how is that for an indecent proposal? a former "american idol" con tant used his proposal to another idol alum to plug the ringmaker during last night's finale. the jeweler, david webb, would not confirm whether the $12,000 ring was a freebie. the store has said they received a lot of calls about the proposal but said it's just too soon to say if they're going to see a sales uptick. >> yeah. that's all i got to say about that. >> talk about ruining a romantic moment with a free plug. thanks for watching. hi, everyone. we enter the final stretch. i'm maria bartiromo coming to you live from the global market trading floor in new york city. it's part of our trading floors series. we have a great show ahead, including an interview with soft jen america's ceo craig overlander, how this firm is adapting to the ever-changing

regulatory environment. plus, we've got an exclusive interview with cftc chairman gary gensler. does he think more financial regulation is needed in the wake of jpmorgan's massive trading loss. we'll also talk about what went on with the facebook ipo as nasdaq. my partner bill griffeth is at the new york stock exchange with this wild trading day once again. and once again we see reversal and negative performance, bill. >> it hasn't been too bad today. i think it's pretty clear, maria, that the memorial day weekend is starting to set in here in the stock market. stocks are under pressure so far this thursday because of concerns about europe and the risk of the greek government exiting the eurozone, but investors are also unimpressed by the slight dip in weekly jobless claims. that report out this morning. what's an investor to do right now? we will try and provide some answers on that coming up. also facebook shares higher for a second day running, but still well below its initial offering price of last friday, and now

there are new developments. we are finding out that the stock's short interest, the number shares borrowed for possible shorting, that is on the rise right now. the latest on the facebook mess is still ahead. but first let's get you caught up on the trading day and how it's done so far. the dow industrial average has not strayed very far from the unchanged although a little rally on the open this morning with the better than expected jobless claims numbers, but then sell-off after that. down 39 points at 12,457. the nasdaq is down 27 points. almost a 1% decline there. nasdaq has still been the leader, either up or down, in this market. and there's the s&p down 5.5 points at 1313. maria? >> all right, bill. as i mentioned, i'm coming to you from the global markets trading floor in new york city. there are about 500 sales and trading professionals right here trading equities, fixed income, currencies, commodities. the big business here equities

derivatives. thr more than a million transactions today. coming up in the program we will get the outlook for the industry with the head of soft jen america's craig overlander joining us. we want to get that global look, particularly the impact from europe, bill. >> all right, marimaria. with the markets down just 35 points, we want to delve into that and one of the big issues that's facing this market right now. citi's chief economist predicting today greece would, in fact, leave the eurozone next year sometime. there is some talking about an orderly exit for greece, whatever that means, right? right? >> that is the issue, really, bill, because if it were orderly, a lot of people say maybe it wouldn't be that big of a deal, but, of course, a disorderly exit from the euro would certainly create dislocation in this market. let's get to the closing bell exchange with bob pisani, michelle caruso-cabrera and david steinberg from dls capital

management. michelle, this is your turf. would it be orderly or -- >> i'm not sure -- >> if greece left the euro. >> maybe for our market but you presume perhaps it's possibly orderly for greece to leave, and i don't think it's ever going to be possible. and it's easy to understand why. pretend for one moment that you are a greek person living in greece. you still have euros in the bank, and suddenly you're told there's going to be an orderly exit supposedly, but what does that mean to you? that means all those euros you have in the bank are going to be converted to some other currency likely to be worth a lot less and what's your first instinct? you go and you take it out of the bank. the minute there is some serious talk coming from abroad that that's going to happen, you have bank runs and the decision gets made. it's got to be done in secret late at night on a weekend. >> and david steinberg, that's a problem for, you know, the major european banks because of their exposure to greek debt right

now. i mean, that's really one of the big fears about what any kind of exit of greece from the eurozone would be, isn't it? >> basically, it's the same problem. it's really the banking system and it's the risks in currency. sovereign risk is what we talk about, the contagion actually is, in fact, runs on the banks. in the united states in '08 we handled it by the fdic raising the deposit rates that they protect, and i think there is an easy backstop here which is difficult probably politically which would be that the ecb backs euro backed banks and that would prevent the run on banks either before or after greece were let loose. >> david, are we already seeing the greeks take money out of those banks and put it in sort of seemingly stronger banks like the deutsche banks or other european banks of the world? have we already started to see the greeks withdrawing some

money from those greek banks on all this uncertainty? >> absolutely. i think there has been some reports out that there has been money flowing in the french and german banks. the smaller depositors may stick it under their mattress. >> i had one ceo tell me his depositors were burying it in their backyards, maria. >> oh, god. >> what that does, rick santelli, we just showed it there, the euro continues lower here. the dollar is a little higher, and all the markets are responding to that. are they ignoring fundamentals in this case or is it just a fear trade that we're witnessing right now? >> i think right now the fundamentals in the fear trade are actually getting more married at the hip every day. look at the pmis. look at the business confidence. look at no positive revision to gdp in the uk. look at our paltry top line durable. look at the big negative ex transportation proxy for spending. the report all weak.

i think they're one and the same at this point and i think an orderly exit, i agree with michelle, i don't think it's possible. they can quarantine it, do it over a long weekend, prevent people from running on banks, but the minute they're lifted, it's going to become more disorderly. >> tbrussels leaks like a seive. reuters quoted somebody saying we didn't come up with the plans before this because we're worried about anonymous leaks 15id t said the eamon news leaker. >> there's a bet going on that the europeans will be able to convince the greek to vote for parties in a bailout. we go along with them and send them money -- >> i hope they're right but the election might be too late. they have to go back to what our other guests are saying. they have to convince all of the europeans that the european

banking system is safe. bottom line. that's mission critical right now. >> guys, let me switch gears a little bit here. facebook is another issue that we're all talking about these days, this mess. cnbc learning that the nasdaq executives have been making an aggressive behind-the-scenes push to stem the damage from the facebook ipo, and it comes as we find out that bob pisani, short interest on facebook stock has increased to 8% right now. how significant is that? >> well, 8% strikes me as high. this is a brand new stock that started trading. an ip o usually maybe 1%, 2%, 3% might be short. but this stock is so out there there's not a benchmark for it. remember, short interest, high shorts represents stock that has to be bought back at some point. have you noticed it's a boring stock? $32 for three days? >> what do you make on the impact of the small investor? >> it's probably disheartening

for most. everybody is looking for fairness. i think both the underwriters, the company, and the investors are extremely disappointed in the whole process and the market is going to have to ferret out what the water level should be for long-term investors and those that were short-term investors that might have expected a pop are going to have to exit the stock. it's going to need to be redistributed into smaller hands. the company -- >> what a shocker. the company is valued at $100 billion. all the hype going into it and there's 8% short. >> in case you're wondering, bob and rick and i and other male anchors on the network have been wearing our flag ties to honor our colleague mark haines who passed away one year ago today and this was one of his favorite techniqu techniques. we remember mark very well. it's been one year, guys. hard to believe. >> you know what? i was thinking this morning coming and putting on my tie what would mark hains say about

facebook? can you imagine the party in his head he would have had with this story? >> exactly. >> he would have called it right. he would have call it right. he would have said it was going to be the ed sell sel of ipos. >> one industry that has been flying high today, the airlines. >> strong day for the airlines, bill, after a jpmorgan analyst raised his estimates on several airlines because of the recent drop in jet fuel prices. the increase in the 2012 projections ranging from 23% on u.s. airways to 2% for alaska air. all these airlines having a good day. a tough day for net app. lowering their quarterly forecast and getting slap with four analyst down grades. if you're short the stock, a good day for you. the stock down better than 12%. the last two days have been pretty volatile for shares of hewlett-packard, sharply selling

off ahead of earnings, popping 10% after hours last night and today trading comfortably in the green although we have pared gains over the last two hours. now up just about 2.8%. guys, i'll leave it there. back over to you. >> seema, thank you very much. we are just getting started for this thursday. if you're sticking around, we have a lot to come for the next hour and a half. the dow is down 40 pints. >> we're going to look at financial regulation. is more needed? gary gensler is with us. he says yes. he joins us in an exclusive interview. >> and commodities crushed in the month of may. oil down 13%, gold down 6%. someone here looking as if it's time to buy these dips? we'll talk about that coming up. after the bell a double dose of insight into the state of banking when i speak with socgen america ceo. [ tires squeal, engine revs ]

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welcome back to the program. live today on the trading floor. it was exactly two weeks ago after the bell that jpmorgan revealed its trading loss. at last count it was at least $3 billion. since then the stock has tumbled 17%. the entire industry losing $30 billion in market value. >> even though only shareholders are taking those losses it's prompted an investigation which has been pushing to extend the dodd frank swap regulations to overseas trade. joining us is gary gensler who joins us for this exclusive interview. welcome back. how do you regulate that? i mean, that's been the thorny issue for you when you talk with jpmorgan and other banks who have overseas trading operations.

they say if you try to regulate those trades, it creates an unfair playing felgd for thoiel banks because foreign banks don't have the sim rame regulat. how do you regulate the london whale when he's out of inju jurisdiction? >> he is in our jurisdiction. the american taxpayer doesn't want to stand behind it. it was overseas risk, it was a cayman islands affiliate. so we've got to guard the american public against those offshore trades bringing risk back home. >> but chairman gensler, let me ask you, this has an impact to taxpayers, right? tell me -- >> oh, no, no. with all respect, it actually hasn't impacted taxpayers because in 2008 we lost 8 million jobs in this country, and americans put in $180

billion into aig, and that was run out of london. so with all respect, i think this is just -- >> are we talking -- i'm talking about the jpmorgan story and the losses at jpmorgan. i mean, if the firm makes a bet and blows it, makes the wrong bet, and, you know, we're talking about jpmorgan money, not even investor money, can you say that because of that a firm should have more regulation when, in fact, taxpayers weren't impacted by this particular situation? i'm not talking about 2008 and aig. i'm talking about jpmorgan and two weeks ago, the loss. >> i think this is just a reminder. you're absolutely right, firms have a right to make a bad decision and lose money, but what we need to guard against is the american taxpayer standing behind it and if it's in a branch of a u.s. bank, the risk comes straight back here. the federal deposit insurance company corporation is insuring

this thing and the federal reserve has a direct -- what's call the discount window. so we can't allow risk that's offshore to come back here. otherwise, the bankers would just move the jobs overseas and leave the risk behind for the american public. >> what do you think you're going to do? try to limit the loss? when you invoke the fdic, i mean, there's a limit that people can lose when they have their money deposited with a bank, for example. so are you talking about a limit on trading losses for banks to minimize? other than just losing money, what did jpmorgan do wrong here? >> again, this isn't about one company. this is about the american public wants common sense transparency in these markets where people can see how they're publicly traded ed and they wa some common sense rules to lower the risk of the swap dealers. that's what congress did in 2008. we're more than halfway into implementing those rules and i

think we're just reminded again that we have to make sure that bankers can't move the jobs offshore but leave the risk here. >> let me get your take on something else, gary, because i guess one of the issues here is the fact that the volcker rule, first of all, it has not been implemented yet. we were expecting it to be implemented in july. i don't think that's going to happen given where that's coming up, but how are you going to differentiate prop trading from just a firm acting on behalf of his customers? how do you define proprietary trading and how really is that volcker rule going to be enforced? >> it's probably one of the more challenging jobs congress has given the five regulatory agencies, prohibit proprietary trading but allow hedging, which is a good thing because it lowers risk in the system, and there's some overlap between the two, how to define -- >> that's what i'm saying how do you define? that's the point. if a firm is acting on behalf of a client and selling a big block

of stock over a couple of days or over a period of time, how do you know that's proprietary trading versus just acting on behalf of a client? how are you going to define it? if you can't define it, how do you implement it? >> from my experience if you have a hedge that's reasonably correlated to specific positions or aggregate positions but you know the positions, that should be considered in the realm of a hedge. if it's something that's very separate and sort of a separate business unit, separate profit, you start to wonder if it's really a hedging unit. >> and, again, you can lose money on a hedge. i'm going to go back to whether you are trying to limit the amount of money a bank or any other trading mechanism can lose on any particular trade, and again it's not just about jpmorgan, i realize that. but when you're talking about any kind of a trade, you seem to be suggesting that they took too much ric and they lost too much money. so on the volcker rule, for

example, if you're trying to define a hedge as you define that, are you going to limit the amount of risk and losses that they can take on that? >> well, i think risk does not leave the system. banks and investment banks will have risk. we're trying to bring transparency to the over the counter derivatives market. we're trying to lower the risk to the american public, but banks will still have an opportunity to lose money and through the volcker rule try to limit the proprietary trading because that's what congress told us to do. >> let me switch gears and ask you about facebook. i think the public wants to know what the heck happened at the open at nasdaq. was that a market structure issue? >> well, i think that's our sister agency, the securities and exchange commission. it does highlight once again in the world of trading and high frequency trading that it's important that exchanges really oversee their systems to make sure that they do what they think they're supposed to do. >> chairman gensler, good to see you.

thanks for your time. >> good to be with you. >> gary gensler joining us today. we have 40 minutes left here and the dow is down 38 points right now. as i said before, i think the memorial day weekend has begun unofficially here. >> yeah. i think so, too. bill, i'm so glad we really zeroed in on prop trading with gary gensler there because i think what you and i were asking him in different ways was really the point here. they cannot define proprietary trading. it's very difficult to say when a firm is acting on behalf of the customer versus prop trading. >> it's a broad, broad issue that lacks a define -- a clor definition and that's what they've got to come up with. >> absolutely. because if you can't define it, you can't implement it. we'll be watching that, everybody. next up, tiffany trading at a 14-month low today on weak earnings news. costco about as far away from tiffany as you can get near a one-year high. pretty good earnings there. i know which one i'd rather shop at but which stock is a better buy right now.

we'll look at both ends of the retail spectrum. >> i can see you at costco wheeling out those big boxes. plus, goldman sachs has joined twitter and it's going green. does this mean that goldman is going soft? what's this makeover all about? isn't the company about making money instead? we have that story coming up here. and we want your thoughts on that. does going on twitter really make goldman sachs more transparent and likable. send us a tweet and let us know what you think @cnbcclosingbell. your response coming up. stay with us. today is gonna be an important day for us. you ready? we wanna be our brother's keeper. what's number two we wanna do? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online. attention on site, attention on site. now starting unit nine. some of the world's cleanest gas turbines are now powering some of america's biggest cities.

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welcome back. let's get to brian shactman. news on emc. >> yesterday after the close we talked about net app and their guidance which really spooked the market. emc in the last few months at least in the equity market, you look at the comparison, has really cleaned net app's clock in terms of gains in the equity market, but even the nerves about what's moving forward and the lack of really clarity and vision into what's going on in europe is spooking investors of emc today as well. down 5%-plus. i'm a fan of both tiffany and costco and the costco people i

can see ringing on the hook, you can get jewelry at costco but you can't get a case of 20 paper towels at tiffany. >> well, we were just talking about that, the guest and i. imagine if tiffany operated like costco and you walked out with a crate of diamond rings. that would bring the cost down. thank you, brian. tiffany is down hard today on their earnings wile cohile cost up sharply on better than expected numbers. do you go with the luxury side, with the discount retailers right now? that's what we're talking about in talking numbers on the technical side. it's barry sign with drexel hamilton and on the fundamental side is joe feldman with telzy advisory group. what do you think? tiffany for costco? >> tiffany stock is not looking that good to us. if you look back over the last year or so, july, march, and october, we have had lower

highs. we have been declining on the chart. >> there they are. >> a series of lower high. every time you try to have a rally, the sellers are pushing the stock back down. >> you think that's going to continue? >> that's a negative trend in our mind. >> what about costco? >> costco is the complete opposite. trending up, solid uptrend. a series of higher lows and higher highs. that's the textbook definition of an uptrend. >> and there it is. there's costco. there's the trend line. moving higher and i'm sure we're going to put a trend line in there to make it very clear. >> higher highs and higher lows. >> joe, you like both those companies, don't you? >> absolutely. cost cco looks very well. it's a safer place to play. they have tougher comparisons going forward, but they are in the zone and doing very well. on the flip side, tiffany, yes, i would agree that they have some tough going to get -- they have to get through some tough sledding in the near term, but the longer term trend for f

tiffany is still good. lots of international opportunities. from a longer term perspective, tiffany still looks very good to us. >> you acknowledge they're going through a rough patch right now. >> they are going through a bit of a rough patch right now. granted, look, they're not big in watches and watches is a hot trend right now. you know, they've been getting picked out at the low end by some of the competition whether it's signet or zale's. they're in a tough spot but with new product launches and as you grow the business going down the road, they will be in good shape. >> all right. good. joe, barry, thank you both for your thoughts on tiffany and on costco. maria, i guess you wouldn't have a problem with crates full of diamond rings coming out of tiffany, would you? >> i think that works. that works. thanks, bill. wesh in t we're in the final stretch for the market. the dow industrials coming off the lows here. now flat on the session having reversed earlier steeper losses. oil and gold were hot and then

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oil and gold showing signs of life today after what's been a dismal month for commodities because of that strong dollar. sharon epperson is at the nymex with all the details. >> we're seeing some signs of life but not a lot of conviction in the bounce we saw in oil and gold prices. perhaps the fact that oil is doing a little better than gold has to do with the talks in baghdad inconclusive and that geopolitical risk premium may be back into that marnket. we have seen prices drop dramatically into the month of may. gold is down $120, oil is down

16 bucks. there's a great deal of weakness ahead many traders say. it depends what happens in the europe, what happens to the euro. that's what commodity prices seem to be hinging on these days. >> sharon, thank you so much. with us right now is the man who handles commodities for societe generale. also with us is steven gallagher. good to see you both. >> good to see you. >> jonathan, sharon said it's really about the euro. we' we're watching all the developments in europe. is that how you see it? >> there's the supply side and the demand side. in oil there's been an increase in supply, an increase in inventories and demand is down. the sentiment for demand is pretty weak so we are still mildly bearish. it's come off quite a lot in the last month or so. could go lower. >> and you're bearish because the global economy is slowing. >> we're bearish because the global economy is slowing -- >> it's a demand story.

>> and the supply side is healthier than people expecting. >> it's also the supply side. stec steven, let's talk about the market. it looks like we're coming back off the lows right now but greece around the eurozone is front and center. how do you see this sorting itself out? >> in the next few days it's not going to sort itself out. we're nervous, it's a big event, a huge event, but we have an election june 17 and we're going to be held hostage to that. we don't know the outcome of those greek voters, it's unpredictable and it has enormous ramifications on whether greece says in the eu or exits. >> there was a poll done and it said like 80% of the greek people say they favor the euro. they want to stay in there. does that matter that the people want to stay in there? what do you think? do you think eventually greece moves out of the euro? >> i think they eventually default a new default. whether they move out, exit the euro, it's almost 50/50. i can't guess what these voters are going to do. yes, 80% say they want to stay

in, but if you went around and polled u.s. voters whether they wanted to balance the budget, i bet 90% would say yes they wanted to balance the u.s. deficit. but none of them are willing to take the actions necessary to reach that balance. and it's the same thing in greece. they want to stay in the euro but they don't want to take the actions necessary to stabilize their finances and be acceptable to the rest of their eu partners. >> jonathan, does that factor into your commodities strategy, what's happening in europe? >> when you look at greece, greece is neither a big supplier of commodities nor is it a big consumer. commodities. if you look at the supply and demand, it really makes little difference. what's more concerning is the demand side. if you have a continuing slowdown in europe that is caused by something happening in greece, there's clearly bearish for commodities. >> or to it moves the euro, which it has been. >> the depthening of the doll-- strengthening of the dollar. >> that's really -- you have to

be mindful of what's going on there. how do you want to be investing the second half of the year? >> second half i want to be more constructive at some point and it's not today. i'm going to pick the entry over the summer, but it's really after june 17th that the greek bailout or exit or vote or whatever it is. >> default. >> defall, exit. >> when would the default happen? >> it would not necessarily happen immediately. it could take days after or a year after. it could be a period of a workout trying to see -- manage it the best you can given the circumstances which stretches it out, but i eventually see a default if they're in or out. >> the strategy in terms of second half of the year. >> second half of the year you find your entry points. last two years we sold in may and the market tanked during the summer and it rebounded quite sharply in the latter months of the year, and i actually don't see us in any worse position than the previous two years. in fact, we're better. if you look at housing, autos, in the u.s. they're strong. so cyclically i see the uplift. i'm going to pick the entry point to take advantage of that.

i think the last few months of the year are going to be favorable just as they have been and we've got to pick the entry. >> is there any reason to believe that the election in the u.s., tax policy also plays into this 123. >> it does. we move from greece and shift back to the u.s. congress, whether or not we'll fall off this fiscal cliff. my strong belief is they'll extend many of the tax advantages we currently have. how we actually get there, when they vote for it, that's going to be messy because politics are involved. it's likely going to happen after the november elections in the u.s. so that creates a small window -- >> very small window. >> very small window. a lot of anxiety in the market, but we've rarely had a significant economic setback on higher tac eer taxes. we've always had congress respond by being more stimulative and offering tax discounts or breaks if the

economy were seriously slowing. >> we'll see about that. steven, jonathan, good to have you on the program. 20 minutes before the closing bell sounds. we have a market that's flat on the session. the dow jones industrial average under some selling pressure here but certainly coming back, way back, from the lows, bill. >> it is. we want to come back and talk about the facebook ipo, the mess seems to get messier every single day. what we want to talk about is whether the fallout will give other technology companies pause to think twice about going public. we have both sides of that coming up. i'm interested in getting a mortgage. >> sure. we have great rates, low application fee, and for new purchases same day loan decision guaranteed. >> see td bank makes it easy. >> all right. after the bell td bnk making a big push into the mortgage business. what does their ceo see in the struggling housing market to make that move? ed clark with me exclusively at 4:30 p.m. eastern. back in a moment. first, before we go to

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just before the break as part of the dividend we asked which russell 2000 stock has fallen the least so far this year? "the new york times," vera bradley, or zipcar? now, the payoff. "the new york times," which has dropped more than 17% year-to-date. >> welcome back. facebook's fade seems to have stemmed, but it's still well below the $38 ipo price. the soft price may be on the repair but facebook's debut still has investors with a pretty sour taste. we have a growing number of lawsuits facing this company now. knight capital down $30 million to $35 million simply because of the fallout over facebook. today billionaire mark cuban, the investor mark cuban, not only telling the public mobile is going to crush facebook, but he's buying shares simply to flip for profit.

will it throw cold water on other technology ip os coming to market? >> david menlo is ipo of financial and says it has torched the psychology surrounding future ipos. on the other side, andy russell believes facebook has been tremendous for the industry despite the problems surrounding the ipo itself. david, you are mr. ipi o in my book. have you seen anything else like this? >> no. the intensity of the failure and the torching of market psychology on the part of investors is going to be a permanent stain for those people that just felt it was safe to go back in the ipo waters again. >> we know that nasdaq, our folks here at cnbc, have been learning that nasdaq officials have been on the phone burning up the phone lines for the last few days trying to reassure other technology companies that are consideringip -- ipos that it is still safe to get back

into the water. is it? >> i believe it is safe to get into the water but what you're looking at with nasdaq is a lot of people that just recently found out that they have nothing done, just not getting your order completed five days after the offering here. so there is just no confidence with nasdaq and everybody is going to be pushing over to the new york. >> that is really extraordinary, david. i want to come back to you because i have a question on this as well. andy, you're a venture capitalist. >> yeah. >> you invested in zynga among other technology firms and yet you don't believe this fallout has hurt the ipo sect yore at all or technology. >> i think facebook is amazing. facebook has ridiculous consumer adoption right now. it has 900 million users which is 1 out of every 7 person on the planet uses facebook. facebook touches consumers seven hours a month. that is more than people use the telephone. people use the telephone three hours a month. this is an incredible company.

it's a company that's been growing incredibly quickly and you know what? whether it missed its numbers slightly, it doesn't matter what it missed by right now. it matters what the value of the company is in two years, three years, five years from now. >> you're not worried about -- >> what about the fact that the whole problem here is as they continue to expand with mobility, they're not going to be able to monetize that 900 million customer base because of just simply the screen is smaller so you're not going to be making as much money from the mobile part of the business? >> i have been investing in digital media for 13 years right now, and every next year and in particular for the past seven or eight years, since facebook came around, since google came around ten or so years ago, new ways of monetizing relationships exist. if you have a relationship, a deep trusting relationship with an end consumer, you will find a way to monetize it. people don't just trust facebook as a brand, they trust facebook for their relationship with each

of their friends, with their family, with their business relationships. facebook has developed one of the deepest relationships with consumers and if you can have that trusting relationship, you know what? they're going to find a way to monetize it whether it's on the large screen or on the small screen. people are addicted to facebook. it's parted of your life. what would happen if somebody closed down your facebook account? you'd go crazy. >> i'd still get up the next morning. >> you would be out of your mind, bill. you would be out of your mind. >> you bet i would be. you know me. i appreciate your thoughts. thank you for joining us. david, i'd be interested to hear your thoughts down the road as this story continues. thank you. >> brian shactman with new information. >> as if research in motion didn't have enough selling pressure on it, they lost their global sales chief, had a downgrade today, capital iw puq

a price tag of $10 on it. the most actively traded option today is the $10 put on research in motion. just a rough day yet again for rim. back to you. >> oh, boy, they cannot cut a break, can they? thank you, brian. heading toward the close. 13 minutes left. the dow up a whopping eight points but that's saying something. we're well off the lows of the day. >> for sure. think folks in washington are rude to each other? political animosity is nothing compared to what's going on in the british parliament. >> i love this story. >> innovative ways of using our hard won credit ebility which w wouldn't have if we listened to the muttering idiot sitting opposite me. >> find out what's behind this outburst by prime minister david cameron and why it's all related to spending and debt. back in a moment. yeah, you -- you know, everything can cost upwards of...[ whistles ] i did not want to think about that. relax, relax, relax. look at me, look at me.

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so -- >> welcome back. >> we all know that the word used throughout the debt crisis in europe has been austerity. cut spending, cut spending. just this week during talks among thee u leaders the word growth was used. find ways to grow your economies. that didn't sit well with

british prime minister david cameron. as we saw lost night in the house of commons, he made his views very clear. >> what we need to do both in britain and europe is to combine the fiscal deficit reduction which has given us the no interest rights with an active monetary policy with structural reforms to make us competitive and with innovative ways of using our hard won credibility which we wouldn't have if we listened to the muttering idiots sitting opposite me. >> name calling, i have always found it to be very productive. what about you? >> it was funny. it was a great sound bite but the fact is it brings up a very important point. how will you implement austerity when the ultimate goal is growth? everyone is dealing with this across the world, including the united states. spending versus investing. and versus cutting back. >> the problem is debt levels are just way too high.

especially in greece and italy and then you can talk about spain where they're having bigger problems and in france in many cases. so, you know, it's a very, very delicate situation that they face right now. there are no easy solutions. there are only difficult solutions and that's the problem. hence the muttering idiots. >> which is what we heard out of brussels. i'll have more on that actually in my observation but you got to love david cameron. he just says it the way it is. >> they do that mostly in the house of commons. i love it when they have their debates. we're going to take a break. we'll come down with the closing countdown with the dow up 14 points right now, maria. >> and the major averages all down at least 5% for the month. a top strategist lays out four reasons why he thinks you want to be bullish on equities here. >> we want your thoughts on goldman sachs opening a twitter account. will it really make the firm for transparent? tweet us your thoughts @cnbcclosingbell. stay tuned.

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everybody is keying on, the euro. it's still near this two-year low going back to july of '10 as we wait for the now june 17th elections in greece to decide whether or not essentially they will remain in the eurozone or flee the eurozone and what impact that will have on the markets, and when that goes lower, our market goes lower, and you look at the dow and what our markets were doing today. you know, you add in the fact we're getting close to the memorial day weekend, so you're seeing loss volatility, but we are seeing a little pop, up 24 points. the other markets that are watching something else around the world, the price of oil. sharon epperson mentioned this earlier, a snag in the talks with iran on their nuclear program. that's been adjourned now until next month. we'll be trading without any real information for another month or so, but today oil bouncing off those lows we've seen recently back above $90 up 94 cents on the day. my dear friend arthur carbon s .

>> there's a line in julius caesar that says the fault there, brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves. the opposite is true here. we're the victim of events, things we're not directly involved in, and as you aptly summed it up, that's what's leading us around. we're kind of like a tiny dog on a tether and that tether is the euro. >> it doesn't help that our own fundamentals have deteriorated to some degree. the housing markets not doing as well as it was at the beginning of the year. the jobs market is not doing as well as it was. those things we're watching very carefully aren't giving us much comfort. >> we're getting a little hope but then as happened last year and the year before, and i don't know if it has to do with seasonal adjustments but the improvement stopped right around the middle of april and it has gone down from there. so we're having a little bit of a bounce here. people are hoping that europe brings some benefit tomorrow. lots of rumors about compromises here and there, but it's going to be a wait and see.

>> do you think we're in this kind of action now until the greek elections? is this it until june 17th? >> well, it could well be, but right now we're not having a run on the banks in athens. we're having a trot on the banks, okay? and if that speeds up into a full run, then it will take it out of the hands of the politicians and there will be a full-scale emergency. >> and our banks are holding up pretty well. the bank stocks themselves. they don't seem to be too concerned and those bank officials who have said that their exposure to europe is limited to a great degree, the markets seem to be believing that. >> you're absolutely correct. our banks are better funded and have limited exposure. german banks have exposure to spain. others have exposure. we have very little exposure. >> we're heading to the close. you see that trader trying to get that last trade in. arthur, thank you as always. >> my pleasure. >> it is fleet week. we have members of the armed