to christmas. bj s wholesale soared on rumors it maybe the target of a takeover bid. sears jumping 6% after announcing it is launching an on-demand video service to compete with netflix. microsoft policemen slipping a bit after refiling a will you suit against rivals apple, facebook and google for illegally using its technology. that s it from cnbc, first in business worldwide. now back to hardball. welcome back to hardball. make or break political ads this year turned out to be the turning point for many candid e candidates. we have our top five. they are great. go through them with politico s ken vogel and editor and chief of politicsdaily.com, melinda happen gear. i want melinda to jump in any time. go straight to my favorite one,
wall street likes to see that. gerri willis is live from new york city and what do the numbers reflect about how people are feeling about the economy and spending their money. i have to say they are more optimistic. i ll show you the numbers. bj s wholesale, sales march up 10.6%, and costco up 10%, and target up 10.3%. these are strong numbers and indicate the consumer is back, buying and a couple other things are playing a role, easter came a little later than usual and made the comparisons look better and also, this time last year people were in a lot of financial pain. and you can see that. why do we pay attention to the numbers and what do they tell sinus and, what and whe are these people spending their money. the consumer, 66% of economic growth, gdp, they are back and that is good news for the economy. here s what one analyst told us. stronger numbers, coming out