. >> coming up, gene muenster of piper jaffray. we'll see how he is on that name and others as well. >>> this ad ran during the super bowl. >> this country can't be knocked out in one punch. we get right back up again and when we do the world is going to hear the roar of our engines. yeah, it's halftime america and our second half's about to begin. >> here's what clintest wood had to say earlier on cnbc about the backlash that ad has been getting. >> the average man or woman on the street took it for exactly what it was, it was a core message for america, it's half way through the recession, let's work our way out of it. >> so is it half time in america, and is it halftime for the rally in stocks? you can see this, 80% of stocks are up 50% or more since the march bottom. 57% of stocks have more than doubled, 3% of stocks have declined. doc? >> well, i liked the message, because you know, certainly we need an enthusiastic and an optimistic outlook because that's been sorely lacking partially because of the lack of leadership in cong

piper jaffray raising the comp store sales after conducting traffic checks on the fast food giant ins check it out. what mcdonald's is doing right now, mcd, up 1.5% on the shares today. now, piper jaffray's analysts believes mcdonald's is well positioned to deliver consistent and strong positive results, despite commodity inflation and strong year over year comparison. that is really behind this momentum. driving piper to actually boost mcdonald's price target. new target on the stock is $1.13. look at the chart here, edging out young brands, home of kfc, pizza hut and taco bell. that whole group getting blown away by mcd, bill. >> that's for sure. let's take a look at some of the other big movers that may have fallen under the radar today. brian schactman is back with those. >> some investors clearly still believe in the newspaper business. mclatchy up 20%. ad revenues continue to go down. aggressive cost cutting led to the feed, dipped under 20%. strong day there. ace touched an all-time high, just slightly below. insurance, not hardware. not deterred by the guidance on eps was bel

he's with piper jaffray.er, thanks for coming on. >> thanks for having me. >> i wonder how you upgrade a stock where the bulk of its profits are from an area that's slowing dramatically? >> that's a great question. i think when we talked about the stock, we highlighted about the margin headwinds. the company kept capitulating recently. we think the bulk of the bad news is already in the stock. we think earnings to accelerate in 2013. we have earnings going from 1.35 to 1.60. so we think that in terms of valuation, it's very compelling given that the stock plays on eight times cash. which is really compelling from our point of view. we think in terms of new products, that will continue to give momentum to the stock. we think the specialty materials that the company is famous for will continue to drive the top line. >> if we say that lcd is weak, right? that's where the core of the profit come from, you have telecom, specialty materials, environmental life sciences to drive sales. can we expect enough of a sale

of piper jaffray. you are an earlier doctor of technology out of the technology. do you buy an itv? i recently bought a tv. >> for those who do nlgs you are buying multiple tvs, i think they are going to miss and that's why maybe a million and a half out of 106 million is not a bad or too conservative of a number. on the other hand, the apple and people out there waiting in line to get this are going to love this. i believe it's going to hook up with your voice commands and all the rest as well as the ipad. >> why today's rally and cold stocks may be raising a red flag on the rails. tspark card from capital one... spark cash gives me the most rewards of any small business credit card. it's hard for my crew to keep up with 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. 2% cash back. that's setting the bar pretty high. thanks to spark, owning my own business has never been more rewarding. [ male announcer ] introducing spark the small business credit cards from capital one. get more by choosing unlimited double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. what's in your wallet? thi

. >> and piper jaffray upgraded the stock up to overweight.id, we expect a momentum in restaurant customer adoption and accelerating diner trends to continue over the next few months. >> two analysts -- if you want to play the upgrade/downgrade game, two analysts downgraded it. >> i'm so with herb on this. i think if stock should be sold. i don't think the restaurants care who they use. you may care -- >> i'm not saying it should be owned or sold. i'm simply presenting the other side of herb's argument. >> because you love it so much. >> herb, you make it easy. see you at 2:00. >>> next up on the "halftime report," after a roughly couple of years, do investors have a renewed faith in cicso? we're taking positions ahead of that big, big earnings report when we come back. spark cash gives me the most rewards of any small business credit card. it's hard for my crew to keep up with 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. 2% cash back. that's setting the bar pretty high. thanks to spark, owning my own business has never been more rewarding. [ ma

jeff klinefelter joining us talk some retail over at piper jaffray.ing you to finish this people for wall street, dear wall street, roses are red, violets are blue, this valentine's day -- and the rest is up to you. our handle @cnbcsquawkst. uh oh. should we be letting him p-l-a-y with our t-a-b-l-e-t? [ mom ] i think it's fine. it's the new element from at&t so it's w-a-t-e-r proof. cool. what else does it d-o? it's fast. it's 4g lte. what's l-t-e spell? nothing. w-h-y? hey, can we stop spell talking now? ok. a-y. [ male announcer ] buy a waterproof pantech element for $249.99 and get a 4g burst smartphone free. only from at&t. "why did i roll over my i.r.a. to scottrade?" "for starters, it didn't cost me anything." "and i got a one-hundred dollar cash bonus for rolling over by april 16th." "i like bonuses." "plus at scottrade, there are thousands of commission-free investments." "and if i need help, i can find it online, by phone or at one of over five-hundred scottrade locations." "it's why more investors with i.r.a.s are saying.." "i'm with scottr

>> stocks to watch about 45 minutes into the trading day mcdonald's action estimates raised at piper jaffrayrs in the dow today. fossil downgraded by green murray. that stock is getting hid. >>> and advanced micro upgraded. also finding new names here. thet of doubt about the fed's commit mint. they just made a commitment to keep rates low for three years. we had to assume some of the data was going to be fairly strong and, you know, we've got one month of strong data. i wouldn't expect them to back away at all. >> i think he'll tip to keep that as an obvious. they've never strongly indicated it would by imminently on the was. and any market softs in, he will be able to respond. >> so what you're saying is because the fed has laid out that interest rates will replain low for three years, it actually can't necessarily move with a piece of data even if it is a gender changing, in other words this super-transparent fed may argue be less responsive to what is happening in the economy? >> that is one of the dangers. it's a human instinct to defend that froost. it does change your behavior a bit w

joining us on the cnbc news line, jeff kleinfeldter, analyst with piper jaffray.e, at least, from the results and/or from the conference call? >> yeah. it's definitely too early to judge the strategy. it's going to take not only serl additional months but probably several quarters until we have a firm grasp on the success of the strategy. however, you know, there are glimmers of hope, as you say. there are interesting comments about the strength of the shop in shops they do have in their stores currently. also the customer reaction to some of the changes that they've made in their store service levels in terms of how they measure that through surveys. initial early read, we think, are encouraging. really it's going to take a lot longer to judge. the key is going to be the comps they report coming out of q1 and also the number of shop in shops they actually get to sign on with new brands. >> as for the gap, we did see margins decline there as well. they are announcing a share buyback program. i'm wondering what your assessment was of that move and whether or not th

. >>> we will kick it off this morning with corning, upgraded at piper jaffray. >> give it a good quartere you go upgrading. come on. >> mgm downgraded. >> las vegas sands has all the momentum. >> i hope it comes down. a cyclical rally will continue. >> panera. >> always a dangerous call ahead of the quarter. >> whyier haasen downgraded. >> i had dan fulton on. i couldn't disagree more with this call. >> karl icahn cutting the stake. >> what are you doing? clorox, i marvel. i mean, it could be a t minus reverse. >> lost his touch? >> you're not going that far. >> i'm not going that way, because david faber taught me to be a diplomatic. he's taught me to be more like gandhi. it's very hard. >> what do you think -- i mean, you have been relatively trying to gauge your optimism with reference to europe. it's gone up and down. >> i think we have had such a run. melissa talked about the s&p up for so much. i hate parabolic moves. i would like us to pause here. parabolic moves have led to tragedy in the market. really good moves and then stair steps have led to much higher levels. >> so where d