merrill lynch is mull pells bigger than schwab. how much that would impact that earnings potential. >> do they differentiate between bank of america and are they more bullish than jpmorgan? >> yes, they are. they are more bullish based on whether we look at the volume itself obviously 10 or 20 times more volume trades than the other stocks. >> is that because it's a fifth? >> a cheap shot, but also a lot of us would say because it's a cheap shot and an $8 stock, that's what the options cost in a lot of the other stocks. why wouldn't people buy the stock? they can lever up an awful lot of the stock and that trade worked out well. >> xlf becomes attractive. you look at the top holdings and wells fargo and jpmorgan and city, bank of america, goldman and american express. those eight companies, you moved this element of potentially. i think the xlf is the first entree you take here into the financials if you haven't been in them yet. >> does that change your view and you more optimistic than 24 hours ago. >> we have known for a few day

bank of america and merrill lynch is calling this stock underweight and says that you've got $2.5 billion financing in fiscal year '12 and feels that the merchant generation isn't going well. you are obviously putting money where your mouth is and do not agree with this underweight sell report. >> no. i know the company pretty well, and been working there close to 20 years. i can't think of a better place to put my own money than in this company. you're not worried about that $2.5 billion in debt and you have dividend reinvestment plans that will raise money in itself, right? >> we've always had great access to the debt markets. utilities have to issue a lot of debt. we build a lot of things and we've always said we have great credit ratings and we've always had oversubscribed bond offerings. >> earlier in the show i talked about how exxon, at the top, paid a fortune for a very good company, xto. you guys at the top sold a very good natural gas company, was that because you saw a glut coming or you felt that it was time to get out of that business? >> it was more the latter, jim. it just

police say they pitched tents outside a merrill lynch office on 15th street downtown.s ordered them to leave, but the demonstrators would not move. officers then pulled the protesters out of the tents and put them in handcuffs. >>> this morning, you may want to check your carbon monoxide detector and furnace to make sure both are working properly. 16 people including five children were rushed to the hospital because of a carbon monoxide leak. this happened in the berry farm neighborhood in southeast washington. crews stopped the leak, and everyone was allowed back in the apartments. officials say a faulty furnace caused the leak. >>> we should learn this week the results of an ethics probe of a maryland state senator who was acquitted in criminal court of bribery charges. senate president thomas mike miller says an ethics committee reached a decision on how it recommends the senate address senator curry. the prince george's county senator was acquitted in a federal bribery case last year relating to more than $245,000 in payments he allegedly received from shoppers foo

after my second story, i started getting offers from goldman sachs, merrill lynch. i said, i wanted to do work that was meaningful to me, so ended up working in the prison system at rikers island. i know all of that was in so many ways possible because of the work that you did. i just want to say that i honor you, respect, love everything that you have done, all the roads that you have paid to allow me to do the best things that i have done. [applause] >> 44 years apart these two stories happens. clearly, life is not the same. so i went to ask you, miss coleman, what has changed since your time? and, bryonn, after that, what has not changed? when you listen to this story 44 years later for what you sat down and fought for, what has changed? >> well, that is a difficult question. i have to say, depending on what part of the country you come from -- when i have visited and montgomery, people ask, what did they get out of the civil rights movement? one thing. the street that i lived on, instead of calling it east dixie drive, they called it claudia colvin drive. [appla

trust and merrill lynch wealth management businesses.ou for being with us. >> thank you for having me. >> i want to talk about greece, about the banks. but because we haven't had you on in a while, i want to talk about you for a second. you stepped down from bank of america in the fall. and i was reading that you described your tenure there, and i think you were also counting your tenure at smith barney, like the disney ride, the tower of terror. and i was hoping you might elaborate on that for us this morning. >> there were some things that you say that you can't ever get rid of. and that was one of the comments. i had a great time managing both merrill lynch, u.s. trust, smith barney. loved being there. loved the businesses. loved interacting with the financial advisors. there were some days, however, some days you were sitting in your office, minding your business, running your business, and given what's gone on with the markets in the past few years and the volatility that the banks have seen, i said it would be like you're on the to

not working out very well so i think there's a higher likelihood that you see bank of america merrill lynch split up and you see some divestitures because if the volcker rule is going to stop these guys from being investment banks well at a certain point the talent within these internal investment banks is going to look to make a break for it and i really wouldn't be surprised to see that happen before the government ever gets around to mandating that it happen interesting so you think the bank to really get a break up on their own now one of the issues here though is it kind of essential to argue.

. >> it is a hot-button issue inside merrill lynch religious community. -- maryland cost religious community. > mine was earned over the south pacific in 1943. vietnam, 1967. i got mine in iraq, 2003. usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. because it offers a superior level of protection, and because usaa's commitment to serve the military, veterans and their families is without equal. begin your legacy, get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve. >> nancy pelosi is criticizing house republicans for having a hearing on birth control that included little to no testimony from women. the oversight and government reform committee hosted the hearing to discuss the obama administration pause decision requiring allegis affiliated institutions to offer birth control coverage as part of their health care plan. of the 10 witnesses, not one was a woman. >> that is a good question for the whole debate. where are the women? where are the women on that panel? they're having a panel on women's health and they do not have any women on the panel. >> on

and steve with bank of america merrill lynch. good to have you on the program.teven, you've been right on your small cap calls. small caps doing very well. up about 11%. >> right. >> just in the last several weeks. >> right. >> time for a pullback? >> you know what? we've had 11.5% as our target for the year. we've had a pretty big move here. it looks a little tired. the economic news was really strong right out of the gate. maybe a little bit more mixed now, and so i think you could probably see -- we could definitely -- we need a little bit of a pause here. look at what the fundamentals look like. earnings expectations are too high for us. valuations are attractive, though. so the market still looks pretty good overall. but i think we've kind of moved awfully quickly here. >> peter, what do you think? >> i think we're ready for a pullback as well. largely the 9% on the s&p year-to-date has more to do than just liquidity in the system than any true fundamental improvement. >> you're a derivatives guy, you appreciate volatility which we are lacking right now. >>

joining us now aaron, along with katy with bank of america merrill lynch global research.good to see you both. thank you so much for joining us. aaron, we kick this off with you. with ejust had glenn hutchins on the program and he said things are getting a little overdone here, that there's valuation worry, that things are getting excessive. you disagree with that? >> i don't think it's getting excessive. i've not seen complacency. when i talk with clients and colleagues, i'm hearing the risks that are out there. i don't think it's overdone. i'm going back to the high in 2007. earnings are higher. interest rates are lower. and stocks weren't terribly expensive back then. >> you want to be # 00% invested? >> i want to be fully allocated to risk consistent with my own tolerance for risk. >> differing opinions in the market. break the tie for us. are they cheap or expensive right now in the aggregate? >> i think they're fairly valued. >> right down the middle. >> we could move up a little bit from here. we could overshoot fair value from here. frankly, we need to see a real r

say as we start talking numbers today with mcneil curry, technical strategist at bank of america merrill lynch. you know, brent's gone to $120. and it seemed to butt its head there and come back again. >> i see it going a lot higher. brent has been in a bull trend since, really, december of 2008. after last year's pause of about 11 months or so, we've since resumed that bull trend following the break of $116.60. >> that should park in the 167 area. >> now we're resuming the much longer bull trend. >> you think it could exceed that high we see back in 2008? >> i think we could see a test of that. marginal overthrow, yes. the trend is in that direction. i've been watching wti closely. we can take out effectively the $104.50 area, complete the head and shoulders base there indicating the bull trend is continuing. >> there's the chart. typically the spread between brent and wti is $10. it's wider than that lately. >> historically it was about $1 or $2 premium wti to brent. then it went the opposite direction, about $18, $20. now you're starting to see it top around. brent could outperform over the

i think if we remember bob ferrell at merrill lynch, he told us in market rallies we have to be intentive. and we are starting to see a market that is far too focussed amongst games. particularly apple. i'm not referring to jeremy lin. i'm referring to nothing but apple. >> hey, doug. you were one of the voices that came out. you mentioned a lot of technicians. and you were looking for a move where we are now. you've been spot on so far. now everybody seems to be getting sufficiently lubed up. is it time as we reach levels we last saw in may to sort of take money off the table in the market? >> yeah. i think we see sideline cash coming in. most indicate a substantial rise in bulls. we saw one of the largest increases in net long exposure of the hedge fund community. we've seen three weeks of investors depositing money into domestic equity funds. investors association of active investment manageables and stock tradeables are with the highest levels. and as mel just mentioned, ribini is now a market optimist. i think we have to start looking -- apple concerns me because of the market's depe

this was late last night when the protestors set up tents on a sidewalk outside merrill lynch in the100 block of 15th street northwest. at first, officers told the protestors to leave. when the group wouldn't budge, officers pulled them out of their tents and arrested them. >>> on this valentine's day, the controversy over carrying guns in public came to a head at several coffee shop locations in northern virginia. chris gordon visited the starbucks store in sterling as both sides of a gun debate. >> reporter: these gun advocates are armed and spending the day buying coffee at this starbucks in sterling, virginia. ed levine called on gun owners around the country to support starbucks on valentine's day after some gun opponents had called for a boycott because starbucks allows customers to open-carry handguns in states like virginia where it's legal. >> i've got a kim better 1911 a 1911 .45 on my hip had. i've got an i love guns and coffee button and shirt and i've got a guns saves lives sticker. >> reporter: he's paying for coffee with $2 bills symbolic of the second amendment, the r

of the new york stock exchange with ak steel, which is aks, down sharply after bank of america, merrill lyncherperforming from neutral and trimmed the price target to $9. which is about where it is right now. they may have to go back to the drawing board. b of a taking a more cautious view on the steel market and global supplies. in that back drop, the firm said it's highly likely ak steel is going to have to issue debt or equity to support a possible shortfall of at least half a billion dollars through 2014. b of a expects it to result from pension and vertical integration costs and it's taking a toll on its shares. in the last year, ak steel has wiped out half of its equity, almost. >> wow. bill, thank you. we'll take a short break. we have the closing countdown after this short break. after the bell, we have live coverage of timothy geithner's press conference on the progress of implementing financial reform. keep it here. special coverage coming your way on "closing bell." this new at&t 4g lte is fast. hey. did you guys hear... ...that mary got engaged? that's so 42 seconds ago. thanks fo

in large part that coming from financial services firms like merrill lynch and citi group.nemployment here is only 2%. the population is young. they are hungry. they are aggressive. and they are optimistic about the future. and these young people are demanding luxury goods. and they are demanding luxury living like that high-rise behind us. and they can afford it. incomes are up. and get this, the highest income tax rate in singapore is capped at 20%. washington, are you listening? and you know, when i ask about what the most important ingredient in this famed model is, you know what they said? air-conditioning. and they're right. singapore, one of the world's busiest harbors and one of the things you can find only in singapore, hundreds of ships waiting to dock. and we're standing at one of the most expensive resorts. that's the singapore model in 90 seconds. i'm wiped out. only one more thing we need to do. go up there to the 57th floor bar of the marina bay sans. there's a pool up there. and more importantly, there's a beer up there. >> you think he looks big here, check

police say the pair put up tents outside a merrill lynch office on 15th street downtown last night.m to leave, but investigators say the demonstrators would not budge. the officers then pulled the protesters out of the tents and put them in handcuffs. >>> 6:35 now. the "today" show coming up next at 7:00, of course. let's check in with ann curry to see what they're working on. good morning to you. >>> hey, joe, good morning to you. that's right, coming up on a tuesday morning here on "today," the latest on the death of whitney houston as her body arrives in new jersey where a public memorial is now being planned. this morning, the producer who worked with houston in the recording studio just days before she died speaks out in a live interview. >>> also ahead, an american serving a 22-year prison sentence in nicaragua for crimes even drug agents say he did not commit. what his family and now doing to try to win his freedom. >>> plus, jim bob and michelle duggar speak out in a live interview about their recent miscarriage and how the family is moving forward. >>> and jenna bush hager

that's a big swing at bank of america, merrill lynch. price target slashed from 12 to 3. this is more damage from the collapse of the prices in natural gas. tyler, sorry, took four stocks in 40 seconds. >> that's okay, baby. and den dree on, social gaming may be one thing pushing facebook's ipo but coming at the expense of traditional gamers in some instances. electronic arts going to report fourth quarter numbers after the bell today. and turn to edward williams, managing director with bmo markets. good to have you with us. >> thank you for having me. >> give us some sort of guidelines here. what do you expect these numbers to show? what would surprise you positively? what would alarm you negatively? >> i think, you know, what we're looking for is revenues around $1.6 billion. earnings per share to come in somewhere in the mid-90 cent level. but the key number to look for, the key thing to focus on is what happened with star wars. the game launched on december 20th. we have some degree of color from the company that the game sold exceptionally well in the first week. but

bank of america/merrill lynch said it seems well-positioned for 2012. sees robust eps growth and meredith whitney raised the price target up to $410 saying the european weakness hasn't been showing up yet. so people still like mastercard. there's a look at the stock and the run its had. year to date up 5%. but doubling the dividend, you don't see that often, a company coming out and doubling their dividend up to 30 cents a share is what mastercard does today. >> i can't remember the last time a company actually doubled down on the dividend. >> it's a big move relatively speaking. >>> martha stewart, a household name, fournd ander and director martha stewart omni media. deals with jcpenney, home depot, macy's, petsmart and now she's adding staples. we talked to her this morning about her deal with avery dennison and staples and what the market is. take a listen. >> home organizing is a $21 billion business in the united states. there are 20 million home-based businesses in the united states and 17 million of those are operated by women. so we thought tha

they had tents outside merril lynch offices downtown. officers told them to leave but investigators say that the demonstrators would not budge. officers pulled the protesters out of the tents and -- put them in handcuffs. >>> a check with tom kierein now for an update on the forecast. tom? >> barbara, we had sunshine breaking out. welcome. live view this morning from the news4 sky watcher camera looking towards downtown washington from our vantage point in upper northwest. got blue showing lou. and temperatures are responding. we are hitting the 40s now throughout much of the region. and we will peak in the mid and upper 40s throughout the rest of the afternoon. last 12 hours we had a pew sprinkles trying to reach the ground. we are getting nice breaks in the clouds now. but there's still a possibility perhaps of a pew sprinkles and later this afternoon and late in the afternoon and perhaps this evening. then sunshine on wednesday with highs in the low 50s and then the 40s with a chance of rain on thursday. friday and saturday, sunshine

deere is down today due to a miss on the top line though it raised guidance b of a merrill lynch calledhe conservative. equipmentmaker shares have not done well over the last 12 months though they've done well year-to-date. this farm economy has been booming, the future is on the minds of those here. 100,000 people could attend the world ag expo here in the heart of the central valley. no matter what happens, farmers have less debt and don't need to borrow much to buy. >> what we see customers bottom line are in the best shape they've ever been versus the 1980s, i don't know if you remember that but there was a downturn in the cycle and farmers were very highly leveraged as our customers at that time. we have seen none of that right now. >> one of the things being reflected in the sales is that equipmentmakers have been keeping inventories tight. overall inventories in december were the lowest in 15 years. case ih tells us "we're building to order." and new inventory controls. >> we have a planning tool with our dealers that allows us to plan the right amounts of inventory at the dleale

morgan stanley will be the lead underwriter with goldman sachs, barclays, b of a, and merrill lynch and.p. morgan as the other secondary underwriters, but at $5 billion, the ipo is half what wall street wanted. cnbc will have extensive coverage for you tomorrow, and just moments ago, amazon held its conference call and while revenues were not so amazing, amazon says sales of its kindle fire nearly tripled and that brought earnings to 48 cents per share and investors are not buying it. amazon shares are not tumbling in after-hours trade because they warned of a possible first-quarter operating loss. the internal revenue service says refuns for returns filed before january 26 may be delayed by one week because of a computer glitch in new fraud prevention safeguards. the irses returns filed after the 26th will not be affected. finally tonight for those new yorkers and bostonians who want to go do a quick last-minute trip to indianapolis, site, of course, of the super bowl. forget about it. round-trip coach airfare is $1800 and someone did the math and hiring a cab to drive from new york to

let's bring in mcneill curry head of fx and rates technical strategy at bank of america and merrill lynch. welcome to the show. >> good afternoon. >> so what's your best guess on where the euro heads from here versus the dollar in the context of the comments shortly before we came on the air today that he is seeing signs that the eurozone economy is stabilizing. that's euro positive isn't it? >> well yeah. it should be. but i think there are a couple other things that should also be euro supported which we're not seeing any follow through. specifically the price action in energy markets particularly crude oil brent or wti has been a good bumper for the euro. the fact is despite this massive gain we've seen that, out of energy prices despite what he was saying earlier you're not seeing any push to the top side. we remain stuck in this range and what is most important is the fact that we ground higher and tried to break out of the range of 133.33 the high end but we aren't able to maintain that push to the top side. that's also rather impressive and rather important technical resistance as

merrill lynch. old tech analyst upgrading wprt today.an energy fuels building out that chain of natural gas fueling stations that are so necessary if we're going to switch. >> remember, cutter is an exporter to us or was, thinking they would be. now they can't to western europe which cuts the russians out. remember when they closed off that natural gas pipeline a few years ago? that caused great concern. >> one of the things also to watch, we've been so wrong about energy especially. talk about energy policy. our energy policy was based on a shortage of natural gas. we have a surfeit. our energy policy was based on we have north america, mexico and canada. canadians are getting angry at the united states. we take them for granted as usual. >>> when we come back, another big day of trading. >>> coming up, are you feeling antsy today? must be the build-up to what's happening next. it's the opening bell. which of these 500 stocks have you excited? "squawk on the street" will be right back. by balsa wood airplanes since i was a kid. [ mike ]

neil curry joins us from bank of america at merrill lynch. good morning.o. you would be adding on positions here. >> very much so, simon. >> why? >> there are a couple reasons why i think the euro is going to be headed higher in the near term. first and foremost, if you look at the price action in european financial markets both from the perspective of european -- to the rather impressive performance in european bank stocks over the past several sessions. in fact, we've seen a multimonth base complete in the european bank stocks, which suggests that we're going to see further upside there over the course of the next several weeks. which is clearly euro supportive. >> well, it's an interesting situation to be in. because we are, of course, with the ecb, they've already pumped half a trillion euros into the banking sector. they could pump another half a trillion at the end of the month. if this was -- if we were talking about the united states and qe, for want of a better expression, you guys would be obsessing about a dollar that would trade lower. why do y

merrill lynch is saying you could see $200 in oil, 200-dollar oil in the next five years.er drive, don't hit the panic button just yet. jon: elizabeth mcdonald -rpbgs fox business network thanks. jenna: young people using free tpo*epb apps to hide text messages from their parents. could there be dangerous consequences to this. we'll talk about that after the break. rain bringing the daytona 500 to a screeching halt. that doesn't look good. no good driving conditions there. nascar is postponing the big race. it's done so twice. we have the latest developments and the new start time, next. pwhra*p ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] help brazil reduce its overall reliance on foreign imports with the launch of the country's largest petrochemical operation. ♪ when emerson takes up the challenge, "it's never been done before" simply bemes consider it solved. emerson. ♪ hands that feel soft and silky smooth! jon: a sneak peak at some of the stories we are bringing to you in the next hour. new sanctions against syria, as the international community tries to put a stop to the deadly viol

sacrifices itself, doesn't take the medicine properly and spain and italy are in the way that merrill lynch, aig, it's worse back in 2008 and, again, i think it shows what can happen if you don't play ball. i think that's the point, italy as we heard from your interview, and spain the last few weeks, they are addressing the underlying problems. the underlying problems are not simply the debts. they're also lack of growth and that growth problem which stretches back in many, many years in the case of italy, needs to be addressed by structural reform. if they're now making struck taurl reforms, then i think that does have more confidence. greece is too far gone, i'm afraid. >> yeah, and the problem is really about the risk of implementation, voting is one thing. anyone can vote. but in the case of greece, do you think those measures can be implemented in a timely manner because time and time again greek politicians have proven that, you know, they're not sticking to whatever the troika has imposed on them. >> well, it's partly a question of trust. i read over the weekend that one greek politi

, is we built a platform that allows our financial advisers to access goldman sachs, to access merrill lynch simply an adviser inside one of those businesses. >> if i am an adviser inside morgan stanley, i use that as an example since you mention them, i can have my clients continue to access the morgan stanley product through hightower. >> there are some of the large wire houses that allow their products to be distributed out to firms like ours. but the fixed income desks, for example, we access the fixed income desks across the street so they're doing business with us the same way they would do business with an inside financial adviser. the big difference is that now those firms have to compete for our business. they don't have a captive relationship with the adviser inside their firm. so competition, as you might imagine, drives up the level of service, and it drives down the cost of the particular products. >> talk to us about the growth of hightower. i know you've got some big lift houses as it's called in the industry. who are the people of people, what are the type of teams that are l

some of the most hallowed names in american finance, merrill lynch, city group, lehman brothers. and they caused a terrible crisis and economic crisis and that has caused a lot of pain for people. now, what -- and makes people angry justifiably. and it's hard to assign blame or it's people have a trouble understanding who is to blame for this. now, today it's counter intuitive but what we need is potentially more lending, looser credit in some places. and this makes -- it raises the question of fairness. if that person is getting a loan, why can't i get a loan? it makes people very angry and politically unpopular. this is one of the things that's given rise to the tea party. so i think what the caller is articulating is a deep-seated anger and frustration about the bursting of the housing bubble, the irresponsible behavior, the lack of accountability at the top eeshlons of the people who perpetrated the bubble like wall street firms. and then also, this sort of counter intuitive notion that some lending is going to have to be applied to get us out of this. host: so gentlemen i'll

it brought down merrill lynch. the fact is, we have thousands of banks around the country. them did not hold mortgage-backed securities and they were ok. if you have a crisis in sovereign debt, if the government bonds of an advanced country default those are bonds which are held by every major bank in europe. we're talking about a problem which really threatens the entire banking system of europe. host: robert shapiro served as the undersecretary for commerce affairs during the clinton administration. we are talking about the eurozone crisis and its impact on the united states. do you think it has an impact? are you concerned about this? you can direct your questions to robert shapiro. here are the numbers to call. what are you watching in europe? where are the hot spots? what are you paying attention to that could signal that this could have a real impact here at home? guest: 3 things, i suppose we watch. one is, will the eurozone, the major actors in the eurozone -- we're mainly talking about germany and france. will they finally come together with a plan that will assure

making headlines this morning, bank of america's merrill lynch launching a more aggress everybody recruitingamong incentives, a bonus paid for transferring client assets after six months at the firm. merrill is offering brokers from other firms an up-front cash payment ecall to 150% of the fees and commission these generated during the prior 12-month period. back to you. >> andrew, thank you. when we return we'll have more from our guest host today, meredith whitney and we'll be heading down to the new york stock exchange for the stock stories that the markets are watching as we head towards the opening move. >>> later this week, "squawk" is bird-watching, thursday, dallas federal reserve president, and ceo, richard fisher. on friday, st. louis federal reserve president and ceo, james bullard is our guest. we calculate the fed's next move and get an insider view on policy and outlook. hawks, doves, "squawk," later this week right here on "squawk box." >>> welcome back to "squawk box," right now you'll see the futures, slightly lower this morning. dow futures down by 10 points below fair valu

shares of fedex up almost a dollar, 95.38 after analysts at bank of america, merrill lynch upgrade the buy. almost put a $112 price target on the stock. the high point over the last 12 months is 98.66. the reason behind the upgrade, the company's increase in market share. it's possible as many people watch the super bowl these days for the ads as they do for the game. the exclusive cnbc collective intellect ad tracker was working overtime all weekend long. on the board, you can see the top five ads according to a sophisticated ranking formula that includes monitoring social media. number five, the avengers, skechers, chevy, doritos and number one, the m & m ad i'm sure you've seen. check it out, samsung, audi, coca-cola, m & ms and chevy, the ones with the biggest affect on buying power. >>> we'll see what the exchanges do to woo some of the leg listers. >>> and the close is on in europe. back in two minutes. librarian emily skinner, each day was fueled by thorough preparation for events to come. well somewhere along the way, emily went right on living. but you see, with the help of he

rack space downgraded from neutral to buy at bank of america merrill lynch.sto neutral at citi. >>> shares of gilead taking a beating after the biotech firm saying some patients treated wits hepatitis c drug experience a relapse. gilead acquired the drug in its $11 billion drug with pharmasset. joining us is an analyst with isi. he's got a buy rating on gilead. would you say that the data will get better and this is a buy at this point? >> hey, thanks for having me on. so there's no question the data today is a disappointment. with the stock down, here's what investors are doing. we're going to cut numbers in half for this hepatitis c opportunity. given the day-to-day, it's probably reasonable. over longer term, it's probably overdone. the downside risk over the next quarter or so is probably around 10%. versus the upside tonight if they recover as more data is uncovered other the next few months could be 20% or more. it's bad news. a painful day for people like me recommending the stock. i do think over the long term this is more likely to be an opportunity

economist at bank of america, merrill lynch, and ira harris, partner, and it's good to have you on the. ira, i'll get to you in just half a second. ahead of these numbers, your expectation is -- what is it? >> we're pretty on consensus and think claims will inch higher to 350 5 5,000 but even with the small gain the four-week moving average is certainly heading lower and that's a positive sign. it shows it has become clear firing is on decline. how quickly will hiring pick up? and that's why there's been a disconnect between jobless claims and the unemployment r e rate. we should be seeing a much lower rate. >> i was reading your latest report and it focused on what seemed a conundrum meaning more foreclosures but harder to get a loan. is that the concept in what that means? >> yeah, it has a lot of inventory. a the lot of it is stress and that will pick up. foreclosures are likely to accelerate. it's hard to clear that inventory because demand remains weak. a lot of distressed inventory is being botched by investors and that's not a bad thing because those investors are buying the pro

research david woo of merrill lynch global research joins us. david, good to see you.in the street but not to sound mercenary like, business news, we kofrp the business aspect and the euro is moving higher as a result. is that the result you expected? >> probably sometime this weak we'll find out the details on psi and we'll find out about the private sector. it's less than 90, above 70 which is our expectation. the ecb still has to cough up its profit and we might not be able to avoid a forced restructuring that triggers the cds. from our point of view it has been a long time thinking about this. the market is way ahead of the event. what does that mean? >> 125 and 135, sort of the next three to six months. i think if greece were to default, i think the euro would be a lot stronger. >> this is the commentary? >> basically last week as we know the loan groat number disappointed. local governments are now basically -- i mean, i think very indebted and leveraged and i think over the last couple of years, if anything, we learn about the market is china is much more import

because merrill lynch -- they also made an enormous amount -- >> on these loans. >> right. okay.as always, a pleasure. >> we'll leave it there. and i'll part on the opportunity to defend the british empire, as well. you wouldn't have to defend american imperialism. diana, what's your take? >> yeah, i just want to clarify one thing we were talking about this settlement going from $26 billion to $40 billion. the reason is that the $26 billion is the five banks we talked about, the five major lenders, bank of america, wells fargo, jpmorgan chase, citi, and allied financial. the way it could go up higher to the $40 billion is if other financial institutions, and we're told nine other financial institutions, that is servicers are in talks with this settlement. if they join this settlement agreement, that's how the money could go up to that. it's still 26 for the big fiv banks. >> the speaker expected to speak around 12:15 eastern time. >>> in the meantime, back to david faber. thyme warner reporting earnings above expectations. david's been going through the release. >> let's get to s

dendarion upgraded to neutral from under perform at bank of america merrill lynch. >> we told you we'dble super bowl to date in terms of ad revenue. here they are. number one on the list no surprise. super bowl xlv the great one the patriots vs. the giants. the game that will essentially be played again on sunday. of course two of the most buzzed about ads this year are courtesy of honda. take a look. >> i guess it'll be okay. >> i'm calling the studio, matthew. you're not shooting today. >> he bought it. life is packed with things you have to do. sometimes you have to live a little! ♪ oh, yeah >> look, i don't know what to tell you. he's sick. actors get sick sometimes. >> life moves pretty fast. if you don't stop to look around once in a while you'll miss it. >> get going in the all new crv from honda. >> i would love to have the first one. >> you're number two in line. >> who's number one? >> that guy. >> so you're number one. >> hum. >> how would you like to be number 20? >> no. >> i'll throw in the soup nazi. >> soup for you. >> i got a new boat. woo! no! >> final offer. >> access