it actually was quite impressive in the face of lofts expectations that volume would be on the light side and people were still out of work. we wish you safety from all of us at closing bell. that does it for us tonight. stay with us. fast money begins right now. live from the nasdaq markets in new york city times square, this is fast money. i'm melissa lee. after two days of no trading, the markets opened for the first time since hurricane sandy. was back to business as usual on this historic trading kay day? >> we'll kick it off with the trader on the floor, steve grasso. did it work out? >> it did actually. obviously the proof is with the markets, there was nothing that fell off a cliff. everybody was hoping for sort of a dull day. i don't want to say they got it. but they pretty much got a flat market. we were worried about the market

at s&p cash. we rallied back and i think for all apparent purposes, it was a win. >> a few remarking about the day, about how some stocks saw big swings in price action. >> the market was flat, but if we look at the underlying shares, you can see a lot of names making big moves. you had apple down and amazon down more than%. gm and ford both up. netflix up 13%. barnes and noble up 13. you had very big underlying move. it's more of a micro market. i think it's to the benefit of our viewers and to many market participants. >> i'll go one step further than that. i think the markets to grasso's point is what we needed. you had a lot of companies that announcede on monday and tuesday and we had deals announced. you had a lot of pent of demand for the market. all things considered after this massive disaster, today couldn't have dpon any better. >> what did you trade today? >> a little bit of macy's and

netflix. listen carefully to gm which we -- listened to cmi. we're long as well. which wasn't delightful. it really was a normal day to us. i wonder outside of new york, which is so affected by it, i wonder how much it -- you also wonder how much, what the effect of the last day of the month. i think that was a huge thing for the last couple of days. i've been on conference calls for the new york stock exchange. we've been looking at this. really, microscope, trying to figure out what today means. if it wasn't the last day of the month, we would have seen the markets off today again and waited for tomorrow. if it was the middle of october, you might have taken an extra day because there were a lot of connectivity issues. that wasn't the exchange's fault. it was the guys playing on the side. >> did you get a sense you were able to get in touch with people, that people were there or connectivity issues were not

an issue but connecting o whom is the question, michael khouw. >> i think that's a very good point. i don't think that the market centers themselves had many issues. i think they would have been ready to go, like the new york stock exchange said they could trade electronically on monday. when i tried to get them on the phone, a lot of them aren't making it to the desk or suffering technology problems. we started the day, probably ten minutes before the open with everybody saying things would be fine. very shortly after the open, several people were having technical problems. the options market traded under -- we traded about 15.5 million last friday. which was average so far for the month. i think there was a little bit of an issue there. to en nis' point, the vix is rising at the same time. that's unusual because usually you expect the tox to go this way and that. the index volatility comes in. it caught me by surprise.

>> i wanted to ask the weekly options. we have a jobs report on friday. did you see a lot of action there in. >> to mike's point, the s&p for the market is in the same spot as a week ago. two fewer trading days. normally, you start to see premiums compressed significantly. the market's unchanged and weekly options should get hurt, like you mentioned, melissa. but what is keeping them elevated in the data tomorrow and what's keeping the vi xcel vated is the elections next week. >> let's check in at the exchange with bob. >> i think steve had it right. there was a lot of relief. we essentially opened without a significant hitch. there were connectivity issues. the internet was down for a lot of the traders. a smooth open and that's what they wanted. i'm not talking about the new york exchange. i'm talking about trading desks, a lot of phones weren't hooked

up. a lot of people weren't in. there was light trading overall. volume was light during the day, but we had a decent close because there were a lot of market on closed orders representing orders to buy and sell for the end of the month. the big movers, home repair stocks. the storm was worse than people anticipated. a lot of people who were playing stuff last week we were talking about in home repair, got in late right now. like armstrong, and owens-corning ware. >> you know what's going to ham, hurricane sandy ate my homework. they're going to blame week fourth quarter earnings on hurricane sandy. breaking news here. we talk about capital earlier today. they've restored power over there. nightcap tal is in jersey city. it was significant flooding and power outages in jersey city in the last 24 hours. they have backup generators that failed in the middle of the day. they have since restored power at night capital.

>> thanks so much, bob. >> we show you the broad street subway station, close to the new york stock exchange. aulg the water there, hopefully with time, things will get ironed out and less water and interruptions when it comes to mass transit. the power generator system will be worked out. will we have almost normal trading? what's that going to be like on a jobs friday, the last jobs report before the election. >> i think it's a huge den as you inferred. i don't know if everything is going to be great come friday. i would hope that it is. but the truth is we saw what we can do today, we can pull together and trade today. today was the major test. we passed it. i think friday will be okay. >> let's check on michael le branch. he's a former chairman and ceo of the largest firm at the new york stock exchange. he joins us with his take on this historic trading day. michael, always great to speak with you.

>> hi, melissa, how are you? >> i'm good. in five years, we have an event like a hurricane sandy, hurricane irene, are we going to talk about closing the stock exchange in five years, ten years from now. are the systems going to be that good. >> let's hope we don't go through this again. it's going to become more virtual over time. it seems to be going that way now. if everybody had been ready to recode and go without a physical trading floor, they could have done it. but i think with night trading in everybody's mind, what happened there, i don't think anybody wanted to take a chance and do something without adequate testing. i think that was a big part of the slowdown and the reluctance to go back. >> i understand the reluctance to not go ahead if you haven't tested it. but i'm curious, do you think the stock exchange deserves criticism for not making sure the tests were done prior to an

event like this. >> i don't think it's their fault at all. i don't think it's up to tem -- it's not their job to make other people have the systems running without the new york stock exchange. i don't think it's their fault at all. they did everything the right way. >> yeah. you can't blame the stock exchange, they did everything they could right here. they actually led. there was a chance for us to open up our electronic market, but the truth is, you were putting people in harm's way. you still had people that had to man the computers. >> i am curious, though, do you think in the future, there will be a backup plan, a contingency said, in the case of a weather event, that we do this so the markets don't close. >> i think they will. they'll learn from what happened here. they'll learn they need to be able to trade on one exchange or all of them minus one or two. i think that going forward, they'll have tested that so they don't need to worry about having

a big fiasco. what's good about today, there's nothing you can point to that says that it was a real problem. i think that's the victory here. >> michael, it's obviously steve -- steve here. i'm not sure you can see the television. you and i have had many conversations when you were down aught floor. i know it's impossible to put the genie back in the bottle. with the marketplace so fragm t fragment fragmented, maybe this is the catalyst, you a shrelluded to i. do you see all the members funneling to the top three once again? >> i would like to see more liquidity, especially in the secondary stocks. i think that's really a problem. i think if people can be incentivized to make markets more than they are today, i think everybody would benefit from that. i think there's a perception that market makers actually get in the way. they actually don't. they actually make things work better. if they could incentivize people to use the capital to make markets, i think the markets and

the individual stocks become more liquid. i think that's the real big problem. as far as putting the genie back in the bottle, i don't see it going back to the way steve and i used to know it. >> michael, always great to speak with you. >> thank you, melissa. >> joining us on the fast line. we're going to talk stocks. apple, its largest monthly personal drop since november 2008. it is official with today's close. is this a buying opportunity in joining us in the fast line, brian marshall, technology analyst. always great to speak with you. >> caller: thanks, melissa. >> i know your take on the shakeup. it seems to me you didn't think it was as big of a deal on the first day it's able to react to the news. at the same time, how does apple get out of the -- what it's in. whatever news it's puts out, it's viewed with -- i don't know what the opposite of rosie glasses are. it's viewed in the worst light possible. >> sure. i think if apple can be

successful without steve jobs, it can be successful without scott for stall running the ios software group. this 15% pullback roughly from recent keeps is nothing new. if you go back six months ago, same thing happened in the april/may time frame. this time it's been shortened in terms of the length of time it's occurred. we think let's not get focused on too much tertiary data. i think this is a very attractive price wrapup. >> brian, it's karen. i'm long the stock. the two things that worry me most if you could comment on this. in the past, they've had blockbuster, new categories of product coming on. the ipad for example. we don't have much clarity at the moment on that. that's one thing. the second thing is, the market is just continuing to look through and saying, all right, maybe they sell 50 million iphones and how many ipads, whatever it is.

what's next? why would we give multiwill on what's now when we don't know what's next? >> caller: that's a good point, karen. if you wanted -- differently now than in the past. they're marching two blockbuster -- launching two products, the iphone and the mini. they're doing this in their stronk he's seasonal quarter. the december quarter. i think the numbers are going to go up quite dramatically over this quarter to next quarter. at the end of the day, apple has certainly increased the cadence in which it releases its product. it's becoming much more of a product cycle-driven companiment arguably, that probably warrants a bigger multiple. about 12 times counter 13 earnings. that excludes about $120 in cash. if you want to include that. we're trading at about nine times. i think the valuation is justified here and i think the numbers are going to go higher.

i think the multiple has an opportunity to go higher as well. >> you're speaking with your $710 price -- i think we were about 13% higher and i was thinking that perhaps your price would be too low. now maybe it's too high. >> caller: well, i think the next 18 months, the growth opportunities for apple should be tremendous. i do think they've got great penetration opportunities in the iphone and the ipad. that's 85% of gross profits. let's see how the numbers come in for the december quarter as well as march. i have a feeling we'll see apple with a 700 handle in the not too distant future. >> thanks, brian. at isi. it seemed like a lot of people were tempted but were scared because of the decline. brian said it's not a big deal. if this only happened in a month -- >> you're absolutely right. the number to watch is the 586, 587 level that it hit today. i think everybody is standing back waiting to see if they can

hold that level. >> up next, a special first on cnbc interview. ceo aaron jackfeld weighs in on the blowout quarter and how superstorm sandy is affecting his business and new hyde park, new york, brian is standing by. >> melissa, as far as you can see, we have a gas line down this street. as the day has worn on, the gas line has gotten longer and the patience has worn thinner. coming up on fast money, we'll talk about what's behind a gas crunch in long island and new jersey. it's from a different perspective. it's about moving the odds in your favor. it's what drives the value of the show. >> i am john that jerian. i am fast money.

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welcome to the world leader in derivatives. welcome to superderivatives. fast money, i'm bertha coombs with the market stock.

netflix soaring today triggering after carl eye can showed a stake in -- accord to him, the shares are undervalued due to the market position and international growth prospect. interestingly, melissa, they reported that over the weekend with folks shut in. screening was up 20%. sandy may have given them a boost as well. >> good catch there, bertha. let's trade netflix here. karen, the question here, can carl -- is it legitimately in play since they're involved. >> one, the 13d. how much stock does he own? it doesn't matter to us that he owns -- at the moment. if we he were to see something that needs a vote, he needs to be the beneficial owner of the shares. but the thing that -- the 13d wasn't the most aggressive that we've seen. this is a dell care company, good for shareholders. to the negative side, it's a

staggered board. it's hard for him to take control. i am personally -- we're short now. i think this is overdone. on top of the move today, there was a very odd move friday which was later attributed to a story that was micro stoft would take -- >> the reporter reported that wasn't true. that move ten bucks, now it moved ten, 11 today. it's already had a gigantic move. the reason i'm skeptical here is there could be buyers. but this is not a ceo who is unfriendly to shareholders. i mean, it there were a ceo out there who really likes to sort of get his stock going. i think reid hastings is it. it's not like he's been blind to the shareholders. i'm somewhat skeptical of this. it is possible there could be buyers, amazon certainly comes to mind. all in, we're short a little. >> carl icahn.

has a fantastic track record. it's been a good year for him in general. when you think about him in net flick, you think about him and blockbuster, which he's called the worst investment he's hmade of his life. it had too much debt. there was a change in the industry, which he didn't recognize. too many stores. a change in the industry is what -- because it's the same industry and at that time netflix was the competitor of -- >> exactly. >> now it's being seen as a stick in the mud here left behind. >> i think carl has fun doing these things. some of it works. >> definitely. >> some of them don't. >> it's a streaming angle. you said the name, you play with amazon. if you play it, i'd rather are play the content side of it and play a lion's game. even though it's at the high end. i'd rather be with content providers and rather play with amazon for streaming. >> even the chairman said to us that they are basically agnos c

agnostic. they don't care how you it gets to the consumer. it gets there. >> made 14% today. >> yeah. >> all right. power outages remain one of the key stories in the wake of the storm. those in the path of destruction now attempting to stock up on gasoline for both cars and generators. brian schactman joins us with the latest on the energy situation. brian? >> we've lost his audio there. apparently he's at a gas station. we saw the gas line. >> but obviously a lot of consumers are trying to fuel up their cars and generators on which they're relying. you know, folks on long island who have a backyard can put the generator there as opposed to manhattan where there's no place for a generator in your apartment. brian schactman. >> sorry about that. it's a little crazy here. it's a supply/demand dynamic.

80% of long island is out of power. they need gas for the cars and their generators. they need gas for cars to charge their phones. when it comes to supply, a lot of the gas stations on long island are either shut down because they have no gas or no power. you have distribution points, refineries having some struggles. there's very little gas coming on to long island. we have an hour and a half wait outside of this station which was lucky enough to get a delivery of 7500 gallons earlier in the day. right across the street, there's a station that started the day with 3,000 gallons of regular gasoline and they were out by about 4:00 eastern time. they did not get another delivery. as the day has worn on, the line has gotten longer. more and more stations in the area are shutting down. people getting an argument, police had to show up. it's a little bit of the lord of the flies situation here. it's not a laughing matter. they have to find a way to get

gas in here and i'm told on short term supply will remain tight for at least a couple of days. i will tell you, a couple more days like this, it's going to be a real problem. >> pbrian, are you seeing them change the prices? >> we've had questions and everyone asks. at this station -- across the street it was interesting. the man told me that his next delivery, he will increase the price because it will be up 20, 25 cents on delivery. but he won't increase the price until he gets the more expensive gas. i have not heard any other people tell me anecdotally of price gouging. of course, we're on the lookout for it. >> brian schactman. everybody is looking at the refiners before the store. now it appears they didn't suffer severe damage. they're able to come back online quickly. is there a trade here? >> i mean it's interesting we saw a lot of activity in phillips 66. they were one of the refineries that shut down.

one in linden, new jersey. 238,000 barrels a day. if california was an indication, i think the important thing to bear in mind is this will be a relatively short term impact. even when you start to see a broadening in the local product market, it probably could lend a million to $4 million per refinery in additional income but only for a short period of time. these are huge, huge companies. before people think that this is really to build in the price of the stock, you probably shouldn't. >> you have to remember, people, everyone filled up their cars prior to the storm. so they filled them up, they got gas for their general ray tors. they really pulled out of supply for the demand. after the storm, we've had a lot of demand destruction. >> that's true. >> you could see a couple of days this go on a little bit further, there's going to be a lot of shorts put out that are stuck u. successful. by far, they have eliminated more demand. >> coming up, the ceo of general

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welcome back to fast money. we're live at the nasdaq market site in times square. millions of people without power and cell phone service. it could take a week to restore. look at one of the verizon buildings in lower manhattan. look at that water. high demand for backup power giving generator sales a boost. generac has shipped tens of thousands of generators. the bottom line today raised it a full year. first on cnbc interview with aaron jagdfeld, the ceo of generac. aaron, great to have you with us. >> thanks for having me, melissa. >> what was so stunning about the guidance raise in the quarter beat was that sandy wasn't included in the result. in terms of raising the forecast for the year, how much of that are sales you know you have in

your back pocket because of sandy and how much is future sales you'll have in the coming days and weeks because people are scared this is going to happen again? >> there's really, you have to bay for the two issues. the first issue is obviously sandy occurred in the fourth quarter. that's going to have a material impact. as we said, we're significantly raising guidance for the fourth quarter. it will result in a rise for the year as well. that's really the portable generator demand. that's the in-rush much demand we see around an event that occurs -- unfortunately, when you get major destruction like this, you have a hard time actually finding gas for. but in the future and really for the next six to 12 months, we should see going into 2013, a greater demand for permanently installed packup systems. people have hit the turning point with frequency of outages, have come to the conclusion they need a backup plan that, frankly, is more permanent in nate tur. >> when it comes to the

portables versus installed, i'm curious that the martins are different. there's another stream of ref knew which you get from servicing the units. >> the portables are sold through big box retailers. the margins on those products not kwied as good as on the installed products. installed product, because of the nature, in terms of more of a complexity of product, the margins are better there. the service revenue actually goes through our distribution partners. that's what's in it for them taking care of the product. out in the field, we do a fantastic job. we have 4500 dealers that are servicing and supporting our products right now in a time of heavy immediate by those that are in the marketplace. >> and in terms of the -- what you see because of sandy, how much was driven by businesses versus consumers. your average everyday person who has a house. what would you like it to be in terms of the mix. would you like it to be much more business oriened versus consumers? >> about 60% of our revenues

come from the residential market which includes the portable generators and the homestand byes mainly for residential. a percentage of our businesses is serving corporate, commercial concerns. we serve all the major tell communications companies with wireless backup. we serve 911 call centers, hospitals, big businesses, small businesses alike. that's a part of our business that will grow as a result of the outages. based on the sheer magnitude what's gone on in the east. >> it's funny, when this hurricane happened, people were thinking back to irene and saying maybe this is climate change, maybe it's environmental that's going to cause the occurrences to happen more frequently. poin the aging power grid as one of the reasons why we're seeing blackouts more frequently as opposed to a bigger environmental change. what can you say about the state of the nation's infrastructure and the need for the off the grid solutions? >> i think, you know, i can only say what's been said already

which is the power grid in particular, you can talk about a lot of infrastructure assets, but the power grid is holistically underinvested in. it's highly susceptible to major outages. events like sandy, terrorist attacks to solar flares, this grid is aboveground. it's been underinvested in. the average age of the components is over 40 years old. the ideal situation would be to put the dprid underground. unfortunately, it's an incredibly costly proposition. it's about a million dollars per mile to bury a line of power line. the off grid solutions like backup power will be around for a long, long time. it's a $2 trillion estimated cost to really bring the grid up to the level of -- that we'd need it to be at to protect it from these kinds much outages. who going to pay for it? the utility companies, the users, is it the government? i don't see that happening any time soon. >> aaron, great to have you on with us. >> thanks, melissa. >> aaron, jagdfeld, the ceo of

generac. we're talking about the aging power grid and the lack of investment in that. but there's a demographic shift. as the population gets older and older, you want to make sure you have power. you don't want to be caught short of power if you need it to operate a respirator or other device you rely on. >> absolutely. phenomenal quarter. they raised the numbers10%. but it looks like there's more room to the upside. >> one point i would add to what you said, connectivity, electricity, the internet economy is more dependent on electrical power. local businesses internet-based experienced a lot of trouble based on what you're talking about. moving on. news of a couple big deals. as wall street gets back to business. bertha coombs with an update on disney. >> they call themselves tvh. much more modern. they do sportswear. paying $3 billion for calvin

klein underwear brand offering 68 -- 34% premium. that sent shares to what looks like a historic high. it's the second big deal they've done since2010. they paid $30 billion for tommy hilfiger back then. meantime, disney agreeing to buy lucas films for $4 billion in cash and boy, this was the talk of the twit owe sphere. all of my geeky friends are not happy about this deal. especially since lucas said he wasn't going to make any more films. there's talk about an episode 7 except they used a numerical 7 instead of a roman numeral 7. there's a lot of talk about the story franchise. >> we're all concerned at fast money as well, bertha coombs. >> you look at shares of disney, they opened higher initially. the shares were sent lower by 2%. you're long disney. >> we're long disney. in the past, great acquisitions.

$4 billion is a lot of money to me, maybe not to carl icahn. it's not that much money to disney. i don't think the story really changed at all. you know, if we owned it yesterday, i'd own it today as well. >> for more on pvh and that deal, tune in to mad money. cramer has the ceo of pvh to talk about that deal. and eaton, annie's and -- that starts top of the hour, 6:00 p.m. eastern. we need to bring you the latest on storm sandy and the aftermath of the destruction. we're assessing the damage, breaking down what it means for retail. the insurers and much more. make sure the news keeps coming with thinkorswim by td ameritrade. use the news links breaking stories with possible breakout stocks, options with potential opportunity, futures and forex with in-depth analysis. it's an all-you-can-eat buffet for all things trading. thinkorswim by td ameritrade. it doesn't just deliver news. it's making news.

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take a look at this. pictures of a crane collapse in midtown manhattan. >> wow. >> dramatic. >> is that real time? >> i think it's real time that's a good question. >> mike murphy, you should know. >> you know, i found out while we were on the show that new york city has closed our office building for tomorrow and

friday. so i'll be home with the kids for the next two days. >> not trading? >> trading, but we don't have internet up at home either. i may be in the local starbucks. >> getting your latte while executing a trade. what other names are you looking at as the possibility of rebuilding and recovery. grasso, where do you look to in you think about the construction companies, the supply of wood. >> united rental. there's a potpourri of names. i love using that. >> potpourri in. >> yeah. >> i love it. it's disgusting as smorgasbord. >> mike and i are are on the opposite side occasionally. there's a massive transformation into renting versus buying. i would say maybe mid to early -- early to mid '90s. it's been taking place. we see more and more of it. a lot of the infrastructure you or eye so much easier with an economy that's not back yet. >> specifically for hurricane

sandy, though, you don't need to buy this equipment, you only need it to help you -- >> it's going to be a couple of week event hopefully. hopefully people get back to normal as soon as possible. but it's a you or i event. not a massive event for the other names. >> right. agree on that. hertz has a division, about 20% of their ref mu is in renting equipment and they're going to be able to take advantage of the people, so many cars being damaged. people need to rent cars. hertz is also where they announced earnings today. i think that's also a way to play it like uri. i like to think that the easy trade is the wrong trade. in fact, i think the home depot, the lowe's, have been a big overplayed. that's a telegraph space. i prefer the property and casualty insurers. i think they got hit today. but in reality, they've had a great year. they're prepared for things like that. they're cheap. chubb is the one i like most. >> karen, where do you go.

>> i agree on both. home depot, lowe's is you're late to the party there. i think we've seen in big events like this, pnc is to their benefit. after they pay the damages, they raise premiums. that's an ongoing payment stream. >> mike khouw, your hurricane play? >> i have to be the third person on that train. 11 times earnings, that's below market multiple. many of the other names, even generac, that company, i think that looks fully valued here. it's probably trading about 12 times, you know, your best case on an enterprise value base. i can't encourage anybody to go start chasing names like that. even though they probably will see an uptick in their business. stick with the companies that look like good values. >> in the wake of storm sandy, it's at a standstill. cnbc's court i reagan joins us

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rising after a fourth quarter earnings of -- that topped estimates to the credit card giant on the top line. revenues coming in at over $2.7 billion compared to about $2.6 will billion estimate. it was driven by service, data processing and international transactional revenues. no dollar impact. authorized a $1.5 billion stock buyback program. a new one and raising dividend payment by 50%. thank you very much, bertha coombs. on the visa trade, why is there a high valuation compared to master card sm. >> visa has more growth behind them as we were discussing. the company right now, if they're able to execute on what they've been saying, you can even take that multiple up further. however, i don't like the way the stock has traded off the highs and after hours. i would like to see it get through that 143 level.

this quarter, they're executing on all cylinders. if the stock doesn't break out on this news -- i think visa can trade higher. the multiple can expand. their business is for this year, next year an the following year, it's really looking great. >> consumer sfepending on the rise, it's a catalyst for the bold. where do you stand if we see fiscal cliff issues, consumer spending going the other way. people start to hold on to their wallets going into year end. maybe the first month or first quarter, where do you see that? that for me is a huge x huge hurdle. >> i think, remember, that's one thing we thought about on the visa position. one thing that will help visa, they're also making money on the debit cards. >> when people buy a soda, pack of cigarettes, not that you smoke or drink soda. >> nothing bad with it, though. >> i guess. >> smoking, don't smoke. >> i think the setup there, they wouldn't be able to weather it

down a quarter or two. >> sandy continuing to affect air travel in the tri-state area. courtney reagan has the latest. she's at the last holdout of airports remaining closed. courtney? >> it's still officially closed. no word from the port authority when travel can resume from this art. but delta says that they anticipate restarting their service here at laguardia tomorrow morning. american airlines employees are here now and are getting ready to restart tomorrow. again, port authority gets the final say and they're still conducting their inspections and making sure that it is in fact safe for business to resume as normal today. jfk and newark did resume their operations today. still at a lower capacity than normal. as you can understand. it takes some time to get the people an the planes to the right places in order to get back to normal operating capacity. fed ex tells us, however, that they arer back to normal at jfk

as far as the cargo terminal is concerned. that's important, because jfk has one of the largest air cargo terminals in the world. a key reason why laguardia has been closed. look at this aerial video that was shot by the u.s. coast guard this morning. you can see the water that sandwiches both sides of laguardia. the bays up to the tarmac. however, just a couple hours ago, if you peek out the windows behind me, there are two american airlines planes at the central term nam. they're right here at the gate. again, nothing is officially going in or out but those planes are there. everyone wants these airports to get back up and running again. no official word when laguardia will reopen. but we have thousands of folks trying to get here from around the world for the new york city marathon, which mayor bloomberg says will happen on sunday. melissa, back to you. >> courtney x thanks so much. taking a look at the airlines, you would think that after a couple of days of the markets

being closed, first chance for the airlines to trade, they would trade lower particularly given the extent of the damage inflicted by sandy. we talked to the ceo yesterday on fast money. he said, well there's offsets, the losses because of this will be in line with past storms. at the same time, they're not burning as much fuel either. there's a cost savings embedded in not operating to some extent. the airlines traded higher today but still when i asked the traders if they traded airlines no, no, no. >> why? >> i hate trading these stocks. i think airlines is a -- widow maker sector. there's an old saying. the easiest way to get to a billion dollars is to have $2 billion and go lower. the easiest way to go to $50 is to put $100 in airline stock. >> warren buffett said he never trades airlines unless it's a private. he never trades airlines or autos. they are widow makers. too much unknown and union stuff that we can't get a handle on. you can't price that. that's the simple truth of it

though no one wants to say that. >> you trade the widow makers? >> not a chance. since the inception hasn't made a dollar for investors if you put it together. it is a good point you made, fuel costs represent over 50% of the ongoing operating cost for an airline. it's a basically double since where it was a while back. obviously, that as their single biggest operating expense isn't the factor this these situations. the impact is more muted than you might suspect. >> auto stocks getting ground today. we'll get to the bottom of the move and tell you the momentum will last. plus, we know you've missed talking about the trade of the day. one much our traders revving up his engine bringing that to you right after this.

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welcome back. in times square. ford and general motors -- reported earnings that impressed investors. europe remains a problem with ford and gm expected to loss lose billions until mid decade. the common ground was north american strength. that is actually very good when you read that through to other companies that have most of their operations selling to u.s. consumers. steve, you cite the warren

buffett before. you mentioned airlines and autos. >> that's what he said. >> that's what he says. you agree on that? >> no. i always have a soft spot in my heart for ford. i've owned gm's as well. they never needed the money had they all got bailed out. i always thought they had a better brand and structure and better organizational company than gm. right, wrong or -- i could o be totally off base on this. that was the perception. i should pull the trigger on a day like today. but like i said, the soft spot continues. i'm still long for it. >> i'm long for it also. we bought more today. i think ford looks better at 11 and change than last week at ten and change. this quarter was great. a record quarter as the ceo mentioned. i think the u.s. has enough to carry europe through this soft spot. ford is a play on housing as housing picks up more ford pickup trucks. the setup -- >> i'm sure there are a lot of

viewers thinking why does it look better -- we got results and we're very, very strong. was it so outside compared to what we knew last week that it justifies buying it 7% higher. >> great. when i said that, it was more on a technical plane. when it was getting up to 10.5 and falling off through 11 it looks like it dps higher. >> the moment you've been waiting for. our pent-up trade of the day. you haven't had one for almost a week. ennis tanner, you have the honors. >> the trade is short cmi. off the back of ford -- >> they're clapping for you. >> the report speaks to the reason i like the short cmi trade. it made operating margins, negative in europe, 1% in asia and went from a 9 percent to 0% in brazil.

come into 60% international. the international sales trends are very poor. they've announced for two straight quarters. based on what we're seeing from other industrial companies, it looks like the sales trends will continue worsening. even though it trades at ten times. >> you think it's a valued play. >> i think they were still able to generate margins that were i thought pretty impressive even with revenue slowdowns. even that negative operating leverage that happens when you have less revenues. the balance is in great shape. they tend -- even optimistic. they don't like to underdeliver. >> there you have. two sides of the trade of the day. >> stay tuned. if you are one of the millions of men

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. a final trade. mike khouw. >> netflix owner handed you a gift. grasso. i like uri as a long. wait, you'll get another chance. ennis. >> it's two internationally. >> karen? >> i got to take the other side. long cmi. look f