significant percentage gains led by first solar, up 6.66%. >> that does it for this edition of "power lunch." i'll see you later tonight when you present and i host look the business journalism awards. >> have a great afternoon. we'll see you tomorrow. well, apparently mom and pop didn't get the memo about global fears because a trio of data today proving the consumer may still be king. dare we call it the hopium hat trick, yes, we dare. and you may be thinking of finally selling your home because the market is better, and that may be the reason that we need to be a wee bit cautious on housing, we'll explain. plus, new footage of the american boss being held hostage by his own workers in china, and we let you know what a new study says is the single most power l ful word you can use at a

business meeting and you might have seen the president speaking at georgetown, a major policy speech on climate change. among the headlines that have come out of that speech is the president urging the state department not to approve the keystone pipeline unless there's guarantees it will not increase greenhouse gas emissions and the president saying he refuses to condemn this generation and future generations to what he calls a planet that is not able to be fixed because of climate damage. mandy, much more on this and reaction with howard dean, among oh, coming up in a few minutes. >> indeed, we will. meantime, let's take a look at what's happening with the markets. brian, no softly, softly for the dow. up by triple digits earlier on. up 80 points on the dow, but the dow could still today post its 13th triple-digit move in 17 june sessions, and that, my dear for example, would be the most in a month since november 2011, which, by the way, also had 13. let's find out what's pushing

the market higher today apart from the economic data. let's get straight down to the nyse with josh lipton and out to rick santelli at the cme. how are things there? >> a day in the green there. the blue chips up 95 and traders will talk about two themes today. one, they will say china. yesterday, of course, liquidity worries, concerns that a credit crunch could slow down that nation's economy even more. chinese policy makers stepping in and easing the worries. a lot of economic data better than expected. durable goods, richmond fed, consumer confidence and what's working today the cyclical sectors, the economically sensitive sectors, banks benefiting from the steepening yield curve and better data suggesting an improving economy. certainly home builders another sector we're watching. new home prices beat. hov and spf and ones we're watching closely in today's trade. >> we'll talk more about housing in just a movement thank you

very much, josh lipton. let's get out to rick santelli. it's limp been a ric week, right, since the fed meeting. how much investors have slashed their bullish treasury bets? >> it's like we talked before this spot but didn't. let's look at a one dark week chart of tens. a week ago, settlements back to back of 2.18. add 40 basis point and you arrive at the 2.58 and 2.59 current level. if you want to look the short by wild move go to may 1st when we were at 1.60, but the point of this is that right now we'll make new high yield closes pretty much on all maturities for this move, two years in most maturity, but yet the equity markets seem to be oblivious and the top of the spot. why aren't mom and pop getting the memo? because the transmission memos of higher rates to mom and pop aren't necessarily efficient, more like telegraph, but when these high rates move into the

housing areasona the numbers we have today may not reflect and we'll look forward to what the prognosis and diagnosis is of higher rates. >> i completely agree with that, but right now you have to admit that the data points do seem pretty good and seem fitting coming after last night's amazing comeback win by the chicago blackhawks because we have a full hopium had trick, hopium the word we rolled out on this fine program two years ago talking about how real people across real america were starting to feel better, and we have it today. in case you missed, it here's what we've got. new home sales up more than expected in may. april sales also revised higher. next, durable goods. the big-ticket items, appliances, cars, airplanes that we all buy, maybe not planes, all coming in higher than expected as well, and the final biscuit in the basket, don't you know, consumer confidence. it came in at a five-year high, mandy. like you say often, got to sometimes get out of new york and find out how people are

really feeling across america, and it's clear, and make rick will be right down the road, but at least right now people are feeling better. >> that's excellent. let's start off with the optimistic housing data. diana olick is here to break it all down for us. diana? >> reporter: numbers are all defying expectations, but i'm hearing that word again a lot that i used to hear in 2006. unsustainable starting with the builders, who are doing better but frankly should be building more given the red hot demand. contracts to buy newly built homes rose over 2% month over month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 476k. that's up 29% from a year ago. still, with housing demand at around 1.3 million, the builders could do more. builders were able to raise prices up 10% from a year ago, despite rising rates, but, remember, rates didn't really spike until the end of may. now, to home prices. the latest reading on home prices in the nation's top 20 markets set new records in april which was before mortgage rates

started to rise again. the top 10 and 20 markets so gains of 11.6 and 12.1% from a year ago, that from the case-shiller index. report mondayly gains softballbly adjusted and now comes the caveat. these numbers look backward before rates spiked, and things are very different on the ground today. >> what we've seen is a little change of the level of demand. bidding wars off the week. and a third of the cases, bidding wars are down, properties staying on the market longer. >> going forward, we'll see more sellers listing their homes to take advantage of the rising prices, but we'll see more buyers looking to get in fast as rates rise. investors are pulling out. main street is moving. in the math is going to be a little tricky here over the summer. the current price gains, again, keep hearing the word unsustainable and even more so as mortgage rates rise further and mortgage applications out

tomorrow morning. want to watch for that. >> diana, thanks very much. reality check and let's bring in the senior economist and director at wells fargo and cnbc global strategist at btig, dan greenhouse. >> not like we're putting on the party hats and dancing around. we know there's still problems out there, but it's hard for anybody to deny that the numbers, while not spectacular, were certainly pretty doggone good. >> the numbers were very good, and i think it's important to temper that excitement because we still have inventories that are at a very low level. negative equity has also come down, but there's still a number of homeowners out there that still have negative equity. again, if we look at case shiller, it's backward looking. even if we look at core logic numbers, they are all backward looking, so a lot of this happened, we're looking at april numbers, and the markets have

changed since then. so we're seeing -- >> go ahead. >> i was just going to say indeed the markets have changed since then and to that point, dan greenhouse, you and i were chitchatting about this verying to intwo, three weeks ago, and you said you felt that the housing recovery was strong enough to offset the rise we had been seeing in rates, but now, of course, we've seen quite a shakeup in rates. do you still make that statement? >> listen, it's been a pretty sharp rise in rates by about a full percentage point over the last couple of weeks, and that's certainly go to have some impact on demand, but i think the larger story or the larger thought that somehow a 30-year mortgage at 4.25 or 4.5 is going to sink the housing market is something i don't disagree with -- something i don't agree with. what it's probably-to-going to do is push buyers off into the future and maybe people will buy smaller houses, but if you look at previous housing recoveries, no reason to believe that somehow or other this is all fake and relatively speaking

still low levels of mortgage rates are going to sink the market. >> indeed. we've historically had 5%, 6% mortgage rates. i think we're probably look pretty good at these levels. what do you think is the actual pressure point, annika? what stage of the economic recovery, housing recovery, what mortgage rate do you think will start to bite? >> it's a very different market for different buyers. the first-time home buyer, this could be the pressure point for the first-time home buyer. it could mean they choose renting. there's also the move-up buyer, and it's especially in the particular month, the first month that we started to see some activity happen on the lower end. the less than 150,000, and so that could be the trade down buyer, likely baby boomers going into that market, so it really varies as to what the pressure point could be. >> you know, dan, put a snarky

comment on twitter but i tried to make a point how many sales people, car sales people, realtors, whatever it may be, are saying their customers going if i really want the car, dan, but i'm afraid about a chinese liquidity problem from chinese banks? it doesn't happen. mom and pop in wisconsin, do they care? >> first of all, i'm shocked to hear that you've been snarky on twitter. that's a very unusual occurrence, but more generally i would also say this is kind of the argument that i like to make about social security and medicare, unrelated but i'll bring it up very quickly. how many businesses are not hiring today because 50 or 60 years from now there's a social security problem and you touched on something really important, that nobody knows about, cares about or understands the threat of the global liquidity crisis. what matters is whether or not i can afford a given house and to my earlier point and to build off of what anika had to say, the full effects will be a slowdown in payments that will extend duration in the mortgage market, we know that's clear, but with respect to the housing

market, i think you'll see people trade down to lower priced houses. >> you know, dan, to follow up on that very quickly, listen, i think we all agree here, right, that there may be problems, that nobody is a pollyanna and the chinese banks may have a problem and we'll have another recession but it's going to happen and we can't sit on our hands and worry. you need to be protective and smart, but you can't just freeze up. >> mind you, people who over the last three to five years, some of them masters of the market, they have spent a long time talking about chinese liquidity in portuguese obligations and greek haircuts, and while that's all fun and well and good, at the end of the day the stock market is where it is compared to where it is, the housing market is where it is compared to where it was, and in that context i can while the rise in mortgage rates has been dramatic and economic, i'm not sure i'm ready to sell short the housing market yet in terms of its recovery. >> the recovery continues. does it get even stronger from

here or just keep on going in the same pace? >> i think it's clear the recovery continues. they in is will we see the 20% increases in some of the hard-hit areas like las vegas and los angeles, i think that as the investor and the institutional buyer begin to exit those markets, you definitely start to see a pullback. so it's sustainable. we do see a genuine recovery, by think these high double digit house prices will probably pull back a lot. >> all right. anika and dan, great stuff. if you listen to the negative people in 2007, you saved a 50% loss in the stock market. if you keep listening to the same people, right, you've missed 100% gain so you've got to change your thinking as the years go on. >> before we get out real quick.

investing is hard, man. give a lot of people a lot of credit. it's hard and it's very easy to get bogged down in a way of thinking, and people waiting for the collapse of everything, and, again, it's all built on the myth, the idea that this is all built on the frefrederal reserv >> dan, it's cool to be negative, that's the sad part of our society. it's cool to be downer and say we're all doomed. >> get more attention being negative, but resalt what reality is right now. >> got to make nice cool. how do we do that? >> you're trying. >> be nice day and be cool. >> thanks, guys. appreciate it. how do we keep the good times getting better? we all agree it's about jobs. we've been promised more now for a while so where are they and how do we create them? we'll debate that coming up. >> more to chan for the unbelievable story of an american boss who is being held hostage by factory workers in

china. we'll bring you more on that developing story. fascinating. do stick around. (announcer) at scottrade, our clients trade and invest exactly how they want. with scottrade's online banking, i get one view of my bank and brokerage accounts with one login... to easily move my money when i need to. plus, when i call my local scottrade office, i can talk to someone who knows how i trade. because i don't trade like everybody. i trade like me. i'm with scottrade. (announcer) scottrade.

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happening right now in washington president obama delivering a speech on climate change. eamon javers monitoring what. have we heard so far that's of note? >> reporter: president speaking at georgetown university, and he's expected to say he'll only approve the keystone pipeline that's been the subject of so much controversy if it can be

done in such a way that it doesn't increase greenhouse gas emissions. he's also laying out a multi-pronged plan for dealing with climate change in the united states and around the world. let me give you a couple of details of the plan that his aides j put out so far. they say he's going to direct the epa to work closely with states, try and other stake holders to establish carbon pollution standards for new and existing power plant. that's something new. he's going to make up to $8 billion in loan guarantee vainly for a wider array of fossil fuel energy and efficiency projects, will direct the department of interior to permit enough renewables to power more than $6 million homes and the president here, just a few minutes ago, saying that he's really dismissing some of the critics of some of the nay sayers who say we can't do this thing without hurting jobs. take a listen to the president a few minutes ago. >> what you'll hear from the special interests and their allies in congress is that this

will kill jobs and crush the economy and basically end american free enterprise as we know it. >> in fact, the president is right. even as he was speaking the u.s. chamber of commerce put out a reaction to his speech saying that the -- the issues that he's laying out here do in fact threaten to kill jobs and hurt the economy and hurt economic growth and raise americans' energy bill so this debate is far from settled, but what the president hopes to do right now is take a series of regulatory actions that don't necessarily need to go through the halls of congress and get the votes he's had such difficulty getting up on capitol hill. >> eamon javers, thank you very much. >> you bet. >> how do we keep the economic ball rolling and make surety decent economy gets even better? joining us now is vermont governor howard dean and a member of the manhattan institute who worked for both bush administrations. i'm sure you and governor dean may disagree on how to do it. i hope we can agree that the key

to taking the next step in the economy is adding jobs. how can we add jobs, the single best way to do that? >> you're actually right. we're 2.5 million jobs fewer than in december 2007 when the recession started. it's of the utmost importance to add jobs and i have a couple of suggestions. first of all, change the affordable care act so that you can move from 49 to 50 workers in a firm without incuring a big price. right now employers, if they go from 49 to 50 workers they have to pay $2,000 per worker if they don't have the right kind of health insurance, that law needs to be changed because that can cost an employer $40,000 moving from 49 to 50, and having listened to the president right now, i would say don't make electricity more expensive because making electricity with renewables rather than with natural gas and coal makes energy more expensive and it drives away manufacturing,

energy intensity manufacturing locates elsewhere and not in the u.s. and we've seen a lot of manufacturing come back here because of the inexpensive gas. >> those are your two key points. what about you, governor keen, before i'll going to push back. i want to hear your thoughts first of all. >> i strongly disagree with the second point about the renewable energy. germany has got the highest percentage of renewable energy of any major industrial power and their economy is significantly more advanced than ours in many ways so i think renewable energy does in fact create jobs, it is good for the country and we'll have to do it sooner or later, might as well do it sooner. >> we don't have to do it at all. >> we have to reform the tax code. have a corporate tax that doesn't work. it should be lower, but it should be paid for simply by removing things like the oil depletion allowance and all the loopholes and the reason it should be lower, and i realize many progressives are saying

this, we need to repatriate billions of dollars being held oversea by american corporations. we need to make the corporations paying for that taking out exemptions which is bad for business anyway and we really do need infrastructure investment. we need public/private partnerships and serious infrastructure investment and need to change the tax code so wall street finds it more profitable to invest in biotech and infrastructure and not so profitable to invest in derivatives. >> i'm driving to wisconsin on saturday, i hope i make it and get across some of these bridges in pennsylvania and ohio and indiana that i have to get across and being half sarcastic there. why is there such a pushback on this, governor? the country is spending so much on health care we can't build bridges. we'll need more health care as the bridges collapse. >> the states are broke, and they are the primary movers of infrastructure. what we really need to do is more public/private partnerships and that's an idea some

democrats have had concerns with in the past but it's been worked through. unions have gotten involved and are investing in this. doesn't have to be a political issue anymore. there's people when i disagree with like rick perry in texas now looking at a privately financed high speed rail from houston to dallas. that kind of stuff we'll have to do and we've got to find new ways of doing that. >> to what degree can we also create jobs fast enough to make up for all the structural loss in jobs? a lot of companies in the downtown learned to be leaner and meaner and not wanting to be less lean or less mean and we're use a lot more technology. >> productivity has increased which means we're doing more with fewer workers, but, yes, i mean, there is certainly the potential to expand, and i would agree with governor dean that we need to change the corporate tax code. we have the highest corporate tax rates in the world. 35%. we tax companies on their worldwide income instead of territorial income. the oecd is 24% and senator

baucus, dave champ, chairman of the house ways and means, president obama have all said they want to lower taxes on the corporate level. >> but how likely is that going to happen? in what time frame is going that going to happen because we've been talking about lowering the corporate tax rate on cnbc? >> since it's something that president obama and the chairman of house ways and means and the chairman of the senate finance committee agree on, one would think there might be room for negotiation. the problem is that lowering the corporate tax rate to 24% and leaving the individual tax rate about 42%, that means there's a big distance between what small businesses pay and what corporations pay and that's a problem, too in, that but it would attract that $1.7 trillion conceivably assets held offshore that could come back here and be used for investment and job creation. >> governor dean, i'm going to let you go were this, i'm pleasantly surprised, sounded a bit like a republican when you were talking about corporate

taxes. how low would you be willing to go? >> here's where i'm pessimistic about corporate tax reform. i think what's going to happen. nice for dave camp and president obama to have agreement about this neither democrats or republicans in congress will buck the special interests. the special interests will never allow, for example, this to be paid for by reducing the oil depletion allowance which is unnecessary at this point. and there are many, many corporate tax breaks which benefit lots of these corporations, so they complain about paying 35%, but then their accountants figure out how to get away with really paying 10%. what we need is transparency, and in order to get transparency, i'm not opposed to lowering corporate taxes. i want american businesses more competitive and those dollars held overseas repatriated into the united states, but it's going to be really, really tough because the congressional membership isn't going like it. >> hear more agreement than disagreement. so to both of you, thanks very much for playing. >> that was the real hopium

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it is time for your hard money report. let's take a look at some of the metals behind me. i want to show you what's going on with gold which as you can see here is the only one currently in the red and is really the big headline today, right? hitting its lowest level since september of 2010. if gold breaks below that level, it will be a new 52-week low, and i do believe as we're about to close out quarter as well, folks, it's on track for the biggest quarterly loss in about 30 years. you can also see silver, montless, aluminum and they are all managesing to move higher, despite the fact that we have a firmer u.s. doll ear. brian, over to you. >> thank you very much.

the answer to that krif can a gun try 57 years ago. the rage was set at 57. here's a look at full-time manage money wage levels around the globe, 11.36 in ireland and 12.40 in france and the country that pays out the highest in forced minmanage. >> that 1496 is for a full-time wage. do you know what it is if you're a casual? a few days here or a few hours there or few hours there? >> $19.67 australian cents. >> i think everybody watd a casual worker. nbc teamed to be doing anything. all right. walking around putting shrimp on the barbie. >> cliche. >> dinner at outback on me. >> i'll take back that crocodile

dundee. >> two months ago 60% of the stocks in the s&p had a higher yield than the ten-year treasury. in a number has dropped. >> all dale today we're shoig what a million buckeroos can buy you. do stay with us. ♪ [ agent smith ] i've found software that intrigues me. it appears it's an agent of good.

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is the dividend heyday over? let's take a look at this data. back in april 60% of s&p dividend-paying stocks yielded more than the ten-year treasury, but now that number is only 36%. joining us now is paul hickee for spoke investment group co-founder. what's this going to do to all that, yes, i'm going to load up on dividend -- paying stocks which was the mantra we used to hear all the time here on cnbc. >> when you look at the difficult dents.

oau finding a lot of interest rates out there. why did i buy this stock again? yielding 2% and i don't know anything about the company. dividends are certainly an important ingredient, but you have to broaden your forecast. as interest rates rise, you know, the dividend component of the stock is going to become less and less mink meaningful to an investment desgligs paul, we're talk pentagon 2% when you can get on the other 36% another 2% or thereabouts. some stocks are taking a hit because. market but if their performance at some points does well, they have gone down like the overall marketors. >> that was i goes to saying, a

ten-year procksy. >> there are many more companies that pay dividend than utilities. >> you're exactly right. it's one poempnent, and you should base your decision on that. just like you don't buy a sock are a have i dividend deal. >> it's the old -- >> hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, the second biggest slide since the problems again is telecom. we're seeing a shift here, i mean, it's clear. >> if you break up the s&p 500 into groups based on dividend payments, the higher dividend payers have been underperforming, and if you get the ten-year yield up to 3% say, then you'll have less than a quarter of the stock -- >> i want to say one thing. the fed forced a lot of people to take those risks and they didn't know what they were doing, and they were sick of sitting on nothing and that's because they felt, hey, there's

neglect else to do but -- >> that's the most -- he was saying over the past ten secretaries so what's going to had this up aer. are they going to break that sickle, what we're looking at here, seasonality working in favor of the utility. overall, we see the violent moves in interest rates like we've seen over the last couple of weeks here. that will be negative for the overall market and utilities. rising interest rates per se aren't bad for the equity market. in fact, if you look at this bull market, the returns have been better when interest rates have been rising when they have been falling, but when you get the ten basis point moves per day, then that causes problems, and it catches people offguard and causes dislocations as team

pie to reinvest. >> there's a developing story over genetically modified food. our jane wells got to speak with the chief tech officer, and what did they say? >> reporter: mandy, this is a big deal. genetically modified seeds are a multi-billion dollar industry, banned in parts of europe and the chorus against them are so lewd loud that scientists feel thicke like they have to speak out. monsantos the largest one. an oregon file whou. >> you know, this is a bit of a suspicious situation as what came off the field was clean.

>> this is the winner of the food prize for his genetic work on soybeans and then there's a push to label foods if they contain gmo crops, failed in k.other states are pushing it which could change consumer buying habits. >> i mean, we still kind of talk about this like it's brand new science. the reality of it is that these products have been used in the marketplace for, you know, almost 20 years. they have a complete track record of safety that's been affirmed by experience. >> when we do have a problem with food, it's almost invariably due to contamination after the crops have been grown. >> now, he also says people should be skeptical, but he stands by the science. >> people will say, well, what about this report of cancer in ra rats? the scientific community worldwide has diss credcredited

study and many others over the years and none have been validated >> reporter: debate continues, and while some countries are skeptical, other countries, brazil, argentina, the emerging markets, fastest growing markets for the gmo seeds, china just approved the new soybean seed and that will be a huge topic on tomorrow morning's earnings call. >> thanks very much, jane wells. >> up next, the million dollar summer hole challenge rolls on as the mystery mansion goes up against the porch palace. >> and later on we found the most powerful word that you will use today, but first a powerful man, bill griffith, and a review of what's coming up on the "closing bell." >> oh, yeah, you know, it mandy. coming up on the "closing bell," what we'd like to call the most important trading day. the ceo of s.a.p. joins us for the future of the cloud and the big microsoft/oracle deal and car looks may be starting to take a wrong turn. they may be heading into the same direction as the subprime

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all day today on cnbc we're showing you what a million bucks can buy you across the country. we sent six cnbc reporters to six very different real estate markets. check out $1 million summer home, and we have super broker and cnbc contributor dolly lenz to crown the top house. dolly, take it away. >> let's go to the videotape. >> let's if to the videotape. >> this is how it works. we'll show you two side by side $1 million summer homes, and to make it more interesting we've asked the reporters not to reveal obviously where the home

is located. only dolly knows and she will reveal that after we'll take a look. we have a million dollar home called ocean duplex which beat out rustic retreat in jackson wyoming and then lost to the woodsy retreat and then in round three the woodsy estate took on the porch palace, not to be confused with the porsche palace, the porch palace of galveston, texas and the palace won and now the porch palace goes head to head with the chateau d'eau. >> sitting on just under half an acre the beach front home has a porch on both levels and a three-car garage, an elevator and comes fully furnished. plus, there's a private path down to the beach. >> this traditional shingle-styled home holds special summer appeal. just over ten years old, it sits on a third of an acre and is within walking distance to a

private beach. >> this house is 3,500 square feet, and the kitchen, which has granite countertops and big island, includes stainless steel appliances, a wine cooler, two dishwashers and two ovens. >> the home's 2,500 square feet feels like a lot more because of the living room's 30-foot high ceilings. there's plenty of wall street for artwork and off the kitchen and dining area a screened-in porch. >> the house has five bedrooms and four full bathrooms. the master suite has glass doors which open up on to the second level porch. the master bathroom has his and her sinks, duel head shower and a jacuzzi tub with a view. >> this home has five bedrooms, three bathrooms, plus a media room. the master suite includes a sitting area, plus a walk-in closet while the master bath features a japanese soaking tub. >> the kitchen leads out into a big opening living/dining room space with three ceiling fans, a gas fireplace and floor-to-ceiling arch windows that open up on to a covered porch. all this for 1.02 million.

>> outside there's an in ground heated pool and outside shower and a cabana for keeping your surf boards so you can hit the waves any time. the asking price, $995,000. >> interesting. the porch palace and shore chateau d'eau, very different homes. just trying to guess. i can't believe the shore chateau d'eau would be in the northeast because $1 million in the northeast gives you a box on the beach. >> not quite on the beach so that's where you'll get your $1 million but it's in a terrific location and it's a really cool house, as you saw. >> just looking at the foliage, it feels to me more like atlantic as opposed to pacific, is that right? >> that's right. >> i'll give you a hint. >> okay. >> a big hip-hop mogul and big media guy has his white party there every year. he also happens to be my neighbor. >> there's no way it's the hamptons. >> northeast, in the hamptons? >> are you kidding me, that

house is in the hamptons? >> i thought you would get a garden shed for $1 million. >> a great house in a really good location, off the ocean though. >> what's the catch, does it not have like running water, under $1 million? >> be surprise what had good values there are almost anywhere in the country so this is proof positive that have. >> okay. there you go. i'm surprised actually. >> pleasantly surprised. >> i mean, it's sglhocking. >> i would pick the shore chateau d'eau, the one in galveston, texas, i thought immediately texas because you know what it reminds me of, the house in the move "giant" with elizabeth taylor. >> so right. >> james dean. >> looks like the house in the modern version. >> but the great thing about the hamptons is the hamptons, where the a-listers from wall street all go. the house would support a rental that takes care of the entire year's cary. >> my problem was last year i read a book called "isaac's storm," true story, galveston

used to be bigger than houston. a storm pretty much wiped it out. i'd go with the shore chateau d'eau. >> the insurance rates are super high in galveston. >> who is the winner? >> shore chateau d'eau, and we'll go on to a new winner. >> takes the round four. will go head to head with another $1 million home in another mystery location, and that's going to be on another fine program here on the station which is called "closing bell." meantime, dole, thank you, and you'll be crowning the winner later on, aren't you? >> thank you very much. an american business man many held hostage in china by his own employees. the cameras caught up with him. the behind-the-bars interview coming up. >> the best states for retirement redd revealed. lots of data, taxes, crime rate, access to medical care, cost of living and yes, the weather. here are some of the best. north dakota, nebraska, alabama, west virginia and virginia. the rest in just a sec.

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to bank rate. mississippi, kentucky, south dakota, louisiana, and the best state for retirement? tennessee. low cost of living and taxes, good access to medical care, and warmer-than-average weather are some of the reasons why the volunteer state tops the list. be sure to check out retirement.cnbc.com for more great retirement tips. ouch! china is now on pace for its worst month in nearly four years, down 15%. the shanghai composite hitting lowest levels since 2009. in fact, in the last five trading sessions alone, the index is down by 9%. brian? this next story is all you need to know about the chinese economy, perhaps. an american businessman is being held hostage there by his own employees. cnbc's own eunice yun reports on this incredible story from beijing. >> reporter: it's not often you're a prisoner in your own company, but that's what's happening to chip starnes. the american ceo of specialty medical supplies has been held

captive at his factory in china since last friday. by workers who have been with him for nearly a decade. are they keeping you in this situation? >> no, no, i don't. >> reporter: starnes is at the center of a worker revolt, not uncommon for china, but rare for an american boss. with wages here rising, the 42-year-old decided to move part of the business to india. he laid off 35 workers, paid them severance, and then rumors started he was closing the factory, which he says he was not. >> they're demanding full severance pay, but they still have a job, and that's -- that's the problem. >> reporter: the workers won't let starnes out, but they would let us in. >> i just thought i'd have maybe a little more support. >> reporter: you plan to keep this business in china? >> i mean, yes. i was operational seven days ago. >> reporter: so the workers are saying that mr. starnes actually

isn't being detained here. they say that he's free to walk around the grounds, but that that's very different from being held hostage. not to starnes. his lawyers are negotiating. so far, no deal. and the president of the american chamber of commerce said that these types of situations happen on occasion where there are hostage takings from time to time, though they are rare, and he did make a point of saying that this is not a major problem for the international business community. brian? >> reporting from a sunny and clear beijing. wow, did you see the air there? >> shocking. it's shocking. >> let us -- i mean, it's awful. >> and that is real. it's not just background. it is real. >> it's foggy. foggy. >> chief international correspondent is joining us -- if i'm an american thinking about opening up a manufacturing facility in china but haven't done so, i'm going to do a double-take because of that story. >> things are different there. we talk about the progress china has made, and absolutely, it has.

and yet, what you see there -- you know, she told us earlier, when he approached the local authorities -- or somehow got a message to them, "can you help me out?" what would happen if that was the united states? there would be s.w.a.t. team. there, they said, cut a deal. the thing that's telling about it is the workers were so distrustful, they were convinced he was shutting down the factory, even though he insisted over and over again, no. >> well, we knew in the past this thing might happen, the factory would shut down and they would not get severance. they're probably scared of the way things used to be. i believe the labor laws are getting better. >> yes, and rages are still rising, which means a lot of the jobs will get outsoured to places like india. >> china will learn the harsh lesson in capitalism. they took the job, right, laos, bangladesh, wherever, the lower

cost of capital will do what china did to mexico. >> unless china moves its workers up the value-production chain and up the quality chain so they can do better manufacturing, higher-quality manufacturing, where they can start to manage, that's the huge challenge that they face. the leadership of the country knows that. but it's just such a huge -- i mean, you still have 800 million farmers living in the countryside on subsistence-level wages. >> such a gap between rich and poor. >> yes. >> and i believe in this situation, a lot of people say, you know what, it's much more advisable for the western executives to stay at home and get the local mention managers ground, doing the dirty work, so you can avoid this kind of hostage situation. >> and your chinese manager could just be held prisoner, right, instead of you? >> it's a scary story. >> it happens more often than you think, except it's an american, and we can go talk to him. >> we have to go. if you know the answer to the question, don't answer it. i'll do it as the tease. do you know the single most

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persuasive word you can use in a business meeting. yeah. >> and the most powerful words in business, though, clearly, there will be no meetings today. >> or you're fired. >> thanks for watching. >> "closing bell" is next. hi, everybody. we're into the final stretch. welcome to "closing bell." i'm maria bartiromo at the new york stock exchange. it could be another triple-digit day for the dow, bill. >> that would be 13 out of 17, i think, if memory serves. i'm bill griffeth at cnbc global headquarters. it's a long story, we'll tell you later why. f fasten the seatbelts. we're in the final hour of trading. yesterday at this time we almost made it all the way back from the sell-off, only to sell off again. but today, maria, that's not the case. we are up 123 -- 132 points.