well. you know, fairfax, prem watt's firm signed a letter of intent, $9 a share. the stock is clearly on the move. final trades quickly. >> buy blo. >> buy tlm. >> spectra energy. i'm buying that. >> murph won the debate, mario, fun, have you back soon. >> privilege to be here talking about stocks. >> "power " starts now. >> "halftime" is over, the second half of your trading begins now. >> thank you, scott. the big story today, john harwood's interview with president obama. john is standing by to talk to us before he talks to the president. see what's on the agenda in one minute's time. in a speech jimmy carter made in 1979 he warned of a crisis of confidence. is president obama facing the same thing some 34 years later. and also on our agenda today, among the concerns at the white house, errors for many people trying to sign up for the president's new health care plan. is the system really ready to go

or not? and more private companies say their businesses with the government are already forcing them to layoff and furlough workers due to the government shutdown and the warnings are getting more dire about what we might see next week. all of that straight ahead. tyler is out this week. bill griffeth is joining me today. >> hello, sue. coming up, john harwood is speaking to the president exclusively in a couple hours. we will air on my show at 4:00 eastern time on "closing bell" just under three hours from now. john at white house to give us a preview on what's on your agenda. a lot of people are talking. >> there is a lot of conversation going on. the president's been meeting with bank cease, jamie dimon, lloyd plablankfein, people like that, members of congress, top four leaders in both parties coming in later this afternoon and appears that we're beginning to get in a zone where there will actually be a negotiation. the house moving today to pass some rifle shot narrow spending bills. senate will bat those down but

harry reid in his news conference was saying it's time to extend government funding, at least for a while, and then get into a budget negotiation. here's harry reid. >> they sent us here to get things done, not to play these silly games. here's what i propose. he's sitting on a bill that would reopen the government right now. this bill woulds pass in a matter of minutes. if he would just let democrats and republicans vote. he doesn't have to -- he doesn't even to vote for it. let him vote against it. the let the house work its will. once we reopen the government we appoint conferries to work out long-term fiscal challenges. both sides have priorities that we want to move forward. >> this is still the posturing stage. the speaker or the leader is saying something that speaker boehner is not going to do, but at least the posturing is about where the eventual compromise might come and that's one of the things i'm going to explore with

the president, what kind of negotiation is he envisioning by inviting the leaders to the white house and how quickly might it happen? >> so we're still at the posturing stage as you say. you're not expecting much of substance to come out of that meeting after your interview at 5:30? >> i think the ship turns slowly, bill, and i think -- no, i don't expect a breakthrough at this meeting. i expect the shutdown will go on for a while. republican leadership aide told me yesterday it will be at least a week, but there are signs that the agenda of disagreement is shifting toward grounds where potential agreement could be found. i think it's likely to come closer to that october 17th date when the treasury says we're going to hit the u.s. debt limit. i still think there's a strong commitment by both parties not to breach that debt limit. we'll see if they can get it done. i've been overly optimistic before. it does feel that the ship, though it turns slowly, is turning in the right direction right now. >> meantime stoxz are lower,

bonds trading higher in terms of price. thanks very much. we look forward to your interview coming up at 4:00 eastern time today. more on blackberry right now. here's dominic chu with that. >> that's right. again, sources according to dow jones say blackberry has drawn interest from the likes of serburus capital. at least one other interested party. also going on to say that the company's founder is still working on his own bid for the company possibly. that's according to dow jones sources. you can see blackberry shares spiking now to session highs on this, but still, well below that $9 per share bid that fairfax financial which is blackberry's biggest shareholder has for the firm. so again, more news as it becomes available. right now looks like at least there's interest drumming up for the likes of blackberry. back over to you. >> sure does with better than 2% gain on the trading session. thank you very much. during the shutdown, government workers aren't the only ones being shut out. some workers who do government

business are also being furloughed and the longer the shutdown goes the worse it will get. abdul is the ceo of one federal solution a staffing company that does a lot of government work. he's already furloughing employees. nice to have you here. >> thank you for having me. >> tell me how many people you've had to furlough at this point? >> we had it to furlough about 90% of our current staff. we have about 115 people. huge majority of our team has been notified as well. >> 90%, 9-0, did i hear that correct? >> is that correct. >> all right. how long do you think this is going to go on and will you have to furlough everyone if it goes on much longer? >> hopefully it doesn't go on too much longer. a small business, a lot of our overhead staff is tied to the contracts we support. by these people being put on furlough it affects our overhead team as well. hopefully it doesn't last as long as it seems as it's going to last, but it can be resolved quickly. >> before i ask you the next

question, what is this going to do to your bottom line? >> it definitely will affect our revenue overall, but more than that, it's affecting the people that works for one federal solution. >> are you hearing from your peer group, other contracting solutions firms that they're doing the same thing or are you being proactive? >> some of the companies we work with on a daily basis are also doing the same thing as well, notifying their staff and employees. just depends on the contracts that they're supporting. at this time, some of them are and, you know, depends on the contract that is being supported if you have to furlough your people. so depends on if your people are mission essential or nonmission esessional. >> how frustrated are you with congress? i think i know what message you would like to give to congress but it tell them what you think? >> i'm frustrated. small businesses are the backbone of america. rather than the finger-pointing figure out a way to resolve this

issue to get people back to work and companies back in business. at the end of the day, people working and companies being able to generate revenue to keep america growing. >> mr. baytops, best of luck. thanks for joining us. >> thank you very much. all right. to robert frank he has a market plash. >> thanks. response from sotheby's on the letter from dan lobe that broke earlier. saying, quote, rather than debating incendiary and baseless comments we are focused on serving our clients and they say we will comment on the communications of third point at the appropriate time. this, of course, follows that letter from third point from dan lobe this morning where he says that the ceo of sotheby's should step down. this letter contained accusation there was a lunch and a dinner at a restaurant where the management spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on fine wine and food, basically calling for a new direction and new leadership there. so sotheby's just saying these are baseless and incendiary

comments and will say more later. back to you. >> robert frank, thank you very much. >> stocks lower today. the dow was down about 140 points at its low, now down 66. s&p, nasdaq also lower right now. cnbc contributor jeff killberg is with us here. john harwood's interview at 4:00. time with the president. the exclusive you will see on "closing bell." what do you guys on the trading floor want to hear? >> we are laser focused on this, bill. we are really seeing -- >> all right. some of the ceos have been meeting with the president are speaking to the press at the white house. here's lloyd blankfein of goldman sachs and brian moynihan from bank of america. >> to fail on its obligations to repay its debt. >> what's at stake? how bad -- mine how at risk are we? f really hurt the economy? >> no debate the seriousness of the u.s. not paying its debts whether social security checks, small business loans, whatever all the way up to the treasury

notes and bills is the most serious thing we have and we witnessed that august 11 and you saw the ramifytations, slow down in the economy and we're facing that again. i think everybody understands it. what's the path to get it. that's a political question. we spent the meeting talking about what we see in the economy and would see it affected by that and serious repercussions. >> there's precedent for government shutdown. there's no precedent for default. with the most important economy in the world, with the reserve currency of the world, payments have to go out to people if money doesn't flow in, then money doesn't flow out so we really haven't seen this before and i'm not anxious to be a part of the process that witnesses it. >> did the president ask you to do anything? did he ask you to help lobby? did he ask you to [ inaudible ] congress. >> the point is just to make it clear, we represent, you know, one, two american households in our company, lloyd represents a lots of companies. making people clear we understand the seriousness of the situation and get through

it. it's the political process work but people have to understand if it doesn't work. >> i want to make clear, this wasn't a conversation about the issues underlying the political debate. this was an issue on process and the democratic process in a way and whether or not this particular resort was appropriate resort. again, we're here as representatives of the financial system and so we are -- we are in a position to really know early what the consequences are. none of us can be sure of it because it's unprecedented. this was a conversation that -- that we listened but we also contributed to exactly how bad it would be. >> so you understand that there's a fight going on here in washington. you think the fight should be on a different ground and republicans should not be, as the president said, holding the country hostage because they want to change the president's

health care plan? >> we would like to see the fight not be on this ground and there's not a question of agreeing with the president or agreeing with the republicans. and again, you can look at the membership of our group and you'll find people on all points of the political spectrum. it's just making sure that we understand the consequences, the long-term consequences of a shutdown, we're in the short-term consequences of a shutdown, but the kug quenshes of a debt ceiling and we all agree those are extremely adverse and though we haven't witnessed the extent yet and we wanted to -- people wanted to tell us about it and by the way, in our meetings, we're also meeting with the republican -- with leaders of the republican party, not just with leaders of the democratic party. >> what you telling them? >> thank you very much. >> all right. lloyd blankfein and brian moynihan among the ceos that met with the white house earlier today. jeff killberg, you can step in front of the camera. what do you want to hear from washington and how are you

trying to trade this market right now? they're talking process. they're talking about the impact it's going to have as the days go on here, but you got to trade the market in the meantime. >> we do. one thing, bill, we're looking for is demeanor for the last couple weeks is not negotiating. that's been clear. if we see some type of compromising tone come out of him, that's promising. i think the markets will rejoice, you'll see a relief rally. right now so much uncertainty, lloyd blankfein touched the point, we don't know. as the process goes on, uncertainty will happen. the markets are not panicking by any means. we saw the russell 2,000, all-time highs yesterday. >> so far. but do bshs -- we all remember august 11, 2011, when we had the first debate going on and the market saw unprecedented volatility. why aren't we doing that yet or is that still to come. >> i think that's still to come and if we see his demeanor change today that's a reason to get long. we like getting long the etf, spy, qqqs.

if he comes out with the hard nose resiliency, you can see the market come off and short those markets via the etfs, rwm, the russell 2000. looking forward to harwood. all traders will have their eyes glued on that interview. >> that's coming up at 4:00 on cnbc. obama care is up and running as of yesterday. sort of. lot of glitches. the government website saw an overload. how big are the problems and are they being worked out? bertha coombs will be here with the latest coming up next on "power lunch." stay tuned. .

welcome back to "power lunch." i i'm dominic chu. we begin with the company that owns the empire state building. 71.5 million shares priced at 13 bucks the low end of its ipo expectations. the stock is trading up near session highs. real estate brokerage firm remax selling 10 million shares at 22 bucks apiece above their expe expected price range and those shares at session highs as well. and burlington stores, this one is a big one, the parent of burlington coat factory saw its shares surge over 40% at one point after pricing 13 million shares at 17 bucks apiece. that, too, was above its expected range. see there trading at its session highs. bill, back over to you.

>> thank you. obama care is here and so are the glitches. bertha coombs with what is easily the most popular website on the internet right now, and it's both a blessing and curse. >> it may be just because the panda cam is down at the zoo so everybody is going to health care.com. >> there it is. >> earlier this morning, 15 minutes to get past what was -- we were calling the patient's page where it was saying there we go, took us 15 minutes to get past this page. a few minutes ago it was going faster. but even once you get passed the patient's page once they still filling to get their application, they're still finding problems. no dropedowns. but a source familiar with what is going on says it's not a glitch, it really is about the volume. they are working on adding capacity. but let us tell you why. within the first 24 hours they had 4.7 million unique visitors visit healthcare.gov with the fact that people are having trouble getting on. they took 190,000 calls through

their call center and conducted more than 100,000 web chats. in new york state they are still trying to get that capacity up. they took the website down overnight to add capacity but it's slow again because of overwhelming demand. maryland which was off-line, unable to come up until about noon still experiencing a lot of issues. we haven't gotten any numbers. they had about 100,000 unique visitors. there are some working. kentucky much smaller state certainly than a lot of a these others. much smaller exchange nonetheless and kentucky says they've had 88,000 unique visitors to ky connect in the first 24 hours. 7500 applications were begun, more than half of those were completed and they actually enrolled 1800 individuals and families yesterday. now the feds are not talking about enrollment numbers and seem to be holding that back but

some of these states where they're doing well are out there saying hey, it's working. >> if there was any question that there's demand for this kind of health coverage, there's the evidence right there. >> there is. but the other question is, why didn't they build enough capacity for this demand? they certainly set the bar low on expectations but apparently they themselves didn't expect this much demand so early. >> very interesting. see how long it takes to get the glitches worked out. >> not glitches. volume. >> volume. all about the volume. >> thank you. >> health care will be a big topic of conversation with john harwood's exclusive interview with the president coming up today at 4:00 p.m. eastern time right here on cnbc on "closing bell." looking forward to that. >> we are bill, thanks. three of microsoft's top shareholders want bill gates out as chairman. would the tech giant be better off without him and steve ballmer who is already leaving? the power pitch. how start-up rock bot is trying to reinvent the jukebox. >> coming up, power pitch.

start-ups give us their 60-second pitch. >> i'm garret dodd the co-founder of rockbot. >> and we give you insight into the fast paced world of venture capital. >> how many subscribers do you have on a monthly basis? >> i want to know how you treat the music community? >> do these founders have what it takes? >> are you in or are you out on rock" bot? >> stay tuned to find out. at a ford dealer with a little q and a for fiona. tell me fiona, who's having a big tire event? your ford dealer. who has 11 major brands to choose from? your ford dealer. who's offering a rebate? your ford dealer. who has the low price tire guarantee, affording peace of mind to anyone who might be in the market for a new set of tires? your ford dealer. i'm beginning to sense a pattern. get up to $140 in mail-in rebates when you buy four select tires with the ford service credit card.

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[ female announcer ] it's known that diabetes damages nerves. lyrica is fda approved to treat diabetic nerve pain. lyrica is not for everyone. it may cause serious allergic reactions or suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worsening depression, or unusual changes in mood or behavior. or swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, changes in eyesight including blurry vision, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling, or skin sores from diabetes. common side effects are dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain and swelling of hands, legs and feet. don't drink alcohol while taking lyrica. don't drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. those who have had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica. having less pain -- it's a wonderful feeling. [ female announcer ] ask your doctor about lyrica today. it's specific treatment for diabetic nerve pain. to hear more of phyllis's story, visit lyrica.com. it's power pitch time. innovators get 60 seconds to

make their pitch and our panel decides whether they have what it takes to become the next big thing. are you in or out? >> i'm mandy drury. in today's power pitch a company that's on a mission to bring back the jukebox. garret dodge is the co-founder of rockbot, a company that lets you pick the music plaus playing at bars and restaurants from your phone. he's not new to the mobile surface. he's the co-founder of appetite and part of the innovation team at caesars entertainment in vegas. let's take a look at his power pitch today. >> i'm garret dodge and i'm the co-founder of rockbot. over 100 million americans hear background music refer day. we want ta replace that experience with something engaging. you can download the rockbot mobile app and request songs at businesses, bars, restaurants,

gyms and other locations. u.s. business owners spend billions every year creating experiences that attract customers and keep them there longer. one of the main ways they do that is with entertainment and music. rockbot replaces the jukebox and utilizes flat screen tvs and sound system already in the business. we've all had the moment when the song comes on and you want to share it with your friends. picture that in the facebook generation. millions of people at that business sharing that moment. you can find us at national chains and local businesses across the country. but it doesn't stop there. we're at college campuses, major events and even airports. download the rockbot mobile app and find your nearest location. >> so garret is on the right side of your screen. he can hear us but he can't react just yet. so on our power pitch panel haney, he is co-founder and parter of gcv capital. some investments include pandora, sound cloud and band

page and grammy winning songwriter producer entrepreneur and rock star matt sereletic co-founder of music master mind and grammy for carlos santana's "smooth" ceo of virgin records and keyboarders for the band collective soul. lots of experience on our panel today. let's huddle up on rockbot. haney, i would like to get to you, what did you think? >> i thought the pitch was good. a little dry. usually you want to see a music company, you want a little more upbeat. the market is good. i think the product is ingenuous. this is an industry that is somewhat dominated by a single vendor. they own about 80% of the jukeboxes in establishments in the u.s. so the market is where i think we need to spend some more time. >> i agree. i think we've got to see this business develop the right way for it to be successful. it has to convince consumers to engage with it. >> what makes them so unique

that a business owner would decide, i would like to go with rockbot instead of one of various services out there. garret, you're in the hot seat. time to get grilled. haney, throw the first question out. >> have you thought a little bit more about distribution mod really you're actually making -- letting the establishment get it for free and then make money on it? >> one of the things that differentiates us, we want to create the best experience for everyone in the business, not the one person putting the dollar bill in the jukebox. that's why we charge the business owners and create that and help drive revenue for them. >> let me jump in here, how much is that monthly fee and how many subscribers do you have on a monthly basis? >> we have a variety of plans, the most common one is $40 a month. in addition, we're currently in businesses in 36 states across the country including major metro areas. >> i want to know how you treat the music community? how do you renew mer rate the artists and songwriters? >> we create opportunities to

grow that revenue for artists just like existing business music services we pay royalties. through the mobile app users can see what's playing and purchase that song through itunes or google play store and in addition we're enabling larger variety of content because businesses are customizing for their specific location. >> name your top three customer targets and tell me how you're going to convert customers in that space? >> we've put together a team of out of home industry veterans that are selling to major chain accounts. imagine us in major chains like an applebee's, chili's, buffalo wild wings, those locations and this fall we're excited to announce a few of those major brands that are -- that you'll see rockbot in. >> guys, you've heard what garret had to say. are you in or are you out on rockbot? >> haney? >> i think i'm in. i'm interested to meet with garret one on one. this might be a fundable opportunity. >> what about you, matt? >> i'm intrigued by any company that wants to engage with the consumer with music and tech in

a whole new way. i think there's a lot of intrigue here. frankly, though, i haven't heard enough yet to really vet this company. it's an incredibly competitive space. so i'm right on that fence but i think i'm going to say i'm out. >> i'm the same. you know, from a consumer standpoint i'm one of those gals that sees an old fashioned jukebox in a corner in a bar and i want to play my favorite songs and enjoy that. i'm definitely in from a personal standpoint. if i was an investor however, because of some of the reasons that you guys have said, i think i would have to be out. garret, what's your reaction? >> well, it's been great being on here. please download our app and see some of the locations we work with and encourage you to go out and talk to some of those businesses next time sitting there listening to a song that, you know, maybe you hate, think about rockbot and suggest it to that business owner. >> thanks so much for joining us today. garret of rockbot and thank you to our panelists, haney and matt and that is today's power pitch. >> all right. tell us what you think. are you in or out?

power pitch.cnbc.com or on twitter #powerpitch. to dominic chu for a market flash. >> the latest update on the ongoing soap opra for stocks like padash mosaic, moving session highs according to a dow jones report, russian giant is expected to work on revising a price agreement with belarus, together those companies control about 40% of the global fertilizer market for potash. that's why the stocks are on the rise. >> thanks very much. >> talk about the markets today. the zigs and zags continue, bob pisani. a zag day. >> it is. a lot worse earlier in the morning. the dow industrials, remember a two-week shutdown like some people were talking about last night, that's not in the stock market and that's why we've been struggling all throughout the day. stocks lifted a little bit late in the day or late in the morning when the word came out the president was going to meet with congressional leaders and lifted a little more here later in the day as mr. reid, the

senate majority leader, has offered to enter into budget negotiations with mr. boehner the house speaker, in return for allowing the government to reopen. the market has slowly been responding to all of that. meantime there's been some damage done. defense stocks i said yesterday, moody's released a letter saying athe li athe li allian tech and lockheed martin. all the defense stocks to the downside. burlington stores priced at 17, opened ought 23, trading at 4. remax priced at 22, opened at 26, now at 27. empire, priced on the lower end at 13 still holding up about 2%p. bill, back to you. >> thank you. now if you're looking for real volatility find it in the gold market. sharon epperson at the nymex tracking what has been an up day today. >> that's right, bill. it's absolutely a volatile market here in gold. we're looking at gold prices that have basically recouped all the losses from yesterday, up

about $35 or so around 1320 an ounce at the close and a lot of traders say you can make the bullish case, the bearish case on what shutdown and the debate over the debt ceiling will mean for the gold market. we may see volatility for some time. but keep in mind we've seen a big slide in gold this year and bank of america, merrill lynch says the slide is likely to continue, looking for gold prices to be below 1300 an ounce through 2014. back to you. >> sharon, thanks. to the bond market, let's check interest rates because stocks were down this morning and interest rates they were the place where everybody was going into those treasury bills and treasury bonds. rick santelli is tracking the action at the cme. >> you know, let's give it perspective. we did have data out today, whether mortgage bankers or adp an wasn't necessarily good data points. that's reflected somewhat also the ecb meeting and the issues in washington. you can see on the two-day chart spending too much time below key levels even though rates have perked a bit.

maybe most of the action in the dollar index. look at a small time chart, one day of dollar index, see it's mostly lower and under 80. you open the chart up to july whether it was july's labor report, august labor report, the fed meeting on september 18th and washington, all have taken a chunk out of the dollar which puts it scarily on the one -- squarely on the one-year chart. still comp to february. back to bill griffeth back on "power lunch." >> yes. what year is this? rick santelli, thank you. >> day two of the government shutdown. stocks in the red as you see but we're coming off the lows. is this turning into a crisis of confidence? we'll look at that plus under 2 1/2 hours until john harwood's exclusive interview with president obama at the white house today. a lot on the agenda. the shutdown, debt ceiling, jobs, obama care, and, of course, the partisan divide. "power lunch" is back in two.

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the threat is the threat is nearly invisible. in ordinary ways, it is a crisis

of confidence. it is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. we can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation. >> as you know, that was president carter back in july of 1979 in his famous speech. he was addressing the nation's soaring energy prices at that point and rising interest rates. his words resonate with what's going on in america today. with the government shutdown, are we facing another crisis of confidence. larry kudlow and keith boiken. good to see you. >> here we go again. >> a crisis of confidence? >> i think if it drags on a couple more weeks. >> couple more weeks? >> which i by the way think is going to happen. >> think we will take it to the 17. >> i think it will meld into the debt ceiling problem and i think at that point it becomes a

crisis. whether a crisis of confidence for the whole country i don't know. the stock market is not telling me that yet. >> neither is the bond market. >> thank you. it's much different than the jimmy carter days when we did have a crisis of everything. >> are we being lulled by this? this is not the first time this has happened. jimmy carter malaise was a different animal. the one i equate this to is august 11th when we had the debt ceiling debate that time around and being held hostage, keith, and the market saw unprecedented volatility of 4% each day. now we have nothing. >> we're not seeing that this time. i think there's a great deal, sense of deja vu, been through this sort of shell before. we don't know where this is going to be resolved. i'm not sure it's going to last as long as larry says. the president getting involved, meeting with business and congressional leaders, that's a sign there will be increased pressure on members of congress to do something. i don't think john boehner wants this to go past october 17th. >> john boehner wanted a clean

cr. >> sure did. >> two weeks ago. >> the reluctant leader in all this. >> i' gri wet keith's point, the president meeting with leaders is a step in the right direction. his position of not being involved was not sustainable. if he's going to involve himself now that's going to help a lot. this thing could be solved. you could have an end to the shutdown by this week and move into the debt ceiling where there will be conditionality, but this could be solved. my basic point is, the president is the executive, he must roll up his sleeve, ronald reagan got involved. >> tip o'neill. >> bill clinton was very good at this stuff. >> but getting involved is not -- >> this is a little different. first i agree with larry could be resolved in 15 minutes. >> the president has a trip planned, going to indonesia leaving saturday night. >> but there's a caveat here. all john boehner has to do is call a vote on the clean cr it

would pass and congress able to fund the government immediately. that all that has to happen. he's afraid of what the tea party will do on the right wing. the president's problem, he can't force the tea party 30 or 40 or 50 members of congress to do anything. john boehner can't control those things. how is the democratic president supposed to have an impact on them? that's the issue? >> that's not a good excuse. the president goes after the tea party as a matter of political rhetoric and attack and i think that attack has not helped his position. there's so much acrimony going on. the leadership can put this together with or without the 20 tea party -- about abo 15 to 20 party members in the house. >> but they're not willing to do that. that's the problem. >> they don't need them. >> if they're this entrenched at this point what the market is worried about when bill and i are on the floor of the new york stock exchange, the debt ceiling, if they're entrenched on this issue it's going to be worst with the debt ceiling. >> i think the debt ceiling is

more important than the shutdown. >> obviously. >> and i know that there are going to be a number of republican conditions to passing a debt ceiling one of which is going to be defund all of obama care or to either defund or delay. >> that's not going to happen. it's off the ground -- >> it is -- this is what troubles me. there are other parts of it, tax reform by the way is in there, regulatory reform is in there. that stuff can can go. they have to make their peace on obama care either the medical devices tax cut might work, a couple other things. you're not going to defund obama care. it's not going to happen right now. >> thanks, guys. we have to go. don't miss accou"the kudlow rep" before that john harwood's interview with president obama today 4:00 p.m. eastern time on "closing bell". >> looking forward to that very much. >> today's yahoo! finance question of the day, what should be highest on the president's agenda? 27% say the government shutdown,

28% the budget, 33% washington's poison us politics and 6% taxes. >> we can't get a majority on that question. >> we cannot. >> saturday's air force/navy college football game may be a victim of the government shutdown. the defense department is suspending all intercollegiate athletic games at air force, army and navy. navy officials expecting record attendance for the sold-out game this weekend. in annapolis if it happens. >> can't believe it's affecting football too. >> breaking america's oil addiction. this may be the future of ref e refining in america. jackie is in hillsborough, new jersey. >> hey, sue. one company, one alternative energy company that is, looking to change the way you fill up at the pump. they are using things like natural gas, even garden variety garbage to make gasoline. we're going to tell you who that company is, how they're doing it, coming up right after the break. uld get paid to do something

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welcome back. the golden state, not seeing as many public workers entering their golden years right now. the latest data from california's retirement system shows its lowest level of retiring workers in the last four years, on a steady decline since 2010. the reason is, benefits look stable, is employees want to work longer. sue? >> indeed, bill. using natural gas to fill your car these days. americans have not caught on fully to that idea yet, but one company is looking to change that. jackie deangelis is in hillsborough, new jersey, with that story for us. hey, jackie. >> hey, good afternoon, sue. that company is pry muss green energy looking to take this from a conceptual idea to reality using natural gas to fuel your car and even jet fuel in the future. they say their technology is so efficient they can make this a

reality for the industry. meantime an nists say there are several challenges to think about here. the first is investment. this company is going to start construction on a new commercial facility mid near next year and they need $280 million to complete that. the company has raised $61 million but still, a large gap to get that $280 million mark. part of raising that money showcasing technology and inveriers what they can do as they did here when they used their gasoline to fuel a car. another challenge is the business model. the company is assuming that prices at the pump, crude oil prices and natural gas prices stay roughly in the range where they are. analysts say if any of those swing more out of whack, you have to go back to the business model and see if this still makes sense. a third issue, scale. for the new facility i mentioned it's going to be able to produce about two years after it starts construction.

the production neflevels 25 miln to 28 million gallons of gasoline a year, still small in the scheme of things. it's going to take a lot of time and a lot of money but if this company and others like it can do this, it could be a real game changer. back to you. >> thanks so much. fascinating story. appreciate it. a number of microsoft's shareholders want bill gates to quit as chairman. would the tech giant be better off without him? power rundown in 30 seconds.

coming up on "street signs," top of this hour, the bond king himself, bill gross is going to be joining us and one thing he says is more important than the timing of a taper. also one of the most respected in the tech world, bill gates, now possibly in three microsoft shareholders line of fire. and three u.s. companies making increasing footprints in europe. yep. your europe peen playbook for the u.s. investor. coming up top of the hour. in the meantime back to you on "power lunch." >> mandy, thank you very much. i'll be book ending you and see you later. time for an all tech edition of the power rundown. waiting all day to do this. joining us is john forth the and seema mody. >> great. >> everybody can hear me.

struggling dell making a bet on tablets, unveiling their venue line of products today. john, strikes me this lineup would be terrific ten years ago. >> yeah. maybe even two or three years ago. i got to tell you, though, at $299 for the 8 inch, it's a tough comparison with amazon's line starting at $139 at 7 inches and going up to $229 for the hdx and then the ipad mini with a lot more apps is right in that price at 379s. $500 for the big dell. that's really tough. a lot of people have not succeeded there. >> seema, i'm not going to ask you what kind of computer you use, but i mean is anybody going to buy a dell just because it's now a privately held company and this new lineup? it's got nothing going for it right now. >> that's a good point, but i think these four new tablets that dell just came out with, the specs look competitive with what is on the market as john was just pointing out.

price point will be key. the venue 7 at $149. that might be appealing to the consumer that doesn't have a tablet but wants to try it out. >> we'll see. >> michael dell and i'm not. according to reuters three of the top 20 investors in microsoft are pressing the board for chairman bill gates to step down from the company. you'll see here, shares for one-year period have been volatile, currently up about 15%. gates is the largest individual shareholder in the company, holds about 4.5%. collectively the three shareholders that want him out hold 5%. john fortth, what has bill gates done for the company, he's been doing more for his foundation than the company lately. >> resisting all calls to come back. the thing that jumped out about this story, he had 14% of the company 13 years ago, just around 4% now. he opened himself up to this. >> seema, there's some fear that

he would be able to usurp the power of some of the members of the board who want new things to happen when they bring the new ceo in. they're trying to clean house completely here. good luck with that. >> i think it's -- i think it's kind of sad. i mean he was the co-founder of microsoft and built this organization. many of these people wouldn't be here if it wasn't for his great work. we'll have to see what they end up doing here. >> never forget, if we never change we'd all still be in caves. change is always good. finally with $147 billion, let me repeat that, $147 billion on its books, moody's says apple holds 10% of all corporate cash. apple and many other companies are stashing more money overseas so we're wondering, john forth, whether beneficial to lower the corporate tax rate to bring the money back. what do you think? that's a lot of in un. >> a lot of people think so and carl icahn wants to put that cash to work either way. >> he wants $150 billion

buyback. >> yeah. all of it. >> what do you think, seema? they could do a lot of shopping with that. >> many say they could and i think many say that the corporate tax structure here in the u.s. is outdated. maybe this is apple's way of playing it smart. that's what i think they're trying to do. >> all right. john and seema, thanks. >> seema is a champ. she does the rundown from the streets of new york city. all right. the government shuts down, the rich apparently are partying very hard these days. what's going on? >> they are. during the recession the wealthy turned down the noise on their parties but now, they've turned it back up and they're celebrating. inside some of the biggest parties including one with an entire forest hanging from the ceiling. that's more when we come back on "power lunch." my customers can shop around--

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the past for the past couple years the wealthy laid low. now the big parties are back and the super rich are throwing all kinds of parties just like the rock stars. robert frank, the guy with the best beat in the business has an exclusive look inside mega parties for us. >> that's right. tonight on secret lives of the super rich we will let you inside a secret event planned by the king of mega parties, david. let's take a look. >> he needs to kick it up. >> can we pull that case over to the edge. bring it into the trees. >> make no mistake, david gets paid millions because his client's reputation is on the line. david's getting paid big bucks to turn the world upside down? >> yes.

>> his vision. >> this should feel like it is a natural upside down forest. >> a forest hanging from the ceiling. >> guys, the parties of the wealthy have become cultural lightning rods started with steve schwartzman's birthday and shawn parker's wedding with the tree fiasco and steve cohen's party in the hamptons. the wealthy say they have a right to enjoy their lives and succe success. others say you should be more sensitive to the tough times a lot of people are facing. amazing parties. >> sound bite of the year, it should look like a natural upside down forest. >> natural. >> what? >> all right. i can't wait to see that. >> we've all seen those. >> absolutely. one thing we witness see tonight, robert, is this outtake. take a look. >> oh. >> that is showing a lot of tongue right there. i think that's too much tongue

for tv. >> yeah. >> it's cable. >> i'm glad we're not going to see that. >> it's cable. >> never too much of anything. thanks, robert. >> thank you. >> secret lives of the super rich new tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern time. good scream by the way. >> the biggest wall street winners a second and john harwood has that exclusive interview with the president tonight at 4:00 p.m. eastern time. >> on "closing bell". >> with bill griffeth. i know what you're thinking... transit fares! as in the 37 billion transit fares we help collect each year. no? oh, right. you're thinking of the 1.6 million daily customer care interactions xerox handles. or the 900 million health insurance claims we process. so, it's no surprise to you that companies depend on today's xerox for services that simplify how work gets done. which is...pretty much what we've always stood for. with xerox, you're ready for real business.

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hey, get out of here. >> that's the most persistent fly i've ever seen. >> nice. >> now, where were we? >> remember that. back in june of '09 when john did that interview with the president, certainly a lot has changed since then, but mr. harwood sits down again for a cnbc exclusive with president obama today at 4:00 eastern time on cnbc. >> on "closing bell" which you will be hosting as usual. it's been a pleasure to have you here. >> always like coming back to "power lunch." >> like old home. >> the markets are lower but off the lows, down 140 points at one

time. the dow down 68 right now. >> it's improved markedly the s&p is down about 3 points on the trading session. nasdaq down a little bit as well. >> see you in an hour on "closing bell." >> "street signs" begins right now. have great afternoon. it's getting real in d.c., but at least they're talking. the president asking leaders of both parties to meet tonight at 5:30. this as stocks show the markets are getting nervous. could an american debt default happen? we're going to ask bill gross manager of the biggest bond fund is here on why the market may be focusing on the wrong thing. plus the move three big microsoft shareholders want bill gates to make has some scratching their heads an we'll step outside most of our own realities for, you know, just a fun bit, little fun showing you majorly tricked out private