sequester is slowing economic growth and republicans if they want to join -- grow the economy ought to join him in proposing a budget that lifts that sequester and, you know, i think this is something that we've been hearing for a while and we're going to keep hearing from him. he is -- he's very, very exasperated with republicans in congress and not hiding it anymore. >> that's clear. john, there are some who are going to question the timing of this speech. wondering whether it was the right moment to deliver it in the tone that he did, given the tragedy that's unfolding in the nation's capital at the navy yard and the fact that there are apparently two shooters still on the loose in washington, d.c., or surrounding area, at some point, and given the fact that there were americans killed mere miles from the president's doorstep today, john. >> well, look, the business of the white house and the pentagon and the state department and all the agencies of government does not stop because you have a situation like this unfolding in

washington. as horrible as it is. and he spoke about it for the same reason that we just carried it on our air, which is that talking about the economy is vitally important to him, as is vitally important to our network and i think the -- as far as the additional shooters go, that is still a little speculative. what we heard from kathy linnear, the washington, d.c., police chief was potentially, so i'm not sure that is hard information, but in any case, the work of the government doesn't stop because terrible things because they happen all the time. >> this was intended, john, to be, what, a victory speech? the president did note all that has been done by his administration since the financial crisis, noting that in the past three and a half years you have a' had the addition of 7.5 million new jobs, the unemployment rate has been coming down. is that what this was intended to be, a victory speech by the president? >> i don't think so, scott.

when you look at the text and it unfolded the way you described and it surprised me to some extent too, it was plainly intended as a positioning speech for the fiscal fights that we're facing, the government runs out of money at the end of september and then you have mid-october, the debt limit has to be raised and the president probably and his speechwriters made the decision there's not much mileage in declaring victory given how unhappy people are feeling about the state of the economy -- we saw that in our nbc/"wall street journal" poll, only a quarter of the people think the economy will get better over the next year. still a lot of frustration and concern about unemployment, slow wage growth, so you're not going to get too many people saying thank you for the great work that you did when they're still feeling so bad. what the president can try to do is see that these next fights are settled on terms that are favorable to him and in his view favorable to the growth of the economy long term and i think that's how he pivoted from five

years from the crisis look how far we've come, but we need to do these things right now. republicans, you need to follow me. >> john harwood, thanks so much. our john harwood outside of the white house. it is time now for power lunch and as i send it over to tyler, you know, it's unmistakable as well, here we have a stock market, the s&p, is less than 1% away from its all-time highs, just five years removed from the financial crisis as we remember that and continue to follow the yawn going developments in the nation's capital, the tragedy unfolding at the navy yard. >> tremendous number of cross currents as you aptly point out. the equity market moving higher by 150 on the dow. a fed meeting tomorrow. a new and scrambled race to succeed mr. bernanke. all of those topics front and center this day, but bigger than any of them, that shooting down at the washington navy yard just blocks from the white house, a mile or so from the u.s. capitol.

there are multiple casualties, reports of multiple fatalities including one deceased shooter. eamon javers has been on the scene all morning and let's check in with him now. eamon? >> hi, tyler, we're getting new information now just within the past couple seconds from the -- and -- i'm told by a producer we're not going to give you this information. very fluid situation here. we have some information that we've been able to develop. we're not going to report all of this, though, until we're absolutely certain of what it is that we can say and that we can confirm as absolutely accurate. as you can imagine, there is a very -- there's a swirl of information around here. we were -- we're going to hold off on this piece of information and give you the other information that we heard directly from the d.c. chief of police who came out earlier today and said just a few blocks from here, that they are on the lookout now for two suspects who may be connected to this shooting situation at the

washington navy yard. the first is a black male they describe as about 50 years old, with a rifle or a long gun of some kind wearing a drab olive military uniform. the second suspect is a white male carrying a pistol in a navy style khaki uniforms short sleeve and wearing a berret and anybody who has information is supposed to call 202-727-9099. that's the information line for anybody with information about these two suspects who are apparently as of the information we have right now, still on the loose somewhere theoretically in the washington, d.c., metropolitan region. a very dramatic and active scene here, although i can say the area where we're standing right now, the activity has diminished quite a bit. we've seen a lot of police activity throughout the morning, but now, it's started to lesson as some of the police units here have moved out of the area. so tyler, it's not clear from here exactly weight going on except we have potentially two people associated with this who are still on the run.

>> eamon javers, covering it for us there at the navy yard, in southeast d.c. sue herera is at the new york stock exchange and joins us as does kevin, a former fbi agent and senior s.w.a.t. team member. welcome to both of you. let me dial it back just a little bit. there are as eamon pointed out, reports of one shooter decreased and the d.c. police chief said they are still looking for the possibility of two other shooters as eamon described, one in military fatigues the other in a khaki seemingly military uniform. how much do we, in these kinds of situations, do we rely or how hard is that kind of supposition there? in other words, i'm driving at the idea there's a lot of chaos and a lot of confusion and maybe there are multiple eyewitnesses reporting they saw one type of

person and other people saw another. so we really don't know. could you comment on that? >> yeah. i think authorities are going to be very cautious as to what they put out. they're always worried the bad guys are listening so, you know, they only know what they know. they're collecting evidence and information from a whole varetry of sources. it's just difficult to sort of filter that at this point. >> sue? >> kevin, one of the things that doesn't make sense to a lot of people, if, indeed, this is a work place related shooting, and the alleged gunman was upset, some say, in the reports have been out there, that there was a work-related demotion or something along those lines, you can understand the singular shooter. what doesn't make sense to a lot of people i've been listening to on our network is the fact that there might be multiple shooters. can you give perspective on that? that part of the equation doesn't make sense. >> yeah. i think when these sorts of situations occur they're so

dynamic and the vetting process hasn't really kicked in yet. i guess it's hard to imagine someone would misconstrue someone walking around with a rifle, but, you know, a lot of this stuff sorts itself out eventually. you hope that the authorities and you know that they have the most accurate information, but they have to be thinking of all sorts of things early on. >> we just have a sound bite from an individual who is described as an eyewitness to some of the action this morning. let's listen to the sound bite and see how he advances the story for us. >> we heard what sounded like a pop gun or gunshots going off in the building but like far away, like it wasn't close to us. a couple minutes later somebody was running through the hallways telling everybody to get out of the building. couple minutes after that the fire alarms in the building went off which is the automatic way to evacuate the building. so i work up in the safety section part of our job is to make sure everybody gets out of the fire exits and to the right side of the building to muster

them. so i ended up on the backside of our building in an alley way. evacuated a bunch of people, pushed them in the right direction to get them out and then it was an individual who came from the building behind us, came up and was talking to me saying hey, here's the shooter in your building and heard two more shots, one of them hit him, he went down in front of me and i took off from there. >> there's tim jirus, u.s. navy personnel. does that clarify anything to you? in other words, there was one shooter who was firing very close to where mr. jirus just was, that individual went down. we don't know that person's condition. there are multiple reports of multiple fatalities and roughly a dozen having been shot here. but again, is there anything that we can divine from what he just said about whether there could have been more shooters or not? >> well, i think it clarifies the chaos and the dynamic nature of something like that. it's just really difficult for

individuals to figure out what's going on because they only know what they know at the moment. i've been in similar situations at columbine where we responded and there was a long period of time where we had no idea how many shooters there were. so you really have to have all of your senses working. >> what do you do, kevin, when you are deployed to a scene like that to try to, a, secure the location, and are you really going room by room, closet by closet, looking for additional individuals? is that what you do? >> yeah. but there's a lot of different things going on at one time. people posting up, looking for people. i've seen reports this morning that there's snipers on the roofs looking for people. and then there is, as a huge clearing process that happens as you say with the room by room, closet by closet, those things all have to start at the same time and all be coordinated.

that's why they train so much. >> kevin, thank you very much for joining us. i gather you're going to stick around for the rest of this hour and we'll certainly be back with you. meantime let's go down to sue. >> and we're going to bring in our john harwood at the white house. the president reacting to that shooting and also addressing the five years that have passed since lehman brothers folded. the big story in washington, also that larry summers will not be the next fed chief. a lot to talk about certainly, but let me start with the president making his speech. was there ever talk, given what's going on in washington, that perhaps the president would cancel that speech? >> none that i heard. it was delayed because the situation was dynamic. i think they decided to wait until the d.c. police chief had spoken and some of the dust had settled from the initial phase of the incident. don't know how active that incident still is. the police chief was somewhat

equivocal saying there are potentially more shooters and she's going to report back later once she has more information but i think the white house decided that the president would address the shootingses off the top. he was already going to in the beginning make a turn from the crisis in syria which has dominated so much of our attention to the financial crisis of the state of the economy and i think they decided clearly to express sympathy and condolences, investigative help to local authorities and then move on. >> does the president risk, though, criticism for being somewhat tone deaf, given the fact that it is still an active story in washington, by making the speech and as you pointed out last hour, the government has to go on and business has it to get done in washington, but what are the risks for him of getting criticism for addressing those issues when you do have fatalities basically right down the street?

>> i don't see any risk from that, sue. the only risk i see from the information for the administration is that the message the president delivered in the speech itself is not going to get much attention at all because so much of the media coverage and people's natural attention is going to flow to the shooting. but i don't think there's any risk of a backlash because the president talked about the economy. if you were to take a poll tonight, you would find that the number one issue on the minds of the american people is, in fact, the state of the economy and the president was speaking to that. >> and we're going to talk to gene sperling about the state of the economy. john harwood, thank you as always. the president's point man on the economy is here next. now that larry summers is out, who might be in at the fed? and we are, of course, continuing to monitor the deadly shooting at the navy shipyard in washington, d.c. police say they are investigating whether a second shooter is involved. 12 people shot, four killed. so far that number actually has

gone up a little bit, i believe. one gunman has been neutralized. we'll be back in a moment. i'm a careful investor. when you do what i do, you think about risk. i don't like the ups and downs of the market, but i can't just sit on my cash. i want to be prepared for the long haul. ishares minimum volatility etfs. investments designed for a smoother ride. find out why 9 out of 10 large professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. ishares by blackrock. call 1-800-ishares for a prospectus, which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses.

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breaking news now. scott has more details on the deadly shooting in d.c. >> we just want to bring you up to date on what we know so far as events have been unfolding fast in the nation's capital. police in washington look for two other possible gunmen now or at least people who might be connected to this. as we've been reporting the

shooter, at least the initial primary shooter, was said to be neutralized early on. witnesses describe a gunman opening fire from the fourth floor in an area at the washington, d.c. naval yard aiming down at people in a first floor cafeteria and clearly a chaotic situation. as many as six people dead. the federal officials telling nbc news four confirmed fatalities and roughly a dozen people who have been shot. we're continuing to follow this with all the resources of cnbc and nbc and keep you posted as more events become available. back to you. >> thank you very much. let's bring in terrorism expert mike barrett, ceo of diligent innovations. he was the director of strategy for the white house homeland security council and he joins us now on the line. mike, welcome. it's nice to have you here. >> good afternoon. >> weigh in on this situation because we have multiple shooters reportedly. what does that tell you?

it seems to me it changes the situation from just a work place shooting? >> sure. that does absolutely. in fact, it's a big contradictory. i don't know how you get multiple shootings unless you have a common cause, right? so in this day and age we think of that as terrorism or some other sort teachly felt belief more so than just work place violence. hard to imagine a situation where you have multiple people involved in work place violence. the reports are they're not well armed. we're not hearing evidence of explosives or use of hand grenades or anything like that. and, you know, you would expect if you're going to have multiple people you would have, you know, frankly better resources involved. it does seem amateur. >> how, mr. barrett, people that heavily armed, whether heavily armed or not, how do they get on to a naval installation like the washington navy yards, carrying that kind of weaponry? >> sure. well, you know, all military facilities are treated similar to what you have in an airport.

gates, guns and xwaurdss. wear not strip searching everybody that goes on base. we do make sure visitors will go through a second protocol. if you work there you can get on with a backpack without having it inspected. if you have a right to be there and need to be there, you work there, you have the right badge, you know, that you've been cleared. you know, the question that will have to come up, did they smuggle the weapons on, was that how the other people were involved? one person who worked here and a couple others who came on as guests and then they met up and got the weapons and dispersed them that way? but it is almost impossible to provide a level of security that would be foolproof unless you actually do inspect every person every time they come in. >> talk to me about the location. a lot of people do not know much about the navy yard. it seems like a less logical

location, if, indeed, it was terrorism or intended to be terrorism, and we don't know that, of course. but does the location strike you in any way, shape, or form? >> well, that's one of the issues that drives me towards thinking it's more likely a work place violence because as you say, it's not a high-profile target. plenty other facilities you can hit. not far from the capitol building. it's in an area completely redeveloped. the d.c. homeland security and emergency management association or agency is right nearby. so there's an extremely heavy police presence in that area. if you were going to hit any military base that's not one of the top ones you think someone would go for. either again because they don't have sophisticated weapons, you think they would go for something not in an urban area like in d.c. >> all right. >> or -- >> mike, i have to live it there. another guest waiting. we will be calling on you throughout the day. >> sure thing. >> thank you very much. >> joining us now from the white house gene sperling, director of

the national economic council and assistant to the president for economic policy. steve liesman and john hardwood joining the conversation. gene, always good to have you with us. >> thank you for having us? it's been a chaotic morning. >> yes. >> and i want to address that. the president sending his condolences to the families affected by this terrible situation in washington, d.c. i ask this question to john harwood and i'll ask it to you, what risk does the president have of seeming somewhat tone deaf to segway from that situation into the economy and the situation facing the nation? was there ever any talk of canceling the speech given what's going on in washington, d.c.? >> being president of the united states is a very tough job. and i think to be president you have to be able to deal at the same time with serious foreign policy crisis, with tragedies at home where our hearts go out to the families affected, but also, the core economic issues that

affect the livelihoods and economic security of tens of millions of families. that's what being president is. it's being able to deal with all those things often at the same time. >> the president also talked a lot about the economic recovery, you know, five years since the economic -- the collapse of lehman brothers and there has been significant improvement in many parts of the economy, but talk to me about the frustrations that the president might have about the fact that we still don't have enough americans back to work. one of the biggest shockers in the latest employment report was that people are so discouraged they've stopped looking for work. >> well, i think what this report does is looks back at where we were five years ago. i was one of the people at treasury on day one and it is important to recognize when you look at, take an area like t.a.r.p., where people protected that would cost the united states taxpayer $356 billion, and yet it turned out that when

you look at the injections into the banks, they're returning a $28 billion profit, those are far better results than anybody at the time ever projected. the comeback of the american automobile industry, the fact that aig has actually returned money to the taxpayer, these are all things that are far better than anyone ever would have projected when the president was making these very difficult and novel decisions back in 2009. that said, we're the first to say we've got a lot further to go and one of our important points the president's making today is the one thing you don't want to do is go backwards with the self-inflicted wound that could happen if, once again, any faction in our congress were to decide they were willing to threaten the default of the united states' government over their policy views, however strongly held. >> mr. sperling, i want to go back to the question sue began

with this morning, the president's frustration with the republicans in congress was palpable in his remarks about an hour or so ago and -- long-standing frustrations with the republicans. but was today at this moment, as fatal events unfold a couple miles from there, was this the time to express that frustration and what do you say to people who would be critical of that as overly political given what was going on blocks away? >> you know, again, i'll go back to just what i was saying before. being president is a very tough job and i think every day this president has to deal with life or death foreign policy issues. tragedies that happen in our country. and still move forward on core issues that affect the livelihoods of american families. and i think the president is frustrated, if not for himself but for the american people. we know right now, that if we have a more pro growth fiscal policy, that if we were able to

come together and work together on investments and infrastructure, in research and education, at the same time we had a balanced plan to bring down our deficit there would be more people working, there would be more jobs, there would be higher incomes and there would be more economic security in our country. i think that the american people understand that the president has to do several things at once. and fighting for their economic security even at the time he's dealing with important foreign policy crisis and with just tragedies at home that break our hearts, is something they expect him to be able to do together. and i don't think that's contradictory at all. i think that's the challenge of being president of the united states. >> gene -- >> steve? >> steve liesman here. can you tell us whether larry summers was asked to withdraw his nomination or name from nomination from the fed chairmanship or was that something that came up on his own? now that he's out of the

process, who are the leading candidates and what's the timetable now for choosing a new fed chairman? >> well, it's not going to shock you as has been the case for the last couple months, i'm not going to speculate on personnel decisions. the president decides them and announces them. as to your first question, yes, larry decided to remove himself. larry is an honorable public servant and while he was willing to serve, he did not want to serve or be nominated if he felt it was going to be a distraction from the policy issues and the economic issues that he cherished most and so he made his own decision, an honorable decision, i think, to withdraw because he felt that his confirmation process for himself might be distraction from the important economic issues the president was pushing forward at this time. >> gene -- >> gene, is it now problematic for the president to stand up next to whoever is the next chairman or nominated and say,

well essentially this is my second choice? >> well, again, the president has never said publicly who is first or second choice is. he has defended larry summers against what he thought were mistruths being spoken about him, as he said he would do of any public servant that he had worked closely with. today when we're talking about what happened five years ago, let's remember larry summers, former secretary of treasury agreed to come into service at a time when our economy was on the brink of the second great depression. he was one of the people who pressed forward on dodd/frank, on the financial stability. he called for very tough regulations of wall street and pushed for the most aggressive jobs oriented package possible and the president feels that we as a country owe him gratitude for that. but the president has not spoken on this issue and i'm going to

continue to let him be the first to speak on who his choice is to be chairman of the fed. >> i need to go to john harwood and let you go go, but i know you're not going to ask you this, have you started to vet jats net yellen yet? >> you are so right that i am not going to answer that. >> i have to try. that's your job and that was my job. >> understood. >> gene, the president has said he's not going to negotiate over the debt limit but he is negotiating over keeping the government open and government funding levels. we saw the collapse of a republican approach last week. eric cantor said they may cancel the recess. what is the status of your talks with republicans on funding the government beyond september 30th? >> i want to emphasize the point you made because it's an important one. this president has always been willing to negotiate in the normal way presidents negotiate with congress on appropriations, on replacing the sequester, on a balanced pro growth long-term fiscal plan. what he has said, the one thing he will not do, is negotiate on

the debt limit because we have come to a point where people are using the debt limit to threaten the default of our country for the first time. >> so where do those negotiations on the budget stand is. >> as if it were an acceptable tactic and that's not acceptable and there will be no negotiation and the era of threatening default on the united states has to be over. you know, in terms of discussions, you know, there are, you know, all sorts of different conversations happening throughout washington. and i think i'm also going to be to unhelpful and not common more than that. >> have you talked to the speaker since the collapse of the republican alternative. >> again, i think it's most helpful for us to not try to comment or do inside baseball on where the state of discussions or negotiations are or whether they exist or where they might be. >> guys, even with one foot out the door, gene sperling is maintaining his discipline. >> hey, i just want to, you know, to paraphrase john, we're

all lame ducks in the long term. >> touche. gene, always good to see you. thanks so much for joining us. >> folks, we're going to take a quick break here. before we do a quick look at the markets which on any other day would certainly be our lead story and they're not a secondary one at all here today, but nevertheless, the dow industrials up 150 points at 15525, nasdaq up about 10 points and the s&p up about .8. within a hair after their all-time highs after a lurch the past month or so. more "power lunch" coming back in two minutes. [ tires screech ]

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let's get the latest on the deadly shooting at the navy shipyard in washington, d.c. tom costello is live on the scene. tom? >> hi, sue. good evening. the latest numbers are still fluid. we still have reports of ten to 12 total shot, four dead, and the gunman is reported dead. but here's the behind me. we'll zoom in and the navy yard is about three or four blocks down the street. we've had a pretty extreme perimeter here as the police moved in. i would estimate we probably had 100 police officers from various jurisdictions as well as fire and ems coming from throughout d.c. and maryland and virginia

to assist on this. our pete williams justice correspondent pete williams is reporting they believe that there was only one shooter involved in this incident and he is dead. now the police chief for d.c. said that they were just wanting to make sure that two other individuals might not have been involved in this. a white male wearing what they believed was a khaki military type uniform and a handgun and another black male wearing what they believed was a green or olive fatigue type of uniform. they -- she said those two, they're looking for, to see if whether they might be involved as well. however, our own reporting suggests that there was only one shooting, one shooter rather and we have not seen here any suggestion of the intensity of a manhunt that you would expect if there was a real concern about two more shooters on the grounts and in this vicinity. we've seen a pulling back of resources over the last hour or so as police and fire and ems units start to pull back from

the scene. it now appears this is a sole gunman who have killed a number of people, maybe four, as many as 12 in total wounded. >> thank you very much. you make the critical point here that is when the police chief of d.c. spoke about an hour or so ago, she was careful to qualify those reports of additional gunmen. she said we are looking potentially for two other shooters and as your information indicates, maybe there is just that one lone goalman. than -- gunman. check in with diana olick at the washington hospital center where several of the wounded have apparently been transported. diana is on the scene there. >> just about 15 minutes ago another medivac helicopter flew over and landed at washington hospital center we don't know if it was another victim being transported. we know that three victims were transported here via helicopter to the washington medical

center, washington hospital center. they were all awake and alert when they came here, but are reported in critical condition. two women and one male. the male is a metropolitan police officer. he was shot multiple times in the legs and was in surgery. we're told that they are all expected to recover. one of the woman was shot in the shoulder, another in the head, but they were alert when they came in. they told officials here that they heard rapid gunfire and that's why officials are saying they expect it was some kind of automatic weapons fired. you can see there is heightened security behind me at the hospital. a lot of police officers here keeping security up, but so far that's all the information they will give us. we know one other victim was transported to george washington hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival. so far no other reports of victims in hospitals in the area. just the three here. we're waiting for more information on that. back to you, tyler and sue. >> diana, thank you very much. we will continue to watch and follow the still developing

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all right. let's bring in bob pisani, and a director with o'neill security and market analyst and joining us david, global head of management investors at citi private bank and keeping an eye on the still-developing story in washington. kenny, it's risk on today. even the headline risk, the situation in washington, d.c. >> right. >> is not taking all that much steam out of this market today. >> no. and if you remember this started last night. the minute that news came out about larry summers, global markets just went through the roof. started in asia naturally and went really around the world. and quite honestly that's what you're seeing here. what's been interesting is, we were up 18 premarket, really just right after the opening and we've been churning right here because i think people might be

a little bit relieved but yet, the broader issue still exists and that's kind of holding the market in check. >> we've seen interest rates moving down recently, but who knew larry summers was worth ten basis points on the ten year and he's moving interest rates -- >> is it a summers or yellen really. >> both a little bit. we've got two big worries that have been sidelined, syria sidelined, not gone away, but summers has been sidelined. now all we have to deal with is tapering and the potential government shutdown on october 1st, that looms out there. nobody seems to want to talk about it. but it's definitely out there as a possibility. so far everyone has dealt with all these issues. what art calls the rationality factor everything has been resolved. go to the brink and it gets resolved. >> david, is that the case and how do you invest in an environment like this? >> you have to invest with a medium or long-term outlook. that's correct, we've seen a lot of issues get resolved. clearly the next one on the

horizon is the tax -- the debt limits and if that gets resolved you could see a continued movement in the market upward here. valuation of u.s. equities are modest. profits today are 30% higher than at the time of the crisis in 2008 and so basically there's room to run depending on the sector of the market. >> what sectors are some of your clients favoring? >> the value orient ready the financial sectors of the market which are cheap and have done relatively well they are well undervalued. consumer and technology stocks doing well. we like dividend equities because we thing that companies can buy back stock, increase their dividends and basically drive the earnings per share higher which is a combination of returns for investors. more dividends and profits and higher valuations. >> we to leave it there because of all the breaking news. thanks for your patience and as always, thanks for your perspective. we'll let you go back to work. thanks, guys. ty? >> thank you very much.

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welcome back to "power lunch." i'm scott cohen on a busy day in the cnbc newsroom where one of the main stories we are following is this morning's shooting at the washington navy yard. to bring you up to date a total of 12 people shot, four people known to be dead according to federal officials. there are reports, though, that the number could go higher and we're keeping track of that. one gunman was killed by police. witnesses telling the ap that a gunman that they encountered at the navy yard turned and started

firing. there may be two more shooters or at least suspects on the loose. the d.c. police are looking for. the possible suspects described as one white male, one black male. they may be wearing military style uniforms. police have increased their presence on capitol hill, although they do say that at this point there is no immediate threat to the area. reagan international airport in washington was at a brief ground halt. it's back up and running once again. schools in the d.c. area remain on lockdown and we're continuing to follow this here in the newsroom and washington, d.c. tyler, more when we get it. back to you. >> all right. >> thank you. >> down to sue now. >> we have more developing news here. we are hearing, bob pisani is hearing from a source and we confirmed it with the post behind us, the nasdaq has halted trading in options. >> apparently there is a problem with the system pricing options here. so -- >> that's how it started the last time. >> the reporting authority, the

authorities that actually goes out and puts out prices on the options, apparently is having problems. we're getting reports some of the options exchanges are not working properly. trying to work through it right now. >> problem with the options price reporting authority. >> yeah. >> is the formal term for it. they -- the nasdaq has halted trading in options at this point. developing story we're working on president the guys at the post helpings us out with that. appreciate it. bob, i'll let you go so you can work on it and continue watching the markets. i'll send it up to you. >> thanks very much. another breaking story the news of this report at the united nations today regarding the syrian chemical weapons. our chief international correspondent michele caruso-cabrera can fill us in now. >> the report has come out and we've been able to pour through it. for the first time seeing photos of the rockets actually used. additionally the u.n. inspectors explained exactly the process they went through. they interviewed more than -- they examined more than 80

people, took blood tests and urine samples from 34 out of 36 people the vast majority came back tested positive for sarin. multiple surface-to-surface rockets which the vast majority tested positive for sarin and the report is filled with a lot of heartbreaking details such as interviewing a 17-year-old male, four of his seven family members, the vast majority of his family members died. two brothers who say of the 40 people living in their building they are the only two survivors. what is important about this, we were waiting to see if this could link assad and the assad regime to this attack in any way. when you describe the size of the surface-to-surface missiles that are documented in this report and you talk to experts -- i spoke with james at the rand institute, he says that suggests a state agent, that the size, the capacity, this was not some vehicle born thing that was invented. >> the rebels don't have

missiles that big, that sort of targeted. >> and the type of sarin used is not one that could be imported because it was premixed. it's mixed as you go which would suggest you would have some kind of industrial capacity or facility to actually make it on-site. >> i read one report from a french diplomatic source indicating that this report confirmed at least as far as that individual was concerned, that the assad regime was behind this attack. >> the scope of the rockets used and size of the rockets used is the evidence they would look at to suggest that. >> michele, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> all right. i guess -- are we going to take a break here? we are. at 11 minutes before the hour following multiple stories today and we will be right back. .

all right. we continue following this developing story. trading in options has been halted on the nasdaq and i want to go to chalk and the cbo, jeff killberg is there. what are you seeing, hearing, what's going on, jeff? >> well, sue, i just got off the phone with dr. j and the system which stands for the options pricing regulating authority, not des sem nating information. it is down. no quotes for options on the nasdaq are going out. they are trying to get it back up and running and it is not. pretty unfortunate. the nasdaq experiencing their third glitch in one month. like they say in baseball, three strikes, are you out? >> well, you know what, that certainly is a black eye. bob, you were just back in the options room here at the nyse. >> as far as i can tell all the options not just the nasdaq, all

are down right now because of o opera and it disseminating and agates the quote information from the option exchanges. >> look at the nasdaq omx is down. >> i want to emphasize all the option exchanges are down. opera is not disseminating the quotes. nobody has any information. >> and that's an important clarification. >> very. >> it does not necessarily mean that this is a fault of the exchanges. >> that's right. >> it's the reporting system. >> agreed. and you are seeing a slight reaction. you saw the s&p as well as the dow jones come off a little bit here. people don't like this uncertainty specifically if it's all exchanges like you said. >> jeff, can you put in perspective who this affects the most? >> well, i think it affects anybody trying to hedge their position. john was talking about some of these big pension plans, some of these big corporations were actively in the market and these

options market. they can no longer get in. you may see them come into the futures market and that's why it's so important. every glitch we have had here, we have seen the futures market continue to operate. >> it's very interesting too. we've seen the dow jones industrial average lose about 20 points or so since. that goes to jeff's point on confidence. >> cboe options are down. this is not nasdaq and it may not be a nasdaq problem. >> right. >> as far as we can tell -- >> i apologize if i misspoke. the glitch started there. i guess what i've understood they've tried to get it back up and running and it has failed. that was the news i was given. >> thank you very much. >> we'll watch those features, very good point. bob, thank you very much. >> okay. >> all right. ty, up to you. >> thanks, sue. back to the washington hospital center where diana olick has a update on the number of casualties in d.c. >> that's right. we're hearing from nbc's jim miklaszewski the death count up to 7, that could be expected

from earlier reports of four given the reports of those that had been injured were 12 to 15, there are only three reported here at washington hospital center. it would indicate there would be a rise in the death toll. jim miklaszewski reporting seven dead. we're awaiting more information from washington hospital center where we're told the three are still in critical condition but they did arrive awake and alert and able to talk to officials here at the hospital. we did see one medivac helicopter come in here about a half hour ago. we are more than five hours from the shooting now. so it's unexpected to see any more people coming to the center now. back to you. >> diana, thank you very much. let's bring back our terrorism expert mike barrett, he was the former director of strategy for the white house homeland security council. your perspective now, things have obviously changed since we last talked to you. now they're thinking perhaps it's only one gunman, but it is a very fluid situation. >> yeah. that's correct. i mean often what we find the

first reports are wrong. everybody who remembers back in the d.c. sniper event that we had everybody was looking for white vans for weeksp so what we find is we get a lot of conflicting and incorrect information off the bat. i think that it's good the police are being -- proceeding with an abundance of caution and looking at anybody who may be involved in this. it sounds more like it's a typical work place shooting. fairly specific targeting of a group of people inside one building. if you wanted to make a terrorist style spec tatacle you would probably carry it out a different way. >> inside the white house or the executive office building, when this kind of event happens on a federal installation like this, how does the information come in? how do you process this? and how do you ultimately rule out that it is terrorism? >> well, that's why you always have to proceed under the assumption it might be. i'm sure if you were privy to it you would know that the police force es and the executive forces and federal forces all went to immediate high alert. whenever you have an incident like nis in d.c. when the

president is in town you will end up with everybody going to high alert until you find out for sure this is an isolated event and then see everybody start to stand back down. my understanding the pentagon and other military installations have gone up to a higher state of security. you will put more posted cent y centuries out front, everyone armed and more flexible rules of engagement. >> mike barrett, thank you for being with us at this hour and continuing to follow this story and the markets for the rest of the day. meantime that will do it for this edition of "power lunch." thanks for watching. >> we will send it over to "street signs" which begins after a brief break. peace of mind is important when you're running a successful business.

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♪ welcome to "street signs." we have two major breaking news stories at this hour. first, a mass shooting at the d.c. navy yard. on the right of your screen, a live shot from the chicago board of exchange where options trading was briefly halted. scott is joining me as well today. welcome. great to have you with us. i want it get to the big breaking news at this hour, several people are dead following a shooting at washington, d.c.'s navy yard. among the dead at least one shooter and d.c. police say there could pti