back up at 2.5%. as morgan mentioned, there's the dow, but the s&p 500 is also paring its losses, almost even on the day, the nasdaq is down only less than half a percent. so it would be an interesting afternoon. >> if uny how that happens after a big down morning, we are close to a level on the s&p 500, and the dow, as we pointed out really the outlier here. all the other markets are higher. "street signs" begins right now. have a great weekend, everybody. all right. two hours now until the close. could we see the markets beginning to turn around right now? we've got a lot of stuff going on out there, folks -- the fed, russia, argentina, all sendings shivers into the market, but is there something else also at work here? there's a big show today, folks. we'll hit that, full market coverage, and an important

playbook for what to do in the months ahead. why a pre-recession jobs number is not good enough. we need to aim higher. something melissa lee is calling the loco. >> no, as in pollo. we'll get to that. let's look at the markets. the s&p 500 almost back to even on the day. we are just smack in the middle of our range, ten points off the high, ten points off the low. taking a look at the bkx, the banks index, that's not making too much of a turnaround, but the moving being made in the -- nicely in the green at this point. brian? >> so we've got the world's best big reporter standing by to hit every sangle. let's begin with bob pisani, the move, two hours to the close, sir. >> the important thing is there's hopes we can end

positive. take a look at the s&p 500. few chances to rally, but hasn't lasted. first thing that happened, jobs report week, but a lot of people liked it. the market just drifted lower, a lot of people feel the problem is over in europe. there's our s&p 500. we're not coming off, just about to go positive. a quick look at germany. adidas yesterday, other companies saying the sanctions are starting to bite. if this starts to become part of the profit warning scenario, the important thing is that could be a problem. so we'll see if we can end in positive territory. a lot of people hope with the europe close, maybe we can mac it. >> the dax is down 8% since the beginning of the month rick? >> most of the data this week has been pretty decent, especially the compensation on yesterday's number 209,000 we could spin it a lot of is

different ways. yields are down, stocks down, vice versa. pay attention to 244, that's a key below, 266 above, those are the levels to pay closest attention to. >> thank you very much, rick. now let's go over to the nasdaq. seema, what are you watching? >> the nasdaq has been the scene of the crime the last two days. in fact the worst start to august for the nasdaq composite since 2006. whenever there is a certain level of fear in the market, you see investors get out of riskier sectors. i also want to point out that all cap larger diversified tech names that offer a dividend, those stocks moving to the down side. oracle and ibm among other large caps. >> seema, thanks a lot. morgan brennan has that angle. >> the u.s. dollar slipping

slightly today verse the yen and euro after the lack of wage inflation looking at the dollar index. that's down about 81, three down, about 0.15%. crude oil is dropping. we're keeping an eye on that as well. brent is down about 1015. wti around 97 bucks a bearing, down more than 9% from the june peak that we saw. when bright spot for consumers, gas prices are done near a four-year low. that could keep going with the crude oil trending lower. >> morgan brennan, thank you. of course today's jobs report. steve liesman is here, breaking it down all day. >> i can give you tons of numbers. just four. first one, 209, the number of jobs sixth month above 200. next number unemployment rate

6.2, up, why do we care about that shall shows still slack in the is jobs market. this is what yellen told us could happen. wages up just 2%. shows you there's not an incredibly tight job market. if it were you would have stronger wage gains. and one other thing, i want to give you the ism came in, new orders up like this, inventories down like that, how do you fill the gap? production. that's why some economists are predicting gains in manufacturing in the months ago. i'm done. >> bottom line is steady as she goes when it comes to the fed? >> if it changes at all, it's like three months a bit earlier, but not a big deal. >> sweet spot, then. was it a sweet spot number? >> this notion of people not in the labor force coming back into the labor force is central to

yellen's thesis about keeping rates low. >> why don't we ever use little miss muffet or hansel and gretel. >> goldilocks is perfect. >> it is perfect. have a great weekend, buddy. now you know all four of the numbers. bti's dan greenhouse and matt mailie. you fired off an e-mail an hour ago cryptically suggesting there might be something else at work in the market besides the obvious russia, argentina and fed. what do you mean? >> listen, the point that a lot of people terr making is because of the strength in the jobs report, or as steve pointed out the ism report that the fed will hike sooner. it's not borne out by the fact when you look at the treasury market. my insinuation is if the equity market is traden do you and the bork mark is trading up with other coincidental moving, they're not all telling the same story.

there's something else going on here. it might be geopolitical, but it's not just about the fed. >> i'm curious about where you stand on where we stand in the markets. there have been notes highlighting the fact we have seen fatigue in some of the leaders, and we're seeing a rally in some of thing laggards seven's the overseas market. those are signs of a correction. >> well, i think they are. i think dan is absolutely right about something else going on out there. we've been seeing -- what happened yesterday, we've had warning signs for really two months now. we saw it in europe in the high-yield market. we can go on and on, the small thing that people were ignores for a while. but there are things going on behind the market that makes -- makes people a lot more nervous especially with so much leverage in the marketplace. we saul what 457d with the treasury mark, saw it again in

the spring with the biotechs and social media stocks got hit. so it may get more nervous. >> i don't know if we have it, but we requested it, which is a chart of margin debt. we have not talked about it for a long time. >> for good reason. >> it's a big story story. >> it's only a big story because people like matt are talking about about it. listen, i like matt, and he knows that, but margin debt is not a leading indicator for the stock market. we can talk about it all we watch and say look, look, but it just doesn't matter. >> borrowing money to buy stocks is not a big deal? >> i'm not saying borrowing money to buy stocks is not a big deal. i'm pointing to margin debt and say the margin is going down. >> dan, you know that's not what i'm doing. >> that's not what you're doing. it's what other people -- >> matt, why do you bring up the margin debt?

>> dan, the croutons. >> dan is absolutely right. it's not a good timing tool, but it is 20% higher than at the 2007 highs. >> so what? >> when it does begin to be unwound it will force the market to go down more than it otherwise would. in fact i would argue that being leveraged is one of the reasons the stock market went up more than the underlying fundamentals did last year with immediate okayer gdp growth and the stock market went up 30%. when that leverage gets unwound it would cause the market to go much lower. when people have to sell, forced selling, they don't care about valuations, they don't care about earnings, they sell because they have to. that's what we saw last year. >> why are people going to unwind margin debt? why are they going to do that? >> there's a million different reasons. what happens if -- if stocks go down. >> if rates go higher, that will

cause them to take off some of that. >> because stocks fall. >> let me be clear. by the way, i listened to "fast money" last night, 5:00 p.m. eastern time. >> hold on. we can't hear anybody right now. >> it's friday, let's all smile a bit. dan, here is my point. we in the media like to come to simple assumptions, because we're simple folk here. we like to say this is the reason this happened. i've been doing this long enough to know there's not one reason. when you have russia, argentina, the fed, hot inflation data, and now you add the margin story in there, it seems like there's a lot of different things which may all be coming to a point. that was my point. >> let me ask the counter factual. the ukraine, gaza, earnings, the fed, socialism, keep everybody egg the same, but move margin dead to zero.

do stocks not fall? >> i don't know. >> yes, they fall. sometimes stocks go up. >> but to reduce it to zero, stocks will go down. that doesn't make sense. >> listen. my point is if stocks are gooding to fall margin debt -- i can't believe this is what we're doing for the whole segment. not the other way around. you can't -- >> dan, we've got to go. this is "street signs", as you know, it's a loosely produced show. we just kind of have a good time and go with it and try to be as smart as we can. >> i'm doing my great job. >> thank you for enduring this. we appreciate it. we are expecting a statement from the president around 2:35 eastern time. in just about 20-plus minutes were going to take that live. when it happens you can see the screen there. i don't know what it's about, if it's about israel, gaza, if it's about ukraine/russia, we're

literally getting word that the president will make a statement about 2:35, so just a little -- check out t mobile, it's moving off its lows. say he would slash customer prices if he acquired the company, says the offer is real and the only one on the table. iliad has offered $15 billion cash for 50% control of t mobile u.s. it's also up more than 6% this week. guys, back to you. thank you, morgan. the s&p 500 has turned positive for the session, so it does look like perhaps we could scratch by with a gain for the day, but again it was the dow that raised its yearly gains. >> it's all about margin debt. >> apparently. argentina's default is now official. it sounds like bad news, but think again. we have some history and charts that will open your eyes. and we asked some hard proof

this market has gone flat-out crazy. we'll tell you about the loco indicator, when "street signs" returns. we started zya with the thought that the kid on the back of the bus might have a song that he has in his head but he just can't get out. with the technology of cloud, we change all that. i can sing something into my device, up to the cloud it goes, back down it comes, sounding better. we break down the walls of creation and we give music creation for the masses. ♪ ♪ unlock the creativity in anyone. with the ibm cloud. the ibm cloud is the cloud for business. [b♪ll rings] time and sales data. split-second stats. ♪ its so close to the options floor,

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negative, but we have come back well from where we were in certain parts of the day. it's official, argentina has defaulted on its debts. the association announcing today that argentina's failures to now get pay officially. when you hear default, you think we should sell stocks of the country. not so fast, my friends. since greece defaulted, the market is up 150%. since russia defaulted, that's market up 3,000%. since argentina's first default -- i shouldn't say first, the last default in 2001, that market is up literally 4,000%. obviously the since i sills of these nation got destroyed, so if you own those stocks in

current currency terms, you got crushed, but from an outside buyer, defaults have been great news. larry kudlow joins us, by the way. we're certainly not recommending buy arrangen continuian stocks, but pointing out -- i could have done the same with indonesia and there's a few other nations that have historically been -- sniff around. at least do your home work. >> hi, larry kudlow. >> good to see you. >> happy friday.

thank you for having me. one of the points i was listening this morning and i heard jason if you weren come on, and they touted the jobs numbers. they said basically we're almost back to pre-recession levels. we heard that a lot. i'm not knocking it but that shouldn't be or benchmark, should it? we need to aim higher. >> you need to keep the long-term trends intact, by the way, we're about 6 million jobs short. the bottom in unemployment in the last cycle was 2007. so they have a way toss go. but they are creating jobs. this is not the best report they've ever had. you look at the trend line, some

conservatives won't acknowledge -- jobs are growing, that's good for america. running 244,000 a month. so it's better. it's better. if we can get some business investment going, then we could put in torque in this. >> does this support your view where the markets are. the fact of the matter is we are a matter of percentage away from the s&p record high. >> i'm a long-run bull. corrections come and go. a couple points, though. i think the people misread the fed on wednesday. i think the statement leaned major ha-- not major hawkish, b not dovish. for what it's worth, i refereed a deinto illustrate on tuesday

and glen hubbard, who was romney's guy and all three of us agreed that the fed would raise rates sooner. folks can raise that for. >> will we get clear telegraphs? >> i this think we're talking first of 2015, probably first quarter of 2015. by the way, very good for the dollar. if you look at the dollar trends the last six months or so, the dollar is coming back. i would be a seller of gold, and i think rising rates may cause stock market corrections along the way, but as long as profits are rising, we'll be just fine for quil some time we're starting toss that all right. we saw it with clorox's report.

>> if global growth does better, they'll be fine. they companies all have big treasury departments, and they're hedging currencies on a daily basis. sometimes you have to wonder what business are they really in. we're grinding higher. i 2%, 2.5%. the inflationistas out there, i'm sorry. look at today's income statement. i'm just not worried about inflati inflation. we need to have less regulations and lower the corporate tax rate i have heard that free capitalism is the best path to prosperity. >> that's quite catchy. >> use that. >> on this discussion with larry summers, whorls obama's chief guy for a while, he said in this discussion that business taxes and regulations are too high. he said that.

he also said growth, growth, growth. he sounded a bit like me. at the end of the think -- he believes government spending stimulates demand. i don't and never will, but hubbard, too. it was a good debate. corrections, good, healthy. that's all i'm saying. thank you for having me. >> thank you for being here. we appreciate it. again we are expecting a statement from the president within 15 minutes or so. we don't know the subject. we'll take it live as soon as it happens, though. mean time, oil falling to a six hadn't month low. your energy trail is straight ahead. how much is a tech worker work. this is a fun thing, but we took four companies market caps, divided them by the number of employees. linkedin 4.1 million. twitter 9.8. facebook 26 million per worker.

ibm 440,000 per worker. which of these folks -- again it's a fun exercise. which is the most out of wack? same market cap as facebook. we're back after this. but what if you could see more of what you wanted to know? with fidelity's new active trader pro investing platform, the information that's important to you is all in one place, so finding more insight is easier. it's your idea powered by active trader pro. another way fidelity gives you a more powerful investing experience. call our specialists today to get up and running. (horn, ding, ding) how long have i had my car insurance? i don't know, eight, ten years. i couldn't tell you but things were a lot less expensive back then.

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the stocks are clawing back. we ever so briefry saw the s&p 500 go positive. a lot of fear after yesterday, not only the big decline, but ending on the low of the day on extremely heavy volume. 10:1 down side to up side. joining us is andy l.

ippau. andy, your explanation for oil's price drop. >> a couple reasons, starting with the fact we've seen as well as no disruption in exports. the market is do you seeing that the industry over here is turning this crude oil surplus into petroleum products and pressuring both product prices in crude. >> where do you see wti going? more specifically where do you see the spread going? that's important to understand pavel's refinery trades. i think on the brent wti spread, i think that's going to widen out to $9 a barrel as we move into the fourth quarter, as there's supply impacts in the north sea due to maintenance. over here we'll have refineries shut down due to maintenance

adding to a glut on the gulf coast. that would be exacerbated. actually we think the spread is going to get way into the double did you get, probably in the second half the 2015, but if there is no real change on the u.s. crude export ban, wti and brent could completely disconnect over the next 12 to 18 months. you could see 20, even $230 spreads as indeed we saw, you know, about two years ago. >> so you like oxi, also a couple old play that is operate predominantly overseas. it's the largest company in columbia, produces about 60%. what's so great about the stock when it's been down, what, 20% over the past 12 months? it's contrarian. these are international plays,

the hot stocks have been the more north american onshore focus. same kind of story in egypt. remember, emerges markets have somewhat higher risks, but they do not have the risk of the wti blowout, so our view is that the price of brent will be pretty stable in the triple digits over the next several years. it's wti that has the risk, so companies that produce outside the u.s. actually can have horrid commodity up side. at the same time there's the poll of what's going on with condensates it's simply not

adding enough refinery capacity to handle it in 2015. i think one thing that's been overlooked, even as we do -- that's going to be competing with additional supply out of a arabian gulf in asia for the new facilities in japan. we'll probably export far less condecentate than the market thinks which will benefit refiners here. folks. >> just a reminder, the president expected to make a statement in about five minutes. you can see everybody in the media scrambling to take what is

normally just a normal press briefing to accommodate the president. we always hear on "street signs" try to quickly focus on individual stocks that have compelling stories, and we're about to show you five stocks on the fly. we call it streak taet talk. and we'll show you the locko indicator. "street signs" will be right back. collection is here. ♪ ♪ during the cadillac summer's best event, lease this 2014 ats for around $299 a month and make this the summer of style.

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and get the fastest wifi included. comcast business. built for business. time now for "street talk" so we kick it off with stock number one, rockwood holdings, over at goldman. >> not a name i've ever talked about it. >> specialty kem kell. >> "fast money", 5:00 p.m. eastern goldman said recent weakness creating a buys opportunity. their price target is 89, nine and above a chance for the current price. >> the earnings were really the culpr culprit. >> they were. stock is down about 4.5% here, continues its decline. any lisa said price target

slashed to 48 bucks. and amazingly the stock is still trading at 136 times trailing for this stock? >> maybe not to for the stock. >> amazing technologies, but you better grow, baby. >> a lot priced into that. >> credit suisse lowering its -- just one buck lowered, but the stock is at 58.19, so they see a target price three bucks below. ac worldwide upgraded over at steven. >> new jersey based e-payment company they love the bookings. their target bump it up a buck, but the stock is at 18.74. the ticker aciw. the under the radar name, that would be green plains, an

ethanol producer based in nebraska getting an upgrade today. >> their target is 51 bucks a share, that's about 30% more than the current target price. the ticker there gpre. they'd a pretty good year. get this. the stock was a $3 a couple years ago? >> three buck chuck. that's delicious. that's what i'm having tonight. >> let's talk about what might be the most important thing in the market right now. it is treasury yields. in fact the move in the ten-year often determine ira, where do you see ten-year yields going? up down or sideways? >> we think treasury yields will go up by the end the year particularly as we think the growth is going to start accelerating. some of the weak necessary we saw will be transitory.

better job numbers, and better growth and inflation number. i ra, what i don't get is we didn't see too much of a reaction. we're talking about fractional moves on the tlt, even though the prior day we had a big sell-off, we didn't see any gains yesterday. >> one of the things going on is a lot of people are positioned for this big sell-off, so you didn't have a lot of people that really wanted to buy yesterday for a variety of reasons. i think they bought today particularly after a bit of a disappointment in the wage number. people really wanting to get into position prior to this morning's numbers. >> rich, what do you see on the charts? >> i'm with ira on this one. i think yields move higher over the rest of the year. let's bring up the charts. i'll show you exactly why. with when you look back over the last 12 months, we've been in this very well-defined trading

range, with 240 on the low end. earlier this year, we break below the 200-day moving around. it's your ceiling of resistance, so clearly a break back will provide a catalyst for a retest of the high end of that range. if we zoom out and look longer term, i think that's the more compelling chart. late 2013 we break back above that 200-week moving averages for the first time in years. it goes from resistance to support. it has held there, melissa. i think as long as we hold that 200-week moving average, which once against comes in around 238, 240, i think the better case is for higher yields here. >> all right, guys, thanks a lot for your time. be sure to check out the online edition in partnerships with yahoo finance. we are expecting a statement from the president. again we're not sure of the

topic. they just alerted about 15 minutes ago. could be a traditional super statement as congress gets ready to leave for the august break which congress may or may not have accomplished. we will take the president live as soon as they start. well, you might think the war in israel would be bad for companies based there, but that's not what john medvedev told us two weeks ago. >> we're seeing no impact on this crisis on the tech sector, and we're very happy for that. the ipo today that's proving him right in a big, big way. >> and the first of the month. that means big car companies reporting sales numbers. as we head toward the close down down 25 points. lot to do in an hour and a half to the end of the week. we're back after this. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 trading inspires your life. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 life inspires your trading. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 where others see fads...

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call it domestic outsourcing, they step in when companies get out of the business of maintaining and repairing their factory equipment. this can give them an edge with the training that a tistf provi

>> reporter: i'm standing among the equipment that makes advanced technology services so valuable. what you are looking at here is a control panel you may find on any automated factory floor. the employees behind the panel here are learning thousand to troubleshoot and repair that control panel in the event it goes down. now, training like this of course is what makes a.t.s. so valuable to the employees, they may change depends on the clients' needs. here is the head of training micah statler. >> we take a look at the equipments, systems and tailor that core trainings to fidget exactly what they have.

>> clients -- fa the lost 11 years they worked here at the plant in augusta. the team of 16 technicians keep the assembly lines for e-z-go golf carts running efficiently. they've been able to add engineers and grow the product line, for an employee, the focus on maintenance has helped him grow his skill set. >> it means i have more support, more training. i've gotten backing, you know, i've gotten the resources. >> now a.t.s. is looking to grow its human resources. it plans to hire five new technicians this year, but finding the people with the skills can prove difficult. it keeps an eye out for factories that are shutting down, then goes in and hires some of those workers when that happens. it also has a strong internal recruiting area from which it

pulls some of those workers. melissa and brian, back to you. >> great story, mary. just a reminder, we are waiting on the president, should be any second. president expected to talk about what? we don't know. often in the past the president has addressed congress right as congress is ready to go on the recess. of course, that is right now, so this could be a congressional discussion. it could be a comment a israel/gaza. in fact here is president obama walking to the podium. >> good morning, everybody. happy friday. i thought i would take some questions, but first let me say a few words about the economy. we learned our economy created over 200,000 new jobs in july. that's on top of about 300,000 new jobs in june we are now in a six-months streak that's the first time it's happened since

1997. over the past year we've added more jobs in a year. in all told, our businesses have created 9.9 million jobs. that's the longest streak of private sector job creation in our history. and as we saw on wednesday, the economy grew at a strong pace mountain spring, companies are investing consumers are spending. technology, autos, all are booming. thanks to the decisions we have made and the grit and resilience of the american people, we have recovered faster and come farther from the recession than almost any other advanced country on earth. the good news is the economy clearly is getting stronger. things are getting better. our engines are reving a little

louder. unfortunately there are a series of steps we could be taking to maintain momentum, and perhaps even accelerate it. there are steps we could be taking that would as a result in more job growth, higher wages, higher incomes, more relief for middle-class families, and so far at least in congress we have not seen them willing or able to take those steps. i've been pushing for common-sense ideas like rebuilding infrastructure in iowas that are sustained for many years and support millions of good jobs and help businesses compete. i've been advocating on behalf of raising the minimum wage, making it easier for people to pay off stay tunudent loans, an

of them so far have been blocked or ignored by reps in congress. that's why my administration keeps taking whatever actions we can take on our own to help working families. now it's good that congress was able to pass legislation to strengthen the v.a. i want to thank the chairman and ranking members who were involved in that. it's good that congress was able to at least fund transportation projects for a few more months before leaving town, though it falls far short of the infrastructure effort we need that would actually accelerate the economy, but for the most partner, the big-ticket items, the things that would make a difference, those things are not just getting done. a recent example, immigration. we all agree there's a problem that needs to be solved in a portion of our southern border.

we even agree on most of the solutions, but instead of working together, instead of focusing on the 80% where there's agreement with the democrats and republicans, between the administration and congress, house republicans as we speak are trying to pass the most extreme and unworkable versions of a bill they already know is going nowhere. it could pass the senate. if it were to pass the senate, why veto it. they know it. they're not actually trying to solve the problem. this is a message bill they couldn't quite pull off yesterday, so they made it a little more extreme to pass it today, just to check a box before they're leaving town. this is an issue they all insisted had to be a top priority. now, our efforts administratively so far have helped to slow the tide of child migrants trying to come to our

country, but without additional resources and help from congress we're just not going to have the resources we need to fully solve the problem. that means while they're out on vacation, i'm going to have to make some tough choices to meet the challenge, with or without congress. and yesterday, even though they've been sitting on a bipartisan immigration bill for over a year, house republicans suggested that since they don't expect to actually pass a bill that i can sign, that i actually should go ahead and act on my own to solve the problem. keep in mind that just a few days earlier, they voted to sue me for acting on my own, and then when they couldn't pass a bill yesterday, they put out a statement suggesting i should act on my own because they couldn't pass a bill. so, immigration has not gotten done. a student loan bill that would help folks who have student loan

debt consolidate and refinance at lower rates, that didn't pass. the transportation bill that they did pass just gets us through the spring, when we should actually be planning years in advance. states and businesses are raising the minimum wage for the workers, because this congress is failing to do so. even basic things like approving career diplomats for critical ambassadorial posts aren't getting done. last night, for purely political reasons, senate republicans for a certain period of time blocked our new ambassador to russia and raised such an uproar that finally, they went ahead and let our russian ambassador pass at a time when we are dealing every day with the crisis in ukraine. they're still blocking our ambassador to sierra leone, where there is currently an ebola outbreak. they're blocking our ambassador

to guatemala, even as they demand that we do more to stop the flow of unaccompanied children from guatemala. there are a lot of things that we could be arguing about on policy. that's what we should be doing as a democracy, but we shouldn't be having an argument about placing career diplomats with bipartisan support in countries around the world where we have to have a presence. the bottom line is this, we have come a long way over the last 5 1/2 years. our challenges are nowhere near as daunting as they were when i first came into office. but the american people demand and deserve a strong and focused effort on the part of all of us to keep moving the country forward and to focus on their concerns. and the fact is, we could be much further along and we could be doing even better and the economy would be greatly benefited if congress would do

the job that people sent them here to do. and i will not stop trying to work with both parties to get things moving faster for middle class families and those trying to get into the middle class. when congress returns next month, my hope is that instead of simply trying to pass bipartisan bills along party lines that don't actually solve proble problems, they're going to be willing to come together. after all we've had to overcome, our congress should stop standing in the way of our country's success. so, with that, let me take a couple questions and i will start with roberta ramtom of reuters. >> thanks. i want to ask about the situation in the middle east. why do you think israel should embrace a cease-fire in gaza when one of its soldiers appears

to have been abducted and when hamas continues to use its network of tunnels to lodge attacks? and also, have you seen israel act at all on your call to do more to protect civilians? >> well, first of all, i think it's important to note that we have and i have unequivocally condemned hamas and the palestinian factions that were responsible for killing two israeli soldiers and abducting a third. almost minutes after cease-fire had been announced. and the u.n. has condemned them as well. and i want to make sure that they are listening and if they are serious about trying to resolve this situation, that soldier needs to be unconditionally released as soon as possible.

i have been very clear throughout this crisis that israel has a right to defend itself. no country can tolerate missiles raining down on its cities and people having to rush to bomb shelters every 20 minutes or half hour. no country can or would tolerate tunnels being dug under their land that can be used to launch terrorist attacks. and so, you know, not only have we been supportive of israel in its right to defend itself, but in very concrete terms, for example, in support for the iron dome program that has intercepted rockets that are firing down on israeli cities. we've been, you know, trying to cooperate as much as we can to make sure that israel is able to protect its citizens. now, at the same time, we've also been clear that innocent civilians in gaza caught in the

cross fire have to weigh on our conscience and we have to do more to protect them. a cease-fire was one way in which we could stop the killing, to step back and to try to resolve some of the underlying issues that have been building up over quite some time. israel committed to that 72-hour cease-fire and it was violated, and putting that back together is going to be challenging, but we will continue to make those efforts. and let me take this opportunity, by the way, to give secretary john kerry credit. he has been persistent, he has worked very hard, he has endured on many occasions really unfair critici criticism, simply to try to get to the point where the killing stops and the underlying issues about israel's security, but

also the concerns of palestinians in gaza can be addressed. we're going to keep working towards that. it's going to take some time. i think it's going to be very hard to put a cease-fire back together again. if israelis and the international community can't feel confident that hamas can follow through on a cease-fire commitment. and it's not particularly relevant whether a particular leader in hamas ordered this abduction. the point is that when they sign on to a cease-fire, they're claiming to speak for all the palestinian factions. if they don't have control of them and just moments after a cease-fire is signed, you have israeli soldiers being killed and captured, then it's hard for

the israelis to feel confident that a cease-fire can actually be honored. i'm in constant communication with leader netanyahu, we're in constant communication with the israeli military. i want to see everything possible done to make sure that palestinian civilians are not being killed. and it is heartbreaking to see what is happening there. and i think many of us recognize the dilemma we have. on the one hand, israel has a right to defend itself, and it's got to be able to get at those rockets and those tunnel networks. on the other hand, because of the incredibly irresponsible actions on the part of hamas to oftentimes house these rocket

launches right in the middle of civilian neighborhoods, we end up seeing people who have nothing to do with these rockets ending up being hurt. part of the reason why we've been pushing so hard for a cease-fire is precisely because it's hard to reconcile israel's legitimate need to defend itself with our concern with those civilians. and if we can pause the fighting, then it's possible that we may be able to arrive at a formula that spares lives and also ensures israel's security. but it's difficult, and i don't think we should pretend otherwise, okay? bill plante. >> mr. president, like that cease-fire, you've called for diplomatic solutions not only in israel or gaza, but also in

ukraine, in iraq, to very little effect so far. has the united states of america lost its influence in the world? have you lost yours? >> look, this is a common theme that folks bring up. apparently, people have forgotten that america, as the most powerful country on earth, still does not control everything around the world. and so, you know, our diplomatic efforts often take time. they often will see progress and then a step backwards. that's been true in the middle east. that's been true in europe. that's been true in asia. that's the nature of world affairs. it's not neat and it's not oo