the day. it all turned around about noon eastern. that's when the dollar dropped noticeably near new lows for the dollar. a number of sectors moved up, including the transports. let me show you the dow transports. this is very important. that's an intraday. let me show you a three month. we're near new highs. if we can break out and we're at 3774 i think is the old high on the dow transports back in august, all of a sudden you will get a positive technical commentary from a lot of people out there. we've been led higher by some of the airline stocks. a little better here. we had some positive news from amr and ual earlier today. that certainly is helping here. pay attention to that potential breakout there. rick santelli, we're near new lows on the dollar? >> you're exactly right. a decline of roughly about a third of a cent, maybe slightly more, but enough to put to

unchanged and even a bit lower on the week. this is something to pay attention to. of course, the next chart intraday ten-year, if you look at a one hk week chart we're now at the highest yields of the week for the ten-year in the face of supply and potentially the rally in equities, but the most interesting chart is this two-week chart at 30-year bonds. they are at the highest yield all of a sudden in two weeks. even though it's only 4.25, once again whether it's supply or how they're interpreting weakness in the data or how the numbers change that, this seems to occur on the long end. >> thank you so much. we're looking at techs stronger almost entirely across the board. erin told you at the top of the show, microsoft up. tivo up 7%.

it was a loss for dish and echo star but dish says they will be appealing it. also of note, tivo didn't get what it was asking the court for. that was $1 billion. also a lot of focus today on the semi space. the midquarter update looking good. also a lot of analysts commentary feed back, up almost 2%. then you have samsung. not only walking away from sand disk and a deal there that is up 2.2% but also coming out and saying no we are not interested in ram bus. still the rhamnus bus shares are up 8.7%. >> leave it to my friend steve liesman. he found a silver lining in today's jobs report but i want to give you credit, steve, you have found silver linings even when -- >> in the darkest hour is when the clouds were hovering and storms were brewing, we found silver linings. not the main point but we wanted

everybody to know there was another side. there is a big debate in the market about how good or bad this jobs report is, and sundth focusing on the unemployment rate, they see this report as an unmitigated disaster. many economists are focusing on the job losses of just 216,000, the smallest in a year and see if as sign of impending recovery. here are a couple silver linings. the private service sector down just 62,000. that's the best showing since april '08. not only taking out the august '08 but also going back to april. the net percent of industries higher, 35, too. that's the best since august '08. it is really going in the right direction. and temporary service is a good leading indicator. put together both august and july, minus 14.1 that's the

smallest two-month job loss. look at this. reden reden residential construction jobs my news just 2.9%. i call this no more teachers. this is state and local education job cuts. they have added up to quite a bit. the revisions we got from the prior two months, a lot of it was in this category. state and local education. >> that's where it was revised as more losses. >> more losses downward. in general though, here is the thing, economists rely less on that household survey that gives us the unemployment rate especially during times of transition. even the optimists can't deny 466,000 more unemployed americans bring the total to

almost 15 million. all they can argue is some of the silver linings make the idea they will get jobs sooner a little bit sooner. that's the point. >> thank you very much. the silver lining, as always, properly caveated when appropriate. >> got out of jeweller's loop to find them. >> it can be shocking how difficult it is in states around this count. rhode island has the second highest unemployment rate in the country, and now the governor says he will have no choice but to lay off 1,000 more workers as a judge issued a temporary stay saying the state can't close down government and make people stay home for a day to save money. you got to actually fire people. here now is the governor of the state of rhode island. we appreciate you taking the time. governor, what exactly happened here? what you were trying to do is

say i have a budget problem soum going to try to pull a california, right, people stay home unpaid instead of having to lay them off but you're not allowed to do it. >> well, thank you for having me, erin. let me pick up one quick thought on the jobs front because our unemployment rate is second highest in the country at 12.7%. we got over 70,000 people out of work right now. but in our july jobs report, we actually for the first time in two years saw a gain of 1,200 jobs in private sector jobs. we lost 300 in government so we netted just under 1,000. that's the first time really in almost two years because they went into this downturn earlier than much of the country, erin. so to pick off on the last comment you were having, i don't know whether this means we've hit bottom and we're going to kind of bump along here. i certainly don't see any quick turn up, and that's what precipitated the actions that we've been trying to take. we saw our revenues continue to

decline. may and june, the last two months of our last fiscal year, our revenue was dropped again. that's what's precipitated in my mind having to take more robust action. the preferred action on my part was to negotiate with unions. most of our workforce is unionized at the state level and get people to just agree to take unpaid days. you know, that would sort of spread it around, be fairer, be easier to administer, and help us get through this downturn. hopefully this time next year things would be improving. so far the unions have said no. so my other option was to shut downstate government which we were planning to do 12 days in the coming fiscal year and then the supreme court yesterday stopped me from doing that. i said we have to find out how to save money. every household in the state of rhode island and across the

country today are hunkering down. they're worried about their jobs and they're paying down their debts. every business is doing the same thing, and they have a right to expect their governments to do the same thing. so i'm just appealing to our workforce to say you have good jobs, good benefits, good working conditions. you got to help us out here because we're in a tough, tough strait. >> it sounds like when the unions say the president of your largest union said you're spoiling for a fight with this headline about laying off 1,000 people, you may dispute that particular assertion but what you are saying is you don't have a choice, you're trying to make a big headline here so they will come and negotiate with you. >> i'm not trying to make a big headline. what i'm trying to drive home is the point that i have few choices. they have to agree, the unions have to agree to the unpaid days off. i believe i have the right to shut downstate government which was the path we were going. that's not as good because some parts of government have to continue to operate.

the prisons, the state troopers, et cetera, but that's my next alternative. if the courts are going to tell me i can't do that, then the only other option i have is to reduce the workforce. i know i can do that. that's very problematic and time consuming because of all the bumping requirements that these contracts have in them. so it's the worst alternative, not one i want to do, but we've got to get the savings. the revenue i don't believe is going to improve anytime soon, and i'm fearful as we sit here that it's going to get worse before it gets better. >> governor, thank you very much for joining us. the governor of the state of rhode island. showing that the state's issues are going to take a very long time to heal. unemployment overall, again, up to 9.7% in august. while the country is watching the magic 10% number for unemployment, the number the president says we will hit or

exceed, many states, not just rhode island, are well above that benchmark. take michigan. it is the highest jobless rate in the country. just above rhode island. the number in michigan, over 15%, but the state is betting on green jobs to try to fill some of that gap. indy levin is the deputy director and he is charged with spending michigan's $400 million stimulus money to create more green jobs. michigan already has more than 100,000 green jobs, 350 companies in the field. oregon also makes the top five list that no one wants to be on. it's jobless rate 11.9%. tim mccabe is the director of the oregon economic and community development department. he has $285 million in stimulus money to put to work encouraging green jobs specifically. oregon has 51,000 of them and they want that to become 14% of their workforce by the year 2010. that's next year. gentlemen, good to have both of you with us. appreciate it.

andy, let's start with you in michigan. more than 100,000 green jobs in michigan. what percent of your workforce is that and who are you counting? >> erin, it's 109,000, 3% of our workforce already, and remember we're counting this before all of the president obama's public policy measures came into effect. we count people in renewable energy production, in clean transportation and fuels, in pollution reduction and retrofitting and in green agriculture, and in michigan because of our auto heritage, 40% of all green jobs here are in clean transportation and fuels, and we expect that sector to explode. michigan got over half of all of the advance battery credits from the department of energy, $1.35 billion to michigan, 12 different projects, and we expect to employ 6,800 people in new jobs on advanced energy

storage, batteries for cars, but also for the military and for storing solar and wind energy by the next 18 months. >> half of the advance battery funding, as you are well aware, that has upset other states across the country, about you that's a separate issue. a quick follow, andy, you're not including, and i'm just doing this with the stamp of the cynics, you're not including general motors em breployees on green jobs. >> we were very, very specific in this. there's been a lot of fluff about green jobs, but we did a rigorous study and these are the result of over 6,000 employers in michigan filling out detailed surveys about exactly what their employees do and only people working in green job production or directly supporting that are counted. it's only 3% of our workforce. >> as you point out there is a lot of fluff sometimes. want to make sure you have a chance to give your perspective.

tim, what about in the state of oregon? you're making a big push towards clean technology jobs. why in oregon? >> well, erin, you know, we're a natural resource-based economy in oregon, and we looked at this way back in 2006 looking for the next opportunity. we talked to manufacturers worldwide in the solar industry, and they all told us they were going to expand and one of the markets they were going to expand into was north korea. so we t -- was north america. >> you looked at the average wages which is so important as part of this broader question about a recovery. tim, you're saying in oregon someone who is working in a green job is making, what, $22 an hour? >> yeah. >> that's more than your average? >> exactly. it's over $22 an hour, and we're really reliant on personal income sax in this state. that's our number one source of revenue. these are $42,000 a year jobs. it really adds to the general fund. >> andy, can you get with a

15.1% unemployment rate the worst in the country, can green jobs get you to 5%? can it really do that? >> not all by itself, but you have to -- there's no silver bullet, but it's a huge part of t let me just give you an example. we looked at 358 green firms that we could find in michigan in our study. from 2005 to 2008, they increased employment 7.7%. that's 2500 new jobs in michigan while the overall private sector lost 5.4% in employment. so it's a huge area of growth. it's not going to do it all by itself, but when you put advance batteries, s, wind, geothermal, and so forth, it's a huge area of growth. for example, right now health care is much bigger and will create more jobs in the immediate future, so we're training a lot of workers for nursing and health professions. >> before we go for oregon, where will green energy, if all

your plans pan out, rank in terms of number one, number two, number three source of employment in the state? >> we're looking at it, we have a high-tech industry here. we're looking at it only to be second to our high-tech industry. we're looking for a 14% of our total employment. >> and that would be the second biggest. gentlemen, thank you very much. we appreciate it. states across america are betting on alternative energy and green jobs. which is why later on you will want to hear what saudi arabia has to say about that. one year ago though mortgage behemoths fannie and freddie went to heroes to zeros. the stock fell to a price no investor ever thought was possible. we'll talk about what's next for those two stocks. and saudi arabia literally throwing down the gauntlet on this whole dream of energy independence. they say the u.s. is heading for disaster and the u.s. will stay

reliant on saudi arabia. are they right? we'll be bark.

a year ago today fannie and freddie were the story. investors worried that the mart goge giants would not be able to raise enough money to withstand the spreading mortgage meltdown. fannie sank 7.9% to $6.42. sound pretty low. fannie fell a whopping 12.3%. but then the weekend came and by the end of that first long september weekend, fannie and freddie were both in government conservatorship. fannie closed monday at 73 cents. that's where you see there on the edge where the little drop down. and freddie closed at 88 cents. that sounds horrible, and, well, over the past year not that much

has changed. take a look where fannie and freddie are today. you can look at fannie mae right now. it's higher trading about $1.75. freddie mac just shy of $2. pretty interesting when you think about this whole concept of looking at a stock over one year. come next week they will look like they're at a one-year high. the stock only tells part of the story. diana olick is here to explain how the mortgage market and fannie and freddie's role in it has changed since last year. diana? >> erin, as you said, it was one year ago this weekend that the federal government stepped in, took over fannie mae and freddie mac and set up something of an iv line of cash to keep the two mortgage giants alive. as of september 3rd of this year, take a look at just how much cash has gone in. $95.6 billion in treasury purchases of senior preferred stock to cover their losses. $181.5 billion in treasury purchases of freddie and fannie

mbs. all in all, the total tally is $1.12 trillion in expenditures and it is, of course, still coming. well, what did it do? for one, it served to drive interest rates down on 309-year fix fixed. rate plum nmeted to record lows. the stock market began to recover over the summer pulling investors away from treasuries. now they're back down again to a three-month low of 5.08%. as of now fannie and freddie pretty much control the mortgage market with a 75% share. that's down from their peak of 81% control in the second quarter of 2008. they were about 50% during the height of the housing boom. and the big question, of course, is what next for fannie and freddie and what is the government's exit strategy and you know that's going to be the big debate when congress comes back in session. erin? >> it sure will. diana, thank you very much.

pretty amazing they still have 75% share. shows you it's not that easy to talk about breaking them up. thanks, diana. just ahead on the show, the $1,000 question. with the s&p trading at about 1000 and gold also trading at about $1,000, which is the better buy? and then call it the staycation surge. which park is it and are you willing to bunk with bears? all that coming your way. plus, saudi arabia striking at america. i'm here on this tiny little plane, and guess what...

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walmart is the only dow stock which is lower. no particular reason for it. it just is down about 14 cents. all other 29 dow stocks are higher as the market is in rally mode. it has closed higher every job day since february. it looks like it's on track to do it again today. today dus mark the last official trading day of the summer. not official. it's actually unofficial as we approach labor day. where is big money investing

now. richard weiss at city national asset management and tyler. it's good to have both of you with us. you're worried about the letter w. >> the possibility of the double dip recession out there. it's small at this point. we prefer to think of it as a more of a u-shaped recovery. we will be bouncing along the b bottom for several weeks or months here. we don't see it as a v shape. >> tyler dan, are you investing with that concern as you look at the s&p at 1,000 and gold at $1,000? which one you pick might say a whole lot about how you see the economy. >> erin, i think gold probably tells you a little more than the s&p at this point. if you look at the move in gold

up towards 1,$0$1,000, it's reflecting inflation fears. that's not good for equities because inflation leads to higher concern over earnings quality and therefore lower earnings multiples. if you're concerned about a weakening dollar, you'll buy gold. well, then stocks might look good in the absolute term, but they're not good in real dollars. and then also if you think about it as far as just safety of principle, well, again that would reflect concerns over the broad economy like richard talked about. we're in roughly the same camp. it's not going to be an even recovery. thus i don't think that the earnings growth backdrop is particularly strong for the s&p. >> are you actually buying gold, tyler? >> we don't physically buy the gld or bold, gold. >> or gold stocks. are there proxies by which you

would do that or no? >> there's a bit of a disconnect there. i think broadly speaking gold companies tend to trade as a premium to their net asset value. i never understand why that would be the case. but -- so what we prefer to do is invest in strong companies at good prices. call these growth value anomalies and i'd love to talk about a couple. >> well, we want to talk about them. let's start with richard. i know you have taken the time to come up with a couple names you think makes sense now. one of them i think is ross stores. >> right, ross stores, cheap is chic is kind of the theme there. it's virtually impervious to a recession or economic downturn. it's a 15% grower. it's got a great niche with the 20 to 50-somethings. if and when the economy takes off, which it will, it will participate firmly and fairly in

that recovery because it's in the consumer discretionary sector. so it's got a nice hedge on the downside. it's fairly cheaply priced. i think it's around a 14, 15 multiple here. we like t it's also a relatively smaller midcap company in the midcap sector if you will and that's positioning well for the recovery as well. >> tyler dann, you like comcast, and make the case for that one. i get the whole stability situation of recurring cash flow, but if you're really worried about a double dip, aren't you worried about people paying things like their cable bills? >> i think that you've got a few other things to worry about before you stop watching your cable tv. or paying for your high speed internet. there are certain things that people want to continue to do. if people retrenched, they're staying at home now and this could increase the demand for what comcast has to offer. and that's actually been reflected in the numbers.

they've gone through some choppy times and while growth has slowed, it's still been growing the top line. and that's pretty rare in that environment. in addition to that though, they've been reducing the debt on their balance sheet, and they have been growing their free cash flow. all these things we think are very important to consider, and especially when it's trading at a very cheap multiple of that free cash flow, we think it's a very interesting purchase. >> tyler, would you love them or loath them if they went out and tried to do a major acquisition? >> well, and that's the wall of worry, if you will, that people climb with comcast is will they go buy someone? will they spend a lot of money to do it? we think that the truth has been certainly the last five years they've been on the margin a lot more disciplined than the previous five, and so we think that the signs are encouraging on that front. radio ri >> thank you for being with us. what's a better value the s&p and or gold?

up next, the saudi royal family has a bone to pick with barack obama. a leading prince says the president's push for energy independent is a pipe dream that could lead to economic disaster. is that fact or fiction? "street signs" is back with that after this.

sharon epperson is at the new york mercantile he can change. >> it looks like oil prices might be below $68 a barrel again. it looked like we were going to eke out a small gain, but right now prices are flat. today's jobs data, traders were focused on what stock reactions were. the fact remain was the loss in jobs there's an impact on the manufacturing sector, on energy demand. that's why you see the products weaker. the story this week has been gold, and i have to mention the gold still in striking distance of that $1,000 mark. we are looking at gold prices today that didn't reach yesterday's intraday high, but there are a lot of folks who think in the week ahead we could

see gold hit that $1,000 mark. back to you. >> thank you, sharon. talking about oil, the saudis are striking back at barack obama. the former ambassador to the united states, wrote an editorial saying energy independence is a concept that's unrealistic, misguided and harmful to energy producing and consumer countries as like. it is often deployed as little more than code for arguing that the united states has a dangerous reliance on my country of saudi arabia which gets blame ford everything from global terrorism to high gas prices. it says the u.s. will remain interdependent for years to come. joining us to discuss whether he's right, addison armstrong from tradition energy and matt bennett, vice president for public affairs. addison, the prince come out and says the president's goals are

unrealistic, groundless, and harmful and clearly impossible. is he right? >> i think regrettably the prince is right, and it's not just this president. i mean, we've had 30 years of this now where the u.s., not just the president, but policymakers from the cabinet level through the congress and even local politicians have touted this idea that somehow we can have energy independence in this country, and it's simply not related at all to what the market realities are. this is a product that's traded globally. prices, while the benchmark is here in the u.s., are not always set here. and, you know, it's just unrealistic to think about it. particularly in light of the schizophrenic policies and ideas that we have here in this country about how we can achieve it. we don't drill. we don't build refinerierefiner. there's a whole host of things. during the last administration we were building up this strategic petroleum reserve as prices were rising to record levels. i think the prince makes a good point. >> matt, does he make a good

point? oil is still what the american economy runs on. even with the most optimistic scenarios for things like wind and solar, oil will remain what the american economy runs on. >> he's right we're not going to achieve energy ind pependence i the foreseeable future. but he's wrong when it comes to the political impact of this. he goes on to call president obama a demagogue for talking about the dangerous reliance we have on foreign sources, which doesn't make much sense because as the prince himself says elsewhere in the article, iraq and venezuela and iran and ni ye responsible for running up oil prices last summer. >> he notes this issue that

america doesn't refine things. by the way, it's not just oil. we were talking about all the metals we need for electric cars we don't appear to refine here either. do wei want to say if we want t move in the direction of controlling some part of a potential oil market, we have to build refineries? >> i think that's right. there's a lot in that article that's correct and certainly part of the problem last summer and part of the problem we will see in the future is our lack of refinery capacity, but it's a global market and it's going to have impact all over the world. so i think there is a bit of truth to this. >> addison, go ahead. >> i'd like to jump in here about the refinery thing for a second. we haven't built a new refinery in 30 years. we have abandoned military reservations all over the country which the government controls. the nimby issues in those regions should be very minimal. if the government was serious about trying to help out and

alleviate some of these bottle necks, particularly in the gasoline supply chain, they should be doing all they can to incentivize refiners to come in, tax breaks, free use of the land, to build refineries on these locations that are accessible by rail, pielipeline and interstate trucking to get these products into the market. >> the prince said that saudi arabia's policy has been consistent for the past 30 years, work to ensure the stability of the world's energy supply. a lot of americans read that, roll their eyes, and say are you kidding me? what saudi arabia has tried to do is maximize oil prices. does he have at all a point or is it fair to say they just try to get the highest price they can? >> i think the time line is perhaps a little skewed. i would say in the past five years the saudis have done a very good job of trying to optimize the price of oil, meaning making it fair for both producers and consumers. they are the largest holder of

spare capacity in the world. if it wasn't for the investments that the saudis have made in their oil infrastructure, the supply chain situation would be extremely tight and prices would be even higher. so while historically i think the prince is on some shake y ground, i think within the last five years there's been a realization that this is the one resource that the saudis have that can drive their wealth and ensure political stability in their country, provide jobs, education, provide a stabilization force for their own economy in this situation. so, you know, i think they have come around. i don't think it's historically correct, but i do think that's where they are now. >> they certainly are afraid to lose it, unlike the uae which has been pushing to go green. saudi hasn't been going that direction as windchill. thank you very much. let us know what you think of the saudi prince's comment. a good news economic story coming your way. it's just one steve liesman might like. it's about a national park tucked away in the mountains,

and the reason steve likes it is because of rivers like that one. it's more popular than the grand canyon and yosemite combined. do you know where it is? we'll be back.

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we are heading into the final trading hour before labor day. and everyone wants to know what's going to happen for the rest of september? we'll get a quick check on what they feel from art hogan and gordon, managing director at rosenblat securities. good to have you with us. logan, you're saying if you were going to go into the weekend buying something, it might be -- is it still a truck-related company? >> absolutely. it's a pure play on the north american truck market. you're heading into a weekend, it's a long weekend, and coming right ou next week we get a report on navistar on earnings. it's looking like they will beat the 67 cent estimate we have.

por importantly 2010 is going to have a new epa standard for emissions. a lot of people are going to start buying the back end of 2009 so they can save that money per unit. that's going to drive north american truck demand. i think navistar is a great way to play it. it's a stock you can buy now and play the earnings on wednesday and thursday. >> gordon, what would you do going into the final hour today? >> well, i mean, there's a lot of alacrity in the room. we're getting ready for a three-day weekend. shorts are covering a little bit. as you get into next month, you got to start a focus towards some things like home heating oil. will we continue to see some movement in those sectors. you have to look at material and energies coming into the fall. >> thank you very much. thanks to both of you. on the other side of the break, taking a vacation with

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welcome back. last year the great smokey

mountains spanning half a million acres across tennessee and north carolina received over 9 million visitors. that tops the list of the five most visited national parks. number two, grand canyon, yosemite, olick pick in washington state, along with yellowstone, which spans three states. what's driving the crowds to the smokey mountains? joining us from knoxville, tennessee, is bob miller. bob, thanks so much for coming on the show. you know, we didn't know that the smokey mountain park was the most visited, 9 million americans a year. free entrance. but you get nearly $800 million in revenue. where does it come from? >> well, it comes from people from the -- about a ten-hour radius of driving. one of the things that makes this place so popular is that most people can drive here. there's not a destination where you have to rent a car and fly. you can drive to this park from all over the eastern u.s. >> and i did notice here that it

doesn't charge an entrance fee. a lot of the national parks do. >> right. >> so what makes a difference? >> what makes us different is the park was created from private land which was bought by the states and by private donations. and when the states turned the main roads to this park over to the feds, there was deed restrictions that said we can't ever charge an entrance fee. so we're basically out of feet business. although, frankly, i don't think that makes much difference. i think people would still come here if it was $15 or $20. >> where do a lot of the revenues come from? you talk about $718 million back in 2007. that's from people staying at hotels nearby, restaurants, things like that? >> all that stuff, yeah. unlike parks where there's lodging inside the park, we have very little development inside the smokies. most people are staying in campgrounds, inside the park, rental chalets, and there is a plethora of things to do outside

the park. people do a lot of different things. spend a day or two in the park but spend a day or two doing things outside the park. a lot of activities. >> now, one thing that i saw here, and we were sort of teasing our viewers through the show, you've got 1,500 bears in that park. that's a lot -- that's a lot of bears. >> that's a lot of bears. but for all that, we have very few bear problems. we very rarely have to move a bear, handle a bear. we're very aggressive on handling problem bears and we have a great education program with our visitors. we have relatively few problems. >> as we're coming into the weekend, people are saying it's a late labor day, who knows what you read into the fact that a lot of people aren't traveling. have you seen a big uptick in people coming to the park during the economic slowdown? because it is free and because they can drive? >> yes. we did this year. we're up about 7.5% year-to-date. i think a lot of that is just that. with the tank or two of gas, i

saw $2.21 a gallon of gas on my way in here. last year it was $4.50 a gallon. and if you could find it. of course, right now that's all stabilized. that's a big difference. >> bob, thank you so much. bob miller, from the great smokey mountain national park, home of 1,500 bears. and 700 miles of streams. where i'm sure steve leaseman has cast a line. the number of americans are choosing to stay home for the labor day holiday. that's good news for several companies. which ones stand to benefit most? mr. nesto is here with a look at some stay indication plays. >> i want to find out if old smokey was covered in cheese. but i guess we didn't have time for that. i think this whole staycation gets a bad rap. but really, they're not so bad. >> i want to go home. >> under the circumstances, i

wouldn't mind if we just went home. >> oh, yes, "vacation." they're not always what they're cracked up to be. even though you're sticking around, a lot of families are committing to make it fun, keep it snappy and make it feel different than just hanging around the house. you still have to buy a bit of gasoline, click on mapquest. you have to eat. you have to go to family-friendly places, supermarkets if you want to do a fancy cookout and invite the neighbors over and have a jamboree in your backyard. maybe even buy some beer. or do the cheap date deluxe route which is, you know, catch a movie, go to the amusement park. do your back-to-school shopping. or just relax, jack, as the song says, and polish up the old ponderosa, the hardware store, or whatever entails that. the real losers, and really real losers is if you're dodging the lodging. if you look at the hotel index just in the past week, it's

definitely an underperformer over the s&p 500. so who are my favorites? i look for momentum plays that fit into the aforementioned themes here, beating the s&p 500 this week and for last week. so bp, obviously gasoline made a big hit in the gulf of mexico. bj's wholesale, very strong. molson koors. charleys is a casual dining store. and walmart, chances are people will be dropping some dough in walmart. but erin, really, no matter what, the key thing with the staycation is as clark griswold said is, have fun. >> this is no longer a vacation. it's a quest. a quest for fun. i want to have fun and you're going to have fun. we're all going to have so much [ bleep ] fun, we'll need plastic surgery to remove our smiles! >> you've got to love that, right? the vacation is overrated by many measures. good memories in hindsight, but

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right now, sprint is winning in a two-horse race in the s&p 500. a lot of health care stocks up. but those are the two final ones to watch in the final hours of trade. shares of tebow up about 6% today. the video recorder maker awarded about $200 million involving dish network and echo star. ruling that airbus received illegal subsidies for the aircraft from the european union. that's according to various published reports. cit group extending the employment contract for snef ri peek for another year. i'm mary thompson. you're looking at a live picture of the floor of the new york stock exchange. a rally right in the middle of the day. we're entering the most final

important hour of the finday. dow up about 100 points at the height today. we are just off of the highs there. led by general electric, our parent company, of course. microsoft, caterpillar doing well, of course. nasdaq has been positive all throughout the day. it's still down a little more than a point for the week. the same with the s&p 500. also in positive territory. and not far from new highs, folks, we'll talk about that in a minute, but still down for the week here. let's talk about what's going on here in some of the big issues that we've got. first let's take a look at where the markets are right now. the important thing is, we've got everybody talking about the dollar. we've got everybody talking about the double dip and a few other issues that are out there. the important thing is, we're not really going anywhere this week. we've been down about 1%. i want to point out something very important that's happening. the dollar has been rallying in the middle of the day. that's sort of been the big event here. excuse me, declining in the