our favorite tweets. i'd sleep for weeks, smile constantly and hire a great pastry chef. >> another tweets i'd buy a hockey team or a share of priceline. >> good luck with the lotto. >> take care. hi, everybody, happy tuesday. welcome to the "closing bell." i'm maria bartiroma. >> are we going have any smatter guests on? bill gross, we'll talk to him about the great escape. carl icahn. i cannot wait to talk with him. he sold shares of lionsgate last year. missed out big. that's pocket change for mr. i

cahh. >> and doug yearley. we've got a great lineup. >> here's what the market has been doing right now. choppy day. strength by the home builders following lennar's strong earnings. that helping consumer confidence. still the s&p and the nasdaq are on pace to close the multi-year highs. just so you know, we're covering the waterfront. we're pointing out that the s&p 500, the small cap index, is sitting on an all-time high today. but let's move on. here's the dow and how it's been doing today. it's been meandering on either side of change now down a point at 13,240. the nasdaq still going strong. you can blame apple and priceline as they continue their juggernaut higher. here's the s&p up a fraction at 14.17, maria. >> apple, one of the big stories today once again. let's take a look at today's

story stocks. apple is once again on the upside. the stock is on pace to close at another all-time high after think equity raised its stock to 700. that's up from 600. that's on the strong launch of the new ipad and upcoming products like the iphone 5. pfizer having its biggest gain. that made the case for a break-up of the world's largest drugmaker. the stock is also very strong today, bill. >> all right. as we mentioned, pepco's bill gross. he's looking at a new normal right now. >> yes, he is. >> as a matter of fact. he recommends investors take some risk but be smart when do you that. >> new normal includes rock bottom interest rates. so joining us right now on the cnbc exclusive to explain how is bill gross, found der and chief financial office of pepco.

thank you for joining us. >> thank you, maria and bill. >> take us through the five key strategies for investors to get the most return with the least risk in terms of rock bottom rates. >> first of all, you're being offered relatively little in terms of interest rates. second of all, you have the danger now of bear markets in terms of price which would leave investors with relatively nothing. i think to beep that would be to shorten your duration, protection and the tips market. secondly, in the stock market, look for stocks with high dividend yields and relatively short durations as opposed to growth stocks. and third and i think perhaps most importantly, you know, move from financial assets into the world of real assets. and here we're talking about commodities and we're talking about, you know very tangible

items such as countries such as china would be looking for. they're not looking for financial assets. they're looking to lock up commodities going forward and that's what in vefrts should be doing as well. >> you're playing a little cat and mouse game with "beat the banker." ben bernanke. you've said come april they're going to add more liquidity. maybe another qe strategy coming our way, and it could take the form of buying up more mortgage-backed securities, right? >> i think so, bill. you know, the job of a central banker as alan greenspan told us here at pimco several months ago is to be seen as constantly in motion during periods of financial stress, which is what we have now. there were periods following qe1 and qe2 and ben bernanke applied the brakes. he doesn't want to make that same mistake again and morph the u.s. economy into one resembling

the lost decade in japan. you know, since there's no fed meeting in may and twist expires at the end of june, i think the april meeting, which is obviously next month, is a lock call time for pretty strong hints. >> looking at some of these higher yielding picks you increased your securities from 38% to 52% in february. is that a bet on improving housing market or more quantitative easing. and on the equities, the high-yielding equities, let me ask you, do you worry that the performance won't be there? at the end of 2011 everybody was talking about dividend payers they didn't hold up theechb you were getting that steady income? >> first of all, in terms of the mortgage market, yes, it's the best to some extent on qe3, but also relative to stability interest rates. i mean the mortgage is a aaa piece of paper and it yields 3.5% and that's much better than

2% offered by treasury in the ten-year area. secondly in terms of dividend yielding stocks, yes, i recognize that that's the popular notion at the moment, but, you know a stock that provide as 3.5% yield and let's speak to merck or let's speak to something like coca-cola or johnson & johnson, that represents to me a high quality balance sheet. it's about as good as you can get, i think, moving forward. >> would you buy gold here? i mean the fear for some people is especially if there's another round of quantitative easing, that surge to push the dollar lower again and sends other commodity prices higher, would you buy gold as a proxy for those inflation expectations? >> i think so, bill. and the percentage in terms of how much you should own, you know, is delicate in terms of the risk for each individual portfolio. but i think it has a place in a

mildly inflationary world. what the fed is trying to do is just flush investors out into the real asset spectrum to basically promote a 2%-plus type of inflationary rate and certainly in that type of a world, five, ten, 15 years forward, then gold has a protective insurance element to it that every investor should look toward. >> you like the high quality bond part of the market and the dividend payers. what kind of a 2012 are you expecting, bill? >> i think relatively slow growth, maria. 2%, plus or minus. it's not bad but it's not what we're used to. i think on a global basis, that the developing as opposed to developed countries do better. yes, china at 6 to 7% and brazil at 3 to 4. so an investor looking for growth should look to developing as opposed to developed. and an investor should look at, you know, likewise to those particular areas.

russia, tomorrow, one last point, issuing 5 and 10 and 30-year securities. you know, 3.5% on a five-year as opposed to our 1%, that's the type of investment where there's a little risk, but some potentially higher returns. >> you don't worry that there's no rule of law there. >> i do. you know, ten years ago, to be honest, i said pimco would never buy another security in russia, but things have changed. we worry about those types of things, but i think you're compensated in the five-year area at 250 basis points more than u.s. treasuries. >> bill, good to have you on the program. thanks so much. >> thanks, you guys. >> we'll see you soon. >> let's take a look at some of the moviers and shaker, including apple, which is set to close at an all-time high. brian shactman. brian? >> unbelievable. i wanted to point out, the dow as you were talking with bill gross went positive. it hasn't been positive in a while. let's talk about apple.

yet another new high today as bill pointed out. 615.48. it's now up more than 51% this quarter. that's a three-month stretch where it hit a new high on 27 trading days, including today. in fact, the only stock in the s&p 500 with more highs is chipotle. they've done it on 38 trading days. those are just some unbelievable performances in stocks. now, three others who reached new heights today and have done it on at least 25 trading days, they include t.j. maxx, yum! brands and fastenal. they're talking about the metric. weatherford is down 3.25%. cabot oil & gas down 1.35%.

over to you. >> meanwhile, the financials mostly lower. that is keeping a gap on any changeses here. it seems as if rick santelli is at the group at chicago. over to you, rick. >> hi, maria. there's no doubt that that solid, solid plus two-year note auction put a little more wind in the sails, but, boy, the direction was already pretty much picked. look at the one-month. two years, it's going to be close since the day of the fed meeting, march 5. 5 years. tens, closed since the 13 and the 30 year's about ready to do the lowest yield close since the 13th. let's throw the dollar index in there. we all know normal interest rates help the dollar. well interest rates are falling. it's not the lowest value since the 13th. it's the lowest dollar indention value since the beginning of the

month, pretty much 3 1/2 months, four weeks going back to the first. what does all this mean? first of all many traders think they're offsides. it probably underscores the solid demand for 2s. we'll continue for 5s and 7s. back to you. >> all right, rick. thank you very much. we've got plenty to cover over the next two hours. right now, the dow up 1 point. the nasdaq continues higher with priceline and apple sitting higher. >> treasury numbers are falling. we'll hear from the ceo of one of the biggest bond firms coming up, shaun matthews of cantor. >> right now we have a -- we found a dollar bowl. a guy who feels the dollar is going higher from here and how you should play that going forward. we'll talk with rich bernstein coming up. >> stay with us. "after the bell" investor carl icahn with us, explaining why he

sold his entire stake of lionsga lionsgate. >> looks like an equal amount of green and red. ha hey, you're watching "closing bell" on cnbc, first in business worldwide.

bell," bell," i'm kayte kelly with some breaking news. they sustained losses of 53% last year taking the fund far below the level they need to be at in order to collect performance fees or a measure of performance. as a result, i'm told, john paulson, the founder and ceo will pay some employees out of his own pocket based on their performance just for 2012. in other words, employees are starting with essentially a blank slate on jan 1uary 1st of this year. if they get into the black, they will be able to receive a percentage of the profits i'm told. this is something they haven't

heard much about since the financial crisis of 2008. it's interesting what paulson is doing, no doubt to keep dow going and keep people from leaving. >> kate kelly, good to see you back. thank you. as we head toward the closer and the last half hour of trading, let's get a stat check on the dow jones industrial average. right now, the dow is down 7 points at 13,234. it was down as many as 17. and then it was up 23. so it's been a pretty narrow range so far today. but technology stocks have been amonth the best performers. juniper networks. jds, micron, tellans and motorola. treasury markets have seen a pretty good pop in the month of mar, but, the pop may be short-lived as ben bernanke this week pointed toward qe3 in the

near future. what would another round of want tay tivg easing mean for investors? we bring in shawn matthews, ceo of cantor fitzgerald who joins us now. thanks for joining us on the program. >> thanks, maria. >> let me ask you about the impact the interest rates have had on your business. >> there are assets out there and people have to put their cash to work so i think we're going to continue to see, even if we back up 20 or 25 basis points, you're going to see money put to work and people are searching for yield. so it's going be out there. >> where is the yield right now? >> i think high yield still has a place where people are putting their money to work. if you look at all the alternative assets that are out there, people continue to stretch because the seattle liability managers have a 7 3/4 one that they have to get to. they're putting their money to work. >> sales and trading has

obviously been pressured. the volume is very 'namic. how are you dealing with the sales and trading environmental as you try to grow your sales and trading business? >> we're excited. as you look at the opportunity out there, the large financial firms are going to have to shrink the way they do their business. we'll continue to gain market share over the next several years. >> you're planning to add 200 employees this year. what's behind the growth at cantor? is there a difference in terms of wall street with the regulatory environmental? >> we're going back in time. to an '80s and '90s wall street. we think we're positioned correctly for the future and we're going to grow. >> how do you do it. where are you? >> we're looking to grow our banking franchise. this is an opportunity for us to gain significant market share over the median term, which is three to five years.

>> we don't know it. it's still being written. >> correct. we look at it as an opportunity. we think we're in a favorable position. >> in terms of the move in rates, you think it's just a correction in rates. tell me how you see rates playing out? what's your bet? >> i think the short-term rates are locked in here. you're going to see the curve move based on data that comes out. by and large, we're probably in the market for the next year or so. >> because the federal reserve will keep us there, even though the economic data is improving. >> correct. you still have an epo curve. the reality is if you're playing the carry bed, a 2.75% rush is looking good. >> where are you seeing the business coming from right now? we're trying to figure out where exactly are the investor participation? volume numbers indicate or suggest that we're not seeing retail investors certainly. where are you seeing the action in this market?

>> i think that's it. the retail investor is acting differently or probably will for the next generation or so. so when you look at it, you're having institutions come in, having less turnover and we're up 14, 15% to start the quarter, which is amazing numbers. but in reality we have seen volumes come into play. think people are being more cautious on the turnover, investing for the long haul. >> good to have you on the program. >> pleasure. >> thank you so much. we've got about 40 minutes before the "closing bell" soumtds for the day. financials leading the dow lower by ten points. home prices hitting a nine-year low, but there is one part of the housing market that is actually surging. diana olick working the story in our "investing in america" series. diana. >> reporter: that's right. they're choosing to move walls and gut basements. remodeling is on a rochlt we'll

talk about which companies will benefit from it, maria. >> we'll break down the sector. we'll check out the charts. add as we take a look at the break take a look at the major home builders. we're going to speak with the ceo of toll brothers coming up in the next half hour. stay with us. the equity summary score consolidates the ratings of up to 10 independent research providers into a single score that's weighted based on how accurate they've been in the past. i'm howard spielberg of fidelity investments. the equity summary score is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. get 200 free trades today and explore your next investing idea.

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the dude from the progressive commercial, man, he just filled up our tank for us. appreciate it. take care. fill it up? free tank of gas. man, switch to progressive, dog. they doing a lot of good out here, man. tell him the messenger sent you. welcome back. welcome back. i'm sharon epperson at the nymex. will the slide in natural gas ever stop. natural gas, new lows in the

contract in natural gas futures. a ten-decade below, $2.27. keep in mind, though, the slide that we're seeing, a lot of folks anticipating we would see further injections in storage and, of course, march is a time you would see withdrawals. this is the warmest winter and so we're actually seeing injections at this time of year in natural gas. what does this mean? ben tech says we'll see further pressure on prices and more production shut-ins. back to you. all day long we have been looking at the companies making money by investing in america. companies tied into home remodeling. diana olick. over do you, diana. >> well, maria, we've talked before about lum before as a leading indicator and the traffic at this yard has been brisk today. it's not home construction.

it's remodeling. this company say as lot of local builders have turned into remodelers because that's where the business is. they were at an annual rate of under 3 million. up 13% from december and up 11% from a year ago. that's according to build facts. and that has been great newers if the big public companies that serve the markets. sherwin williams, which gets 77% of its revenue from the u.s. is trading at an all-time high level going back to its ipo days. lows at a high. don't forget lumber like we're talking about here. weyerhaeuser is seeing games. u.s. gypsum shares up in the last three months. remember, the remodeling business profits not only from a recovery in the housing market but also from distress in the

housing market. i think about all those investors buying up foreclosed properties, a lot of which have been abandoned or vandalized. what do they have to do? they have to remodel them. there's more. bill? >> diana, thank you. we're keeping an eye on the home builders as we head to the close manly because of lennar's numbers that are out, increase in orders of about 33%. home builders themselves have done very well. is it too late to get in on that play? we're talking numbers on the home builders themselves with rich rossy's technical strategist. i was joking with you earlier. i said who's done better in the last six months, apple or home builders and it's actually pretty close. >> it is. housing stocks are not too shabby themselves. it's almost counterintuitive as housing prices continue to search for a bottom. housing stocks are soaring and artwork suggests that home is where the chart is, bill. let's take a look at that

benchmark shb. this is your home builder, etf. it's up 20% on a year-to-year basis. >> we saw that decline during the financial crisis, but now it's been building a base and you thing it's going higher. >> exactly. we have this three-year multi-year trading range. what we've seen recently as a decisive break-up. you want to think of this as a coiling spring, you're storing up energy, boom, we released that inertia and in the last couple of weeks this inertia should carry us higher. this is a sustainable advance. that's a 50% retracement of that entire decline from the 2009 high you alluded to. >> let's pick one stock. lennar, good numbers, leading the charts. do you like it? >> great numbers, great stock chart. we are the buyer here. let's look at lennar. it peaked back in 2005. almost two years before the broader market topped.

we've taken out a seven-year trendline. that's impressive. you almost want to be a buyer just on that alone but i've got more for you. we have a multi-year base of support that's developed going back to 2007. we're talking about a five-year bottoming process. we like to say the bigger the base, the greater the space up top. it's not too late. look at this chart. we're just getting going here in the home builders are just getting going in lennar. >> isn't that interesting. all signs pointing higher. rich ross, good seeing you. thank you for joining us. we'll talk with toll brothers's ceo and get his assessment. that's coming up with maria at 4:40 in the second hour of the "closing bell." maria. >> we're into the final stretch. we have a market down. a weaker dollar, though, has helped drive up oil and gas prices today. our next guest says it's time to

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welcome back. bob pisani. lennar knocked the cover off the ball. 33% increase in orders. halleluiah. that means kb homes was an outlier. don't miss the ceo of toll brothers. bob yearley will be out with

maria. bill and marimaria, energy stoc are down. there's your problem sector. >> it had been a leader for a while. thank you, bob. meanwhile the dollar index is hovering through its intraday low level. the dollar index dipping at fed chairman bernanke's remarks this week, leaving the door open to further quantitative easing. is the dollar at the risk of weakened further? well, rich bernstein says, no. we found a dollar. >> yeah. rich things the u.s. dollar will benefit greatly over the next several years. rich joins us right now along with meg mcclellan. she's head of u.s. fixed income. meg, good to see you. thanking for joining us. what kind of a move are you expecting? >> well, in the short term, i'm not a good short-term trader. i have no idea. but think over the next three,

five, seven years we will see the dollar meaningfully appreciate. pretty much reversing what we've seen in the past decade or so. >> really. >> >> why? i think -- currency, everything is relative. in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. i think people have grossly underestimated the problems around the world. that's good for the dollar. i think that's good for them. >> what do you think? i know your message is don't fight the fed or the fed is very clear. they're going to keep rates low. that would suggest a lower dollar, but what about rich's argument? >> certainly. i think in the near term, do you see better numbers out of the u.s. you see concerns around china and europe that could lead to near dollar strength. most u.s. investors are underrisked in non-dollar assets. so we recommend on dollar

strengths. they look to diversify out of dollarers, add some inflation protection and odd currency protection. >> are there equities you can thing of or sort of an investment play or stocks that would benefit from this dollar move? >> let's listen to the negative and then the positive. when you think of what's become overwhelming consensus, it's u.s. multi-nationals. as the dollar appreciates it hurts them. however, think of the other side. if we're correct and the u.s. domestic economy performs better than we think, you want to expose it more which would be smaller cap and mid cap stocks. so we like them. i think that's a great thing. >> i'm curious about your time line of this stronger dollar. you know, the fed has made it clear, they want to make it low. in fact, there's talk we may get another round of quantitative

easing. so you must be backloading this forecast on the dollar. >> not necessarily. remember -- i know you're -- >> they're not going to be tightening any time soon. my guess is as we go through china, india, brazil and everybody else, we're going to find they're very, very lenient as well. >> could you see the dollar going lower in the meantime? >> personally, i don't think so. >> okay. because i think there's going to be financial weakness. >> let me get your take on fixed income and i want to look at it globally. i'm hearing about corporate bonds, outside of the united states, is this an area that would be placing bets? >> certainly. there's about a 50 to 100-point basis pickup. however, as an individual investor it's difficult. you would really need a manager. another place i'd like to add, again, think we're going to respectfully disagree. if you can get hire yielding

fixed income assets and high conviction names. so maybe in the near term, the australian dollar could hold back on concerns around china as 30% of australian exports do go to china, but at the end of the day in onyields, short data are 3 1/2, 3 3/4, 4 4/4%. you could look at some really interesting nondollar fixed income investment short term and high currencies on a pullback if you did get dollar strength. >> we appreciate seeing you both. we're heading toward the close of the dow. the nasdaq still doing very well today and some markets are continuing higher at this hour. >> you thought natural gas prices were low yesterday. we're looking at the lowest level today in more than a decade. will prices continue to plunge or should you be buying a commodity here? >> after the bell, how should you reposition your portfolio as

we get ready to head into the second quarter. we're going to hear from the head of one fund that has nearly tripled the s&p 500's gains over the past decade. as we take a break, look at the performers. right now you're watching the "closing bell." we're back in a minute. first, before we go to break, the differ drend. which russell 2000 stock is up the most this year, coinstar, pilgrim's pride, or rosetta stone? the dividend pays off after the break. ♪

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just just before the break we asked which russell 2000 stock is up the most this year. coinstar, pilgrim's pride or rosetta stone. now the payoff. coinstar which is up about 40% year to date. welcome back to the "closing bell." the stock was hulted but has resumed trading. that pop has been seen on the move that it's approved -- the fda has approved the drug to

treat anemia patients. pressure on those revenues. that dragging the stock down nearly 9%. also been watching micron getting some news out there was an explosion in the idaho facto factory. waiting to get more information on that. the stock having a nice rise today, seeing about 4% at the moment. back to you. >> thank you. we've got a few minutes left in the trading sector. time for a quick stat check on the nasdaq which has been the strongestst. it's a bit in positive territory. we're starting to lose ground here. it's on course for a three-day winning streak, climbed as many as 12 points early on. now it's gain of just over 2 and here's a snapshot of some of the big nasdaq gainers including micron, amazon, sears holders and lam research and the computer company -- what's that? apple? >> a new high, of course.

the futures fell to a fresh decade low this morn. futures fell as low as 2.18. that's the lowest since february of 2002. my next guest says you can't recall today's move a bottom. he's expecting they continue moving lower. prices. joining us now to tell us why, darryn. good to have you on the program. you don't think this is the bottom. what's driving natgas prices so low and how much further do you think they drop? >> really what we want to be watching is all the supply that's been in reservoirs and salt mines. all of that has to get cycled out of the storage facilities. >> what's the trade? what do you want to do here? >> i would figure out how much money i want to allocate to the trade and just allocate that

amount of money, split over the number of days between now and april 15th. >> and you've got a couple of stocks that you like that may very well benefit from these movies. >> sure, absolutely. >> tell me about that. >> quicksilver. quicksilver has exposure, long term to natgas price. qe2 is something our analysts like a lot. >> so you're talk valuation. this terms of quicksilver, what's the fundamental reason to buy that stock here? >> if you're looking at the long term deck of natgas pricing, it's a name that has tremendous exposure to the long-term price of that gas, so that's how you want to play it. >> darren, does it surprise you that natgas is falling so sharply when, in fact, crude oil continues to soar? >> it doesn't. the reason why is you have so many shale places out there. so either way, it's money good for them to sell the natgas as

long as they're producing the oil. >> thank you. we'll leave it there. the fresh decade low in gnarl gas prices certainly taking a toll on the big names in natural gas. the biggest in the industry are all down with some lower by more than 1% on that decline in natgas prices, bill. >> all right, maria. we're heading toward the close here with a few minutes left in trading. the dow -- all the major averages starting to lose ground, near 21 points. coming up, will the enormous supply and existing homes take a toll on home builders? the ceo of toll brothersw weigh in coming up at 4:40. first he's been waiting all day. i think he said that yesterday as well. >> you say that every day. y. >> brian shactman with our under the radar-stocks coming up. >> they hit an all-time high. wayn't to tell you which stocks fueled that rally. plus skechers.

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>> they hit an all-time high. >> they hit an all-time high. in in our never-ending quest for investment opportunities we know that the consumer staple sector has lagged in the broader market so far but there are some standout performers including baby formula maker meade johnson and wine and liquor makers constellation brands beam. >> do you want to see value? i've got it. the post of molycorp on fire today. stock is up. so is volume. let's take a look. surging after china's largest rare earth producer. bow toe steal, rare earth, said

the net profit quadrupled from the year before. molycorp rose. that was $1.3 billion deal. let's take look at that one more. 8.575, 8.579 million shares. do you see that? that's the average consolidated volume on the tape today versus an average volume of about 3 million. neo is the transforming of earth. that was the acquisition that the company announced a while back. molycorp stock plummet itted last year as demand for rare earth metals imploded. they're showing no signs of rebounding. the stock item abouttumbled abo

40%. it's still lagging behind its piers like freeport-mcmoran. >> thanks, maria. let's talk about stocks that are not making headlines but they're make their presence known. brian shactman, he's got the end-of-the-radar stocks. >> i talked about it earlier. the s&p small cap index touched an all-time high. the stock with the best performance in 2012, headwaters, right? it was at 100 earlier. it was at 99.5% year to date. they make building materiels. for profit education getting absolutely crushed today because of the troubling enrollment guidance. corinthian is still up. that's the second best year to date. a couple other stocks to talk about.

neurocrine. skechers are down. inventory overhangs, weak sales of new products and foreign exchange. i whammed to follow up on -- one of my big things with this seg management and others we tend to do a story and forget about it. carrols restaurant groups. it's up another 9.5%. last week 24rks%. back to you, bill. >> thank you very much. bryan murray is still counting it up it's just accounting. >> after the bell, he missed out on a more than $300 million game by selling his 33% stake in lionsgate last summer. carl icahn tells us why he sold the stock before "the hunger games" had a chance to light up the box office. we'll get to that coming up.

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at at this point the nasdaq still on track for its biggest quarterly percent gain in nine years since the second quart ore f 2003. and a third of that gain this quarter has been from apple. i mean it's the juggernaut that just continues here. however, we're starting to see a change in direction here. the volatility index, the fear indicator is starting to move up here. look at this. a 9% gain, and much of that in the last few minutes here. i want to see what the euro is doing against the dollar because so far this had been the comeback day for the dollar against the euro following yesterday's slide, the bernanke slide and we're coming off it. but still the dollar has been lower against the euro -- excuse me, the euro has been lower against the dollar today as we've seen this turnaround

tuesday occur here. that has weighed on stocks. in fact, the selling has intense filed here as we go into the close. not by a whole lot. you know, we did have that 160-point gain yesterday. we'rele pulling down. down by about 45 points. some of that has been weighed down by the energy sector and we've seen something of a cap on oil today. and for the last several days here with talk of releasing more oil from the spr, even the white house hinted again at it today and that caused a lot of volatility. here's where the white house came out again and hinted that maybe there would be more oil released from the spr. then they turned things around. we are heading lower again, and, in fact, when we look at the spread relationship between briton orc and wti it has wound again to 18.26, a level we hadn't seen since last october. that's as a result of brent going higher because of the concerns in iran. a couple of things to keep an

eye on. the ten-year price yield moving. we're down to 2.18%. regular meg mcclellan said do not fight the fed and as ben bernanke promises to keep the rates low, the markets take it to heart and the ten-year yield goes low and the price of gold goes higher here we had it back to its 200-day moving average with that rally yesterday. we're pulling back a little bit, but we're still at that 2 hurricane-day average down $500 and change at $1,680. among the best performers in the s&p sectors, utilities were the best. you could argue that because of lower rates utilities would do better. health care, skojd day running. i don't know if it's coincidental because of the supreme court/obama care matter. let me move over to rich bernstein here. you're the dollar bull. >> i am the dollar bull. >> if you see the dollar going higher, i would think you would see gold going low sneer

correct. >> you wouldn't have buy gold. >> let's say you're in greece and worried about them drop, you'd want gold. if you near the united states and the u.s. dollar investor, i don't get people's love affair with gold. >> and you don't see inflation being a problem in this country. >> in the future, i'm talking about. >> if you're a monitorist, the main input is credit. we know we're on the down side of the credit bubble. it's very hard to generate a lot of inflation. i think that's something the gold bugs are missing. >> energy. do you like energy stocks at these prices? i mean we've certainly seen it was a leader for a while. now it's starting to lag here. >> remember, energy and gold, two things we just mentioned. they're basically commodities. if you're a dollar bull, you're not going to be long on commodities. no, we're not very bullish on gold. >> rich bernstein, always good to see you. that is the first hour of the closing bell. we're going to finish on the lows of