>> it was big in the '80s. >> kind of like a mausoleum. >> did you say you had a seat on it? >> i did. >> a bathroom while touring an open house. >> i did not -- >> you cannot use the toilet -- >> thank you for joining us. robert frank. >> both weirdos. thanks for watching "street signs," everybody. >> "closing bell" is next. hello and welcome to the "closing bell," i'm scott wapner. >> i'm michelle caruso-cabrera in for maria bartiromo. a bit of a shrug, today at least. >> yes, you walked out today and had the world come to an end when you left the apartment this morning? >> it did not. >> no, it's amazing. >> i was expecting the markets to be down today, but that's not the case. maybe it's a settlement coming. who knows. >> or historically it's shown this doesn't have a b lot of

impact in the long-term. and look at this video, that's a government oversight hearing on an epa investigation today. that's right, today, in the midst of the government shutdown. how and why can that happen? we're looking for answers. we'll look for the chairman of that committee in a few moments. reaction to all of this from none other than jim cramer himself. he's here at the new york stock exchange marking the 2,000th edition of "mad money." we'll have a special interview with him where he's talking what happens next with the markets, the shutdown, debt ceiling mess and what he has planned for tonight's big "mad money" show, number 2,000. in the markets now, where we stand on the street with one hour to go. up 28 and off the best levels, still positive on a day when many thought we would be in negative territory given the shutdown. the s&p's up nine points, nasdaq's positive by 31. the federal government has been shut down for 15 hours. the white house rejecting the

latest overture from the gop to get things going again. john harwood, what is the latest? >> well, the latest is there's no progress in washington today. what we saw this morning was that the senate rejected the last offer the house put on the table last night which was to open a conference committee to resolve disagreements over the continuing resolution. harry reid said that was a nonstarter, the white house said that's a nonstarter. house republicans have been meeting this afternoon. they're considering an offering and some republicans in the senate have already offered mini crs designed to extend government funding for certain favored programs. the white house is not enthusiastic about that. democrats say that's a nonstarter and president obama came out into the rose garden and tried to place the blame squarely on the republicans. >> this republican shutdown did not have to happen. but i want every american to understand why it did happen.

republicans in the house of representatives refused to fund the government unless we de-funded or dismantled the affordable care act. they've shut down the government over an ide crusade to nyffordable he iurce milliof americans. in other words, they demanded ransom just for doing their job. >> now, democrats are confident they are winning this fight in public opinion because they're united, republicans are divided, we have seen a slight amount of evidence today. we saw one member of virginia coming out and saying we fought the good fight now it's time to move to a clean cr, extend government funding, reopen the government, but there are not enough people who have done that so far. the question is, when does that happen? and everybody's watching and waiting. and the longer we watch and wait, the more this gets rolled into the fight over raising the debt limit which as you guys have observed is much more

serious, much more potentially damaging than a government shutdown. >> i was going to ask you really quick, john, if it hasn't happened yet, how long until these holdout republicans come to the table? how much more pain do you think they're willing to take? >> well, the speaker told me over the weekend he didn't expect if we had a shutdown it would last more than a day or two. john boehner's hoping to regain a greater grip on his caucus and get them to move -- remember, john boehner didn't want this strategy in the first place but it was forced on him. but it's very hard to predict, you know. i've opinion way over optimistic many times in the past about a big budget deal, about avoiding a shutdown. i think i'm going to watch and wait like everybody else. could be short, could be by the end of the week, but it also could run into the debt limit. >> all right, thank you, john. yesterday the market sold off in fear of the government shutting down. today, the government shut down. markets are higher.

so why the positive swing today? joining us now in the closing bell exchange, rob morgan, anthony chan and our own rick santelli. rob morgan, can we shrug these things off nowadays? >> i'll tell you, michelle, the last time this happened in december of '95, when the government was shout down for 28 days, the s&p was down slightly but the dow was actually up. i think however long this takes, the market is going to shrug it off. and it's not impacting corporate earnings. so why not? >> amy, the dow's down 1% over the last week or so as sort of the build-up to the shut down got closer and closer. does that tell you that this is going to be a buying opportunity at the end of the day? we'll look back at and this and say we had an opportunity to get in on some of the stocks that we really like. >> well, high guys, it's

interesting because if you look at the options market, the positioning would tell you that's what investors are thinking. we've seen several large trades levered to the upside so funding downside to buy upside, even past the march expirations. you're really seeing people continue to put on bullish positioning through the options market. >> rick santelli, where's the armageddon. this was a disaster waiting to happen. >> couple of things. i like the way you came into the show. i would question even yesterday's activity. come on, stocks down, prices of treasuries up after the quarter that both those sectors went through. i think it made sense. i think today made sense. if somebody wants to point to something that actually may be affected in the market based on what's going on in washington. i'll say it, four-week bill auction today. okay. over the next four weeks, we have a lot of things.

a lot of streets coming to intersection. went off at the highest yield in 44 weeks. 12 basis points. last week's auction was 1 1/2 basis points. the week before was a goose egg. you basically gave the treasury your money to hold on to and give it back to you. there's something we complain to. at least traders looking at the timetable of issues like the debt ceiling and actually trading on something based on it. >> so on a percentage, that's a lot higher. >> yeah. >> that's it? >> yeah. that's all i could find i really feel confident we could truly say a ha because of what's going on in d.c. >> anthony, how much of gold's slide of some 3% today alone has to do with d.c.? or why do you think it's down that much? >> well, i think it's down because i think the markets realize these things get resolved. the financial markets already realized that. if you look at all the closings back to the 1970s, 1976, the

first five times that the government shut down, the decline, the average decline going to shutdown and the s&p 500 was a lot larger than the last five. and you also know that if the shutdowns are seven days or less, the declines on average for the s&p are a lot smaller than the shutdowns over seven days and we are getting inklings they are going to cave in. both sides will cave in and this will be a relatively short closedown. we don't know that for a fact, but if that's the case, that's why the relative action hasn't been that severe. not likely to be so severe. >> i hope you're right and i hope it's soon they cave in because i'm to here with having to talk about all this. rob morgan, are you as scared about the debt ceiling, which is the next topic everybody wants to talk about? rick santelli talks about 12 basis points in the bond market. oh, my god, people must be

terrified. the white house is promising armageddon if we get to the debt ceiling. is it going to be that? >> well, i don't know about armageddon, but in defense of rick, i think he does have a point. you know, i think we are going to see some yield spikes and i think we're going to see big selloff days in the market when the rhetoric is such that it is going to appear like we're not going to raise the debt ceiling. and i'm sure we'll have days like that. i think at the end of the day, we get a deal done and the u.s. isn't going to default on its debt. >> all right, guys, thank you, for joining us today. 51 minutes before the closing bell, dow and s&p 500 in positive territory. we are fading from the highs, though and the nasdaq composite higher by about 30 points. darrell issa is not happy about capitol right now. >> how dare you presume a

failure. how dare you. how dare you. >> yep. well, up next, we're going to ask representative issa how he thinks it's going to end. how he really feels. and then investors of always long been told you can't buy and hold airline stocks, you can only trade them. but how do the annoying fees change the stock? are they viable businesses that could lift your portfolio? and later, "mad money's" jim cramer celebrating his 2,000 episode today. 1,000 episodes ago in 2009 he said people would be crazy to get out of the market and he was right. and he's going to join us live to chart the trends for the next 1,000 shows. that's later on the "closing bell." at farmers, we make you smarter about insurance.

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the u.s. federal government has shut down for the first time in 17 years. national parks are closed. hundreds of thousands of federal employees are being furloughed. >> but that didn't stop our next guest from holding a congressional committee hearing today. representative darrell issa joins us now. it's good to talk to you on the

"closing bell." >> thank you, scott. >> aren't you worried about the optics of holding a hearing when the rest of the government is shut down, some 800,000 federal employees furloughed not getting paid. >> well, i think the most important thing that our committee does is root out waste, fraud and abuse in the government. a breakdown in the control systems that failed to keep something from impersonating a cia person, retiring but still getting paid, getting paid more than the amount allowed statutorily by law and getting paid for trips to go see his mom in california when he said he was going to boston. so on a bipartisan basis with the full support of my ranking member, we're continuing to look for the failures of internal controls and make sure the administration uses your money more wisely. that's certainly an essential part of what congress does. >> so clearly, you're not worried about the optics of that. what about the fact that you and your colleagues, even the president for that matter are all getting paid when so many federal workers are not as a result of the fact that you guys

cannot come to an agreement? >> well, first of all, i think we should look at history, no federal worker ever lost a day's pay. the fact is that if history predicts what's going to happen, they'll be paid for the time they're on furlough. notwithstanding that, we offer several times in the last couple of days ways out of it with full funding, including an offer to go to conference. our side of the aisle in the house has been saying let's talk. let's negotiate, let's come to a compromise to both fund the government and protect the american people from a system that has some not ready yet portions. and we're getting stone walling from the senate and an outright refusal to even consider any kind of compromise by the administration even though they themselves have repeatedly delayed parts of obama care -- they're not willing to talk to us. >> where does this go? what's the end game here finally? >> well, certainly speaker boehner, leader cantor and the entire team are asking for an

opportunity to reach a compromise. they've extended repeatedly the offer of short-term crs to give us more time to negotiate. but right now, we're getting a, we won't negotiate and everything's being tabled. and that's simply not the way business has been done in washington in the past. in the past even during the clinton administration with newt gingrich, these very tough situations, at least they kept talking and negotiating. and quite frankly, the request is small but it's pretty essential if we're going to have people not get into a system that isn't ready. >> that may all be true. but the polls radio iight now s the republicans get blamed. will the republicans pay for this in the next election? >> michelle, there's been plenty of times in history where people get blamed for telling the truth and doing the right thing. we've made the case we're trying to do the right thing for the american people and willing to compromise with the president in the senate, but there are areas in which if they were really in

charge and caring about the american worker, they'd be making these compromises. remember, churchill said, you know, after world war i, leading up to world war ii that you've got to watch out for the nazis. churchill even said you've got to watch out for the communist growth after world war ii. he got voted out of office for it. my obligation is to do the right thing. to start off with a premise that we don't the right thing and try to reach a consensus between the bodies. that's what washington's supposed to be about. what they're trying to do. >> okay. >> you keep using the word compromise, sir. it seems like a compromise is most needed not between you and the president or your party and the president but members of your own party and the leader of your party, speaker boehner who says the strategy being employed right now essentially is a losing strategy. >> well, i don't know what quote you're getting from -- >> that's not a quote, but i think he's made it clear he disagrees with shutting down the

government and defunding the affordable care act as a means to do it. >> the speaker's been very clear we do not want to shut down the government. we didn't want this to happen. we voted repeatedly to try to prevent it and we'll con do so. what i've done in supporting my leadership in speaker boehner is not necessarily exactly what one of us would want. but can repeatedly delay or provide waivers to people to get them out of it, including businesses and unions that he should look at people -- like the people of maryland who right now won't have an exchange to go into even though they're mandated to go into the exchange. >> representative issa? >> yes? >> the debt ceiling is the next situation so to speak. this whole issue of trying to delay, defund obama care. once you get past this with the

government shutdown, are you done? or does this become part of the debt ceiling debate, as well? >> as you know, i work on waste, fraud and abuse in government. i've always said that we will raise the debt ceiling to at least equal our level of spending. if we pass a cr, we certainly should increase the debt ceiling to the amount equal to what we vote in the cr. >> are you willing to use health care reform again -- for leverage when it comes to the debt ceiling debate. >> i don't think anyone's using health care reform. we're using portions of the affordable care act that aren't ready right now to go live. and we're trying to convince people. >> do you use those again during the debt ceiling? >> again, we have not, we have tried to get the reforms, to get the president to do for the individual american citizen what he's done for the corporations and so far he's been unwilling to come to the table to talk.

we're trying to get him to the table to talk again. i have always said we should fund to the level of appropriations -- >> how do you do that? >> again, our leadership makes the decision on the exact nature of some of these. i've offered alternatives to obama care including i'd like to see every american have act says to fehbp the same health care system the president, vice president and every member of the cabinet are in. i'd like to see that open up to every american. i think that could be a kind of exchange up and running in a matter of weeks because it already serves over 8 million americans and 300 different choices. there are alternatives that we could get the affordable care act enacted sooner. give people an opportunity -- >> right. you're not managing to get them on the table at this point. scott, go ahead. >> congressman, let me ask you -- >> as long as the president says he won't do anything except what he wants to do, he won't

recognize he was elected but so were a majority in the house. and we've got ideas and opportunities, we hope, to be heard for what the american people would like to vp ask get a better solution. i came to congress wanting to make health care more affordable, wanting to do patent reform. these are all areas that quite frankly the president says he wants to be involved in. i'd like him to engage. >> i think the american people at this point have heard both sides of the argument and frankly so tired of the fact that you guys just can't come together and work together. i just want to ask you one final question. and that is, i read a comment you made to a journalist earlier today where you said that congress has the right not to fund the government. do you regret making that statement? >> we have the right to fund or not fund anything in the government. since george washington, presidents have come and said what they want. now, under tip o'neill couldn't

spend enough under ronald reagan. it's absolutely in the constitution, article one, not a debatable point. so, yes, we have the right to choose not to fund something and if no funds can be used to do something wrong, that's it is case. >> the point being, sir, i think the american people would clearly argue they have more of a right to have their government open than you do the right to shut it down. >> well, that's your opinion and pretty partisan opinion. and the fact is we have offered to fully fund the government. we've asked for compromise on the date of implementation of the individual mandate and we've been told no compromise. and we continue to try to believe that the american people want compromise and a reasoned debate here in washington. and whether it's about $1 level on one thing or a mandate on the other, we're trying to do the american people's work and do it in a way that would work together. this problem, this three-year

problem since house republicans came in to take the speakership is a problem of the potresident lack of willingness to compromise. >> thanks so much for joining us today. we appreciate it. >> thank you, michelle. about 35 minutes or so before we close up trading on wall street. not great, up about 18 points on the dow. >> it's disappearing here. >> right before our eyes. forget the government shutdown, the debt ceiling. coming up, why some are warning there's something else on the horizon that investors need to be much more worried about. earnings season. >> that's right around the corner, isn't it? >> yeah. also, for years, americans have been told to trade not invest in airline stocks. but up next, we're going to hear from somebody who says airlines are now a great investment because of the billions in fees they're racking up for things like luggage, leg room, peanuts, pretzels. >> bathrooms. >> just about everything else. let's hope it doesn't come to that.

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airline stocks have taken off this year. the main airline index up 40% since the start of the year. >> bill miller expressing bullishness on the sector. here's what he said on "squawk" this morning. >> airlines are basically the cruise line industry, especially with a really bad history. very similar except for people don't have to go on cruises and they do have to fly. i've heard jim cramer talk about

the shutdown being a negative for airlines. it is a negative for airlines. it's a short-term negative. well, jamie baker agrees with bill miller, but regent chief financial officer thinks investors shouldn't go for the ride. there's more room to run with these stocks? >> yeah. we believe so. analysts are taught early on in their career to never say things are going to be different this time except when it's true. and this time in with regard to the u.s. airlines, we think it is. and we think there's certainly a sufficient body of evidence to prove it. we can debate the sustainability of change but i don't think there's any question that, you know, where we are today is a far different place than what investors have come to normally expect. >> chris, you're not buying it, what about the new revenue streams that are coming in that way you don't have to worry about the fluctuation in ticket prices and gasoline prices. that doesn't convince you? >> no, i'm not buying this. i think the new revenue

stream -- but i think long-term passengers aren't going to tolerate this. nobody likes being dinged that many times when you get on a plane. so to project out the growth of this revenue stream, i think is foolhardy and i don't think that's going to save the airlines. >> jamie, you said we could have a debate. let's have one. >> you know, chris, hypothetically if we lived in the same apartment building and you moved out, i might be nice enough to hold the elevator door open for you but i wouldn't subsidize the cost of your move. there's so many products where people are accustomed to simply paying for what they actually, you know, consume. and in this case, all the airlines have done is figure out a way to extract revenue from the individual that is commensurate with the costs put into that individual. i don't think buying an airline ticket is any different than buying an iphone. i had an iphone repaired a couple of hours ago the other

day, luckily i paid extra for apple care. it's no different when you're flying. >> i disagree, i think if apple dinged you every time you went into the genius bar, you wouldn't be going to the genius bar very often. and i think passengers aren't going to tolerate it -- >> what are they going to do instead? >> well, i think -- airlines, there's so much competition. the competition will get fiercer, margins will get tighter and bump-up in fuel costs and there goes all your profits. >> what about the sheer fact that the stocks have run so much, we gave a stat at the beginning about the airline index, that's a head wind in and of itself, is it not? >> i suppose it is. the fact of the matter is the airlines are finally beginning to run themselves like real businesses. instead of competing over the smallest shreds of market share, they'd be competing over dividend policies and buyback, you know, policies. who can return, you know, capital to shareholders in the most value creative way. that is, you know, a dramatic

shift for an industry that longer term and i'm not defending the past behavior. i spent the bulk of my career identifying these were nothing more than trading stocks. you look at how they're behaving, look at the fact they're running these businesses like real businesses, look at the returns on invested capital that are being generated. it's different this time. no doubt about it. >> all right, gentlemen, thank you so much. we appreciate it. >> thanks. right now, the dow as we've said is holding on to that gain of 20 points. merck, ibm, goldman, j & j and b & g. is it ironic that today many of the new health cares opened as scheduled? >> we speak with silicon valley veterans looking to be the apple of health insurers. what does that mean? also ahead, jim cramer has been conducting "mad money" 101

classes around the country for years. >> this is going to be the most important, most useful class you'll ever take at any university anywhere! texas, virginia, penn state, michigan, ohio state, iowa! >> isn't he amazing? later on the show, we're going to get jim's take on the markets, shutdown and his 2,000th episode of "mad money." can't wait. you've got to join us later on so you can see him at 6:00 p.m. right here. he's going to be at the nyse. bny mellon combines investment management & investment servicing, giving us unique insights which help us attract the industry's brightest minds who create powerful strategies for a country's investments which are used to build new schools to build more bright minds.

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get this, the government shuts down but stocks are higher since hitting their lowest level in september. the big movers today. >> well, in honor of our update for stocks, we're going to lead off with the two stocks doing the best in the s&p 500 today. it's a neck and neck race between netflix and walgreen's. let's take walgreen's first, the biggest drugstore company posted earnings beaten sales roughly in line with estimates. now the bulls are keying on a 4.6% improvement in same store sales that's driven by growth in

the pharmacy sector. then, there's netflix record highs here, raised the price target for the online movie company to $370 a share. it had it at $285 before. activist investor carl icahn also spoke on today's halftime report like you said and continues to hold on to his netflix position. merck is up after america's second biggest drug maker outlined a plan to eliminate an additional 8,500 jobs, targeting about $2.5 billion of annual savings by 2015. myriad genetics up, a medical maker of testing equipment. that company said it reported a decrease in medicare reimbursements for cancer tests as a result of a clerical error that should be resolved in a couple of weeks. united health care, aetna, cigna all gaining. on the kickoff day for

enrollment in the affordable care act or obama care, michelle, as it's more commonly known. >> even the president calls it that. thank you, dominic. the government may be closed today but the health exchanges are open for enrollment. bertha coombs is at a call center in albany, new york, see how it's going. bertha? >> reporter: the shutdown had no impact today on the open enrollment start of obama care. but technology has been part of the problem. we're at the new york state of health call center and they have been busy here today. as of 2:30, they took 5,800 calls. they have 300 workers at three different sites, and it's a good thing they had that backup system. the majority of those calls coming early in the morning. because this morning when they kicked off at 8:00 a.m. on the site, they had a number of issues, they had more than 2 million hits on that website in the first two hours and the volume overwhelmed their capacity, they're trying to add server capacity. we had a problem also we saw in maryland where they had

connectivity issues there. and for four hours this morning, they actually couldn't get the system up and running. as of noon, they got it up and running but if you've logged on, there are still some glitches and that's certainly the case when it comes to the 36 states that have federally operated exchanges that go through the health care.gov. it is the call centers today that are working. we spoke with one woman in texas, in fact, who gave up trying to go online and found the information she needed in person. >> with websites, you know, it's highly possible, it's overwhelming. i hope it's not going to be. i hope we'll be able to overcome it. >> indeed. a lot of folks watching. c.c. connolly says folks will probably endure with the glitches. they've been told there will be glitches. but after a week or so if they keep coming back, that's going to be a more material problem.

and certainly they need to have the glitches worked out by december when applications are expected to peak because that's when you really need to enroll in order to have your cornell medical college starting in january. michelle and scott, we weren't supposed to get an update from the federal government about the exchanges at 2:00 this afternoon, that's been pushed back to 4:00 eastern. we'll bring you anything if we learn anything new. back to you. >> so people compiling that data, they're working today? >> yes. >> thank you, bertha. >> at this point, that's part of the aca is already paid for. >> got it. thank you. those new exchanges are supposed to change the state of health care in america. and now oscar, yep, oscar, which is a new start-up health insurance company is aiming to change the state of health benefits through technological interfaces, telemedicine and transparency. you know how it's nearly impossible to understand your insurance claims? now, well, they want to simplify that so anyone can read and comprehend it. joining us now is the cofounder

of oscar. welcome to the stock exchange in post nine. >> pleasure to be here. >> how does this work? >> we built a health insurance that was simple from the ground up using technology. so we put our benchmark as being like consumer products rather than the state of the insurance world today where it's really hard to understand. >> you've already been offering this? >> we started today. >> okay, so when i go into that exchange, there's silver, bronze, gold, et cetera. how do you compete when the government dictates what you're supposed to offer. >> as part of the aca, there's a baseline set and it's up to us to different for consumers. in the case of oscar, we offer a rich set of benefits starting with unlimited ability. >> more -- >> more than the -- >> more than the baseline.

>> push a button, call a doctor call you within 30 minutes, 24/7. we give you up to three free physician visits. these are a set of consumer packages that we put in on top of the baseline. >> technology takes care of the cost there? >> so for us, one of the things we do when we looked at the industry, we got a little confused for a while when we toured insurance companies, we thought we were visiting paper factories. we take a lot of costs out of the system and pass those on to the consumer through additive elements through our offering. >> let's say i enroll in oscar, i get sick, i don't call my doctor, go directly to you and you have a doctor call me? >> you have a choice. oscar has over 40,000 doctors and 83 hospitals in our new york area, you could go directly to one of them. but if it's 11:00 at night and you want to get an opinion from a doctor before you decide what to do next, you can push a button and have a doctor call you within 30 minutes.

>> are you only in new york city right now? >> we are in new york state in nine counties. >> it would be low-hanging fruit, right? because this is the state where you could have a preexisting condition and still get health insurance in the past. most people didn't get health insurance and only got it when they were sick. so premiums in this state were extremely high compared to the rest of the country. does that also help? >> yeah, i think the trend we've seen, the dynamics at play, the albany call center you just showed is lighting up. you have about 18 competitors entering the market as well as prices on average for an individual being cut in half. and so it's a right market to enter in because consumers didn't have a choice. now they have about 18 choices. >> am i always seeing a physician if i want to. >> for us what it is, empowering you through transparency and choices. what we do is give you the option to engage in the manner

that's most appropriate and convenient for you. and we think that for some people if their kid is crying at 11:00 at night, they may want to click a button, have someone call. for other people, they may want to wait until the morning and see a doctor. >> all right. kevin, good to talk to you, good luck. >> thank you so much. >> again the oscar co-founder. have about 20 minutes to go before the bell rings on the street. up on an overall up day on the street. forget all the dysfunction in d.c. jeff cox warns a bad earnings season is on the horizon. that berish call coming up. also, apple shares getting another icahn bump today. >> i can't promise you the stock will go up and i can't promise they're going to do the buyback. but i can promise you that i'm not going away before they hear a lot more from me. >> carl's not going anywhere. >> i'm sure tim cook is thrilled

he's going to hear so much more. >> message to tim cook, carl is not going anywhere. but is his push for a big buyback in the best interest for shareholders? we'll hear from a big apple investor later on the "closing bell." americans take care of business. they always have. they always will. that's why you take charge of your future. your retirement. ♪ ameriprise advisors can help you like they've helped millions of others. listening, planning, working one on one. to help you retire your way... with confidence. that's what ameriprise financial does. that's what they can do with you. ameriprise financial. more within reach.

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stocks sold off on monday because of fears of a government shutdown. what happens when the government actually shuts down? market rallied early this morning and still in positive territory. >> are you as confused as others? >> let me go through them, i won't pass judgment on them. a couple more plausible. the first, it's the start of the month. the first day of the month. that makes some sense but not always the case here. the second is the rally, nobody's on tv, none of the congressional people are on tv confusing everybody today. mr. obama did come on in the middle of the day, president obama. but that lack of talking heads is helping markets.

and finally, there's one out there and this is the one everyone's talking about. there may be a broader deal, the continuing resolution and debt ceiling combined. then we can get a deal. if you want to see short-term what's going on, we've got a fairly broad rally here. everything across the board, all the sectors to the upside just fractionally. you want to see a little confusion, look at yields here. i don't normally put up one month yields. but look .07%. that's a rather strange yield curve. and that's an indication that short-term yields are popular because of the uncertainty, but long-term, the bond market seems to be saying everything's going to work out. >> what does that tell you about fears about the debt ceiling. you hear the white house making all kinds of fear mongering statements about the debt ceiling and skyrocketing interest rates, it's going to be armageddon. .07 on the t-bill, that's so frightening. >> it's an indication of what's going on.

let's talk about apple and the buyback. ever since we had the announcement of the 5s, apple was about 450, prior to that, up 6%, 7%, moving nicely. i know you want to talk about icahn. from my point of view, i'd love to see a dividend raise, not a buyback. that's what a lot of companies are doing. and right now apple's got a 2.5% dividend yield. microsoft 3.3%, intel, 3.9%. i think that would be interesting, but i didn't hear anything about that. >> well, i think carl upped the ante today. by saying i'm not going anywhere now the ball's in apple's court really to come back with maybe something. >> carl is probably the most powerful guy out there, but still the market cap of this company relative to the size he owns, he owns a lot, but still -- >> $2 billion -- >> what can carl do? what kind of fit could he possibly throw that would make everybody -- >> could he do some kind of proxy fight? who knows. the shareholder base is so wide,

it's so big. could he do that? he made it clear he's not done yet. >> that makes it fun. >> isn't it amazing that tim cook is willing to sit down with him? could you imagine this happening with steve jobs? i don't think so. i'm answering my question. >> when carl waves the stick, the biggest stick on the street, you have to listen. >> but steve jobs -- >> he could make it nasty for you if you don't listen. >> thank you. i think the answer is no, he would not have met with carl icahn. >> maybe they did meet. who knows. ten minutes ago, before the closing bell rings. we leave it to the greatest generation to best the government shutdown. check out this video, a group of world war ii veterans crossing barriers at a closed memorial in washington, d.c. today. more on this incredible moment and what else the shutdown has actually shutdown coming up. also ahead, the last

government shutdown in '96 saw then congressman barney frank in the house minority. frank has retired but the dems are the minority once again. coming up the legislator offers lessons learned and how they can apply them. stay with us. it's as simple as this.

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all right. welcome back, we want to continue talking about the markets with dave and george. dave, to you first. what do you make of today's trade? and what do you think lies ahead here? >> i think the -- little bit of a circus with the government shutdown. and if you look back on the last six times the government shutdown, ten days later the market was up by 2%. short-term, it seems positive for the market. >> sanguine, mr. young? >> i am pretty sanguine. we had a nonevent today all together. the market didn't move, gold didn't move. we're looking long-term. >> but it was supposed to be very traumatic. >> it was supposed to. be remember the story about the boy who cried wolf? eventually this will be a problem.

>> don't you admit the market could have a bit of a problem? >> sure. >> maybe the market thinks it's going to end quick, that's why it's up. >> you're exactly right. and that's a good opportunity for us to buy. we've been holding cash, we see some opportunities out there. but they're not quite pricey enough. we want to take advantage when we can. >> dave, what would you be a buyer of today? >> as you know from my last couple times on here, i've been bullish on emerging markets. those seem to offer the best returns out there right now that's a very cheap asset class, looks like money's starting to flow back into that space. >> people got very worried about india and turkey and countries that, you know, not to go into too much economic vocabulary, but payments and worries and things like that. >> we're generally buying broad basket with respect to markets. >> okay. thanks, guys. >> thank you. breaking news. >> okay. john harwood's going to have breaking news regarding the debt ceiling. that's on the other side of this quick break when we're also going to be back with the closing countdown. ♪

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he will deliver a report to us as soon as he's off the phone. i'm told there's some good news and bad news built into all that so you'll certainly want to pay attention to see what john harwood has drummed up out of the nation's capital and he'll deliver that to us on the "closing bell" as soon as he's finished. the stock market, by the way, looks like it's going to brush off what's happened in washington, at least for one day. dow jones industrial average holding on to a gain of 38 points, positive throughout, was a bit stronger. let's break it down with jeremy hill. what do you make, jeremy? what do you make of the trade today? what do you think happens here in the days ahead. >> i think first and foremost this is almost like a peter pan market in the sense that all the children who touch peter pan's hands they fly off, radight? he's still the fed, even though completely obsessed with what's happening in d.c., these risk

assets are actually benefitting from the backstop of the fed. and we think the reason why the markets are sanguine right now is the fact that the fed is going to be the last man in the room. they will be the last marine. >> you're telling me this is a nonevent? in the big picture. >> it's a nonevent for the next ten days until we get a real calamity around the debt ceiling. >> i don't know what john harwood's report is going to be. considering that the shutdown is not over yet, what if it continues to go on for a matter of days. what happens if the debt ceiling fight becomes more contentious that it's already likely to be? >> well, our chief concern is the fact that the debt ceiling fight is what we would classically call a fat tail risk. so very little probability. but if it happens, of course, it's a huge effect to the market. we think what investors should really be looking at is buying

volatility protection. the vix looks -- you know somewhat cheap at these levels. long-term average vix is 20, right now at 15. i think that's a good place to be. >> all right, it's good to talk to you. thanks so much. stick with us, i'm going to head outside with michelle. we're going to be with jim cramer. we're going to talk to jim first after this. all right. the market closing well off the highs, still in positive territory. jim cramer will be on in a few minutes for his 2,000th show, but john harwood standing by with breaking news. oh, we're going to bob pisani first to talk about the close. >> well, the important thing here today, michelle, is markets ended right near their highs. take a look at the major indices. right across the board, everything up .8% to about 1%. the dow jones was the big gainer.