we'll talk about oracle in a second. the oracle earnings to me in a nutshell is what's going on with corporate america right now. but that being said, the market wants to go higher, impossible to fight the tape. >> what else is going on, we had a nice move in financials, had a nice move in industrials. again, general electric, powering higher. so we're having this new leadership group. these new stocks coming and participating in this rally finally. >> when you get industrial production printing .8%, people expecting .6%, you're getting actually now sequential growth in some of these numbers. month to month we're actually seeing these things improve. off capacity utilization, good numbers yesterday. the bulls have a lot of ammunition here, and it's going into earnings season that they say actually we'll beat on the top line. we've become operationally more efficient. companies were going to beat on the top line, and we've said it all six weeks of this rally, that people are sitting on the sidelines. there are those who h

oracle, eps, 30 cents right in line with consensus of 30 cents. we're seeing oracle shares decline, actually accelerate the declines the company saw earlier in the trading day. that's probably because of the revenue. the top line number here. lighter than expected. $5.1 billion against the $5.3 billion that wall street was anticipating. the reason that's significant here is a lot of analysts on wall street were hoping to see some kind of strength as far as enterprise spending was concerned and we would get that from oracle which has become a real bellwether when it comes to this kind of thing. if you look at other metrics that you want to take into account here, the company's operating margins are beginning to accelerate and nicely. it was 46% for the company's first quarter. that's up 570 basis points. that might be a little better than some on the street had anticipated. it's going to come down to guidance and what oracle is seeing on a macrobasis as far as the company's business for the back half of 2009 is concerned. all in all, that top line

what does the options markets see for oracle? current at the month money put and call prices imply a 4.5% move, nearly half the average move in the last four quarters. dan, why don't you get us started here. >> that's very gracious. one of the things i would say is that implied move, shy of its average move is telling me there's not a lot of fear in this situation. and to be quite honest, it's really pretty decent here. one of the things i want to -- i don't think the stock is going to move a whole heck of a lot on earnings. the outlook is going to be fine. i think investors are waiting a few months out for clarity on the sun microsystem that the eu held up a little bit. i want to create a synthetic long structure to take advantage of a breakout. you see that chart. it's a really nice looking chart. things are firing on most cylinders there. what i want to do is in october, 21/24 risk reversal. i'm selling the october 21 put for 35 cents and using the proceeds to buy the october 24 call for 45 cents. like i said, it costs you 10

is that a story about oracle or a story about the tech sector? >> it's a story about the tech sector. i think people kind of expect too much out of it. it's led a lot of this move. but the funny thing about tech is that it's the big huge player that leads not only the tech sector, but realistically you can make an argument for the market as a whole. there are such huge market cap at the top with google and microsoft obviously. those are the real stories today. interesting how today is. two hours ago i would have said the market showed clear signs of failure. tried to make new highs. turned around, it was going to close weak. now it's going to be kind of a race to the finish. google, though, look at google. google's come back 50% off the highs exactly. it's come off those a little bit, and coincidentally, the stock market as a whole seems like it's ready for retracement as well. it seems like both apple and google have reached a bit. we've got palm today leading the downside in cell phones. if you look at palm start, since july 1st, it's made a se

closes one day and look at that but oracle, no longer is oracle the oracle.ales force.com is the oracle. insider selling. is that really it? i'm looking at regina, my executive producer. she's on maternity leave and suddenly she tells me that's it. she's going this to me. all right, no, i'm going like it to me. "the lightning round" is over. what's on the minds of independent investors? let's ask. when you're trading a stock, every penny counts. i hate when the trade is done and you find out you paid more than the quote price. i want it at the price i expect... or better. td ameritrade's unique trading platform uses multiple market centers to help you find the best possible price. i like those odds. i know they can't flat out promise a better price, but they're always looking for it. they know what matters to me. every online stock trade is always $9.99. not a penny more. and no maintenance fees. who else does that? are you ready to declare your independence? td ameritrade. independence is the spirit that drives america's most successful investors. announcer:

closes one day and look at that but oracle, no longer is oracle the oracle.om is the oracle. insider selling. is that really it? i'm looking at regina, my executive producer. she's on maternity leave and suddenly she tells me that's it. she's going this to me. all right, no, i'm going like it to me. "the lightning round" is over. bull market or bear, traders are always hungry for ideas. they find them at td ameritrade. trading's all about strategy. and strategy... is all about information. so i start my trading day... with td ameritrade's morning perspective. that's interesting... or, look at this... i can mine their weekly webcast for ideas. this is what i need. of course, ideas are just the start. so now i can drill down. heat mapping... heat mapping shows me where the money's moving. 2,500 stocks... one quick glance. cold... cold. hot! right there. look at this-- pattern matcher... pattern matcher spots technical patterns, automatically. wow, look at that. look at that head and shoulders right there. it's like pattern radar. pattern x-ray vision. plus, thi

and the first one is oracle, which reports on wednesday. okay? orcl is oracle. it's a company trying to buy sun micro. i'm sure they'll address the antitrust probe, which i think is ridiculous. but i will be listening to the conference call to see if this feisty company knocks collateral damage. salesforce.com. mierk benios's company. you know i like salesforce.com. it's supposed to be crm, which stands for customer retention management. this stock let's say it hasn't done much since they've made that great preannouncement. i've been wait forget a dip in salesforce.com. customer relations management. maybe oracle's conference call will give us one because they're the most hard boiled company in the tech world. they come out swinging at their competitors. since there's room enough for both companies and salesforce.com is doing fabulously, hopefully -- and you have to hope for bad. hopefully oracle can give us a lowern tripoint to buy crm. we need one. this stock is almost at 58. rallied a couple points today in a bad market. now, you know i'm also into trade down

and s.a.p., it is an impact, perhaps, from oracle, oracle coming through yesterday with a little bit disappointing numbers. s.a.p. is down about 1.5%. b a sf is interesting because they were bulis about the autobonn, looking at extending working hours at a couple of plants in germany. that's germany for you. >> we're a little higher on the smi, up around 0.5%. the biggest gainer is constructionmaker wholesome. but on the bottom of the index, abd is lower by about 1% after a downgrade coming from deutsche bank. the big issue here in switzerland is the s&b coming through later today. we may also see the bank continue to intervene in the currency markets, if needed, to keep the swiss franc from depreciating further. roche says its cancer and arthritis drug, known as matsera in europe, showed very good results in late stage lymphoma. as a result of that, shares are only up by 20 points. that's it from switzerland. now over to maura in singapore. >> thank you very much, carolin. asian markets had a fantastic day as we see more hopes about a global economic recovery continuing to boost mar

oracle, close to 1%. scott wapner mentioned it, at the top, intel, sandisk, leading the chips to the upside. bank of america, merrill lynch, the price target of 30. so there's room to run there. 52-week highs. a lot of them. i'll show you the range. a lot of different types of companies on the nasdaq. starbucks up 3.2%, hit a 52-week high. juniper, shows the range of companies that hit 52-week highs. to the down side, yahoo! they're struggling, in china, with their own brand, what are they going to do moving forward. dell down 1%. obviously some dilution involved there. i also want to point out there was -- goldman had a note out on discount brokers. schwab had to sell, that's down. but they have buy on e-trade, up 7.6%. the number one volume stock on the nasdaq. just incredible volumes. like feed the beast by the broker and there's a lot of volume. >> we don't have the charts to show you, but a lot to tell you about oil to look ahead for next week. oil prices today were down on the session, around $72 a

joe fishbien follows oracle.us from philly this morning. >> good morning, guys. >> the dynamic shows earnings berts than we thought, but revenue was problematic, right? >> yes. the license revenue was a little light. i think it's explainable. we're telling our clients to go out and buy the shares this morning on any weakness. i think the shares, the license line was impacted. they're undergoing a new product release coming out this quarter, 11g, the debate product and the fusion middle wear products. and i think some customers opted not to buy in front of this new products cycle and i think base odd what they're classifying as conservative guidance, i think investors will look forward and start to buy the shares here. >> joe was just mentioning the dollar and sort of the positive effects for multi nationals. so what degree are they benefiting from being so global to having so much customers around the world? >> so in the latest quarter, in their 1q, it negatively impacted their revenue by roughly 5%, both on the

that's why oracle is still a good play. you start to see these things.p/es today that reflect that downtrodden look at what was going to happen in 2010. as those estimates increase, we'll be looking at companies that are priced today that still might be very good deals. >> very good. >> scott, kevin, thanks for joining us today. jim, we'll see you later. >>> by the way, i love this story. what is old is new again, google now planning to reincarnate digital books as paperbacks. what a concept. >> what? >> the company has a deal with a company called espresso book machine, to turn 2 million digital books into paperbacks on demand. google acknowledges not everyone wants their books served up on a computer or e-reader like the kindle. in case you want to go back to old technology. >> six months ago i would have been one of those people. now i love my kindle. >> this is the moment. how many times have we discussed when is the publishing industry going to remake this horrendous model that i've never understood, they're no different than the music industry. and

oracle, intel, google, cisco and ebay. morgan stanley upgraded the hardware enterprise today. they site faster revenue recovery and specifically mentioned names like aletra. sir ra's up. they also raised the price target on apple to 200. they're holding their big event tomorrow as you know and jim goldman will have more in the show on what to expect. they did downgrade dell to equal weight. however, because of the momentum in the market today, dell is ahead and cosco getting a nice bump. shares up 2.5%. the story is all about gold and other commodities, sharon, right? >> that's the hot story of the day. these gold traders here will tell you that's definitely the case. they're up around $1009. we're off of those highs right now, but this is still is highest prices we've seen since february. keep in mind, there are a couple of facts pushing gold to these levels. we broke through some key areas last week. that was without any help from the dollar. today, the dollar is definitely playing a role. that is helping gold prices and also oil. oil prices up about $3. above $71 a barrel a

in frankfurt, oracle and sun are both trading down. oracle down 0.81% and sun microsystems is down 0.16%. >>> facebook will start polling users about display ads it shows on the site. neelsen will package that information for advertisers. cheryl sandberg will announce the deal later today. before she does that, they will sit down with me for an exclusive interview on cnbc's squawk on the secret. >>> representatives from 190 nation less try to work on a deal to fight global warming in preparation of a final meeting in copenhagen, my hometown, in december. ahead of the talks, the head of the u.n. climate change body sounded optimistic. >> i think we can do a deal in copenhagen. i think you need to be realistic about what that deal can encompass because time is running out. but i have, at the same time, the feeling that the spot loit, including your spotlight, is focused on climate change in a way that has never happened before. so we've got the politicians in the headlamps, and let's make sure that they deliver. >> china has been praised

and oracle, all this week, has been logging new highs. oracle set to report next week, expected earnings of 30 cents on the bottom line, with revenues of about $5.25 billion. sharon has been down at the ninex all week. >> it's been a wild one. it's a somber one at the moment to memorialize those victims of 9/11. but as we look at the end of the day's close here, in the oil markets, the fact that oil, below $70 a barrel, that was significant. it was largely due to some technical trading. we did see oil trying to break above the $73 mark throughout the morning but unable to do so. then we saw the selling ensue. keep in mind we're looking at weakness in some of the products as well that has pressured oil prices. we are looking at bills in inventories of gasoline, heating oil. in particular, at a level we haven't seen since 1983. so that is pressured some of the cracks. and that has also pressured oil prices. keep in mind, natural gas has had a volatile week. surging 15% yesterday. down 8% today. we did find out about a big find from venezuel

oracle has a lot of cash, but also oracle has a lot of debt. same thing with ibm. there's a difference between cash and net cash. apple, microsoft, these companies have great net cash. we need to make that distinction when talking about cash. >> roger, you said before if somebody was going to be acquiring a facebook, for example, microsoft was a good choice. do you want to take a stab at that? >> there aren't too many out there that be big enough to buy a facebook, that's for sure. social networking is obviously a huge thing now in terms of content. that's probably the biggest new thing in content. so they're the only ones. they've repeatedly said they're not for sale. i think microsoft earlier this morning, i heard jim goldman say they're going to deny it, but stepping into the game space would seem to be a logical space. the companies are fairly small. if you look at electronic arts doing about $4 billion in revenue, or active vision, again about $4 billion in revenue. it's tough to add a lot to moerk soft's bottom line. but i think that's another place would be

and ftware and services company oracle is buying hardware maker sun mrosystems. now de is playing catch-up. i talked tod with analyst tom smith at standard and poor's who says t dell deal is better late than never. >> dell's move intoervices is substantially smaller than h and also a year ter. so in that sensehey're behind th rival. ibm has been movinmore heavily into services part of a three legged strategy of hardwar software and services for mo than five ars so again, dell has stucfor a long time with its concentration pcs. at's its heritage and its stuck with it, maybe it needto pick up the pa of change. >> reporter: and suzan, the compies had a conference call for analysts today a most of the quesons were about the price. which as o put it, was certnly no bargain. >> suzanne: let's ta about that, ott, did dell overpay? is are there others out there that could positionly be interested. >> there might have been but perot in effect become dell's service position brings $8 billin annual revenues to the lk and th diversifications the trend in the industry and per

. >>> software maker oracle dragged down the nasdaq thursday after reporting weak software sales. weighing down the dow and leading losses in the financial sector, american express. those shares closed 2% lower. amr, that soared 19% higher after the airline said its bottom line will reach new heights thanks to restructuring its roots and raising nearly $3 billion. >>> palms earnings beat wall street estimates but it did close 2% lower after predictions for next year failed to excite investors. >>> securities and exchange regulators proposed banning flash orders which give traders a split second edge in buying or selling stocks. and new rules on conflicts of interest and credit rating company transparency. >>> coca-cola and ibm retained their spots as the world's two most valuable brands. however, for the first time ever, the combined value of the top 100 brands has fallen thanks to consumers losing trust during the recession. >>> finally, a man hurled thousands of golf balls in a national park all to honor golfers that had passed away. and he has been charged, among other things,

. >>> oracle may weigh down tech stocks today following its after the bell earnings. the world's number three software maker reported sales below wall street expectations. >>> keep an eye on shares of fedex today. the shipping giant often looked to as an economic bellwether will report quarterly earnings before the bell. >>> finally, don't get any ideas from one man in spain who recently won a lawsuit against his boss who fired the man for cursing at him. a judge in barcelona ruled that the man should either get his job back or be given $9,400. the judge found, hey, the foul phrase that was actually used is used pretty commonly in arguments in that country. >>> well, the penalties are in for those base brawlers. and we have the highlights from all of last night's action on the field, including mark teixeira of the yankees whose glove is as mighty as his bat. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. >>> our thursday weather headline is the storm that will not go away. it is still sitting over the deep south providing many with a soggy day. your regional

oracle, prophet. big names. >> that's scary. the other one has to be lower. >> you did call it.alled it when others didn't see it. let's begin today with what others are saying. ben bernanke, chairman of the fed has said, even from a technical perspective, the recession is very likely over at this point, it will be a weak economy. and then, warren buffett, the other oracle of omaha, said this -- >> i think the odds are very much against getting significantly worst. it's sort of plateaued at the bottom right now. i haven't been able to tell if it's a week, a month or six months. but we are on the mend. >> we are on the mend. it's over now. what do you say? are you right? >> i was just with warren buffett out at that conference in california. he's an eternal optimist. and i think there's a lot to be optimistic about, in terms of resourcibleness. from a year ago's perspective, it was a panic mode situation. i think the greatest thing accomplished during that time was the security of our deposits within the deposit system. they raised the insurance level from $100,000 to $250,000. t

oracle is against the rally yesterday, down again today. disappointing on the top line, met on the bottom line. they are saying that issues in europe, notwithstanding that sun microdeal should close at the end of this year, early next. i want to check on companies that hit 5 2-week highs. apple, google up 0.4 of 1%. tessara upgraded, up 2.3%. today i want to point out the chips, laggers yesterday, checking in on intel. up half a percent. qualcomm is down 0.7 of 1%. earnings, palm, they are after the bell no, guidance here. the range is really wide. i will tell you in consecutive days a firm has come out and said sales of the prewill be disappointing. 0.6 of 1%. they had a huge 7% plus run-up yesterday. still a lot of good buzz, even though they discounted dan brown's novel. it smashed adult fiction records in one day sales, more than 1 million hard cover copies. let's go down to sharon epperson at the nymex. >> amazing number of sales, brian. we're talking to traders about what's happening to natural gas and the volatility in the contract,

. >> sales force.com, i think they will be acquired by oracle. they do customer relationship software, a great company, niche company and they will be acquired but still, i think it will go significantly higher. crm. neil: adam what do you think of that? >> it is so gosh darn expensive, which will inhibit a takeover, i think, charles. neil: so what are you doing now? >> new month mining -- newmont mining. you get gold plus an outstanding operator with this. hasn't this been priced into the inflation spike or fear? >> never enough. neil: ben, what do you think? >> i love the fact that the most experienced nobel prize winning economists don't think they can predict inflation. no real person can he predict inflation but somehow adam can. i love you, adam. i would like you to do my cardiac care. i don't like your pick because i think it is a bet on a commodity and i think a commodity pick is too risky for the average investor and the average investor should stick with index funds and i have recommended the s&p index fund. newmont mine something too r

. >> reporter: with his oracle stock flat, yachting mogul larry ellison broke even at $27 billion, but everyone else in the top ten sank, from wall marlt's waltons to new york's mayor. so when the winfreys, trumps, and jobs of america are losing hundreds of millions, who could possibly be up? well, there's jerry jones, further enriched by selling out his new cowboys stadium, and facebook founder mark zuckerberg, worth $2 billion at age 25, and texas banker andrew beal, who tripled his worth by bottom-feeding on cheap loans from desperate banks after the crash. >> he's done a tremendous job of making his fortune out of other's misfortune. >> reporter: all millionaires are smart, they say, but billionaires are smart and lucky. that may apply to all of the forbes 400, but one new member also carries the label of "suspicious." jeffry picower is worth at least $1 billion after investing with bernard madoff, and cashing out right before the ponzi scheme collapsed. a lawsuit may knock him off of next year's list, but either way, the 2008 red ink bloodbath makes this list one to forget. even f

new price target on apple, which is 220 and oracle up. yahoo! down. it's moving the stock, but they're having terrible luck in china, not doing well in all. down 2.4%. palm, of course it had earnings and 16 million shares issued through goldman sachs. the chips have not really participated in the recent rally the last couple of days. they are today. the index up 1.2%. san disk up -- speaking of upgrades, goldman sachs really giving e-trade a pop. they're a buy. and then dragging down charles schaub. discount brokers, obviously a little decoupling there. they're doing well in terms of numbers, but goldman sees something better with e-trade. >>> stocks are moving higher as monthly and quarterly options contracts expired today. money market funds guaranteed by the government also expired today. and did you hear jimmy cramer on "mad money" last night? >> the run in treasuries, which i have plooefed in for a long time, is over. i am calling the top in treasuries right here, right now, at this moment. it's time to sell, sell, sell your ten-year and 30-year

oracle, little bit disappointing. met on the bottom line, light at the top, a little hazy on the guidance toward the lower end. the pressure's still there. research in motion, even though citi has a buy on it with a $100 price target, it's down 1%. amazon up yesterday. another lagger, philly semiconductor. intel, and a positive report. back to you. >> thanks so much. >>> housing starts and building permits rose to their highest level in nine months. more evidence a recovery is on the way. joining us now to discuss where we are in the housing cycle, real estate agent -- and diana olick with us as well. a surge in permits, that's what happens when a secessirecession ending, right? >> exactly. it's a reflection of the overall economy. good news. >> sherry, you agree with that? >> yes. absolutely. we're starting to see some sustained patterns in the home starts in particular between last month and this month, which of course were at a peak in '05, '06 and tanked in '08. we're starting to see patterns in home sales. also,

unlike the guys holding up oracle sun. i mean, what? >> look at the intel. look at the intel thing.we're headed. they're here. >> i don't know about that. we let oracle/sun go by pretty ease plip we'll see. >> the three handsome guys right there. >> remember mario monte, mark? >> oh, yeah. yeah, the -- the lack of competition director. >> still happens. they want companies to exist, not customers. >> that's right. >>> we've got to go. thank you very much. still to come, inside the scam of the century. see the excess of the extravagance of bernie madoff's life. new video of his park avenue pad. oh, kribs shs kri cribs coming >>> first, it's the bottom of the ninth for president obama and his push for health care reform. what must the president do to retake control of the debate? our next guest is going to say something that flies in the face of consensus today on that. we'll be right back. natural gas is a cleaner burning fuel, yet a lot of natural gas has impurities like co2 in it. controlled freeze zone is a new technology... being developed by exxonmobil... to remove the co2 from

off you have gains from oracle, intel and kcisco. the catalyst for today's trade, they upgraded hardware space today. names like altera. they also raised the price target on apple to better than 200 bucks. they're holding a big event tomorrow. apple shares are among the best performers. dell shares getting a lift as well. cosco got an upgrade today. let's go to sharon epperson at the nymex. >> we still have another hour or so to go in the trading day for gold. we're looking at oil though. it's really on a tear. the traders behind me, not trading too much paper. a lot of electronic trades these days. they're saying they're very bullish right now. a lot of new money that had been sitting on the sidelines over the holiday is back in this market and it's being fueled by this dollar play. crude oil or gold, it is the dollar at work today with the doll dollar index falling to the lowest levels since september of last year. gold has come off of its highs of the session. the gold is valued right now at about $34 billion. the biggest out ther

oracle, ebay got upgraded today. google's higher. semiconductor is up about 1%. shares of palm, it's cut the losses. downgrade from credit suisse today. altera is down. san disk is up, the upgrade from deutsche in demand. and pharmaceuticals -- it's up almost 70%. the stock is just off to the races today and has been a decent year. did you see the news from starbuck's? they say 30 stores that were slated to be closed, larry, are taken off the list now because the performance has been better than expected. stock is up about 3% on that. >> much better than expected. thank you. >>> commodities on the rise. gold over 1,000 bucks this morning. the dollar at its lowest levels in a year. is inflation on the horizon and if so, how can you replay the race in trade? our bear, james shelton -- hello, gentlemen. mark, the chinese are wary of our creation. they doubled their gold holdings in recent years. are you a reflagsist trade investor? >> i don't think so. i think what we've seen happen is the deleveraging of the banks. yes, the federal reserve stepped in and filled tha

obama think about the profits of microsoft or oracle? you are evil, as was the tone in last night's speech. i think it was unnecessary and unbecoming. you can point out problems in the insurance industry without vilifying it and saying that all of this is happening because people are seeking a profit. neil: karl rove, thank you. >> you bet. neil: the president is pitching health care in the state of what could be his next presidential opponent? my identity was stolen when i was eight years old, and we didn't find out until i was going to get... my driver's permit at fifteen, seven months. i think the stories that affect me the most... are the ones i hear from children. they go off to start off in life, and by no fault of their own, they're already in a hole. you're supposed to, uh, protect your children. it's hard to protect them from an identity theft when... you don't know who's out there doing it. so how do you protect them from an unknown source? i just couldn't believe it and i was really... frustrated and just... flabbergasted, i g

things break apart past 121 and oracles to the -- you are clear to the split. that's the traffic.ou. >>> today the nation is reacting to president obama's health care reform speech. last night the president went before congress and the nation to try to regain control of the health care reform debate. armando trull is live on captiol hill with more. armando? >> well, andrea, hours before the president delivered that speech, a poll showed that 52% of the american public disapproved of his handling of the health care reform issue. that's one of the reasons why he tried to recapture the initiative during last night's address to congress. president obama said that america cannot afford to wait any longer for health care reform. >> the time for bickering is over [ applause ] the time for games has passed. >> reporter: he told congress health care reform must have low cost options for those that don't have health insurance. >> the plan will be required to carry basic health insurance as most states require you to carry auto insurance. >> reporter: the president did not shy away from a pu

oracle also up 0.4%. some chip names, it's a mixed bag. on the flip side of that, we have a situation where there's some weakness in the chip sector as well. intel is down 1.1%. applied materials, there's been a lot of positive buzz around this stock, down 1.3% today. also just want to point out, dell down 2.5% and cisco, which had that upgrade yesterday, had that huge, huge run up, it's giving back some of it, not all of it. down 1.3%. i want to share with you one other item. garmin, it's going to sell a smart phone with its technology with at&t starting october 4th. you can do turn by turn navigation on your smart phone. >> thank you very much, brian. >>> the china investment corporation today apparently set to invest $2 billion into three american funds. now, all these funds are focused on distressed assets. but this is potentially the latest sign of how much the american recovery depends on the flow of money from beijing. what could stop that river of money? well, one thing could be a trade war. joining us for the first time since amer

these questions were foretold by the ancient oracle adelphi in the year 427 b.c.hese three envelopes or as they called them back then envelopes. tonight's first question is -- here we go. "what do you do for a living?" that's what they asked back then from 427 b.c. [ laughter ] the question they all asked was "what do you do for a living?" okay, contestant number one, "empty your pocketbook." ♪ let's see what you got in there. that's a pretty big pocketbook. >> i know. >> jimmy: yeah. okay. wow. you have a pocketbook in your pocketbook. [ laughter ] that's almost luggage. i have an idea for a new game. >> oh, that's so embarrassing. >> jimmy: what is that? [ laughter ] so this -- that's a comb. [ light laughter ] now, this is airheads, that's a candy. now this is -- is that your retainer? >> yes. [ laughter ] >> jimmy: okay. that's your retainer. [ laughter ] and then you have sticky airheads and bubble gum. >> yeah. >> jimmy: you're like a glutton for punishment. okay, very good. so that just gets stuck in your retainer. and what's this here you have? >> it's a s

the dow starts off higher, plunges deeply and on the strength of companies like intel, oracle, cisco and others, earlier the entire market stages a dramatic comeback. rallies like the one we are seeing today can be fleeting. that can't be said for tech knocks this year. big cap tech can't fall out of favor. as we head to the third quarter season, it seems optimism is gaining momentum. others like google and apple, as well. even though both of those have turned negative. ftn is out with a report this morning confirming a 10% to 15% quarter to quarter jump in motherboard shipments and user demand for desktop pcs seems to be picking up in emerging markets and stabilizing in developed ones. among the chip makers, i supply with a market improvement from the 23% decline it predicted. aside from intel, cypress, nvidia and xilinx, they are worth looking at. real question is whether this rally has legs or has gotten ahead of itself. that's why earnings in a couple of weeks or so important this time around with a recent round of upgrades. the street still thinks this rally has room to ride. ba

saffir katz, co-president of oracle moved up the list. and carol bartz is at number eight. >>> join us tomorrow. "squawk on the street" is coming up next. >>> live from the financial capital of the world, this is "squawk on the street." good morning, everybody. i'm mark haines. half an hour before the opening bell. we've getting positive news from corporate america. procter & gamble a bit high there morning. the dow component adjusting the nearly outlook to account for a sale of a pharmaceutical unit. that number is above analyst estimat estimates. but enthusiasm could be tempered by a bombshell of a comment from fox' influential guest host who says home prices could fall by another 25%. >> good morning, mark. i'm erin burnett live from that other financial capital of the world, the nation's capital. president obama's health care speech has been met with both praise and keskepticism. i'm very excited to be here. and i hear, mark, there is a good omen for futures and that is that you have strawberry, tomatoes, and lobster salad today. >> y

we've got oracle and ebay extending their gains to fresh 52-week highs. scott told you about fedex. that's helping the shippers today. they are among the only strong performers sectorwide. back to you. >> last night i had an extraordinary opportunity to spend an hour co-hosting a town hall with my colleague steve liesman. the guest, of course, was treasury secretary tim geithner. mr. geithner has so many things to say about the things we really care about right now, tac taxes, the economy, the market. we wanted to assemble the best of the best to chew it over. mark zande, jim bianco, and phillip schwegel. good to have all three of you with us. the ground rules are we're going to tackle three issues. a quick piece about what mr. geithner has to say. i ern courancourage any disagre issues you may have. let's start off with what he had to say about the economy. he briefed the president yesterday. here is what he told him. >> and today you met with the president. gave him a briefing of exactly where we are. what did you tell him? >> i said that for the first time most economists think w

oracle, the earnings story yesterday. and similar to earnings that disappoint. decent on the bottom line, light on the top line, guidance was disappointing. research in motion, down 2% even though citigroup reiterated a buy rating. amazon.com was up huge yesterday, profit-taking here. the buzz off of dan brown's new book breaking adult fiction sales record, 1 million books sold, day one. amazon, even though they discounted it 46%, a beneficiary. i want to point out the solar sector here. first solar and sunpower, barkley's raised the targets on both. both by about 3%. finally, the story for after the close, palm. down 2.7%, erin. they don't give guidance. 24 cents a share of a loss. the ranges are huge. a couple firms have come out in the last couple days saying they think presales will disappoint slightly. back to you. >> thank you very much, brian shackman. >>> housing stocks are among the biggest losers. why in the headlines seem so good on new housing starts and sentiment. let's find out why. diana olick knows. >> reporter: it is about the housing starts. th

same for oracle. seeing real strength in some of the big names. arena pharmaceutical, had a situation where it had a major run up leading into an announcement about their weight loss drug and then sold off. it's the number two volume mover on the nasdaq today. finally want to talk about starbucks. had an upgrade, new 52-week high. sonic down 2.2%. er erin, back to you. >> as we get ready to talk to our guests who not only survived but thrived, they were on with us a year ago today, here is what happened on that day. the dow went up 310 points. as treasury secretary henry wallson, ben bernanke, and christopher cox rushed to capitol hill to talk about the market bailout. here is the aftermath. >> what we are working on now is an approach to deal with the systemic risk and the stresses in our capital markets. >> it sounds bad, but the next day the markets continued their rally. actually went up 778 points over the two-day period. by the way, this was before the weekend you may recall when henry paulson got on his knee in front of nancy pelosi and beg

oracle, intel, google, and cisco. chips are strong today. semi-conductor index is good for 1.5% or so. the real strength today is on the hardware side, the computer hardware side. those company that is sell into that space. morgan stanley upgraded the enterpri enterprise. then they raised the price target of apple shares to 200 bucks. apple shares have been up throughout the session. even as many of the other large cap technology shares have pulled back, apple has not. it stayed positive by better than 1% for much of the session. dell is ahead as well. costco got an upgrade today by about 2%. so, erin, that's your story from the nasdaq today. >> thank you very much, scott wapner. new york attorney general andrew cuomo moving closer to possible legal action involving bank of america's acquisition of merrill lynch. big names could be involved. mary thompson has details. >> in a letter we have the new york attorney general asking for more information from bank of america as it seeks to decide whether or not to charge executives at the bank. ess

eds for $14 billion, ibm cisco, even oracle and sun. >> the addition of the perot systems capabilities will broaden the -- you know, ability for us to serve a much wider set of customers and certainly we'll take those capabilities to new geographies. so we think it's a very exciting opportunity. it's really all about growth. >> we're going to be a very strong team. we're going to win a lot of business. it's going to be a very exciting time in this next chapter for perot systems and dell. >> yeah. that sound earlier today right here on cnbc's "squawk." there had been talk dell was positions itself to buy palm. with palm's steep run lately, dell releasing its own smart phone in china and having to integrate perot, it appears speculation over that is evapora evaporating. 80% of dell's business comes from corporate clients. this should bolster service business big time. >>> stocks are lower as investors book profits from last week's run up and head to the fed meeting which starts tomorrow. the dow is in negative territory -- that's dell. we're going to show you the dow in a second and let

oracle hitting a new high. we're seeing money come into these stocks. seagate technologies. software, staffing, we're seeing that there. and especially in the chips base with texas instruments saying that they're seeing better orders. afml upping their third quarter and fourth quarter. a number of chip companies including rfmicro hitting new highs. let's move over to the nimex. what happened with natural gas day, sharon? >> it's amazing, bertha. we had the opec meeting. no change there as expected. revising oil demand upward. that's not what the market here is talking about. all the traders are focused on natural gas and more than 16% surge in natural gas prices just today. just about 8% in the last two hours. and what has happened here with natural gas prices, well, it all started at 10:30 a.m. this morning when we got the report from the energy department that natural gas storage levels, yes, they increased, but they didn't increase nearly as much as many analysts expected. the increase was about 69 bcs. then you look at what happened in the month of august to natural gas

i should be -- i should be taking this big oracle exit at some point be straightening up sooner and i'mally all the way out to the wall with this big x on it. >> really good information there that he's giving. what he's saying he can't get the car aimed right. back that up, okay, we need to make that car turn better in the center of the corner. so he's looking for the arc to come out and keep turning as you come off the corner. >> the reason he wants to fix that, it will make it difficult to pass somebody. if he's on the inside and needs that room, he can't get his car to turn, he will have to come out of the throttle and make it difficult to make that pass. >> good information about junior there. >> the 11 car, denny hamlin, he is seventh on the speed cart. montoya atop the charts. polesitter. kurt busch who's still on the racetrack. martin truex, martin, johnson, earnhardt jr. and now hamlin. >> you're right, 25-plus cars still on the racetrack. everybody's still looking for the perfect setup. >> less than a minute to go here in the final practice session. guys, your honor thoughts on

can you compete on a global scale against the oracles, microsofts, the ibms software only?> it's a great question. the reality is we should be a business software company. because what customers want is they want a company that's relevant in a business network. and this idea of a collaborative ecosystem that builds their business models around our technology platform is the fuel for the future. this idea of a vertically integrated stack of kej end to end is a 20th century business model. it's outdated and it won't work. >> any thoughts of acquisitions at this point, bill? >> you always keep your options open. we've grown for 3 1/2 decades organically. we look at tuck-in acquisitions where it makes sense. we'll also do large ones like business objects where it's a game changer. but we're primarily an organic group company. that's what's led us to the market-leadinging position with a 2x share bigger than the number two. so we're doing okay. >> give us your best estimate as to when we'll see a recovery. i know a colleague of yours john schwartz said 2010. >> i think john's ab