we are waiting for alcoa, and expecting ten cents. this is a transitional quarter for alcoa. the big numbers for alcoa coming in the second half of the year where they are expecting a bigger turn around and am llumi prices up more, but that is the problem with demand weak, but the aluminum prices are holding. and it is the worst performer on the dow is alcoa, and we will get their earnings in a moment. and looking at other material names, maria and i looked at free portds and other materials names, and there you see most of them finishing the day to the downside. how about the big deal at the independent energy sector? and independent energy producers mirant, and genon and demand has created problems for the independent energy producers and we will keep an eye on that for you. let's move on and talk about the banks of ubs announcing better than expected earnings. and looks like stronger than expected income, and this will help a lot of the banks in the united states including companies like goldman sachs which also had a relatively good day. finally, i want to note rail cars

alcoa's not been participating. look at freeport, look at all the different names we talk about in the material space. 50-some-odd percent of their revenue come from the u.s. that will be the -- >> we'll go deeper. we'll check in with dennis gartman in just a couple minutes on alcoa. meantime let's bring in gary kaminsky who's standing by in englewood cliffs, that magical place we know as our headquarters. >> e.c. >> e.c., gary kaminsky-u heard joe and pete asparring a bit but my question to you -- >> first thing is welcome back from the vacay. and second thing is pete, that's an awesome tan. and third thing, karen is right. i've been -- for 20 years alcoa has always had an issue. you talk about every market cycle, it always has an issue every quarter. >> all right. so is this different this time around? >> it is. >> the last earnings season alcoa really started the start of some sort of a market correction. do you think we're going to see the same sort of trading this time around? >> i do not. and if you recall bac

on alcoa. meantime let's bring in gary kaminsky who's standing by in englewood cliffs, that magical place we know as our headquarters. >> e.c. >> e.c., gary kaminsky-u heard joe and pete asparring a bit but my question to you -- >> first thing is welcome back from the vacay. and second thing is pete, that's an awesome tan. and third thing, karen is right. i've been -- for 20 years alcoa has always had an issue. you talk about every market cycle, it always has an issue every quarter. >> all right. so is this different this time around? >> it is. >> the last earnings season alcoa really started the start of some sort of a market correction. do you think we're going to see the same sort of trading this time around? >> i do not. and if you recall back in january, melissa, i thought that the nasdaq was ripe for a correction right after earnings season. if you remember, where we were this time january, you had good earnings, bad stock action, and then you had that nice nasdaq correction. the differen

alcoa is going to reflect that in its earnings report. we're talking about roughly 10 cents a share here. the bad news is the demand for aluminum still remains weak. a lot of people are pointing that out. on friday jp morgan downgraded alcoa largely on exactly that point. they announced last week charges on plant shutdowns. i think that would come off of the bottom line there. also note health care tax treatments as well. there's alcoa. see for the last three months, kind of looks good. it's not. actually, it's the worst performer in the dow jones industrial average, down about 9% for the quarter. they're having a tough time moving out of their rut as alum numb prices have been slowly coming off that bottom. there's the big airlines. head of the international air transport association came out early and said we've got to have mergers in flies. companies have got to keep talking. that's moved up u.s. air. ual allegedly had discussions last week. larry, if you saw the comment from the airline pilots last week, they sort of put the ka bosh o

last time we when down on alcoa, didn't have good earnings. so earnings do start next week, the majority of them are gonna be after expiration. so i think we're gonna have some slow movement on monday or tuesday, maybe will pick up we have alcoa earnings. we have google earnings out next week as well. the majority of them are after expiration. so expect more movement in may then we have seen in april. thank you very much, have a terrific weekend. and that's it for todays show - thanks for joining us everyone.. have a great weekend...we'll see you monday.

still, alcoa says its markets are gradually improving. the stock has yet to regain the level it was at before its fourth quarter results back in january. mondays are living up to their reputation for merger announcements. electricity generators mirant and r.r.i. energy are teaming up. the market likes the combination with both stocks rallying nicely. the two sell their electricity based on market prices and they don't own public utilities. at the closing prices, the deal values mirant at $12.84 per share. by the way, the new company will be called genon energy. this deal is as much about natural gas as it is anything else. as prices have dropped, along with electricity demand, so has the market price of electricity. the deal allows mirant and r.r.i. to combine headquarters and other systems, saving money. there's a couple of other deals in energy, these rooted in oil. conoco phillips is getting more than $4.6 billion for its stake in a canadian oil sands development. china petroleum and chemical is the buyer. it's the biggest energy purch

alcoa's been hurt since it reported last. but the two markets that failed to hit their targets last quarter, aerospace and industrial gas turbines, are at the beginning finally of long positive cycles. this company has immense cash flow and cost controls. the amount of money that could be made here as the economy continues to turn is impossible to ignore despite the fact that two firms downgraded it this week. i want you to watch this one closely, pay special attention to what they have to say about energy costs. after the street dumps on it, which it's going to do, maybe pick some up. as i expect both businesses to be strong in the second half. importantly, we will get our initial financial report card from the two major banks this week that i am watching, jpmorgan on wednesday and bank of america on friday. these companies will tell a much stronger story than a year ago. jpmorgan remains my favorite bank and actionalertsplus.com name, my charitable trust. jamie dimon is a great ceo. it's got terrific depth, market share, an

alcoa was the biggest percentage loser of the dow industrials, losing more than 1% on about three times its normal volume. but it wasn't all disappointment for industrial earnings today. fastenal sells industrial and construction supplies. stronger first quarter were driven by manufacturing, which brings in about half of fastenal's revenue. the stock rallied to a new 52-week high and is now less than $1 away from an all-time high. a few others, meantime, are resetting expectations ahead of their earnings reports in the weeks to come. fertilizer maker c.f. industries warned that its first quarter sales will be disappointing. it also plans to sell stock and issue new debt, raising money to pay for its acquisition of terra industries. tennant makes industrial cleaning supplies. it raised its quarterly and full year outlook, leading to a nice stock rally. while the market awaits j.p. morgan earnings tomorrow, the biggest bank in puerto rico provided for some outsized gains on huge volume. popular jumped almost 15% and was the most actively traded nasdaq stock. it is raising $900 million thr

on monday, alcoa kicks off the first quarter's earnings season. later in the week, we'll see results from bank of america, general electric, google and j.p. morgan. monday, u-s/china relations. we'll look at the currency and trade issues, as the leaders of both countries meet. >> susie: netflix customers who want to see popular movies like "avatar" will have to wait even longer. today, the online movie rental company and twentieth century fox signed a new distribution deal: it includes a 28-day delay on new releases. in exchange, fox will provide some of its television shows to netflix for internet streaming for the first time. fox's blockbuster "avatar" will be among the first films to be released under this agreement. >> tom: restaurant chain california pizza kitchen has an order in for a new owner! the "wall street journal" reports the company is on the auction block, soliciting interest from buyers including private equity firms. that news sent shares up 14% today or $2.56 to close at $20.74. california pizza kitchen is not commenting on a pot

we have your trade on alcoa ahead of its release tonight. stay tuned. >>> the first read of corporate america's balance sheet. alcoa kicks off earnings season and we have the analysis from the commodities king himself. turning pizza into profit. domino's risen 70% year to date. why investors can't get enough of his stock. "fast money" 5:00 eastern on cnbc. >> welcome back to the "fast money" halftime report. alcoa earnings, what is the play ahead of this sneamp tim, we are are seeing heavy on the stock. >> referencing john's highly technical term chump, you would have been a chump. i think aluminum prices are on the rise. i think you can buy this stock after the earnings cheaper. >> you got mr. t in there once again. around the horn, grasso, what do you say? >> buying the market, market is higher come friday. >> don't get in the way of a relentlessly dripping up market. >> i like the upside today as well so i'm long. >> i think 1,200 on the s&p will be broken today. >> that does it for us. on "fast money" we have 360 degree setup for j.p. mo

we started off gangbusters, and then we hit the wall with alcoa. we've got alcoa's earnings next week. volatilities are likewise. exactly breaking through to lows of the multimonth segment. so i'm a little watching that, but i'm also seeing a lot of institutions buying puts to protect. i'm not seeing people exit the market. >> but if volatility was so cheap and people could then step in and buy and protect themselves, why wouldn't volatility be higher? this is kind of my point. i mean, people think that the market actually is so low vol they'll just kind of drift higher they don't even want to spend what it takes to buy the -- >> i know what you're saying, tim, but i'm telling you, today it was about 53% of the puts that i was tracking broad market were being bought on the offer. that's five full percentage points above where it was this time last week. those are people protecting ahead of the alcoa earnings because it's so cheap, and then if they do get an up side rally, if the same-store sales numbers tomorrow are good they can sell up side calls

already this morning alcoa's report dragged down china and european markets. later today quartererly reports by intel and they are expecting a substantial rise if profit. also reporting earnings today an annapolis-based southern bank corps. according to united health group and well points are fighting the obama administration requiring insurers to spend 80% of revenue on actual health care. >> the rival the university of maryland the meeting and conference planners are starting to shun hotels and instead homeding them on college campuses the reason is simple hosting a conference at a college is cheaper. at the new york stock exchange, wbal-tv 11 news. >> in this morning's "woman's doctor," knee injuries are more common to women, in fact injuries to the a.c.l. are 3-8 times moore common especially true in female athletes. donna hamilton 134r5eu7bs why and what can be done to prevent them. >> women play sports more than ever and also have more knee injuries like 21-year-old sarah, during a routine. >> when i came down the second time my knee popped and i fell to

i think alcoa's report is the epitome of that model. profits are improving, but nothing on the top line. >> retches grew 17% overother over. >> relative to expectations -- >> 17% is the big number for a large company like that. >> i could make the argument that wire commodity is strong, too. take farmers in china accumulating copper, all sorts of natural resources. the chinese themselves are stockpiling ahead of what they foresee as trouble ahead. i don't know if that's necessarily a positive sign. >> james, the national bureau of economic research, which is the arbiter of business cycles, they call the beginning and end of recessions. they're usually late. they didn't call the recession until late 2008. but they did say today that it's too soon to call an end to the recession. this morning we have marty feldsteen on, a very distinguished professor at harvard, and i'm going to quote -- the risk xhi economy could still drop down again. how do you react to what marty said and the national bureau's refusal to call an end to the recession?

forget about alcoa, it is transports and financials. we've had great moves up. csx will be after the bell here. problems is we'll hear good things. but the stocks went up 25% in two months. all the big transports have run up because some of the little transport names have had positive things to say. there are small carriers out there, regional rail carriers out there. genesee, wyoming. regional runs in ohio and pen, steel shipments and things like that. they had positive carload shipments in march. this is the kind of stuff the street looks for. railamerica did as well. we haven't seen that in a long, long time. that's one of the reasons the street has been long transports. finally on the banks, all of them have had nice runs up recently because we are hoping to hear positive comments from them overall about loan loss provisions. i'm not so sure we'll hear that from them. >>> now let's play a special version of "pick and play." as the dow flirts with the all-important 11,000 level, how are our traders playing that headline and one other we have carefully selecte

clearly we have a kick off to earnings season and alcoa kicking that off. it was downgraded for the second time this week today and that raises concerns that earning season may get off to a whimper, you know, rather than a bang. alcoa is expected by a couple firms at least on wall street to deliver disappointing earnings report. >> some discretionary stocks and retailers -- >> coming off where we had better than expected retail numbers. i want to touch on where you look at some of these stocks. jcpenney was upgraded after raising guidance yesterday. you'll see it's a standout on that chart to the upside is jcpenney, trish? >> larry, i'll kick it back over to you. >> all right, trish. >>> day three of the financial crisis inquiry committee hearings into the financial meltdown. today's focus the gses and the people left holding that bag at fannie mae. diana olick joins us from washington with the very latest. hello, diana. >> hello, larry. blame it on private label securities and that is wall street getting heavy into the mortgage market. that is the message

and now i think that everything is going to come down to earnings season which kicks off monday with alcoa, and as we said that stock was downgraded a couple of times this week, so i would say there is a little psychological impact that could be right off of the bat here in the earnings season that we may get a disappointing report from alcoa, which is at least what some on wall street expect, and the impact going forward. >> well, the expectations have been drop and people have the expectations high out there with the downgrades and they have come back to earth more. scott, stick around, because we know you have been doing a lot of work on the market, and we will get back to you on the 11,000 milestone and where the market could be headed from here. joining me is the chief investment strategist from richard james, and also richard sparks and matt nesto, and scott wapner next to me on set, and richard, let me kick this off with you, you are looking at the market trade higher certainly in the last six or eight months and now at 11,000, and just below it, would you put new money to work in t

you can see alcoa off 2.5%. walmart is up 11 cents and gaining .02%. and hear how the techs are trading, and we want to share the technologies and the nasdaq losing ground today and microsoft trading down .04% and intel off 1%, and ibm is the bright spot, but it is moving to the flatline. and we are coming right back with the closing countdown. >> and the war on wall street, and we will breakdown if politics were behind the news to charge goldman sachs with fraud. that is minutes away. we are cnbc first in business worldwide. es two jobs... at onc. one: kills weeds to the root. two: forms a barrier, preventing new ones for up to four months. roundup extended control. so, at national, i go right past the counter... and you get to choose any car in the aisle. choose any car? you cannot be serious! okay. seriously, you choose. go national. go like a pro. >>> okay. welcome back, everyone. we are certain i will seeing some resilience from the traders and a dow off 120 points, but we want to point out it was down 170 earlier in the session, so a little bit o

first quarter earnings season begins with alcoa report, hear from intel, bank of america, jpmorgan chase and general electric. ge is the parent of the company that produces this broadcast. it will be a busy week for earnings. monday, the white house begins a two-day nuclear security

alcoa sales missed what the street was expecting and wall street said that could set the tone for thereporting season. >> twitter, they are no longer ad free. they will start displaying advertisements from companies like starbucks, best buy. there is no doubt it is popular. lately, there are questions about how the site will make money. >>> taking a look at the markets and alcoa shares, they were down about 1%. they are down about 2% now. the overall markets down by 7 points. 10,999. >>> a bit of an update. golf smith and calloway golf were banking on phil mickelson's golf. they will refund customers who bought specific golf clubs in early april. it is part of a promotion. it will cost them $1 million. you can see that is working out for them. his whole some image is taking the spotlight. >> talk about two totally different golfers personally. >> very different images. >> there you know, his wife, amy, fighting breast cancer. that kiss, boy, tells it all. that's what it is all about. >> thanks, steph. >>> let's take you live. the president of the united states. this is it. the class p

and then i added in the potential bankruptcy of alcoa. >> the house of pain. >> sell, sell, sell! >> for good measure. you've got to admit those are pretty dire assumptions. and you know what? even under those ghastly conditions, with all of those bankruptcies, going to zero situations, i still could not get us a low that took us down significantly from where prices already were. from the moment i made that call, remember, it was a bottoms-up call. i didn't say that i liked the market a. i said, look, i add all these up, and i take a minus three and minus three and minus five, and people were calling me crazy, but i could not get the dow prediction lower. and people said i had no idea what i was talking about. but a month later, with the dow 1,500 points higher, those people were still there. they were still sending me e-mails that were even more impassioned, even more angry, claiming that it was still way too soon to tell whether we were going to get a bottom and who was i to say it? now, if you find yourself making that argument, you are probably digging in your heels when i thi

you have tax selling, and coinciding with first quarter earnings and alcoa is out next week. >> it is. >> and earnings better the than expected news offset what you are expecting? >> well, the next problem we will have is that the expectations a s ars are no lon the companies will be earning, but expect they will be. for a while we have been living by that, and right now expectations are high, and you will see a little disappointment, but it does not mean that the rally dies, but it does mean that the market could soft nen ten in the coming weak >> dan, is michael right about that? >> well, we could certainly see a pullback, maria, in the 5% or 6% area, but doubt 10%. we have seen 9% already in the recent push that we have had and found a lot of support, there and i think that the bottom line is that as we go forward looking for the full year, the earnings are strong. we will see 30%-plus earnings for the fourth quarter and certainly we will see overall for the first quarter this year, and 30% this year, and trading at a 15 pe, so this is an earnings driven market, and we won't blow t

results tonight from aluminum giant alcoa, the first of many big companies reporting. >>> the tap forut may be much less than previously thought. the "wall street journal" reports the treasury department expects the cost to reach $89 billion, 40% less than the s & l crisis in the '80s and '90s. this includes the bank bailout, fha loan guarantees and the fed's mortgage buying program. a year ago, the office pegs costs at $250 billion. >>> you've probably noticed it's costing you more to fill up your car. the latest survey showed regular unleaded up nearly four cents. to a national average of $2.85 a gallon. analysts say retailers are passing on more of the costñr o higher oil prices to consumers. highway it is a pain in the pocketbook, higher prices does mean things are economically picking up. so it's a good sign and a macro economic sense that the demand for oil is higher, then we're producing more. overall it's a good thing but hurts in the immediate term. i understand it. >> i hate to see it when i drive up to the pump the gas. have a great day. hope have you good weather up in the

. >> does that mean when we start to get alcoa and everybody next week, that earnings season is going to be very strong? >> it's magic in corporate america in terms of producing earnings. top line revenue growth is now coming on. they're going overseas. many s&p 500 companies could get money and they're keeping the labor costs way down, which is part of why we have so far the joblessness. >> for so long, we were talking about profit seems to be only coming from cost cutting. richard, sound wonderful. are we going to finally get 11,000 here? what's the hold up? >> i think we're going to go through the 11,000 and the 1200 on the s&p. the issue that we're going to have going into next week, mitchell, is that people are expecting the earnings to be good. it's going to be the outlook. and the two things that we have to look at, especially with alcoa, is you're going to start to see the demand equation. the issue is going to be this $85 oil. are the energy users going to start to warn that they have pressure from energy prices? it may not happen this quarter if energy prices stay this high,

dow component alcoa said to report after the bell. intel, google, general electric and jpmorgan chase. thompson reuter s predicts that combined profit for s&p 500 companies will rise 38.6 percent first from a year ago. preannouncements indicate more positive outlook than average and fewer negative ones. we've had big moves in the averages and people say you get two straight months up, as much as we've been up, that there is some good news. >> -- figures? can you guys roll earnings central again? it's a fancy new -- look. look at that. >> whoa. >> and did you see what's behind your shoulder? >> no. >> a brand-new set for earnings central. this big blue thing that's back there. >> who is manning that? >> i think we are. >> some very confident -- >> we're not. are we? again? >> i think we are. i don't know. nobody's -- we've both been out for a week. >> if carl is not part of it. >> he's on assignment. >> he's on assignment. because it's not a team. >> that's a fancy new set. good to see you. you were out last week. >> good to see you. i

not even a disappointing report from aluminum producer alcoa. the dow gained 13 points closing at 11,019, nasdaq added .3%. the commerce department said that the u.s. trade deficit grew in february. >>> and social net working site twitter announced plans to roll out an ad platform. the site is now looking for a way to profit from its immense popularity. when you do a search on the site, sponsored tweets will show up at the top of the search ruts page if they connect to the item you're searching for. sony and best buy will be among the first of the advertisers. they will be call promoted tweets. >> it's been 14 months, since little haylee cummings vanished from satsuma, florida. >>> the search for haleigh cummings seems to be heating up right now. it's focusing on areas near her father's hometown of satsuma. specifically near a river near her home. she would have turned 5 in 2009, she's 6 now. authorities say they are acting on a tip, but they won't elaborate. >> reporter: have you found haleigh. >> no, we have not found haleigh. >> reporter: hav

bond issue in the next month hoping to raise between 25 $5 billion and $$25 billion alcoa joining the parade of companies to the tune of $80 million. michelle? >> lots of fire, julia. directed at the t.a.r.p. program and mary thompson says it's turning out to be profitable for the feds. >> some of the profits easing the t.a.r.p. pain and two parts are proving positive. those aimed at financial firms. snl financial tallied up on firms that repaid t.a.r.p. and found the treasuries received an annual return on 8.5% on these investments. over 400 banks and financial firms borrowed $244 billion through t.a.r.p.'s capital purchase program and the targeted investment program which was set for citi and bank of america. intended to strength on the financial system and bolster bank's balance sheets but it seems it's bolstering the treasuries, too. snl looked at 49 firms including morgan stanley and sachs that have paid $18 billion repaid in treasuries. netting $5.6 billion in profits from the sell of the company's warrants. even after factoring in t.a.r.p. money the company is up $10 billion an

alcoa will kick it off. this is sort of the demarcation line, this is the dmz.ape. savannah and mike, i hope you do that this afternoon. >> yeah, i'm going to get right on that. portfolio, that's like those notebooks we used to have in fourth grade. remember those, snairn you guys probably don't. sorry -- >> we didn't have pencils or paper when i was in grade school. we used to do it with charcoal. >> i still do it that way. >> erin, let me ask you, how much ketchup does mark haynes have today on his potato chips next to you? we keep seeing his hand. >> it's david faber's hands because haynes is off this week. i want to tell the story of haynes being off. last week i was in the middle east and haynes was going to be off and they wouldn't let him off. they said in exchange, you get a few extra days and take this week. haynes was a good sport and did it. so haynes and mike, as you know, only haynes would get this. he gets the sunny 90-degree week in the middle of april, three days off. he made off like a bandit as only haynes can. >> the sunny week would go with h

alcoa reported a smaller first quarter loss than a year ago.tted from higher metal prices and greater demand, but the issue is sales missed expectations. wall street fears it could set the tone for the reporting season. twitter is no longer ad-free. the micro blogging site will start displaying advertisements. no question they are popular but there are questions about how they will make money. now companies like sony pictures, best buy and starbucks will have banner ads. they can pay for tweets also that will go to the top of search results. some of america's meat producers say now is the time to stock up for barbecue season. pork and beef futures are trading at 52-week highs and headed higher because producers cut the herds when the recession hit and people slowed spending. while it may be winter in montana, they're talking about summertime. >> i can almost smell it. we're looking at pictures here of barbecue. >> exactly. >> all right. thank you very much. appreciate it. >> sure. >>> hey, the apollo xiii astronauts got together and we have hig

tomorrow investors will react to the just released earnings of alcoa. and later this week we'll hear from general electric, intel and bank of america. it's about to get busy around these parts, michelle? >> yes, it is, so you keep exercising and drink your war, stay hydrated. >>> there is still no signs of the missing 11-year-old girl in florida. her name is nadya bloom, he disappeared last week. we're going to talk about the latest issues with jane velez-mitchell, that's next. >>> want to tell you about a story we are following, rescue workers are said to be focused on a wooded area, they are trying to find a girl who's missing in florida. we're expecting an update from local police, a press conference, we're going to keep our eye on that situation, bring it to you live when it happens, we're getting information that nadia's sister was telling authorities that she was reading a book on joud adventures. she's 11 years old, her parents say she was mildly autistic and she was also taking pictures with a new camera. this is a very big search. more than 150