so is brian shactman. "power lunch" begins right now. >>> signs of an improving economy, retail sales climbing the fastest in five months. markets solidly higher. dow back about 13,000. s&p at its best levels since june of '08. the nasdaq at a solid three-year high. nasdaq outperforming at 1.1%. pulse of the markets, the vix, we've talked a lot about it, touching a five-year low this morning while the dollar index is up with those solid economic numbers and the assumption that the fed will hold steady. we're getting closer to 80 on the dollar index. nat gas down again, 2.5%. great wolf resorts being bought by apollo management. midas being acquired by a private equity firm as well. and gnc up 8% after raising guidance. on the downside, urban outfitters, their earnings came out short of estimates. they were up in the premarket. but now they're down because people are starting to listen to that report and listening to what they have to say. cvs down and walgreens down as well. a merger is on track even if de

. >>> with sue herera and brian shactman, i'm tyler mathisen. put down that hammer. take a break from your home repair improvement. because "power lunch" begins right now. >>> home prices we learned earlier remain weak. consumer confidence showing a little bit of slack. still close to the highest levels in a year. that result is a stock market taking a bit of a breather after monday's rally. we are flirting with negative territory in both the dow and the s&p 500. a little bit more breathing room in the nasdaq. up .25%. pulse of the markets, i want to talk about energy. nat gas hitting a new intraday low for the year and pretty close to the lowest levels in about a decade. down 1%. want to move on in terms of midday movers. home builders having a solid day after lennar's numbers beat. pulte up more than 5.5%. apollo with failing grades from investors. earnings were good. projected enrollment numbers not good. stock crushed. energy stocks having a tough one as well as i talked about the energy actual commodities. nabors and cabot the biggest losers. bob, more trying to

brian shactman's here to explain. >> it gets even bigger. the largest solar storm in five years heading toward earth. sounds like a good bruce willis movie, but it's actually real. there's a legitimate concern that it could disrupt utility grids, satellite knanavigation airline routes. the gigantic cloud of charged particles sped through space at 4 million miles per hour before landing has already caused airlines to reroute planes flying over the north and south poles. flares of this time have been known to effect gps and oil pipelines as well as knocking out solar panels, tv, radio and phone signals and could cripple entire city power grids. there is one silver lining here. tonight the stargazers could be treated to one heck of a northern lights display as far south as the mid-atlantic states. tyler, i know last night was pretty much a full moon. if you get a clear shot, you might get a treat for sure. >> it was beautiful last night. jupiter and venus up there in the sky. it was gorgeous. i wonder if my onstar's going to work tomorrow. >> m

let's go to brian shactman. over to you, brian. >> well-known names.9. it's at 58. you see a lot of upside there. oil and nat gas are all weaker but two of them are taking an extra leg down. oxford resources went from outperform to under perform. that's good for 7.5% to the downside. analysts picking up bright co. the software company highest price target and the last three quarters and unreliable, high-tech sanitation company with a man by the name of wayne hyzinga. maria, back to you. >> usually we get indications before the close. we got a buy imbalance. things will close on the better side of the cycle here. the financials seeing buying as we approach the close. perhaps we'll see a better market than we expected. closing countdown right after this short break. after the bell, two apparel giants squaring off over tebow mania. we will get back to darren rovell month tearily. 84 points down on the dow industrials. we're back in one minute. it's just too hard." then there was a moment. when i decided to find a way to keep going. go for olympic gold and

>> brian shactman, thanks. >>> overseas to syria and a high profile meeting in damascus today. as the fighting raged on around them, the former head of the united nations tried to persuade the embattled president to bring a halt to the bloodshed. john ray has the latest now. >> reporter: good evening, lester. for all his diplomatic clout it could be damascus is already a mission impossible for kofi annan. as he began two hours of talks with president assad, yet more fighting, including this, a government assault on the rebel-held city in the north. activists there tell us there has been heavy shelling and the refugees are trying to make for the safety of the nearby border with turkey. and in homs the city which more than any other has come to symbolize the uprising, these images of rebel fighters apparently celebrating the destruction of a syrian army tank. now, kofi annan came armed with a peace plan, humanitarian aid. but president assad said there could be no deal if armed gangs are causing chaos in the country. the two men are due to meet tomorrow, but hard to see any of th

brian shactman. brian? >> unbelievable. i wanted to point out, the dow as you were talking with bill gross went positive. it hasn't been positive in a while. let's talk about apple. yet another new high today as bill pointed out. 615.48. it's now up more than 51% this quarter. that's a three-month stretch where it hit a new high on 27 trading days, including today. in fact, the only stock in the s&p 500 with more highs is chipotle. they've done it on 38 trading days. those are just some unbelievable performances in stocks. now, three others who reached new heights today and have done it on at least 25 trading days, they include t.j. maxx, yum! brands and fastenal. they're talking about the metric. weatherford is down 3.25%. cabot oil & gas down 1.35%. over to you. >> meanwhile, the financials mostly lower. that is keeping a gap on any changeses here. it seems as if rick santelli is at the group at chicago. over to you, rick. >> hi, maria. there's no doubt that that solid, solid plus two-year note auction put a little more w

brian shactman has his eye on the under-the-radar names now. brian?the rails, american rail, down 10.5%. i will tell you why, soda talk and clean energy and relationships between clean energy and south korea, one stock moving, all the details next on "the closing bell." oh! [ baby crying ] ♪ what started as a whisper ♪ every day, millions of people choose to do the right thing. ♪ slowly turned to a scream ♪ there's an insurance company that does that, too. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? ♪ amen, omen are you prepared for your retirement years -rge. 25 or more of them? do you have a financial plan for you family that works, in good times and in bad times? having the right perspective can help you answer the big questions. for more than 140 years, pacific life has helped find answers for those navigating the path to financial security. ask a financial professional about pacific life - the power to help you succeed. >>> i'm >>> i'm back on the floor of the new york stock exchange in front of the post they trade shares of yo

brian shactman has the details. brian? see maria take a shot h nutrisystem adding weight today. the gains added by a steady diet -- i'm sorry, i couldn't avoid the bad puns on weight loss, upgraded standpoint which gave it a buy with a $16 target, up. some investors waiting on the maker of batteries, a 1. down 12% now, worse than half an hour ago. first blush, traffic numbers at u.s. airways kind of impressives, investors spooked about revenue per passenger, that is growing but stock down 8%. chinese adr struggling over gdp predictions, down 3 1/2%. imagine google under the radar? anybody talking how it is down 5% for the year? that apple shadow looming large. simon, back to you. >> up next, the choicing countdown, after the bell, find out how you can still cash in on china over the short term despite concerns about that nation's lowered gdp target overnight. >>> first, here is how the major averages are trading as we head into the close, the dow still down 13 point, yet to cross back to that flat lane. but still having cu

brian shactman with those details. >> thanks, scott. let's look at the map here. we're not far from the highs of the day, 88 plus. the highs about 94. alcoa, caterpillar at the top. at the bottom all day we've had mcdonald's, now below $100 a share. exxon mobil down 1%. energy's been a bit of a laggard today. that's basically where it goes for that. retail, we're going to talk with coach, the ceo in the 4:00 eastern time hour. and they tested a new high of 8 $78.22. similar story for a hot topic off the highs. still up double digits after their earnings yesterday. solid 20%-plus for bonds of the i want to break it out a little. bon ton is up another 20% today. earnings weren't even very good. but the stock's been on absolute fire. 150% to the upside. they were hurt by a lot of weather issues. but the ceo was pretty optimistic. a lot of buyers going in on that name. other gainers today, sprint doing well. up about almost 8%. refiners are doing in a lagging energy stake. up almost 6.75%. i want to take a quick peek on things on the down side. we have coal space. act

brian shactman back now with a look at the economics of this situation. brian. >> that's right, ty. i'm not going through the details of the battle over birth control and what rush limbaugh called her. that's graced for other networks. what i want to focus on is limbaugh himself. he opened the show fully open on the aggressive side does not expect morality and intellectual honesty on the left. he said he became like them. he said the terms used were inappropriate and that she is not those two words. regardless there is a financial hit here. the question is how much and how long? he makes about $50 million a year according to most estimates and his premier radio networks makes money both through advertising and from fees through affiliates. here are the dozen or so companies that have pulled advertising from limbaugh's radio show. we just learned just a little bit ago that aol has followed suit. three others are public. carb carbonite, auto zone. it should be noted here people in groups have been trying to derail limbaugh for years to little effect. right now it's not a glenn beck-li

brian shactman crunching numbers in new jersey. actually at a minicooper dealer in ramsey, new jersey. one of several foreign brands to expand in the last year. not the case with the big three. in fact, they have been reducing the number of their dealerships over the last couple decades. and of course when gm and chrysler restructured, they lost thousands of dealers. now the focus is shifted away from growth through expansion in the u.s. it's all about making what they have better and more profitable. and working. just look at this chart. profit per dealers nearly tripled since 2008. the weakest of the three, chrysler, now has 86% of dealers in the black. part of the formula is to invest in the existing dealerships. you want to get them to look great so the potential buyer can feel great and motivate the dealers. companies like ford, what are they doing? offering interest free loans and bonus vehicles to sell. dealers get an automatic return on their own investment to upgrade a facility. for gm and what they're doing? this is just

i'm brian shactman.ttle one-stop shop for you in terms of data with two and a half hours left in trading weaker dollar heading towards 79 in the dollar index around 2.25% in the 10-year. just saw crude basically flat and gold up $22. we'll have more details on that in just a second. in terms of major indices, well, a percent in the dow, s&p, nasdaq is outperforming about 1.25. and holy name at 15 in the vix. i don't want to be sarcastic about it, but it's been so low key in the vix as of late. almost half of dow up double digits year-to-date. bank of america of course the best up 78% this year although not one of the better performers today not even up a third of percent. microsoft obviously had its breakout after years of going nowhere. some interesting names touching all-time highs today. credit card processing continues to be a monster. mastercard and visa continue to be two of the best ipos. colgate palmolive reached a new all-time high. a great yield. share appreciation, dividend and yum brands whic

here to break it all down for is is brian shactman. good morning to you. >> good mosh morning, amy. >> 227,000 new jobs added and unemployment unchanged at 8.3%. seemed a bit contradictory, but are we headed in the right direction? >> you have job growth of 227,000 as we talked about. it's over 700,000 in three months. why isn't the unemployment rate coming down. more are entering the work force. they say it's healthy and that's why it stays at 8.3%. it's interesting. i talked to one economist who said if you want to bring down the unemployment rate, you need 4 or 500,000 a month. it's a good news report but not great. you need a lot more to bring it down. >> the private sector add 2d 33,000 jobs. where specifically are those jobs coming from? >> there are 45,000 temporary jobs. business services, hospitality, which is good because people are taking vacations, spending money, positive manufacturing added 35,000. on the downside, construction was weak, which is disappointing. that was down and obviously government still losing jobs. >>

brian shactman with the latest there. when we come back, we'll give you a sneak peek for the lap of luxury for travelers through new york. stay with us. as the years go by, some questions loom large. are you prepared for your retirement years - 25 or more of them? do you have a financial plan for you family that works, in good times and in bad times? having the right perspective can help you answer the big questions. for more than 140 years, pacific life has helped find answers for those navigating the path to financial security. ask a financial professional about pacific life - the power to help you succeed. introducing gold choice. the freedom you can only get from hertz to keep the car you reserved or simply choose another. and it's free. ya know, for whoever you are that day. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 checking the charts. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 looking for support, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 resistance, breakouts, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 a few other tricks that i'll keep to

brian shactman rounding out the after hours action.ngs, right, a miss? >> a miss, maria. the stock is up 3%, off the high post market, inventories were up, taxes up, spending up, heavy discounting, all of that a recipe for a bad report the stock is trading up. conference call doesn't start in half an hour but less of a need to discount since the end of had q 4 and inventory bill wasn't explosive and why it is getting a bid, fascinating to look at the price action in the after hours. interesting report from car mike cinemas, attendance up, surprise for cinema, revenue per person disappointing, opposite what i would have thought, aps and revenue solid, beat the stock, 9.25%. intel into tv, "wall street journal" reporting that the company is going to make a set top box and sell bundles of channels from it not a lot of action, down. craig donahue will step down in december. gill will take over, the stock not moving much on that news, i thought i would share it with you. >> good story there it is interesting, not a big move but a lot of peo

brian shactman is going to join us with more on that story. ian. >> well, mandy, these minicoopers are especially hot because they get such good mileage numbers. let's face it, numbers don't lie. i want to look at sales numbers year over year of foreign brands because they are pretty impressive. vw up 34% year over year. then you have kia up 30%. bmw, mercedes as well. general motors down, ford and chrysler up. people need to understand many of the foreign brands are investing in america. consider hyundai responsible for 61,000 jobs in the u.s. $3.a billion in wages. as u.s. carmakers continue to shed, foreign dealers are growing. the bmw added eight. seven of which were minicoopers dealers. the one i'm standing in right now was a dodge dealership that was shuttered. overall bmw invested billions back to 2000. that hasn't changed. the foreign brand investing in america has to be mercedes. they upgraded 300 dealerships. but just because gm, chrysler, ford aren't increasing their dealers, guys, doesn't mean they're not investing in america. take

brian shactman with the latest there. up next we recap the pullback.ou set up for tomorrow that will likely impact trading. stay with us. ♪ [ female announcer ] you're the boss of your life. in charge of long weekends and longer retirements. ♪ ask your financial professional how lincoln financial can help you take charge of your future. ♪ the sleep number bed. the magic of this bed is that you're sleeping on something that conforms to your individual shape. wow! that feels really good. it's hugging my body. it works in a minute. i can get more support. if you change your mind once you get home you can adjust it. so whatever you feel like, the sleep number bed's going to provide it for you. at our semi-annual sleep sale, save $400 to $700 on our most popular bed sets. sale ends soon. only at the sleep number stores. where queen mattresses start at just $699. forty years ago, he wasn't looking for financial advice. back then, he had something more important to do. he wasn't focused on his future but fortunately, somebody else was. at usaa we provide reti

closely to home, more and more companies announcing dividend hikes right now in this market, brian shactmane dividend darlings. brian. >> you know, ty, companies have cash. they have a lot of it. and there's increased pressure to return it to shareholders. so we look at the entire s&p 500 to find the strongest in terms of dividend growth. look at the five we chose. i want to start with dr pepper/snapple. you have a stock dividend growth up 34% in the last year and the yield is now 3.5%. but i want to take a look at a one-year chart. it's up about 3.5% now with today's moves and that's more than 1% behind the s&p 500. general electric much the same numbers. it decided not to hike further in the first part of 2012, but most expect that late in the year maybe not 30% at 32.6% this year with a yield of 3.5%. cms is our first utility. dividend growth more than 27%, yields 4.5% and the stock is up more than 10% in the last year. if you think defense companies are shaky, well, look at lockheed martin. same numbers as dps when you talk about share price depreciation on top of the yield. the stock i

. >> and i'm sue herera along with tyler mathisen and brian shactman too. fasten your seat belts, "power lunch" begins right now. >> and turn off that cell phone too. a disappointing durable goods report. the energy sector is slumping. some fresh worries in europe. this time about spain. result is u.s. markets lower for a second day in a row. here's where we stand right now down 84 points in the. significantly weaker than where we started the day. s&p down and same for the nasdaq. energy is a noticeable story today. crude oil down more than 2% right at 105 a barrel. natural gas down another 1.5%. rbob down as well. loving organic mac and cheese. exploding after their ipo up 74%. tyco up 3.3% after announcing its merging the flow control business. and medco up 3%. on the downside, the fallout from sinking prices. alpha enjoy more than 3.5%. i'll delve deeper into coal and nat gas stocks when i'm back at 1:30 p.m. eastern time. bob pisani, what led to the bleed? was that post-euro close? >> yeah. i think it's broader. two things going on. one relating to the

. >>> brian shactman with detail as. brian. >> they've come way down off of its highs. coming up next we have two companies reporting earnings that use quite a bit of it. that's next on the "closing bell." helped us build it. ♪ now i'm a geologist at chevron, and i get to help science teachers. it has four servo motors and a wireless microcontroller. over the last three years we've put nearly 100 million dollars into american education. that's thousands of kids learning to love science. ♪ isn't that cool? and that's pretty cool. ♪ yeah, you -- you know, everything can cost upwards of...[ whistles ] i did not want to think about that. relax, relax, relax. look at me, look at me. three words, dad -- e-trade financial consultants. so i can just go talk to 'em? just walk right in and talk to 'em. dude, those guys are pros. they'll hook you up with a solid plan. they'll -- wa-- wa-- wait a minute. bobby? bobby! what are you doing, man? i'm speed dating! [ male announcer ] get investing advice for your family at e-trade. ♪ [ boy ] looks like our work is done here. i'm heading

. >>> brian shactman wrapping it up. >> my favorite part of the day.e'll update you on the starbucks/green mountain story. interesting things about margins and how things are faring, even though revenues are up. margin compression. we'll tell you how the stocks are trading right after this are trading right after this break. on december 21st, polar shifts will reverse the earth's gravitational pull >>> hello. bob pisani on the floor of the new york stock exchange. everybody's waiting for better economic news. maybe we'll get it tomorrow with the nonfarm payrolls. better news from the home builders. reporting decent numbers, some spring home sales, or at least it looks like we'll have a decent home buying season. all the home builders were up. people anticipating 25% to 30% gains from the same period last year. we might be getting some kind of numbers along those lines. it's still a little bit early. elsewhere, when you get the euro up, the dollar down, you get at-risk assets right across the board. very good day for commodities as well as commodity bas

. >>> despite decreased demand and high supplies, brian shactman now joins us with a w what is behind> yeah, maria. i want to break down this bizarre world of oil prices right now. production is where i want it begin. look at this chart. up double digits. if all goes well, we could reach seven to 10 million barrels. in 2011, we were a net exporter for the first time since 1949. that is the first year a local television station was in america and look at us on cable right now. when you look at demand, it looks more promising for stability. look at this chart. over the same period i just looked at, six years, seeing pop and oil production, gasoline demand has been weakened. we were below where we were six years ago. why are gas prices 21 cents from all-time high? 1.29 a decade ago. went up to the all-time high of 4.11 when demand was higher. now we have 3.90 according to triple a. there are many explanations, many not very satisfying. joo politics play a part but so does refining capacity. all of the refineries in red here are shut down right now. u.s. is production more oil but not ref

so far brian shactman is here. >> now we're down -- tripled the losses, down 14 points. we obviously are more negative than positive. only one stock up more than 1%, at&t. i guess that restriction on data and slow on the system is a net positive. you have caterpillar down more than 1%. you have ge down close to it, below $19 a share. i want to take a look at the sector heat map quickly to see how that -- basically telecom has been up all day and utilities have been positive in the last little bit. energy is by far the laggard, double the decline of industrials. let's look at a couple names there. weakest names are alpha natural and pea body. you have alpha natural down 14.5% for the year. coal, a little out of favor. pea body down a quarter of a percent for the year. energy up 6%. big lots, discounter over discounts, it hurts, and the stock gets sold off. on the russell 2000, micro electric is down. sears up another 9.5%. 138 1/2% year-to-date, maria. can't explain a lot of it. big moves. >> big moves for sure on sears holding. see you later, brian. treasury prices, we'r

brian shactman is at the realtime exchange. this is "power lunch." brian, take it away. >> i think i live at the realtime exchange, pay rent here. if you close these levels, it would be the biggest drop for the major averages. today's biggest concern, greece. thursday, another key deadline for a bond swap with creditors. down 200 points on the dow. below 12,800. the s&p, 1.5%. and the nasdaq composite down 43.5 points. the pulse of the markets, check out the vix, rising above 20 for the first time since february the 16th. it is up 14%, almost 15%. crude oil down 2% and below $105 a barrel. look at the selloff in gold. down $37. midday movers, morgan stanley lower on the heels of course of a selloff in european financials. good for 5.25% to the downside. peabody energy down. the lowest since july of 2009. nutrisystem reporting a worse-than-expected fourth-quarter loss. we have a few winners to show you. monster worldwide reviewing strategic alternatives. dick's sporting goods, solid outlook. and supervalu up 3%. we start with bob pisani at the nyse. >>

economic in now with brian shactman. ing us right now with that and the rest of the day's business headlines. hi, brian. >> hey, barbara. thank you very much. quickly want to point out president obama stopped talking about the relationship in trade with china. talking strong words about some of their exports of some rare metals that are needed in technology, defense, and clean technology. i just want to point out that he is having strong words. wto involving the world trade organization, and involving stocks at the highest levels of the day. dow is up 110 points. part of that is as barbara pointed out retail sales up 1.1% for february. that's the biggest judgment in five months or so. and so that has the markets as you would off -- off to the races. i want to point volumes are very low. they are down about 50% from the financial crisis levels. and yesterday was the lowest level of the year in terms of trading volume. lot of investors aren't even in market right now even though we continue to slowly go higher and higher. w

. >> you can call my brian shactman, big ears, whatever you want. >> call you lots of things too. >>orry about that, kate. >> the infamous oil speculators are reaching fever pitch these days with oil futures and nymex crude hitting their highest point in about ten months. brent and wti sailing as high as they've been since last april but still a ways from their all-time peaks from the summer of 2008. how do these trades work? unlike physical oil traders who buy and sell barrels of crude then shipped across oceans to refineries in the u.s., china and other places, the so-called paper traders deal primarily with futures and options tied to a price they think oil will reach somewhere down the road. a big bull right now might be long futures, short puts or the right to sell oil and long calls. or the right to buy oil. buying shares in the actual oil companies like exxon and shell is a less popular speculative trade. the beta or potential volatility tied to a single stock makes it something of a hairy trade. remember bp? hedge funds and traders making it a lot less attractive, brian and m

let's check in with cnbc's brian shactman. he joins us live with more on that and the rest of the day's business headlines. >> thank you very much. we were down 160 in the dow. pretty much the worst down day of the year if we close at these levels. concerns again about greece. thursday another deadline when it doms the greek debt crisis in terms of predators accepting certain terms. we will see what happens. default would be -- just don't know what it would be like. especially for europe and if there is any contagion in italy or spain. today is the three-we are anniversary of the train day low in the s&p 500 of 666. we have more than doubled since then but the interesting thing is stock volumes in terms of trading are down about 50% since then. doubling we have seen in the markets most average investors missed out because they are not trading in the stock market anymore. i want top point out that there is an interesting study by the new york fed and wrote about student debt, student loans. amazing numbers i want to share with

we will check in with brian shactman. he joins us with more on that. >> good friday to you.ually the one positive index was the nasdaq. that's now turning to negative as well. we have all three major indices in negative territory. one of the key things is oil. yesterday there was a report of an explosion in saudi arabia. that was proved a false story. oil spiked up to 110. now it is down under 107. it is extremely high but pulled back about $4 or so from the highs from yesterday. i want to point out a big ipo. the biggest internet ipo before facebook which is expected very soon. yelp, online review site. well, it priced at $15. opened at $22, traded up to $25, up about 60%. talk about online stuff, kodak, of course, mighty have fallen p they are in bankruptcy and sold their online photo business to shutterfly. another publicly traded company for $24 million. when it comes to these companies, that's chump change. kodak is trying to come back as a printer company. right now the friday right now, in the red in terms of stocks. but who knows what will happen the last few hours.

brian shactman is at the cnbc exchange for that. >> i want to take a look at the dow, industrials interday. we've had an acceleration in the buying in just the last few minutes, literally the last ten minutes we shot up 25, 30 points here. so keep an eye on the dow. accelerating a little bit. look at the s&p 500 right here at the realtime exchange. you get a real sense what's in the marketplace right here. advancers outpacing the decliners 9-1. some of the winners and losers, quickly. when it comes to broad-based rally, regardless of volumes, we have it up 5.5%. u.s. steel up 6%. international game technology, 5.5%. broad-based stuff in terms of this rally. here are the laggards. urban outfitters, and darco, cvs and walgreens are all down. this is pretty much the bottom of the s&p 500. a few other stocks we're watching here, include the rare earth names. president obama wants the wto to use muscle so china will ease exports. moly corp is up 3.75%. it's about half of what it was at the highsi inof the day. same with all the other players here. benihana, i want to look at the interday chart

brian shactman looks at the state of the nuclear industry coming up next on "closing bell." >>> marchmen's history month. here on cnbc we're celebrating the milestones and the achievements women have made worldwide. today we're looking at the rise of a new financial powerhouse, china's billionaire women. amy wrote about this in the latest edition of "news wooek." fantastic to have you with us today. what struck me is the statistic that china has more self-made female billionaires than any country in the world. why is this so? >> that's what surprised me too. you think of china as such an authoritarian scary place. america is supposed to be the land of opportunity. but in fact china now has more self-made women billionaires. and the women that i interviewed, i don't think they're necessarily typical, but i think their secret for sure was finding a way to combine the sort of dynamism and creativity and innovation of the west with incredible hard work and endurance. i mean, two of these women had horrible -- actually, they all had horrible childhoods. one was a factory worker. actually,

i'm brian shactman here.ings to point out as we reset the market with two and a half hours left in trading. we have a stronger dollar. dollar index just a smidge below 80. vix down 5.5%. the major indices are where they were when we started the show although now almost 2.05% on the u.s. 10-year note. look at the sector heat map. as you might imagine all sectors are in the green and more of a risk-on market. technology doing well on top of that. credit suisse upgrade of several housing names, but one of several good days this week for the space. look at one-week of lennar. after the selloff on tuesday, it's been a nice hike upward. talk about 12% in the last week. on the downside i wanted to talk about a few key internet and consumer names not catching a bid. we have expedia, second worst in the s&p. amazon also not doing particularly well. but i also wanted to compare year-to-date. expedia up almost 9.5% year-to-date. amazon 6.75%. and that's lagging the broader nasdaq composite which is up almost 15%. just a

let's check in with cnbc's brian shactman live across the river at cnbc. rade oil contracts, i'll tell you that much. listen, the gas prices are the one thing that could derail this somewhat fragile recovery, guys. that's important. i will say the rate in increases has slowed a little bit, and i've talked to economists and they basically say that to really derail it, you need to get above $4 and stay there. if we stay at this level, it could be a huge issue, but might not derail the recovery. that's the basic take on gas prices. but it's interesting, we have 700,000 plus jobs created in the last three months, but a lot of economists over the weekend were reducing their gdp projections and gas prices are part of it. and part is the trade deficit. this export plan by president obama, imports outpacing exports by the widest margin in some three years. and that was lost on a lot of people talking about jobs on friday. the other thing i want to talk about is the auto bailout quickly. people talk about the auto industry, gm made $8 billion last year. one company

let's go to brian shactman now. are you pumped about bobby v.? >> i don't know. i might take guillen in a cage match. i want to win some games first. i'm ready for the season but not optimistic. in the business world, obama is going to talk just after 11:00 a.m. this morning. there's a big tussle going on. rare earth minerals, like 17 very little talked about rare earth, they go into anything from defense to clean technology to your iphone. china has 97% of the global market here and have been messing around with export levels. they have had huge price spikes in these minerals and now the u.s. is going to go to the wto to try to do something about it and it might open himself up to the republican side in terms of sparking a trade war. so it will be very interesting to see how this is received on both sides of the aisle. >> explain why that's so important. >> that's important because the chinese rare earth minerals are crucial. they said you can have them but you have to come here and set up your plants to use them. that's a wto violation. >> it's so difficult to

time now for a check on business before the bell with brian shactman live at cnbc headquarters. good morning. we have some numbers here for you. final revisions at gdp at 3%. the take away is good growth but not a lot for people to get excited about. people want to see 4.5, 5% growth and we're not seeing that. the other one is jobless claims and if you take the number that they had last week, it was revised and it looks like it's down but the bottom line is continuing claims were up. it feels like an uptick in jobless claims. one thing we're talking a lot about and you discussed it a little bit, nat gas prices are as low as they have been since the 1990s. whether it's warm weather, what have you, will it start to become more of an appealing option for major items like cars? maybe there's a tech tonic shift going on. i don't know. you finally got that new iphone, right in. >> i did. >> well, that's good because you helped fund tim cook's stock selling. the top executives have sold more than $3 million in stock. tim cook sold about $140 million. >> wow. that's amazing. hey, when is

for that we go to brian shactman. what is going on?quarter and the jobs recovery is not as encouraging because the economy hasn't been as robust. people are going to see if there's going to be auto price in rebalancing. there is wonder bread and twinkies and ding dongs. the unions say yes to raise cash because they are worried about their pensions and health care and the company wants to bust out their collective bargaining agreement. >> what did that have an effect on the market? >> absolutely none but i will see you guys there in a couple of weeks. >> come join us. >> i'm going to come say hello. >>> coming up next, the best of "late night." 14 clubs. that's what they tell us a legal golf bag can hold. and while that leaves a little room for balls and tees, it doesn't leave room for much else. there's no room left for deadlines or conference calls. not a single pocket to hold the stress of the day, or the to-do list of tomorrow. only 14 clubs pick up the right one and drive it right down the middle of pure michigan. your trip begins

brian shactman is live at hq with more on that. >> focusing on rare earth space. messing around with exports for the past few years. these are all the major players outside of china right now, lyn after s, molycorp the biggest one in the u.s. they're all up big today. it depends on how the chinese react to it. they've been exporting and exporting enough of late, so basically the eu, japan and the u.s. want the chinese, the wto to make sure the chinese export enough and don't mess around with pricing here. but there's a take away i want people to watching to understand here. if china reacts positively and loosens up exports that's a good thing for your apple and your iphone, the cost of making that will go down. good for defense companies that use rare earths in their technology. good for clean technology. but it's not necessarily good for those stocks that you see there, because if they export more the prices go down and those companies, some of which aren't even producing right now, might not even be able to exist. right now some people see rare earth in the head

wri brian shactman has the story. >> david, the entire dealership culture has changed.lership in ramsey. and you can sit up at will bar, you can get fresh fruit, a snack, a cup of coffee, a good one. see myself on cnbc. or sit down in a comfortable booth and use their free wi-fi. this is the nature of the is th business now because they want the customer experience to be as luxurious as they buy and the big three do not want to get left behind. companies like gm are no longer interested so much in profitability. they lost more than 2,000 dealerships in bankruptcy and there's no effort or desire to get back to those levels. now it's all about profitability. there's more geography. in 2008, the average dealership profited $279,000. last year, more than double that. 785,000. less than half dealers made money for chrysler. you fast forward that number and the number is 86%. ford says that they are in line with the competition. for gm, they went from 57% to 90. that's where it gets to be investing in america. their whole -- the whole m.o. right now is to compete with the bmw

. >> brian shactman, thank you very much. >> great show today, guys. >> greatly appreciate it. >> we'llony, a farewell long awaited. goodnight, stuffy. goodnight, outdated. goodnight old luxury and all of your wares. goodnight bygones everywhere. [ engine turns over ] good morning, illumination. good morning, innovation. good morning unequaled inspiration. [ male announcer ] the audi a8, chosen by car & driver as the best luxury sedan in a recent comparison test. chosen by car & driver as the best luxury sedan this was the gulf's best tourism season in years. all because so many people came to louisiana... they came to see us in florida... make that alabama... make that mississippi. the best part of the gulf is wherever you choose... and now is a great time to discover it. this year millions of people did. we set all kinds of records. next year we're out to do even better. so come on down to louisiana... florida... alabama... mississippi. we can't wait to see you. brought to you by bp and all of us who call the gulf home. for the spender who needs a little help saving. for adding "& son

business before the bell with brian shactman live at cnbc headquarters.. i want to talk about the sox. >> talk about them. >> my dad, ted williams is my dad hero. he wrote my letter to ted williams for all of the things people said negatively about him and asked him about fishing. he got a handwritten letter back from ted williams. this is back in the '60s. he has it framed in our basement. >> cool story. >> if you are from boston, we have clips, the original clips in our house of his last at bat which was a home run on a hazy day where not many people were there to witness it. >> it's amazing. you talk about ted williams and fishing, reminds me of a conversation we had a couple weeks ago. carl is just a remarkable, legendary writer out of florida, out of south florida, he talked about going out fishing with ted williams. ted williams didn't put up with crap from anybody. if you got on ted williams' boat and you were pretty damn good. i asked because you hear ted williams was -- you know, my grandfather told me who flew in world war ii in the navy. he tol