and we do welcome you do "closing bell." i'm bill griffeth here at the new york stock exchange. maria will be along shortly. it's the day after the election. big selloff. no more political races. just now a race against the clock to head off the fiscal cliff. already two ratings agencies have wasted no time on this issue today. fitch saying the u.s. needs to fix that debt threat and moody's says it's going to wait before taking any action and maintain its negative outlook on the u.s. economy. one thing is for sure. the stock market is taking the fiscal cliff very seriously. the blue chip average is off the lows but still down sharply at one time today, the dow was down about 369 points. first time we've seen that big of a decline since november 21st of last year. off the lows rights now, the dow down 260 points at 12,985. the nasdaq is down 63 points, a more than 2% decline at 2947.

the s&p at this hour is down 28 points right at 1400. let's break down what's behind today's dramatic decline in stocks in today's "closing bell" exchange. we welcome back michael pento, kwint tatro, jeff sika, and our own rick santelli. quint, you believe the market was going to go down either way. why? >> i do. i think this was long overdue. we have been propped up with some incertauncertainty. it's kept the market saying, are we going to get a change? it didn't matter who won. we've been facing pressure with earnings, and we saw it last friday when we had a decent jobs report. the pop and drop. we sold on good news, which is a very bearish signal. we have two months of overhead supply, and the market is very, very heavy and has been for some time. it's a long overdue correction.

i think you have to take cover here. >> michael, we are seeing the kind of market action today -- the coal stocks, which have been up on hopes of a romney victory, are down sharply today. health care, which was down, perhaps because of a romney victory, is higher today. we are seeing a reaction to the election, aren't we? >> of course you are. that's exactly what i predicted. listen, america is now facing austerity. it was europe's turn. now it's america's turn. austerity is very deflationary and very depressionary. there will be a recession in 2013. china has yet to bottom. we will have a recession now. >> so what are you going to do within your portfolio? >> listen, we are now selling defense. we're selling dividends. we're selling cyclical stocks. we're raising cash. we believe that you should not play russian roulette with your investments. you have to be careful here. when we get resolution on the fiscal cliff, and i'm sure there will be very early in 2013, then

we'll go back into the market heavily. not until then. >> okay. jeff, in the meantime, you believe with obama remaining in position that ben bernanke's job is safe for the foreseeable future and that is inflationary, yes? >> i think the fact that we've had inflation, core inflation, outside of core inflation, food and energy prices have accelerated in the obama administration. ben bernanke has failed to realize it as inflation. it's a big concern. now we're going to begin to see the acceleration of inflation based on the fact that now he has full reign. this is going to prove to be his show. >> how are you going to play that, jeff? >> we recently scaled back on gold, but i'm not long-term bearish on gold by any means. i believe we're going to get an opportunity to make money in gold. i built up a significant cash

position. i missed a good part of the rally. at this point, i don't want to participate in this type of market, protecting against inflation. being in commodities makes a lot more sense. >> bill, let me say one thing quickly. jeff is exactly right, but don't forget, there's going to be a lot less debt to monetize if we go over the fiscal cliff. that's why you have to be very cautious in the short term. when deficits go back to $1 trillion plus a year, then you're going to see precious metals take off like a rocketship. >> meantime, rick santelli, a safe haven play today, the u.s. dollar. the ten-year auction note was weak today with yields plunging. >> absolutely. it was definitely a "d" for dog auction today. that's to be expected. there was no concession. if you wanted to bite, you were coming in at the end of the parade. before the election, these guys were buying puts. they started to get out. the auction wasn't good.

we're down a dozen basis points, about a one-month low in the ten-year. i'll tell you one thing, bill. the draghi comments, the market is down primarily as the reversal of the positions put on for mitt romney win. because if you look at all the news that was out of europe before we opened, the markets before pretty tame until we came into our time zone. >> yeah, there was a draghi selloff with his comments about the slowdown in the european economy. thank you, gentlemen, for your thoughts on this market day. let's get to bob pasani and what you're making of this post-election selloff. >> the market can be divided into three, neat little segments. it's very simple. the markets were flat until mr. draghi came out talking about the problems in europe affecting germany. that was 7:15. we lost ten s&p points on that. fu number two, the obama election and weakness on certain stocks in that.

number three, apple hitting a 20% decline. that happened around 10:50 eastern time. there's your three segments. take a look at s&p 500. you can see clearly what happened today. there's the draghi comments. these are the futures. we saw the drop on that. then the u.s. market opened. there's the obama concerns. then there's the apple drop. you see three neat little segments leading to the bottom of the u.s. market. take a look at some of the stocks that are weak here. these are sectors affected by obama's election. coal stocks, financials, defense stocks, energy stocks, and dividend payers. that's a dvy at the bottom. finally, the market is taking this in stride. it's been a very orderly selloff. it's not been a good day, but look at the vix index. if this was a real worry day, you'd see the vix go into the low to mid-20s today. the fact we're still below 20 is a reality mark. >> yeah, maria is here making her way through the snow. i don't envy going home today.

that's going to be interesting. >> it is snowing out at this point. i can report. >> we should also point out apple with a decline today at one time was down 20% from its recent peak in september. >> that's what i was going to ask you, bob. how much of a factor is this big selloff in apple? >> yeah, 564, apple hit a 20% decline. i know a lot of people think this is voodoo, but you can see it in the charts. it was about 10:50 a.m. eastern time. apple dropped on heavy volume. the dow lost 50 pointins or so the same time. you can see cause and effect here. i would definitely give it part of the reason we're down. >> again, as i was pointing out with our previous guests here, hospitals are higher. that's an election play. gun makers, very strong today. defense down sharply. coal down sharply. i mean, you're getting very much a reaction to yesterday's election. >> yes, and i think that's a factor. here's what i think. if we didn't have the draghi comments, i bet you we would be down half as much.

i bet the dow would still be down, but it would have been down 150, 170 points. this is very hard to say. clearly, you can say that. without apple, too, maybe it would be even a little better. >> i guess the question is, what happens now for the defense companies? we're all focused on the fiscal cliff. part of those spending cuts that will happen at year end will happen in the defense sector. so whether or not this is just a knee-jerk reaction to cuts in defense by the president or whether it's layoffs coming in the defense sector remains to be seen. >> i don't think it's any coincidence that boeing is announcing they're restructuring their defense business. >> sequestration is very unlikely in this group. the defense people are still in. >> we'll be hearing from house speaker boehner on this issue coming up in about 20 minutes. that could move the market one way or another depending on what he has to say. in the meantime, we are still down for the day. >> yes, we are. it's pretty sharp decline we're looking at. about 50 minutes before the closing bell sounds for the day.

the dow jones industrial average down 281. very, very close to the lows of the afternoon. >> full team coverage of this big selloff coming up. plus, a look at which stocks could be the big winners and losers from president obama's re-election. and will washington finally rise above all the political bickering to fix that fiscal cliff? it's all ahead coming up on the "closing bell." stay with us. i put away money. i was 21, so i said, "hmm, i want to retire at 55." and before you know it, i'm 58 years old. time went by very fast. it goes by too, too fast. ♪ but i would do it again in a heartbeat. [ laughs ] ♪ ♪ ♪ when you take a closer look... ...at the best schools in the world... ...you see they all have something very interesting in common.

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welcome back. a little over 45 minutes left on the trading session. time for a quick market stat check on the dow. we had a sea of red on wall street all day today. the dow plunging below 13,000 for the first time since early august. right now it's down 276 points, still below 13,000 as worries mount about whether our elected officials can steer us clear of the fiscal cliff. the dow posting its worst decline now in over five months. all ten s&p sectors are lower today. the s&p 500 financial, energy, and technology sectors have

taken it the hardest on the chin today so far. >> bill, the technology sector also taking it on the chin harder than the other groups in today's selloff. of course, the nasdaq has been one of the big winners in 2012. today we're looking at the low hanging fruit go down, down 2.25%. down a percentage basis more so than the other major averages. we get insight on this from mark andreasan. when you see a market like this as a venture capitalist who has had such a vision in terms of where things are going with the internet and technology, would your impetus be to look for the long term and sort of buy into a selloff like this, or do you think there's more to this on the heels of last night' election? what's your take? >> we're definitely buying. we operate on the private side, so we're buying private stocks,

but we're definitely buying. i think we're going through a long-term cyclical -- basically an anti-bubble. as a buyer, i think it's a great place to be. >> certainly sounds like it with valuations getting better. how does another four years of the obama administration impact venture capital from your standpoint? how does it impact the industry? >> well, i think it's not just obama. i think it's also the fact that we still have a republican-controlled house. so i think, you know, a lot of business people f you scratch below the surface, will find we're anti-bipartisanship and pro-gridlock. i think having a republican house is a good counterbalance. it's what we've been living with. i think we're going to be fine. >> in terms of the most recent patent laws that were put in place, are you comfortable with what's going on in terms of patents and the technology sector? >> well, i mean, in general there's too much regulation. in general there's too much regulation across a number of critical areas.

patents is one. it would be good to roll back a lot of the regulation in a lot of these areas and unlock innovation and competition and make it possible for people like me to make more investments. if we're not going to be able to roll back the regulation, let's prevent more to have from being put in place. i think having a republican house is going to be helpful on that. >> where do you see the excitement in technology? the last time we spoke, we talked a lot about how mobility is really a game changer and also the fact that 5 billion mobile phones are on the planet versus 1 billion pcs. you know where the growth is. can you talk to us about what you see right now if terms of interesting ideas and growth prospects in tech? >> mobile continues to be the big story. the new numbers are next year a projection of 1.2 billion smart devices sold worldwide. most of those are smart phones and tablets. we've never had a market where there's been that many people who have access to the internet. we've never had a world where there's that many people who have access to the internet.

the opportunity to do everything from commerce to education to, you know, a very broad swath of economic activity, entertainment, and be able to apply that into this new world and deliver it to people oes phones and tablets is probably the single biggest economic opportunity our industry has ever had. >> the last time we spoke, you said having the encyclopedia in your pocket for the population growth around the world is a really big deal. >> exactly. the basic dream should be that every kid on the planet should be able to get an ivy league caliber education and be able to do that without having to figure out how to actually pay, you know, $50,000 a year, without having to figure out how to get to harvard or stanford. we should make that caliber education available to everybody. we would unlock enormous human potential and growth. for the first time, we have the technology platform emerging that's going to make that possible. i'm very excited about that. >> mark, what about facebook? without asking you any secrets in terms of what you're doing with your stock, obviously you were an earlier investor in the

company. how does the company thrive going forward? is it capitalizing on the mobility aspect of advertising? where does the growth come from? are you still a real believer? >> i'm holding my stock. i'm making one sale to be able to pay tax but not a share or more beyond what's required to pay taxes. i'm otherwise holding my stock. i don't want to talk specifically about facebook's business. across our industry, i think the concerns about mobile monetization in particular are overblown. i'm quite confident in mobile monetization. thing the next five years, there are going to be a whole series of mobile online businesses that will get built. a lot of the best entrepreneurs of our generation right now are focused on that problem. i think it's going to work just fine. >> why would you sell it? you've got an enormous gain here. what are you, like, dollars, pennies? what did you buy into this company, mark? >> it was very early on. i've been fortunate. i've been working with mark zuckerberg since near the start of the company.

i've been on the board for over four years. it's been great to see the company develop. i think they have a very bright future. >> what is your view on how he's led the company since the founding of it? is mark zuckerberg -- do you have faith in him to continue as a public company even with the botched up ipo? >> i think he's not only one of the best technology industry ceos, i think he's one of the best ceos period right now in the world. he has an absolutely unbelievable long-term vision. he's just an absolute monster when it comes to execution. he's incredibly focused. you know, the bond with his employees is unbelievable. i spoke about two months ago. they opened with a standing ovation for the ceo. i have never seen that before in my life at any company. look, he's 28. he's going to be doing this for the next 30 years. it's just -- i think there's incredible potential with that company. >> is there still the vibrancy going on in silicon valley? lots of start-ups,

entrepreneurialism. is that still in place? any changes? >> no, i mean, things continue. it's a very vibrant time, very active time. a lot of really smart people are coming to the valley from all over the world. one of the things i'm hoping for politically is more immigration reform so we can bring more smart people here. it's astonishing the kinds of people who walk through our door every day, the creativity they have, the energy they have. i think entrepreneurs are getting better. i think they're better than they were when i was a kid. i think it's the whole ecosystem doing quite well. >> mark, great to talk with you. thanks for being on the program today. >> thanks, maria. >> see you soon. >> now an elder statesman of silicon valley. hard to believe. we're heading toward the close here. kind of holding steady. it's a whole lot of bad on wall street so far. the dow down 278 points. kind of holding here. maybe waiting for comments from house speaker boehner. >> a lot of fear in this market on the heels of the election. investors worrying about higher taxes, about regulation.

is the fear of higher dividends and capital gains taxes warranted? we'll take a look at the realities that investors are looking at and about to take it on the chin from the tax man. also ahead, from coal to defense stocks, which industries will be the winners and the losers during the president's second term? we'll look at that coming up. and house speaker john boehner getting ready to speak any moment about looming fiscal cliff. we'll take you live to that speech. stay with us on the "closing bell." ♪ [ female announcer ] today is not just about who lives in the white house, it's about who lives in the yellow house, the brick, the green, and the apartment house, too. today we not only honor the oval office, but we honor the cubicle, the open-air office and the home office as well. ♪ today is not just about who rides in air force one,

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welcome back to the "closing bell." take a look at the damage today. we have a market selloff today. just about a half an hour to go in the trading session. the market is off of the worst levels. we had been down about 300 earlier. we're looking at a decline of 268 points on the industrial average. nasdaq and s&p 500 also hit hard. nasdaq the worst hit, actually. down better than 2%, bill. >> okay. as you know, with president obama winning a second term, investors are growing worried about high dividend payers that have been a darling on the street. the question is, will obama's re-election mean a massive increase in the dividend tax, and would that, in turn, hurt those stocks that people have wanted to own for their high

yields? some say that's been a component in today's selloff. so let's talk numbers. we'll be looking at the two biggest dividend payers inside the dow, which happen to be the rivals in the telecom sector, at&t and verizon. i'm going to start with you, erin. you've been an advocate of dividend payers for quite a while now. does the president's re-election have you rethinking that play before the end of the year? >> no, there are four reasons why we don't think it's going to make a huge impact on companies for the fore coming future. one, it's going to be muted, particularly with the house still being republican. we don't think it's going to be as bad as people expect. the most important is historically when dividends were lowered back in 2003, we didn't really see any changes in the number of companies offering dividends and the amounts. so we expect that lack of change to also happen this time. also, not all investors are tax sensitive. >> right. so you're hanging in there with

those dividend payers like an at&t or verizon? >> yeah, there's a lot of money out there that isn't tax sense tiff. we still believe the lack of volatility with your dividend is worth it. >> all right. rich, how do the charts look? >> bill, i'm a technician. i focus on prices, not policy. right now these charts are telling me you want to be a seller of dividend paying stocks like at&t. look, the stock's been a star, up 40% from the november low. you tack on your 5% dividend, that's a nice 45% return over the last 12 months. boom. see this decisive breakdown below the 200-day moving average? and that well-defined uptrend. those are classic warni ining signals. of course, the stock is already off 13%, even in anticipation of the election results. maybe you don't want to sell today. you wait for a bounce. if this stock takes out 33 and a closing basis, you have to be gone. that must be used as a protective stop on any position. >> what about verizon? >> not surprisingly a very similar technical structure when you look at verizon. when we bring up the chart, we

can see a well-defined trading range has evolved over the past six months. what makes this trading range more sinister, this false breakout here. a false breakout leads to a fast move in the opposite direction. >> that's happened. >> which has happened. on top of that, it's a fast breakout to an 11-year high. that's a textbook warning sign. 42, we're going to test that critical support. any break below 42 opens the flood gates. sorry about the pun, to a test of $38 a share. look for a little support at 42, but i'm a serl of verizon as well regardless of these dividends. >> okay. once again, a difference between fundamentals and technicals. thank you both for talking numbers today. >> all right, bill. we're still looking at a decline of about 250 points on the dow jones industrial average. it is ugly out there. nasdaq composite down 60 points as well. will president obama be more friendly to the oil and gas industries than he was in the first term? legendary oil man boone pickens is with us weighing in on that and this market selloff.

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okay. so as you can see, we are coming back. had been a big down day. had been down 369 points on the dow. now we're coming off the lows and waiting now for house speaker john boehner. he's planning a statement about the negotiations on the fiscal cliff. this is front and center for wall street and for anybody else right now as they now have between today and december 31 to try and figure out how to stave off the so-called fiscal cliff, those spending cuts, and the tax increases that could happen. in fact, here's the speaker now. let's listen in. >> let me start by offering my congratulations to president obama and the first lady and the vice president biden and dr. biden. like many americans, i was

hoping that this presidential election would turn out a little differently. mitt romney and paul ryan are good men. they're good leaders. i want to wish mitt, ann, paul, and janna and their families well. the american people have spoken. they've re-elected president obama, and they've again re-elected a republican majority in the house of representatives. if there's a mandate in yesterday's results, it's a mandate for us to find a way to work together on the solutions to the challenges that we all face as a nation. my message today is not one of confrontation but one of conviction. in the weeks and months ahead, we face a series of tremendous challenges and great opportunity. just weeks away from now looms the so-called fiscal cliff, a combination of automatic spending cuts and tax increases mandated by law. within months of the fiscal cliff, congress will be asked to raise the nation's debt ceiling. around the same time,

legislation will be needed to keep the government running as a continuing resolution under which we're currently operating expires. amid all of these short-term hurdles, we face the greatest challenge of all. a massive debt that is smothering growth and exceeding the entire size of our economy. there will be many who will say that with the election over, we should confront the first of these challenges by simply letting the top two tax rates expire and pushing the sequester off to some other date. they'd have us engage in the same short-term temporary policies that have helped put us into this fix. in essence, they're saying, let's have more of the same. let's agree to drive our economy off part of the fiscal cliff instead of driving it off the whole fiscal cliff, and we'll call it a day. that might get us out of town, but it won't get us out of the problem. it will also hurt our economy. we can't keep going on like

that. we can't keep setting the bar that low. it's time that we raise the bar. you know, the american people this week didn't give us a mandate to simply do the simple thing. they elected us to lead. they gave us a mandate to work together to do the best for our country. we know what the best thing to do would be. that would be an agreement that sends the signal to our economy and to the world that after years of punting on the major fiscal challenges that we face, 2013 is going to be different. it would be an agreement that begins to pave the way for long-term growth that is essential if we want to lift the cloud of debt hanging over our country. we won't solve the problem of our fiscal imbalance overnight. certainly won't do it in a lame duck session of congress. and it won't be done by raising taxes or taking a plunge off the

fiscal cliff. what we can do is avert the cliff that serving as a down payment on and a catalyst for major solutions to begin to solve the problem. mr. president, the republican majority here in the house stands ready to work with you to do what's best for our country. that's exactly what i told the president earlier today. that is the will of the people, and we will answer to them. doing what's best means fully considering the impact of the policies that we might set in motion. the independent accounting firm says going over part of the fiscal cliff and raising taxes on the top two rates would cost our economy more than 700,000 jobs. they also confirmed that many of those hit with a rate increase will be small business owners. the very people who both parties acknowledge are the key to private sector job creation. there's an alternative to going over the fiscal cliff. in whole or in part.

it involves making real changes to the financial structure of entitlement programs and reforming our tax code to curb special interest loopholes and deductions. by working together and creating a fair, simpler, cleaner tax code, we can give our country a stronger, healthier economy. a stronger economy means more revenue, which is what the president seeks. because the american people expect us to find common ground, we're willing to accept some additional revenues via tax reform. there's a model for tax reform that supports economic growth. it happened in 1986 with a democrat house run by tip o'neill and a republican president named ronald reagan. in 1986, there, too, were skeptics who doubted the economic benefits of tax reform. those skeptics were wrong. a stanford economist and former treasury secretary put it, the 1986 reform is the sort of unsung hero of the very good economic times we've had for a

long time. the time has come again to revamp the tax code. if we do, reargues, we'll get a gusher, and there will be a response and revenue will come in. the american people also expect us to solve the problem. and for that reason, in order to garner republican support for new revenues, the president must be willing to reduce spending and shore up entitlement programs that are the primary drivers of our debt. if we aren't seeking to impose our will in the present, we're asking him to make good on his balanced approach. the president has called for a balanced approach to the deficit in a combination of spending cuts and increased revenues. a balanced approach isn't balanced if it means higher taxes on small businesses that are the key to getting our economy moving again and keeping it moving. a balanced approach isn't balanced if it means we increase the amount of money coming into the coffers of government but we

don't cut spending and address entitlements at the same time. a balanced approach isn't balanced if it's done in the old washington way of raising taxes now and ultimately failing to cut spending in the future. a balanced approach isn't balanced if it means slashing national defense instead of making the common sense spending cuts that are truly needed. real economic growth eluded us in the first term of this president. without it, we can't solve our debt problem. for the purposes of forging a bipartisan agreement that begins to solve the problem, we're willing to accept new revenue under the right conditions. what matters is where the increased revenue comes from and what type of reform comes with it. does the increased revenue come from government taking a larger share of what the american people earn through higher tax rates? or does it come as a by-product of growing our economy, energized by a simpler, cleaner,

fairer tax code with fewer loopholes and lower rates for all? at the same time, we're reforming the tax kout, are we supporting growth by taking concrete steps it to put our country's entitlement programs on a sounder financial footing? or are we just going to continue to duck the matter of entitlements, thus the root of the entire problem? shoring up entitlements and reforming the tax code, closing special interest loopholes and deduction and moving to a fairer, simpler system will bring jobs home and result in a stronger, healthier economy. history teaches that this is the right path to take. tax reform done in a manner in which i've described will result in additional revenue that the president seeks. it will support economic growth, which means more revenue generated for the treasury. it will improve the efficiency of the tax system, which means additional revenue as well. listen, we're closer than many

think to the critical mass that's needed legislatively to get tax reform done. the president and i talked about it extensively during the summer of 2011. senator pat tumey with the support of other republicans offered substantive proposals in the so-called super committee last year that provided revenue via tax reform. now, the american people recognize that our economy, getting it moving again, is the only way we'll be able to balance the federal budget. the question we should be asking is not which taxes should i raise to get more revenue, but which reforms can we agree on that will get our economy moving again? there are two paths we can take to get the revenue the president seeks. feeding the growth of government through higher tax rates won't help us solve the problem. feeding the growth of our economy through a better and cleaner tax code will.

the president has signaled the willingness to do tax reform with lower rates. republicans have signaled a willingness to accept new revenue if it comes from growth and reform. let's start the discussion there. i'm not suggesting we compromise on our principles, but i am suggesting that we commit ourselves to creating an atmosphere where we can seek common ground where it exists and seize it. if we can't find common ground, that means we'll continue to operate on a tax b code on a year-by-year basis. that means we'll continue to extend major programs for a month at a time. it means we'll continuously face exploration of the government's borrowing authority. and we'll be on constant downgrade watch from our creditors. in the new testament, there's a parable told of two men. one who built his house on sand. the other who built his house on rock. the foundation of our country's economy, the rock of our economy, has always been small

businesses and the private sector. i ran one of those small businesses. i can tell you that raising small business taxes means they don't grow. if small businesses don't grow, our economy doesn't grow. if our economy doesn't grow, we don't have a prayer of digging our country out of the hole that we call our national debt. this is why going over part of the fiscal cliff and raising taxes on job creators is really no solution at all. instead of building our house on sand, let's build it on rock. instead of raising small business taxes, let's start by fixing their problems. let's start by giving them some confidence and certainty about what the future holds. for this to work, we need to plan for a serious process. focus on substance, not on theatrics. it will require weeks of work rather than a weekend of photo ops. it won't happen around a campfire at camp david or in a secret room of some air force

base or as much as i'd like over 18 holes of golf. this is going to take time. if we're all striving for a solution, i'm confident that we can get there. mr. president, this is your moment. we're ready to be led. not as democrats or republicans, but as americans. we want you to lead. not as a liberal or conservative but as president of the united states of america. we want you to succeed. let's challenge ourselves to find the common ground that has eluded us. let's rise above the dysfunction and do the right thing together for our country. thank you, all. >> speaker of the house john boehner basically opening the door to increases in taxes there, coming to the middle, it seems. he said we will accept more revenue as long as it comes with tax reform and a growth plan. that's opening the door right

there. >> didn't have the fiery rhetoric we'd heard and become accustomed to the last couple of years. much more conciliatory tone. eamon javers is there in washington -- i think you're in washington. do you go back already? >> i did. i'm here in washington already. >> what did you make? >> the news here is speaker of the house john boehner is putting new revenues on the table. he's saying here that what he doesn't want to see is simply letting the bush tax cuts for those over $250,000 expire. that's the president's plan. what boehner here is signaling is he's willing to engage in a much more complicated deal-making process, the kind of which he engaged with the president back in the summer of 2011. they weren't able to get the deal done then, but boehner seemed to be saying just here that he's willing to go back and renegotiation there and very conciliatory there at the end with the language to the president, mr. president, we are willing to be led. that's not the kind of rhetoric you heard from house republicans last summer, last year, before this election. so maybe there is a moment here post-election where things can

change. i do want to add that harry reid, the senate democratic leader, was up on capitol hill speaking to reporters today. he indicated weariness. he said, i want to work together, but i want everyone to understand that you can't push us around. so there's a willingness to have some deal making here but also some weariness in washington. >> he also said, you know, it will include a simpler tax code, broadening the base, lowering the rates. he's still looking for lower rates, i assuming on the corporate sector, which is something the president also discussed but also said it has to come with entitlement reform. so he's not giving up on the fact that we need entitlement reform and spending cuts but is opening the door and willing to accept higher taxes so that a compromi compromise can be made. >> he's saying he wants to see a grand bargain where you deal with taxes at the same time you deal with entitlements. you eliminate so many loopholes that even though you're lowering the overall rates, you're

bringing in more revenue to the united states treasury. that's what he means. >> absolutely. and more growth. eamon, thanks so much. we're in the final stretch here for the day. 15 minutes kbbefore the closing bell sounds. >> market hasn't moved on any of this right now. so they're accepting. they're not disappointed. we'll take it that way, i guess. up next, legendary investor boone pickens reacts to speaker boehner. plus, we'll find out what he thinks a second obama term means for the energy industry. >> after the bell, the man who ran home depot tell us whether washington can come together to avoid the fiscal cliff. he's here exclusively later on the "closing bell." stay with us. [ male announcer ] at scottrade,

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welcome back. take a look at the damage today on wall street. triple-digit decline. we're off of the lows, which were down about 300 earlier today. the investment community reacting to the prospect of higher taxes among others. >> let's get right to it. we welcome our friend boone pickens, the legendary energy investor. mr. leng, nigend, nice to see y.

welcome back. >> thank you. >> we heard speaker boehner talking a little while ago. i mean, as they get ready for this fiscal cliff, it sounds a little more conciliatory than it was maybe a day ago, even. are you hopeful that there can be something in there that can solve the fiscal cliff without putting us into recession? what do you think? >> well, i'm always hopeful. i'm an optimist. what i heard out of boehner is i know he can see the fiscal cliff coming up fast, and he wa wants get something done. he opened up every door, i thought. he talked about tax reform. he talked about the president leading. to me, the solution is, of course, some of those things but you can put in there energy is a big factor. 1:00 this morning, i heard the president say, you know, that

you've got to get off of foreign oil. well, you have to get off of opec oil. that's 4.5 million barrels a day. you can do that. when that happens, you get off opec oil, you will dry up funds to the taliban and al qaeda. that's what i'm after. i want to get that military out of the mideast. >> okay. >> you know, i want to put that aside for a moment, boone. the energy story is so rich and so important in terms of job creation, in terms of eliminating the dependence on oil. since we just heard from john boehner a moment ago, he basically opened the door to, you know, higher taxes. as a business guy yourself, as someone in that highest category, do you worry that we are going to see dividend taxes and capital gain taxes among the taxes that go higher and much higher? is this a worry to you in terms of putting a sort of upset in these markets? >> well, i'm not a worrier, to

start with. i think there are solutions that can solve the problem. i think that that's what boehner said there. if it does require higher taxes, let's see what they are. don't start, you know -- don't rush the monkey, and you'll see a better show. >> you think they should get rid of the tax credit for the big oil companies, for example? >> what tax credit do they get? >> credits that they've been debating for the last two years now, whether they should end some of those tax credits that the oil companies have enjoyed. >> well, i don't know the tax credits. the oil companies give the same taxing as the manufacturing does and everything else. so when they talk about the tax credits, i don't quite -- they never -- they talk in vague generalities and don't specifically cite what tax credits you're talking about. i think the oil companies -- the only tax credit that could be that they haven't mentioned specifically is intangible

drilling costs. that's an easy one to analyze. you cut the intangible drilling cost, you will cut the cap-ex budget for all the oil companies. that's what it amounts to. it's there for a purpose. it's not a grant. it's a tax credit, which gives you quickly a write-off in the first year. if you don't want to do it, cut it out. if you cut it out, you're going to cut -- okay. >> but boone, what about the selloff today on wall street? is this warranted? what do you do as an invest itoe in a market like this? >> you want to cut your throat. that's the way i feel today. >> i thought you were optimistic though. >> i am, i am. i only want to cut my throat here for an hour or two. >> just kidding. >> but i think the market thought romney was going to win is what happened. they felt like it would be constructive for the market. so he didn't win, he lost.

it doesn't mean you give up or anything like that. it's figure out how you're going to manage it and go forward. >> what role dish mean, you've been a proponent of natural gas for a while. jack welch was on last week saying he thinks natural gas could be bigger than the internet. everybody's figured out that with the huge pockets of natural gas we have, we can solve our energy dependence on opec. how do we do that? how do we begin the process of making natural gas a bigger part of the energy policy of this country? >> well, your leadership in washington can help that. but i think it's a bigger picture than that. you should do a north american energy alliance. bring together canada, mexico, and the united states. use our natural resources. we have a lot of oil too. our industry has done an unbelievably good job of providing the cheapest energy in the world to the united states. we have the cheapest oil by 15%.

we have the cheapest natural gas by 75%. and we have the cheapest gasoline by 50%. so here you are with the cheapest energy available. that's going to bring industry back into this country. but you're going to have to have some leadership in washington to understand the resources, understand what the resources can do, and then sell it to the world. >> all right. boone, we're about to lose our satellite. we got to go. thanks for your time as us a. good to see you. >> good. thank you. >> thank you so much, boone. up next, we're coming back with the closing countdown. we are winding down a very tough day for the bulls on wall street today. >> and don't forget after the bell, for mitt romney, wealthy americans running for office got creamed at the polls. coming up, a look at whether they lost to better candidates or being rich in this country has become a dirty word. you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide. e want to ime our schools... ... what should we invest in?

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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. it's just common sense, from td ameritrade. about 2 1/2 minutes left here. let me show you the dow quickly. back below 13,000 now. if we close here, first time since august 2nd we're below 13,000 on a closing basis.

this is our worst selloff in about five months. we're heading lower again. we were down 369 toipoints. we're well off that low. let me show you where the weakness was today. all ten sectors of the s&p were lower. the hardest hit, the darlings of the street lately, the financial, the energy stocks, technology, industrials, telecom, all those dividend players getting hard hit today. >> i think it's the fear of the unknown. you know, we don't know where the tax rates will be. it may very well be they come on a compromise and dividend taxes only go to 20% and capital gains 20%. we'll see, but that fear of the unknown is really dominating today. that's why you really have that low-hanging fruit, those companies that have been doing so well all year are going to be the ones you sell first. >> looking forward to your interview with bob. >> yeah, he's managed so many businesses from ge to home depot and chrysler. that's at the top of the hour. i'll see you then. have a good rest of the show. >> all right. matt, the day after the election four years ago, it was down 5%.

we got that going for us. what do you make of this? is there more to come? are you taking comfort from what john boehner had to say? >> you know, hopefully you can take comfort in what they're saying. hopefully they can come to an agreement. this is a big issue right now. this is a bigger issue than the actual election. last year we had the selloff of 5%. that was due to because we didn't know where we were going. now we know who won. now we can take definite terms in where we're going forward. we may not know the exact numbers, but we know where he's headed. >> selloff overdone today? are you guys looking to buy, pick up? >> i'm not nervous about the selloff. numbers aren't a big thing anymore. we slip below 13,000 on the dow, these aren't big numbers. i'm looking for more about what we see as we get toward the fiscal cliff, as we get toward the end of the year. today doesn't matter. if you're a buyer, good time to buy. if you're a seller, you can sell now too. these are good times to be in the market. >> well put.