>> the first we mention is pulte. for the long-term three-year view, we still like this stock, but in the short term, we think they're vulnerable, probably a pretty weak orders comp year over year and that's one of the metrics everyone's focused on. hard to post a good orders comp when you're shrinking communities and that's part of pulte's strategy lately. >> you have a hold rating on the stock? >> we do. >> you call it the slipping share trade in your note today. >> we do. again, at the end of the day, what the market's been focused on for homebuilders is the expectation of a doubling of sales volumes and very sharp recovery in the pace of home sales. and again, with pulte, part of the strategy, which we think is a good one, is shrinking communities, selling off land and that sort of thing, which witness we think is rewarding long term. but just given the trading nature of this sector and the fast money that plays in, we think they're setting up for a disappointing order comp, and that's a metric a lot of people foc

shares of pulte up over 85%. again, how high can you go? simon? >> diana, thank you very much. >>> meantime, get ready for one of the most important earnings seasons we've had for a while. that's for sure. it all kicks off in three hours when alcoa reports. overall wall street expectations are pretty low and indeed falling in some cases. what will companies blame this time for their results? bob pisani has the top three excuses. bob? >> earnings growth is slowing down. that's good and bad news. already you can see people trying to justify what's going on. the fact that we're only going to grow 1% in earnings this year. the top three shows up are number one, what's going on in europe. that makes an awful lot of sense. the other is the recent strength in the dollar. the third is higher energy and commodity costs. all three will come together this afternoon when alcoa reports. a global company deals with higher energy costs, dealing with the stronger dollar and tealing with the weaker europe. >> they blamed europe the last quarter, too. >> that's rig

." >>> home builders lennar and pulte tumbled 6%.erpillar led industrial lowers after march sales in china plunged 50%. nevis lost on news the fda will review a weight loss drug for three months. grocery chain super value jumped 15% on full year forecast. >>> finally, death and taxes may be along life's few certainties, come on people let's try to prevent a double whammy. traffic accident deaths have risen by 6% on tax day for each of the last 30 years. please, let's all chill out, get some sleep, and be sure not to hit the bottle before hitting the road on april 17th or any other day. >>> coming up the braves get a boost, celtics beat the heat, no rose, no problem for the chicago bulls. plus a game-winning homer by a birthday boy on dodger stadium's 50th anniversary. the early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. >> another spring day, cool and rainy weather on the west coast, we need it on the east coast, your forecast coming up you're watching "early today." >>> good morning, if you're just waking up this is "early today."

the country second largest is higher, that being pulte homes. companies second quarter loss is narrower than expected and that's giving a lift to its shares and like pulte, ryland posted a loss. taking card from the news that it is order was strong as well. that's going over to toll brothers. up 3.75%. and danaker is listed there and they are up higher but it's not a home builder stock. crude oil settling higher despite the disappointing and getting a lift from the fact that the fed policy, the policy position hasn't changed. that is coming earlier in the week. we have the dollar holding fairly steady and then, of course, the ten-year note. we're going to get more on that from rick santelli. back to you. >> treasury prices rallied following higher than expected weekly claims data. cnbc rick santelli is at the cme in chicago with the details. what happened to the bond market today. >> gary, let's start out with a seven-year note. if you look at a seven-year note, we're down several basis points. we optioned 29 billion of them. if you open up to a

. >> today in court is accused attacker, fellow marean, michael pulte, 20 years old was formally charged. the two men got into an argument and pope started yelling homophobic slurs. police have not said what what -- what sparked the argument. the victim died hours later at a hospital. >> any time there's an -- a life that is taking, you feel bad for the victim, but also for the one who did commit the crime. >> the victim was in the process of being discharged from the marines. police say he and pope had never met before the attack appeared -- before the attack. >> it is a terrible event for them, and for all of us. >> and a document said that upon learning this could be a fatal stabbing the perpetrators said, "good, i hope he dies." he was in the process of being separated from the service because he was violent toward other marines. >> a hearing took place in the district today to determine whether seven men found guilty of a murder decades ago should have their convictions overturned. the men were convicted in a sexual assault beating murder of catherine fuller in 1984. six of the men

tonight a top communist pults in his perspective at moody's analytic. >> student lending is a big problem not for the financial community, but for students, parents and taxpayers and the economy. the hysteria of defaulting student loans will blow up the system like subprime mortgages is misplaced. the bultk of student loans are guaranteed by the federal government, and they have a mountdain of debt it means higher tuitions at colleges and universities. >> it's tripled to a trillion dollars, and collegeature wigss dounlt the. geting a college degree is viemgts to financial success, and our economy's growth depends on a highly educated workforce, but we need to rethink student lending. instead of using taxpayer money to fund student loans use those resources to hire more professors, and build labs and fund internships. >> make it more affordable, and students won't need as many loans. i'm mark zandi. >> talk about tomorrow. busy day from health care to banking technology, that earnings parade continues. we'll have full coverage tomorrow night. the results of johnson and johnson, goldman sac

this morning we got a terrific number from pulte group, homebuilder, which is very strong.the moon, alice. wasn't this group supposed to be rolling over? the stock had just gone from $7.60, left for dead, and break-out right through its earlier high, closing at $ 9.58. i want that kind of move for you. pulte immediately took the housing index, and i was told it was rolling over and reversed it skyward. a gigantic impending wholesale number at 10:00 today. best in a long time. makes me feel right about this housing bottom. that's great news. how about these banks? after the close, spain, they downgraded spain. there's going to be pressure on it. you know what, you're going to buy it. they're at last perking up, and i think they're reflecting the fact that loan demand could be picking up. why? remember when i told you last night we want more employment, which would bring more demand for loans and higher interest rates. natural. at this stage of the business cycle, banks can make money three ways. through fees, but that's been that's the difference what they pay you for your d

." >>> home builders lennar and pulte group both tumbled more than 6%.pillar led industrials lower after march sales in china plunged 50%. nevis lost on news the fda will review a weight loss drug for three months. one bright spot, grocery chain super value jumped 15% on its full-year forecast. >>> and death and taxes may be among life's few certainties, but let's just try to present a double whammy here. according to new research, traffic accident deaths have risen by 6% on tax day for each of the last 30 years. if so, let's all chill out, get some sleep, be sure not to hit the bottle before hitting the road on april 17th or any other day. >>> coming up the braves get a boost, celtics beat the heat, no rose, no problem for the chicago bulls. plus a game-winning homer by a birthday boy on dodger stadium's 50th anniversary. your "first look" at sports is straight ahead. car insurance . ah, claim trouble. [ dennis ] you should just switch to allstate, and get their new claim satisfaction guarantee. hey, he's right man. [ dennis ] only allstate puts their m

pulte-group rose 10% after it lost less money than feared in the latest quarter. it also saw a big jump in orders for new homes. lennar added almost 6%. last month, it also reported a strong order book. wal-mart shares found some buyers, rising almost 3% after its big sell-off on monday after allegations of bribery surfaced at its mexican unit. the mexico attorney general opened a preliminary investigation into the claims. earlier, susie reported on the airline sector. one area we didn't see come along with today's rally was the transportation sector. among the issues weighing on the sector was shipping giant u.p.s. it delivered first quarter earnings that came in one penny shy of estimates. it's u.s. shipping business benefited from internet shopping sites like amazon, but that's relatively low-margin business for u.p.s. shares fell almost 2%, down to their lowest price in more than a month. the transportation sector, measured by this exchange traded fund, fell almost 2%. while the broad market is at a three-week high, this transportation fund is at its lowest pr

pulte group was up 9%, lennar regained 5%, and d.r. horton was up almost 5%. a survey of 20 major markets found the strongest sales rates by homebuilding managers in more than a decade. meantime, paint maker sherwin- williams put up some green today: shares up 5% to a new all-time high. late yesterday, sherwin raised its outlook for the first quarter thanks to strong retail paint sales. owens-illinois isn't exactly a household name, but its products may be in your house. it makes glass containers for food, beer, juice and other items. a very bullish outlook sent shares up. its almost 7% gain brings shares back to the top of the range they've been in this year. cost cutting, less money spent on software licensing, and better than expected production add up to a much stronger than anticipated first quarter. the results are expected in two weeks, but shares were moving today. online travel site travel-zoo has taken investors on a bumpy ride. today, at least, the direction was up. after falling more than 70% over the past year, the stock shot up more than 28% toda

forty cans of strong cider it now wants to ban these multi buy discounts and impose a minimum price of pulte pence per unit it will fall supermarkets to effectively double their prices on the cheap piece drinks but the industry's adamant it's not cos that's causing the trouble the heaviest rain caused people to drink problematic levels of elise likely to be to drinking by price rises in france a minimum unit price would do is raise the price for millions of ordinary consumers live there is a section of society likely to be holistic it's the ports those are the lowest income so it seems very unfair on a policy that's not actually going to be successful in tackling the problem drinkers at the moment that falls to the police that punch drunk punch ups a familiar sight come closing time the government claims ending barking. boozing would instantly cut crime and massively reduce alcohol related deaths but with the bulk of binge drink is already paying over the proposed minimum it's clearly not the time for the top of the from having another destructive night on the tiles bennett r t. more than th

jay korff of pulte the

pull tea pulte up 9%. you have lennar at 5.5% and apple, see where it's trading right now, it's down more than half a percent. rolling over and slowing its march towards a $600 billion market cap. the stock already trading its average daily volume with about an hour to go and it's basically flat for the last week. speaking of volumes, take a look at this chart. it's down about 6% and it's had incredibly heavy volume. triple the average. it seems to be the catalyst maybe it will shrink margins for them and the suit would be positive. we'll have to keep an eye on the story. we'll definitely give you that as soon as we get it. i also want to talk about travel zoom. it's absolutely to the moob. 29.5% to the upside. reports out there that it is in play and people are jumping in, hoping for that premium bill. back to you. >> instagram deal, everyone want to know who is neck. >>> lackluster demand during the auction of ten-year notes announced at 1:00 eastern time today. rick santelli is in chicago with details.

pult approximate. it's going ab a beautiful day in new york city tomorrow.sically i'm starting a new band. >> what's the biggest band you ever player. if you don't have a guitar, bring a kazuo. we're going to track tunnel blids all those. just bring any instrument, it can be a gi tarl from tr srs. to respond what you saw in serving. >> for the last two decade, i've been standing up for the underdog. really, the one thang that remitdly teacher in illinois for over 30 years, and when the. i don't really choose to be a railroad, and it's been my job throughout the year to use my vocati vocation. you can't arrest a song. >> you say that and it seeds directly to my use and a lot of occasional. there is a magic that you are capable of when you use music that resonates with people in a way that words and litsds. . no progressive has kwis. that product will not be shl a song can be sung again and again and kben. there's something about the combination of rhyme, rhythm and solidarity and a large number of people singing a song together that helps steel their spines f

shares of pulte homes. and kb beating the sector at 31%.here are a number of issues when it comes to investing in housing stocks. credit remains extremely tight. those who want to buy aren't always able to secure the housing they need. and many are paying car payments before their mortgages. housing is a lagging indicator. the current environment isn't always reflected. >> there's a rash of private investors making big bets on distressed homes. take a look at these numbers. investors bought more than 1 million homes in 2011. 50% were either foreclosures or short sales. half of the investors buying to generate rental income. is this a positive or a negative for the housing market? gary beesley is the managing direct for with wade point real estate group, the largest nonbank institution of homes. thank you so much for joining us. >> do you think this does more harm than good? how do you see what's been going on just recently? >> well, they are in the bubble year. certainly investors are adding fuel to the fire. investors are helping to stabil

pulte also reporting a positive shift. ten different home builders up double digits for the week. meantime, those housing gains were part of the reason that the s&p discretionary sector closing at an all-time high but driven by retail stocks and a number of stocks hitting historic highs. apple really helped pull that shift, coming out with that big blowout number. after that on wednesday, in just one day, amazon really bringing it home this week on the strength of the consumer. monster move here. any kind of disappointment sees you punished it. when it comes to consumer stock and this is a furngishing maker. and it warned that it is going to have lower sales going forward and that makes one of the double and procter & gamble and the company is lowering its outlook and saying it's going offer more coupons and boost promotions and cut time share even as the input costs are rising. what's interesting, maria, going into this week, we had seen this more conservative outlook towards investing, consumer staples, more conservative sector had done well. now we've reversed. >> yeah, absolut

lenar and pulte homes, two of the first performers of the s & p 500. but you noted, you don't think this will be a major sell-off. these names have had increasdib runs, maybe a healthy pullback for the names that performed the best over the last couple of weeks. >> street science anchor brian sullivan making great sense. my two cents, investors should not overreact. correctionses come and go. the upward economic trend is not broken. it isn't fabulous, but we're not double double dipping or anything like that let's not go crazy over the jobs report of last friday. i acknowledge jitters over spain. to me, shallow correction looks like a good buying opportunity, let's talk. joining me now is constance hunter, deputy chief investment officers for axa investment managers. and michael zanian co-host of "sports money" and we have former head of fixed income research, dave goldman, a lot of people told me today, spanish bond rates raising and italian bond rates raising helped trigger this correction today. what is your take on that? should we worry about that?

this despite intraday upgrades of toll brothers and pulte homes by goldman sachs.etail etf, after the xrt broke out it went into consolidation mode and moving sideways in a symmetrical triangle of lower highs and higher lows. during this triangle phase, buyers started stepped in on the xrt's 50-day moving average. the blue line. and the retail etf began trading higher, higher, much higher. as of this morning fitzpatrick's read on the chart was that the buyers would step in as the srt pulled back. it kept happening, around 60. didn't drop below that key level, we liked it. but with the velocity of today's decline, the etf did break down, and now the sector has become toxic. didn't hold, going to go down. that's what they are saying. not everything is as bad as retailers and home builders. the xlf, financial select, spider etf. even though financials have pulled back 5.4% over the last week, fitz believes they are still in a powerful uptrend. the xlf experienced a golden cross, okay. the golden cross we saw that happening right here. that's where the 50-day moving av

pulte dropping 6%. >> this was a good one because that's encouraging, that maybe home building and home prices is on the increase. >> dow chemical down 3%. >> that's disappointing. dupont produced a pretty good number, so this makes it look that much worse. >> ups down 7%. >> domestically they were strong, internationally, not what people were expecting. this stock is around $75. looks like a great value. >> and drop of the penguins. friends woke up to a penguin waddling around their living room. they apparently got drunk and broke into the place where the penguins were, stealing the animal. no word if mike tyson showed up that night. >> that's for social media right there. >>> nuance stores, zynga shares falling for the first time in about a month. more half time report on the way. 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 a

pulte and toll brothers getting hit pretty good. >> i still skew toward the construction area.ich i'm long. the way i look at it, particularly with the market being down here, a lot of people are going to say, i would rather put my money into my house than the u.s. stock market. so i want to play those u.s. dips. >> it's been a tough going, as you know, in coal stocks, and jp morgan is calling for another tough time ahead for those trades. alpha natural, peabody, and the market vehicle torz down here 1 and a quarter percent. >> i think it's hard to say that at this point with global demand slowing. maybe we double dip here. no one knows. i think it's still negative and that's notwithstanding the epa and environment perfectionists. >> yahoo has been struggling to increase revenue in more than a decade. today's ceo scott thompson revealed a new strategy to hopefully turn its ten-year losing streak around. let's bring in john fort with the details. hey, john. >> your yahoo headquarters are hands on with the employees. it just started minutes ago at 9:30 local, 12:30 out where you

pulte posting a narrower lost meeting estimates. but revenue fell short despite new homeowners jumping 15%. the stock rallying today. it's up 7.5%. it's up 45% this year. here's the rest of the sector year-to-date. lennar above 35%. d.r. horton and kb homes up about 25%. toll brothers up 20% plus. on a broader front number of buyers going into contract is jumping to highest level in two years. diana olick is live in washington with that part of the story. >> hi, sue. you're right. it beat expectations chrks is rare these days. the pending home sales index contracts signed, not closings, rose 4.1% in march from an upwardly revised february figure. it's up 12.8% from a year ago. but when you look at the raw numbers, it is the smallest monthly gain in march in three years. keep that in mind. so how valid is this number as a predictor since cancellations of these contracts have been running ab normally high around 30%? the realtors did not report cancellations last month. i asked them why and they said something interesting. they said w

standoff at a &preligious cclt compound in waco, texas came to a tragic enn.the standoff lasttd 51 pulter avid kkresh died including koress imself.4 federal agents were also kklled. and services will be held ttddy... in honor of the 17th city bombings.the blast killed 168 people.... incluuing 19 children in a day-care center. more than 5-hundred urvivors were injured.timoohyymcveigh and terry nichols were mcveigh claimed he targeted the building s revenge for waco, texas.he was executed in 2001.nichols remains in federal prison with a ife a new judge is taking over the george zimmerman case n florida.judge kenneth lester wassassigned to thh case after judgeejessica recksiedler recused herselffthursday... at phe defense's request.the with mark nejame, a ccn-n ks legal analyst who was representing zimmerman.lester is takiig over theecase in time for tomorrow's bond hearing.zimmerman is charged &pphe february shootinggdeath o trayvon martin. a new study finds a majority offwikipedia's articles abbut companiis... have factual &perrrrs..hat's according to th publlc relations society of ameri

. >> and pulte group. >> i like the home builders, but i've liked them for a 70% rise. in this case, 140% judge over the last six months. obviously people are just looking, and that looks like an outsized winner and they're taking a little off. >> next up on the "halftime report" lots more on the market sell-off, plus tech has been the breakout investment but there are cracks forming in that trade. we'll get to the bottom of that when we come back. looking for a better place to put your cash? here's one you may not have thought of: fidelity. now you don't have to go to a bank to get the things you want from a bank. like no-fee atms -- all over the world. free checkwriting and mobile deposits. now, depositing a check is as easy as taking a picture. free online bill payments. a highly acclaimed credit card with 2% cash back into your fidelity account. open a fidelity cash management account today and discover another reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. optionsxpress, where you can trade your favorite products all in one account. it's powerful, easy to use tech

i also want to thank co- chairman louis pulte.t to thank the good people of washington d.c.. when you have done this deliver all of those electoral votes for mitt romney tonight. here in wisconsin, i want to thank senator ron johnson. i want to thank my good friend, congressman jim sensenbrenner. and i want to thank the romney co-chair, alberta darling and ted candidates. thank you for all of your hard work. i also want to thank my good buddy, mark green for what he has done for this campaign tonight. we all know that president obama cannot run on his record. and after the 2010 election when the voters told him to change course, did he moderate, did he do that? no, he double down on his partisan agenda. if he cannot run on his record and if he will not change course, then what does he have left -- it cannot run on his record and if you will not change course, then what does he have left? we found out today he is going to try to divide us in order to distract us. i seem to remember him saying that he would be a nightmare, -- a unit