well before we go let's look at the day that was on wall street. a busy week where the markets were up sharply. today picked up another 32 points finishing at 8743. s&p was flat on the session at 940 but the nasdaq with a gain up 1.5 points. next week another big week for earnings. on the week the dow jones industrial average picked up better than 7%. ditto for the s&p 500. a 7% week for the markets. nasdaq higher also by 7.5% for the week in light of those google earnings as well as the

earnings from the banking sector. have a fantastic weekend, everybody. thanks so much for being with us. "fast money" is up next, melissa lee and the gang, now. are you onboard this bull yet? stocks closing their biggest weekly gains since the rally began in march. i'm melissa lee and this is "fast money." these are your experts.s. here to tell you the best way to ride this run. huge earnings reports next week including microsoft and apple. let's get to the word on the street right now. guys, 7% gains across the board but we are only just a small fraction of the way through earnings season. are we already bringing in a very good season here? >> there you go again, debbie downer. right off the bat. >> no, my job is to insert skepticism into the discussion. go ahead. >> here's the other side. first week of earnings. everyone told you to do the following. sell goldman sachs after the

number came out. they told you to sell jp morgan. they told you to sell intel. how did those three trades work for you? they worked horrible and they worked horrible for a reason. the reason was in the first quarter china was the economic stabilizing force.e. now the next leg what is the economic stabilizing force? it is the strength of those corporate balance sheets. selling those three names didn't work. we march on. >> i got to correct him a little bit, however. i think it came down to you loved all those names going into the earnings. you had everything you wanted going into the earnings.. take some profits. don't go short any of these names. i don't think anyone ever said that. they said take profits. yes goldman sachs did go up another 2% or 3%. yes intel did improve and, yes, you started to see more and more of that take place. but the run going into the earnings was so extreme you have to take what the market gives you. the market gave you great runs all week. you got to take some profits.s. wait for the next opportunity. this market, we could be at 900 in the next four days or we could be at 960. the market's giving you a trading opportunity. >> here's the problem.

i got to respond. here's the problem with taking profits in this environment. it is the new normal and there is a tremendous amount of capital sitting on the sidelines. asset allocation.n. doing exactly what you're suggesting. wait for the pullback. >> this is not your last chance. there is thinking out there that this is not a new bull market because for a bull market to happen historically you need a change in leadership. who have been our leaders up to now? technology as well as financials the same old leadership group. >> energy, though. >> yeah. >> listen, right now, you know, joe's talking about this before and i agree 100%. we need energy. once energy takes off from here and i believe it could especially oil going into hurricane season, energy comprised a large part of the s&p. 80% of the companies that reported this week meet or beat expectations. balance sheets are strong. the next catalyst could be energy. >> and we've been flat lined for so long. when you look at technology and the financials they've been basically steady.. what we've had moving the

markets around has been energy. the move up, the move down. now the next leg we're starting to see financials and technology push us from 900 to 940. now if we do get that energy, that china that you're talking about, agriculture, oil, copper, all those names move us back up to the upside of the curve. >> is this a good sign, karen, that we've seen good siftabilit in the markets? financials were up by about 9% for the week. we didn't have a selloff off the back of these very strong earnings. >> right. they moved up so far so fast and still were able to hang on. jp morgan even adding on to the earnings for the week.k. today the bank of america earnings were pretty interesting i thought. a lot of noise there. they had some interesting pockets. anything in california and florida is very problematic for them. but they had some tiny signs of credit improvement that probably bodes well for american express. they actually had a lowering of some of their nonperforming assets in some areas of the consumer area..

that was good. the provisions were obviously huge. >> they doubled year over year. >> but you can start to see where the earnings power is going to come from. the interesting part of bank of america is they really didn't have the strength that a goldman sachs did on banking, the trading, that was not there for them. they had one-time gains from assets they sold as part of their stress free recapitalization which they did a good job. i think bank of america is interesting but the one last thing i want to point out is they had nice reserves but it shows their reserves are 3.61%. jp morgan is at 5 and that's a testament to how big their cushion is and if that ever comes down for jp morgan the earnings power for them is enormous. >> from the options side i've seen a lot -- first of all, huge crush in volatility. august volatility has come down huge and nobody is buying protection. i can't believe it. i'm seeing everything across the board, you're looking at ibm today, nobody is worried about this thing falling out of bed.

there's two sides of that. one side is protection is cheap. you can buy it cheap now. the other side is when it gets that cheap that to me is like on a contrary perspective a little caution. >> and the tale of the tape this week was the panic to the upside. when everybody felt they missed it. you were talking about the money sitting on the sidelines, joe. you're right. that money has not been performing for people, they panicked. they had to get in. those that were short really panicked. that pushed the volatility index up toward 26. now we're back toward 24. i think next week you will start to see some people start to come after that volatility. they're going to start positioning with the new monthly rollout. they'll want to have that foot protection. like i said earlier, i think 900 as much as i'm a bull right now we could be at 900 in a blink of an eye. >> go back for one second. bank of america versus citigroup. there is a clear divergence here. when you look at citigroup they gave up basically smith barney.. when you look at bank of america, they acquired merrill lynch. i think going forward that'll be the difference between owning citigroup and owning bank of america. right now when you look at citigroup i don't think you

should have any inclination to own them. bank of america, yes, you can, because eventually they'll solve their problems, and they will reap the revenue. >> and in my mind, it's the investment bank, you talk about the cream of the crop, obviously goldman sachs. the next one morgan stanley. they will crush. they've been conservative but also stole smith barney from citigroup. that's going to add to their earnings. not right now but that's in the pipeline right now for morgan stanley. morgan stanley is ready to kill them. >> let's go deeper into citi. joe said there is no reason to own them. if you look at their books, karen, a lot of people on the street are scratching their heads still, even 12 hours or so after the earnings release not really knowing how the results actually came out. what we do know is investment banking was down 7%. retail banking was down 19%. these core businesses are down. >> they are. if you think about the core goldman sachs had, where did they take market share from? from weakened competitors. that would be somebody just like a citi bank. it's so noisy it't' to know what's going on. you had some asset sales that

were gains there.e. you don't know what it looks like going forward. citigroup is in the process of being dismantled. it's hard to really get comfortable. if you want to play the fn financials coming back i agree very much with joe i'd be in bank of america or jp morgan because you don't know what the citigroup play is. >> it seems like perhaps the clock is ticking.g. >> there is a rising star at citigroup. ed in kelly, cfo. so there's hope on the way. >> let's go on to another slifs the financial world, the regional banks, local banks still have steeper exposure to a weak consumer than some of the big wall street firms especially with regard to loan portfolios. bb & c coming out today. we got some sort of idea of what we could expect. joe, this is an area you've been tracking for a long time.. you don't favor this. >> we have been talking about being along capital markets and selling regional banks. regional banks are heavily, heavily shortaged as a sector r right now so the place to stick to the etf which is the kre, the

regional bank. that gives you the short exposure. the reason you want the short exposure, karen's boyfriend said it clearly. you still have banks and the regional banks are the ones that have the commercial loan and prime jumbo mortgage exposure. that hits, melissa, six to 12 months after the initial stages of the crisis because they can hang on in the beginning but now you're going to see the effect of that. that's why the regional banks. the city nationals, comericas. those are names you don't want to own. >> we have some reporting next week, u.s. bancorp, suntrust. karen, do you like joe's idea to go long to capital markets, go short the regional banks? >> i do because that commercial loans and commercial real estate, both of which the regionals like a bb & c have that is problematic.. you look at today, regency centers, the shopping mall. bad numbers. the stock was down 15%. what does that tell you?u? who tloends them?

i don't know -- >> these are cumbersome transactions. a commercial transactions not as easy to modify as a quick e.r.a. tail transaction. this is going to be a big shift and is probably going to move lower and will be a lot more difficult to turn around in my opinion. >> real quick, fifth thirds and regions, their balance sheet has less of that exposure. >> quickly, karen, you recently took off your short on commercial real estate. if you're a believer that regional banks are in danger because of their exposure to commercial real estate when do you look to put back on that short? >> well, you know, the rmc which is an index you can track is really volatile.e. for any of the ones that were able to raise ek wilty those are the shorts i took off specifically forrest city but i'd like to see it back up around maybe 440, 450, you know, today it was down i think 11. so i'm a -- we're a little away. >> next right here shares of cit group doubling today on a report from reuters that the struggling

lender is in talks with jp morgan and goldman sachs for short-term financing. is cit saved? an analyst joins us on the fast line. the number one question that we have is if they do get short-term lending does that make them in the clear? >> good question, melissa.a. very unclear at this point. i think the key here is from all indications i get the short-term financing is actually part of a bankruptcy filing so don't get too excited about the financing from jp morgan and goldman sachs. i think what could happen over the weekend is it would be better for cit, some sort of debt for equity swap, there are a lot of bond holders with a lot of clout in cit, bonds right now, if they reduce the bond principal balance and put it into equity there is still a chance cit could qualify for government financing which would be a much better option for cit. >> karen, what's the long-term business plan here? it doesn't seem to fit the model which is much of the problem. >> absolutely. the model is broken and has been since the world changed in the

summer of 2007. cit has been limping along trying to get financing for two years now. they thought they got it with the december approval of the bank holding company. the tglp was suppose today be the next step but the fdic said no. there is no long-term solution for cit. having a finance company in this world especially with their credit rating destroyed, they have no access to funding.g. they need to be bought but, unfortunately, it's not the right time to sell. >> do you put any credence whatsoever on a report in "the new york post" today that jp morgan would be interesting in buying the factoring unit of cit? >> yes, i do. the factoring unit is probably the crown jewel of the franchise. it has over 50% market share in retail factoring. it's a good, slow business, probably the business that puts the u.s. economy most at risk. they do a lot of retail business and a lot of suppliers depend on cit for financing for their day-to-day cash flow needs. i wouldn't be surprised at all to see the factoring business be the first to be sold from cit. >> just quickly, chris, there is a trade to be put on cit betting

either they will sell their crown jewel or would sell themselves or get some sort of help in the near term. >> unfortunately i don't like the equity much at all. even if they make it there's going to be a ton of delusion here. i think the bonds are probably more interesting and the last trades i saw were 50 cents on the dollar.r. the bonds should be worth more than that. >> chris brendler, a pleasure to speak with you. microsoft, apple, yahoo, ebay all get ready to report next week. >> i think you've got to take this read on intel right now and just like the chip space i think everything they've done so far has shown us, they've talked about stabilization back in april, then they talked about surprising chip growth back in may. then they put up these numbers. they had the great margin. i still look forward to a name like novidia not part of the earnings play but the graphics chip maker is involved in just about everything and finally starting to push through the $12 level.

it's been an area that's had a very difficult time getting through. it made it through today. plenty of option activity out there. that's a name i think you want to keep an eye on as you look at earnings neck week. >> karen do you think microsoft's earnings will be a catalyst for the stock? >> a catalyst for pain for me regardless. there are a couple things when i think about what could microsoft report? you look at dell. you have bad news out of dell. it was more dell specific i think. ibm, very good news. intel, very good. so i actually am mildly positive on microsoft. that will haunt me. >> well, microsoft. you have two big triggers in front of you. you have window 7. you have bing. >> isn't that -- >> the bing? >> the yahoo conversation is not over with. that could resurface today again. that could be a very, very miniscule amount of money in billions compared to the $47 billion they were looking at before.. this could be a great investment by microsoft right now to get their search thing really kicked into gear.. >> what you have to love about

microsoft is for the first time in several years their strategy is to be aggressive again. they're getting back the innovation that they had in the mid '90s. they're going after apple. they're opening retail stores. they're going after google. they're going after their competitors and you know what? they have $26 billion sitting in cash to do it.t. >> to joe's point, apple is actually a little upset that microsoft is coming after them.. their attorneys contacted microsoft. they don't like their commercials where microsoft computers or pcs are portrayed as cheaper than apple.e. >> well, they are cheaper. >> i know. it's crazy. it's a low voel tilt stolatilitt usually won't hurt you. coming um, a stock that has climbed to a high not seen before the market collapsed last fall. we'll reveal it later in the program. next here, markets pushed up almost 7%. many investors thinking the worst is surely behind us. some are not too sure.. one is patty edwards the founder

of storehouse partners. she thinks the party may have started too early and she joins us from seattle. okay, patty. you're the bear here. why are we too early? >> well, there are so many other things going on that we are not talking about. let's talk about the consumer first. the consumer is totally leveraged. they are on life support at this point. we are seeing a little bit more buying but not much. we have a consumer economy, 70% of the u.s. economy is consumer driven. you start looking at where they can get credit. they can't. their homes aren't worth what they were before. they can't sell their homes if they wanted to. they don't have jobs. then you start looking at the earnings. i think this is the most important part. how many of the companies that have reported so far and/or report in the next week have had top line revenue growth as opposed to earnings growth? you know, we are not going to cost cut our way out of this. we need to actually rectify the fact that valuations cannot return to where they were before given the fact that the consumer cannot come back to the level they were at before.

>> housing is also troubling to you so, patty, given these three factors and three reasons why you are a bear how do you play this market?t? >> you know, i am being very, very conservative at this point. philip morris international l gives me international exposure. i really like the fact that, you know, it's a bite sto ae's a vi. i think the emerging markets are going to come back sooner. all international play has absolutely nothing to do with the u.s. beyond that i think people are going to continue to trade down. i think this is a situation where we are going to see the consumer really retrench to the point where my grandparents did during the depression and i think people will trade down to a walmart.. >> patty, is there anything you could see next week that could change your mind at all as far as the earnings front? is there any type of numbers that could come out where you'd suddenly say, you know what? maybe the consumer is not as bad as i first thought? >> you know, there's not that much the consumer next week. maybe if somebody like starbucks

which is a little higher end comes out and tells me things are fabulous, you know, maybe i'd be excited then but the retail numbers aren't going to be out for two or three weeks. what we are seeing so far is a real big pullback. >> patty, we'll leave it there. thanks for joining yugoslavs. patty edwards with storehouse partners. >> you gotta love that. >> all right. we do want to clarify something that patty said today on the halftime report. dillard's does not have exposure to cit. we're going with the flow and breaking news and want to clarify that.. and as i understand we do have breaking news and want to go back to headquarters with an update from our managing editor. melissa, just in, nuriem roubini is still bearish. back you to. >> tyler, thank you very much. still bearish. we should know.. with all due respect to him. he will be on "the closing bell" this coming monday to actually speak about his bearish

position. that was the word. >> hopefully he'll come to "fast money" afterwards. >> absolutely. coming into focus next week big earnings for the top sectors. your "fast money" experts break down the trades blow by blow. and with home building back on an uptick are we in the midst of a housing rebound? plus, it's the hottest league out there. the head dealer in charge gives us the lay of the land. we trade america's latest obsession. soon there will be 1 trillion connected devices... in the world. can you hear them? food is talking to store shelves. cargo containers are talking to supply chains. power lines are talking to the grid. now that's smart. systems that allow carrots to tell truck drivers how fresh they are. roads alert cars about traffic patterns. cars alert mechanics before they break down. when things communicate... systems connect.

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welcome back to "fast money" live at the nasdaq market site in new york city times square. the peak weeks for earnings seasons are upon us. companies are set to report in the next five trading days. let's get started with one of the most anticipated. take your position on apple. it does report after the bell on tuesday and from steve jobs the new iphone last quarter was an eventful one for this silicon valley giant. how do you trade apple out of the earnings? dan niles is chief investment officer for alpha one capital

partners. great to have you with us. >> thanks for having me on. >> the big question is, there are great expectations apple will at least meet or perhaps exceed the estimates out there. is that already baked into the stock though? >> yeah. i think it is. you've had apple up over 60% this year, way out performing the market. i think most people are looking for at least a couple hundred million dollars of upside to the street estimates of $8.2 billion and most people are looking for probably around ten cents on the eps so if they don't deliver that you'll have some issues i think. >> the concern here is that they slashed prices and that will impact their margins. >> i think the margins this quarter will be okay. they guided to 33%. they've beat their margins by almost 3% for the last two years so, i mean, people pretty much ignore their guidance which is unfortunate but i think the margins will come in better than they guided. the real issue is not so much this quarter but looking forward to the september quarter because you've got back to school.

they've been obviously very aggressive cutting their mac prices in early july. you saw their iphone. they took down the 3g version to 99 bucks. you've got component prices. they buy roughly 20% of the world's flash memory and flash prices are up 40% to 50% in the last 90 days, so that's really going to be the issue. i'm not sure, you know, if most people will focus on it because they tend to ignore apple's guidance just because, you know, they never make any sense and people -- they always come out and beat it. >> they've got it lower 10 of the last 12 quarters so that's how much you listen to apple's guidance. >> do you think some of the competition trying to expand d that space, the gravitation toward the touch screen phone, i mean, can they still continue to operate this way? and with more heat from microsoft and other companies in the pc world, do you think now they have to really get more specific with their guidance or is that going to have a negative effect on their earnings?

>> yeah. i mean, at the end of the day the guidance, nobody is going to care about it until they actually come e d do what they say. so, i mean, in some ways they'd be better off not giving you any guidance and just talking about trends until they decide to get realistic. having said that, when dell had their analyst stage the big problem there was margins so nokia's margins obviously were another issue just recently. this whole notion of yeah companies are growing but the margins are starting to contract because as you brought up there's a lot more competition in this space. and going into q3 with back to school you'll really have to price aggressively because the consumer just doesn't have any money or a job for that matter. so to get them to buy things like a high end phone or a mac or, you know, when your kids go back to school buy them a pc, the margins may have to come under some pressure, because obviously the components going into those as we saw from intel putting up their best q2 in 20

years the component prices aren't dropping that much so it puts you in a real bind in terms of margins. >> dan, always great to talk to you. dan niles at alpha one. >> dan brings up a good point with apple up 60%, the s&p not up nearly that, at some point you have the mean reversion trade in apple. you had it in rib and that gave you the opportunity on the pullback. i think the trade here is r.i.m. over apple at these valuations. >> okay. i'm sorry, joe. we have breaking news here, real breaking news. we have news that red hat is going to replace cit group in the s&p 500. again, red hat, rht, to replace cit. so you do see that spike in the after-hours session here. as all of these funds are benchmarked to the s&p 500 they are then forced to go buy red hat shares to mimic that benchmark index. >> and we're happy that news came out on a friday afternoon at 5:15. back to apple quickly, pete, what do you think the trade is

and will there be an opportunity? >> i would love to see an opportunity because i've missed the latest run. this has made a run from 140 to 151 in the blink of an eye. absolutely spectacular. upgrades across the board. i would love to see a pullback. i don't know that we'll get it right now. i think their numbers, it's still not about the iphone. everybody keeps pointing to the iphone.. that's just something that feeds into everything from applications to the pc market and pcs aren't as bad as everybody is saying. >> right. >> people are willing to pay up. >> at the same time, pete, you weren't here on the desk yesterday but we had nokia down about 14% on earnings yesterday. you like nokia. did you use the opportunity to get in? >> no. i think there is an opportunity there, long term. you have to like the balance sheets for nokia but, still, we talked about this one because we said, where is the growth? everybody points to china but the problem is they're on the low end. they're getting crushed really. they're losing in this smart phone market because of the iphone, because of the research in motion and the rest of the devices including the pre, so nokia has to do something and cut the prices on the high ends. >> let's continue with the

earnings review. another name reporting today, american express out thursday afternoon but the stock has surged 21% this week going into the number. karen, how does it make you feel about this? >> it makes me wish i had owned it.. aside from that i think some of the data coming out of bank of america was interesting today, mildly positive. the other thing that's a positive i think for american express is look at mastercard and look at visa.ó a lot of american express's business, they have the credit portfolio which visa and mastercard don't, but they also have the transaction portfolio and if you get anything close to a mastercard or visa valuation on that transaction portion of american express's earnings, i think there is more upside. >> good point. >> but i wouldn't buy it. such a big risk. >> american express has been the best performer in the dow this year. if you look at what's coming down the pipe in terms of delinquencys it doesn't look as though they will be nearly as bad as anticipated going forward. that means the losses will be

far less. what you're seeing from analysts is in the near term they're lowering the forecast for second quarter earnings but they're raising full year. >> let me check my data. i believe that the quality of their borrower is a little higher than the typical visa and mastercard. the axp buyer is slightly higher. check me on that. >> that's absolutely correct. keep dm mind the important difference between the american express and visa and mastercard is that visa and mastercard are transaction processors as opposed to american express an actual issuer. we have breaking news, back to headquarters. what's going on? thank you very much. at 5:28 eastern time do you know where your roubini is? nouriel roubini is still bearish. back to you. >> just a recap. he said nouriel roubini is still bearish. >> he's still short.t. >> that's a long short. >> axp and the options, we saw a lot of risk reversals, buy, sell, call, and the line in

august. if you own stock you can buy -- finance it by placing a call and it locks in your stock in a certain range. very popular strategy. >> let's move on. you've been patient holding out for today's stock of the day. pete? give it to us. >> we're looking toward next week and talking about earnings and those coal names have been on fire. they did pull back but now you're starting to get a few more folks getting excited. if you're betting on the consumer at all over in the asian markets you've got to like somebody like this. their exposure to china and the asian markets is phenomenal. earnings are next week. i think they can still knock the cover off the ball though this week they've had a tremendous run. when you talk about electricity, thermal coal, metallurgic coal. >> they want copper, potash, and coal. if you look at the valuations in the coal sector, it'll point directly toward the coal names. >> later on in the show can pete

win with peabody? we'll tell you how the pit boss is quicker than the ticker on this name just a few weeks back. time for "analyze this."" is the housing rebound finally under way? housing starts and permits above expectations today. when can we call it a turn around?? >> i am less bearish than nouriel. >> i would think 99% of the population is. >> i was sort of in that camp for a while where the world was coming to an end and we were never going to grow. >> you're still less bearish than nouriel? >> exactly. >> when it comes to the housing market can we take this out of today and consider it signs there is a bottom being put in place for this market? >> yes, we can. we've had now one quarter where actually housing starts were up. that's a big deal. it's the first time since the first quarter of '06. the best reading since the first quarter of '05.5. things are getting better. there's no question.. i don't think they're great but you see the recovery light at the end of the tunnel which we didn't have a few months ago.

>> isn't this all about private sector borrowing costs? if you and i right now know that mortgage rates are going to rise in the third and fourth quarter, i don't know that they will, but if they did doesn't that hamstring the recovery process in the housing sector? >> it does but, still, you still get recovery. the issue is you don't have a lot of liquidity so you won't get your typical v-shaped recovery where the economy is growing actually over 6%. i think you'll get a modest growth situation, maybe grow at 1% in the fourth quarter. next year we'll grow 1% to 2%. it'll almost feel a lot like late '91, '92. the banks are still hurting. they're caring themselves to profitability. but you could see a recovery if you want to say 2011 that's great and fine but i think the next six quarters still sort of sluggish but they're not declining like we've seen. >> at what point do you get concerned when you look at the treasury market and mortgage rates, we've seen a lot of dead issuance by the government and rates go. what happens?s? >> here's the thing. i think what happens is there's no question the government will

cry out the private markets as they start to issue debt and compete with other investors. that will keep the economy weaker than it otherwise would be but it doesn't mean the economy won't grow. you guys know a lot of earnings we've met have been due to cost cuts. we've had negative nominal gdp so only 2% or 3% nominal gdp you have a ton of operating leverage. >> so you're almost kind of bullish. >> i'm talking myself into being more bullish. >> one thing i want to tell you is i talked to different clients, all sorts of accounts, and incredibly how negative they are. >> right. >> i think that's sort of like making me a little more upbeat because -- >> if everybody's negative maybe -- >> yeah. psychology does become very important. it does become self-defeating. we look at household liquid assets to liabilities, if you've got 1360 in s&ps, i know a long way from here, that will put the liability ratio back to the long-term average.

the point is as equities go up it does actually make things better. there is some dodge and 80 to it. >> pleasure to have you with us today. >> thank you. up next we're going to vegas, baby, varyinging a. the commissioner of the world series of poker tells us what is in the cards for the gaming industry and the traders make their best on those volatile casino stocks. welcome to the now network. currently, thousands of people are enjoying the new palm pre with its revolutionary web os. they're running multiple live applications at the same time.

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. welcome back to "fast money." yahoo earnings coming down the pipe next week. where does the in the know options market think it's headed? to find out stick around for "trading after dark."." i love doing that. the traders had it down cold. what? i read that and i was thinking what does that mean? the trades that they got right, down cold. >> essentially. >> to help you make some green. >> got it. >> nice way to see the poker metaphor. >> we'll also reveal the trades where they missed the mark. first, for tonight's "dice roll" the gaming industry casino stocks had been one of the biggest gainers of the market this year, las vegas up 50%, mgm

down 50% so far in '09. for insight as to what is going on in this topsy-turvy industry, the commissioner of the world series of poker joins us from las vegas. this year's tournament will be televised beginning this month. jeffrey, a pleasure to have you with us today. >> thank you. it's great to be back. >> obviously the economy must be having an impact on las vegas. we've certainly seen that as evidenced by what the casinos' stocks are telling us. what do you see in terms of attendance? >> here's what i can tell you. it may be a surprise but the world series of poker which just concluded on wednesday had its biggest and best year ever. we had more than 60,000 entrants, more than ever before, and we crossed the $1 billion mark in terms of total prize money awarded over the last 40 years. if you're looking for something recession proof it's poker and the world series of poker. >> why do you think that is? >> i think poker is truly a global game. it's america's game. demand for the wsop has never been higher.

poker players measure themselves against each other by how many wsop gold bracelets they have and the only place you can get them is at the world series of poker. and i think that what we experienced over the last 50 days and the 57 events we had, ten of which were sellouts, is a testament to the great demand for our product and for poker globally. >> jeffrey, i am completely addicted. i watch this thing constantly on espn and wherever else it's on for the world series of poker. i love it and i think it's unbelievable. how does that feed into the casino industry itself? is there any metric you have at all that tells us that because of the fact that you're doing so well that should in fact put something in to win to mgm and the rest of the las vegas base? >> what i can tell you i haven't seen the hard data from the last two months but there certainly was a buzz not only inside the halls of the rio and caesar's palace and all of the other hara's properties but there was absolutely a buzz in las vegas over the last two months during the wsop and i think it's fair

to say we lifted the city over the last 60 days or so and, again, it's a reflection of the incredible appetite for poker and for the world series of poker. >> jeffrey, always good to talk to you. >> thank you.. >> i think it's great pete loves the world series of poker and also good that probably a quarter of the hedge fund community was at the world series of poker event and probably missed the rally and now is going to come back to allocate. they were all out there. if you look right now, look at the vegas casinos, specifically, mgm and las vegas you're talking about casinos that have heavy, heavy debt levels. if you are going to invest in gaming you want to look at the regional operators, those las vegas casinos. they are too tethered to the stay-cation mentality. look at the regionals, penn nationals, stay away from the balance sheets. mgm's balance sheet is a heavy debt load. >> with the stay-cation theme a lot of cities gaining the ability to gambling,

philadelphia being one and igp would benefit from that versus the bigger casinos.s. >> scrambling to fill their budget gaps in states. time to go to our weekly edition of "pops and drops." >> goldman sachs up and made 6.8 in the component revenues. they can do what others can't. they can take risk again. now it's evident in citigroup's earnings today. taking risk is important for earnings going forward. >> j & j up 4% on the week, pete. >> their revenues were phenomenal. it's the diversification they've got. even though they lost a billion dollars in sales of their top two drugs they still managed to put up a great number. j & j is the diversification that makes them such a great player. >> jared? >> you know, great stock, doing fantastic. i love this sector. i like copper. i like gold. it plays into energy. the stock up here i'd be really careful though. i'd probably take slow profits

but i like it long term. >> nokia was down 6% on the week, karen. >> nokia had an earnings release that wasn't great yesterday. the quarter itself wasn't so bad. it was the guidance going forward. it was a margin compression. it was disappointing. >> okay. here's a drop for nasa. almost exactly 40 years ago on july 20th, 1969, one man first walked on the moon. despite the gravity of the momentous event nasa has managed to erase the original tapes of the moon landing and reused them in an effort to conserve money. "fast money" has come across the missing tapes.s. here is what we've discovered. >> they've got the flag up now. you can see the stars and stripes -- >> welcome to new york city's times square. >> i'm glad somebody has it. coming up next today's

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as the earnings rally raged on this week, "fast money" had it before the profit report that tried to keep you quicker than the ticker. >> i love their customer. it's a mother and mothers are loathe to cut out spending for their kids.

it's a great balance sheet. excellent flow. >> choosey moms choose e children's place.e. the kids' retailer up 16% since karen's call just two weeks ago. >> what i'm a little afraid of right here is a little bit of an overbaked situation in oil. at the end of the day fundamentals really come to roost and pete brought up a good point. fundamentals aren't there with oil. >> this strategist sensing the crude run had run its course. oil fell some 10% after jared said to stay away. >> i think there's value in the sense that the consumer is looking for the basic item at the lowest possible price. so names like kohl's. that works well. i don't think that story goes away. >> finding a down market trade that was headed straight up. shares of kohl's up 9% since joe's call. >> you want to be able to play china? look at something like peabody, btu. these guys are exporting to asia pacific where coal demand is going to surge. you're already seeing it in the imports. >> finding one hot china trade.

shares of peabody coal burning up 12% since pete's pick leaving us a few words that sum it up. "fast money." now for the best and the worst time where we grill our traders. we kick off with the chairwoman who recommended this mobile phone stock. >> i do still like nokia very much. this is nice. it's not really why we're in nokia. i think there is a lot of growth there. the valuation is very attractive. >> lousy earnings though. throwing the stock off 6% this week.. karen? >> i feel like i just discussed this. down 6%. yes. and i really didn't like their guidance going forward and that margin compression. that was very disconcerting. i haven't booted it yet but my patience is wearing thin. >> all right. next victim here? after our fast forecast segment predicted the future of gold was looking partly sunny, joe had a forecast of his own. >> in gold you have to change that to a siberian winter. that's the outlook of gold right now.

>> gold is up 3% since that call, joe. >> yeah.h. july 8th i really looked like e gold was going to break below 900 bucks and the dollar rolled over, got weak. gold and the dollar, that's been the story. gold has rallied. i still do not like gold. i like copper better. that's up 60% for the year. gold only up 10%. you play it through freeport mack. >> a month ago jared said stay away from this peanut butter and jelly trade. >> with a name like smucker's you probably got to sell it. up 10% statistically. the stock is way outside what it normally does. if you own it i think now is a good time to start removing some of those profits. >> a good sound bite, jared, but the shares are up 5% since then. >> again, the same story holds true. with a name like smucker's it doesn't typically make these sorts of moves.s. i am more of a statistical trader. i believe most people were in profit and i was looking to protect it.. i still don't think it is a name that is going to outperform moving forward. >> the pit boss gave you an entry point on boeing. that went bad. >> boeing just got in front of itself. everybody suddenly overnight,

the united possibility of this big order and everything, everybody immediately put money on boeing. it pulled back to 44, then you can start looking at boeing again. >> to be fair it did pull back to 44 but then it kept losing altitude. now it's at 41. >> you're right. you know, when looking for an area of some kind of support it looked like it would come around 44. looks now like it's 41, 42. somewhere in there. i do tend to like boeing right here. >> all right. don't go anywhere. we'll have "trading after dark" and we're going to see the bets being made on yahoo. undefeated professional boxer floyd "money" mayweather

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time to reveal the fast flash.h. shares of yahoo trading at the highest level since september, 2008. this only days before it reports earnings. to see if it can hold the level we're going "trading after dark" with the managing director of tj evans institutional services to tell us what the options market sees for yahoo. jim, i know you're watching carol bart. i mean, yahoo, what's going on there?e? >> well, everybody seems to love yahoo. maybe they have the same question on carol barts that i do but yahoo has been on a tear for three days andnd really see like it's reaching. the thing that strikes me as interesting is we're seeing the big plays. volatility has been grinding down for six months, eight months and getting to the levels where it's more attractive to o just buy in the money calls than to buy the shares outright. inpete has been banging this drum. when volatility gets to a certain level it behooves the

retail investors to make that trade instead of buying the shares. we're seeing it today in yahoo and apple. in yahoo today the august 15 call if your in the money calls traded at a tremendous amount. looked like someone establishing a long position. like a ten-year flashback in 1999 when techs were leading us. if some techings had good earnings you flocked to the familiar names. apple, yahoo. we saw it today. the problem i have here is that it's not ten years ago and yahoo is not the promise of the future it was ten years ago. yes, google reported good earnings in advertising. advertising is one of the last things to come around in the recession cycle so the question is are we in the last stage of the recession? i'm not quite that optimistic. >> what are you doing? >> i'm selling yahoo. i'm selling these calls when they come in and buy them again. >> i know i have to watch the show tonight "options actions" to get all the answers but in tech overall give me a quick answer. are you seeing good call buying heading into apple's earnings next week heading into microsoft? >> huge. >> heading into amazon?

is it there? >> yeah. we saw it today. >> all right.. so i'll watch to get the rest of the answers tonight. i'll be there. >> all right. pete, what are you doing on yahoo?o? >> i still just love it. because of what carol barts has done and the way she has progressed and i think if microsoft is indeed in any kind of a conversation which, you know, maybe they are, maybe they're not. i love yahoo. >> all right. our thanks to jim for "trading after dark." hey mom i need some minutes. i just gave you some at the restaurant. yea i know. i threw them out. they were old so...... old! they are rollover minutes. they're as good as new. ya know not everyone gets to keep their unused minutes. and these days we can't afford to be wasteful. saving minutes..... .....saves money. yea. (announcer) only at&t's family talk with rollover saves your family's unused minutes. and saving minutes saves money. get the lg neon from at&t, now only $29.99 after mail in rebate

welcome back to "fast money." time to reveal who made the most money today. it would be the harvard endowment posting big gains from its i-shares, china, etf and emerging market etf holding collecting a cool $31.7 million this week alone. although it has had a rough go of it. >> still need to make up the $13 billion hole. >> all right. >> i talk frequently on the show about getting liquidated. i got liquidated in natural gas a week ago. since then it has gone nothing but up. karen talked about owning natural gas. i think you should own something related to natural gas. that would be the coal names.s. take a look. >> jared, final trade? >> aig. it's way high. you can't short the stocks. it's hard to borrow. look at the february 23 for about $12. they have a lot of debt. i have no idea how they'll service it. >> karen? >> furthering joe's point about natural gas i like the oil and gas exposure but more gas and i do think we have seen a bottom. you know, we get a hurricane --

i'm going with that. >> two things.. i did not know how low nokia got. now to hear $13 i tend to like nokia a little more and i'll tell you why. keep an eye on fun corp, oil fans.. got to keep an eye on it. >> thanks so much for watching. see you back here on monday. by 2010, 30%... of the data stored on the world's computers will be medical images. the trouble is all of that information is trapped. x-rays aren't talking to... medical records aren't talking to... patient histories aren't talking to... insurance forms. we're trying to connect all that data... make it smart. we would see the patterns in your medical history... in the histories of entire populations. predict dangerous drug combinations.