Fact, 121. 3 degrees fahrenheit in south australia, feel like a weather girl. They have had to add new colors to the weather map in australia and its purple. Thanks for watching street signs, everybody. It is warm. Closing bell is next. Welcome to the closing bell. Im Bill Griffith at the New York Stock Exchange where the dow is trying to start off this shortened holiday trading week on a winning note. Yeah. Were at the highs of the session right now. We are, a pattern weve seen for the past couple of days. Im Michelle Carusocabrera maria is in davos. Well hear from her in a little bit and huge earnings due in one hour. Topping the list, google and ibm. These are the numbers that could drive the entire market tomorrow. Were going to have what you need to know the moment they come out tonight. Also, look forward to Texas Instruments numbers out tonight as well and a new tax on every share of stock you trade. She loves this story. Looking more likely in europe. Could it be a coming to wall street as well . The cd of Td Ameritrade will be joining us for that, among other things. Earnings and lots more to talk with fred about. Retail and whether investors are coming back. Big nightmare for boeing, the dreamliner with problems and its stock still down. Right now the news is not getting any better for the aircraftmaker. Weve noticed a trend lately. You see some selling in the morning and then buying in the afternoon, and we have often thought of the afternoon trade as the smart money. And you see it right there on the intraday chart. I am so old, phil, i remember we introduced the infraday chart, a phenomenon that we could see what what is happening tick bytic, and there you see the pattern. And im so old we were handwriting the intradate chart. Nasdaq doing the same thing. Back in positive territory after spending much of the day negative. Up three points right now at 3138, and the s p, any positive close for the dow in the s p today will be another fiveyear high. So the markets are holding on to the steady gains so far. Let take a closer look at the moves at this point. In todays closing bell exchange. Carol roth author of the entrepreneur equation and steve saks and michael from Janney Montgomery smith. Good to have you here. Let me start with you, scott. What do you think about this move . Are we going to get more of this . Is this just the beginning, or are we in for pullbacks considering what could be coming to washington the next couple of months . I think pullbacks are norm a. Lets face it, the last couple of months have been a big party. Ben bernanke invited us and i dont think the punch bowl goes away. The fed is the key issue right now. Does that trump the fundamentals, all the earnings were getting, you pay more attention to the fed . You think we have low growth and quite frankly investors are starved for air. They have been holding their breath for four years. There is no oxygen in any other market. Theres no place to go for yield. Therefore, essentially i think ben is terroristing it to the point to where they got to jump into risk assets and thats what were seeing. David, does that make you bullish as well . David . We do have a david as well. David steinberg. That would be steve saks now. Does that make you bull strategic defense initiative. We had a change in guests. Yes, we did. Changed at the last minute, i guess. Theres a lot of factors that make me bullish right now. The Macro Economic picture is definitely one of them. You know, you nailed it with the fact that the fed is still printing money and despite the language that we saw in the last minutes, theres no clear sign that thats going to end in 13. Well have a much better picture in the next couple of weeks. Its pretty good. Fact of the matter, valuations and u. S. Equities are pretty attractive right now. My dear friend carol roth, you have been skeptical of this market as we continue to go higher and higher and higher. Were at fiveyear highs right now. I guess we should all say its time to tell when you go bullish, is that it . Thats probably right, bill, but i feel like everybody is drinking the socalled punch or the socalled koolaid so why not join the party for the time being. I dont think theres any good fundamental reason here, but, look, theres nowhere else for anyone to put their money. Theres a lot of Financial Engineering opportunities here. Theres still strong balance sheets. Youll see more buybacks. Well see more dividends based on the way the fiscal cliff shook out here, so i think that youre going to see at least in the interim some good growth. However, there are certain sectors that im very concerned about. Such as . Restaurants being one of those. Restaurant is one of those sectors. I think from obama care to the cost of cattle, to the fact that consumers are seeing less in their paychecks, especially in the crashual dining sector, thats one to watch. What are you thinking at this point . We still have mark, dont we . Yes, you do, michelle and happy to weigh in. Hate to sound like the consensus, but i think the fact of the matter is even putting aside the feds manipulation of the Interest Rate curve the economic fundamentals continue to show dose ent outcomes. In fact, were projecting that they will continue to improve over the course of 2013, so from a sector perspective, while i would agree with the other guests in terms of the pressure being put on consumer wallets, other sectors Like Technology that we think is going tonight benfector of a release by pentup demand by business spending which has been paralyzed by the prospects of the fiscal cliff. Can you name specific names that you like . Sure. Within the text Space Company by the name of qualcomm, obviously a play on the smartphones and the expansion of a tablet market. Even though its gotten crushed here recently, intel trading with a fourplus dividend yield and microsoft remains a very high Free Cash Flow and flowyield story, above market dividend yield and once again part of the business suites, so all three i think are good for capital aration and or income here, for that matter. Would you buy apple . Most definitely, bill. I we did just last week. At 500 a share it looks extremely appealing to us on a number of valuation measures. Scott, you talked about the struggle to find yield. Correct. So many stocks out there in the s p 500, the stock actually yields more than the debt, and even though people have been piling into dividendpaying stocks, still high yields. Historically you would have to go back a long way to find the s p yielding in excess of the bond yields of those same companies. In fact, it makes no sense, because dividends can go up over time. You can have growth of the investment and you cant get that in the bond market. That underlying asset doesnt necessarily appreciate the way stock can. I grew up a bond person, but right now i find they few reasons why i would want to be in highgrade bonds. What are you buying at this point in time . I think asia is maybe a better place to look. Its not that we have a punch bowl here. We have a punch bowl globally. Japan is getting bigger now, yes. We have competition for materials. Materials have a lot of move on the upside. We saw freeport come this morning with earnings. They beat earnings handley. They are getting into the oil business. Some people agree. Some people dont agreement lets face it. The drawdown on copper and other building materials, not only in the United States but over in asia, youll have competition for those goods and a Monetary Policy thats flooding the system with currenty. Steve sax, your best investment idea right now . I think sectorwise, i hate to do it, but i have to agree on tech. I think its an area that obviously had good performance in 2012. We think that continues, although the first couple of years have been a little rough. Look at the other sector you know, that have performed well late last year, financials, and then were seeing, you know, industrials and materials pick up this year as well. Consumer discretionary which we touched on is an area that i would take a look at. Its been tough to make money shorting the American Consumer over the long term and the pickup in the Consumer Discretionary secretary ore probably continues, at least the first half of this year. Carol, you told us what you dont like. Restaurants. What do you like . And for how long . So i love the multilevel marketers that everybody else seems to hate and fair disclosure here. Ive got a position in herbalife, but i think that these Business Models have been fundamentally misunderstood. They sell entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurs do fail at a high rate, but that doesnt make it a bad business model. Just like franchising isnt a bad business model. They are undervalued. They have got great cash flow positions. They are trading at really reasonable valuations, and i think that new skin, herbalifes of the world, great options. They have got huge exposure internationally. Very little in the u. S. , so i am going to say even though they have been up, up, up, i still like both herbalife and newskin. Thanks for your thoughts on the markets today. Thank you. Dave, thank you wherever you are. Google highlighting a big day for earnings after the bell. A preview of the numbers google has to focus on. Looming issues and growth in the core search business has been fantastic, and in youtube, too, but as the computing world shifts to mobile margins are under attack on the multiple fronts. Two main numbers. A tricky nim number. Currency numbers will make it look worse than it is and google makes less money from mobile ads that pc ads and more people are going mobile. And hardware. Samsung is spreading the android gospel worldwide which is good for ads and making it tough for googles motorola unit to make a prompt another big loss in q4, analyst will have a lot of questions about cuts. The headline, the street wants revenue around 12. 36 billion and 10. 52 eps. Jon fortt will have those numbers after the bell. Look forward to that. Breaking news on the israeli election with tyler. . Thank you very much. The early exit polls in israel indicate that Benjamin Netanyahu has won a third term as Prime Minister of that country. Those terms have not been continuous or contiguous, i should say. Hes projected to win though a center left party, a relatively new one, has made surprising gains according to news reports and that could make the coalitionbuilding over there a little more tricky. Right now the prediction is that Benjamin Netanyahus likud party has won about 31 seat in the in the parliament and will take the lead in forming the government. Netanyahu had called these elections in a way as a reflection of his policies on the west bank and settlements, the quelling of the uprising in gaza and, of course, israeli relations or lack of relations, i should say, with iran. Many people and political observers there believe that this will then continue his relatively more hardline rightleaning policies on all of those three issues. Netanyahu, according to exit polls, will once again be Prime Minister in israel. Thanks, tyler. Heading towards the close. About 50 minutes left in the trading session just off the highs of the day. A reminder. Any positive close for the dow and s p, new fiveyear highs. Ameritrade getting a boost in trade today despite a drop in profits. Stock is up 23 over the past three months. Right after the break the ceo joins us with the real story behind this quarter and his concern of a proposed trading tax in europe and whether it could make its way here to america. Also. Big Earnings Reports after the bell coming your way. Do not miss the numbers from google and ibm. They have the potential to shake the Technology World and the important trading day for tomorrow. All the numbers coming up for you right here on the closing bell. Stay tuned. [ male announcer ] it was designed to escape the ordinary. It feels like it can escape gravity. The 2013 cclass coupe. Starting at 37,800. Executor of efficiency. You can spot an amateur from a mile away. While going shoeless and metalfree in seconds. And you. Rent from national. Because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. And go. 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Well talk about that, plus the talk that europe is expected to move forward now with plans to impose a new tax on all Financial Market transactions as a revenue generator, right . Could that be a preview of coming attractions for us in the United States . Certainly wouldnt be welcome news to our next guest. Joining us on set and a first on cnbc interview is the ceo and president of ameritrade. I do want to get to your trade and the stock and the Earnings Reports and everything else. This trading tax, this idea, do you think its a good idea, a bad idea . What would happen to you if they did it here in the United States . Possible it could happen in the United States . I think its a dumb idea, and history would prove that thats true basically. If you put tax in one country and not another, the trading will all move away and weve seen experiences of that around the world. I think its a bad idea. Im not sure what its trying to do other than penalize an industry. And i think in the United States, i think weve kind of moved past that on to other topics. Its not coming up on the radar screen right now. I dont see that happening, do you . No. Here, i mean. I think its going to happen in europe. The thought of penalizing the Banking System and wanting to tax everything in sight. People have to trade, trade what . People have to invest. Thats what they do with their money. If theres a financial transaction tax, would they not invest . They will trade differently. The trade flows and investments will move to different parts of the world is the Retail Investor coming back . The Retail Investor is slowly coming back. We had an average of 335,000 trades, pretty low for. 5. 8 activity rate. Low. Improved since january. The Investment Movement index said investors were increasingly bullish going into the year end. Weve seen that so far in january. So far in january every trading day our clients have been net buyers as well. Can we bring up the bar chart about the new asset class. New asset buying is climbing sharply. Thats right. Yet trading is down. Whats better for you, assets under management getting bigger or trading getting bigger . Ideally youd like both . Absolutely. I think in the short term the trading makes a big difference to the shortterm tradings and the asset gathering over time makes a big difference. The number that caught my attention was 80 billion clients are holding in cash. Its 90 billion now. 80 in cash, youre right. Whereas what, in 2007 it was only 45 billion. I mean, you have very cautious clientele right now. That is so telling. And your stock, because you cant charge them interest on those cash on the money markets. Because they would go elsewhere. I bet. Youre losing money on those accounts, right . The reality its grown so much because of the strong asset gathering, weve been doing the last two years over 40 billion. The reality is the percentage of client cash to total assets is actually still in the range of 15 to 20 . It hasnt moved. Whats going to bring them back then . Go back to that first question michelle was asking what. Will get that 90 billion to be put to work again, do you think . I do believe that what we have right now is the economy is getting better. The equity markets have improved. Standard poors 500 was up. The s p 500 was up 13 , 14 , up 4 year to date. Right. The economy is starting to show good signs. As long as we dont have it derailed in washington. I was just going to ask. I think things could get better. Could washington still screw this up . Absolutely. I dont think it takes much to have another debt ceiling debate and debacle would not be helpful here. I think theres so much minon the sidelines between the Retail Investor and the Corporate America today, has so much money to invest. Get rid of some of that uncertainty and this economy will go. Im quite bullish about that. Can you provide guidance for this year without knowing exactly what washington is going to come up with . We gave a range. We dont give guidance. We give a range on a conservative side and optimistic side. Were right inside that range. Had a great start to the year. Were ahead of consensus. We her record asset gathering and record guidance sales and great control. Had a great start. Had a good three months in the stock as well at this point. Fred, always good to see you. Thanks for coming by. The president of amayor trade joining us today. Dell shares sharply higher today. After david faber broke the news that microsoft is now in talks to help finance that buyout of dell. David joins us now with more details. They are getting a party together, arent they . Yes, they may very well indeed do that. There are still