>>> tonight on "nightline" -- inside apple. for the first time ever, we open the doors to the factory where all your i-things begin. where the sleek gadgets that have transformed your lives and revolutionized technology, are brought to life. >> okay. okay. >> i-factory. amid reports of unfair practices. it's become a line of controversy. with complete access to apple workers there, i'll tell you what they say about this mysterious place. >>> and walking the line. get an unprecedented glimpse of the birthplace of your iphone. meet the people who built it. maybe you'll just think differently about america's most popular, and the world's most valuable brand. >> announcer: this is a special edition of "nightline," i-factory, inside apple. >>> good evening. i'm bill weir. so, how does a garage start-up become the most valuable company in the world? well, apple computer did it by selling 93 million iphones last year. and 40 million ipads. and the only reason they didn't sell more is that they can't make them fast enough. but that rel

and apple and foxconn

when it comes to apple options. mike, the equivalent of 100 million shares traded in the options pits. >> these are really staggering numbers when you think about it. those are big numbers. but we're talking about a $500 stock. that really is much bigger still. this would be like a billion call options trading on a $50 stock if you want to think of it that way. what tim was saying was interesting, although i don't know that much of the options activity we're seeing is necessarily trying to play apple out or under performance relative to the market. i will tell you this. most of the people doing this are making trades on a very short-term basis. and all of the options activity, most of it is feb options that expire on friday. they're playing the call options. i think people are really using apple right now as a trading medium. which is interesting for a stock that size. >> that's what karen was doing early on in the session. >> yeah. we sold some apple. it was ridiculous. i couldn't agree with what joe says more. the

i'm a backer of apple. i'm a seller of rim. >> coming up, liquid profits with oil hovering at nine-month highs, could this domestic driller continue to pump out mad money for your portfolio? cramer's exclusive with eog resources' ceo is next. later -- >> will apple go higher? >> cramer is turning to the technicals to see if the tech wonder is poised for a pullback or if it can climb higher on an all new edition of "off the charts." plus, trash talk? could one man's trash become your treasure? don't miss cramer's exclusive with the ceo of waste management just ahead. when bp made a commitment to the gulf, we were determined to see it through. here's an update on the progress. we're paying for all spill related clean-up costs. bp findings supports independent scientists studying the gulf's environment. thousands of environmental samples have been tested and all beaches and waters are open. and the tourists are back. i was born here, i'm still here and so is bp. >>> the next time you go to fill up your gas tan

i'm out of apple. i got out of apple yesterday. got to tell you, scott, it feels good to be out of apple because it subsequently has a rally. >> it feels good to be out of apple relative to being short apple. >> oh, absolutely. and obviously, fund -- i never said fundamentally the right trade is to be short apple. technically as a trader you look for these potential little setups in the marketplace. most of the times they don't work out. the key is just to lose a little bit. that's the trick of it all. >> just to echo what joe is saying it's obviously important. if a market is going to trend up and you want to take some negative bets, the only way you're going to do it appropriately is the way joe's done it being very clear the way you stop that. doesn't mean that the market is going to continue to go up. it means as it's trending up the risk/reward, as opposed to last year where it was all skewed to the downside. everything was going down. the risk/reward is skewed to the upside. >> it's one of the reasons why the market is meltin

apple pie, big sheik antique bowls of wooden apples, read and golden, apples pencils, produce framed on the library wall, texas vegetables from the rio grand empire. i am an american first, then a texan he would say not understanding he sounded like auggi march. the clues are there, i later realized. a man's fate is his character. you always have to show off and tell us what you know, carl said. i'll be in washington next week i say. i have an interview, i have to close of peace. you promised me, you said you would stay away from washington state. you sat right here and said you would not go to the cascades. he yells as loudly as i have ever heard him. washington, d.c. i shout back. i have the trait as well. [laughter]. >> as you are thinking about that, i would like to ask you to give us one more. there are 2 completely surprising and interesting substories woven through this narrative of your brother, 1, your fabulous aunt character in mexico getting frosty into mexico and running around with frita caller and your discovery of apples? >> this is astonishing, are we talking about th

apple being a big component. if we start to see some topping out and decline, certainly apple is going to feel the pain. i'm sort of in a middle ground. waiting for a bit of a pull-back to get into apple. i think you have to treat it as a separate basket in your portfolio. >> let's hit our call of the day. more pain for bank of america, as yet another firm downgrades the stock. yesterday it was citi, today it's bernstein research, citing valuation and a lack of earnings power. josh brown, what's the trade here? because you've had a phenomenal gain so far this year. on b.a.c. >> you've had a phenomenal gain until you back the chart up a little bit. and understand the fact that this stock is still way down. if you were involved in it almost at any point in the first, second or third quarter of 2011. i don't think there's anything here to talk about. it's a big fat, widely held stock. i know a lot of people are concerned with it. there's nothing that's going to come along to reinvigorate the money center bank busine

no dividend for apple shareholders. investors were hoping that apple would announce today its first ever dividend payment at its big annual meeting. with apple sitting on $100 billion in cash, shareholders have been clamoring for a dividend. this was the first question from the floor to c.e.o. tim cook at the meeting held at the company's headquarters in cupertino, california. cook responded, "we're thinking very deeply about the question. the board wants to do what's best for shareholders. please have patience." looks like investors are holding out-- apple shares surged almost $4, closing at $516.39. >> susie: our guest tonight thinks apple stock could hit $585 this year. he's scott sutherland, research analyst covering wireless for wedbush securities. scott, nice to you have with us. >> great, thanks for having me, susie. >> susie: so what is holding apple back from paying a dividend? item reluctance? >> i think maybe two things. one, there is a process they have to go through. and i think they're being very methodica

i take a look at names like apple for example. i think you can buy options at reasonable prices in names like that. for example a three month at the money put in the s&p, about a week ago would have cost about 3.7% of the index. now it's about 4.25. that's a 20% increase for the price of that option. so the cost is more expensive. but i think some of the bigger names where people haven't expressed as much concern, the volatility has been very low. the prices also remain low. >> with that said, it might be a good time to think about putting on an options trade on apple. looks like the stock is destined for a date. so dan, what's your view here? >> this is tough. we were sitting on tuesday on "fast money" talking about how i was buying the february 460 puts. trying to buy puts in apple this week was like living through a johnny cash song. right up until today's closing bell. so to me i tried taking a shot here. but what i want to do now is looking to march. they're going to have this ipad event. last year they introduced ipad 2. the

apple touching 500 next week. you can take a shot. >> and the protection you want to buy is the put spread in nike. thanks for watching. see you next week.

so this shows the dependency on apple. i would tend to look at the deterioration. >> good to speak with you. doug kass. nice words on your blog. >> apple right now makes up about 4% of the spx. 10% of the xlk. when you own other things, you don't have to own apple to have exposure to it. your ira that sort of thing that you don't keep a close eye on. >> as apple investors wait on a dividend decision, let's get to slow trades. compiled a list of those stocks that managed to rain through dividends. the list includes an energy name, utilities no surprise. health care, no surprise. emerson is one that you have been looking at outside of the dividend. >> comes in about 3.1%. so this was a fantastic story in basically the beginning of '09 and 2011 when the stock went from 25 to 62. since then we've seen more than a bit of a selloff down to 40. but seems like the stocks on the next leg up. through earnings. reported the first quarter. wasn't great. the guidance wasn't great. but i think the valuation was such enough where this on

apple doing pretty well. they also did that acquisition they put them square in the face of google and facebook. so there are a lot of reasons why akamai is moving to the upside >> and facebook is the other driver. i was talking about this over at the green room at the nasdaq a little bit ago. and that is one of the stocks -- facebook, that is driving a lot of the content time delivery over the internet. netflix does work with facebook in 47 countries, just not this one yet. and the fact that these guys want this streaming content, akamai is one of the ways they get it. >>> we are waiting to hear from president barack obama on the foreclosure deal. we'll go to that live when it happens. >>> up next, we'll play some buy, sell, and hold. >>> plus, is oracle's ceo larry ellison becoming the king of the cloud? >>> and stick around to find out who is daring to buy shares of diamond foods on its 40% plunge. lots more "fast money halftime report" half is on the way. >>> want to beat the street? you better tweet the

clearly apple has an installed fan base. price continues to be an important component. >> hey, colin, here is where i think apple can sneak up on you. corporations are opening up both their networks in terms of their pcs to apple products, as well as moving away frommed blackberry to the iphone. so that obvious, that corporate option hasn't been in apple's backyard except for a few select industries. i think you could see growth there. and i'm happy to still be there. i don't own the stock. >> but, el know the enterprise story i think is pretty well known. >> to put some perspective into these numbers, everyone was talking about air force will be buying some ipads, but these are some drops in the bucket. apple remains very much consumer driven. i'm not saying it's a sell, right? there's plenty of great things, but given the run that's happening, we would exercise caution. >> colin, great to have you on the show as always. >> grasso, you're trading for the biggest institution, if anything, some say it's the law of large numbe

apple's. >> that's right. on a percentage basis they had a great 2010, pullback in 2011 and back full guns. >> that's it for "power lunch." thank you very much for watching. "street signs" begins right now. >>> welcome to "street signs." i'm brian sullivan. well, the greek debt deal close tore being done, rioters aren't though. and the wild ride for your money may not be over either. the eurozone politics to a hard landing in china, we'll look at what might be the next wild card for this wild market. here at home, we're betting on recovery. all this week we are digging into companies and stocks in the front lines of american business. today it's automatic, but it's not ford or gm. and apple, $500. if apple's in the dow, we'd be at around 15,000. can anything stop this force of nature, mandy? >> hello, everybody. this is what else we're watching at this hour. president obama unveils a proposed $3.8 trillion budget that aims to cut $4 trillion from the fiscal deficit over the next decade. meantime americans are

apples to apples -- that's a bad one to say -- apples to apples, that shouldn't be the question. >> talk rising tenses in the middle east, refinery outages all contributing. how high can gas prices go? joe petrowski joins us in a first on cnbc interview. always good to see you, joe. good morning. >> good morning, carl. >> people have been talking about an epic summer for gas prices. are with el in for a rough time? >> you havely i think we are, with the refinery closings on the east coast. some financial problems and refineries in europe, and really nothing we're doing about dampening demand or switching to natural gas in the u.s. now we hear -- and natural gas wells are being shut in. i think we're going to approach $4 this summer. >> $4 this summer, placing crews -- what baseline on crude? >> well, especially on the east coast brent at 118 to $120 is priced in the east coast. i think brent could go into the 130 to 35 range maybe. >> the saudi pring talked to our network last week and said the saudis at least are trying to keep thing below or after $100 a barrel. >> i would like us to b

when apple gets to the levels it's at now, everyone loves to talk about how apple is so cheap. it is appealing on a ratio basis. but it's the largest market cap company out there on any list of exchanges. in fact if you look at some of the price targets that people have out there, $670, that gives you a $630 billion cap. i spent sometime going through looking through history. there is no precedent of any tech company hitting that valuation. i'm not saying it can't happen but the fact that there is no precedent at all, microsoft's high was about 587 on december 31st of 1999. cisco's high $487 billion april 29th of 2000. have you to be concerned about it. large numbers kicking up for apple. >> good to have you on the show as always. >> thank you. >> if the market is expecting a dividend, the options market doesn't appear to be pricing one in. >> no, not at all. looking at the january, 2013 option. that is almost a year from now. those options are not even pricing in much of a difficult den dend at all. maybe 50 cents. doesn't seem like their cash is going to go toward dividends.

we have carrot cake and caramel apple. >> caramel apple. >> okay, good. >> hard to believe it's apple cider vinegar. >> how is it? >> tastes good. caramel cakey. >> a good observation. >> chef cantu's kids are crazy about the berry. would his customers feel the same way? it was a risk, this modern day willie wonka was more than happy to take. >> if we're not risking anything, we're probably not innovating. >> earlier he launched experimental dinner series he calls flafrt tripping on ice. >> it's a result of over seven years of hard work, research and development, a ton of money, and a whole lot of lawyer time. originally ing was going to be an all flavor tripping experience right from the beginning. that probably would have sunk the restaurant telling people right when they sit down, by the way, everything in this menu you see isn't going to taste what you think it's going to taste like. it's doing to taste like that in the beginning. but in the end it's going to change flavors. >> is that a lemon? >> it's a lemon. >> it doesn't taste lemony. it taste sweeter. >> really we had to lear

dell and apple, while i love them and i'm long apple my concern is they have had had parabolic moves and they do not end well. it has to come down and then i'd be interested in buying more. >> coming up, gene muenster of piper jaffray. we'll see how he is on that name and others as well. >>> this ad ran during the super bowl. >> this country can't be knocked out in one punch. we get right back up again and when we do the world is going to hear the roar of our engines. yeah, it's halftime america and our second half's about to begin. >> here's what clintest wood had to say earlier on cnbc about the backlash that ad has been getting. >> the average man or woman on the street took it for exactly what it was, it was a core message for america, it's half way through the recession, let's work our way out of it. >> so is it half time in america, and is it halftime for the rally in stocks? you can see this, 80% of stocks are up 50% or more since the march bottom. 57% of stocks have more than doubled, 3% of stocks have declined. doc? >> well, i liked the message, because you know, certainly w

apple's returns are very concentrated. if you look over the last couple of years, the maturity of the outperformance has occurred in very small periods. and you don't want to miss them. so i would encourage investors, given what a great secular story this is, to stay long the stock. >> it's really hard to find someone who's bearish on apple. i'm sure there's a bear case out there. unfortunately, i have another bull here. you have a buy and a target of $635. why? >> yeah, some of the reasons that tony mentioned. there's going to be everything -- we think competition is benign. we think there is one way to the estimates. by the time we get towards the end of the year, probably looking at $50 per share this year's earnings and $60 per share for next year's earnings. there could be dividends and share buybacks. the combination should get us closer to our price target. >> talking of dividends. i'm wondering how much of your price target of $600 with an outperform rating is based on the fact that you do mrooef there will be a di

you know the story about apple?ge company, they have announced that an audit by a third party organization at factories where it's products are made, iphones, ipads are assembled in china. suppliers will give the auditors what they say unrestriked access. since 2007, violations include excessive overtime, under-age workers, improper hazardous waste disposal and falsified records. there have been more than 200 worker injuries, and more than 20 deaths from accidents and suicides. an unnamed apple executive told the new york times customers care more about a new iphone than working conditions in china. but customers started caring when the labor abuses became public. one of the people respond i believe for exposing this story is mike daisey. he is an author, and monologuist who traveled to china and witnessed the working conditions at the foxcon factory. >> i do know that in my first two hours of my first day at that gate, i met workers who were 14 years old. i met workers who were 13 years old. i met workers who were

markets x apple.s&p 500 x apple? >> melissa, correct me if i'm wrong, but did you not first, and i think you really did, make that point a long time ago, that apple was really its own asset class, as far as portfolio managers looking at their portfolio, it was apple and everything else? >> when you got a $500 billion company, what are you going to do? one other comment about a hot sector right now. you want to know what's on fire? the hmos, medicare companies, we had an incredible report from wellcare today. not only are people using doctors less, we knew that trend. but what they call the dual payers, the dual people out using medicare and medicaid, there's a lot of anticipation that business is going to go upth and companies that have medicare exposure, hmos, all of these companies have been doing very well. >> bob, thank you very much. gary, back to you and maybe continuing on this notion of the markets x apple. x am, do you like the earnings growth that the s&p 500 is showing? do you like the fund

but it's really all about apple in terms of apple's move. it's accounted for a third of the big caps move this year to the big milestone. rick santelli over to you in chicago. >> well, thank you very much, bertha. you know what, mer vin king set us early on the track. look at the gilt, 10-year and uk. started rising up a baker's dozen 13 basis points. then the post ltro hiccup. up a mere 70 basis points. who wants to be subordinated to the ecb with respect to something like a haircut? then look at the bund. even though it's only up a couple bay si points, you can see the pattern. then there's our 10-year. look at the fact that gold's down $61, equities move lower. there's one conclusion to draw, that is somebody might be taking out a mop quantitative easing might be in a halt for now mode and i'm surprised to answer bob's question that you didn't see a much bigger move in 10-years. rates moving up, the risk trade debting modified and i think a lot of bankers working in central unison, this was a fat finger, covered multisectors and probably

or catch apple.t's if they can capture any android customers out there and hold on to the customers. is this enough to keep the stock going? >> i think so. you're right. even if it's better, it doesn't matter in some ways because they're so far behind on the tablet space. but i still like the stock. still long. not selling. >>> coming up next on "fast," most liking off your radar. we have the "fast money" portfolio. stay tuned. >>> welcome back to "fast money." let's get to our "fast money" portfolio. where long-term investing meets the volatility of today's world. karen's making the bull case for a loser on the s&p 500 today. that is staples. blamed for weak international sales from europe. and yet you still see value in the stock here. >> when you put it like that, big loser today. that happens. i do like the staples store for a lot of reasons. i think there's a lot of ways to win here. you got a balance sheet that's in good shape. recovery in the u.s. and a recovery in small business, i think b we

it is the battle of the cell carriers versus apple. apple hits another record high.st of selling the iphone. >>> it's the hottest stock in the s&p so far this year. is there any more upside left in netflix. plus, new speculation about a possible apple television. what kind of gains could such a product mean for apple's stocks and earnings? and we're less than half an hour away from the european close. is it time to get bullish on the overseas markets. and the collapse of natural gas, the commodity that's fallen 30% in the last two months alone shows no signs of stopping. one of the sector's biggest players tells us how to trade it. we've got to start with "squawk on the beat." a bill took on a contentious and partisan edge with big names like nancy pelosi and eric cantor under attack. eamon javers is live in washington with the story. eamon? >> reporter: good morning, melissa. the bill goes before the rules committee today. it's expected to be on the house floor tomorrow. and this is a bill that is getting stronger and stronger as it goes through the congressional pr

like a slice of that apple. bite. coming up next, the iran threat. how companies are doing business under the constant fear of nuclear danger in the middle east. >>> plus, gas prices soaring to $5 a gallon in some parts of the u.s. are speculators to blame for the pain at the pump? [ horn honks ] hey, it's sandra -- from accounting. peter. i can see that you're busy... but you were gonna help us crunch the numbers for accounts receivable today. i mean i know that this is important. well, both are important. let's be clear. they are but this is important too. [ man ] the receivables. [ male announcer ] michelin knows it's better for xerox to help manage their finance processing. so they can focus on keeping the world moving. with xerox, you're ready for real business. >>> could higher prices dig into the history. and koultd yesterday's story cause controversy? today we're going to show you the other side of the coin, that's next on the second nicest program on the network. now to mandy and tyler. >> would that be

apple you say, who is the dri?g to blame if it doesn't get done. >> in this case, it would be our president. >> yes. jobs would say periodically if we don't do well, wall street is going to blame me. if you don't do well, he would say i'm going to blame you. >> listen, adam. congratulations, first off, on the book. your success is well deserved. this is an incredible learning opportunity for everybody both on innovate i have culture and some dysfunction. also want to thank you for your support of greedy bastards along the way. you have been great. i'm excited to see your success. so thank you, adam. >> and congratulations on yours. it's good to be with another new york times best seller. >> we can all feel guilty about our apple products. thank you to the panel. adam, we'll talk to you soon. >>> straight ahead, the business of the big game. how much sports fans they shell out for a ticket to the super bowl. how much would you pay? wt to p. right. but... home security systems can be really expensive. so to save mone

an apple tv. i said a couple of days ago, i think apple is different than smart phones in terms of the size of the market and the profitability you can expect. you nailed it. isn't all the good news in right now for a stock that looks very priceo the trading side? it's not priceo the valuation side. no question this is not an expensive stock. >> i love the way you talked aroundicationer. . >> the stock added 18 billion in market cap today. when you look at that, that's more than river bed, polycom, add trend and all the rest of these in the tech sector that are feeders off of this combined. the entire market cap of all those stocks was eclipsed by just today's move in apple. >> and added a facebook since steve jobs' death in the fall. more than $100 billion in market cap was added since steve jobs passed away. we want to get to the sweep. jms j.r. asked what should i do with an apple 500 february call spread and bought it for 60 seconds. what would you this person? >> first of all, i think that wa

apple face some tough questions. they're some of the best-selling even best-loved products of modern times. apple's ipad, i-pods and i- phones but as their popularity has grown, so has criticism of labor practices at chinese factories where the products are made. in response, apple announced on monday that the fair labor association, an independent watchdog group, has begun on-site audits and inspections of plants owned by manufacturing giant foxconn. various reports including in recent weeks a series in the "new york times" have told of serious and deadly safety violations, excessive overtime hours, and underage employees at foxconn facilities. the new audit started at a plant in schenn general where a rash of suicides in 2010 prompted managers to install nets to stop distraught workers from jumping off the roof. writer and performer mike daisy highlighted the issue almost a year ago in his theater piece, "the agony and ecstasy of steve jobs." >> every year they say we're going to try harder. there's no serious effo

he talked about apple tv as a hobby and says, apple really doesn't do hobbies. we always thought that was more there, the strongest statement yet that this is going to turn into a bigger product. some folks are thinking maybe this has to do with options, this quick move to the downside. some people pointing out that the price targets on apple have not kept pace with the stock. just price targets set last month by jpmorgan were at $515, oppenheimer at $510. maybe the computers didn't like it, mandy. >> jon, thank you very much for that. jon and steve, thank you for joining us on the "closing bell." >> about 50 minutes to go here as we head toward the close. we'll see what the markets have in store for us here. >> is gamestop trying to cash in. the ceo is going to join us next. >> with the s&p fighting to stay above the key technical level of 1350, we'll show you why the potential rewards in this market could be bigger than the potential risks. >> after the bell, guys, forget gold. why one top fed official appears to be hedging his bets against inflation by invest

apple not the only at a historical high. all-time high sips going public last may on better than expected traffic for january. dollar tree also historic high here up nearly 1%. it reports earnings next week. and zynga reports earnings tomorrow. this will be one to watch. expected to put in 3 cents a share, but it's going to tell us a lot potentially about facebook, which is the other big company that everyone is watching from silicon valley. back to you. >> sure, bertha. thank you. the annual westminster dog show kicks off today. cnbc, we're taking a different angle on it. you've heard of the dogs of the dow. today we're releasing the hounds. some of the best stocks you maybe haven't discovered so far. our brian shactman is sniffing them out, if you can with a heavy cold. >> i still can, but i won't do it on air. my hound knows how to find a good investment. his only goal in life to find a hard to find stock for you to consider. there he is. there's my boy. how about this one. in the name of the aifuater, howard hughes corpo

. >> independent group now audited apple chinese supplier after request by apple to do s so. apple revealed a list of its i-phone and i pad suppliers for the first time last month amid growing critism over labor and environmental practices. there have been a series of workers suicide at apple chinese supplier. findings expected next month from the fair labor association, group that advocates for improving labor practices. >>> well in the mean time apple now the most valuable company on the planet. silicon valley hottest company is doing it again today, too. setting a new stock market milestone. apple stock was up 9 points today closing for the first time above 500 dollars a share. corina reports from palo alto tonight where a lot of people still see the stock going even higher. >>reporter: it may raining but people who own apple stock are smiling even laughing. >> i believe it was about 15 at that time. >>reporter: at 502 dollars apple stock is setting a new record and still giving financial advisors trons like it. >> what i am more interested in is the quality of apple earni

apple leads higher. a huge risk to the market is if imagine apple went down. again, you get into month end. whoever's chasing that performance has got big contribution to the sector and the s&p 500. that's something to watch for. >> with a 4.5 point gain on the s&p 500, i don't know where it would be had it not been for apple and microsoft. >> over the launch ffr the new ipad. but i don't know. it's getting -- it feels a little frothy. we sold some april 550 calls today. i think they expire on the date of earnings -- they're next earnings release. as the stock continues to appreciate becomes a bigger part of the portfolio. and yet the risk reward has changed a bit. >> did you think you'd be selling apple 550 calls? >> no. >> the stock's up 18% for the month. this is a mega cap stock. >> mike khouw, i'm curious. i would imagine once we heard some details about the new ipad 3 between the processer, the 4glte that the options picked up. >> the options activity has been pretty extraordinary for some time. karen is right. april options expire on the 21st which is a