tough to make it this simple, but we have been having a broad conversation all the way through. an issue of supply and demand. you are talking here again that loan demand is weak. before it was falling. i don't know if that's a sign of stability or what you read into the demand side? >> i'm reading into not a lot of demand out there and there two reasons why they are not giving loans. one is that there is not a lot of demand and the borrower continues to deteriorate. you cannot answer whether or not banks are not lending because they are husbanding the money and the proves went to waste. the question is what happens when demand return fist they're still not lending. then another story. >> maybe it's a credit quality story. that's your point. >> steve is going to be with us in a couple of moments to talk about the broader story and the

stimulus. they have a demand for loans and restrictions here on residential mortgages. let's get to diana and you know you have been focusing on the home builder sentiment side. does that jive with what steve is reporting. >> despite a surge in the stocks and the nation's home builders are gaining confidence at a much more cautious rate. that is the monthly confidence survey rose to 18 remember there is a line in the survey between positive and negative is 50. we are a ways away from a healthy confidence. the survey covered areas and buyer traffic and sales expectations. traffic up three points and sales really took the biggest jump up four points and builders cite the tax credit for buoying sales and expectations.

what happens that? will there be momentum to keep us moving towards a recovery in light of hand widths like a severe credit crunch for loans and inappropriate appraisal practices that are scuttling a quarter of new home sales. granted, most stocks today are taking a hit, but overall the stocks of the builders are way up over the past two months. the time to get in may well be over. >> everyone thinks we'rar a few years away from decent earnings. the group has gotten ahead of itself. >> the sector needs better news than a bump up in the confidence survey. we get housing starts expected to rise along with perms continuing the news in housing. >> let's get instant market reaction from the trading floors and with the lending, let us get

to you first, rick. >> i get to go first. the story is somewhat similar to a lot of the other issues we have seen going all the way back to the credit crisis when it began a couple of years ago. that is start with the yield curve. there tends to be a steepening associate and we are not seeing it much at this point. let's go to the next start. it started in china and the equities are at the epicenter. the dollar index of course and the major beneficiary when you get safety and you city in a big way up about a half cent and continuing to build on anxieties and closer to home.. if you look at the side, you can see we are covering at 350.

many will see if we get down to those levels. i can't imagine that many traders will be look for reversal. >> i don't think so and part of the problem is that we just -- when you are down at the open, it's hard for the shorts to come in and short immediately. there is not a lot of room to make money. there is less room here today. we were chuckling over this line from the surveys saying the decline in lending stems from falling demand in credit and we are not lending and the people are not qualifying. speaking of delinquencies. that looks at the rate for the receivables and has been improvement. jpmorgan, the great losses and

delinquencies showed improvement. the bucket is stabilized and similar situation at american express. delinquencies declined at american express for the 5th straight month. all the talks are down. talking about that on the trading floor. matt at the nasdaq? not catching up with the rest of the market. >> not at all. if you look at the new york stock exchange, it's 9-1, negative and the nasdaq composite and you look at the nasdaq 100, 98 out of 92 stocks are trading down here today. it's 98% negative. if you look at what's working, the only two stocks that are higher are express grips and little change in the health care space. also note that the nasdaq 100

doesn't include any energy or financials the second and third worst performing behind the material stocks. another thing we have noticed is the hotties are cooling down.. these are stocks that are discretionary and had a run up here from 35 to 50% since the gchk july. you can see liberty media giving up 5%. wynn resorts over and expedia down over 4%. the last thing quickly, some of the big names holding up include microsoft, intel, and dow. back to you. >> thank you very much, matt nesto. let's make sense of what's going on. off 166 on the backs of the breaking headlines. can we turn it around by the end of the day? steve is with us from red bush morgan and with me at the open and all the way from the other side of the world.

covering the asian mark for cnbc. we are lucky enough to have her for a couple of weeks.s. it started in asia and let me start with you. there is so much skepticism about the chinese rally and now it started to pull back. you cover it every day. do people believe the strength in asia is for real? >> i don't know. i think the problem here is that chine acted like a global leading indicator. when things started to get better, they are on the skins on the terms of the market. maybe it will be the leading indicator and not without foundation. there was a massive lending in the first half. so much of the recession is speck ulz in stocks and real estate. what happens when the lending is turned off. that's what speaks here. >> i know you have been focused in on how long will all that

lending keep surges in china and are all the numbers we hear out of china for real. it might mean the rally. >> we're not comparing sales and would not be considered sales in the other nations. we are looking at things like the index to see if that picks up. china is moving along and we are down here and worried about what i said on the morning segment. 988, 992 and that's now resistance. >> you were saying we will open down 150 and for much of the day. you are right and do you see anything of note to give us a clue as to the broader sell off

or not. >> stocks got to a price where it wasn't supported by the fundamentals and driving all the rals everywhere. it's all this added liquidities that banks have been snubbing into the system. it's found its way into the commodities and the stocks and that pushes things up to a level that are not supported by the underlying fundamentals and people are concerned about that and selling stocks on that news. they are also selling stocks on the news and the fact that maybe the liquidity will be pulled off the table in china. that will be seeing bad news. already almost 8% of a construction in shanghai. >> in australia where you hail from, it's the lines on commodities.

some of the better there than anywhere in the world. the demand is real or not. >> you can see it so strongly in the correlation with the index and the australian dollar. last week we got excellent data at home and the australian dollar was booming. the index out of the sell off, it immediately paired gains as well. because of the commodity currency and so much in the economy relies on demand for commodities. >> there you go. you got something to keep on your screen too. that australian dollar. >> that's correct. even the u.s. dollar for a little bit is a kind of variation of japanese carry trade. you will see how that plays out. mannedy is right. this is all about china and commodities and how does that play. is it for real and the index will tell us whether it's real or going in the back yard.

>> all right. thank you very much. it is off by the way. it's 40% from the recent highs. obviously something that we have to keep an eye on. we appreciate it. the majority of you out there does do not believe the stimulus is working. should washington pull the plug now and save what's left? we will tell you about a building boom that shows nsumers all over the world are opening wallets and spending. the passport to revenue is straight ahead. i'm racing cross country in this small sidecar,

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>> are four stocks bucking the trend and obviously the dow is lower so the trend would be down and thanks, wal-mart. three that are higher. wal-mart is booted off for the time being. it is consumer is something interesting. we will touch on that in a moment. the american reinvestment act is six months old. the verdict from rank and file americans is not so hot. the front page a poll they did with gallup say the stimulus is having no impact on the economy or making it worse.e. is it really that grim? let's go to ron, the equipment maker. supposed to be building the new roads and privileges. good to have you with us. a couple of months ago we spoke

and you had not seen any stimulus money from the u.s. had seen it in china. has it changed? >> not really. we are sitting with an industry? a world of hurt. many of our categories are down 70 to 80%. unemployment is increasing. we lost $25 billion among the biggest companies on the first half of the year versus the first half of last year. that's a lot of sales to go down and over $8 billion in operating income. >> what are is the problem. i know people say environmental reviews in the country are complicated as one thing. you can be shovel-ready, but not ready to put people to work. is it as simple as that? >> planning needs to start in advance and we don't do a good job as a society planning. you have a situation where we thought there would be a lost money into the system and it was

substitut substituted. ohm 6% of the act allocated for roads and bridges and of that only about 15.9 billion has been obicated at this point in time. >> that's not out the door, but submitted. >> it's committed. committed is far different. this is not a stimulus bill and the basic highway bill is pushed to the future that means after the uncertainty in our industry. we don't have a highway bill that should be reauthorize. that will be 18 months.. i say that's wrong and not good for business and that has to change. >> the administration might say we will spent 100 billion in the stimulus and a lot of the road spending was supposed to come out later to help jobs.4 do you say that's hog wash? >> i don't see the money. only 47 billion of the 787 billion allocated for roads and

bridges, how do you get 100 billion? it's not there. the new bill, the $500 billion bill over year that is the chairman wants to put through the system is only about twice as much as what it was historically and only helps to maintain the roads. it's not a major change. >> we are not getting transformation when it comes to roads and bridges and rebuilding and fixing. >> get a great student to put people to work and increase the gdp by helping the country do better and put safety back into the system and it's not being acted upon. >> why the failure? >> i think there is a lot of other priorities, but we can't pay for them unless we have wealth in the economy and you won't unless you have a system to move goods and service

around. >> it sounds like they haven't and this will be part of the next conversation. would it matter to you at this point? >> the focus ought to be on the reauthorization and certainty. that's what we need. >> we appreciate you taking the time coming in. i think it might be disturbing to hear, but that's the truth as we see it. we appreciate you sharing it with us. still lis among americans and you heard what ron said. that may shock people.. we are not seeing the money on the roadside. should washington rework the plan or pull the plug on it all together. jason benderly is here and our own reporter steve leesman is with us as well. all of you had a chance to listen to ron. what's your reaction to what he had to say? >> i think a lot of people thought this package was going to be a package that transformed the american economy and repair

infrastructure and greener. they got a pack knowledge that would help out state and local governments and help people with unemployment and tax cuts. very little is going to transform the economy and we have huge structure needs and very little is going down. that's what you expected to get, that's not what you are getting. we shouldn't spend the money that remains in the kitty after this year. >> what are do you think of that? i know that john har wood i asked the question and he said it would be possible to take it back and not repeal the bill, but washington could essentially get to the same end goal. technically possible. should they? >> i would say no. there still is money that will be coming into the system and while it's difficult to quantify the aggregate effect, that contains so many different pieces and kinds of stimulus

that this does, it looks like over the next four or five or six quarters that the package as a whole could at 1% to 1.5% to gdp growth and should not be taken away at this time. >> is it fair to say and we should argue if the package should be structured differently. it probably saves jobs and things would be a lot worse. is it possible that the perception of the plan is not that well-informed? >> it's hard to know what the public thinks. if you were looking at this and didn't get it, it's hard to separate the impact of just government deficit spending and the stimulus plan and things like that that are out there. i think there is an argument that can add to gdp.

the administration has been consistent in the idea that we getta i quarter in months and three quarters over 18 months and the full over two years. i think some feel it remains high throughout the recovery year. it's probably a good thing there is other stimulus. >> if you are going to spend the money, this bill was passed quickly and senators didn't read it. is this the most efficient and will this increase and create the most jobs of any plan? why not take a set back and rethink it? we will spend it in the wisest way possible. we are probably not. >> you make a point that i thought was fascinating. even if we have a double dip recession even if it doesn't work, we have the greatest profit growth in the country in more than 50 years? >> yes, but i need to be careful with what you just said.

the double dip that we were referring to was with respect to the manufacturing sector. part of what is going on is there several important changes that are occurring as the economy moves from recession to recovery. the level of production is too low to the level of sales that are good. they have to move up to stop the huge inventory liquidation going on. what we were say suggest that it is likely that all manufacturing ind indicators including the usi and the global pmis that those would move up to the 55 to 60 range beginning of this year or the end of next year as they go through this process of ending the liquidation of inventories. that sometime in 2010 it's

likely they will be a pull back. and as long as growth is positive, the dynamics of strong productivity growth from a deep recession to a modest recovery and the top line growth increasingly into 2010. that is leading to a big pick up in profits. >> the trouble is when you look at the market, they have trouble seeing beyond that six-month period that you just laid out. everybody sees the production chart around and the inventory rebuild and it's difficult right now to it's impossible to look beyond six months. >> you are not certain?

>> no. rarely certain and right now no for sure. >> i'm certain about many things. we went through and went through how it was done. one thing to say hypothetically, but practically you go back to washington and you change the amounts of money. we are reconsidering our health care plan and a multitrillion dollar plan on a daily basis. in that context it wouldn't be that hard. there things you can do and i like the original plan. roads, bridges and the airport and spend money on that. on both sides, competitiveness issue.

>> the gap with the stimulus which is whether or not it will do what jason said which is increasing gdp. a lot of businesses don't think it will. without that psychological stimulus, as much more muted impact it would have on the overall numbers which is that people thought the money will be out there, the economy will be growing, people think tax cuts are the only way to create growth and the fact that they didn't get a lot more, there is doubts about the credibility. >> i remember when jimmy and i, seriously. i went from all to none. thanks to all three of you. good to have all of you with us. one thing that jason was saying is that home builder stocks will have 100% profit target. that link into a trade. it goes global. the world's second largest.

we actually know things they are buying. europe's biggest toy maker reported a 60% increase and seized more than 20% in revenue. that is the holy grail. steve said we are kidding. ñ

breaking news on the stanford alleged ponzi scheme. the industry self regulatory arms is acknowledging they got a tip from a stanford employee in 2003 that the company was running a ponzi scheme and did not follow-up because the policy at the time was only to follow-up on complaints from customers, not from employees. she was involved in an arbitration case that she lost and they were involved in the ponzi scheme and prepared for the senate banking committee and did not follow-up. since then in march, the policy was changed.d.

in february, it is stanfort company had an $8 billion ponzi scheme. >> the still plus plan and whether foreigners buy or debt today, china was selling treasuries in the month of june and china which was the biggest hold is not alone. the second largest fund is in norway. i spoke with the head of the fund and asked him about confidence in america and whether he was a buyer of treasuries. >> our pressure is quite low and it's by far under weight in the portfolio. >> we're don't necessarily see the supply picture very favorably for the moment. that's where we were cautious. >> something we wanted to highlight. the second biggest in the world with asds ets under management. that may be a concerning story, but we found a building block of hope for the american economy

and consumer as well. the maker of lego was up 60% and the sales were up 23%. revenue is up. joining us now on news line from bill and legoey group ceo. thank you very much for being with us. we appreciate it and so glad you can take the time. can you believe looking at these numbers from lego, sales up 23%. how come? >> thank you and thanks for being able to take part in the program. i think a couple of things had worked for us and is that we the last or five years focused on core consumers. we have never been closer and it is really all about being out there and even though it's competitive and having the sharpest products and markets in concept and working through

retail channels. >> do you think -- i know you have partnerships, for example. "star wars," that's part of the strength you have seen because you had products linked to popular entertainment things like "star wars"? >> yes, that is say major part of it. you have to be where the kids are excited. we have also seen an ability to link into video games. and we are building the business alongside and that helped us propel and like the we saw the legal city is a basic line about in the city and fire station and grown more than 75% alone this year. >> where geographically was the greatest growth in sales? >> for our company, the biggest is in eastern europe and asia and those are the markets

growing the fastest. they are among the more mature markets and the u.s. is right now the fastest growing for us. nearly 30% to date. >> 30% growth in the u.s. you gave us the good news. thank you very much again for taking the time to join us. i know it's evening there. >> no problem. >> jim cramer. we will talk about legos. the bears may be back in town for the market and jim has sell off stocks to watch. what does he think about a company with 30% revenue growth. bringing jobs home to be something kids want. "street signs" will be back. 

we were having conversations about lego. the united states of america, there aren't many company who is can say that. >> when i took my kids to lego land, the idea was, look, you don't need the fancy games and

the high prices. you want to do crafts. this was the e85 lent. it looks like they are making a come back and i think it is values. >> we were talking about what this means. parents are saying the lego brand, i have known it forever and we were building things and more traditional values. >> the $300 rock band where it's like this? maybe where we are going is -- and i see it in fashion too. you hear the same thing. buy it now, wear it now. got to be low price and if they care about where it's from and where it's made, there is more of a value and goodness orientation that obviously when it comes to the video games. >> we have know amazing segment on those made in china.

it's coming up in a couple of moments. >> it's part and parcel of what i have seen when i speak to retailers. look at the back to basics. i also think that has row would tell you this. we are tired of spending $300. >> to do these over again, i think it won't. >> even a lot of these have trouble. that's something to think about. jason said he thought we were going to see a doubling of profits and now from a low base. where he saw that was home builders and you wanted to talk about hope. >> i have been skeptical too. i looked at the big national data that said 172% of all homes are under water and 240% of

homes are being foreclosed. when i do it, where are the keys? i sent this to my bank. when i was listening to this conference call. he is telling you look, we are at this high level price point and we had more traffic than we had in years. we have seen interesting demand in orlando. they are dead, dead, dead. by the way for the record, there couldn't have been anyone more negative than this time last year. this is not a guy. >> wasn't he the guy who was bouncing off the bottom? >> every neighbor and he admitted it. all the sales people were saying please stop saying my neighbors. they should be read to balance out the big mac row picture that

makes you feel like you always have it. >> it's at the higher end. >> and also because i think this is one of those calls where you know there is liquidity coming back and why the cancellation drop is significant. when you are listening to bob, he is saying the traffic is different. people are coming in and you talk about how could you buy a house? did you get the pool and the amenities and what deal did you get? that's why i think it doesn't jive with the 742% of the people about to leave their home. >> 742%. >> i'm trying to put realistic percentages up. >> that's when i lose my money. >> every mortgage is under water including the people who don't have a mortgage. they are the most under water. >> the breaking headlines were on lending and continuing to

tighten up. there is a demand issue. >> we are so indiscretion. the citigroup numbers are significant and that won't come in. it's working and cheap and they endorsed it on friday. >> he worked there. he has seen all of the dirty laundry. if he can say that -- >> i was shocked. this was a stock and people will call him and say hey, guy, what did you see? he said a ton. that piece is a brilliant piece and i urge people to get it. >> he's no joker. >> he was not. he was top-rated for years. 6:00 and 11:00 eastern. he has a lot more names. maybe heel build something. find out why in haleyville, alabama could be ground for the economic recovery. >> we will explain. 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.

much of this is in reaction with the co-op option and the drves between the two things really may be nonexistent in which case who know fist the rally was justified. the good news about the american consumer and a manufacturing company expanding right here in the united states. wal-mart needs more sleeping bags. particularly ones with disney characters on them. here's the punch line. they are bringing jobs back to make the sleeping bags because the factory is more efficient. the company that makes 30% sold in the united states. great to have you with us. a story that really captured my imagination, you are a private company and make 30% of the sleeping bags in the united states. it's better to make them in alabama than china, right? >> that's true, erin. i still get goose bumps every time i think about it that years

ago when the corporation was looking to shut down the factory and we decided instead of doing what everyone else was doing, invest in american factories and technology and make sure we can produce a bag in the united states and in alabama 3% cheaper than in china. >> 3% cheaper. i want to make sure you realize it's not just or necessarily linked to the current economic situation. 30 percent was made in the u.s. and 70% in china and you are on track for 90% in america and 10% in china. you say it's 3% cheaper. why is it cheaper here? >> the instability in china with great rates that have gone up. the currency and everything else that factors in and the fact that we could have a factory that's the most efficient in the world. that's what it was. we never looked at it years ago. what can we do and to make sure

we invest in technology and that's how we close the gap and make sure we could produce a bag and give it to retailers. the preconceived notion if you buy meat in america products, you can make a quality product and affordable health care to employees and you can do that. still be the chief. >> how are you doing it? >> i'm curious about that. >> fair wages to all the employees and 15 to $18 an hour in haleyville, alabama.a. it's a good town. we always offered health care and we were able to do it by producing greens. we produce the bags with 80% polyester and 98% of our rage.. we make sure that you can be

green and also affordable wages and health care and as long as you are willing to look at six months down the line and willing to look at it as a bigger picture, you can succeed. harry kazzarian, we appreciate it. appreciate that story. viewers, let us know what you think about that and whether you think this is something that can be copied around this country, whether we could make things again here for cheaper than places like china. next, is exxel the beginning of that kind of a trend? some people buy a car based on the deal they get. others by the car of their dreams. during the lexus golden opportunity sales event, you can do both. special lease offers now available on the 2009 es 350. special lease offers now available reading about washington these days... i gotta ask, what's in it for me? i'm not looking for a bailout, just a good paying job. that's why i like this clean energy idea. now that works for our whole family.

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does the u.s. still need a robust manufacturing industry? now you've heard our sleeping bag story. or is there another way to create income growth for america's middle class? david mann is associate director for financial markets policy at the center for american progress. mark calabria is director of financial regulation studies at cato. good to have you both of you with us. david min, let's start with you. you just heard that story about the sleeping bag which really was just an amazing story. on some level it almost seems too good to be true. fair wages, great health care, and green and recycles everything and does it in the u.s. for cheaper than china. if it was that easy, everybody should be doing it, right? >> yeah. well, i think that one thing that's important to note here is that mr. kazazian was taking a long yes-term view, and i think that's part of the problem with what we've seen with american business of late. there's that saying americans

think quarter to quarter, japanese think decade to decade, and chinese think century to century, and unfortunately that has more than a grain of truth to it. what we've seen too much is american managers going tort short-term hit, the short-term profit boost, and a lot of that involves moving their manufacturing operations to places like it seems to be a little bit cheaper. what we've seen with folks like mr. kazazian is he's taking a longer view of what really is the cost structure, not just quarter to quarter but going down the line, what is the best way to maximize profits. what we need to do to encourage more mr. kazazians to exist, obviously we need to enforce our trade agreements a little more. we need to give them comfort that when they invest in manufacturing in the united states they're not simply throwing away their money because they're going to gret undercut by highly subsidized products from china or india or elsewhere. the second i think we need to have smarter industrial policy. we left too much of this to the markets, and what we saw unfortunately was just that, again, too much of an emphasis on short-term gains and not enough on sort of longer-term

planning. somebody needs to be there to fill the gap and i think that's what the administration's trying to do right now. they're trying to align longer-term incentives with some of their shareholder initiatives and say on pay and things like that -- >> okay. >> but really what we have to do is shift our orientation from some of the short dwrerm thinking to a longer-term nexus. >> mark, one thing he did not answer is whether he's a union shop. he's in alabama. we know a lot of the big manufacturing in the south is not unionized.. he's trying to say it's a fair wage is and they provide health care. if they do those things but they are not union, one might make the assumption they are going to the south of the united states because it is not unionized.d. that creates a tough issue for unions in this country, doesn't it? >> i think it's a very real issue. i think it's telling that he chose alabama and not michigan or massachusetts. >> right. >> i recognize that many of my friends on the left, a job going to alabama might be just as bad in their mind as a job going to china. i think we need to recognize -- i want to go back to something else you talked about. >

we do manufacture things today.> it's important to keep in mind > that over the last 20 years rea> output growth in manufacturing has increased by over 80%. we are still offer a fourth of the world's global manufacturing value added. one of the important things, remember, is we do it because of productivity. and he talked about productivity. when you talk about the sleeping bags, that was one reason to go to alabama. i talked to some folks in alabama recently.y. you might not know or may not know that alabama has been the sock capital of the world, for instance. >> yep.. >> they make as many socks today as they used to 20 years ago, but you know what, they do it with a third the workers. so you need to have a labor market that is flexible. you need to have a labor market that you're not going to have all of these rules dictating this or that. i think it is very telling that> if you follow the sort of alabama model in terms of how you want your labor market to > look, well, if you followed tha> model we can get america workin> again. if we don't, if we decide we want to have all of these exces> regulations, all of these exces> taxes and all of these > disincentives to actually have

job creation, then we're not going to have that. > and i think a very important part of it was he chose to come to alabama and open that plant. and i think that's a very important part of it. i think we need to resist temptation to go protectionist. >> david and mac, we're going to keep talking about this because i think this issue of what role unions play and how they can be positive in creating jobs rather than, well, dominating in states where these jobs aren't coming back is a really important one to talk about for getting your political point of view. so we'll have you back to do that. thanks again. let us know in the meantime, our viewers, whether you think that we need to havens to have a strong middle class in this country or not. and we've got a final check of the markets in a moment. i'm racing cross country in this small sidecar,

but i've still got room for the internet. with my new netbook from at&t. with its built-in 3g network, it's fast and small, so it goes places other laptops can't. i'm bill kurtis, and wherever i go, i've got plenty of room for the internet. and the nation's fastest 3g network. gun it, mick. (announcer) sign up today and get a netbook for $199.99 after mail-in rebate. with built-in access to the nation's fastest 3g network. only from at&t.

the market will it be able to pull back in the final hour of trading? you'll find out. maria's back. it's time for "the closing bell." >> this is cnbc.com news now. a jury has found former credit suisse broker eric butler guilty on all charges of misleading clients about the

nature of auction rate securities. new aig chief executive robert benmosche will receive a $7 million annual salary. $4 million of that in stock. the package has been approved by pay czar kenneth fineberg. and new data shows the rate of defaults stabilizing despite the number of job losses. that's cnbc.com news now. i'm mandy drury. and there's a live picture of the floor of the new york stock exchange. entering the final stretch on a down day on wall street.. the market under selling pressure once again. as new concerns emerge about consumer spending and a weak global economy. hi, everybody. welcome to "the closing bell." i'm maria bartiromo on the floor of the new york stock exchange. we enter the final stretch on wall street. and in asia overnight we've got red arrows across the board tonight. weakness in the banking sector really leading things lower on the heels of weakness in asia..

the dow jones industrial average right now as we approach that final stretch down 166. 1 3/4% lower at 9,154. major averages now lower for the month of august. nasdaq composite ditto, down 2 1/2%.. the high flyers of the last three months the biggest losers today. down 50 points on the nasdaq. 2 1/2% lower at 1,935. the s&p 500 broadest measure of them all, down 22 points at a level of 982 and change, down 2 1/4 pierce%. bob pisani with more on what's behind this sell-off. >> welcome back. >> thank you very much. good to be back. back in the sad well a decline in the triple digits here. >> it's going to be tough for the markets to rally. when you open down 200 points, the guys who come in short right at the open have a hard time because it's hard for them to cover at the close here. it's going to be a little tougher. but here's the test. we've been waiting for this for a while. you know the market's been overbought technically. a lot of people feel it's time now maybe to step up to the plate. so here's a test for the market. >>