we were down 107. the s&p down eight, nasdaq down five. that will do it for this edition of "power lunch." >> "street signs" begins right now. even with the dow down today, things may be better than they appear. a deep dive into why the nay sayers have been so wrong this year, and where we're headed. could microsoft be much smaller in five years? we've got a heated debate about windows 8. plus, could the ipad mini be bad for your kids? and the stars of "flipping boston" are here with their take on this new real estate boom and how to profit from it. happy monday. we'll call it the not-so-lucky threes, the dow, s&p and nasdaq all down three days in a row, having their worst three-day losing streak in three months. is that enough "3s" for you? sitting around session lows.

what's going on? >> i think what's important, we've hit some technical levels on the s&p. i want to show you what i think is going on. the minute -- the resent lows in the s&p was 1447. second we hit 1,427 the market dropped. we had volume picking up on the spdrs, the spy pcht marky seem down the overall market just on earnings guidance. last week tech stocks got clobbered. notice the stabilization in the tech industry today. notice how we've done since earnings have started with this whole group. there's tech, far and away the weakness. industry, industrials, consumer discretionary are doing a little bit better. now that we can see stuff in energy, materials, outside just

technology stocks and financial stocks, market's coming down a little. still remember we're only 2% off of the recent four-year highs. we started earnings season on the 9th, four-year highs essentially. we're just off very little bit. >> always a very important point to make. thank you very much for that, bob. we are in the midst of a bad three-day losing streak. but it has still been a great year for stocks. in other words, the doom sayers have been wrong in their calls for the end fof the financial world but is that beginning to change? nick, you're a little more bullish of the two of you so i'll begin with you. why have the dr. dooms of the world been so wrong over the last 12-plus months? >> bottom line is the end of the world only happens once and obviously 2012 wasn't the day and wasn't the month and wasn't the year. the real hallmark of this recovery has been the return to record high levels of corporate

earnings. u lo the s&p 500, last quarter earned $25.43. that's a new record for earnings for the quarter. this quarter's going to be more like $24. you get the sense the market is angst about the first and fourth quarter of next year. but corporate earnings have just been rock star and that's why -- >> okay, what about the guidance, nick, that you've heard this quarter? that's been less than stellar so far. >> absolutely. guidance has not been as strong as we would like to see it, but at the same time not as big a surprise as you would think. first call has had negative revenue comps expected for this quarter for the last 60 days so people have been looking for -- the real vector is going to be q4. expectations are still for very modest positive growth, 1% to 2%. >> even though the majority of companies are decent on earnings in terms of revenue, what implipgi

implications does this hold for the fourth quarter and do we lower our expectations or have these lower expectations already been discounted in some lower stock prices we've seen over the last three days? >> i think you've got to take into consideration when you look at earnings versus revenues, you can drive earnings by cutting expenses and that's what a lot of corporations plan to do going forward in here. they plan to cut back on expenses. that really means firing workers. we're at a position right now in the economy where the economy can't really deal with too many workers being laid off and let go and fired. we're only adding about 125,000 workers per month. you start cutting back from that, you're going to seriously cut back into demand. that's the risky situation that companies put themselves in. that's why i kind of think earnings have to be discounted at this particular juncture. the real question, is it demand. what we're do having from the companies is there really isn't that much follow-through in demand. in fact demand is weakening not only domestically but globally. >> to translate what you're saying on the macro front in terms of what it means with what

you're doing with your portfolio. >> well, with me with my own particular portfolio, it is extraordinarily conservative. what we've been people to do in the fixed income space, for example, is to move up the credit card, go to higher credit quality product going into the end of the year because of the uncertainty over the fiscal cliff and the uncertainty over what's really going to happen with the economy as we bridge from q4 into q1. just keep ourselves with a little bit better yield and extend out duration. we believe that the global economy is actually heading towards deflation, not inflation. that will be a negative for the multiple going forward. and that's what i think people have to consider. i'm not looking for an end to the equity market or an end to the world but i think you have to consider, we're getting into the position where it could be like japan, where the equity market just does nothingbounced bottom. i think that's more likely the development. >> i like your bullish stand, but how much of this is central

bank driven? why not go into these asset classes that are going to be pushed up effectively by the fed? >> look, you raise a great point. obviously the federal reserve has played a critical role. if you look at this cycle versus any previous cycle, that's what's really different. i'm positive on equities but i'm equally positive on gold and precious metals that will benefit from the federal reserve continuing to push liquidity into the system. it is all part of the same position, all part of the same bet. >> i'm wondering, considering that we recently got another announcement for eternal qe, do you feel that asset classes that were traditionally respondive to qe announcements are responding appropriately? do you feel maybe we're getting less bang for our buck? >> we are certainly getting less bang for our buck when it comes to job growth. we've all seen job numbers there. the real critical factor in qe3 and qe4 and how long it goes will be how the financials do. the financials have to keep rallying. the most important piece of the market this year has been

financials doing as well as they have. that has to continue. that's really the cornerstone of this rally? >> is it really anymore? the financials -- they used to. they still matter that much? >> yeah, they absolutely do. any textbook recovery, real recovery in equity markets, it is led by financials. you go back 20, 30, 40, 50 years. if you want to rebuild confidence in this market, financials have to continue to work. otherwise, your point about qe is well-taken and confidence does not get rebuilt. >> i was just going to say -- >> one of the things you have to worry about -- >> we've got to leave it there. thank you both very much for joining us. we got to check out monster, mnst. sports drinkmaker here. there are reports out there are death reports citing their popular energy drink. again, these are just reports. we're going to bring in herb right now. we've got a monster beverage analyst. first to the news, reports of the "times," what's going on? >> this is a "new york times" piece that's -- >> and it is killing the stock. >> let me be very clear here. this is referring to an fda

report that says deaths may have been tied to energy drinks, in particular they were talking about monster because these reports came out after a mother of a 14-year-old filed an foia report, freedom of information report, requesting more information. she got the report and now is wondering why there weren't disclosures about the possible risks associated with this. i also want to point out, this follows several months ago the new york state attorney spbed the company, subpoenaed monster and pepsi and others, regarding what are the real ingredients in some of these products. we've been talking about these health issues for a long time. >> again, i've not had a chance to read the story because it just came out. that's why you are seeing the stock fall so rapidly. let's not forget that 11 years ago in sweden, there were reports of deaths linked to red bull, a mobster competitor. nothing became of those. this is not the first time that we have seen concern about these types of energy drinks. >> yet it certainly seems like investors are voting with their

feet here with the 11% drop in the stock. bill, you cover this company. what do you make of this and what is your recommendation on what we know so far? >> good afternoon. we still recommend as a buy. surprised by kind of reaction today, because as you said, this is something that's followed the company and the industry for 15 years. and even if you look into the article and look in to what they're saying, it is interesting the fda going back to the summer decided not to go after the industry any further because they said themselves they didn't have enough evidence. and again, there are five incidents that are related to possible deaths, possibly from energy drinks over the past eight years, but they're not 100% sure if it was that or other issues. it's confusing or hard to believe it's having this much of an impact on the stock today. as you can see, stock's been a little bit after down draft

anyway. this seems to be pulling it down even further. >> guys, i've got a comment and statement from the fda. it's just crossing right now. folks, here's the fda right now giving a statement to cnbc regarding this, i've got to read it. "we've received reports of five deaths which are under investigation and one heart attack. we are still looking into those reports. we continue to evaluate the emerging science. it is important to remember that caffeine occurs in multiple products. however, we take any report seriously and we investigate diligently. adverse reaction reports serve as a signal. they do not prove causation. >> bill, this is herb. one of the interesting things, we go back to the early days of this stock. this health issue was an issue in the early days. it just went away. and now you have it sort of creeping back in. because you get to the issue, what are the true ingredients, what are the true impacts. you must be getting some questions from your clients on this increasingly. >> oh, absolutely. i mean the issue always with energy drinks is, monster or

others, will say it is only as much caffeine as a thing of starbucks. the issue that gets push back is they have everything from green tea to other ingredients that you don't know if they mix with caffeine, do they amp up the overall kind of caffeine impact. and you have to go back. it is a little bit different from ten years ago. they sold billions of cans over the past 15 years. you would have thought that this would have come to a head ten years ago and they would have really clamped down if there were major issues. that's why it is so surprising that at this stage in the game when you have company is like coke and ambev who are willing to distribute it nationwide, and it is distributed throughout europe, you would think this is not couple guys selling it out of the back of their truck. this is a pretty established business. >> just a real quick disclosure question for you. do you own this stock, monster beverage? >> no. >> you said it is a buy still for you, even despite this report today. >> absolutely. >> okay. thank you so much for weighing

in. thanks for coming in as well, herb. bank stocks have been booming this year, but is the run done or is there still time to bet on those banks? we'll have some answers next. later on, apple set to unveil its ipad mini. we think your kids will scream for it! but giving them one may be a really bad idea. tell you why. [ male announcer ] this is steve. he loves risk. but whether he's climbing everest, scuba diving the great barrier reef with sharks, or jumping into the market, he goes with people he trusts, which is why he trades with a company that doesn't nickel and dime him with hidden fees. so he can worry about other things, like what the market is doing and being ready, no matter what happens, which isn't rocket science.

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welcome back to "street signs." a "market flash" on volcano

corp. this company winning a legal victory in a patent dispute with its competitor st. jude on friday regarding its heart artery diagnostic tool. that's reducing some of the risk with this name. volume trading four times the average volume and the stock is up nearly 7%. st. jude is slightly higher only today but again volcano is the one to be watching. >> thanks very much, jackie. suntrust bank trading lower today despite posting a q3 profit surge. estimates came in a penny shy of estimates. they're the latest firm to report a fairly solid quarter. great to have you on the show, jason. going into the season before we started to get any numbers, you were bullish. i think you said profits will rise at double-digit clips for most banks. we're well into the season. what's your scorecard? >> so far, so good. the majority of banks have exceeded consensus expectations. mortgage and capital markets appear to be a couple common

themes. while long growth is slow, it still remains positive. >> has anything worried you? >> i wouldn't say i wag worrying but you did see loan growth slow throughout third quarter. looks like borrowers took a pause ahead of the presidential election and fiscal cliff. we expect loan growth to remain a bit subdued perhaps into the fourth quarter with hopefully a resurgence back in the first quarter of the year. >> how much of your thesis is that the fed has got these big banks back? >> that doesn't really play into it. i think the overall economy is a much bigger driver of future performance. >> what's the most attractive bank on a valuation basis that you follow, jason? >> if you look at some of the bigger banks, names like a citigroup or jpmorgan chase despite good results and the stock is trading higher, still trading at single-digit pes on next year's numbers. we think we see further up side. >> you don't see some of the usual hurdles that get thrown out there such as margin compression, regulatory nooses

around their necks and things like that? >> we've been doing. 17 years. while we do expect margins to compress into the fourth quarter next year, it is not a new phenomenon for this industry. with the regulatory environment, there are a few unknowns, whether it is the volcker rule, regular reform. but we've gotten through a lot of it. you just look at third quarter results, a full one-third of our coverage actually put up return on equity ratios in excess of 16%. not too bad despite the fact you have this increased regulatory issues and as well as subdued loan growth. >> which bank would you avoid? >> generally speaking, i think some of the more regionals that are fully dependent on interest income, where you have margins compression, loan growth slowing. probably under a bit more pressure than some of the bigger banks that have a bit more diversified approach, as well as benefits from the mortgage and capital markets backdrop. >> jason, thank you very much for joining us.

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yahoo! reports its results after the bell. it will be the first time marissa myer has led the earnings call since joining the helm as ceo. how much will the focus be on the new strategy by a new ceo as opposed to the actual earnings themselves, julia? >> i think a lot of the call is going to really be focused on her new strategy and expectations are really high for marissa mayer. she's waste nod time getting down to work to really focus on the company's products rather

than some of her predecessors who focused more on original content on yahoo!. most notably, mayer has shaken up a new ceo, ad tech expert away from google. she's also hired a new cfo, a new chief marketing officer and a new evp to oversee both human resources and town acquisitib t acquisition. mayer who's back to work after just two weeks of maternity leave has taken steps to boost employee morale with regular townhall meetings, new significance terms to track employee performance, free food and new iphone 5s for employees. now wall street will be listening for her plan to help the company's biggest business display ads, transition to the mobile future and to help its search ad business get back on track after losing market share. i'll be reporting on those numbers that are coming out right after the closing bell, as well as the earnings call which we'll be bringing you the highlights in "fast money." >> that partial sale of alibaba,

right? at least at the end of the second quarter they had cash investments of around $2.4 billion. is there going to be pressure -- i know there's pressure, but will there be pressure to reward it back to shareholders, dividend or something? >> there's some reports that she has been taking meetings with companies like open table and also ad tech companies like millennium. the possibility is of having some of these larger acquisitions. if she really wants to double down on the products, she really is going to have to figure out how to make yahoo! a more engaging product on the mobile space, and try to figure out how to make those ads more valuable. an ad tech acquisition could make a lot of sense. >> thanks for the preview. microsoft has high hopes for windows 8. it is an entirely new operating system that is designed to bridge the gap between desk tops and tablets. which may be exactly the

problem. microsoft's bread and butter, windows and microsoft office, may be in trouble here. let us bring in herb greenberg, back to talk more about this. you and i were on our conference call this morning sort of screaming about the fact we realize we haven't really used microsoft products much in our personal lives for a long time. it got us thinking, is microsoft in trouble? >> when you're looking at it from the perspective of say word, which i have stopped using at home when i have a mac book pro and pc, you use my mac book pro. i basically have not installed word because i now use docs. i use google docs everywhere. i know people use evernotes because it is with them everywhere. the question is, unless i need it for travel, do i really need to spend up to get the word product or the spread sheets people will tell you they need, outlook -- if it's corporate entity, you need it. but beyond that -- >> people hate relearning stuff.

right? particularly as you get older, you would, i'm sure, understand about this, it is horrible to have to face your computer -- windows 8, there's one word that comes to people's minds, it is confusion and i don't want to be confused. >> i don't buy that argument. i think when you get the new product if you have it, you can figure it out. you can figure out -- which little button to press. that's not going to take a long time. because -- we've learned our iphones, we've learned our androids. we've learned our tablets. it takes a short amount of time. i think the question is really do i need some of these other products. >> i'm flying, i see people taking out their computers, more and more i see apples or tablets. put a keyboard on your ipad, it acts like a mac book air. you said google docs as well. where does microsoft fall into this? >> they fall into probably what's a declining business. it's not a gone business. one of the bullish arguments is

in corporations, any way you slice it there is still a lot of xp that has to be upgrated to windows 7 or windows 8. there is still a big product. desktops aren't going away in corporations any time soon. that i can tell you. >> but to mandy's points, how many large corporations are going to go through a sweeping upgrade with windows 8 when you could lose productivity because you've got to retrain people. i understand there's a way that you can go back to sort of the previous version in windows 8. you can choose. but doesn't that defeat the purpose? >> or they'll go to windows 7. look, how many corporations stayed on xp while windows 7 was out? for the longest period of time. >> you mention google's chromebook. $249. apparent it is quiet and it is cool, which is very key as well. >> by the way -- >> it's flash memory based. doesn't have a fan. >> just remember, people have their iphones, they have their android devices. they're going to be willing to have these non-apple i think notebooks -- >> though i will say this. i just real identifies, i did

the cnbc conference call this morning through skype. on my ipad which i forgot was a microsoft product. so i did use a microsoft product today. >> and it sounded -- i wondered why it sounded like were you in a closet. take a look at the markets. >> dow down 74 points. coming off the lows a little bit. we're no longer in triple-digit loss territory. of course microsoft, big tech is a big part of the story going forward. so is apple's next big thing a problem for all of our mini mes? the guy from "flipping boston." flipping is up 25% this year. not in their neck of the woods. >> we're going to find out how they're building their business in these wicked hard times. we're back. americans are alwayo work hard for a better future.

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as you can see, the markets are currently selling off. on friday, the dow and s&p closed below their 50-day moving averages. today the nasdaq is just creeping above 3,000. earlier on today it was below that. on the dow, intel is the best performer. ge is the worst. the nasdaq is almost down .1%. >> panic. >> what a sell-off. okay. hold the guacamole. investors not buying chipotle today on the rebound from friday's disaster. >> a lot of people i know out there on the blogs and online this morning were hoping this thing would bounce back. it is not. chipotle down 6% after dropping 15% on friday. missed the ps consensus by a couple cents. even though revenues rose 18% it was considered disappointing. downgraded to neutral. target cut from $270 to $350. you were tweeting something about thanksgiving costs going up. chipotle saying they'll probably

have to raise prices because food and feed inflation -- >> remember we did the apple shortage due to bad weather on the show? cramer just interviewed the fco of chipotle. we'll talk to jim in a few minutes' time on the show. >> that is cool. vf corp. has had a great jeer. it's had a great couple of years. it posted a solid quarter last quarter and actually raised guidance. but this is a case of good not being good enough. it does point to incremental slowdowns in europe and china. everything is not pure roses. but net income did soar year over year. sales are up 14.5%. it raised its fiscal year 2012 estimates and also raised its dividend. stock though -- again i put it in there. it's like chipotle. good numbers by any other company's measure is not good numbers when people demand to see the continued pace of growth. cablevision shares little bit meh today. flip over the board, unchanged.

>> that is the ultimate "meh." however, we threw this into street talk because there is an interesting note out today. yeah, the stock was upgraded to a buy, raised to $22 from $18. almost $5 of up side in the stock. here's what was interesting in the note to me. the dolan family, which gets a little criticism here in new york with the knicks and everything like this, they've tried to take the company private a few times. hasn't worked out. they think dolan family will make another run at taking this baby private. maybe third time is the charm. oil and gas company mexen is falling today. >> a reuters story suggested the seanook-nexen deal may be in jeopardy because the canadian

government dropped a recent $5 billion offer for canada's progress energy. they have a law that says any deal that's done with a canadian company with a foreign buyer it has to be a net gain for canada. goldman sachs is failing on the "b" and the "i" on the term brics it did in fact coin a couple years ago. >> these funds haven't even been around long. >> they only launched them last year. they launched four of them along with a china fund. they're keeping the china fund but they are shuttering the south korean, indian and also brazilian mutual funds. problem is since they launched them they've only been able to garner less than $10 million, or around $10 million. >> that's million with an "m," not "b." >> for goldman, that's an epic

fail. no, maybe it is the tipping point for etfs. investors are waiting for the big announcement from apple tomorrow regarding the ipad mini. you will be there. more and more kids like ours are using tablets like the ipad. what's that mean for the poor old traditional toymakers and their stocks? let's ask an equity research managing director at needham and company. goldman downgraded hasbro to sell. you're saying for mattel and hasbro a hold because the future is not that bleak. why? >> well, it all has do with expectations. nobody's expecting these toy companies to show stellar growth. they're immature businesses to begin with. they've demonstrated ability to roll with the punches. they've faced challenges from video games for 30 years an they've done fine against that. not suggesting tap tablets aren't going to take some business away but these companies are adaptable and making products a bit more innovative and technological. in addition, this is probably the most bullish point, there is

an awful lot of people outside the north american market that aren't really lining up to buy the ipad mini or anything like that soon. the emerging markets of brazil and other countries in latin america and eastern europe, the middle class is growing so fast, not just in number but -- and purchasing power but the willingness an desire to spend a lot on their kids as almost a status symbol. you see enormous spending on kids. >> these aren't dumb companies. do either hasbro or mattel have a great strategy to benefit from the boom in patablets? >> yeah, a little bit of if you can't beat them, join them. hasbro's doing some products with zynga. mattel last couple of years has had some great success with angry birds, actual physical games based on that game. in addition they're making all of these companies, including hasbro and mattel, are making products that interact with apps. the hard thing is competing with free and coming up with an application or hybrid application that's more than just i'm going to marry some plastic to an old digital

application. so i think if they can come up with something that really takes advantage of the technology as well as makes the experience more fun than it was, they're not going to lose out. >> sean, real pleasure. thank you. the ipad may be bad for toymakers -- or net neutral but still not great. could the ipad also be bad for the kids? joining us, a new face to cnbc. tyler gray, editorial director of digital at fast company. wrote a fascinating article which we found. that's why we asked you to come on. thank you. we parents like to think of tablets as a good thing. we'll throw on some educational apps and feel better about ourselves. but you argue the opposite. >> right. we talked about this a lot and went back and forth on the story. but the idea is every little kid instantly knows how to use that ipad, right? they know how to touch it and do it and move it. now it fits in their hands a lot easier so you have a great temptation for even younger kids now to put -- put their tiny little hands around what we're presume something a brand-new

tiny ipad. >> what are the health issues involved here? i don't need to explain to parents out there what the social issues are. kids come over for a play date, they're no longer in the ball kicking a ball around, they're all huddled around angry birds on the ipad. that's the social aspect. what's the health aspect? >> no screen is good for a kid under 2 years old. i think tomorrow you'll hear a lot about ipads and education. that's a good thing when you're talking about somebody in high school or college and replacing textbooks, but is this a baby-sitter replacement? not quite. even if you are a tiny little kid and are you an infant, touching the carpet is better than touching a touch screen because you're learning things from that 3-d environment, learning what things are supposed to feel like and in the real world when what a 3-d object is like to move around. until we get an mini ipad hd, dchd 3-d

i don't think that's possible. me and joanne fort teaming up tomorrow at the apple event. but anything for the viewers. >> from san jose to boston, they are flipping out. grab your tool box and power tools, it is out with the old, in with the new. guys from the "flipping boston" reality show join us to talk about investing in broke-down homes and working to make them turn-key ready. stick around. nd us in person, with dedicated support teams at over 500 branches nationwide. so when you call or visit, you can ask for a name you know. because personal service starts with a real person. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. our support teams are nearby, ready to help. it's no wonder so many investors are saying... [ all ] i'm with scottrade.

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i'm bill griffeth coming up on "closing bell" at the top of the hour. some democrats in congress are fight forge a tax cut while some republicans are pushing for irts elimination. we'll have both sides of that issue. yahoo! is set to report earnings for the first time under new ceo marissa mayer. we'll have full team coverage coming up with those numbers are released. and you wouldn't pass up free money, would you?

but many americans are doing just that when it comes to their 401(k) plans. what that says about our economy and trust in wall street. coming up when maria and i see you from here at the new york stock exchange at the top of the hour. see you then, brian. >> thanks very much, bill. last week we told you about the big resurgence in house flipping up 25% for the first half of this year but this time it is different. is there a new normal in house flipping? let's ask the stars of "flipping boston." pete, i want to ask you, back in sort of the days -- let's call it seven days or so ago, when flipping was all the rage, because you could flip and make a lel of a lot of money. throw a dart board and property and it would appreciate. dave, now you're saying time is your enemy. are you trying to renovate before prices keep on dropping. >> yeah, absolutely. today's marketplace is all about education rather than speculation. that's for sure.

we have a flipping formula that we use in our business that allows to us get in and out in a fairly relatively small period of time. that's critical to our bottom line. working noor 20% profit margin is all about the time and competing with the unknowns before we actually get in there. >> pete, have you always made a profit? >> i've always made a profit. i'm proud of that and we have a system in place and we stick to that system. we don't always agree. we will go back and forth. but when we go back to our system, we never have any regrets. and it's a different market. it is a completely different time from seven years ago. seven years ago it was all about speculation. i shouldn't say "all." a lot of it was speculation. we were calling it pulse lending. people were saying do they have a pulse? give them money, give them a loan. let them go in and buy. people were buying things they shouldn't be buying. they weren't doing it on fundamentals. today it is all about fundamentals. that's it. >> yeah, but you guys aren't flippers in the traditional sense. you don't throw up some paint and carpet. you basically rebill these

things. >> we do. we do. >> you're builders. right? sort of like -- >> what we do, my partner, as a design eye and a design vision, that's obviously incorporated in the show "flipping boston" on a&e. we have a saying in our business called design to cut line. if you think about what mr. and mrs. home buyer are looking at in today's economy for a home purchase, they're looking at a lot of bank owned properties that just have been abused. we go in there and with our assets and pete's vision we are able to put something on the market that really pops, stands out. we get in and out of our properties on the sale enin a very short period of time. it is definitely a system. you are right, we are builders to some extreme but what we really do is we walk away from the basics of paint and carpet. if there's anybody out there doing that right now it could be a challenge. >> you've both said you've got a system, obviously it works for you. yet it would seem if you watch the show when you look at the fights and conflict and

everything, that you're not always on the same page with regard to that system. is that conflict real or are you just trying to get ratings here? >> look. the bottom line is dave and i are two different people. i love him, he loves me, i think -- >> he doesn't love you. he told me off camera he didn't even like you. >> is that what he said? really? >> the bottom line is that, i think that's what makes a good partnership for us. we do not bring the same values to the table. and i always -- we always talk about that. he has a completely different set of tools and so do i. we combine those things. they don't always see eye to eye and the cameras will pick up on the stuff that we don't see eye to eye. but the end of the day we have the same vision. >> dave, aside from get a tv show, what's your best single piece of advice for your viewers who want to do this or something similar? >> educate. don't speculate. that's really it. it is a different marketplace. if you are uneducated, you will

lose. if you follow a system that works, will you be successful. >> i love the way you guys say "markets." >> that's from london to boston and it still comes out that way. >> dave, pete, thanks for joining us. we are just hours away from the final presidential debate. it is supposed to be about foreign policy, but jim cramer's about to join us with a very simple, but important explanation of how the economy can always find a way into the discussion. i have a feeling he's right. he's next.

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i'm sharon epperson at the nimax. significant sell-off under way here for natural gas and for oil futures. natural gas prices down more than 5% at one point and we're looking at prices right now close to 3.45. even cold weather doesn't preclude that there's plenty of natural gas out there. the restart of the keystone pipeline owned by transcanada alleviated support in the market and traders say there's a lot of selling toward that lower end.

back to you. >> sharon, thank you very much. on that note, our jim cramer is here to tell us about how energy could bring the economy into tonight's foreign policy debate. you believe this could be the deciding factor. how do we go from foreign policy to energy to the economy? >> when you listen to what paul ryan said this weekend, when you go over some of the things that romney has been recently bringing up, he's actually using a very subtle i'm going to smash opec. i'm going to take energy independence and use that as a weapon against the people who have held us hostage. this linkage has been the white house has been reluctant to make because it requires a ramp up of fossil fuels and is against the green that says we'll use our abundant energy in north america to stop supporting the bad guys. >> jim, here's the bad news.

richard nixon said the same thing in 1973. when he said that, we imported 24% of our oil. we now import 60 some percent of our oil. it's getting lower. every president since then has said the same thing. it's just about gotten worse. >> first of all, i think that the big mistake that you never want to make is say american. it's never united states. it's north american. canada is the third largest in terms of tar sands. this is something that the president has not been keen on but romney doesn't differ much. if you are pro-coal, that's like diet coke versus coke. >> make fun of tar sands as dirty. >> if you are not going to distinguish among fossil fuels and make it so that they are energy independent, you can change the military budget. you don't have to spend so much

money because you don't have to sit there and you have interviewed boone pickens many times. i think that message has gotten through even though harold, oil man, continental resources, is an important person for the energy policy, you have done unbelievable interviews of boone pickens. i think that message of smashing opec has gotten through to romney more than the president. >> to brian's point, stepping back from rhetoric for a moment which obviously resonates nicely with voters when you say we'll be energy independent in our lifetime, do you think it's achievable? >> if natural gas is used as a surface vehicle fuel, yes. most of our energy goes to trucks. that was the genesis of a lot of what pickens plan was. i think the president just kind of never really got behind the pickens plan. romney hasn't either. some say it's because of chemical interest that want natural gas prices low and some say because continental resources is the oil independent in the country. i think that romney is certainly not against using natural gas

more because he doesn't have that blind some would say blind hatred to anything carbon based. >> what would you advise someone on the back of what we could potentially hear tonight and going forward. >> we heard sharon epperson talking about natural gas and stocks are getting hammered here. natural gas kind of interesting moment because if the epa goes nuts so to speak, fracking gets banned and natural gas goes through the roof because no new natural gas. >> you're making a long nat gas case long-term. >> if you look at the charts, the group is moving up. it's temporary hit today. but be aware that if romney gets in, natural gas will be part of the surface fuel mix. harold did not refute that when he came on my show when i said he was an oil man and not a natural gas and oil man. >> this is naturally but

inconsequential segue. earlier today you spoke with the cfo -- i wish hi a taco right now. that stock is getting slammed again. are we going to the sound bite. let's listen to the question and answer and we'll get your comment. >> i know in costco you refute the idea that people are going to competition. where are they going if they're not going to chipotle? >> customers are still coming to chipotle at the same rate. we're rolling off our pricing increase. i can tell you, they're not coming from taco bell or at least our customers are not going to taco bell as far as we can tell. we don't see it in our trend lines. >> this was important because i had shown previously the $5 taco bell chopped salad. >> which was delicious by the way. >> one uses knives and one is fresh in the morning and one doesn't have that personal touch. what they did was they did some

analysis of where the big ad campaigns are and they did not see a lot of switchover. i think it's going to be hard to refute. short sellers are saying taco bell is going after this market with a cheaper version. chipotle is saying this is about food with integrity saying that taco bell is not about food with integrity but food that looks like chipotle. >> why doesn't jack in the box get more attention? nobody is paying attention to jbx. get love for the big headed clown. whatever that thing is. >> vegetable breeders are great but money isn't behind it. >> i buy a mink coat and then go into the restaurant. >> we should do one with jack in the box and chipotle. >> a smackdown. >> let's redo it. >> let's set it up. >> we'll do it live.

>> is it tomorrow's business maybe? >> tomorrow is old apple. >> dot same thing did you last night? >> i am. >> that was the greatest translation. steve jobs would have commented that's good reporting. >> he would have yelled shut up, sullivan. >> we're told it's bye-bye time. "mad money." all right. >> our coverage of the debate begins at 7:00 p.m. eastern time tonight. you're not going to want to miss that because tonight is the last debate. we'll have full analysis. economy will come up. energy will come up or i will buy jim cramer lunch. we're back after this. [ male announcer ] do you have the legal protection you need?

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