what is scott wapner watching these days? >> and in the next 24 hours we'll get answers to even bigger questions. will mitt romney win the gop primary in his home state of michigan? and has rick santorum gone too far in pushing his social agenda? we'll talk to john harwood on the other side of this break. look at all this stuff for coffee. oh there's tons. french presses, espresso tampers, filters. it can get really complicated. not nearly as complicated as shipping it though. i mean shipping is a hassle. not with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service. if it fits it ships, anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. that is easy. best news i've heard all day! i'm soooo amped! i mean not amped. excited. well, sort of amped. really kind of in between. have you ever thought about decaf? do you think that would help? yeah. priority mail flat rate shipping starts at just $5.15, only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship. and they make my life just perfect. we were having too much fun, we weren't thinking

i'm scott wapner. follow me on twitter. "power lunch" starts right now. >>> three hours to go in the trading day. when it comes to 13,000, the dow is kind of like rocky. it's up, it's down, it's up, it's down. and right now, the dow holding above 13k once again. the s&p above the key 13,070 level. if the markets can't hold, are we heading for correction? >> hot commodities, you know oil and gasoline have been surging. but did you know that silver is up 30% year to date? soft commodities on the move, too. have they all gone too far too fast? >>> plus, apple ticking above 530 bucks a share and about to unveil a new product next week. sure looks and sounds like it will be a new ipad. how is it going to be different and will it be another blockbuster? >> i'm sue herera are tyler mathisen. "power lunch" begins right now. >>> i'm courtney reagan at the realtime exchange. welcome to "power lunch." home prices fall, durable goods slump by the most in three years. but consumer confidence hits a one-year high. investors trying to sor

follow me on twitter of cour course @scott wapner. >>> thank you, scott. we have three hours to go in the trading day. and investors are watching a greek drama once again. while traders wait for some kind of resolution in athens, the major averages are in bull territory since the october lows. should you be all in, or should you be worried, ty? >> battered bank of america up more than 40% this year. you heard me right. it's best level now since last september. is there still time to get in on the action? or is this stock just too hot to handle? >> plus, the art of investing. billionaire investor lauder invested in everything from media to mining but spends hundreds of millions on art. he'll tell you why it's a beautiful thing, at least moneywise, ty. >> brian, thank you very much. i'm tyler mathisen along with sue herera and brian shactman. "power lunch" begins right now. >>> market's relatively calm. i want to tell you we're getting a little bit of a lift here. the nasdaq's gone positive. the dow inching that way and the s&p .1% to the downside. we might

. >>> time to check in with scott wapner, see what stock's on his radar this hour. ott. >> hi, sue. i'm watching shares of hewlett packard. the company going to cut about 275 jobs in the web os division. earnings weren't good of late. this turnaround orr ke straited by meg whitman. the stock is off about 2% today. on a day everybody talking about apple hitting half a trillion dollars in market cap, microsoft rolls out mobile operating system, it seems the conversation is centered around those two technology companies. when you talk about old tech, it's around microsoft, ibm. it certainly isn't around hewlett packard these days. that's why i'm watching it chl share down almost 2%. >> thank you very much. shares of news corp. ticking higher and touching a fresh new 52-week high today. headlines out this morning that james murdoch is stepping down as executive chairman of the scandal-plagued news international. is there any fallout for the parent company? does it change the calculus there? what's the play on the stock right now? >> joining us u.s. media and marketing co

scott wapner will take you forward on the fast money halftime report. >>> welcome to a special edition of the fast money halftime report. witness any tilson is here did clus safely for the next hour. lots of ground to cover with him. let's check where we stand right now on wall street. greece may be dragging along, but right now, that's no drag in the markets. we're in the highs of the dare. almost 1% move higher. s&p 500 three quarters of 1%. nasdaq showing gains, as well. jobless claims fell. better than expected housing starts today. philly fed was higher as well. and there's that move carl was references in the euro. take a look at the reversal in financials, as well. trading near session highs. whitney tilson is finding value in that space while a lot of others are staying away. he'll tell you which two names are his top picks. and a roller coaster week for apple continues. should you be brace be for further weakness in the stock sore now the right time to buy it. we'll break it down with a top an wri analyst. and where does whitney stand on netflix, groupon and which is one of th

scott wapner, thank you very much. taking a breather today, the major markets surging from their march '09 lows. so the question is, is there still time to jump in? or has most of the money already been made? if so, what areas are your best bets right now? joining us with more than $40 billion worth of global investment advice is power player george chief investment strategist with william blare asset management. welcome back. good to have you with us. >> thanks for having me on. >> has this market gotten away from me, specifically? all roads lead to me. it's up more than 100% since march of '09, is it too late to play? >> no. i don't think so. we had a minicrisis atmosphere and a minibear market in 2011 because of the surge in earnings that we saw in 2010 and the significant growth in earnings in 2011. in both of those years, multiples contracted. so we came into this year with values as cheap as they've been at any time since the financial crisis. and we've seen that somewhat reflected. >> isn't that one of the lesso

scott wapner joins us with more. >> hey, mandy. thanks so much.team dug through the numbers and found some interesting historical stats for the past ten years the s&p right here has posted an average gain of 6%. an 8.7% gain for nonleap years dating back to 1972. that seems pretty good, right? if you remove 2008, the average leap year gain jumps to 10.9% beating the nonleap year's average. and similar trends can be found over there on the dow. leap year show an average gain of almost 5%. 4.9%. but nonleap year show 9.2%. when you take out the pesky black swan, the leap year gain pushes higher to 9.2% matching the gain of the nonleap years at the nasdaq since 1972 leap year os only show a gain of 4.8% while nonleap years have a gain of nearly 14%. when you take out 2008, take it out of the equation, the leap year gains nearly double to 9.9%. here are the takeaways, on average the indexes perform positively during leap years with the s&p and nasdaq beating the nonleap year gains when 2008 is removed. so based on historical trends, everything we foun

let's check in now with scott wapner and see which stock is on his radar. > all right, tyler. thanks so much. big news in the market today. and certainly one of the biggest stock moves is for vivus pharmaceuticals. they've got that big diet drug called qnexa. i got off the phone and seema mody talked about this right off the top of "power lunch" today. i got off the phone with the ceo of the company who had some very interesting things to say about the prospects for his company. you see the tremendous move in the shares today. up 90%. it was up more than 100% as seema noted earlier. the ceo telling me he's very optimistic now that the drug will be officially approved by the fda. says formal approval could happen on april 17th. that's the target date that the ceo is now looking at. calls it clearly a game changer for his company. wouldn't give any sales estimates yet. but an analyst that we had on the "fast money" "halftime report" is looking for about $3 billion in sales. certainly a huge number. really a game changer for a company that has spent hundreds of

. >>> let's check in with scott wapner and see what he's watching. >> just on the yahoo!we had an analyst on, colin gillis, within the last week, who said anybody who thought that that transaction was going to take place in a short period of time, now that there's the board shake-up there, new ceo, et cetera, was kidding themselves. so maybe a little bit of that is coming to fruition now. let me hit on shares of gap. that's the stock i really wanted to talk about. the stock is up today quite nicely. 2.6%. it's had a pretty good run this year. up 20%. citi upgrading the stock from buy to neutral. they say 2012 should surprise to the upside. they point out three things. lean inventory, gross margins could have more upside than that firm has modeled and the spring assortments look better as well. the things that seem to be looking up for gap. back to you on that note. and the yahoo! story, obviously, remains pretty interesting as well. >> sure. thanks, scott. >>> biotech is clearly on fire this year, outperforming the broader market. the s&p biotech index is up 13%. the nyse

. ♪ >>> lelts check in with scott wapner and see what stocks are on his radar this hour. >> hi, sue,ith apple moving closer to $500 a share, i thought we'd look at the halo and that's nuance communications. nuan, the stock up about 3.5%. ahead of earnings after the bell. this is the company that does the voice recognition software. a lot of optimism about ipad 3 coming pretty soon. maybe an apple tv product as well. maybe something could also contain nuance communication and sere ri as well. wall street continues to raise the price target on the stock. again, earnings after the bell today. and with apple on the move yet again, the halo-effect is on for nuance. simon. >> are we suggesting that the new ipad 3 you could talk to it. >> nothing would surprise me at this point. would it surprise you? >> not at all. thanks, scott, you know it's a busy day on the earnings calendar. big names reporting, sirius xm and activision among them. missing on the top line, what do investors need to know? julia boorstin joins us live from los angeles along with with cnbc.com's john carney. let's begin

. >>> let's check in with scott wapner and see which stocks are on his radar this thursday afternoon.cotty. >> simon, thanks so much. i'm watching target today. there's a lot of same store sales data out and target was really good. twice estimates is what their number beat. out with a positive note just a short time ago. they say january sales trends encouraging. they're raising the eps also reiterating outperform on the stock. it's getting a lift today by about 1%. hasn't done all that much year-to-date. nonetheless worth keeping an eye on a couple of notes. home and apparel, importantly we believe merchandise mix was favorable, clearance selling up only modestly from last year. what does that do? that helps margins, obviously. also highlighting the valuation. they say the stock trades at 11.7 times or lowest multiple in its peer group for 2012 eps. reiterating the outperform. tgt, sue, that's what i'm watching today. >>> countdown is on. super bowl is sunday. but all day long right here on cnbc we're looking at the super bowl of cities. the new england patriots just outside of bosto

i'm brian sullivan in for scott wapner today. your crew for today's cruise, you've got patty edwards, jon najarian, brian kelly and stephen weiss. he can tell brian why he's not the captain. let's get straight to the market today. patty, i don't know how scott does it. with me, it's ladies first. give us your overall read. i thought jcpenney's numbers were just awful. give us your overall take. >> looking at the market overall, we are struggling to get through that 13,000 mark and hold above it. i'm still a little bit hesitant, i guess, to go in, especially on some of the number that is we did see. jcpenney's numbers, if you took out the charges that everyone was expecting them to have, were actually fairly decent. my problem is it's a financial engineering story and not a revenue growth story. i would much rather be in something like kohl's where i think they can ramp up quicker to get into that. >> i like jcpenney, patty. and i know that, of course, herb greenberg is pretty hot on this one because of the ron johnson side of it.

. >>> let's check in now with scott wapner and see which stock is on his radar at 29 past the hour. >thanks so much. actually, one of your last guests was talking about linkedin and the fact we had whitney tilson, the hedge fund manager on "halftime report" today, social media moving higher. 3.5% despite he was one shorting the stock, there was an interesting note from citi's mark ma han any. he says we view linkedin as arguably one of the strongest assets of 2011-2012 internet ipo cycle. however, a lot of people hinge on the valuation. it's trading at something like 160 times forward earnings. your last guest talked about it. whitney talked about it as really being the thesis, the core of his thesis, as to why he's shorting this stock. however, you can see on this chart today it's up 3.5%. just wanted to highlight that. and a number of the other social media stocks, sue, that are moving to the upside today. >> indeed. thanks, scott, very much. well, if you drive, this is not news to you. the price of gas is going way up again. according to the u.s. energy department, the national ave

let's check in with scott wapner and see what's on his radar as we head into lunch. >> simon, thanksmuch. i'm watching shares of nvda. up shy of 2%. we had craig berger on the "fast money" "halftime report," he says earnings coming up in the week, he's looking for earnings to be soft. he wants to buy that stock, if there's any pullback. also talking about the fact it's cheaper than its peers and looking for the tegra 3 chip to get a leg up over another favorite on wall street and that is qualcomm. if there's any risks here, says it may not sell into the new kindle fire that texas instruments could be the chip of choice there. that obviously would be a big risk, but nonetheless craig berger sees some upside. he has a $20 price target on this stock sitting just north of $15 or so -- actually, $16 or so as i see now. back to you. >> scott, thank you. appreciate it. china's vice president expected to succeed hujt. >> shanghai composite staging a bit of a comeback after last year's declines. what's the investment environment like in china right now? and what should you be betting on? pres

i'm becky quick with andrew ross sorkin and scott wapner.rs are reacting to the news that a deal has been reached for a second greek bailout. we'll have more on that story in a moment. in the meantime take a look at several dow components out with earnings. first up home depot earning 50 cents a share for the fourth quarter, that was 8 cents better than the street had been expecting. revenue also beating consensus and that stock is going to open sharply higher this morning. also kraft foods chalking up fourth-quarter profits of 50 cents a share when you strip out certain items, right in line with the street's expectations and revenue by the way essentially in line as well. we're watching shares of ups, dutch delivery company tnt express is reporting weaker than expected quarterly results and that may weaken the company's case as it tries to get ups to try to increase a $6.5 billion takeover bid. watching the futures, especially after that news out of greece and home depot this morning, you're going to see right now the dow futures up by abou

and scott wapner, good morning. scott. >> you brought your gavel. >> yeah, i did. >> did you, really? >> yeah, i did. with bell and gouldsby, they're not here to fight each other, but -- >> they do like to talk, but i may have to bring the gavel down and get order in the house. >> have you ever been here with the gavel before? >> not when i was here. when i was out. >> you never know when it's going to be needed. >> we appreciate that. >> we're going to need it today, for sure. >> we are. we're going to talk a lot about what happened last night with some of these primaries and caucuses. we're going to start things out with greece. one deadline has come and gone. and the leaders are meeting yet again today in the event to try and strike a deal in return for another bailout package. now, these delays have prompted some eu leaders to warn that the euro zoe can live without athens. we'll see who blings first been it's a big game of chicken. once again, big concern out of greece and the market seems to be shrugging it off

scott wapner talking to the company ceo right now and will have a full debrief on the halftime reportand apples stock holders meeting all on a the halftime at noon eastern time. when you say tax haven most people think of far away places like the caymans. it turns out the best place in the world to hide money could be right here at home. our senior correspondent xon kohn back at hq with more. >> the u.s. is one of a handful of countries around the world where you can set up a shell company in most states without saying who is behind it. critics say that makes this one of the easiest places in the world to launder money. forming companies is big business in a number of states like nevada where we found robert harris a former bartender who does this for a living. he has 2400 companies registered at his home outside reno and will front yours, too, pretty much no questions asked. >> i don't do investigative work on the people. if they want to send money i take their business. >> if a terrorist wanted to launder money, set up a shell corporation in nevada -- >> i would report him in a hear

. >>> let's check in with the judge and see which stocks wapner's watching today. scott? >> thanks so much. i'm watching mastercard, shares of m.a. doubling the dividend to 30 cents a share. up 19% or so over the past six months. and a lot of wall street firms are talking about this stock this week. 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