problems have been reported rarely. the more you know about osteoporosis, the more you'll want to ask your doctor if once-a-month actonel is right for you. (announcer) if you can't afford your medication, visit actonel.com to find out how the alliance for better bone health may be able to help. test. when this hotel added aflac

to compliment their benefits package aflac! it made a big splash with the employees yeaaaahhhh! find out more at aflac!... ...forbusiness.com (laughter) this is "fast money" from new york's times square.

welcome to america's post-market show. rick santelli in for melissa lee. these are the "fast money" traders. stocks hitting new highs for the year, then what happens? well, they give a little back. that's the deja vu. we had good housing, a lot of good data, six-day winning streak. will it keep up? the word on the street, guys? >> hello, rick. >> hello, guys. >> i missed you yesterday. >> as traders, sometimes you have to stick to your guns or admit when you're wrong. well, i've been wrong, but i'm sticking to my guns. joe will talk about the reversal in crude, i'm sure you have some views on it. i think the fact that we sold off as hard as we did. yesterday, same type of day, this 1028 level is a big level. i think we're headed a lot lower this week, maybe early next week. >> you talk about the sectors we thought would perform well, commodities, resource names, those rolled over today. it was all about consumer discretionary, that's where the

money was going today. listen, you were at the end of august right now, it's going to be quiet, but keep in mind, you had consumer confidence, bernanke, and then the housing data, and at the end of the day, what was it all about, oil prices going lower. that's how important oil is to our economy. >> joe, what's my favorite color card in my wallet? think it's mastercard? >> we don't want to go there, rick. not a good trade, not a good trade. >> you know what, though? we remember the losers, we remember the winners, you remember how good we are every night. >> and kudos to pete. >> building on what guy just said, i'm in the same camp, but i think it's important to know with this shiller data, most of the gains were at the low end, these were foreclosures. the high end is still struggling, and i think will continue to struggle, maybe because the jumbo loan market is not functioning. >> plus year over year, it was not up. >> that's also important.

>> there's another second derivative aspect to the market. >> that's been the story of housing the whole time. we're grasping for anything, we got a little something today, people felt better about that, consumer confidence numbers, you already get a check on the confidence number every single day when you look at the volatility index. it's been just kind of hanging in there. the s&p has been hanging in there, people are still chasing performance. yeah, oil was down $3 today but the market finished positive. so let's remember that. we weren't down 100, we did come off our highs, but i think you have to be impressed. the market cannot go up every single day in every single sector. you're seeing a bit of profit-taking. good traders take profits when they're in front of them. >> but i'll take the other side of that, listen, obama was talking to the markets today, 9:00 a.m. what happened? i thought he wasn't going to announce anything over his vacation. he was talking to market higher today. come on, he had everything today. he had bernanke, consumer confidence, housing, and you know what?

the market should have went out on the highs today, it did not. >> but the market is smart enough to price all that in. we knew the housing numbers are getting better. >> because the equities are higher. >> absolutely, then you look at mr. bernanke. it was pretty much a lay-up, but we wanted certainty. the markets like certainty. they don't like when we don't have an idea of the rules and don't like it when you don't know who will be enforcing the rules. now we know it's mr. bernanke, but most of that was built in. if the took a poll out there, 99 economists would have said bernanke would be right back in that seat. >> let's hold off on the other hand. on the other hand. on the other hand. i'm not into economists polls. let's check out the chart of today. this is exciting. the home builders index, ten-month high. this is the man we're going to talk about. what do you think, steve? >> incredibly impressive. i've been wrong, but what gives me some pause is the chart of lumber. if we show that chart as well.

it's going all the way back to the march lows. this has to be troubling. i honestly don't get this discrepancy, so i would like to ask the desk to explain it if anybody has any ideas. i would like to know with what are they building the the houses if they're not using lumber. are they building them out of clay? >> you look at what the xhb makes up, this is another index where people say oh, the home builders index. it's williams sonoma, bed, bath and beyond, some home builders are in there, but you have to look at these etfs. xle is three stocks, exxon mobil, conoco phillips and chevron. you have to know what's in it. you look in this index, the builders don't make up the indices the way you would expect. >> i think lumber is directly tethered to new home seams, not existing home sales. what you really need to see is

inventory begin to be worked off, and then home prices will begin to rise. the data today will probably confirm that the housing bubble unwind has reached the bottom. >> plus, just to throw more in there, there's tariffs, regulations coming down from canada, quotas, a lot of reasons why lumber can get disconnected. >> let me ask you a question, if the housing unwind has truly hit bottom, why has the ten-year note remaining here? treasuries remain in the face of a risk-grab going on the market. >> can i field that one? >> yes, you're in charge. >> who remembers what last year-over-year cpi was, minus 2.1? where did the ten-year note close today? >> 345. >> add 210 basis points, what do you get? probably a more realistic look. i'm not saying i believe the cpi data, but that does address it

so some extent. as long as these auctions keep going like a hot knife through butter, you know how quick that readjustment can be and there's a lot of auctions ahead. >> we could have another leg down in this whole thing. some interesting comments out of him. again, i think people are getting a little too complacent here and xub rant. i think we're really ahead of ourselves. >> mr. china said the same thing today. >> i think it translates into a wealth effect for the consumer. they see housing prices, which have now bottomed. that wealth effect carries through to the consumer shares. take a look at bed, bath and beyond, best buy, target, sears was strong as well. pedro and john got into it last night a little. but those are the names and it's because of this wealth effect that consumers are feeling it

and it translates into consumer confidence. >> i'll tell you what, joe, i like a lot of the transition we're seeing in many of these areas and you nailed it, you nailed it, not every general trade is hitting specific points. we need to be up on that. sometimes you need to really dig through to find out what's hot. >> i got an interesting retail trade for you. look at jay crew and the move they've had, up close to 275%. they report earnings this thursday after the bell. stocks had a big runup into earnings, tradesed a a ridiculously high valuation. if you think it's going down and you look at a shorter retailer, jay crew might be the one into earnings. wait for these guy's report and look at the spike and short into it. >> transports. whether it's shipping, airlines, the economy might be turning the corner. pete? >> you look at some of these

rails, the airline industry and you always -- you look at airlines and you look to oil. you see oil going down and the airlines go up. but it came down to an upgrade today from a group out there, an alaska airlines that pulled up the whole group. the rails have been strong and why? because of everybody's expectation of china's growth. you look at coal, steel, we talk about it every night. we bring up names like all the big machinery makers. caterpillar had great numbers as far as the mining aspect of their business. but that all comes back to who's going to be moving this around the country. it's the rails. for me right now, i think the best price of all these rails is norfolk southern. they seem to be priced about right. maybe a little lower than the rest of the sector and i think that's the best name in the group. >> i think valuation is a little rich 16 times forward earning. and you look at a chart, go back to january. this is the same level that we

had trouble with earlier this year. i think burlington northern, again, if you're looking for short plays, that might be it. pair it up against what pete was just saying. >> i'll tell you, it seems like warren buffett was right on this one. >> he was a little bit early. >> he's not a market timer. everybody expects him to be a trader, he's becoming more of a trader, but really this guy is looking out five, ten years and he was dead right on this whole burlington northern trade. >> today's big bug kill was oil. down 3%, oil stocks down big. let me tell you something, was that keeping the lid on the rally? boy, we can have fun with this. >> absolutely. the rally today in the equities market was choked off by oil prices moving lower. we approached $75, ten-month high. we put up the $75 high, could not elevate above that.

rick, we rolled over and challenged $71.50. right now we're trading $71.34. we had some data come out. the trade right now, i love oil, oil is going higher longer term but you have to get to the sidelines right now and respect the technicals. when you have an intraday reversal off a ten-month high, that tells you that market has topped out. >> you go back to the june high. i think the oih is in for a big move down. you can make an argument for short-term double tops. you can easily see this down to $96, $97 oih. nice short. >> the oih took a full week. this was a $99 index a week ago that got up to $111. you're talking about a 10% move in a week of an entire index. that's a rapid move to the upside. the names you still want to keep

an eye on, you think oil is going to start back on the upside. the power play there goes back to the engineering stocks. it's foster wheeler, shaw group, those names really have been performing, plus they have great exposure to infrastructure, the power grid buildout. when you look at a valuation level and look at the backlog of somebody like floor, $30 billion in backlog. they're still growing. a great industry. >> it's not just about oil. we lost copper today and lost the coal names as well, which is rather disappointed. again, it is the sector rotation away from research xlcommodity names. >> this was not a dollar related move. the dollar was unchanged on the day. >> however, net movement. the dollar didn't quite get up to the neutral line but it still climbed all day. >> but didn't move anything like oil. the other thing worth pointing out, how is china, with their

stock market right now, buying this much crude? i'm bearish on oil because of china. the august move in china is tipping us off to the commodities play is overdone. >> the next trade, goldman, goldman, goldman. they're in the news every day. the s.e.c. looks into trading tips. meetings with some of the little closed groups. what do you think about all this? are we continuing to see the press pick on goldman? >> yeah, that's exactly what we're seeing. the way baseball fans pick on the yankees. look, leave the guys alone. go after things that make sense. morning mitings, weekly meetings, you know, a lot of this stuff is nonsense. i'm sure a lot of people at goldman wish they never went public because they have to go with the scrutiny of some of these things. there are a lot of people doing wrong things out there, goldman sachs is not one of them. >> talking about goldman and this whole trading tips, the only big disappointment out

there is if you're not one of those people that's getting the information, you say i'm not big enough to get it. but what's the performance of goldman in the face of this negativity? what are they doing? it's continuing to exhibit it is the best of breeds and the stock continues to move higher in what was a little disappointing day, goldman was good. >> they took risks, whether we like it or not, and we should like it because they paid us back and gave us a lot of premium to that money. so you have to like the risk they were willing to take and how they have been taking some of that off as well. we can look at goldman and you see a company that's going to make $15 on earnings, that's projected for 2009. maybe this thing is cheaper than we think. at $1.65, we're talking about 11 pe, and this is a company we all consider best in breed. they do nothing but perform each quarter. is goldman still too cheap even though it made this huge run? >> something that needs to be

pointed out, the t.a.r.p. funds. they never wanted that money and they were the first one to give it back and they did it with interest. yeah, they took the money, they didn't want it. you go back to november, when they went to the bank holding company. that's when goldman was in the most danger, i think. that's when people were buying $5 puts, strike price $5. that's when goldman was in trouble. bank holding company, fine. but don't confuse the t.a.r.p., they never wanted it in the first place. >> don't forget ben bernanke, what he wanted to do in february or march was get people to take risks. who was the first bank to do it? goldman sachs. they did exactly what everyone else was unwilling to do, take risks in such a fearful environment. >> the idea too that you shouldn't give your best customers your best treatment is silly. the idea that there's not a runlt in this city that wouldn't give its best table to its best

customers. is goldman gives its best information to the customers? of course it is. be one of their best customer it is you want that information. >> look at how this topic has teeted up around here. let's go outside stocks. let's go to my favorite topic, the bond market. two-year option today, $42 billion, now i have a new home and it wasn't a spectacular auction, but we moved it nonetheless. i'll tell you what, i think the best way i can portray this story is i remember in 2005, 2006, looking at credit spreads, looking at risk and leverage, a lot of people knew there could be a dark day coming. i look at all these auctions and all this debt out there and i look at the attitude of fiscal policy. this is the time i want to be on record that if anything doesn't go right over the next two years, we're throwing out warnings now, we need to get our fiscal house in order. what do you think? >> the one problem is every day at 1:00 p.m., i like tuning in

to cnbc, but you have to watch it every time at 1:00 p.m. sooner or later, you could be a pilot and continually land the plane. the one time you have a bad landing, that's it. >> hours of boredom surrounded by moments of terror. >> there's going to be one time you turn on cnbc and you're jumping up and down saying it's an f, not a b minus. we're going to get it sooner or later. >> the rest of the world is going to gobble this stuff up with their appetite never being satisfied. >> the rest of the world doesn't have to, because the u.s. savings rate is rising enough that domestic savings can take it down. one of the problems we're having was that treasuries is a percentage of household savings got so low that it was almost untenable. the talk how badly we need the chinese and petro dollars is overdone. americans are starting to take down treasuries in a serious

way. >> the next trade is interesting. obama doubling down on ben bernanke today. take a listen. >> as an expert on the causes of the great depression, i'm sure ben never imagined he would be part of a team responsible for preventing another. but because of his background, his temperament, his courage and his creativity, that's exactly what he has helped to achieve. and that is why i am reappointing him to another term as chairman of the federal reserve. >> our next guest, he worked with ben bernanke in the white house. he was chairman of the council of economic advisers. i interviewed him at one of the option pits a couple years ago. joining us from stanford university where he's now professor of economics, what a surprise there. welcome, ed. >> good to be back with you, rick. >> you know what? give me your take. were you surprised at all today? >> i don't know that i was surprised. i was a bit surprised on the

timing but ben is a very capable economist. certainly he's studied the area, knows the area as well as anybody in the world. but more importantly, he's been there. this is a situation that is like a 1 in a 100 year hurricane. it came out of the blue, there's no playbook on it, no guidelines that we can follow specifically. i think for the most part, when i say we, i think the bush administration and the fed got it right. the fed was an important player in this. they put liquidity into the market early on in august of 2007. they initiated a number of facilities that i think were helpful in terms of making sure that the market worked. i think we're back on track. i would say for the most part, these moves were good and i applaud the reappointment. >> don't change the coach in the middle of the fourth quarter. >> do you believe that congress will have the political will to allow ben bernanke to do the exit strategy, which would be to soak up liquidity by paying interest on bank reserves, and

you know that means restrictive lending for main street. >> here's the big problem. when i heard rick talk about the fiscal situation a couple minutes ago, my thought was amen, because the big problem is not so much the fed specifically. the problem is the huge expansion in the size of the government. and that's going to be the major problem that the economy faces in the long run. either we're going to have to tax our way out of it, we're going to have to inflate our way out of it or borrow and then eventually have to tax or inflate our way out of it. those are the problems that the chairman will face and the problem that congress is going to face. unfortunately, i'm not convinced that congress is going to see what it's doing in the process of the steps that it's taking right now. >> always a pleasure. thank you for joining the show. talking about raising taxes, more debt, fiscal prudence. sounds like there's a boat load of trades here.

>> none of them are good apparently. the problem is he's probably spot on in what he's talking about. that's why i think this market, this s&p has gotten way ahead of itself. getting into an earnings cycle, where is the etfs going to come from? the revenues weren't there. we beat it by cost cutting. you can only do that so much and at some point the government goes away. >> what people don't realize is when you talk about ten-year treasury yields, how quickly they can get to 6%. i believe you are going to see a dramatic shoot higher in the yields and that's going to make the commodity trade we keep talking about. >> think about it. we haven't gotten the type of recovery where walk guaranty one of those 99 economists that you want to poll, sends up a white flag. the recession is over, prosperity is around the corner. that's when you'll see bond yield movement. >> government policy really matters for markets and i brought along a chart today to

show you from 2002 and 2003 how much government policy can matter. this is from president bush under whom the professor served. we highlighted two dates. march of 2002, when president bush enacted steel tariffs, and the second point we mark is may of 2003, when he went the other way and enacted a pro growth measure cutting capital gains. the market took off from there. government policy matters. >> plus a boat load of unintended consequences as well. here's what's coming up next on "fast money" -- >> the doctor is in, for a street fight. rick slugs it out with howard dean on the public option. and the desk trades the aftermath. and hurricane bill may have fizzled out, but is there more trouble on the horizon? the liquidator steps into the eye of the storm to find you a winning stock. plus, from deficits to taxes,

it's rough out there. but rick's here to help. when america's post market show continues. introducing the all new chevy equinox. with an epa estimated 32 miles per gallon. and up to 600 miles between fill ups. it's the most fuel efficient crossover on the highway. better than honda cr-v, toyota rav4 and even the ford escape hybrid. the all new chevy equinox. a heart attack at 53. i had felt fine. but turns out... my cholesterol and other risk factors... increased my chance of a heart attack.

i should've done something. now, i trust my heart to lipitor. when diet and exercise are not enough, adding lipitor may help. unlike some other cholesterol lowering medications, lipitor is fda approved to reduce the risk... of heart attack, stroke, and certain kinds of heart surgeries... in patients with several common risk factors... or heart disease. lipitor has been extensively studied... with over 16 years of research. lipitor is not for everyone, including people with liver problems... and women who are nursing, pregnant, or may become pregnant. you need simple blood tests to check for liver problems. tell your doctor if you are taking other medications, or if you have any muscle pain or weakness. this may be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. i was caught off-guard. but maybe you can learn from my story. have a heart to heart with your doctor...

now to get started. welcome back to "fast money," live from the nasdaq marketsite.

it's time for a good old-fashioned street fight. this is a debate i've been looking forward to, because the whole country is involved. should the government provide a public option for health care? some say, hey, we believe the economy of a great country should have great health care. others say it's going to bankrupt the country. this is a hot issue whether in the pits of chicago, on the street corner right in front of me, or of course with the former governor and a big dnc executive, chief howard dean, and he's going to join us right now. welcome, mr. dean. >> thanks, rick. >> convince me this is the way to go and we have to have a public option and i'm going to be open-minded. >> this could take a long time here. let's go for it. >> we have two minutes. >> you need americans to have a choice. right now they can sign up for a private insurance company, but they can lose their insurance if they get sick, they can be prevented from having it. if they lose their jobs, they lose insurance and if they move,

they got to get insurance all over again. why not let them sign up for something like medicare, sign up, it follows you wherever you go, it charges the same whether you're sick or healthy. you have it whether you have a job or don't. it's much steadier. if you don't like that and like your employer system, you can keep that too. more choice, more people have health care. >> i'll tell you, two quick points and i'll ask them both and you can address it. we can keep the policy we have if we like it, you can say that and it could be a true statement. the president can say it, but market forces might make it so that it's not a true statement. a. and b, i remember when the campaign and everybody was behind this notion we were talking 12 to 15 million people, giving people that didn't have insurance insurance, now we're up to 45 million potentially, and to me embedded in this is an immigration issue that everybody's been ignoring, i would like to see that addressed before i add those 20 million

non-citizens into the group. >> they're not in the group. there's no provision to allow immigrants to be insured, none. >> how did we get -- what's your number? how many are uninsured out there? >> there's about 47 million people uninsured, some of which are undocumented. they don't get insurance under this program. >> they don't? >> absolutely not. >> they go to emergency rooms now, but they won't get covered in the future? >> they'll probably go to the emergency rooms and still get covered, but they don't get paid for in this program. first of all, you don't want make america into a magnet for people who are sick in other countries. second of all, i would cover children, because those kids are going to grow up in america and obviously it's better to have them healthy or not, but the bill doesn't call for that. >> i'm all for the kumbaya, but who is paying for it? it comes down -- somebody is getting taxed and it's probably us. two's paying for this? >> a lot of it comes from squishing down costs.

we have a 70% more costs in this country than we do in the next most expensive companies which is canada, germany. so there's a lot of fat in the system and a lot of that is stuff that's going to be gotten rid of. there's no question about that. >> chairman dean, i have a question, steve cortez. you talk about the fact that prices have gone up, but so has the quality of health care. things today that are routine a generation ago would have killed grandma. if we take the profit motive away from the pharmaceutical companies, will we have the innovation that we need, that american pharmaceutical companies have provided for generations? >> i don't think we want to take the profit motive away from pharmaceutical companies. they are an incredibly innovative industry. i do think, though, we have a problem with the way that the health insurance makes their money. they kick people off their coverage if they get sick, and i don't consider that insurance. >> mr. dean, thank you. there are going to be a lot of discussions on this topic and

i'm sure there will be a lot more. >> i was told by the producer we were supposed to shout at each other. >> you know what? you can come back, the next time i'm in town, and we'll get more aggressive for the crowd. how's that? >> thanks so much. see you soon. >> all right. gang. >> some people get sick, i probably will get sick in my lifetime, but a lot of people are getting sick because of their lifestyle. if i get in a certain amount of car accidents, guess what? my insurance gets pulled. i know that's not what everybody wants to hear, but start taking care of yourself and eat better. if you take better care of yourselves -- >> you have to have incentive. the whole thing is built on incentives. the one trade that stills comes to me is generic drugs. i look at the profits, and i see this company and all they do is go higher, and they continue to grow. right now 85% of their revenues come from north america and europe.

they're growing in japan, i mean, this is a company that's absolutely incredible, and all stock does does is go a bit higher and higher and they have a branded pharmaceutical as well. they are hitting on all cylinders right now. they've been in acquisition mode, you've got to love companies like this. the generic is truly the trade-off in this whole health care debate. >> we have a great segue. guy talked about getting sick. the obama administration told you today that a lot of us may get sick in the fall. we're going to talk about h1n1. >> hey, stay away from that hog swine. >> up to 50% of the population is going to get sick. >> that's projections, and a lot of that is very unrealistic. let's not blow this thing out of proportion, with this whole swine flu.

>> to me that number in the paper was so large. hey, what about the prop desk? >> i think the swine flu trade, let's say -- i'll give you 30%. >> that's a high number. >> one of us every night will be out because of swine flu, but i bought some puts in carnival cruise lines. i just can't see the travel industry having any form of resiliency through the remainder of the year if the obama administration comes in on the low end of what the impact could be, and this will have impact. >> gill yad has the best hiv/aids franchise out there and they have tamiflu. check tamiflu out, and go to their website and see what's going on there. that could be a real sleeper going forward. >> i'm considering shorting travel stocks, and i think

airlinesened -- airlines and casinos are very vulnerable. back-to-school time, there are a lot the problems this summer when kids got together action it could blow up in the fall, and these are extended charts anyway, so i think these are shorts. haven't done it yet, but looking on pulling the trigger on names like winn, lvs. >> what's new in techs? i find this interesting, i don't think since moses has the word tablet had more grandeur than what's being talked about the tab let that was rumored to be in "the wall street journal" by apple. it's just hot. i hear that apple and steven jobs denied some of the facts in the story. this is a biggie, what do we think? >> make jim goldman can help us out. >> jim, are you out there? >> i am out here. what a treat to talk to you.

i never get to talk to you. >> jim, what do you think? is it true, is it out there? >> i give you these 15 -- no, these 10 commandments. the apple tab let has been rumored about for years, if you believe the fact that they went out for a tat enlts back in 2000. this has been widely talked about, tab let pcs have had little success in the market place. but these net books, these notebook computers are going gang busters. so if apple can come up with something that sort of marries its irvegs phone, ipod touch technology with this low-cost netbook theory, they would have a huge winner on their hands. i think that everybody agrees that apple is working on some kind of tab let prototype.e. i think the idea that this device is going to be out before year end -- >> any way you can throw me some numbers? take a guess. >> which is so great that you

even ask, because you want to talk about the mysticism of apple and the power of steve jobs. here's a product that has no release date, no price tag, jet piper jaffray is saying this is going to be worth $1.2 billion in additional revenue by some time in 2010. how they can -- go ahead. >> i would just say that the fact that steven jobs has really thrown himself into this whole thing speaks volumes to what the expectations probably are at apple. do you think there's any e-reader type of an aspect to whole thing? >> everybody has been saying that apple needs to get into books. why cede the market to sony and why lose basically your huge advantage in these education market if ervel seems to be going to these electronic books. so that's probably a big part of this. but the other thing is, this is going to be a mobile hand-held

robust entertainment device. again, if you believe all the rumors. everybody that i'm talking to says there is something on in the apple workshop. it's not ready for primetime unlikely before year end, but still something that carries with it huge opportunities.s. >> jim, thanks for that surprise visit. you're always the man with technology. how can we make some money. is apple a good buy here or has it run its course? >> apple is a stock that will trade with the s&p. i think the s&p is going down, which means i think apple is a short here. >> coming up next on "fast money" -- >> from the housing market to the bond trading pits, rick is answering your questions live. it's "santelli street." we just trade on it.

hi, may i help you? we're shopping for car insurance, and our friends said we should start here. good friends -- we compare our progressive direct rates, apples to apples, against other top companies, to help you get the best price. how do you do that? with a touch of this button. can i try that? [ chuckles ] wow! good luck getting your remote back. it's all right -- i love this channel. shopping less and saving more. now, that's progressive. call or click today.

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.

time for pops and drops. the diamonds and the dogs of the day. boeing, popped 2%. steve? >> i don't like boeing for two reasons. it's large in oil trade and we covered that ground. number two, it's too defense related. this administration and this

congress are not going to be boosting pentagon budgets. >> 7% pop in burger king. what do you think? >> the big whopper delivered nice today.. they had a huge income, up 16%. talking about global expansion. but i'm freaked out about this ad campaign. still prefer mcdonald's. >> you're sitting there, you know the market cap is 900 million and guess what? it's 500 out of 500 in the s&p 500. you know what that means? you're gone. they're out of the s&p 500. >> chico's up 8%. >> gross margin up to 55%, inventory down 10%. big short interest in this game. $17 with support back in october of 2004 and in 2006. it's not going to get to 17 but it will get to 14. >> according to the american heart association, the average american consumes 22 teaspoons

of sugar a day. 22 teaspoons. it's an amazing story. i'm not sure if there's a trade in this somehow, but we have to give a pop to sugar and there's a bit of a shortage, isn't there? >> we got some sugar trades later, don't worry. >> big lots, up 7%. >> i like this retailer in this environment. >> mastercard closing up 2%. >> you got to like what jefferies came out with, they put it out with a buy along with veelsa. both names had a huge day, big transactions. we don't have to worry about the one-day event. >> just a one-day event for me, too. >> staples a drop, 2%. >> technical formation, today, 22.90, a little bit of a double top formation. >> if it closes below today's

low, i want to go short. final pop is for this guy. >> put the camera on me. you're looking at me. >> i don't have nice teeth like you. i can't smile. that's just the way it. >> it's a pop for regis philbin. he's "live with regis and kelly" co-host of "fast money," turned 78 today.. tv legend, honorary "fast money" trader and born on august 25th of '31. our hats off to you. and my wife told me yesterday it was your birthday today. when i saw the segment, made me smile. congratulations and happy birthday. don't move, lots more "fast money" coming up. ( whooshing )

announcer: you could buy 300 bottles of water. or just one brita filter. ( drop plinks ) brita-- better for the environment and your wallet.

welcome back to "fast money." hey, it's time to head to "santelli street." we ask you to send in your questions, questions and youtube clips and we received a bundle. here's what joe wanted to know. >> an underwriter requires two

appraisals and if a home is not appraised, that appraisal devalues the property for six months. please explain why this is causing more harm than good. >> it's a great question. actually there's a simple answer. if you're doing a traditional mortgage through fha, putting your 3.5% down, loan to value is fine, you don't have to worry about the second appraisal. if you're doing a cash-back mortgage that's what you're opening yourself into, along with other criteria, but it's a cash-back mortgage reify. if that's not what you're into, you don't have to worry about it. next question is from ron in coven ton, ohio. he asking, why do interest rates keep declining when the supply is growing bigger? i love this question, and the answer is kind of easy. first of all, remember we're going through a crisis. exactly how far out of the crisis is anybody's guess, but there's definitely the safe harbor notion to treasuries.

we also have a big quid proquo with other countries that recycle their dollars in. the big test will be when we see the light of day when in terms of recoveries. i agree, counterintuitive, but it might not last long. what do the traders think about that? >> rick, i couldn't agree more. it's about increasing u.s. savings. americans are starting to take down the treasuries, we can handle the supply. >> i think that's a good point. that doesn't come up in a lot of discussions, especially the demand side of it. "fast money" fans, keep the questions coming, especially since i'll be guest hosting for another day. e-mail me your youtube questions and more "fast money" coming up next.

when you add ultra downy with renewing scent pearls. you get 3x longer lasting freshness so you feel more connected. downy...feel more.

welcome back to "fast money." it was four years ago this week the u.s. experienced the costliest hurricane of all time, and while the first this year

>> the first official hurricane of the season has come and gone. >> hurricane bill is weaker than it was at this time. >> while bill did a little more than keep beach goers to the shore, it doesn't mean we're in the clear. >> the next few weeks could be very active. >> so how do you translate categories into cash? well, it's all about location, location, location. let's say a hurricane is headed towards the galveston area. 18 of texas's refineries are near the coast, representing 23% of all u.s. refining capacity. any closures from a storm like this is likely to send oil and gas prices soaring. if the hurricane moves inland, significant rain could drown out the late season of corn and soy beans. and if the strike is east of louisiana, it could affect sugar and cotton.

commodities severely challenged. before you tune out al, remember every inch of rain has the potential to make you some fast money. so weatherman joe, how do we play the rest of the season? >> everyone thinks oil, but that's not the play. you have to go with the refiners that benefits from the price spike as well as being able to continue you have to their production rolling, so sun knocko, away from the gulf, they benefit. this was no a quick, quick trade. here's katrina, 8/26, here's hollybrook. this keeps going through the remainder. why? because the fundamentals, physical supply gets so disrupted, this is your trade, and buy a refiner away from the gulf. >> we've been flirting with that $3 level in natural gas. is there a trade here? it seems like a natural, joe. >> sure.

if you get a hurricane that goes into the gulf and natural gas rises on it, i want you to run for cover, don't put that trade on, find something to actually sell it short, look at that chart. does that look like a charlotte up to buy right now? there's a tremendous amount of supply. not only do you need a hurricane, but three, four, five behind it, and you're just not going to get it. >> what do we think about the insurers here? >> these things have run, run, run. you just wonder have they run so much into this? allstate, some of these names. they have already peaked it seems. >> it's all about how much capacity is in the system of none of this is easy to do. the next thing coming up is the final trade, right after this. he ran off with his secretary! she's 23 years old! - oh, come on. - enough! you get half and you get half. ( chirp ) team three, boathouse?

( chirp ) oh yeah-- his and hers. - ( crowd gasping ) - ( chirp ) van gogh? ( chirp ) even steven. - ( chirp ) mansion. - ( chirp ) good to go. ( grunts ) timber! ( chirp ) boss? what do we do with the shih-tzu? - ( crowd gasps ) - ( chirp ) joint custody. - phew! - announcer: get work done now. communicate in less than a second with nextel direct connect. only on the now network. , hard of hearing and an people with speech dischities accessac.sprintrelay.com.

up top spot goes to eddie lamper, made a whopping $90 million today on an investment at autonation. the stock was up over 6%. this comes at a time where eddie's had a rough time with sears. let's go for the final trade. around the horn. >> let's stay on the hurricane theme.e. i like imperial sugar. >> if oil reversed today, short

oih. >> become. >> my final trade is a request to regis. happy birthday, next time when you come, will you bring kelly, please? >> i second that request, but i love reg. >> this stock seems like it's moving higher. tune in tomorrow 5:00 to midnight for more fast "fast money" right here on cnbc. tomorrow the clock is running out on earnings season. guy and pete have the last pc play of the summer. and they go head to head with the guy who wrote the book on the money mayhem. paws. check.

bottom. needs work. sorry, son. [ female announcer ] you can't pass inspection with pieces left behind. new charmin ultra strong. it's soft and more durable. so you're left with a more dependable clean. fewer pieces left behind. new charmin ultra strong. 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.