and take a look at the top performers for global markets over the past two trading weeks. russia, number one. 24%. america is not at the top of the list. hungary on the list, poland, norway? and romania. the world's worst performers slovakia down almost 6%. thanks for watching. time for the "closing bell." >> lenders purchase in the home loan modify cases program have pledged to increase the rate at which they modify loans. california governor arnold schwarzenegger has signed the $85 billion budget plan.

the plan has been approved by the legislature last week. shares of aig rising today after it sold its premium finance business for nearly $700 million. that's news now. i'm julia boorstin. here's a live photo of the new york stock exchange. weakness on the heels of weaker than expected market day. market under selling pressure once again. welcome to the "closing bell." i'm maria bartiromo on the floor of the new york stock exchange. along with scott wapner. >> pretty resilient market and had every reason to go down with the nasty consumer confidence number. >> yeah, the number this morning, weaker than expected. we are probably going to need some evidence of this economic turn around or recovery is in place before we really see that that bull run get serious legs here, although i would agree with you, scott, it seems like a

victory with the market down 39 points here after this huge run-up we've seen. should point that oil back below 68 at 67 and change. >> oil and energy stocks one of the weakest performers. you can really make the case i think that that case shiller number that showed home prices in may for the first time in three years rising is such a significant number. that may be for the first time you can put housing and bottom in the same sentence perhaps. maybe? >> that would be nice. after the existing home and new home sales numbers, you could make that argument. the dow off the worst levels of the day, down about 44 points. the nasdaq also weaker today by 1 point. technology has been one of the more resilient groups. s&p 500 weaker by six points. >> our team is covering the markets and we begin with our eye on the floor as bob pisani is here at new york stock exchange. >> folks, they have good comments on the case shiller

numbers. the dow dropped 100 points. don't focus on that. we know those are notoriously fickle. the stock, the watch word for stocks is resiliency. four days in a row, haven't you noticed this? they try to push stocks down and then midday they rally back. the dow is down 100 points, 20 minutes ago, it was almost even here. it's filling back a little bit. tech stocks lead in the middle of the day, home builders leading as well here. case shiller numbers potentially are a game-changer. still too early to tell. for the first time since 2006 it, home prices went up compared month over month. i mean from march -- from april into may. that's very important. we saw 17% drop compared to a year ago. that's not good but the rate of decline is slowing. here's a reality check. from the peek home prices in the

20-city index 32% off peak. these are showing improvement. the analyst community putting out notes that reflect that. in a nutshell, the recent data suggests the decline in u.s. house prices coming to an end much sooner than expected. nobody expects a big jump in home prices. everybody tempered their comments but this is potentially very important data and we're keeping an eye on that and it's reflected in the markets. home building stocks up. the index up 23% in 11 days. masco had surprisingly positive commentary about the second half the of the year expecting a full year profit. the stock's up 13%. also helping the home builders, as well. lumber prices, i know i don't talk about it a lot, but it's up 10% in the last two days. some of this may be due to the fact that there's production

cuts announced here. again you want to see commodities coming off lows here. that's potentially important, as well. else where, a strong dollar here today puts pressures on commodity stocks overall and we see that commodities are down, big commodity names are week, valero energy reported disappointing numbers, as well. other names, same situation. the last two weeks i've had big run-ups in all these stocks off their midday lows. trader talk.cnbc.com. >> right there we hit the peak at 2:30 eastern time on the nasdaq if we can somehow get back up there, the nasdaq will have been up for 14 of the past 15 days. helping move things up could be a relatively small deal, but it is with a very big company and for a very big premium, talking about ibm buying this business software company spss, that's not only the company's name,

convenientlyletsly it's the company's ticker symbol. ibm pays 50 bucks a share for that company. a few stories to talk about, as well. teva is on a tear hitting another new high, up 4%. this company not only beat the veet today but raised earnings guidance for next year saying it's going to have at least 35% organic earnings growth. how many companies can say that in biopharmaceuticals? on the flipside, the company that makes commercial trucks paccar still sees weakness in sales. buffalo wild wings are up 13% or so over the last week, up 6.5% today. the company beat the street today by a buffalo nickel looking ahead to tomorrow, finally, watch shares of onyx farm suitcals, bayer is going to report where sales of the cancer drug they share. let's go to sharon at the nymex. >> mike, when consumer c

confidence dips that means there's less demand for energy anna always is a drag on oil prices. we have oil down over $1, and the fact that we got that consumer sentiment figures coming out and that stocks are lower and the dollar a little bit stronger is all weighing on energy prices. we are off of the lows of the session. in the next hour we'll have the report from the american petroleum institute where supplies are headed and where they've been in the last week or so. they're expected to have risen in the past week. that could weigh on prices in the after hours session and perhaps tomorrow morning. but the real story today was on what was happening in washington. the commodities future trading commission, the hearings there, the chairman there saying he strongly wants the commission to consider imposing stricter position limits and that is what they were discussing. he said they're not going to blame the speculators though they are going to look at the role of speculators in price volatility. he's going to start to have a

quarterly report of index investors. a lot of the talk from participant notice hearing was about whether or not who should be in power in terms of enforcing those position limits and determining the formula for them. the cme group wants to be in charge of their market because they want to make sure the position limits are done correctly kroordsing to the s ceo, craig donahue. he said if not done correctly, there could be unintended consequences. >> we've seen it happen many, many times is the business will move to offshore markets and unregulated over the counter markets where there is no reportability and nobody las any idea what market participants are doing. we're trying to defend against that outcome. >> up tomorrow in the hearing in washington will be goldman sachs and jpmorgan. chase executive boards will be interesting to see as they are a very big commodity trader. >> that's sharon ep certain with today's energy trade. a check now on today's business

headlines. encouraging news from the housing sector today. the s&p case shiller home price index rising .5% in may, the first time in nearly three years home prices have actually increased. year over year prices are down more than 17%. it's the fourth straight month that rate of decline has slowed. the conference board reported consumer confidence index for july fell to a lower than expected reading much 46.6. americans remain very concerned about rising unemployment and the richmond fed reports manufacturing index jumped eight points to a reading of 14 this months. any number above zero indicates expanding manufacturing activity in the central atlantic region. >> let's put the pieces together. find out what it means to invest in this environment. jill evans is alpine funds coportfolio manager and larry canter is bark clay capital's head of research. jill, do you want to be putting new money to work after this

huge run-up? >> the market's rallied 11% since alcoa's earnings on july 8 p this while we're still positive heading into 2010, wouldn't be surprises if we had a little bit of consolidation. the market's been incredibly resilient and we try to buy stocks we like as they come down a little bit here. >> somebody just said to me on the phone there's a difference between the stock market and the economy and we're seeing that once again today because the market is not necessarily reflecting the real fundamentals of the economy. know you've been bluish, larry, but is it because of the fundamental backdrop having changed or because of valuation? >> i think it's both. i think the market if you go back to early march was priced pretty much a significant probability of disaster and we've averred the disaster scenario. i still think there's upside. all we've seen so far is better than expected news on housing. we know that housing it is maybe

going up a bit. manufacturing haven't seen that much. we think for july, you're going to see industrial production move up, especially auto production, some upside on the consumer and i think that will add further into the rally. jill, size up earnings season for us. has it been good. it's been at least better than expected earnings because of cost cutting not for any real revenue growth but sequentially, if you look at revenue growth, it is showing some improvement there. >> we were very encouraged during earnings season. you expect companies to cut costs in this type of environment. they were incredibly productive. last second quarter, gdp was up. it's going to be tough to beat our revenue. a lot of companies did a fabulous job of taking out costs. it's over a lower cost base and we're going to see more improvement here. >> everything is cyclical. if she's right, this is a typical recovery. you've got a lot more upside.

we've got a 3% second half gdp, above the consensus. our forecasts will be the weakest recovery ever. >> second half of the year sounds a little farfetched. >> you say it's farfetched, i say that would be the weakest recovery ever after how hard we went down. we think way upside rick to the consensus which now i think expects a weak tepid recovery. >> what about if you listen to norah rabini who said it's not necessarily the fact that the recession is over but that we are going to have a very weak recovery. not typical, weaker than what you're talking about. you still want on the cyclicals? >> recovery here in the u.s. but china, emerging marks, brazil are seeing a v-shaped recovery. in the u.s. a u shaped recovery. china is bouncing back and driving a lot of materials and the rest of the world is growing very strong where they were before the downturn. >> everybody is saying that about china.

yesterday we had somebody on who said what recession? there's back to 9%. but how do you participate in that? what do i do if i want to get a piece of that. >> you do material stocks. china needs materials. steel, coal, any of those kind of materials and the industrials that supply those. >> does that bleed into an overall emerging markets story? emerging markets are going to lead the rest of the world? >> absolutely, brazil auto sales up 40%. there's a lot of different ways to play it, china, india, brazil. >> i'm calling it the inflation trade. it's fascinating. but i don't know that it necessarily means inflation in this country but you definitely see price rises of the materials that a country like china needs. >> absolutely. >> thank you very much. great conversation, jill, larry, we'll see you soon. appreciate that. >> we have about 45 minutes to go before the closing bell on wall street. right now the dow jones industrial average down bill 43 points. it was down triple digits earlier. the nasdaq as well as well,

barely positive now after touching barely negative after touching positive territory a short time ago. >> fractional moves. you have to call it a victory because of the run-up we've seen recently. we're going to talk about media right after this break. we will talk with the ceo of viacom to talk about any improvement he may be seeing in ad revenue. a lot to talk about media with felipe. >> later we're taking the pulse of the consumer. luke frankfurt tells us if the luxury handbag makers is helping drive traffic into stores. >> an exclusive after the bell tonight. we are talking real estate with sam bell. he was brilliant in the boom time. he was a seller. aware talking about the opportunities in the industry. sam zell joins me at 4:15. >> the most active stocks on the new york stock exchange led by

financials and our parent company, citigroup, bank of america, general electric, sprint nextel and pfizer down at the bottom. i never thought i would have a heart attack, but i did. you need to talk to your doctor about aspirin. you need to be your own advocate. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. you take care of your kids, now it's time to take care of yourself.

welcome back. there's a shot of viacom stock down 2%, $23.75 a share. the company reported a 32% decline in second quarter earnings earlier today and hopes a distribution deal for a new pay tv channel could signal brighter times ahead. we are joined in an exclusive interview for a braukdown of the numbers with viacom's ceo felipe do youman. viacom i guess is not much different than other media companies. we're all seeing the impact of a slow economy. can you characterize what you're seeing right now. >> stabilization. we reported earlier today sequentialal improvement from minus 9% from minus 6% in the second quarter. we announced today that we are pretty much done with the up front advertising sales for our group of networks and we're

quite pleased with what we're seeing in terms of both volume and pricing relative to what the economy conditions are. >> that's interesting because the up front i guess obviously is very very important and today you're announcing you're done. what does that tell you about advertising numbers going forward? how important was this quarter in terms of dictating what you're going to do? >> i think there's generally better sentiment out there. a few months ago we were all concerned where the advertising market was going. that's because advertisers were uncertain about their own companies. and now i think people see that there will be a recovery eventually. and it's not that great a calculation to hope for better scatter pricing in the advertising markets. so advertisers still want flexibility. there will still be some pressure on volume for many, but pricing is holding up relatively well, certainly in the scatter market it's holding up pretty well. >> you're expecting we'll continue to see squeengsal

improvement? >> i don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves. we're only one month into the third quarter but we're certainly feeling that the situation is stable. >> the cable properties, the networks like b.e.t., nickelodeon have been very strong over a long-term period. are you seeing better performance in some networks than others in terms of cable? where is the real growth potential in these properties? >> well, we love all our brands. you mentioned some of the brands. we also have comedy central, spike and many others around the world. >> are the cables really the jewels still? >> yeah, the cable networks are a great category. have you multiple revenue streams, affiliate revenues. you have ad sales, of course vaughn merchandising particularly for a network like nickelodeon. we had spongebob here on the floor and merchandise sales for spongebob are up this year compared to last year. we love these businesses and relative to other media assets

they perform really well even in advertising. so cable networks are relatively speaking, much better performance than broadcast of all categories, magazines, newspapers you name it. >> are there opportunities now in this uncertain period for most companies to expand the parts of the business that are really working like cable or mix up the shifts? how do you want the viacom portfolio to look let's say in a year or so? >> we love what we have. we have cable networks and the paramount studio. we've operated more efficiently but we have continued to invest in new programming. that is the life blood of our company. that's creating long-term value, and we're expanding brands around the world which is a great opportunity for us in the long-term. >> let me ask you about the rest of the world here. what region is most important to viacom and where do you see growth? we were just on the floor with money managers talking about the strength of china. what can you tell us about china, perhaps india important

four, as well. where is the potential for viacom as well? >> we love india and sergeant the second anniversary of a had you hindi language channel called colors. it actually became the number one channel in many india years ahead of expectations. so it's a great asset we're building over there outside of our established brands. in fact, we expect to have distributions of colors in the united states with with the indian american community. china is a tougher markets for us today in the media sector just because the regulatory framework is still not all that friendly and a lot of piracy. we hope as the indigenous entertainment builds over there, it can become a good market over there. >> what about europe. >> right now our most important market. economic conditions especially in the uk are tough. we are seeing tough conditions. again, we have a good presence there and want to build our

presence over time you the uk of germany are possibly have strong ratings growth pretty much in every geography. they exist or get saebed. that drives ad revenue. when you look at the company globally in terms of ad sales, do you see a shift in motivation to digital properties as opposed to broadcast and cable? give me your sense of what's going on in terms of money moving throughout the various avenues? >> well, cable network

advertising as a category is good strong category. online is growing. we are big performers in that area and have a good multiplatform offering now through our site. >> we're doing very well. we do very well from a cpm standpoint and otherwise online. but i think the losers in that environment are the print advertising platforms and a lot of the local advertising platforms, broadcast for example. >> it's amazing to see how many magazines are folding right now and newspapers. do you think that there's even a business there in ten years? >> a lot of them will close down, but there is a business for the good brands. i think it's about discovering the new models. if you have a strong brand whether it's on television or if you're a well-known newspaper, you just have to knave gate the new model. so i think what they need to do is build subscription models online. >> that's a good point. tell us about film to entertainment.

that includes the movie studio paramount. the division ii 2% decline in revenue. how is the downturn, how has it affected the way you make movies and what can you tell us as far as "transformers" and the sequel? you're not necessarily seeing the impact just yet. >> the revenue changes in the studio are based on timing issues. transformers opened up with six days left in the quarter. so we expense all the marketing money up front and the benefit of transformers will roll out in the subsequent quarter. we'll have very strong second half performance as well as star trek which came out of the quarter as well as the dvd that we're distributing for dreamworks animation for "aliens versus monsters." so we feel very good about the second half and beyond for the studio which has a strategy built on a lot of great strong franchises like star trek and

many more. >> it sounds like you could have a better second half. you certainly have it set up. >> certainly the studio is set up very well for the second half just because of the rolling through of these pictures through the window. >> real quick on this new pay channel, epic, compete with hbo and showtime. why launch this channel now? >> well, we had the opportunity to start with a blank slate, a true multiplatform offering on air, on vod, online, and on mobile with this verizon deal. it's a great way to utilize the film for the pay window from paramount and our partners at mgm and lion's gate. first deal being launch inside october. it will be a great new asset for us. >> how is the consumer doing? dvd sales? >> still soft but there's a disparity between the big titles like "transformers" and the smaller titles. we're blesses with having the big titles.

any discretionary spending is vulnerable. that's why you're seeing trouble in merchandise as well as dvd. we're well positioned. >> nice to have you on the program. felipe dauman. the final stretch of tradinging. dow industrials down by about 47 points with 30 minutes to go before the close. up next, steel demand continues to remain weak. goldman sachs turns bullish on one big steel maker. what that tells us about raw materials. first take a look at the bond markets and where interest rates are right now. we're back in a moment.

welcome back. i'm rebecca jarvis. realtime, mexican food chain operator shares seeing 440%. their average trading volume today. no specific news. last week the burrito maker announced price hikes, store openings resulted in earnings and sales success. today the story is equity out with its results. the applebee's owner beat some of the street's expectations but came up short on same store sales. also a concern there is the debt load. we continue to watch that.

over to you. >> rebecca, thank you. taking a look at some of the day's research calls. the latest upgrades and downgrades. goldman upgrading u.s. steel to buy from neutral because it should benefit from rising flat rolled steel prices and high exposure to potential recovery in the auto industry. citigroup citing lanar easily out performing rivals and jeffrey's upgrading autodesk to hold because of stabilizing business trends. the final call. tech continuing to outperform the rest of the market. but can it keep up the pace. answers when we come back on the closing bell.

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welcome back. we're in the final stretch here. about 25 minutes before the closing bell sounds for the day. very much a mix situation, not necessarily across the board down by any means. the dow industrials down 42 points. about half of 1% as you can see there at 9,065. the market as you know has had a rouge run-up. nasdaq up about 23% year to date. that's why today we are seeing a flat situation as you can see. and the s&p 500 currently down

about 5.5 points. .05%. tech stocks as maria just said have been shining in the recent market rebound. ibm announced a buyout. we look at what's ahead with jon najarian and our own cnb zillion valley bureau chief jim goldman. doc, look, techs obviously been on this big run. we referenced the fact the nasdaq is up 20% year to date. do you think it can continue? >> yeah, i do. just that spss that you mentioned that ibm purchased for $1.2 billion, that's a 40% pop overnight. the reason it continues to get done is there's so much cash on the balance sheets of ibm, of oracle, cisco, microsoft. we haven't mentioned them in the takeover space and they've got a ton of cash and going to spend it. so the firms i would concentrate

on are the ones basically in the 500 million to about 5 billion space. i think those are going to be gobbled up quickly as these big tech firms have the cash, don't need to go out and raise it. that's been an ongoing theme that continues to play the organization for economic cooperation and development was out with a report this week saying tech firms see a recovery. certainly around the world from the companies and the analysts that you're speaking with, which sectors with within tech are feeling the best right now would you say? >> i think software is looking good. hardware is starting to see signs of recovery. the chipmakers have had very good things to say towards the back half of 2009 into the first quarter of 2010. that's very good. services, software, software services also looking interesting, infrastructure is as we start to see the stimulus packages take effect and get some traction in the marketplace, those are starting to look good, as well. we're looking for individual

targets. one keeps coming up over and over again. this isn't me talking about the rumors surrounding netflix. a lot of analyst reports recently saying this company is getting the attention of the likes of amazon and microsoft. this very well might be the next company to fall in a pretty significant way as far as acquisitions are concerned. >> dr. j, i don't want to put you on the spot or anything, but do you notice any sort of activity on the options side for netflix or the like? >> we've seen a lot of speculation there. that died down with the zap po's purchase. netflix would be a much bigger purchase than zappos but that might have been the reason there was such a buzz, scott, about netflix was that there was something going on clearly. that deal was done with zap po's. i would say the video game companies are going to be also in focus because many of them have had significant drop-offs. they don't have a lot of new titles coming out just yet. as these new titles are coming

out, that's when the focus will be back on those guys. i'd look to buy those on the cheap. just like amazon said, the big purchases of video games were not happening in the quarter. that's bad for the gamemakers and bad for game stop. but could be good for an investor who's smart and willing to be patient. >> i think what was i read a couple days ago that the npd group was out with a report on video game sales last month or the last quarter being down by a record amount. if you don't have new titles and as we saw referenced today by a consumer confidence number which was weak, if consumers aren't willing to spend money it's sort of a double dose of bad news for that particular sector of tech. >> there was this talk that video games were the sector that kept on giving, a great value proposition for consumers looking for a good deal for their entertainment deal. we saw ta early on as the recession began to take hold but now we're starting to see it

fall off. xbox, playstation and wii continue to go along but the market is essentially done. people who wanted those devices already own those devices. the holiday shopping season we typically see a nice uptick. that holiday shopping season is still three, four months away. i think we're going to see things kind of static and borg till those sales start to really take hold as we approach the back half of this year. >> dr. j, i referenced that oec report with jim earlier and also said that other countries in the world are going to come back in terms of a tech rebound faster than the u.s. >> and it's pretty clear that in the far east, we've seen that happening already. i would think that that continues to play out that there's still a lot of demand there being met by cheaper devices and in some cases devices that aren't approved here in the states yet. but that could switch around the other way, as well, because we could see, scott, and we're just

waiting to see when the iphone and some of these big devices that are made here become available over in china and i think that's another driver that is for another conversation. >> all right. dr. j, jon najarian, jim goldman, good to see you. coming up, a first on cnbc interview with the ceo of hertz. said to report earnings after the bell today. what will they say about the state of the consumer? plus high frequency trading is the hot new buzzword on the floor. what is it and are those using it getting an unfair advantage. guest host rick santelli joins the fast money traders live at 5:00. >> we about 20 minutes before the close for the day for the market. banks and oils under pressure. a handful of tech like ibm is weaker as is intel and cisco. really a mixed market even within the banking sector, jpmorgan lower, bank of america higher. not a real trend to point out. >> biotech has been doing fairly well as the nasdaq trying to get back into positive territory. coach is reporting a 32% drop in

second quarter net income. up next, lieu frank further explains were the company is making a big growth push right now. >> after the bell, another exclusive one-on-one with sam zell. find out when he thinks tribune could emerge from bankruptcy and how about real estate. we'll talk to the equity group investments chairman.

welcome back. coach shares down today about 2%. $27.85 last trade. reported net income was down to $14.8 million in the fourth quarter, matching wall street estimates but down year over year. despite the down trend, the company is continuing to expand planning to open 20 new retail stores in north america it, expanding store sales in china. we're joined right now to talk about the road ahead with the ceo of coach lew frankfort. i guess one of the things i wanted to kick off with was china because so many people come on this program and say

china is buzzing. what recession? they're back up to 9% growth or so. can you tell us what it's like on the ground in china? >> the middle class is growing rapidly. in in fact, in the last year, the percent of consumers that -- the number of consumers that we target actually has increased from 6 million to 8 million consumers and the luxury market grew by 40%. imported luxury brands, $1.6 billion so the rapidly growing middle class is actually providing us with an ever-increasing base for growth. >> isn't there a debate about that rapidly growing middle class that they have not yet figured out how to move from an expert led economic situation to a consumer led economy? >> that may be true in the overall sense but with regard to the professional middle class. >> and retail. >> we're talking about young women who are college educated,

emancipated having professional jobs, many with international companies, and feel that they're part of a global community. >> interesting. >> how many stores do you have in china? >> we have about 28 today but we're going to be opening 15 in the next 12 months. >> so you have an gressive expansion plans, one of the things analysts are focusing on as a nev or at least a concern in this current environment. do you feel because of the things you just said about the chinese consumer that regardless of the environment, now is the time you have to get in to your expansion in china? >> we would prefer to get in now because the market is growing rapidly. and we think the opportunity is limitless. for instance, our unaided awareness in china is 10% of what it is in japan and the u.s. so we're basically an unknown entity and yet, at the same time, we've been able to realize significant double digit same store sales growth over the last 12 months. >> we were talking leading into the segment how you really held

the line on your strategy, right? you go to the mall and you see almost every store has signs notice window, 20% off, 50% off, 75% off. you haven't discounted across the board and you've held firm on that strategy. how hard has it been to do that in this environment? >> it isn't hard because we all believe that we give consumers an everyday excellent price and have a multichannel strategy so that the value or oriented consumer to wants to buy coach on sale as discounts can go to our diffusion channel which is factory stores. while they cannot get current product, they can buy last year's product. >> the idea is you want customers to feel they're not going to buy something and it's not going to lose their value. >> we know we're in the middle of a recession. news week says the recession is over. what can you tell us about traffic? how is business today? >> our traffic has improved during july sequentially from june significantly.

but we think it's much more of a coach specific phenomenon because of the introduction of poppy and other strong collections at exceptionally compelling price points. we've had a very substantial lift from june. it's still tough out there generally. >> do you think the recession is over? >> no, i do not. i do believe consumer confidence is slowly increase. we did a survey of 3300 people and there is a glimmer of hope. more and more people believe the economy is staying the same or getting better. >> the number today was pretty negative. >> i saw that. >> as a business manager, you deputy see it. have you perception but as a business manager. >> absolutely. attitude precedes behavior. consumers have to feel okay that the bottom isn't going to fall out for a while before they actually will increase the way they spend. our goal is to gain market share regardless of whether the

overall market's growing. that's our intention and what we're doing. >> you mentioned the poppy line of bags you have at a lower price point, 200 to $300. >> that's right. >> what right knew is the average price of one of your handbags? >> just under $300 and the average poppy bag is about $260. so, what we have done is basically rebalanced to allow consumers many more choices in the 200 to $300 range. >> this is a battle almost of psychology. you don't want to sit there and discount and have the sign that says 50% off but willing to introduce a bag at a lower price point so the consumer thinks it's a real price. >> it's still coach. however, it's actually a new product. and consumers are smart. you cannot fool consumers. so they're looking at the product. they look at the materials. they look at the make and the detailing. and they make a judgment. and with the poppy offering and

tribeca, which is another group we just introduced and garnett, they're finding the price points really compelling. our intention is to offer great product and encourage a reluctant consumer who otherwise would defer spending to buy. i do believe the holiday season in america generally is going to be much stronger than it was last holiday because we had no christmas. >> you've got better comparisons this second half of the year. >> everyone does. >> what about the credit markets? you declared your first dividend recently. a lot of mid cap companies particularly on the heels of the cit group teetering talking about weak access to credit and the markets. how do you see it? >> for coach with, we're debt free, $00 million of cash on the balance sheet. we generate 700 or $800 million in free cash flow and our balance sheet is very strong and we thought this would be an additional way for us to give a return to consumers. >> lew, good to have you on the

program. lew frankfort, chairman and ceo of coach. >> about ten minutes to go before the closing bell, the dow jones down by just 15 points, nasdaq now positive. >> it really is. health care outperforms the broader market. tell you which groups are leading that charge. we're back in a moment.

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let's take a look at some of today's under the radar stocks. masco one of the day's big winners reporting better than expected second quarter earnings and raising revenue forecasts because of strong paint sales. could ventory health reporting a higher second quarter adjusted profit than analysts expected. the shiner hiking full year guidance above wall street expectations and pepsi america is reporting a 32% drop in second quarter earnings to $6 million because of the stronger dollar but excluding costs related to a joint venture, profit actually came in better than expects. >> two groups within the health care sect ser providing investors are some of the healthy returns today. rebecca has details on that. >> with the health care debate raging on in washington, it is interesting to note health care plans and hospitals are the top two performers as far as industry groups today.

the story behind hmos is twofold. scott told you about coventry health came out with a positive report. it also looks like health care reform may not include a government run option. if the senate compromise does exclude that government insurance plan analysts say it could play out positively for the private plans. we've already heard from most of them this earnings season. etna looking weak. united health beat expectations. it's been a mixed bag you could say but we'll get a fresh read for wellpoint. they report tomorrow, the biggest provider in the country and many people know wellpoint better as blue kroos cross blue shield. we have positive commentary from centene about the 2010 reimbursement rate environment. even on the government side of things, playing out somewhat positively. hospitals catching a bid today. tenant health care in line with expectations. the hospital operator did however raise guidance.

they said sales are strong thanks to the outpatient procedures. universal health is going to report its numbers after the bell today. and community health is out with its report on thursday, maria, back over to you. >> coming up with the closing countdown after this short break. >> new regulations for the energy markets but are speculators really behind last year's oil spike and will regulation make things worse? answers ahead at 4:00 p.m. eastern.

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