>> we have the stocks to watch in the close of trading today. barnes & noble, news in just the past half hour or so, a company called g asset management trying to take over the bookseller. 22 bucks a share. it would value the total 1.3 billion dollars. we are also watching groupon. forecast trailing estimates. it is falling quite a bit, down 21%. we are seeing earnings. one of them, into it -- intuit. past quarters of growth has been says growth will be robust and that will boost next quarter. >> what does it mean a late tax easing? >> it means they will file later. >> but they are still do? -- due? >> delayed. >> let's look at developments in ukraine at this hour. president viktor yanukovych and opposition leaders have signed an agreement that should put an end to the bloody outbreaks. the package still needs to win the support of the protesters on the street. at least 77 have been killed in the violence that took place this week. we are joined by the director of the russia and eurasia program, the csis. and we are joined on the phone by a senior fellow at the brookings institute. steve, let me start with you. what do you think about this? we have had a couple reports of truces in the last few days and it has always ended with more violence. >> i think this agreement is important as it offers a path out of the crisis for ukraine. but it is fragile. there will be those who see this as threatening personal and economic interests. there are people in the main protest square who want to see mr. yanukovych gone right now. they do not want to wait until the fall. i think they have already voiced that to opposition leaders. there is the ominous sign that the russian representative was witness. he initialed with the three european ministers who initialed the draft agreement, but apparently after a phone conversation with moscow, he did not sign the agreement. liukin did not sign. >> the russians abstained from the signing of it. russia, the bond issue, the way they lend money, aid to ukraine was not launched yesterday. does this mean the russians are stepping back a bit, which is one of the things the protesters want, isn't it? the russians are in a week and see mode right now. it was clear they were skeptical of any transition to the government backed by the opposition, and the decision to hold off on signing the truce and to withhold the bonds is waiting to see what kind of government they are going to get. >> i wanted to ask about another element today, the former prime minister, yulia tymoshenko, being released from prison. how does that change the situation? does it further inflame the protesters? does she come back and get involved right away? >> first of all, she never should have been sent to prison. it was trumped up charges, a sham trial. if she returns to the political scene, how does she react with the established opposition leaders? can they work together and move forward, or does it become more complicated? we just do not know at this point. >> i wonder, mr. ambassador, how likely it is that we see mr. jim mr. yannick over stay in power --mr. yanukovich stay in power? >> i'm sorry. see who stay in power? >> the president's day empower. yanukovich, i mean. when we have not seen any of the leaders. in the arab spring, it's obviously a different dynamic. there are more lives at stake. can he hold on? >> sure. even before the crisis last summer, mr. yanukovich's poll numbers were way down. he has only discredited himself with the handling of the crisis over the past three months. certain if the9% election is free and fair -- and the ukrainians know how to do a free and fair election --mr. yanukovich will be a one term president. >> that is a long way off, december 2012. i'm sorry, 2014. is it possible to hold onto power until december? the elections were supposed to be held in early 2015. the protesters demanded the elections be moved out. you have the whole snap election. elections have been moved up four or five months. that still leaves us with nine months. i do not think the protesters, the opposition who demand that -- viktor vukovich yanukovich step down going to accept that. thekovich's handling of crisis has been really inept. and the blood being shed has made it difficult for him to stay in power until december. >> jeff, with this agreement being signed, this is talking about the actual split of the country into an eastern and western portion, and easter portion that would have those are ties to russia and the western portion that would have closer ties to the west and the european union. how likely do you think that is? that prospectught was particularly likely, no matter what. there is a blind spot when it comes to ukraine, particularly in russia. i think there is a sense that the eastern ukrainians, most of them who speak russian as a first language, have a closer relationship with russia, and certainly political and economic ties with russia, but they see themselves as ukrainians. they do not want to be part of a russian state or a russian satellite. there are definitely tensions in the dynamic. that is one of the things that will define ukrainian politics in a more democratic era. but the notion of the country splitting apart into an east and west, i'm a little bit skeptical that is going to be the taste. even if you look during the protest, there was mass mobilization in the west on behalf of the agreement with ee you in favor of a change in government. you did not see anything analogous in the east. protests ofot mass people saying "we're with russia." referred totally president yanukovich as temoshen ko. i always think of him, because he was poisoned. there is the question of who poisoned him, but it was likely kgb, putin, russia. what happens if they lose the buffer zone that they are so interested in keeping? >> i think the russians still have a lot of tools in the toolbox. those include financial assistance. the situation with the economy is not going particularly well. one of the russian responses was to extend the promise bond purchase they announced just a financials ago. that crisis is still hanging over ukraine. there is of course the energy lever the russians have used on a number of occasions in the past. and i should say when it comes to the separatist issue, i think the east-west eine amick gets overplayed sometimes. but there is another issue, the crimea. -- i think the east-west dynamic gets overplayed sometimes. but there is another issue, the crimea. i think the idea of russia trying to play the separatist extremists is not something we should be worried about. >> and poisoned fish. do not forget bush and fish. jeffrey mankoff, thank you for your time. >> we will bring you the very latest on venezuela, later in the broadcast. ♪ >> you are watching "street smart." i'm julie hyman. if you got it, spend it. our own adam johnson has little insight and action. >> it's easy. if you've got it, spend it. we should all be so lucky. look at corporate america. cash as a percentage of assets on the balance sheet. this was sent over to us by the guys at strategic is research --strategas research. very good research. companiese from 1960, have a lot of cash. that's very important. the question is, how do they deploy it? yes, there are capital expenditures, research and development. most companies do that practically every year. herein, year out, always the line item. the question is, what do you do with the excess cash? in the s&p 500, there are 199 companies doing buybacks. the totals of dividends. 912 acquisitions. that's a lot of acquisitions. why do they do that? they get rewarded in the stock market. take a look at this. buyers outperform. again, we thank the team over at strategas for this data. the compared the market to s&p 500. look at what happened. days after the acquisition. typically the companies doing the acquiring are up five percent. is counterintuitive, right? you are growing. that is a benefit. look at this. 6.5%.s, up facebook up 1.3%. comcast -- this one is interesting. this one is down 2.5%. maybe they are a buying opportunity. >> we are joined by a man who was also putting money to work. he is the head of portfolio strategy at barclays. he says we will close 2014 at 1900. welcome back to "street smart." we are not so far from 1900 right now, are we? >> we are not. >> 1839. 61 points away. that, ie we move on to think the point that adam was making is interesting, the details what will happen this year as opposed to what will work. corporate risk aversion was extremely high. the average marginal dollar of free cash flow went to buy stock. what you saw last year was that leveled off at the median company level and companies started to invest in inventory, then capital, labor. now you are seeing a pickup in mergers and acquisitions. this, we think, is largely a function of public uncertainty and policy and some shocks like the japanese economy. companies are starting to put money to work in capital investing particularly -- the market is starting to reward for that. our strategy is to buy companies in the sweet spot for that, which is overweight in industrials and technology. a so you are buying him and -- m&a anything? >> from a corporate perspective -- the highest risk of thing, the potential career and there goes bad.a >> are you giving preference to -- >> capital investment. capital investment. the reason that we think that is such an important driver for this business cycle, with the exception of energy -- certainly technology was going through an investment bust. that has changed because of things like equalization of labor costs across the world. they have been rising in china, flat in the u.s. recoveryd the cyclical in capital spending delayed because of all this policy uncertainty. that is really dovetailing secularith the stronger trend. >> the bottom line is, if a company is buying back his shares, that means managers can't think of anything better to do. if the company is making a acquisitions -- we have already study after study after study. acquisitions do not make money. it's just what managers like to do. >> they are building their base. ultimately that will lead to -- not manufactured earnings, but true core organic earnings and revenues. >> we will take a quick break. you are going to stay with us for the hour. a quick check. 18 people have died since erupted in venezuela. the opposition leader, leopoldo lopez, in prison. a lot of people writing in and saying why are you talking about what is happening in venezuela? it's a big deal and we are going to cover it. stay with us. ♪ >> all rights, another torn country that maybe we have not been following closely enough is venezuela. student protests have been erupting across the country for two weeks. is bracing for two large demonstrations this weekend. protesters are asking for nook to resign -- four nicolas maduro to resign. revoked credentials for u.s. journalists. we are joined by our correspondent. what is going on? it seems like because of what is going on in ukraine, the media has in large part ignored what is going on in and is lela. -- in venezuela. >> and venezuela is a two-hour ride from miami. it is an economic situation spiraling out of control. >> the inflation is insane. >> inflation is insane. they can't keep products on the shelves. they have the scarcity index of 28% which means at any given time one in four products will not be available to buy. you have a lack of toilet paper, milk, and medicine. we had reporters and caracas who interviewed a man whose 10 month old son has a failing liver and he has to travel on an eight -hour odyssey to get him the medicine he needs. when he does did it, he has to pay five times the time. groceries't get any that are good. from any you can access atm is worthless by the time you got it out. >> it is a security issue. the crime there is rampant. one of the things that sparked the latest round of protests, there was an attempted rape of a college student and they were not satisfied by the response of the authorities. there is a lot of situations that are going on here. these elements all play into just civil unrest that is taking to the streets, because that is the best way to show you are angry with the government. theseng of violence, protests have been met with extremely violent oppression. >> from the state side? >> you have national guards throwing tear gas into people's faces. there are motorcycle gangs going around with machine guns shooting at people, into crowds, into buildings. the national guard is just standing by. >> it is really the wild west. at least in ukraine, you have international overseers. where will any piece, for venezuela -- when will any peace come for venezuela? >> analyst say that it could be brought under control if for instance they released leopoldo lopez from prison -- >> he opposition leader. >> radcom a the opposition rights, the opposition leader. nobody knows where it can go. most analysts say, is this the end of the government -- for now? >> we have been watching the bonds as a response to that situation. debt investorsed are paying attention to this situation. >> yes, greylock is definitely a investor. debt they are contrarian. it is capacity to pay. with venezuela, there is the willingness to pay. it is the ability to pay. you have a government running out of cash. reserves of fellow -- reserves have fallen 30% in the last year. >> thank you. we have to take a quick break. we are back in two minutes. ♪ lyft.r, sidecar, taxi services disrupting the traditional taxi industry. but taxis are not going down without a fight. our correspondent from bloomberg businessweek is joining us with more on this story. the big issue with traditional taxis versus these services? is it really going to take their business away you go or is it a matter --is it really going to take their business away? of there beinger enough business? >> we have actually seen it is going to take the business away. the yellow cab companies in san francisco have had trouble fully staffing they are shipped with drivers and that -- fully shifts witheir drivers and that is because the drivers are migrating to the services. there is the ocular rectus of search pricing -- popular practice of search pricing, which allows them to charge more. >> this is not regulated, this is not regulated. who wass a young girl killed in san francisco by an uber driver. it seems like they may have some fair points here. >> sure. the issues around the services are around to driver distraction in the car, background checks, the insurance of the drivers. that type of situation like you see in denver and cisco speaks to all three. the driver had a previous citation for speeding. -- that type of situation might you see in san francisco speaks to all three. he did not have a passenger, so uber said they would not insure him. in the state of california, they are regulated. in cities like new york, the taxi drivers who work for uber do have to have those credentials. this is playing out city by city and we will continue to see this action in the year ahead. >> i will take the other side of that. i was hit i have car and the taxir was not any type of driver. accidents happen all of the time. i do not understand why that makes a difference. i would rather taxis be less regulated because then they could sell -- serve the demand on the new york city streets. when they get a certain number of fairness, they are not allowed to pick up any more customers. and i think the surge pricing is what the market has been asking for, an easy problem to solve. -- maybe thebar yellow cab drivers should take a book. >> ituber's is addressing a supply demand imbalance in some cities. you are right. every type of service driver has all sorts of technology distractions. the question that is going to be litigated here, if there is a smartphone app that these companies are using, is that a distraction? that will be an issue that will be litigated. it could be impact. or uber and these companies. ful forcould be impact uber and these companies. the complaint of the taxi drivers now is they are at a competitive disadvantage. maybe they could regulate them differently, allow them to use different pricing -- inefficient.o they are randomly driving around the streets waiting to pick someone up. uber makes so much more sense. >> and there are a whole bunch of companies offering technology to the yellow cab companies. they do have a competing solution. with the fees and the insurance they are required to pay vis-à-vis the other companies, there is an imbalance. but they need to compete. for the first time in decades, they have serious competition threatening their business. that is capitalism. for the first time we see some of them wake up and try to improve their service. >> the thing that strikes me about allegations of uber overcharging, you do indeed approve of the price before you get in the car, so i'm a little confused about where the controversy comes from. >> not to mention that those fromations typically come incredibly wealthy people. concerned do we have for jessica seinfeld, the wife of the comedian, about her uber charge? the other thing we did, me and my fellow reporters on the story, we went and we took a whole bunch of these rides in these cars and we talked of the drivers, and they really seem to love it. it does get them out of the cab when they see that pricing. >> and you can pretty much guarantee that the driver will complain about earning his livelihood, at least in new york city. >> for example on new york -- on new year's eve when we knew that would come into effect, i took precautions to make sure i had some other transportation. i think a lot of people did. that will really drive the ofulist to more green ways driving. >> that is true. it's funny on the green question. a lot of these companies say people will be less reliant on their cars, we are taking cars off the road. that when i'm not so sure about. i spoke to a lot of drivers, many of whom work tied up in the city, turning their cars into cabs under the umbrella of these services because of the new opportunity. under the transition of this new private car service economy, i wonder if we will have more cars on the road instead of less. >> all right. i'm always in favor of more. >> i have never taken one. you? >> yes. >> i have never taken one. very pleasant. it is an expensive luxury way to travel i find. it is always a big escalade. not the kind of thing i would do on a regular basis. ok, to facebook's whatsapp purchase and amazon's drones, the tech sector busy for the last few months. is apple getting left behind? >> plus, president obama some of the dalai lama. we will explain. ♪ >> president obama will welcome his exiled tibetan spiritual theer the dollar lima -- doll i long my today -- the doll i lima today. -- the dalai lama. protests.na but the president will receive total spiritual consciousness. we have more on what it means for u.s.-china relations. we have arthur brooks from the american enterprise institute. i want to start with you here, nick. what is the foreign-policy impact beyond spiritual consciousness of a meeting like this? >> this is actually the third time that president obama has met with the dollar, -- dalai lama. the chinese have protested. there is no incentive to destabilize the relationship with the u.s. in any way. the relationship is actually improving right now. i think we will continue, regardless of the meeting. >> did you get any insight as to wishes toalai lama achieve from the meeting? >> i have no idea. i think the president's meeting was set up after our collaboration with the dalai lam a many, many months ago. given that his holiness was an washington, d.c., it was only appropriate that the resident would invite him over. i agree that it will not make any damage to the u.s.-china relationship at all. >> anybody would want to hang out with the dalai lama. wouldn't you, jules? wouldn't you, if you could get a chance? >> sure, particularly if he could carry my clubs. [laughter] >> is there anything to lighten the situation? anything that he could do to make the u.s.-china relations better? nick? >> i'm sure there are possibilities. it's interesting. when you think about how you have seen the chinese government reacts to other heads of state -- react to other heads of state meetings with the dalai lama. they have had much sharper reactions. you can really get a feel for this is an issue for them, but it's not one where they will risk destabilization of the u.s. relationships the way they would be willing to risk the relationship with france or the u.k.. >> another aspect of the meeting, capitalism. conference.o at the he is a big yogi and seeker of higher consciousness. which he says has been helpful to him in his business practices. did you find that that was a common sentiment? >> when you do work with the have had thend i pleasure of being with him a couple times now, everything is really smooth. he is a person full of love and compassion. he brings that to everything he does. when you talk about the free enterprise system, it's a very easy venue for everyone to talk about the morality that needs to go into a capitalist system. dan was there. we had a professor from nyu who writes on morality. it was a wonderful conversation. he enlightened us in a lot of different ways. maybe you can tell i'm feeling really mellow. >> dan loeb does not seem like the most mellow guy and the room, does he? >> he was super mellow afterwards. we had him in a trance. we can expect dan loeb to be totally mellowed out. >> oh, yeah. >> in reality, how much do we see this kind of sentiment or these type of precepts really integrated into u.s. capitalism? ,> the u.s. capitalist system or any capitalist system, does not occupy itself with how conscious we are trying to be, any of the things be dalai lama was trying to talk about. the point he wanted to make, one of the things we talked about at aei about the free enterprise youem, or you cannot -- cannot go forward without a moral sense. that comes from adam smith. calls a dalai lama sense of global brotherhood. we are all better off. the free enterprise system can reach down to help more people. that is the tendency to create collectivists. >> we are with you. we are right there with you. we are all for free enterprise and free tibet as well. >> absolutely. >> thank you for joining us. >> i feel mellow. >> i feel better now. >> it's a good feeling. >> just talking about the dalai lama. sup of the facebook acquisition of whatsapp is a little steep. more "street smart actavis" coming to you after the break. ♪ >> you are watching "street smart." i am julie hyman. we are here once again with barry knapp, chief equity strategist at barclays. if you look at the market value of publicly traded internet company, $19 billion does not seem like that much. value pere market user various companies have done. barry, what you think about tech valuations? really valuations are difficult because they look cheap in aggregate, but the reason they are cheap is it is industriale tech. companies trade at low-volume rations. we are overweight tech, but when being overweight tech, the reason is we think there will be a strong capital spending cycle. we are talking enterprise tech, software, services. 75% of the business sector. these companies -- i have no idea what to do with these companies. it reminds me of the 1990's where people started talking metrics. new valuation i could not in all good conscience tell people what to do with these stocks. >> do not worry, half of those year.pay $.99 a >> in your job as a strategist if you have to pick tech as an overweight, do you then have the ability to tell a client, stay away from these guys? several absolutely. that is the hardest question i get. ok, tell me what to buy in tech, because there is all this is ripped of technology going on. pc's.ars ago it was -- because there is all of this disruptive technology going on. to disrupt capital spending. software, services. get a cheaper valuation, as you pointed out, but you can also get trapped. yeah, it is cheap, so it never goes up. you never get rewarded for your investment. our position that we will have a strong capital spending easier to playch in industrial companies than in tech. tech does have all this disruption and all of the stocks trading under valuation metrics that, again, i have no idea what to do with. i would struggle to buy them in my own account. >> to be fair, if you reinvest dividends, microsoft is not so bad. over the last five years, it has more than doubled. >> correct. and our analyst -- >> correct. and our analyst upgrade was about to knapp months ago. >> fair enough. >> we've got a lot of tech stocks in the top 10. stay with us. ♪ that you missed everything happened during today's session, don't worry. we are getting you caught up on the top 10. at number 10 on the dish network 1% as new subscriber group remaining sluggish they added just 8000 new subscribers in the corridor and analyst were looking for 21,000. >> number nine, shares are up as juniper announced plans to return $3 billion to shareholders and cut expenses. marveler eight, technology even though they jumped in profit as demand continues to improve. they were softer than expected and mobile. >> number seven is seagate up more than 1% after raising its rating from outperform to sector perform. improving pc market is the possibility that share buybacks will boost this year. uitnumber six, int exceeding analyst estimates and they say sales of the turbotax online program grew 11% during the quarter. noble jumping after they proposed buying 51% of the company valuing the struggling bookmaker at $22 per share. it is extremely confident that separating the nooks segment would boost shareholder value. they on about a 5% stake in their the second largest shareholder. they already tried to buy the company for about $20 per share so they are upping their offer but they have also put forward another proposal to justify the note business. >> there are questions about the assets ability to even make this kind of offer, financing, and you can see the shares are rising, nowhere close to this offer price. >> it's fallen a lot in valuation. there have already been a lot of proposals to break up the company including from the founder. >> you have to wonder what it is worth. sales are falling because of the kindle and ipad. >> the three of us could pool allowances him by barnes & noble. >> does anybody have a nook? no. , thatn leonard gives up is that. four, charter communications down 5% despite posting its first courtly profit in five years. they lost out to comcast and its bid to buy time warner cable that they're still interested in widely acquiring subscribers. >> fannie mae up more than 0.5% an eighth straight quarterly profit. it looks like they're closing down on the day. back a totals paid of $114 million to the -- $114 billion to the government so they are really earning a shocking amount of money. i had not realized they earned $84 billion in profit over the last year. quicken nobody expected them to return that much money. is down.t-packard meg whitman said the restructuring program is on track and customers have a lot more confidence. >> number one, groupon, shares plunging 21% after they had a profit forecast trailing estimates. hiring or acquisitions and marketing will hurt profits. though shares are ending down a lot. maybe the u.s.-canada hockey that seemse loss but to be when stock started to turn. here forbig decline stocks today. we have seen them rise for two straight weeks. it looks like we gave up that game this week. >> the s&p is still on track. at one point we were within five points of a record high. we were trying to figure out what turned the tide of the markets and dealing thing i could think of was, and from dallas fed president richard fisher that it would have further efficacy. >> you don't think if the hockey game? >> no. >> i think the market is somewhat offsides on the outlook for monetary policy. was likely to happen from here on a short-term new is the weather will get better. the data will get better. the treasury market will give that much of the games that have occurred over the last month or so through this whole data distortion. the five-you're part of the curve in particular will be under pressure. they look oppressed under forward rate guidance and will be concerned about tightening monetary policy again. there is a really compelling history it around this. they get to the point where the fed acknowledges that growth is easing.g and they stop i'm talking about every business cycle since world war ii. you get a roughly 8% fullback subject to a very small deviation but the a get stuck in a range. that's what we are going through and why earlier in the program when you asked my price target was not that much above current evels is expected to rally in the back half of the year. that whole process is not complete. in the first half of 2004 in through the third quarter, what 83, andd in 1994, 19 we are going to that cycle again. >> we saw people concerned about these affect a few weeks ago. endhat a risk factor to the of year rally at all? >> is part and parcel of the same dynamic. the fed is normalizing policy and you are removing liquidity through the system. the amount of developed world assets developed overseas has grown dramatically over the last four business cycles. when you start tightening up the it doesthe system, reverberate out. you can see who's wearing a bathing suit and it's pretty clear some of these emerging markets had built up huge amounts of credit over the last in their banking system and brought economy. turkey being a great case in point. when it went the other way, they came under pressure. >> that pressure is probably not complete. once the u.s. has work through all of this in the system has started to stabilize, those will start to add that that is not done yet. -- those will start to ebb. >> barry knapp from barclays, thank you for joining us today. opposition leaders agree to a priest according -- peace accord with president yanukovych. ukraine's economic futurist uncertain according to standard & poor's. now by blackrock emerging markets senior thestment strategist and deputy director for advanced canadian studies. let me start by asking how likely it is that this agreement will hold, that we will see a truce. is it necessary for the president to step down or be forced out of office? >> at this point, it's very difficult a sale to medley what will happen. if you look at the sequencing of there has been significant changing and direction. becomes reallyit hard to see how things are going to ultimately stylize. was fortunate to see good news news but we will have to watch this on a day-to-day basis. >> bill, what is the likely we see the president staying in power? all of the other recent arab spring countries, the leader has had to leave or been forcibly ejected. will that be the case here as well? >> it's open to speculation. he's made a short-term agreement which is his only way to stay in power. they've reverted back to the 2000 for constitution and he's agreed to early elections. there will be an investigation into what has occurred in kiev over the last 48 hours. his been losing support rather genetically over the last 48 hours. this is his one chance to stay in power. lots of obstacles and there are ways he could be derailed in the progress. >> do think there is support from his cronies as well? we're waiting to see to what extent the old guard will be peeled away. he has clearly lost some support in his political party. he's in a very difficult position and i think if the economy continues to go downward, he will really be in an impossible place to try to remain to be in power. gerardo, the backdrop is the relationship between russia and the west. is this the latest symptom of a cold war situation? how does that affect your decision when it comes to investing in that part of the emerging markets? eventstiming of these are very unfortunate because of what's going on in the old emerging markets. clearly, the ukraine has one particular situation with the deficit increasing and gas prices adding to their external accounts. with a philly fixed exchange rate, the reserves are going down very rapidly. their ability to pay is being questioned significantly and with these witnesses -- weaknesses, you have a combination that is very unfortunate. it is happening at a time also in which you are having significant challenges in other places with nominal rigidities. julie's point is a good one. you have problems specific to this part of the emerging market. russia blocking our efforts and syria, harboring edward snowden, food and clamping down on free speech and gay rights. it seems there may be the start of -- i don't want to say cold war, but definitely worse than it's been an russian-u.s. relations than i can remember. ukraine only represents .lose to 2% of fixed income there is no contagion. it is just a situation that needs to be addressed. it is a very local. so far, investors have been preparing. >> let me get your take on this. is calling it a cold war going at weight too far? >> i don't think we are at the cold war stage yet. theia has been helpful in sense that they worked on the syria issue and on the iran issue. hard-line been some statements from russia, but i think of the the last 24-48 hours, there were signals from russia that it did not want an unstable and collapsing ukraine on its borders. they sent a representative to the negotiation. a recognition that events were spiraling out of control. tosia was not in a position actually influence these developments and could easily wash over into russia. pomeranz and gerardo rodriguez from blackrock. apple, microsoft, google are all making big purchases. is apple getting left in the dust? ♪ >> tech is getting aggressive. amazon announced plans to use drones to deliver packages. whether they are serious or not is up for debate. google bought nasty and then sold motorola. nest.gle bought apple bought a little-known company called burstly. is tim cook playing it too safe? hayzlett is with us and jeff. things thatof those apple has purposely said we are being conservative. we want to keep our money for things that are really significant. >> that can be good or bad. time will tell. i think they are playing up against rope a dope. book and hee this said the decline of company is the hubris of success. are we being stupid? >> stubborn or stupid? for our own britches. there are some smart people there. can they get an infusion of new people, get some new ideas, some ideas that might help them? or the will they keep to creating these great products and have seen super success? tim cook and needs to look for that, his legacy, as he start to look for the future. thinkathan, what do you here? do they need to go out and acquire the next big thing? >> i think they are being aggressive. i would be more concerned if i saw apple doing some of the tech deck that were just mentioned, if they were trying to buy companies to inflate their stock price just in the short term. that would make me concerned. do they have their heads down and they are working on the best product of their life entering a multitude of new product categories. i would give the benefit of the doubt for a little bit. if they don't feel like they have to use it -- >> they built it up. what do they have now, $138 billion? you have to figure out what to do with your money before it grows into a pile that big. weidman talking about it for years. -- we have been talking about it for years. don't they need to figure out how to use it? >> they just did a share buyback. they are proud of what they are doing and they feel comfortable a stocking the floor of price that is $500. if they thought they could go billionspend $40 dollars and buy a cable company or an isp, i don't think we are giving them enough credit or leeway. not don't think they are being aggressive enough. they would not have done the buyback if carl icahn had not got involved. look who's coming after them. every one. i was looking at some ads online. at psalm is clearly punching them with a sledgehammer talking about the difference between a five and a four inch screen -- is clearly punching at them. >> the members have wavered to some degree. new mini herethe recently. >> you ask questions but you still spend your money on them. still a lot of people going to anything but apple. they have to do anything but change the bits. >> apple is not a company that cares about volume. day cares about profit. apple and samsung have all the profit. they have so much more because everyone else is losing money in this category. ory do not care about market value share. they care about profit and it's amazing how much people forget they have done. they invented the ipod revolutionizing the music industry. >> if you are only selling one and you make money, it does not help you. market share. market share will always win out in the long run and having more market share. frankly,long, quite microsoft has been able to survive and grow as a huge marketshare leader? they need to look at gaining more market share. >> is a big difference between microsoft and apple. they sell software. >> i think they started out in software along before they began in hardware. >> it's just been a long time. the ipod is like 20 years old. they have not really come out with any new product in years that i can think of. >> i don't think three years ago when the ipod was introduced that anyone thought we would be typing on glass and replacing our pcs. it surprising how easily we forget not giving them the benefit of the doubt. i'm pretty sure we will see some new categories, an updated tv. we might even see a watch. these are big categories. i've never seen another company willing to cannibalize itself as much as they have. >> how patient are people going to be? there is a lack of patience being displayed here. have? wedoes apple been talking about apple tv for a while. how long do they have to come up with this stuff? >> the next six to 12 months are really important. i would start getting concerned beyond that. the last thing i will say though , with apple it's always about the negotiations. with the tv, potentially as the cable operators. that was something that steve jobs was really amazing at and that's potentially one of the difficulties they have now. they don't have that amazing, convincing negotiator which was steve jobs was so incredible thaat. >> thank you to bloomberg contributing editor jeff ha yzlett and editor of the boy genius blog jonathan geller. politics and celebrities. the blurring line between hollywood and washington. >> warm and function. the most revolutionary designs that are change the world coming up on "street smart." >♪ >> last night, first lady michelle obama stopped by jimmy fallon's " the tonight show." >> >> ow. >> ow. >> ow. >> you're totally strong. you could be in the olympics. >> i try to exercise every day. >> i think exercise is ew. >> exercises not ew. [laughter] >> she joins a long list of politicos that have taken their acts to late-night television. should celebrities and politicians mix? joining us now, senior west coast correspondent jon erlichman and lance. whether or not they showed, i'm glad that they do. is something it they need to do to communicate with this generation. >> you are right on that score that is strategic for the politician. you want to reach people in this is one of the best ways to reach level, sure.t taking the broader point of view, i'm not sure it's all that great for democracy. leaders become friends of comedians and hang out together, does that turn democracy into a joke? >> when more people get their news from "the daily show" and stephen colbert, that makes a statement but isn't it also the fault of the news in a sense? >> to some extent. you may not like this answer, but to some point it is the fault of television. you have serious discourse. >> don't we know it? >> you obviously have not been watching for the past hour and a half. [laughter] talk tochman, you hollywood and traditionally there has been a cozy relationship in many ways. >> they try to leave the politics out of it and i think it goes to the point you guys were talking about. it any't want to do other way because most of these shows, the traditional late-night shows, these are sketch comedy shows that people might be adjusted watching a politician on but the hope is for most of these hosts that you will not know if they vote democrat or republican. as long as the politician does not get into too tricky a host, thator the is why they push the phone. jimmy fallon really pushes the phone which then appeals to the online audience as well. >> hasn't this been happening forever? you have actors becoming politicians. the historybest in of the united states. >> that's a matter of debate. at cbs in one murrowand edward armour. and that's been around since the history of media. >> ronald reagan was an actor who became president and that was the big sea change leading to an overwhelming escalation of politicians acting as celebrities. how can you communicate seriously? tospeaking of that, we have take a quick break. we are back in two you do. ♪ -- we are back in two. vanilla funds.n launch world is about to more. our etf guru has you covered. currentlythe 1000 filed that the sec, the most anticipated, controversial will be the winklevoss bitcoin trust. >> the worst name. wink dex? >> it is monica hedge fund for credit investors. like a hedge fund. this is ready for primetime real estate investors. you have the bitcoin, the etf, and the winklevoss twins. what they have is an index that brings them a little closer to looking like a real etf that the problems that persist our regulation. we don't know what it's going to be him know whether etf has that problem. the other thing is security. there's a line in the prospectus that says one of the risk is altering the chain and this is language that is very new. it is not in any prospectus that has ever been written. >> what about liquidity, is that a risk? key andt makers are some have said they don't know how to get liquidity out of this. being theey in intermediary between the actual bitcoin and the investor. there are more questions than answers. what the twins have going for them is a lawyer who started spy and who has worked on many since then. they have one of the best lawyers. if anyone can get it done, it's her. >> they been working closely with regulators, people with washington. >> we know where matt stands on bitcoin. i went to get some of the others. that's enough of the winklevi. >> those are two separate issues. >> let's talk about some of the other ones. >> the market vector all china etf. this one says one of the biggest spaces, all of these china chips, a, h, p, n, red there is no total market china etf. it goeshis one because into mid and small. you get all of china and you don't have to worry about what the different shares are. the best you can do is two etf's together. this would be a one-shot solution and i think it will be a big blockbuster. the other is the ibillionaire 3-f filings -- a at 13-f filings. globalike guru, the holdings guru and this is a sliver of that. people talk about him a lot and it is a way to piggyback off of their investments. f you get a little bit of a delay. buffett holds his stuff for a long time but not everybody does. >> it be the s&p by a lot this year. >> 34% over the past year. whichoad and $500 million is why you will see a lot of copycats coming out. where this might struggle is where the market goes down because this is just the equity position of the brilliant minds. >> i can point out that we have hands-down the best billionaire coverage of anyone. go to bloomberg.com if you want fantastic billionaires coverage. crazy, another plug for matthew g. miller. you have an etf called joe. and its the coffee etn tracks front month futures of off the. coffee.es of it kind of shocked everybody. what you have here is the supply issue in brazil because of the drought and they are by far the biggest producer and people are getting in to speculate on this actually affecting the crop. you see a graph that looks like a right angle. it is definitely a worthy ticker of the week and it's a pretty good amount for one of these commodities. this one is the one that people go to. >> that ruined the entire ticker thing for them. they left off the "e." >> ticker nerd. >> i agree but it's close enough. for joining us, bloomberg's etf analyst. is in the red today saying acquisitions and marketing will eat into the bottom line. is it time to cut down on spending? we discuss in today's roundup. the car designs that changed the world. "street smart" continues after the break. ♪ roundup,ime for the the stories we're tracking ahead of monday's open. in case you missed it, it's friday. groupon fallen sharply after they missed analyst estimates because of acquisitions and marketing costs. groupon forecasted first-quarter as 760 millionch -- million? >> it was short about three quarters a million dollars is what they said. >> they bought a south korean e-commerce site and they bought ideeli. i have been approaching these because they want to broaden it out beyond daily deals because there are so many other daily deals sites are the well. groupon struggling against this and you think they would have .his earth out advantage >> they lost it. i think the one that is really going after them and doing a better job as amazon. everyday i get my amazon daily deal e-mail. i used to use groupon. i was not as broad as what get with amazon. i get a lot more stuff. >> what about this thing called deal builder. to copyactly meant amazon marketplace. do you think that's viable? >> it's a good idea that brings them more sales. that's what they need to be focused on, sales, sales. at the end of dinner, i pay for it. >> i like a coupon and i am a coupon kind of guy. a high deald i got the other day and i got two for five dollars and that was cool. >> you were in the mood for pie. >> i did not know about it and i thought it was cool. i also brought discount tickets for some of the museums. >> if matt wants to go to sesame street live, he's just going to go. >> he's going to bayer full price. >> you are all weirdos. pay full price. the windowsnges for phone. bingll change the built-in search feature and it will frown with emotion. it will be backed by bing and foursquare. i don't know. >> i did tell you are skeptical. >> do you think voice recognition is ever going to work out go >> unless it is in a spike jonze movie. >> they work. back in the early 1990 cost i had a wildfire. andas a british voice people would call me just to talk to wildfire. those things do work. be goodther these will enough, sexy enough. the girl doing it that does the a.i. for halo -- >> is she sexy enough? sexythink every woman is because i'm not goign tng to go there. >> are people going to buy the phone because of it? >> i don't want my assistant to give me fake. >> your assistance in real life do give you fast. >> microsoft has not introduced a new version of the phone since 2012. will that be enough? the animated big frown is on me because i do not think it is big enough. >> you are a strange person. >> what's the weirdest thing you've ever asked siri? work.d doesn't it stopped working after like a week. i hold the button and nothing happens. armour survive the controversy over its suitmaligned speed skating extending his contract through 2022. it was criticized after u.s. speed skaters failed to win any medals. members had complained that the high-tech defense contract -- and these were made with lockheed martin, they were contributing to the bad performance. can you believe that? " the wall street journal" said there was a defect in the ventilation. you never hear of a tennis player say you did not win wimbledon because of the strings. >> only from source losers. -- sore losers. >> they had to go back or this would have been a mar on their reputation to lose the olympics and the contract. the fact they got it back, i think it cost them something. maybe no one else was trying to get it. >> shares were up today but they were up before the deal was announced. year to date shares up 23%. >> is under armour and it's cool. it's good stuff. i like the stuff. >> and they did revert back to the outfits they used in the olympic trials because they thought they could shave time off. >> you wear it under your football pads. you don't wear it in speed skating because no one does speed skating. >> or hanging out in my apartment. >> speaking of your apartment late at night, rupert murdoch has some new digs in madison city agreeing to buy a triplex and another full floor right below so it is a quadplex. he will have a wraparound terrace with views of those rivers and downtown. only cost him that the $7 million. -- $57 million. he lost his new york apartment in his divorce to wendy deng. >> it's a cool place. we looked at that same building. very cool place. or a lot cheaper money, he would have come to stay with me. we have a third bedroom. >> why would you want to live below 57th? >> if you are watching, you're welcome to crash with jeff wilder places being renovated. >> it's a cool place. to give out any personal details but i'm the only one that lives above 57th and by that i mean 17 miles. a quickoing to take break. jeff, always a pleasure. >> i love the roundup. innovationp, driving forward from touchscreen displays, the revolutionary design changing the auto industry from independent producers. rank is next on "street smart." ♪ cars so oftent that i feel that you should introduce this next package. >> that is so kind and generous. >> american industrialist henry ford was born in michigan. elon musk hails from south africa. one thing in common, they changed the game. in the world of auto design, who finishes first? we look at a perfect union of m and function from automakers. ♪ >> they rise effortlessly begging your inside. ♪ >> i set out to pick five revolutionary designs not from the big three. >> bias or at independent? -- why is ford independent? >> when the model t started, big three.ot the they were an independent. >> have an awesome weekend. stay tuned for "taking stock." ♪ >> it's 56 after the hour means bloomberg television is "on the markets." i'm olivia sterns. stocks ending near lows after federal reserve officials indicating the federal reserve is unlikely to slow the pace of stimulus cuts down by about three point five points today, zero .1% for the shortened holiday four day week. pretty much flat and slightly down to date. on the treasury markets, yield coming down a little bit today. bonds rallying in the yield on the 10-year trading at two point 73% after a report showed existing home sales fell by about five percent to the lowest level in more than one year. let's take a look at some of the commodity movers today. the trend and concerns about the strength of economic recovery sending them flocking to the safe haven investment. after suffering its worst annual decline, gold up now almost 10% so far this year. oil on the other hand fell for the first time in six days but still up in 2% on the weekend up over the last six. falling on speculation that the recent run-up is not justified season is coming to an end. natural gas futures gaining for the second straight week. god for bid another arctic blast is expected to hit the midwest next week and then move over further east. than 50%as heats more of homes in america. the extremely cold, wet winter weather has been depleting inventory to us lowest level in nearly a decade. adam johnson has a look at today's insight and action. >> if you have it, you spend it. time for a little insight and action. we should all be so lucky. look at corporate america, cash as a percentage of assets on the balance sheets. shis was sent over by strategi research. go back to 1960, that's about as high as we've seen it. the average since 1960 is about 3.7%. companies have a lot of cash. that important. the question, how do they employ it? capital expenditures, research and development, but most companies do that practically every year, year in and out. what do you do with the excess cash? currently 100 are 99 companies that are buying back their stock. there are 416, of 500, paying dividends. the components of the s&p 500 have made a total of 912 acquisitions over the last year. why do they do that? they get rewarded in the stock market. buyers outperform. we thank the team over at strategis for sending us this data. they compare companies that have made acquisitions down the stock 500.rmance to just the s&p 20, 40, 60 days after the purchase is announced typically the companies doing the buying are up to numeral five percent versus the s&p 500. it's counterintuitive. 5%.hey are up you figure them spending a lot of money is bad. it's a benefit. look at this, they are up. what a shame we did not buy that. facebook up 1.3% since the big buy. comcast is down two point five percent. maybe therein lies her opportunity. ♪ fdfd >> this is "taking stock" for friday, february 21, 2014. today's theme is extraordinary feats. ewe cane's -- ukraine's warring factions have come together to sign a peace pact but how long will it last and account president hold onto his power? we debate those questions. plus, a father's extraordinary story. he leaves his financial job at jpmorgan to fight for his young son's life. talk about extraordinary feat, withbout taking a test

Related Keywords

New York , United States , Miami , Florida , Moscow , Moskva , Russia , Be In An , Sichuan , China , Blackrock , California , Canada , Japan , Iran , Kiev , Ukraine General , Ukraine , Brazil , Tibet , Xizang , Turkey , Syria , Michigan , Washington , District Of Columbia , Denver , Colorado , United Kingdom , San Francisco , Caracas , Distrito Federal , Venezuela , Hollywood , Lima , Peru , South Korea , Dallas , Texas , France , South Africa , America , Canadian , Ukrainians , Chinese , Russian , Ukrainian , British , Russians , Japanese , South Korean , American , Barry Knapp , Nicolas Maduro , Dalai Lama , Matthew G Miller , Ronald Reagan , Matt Miller , Viktor Yanukovych , Jonathan Geller , Vladimir Putin , Jeff Wilder , Jim Risch , Tim Cook , Gerardo Rodriguez , Stephen Colbert , Jimmy Fallon , Dan Loeb , Facebook Whatsapp , Julie Hyman , Adam Johnson , Rupert Murdoch , Adam Smith , Meg Whitman , Jessica Seinfeld , Yulia Tymoshenko , Wendy Deng , Leopoldo Lopez , Henry Ford , Bloomberg Businessweek , Richard Fisher , Victor Jan , Edward Snowden , Michelle Obama , Olivia Sterns ,