and finally, gymboree, the retailer of children's apparel, is going private. bain capital is the buyer in a deal worth $1.8 billion, or $65.40 a share. the deal setting off takeover speculation on which of gymboree's peers will be next. gymboree's shares rose more than 22%. children's place rose 2.5%. carter's picked up 3.2%. and that's tonight's "market focus." i[i[i[i[i[i[i[ >> suzanne: on wednesday, j.p. morgan chase will be the first major financial firm to report third quarter earnings. financial firms are expected to be top performers when it comes to year-over-year profit growth, so it's likely investors will look closely at financial stocks. but, how do you pick a winner? that's one of the articles in the november issue of "bloomberg markets magazine," titled "the world's best financial stock pickers." earlier, i spoke with nic gammeltoft, the author of the article and asked what surprised him the most in his research. >> i think two things that surprised me the most. one with the first one is how difficult it was for the professionals in the industry

a little acquisition on the street, children's clothing region he tailor gymboree agreed to purchase bybane capital. goldman sachs is joining the ranks of several banks to put the akes on foreclosures. >>> meanwhile, mercedes is recalling some 85,000 vehicles in the us. over potential power steering problems in some 2010 and 2011 c and e class models. microsoft ueiled a lineup of power phones. the updated system displays tiles instead of i cons on the home screen and boasts aamera button that works even when the phone is locked. >>> "the wall street journal" is reporting that despite the struggling economy, paychecks on wall street are on track to break a record high for the second straid straight year. nearly three financial firms are set to pay 4% more in compensation and benefits over last year. >>> finally, it sooed seems a large number of american workers favor mixing business with pleasure. a recent so-called best boss survey found that 17% of those questioned think sleeping with the boss will help you get ahea and 7%? well, they were speaking from experience. >>> bobby cox tak

a little acquisition action on the street, children's clothing retailer, gymboree agreed to be purchased bain. and goldman sachs is joining the ranks of several banks halting foreclosures. and mercedes-benz recalled several vehicles after problems with power steering. >>> the "wall street journal" is reporting that despite the still struggling u.s. economy, paychecks on wall street are on track to break a record high for the second straight year. according to the journal, nearly three dozen top financial firms are set to pay 4% more in compensation and benefits over the last year. finally, it seems a large number of american workers favor mixing business with pleasure. a recent so-called best boss survey found that 17% of those questioned think sleeping with the boss will help you get ahead. 7%, well, they were speaking from experience. >>> bobby cox takes his curtain call with the braves. plus they say everything is big in texas, that includes trick shots. you are watching "first look" on msnbc. wall street is getting back on its feet. but the financial landscape is still full of uncert

retailer gymboree shot up 20%.the "wall street journal" reports the company is seeing if there are private equity buyers interested. we mentioned in the newswheel that another big bank is halting foreclosures while it sorts out questions about paperwork; title insurance stocks were hit by worries that paperwork problems may put millions of titles into question. a couple to look at here. fidelity national and first american each saw stronger volumes on these drops. together, these two command two- thirds of the market share for title insurance. fridays are big for movies, and today was big for imax. not a movie opening, but rather movie theater chain regal will add more than a dozen imax theaters in the next couple years. while regal saw a fractional gain, imax stock rallied almost 7%. the stock is above $18 for the first time since may. it was a busy week for new stocks, with seven initial public offerings-- including three from china-- tapping into american investors. it was a big bang for china- cache, an interne

the childrens clothing retailer gymboree agreed to a deal for $1.8 billion.rofits have risen in each of the past five years. and lieberman promoted to general manager of kgo radio today. microsoft announced plans to launch three smart phones in time for holidays run on microsoft mobile phone software and testing whether microsoft can catch up with apple and google in the smart phone market. >> and not much movement on stock markets today. nasdaq went up just a fraction. >> tonight a time-saving test for tuberculosis. >> and if you do down that road, you can find it's not tv. you voiced those resource autos lab results comingman: em? woman: who are we? chic, modern, daring dinner-party hosts. that sounds dangerous, maybe we're more the traditional sunday brunch set? i'll expect slippers and a cocktail to be ready when i get home from work. point taken. how about... peaceful, quiet cottage in the country folk? now that's us. spend over 2500 dollars on a new kitchen and save 40 percent on custom countertops until november 28th at ikea. the life improvement store

. >>> meanwhile on this merger monday, no monkey business for kid clothing retailers gymboree. it has agreed to be bought for $1.8 billion. the buyer, buyout firm. binge capital. -- bing capital. microsoft unveiling nine new smartphones. the windows based smartphones will be sold by at&t and t- mobile just in time for the holidays. the windows smartphone software features the ability to take and post photos faster along with connections with facebook and microsoft's x-box live game service. and lastly, we are learning that chicago based united airlines will need more space than it originally planned at willis tower. it plans to occupy 12 floors for its new operations center. three more floors than united originally announced in august of 2009. united anticipating moving more than 1,000 employees into willis tower by the end of the year. right now on wall street we were seeing stocks climb, building on last week's rally amid growing speculation that the federal reserve will pump more cashes into the economy to protect the recovery and those are your business headlines. live at c

and gymboree jumping after agrees to a buyout from bay and capital.>>> wild show tonight. one of the many states where karl rove and his associates are hitting is new hampshire. >> congressmanç hodes claims - >> you deserve a senator who gets rid of the pork. >> but hodes voted for the pork-filled stimulus bill. $1.9 million in africa. $39 million nor office upgrades for politicians. unemployment still higher. no wonder the leader says -- the guy just can't tell the truth. >> the latest our g poll of new hampshire shows hodes trailing kelly ayotte by five points. ayotte's lead has been cut from 14 in two weeks. congressman hodes joins us from boston. seems like you're in a heck of a race right now. what are you doing that's selling with the voters? looks like the projection is good for you three weeks out. >> chris, thanks. clearly, the momentum is with us in this campaign. there's a simple choice in this election. are you going to choose somebody who stands up far people and against the special interests or stand with somebody who wants to hand our

. >>> gold continues its rally and children's clothing retailer gymboree jumping more than 60%.cnbc, first in business worldwide. >>> welcome back to "hardball." from tea partiers like christine o'donnell and sharron angle to senators like david vitor, a number of candidates have gone mia, but can they win by dodging reporters and running out the clock on the pres-- john, let's look at this angle and the latest from here. she had a tough time clarifying her comment that people may seek second amendment remedies. here she is with john carl and then lawrence lorneson. >> when you said it, if things don't turn out the right way in this election, people may seek first, second amendment remedies, what did you mean? >> i don't think that was -- >> you tell me. >> we were discussing in the context of the second amendment, having a discussion about the founding fathers and why they have put the second amendment into the bill of rights. >> our founding fathers put that second amendment in there for a good reason and that was for the people to protect themselves against a tyrannical gover

among the stocks in the news toy, gymboree is up over 20%. theetailer children's clothing accepting a takeover bid from a private equity arm. microsoft is fractionally higher, bidding to increase its share of the smartphone market now dominated by the blackberry. microsoft ha nine new handsets will go on sale this holiday season. calls from state and federal lawmakers about a nationwide moratorium on foreclosures, they're growing louder. this as 40 state attorneys general are forming probes to investigate irregularities. while problems could exist, legitimate foreclosures should exce. it would have an impact, a nationwide moratorium on foreclosures on the housing market. back to you. >> all right, mary. thank you very much for your report. have a great day. >>> more now on that new phone from microsoft. everyone is familiar with their computer operating systems but they have been noticeably absent when it comes to e smartphone world. today that's going to change as microsoft attempts to break into the hand-held world with their newest smartph

the san francisco based retailer gymbo gymb gymboree will be bought. speaking of stock, a big mover on a sleepy columbus day. smooth saili ining without muchs and small gains for the stock market. >>> another smartphone is about to hit the market from microsoft which admits it's late to the party but knows there's a lot of money to be made in mobile. fighting to get back into the smartphone game, microsoft unveiled windows phone 7. >> i think what the world needs is another kind of phone. a different kind of phone which is really what we have to focus in on. the combination of the hardware and the software. >> reporter: that new software does everything you might expect. phone calls, e-mail, video games, access to social media and the web and it will also stream movies and tv shows. there's a video and still camera on most units but the big picture according to some analysts is it took microsoft too long to make this move. >> they needed to bring this out last year with the launch of windows 7 you want to do a mobile version. it's definitely better tha

. >>> gymboree skyrocketed in the markets today on a report it may be out for sale.m cnbc, first in business worldwide. now back to chris and "hardball." >>> the biggest mistake we could make is to let impatience or frustration lead to apathy and indifference. because that guarantees the other side wins. and if they do win, they will spend the next two years fighting for the very same policies that led us into this recession in the first place. the same policies that left middle class families behind for more than a decade. the same policies you fought hard to change in 2008. >> wow. that was president obama last night at a fund-raiser in washington. he's out there trying to rally the base. is he hitting the right notes? clarence page is a syndicated columnist for the "chicago tribune" and alex wagner covers the white house for politicsdaily.com. both of you, watch the president. here's a couple more of those. first of all, here's something he said last night at a political fund-raiser last night. let's listen to the president. >> now is not the time to quit. now's n