well. a little bit of weakness in the middle of the day. mr. bernanke was talking about a soft recovery in the economy. here's the important thing, talk of stabilization in sales. we don't have real top line growth. but companies like caterpillar and united technologies this morning used the word, that magic word, stablization to talk about sales. this is very important because the bulls have been arguing for a long time if we could get stablization, what will that mean? it means we get somewhat better earnings visibility. wait a minute. if that happens, things change. six months earlier, nobody had visibility in anything, nobody could see six inches in front of their face. now it means we could talk more about what the earnings will look like next year and what kind of multiple you're able to put on it. that's why stocks have been holding up so well. caterpillar came out this morning and was fairly positive on its earnings release in the morning talking about

stablization. here's something very important i want to talk about here. in the last week, goldman sachs, barkleys and credit swooes have all raised year end s&p prices, all of them, all three of those companies, morgan stanley raise it had about a month ago. what's important about that? we didn't have anybody a month ago raising the numbers. now companies are starting to see things move forward. take a look at the caterpillar conference call. the third quarter very tough for sales and profits. they may even lose money in the third quarter. they're talking about the possibility of significant rolling shutdowns of factors that happened about 11:00. we're going to talk to jim owens in a short while. there's caterpillar. you see it drifting down here. commodity stocks, you see all those stocks moving to the downside here. all our friends here, covering the market. nas dask, nymex, brian shactman standing by over at the nasdaq. >> thank you very much. if the market had a collective desire, it would be to go up.

we were well off the lows. we're inching toward the flat line. it would make it the tenth session in a row of gains. we haven't had a string like this, folks in, 11 years almost to the day. the focus where when it comes to the nasdaq is what happens after the close. we start with apple in terms of reporting earnings. reuters says $1.17 a share on 8.23 in revenues. they always go low on the guidance. 13 of the last 16 quarters they've reduce it had moving forward. expected to hit it out of the park. about 5 million iphone sales expected in the quarter. ia here launching their new homepage today a couple moments sooner than expected. the ceo pushing things over there, down 1.5%. we want to talk about other names. starbucks are down 1.6%. am lynn pharmaceuticals do s 1..

the weakness seems to be in the chip sector on the heels of the drag from texas instrument stock price today. intel and amac to the down side. the regional banks are weak today. zion down 14%, got two downgrades including a sell rating from citi. check out the oil trade now with sharon epperson down at the nymex smoot oil market seems to be grasping at straws or grasping at stocks trying to get them to pull oil prices higher. in fact, we did see oil climb slightly higher today. the september contract gained about 30 cents today above $60 a barrel. that is the contract to watch. september is now the front month contract. keep in mind, there seems to be a tug of war going on between the hoped for greater demand when the economy recovers, looking at some of those earnings reports and the caterpillar report in particular talking about signs of

stabilization versus the current reality which is demand is still weak and inventory high. this afternoon, we'll get a report from the american petroleum institute expected to show another increase in fuels when distill lat supplies are at a 25-year high. doesn't seem to be much storm activity out there. hurricane season underway but get another private forecaster wsi reducing its hurricane forecaster for this year. rick santelli, to you in chicago. >> thank you, sharon. one of the traders came up to me during the hearings today and said we need to switch that around. mr. bernanke ought to be asking the questions and congress ought to be the ones being questioned 37 what he was referring to was even mr. bernanke said, i have a plan for an exit strategy. what's the fiscal plan for exit strategy? the market's really paid attention to that with the lingering joblessness that mr. bernanke mentioned, as well. look at yield curve, tens minus

twos. it was in the mid 260s. here we are in the high 250s, seven or eight basis points in a day is important. what's really important is how everything five years and beyond found aggressive buying. you see an interday chart of how far rates are down. look at a two-day chart. 28 hours ago, we were in the 370s. we are now in the high 340s. we've reversed 25 basis points. that's because joblessness and spending equal consumers that can't consume, at least what's what the market thinks at this point and rephlebed in that spread. maria and bob, back to you. >> thanks very much. let's talk more about what's going on. how to invest in this environment. we're joined by eric roth and greg hopper, portfolio manager at rei high income global fund. >> thanks for having us. >> greg, i like to is it starts

with the bond market. enormous inflows into the bond funds. the survey they're doing shows that bond funds have received $15.5 billion in july. $1.3 billion per trading day. what do youny is behind this? >> speaking from the corporate bond side from the high yield side in particular, there were severe undervaluations at the beginning of the year and just about everything you bought was going to go up. it was recognized on the part of retail investors. now we're up 30% on high yield bonds. the question is where did we go from here. every day we get a good day in the equity market provides further support for the bond market rather than vice versa. >> so you're saying as money move into the equity market, there's a good reason to believe it's going to find a home in the bond market? >> the two markets tend to feed off the other. a lot of the problem last year was how are these companies

going to refinance. so as you see credit come into the bond market, the latest cit rescue, believe it or not is an example of that. you have invests with the wherewithal to put new money into the situation. that has to provide confidence to the equity market and that has a feedback on the bond market. >> today bonds were moving up as stocks moved to the downside. eric, the full argument has been six months ago, no earnings visibility. now the companies start talking about stabilization as caterpillar did today. now we get a little bit better visibility on the earnings front. they are arguing that the reason why stocks should start moving to the upside, does a little bit better commentary actually translate into better earnings visibility? >> it does if you look at the earnings result, most of them were bester than expected overall. analysts are now in the position of raising their estimates going forward. we have better visibility. don't forget in march, we were in freefall and thought the

economy was going to zero. now it seems to be going up a little bit from here. it seems like we're stable and that would bring in probably better prices here. i still we've gone a little too far but the momentum is up and you capital get in front of that train. >> on the one hand and on the other hand, the caterpillar story this morning, great comments this morning on the press release and a more cautious tone on the conference call. don't you think we're going to hear this a lot in the next few weeks? >> earnings season started last week. we had good earnings and good guidance. and i think that the, this week is just a repeat of last week. stocks have already gone up a lot and now we're hearing what we expected to hear. will probably not go up quite as hard as we've seen. >> are you looking at the earnings picture here in terms of giving you a sense of the stability in the bond market as well or the equity market? let me put this into perspective, the amount of money

moved into bonds. $159.2 billion have move into bond funds in 2009 year to date. that exceeds both the record annual inflows of $140 billion in actual and the inflow for all of 2007 and 2008. so you know what, you're saying is really a confidence in how yield, even the smaller investors, individuals are looking for yields. >> about $55 billion by the way of that is probably high yield specific investing. and you know, we've actually been in i think the high yield market in general has been surprised by how well a lot of creditors have held up in terms of earnings. it's been cost cutting and it's been cash flow coming out of capital savings up to this point. i think much like the equity folks, the next step is to look for something more substantive. revenues hopefully unit growth revenues rather than just pricing. >> only ten seconds. but if the stock market is going up at this point, aren't investors should be cautious

about putting a lot of money into the bond market right now? >> the bond market, although they will do feed off each other, the bond market marches to a slow drum if you're expecting a slow economy but not recess, perhaps bonds are preferable to equities. if you think we're going to get into classic recovery, then equities are more interesting. >> there is a debate whether or not this recovery is going to be really just bumping along the bottom and doesn't really feel like recovery at all. we've got 45 minutes before the closing bell sounds for the day. moving into the market here, the dow industrials up 32 points extending the 8% rally in the dow and s&p from last week. >> up next ta, exclusive interview with caterpillar's ceo. is it an indication that the global economy is nearing a turnaround? the earnings extravaganza nearing a turnaround. we'll bring you analysis today 4:00 p.m. eastern.

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welcome back. kit pillar saying that the government stimulus plans are beginning to work around the world but for the second quarter, profits plummeted down 66% as the equipment maker dealt with slumping sales and the cost of massive job cuts. joining me now in an exclusive to talk about growth ahead is the chairman and ceo of caterpillar jim owens. . welcome back to the closing bell." >> hi, nice to be back with you. >> can you characterize the quarter for news. >> well, it was a challenging quarter in many respects as you just noted. our top line sales and revenues were off 41%. i was very proud of the fact that my team around the world just really pulled hard together, caterpillar employees, our dealers and suppliers and we sustained profitability. i think a little bit of upside

there from street expectations were very encouraging. so that side of the news was news. we're demonstrating that the elephant can dance and we're positioning ourself to be profitable in a very, very difficult market. certainly this is the most severe correction in the global economy and certainly key markets that we serve since the '30s and for our company to sustain profitability i think is quite an achievement and one that i'm confident we can continue to deliver on as we go through the year. >> so looking around the world right now, sir, where would you say are the weakest spots? is it still north america or do you think that the european economy and perhaps parts of asia, mideast are also show deterioration? >> one thing about this downturn certainly, maria, it's been global in nature and everything has been down and down significantly. our sales and revenues in the asia pacific theater were only down 24.5%. that's good. so that tells you how bad the rest of the world is.

actually, japan and western europe are probably in worst economic shape than the united states. and most of the strength is in the eamericaning market theater, particularly china showing signs of an emergent recovery that we think is -- and they never went negative but they should register close to 8% real growth they targeted for the year, so that's a remarkable achievement for them given the circumstances. and we're seeing parts of latin america, brazil doing pretty well, parts of the middle east, saudi arabia in particular doing pretty well. i said we see some signs of stabilization. the big thing is the global financial system i think is stabilizing. we're seeing some certainly stabilization in credit markets. our cap financial subsidiary we were able to go to the market in euros and canadian dollars for the first time in more than a year and got interest rates that were lower than a year ago. at least for the a-1, a 1 p 1

type credit ratings, credit access is coming back nicely and spreads have come back into the right kind of range. this was a precondition for economic recovery. so i see that as a very positive sign for the global economy and there's still a ways to go. a lot of good companies that are a little less maybe highly rated and stable are still having trouble getting credit in the market today but i think that too will come over the next few months. >> there certainly is one area of business small and mid cap names that seem to continue to face challenges with regard to accessing capital. let me ask you this, sir. part of the positives in the report certainly for the quarter for caterpillar was reducing inventory, by some $3 billion. helps and the bottom line. but for the most part, we're talking about a story of cost management. cutting expenses as opposed to real and demand. when do you think that the story

of caterpillar goes from a cost management getting expenses down story to run of revenue growth? >> well, first of all, i think we've been purposefully managing inventories down both our dealer inventories and our own in-house inventories and, of course, you know, with this big volume correction we absolutely needed to do that. so think it's been purposeful and actually been quite well done and we're taking a lot of costs out. painful in that we've had to lay off a lot of people. that's had an impact on our ability to manage costs. we do have flexibility that in yesteryear we didn't have. i think we're positioning our company to be substantially profitable. continuing to invest in research and engineering, finishing off some of the capacity additions that we were making in 2008. and really focused on our long-term strategy. we see the markets that we

serve, housing markets around the world, large infrastructure projects around the world, the commodity sector, capacity for energy, oil and gas, minerals, these are markets that are now dropped to cyclically very depressed levels. i think the prospects over the next several years of a dramatic recovery in these markets is very high and we just want to be sure our company is very well positioned to take advantage of that global macro economic recovery, which we think will begin to get underway, if you will, in the fourth quarter and gain strength next year. >> you know, the infrastructure and commodities boom certainly powered caterpillar over the years. what do you see in terms of commodities here when you look at something like copper up better than 70%, oil having bounced off the lows, you are seeing that so-called inflation trade continue. are you expecting we'll see

prices continue to rise for those raw materials that you need so much in terms of building? >> well, maria, our basic thesis i guess of the global economy for the next decade or two is that the growth rate, gdp growth rate in the emerging markets of the world, notably china, india, south asia, big parts of the middle east, even the southern cone of africa, late inamerica and cis and russia eventually ge, those growth rates are going to be substantially higher than in the oecd world. many of those countries are at a stage of development where they need a lot of commodities, both energy and basic raw materials that's going to drive demand for commodities. we would see copper north of 2 is in a good position to drive additional investment in that sector. oil around 70 i think drives investment in the energy sector and then petroleum in particular. so, these kind of things you can't get them without our

equipment. and that's why we're quite optimistic that long-term as these economies emerging markets of the world reaccelerate their growth, if we keep open trade quarters we're going to find strong demand for our products comes back and we're just positioning ourself to be ready for that growth. and again, stay focused on our strategy and deployment of the execution model that we've laid out. we've seen great results of that now. >> in terms of being ready for it, of course, you've got a cash war chest holding about $4 billion in cash and reserves. but there's still speculation in the market that you may need to cut your dividend. is that on the table? >> speculation is something that our board will evaluate every time we make a dividend payment or an increase or decrease, they'll evaluate it every quarter. i certainly hope that we can sustain and continue to grow our dividend going into the future. we've set a hierarchy of needs. our first need is we want to fund our growth.

right now, we've got a very strong position in terms of capacity around the world to serve the markets that we need to serve. secondly we want to fund all of our employee retirement and health benefit plans and do that appropriately and we've already made that ininvestment this year and we still have a strong cash position. thirdly, we'd like to maintain and hopefully grow our dividend and finally, we've been able in in and in a position to buy down a number of shares. we suspend that had temporarily. that's kind of our flex point. i hope within a few years, we'll be back to generating very substantial positive free cash flow and we'll be able to deploy money into all of those areas. so he we'll evaluate the dividend appropriately each time we pay it, our board will. but our hope certainly is to maintain it and maybe raise it in the future. >> good to have you on the program. we appreciate your time today. >> thank you, maria. >> we'll see you soon. jim owens. up next we round out the big day

of earnings from the airlines and pharmaceutical businesses. we'll be right back with a market that has the market up 35 points. access to favorite courses chef's meal with pommes frites perhaps a night at the theater with extra special seats additional hotel night, our treat you world in perfect harmony: priceless look for world on your mastercard to get rewards and offers that matter to you.

welcome back. the airline and pharmaceutical industries highlighting today's earnings prayed. mike huckman is tracking the

drugmakers. phil lebeau on the airlines. continental cutting workforce. tough results from ual. >> these airlines are going to be flying into an economic storm. keep that in mind as you take a look at results from today. southwest beat the street by a penny, posting a profit of eight cents a share. cautious comment from ceo gary keller. united also did better than expected. eps, 38 cents above what the street was expecting. stock getting a pop on that, up more than 7% today. finally continental one cent below with a loss of $1.36. they say the average fare tumbled 18% last quarter. led by a 24% in transatlantic flights. if you add up the eight biggest carriers, the combined losses total $1.2 billion according to bank of america. we were talking about gary kelly from southwest airlines saying things are going to be tough from here on out, primary because business travel is so weak around the world. that's one of the pressures facing this industry.

that's the story with airlines. mike has more when it comes to pharmaceuticals. >> merck made more money than wall street thought. they posted a six cent second quarter beat on earnings per share. revenue slightly ahead of expectations and refirmed sales for the full year. as a result, shares of the dow component are the biggest dollar% and gainer in the sector today on a big pharma ticker. followed by the company with schering-plough, pfizer and lily are also doing well. merck's results helped out by a surprisingly strong rebound in singulair. despite the fda splaping a new warning on the drug for suicide risk, revenue rose 16% to $1.3 billion. merck's knew treatment jen uvia remains a sales driver. the once strong gard sill vaccine for sexually transmitted disease continues to stumble. u.s. sales plummeted 18%.

merck thinks the expensive shots could sell better during the school season. i'm writing today about merck's new vaccine for shingles. >> thanks mike. >> thanks very much. up next, president obama pursuing his health care reform again today as it faces increasing opposition. in a first on cnbc interview, kathy lean sebelius tells us if and when the legislation could be passed by congress and if raising taxes will be necessary to pay for reform.

welcome back. the president continues to punish for congress to complete health care legislation by august but making that deadline appears to be in doubt. the house is reportedly considering delaying its august recess to complete the bill. the latest view from the obama administration right now in a cnbc interview with kathleen sebelius. good to have you on the program. >> good to be with you. >> let me ask you a question that i guess seems pretty basic for most people.

one of the major issues that we all face is the cost of soaring health care which is of course, that the president has said breaking the backs of american families. can you tell us in simple terms what is so expensive? why do costs continue to soar every year? >> well, actually, we spend more, maria than any country on earth. we spend about $2.5 trillion a year, a lot of money. and our health outcomes look like we're spending less than many countries on earth. so we're not getting the bang for our buck. premiums for those insured continue to rise out of pocket costs rise. deductibles rise and for those who are underinsured or have no coverage, they're finding it more and more difficult to keep themselves and families healthy. but the costs are crushing businesses, governments, families. and we cannot sustain the current path we're on. >> so again, why? why is it so expense sniv why do

costs continue to rise? can you pinpoint why exactly this cost is out of control? >> i think we have a system right now that pays for contact and not for quality. so we pay for every doctor visit. we pay for every drug and device. we overpay for many pharmaceuticals. we've got too much waste and fraud. we overpay for medical equipment. what we need to do is change to a system where we focus on wellness, reward doctors for keeping people healthy. stop paying for things that we know don't work very well. stop paying for the number of contacts doctors make instead of what happens at the end of the day. lower the kind of errors that occur when people go to the hospital. 100,000 people, maria, in the united states each and every year die in the hospital. not from what brought them into the hospital but accidents and mistakes that happen while they're there. those are all things that we can deal with in a reformed health

care system. >> you have supported the is your tax on the wealthy to help pay for the president's health care plan after establishing the fact that costs have soared. the question becomes how do you pay for it. the policy analysts see no way that the senate would pass legislation with the tax that the house has proposed. 5.4% tax on the highest earners. are there any alternatives in terms of paying for this other than taxing the rich? is it always tax the rich, tax the rich? >> no, there are lots of alternatives on the table. first of all we start from the point that the house and senate both have proposals where more than half the money comes from within the system as being removed from areas that we know don't work, don't keep people healthier, don't make for good medicine and redirected to what will keep americans healthier will drive more primary care, we'll drive more wellness. so savings from within the current system is the bulk of the money. the president has put on the table a proposal that he thinks is the best way to go after the

rest of the money, which is to basically return the itemized deductions to the level where they were in the days of ronald reagan so the very wealthiest americans would be returned to a cap of 28%. the senate is looking at a variety of other proposals as you say, the house has some surcharge on the wealthiest americans. the president wants this to be paid for, though, and so does congress. this not add to the deficit and that's good for the bottom line. >> that sounds like good news but why do you think that america keeps souring on the plan no doubt, you've seen the latest poll as the debate over health care reform intensifies. the latest gallop poll finds that more americans disapprove than approve, 50% disapprove as opposed to 45% of the way the president is handling health care policy. why do you think thats? >> i think i'm out each and every day and i talk to people all across this country, and

first of all, there's a lot of misinformation. people are afraid that somebody's going to take their doctor away from them or their health plan away from them. as the president continues to say if you have a plan you like, you're going to keep it. for senior who have medicare benefits that they absolutely rely on and think are great and like their doctors, that's going to be stabilized by this. we have a pathway right now where medicare's going to go broke not too many years down the road. we want to stabilize it and help seniors pay their drug cost. part of reform fills that doughnut hole for seniors now buying prescription drugs and reach a point where they don't get help with those. we want to make sure that will families have coverage they can afford and our small business owners are competitive again. part of it is is getting information to the american public that this is a system which in the long run will benefit everybody because we can't keep spending more and getting worse health results than any nation on earth.

>> right. and, of course, in addition to the cost, the other major issue we'll talk about is the quality. this is the final question here. how does a government run insurance option competing alongside private companies create a fair playing field and do you worry that with the government-run insurance option, that's going to impact quality, that we may not be getting the best doctors and quality care? >> well, maria, what i know from watching an insurance marketplace and regulating the marketplace as a former insurance commission ser that competition does a great job lowering costs. the private insurance companies right now have a monopoly. they get to decide who gets insurance coverage and who doesn't. who gets locked out of the system because you have a preeconomisting condition or your child has been sick or your spouse is a recovering from a heart attack. >> yeah, but is it better than the government decides? >> well, those rules need to change and i think what the government can do is compete

with the private insurers same rules, level playing field. competition is good and i think it will help drive down costs and give consumers they desperately want and need. >> secretary sebelius, we know you and your team are working very hard on this important legislation. we appreciate you taking the tile to speeb with us today. secretary kathleen sebelius. >> up next the fast money final call. the tech sector up nine consecutive trading sessions. up next, feigned out if the rally has been played out or if there are still good buying opportunities. >> cnbc, we will bring you instant analysis of the latest results of the day, apple, amd, yahoo! and starbucks all on deck. you'll get the numbers here 4:00 p.m. (announcer) this is nine generations

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>> woman back. time for the fast money final call. technology has been rallying the past few days. can it continue? here's some answers. the senior trader at smb capital. jeff, one of the things that strikes me along with some of

the big industrial names is we're seeing inventories come down a little bit. we saw this from texas instruments. i don't know. have we seen real demand pick up at this point. >> it's in the price action what we're seeing in the stocks. today you brought up in your opening comments, nine consecutive positive days. today might be the tenth. we haven't seen that in 199 . the market is believing these tech stocks whether it's texas instruments or intel or ibm, these are the stocks leading this market higher.o these are also the stocks that helped with financials in march lead us off the bottom of the market. >> how about apple? is that the highest level since going back to september? earnings after the bell? what do you do here? >> that's a great question. for me as a short term to intermediate trader i'm doing absolutely nothing. if you know how to play options look to present yourself. this stock is up year to date, it's up 79, i think 80%. i like apple but i want to see how they report after the bell and then, bob, i want to see the

price action tomorrow and then also tonight after the close. and in the post market. >> you know this is the question i keep coming back to it, but on the demand i'd, if you look at ibm it's essentially back to its september 15th level. the prelehman bankruptcy levels right now. it's come all the way back. >> correct. >> i have to get back to this demand question. i know inventories keep dropping. i don't hear a lot about demand increase. >> that's a great question. again, i'm looking at the price action, the demand we'll see obviously when these companies start reporting especially apple today. my biggest concern of apple going in, is there a demand from the consumer? are we going to sell ipods, how many are we going to sell? on a technical basis, if i could buy ibm at 110, 1.0 , that's a level i'd be looking for. >> how much are you up for the year. >> i'm a prop trader. have you to talk money wise. >> money wise then.

>> money. >> coming up on "fast money," instant analysis from apple. yahoo!'s conference calls and the best way to trade the stocks post earnings. plus is, america blowing bubbles again. richard bernstein breaks down why the u.s. economy is ready to mimic japan. >> up next, a cnbc exclusive interview with rich ekker son. join us for that interview ahead.

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welcome back. an early indicator of global growth can be found in the activity of the mineral resource players. one of the largest players is freeport mcmoran. take a look at freeport. in an exclusive, we go inside the company's second quarter earnings with the ceo and president richard adkerson. welcome back. >> good to be back, maria. >> can you characterize what the highlights were in the quarter. >> the highlights were that we had a very strong quarter.

we developed new operating plans at the beginning of the year and we executed across the board on those plans and then copper prices are higher now than anticipated earlier in the year. and that resulted in very strong results for our company. >> what are you seeing in terms of growth around the world right now? what are your most promising markets? >> well, it's china. china has been the support for the copper markets during 2009. both through its infrastructure spending and the performance of its economy. and replen fishing its stocks. so china has been the source of copper demand globally in the face of weak demand in the u.s. and the western world. >> it's interesting because as you see china implement its stimulus plan, a lot of people talking it's actually going better than expected and are you seeing demand come back in that very important region. at the same time, copper prices are up better than 70% in 2009. we do have a global economic slowdown. do you think prices are getting ahead of themselves?

>> i never try to look at it that way. underlying the situation in china and the western world is a very attractive supply situation for copper. the copper industry is having difficulty producing volumes out of its existing mines and even when prices were high, it was struggling to find new projects to develop. so you have an attractive supply situation and now with demand being driven by china has resulted in today's world and the longer run outlook when we have recovery in the west is very promising for copper. >> so let me ask you about the supply of copper right now because your company has operations in indonesia, in africa, in addition to those operations in north and south america. the indonesian operation has been talked about recently because it's got the world's largest recoverable copper reserves and the biggest gold reserve. how much have you recovered there and how important is a region like indonesia for freeport mcmoran.

>> it's a cornerstone of our company. this is one of the mining industry's great ore bodies. we're fortunate during this period to be mining at the highest grade section that have mine and our resultses have benefited by the copper volumes and gold volumes we've had there. during the second quarter, we had a net credit of 50 cents per pound for each pound of copper that we produced there net of the goal by-product credit. >> so you've also got the largest gold mine there, as well. what kind of growth would you expect to get out of that reasoning of the world and what do you think that does for earnings? give us a sense and characterize how important this really is for freeport. >> it's very important. it is a mine that is now a mature mine in the sense it's fully developed. we have very long life ares and continuing to add to them. bau the ore itself has high grades of gold as well as copper it makes it particularly attractive particularly in times

like these where we have a strong gold price and a relatively weak copper market. >> with the supply situation pretty strong then, what's driving the price of copper in your view? why has it move so much? >> china. it's absolutely china in today's world. >> because the demand is just rising there you're saying? >> they've had record imports of copper for a series of months now and with the growth in their gnp, their $600 million infrastructure program, they're restobing their low levels of inventories and there is an absence of scrap around the world, add that all together and china is really the driving force for copper prices during the first half of 2009. >> really interesting. do you think that china will be the driving force then in a global economic recovery? how much -- how much do you put into the idea that china is going to be the leadership here and that stimulus package is increasingly important not just to the chinese people but to the world? >> it's china and behind that, maria, is the rest of the

developing world. as all these large populations of countries around the world that are living in an undeveloped situation move forward and i'm talking about a long-term view now and start improving their standards of living, building cities, building places to work, buying cars, comooukt communication devices, all of those things have requirements for copper. and so the long run view for our industry is, it will be driven by increasing demand in the developing world and then when the economies in the developed world recover, it will make for a very attractive situation. >> and the most used, the most important usage for copper, is it still the housing market or something else? >> it's a combination of construction and not just housing but commercial construction. it's used in transportation, communication, the world has become increasingly electronic and increasingly mechanized.

things like energy saving devices will have a significant copper component and if we think about a world that moves towards hybrid cars or electric cars, they have two to three times more copper than ordinary cars. so copper is really fundamental to infrastructure development and economic activity broadly. >> you really explains that well because people want to know really specifically where the demand is coming from and we see it in plain sight with some of the themes that you just mentioned. your industry has also undergone a fair amount of consolidation. looking at the players out there, we're just watching the happenings between rio tinto and bhp. do you believe we'll continue to see deals within the group? do you think that we've got a consolidated situation here or are there too many players which will likely come together? >> in a world where it's difficult to find new resources

and when the industry views copper as such an attractive commodity, that's going to lead to forces that will encourage further consolidation and overtime, i'm sure that we'll see it. >> are you going to be a buyer or seller, sir? >> we're going to look at the situation in terms of what's best for shareholders. our company is very focused on shareholder value. we have a current strategy that we're confident will create more value as we expand our existing mine and resources. we don't have to make an acquisition to grow. >> right. >> and so we're just going to be focused on what's best in the changing world. >> mr. adkerson, we so appreciate your time today. thank you. >> thanks. >> we'll see you soon, richard adkerson. ceo and president of freeport mcmoran. the closing count down after this break. >> after the bell, apple, amd,

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[bell ringing] the way the stock market's been acting lately you may wonder if you've been doing the right thing. is the advice you've been getting helping or hurting? are the fees you're paying really worth it? td ameritrade's fees are fair and straight-forward. their research is independent and unbiased. their investment consultants are knowledgeable and there when you need them. so why not talk to one? announcer: call today to schedule a free investment check-up, or visit a td ameritrade branch. bob pisani at the inform stock exchange. earnings deep but revenues generally on the light side. it's not just that story. that's not enough to move the markets. we're talking about some kind of price stabilization. that's what's really helping things overall. maria is next.

and it is 4:00 on wall street. do you know where your money is? hi, everybody. welcome back to the "closing bell." i'm maria bartiromo on the floor of the inform stock exchange. stock prices once again, the dow industrial average kicks off the seventh straight move on the upside. the nasdaq looked like it will stretch to a streak, a winning streak of ten in a row. helping set the tone today, once again, earnings from the second quarter reporting companies. dow component caterpillar beat expectations but the market cheered the company's upbeat forecast. the company's ceo just told me moments ago what drives growth going forward. the stock up 8%. we'll have more coming up. the earnings don't stop there a slew of reports coming up this hour, including heavyweights apple computer and yahoo!. we'll have all the numbers and analysis for you. show you what the stock does in the extended hours. the dow jones industrial average finishing at the highs of the

afternoon, now up 67 points .75% at 8915. nasdaq also higher six points or a third of a percent at 1916, the s&p picks up 3.5 points. the banks still lagger. 954. bob pisani on the floor of the nyse right now. >> we were up 70 points, then went flat and crawled all the way back. we're talking about earnings but a little more than that because top line is what's important here. what happened here today, let's say earnings are heating up but it's really the talk about stability on the top line that matters. we saw caterpillar and united technologies make positive comments today. the bulls are arguing that any talk of stabilization particularly on the top line might mean better earnings visibility down the road. we didn't have visibility six months ago. now that possibility is moving the markets forward here. remember that is also helping death penalties become more confident raising