b.k., thoughts on banks? >> love banks. one thing that goes into dick's comments is that last thursday we saw for the first time since the second quarter of 2008 consumers, households, actually starting to add debt to their balance sheet. deleveraging here in the u.s. appears to be over. that should benefit the banks. i like them here. one question i would have for pete nagarian is whether or not i can buy the weekly options here and use this bank test as a catalyst. >> that's a great question. i would stay away from that. i want bank for my buck and i'm talking about a wells fargo where we have seen activity including last week. i would look at something like dick talked about. bank of america and citi. i don't know it's a weekly option play, b.k., but if you talk about even a month buy yourself into april, give yourself five or six weeks, i think there's still significant upside. that's what we see. >> which bank sitting here today would you go out and buy? >> i would rank them. i would say wells fargo and then citibank a

. >> b.k., a sharp focus on what's happening in the global markets.ow do you see this now given the data we got overnight not only in china but out of germany and france? >> buying opportunity. that's what this is. we had this china scare on march 6th. we had a big down day in the dow all because we thought china was slowing. pete just hit it, stephanie hit on it. we know china's slowing for a long time. slower they get the more chance they ease and/or do some kind of stimulus so therefore, you're in a situation here in the u.s. that you're probably better off buying than selling this. i wouldn't panic at all and i would stick with the u.s. focused companies and i'd look to the russell 2000, anything that has a u.s. consumer. >> steve grasso down on the floor of the stock exchange today, i'm sure these are topics dominating the situation. what's dominating the trading thought? >> think of it this way -- when do you start panicking? at a point we're not down in the s&p. today is not a day to panic but know your levels. for me, i like to draw lines in t

. >>> b.k., look, we're making a point that people who are not on the show are still trading stocks. made a trade today that i wanted to know about. >> yeah, absolutely. yeah, man, my real job is actually as a portfolio manager, so i do trade stocks from time to time here. usg, this is a company that makes wallboard. the thesis on this is as housing comes out foreclosure and goss to rental or the sales market, you need to fix up the home. you've got to put new wallboard in, spruce these things up. they just increased their prices. that has stuck. not only that, if you look at the street research on this, you've got four buys, seven holds, three sells, so a lot of room for analysts to catch up. >> not so different than the thesis behind, say, a home depot or lowe's, the rental cycle, so to speak. >> definitely the same type of thing, just more concentrated on exactly the renovation area. certainly with lowe's and home depot, you could get dinged. this, it's all about gypsum board. >> stocks obviously having a good move today, year to date, as you looked at that chart, b.k., what was t

>> buy mexico. >> you and b.k.also want to throw in sell china in a 12-month forward market. >> okay. pete. >> i'm looking at bank of america. still upside in all the banks. >> stephanie. >> grasso. >> alpha natural. if the market grinds higher if we close above 1400, this one goig

. >> joe and b.k., thank you.next on the halftime report, cortez gives us his trade on the underperforming transports. plus, abigail's checking the copper and vix charts with potential red flags. we've got a lot more to do. don't go away. ♪ ♪ here we are, me and you ♪ on the road ♪ and we know that it goes on and on ♪ [ female announcer ] you're the boss of your life. in charge of making memories and keeping promises. ask your financial professional how lincoln financial can help you take charge of your future. ♪ ♪ oh, oh, all the way ♪ oh, oh the other office devices? they don't get me. they're all like, "hey, brother, doesn't it bother you that no one notices you?" and i'm like, "doesn't it bother you you're not reliable?" and they say, "shut up!" and i'm like, "you shut up." in business, it's all about reliability. 'cause these guys aren't just hitting "print." they're hitting "dream." so that's what i do. i print dreams, baby. [whispering] big dreams. >>> all right. let's get a check on three of the top trades

. >> b.k., regions pull back. >> absolutely.as well if that's what that means. regions financial i also like. no more speculative but i still like this. they're paying back their t.a.r.p. one that's underperformed in the financial space. still get in. >> science trader asks just wondering if i should take my gain in google or wait. grasso. >> put it this way, we heard a bunch of analysts say that they just hold the entire search space. i think it's something above 97% as far as mobile search. they've locked up the whole industry. you know, you want to buy this one in tranches. you want to buy in 10% pieces. divide it up that way. >> cortes. >> scott, i'm long google. i like the tentacle breakout above 625. i think android is getting too little respect and apple getting too much. the street was unanimous almost in the opinion that apple was going to catch google in price. i don't think that's going to happen. johnny never gets that movie. and apple never catches google in price. >> i got to make sure this is working. you said you

b.k., the china stock market was down 2.75% today. biggest drop since november 30th.is a currency the aussie/dollar people have been short in herds because of what's happening in china commodity based currency here. >> and rightly so when you can stay short australian dollar. >> cortes, what's your final trade? >> metals are telling bernanke go pond sand. short silver. >> substitutes. >> i think there's good fundamental technology

possibly coming in and being another earnings driver here. >> b.k., good stuff. thanks for calling in. >> all right, judge, talk to you later. >> always like to get the realtime trade. talk about the bid. you like the trade? >> i do. it makes sense. it's a franchise name. you have two franchise names in the sector really. this is the leading one. i'd buy it. >> pete? >> seems like a buy. i don't know the name well enough. i'd stay on the sidelines. >> time for pops and drops. the midday market movers that might not yet be on your radar. tesla popping 3%. >> this stock lately has been as hot and rocking as the pant for which the company is named, tesla. we had an earnings report out, excuse me, earnings projection out. a serious upgrade of the stock. i wouldn't bet against tesla. my problem is they're projecting $1 of earnings next year with a $50 price target. $50-$1 is not the p/e i'm looking for. >> juniper is up. >> juniper plays in the space. that's why the stock is up. >> expedia is down 2%. >> this is off of a 52 week high yesterday. i take it with a grain

b.k., kick us off. >> eagle materials. >> fx. >> weiss. >> press the x short.

wendy's had sales of $8.5 billion last year, while b.k.'s sales were $8.4 billion. mcdonald's still rules when it comes to burgers with over $34 billion in sales. and for fast food overall, mcdonald's is number one, but its followed by subway and starbucks where sales neared $10 billion last year. susie i will put you down for one double cheeseburger. >> i have a real weakness for the french fries. i don't usually go for fast food but i will take the french fry. >> tom: i'll take the burger, you get the fridays that is nightly business report for this monday, march 19th. have a great evening,. >> susie: same to you, tom. good to morrow night. "nightly business report" is made possible by: captioning sponsored by wpbt captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

. >> b.k. >> sell the swedish krona. fxs is your etf. >> that does it for us. don't forget to catch more fast at 5:00. "power lunch" begins right now. >>> three hours to go in the trading day and big numbers for the s&p and for apple. apple breaks through $600 a share. more hikes to the price target, 30 billion in apple shares traded yesterday. the new ipad hits stores tomorrow. hold on, is it time to lighten up on this stock? you just heard one person say so. michelle. >> markets moving on reports that the u.s. may or may not release emergency oil reserves. we'll have reaction from the nymex and new york stock exchange. >> and miami madness. the miami condo market is booming again just a few years after a monumental crash. big money pouring back into the market. is it different this time? or deja vu all over again? >> i'm michelle caruso-cabrera with tyler mathisen. "power lunch" begins right now. >> good afternoon. i'm seema mody at the realtime exchange. jobless claims match a four-year low, inflation tame, and mixed data on the manufacturing front. here is