>> i wish -- that would be the one i would buy if i had $1 trillion. >> if i had $1 trillion. >> so that leaves the palatzo is going into production. you can buy it. $3 million. and get a rain shower at 60 miles an hour. >> wow. we'll have to get one here. >> a rain shower. thanks for watching the "street signs." hi, everybody, welcome to the "closing bell." i'm maria bartiromo coming to you today from washington where we have a very special guest in a few minutes. we're also closely watching wall street, of course. the markets, a couple of winning streaks are on the line. bill griffeth watching the markets in englewood cliffs. hi, bill. >> yeah, who's at the new york stock exchange today? what's going on? >> the guests coming from the new york stock exchange. >> we have plenty coming up. i'm at the cnbc world headquarters. the s&p riding the eight-day win

streak. the nasdaq, a 14-day win streak. but both are on the line at this hour. the s&p's down 7 points, the nasdaq down 14. we want to show you the dow. a rather ironic twist here. the dow was down 68 points at the low around midday. and then, with some fed speak coming out, you had kansas city fed president, esther george, one of the great hawks on the fed, came out with her hawkish comments, and it was around that time that the market came back. so we're down 41 points right now. we'll see if we can continue that trend higher as we head toward the close here, maria. >> bill, volatility is back in the game. in a half hour, my exclusive interview with mary jo white, former u.s. attorney for new york southern district, making waves in her new role as she serves notice to the banks it will not be business as usual. what does she mean by that exactly? we'll ask her about that and a lot more coming up, mary jo white joining me. >> also, about an hour from a

widely anticipated earnings report from yahoo! the ceo, marisa mayor at the helm for about a year now. we'll find out today where they are. expectations for that stock. >> and looking at where we are with the markets. the dow right now down about 45 1/2 points. about .25%. as you can see, the charge tells you what went on today as we approach the final hour. modest declines. nasdaq composite, similar chart pattern with the nasdaq with a decline of 14.75, down to 3,492. and the s&p 500 looking like this, down about 8 points, 1,674, pulling back from the all-time high reached yesterday. several winning streaks on the line. bob pisani, things are not cooperating down there so far. what's going on? >> reporter: maria, i'm here, guys, missing all both down here at the new york stock exchange. the important thing, we don't

have as much forward momentum as we've had in the past, and that's because in light of the comments from the fed officials, having problems with earnings. let me show you three industries having problems with the earnings congressmen p commentary. the fertilizers, mosaic was okay, but prices were down, for example, phosphate, the main business. those prices were weakened. all of the fertilizer companies are down today. let's move on. regional banks are weak. comerica is the first big regional bank to come out. they talked about slower loan growth. look at this. they're doing 8% loan growth in 2012. this year, so far, only 3%. he indicated it wouldn't be much better. it was one reason to buy the bank, the hopes for loan growths. the regional banks to the downside. coca-cola, beverage makers to the weak side. we had fun talking about the coke issues. they blamed the volume weakness and it was across the board, globally, blamed it largely on weather. obviously, there are some other issues floating around.

foreign exchange could be, weak consumer globally, and even concerns over health issues. on that front, look at coke's beverage volume sales. still beverages were up 6%, but sparkling, that is largely, of course, the traditional coca-cola, was largely flat. so maybe a little bit of truth in that concern. maria, back to you. really looking forward to hearing your interview with mary jo white. down here, they think she's very good on the enforcement front, but they're not so sure how strong she is on things like market structure, on flash crashes, they like to hear more about what she thinks about that, maria. >> and the market structure certainly has an an issue for sometime. thank you. we are about an hour away from the close. the dow and s&p 500 lower, losing their record close from yesterday, pulling back. joining us now in our "closing bell exchanges" joe hider from raymond financial, bob kaiser from s&p capital, and james bianco and our own rick santelli. jim, what's your take in the markets in terms of the flows

that we've been seeing? $80 billion coming out of bond funds in the last month and a half. >> yeah, that's pretty typical for -- considering that we've had one of the worst sell-offs in the bond market, in ever. if you go back 30, 40 years. so you would expect a huge outflow out of the bond markets. so i'm not surprised by that. i suspect it's stabilizing right now given that interest rates have started to come back from their july 5th highs. >> joe, we've had a very good run the first half of the year. we're coming off the four straight days of gains for the major averages. the nasdaq up eight. you feel like we're not going to see as good a gain in the second half of the year. why not? >> i think we're going to see attractive gains, but i don't expect the markets to go up 18% in the last six months. but i do think it's a very positive market. we believe that equities are the place to be, and we think they're going to be very attractive returns albeit slightly lower than what we saw in the first six months. >> because earnings won't be as strong? because of the taper talk?

what are your expectations for the second half? >> well, we think the economy is going to continue to plod along. but the uncertainties about tapering, the reduction of the government involvement, we think those are all things that will slow this down. people are going to be catching their breath. but we are positive, make no mistake about that, on the equity market. >> a lot of people are. that's what we're seeing from the investors today. rick santelli, you know, you have to call this a victory, even though we are looking at declines in the equity market. not necessarily coming from the bond market, money into stocks. money coming out of bonds have been going into savings accounts, rick santelli. >> where's the victory part? i missed the victory. what's the victory? >> well, the victory is the stock market. you know, this market does not want to come down. we have fractional losses today, rick. you know, fractional losses are for the most part, it's a victory, because we were at record highs yesterday. >> you know what?

i'm sorry, i look at record highs and i'm glad for all the people that are long. but to me, it's like going to vegas and having your cousin be the blackjack dealer, giving you inside straits or giving you 21s under the table. i'm sorry. it just doesn't -- you feel like a victory to me. a victory would be if gdp was 3% and corporate profits were doing what they're doing. but that's not the case. >> well, that's a different picture. >> well, you know what, it's a victory over money. it's all about money. ben prints it, big business take advantage, big profits excel as using it, there's less tradeable stock than there was ten years ago. there's the victory. i look at the victory for our kids at some point. but another day. the big story today is foreign exchange. the dollar index is really getting hit pretty good as you see on the intraday chart. what's fascinating you look towards europe, all of their markets are down. everybody is preparing to see what the biggest stimulater of

growth through the victory style is going to do tomorrow. and it's just amazing to me that the euro versus dollar is at a 3 1/2-week high, considering the youth unemployment in europe is, what, 60%? a very low benchmark indeed. >> yes, indeed. hey, bob kaiser, the fed -- chairman bernanke speaks tomorrow. here we go again. what do you think the market's looking for? i mean, what can he possibly say that's going to be different this time around, do you think? >> bill, the chairman's june 19th press conference was a huge disruption, obviously pushed up 10-year yields by 53 basis points at one point. the view for the stock market is still bullish, as long as earnings growth continues to expand. but even now with the five-year treasury yielding about 1.37, this morning, core cpi came at 1.6. there's still room for interest rates to rise. rising interest rates are likely to be a little bit of a headwind for the stock market. if the fed's playbook plays out as expected, you can continue to

see economic growth. you're going to continue to see downward pressure on unemployment. and the stock market should continue to be led higher by, you know, fairly impressive earnings growth. >> do you think he'll feel the need to be reassuring for the markets as he was last week in that speech up in boston? >> i think so. because the opinion at global markets intelligence at s&p capital iq is bernanke never intended to push 10-year yields up as high as they did. it dings housing affordability, a huge cornerstone of qe 3, which has promoted growth since last september. we don't look for him to purchase interest rates up again as occurred in mid-june. >> i wonder about that, jim bianco, what's your take on what chairman bernanke will say tomorrow, given the fact that the last couple of meetings and couple of statements really was him and his colleagues backpedaling out of whatever the markets misinterpreted weeks earlier in. >> the markets didn't misinterpret him. i know everybody wants to say there's a different between tapering and tightening.

but the market gets it. it believes in flows. the market believes if the fed reducing purchases from $85 billion to something less, it hurts the bond market, and that's what you've seen happen. bernanke wants to stop qe. there's no reason economically for him to be talking about this, because the economy's no better than it was in september when he started qe. he wants to stop it. so he's going to talk about tapering, the bond market's not going to take it well, and that's going to drag on the stock market as it did through may and through june. i suspect it will continue to again. >> all right. sounds like a lot of fun tomorrow. thanks, gentlemen. >> we'll leave it there. thank you, everybody. we're in the final stretch of the day. about 50 minutes left before the closing bell sounds. the market is under fractional selling with the dow down about 49 points now. >> not having a cell phone contract that locks you in for two years, sounds good, right? not so fast. wait until you hear what you have to do so get that instead of signing on the dotted line.

that story is coming up. don't miss my exclusive interview with the s.e.c. chairman mary jo white. she has a tough message for wall street, one that says it could cost the banks billions. details on that coming up in about 20 minutes' time. we'll be back. ♪ [ male announcer ] you wait all year for summer. ♪ this summer was definitely worth the wait. ♪ summer's best event from cadillac. let summer try and pass you by. lease this all-new cadillac ats for around $299 per month or purchase for 0% apr for 60 months. come in now for the best offers of the model year.

heading into the close, let's see what's working. the leaders new micron and newmont mining. the healthcare providers working today as hca now forecasts better than expected second quarter earnings. laggers, marathon, mosaic, whirlpool and ford. goldman removing ford from its conviction buy list. though still rating ford a buy. the price target is 20 bucks. among the blue chips, laggers include coke, second quarter earnings drop. weak worldwide volume growth. the company talking about unusually poor weather in the quarter. we'll end on one high flyer that got crushed today. tesla, after goldman says the stock could be worth just 58. the analysts look at three different scenarios for the

company in terms of total sales and operating margins, said the average price was 84 based on their models. maria, back to you. >> josh, thank you. mean while, at&t taking a step to get market share from people who always want the newest phone. but there's always a catch. julia boylston with what's going on there. over to you, julia. >> reporter: maria, at&t is trying to make it easier for its subscribers to always have the latest smartphone or tablet. with the new service called at&t next, customers can skip the contract and upgrade their phones and tablets every single year. the catch is that at&t will not subsidize the cost of the phone, and customers will have to pay full price. but they can do so with a 20-month financing plan. so a $650 iphone only costs 30 or so bucks a month. at&t is looking to reduce the billions of dollars it spends every year to subsidize devices as it aims to move beyond the initial deals it struck with device makers which had at&t paying enormous up

front costs. at&t is fighting back at t-mobile which -- t-mobile has been targeting at&t customers with lower fees. verizon is also reportedly working on a similar plan. at&t has said it's unclear whether the new pricing option will be more popular than the subsidy model, but for those who are eager to always have the latest gadgets, it could make sense. maria? >> all right, julia, thank you. so is st's new program a winner for the company and consumers? we want to talk about that right now. >> jay, james brem believes the senior strategist for compass intelligence who loves the new program. he joins us on the telephone. huffington post says it's a rip-off. why, peter? >> it's really targeted at people who can't do math. today, you can walk into an at&t store or any number of electronics retailers and pay $620 and walk out with a samsung galaxy s-4, a particularly hot new smartphone.

under this plan, they'll let you pay nothing up front, but you pay $32 after a month and after a year, you have the right to trade it in, so you paid $380, $384 at that point, and you own nothing. at that point, if you want a new phone, you surrender this device, you have no ownership claim to, or keep paying the $32 a month and at the end of 20 months, you now own it. well, at that point, you've paid more than the retail price. it's a rip-off. >> what about you, james? why do you like the move so much? who wins here in. >> i think everybody wins here. consumers do not want to be locked in to 24-month contracts for their devices. they want to be able to upgrade in an earlier timeframe. if you look outside the united states, we are kind of an anomaly, and if any carrier could break the subsidy model, they would. that's what they're trying to do with this. they're paying for it and locking you in a contract so they can pay off the device over the timeframe.

>> james, in other countries, you pay the retail price. you don't subsidize other people's devices through the rates you pay. under this plan, if i decide to avail myself of this $32 a month offer to end up with a samsung galaxy s-4, i'm still playing within the monthly charges i shell out to at&t, an amount that subsidizes the people getting the good deal, the two-year contract, $200 up front -- >> no, you're not -- not at all. not at all. as a matter of fact, you know, this deal, if you run the math on this compared to, say, t-mobile's jump program, or some of the other programs that are out there, it actually is beneficial to the consumer. but let's back up and take a look at why they're doing this. they're trying to give the consumer what they want. they're not the first guys to try a new program. >> right. the subprime lender industry did that, too. that didn't work out very well. people can't do math anymore. >> -- t-mobile tried it. verizon's tried it. at&t is offering consumers the

ability to use prepaid. and their prepaid services if they don't want to have a contract and they want to bring their own device at that nonsubsidized price as well. >> -- it's simply cheaper to buy the thing at retail price. sorry to cut you off there. >> i never understood pricing when it comes to having to buy a cell phone, maybe in the early days when you needed to entire people. everybody has one. do we need the enticements of a subsidized price of a two-year contract, you know, all of -- >> that's what's really going on. what's really going on -- >> since you're a proponent of this, why can't i just -- i bought my new blackberry a couple of weeks ago with my carrier. and the hoops i had to jump through were laughable. why can't i just walk in, buy the phone and start using it on a monthly basis? why isn't that available to me now, james? >> the biggest issues that we have are not about the device. it's about spectrum. everybody goes out and purchases

as a carrier different pieces of spectrum. and then they have to make -- making radios work through the air is incredibly difficult to do. so at&t has got different pieces of spectrum than sprint, than verizon, so you can't bring devices to different networks. at&t has to ensure that a multibillion-dollar investment they have in spectrum, nothing wrong with a device that's brought to the network causes that to break. so they go through a rigorous testing with that. that's one of the things that you're paying. you're paying for quality of service. on the network. you're not paying for a cell phone, right? at the end of the day, we're not paying for a cell phone. >> you're paying for quality service, the company synonymous with dropped calls, iphones that can't connect to the network. this is really very simple. this is a very sophisticated company that, like many other sophisticated companies, has figured out that the customer can't do math as well as the people providing the service, they've come up with a price point that both does induce people to have the latest, greatest in their pocket -- >> you're incorrect.

you're not doing the math. >> $620, i can buy the thing retail and get prepaid service. that's a lot less -- do 20 times $32. that's more than the $620 it costs me. >> what's the prepaid service cost you? are you getting 3g or 4g capability? you know, there's a lot of differences there. you have to compare apples to apples not apples to oranges. >> i get -- i'm lost -- >> it sounds like the mortgage industry all over again. this is a way to end up with something that you probably shouldn't buy that you don't actually need. most of us, two years up grade, that's fine. i mean, how different is your smartphone now from what it was two years ago? somewhat different. >> if it's available. >> -- they're a for-profit concern. this is going to be good for their shareholders. >> definitely. >> it's going to be good for the customers to give them another option. right now, they have about five different options, they can do at&t's network or leave without a contract. they have the ability to upgrade during the contract. it just gives them more. so how is giving somebody more

worse? >> i don't know. >> it takes more. it takes more dollars. >> here we are thinking we're talking apples and oranges and i feel like we're talking cumquats. >> yeah, it's technical. >> yeah, thank you, gentlemen. the dow is certainly off the lows, bill, but looking at the decline -- well, inching back to the lows with a decline of 54 points. >> we are. goldman sachs has added general motors to its conviction buy list replacing arch rival ford. when we come back, we'll discuss whether goldman got the call right or if ford is better for the portfolio. and s.e.c. chairman mary jo white will join me in washington. she's looking to shake things up. banks don't seem happy about it. this is an interview you don't want to miss. it's ahead on the "closing bell." expenses while he can't work, he can focus on his recovery. he doesn't have to worry so much about his mortgage,

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goldman sachs has added general motors to its conviction buy list while removing rival ford, stating that the company has tapped out in the short term in its view. shares of both automakers hit new 52-week highs this week, although both have been down a good bit today. so which company will drive profits to your portfolio better, gm or ford? let's talk about that in today's talking numbers, on the technical side with rich ross and the fundamental side steve

cortez. steve, what is it, is it an analogy, ford versus gm? who do you like better? >> i do like gm better. i agree with goldman sachs. ford is very much underperforming today. i think gm is right for a couple of reasons. the first one is very simple. when you look at new product launches, gm's is heavily stacked to the second half of the year. so they have only launched one-third of their new products, so the second half looks more promising for gm. the second reason is europe. when you look at europe, the car market there is in dismal shape in contrast to the united states. we are still at sales levels there that we saw in the mid-'90s. ford, as a percentage of total revenue, gets much more of its revenue from europe, so a greater headwind for ford than gm the status of europe. >> i don't know, who do you like better here? >> the charts are very similar. but when it comes to the carmakers, gm is about potential. in the nfl, they have a saying,

they have potential that will get me fired. i like ford. they're delivering right now. let's bring up the short-term chart. over the last 12 months, we have a stock that's tracking a very well-defined trend line, rising from 9 to almost $17 a share. what i really like, though, is this pattern of the breakout above 14. the retesting the test book flag and the resumption of the bold trend. sure, seeing profit taking today. look at the long-term chart here. let me show you about the $17 level real quickly. this is a monthly, takes us back all the way to the high 1999, the stock was up around $60. we have a 12-year head and shoulders bottom that's formed. if we check out the key neckline resistance at 17, this stock can trade $28. >> steve, did you change your mind? >> no, rich, i will concede, to use a football reference, i will concede that ford was last year's super bowl champion. the question is, who will win this year? i think it will be gm. i'll give you one more reason on

the fundamentals side. i think, and agree with goldman sachs in the report, they are going to come out with a dividend. one of the reasons that ford has outperformed gm is it pays a dividend, and gm hasn't. but the common stock is on its way, the balance sheet is strong enough to sustain it. i think gm from here will do better. >> all right. good discussion, guys. thank you both on two important companies to our economy. maria? well, bill, the nasdaq's best 100 winning streaks since 1990 is in serious jeopardy. let's get with seema mody with the details. >> here's what's weighing on the nasdaq. tesla just joined the nasdaq on monday, and is witnessing its worst day since january 2012. and then some of the tech leaders, yahoo! down ahead of the earnings report tonight. they expect the giant to see a 12% jump in eps growth. biotech, which has been a standout in the healthcare center this year, some of the notable leaders are trading in negative territory.

however, there are some bright spots to take note of. apple up about 8% this month. reuters reporting that apple is in eshl negotiations to buy israel-based primesense, which is apparently a developer of chips that enable three-dimensional machine vision. other movers there, microsoft hitting a five-year high in today's trade. bill, maria? >> seema, thank you very much. heading toward the close. 30 minutes left in the trading session with the dow down 41 points. it looks like the win streak is going to come to a halt today. >> yeah. >> we won't be hitting all-time highs today. >> it feels that way. so is the high-frequency trading industry have the sights on mary jo white? i'll be talking about that with her more coming next. >> lots on wall street watching that interview. and later, a new medical study finds that delaying your retirement could be good for your health. why when it comes to your brain the term use it or lose it may apply. that's later on the "closing bell."

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about 30 minutes left in the

trading session. locks like the win streak will be snapped on wall street for the dow and the s&p. bob, traders are getting out of the way before the testimony tomorrow? >> reporter: yeah, let's give earnings a little bit of credit. i know it's all about bernanke these days. but we had four major companies come out with not warnings necessarily but somewhat downbeat commentary, so mosaic in the fertilizers, the pricing wasn't there. schwab, the broker dealers was a penny short and the volumes were disappointing, not surprisingly. comerica, didn't have the loan growth. and koecoke in the beverage are. so four major groups with some pressure. on comerica, we'll hear from u.s. bancorp tomorrow. we'll hear from pnc. so we'll figure out very quickly whether loan growth is in line or anemic amongst the regional banks. big banks have been doing better. >> as i said to our analysts at the top of the hour here, what do they want to hear from bernanke? what can he possibly say that will be different this time

around? >> the only thing anybody really wants to care about, if you want to be bottom line, keep the 10-year below 2.6%. above that, people start freaking out. he has to be able to acknowledge the fact that job growth may be a little bit stronger, but the economy's also not so great right now. >> yeah. still needs the safety net at this point. thanks, bob. talk to you later. maria in. >> bill, thank you. new securities and exchange commission chairman mary skbro white, also a former federal prosecutor, got appointed to the role of s.e.c. chairman back in april, has already served notice to financial institutions saying defendants and terms in some cases must admit wrongdoing to settle a case without a trial. she joins me now in a cnbc exclusive to talk about that and more. ms. chairman, great to have you here. >> great to be here. >> you've been in the job three months. tell us what your headlines are. what's front and center for mary jo white now and the sec? >> front and center, lots of things. clearly completely the mandating

rule makings under dodd-frank, strengthening enforcement. you alluded to one change we've made there. focused on the structure as well. it's a massive set of responsibilities, you know, that is very exciting, been very challenging at the same time. >> it's a massive set of responsibility that has increased with job -- with jobs act, with dodd-frank. do you have the resources you need? >> we need more resources. >> you need more money. >> we need more money to cover those responsibilities. we're in the current budget process right now. under the president's request, we would be able to add 600-plus new positions. that would help. but we definitely need it for i.t., we need it for enforcement, for examination. if we're going to do the job right, we have to have the money. >> exactly. and a lot of people wonder if, in fact, the people that are on the job, or that you will have, will have the skill set required. i remember back in 2008, some of the guys who rethought knew what they were doing, was, what's a

cds? >> well, part of the reason is to add market expertise to the staff. we are a law enforcement agency. we have a lot of lawyer, a lot of accountants, needless to say a lot of financial statements. but you need that market expertise. a lot have been added. a lot more are needed. >> let me ask you about one of the rule making changes. and i think actually this is a real credit to you and extraordinary you've actually made such a change in such a short period of time as soon as you got there. you have said some defendants would no longer be allowed to settle some cases while neither admitting nor denying wrongdoing. that's always been sort of a joke. well, you know, without admitting nor denying wrong could doing, we're going to pay up and settle on this case. some people are saying that opens up the defendants to huge sums of civil litigation. is that fair? >> the focus has to be -- this is one of the many things i've reviewed. let me say the no-admit, no-denied policy used by lots of civil polls, including the s.e.c., have yielded great results for most investors. most cases will be resolved that

way and should be. but i did think there was a greater need for accountability in some cases. so the focus on those cases were, i think, admissions necessary to have that public accountability where the frauds are particularly egregious, the harm is particularly widespread, and the focus isn't on what the consequences then of those admissions may be in other proceedings. >> but does that admission of wrongdoing actually -- could that work against the s.e.c. in terms of less settlement leverage? >> i don't think it should. but we have to be prepared to litigate in appropriate cases. again, most cases will be resolved under the prior protocol, the existing protocol of no-admit, no-deny. you get faster resolutions. you get quicker return of monies to investors. so that's a very important, critical weapon in the arsenal that will continue to be used a lot. but public accountability is also very important in some cases, and we're going to use it. and if that means we have to litigate and go to trial, you know, we'll do that. we'll obviously keep a very close eye on, you know, the

resources to do that and one of the areas we want to enhance is a trial unit, which is excellent as it is, but a place for more resources as well. >> you know, i think most people would agree that the s.e.c. has had an uneven track record in terms of taking a case to trial. how important is this fabrice tourre case right now -- >> i can't talk about the specific cases -- all of the mechanics are very important. i'm proud of the agency's record. they have prevailed over -- nearly over 80% of the defendants, you know, have been found guilty of what they've been charged with. that's very important. but every case is very important. >> i guess what i'm getting at, you know, people after the collapse that we all experien experienced, limped through, cloverred in 2008, andrew cuomo says people go back in the water when they know the shark is dead. we haven't seen major comedowns in terms of who's to blame, and yet we have this young french guy going to trial, and people say maybe he was stupid by sending these idiotic e-mails,

but is he really the guy we should be targeting? >> it's important, you know, to target those who violate the law. whatever level they may be. clearly, you want to take the evidence as far up in the chain as it goes in terms of senior executives, but if you actually look at the s.e.c.'s financial crisis cases, they have charged over 60 either ceos, cfos or other senior executives. that's an impressive track record. it gets lost in the shuffle sometimes, it shouldn't. >> it has to be tough to prove intent to harm as opposed to stupidity. >> intent is always one of the hardest issues in white collar cases, no question about it. >> what about market structure, is it on your radar? >> no question about it. >> high-frequency trading is something we discuss all the time. whether the retail investor is getting a fair shake in today's marketplace, because certain players have this one-second or quarter of a second opportunity before them.

how do you fix market structure? >> there are a number of issues in that space. the first thing to do is fully understand them and fully understand their impact. high frequency trading, there are a lot of views on that. you'll hear the view plainly from a lot of people, from experts it's positive in terms of making liquidity available. others will say the disadvantage of the speed is harming investors. so the priority is to figure out what that impact is and then respond accordingly. and the s.e.c.'s very much on that, has new technologies in order to learn more about what is happening and what the impacts are. that's what has to be figured out before you decide what to do in a regulatory way. we're very focused on that with a sense of urgency. >> this is an important point you just made, and this point is not made often enough. and that is, if you take one portion of the market out, the high-frequency traders, are you taking out an enormous part of the liquidity? >> you have to be focused on -- obviously, the conduct is fair,

lawful, and you're focused on having sufficient liquidity, but the point is you want to know the answers to any of the market structure issue shoes and how they are impacting. not how they exist, but are they harming, helping, doing both? >> when you look at volume today, do you think that's a function of the retail investor being gone? are they coming back? what's your take on institutional versus retailer -- the retail investor is sid to have left the party because they don't feel they can get a fair shake. is that fair? >> the retail investor is a major focus, it is for me, a major high priority, and important that their confidence be there. and if it needs rebuilding, it is rebuilt. do you see retail investors returning to the marketplace. but plainly, you never should lose your focus on the priority of the retail investors and i certainly won't. >> yeah. well, it's nice to see they're getting confidence again. it is all about confidence. >> no question that market confidence is critical. across the boards. >> let me ask you about -- i don't think new york politics

has been this exciting in a long time. >> i'm in washington now. >> i know it. what's your take on eliot spitzer's return, seeking the comptroller's office. he used to site the s.e.c., was falling down on the job. that's how -- that's the reason he had to step in. >> first, i don't get involved in local politics. you know, i think it's a regulators -- state regulators are extremely important to the system, as well. eliot spitzer and many others, rightfully so, have said positive things about the s.e.c. you know, you always want to look at the areas where can you do better at the s.e.c. but i've been enormously impressed by the s.e.c.'s track record and the people that are there, dedication and expertise. you know, and our focus is on being as strong as we possibly can for the benefit of investors, for facilitating, you know, capital formation, and, you know, quite confident that this agency is more than up to that task. >> and you used to be prosecutor. should you refer more cases to bar a in the southern district?

>> we have an excellent working relationship with the district attorney's offices. it's important to work in parallel with criminal authorities because the s.e.c. is a civil law enforcement agency and the most egregious offenders, we do refer and cooperate with the u.s. attorney. no question. >> we mentioned dodd-frank earlier. does it get tougher for you knowing you've got different rules all around the world? i mean, you have seen constop dags in the exchange space. you have in dodd-frank lots of talk and speculation that perhaps europe will have a whole different set of rules than the united states. how difficult does that make your job in terms of oversight? >> you clearly have to recognize that reality. we've been facing that most recently and obviously in the derivative space, which is a peculiarly global market. lots of regulators in that space. s.e.c., since i arrived, has put out a cross-border proposal to let market participants around the world know how the rules will impact them in the very global markets. you have to deal with that. >> this is one issue that i

think the bankers are very concerned about, derivatives on exchanges. are you worried about a negative impact on the industry as a result? >> i mean, you always look at the impacts of your rules. you look at investor protection. you look at making sure the rules are robust, but you also look at the cost benefit of them and the impact on the industry. you know, the soek has a three-part mission. one is to protect investors. another is to facilitate capital formation. and the other is to ensure the effectiveness of the marketplace. so it comes into play. >> with all of the rules, are we squeezing one of the most important industries in the economy, the banks, with the derivatives, capital requirements, and the settlement we just talked about? >> a number of the dodd franc provisions, some of the capital requirements are designed to deal with what we went through, with i is the financial crisis and protect against that happening again. that's obviously very important for our economy, very important for our markets. but as we rule make at the

s.e.c., you know, we are considering all of those issues in terms of how those rules impact not just in terms of the protections, but also in terms of making sure that we're considering what it does to capital formation and the economy. >> mary jo white with you at the wheel, you are inspiring confidence. thank you very much. >> thank you very much. >> good to talk to you as always. mary jo white, chairman of the s.e.c. tomorrow, don't miss preet bharara. don't miss the special coverage tomorrow, all around "squawk box." and we have a market in the double digits. the dow is down about 38 points. >> great interview. good job. >> thank you. >> marisa mayor celebrating her one-year anniversary today. will smee be able to continue that celebration with a strong earnings report? that's due out at the top of the hour. yahoo! is down today. we'll have it in folk news a few minutes here. you make a great team.

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>>. >> marissa mayer is hoping to celebrate a strong earnings report. that's due out at the top of the hour. jon fortt, what are we expecting today? >> reporter: expectations are

pretty low. looking for $1.08 billion, flat from a year ago and three-cent improvement in eps, and display advertising is the core of yahoo!'s business and it hasn't been doing well. it hasn't had a positive quarter since mayer came on board. picking up the slack, the search of other revenue, a boot in payouts, the display ad businesses, and especially tough comparison this quarter and it's fair to expect search revenues to keep outpacing display. . here's the real issue. if the results come in as expected, first half revenues would have been flat to last year. and to meet the full-year guidance, the second half has to be up 4%. with revenues slipping everywhere but in the americas, it will be hard. either mayer pulls in big this quarter or makes big promises about the second half. we'll see. >> we will see. thank you. we'll see you later when the numbers are out. we're headed to the close with about 10 minutes left. the dow down about 32 points. it does look like the win streak for the s&p and dow will be

snapped tonight, maria. >> yeah, impressive winning streaks on the line between now and the bell. is the market waiting to hear from fed chairman ben bernanke? what could he say we don't know? remember, he moved the market on what he said here last week. and certainly, baby boomers pay close attention. we'll find out why retiring at a later age could help reduce your risk of a devastating medical condition. that's later on the "closing bell." write it down so you don't forget. announcer: where can an investor

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despite the downturn, our next guest still sees the upside in the market, right? >> yeah. mark, and also bob joins us. bob, how come you see more upside for the market? how much of today's actually just a holding pattern ahead of bernanke, do you think? >> i do see more upside, maria. i think this has been, like you said, a holding pattern. the volumes have been tepid this week, since post-july 4th. and i still think our markets albeit at new highs are still the envy of the investing world. and i do think we're headed higher through the rest of 2013. >> bob, we still have yahoo! earnings tonight, more tomorrow. that will set the tone as well,

won't it? >> yeah, yahoo! will lead in tech and to a certain extent in financial commentary. the big thing here is, i do think earnings matter. we saw that today. well, esther george in the middle of the day moved the market down. big sectors like the banking sector. we saw coke. we saw schwab, mosaic, the fertilizer sector, all lower on specific commentary by leadership groups in those particular sectors. so i guess, mark, that's the question at this point. we're getting kind of cautious commentary. this is the first day we've actually had cautious commentary, leaders that are outside the financial area, how much of that is going to affect the market? >> i think -- >> go ahead, maria. >> no, please, you go ahead. >> i do think this is an earnings-driven market. i also think things are getting slightly better for the big companies. you made a good point about the banks. we haven't seen that sector get the kind of respect that we would expect for a sector that's getting more healthy, that's raised the equity capital that they needed to raise back four, five years ago. and what happens a year from now when they start returning to

investors and buybacks and raise dividends, we really haven't talked about in a long time, if we see that, we see the banking sector get healthy, we see them lending again, there's another fundamental underpinning of the market that we really haven't talked about that could help. >> we need some loan growth. go ahead, maria. >> that's what i wanted to did you about, the flows in the banks. that's been one of the better performing sectors, mark. are you seeing that kind of flow in terms of conviction on the part of customers in the financials? wrds the real flow right now? >> we're starting to, maria. it's been a long time since the banks have curried favor with the investing public. again, it's a market driven by low volumes. i think the banks have been under a great assault by the investing public. again, we've had five years where they've gotten healthier. if that continues and we get a little bit of an underpinning where this is a sector in vogue, and i think we're starting to see that, again, i think it could lead to much higher valuations for banks, which again, have not had that for a long time, and if that happens -- >> but the banks have been big

performers that year, on the hopes of loan growth, on the hopes that interest rates would help them out, higher interest rates would help them out. >> and they have. this is after four, five years of underperformance. we've watched citigroup stuck in the mud for a year. bank of america stuck in the teens for years. imagine if they get back to trading at book value or slight premiums to book value, that's a big story that's not been written yet. >> all right. i think we just wrote it, mark, thanks. >> we're coming back with the closing countdown in a moment. andr yahoo! is releasing it earnings. you're watching "closing bell" on cnbc, first in business worldwide. just by talking to a helmet. it grabbed the patient's record before we even picked him up. it found out the doctor we needed was at st. anne's. wiggle your toes. [ driver ] and it got his okay on treatment from miles away. it even pulled strings with the stoplights. my ambulance talks with smoke alarms

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[ indistinct shouting, bell dinging ] ...you'll bust your brain box. ♪ all on thinkorswim from td ameritrade. ♪ last minute to show you the market. the dow will finish lower for the day. we won't get an all-time high there or for the s&p 500. there they are, lower on the session. nasdaq breaking a 14-day win streak, as a matter of fact, as well, down nine points. yahoo! will be out with earnings after the bell tonight. the expectation for 30 cents on $1.08 billion in revenue. terry dolan, benjamin and gerald, what do you -- what does the market want to hear from ben bernanke tomorrow, very quickly in. >> i think they'd like to hear that bernanke's not going to take his foot off the gas as hard as people start to expect,

and you'll see some effect on the 10-year note. maybe it will come in a little on its rate. right now, the market looks terrific in terms of that except for the volume factor. right now, it's off to the races at the moment. >> yes, it is. we're off to the second hour of the "closing bell" with maria bartiromo. i will see you tomorrow. have a good day. [ bell ringing ] and it is 4:00 on wall street, and in washington. do you know where your money is? welcome back to the "closing bell." i'm maria bartiromo from our nation's capital today. big winning streaks for the s&p 500, nasdaq snapped on wall street today. now all eyes turn to yahoo! the company reporting earnings any moment now. we'll have the numbers for you. the expectations are for 30 cents a share, 1.08 billion in revenue. look at the market as we close out another day where the volume was on the light side. the dow down 32 points, .25% lower. pulling back from yesterday's closing high. the s&p