the holidays come early. already some companies are cutting prices on what they hope will be red-hot holiday items. plus, we continue our focus on the healthcare debate...breaking down health care co-ops...what they are and could they really work? and...just how important is prestige when it comes to a college education...and are the big price tags of some big name schools really worth it?....it's all ahead on this edition of first business. glad you're all long for the ride ahead of thursday's market action weekly look at state unemployment claims getting a real time look at the unemployment market front and center. but certainly retailers sears due out with its latest numbers. kind of a look at that discounting retailing mind set of the u.s. consumer. and tom with the oil back above $70 a barrel it's again putting pressure on stocks of airline companies. on wednesday alone we saw some of these airline

companies shares down between two and 4%. and experts and have been warning us that if there is no resurgence in consumer demand for air travel it could really put these airline companies in a world of hurt starting early next year. the oil stocks were excited on the other side because of a possibility of up take in demand for energy may be as this economy tries to stabilize. the debate intensifies between a government run health insurance plan ... and the idea of a health insurance cooperative... with republicans fiercly opposed to anything run by the government... it appears the cooperative concept could be gaining steam... as talks on compromise legislation continue on capital hill. the idea of a health cooperative isn't something new.. in fact washington state has its own group health coop with close to 600,000 members madison wisconsin also has one with 62,000 members.. we asked its executive director - how long it would take for americans to see lower health

care costs... under a cooperative i think it would be immediate... what a non profit coop does is to help change financing and the way health care is delivered. "so the bottom line.. if there was a health cooperative concept on a nationwide basis.. you believe americans would see lower health care costs immediately.... i think the payback would be almost immediate yeah." a health cooperative would work like any other coop - its members elect a board of directors... the board sets policies for insurance coverage and in this case, collect premiums from members... the coop would be not for profit - which means any extra profits would be invested back into the business or paid to members. herb fisher is an attorney who's worked with housing coops for 40 years.. he says if a health coop

commanded a big enough market share.. it could impact prices for prescription drugs and other services. "yes, becuase they will control the payment of cost.. and the providers would have to start meeting their terms.. and not deal with the insurance companies who today are part of the system as is. if a health care cooperative just starting up.. how hard would it be to compete with large insurance plans that now have 80 to 90% of the market in some places? "it's a tough question.. how to get those coops.. but it can be done with enough investment and expertise out there." the initial government

investment into any coop would have to be in the billions of dollars... once the coop is able to attract members.. who pay premiums... it would then become self sustaining... and work just like an insurance company... but without the goal of making a profit. herb fisher believes cooperatives are a better deal for the government. "it would cost less to subsidize a cooperative.. than something goverment owned and operated." herb fisher says for a health cooperative to be most efficient - it should be run at state and local levels. cooperatives now exist in many industries, noteable ones include land-o-lakes, ocean spray and ace hardware.. early discounts. retailers hope that will be the phrase that pays this holiday season. even as its at least three months away, already battle lines are being drawn as shoppers are expected to be more stingy. retailers are expected to enter

the key holiday selling season with tight inventories, for fear of getting caught with unsold merchandise after christmas. that may help limit discounting for some items but discounting and markdowns are expected to come early and often. among the first times to feature a price cut sony's newest playstation 3 video game console. technically, it's a new product, a slimer more powerful playstation 3 and coming in at $100 dollars cheaper than the last version....all in advance of the holidays. the holiday quarter is always the critical quarter in our category. hat's when the lionshare of the business gets done. getting this product out in advance of that on september first really is a great way for us to jumpstart our holiday sales and get people talking about ps3. one survey of retailers finds only 16% thinking this season will be worse than a year ago. a separate polls, though, predicts that almost a third of shoppers plan to spend less. in the last six weeks of the year, some retailers can see 30

percent or more of their of annual sales. and last year was the first year in more than a decade that holiday sales were down for the industry. just when you thought that oil prices were under control they're back above $70 a barrel as a matter of fact this week. david bahoric of the tradethenews.com with us over at the cme group. dave i have an email i want to read you in a minute here. what do you make of this volatility and energy? well energy is being applied to equity. and the currencies. and you're seeing some gyration they're. the upside on wednesday was about the deo numbers. the department of energy. yes sir. we are looking for a gain in crude-oil over a million barrels and they had a drawdown of over 6 million barrels. and talk about missing the mark. that was some fuel to the upside for the oil sector. and the equities jumped on board and that it became a volley of all day long, you become stronger and and i'll follow

you, now you become stronger and i follow you. it could be worrisome here because there is no real hurricane threat at this point other than those hurricanes still to come in october and november. no that is correct. it's been worrisome for me for a while. i was asked in the beginning of the year what was one of my concerns for '09 and it was oil. it was somewhere in the high forties at the time and they laughed at me. i know that you don't move the washington monument a block every day you just can't do it. we got an e-mail from your last appearance back on the 13th from todd in clearwater florida. will to you all off dave just as he was eating up. you had a chance to go beyond a prepared statement ended it due to time constraints. those are always a concern here. but last time you were getting on the soap box regarding the auto industry and it's lack of response to high energy prices throughout several years. all throughout the several decades. i lived in detroit to when the first

robotic plant came into the country and i've watched 18 wheeler's drive foreign vehicles off of woodward avenue. there's been a real cavalier attitude over the years in that industry that we know best and you know nothing. this is what will make and you will buy it. it's become very irritating to me. especially this past weekend where we came out with a new mile per gallon volt i think it was. that's right, the chevy volt. so here we are running around the country at some where around 20 mi. per gallon then all of a sudden over the weekend we go to 230 mi. per gallon. to me that is absolutely ubsurd. that is nonsense. i insulted. and i know what went on. my educated guess would be up there in the marketing departments they wanted a shock and awe marketing plan where you

were gonna drop the bomb and get everybody excited. it my mind if you're marketer, you should've gone from 20 to 25 and 30 to 35 to 40. it's a lot more palatable. now i'm wondering what has gone on in the last 30 years in that industry. alright dave we have to leave it there. always good to hear from you. dave bahoric, tradethenews.com with us over at the cme group. thanks tom. still to come the bigger the name, the higher the tuition, but are the more expensive, prestigious colleges really worth it....we'll find out. but first, playing the market momentum. a careful market optimist joins us....that's after the break. the stock rally this year.and it has been a rallyhas been led

by some strange partners, technology stocks and commodity plays. neil peplinski is president of cedar capital advisors. world into a program and to meet you. i think our call coming in to the year was looking poor seventh let it still may happen. certainly what happened in the quarter we saw weakness in the first

quarter making this really take a second look and obviously i said since march were at the moment bullish and i am sure will be into our strategy been more tactical and we came to mind quickly. in fact it talks about ending a line of investment allocation of business cycles let's go back room where are we in the business cycle start a bank research and the in the early expansion stages. that's our high double the and will use that to gauge our applications. rep none of the become plan as we use this momentum and the stock market themselves to with us since march as you explained above the solid rally here at the start to weaken when i meant to be put in a stunt and

how did the recession in march or april through meant to be a there's weakness in stocks. run the business cycle point of view asian with your own pastors to the unemployment pretty still likely to prime real- estate prices sense and a resident whose i'd probably estate this isn't worrisome part start and certainly does that in mind but this is the and it will pay attention to what our model doesn't put this on those specific details below the important props on and then he stopped beginning in bun spending because of weather and up the mechanism and the consumer reports analogy it would arson actor we see that weakness and you're able to react with. we've seen parked opposite since march. we have been our strategy has actually been had percent increase since april but has caught the market

bottomed and will partly of the in march and participated the little bit of against what are you looking for you mentioned some momentum and does continue some say may be slight signs of weakening. when the sign reads like in a pair stocks recently turned panetta if we look in monthly or lesser opponents is our view progress today in this week's price action is given us a little bit of applause until i was a big half july was a big head was all of those unique and when the beginning of july will abandon this is it maybe this is the turning point have been after me balance about half least we hold our allocation and a line into being in part, perhaps. will post 13% gains. are you still in those

positions part we know that until august and will be the u.n. as we come towards the end of the hand. what are the pipe assets but are we a rare event the universe-and started to the police and court stupid thousand index the s&p 800 and the s&p five printer and then will do more to bun sectors and five and a year and will take only index exposure so leave behind us and individual stocks and a strategy in a sub sector is all major indices and looking for some of regionals indices part we have a couple of the per product become a problem and has been the indians who we used. cautiously bullish. phil thank you for the insight. thanks tom.

still ahead the value of a college education...does going to the * right* type of school really give you an edge on competition when it comes to the job market...that's next after the break.

as the stock market has improved this year, so too may be 5-29 college savings plans. but with the hit those plans have taken over the past two years coupled with the steady rise of college tuition, the finances of

funding higher education have come under pressure, leading some to question the value of where that degree comes from. our intern, tom nunlist reports. there's no doubt that attending a prestigious school is well prestigious. but with big names come big price tags. rob franek, author of the princeton review's best 367 schools, says the iv league may not be the best way to go for everyone. franek there is a right school for everybody or not better schools, as long as you are able to learn and grow etc. the 2009 edition of the princeton review best 367 schools ranks colleges in 62 lists based on 120,000 interviews with students across america. some of it's findings may be a little bit surprising.university of florida was ranked as having the best career services department, pomona college in california has the best classroom experience. other rankings are less surprising: brigham young university in utah was listed as most sober.

franek not a believer in big name schools only the big leagues still have big payoffs, provided you can make it in. according to payscale. the average starting salaries for iv league undergraduates is $60,000/year. liberal arts and state schools lag behind with an average of $45,000/year. however, that doesn't mean smaller, schools won't give you your money's worth. devry president in the past 34 years, with close to a quarter of a million graduates, 90% of those graduates seeking our assistance were employed within six months. about 40% of our students come to us as college transfers so when they come to

devry they are already passionate about getting in, getting out, and getting to work and with a thousand dollar tuition difference, devry may be a solid option over harvard. but regardless of alma mater, some employers suggest that what you do with yourself at school is the key fbi what we are really looking for is some good, solid experience after you graduate, it's more important what you have done with your degree than where you got it from. rob franek echoes that statement. franek (there is name recognition, but a good employer will look at other things) if you or your child is choosing a school this year, franek suggests looking at all aspects of prospective schools. this is tom nunlist, first

business with oil back above $70 a barrel coming up in chart talk we'll take a look at an oil exchange traded fund next.

well the oil market is now eight months high. so we're taking a closer look at the u.s.o, it's the united states oil fund an

exchange traded fund that tracks a barrel of oil not tick for tick because this is only about $38 a share when oil is above $70. with that said when you put it up in the chart here i think $38 is an area of technical importance. you can see back just a couple of weeks ago it failed at this $38 level area. now we're back at it thanks to the big rally we saw on wednesday and we talked about with dave bahoric. so the question is can it maintain this level to climb higher? yes it's also a big resistance area going back to mid june uso tried to reach above the $38 level and was rejected pretty sharply. again volume on this is a very very anemic for lack of a better word. it's very small here. so the staying power is questionable. the combination here is certainly of oil supply. but also the question is u.s. demand going to take higher if the economy truly is stabilizing. let us know what

you think comments at firstbusinessx.com. we'll see you online and back here next time. see you later everybody.

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