>> this is the big question that i had. it was explained to me it's different. the bubbles get less aggressive. it's not as fizzy. but much bigger flavors, rounder, deeper, richer. for true connoisseurs, they like the older stuff. >> i like soda stream champagne. has to be fresh. >> great story. >> thank you, america, for watching "street signs." >> "closing bell," next. hi, everybody. we enter the final stretch. good afternoon. welcome to "closing bell." i'm maria bartiromo at the new york stock exchange. it is the day after. the enthusiasm from yesterday not following through. >> there is a lot of shock going on on wall street. i'm bill griffith. dow and s&p started the morning at all time highs due to the fed continuing the party yesterday to the shock of most people. but not all people. >> not us. >> whether they finish -- whether we finish at these

levels an hour from now is very much in question. some now wondering what exactly the fed sees in the economy that had them keeping their foot firmly on the gas pedal as far as easing monetary policy. >> is it housing? is it unemployment? is it just a sentiment that is just a slow pace in terms of economic growth? >> i think it's job growth not strong enough yet. and the inflation expectations are not high enough yet. i think those two are very key for the economy right now. >> ditto, it tditto. throw in there the idea that rates have already moved up. that has put a bit of a crimp in the mortgage market. they don't want that to persist. since this is the one area of the economy that has been doing so well. we'll talk about all this in the hour to come. also today, carl icahn says america's board rooms are broken. he knows how to fix them. a scathing op-ed in the "wall street journal" today. he's with us live, exclusive, with a lot more to say on the issue. who will his next target be? you don't want to miss that interview. mr. tweet is with us today.

this might be the market's real concern moving forward. thipgs are quickly spiralling downhill in washington. as the debate on the debt ceiling and the budget heats up. today, house speaker boehner, you saw it on cnbc, saying the president is more willing to negotiate with vladimir putin than with him, john boehner. that was the nice part of that news conference. we'll have the latest on a very big issue that wall street is swiftly turning its attention to and that the fed cited yesterday as part of the reason to keep monetary stimulus going full board. >> the dysfunction continues. we'll see if it blows up into another fight next month. let's check where we stand as we approach the final stretch. giving some of yesterday's big rally back. down about 30 points at 15,646. pulling back from an all time high reached yesterday. nasdaq composite looks like this. a gain of six points on the session. fractional move there. technology one of the better performs today. standard & poors 500 index hitting a record high yesterday.

pulling back a fraction. down about three points. the federal reserve fueled the rally facing headwinds today, for sure. let's get to bob pisani, find out what's behind the struggles today. >> what rally? what happened to it? we started on the upside and we've just been moving down for most of the day. bottomed out a couple hours ago. let me show you what traders are saying about why we're not getting much of a rally. number one, a lot of what happened yesterday was short covering. not real buying. that wouldn't carry over in today. stocks have down all day as interest rates have rose. particularly on the 10 year. that's probably the most important thing today. stocks are technically overbought. that certainly is a very important insight. finally, simple but profound truth. if the economy was good the fed would have tapered. you can see that in the stock action today. put up industrials. economically sensitive stocks aren't doing too much. there are a small group of big global industrial names that are on the upside. eaton, cummins, deere, dover, some of those are up. not many of them. look at material stocks.

another nickically sensitive group here. they're not doing anything. steel, aluminum, iron other stocks like rio and billiton. look at some of the regional banks and what's going on there. zions, regions, keycorp, suntrust. other interest rate sensitive stocks that have had a nice move off of the bottom recently, they're not doing much at all today. i would also note maria and bill, the important thing here, too, the next catalyst is a potentially negative one. that's the potential for another government shutdown in the next week and a half. back to you guys. >> joining us now is heather hughes from sun america funds. michael santoli from yahoo! finance. greg zioli from empire asset manageme management. and our own rick santelli. >> take a bow, heather. >> someone owes us a steak. >> we were all in step when we said we didn't expect any

tapering. we'll get ben willis over here soon. >> i haven't seen ben in two days. >> he's hiding from us. what's the play now that we know the federal reserve is going to keep its foot on the gas. what do we want to know as an investor. >> definitely we were blind sided. most of us. not all of us. markets seem hung over today as bob pisani noted. i thought it was very interesting. we did see a spike yesterday after the federal open market committee came out on the economic sensitive sectors such as materials, financials and energy. yet no follow through today. >> mike santoli, you believe this will cause an attitude reset, if you will. i'm going to let you explain it. you think we're going to go back to the attitude we had at the beginning of the year with the fed doing what it's doing now. explain. >> it does hint at that idea that we had in the first months of this year, kind of a heads, i win, tails, you lose. the fed has promised you in a sense it's going to be late rather than early in doing anything.

now, that only lasts for so long. because if you remember back in the spring, the concern was that overheating and overconfident financial markets were themselves prompting fed officials to come out and say not so fast. don't start building in q infinity and all the rest o of it. i do think we're back to that mode for now. very overbought. up too much. every time you have a huge upside pop to a new all time high, new 52 week high on fed day you have a little more upside. then you have to have a little pullback, i think. >> greg, what do you see right here? i know you also were not expecting tapering. because the markers were not hit. which is what bill and i have been saying ad nauseam here. >> i agree. the fed said many times they're not going to scale back their asset program until we see inflation or unemployment. it was clear we didn't hit that. the fed is afraid that we're creating a wealth effect strictly on housing and stocks. if they remove that tapering it's the beginning of the end for us. >> what do you want to do as an investor? put new money to work? >> i do. i think we do need to put new money to work. the fed is going to be stuck

adding liquidity to the market. i think we have to expand our time horizons from week to week and quarter to quarter. go back to long term allocation of our assets. i think that this information is moving way too quickly. look what happened yesterday and today interest rates are up again. >> rick santelli, of course, we all know when the announcement came out, the dollar tanked. gold skyrocketed. interest rates went down. the stock market went up. what do you make now? what happens now? what are your expectations, you guys there on the floor in chicago? >> first o of all, the message down here was normalization is too painful. our last guest, the gentleman just on said all is over. it's the end of the game if the fed stops tapering. if he's correct, then alls we really should be debating is the date that the end begins. because it's going to be happening sooner or later. and i see that in the market. many of the big bond funds, they really hit a home run yesterday. not so much because of movement. but because of the the yield curve. look at the charts.

the 5 year led the charge. it had the biggest drop. we saw steepening. if you look at 5s to 10s you can see we're challenging some of the steepest levels that were created by the big selloff that started in may. listen, i think that interest rates are going to continue to behave very similar to the way they behaved before yesterday. the only difference is, maybe ten basis points evaporated. we'll see how symmetric some of the responses are to good data to make that up. >> yeah. heather, what do you think? do you think once we get a hint that the tapering will actually begin, is that the moment the stock market will see more than a 5% correction like we've had here lately? >> we've been consistent through the first half of the year as far as advisers looking at those large cap value dividend growers. and we've been raising cash. as you stated, people are just anxiously waiting on the sidelines right now, frustrated longs can't get in the market. frustrated value seekers can't find a bottom in this market right now. if and when the fed starts to

taper, maybe in december, even further next year, you would hope that some of that is already priced into the markets. and i'm really it shall advisers really want to see a fundamentally driven marketplace. correlations in the stock market have dropped below 2007 levels right now. which is still relatively high speaking. but it may bode well for stock pickers going into year end. >> you know, i'm so done with the fed at this point, bill. i really am. i am on to the next -- >> amen! >> earnings. that's what i want to talk about. i'm seeing lots of previews here from various wall street sources that say the trading results are going to be weak, earnings are going to be just so-so and the revenue is going to be squat. where are the earnings? where are the stories, do you think, that the growth opportunities are going into the third quarter results? that's going to be the next catalyst. greg, what do you think? >> that's a good question. fedex. look at fedex. they just had great numbers. they're already talking about softer numbers going forward. one of the best benchmarks out there. it's very, very difficult. we're seeing the s&p with

earnings of 8803. highest since 2007. i think it is concerning going -- >> you think the market sells off, then? is this going to be a surprise, is the bottom line? >> i don't think it's going to be a surprise, no. >> mike sant o,li, your expectations for earnings. we only have a week left in this quarter. >> all the macro indicators are suggesting the consumer took a break. i think some of the global industrials you might actually have some pretty good, you know, rhetoric coming out of them just because you have seen at least a perceived lift overseas. but i do think the domestic soir, we had a tough summer. >> maria, look at that baltic dry index. it's at all time highs again in 2013. a leading global economic indicator to look for as far as the health of the global economy into q-4. >> look how good that looks. >> we do love the baltic dry index. >> that is a good looking chart. >> thank you all for joining us. appreciate it very much. does this mean we can't mention the fed anymore? >> we can still mention it.

but i'm over it. bill, i'm over it. on to earnings. >> we'll get to earnings. let's get to gold, first. having its best percentage gain in more than four years. sharon epperson at the nymex with more on that. folks thanking ben bernanke, i guess, huh? >> maybe some gold traders are a bit over the fed for the moment as well. that one day gain is actually a one session gain. the session started after the 1:30 close yesterday. most of the gain we saw in gold was between the 2:00 announcement and 5:15 end of electronic trading yesterday. today we're not seeing as much action in the gold market. but still we are looking at a tremendous runup post fed in the gold price. and it's not just happened in the gold market, but it's happened in other metals as well. with silver up nearly 8%. we're also seeing the platinum group met als up sharply. what traders want to see is whether or not these gains are sustainable and whether we'll see more upside momentum. the jury is still out on that. they're very mixed in their views here on the floor. back to you. >> thank you. about 45 minutes before the closing bell sounds for the day

in a market that is fractionally low. really mixed. nasdaq is actually higher. dow down about 37. >> slight bias to the upside we just heard as we head toward the close here. meantime, legendary hedge fund manager stanley drukenmiller says ben bernanke is helping guys like him, billionaires out there, but hurting america. is he right? we have both sides of the contentious issue coming up in a moment. billionaire investor carl icahn waging war on what he calls the imperial board room. he's here live and exclusive. which board room is next on his list? we'll talk about it. warren buffett has made, of course, billions of dollars off his investments in bank of america. coming up, becky quick sits down with both buffett and ceo brian moynihan of b of a.

welcome back. is the fed's easy money policy helping everybody? superstar investor stan dr druckenmiller thinks the first round -- >> as a practitioner in markets, i love this stuff. okay? this is fantastic. it's fantastic for every rich

person. this is the biggest redistribution of wealth from the middle class and the poor to the rich ever. who owns assets? the rich. the billionaires. you think warren buffett hates this stuff? you think i hate this stuff? i had a very good day yesterday. >> so that's the question. is chairman bernanke playing the role, maybe inadvertently, of a reverse robinhood. with us, dennis gartman. the gartman letter. our own ron insana and robert frank. dennis, you agree with stan, don't you? >> actually when i was listening to stan this morning and i thought it was an amazing interview, and, yes, i tend to agree with him. i don't want to sound like a bolshevik. but he has done what the president wanted not to get done. we have seen a redistribution of wealth from the middle class, from the lower class, to the upper class. it has to stop eventually. this is not a good thing. that's exactly what's going on. stan hit the nail squarely upon the head. i know it sounds like a bolshevik but that's what's gone on. >> ron insana, how do you see it?

>> stan is an old friend of mine. i have enormous respect for him as a money manager and intellectual in the field. as for dennis as well. i would say this is a temporary effect. certainly low rates are a tax on savers. when you're talking about income inequality and redistribution, if you look at globalization, technology, if you look at education, a whole source of structural and secular shifts that have taken place in this country over the last 40 years, i think those are far more pronounced as influences on wealth and who's being helped and who's being hurt. at the end of the day, the fed did save the economy. it's still making the prices of houses and cars, other consumer items less expensive. i think that's important as a distinction. >> robert, you're our wealth editor. you brought some evidence with you. which way do we go on this? >> the data suggests druckenmiller is right. for the past three yoors the top 1% have gotten 95% of the income. now, ron's right. there are structural issues that are driving inequality. this really has accelerated that

existing trend. we have a record number of millionaires. there are more than 300,000 new millionaires added last year because of higher markets. the billionaires, they have 2 trillion in wealth. an all time record. yes, the fed has helped he eed everybody. it's mainly the top. they have the assets. they have the stocks. they own most of the stocks. >> yeah, but, tdennis, let's broaden this out. the average person. i don't know how we want to characterize that. i guess middle class is how you were putting it earlier. they've got 401(k)s. they benefit from this. lower interest rates makes housing more affordable for them. than it would be otherwise. those are benefits to these people. the monetary policy has provided for them. isn't it? >> not a question, bill. of course that has benefited everybody. the question was, has it benefited the top 1% more than it's benefited everybody else and the answer to that is absolutely yes. of course the rest of the country has benefited because of this. i give dr. bernanke enormous

credit for qe-1. he stood up there in september and october of 2008 when everything was hitting the fan. when it looked like capitalism was coming apart. when it looked like no one was going to talk to anybody. when banks weren't going to lend. he said i'm the adult in the room. i'm going to stop this nonsense now. let's congratulate him for that. the end result is, yes, the top 1% has done extraordinarily better than everybody else. i can understand some of the people -- i can understand the middle class's concerns over what has happened. >> using that logic, maria, let's say we were to raise interest rates to 10%. so that everybody was able to clip a very hefty coupon. what would the economic impact be of rising interest rates on the economy, on the affordability of homes, on cars? what would it do to the financial markets? it's not just a one-way ticket here for the wealthy to get wealthier. this is a very big deal. fighting deflation takes much longer and much more action than anyone would ever expect it to take. >> what about that, dennis?

>> well, dr. bernanke came in at the fed having written his docket ral dissertation on the fight against deflation. that was clearly what he intended to do. let us congratulate him for having done that. i have applauded this gentleman many, many times in the past for having done that. he should be applauded now. when he leaves office, there will be people on the far right, i tend to be on that side, who have taken him to task for being too long. let's congratulate him for fighting deflation when deflation was a very serious problem. >> ron, what we're talking about here is a disproportionate allocation to the rich right now. isn't it possible that that is an unintended consequence of qe out there? >> absolutely. the first stage of a recovery, the wealthy always benefit first. i mean, we also have an energy boom going on. manufacturing is coming home. technological innovation. importantly, real estate is beginning to turn. this rise we saw in interest rates was dampening the enthusiasm for real estate. household net worth is at an all time high.

that includes the appreciation in home prices as well. >> that's mainly driven by the top. bill, you nailed it. the question is, it's a really simple formula. most americans rely on their homes for their wealth. homes are up maybe 30% from the crisis. stocks are more than doubled since the crisis. the wealthy rely on stocks. the wealth of the wealthy has gone up at a much faster rate than the wealth of the rest -- >> 401(k)s are near their peak since 2007. >> exactly. what about 401(k)s, pension plans. the average folk out there owns stocks they may not even focus on on a day-to-day basis. >> as a stair of their wealth, it's tiny compared to the wealthy. for most americans 401(k)s and stocks are maybe 10%, 20%, maybe 30%. certainly not more than half. >> i'm not doing my job if i don't ask dennis gartman what gold is going to do after yesterday. >> i've been bullish on gold in yen terms for a very long period

of time. i'm not changing my opinion at all. it has been a nice two days. and i'm up on the year in gold where i think anybody who owns gold in dollar terms is still having a very uncomfortable circumstance. so gold is still going higher in yen terms. i know that's an old record. i'm standing by it. >> fly to japan and buy gold. >> for anybody expecting the fed to taper any time soon, i'd take that off the table. i've said that before. i still don't think we see it this year. >> so you think they wait till, what, next year? >> until we get a new federal reserve chair, yep. >> what about december, ron? don't you think he's going to want to at least put the beginning of this in? >> we'll quote him. he said it's data dependent. not calendar dependent. that's what he's been saying all along. >> see what the data says next two months. >> i thought you didn't care about the fed anymore. >> i do. i still care about it. >> who better to discuss the fed's wealth creation than billionaire investor warren buffett? becky quick sits down with both mr. buffet and b of aceo brian

moynihan coming up at 4:00 on "closing bell." as we head toward the close, 40 minutes left in the trading session. there's a slight bias to the upside as we head toward the close here. grand theft auto 5? number 5 coming out. it may be violent and morally offensive to many people. it's also racking up more than $800 million in first day sales. 800 million. can the stock that owns the game make a killing as well for your portfol portfolio? we take a look at the trade, next. (vo) you are a business pro.

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welcome back. shares of video game publicer take two interactive spiking today after the highly anticipated grand theft auto 5 shattered the record. >> that's right. grand sheft auto 5 was the biggest entertainment debut of all time. game sales topped $800 million in its first 24 hours. and it still has two markets to go. japan and brazil. at about $60 per game, that translates to more than 13 million units sold. take two shares moving higher on this news. and the promise of significant ongoing revenue for more digital content for this game than any

of its four grand theft auto predecessor. this does give take two interactive the biggest video game launch ever beating the last record holder, activision's call of duty black hawk. the question is how sales will hold up over the crucial holiday season and whether grand theft auto 5 will eat into the next two big launches. uvisoft's new assassin creed game and activision call of duty ghost due to launch in november. bill, over to you. >> shares of take two interactive up just over a percent today. is this stock headed even higher on the coat tails of that hit video, grand theft auto 5? let's talk numbers on take two interactive on the technical side. rich ross. on the fundamental side, mark

liktenfeld, chief income strategist. >> i think this is a great looking stock chart. i love the stock here. we're going to take a look at two charts today of take two. the first chart we're fwoing to look at is the shorter term daily. when you pull up this chart it's clear you see this well defined up trend. what i really like is this 150 day moving average providing fantastic support along with that trend line. we've tested and held that key cluster of support on three separate occasions and moved significantly higher shortly thereafter. i think history repeats itself. what i really like here is the longer term weekly. when you pull up this five-year chart you see we've broken out from a multiyear trading range, taking out that lehman level, that big resistance up around $16. now we have a textbook pullback to that multiweek trend line and the break point. that's a compelling buying opportunity ahead of the release. you got to buy this stock here. >> mark, what about it?

i mean, it's been a very tough industry. they are suffering from mobility issues like the rest of technology. but yet you have a blockbuster like this. what do you make of this company? >> from a fundamental perspective, i can't say any reason to own the stock. i mean, one thing about wall street is it's not what have you done for me lately. it's what are you going to do for me tomorrow. in take two's case the answer is absolutely nothing. sales and earnings are expected to peak this fiscal year. next year's earnings are expected to be cut in half. you're not going to see any sales or earnings growth through 2018 according to the wall street consensus. this is the pattern for this company over the past decade. they lose a little bit of money. make a little bit of money. then they have a big blowout year like in 2008 when they launched grand theft auto 4. they're doing it again five years later. from a fundamental perspective with no growth, i wouldn't touch the company. if you like the space go with electronic arts or activision. >> rich? >> bill, i'd say never let the fundament ams get in the way of

an otherwise bullish technical setup. that's exactly what we're looking here. i don't know what they're going to earn this kwater or this year. i do know when you break out from a multiyear trading range with this type of technical -- it strongly suggests the stock is going higher. on a purely technical basis, this is a must own. >> all right. >> rich, let me ask you -- >> very quickly, mark. >> rich, let me ask you this since you're so concerned with price action. that's what you follow. what do you make of the last two days where we've had two very positive events with the fed and the $800 million announcement in sales yet the stock hasn't been able to hold on to its gains? to me that tells me the smart money is leaving. >> in the short term we've had an incredible run. to see a little bit of sell on the news doesn't surprise me. as long as we hold that key support at the break point around $16, $16.50, i have no problem with the short term price action. >> thank you, guys, for an intelligent conversation on take two interactive. see you later. appreciate it. bill, secretary of state john kerry speaking about syria just a few minutes ago. eamon javers with the details.

>> that's right. we just heard from the secretary of state over at the state department a few minutes ago. he said he's urging the u.n. security council to take action next week when it meets on syria and chemical weapons. he said the removal of syria's chemical weapons is possible by peaceful means, not by military strikes. but only if the u.n. security council takes forceful action and makes the agreement in geneva stick. here's the stecretary of state just a few minutes ago. >> so there you have. sarin was used. sarin killed. the world can decide whether it was used by the regime, which has used chemical weapons before. the regime which had the rockets and the weapons. or whether the opposition secretly went unnoticed into territory they don't control to fire rockets they don't have, containing sarin that they don't possess to kill their own people. >> so clearly the secretary of

state here urging the u.n. security council to take action. but also trying to keep up the rhetorical heat on russia and syria to make them understand that the united states still has the possibility of using military force if this diplomatic avenue doesn't bear any fruit, guys. >> thank you so much, eamon. we'll keep following that. 30 minutes before the closing bell sounds for the day. a market lower by about 40 points on the dow. >> hardly a big correction from yesterday's big rally. >> for sure. president obama, speaker boehner engaging in a government shutdown showdown. the war of words is getting ugly. john carney says what happened with larry summers losing out on the fed job, that turns out to be a bad omen for how this will turn out. he'll explain coming up in a moment. existing home sales hitting a six-year high. coming up, find out if the fed's tapering delay could send home buyers over the edge, scrambling to close now perhaps that mortgage rates are heading higher. find out when we come back on "closing bell." vo: two years of grad school.

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welcome back. the euphoria about the taper delay? that was so yesterday. now the beltway is buzzing about the debt limit and possible government shutdown. the president and house leaders

were drawing lines in the sand today. >> reporter: house speaker john boehner at no time want to include a provision defunding obama care in a bill extending government funding. house conservatives forced him to. today he came out and said it's time for the president to negotiate with him. >> most presidents refer to their bipartisan efforts to reduce the deficit as achievements. the president sees this, quote, unquote, as extortion. so while the president is happy to negotiate with vladimir putin, he won't engage with a congress on a plan that deals with the deficits that threaten our economy. >> reporter: the president indeed says he will not negotiate over raising the debt limit but for now the more important negotiations have to occur within the republican party on strategy. yesterday house members were furious at texas senator ted cruz thinking he bailed on them in the fight. today ted cruz said he's all in. >> i will do everything

necessary and anything possible to defund obama care. >> filibuster? >> yes. and anything else. any procedural means necessary. listen, this is the most important fight in the country and it's easy to focus on the political back and forth. >> reporter: now, of course, the problem with ted cruz's strategy, as with the house, is that the senate will not accept it. the president won't accept it. and somehow they're going to have to get to a place where they can extend government funding and raise the debt limit without that provision. maria, don't know how they're going to get there. >> thanks o much, i don't know. could be quite a showdown. beginning tomorrow. >> let's talk about it. jon carney, senior editor at cnbc.com. howard dean, former governor of vermont, former presidential candidate, current cnbc contributor. gentlemen, good to see you both. sort of the play by play on all of this. you think the president will be unable to lead democrats to a deal of some kind? >> right. >> absolutely. remember, we have three groups of people here who have to all agree.

the senate democrats, the house republicans, and the president. even if we drop this whole connection to obama care, the republicans are going to demand cuts in spending as part of any continuing -- pulled along by their president in, you know, at all. the rejection of summers was proof of that. i don't think we can get a deal here. >> howard dean, i'm just reading a news report here. says house speaker john boehner says the house will not vote to increase the debt limit without including spending cuts to reduce the deficit. boehner says an increase in the debt limit without deficit reduction isn't going to cut it. you think democrats will unify against the gop. how does this play out? >> i do. i actually think that what's going to happen -- this is toxic for the republicans. republicans have branded themselves as people who put their party well ahead of the interests of the country. and it's getting worse and worse. just from one issue to another,

whether it's immigration, whether it's women's issues, and now whether it's shutting down the government or not. the numbers are extraordinary. something like 70% of independents don't think that -- that this ought to -- the government ought to be shut down over defunding obama care. so the more -- closer obama -- i mean, the closer boehner gets to doing this, the more heat his members are going to feel in swing districts. i actually think it's possible the democrats are going to win the house if the republicans succeed in shutting down the government. >> you know, once upon a time the trade-off was spending cuts in return for raising the debt limit. now they've substituted obama care for that, howard. does that play to the president's -- >> it makes it less likely that any kind of deal is going to be done. i actually think that if a deal is done without the government getting shut down, the senate will give some -- some concessions on spending. the president will, too.

democrats in the house who are much more opposed to cuts on spending won't matter. if boehner can get around his 40 right wingers that won't vote for anything. >> where is the low hanging fruit in terms of these spending cuts that they are willing to give on? >> there is no -- there's no low hanging fruit. >> okay. where's the spending cuts? >> here's one possible deal which everybody will deny at this point. the house can win but saying that they won't -- that they demand the sequester stay in place. and obama can say, well, that's not really a cut. so we'll leave the spending levels at the sequestered level. but we'll get some flexibility which will be what the senate wants in how we get to that number. so there's the compromise. but obama care is off the table. any mention of getting rid of obama care is going to die. boehner's problem, who i think now is in the weakest position of anybody, somehow he has to cobble together a deal. he's not going to get those 40 right wing republicans. i don't know how he gets nancy

pelosi and talks about the sequester at the same time. he's really in the hot seat right now. >> he told reporters today, the republican led house will pass a bill friday to keep the government running while gutting funding for the president's health care law. it's really to keep the government going. >> look, nobody here wants a government shutdown. the republicans know that this hasn't worked for them before. but i'm not sure that we don't get to one just entirely by accident. >> i agree. >> because they can't come to an agreement. this isn't newt gingrich strategy, we can win and show people we're tough. they don't want this. they may end up getting it. >> look back two years. remember, the last time we went through this was august of 2011. that really wreaked havoc on wall street, for example. we had tremendous, unprecedented volatility over an eight-day period at that point. we're not seeing that yet. i don't want to jinx it. it would appear everyone is taking this particular battle in stride expecting they're going

to come to some deal sooner rather than later. >> i think that's dangerous. >> two separate issues. if the government shuts down, the public is going to get really upset because people's checks aren't going to come. if the debt ceiling violated, the markets go crazy. we can survive a government shutdown that doesn't last more than a few days. if the debt ceiling gets breached, then you'll see big trouble in the markets. >> i think a big problem with the government shutdown is that people are going to take that as an indicator that we're going to have a debt ceiling problem also. >> that's possible. >> as soon as we get the government shutdown, people say, oh, these guys can't cut a deal with each other. we're going to run into the debt ceiling. that will cause a lot of problems. >> all right. here we go again. john, thank you. howard, always good to see you. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. heading toward the close. 18 minutes left in the trading session here. and the dow is down 36 points. >> well, ios 7 had iphones and ipads working into the night, downloading the apple update. do core apple users like it? realtime reaction, next.

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yes, it was down swrn load mania around the closing bell offices yesterday. staffers waiting on the long download, apparently, for apple's new operating system. some started at 1:00 eastern time and didn't finish until 7:00 or 8:00 last night. >> were you here that late? >> i was not. i'm not an apple type. >> tens of thousands took to social media to complain they were unable to download the software. those issues aside, for those who did the download, did they like it? our own josh lipton is tracking that. >> based on data and chatting with analysts, it looks like a lot of people are -- apple users are making the switch. the difference between this version and ios 6, apple is saying it was trying to create an experience that was simpler, more colorful. it's flatter. less texture. what has been the reaction so far? a mixed panel which is a mobile analytic -- it lets you see the rate at which apple's customers are making the move to ios 7.

before the launch when just developers had it, only about 3% of internet traffic was coming from ios 7. but today it's about 38% of internet traffic is coming from the new operating system. as for what analysts think, i spoke to tim baharan of creative strategies. a high-tech consulting firm here in silicon valley. he says the number one issue, customer satisfaction, he thinks consumers will ultimately appreciate the operating system as much as he has. he talks about the interface which he says looks new but f m feels familiars. more to the point, he also predicts we'll see more people interested in os. that could bring, of course, new users into the apple ecosystem. bill, maria, back to you. >> josh lipton back in northern california where he belongs. thanks, buddy. >> that is right. >> see you later. heading toward the close, we heard the bias is starting to turn to the downside. dow still holding steady with a very minor decline, 38 points.

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after hitting a record high wednesday, the market is struggling to hold ground. >> stocks, they're in a holding pattern. it's safe to say one of the big reasons why has to do with momentum. traders are really wondering if we've really gone too far, too fast. this is the third time this year the s&p hit a near term peak. the other times were in august and may. so each of these other two times stocks have pulled back. and a common thread between all of these occurrences is that we've reached statistical levels that indicate a pullback could be near. and that's the reason why it's important. upside momentum may be exhausted. another measure of momentum really has to do with how many stocks are hitting fresh highs. today we've got about 126 of them hitting new 52-week highs in the s&p 500. a lot of stocks have a lot of

momentum. some traders look at this as a contrarian indicator. during market peaks in august we saw 123 new highs before the pullback in stocks. during the market peak in may, 187 of those highs shortly before the eventual pullback. what we are looking at right now is a situation where, yes, you can't predict the future. nobody is going to really try. but traders are looking for signs that history will repeat itself and recent history has shown, bill, that in this case, a pullback may be in the cards. we just have to wait and see here. >> we do have the month of october coming. we've got that. thank you, dom. let's talk about the market. liz ann saunders from charles schaub joins us from her office in connecticut. everybody's coming out of the woodwork saying they saw the fed was not going to taper. please tell me you were surprised by yesterday's nontaper. >> a little bit, yeah. we had no reason to be outside of the consensus. the only thing i will say, though, when i started to write my post fed commentary which i started to write before the fed announcement, thank god i didn't write the entire thing assuming

they were going to do something. part of what i was thinking about was the possibility they would be contradicting themselves. a lot of people were talking about the fact they would lower their economic guidance and that would be a so-called offset to the tapering. when, in fact, that was -- that would have been a bit of a contradiction. okay, we're tapering, which sends the message that the economy is better. oh, by the way, we're also lowering our economic guidance. so what they did was a little bit more consistent. >> liz ann, how do you want to allocate capital given what we know right now from the fed? >> i still think we're going to get a lift toward the end of the year. there's been a little bit of a mixed bag in terms of economic readings. but the ism numbers point in the direction of improvement. a lot of the leading indicators of job growth. the ism new orders index. you've got the philly fed out today. you've got the leading indicators up stronger than expected. and that suggests that there still should be a cyclical bias in the market. what was interesting about the pullback that we got in august is a lot of that cyclical leadership was maintained. you didn't see a reversion back to defensives.

i think if we do get a pullback here, watching to see if that cyclical leadership is min taned is key. that's where we are betting right now with technology, with industrials, and with consumer tis cessi discretionaries. >> the two pullbacks we've had this year have been 5%. that's it. i know there's no magic to a 10% correction. but aren't we due for something like that? >> i don't know that the market is ever due for something. i think sentiment has been a really good gauge for when you may have gotten short term overbought in the market. that was a nice trigger for both of those 5% corrections. valuation is still reasonable. you're not seeing a lot of divergensies. from my perspective, at least at this stage where we are in valuation, the conditions for continued valuation expansion doesn't suggest much more than that. unless there's something that i think comes out of the blue. there's so many uncertainties. but they're very obvious. they're ones that i think have already been digested to some degree. >> we got to tell you, your hair down like that looks absolutely

beautiful. >> aren't you sweet. thank you. we'll talk about the important stuff. >> there you go. >> thank you, liz ann. >> thanks, maria. >> thank you very much. up next, the closing countdown coming your way. after the bell, billionaire warren buffett and bank of america ceo brian moynihan sit down the becky quick to talk about the fed decision not to taper. ♪

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okay. so maria and i have this thing going, we had to make at least one guest smile on the show today. and maria did it. you got liz ann to smile. you had to mention her hair to get that done. that's what that was about. okay? yes, the important stuff we do around here. as we head toward the close, a minor pullback after yesterday's huge rally. and put us in record territory. dow down 45 points. that's about the low for the session. that's about it. haven't had much of a pullback. gold has been a stellar performer. dollar has tanked. gold up -- now, this is pretty much a continuation of yesterday's gains. this is is not another $57 gain on top of what we had yesterday. this is more of the same here. still puts us at $1365. are we -- keith bliss is with us. >> yes. >> are we at the beginning of a new leg higher with what's going

on here? >> i tell you, some of the quantitative work we do and the data we look at, it's a possibility. i mean, i know a lot of people have been out talking about an overbought market right now. we just don't see it that way. there's been so much momentum that has been built into the market already on this move. and we don't see an overbought market on the s&p until we get up around 1740, 1745. which i know is right in target with a lot of brokerage firms for this year. >> we were just talking to liz ann saunders at charles swab. i said aren't we do with a bigger correction? she said there's no due necessary in the market. sentiment is going to be what it is. >> is buoyant right now. again, it's a don't fight the fed. there's definitely a wealth effect the fed is trying to create. something you and i have talked about many times. do not short this market. you're risk of getting hurt shorting the market is a lot more than your risk of missing a move. >> do we not get a meaningful correction until the tapering begins? >> i believe that's the case. we'll trade here. we'll trade higher. we may flap around in here a little bit. i definitely don't think we'll see a 5% or 10% correction any time soon.

>> keith, always good to see you. after a record gain yesterday, a mere 40 point pullback for the dow today. s&p down about three points on this trading session. stick around. the second hour of the "closing bell" with maria bartiromo is coming up. don't forget the interview with warr warren buffett and b of a ceo brian moynihan coming up as well. i'll see you tomorrow. it is 4:00 on wall street. do you know where your money is? hi, everybody. welcome back to the "closing bell." i'm maria bartiromo on the floor of the new york stock exchange. market struggling today, a day after closing at record highs on the fed news. take a look at how we're settling. dow jones industrial average pulling back, down about 40.5 points. .25%. nasdaq was higher. adding on to yesterday's gains. sitting at about a 13-year high in the nasdaq. 3789 last trade there. standard & poors down today three points at