valspar was rewarded with a all- time high stock price, rising 4% today. the company said the dupont business was too big a bite for it. that came after better than forecast earnings and a brighter outlook for the year. meantime, yahoo is having a tough time unwinding the ownership of its asian business. shares fell almost 5%. talks between yahoo and chinese search engine alibaba are at a standstill. yahoo has been trying to arrange a $17 billion deal for its ownership stakes in alibaba and yahoo japan in such a way as to avoid taxes while it revamps its business. another company in transition is avon. while the firm is looking for a replacement to long-time c.e.o. andrea jung, it had a disappointing fourth quarter. before unusual charges, earnings came in well shy of estimates. revenues also fell, and the company didn't give much guidance of what to expect financially this year. after seeing some morning selling, shares wound up with a gain of 1.5%. volume quadrupled as investors try to sort out avon's future. it announced layoffs as it tries to stabilize

one of those -- two of those, have to be paint makers, valspar and sherwin-williams.the way, 34th consecutive year of increased dividend for old sherwin williams. home builder sentiment at highest level in nearly five years. and they're using that confidence to battle each other over land. diana olick is here now with the great land grab story. diana. >> well, that's right, brian. you know, the builder number out this morning was huge and it was even bigger because a lot of folks consider this coming president's day weekend as the official start to the spring housing market. so since september builders sentiment has actually doubled. caution though that this is still well below the positive line. that said, if builders think the market is about to move, then they need to get moving on construction, right? now you see the stocks of the big builders moving already. the big public guys are especially well-positioned with land because they have the cash on the sidelines ready to buy those finished premium lots. take tampa, florida, for example. the national builders have