series of celebrities, plus me, we each represent a different charity. we talk past the traders there. is howard, one of the great guys, and believe it or not, we execute trades. i'm executing a trade. i was going swaps, doing overnights. it was unbelievable the stuff i was trading this morning. it's a great program. we each represent a charity. i was representing the jubilee center, an after school program in new jersey. i was trading -- >> that is fantastic. >> jubilee center in hoboken, new jersey, they have a website if you want to make a donation to that as well. >> thanks so much for watching. good stuff, bill. >> have a good weekend. >> "street signs" with erin burnett begins in 30 seconds. >> this is cnbc.com news. outgoing morgan stanley ceo

john mack says there's no tension with the board and the business model is not changing. a mistrail after a jury couldn't come to a decision. screaming could be heard coming from the jury room during deliberations. wall street's winning streak may end at five days. that's cnbc.com news now. i'm julia boorstin. live from washington, d.c., our nation's capital, where the power players are making the big decisions about the biggest question for the markets. that is the economy and not far behind health care. hello, everyone. i'm erin burnett on this friday afternoon. will our tacks go up? the answer is yes. three of the top voices in america react to what treasury secretary tim geithner told us last night about taxes and america's maxed out national credit card. then we unveil the big moment, what tim geithner had to say about jim cramer.

and one expert says consumer demand is unprecedented for guns. we have the first interview with the ceo of the nation's biggest gun manufacturer on "street signs" today. let's get to the markets. fedex kicking off the day with some better than expected news about its bottom line. morning gains have faded and we will go around each of the exchanging for their quick highlights. >> they have fallen because as energy prices started to come down, notably oil prices, the overall market started to come down. very much the conversation on the floor remains about the dollar. the dollar hitting another 52-week low today. that's the dollar index. so gold is higher yet again. so the conversation very much about the dollar. remember, over the past six days or, so as the s&p was going for six straight days, the dollar was setting new lows each and every day. gold right now is at $1,005 an ounce that. remains very much a story as well. want to talk about fedex as well. they came out and said their

first quarter earnings will exceed expectations and also raised the outlook for the second quarter as well. so the shipper is doing well today. fedex getting a boost off that along with u.p.s. rick, i guess you're think being the dollar as well up in chicago. >> absolutely. it's been foremost on my mind. that's for sure. let's start with interest rates. i like looking at weekly charts. it's a friday. we're down about 13 basis points at 330. we closed around 343ish and that's very key at this point because all interest rates around the global are going down. one week chart of the currencies, let's look at the dollar verosus yen. euro versus dollar. it's close to 145.75. the pound closed around 164. now hovering close to 167. no matter how you slice it for all the major industrialized

currencies, it really has not been a good week for the dollar. but it's always a good week with bertha who is at the nasdaq today. >> thanks very much. right now the nasdaq mostly red and the reason is the chip stocks. we got a number of upgrades this morning, including an upgrade of intel over at rock capital. they upgraded the number of chip stocks saying they see better outlook for 2010. intel down 2%. some traders are telling me you're seeing a lot more selling. today it's really throughout the chip universe. we've got the philadelphia semi-conductor index down 2%. chip equipment stocks are also really negating the update we got from a lot of seem my conductors who were seeing stronger sales. look at some of the others. wynn resorts. we've got oracle and ebay extending their gains to fresh 52-week highs. scott told you about fedex. that's helping the shippers

today. they are among the only strong performers sectorwide. back to you. >> last night i had an extraordinary opportunity to spend an hour co-hosting a town hall with my colleague steve liesman. the guest, of course, was treasury secretary tim geithner. mr. geithner has so many things to say about the things we really care about right now, tac taxes, the economy, the market. we wanted to assemble the best of the best to chew it over. mark zande, jim bianco, and phillip schwegel. good to have all three of you with us. the ground rules are we're going to tackle three issues. a quick piece about what mr. geithner has to say. i ern courancourage any disagre issues you may have. let's start off with what he had to say about the economy. he briefed the president yesterday.

here is what he told him. >> and today you met with the president. gave him a briefing of exactly where we are. what did you tell him? >> i said that for the first time most economists think we're actually growing, the world is now growing, too. but because as a country we borrowed too much, built up too much leverage, really had too long a period of living beyond our means it's going to be a slow recovery. it's going to take a while to fix this. americans are already changing in important ways, ways that will make us more healthy. they're saving more. borrowing much less from the rest of the world. those kind of changes we have to go through are going to make this a slower recovery than expected. you will likely see unemployment stay unacceptably high for a longer period of time because of that, because of this transition we have to go through to get to a more stable, stronger foundation. >> mark, by all accounts we appear to be growing right now. the question is will we be growing in the first quarter?

>> in the third quarter, yes. gdp is going to grow. it is growing. the recession is over. in fact, i think everything the treasury secretary said is spot on. the recession is over, but the recovery is going to be very weak and modest. one of the key reasons is we did borrow a lot. it's going to take a lot of work to work off all that debt. >> jim, do you agree with the economic assess snment. >> i agree with the economic assessment but have a different view on it. i agree with everything that geithner said. we are living beyond our means. they are -- he and the administration are being great rates, by propping up failing institutions. while they will get a statistical recovery, he is right we will see a long period of subpar growth because we are trying to do the impossible, live beyond our means for a long riod. >> before we get to how we're

going to address that gap, living beyond our means, phillip, you obviously worked with mr. geithner. you go do you agree with the assessment? >> i do agree. tim was a key part of the team last fall. we're going to be recovering, it's going to be slow. >> let's talk about this issue of, jim, the way you put, it the great enablers. we're keeping rates low and borrowing money. right now the market clearly there's appetite for it, but for how much longer? here is what the treasury secretary said about the other way to deal with deficits, incompetent crea increasing taxes. >> right now if you're worried, as most americans should be, about how we're going it afford these things in the future, the most important thing now we can do is to get this economy back to where we're growing. where firms are investing again, people are creating jobs again, but again i think most americans understand if we don't do that, then we're going to face a risk of slower growth, higher

unemployment, and a darker future and that's not something we can afford to do. >> sounded a little bit like a yes to me. >> want me to repeat exactly how i said it? this is a key thing and i think it's something the president is committed to. we're going to do it in ways that do nod add to the burden on middle class americans. we have tried to design a recovery package based importantly on significant tax cuts for 95% of working americans. >> jim, he dodged and was more slow on that answer than anything else. it was clear taxes are going up to me listening to him. however, he said they're going to do it in a way that doesn't add to the burden of middle class americans. is it that possible? >> it's not possible. the government is going to spend $4 trillion. it's going to raise about $2.4 trillion in taxes meaning it's

got to borrow $1.6 trillion. now, if you want to cover the deficit with taxes, you're going to have to raise taxes to a level that you'd have a revolution in this country. that is simply not going to happen. tack taxes right now are purely an ideological debate. we're so far in the hole you have to have massive spending cuts in order to bring the budget back into balance and we're not going to do that either. so it looks like what we're going to do is we're going to raise taxes on the top 5% because ideologically that's what this administration wants to do, but they're going to try to sell it as an economic prescripti prescription, but we're so far in the hole it's not going to make a difference. >> i think that is one of the most depressing answers i've heard on cnbc. worse and worse and worse until we implode. mark, what do you say? are they -- can they avoid raising taxes on most americans all the way through a re-election cycle? >> no. i think they're going to have to raise taxes.

taxes are going up on january 1st, 2011. primarily for upper income households, but tax rates on capital gains, dividend income are also rising. many middle income households enjoy capital gains and dividend income. i think eventually, maybe not in the first term, but certainly at some point in the next decade, we will have to raise a lot more revenue. other kind of taxes will have to rise. if not marginal tax rates for middle income households, then an energy tax because of things like cap and trade or we may have to see some kind of tax like a sales tax. so revenues are going to have to rise, and that is going to require higher tax rates. >> this is depressing. i'm going to move on to the fact that for now we don't have to deal with the problem and that is because china is still buying our treasuries. rates are so low. here is what the treasury secretary to say about whether they'd keep doing it. >> i'm very confident they will because they understand, and you see this around the world, to get us back on track, to

preserve confidence in our economy, you need to fix this. you need to be aggressive to fix it, and they're doing the same thing. look at what they're doing. so they understand that. i'm very confident, it's an important thing for us to preserve, and we're going to do what it takes to do that. americans are investing their savings in the united states more. that means there's less reliance on the rest of the world. >> americans are buying american. >> they are. they're betting on us and the world is betting on us. >> for now that certainly appears to be true. i want to throw up a screen to get you to react to it. he hit on something we've been talking a lot f we're issuing all this debt, why don't americans commit more to american debt. in 2007 americans net sold u.s. debt. in 2008 they bought. 2009 look at that huge increase. from 190 to $850 billion. is that indicative of americans committing to america or is that

just we issued so much more, percent stayed the same. >> it's a bit of both. we're issuing a lot of debt. just to keep their share, they're going to buy more. americans are also saving more. it's a good thing. it's tough for the recovery, but in the long term we need to save more, and those numbers that jim had, that's an indication of americans finally saving more in a safe way. in attractive securities from the treasury. >> jim -- >> i was also going to say it's a risk reference. it's what american -- chinese investors want the safety of u.s. treasury bonds. american investors until this past year, they were interested in taking on more risk. to some degree it reflects the fact that american investors on average in general are willing to make more risk than the chinese investors. >> jim, is it a good investment to buy long term american debt at yields as low as they are? >> it hasn't been. the first six months of this year, the 30-year bond lost 24%.

that's its worst six-month period in its history and i have data back to the 19th century. these low rates with this type of volatile environment we have, that's what's going to be happening to investors in long-term debt. they will make like they did very well in the last part of 2008. they're going to lose badly like they did in the first part of 2009. and that's why you're seeing as mark was talking about a risk reference. not only a risk reference for treasuries, but also moving toward the front end of the yield curve. >> mark, do you have any concern that there is going to be any change in appetite for longer term american debt as we go through this massive period of issuance or are we in the clear as the auctions this week shows they're healthy demand? >> sure, i'm nervous. i think we have a buy for this year, for next year. i don't think there's many other places to invest and there's not much private issuance of debt because the economy is very weak, but as we make our way into the next decade and private

credit demands begin to increase and if we're still borrowing lots of money and more importantly if investors think we will run large budget deficits, then we have a problem and interest rates will rise because investors globally, here in the united states, will demand a higher interest rate. we have to do something about the long-term deficits pretty soon. >> final word to you, phillip. >> what the secretary can do and what the president can do is show investors not just that they understand it, but what they're going to do about it, right? let's stop talking about i inherei inherenti inherited this and show us your plans. >> really appreciated having you. i thought it was great to have you all here. tune in to "meet the press" this weekend. we'll be talking a whole lot more about this. david gregory tackling the health care issue, who is going to pay for it. he has all the main players there and i'm going to be contributing to talk about the unemployment situation and, of course, the tax issue.

up next on the show, these are the good old days for gunmakers. smith and wesson up more than 60% this year. we'll ask the ceo if they can keep up that pace a special victory lap for the crazy one. listen to what timothy geithner said about him. >> he was right, he was right, he was right, he was right, he was right, he was right, he was right, he was right, he was right, he was right, he was right, he was right, he was right.

welcome back. the dow right now as you can see, down about 35 points. ever since september 11th, 2001, frankly, this day has not been a day where the market does very much of anything. what's interesting though if we look back at the dow since september 11th, 2001, there's some pretty incredible takeaways about where we have come as a market and economy since then. right now the dow is about even. as you see, it's 9592. with its close on september 10th of 2001, it closed at 9605. we are basically flat at that point, which is just a pretty incredible thing to think b the biggest gainer for the dow over the past eight years is h hewlett-packard. the worst performers, general

electric, our parent, is the worst. alcoa is second for absolute worst. over the past year and it's interesting, david faber has talked a lot about this, a lot of things were linked. it was in response to september 11th that interest rates went to 0 and americans were told to buy cars and that sparked the credit binge. over the past year when this entire crisis really began with the catalyst of a lehman brothers filing, the dow is still down about 16%. that's just since september 14th of 2008. biggest gainer, travelers. it's only up 8%. that's good for the best gainer on the dow the past year. the biggest loser, yet again alcoa. ge managed to get off that list. bank of america is second worst. in the past year we had the biggest one-day point drop and biggest one-day point gain for the dow in its history. we'll take a brief break and be right back.

i'm sharon epperson. we're looking at a big sell-off for oil. down over 3%. nearly $2.50 here. we dropped below $69 a barrel. part of what is pressuring oil prices here are the products part of the market. the fact we got some bills there

this week. that has folks concerned about crude demand. we're looking at weakness in stocks. as stocks weaken we also saw oil come off strongly. the main factor is a technical one. we've been in this range for the past month. oil tried to break above that. $73 mark today, testing $72.90, unable to do so. with the dollar in key focus all week, the dollar weakness and dollar index at a 52-week low. in the week ahead, we will be watching those oil inventories very carefully once again. the big drop-off we had in oil inventories, but the gains in the products is something that this market is watching very carefully and could prevent this market from gaining in the week ahead even with the weaker dollar. erin, back to you in washington. >> thank you very much, sharon. now, it is time to stop trading just for a moment. mad money's jim cramer is here.

you know, jim, it was a pretty amazing thing last night, what happened. >> it took my breath away. >> just in case anyone didn't hear it when he played it 14 times, let's play it again. >> perhaps you remember this rant around the world from two years ago. i have spoke to the heads of almost every single one of these firms in the last 72 hours and you have no idea what it's like out there, none! so you were asleep at the wheel two years ago, what should make me confident that this time you're wide awake and ready to stop any crisis like the one i talked about? >> you want to clarify that a little bit. >> we all know the he he was talking about was not me. >> the guy across the street. >> and i want you to know that he was right at that point. we were at the beginning of this

great panic. and -- >> now you did it. now you stroked his ego. now we're done. >> jim? i said, you know, it's out of control. it will never die. you could see the look in his eyes. once he said you were right and he tried to caveat it because he knew it will never die. >> look, i was thrilled. i was ridiculed even by my own network when i said it, and i'm honored. honest to god, geithner has done a fabulous job. he knows, i've told that to him personally and in forums. i believe in the stress test. you have a lot of negative guests earlier. i think they're dead wrong. i think he saved this system. i did not expect this recognition. i was not in his camp initially. he's done a remarkable job. i have said it to him to his face. i might as well say it on air. >> i think the hatchet is formally buried. he was right, the he you were

referring to -- >> it was bernanke. geithner does real good. >> the he was not me, he was funny. >> going back to that period, that was a period where a lot of people said that i was a hot head. there were people at the network who said i was off my medicine. it was the thing that i have done in my career. the only guy i would really care about would be the treasury secretary of the united states and i got it and i'm thrilled. i am. just thrilled. >> everyone chuckles because it was a funny pom last night. you're right. there was a level of seriousness there and i'm glad that you're happy, jim. we wanted to share that. >> by the way, you know, we see credit default spreads, a lot of guys were talking about treasuries. we have now really gotten to the point where we're at the top of the heap in credit default swaps the right way. people are not betting against u.s. treasuries. there's a remarkable rally. sure, we're down this we're but that was because last year the economy was supposed to collapse. this is a robust treasury market. i wish people would be positive

about the positives. there are a lot of negatives to be negative about. >> how low will rates go? when you think about the -- how much gain you could possibly get from where you are right now. >> i know, but why do we say -- we are now -- we are at the moment where america is going to be ascendant in banking. i think the quarters for these banks will be blow out. >> i'm talking about treasuries. would you be a buyer? >> look, i'm a municipal bond guy, especially after what i heard about the tax situation. but i think the government should have issued $1 trillion in treasuries. i was going to say that but then i got blown away by geithner and i wasn't about to criticize him today. i think the government should be issuing $1 trillion in 30-year treasuries right now and then no tax hikes. >> take advantage of it while you can, number one. >> exactly. >> number, two you just said something that i want to pick up on because a lot of people heard what jim and mark and phillip said about taxes going up. what you just said is there's a way to try to avoid how much

that will hit you, and that would be munis, right? >> they were trading at 5, 5.5 for gos in december. so they have had a move. i would way for any sell-off to get back involved. municipal bonds -- we had 50 cent on. he's a terrific guy. when i think of a guy with $150 million, he shouldn't be playing in the market. he should be in municipal bonds. you should be owning the mlps, enterprise production partners. they have the high yields and those are tax favored. you have to speak to your accountant. i strongly recommend the government issue a gigantic amount of 30-year. they should be issuing $1 trillion in 30-year right here, right now. tim, i know you're watching, do it. >> thank you. why don't we leave this segment just with a little summary of what tim had to say about you, jim. >> he was right, he was right, he was right, he was right, he

was right, he was right, he was right, he was right -- >> much more of jim tonight on "mad money." >> thank you, erin. >> next on "street signs," smith and wesson shoot higher on strong sales. this is a story you might feel very strongly about one way or another. but does smith and wesson have president obama and the democrats in congress to thank for that surge? the ceo is coming our way in a few moments. and a quick reminder, all the recommendations expressed by jim cramer are solely his and are not the opinions of cnbc and may have been previously disseminated by him. before acting on a recommendation, consider its suitability for your circumstances and consider seeking advice from your own financial adviser.

typically september is one of the worst trading months of the year. but so far this september the market is up. joining us to talk about whether it will go up or down from here, classic bull bear is john brown and brian place. good to have both of you with us. i'm just looking here --

>> good to see you, erin. >> since september 11th, 2001, this is one of the least moving days for the market. the average is a dow that goes up half of 1%. it's gone up in six of the seven days. let me just ask you, john, from here we look at the markets since september 11th, 2001. it is actually down just a few points from where it was. we have gone absolutely nowhere in eight years. we are down 16% in one year. >> well done last night. i would be more of a seller today because i think -- i have always seen the bear market rally up to 10,000. it's getting near there. i feel it's going to go down for five fundamental reasons. first much all employment is falling rapidly. the 914,000 less employed last month. credit is tight. the banks are lending to the fed rather than to business and individuals. the dollar is falling making commodities and, therefore, pricing things upwards, making

them more expensive for people. the debt is exponentially rising, which is very, very dangerous and the baltic dry index shows the world trade is shrinking. therefore, i would be more of a seller now thinking this is the top of a bear market or very near it. >> brian? how do you respond to that? >> i think there's two fundamental items that we're looking at, boets from a technical perspective. i think one is the -- as of a week ago today, the 50-day moving average moved 10% above the 200-day moving average. historically that's a very bullish sign. it's only -- hasn't happened in ten years. of the last 18 times that has happened, 14 of the 18 the market has moved higher 12 months later. so it's not just a good indicator for a month later. it's a good indicator for maybe even up to a year later. on average the markets moved higher 12% following those last 18 times it's happened. on average the market has been up 12%. that's a pretty good indicator. another one we're looking at is

the nyse high/low index. right now that's trading at 98 which is very attractive. that's taking the stocks hitting new highs divided by -- all the new highs plus the new lows. >> there's a very interesting statistic, but i would submit we're in unchartered territory and therefore the charts have less meaning. >> i would agree to an extent, but i can tell you then if we take away the charts and look at what's happening in trading, even small days, a day like today where the market is dropping just modestly, there seems to be support, and i think there's a strong indication, the people i'm talking to are terrified they have missed the market if they had sat out. we're seeing -- >> that's always a dangerous sign. chasing the hot dot is dangerous. >> and i would agree there, too. i do -- i can see reasons why in a short term we're overbought. i think you have to be very,

very careful on what you buy, but i'm seeing the quality names are starting to participate. they didn't participate off the bottom. it was really the lower quality names that had the big run. in it's last week to ten days we're seeing some of the higher quality names starting to participate. it seems just as bad as the news was a year ago, it seems as though every day we're getting a little more good news that's helping to support the market. >> let's get a single best idea from each of you and then i want to play a little trivia on one particular name. john, your best idea right now? >> well, i'm still very strong on the gold stocks, particularly canadian and australian gold mining companies. >> okay. what about you, brian? >> i like the oil field service. i think there's a lot of opportunity in the service names within the energy sector and i also think some of the health care stocks are pretty attractive at these levels. >> let's take -- >> could i say, erin, that sundays looking at the price of gold now at $1,000 an ounce,

that's only half its historic high of $2,200 in today's dltla. >> here is my little trivia. this stood out to me looking at the numbers today. seems like this stock is just a horrible stock. in the past eight years the second worst stock, yes, it was ge was the worst, but the second worst was alcoa. over the past year that's also the worst stock down 55%. buy or sell alcoa, john? >> i would tend to be a buyer because it's going -- it's raw materials stock and aluminum and things is going to be priced in dollars which is falling through the floor. >> brian? >> i would agree, and i think the dead is more intriguing than the actual equity in alcoa. >> two buyers of alcoa. we will see if it finally gets its day in the sun. >> or day in the smelter. >> john, brian, thanks to both. have a good weekend. >> thank you. okay. 157 years old, that is the age

of the next company, not the ceo, the company he runs. it is the country's largest handgun manufacturer. its shares have quadrupled since october, we have the ceo of smith and wesson with us exclusively after this break.

the country's largest handgun manufacturer is smith & wesson. they reported first quarter revenue of $102 million, which is 30% higher than last year. joining us is the president and ceo of smith & wesson, michael golden. we appreciate you taking the time. everyone has been watching gun-related names surge. this has been a big point of discussion in political circles as well. i guess the bottom line is people are buying more guns since this election, right? >> well, certainly the demand for firearms has changed significantly changed with the election. i think an important point is if you look at smith & wesson's business, look at our retail business, for the six months prior to the election, our retail business for handguns was

up 14%. so -- and we believe that's driven by people looking for personal protection. we think we make the finest products in the world, but as unemployment rises and the economy gets tough, the consumers are buying firearms for personal protection. >> i don't know how much you track sort of people's reason for buying guns, but do you have any sense of what the breakdown is, how many people are buying guns because they were really worried about social unrest during the economic crisis versus how many people were worried that this president may change gun control laws and make it harder to buy a gun? >> well, you know, certainly since the election people were worried about -- in the beginning of changing gun regulations, but the administration says they're not going to challenge the second amendment. we do have some numbers that we send questionnaires out to people who buy our products. an interesting number i think is if you look at our revolver

purchases in the first six months of last year, one question we asked is this your first firearms purchase? 9% of the people that responded say it was that are first purchase. this year 27% of the people said it was their first purchase. that's a concern over personal protection. we can also tell by the mix of product that people are ordering from us. small frame revolvers are the only reason to have one of them is for personal protection. >> right. now, of course, some people might say another reason to have them is bus you want to do harm to someone else. what is the breakdown between people buying guns for hunting and people buying guns for what maybe they never use them for personal protection, but obviously they could end up using them in some way for crime. >> well, you know, we don't know the answer to that. you know, the fbi does a background check on everyone every time they purchase a firearm in the united states. so there are some pretty good kroms that are in there. but the hunting business and the handgun business are about the same size. the other piece that's important, erin, if you look at

our business, look at the quarter we just ended. we were up 30%. it was a good quarter, but there are a number of other factors in there. we had a small bit of revenue from universal safety response, the perimeter security company we just purchased. our law enforcement sales were up 32%. our international sales were up. >> when you talk about a shotgun a revolver, what sells the most to retail? >> well, actually long guns -- the long gun market is a little larger than the handgun market. long guns are hunting rifles, tactical rifles, shotguns, things like that. >> and are there any particular model that is stand out to you in terms of a shift in what people are actually demanding? >> not in the long guns for hunting purposes. tactical rifles have been a hot

category from the election on. although our business grew in the same six months by 103%. so, you know, there certainly is a desire for some of the products in the marketplace and we're proud we've been doing it for 157 years and we believe we have the finest products if the world. >> when you mentioned 27% of purchases were first-time buyers as opposed to historically 9%. that means a lot of people are buying guns who haven't before. you said maybe that's need for personal protection, fear of the economy, but it gets to a point of there is perhaps some uncertainty of what that's used for. do you as a ceo of smith & wesson, largest gun manufacturer in wisconsin, do you enforce gun control to make sure all of people buying guns are buying them for the right reasons? >> i truly believe the second amendment is a freedom we have in the united states and it's built into the fabric of the country. i believe there are plenty of firearms regulations, they should be enforced.

i believe for the most part they are being enforced. there's a background check every time someone buys a purchase. i don't believe we need any more rules on firearms. >> all right. thank you very much, mr. golden. we appreciate your taking the time to be with us here on "street signs." michael golden, ceo of smith & wesson, largest gun manufacturer in america. up next, the president coming to wall street on monday, and we will be there. we're going to find out what our traders are hoping to hear from him when he speaks from the same steps where president george washington was inaugurated. and a story which includes a banned ad, pamela anderson, air traffic safety, and people for the ethical treatment of animals. leave it to jane wells to find this story. it's right here on "street signs."

the president is coming to wall street on monday. what does wall street want to hear? tim smalls joins us from execution, llc, gordon charlotte will be with me right across the street from where the president

will be addressing the nation. gordon, it's interesting to think about this. sips the president was inaugurated, the market is up and all ten sectors within the s&p 500 are up. where do we go from here? what do you want to hear from him on the crisis monday? >> well, what i'd really like to hear from the hear from the president, erin, is what's the exit strategy for the government. right now we have three asset classes that are doing well. gold is doing well and equity is doing well. is equity doing well because the government has sort of come in and effectively stopped some of the institutions, or is the equity market really safe as these levels? so i would like to hear from the government how he's going to extricate the government from the small stock businesses. >> last night the treasury secretary kept making it abundantly clear he wanted to get out of every one of those investments as quickly as possible, but there was no sense of timing. >> erin, i think we would all

love to hear that. but to expect the president to make those comments is overly ambitious. those comments we'll hear from tim geithner and ben bernanke. as your show last night clearly demonstrat demonstrated, we all want the same thing. what you have to expect from president obama is you're going to hear more concept actual than practical data. i think what he's doing is really coming to look for support for the health care plan more than anything else. >> that's a fair point. gordon, what do you think you might hear on health care? what would you hope to hear on health care? since gordon's putting all his hopes out there, honestly. >> yeah, this is what i would like to hear him say about the economy. although that health care, very interesting. because early in the week, energy, materials were strong. you wonder about health care, particularly after the speech. didn't really have a major effect on it. you thought there might be some pressure on it, but it doesn't seem to be the case. again, just looking for more

specifics on the plan itself. and when he thinks he can enact it. he's got a four-year time horizon. and what he intends to do in that sector would be helpful. >> tim smalls, i want to throw you this little game we played with alcoa. alcoa is absolutely as worse as it gets since 9/11. 62% down over the past year, and 55% -- or eight years, 55% over the past eight years. would you buy it or sell it today? >> we've had false starts. obviously they tried to rally pretty strongly in the spring. and failed. but i think the path of least resistance would be up. look at the long-term shot in the thing. i would rather be long than short in these levels. >> what do you say, gordon? >> it's a well-run company, and it's certainly been under a lot of pressure. is it the best place to put your money right now? i think you could probably find some other places. but i wouldn't say necessarily that it's a short at these

levels. >> what i'm doing is keeping a little list here. and then one day alcoa's going to be up a lot and i'll be vindicated, or it will be down and we'll have a wallow in pity and sympathy. >> wouldn't be the first time. >> yeah, right. guys, have a wonderful weekend. thanks for coming on. >> thanks, erin. >> you, too, erin. would you spend more than 5 hurnds for a jeans that weep when you walk? jane wells coming up.

if you wait long enough, you always get to see that one windshield wiper go across the screen. it's a foul day here. the big winner on the east coast, at least in terms of the markets, is motorola. the best performer in the market. it seems so far investors like the company's new smartphone. what is the old one called that everyone liked? flip? no, it was the razr. the new one is called the cliq. now they are betting their future on the cliq. pamela anderson, air traffic control, $500 jeans that wink

back at people that happen to be looking at the behind of a person. that's just a tip of today's funny business with jane wells. i must say, jane, if i do not see you in a pair of wink jeans in this piece, you are a woos. >> reporter: well, i'll let you look at the video and you can guess if it's me. and please say no. on the funny business blog, we are all about how sex sells up to a point. but first, if you're selling sex, it should actually be sexy. get a load of winkers jeans, created by seattle designer william jones. they wink at you if you're behind someone's behind, wearing them. the youtube video has gotten over 6,000 views this summer. but the jeans are not cheap. they start at 159 bucks. but the most expensive ones, those with the lion's eyes, that's $579. now, forgive me, but to sell the jeans, you might want to use a supermodel rather than, you

know, a normal looking person. but my sister pointed out that the jeans probably wouldn't wink on a model. you need a little junk in your trunk. meantime, we also have a marketing message where the sex sells a little too well. all right. pam anderson stars in the latest pita campaign in removing animal products like leather, furs, even wool. all part of pita's new cruelty doesn't fly campaign, meant to air on tv monitors in new york airports this week. there's also a couple you can see there, they're wearing nothing but a smile. and you get a good look at their back sideses, though we're not going to show you that. sorry. the fur started flying over this cnn network pulled the ad. too racy. they tell cnbc they're hoping to buy time on actual flights and air these spots as advertising. telling me, "we are willing to work with the airlines to censure the