everything seemed to be working there after the fed decision, until it didn't. now pretty much everything didn't work except in the bid-around of the we did see a little bit of strength like we saw throughout the entire day, which was in the telecom sector. at&t, verizon, just to name a few, were very strong. interestingly, up about 2% today. clearly and only the positive story in this marketplace, in the dow, intel looked fairly attractive. we also saw strength in proctor & gamble. when all is said and done, the big heavyweights, the horses, the energy stocks, the chevrons, if you will, the coal stocks got crushed in the end. the materials, also down. discretionary and health care, among the hardest hit. the transports, let me look at the final board, down 51 points. pulled back almost even after the fed statement came out. and then to see it reverse down 51. clearly there's a negative on the economy here today. traders have had a really good

gallop, not just for six months, were much more short-sighted down here. but really over the past 14 days, where we've now seen the market falling two days in a row. 50 points yesterday. another 80 today. which is going to start eating into that month-to-date gain, and maybe we've still got plenty of september ahead of us, maybe september will come back to bite us like it will. the caveat i keep hearing over and over again is the institutional investor that needs to chase the return, that needs to keep in this marketplace. so don't be surprised if we get some positive numbers from research in motion out tomorrow. if we see strength in technology. if it holds up better than the broader markets here today. but names like cisco stand out on the weak side. some of the industrial names like caterpillar, not doing very well here today. pfizer, just to name a few. that's our situation here, maria. definitely a dramatic day. one that saw very calm and very quiet ahead of the decision, and

then, of course, rallying only to give it all back and a whole lot more to finish down 80 points. back to you. >> matt, thanks very much. matt nesto on wall street today. the federal reserve kept the range of its benchmark interest rate unchanged. the real news is in what the ned had to say. economic reporter, steve liesman on the case at headquarters with the story. steve? >> maria, thanks. the fed leaving the interest rates unchanged but saying economic activity has picked up. this is one of its most optimistic assessments of the economy. actually in several years since we've been dealing with a very long recession. how much did the fed statement include. extending the end date to purchase $1.25 trillion of mortgages from the end of this year to the first quarter of 2010. leaving the amount unchanged. the same thing with treasuries. housing activity had increased, and that household spending has stabilized. two big changes to the outlook. it also expects inflation to remain subdued.

ben bernanke and his band of policymakers were not so upbeat on the outlook. they were warning of any imminent change of interest ratsz. repeated it expects weak economic conditions to persist. so it's going to keep the funds "exceptionally low" for an extended period. with the economy improving, the size of the balance sheet in the next six months, the debate intensifies over when will the fed reduce the $2 trillion balance sheet and raise rates from the current value in the 0% to .25% range. don't hold your breath is what many economists be saying. inflation expected to remain subdued, many put off any change until mid next year and even some in 2011. maria, i want to talk quickly about the reversal that happened after the fed statement that came out. i want to look at what happened with the dollar. as you know, the dollar and the s&p, stocks on the dollar have been moving inversely for quite

some time now. you can see the dollar had a very, very strong rally after the fed statement came out, or a little bit afterwards. it weakped first, then it came back, while the s&p sold off. i don't know if there's any fundamentals that they could tie those together. but for the short term, they are moving inversely. you can see that there in bold relief toward the end of the day as the dollar gained ground and stocks sold off. maria? >> really interesting analogy there. interesting to see how connected these markets really are, steve. when you look at the movement of the dollar. thanks very much for thatage lis. steve liesman with the latest. other business headlines we're following right now. we kick it off with the energy administration. the oil inventories, unexpectedly increased by 2.8 million barrels last year. forecasting a decline of more than 2 million barrels. the supply increase sent oil prices tumbling to close once again below $69 a barrel on

crude. gardner group boosted shipment for pcs this year. it expects pc sales to fall just 2% compared to a 6% decline prediction in june. that's due to a stronger demand situation in the united states, and china. gartner is also forecasting the chip business could grow by nearly 13% next year to the strong sales of mobile pcs, and consumers replacing old desktops. the department of transportation says u.s. highway travel rose more than 2% in july on a year-over year basis. another sign of economic stabilization. this month marks the third anniversary of the coup that brought down former thai prime minister thaksin. while there has been a new government in place, the political uncertainty in thailand remains. a country still in transition. thai prime minister abhisit

vejjajiva after attempts to topple its government. he's in town to meet with investors to reassure them about investing in thailand. joining me from the new york stock exchange where he just rang the closing bell. thanks for spending the time with us today. >> it's a pleasure. >> can you make the case for investment in thailand right now? >> yes. i think the thai economy is recovering. we have put in place stimulus packages which are on track, on time, and with investing not just in jobs, but also increasing competitiveness of the economy. anybody who's familiar with thailand knows we have a number of strong points, particularly a strong agricultural and service sector. we're also seeing plan for expansion in a number of our industries. >> and i know part of the expansion is happening in infrastructure. the government is going to be pumping in billions of dollars to stimulate the economy, spending on infrastructure mainly. can you tell us how that money

will be allocated? >> yes. a lion's share of that will go into water resources and also the transport and communications network. some of it will go to upgrading our health and education facilities, and also contributions to the creative economy, the tourism sector, and also some of the local development, particularly down in the southern provinces as well. >> what kind of policies do you think are needed to encourage investment into thailand and to get the economy moving even farther along? >> the massive investment program is designed to crowd in more private investment. we think recovery will be robust when this plan is implemented, and it is being implemented as of the end of this month. at the same time, we continue to seek fresh opportunities for businesses. thailand has always been a very open country, open economy, welcomes foreign investment, and will look for further liberalization and overcome obstacles to investments. for instance, we'll work on

facilitation. we're going to establish one start-one stop center. the world bank has ranked us 12th in the world in terms of the ease of doing business. which is third in asia. >> so how do you calm people down who are still worried about political uncertainty? we know that there is still some uncertainty in the country. you declared a state of emergency after protesters rallied and called for your resignation. how are you navigating this? >> except for those two days, where in the end we swiftly moved in to ree order, there's been relative calm. obviously in a democracy, there will be differences, there will be divisions. people will demonstrate. and they can do that because they can exercise their constitutional rights. but you'll see the last nine months, none of this has distracted us from a very strong economic program. we know what we need to do to create jobs, to get recovery on track. and to make sure that the thai

economy moves forward. i'm sure the majority of thais are anxious we move forward. at the same time we address the concerns of the protesters. there are still plans for reconciliation through constitutional amendments and political reform. so i think the longer we follow these policies, the more stable the environment will become. >> prime minister, can you give us a sense of the trade situation between thailand and the united states? of course, you've been negotiating with the u.s. on a free trade agreement. washington walked away after that coup in september of 2006. what kind of indications are you getting in terms of getting those talks back on track and how worried are you about any trade wars going on with recent changes in terms of restrictions on products coming in? >> first of all, i think whether the bilateral u.s.-thai trade talks will resume will depend quite a bit on the authority that the administration will

have. now we are certainly open to the idea, as part of the southeast asian nations, we're carrying on agreements with india, with korea, with china and japan. so we are certainly committed to further liberalization. when i represented at the london summit, and i will do so at pittsburgh, we will also do what we can to encourage the doha round of talks to be included. we are very much supportive of a swifter moment toward career trade. we've been worried all along with the recession, there would be more protectionist plans taken by a number of countries. i know that there have been some measures taken. but on the whole, i hope that in pittsburgh, the leaders will confirm that we will not resort to protectionism and not start a trade war. >> and can you characterize the

southeast asia region right now? i think a lot of money wants to be moving there, but people are unsure as far as stability as it relates to economic growth. >> well, although the region is diverse, one of the key things that we are doing is to integrate the economy of the 10,000 southeast asian nations. by 2015, we will have a market and economic community. it will have a market of nearly 600 million people. i think everybody recognizes that asia continues to be a very powerful engine of growth for the global economy. it's expected to lead the global economy on to recovery and that it will continue to grow. thailand is very much part of that. >> we will leave it there. my apologies, mr. prime minister, for mispronouncing your name earlier. thanks for being with us. >> you're welcome. >> we appreciate it. prime minister abhisit

vejjajiva. we have a lot more coming to you from the clinton global initiative tonight. former british prime minister tony player sits down with me, giving us a take on the pullback by the american consumer. what that means for the global economy and should we read much into that gdp growth we saw coming out of france and germany in the last quarter. treasury secretary jim geithner talking about regulatory reform. the perspective with the legendary name in banking. evelyn de rothschild coming up talking about the reform on the financial business. would you like a pony ? yeah. would you like a pony ? yeah ! ( cluck, cluck, cluck ) oh, wowww ! that's fun !

you didn't say i could have a real one. well, you didn't ask. even kids know when it's wrong to hold out on somebody. why don't banks ? we're ally, a new bank that alerts you when your money could be working harder and earning more. it's just the right thing to do.

welcome back. we're back live at the clinton global initiative. the annual meeting in new york city today. my next guest has been a major player on the global scene in european banking for more than 40 years. growing his investment bank from a 400 million-pound business to one with more than 5 billion in assets under management. he joins me now to give me his take. and share his thoughts on the financial reform. and international banking

standards. and he is sir evelyn de rothschild. nice to have you back on the program. >> i'm very pleased to be here. kind of you to ask me. >> and we're pleased to have you. i thought we would begin on the idea of an international standard when it comes to the banking system. the financial reform being talked about right now. what's your take on it? do you think this is necessary to look at things globally? how would you parse it out? >> oh, i think we made a step forward, but we've got a long way it go. i think, you know, we went to a financial debacle of serious proportions. and now one's got to think very carefully of how it will affect globally to work our way along so that it shouldn't happen again. there will always be bumps and difficult times, and i imagine one of the big discussions that will take place in pittsburgh will be how we move forward of global financial control. >> how do you think things ought to move forward?

are you in favor for more power for a super regulateser overseeing the system on a global basis? are you in favor of merging of some of these agencies? how would you like to see things play out? >> i can't speak for this country. i mean, in england, we have two regulators really. we have the fsa, the federal fsa, and then we have the bank of england. i think central banks generally should play a big part. i think the important thing is whoever regulates ought to have supervisors under them. i mentioned this to you last time i spoke to you. i think it's very easy for the powers that be to say we need more regulation. but as we look back, why did it happen? it happened because the supervisors didn't do their job properly. not any in this country, but my country, and other countries. you need to train good people to become good supervisors. you've got to treat them fairly. you've got to reward them.

and you've got to find those people who understand completely what the regulations are. >> which is, of course, something that we've heard many times before. it's not necessarily more regulation, but meeting the regulation to be put to work. >> that's right. and i think personally, i think it's very dangerous for these remarks to be made now about centralized regulating system, and the fed here in america should take over the whole thing and become the chief regulator. isn't it better to think it out carefully and to give the confidence back. the confidence has got to come back, not only for how you run the banks, but to the people who use the banks. i think a lot of people would be frightened further if they thought the regulators were not competent and not able to do their job. >> give me your sense of banking right now in the uk, and throughout europe. we hear conflicting signals. recently we did get positive gdp

reports out of france and germany, but others are questioning whether or not we should actually be reading too much into those reports. how do you see things in the economy right now, in the uk? >> well, i think in the uk, i think the prime minister did a very active, quick roll in getting our banks back together in the sense that we had to have, if you like, nationalization of two of the banks. or to merge them and then take them under control and make sure that lloyds was run properly from their position, they had been called out, if you like, and badly managed. that, of course, is one thing. the economy in england is still not moving forward. it is in difficult moments. the housing market is flat, although it's starting to pick up, hopefully next year. the retail market is going to be tested on.

we're moving toward the period of the christmastime. that will make a difference. there are still a lot of people in the retail market who are suffering, having a rough time. kont nep tal europe, france and germany is supposed to be moving ahead. but i think some of their banks are still struggling. we don't have to even mention the problems with switzerland, which are huge. and we all know the problem of regulation of the major banks in switer land and the effect it has on the relations with the united states. then you go to eastern europe, which still has a lot of problems. although the european central bank and the european union has funded a great deal into places like romania and the baltic states. so there's a lot of problems. 27 countries, it's not easy to say that everything is moving as satisfactorily. i think it will take at least two yes to see an improvement. of course, the other problem which we don't talk with enough is the unemployment factor.

and the social effect of young people leaving school, leaving college, how do they find a job besides companies having to cut back on their existing employment. >> of course, you've got the added uncertainty in the uk certainly of an election coming up in 2010. gordon brown versus david cameron. any thoughts on how that plays out? >> i'm not involved in politics, but all i can tell you is that usual ri in my country, every ten years we have a change of government. but our system, if i can say, to be here in the united states, i think is rather efficient. because it doesn't take very long, and it doesn't cost as much, and we get on with it. ehave to have an election by may. and we'll see what happens. it's obviously how big a parliamentary majority is won by the party concerned. and if the majority isn't too big, i would have thought it was a good idea, because then we won't have too many new laws.

we need to consolidate what we have, work to improve what we're doing, and try and get out of this problem very quickly. >> evelyn, how have you been investing recently? you've been a savvy investor. what are you doing with your money these days? >> well, i think mostly i'm still in bonds, government bonds. maybe i've missed the market. but i saw a very intell jest man that you had on television, as you have some very bright people the other day, who said, which i agree that the stock market doesn't really reflect the economy of a country. and i think a lot of people found the opportunity of putting money in the stock market and probably done very well, and maybe the stock market will stay like it is. i'm looking at special situations. i have bought a few stocks and shares. but i believe one has to be very cautious. maybe i'm wrong. and we have to wait and see. >> what changes your mind? what would get you to say, i'm ready to commit new capital to a certain area? >> i think i would change my

mind when i saw the economy being with the coming in the less of a v shape, more flattened out and moving up in a manner which was giving more security. look at the unemployment figures in the united states. look at the retail situation in the united states. i was told it was a remarkable figure. in detroit today, a value of houses of $15,000 per house. now, if that's true, you have to study carefully the regions in the united states, where people are living and how their values have been badly affected by the situation. and they had so much of their capital tied up with mortgages, it's going to take time for that to recover. they can't go on spending if they haven't got the money. and also, you have the problem of the credit card situation,

which hasn't been resolved this year. and we have the same in england. >> well, we all hope brighter days are ahead. great to have you on the program. >> okay. thank you so much. take care. a big video game publisher is rumored to be a takeover, target in talks today. which company may be getting targeted and who that buyer may be. how the speculation is impacting the stocks involved.

welcome back. the big story of the day was that big reversal in the stock market. now a look at the other stories we're following tonight. in addition to an 81-point de cli, electronic arts shares getting a big lift on the reports that the publisher of the popular madden nfl video game series could be takeover target. sources say microsoft may be eyeing the company, although neither company has responded to the cnbc calls or speculation out there. although it is very much in the market. as you can see, the move in electronic arts. xilinx topping wall street expectations because of improving demand in most of its markets. that suggests revenue growth of

10% versus the previous estimate of 2% to 6% growth is actually achievable. the stock rallied on the news. home improvement retailer lowe's today, upgraded to outperform by fbr capital markets. the analysts telling clients, improving stor traffic doing better. will lift the stock longer term. stock today up 2%. walmart, another retailer, currently fighting a proposed federal law that would make it easier for workers to form unions. sam walton, the company's founder, was strongly against unions. in tonight's debut of the new age of walmart, david faber sat down with the ceo to find out why he's continuing that legacy. >> the company is known for strongly opposing unionization. why is that? >> actually, what we really do is we just love our relationship with our associates. the direct relationship we have. where we're a family.

we don't want to see the family broken up. >> you really believe you're a family? 2 million strong? you can have a family of four and there's people squabbling. 2 million people, you're a family? >> i'll tell you, every visit i go to the stores, i feel it even more. every trip i make, i come back saying, this is the largest family in the world. and it really is that way. >> don't miss the debut of the new age of walmart tonight on cnbc 9:00 p.m. eastern. join us for this special broadcast. deeply divided over the white house's financial regulatory reform proposals. we'll get into it. up next, tim think geithner makes a push for the consumer financial protection agency.

welcome back. treasury secretary timothy geithner testified op the white house's financial regulatory

reform proposals. samson? >> hi, maria. treasury secretary tim geithner and house financial services chairman barney frank are on the same page when they looking forward, regulatory reform should not be about the notion about too big to fail and 11th-hour bailout. he went so far as to talk about basically the regulatory equivalent of a proper burial for risky firms. >> the central objective is to make the system strong enough so we can allow failure to happen in a way that doesn't cause enormous collateral damage to the economy and to the taxpayer. >> there will be death panels enact by this congress. but they will be for non-bank financial institutions that will not be considered too big to die. >> the treasury secretary faced a barrage of questions, really about the linchpins of the administration reform plan. calls for a super regulator and a new independent consumer financial protection agency.

>> nobody will be confused if we do what we're proposing about who is responsible. that's a good place to start. if you give that responsibility to a bunch of different people, with different responsibilities, you can't hold them accountable for performance. >> chairman frank believes a house version of regulatory reform will be on the house floor by november, and late this afternoon he told reporters he does believe that the t.a.r.p. program should be extended into 2010. maria? >> let me ask you a question. so many people come on this program, and we talk about this consumer agency, and people are against it. why do you think people are so against the consumer agency? >> there's parallels to health care reform in that there are so many moving parts to overall health care -- or excuse me, overall reg reform. so many of the regulators, the fed, the fcc, who will have to give up some of their consumer

protection authorities for this new protection agency. that's where a lot of the push is coming from, just inside the government, and inside the administration. as it works to resolve its own plan. >> outside the government you've got people just feeling it's another bureaucracy, instead of adding more regulation, we need the regulation that we have in place, the structure we have in place to actually work. >> absolutely. >> hampton, thank you. former british prime minister tony blair joins me, sitting down to talk about the global economy, the financial sector. where he's seeing global growth right now. and the peace process. talking to tony blair next.

welcome back from the clinton global initiative. peace in the middle east just one of the issues discussed this year. former british prime minister tony blair has been trying to hammer out a peace deal between israel and palestine since taking on his special role as envoy to the u.n. i asked him how the negotiations are going and what is the latest on the global economy. >> well, i think there's three things really. first of all, we're all trying

to work out how we get a negotiation launched for a final status in the deal. in other words, so that we end up, say after a period of a couple of years, with two states, a state of israel that can be confident of its security and an independent palestinian state. what everyone's trying to do now is work out the materials, the context in which that negotiation can be launched. let's hope that comes to fruition in the next few weeks. that's one thing. the second thing, i'm working on specifically trying to help the palestinian economy. in other words, to build a palestinian state from the bottom up. helping with things like law and order, policing, capacity building. the prime minister of palestine actually is doing a fantastic job, but he needs support. the west bank economy, the palestinian territory is now growing strongly. how do we sustain that, create jobs and prosperity in the future and give the people some stake in the future. >> of course, it's one thing

that leads to economic vibrancy and peace. peace process leads to economic prosperity for both sides. do you think that both sides have a sense of that, understand the need not just for, you know, the near term, but longer term stability and economic strength? >> for sure. one of the interesting things about spending so much time out there, if you go and stand on the jordan side, go up to mount nebo, you look over the whole of what would be a palestinian state, you can see right into israel. if you were high enough, you could see right into the sea. so it's a small bit of land. and everybody knows that. that if you can't get security, there's going to be no possibility of getting either economic prosperity or states living side by side in peace, in such a small bit of land. but on the west bank, the palestinian side, there actually has been a big change in the last year, 18 months.

i travel around there, jean neen, ramallah, these cities that used to be with militia running them are now with proper forces, some of which the americans have helped train, that are keeping order there. we're steadily building it, but here's the problem. it's always fragile until you get a final agreement. and obviously gaza, which is set from the west bank, is still in a very, very bad state indeed. >> let me get your sense on the economy globally right now after the financial crisis we've all been through. how would you characterize things in the uk right now? >> i think people believe the worst is over. there are some signs of recovery. the house markets just coming up a little bit now. but i think people are still very unsettled. it's been such shock to the system, that it will take time for people to recover confidence completely. and i think then the question is, how do we make sure that in

this recovery, you know, it doesn't just kind of tick up a little bit, but we start to see the economy really move. and to make the difference on the jobs market, and on living standards. >> would you say that the country has become divided ahead of a new uk election? what do you think will happen there between david cameron and gordon brown? >> well, you know, it's always dangerous to predict elections. obviously having been the labor prime minister, i'm rooting for the labor party. but i actually think on the economy, the measures the government's taken in the last year have managed to stabilize the situation. i mean, this time last year, i guess, you know, the headlines were pretty ominous and difficult. and people would have been surprised that you would even be talking with the word recovery in your sentence. this time last year. so i guess if you ask where

we've been, and where we are now, i think people would be quite surprised last year that we've managed to come to where we've got to. the question is for the future. but i think for the country as a whole, whatever happens at the elections, it's important that we carry on with the policies that are going to promote recovery and promote investment. >> is it fair to say we'll probably see a recovery that is muted and bump along the bottom for some time? that's certainly the case in the u.s., is what we're hearing anyway. >> i think the difficulty with the recovery is the fact that you're not any longer falling off the edge of the cliff. you know, it's great. but it's not the same as getting back to the high ground that you used to be on. you know what i mean? so i think the issue now is, how do we actually make sure that we have the policies that promote enterprise, creativity, give the private sector some momentum behind what they're going to do. because in the end, the governments have to come in to

stabl lies this situation. government has to deal with the deficit problems. it's got to, you know, make sure that the sector, the private sector, which is the ultimate engine of the economy, is also given the freedom and incentives to move ahead. >> you do think we need incentives for businesses, small business, medium size business, to spend, invest and create jobs? >> i think this is the issue. it's been such a huge crisis, very naturally you need different regulatory system for the financial sector and so on. but it is important to realize that if we want to create growth in jobs, we need the private sector to be out there. you know, willing, able, creative and prepared to invest. >> is the biggest issue still the u.s. consumer? a lot of countries saying, look, the most important market is not moving. and that's one issue. i wonder if we're actually seeing a change in policy in terms of government policies, in terms of, you know, trade

issues. you saw obama's stance on tires coming from china and then some retaliation coming out of china. is that going to impact the consumer? is that going to impact broad economic landscapes around the world? >> i think the thing that's the most important feature is the independence, the interconnectedness of the economy. whatever happens in china also matters today as well as what happens in the u.s. now, there will be trade issues from time to time, even in the best of times. so don't let me comment on the particular issues with tires and retaliation or the rest of it. but in general terms, i'm convinced the less protectionism, the more free trade, the better. >> and do you think that there's been any upset in that? people are worried about protectionism, is what i'm getting at. given this economic slowdown, people have obviously begun to look inward. >> yes, i think that's perfectly natural. but we should always remember that every time the world has been in a global economic

crisis, protectionism has always made it worse. so i understand the pressures that come on. i think there may be justified reasons for this measure or that. but i think in terms of the broad direction of policy, you know, the facts are very obvious, the more world trade, the better for everyone. >> terms of financial reform, what would you like to see done? do we need international standards across the world in terms of the financial system? and has this now taken a back seat to other issues, for example, in the united states, we're talking so much about health care. it seems to have put financial reform on the sidelines for a bit. what are your thoughts on financial reform on a global basis? >> i think the most important thing is you get good, clear, open transparent methods of coordination. you can argue about the standards in particular areas. but the important thing is when you're dealing with, you know, capital requirements, when

you're dealing with early warning systems, when you're trying to predict, you know, how is the financial sector doing, what are the risks and dangers we should be looking at, then i think today, because the world is so interconnected, we need a very clear coordination. i think it's also important to remember that issues like health care and the costs of it, and the reason why every major nation in the world looks at their health care system, is because of the cost of it. you know, that's not divorced from the economy. the stronger the economy, the better able we're able to afford the health care system we want. >> this is an important issue across the board? >> sure. >> where is the growth in the world today, would you say, mr. prime minister? are you still looking at asia in terms of the growth for the world? where in your view is it? >> when i was in china a few weeks back, i spent a week there, it's quite hard to see any sizeable economic slowdown there. there's obviously still quite strong growth. where i go in the middle east,

again, you can see see pretty sg growth. india. i think particularly after now the election of the new government, the political situation settled there, it's strong there too. but the question would still be the western economies are still a major part of the world economy. can we move out of a sort of bouncing along the bottom recovery and move to something stronger? >> final question. what would you like to see come out of the g-20? what would you like to see that you walk away and say this is a success? >> i mean, i think what happened at the london summit was very important because it gave us clear direction. i think what people want to see this time is a continued clear direction. a sense of coordination, coming together, the major economies of the world. at least agreeing on a basic framework for global economic policy. >> and my thanks to tony blair for joining us today. coming up next, we'll tell you what might move the markets tomorrow when that opening bell

sounds. we'll get you set for tomorrow's trading session. and tomorrow please join us for my one-on-one interview with the president of brazil. lula will join us tomorrow. we will ask him if he thinks his country can sustain its red hot economic growth. another "first on cnbc" and an exclusive. i'll speak with the president of brazil tomorrow on "the closing bell."

i'm melissa lee live at the nasdaq marketsite. coming up at the top of the hour on "fast money" we will go behind today's sell-off, get you positioned for tomorrow. also a "first on cnbc" interview with the ceo of pg&e. his outlook for his business as well as the outlook for alternative energy in the united states. and we'll get you set up for rimm ahead of its results. out after the bell tomorrow. with a top-ranked rimm analyst. all that and much more coming up at the top of the hour on "fast money." see you then. please help me welcome a long-time friend of glencoe baseball.

a man who played second base here some 45 years ago. actually, 47. ladies and gentlemen, mr. larry mccarthy. amidst today's financial turmoil, our sophisticated wealth transfer strategies... and philanthropic expertise ensure your legacy... is passed on to family or your favorite pastime. ♪ northern trust. wealth management. asset management. asset servicing.

here's what to watch for tomorrow. >> i'm jim goldman in the silicon valley bureau. blackberry maker research in motion getting set to report its quarterly earnings on thursday, but the shares have really been an underperformer as far as the big tech rally is concerned. will this report start to turn that thing around? >> rick santelli on the floor of the cme group. tune in tomorrow 8:30 eastern.

we're going to probably see close to 550,000 continue to be the read on initial claims. maybe move a little below and continue to stay below 6 1/4 million on continuing claims. but remember, they just extended jobless claims benefits. so in the weeks ahead you might see this get a little more active. i'm diana olick in washington. can home sales continue their climb even as the home buyer tax credit is set to expire in we get existing home sales for august tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. and before we go, let's take a look at how the market begins the day tomorrow. we had a sharp sell-off at the end of the day. things started out positive. the federal reserve came out with a commentary after the meeting on interest rates, and things got worse and worse and worse until we saw the lows of the day at 9748 with a decline on the session on the dow of better than 80 points. at one point today the market actually rallied above 9,900 early on in the session. the nasdaq also gave up ground.

it too reversing earlier gains, finishing down 14 points. and the s&p 500 also weaker by ten points. as you can see, at 1,060 on the session for the standard & poor's. don't miss the special broadcast tomorrow when i sit down with the president of brazil. the president will discuss with us the economic landscape in brazil as well as the export situation. join us for president lula in our exclusive interview tomorrow. the president of brazil on "closing bell." meanwhile, "fast money's" up next. thanks so much for being with us. we'll be back here tomorrow live from the clinton global initiative. have a fantastic evening. this is cnbc.com news now. >> sales contribute to a 14% increase in quarterly profits at housewares retailer bed, bath & beyond. software maker red hat jumps almost 4% after hours. its profit beat expectations. wells fargo joins other big banks with changes in its overdraft fees to address criticism that consumers are paying too much.

that's cnbc.com news now. first in business worldwide. i'm bertha coombs. "fast money" with melissa lee is next. live for the nasdaq marketsite, this is "fast money." i'm melissa lee. what happened to our rally? these guys here ready to tell you why the bears top -- and took down this market in a late day sell-off. also tonight the power company ceo that's making headlines in the crusade for tougher green energy laws. plus, pete najarian the pit boss got your setup ina head of tomorrow's big earnings report from rimm. let's get the word on the street. k-fine, let's start with you. what did it feel like you to? why did we turn around midday? >> i don't know. i think was just a slow melt. if you think about where we were before today for the month a very big move. this brings us right back where we were monday morning. it didn't feel panicky at all. in fact, the vix didn't move hardly at all for a move like this at the end of the day. >> so it didn't move? >> right. you look at the volatility index, it was moving to the

fought down side rapidly. we were pushing 22 right before the very last hour of the trading day, then we rocketed right back up, finished back in positive territory on the vix. like karen says, though, there was never any panic. it was really led by financials. you look at the xlf, look at goldman sachs, hit 592-week high, hits 188 and then finishes the day on the low at 184. not saying that's necessarily a negative. but certainly the way the financials turned late the last 45 minutes definitely pushed the market. >> seemed like the areas of strength in the markets in the past couple day, the past two weeks, past couple months, were the areas that sold off today. energy for one also sold off. really precipitated by those inventory numbers. >> but this is what i amarket does. it frustrates you. it's completely confusing. the fed statement was bullish. the fed statement. that is a fertile environment for stocks, for the economy itself. when you're looking at low interest rates going forward for an extended period of time. you're talking about zero inflation. that's a great environment for stocks. but what does the market do? it just confuses and frustrates you. does the