. >> tom: here's what we're watching for next week: our friday market monitor guest is sandy lincoln, senior vice president and investment strategist at m&i investment management. we'll also see may factory orders and june chain store sales. and with a shortened trading week because of the july fourth holiday, all eyes will be on friday's employment report for june. >> susie: president obama has nominated thomas curry to be comptroller of the currency. curry is currently a director of the federal deposit insurance corporation and heads an appeals committee within that agency. if confirmed, curry would replace john walsh, who's been acting director for almost a year. this is the latest move by the white house to fill key vacant jobs at financial regulators. >> tom: good news if you're hitting the road this independence day. gasoline prices are about 24 cents a gallon cheaper than memorial day. the national average now stands at $3.55-- the lowest price at the pump since march. still, that's about 80 cents higher than last summer. aaa expects gas prices to remain here for a while, based

he's sandy lincoln, chief investment strategist at bee-mo asset management. >> susie: j.p. morgan will pay $228 million to settle charges it cheated to get business from dozens of cities and counties. the securities and exchange commission says a unit of the bank rigged bids for the deals by looking at what its competitors were offering during the bidding process. morgan cooperated with the government's investigation, and says some former employees were to blame for the illegal moves. the bank has since closed that unit. >> tom: if you're out of work and finding it tough to make your mortgage payment, the obama administration may be able to help. starting august 1, the federal housing administration will let homeowners miss a full year of payments before starting the foreclosure process. now, it starts after three or four missed months. uncle sam launched a foreclosure program two years ago to help strapped homeowners, but the results have been less than predicted. >> susie: back now to our top story-- the debt talks. tonight's commentator says the contentious dialogue show

sandy lincoln is the chief markets strategist for bee-mo asset management u.s. he joins us from the c.m.e. group in chicago. always good to see you. six months ago you were advising caution for the second half of the year. now that we're here, are you still cautious? >> we're cautiously optimistic. i think we still feel stocks are the place to be, you still want to favor stocks over bonds but the market which has been lifting all ships the last couple years is going to be more discriminating in the second half so you want to be very careful about the criteria you use to pick stocks in the second half. >> i want to ask about the criteria in a second. what about your take on today's employment situation as it relates to investors. does it give you reason for optimism in the second half? >> definitely, we got a jab to jobs today and it was a serious one, not necessarily a setback. the markets surprisingly didn't respond that strong to it during the course of the day and i think the reason is because they still expect over time, it's going to take patience but we're