yahoo, one of the big stories after david faber confirmed the company has broken off talks to sell the asian assets to partners alibaba and soft bank. yahoo down. >>> investors getting ready for zynga, first earnings report as a public company, moments away. as soon as the company reports the quarterly financials. >>> dow down 85 points, 12,878. victory on the reversal of fortune. volume anemic 700 million trades. nasdaq finishing positive, giving up all the early losses, 2931. s&p 500 also close but no cigar, down one point, 1350. get to bob pisani with more details right now. >> what a confusing, difficult day, 15 minutes ago i was write headlines stock lower on greek uncertainty, we started moving up, up here as we were going in the close, that headline longer valid ywe ended in the positive territory. there is a lot of uncertainty over what is going on in greece, finance ministers did apparently call off a meeting, a physical meeting it's not clear they would have some kind of teleconference tomorrow to talk about the greek bail out terms but what is clear is greece has not yet met

because as we sold you during "power lunch" and now david faber has confirmed that talks between yahoolapsed apparently. the company in terms of yahoo!'s stocks is down almost 7% on the trading session. that would be the low of the day for yahoo!. it remains to be seen whether or not the talks are permanently off, of course, or not. but it was a cash-rich deal. softbank also involved in that deal. we don't know why they broke down. >> david faber is making his way to a camera with the latest on that. and he will be on "street signs," the program that follows this in 30 seconds. >> and a lot of analysts think the cash assets in asia are worth about 20 bucks a share. >> but they have to divest those. >> they do. so many people came into the stock for the premium. and the people bailing now -- some people are still in the stock thinking -- the people bailing now are the ones who went in for the premium andy

it seems that cnbc's david faber has confirmed that the talks between yahoo! and its asian partners have broken off. what more do we know, david? >> thanks, mandy. we can confirm that the efforts that yahoo!'s been making for quite some time to spin off its stakes in both alibaba and yahoo! japan have hit what at least people close to the talks are describing as the rocks, so to speak, suffered a severe blow, according to those people who have been working for quite some type on an extraordinarily complicated transaction in which essentially yahoo! would in a very tax-advantage manner be able to realize for its shareholders a significant gain from those stakes in alibaba, about 40% there, and yahoo! japan as well. why they hit this problem? well, in talking to a couple of people close to the deal, it appears in trying to reach a definitive agreement on exactly what the structure of the transaction would look like, they were -- there were concerns, as you might imagine, about risk, the risk that the irs will say "no" to the tax advantage situation. that, in fac

i'm carl quintanilla with melissa lee, jim cramer, david faber back at h.q. what a night for adele last night at the grammys. a lot of hesitancy about what may happen next in greece. big meetings with the finance ministers and with that europe is hanging up to some big numbers. >> the roadmap starts with greece. the parliament overwhelmingly approving deep austerity measures, including a 22% cut to minimum wages and 150,000 layoffs over the next three years. finance ministers will be meeting later this week to approve a bailout. >> the gains made on the greek news and in corporate earnings, could we be laying the groundwork for the dow's run to 15,000. there could be a 50/50 chance of dow at 17,000 by 2014. >> apple 500 market watch continues. it continues to battle samsung with a new attempt to block the new galaxy nexus handset, the most credible threat so far to the iphone. >> and average price a gallon, $3.51. up 11 cents and we're not even anywhere close to summer driving season with crude testing $100 a barrel, geopolitical concerns, could prices go eve

advisor can do for you. >>> the adr for roche holding vsz had an up and down ride in the next month, david faberhanks very much, carl. for an exclusive interview is the ceo of roche. mr. swan, very nice to have you with us this morning, on day of your investment meeting as well. the company recently embarked on an unsolicited offer for the company of the diagnostics and sequencing company alumina. and you're also challenging to gain control of the board of directors. why? >> and if this transaction creates a lot of value for both alumina and for roche by combining the two organizations, we can level the roche global footpri footprint, our global customer base, and more importantly, we have know how and expertise to bring chain sequencing primarily in the research lab into the clinical setting. >> you know, this is a very fast-moving area in terms of the technology. and there are those who believe that while alumina has a very significant market presence right now, dominant one in many ways, it will soon be challenged by the life tech, for example, which may be able to offer the sequencing of a h

banks. >> the speaker expected to speak around 12:15 eastern time. >>> in the meantime, back to david faberreporting earnings above expectations. david's been going through the release. >> let's get to some stock action this morning, as well. pardon my back, a look at that group. all of which is down. we have heard we've gotten the earnings from the big four if you will. time warner, disney, news corp. -- the principle is how important buy backs have become to the performance of the stock to the questions of many of the investors in these companies ask. not just about the organic growth, but their ability to continue to reduce the slope, reduce the outstanding shares and thereby increase the earnings per share. news corp. this morning, real questions there were, at least, as we went on the call this morning about will you continue to be committed to that $5 billion buyback in fiscal year 2012 and that longer run goal of kind of reaching an appropriate level of leverage so to speak? in other words, having enough debt on your balance sheet to continue to sustain buying back that stock and hav

the -- and david faber. forgive me.seems real, it seems new and seems very powerful. do you think they can pull the plug on the dpregreeks? >> i think they could. i think in the end the greeks will come through. we're waiting for all the political parties in greece to say, okay, we agree to all this stuff. if you lead a political party you don't want to do that. especially if you think an election is coming up because you don't want to say you had to endorse all of the measures. i think in the end they get agreement for the following reason. the greek government does not survive a single day without borrowing. if they continue to say no, they lose their lenders of last resort. so what happens? if you are the greek government, all of those things that the troika wants you to put in place, ease in over the next two or three years, the wage cuts, the elimination of jobs, instead of easing them in over two or three years you do them tomorrow. because you have no choice. because you have no money. so in the end, i think rati

so a chance to take a sneak look in other people's homes led by david faber. u guys. >> yes. going to be a very special faber report. >> all these homes have names. you know when you've got a name for your home, it's pretty big. >> or an article. when an article proceeds the name of the home that means it's a very important property. an extension of the -- m & a. this is sort of an m & a. real estate's m & a when you purchase a home. >> negotiation. bid and ask. very simple. >> two-way market. >>> time for six in 60. six stocks, 60 seconds give or take a few. nokia becoming the world's number one seller of windows phone. >> people are saying this mobile congress, there could be new news from nokia. i don't believe it. i want to sell it. >> all right. aig. >> you know what? a real executive. a lot of people saying it was done with taxes and mirrors. forget about. he's a remarkable ceo. company on the comeback. >> monster beverage. >> i like to drink a few bottles before i go on this air. just kidding. monster rehab is taking the world by storm. new drink. >> rea

david faber is there with the faber report. lyst who has now been arrested by the fbi, david? >> that's correct, melissa. yeah. time to check in once again on that very long running insider trading investigation that has already netted scores of arrests for the u.s. government. i should say convictions at this point. today, news of a minor arrest if you will of an independent research analyst named john kinnucan. he did make quite a splash sometime back when he was first approached by the fbi. that being mr. kinnucan who is a technology analyst, again, at a relatively small shop. we haven't seen the indictment at this point to see specifically where the allegations are about why he was in possession of material, nonpublic information. nonetheless, he was arrested at his home last night. again, about a year and a half ago i had an opportunity to talk to mr. kinnucan right after he was approached by the fbi. >> a couple suits jumped out of the sedan in front of my house, and they weren't portland suits. they were definitely new yo

david faber, what does this chart tell you? we're a little bit light on where the unemployment rate should be and suggests maybe the claims data, one is a sign of firing. >> right. i mean, is that typical of a deep recession that you get that kind of a spread? and that doesn't resolve itself at some point? >> it's totally disjointed from the normal relationship. you can see that very simply by looking at that chart. hopefully, it's the green line will catch up downward with the blue line. that's official economic speak for we hope that the unemployment will act more along the way it used to act when it came to initial claims. i think if we keep down at these levels, guys, i think further downward pressure or downward movement in the unemployment rate is entirely possible. >> steve liesman, one question. >> yeah? >> just to play the devil's advocate. >> you? >> if what we are experiencing is structural issues with employment -- and you know what? i've heard our smart guest this morning, i can't remember the young lady's name tha

and don't forget david faber will have meg whitman on "squawk on the street" at 9:00 a.m. eastern time before the market opens. join us for that at that time. >> that does it for the "closing bell." >> we'll see you tomorrow. "fast money" starts right now. ♪ >>> i'm melissa lee. here's tonight' top three trades. their best start to a year since 1991. is it actually time to short this market? plus two big ceo interviews. jim burn of mgm will talk about expansion in china. and digital realty gives the angle. and we'll talk to the lawyer whose client is suing for negligence. live from the nasdaq market site, this is "fast money." straight to the after-hours session. hewlett-packard reported a mixed bag. the outlook, though, for the next quarter looks terrible. >> it does. but i think this is part of what meg whitman has said in front of everybody. she's not trying to elevate too much as far as expectations are concerned. she's acknowledged the fact there were plenty of weaknesses when she took over the company. we heard her talk about some of that, she continues to execute. i

that is a concern, thank you david faber, i noticed a story how apple's management is talking about hiring more people. this is the kind of financial cooperation that the people's republican can't get enough of i have hope the issue will be resolved positively and that might be behind a rebound for the stock and quarter that needs to have strong chinese sales. it didn't hurt that old tech, microsoft, i intel, ibm, they went up, too. old tech and new tech come together crucial part of the markets as much as financials a third of the market financials and tech, bottom line, those who walked out of the concert yesterday because they didn't like what they were hearing, they are today's big losers. those who decide they had were listening to dischordant dress rehe rehearasl, they were rewarded. this is beethoven's third. we have a ton of music, he wrote nine of them. got a lot of room before this rally runs its course. >>> ron in virginia. >> caller: hi, jim, retired u.s. army officer booyah from virginia. >> thank you for serving booyah, right back at you, sir. >> you guys made it all worth it

david faber confirming talks breaking down over assets in yahoo. down 5%. other red, masco, first solar down 7 pairs. citi group down 3%. materials week, u.s. steel, down 5%. consumer names getting hit, sonic an example, i put it up there because i like their desserts. in terms of the s&p on top, hasbro 7%, guidance, that is why it's up. fidelity national big dividend, micron and netflix up. >> do they have lime-ade at sonic? >> their desserts are fantastic. >> good stuff. i know where the shactmans are going tone. >> happy valentine's day. >> treasury partners on the rise especially after the eu announcement but the january retail sales numbers didn't help the mood. rick santelli has details tchlt. >> before we go to the long where you can see the buying, something strange happened after the january fed meeting, look at august 1st start day on two year note yield, rising ever since, i know it's on the south side of operation twist but about ready to break out of the long term rain, pay close attention. if we look at what is going on in other parts of the c

i was listening to my morning partner, david faber on our brand-new set tell me how jammed disney. if it were just david not being able to get on mr. toad's wild ride or cut in line at space mountain or the runaway train, that is one thing. but it's an all together another thing when goldman sachs comes out and recommends disney because of the throngs showing up the theme parks instead of higher gasoline prices. espn is great too. third and finally what is really driving consumer spending, here is a head-turner, oddest one of all. your home. yep, the real strength is coming from people fixing their homes. for instance, the home improvement stores. that's how lowe's, low, boy, how long has it been? they blew away the numbers this morning. and remember, lowes has been left in the dust, in the doghouse by home despot. it is not at the expense of home depot. both are doing terrifically as people begin to spend money on their homes again. now we have to puzzle over this. if homes are so bad, why are people spending money on them? because they think for once in five years their houses mig

i was talking with my friend david faber, some of the companies are doing special dividends.e want earnings. they did not deliver the earnings. and you know what? that's not good enough. if dominos does a special dividends because their earnings allow them to. we'll get that date as soon as we have it. but you know, i need earnings, earnings, and more earnings. if all of that is said, it's not like the stock has been a loser, it's stock's up 23% year-to-date. it's just i would have liked a blowout quarter too. and you can't ask for everything. how about gary in new york, please? gary? >> caller: jim, forget about it boo-yah to ya. >> i was in brooklyn myself. i'm loving it. good pizza there called dominos. holy cow, i heard the -- no, that couldn't be a hang-up, could it? we're so proud for everything. john in nebraska immediately, john? >> caller: yes. >> you're up, john, what's up? >> caller: oh, jim. hey i appreciate all the help you give us home gamers. >> i sure do try. every day i come out here. you think sometimes i'd be tired. go ahead. >> caller: you're the master of

herb greenberg and david faber reporting on this now. herb, what's your take? >> my take is that the criticism of this deal from community pharmacies and other chains has been something that has been in the works, but we don't know based on this. remember, this is from reuters report, right, david? that's the key thing at this point. >> having a very significant influence on that stock particularly that of medco. express not down that much. but they're citing a source closely watching the situation. i've been in the business a long time and i've done a lot of different atrixs, but there's a lot of different fear out there right now. omni care went down in a similar industry. that's exacerbating fears, introduce a story like this ech with that weak atrix, you don't know who that source is. >> potentially how much of a win is this for walgreens? >> if the deal would be opposed by the ftc, it would be a benefit potentially to walgreens. there's a lot here. we'll know a lot more in the weeks and months to come. if we see if there's ftc action, gets back, herb, basi

that's buying ibm if you listening to david faber's new interview this morning.'m feeling bad with whitman with that too daunting task. why aren't those favorites as good as the long shot? because of the proctor and ibm, you got to put up a lot of capital, and you are hoping for a small gain. you may come back empty-handed. i want to contrast that with this long shot vivus. here's the suffolk downs race track analysis of this biotech. you have a company that's going before an fda panel for a pill that can combat obesity, which we know is a scourge of epidemic proportions in this country. now, all the so-called smart money had already decided ahead of this panel's confab that no diet drug could get the fda's blessing. the last one was a huge bust. plus, we know weight loss pills have side effects. side effects that can bring entire companies to their knees, like the once-mighty american home products that was almost brought down by the fen-phen products. that's why the smart money guys were viewing this vivus as a loser, but they didn't have the benefit of superio

this morning my friend david faber pointed out how viacom, yeah, the tv company responsible for mtv,odeon, that viacom, was able to raise $250 million in 30-year bonds at an astonishingly cheap 4.5% interest rate. these were unsecured bonds. that's insane. seriously, there's no way that anyone should ever reach for a 30-year piece of paper from a decent believer company when it pays only 150 basis points more than u.s. treasury bonds. risk-free, right? over a period where you have to believe that inflation could come roaring back or methods of television distribution could change radically and radically against viacom. frankly, if people really need it why not go with the common stocks that could boost their dividends over the next 30 years, giving me a fantastic return? stocks are so out of favor right now versus bonds that you're getting great bargains even in these high yielders and you don't have to go that far to behind them. consider you can get a yield of slightly more than 5% from a master limited partnership like kinder morgan partnership. distributions have increased year a

yes, cnbc's david faber broke the story.lked away from a major daal with metro pcs that was supposed to be announced next week. the deal would have valued metro pcs at a 30% premium. news of the walk away had metro pcs shares soaring. it looks like japan has its own madoff-style ponzi scheme. japanese regulators say aij investment advisers lost most of the $2 billion in pension assets that it managed. >>> shares of kenneth cole soared 18.5% after kenneth cole himself offered a 15% premium to buy back the 53% of the company he no longer owned. >>> activist investor starbird value says it does not like the way aol is being run, so it filed to nominate five people to the board. shares of tivo slid 3% after the dvr pioneer issued a downbeat forecast. it locked in a profit last quarter, but some of that came from a legal settlement. >>> that every day low price strategy from jcpenney, well, it costs a pretty penny. shares of the company down after it said it lost $87 million last quarter because of that strategy. >>> bank of amer

meg whitman speaking today exclusively to david faber. where do you come down here on hewlett-packard? disappointments? >> value trap. we talked -- i heard you guys yesterday on the halftime talking about wow this thing looks like a great valuation, trades with a dividend. first of all the dividend 1.6%. i can give you better valuations and dividend yields in some of the high tech players. ibm for instance. i even looked at microsoft, intel or across the board. if you're looking at hewlett-packard it's been an absolute value trap. i think meg whitman is starting to get this turned the right way. she talked about spending. >> what makes you believe that? >> because she talked about r&d. they've just sat back and started to become this acquisition company without going out and actually spending on what they've acquired and actually producing what they needed to produce more. now she is talking about products. she is talking about r&d spent and i think that combination is 12 months out. >> talking about it and actually turning things around

david faber is back at hq. market not taking too many worries to heart.es down about 28 points. europe as well. counting on this italian bond auction early today. 6 million euros worth of debt. maximum targets reached. yields lowest levels since march. adding to relatively good news out of the sovereigns. >> that brings us to our road map for this morning. we start off with consumer. retail soars. avon misses. >> big call on barnnks by citi. >> war of words between banks and paul volcker. defending the volcker rule. >> two market darlings, apple and mcdonald's fighting back over criticism on questionable business pras. at what point does either controversy take its toll on their respective stock prices. we begin with corporate news. avon reporting weaker than expected q4 numbers. shares down 7% in the pre-market. company dealing with a short fallout from internal bribery investigation in china in 2008. if they were going add to their troubles this is one way to do it. >> tupperware and herbalite has had great success with this model. there's a big gap of

eastern speaking with david faber. >> so is that an hp problem? does that mean that dell's problem was an aberration? is that an operational thing? >> with personal computers and personal spending. >> is this a serious macro issue? >> people are starting to wonder that. >> talking about dell most people thought this was a dell issue not necessarily a larger issue. hp has had its problems. >> adele at the awards -- >> adele did. >> do you think that's pertinent? i think hp is -- >> you think -- >> it's been two and a half years. he was going to spin off pcs. my whole question, does meg whitman know how to run hewlett-packard? ebay doesn't seem any closer to knowing what to do. >> he was a manufacturing guy. i wouldn't know how to run it. i wouldn't know where to start. i don't know whether she has the vision for what hp is going to be down the road. you see what her initiatives are. sounds like mark hurd again. >> i think you need to join faber for that? >> i never did a documentary on ebay. that's getting a lot of mileage out of that documentary t

i'm carl quintanilla with melissa lee, jim cramer and david faber live at the new york stock exchange. this morning, the dow will open above 13,000 for the first time since may of 2008. also we're a little more than 13 points away from nasdaq 3,000. you always have to have a target. >> always. goals in life. >> round numbers. >> there's a look at futures today. a lot to talk about relative to the easy money coming out of europe. modest up open here. and europe is mixed for the time being. although for the year to date, still hanging on to good gains. ftse up 6%, dax up and cac as well. >>> let's hit the roadmap. can the dow stay above 13,000? the last leap say, the dow lost 315 points. >> fed chief ben bernanke heads to the hill to give his testimony. how will he respond to questions on gas prices, manufacturing, employment and stocks? >> and the ecb's second low-cost loan program. 529.5 billion euros borrowed by 800 lenders. >> apple set to open north of $500 billion in market cap today. can the buzz around the launch of the ipad 3 next week keep the stock up or will the law of large

david faber's at headquarters. carl quintanilla is on assignment this morning. u.s. futures are setting up bouncing on the jobless claims number coming in unchanged. but the four-week average dropped sharply. in fact, the lowest we've seen since march of '08. on the dow looks like we'll add about 20 points. taking a look at the action across europe here as we await the ltro next week, mixed bag there across europe which is fractions of a percent moves. let's hit the road map for this thursday. target posting its best full year sales growth in about four years. sears holding surprises with plans to spin off 1,250 stores and sell 11. vivus rocking a premarket trade. more than a double at this point. an fda panel backing their weight loss drug paving the way for potentially final approval. hewlett-packard disappoints, sets the bar even lower for the current quarter. is this the inflection point for the company or is there more trouble ahead? an exclusive with ceo meg whitman in just a few moments. apple meeting with shareholders this afternoon. could it finally announce

david faber will have an exclusive interview with meg whitman on ""squawk" on the street." that. and let's get more on this from george dowd, head of chicago foreign exchange at news edge. george, when we look at hp and look at what we've seen in terms of tech and dell, what does this say about the broader technology market, and how do you compare it to some of the standout companies like apple who have been doing so well? >> i think that hp and dell i consider the bellwether of tech, dell probably more so. so the focus is more today on apple. we didn't really see much of a move down on the back of the announcement. i think there's some sort of new technology companies being focused on more than h p and dell and apple is one of those. >> okay. and despite a down day are for the nasdaq, i do want to point out we are under the 3,000 mark, 2,933 and year to date we've seen the nasdaq up 12.6%. so do you see more upside in tech at this point? >> i think a lot of it depends on the economy. it if you start to see more strong growth numbers out of the u.s., tech is poised to benef

back to david faber. >> all right. mr., thank you. >>> with fed chairman bernanke set to testify, here is today's squawk on the tweet. complete the sentence. what he wants to say today but can't is -- we will air your responses throughout the morning. >> you don't like my tweet? >> i think it's very clever. >> thank you. >> good morning. >> yeah. >> that's how i end most of my sentences. >>> and talking about junk bonds, how about scrips? you want some paper, they're offering a lot of paper. >> $3.5 billion yesterday. >> what's interesting in part about this deal is they're paying real fees. we have a bit more on that. but they did hit the bond market big time. >>> his matt dax is on -- and how tuesday is setting up on wall street. ♪ our machines help identify early stages of cancer, and it's something that we're extremely proud of. you see someone who is saved because of this technology, you know that the things that you do in your life matter. if i did have an opportunity to meet a cancer survivor, i'm sure i could take

david faber is back at h.q.fter coming off their best january in 15 years, since '97, stocks are set to begin february in the green. take a look at future this is morning, set to open up by more than 80 points. europe as well responding to better-than-expected manufacturing numbers, some signals the contraction over there might not be as bad as some thought. that came after some reassuring pmi numbers in china. >> let's get to our roadmap for this wednesday. facebook may file for its ipo as early as today to raise $5 billion. morgan stanley clinching the lead underwriting roles. we have all the angles covered on what could be the biggest tech ipo. >> adp comes in line roughly with expectations but december is revised down. ism comes in less than an hour. >> amazon shares sharply lower in the premarket trade on disappointing earnings and forecast. can the stock maintain its premium valuation as it subsidizes prime customers in kindle sales? >> and mitt romney triumphant in florida but gingrich vows to keep on cam

. >> david faber said when he first saw these he didn't realize this was the camera. >> that's correcto small. >> we can move them around on the track and position them. the trick to building this set on the floor here, is everything had to stay within the footprint of this it space, so everything had to be ultra compact. we found these cameras. we started the project about two years ago, but only made the technology decisions about early december. so we waited and waited to get the best of the technology. >> to get the best maturation of out of these products. how about the lights? >> this light is a photon, carl. it's l.e.d.s with a phosphorous surface. it's equivalent of a 600-watt light. it's low power. this whole set uses the same electricity as a window air conditioner. >> the entire thing? >> the entire set is the same as a window air conditioner unit you plug into your home. >> that's amazing. some of the lights -- i don't know if we take a shot of these rainbow colored panels above us. >> these are multiple l.e.d. panels. you get amazing power consumption drop, but the fringe

i'm melissa lee with jim cramer and david faber live from the new york stock exchange. carl quintanilla continues on assignment today. let's take a look at futures and how we are setting up here in the united states. an up open with the dow looking to add about 11 points. at the open the s&p looking at about two. as for europe, the wait continues. prime minister of greece expected to meet with party leaders today. we are seeing green arrows pretty much across the board with the dax tacking on about a half a percent in gains this morning. david? >> thank you, melissa. let's hit that road map. i want to start with two dow stocks this morning. mcdonald's continues to deliver, posting better same store sales numbers across regions. disney reports a revenue miss but says theme parks and pricing looking up. a positive conference call. we'll have more. time warner, it beat earnings estimates. people look at ebida. raising its dividend. sprint shares surging on its quarter. i'll take a look at that. >> once again, a greek debt deal is imminent and the ecb reportedly agreeing to

david faber back at headquarters with a special guest. >> thanks very much.5 countries, a bit under the radar. we hear so often about kkr and blackstone, but you've been active for a long time. have you been picking up flak given -- >> it's interesting, david. we've had to do more education than typically. i think it's incumbent upon us as industry practitioners to educate the general populace about how it benefits the average person. >> i can certainly give you some of the other side of that argument. >> sure, i think private equity is something that stimulates economy development rather than impedes it. private equity can either create jobs or eliminate jobs. we certainly air on the site that it creates jobs. i think private equity, when you look at who the beneficiaries are, looking back 30 years, they are the pension plans, the average americans that in essence unfortunately probably don't understand private equity as well as they should have -- or as well as they should, but the teachers, the firefighters, the policemen out there are the people that over