Spend my whole paycheck on some old wreck and i could name you a few i gotta get drunk and i sure do dread it because i know just what im gonna do i gotta get drunk, lord, a lot of good people in town if you hear me holler, see me spend my dollar, need a lift from town a lot of good doctors keep telling me george, you better start slowing down more old drunks than there are old doctors so i guess we better have another round imus in the morning is this the new normal for americas Economic Performance . Dull, slow, weak . Good morning, everyone, walmart sold less stuff. Thats a measure of the overall economy. Walmart took in less money. Walmart sales were down. Walmart tells the economys story. Whats going on here . Well, start with gas prices, up again today, by the way. Up nearly 50 cents this year, you cant spend at walmart when your gas costs so much more, so suddenly. And then theres taxes up for everyone as of january the 1st. You spend less when your paycheck shrinks, throw in rising unemployment and a president who wants another round of tax hikes and youve got a weak economy. Telling me, really . Is it all the republicans fault . Varney company is about to begin. [ male announcer] surprise youre having iplets. [ babies crying ] surprise your house was built on an ancient burial ground. [ ghosts moaning ] surprise your car needs a new ansmission. [ coyote how ] how about no more surprises . Now you can get all the online Trading Tools you need without any surprise fees. Its not rocket science. Its just common sense. From td ameritrade. All eyes on the market this morning. Question, will the selloff continue . Remember, two Federal Reserve governors say not so fast on all of bens money and look what happens. Right down, everybody, 100 point loss on the day started around 2 15. Today the fallout from ben continues. Look at gold, please. And way below 1600, no balance back at all. If theres any hint that the Printing Presses go. Gold goes down. Look at it. Oil prices lower as well. Very interesting this. Oil is back down to 93 per barrel, where it is right now. 93. What does that mean for the gas price spike . Maybe its going to come to an end. Here is the latest number. The drop in oil could mean that the spike is coming to an end, but were at 3. 77 as of right now. We went up about another penny and a half overnight and that means, 35 Straight Days gas has gone up. Just in the past month. It spiked 46 cents to be precise. Here is our glimmer of hope that it may be coming to an end. Chicago, where gas has gone up much more than the National Average prices there, dropped overnight. Down just 1 2 cent, but down. You still pay more than four bucks in chicago. We get existing home sales, and thats a very big number for a lot of people. Youll get that number at the top of the next hour. And we have for you some homes that were bargains, but now, they are not. Like this house in san diego. Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, almost 425,000 in 2011. Can you guess what its on the market for right now . Ive got a hint for, a lot more. Tanya from Team Investments joins the company at ten oclock and reveals the current price on this home, and two of us like it, that will be coming up at 10 50. And ben might stop printing money. The markets do not like it. So is the stock market rally over . Should we pack up our cow record graphic for now . Weve got an answer because the opening bell is next. Friday night, buddy. You are gonna need a wingman. And my cash back keeps the party going. But my Airline Miles take it worldwide. [ male announcer ] it shouldnt be this hard. With creditcards. Com, its easy to search hundreds of cards and apply online. Creditcards. Com. Announcer you never know when, but thieves can steal your identity and turn your life upside down. Hi. Hi. You know, i can save you 15 today if you open up a charge card account with us. You just read my mind. Announcer just one little piece of information and they can open bogus accounts, stealing your credit, your money and ruining your reputation. Thats why you need lifelock to relentlessly protect what matters most. [beeping. ] helping stop crooks before your identity is attacked. And now you can have the most comprehensive Identity Theft protection available today. Lifelock ultimate. So for protection you just cant get anywhere else, get lifelock ultimate. I didnt know how serious Identity Theft was until i lost my credit and eventually i lost my home. Announcer credit monitoring is not enough, because it tells you after the fact, sometimes as much as 30 days later. With lifelock, as soon as our network spots a threat to your identity, youll get a proactive risk alert, protecting you before you become a victim. Identity theft was a huge, huge problem for me and its gone away because of lifelock. Announcer while no one can stop all Identity Theft, if criminals do steal your information, lifelock will help fix it, with our 1 million service guarantee. Dont wait until you become the next victim. You have so much to protect and nothing to lose when you call lifelock now to get two full months of Identity Theft protection risk free. Thats right, 60 days riskfree. Use promo code gethelp. If youre not completely satisfied, notify lifelock and you wont pay a cent. Order now and also get this shredder to keep your documents out of the wrong hands a 29 dollar value, free. Get protected now. Call the number on your screen or go to lifelock. Com to try lifelock protection risk free for a full 60 days. Use promo code gethelp. Plus get this document shredder free but only if you act right now. Call the number on your screen now oh, what a difference the Federal Reserve does make. A couple of feds governors suggest we might stop printing money and the markets take a big tumble, complete reversal of the trend. Joining us now is ed butowsky with chapwood investments, frequent guest on the program. Question, short time to answer it, is the rally over . Maybe, most likely. Stuart really . In the short run, yes, because once we hit 136, 137 on the dow Technical Analysis says were going to drop 10, 15 . Stuart 13927. So put your seat belt on i think its coming. Stuart you think its coming. Absolutely. Stuart you think the shortterm rally is over. Usually 137, 136 were going down. Stuart were not there. I want to talk to you about walmart, an Economic Indicator. Let me bring you up to speed. The market about a half minute away. A couple of items in the news background this morning, number one, 362,000 new claims for jobless benefits last week, thats a high number. Its up 20,000 from the week before. We dont consider these really market moving numbers, but its another indicator of a relatively weak economy, along with the walmart indicator, as well. The Consumer Price index showed no gain, no loss at all in the latest reporting series. Okay. We are off and running. We were expecting the dow to open lower, lets see where the opening trend is, yes, its down just a little. Were just above the 139 level as of right now. But, weve not continued the real tumble that we got yesterday after those two fed governors made their statements about ben printing money. Were down and old is down, gold is down. Let me get to walmart, less money in your paycheck because of the payroll tax increase and less money to spend at walmart because of the gas price spike. That really did take a toll on walmarts sales. And now, walmart is an Economic Indicator. Now, look at walmart as the stock. Nicole, where did it open . Right, were seeing it up a little bit here, for the big picture, walmart is a great economiccator, like you noticed, stuart. Its about payroll taxes and had an internal memo that we found out about. And they know that the payroll taxes are hitting americans, consumer spending, higher gasoline, thats what were looking at. So, thats why were seeing the big news on walmart. And the dividends. Hold on a second, nicole, im looking now at walmart regaining 70 per share and thats because they did indeed raise the dividend, as you pointed out, and also, they squeezed more profits out of the lower sales. Now, if your profit goes up and you increase the dividend, it doesnt matter what kind of indicator you are, up goes your stock and walmart has regained 70 per share. And by this crowd, this is for michael kors. This is what the crowd is for, while you may see it trading away its not open here at the exchange, theres heavy volume on the open. Stuart ill get to you in a second. Im interested in michael kors, you know because i have four daughters. Nicole, thanks a lot. And ive got geewhiz items for you and all of that google here showing off the voice command glasses. Apparently these let you search, navigate, chat, take photos like the headsup display that the Fighter Pilots use. 1500 a pop and thats a geewhiz. Watch out ipad and surface from microsoft, google has developed a touch screen laptop powered by chrome. Googles stock took a tumble yesterday. Almost back to 800 this morning. Now were not going to put blackberry on death watch, we have he a learned our lesson. Early only list reports show that the sales of the new blackberry in the u. K. And canada, blackberry 10, tepid at best. Goes on sale here next month and up 1 . Sony unveiled the new playstation last night or did it. Sony didnt actually show us the console. Didnt tell us how much its going to cost or when it will go on sale. Nicole come back in. What about sony . Where are they . Oh, sony, i was at the michael kors trying to find out whats the deal. And this is what i am finding out. Zo sony 1 1 2 . And the 4. We havent gotten a price how much it will cost and of course your Microsoft Xbox theyll be releasing a new xbox this summer so the two can compete. Do you know whats happening with michael kors. While i was standing here and talking to the guys here, the secondary offing of new shares and thats why everybody tries to get in there and down 1 1 2 . Stuart its not a new hand bag or purse or something, you had me worried there, nicole. A new round of buying in the varney household. Thank you, nicole. Lets get back to walmart with ed butowsky. Im taking walmart as an Economic Indicator, im saying its not a good indicator for the economy and you say what . No question about it. The way i look at walmart, sort of like the homeland for middle class america. I shop there as well as everybody else. And thats the indicator that we use. And the number is out today. As you said thats unchanged. Thats a flatout lie and stuart all the time, gas prices, vegetable prices are higher. Everything we spend money on are going up and as a result less money in peoples pockets and odd on to that, people are start to go contribute to the 401 k plans the beginning of the year. At the end of september, peoples 401 k contributions disappear and thats why people are spending less and we have higher taxes, higher prices for everything, less money in our pockets, and people arent getting raises and people who are miserable who dont have money. Are we headed for recession . Theres no question. And ive been saying it for a long time. Told you almost six months ago, this country was in stagflation and we are. Stuart but you say recession . Okay, lets be technical just for a second. Absolutely. Stuart a recession is backtoback quarters, thats my opinion, backtoback quarters where the economy shrinks. Okay. We hear, First Reading the last part of last year, that the economy shrank. Thats right. Stuart you think that stretches over into this year and it wont be revived and we will actually show, we are in recession . Really . Whats changed . Tell me has anything gotten better anywhere in this country . Okay, youve got me. The Fourth Quarter was contracting, whats happened in the First Quarter to change that. Stuart supposing we do go through these spending cuts, sequestration, does that push us into recession for sure . Sequestration is obviously a big problem, all right, but at the same time its a minor, you know, relative to the fact of the economy its minor. The biggest problem this country is in stagflation and were in rigger mortise going no one. Stuart if gas prices take the money out. Tax increases taking money out, you wouldnt invest in stocks in that environment with you. The funny thing, if it affects stock prices obviously i wouldnt. In terms of earnings, but when you start seeing, remember, 44 of our Earnings Growth for Major Companies comes from outside of our country, but thats the answer. Stuart and multinationals, if youre a big corporation, get a lot of profits from overseas, thats good for ed butowsky . Its good for everybody. Stuart all right, we hear you, ed. A pleasure, come back soon. Now i want to bring you this, an american chief executive officer criticizing the french. Maurice taylor from titan international, here is the already he wrote to the french government after refuse to go open a tire plant in france. The french force works three hours. One hour for break and lunch and talk, and work for three hours. I told the french Union Workers to their faces and they told me thats the french way. And any comments . Youre laughing. Well, the answer to that, its just absolutely ridiculous, thee hours a day they work . And what can you say . What can you say . I think weve said enough. Thank you very much indeed. By the way, ill have more on this, on the french outrage and american honesty coming up at 10 25 this mornings program. Take a look at ford. Ford motor company, please. Announcing this morning that it plans to invest 6. 2 billion dollars in u. S. Plants by the year 2015. So, joining us now is joe h henricks, fords president of the americas. Good morning. Stuart we get to the investment in america. I have to ask you this, you guys are going to get hit with higher gas prices and lower paychecks, arent you . Well, the automotive consumers been pretty resilient last months. Month to month, november, january, february is off to a good start, too, you know, on the auto consumers side while were watching everything going on. Demand still is there and still growing. Stuart good for you. What about the 6 billion dollars . What are you investing it in . What kind of car are you putting 6 billion dollars into in america . Well, our entire product lineup from cars, utilities trucks, small, medium and large and when you look at it. The announcement today all right the two liter eco boost, goes in the fusion behind me, our great lineup. Were investing in the product lineup and added manufacturing capacity because were growing, last year added over 8,000 jobs in the u. S. And this year, this announcement plus our flatrock, michigan announcement adding more jobs, growing american manufacturing. Stuart thanks very much indeed. Joe, we appreciate you being with us, sir, good luck for the 6 billion dollars, good to hear about that. Thank you. Stuart it is thursday morning, ive got seven early movers for. Better than expected results at the maker. Up it goes. Disappointing from the tech firm, its town. Wider than expected of loss at the electric car maker, tesla, more on that coming up and down 2 bucks aa 36. Disappointing profits at the Filtration Company polipor and the Vacation Home rental website, home away, up nicely there, the Electronics Payments company verifone slashed forecasts, whoa, chopped off at the knees, down 38 . And listen to this one. Sam adams beer in a can made it to shelves early summer and the Parent Company boston beer reported lower profits, but it said demand was strong for its seasonal brews, nonetheless down 4. 148 on sam adams. Check the big board, please, we are down. This is a follow through from yesterdays selloff. Now at 41 points. 138 is the number to look at right now. Ive got 60 seconds worth of what weve got for the rest of the show. Item one, president obama doesnt have to face any tough questions, does he, about gas prices, about the socalled armageddon that hes predicting if the spending cuts go through. Why is that . Were talking about it coming up the top of the hour and number two, greenies insist of Keystone Pipeline will make Global Warming worse and oil from canadas tar sands is so dirty it will pollute the environment more. Well be joined by a sensible environmentalists saying the left is promoting a climate of fear. Wait until you hear this, a company that sets up a fake girlfriend for you online, even sends fake messages and voice mails. Well tell you how much it costs. Will people really pay for this . I bet they do. Were talking about it at 9 50 this morning. Lets get back to the price of oil. Wow, look at that. 93. 17. Way, way down, down two bucks, thats a selloff. Will gas prices follow . We shall see. The honeymoon could be over for the markets. The fed hints that it will stop printing. And its just a hint. Radio host and former investment banker carol roth is here. Her take on that and jon corzine, he might be banned from financial trading for life. Okay . Carol roth on that in just a moment. And we know how joe biden feels about mr. Corzine, listen to this. Literally, the first guy i called was jon corzine. Not a joke. Not a joke. And first of all, hes the smartest guy that i know. announcer at scottde, our clients trade and invest exactly how they want. With scottrades online banking, i get one view of my bank and brokerage accounts with one login. To easilmove my money when i need to. Plus, when i call my local scottrade office, i can talk to someone who knows how i trade. Because i dont trade like everim with scottrade. Me. announcer scottrade. Awarded fivestars from smartmoney magazine. All your imptant legal matters in just minutes. Protect youramily. And launch your dreams. At legalzoom. Com we put the law on your side. And launch your dreams. train horn vo wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. Norfolk southern. One line, infinite possibilities. So we created the extraordinarily comfortable sleep number experience. A collection of innovations designed around a bed with dualair technology that allow