times spend on syria is time not spent on the debt ceiling debate and potential october government shut down. wall street journal washington bureau chief will tell us what he thinks of this. lori: get your motor running. auto sales on track for the best month in 6 years. the call it automaker helped by suvs and trucks. we will break down what could be a record-breaking month. adam: is the season to raise a glass as we head into the fourth quarter, can spiritmaker -- i don't speak french well -- global c e l p. ayres joins us in studio. lori: the will correct us. webmac you conseco after police. radar cocktail. let's get you updated on the market as we do every 15 minutes was head to the exchange with nicole petallides. nicole: we are sitting around session highs, haven't done much over the last hour, we ran to

these levels 110 points on the dow jones industrials and sitting at these levels and gain of 3/4%, to carry nasdaq of 1%, trade data today, basically we are behind more foreign cars and toys and goods, but they are buying fewer u.s. products because demand has dwindled to a certain extent and we're keeping an eye on j.c. penney, a retailer which garnered more interest from the big hedge fund managers including hedge fund capital management, the 9.1% stake, j.c. penney up 6.4%. adam::l is pulling back as investors wait to see how the united states responds to the situation in syria. phil flynn from price futures group in the trading pits of the cme, traders are waiting and tomorrow's inventories. >> they sure are. that could be a big report.

as we know supplies are well above normal in the united states but not so much in europe. in europe right now they are basically closing refineries because they can't get their hands on that high-quality brent crude. what does that mean in the united states? we will produce more gasoline, probably exported to europe instead of imported which is why it is up today. if you look it krutch they are down today, the risk of an immediate attack has gone away. dennis: gold is losing its luster, investors cashing in before we get the unemployment numbers. is that a wise move? >> too worthy to tell. there were a lot of reasons people were buying gold. the risk of war, concerns about capering being put back a little bit and the possibility of a strike that actually happened. if you look at the strike in south america of the odds of that getting settled are better today and with talk of tapir we're back down.

adam: thank you very much. webmac stalking rally mode because it can put off a petition on syria, that is what gives going on in washington d.c. so the latest on the serious situation both chambers of congress now considering president obama's call for resolution. for more on that street to rich edson standing by in washington d.c.. senator john mccain making headlines this morning. rich: a lot more on that fleshing out his opposition. the top democrat and top republican on the senate foreign relations committee are offering a compromise plan to grant the administration the authority to strike syria with conditions. senator john mccain says he wants changes to that compromise. >> the strongest trends, we need to have that provision that calls for a reversal of momentum on the ground in the battle against assad.

>> john mccain is trying to sweaters process within the senate foreign relations committee, he is very much on board in giving the administration the authority, right now he is trying to craft conditions under which the administration can strike so this is ongoing on the committee level. the senate foreign relations committee will consider that compromise in an hour and that is where john mccain and others will offer their suggested changes known as the amendments, the lengthy process could go on through the balance of the afternoon. on the house side the house foreign affairs committee is questioning secretary of state john kerry, secretary of defense chuck avalanche general martin dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and the unsweetened president obama says the reputation of congress and the international community are at stake. when asked if he will strike syria if congress fails to authorize it the president will only say he believes congress will give him the go-ahead. back to you. >> thank you. adam: congress is due on capitol hill but with the debt ceiling

living tensions will be front and center. joining us with more on what is in store for congress as it returns to summer recess is wall street journal's washington d.c. bureau chief jerry seinfeld. just to review here, what ultimately is our goal in syria? has anyone stayed what objective is? >> the goal is to get rid of assad. the question is whether the tactics being pursued are designed to achieve that goal, it designed to achieve it in the short run? what president obama at the essentially said is whatever military action will be taken will not be designed to reach that goal. there's a long-term process of aiding the opposition and that is one of the problems the debate is having which is there seems to be a disconnect between the ultimate american gold and the objectives being pursued particularly because some people in the defense establishment are not so sure they want to get rid of assad all that quickly until they sort out who is the opposition in seattle and will

they be better than the current regime? adam: the dow was up 1 and the points, whether assad remains in power or would have a power vacuum or forces that may not be favorable to the united states take power in syria does that affect financial markets globally in any way? >> stability in the middle east ultimately affect financial markets. in the end oil from the region still matters. indy end the question whether it is a stable or unstable region, the question whether iran, syria's in shanghai in the region is an ascendant power or whether the saudi amerada, jordanian access has the upper hand matters in terms of stability to the overall region, the potential for regional war with syria at civil war certainly contains, that matters. the direct question what is happening in syria does it affect markets? probably not so much but the question of can syria explode and is the proxy war that is going on going to kill the region one way or the other?

those questions do matter. >> we all agree there is a humanitarian tragedy under way, two hundred million refugees and county but the question i want to ask is we are focused on syria are we perhaps turning attention from a greater threat to the united states which is our own debt ceiling? we are talking about the united states government default on its debt in a month. >> that is one of the issues. we have seen in the last few years that congress has shall we save really limited bandwidth, only so many things it can handle and doesn't handle those things all that well. one of the considerations now is the house comes back next week, the u.s. government runs out of money easily, the budget is over on october 1st, something has to be done to extend funding for the government and as you suggest shortly after that the government hits its debt ceiling, those two things are related, there has to be some legislative action. the number of days left on a legislative calendar to deal with those two issues is now limited and is going to be tough to squeeze a real debate in the midst of a serious talk next

week so i think the practical question here is how does congress get this done? the way congress get this done is punchs again. you will probably see some temporary action certainly on the budget question, may be on the debt ceiling question. i suspect this drags on until near the end of the year. those of us in washington would like to not see that happen. adam: i read something about larry summers and the potential for him to the federal reserve chairman and is upset me because those opposed to mr. somers are opposed because they want someone in place for when the next financial crisis hits, what washington insiders are saying which led me to believe the next chairman has to deal with the financial crisis with our people in washington talking behind-the-scenes about another lehman type event coming are way? >> no. the concern is potential for one is still out there. until you have a full lack full recovery from the recession of 2007-2008 and by that mean a global recovery you still have to worry about those things,

particularly the fact that europe is a long way from that, there are unsettling things about the economic situation in china and there are going to be continuing questions here about the strength of the housing market and the financial markets overall. i don't think anybody is living in fear of that. everyone lives with the realization that this is a long way down and it will be a long way back abandoned to you are all the way out of polk of potential for something going wrong is very real. we talking about a war in syria. who knows what might happen. >> all the issues you raise plus the dubya got 111 points, as alfred e. newman from mad magazine, what me worry? lori: bullish investors ignoring citigroup, we will see about the days to come but here's the headline, citigroup not bullish about u.s. equities. and equity strategy know today, city downgrading the u.s. as too and the weight and bank issuing

two upgrades, taking your of to neutral and the u.k. itself to overweight, citigroup says economic outlook for europe is improving and valuations for the u.s. are not as attractive and earnings forecasts for the rest of the year are likely to be cut further. adam: why were terribles are the future. one of the country's top venture-capital lists on the wave of the future. lori: linkedin is not connecting with investors, stocks down 2%. adam: youth versus experience. what this week has to say about generation y. take a look at metals, minerals, metalss. [ male announcer ] these days, a small business can save by sharing.

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don't drink alcohol while taking lyrica. don't drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. those who have had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica. ask your doctor about lyrica today. it's specific treatment for diabetic nerve pain. to hear more of terry's story, visit lyrica.com. adam: samsung is revealing its new smart watch that can receive calls through voice control, a perfect companion to the galaxy node 3 handled via fashion icon. eric it is. lori: that looks better than the initial pictures, still looks

like that old calculator from the early 80s. adam: they say is the blue tooth device, one manufacturer already has them--you still have to carry your phone in your wallet and will jack actually anyone under 31 to a watch? lori: those are interesting and important questions we should pose to our guests coming up this hour, john molloy. reformer executive with nokia, he knows about the inner workings of the technology of these things so we will get the wearable technology update, you want to get it right here, don't move, that is on fox business. let's make money with charles payne, another when you did not want to miss. back to a company called diana shipping trials that we talked about in the past. why come back with? charles: it is rocking. we are up 30% on this and i liked a lot. is picking up momentum. we were closed monday.

bmi numbers came from around the world and i really think we did this service, we should have talked about it more, the network, because we saw manufacturing in deblazio at a 44 month high, every place around the planet always important economys looking pretty good, that has been dovetailing, the stuff i've been talking about and these shifts they have, january 1st got a contract, 65 and the dollars a month, june, $8,100 a month, the most recent contract in the same, $9,300 a month. up 30% this year, just those rates alone and they are coming on, the index is up 6% today, 33% for the month. adam: they are transporting iron ore, coal, global economy booming. charles: if you feel like you are chasing, the index is down 77% from its inception january 1st, 2008, so it has made a huge move of all the bottom so this is why i still

like it. the stock breaks up at the next level 14-15, great percentage. lori: would you wear samsung smart watch? charles: it looks attractive. it does link up with the phone because it some point we can analyze the phone sales. i like that one. it is not too bad. we will see what apple has to counter them with, speculation they will announce -- yes. it is not bad. i like the orange band too. i like that. and deals calculate watches. lori: synonymous with revenge of the nerds. adam: calling this galaxy gear. >> always good. >> we want to see how markets are performing, nicole

petallides on the floor of the stock exchange looking at a big offering setting shares down. nicole: watching linkedin which has soared this year. today under a little fresher ear down 2% down $5.31 a share at $2.42 but what is interesting is they are issuing a secondary offering of $1 billion of shares, offering their underwriters the option to buy in, they are going to use the excess cash that will help from with financial flexibility or general business purposes and the like. in the meantime one of the analysts is liking it, william blair keeping markets on stock say the offering take advantage of the share price so it will be interesting to continue to watch. lori: it is auto sales and august is on pace to be the biggest since november of 2007. crossing the finish line with double digit sales next. adam: look how the dollar is performing today.

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>> 21 minutes past the hour, heather now are with your fox news minutes, a stabbing at a high school in spring, texas,

has left one student debt and 3 others injured. law-enforcement officials confirmed they have three person of interest in custody but it is unclear whether the suspect arrested this. no word yet on a motive. ohio coroner confirming convicted rapist and kidnapper ariel castro committed suicide in his prison cell. he was sentenced to life in prison plus 1,000 years for imprisoning and raping three women in his cleveland home for a decade. dishonorably discharged soldier bradley manning is seeking the presidential pardon. in now goes by the name chesley, serving a 35 year prison sentence for setting that classified information to the web site wiki leaks. he claims he did it for the laws of his country. now back to adam. adam: good to see. august shaping up to be a blockbuster month for u.s. auto sales, jeff flock joining us breaking down the numbers. there was a discussion this morning about the trade gap and whether foreign carmakers might

have helped contribute to that. what say you? >> i show you the numbers in you can determine for yourself. there's a little bit of truth to that. look at the auto imports. they actually had a better month than anybody even though everybody had a good month. look at subaru, up by more than anybody, up 45% for the month, toyota and nissan up, double digits as well, 20%. v w little law and that strength was on copy. v w at the brand was down 1% for the fifth consecutive month. the detour to automakers did pretty well. take a look at them, gm led the way of 15% but ford chrysler also up. i want to show you a stock of a company that does not play the auto sales monthly game. it is kessler and they are down today believe it or not. it could be because everybody else is up and i suggest another

reason. it could also be because take a look at the next chart i have for you, the chevy volt and the nissan lee. put the glasses on for this one because i want to get granular about the sales, record month for those two vehicles, the volt about 3300 vehicles, the least about 2300, you today they sold 14,000 vehicles. done pretty well. take a look at the stocks of everybody, everybody, the regular folks actually all did well, lead green on the stock for the automakers but here is something at once to show you, year-to-date returns. what do you think the best year to date returns of the opposition makers are? number 4, clique of. if you invested one year ago you would make 59%, gm if you invested your ago you would make 64%. they are no. 3 on the list, number 2, ford up 78%, and the dreaded t word in detroit, tesla. their return, one year to date,

490%. adam: selling power trains to toyota, power trains to mercedes and regarding leaf and the chevy volt, giving cars away from the tax rates to the incentives and by no nissan, we got to test drive them, i love the doolittle, but it never caught on, they hoped to sell much more than the number it was 14,000, they were anticipating much higher numbers and haven't been yet. >> you are right, giving them away, the leases are tremendously favorable, really brought prices down, making them in the u.s. we will see where it goes from here but my money is on tesla and so was a lot of other people. adam: my brother is getting his in two weeks. i expect to get a test ride. >> you love the classics would someday that will be a classic. lori: how did the minivan do? >> speaking of moms, the 30th

anniversary of the minivan in october. caravan is 30 years, can you believe that? adam: we can't talk about that. no minivans. >> he tells me the ship had sailed in terms of adding additional passengers in her minivan. adam: samsung or apple? the first to fix you with a smart watch, where rebels on a wave of the future and sam's and released its picture of wearable technology. we will analyze it here. adam: to like or not to like, that is the question. new features to help you manage. you know throughout history,

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adam: and it is time for stocks as we do every 15 minutes. we want to head to the floor of the new york stock exchange with our own nicole petallides taking a look at stock hitting all-time high. who is it today? >> dollar general did so well in the latest quarter. giving a cautionary tone going forward but take a look what is going on with the stock, up 4.7% today. better than expected second quarter results. they did more by adding more cigarette and tobacco products their lineup. they do well with that. and candy and snacks helped them in the latest quarter. same-store sales are on the rise, better than some of their counterparts. but as i noted. cautionary tone. back to you. lori: thanks, nicole. samsung revealed much anticipated smart watch, calling

it the galaxy gear priced at $299. it is a companion for your phone and uses bluetooth to connect with samsung galaxy watches with a app. not a stand-alone watch. apple an google expected to release smart watches on their own are wearables the new frontier in tech. we have the ceo of blue run ventures and first board mem in paypal. john, great to have you with us. perfect timing. first and foremost what do you think of how this samsung galaxy watch looks? >> i think it looks pretty clunky. as a tech, as a follower of tech i think it is exciting but i don't see it is a major crossover product just yet. lori: do you think apple can do a better job? >> well i think you really, what we really need to see, we need to see both apple and samsung compete. i think samsung by itself isn't going to change user behavior enough to make this a crossover

product. what this is really about the next form factor. if you look in the united states, smartphones are really saturating the united states now. lori: right. >> so the industry needs some new growth. i think you really need to see competition between the two leaders, samsung and apple for this to really work. but it's a good start but we need to see more. lori: to understand the technology better it is not a stand-alone phone, smartphone, this watch. >> right. lori: you have to have a samsung phone basically in your pocket. so who would wear this kind of technology and how much is involved to actually make it, you know, practical? >> that's really my point. i think what we need to see, you have to be willing to sort of push the boundaries and actually cannibalize the existing market. that is really the nature of technology today. certainly, certainly the mobile phone industry. so i see this as a concept release. i think that the next version of samsung will be much better. i think within a year they'll get this product better and

better and better and i think we need to see some more courageous decision-making. frankly i think until it's a stand alone device it will not make that big of a difference for the majority of consume years that is a different strategy than apple. they invited the press to a big meeting where they likely to introduce the next version i phone. apple comes to market and presents a finished product, the product that will appear on store shelves. what do you think of that? >> i completely agree with you. for one you need sort of the magic of apple marketing to get people excited. if you think what happened in smartphones, the iphone kind of really pushed us into the world of touch. and then after that, samsung competed against them and created a lot of very, very compelling display-based devices but it was really apple that kind of changed the form factor if you will. i think we need to see that again. it is a sense of style and

design. a sense of a wow product. i think we need to see that. what i'm seeing today from samsung i think is a food extension product but not that sort of wow factor i think market frankly needs. other thing to remember, apple has proven willing to cannibalize their own market. they had the ipod. then they had the iphone. lori: sure. >> then they had the ipad. they're not afraid, they're not afraid to attack an existing segment. they're more concerned about creating a product that fits their culture and their image. i think that is what the market need for -- lori: john, you're also a former nokia executive and you're an expert on these things. you mentioned the wow factor. >> right. lori: wearable technology is where the industry is headed what would impress you most if not a smart watch? >> well, two things. as i said i think having the courage to actually make it a stand-alone product, i thi need. secondly it is really all about the display. and so, somebody has to come out with a bendable display i know a

lot of companies are working on. that is kind of, to me that is the next big breakthrough. that will be the big breakthrough for the mobile phone industry and the mobile industry in general. we need to get away from limited form factor of a sort of a rigid block which is the smartphone today. that is all about display technology. lori: john malloy, thanks so much for your insights. see you soon. adam: still talking about technology the name taboola may not be familiar but a lot of big-name websites use the company's services to customize how you find video and articles on the web. jo ling kent with an exclusive look at the company's headquarters in manhattan. how do they cut through everything and keep us from throwing a conniption when we're online, jo ling? >> that is right. taboola is not a name you probably heard of. they create links to millions of websites you like, "huffington post", "daily mail" in europe we

could go on and on. we have a fox business exclusive with the ceo. you have a big new product taboola is launching called taboola choice. tell us what it does. >> thank you very much for being here. taboola choice is a way for 300 million people and thousands of publishers to personalize the entire web. when you like something click on it and you don't like it. >> you click on things you like and not see things you don't like again. we have a top list of business and tech stories that taboola found for millions of users. first is five richest women in the u.s. number eight college degrees not worth the money. wendy's, story on new logo. four, china to rival to build panama canal. and the treat everyone is waiting in line for. i have to quickly ask you, content, marketing is the big market. tell us how great it actually is? >> we think it is tens of billions of dollars of opportunity. in the end a opportunity for

publishers, consumers, to surface messages communicate to the audience they never know who they are when they browse the entire web. think after search engine but in reverse. having information find you before you ion knew about it and you may love it. >> terrific. fascinating business model at taboola. fox business exclusive. we'll have more at the 4:00 show. adam: jo ling, thank you very much. give you a stock alert. we're watching shares of ups up over 1%. ups is acquiring two partners in costa rica, essentially making a play for the emerging markets. they didn't say how much the deal will cost and expected to close in the fourth quarter. you think of free-trade agreements, from canada, central and south america, ups is poised for growth in emerging markets. ups up over 1%. lori: you remember the summer camp cheer, the little birdie said to me? adam: no i don't. >> you're not kidding. social media company plans to go

public next year. underwriters for the deal are all atwitter. there is your big hint. charlie gasparino here with the latest details. adam: here is the look at 10 year treasury and i can't think of anything that rhymes with treasury and two, four, six, eight. apital one, bjorn earns unlimited rewas for his small business take theseags to room 12 please. [ garth ] bjors small busiss earns double miles on every purchase every day. produce delivery. [ bjorn ] just put it on my spark card. [ garth why settle for less? ahh, oh! [ garth ] great businesses deserve limited reward here's your wake up call. [ male announcer ] get the spark business card from capital one and earn unlimited rewards. choose double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase every day. what's in your wallet? [ crows ] now where's the snooze button? [ crows ] nascar is about excitement. but tracking all the action and hearing everything from our marketing partners, the media and millions of fans on social media

can be a challenge. that's why we partnered with hp to build the new nascar fan and media engagement center. hp's technology helps us turn millions of tweets, posts and stories into real-time business insights that help nascar win with our fans. and this pk is the inside of your body. see, the special psyllium fiber in metamucil actually gels. and that gelling hes to lower some cholesterol. metacil. 3 amazing benefits in 1 super fiber. >> i'm dennis kneale with your fox "biz brief." stocks remain

solid higher led by gains in automakers after they reported their strongest monthly sales gains in five years. investors also watching developments in washington on possible military action against syria, maybe, maybe not. the dow is up 116 points. 14,950. come on, 15-k. nasdaq market meanwhile had another glitch. one of trading systems had a brief outage this morning. problem quickly resolved. trading not afteraffected. it was in the quote and dissemination channels. that nasdaq was hit by three-hour outage last month. you can soon listen to fox biz on sirius/xm radio. on a new deal terms, the satellite radio company will carry fbn audio, starting august 18th. a channel number not yet announced. that is the latest from fox biz

lori: according to fox business senior correspondent who may or may not be sitting right next to me, charlie gasparino, things are starting to heat up for the race in the top underwriting spot on twitter's potential ipo next year. here is charlie. he wouldn't stand us up. no way. >> what can i tell you. just came back from silicon valley. how do i look? lori: very relaxed and very hip. >> here is what i know. it is likely to be in 2014. they haven't pulled the trigger yet. here is many coulding from underwriters doing sort of things, telling major firms and fox business network the underwritings group for twitter is likely to look remarkably similar to facebook, meaning morgan stanley in the lead ipo, the lead underwriter. goldman sachs and jpmorgan colead managers but taking secondary roles but morgan stanley clearly in the lead. now we should point out twitter had no comment. the decision has not been made yet exactly to do the ipo i will tell you this, underwriters are going there, as reported last week, bob greifeld, ceo of

nasdaq and duncan neiderauer of the new york stock exchange, they're both pitching that and people pitching the listing business to get twitter's listing. clearly all signs look like they're going to be doing an ipo in 2014. the company is more or lessignaling that to the underwriters. that's why they're going there. early sweepstakes. this is a high-profile deal, the early sweepstakes what underwriters are saying morgan stanley because the facebook ipo, net-net, in the end did pretty well and they have retail brokerage. look at facebook's share is above the ipo price. a lot of people blame the mishap on nasdaq. that will be issue whether twitter picks nasdaq as listing. of. morgan stanley clearly according to underwriters at rival firms so i'm not -- lori: how do the reporting process work? >> they go out there and pitch -- i think people underestimate, james gorman took a lot of flak when he first got in there about his strategy. pay for technology. he had to, you know, he took a

back seat to goldman sachs in 2009. goldman sachs was making a lot of money trading. his strategy of making morgan stanley essentially an advisory firm, giving companies advice through banging franchise which is very good and giving small investors advice through massive brokerage network, biggest on wall street, that has incredible appeal to places like twitter. if you want to do ipo sell the shares through their brokerage network, 18,000 brokers. morgan stanley, it will be their time in the sun very soon. i just wonder when or if they can eclipse goldman sachs in that sort of premier investment banking -- adam: can you make the argument they actually priced appropriately the facebook ipo? traditionally ipo first year, forget it. you don't -- >> we have a stock chart of -- adam: sounded like lowest 17-point$0. now it is up almost at $42 again. >> that is morgan stanley's argument why they should be

chosen. they priced it right. the company is doing pretty well. obviously had a huge problem at the beginning. it was a technological failure that, you know, it is not morgan stanley's fault. they will tell you that they have got, they got that stock in strong hands, meaning retailers want to hold on to it because they think it might go higher. that is the selling point. what rival underwriters are saying that is likely to stick with twitter. we should point out, goldman sachs obviously great banking franchise. jpmorgan is getting crushed in the press not a day goes by -- adam: the administration's whipping boy. >> i e-mailed jamie dimon said it is a story when you guys don't get investigated. jamie dimon is close with jack dorsey. they're friends. jack dorsey looks towards him as a mentor. doesn't run the company but founder of twitter right now. so they have an ace in the hole with that relationship. adam: real quick, you saw that the judge delayed the civil forfeiture case against sac capital until january.

>> right. adam: anything new with sac? last week you broke the old news. >> rival business network, i call them, brand x is trumpeting some story steve cohen resigning to running a family office. we should point out to viewers want your news a week later -- adam: you had the family business thing almost two weeks ago. >> i think i did on the 30th. steve cohen is now telling people that he is resigned to running a family office. that all the money is likely outside money is out. will be out by end of the year. lori: his money out? adam: ed butowsky. lori: i couldn't resist. >> listen i like ed. there was a reason why i did that. i felt, i'm not going to litigate this on the air. lori: he is not hire. >> we talk when he is here. i will say this. it is interesting, cbc is like dusting off our scoops four days later. lori: we'll leave it at that. >> yeah. adam: charlie gasparino, thank you. lori: where are you going to lunch today?

adam: they discuss lunch i will send you down to the floor of the new york stock exchange. keith bliss is standing by. he is with can tone and company. he is on the floor of the nyse. what are you watching today, keith? >> we're what we'll be watching very shortly is the beige book when that comes out. that will be first look this week what policy may be happening with the fed. tomorrow we get adp report as well as jobless claims which we get every week. we get big jobs numbers for august. we get a trifecta of economic data which may help us guide what fed policy will be in the middle of this month which of course is what we're all basically waiting for. syria news died down. gotten somewhat sanguine in the markets based on president putin's remarks and what everybody is thinking about precise as well as well-telegraphed military strike will have zero effects on the markets we think. it is about the fed. we'll try to read the tea leafs starting a little bit this afternoon and trade from there. adam: keith bliss, thank you very much. of course we'll have the beige book for you two p.m. on the fox

business network -- 2:00 p.m. lori: absolute profits. how it is gearing up for the all-important holiday season. the ceo joins us in studio next. adam: here are winners today on the nasdaq. lori: no sampling of the props. adam: yes, plenty of sampling. [ male announcer ] how do you get your boce? i'm, like, totally not down with change. but i had to change to bounce dryer bars. one bar freshens more loads than these two bottles. i am so gonna tell everyone. [ male announcer ] how do you get your bounce? [ woman ] time for change!

lori: here's a stat that will make you drunk. between beer, wine being alcohol sales in this country, $62 billion. that is how much we drank of booze in 2012. it is big business here. the millennial generation, they're a big part of these sales. pinot is one of the largest spirits companies in the world. the global ceo is here to tell us how he's trying to appeal to this new generation of legal

drinkers. let's be clear obviously. sir, welcome to you. sales in the last quarter were a little soft. a lot of that is due to the troubles in china, correct? >> well, you have to look at the pinot as a truly global company. it happens the u.s. is our largest market and china is the second largest. and in fact it went very well in the u.s. adam: you talk about some of the brand that people would recognize here in the states. glenn livid. absolut vodka, beefeater gin. is there room for growth, acquiring other spirits u.s. based? you've been cleaning up the bottom line to do that, have you not? >> yes, indeed. in fact we have remember that we made enormous acquisition over the last decade with successively sea grams and balentine and malibu. not to forget of course with

absolut. so we had leveraged balance sheet but today, yes, we have fl flexibility. lori: i was looking at some statistics of booze's popularity if you will, put out by the u.s. distillery council, irish whiskey is growing with volumes shooting up 22%. by comparison, vodka saw volumes increase 4%. you have jamison, correct? what is it about irish whiskey gaining in popularity? >> we call it a little bit unconventional whiskey. it is less formal than the scotch whiskey. having said that we've been investing constantly, consistently over the years for the scotch whiskey but it goes beyond jamison. we're revamping the powers which what trace additional irish whiskey but also with petty. we're introducing flavored version with apple, cinnamon, honey. lori: flavored vodkas.

flavored imbued spirits are so popular now too. do you see that trend continuing? >> yes, definitely. people go for innovation and we have plenty. we're introducing from pretty soon a new city of absolut, chicago, absolut chicago. that also would like to mention the a premium vodka. adam: let me ask you about super premiums. growth in super premium spirits was like 8.9% for you guys in the last year. for people like me, i choose by the bottle. there are certain brand i like but how important is the design of the bottle? because you've redesigned some of the bottles, have you not? >> yes, indeed. i think the design of it is superb but what is important that the liquid. adam: inside. >> it is excellent. adam: so who would you, what's next? you've got now the absolut as a supreme. are there others that will get a makeover with a higher grade of

spirit? >> for instance we also explored the craft dimension. you have a good example with pike creek. this comes from distillery in canada. this is definitely a trend but also mention the avion tequila. it's a super premium tequila. it happens to be the most successful launch of a super premium spirit in the u.s. lori: what is the fastest growing segment ever drinkers around the world? younger people, older men, working mothers? >> yes. ladies in general. lori: seriously. >> exactly. and we do make at love effort with our female consumer all over the world. lori: all right. thank you so much. adam: we look forward to the samples we'll be doing after we get off air. thank you very much. lori: he is going to go into the corner and start throwing back shots, this one. coming up the fed's latest take on economic strength around the country. beige book is out in a few minutes. top market strategist jeff

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lori: i'm lori rothman. ashley: i'm ashley webster. 15,000, oh, yes, back in reach the dow surging 103 points to 14,093. the fed by the way, about to release the beige book report about economic strength around the country. will it help or hurt this rally. we're tracking market ahead. lori: the beige book used to be a bigs. >> er but not today. senate foreign relations committee holding a big meeting whether to back the president's call for military action. that report is coming up. ashley: samsung beats apple in the race to revail a smart watch. there it is. rob enderle will weigh in on the galaxy gear and whether it is enough to take on the long-awaited iwatch. we don't know whether it is the iwatch. we'll find out what apple is going to do. they have their announcement neck week.

if you are a tech geek you are in heaven. get to rich edson in d.c. with the beige book. >> ashley if you believe the fed starts to reduce fed purchases in two weeks, many analysts do this report will not change your mind. the survey shows national economic activity continued to expand at a modest to moderate pace during the early reporting period from early july through late august. in labor market for most occupations an industries, hiring held steady or increased modestly relative to the prior reporting period. wage pressures continue to be modest overall. consumer spending rose in most districts reflecting in part strong demand for automobiles and housing-related goods. some other points here, travel and tourism, the sector expanded in most areas. manufacturing expanded modestly. real estate, residential activity increased modestly. demand for non-residential gained overall. lending activity is mixed. down a bit. lending standards are largely

unchanged. credit quality improved and demand for agricultural products are strong. there are growing problems because of extreme weather. new york reported that business at broadway theaters picked up since the last reporting period, however, museum visits are down in boston. back to you. ashley: amazing it gets into that amount of detail. thank you, rich. the dow not really reacting, still up 104 points. by the way, rich, you're also following developments around the a possible u.s. strike on syria. what is the latest there? >> you have the house armed services committee getting their chance with secretaries chuck hagel and john kerry. they're beginning their testimony over on the house side. we saw that yesterday on the senate side where the for return relations committee today is marking up or changing or considering this compromise proposal, something senator john mccape is against because he says he wants certain protections and provisions that make sure that any authorization that the congress gives the president here reverses the

momentum on the battlefield and sets up a situation where bashar assad leaves syria or at least leaves governing syria. that is something that is working its way through the senate side. congress is working its will here. it is often ugly and takes its time. it is doing it a week earlier before it was supposed to come back. ashley: keep an eye on every development there, rich edson. busy day for you. lori: quick tease, tim pawlenty, the former governor, he wrote an op-ed supporting his decision, his feeling that the u.s. should engage in syria. we'll get him to expand on that. it is the top of the hour. we want to get you up to speed more on the markets. we have a nice rally underway of the market has been strong all morning even before the release of the beige book. check with nicole at the exchange. the dow holding on to triple-digit gains. >> very impressive market, right? up triple-digit gains. everybody is waiting for dow 15,000. we're not quite there yet. we're sitting at 14,934.

we're up four or five trading days despite four weeks of selling. we're starting to turn the sentiment around. it pertains to will we or won't we in syria. that does become market-moving news. for the moment up 101 points on the dow jones industrials. we have trade data shows we've been buying a lot of foreign good. haven't been selling too much abroad. that is something interesting. auto sales did well with gm, ford and like. intel helping to power the dow along with new chips. they're supposedly seven times faster. they're used in cloud computing and also for data centers. this is a big deal for intel, obviously trying to fend off the competition and just trying to make their way with smartphones and tablets and the like to be one of the top chip-makers in that realm. back to you. lori: thanks, nicole. ashley: look at oil, losing ground today, down about 1 1/2% as investors wait to see how the u.s. will indeed respond to syria. our very own sandra smith in the

pits of the cme with today's trade. sandra? >> ashley, there are a couple of ways to look at this. we've seen a lost premium come out of the price of oil. oil had last week topped $112 a barrel on a more war-like scenario in syria. now they're marking in a more limited volume by the u.s. crude prices are down three of last four trading days. we're looking at $107 a barrel, approximately down $1.50 on the way. by the way other bearish things at play. we got a inventory report bigger than expected. this was an independent report. reports are out that driving demand has been down in the past couple months. it is that limited involvement expected over in syria that is playing a part to take the heightened premium price out of oil. also, guys, looking at where you can play this in the stock market, this is sort of the trade today. a lot of analysts including ubs came out and said, hey, guess what? we believe oil prices will be high whether there's an attack

in syria or not. ubs making recommendations saying this is the time to own big oil companies. chevron, exxon, they point out. chevron is $135 price target there. exxon, this is levered to oil prices. meaning higher oil prices are the better they believe these stocks will do. even if we remain at triple digit prices they say it is time to own exxon. they li g thinks starks will churn higher no matter what the u.s. decides to do about the crisis in syria. jeff klinetop, lpl chief financial strategist. jeff, you heard headlines from the beige book. economy expands at moderate pace. wage pressures are modest overall. consumer spending rose in most districts. it sounds consistent with a taper by year's end. your thoughts? >> it does. it really sets the setup to do some tapering here likely in the near term, probably here at the september meeting. it didn't look dramatically from the last beige book. of the it's a collection of

anecdotes. it's a window on main street, very different from the data feeds that we get, that really track what is happening at corporations and macro level at economy. this pulls together, one of the interesting things we do here at lpl financial, economist take as beige book barometer. positive word and growth and strong, subtracts to them, all the negative words, weak and softer. we found a very wide gap, many more positive words than negative words. in fact negative words made a seven-year low in the last beige book. we'll see what the tall is this time around. the fed is certainly setting up for taper here. lori: ashley pointed out, we heard from rich edson as well, your point, main street view of things that museum visitors in boston were higher, lower, weaker, stronger. can you give me just an example of some more similar examples that people would be interested to hear about?

no taking a look at museum. taking a look what is going on at major theme parks. looking at movie theater attendance and ticket sales. lots of these things factor into the economy an they're good indications of people's willingness to spend. one overlooked statistic is often that consumers have really fixed their balance sheets. they're paying a lot less on debt service than they did years ago. income growth is much lower than it was, they have a lot more disposable income to spend. that is one of reasons why the consumer discretionary sector continues to do well. lori: i'm concerned that trend might reverse with rates creeping higher once taper commences. we're keeping close eye on the situation in syria. how do you think all of that impacts markets. obviously stocks are higher today. because we're not going to hear decision one way or the other on syria today? >> right. lori: i threw a lot of things at you. >> we, you did.

the, as it relates to syria, certainly the intraday swings are significant and, we've got to look at this in terms of what that might mean in terms of a broader conflagration. but listen, this pullback started back on what, we peaked out on august 2nd, way best chemical attack on august 21st. this market pullback over the last four weeks has been more concentrated on economics and tapering than it has been on syria. that is kind of a background issue. usually markets rally ahead after strike. that is the case this time i think. we saw that in libya. seen that many times over the last 20 years. we have to focus on what the pace of interest rate increases may be. if the fed gives us 10 to 20 billion-dollar taper that they announce that is maybe a little better than the market's expecting. a little softer. that might continue this rally. we may get interest rates to pull back just a little bit. could be another good thing for the consumer. lori: i want to pick up, you recommended consumer discretionary as a industry to

take a close look at the purchase in this climate. you had a great tip. i was reading ahead of our interview, jeff. buying the companies buying its own shares. really pay attention to the insider or company buybacks, right? what other industries benefit from that? >> yeah, that's a great point. buy the buyers, right? we see financials do a lot of that this year. health care is also been a sector where we've seen a lot of corporations doing the buying. individual investors, institutions not doing a lot of buying here. it is corporations themselves. we've seen those shares hold up better on pullbacks and do much better in the rallies also. those three sectors, consumer discretionary, health care, financials, three great areas i think continue to benefit from the themes throughout the remainder of the year. lori: jeff klinetop, always insightful our conversation. thanks so much. from your side of the conversation at least. ashley: come on. he is great. lori: jeff is a pro. ashley: guess what? it is -- lori: are you checking the smart watch? ashley: about time the smart

watch war has begun. samsung unveiling a new device, beating apple to the punch. tex expert rob enderle tells us who is likely to win the war straight ahead. lori: auto sales, beginning of the month, right? new strength on auto sales. we're importing a lost foreign cars. that kind of killed the export data, expanding trade deficit for the u.s. anyway, auto sales are strong. we'll see what it says about the overall economic health. first let's check how oil is trading with stocks up, fading slightly. still a 98-point gain on the dow. crude oil is backing up, 107.01 a barrel. down a percent 1/2 we'll call it. we'll see you in a moment. quick break here. ♪

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direction of the margins, gross margins, operating margins. the, top-line growth, everything else. this quarter was just absolutely phenomenal. and these are, these fiber-optic plays have been out of favor for a long time but feels like they're coming back. server margins expanded tremendously. product margins expanded tremendously. the company raised its guidance. you know what i look for a lot? they said they took market share. see, a lot of people talk about our economy and say, well the u.s. economy sucks, the stock market shouldn't be up. it is still a $16 trillion economy. ashley: sure it is. >> $16 trillion economy. that means there will be some winners and some losers. listen up, folks. if a company is taking market share and has pricing power it's a winner. dollar general, same-store sales up 5%. that's not a big deal. they took market share. ashley: yeah. >> i want people to understand, companies taking market share,

look at them, even in a 16 trillion-dollars economy not doing so well there are opportunities to have. lori: it was one of the darlings in the tech bubble and they hang on. >> there is something to be said for the survivors. now i think this stock will make a huge move. i think it will go up to 29, $30 a share. ashley: thanks, charles. it is quarter past the hour, time to check on these markets. nicole petallides, you know where she is. on the floor of the nyse. nicole, you're watching big movers. >> two names doing quite well today. start off with e-trade. look how it is faring at this moment. it hit a new high of 15.97. just pennies away from that level. up nearly 10% today. big moves for e-trade which has been number one on the s&p 500 index. they got regulatory approval to distribute $100 million in cash, pulling capital from its bank for some broader corporate use. all this move is certainly it

along with the stock. let's take a look at linkedin. earlier today we were covering the fact they would be issuing a secondary. linkedin is down about 2% but over one year, fifth two weeks, this stock is up 132%. no surprise to see it pull back a little bit but certainly had a nice run as they sell additional one billion dollars in common stock. dope know when that will happen. they will use the money for general corporate purposes and the like. back to you. ashley: nicole, thank you. we'll be back at the bottom of the hour. lori: samsung is hoping a new smart watch will help its gal laxly line win the battle against apple. tech expert rob enderle joins us to tell us how it stacks up against the competition next. ashley: we'll see how the u.s. dollar is moving today. generally weaker against these currencies. only the yen down against the greenback. euro up to 1.32. british pound up to 1.56. guess what it is expensive to

travel to paris or london which is no big surprise. lori: i have no plans to travel to europe. no vacation for me. ashley: we'll be right back.

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>> now 21 minutes past the hour. i'm heather nauert with your fox news minute.

a stabbing at a high school outside of highs ton, texas left one student dead and three other students injured. they have three persons of interest in custody but it is unclear whether the students are suspects. no word yet on a motive. an ohio coroner confirmed convicted rapist and kidnapper ariel castro committed suicide inside his prison cell. last month castro was sentenced to life in prison plus 1,000 years for raping and imprisoning three women for a decade. officials say the rim wildfire near yosemite national park is 80% contained. evacuation orders are lifted for the several communities affected by the blaze which burned 350 square miles. they suspect the fire may have started due to an illegal marijuana growing operation. those are the headlines, now back to lori and ashley. ashley: new meaning to up in smoke.

thank you very much. samsung unveiling the new smart watch, called galaxy gear with the smartphones and sony taking a huge step forward announcing a waterproof phone, go swimming with it. is it too little too late for sony and can samsung succeed without an apple iwatch to copy? good question. rob enderle joins us now. rob, let's talk about samsung's new phone, the galaxy gear. what do you think of this product? what can it do? >> pretty much everything but the kitchen sink. they have tendency of drawing all their technologies into a product. we certainly saw that with the s-4 and the technology has gotten in the way of user experience which is why they don't set a bar very well. typically what works for them. apple sets the bar. they emulate it with a product that does pretty much the same thing but at lower price an steal market overtime from apple. with them setting the bar first, they have thrown a lot of

technology at product. has gps, got camera. readies play. big, not particularly attractive and it's a technology showcase. ashley: it is really for geeks and nerds out there i guess. do i want to take a photograph with my watch when i have my phone to take pretty decent photos? just for appeal of it i guess. i will not be playing angry birds on this thing? >> display is too small for that. what you do get though you do see things like instant messages, email notifications, things if you were in a meeting might be better on the watch than to pull out your phone and deal with. that is where i think you will find the core of these flue watches. they are for those times when the phone is better kept in your pocket. now, one little problem is their display doesn't work outside. at the same time, qualcomm announce ad smart watch and one big feature is a display that will workout side. we'll see how that works out. ashley: that is funny. there is only 10 hour battery

life on the thing which makes it pretty worthless, don't you think. >> you would think. with a watch we talk about battery not in hours or days but months and years. that is a pretty big dropback to hours. ashley: yeah. >> why a different display technology would probably work better. the display that will bleed that watch out especially during the daylight when the display will have to light upenough to overpower ambient light. ashley: i want to get to apple quickly. you think this product for samsung, its first rollout, you think apple will come back and do their own version, samsung will copy that at a cheaper price? >> i think that is probably the path. recognize without steve jobs apple's ability to release and set a bar on a product is vastly reduced. i think this mean the market will be probably open to anyone for a period of time. we have google product coming. qualcomm product. pretty much everybody and their brother is trying to bring out one of these things and take the market.

what the market is looking for, something more jewelry-like and much more attractive and outdoor capable. >> let's talk about what apple will be releasing. we'll find out next week. a new iphone. we've got this announcement, dual or triple announcements in the u.s. and china. what are we expecting from apple? >> well we're expecting a number of phones. certainly one with a larger screen since they have been buying up screen surplus screen stuff for sometime. large screen stuff for some time. they have been buying screens. should show up on the phone. and a lower cost phone is also being anticipated but that one will be problematic for the company because this is a high brand, high-profit company. once you start bringing out economy phones, your brand, even if you hold revenue up your march begins start to collapse and that is not apple's business. ashley: right. do you think we'll get announcement with china mobile? huge carrier that can bring in millions and millions of new customers? is that going to be a big game-changer for apple? >> we will see. china's been a problem for apple

long-term because there are some apple iphone clones in that market. they are consistently undercut. you remember there was even an iphone a fake apple store that looked just like an apple store in the market they finally were able to get shut down. that market is problematic for a premium brand because china just puts out so many copies. it really kind of destroys the brand value. until that gets fixed i worry about any premium brand going into that market. ashley: they are the kings of the knock-office, aren't they? >> exactly. ashley: rob, thank you so much for joining us. very informative as always. thank you. >> pleasure. lori: think you have to have a real watch fetish to pick up that smartphone watch. ashley: i actually have one of those. a little bit after watch fetish. that's all i'm saying. lori: how did i know that? ashley: i tell everybody. lori: you want to hear about my fetish? ashley: yes, come on. forget this story. lori: let's talk about the economy. that's much more interesting. a drop in u.s. exports caused the trade gap to widen.

it is much more interesting. trade gap dropped more than expected in july. rest of the world grew 13.3% to just over $39 billion. while exports fell, imports rose including autos which hit a new record. meantime auto sales for august on pace to be the best since november 2007. the big three u.s. automakers seeing 12 to 15% gains year-over-year. since the trade gap suesed many times to calculate domestic strength the export drop led barclays to downgrade its gdp target slightly to 2.6% for the quarter although the second take was 2 1/2%. ashley: right. lori: probably the balance of the year. slow and go. that is the way you describe -- ashley: at least we're heading in the right direction. watches and sunglasses. those are my fetishes. we'll find out yours before the end of the show. coming up housing resilience. mortgage demand rising despite a recent spike in rates. gerri willis will be along with

that story next. lori: here are some winners with the dow up over 100 points. more winners than losers today. we're back after this. [ male announcer ] sheets or bar? how do you get your bounce?

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no two people have the same financial goals. [ male announcer ] how do you get your bounce? pnc investments works with you to understand yours and helps plan for your retirement. talk to a pnc investments financial advisor today. ♪ ashley: just under 90 minutes now until the close, nicole petallides at the new york stock exchange. the dow holding on to these triple-digit gains or just dipping below. >> reporter: yeah, well, looking good. you know what else has been looking good here on the street? we're taking a look at dollar general. you're looking at the retailer, right? they sell all things affordable, up 4% today. they came out with same-store sales that were good news, they surpassed dollar tree and family dollar and walmart even, they sold lots of goods including cigarettes, tobacco-related products, so they did well on

those margins, food products, snacks, candy and the like. a little cautious on the outlook, and they also plan on opening more stores than they originally expected, i think it was about 650 over the 635 they originally estimateed, but they did give a cautionary tone. ashley: thank you very much. take a look at oil now, closing down $1.31, $107.23 a barrel. part of the reason despite what's going on with syria is that inventories were slightly more than expected. today's loss of over more than 1% reversing yesterday's gain. lori: so are you saying it was a build? ashley: i think they like to say that, yes, inventory build. lori: well, there are new signs of strength for housing. home applications rose for the first time last week. gerri willis on the story for us. >> you know, it's strength, it's not strength, okay? mortgage applications up 1.3% which is generally regarded as

good news in the housing market, but most of it is re-fi, not new home buyers coming into the market. rates went to 4.73 percent from 4.80, that, my friend, is good news, and we hope that trend continues certainly. but what's going on out there, more and more people are end countering all-cash buyers, 40%, 40% of deals now nationally are all cash offers. lori: foreign buyers too? >> lots of foreign buyers, people coming from overseas to come here. it's hard for first-time buyers to compete with any of that, of course, if you're looking at a 30-year fixed rate mortgage, coming against people who are offering all cash -- ashley: it's interesting to me that people refinance now after rates were so low for so long. they're still low, don't get me wrong, but i guess that's the concern, they are now starting to edge up. better do it, get off the fence. >> you're absolutely right. and it'd be hard to re-fi if

you're underwater. ashley: good point. >> values have started to rise, so people are getting off the fence, save a little money, and that helps the economy. lori: well, "the willis report" is back tonight, 6 and 9 eastern right here on fox business network. we'll look forward to that. >> thank you. ashley: coming up, former presidential candidate and minnesota governor tim pawlenty says america's security is at stake in syria, and he'll be here next. lori: meantime, speaking of mortgage rates, let's check the benchmark 10-year interest rates, yields are up, oh, my goodness, pushing 2.9%. treasuries are selling off as stocks rise, and the long bond is also pushing higher, 3.80%. we're back after this.

>> i'm melissa francis with your fox business brief. the dow industrials remain in rally mode after the federal reserve showed economic growth helped steady across the u.s. checking the blue chips, we are up 95 points. the nasdaq can stock market says one of its trading systems had a brief outage this miles an hour, but the -- morning, but trading was not affected. nasdaq said the problem occurred in one of its dissemition channes. and you may recall the exchange was hit with a three-hour outage last month. and you'll soon be able to listen to fox business network on your sirius or xm radio.

the satellite radio company wil carry fbn audio starting october 18th. that is the latest from the fox business network, giving you the power to prosper.

lori: the senate foreign relations committee meeting right now to consider whether to back military action against syria. our next guest says congress should approve the use of force against assad, and our country's security is at stake. joining us now is former minnesota governor tim pawlenty, now ceo of the financial services round table. governor, it's wonderful to have for so many of your peers and for so many americans, this is such a tough decision, whether or not the u.s. should engage in syria. yet for you, according to this should get involved in syria. why is that? >> well, first of all, if rules don't have any meaning, then

today don't -- the rules go out the window. so if the rule is anything goes, pretty soon it does, and the assad essentially engaging in genocide and having the opportunity to act, having threatened to act, said it would act and then not act. number two, the rules don't mean anything if you don't have people to enforce them. the united states is uniquely situated situated and has the unique responsibility in this case to act in that regard. and finally, it does invoke our national security interests. syria has significant chemical weapons stockpiles, they are enabled by russia and iran and others, they support hezbollah, and if you put all those dots together, you can pretty easily see how it affects not just the reason, but the united states' security interests as well. lori: the other point that interested me was your comment, and you state directly: only america can lead those efforts, and that is a big point of contention among many critics of our involvement in syria. obviously, u.k. last week decided not to get involved, and that was a blow to the

president. but more importantly, why do you believe that, and why do we have to go at these conflicts alone? >> well, if you look around the world and see who else might be able to lead, much less help, you come to this conclusion: the united nations, while in some cases well intentioned, is essentially inept. we have, i think, the morally-indifferent leadership of china signaling they're opposed to intervention and notwithstanding the use of chemical weapons, seem to take no position, in fact, oppose intervention. in europe you have countries that are well meaning but in cases, not all cases, come play sent. so the united states because of its historical role, its power, its size and capacity and commitment to basic rules of the road, human decency and values is uniquely situated to lead these efforts. lori: and in congress it's become a vote of conscience. we had senator john mccain saying it's not forceful enough, john boehner saying he supports it, you yourself support it, but again, congress people are not

voting along party lines on this. how do you see this stage of the story unfolding, this vote in congress? >> well, i personally wish that we would have supported the rebels almost three years ago when the window of opportunity was open before the opposition forces degenerated into kind of a challenge of not just rebel forces, but al-qaeda and some other infiltrators. but now we are where we are. i hope that congress will support the resolution and that the resolution will be strong. i don't think they should tie the president's hands in terms of being overly limited in terms of time or scope because circumstances could certainly change or evolve, and you can't have the commander in chief's hands be too tightly tied to respond appropriately. syria has massive and essential chemical weapons stockpiles, and to simply say if there's chaos in that country we're going to let those go loose in the middle east, potentially could show up in the united states. we need the flexibility to address that kind of situation. orr hover governor, why are politics getting in the way? maybe that's an obvious question, but just some of the events and statements this morning, the president saying i

didn't set the red line, the world did. and yesterday you had senator rand paul saying you're using congress, you're making us into a joke in so many words. >> well, it -- my own personal view is he did not need to go get this vote from congress. he chose to do that for his own reasons. but now that he's made that request, it is my hope that the congress will support that request, because it would put the united states in a terrifically weak positioning if congress rejects this request at this moment many time. lori: and most people do expect the president to go ahead and act unilaterally regardless of what congress decides to do. >> well, i think that he should. in fact, you know, i think he's doing, in his view, a courtesy to the congress to have them take in the vote, but i don't think it's required under these circumstances and for this purpose. and keep in mind, you know, syria's main enablers are iran and russia. you have iran now by some reports within a year of being able to possess nuclear weapons and potentially deploy them. as they watch the united states

in this matter, we're trying to negotiate with them to not have nuclear weapons. they need to see that we have resolve, that we have at least a functional degree of unity and that we have strong and clear leadership and that we expect the rest of the world, as i said in that op-ed, the assad-like freak show that is leaders like him around the world need to see and feel america's resolve, that you've got to follow at least the basic rules of the road of a civilized planet. and if you don't, there are consequences. lori: and is it a fair question to ask in closing, governor, do we know how many chemical weapons are at assad's disposal and where he got those chemical weapons to begin with and how easy or hard it could be to engage in another chemical weapons attack? >> well, keep in mind that assad is from a lineage of, in my view, war criminals and people who have engaged in genocide. his father, who ruled the country before him, engaged in mass killings. he previously had nuclear weapons ambitions and intentions.

israel took out that capacity some years ago without much coverage or reaction to it. but it's clear from public reports that syria has some of the most substantial chemical weapons deposits on the planet, and if there's instability in that country and/or they are used or otherwise distributed in or beyond syria, that is a direct threat to the region, it's a direct threat to our friends like's reel and, ultimately, to us. lori: governor tim pawlenty, thank you. >> thank you. ashley: all right. let's switch gears now, on to media. even with some guy gafnticking flops at the box office, hollywood still pulling off a record summer. dennis neil joins us with more. >> reporter: ticket sales hitting a new all-time high. despite some gargantuan film flops. total box office $4.75 billion for the summer, that's up 8% from the all-time summer high hit in 2011. and that summer surge was enough to lift hollywood out of a

slump. up until summer tickets were running 14% below year-ago levels, but thanks to such big budget successes as "iron man" 3 and man of steel, theater revenue year to date is up to $7.67 billion. that summer rebound got a late boost from a few surprises including "the butler" and "elysium" and a breakout hit from warner's "we're the millers," which fared better an even the hangover part iii, that may be because it had jennifer aniston in skimty lingerie -- skimpy lingerie. also racking up some of the biggest mega-flops of all time. this is the lone ranger, the worst debacle of the summer taking a loss of up to $190 million on a film that cost disney some $300 million to make

and market. ashley? ashley: they'll never, ever get over how much money was wasted on that movie, we? the lone ranger. >> reporter: they'll still be able to earn a little bit, tiny bits of money on lone ranger -- lori: 50 shades of grey, the casting was just announced. >> reporter: and you know what? i just think there's no way that that film can do great even though it's going to be dirty. i mean, the source material has to be really good, and some people say that 50 shades of grey is one of the worst-written books of all time. ashley: yeah. we're still talking about it. >> reporter: then again, it does have handcuffs and attractive people. ashley: maybe they can get jennifer aniston for you, dennis. lori: it is quarter til, keith jumping up and down about what the beige book says, right? >> well, not really. [laughter] but, you know, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. you know, they got to -- [inaudible] across all 12 districts, so,

again, that's another sign that i think the fed, in my opinion, i've been saying this for some time, i think they will do a taper on the long end of this program, the quantitative easing program. we'll get two more signs, one tomorrow with the adp report and jobless claims and, of course, the big one on friday with the unemployment, the payroll condition for august in the united states. if those three line up the way we think they will, i absolutely think they'll come out in the middle of september and saying they're going to curtail their bond-buying program, again, on the long end of the curve. lori: there's really no use coming into work until the jobs report on friday, right? >> well, a little bit, but you never know what's going to happen with the congress and the mideast situation, so that could provide some excitement. but you're right, it is all about what the fed is going to do at this point. lori: keith, thank you so much, sir. see you soon. >> my pleasure. ashley: all right. on deck -- lori: i am taking tomorrow off. ashley: i was going to say that, but i thought i'd just carry on.

e-health is among those leading the pack, and chairman and ceo gary lauer will tell us how. lori: benchmark indexes winners and losers, the dow is up about 100 even. a lot of technology driving the action today. we're bang -- back after this. the boys usedouble miles from their capital one venture card to fly home for the big family reunion. you must be garth's father? hello. mother. mother!

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ashley: the big rollout of obamacare's insurance exchanges now less than a month away. 25-30 million more americans are expected to buy coverage, and it's a market our next guest is very well positioned to benefit from. joining us now, e-health chairman and ceo gary lauer, thank you for joining us. your company was the country's

first and largest private health insurance exchange. i noted that you first saw, you sold your very first health insurance policy online in 1998, and how things have changed since then. how will these exchanges actually work? a lot of people are confused. >> well, yeah, there is a lot of confusion. the idea is that these exchanges will be a marketplace that people can go to to find quality products, and we've got a lot of government entities building these right now, and hopefully they'll work well. we've been at this for years and years, long before the words health insurance and exchange were ever in the same sentence. we think about ourselves as the amazon.com of health insurance. ashley: and you're probably a lot more qualified to help people than a government agency, right? >> yes, sir. ashley: so let me ask you this, i noticed that california announced last week that their web site may not be ready for the new enrollment period. there are other aspects of this new health care plan that are already getting delayed. are you concerned that we are

getting kind of bogged down with getting everything in place on time? >> well, ashley, it's understandable that it's difficult for these government entities to build this. i know what it's like. we've spent years and years and hundreds of millions of dollars doing this. yeah, i am somewhat concerned. the law actually takes effect january 1st, but october 1st is the beginning of the rollout, and at least there are some reports that some of these government entities may not be as ready as they'd like to be or needed to be which is why i have argued for some time that we really should be embracing the public sector, companies like mine and others, to help with this. not only will it, i think, make the process more efficient, but we can save taxpayer money at the same time. ashley: now, you are, well, you're in 36 states, so do you hope to have all 50 tied up in the near future? >> yeah. interestingly, there are 36 states that for various reasons won't have state exchanges, so

the fallback is the federal government. and with the federal government we will be helping subsidy-eligible individuals get qualified in health insurance. fourteen other states are building their own exchanges, and to this point, soon to be going it alone which, you know, frankly, i think is a mistake. yes, we're working with those states, and i think it only makes sense for everyone to bring the private the public sector together, somebody like e-health in a california exchange to, frankly, get more people enrolled. whether people like the politics at this point, to me, is moot. it is the law of the land, let's make the darn thing work as well as we possibly can. ashley: how does e-health get its money? where does it come from? >> it's a very simple formula. we're the amazon.com of health insurance. we're a marketplace. so we've got all of the major health insurance companies and their products. it's about 200 companies and over 13,000 health insurance products on our site, and these

companies pay us a commission, just the way they would an agent or a broker, to market and sell their products. so our revenue source comes from the health insurance company once someone's enrolled. the only way we're successful is to have a good offering that people want to use and when they enroll in health insurance. by the way, the price is the same whether you enroll in a product through us or through a state exchange or directly through a carrier. so there's no disadvantage. in fact, we think there's a lot of advantages for considering using a private sector choice like us to get your health insurance. ashley: well, we thank you very much for joining us. we're already out of time. gary lauer of e-health, best of luck with the new health care system as it comes on line. thanks so much. >> ashley, thank you so much. lori: samsung beating apple to the punch with its debut of the new galaxy smart watch, wearable device. will it become a must-have for consumerses? reminds me of revenge of the nerds with that calculator watch. liz claman breaks it down for

you on "countdown to the closing bell" next.

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♪ liz: good afternoon, everybody. i am liz claman. it is a last hour of trading, you're watching "countdown to the closing bell." unlike yesterday, stocks are holding onto gains after the latest report on the economy during the last hour. indicating the u.s. is continuing to grow, these were the words, modestly and moderately. okay. as washington continues it debate syria and automakers strong sales last month. ford sales up more than 13% in august compared to last year, the company increasing its production plan for next quarter. and we just love looking at ford

cars and chain-link fences. highly encouraging news for ford.