we asked, and you answered. lots of e-mails from tim and ben on who should be in chicago. the president is going to spend a week on not growing the government? i'm all for it. okay. we get that maybe you were joking. but a whole week?

what, is he celebrating communist china? thanks for watching "street signs." ti time. kep lewis named a defendant over the merrill lynch bonuses. seeking billions of dollars in damages. apple apps more than 85,000 of them. and more than 2 billion downloads from the itunes store. and the british treasury secretary wants to ban bonuses for bankers to curb excessive risk taking. cnbc.com news now. first in business news worldwide. i'm jane wells. there's a picture of the floor of the new york stock exchange, afternoon on wall street. we enter the final stretch with the markets in the triple digits on the gain. hi, everybody, welcome to the "closing bell." i'm maria bartiromo, with simon hobbs. >> great to be here. >> in new york, two weeks. and how are you doing?

>> i'm with maria bartiromo, it doesn't get better than that. >> it's been a great time having you. welcome to new york. we're thrilled you're on "closing bell" tonight. a lot of deal making happening today. >> it's interesting, because the stock's down quite heavily. and the strategy from the ceos will work through the course of the events. upgrades as well coming through on the likes of cisco. that's true. volume is light. jewish holiday today. a computer service, $6.5 billion deal. has a number of the ip services stocks on the move. the pharmaceutical business, another $6.6 billion deal. it adds up to pretty good buying happening in the market. the banks, as simon mentioned, one of the movers, bank of america up 2.25%. >> the could pom nents of the dow jones industrial average in positive territory today. >> we took a bit of a cue from

europe. ft up 1.6%. france also higher. the nick kay was lower. >> all the important points around the american trading system. with our eye on the floor here at the new york stock exchange. mary thompson. afternoon, mary. >> thank you, simon. with the dow jones industrial average up 122 points, that means the rates almost all of last week's losses. let's take a look at the markets today. what we have seen today in the broad advance on light volume. it's a jewish holiday. the it's very light volume. the dow jones industrial average, though, even as we are starting to see lost ground here, is still very close to finishing at its best levels of the year. that would put it at 9,829. right now at 9,875. call it about 44 points below those levels right now. merger mania, all these deals that we have announced before

the market opened today helped to give futures a lift, helped to turn the markets around. and we're keeping an eye on the dollar. it dropped to a 7.5-month low against the japanese yen. interesting, the dollar index actually has been trading in and out of positive territory, and what we've seen today is the dollar index has rebounded. stocks tend to give up some of their gains as the dollar index falls back. stocks move a little bit higher. there's a continuation of an inverse relationship between the dollar index and the markets continuing today. let's take a look at some of the market leaders today. the sectors moving higher, these are some of the sectors. financials, materials and consumer discretionary, all higher today. also, they are among the best performing sectors for the third quarter. the third quarter closes on wednesday. financials up 25%. and consumer discretionary up #%. we're seeing a little window dressing as we approach the end of the quarter.

also checking all those stocks that maria was mentioning earlier, the companies making the big acquisitions. xerox paying $6.4 billion, expanding its presence in the i.t. services area. xerox moving lower on the news. affiliated moving higher. and abbott labs get a boost from the news that it's acquiring a unit that will give access to a cholesterol drug. investors like the news as the stock is moving higher. the nasdaq is also stronger. let's get more details on that. and we go to brian schactman. >> thank you very much. we're up across the board. but volume is light. we peaked around 2:00 p.m. dipped slightly. we're still up 1.8%. the two top stories of the day, apple, basically 2 billion downloads in the app store. we don't know in terms of the actual profit. it can't be a negative in terms

of pnl. cisco up. and barclays, it was at 4% to 28%. the analysts talking about the improved demand having an impact on other companies in the space. altera up #.3%. they're all getting a boost from that note. you want to know about the broad-based element of it? take a computer, the computermaker up 2.2%. what's inside the computer, intel, up 2%. what you drink on the computer, up 4%. that might be starbucks or a beverage of your choice. what you do on that computer, book a trip, expedia up 2.7%. research in motion, not taking part. it's just been a rough five-day stretch, down some 20% inside of a week for rimm after those earnings. down another 2.9% today. ouch. in terms of advances in the climbs, we are better than 3-1 at the moment. let's go to sharon epperson. >> we have a bit of a rally

going on here in the energy complex as well. oil prices off of their highs of the session. keep in mind today, the oil rally had a lot to do with the strength in the stock market we saw today. as well as those missiles being test fired by iran and concerns over their nuclear ambitions. of course, obama will meet with the six major powers in geneva to talk about the nuclear plans that iran has on thursday. and as those tensions continue to heat up, we are likely to see oil prices here supported above the $65 mark, which has been the low end of the range. we've seen oil prices in for the last couple of months. keep in mind we continue to watch inventories as well. inventories continue to grow. reuters poll has u.s. inventories rising by about half a million barrels in the past week. and that could put a cap on any type of price rise we see in the oil complex. add to that rising inventories for products as well. and we are seeing gasoline margins at the lowest levels

that we've seen since january. you can see that in the spreads we're seeing there. natural gas prices, natural gas the october contracts sold off today after the 50% rise we saw in that contract since the lows of september. but that contract has now expired. november is the front month. keep in mind, november had been trading about $1 premium to october. so don't be surprised when you see that kind of move when you look at the prices tomorrow. but we may see further weakness there as the cash market is still weak for natural gas. gold, meanwhile, trying to make that push toward the $1,000 level once again. but unable to do so today. and in fact, we may continue to see some pressure there in the gold market, as they really come against resistance there at the $1,000 level. it really all is going to hinge on the dollar. a lot of traders focused on that. granted, it was a light trading session today, light volume today, but there's going to be a lot of action likely tomorrow with key economic data coming out on housing with house price index as well as consumer

confidence. again, keeping your eye on the dollar, the way to play commodities at this point. rick santelli, to you in chicago. >> thank you, sharon. we know the end of the quarter ended, all figuring prominently in helping the dollar have this type of volatility. many traders want to see what it looks like next week. now, if you look at interest rates, short and long, two-year note yields were really boring today. virtually unchanged. the ten-year, having some excitement. not in the direction one might think. yields continue to move down. we're going to settle, it looks like potentially under $3.30, which gives us a pass at the lowest yield closing going back to may. lqd, investment grade corporate etf. you see it on your screen there, on the two-year chart. these are the highest levels since february of '08. whether it was the euphoria a couple of weeks ago when junk bonds started to rally or all the corporate issue wan wans we've seen ramp up, it seems

investors for all types of securities denominated in pretty much every currency. >> thanks very much, rick santelli. we've got a lot of deals happening today. what it means for investing right now. eric ross is director of u.s. director research, and rick peterson. always nice to have you on the program. what do you think about when you see these kinds of deals? $6.6 billion for the pharmaceutical business, $6.4 billion, xerox pays. is this a good story for the market? does it indicate performance going forward in any way? >> it shows money coming back to the market. we're several months ago, where there's a drought of deal making, drought of ability to raise capital. credit marks in flux. now we're seeing a flurry of deals. not only today, but just in the past five weeks, we had over 60 billion of announced deals. so obviously the trend is

accelerating. what's interesting, very few private equity. once private equity comes into the arena, that's even more fields. >> it's interesting, particularly the xerox deal today. xerox down very heavily in the weight of the dell deal that was received quite badly from the market. these are arguably areas looking for a new narrative for their company and spending a lot of other people's money in order to do that. if they're searching around in this way, i wonder what the new normal might be. >> to pull off a deal like that is going to take more than three months. you're talking probably years of work in order to come up with that narrative and put all the pieces in place. this is something probably in the process. they're now getting all the pieces to actually fit together. we've been involved with deals that took literally a year to close after we had already signed agreements to actually go

forward. this is something going on, the strategics are investing heavily in the market, even though the investors are saying the market keeps going higher and higher, we can't sustain these levels. >> interesting. you make a really good point, simon. there are two stories going on here. on the one hand, simon's point is, these guys have to figure out how to grow. whether it's through acquisitions orr ganicily, they've got to figure out how to grow in a contracting economy. the new normal as you put it. but your point is, this is indicative of a lot of money on the sidelines. and companies using this money to try to figure out how to grow, and that's more indication that there's money to go to work, and perhaps that does continue to flow into the market. >> not just talking about companies, but individual retailer investors. there's probably trillions of dollars in money market funds. 55% of the rally since the march levels. now we're going to come to the end of the quarter in the next couple of days. a lot of bench marks not to be met by hedge funds and fund

managers, up 60% this quarter. will this rally continue into the fourth quarter. >> investors in money market accounts had 38% of the s&p's in the money market account. there's a lot of money that could come back in the market. >> what i want to do now, do i want to put that money in the market after 60-plus percent from the lows in march, going into the fourth quarter of the year where we know the holidays are not going to be all that great as far as retailers are concerned. earnings growth, while it feels better than a year ago, remains down. >> we're going into a pretty good earning season. certainly the mid-quarter updates and pre-announcements thus far have actually been very positive. with techs, commodities, a lot of the industrials. it looks like it's going to be a pretty good earning season and quarter-over-quarter growth. >> to what extent is the direction of this market determined by the signals that we get from the feds about to

which it's prepared to continue to pump money in? and the debate that our government started off on friday, of course, in the journal with that editorial? >> that's why the market went down last week. but the fear that the liquidity was going to be drawn in just a little bit and not fuel this market rise. that really has been fueled by government liquidity. we were joking earlier in the show, it shows you what $20 trillion can buy you. good markets all over the world. >> really good point. gentlemen, great to have you on the program, as always. we've got 45 minutes before the closing bell sounds on wall street for the day. dow industrials up 126. a lot of new 52-week highs today. hewlett-packard had an analyst meeting last week, 5 #-week high right now. >> coming up on the program, we'll have a look at indeed what we've got as far as the dollar is concerned. >> later on, joe moglia talks

about the investment community right now. stay tuned to find out what investors are saying about the current business climate. a look at some of the actives today we've had on the market. xerox down in heavy territory. citigroup, in the positive. esess

realtime flash. i want to draw your attention to what i call the best of the worst. staples, the worst performing sector. they're still positive, albeit slightly, but certainly not performing in line with the broader market. but within the worst performing sector, you'll find food and staple retailers. within that, you're going to find whole foods, having a big giant day today, up over 4.2% in the fafs of a 13% short interest. activity in the options as well. and then you can see some huge outperformance really over the past couple of months.

since the july, the summer rally, the stock gaining almost 60%. so whole foods continues to be the growth stock within the defensive sector that nobody wants. back to you. >> thank you very much. bank president robert zolik said the u.s. currency should not be taken for granted. while the dollar will remain important, investors could change to the euro or chinese yuan. >> a lot of talk about this recently. the question, of course, are investors really ready to move away from the dollar. joining us to talk more about that is michael, strategist with bank of new york melon. and greg, vice president of capital markets. good to have you on the program. >> good afternoon. >> what would be the likelihood that the dollar is actually not the reserve currency for the world anytime soon. this is such a national and now international conversation, as far as the weakness in the dollar. we've heard about baskets of currencies that could be a better alternative for certain

countries, particularly in the middle east and russia. but is it likely? what do you think, michael? >> i think the dollar standard is here to stay. i think it's pretty clear that after the lehman crisis, that the reaction of the dollar strongly up against all other currencies, clearly indicates that the dollar is the safe haven of first and last resort amongst international investors. there is no substitute for the dollar right now, although the euro will have increasing diversification benefit going forward as the chinese decide to diversify their reserve holdings. >> how would you account that for the fact that it's been falling recently? >> well, i would point to the fact that the u.s. interest rates now are at record lows. interest rate differentials are working against the dollar. it seems like episodically, the u.s. dollar gets criticized every time we have a recession, and interest rates fall. once the fed begins raising

interest rates again, the dollar will return to upward trajectory, and likely in two or three years we'll hear complaints the dollar is too strong. >> later tonight, we'll hear at # clock, find out where cud lo is heading. he's the treasury man. in 1985 to 1993, i wonder to what degree as a treasury man that he's frustrated that you can no longer have this fig leaf, the mantra that we have a strong dollar policy in the environment where the fed is having to cope with all that lays before it. >> i think it's annisting point that he chose now for the world diversifying away from the dollar. i think he's really putting pressure on the treasury and fed. we think it's an important tool for geithner and the obama administration that it's necessary. given the huge deficit the u.s. is going to run up over the next several years, and this schism we're seeing at the fed with some officials very worried about inflation pressures next

year, we think a strong dollar will be a good tool to anchor a lot of these concerns. >> greg, you say u.s. policy over the last five years has been to have a quietly weak dollar. will that change? they say things a lot, we believe in a strong dollar. but do they actually take action to make the market believe that? >> they haven't. the bush administration, nor the obama administration thus far has done anything to promote a strong dollar. clearly the obama administration has viewed a weak dollar early on as an additional stimulus for the u.s. economy. we see that reflected in elevated equity levels with the u.s. corporations bringing home higher valued earnings. we think moving forward, a strong dollar is going to be necessary to continue to sustain foreign investors purchasing u.s. debt. >> michael, from an investment strategy standpoint, what do i want to do in terms of kurps sis and commodities right now? >> right now you want to take part in this very bullish market in international equities. you do not want to be hedged in

terms of foreign exchange. take advantage of the fact that the dollar is falling over the course of the fourth quarter against other currencies. look at those currencies, those markets that have high interest rates. the australias of the world, the brazils of the world. but by the time that the first quarter rolls around, the fed signals it's going to hike interest rates as unemployment peaks, that's the time you want to squaring up your positions and look to hold more of a u.s. dollar-based portfolio. >> let me test what you're suggesting there. before we have that advice. the u.s. needs a strong dollar. are you suggesting, therefore, that it has a much more restrictive monetary policy, higher interest rates, no quantitative easing now for the sake of future generations? are you prepared to -- or are you advocating that the pain is felt for the american people to that end? >> i think what we're seeing right now, it's clearly the fed

had to act earlier this year and last year. but now it's to deal with the ramifications of your actions. so what does the fed choose to do. does the fed tolerate inflation next year? clearly the answer is no, that would be more damaging to the dollar. so we think what's going to have to happen is the fed working in concert with treasury is going to have to push them for a very strong dollar policy. clearly the u.s. government needs to borrow significant amounts of money moving forward, and the primary purchases of our debt are foreigners. we need to tell them, we all know that u.s. interest rates are going to move higher, therefore, bond prices are going to be moving lower. how do you continue to attract foreign capital to those bonds by assuring them that the value of the dollar will not fall. >> so where do you see the dollar headed over the near term then? >> we think the euro has peaked recently at levels near 150. we think the dollar yen at 88 is at the bottom. japanese officials in the new administration here clearly felt that they've gotten a little bit

out of hand, and ahead of themselves by saying they promote a strong yen. with an economy that is so reliant on export-driven growth, we think a weak yen is vital for japan. >> clearly the emerging markets are becoming more powerful. there's no doubt about that. further down the line, wouldn't it be advisable for the u.s. perhaps to that in order to get what it wants at the end or a version of what it would like at the end rather than leaving it as we go into the agm of the world back and imf this weekend, in other people's court to play with? >> yes. certainly i think the u.s. has to promote more globalization and free trade, this issue with chinese tires is a concern. we are concerned that breaks out into perhaps a more full-fledged type of trade war. but the u.s. dollar we think is

likely to continue sliding regardless of u.s. action, until the fed hikes interest rate, or gives an imminent signal of that. we think the euro dollar could end at 155 and turn around next year at 135. >> good conversation. we so appreciate it. thanks very much. >> thank you. >> we'll see you soon. 35 minutes before the closing bell sounds for the day. the dow jones industrial average up better than 130 points. nasdaq also positive. >> with the holiday season, the shopping season still a couple of months away, already we're getting some positive predictions about this year's retail outlook. the story next on "closing bell" from new york.

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let's take a look at some of the widely held stocks and where they traded today. a lot of the financials did well today. you can see them rocking high toward the close there. some good gains like citigroup, bank of america and jpmorgan chase. these are more of the most widely held stocks. overall today, it was about a 1 to 6 ratio of gainers. six gainers for every one decliner, if you like. most members of the dow jones

industrial average actually rose during the course of the session. let's talk about the semi conductors. they had a reasonable day today. >> let's look at some of the business headlines we're covering at this hour. manufacturing in the texas region is still shrinking, though overall conditions are getting better. dallas federal reserve survey showing production contracted to minus .5. the international shopping centers said retailers will see a better holiday shopping season this year than they did in '08. the group reporting same-store sales will be up #% from last year. due to the improving economy. the state of ohio is taking the lead in a lawsuit against bank of america. the suit is alleging that b of a's deal to acquire merrill lynch failed to disclose billions of dollars in losses and bonuses at merrill. the plaintiff group includes the state teacher's retirement systems of ohio and texas, and ohio's public employee retirement system. >> let's have a quick check back in on the indices.

155 for the week overall last week during the course of the session. we actually gained 129. i'm expecting them to come up on the screen. >> it's on all the boards up around us. that snaps a three-day losing streak coming off the week that simon mentioned. up next after a short break, a couple of semi conductor names getting a lot of attention from investors today. which names are seeing the action and we'll take a look at the investment opportunities.

welcome back. we're in the final stretch here. about 25 minutes before the closing bell sounds. i've got a lot of green on my screen. that's for sure. financials, technology, health care stocks, all doing well today. there's the dow. not at the highs of the afternoon, but just shy of them, 125 points higher. among the oils, doing well. banks are doing well. gesmt, a dow component, of course, up 2.5%. citigroup up 3.5%.

we approach the final stretch for the markets on a monday afternoon. nasdaq looks like this. technology also doing well. cisco upgated earlier. up nearly 5% right now. intel as well as microsoft higher been better than 1% and 2% respectively. 2130 on the nasdaq. s&p 500, health care and really oil, the two major groups there leading the way higher there. 18 points higher. simon? >> time for the "fast money" "final call." some semi conductor names getting major attention from the investors today. are the chips hot or overheating? here to tell us more, the co-founder and "fast money" contributor. good evening to you. thanks for joining us. what do you think of the semi conductors at the moment? >> simon, we've seen a big heat-up in the space. part of that, of course is that citigroup came out and gave some pretty bullish commentary this morning on applied materials.

and in particular, some -- a place just across from you, over in hamburg, they had a big semi -- or rather a big solar conference last week, and applied material has really focused in on that side of the semi conductor space. they said citigroup said that they thought that the orders were going to be increasing dramatically for applied materials. i do not have a position in this one. but i do note very unusual activity in here. some 35, 36,000 contracts trading today versus normal of just a little over 10,000. so very heavy turnover. they don't have earnings. a lot of this, of course, relate to what citigroup said today. but we also see it happening in micron technology, simon. and micron has earnings tomorrow. and that stock is running right up against its 52-week high ahead of those earnings. and they continue to buy calls in here very 'degreesively, in

fact, looking for expansion in margin, which they may get. as people work down through inventories, the chance of them being able to raise prices as they have less and less inventory is greater and greater. >> there is a lot of comment already out there from the likes of barons, that they are expected to beat expectations, partly because of the d-ram pricing which you alluded to there. do you think to a certain extent it's still in the market? that is the $1 million question, simon, is it already baked in, or with the upgrade cycle coming from microsoft, with the upgrades to servers that people are going to be doing as well, does that really benefit micron. i think it will benefit micron in a very big way. but does it pull back after these earnings and then go back to work or does it just keep going. the speculation, simon, isn't so crazy bullish that it's looking for an explosion up to $11 or

$12, something like that. it's more or less just a continuation, and a holding of the price of the gains that it's made so far. certainly not much coming in on the bearish side at all in micron. >> we're running out of time, but i think the chief technology officers are also going to talk on wednesday. >> yeah. another one in the solar space. because of the semis that they concentrate on. so much of it being in the solar space. so i would say a lot of solar interest, and i think it's all because of inventories being worked down. >> john, thank you very much for that. we should see more on that tonight coming up, of course, on "fast money" this evening. as the markets near their pre-lehman levels, are the buyers hoflding back. plus, a look at who could be a potential target in the biotech space. melissa and the traders aren later. >> 20 minutes before the closing bell sounds for the day. volume on the light side. it is a jewish holiday. you would expect volume to be a little light today. that's what we're getting.

>> 6 million traders so far. usually you expect about 1 billion by now? >> absolutely. and that is lighter than it was certainly in the peak of volume a year ago or so. dow industrials up 128 on the dow, nasdaq holding on to a double digit move as well. we'll take the pulse of the investor, td ameritrade chairman joe moglia will break down his company's latest investment survey and what it's saying about sentiment in the current climate. after the bell, more help ahead for the housing industry. we'll take a look at the obama administration's latest plans. who stands to benefit. that's at 4:00 p.m. eastern.

welcome back. for investors, the last three months have been nothing but positive. turning over 15% in a three-month period. my next guest tracks investor sentiment. the latest survey results, we're happy to welcome him back to the program, another first on cnbc

interview with a look at the individual investor. joe, how rub? >> great. happy to be here. >> you've got something else going on in your life these times. tell us about it. >> yes, i do. effective for the 2009 season, i'm working with a football program at the university of nebraska. i am really excited about this. i am here almost full-time. we're 3-1 right now. we've got a buy this week. then we start the big 12 schedule in a couple weeks. so we're excited. >> congratulations. you're back to really where your heart has been for so many years, and that's coaching. can you tell me the similarities between leadership on the field and leadership in business? i know you're so motivational with the players. >> i think at the end of the day, maria, what you're really doing is making a significant bet on people. you've got to be able to put together a winning strategy in a competitive environment. in the business world you've got to be able to generate long-term earnings.

in the athletic world, you've got to be able to win games. you've got to be competitive. but you will always make a bet on people. frapgly, you do that in football and you do that in business. >> very cool. how bullish are you is one of the questions that your firm asked investors right now. i'll tell you one thing, it certainly feels like people are bullish given the fact we're talking about a 60% move from the bottom back in march. >> i would totally agree with that, maria. people are not widely optimistic, but they feel good. they've got tremendous access to information. they've got good access to good risk management tools. they still have 20% of their money in cash. but when we talk to the people that we surveyed, about 75% of the respondents said that they are comfortable with, or feel really good about the market. that's pretty good. >> 20% of cash, that's interesting. because so many people come on the program and they try to make the case, joe, when you've got a lot of money in cash, that's a positive. eventually that money comes back into the market. it is just money sitting on the sidelines, figuring out where to

go. where do you think it's going to go? >> what the clients are telling us now, what they really like right now is technology. when you go into the fall season, you've got a lot of the companies coming out with new products. you've got a guy like steve jobs back now involved. so technology has been a hot sector. it continues to be as we move into the fall. they also still like energy, but not like technology. they still have interest in the finance, but not as much as they did a few months ago. >> technology has certainly been the best performing group since the lows. people are looking for growth in an environment where we keep looking at contraction. >> right. that's exactly where our clients have been certainly putting their money. >> another question you ask people, what is performing the worst. the majority, or 21% said health care. >> yeah. of all the sectors, health care was the number one area that they had the most concern with. when you think about everything that's going on in washington, and congress, i think, frankly, it's an indictment of what everybody's seeing.

the issue isn't so much that something's going to happen. people don't know what's going to happen. and as long as there's uncertainty, and a lack of clarity, there are going to be issues. so no one really knows what health care's going to look like a year from now, or five years from now, so they're not crazy about putting their money in that sector. >> what did you do with your money is the next question on the survey. did they pay down debt, pay off their mortgage? what did you learn here? >> of the people that actually were taking money out of the market, the number one use of that cash was to pay down their mortgage. i kind of thought that was fafs nating. primarily when you look what's going on in terms of housing in the mortgage market, housing is not out of trouble. but people that had money, extra money were paying down mortgages. if you don't have money, unfortunately, you're not able to pay off your mortgage and defaults are still high. so you have a little bit of sort of a parataxes there. >> people just want to get that bill done with and don't want any problems with all the news of foreclosures and all that.

let me get your take on something we're seeing in the wires here, joe. the fdic is likely to require banks to pre-pay, pre-pay three years of insurance premiums. now, one of the issues here is that we all know that the fdic has been examining and closing down banks, and now they're down to $10 billion in their reserve fund. actually, they are $10 billion -- they actually secure $30 billion for the next 12 months. so post-12 months they've got $10 billion. do they go to treasury for more money, or fdic likely to require banks to pre-pay three years of insurance premiums to bulk up that reserve fund. does that concern you in any way? >> i don't know, maria, if it concerns me. what i like is, we've gone through a pretty catastrophic period over the span of the last couple of years. and the approach that a lot of the financial institutions have taken with regards to risk has been improved. i think for the regulators to

make more of an effort to turn over, frankly, every rock to try to find different ways to be able to manage that risk going forward is a good idea. not all of it's going to work, but i applaud the effort to do everything you can to try to address that. >> sheila bair has been doing a fantastic job. i have to give her a shout out. she's closing down almost 100 banks this year. you don't even hear about it. she's doing it quietly, examining, closing down and taking on those losses. we'll see at the end of the day if in fact it's too much risk. so far, it really seems like she's steering the ship quite well. which takes me to the next question on the survey, what will it take to restore confidence, joe? what did the clients say given that there are so many uncertainties going into 2010? >> i think the brightest thing here that i feel good about, you have your slide up. one of the things that they talked about is, they are far less worried about the stability of the banking system today than they were six months ago. i think that part's terrific.

now they're starting to devote their attention to what's going on with the actual spending that happens to be taking place in the system in washington. and i think that that is by itself, is a very positive trend from where we were six months ago. >> certainly feels different than a year ago. what are you using more today than last year is your final question here. i like the number one answer. >> i figured you would, maria. the reason why we have this on here. i think at the end of the day, to the individual family, there's nobody who cares more about their money than they do. they're doing a much better job today of taking control of their own financial future. and the number one place where they want to go to for information is the financial news. and the number one place to go to is "closing bell" on cnbc with maria bartiromo. i mean, you can't get much better than that. >> that's what i'm talking about. joe, great to have you on the program, as always. you look great. we love having you. know that "closing bell" is rooting you on from afar. go, nebraska, baby.

>> i appreciate it, maria. take care. it was great to see you. >> you, too. chairman td amer a trade. joe has always been -- before going to a 20-year career in merrill lynch, he was actually a coach. and -- >> you can see that. >> i'm not doing it justice here. but one of the best at dartmouth on the planet. so now in addition to being chairman of td ameritrade he goes back to nebraska and we're thrilled for him, following his heart there. ten minutes before the closing bell sounds on wall street. dow industrials holding on to the triple-digit move. off of the best level of the afternoon, simon. >> coming up, making the bull cakes. we'll tell you why some experts say there's even more upside in the equity market. and why one market watcher sees another 10% rally in the s&p. that's coming up on "closing bell." eeeeeeeeeeeee

eight minutes left to trade here on the new york stock exchange. let's look at some of the widely held shares. alcoa up in today's trade. home depot, walmart,

hewlett-packard and cisco. there you see more of the technology issues. >> if you're banking on a near term correction, you might need to rethink the strategy. matt nesto doing a little work, why some investors are betting the rally roelts on. >> we're going to the zoo. we've got brown bears and we've got black bears and polar bears and grizzly bears. we've got now blushing bears, because this whole september seasonality argument has really not worked so well, right? truth is, if you talk to brian and read his report, if you look at the march low, this is what most of the investors are focusing on, this 55, 60% run-up, this is unsustainable, they would argue. but he's going to say if you normalize this and look at bear markets going back since 1970, this is what you need to be looking at, folks, is that we've really only regained about 1/3

of that amount we gave back in the previous bear market, which started two years ago. so catch me if you can. it's what we're going to call this one here. the bears, he points out, are looking frantically anywhere to find a new argument. september seasonality argument has failed. so on we go. i would think earning season would be a good place to start looking. well, october, there's a lot going on in october, if you look back in the history books. he also writes that he can't envision a scenario that would cause a significant short-term correction. pretty bullish stuff, folks. and by two or three, actually three different market barometers, he sees the s&p going possibly as high as 1215 in 12 months. the average gain he sees of those three ways of looking at the market gets you to 1140. so the september to remember groups in stocks here really are going to be the real estate stocks. they're up 9%.

within industrials,istingly, capital goods getting it done at 9%. but the transports, and the commercial and professional services within, again, industrials, not doing that well compared to capital goods. the retail index also very, very strong during that period of time. and then the emerging markets, also strong during the month of september. so that's been the action spots. what's interesting is that you don't see the financial index in there, do you. you see real estate, but you don't see the financial sector. you don't see technology and you don't see health care. interesting, i point that out, because tech, financials and health care together account for 50% of the s&p 500. so it's important if the market's going to go higher for those groups to move. they've been sort of middle of the pack of the they're going higher, but not at the pace that some of the smaller, more volatile sectors have been. back to you. >> thanks a lot, matt. up next, we're coming right

back with the closing countdown. the real deal on mergers and acquisitions. things may be more than meets the eye. we'll take a look at the dls. and how they're structured these days next on "closing bell."

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