cnbc's simon hobbs is here now in new york to tell us more. >> the economy may be weaker than we thought and that the unusually warm weather essentially hid that from us. extra sunny day in the start of the year driving many employers to take on earlier. in retail and construction, and at the time, pulling forward about a temporary effect may be appear permanently stronger. conversely, it may be payback time. job growth in march, much of spring recruiting already occurred. usually distortions like this are adjusting figures. the affect of this year's weather may be too extraordinary for models to remove it. employment is still growing, but it's the real taste of the recruiting that's slower, the stock market for one, may have a troubled opening on monday. back to you. >> simon hobbs, thank you. >>> the economy and jobs will be on the agenda tomorrow as nbc's david gregory talks with democratic senator richard durbin and john kasich of ohio, tomorrow on "meet the press." >>> in sanford, florida, city officials preparing for the possibility of a decision next week on whether to charge geor

i'm simon hobbs. these are the traders. we have to talk about apple, a correction over the last couple weeks. >> if you bought on the frep frenzy, some gots as high as 1,000, you should be worried. that's when the smart money -- i mean the big money started making profits. the apple thing is a mania. we know there's great things going on, but the run wasn't sustainable. it had a parabolic move. the stock is down 10% from the highs from april 10th, more than $50 million in market cap. there are only 50 or so stocks in the entire s&p 500 that have market caps of 50 billion or higher. >> when you're talking about a stock this big, you end up with portfolio risk. some guys will have to lighten the load. a mutual fund that has exposure, they are not going to let their portfolio be represented more than anywhere from 3% to 5%, so they are going to have to start selling into any kind of strength. at a certain point of time, i think we saw someone with -- price target on the stock, but realistically just try to think about what the

simon hobbs, can't wait. >> i'd love to hear what simon has to say because everyone i've talked to is talking about the spanish and the ministry banks out there. we need some help from you guys. do you remember that valentine? >> you say that jokingly but -- >> i'm not saying it jokingly. >> but they did it in greece and the greek banks sucked it every day and became victims of their sovereign. it's not funny. >> the point is, it's happening. >> yeah, i'm sure it is. >> and the valentine that i'm referring so the the 1% euros that they are giving out. simon, what's your thoughts? >> both sides are in this together now, isn't it? look how badly the spanish stock market is doing. we're 4% above the crisis lows. the danger is that with spain the economy is crumbling so badly. the loans are rising, debts are rising so badly at 20% unemployment. the government is going to have to presumably come in and help them. will there be external funds? that's the conversation that is going on. they are all in it together. to a certain extent we are also in it with them. if either the corporate confi

>> back at headquarters, it's kate kelly and simon hobbs. kate, i don't know about you, but it's been under the microsoft for four years now and the economy is getting better. >> well, yes. and some of these firms are quite good at beating expectations. i can hardly remember the last time goldman didn't. they tend to be good on that score and deliver the upside surprise. but, yeah, i think the theme here, if there is one, financials are looking a little better but not blowing anybody's socks off. we are seeing a first quarter better than the fourth. >> they were on life support for a while. >> absolutely. but let's remember the fourth quarter tends to be weak relative to the first quarter. so it's not a total surprise that a number of these banks have shown strength in trading. citigroup, still despite meredi meredith whitney making a modest upgrade of her perception of the stock after her muni call, citi still has some strength in the m muni area. there are signs of life. but as david said today, they are very cautious. the consumer confide

bob pisani is here at the new york stock exchange and simon hobbs. i'll break earnings season down in two parts. preapple, post apple. since apple reported up 2%, it's taken a while for the market to pay attention are we going to get an earnings rally now? >> i would say in the last two days it's very clear that since mr. bernanke spoke, the market has been moving up. gold rallied on the news immediately at 8:30. the stock market dropped and rallied back. it's strange, scott. next week, watch what happens. nonfarm payrolls is going to be out. we get 170,000 on expectations, or 165. if we get a great number, 250,000 on nonfarm payrolls. little reaction in the stock market. wouldn't that be disappointing? >> yes. >> my question is, why do we get a great number? where are you getting this job creation? >> i'm not going to discuss that. let's say we get a great number we should be up. right? >> it should be flat. >> people think that qe 3 moves further. that's what i'm saying. these prospects are distorting the stock market. i agree it's unlikely. >> hop

the post election looming and simon hobbs says it's simple profit taking. who has it right? let's make their case in the flesh. bob with the new york stock exchange. bob, the focus is a lot is on the european crisis and our own slowdown but it's not just here as well, right? >> there's a little bit of concern over in asia. remember, there's a debate over whether it's a hard or soft landing in china. australia actually had negative numbers, trade deficit. that hasn't happened very much. there's a little bit of a concern about that. here's the story. a lot of the problem was in cold exports and they said, uh-huh, china is the major importer and therefore this is about china slowing down. it looks like there was flooding in queensland and south wales. at any rate, the asian markets moved to the downside on this and of course some of it was a hang over from here in the united states. i'm not willing to throw in the hard landing in china. i'm still in the soft landing camp and i think the data will show that. >> simon, the european debt issue is still the gift that keeps on givin

. >> and simon hobbs, yields continue to rise in europe and we have one of the worst days for the european markets. we're back to 12-week lows as yields go higher? >> yes. and what was really concerning is the big heavy falls in the italian banking sector. some of those big banks down 7 or 8% as you get that potentially lethal combination, of course, of bull markets selling off. italian yields heading in the same way and those banks which as a result of taking that money from the ecb have been georging on local debt and, of course, on the ecb, those are mark to market. you see when the italian market comes down, sovereign market comes down, are they going to have to mark to market? are the worst of those banks falling? potentially a big moment i think now. >> bob pisani, the sectors that brought us higher are -- i guess the president is getting ready to make this speech here in boca ra tone, florida, at the atlantic university where he'll be making the case for the so-called buffett rule. this 30% tax on those americans who make at least a million dollars. we'll be back when this speech is

i'm simon hobbs. "mad money" with the one and only jim cramer begins right now. >>> i'm jim cramer. and welcome to my world. you need to get in the game! going out of business and he's nuts, they're nuts! they know nothing! i always like to say there's a bull market somewhere and i promise to -- "mad money," you can't afford to miss it. hey, i'm cramer. welcome to "mad money," welcome to cramerica. other people want to make friends, just trying to save you a little money. my job is not just to entertain but to teach and coach. so call me at 1-800-743-cnbc. sure is easier when stocks are downgoing into earnings season than when they're higher, isn't it? that's all i can think about after today's rocky session. dow got slammed for 69 points. s&p down, but the nasdaq fell .7%. it is important to mention that at one point it was much ugly you are if it weren't for a late-day rally. people keep asking, is this a good earnings season or a bad one? and while that is a perfectly legit question, it's not responsive. it's not the question that illuminates the action. did stocks run too much a

i'm brian shactman with the lovely sue herera and the charming and whit ty simon hobbs. "power lunch" begins right now. after the markets have been selling off since the opening bell after a series of negative headlines out of europe while we're off the lows of the day we're down about 40 points plus on the s&p. the nasdaq down a quarter. the pulse of the market slowdown in europe worries has oil and gold trading lower. wti down 1.25% and gold down $10. the volatility index about the only thing in the green right now. 11.3%. dipping back below 20, was above it for a good portion of this session. now to our midday movers, kellogg getting hammered after cutting its outlook. more on that in a few minutes. sun trust up 3.75%. they reported strong earnings and microsoft reporting just in the last hour selling patents to facebook. we'll have more on that later. it's down more than .75%. we want to get to the trading floors. we have full team coverage of this selloff. bob pisani at the nyse, sharon epperson atd the nymex and seema mody at the nasdaq. we begin with bob. >> the f

. >> with our guest, julia boorstin and simon hobbs, i'm tyler mathisen. welcome everybody. we're all over the markets today because "power lunch" begins right now. >>> if you're just tuning in, where have you been? disappointment on the jobs number hitting the market today. that really has been the tenor of the session so far. stocks are off their lows. financials and industrials amongst the worst performers. the dow down triple digits at the moment. the s&p down 1%. and the nasdaq, again, off its lows. taking the pulse of the markets, oil has been sinking on global growth worries. and there you see we're down now $1.75 perhaps a silver lining in today's selloff the bonds are certainly rallying partly on a flight to safety. that's pushing the yields on the 10-year up pretty much close to 2%. as you can see that's where we are at the moment. and the fear factor, the vix, also spiking there as you can see. midday movers so far this monday we have to start of course inevitably with a few losers. avon is falling despite the fact it's got a new ceo from johnson & johnson. proble

i'm tyler mathisen along with kayla tausche and simon hobbs. welcome, everybody. "power lunch" teeing off, right now. >>> so earnings in europe triggering another storm on stocks. you can see we're attempting to stabilize here. the dow was down 170 points a few seconds ago. we've now come back from that. investors clearly worried that earnings are going to come up short. the other issue, that the spanish government is potentially losing the confidence of its bond investors. let's just have a look then at the nasdaq, down 1.4%. s&p down 1.3%. the dow down 1.25%. taking the pulse of the markets, the euro is very interesting. it is not getting as hard hit as you might have expected given where we are on yields both in germany and the likes of spain and italy. here we are. we're trading currently at 1.3092. if it doesn't dive, when you reconsider the extent to which asian central banks are supporting it. here in the united states yields on u.s. 10-year dipping below 2%. again today for the first time since march 7, who knew we'd go back down. and the vix as you might

. ♪ come on and dance ♪ come on and dance >>> and here we go, i'm simon hobbs in for melissa lee.e are tonight's top three trades. making money in many bull markets from the cloud to biotech, we're breaking down stocks and sectors that sizzle today, and making the call on whether you should stick with the trades moving forward. also ahead, is housing on shaky or solid ground? an analyst making the case for why the recovery is real and giving you the names to play. also ahead, big day on deck for blue jets -- let's get to what was working today. >> i know the heimlich if you're in trouble. >> last night we talked about ffiv, f-five networks. and this was absolutely on fire, simon. f five got down to around 110 last night and traded up nearly $140. looking at the 52-week high, if we can get to there, you've got to sell everything you got. we got right to that 52-week high, the stock dumped $6 from there, kachl back down to $133. same story in vmw, vm wear. pulled back dramatically, did set a new 52-week high, but if you hung around too long up there, shame on you. it's another one o

simon hobbs has that for me. >> we've got breaking news coming through from the imf.20 which has removed the major cloud hanging over europe. they have firm commitments to increase imf resources which to 430 billion. they say that is a firm commitment. that's a major move. we fear that they might not get that and perhaps monday or tuesday it could royal confidence into the markets as two years ago. that cloud it would appear has been removed and christine lagarde has done an extremely good job. we thought it would take weeks. back to you. >> simon, thanks. >>> furniture retailers are raising red flags. ethan allen issued a profit warning. joining us is managing director. he follows the furniture stocks closely. we were talking about tempur-pedic being up. what happened? >> the stock was up 60% going into last night's close. obviously it didn't meet aloft the expectations so the stock fell. >> john, this is herb greenberg. i went through this call, the last investment conference that they were at and one thing i really noted was the change in tone as it came to market

. >>> i'm sue herera with the very charming simon hobbs, and "power lunch" begins right now. >>> i'm kayla tausche at the realtime exchange. car sales solid. factory numbers a little softer than expected. markets in a wait and see mode ahead of those fed minutes. here's where we stand now. all indices to the downside. nasdaq fairing the best do down .1%. s&p losing six points and dow losing just about 54. midday movers, urban outfitters higher. an upgrade from citi. express scripts put on the conviction buy list from goldman. cvr energy also higher. carl ikahn. that up better than 6% today. take a look at the downside. moison coors lower. valero energy down about 3.5%. netflix downgraded at barclays. that stock down more than 50% in the last year. even though it had a great first quarter. guys, back to you. >> thank you very much, kayla. >>> all right. right now the president is speaking in washington. he's speaking to members of the associated press who is hosting this event and other media members. our john harwood joins us right now. john, the president had some very interesting c

simon hobbs is here to walk us through what happened, including a picture of what's happening in the > obviously, there's a lot of concerns where we're going in madrid. generally across europe, you can see the red and with a downward bias that erupted during the course of the session. let's have a look at the three major indices. that, of course, is the three biggest markets which, of course, is london, germany and paris. you can see the way in which we track down lower, the lot is that you're getting here on the united states only accelerating that. carl mentioned where we are exactly on spanish debt. let me show you a chart of the extra that investors demand to hold spanish debt over the german benchmark bunds. we have been rising recently today. we got the budget through more detail on the budget, the austerity budget. and one of the standouts here is that the debt to gdp ratio will be from 68.5% last year to 79.8% by the end of this year. that's a huge move and they're not going to actually enact austerity now, they say, until june through parliament and members of the ecb are say

sounds like something that simon hobbs would greatly enjoy reading. >> yes, maybe.arkets. materials are doing well. energy stocks as we heard from bertha there, and himself talso industrials lifting us higher today. 4:1 -- 3:1. and over at the nasdaq, 2:1. yay. now one hour into trade. let's get to chicago for more on the markets. richard, life at the cme, what are you watching? >> let's take a look at gold. i septemb sent notes this morning to leslie and gave you an indication that gold was flat. but a big stock being elected, 30,000 contracts in gold for roughly 1658 to new highs 1672. this could get the bulls in control. let's see how the market closes. that give wlent is 3 million ounces of gold. so that's one story i'm watching. i think this is a low risk trade to get in against the low of 1600. i think you could see a retrace to the 200 day moving average. this will could be a good play. i'm also watching nat gas break two cents. >> boone pickens thinks this could be a bottom in natural gas. do you? >> forget the $2. to get the $1.96. let's talk about the brea

there is a decoupling. >> thank you, simon hobbs. >> we are seeing a coupling in crude prices as well. that is seen by many as more of an international benchmark for crude prices. we are looking through prices that have whether it will stay above the 100 day moving average. 116.60. in terms of what we're seeing in wti crude prices, more reflective of what we have here. that sin flunsed by what we see with the dollar moves and traders still say that they are anticipating or trying to figure out what the fed will do and they are definitely on fed watch. saying that the fed may stay on the side lines and as they see more signs of recovery, perhaps oil traders will do the same until they've determined what the fed may likely do. the other key commodity to watch is gasoline. we've seen gases fall considerably. several refineries are undergoing some types of negotiations and they have been thought to be idled soon or shutting down soon that may have more life in them. there have been talks about conocophillips and delta perhaps doing a dea

. >> simon hobbs is here. well tell you what's coming up as soon as we actually know., do you have -- >> more "squawk on the street" straight ahead. how is that? >> sounds good to me. with hertz gold plus rewards, you skip the counters, the lines, and the paperwork. zap. it's our fastest and easiest way to get you into your car. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz. 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. zap technology. departure. hertz gold plus rewards also offers ereturn-- our fastest way to return your car. just note your mileage and zap ! you're outta there ! we

simon hobbs will tell us what's coming up. >> it's been a mad, mad week. going to have the voice of reason. a stocksman on the show will tell it like it is. great same store sales. we'll talk about that with goldmans and if you lost money in groupon stock can you succ s successfully sue? we'll have a lawyer on the program who says, yes, you can. >> six stocks in 60 seconds. pandora. >> i think expectations are lofty here. i don't like the stock, though. i don't like the business model which seems to be bent on not having profits. >> ppg resources. >> with restructuring, thead thing about this they play 1:30 against the phillies, pittsburgh, and a bad day when it comes to baseball. >> laying off 2,000 workers mostly in europe based on demand. >> the same thing as alcoa. >> pier one. >> this is not a good down. this remains a terrific story. i do say that internet commerce starts next quarter. you want to be in that. >> recommended buy. >> a lot of different catalysts. i like this call. this is the cheapest oil stock that i follow. >> bernstein making that c

. ♪ >>> simon hobbs with a look at what's coming up in the next hour of quk sq"squawk." >> we have aood show lining up. microsoft making a big bet on barnes & noble. two analysts will weigh in on that. a merrill lynch analyst will join us. we'll also talk to jeff ubben, the activist investor and a former colleague of martha stewart. and fidelity will be here to explain why there should be no more regulation of money market funds. back to you guys. >> see you soon, simon. >>> time for this morning's stocks to watch. kraft foods upgraded. it's up .5% right now. research in motion estimates lowered at rbc. apple and samsung continue to gain market share at the expense of others, including research in motion. that stock is up by 1.5%. chesapeake energy upgraded from market perform, citing valuation. procter & gamble downgraded to a market perform from outperform over at oppenheimer. that is down by 1% right now. and anheuser-busch, the company is cautious on the second quarter. seeing a decline of .8%. and ppg industries upgraded from neutral. that's about flat on the session. >>> when w

simon hobbs counting us down to the close in the uk.ing that it was a nice thing the spanish yields didn't get the six. they're getting closer now. >> yes. a very small amount of money. didn't move the 14, $15 trillion mark here. cheap thrills really. the more interesting rumor actually is around france today with the suggestion moody's might downgrade going into the election. we'll talk about that in a moment. let's just take in that close and see where we are in europe as we close down. >> the european markets are closing now. >> do you know that spain is down 2.2%. by my calculations it is now just 1.3% above its lows in march of 2009. so spain on a broad based decline, 20 members of the 35 member ibex in negative territory. we continue despite the fact that we got away with this auction shun successfully today and the yields are below 6% we continue to have difficulties there. this is where we are on the three major markets around europe. london of course, frank furtwengler and paris, you'll notice that during the course of today's

simon hobbs with how the trading will end there. >> you're on the head of a pin from one survey to thehey're increasing those concerns, and you're beginning to hear it in the earlier statements. a lot of europe has retired today. you can see that's clear of the germans there, however, others, including spain, continues to fall, and that's a lot about the corporate grinding that's going on. at the base of the spanish market, you still have those big construction companies. we'll come back to that. let's have a look at where we are on the map of europe as we close out. >> the european markets are closing now. >> royal dutch shell, the market is higher and the market is lower. spain on the bottom fell quite badly. you've got these big construction companies, acs -- you might not know the company -- it is a big construction company in spain. you can see where it tracked during the course of a year. basically, it's selling out deb debts which are diminishing in value. toll roads in spain are being sold. let's have a look at some of the companies reported. i mentioned shell and unilever. at

and simon hobbs, you recall that as well as anybody. >> today is the flip side of that.n wall street partly because of what happened in europe and we got to meet somebody new. the new frenchman on the governing council of the european central bank. he was the guy that today is in charge of the market operations. he suggested that perhaps in spain the political will is there but the markets were not actually reflecting that which is a clear way of opening the door to the prospect that perhaps the european central bank will soon restart buying spanish bonds. that's how people took it today. i'll show you what happened to the yields as a result. let's go to the map as we shut out on today's session around europe. >> are closing now. >> so as you can see, it's green virtually everywhere. if you didn't know where finland was, you can see it now. it's red as a rumt z s a result happened with nokia. banks did well around europe today. let me show you specifically on spanish and italian yields when we got up toward 6% yesterday on what the madrid government has to borrow and way

. >>> let's go to simon hobbs. good morning. >> good morning.hat on earth is going on with groupon. plus, in an investor sense, putting lipstick on the pig, what is going on between avon and coty? and we'll also speak with roger goodell, the nfl commissioner. back to you. >> thank you, simon. >>> time now for six stocks in 60 seconds. we start off with the natural resources getting an upgrade to a buy at barclays. >> i don't know anyone that has natural gas and they have a lot of natural gas. >> a buy who a hold at morgan stanley? >> the market has been exploding and this is the next year and it works. >> gm, price target is 45. >> phil lebeau talking about tremendous gas mileage. i worry about china. can china deliver? >> we saw tommy hilfiger. they are doing a great job. >> materials doing better without china. this is a sell, not a buy. >> really? okay. and a boost in 3-d could help sales at imax? >> yes, and let's see, it is an expensive stock but it is a dreamer stock if you like 3-d, got to go to the movies and like 3-d. i've got to get mo

simon hobbs will put it into perspective after another crazy week. >> what is really interesting is thatave rallied where wal street has not. despite that downgrade from spain because if you didn't know that with 24% unemployment in the second is recession in spain that things were bad there, you didn't really need s&p to tell you. so italian spanish markets, a lot of europe has rallied through in the course of the session and actually if i show you the main components, it's the banks that have done so. let's have a look at where we are. there you go. acs is the big construction company that we need to keep an eye on. >> the european markets are closing now. >> decent solid gains around europe, despite some markets, not all clear ly, despite the fact wal street has been unable to rally. a look at where we are, it's important as carl mentioned, that we talk about the s&p down grade to bbb-plus. they have adequate payment capacity. the thing to watch moving forward as to whether that is true for the sovereign is how they recapitalize the spanish banks. the european central bank and the imf

simon hobbs. >> this dumping of peripheral bonds, i'm talking about spain and italy, and the yield risingin is a huge issue for the market. let's just take in the headline figures. >> closing now. >> so let's look at the maps of europe, and i want you to look in particular what's happening in italy down at the bottom there, down almost 5%, spain down almost 3%, so the south european colonies again under a huge amount of pressure. it is about the market, it is about the ability of the spanish and italian governments to convince the rest of the world almost standing on their own without the help of the rest of you that they are still a good bet to hold their bonds. let's have a look at what happened in spain today. this is a year-long chart of where we are in yields for the spanish, and you will see how we are spiking substantially here, and we are closing on the european session now at a yield of 6%. okay, it's lower than we had some time ago before injection of that massive amount of cash, but a 6% yield in spain is clearly not good. let's have a look at the situation in italy. the contag

simon hobbs here to walk us through. >> it's a very powerful, very broad-based sell-off that you seebut i'm not sure that it's anything to do with that european contagion. the eye of the storm, remains what's happening in spain, and today, you saw the spanish not able to perhaps auction as much of their government debt as they wanted. you see here on this weekly chart that the yields have risen in spain as a result. but don't get the wrong impression. let's have a look at where we've been over the last year. we're not up to the sort of levels that gave us a real concern at the end of the last quarter. let's have the yearly chart. look at the yearly chart. move on a bit, guys, and just see we're nowhere near the sort of levels we had there. the yields we had a year ago. i don't think -- i mean spain is a concern. but this isn't what we're closing in on europe now. take a look at the close. >> the european markets are closing now. >> look at portugal down over 2%. a lot of them have fallen more heavily than you've witnessed in spain at the moment. but the point here really is the two-l

. >> simon hobbs who is also doing power lunch today. get to work.markets editor gary kaminsky up next with a look at the fed tomorrow. gary, and a reality check on rates today. >> and carl, at the top of the program i said i'm not sure why europe has become such the focus again. i've got to tell you listening to simon go through that report maybe it's the answer. so many moving pieces and so much to be concerned about. the technicals, fundamentals, elections, earnings, economies. i just got the answer to the question i didn't know. interest rates, we don't talk that much about interest rates in this specific segment but remember any historian of the stock markets knows that interest rate is probably the biggest single factor over the long-term on equity prices. i read something over the weekend. let's look at some data. us cpi inflation running about 2.7% right now. ten-year government bonds, we were talking to tony crescenzi about this, yielding 1.9%. with the negative real rate of something like three quarters of a percent. now, carl did you catch