you sell cat and you buy conagra. here's a company that's a pure beneficiary of the decline in raw cost foodstuffs, the stuff inside this, as well as the packaging, by the way, which is expensive. this is a play on a thrifty consumer because it bought a gigantic label company that attracts the stuff in the supermarket. it's a play on obesity. as healthy choice is a huge earnings driver for the company and it's doing a lot of great technological improvements here, it's a play on staples, not the store, the stuff you can't do without. conagra has no problem paying its dividend because its sales are so steady, something caterpillar can't possibly claim. of course conagra stands for all the other great performers in this market, including all the liquids i dumped through last night's punch trash can -- colgate, proctor, kellogg, pfizer, generous mills, the defensive play against stuff like north korea. the fisticuffs, you may need a good slim jim just to be able to deal with them. second battle of pork chop hill. now, at

watch conagra. watch mccormack spice.t yesterday spiked and then went down because they 7% organic growth, but they didn't give a good outlook. i love the company mccormack. 15% off the bottom, but what i want to see from conagra is can they maintain, can the market continue to pile in to these stocks if we don't get upside surprises? is that 3% yield that the stock might go down to enough in the face of uninsured deposits around the world and they want to have yield and they come to our food stocks. >> it is amazing the slow growth. it is a slow growth kind of play, the marketing expense this quarter was a material to the miss, right? >> yeah. >> slim jims, hebrew national, what do you think there, healthy choice? >> hey, it's almost hot dog season, that's what i think by those hebrew nationals. >> you would go straight to shake shack. >> absolutely. >> i was cut in line at shake shack, i would have been lynched. >> you can't do that. >> you can't cut in line. >> so often i stop on the way home, just to have a shake. jus

conagra sells familiar brands like wesson, ready whip and heinz ketchup. shares down nearly 2%. >> coming up next, the obama administration reportedly pushing to make it easier for people with weak credit to get a home loan. will this repeat the mistakes of the past or will it help the housing market take off? we'll hear from two sides, but first a look at how the international markets fared today. >>> the white house is reportedly pushing to make more home loans available to people with weaker credit. that's according to today's "washington post," housing officials including the federal housing authority are encouraging lenders to be subjective in loan approvals taking into consideration, for example, a borrower's savings. the post says the administration wants to make it easier for people to refinance. while the fha would not comment we want to dig deep or this. michael barr, former assistant treasury secretary and is currently the professor of the university of michigan law school. joe lavorgna, chief u.s. economist at deutsche bank. welcome, gentlemen.

conagra will not confiscate that last thousand dollars. conagra is going to let you have an investment. they're not going to cut off your up side. conagra did not have a great quarter. >> is it an anti-cat market or an anti-cag market. >> wouldn't it be something if that goldman guy called the bottom in cat? i don't think so. there's a lot i can't take the pain! same way kimberly. >> well, so many different cross currents today. its he's funny, you may be looking at a samsung tv but maybe sony's going to be a lot cheaper because of that move in the yen. that does get us to best buy and samsung making headlines today on this offering of a 30% discount on its current stock of ipad 3 tablets. the retailer also teaming up with samsung to bring special samsung branded sections to best buy and best buy mobile. samsung shops can already be seen in some best buy locations. in total more than 1,400 best buy stores will get the new samsung shops. samsung is a south korean company. >> where the missiles are pointed and stocks are doing great. there's

look for results from conagra and an interview with dan tarullo. that will be on "squawk box" at 8:30 a.m. eastern. for more on how markets are shaping up today, joining us now is chief economist and cio. it's great to see you. it was your note earlier this week that really helped to focus attention on what was happening in japan because you were saying at the time we were seeing the nikkei starting to break down and yen start to strengthen so do you view the 3% jump we've seen in the market today as just a one off and is in fact the trend not in japan's favor right now? >> i think the boj meeting in progress has a lot to deliver in terms of the tenor, the quality of what they are buying in terms of the rhetoric. i think the bank of japan quantitative easing has been the quarter left for implementation. in terms of the stock market, i mean, the japanese stock market like anything else is a reflection of a lack of alternatives. >> at this point are you turning cautious on the nikkei? >> no. i think relatively speaking i like nikkei better than i lik

and in the opposite corner, we've got the reigning king, conagra.his is a thrilla in manila iv that is cat versus cag. caterpillar is like eating a whole box of slim jims. how much does a slim jim weigh? depends on the jim. all right. you could fuel liquid natural gas powered 18-wheeler with the effluvium with that meal. >> eww! >> with a little hebrew national dessert. >> and now jim cramer explains home theater. >> home entertainment centers, why not? you bought a new house, why not get the best stereo equipment. i got solo, i can turn off the stereo. right? i mean, what else does it do? >> this has been jim cramer explains home theater. >>> tonight, i am going to mix you a couple cocktails that will knock your socks off. the cocktails fueling this heady market. where is my pole -- it's somewhere here. eww! larvae. always have to have politburo vodka. that's the secret behind it? shots. hubbing alcohol mixed with kang and throw in some pills. how about bristol meyers, proctor & gamble head and shoulders. and we add some to the mix. i am going to t

but if commodity costs would come down as general mills says they will, as conagra says they will, wouldice ever come down? >> yeah, if they came down enough -- >> you would lower the price. >> yeah, if they came down enough, they would. in the near-term, you're not going to adjust the price around, either up or down. i think really around the commodities, six months out, a year out, then you're going to. if they move materially. so, you know, at the end of the day, if commodities come down, probably the price would move a little bit. they go up over time, you adjust it. >> because sauce is a big component, not the biggest. but tomato crop, if it's booming, maybe -- the sauce could come down. you did not list gasoline as one of the costs. >> gasoline indirectly i think is the most important. >> right. so therefore -- >> over time --. gasoline is down dramatically. will you see some sort of bigger gain than talking about the new year's day, which we spent a lot of time talking about, but i don't think it's substantive. >> it spiked up first. we had to get gas up to get it back down again.

profit dropped 57% at conagra foods makes chef boyardee, and hunts ketchup. 14,661, but no big retreat thus far after hitting a series of records. time is money, 30 seconds, sorry, 70 seconds worth, we'll be covering for you today. a wind energy chief who says no more federal subsidies for green energy. why is he saying that? you'll find out the top of the show. and we'll talk with a man who cleans up your internet reputation, do you want flattering links? he can arrange it. how much it costs. the outrageous stories of athletes who start charities, raise money and it doesn't go where intended. as for the price of oil this morning, we are back to $96 per barrel and been there for a few days. have you ever heard of bid coin, digital currency that's gaining popularity and existses only on-line and to tell you the truth i don't get it. why not use regular dollars, the man who is behind bid coin. he's here and join us next. clients are always learning more to make their money do more. (ann) to help me plan my next move, i take scottrade's free, in-branch seminars.

conagra's gets involved in managing the healthcare sector in countless ways.ne of the earliest and biggest ways is by creating a tax preference by the employer sponsored insurance into an employer sponsored plan. that's a private sector looks like in the united states but probably the biggest way the congress tries to plan the sector of the economy is the medicare program. the medicare program covers the elderly and the disabled and the united states with 50 million people but the results of the medical services in the united states and indeed in the entire world so that a purchase medical services for its enrollees sweeping the regulatory power the congress has over the health care sector because doctors, hospitals, the calfee that the medical device and structures, pharmaceutical companies and so forth have to build their business models around how medicare pays and for what it will pay so after 47 years of centralized economic planning for the medicare when we've seen the results when we see how much congress plans the economy and the results are abysmal. a

conagra said the end of the month should turn their checks back then because you are not doing your job. what do you say on that? >> guest: you know, this has been one of the number of troubling instances we have seen in this administration. fast and furious was a mirror and responsible program that resulted in the death of a u.s. federal agent. we have tried so hard in the congress to get to the bottom of that and we have been stonewalled along the way. there continues to be a content case against the general. if the white house believes in that program to be open and honest about who approved it and apply it occurred, so from the house standpoint i think from some republicans in the senate as well, we still want to get to the bottom of this issue, not just for the country but for the families. >> host: tom keller tweets do you support the fair tax and the abolition of the irs? >> guest: i do. from the ways and means committee, let me tell you i think having a much simpler tax no high gear than 25%, of the reform we are doing today is a great step in the right direction. if you really

conagra in the process of integrating the recent purchase. >>> let's go to steve liesman with our "squawk waiting for this interview all morning. great to see you. >> becky, thanks very much. i'm here in the federal reserve special library with dan tarullo who is also head of the fed's banking regulation committee. thanks for joining us this morning. >> nice to be with you, steve. >> let's start off right away with an important question. too big to fail. five years since the crisis began. have we ended too big to fail? >> no, i don't think we've ended it. the increases in capital, the special liquidation, authority for the fdic, but i think there's more to be done, that's why i think you have the debate going on right now. from our vantage point, we have an important instrument, which dodd/frank gave us, which is the capacity to put in special regulations for systemically important institutions. we've done some of that already. but in accordance with the principle of increasing stringency for larger, more interconnected banking organizations, i think we need to do more particularly in the

as i said repeatedly, conagra's needs to pass comprehensive reform legislation that addresses not only delivery standards but to reengineer the postal service for the next century. we'll be talking of the postal service by using specific characteristics and provide key tools to right size the postal service work force. as i proposed in my enervate to deliver act, we should also create a new chief innovation officer position in the postal service. too many people argue the postal service should be self sustaining like a business while at the same time arguing it should be banned from competing against the private sector. i believe we must allow the postal service to expand into new business lines and my bill would do just that. unfortunately the most significant challenge facing the postal service hat it has been t two years. congress' failure to act. we've god somethg although the senate passed a partisbil during last congress, the house failed to consid the legislaton whatsoever. last fall the house dse tgethero negotiate a serious and a sustained ma. we do not resolve the bill but as