protect your family... and launch your dreams. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side. we want a debate and that's why we're doing the final trade. >> delta. fly delta airlines. "half time" is over. "power lunch" and the second half of the trading day start right now. >> indeed, it does, and welcome, everyone. a surprising upgrade to the u.s. economy offsetting those tensions in syria. as a result, gold, oil and the emerging markets also easing for now. but what will the rest of september bring? then, will we strike and if so when? president obama says no decision has yet been made on military action against syria. we will speak about that with a former u.s. ambassador to syria and former u.s. secretary william cohen also joins us. and google co-founder

brennan and his wife calling it quits. brennan supposedly involved with another google employee. simon hobbs is my partner here at the nyse. simon? >> you have the u.s. economy trumping fears for the moment on the fed and certainly the crisis in syria. they're up 2.5%. stronger growth, though. still questions of what will happen in the second half of the year. if you look at the market, strong gains in the dow for the second session were up 67 points. boeing responsible for about a quarter of that gain. verizon, ibm, united health, procter & gamble also helping. and what has lifted us to the upside in equities has brought us down, especially in gold. we're currently at the 10-year

at 2.5%. we have institutional sales and cnbc market analyst. welcome, steve. tell us where we are now. >> the important thing is you just highlighted it. better jobless claims, adequate jobless claims, better than adequate gdp. investors are still supportive of the idea of a tapering light. other than that, the timeline for a series got everyone confused. they're not sure they can do it this week, next week or whether or not the gdp will prevent that. it's not clear whether the u.k. and u.s. are willing to go along. >> it's also not clear that they can convince everybody that they're actually responsible for chemical weapons. >> we were looking at taper, and that was the reason why the market was a little soft. then taper or taper tickle was factored in, right? and then syria was the reason why we're trading now. now, that seems to be factored in. we don't even know what we're

factoring in anymore. >> you still it's not positioned at the end of the month? >> sure, that all goes into the mix when you look at a lot of these different issues, but we're balancing out right between the 100-day and the 50-day s&p cash. that's why people don't really know what they're factoring in anymore, but they're being positive on the market. >> we're not at the historic high, so we've already factored in some kind of economic weakness at this point, and if we get even modest better news in the weeks ahead -- hopefully we will -- then we're in a better position. >> the only issue for you that watch technicals is the 100-day was violated for the first time this year. it was first violated june 24. if you violate it twice, obviously it weakens, so more apt to go lower versus the takeoff going into the back half of this year. the only issue is we've closed below it a couple times, so we have to see today the level of 1639. >> 1639.

thank you, bob. let's get to sue. >> we're going to chicago because we have breaking news in the bond market right now. the 7-year note up for auction today, and it has not been a good week for auctions overall. let's see if this one breaks the mold. rick santelli? >> it does break the mold, actually. 29 million 7 years. the ultimate yield, 2.221. wrfls the wi? pretty much trading 2.221, so it was pretty much right on. i gave this auction a b-minus. i probably should have given it a c-plus, but the fly in the ointment was this. the bid to cover was 2.43. $2.43. 2.65 is an auction average. it doesn't sound like a big disparate, but i'm going back to may of '89 to find a lower bid to cover. pretty much spot on with auction coverage.

22.4 versus 19% auction average, so tyler, i guess in the end it's definitely the best of the three with a b-minus, and 98 billion in supply has now found new ownership. back to you. >> great, rick. thank you very much. the positioning at the end of the month, we're up 68 points on the dow. the bigger picture is now for the year the s&p 500 is up 15%. is now the time to look elsewhere for better returns? interestingly, this is what the bonds king jeff gundlach said, moving outside his own specific area of interest. ztz the s s >> the s&p 500 has outnumbered many stock markets, and many of those stock markets look kind of scary, but buy low, right? buy low, sell high. it shouldn't be that complicated. >> he wasn't a big fan of investing in india and the stock market there has to be said. and probably more interested in

the fixed income in emerging markets. let's bring in chief strategist of wells fargo. pete, what should people do now? >> yeah, you want to buy low, but there is another adage in this business that says, don't try to catch a falling knife. as long as there remains uncertainty about tapering, taper tickle or whatever you want to call it, foreign markets will be under some pressure. we still think longer-term investors should be looking for an opportunity to buy and get their allocations in the national market. but maybe they want to go more slowly and focus on whether there is a good situation, which is in that gdp report. we took some profits in the s&p about a month ago, and we're looking for a chance to put that money back to work. >> the trend seems, though, economically here in the united states, to be moving to the upside, paul, so i think that's the good news. if you did want to allocate cash

outside the united states, what area of the globe do you think offers the best return? >> well, we're taking a two-pronged approach. one is we want emerging markets with current account surpluses. that is to say, they don't need to rely on foreign investors for inputs of capital. we want to play europe but we want to play it around the edges right now, because we think the green shoots may still turn into weeds before the end of the year. we like south korea. it's done very well, very resilient, a strengthening currency. on the european side, we like norway, and we like u.k., which we think would benefit as the currency begins to attract interest. >> nice to see you, paul. thank you very much for the advice. paul christopher there joining us from wells fargo. thank you very much. let's turn to the situation in syria right now as president obama reviews diplomatic and military options in that region.

let's bring in our esteemed panel of experts to tell us where things currently stand. the secretary of defense from 1997 to 2001 and who served as the am boss dobassador from 2003 in syria. mr. ambassador, if i could start with you, assess the situation as you see it now. it seems as though imminent military action has been pushed back a little bit. do you think the u.s. will strike, and if so, what's your best guess as to when? >> i think the u.s. will strike. if we don't strike, i think this administration is going to lose credibility all over the world, and especially in the middle east and with iran and north korea. so it's not a casual situation. on the other hand, when the strike will come is harder to

say. right now there is almost an amateurish feel to all of this, because the administration has been urged for a long time by france and britain and turkey and saudi arabia to do more, and now after we've apparently decided that a retaliatory or punitive strike is in order, we're finding all these hoops we have to jump through. david cameron, the u.k. prime minister, has just conceded that he needs a parliamentary vote, and that vote can't take place. >> mr. secretary, could you address that? because one of the issues yesterday that we covered was the fact that the arab league, while condemning syria's actions, failed to endorse a u.s. military strike, not giving, therefore, the president the broad-based support that he, i'm sure, was looking for if he intends to strike. how does the administration work through this process? >> well, it's unfortunate that the arab league has been

encouraging the united states publicly to take action on syria, and when the time comes for the united states to get support, they back away and say, well, we condemn assad, but we don't endorse you striking. that was a disappointment for the administration. i think the problem for the administration is, number one, they haven't clearly defined the mission. what is the mission going to be? what do they hope to destroy? is the plan executable and what are the consequences? i think there are many questions the administration has to answer. specifically, to respond to speaker boehner's question saying, mr. president, i have ten questions here. i think it's wise to go to congress, to leadership specifically, but certainly getting support from congress before military action is taken rather than trying to piece together support afterwards. number two, they should go and present a vote to the united nations security council and force russia to veto it, to put them on the side that sittfact n

government is supporting gassing of children. >> do you agree with that, and what is the advantage to many to the administration allowing the leaks of possible military attacks being imminent? is that a psychological ploy, do you think? can you address those two issues? >> right. well, i certainly agree with the secretary on almost all counts, except i think they have said, this is to be a punitive strike and enforcement of the presidential declaration of a red line concerning the use of chemical weapons. i don't think one can expect them to say the exact targets they intend to hit, but they seem to want to thread a needle, do enough to deter bashar assad from doing this again but not so much becoming a combat aant in e civil war. >> i don't think there is a goldilocks solution here. firing tomahawks into a country,

certainly it's an act of war and certainly you have to be prepared for the consequences of it the notion that you're simply going to fire tomahawks into certain targets is folly, and i think we have to know what happens if. what happens if there is retaliation? what happens if the russians try to interfere with the signals of the missiles going on, et cetera? i think before we rush into it, we need some clarification of what to do. and finally, the notion that you can exercise a punitive strike, that's not allowed under the law, either. you can degrade but you can deter international law. at least down here on wall street, everybody seems to be very concerned. the first is the possibility of this particular conflict, if and when it does occur, broadening out to a regional conflict which would involve russia and which might involve iran.

what are the odds, do you think, of that actually happening if and when the united states does strike? >> i think it's quite likely that if we launch a strike which is designed to be minimum in its impact, then you're likely to see the russians give the syrians more support, the iranians will give them more support. lebanon and hezbollah is likely to come into it as well. a and once you explain it to the military congress, then you at least have the american people behind it. if you take action without it, you're pretty much on your own. >> mr. ambassador, would you like to address that same issue? >> i certainly think the secretary is making good points. i think there was original sin here. the president, apparently, in an almost offhanded way, made this red line the use of chemical weapons. he was right to make it a red line, but he said, well, if they

start using and moving around a whole bunch of chemical weapons, we would have to act. and, you know, it needed to be thought through better as to what it was that we were going to do if they did that and how we were going to get support, as the secretary indicated. but now we've got this muddle where we've committed ourselves, as far as i'm concerned, to take military action, but we're not getting the support we hope to receive. >> right. gentlemen, thank you very much. secretary, mr. ambassador, a pleasure to have you with us. >> that was a great conversation. >> it was a very interesting conversation, too. very esteemed gentlemen. what's going on behind closed doors at google? we'll give you a hint. it has to do with the co-founder sergei brim. we're on the ground in syria and turkey. when we come back, he'll join us live and give us that very fluid situation. when simon and i come back on "power lunch." [ male announcer ] come to the lexus golden opportunity sales event

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vodafone are higher today. verizon talked about vodafone buying some stake in their venture. that would be one of the biggest deals of their time. sergey brin and his wife have split. there are also rumors that

sergey brin has become involved with a google employee. we're here to discuss the impact that it might have on the company. john, i'm going to go to you first. do you think this has any impact on the company, either its bottom line or its culture? >> some, sue, but i think it's limited. i was prepared to say i don't think much at all, but i've checked in with a couple google employees. there are some people concerned about the impact internally because sergey's sister runs a significant portion of google's business. she heads up ads and commerce, so this is very much a family affair. but then at the same time, google is used to rumors about top executives eric schmidt. his marriage has been written about in the "new york times" and he's seen out and about. it doesn't seem like there is acrimony between sergey brin and his sister. there are other relationships within the company.

steve balmer married a pr executive. bill gates married linda gates. >> it's a different culture. >> yeah, so this isn't completely beyond the veil. >> it's not just some of the fortune 500 companies of old. robert, can you address what everybody seems to be chatting about, which is the prenup, what we know, what a settlement might look like? >> we don't know anything about what pretthe prenup says. there was one when sergey was worth about $6 billion, he's now worth about 24. that $16 billion would at least be his going into the marriage, so the prenup would deal with that 8 billion earned after that, and if there is a prenup, unlikely to affect his share sale. he does have a program in place since 2010 where he's selling about 2 billion shares between 2010 and 2015, so it would appear he would have enough liquidity to deal with whatever

he might have to pay out. she would probably be fairly wealthy on her own with her own company and other investments. >> i'm sure she is. that will be an interesting story, a lot of people following it. thank you. simon? the national football league and 4500 former players have tentatively agreed on a $765 million legal settlement. the suit had accused the league of hiding the risks of concussion injuries for decades. the fund would pay for exams, compensation for injuries and medical research, but a judge must still give final approval. to syria once again. let's get the latest on the crisis there from the ground. nbc chief correspondent richard engle is on the ground in turkey near syria. hi, richard. what's the latest? >> reporter: right now there seems to be a bit of a holding pattern. the u.k. is getting cold feet about going into a military punitive strike. so is the arab league, so is the united nations. u.n. inspectors are still on the

ground doing their work. they're going to be continuing to conduct inspections around the damascus area tomorrow and then likely to leave the country on saturday. egypt has now said it doesn't support any kind of military action. the red cross has said the same thing, worrying that any kind of military escalation could just make the humanitarian crisis in the country much worse. so while it seemed, yesterday and the day before, that the ship had sailed, that the united states was in concert with several other nations going to imminently launch, perhaps even today, military action from four warships and two submarines in the mediterranean, now it seems we have more debate ahead of us. >> richard engle. richard, thank you very much. simon? fast food workers around the country are on strike today, demanding the right to unionize and to double the minimum wage. what would that mean for the industry and for the economy more broadly? we're live at the rally in new york. we're out with federal and

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us airways is moving higher. the justice department says it's ready to settle its legal battle with us airways about american airlines about whether they can merge. health care is a scheme with con artists finding new ways all the time to cheat the system. cnbc's andrea day got an exclusive look at how the feds are fighting back. >> reporter: if you think health care fraud has nothing to do with you, you're wrong. american taxpayers shell out an estimated 80 billion every year just to cover it. but the feds are fighting back and our cameras caught the blow by blow in this undercover scam. it's 10:00 a.m. in brooklyn and alexander is opening up his pharmacy for business. he looks around before he goes in but has no idea that our cameras and federal

investigators are watching every move. and he has no clue the feds say they've already caught him in this undercover video allegedly pulling off a brazen scheme to rip off taxpayers. today's undercover sting just one piece of health care fraud that investigators are desperate to control. >> our case load has quadrupled in the last five years. >> this is a drug trade subsidized by the taxpayers. >> reporter: and costing billions every year. >> it is the second largest white collar crime in the united states. >> reporter: the raid on the pharmacy started much earlier in the day, at 7:00 a.m. >> we're going to go in, we're going to go in light, we're going to secure the location. >> reporter: we rode along with federal agents from health and human services office of the inspector jena long with a team of other local agents while they took down the pharmacy owner. he's accused of bilking medicaid, and ultimately taxpayers, out of almost a

million bucks. we're now just blocks away from vna pharmacy in brooklyn while another team is following the drugstore owner, watching from a distance as he leaves his house. as the team waits for word that the owner is close, federal agent in charge, tom o'donnell, walks us through the alleged scheme. >> he billed medicaid for prescriptions he did not dispense. >> reporter: a plan that o'donnell says went on for over a year. >> we document where the evidence is and where it's coming from. >> reporter: he would entice people to bring their prescription slips to his store. but rather than dispensing drugs, he would allegedly hand out cash. >> $20, $30, $40 per scrip. >> from there he would bill medicare for drugs only partially filled or not dispensed at all. he would then ask for refills and rake in the cash. >> they reimbursed in the

neighborhood of 14 to $1500 for a 30-day supply. any time any drugs are that high in terms of reimbursement, it's going to be a black mark. >> reporter: it's a scheme, investigators say, that's being played out right now at small pharmacies all over the country. so why would patients want to get involved? phillip is the fraud investigate or for the human resources administration. he says in some cases the patients don't want to take their medications and are just looking for pocket money. z >> a lot of times they'll go back and report their medications were stolen, get police reports, get a doctor to write another prescription and then go out and scheme again. >> reporter: prosecutors are a growing part of rampant health care abuse. >> it's between 184 million to $630 million of fraud a day. that is huge. >> we have a camera on the location. >> reporter: back to our morning raid. we keep watch as the pharmacy owner walks up to the gate and

opens for business. investigators make their move. once inside, investigators show iliad this video. it's an undercover agent posing as a patient, the video obtained exclusively by cnbc. you can see the owner hand a prescription to the agent. then he walks her outside and gives her $25 cash. investigators say as an incentive to come back and bring others. >> with these type of medication, i will give you more and more and more. every time you before he my some patient i give a medication i can take care of you. even from each refill, i will take care of you. >> you looked at the video. what did he say? >> just straight out he said, that's not me. >> reporter: at 12:00 noon, finally they walked the owner out in cuffs. minutes later, they walked out with boxes of evidence. one scheme busted, but many more

to go. >> we're coming for you. we may not find you today but we'll find you tomorrow. >> reporter: mr. iliad is facing more than 80 counts, including health care fraud and grand larceny a larceny. his attorney says he intends to vigorously defend himself in court and he denies the allegations. we will, of course, keep you posted on how this one turns out. back to you. gold prices closing right now. more profit taking on what was a 20% rally from the lows. >> profit-taking, although we're also closing well off the lows of the session here, simon, we did see this rally here about five days and a big move earlier under concerns about syria. with that a little bit more on the back burner. we saw some profit taking here today. still up 1% for the week. very nice move so far here for august as well as one day left to trade. and silver the big winner, up

nearly 23% today. simon? >> phenomenal news. let's check the stock action. losing a little bit of steam. >> a little, not a lot. take a look at the dow jones industrial average. verizon a big help today moving towards the deal here. vodafone also on the upside, so the dow jones industrial average just off from the highs today. i think the important thing for today, less support for syria attack. that's the main issue and a lot of confusion about any timeline down the road. some people think a week or even more. the gdp data this morning better than expected, and the weekly claims good enough to support the concept of a taper light. i think many people it's still on track here. as to what the stocks are doing here, concerns but no real panic. the volume has been light to moderate. quick call ratio only one. to get real panic you have to go to 1.5.

the vix is up but not near as much as it was in june. the 10-year yield, which is what stock traders look at when you get geopolitical uncertainty, really hasn't been doing much at all today, still meandering. we're still trying to figure out what that timeline is for the supposed syrian retaliation, syrian bombing, whatever you want to call it. we don't have it. >> bob, thank you very much. the nasdaq uptown, seema is following the big and small movers. >> the tact continues after that selloff earlier this week. facebook moving to the upside, and although it's not a strong day for western digital and seagate tech both being hit by what i'm hearing is a negative note from cleveland research. but even with the losses in the hard drive space, the nasdaq is now positive for the month of august. it's really been stocks on the nasdaq 100 that have been

outperforming, brushing off fears of syria as well as emerging markets where many of these countries do business. the big winners this month on the nasdaq 100, netflix, facebook and apple, which is about 9%. back to you, simon. >> thank you very much, seema. let's head to chicago and rick san tell did i at the cme for the bond report. rick? >> thanks, simon. we just got done with the 7-year note auction even though it was the best of three. it wasn't terrific, but in its entirety when options are done and supplies are out there, you get a post-supply rally that seems to be true. when you look today at the curve, 5's, 7's, 10's and 30's, i want one thing to jump into your brain. the further down the curve, the lower the yields are unchanged. so we had curve flattening on gdp and curve flattening when the yields go down faster. a dynamic we want to keep a very close eye on, and by the way,

key levels of 274 and 275 key level. we're basically right there as well. sue, it's all yours. >> all rightrighty, i'll take i ricky. thank you very much. fast food workers around the country are holding a national strike today, demanding higher wages. jackie deangelis is live in new york. she's been in the thick of things for us. hi, jackie. >> hey, sue. that is exactly right. we're hearing fast food workers across the country and here in the city hitting the streets. i'm going to tell you exactly what they're asking for and what it means for big business, when we come back on "power lunch."

welcome back to "power lunch." i'm dominic schuh. we're looking at companies like generalworth financial, raid yann group and mgic. the move will help private mortgage insurers, so those stocks at least a little to the upside, sue. >> some welcome news today for bankrupt detroit. ford is ramping up production at its flat rock assembly plant just north of that city.

phil bowsen is in flat rock where he talked to ceo alan mulally just a little bit ago. hi, phil. >> hi, sue. we're here at the flat rock assembly line as fusions and mustangs are rolling off the line. they'll be building both those models here, adding to the fusion production here. this is a big deal for ford. previously the fusion was built exclusively at its plant in mexico. ford was running tight on supplies, so it said, you know what? let's bring fusion production back here to flat rock, which is just south of detroit, and as a result they've added 1400 jobs, the second shift here. keep in mind half of ford's u.s. plant are now running three shifts. for the ford production, this is critical because you're looking at the best-selling car ford makes and the best-selling u.s. brand car. if you take a look at the top-selling cars this year, the fusion is number 6, and that's mainly because it's constrained by supply. it's nipping at the heels of the

seleca. we're looking at it now that it has great supply. >> our sales are up another 13%, so this is going to add 30% more production capability for the fusion, so it's almost at the right time for the customer interest. >> right now ford sales up 13% here in the u.s. this year, outpacing the industry up 8.5%. sue, we mentioned this earlier today and got a lot of reaction on twitter as well as e-mail from people saying, ford is how close to catching general motors in the u.s.? within 1.9% in terms of market share. take a look at ford versus general motors in the last year. all the auto stocks have had a nice ride over the last year, and sue, you do not want to miss what we have coming up on "street signs." a picture of alan mulally here on the assembly line doing

something you never -- i should say rarely -- see a car manufacturer do. fast food workers across the country are on strike today, demanding the right to unionize and to potentially double their minimum wage to $15 an hour. investors don't seem to mind. in fact, wendy's and burger king are in popular territory. jackie deangelis is in new york where some of those protests have been taking shape. jackie? >> good afternoon, simon. new york city is just one of 50 cities across the country where you said fast food workers have taken to the streets to protest higher wages and also to ask for the right to unionize. now, hundreds took to the streets in midtown before they made their way downtown here, and they were chanting things like, 7.25 is not enough to survive. and they emphasized that to me when i asked about the wages they're asking for. they're demanding $15 an hour, nearly double. but they say it's an industry

with roughly $200 billion and they can afford it. >> i'm hoping justice is served. i'm hoping we get $15 and our union, because if not, we'll be out here every day until they help their employees. >> reporter: but some say raising wages will put an undue burden on businesses, especially in the face of already rising costs, for example health care costs, taxes and energy costs as well, a burden that some say will make it difficult for those companies to continue hiring. in fact, you may see a reduction in jobs if something like this moves forward, and that could hurt the economy even more. still, there are others out there who agree wages are going up, but for some and not for others. >> we've had this reorganization of the economy where workers' wages are driven down, where benefits and hours are cut and profits and salaries at the top for executives keep going up and up and up. >> reporter: and it's a conversation that continues today. the group has now moved up to 14th street. we will be headed up there

shortly and we'll have the latest for you live in "closing bell." again, a lot of angry people here today saying they're not going home until they bring some change. simon? >> all right, jackie, thank you very much. jackie deangelis on the streets of new york. in today's yahoo finance question of the day, we asked you, with fast food companies or fast food employees calling for the minimum wage to be more than doubled, what is your take? 41% said, i agree, it should be more than doubled. 40% say it should be increased slightly. 17% say it should stay the same. 27% said the minimum wage should actually be abolished. the power house next on cnbc. we travel to the top real estate markets in america. today boston, or boston. find out how much money your -- how much home your money will buy you in boston, next. ♪

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coming up at the top of the hour on "street signs," the cool story about ford's ceo that phil just talked about. plus we'll meet a man who helped build the rocks in stra structure. he's here to tell us what to look for. could we see pilotless planes in the future? i'm talking about passenger planes. and why e-mails have employers telling their employees to get on the phone. >> excellent. excellent, brian. we'll see you at 2:00. it is "power house" time, and this week we're in the beautiful city of boston. gail is the vp of the cambridge office and is the top agent in new england. it's good to have you here, gail. welcome. >> nice to be with you, sue. thanks for having me. >> before we get to our beautiful houses, we're going to

show a few more stats of the greater boston area. in july 2013, for single family homes, there were 1164 new listings. the median sales price is 533,000, and that's a 43% increase year over year. 1.8% new inventory down 40% year over year. property on the markets are there for about 45 days. it sounds like the market has been very tight. >> it's very tight and inventory has been low. but we're selling. >> that's good. let's talk about some properties in the area. our first listing is in dorchester, massachusetts. the address is 21 sanford street. the list price 359,000, taxes 2100, four bedrooms, two bath, 1864 square feet. >> it's an area of dorchester which is a part of boston known

as emerald mills. it's in lovely condition, four bedrooms, two on the first floor. you can walk -- one great thing, you can walk to everything. lots of shops, restaurants, there have been a lot of condo conversions and a lot of lots being built. so you're really getting in on the ground floor, which is so hard to do. >> it sound like it's an up and coming neighborhood. is that a correct read? >> totally up and coming. totally. >> it looks very nicely done. let's take a look at our second listing, which is 360 randolph avenue. it's a little more expensive, at $799,000. taxes are $6,000, four bedrooms, two and a half baths, square feet of 2,214. it looks lovely from the outside. >> it's very charming. it has a beautiful staircase, arched windows, french doors.

it's in a wonderful area of hilton. i have had a lot of friends who grew up there. it's across from a private school. the house is immaculate to move in and start raising a family. also, milt on is just about 10 miles south of boston, so it's a great place to come in and commute. >> let's move on to our power house of the week, which is 40 arlington street in cambridge, which is a beautiful part. list price, 2.285, $14,169 in tablgs taxes, four bedrooms, 3 and a half baths, 3,322 square feet. this is our larmgegest. this looks very historic, is that correct? >> aiit's a beautiful house. they totally gutted the

property. 9-foot ceilings, lovely detailing, gorgeous staircase going up. you can walk 15 minutes into harvard square. the best thing is if you move in, you're right around the corner from me. it's got a lovely master bedroom. >> excellent. that's the best selling point of all, gail. >> you've got it. you've got it. and you can walk to all the shops and restaurants. >> and what about parking? does it have its own parking? because i know in that area of town, when i've been there, it's tough. >> this one actually has a garage in parking. and around the corner i do not have parking. so it's great. and it's just -- >> it's got a garage, it's got gail, and it's been completely redone. you said that sales were going well. how much of that has to do with the fact, in your opinion, gail, that interest rates have started to edge up, so people that might have been hesitating want to get in before rates move significantly higher? >> i think that we've had a lot

of good activity. i think that there are buyers out there that are still really trying to get in, it's just trying to get the houses. and i think we're coming into a strong fall market. i see a number of good houses, good properties that are about to come on the market right now so that the buyers over the last couple of months who have lost out are going to have more inventory. it's just a great time to buy. this whole area around here is great. >> all right, gail. best of luck to you. thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you. >> simon, over to you. next on the program, inside the mind, if you will, of a teenager. it's not easy for retailers in this back-to-school season, right, courtney? >> not at all, simon. teenage taste is a tough thing to figure out. when i went shopping, i learned a few things. that's coming up on "power lunch." are of virtually all your important legal matters in just minutes.

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well, guess correctly, at least for the second quarter. easily beating street forecasts as american sales came in stronger than expected, but the company that current

profits would come in below expectations. nef nevertheless, this talk hays gain of 12%. it's been a tough season for a lot of teenage retailers as they try to predict what the fickle teenager would buy this year. we have american eagle and postale coming in with their numbers. she went to a shopping trip with teenagers. >> it was definitely a learning lesson. i learned a lot of things when i joined new jersey teens for back to school shopping. one of the things is one thing all the retailers are plowing in is lost, at least to this group. when it comes to teens, the mall experience, browsing the physical stores is still king. all the teens we shopped with preferred in-store to on-line.

>> i love this. this is where i worked for a summer. >> the music, the smell. >> i like looking in stores. if i see something cool, i'll stop in there. >> so they notice window displays. at the end of the day, it all comes down to brands. >> when i was in high school, i got abercrombie, but now i like the gap. >> we really like the line by the kardashians. it's all about brands and what everyone else is wearing. >> except you don't want the same clothes as everyone else. >> while they don't use the web to find coupons or really shop, they are following their favorite stores and stars on instagram. >> they advertise on their social media that we're all following. you'll see, oh, she's wearing those shorts. oh, gosh, i have to have them. >> the earliest earnings

releases shows that keeping up with the taste of teens is a difficult task for these retailers. what's hot, what's not. big logos, for example? totally uncool. simon. >> what are the other takeaways from the retailers, courtney? >> i know the big a's we all consider those teen retailers, they all performed pretty poorly last quarter, but these teens all said postale is too juvenile for them. and abercrombie & fitch, they didn't like that store's atmosphere. american eagle, victoria's secret pink line. and the boys were very focused on the sports retailers. >> courtney reagan inside the mind of american teenagers. when we come back, some of the winners on today's session. [ male announcer ] come to the golden opportunity sales event

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garmin is up by 5 and a quarter. >> don't forget after the marketplace tonight and the krerceo will be with jim on ""mad money" later. that's it for "power lunch." thank you very much for watching. >> "street signs" begins right now. simon and i will see you tomorrow. i think sue and simon got photo bombed by that cute girl at the new york stock exchange. very cool. it may be the calm before the serious storm. markets uneasy, ahead of possible u.s. attacks on the country. we're going to meet the man who helped build the rocks and oil infrastructure. he's here with what to watch for in the region. you need some stock picks? we have some names you may not think of. plus, why air travel makes it very, very