considered open-ended commitment. we're not considering any boots on the ground approach. what we will do is consider options that meet the narrow concern around chemical weapons, understanding that there's not going to be a solely military solution to the underlying conflict and tragedy that's taking place in syria. >> this is evidence. these are facts.

so the primary question is really no longer, what do we know? the question is what do we -- we colle tively -- we going to do about it? >> welcome to "the closing bell," i'm bill griffeths. >> maria is back next tuesday. john kerry serving notice the u.s. is preparing to act on syria. we are following escalating developments for you as the stock market is in the final hour of what looks to be the worst month for dow and s&p 500 since 2012. >> i will point out market's response to syria remarks has been muted, also very few traders out there on this friday before labor day weekend. >> seems there was a mild

reaction to the downside. bob pisani noticed when john kerry was taking a harder line, the dow dropped ten points. when he took a softer stance and reiterated no boots on ground, not open-ended, words like that, it seemed like the market came back to where it was prekerry's speech at the moment. where we're sitting at the dow is we're off by just 0.2%, down by 26 points. the nasdaq is down by 27 points. off by 0.7%. and the s&p 500 is down by about 4 point. let's get to bob pisani because you've been watching tick by tick the developments and all the speeches we've been hearing, rhetoric with regards to syria. give us a bit of a walk-through as to what we need to know. >> it's usually the president that makes the headlines. in this case it was a long, interesting speech by secretary kerry that really got the traders' attention. everybody was just standing around watching secretary kerry talk.

let me give you key point from president obama. i think this is the key statement he made. he has not made a final decision on actions that will be taken. that was, again, on remarks he made just a few moments ago. take a look at dow jones industrial average. there wasn't a lot of reaction there but that's because a lot of the stance he said was in secretary kerry's remark he had made in the final hour just before him. you see the dow fluttering around and that's because of what secretary kerry said. secretary kerry's speech was aggressive and restrainerestrai. he comes out agrss ive saying u.n. cannot gavel niz the world to act. then towards the end of his speech he becomes a little more, shall we say, restrained. the mal market rallies as he says the response from the u.s. will be limited and tailored, it

will not involve any boots on the ground and the primary objective is to have a diplomatic process. which is what a lot of people are hoping for. interestingly today we have seen the markets hit the most act a little better. i'm talking about emerging markets which have taken the brunt of some of these concerns. they were concerned about the taper before that. emerging markets have bottomed a couple days ago, etfs associated with that have been holding up well. india, indonesia, philippines have been battered badly in the last few weeks, rebounding today. >> more market reaction to the situation with syria as the market closes out what has been an ugly month. for bulls our "closing bell exchange."

rob, the guess is that it happens over the weekend. if it hasn't happened by labor day and moves into -- guessing game, moves into next week, what do you think the market does? do we drag on? is this hanging over the markets right now? >> yeah, i think we move on for a bit. when the response was very open-ended earlier in the week, the dow was down 170 point. now some curbs on the response have been put in place by secretary kerry and the president. as you pointed out earlier, it's more muted. doesn't happen by the weekend, yeah, this continues to drag on a bit. >> kevin, in the same way obviously the white house is trying to prepare the american public for potential strike, do you feel it's already priced into the markets, barring any unforeseen complications on the ground, but do you feel a limited strike is already factored in? >> i think to a certain extent.

of course, keyword is limited strike. what we've seen has been a slight upward movement in oil prices as a result of this, since this whole thing began. there's a little premium in the oil markets. dow was off 4.5% to the month of august but 3% earnings growth underneath. got a little pricing in terms of risk into he can wilt market. ultimately as long as the strike is contained and relatively -- yeah, relatively contained, then maybe this is an event we can actually rally off of. i've yet to see a contained strike as the one that's being described be something that has in the past anyway been a reason to celek wits. i think you'd be looking to buy on dips if that is the case. >> david, early in the week, revision upward of gdp for second quarter. jobless claims were lower than expected but that personal spending number was less than

expected. what do you make of the backdrop fundamentally for this market right now. >> it was personal income, also hold overfrom durable goods and i think on balance leave us neutral. we have mixed economic numbers. as bamdrop you see the market reflecting a who cares on a friday like today. certainly concerns are in the middle east. the big question with the middle east is still towards what end do we implement a regime change like we did in libya, like we did in iraq, like we did in egypt. ended up bringing greater destabilization for the region. that fear premium is still in the oil market and i think we might see higher oil prices if that fair premium is exaggerated. again, what do we get on the other side of a regime change? sunni militant islamist? this is not much different in

contrast to assad. >> i want to stick my neck here, rick santelli. what if there is quite a lot of nervousness in the market once there is a strike on syria? what if, for example, you see quite a lot of disruption whether it be in oil prices, it's in the dollar, it's in bonds or equities, would that put off a taper? i'm just guessing the fed is not going to want to pile on and start tapering in september when the market is already jittery. is that just a guess of mine? >> you know, that's your opinion. you're asking my opinion. neither of these are facts. my opinion would be, no, that the fed isn't going to let what's going on in syria get them off track. i can't speak for them but my opinion is they'll taper in september, unless we get a nonfarm number, one week from today, in double digits or negative. that's my opinion. now, let's do another game. boo! did i scare you? boo! dy scare you?

boo -- every time i do it, i'll scare it less and less. that's the way i look at the marketplace. we have more volatility than we do now. talking to traders, watching fixed income especially and on slow day watching tape on stocks, unless we have a real nasty unintended consequence in sir, yeah i don't know the market responds on anything more at this point, even a small strike. >> you raise such an excellent point here. if you look over the past three months of summer, the headwinds, obstacle, talk of taper, syria, dispute all that -- emerging market meltdown as well, the market is flat. it's resilient, isn't it? >> oh, absolutely, mandy. the first time that fed chair bernanke mentioned tapering in mid-june, the dow was down 364 points. that was the biggest drop of the year. in mid-july he started talking repeatedly about it in his congressional testimony, we're

hitting new highs. so i think that has certainly been digested. i would agree with rick that unless we get a terrible nonfarm payroll number, tapering will start in september. >> by the way, guesstimates is 190,000. some of the estimates i'm sear are less than that. what is your feeling about maybe tapering is already baked into this cake right now? >> i think it is. i think the market, when you look at what's happened with interest rates, you've had a big spike in interest rates, when you look at real rates using inflation, you're starting to see tightening of real rates, i don't know it's much about the tapering. frankly whether you go from 8 $0 to $85 billion, it's not the amount, it's the message that's

being sent. the message is the economy is getting better. the era of going -- we used to have 5% interest rates. we've been at zero for a very, very long time now. that can create imbalances going forward. the fed's aware of that. they know qe is less effective. so, what they need to do is begin this process of jaw boning the market, telegraphing that some day we may have higher interest rates again. from an equity investor's point of view, i would say that's a good outcome because we certainly don't want zero percent interest rates in unemployment. we want to get on with things. >> the old days when we used to make money on a money market fund. 5% interest rate. thanks, folks, have a great weekend. today's comments out of the administration seemed to make it clear that military action against syria is likely. a question of how and then rather than if. >> we go to nbc's jim mick la

cat the pentagon. >> reporter: an hour ago the president at the white house made a statement to reporters in which he said, he still hadn't made a decision. i can tell you advanced preparations for military strikes against syria are under way even as we speak in the pentagon. and in the mediterranean itself, there are five guided missile destroyers loaded with tomahawk cruise missiles. for every one of those missiles, pretty much, most if not all of the targets, have already been loaded into those warheads. some 200 could be launched in the area of chemical weapons related targets there inside syria when president obama, if president obama, gives the order. i can tell you as soon as he does make that decision, those missiles could actually be ready to launch within minutes, maria. >> i'll pick it up from there. thank you very much for that.

>> we're down only 24 points on the dow. only have 45 minutes left in this trading week, bill. at this stage the nasdaq in terms of percentage is the biggest loser. off 0.7 of 1%. >> secretary kerry making the president's plan for syria more clear up. saw it here on cnbc. >> it will not involve any boots on the ground. it will not be open-ended. and it will not assume responsibility for civil war that is already well under way. >> we'll have more on what the u.s. will do and maybe when it will do it after this break. [ male announcer ] it's time. time to have new experiences with a familiar keyboard. to update our status without opening an app. to have all our messages in one place. to browse... and share... faster than ever.

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we get the latest from syria from bay route. >> reporter: good evening. secretary of state john kerry's comments have really not left much to the imagination for folks here in lebanon and across the country. they feel they have inched -- they have gotten one inch closer to it now but there has been a sense of anxiety building up

here over the past few days and that has also been compounded by the fact that syrian -- the inspectors inside syria are expected to leave tomorrow morning, heading back to new york to present their findings to secretary-general. however around the region remains very tense. people are weary of humanitarian consequences of a possible military strike. countries like lebanon have been buckling over the refugee crisis over the past two years and a country like lebanon has seen the type of violence that can imminent. many are afraid a u.s. military strike could recreate that violence in lebanon and across the region. hezbollah and iran have vowed to come to the defense of the syrian regime and warned the u.s. of possible regional consequences from their actions. bill, mandy. >> thanks. more reaction now, right, mandy? >> absolutely. let's get to michael o'hanlon,

senior policy fellow of brookings and michael green, executive director of truman national security program, and former army captive that served in iraq and afghanistan. michael o'hanlon, let me get to you first of all, is there any possibility at this stage the united states can stand down and back out of this without losing syria's face? >> i don't see any possibility. i listened to secretary kerry's speech. it was remarkably imfattic, resolute and frankly almost churchillian. it makes you wonder how they can get away with just doing a missile cruise ship. so i think there's virtually no doubt, even though president obama insists he still hasn't technically made up his mind, an attack will be forthcoming in the next couple of days f i had to guess. >> base on the poll ratings, it's clear the public does not

want some prolonged kind of battle. i think it's clear the administration was assuring everybody this would be limited and narrowly focused. >> i think that's what they were trying to do. but every time you use force, you have to ask yourself, if my opening move doesn't work, what's next? about two years ago when we entered this conflict, it was a very different situation. about a year ago the president received advice from his senior defense officials. all of them united, cia, defense, state and the chairman of the joint chiefs arguing we needed to take more decisive action in order to arm and train a more moderate rebel force on the ground we could work with. that's a key consideration. if you're going to have an impact on the ground, both in the conflict itself and in the aftermath, you've got to have a partner you can work with. right now we're stuck because we don't have one. simply lobbing high explosives into the maelstrom, it's unclear what the result will be,

especially if you're trying to convince somebody who's fighting for his life that he shouldn't use all the means at his disposal, including chemical weapons. that's the situation the regime and administration are in. we have to take stronger action, i would argue. >> secretary kerry is saying we're not alone but to your point, michael, we need a partner, it seems at this point we only have france. michael o'hanlon, is it definite france will stand by america in this? is there another chance anotherally would stanother al ally would step up to the plate? >> i think mike's points are very well argued but i would say in this case the main goal is re-establishing deterrents against using weapons of mass destruction. if he doesn't get that message, the administration will have tough choices. i'm not sure who would be with us about engaging in a more

sustained air campaign that would mimic what we did in bosnia and kosovo in the '90s. i don't think assad will retaliate or do this again because he knows we have compelling and effective next steps we could carry out if we needed to. in the end, i'm hopeful this operation will achieve its limited purpose of deterring future chemical and potentially nuclear proliferation. but i agree with mike, it's not going to solve the broader conflict and leave the civil war ongoing. >> mike breen, do you agree with that, that a man that john kerry referred to today as a thug, president assad, do you think he'll get a message that will get him to stop using chemical weapons on his own people? >> i think it's possible. michael makes excellent points and he's right. there's the possibility assad will be a rational actor and step back. >> really? >> but what then? yeah, there's an international taboo against using chemical weapons against kids but this guy is using ballistic missiles

against kids and battle tanks against kids. there's the underlying question what the united states is trying to to achieve from a moral leader standpoint? are we saying what we care about is the type of weapon used against civilians indiscriminantly? that may be our limited decision but i think it leaves us in a difficult and probably untenable position, we sent a message about this type of brutal slaughter against civilians but we'll let this machine continue and let 100,000 more civilians be killed in other ways. that's a tough line to draw. >> talking of lines, michael o'hanlon, do you think the president's use of red line ultimatum was too early and perhaps he'll be more careful about it in future? >> i'm comfortable with it. i know a lot of people have criticized it. i share mike's view that our overall policy toward war has not been very effective but i think the president was correct to identify the use or

proliferation weapons of mass destruction as a different kind of threat to international order. and i think it also spills over into our policy towards iran, where we're trying to persuade iranians not to build a nuclear bomb. mr. obama issued a red line there as well. i think it would be very unfortunate and dangerous if he were to allow red lines in syria to be essentially ignored or erased after the fact and create doubts in places in iran and our resolute there. >> thank you. have a good weekend. heading toward the close, 35 minutes left here on what has turned out to be the worst month for the stock market of this year going back to a spring of 2012. we will have to find a worse month for the stock market. down 18 points on the dow right now. >> later on we've got the ranking member of the house committee on foreign affairs, congressman eliot engels has been in on the briefings about syria. he's a liberal democrat who is for strikes against syria.

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welcome back. pretty much another date when economic data took a back seat to developments regarding syria. the president and secretary of state kerry out making statements today. making the case, providing what they say was clear and compelling evidence that the syrian government had used chemical weapons against its own citizens. the president said he had yet to make a decision on when to make

a strike or if to make the strike. but the dow today finishing down about 19 points, as we have about 30 minutes left in the trading section. nasdaq, hardest hit, down about two-third of a percent. it will be a down month overall for the stock market. >> it will be a down month. it will be worse for dow and s&p since 2012. in terms of sectors, not that it's saying much but materials nonetheless were the best performing -- the least lagging, perhaps you could say sector on the s&p. as question see there, energy in particular has been a bit of a star performer in light of the jitters towards syria and what kind of potential supply disruptions there might be to oil supplies. and s&p health care is down right now. those are. so sectors we're watching in trade today. meantime, apple is launching a nationwide trade-in program today. what will you get for your device? john fortt is although a store and monitoring the situation in

person. what have you found out? >> reporter: mandy we're at the point where most people in a market like this already have an iphone. and the people who want one might not be able to afford one so they're trying to create a market for used phones. this could be good for carry yers like at&t and verizon if they get their hands on the used phones. they may not have to pay as much up front for iphones. most people don't know exactly how much their phone is worth. take a listen. well, i talked to a bunch of people out here and they had all gindz of guesses about what exactly their phones were worth. at the high end, $250 for iphone 5, $120 to $125 for iphone 4. this is a win for apple

customers if they could get the android phones but people who would have gotten a new iphone get a used one, that's bad for them on the market. >> that's for sure. john fortt, thanks very much, in new york city at an apple story. blackberry may be readying for the worse. shares are down currently 30% since releasing the latest smartphone, the b-10 and q-10 and reports say that morgan stanley is holding off on upgrading its employees to the new device on concerns of the company's future viability. what does this mean for the market? let's talk blackberry, abigail and steve. welcome. steve let's start with the fundamental side here. what do you make of the future of blackberry right now? >> you know, bill, believe it or not i do see value here. i'm not going to defend them in terms of the performance of in the phone market but i think

there's value outside of that. when you look at the patent arsenal this company commands, thomas edison would be jealous of their patent holdings. their conservatively estimated to be worth $2.5 billion. when you throw in its cash position, equal to that as well, you're at a $5 billion market cap, which is where it trades. you get the company for free on top of the cash and patents. for that reason i think it's a value and a decent chance it goes private. >> abigail, i'm looking at a chart going back only two years, 2011, the stock was $70 a share. it's $10 stock now. what do you make of the charts? >> blackberry may be down and out, bill, but the charts say don't count this one out. not yet. when we take a look at the two-year daily we see that blackberry is putting in a bottom, just like it did last year. investors are literally scooping this thing up and sending it higher, supporting the odds of the success, this year's higher

low. this tells us that as down and out as blackberry may be now, investors are more positive about its perspective for the future today than they were last year. all this tells me, we're going to the top of a trading range, $18, within three to six months perform i'm a buyer of blackberry. >> i did not expect that. i like blackberry but we have both of you saying the same thing. we'll end it right there. happy friday. >> you, too. >> she's a blackberry buyer. i'm one of the last users. >> me, too. >> i love my berry. let's take a look at markets, down by 27 points on the dow. light volume going into a long weekend. just bouncing around a few points. not a huge amount of movement going towards the close. >> much more on markets as we close out the worst month on stocks and head into what is traditionally the worst month for the stock market. will potential action against syria rock the market even more?

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about 25 minutes left in the trading session, closing out a down month for the markets. dow down 10 or 15 points at this hour. heading down lower, 34 point at 18,406. the s&p with a decline of about 3% this month overall is down another 5 point at 1633. >> we're very closely watching developments in syria. let's get to our john harwood in d.c. what more have you heard, john? >> reporter: you can feel the pace quickening some sort of u.s. action against syria, even though the president has said he hasn't made up his mind. first you had secretary of state john kerry come out and in extensive remarks indicating the only question now is u.s. action. >> this is evidence, these are facts. so, the primary question is really no longer what do we

know? the question is, what do we -- we collectively -- what are we in the world going to do about it? >> reporter: and then we had a few minutes ago president obama during a meeting with baltic leaders tried to address the skepticism of the u.s. public toward military action in response to syria's use of chemical weapons. he tried to reassure the public as well as congress that it would be limited in scope. >> we're not considering any open-ended commitment. we're not considering any boots on the ground approach. what we will do is consider options that meet the narrow concern around chemical weapons. >> reporter: so, bill, all of the indications that we get from these public statements are the only question is, when a strike would take place. does not appear the negative vote in the british parliament yesterday is going to deter the united states from acting, as

john kerry said, the united states is going to act according to its own values and interests on its own timetable. >> even though he's -- >> go ahead. >> sorry. i was going to say even though he's saying we're doing this on our own. >> reporter: i think there is a considerable amount of urgency about doing something as opposed to talking about it. don't know the timing. but i personally, mandy, would be surprised if action is not taken place by the time the president leaves on tuesday. >> john harwood, thank you very much for that. >> so, oil lower on the day but closing out the month with pretty good gains due in part to developments in syria. >> good afternoon, bill. market closing lower here an hour ago. it was an interesting session. we saw moderate pressure on crude throughout the day. traders were selling a little bit as we headed into this weekend, but then crude bouncing

after secretary of state kerry's remarks and that aggressive tone john harwood mentioned there. still, we saw a retreat toward the end of the day. traders on the floor were not convinced we were going to see an attack. at least it wasn't imminent, is what they were thinking. the president later reiterated there has been no final decision yet. traders were taking that as a positive sign as well. we saw wti close down 1%. for the month it was a great month for crude. wti up 2%. brent up roughly 6%. back to you. >> jackie, thanks very much. more on what potential military action against syria may mean for the energy market right now. >> i have here with me chris faulkner. good to have you with us today. this is a question we've been posing to our guests over the course of the day. that is, you've got a potential strike looming and yet oil is down today. what gives? >> i think it's uncertainty driving the pullback.

when we saw british lawmakers say, look, we're not going to join the strike against syria. i knew it was going to retreat this morning. we've seen it come down 8 bucks, 9 bucks, volatility in oil. we don't have the strike on syria, i would expect to see it go down. >> you're saying they're not sure this is going to go ahead? >> yes. it's based on immediate impact, it's not going to happen until today, tuesday or so. i would expect we open on tuesday with higher oil prices. >> we're showing a three-month chart of oil. we've had incredible gains for the last three months in oil, both in london and the united states. is that a valid gain right now based on supply and demand? is there a premium put in there based on syria, which is not an oil exporter, or just an excuse to buy oil right now? >> i think it's a combination of things. we did not discount the fact we have issues in libya. major pullback of production in

libya, the lowest it's been since the overthrow of gadhafi. we have libya being mixed into the price. i would expect oil down below 101, 102 if we don't have anything happen in syria. but this libya thing is more than syria. >> this underscores why the united states is trying to move to more oil independence. it's producing more oil and gas, so how does that buff ter? >> we're still burning through 13 million barrels, so we have a way to go. top five importers of countries coming in for oil, russia number five. russia a piece of puzzle and syria, so that gets traders on edge. i think fear and emotion is moving oil right now. fundamentals not a part of the market in the near term. i think we still have $8 to $10 buffer in there. i think we'll see oil move up. if missiles start flying toward

syria, oil could move up, test 125. it won't be long-lived it will retreat because obama said, no boots on the ground so we're not looking like a long-term war on syria. >> even though opec would like higher prices, they have acknowledgment that when demand goes up, price goes down. >> i think we'll see demand destruction in the market pulling down those demand numbers and they'll have to do something out of saudi arabia to adjust if the price starts to fall. to a point where they can't sustain their budget numbers. keep in mind pre-arab spring, $8 3 oil is what saudi arabia needed to maintain those budgets for all those social programs and subsidies. they're nearing $100 to maintain those same budgets. things are getting squirrely in saudi arabia. they're concerned about what's happening in america, and i think rightfully so. >> thank you for joining us. what we're seeing in the markets is that the dow is losing a little steam going toward the close. 20 minutes left. down by 43 points.

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we are closing in on the final minutes of trading for the month and the situation in syria is throwing even more uncertainty at the markets. >> bob pisani at marketplace. bob, start with you. >> it's fairly rare when all the traders gather around and watch tv today, and it happened. it's nice to see it. secretary of kerry gave a very interesting speech and it moved the stock market here. it moved the market to the downside as the secretary came out and said, well, the u.n. cannot galvanize the world to act. then he said the u.s. makes its own decisions in its own timeline and markets moved down. then it becomes more restrained, call, it toward the end of the speech. he says the response from the u.s. will be limited and tailored. it's not going to involve boots on the ground and the objective is to have a diplomatic process. here's the problem. the street doesn't really believe in limited and tailored. they don't think it's going to be possible. they're worried about protracted

conflict. here's what could happen in a potential protracted conflict. not where all stacks go down and gold rallies. oil stocks would likely rally. defensive stocks would rally, precious metals would rally. commodity stocks like copper, steel, would decline. construction discretionary stocks and here's the bigger concern, a conflict that goes on for weeks with the united states, potentially, and you could even have global growth down. bill and mandy, potentially if it goes on longer than that, you could have it impacting the federal reserve and they may or may not decide to taper based on what's going on in some external ooechlts. that's the sort of thing people are afraid of, some out of control event at this point. >> thank you. let's go to dominick. who are the big movers and how are they reacting to syria? >> if you look at the overall situation, the situation with syria is early on. here are the stock standouts. as we close the books on the month of august, unofficially

even close out the summer. if you take a look at major stock indices, here are some big winners and losers. you saw the dow industrials, one of the best performers was microsoft. it was the only upside stock in the dow. that's interesting to note there. shares are up 5% this month, after microsoft ceo steve babal he would retire. on the broader s&p 500, biggest gainer, electronics retailer best buy of 20 %. cheering best profit margins despite price matching. worst performer, abercrombie & fitch, a teen specialty apparel. nasdaq standouts, electric carmaker tesla. investors continue to ride that upside momentum for that stock. one of the biggest laggards was

office supplier staples. like bob said, there may be certain points in the market you'll see add ver impacts, like he said. >> thank you very much for that. right now, down by 55 points on the dow. we've only got ten minutes before the closing bell of the week. >> when we come back we'll find out what traders are doing moments before the final closing bell of the month and how they're preparing for the uncertainty of syria. announcer: where can an investor be a name and not a number? scottrade. ron: i'm never alone with scottrade. i can always call or stop by my local office. they're nearby and ready to help. so when i have questions, i can talk to someone who knows exactly how i trade. because i don't trade like everybody. i trade like me. that's why i'm with scottrade. announcer: scottrade- proud to be ranked "best overall client experience."

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ten minutes final closing ball in august. worse in a year -- more than a year. looks like we'll start september with military action in syria. >> here on the floor of the stock exchange with me, stephanie from the street and ben willis. thank you for joining us. it's always ladies first on cnbc. stephanie, now we have syria thrown into the mix and going into historically what is one of the most difficult months for the market. how does this change your mind with regards to investments? >> it doesn't. we had the fed, we have to get through a new fed chairman

announcement as well. interest rates need to stabilize. then the debt ceiling and budget discussions and all that. as you mentioned, syria, too. it is going to be volatility, for sure. i think that's going to continue. that said, mandy, we're down 5% from the high. so, some of this stuff is starting to get discounted in. i think you want to make your shopping list. we raised some cash this week. we took some profits. looking for some technology names we like on sale, looking at some of the financials. not all of them. something like a jpmorgan down so much from its high, some industrials and maybe maybe stringling defensive stocks like coke or mcdonald's. >> ben, what's on your shopping list? i'm thinking hewlett-packard by far the best performing dow component, but this month the worst performing dow component. is that something you want to buy or what are you looking at? >> for a long-term investor, the technology side. if you're looking at world economy improving and infrastructure, technology is part of the infrastructure discussion.

therefore, that's where hue lew fits in. i would buy vix for stability. there should be time you have your shopping list ready to buy infrastructure names. >> what do you think about gold? historically september's difficult for the equity market, it's actually one of the best times of the year for gold. when you have times of political uncertainty, i think it gives it that little extra glitter. something you like right now? >> gold is something we haven't invested in. we've found areas that have gold exposure. something like a freeport has gold. it's not a gold play. those names, as they come down, i think those get more interesting because you have the yield protection. >> what about you in terms of a safe haven? >> i still go to safe haven of the equity market. i look at the world economy and

world investment dollars have been leaving in fixed income and moving into equity markets. it may be pooling short period of time into money market funds. this month we saw a report money is flowing out of etfs. we see market of stocks therefore mutual funds have seen that money out of etfs go to them. i don't think gold -- i've never understood gold, quite frankly. i think it's pretty and sexy. that's about it. >> we're heading back to the lows of session right now. the dow was down, what, 80 points at the low. we're down 74 points right now. i mean, you've got that shopping list that you're starting to put together here. do you -- you just buy the whole market? buy an etf? >> i think it's really hard though, bill, because we have the next couple of weeks that are going to be challenging and volatile. but that's why i say, you can have your list ready, have a little extra cash on hand so you have some dry powder. i do think -- by the way, we didn't even talk about economic data points that came out this week in the u.s. that were actually mostly encouraging.

the gdp we had consumer confidence, pmi. you don't want to ignore them again, make your list. a little cyclicals, a little defensives, find yield in the middle of that. >> payrolls next week. is that the last kink in the chain if we taper? >> no doubt, we're going to taper. >> even if it's bad payroll? >> the whole argument of data on fed was zero interest rate policy, nowhere near as much impact on the quantitative easing side of the equation. ben bernanke wants to leave office saying he completed the perfect landing. that's what ice going to do with the taper. >> we got good initial claim numbers, sub 350,000 initial claims. that bodes well for a decent number next friday. >> september, here we come. strap yourselves in. coming back with the final closing countdown of the month. after the bell we'll go back to the pentagon where the focus squarely on syria. many believe after what we heard

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dow is by far the worst of the three averages. the s&p is down 3.3%. the nasdaq down 1.1%. peter costa, your mentor is coming up in a few minutes. should i ask you now what you're doing in this market or do you want to wait to hear what the boss is doing first? >> no. after what we heard last week, and i think ralph has been pretty success sixty with before the market is going -- >> down. >> yeah. i think another 4% or 5% down on the s&p. then it will definitely be an interesting buying period. >> but in the near term, though, ralph has been saying he wouldn't be surprised to see the dow in the 12,000 range. >> yeah, you know, i'm not -- i'm not going that far. i think the dow will probably hit like 14,500 or somewhere in that area. it's not really -- i don't think we're seeing that much more of a move. i think there's a lot of money that needs to be put to work by

the end of the year. that will help support the market. even though we have a lot of things coming up that are pretty significant, i still think the money needs to be active. >> peter, have a good weekend. that will close out the first hour of the "closing bell." stay tuned we have ralph coming up in the second hour. 4 p.m. on wall street. welcome back to the "closing be bell." the likelihood of u.s. strikes in syria over wall street. s&p 500 wrapping up the worst month since may of last year with some selling into the close. we're down by 37 points. >> here's how we're finishing the day out. another down day to close out the down month, dow jones down 37%. interesting some traders might want to go into the long weekend with the possibility of a se