dow jones industrial average is down 1.7%. the nasdaq and s&p off about the same. but before we go, let's get a little perspective shine in here. that is your year-to-date move. bad day today, but still up nicely year-to-date. absolutely. welcome back, by the way, "closing bell" is coming up next. live picture of the floor of the new york stock exchange where it is a tough day at the office for the bulls on wall street today. the markets taking the first retreat since early december. global worries sparking sell-off as we head into the final and most important hour of the trading day. welcome to the "closing bell." i'm maria bartiromo. >> i'm tyler matheson. super tuesday? slowdown in key markets like

brazil, sending markets lower here. the dow at a one-month low. let's take a look at the major market indexes, starting with the dow, now down 1 2/3%. nasdaq off 1 and 3/5%. s&p 500 right now is down about 22 points, or thereabouts. there it is. 23 points at 1341. >> also, we should point out you may be noticing something new on the "closing bell" here on the left of your screen. it is a new effect we're using as we count down to the close. you can also see stocks on the move including citigroup which is down sharply today. one of the big pressures, the entire financials services sector under pressure as once again the focus turns to greece and the european sector. big run-up in 2012, apple for

one down sharply, ahead of the tablet event happening tomorrow. investors are waiting new news on the ipad 3. meanwhile, one stock bucking the trend we want to point out today, high volume as well. monster worldwide. the stock is higher after the online recruiting company hired bankers to review strategic alternatives. that is certainly moving the shares. more on this big mover in just a moment coming up in the program. global worries, that certainly has pressured this market right from the opening bell today. we also have corporate profit margins reaching peak levels, according to some. we're going to look at corporate profits as we approach the end of the first quarter later this month. and on the technology front, high flyers may be down, but investors are still getting a payback for waiting it out on certain tech names. more on that in the "closing bell" exchange. we've got bob pisani as always, on the floor of the nyse, and kelly evans looking at profits. courtney reagan standing by at

the nasdaq. bob, what's behind this big sell-off in the markets today? >> two issues. first is concerns about slowing global growth, and second, of course, is what's going on in greece. the issues about slowing global growth have been with us for a while. my sense is china, 7.5% gdp, i think that the issue is, they've beaten that many times in the past. 7.5% is not a hard landing. i think you're going to find that will go away in the next few weeks if china can further stimulate its own economy. the other issue about greece, my take here is, maria, if you get the greek debt deal closing thursday night as advertised and get a decent payroll number on friday morning, and i'm talking over 200,000, i think a lot of these concerns we've got will go away right now. >> ty, one of the issues here is greece, whether or not they're actually going to make that bond payment as bob is discussing. i think there is a fair amount of people out there who are expecting a default. the question is, is it going to be an orderly default. >> an orderly default or not,

will the banks go along. and what will the hedge funds that owe a lot of that debt do. some may be positioned to favor a default, curiously enough. and benefit from it. the other thing that is concerning here is the question of slowdowns in europe, slowdowns in asia, and a u.s. economy that's growing all right, but nothing great. and brazil's numbers this morning. kelly evans, we're not all all that encouraged, where does the profit picture head? >> not necessarily in headlines, when you look at what's going to drive valuations higher from here, corporate profit margins have been at an all-time high. it looks like we've now gotten a bit of a step back. we see the -- if we see corporate profitability falling in the next several quarters, it will be harder for investors to get excited about the share

gains. >> remember, for this first quarter, we're not expecting a lot of profit growth. maybe 1% compared to the fourth quarter of last year. all the profit growth seems to be in the back half of the year. that's where we're going to get it. i guess the issue is, are we going to see sufficient growth for companies to be confident that they're going to be able to grow their earnings in the second half of the year. >> there's talk how this is a mid-cycle slowdown, the kind of thing we've seen before. that's fine. we still see consensus estimates for profit margins going forward at pretty high levels. remember, we've got sectors like tech, where profit margins are almost double their historical average. there's arguments there's structural regions for that. it's not like people are pricing in for margins all that much. >> kelly, aren't the estimates now, a lot of people staying the estimates are too high. do you expect the estimates to come down? >> we're watching the estimates in terms of earnings per share. it looks like those have gotten

more conservative. what's not clear is whether people have gotten more conservative on profit margins. this is just an issue whether there's a debate they're structurally higher or not. some say, look, if you think corporate profit margins are going to stay here, guess what, it's not going to be news for workers. that's going to be a problem for the economy anyhow. >> courtney, jump in here. you're looking at technology today. that's been the leadership group, no surprise we're seeing weakness today. >> it has been a leadership group. not the case today. pretty much in line with the rest of the tape. the nasdaq trading about where we closed on february 9th. we could be erasing all of those days of gains, if that's indeed where we hold through the hour. there are pockets of pos tiitiv. pockets some investors are finding fixed income, perhaps, dividends. a couple stocks here trading on the nasdaq that have increased their dividends. applied materials is one.

qualcomm is the other. also issuing billions of dollars, trying to infuse that confidence to their investors. saying, hang in there with us. we will reward you. if not, in the short term gains we will give you dividends. we're seeing some of that today. not enough to lift the prices of the shares down here, as you mentioned. tech not a leader today. but there are some pockets of positivity when you're looking to make some money in this market. >> bob and maria, i'm known as a human pocket of positivity. but financials hasn't merely been materials, industrials -- >> very good point. kelly would attest to this. a good part of that profit growth we're expecting in the second half of the year is largely going to be due to financials. and kelly, if we don't get the economy picking up a little bit better, i think some of that profit growth is going to be in question as well. >> not to mention so many people, whether it's financials, insurance companies, everyone expects you'll see interest rates rise from here.

i remain cautious. i think we have to wait and see whether there's any hope for interest rates rising from here. once people price that in, it will be a lot harder to talk about profit gains. >> these financials down across the board today. i should point out over a three-month period, you're still seeing gains in the financials. today you've got declines of between 1% and 4% on the major banks. it certainly does have to do with the ongoing worries coming out of europe. >> economic sensitivity, europe, brazil, china yesterday, lowering its growth outlook there. >> if i could just mention, tyler, like you're talking about right now, as we get the negative data surprises, what matters in the market is reacting to what the data are doing relative to expectations. take the citi economic surprise index, that starts to roll over. it makes it a little harder and harder for share prices to react positively. >> thanks, everybody. with the market now down 214

points. dow jones industrial average, we'll check back soon. a closer look at the movers and shakers. mandy drury with that angle. >> we really haven't had a day like this in a very long time. in fact, we're looking at the dow's biggest declines so far this year. the dow has not closed down # 00 points or more, which is obviously what we're looking at here, in 45 straight trading sessions. the longest streak since 2006. the s&p 500 has been moving lower. some of the more economically sensitive groups like materials, and banks, have, of course, been leading those declines. i want to show you individual stocks. cannot spend a single day without tacking about apple, can we. it's extending its two-day decli decline. this is just one day before the expected release of the ipad 3. so possibly some people are saying, a silver news moment. in anticipation of the release it has been ramping up

significantly in terms of the share price. who would benefit in terms of revenue? verizon and at&t are bound to be beneficiaries. but today, certainly not the beneficiary of investors' money. caterpill caterpillar, makes heavy equipment, depends heavily on china for its profits. also spending another day, not just in the red, but really in the red. here we're down by about 4%. one of the dow's biggest losers as we speak. do check out, though, dick's sporting goods hitting their highest level ever at 4740. which was earlier on in the day. still up by nearly 3% here after its first-quarter profit was largely -- sorry, which forecast its first-quarter profit largely above analysts' expectations. the shares of the weight loss company nutri system. we were looking at that also in "street signs." shedding a lot of weight today, reported a bigger than expected fourth quarter loss.

it is clearly disappointing investors today. >> with about 50 minutes to go until the "closing bell," the dow is off by about 213 points. the nasdaq lower by 43. >> the dividend trade. we'll look at the dividend payers. they were not great performers. we want to take a look at the group right now in 2012. which names can help protect your portfolio and where might we see dividends rising, not just staying stable. >> is this sell-off the part of a larger pullback or is this a healthy move ahead of the next leg in a bull rally? we'll break down the charts in "talking numbers." >> after the bell, we'll be looking at the markets and the economy with one of the biggest names in the interview. ken langone will join me. >> the sea of red in the s&p 500. what is that, about 20 stocks up, and the rest of them down. you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide.

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with about 45 minutes to go in today's trading session, time now for a quick market stat check. the dow selling off big-time on wall street as concerns about greece return. remember that one? and whether it can meet another deadline for a debt restructuring. right now the dow industrials down 215 points, a little bit off the lows. nevertheless, on pace for their biggest drop since november. let's take a look at some of the worst performers on the dow at this hour. caterpillar down there, as you see, about 3%, almost 4% as well as alcoa, bank of america, hewlett-packard and jpmorgan chase, all with sharp losses. >> applied materials and qualcomm both raising quarterly dividends by 13% and 16% respectively. they're benefiting from rising global demand for smartphones. the dividend move is moving the stocks. we're setting our sights on dividend players. some names that might be good bets in a tough, unsernlt

market. david sour is joining me now, and david abella. >> hi, maria. >> gentlemen, nice to have you on the program. thank you so much for joining us. let's talk about dividend plays. we all talk about dividend players at the end of 2011. they did not perform well. do you think that will change in 2 2012? >> i do, quite frankly. they lagged two or three percentage points in 2012. these are key underline fundamentals. almost double growth of the s&p 500. the real key is the chance to get companies that are paying in the case of qualcomm, maybe less than a 2% yield. and any company that's increasing its dividend at a double-digit 15% or better clip

in this type of environment, i think that's where the long-term returns can be rewarding for investors. >> david, do you agree, companies cutting their dividends, show zero percent return to shareholders? where do you place your bets if you're looking for dividend payers? >> i agree with the prior points to some degree that you want to get a dividend payer that can grow the dividend pretty well. actually, we've had a lot of focus on dividend payers with a higher yield and have been able to maintain the yield and grow it. i would say our strategy did very well last year. it beat most other dividend strategies in the broader markets. we were very happy with it. it is off to a slower average start, prior to today actually. we do have optimism for going forward. they're very steady companies, solid businesses, fiscal restraint, and we like them. >> so david, if you had to choose the best sector in terms of dividend payers, what would

that be? are you looking utilities? where do you think are the best dividend plays, sector by sector? >> it's really stock by stock. >> okay. >> but a couple names. on the industrial side, eaton, 3% yield, growing a dividend better than 15%. on the consumer staples side, coca-cola enterprises, similar type metrics. better dividend yield than the s&p 500, growing dividends better than 15%. you mentioned qualcomm. there's another name. on the consumer side, cvs, they're doing very well from growth versus their competition. they're growing market share. cvs has a 2% yield and growing their dividend in excess of 25%. lastly, the difference between companies that are offering a respectable yield and growing the dividend is about a 2 percentage point premium over those that have high dividend yields but are not increasing them at the type of pace that i'd like to see.

>> dave, what's your pick in terms of the best dividend plays out there? and are you worried that the banks are not going to be sort of in that camp for some time, given these cash and capital worries? >> right. we have been worried about the banks, really, there's no banks in our dividend strategy and haven't been for several years. probably one of our better and i still like it is consumer staples. b & g foods has ban great stock for us, has cream of wheat, and a lot of other little brands that people have heard of, even though they haven't heard of b & g foods. and dr. pepper snapple, not the same valuation as pepsi and coke and doesn't deserve it, but at 3.5%, it can grow in the low double digits. i think consumer staples will be a good place to be. utilities was great last year. good names in utilities.

>> we'll leave it there. good to have you on the program. thanks. we've got about 40 minutes left before the closing bell. the dow is down about 210 points and the nasdaq is off about 42. >> we were talking about gold at the end of last year. now it's getting clobbered recently. down 6% just in the last week. is the precious metal cheap now? we'll get into it in "talking numbers" straight ahead. >> the potential fallout the ipad 3 could have when it is launched tomorrow. >> as you can see, plenty of red arrows. you're watching the "closing bell" on cnbc, first in business worldwide. how they'll live tomorrow. for more than 116 years, ameriprise financial has worked for their clients' futures. helping millions of americans retire on their terms. when they want. where they want. doing what they want. ameriprise.

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all about tensions with iran today. that took a bit of a back seat as talks are set to resume between u.n. security council and iran. and we've gotten so much negative data when it comes to global growth. and that was the factor that sent oil down below $105 in terms of wti. the department of energy is forecasting that prices grg to remain at about $106 on average a barrel over the next couple of years. they also see gasoline, which today got a bit of a respite, if

you were looking for cheaper prices. they see gasoline this summer around $3.92 a gallon on average at the pump. prepare yourself for that. >> with about 35 minutes left to go in trade today, it is stacking up as the single worst day for equities so far this year. so the question is, is the rally over or is this a pullback, a breathing moment before it resumes? rich ross is a global technical analyst and joins us now as we talk about the numbers. what does the chart of the s&p 500 tell you about where we've been and where we may be headed? >> first of all, tyler, let's all just take a deep breath. this isn't our first rodeo. we used to eat moves like this for breakfast just last year. in fact, this is precisely the type of pullback that investors have been waiting for. the problem is, when we get these type of pullbacks, it's be careful what you wish for. you oftentimes don't want it. the key is to trade that

pullback after you've waited for that pullback. we think we have seasonality on our side and history on our side. let's look at this weekly chart and you can see this bullish technical symmetry. back in july of 2009, we had an advanced commence at 39% in duration that ran through april of 2010. we had the summer correction here into the july low. we then had another advance which began a 34% into that april high. we've had a cyclical bear market within the context of a secular bull market advance. we think we're 22% into that decline right now. let's pull 2% off the top, a little bit of a hair cut. we think that is analogous to the type of correction we saw back in 2010. just about midway through that advance, we had a similar 3% correction. proved to be a fantastic buying opportunity. another 13% upside at that point in time. we think history could repeat itself now. you want to be a buyer of this pullback in the s&p. >> bottom line, this is the pause that refreshes perhaps.

how about in gold? we've seen it come back, i think it's 7%. what do you see in that market? >> last week gold had a good chart gone bad. gold had been trading at a multi-month high going into last wednesday. we saw that rogue wave of risk aversion. down 5 and 6%. that was our first sign that something was awry in the global appetite for risk. we've extended those -- >> what are you showing me? >> that's a great question. we have the blue, which is your 50-day, your shorter term moving average, the orange is the longer 200-day average. it's created not only by the key moving averages, but also by this textbook inverse head-and-shoulders pattern. we should resume our advance to the upside. but you really want to hold to the support around that 1670 level. we have a double top in there at 1800. key support down below around 1550. right in the middle of that trading range, if we can hold

this key nexus of support, around 1800 is in the cards. >> rich, very clearly said. thank you very much. appreciate it. we'll see you again soon. maria? >> ty, thank you. we're in the final stretch right now in trading. 35 minutes before the closing bell sounds. will another strong jobs report this week help the market rebound from these lows. we've got the numbers on friday. but we will preview them next. will it take an even bigger catalyst to give a rally. here's the standout performers on the s&p 500 today. you're watching the "closing bell."

i'm mary thompson at the new york stock exchange. as we head to the closing bell, the concerns about slowing global growth weighing on the markets today. the dow jones industrial average on track for its first triple-digit decline in 45 trading sessions. its first decline of more than 200 points since november 23rd.

glimmer of hope, though, in an otherwise down day within the consumer stocks. among the dow 30, we've seen kraft and procter & gamble trying to make it into the green. intel made it into the higher numbers in the latter part of the day. >> are the markets running on empty. the one thing that will fuel the markets is evidence of a recoverecover recovering economy. >> what else might drive a rally? we have john, ceo of rbc wealth management, along with doug sandler, chief equity strategist. good to see you, gentlemen. thank you so much for joining us. doug, you make a good point that the expectations are here, and there really isn't a lot of room for wiggle room. given this run-up that we've seen. what do you think is troubling the market today? >> well, i think today's exactly the medicine we were looking for, which is we needed a little dose of reality that things aren't as good as everybody

expected. but the good news is, equities are still really cheap. the alternatives are terrible. cash and bonds. and the global economies are slowly recovering. maybe slower than everybody hoped. but ultimately i think this is the buying point. we're coming up in the next couple of days for a buying point where everybody said they wished they had gotten in. i think the test is going to happen. >> does it get weaker before it gets better? >> it may. three to five is what we've been expecting. for most people that live longer than six months in their investment portfolio, three to five is getting too cute. you ought to just take advantage of the pullbacks. >> john, you're smiling here. time to buy, time too sell? >> i represent a firm that deals with individual investors. many of them have been on the sidelines since the financial crisis. they were scared away, if they stayed in the market, they were scared away by the unbelievable volatility last summer, and then by the sovereign kdebt crisis i

the fall. i think a pullback right now, and that's all this is, a minor pullback in that context, is an opportunity for people to increase their exposure to equities appropriately. so i think this is good news for our clients. >> i guess the question is, are we going to see a further pullback because of greece, because of the eurozone worries? are you concerned that what's going on today are sort of renewed issues around the eurozone issue? >> we've been telling our clients we think there are three elephants in the room going into 2012. the pace of economic growth in the united states, and that seems to be on pretty firm footing, although it's not exciting. we're projecting 2% economic growth in 2012. the sovereign debt issues in europe, they seemed better for a while, but they keep raising their heads because there isn't a permanent solution here yet. we're just kicking the can down the road. lastly, china. i think that's why the market is getting concerned. >> let me mention another elephant that people don't seem to be talking about, and that's

something called the election which i think takes place in november. and i wonder whether in light of that, and the very real fact that the tax situation is unsettled and will likely be so heading into the end of the year, does that mean that the best days of this market are going to be in the first half of this year? >> i think it raises a question mark. in our view, though, a lot of that, when it shows up on a-1 in the journal, everybody knows it and it's priced in the market. we've been talking about the election and tax policies and what's going on across the world for months right now. in the end, it's valuation that matters. if you pay a good starting price, across the board on equities, you're likely to get a good return. you can't say that of other asset classes. >> we've been talking about profits throughout the program today. do you think earnings estimates are too high? >> there's a big question about

our profit margin too high. i think the answer is no. profit margins are because labor costs are not going up. price of commodities aren't going up. oil may be, but everything else is down. every company i know is refinancing at a rate that's unbelievable right now. lock in 4%, 5% for ten, 20 years, that's a boost. >> it's an opportunity to buy, you say. so what should i buy? >> well, i think -- >> give me your shopping list. >> it's an old story, but a great story. dividend-paying stocks. stocks that pay you while you wait. because the experience of most individual investors right now is that the market has gone sideways for ten years. how are you going to get your return in that kind of environment without exposing yourself to inflation. >> do you have a favorite? >> i think national retail properties. it pays about 5.9% dividend,

diversified portfolio of triple net leases in 47 states. it's a great stock. >> nice dividend, 5.9%. >> that beats a bank account. >> sure does. >> gentlemen, thank you very much. great to be with you. we've got about 25 minutes of trading time left. and the dow on track for its worst close of the year, down more than 200 points, and nasdaq also down about 1 2/3%. >> after the bell, we're going to speak to the governors of georgia and virginia, two states with primaries on this super tuesday. republican presidential primary day. find out which candidates have the inside track to win in those states at 4:30. as we take a break, take a look at the map of all the delegates at stake in tonight's primaries. but first, before we go to

break, the "dividend." which materials stock is outperforming the others so far this year, alcoa, fr freeport-mcmoran, or newmont mining? the "dividend" pays off after the break.

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part of the "dividend," we asked, which materials stock is outperforming the others so far this year? alcoa, freeport-mcmoran or newmont mining? now the payoff. alcoa. welcome back to the "closing bell." i'm courty reagan in times square. well, we are lower today, like the rest of the market, tech failing to outperform as we've seen it do most of the year. a far cry from nasdaq 3,000. it looks like we might close around the lows last seen around february 9th. however, some retail names are sliding. not all tech down here. lu lu lemon from buy to hold. where there are losers there are

also winners. just a handful. some names in the green, shovel master, a casino gamemaker acquiring another company. shares higher on that news. maria, tyler, down to you. >> 20 minutes before the closing bell sounds for the day. the dow jones industrial average down 215 points. major averages posting the worst losses in about three months on renewed concerns coming out of greece and the eurozone. the nasdaq down 44 points. it erased 50 points at the day's low. the index had been down a bit more earlier. so we're basically just stabilizing at 2107. lighting fuse under the volatility index. good move in the vix today. >> maria, with 20 minutes left in the trading day, or thereabouts, apple shares are down, along with the rest of the tech sector. meantime all eyes are going to be on that company tomorrow when it unveils its highly

anticipated ipad 3. and apple's rivals, of course, are especially interested in what they're going to have to compete against. jon fortt joins us with that story. >> yeah, tyler, the star of tomorrow's show is the ipad itself. there are a few more details that apple's rivals will be watching more closely than color and design. first the chip. expect to see apple's a-6. it will be a major influence on the ipad's overall performance, including speed, battery life and ability to grind through the hd movies and even beam them up onto a big hd screen. samsung and intel, all arms dealers for apple's rivals. second, the apps. last year apple introduced imovie and garage band. the big question is, whether they will get something else. they focused on software tools

for creating music, photos and video. will they push the ipad to be more of a professional tool. and we might get a hint at the ios 6. >> we'll talk more about the impact of the ipad on the pc makers. joining me in the conversation is brian marshall, i.t. hardware and analyst with isi group. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you, maria. >> how important is this new product? the ipad has had terrific success. is it another advanced ipad 3 moving the needle much? >> if you look at an 85% of the company's gross profits are generated from the iphone and ipad. clearly it's a key portion of apple's business. we expect about 60 million ipads to be shipped in calendar '12. it's important from our regard. >> jon, what did they ship last quarter? the ipad had a stunningly successful quarter, including

the iphone. what do you see in terms of what they already shipped in terms of the last ipad? >> if you take a look at their growth, last quarter, the ipad -- the iphone -- the ipad itself grew 111%. that's a slower growth than the iphone, which is their biggest product. it's actually the iphone is boosting the ipad, boosting the mac. the question is, do we continue to see stronger and stronger growth from the ipad year after year, kind of fulfilling this vision that cook has put out there saying he expects the tablet market to be bigger than the pc market? >> do you think that is the case? and what kind of impact are these tablets having on the pc sector? >> that's one of the few areas i disdree with tim cook on. i don't think the tablet market will be bigger than the pc market. the pc market is about 350 million units roughly. most of that being notebooks. call it 250 million notebooks, the rest being pcs. while the tablet market is

extremely important and successful, is probably not going to be a pc replacement over time. we think it's an extension of pcs. so, you know, i think the longer term market growth for the pc market will be low single digits. call it 3% to 5% longer term. the tablet market is obviously growing triple digits today. it will represent tremendous growth. for the market as a whole, we forecast about 90 million tablets for the year. again, 60 million, which comes from apple. 30 million comes from some of the competing vendors like the kindle fire from amazon, and samsung. >> are hewlett-packard and dell on the other side right now? >> if you think about it, hp and dell have roughly 30% share of the global pc space. that's a very mature stagnant growing market. they generate a decent chunk of their earnings from the pc space. i don't think they're well

positioned in the tablet space. >> would you put in apple right now? >> i would, yes. >> thanks very much, gentlemen. we're in the final stretch here. 15 minutes before the closing bell sounds for the day. coming up, chairman of home depot is with me next. but first, brian sullivan set to look at "under the radar" stocks. >> maria, there is a technology company whose stock is absolutely tanking today. it is not on earnings, it's because an analyst came out and said two top sales executives have left, and that is bad for the company. more on that story. and of course, give you the name as well. "closing bell" will be right back.

welcome back to the "closing bell," everybody. i'm here at the post of monster worldwide. peter is here. his parents are watching from down in orlando. he told me to say hello to them. we're here because monster worldwide has been on a tear all day after that big online recruitment company announced it's restaining partners to review strategic partners. one of the largest online recruitment companies onworld with established positions in europe and korea. as you see there, it is at $8.30, or thereabouts right now. so it's got some room to run

there. the nation's slowly improving job market has taken a toll on monster over the last year or so. wiping out about half its value over the past 52 weeks. maria. >> ty, big move there. meanwhile, they may not be stealing the headlines today, but there are big "under the radar" stocks making moves today. >> well, first off, let's talk about coal. because in the business we call call this a double whammy. number one, you know the power plants have already been moving over to coal, or natural gas from coal because natural gas is so cheap. you've also got the reduced china forecast. that is hurting consol and they announced it is idling a coal company in virginia. poly com. jason and william blair wrote in a note today that two key sales executive left the company and said this could be a sign that

earnings could take longer than expected. polycom down nearly 10%. i wanted to leave you good news, earnings in sales topped the street on verifone. they're near a year high. up 7.5%. trying to leave you a little good news. >> we like it. we'll take a short braesk, and we've got the closing countdown. here's how the major averages are trading as we approach this final stretch. you're watching the "closing bell" on cnbc, first in business worldwide.

here we are. we're back with the dow on track for its first triple-digit loss of the year. right now, down about 201

points. it was down about 220, 225 at its nadeer today. this would be the first percentage drop since way back on november 23rd. if you looked at europe this morning, you could have figured that we might be in for a rough day, because look at the european stocks, down 7 points. steeper falls in the frankfort and paris. slowdowns around the world, one thing to key in on is oil, west texas crude now down about 1.7% on the trading day. let's take a look at the dollar, because typically, money flows into the dollar on a day like this. and there it is, there you see it moving up. the u.s. ten-year, it was up by about two points earlier today. and as you see, there is the yield at 1.95%. basically all the sectors in the s&p were down today. on the down side, most especially, materials down 2%. industrials down 2%.

financials down 2.45%. let's find jon taft, if we can. he was with us earlier today. you've nevertheless believed that this is a time to get in, look at dividend-paying stocks and sort of not overworry. >> yes, i do. that's in the context of the fact that most individual investors are underinvested in equities. and have been since the financial crisis. they've missed the rally, and this is a chance for them to get back in. >> what's the biggest risk today that individual investors face? because as you point out, they have basically poured money into bonds for the past three years, at the expense of equities. are they overexposed in bonds, and is that the key risk? >> that's exactly right. either bonds or zero percent cash investments. the biggest risk they have is they will not be appropriately positioned, even when we get back into a more normal environment, and if and when

inflation picks up. they're too conservative in their investment portfolio. this kind of pullback creates a door for them. >> you mentioned a few minutes ago that one of your favorite picks is a reit. >>. and do you think that that indicates, am i right to presume that you think real estate may be a strengthening asset right now, asset class? or is it particular to this reit? >> it is particular to this reit. it's almost more a credit play than anything else. there are so many high-quality dividend-paying stocks right now. we like lockheed martin, 4.5% yield. or merck, 4.4% yield. these are companies that have a history of continuously increasing their dividends, and if and when we get into an inflationary environment, they'll be able to price their products and increase their dividends. >> where are you on the financials, which as we just pointed out have had a notably rough day? >> we actually think the u.s. economy is pretty well

positioned. not exciting, 2% growth in 2012. but as long as the economy and the u.s. avoids a recession, financials ought to do well. >> thank you very much. i'll find my friend, mary thompson. how are you? >> hi, tyler. >> they called it super tuesday. but it wasn't super tuesday. >> it is not the super tuesday. what's this, the third anniversary of theists day bear market low? again, revisiting low levels today. although as bob pisani was pointing out earlier today, we've really seen this slow and steady climb in the market since last october with very few blips. which is what we're seeing today. some might call it more than a blip. i think over the long run a lot of people have been anticipating a decline like today. >> we talked about a 200-point day. we had dozens of them last year. it's not as though we haven't seen this before. >> no. but it's been a couple of months. >> volatility has been down until today. mary, great to see you. and as they're applauding up