waiting for earnings from aig. ceo robert benmosche will be here momentarily to break down the results. the first time cnbc interview. >> let's look how we finished the day on wall street. will we hit 13,000 for the day? it's done and dusted. the next thing i tweeted out, does it matter anyway. that remains to be seen. the nasdaq was the clear winner in percentage terms. up by 23 points. the s&p 500 holding above what has been stiff resistance of 1360. we're sitting there at 1363. bob pisani has more, our eye on the floor. >> that was good. my point about today is, we have -- while it's not a dramatic move, we, again, pushed forward u even as europe didn't do anything. three days in a row now, europe is down and we've been sideways. the performance in the last three or four days, we're splitting off from europe in a very noticeable way. there's the s&p 500. up for the last three days. and look at spain, portugal, there, and even, yes, germany showing signs of starting to roll over a little bit today. and for the mo

you can not put task payer money at risk in the same way that was done with aig. including i presume institutions you didn't think were systemically important until a 4:00 on a friday afternoon, you realize they're about to fail and you need to do something by monday. so there are greater powers now to take over and liquidate such institutions, not run them. i think this is an important misunderstandings sometimes. you can liquidate in an orderly manner and you can buffer the rest of the financial system against the consequences of that liquidati liquidation. now, whether those mechanisms are sufficiently credible, i have my doubts on the systemic revolutionary advisory dmit tee. they're moving in the right direction. the ability to credibly threat ton disrupt such a company without using the bankruptcy code, that's a very sensible goal. if the markets believed the bank of america, citigroup, gold man sacs could fail, then those mega banks would not be able to take on theses by risks. they would not be able to build these massive dangerous exposures across borders

treasury to take over aig the way they did in our crisis? >> well, my understanding of the precise legal situation and where the fdic and other regulators are in terms of developing the relevant authorities is that you cannot bail out individual companies in the way that aig was bailed out. you cannot put taxpayer money at risk in the same way that was done for aig. however, there is broad authority to deal with any systemtically important financial institution including i presume institutions you didn't think were important until 4:00 on a friday afternoon. you realize they're about to fail, and you need to do something by monday. there are greater powers now to take over and liquidate such institutions, not tlinl, not run a conservatorship. you can liquidate an institution in an orderly manner and buffer the rest of the financial system against the consequences of that liquidation. now, whether those mechanisms are sufficiently detailed and credible, i have my doubts, and on it this system resolution advisory committee i might stand out as

barack obama was a freshman senator, lehman brothers and aig were still in business, and facebook had fewer than 100 million users. the index has jumped 6% in the eight weeks since new year's day and nearly doubled since bottoming out in march 2009. with nearly 165 million americans invested in stocks, mostly through 401(k) retirement accounts, that's likely to boost consumer confidence. >> a more confident consumer is one more likely to spend, and they're willing to look to the future with a bit more optimism. >> i'm unimpressed with the stock market. if the wall street fat cats get richer, that doesn't affect me or my friends. >> reporter: rising stock prices may not mean much to consumers struggling with rising gas and food prices.

there are people on this panel who defended paying the aig bonus. don't say no, we didn't.z you didn't. i was going to give you a shout out. you were tough on aig as. >> why shouldn't we pay the legal fees. i can't figure it out, do you? >> pay contractly obligated legal fees. look at what the president did with the gm bond holders. >> he violated the law. you know, the president. >> two wrongs don't make it right and get the government out of fred yefanny business and liquidate the government should be out of it. >> look at what happens when american airlines go bankrupt. share horaleds and people working there pay the price. that should happen to fanny and freddie. >> how is that relevant. >> you think they should be liquidated. >> canada has a higher rate and they never did the nonsense we can d. >> this is about protecting the taxpayer. >> that's the last word. plan on living to 100? it will cost you three and half million. and we'll have the stocks headed your way it a long life coming up next. without the stuff that we make here, you wouldn't be able to walk in your h

aig president is the shareholder of that business. the firm reportedly told the securities regulator it had no knowledge aij had suffered losses. it said it simply passed on the report it received from aij. so what's going to happen to the client's pension funds? if aij has no assets remaining the clients will not get any money back, meaning they'll suffer losses as a result. recouping the losses through profits, if any, from future investment is virtually impossible, so one option would be for the companies of those effected to pay additional money to cover the losses or they may have to gain the consent of subscribers or pensioners for lower benefits. >>> now reaction was some of the aij clients. fuji electric says it started entrusting aij with some of the pension money nine years ago. the company says as of the end of last year, invested funds in aij amounted to around $150 million. that accounts for about 9% of total of corporate pension funds. the electronics maker says its pension plan will take steps to ensure that problem wil

treasury, to take over aig the way they did it in the other crisis? >> well, my understanding of the precise legal situation and where the fdic and other regulators are in terms of developing their authorities is you cannot bailout individual companies in the way that aig was bailed out. you cannot put taxpayer money at risk in the same way that was done for aig. however, there is broad authority to do any systematically important item, including institutions that he cannot think more important to 4:00 on a friday afternoon, you realize there are about to fail and you need to do something by monday. there are greater powers not to take over and liquidate such institutions, not run them, not run a conservatorship. you can liquidate an institution, and an orderly manner, and you can buy for the rest of the financial system against the consequences of that liquidation. whether those mechanisms are sufficiently credible, i have my doubts. on the advisory committee, i might stand out as one of the skeptics about what the fdic has put on the table so far, b

aig in germany is trading up more than 9% today.reat trading for the company that did a giant re-ipo last year. also looking at gap, fourth quarter profits dropped 40% as the retailer dealt with higher costs and had to discount level during the holidays to get customers into its stores. gap's 2012 outlook is just slightly shy of analyst forecasts but the company has authorized a $1 billion share buyback and will hike its annual dividend by 11%. shares of the gap are down slightly, about .25%. the final report on february consumer sentiment is out at 9:55 a.m. eastern time. analysts are looking for a reading of 73, down two points from january. and at 10:00 a.m. we get january new home sales, forecast to rise 2.6% to an annual rate of 315,000. also in the retail sector, jcpenney reports results before the opening bell. we also hear from "the washington post." cnbc's steve liesman has an exclusive interview with treasury secretary tim geithner on u.s. "squawk box" at 8:30 a.m. eastern time. joining us now is chris girsh. chris, thanks

for insurance giant aig, can it return to profitability. the company's ceo joins us to talk numbers in a first-on interview. and the crunch on consumers. the ceo of clorox talks about his company's bottom line in the face of rising gas prices. live from the new york stock exchange, this is the final and most important hour of the trading day. >> and bill and mandy are here welcoming you to the "closing bell." hello, everybody, i'm standing in here for maria bartiromo at the new york stock exchange. >> and i'm bill griffeth. encouraging news out from germany this morning, keeping the averages on pace for the best january-february gains since 1991. one real potential threat, though, would be to the global economy, it continues to be oil prices. they surged again for a sixth straight session. settled precariously close to $108. we're at $107.93 right now. so far, that's supporting the stock market. but you wonder for how long, mandy. >> let's see how things are standing right now. about an hour to go in the trading day. the dow is currently up

you talk about aig, was insuring a lot.monoline insurers, it never made sense to me to take insurance from a monoline. >> they weren't taking credit default swaps? >> they went from munis to all of these other stuff. >> could they have -- >> they had it reserve, reserves are an estimate, not -- >> you're still coming back to this was kind of a mass hysteria? >> it was a mass -- global, global excess liquidity, pours into places that create asset bubbles, it's been going on for long time. we may be in the beginnings of one now. >> i still have arguments with people that try to blame bankers. and or capitalists. and i say, what do you think bankers are supposed to do? what do you think capitalists are supposed to do? you're always the profit incentive is something that it can cut either way. >> profits and safety are supposed to be balanced. they weren't. >> but they, they somehow thought that they were, no one wants -- you didn't want -- >> you, none of you guys wanted this to happen. >> we're human. >> you're like the pilot

"aig, i mean, they had a lot of credit default swaps. they were leveraging a lot too."to get that first job-- more than perhaps ever before-- they need this class. "it will definiiely make me more &pmarketable.""it's definitely growth area, so i think it's something good to know.""even through the crisis when head couut has been decrrasing, risk management head count is increasing. their nnmbers are larger than they have ever been before. the numbers shock me and i've been in thiss business for a couple of decades."they aren't all out to stave off the next financial crisis.(reporter): "don't these kids just wanna make money?""isn't that hy everyone's in new york? no. i think most of these kids are 22, 23. they're thinking about getting a job, paying back students loans."with starring salaries of around 150 grand for somm-- that shouldn't be a problem. (nats: "if those assists decrease by just 25 percent, and remain on our books, that loss would be greater thaa the current market capitalization of this entire company."the movie margin call highlights the importance of qu

bailed out insurer aig weighed in with a big quarterly profit and sending shares 3% higher after the bell. protecter & gamble cost cutting plans that will eliminate more than 4,000 jobs. apple shareholders were encouraged to hear that the cash flush company is, quote, thinking very deeply about offering dividends this year. >>> it could be the end of 150-year era at niagara falls. the iconic maid of the mist tour boat company has lost its contract to another operator. the maid has a contract on the american side through 2042, but the boats are stored across the border, leaving the company's fate up in the air. >>> coming up, the knicks can't stand the heat. the thunderstorms the lakers. more punting problems for tiger woods. plus, the darling of daytona takes a big hit. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. >>> the weekend forecast will start chilly but a nice warm-up he end. your forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today." >>> good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." >>> in sports, controversy in major league baseball as the tables t

when you look at aig and netflix, less than 20% of the analysts have them ranked as a buy. the other five stocks are 40% or better buys. i like to see when the street has run away from a stock before i come in and pick it up and buy it. in this case, netflix and aig meet that criteria. >> a questionable balance sheet is definitely not something i would look for in a stock. >> right. >> we mentioned alpha natural resources as being one of the top five worst performers from last year. but is actually down this year. but you like this, why? >> i like it for the long term. it will be bumpy for the next couple of months, i think, but the coal industry has really been pummeled this year because of the low natural gas prices, and a switching, as well as weak demand. but you started to see production cuts from a number of companies. alpha also has product cuts. a lot of bad news is already baked in the stock. there reasons i like it for the long term. and one is because they are a maker of high-quality net coal. prices have actually stayed resilient on the high end quality. certain

they made a $19.5 billion loan to aig. that's been paid down. was a $7 billion face value sale of assets along with this $6 billion one. and what the fed is saying is that is enough now to pay off the whole $19.5 billion loan, which obviously had somewhat been paid down. the reason i'm talking a little bit in code is we don't know what the actual proceeds are of the sale. we're telling you the face value of the notes that were sold. we won't get those until, i believe, the first round in april. our ace breaking news editor here, peter, said this is nice. it's like tying up the loose ends. it's good to be alive that they're tying up these loose ends now. this is from the height of the hysteria of the financial crisis. >> steve, brian kelly has something for you on that. >> i have a question. if they released what the assets were and if they were the mortgage-backed securities, that they're going to buy back in q.e. 3 in a couple of months? >> they did not say. but these are residential mortgage-backed securities. that's what's in the portfolio. m

along with a related securities firm who took charge of aig's pepgs sales.ig has allegedly lost corporate pension assets it had been managing for over 80 clients. most have been pension funds representing small and mid sized businesses drawn to aij's claims of returns. that's all for the business report. back to you. >> makiko utsuda, thank you for that, from the nikkei. ross? >>> we'll take a short break. still to come "the artist" swept the board with best picture, best director, meryl streep picked up best actress. we'll have more on the implications for business when we come back. >>> a final thought from patrick. you are holding long asian and emerging markets, simple dollar and you are looking at defendable property margins in light of oil prices. where do we go for gains in equity we've had had so far this year? >> yeah, equities have gained but they're still cheap by most metrics compared to bonds. they look reasonable compared to bonds, they look compelling. exposure to emerging markets, to asia. coca-cola, swatch, things that can offset higher pric

the loss is mainly due to the drop in stock prices of general motors and the insurance company aig. last year the government made $37 billion. betty, getting back to facebook, a lot of investors will be keeping their eyes on that ipo filing possibly today. >> no doubt. indeed. ashley morrison here in new york. thank you. >>> coming up on the morning news, u.s. security officials warn against a growing threat from iran. plus, caught on tape. flaming rescue. cops risk their lives to save the driver of a burning car. you're watching "cbs morning news." - will you marry me? - before saying those words, there's one word every man should know. - leo. - the leo diamond, certified to be visibly brighter, at kay, the number one jewelry store in america. - yes. with a vial and syringe. me, explaining what i was doing at breakfast. and me discovering novolog mix 70/30 flexpen. flexpen is pre-filled with your pre-mix insulin. dial the exact dose. inject by pushing a button. no vials, syringes or coolers to carry. flexpen is insulin delivery my way. novolog mix 70/30 is an insulin used to contro

but they remember vividly what happened after what happened with aig. >> what else is driving trade downre today? >> two main things. it is very positive consumer mood here in germany. due to the positive situation in the german job market. german employees can expect a huge salary increase this year, money they can spin for sure. and a general motors is interested in buying a stake of about 7% of a french carmaker. they are at least in talks. those shares up 10% today. coming to the market numbers, the taxes of about 0.5%. same with the euro stoxx 50. back to you. >> thank you. >> and we stay in frankfurt where management at frankfurt airport are seeking an injunction to prevent a strike by ground staff. it comes from the union representing air traffic controllers when they told members to join the industrial action. the controller stoppage is due to begin on wednesday morning at 5:00 a.m. local time and continue until 11:00 a.m. the strike by ground staff began on sunday, but the deception -- but there is a disruption. >> help has arrived for the cruise ship the day after a fire on boa

bailed out insurer aig weighed in with a big quarterly profit and sending shares 3% higher after theell. >>> consumer powerhouse protecter & gamble cost cutting plans that will eliminate more than 4,000 jobs. apple shareholders were encouraged to hear that the cash flush company is thinking, quote, very deeply about offering dividends this year. >>> it could be the end of a 150-year era at niagara falls. the iconic maid of the mist tour boat company has lost its canadian contract to a u.s. operator which plans to upgrade the aging fleet in 2014. the maid has a contract on the american side through 2042, but the boats are sort of across the border and that's leaving the company's fate up in the air. >>> coming up, the knicks can't stand the heat. the thunder storm the lakers, and more putting problems for tiger woods. the darling of daytona takes a big hit. your first look at sports is straight ahead. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. ard. but i have this new smartphone. and now i can see everything more clearly. ♪ i can organize the analysis. sort through all the data. maybe eve

i believe -- i thinkof the firsf your description around the liquidating -- the options for aig and the liquidation of systemically risky enterprises, failing enterprises is absolutely correct. on the guaranteed money markets, the use of the federal reserve emergency powers or so-called 133 are much more con strained. the view from officials -- they can speak for themselves, but this is my impression. they would feel much more con strained on the use of those powers relative to the fall of 2008, but they do say both current officials and former officials when needed they will come in and save the day. >> let me say to you the chairman of the federal reserve told me yesterday, the chairman of the federal reserve, that he does not believe they would be able to guarantee money market funds as they did in the 2008 crisis. he does not believe. doctor. >> i'm sure he's -- i'm sure that's what he believes. of course, there is the problem or issue we have a very powerful and resourceful country with extremely smart people running the xex tifl branch, which is what you want. there are many innov

could soon come face to face with military grade chemical aig the u.k. government is being asked to clarify its stance on the use of quote in capacitate ing nerve gas although bad for use in warfare there are fears it could be adopted by the british and riot police i read the full story at our c dot com. also on our web site for you a holy war for america enraged catholic priests are preparing for a legal fight with president obama saying that his new health insurance policies are quote assault on religion. washington is sending a top official to egypt to tackle cairo's crackdown on u.s. non profit groups the groups played a pivotal role in the popular uprising but toppled president mubarak last year but are now falling victim to egypt's new military leadership. has been following the events. egypt's new government crackdown on n.g.o.s has raised many questions and they may want to is why now the groups many which funded by washington have been on the ground here for a while they were at the vanguard of the uprising against mubarak that eventually brough

banks are going to make out better than everybody else even if there is a deal for refinancing though aig could not be over then i mean how many people how many private sector investors are going to take this to the courts and push for either c.d.'s or push for repayment or bonds of course i mean why would you do that why wouldn't you push for what you want i mean you want to get the best deal for your input for you as an individual the only investors that are going to actually go with this data are going to be the ones against whom the countries have leverage like the big banks because those are the cons those are the the and it is that will be bailed out potentially if down the line and there's contagion with portugal etc and so forth so there's a quid pro quo there look you help us out you hook us up and we'll make sure that you know everything works out for you in terms of the long term refinancing operation by the e.c.b. in terms of bailouts going forward excessive and so forth sounds a lot sketchy to me you said you think this is going to go through because there's just too much at

last time the dow broke the 13,000 barrier, barack obama was a freshman senator, lehman brothers and aig were still in business, and facebook had fewer than 100 million users. the index has jumped 6% in the eight weeks since new year's day and nearly doubled since bottoming out in march 2 o09. with nearly 165 million americans invested in stocks, mostly through 401(k) retirement accounts, that's likely to boost consumer confidence. >> a more confident consumer is one more likely to spend, and they're willing to look to the future with a bit more optimism. >> i'm unimpressed with the stock market. if the wall street fat cats get richer, that doesn't affect me or my friends. >> reporter: rising stock prices may not mean much for consumers struggling with rising gas and food prices. given all the head winds in the economy, rising energy prices, still concerns about europe, you can't say that 13,000 dow is an all-clear signal. >> reporter: analysts say the biggest hit may be at the pump with forecasters predicting a nationwide average of $3.95 per gallon by memorial day, higher in big cities

and it would have been a transparent see what happened this was all after the taxpayers bailed out aig i.g.s. or technically it's all about how much more money you can get back for the taxpayers to write specifically this is selling a. related assets at the fed oh and that they you know that they held on to close our action which i haven't taken the time to actually look into the law this summer to come apparently i don't think that they actually broke a law here but this is you know this isn't just serious and transparency i mean why would we not want more people bidding on these assets you know that's only going to that's almost certainly only going to drive the price up and if the fed knows something to where if they let this be a public option in the drive the price down well that's probably we should talk about one way or another this is highly problematic and this is on the order of billions of dollars yeah and that was by the way those it was barclays that. it was the only one that it winds up getting sold sold sold to goldman sachs you want to look at some shady things going on

the government still owns a majority stake in aig.p may not be all that popular these days but the government sure seems to like it. they have stepped up purchases making it the biggest, oil fuel supplier following the 2010 spill. crude oil futures are back up again, $108 a barrel. we do have some better than expected news from weekly jobless claims and that helped boost stocks yesterday. jane king for wbal-tv 11 news. >> a lot of teenagers are probably thinking, what movie to want to see? maybe get a jump on it. >> except this movie is not coming out until march. sales even eclipsing "twilight." i will tell you what movie that is. >> i am sure we know nothing about it. >> thank you, jane. >> 46 degrees on tv hill. this is oscar weekend. that does not mean movies take a break. >> a preview when we continue. >> jennifer aniston and paul rudd -- >> we have all of this weekend's major film releases in the box office preview. >> will take care of you. my name is wayne. >> they get a different perspective in "wanderlust." rudd loses his jo

aig head ceo robert bemioneux. he is talking to me. if you don't get fbn -- >> demand it. >> yes. >> greg: hello, everyone. i'm the wee wordsmith, greg gutfeld with delectable defender, kimberly guilfoyle, tough and tender in light blue suspenders, bob beckel. right wing eric bolling and the nation snow globe dana perino. it's 5:00 p.m. in new york city. 1:00 a.m. in my heart. this is "the five." this show is packed tighter than rosie's sweatpants so let's do this america. ♪ ♪ >> greg: the national nightmare is over. it finally got my teeth cleaned but also the last republican debate occurred. we have wanted fireworks and got black snakes instead. all ash, no fire. odd moments like when john king asked the men to name their favorite color. >> courage. >> consistent. >> resolute. >> cheerful. >> greg: i never heard of those color. as usual, newt was newty. >> you are told you have self-esteem, even if you can't read the word self-esteem. >> greg: that is a great line. yet, he still felt out of place, like an ex that keeps showing up at

. >> aig. they had a lot of credit default swaps, they were leveraging a lot too. >> reporter: to get that first job more than perhaps ever before, they need this class. >> it'll definitely make me more marketable. >> it's a growth area. something good to know. >> even through the crisis when head count has been decreasing risk management is increasing. their numbers are larger than ever before. it's shocked me. >> reporter: they aren't all out to prevent the next financial crisis. don't these kids just want to make money? >> isn't that why everyone is in new york? no, i think most of these kids are 22, 23, they're thinking about getting a job, paying back student loans. >> reporter: with starting salaries around 150 grand for some, that shouldn't be a problem. >> if those assets decrease by just 25% and remain on our books, that loss would be greater than the current market capitalization of this entire company. >> reporter: the movie "margin call" highlights the importance of it. the populari

if you have not bail out, for example, aig and citigroup -- citigroup and aig had hundreds of billionsars in contracts with goldman sachs and j.p. morgan chase and very large regional banks. if aig and citi had been allowed to fail, all of those obligations to goldman sachs and j.p. morgan chase and large regional banks also would have gone down. that means those banks would have gone down. we would have had, in effect, a spreading financial crisis. we probably could have had runs on banks. let me explain why. in day two of the financial crisis the government stepped forward and said, we're going to guarantee money market bounces. money market balances are the place where every business keeps its operating capital. had they not guarantee that, businesses would have withdrawn their money-market funds. that would have led to spreading bank failures. i really think it would have been -- we would have seen the kind of banking crisis we saw in 1931-1932 in this country had we not bail out the banks. that does not mean that the bailout we did was the best bailout. there were other ways to do

we have seen this happen for example with aig and general motors.nies saw bonuses given out to supposedly other things. you think they could find somebody to help break up solyndra. >> greta: i picked up a copy of the bankruptcy judge's order, because because i want to see exactly what it was. we want to keep these people. we can't do worse. i looked at what the judge wrote. the court having determined the relief sought bonuses in the motion is in best interests of debtors and creditors and how in the world can that be in the best interests? >> you have to wonder where is occupy wall street right now. where is ows, and the judge at the same time blasted solyndra for giving out bonuses to 7 employees after the company had filed bankruptcy, after it started laying off 1100 workers and was bleeding red ink. is this the way to go for solyndra? is this what needs to be done to basically break up the company and return any kind of assets to the creditors. >> greta: it's so easy to spend other people's money. last night you and i discussed the ridiculous $

aig went under two days after lehman brothers. credit markets fell apart.n sachs and morgan stanley into -- made them bank holding companies. >> at that time you're talking about a nonbank and they didn't have -- they didn't believe they had the system in which to unwind. from thepoint. >> from the banking perspective, we've always had a regime in how to do this through the fdic. so i don't buy that. banks are not too big to fail. >> what would you have done with gm and chrysler? >> those are policy issues. it sure seems to have turned out quite well. >> i know it has. in a perfect world, capitalism doesn't work unless you allow failure. four made it. we made an -- are there times -- there's times to make an exception? >> i think there always are exceptions to every rule. and if you have everything moving one direction -- i'm not being critical of all that happened in 2008. these were scary times. i know today our industry -- in fact, wells fargo has more capital than i think we've had ever in our history. the industry has much more capital. that's one of t

of the market, bill, is that okay this is the way european leaders approach this, no bail outs, no aig-style bail outs just default if you can't pay your bills, then the credibility of the bonds of portugal, spain and italy come under scrutiny. >> we are trying to not get the lehman model, they are trying to make it as orderly as possible. >> have you noticed how attentive all the male traders have been? we have a special guest ringing the close egg bell -- closing bell. >> 48 minutes left in the trading day. the dow down 53 points. >> more social networks. zynga, should you be buying their stock? we have a stock brawl. >> s&p 500 up 7% is it time to take profits overall right now? we'll look at both side of the issue coming up. >>> peter krauss explaining why the volcker rule could hurt investors. >> actively traded stocks at the new york stock ix change. b of a down 3%, citi group, financials are among the weak links. you're watching cnbc first in business world wide, happy valentine's day everybody. [ male announcer ] the draw of the past is a powerful thing. but we couldn't simply repeat