up on the campaign mode between elections, and that is why you do not see progress getting anything done is -- and it is certainly true, some degree on both sides, but particularly true with the republican caucus. host: you are heard on how many stations around the country? guest: we are heard

shares of abercrombie & fitch under pressure.urth quarter. they were hurt by markdowns. the retailer warning that fourth quarter earnings for full year 2012 are going to be missing the street's views. >>> auto nation reporting january sales up 7% from the year before. the company is the nation's largest automotive retailer. >>> coming up, breaking economic data, weekly jobless claims and productivity just a few minutes away. take a look at the dow futures. "squawk box" will come back right after this. in what passes for common sense. we sand expected it to grow. then the world changed... and the common sense of retirement planning became anything but common. fortunately, td ameritrade's investment consultants can help you build a plan that fits your life. take control by opening a new account or rolling over an old 401(k) today, and we'll throw in up to $600. how's that for common sense? metamucil uses super hard working psyllium fiber, which gels to remove unsexy waste and reduce cholesterol. taking psyllium fiber won't make you

. >> i think it's the whole -- >> abercrombie & fitch. >> lower number enough to beat them. a recovery in 2012, that's not bad. >> if you can forecast what they're going to do, forget about it. >> beating estimates, also -- >> acquisitions, i really like that. >> and one of the best performers, fourth quarter profit beating estimates. >> down and this horizon brand may be finally working. >>> for more go to sots.cnbc.com. >>> let's look -- wow, michael kors up another 3%. 3%. >> this saks business, the outlet business, people forget, this company could double -- it's still in an infancy. an exit interview yesterday. >>> the chief creative officer of michael -- >> i always wanted to be the chief creative officer of something. >> you are of "mad money." >> but i wasn't one of the people asked to join the yahoo! board. >>> if you're scott thompson, the new ceo, they put out a statement in response to dan loeb with four nominees, he wants to replace the replaismts, it's disappointing that he chose a disruptive past just as the company is moving forward. i don't know what's going

if you look at abercrombie, american eagle outfitters, urban outfitters, and aeropostale.s canada. if you look at best buy, best buy as ebida -- >> mary, your fundamental assumption is that they have a cash crunch. that a lot of their suppliers say we're not willing to afford you the credit we have in the past. doesn't the announcement of the stores sale today as they said give them enough cash to get them through the next holiday season? doesn't that fundamentally undermine your case that you have to do a parts valuation and you have a sudden need for them to sell off assets? that situation may simply not arise. >> we think the asset sales is really just buying them more time. as a matter of fact, if you look at the spin-off of hometown outlet and hardware stores, which is a profitable business, that just means that what you have left is a very unprofitable core sears business. as a matter of fact, the company today reported that they had over $700 million in cash. half was at the domestic entity. and that just goes to show that that cash is used to support operations. th