i'm erin burnett. we begin with a peek at a guest during the hour. it's an unusual fellow. sort of a guest host. we proudly present the "street signs" mystery market maven. meet lightning, a living, breathing market metaphor. we are down just a bit today. but he's here to navigate the dow's slow crawl to 11,000. oh, he got detoured off his greased lightning launch with lunch. he's not going anywhere fast. maybe we should just leave that shot up for the whole hour. he's a little bit better looking than the next guy you're going to see. steve liesman is on the trading floor at jeffreys. >> reporter: and the entire trading floor has turned to watch the tortoise, i want you to know. everybody here at the jeffreys wants to know what that is. one guy said if you put the lettuce by 10,000, that's where the tortoise would go. what i'm here to tell you about is the route in the bond market today. some guys called that five-year auction just an hour ago sloppy. others say ugly. others used more proper language and said very poorly subscribed. the bottom line was that it came out well

erin burnett is live in jordan. the best travel budget in the business belongs to erin burnett.n continue to grow even in the toughest of times. we'll be right back. what had happened in central harlem was failure became the norm. the schools were lousy... the healthcare was lousy... gangs were prevalent. violence was all over. families were falling apart. you can't raise children in a community like that. people had been talking about things, but not doing anything. hi, mr. canada... how are you? i'm doing great, how 'bout you? right here on 119th street. if we could fix this block, then we could fix the next block, then we could fix the next block... we promised parents, if your child stays with us, i guarantee you that child is going to graduate from college. failure is simply not an option. the sixty...the seventy... the eighty... the ninety-seven blocks which ends up being 10,000 children. we start with children from birth, and stay with those children until they graduate. if you really want to have an impact that is large, you will get there going one step at a time. there

erin burnett will introduce you to that sea turtle today at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. >> that is one unique tees. not so secret, john stanton, the founder of trilogy, founder of western wireless, doing a lot of work in haiti. we're going to talk about china and the situation with google. all that and more. unlike me, he's not very opinionated. i'm teasing, he's very opinionated. coming up right after the break. live from las vegas at the wireless show. furs this is not more benefits at greater cost to your company insurance. this is not how does it fit in my company's budget insurance. this is help protect and care for your employees at no cost to your company insurance. with aflac, your employees pay only for the coverage they want or need. and, the cost to you - nothing at all. if all you know about us is... aflac! ...then you don't know quack. to find out why more businesses provide aflac, visit getquack.com because now you can trade u.s. and foreign stocks online, in 12 markets, 24 hours a day, all from the same account, and settle in u.s. dollars or

. >> and live from pretta in jordan in the heart of the middle east, i'm erin burnett and today we're going to be speaking to some of the biggest money men here in the middle east. we'll also be talking about oil. saudi arabia wants oil to stay up near $80 a barrel. this morning president obama says he's going to be opening up a vast number of waters for offshore drillings, meaning american companies could have access to that oil. i talked with the saudis general investment officer about this and here's what he said. >> having the price around $80 is healthy for both producers and consumers because it will maintain the cap expend at reasonable levels to ensure supplies and availability of sufficient capacities. >> well, oil today went up as high as $83 a barrel. and by the way, i should let you know, mark, when i asked him about how he felt about oil being at $o80 a barrel, he lookd at me, chuckled and knocked on the wood on the side of his chair. also this morning, we'll take you inside one of the fastest growing and strongest sporting capitals of the world. we were at a big event an

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erin burnett, international superstar, who graces us with her presence every day.yep. >> the "wall street journal" headline, "google defies china on web." that's huge. what does that mean? >> this is an interesting one. for google, i'm going to be honest with all of you, it doesn't mean very much. google's been struggling in china. they've been unable to do very well. the company gets about 1 opinion 5% of its -- 1.5% of its revenue from china. 1.5%. it is incredibly small for google. not for lack of trying. they have just struggled mightily to get a foothold there. here in the united states the leader is their chinese competitor. google sort of as all of this was giving up. now obviously the growth in china is where the future is for google. pulling out is not insignificant as far as the future goes, but in terms wherever they are now, they were putting in money, they weren't getting anywhere, it might have been easier for them to pull out. that's google specifically. for companies overall, you know, yesterday there were executives at rio tinto, the mining company

. >> and i'm erin burnett. front and center, timothy geithner, treasury secretary. >> he addresses the house financial services committee this morning on the future of -- >> an itch. >> -- of home finance. i guess they mean mortgages, things like that. will we get -- will we see more big changes here. we could find out later this morning. >> i have an itch. all right. earnings season starting to pick up some momentum. numbers this morning from walgreen and kb homes, thank you, james. >> google leaves china, sort of. but now the search giant has a new problem in europe. >> let's look at futures. they're pretty unexciting, but they did look like kind of a tiny bit of a higher open. yesterday we were looking at a lower open and we ended up higher by the end of the day. >> let's hit the markets. we start with cool breeze, bob pisani. >> we're looking for some kinds of improvement in housing. the existing home sales number out at 10:00 a.m. eastern time today. kb home was disappointed. they reported a wider than exp

i'm simon hobbs in for erin burnett. now to matt. >> we had a federal filing from at & t. they will take a $1 billion noncash charge to cover health care reform costs in the first quarter. that's a $1 billion charge by at & t. if you look at the share price there is little change. this is the third company in as many days to put out a health care charge warning to investors. of course, it follows caterpillar and john deere. this charge ten-fold the size. of course at&t in terms of market cap north of $150 billion right now. so clearly a much larger company with more employees. but to see a $1 billion health care related charge crossing the tape, simon at a time when the health care legislation ink is still drying will catch the eyes of investors. back to you. >> absolutely. with the ink barely dry the commerce secretary was on "squawk box" saying how on earth can the companies be so detailed in the charjs and announcements they're making? it's a mystery. no? >> you have to leave it up to the accountants. they know what their costs are. they know what they have to set aside

. >> and i'm erin burnett. and "front & center" right now, durable goods coming in with an increase, mark, for the third month running. the commerce department says orders for durable goods is up 5% last month, slightly lower than expectations, but still, it is now, it is now a symphony of consistent data. >> okay. let's take a look at the futures right now. we are down 3.40, and fair value's pretty much even. so, looking for a decline of 20, 25 points on the dow at the open. don't forget, we're at highs not seen since the fall of '08, and the market up 10 out of the last 11 sessions. >> conocophillips, by the way, mark, has had enough of russia. >> no kidding. >> conocophillips is selling its stake in lukoil. they have had a 20% stake for the last few years. countries like china and russia can be challenging for western countries to do business in and sometimes it's easier to get out rather than fight the good fight. >> dell expects revenues from china to approach the $5 billion mark this year, by the way. >>