case, it's scott wapner. let mr. case, it's scott wapner.caruso-cabrera says you were her favorite professor in college so she says hi. the other half of kay schiller says real estate is a good investment. warren buffett says the same thing and many others. is now a good time to beltway house? >> certainly the best time we've seen in five or six years. if you think about it, it's unbelievable how much we've got standing behind housing. first of all the income from it. the major income to somebody who buy as house as an investment is the rent you get by living in it. it's not taxed and it's about a 6% return. when you add on to that the fact that you can, you subsidize in terms of borrowing by the interest deduction the property tax deduction the existence of fannie mae and freddie mac, the low rates that qe2 and so forth are bringing us and it's just an enormous subsidy across the board in housing and we have to cut it right when we need thoughts come back to keep the recovery going. >> we were just talking about rising interest rates on the

>> listen to stephanie link who was on judge wapner's show, she said that was her trade, she's also theh director of actionsalertplus.com. if you can get that in the mid-30s. >> buy, buy, buy! >> ken in illinois? >> caller: boo-yah to ya jim. >> we're all heart and soul illini here. >> caller: it has been a tough year. >> that's right. hope springs eternal. >> caller: my stock is hk. >> you know, this is just again, i like these oil companies that have good southeast, southern oil exposure. now, is this the best one? i actually prefer carrizo to these guys, but i like the space. i want to go to nathan in my old home state of pennsylvania. >> caller: boo-yah from penn state university. >> yes! nittany lions, go! what's on your mind? >> caller: i'm wondering about invn. >> i've got to look at that stock. it's a game controller mobile hand set play. and herb greenberg's got me nervous about game stock. i'm going to come back with a better read. brad in florida, brad? >> caller: hey, boo-yah, jim, how are you? >> i'm real good. how about you? >> caller: well, i'm calling you really not from

rotation of the china-related stocks and into unbelievable -- talked about it with the judge, judge wapner today. and if i didn't point it out, i'd be misleading you about went on in the internals. when people sell china, like the server in volleyball, it gets rotated in the front where it gets ready to spike the ball down the bears' throats. the soon to be spikers think the oils, mineri rrie rrie rr rry m machinery are waiting the the next massive jump. they weren't zero sum, they were negative sum. that's no longer the case. today we saw the money rotate back into stocks like google, amazon, and emc. ibm, linkedin rallied again, a huge day up yesterday. microsoft and intel continue acing the bears, they were more like loopers than speedballs. gets them every time. creeping slowly to higher levels. the disk drive makers were hot, western digital, 52-week high, take that bears. also fantastic the ipo, exact target. a cloud play that sells software as a service, the companies that need to have online strategies for twitter, facebook, you know the standards. they pay as much as $25 for a sto

and that's what wapner's watching. enough said. >> said elmur fudd. buying nds group, $5 billion is the cost. cisco shares trading lower on the news. the acquisition, is it a sign of the new or old cisco? next guest says this is the super duper older cisco. mark, good to see you. >> good to see you. >> when i saw this, i thought this reminds me of the old, old cisco. the serial acquirer. buy up all the companies all the time in an effort to grow or methodology for growth. is that what we're seeing again? >> it's also what you buy. when you acquire the right technology, you can create a multiplier effect. you can accelerate revenues and spur innovation and serve as a catalyst for growth. i'm not sure that's what cisco got by spending $5 billion for nds. nds is a company that's been around for quite some time. it's a mature company in its own respect although steady revenues, but it was public. it went private. it wanted to go public again. kind of a steady eddie company. i'm not sure cisco got exactly the innovation it was looking for. >> so cisco is k

as scott wapner said, we are near session highs. we gathered steam in the last hour up 75 in the dow, almost 1% in the s&p. the nasdaq up over 1%. the pulse of the markets, i want to check out the s&p sector heat map. everything in positive territory. it's a bit of a mixed market. not totally risk-on because health care up 1.25%. materials and industrials up as well. midday movers, i want to focus on a few retailers. coach hitting a new high. the ceo will be on "closing bell" today in the 4:00 hour eastern time. american eagle added to the buy list at goldman sachs. and hot topic, a hot stock. up 12% better than expected earnings and guidance. now, on the downside mcdonald's in a bit of a pickle international growth slowing. same store sales lower than expected. down a big 3%. and, again, it's down below $100 a share. aig up more than 2.5%. the treasury selling a chunk of shares in the company. and green mountain is lower by 3.5%. starbucks planning a new initiative in the single cup category. herb greenberg deep in thought on this

. >> i'm scott wapner and here are the top three trades. milestones and s&p. the blow off top in what should you do not. tiffany and ebay. what other top flyers should you hedge in your portfolio. we have the bullish and bearish sides here on the desk. live from the nasdaq, this is fast money. start trading and get to the market. stocks continue their climb higher. major indeces above key round number levels today. buy signal or short signal? >> neither. it's nice that we can go back to 2008 and say the s&p hasn't been here since then, but we are rallying for the right reasons. there is growth in a better place and qe 3 with the strength and that strengthens the dollar. s&p around 14, 14.5 times earnings. it's also not a terribly expensive lace to own it. with the macro, you mentioned china. we will talk about that. that's people's biggest question here. no one expects ee t print big numbers across the economic board. we controlled the risk in the short run. we saw the transports which was encouraging. we have seen the amazing thing that i don't think we would

right now, it's scott wapner and the "fast money halftime report." >> thanks so much. four hours now to go until the close and here's where we stand on the street. take a look. green across the board. the dow industrials good for almost 50 points. s&p, two-thirds of one percent gain for the nasdaq. the best rally in 14 years is in the books. welcome to march. oil and gold, both higher. the top stories we're trading today. retail belowout from gap to nordstrom. strong sales show the american consumer is alive and well. more blackberry blues. rim sliding again. a rebirth for micro soft and the pc. dan niles speaks out. forget apple 550. and gold in qe free world. what do now? let's get right to it and start with the consumer roaring back. stephany, welcome to the program. you manage jim cramer's chartable trust. what great retail numbers today. >> i think a lot of it was easy comparisons and warm weather. to this particular month, so it will be interesting to see if we can see this next month, but very encouraging. >> 82% of retailers beat expectations. target was expect

listening to judge wapner, i'm with him. let's go to debbie in new york. debbie? caller: hey, boo-yah to you from new york. >> holy cow, i used to go there a lot. what's up? >> caller: how do you feel about ebix? >> good. enterprise software company. i'll see you and raise you with guide wire. gwre. which i think actually is even better. new software company just came public recently. now to ron in illinois. ron? >> caller: american realty capital trust. arct. >> you know what? i know you're not going to want to hear this. i know a lot of people are bummed out. look at that dividend and pull the trigger. >>> now to matt in new york. matt? >> caller: boo-yah from brooklyn, how are you? >> good. how are you? >> caller: i want your take on yum. >> i like that, charitable trust. i think it is terrific. to greg in texas. greg? >> caller: yeah. electronics ticker. >> i think you ought to. i don't think there is that much there to recommend. may i suggest you should by allergan. >> caller: venice beach boo-yah there. >> nice, used to live in my car there. it's beautiful.

let's check in with scott wapner to see which stocks are on his radar right now. >> the nasdaq isn'ty. oracle is down 1 2/3 aa percent today. it's to a hold from a buyover there. they say the growth strategy of the company is falling behind. threats of core business from s.a.p. among others. it says their field checks have been underwhelming. the stock has had a good year. i watch it a lot. it's up 15 1/2% year to date. oracle is up 3%, but right now that downgrade is weighing on shares of oracle, orcl is what i'm watching today. bill. >> thank you, sir. financials also the focus this week. the fed will release stret test results of the nation's biggest banks this week. aman is in washington looking at the par meters of those tests. >> once again, we're waiting on the federal reserve. it seems like we're in a waiting pattern with the fed here. what we're expecting this week is we will release the results of the stress tests later on in the week perhaps as early as thursday, but perhaps as early as today release the metrics by which the fed is judging these banks. as a result of a dod

scott wapner wants him to be released, going down to his washington redskins. there's a tradeoff with all of this, brian. this morning, if you look socially, what was trending this morning? what do you think? was it the super tuesday results? was it stock market? which we had our first really bad day in a while and it should be trending. no, it was peyton manning and ipad 3. and i think that tells you a little bit of the environment we're in right now. maybe we're a little bit more comfortable with things. and i think today the rebound we're getting is kind of a reflection that folks, investors weren't too concerned with what they saw yesterday. they thought it was a little bit of a much-needed correction. >> they are concerned with peyton manning, looks like his jersey will be retired and maybe he can fire up number 18 for the miami dolphins. >> i like that. >> no state income tax, ppeyton manning. >>> stocks starting to rally, getting an initial boost from better than expected data. let's go around the horn, find out what everybody is talking about in the mar

. >>> let's check in with scott wapner and see what stock is on his radar. >> hey, sue. apple is making a quiet, if it's possible for apple to make a quiet move, it's making one today. apple's up more than $10 today. peter missic bumped his price target from $599 to $699. he's optimistic about the new ipad that's coming down the pike. he said supply concerns are totally overdone. he's also looking for a panel television from apple, not just a refresh of the apple tv that tim cook rolled out a the most recent event but an actual panel tv that's going to be a big catalyst. he thinks the iphone 5 is going to be just that. that's why i'm watching shares of apple. apple up almost 2%. $562 is where apple is trading right now. ty? >> scott, thank you very much. >>> the stock market's so-called fear barometer continues to free fall. the cboe volatility index sinking to its lowest level since mid 2007 and down 30% since last tuesday. that's volatility, down 30% since last tuesday. low volatility has also helped shrivel volume and investing among traders. but it's down 9% in the p

let's check in with scott wapner and see which stocks are on his radar. >> ty, i'm watching shares ofoday. i've got my screen behind me. opened at $545. traded low today as $526. we were talking a lot about this on the "fast money" "halftime report" show. the big move the stock saw just after 10:00 this morning, you can see the big dip down on the intraday chart here, there was a huge block trade as well. 17,000 shares traded about 10:06 this morning. that's about $9 million worth of apple stock that was moved today. the stock obviously has since recovered about half of that loss. but nonetheless it's an interesting move just a couple of days now ahead of the big event where apple's expected to unveil the ipad 3. and you really have to figure, if you look at the history of how this stock has traded ahead of those big events, you do tend to have a runup into it and then a sell on the news. so the bar is going to be high now for the ipad 3 to deliver what the market expectations are because they are very, very high. sue. >> indeed, scott, thanks. we're keeping an eye on luxury retailers

let's check in now with scott wapner and see what stock is on his radar. >> i'm watching shares of caterpillaroday. it's down about 2.5% largely on the fears of the chinese economy slowing down having a hard landing. but now it's emerged as really a battleground stock depending on what your view on the china economy is. it was much-talked about on our "halftime report" show today. steve cortes adding to shorts there. he's really negative on what's taking place in china especially for what it means for the multinational companies like caterpillar. we also had john rut ledge and steven roesh, two of the brightest minds on bhast happening in china. they say the fears about china going into a hard landing are totally overrated. john, cat pill laerpillar is on portfolio, he says he'll be adding to it. it's back a little lower now as we're speaking about it. but steven and john both say the fears about what's happening in china absolutely are overdone. rutledge adding to his stock, cortes adding to shorts. that's the battleground. >> thank you very much. we've been reporting about the recent surge i

. >>> let's check in with scott wapner to see what stock is on his radar. >> a lot of talk about the bank stress test, not a lot of talk today about american express but there should be because take a look at the shares, up about 3%, the bank holding company passing with flying colors, 0.75 for american express. the stock is up today, but it's up 20% year to date. they are planning share buybacks up to $4 billion this year and up to $1 billion in the first quarter of 2013 and they got approved by the federal reserve to raise the dividend, all the talk about citi, jpmorgan, bank of america, keep your eye on american express today, just shy of $56, up another 0.75 today. >>> the investor appetite for high yield or junk yields continue to grow thanks in part to cheaper paper, wider spreads, higher yields relative to treasuries and broader equities. kevin oversees the tiaa-cref, and a three-year return of more than 21%. you were just saying, kevin, welcome, first of all, that you like to be disciplined and more selective, so your corner of the junk market isn't toxic, it's a little more

. >>> now let's check in with scott wapner, see what stock's on his radar this hour.sue, thanks so much. i'm looking at my screen here and doing almost a double-take. remember talking about pfizer being the best in the dow? caterpillar is the worst today. i think it centers around the concerns people are having about the chinese economy. the china stock market today down about 2.3%. the latest performance since late november. one of the stocks that factors in to what the growth in china will be. pretty big battleground stock on the "fast money" "halftime report" today. one of our traders shorting the stock. the whole industrial group for that matter is one of the reasons why you've got the dow at one point today down triple digits. it's stocks like caterpillar that are the ones to watch as you factor in what you think heading into the second quarter is going to look like for the chinese economy, guys. >> indeed. scott, thanks. >> and despite a pullback today, stocks have been soaring so far this year with the dow, s&p and nasdaq on track for their best first quarter p

let's check in with scott wapner and see what stock's on his radar today. >> fio. it's fusion io.memory maker. we were kicking it around on the "fast money" "halftime report" today. the stock having a good day. look on your screen i have it behind me. it's up nearly 10%. it was down big in january on earnings. a loss widen profit margins decline. who are their customers? apple, facebook, salesforce.com. some of the biggest names around. who's their chief scientist? steve wozniak. the apple co-founder, which makes it an interesting story. that's why people keep following this company. it was one of the most successful ipos of last year in terms of the stock performance. got brought back down to earth a bit. but now seems to be on the upswing. credit suisse today initiating or reinstating the outperform on the shares. that's what's giving it the sizzle today, ty. >> scott, thank you very much. counting down to super tuesday. mitt romney, rick santorum hitting the road to spread their economic message across ten states ahead of next week's big primaries. and our chief washington corr

scott wapner just off the air, we're going to find out what stocks are on his radar. >> tyler, i'm going to talk about the tech stock up more than 50% year-to-date and trades for more than $600 a share. certainly i'm talking about -- priceline is the one i'm talking about today. barclays raising price target to $800. says it's best positioned to benefit from secular travel trends. they have strong top line and also solid margin expansion, that's a rare combination to have and also it continues to perform quite well over in europe. so it's an interesting story here as you look at shares of priceline. i knew you thought i was going to say apple, but nope. i'm talking about priceline today. >> thanks, scott. appreciate it. techs and financials vying for the top performing sector this year. consumer discretionary stocks not far behind either up nearly 15% for the first quarter. so is this where investors should be putting their money entering the second quarter? or should we be wary of a spring selloff? let's bring in our market insiders. director of equity and asset allocation and cnbc cont

first in business world wide i'm becky quick along with steve liesman and scott wapner. co-president of morgan stanley. we've been taking a look at the futures this morning. those futures have just turned negative. we've been watching them throughout the course of the day. the dow looked like it was going to open up by about 25 points or so. we'll see where things continue. the s&p 500 and dow have had their biggest losing streaks for the course of the year. >> darden restaurants recording fiscal profit for the 1.25 per share. they credit underlying business strength as well as favorable weather. housing has been the big economic theme of the week. today is no exception. february new home sales will be released at 10:00 eastern time. earlier this week the national association of realtors reported the winter months were the strongest sales of previously owned homes in five years. >> today is the two-year anniversary since president obama son and the health care reform into law the supreme court will be taking it up on challenges next week. in an op-ed in "usa today," mitt

. >>> next on the half time report, wapner has you covered on all the mobile growth concerns. about a half hour's time. >>> meanwhile, the european closes in about 3 minutes. message i've been practicing how to talk like a true chicagoan. switching to geico could save you hundreds of dollars on car insurance... da bears. haha... you people sure do talk funny. geico®. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. didn't really pay too much attention to honestly. i came to yountville really because of the french laundry. this is the place i had been looking for all my career. so i decided to plant a bay laurel seedling to commemorate that. as a chef we are always committed to our suppliers... you know those farmers, those foragers, those gardeners, those fishermen... for me it's really about building this extraordinary community. american express is passionate about the same thing. they're one of those partners that i would really rely on to help branch out my business. whether it's finding new customers... or a new location for my next restaurant. onc

>> scott wapner was talking about the notion of who was bearish and who was bullish. i'd like to go back to november and actually take a hard look of what seemed interesting. now, i earlier was on the previous show talking about jim -- about o'neil from goldman. he did come on the show and said when italian bonds were 7%, he said you know what, they're probably a buy. i want to see more guys like that. >> go out on a limb, make the calls nobody else is making because that's why they're getting paid the big bucks. >> i tell you who's been more right than anybody and he's a friend of mine is scott mineart of guggenheim. he called us -- he's coined the phrase the cleanest shirt in a dirty bag of laundry. he was out ahead of curve. now, he is very bullish on gold. he seize gold going to 3,000. but he was right on the economic turn and the return on equity so far. >> adam parker over at morgan stanley last year made probably one of the most accurate calls on the s&p 500. so there's our kudos for us bashing goldman just a little bit this morning. >>> meantime, we are watchi

i'm becky quick along with joe kern kernen and cscott wapner. >>> fed policymakers are set for a one-dayest statement will be issued around 2:15 p.m. eastern time. there are no significant changes expected but analysts expect the policymakers to take advantage of the improved economic data. employment services company manpower is sounding an optimistic note, it said the hiring outlook improved over the last three months in the united states and other large economies as well. but they say that employers could pull back in hiring in the event of a crisis. we see more fallout from greece's financial troubles, despite the recentlout, moody's cutting its rating for cypress to bf-1, it warns that sip press has significant risk from the greek debt crisis because its banks have a great deal of exposure in greece. >>> let's look at the futures this morning and they are indicating a higher open, the dow futures are up 81 points and the s&p futures up by about 9.5. >>> a master in the house this morning, he's an expert in buying and building businesses, roughly $6 billion under management, jay gord

make sure you join andrew and becky and scott wapner on monday. "squawk on the street" is next. >>> five, six, seven, eight. ♪ >> good friday morning. welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm melissa lee with jim cramer and james faber live from the new york stock exchange. >> our second home in the second city. chicago this morning, about eight months before election day, we have come to president obama's stomping grounds in the land of lincoln covering all the bases, commodities, treasuries, big business, big politics and how it impacts your money. it is wall street meets the windy city on "squawk on the street" on this friday, march 2nd, 2012. >> carl, we're about to wrap up what has been an eventful week for the markets between dow 13,000, nasdaq 3,000. we got red arrows across the board now. the dow is looking to lose about 12 points at the open. and european trading, we're seeing basically a flat picture across the board. let's get to a road map for this friday morning. crude is in focus after a whipsaw afternoon trade yesterday. iran pressed