>> jackson hole? >> because draghi is recycling the same thing. >> all right. thank you, ed. see you again tomorrow. simon, see you tomorrow. >> that does it for "power lunch," everybody. "street signs" begins right now. >> with an update on isaac. hello, everyone. welcome to "street signs." we begin with breaking news on tropical storm isaac. national weather service updating the track right now. >> hurricane warnings for the gulf coast. it poses a serious threat to portions of the northern gulf coast tomorrow in to wednesday. the region is really on edge at the moment, especially since this week is the seventh anniversary of katrina. >> and we are live in the gulf and the oil pits, but first, let's get to todd santos with the updated track literally updated seconds ago, todd. what are we seeing? >> within the last 30 seconds, thanks so much, guys. yeah, talking about a tropical storm and 65-mile-per-hour

winds. look at at least i think our computer is right now starting to update the track itself. doesn't seem like it wants to do it. there we go. talking about the central, north central gulf coast for the bigger impacts of the system. we'll start to see them as we work in to later on tonight and with the clouds and showers over spreading the portions of the gulf coast. there's the look at the track. just in from the hurricane center. we had been seeing a little bit of westward shift and talking about a timeframe in to let's say tuesday night and wednesday morning across the northern gulf and talking about a system with a large wind field and that is one of the big issues and been kind of more off towards the eastern side of the storm, still, though, tropical storm force winds extending some 200-plus miles out of the center. about 205 miles and sweeps the water northward and may cause the issues and 6 to 12 feet of potential storm surge, especially to the east of where

the eye actually makes land fall and trying not to focus directly on that and talking about the surge potential across a large area of the gulf. this graphic gives you a concept of the tropical storm wind field and slides towards the coastline with a large, reaching impact or wide reaching impact for potential power outages and dealing with, considering a fairly long event and bigger gusts and then hold on to it through the area with the heavy rainfall and the winds. even as the storm is on shore at that point in to wednesday afternoon. so it's a compounded impact and talking about some additional power outages likely here. southern louisiana, mississippi and then a large swath potential of other outages possible. quick look at at least mobile bay specifically. that's an area right now appears to be on that bigger storm surge threat area and this really kind of applies a good stretch of the area with the onshore winds and the water rise expected.

the tides don't fluctuate very much and let's say high tide versus low tide and a good move for a lot of rigs of chevron and bp to pull off of these areas. getting in to the inland impacts of the system, talking locally 20-plus inches of rainfall and addressed with the slow motion of the system. that will be one of the biggest issues for some of the potential flooding from the system itself and down in florida dealing with the heavier showers even right now especially towards miami and also had isolated severe weather potential there. so guys, again, a developing situation and time for it to strengthen and over the very warm waters of the todd. >> quickly can i ask you, what extent nervousness whitened appearing the same path as katrina? >> similar track. again, you know, i think there are at least a few things here and some of them are emotional thoughts. coming in here on the anniversary, the seven-year anniversary of the landfall, second landfall technically of

katrina and having at least some effect on people's emotions. dennis also with a similar path in the northern portion of the gulf an every one of the systems is different. this one specifically with a large wind field and a listening time to consolidate itself and really should have at least folks along the gulf coast getting prepared today. >> thank you very much. breaking news on refineries here. just getting word of ent energy news about refinery slowdowns. shell's motiva plant as well as the 233,000 barrels a day norco at reduced rates and don't know how reduced but suggest each right now cut back by 30% and looking at approximately 465,000 to 474,000 barrels a day cut back by 30%. 150,000 barrels a day offline. keep in mind, most of the

biggest refineries in the united states are just north of new orleans between new orleans and baton rouge. meantime, hurricane warnings for the northern gulf coast, including new orleans, biloxi and gulf shoerl shores and whe find scott cohn. scott? >> reporter: thanks, mandy. you talked about the reduced refineries outside of new orleans. add that 170,000 or so barrels a day to 1.4 million barrels already announced where they're just shutting down altogether. todd santos was talking about the winds and the potential power outages and that's where you start to get in to the risk as the storm comes on shore of potentially taking the refineriless offline. more about that in a moment. this storm and n a lot of ways confounded the forecasters. and particularly, on that landfall. there's been a disparity of anywhere from a couple hundred to 500 miles in the different models of where the storm could hit. now seeming to be baring down on

the new orleans or on louisiana i should say. so we're watching that but this whole area now is indeed on alert. the port of new orleans is shutting down at 5:00 tonight. this is one of the things that they learned about the hard way during hurricane katrina. where the port was taken out for quite sometime. they have made a lot of tweaks and improvements since then. the general manager of so many years says that they feel like they're in good shape and cut -- shut down the port today through wednesday in basically precautionary mode for tropical storm currently tropical storm ike. this is the issue again. it's refinery capacity. talking about hurricane katrina in 2005, we were looking at $65 a barrel crude oil and people wondering whether it could stay at that level. of course, and they were thinking that katrina was going to dodge the key areas so that's a similarity to this time

around. but a lot of other things are different. it's a much weaker storm, it is a slightly different storm track and oil analyst says, though, that it does bear a similarity to a couple of other storms. >> well, i think that we have seen this before with hurricane katrina gustav and ike and oil prices decline $5 and $7 a barrel because we saw it took a long time for refineries to return and could have downward pressure on oil prices. >> reporter: refinery prices, that's a different story. but the point is one of the key drivers is refinery demand. if they're shut down, that does all kinds of havoc to the oil markets. mandy and brian, back to you. >> quick question. this is bad news for the port of new orleans on a double level, right? because they have been struggling with extremely low levels of water and many of the barges and ships stuck upstream because the water levels not deep enough to get them down so you have got almost a double hit

to the port of new orleans, do you not? >> reporter: yeah. i mean, you have had this historic drought in the mid section of the country that's affected water levels on the mississippi river so they have had to deal with that. and they're a little more accustomed to dealing with hurricanes, particularly if the forecast hold and a category 1. it's something that they can deal with. maybe this will help with the water levels and not the way you want to deal with that. >> yeah. amazing 14 months ago i stood on the banks of the mississippi and talked about the extreme flooding. thank you. oil companies bracing for isaac. making up 23% of domestic oil output in the gulf. worse, it accounts for 45% of u.s. refining capacity. many of the largest refineries just north of new orleans including three of the four biggest. oil traders closely watching the storm but something odd happening with oil. let's go to sharon epperson at

the nymex with more. you expect oil prices to be surging. >> you would. they're not. getting to that in a moment. let's look a the what's happening to the refineries. you talked about how many are in the path of isaac. we have a mixed pix which you are here with refineries. part of this is a potential impact of tropical storm isaac could have if it strengthens and what refineries would be hurt and what may benefit of the huge and devastating deadly fire that happened at the venezuela's largest refinery over the weekend. stocks capitalizing on perhaps loss of refinery and gasoline future that is are soaring as, of course, we do have the refineries shut-ins and causing gasoline at the highs of the session. up ten cents on the session and oil prices, how could we see lower oil prices today in light of all that's happened? because of venezuela, because of

the seeing with tropical storm isaac and loss of production gotten or actually the exports of iran we could see a potential lease from the strategic petroleum reserve and causing the chatter of lower prices and natural gas with the cooling rains and offset production losses there. >> thank you very much for that. let's mur about isaac's threat to the refineries and bringing in managing director of clear view energy partners. thank you for joining us. appears if the refineries taking a better safe than sorry approach right now. what's the worst-case scenario here and what's the most likely scenario? >> hard to know the most likely scenario until we see that the strength of hurricane making landfall. the worst-case scenario is like and before that, katrina and rita. widespread flooding could have a significant impact on refinery operations. two to three weeks of shut down and significant impacts on the

distribution of gasoline and diesel fuel on the coast. that could be a big deal and the market betting that this could be on the high end of a big deal with the two kinds of interruptions. >> let's rephrase this. what's the worst-case scenario for us at the pump filling up? >> so to think about it in barrel terms, an oil disruption, you get a couple cents on dollar of every barrel of crude price but the disruptions, 1.5 million, 2 million barrels at risk and now quarters and dimes to quarters so what you're seeing in the market right now is a national average. locally spiking in localized trades sometimes 20, 30 cents. >> takes time, weeks for price of oil to move to the retail price when the consumers fills up the tank. about five to six weeks. but after katrina we heard

widespread reports of gouging, prices jumping even though there's no supply rational for it. do you expect the same? >> first of all, i don't think that that gouging is substantiated. >> it was just talk, prices spiked and weeks to move through the system. >> well yeah, that's right. because the ultimately the retailer has to buy at replacement costs and the money essentially for very lean inventory to be replaced to sell tomorrow. the refiner in turn has an inventory to stage just in time and in this case refiners are well supplied for crude and unclear to have a reserve release. could be an excuse of a president to release the strategic reserve but is not clear that this is a situation that will merit it. >> indeed. as we have seen in the past, a release does not necessarily bring prices down. thank you for being here. >> let's get another look at this plan from scott barnhart.

>> this is the first major storm of the event. what that's doing is sending them out, driving out, getting the bottled water. preparing for the storm. they're picking up, you know, as i say water, batteries, flashlights. if you can get a generator down to the gulf coast region, it will sell. people are out there, getting ready for the storm and as was mentioned earlier, it is a wide swath of prediction so everyone within the 500-mile area is ready for a major storm. >> as much as i would want to stock up on for example beans and water and not stocking up on anything to put in it refrigerator if the electricity goes out. to what benefit of fast food rest rapts? >> great point. no one knows where the power is out. no one's sure where and nobody wants to be caught and don't

stock the refrigerator or freezer and goes to the prepared foods and supermarkets and particularly fast food restaurants. there will be a line out of just about every major drive-through and crowded areas in mcdonald's, wendy's, burger king in that region. it's an odd thing and certainly true, the data bears this out, people spend a lot of money on quick service restaurants. they don't go to casual restaurants. >> better start flipping the burgers and crunching the fries. thank you for joining us. >> that's right. we have big news on the banks right now. let's get to mary thompson. mary? >> this concerns medium-sized banks. the federal reserve says it's considering the extended deadline for compliant of stress tests. this would apply to banks with between $10 billion and $50 billion of consolidated assets and affect state banks as well as s & ls. the final rule on this has yet to be approved but gives the banks more time to develop robust stress tests. it was something brought up as a

concern in the comments that were submitted once the proposed rule put out for comment. brian, back to you. >> thank you very much. coming up, could tropical storm isaac be the worst-case scenario for mitt romney? why the timing couldn't be worse for him and maybe even better for the president. just gaveling the rnc convention to order. how they're adding up much they have racked up in national debt and how much that clock will move that week in tampa. later on, location, location, and did we mention location? a big problem for family dollar. why protesters in atlanta saying if you build it, we will not come. "street signs" back in a moment. [ male announcer ] drive a car filled with

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some milestones are possible. the dow could finish lower today and if it does, this would be the 12th time in lucky 13 mondays. only monday gain in all that time came on august 6th 3 weeks ago. the dow and s&p 500 have another streak going intact, though. one of relatively little movement. neither has had much of a move as much as 1% since all the way back in august 3rd. meantime, the nasdaq outperformed the other averages for the day and for the month leading with a rise of 4.6%. feels like freaky friday but it's a monday.

what can investors expect to hear of fed chairman bernanke at jackson hole, wyoming? how should you position yourself? we have two guests. stu, if you are looking for a repeat of august 2010, will you be disappointed? >> oh, i think so, mandy. these are not necessarily the same kind of conditions as we had back then. the u.s. economy's actually been looking a little bit better lately and inflation certainly not showing signs of weakening as it needs to, i think, for the fed to get aggressive and mr. bernanke will buy sometime, end katding that the fed is on the case and watching, but don't look for them to do anything. >> i know, david. but you are not looking for anything either. with the market around four-year highs, how much anticipation of anything happening is built in and how much might we fall if nothing happens?

david, are you there? okay. we appear to have a problem with the audio there. stu, i'm assuming you can also hear, still. >> yes. i hear you loud and clear, mandy. so, you know, i don't know how much is priced in. i do know that the rally we have had as of late is pretty listless. not a lot of volume. so, there's a certain degree of complacency maybe coming to be built in here. but i think in the end, look, policymakers will be on the case here, both the u.s. and ecb on the case. i wouldn't look for fireworks any time soon. >> david, you with us now? all right. not ready to go yet. stu, you get the show all to yourself. your plan has worked. congratulations. >> yeah. personally turned off the switch. >> s&p 500 be higher when we ring in the new year this year or lower? >> brian, i don't like to play the short-term year end game.

i think my view is more of a 12-month view and on a 12-month view i think the s&p will be higher and europe higher. the trouble is that i think september's going to be a tough month. we have this date, jackson hole, these dates at the end of the week and then a whole lot of dates just in the coming few weeks. fed meeting, ecb meeting, will greece get the aid it wants? will the german constitutional court say yes or no to the stability mechanism? they're going to be so many dates. september is a rocky month but i think if we can take a look forward a year, we will have some support here from central banks and from the economy. >> david, i know you're back and you couldn't be defeated by stu. will the s&p 500 be higher or lower by the end of this year? >> yeah. i would say it's going to be lower because you have priced in to the market between $600 billion and $100 trillion priced

in. traders did not expect the fed to do anything. i think you are looking at too much hope priced in to the equity markets today so the downside potential there below 12,000, maybe 11,500 on the dow and certainly the same kind of percentages in the s&p. >> david, you are kind of referring to gold there and signaling no movement but i'm just wondering why is there a disconnect? why do equity trader haves a different view on things and the outcome than gold traders? >> yeah. i think this is an interesting period in time. actually, reminiscent of 1907 and 1987. listless summer. but the prices have been rising which puts you in the september to october period at a period of vulnerable. as stu mentioned, you have dates ahead of us but if the market is upset, we'll find that the volumes getting us to these levels being so scarce you could actually see something quite nasty past the september 13th, 14th timeframe and in to october i dine ed. quite nasty the new technical

term. thank you so much for joining us. glad to get david back. naf staff popping news on of a new ceo but herb tells you why the stock is not out of the woods yet. the king of diamonds. talking about bob pisani with the man that gives meaning to rock star. stick around. you can't afford to miss that. all energy development comes with some risk,

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navistar popping today by just over 2% on a leadership change. we have herb here. following the story from the get-go. this is a difficult rescue mission. what is your take? >> it would appear to be. and if anything the stock's pop today is a relief rally sort to speak. how long was it going to take for something to happen where the ceo made some what would appear to be blunders? but what you have to pay attention to is coming up in september, earnings. this is important. new c eo, interim ceo, no baring on anything. temporary basis. what will he say and say about guidance? look at the company. last ceo a few weeks ago said we expect a return to profitability in the fourth quarter and

believe the company in a position to improve margins in 2013. is that what the company's going to continue to say? let's not forget this is a company where sales growth is negative for at least two quarters. you had no profits for two quarters. they expect r&d costs to rise as they continue to make some transitions from an engine that wasn't working to a new engine working on with cummins. >> they have a more conventional technology of competitors and cost a lot of money and takes time. >> give credit to vicki an analyst and says today she continues to believe that a chance of bankruptcy at this company is high. now, remember, the company took out a loan for a billion dollars. they have secured credit for a billion dollars that is from a number of bankers in recent months. this is a transanction and secured everything including the kitchen sink. will it take the company beyond just a few quarters?

how will the balance sheet look? great -- all this is stuff to look at. >> what's the track record of the new guy? >> it's interesting. >> he is from my hometown of winchest winchester, virginia. by the way. probably the most famous ceo. >> you could be the second. >> i might be. you never know. took over. the stock in the mid-30s in 1998. rode it up to 73 in 2007. they were whacked obviously by the financial crisis. when he left in 2009 the stock at 20 bucks a share but he was hit in a financial crisis. known for planes, helicopters and golf carts. does it fit with engines? >> other stuff going on at the company. made it to the wall of shame six months before he left that post. fyi. >> fyi on that note. >> yes. >> that's why he said it's fyi, for your information. you learn something new every single day. >> i can't believe you knocked the winchester guy, by the way.

shame. >> you're on the wall of shame now. up next, local virginia edition, tropical storm isaac not expected to impact the rnc in tampa but see why it could be the worst-case scenario for mitt romney. why some atlanta residents are up in arms over the new family on block. "street signs" is back in a couple of minutes. pass pass looking for a better place to put your cash? here's one you may not have thought of -- fidelity.

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. happy monday, everybody. let's get to "street talk" and starting with intel and an annual igs alyst is raising con about this company. >> cutting estimates this morning blaming weak consumer demand. he did note that intel's executing fairly well in gaining market share and slowing pc trends as well as falling selling prices hurting the name. a $24 target on it, about 90 cents lower and cut estimates on amd. >> indeed he did. tiffany's with earnings before the bell today. u.s. customers unfortunately spending less due to the economy. >> kind of a bad, not as bad as we thought news story.

stock rising despite missing eps and sale consensus. not as bad as feared. some saw them dropping more and the company does see a resumption of earnings growth in the fourth quarter. you're going to open up five new stores in the second half of the year and tiffany up 7.5% on an earnings miss. >> yeah. bad but not as bad as feared and also amazing worldwide they're going to open 28 new stores by the end of the year up from 24 planned despite what's going on with the macroeconomy. we have positive breast cancer drugs news. >> the drug is called tdm-1 and significantly extended the lives of patients with the certain type of breast cancer. rbc with a note saying full approval of the drug is almost certain. that stock up 24% year to date. up more than 4% today. they're partnering, it's roesh's

drugs but part of the team, as well. keep that in mind. >> take a look at that we don't very often look at. a small cap. an interesting one. sarepta therapeutics. >> this is a 300 million market cap but the reason i put it in is it was mentioned in baron's for the second time in two months. trials for a drug trending very well that's raising hopes of many for accelerated approval of the drug and watching this the phase 2 trials due out sometime in october. keep an eye on that. used to be known as avi bio pharma. >> pretty big gains year to date. 183%. yeah. we have merger activity today. monday and must be merger monday. there's lots of news out there on the a&m front. this is two of them. >> both rising. a lot of news with isaac today.

kenexa being bought by ibm. and keep an eye on kenexa an competitor cornerstone on demand. ticker csod. i don't know if he's listening. howard, if you are there of stock twits, he recommended it last week and in the hr software space and kenexa does and cornerstone on demand up nearly 7% and giving howard a shout-out. out there, good call at least here getting the boost on the news. >> okay. family dollar is facing opposition of residents in a southwest atlanta neighborhood over a new store. this would be by the way the fourth store in the zip code. critics say the family dollar cheapens a neighborhood but the company disappears. shares down nearly 1% today. let's hear from both sides. we have atlanta city councilman, a vocal critic of the store and

vice president of strategy at family dollar. great to have you both on. thank you very much for bringing both sides of the story to us. councilman martin, first of all, you have been a vocal critic of the fourth store. tell us exactly why and what do you hope the achieve? >> well, we'd like to stop the completion of the store because it lessens the value of a street, a residential street, in southwest atlanta, one that the community's very proud of. one that people struggle and worked hard to purchase their property and want peace because they've retired and they want to enjoy their life. they don't want to have to be picketing and fighting with someone. someone that they don't totally disagree with in terms they're for -- >> can i jump in? why do you feel it lessens the

value of the properties? >> because when you put the store of a type of family dollar at the end of a residential street and understanding the image of the store in the community, and their own marketing plan, the people that they say they market to, but most importantly is they've refused to communicate with us. i had to go and take some community people to north carolina because we asked to speak to the owner because we wanted the know why they didn't communicate with us, why did they slip in to the community and not talk to our mpu system? the neighborhood planning unit. we know they didn't have to but out of courtesy they should have. they're a major corporation. we know how big they are. but that's not as important as how they treat their so-called potential partners, so-called customers. we have are the people they expect to make purchase in their

store. yet, they're refusing to communicate with us. as we left north carolina we invited levine to come to atlanta so the gentleman that's on the line, if he wants to come to atlanta -- >> yep. >> and meet with the community -- >> let's get him in. >> well, let's get the other side of the story now. family dollar. two things. your response to councilman martin and do you plan to stop development of the store? >> first of all, i want to thank, you know, mandy and brian for the opportunity to come on your show. i think, you know, we have every intention of working with the community, not only in the store in atlanta but in all of our stores. we want to be good community partners. we look forward to having conversation with councilman martin and i will certainly make myself available to have that conversation. as well as other folks from the -- >> mtu, do you have anything to counter councilman martin's

claim if you build the store it drives down values on the street corner and in that neighborhood? >> yeah. you know, we haven't seen any evidence that our stores drive down value in any neighborhood. in fact, i can point to several examples here in charlotte as well as around the country where a new family dollar has drawn other businesses to the and has in fact improved the quality of the neighborhood for the businesses that do business there as well as the residents so i think, you know, i would respectfully disagree with councilman martin on that point. >> mtu, if the protests gather steam, would you consider stop breaking ground on this fourth store? >> at the end of the day, mandy, we want to put stores in locations that are convenient to our customer. i mean, if you look at our

mission statement, we are about providing convenience and great value to our customers. we have a real estate model that especially us determine where to put our stores and we put stores where we believe they will be successful. our definition of success is one that is successful to our team members who work in the stores, that's success to our customers. and that's success for us. >> councilman martin -- >> kind of -- >> you get to answer. >> it's kind of interesting. there are eight cities across this country, chicago being one, new orleans being one, tampa being one, ft. worth, texas, being one, a city in vermont that all say something different about the image they have of the store. i understand this gentleman speaking on behalf of his store but there were 200 people in a meeting, community meeting and there will be more that gave them an expression of, one, that

they did not want this store. the gentleman that they sent to the community meeting started off with saying, you people. and it was kind of downhill. that was an insult that started that. this is a street that's named after a famous educator, dr. benjamin mays. this is a street, a residential street. we support the family dollar stores on mlk jr. there are three of them. we support the stores on cascade in the segments of where they have those stores. cascade has residents and retail commercial. most of mlk has that, also. but benjamin mays drive, high school named after him, is a residential street. 116 homes are built on that street. >> just very quickly. >> of various --

>> just very quickly. as a final word, i'm interested in whether the creation of jobs might outweigh our jobs here. >> jobs that don't pay. jobs that pay just above minimum wages. >> mtu, how many jobs will be created then? >> ten. >> depending upon the volume and the location of the store, we look to create somewhere between five and 15 jobs. all of which we draw from the community. and i'd like to add that, you know, atlanta's been a great market for us and we expect that that will continue. you know? we don't always get it all right but certainly willing to work with our customers and to work with councilman martden to help us improve forward. >> we hope to have brought you together. we have to go, sir. >> is he saying that he's coming? >> mtu, will you meet with councilman martin? are we bringing people here? >> i'll certainly make myself available to meet with

councilman martin. >> fantastic. >> thank you for bringing both sides of the debate. thank you. the diamond rush. >> how would you like to get your little hands on this rock? the big bucks of big bling when "street signs" returns. when's that wearing it? who's the lucky girl? stop! stop! stop! come back here! humans -- we are beautifully imperfect creatures living in an imperfect world. that's why liberty mutual insurance has your back with great ideas like our optional better car replacement. if your car is totaled, we give you the money to buy one a model year newer. call... and ask one of our insurance experts about it today. hello?! we believe our customers do their best

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i'm bill griffith. coming up. is the strategic petroleum reserve tapped in the wake of tropical storm isaac? we have both sides of that thornyish. will apple's big patent win embolden it go to after google? could that end up backfiring on ap snl we'll look at both sides of that, as well. a major bank introducing new rules to claw back bonuses that executives earn from previous employers. how's that even possible? all of that story coming up. by the way, guys, that was michele wearing that lovely diamond ring and we'll showcase that coming up momentarily here, as well. >> just keep her in your sights.

don't let her leave. >> we have plenty of people keeping her in their sights. we'll see you at the top of the hour. >> thanks so much. okay. we know about gold and silver but how do you price diamonds? bob pisani is live at the new york stock exchange with more on that. bob, you're the lucky guy looking at this researching it. what have you found? >> you don't want to look at me. you want to look at michele. what if you could trade diamonds in an etf? you would need to make diamond pricing a lot more transparent. one man is leading the charge to do exactly that. >> a lot of people that know stuff don't want to tell the truth. i get out there and blow it all out. >> reporter: in the secretive world of international diamond dealers, martin rappaport is a rap star. he inl vited our cameras to his penthouse for a party at a diamond convention in north america attracting buyers and

sellers from around the world. >> real estate is location, location, location. dimes are connections, connections, connections. >> reporter: he isn't a dealer. he runs the price list which is updated weekly. the industry's go-to list for finding out what a diamond is really worth. >> would what you're looking at is a grid of different sizes of diamonds and you've got the colors going down here and the clarities up there. >> reporter: but publishing prices in the sometimes secretive industry has had its risks. >> as long as prices are going up, i'm popular. when the prices crash, i wear a bullet-proof vest for a few years. >> he did. he wants to create depository receipts to buy and sell diamond paper and a couple of companies proposing diamond exchanged traded funds or etfs. that remains controversial since diamond is unique and speaking of pricing shlgt want to guess how much this 80 carat intense yellow diamond of the sotheby's

diamond collection is being sold for? take a guess. if you're the first to get it right a cnbc prize pack without the diamond, all yours. tweet cnbc and use hashtag diamond rush. the winner will be announced live tonight at 9:00 p.m. find out more at diamondrush.cnbc.com. look at that ring. michele, come on. >> a couple of quick questions. rallied about 22% last year. i think up about 14% the year before. this year, however, down about 12%. when's the outlook in terms of a rebound for diamond pricing? >> well, the higher priced diamonds are the ones moving up. 1 carat and below pretty steady for a long, long time. 3 carats and above is huge price inflation the last few years. that appears to be slowing down. look at tiffany's numbers today aenl getting a little bit of a slow down in diamond pricing. the thing to emphasize about this, originally 128 carats.

they cut it down to 80. it's yours because that's the way they got that sparkle. that's how they get it. >> thank you, bob. coming mitt romney's tough spot politically as isaac bears down on new or zbleeleans. >> should the rnc continue if isaac slams the gulf coast and if there is damage, what role should mitt romney play? lot of questions and some answers coming up after the break. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 you should've seen me today.

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republican nation am convention swinging into full gear just as the storm expected to make landfall near new orleans. what political impact might tropical storm isaac have? joining us now from inside the rnc, marty, writer for politico. as well as john harwood. marty, give tuesday mood and take us inside the rnc. any talk about canceling or dramatically shortening the event? >> they haven't talked about canceling or dramatically shortening the event any further than they already have. today gavelled in and out but cancelled the evening's events. as of now, tuesday, wednesday and thursday are a go. regardless of war the hurricane is headed. what they are worried about is the split-screen convention.

d devastation and hurricane hitting new orleans on the anniversary of katrina. >> it is well said. john harwood a good question. what do they do? do they tell the delegates it is a solemn event, take a different tone? we don't need america to see pictures of people cheering and partying while there is a storm ravaging new orleans seven years after katrina. >> i don't think you can have a national political convention without cheering. you have a whole bunch of people united in a singular cause to try to win an election, defeat an incumbent democratic president. i think it is going to depoepd the severity of the hurricane. that's going to determine whether the split screen is trivial or whether it is a big deal. the more devastating that hurricane is, the tougher it is and that's why republicans are watching this and look, if it turned out to be an utter disaster, with a lot of loss of life and tremendous devastation on land, you can see them canceling tomorrow night and making changes. but i don't think that that's their inclination and i think

that -- i will be surprised if that's where it ends up and see how the storm does. >> i understand the implications and the speech. i understand the sort of -- inside there but should mitt romney be there or should it be on the ground somewhere in the gulf helping and send in a videotaped message? >> i think that mitt romney is going to be here. the last thing that they want is for the candidate to look -- parachute into a disaster zone. this is where barack obama comes into play. this is supposed to be mitt romney's week. it is already a little messed up with today being cancelled and the specter of the hurricane. barack obama, who is the president, does have a chance to look presidential. he -- he can deploy fema and talk about the emergency situation. the president can go there. but i don't think mitt romney can't. >> we have to leave it there. coverage all day and all night. thank you, gentlemen, very much. coming up next, cell phones coming to a flight near you. looking for a better place to put your cash? here's one you may not have thought of -- fidelity.

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it is a rule that too many seems unnecessary and may soon be a thing of the past. the faa is launching a working group which will consider abandoning rules preventing the use of portable electronic devices during takeoff and landing. present its final recommendations which would mean airline passengers like you and me would be able to use devices like music players or computers at all times. one important exception here, the group won't be considering the use of mobile phones or voice communications during the

flight. >> what's the story that keeps on giving? tourists are now flocking to spain to see what's being called the worst art restoration project of all time. a 19th century picture of jesus was ruined during a botched restoration. a painter tried to fix the original and this was the mess she made. it reminded us of somebody. this guy. mr. bill. oh, no. listen, she cared. she loved the fresco. she tried. >> she tried. >> she failed. >> the place has become a tourist attraction now. people are flocking to see this botched restoration because it is kind of funny and made world news. there you go. >> mr. bill, you see -- anyway. mona lisa. i feel bad for her. thanks for watching "street signs." >> she is probably a millionaire now from all the tourists. "closing bell" is next.