what john paulson's big idea could be. here it is. the heavy weight with an 8.4% stake in hartford financial. again, hig is the target of john paulson at this point. is this a surprise move? >> you asking me? is it a surprise move? well, you know what? he's been talking about these financials for awhile. is this name is surprise move? i'm not sure. they're going 30 speak tomorrow at the bank of america conference. i wonder if they address this at all. so is it a surprise move? i don't know him well enough to answer that. but he's been in financials for awhile. >> the stock -- keep in mind, the 52 week range on the stock is 31 to 14. and perhaps no surprise given what happened on the company's last conference call where paulson traded with management saying you've got to do something to lift the price at this point. it'll be interesting to see if hartford actually comes out with any sort of response at this point. but pushing for a spinoff of hartford financial. >> again, once again you've got to think of the personality of these inves

fraud is fraud. >> and john paulson should be suing the investors of the forest. >> i wonder if they y settlement discussions. >> that's a good question. >> this can't be great for paulson's business. i don't know if this guy ever wants to invest in another hedge fund. you can't imagine they're going to welcome him in. >> you wonder if paulson had settlement discussions with these guys? i don't think they do that up front. that would set a horrible precedent for the future. >> i have no idea if they have. i have no knowledge on that. i'm j u.s. curious. >> we'll continue to follow the story. >>> another heavyweight has a massive bet on sears holdings. the company reports earnings tomorrow. karen is looking to short the stock. >> well, i did buy puts this afternoon. you know, this is the most speculative thing because you have to be right on so many ways. you have to be right about their earnings which i did prerelease. because of the shortage, because of the technicals here. i could end up being right and wrong and not making any money. i thought one week puts. giddy up, you know? >>

its largest shareholder, hedge fund investor john paulson, has been pushing aggressively for the company to boost value. derivatives-trading exchange intercontinental jumped 6% thanks to a strong profit growth outlook. we mentioned the cisco earnings earlier, and shares were up in after hours, but during the regular session computer sciences was the tech to watch. shares jumped almost 19% on huge volume. shares shot up after reporting a big jump in future business. still, company management is cautious, noting weaker government spending. the company still faces a securities and exchange commission accounting investigation. after the bell tonight, we saw the first results from groupon since its initial public offering in november. the online group coupon company lost two cents per share while analysts were expecting a profit of three cents per share. still, revenue almost tripled. shares came into the report with a 1.6% gain but lost 11% of this closing price after its fourth- quarter results. that put the stock below $22 per share. visa stock closed the session at a new high and looks to

the top contributors to restore our future surprise wall street billionaire hedge fund manager john paulson there romney is running for president wall street and the hedge fund managers who want to protect their capital gains tax loopholes are the ones really running for president. so it's right that romney is going to give a big victory speech but the real winner the big one or wall street. after the break america's infrastructure is collapsing literally it's collapsing but congress continues the ball cowed to filibuster or hold hostage the crucial infrastructure legislation by demanding stuff like oil pipelines to be built instead so is it about time to put politics aside for a moment to ensure that americans are secure when they're driving over roads and bridges this in time we boost our economic recovery to. wealthy british style. markets. find out what's really happening to the global economy for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines to cause a report on r.t.e. . but i think that i still struggle with that idea australia if you want to tell you there's no way to see

surprise wall street billionaire hedge fund manager john paulson now romney is running for president wall street and the hedge fund managers who want to protect their capital gains tax loopholes are the ones really running for president so tonight mitt romney is going to give a big victory speech but the real winner the big one or wall street. after the break america's infrastructure is collapsing literally it's collapsing but congress continues to bulk out to filibuster or hold hostage the crucial infrastructure legislation by demanding stuff like oil pipelines it could be built instead so is it about time to put politics aside for a moment and ensure the americans are secure when they're driving over roads and bridges this in time we boost our economic recovery to. we just put a picture of me when i was like nine years old and she told the truth. i'm a contestant i'm a total get of friends that i love traveling hip hop music and. he was kind of a yesterday. i'm very proud of the world without you it's a place. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you

nightmare for working people to earn sixty thousand dollars a year but just fine for banks like john paulson earn literally four billion dollars a year you've got twenty people on wall street who are earning two billion dollars a year and nobody is oh it's not a nightmare that's the american way right now working people in america are getting screwed corporate corporate profits have reached pre-recession levels and not only that i mean that's like one factoid they're back to where they were in two thousand and seven but they're actually up from that in fact they have shattered sixty year old records meanwhile wages have barely grown year to year average hourly wages climbed a meager one point five percent core inflation the price of things like food and energy increased to two point three percent so if average wages only went up one and a half percent and inflation went to two point three percent working people are actually below below you know the cost of living so this is the real nightmare between ninety two thousand and two thousand and eleven eighty eight percent of national income went

surprise wall street billionaire hedge fund manager john paulson noorani is running for president wall street and the hedge fund managers who want to protect their capital gains tax loopholes are the ones really running for president so tonight mitt romney is going to give a big victory speech but the real winner the big one or wall street. in two thousand and ten just like every two years every single seat in the house of representatives was up for reelection and thanks to the supreme court's citizens united decision earlier that year outside corporate front groups were given free rein to spend unlimited amounts buying the elections which they did over three hundred million dollars was spent the two thousand and ten midterm election that's more than a four hundred percent increase in outside spending from the last midterm election in two thousand and six and because most of that outside money came from big corporations that want deregulation and billionaires who want tax cuts tea party republicans won in a lot landslide victory and have since defended their corporate and billionaire d

that now you have santorum and foster friess is a wall street billionaire and then you've got john paulson and. we should i think we should be honest with ourselves eventually someone is going to come along and be very generous to barack obama sure and you know when you are a candidate and you get elected and then if someone who is giving you all of that money you know you're you know your office to the money that they've given you in some cases that's going to cause you to want to be generous back in the eighty's which was just decided a few months ago the supreme court if my recollection is correct in the supreme court in fact as i recall from the bench was a rehnquist or not rehnquist scalia made a joke about you know nobody said corporations are people how can they be embarrassed because eight hundred eighty s. argument was if this boy if i only went through and they're dirty underwear they're doing it dirty laundry or whatever got aired that they would be embarrassed about it literally as the word they used in the supreme court said no sorry you can't be a barrister corporation was th

written to five million dollars i mean he would have been there so really wasn't the shelley versus john paulson you can't win a campaign just by spending a lot of money on fancy ads people can see through that the american people aren't stupid saying that spending money on ads as well one the campaign for him. it's completely unfair but you know it's just it concerns me the state of our you know way and i'm going to see the same thing in the presidential election on both sides and any fresh off his performance in the florida primary that was interviewed this morning on c.n.n. here's what he had to say. in this race because i care about americans i'm not concerned about the very poor we have a safety net their efforts to repair are not concerned about the very poor we have a safety net there the center for budget and policy priorities says the government fell short in even adequately assisting a majority of those in poverty in two thousand and ten forty nine point nine million americans live below the poverty line fifty three point eight additional americans are considered low income according t

like a john paulson for instance. difficult in the advantage plus funds. will we even see people like that have redemptions? we think this is going to be a make or break for a lot of -- mr. paulson is not the only one out there not doing well or struggling. >> here's what i would say. i think people that redeemed on guys of that size probably did so in december. i think in john's case, i would say he was probably a little early on the trade. he's probably going to be very right about that over the next 18 months. it would be foolish to redeem from him now. if you haven't done so already. but i do think that this will be -- the industry's in transition and there will be solid this year. >> last year and think all right. there's an amount that's just too big? the funds are too big. they just can't put that much capital to use. >> there's criticism on both sides. some say the funds are too small. other people say the funds are too big. it's like an elephant taking a bath. they can't move around. you know, karen, i think that the too big theory really hasn't s

gives shareholders including john paulson's hedge fund a chance to exit.n covers the industry joins us from the fast line. great to have you with us. certainly not a lot of money to raise. not a lot of money to return to shareholders. is that really in your view the reason the ipo is being pushed out? david? >> yes, can you hear me? sorry about that. they're basically just dipping their toe into the equity market right now. this sets the stage for multiple rounds of financing. or as you suggested shares being sold by current shareholders. >> so are we to then extrapolate that they would go back to the equity markets and raise some more money? that they just want to get valuation on the books? this allows them to go back out and offer more equity. >> absolutely. we can see equity to work back debt. also 30% of the shareholder base will be allowed to sell now. >> doesn't sound like a good deal for any investors at this point. >> no, we don't think so unless you assume the domestic economy is going to roar back. the valuation range here is when all those comp

also notable john paulson reduced his steak to2,000 share. only shipments in asia were up, whirlpool missed estimates. shares went way up, because 2012 guidance was huge. you might ask how can that be. it's simple, cost cutting, raising prices, also the xan's be company's been complaining about competition. looks like the u.s. government might actually do something p it. next up, in the oven, home depot, when you google appliances, number one is pc richards and sears and home depot. hd is up 12% year-to-date. with housing doing better as mandy pointed out, rising tide lifting all boats at home depot, during the conference call, no mention of appliances. the real boon for home depot. the one-stop-shop for everything at home. so they can compete even if pricing is a little bit high. the last one, this is your appliance wild card, that's amazon, microwave oven right above my head there. maybe investors need to be on the big box in the manufacturer. if you believe people are using stores and show rooms for tvs, it's probably having for microwave

. >>> next up on the halftime report, has hedge fund heavyweight john paulson lost his midas touch? >>> want to beat the street? then you better tweet the street. twitter.com/cnbcfastmoney. now one of the most-followed sites in business news. show recaps and exclusive real-time updates from the traders. with a new view of the market, you could see an investment opportunity you didn't see before. fidelity's next generation ipad app lets you see what's trending around the world, as well as what over a million fidelity customers are trading throughout the day. and advanced charting lets you customize your views and set up your own comparisons. our ipad app can help refine your strategy or even find a new one. i'm velia carboni, and i helped create fidelity's next generation ipad app. it's one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. get 200 free trades and explore your next investing idea. anything not moving forward... is moving backward. [ tires screech ] [ engine turns over, tires squeal ] introducing the 2013 gs, with the lexus enform app suite -- the most co

meanwhile, john paulson, the huge hedge fund activist in urging hartford financial to spin off the pncusiness. >>> several issues yesterday, everything from working conditions in decline ease factories, to the company's cash position. here's what cook had to say -- it took us 22 years to sell our first 55 million macs, our first five years to three years to sell our first 55 million iphones, it took us less than seven quarters, to sell our first 55 million ipads. those are the trajectory we have seen in shares of apple. interesting, because in the journal today there's a story about how it's masking the s&p. a look at the corporate earnings growth. >> texas instruments spoke last night yesterday at the gold plan conference, and it's in the apple orb. if you're in, your company is doing well. if you're at, you're getting killed. last year at this time, jpmorgan was talking about an ipad glut. it's looking a lot like the ipod means game/set/match from year 1. only player. only player people want. >> of course, the chinese don't seem to like it too much suddenly. >> they like the name. >>

today, valerie is going on a first date with john paulson who is excited about meeting a boots-wearing nice meeting you. i love your hair. >> thank you. are you ready for a ride? i love your blue eyes. >> thank you. >> reporter: of the hundred top dating sites more than half target narrow interests. no one knows how many niche sites there are. they can spring up and disappear overnight. the fastest growing group of online daters is boomers. >> really involved, scary. >> yeah. i moved my dog in. >> reporter: aging boomers jack daniel and hannah hogan have no plans for a quiet retirement. they met through -- where else? bikerkiss.com. >> much better to go on a niche site. a lot less work sorting through thousands of people. why not narrow it down? >> i see ourselves having a lot of fun until the day i die. i'm so connected with this girl it's unreal. if i was to order something from god it would be this girl. >> reporter: valerie and john's date didn't have quite the same result. they share a love of horses. just not enough human chemistry. >> we're now riding into the sun set. >> yes, i

there is a look at john paulson.senting 27.8% of the companies issued outstanding capital will be listed after giving effect to this offering of which 18.8% will become freely tradeable immediately and then you get the rest six months later. so a lot more stock will follow this tiny little offering if they get it done. it's a company that has $22.5 billion worth of debt. but it points out only $45 million actually has to go out to pay interest next year or this year. back to you, melissa. >> wow. all right, david, thanks for that. >>> coming up next winging it on super bowl sunday. buffalo wild wings ceo sally smith on turning the big game into big business. the stock by the way has been hot as well. take a look at this morning's early movers. the dow is higher by 0.9% and so is the s&p. stay tuned. intuitive trading platform from charles schwab. fine-tune technical analysis with the integrated chart tools sidebar. pinpoint your target more efficiently with clearly categorized, highly customizable technical studies.