but the waves there have been averaging 50 feet. it is a beautiful part of the world. some big winners today, starbucks, juniper networks and discover. the dow is down 209 points. >> 208 points. that wraps up a bumpy week for "power lunch." >> "street signs" begins now. you know the old adage when the u.s. sneezes, europe catches a cold? let's bring this up to date. now the emerging world is sneezing and the developed world is catching a cold. talk about a pre-weekend crescendo flight to quality. the dow is currently below 16,000, its worst week since may of 2012, with the dow and the s&p now touching the lowest in over a month. as for the ten-year, who would have thought we would be here at this particular juncture. it is currently sitting at 2.74%. >> so there are the numbers. what the heck is going on? well, the emerging markets are getting all the attention but we've got another theory here on

"street signs." first off, the emerging markets, the eem etf is the most widely traded, it is down 2%. we will dig more into that. here's our other theory. come this way so the viewers can see it. natural gas right now is spiking, folks. it is up to 5.1. here's the deal. you don't care about natural gas because you don't trade it. what you do do is heat your home. pretty much everybody said their heating bill had gone up maybe double or triple what it had been. that could be a big blow to consumer spending. a lot to talk about on this very busy friday. let's get to bob pisani at the nyse. suddenly, we've got emerging markets, got the natural gas stuff that's -- we're hammering it, i don't know if anybody else is talking about it, and something else that troubles me is general electric. it is down 10% in just 16 trading days. jim cramer said last week this stock is the most important right now to the market. if that's the case, we're in

trouble. >> i think there's a very specific reason why it's down. it's a good observation. g.e. is the only dow component down 10%. let's show this. it's all happened in this month. they had a good earnings report. it wasn't that bad. here's what john wright said, the vice-chairman, global economy is getting better, not worse. he just said that today in davos. this is the big g.e. official. they're optimistic on the way things are going. i'll show you what i think is going on. g.e. is trying to transform itself away from a company heavy in the financial sector and back towards their more traditional businesses which is the industrial areas. that's where they will try to get 70% of their profits in the next two years. here's the problem. this is exactly the area this month that everybody is hitting on and not happy with, because the big industrial names, materials, industrials, chemical stocks, they are the ones down the most. i said this day after day. industrials, materials and energy here. this is their areas of expertise. it's out of favor right now and g.e. is just getting piled on as

a result of that. let me move on and point out the dow intraday. when europe closed at 11:30, that was the bottom of the market. we are now sitting right at that bottom here. in fact, we are just passing the lows of 11:30. this could go either way but that's not a very good sign right now that we are sort of drifting below that. i would like to see that try to pick up as we go towards the close. remember, professional traders have to decide whether they want to cover their losses right now or whether they think there might be some pop toward the close that might help them a little today. tough situation right now. back to you. >> sitting at session lows. $221 specifically is the session low. sitting right there. actually new session low, 223 to the down side on the dow. thanks very much. if you watch nbc news with brian williams or "today" show you will see the dow. you see stocks, right? much of the pain behind stocks actually comes from currencies and in a few markets, we have a full-on currency crisis on our hands. sara eisen has been digging in on who is feeling the pain and a

lot of our casual viewers don't trade currencies, they will tune in and say okay, not sure i get the relationship. explain it. >> we certainly don't trade them and many don't watch the market, but it's serious stuff and there are several examples in history where currency crises have led to financial crisis and full-blown economic crises. think 1997. the financial crisis started with thailand's currency. '94, the mexican peso. the problem is you have flows leaving these emerging markets and you have a psychology where, yes, there are a few problem areas. argentina, you talked about the peso a lot. specific problems, political tensions, you see it in the ukraine, you are seeing it in turkey where the lira hit a record low for the last ten days. then they get grouped together when you have this kind of sentiment and fear out there and that's the big concern. >> to what degree are these emerging markets running out of money to the point where they can't fight the outflows? you have a central bank who can't throw some money at the problem to intervene in the markets because they just don't have the reserves.

>> that's a huge problem. that's what we're seeing. that's why there's a concern and you see such sharp and sudden plunges in some of these currencies. the problem is it starts to hit their economies. we are much more globally interconnected right now. argentina, i learned this morning, is the top exporter in the world of soybean oil. there are factors we need to pay attention to these economies and when you have currency outflows and currency crises like this, it hurts them and then it spreads. >> years ago, in a life far, far away i traded commodities for mitsubishi bank. i traded fertilizers. you can say in some respects maybe i still do. that's a joke my friends like to have. i traded with the two biggest farming cooperatives in argentina. trying to get letters of credit, trying to do business internationally when you have this kind of stuff going on is a disaster. it makes it so impossible that no matter what the profit margin may be, you are going to stay away from it. that's why you care about these currency crises, you're like

listen, i'm sorry, pay me in dollars. you cannot pay me in peso because that could be worth 20% less next week -- >> or black market dollars. >> exactly. there is a black market of these currencies in argentina and turkey right now. i guarantee it. >> that raises the question what does it mean to me as an american, as a u.s. investor. the problem here is when you get sell-offs like we're seeing, not just these problem spots shall it's south africa, at the five year low. these are bigger economies. bric economies that were supposed to lead us out of the economic malaise we have been in. >> shanghai, china slowing down. south africa, brazil, a lot of countries supplying raw materials to china. if they don't have as much demand there, it's a real problem. let's take a look at what's happening in the u.s. markets. bring it back home to what it means for you. we have currently got the dow accelerating its losses, down by 235 points right now. goldman sachs' ceo lloyd blankfein spoke about the merging market sell-off earlier today on cnbc. in short, he says over the

longer term, there is still big opportunity. let's take a listen. >> somebody said you take a position on the emerging markets and you can't change your mind for fill in the blank, one year, five years, i would be long, not short. doesn't mean i'm going to feel good. sure, in the long run you have to bet on growth. you have to bet -- you see, you know, growth, education, mobility in these countries, you know, basically the flattening of the world has given tremendous opportunity in these countries. >> lloyd blankfein, one of our cnbc 25 contenders. you know this. if you want a big reward when you're gambling, you don't put your money on red in roulette. the payoff's not worth it. you put your money on 00. you know the risks are high but you can also win a lot. obviously not a perfect analogy but somewhat similar to investing in emerging or even frontier markets. you got a high risk for possibly high reward. we are also in the final day of this week-long series on the mint economies, the countries that could have a breakout year

or breakout decade, down the road. the last one stands for turkey, one of our emerging markets that by the way, has been in the news for a lot of other reasons this week. let's talk more about all this stuff. joining us from ubs, jeff dennis, from fidelity, sammy simnigar. i understand you just met with the cfo, what is it, the prime minister of turkey this week or yesterday? what did he have to say? >> yeah. it was a very interesting discussion. i was there with a few colleagues from fidelity. we got to have a one-on-one meeting with him which was really timely. he really talked a lot about how i think the currency is likely to continue to weaken. he doesn't obviously talk about this but the way his body language was suggested that they are okay with the currency weakening to rebalance their economy. they overconsumed over the last several years and they need to build up their export economy so therefore, they are likely to allow the currency to weaken and

really rebalance, slow down the domestic consumption and increase the exports. >> so here's a question for you, then. how does a u.s. investor take advantage of a depreciating currency in turkey? >> right. so there are three stocks i own for my shareholders which i think benefit from this trend. one is turkish company called enka, basically a construction company. they get about a third of their earnings from prime russian real estate in moscow. >> got a little mic problem here. sit tight for a second. we'll try to get that fixed. jeff dennis, let's go to you. we have brazil down about 7% year-to-date. we talked about turkey. we just talked about argentina. to you, which one of these markets or another market, korea, perhaps, is the single most important emerging or developing economy and market to watch right now? >> well, certainly at the moment of all of those that you mentioned, we would look most

closely at korea, which we do think is very leveraged to the pickup in the global economy that is happening in the u.s. and also as far as europe is concerned. also, korea has less of the external fundamental problems that are afflicting places like brazil and turkey at the moment. what's happening there is that as the u.s. current account deficit comes down, as the european current account deficit comes down, you are getting some sort of transfer of those imbalances back to some of these emerging markets so brazil is running a deficit, so is turkey, they need foreign capital and that's partly what's putting them under pressure right now. korea is less vulnerable from a fundamental point of view. they are also very nicely leveraged, as i say, to some of these developed economies that are doing well. so of those three, that would be the one we would focus on the most at the moment. >> you know, that's bad news because it's down 3.5% per year per date. if you wanted to know where the nasdaq was going, used to be you

would watch korea. it was almost a perfect leading indicator. do you think korea will still lead us or the other way around? >> oh, i think it's probably the other way round at this point in time. i think that kind of link is somewhat dated now. korea as i say, i think it will respond very much to growth in the developed world rather than necessarily lead against them. by the way, the other market over there that is even more closely tied to the nasdaq, to be fair, is taiwan which is another market that has pretty good fundamentals. yes, all of these markets are down this year and there are specific reasons for that. but in answer to the question which one would we enter first to try and see some sort of rebound, i think that's more likely to be the case in korea than brazil or turkey. >> good point about taiwan and south korea. for years there has been hot debate as to whether they should be considered developed markets. sammy, this plays into a time frame thing, right? you always invest or you get in there and get the opportunities when it looks the darkest. when do you think this emerging

market route will end, how does it end and that would be i guess our signal to stop buying? >> i think at the end of the day, it comes down to one thing. if you're bullish on the u.s., you have to be more cautious on emerging markets. to the extent the u.s. market continues to do well and the economy picks up, the ten-year treasury will back up. to the extent it backs up, that will suck capital out of emerging markets. to be honest, i think once we see the ten year treasury in the u.s. stabilize at a certain level and we see economic expansion really starting to stabilize in the u.s., that's when you will get more constructive on mergi emerging markets. >> thank you very much for joining us. there is another big market to watch. puerto rico. the economy saddled with $70 billion in debt. it's barely emerging from a seven-year recession and now there are fierears of a default. our correspondent michelle caruso-cabrera has traveled to puerto rico and is live in san juan. give us the details on what we know so far.

>> hey, there, mandy. yeah, there's a huge debate right now in the market about whether or not it's a good time to buy puerto rico. the yields are very high because it's a very small island, 3.7 million people only, owe $70 billion. those are eye-watering numbers. listen to what kyle bass, who was on in october, told us what he thinks about puerto rican debt. >> you have $70 billion worth of listed municipal debt. you have 3.5 million people in a population decline. any puerto rican that has enough money to get out of the country does. you have a negative selection problem. you have a scenario in which their pensions are funded to the tune of only 9%. they owe $32 billion to the pensions. there is corporate debt on top of that. you look at their finances and say i have no clue how this can exist for very much longer. >> he didn't list all the problems, actually. on the other hand, there are people like james grant, author of the grant's interest rate observer, frequent guest on

cnbc, and he's come out bullish on puerto rico debt. but to be very clear, it's not that he doesn't think they won't restructure or default. he just thinks the yields have risen high enough that if you are a speculative investor who can stomach perhaps some sleepless nights, now is a good time to get in because you can get yields of 8% and 9% that by the way, are tax-free, triple tax exempt. federal, state and local. that last key factor is true of u.s. territories, it's one of the reasons why puerto rico was able to borrow so much money over the last ten years as they wanted to. be careful, though. it's not monolithic. the menu of puerto rico debt is as varied as a new jersey diner. there are so many different bonds you can buy. you've got to be very careful and know what the covenants are in all of them to know what kind of risk you're taking. >> a yield is only good if the debt is paid back. that's a key. michelle, enjoy puerto rico.

thank you very much. emerging markets are certainly one big issue today, right? the other big thing that nobody else seems to be talking about that could be hurting stocks is coming up next. plus, five stocks that are completely insulated from the mess abroad. those names when "street signs" returns. [ male announcer ] this is the story of the dusty basement at 1406 35th street the old dining table at 25th and hoffman. ...and the little room above the strip mall off roble avenue. ♪ this magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins.

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more than 9% to $5.17 a btu. you say who cares, i don't trade natural gas. yes, but you probably heat your house with it. if your heating bill has not gone up yet, it probably will. we spoke with dennis gartman today on "talking numbers." i asked him about this. this es incredible. listen to what he had to say about nat gas prices. >> we're used to hearing nat gas prices at that $3.50 per million british thermal units. then we went to $4. now today, just at the nearby future, we went to $5. you've got places in the spot market where there's really a tightness of supply that are $40 and $50 and maybe even a multiple of that in some areas for those who really need nat gas and can't find it. there's a very severe shortage in the spot market. >> wow. that is something. sharon epperson joining us now. a couple of points. anybody else talking about the

spot problems and also, what the heck is going on to cause nat gas to spike so much? >> everyone here is talking about this spot problem and the issue is really pipeline disruptions that we saw here in the northeast area earlier this week. we're talking about spot prices that were at $135 on wednesday for the cash market. so this is an incredible record, about three times greater than the record that was set previous to this cold spell. so folks are talking about that, and that type of panic in the cash market is a big reason why we're seeing this price spike in the futures market as well. we're up now topping $5.18 and we're looking at the biggest gains we've seen here in several years in the natural gas market and the highest price that we're seeing in about three and a half years time. this is a significant move but we are hearing from the trans continental pipeline that their pipeline imbalances that they had earlier this week that caused the spikes in the cash market, they calmed down

somewhat and we are seeing cash prices today as dennis mentioned closer to $40 or $50. >> which is insane. if you go back to august, you are looking at $3.20, $3.30. now you're looking at over $5. more than 50% jump in natural gas in about five months. that's going to trickle through to consumers. how much of an impact also is happening in the fact that about 80% of the country is absolutely freezing? we're cranking the heat but having trouble getting the gas. that's a terrible combination. >> well, half of the country uses natural gas but a lot of the natural gas prices that consumers pay have been locked in. they have been locked in by the utilities and by the consumers themselves. we are still going to see consumers paying about 10% more on average than they did last winter for natural gas, according to the energy department. the average bill is going to be something like $665 for the winter. but here in the northeast, where so many more of us use natural gas and we're seeing this extreme cold spell, we could see natural gas prices for the winter for our total bill topping the $1,000 mark.

more than $150 greater than what we paid last winter, about a 17% jump. if you want to know why folks aren't that interested in stocks right now, they are trying to pi their gas bill. >> right. they are really sucking up a pile of discretionary income. thank you very much for that. let's explore this a little further. what do retail investors care about more, rising utility bills, or the volatility in the emerging markets. let's bring in robert luna and lamar villeary. thank you very much for joining us. what do you think is more important in terms of the influence on the stock market here right now? >> well, i think both of them in the short term are going to be of great importance because we're in a position in the market where anybody who is looking for a reason to sell this market off, and those are two very good catalysts right now, but short term i think it's that, it's noise, it's a reason for the market to correct. long term i think it will heat up and gas prices will come down and this is some good capitulation, an opportunity to

get into emerging markets. longer term, a nonissue. short term, they will both have impact. >> can i paraphrase, did i understand you correctly, you were saying what's going on in the emerging markets maybe is just an excuse to sell? we were maybe too complacent, had a massive runup last year, were overdue for correction, and this is just an excuse? >> absolutely. i have been doing this for 16 years. corrections never come on good news. everybody has been calling for a correction. we needed a catalyst to do it. emerging markets, a lot of it's political unrest that's going on right now, was a great way to take center stage. it gives people a reason to get out. you are hitting all-time highs in the s&p just a month ago. everybody is looking to sell the top. they are feeling very smart right now, they are getting out yesterday, getting out today, longer term i think that's a bad decision. >> i got some good news, buddy. it's going to be 59 in new orleans tomorrow. it's going to be about nine degrees in nashville. is this the kind of stuff you look at when you invest? it's a story, it happens, the markets go up and down, we are buying stocks for longer term? >> exactly right.

we are buying stocks for longer term. a movement like this, we view as a huge buying opportunity. the emerging markets are not as big a deal for us. we are small cap managers. as you know, small cap stocks tend to be a little more focused on their home market. we have a higher u.s. exposure than a lot of our peers. >> what are you buying? give us some reason to feel good going into a freezing cold friday. >> well, we are buying 3d systems right now. 3d systems is a 3d printer, so no exposure or very limited exposure to natural gas prices. some emerging market exposure but generally, we think it's a fantastic company with great growth outlook. >> i think 39% or so in the past three months. >> it's been up huge this past year, really, although it has come back down. it's now i believe a little below $80. to be honest with you, given what's gone on in this company in the last 12 months, we're as

excited about buying this company today at $80 as we were five years ago buying it for $2. >> just to take the cautious path, instead of walking on the wild side, if you wanted on invest here in the united states and not get any emerging market exposure, just in case, where would you buy? >> one area i like right now is the reits. in particular, the multi-family reits. a really good name in that area, something that got beat up last year but is up year-to-date is avalon bay. they are one of the largest multi-family housing reits in the u.s. and are primarily in high barrier entry markets like new york, los angeles, san francisco. a lot of people got out of them last year because they were worried about rising interest rates. that's true when you have class a office reits with long-term locked-in leases but they are more flexible. six, 12 month leases as the economy improves, rates go up, they are able to increase the rents to their tenants there. >> avalon bay, we will take a look at. thank you very much. before we go to break, we

want to tell you about a poll we are conducting right now on cnbc. it's a simple question. is this the correction we have been waiting for? let's look at the realtime results. it is split three ways. yes, 37%, no 34% -- >> it's not a correction. the correction is 10%. we could fall 10% from the high and therefore it would be a correction. >> i think that's the implication of the question. >> is this the beginning -- >> if not today, this is maybe a full correction. >> so the question is, is this the beginning of the correction. >> semantics. >> no, 10% is correction. 20% is bear market. >> okay. is this the beginning of something that could turn into a proper correction. you can still tell us what you think. go right now to cnbc.com. breaking news to report. looks like g-mails experiencing major problems worldwide. let's go to josh lipton, who we reached by pager in the san jose bureau. what have you got? >> that's right. if you had problems getting on g-mail, you were not alone.

g-mail was apparently suffering some type of widespread outage. we have reports coming in from the u.s., europe, canada, that the service went down. now it looks like it's coming back up. they had this temporary 500 code problem they were blasting out. you saw twitter blowing up about it. in fact, yahoo! took a nice immediate shot at google. yahoo! tweeting out, reminding us that g-mail was temporarily unavailable. a big deal, of course, because it's not only important that josh and mandy use j-mag-mail b lot of businesses use g-mail as well. we reached out for some type of comment and will bring it to you when we get it. there was an outage although now it looks like it might be coming back. back to you. >> i don't use g-mail. i still write letters. >> what are all the marketers going to do without that confidential information? how will they know what to send e-mails about? coming up next -- >> if you're looking for protection, why not go all american? we kind of hinted around about

it but dom chu dug out five stocks that have complete 100% revenues for the good old usa. transports really getting whacked today. coming off a high base but nonetheless, the airlines are really taking most of the blame today for what's going on in the transports. one guest says this is an opportunity. we will get his take. we are around session lows right now. the dow is currently down 263 points. we have the low to 16,000 threshold. the s&p 500 also to the down side by 1.7%. life with crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis is a daily game of "what if's". what if my abdominal pain and cramps end our night before it even starts? what if i eat the wrong thing? what if? what if i suddenly have to go? what if? but what if the most important question is the one you're not asking? what if the underlying cause of your symptoms is damaging inflammation? for help getting the answers you need,

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hurry in to your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for 1.99% financing during our certified pre-owned sales event through february 28th. we're very close to session lows, currently down by 257 points on the dow. as for the s&p we are down by 30 points or 1.7% there. the s&p and dow, we are sitting around one-month lows. >> boeing down 3%. g.e. down 2.9%. caterpillar 2.7%. i will give you some good news. proctor and gamble have good numbers. microsoft, good numbers. merck, no idea why they're up. if you're looking to protect your portfolio from all the

emerging markets mayhem, why not go all american. dom chu, who just let us know his gas bill doubled last month, has five names you might like. >> it's interesting because we spoke to s&p capitalized cues equity strategist alec young, asked where would you hide in an environment where you do see this emerging market turmoil. he says look toward the defensive sectors like utilities and of course, telecom stocks. he also says look for some of the smaller cap domestically focused names. we decided to take a look at the s&p 500 so the larger cap more well known ones. this is what we came up with. these companies have zero sales outside of the u.s. and have posted healthy gains over the past year. wellpointe on the health care side up 28% over the course of the past year. then another sector we want to look at, time warner cable. this is a specific stock story about a possible takeover. those shares up 33% over the last year. on the financial side of things, check out regions financial, one

of the regional bank providers out there, up 40% over the past year. on the natural gas side, because we were just talking about it, chesapeake energy is up 41%. they do natural gas exploration and production. one big one here, o'reilly automotive for the aftermarket car parts. all of these companies have no sales outside the u.s. and have done very well, so it begs the question if there is emerging market turmoil, are the domestic u.s. companies the place where you want to invest? >> the captain america stocks, chesapeake, o'reilly, regions financial, time warner cable and wellpoint. thank you very much. good point from you. coming up next, gold is a really big part of the story today. remember yesterday we saw it moving higher, i think it's around five-month highs currently. how can you make money in this metal, ahead. and some stocks that should be on your radar right now. more names, more coverage of this market. not a good way to go to the weekend. we've still got time although not right now because we are going to break. [ male announcer ] what if a small company

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here's your heat map which is like america, decidedly cold today. that's about 20, 22 stocks out of the s&p 500 that are higher. kansas city southern would be at the far bottom right. that is the worst performer in the s&p right now, ksu, a railroad, down 15%. the big winner on the far upper left, juniper net works, solid numbers. starbucks. that is just a hideous map. let's get to street talk and find out some of the stories out there, some of them good, some of them bad. first of all, we had chipotle which is getting mixed signals today from various analysts. the reaction has been negative. >> yeah. down 2%. but everything is down today. here's why mandy said mixed signals. it was downgraded to neutral, the target is 5.10 so a couple bucks above where it is now. analysts at oppenheimer,

outperforming with a price target of 6.25, $130 or so above where the stock is now. takes two to make a market. p & g beating estimates by one penny. fiscal second quarter profit of 121 per share. >> one of the few winners today. strong earnings growth in the second half of the year despite issues from currency headwind. their ceo sees earnings growth ahead. keep in mind the average analyst target price of p & g is $87.31. unless wall street starts cutting they see another seven bucks of upside. >> kimberly-clark reporting fourth quarter profit that more than doubled. >> this market is enough to make anybody want to wear diapers. right? one of their main products. cited stronger sales and higher margin products like cotton elle toilet paper, raising the dividend to $4%. their guidance was for organic sales growth. 15 analysts cover kmb and their

average rating is a hold. something to keep in mind. >> it is indeed. juniper networks, this company we have been noting quite a bit recently, currently up another 7% here. posted earnings that were six cents above estimates. >> this was our riddle two weeks ago about the coniferous plant named company. they note improving top line results. basically balance sheet stuff. upgraded to a neutral but from a sell at goldman sachs. target price boosted as well. not exactly ringing endorsement. it's like neutral but was sell. best performer in the s&p 500 right now. >> this is the reason we have mentioned it recently. out of the technology stocks in the north american arena, it is the second best performer year-to-date. what was the first? blackberry. >> what? >> yep. >> really? blackberry? >> when we looked at this stock last week, it was. >> who remembers last week? i don't remember yesterday. it's the stock market.

>> today's under the radar pick is precision cast parts. >> portland based company, they make all kinds of stuff, air foils, metal parts for rolls royce, boeing. the stock down 1%. did have positive analyst commentary but on a day like today, it doesn't really matter. wells fargo adding it to their priority stock list, whatever that is. i would like to see the nonpriority stock list. >> low priority. >> bad day for emerging markets but that led to a good day for gold. gold up because you have the risk, the fear trade is back. let's start talking numbers. on your technicals today, j.c. o'hara. on your fundamentals, chad morganlander, washington crossing advisors. chad, people have been burned. we have problems, we rush into gold only to wait until things calm down, then rush back out. any reason to believe this time is different? >> no. >> thank you.

>> i certainly would not marry it, okay? look, the global economy is improving and the banking system is doing quite well. i know there's a fear trade in here. the gold price has gone up 5%. maybe you get a little bit of a pop, maybe another 3%, but i certainly would stay away from gold as an asset class. >> yet it's been doing really well. the fifth consecutive weekly gain, i noted, and i have to say i was quite surprised considering how bearish everybody was at the end of last year. j.c., do the charts tell a bullish or bearish story for gold? >> it's definitely an interesting chart. but i don't know if i'm too interested in buying right here. there are plenty of traders who could put on bullish things that's taking place in this chart. first i point to the double bottom around 1200. that's typically a bullish sign. they also point to the 150 day moving average which has been declining but recently is starting to smooth out a little. i would also point to the august high, the down trend line, prices beginning to test it. you are in a bear market. there are still plenty of bad

things with this chart. first you have a down trend line drawn from 1800 back in 2012. that is still intact. prices still below it. there is also a horizontal support line that was support back in april, resistance in october, that's right around 1350. yes, while there could be a trade in this, i'm not running to jump in it. i would rather buy a pull-back. >> if we see more currency instability, would you change your mind? because gold tends to go up when people are disconcerted about what happens with gold -- with currencies. >> look, you may get a short term pop out of this but credit conditions in the united states are improving. the economy here in the united states and globally has been improving. if you are going to look out three to five trading days, so be it. maybe you get a pop. but if you look at six to 12 to 18 months, i think this is a head fake. i wouldn't take it. we owned gold for six years. we sold it last year and that's because improving credit conditions. >> neither of them are convinced. thank you very much. be sure to check out our online edition of talking numbers as well, part of our partnership with yahoo! finance.

still ahead, one of our very favorite voices will weigh in on today's selloff. it will be a very big final hour of trade. you need to find out how we close out this week. for that, we have the closing bell. kelly and bill, what are you looking at? >> as you have been telling everybody, big selloff. we are all over this market, getting set to close out what has been an ugly week for the bulls. >> we've got bonds rallying as stocks remain in a sea of red. we will ask which is the better place for your money right now, stocks at these levels or are bonds a safer bet? we will hear from both sides. fed meets next week. could this selloff actually force fed officials to begin untapering? we've got steve liesman and rick santelli going head-to-head as only they know how to do. >> i think we have greg in that one, too. we've got all of that and much more ahead with the dow off 243 points on the closing bell. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 trading inspires your life. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 life inspires your trading.

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the old dining table at 25th and hoffman. ...and the little room above the strip mall off roble avenue. ♪ this magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins. and of those who believed they had the power to do more. dell is honored to be part of some of the world's great stories. that began much the same way ours did. in a little dorm room -- 2713. ♪ this magic moment ♪ welcome back to "street signs." we have a big movement here in a couple of construction and building materials companies. check out what's happening with martin marretta and texas industries, this on bloomberg headlines that texas industries may be putting itself up for

sale and that martin marietta may be the buyer, according to people familiar with the matter. both of those shares skyrocketed in trading, like you see on the charts there. texas industries has just been reopened for trading and is holding on to most of those gains. keep an eye on those shares. back over to you >> a few bright spots out there in a generally red day. let's take a look at the markets. the dow is currently off its lows. it is down by 242 points but as i say, that's not nearly as bad as it was about 20 minutes ago. we are off to the worst start for equities since the year of 2010, when the s&p lost about 3.7% in january. if you're panicking, for the full year 2010 still ended with a gain of about 13% or so. nonetheless, we bring in david lutz to talk about what's going on. you know the old adage, as goes january, so goes the year. hope that's not the case. >> right now, obviously there's a lot of stress going on in the marketplace but i can tell you

here on the institutional trading desk, there is not a ton of big sell tickets coming through, not a lot of big sellers coming from the mutual fund complexes. a lot of the activity we have got going on is protection buying. there is definitely some fear out there, whether it is from the china credit issues that have been well talked about here on your network, or whether it's what's been going on in the emerging markets with argentina having to devalue. the vix right now as it stands was up about 23% when i sat down in this chair. if it closes here, mandy, that's the biggest surge we have seen since april 16th of last year. that was the bottom and we ended up running about 9% in the next four weeks to the upside because all that stress bled out into the marketplace. >> got to leave it there. thank you very much for your snap total on what's going on there. the vix up 25% just today. >> didn't even wear a tie. he rushed to the camera so fast. let's take a look at intuitive surgical. a lot of stuff is down today. isrg, one of the bigger decliners out there, about 5.7%. the stock is down $25 a share

right now to $414.02. herb greenberg is not with us. he may be watching. if not, shame on him. he's got a piece out. he did the documentary for us when he was here at cnbc. he's got another piece out on the street.com. check it out. i think he posted it to his twitter account talking about isrg and how the gross margins -- >> robotic surgery. coming up next, the airline stat that will have any frequent flyer enraged. plus, we tell you why traffic jams around the world could mean bad news for auto stocks. we will explain that. [ male announcer ] there is no substitute for experience. for what reality teaches you firsthand. in the face of danger, and under the most demanding circumstances. experience builds character. experience builds confidence. and experience... has built this. introducing the 2014 glk. the engineering and the experience of mercedes-benz.

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pretty much everything get hammered today. transportation index down 3.75%. generally considered a leading indicator. let's hope not. the single worst performing stock out of the s&p 500 is ksu, kansas city southern. airline stocks are leading the way lower. now, that's today. however, one day does not a trend make. since the beginning of the year the airlines actually far outperforming the s&p 500. in fact, delta and southwest,

our surprise stock of the year yesterday, are some of the leaders. let's bring in nexus capital's ray nidal. today is kind of an anomaly. i know you're not analyzing single stocks here. can airlines, so to speak, weather this storm? >> you have to remember we've had a big run up. the market is down today. we've just had winter storms which affected the airlines and the time of the year, january, is usually a weaker time for airline profitability. so having said that on a macro basis, 2014 where the economy looks like it will marginally get better, confidence is returning a little bit, and we have consolidation pretty well finished should be a very good year or the airlines. >> which of the stocks in particular are in the strongest position, ray? >> basically delta appears to be the strongest of the big four, the old airlines which includes american and united and

southwest. but there's probably more of an upside opportunity for the guy that is have been lagging and that's united and southwest and they get their problems fixed and dacatch up with delta. >> american, any risk of merger? >> what worries me is outside of the delta merger, particularly one with northwest, mer injuries always create short term hiccups. hopefully they will learn from mistakes made in the past and they will avoid some of the big problems but nevertheless, it's a big effort other the next year to integrate these two airlines. it will be a very strong airline but we may have some hiccups in the meantime. >> very strong start to the year for all the airlines. ray, thank you so much. why don't we stay with the sector because there's new proof on just how bad this winter has been for flight cancellations. phil lebeau is here to explain. i think we're on track for the worst january since 2009 for flight cancellations, phil.

>> that's correct. we're going back to 2009 because that's when the new faa tarmac rules went into effect. the numbers don't lie. so far this month there have been more than 35,000 cancellations. all this data coming to us from the research firm moss flight. february 2010 the closest. hurricane sandy, which was in october and november of '11, 20,000 flights canceled in all. and two reasons are driving these cancellations right now. we've seen storm after storm come from the midwest and go into the northeast which is the most congested corridor for air travel in the u.s. at the same time, the new pilot rest rules went into effect on january 1st, and a number of airlines, jetblue among them, have stwrug ruggled adjusting t rules. you have the worst month in five years when it comes to flight cancellatio cancellations. >> bad news everywhere today. we all know about air traffic congestion. new study suggesting a bigger concern may be auto traffic con investigation, phil. listen, we don't fly as much as

we drive, right? what's the story here? >> heading to a global traffic jam and i'm not overstating the ke concern that is out there not only in the auto industry but for those people who look at congestion patterns around the world. ih s automotive basically sent us this chart. this is vehicles in operation. china is already ahead of us and by 2035 at the far end of the chart they will be up at more than a half billion cars on the road. this congestion will be limiting auto use by 2035. you will see dropping global safes of 30 million annually. doesn't mean they will fall 30 million but they will lose about 30 million sales they won't be able to get because people will not be able to buy those cars. increasingly, guys, cities around the world, particularly in asia and china, are going to say, too bad, we have enough cars already registered. you don't have one, you won't get one. >> pull the mexico city where you can only drive every other city -- >> or manila or mexico city and it's really bad for the automakers who are banking on the developing world for future

growth. but we have to leave it there. thank you. quick check on what's happening with the markets before we go to break here. we're down by 253 on the dow. at this moment we only have three stocks in the black or in the green for the dow. we've got microsoft, p & g, and merck. i think it's the worst day for equities since 2010. so four years. stick around. [ male announcer ] legalzoom has helped start over 1 million businesses. if you have a business idea, we have a personalized legal solution that's right for you. with easy step-by-step guidance, we're here to help you turn your dream into a reality. start your business today with legalzoom. i takbecause you can't beatrning for my frzero heartburn.n.ality. woo hoo! [ male announcer ] prilosec otc is the number one doctor recommended frequent heartburn medicine for 8 straight years. one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn.

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as we wrap up the show, you will hear more about this story over the weekend. it's been growing all day lone. natural gas right now is up 10% to $5.21 per million btu. just call it btu basically. just 350 s$3.50 a couple months. up 18%. if you heat your home with natural gas, watertown, new york, minus 30, the coldest place in the u.s. right now. >> some people are saying their heating bowles haills have doub. i want to show you what's being happened with the fear gauge. the vix is up 25% right now, and another sign that investors today are really avoiding risk is we're seeing outsized losses

for the small guys. russell is falling a whole lot more percentagewise than the dow which is down 250 points. >> look on the bright side, you can't go up every day or every week. >> absolutely, you can't. and we're still not that for from record highs. still, thanks for watching "street signs." stay safe and warm. >> take care. and welcome to "the closing bell" where investors are gearing up for the final hour of trade in what, bill, has been one of the worst weeks for stocks in quite a while. >> this is what a sell-off feels like. i'm bill griffeth. it feels like your money and investments are under attack. really they are, and it's a three-pronged offensive. weak guidance, forward guidance has been a problem. big trouble in the emerging markets, which we will talk about. and continued concerns about china's growth rate which is so