again, vivus is targeting a post approval study. so again, some very important news today from vivus. again, those comments from ceo leyland wilson. he's going to be here on the halftime show on monday exclusively. we'll get to more of these issues perhaps if you tweet some questions we'll get them to leyland wilson as well and the traders will weigh in. so again big news today for what is the biggest stock story of today. dr. j. you were watching unusual activity ahead of the advisory panel. >> it's one of those where i wish i had some. i have been in this name before but i did not have long positions in this one. and there were just a whole bunch of good, as far as wonderful timing, you couldn't really be better than some of the folks who did pile into this one. we showed thousands of options trading on tuesday. it didn't really hit the threshold of what we were looking for, scott, as far as tens of thousands and massive speculation but, you know, when you're buying a thousand options that represents a hundred thousand shares of s

. ♪ hallelujah >> and, yes, i want to salute the stock of vivus. vivus. biopharmaceutical company that jumped $8.18 today on a $10.55 basis. hey, 77.5% gain on the strength of an fda panel that approved its new weight loss drug. first, though, before we get to that sterling example of a long shot that made good, you mind if we talk horse racing? yeah, you heard me right. horse racing. that's the first bit of betting i cut my teeth on well before i got interested in stocks. you see, when i was at harvard my senior year i had a friend from the school newspaper. he was the sports editor. he had been taught how to handicap by andy beyer. famous racing writer. he more famously dropped out of my alma mater playing ponies. except beyer he wasn't playing anything. as hard as it may be to believe, he was investing in handicapping, picking winners. that was the name of his first book, one that inspired me to think about long shots in the stock market. made me a ton of money. my handicapping class taken at suffolk downs race track for no credit but a lot of cash. co

at this point it looks like vivus is a front runner. anything can happen. arena drug rejected in 2010, but yesterday's positive panel vote has renewed some hope that these other players will also get to market very soon. as you know, this has been a 13-year drought when it comes to anti-obesity pills. >> thanks very much for that, seema. >> sears has been a real head scratcher today. the department store chain misses its earnings estimates by a mile and says it's taking steps to boost liquidity, but the stock is on fire, up 21%. $11 a share right now. so what the heck is going on at sears? courtney reagan is all over that one. courtney. >> there is a lot to explain here, but i'm going to do my best. sears missed expectations by 24 cents reporting 54 cents a share. revenue fell for the fifth straight quarter. and gross margins also contracted even further. now in its first earning call since eddie took control in 2005, sears announces a series of actions to boost liquidity by about $1 billion. sears will spin-off its 1250 hometown outlets and hardware store

i want to contrast that with this long shot vivus.ere's the suffolk downs race track with regard to this biotech. you have a company that's going before an fda panel for a pill that can combat obesity, which we know is the scourge of epidemic proportions in this country. now, all the so-called smart money had already decided ahead of the panel's confab that no diet drug could get the fda's blessing. the last within was a huge bust. plus, we know weight loss pills have side effects. side effects that can bring entire companies to their knees, like the once home products that was almost brought down by the fen-phen products. that's why the smart money guys were viewing this vivus as a loser, but they didn't have the benefit of superior sussex downs education. let me show you how they should have handicapped this long shot. they should think, okay, you have an fda meeting on a drug that has been pretty well vetted. it's got the hope of stemming the tide of the obesity epidemic, and you got to believe that the epidemic is to overwhelming

that's vivus. shares of vivus are up yet another 4% today or thereabouts.ny with the diet drug known as qnexa. clears the way for this to be approved by the fda. the first fda-approved diet drug for a long time. we spoke with the ceo earlier this week and asked him what the company would do now. how it would spend the money it needs to spend on marketing for such a small company. he said they have about $145 million in cash. we pushed him on what he would do in terms of raising capital. let's listen to what he said. >> we have adequate money to take us through the approval process through april 17th. and we will raise capital at some time. we have historically had a fine record of being capitalized at the appropriate times. so we'll look opportunistically when we're going to do that. >> all right. so he says opportunistically. well, that opportunity has apparently come now because vivus has in fact filed now for an $8.5 million share offering. steven weiss, your comment here. the stock has obviously been rolling. and it's been very much in the conversation.

. >> vivus. if i'm ever here again and a stock up 80% the day before, i'm going to tell you to sell it and take your profits. vivus has upside from here. a third of the u.s. is obese. they have this obesity drug. what the upside is i don't think anyone really knows. so they don't have approval yet. remember, they just -- the fda panel voted to approve. if they get approval, this could go 30, 35, 40. and first obesity drug approval the first in 13 years. >> the americans i've noticed they've gotten fatter in the last 13 years. i speak for myself. let's go to the big granddaddy of all the oil stocks. put it in context of oil at 108. >> exxon mobil is only a buy here because oil is moving up and you have the threat from iran that isn't going away any time soon. so exxon mobil here. you buy, but, remember, they're trading at a premium. they have had some slowdowns recently. you buy exxon mobil for the push up in oil. if for whatever reason, whether it's the president tapping the spr or for whatever r

unitedhealthcare. >>> there's look at shares of vivus farm seat calls up.t's more than 125% since an fda panel backed the new diet drug late last week. it's the first u.s. approved weight loss pill in 13 years. the ceo hasn't done an interview until now. let's bring in leland wilson. nice to see you again. welcome to the "fast money" halftime report. >> thank you. >> the movement shows the optimism that investors have about the prospects. how optimistic are you now that you get fda approval? >> well, the approval by the advisory committee to the fda and the 20-2 vote is a powerful signal it's likely to be aprooued. >> you would expect that it would be? >> yes, i would. >> when? >> april 16th or 17th, i believe, is the day. april 17th. >> so in the not too distant future. a number of analysts have come out in the last several days once this ruling from the fda advisory panel came out, the movement in your stock has sparked a lot of attention to what's happening. how big do you think the market? i've seen ranges from a billion to 3 billion in terms of sales.

vivus rocking a premarket trade. more than a double at this point. an fda panel backing their weight loss drug paving the way for potentially final approval. hewlett-packard disappoints, sets the bar even lower for the current quarter. is this the inflection point for the company or is there more trouble ahead? an exclusive with ceo meg whitman in just a few moments. apple meeting with shareholders this afternoon. could it finally announce a dividend? we should note the stock is higher right now. we did want to start off with our pair of retailers in the spotlight this morn ing. target reporting better than expected fourth quarter profits helped by rising sales during the holiday season. discount chain also sees full year earnings exceeding wall street estimates as for sears, the parent of sears and k mart posting a wider than expected fourth quarter loss but plan to spin off 1,250 stores and sell 11 others in an effort to boost liquidity. both stocks are trading sharply higher. particularly sears which may be the subject of a short squeeze this morn

. >> we've got two of them to talk about, vivus and hp, vivus up almost 100%.proval from a panel over a drug that would help people lose weight. hewlett-packard down 7%. the hot new pin board popular, look at who else likes it. the united states army posting about basic training, uniform fashion, a section on army families as well. the army admitting it's looking to recruit young women and through pintrist. that's where they are. >> thank you. 6:58. time to check the forecast with meteorologist christina loren. a nice one. >> hope you are getting outdoors today. we're going to see a nice day and it's the last day of near-record warmth. 50 degrees in oakland. we're starting out mild and headed toward 80 degrees in morgan hill. 74 in milpitas. 75 in concord and 75 degrees in san francisco. we drop off tomorrow and we really drop off for the weekend, back in the low 60s. we get a few showers monday into tuesday. so we meet back here tomorrow morning we might track fog. mike and i will be here. what do you have now? >> let's stay on the maps first and we'll go to t

vivus a sharply higher. that's up 80% right now. wow. >>> next trade here.e seems to be paying off. and traffic in las vegas is rebounding. but rising costs cost mgm to post a loss. let's bring in jim murren chairman and ceo for another "fast money" exclusive. always nice to speak with you. >> thank you. thanks for having me. >> what are we seeing in las vegas here? is this the beginning of the turnaround here? where are we in the recovery? >> we had a good solid year last year in las vegas. we're off to a good start in 2012. i think when we end up this year, we're going to have -- believe it or not, after what the market's been through, we'll have all-time record visitation in las vegas in 2012. >> all-time record in 2012. wow. that's tremendous. at the same time you're making a big investment in macau. when you look down the road ten years from now, what do you see the nix being? >> the macau market is a big market right now. i think it's going to be over a $50 billion market four or five years from now. so we have one property there doing extraordinarily

more over the big hopes over qnexa. >> mountain view's vivus passed an important milestone on its effort to get qnexa approved. the drug panel gave it the go ahead. the the fda does not have to follow this recommendation, in fact, it rejected qnexa in the past. it would be the first new weight loss drug in 13 years, the fda has until mid april to make this but it's a stock to watch. gas prices continue to worry wall street high energy costs could be enough to kill or at least slow our tepid economic recovery. hewlett-packard under pressure after the company reported earnings fell more than 40% on slow pc sales. you heard of the pin board popular among women. see who else. the u.s. army posting on pintrist. there is a section on army families. the army freely admits it is looking to recruit young women and doing it through pintrist. the army is good at all of these things. it has included video games as well to attract young men. it goes where the people are and makes a lot of sense. >> really does. thank you very much. >> 5:56 now. still to come on "today in the bay" a new report finds s

vivus. >>> welcome back to "options action." time for the upside call where we take a look back on our winning trades. last week khouw and carter made a call on priceline. the stock has only moved a little, but they've made a lot. and here's how. on "options action," we only have one policy when it comes to price. risk less, you can make more. that's exactly what khouw and carter did on their bullish bet on priceline. carter thought shares were ready to take a trip higher. >> great equilibrium. gives way to disequilibrium. >> better get in on this priceline business. but there was a problem. 100 shares of priceline cost nearly $57,000. so to spend less, mike instead bought the april 620 strike call for a total of $20.50. now to make money, mike needs priceline stock to rise above that price by more than the cost of the trade or above $640.50 by april exprir ration. but 20 bucks? yo, bill, you're no longer with priceline, but you do make a good point. mike, show us how to do this for less. >> i'm going to sell the march 620 calls

over in the pharmaceutical sector, investors have big hopes for the vivus's new diet drug, qnexa. it's expected the fda will green light the new prescription weight-loss drug, the first diet medication to gain approval in more than a decade. shares bulked up on the news, surging nearly 80% to close at $18.73. and, finally, a.i.g.-- after the bell today, the bailed out insurance giant reported a nearly $20 billion profit for the fourth quarter. a tax benefit and the increased value of a.i.g.'s stake in asian insurer a.i.a. group helped fuel the better than expected profit. shares gained 3% in after-hours trading. it gained over 1% during the regular session. and that's tonight's "market focus." >> susie: "made in the u.s.a." has been a strong point for the american economy. u.s. exports have been growing, adding to the optimism in the manufacturing industry. international paper makes packaging, paper and cardboard boxes, much of it made in the u.s. but as c.e.o. john faraci told tom hudson, exports alone won't kick-start the economy. >> the u.s. isn't an export driven economy, our

the study pubbished in general internal medicine vivus may soon be the first drug maker in decades toroduce a new weight loss pill to the market. approving a treatment for obesity. the same pill that gave them a thumbs down over concerns about potentially dangerous side affects including birth defects. today, telling the panel the benefits outweigh risks. fda is expected to make a decision by april 17th. the agency follows rec men daigsz of the advisory panel. >> another federal panel is recommending all americans aged 65 and older get vaccinated against whooping cough. the committee believes it's under reported but the zbol to prevent seniors from spreading the disease to infants, who are most vulnerable. it's a highly contagious bacterial disease that leads to severe coughing spasms that cause children to make a whooping sound. >> hewlett-packard released earnings this afternoon, it's meg whitman's first full quarter at hp. >> meg whitman has her work cut out for her, she's been on board about six months there, but numbers are only getting worse. profits took a dive on the earnings

. >> mountain view based vivus is like to be the first drug maker market a new prescription weight loss bill. a panel recommended a proveal as a treatment for obesity. and today, telling the panel the benefits outweigh risks. the fda is expected to mick a decision by april. >> tonight's money matters a disappointing day at hewlett-packard. earnings reports show revenues down 7%, profits down 44%, computer sales down almost 20%. it was hp's first full quarter under meg whitman. wall street can't seem to fully turn the corner. the dow is still set below 13,000 and the nasdaq is just shy of 3,000. and home sales on the rise. national association of realtors reports buyers help boo boost sales that, is the best pace in nearly two years. and they own heavenly and north star. and a season pass will be good at all three. >> and important consumer news. >> michael finney is up next. >> scammers out to steal money off your gift cards head. on 7 on your side a warning from police. >>> if you buy gift cards from a store rack there is a warning tonight. >> scammers tout steal the money off that car

. >> backing a previously rejected obesity pill from vivus. we used to call it vivus and butt-head. and they had for a while an ed drug. and it wasn't an hour, it didn't take an hour, it was like, bing, five minutes. this one, you can it -- yeah. think about that. yeah. it's like, wow. but the drug is called qnexa. it's been plagued by side effects since it was first submitted to the agency in 2010. but the majority ultimately backed the drug due to its impressive weight loss results. most patients can lose 10% of the body weight and keep it off foo years. >> how does it work? >> i don't know the exact mechanism. i think you feel full but i'm not sure how it works. i would look like -- i would look like a balloon you look the air out of. >> are you excited? >> to look like a ba loop that you've let the air out of it? >> no, but do you really think that? >> when i lose weight, all the wrinkles, you just kind of go -- yeah, i worry. you lose it here but you get real drawn looking. have you seen shep smith? never mind. it's on this network called fox. >> i've heard of it. >> shep smith

. >> by the way vivus up 92% in the after-hours session.afterho. "squawk on the street" back tomorrow. "mad money" up next. >>> i'm jim cramer. welcome to my world. you need to get in the game! he's nuts, they're nuts, they know nothing. i like to say there is a bull market somewhere. "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. my job isn't just to entertain, but coach you to deal with the mark. call me, 1-800-743-cnbc. i handed the guy 75 bucks at the pump and it wasn't enough, 7 short? i just paid exon more than i ever remember paying them any time in my life. people all over the nation are having that realization. that they paid more than they are used to. so far, by czizarrely, it didn' impact the stock market. dow down one point today 51 points. dough closing 51 points. s & p .3%. nasdaq, .52% and still on track for the best first two months since '91. still up. the $82 question, which is the price i had to pay to fill up my 2006 suv which i mistak

and vivus shares up 77% after an fda panel endorsed its obesity drug.strong holiday sales boosted profits at target. that's it from cnbc. now back to "hardball." >>> welcome back to "hardball." today, again, the politics of contraception and women's medical care are out front and center. democrats on capitol hill at a hearing of sorts to allow testimony from that single witness. she was the woman democrats wanted included in last week's initially all-male panel discussing contraception in the obama health bill. it was not technically an official hearing today, it allowed democrats to make clear they will not back down on contraceptive coverage. and there's polarizing reaction to governor bob mcdonnell and his decision to shift his ruling on ultrasounds before abortions. he says he objects to requiring internal ultrasound, but he supports an external one. this small move gets the governor out of his glaring national spotlight or no. perhaps more significantly, will it keep him in the race for vice president. elijah cummings attended the hearing today. an

the biggest moneymaker, vivus, mountain view pharmaceutical company responsible for qnexa, their stock jumped today by 78%. hewlett-packard on the other hand spent the day licking its wounds. shares down 6.5% at the close. and away from silicon valley, but still big business, pepsi set to reegg note the cola wars. the company will release what it calls pepsi next at the end of march. 60 calories a can, they call that a mid calorie soda. >> like a mid sized car, we have a mid sized soda. >> let's bring in jeff ranieri. this is the summertime weather pattern, no longer. we're talking about a fire right now burning still in napa county, right? >> yes, we are still battling dry and very gusty winds in the north bay. let's take a look at the daytime highs. 80, a new record, 78 napa, 77 in concord, and 77 in livermore. close to 80 in santa cruz. now, to bring you to our winds right now, the key component today has been a dry, northwesterly wind still in effect to the north bay. we see it slacking off a bit, still about 10 miles an hour, gusting into the low 20s, still bringing us fire concer

. >>> meanwhile, trading in vivus briefly halted after an fda panel said it was backing the weight lossqnexa and a permanent injunction for a same-sex spouse that allows a spouse to enroll in a health plan. >>> and michelle caruso-cabrera has news from jerusalem. >> some of the most dangerous missiles of iran have many small ships, practiced swarming techniques. the goal, to overwhelm the u.s. army with speed and numbers. >>> israel has some of the most advanced form of missile defense in the world and had success shooting down short-range missiles, the kind fired from gaza that's a whole other area of concern. back to you. >> shares of hewlett-packard down more than 1%, after it announced first quarter earnings fell 44%. pc sales continue to fall. 36 attorneys general signed on to a letter to google ceo larry page expressing concern over privacy settings. users who want out have to exit google completely. and we're getting word into cnbc, reuter's reporting that steve wynn will convene an emergency meeting of the directors of wynn macau on friday. the goal? kicking his former friend an

vivus, upgrades, up 81.5% today. unbelievable. qep and denbria energy, up 6.5%. dan bury up 37% year-to-date. qdp is up 8% on the day. first solar, safeway and kohl's, we'll delve more into kohl's in just a minute. subsidies getting cut in germany, and safeway on earnings, 8.5% on the down side. >> thanks very much, brian. stay right there. because oil is continuing to climb higher today. closing in on $108 a barrel. we've got that angle covered in the "closing bell" exchange. john is joining us from the nymex. brian is once again still with us on today's big retail earnings. we were speaking earlier, weren't we, on power lynch, john, and we tried to work out, when you look at the price of a power of crude, how much is fundamentals, how much is geopolitics, namely iran, and how much is it speculators driving it higher? >> i think the speculators are feeding off the iran tensions. a few years ago john mccain said bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb iran. the development of the international inspectors leading iran, a bad development. it's taken us to the next level. we're now

and vivus climbing telling the company fda approval by april 16th.back to you. >> a lot of drug stocks in the news. seema, thank you very much. looks like silence is golden. "the artist" coming up big, but moneyball struck out. does an oscar win translate into big money? here to talk about that and more is julia boorstin in los ange s angeles. i think of the best picture nominees only "the help" was over $100 million in the box office. is that going to propel the winners to make more money? >> tyler, the answer is yes. but not a huge amount more. in general winning an award and specifically best picture does generate higher returns at the box office and higher home video sales. on average the films that won best picture over a 10-year period brought home an average of their total box office after the awards ceremony. we should see the office gross about $32 million bring in another couple million because of the attention it's getting from this win. this is not a mainstream movie. >> talk about john carter. a disney movie about to be one of the most e

there are a lot of folks who could benefit from vivus. thank you all for being with us on "power lunch" today. and this week, mandy, been fun having you around. >> it's been fun. but "street signs," fantastic show and i'm back on it next week as well, it begins right now. >>> today's the day that everything changes. one way or another. >> and how's that for a friday pick-me-up? welcome to "street signs" everybody. i'm brian sullivan. on wall street it seems like nobody wants to be the first man to go out on the ledge and say i'm going all in on this rally. what is it going to take to get some bold calls and bold action? battleground nokia. a new phone coming out to market this summer. and new critical buzz about it. new hopes that this could revive their sinking stock. and recovery roller coaster, why a little free fall in your portfolio could be a good thing. courtney. >> i'm courtney reagan. here's what else we're watching at this hour. won't go down as one of google's better investments. it's selling clearwire. it invested $500 million

look at vivus. >> yeah. >> where's butthead? sorry.he fda backing its weight loss drug, qnexa, on its way to be the first approved prescription drug in a decade. connecti qnexa will have $3 billion that's what happens when you have a favorable ruling on a drug. >> this was an original battleground stock in the '90s. it was known for an erectile dysfunction drug, a pellet, actually, yes. but that was something. and they're moving along and doing a lot of other actually interesting developments. >> anti-obesity, it's a growing market. it is a growing market. >> yes. >> time for us to take a snack break. after it we're going to head to israel for an inside look at a stock that leaves herb feeling a little flat. and "street signs" hears you. we took a lot of heat yesterday about our etf segment versus single stocks. we only showed you the winners. we're going to show you the worst performers in the same basket of etfs. we don't just listen, but we listen. >> yes, we do. i'm freaking out man. why? i thought jill was your soul mate. no, no i

. >>> and the big stock winner of the day could be vivus. they surged on wednesday.l has thrown support behind the weight loss drug qnexa clearing the way for the agency to approve the first prescription diet drug in the u.s. in more than a decade. the fda typically follows the advice of its expert panel. there were concerns about heart safety and possible risk of birth defects. >>> and apple is holding its annual shareholders meeting today at 1:00 p.m. eastern time. with the stock just off an all-time high investors may be hoping the ceo tim cook will talk about what apple may do with the giant pile of cash. options include dividends or buybacks and trade battles in china and labor conditions in the supply chain including at its chinese manufacturer. apple closed on wednesday. you can see the chart there. a nice climb for apple l. hewlett-packard's first quarter profits dropped and revenue fell 7% slightly below analyst forecast. hp was hurt by hard drive shortages due to the flooding in thailand. sales of just about everything, pc servers, network declined. hp is a

plus vivus shares soaring again. should you get in? correction watch.ce for a major retracement. that's next. back to skrarl on "squawk on the street." >> look at the market today. we started quite a bit in the red with the markets down almost 1%. they clawed their way back, though. s&p is up almost 3 and at 1368 that's a couple points away from the 2011 high but the intraday high at 1370. when we come back, we could not inaugurate a new set woet him. the one and only art cashen standing right there. he's joining us after the 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 h