at the other end darden restaurants reported earnings in line with analysts. darden operates olive garden, red lobster and said customers were impacted by higher gasoline prices. shares closed at a gain of about 1 1/3%. >>> he says stocks will pick up in july. chief equity strategist. let's talk about july. what's the catalyst for a pickup in the market? >> well, from an economic standpoint the economy has been relatively shruggish. fourth quarter was barely positive. to some degree hurricane sandy has been taking half a percent or so out of growth. as we get into the spring months that will result in an economic pick up based upon the rebuilding. we think a lot of the noise relating to washington is starting to fade, the fiscal cliff, sequester, the debt ceiling, all of those issues seem to be moving out later into the year. so as a result the impediments that were slowing the economy down over the last couple of quarters we think will result in better economic growth. the equity market is starting to sense that. i think to some degree that is some of the rea

darden's stock is up 9% this year. car buyers are taking out longer loans. research from jd power and associates shows a record 32% of car buyers took out 72-month loans, which is 30% more than a year ago. reasons why consumers are taking longer to pay off the big ticket purchase: interest rates are extremely low and car prices are on the rise. the average car purchase is $28,500. ipo stocks are surging. shares of marin software gained more than 40% after its ipo on friday and were going strong. model n shares topped $20 in its first week, but fell to $18.45 at the close, while aviv reit stock is keeping its ipo gains and closed over $22 on friday. meanwhile this week, pinnacle foods is expected to raise $667 million in its ipo. and a vote on whether the company that owns the empire state building should go public has been pushed back to april 8th. the malkin family needs 80% of the landmark's unit-holders to approve of the plan. so far, it's got about 2/3 in support of the proposed ipo. pepsi bottles are getting a makeover after 17 years. the new 16- and 20

darden missed last two quarters estimates with disappointing numbers with olive garden and red lobstertiffany's missed three quarters in a row. we just learned that qatar or qatar investment 10% owner just bought 823,000 shares. i would not chase this great member up at these levels. however, if it gets hammered on the report, if they come after tiffany, this diamond and silver company stock is coated with teflon. so i would do some buying. it's not tiffany's so much as tefloni. bottom line, reported earnings including nike, fed ex, lulu lemon, but this is about the fear of the fed bull from hell. so wednesday's fed meeting is literally like it or not the only real event that matters. why don't we take some phone calls? eighth anniversary, we still take phone calls. jim in florida. jim. >> caller: how about a big boo-yah. >> huh? >> caller: how about a nice boo ya for our new pope. >> yes. yes. how thrilling is that? i was thrilled about that. that will be great. what's up? >> caller: blackberry, bbly. >> yeah. >> caller: it looks like they have good sales generated, and they've got go

i think dardens are well documented. they had weaker sales trends around the industry.not new news. i think it is quite a period of time before they get that ship righted. that is one i remain carbs of. >> yesterday at "street signs," we did a special around grains and wheat is an eight-month low with wheat down, coffee prices down and a number of other soft commodities down, input costs getting better for some of the big fast-food chains -- >> yeah, a great question. and the problem with some of those lower grain prices will take a while to filter into the proteins. i think this year, one of the key things that i think you know, some commodity expert are looking towards is a bett production this year which will give pressure -- or excuse me, relief to protein prices. so i think ultimately that could help more so next year than this year per se. >> tail wind. thank you bob for joining us. >> thanks, mandy. >> up next on "street signs," what the heck is up with tech? big switcheroo for a pair of heavy hitters. you think it is too late to ride the market wave? we will tel

that has worked in recovery for those respective names. >> darden has price tag of $54.pany with which have you a buy on, but you say it has the best value meal and that is brinker. >> we mengd britioned brinker wa similar position two years ago. they had two for 20 and consistently outperformed the sector in the last couple of years. management at analysts say earlier this week which we attend in dallas, put out an ambitious goal by 2017. that's something we think they can do. with continued improve many at chile's, heavy on share buy backs and recovery and then putting out a new prototype that we think will put out high returns. >> here on "street signs," we had a quick debate to what may be the fillet of fish type stocks, that could go either way, what did you say? >> well, red robin, that we have been positive on for some time, a strong rally since october. we downgraded the stock late last month after earnings. and you know, they are doing all the right things in terms of generating traffic as well as squeezing out inefficiencies at restaurant level. however we do t

. ♪ >>> olive garden parent darden touching estimates for the third quarter. that and third-quarter net income dropped nearly 20%. darden restaurant, liked olive garden, red lobster and longhorn steak house losing market share to restaurants like chipotle and panera. >> check out some of the new items on their menus. at mcdonald's, an egg white breakfast sandwich and burger king has veggie and turkey burgers on their menu. are consumers and investors and you chomping at bit for these so-called healthier items, and just how healthy are they? >> joining us from north coast research is bob darrington and nicole miller from piper jaffrey. bob, i'm going to pick up on that idea that maybe they say it's healthy but it isn't really as healthy as they say. >> well, you know, to be fair, i'm not even sure consumers really know what the term healthy means. the usda and the fda don't generally agree on the exact same definition, and i think broadly consumers think healthy means lower calorie which sometimes that's right and sometimes it's not. >> do you think that people

. >>> another fire on deck, darden restaurants. that company missed last quarter's estimates. investors are still hungry for the red lobster and olive garden parent. >>> a rise in sharing as coworkers watch college basketball's march madness games. more on who's headed to the big dance coming up in sports. >>> just ahead, texas has one less bridge to worry about. and a $24,000 hoax with the girl scouts as the main target. "early today" back after these messages. >>> now to some other stories that caught our eye this morning. we start in pennsylvania where a tragic charter bus crash left two dead and 19 injured. the bus carrying 23 members of seton hill university women's lacrosse team veered off the turnpike and crashed into a tree. one of the team coaches on board was killed. she was pregnant with her second child. a memorial service was held on campus on sunday. >>> in south carolina, a brush fire quickly grew out of hand spreading to nearby apartments and homes saturday evening. strong winds and low humidity fed the out-of-control flames. 26 apartment and condo buildings we

even today if you want to point to darden, disaster stock up.iffany was not that great. >> it was pretty good though. it might not have been great. >> it wasn't as bad as some people feared. >> and the point is everything can go up even in the face of bad news. >> and mike can i was a home run. when you're looking at the market and john had a great call yesterday on the halftime, but when you look at what the legs are, it's been about the financials. look how they continue to react to the upside. why is that? right now it's ben bernanke versus cyprus. right now i put my money with ben bernanke. the fed is going to continue to hold our markets together. they're going to continue to be the backstop. i'd still also point out the other areas, energy and pharmaceuticals. narm suitcles, that's a section that's going to continue to go to the upside because those looking for a little more of the safety side, they're going to get that dividend yield but look at energy. we talked earlier in the week, where have we seen so much activity, integrated names a

darden restaurants. company missed last quarter's estimates but investors are still hungry for the red lobster and olive garden parent. >>> look for a big drop in productivity from the office along with cheering from co-workers watching college basketball's march madness games at their desk this week. we'll have more details on who's headed to the big dance coming up in sports. >>> just ahead, texas has one less bridge to worry about. and the $24,000 hoax with the girl scouts as the main target. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. at angie's list, you'll find reviews on everything from home repair to healthcare written by people just like you. no company can pay to be on angie's list, so you can trust what you're reading. angie's list is like having thousands of close neighbors where i can go ask for personal recommendations. that's the idea. before you have any work done, check angie's list. from roofers to plumbers to dentists and more, angie's list -- reviews you can trust. i love you, angie. sorry

the disputed four can darden's are voting on a second day of a referendum on whether or not to remain a british territory but a loyal pro british sentiment among many islanders leaves little doubt as to the outcome while argentina who still lay claim to the islands have called the vote a sham polly boyko reports now on the toxic mix of nationalism politics and oil. these are some very far flung islands from britain a tiny territory now nevertheless the islanders are expected to vote overwhelmingly in favor of remaining a british overseas territory but this isn't just a question of national identity we know that the argentinian government's already dismissed the vote as a propaganda exercise cooked up in london but there's the prospect of all that a lot of people are talking about now they're speculating surrounding how much oil there is an estimated sixty billion barrels of oil potentially to be found in the full cleanse basin and that's worth about one hundred sixty seven billion dollars to compare that with britain's oil reserves well they seem scant in comparison the u.k. has an es

and then we've got darden restaurants, they run the olive garden chain.ices and higher taxes and the social security tax increases apparently hurting the customers. thh stock though not budging, down just 3 cents at 48. i've got another big name, now this one, it's nike. and it's up. i believe it's up big. nicole, does the reason have anything to do with nike getting rid of lance armstrong? . nicole: somehow that's not the headline today, but maybe. we're seeing the stock up 8.7%, a new high for nike and came out with the numbers and third quarter profit jumped 35% and they did well in north america and they saw in europe and emerging markets and that's the week they had in china and they're talking basketball shoes, running shoes, sportsware gear, all good for nike. >> a 55% jump and that's huge for a stock of that kind. >> and 8.8%. stuart: you're quite right, 8.8%. the dow did open about 40 points higher. we're up 44 as we speak. let's go to washington for a second. the u.s. senate will go through what is called a vote-arama. any senator can propose an

nuclear power but can the country actually afford such a radical measure we have in the studio tom darden has been looking into that for us so tom. tell us about how this nuclear the use of nuclear power is seen by governments today not just in japan but beyond that as well you know well of course marina following this this leak radiation leak it has led to a lot further. along this occasions for policy in japan and beyond so if we look at japan first of all there before the before this leak nuclear energy made about twenty five percent of japan's energy needs afterwards all nuclear reactors were suspended some have since been restarted to try to cope with blackouts far away in germany public politicians were horrified by what they saw unraveling in japan and that led in part to the decision in may two thousand and eleven to end all the clear power in germany by two thousand and twenty to have made up about a quarter of nuclear energy supply there and big questions in the future about what's going to be the future of that in france a very different policy since the one nine hundred sevent

nicole: several analysts saw their outlook on darden as well.to an overweight and you should keep an eye on smithfield foods, ffd the ticker on that one. and hearing that goldman sachs was hired for strategic options for smithfield. we'll follow the sorry and obviously, that's another name on the move. thanks, indeed the rally is fading. we were up 40 and now just 7. holding on to 14-5. harvard researchers blame salt for the deaths of 250,000 americans a year. they say it's a much bigger killer than sugar. dr. marc siegel, all right, doctor, i'm inclined to look at this, 250,000 deaths a year blamed on salt. i'm inclined to say that's just another scare story, what do you make of it? >> well, i don't think so, stuart. i think that that's real because most americans are having about four grams of salt a day and we should be having about 2 grams. it's in all the foods we eat. we eat too many processed food, eat too much eat, too many hotdogs and too many hamburgers and poultry, all of that's got a lot of salt. ironically i was in a restaurant wher

tiffany's and darden's quarters beat wall street's predictions.easures they hope will qualify the country for a bailout package and avoid financial ruin next week. the dow is up 81. nasdaq up 13. s&p up 9. happening right now, president obama is in jordan. this is a live picture of a welcoming ceremony. it looks like some hours there. nice shot with the american flag blowing in the foreground. they're discussing the concerns over 400,000 syrians who have crossed the border into jordan to escape the violence in syria. jordan is the last stop on president obama's tour of the mideast. >>> before leaving israel, president obama was able to facilitate peace negotiations, not between israel and palestinians, but between israel and turkey. while at the airport, president obama and israeli prime minister netanyahu put a call through. netanyahu apologized for the death of ten turkish activists on a raid headed to gaza. >>> time now is 8:46. let's bring you up to date on some of the other top stories we're following right now. authorities at the u.s. marine

darden should be shelled here, but no, they pre-announced. the dividend's not in trouble and we for this moment where i think it's just so different from the last decade. the last decade was, you know what? i don't care that tiffany was good and they guided better from the last quarter and slam it. where are the sellers and that's something i've been asking everybody. >> where are the sellers? what happened to the sellers? they were here for a decade. where did they go? >> and why is there a relief all of a sudden that tiffany got the product mix right. for a long time they were dependent on their silver sales and it almost tarnished, forgive the pun, almost tarnished the brand because they were selling at a price point than the rest of the high end canary yellow diamond-type jewelry that they made their name on, and now, gross margins are a little bit better. >> they're so fuddy duddy. >> the friends would tell you, listen, we moved ahead. tiffany is still stuck in the mud, but at the same time, i know you buy your jewelry at costco. >> you

now this came out of michael darden. i didn't invent this. he says the europeans got trouble the european central bank is too tight it may not be cyprus that's the problem but they don't have enough liquidity there so go short the euro while you go long the usa stock market. have you heard anybody talk about that? >> we have a lot of individuals who say that the u.s. is the best house on the street when you take a look at the u.s. versus emerging markets and the euro as well. when you look at the economic data improving quarter over inquiry. yeah the u.s. market is where one should invest. as you continue to invest in defensive sectors like health care and consumer staples you got to take a look at those valuations. they are trading at a premium to the s&p right now. >>le i would say stay with the winners. the winners since the beginning of the bull market have been cyclicals. a lot housing related. retailers are strong. consumer never got that memo they were supposed to deleverage. they've been spending. the employment gains are there. incom

looking first at darden restaurants.rent of all of garden, red lobster, longhorn steakhouse. that is something we will continue to watch. we will move over to retail. here is a look at tiffany and company. their fourth-quarter net was up 0.7%. they did issue a quarter view that was somewhat downbeat. not as good as some would hope. you are seeing off arrows for some of these names. dagen: thank you, nicole. apple peeping of its cyber defenses for customers. you can do this with your google account as well. facing pressure to shield consumers. you can set up apples new security feature by logging into the management page. we all encourage that, in fact. >> talking about a tech giant like apple. focusing now on main street. this is pretty scary in a lot of ways. they had a hearing about it on capitol hill yesterday. watch this. >> these attacks can be catastrophic. leaving many small businesses unable to recover. nearly 60% of small businesses will close within six months of a cyber attack. connell: with us now from buffal

street journal" is reporting today that there are some companies out there already, like sears and dardenates red lobster and olive garden, they're offering their employees a set amount of money for health care and letting workers essentially shop their own health care plan. when they're given that set amount of money, guess what? they're going with a cheaper plan. because there was a huge drop in the number of people choosing ppos. 70% of them took ppos last year. only 47% took them this year. ppos are more expensive at the outset. you tend to get better health care coverage if something does happen to you. but instead what's happening is a growing number of people are going for the cheaper plan. 39% this year, as opposed to 12% last year. but by doing that, an employee may wind up paying more out of pocket if suddenly they get sick unexpectedly and need to happen into their health care coverage more. one reason they're talking about this, it's one of the main tenets of obama care that goes into full effect at the beginning of next year. so we're getting a taste of what it may look like.

darden restaurants earning $1.02 a share for third quarter, one cent better than the street expected.. the company did give updated guidance. it cut its fiscal year outlook. it would hold back on price hikes to increase traffic. they struggled with that earlier. and the payroll tax increases hurting its result. stock up 0.4%. >> and in our what's working segment, large cap stocks. richard england, calvert investments. you like gilead? >> i do. >> big market cap already for a market tech. >> it is a big market cap. of all the stocks we have in the portfolio this is the one i believe that has the most positive revisions. >> it is so big, richard, that it's almost mind boggling. $67 billion. >> it is. as many of you probably know, it already is the dominant player in the hiv/aids market. and that business is still growing 10% a year. but the real story for the stock is their upcoming launch -- likely launch of a drug in hepatitis c which is a not very well served disease. there's an enormous number of patients globally that need to be traded. >> there are some drugs for hepatit hepatitis

and i'm talking about things that folks like the folks that darden restaurants are doing revamp theirenus with healthier opportunities, and on paintress, with the push on an iphone, parents have access to meals they know would actually be good for their kid. i'm talking about wal-mart's new great for use seal who they're putting on healthy food items, making it much easier to identify healthy products. and remember, when we talk about giving parents better information, we're not just talking about obvious things like food labels. we're also talking about the more subtle messages that shape our decisions every day. whether, for example, restaurant menus feature mouth-watering pictures of healthy or unhealthy items. whether a product is shelved right at eye level or lower to the ground where you have to bend over and reach it and if you are benning over, you're not going to get it. whether the produce aisle is the first aisle to greet you when you enter the store or the last aisle you pass on your way out when you're already running late to get home for the baby-sitter. and that is all

anyway darden restaurants downgraded from neutral to buy.ents to employees and the margin impact of increased value oriented promotions, target has been cut to 47 from 52 by ubs. gap is reporting fourth quarter with 73 cents, two cents above expectations. and the company had talked about 70 to 71 cents so that was above their internal guidance, as well. and then sales force.com, fourth quarter was 51 cents a share versus an estimate of 40 cents. revenue was 834 and that was also above expectations, and the guidance goes to 40 to 42 cents which is slightly below. and do you remember either of you, andrew, crm, i think they need to change the symbol. blackberry is finally called blackberry. not called rim anymore. >> nobody even knows -- some people know -- >> they do -- >> i know what it means but i don't know what it actually stands for. what does the "c" stand for? >> i don't know. >> customer. >> customer resource management or something? >> relations managementment >> so it's software that allows you to -- >> never mind. >> yeah. anyway,

. >>> friday the new blackberry debut, the performance of companies like red lobster, parent darden. >> kayla tausche, thank you. >>> some rare march madness buzz for a school that doesn't usually make the sports headlines. harvard earned its first ncaa victory last night, a major upset at the 14th seed beat number three seed new mexico 68-62. houston rocket and harvard alum jeremy lin tweeted the shot showing how he went from this before the game to this after his alma mater won, his three-point goggles as he calls them. bracket buster is what most of us call it, but savannah had it. >> according to rumor savannah she chose the number 14 seed over the number three seed. >> i said i think i may have picked harvard. >> do you have proof? >> i don't know. i picked emotionally and i was thinking they're really smart but they never win in sports, wouldn't it be nice if they won. >> you're rooting for an underdog. >> i want proof. >> "america, we are sorry for messing up your brackets and financial system" harvard tweeted. >> dylan dryer is here while al wraps up a vacation. you're starti