however, regarding the card act, changing my rate, amex changing my rate from a fixed rate to virable rate has a lot to do with growing the profit right now and making the changes before the regulation comes into effect, right? >> by converting it from a fixed rate to variable rate, they can still change your interest rate, which after february 2 2nd of next year is going to be much more difficult to do if it was in fact still a fixed rate card. there are a dozen ways to skin a cat. this is one of the way they are skipping the cat, converting from fixed rate to variable rate. >> it is not just amex, many card carriers are doing this. but you made a very funmy point when we were talking earlier. once they raise your rate, they will -- >> convert it back to fixed rate. we are laughing out of discomfort because it's really, really bad that that's pretty much what's going to happen. the bottom line here to save money and stay in charge by not carrying a balance. if you do, manage your cards so they don't manage you. that means shop around, if you don't like what you got, pay attention to

boeing, amex and travelers, the top three in the dow.looking for an apartment, a date with a clown, you will find all 3 and much more on craig's list. it's one of the most popular and successful websites, but critics say it's a lost opportunity. the senior editor of wired magazine whose article calls it a tragedy. harsh words. words. and david garrity, principal with gba research, who says come on, leave them alone. nick, let me ask you, i read the article. i thought it was really interesting. the thing is that even though craigslist is really quirky it's really successful. >> oh, absolutely. craigslist is incredibly successful. and they're incredibly successful both from the number of users and from a financial perspective. they have 30 employees. they generate $100 million a year in revenue. that's insane. people in business schools will be stud them forever. what this article, written by gary wolfe, says is, look, there's an tount make craigslist so much better. the best real estate -- it's the most important real estate site we have.

that's moving amex a little as well. real estate investment trusts, we have noted they've been outperforming the market the last five or six days. they're moving up as well here late in the day here. there's a couple theories here. first one, reits are underowned by a lot of traders, they're being forced in by the recent rally. that makes the most sense. there's also traders who are holding their noses and trying to look past the poor commercial real estate numbers that are still coming. and by the way, the stabilization story still matters here in real estate investment trusts. tradertalk.cnbc.com. our team's covering the markets. let's go around the horn. first we'll talk to brian schactman at the nasdaq. >> we're weaker than the s&p 50l and the dow but we've cut our losses almost in half but still down .8%. i'll call it's good, bad, and maybe ugly here. microsoft and yahoo both to the up side. the ak filing gave us details about the search deal. ten-year deal, some exclusivity could end after five years but there are

some of the stocks in the dow that are really up huge since the trough in march, bank of america and amex, jpmorgan. >> nice. thanks very much, matt. the closing countdown after this short break. >> after the bell, is the strong case shiller home price index proof positive that housing is turning the corner, not just bottoming, turning the corner? some answers ahead at 4:00. access to favorite courses chef's meal with pommes frites perhaps a night at the theater with extra special seats additional hotel night, our treat you world in perfect harmony: priceless look for world on your mastercard to get rewards and offers that matter to you. [bell ringing] the way the stock market's been acting lately you may wonder if you've been doing the right thing. is the advice you've been getting helping or hurting?

have been the one involved in climate forecasting and why have the ecologists which look up the dam amexn the physical environment and living systems, why have they not been reading alternative model or some way participating that conversation? >> it is because neither of them want to learn the expertise of the other. you won't get many physicists wanting to become psychologists or go and try to put into their marbles. they don't do it with the understanding of a good ecologists or biologist and vice versa, you won't find many ecologists at least i've never found them that are happy to go and deal with the complexities of climate science, geophysics. and i think it is science there is just so much information to handle it has to divide up into all of these specialities and they just don't talk to each other and you almost need a new approach altogether. the best hope i think is you have the same problem -- if you have something wrong with your left foot you don't go to a gynecologist especially if you are a male. [laughter] but science is a bit like that. there are not in the general pra

in fact, in the past month alone a 32% move for the amex biotech. look at the rally just in the past couple days or so. very, very strong. so that's just one area. as we say, you go to health in a handbasket. let's take a look at some of the subindustries, industries that are actually doing very, very well. biotech. facilities. suppliers and equipment. all doing better than not only the health care but also the broader markets. the dogs, the services. the pharmaceuticals. and the hmos. the managed health care stocks. they're all clearly lagging. what's interesting and contradictory and confusing all balled up into one big ace bandage, 3% earnings growth. the only sector actually growing profit this quarter in the second quarter results, but underperformance compared with that. interesting also, 80% of the results that have come in in health care have come in better than expected. so these are my icy hot picks on my board. one from each of the outperforming sectors. affymetrix, intuitive, tenet, and dentsply. >> thanks so much. i want to go quickly t

that's financial stocks, your amexes, your bank of americas all moving up a little bit here. late in the day. commodity prices have had quite a run this year. crude oil up 61%. copper 95%. have priced run too far ahead of the fundamentals? and is it a time for a reality check? joining me now to discuss that, john lakata, chief investment strategist at blue phoenix. rachel ziemba, the analyst over at rbg monitor. you think things have gotten a little bit ahead of fundamentals? >> i do think so. i think we're a little bit overheated right now. i think some of the corrections have made sense, we're no longer facing a near-depression, but i think the recovery might be more sluggish, the economic recovery, and same thing for commodity demand. >> john, i want you to comment. the cftc is holding hearings on whether or not speculators are manipulating the oil market. is there any evidence, since this is such a hot topic, is there any evidence that there are dark unseen forces that are somehow illegally or unethically manipulating the oil markets or any commodities markets? >> you kno

cisco, boeing, amex all pushing higher, but merck, pfizer, and intel not taking part. >> google's upas well. 4.61. five years after that $85 a share ipo. find out why dick's sporting goods seeing an 8% rally. carol, when you replaced casual friday with nordic tuesday, was it really for fun, or to save money on heat? why? don't you think nordic tuesday is fun? oh no, it's fun... you know, if you are trying to cut costs, fedex can help. we've got express options, fast ground and freight service-- you can save money and keep the heat on. great idea. that is a great idea. well, if nordic tuesday wasn't so much fun. (announcer) we understand. you need to save money. fedex >>> okay, folks. welcome back to "the closing bell." let's take a look at some of those under the radar stocks. you hear the sonar. let's talk about dick's sporting goods. dks is the ticker. the second quarter profits slipped 2 1/2% to $39 million but it came in better nan expected and they also hiked their full year sales forecast. gamestop, tough day for them, reporting second quarter profit, down 32%. $39 million was

so nbc, and amex have put together this program.to nbc.com/shinealight and you get to nominate a business. >> i've got a mom and pop store in my neighborhood. i like the way they do business, they make my life better and you nominate them? >> exactly. we expect to get so many nominations. and then i will judge it along with ellen degeneres and diane von furstenberg. we'll narrow down the three businesses and the public gets to vote. >> as an example, tom, you did a commercial spot for the program about your favorite small business in new york a fishing store called urban anglers. what makes it so extraordinary? >> i fly flish and it's a boutique for fly flishing. everything is carefully selected. everybody in the store is passionate about fishing. the hour that you're there shopping, looking around, it's about fishing. and so it's really living in new york and working in new york, you need that getaway time. and that's my getaway time. >> real quickly, you are someone with a thriving business that started as a small business owner.

am membe amex is the worse but reiterated to sell at ubs. they say this company is going to burn cash like jet fuel for years to come. their credit has been lowered and they're going to continue to borrow. they say sell the stock to $30 a share. merck was higher here, second d best performer in the dow. behind mcdonald's, it is resumed a conviction buy. buy it with conviction, goldman sachs this morning. it was neutral before.e. let's get over to david faber now for the very latest faber report. >> thanks, matt nesto. all right. yeah, let's start with a deal. i'm laughing. listen, it's august. there's no m and a at all. in fact, i mentioned this deal primarily because it is indicative of just what's going on in m and a, which is zippo. we may we may start to see activity when we get back from summer vacations. perhaps in the fall we'll see i'm hearing conversations have started to pick up. who knows. so we want to let your flow that publicis reached a deal to require the razorfish from microsoft. this was a unit of quauntive, if you remember

did you see amex in the dow? stock is up nicely after they said their write-offs in july were 9.2%. that is an improvement from a 10% write-off level they posted a month ago. in fact, it's the first time in 18 months that they've seen some improvement. the ceo saying there, look, it is better than expected. we're please with that. the he reality, it's still h historically high numbers. >>> we talked about aig and tin surers going crazy. bond insurers are flying here today. both nbi and amback is up 20%. their numbers and forecasters still murky and cautious but wall street is looking for little things like smaller set i side, et cetera, to help that one out. unilever up very strong today, up ten-month high. volume growth was good. margins look to be improving in the second haft of the year. and if you look at the retailer, mark, i'm showing 29 to 35 in the retail index. higher here today being led by macy's and limited and the gap. back to you. >> thank you, matt. >>> stay right there, we're going to talk retaile

amex currently charges $35. the move comes ahead of new rules that take effect in february.erest rate hikes by card issuers. under those rules, consumers must agree to pay f beefee f ber they can charge more than their credit limit. >>> and microsoft is expected to announce a dee with nokia today to develop a version of its office software for your cell phone or handheld device. it could boost microsoft's office business, which is facing strong competition from three web-based programs. and competition is always good back to you,umer. back joe and barbara. >> courtney, thanks very much. >> thank you, courtney. >> have a great day. >> reporter: you, too. >> thanks. >>> news 4 is finding jobs for you. gh cni eimare centers in n,croftoe maryland, have aor fn social media marketer. th marketer is responsible for authoring, monitoring and diomoting social media siusscons involving nighttime care centers aus affiliated organization the job requires a orbaelchti's degree in del n and related fields and ain r mim yeth mree- arexperience. for more bsjo, just visit nbcwashington.com a

and if you have plastic from amex or discover and you are over your credit limit, you don't have oworryalty fee. >> the president is taking the health care debate on the road. running into vocal protests. a little more civil debate on the inside. but here to look at the new tone about what's going on, especially at some of the other town hall debates, jennifer donahue, a contributor to the washington post and a political director is in boston this morning. we also have with us here in studio today, john avalon. we are going show a little bit of the -- let's take a look at some of the moments of the two town halls. >> okay. okay. okay. we have just -- we just had a demonstration of democracy. >> i don't understand the rudeness. what is this? >> you hear senator really seem to just throw up her hands and say she asks do you want me to leave? why is there a lot of shouting where people can't get answers on either side? >> it is really amazing. you think really what is happen something that the public is getting angry. obviously, and taking it out first and foremost on the congressmen and s

he said i have 2000 amex in my socks.he said that as a years salary for many people in my country. what do you have upstairs? this is an honest woman. she goes up. her jaw dropped because she sees the bombs, pipe bombs, hair dye, contact lenses so they can pose as religious clerics in the pope plot. all these bombs. she freezes. half of the philippine national police show up at night. they grab him. juice up and his local car across the street and they withdraw and they escape to islam about where bromley is captured a month later. this handsome devil guy, and he is a good looking guy, trained in four u.s. flight schools from 1991 to 1992. y., this is important, because he was going to be the lead pilot on the third plot. i told you about the pope, the third plot was 9/11, baby. it was conceived as hijack airliners flying into buildings. he was a commercial pilot. and he was captured and interrogated by this man, one of the most honest and heroic man i have ever met. he is the richard clarke of the philippines. i intervie

. >> amex fired some guy who had stolen a bunch of information from -- it must have been probably hundredsing weird happen yet, but -- >> the difference between a credit card and debit card, credit card, the credit card will cover losses for any fraudulent. debit cards will usually do that, too, but you can sit without your money for months at a time before they get that wrapped up because that money comes straight out of your bank account. use your credit card, not your debit card, when you go into any stores. >> something happened with that aflac thing. that wasn't too long. our viewers immediately, they watch a lot, so, i mean, obviously the liberia -- >> monrovia. >> we know the answer because we just saw it. "jeopardy" never repeats, does it? >> that's right. >> you're doing sean connery. >>> kelly king has been meeting with employees in florida and alabama on the deal. he joins us first on cnbc with more. it's great we have you first, kelly. and we appreciate you coming on here to talk about this. yesterday's weakness in your stock, it was a weak day for financials. you don't think i

the 1957 and 1918 are important examples for us historically because they were the two and amex wherewe knew the pandemic virus was circulating in the united states in the spring, late spring and early summer and percolated through the summer in 1957. there were -- as this year, a number of outbreaks, there was a big outbreak at the boy scout jamboree. that is observed through the summer. i had the opportunity to spend a couple of hours with dr. d.a. henderson, who is most well known for leading the who smallpox eradication program but in 1957 was the chief operating officer at cdc in performing epidemiology and surveillance related to the 1957 virus, he gave a wonderful metaphor for what they experienced. he said it was like a virus laid down a bed of new throughout the summer and when conditions were right, in this case when schools reopened, the virus came up like the grass in spring, it came up everywhere at the same time. it was almost overwhelming how quickly it happened. that is a useful analogy. it certainly is governing our efforts to prepare for what we might see in the fall

he said i have 2,000 amex checks in my sock, that is a year's salary for many in my country.hat do you have upstairs? and honest woman. she goes up and her jaw drops because she sees pipe bombs, scan die, hair dye, contact lenses so they can pose as religious works in the plot, all of these bombs, she freezes. have the philippines police show up at night and grab morad and the state to islamabad where ramzi ahmed yousef is captured a month later but morad, this handsome devil and he is a good looking guy but not case terrorist treen and for flight schools from 91 to 92. why? this is important because he was going to be the lead pilot on the failed plot. the third plot was 9/11, it was conceived as hijacked airliners flight and into buildings. .. they called it the plane's operations. what did the fbi know and when did they know it? this is colonel mendoza, showing clearly that the fbi and have this note forness to get this memo clearly showing that the fbi that the information from the philippines police. in 1995. you see, this details, read my timeline and read my book. i di