close for comex gold and west texas intermediate selling off as well. that'll do it for us on "power lunch." ty, i'll see you back at the ranch. >> been an interesting hour, sue, and it's going to stay that way because "street signs" begins right now. and welcome to "street signs." i'm brian sullivan. five straight drops for the dow. two straight days of negative headlines. and three stocks falling like knives. so are we looking at three signs of life? three signs of a bottom? or three horsemen of the apocalypse? because mandy, as you know, three is the magic number. and of course we're still in the hopium den here. >> yes, some might say we are smoking the hopium. the fear trade is back on in a big way today. check out the vix up more than 10% earlier on though it has pulled back since then. the dow down as many as 198 points this morning although, once again, it it is off its lows. at this point we could be looking at the lowest s&p 500 close in two months. as for the nasdaq it's also headed toward a two-month closing low barring any late

rally. but here, guys, is the bright spot. the often looked-over jolts survey show companies had the highest number of job openings in nearly four years in march. let's try to wrap this all together and find out what it means for you. bob, down on the floor of the nyse, i want to get back to greece for a second because this is essentially what it's doing from the get-go as far as trade today but to what extent is greece a symptom as opposed to a cause? >> i think that's exactly the way to do it. it's an effect, really. not the cause. the cause is too much debt and the inability of central banks to address that debt problem. they've piled more debt on rather than reducing it. and slowly that's coming home to roost. look what we're seeing today. you pointed out the vix is on the up side. the important thing, there's your ten-year on the vix. look at the vix curve here. 6% up on the volatility index. but look out. in these -- out here, 3%, 4% increases in the vix futures out there. that's a little unusual. that's more than we've seen. that's a sign of higher

volatility. commodities are moving to the down side here. we've got a new low in the goldman sachs commodity index. copper, crude, aluminum are all to the down side. and then of course we've seen some other moves to the down side and some other key sectors here. the stock market is weak overall right now. so i think the important thing here is if you look at the other important risk off, the u.s. treasury and the bunds are on the up side. dollar's up and the australian dollar's to the down side. these raul issues around global growth and deflation and too much debt, mandy. >> what we've got is a good old-fashioned run to safety. thanks very much, bob. >> well, rick santelli, i know you're out there. listen, the jolts number was mentioned by mandy as a bright spot, which it should be. but the fed's jeff lacquer told reporters today that the unemployment rate may end up higher because of the skills gap. you know, open jobs that are hard to fill. in fact, there was an interesting article in the "usa today" today about a booming manufacturing company in new jersey that cannot find skilled machinists. rick, what is your take on this?

whose responsibility is it to get these people trained? >> the responsibility of course should be with the private sector, and the private sector normally should be able to move towards some of these training programs. the problem is that the private sector in many ways isn't being worked with by the government. they're being badgered by the government. this is such a depressing story on so many levels. we have manufacturing making a resurgence. we have unions that are fighting for benefits and not standing up for the notion that many workers need to contribute more. what we should be doing is sitting down with business and unions and creating various apprenticeships. my uncles were all in the union, sully, and i remember when i was about 13 years old i was a helper with one of my uncles who was a truck driver. and i was watching kids about four, five years older than me who were about ready to complete high school signing up for apprenticeships. this is what we need to move towards. there needs to be a working

group versus a yelling group, versus a fighting group, versus a blaming group. in an election year we're only concerned with raising money and throwing it at the unemployed. what we need to do is come up with viable solutions like training for all these jobs in manufacturing. >> i'd like to leave with you some good news, rick. but more than a million teenagers drop out of high school every year, so it might just get worse. >> i don't think -- you know what? i'm very optimistic, sully. i think the last thing we need is the government to take these programs over. i don't believe in credits. but if the private sector is handling the credit and the government is out i think they can train lots of areas. plumbers and electricians and so many in the trade area that were lacking in terms of high school and/or college addressing those needs. >> restriction well said. thanks, bud. see you soon. all right. what the heck's going on with stocks? so many are taking huge tumbles this year. look at this, folks. remember this? radio shack down as much as 30% in one day back on january 31st.

you have polycom down as much as 21% back on april 5th. irobot down as much as 34% back on april 9th. you have other ones like riverbed. that got whacked nearly 30% on april 20th. and i don't need to remind you about green mountain, down 49% intraday on an earnings miss. that even seems a bit much. and it continues today, folks. fossil, right? the big new names. you've got fossil down as much as 40%. mako surgical. that's another one taking a big whack as well. here's the point. this is sort of the wall of shame. and the point we're trying to make is that we don't usually see stocks fall 30% on what could be viewed as a slight earnings miss or a forecast cut. i guess the question is what the hell's going on? >> it's a really good question. it's a question we've always been asking here on "street signs." what can the individual do in terms of where they should be putting their money, and how can they get their confidence back? on moves like this and also headlines like we've seen over

the last two days from places like "the new york times" and also "usa today." potentially a sign of the bottom. you've got their investing stocks. forget about it. joining us is claude coursy. he's managing partner of tomorrow ventures and five-star manager mark traverse, president of intrepid capital. welcome to "street signs." let me get to you first of all. investing in stocks forget about it. is that i sign of the bottom if you take the old adage it's darkest before the dawn? >> absolutely. i feel very positive about what i see out there. i look for external cues and i see people spending money out there. i see people traveling. i see people spending money at the movies and stores. so i view that as a very positive sign. i think it's more a long-term approach that's so critical to this investment market. whether that's in the public markets or private markets like we invest in, i think that's critical in this day and age. >> do you think it's sad essentially, mark, that a lot of people are gun-shy? when you think about it, if people take the plunge when you've got the scary headlines,

say if you invested back in march 2009 you would have doubled your money. if you invested in october of last year you would have had like a 25% gain. what's holding people back right now? >> well, mandy, i'm not sure if i can blame them. if you look at the ten-year rate of return on the s&p it's probably 2. the russell 2000 is maybe 6. throw in a flash crash this time two years ago and a debt downgrade last august, and i'm surprised the market's up at all. but you know, i think the prices move a lot quicker than business values. and as people are learning today and this year, prices can fall a lot quicker than they go up. but i think in a lot of cases people have what i call an asset liability mismatch. they have money in the equity part of the capital markets. they're probably more short-term oriented and they need some cash and reserves for those shorter-term liabilities. and then when they get scared they're forced to liquidate. so i think that's one issue. and the other is when you've got

companies like green mountain coffee trading at 35 times ebidta the way i'd look at that is what is my yield on a pretax basis if i wrote a check for the entire enterprise? and when i'm getting less than a 3% or 4% yield on that pretax cash flow i'm frankly not interested. >> and i hear your point, mark. it's an excellent one. what we were trying to do there with the wall of shame was not to bash those companies, merely to point out that we've had eight companies this year, there's probably more, we just didn't have time, that have taken massive tumbles in one day. if you're a mom and pop and you own fossil and you wake up and find out it's down 39%, you might be done with the stock market forever. is that the machines taking over? bays can't imagine human traders are going to knock a retailer down 40% when the numbers ultimately weren't that bad. >> well, my hope for mom and pop is it's not a third of their portfolio. hopefully, it's a 2% weight of their portfolio or less. >> might be 100% if they're fossil employees. >> very much so. so you know, i don't know about

the dark pools and the -- all the different types of trading involved in that name, but you know, i would question what the valuation was before it fell. and what it is today. but i think people need to understand portfolio management math. diversification. and do they have money in the equity market that really they're going to need in the next three to five years. and it probably shouldn't be in the equity market. >> claude, you weigh in on brian's point here. those big drops we've seen for example in earnings as opposed to something very major like a fraud revelation, is that a sign that the market is working, it's healthy, or are those the machines at play? >> i think it's the machines at play because the fundamentals in those businesses are there and that's why people need to take that long-term approach. and again, it goes to my point about a combination of both the public and private markets. and the private markets, it's so important because it's -- innovation in the private markets is also what creates jobs. it's not only creating wealth in people's portfolio but also creating long-term jobs which which help for not only -- >> quickly, if you could make one move to get the retail

investor back interested in the market what would it be? >> long-term approach sticking to the fundamentals. >> court and mark, gentlemen, both thank you so much. we'll see you again. >> thank you. >> mandy, something else real quick here. i want to look at gold. it's not just stocks. gold has been whacked lately too. and i know you love your charts. so check this out, right? not that chart. the perfect wedge chart. can we bring that up? because i want to show you what it says here, right? gold has been an up trend -- there you go. there a for a number of years. it's like a perfect wedge of emen tal cheese. that looks to dennis gartman potentially bullish because he says when a chart gets narrow like that it tends to break out in the direction that it came from. it came up. we'll have to wait and see. but it is certainly going to break out somewhere soon. >> we'll have to see -- >> i have to correct myself. it's not emmental. i know you're more of a swiss person. >> i'm definitely swiss, maybe even brie. but i think it's been following very much the euro lately.

and as the euro has gone down obviously gold as well. strong dollar tends to be bad for gold. we'll wait and see what happens with that. >> brian schactman, market flash. >> how about a nice gouda? ftr, frontier communications touching a 52-week low. reported earnings yesterday but furious volume today and the stock, as you see, that chart continues to slide down about 10%. down about 25% in the last month. and the yield now, which is a cautionary tale, not always a positive, look at pitney bowes, the yield is about 10% on the dividend. back to you. >> thanks very much, brian schactman. coming up next on "street signs," one very sorry apology. yahoo ceo scott thompson issues a mea culpa, but it seems like he forgot to say what exactly he was sorry for. how long can he stay at the top? we're going to debate that. and also, a closer look at oil's five-day slide wen ji aith ener gas prices coming down. is it a tax break for all of us? and it's the principal here, folks. the story that's getting everyone fired up.

us included. bank of america's offered to cut the principal on some underwater mortgages by up to $150,000. of course we want to know what you think in today's street poll. is that fair? it's very simple. it's either yes or no. you can go to "street signs."cnbc.com. all of us are on it. and twitter as well. your results plus the big battle when we come back. so why exactly should that be of any interest to you? well, in that time there've been some good days. and some difficult ones. but, through it all, we've persevered, supporting some of the biggest ideas in modern history. like the transatlantic cable that connected continents. and the panama canal that made our world a smaller place. we supported the marshall plan that helped europe regain its strength. and pioneered the atm, so you can get cash when you want it.

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the worst apology ever. scott thompson saying to employees that he deeply regrets how this issue has affected the company and the employees. but is that really enough? our next guest says that scott thompson should resign along with the board of directors. joining us now is brian sullivan, ceo of ct partners. i guess the bottom line is here, brian, how could he possibly get away with, number one, not exactly saying why he's sorry. he's not saying what happened, why exactly the padding of the rosie mae ended up in the company's filings. we didn't learn anything at all about this except that he regrets that it happened. >> well, that's right, mandy. and unfortunately, this is a rather embattled company that's on everybody's radar screen, and it's highly touted. we go back three years ago, and this was the same board that turned down a $48 billion offer, which the current market cap is a third of that.

and then they hired a big huge search firm with so many conflicts, they put in a ceo that lasted 2 1/2 years. then they hired the same search firm again that had so many conflicts. they said, oh, by the way, we can't talk tom of these executives, what about this guy thompson? oh, boy. can't talk to him. you know, he's a client. but had a staunch stand up behind him, oh, yeah, he's been vetted, he's terrific. the reality is this is a circus and it's got to end. >> and brian, i'm glad you're here. clearly, you're a genius, right? so we always try to bring you on for the most important stories. >> there you go. >> how does this happen? i mean, if i put out an mba from harvard on a resume and go out looking for a ceo job, i assume someone is going to vet that. >> brian, head-hunting 101. or maybe not. maybe it's just advanced at our firm. i don't know. but you verify credentials. it's very easy. you've got a process to do it. but unfortunately, the board was

lazy. the search firm was lazier. and it happened. and what kind of gets me is everybody's looking at dan loeb and saying oh, activist shareholder. dan loeb is taking care of the shareholders. by the way, the policemen, the firemen and teachers, all the people who own yahoo, who's looking out for the shareholders? >> but my question here is would this be overlooked as just a minor infraction, brian, if the company was doing really well? the ceo was kicking butt, the stock was kick butt. would it be overlooked? if someone was doing a fantastic job, do you think the shareholders would be more likely to just let it go? >> perhaps. however, you've got a high-octane, very visible technology company that's under fire. the board's been under fire now for years, going all the way back to when jerry yang was ceo. you pay extra attention when the spotlight is on you. and unfortunately, this board and the search firm dropped the ball. >> brian sullivan, thank you very much for joining us.

>> thanks, mandy. thanks, brian. >> no problem, brian. i love that name. from yahoo to rim. when it comes to finding the right executives for the job, you have to ask yourself, who exactly would want those jobs? let's talk about it with john torte. you know, john, actually, we're thinking about this and someone said, boy, rim and yahoo, those are lousy jobs. and actually, we thought as a team, those are great jobs because nobody expects to you succeed and if you fail you just did what was expected. >> that's exactly what i was saying when i knew we were talking about this. look, there are some people out there who have lousy jobs. there are some people out there who wish they had lousy jobs. being ceo of yahoo or rim not one of those lousy jobs. they're in key markets on the web, in the cloud, in mobile. sure, they're turnaround jobs. these companies missed a couple of key transition that's they should have gotten. but hey, if they succeed, like you said, big kudos if they fail. if they fail, people say, well, it was no win. >> if not yahoo and rim, where are the worst tech jobs out there? john? >> boy, let me think.

really bad tech jobs. being the ceo of amd right now has to be tough. they're trying to get a turnaround going. they seem to be making some progress. i wouldn't say that's one of the worst tech jobs out there. you could argue that tim cook has got a tough job following steve jobs. but he seems to be doing pretty well at that. there are ways that all of these jobs seem tough. but hey, tech is doing pretty well. it's a very key market right now. it's hard to find a really bad job leading a company in tech. >> i'm just throwing this out there, john. i'm just putting you on the spot here. do you think if there are a lot of people who are lining up to have the job at yahoo, the top job at yahoo, then scott thompson would have already been asked to? >> you know, i think there are a lot of people who would like to have that job. scott thompson clearly one of them, sending in his resume. he wasn't even part of the search. but i think there are a number of people, former yahoos, who have opinions about how that company should be run. i talked to a number of them. under the right circumstances i'm sure they would stop doing what they're doing right now and lead that company.

but it's going to take a lot of incentive, a lot of money to get someone over there. think how much yahoo had to pay terry semibillion a decade ago to go over there. he became a billionaire based on yahoo's stock. he did quite well for them for a while. you pay somebody the right amount of money they'll take a job like that. >> absolutely. better than coming in at the top of a company and destroying shareholder value. thank you for joining us. let's get out to brian schactman with another market flash. >> this is a complicate the one but very interesting. creative health being investigated by the minnesota attorney general for some billing practices. the stock is down about 55% in the last month. well, rahm emanuel, the mayor of chicago, asking the minnesota a.g. to deal directly with the company. it's about aggressive billing and debt collection. and guess what? the company is based in chicago, and it's become a bit of a political football as well. the stock, though, popping. 4 1/4%. but still down big in the last month. back to you. >> all right, brian. thanks very much. well, just ahead on "street signs," the fallout for lockheed

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stocktology time, everybody. let's check the internals. decliners 2,268. a lot more decliners than advances. nasdaq stocks not quite as broad for decliners but still about 2-1. new highs 39. new lows 72. and the melbourne magpies win the australian rules football league. well, lockheed martin has been on the offense after a scathing manhattans smnts investigati "60 minutes" investigation that looked into the safety of its f-22 raptor fighter jets. several pilots reporting there is a serious oxygen problem on the plane. lockheed's stock has weathered the storm so far. and jane wells has been following the story. jane? >> brian, i saw one once out at edwards. it's a beautiful aircraft. and aviation week actually first started reporting on this problem a year ago and the air

force still can't dpig out at least publicly what is wrong with the oxygen system. lockheed martin delivered the 195th and last f-22 to the air force last week. you know, as great as it is, it wasn't really relevant to any of the wars we've been in lately, and now it has this mystery. never saw combat, by the way. now the air force, according to defense news, is also testing the oxygen systems on the f-16 made by general dynamics. boeing's f-15. the a-10, which i think is now part of allianz. and the t-6 trainer made by hawker beechcraft. but most importantly is checking out the system in lockheed's f-35, the most expensive defense program ever. unlike the other jets by the other companies, lockheed has used a honeywell oxygen system in both the f-22 and the 35. though the f-35 program director tells us it's not a problem on the new more expensive joint strike fighter. "aviation week" says the navy has had similar oxygen problems with the system on its boeing-built f-18s. the navy not commenting. that system not made by honeywell.

and brian, so no one knows if the problem is in the way the oxygen is delivered through the system. maybe it's sealing in the pilot's oxygen mask. the counterpressure suits. they at least publicly don't know. >> so there's obviously a lot of answers we don't have here yet, jane. but in the meantime what the analysts saying about what the impact could potentially be for some of these stocks? >> well, as you can see, for both lockheed and honeywell so far there hasn't been a big impact. and in fact, lockheed today announced it got another quarter billion dollars from the pentagon for extra costs on the f-35. the company says it is ramping up test flights. the most it's ever had. but we're starting to see sell ratings on lockheed. i've got two in front of me. crt capital group has a sell rating with lockheed's price target at $72. drexel hamilton has aprice target of $60 over the next 12 months. >> and of course the stock today is down about .7%. but that's not even as much as the broader market. thanks very much for that. well, the economic recovery is weak and anemic, but things are getting better.

that is the bottom line from the ceo of the world's biggest construction equipment maker, caterpillar. doug oberhomen was on "squawk box" this morning and he said he expects a record 2012 but is calling for a catalyst. >> the regulatory environment is a little tough. it's at this moment not all what we need to get the economy going and the catalyst that's we really are all after. i think with some of those things clearing up we could see growth coming back fairly well this year and into next. but we need some help and some catalysts. >> as for shares of cat they're down 14% over the last year but up about 4% year to date. well, mr. oberhelman, here is one catalyst for you. this is a man performing a dance with a cat digger in latvia. the french performer is famous for this so-called digger dance and has performed it in over 40 countries. >> all right. let's -- i don't even know what to say to that. anyway, let's get back over to the market desk with a flash hit

from mr. schactman. >> thank you, sully. thank you, mandy. church & dwight, cht, they had earnings last friday and they are now on their fourth consecutive trading day making an all-time high. today it's 52.57. just pretty unbelievable. of course they make arm & hammer baking soda. they were negative for most of the trading session today but not any longer. back to you, mandy. >> thank you very much, brian schactman. coming up next on "street signs," a little chocolate-covered sunshine, and one of the misunderstood stock picks of the day. and there is still time to vote in our special street poll today. we want your opinion on bank of america cutting the principal on some underwater mortgages. do you believe that is fair? vote at streetsigns.cnbc.com. your results and a debate about it coming up later in the show. stick around. table to table is a fascinating organization that operates in three or four different counties in northern new jersey and they collect meals, prepared food, perishable foods from organizations that

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down by about 1% across the board there with the dow stitting at 12, 869. there are a number of stocks on the move right now. why don't we start with miracle-gro? not growing in the right way. it is getting slam inting slamm quarterly profit fell. >> higher input costs. goes to show maybe a lack of pricing power, stock getting

crunched. >> rack space is also getting hit on a profits miss here. >> herb if you're out there a name you've been highlighting cloud computing company fewer people taking up the high end of their services, rack space getting racked. >> of course he's watching. he never takes a holiday. radio shack. >> no news on this one but this company had a ceo scandal as well. 2006 ceo caught lying on his resume. stepped down. under five bucks a share. guy adami, it was your stock pick in the draft, by the way. but like he said it's a long year. but radio shack struggling this year. >> he said either hero or zero. and a big winner today is generec holdings on better than expected holdings. finally a good story here. >> we wanted to end on a high note. their profit went from $4.8 million a year ago to over $30 million last quarter. all the stores combined with lousy infrastructure in states like new jersey forcing people like me to go out and buy generators because it's hard when you have a family to be out of power for seven days. >> it is rather hard and rather smelly when you can't have any shower. finally, nevada energy is trading at an all-time high.

what's pushing this up? >> good earnings. they made an invest, and that's the reason i wanted to bring this story up. they made an investment in a new power station. that power station putting out more powers. the their revenues were up. the stock was up. we tried toned on a couple of high notes there with generac and nve energy. >> absolutely. >> there are a few reasons or a few stocks on the move right now. let's get a couple more names you might want to consider investing p np joining us peter anderson, senior portfolio manager at congress wealth management. he oversees $7 billion in client assets. all right, peter, you can comment on the names that we just went through, some new names. give our viewers some names. name names. >> well, this is a great time to be looking because you know, the market is down and if you stick to your game plan you can find a lot of value out there right now. i like to look at some stocks that people don't usually notice. and might even be neglected. so acco brands. very attractive stock. but i must say somewhat boring.

but boring can be beautiful in these markets. it provides office supplies, but it's merging with another division of mead west vaco. the earnings are supposed to double in two years yet it's trading at a p/e of around nine times. that's very, very attractive in this market. especially when people have their eyes on things like facebook ipos that are much more difficult to figure out. >> yeah. facebook seems to be sucking all the air out of the room at moment because of its size. what about excer resources? this is a company down, what, 30% year to date. is this a buy for you? >> that hurts. we own the stock and we are adding to the position at this point. it's a natural gas driller and it's very, very attractively priced. you know, nat gas has taken it on the chin, but we do believe that there will be a rebound and when there is a rebound, it's a speculative play, but when there is a rebound i'm sure that exco will be on the forefront of returns. will varas, too is a very famous

investor and he's involved actively in this. he just joined the board of directors. so there's a lot of color behind this story, and i would urge people to take a second look at a name like that. >> and mandy mentioned facebook getting all the attention social mediawise. but you actually think the home shopping network is a social media play as well. explain. >> it is. and it's a real gem. we all know what it normally does on broadcasting media. but it has been quite successful expanding its platform to smartphones, ipads, et cetera. and you know, in the past four years this company has had increasing revenues. in spite of the recessions that we've had. they've been very, very successful. they've got loyal shoppers. once again, it's a business we can easily understand. it's been proven. it has proven revenues. and it has a lot of appeal to stay-at-home shoppers, for instance. >> you can never have too many snuggies or steak knives. peter andersen, thank you very much for joining us. we are focusing a lot on oil.

this is a big story. light sweet crude posting the biggest five-day drop since october of last year. let's get straight to sharon p epperson at the close. >> at the close we saw actually a little bit of a bump-up here, a to close above 97 a barrel. we had seen prices dip to the 95 handle this morning as other commodities sold off sharply. but keep in mind traders are still looking at a sell-off that has taken prices lower every day in may and the fact that the international energy agency and opec will come out with their global supply reports later this week. and already the energy department here has said global supply will be more than what demand is expected to be. the good news, though, mandy, of course is that prices at the pump have been falling and the energy department now sees prices this summer around $3.80 a gallon. last month they were predicting $3.95. >> that is good news. sharon, thank you very much. >> sure. well, speaking of energy, if

you listen to our next guest's trading idea a few weeks ago you probably made some nice coin. john kilduff told you to go long's nat gas, and short oil. when he said it gas was around a buck 95, oil around a back 05. if you did thank you made money on both sides of the trade. a cnbc contributor. john, good call. nat gas has come to about 230. would you still call it? long nat gas, short oil right now? >> i think so, brian. i did want to give one bit of caution. obviously the fundamentals of natural gas are much different than what they were historically. but yeah, it overshot to the down side. i didn't like the fundamentals for crude oil at all, and here we go. we're seeing that trade work out quite nicely. thank you for mentioning it. you like to get lucky once in a while. >> absolutely. you made that call about three weeks ago on "street signs." if we go forward three weeks, where do you think crude's going to be? where do you think nat gas is going to be, john? >> natural gas continues to rally. we've taken out? important resistance points. 232 was a big number today. i think now we can get back up

over -- it could be another 20 cents to the up side, which was big on this contract. upwards of 2.60 to 2.65. oil i think is terrible. and to the extent that the euro continues to stay below 1.30 and head south, that's going to have the dollar strengthen and push this down. so i think you're going to see crude oil test $92 first. i have a down side target of $74 here, but that could take about a couple of months. >> energy prices coming down, john. bottom line, how much is this going to help us, the consumer, people who fill up at the pum s&p the people who are being hurt by rising energy costs in the past. is this like a tax cut? >> it's better than a tax cut because when these prices go up it's worse than a tax increase. i always like to remind everyone this is really a transfer of wealth to oil companies, oil-producing countries. at least when the government raises your taxes they'll spend it inefficiently one way or another. here we don't get that benefit. this gasoline price spike, the fears of $5 a gallon that were permeating out there, really you know, knocked people back a couple of steps here.

and now we're going to see a revival in consumer confidence. i suspect a revival in consumer spending. at better retail stores, the higherend ones. walmart, target. but also this puts vacation back on the board for a lot of people, back in the budget, and that's also going to help the hotels sector and the leisure travel sector, the cruise line sector get more business here because people are going to feel better because they're going to be playing not 5 but how about $3 a gallon this summer? >> well, congratulations on joining the hopium club. john, thank you very much. just when you thought your commute could not get any worse, it does. a new study that shows people who live more than ten miles from their work are likely to have -- or rather more likely to have high blood pressure. and hold on to your seat, brian, if you commute more than 15 miles each way, you are much more likely to be obese because you're just not finding the time to get enough daily activity. this is from researchers at washington university in st. louis. another market flash in the

meantime from mr. schactman. what do you have for us? >> i have a 60-mile commute. so i don't know what's going to happen with me. audio books is the key for me. avon products. take a look. it's slipping and sliding here as we head toward the close. and the news is s&p is downgrading to bbb minus from bbb. it's still on watch negative. and you can see the stock s is reflecting that news from s&p in its credit rating. back to you. >> okay. thanks very much, brian. >> coming up, another twist in the battle for control over sirius xm radio. could howard get a new boss soon? >> i'm an agnostic on a company like facebook. anytime you get a truly extraordinary business, they're the hardest ones to value. i think the worst mistake you can make in stocks is to buy or sell based on current headlines. we were buying stocks on friday, and we'll buy the same stocks today. i never complain about buying things cheaper. >> why do you think gold bugs get so irate? >> everybody gets so scared they troun a cave with gold.

caves make better investments than gold.

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i'm bill griffeth. coming up at the top of the hour in "closing bell" we have all the angles covered on this sell-off day today. for example, is this an opportunity to buy? do you buy this dip or do you need to rotate into more defensive sectors of the market? we'll look at that. then a couple of very big interviews coming up. disney chairman and ceo bob iger breaks down his company's earnings just minutes after they are released. and don't miss maria's exclusive sit-down with house speaker john boehner. they'll talk befrg from tax reform to getting the economy back on track. we look forward to seeing you from the new york stock exchange and today from today in washington at the top of the hour on "closing bell." we'll see you then, mandy. >> thanks very much, bill. >> we've got some breaking news on yahoo confirming a story in the "new york times" earlier today. yahoo is forming a special three-person committee to review ceo scott thompson's academic record. again, a three-person panel will review the academic credential issue.

remember the idea that he received a computer science deeg from a college which third point llc a hedge fund argued did not even exist in the year -- the college did. the degree did not. in the year that he claimed to have gotten it. he sent out that non-apology apology. "new york times" had a story on it earlier today. yahoo now confirming it. it's official. he's going to get dug into by his own company. >> i thought it was interesting what brian sullivan from ct partners who was on the show today, i thought it was interesting he saz saying it's the recruiter's job here, it's the recruiter's responsibility to make sure the credentials are absolutely pristine, which kind of takes the responsibility away from the employer itself a little bit. >> a little bit. you're right. that's a good point. because what he was saying is the recruiting committee or the search committee is coming to you and if you're the director of yahoo and -- >> you should trust recruiter. >> i say here's a great candidate. you're going to have to trust what i do because that's why you're paying me. brian sullivan, he's clearly going to bring up great points. >> it's all in the name, huh? okay. now, as if we haven't had enough

disasters to go around today, how about some chocolate-covered sunshine. hershey hitting a new all-time high. just in the month of may alone it's really going sky-high. year to date it's up about 9.6%. >> up next, should underwater homeowners behind in their payments get a break on the principal, not the interest rate, the principal of their mortgages? >> well, it could happen for hundreds of thousands of borrowers on the brink of foreclosure. but what about all the people who pay on time? so we're going to debate this, coming up. how do you know which ones to follow? 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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now to our street poll. we have been asking you, is it fair? it's a word we hear a lot these days. that underwater bank of america borrowers behind on their mortgages already may be eligible for a principal reduction on their mortgage of up to $150,000? 11% of you voted yes. 89% of you said no, this is not fair. generally saying the same thing on twitter and e-mail. i pay on time. why should people who don't get a break? mandy. >> okay. well, of course, this bank of america offer isn't out of the goodness of their hearts. it is over fraudulent foreclosure practices and part of the $25 billion settlement between federal and state

agencies and the nation's five largest mortgage services. but what kind of message does this send to homeowners who pay on time? well, let's bring in pay on time? doesn't this smell like a moral hazard to you? >> it does. if you take that part-time job so you can pay your mortgage, you don't get any help. because if your mortgage payments are below 25% of your income, you don't get any help. if they are above, you do. especially in these days where the interest rate is dropping, it's an incentive not to take that lower paying job so you can get help with your payments. >> i'm really struggling. defend this program. our viewers are outraged. they are saying, where is my break in why am i not getting a mortgage deduction? i'm struggling to defend it.

can you? >> bank of america feels this is profit making for bank of america. they have done the numbers and it only works if it's net value positive for them and for them they view it as being mvp positive. note, this is only for a small segment of their population. so it's not as though if you simply won't pay, you are eligible. it's if, from their estimation, you cannot pay. >> it's probably going to be profitable. they are forced into this settlement. a lot of the money is going to states. it's going to be profitable because if i'm a current bank of america customer, they are going to jack up fees to cover the losses, right? >> no. it goes the other way. if these loans were to go to foreclosure, which is the path that they are on, it would cast

all of us and particularly other homeowners more. >> but if they do go under foreclosure, of the loans that are being modified since january 2008, there have been 24 million and then 52% of those delinquent p or in foreclosure. so it doesn't necessarily prevent foreclosure. >> however, if i may, that's why this is very new and different. this is a different kind of relief which, from the evidence that's out there, it's likely to work a lot better. >> >> they are not doing it to justify profits. they are doing it because they have to pay these banks, wells fargo, jpmorgan, they have to be $25 billion. and of that 20 billion has to be

paid by the banks. if 75% is not paid over the next two years, the banks have to pay more. they have to pay a fine. they have to do it whether they want to or not. and 3.5 billion goes to the states to get out as they want, the newly created positions. >> deal by deal, this -- each one has to be mvp positive. it has to have a return or they won't do it. >> susan, is it analogous? we talk about stocks that fall all the time. you have fossil at 40%, whatever it is. people buy it and i think the moral hazard issue that mandy brought up, i guessed wrong, i want my money back and someone is forcing them to give them the stock back at the price that they paid for it. >> look, i'm absolutely with you on the potential hazard of a required plan of any sort of government mandated -- this is bank of america coming to the

table saying deal by deal this is positive for them. >> they are forced to make a certain percentage of these loans. >> perhaps i misunderstand what mvp positive is but that's what they are asserting, they won't do it unless it is. >> then they have to make the loans any way or they are going to get fined. we haven't heard anything about these mortgages that are securities. >> there are other options besides going this route and they are going to take the other options. this is not the only route they are going. this is deal by deal decision. >> diana and susan, we have to leave it there. it gets everyone fired up. thank you for weighing in. >> thank you very much. >> let's go to brian shactman. brian? >> our senior producer brought up. i want to look at natural gas. it's popping. it's up almost 5%.

one of the reasons is federal government approved nat gas but no firm and concrete information on that necessarily. but the pop is pretty pro mounsed. back to you. >> you can clearly see it on the board. thank you for that. well, it is malone. a serious showdown. stepping up his effort to take care of the satellite provider. trying to prevent it. well, our david faber joins us on this tug-of-war. wireless conference in new orleans, what have you found? >> well, mandy, of course, there is perhaps a contest developing here but nothing says that there is great urgency in that contest t is true that the contract will expire at the end of this year. the news this morning was liberty, which reported earnings, has increased its stake to 45% from what had been a 40% stake in cirrus. they applied to the fcc to say

that they were in control and then they said, no, they are going to try it again. at this point, liberty is looking at two paths. one is to take effective control by buying beyond 50% of the stock which would be another 6%. of course, no one would like them to take that at a premium. another option that the company has been exploring as well is a reverse trust which is a spinoff of the ownership in cirrus into a new company along with perhaps some other assets so that when it was combined with cirrus, that entity would be worth at least 51% of the overall value. it would get complicated but allow liberty to avoid taxes. one would expect that would be embraced because he would be in control, so to speak, or certainly would not have a controlled shareholder any longer in liberty run by john malone along with greg. we'll see what happens.

again, not an urgency here in that sense but with the contract expiring, he does have a change in control vesting on options that are worth an enormous amount of money. he's going to be a beneficiary one way or the other. one thing i can tell you, highly unlikely that given the prevalence of net operating losses, cirrus would want to do that but they are going to use the operating losses for itself because it's anticipated in the next year or two. >> thank you so much for joining us. david faber there. >> thank you for watching "street signs". "closing bell" is coming up next. next. typhoon! first prize! it's a cheese grater. wooooo...

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