investors on edge: the latest reasons to panic about china's economy. in today's cover story, a closer look at the president's ambitious agenda to fight climate change. plus, why the boomer generation is going bust with their inheritance. and, how theme parks are whipping into shape. first business starts now! you're watching first business: financial news, analysis, and today's investment ideas. good morning! it's wednesday, june 26. i'm angela miles. in today's first look: stocks are finally moving in a different direction. the dow, nasdaq and s&p all headed higher in trading yestery on better-than-expected news about the economy in the form of consumer confidence, consumer

spending and home prices. in earnings news, the rise and fall of apollo group: the for- profit education company reports a profit drop of 40% due to weaker enrollment, but boosted its full-year outlook. in politics and money, the senate has confirmed billionaire penney pritzker to become commerce secretary. she is a close friend of the president and heir to the hyatt fortune. there was only one "no" vote. larry shover with sfg alternatives is at the ready for us this morning. he's on the trading floor. good morning to you, larry. - good morning. - we have been on a roller coaster ride. is there any sign of a let-up? - i don't think so. until we see like the fixed-income markets, the foreign-currency markets relax a little bit. and beyond that, earnings season doesn't kick off until july 8th, so expect a lot of volatility until then. - there are some straggler

earnings though that are still coming in from the last quarter, including lennar, which had some positive results as far as new orders for homes. but now we are awaiting kbh homes coming up tomorrow. what do you see for the homebuilders? - i am pretty positive on the homebuilders - especially we saw lennar come out yesterday. all things are good. it's making baby steps right now. the expectations, the bar is so low right now, so any type of good news out in the housing market, is really good for home buyers, and i think they're all basically trading at a pretty good discount, a pretty good value, if you believe me, that the housing industry is going to continue to heal. - give us a glimpse of what you expect from the bond market, and maybe some commodities such as gold today. - well, gold - let's keep this in mind - inflation is nonexistent, and we have

tapering coming up any time now. it really just took the risk out of the market for gold, so gold is going to stay in a bearish range for a while. that said, when you look at bonds and the yield right now, a 2.60%, it's really data-dependent, and a lot of people are just worried that we're going to see some capital flight from emerging markets because of our high 10- year yield. but, it really is data-dependent, and in the united states, our data is a little bit better than most people have realized, so perhaps rates might creep just a little bit higher than they are today. - larry, thanks for being on the show. - thank you. the credit crunch in china is capativating the market this week. it's been a volatile couple of weeks of trading in the u.s. and in china. yesterday, chinese etf fxi fell to a new low, indicating it may be a while before chinese stocks find stability. u.s. investors fear a collapse could be ahead for banks in china. on tuesday, the chinese central bank reassured investors it will support financial firms and cover cash shortfalls. the market moves signal wider angst about china's slowing economy. "the details in really what we see is not going to be known until corporate earnings come out. now, there are lots of s&p 500 companies in china, is that already baked into to their guidance? is it in their forecast? in the next couple

weeks i think we will see it." the new round of u.s. corporate earnings begins july 8th with alcoa leading off dow components. a ceo hostage drama is unfolding in china. chip starnes, co- owner and president of specialty medical supplies claims being held by employees for 5 days. the medical supply company is based in florida. according to reports, the ceo flew to beijing last week to lay off workers. the plant in china is being closed and moved to mumbai, india. he tells reporters the employees are recieving "pretty nice" compensation packages. climate change - a global transition that's making violent storms and searing droughts more intense may soon alter how energy is produced and used in this country. in our cover story, president obama announced a series of measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, one of the causes of climate change. president obama invoked his executive authority to cut greenhouse gas emissions in a series of directives that

require no action by congress. "i don't have much patience for anyone who denies that this challenge is real. we don't have time for a meeting of the flat earth society." mr. obama is instructing the epa to impose first-ever limits on carbon emissions from power plants, the interior department to expand renewable energy permits on public land and cut carbon pollution from vehicles in half by the year 2030. "what's going to happen is that oil is going to go lower and lower, and they'll find a way to increase it some way or another." greenhouse gases are trapped by the earth's atmosphere. the earth's temperature rises, melting polar ice and raising the intensity of storms and droughts. "all in all, it'll slow things down. temperatures may not go lower, but it'll slow the amount of warming that we're seeing." to pay for it, in part, the president wants to end tax breaks for big oil companies, which led the american petroleum institute to say "we

would see less domestic energy production, more imports and eventually depressed tax and other revenues to governments at all levels." "it was definitely good to hear the president address climate change." environmental groups are heartened by mr. obama's return to the environmental agenda, but including natural gas as part of the answer draws criticism from anti-fracking groups. "the precess of fracking releases methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas. it's 100 times more harmful than carbon- dioxide over a 20-year period." globally, the president hopes to use u.s. clout to phase out hydrofluorocarbons - potent greenhouse gases - used in refrigerants and air conditioning, along with a $7 billion enticement to help developing countries vulnerable to rising sea levels and other threats. speaking of overseas, this week the president begins travels to senegal, tanzania and south africa. before he takes off, president obama is set to meet with senators and urge them to bring

the immigration bill to the floor. he wants action on the landmark legislation before the summer break. a busy day is aready ahead for the senate. ohio democrat sherrod brown will introduce a new bill calling on the treasury to refinance student debt at lower interest rates. student loan interest is set to double to 6.8% july 1st if congress fails to act. a supreme court ruling today could have a major economic impact on same-sex couples. the high court is expected to rule on the defense of marriage act today, which states that marriage is strictly between a man and a woman. if overturned, new benefits will be available to gay couples in states where same-sex marriage is legal - benefits such as filing for joint income taxes, tax breaks on medical benefits, and social security death benefits. details are finally emerging about what lead to men's wearhouse firing its founder, george zimmer. after waiting nearly a week, a statement from the retailer says zimmer wanted veto power over corporate

decisions. he was also let go in part because he wanted to take the company private by selling it to an investment firm. the board did not want to take on the debt from the transaction. the issue has stirred up strong emotions from clients who are expressing their concerns on facebook. the former head of mf global is facing backlash from wall street. reports say the commodity futures trading commission, better known as the cftc, is planning to sue jon corzine, who led the firm until its collapse in 2011. mf global lost nearly a billion dollars in customer money on risky derivitives trades. the cftc is expected to sue corzine for failure to prevent the losses. in a statement, corzine's lawyers call the suit "unprecedented and meritless civil enforcement action." yahoo's shareholder meeting turned into somewhat of a celebration. according to reports, the meeting had an upbeat tone now that the tech company appears to be on stronger footing with ceo

marissa mayer. mayer took over almost a year ago and since then the stock has climbed close to 60%. mayer tells cnbc yahoo is making strides in mobile technology, where photo sharing on flicker is up 50%. time now for a roundup of the latest corporate earnings: barnes and noble's nook e-reader nudged its earnings lower this quarter. the tablet's sales fell 34%. it will now stop making the nook in-house. the stock fell 17% yesterday. meanwhile, walgreen's shares also fell on concerns over generic drug competition. and, carnival cruise is saying "bon voyage" to its ceo. after several high-profile mishaps surrounding carnival, micky arison is leaving the company. fewer bookings weighed on its earnings, despite lower fuel and administrative costs. most americans struggle with whether to buy vacation insurance. a new study shows less than a quarter of americans think that travel insurance is worth the cost, and half of those surveyed don't even know what it covers. we tracked down brain kelly of travel site thepointsguy.com, who tells us like other types of insurance, it's best to shop around. "you want to have insurance to

cover your trip because your credit card is not going to cover it and most airlines have provisions that they can weasel out of giving you refunds as well." kelly notes that the best times to buy insurance are when booking expensive trips and when traveling to places with limited access to medical care. a surge in home buying led to the largest gain in home prices in 5 years. nationwide, prices rose 2.5% from march to april. prices rose more than 20% in phoenix, san francisco, atlanta and las vegas. detroit was the only city in the index where prices remained flat. still to come, theme park prices are throwing thrill- seekers for a loop. that's later. but first, the game console that's putting the entire

industry on alert. more on that after the break.

a kickstarter experiment has proven to be a big win with consumers. ouya, a video game console the creation of which was funded on kickstarter, has hit the market, and is already selling out. the console sold out on both amazon and gamestop this week. the company's creator wanted to make a more affordable gaming system. ouya prices in at 99 dollars. it's a thrilling time for theme parks. john gerner, managing director of leisure business advisors, is here with the latest on theme parks around the world. good morning to you, and just how strong is business? - business so far is good. most theme parks are just starting their peak summer season, so we're just getting started in most of the country. but so far, so good. we are really looking forward to an upbeat summer. - what trends are you seeing

emerge? - i think within the u.s., we are still overall recovering from the recession. but, overall growth has been good in the last few years, and it's been steady, but positive growth. - what's happening globally, especially with china? is there pickup there? - definitely. i think when we look at our industry, we don't realize as far as theme parks, the u.s. is a pretty mature market. we really boomed back in the 1970s - that's when most of the theme parks in this country got built - and it's slowed down since then. but in other parts of the world, they are just picking up. china, right now, is growing at a faster pace than we did during our boom years. right now, they are the hottest part of the planet as far as theme parks, especially with the new disney park opening up in china, in shanghai. - i'm glad you mentioned disney. is this because of demand, orome oh

demand. there are always limits to what people will pay, but when you have a product likeem'e got something that's really unique.replacehe visceral throls of thrill rides, or the really unique experiences that disney offers, and they know that. they know that they can increase prices to a certain point, but they're thinking of the long-term. so, there are limits, i'm sure. they want to have customers ultimately satisfied with what they're getting. - what are some innovative theme parks that we'll see in the future? - right now probably the biggest movement is toward high- tech, in particular what we call 4-d theaters, which is just taking the 3-d concept and adding physical elements. you've got little things that will come out of your chair, underneath at certain points, and the chair will actually move, vibrate, and do all sorts of things while you're watching a 3-d movie, so you really feel that you're part of it. and i think that's been the goal. we know we're competing with video games and other kinds of entertainment.

we have to stay a step ahead in providing that sort of visceral enjoyment. coasters do it on the traditional side, and now these sort of 4-d theaters and other kinds of high-tech experiences do it on the media side. - sounds like fun, john. thanks for being on the show today. - i'm happy to! coming up, money mis-management. how the baby boomer generation is being drained of its inheritance. that's next.

baby boomers are losing a fortune. during their lifetimes, it's estimated they will inherit $7.6 trillion. but much of that money will disappear. john hartog of hartog and baer estate law is here via skype this morning. good morning, john, and where does the money go? why is this happening? - good morning. it goes in a lot of places. mostly it gets dissipated. very little of it actually gets lost to taxes. most of it goes to places, spending, it's not well managed or preserved. - what are some examples of what families should do to protect their assets? - a good way to teach values is to actually give away some of the money during your lifetime. have the client or the family member with the wealth, the older generation, give the

money, some portion of the money, to their kids. don't say anything about it, just make it a gift and watch what the kids do to it. i had a client who did that, and gave a substantial amount to each of his two children, and one child in about a year-and-a-half went through the entire gift by spending it, and the other child took that gift, over a period of about three years, and increased it by 150%. - have you seen cases of wealth-building in families? - well, a good example of the wealth building is, the first generation, which is the entrepreneurial generation, will work long hours and build a business with and amass considerable wealth, but they've spent their time doing that, so the kids, the second generation, have just watched that first generation, what they think waste their lives building a business, so when they enjoy the fruits of what their parents have created, they have resolved, "i'm just going to spend it and enjoy it." and

that's part of the reason why they haven't acquired the values of it's important to hold on to what you built and teach the value in holding onto it. - thank you, john. again, that's john hartog of hartog & baer estate law. - my pleasure. thank you. still to come, a sure cure if you have a case of stock market jitters. that's next in chart talk.

in chart talk this morning we have ira epstein of the linn group joining us. always good to see your smiling face on our show. - thank you. thank you for having me. - we are watching this market, and i'm wondering, what are some of your observations? - it was the "sell in may, go

away" period, and if you looked at the end of may, you saw a market that had what's called "higher highs." and then it started flip-floping and made lower lows. you have a pattern that's, i call, "widening out." in other words, you left the high, and now the question was, how far down? we also saw a market that was building in and has built in now the idea that the fed is going to do something probably before year end. if it doesn't, that might be beneficial. we all have our own ideas whether they will or won't, but it doesn't matter what your idea is, it's the fact that the market built it in, and the fact that these 10- year notes when to 2.7%. then we saw revaluing of a number of markets like gold, silver, and copper, where they have come down fairly dramatically in price, and the reason is, without growth somewhere and the u.s. starting, the potential of raising its interest - it's not even raising rates, its tempering back the amount of excess money we are putting into the system, which doesn't imply that rates have to go up, but the market took it that way. once the market takes it that way, it ratchets down other

commodities as it looks to see what's going on, and that's what hurt the stock market. it fell into the "sell in may, go away" idea, and rallies that we get probably between now and the end of july, i'm going to guess they will just be relief rallies and not real trendsetters back to the upside yet. - quickly, how do you manage this market? what is your advice to investors? - go home and read a good book. and then you come to the marketplace, and you trade in a shorter timeframe. that's the reality. you don't sit here and try to figure out "what am i going to do for the fall?" this market right now is a volatile market. it's going to have big volume going into the end of this week, then it will simmer down as new money comes in at the beginning of july, then we get the july 4th period. so for the next, let's call it, 10 business days, you've got to temper back. it's not a scalping market, but it's shorter-term trading.

- thank you for your suggestions. that's ira epstein of the linn group. coming up tomorrow, fox film studio is ready to roll with a new film starring two of hollywood's hottest stars. find out if sandra bullock and melissa mccarthy have the heat to take down zombies, monsters and superman. from all of us at first business, have a great wednesday!

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