$16,000. dagen? dagen: no, it eis solely his fault. stuart: thank you very much indeed. i knew i liked you dagen. i just knew it. dagen: stuart thank you very much. i'm dagen mcdowell. america gets richer. that's right. the number of wealthy americans up 6 percentage points in the last 40 years. a fox business exclusive we have been telling you about right here. the shrinking mississippi river. pictures of the sand shorelines showing just how bad this drought is for america's heartland. you will only see these pictures here and hear from the governor of mississippi himself after his flyover just yesterday. caught between a rock and a hard

place, this man, the mayor of tampa florida, a democrat says he's ready to pull the plug on the republican national convention if the weather down there gets worse. stocks now and every 15 minutes. lauren has it for us on the floor of the new york stock exchange with a big loser hp. >> yes, hewlett-packard is a big loser today, leading the dow jones down lower. i also want to talk about facebook because we're seeing a green arrow for facebook today. the news is ubs has joined citigroup right now in criticism of the 62 million dollars compensation fund for those who lost money in that botched ipo back in may. citi has said that, you know, this fund should really be hundreds of millions of dollars more, and they are calling everything the nasdaq is doing inadequate. now, ubs is joining in those concerns. as for the markets overall, we still do have red arrows, but we are off session lows. the dow is off about 74 points

right now. it had been lower by nearly 100. red arrows for the nasdaq as well as the s&p 500. dagen, back to you. dagen: thank you very much. we do want to tell you, hpq, hewlett-packard is down 6 1/2% today. so wow on that major loss there. the number of wealthy americans up 6 percentage points in the last 40 years. but you wouldn't know it from a new research study. elizabeth macdonald has been investigating and has your bottom line. liz: that's right, dagen. what the headlines are all about this morning is the research data indicating that the middle class may be shrinking. that's based on a survey data also supplemented by census data that the research company has gathered together. let me give you the numbers. it is saying that people identify as the middle class, 61% in 1971. shrinking down to 51% in 2011. the question dagen is where did everybody go? where did the middle class go? what you are going to see buried in the news reports, buried in

the data is this that the upper income grew by 6 percentage points to 20% in 2011. that's even more than the number of people in the lower income, that grew by 4 percentage points dagen. i will tell you something the report also -- when you read it, it shows that median incomes for all of the income levels grew since 1970, even the lower income level grew 29%. but you know, the question is, dagen, this's no lifetime -- there's no lifetime membership in the rich or poor club. people who are in the rich club, they are often entrepreneurs of small businesses. it doesn't include the fact that the poor gets noncash income things like food stamps housing subsidies medicare, medicaid, earned income tax credits. it doesn't report that the middle class too gets health benefits, life insurance benefits and retirement benefits. this is all missing in the data. it is missing in the national conversation going on right now as we are in a presidential election year. dagen: it makes for great headlines but when you dig into

the data, there is a different story. thank you for reporting on that. liz macdonald. for more let's bring in the president and chief investment officer of merck investments. this is a bigger picture question and qualitative rather than quantitative, how does this impact though confidence among americans, our work ethic, our thinking about the american way of life, when you hear that one group is being hurt, but if you look broadly, the wealthy, the group of those people are expanding. >> everybody in the last decade has been losing a little bit must be no matter whether you are on the short end or rich end of things. the middle class is indeed shrinking and yes it is good news that on the top end people -- the pie is getting bigger, but what we have been seeing is a greater bifurcation

of income. the reason that is happening if nothing else it is because of the federal reserve. when you have low interest rates, if you know how to deal with credit, it's great. if you're a hedge fund manager, if you're sophisticated, but it is so easy to hit a road bump. you lose a job, your debt remains. if you're sophisticated, you do great. if interest rates were a little higher you wouldn't be tempted into credit as much. the middle class would be bigger. it's monetary policy. it is low interest rates driving us towards those extremes. dagen: didn't the real consumer credit boom beginning in -- i'm pinpointing say the 1980s. and interest rates -- i mean you had double digit federal funds rate back in the early 80s. so you can't really blame interest rates. it's the availability of credit. >> it is, but you're hitting the nail on the head, ever since the

early 80s, we have been shifting towards a credit driven society. it's been accelerating and the negative side effects became apparent over the last decade. interest rates have been gradually coming down with ups and downs. so now we buy an exercise machine on credit, we only used to buy a house on credit. it's more efficient society but less shock resistent society. if we have a problem, we fall through the cracks. >> this is ir reversible, is it not this is not reversible, is it not? >> we've pushed things to extreme. we don't know low cost of credit. we need a fair cost of credit. we need a market based cost of credit. we make business decisions not based on the subsidies of federal reserve but based on whether a project is reasonable or not. then everybody can prosper. the good news in the report is yes indeed the upper bracket is

doing much better, but it doesn't need to be as polarizing and the policymakers are doing their best to try to get into arguments over these things. dagen: we love arguing though -- i do. [laughter] dagen: thank you very much. great to see you again. a fox business exclusive, look at this with your own eyes, the mississippi river drying up. the governor of that fine state just back from a flyover of the river. and he is giving fox business these pictures that you will only see here. we have the governor standing by to talk all about it. plus our own jeff flock live along the shores of up thor mississippi. -- of the upper mississippi. hey, jeff. jeff: and we can report this morning dagen that we're getting activity along the upper mississippi once again. barges are being loaded. that is because the mississippi on the southern part is open again. it is open. we will give you the latest on the upper and the lower when we come back from the boat on the mississippi here in clinton,

iowa. stay tuned. you see us, at the start of the day. on the company phone list that's a few names longer. you see us bank on busier highways. on once empty fields. everyday you see all the ways all of us at us bank are helping grow our economy. lending more so companies and communities can expand, grow stronger and get back to work. everyday you see all of us serving you, around the country, around the corner. us bank.

dagen: the u.s. coast guard telling fox business they have been able to resume traffic along the mississippi river after closures this week. but the river's low levels will

continue into october. here a picture of the river's drying up shorelines given to us by the governor of mississippi. we will talk to the governor in just a moment. but first to jeff flock. he's up north along the river in clinton, iowa what's the story there, jeff? jeff: because of what has happened down river, we are starting to see action again. [inaudible]. dagen: we just lost jeff. we will try and get jeff back because i know he wants to talk to the governor as well. right now, just to update you, the u.s. army corps of engineers warns the mississippi river is dangerously close to the low water record set back in 1988. joining me now is the governor of mississippi. he participated in a flyover of the river yesterday. he joins us now in a fox business exclusive. governor, thank you very much for being here. good to see you.

>> dagen, thank you. dagen: just describe, governor, what you saw yesterday in that flyover. >> as you see from the photographs we took, pretty amazing sight, sand bars as we call them extending out into the river and then even topping in the center of the river the supports of the bridge there visible to the very base. that's something i have never seen. i've been here all my life. 1988 the river had historically low levels there, and so much the same situation. we're concerned about our farmers, trying to get that product on those barges and out is very difficult because they have very light loads because of the low water that we see. amazing and challenging situations here at the mississippi river. dagen: how much worse will it get? what are federal and other state officials telling you about that? >> to give you some ideas, now the gauge -- we're about 8.7

feet above sea level. in greenville about 7.8. in 1988 it went a minus 10.7 below sea level. october is the driest month of the year, the lowest levels for that river so it could get worse. the corps is doing a remarkable job of dredging from here all the way from vicksburg up as far as missouri at cape gerardo. we are trying our very best with the corps of engineers to keep the ports open. the corps is doing a remarkable job. we're trying to keep a 300 foot width by 9 foot deep to keep that product moving to market, but it is a real challenge. dagen: how much more help do you need? whether it's people, whether it's money? >> well, of course what we need now is support of the corps of

engineers. as i said they're doing the very best they can to try to make sure they get the equipment we need to keep the dredging going. everyone wants their port dredged, their facility first. we're doing as much as we can here working of course with the corps of engineers, mississippi emergency management administration, i will be having a meeting with them at 3:00 this afternoon. perhaps another flyover. and we're also dealing of course with the hurricane that could very well move into the gulf. it seems to be moving towards florida now. drought in the midwest affecting some 65% of the cattle farmers. 75% of the corn in that drought in the midwest. products that we look at with our of course ethanol industry. a real, again, challenge of getting that fuel that we need to move that product to market. dagen: do you have any estimate of how -- what the economic impact -- just on the state will be so far from this drought and

the problems you're seeing on the mississippi? >> well, we're trying to put those numbers together. we know in 1988 when that drought occurred, it cost the barge industry, which is a huge industry for us here in mississippi, a billion dollars. barges lost a billion dollars. now we're still working with our farmers, our delta council to determine what the loss would be there. most of these products, these were sold before they were brought out of the field even in futures markets. so we're not sure what it will be. but certainly when you're paying more to barge your crops to market, there's going to be a loss to the farmers. now, corn's at a very high cost just now because of the demand of ethanol. that may help level that out. but we're still trying to put those numbers together. dagen: and by the way, coming up, we're going to talk about the request to waive the ethanol mandate at the federal level.

but governor, jeff flock is our reporter he's been covering this story extensively. he's in the northern part of the river up in iowa. he's standing by. i know he has a question for you. jeff, are you there? jeff: i am dagen. i have been watching these barges you have been talking about. i was down in greenville in 1988 and i know that was a huge problem down there then. i'm wondering what is the chronic problem in greenville and have the cuts in the dredging budget, you know, led to this and caused you to be farther behind than you should be? >> well, of course the problem in greenville is the lack of water. it's obvious that the river is at historic lows, jeff, and thank you very much for being out there and giving us these reports. again, trying to get the barges loaded, because of the water, the barge has to load perhaps half of the product that they normally would transport in the river, which makes more trips up and down the river, and the cost of fuel obviously is going to be forwarded on to the farmer, so

again, just trying to load those barges at very low levels that we're not currently used to, the loading process is standard for the level of the river, and now they're much lower, so that's a difficulty. also this morning we were talking about bringing fuel in to the delta. fuel is often barged into the delta there to distribution centers for farmers throughout that area. and so there is some difficulty in getting more fuel to the farmers, to get these crops in out of the field. that's a big challenge. dagen: governor, it was great to see you. jeff, thank you for terrific reporting. i can watch you on a motor boat any day of the week. i'm just saying. and governor phil bryant of the state of mississippi, thank you fo takg theime toy.we wlde toav. call u a ge. >>hank you. da w sta dnsouth.

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dagen: new home sales back at two year high, up 3.6% in july. again, another good sign for the housing market. anthony sanders is a professor at george mason university. he's joining us now from washington, d.c. mr. sanders, always good of you to be here. the existing home sales numbers were up as well, not as good as people thought, but are we off to the races at this point? >> well, thanks a lot for having me, dagen. it's improving. we're sort of in --

[inaudible] -- as opposed to a full recovery. mortgage purchase applications are stuck, very low. 7% of new housing loans are coming from family members and related parties, not from the banks. it will be a muted recovery. dagen: we have mortgage rates going back up. i'm wondering if you're bernanke and the federal reserve and you are sitting there watching that, that would be another reason if you're still concerned about housing getting off the ground, that would be another reason to come out to try and keep interest rates where they are, because if you're not buying a house at record low interest rates, if they start going up significantly, i don't know how that's going to work to your advantage. >> well, again, i think the problem is is that the the fed has lowered rates really as it can be effectively, and there's no money velocity in the economy, which means growth in gdp relative to printing of money. it's just not happening. they might go in to buy mortgage

backed securities from freddie and fannie. but other than that, they have really run out of ammo. dagen: i talked to realtors who worry about running out of inventory, that people are not putting their homes on the market. do you scoff at that? >> no, actually i think that's becoming a bigger problem. in fact we had this big shadow inventory. i know you have discussed before with connell of sitting on the side lines. it may not be as big as some people speculate. but right now the shadow inventories are sitting there waiting to come on. in some market areas, housing demand is exceeding the available inventory. that is a truth you got from the realtors. dagen: anthony, one last thing, mortgage interest deduction, do you think they will ever go away or at least be reduced from that -- that home debt that you can deduct? >> mortgage interest deduction

is just another form of entitlements. lower income and lower middle income families don't get to use it because we already have the standard deduction in the tax code so they already get something like it. if they buy a home, their interest deduction is redundant so they don't get to use it. it is really for houses over $700,000. that's the question. do we really want as taxpayers to subsidize someone buying a multimillion dollars home? most of the deductions going to the wealthiest areas, washington, new york, l.a. and san francisco and they go to the wealthier households. this is another example of the government juicing the system. i wish it was a juice they would take away. dagen: well said. anthony, it was great to see you as always. thanks for being here. anthony sanders, thank you. be well. >> thank you.

dagen: check out the price of corn. we have been following the rise of these commodity prices as that drought ravages the midwest. robert bryce says it is one more reason to dump the ethanol mandate, not waive it which has been discussed but get rid of it. he will be on to talk about it. here are some winners today on the s&p.

dagen: more on the drought. robert bryce says it is just another reason to drop the ethanol mandate.

he's here to tell you why. next week's republican national convention hanging in the balance along with all the money that comes with that big event. tampa's mayor says he will shut it all down if he has to about the weather. he's here to talk about it. and barring anything extraordina extraordinary -- [inaudible] -- says nothing will be done about iran until 2013. it is the bottom of the hour, stocks now and every 15 minutes. lauren, what's going on with boeing? >> hey, dagen, yeah, boeing is taking a pretty big loss today, second biggest loser on the dow jones industrial average down about 2 1/2, 3%. one of the reasons is that orders have been cancelled for 35 of boeing's dreamliner. they are having trouble selling them and get them to the market on time. that's the issue with boeing. we are seeing some suppliers of that dreamliner down also

because of this news. as for the markets overall, still down dagen off about 75 points for the dow jones industrial average and s&p and nasdaq are down lower as well. back to you. dagen: thank you lauren. the drought of 2012 putting pressure on the epa to suspend the current nationwide mandate to blend ethanol into gasoline. that's a requirement that gasoline contain 10% ethanol. robert bryce senior fellow at the manhattan institute. should we just get rid of it all together? robert, do you think the temporary waiver happens? >> well, it's certainly not going to happen before the election, dagen. clearly the president, president obama has been a strong backer of bio fuels as has the energy secretary for years now so for them to admit they've been wrong would not only hurt their credibility overall on the energy front but they don't want

to lose iowa or minnesota so for them to waive the mandate now i think would hurt them politically and also hurt their position kind of in energy standpoint all together. dagen: but this mandate has been supported by both sides of the aisle. both by republicans and by democrats. i remember president bush talking about making ethanol from -- [inaudible]. >> sure. dagen: i want to know, do you think, if this mandate is here to stay forever, is it not? >> no, i don't think it will be. right now we're seeing a push for waiver of the mandate. that could help drive down grain prices somewhat this year, but the key issue is next year, what will happen in 2013, when the congressional mandates for corn-based ethanol increase over this year's levels? the basic problem here, dagen, is using food for fuel. and the chairman of nestle, has been one of the biggest critics of this, he calls it absolute

madness. he's right. the whole idea of using food to make motor fuel is absolute madness. and it should be stopped now. dagen: what would be -- because you have a way out for the federal government, you think it would take something pretty dramatic in terms of dealing with the ethanol refineries to really extract uncle sam from this business? >> well, i think what could happen that we've had these mandates, there's been about 20 billion dollars or so invested in all of the ethanol production capacity in the united states. look, let's buy them out and shut them down now. we've already heard from the united nations food and agricultural organization asking for the renewable fuel standard to be waived. we heard recently just in the last few days from the international food policy research institute that this mandate be waived. we've seen a quadrupling of corn prices in the last seven years. a lot of that driven by the corn ethanol scam. this is the longest-running robbery of taxpayers in modern american history. it should be stopped. dagen: but you have in recent

years seen a backing away, have you not, in terms of the subsidies going to the refiners, have you not? what changes do you think -- like it was the three-legged stool that you have talked about before with the subsidies and then the imported ethanol and then also the blending mandate, how does that stool look two years from now? >> well, i think it looks -- likely looks increasingly wobbly because yes we have done away with the subsidies. they ended at the end of last year, but we still have the mandates and remember the amount of ethanol blended into the gasoline pool continues to rise over the coming years. congress is going to have to address this. but just to give you an idea, dagen, about what this whole system has become. the u.s. is now exporting corn ethanol to brazil and imported sugar based ethanol from brazil. i mean this is crazy. it is a prime example of how corrupting this whole ethanol mandate has been in the market.

dagen: robert, good to see you. good to speak with you as always. you are welcome back any time. i hope to see you again soon. breaking news, europe's markets are closed. how did they do, ashley? ashley: well, for the most part down dagen. the latest purchasing manager's index out of europe showing that the euro region could be headed for recession in third quarter. the latest prediction showing the economy contracting 1/2% which would be by the way the worst quarter in 3 1/2 years. this weighing a little on the european markets. at the closing bell, let's take a look. the ftse in london have been flat all day, pretty much stayed that way. cac in paris down about 1%. same story on the dax in frankfurt. french president in berlin today to meet with german chancellor merkel as the two biggest economic powers in the euro zone rye to determine what should be done -- try to determine what should be done. the german leader will then meet with greek prime minister tomorrow in berlin who will be there to ask for more time to

carry out reforms and spending cuts. now ahead of that meeting, germany's finance minister says giving greece more time will not resolve the debt-ridden country's problems. so nice message there. talking of merkel -- [inaudible] -- list of 100 most powerful women in the world. a note on the voting, dagen mcdowell's name was not included other than madame merkel's title would have been in serious trouble. dagen: i don't care if i'm in 1500th place. i don't want my face super imposed and have loser leo dicaprio with his arms around

me. i could do better than that. ashley: i'm sure you could. dagen: thanks, ashley. the mayor of tampa ready to shut things down on the republican national convention if the weather gets worse. we will talk to him coming up. first take a look at your treasury markets, the yield on the ten year is down. it's down at 1.68%. again, you worry about the economy. there you go. the 30 year down as well. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 wh i'm trading, i'm totally focused.

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>> i'm lori rothman with your fox business brief. down for a fourth day. putting index on track for the longest losing streak in three weeks. jobless claims unexpectedly rose. the total to 372,000. united airlines plan to increase the number of international flights. boeing's new 787 wants the plane delivered starting january. the airline will use the dreamliner to fly from japan and africa with extra flights being added at the end of march to china. now, united will be the first u.s. carrier to receive the new plane, which is expected to be delivered next month. the airline has 50 of them on order. and that's the latest from the fox business network. giving you the power to prosper.

dagen: the tropical storm could turn into a hurricane later today as it continues to barrel toward florida. meteorologist janice dean joins us from the fox business weather center with the latest. janice, is it tracking away from florida at this point? >> the latest track has the track shifted a little bit more to the west, which is good news for tampa because they don't want a hurricane barrelling into the convention, but bad news for the rest of the northern gulf coast states from louisiana, the florida panhandle because the longer this storms stays over water, the stronger we are going to be dealing with this entity. so, you know, good news bad news situation. just real quick, we have a new storm, this is joyce -- not going to affect land. so there's isaac still 40 miles-per-hour sustained winds, but dagen we're still watching the west coast of

well as much of the northern gulf coast states. so of course we'll keep you up-to-date with the very latest. we will be here 24/7 over the weekend. back to you. dagen: i feel for you. you were here on the air on fox news at 5:00 in the morning. looking smashing i might add. >> oh, thank you. dagen: janice, thank you very much. janice dean our meteorologist here. tropical storm isaac causing a major headache for my next guest. bob buckhorn is the mayor of tampa florida. mr. mayor, thank you very much for being here. first question, will you move to cancel the republican national convention? >> well, dagen, i don't think that's going to be a problem. i think what you heard right before this interview was absolutely right. the storm seems to be weakening. it seems to be moving further west. i think at worst, we would be looking at a category 1 storm and more likely a tropical storm. all that would mean would be some heavy rain. tampa is really really excited about hosting the rnc. we don't have any plans to cancel it. the decision on the proceedings would be the rnc's decision.

my role would be to call the evacuation, and at this point we are looking at doing that. dagen: how closely are you working with the rnc at this point? >> well, we've been working hand in hand for a year and a half, and that hasn't changed. i mean we talk every day. i was on a call with the governor today as he's convened twice a day meetings with all of the fema officials and emergency management officials. the rnc is a part of that. we have two partners in this effort and we don't make a decision without consulting each other. dagen: any additional moves that have happened just even in the last 24 hours with this storm possibly coming in? >> we live in an environment where we prepare for storms every year. we prepare all yearlong. that's the nature of living in florida. we already even if this storm would take a nasty turn, we don't think it will be, but we will be prepared. we have anticipated and done

tabletop exercises involving the rnc in the event the storm were to come. the the issue would be you have 50,000 more people here that you would have to evacuate, but we are prepared for that as well. it is the life we lead down here in florida. gen:ne more thg, are y worrd aboupeopleot swi o at this point, and i'm not talking about protesters, but are you worried about all the weather coverage of isaac might keep at least some people away? >> i don't think so, dagen. i think the delegates that are coming here are really excited to participate in the process. the rnc is going to put on a great event for governor romney. the city of tampa is prepared. we are excited about it. this is the biggest thing we have ever done. we want everyone to come on down. we're going to have a great time. it is going to be a great event. i cannot wait for this to begin. dagen: and for isaac to be long gone, i'm sure.

mr. mayor, thank you very much for being here. mayor bob buckhorn of tampa. have a great convention by the way. >> thank you, dagen. dagen: talk about weather worries the u.s. army corps of engineers warning that the mississippi river is dangerously close to that low water record set back in 1988. mississippi governor phil bryant participated in a flyover of the river yesterday. and earlier this hour we talked about the drought hitting the mississippi. the worst in nearly a century. >> as you see from the photographs we took, a pretty amazing sight, sandbars as we call them, extending out into the river and then even topping in the center of the river the supports of the bridge there at vicksburg visible to the very base. that's something i have never seen. i have been here all my life. 1988 the river had historically low levels there, and so much the same situation. dagen: jeff flock continues his coverage from the shores of the

mississippi at the top of the hour here on fox business. and a technology alert for you. the u.s. federal trade commission clearing facebook's acquisition, the picture sharing service instagram in a unanimous vote yesterday. this comes a week after the u.k. office cleared the deal and basically paves the way for facebook to buy this company. ipobook announced it was buying price of $38 a share, trading under 20, that the deal now is valued in the neighborhood of well about a quarter of a billion dollars less, about 750 million dollars. barring anything extraordinary, our next guest says nothing will be done about iran until 2013. you will hear from her coming up. but first some winners on the nasdaq today. all energy development comes with some risk,

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dagen: the 1994 honda accord the most stolen car in the united states, that number comes from the national insurance crime bureau and marks the fourth year in a row the accord was the most stolen car in this country. the 94 accord's lack of security features and apparent popularity are the main reasons it keeps topping the most stolen list. moving on to this, u.n. secretary-general will travel to iran next week joining 120 countries for a summit meeting.

now this is a big setback to the u.s. and israel's efforts to isolate iran in the international community. does this change iran's situation and how israel acts towards this country? let's ask the director of commodities research at barclays. were you shocked by this move? >> i think ban ki-moon, he works in a bureaucratic organization, sometimes the bureaucracy operates outside of what's going on day-to-day global events. this event had been planned. it doesn't surprise me that he went. most nations in the united nations security council are non-alliance states. so it is not terribly surprising he went, but you're right undermines efforts if all these countries will go to the conference. dagen: how will israel react or act? >> i think certainly the israelis are going to say this is evidence that iran has not been isolated. it's one more time that iran is continuing to basically --

essentially do what they want, and the international community allows this. but do i think it basically means we're going to get a strike sometime this year? no. dagen: next year then? >> i'm worried about 2013 because the iranians continue to enrich uranium they continue to put the centrifuges in their site, so at some point in 2013, iran may reach the capability and israelis don't think that should be allowed. the question is what are we going to do about it in the latter half of the year when iran is sort of 6 to 9 months in being able to have some type of device? dagen: oil prices below $98 a barrel, above that mark earlier today. what is driving it? is it growing concerns about iran? and then you throe in syria -- and then you throw in syria and i wonder if this becomes a two-pronged problem or a central problem because in syria again if the government there starts sending chemical weapons to hezbollah then it becomes a problem that's certainly more tied together at least for the u.s. and the west.

>> i think syria's a potential trigger for some type of military action because again if you get chemical weapons transported to hezbollah, that would be a huge israeli red line. they've already said that. that's a big u.s. red line. the concern is that syria destabilizes neighboring countries. i think syria is a big story you have to watch. dagen: is oil higher by the end of the year or lower than it is right now? >> while i don't think there's going to be a strike, i don't think the israeli wills let up on this issue. -- israelis will let up on this issue. they want americans to take a harder line on iran, to come out and say we won't allow breakout capability and give them extra military equipment they are looking for, like bunker busting bombs, the latest generation. i don't think they will let this issue die this year. dagen: it was great to see you. >> thank you for having me. dagen: i hope you get some time off, though. >> thank you. dagen: be well. gold rallying to its highest level in four months on renewed

hope for more money from the federal reserve. sandra smith is here with the latest in today's trade. sandra: hey, dagen, we're looking at the momentum behind this rally in gold. one way the professional traders often look at that is to look at it on a daily basis, gold prices up 2%. on a weekly basis gold prices have risen 6 out of the last 7 trading days. quite a rally there. for the month, prices are up about 2%. and lastly, for the year, always going to look at that year to date chart, while it looks like they might be down because they are well off highs from earlier this year, prices are still up 5% year to date. so there's a lot of momentum behind this rally. do we have a gld chart? i know it is not coming up in here. if you look at the gld chart, this is where the investor funds are flowing. believe it or not, the gold stocks had been largely underperforming the price of gold. we recently saw john paulison and george soros upping their stake in gld. we don't have that. we will have it for you in the

next hour. here's gld, up 1% today. dagen, a lot of money flowing in there right now because it just hasn't caught up with the rally that we have seen in gold so far this year. we will have more in the next hour. dagen: sandra thank you very much. sandra smith in today's trade. wal-mart expanding its healthcare services. fox contributor dr. marc siegel joins cheryl and dennis next on whether this is the fix in healthcare that this country really needs, private sector. so... [ gasps ] these are sandra's "homemade" yummy, scrumptious bars. hmm? i just wanted you to eat more fiber. chewy, oatie, gooeyness... and fraudulence. i'm in deep, babe. you certainly are. [ male announcer ] fiber one.

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talking to dennis and i. dennis: lower the barrier to entry. some many people go to walmart every single day. welcome. i'm dennis kneale. cheryl: item everybody. i'm cheryl casone. the drought of 2012 with transportation forced to a crawl along the shrinking mississippi river of the devastation that is in the area. we have complete coverage for you coming up in moments. dennis: and it dr. walmart. the 800-pound gorilla retailer expanding into health care. kennedy more than politicians in washington to bring down costs? cheryl: the latest cyber scam. you have to guard your identity, but did you know that the swap your frequent flyer miles. dennis: at the top of the hour, stocks of the 15 minutes. lorna not for the new york stock exchange. leading the dow. >> reporter: hello, dennis and cheryl. the dow is down. for four days in a row is down

by what half of 1 percent, so we are not at session lows, but it has been a pretty down day of her obsession. hewlett-packard, the biggest loser down more than 6%. the company is 73 years old. the biggest loss to 73 years of $9 billion. analysts really don't like the tone that executives took on the conference call. the business is under pressure. pc sales, h-p down 10% of the past year, fighting with tablets, smart phones. they have to prove that they are relevant, and also that, you know, the windows operating system refresh comes october 26. many customers might one a pc rather than a tablet. bigness. cheryl: thank you very much. well, the massive drought continues to punish the mississippi river, threatening millions of dollars in u.s. shipments. the governor joined fox business

to tell us what he's seen in the state as we take a look at these exclusive flyover pictures. >> 1988 the river had historically low levels. so much the same situation. we are concerned about our farmers, trying to get that product on barges and out is difficult because they have very light loads because of the low water. amazing and challenging situations here at the mississippi river. dennis: and jeff flock has been brain as a pitch from the ground as he works his way down the mississippi joining us now from plimpton i will. >> reporter: and joy from the water, and i can report to you there are not new activity. some of it back here, outside archer-daniels midland. take a look at all these grain barges ready to start getting

loaded. the activity is beginning again. kevin hit and kicked into gear here. word that the lower mississippi has now reopened. we just talked to the coast guard down and knew ones, and they say they are continuing southbound transit. thirteen southbound toes are now waiting to get through. thirty-eight from the northbound they expect that in four hours it will clear the southbound backlog. overnight 62 got through, since conditions. go ahead and kick into high gear commentary. as we take you up river, that is the a gm plant. processing all sorts of green, and they're starting to load barges again. parch captains did not want to get stuck on the north part of the river with the threat it would be trapped on the south part. now it appears it is open, at least for the moment. we'll keep watching it. cheryl: thank you for a live

report, once again, coming out of the mississippi river. gop presidential candidate mitt romney will be on fox business with peter barnes at the end of this hour coming in around 12:50 p.m. eastern time. be sure to stay with fox business for president to candidate mitt romney on fox business. let's step back to the impact of the drought. joining us now, the drought causing huge cost concerns for companies threatening third quarter earnings, but you say you're not that worried about the impact. one not? >> well, it's going to be transitory. it won't last forever. but have an impact on the fourth quarter. absolutely. an impact on grain and cereal prices next year. absolutely. the market knows this. it is discounting it presently. unless you see it got extending year after year after year you will be looking at this as a transitory event. >> having pharynx question here is very relevant and the fact

that many of the biggest american -- american companies are relying on commodities . prices are skyrocketing because of the doubt. your award but earnings at all? >> let's talk about earnings broadly. you're talking about earnings and general, two standard deviations, -- above the 50-year median. earnings overall are very high. when you looked at the market right now you're not exactly talking about bargain prices in terms of the price-earnings relationship historical periods of that white at kanaly, still looking at the multinational, large cap, better positioned to weather these types of storms. longer-term, that's for you want to be. cheryl: let's talk about the other issue. this is the fiscal cliff we have been talking about getting ready for. how concerned are you about the fiscal cliff and the impact on the market?

>> it's a big deal. it's an absolutely big deal, but it's not a secret. everybody knows it. congress does it. it appears that we're all waiting for some sort of mandate from the vote that comes in november about how we're going to exit the fiscal cliff. i don't think anyone doubts that we are talking about reductions in spending and some type of increase in taxes. we are just looking directionally on the margin, what of those going to look like? if it looks like the taxes are excessively high they're going to discount one way. if it looks like the taxes at least on the margin are not as high in you're going to discount it another way. so this is, the fiscal cliff must be dealt with. they are just waiting for mandating congress. cheryl: certainly the economy will be an issue and the growth of all the economy or not. and for let you go, want to ask about stimulus. the get the fed minutes yesterday.

kind of backtracking just a little bit. and it's hard to read the tea leaves of the minutes, but markets at this point of telling me that they don't think stimulus coming. >> should like it or no. pushing toward more stimulus. gold is connected to multiple currencies. so that is what you're really looking at here about what is galling to happen and different central bank policies. as an investor you want to look, and gold is one of them. we use that as kanaly. you want to position ahead of that. the federal reserve will try to not political at this point, but as things soften up it may be driven by the drought and that will react to try to keep things together. cheryl: the ceo of kanaly. great to have your michele. >> thank you. dennis: new clues that the fed is ready to loosen up even more have precious-metals soaring

with gold up over $30 an ounce. phil flynn of price futures group watching all that glitters from the cme. >> reporter: shining so high you can barely see the board. nothing like stimulus to make metal shine. we are seeing across the board. you also have to look at china this morning. that turned out to be very bullish for the oil despite the fact that the hsbc manufacture number hit an 9-month low which means that china may be in on this money printing party present. that's very bullish for copper. rolling over. seeing a lot of that money go up into this contact today. you're also seeing other issues around the globe. platinum and palladium are both soaring today. an ongoing violence that we have seen in africa right now, that has slowed production, and some concerns about cutbacks are

causing metals to sort today. a lot in the middle section tonight. dennis: thank you, phil flynn. cheryl: hitting the campaign trail. our own peter barnes is going to go 1-and-1 with a gop president to candidate mitt romney. that interview will be live at the bottom of the sour. dennis: more good news for housing. new home sells rising again. the stocks you should be buying right now to take it vantage of any recovery. first, as we do every day at this time let's take a look. ♪ [ male announcer ] if you believe the mayan calendar, on december 21st polar shifts will reverse the earth's gravitational pull and hurtle us all into space.

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dennis: let's make some money with charles. today a tip on the poor man's gold. gold is up, and you're talking about something else. >> silver. we always focus on gold. the gold report. everyone is excited because an hour later we will have this massive inflation that decimates everything, and the last thing standing is gold. i don't necessarily disagree, but i think silver is worth a look. at a pretty good session yesterday. broke out the route 30. you can see it's looking really good. above the 100 with an average. the chart on the screen, there is some room to the upside. for 33 in the next light after that, 37.

cheryl: silver does have the disadvantage. a very volatile, the -- commodity overall. >> you make a great point. at 13 percent correction on golden maybe now's a good time to buy our sort of hinted at that. when silver had its correction, we tackled 50 and it went down to 23. you're right. silver gets a lot of disrespect. a lot more volatile. the irony, there are actually practical uses for silver. we have an industrialized world. real demand for beyond the fact that it is still something of a store. dennis: something i was going to say. the play of confidence. silver actually is -- it counts as a useful metal. >> they all go another round of stimulus. all of that money will go into industrial development which means actual demand from that area and the inflation argument obviously.

cheryl: to he think we should stay in to the plate or do the short term? frankly, we don't know will be happening. >> i like to hear longer term. if the coast of 37 in three weeks have taken off the table. and a bright despite a ticket. if you can buy and hold it right now, a lot of people are considering gold. cheryl: thank you very much. fifteen minutes past the hour. stocks every 15 minutes. lauren in for nicole. strong sales. allied that one. it. >> reporter: well, that is the reason we are gravitating at this lunchtime hour toward smaller purchases and cheaper meals which is why hormel foods is up by and a half percentage. posting profits that grew by 13% and revenue up as well, but spam and salsa and canned chili sales all up in the double digits for hormel. that's one of the reasons they're doing well. they sell more expensive items above $10 like pepperoni and

cheese platers which have done well. pushing now and again, lake and near session lows. the dow, down four days in a row. obvious reasons would be jobless claims, manufacturing data, the eurozone, china, and maybe the your -- the u.s. economy doesn't need it. dennis: thank you very much. a number of wealthy americans jumped six percentage points, but you would not know that from my research study. elizabeth macdonald has been investigating. >> the headlines are so bad. a national conversation is support on income inequality. it comes out again in this new research study based on a survey supplemented by some of the state and federal reserve data. the numbers basically show a 61% of those who were talked to said there were in the middle class in 1971 and now they are basically 51 percent as of 2011.

what's missing in the headlines as red as people went. and so what you're seeing is as deep in the survey, and not a lot of airports, more people into the upper bracket, six percentage points increased up to 20% as of toward the 11 versus just a 4% increase of people going into the lower bracket between the two. dennis: some of them are actually moving up. >> that's right. we are also missing in this but, you know, and you looked at the irs data which is also flawed, and lot of income mobility. 68 percent of the lower income brackets of dump. 57% of their 1 percent dropped. and come nobility in between the brackets to run every year cover every month, every day, some missing in this conversation on the non-cash benefits, the lower

brackets get food stamps and housing subsidies and medicare and medicaid. a lot of help that the government gives, not just charity. the fact that middle-class, you know, the reason my wages are flat is because they're getting health care benefits. you have to keep them thought if your business owner. retirement benefits and life insurance. so there are a lot of potholes in this debate that are missing. some things to keep in mind as the election year continues. dennis: thank you very much. cheryl: to not forget that later on in this hour of market now fox business peter barnes will go one-on-one with republican presidential candidate mitt romney. dennis: retail giant walmart looking to take under doctors. cheryl: and pulling back to school, but not getting the work. the employment policies institute ways and. dennis: first how about world currencies are fairing against

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minute. tropical storm isaac strengthening into a hurricane tonight and moving on the more westerly track which could have a skirt the coast of florida and avoid a direct hit on tampa monday as the republican national convention gets underway. the u.s. virgin islands bracing for torrential rain. could leave the dominican republic. speaking of tampa, a single engine plane made an emergency stop planning and the median on interstate 75 this morning. it did not crash, but it was damaged. the pilot and two passengers were not injured. a humane society official says southern california is looking for the person who duct tape to a turtle to balloons and send it up into the air. firefighters found the reptile just as a gust of wind blew it out of the tree. the turtle was not hurt, and the person responsible could face animal abuse charges. that is your fox business minute. dennis: thank you very much. jobless claims reaching a

1-month high rising to 372,000 last week. this comes right after the warning yesterday from the congressional budget office as as an additional 2 million jobs are in jeopardy unless washington acts to fix the fiscal cliff. joining us now, senior research fellow of the employment policies institute. think for joining us. tell us, what do you think of the weekly jobless claims? higher than expected. we expected them to come down and they went out. >> it is discouraging news. discouraging news in the overall job report. and we have been particularly concerned about the situation for young adults. earlier this week it put out a report, the summer youth employment prospects. we found that the number of teams employed, it was not the lowest on record, but the third lowest on record. so for him workers at a just trying to get started, they're having a tough time getting a foothold. dennis: you would think it would be aware of it because

52 percent michael saltsman tennant point. ordinarily i think, some kid can't get a job shovelling fries at mcdonald's. no big deal, but you see a couple of bad impacts. it's more than just the economy. it's also training kits to be responsible and start cutting jobs. >> that's right. some call it the invisible curriculum. whatever title you want to put on it. there is about you that comes from the experience to pick up in that first job. research translator on into higher wages, better benefits, and future jobs. the flip side of that is teams miss out on those jobs. studies that may say a sixth month spell of unemployment is the equivalent of missing out on a quarter your school, so it's important that they get that experience now. dennis: with a nationwide teenage unemployment rate of 24% , part of the reason you say is that now laid-off older adults are competing for those

french fry jobs? >> sure. not even older adults. a survey came out looking at recent college graduates. over half of them were actually employed in a job that did not require a college degree. so whether it is the sort of, you know, and young adults or all the workers, teens are facing more competition for fewer jobs. some of these jobs that used to fill, whether it's backing pressures or even busing tables, sort of disappeared as employers look to economize due to higher labor costs whether it is because of minimum wage or other policies. cheryl: what would we do with this? should we raise the minimum wage to help of kids to do have jobs? >> i think what you need when you look at the minimum wage and teens to work in the minimum wage, they are not stuck there. the typical teen is getting a raise in 1-12 months on the job. when you look at proposals to raise the federal minimum wage at the click and see licking of

research that there would only throw more teams out of jobs and eliminate jobs opportunities as opposed to giving them a chance to do with they have been able to in the past to move up and inexperience. dennis: thank you very much, michael saltsman. cheryl: right now we want to show you some live pictures. gop presidential hopeful mitt romney is speaking right now in new mexico. coming at in this hour, fox business will be going 1-on-1 with the former governor. mr. romney will be speaking with peter barnes right after that speech concludes. dennis: some s&p winners on the way here.

♪ cheryl: wanted to show you these live pictures. gop presidential hopeful, mitt romney, speaking in new mexico. he just said moments ago that america cannot the energy dependent by 2020 with his plans. talking about the keystone pipeline. coming up in this hour of market now, fox business will be going one on one with mitt romney. peter barnes will be speaking with him right after that speech concludes. do not miss it. dennis: 31 minutes past the hour. car rental stocks. lauren: higher by about 3%. the overall market is certainly lower. there has been talk for a bit now. back in april 2010, hurts

started that. they may be back at it again. as for the markets overall, we are down about 90 points. a half of a percent for the nasdaq and the s&p 500. cheryl: lauren simonetti, we will see you 15 minutes from now. new housing data. housing stocks could be a buy, but some you may want to sell. executive director -- somebody took their red pens against the stock sheet covered today. >> i downgraded them from a bike to a neutral. the stock had a really nice run. a good quarter. not a lot to complain about. the most expensive stock in our universe right now.

we think the fourth quarter will be lower than the third quarter. cheryl: a one year chart. you said nothing against the company. it is just the run is up. you mentioned the fourth quarter for housing. what are you concerned about? >> consumer confidence starts to go down, this will start to impact on sales. we have to be worried about things like the fiscal cliff and what is going on in the government. people need to feel comfortable in their jobs and their outlook for the economy in order to buy a home. cheryl: does the election factor in? >> absolutely. we will hear a lot about debates and platforms. they will think about how it affects her life, their jobs and the ability to make purchases. cheryl: you will have interest rates staying around the 4% level.

we know that thanks to bernanke. you still like horton and kb homes. i want to get those shots to our viewers. >> we like both of those stocks. cheryl: you are not downgrading dh horton. what about the overall -- what we have seen is build her confidence been rising, obviously, new housing has been rising. where are we with prices overall? >> we are starting to hear from the builders. fifty-60% of their communities are starting to raise prices. even they are cautious. they don't want to scare the consumer off. appraisers are now not approving

price increases that are very significant. builders have to do it in very small increments. i would not be scared that prices will rise really fast. it is still a good time to buy a home. if you are thinking of an investment, i would not use significant rise increases as part of that. cheryl: megan mcgrath, thank you very much. great to have you on the show again. dennis, over to you. dennis: walmart taking another step into healthcare. doctor marc siegel will be here. our own peter barnes goes one-on-one with mitt romney. first, let's take a look at the ten year treasury. ♪

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♪ >> i am adam shapiro with your fox business brief.it continuesy for the market with a blue-chip ontrack with their longest losing streak in three weeks. second quarter results for big lots fell short of wall street estimates. it also slashed its full-year forecast. 119,000 care bears themed pacifiers have been recalled.

the pacifiers pose a choking hazard. the chinese made items were imported by ibm group of new york. they were sold from october 2009-june 2012. that is the latest from the fox business network aired giving you the power to prosper. ♪

cheryl: breaking news we have been following throughout the hour here on "market now." mitt romney is talking specifically about his energy plan. he says america can be energy dependent with his energy plan. fox business will be going one-on-one. peter barnes will have that interview. we are expecting them to sit down 12:55 p.m. eastern time. stay with "rockets now."

dennis: going after your frequent flyer miles. how widespread is this? i have not heard of this at all, george. >> it is amazing. what is happening is cyber thieves are fishing for people to count. you will see there is very little security. it is not like a bank account where you have challenge questions. i think they need to step up on this. dennis: this sample of e-mail that cyber thieves used to scan frequent flyer miles, dear, i am pleased to inform you you have qualified for two airline tickets. please call me for your free airline tickets. >> what happens is to ask you for your frequent flyer number.

once they have the number, the account number, even without the password, they can take the miles without your account. i was looking at my own united airlines account and my frequent flyer mile is on my boarding pass. sometimes i leave that boarding pass on the plane. my password, i will not tell you what it is, it is just a four digit pin code. that is not very much security. dennis: why don't they airlines, if i get my frequent flyer miles stolen, why don't they just make it up to meet like a bank would make it up to me if someone hacked into my checking account. >> they want to get rid of as many miles as possible. people cannot spend them because they're are not enough seats available. they are very reluctant to add more mileage into the system. it is a lot of money. maybe ten or $20,000 worth or

even more of air travel. the airlines are not interested in reconstituting the miles. if you insist, they will do it. dennis: is there any part of you that lacks sympathy for victims of this scam quick smack we had a story five years ago on fishing. how many of us actually change our passwords? >> absolutely true. people do not change passwords often enough. i just changed mine on united did i added extra levels of security. i really recommend a lot of viewers shred your boarding passes. dennis: shred your boarding passes. all right. thank you very much, george. cheryl: we want to let you know that fox business is going courtside.

coming to life from opening opening day at the u.s. open next to court 13. fox business going to be bringing you top executives from some of the world against the pennies and u.s. open sponsors. i will also be speaking with 2012 u.s. limited champion. this is all on monday starting at 8:00 a.m. eastern time. forty-three minutes past the hour. a little bit early to our own lorne simonetti. lauren: the markets are down. one of the positives in that report for the month of july, we have had the inventory of homes on the market. it is at an all-time low. homebuilders will definitely need to build. they are really searching today. eagle materials is at its highest level in five years. you know eagle because they make sheet rock and samet.

down 85 points on the dow. jobless claims coming in a little soft as well as soft pmi in china as well. dennis: we are just moments away from peter barnes live. his exclusive interview with mitt romney. cheryl: and walmart wants to finally deliver on its promise to bring more healthcare services to the american public. take a look at some of today's winners on the nasdaq. you do have market down. speaking of airfares -- we will be right back. ♪

♪ dennis: maybe walmart can do more to keep healthcare costs down. turns out that 8000-pound gorilla retailing is edging into of care services. it will be offering ten different vaccines recommended by the cdc. mark siegel joins us now. >> this is a huge deal. one that already has had a success with their four dollars discount drug program. the hpv vaccine, whooping cough, a lot of elderly really need that shingles vaccine. they are expensive. the idea of it being and walmart

and readily available will help in terms of preventive medicine. cheryl: do you think this does a better job of driving costs down in the president's health care plan? >> well, there is no question about that. not only that, cheryl, i don't think people will be able to get into see their doctors under obamacare. this is going to give them the option of getting a cheaper. they will also work with insurances, by the way. they have done it with the flu shot. they will work with insurances here. dennis: if my doctor told me i don't want to get a vaccine at walmart, i may not do it. will doctors agree with this. >> what the doctors care about is getting the records. we don't want holes in our immunization records. they can deem it right over my medical records. let them get it cheaper.

cheryl: one of the things walmart has done is they will open up more of these clinics. at the same time, walgreens, they seem to be doing a better job than walmart has with the clinics. do you agree or disagree with that? >> with the shots, they will use nurses and set up pharmacists. in terms of the clinics, i have a problem with the medical care not being to the quality of what i want. from an investor point of view, i think this will be huge. i do worry about the quality of care, though. dennis: when poor people without insurance coverage go to the emergency room for a cold. what if walmart opened up emerging care for non-emergency cases for the four.

>> the way you framed that, i love it. your point about emergency rooms, i cannot get people with heart attacks taking care of because someone with a cold is in the way. that will get a lot worse under obamacare. the idea of siphoning off people who are not that sick to the pharmacy or the non-urgent critical care clinic -- i like that. cheryl: hpv, meningitis -- >> we are having a whopping cough epidemic. the medical risk is if someone has a side affect. what will happen if you are in a walmart and you have a side affect from the vaccine. most of the time, though, they are very well tolerated. dennis: thank you very much,

mark. doctor mark siegel. cheryl: mitt romney's speech just wrapping up. peter barnes will have a live exclusive interview with the former massachusetts governor. please stay with us. ♪

♪ cheryl: good afternoon everybody. ashley: can america be energy independent in eight years? mitt romney unveiling his plan to do just that by increasing domestic production and improving the keystone pipeline. press pressure off of speech . lori: stock continuing to slide for a bit day now.

the overall sentiment, ash, is that the u.s. economy is weak. ashley: it is. plus tropical storm isaac taking aim at the dominican republic. a live weather report and reaction from the trading pits of the cme. that is all straight ahead. time now for stocks. a little ahead of the clock. laurenlorne -- lauren simonetti. lauren: we do have red arrows virtually across the board. i want to take a look at the biggest decliner on the dow jones industrial and that is hewlett-packard. they posted their worst loss.

they also cut their guidance for the year. as for the dow, over the past two months, it is doing pretty good good 25 of the 30 stocks have beaten earnings expectations. eighteen of the 30 have seen their shares rise since they have reported. back to you guys. ashley: lauren simonetti, thank you very much. lori: we are keeping a close eye on tropical storm isaac. it could reach hurricane status by as early as tomorrow. there was concern yesterday at this time, bernie, that the storm would hit tampa. it is still a significant threat, but not there at least. >> well, you know what, that will be a tough call. the great debate with isaac is how it impacts late this weekend and early next week.

that thing about isaac is it really has not strengthened much over the last 24 hours. it is a big storm. it covers a big area. look at the whites and reds. i think it is a sign it is strengthening. the movement is to the west. it is about 150 miles or so south from st. croix. as ashley mentioned, some locally heavy rain about the dominican republic and haiti as we go through friday and saturday. it will probably not be a hurricane until it moves out into the florida strait and that would be later this weekend. lori and ashley. lori: thank you, bernie. ashley: we will keep an eye on that. energy traders certainly on edge. tropical storm isaac as it is now. let's go to bill flint in the pits of the cme. what kind of impact could isaac

have on the oil wow. rich: not as much as it would a few years ago. more domestic production, more production in canada coming down from the north. we are not as dependent on gulf of mexico production. if we had to shut down production, totally, you will see a spike. traders are a lot more calm today with new domestic sources of production than they would have been just a few years ago. natural gas has been going back and forth. we are back off the lows. ashley: when you talk