Charlotte is second-best city for stocks, CNBC says

CNBC set up shop in Charlotte on Tuesday to declare the city the nation's second-best for stocks.

Since last November, Charlotte's publicly traded companies have returned an average of 21 percent, Brian Sullivan and the "Street Signs" crew calculated. The financial news network specifically pointed out Bank of America, Lowe's, SPX, Carlisle Cos., Family Dollar and Sonic Automotive as top performers.

Broadcasting from the NASCAR Hall of Fame, Sullivan invoked gold-finding Conrad Reed and called Charlotte the "once sleepy" town that has become "Wall Street South" with "one of the most spectacular skylines in the South." CNBC also made sure to point out the kindness of a woman in a Piggly Wiggly T-shirt who offered them coffee.

Carlisle CEO David Roberts talked about shutting down factories in China and opening them in the U.S. Small business owners also got a plug, Charlotte financial adviser Larry Carroll talked fiscal cliff, and Speedway Motorsports president Marcus Smith discussed Nascar's impact on the economy.

Philadelphia came in No. 3, by the way. The top city should be unveiled tomorrow.

Here's a sampling of Sullivan's tweets from his visit:

Local resident Dottie offering to bring us some coffee as she walked by our taping. ____ folk are so nice. twitter.com/SullyCNBC/stat…
— Brian Sullivan (@SullyCNBC) November 27, 2012

In this town you can apparently take buses a REALLY long way twitter.com/SullyCNBC/stat…
— Brian Sullivan (@SullyCNBC) November 27, 2012

Love this twitter.com/SullyCNBC/stat…
— Brian Sullivan (@SullyCNBC) November 27, 2012