signs" everybody. hi, everybody, good afternoon, welcome to closing bell, i'm maria bartiromo, we are looking at the fractional gain but bulls making the final push. >> it's been a tough week, the dow down 2%. and technology it a slow start but also making a late day push thanks to a turn around in shares of apple after yesterday's earnings, we saw today down about a third of a percent at $607. it was below $600 for the first time since july earlier, but still a far cry from when it hits, $700 plus in mid-september. we'll tally up the big winners and losers in just a bit. a mixed market with the dow up 9

points at 13,113 and nasdaq at 2 plus point, 2988. the s&p struggling, down a tiny fraction now at 1412. >> it could have been worse if not for the better than expected gdp. investors still worried about the corporate outlook and apple's disappointing results last night. >> the looming fiscal cliff and election and on and on. here to help us in the closing bell exchange, stephanie link and steve leesman and peter sh ii shiff will join us as well. >> 2 3rs% is not enough to sustain, putting the unemployed back to work and taking idle factories and putting them back to work. the consumer seems to be hanging in there. the negatives seem to be a big

part of it was defense spending, 0.7 of the 2% was defense spending, although that was a pay back for 3/4 of declines we've had. this needs to turn around to have a good recovery and have this economy firing on all cylinders, that's not been the case and business seems to be holding back. >> stephanie, you're blaming the uncertainty over the election, right? you say that's holding back decision-making and holding back hiring plans putting money to work? >> from the investor point of view the market does not like uncertainty. with this election being so close, i think there is definitely money on the sidelines and at least once we get an answer there, we can start to put the pieces to the puzzle on the fiscal cliff together and get a little more confidence. from the corporate side, i've listened to over -- 50 companies report earnings so far and every single one is saying that spending is being held back because of the political situation and macro uncertainties.

>> from apple, it has become the market bell weather recently. you might expect a bigger move in apple today but it didn't happen. >> it kind of proves there's been a lot of stories that apple is the market and what happens if something happens to market. it's a big company but it's a large company segment of the international economy. so the rest of the economy is important here. you can have issues in apple and still have a decent market next year. >> what do you think of the impact on the broader market in terms of apple? it's such a big component of averages and it's also. it is also sort of the product that's driving sales right now in terms of retail, right? >> yeah, i mean, it's an important product and the growth rate of apple, it's like a smaller technology company that is dependent upon innovation and the next product. they are putting out products quickly now which i guess suggested a tougher economy, but

by and large, i think that as we see world liquidity helping and europe bot oming next year, when we'll see in the middle of the year, the story is a lot more than about the general international economy than apple. i think the market will concentrate on deep cycle cal companies that are coming back. >> steve liesman, what do you make of the earnings that seem to suggest a slowdown. i think of zeer ox, starting in september they saw ap appreciable slowdown in demand for their products and we've been so light on revenue from so many big companies right now. why now do you think? what's going on? >> what we've been talking about, business is holding back and i will say there is one -- what do you want to say, ace up the sleeve of the earnings which is retail. we haven't seen retail yet. we've seen a few things like coach. i'll ask stephanie about this if

you don't mind because that's more her -- we did have a good retail sales number. that made me think perhaps the retail numbers, we had decent consumer numbers. retail comes next week? >> next couple of weeks. if you look at the consumer confidence numbers and auto and look at aerospace and different things, i think that it's -- there are things to be encouraged about, particularly on the margin side. that's the one thing i've been pleased with so far in earnings is margins and how tightly managed these companies are doing in terms of managing expenses. if raw material costs come down, that's a good thing as well. if you have a little bit of demand, that's still -- >> i have to caution. this split between the business sector and consumer sector cannot stand. one has to drag the other up or down. we're not going to remain on two different tracks for very long

here. >> we want to bring in peter schiff. let's talk about how you want to be invested in this market here. would you be allocating money to stocks? >> globally yes and we till xr money in u.s. stocks but i think the report is weak. business investments is flat. you have government spending rising sharply due to increased debt. that's not a growing economy as far as i'm concerned. that's a contracting economy. and i still think we're underreporting inflation in this. inflation is a bigger factor than the government admits so in an inflation area government you want to own real things but in natural resources and precious metals. >> what would dry the inflationary forces if we keep hearing from companies about a decline in demand or a slowdown in the pace of demand for their products and services. where does the inflationary pressure come from other than the fed monetary policy?

>> that's where it comes from. it comes from the fed fighting the market trying to restructure the u.s. economy. you have u.s. forces being applied by market which is what the economy needs but the government is resisting that and fed is resistinging that by creating inflation, qe and already stated it will up the ante significantly. we're going to print over a trillion dollars a year and probably more than that because all of this money creation will not grow the economy. it will create inflation and debase the dollar but that's going to make the underlying problems worse. >> so in terms of the election, do you think that loosens things up? what's the catalyst to get us out of it? >> we're going to go deeper into it unfortunately. even if romney wins, we'll continue to repeat the same mistakes. obama is repeating the mistakes much bush and the fed is still there, ben bernanke has been repeating the mistakes of gre

greenspan. jo think we have change until we have a monetary crisis. that is looming on the horizon sometime soon. >> folks, thank you for joining us. we'll see what happens here as we head into the final hour of trade. >> bob insana was driving the market? >> the fact that apple isn't having the volatility that people thought. we were lower, 1.5% to the downside but apple is essentially flat on the day on huge volume. north of 30 million shares, that's what driving things today. there's a lot of talk about the impact of hurricane sandy but not a lot on the stock market. there's been play on roofing and water proofing company up a little bit here. rpm and wr grace do a lot of water proofing but i don't see heavy volume. insurance companies, understandably, some of the ones with exposures, little weak.

travelers and chubb, not big volume in them. whitewave foods thinkds silk and land o lakes, opened at 19 and has broke the issuance price or fairly early this morning. that's a little bit disappointing. for the week s&p 500 down 1%, all of the damage today this week was done on tuesday. we're essentially unchanged from the close on tuesday. back to you. >> a lot of mid week volatility there. thank you, bob, we'll check back as news warrants, we're heading to the close. we will see. the dow at this point is up 16 points at this hour. >> a lot more to come on this busy edition of "the closing bell." coming up, pointed questions, is the government using a manipulated interest

rate that's costing tax mayors untolled millions? the officials sounding the alarm is here. it could be the worst storm in 100 years, the latest on hurricane sandy as it barrels towards the northeast. find out which companies are best prepared to weather the storm. and crumbling city? what really happened in the between the bank ceo and chairman that led to pandit's departu departure, the surprising story is still ahead on "closing bell."

welcome back, 45 minutes left in today's trading session. the market is higher, dow industrials trying to avoid a third down day. we've got a pretty good move on the upside of 38 points and industrial average, disappoint of earnings putting drag on sent. this morning as it has for much of the week. technology stocks among the gainers, off of earlier lows when the tech index went into

correction territory. financial under pressure with the market up broadly speaking. >> 45 minutes left. our next guest told officials fz treasury and fed to stop using libor, the interest rate in order to protect the taxpayers who fund the t.a.r.p. program and using it as a bis sasis to charge interest on loans. >> t.a.r.p. started in 2008, the government still owns a piece of nearly 300 banks. the government has been paying back taxpayers by selling shares at banks, often at an discount. the libor can be rigged. joining us now, christy romero. who is sounding the alarm. good to have you on the program. thanks for joining us. >> it's my pleasure. >> through this. how concerned are you about the risk of using libor in the

t.a.r.p. program? >> we're concerned at a taxpayers who funded the bailout may have been at risk and may continue to be at risk by the manipulation in the interest known known as libor. you had secretary geithner who does not know and you have bernanke saying he cannot say with confidence that libor is reliable as an interest rate today and gens ler saying that libor is not currently reliable. you have the united kingdom, financial services authority coming out and making similar concerns and saying that libor is broken. you've got $6 billion in debt in the bailout where the interest rate is tied to libor. and we cannot have interest rate in the bailout that is broken,

that is unreliable and is potentially subject to manipulation. there's got to be integrity in the program. >> what is your biggest fear? speak to the individual taxpayer who you say is put at risk as a result of using libor in this instance? what's your biggest fear here? >> so first of all, there's the issue of the dollars and cents, that's what treasury has said they are going to be looking at the impact. but there's a more crucial issue. the dollars are important but the issue comes down to this, t.a.r.p. is a program that was designed for financial stability and to bring back confidence in the financial markets. so you have secretary of the treasury, you've got the chairman of the federal reserve, you've got the chairman of the cftc all raising concerns that the libor manipulation actually undermines confidence in the markets. so we can't have a rate in a program that is designed to instill confidence in the market actually undermine confidence in

the markets. >> now, the treasury and the fed responded and say they don't control the interest rate. what about that? i mean, do you hold them responsible? what's the next step? >> let's demisty fi their arguments against doing this. treasury and federal reserve both agree, they share our concerns about the integrity and reliability of t.a.r.p. the first thing they've said is that they really can't control -- these are just contracts and the interest rate is set. the fact of the matter is, these are not regular contracts. they were emergency contracts with emergency funding. this is the treasury and federal reserve who have considerable leverage and let's talk about the need for this amendment to the contract. there's a significant emergency need here. this is an extraordinary situation and the counterparties to the contracts are managers who are investment advisers who formed a partnership with treasury and barrowers and making a profit on this bailout

money. and you've got borrowers who got low cost loans. they she all be supportive of having a situation where we can amend the contract to a rate that ultimately doesn't undermine confidence in the markets. >> what is that rate? what would you tie it to? what would be the alternative to libor in your view? >> this is important. one of the things that treasury has said, to change to any rate would harm taxpayers and i don't buy that every other rate out there besides libor harms taxpayers. this is what i think needs to happen. they do not to determine the impact of the manipulation on the interest rate. what could they do as a start right now? the first thing they could do, they could say, what is the rate that we've been getting on this debt. and they can say, for right now, let's just fix that rate. let's just have a fixed rate in the contracts, everyone should agree that's not going to harm taxpayers and not going to harm anyone and until we can decide the impact, let's at least

remove this idea that it could undermine confidence in the markets. >> right, we got you. if you're just tieing it to the rate that they have been using, you're getting the same situation but it's not tied to the controversies around libor. christy, good to have you on the program. >> thanks for joining us. >> thank you so much. >> christy romero, special inspector general for the t.a.r.p. program. we have 40 minutes before the closing bell sounds and market is up 30 points on dow industrials. >> hurricane sandy, barreling towards the east coast. americans prepare and we've got home depot and lowe's busier than ever. we look at those two franken storm stocks and the chart next. >> new reports about how citigroup chairman michael o neil pushed out vikram pandit coming up next p .

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oil prices falling fon the second week and bertha coombs has more. >> slightly higher on that better than gdp number but the big move is coming in the products and gasoline and in heating oil. and the concern there has to do with hurricane san did, whether

that massive storm as it barrels its way up the coast has any impact on refiners. initially of course ahead of the storm people tend to fill up their gas tanks so that could boost demand for supply and gasolines, already tight if we get refinery outage due to sandy, could see gasoline prices heading back up, which i know you don't like to hear. >> no, i don't. >> get ready, shares of big box retailers home depot and lowe's are lower today even though both stores busier than ever as hurricane sandy barrels the coast. let's start talking numbers now on the technical sigh. j.c. o'hara is with phoenix partners group and joe feldman with the advisory group. thanks for joining us. let's talk fundamentals. how much of an impact do the home improvement retailers

usually see with a major weather event and which do you prefer? >> usually when you have a big event, you can get anywhere from 40 to 100 basis point increase which is a pretty significant amount depending on how big the storm is. depending where on the northeast is where you have more penetration for home depot and south you probably have more penetration for lowe's, it's looking like the storm will hit more the eastern mid-atlantic and northern. so probably the storm itself helps home depot a little more. >> you would buy home depot stock then? >> yeah, i think stocks look good for short term and longer term. near term you could worry about comparisons in the fourth quarter and first quarter but the housing market has been improving. they've done a lot to improve. lowe's longer term though. >> how do the stocks look? >> they both look very good. you have to remember, these

storms are still predictions, weathermen were created to make analysis guys look good with our predictions. >> because they are so wrong. >> all the time. >> let's look at home depot, we have a long-term chart to 2006. we have a nice rounding base formation, stock already broke above the 2007 highs and never looked back. it's extended but never buy this because of a storm but the whole housing play has a good story behind it. >> you think because it has such an up trend it's going to continue. >> the momentum is behind it, yes. >> lowe's? >> if you don't want to buy an expanded chart like home depot, lowe's is a better play for you. however, current prices below the 2007 highs. this actually has further upside potential and more room to run on the upside once it gets above the 2007 highs. >> you'll be watching to see is it goes above -- >> that's correct. >> appreciate that fundamental and technical look.

>> weather channel online for you too maria. we have 35 minutes left in the trading session and the bias is still the upside. up 38 points on the dow. we'll go inside the citi shake-up. new details are emerging about the storm inside citi that led to pandit's ouster, it was not pretty. some are concerned what it means for the bank's future down the road. >> the head of one government watch dog group livid at president obama and john boehner for sitting on their hands as america hurdles toward the fiscal cliff. stay tuned. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 when i'm trading, i'm totally focused. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and the streetsmart edge trading platform from charles schwab... tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 gives me tools that help me find opportunities more easily. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 i can even access it from the cloud and trade on any computer. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and with schwab mobile, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 i can focus on trading anyplace, anytime...

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the resignation of vikram pan dit may not have been as sudden as it seemed at first blush. kayla takes us inside the citi shake-up. >> when mike o neil was staped at city's chairman, they got the feeling a shake-up would be coming and the report by the new york times reports a picture of

pandit's last date marked by shock after what he believed to be strong earnings. one said he resigned immediately and another resigning at year-end and third being fired without cause. he chose to leave immediately. coo john havens agreed to leave within minutes. the following day, pan dit said the move was his choice and based on that quarter's earnings that he would be leaving citi in good hands. a former bank of america executive and bank of hawaii, o neil joined the board and became chairman when dick parsons resigned earlier. they were long preparing for pandit's recession and took an unusual turn in the ongoing succession plans holding talks with two candidates for the vacanted coo role which has yet to be filled. >> it's amazing, thanks, if that

departure scenario is true, that mikes michael o neill is making all decisions and forcing his agenda. >> let's talk about that and break it down with citi watchers, chris whalen. you're a fan of his but not vikram pandit. did we need that corporate intrigue? >> the chairman of the board is doing his job, frustrated sitting on the board for the past five yeerds watching dick parsons do nothing, i think this is all good. we have an operating in and coo now and it's good. and mr. o neill is a serious guy and fixed a troubled institution in hawaii and bank of hawaii is one of the best performers in the united states. >> but what about the way it was handle d? >> it's unseemly, sure, that's

right. it should have been a decent transition but something was a catalyst and we still don't know the full story. >> todd, what do you think of how it was handled? >> it wasn't handled right. it's clear as day about that. but pandit also had a complicated tenure with the acquisition, $800 million in an all cash deal that just vested recently because it was a five-year investing schedule. you have to question what the culture was like at citi during this entire time. pandit went into a very stressful situation but knew he wasn't going to take on that much risk. you really needed a recovery specialist, turnaround specialist and clearly mike oneill is that person. >> meredith whitney was on this week and said no ceo can fix citi. listen to what she said. >> i don't know that anybody knows michael corbit outside of

citi. anyone can go into that slot and it's mike o neill's agenda. >> the expectation is that the ceo is running things yet it looks like it's really the chairman. >> i disagree, i think the roles should be bifurcated because you need somebody for the ceo to be accountable too. if pandit had been ceo and chairman, we never would have gotten rid of him. i disagree with meredith. i think you can fix citi. they are a subprime lender and i would like to see o neill focus on that. >> i'm going to ask a political sounding question, isn't citi better off now than it was four years ago? todd, you first. did pan dit really deserve this

type of exit? >> that remains to be scene. we don't know all of the evidence there. but to answer your question, yes, citi is better off now than it is -- was four years ago. however, going forward though you would have suspected that citi would have been much further along. especially when you compare it to its peers. going forward, this is a great stock for this company, for shareholders right now. if anybody is looking for the entry point, there are so many positives with vik pandit out of the way. you still have somebody who is a business executive and it will be great for shareholders moving forward. >> how ironic on the day pandit is getting con grat la tri e-mail from people, the best earnings, that that is the day michael o neill chooses to get rid of him. >> jim cramer was con grat la tri too but the bank wasn't performing that well and stock was still suffering from the bailout. they can fix that.

and i think the other guess is absolutely right. mike oneill is a serious guy. he needs to tell us what the business model is going forward and i will be more comfortable see your typical investor get involved in the stock. it moves a couple of points a day and got almost no dividends. >> but that's the question that's the question. can mike o neill run it? what's his agenda? clearly he's in charge here. >> any chairman is in charge, that's not the point. good corporate governance. >> the point is, can he do it? >> i think so. if anybody can he can. what he did with bank of hawaii was quite remarkable. i'm encouraged. >> all right, we'll leave it there. >> really appreciate it. we have 25 minutes before the closing bell sounds for the day. >> our next guest is falling off the fiscal cliff may be the best thing for the nation's debt problem if congress can't strike

that grand bargain role. chief investment strategist listann saunders explains next. preparing the portfolio ahead of the fiscal cliff, scott spurling later on "the closing bell". >> which stock is outperforming this year, abercrombie, american eagle or the gap? the dividend pays off after the break. bob...

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just before the break, we asked, which stock is outperforming this year, aber krom bee, american eagle or the gap? now the payoff. the gap. which is shot up over 85% year to date. welcome back, the technology sector slipping briefly in connection territory. courtney regan has the story. >> that's right, maria, the same thing happened for apple as well. we saw apple trade down below and has recovered much of that closing -- looking to close down about .7% as i look over and see it. that will mark the fifth

straight week we've actually seen apple decline, something that hasn't happened in four years. they did reiterate the buy price to $7.60. this is our parent company, comcast, we did report better than expected earnings, in line earnings and better than expected revenues. trading at historic highs into the close. here's a point of view we haven't heard yet. we debate the fiscal cliff versus grand bargain. our friend liz ann says it doesn't matter. in her view mathematically, they would both be the same. >> is it the same for the economy and the stock market in we're joined by liz ann saunders. welcome back. >> hi, nice to see you both too. >> in terms of it not mattering, what are your expectations for the market? >> i think it does matter. the point i wanted to make, if you fully go off the cliff, it's a 3.9 percentage hit to gdp.

it is a grand bargain, at least on paper that is going to be drawn as a hit to gdp. what will offset that is the confidence boost that the way we got started on the process towards improving the u.s. balance sheet is through bipartisan agreement. i think the effects on confidence are much greater if it's actually done pro actively as opposed to happening automatically. >> why is the market sitting where it is? if traders are doing the math that you are, you're right, both the fiscal cliff and grand bargain would be austerity measures not necessarily promote growth in the economy. why would the stock market have done what it's done and i realize the fed is in there with quantity take tif easing. why aren't they looking more carefully impact of the fiscal cliff and grand bargain? >> in a grand bargain what would

happen on the revenue side, it would come via full blown tax reform. i sat on the tax reform commission in 2005, near and dear to my heart is a need to reform the tax code. that would be be viewed as a pro growth policy and that's what businesses are looking for and consumers are looking for. at the same time, i think this recent retrenchment in the economy, i think is in anticipation of the fiscal cliff and uncertainty that happens between now and then. businesses are holding back right now and that represents pent up demand, the quailed spring animal spirits, whatever you want to call it. >> do you think things loosen up after the election then and is romney better in terms of that loosening up than the president or vice-versa? >> it is well more than who ends up in the white house that matters but what the construction of congress is. what probably would be a negative regardless of whether

it's romney or obama if things stay so tight in the senate and/or house that we end up with another version of gridlock. that would be a problem for the market. >> and what about -- this sell-off we've seen recently here in response to the sort of aneemic earnings we're getting on the revenue side, you're not ready to step in and buy are you? >> i think what led us to this had as much to do with sent. as with earnings. with sentiment having gotten overly optimistic in light of the rally from the lows. we haven't worked enough of that off yet and the revenue side has been particularly troubling. if you look at the leading indicators, we've got a report out which admittingly is backward looking, 5% nominal gdp. some of the other leaders have started to turn back up and some consider not. what we're unsure of yet and i think there's a possibility may be the case, thsz not the

beginning of a long slide tore top lying growth that we may be in a pause period. i think the market is okay with that given the valuations are reasonable. >> this earnings season, pretty good slowdowns in technology as well as industrials because of that global slow down. do you think something changed in the last three months in terms of earnings where it's actually slower than we expected? >> i think in an erngds expected, the bar got set extraordinarily low for the third quarter and it's succeeding a fairly low bar. analysts did not bring the top line growth numbers down and estimates still have to come down for q 4 and 2013 as well. we have a multiple point spread where we're at the discount of the long-term norm. but to your point about the international side of the businesses, there's clearly a spread between those companies industries, subsecretators as w.

that weakness isn't going away in the near term. >> broadly speaking, i know we can't talk to individual investors, stocks versus bonds, who looks for attractive in your view? >> over the long term at this stage in the yield cycle, even in the case of a safe treasury, 10-year treasury, if you're buying it now and holding it fully through ten years you're locking in a negative real return, given that inflation is above the yield. for some that's worth it because it's a guaranteed return. low in nominal terms, stocks with a high ers percentage of stocks ever with a dividend yield higher than the 10-year treasury, i do think long term if your goal is to outperform in the long term, you have to have at least equity exposure, no question in my mind. >> good seeing you. we'll see you soon. >> 15 minutes left. come off the highs in the last few minutes with the dow up just

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stocks gaining back some ground last hour but we're starting to lose ground again. it has been a pretty bad week for the bulls, especially, investors not sold on the market and disappointing earnings outweigh economic data this beak. >> it's the previous market leaders, the technology sector falling into correction territory, down 10% from its recent high. and the banks are ice cold after their recent rally. the banking index down better than 2% on the week. >> fundamentals matter after all. we've talked about that for weeks, the diskpekt between the

market action going higher an the fundamentals going lower. we knew fed monetary policy had something to do with it. >> the fundamentals will come back. we're clearly see the effects of a global slowdown and are expecting a rebound in the fourth quarter. once the election happens and that uncertainty gets behind us, things will loosen up again. longer term, there's so much money for the market, you have to believe it's going higher and over the near term you have issues because of the earning story. >> the key will be corporations and how they respond to whatever happens in washington, whether it's the election or the negotiations on the fiscal cliff, they have to put all of that cash back to work again and get the job market picking up again. >> and they need a catalyst. if governor romney wins this election, it's amazing how close this race is. it's really an exciting race to watch. but the president winning re-electi re-election, i wonder that would

do to the markets or if maybe the stability of it is actually a positive. the romney win though, definitely people feel that that's going to be more favorable towards business and create a pretty good rally in stocks. >> i agree with lizand, i think no matter who is in white house, you have to get fiscal policy through congress and if they are in gridlock mode, it doesn't matter if you have a republican or democrat in the white house though. >> you're right about that. once the election finishes, the work begins. >> and hopefully they do go back to work. >> we'll see about that. they like vacations, those guys in congress. >> we'll take a break and come back. closing countdown with dow up 6 points. >> will apple products shortages app app apply quaulcomm? we'll see. this is america.

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and live a long, happy life together where they almost never fight about money. [ dog barks ] because right after they get married, they'll find some retirement people who are paid on salary, not commission. they'll get straightforward guidance and be able to focus on other things, like each other, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. the 5-minute mark, the dow is up 19 points, starting a mini rally into the close. i want to look at the weekly numbers and class, everybody pay attention. here's the question to be answered this week? where did the money go?

let's look at the evidence. didn't go to stocks, for the week at least, the dow down 1.7%. even though we've got this 14-point gain right now. a lot of damage done on tuesday, that huge sell-off and we've essentially gone side ways. the money didn't go to stocks in the aggregate. speaking generally here. bonds? maybe a little bit. we saw a huge sell-off in the 10-year treasury on thursday. we've come back a little bit today but for the week the yield down 1% here on the 10-year. didn't go into oil. oil down for the week here, 4.3%. second or third week in a row that oil has been coming lower here and we were below the $86 level, $86.14 right now. gold? didn't go into gold either. down a fraction for the week here. i think that is the third week in a row we've seen gold down, first time in over a year we've seen that action there. for a time gold was below $1700

an ounce. we've come back a little bit here. the fear indicator did rear up for first time in quite a while. a gain of 4% on the volatility index. down a fraction but we are in the 17, 18 range, maybe heading back to 20, which would be the flag territory. where did the money go this week? >> i wish i knew. i guess people were bracing for the storm morning we thought. maybe it's in sand bags. we're not seeing it, small cap, large cap. people are rotating. we saw that earlier on the week, rotating out of stocks that maybe performed well, profit taking. i don't know where it's gone. >> apple has been as we've established here, quite a lot has been a bellweather for this market and even after the earnings yesterday, troubling as they were with the outlook for the holiday shopping season, that stock is flat as well. >> it's a nice rally, trading down to 6 .07 last night.

i thought it might be worse. i thought people had taken their profits and wait until see what they come out with. we don't need to worry about holiday spending just yet. so it's a nice job on rebound today. >> what do you make of the order flow here. it is becoming clearer that the market is starting to trade fundamentals again, earnings have been underweming from big companies telling us demand has come down. the revenue line did not meet expectations. >> if a company forecasted lower numbers, they were basically rewarded with no matter what number they came in. if you tried to hide it or mask it, you were severely punished. it's a learning curve as we go forward. let's temper these things down and we'll meet or exceed and then ride the wave hider. >> dow is up 6 points. tiny bit of selling into the close. as we go into next week the uncertainty of this storm making its way up the east coast over

the weekend. how would you think the trade will go today? >> we saw last year about this time, 13 months ago we were talking about the same thing. the insurers were in focus. same light here. i hope this doesn't hit. this 100-year storm this could be bad. i live on the coast. this could be troubling. we'll look forward to and insurers will be the first to react. if that's the case, we'll trade accordingly. >> you get home depot and lowe's and all of the usual suspects, in the longer run, they get initial pop but sell off again. >> we overreact to everything, even in a good way, overreact here and be ultracautious but overreact and eventually the storm will go by and we will survive. >> let's not forget, next week is the last full trading week before the election, do you think that will be a catalyst of some kind? >> i don't think it will be a positive catalyst by any means? >> it's not positive now, down 7 points so it is intense figing

into the close. >> 13,000 is a big number on the dow. we won't see a positive catalyst through the election. way too close to call, maybe a week out from here. let's take next week, slow week, no one will want to do anything. >> matt, always good to see you. so it is one of those weeks where the question is where did the money go? probably to cash as people stand to wait and see what more earnings look like and election is going to be and of course, very importantly, how they handle the fiscal cliff going down the road. right now a gain of just 2 points but we're finishing the week with a 2% decline on the dow jones industrial average. much more to come. the second hour of "closing bell" getting under way right now. have a good week.