s and p 500 lost 25. apple postponed debut of the ipad two, supposed to go on sale on friday.apple says it's delaying the launch while japan recovers. toyota extended it's assembly plant closures another week but says it now reopened its parts plants. other auto makers are trying to gear up as well. in this country prices rose by the most in nearly two years. it's almost entirely due to rising fuel prices and steepest increase in food prices in four decades. >> and one of the state's largest health insurance companies is backing away from a major rate hike. san francisco based blue shield has withdrawn the plan to increase premiums on individual policies but 30% starting may 1. that would have been the third increase since october. blue shield says it wants to keep coverage affordable. the company lost $27 million on individual poll says last year, expecting to lose more this year. >> and if you live in the south bay, you can be getting a new area code, 669 who. gets it is sparking a debate. and they're hoping to get reaction on two areas and this is what where there is a new

the show last year, tom, companies that provide components to apple can wind up doing really, really well. well the ipad or in this case,s verizon iphone. verizon said last week the iphone was the most successful launch in the company's history. >> tom: it begins with qualcomm, and it has been around for a long, long time. known as the communication chip company. it was close to $60 per share. is the verizon iphone priced in? >> yeah. i think to a certain extent it is. we all knew this was coming. just to recap, qualcomm provides a 3g wireless chip for the new iphone. and the company was one of the regions at the tech sector rally. i think it has a really good long-term story out there for investors. some things that are necessarily outside of the verizon iphone. for example, nokia stre strengthened it. and it could serve as a springboard, and fall into markets such as china. >> tom: we can certainly see that with some other firms getting more well-known in the industry with its work with apple. sky works perhaps one of them. it makes semiconductors to go with apple. the prices have doubled. james, what could it be? >> i

ipad 2's and the wait could get longer. >> generally they do a good job of looking into apple's manufacturing problems, but problems with theupplies in japan could stretch the wait for the ipad 2 to seven weeks by the middle of summer. apple doesn't comment on estimates like that but anecdotely there are still lines and waits outside of apple stores. >>> a fascinating investigation by the newspaper "l.a. weekly" this morning looks back on the old attacks against craigslist and testimony in congress claiming that more than one-third of the workers who advertised in the adult section were underaged prostitutes. this morning some of the very people involved in that testimony admit the statistics given to congress and wide he repeated in the media were essentially made up for a good headline said one spoke woman for an anti-prostitution group, quote, if we give statistics to the public with all the words and the stuff that is actually accurate, i mean, i've tried to do that with the pr firm and they said they won't read that too much. one underaged prostitute is one too many, but this was testimony against craigslist in congres

apple as two of the company's icons took center stage. steve jobs broke his medical leave to show off the new ipad today. he did show off a new version of the tablet. kron 4's gabe slate has all the new details. >> reporter: the ipad 2 is 33% thinner than the existing ipad. >> it is thinner than your iphone 4. >> reporter: and lighter. 1.3 pounds, compared to the old one at 1.5. i have held both, and it definitely feels lighter. >> it is faster. >> reporter: it has a dual processor based on a new a5 chip. it's two times as fast and the graphics are 9 times faster. a rear facic camera and a front facing camera. this is great for face time which lets people video chat. there will be a black one and a white one. the crowd laughed about that. >> it comes in two colors. black and white. we will ship white from day one. >> reporter: it will be v a hdmi output to watch videos on your ipad. >> we also have models that work with at&t and verizon. >>> the price is the same as the first version. $500 to $830. >> on march 11 that's a week from this friday. >> reporter: it will be shipping on march 11. that's the first day you can order it. not sure when it will be in s

apple fans and investors were happy to see a thin but energetic steve jobs. it was the c.e.o.'s first public appearance since taking medical leave in january. he called the ipad 2 "magical," saying the tablet is a thinner, lighter, faster powerhouse. it goes on sale march 11, and the new version starts at the same price as the original: $499. it also comes with both front and back cameras so you can shoot pictures and video. >> tom: apple's newest device enters a more crowded market than the original ipad, but "consumer reports" technology editor jeff fox says the ipad 2 has a huge head start on its android-based rivals. >> there's a lot more apps coming out now for the ipad. it has taken developers many months to produce these things. it's going to take a year or two for the android market to ramp up and really start to seriously compete with it. >> tom: it is already responsible for a big chunk of apple sales, 17% in the picture. >> apple ipad 1, it sold close to about 15 million in nine months. and i think ipad 2 has the potential to at least do 30% to 40% better than what ipad 1 did. >> tom: that would mean ipad 2 could sell 20 million units before the en

s-h. shares had been as high as $24 and below $14 earlier this month. they jumped 5% today. big volume. tomorrow radioshack said it will start selling apple's ipad 2. it will be the largest retailer yet to sell the tablet. while we hear from the president tonight about libya, oil services giant schlumberger today said the mid-east turmoil has had significant revenue disruptions, but the japanese earthquake business impact has been minimal. still, it cut its first-quarter earnings outlook by up to a dime per share. that didn't hurt the stock though. in fact, shares were up 4%, back above $90 for the first time in three weeks. saudi arabia has called on big oil service companies to help boost its production capacity. that may have led to some buying. finally, one to watch tomorrow may be shirt maker phillips van- heusen. shares were as much as 2.5% above this closing price after the bell tonight. it reported better-than-expected earnings thanks to its acquisition of tommy hilfiger. and that's tonight's "market focus." >> tom: the nfl season remains in jeopardy tonight while major league baseball throws out its first pitch this week amid its own labor

s&p 500 is trading up, as well. comments about apple's, apple will likely be able to keep posting sales growth thanks to mobile applications for ipad. 15 million ipads and iphones sparked a huge market for downloadable apps. now, the apps people use to shop and play is creating more demand for apple's products and apple will be bigger than next year and even bigger than hp. >>> madoff's disaster preparedness plan for families. and like the earthquake and tsunami in japan. firm has tripled its business since the quake and tsunami. at the new york stock exchange, i'm jane king. >> kristen: thank you. >> eric: same bay area company that is using a lilg organism in hopes of reducing reliance on foreign oil wants to make sure your skin is wrinkle free. we're not kidding. watch this. >> once you've determined that you can take algae, culture it give it a good shake and process it into this... then the next logical strategic move for a biofuels company is cosmetics? >> we were looking at this. >> the stuff is algaeronic acid. solar enzyme, they weren't looking for it at first but they were looking at other products they could squeeze out

the price on the original ipad, if you bought one in last two weeks, apple will give you a hundred bucks back. and a couple of anniversaries to note this week. two years ago the sd to a recession-bottom level of 666. it's more than twice that much now. but on thursday, it will be 11 years since the nasdaq hit an all-time high of 5038 during the height of the dotcom bubble. right now the nasdaq sits at a little more than half that am. times sure change. get all your business news on cnbc. >>> you can get all of your business and tech news before the bell on weekdays "today in the bay" starting at 4:30 in the morning. >>> this morning fines for nearly two dozen airlines in connection with a massive price-fixing scheme. federal prosecutors say the airlines inflated passenger and cargo fuel surcharges between 2000 and 2006 to make up for lost profits. prosecutors say the scheme cost american consumers and businesses hundreds of millions of dollars. to date 19 executives have been charged with wrongdoing, and four have gone to prison. 21 airlines have coughed up more than $1.7 billion in fines. convicted airlines include british airways, korean air, and air france-d