you can see. all of them down double digits. the other group i would note is cyclicals in general are under modest pressure this week. right across the board, even though we've had upgrades in the airline sector, some of them are doing better today. conway, ryder weak. and generally, even the airlines have been coming off of their highs here. still, don't kid yourself, as i called around on the street and said, is it here, are we getting a correction finally, most traders think that is very unlikely here. the norm for corrections so far has only been 2% to 4% declines. that's what we're down this week. we haven't seen a real correction of 10% decline in over six months. the worst one was 9% decline. and that was in june and july. the bottom line is most traders stay with the trend. a notable correction isn't happening. let's go around the horn and talk to all of our friends. scott wapner is at the nasdaq. >> we're going to need a big

push in the final hour of trading if we're going to get positive on the day. the nasdaq is still off. down 10.5 points or so. a loss of .4%. really, research in motion, talking about yesterday after the closing bell and through today's session, this has been a heavyweight on this market today. biotechs, bucking that trend, they're higher. nasdaq up 15% quarter-to-date. it's been a good quarter and good month in what otherwise is a rough september for the whoever all markets as you traditionally know. research in motion, down 17%. from a sales perspective, was weaker than the street was expecting. it was also more severely cut to a sell over at deutsche bank. other technology stocks, it's been a mixed bag, but you've had some pretty steady declines for a basket of those widely-held

and large-cap technology stocks. that has dragged the index down for much of the day. dell down by 2.5%. google down a half percent or so. for that stock to move a couple of bucks or so. microsoft down about 1%. the heavily weighted and widely-held technology stocks are the ones that are weak today. that's why the nasdaq has had a tough time for much of today. let's talk about shanda games, the largest ipo in the u.s. for the year. from a chinese internet company. went out $12.50. the stock down about 10% right now. shabda interactive is the parent company of this company that also trades here on the nasdaq. the story of the day, rimm has been dragging us throughout much of the day. >> several factors impacting oil prices today. geopolitics, supply and demand, and technical factors, namely the dollar. we did see oil prices finish the session right around $66 a

barrel, up slightly. still down considerably for the week. down about 8% for the weekend. in fact, we are posting a loss here. and for the week. and still within the lower end of the range we've been in for the past two months. a number of factors traders are watching today, we've got the durable goods data out. new home sales data was weak as well. then we also, though, had that overhang from that big supply bill that we had on wednesday, which really helped to take the market down both wednesday and thursday. but today that controversy over the nuclear plant set up by iran, the covert nuclear plant as president obama refers to them, of course, iran's president saying there's no secrecy involved. tra controversy helped support oil prices somewhat. we are looking at the impact of the dollar. the dollar getting a little bit off of the lows. we saw gold prices sink to the lowest levels that we've seen since september 2nd. that weekly loss, the biggest weekly loss for gold in

percentage terms since july. natural gas, another part of the complex to keep an eye on. of course, that has been a serious rally since the beginning of the month, up about 50% since that time. a lot of focus is being paid to what type of regulation might be played with the ung, the biggest natural gas. what impact that could have on that part of the complex. we are looking for natural gas futures to expire on monday. rick santelli, to you in chicago. >> thank you, sharon. we're going to go fast. fridays, i like to look at the weekly charts. two-year note yield, flat today. however, look at where it's flattening from. 1% last week. 1% this week. the two-year note is unchanged. we had a two-year roll that affects it a bit. look at the tens. they closed at $3.46 last week. it is something to pay attention to. if you look at the dollar index, you know, it's had a nice little

bounce this week. as we come to friday, a big disappointing on the week, up less than half a cent. it closed around $76.40. last chart, the s&ps, dog was talking about hanging close to neutral territory. all those big technical breakouts in midweek, you know what i say, the snapshots of time make it more intense. daily is good, but weekly and monthly and quarterly are more powerful. we didn't get the big negative closes in the s&ps, or the equity indices in general, although the positive close in the dollar is still keeping that technical alive for maybe a further bounce. let's go back to michelle. >> let's look at some of today's business headlines. a lot of economic data today. it was a mixed bag. the university of michigan consumer index, a reading of 73 1/2. that was better than expect. the highest level since january of 2008. because of increasing optimism about an economic rebound.

commerce department said home sales rose to a soeblly adjusted to 429,000. it is the fifth straight monthly increase. however, it was not as strong as wall street's expectations. the median sales price tumbling 9.5% in july to just over 195,000. that's the largest month over month decline since 1963. durable goods orders, unexpectedly dropping 2.4% in august. because of weak demand for commercial aircraft. economists had been forecasting an increase of one-half of a percent. let's get more in today's market action on the floor. guys, good to see you. let me ask you this. kevin, fed governor comes out with an op-ed today and then does a speech today, he said when the fed removes accommodation, it will be a lot faster than anybody's been used to before. that seems to be the lows of the market. does that worry you guys, mr.

darst? >> mr. darst, michelle is asking, i don't think you can hear it here. we had the lows for the market here during the day. we had comments from fed officials here this morning, talking about the possibility that maybe the fed will be tightening a little bit earlier than expect. what effect is that having on the market and your psychologist? >> our psychology, bob, the sign of strength, not weakness, basically begin to slowly withdraw this extra stimulus that's been added in a measured way. i think it ties into g-20, the meeting in pittsburgh. it's showing that we're there thinking about our currency as well. while i'm at it, it's the first time i've ever done this here on cnbc, when we just put out morgan stanley smith barney a #-page report recommending general electric, bob, okay? and we like the stock because it is really a perfect multi-national generating lots of currency earnings. they bought out of enron

bankruptcy a company for $300 million, and it will generate $6 billion in sales, and $1 billion in operating profit. get your hands on some general electric. that's what i say. >> of course, general electric is our parent company, those of you who haven't been sitting behind a rock. 2% this week. and yet there's a lot of hand wringing about it. 2% is the normal correction that we have seen in the last six or seven months. we've seen eight or nine of them. >> let's not forget not that long ago we were moving 2% for weeks at a time. we've seen a string of less good economic data. the economic data is improving, but it's not improving as much as expectations had hoped. i think to a large degree that's weighing a little on the psychology of the market here. at the same time we are 55, 60% off the lows in many stock indices. i think in materials of where investor psychology is right now, you're hearing a lot more about people interested in taking a little bit of money off the table. perhaps at any point over the last couple of months that the

rally's been going on. >> is it because of the economic news we've been seeing? the last couple of days disappointing numbers. then again, you would expect that. >> certainly. but again, this gets back to what we were talking about before with respect to people are expecting a contraction here. 2% is not much. as we were saying earlier, there's a lot of money that wants to get put to work here. so to some degree, psychology is telling you any pullback is to be put. that does not continue ad infinitum. liquidity isn't the answer, but it does play a part. >> are you waiting to drop 10% and then -- >> bob, that would be your classic definition of a nice correction. we had that pr june 11th to july 10th, when it looked like the health care thing was going to roll over everything, when it started to slow down. the market start to advance again. so you need either a policy error, an external shock or internal imbalance, such as the consumer not coming back to get that 10% correction. i see these little tiny

corrections like catching a cold, or mild version of the flu, that basically builds up your immunity. that's a very, very positive thing. next friday we have the employment numbers. morgan stanley smith barney folks are thinking 150,000 jobs lost, which would be down from 216 last month. so we see that the -- it's still 9.8% unemployment. we see that continuing to work on the psychology. but the job losses are deteriorating. they're diminishing. that's a good thing. >> the important part of this discussion is not just the job losses are din my issuing, which they are, no denying that. where i disagree with a lot of the psychology is the diminishing job losses begets job growth. the broader question for the market right now and investors more generally is not just we're going to lose 150 versus 170 next friday, it's how quickly are we going to add jobs to soak up, not just the unemployed people, but the 9 million that are working temporary jobs. >> we're not going to answer

that right now. but we do see this week as the market that held up well, ipo activity has picked up. the good news is we're seeing ipos. but not all of them are doing that well. so shanda just a few minutes ago, that came out there, the biggest ipo of the year, the chinese gaming company, that stock is trading down here today. that was a highly anticipate. what is it telling us, if anything? we've got the ipos, but we don't have a lot of movement. >> what you really want to get worried about is when these ipos go up and triple the first day or go up 50%, 60% the first day. to me it says maybe the management and issuers are pricing them relatively firmly against the amount of demand that's out there. i think it's a good sign to see the recovery of these people, the other side of it, bob, is the folks are rebuilding their balance sheets with equity. we see the equi fi indication. more equity, less debt. that's a positive thing from a

balance sheet standpoint. >> the s&p 500, higher or lower than it is now? >> 1100, maybe 1150. 50% chance it surprises us to the upside. >> but only 20% chance of that. not materially different from the 1,000 level. >> watch the consumer. that's the key. i think it goes through both of our comments. watch the consumer. >> always a pleasure. we've got 48 minutes to go before the closing bell. dow jones industrial average, we were down 60. now down 15. procter & gamble, they're the ones that are holding the market up, the cyclical names are on the downside today. same thing with the nasdaq. rimm really hurting that one. >> coming up next, an exclusive interview with coca-cola chairman muhtar kent. when he thinks the consumers will start spending again. and the president of brazil. what major steps he thinks still need to be taken to avoid a

future financial crisis. before that, the most active stocks from the new york stock exchange led by, as it often is, citigroup, bank of america, general electric, ford, select medical. 

citigroup downgrading coca-cola today. the latin american bottler for valuation concerns. the stock is higher by a half a percent, and not hurting shares of coca-cola either which owns about a third of that bottler. the soft drink giant announcing a commitment to increase opportunities for women in its african distribution network. maria bartiromo had a chance to speak exclusively with mr. kent, ask him why the move makes sense for coca-cola. >> the clinton global initiative makes perfect sense for us to support. it's straight in line with our

vision, 20/20 vision, to empower career, support all the communities that we do business in every country around the world, more than # 00 countries. so it's a natural fit for us. so we've made a commitment for a multi-year support for the foundation of $5 million over the next three years. and in addition with, as i said yesterday on the plenary panel, we have made an additional commitment to the business call for action in africa, to add another 2,000 entrepreneurial ventures on top of the 2,000 we already have there. this is separate from us creating employment with our business of production, distribution and selling in africa. we're the largest employer of africa, coca-cola, pi far. we've created 2,000 entrepreneurial ventures up to now. we've made an additional commitment to create another 2,000 ventures to employ.

those employ 12,000 people. the new commitment will employ an additional 9,000 people. >> tell me why you are investing this money, this time, this energy in africa, and give us the economic benefits for the rest of the world. >> i'll tell you, the coca-cola company and its partners in the last decade, we have invested $5.6 billion in africa. and creating one of our strongest businesses around the world there. in the next ten years, between now and 2010, we will invest 12 billion more dollars. that's our plan. to invest another $12 billion to create more business, to create more suppliers, to create for every -- generally for every one job that coca-cola company and its marketing companies create, there's another ten jobs created through the multiplier effect. all our suppliers, our entire network of supply chain. and we feel that africa is

really an unpolished stone. and the next decade, 800 million people, young populations, great natural resources, improvements in governance, in government, in governance. we feel africa's really going to blossom in the next decade. it's going to be -- the next decade, africa's going to be really one of the shining stars. >> so fascinating. let me get your thoughts on what's going on in the economy today. your business obviously, you've got a fantastic vantage point in terms of where we are around the world. how does the global economy feel to you right now? what has been the impact on the coca-cola company from the financial crisis? >> disposable income is under pressure out there. people are going out much less. the components of channels have shifted for us. more from out-of-home consumption to in-home consumption. people are entertaining themselves much more at home. but having said that, we are

still fortunate that we continue to grow our business in this environment. we continue to invest in our brands in this environment. there's no better environment than now to invest in your brands. and we continue to gain market share across the world. so -- but we have not yet seen specific evidence of major psychological recovery for the consumer, in the consumer's mind-set. i think that's the key. psychology is the key. and i think it's all going to have to still start with right here in the united states. until the u.s. consumers' personal balance sheets improve, and until the united states, the psyche of the consumer of the united states starts improving and the united states is beginning to spend again, i don't think it's going to happen. of course, all the other programs that are in place by many governments is helping to

stabilize. but we haven't yet, i think, really started to see a major recovery across the world yet. >> a lot of international ceos come on the program, they talk about challenges as they relate to immigration. they talk about uncertainties in terms of 2010 policies, tax breaks for businesses to encourage them to create jobs. cap and trade is an uncertainty that's looming in 2010. what would you like to see on a policy level that perhaps could move this recovery along? >> well, i think first there's a big question mark as to what happens when the stimuluses end. and i think we vice president seen a question -- that question answered yet. what is going to replace -- there's been an incredible amount of infusion. not just in the united states. i was just -- i met a lot of heads of state in the last couple of days here. there's been varying degrees of huge stimulus packages all around the world.

and there's still that wig question mark as to what happens when those end. because none of that is sustainable. >> final question here. let me ask you about this proposal to tax sugary drinks as a way to fight obesity and finance health care reform. you oppose this. tell me what's wrong with it, and why you think that this should be changed? >> well, hopefully it's not changed, it shouldn't happen. and i'm saying that because there is absolutely no scientific evidence to prove that a tax on soft drinks, nonalcoholic beverages, that employ collectively with our supply chain, 3.5 million people here in this country, that a tax on our products, non-alcoholic beverages, will reduce the body mass index. that will help create -- that solve the obesity. it is a very complex problem. what we need, and i can tell you, there's evidence.

i mean, a study by the george mason university in washington said that proved that a 15 cents tax on soft drinks would reduce body mass index from 40 to 39.98, .02 reduction. that tax is not going to solve it. what we need to do is to create a partnership. a strong partnership between government, between civil society and between business. to change behavior. to create the environment, maria, to change behavior in this country to convert the united states to make the united states into a healthy society. we have stopped exercising. we spend -- the increase in sitting in front of the screens, whether they're tv screens or whether they're laptop screens, have gone up by 40% over the last five years. so it is -- obesity is about

nutrition, is about calories in, calories out. >> not necessarily about soda. it's not about a specific product group. and it is not about a specific product. it's about nutrition and it is about changing sedentary behavior in the united states. >> they could increase health insurance prem use for people overweight as well. let's show you, 34 minutes before the bell. the dow jones industrial average has been fighting to get into positive territory. it has thus far failed. it's lower by about 20 points. the nasdaq struggling with the unchanged level as well. >> down about 2% for the week. up next, we'll discuss how you should be playing the market right now following another volatile trading day.

welcome back. you were looking at a shot of protesters who are walking across the 7th street bridge in pittsburgh. that is one of three or four bridges that connect downtown pittsburgh with the area on the other side of the river, right near the pnc park there. you can see, it's a fairly sizeable crowd. we do not have an estimate on the exact number. but you can see there are at least several hundred walking across tra bridge.

there are several bridges right there. this is a very peaceful protest. it appears to be. police are allowing them to walk across the bridge. and into downtown pittsburgh. we'll give you any more information as soon as we get it. you can see quite a crowd there walking across the bridge. of course, this is the g-20 meeting that is occurring in pittsburgh here today. a number of different banners being held there. we're trying to get a shot a little closer in here. no bailout, no capitalism. you can see a number of signs there. no g-20. no masters. a couple of signs in spanish as well there. appear to be clapping. appears to be fairly orderly at this point here. again, that's one of the major bridges that connects downtown pittsburgh with pnc parg on the other side. let's look at some of the research calls. the latest upgrades and downgrades. dr. reddy's laboratory, upcoming product releases in the united states.

legg mason, citing valuations. shares up nearly 80% over the last six months. brunswick upgraded to outperform from sector performed by rbc capital, because of stabilizing boat sales. michelle? >> thank you, bob. let's get another check on the markets and turn to our cnbc investor network. coming to us from new york city is rick. >> hi, michelle, how are you? >> an interday of the dow jones industrial average. i want to talk about these comments from kefen warsh. had an op-ed in the "wall street journal" today. pushed the averages to the low. he said when the fed starts removing this accommodation, that's another word for saying stop supporting the markets and start raising rates, they could do it this time around a lot more quickly than people are used to. that seemed to frighten stocks and seemed to also frighten people in the bond markets. how worried are you about that?

>> i'm pretty worried. we're in uncharted territory in terms of what we're doing, in terms of policy, the liquidity we're pumping is getting, you know, not as great as you would expect for all the liquidity they're pumping in. one of my colleagues has a recovery list for recovery. i think that's pretty accurate. you could have negative effects of pumping all this money, like julian robertson was talking about yesterday. we're between a rock and a hard place here. >> what do you do, rick? you've got to work your money, right? what do you do with your money in the meantime with all that uncertainty? >> we're fairly short-term traders around here. i think people should be getting themselves into a defensive posture. i don't really believe that we're going to see this economy get up and start walking on its own when this is all said and done. i'm afraid of what the market's going to look like on the other side of this. i don't expect that to happen until we get into next year. i think we're going to keep

pumping for the rest of this year. i think we can correct a little bit in here and rally into the end of the year. my one concern is we're getting up near federally imposed debt ceiling. the if the government starts to high both indicate over that issue, and try to make a big stand, that could panic the market. that's something on the radar for me. >> some people want the ceiling, some people don't. it's a mess. rick, thanks so much. >> thank you. dow jones industrial average, lower by a little more than 11 points. the nasdaq in negative territory as well. we've got about 27 minutes before the closing bell. >> michelle, our next guest is shorting the s&p 500. find out why and which stocks he thinks are a safe haven right now.

about 24 minutes before the closing bell. the dow jones industrial average in negative territory by 14 points, #,693. the nasdaq also in negative territory by roughly 12 points. the s&p 500 also negative territory. only fractionally, though. looks like it's trying to make another run into positive

territory. i'm reading the ge board. s&p a rough week. is it a sign of a bigger pullback on the horizon. it's lower by 2%. my next guest thinks so. joining me for the "fast money" "final call." good to see you. tell us what you think the s&p is telling us this week? >> it told us on wednesday afternoon, that news that came out of the fed should be really good news for the stocks. it tried to make a rally, a key reversal. it tells me there's longs that need to be shaken out, late comers to the party that need to be shaken out. a market is due for correction at times. it can't be just a one-way street. the fact that we rallied into this, we could have had a correction that's fairly substantial, 10% to 20%. i tonight know for sure that's the way it's going to be now. i definitely think there's more downside to go. i bought the sh but i think the better way to play it is to buy that, and then kind of rotate

into some defensives also, like a unilever or ge. because i think the people will, as the time goes on, remember, when we're in a correction, it looks like a big market move and it doesn't feel like a correction so people start to rotate back to the defenses. even in the last six months, we should have been not been in defensive, they've just done as well as the s&p has. >> that's interesting contrary, isn't it. what are you seeing when it comes to the options market? are people growing increasingly nervous as you're talking about here? are they spending more to get some protection on the downside? >> i haven't seen it yet. i think people have been kind of lulled to sleep a little built. i think as we start to break some decent levels on the downside, we'll see it more. but up to this point i haven't seen a panic yet. it's been a pretty orderly pullback. >> would you recommend people protection here? >> no question about it. why would you let a 60% rally go, and then not buy some puts in the downside with attractive

prices. i've done it. i think most people don't do it because they don't know how to do it. everybody's afraid of options like they're some sort of scary derivative. these are the kind of things that mitigate risk and allow you to make you comfortable with your position. >> they're risky, if you're the ones buying them. if you're selling the risk, they cannot be at sleep at night. >> absolutely. >> see you later on "fast money." all alone, one analyst reiterating his outperform on rimm shares today. what does he see that others don't. plus, have the last three case been a blip or is there a bigger correction ahead? looking at the technicals as well. melissa and the traders are alive at 5:00. dow jones industrial average and the nasdaq both in negative territory. can they make a run into positive. they're close, bob. >> lots of big tech companies flush with cash right now. will that spur a move into the tech sector. answers in just a moment.

part two of maria bartiromo's exclusive interview with the president of brazil. find out if he thinks there's a risk the government will put in place too much regulation as a result of the finance crisis.

take a look at how some of the most widely held technology names are trading today. most of them to the downside. mirroring what we're seeing in the broader market. they do have a lot of cash, don't they, bob? >> cash-rich companies, 24/7, wall street says some of the biggest companies have a combined $260 billion available in their coffers. which tech tech titans will put that to work. i'm joined by roger at your source financial. michael, president and chief investment strategist at ycm net advisers. roger, $260 billion, where is it all going to go? >> that's a great question. the place that i would think has the biggest catalyst, the biggest need going forward over the course of the next decade is pertaining to storage.

everything that we are using now, videos on youtube, everything we're doing on our phone, on and on, it's all about storage and putting stuff on the net, cloud computing comes into play here. i think that's the most obvious choice. there are plenty of other places as well. but storage would seem to be the most obvious. >> are storage players, like emc going to be acquirers, or will they be acquired? >> good question. someone like an emc i think is more likely to be an acquirer. kind of a company that could go both ways. it would be like a network appliance ntap. they've got a fair bit of cash on the balance sheet. they've got a couple of billion in cash. they could pick up some of the smaller companies in the business, something like a brocade or emulax. >> $36 billion microsoft has in cash and equivalents. what are they going to buy? >> i think microsoft is looking

to acquire companies that are going to actually help them improve their margins. they have compressing margins. it's a problem for them. i want to make a point about the cash numbers, the $260 billion. i was talking to my research team in preparation for this. and it's important that we not only look at cash, but net cash. just because you have a lot of cash on your balance sheet doesn't mean you have a lot of money to acquire. oracle has a lot of cash, but also oracle has a lot of debt. same thing with ibm. there's a difference between cash and net cash. apple, microsoft, these companies have great net cash. we need to make that distinction when talking about cash. >> roger, you said before if somebody was going to be acquiring a facebook, for example, microsoft was a good choice. do you want to take a stab at that? >> there aren't too many out there that be big enough to buy a facebook, that's for sure. social networking is obviously a huge thing now in terms of content. that's probably the biggest new

thing in content. so they're the only ones. they've repeatedly said they're not for sale. i think microsoft earlier this morning, i heard jim goldman say they're going to deny it, but stepping into the game space would seem to be a logical space. the companies are fairly small. if you look at electronic arts doing about $4 billion in revenue, or active vision, again about $4 billion in revenue. it's tough to add a lot to moerk soft's bottom line. but i think that's another place would be a logical tie-in, especially with their game console. >> how about yahoo!? either one of you two. they've got $7 billion in cash sitting around. i've heard talk they might be interested in some web md type things, e-help, something like that. >> i would be very surprised if yahoo! was out spending their cash right now. that's a company massively in transition. back to your point about microsoft. look at what happened with palm, for example, nokia actually talking about -- but the three

talking about maybe nokia acquiring palm. i think you're going to see companies go in and do very strategic acquisitions. the microsoft acquisition perhaps of the game developer would make a lot of sense. in fact, that was rumored on the street here as of late. i think you're going to start to see these type of acquisitions. i think, bob, really scale is going to matter. we're in a tough economy. not everybody believes that quite right now, the way the stock market is going, but we're in a tough economy. and we have to -- companies are going to have to be very, very efficient. so i think they're going to hold back cash. they're going to hold more cash than they have in the past. i think when they do acquire, they'll acquire high-margin businesses, not the facebooks of the world which is really an untested model with not a huge revenue stream. >> i like the game developer. any thoughts about that space, roger? >> just what i said about some of the active vision and take

two. active vision is very expensive in terms of valuation right now. it makes sense if you're avendi wanting to get out now with the price high. i don't know what kind of staying power they have long-term. they're wildly popular. guitar hero, can that last forever as long as something like grand theft auto. i don't know. the irn is hot right now. >> michael, ibm has $12 billion, $13 billion in cash. their big moves are in the services area. are they likely to continue acquisitions in that area? >> i think that's where they will head. their cash balance is a little bit skewed because they have a huge financial services arm as well. that needs to be taken into account. adjust the cash a bit if you do look at the numbers. i think that's where ibm's headed. ibm got out of the hardware business, heading toward software. now look at dell is doing with perot. the hardware manufacturers realize it's all about recurring revenue.

i think if ibm makes a move, it's one of those companies with a quite a bit of debt, but if they make a move, they'll go to high cash flow services or yepted companies in my view. we just have a minute left, but your point earlier about $260 billion in cash, and it's really net cash that matters. >> right. >> str any thought that some of these companies might use that cash to pay down existing debt? >> there is some thought to that. but i'll tell you the problem with that right now is the debt is so cheap at this point. you can go out, i mean, microsoft went out and raised, i don't remember the exact number, but their debt costs are practically nothing. in a way, there's actually motivation if you really stop to think about it to go out and have more debt, because your cash, you would hope you can get more than 2%, that you're paying on your debt, that you're actually financing your operations with. so i don't think you're going to see a lot of that. but i think you're going to see, bob, companies holding more cash than historically they've ever held before, because i think they're all very uncertainty. i know when i'm in silicon valley, i know that's what the

ceos and executives are telling me. they want to have cash in the bank because they don't want to be in a position to beg for cash in the future. >> roger, michael, thanks very much. very interesting discussion. appreciate the time here. ten minutes before the closing bell. dow jones industrial average just off its lows. we were down 65 points on the dow, so sort of in the middle of the range right now. nasdaq struggling throughout the day. down about 2% on the week. matt nesto tells us which industry group has been the best performer so far this month. you'll probably be surprised by the answer. bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb

welcome back. let's take a look at how some widely held stocks are trading. some of the big financial names here today. generally on the downside. but have been for the last couple of days. we've seen the markets under pressure, materials, industrials, as well as some of the financials, and transports have been weak. some of the other stocks today, parent company hit $1 a couple days ago, weak as well. energy has been down. generally we have seen defensive a names, coke, procter & gamble

a little better than the rest of the market this week. the market's on-again, off-again romance with reits appears to be on again, at least for the moment. matt? >> this is the funky little corner of financials. the reit industry group, one of only four industries that make up the financial sector, actually one of only four in that sector that are actually rising at last check, or we'll call it unchanged on the day. outperforming the markets and the sector. if you take a look at the big picture, or intermediate picture on the week, though, the reits go from an outperformer today to the worst on the week, with about a 6% decline of 3-1 underperformance versus the s&p 500. then you go to the intermediate term, go back to two or three months and they're far and away the best performers, among the best performers, again, in the s&p 500. so what the heck is going on with these reits?

is there an opportunity here from the giveback the past couple of days that have taken them from best to worst to i don't know? one of the things that really set us off was the three, we'll call them reit ipo flops this week, was select medical holdings, colony financial and apollo commercial, all pricing below or smaller than the underwriters had expected. the commercial mortgage market fears on the present, not only in this sector, but in the broader economic and financial recovery, but certainly clear here. and then there's a discussion about retail space, and also the fact that there could be writedowns in reits, kind of like what we've seen for a long time in some of the home builders. so these are the five worst performers this week in the mortgage family reit index. it's interesting, while pimco, regency and cbl are all reits,

specialized and mack cali an office reit, but there's definitely some heavy selling going on, all down about 12% this week. to be fair, they're all up double digits since august 1st. cbl, the best of this pack, is up 55% during that period of time. so reits, they are in a tug-of-war right now. in fact, even if you look at the index today, half are up, half are down. >> and matt, they're going to be raising a lot more money in the next several months. >> they're trying. >> yeah. a secondary wave. in this one they're going to try to definitely buy some of that distressed real estate. thanks, matt. we're coming right back with the closing countdown. is protectionism becoming a big problem with the global economy? the president of brazil gives us his take in an exclusive interview. taking its rightful place

in a long line of amazing performance machines. this is the new e-coupe. this is mercedes-benz.

what's on the minds of independent investors? let's ask. when i trade, i want a straightforward price. they lure you in with a $5.99 trade, then charge you 15 bucks. you get a low price, but only if you make a ton of trades. at td ameritrade, every online stock trade is just $9.99. period. no matter how often you trade. no matter how much money you have in the account. i hate those hidden fees buried in the fine print. surprise! it's a maintenance fee! i hate surprises.

at td ameritrade, you never pay a maintenance fee. you get low, straightforward pricing, so you always know exactly what you're paying. hey, that works for me. are you ready to declare your independence? independence is the spirit that drives america's most successful investors. announcer: trade commission-free for 30 days plus get $100 cash when you open an account. welcome back. bob pisani down on the floor of the new york stock exchange. a few seconds before we ring out the final trading session of the week. three down days in a row. a little bit of disappointing economic news which we will discuss on the other side of the closing bell.

hello. 4:00 p.m. on wall street. do you know where your money is? welcome to the "closing bell." i'm michelle caruso-cabrera. here's what we're following at the close. stocks ending lower for a third straight day after a mixed bag of economic data. consumer sentiment hitting its highest level of july of 2008. new home sales were not as strong as wall street had been forecasting. durable goods orders dropped last month as well. oil recovered a bit today, topped $66 a barrel. growing tensions over iran's nuclear program, new revelations there. for the week, however, crude is off 8%. the biggest weekly loss in more than two months. here's a look at how we finished the day on wall street. the dow jones industrial average lower by 40 points. the s&p 500 lower by 6. the nasdaq composite lower pi a little more than 16 points, 3/4 of a percent.

let's get more on today's action. bob pisani is our eye on the floor at the new york stock exchange. >> michelle, first half of the week, very different from the second half. right at the fomc meeting in the middle of the week, stocks weakened. and really two days of below par economic news also hurt the markets here. put them all together, down about 2% on the week. let's look at some of the major sectors. what i want to point out, not big moves on the big indexes, but small sub sectors have been hit rather hard this week. housing on the two days of disappointing numbers here, kb homes did have their earning support out. it was better than expected, but the ceo was very, very cautious in his statement on the overall economic outlook. that stock got hit today. all declining in the double digit area. other big sectors, transports were notably weak here. this is a leading indicator of