. >> we met officer epperson at the kern valley state prison in california. armed only with pepper spray and a baton, he's the lone officer responsible for supervising the inmate kitchen staff. >> i have six, seven inmates back here now. i've got one sitting on the line. granted, i got four, five cops outside that door. that door's locked. there's only one dude out there with the key. you have to trust them to a certain extent. they have no reason to assault me. unless they're totally pissed off or i disrespect them. >> among the inmates epperson places his trust in is the number two cook, carter hill. >> tell me what your sentence is. >> murder. >> you're here for murder? >> yeah. >> what's your sentence? >> 51 to life. >> you know, it's interesting. sometimes there's this dynamic in prison when you're interviewing somebody, if there's a corrections officer and an inmate together, they'll pretty much watch their ps and qs. they'll tell you into the camera what the other guy wants to hear. but when we met carter hill, we got some real brutal honesty that day

sharon epperson at the nymex. sharon? >> it's an important day in the commodity space as well.in natural gas didn't really miss a beat but for an hour between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. there was no trading for actions on the cme electron neck trading system and we're looking at natural gas futures that have resumed trading and it's been going on for about half an hour or so. down 3% or so, down 9 cents on the session. que we're also looking at the oil because based on stimulus hopes, it's been somewhat muted and we are also hearing in the oil market about a potential spr release. of course, those helped to put a little bit of a cap on oil prices. meanwhile, gold and metals continue to rally. look at 1750 as the upside target now for gold. back to you. >> thank you, sharon epperson. >> let's bring in bob pisani. how are we doing here? >> it's a very narrow trading range. 2 to 1 advancing to the declining stocks. it doesn't feel that way because a the lo of the pharmaceutical stocks are down and oddly a lot of tech stocks are down. it's a weak day for semiconductor stocks. with the do

sharon epperson is tracking the news for us.na news had an influence earlier on, sharon. >> but really, sue, this is a story about the jobs report and if you wanted any indication that the disappointing jobs data to steal the deal for quantitative easing, look at the reaction. gold prices up more than 30 bucks, topping $1,740 an ounce. intraday. traders say we are looking at $1,800 an ounce coming soon for gold. what they're focused on, of course, is overall jobs number, but also, the hours worked number. that particularly disappointing and causing many to believe the fed will have to do something here and the same story of the silver market will near a six-month high and more than a dollar gain there and copper the standout because that is factoring both the qe story and the china story as sue mentioned. the approval of more than $150 billion in infrastructure spending in china and traders say that's a big reason to see the big move-up in copper. china's the largest consumer of copper. back to you. >> thanks, sharon. >>> now th

cnbc personal finance correspondent sharon epperson has important tips on making the right choice.thing to talk about because a lot of people learned the hard way with bernard madoff, but financial advisers taking advantage or scamming their customers. how big a problem is this? >> it actually is quite a big problem. the cfp bore, the non-profit organization that certifies financial planners, said over half of their planners, people coming to them, particularly older americans, have been victims of some form of financial abuse, either because of the advice that they were given or the investments that they made, and so now they are in another situation on round two or three trying to rectify the situation. >> all right. so let's get to some important advice so they don't become a victim. you say the first thing is you want to hire a financial adviser, be sure to check them out thoroughly. do your home ork. >> one of the basic things, ask and check. want to know what their employment history is like, if they have had disciplinary action taken against them, are they certified, registe

cnbc personal finance correspondent sharon epperson has important tips on making the right choice.thing to talk about because a lot of people learned the hard way with bernard madoff, but financial advisers taking advantage or scamming their customers. how big a problem is this? >> it actually is quite a big problem. the cfp bore, the non-profit organization that certifies financial planners, said over half of their planners, people coming to them, particularly older americans, have been victims of some form of financial abuse, either because of the advice that they were given or the investments that they made, and so now they are in another situation on round two or three trying to rectify the situation. >> all right. so let's get to some important advice so they don't become a victim. you say the first thing is you want to hire a financial adviser, be sure to check them out thoroughly. do your home ork. >> one of the basic things, ask and check. want to know what their employment history is like, if they have had disciplinary action taken against them, are they certified, registe

sharon epperson has it all at the nimex. >> we saw gold down sharply.still down on the session and the weakness in the euro having an impact on the gold market. prices down about $12, right above the 1750 level. gold was down to 1738 earlier in the session. we are continuing to watch what happens in europe and of course what will happen with central banks and monetary easing. also the turnaround in silver. silver now positive. some traders say it's part of the reason why we have seen gold pare its losses as well. we are watching mining in south africa and the impact on base metals and gold. we are looking at copper prices which are down sharply in the metals complex. even with the weakness in copper, now may not be the time to pew. traders are saying there could be further weakness in the industrial metals because of the demand concerns around the globe. back to you. >> thank you very much. the broader market may be even but tech having a hard time. let's get to the nasdaq. >> interesting moves in the tech space. we have research in motion continuing to

miss epperson will join us from the nymex to find out whether gold can hang on to its recent gains.re right back. >>> gold prices closing right now. sharon epperson is tracking the action at new york merc. >> very different trading day than we saw last week. gold right now closing just above $1,770 an ounce, down about $2. nothing much to speed of. traders really taking a pause and analysts taking the time to tell folks what they think the outlook is for gold longer term. morgan stanley saying the bull case for gold for the fourth quarter this year could see gold touch $1,960 an ounce. they say the recent fed action is a complete game changer here in terms of the length of time we're going to see more quantitative easing as well as the length of time we'll see more low interest rates. even the base case scenario for gold will have it probably around $1,750 in the fourth quarter. elsewhere in the metals market we are seeing this pause but keep in mind, we are also looking at some traders saying they can't fight the fed and that they'll actually continue to provide some support for th

let's get a check on energy with sharon epperson.n crude. >> looks like oil prices were setting a bit, but that's after a huge drop yesterday. we're still looking at key technical levels according to traders, namely with the wti contract now below the 200-day moving average, that's going to be key to watch, and also watching whether or not the brent crude contract can hold this $113 barrel level is going to be key. as we move on from trying to dissect what happened yesterday, traders are focused on the fact that on the one hand you have the fed action and what's going on in the middle east and north africa supporting prices. on the other hand, you have what could derail this economic recovery, and that is higher prices and it's the fact that we're seeing perhaps impact on physical demand. and on the other hand. so the bull zone bears are trying to duke it out here. we also want to know what's happening in the precious metals market because there it is more clear what the qe-3 rally really means. and there is where you see a number of

sharon epperson has the very latest trade heading into the weekend. >> the momentum and the trading action here on the commodities floor definitely here in the gold pits today. we did see gold prices hit $1,790 an ounce, the highest price since february. we have pulled back a bit and some other commodities as well but we are looking at near highs of the year. this run that we've seen in gold is mirrored by what we saw in silver. silver though actually pulling back first and some traders say some of the rebalancing that may be going on in the s&p may have impacted other asset classes. still, big profits in these metals over the course of the week. we'll have more on the metal's close at 4:30. >>> jeff kilburg has been here all week. first, do you agree with mr. dalio? >> absolutely. it's going to $1,934. that's the technical. i like gld. the miners gdxj allows you to get that movement up to the up side. we'll see $2,000 here at the end of the year. >> is there a direct correlation between the miners and the price of gold? in the oil market it is not quite that way. >> that's why i like the

back to you. >> sharon epperson, thanks for that.in bob pisani. >> the rally continues. good points about the risk on trade here. you can see in what's been going on. in this kind of situation, you don't want to look at price advantage and percentage advancing you want to see volume. watch where people are going. with very heavy volume. the biggest etf out there is the financial spdr. more volume in the spdr today. emerging markets have been strong all week. the van gard emerging market has been particular strong. this is a japanese stock, it's a cheshef heavy mover. simon mentioned how strong the metals are. heavy volume, that's a clear sign where people are going. volume is a very good indicator of what's going on. another important one, take a look at the tlt, an interesting territory on bond sell-offs. the question is, what's going to get people out of bond funds and stocks? when the pain level starts to get noticeable. we're not there yet. but we're heading there. we're now just at the point where we're 10%, off of that historic

[laughter] >> he demon knight -- demonizes taking care of yourself, epperson responsibility, .: he has spent away for so long. [laughter] >> not to federal overreach. >> so tell me what about the fda and abolish the epa? >> yes. lou: don't flush with the epa. start with debbie wasserman schultz she lives, the nine is it then she denies that she lied and is still on tape guilty as charged. what in the world? this is the chair of the dnc >> a potential nominee remember the marathon man? if he did it at all. lou: is that your answer as the chair of the party and ally 34? -- life through her teeth? also i have a 50-inch vertical leap. [laughter] >> i admirer the commitment to truth. i know they talked about already and with medicare funding. lou: that would be you and your friends line for that 700 people out of medicare for? robert. you do not remember this because you have been away and italy. [laughter] >> >> really wanted to ask about debbie wasserman schultz. >> she did not remember saying it. >> negative remember denying it. [laughter] >> to not think that everything you say

back to you. >>> thank you, sharon epperson. look at the media stocks as we have a media conference not taking far from here. we'll talk to her later on cnbc, but look at the outperformance going on the the last few weeks. someone unexpected would say over the last year or two as you see it right there in terms of how it is performed the, particularly of late. and jett we are looking at the names like viacomm or time warner where the ceo was under pressure to get the stock moving in the. and the low when the hacking scandal -- no one theme perhaps that you can stress. disney has the parks. news corp has a lot of businesses but there's retransmission that continues to go up. many of the cable providers pay more and more money to those who have the networks for the available to air the networks. whether it be 80 cents a home for a cbs or an abc or espn and the power of live sports where on-demand is poor -- you can't really stop a live sporting event. many are wondering if there's going to be a pause, at least some of the punds sa

sharon epperson has more. >> it is the first time we have seen it sell above $1700 an ounce.ook at that one week chart wa waiting to hear what the ecb had to say about direction for stimulus. certainly gave it that impetus. the key will be what happens with the jobs data, and that could potentially derail the gold rally if it's a good number traders say. >> thank you, meantime, the stock market is rallying today, trying to close on a 4.5 year high. we're going to look on talking numbers here, nark newton with grey wolf execution numbers, and on the fundamental side is charles ortel. thank you for joining us today. we have been drifting for awhile here and now we have this pop, what do you think of the market right now. >> it is a short term development. today it's moving up on an expansion of volume and breadth. this trend since last year has been broeblgen ken to the upsidn consolidation as well. short-term it's a good development, i expect the market to move higher in the next few weeks. there are a couple negatives to mention in terms of longer term, and the whole move thi

today's financial editor jean shatzky and david bavrngs author of "debt free for life" and sharon eppersonnal finance correspondent. good to see you, everybody. >> good to be here. >> we'll head to christine in hartford, connecticut. good morning and what's your call, your question? >> good morning. over the years i've had a hard time saving money to buy a home partly due to the cost of renting. i've been lucky to have a few stocks in the stock market and considering selling them for a down payment on a moderate home. if i were to do this, is it smarter to sell most of my investments to put a 20% down payment and avoid pmi, or sell a smaller amount and pay the pmi? >> all right. what do you think christine should do? >> quick question for christine. is this all your savings you're talking about? do you have emergency savings, a 401(k)? >> we have a 401(k). this would be considered my retirement savings, and part of my retirement savings, but i have multiple 401(k)s and we do have a smaller savings account. >> all right. so i wouldn't completely sabotage your savings in order to buy a house

sharon epperson at the nymex.atching it here. >> here we are, 13,349 was enough to do it here. we're essentially a five-year high. the s&p 500 -- excuse me, the dow was last here december 31st 2007. so let's not quibble here. we're 4 1/2, almost 5-year highs. we're essentially there. we're watching the s & b. there is a chance that will do it as well. a lot of these risk on trades are back again. we have seen money going in to financials, money going into energy and materials. so take a look at some etfs. one of the ways to watch this is watch volume and etfs. i follow a couple hundred of them. look at the volume here. what is getting noticeable volume, energy, etf, you can buy the whole energy sector at once. that is very good volume. germany is at a new high today. germany is getting bought heavily. australia has heavy volume as well. so here's kind of like the risk entree that you're seeing. what is moving the markets today? what's motivating people interested in stocks? let me give you three or four points. si

. >> thanks very much, sharon epperson.l out this morning on goldman sachs on what they believe will be a plethora of special dividends paid in the fourth quarter of this year. now, we've seen a lot of special dividends. we've talked about the great return of share of capital shareholders, buyback, dividend increases. special dividends play an important role. you know corporate america is cash rich. goldman tells us that, as well. but also, you have the potential for the expiration of the 15% tax on dividends. could go as high as ordinary income and that if it were to happen is all part of a fiscal cliff. well, that would make dividends a lot less attractive. hence, perhaps the desire on part of the corporations to return that money to shareholders sooner rather than later and add in the fact that special dividends tend to be announced primarily or more often in the forty quarter, anyway. take a look at corporate cash balances. we talk so often about this. remember, a lot of this cash does remain overseas which is why you w

david, back to you. >> thanks very much, sharon epperson. wanted to direct our viewers' attention to shares of aig had been down as much as 2% this morning, though off of those lows. in fact down about 3/4 of 1%. a bit of a disappointment this morning though it needs to be put into perspective over the last near as well as the last four. aig saying it will sell or is in the process of selling $2 billion worth of its stock in its aia group or what was its own aia group. it now will own about 13% of that company after the sale, but there had been some hopes that perhaps aig would embark on a sale of its entire stake worth some $7.6 billion in aia. the market had kind of been reading that that might be the case, and perhaps they wanted to wait out the market a bit on this, so a $2 billion sale. proceeds of which will help go towards as much as what they will be saying will be a $5 billion buyback of shares from the u.s. government. now, again, if it had been 7.6 billion that they sold of aia, you might have gotten as much as a $0 about buyback

sharon epperson is at the nymex. >> hey, melissa.aught in a catch- .22 here. traders looking at the fact that the saudi oil minister talked once again about market fundamentals not supporting oil prices at the current high prices. also getting soft data coming out of china, out of japan, out of italy. of course the u.s. jobs data very soft as well. will this mean that we'll see some type of stimulus action taken by central bankers? well, that's what puts oil in a catch-.22. slow growth versus possible qe. we have oil prices fluctuating in and out of positive territory. gold and silver relatively steady here. we are waiting for the fomc meeting and decision on thursday. that's going to be key to the markets as well, of course, as that german constitutional court decision that will come on wednesday. palladium seems to be the standout in the commodities sector. we have car sales, chinese car sales helping that. it's been a six-day run in positive territory here for palladium. getting a lot of good etf action as well. back to you. >> th

today's financial editor jean shatzky and david bavrngs author of "debt free for life" and sharon eppersonnal finance correspondent. good to see you, everybody. >> good to be here. >> we'll head to christine in hartford, connecticut. good morning and what's your call, your question? >> good morning. over the years i've had a hard time saving money to buy a home partly due to the cost of renting. i've been lucky to have a few stocks in the stock market and considering selling them for a down payment on a moderate home. if i were to do this, is it smarter to sell most of my investments to put a 20% down payment and avoid pmi, or sell a smaller amount and pay the pmi? >> all right. what do you think christine should do? >> quick question for christine. is this all your savings you're talking about? do you have emergency savings, a 401(k)? >> we have a 401(k). this would be considered my retirement savings, and part of my retirement savings, but i have multiple 401(k)s and we do have a smaller savings account. >> all right. so i wouldn't completely sabotage your savings in order to buy a house

sharon epperson is cnbc's personal finance correspondent.d almost $652 billion last year, about 1.9%. is that why we're seeing the increased fees? >> bank revenues did drop to that level, and we're seeing a loss in bank revenues due to the fact that there have been some major changes in regulations, regulations dealing with debit cards as well as overdraft plans. >> all right. we're paying higher fees, that's undeniable. monthly maintenance fees are up 25%. what exactly is a monthly maintenance fee, and why do the banks feel the need to pass this cost on to us? >> what you're paying for is the tellers, the call service centers as well as the maintenance of the online systems and the atm servicing. all of this goes into the overhead of the banks, and this is what you're paying for with the monthly maintenance weeks. >> out-of-network atm fees 2.50 but your bank may charge you more. >> 1.50 on top of that so the average is now $4. >> the non-interest checking accounts, the percent is free, from 45% last year, 76% in 2009. are they going away c

sharon epperson is cnbc's personal finance correspondent.d almost $652 billion last year, about 1.9%. is that why we're seeing the increased fees? >> bank revenues did drop to that level, and we're seeing a loss in bank revenues due to the fact that there have been some major changes in regulations, regulations dealing with debit cards as well as overdraft plans. >> all right. we're paying higher fees, that's undeniable. monthly maintenance fees are up 25%. what exactly is a monthly maintenance fee, and why do the banks feel the need to pass this cost on to us? >> what you're paying for is the tellers, the call service centers as well as the maintenance of the online systems and the atm servicing. all of this goes into the overhead of the banks, and this is what you're paying for with the monthly maintenance weeks. >> out-of-network atm fees 2.50 but your bank may charge you more. >> 1.50 on top of that so the average is now $4. >> the non-interest checking accounts, the percent is free, from 45% last year, 76% in 2009. are they going away c

sharon epperson has more on ways to pay for an education tax-free in our "education nation" report. >big issue. the clock is ticking on tax rules that could change on january 1, 2013, impacting the way you can contribute to a child's college education. now, whatever the outcome on the tax laws, there are a few ways to lock in a tax benefit on gifts now. under the current law the amount of money you can give away over your lifetime without getting hit with taxes is a little over $5 million. you can take advantage of this exemption by creating a trust that will ensure that you would avoid a huge tax if the tax laws changed. now, when this current tax law expires, that 5 million plus dollar exemption is set to fall to $1 million in the new year. whether the current tax laws change or stay the same, you can always make an annual gift of up to $13,000 to a child. couples can give a combined gift totaling $26,000 tax-free. these annual income tax rules stay the same no matter what happens in the new year. you can make a lump sum of five years' of annual gifts in a single year, up to $65,000

sharon epperson is back to track the action. you have a decent rally. >> definitely.f course, gold is a great gauge to figure out the market feeling and sensing about qe and we did see a significant rally in gold in this session. we got as high as $1,717 an ounce and now closing above the $1,700 level for the first time in 6 months and hearing from the ecb of bond buying and going to be stimulus action here probably both sides of the atlantic. that is something that's definitely helped gold get above the key psychological level and gold in dollars and euros. in terms of the metals market going forward, of course, the jobs data on friday and a positive jobs number to indicate maybe not as much stimulus needed and could possibly tank gold. back to you. >> sharon, thank you. >>> as you know the europeans announced a big bond buying to help out the debt strapped plans. over here, bullish reports on jobs. tomorrow the key employment report. bob's sitting right here. as a matter of fact, you seesaw little bit of him. >> that was the wrong angle for me. >> you were pointing

it is only tuesday, oil has had a wild week a look at the final trades in new york, go to sharon epperson joins us from the nymex. >> oil prices down $1, the wti mark and the brent crude mark and we are seeing near lows of the session here at the close. keep in mind that the slide that we have seen, a lot of traders are still pointing to the fact likely a long liquidation play that really sent prices falling you and there's been no confirmation of any of those rumors that we heard yesterday about an spr release, waiting for fundamental data from the energy department and american petroleum regarding supplies and weekly supply data is ex-spented to show another increase and an increase of about 2.5 million barrels. that is something that maybe weighing on prices as well. nat gas is down more than 3% on this session. back to you. >> all right, sharon, thank you very much. >>> meantime, ford stock just about breaked even year-to-date and their ceo, another first on cnb, addressing that in a wide-ranging interview today. phil la superbowl live in new york city where earlier today, ford showed

sharon epperson is watching the action and join us live from the nymex after this break. ...forbusiness.com.e ann] ♪ ha ha! oh, hey alex. just picking up some, brochures, posters copies of my acceptance speech. great! it's always good to have a backup plan, in case i get hit by a meteor. wow, your hair looks great. didn't realize they did photoshop here. hey, good call on those mugs. can't let 'em see what you're drinking. you know, i'm glad we're both running a nice, clean race. no need to get nasty. here's your "honk if you had an affair with taylor" yard sign. looks good. [ male announcer ] fedex office. now save 50% on banners. ♪ [ male announcer ] introducing a stunning work of technology. introducing the entirely new lexus es. and the first-ever es hybrid. this is pursuit of perfection. >>> traders call it chart consolidation and taking a breather after the $80 run we saw at the end of last week in gold price and is why we are basically in unchanged territory around 17.70 an ounce. but there are those who say the fed action last week means that we will see much higher gold prices in the

. >>> i'm sharon epperson at the nymex.close right now where they closed yesterday, $1,733 an ounce. the germ an constitutional cour approved the esm package as expected. now we are waiting to see what happens with the federal reserve. little profit taking in silver after its gains this month have doubled even what we've seen in the gold market. the key is going to be what happens in terms of what they say about any quantitative easing and actually how it is doled out. that's going to determine where prices go. we've seen prices gain in the gold market about $60 just this month alone. a lot of it perhaps has already been priced in, the fact that we may see more quantitative easing. we'll see with the open interest and volume whether it is all setting up for a big washout if the fed disappointments. >>> the biggest company in the world is unveiling details of the product that drives 70% of its revenue. you bet we're across apple and the launch of the new iphone 5. brian sullivan is live in san francisco with our team on the

sharon epperson is track being the action at the nymex. not oil this time, it is gold. >> it's not oil -- it's gold, but you got to talk about both of them at the same time because really only reason why gold is not higher today is because oil prices are down almost $4 right now. keep in mind we are looking at gold prices that are still above that $1,770 level. basically flat on the session but we've seen tremendous gains since the fed action last week in the gold price. that activity is expected to continue. technically a lot of traders are looking at the fact that gold is very near a golden cross right now, meaning that the short-term moving average, say the 50-day, is now crossing over the 200-day. that's often seen as a very bullish signal for market longer term. longer term, several firms we heard from earlier today, one from morgan stanley about his call on gold going higher. we know bank of america, merrill lynch, is saying $2,400 by the end of 2014. it looks like gold prices definitely heading higher because of the policy by the fe

sharon epperson is track being the action from the nymex and the fed delivered, not only for equitiesut also for the gold market. up almost$40 now? >> almost up $55 from the lows of the session. sue, the last 90 minutes has been incredible in the gold market. extreme price moves here as traders try to figure out what the fed is going to say. see what they say, digest it, then figure out what to do next and to figure out what to do next is buy, to go long, at least for now, until we hear what ben bernanke has to say at 2:15. we already saw $150 price move in gold in the last month based on the expectation of more qe. we hear it is actually happening and gold continues to rally here to a high today of $1,775 an ounce. we are seeing extreme buying and length in the gold etf market as well. that momentum as well as the momentum across the board in the metal space is the reason why traders say it appears that this rally will continue perhaps to the $1,800 level. we'll see if we take february's high right below that mark and really get to $1,800 an ounce for gold in the coming days. >> shar

sharon epperson is tracking the action for us down at the nymex. >> hi, sue.old is still near a six-month high. we've seen a little bit of profit taking today but gold is still above the $1730 level. the focus is going to be on wednesday and thursday. germany's constitutional court, the decision there on the eurozone bailout plan on the esm. that's a key factor for the momentum of gold and the euro as well. the fomc decision on thursday. that's what traders are waiting for. we've seen a lot of etf action. we're looking at holdings in gold etfs near highs we've ever seen as of last week. also looking at significant action in the copper market. we had that spending deal, china had announced last week, $150 billion. that's helping copper and palladium. the biggest gainer on the chinese car sales data today. >>> the trading action here, bob pisani is right next to me on the floor of the nyse. think it is a pretty positive day given the big move that we had last week. >> that's exactly right. you'd think after the big gains on thursday and friday they'd sell them a

sharon epperson has some ideas.ron. >> reporter: a lot of people are worried about the fiscal life. the clock is ticking on tax rules that could change the ways you can invest in a child's education. under the current law, the amount of money you can give away without getting hit with taxes is $5 million. take advantage of a lifetime exemption that will ensure you avoid a huge tax hit in the laws change. if the current law expires, that $5 million is going to trip to $1 million in the new years. whether it stays the same, can you always make up to a gift of 14,000 a child and singles can give the fee. you can also make a lump sum of five years of annual gifts in a single year, up to $65,000 per child and $130 per couple without being taxed. as you can put this money in a 529 plan which is designed to help you raise money solely to pay for college costs. >> many parents and grant parent don't realize there's no limit horgift taxes when you by the college tail. >> that is, a if you can afford to. >> i was taking notes

so let's get straight to sharon epperson at the nymex. are you seeing any reaction in the oil markets so far, sharon? >> well, mandy, we've been seeing a reaction all day because we knew earlier this morning that netanyahu was going to talk about the fact that he was going to set a clear red line when it came to iran's nuclear ambitions. and that sent oil prices back above $91 a barrel. and of course we'd already seen oil prices recover from yesterday's low after iran's president ahmadinejad also spoke before the u.n. general assembly. it is this rhetoric between israel and iran that is certainly supporting prices here p we have brent crude prices above $112 a barrel, near the highs of the session. and the fact remains that if we do see israel have an attack on iran that's going to send prices spiking. the question is for how long and how far they will go. there are some traders who say we could see the highest prices on record, and others say that we may see a spike but then we may see a quick decline if we continue to get weak economic

sharon epperson at the nymex. >> we know oil prices dropped five bucks in that period of time and it the biggest one-day drop since june 21st. we also know the white house is saying, yes, all options remain on the table but there's been no announcement of a release of emergency reserves from strategic petroleum reserve. we also know there have been some technical moves here in this market in terms of the fact oil prices topped $100 a barrel on friday and were unable to regain those highs. we also know that there have been a great deal of long positions in this market. according to the latest report from the cftc's commitment of trader report we've seen the longest level of long positions as of last friday. there may have been significant profit-taking here. maria, what may have spurred this may have been due to something that happened in the treasury's market dealing with an inflation bet taken off the table. we noticed commodities tanked right after that trade. back to you. >> thank you so much. well, there's bad news out there for fans of the mcrib. don't cry, bill. according to se

sharon epperson has the latest from the nymex. >> wither looking at gold prices here up only 2 bucksso, closing around 1766 an ounce and we are seeing softness, kind of across the board in some risk assets a lot of traders are watching what's happening, a lot of the headlines coming out of the u.n. also, of course, watching headlines from philly fed bank president charles placer and his comments about short-term interest rates and the fact they may not stay low all the way to the middle of 2015, but here on the floor, a lot of the traders are saying part of the reason why we are seeing bit of a reversal here and the gold price from the highs right here in the session is the fact that today is options expiration in the gold pays the and could have lent to some folks trying to protect the upside positions that they have here and perhaps we are seeing a little bit of a pull back and some profit taking as a result. in terms of the copper market, copper had been one of the best performing commodities here so far today. we have seen copper up a little bit on some reports about chinese dema

. >> i'm sure there's >>> let's go down to sharon epperson with more on this oil trade. >> we are talkingers and everyone is pointing to the fact that there continue to be rumors out there about a potential release from the strategic petroleum reserve. these rumors have been out there for quite some time but there are a couple of technical factors that may have caused some of the trading activity we're seeing as well. today is the expiration for wti for crude options for october and often there is a great deal of volatility around this options exploration as many traders now look to the next month. the fact that we're seeing a sell-off pretty much across the board here in the 2012, beginning of 2013 contracts leads some traders to believe that there may be something more fundamental going on with supply and demand. again we are not hearing anything from the energy information administration. we have placed calls to them. we are waiting to hear what their response is but this is a dramatic sell-off. it is also a day though when many traders are out on holiday and there has been lighter tha

i'm sharon epperson here on the floor of the new york mercantile exchange.d prices closing up over $25 on this session, closing right around 1780 an ounce. a lot of traders here on the floor say there is no way going into the end of the month, the end of the quarter they want to be short this market. there is too much uncertainty going on. they're listening to what's happening at the u.n. general assembly between iran and israel's prime ministers talking and they're also watching what is happening in the euro zone. chinese stimulus. perhaps more of that on the table with the weak data we got from there. a lot of reasons to be long this market. silver 3r50iss also near the highs of the session as we close here. and even copper prices that have been on a bit of a roller coaster ride given a little bit of a lift. back to you. >> all right. thank you very much, sharon. let's get some trading action talk with bob piz ni on the floor. hey, bob. >> we rallied mid-morning. the spanish budget came out. believe it or not. yes, it moves the stock market here. the cuts

. >> i'm sharon epperson at the new york mercantile exchange.below $3 a barrel and brent crude below $10 a barrel and we're talking for six-week low for brent crude prices and wti prices at the lowest level in more than a month as well and this has a lot to do with the bearish sentiment we've been telling you after the steep drop on monday. still, many theories out there about what caused it, but overall it just has led to a bearish sentiment among traders on the floor, and we also have gotten fundamental news that's rather bearish, a big build in supplies according to last night's data from the american petroleum institute and then, of course, the saudis saying they're pumping more aggressively to 10 million barrels per day. all of this is on the backdrop of what the white house may do. some speculate they will do at some point which is to perhaps release emergency reserves from the strategic petroleum reserve. right now the energy department is out with its weekly number on oil, gasoline and fuel supplies and we are looking at a huge, huge bui

back to you. >> thank you very much, sharon epperson. a couple of quick notes on the market.ercentagewise but important. s&p 500 has hit a new intraday high. the highest levels since may 2008. the dow hitting a fresh intraday high, highest level since december of '09. housing stocks of note, we mentioned it before, but the hgx attracts housing trading at the highest level since april of '08. >>> coming here, tweet time f you take mark zuckerberg's advice and your first bet is to double down on facebook, your second bet would be to double down on blank? tweet us. we'll take a look at today's early movers. ♪ fashion >> tomorrow, an exclusive interview with j. crew ceo miller drexler on the heels of fashion week. where is the consumer and what exactly is going on with the high-end retailers? all that and more tomorrow on "squawk on the street." >>> take a look at the dow heat map. travelers, off the back of the aig placement. it is feeling a little boost here. >> we know mr. fishman runs travelers, run the most conservative insurer. never had any of these problems. i've been wai

the latest moves on energy and metals, go to sharon epperson at the nymex. >> reporter: good morning. we're seeing commodities churning a bit, but still oil prices near the highest levels in four months' time. gold and silver near seven months' high as the markets do try to digest the fed's action as well as all of the turmoil that we're witnessing around the middle east and protests continuing in afghanistan, indonesia, a number of countries around the middle east and north africa region. also, though, these high prices highlight the impact that it could have on the global economy. and some traders and analysts are saying that perhaps is what is causing a bit of a damper on the rise that we have seen recently. also keep in mind we're waiting to see, of course, how the markets will react to the latest decision by the u.s. in terms of iranian sanctions, and they have upheld the status quo for many eu nations as well as for japan. granting them waivers once again against having to cut their oil imports. keep in mind as we watch all of this, we are continuing to watch as well what is hap

sharon epperson has that. >> hi, carl.e are getting word from the energy department, national gas inventories rose by 27 billion cubic feet in the last week. tropical storm isaac, the shut ins there contributing to the fact we have smaller injections to storage natural gas. that for this time of year, normally, it's somewhere between 70 or 80 billion cubic feet, but also keep in mind we've seen a serious reduction in the level of storage since say march. now, it's only about 10, 11% of where it was last year. and we are seeing prices coming off here a bit as well because of the cooler temperatures that are expected across much of the country in the next couple of weeks. we're going to keep our eye on whether or not there continues to be interest here. we rose above that $3 mark and in fact, hit a one-month high yesterday, rising about 40 cents in three days. now, we might just see some profit trading. >> thank you so much. let's talk about apple for a moment. the iphone 5 to come with a lightening connecter and larger scre

and tell the afghans don't take epperson away.ho so we have talked long and hard with afghans about it. even the president was briefed and agreed to give religious and cultural affairs officers to support isaf train. to talk of the dos and don'ts to reinforce the message. general allen is pretty smart. we need to be excellent guess in the country. do what is done in the home that you are an. but also he calls on the afghans to be good hosts. to try to understand their guest to steer them in the right direction. it is a big challenge. you live cheek and jell-o with each other for year. you get to see what each other are like. >> general, nbc news. you talk about the increased wariness of the isaf forces in mentioning yourself with mingling with some of the afghan forces. haven't and the attackers already succeeded to drive a wedge between the forces? >> we're all professionals soldiers. we're going to keep fighting and tell hell freezes over. i trust the people i deal with. i'm just careful. on a practical level, it's not going to

i'm sharon epperson. >> our thanks to sharon for that.e of the stories we're squawking about. 7:32 on the west coast. 10:32 on wall street. ge one of the chips bucking today's decline. hitting new 52-week highs. chicago pmi falling more than three points in september to 49.7. the number below 50 marking contraction in the midwest manufacturing for the first time in three years. the university of michigan's consumer sentiment index showing a final september reading of 78.3. that is down from mid month levels but up four points from august numbers. >> the usda without with the quarterly grain report this morning so just how bad was the drought of 2012? jane wells is still here in new york city. can't get rid of here. glad to have her. she is going through the data to give us a closer look. >> reporter: it is more of a reflection of what is happening before the drought. today's report shows a lot more corn and wheat has been used this summer than expected. corn stocks as of september 1st were under a billion bushels the lowest level in eight

sharon epperson is at the nymex for us. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, carl.e it's going to be another busy day in the commodities market. we have speculation we may see more stimulus out of china helping support many commodities. oil and gold higher. gold near that 1770 level. keep in mind, the south african mining issues that were plaguing the industry are also plaguing gold, that also helping support gold prices. in terms of the oil price, we're also watching what is happening here in new york with the u.n. with israeli prime minister speaking about iran, today set to really lay out whether or not there should be a firm deadline here in terms of iran's nuclear ambitions. and we're also watching, of course, what's happening technically, brent crude above the 200-day moving average earlier in the session and wti bouncing back after falling below $90 a barrel in previous session. but the standout commodity most certainly is gasoline. gasoline futures continue to soar again today. refinery issues are really what has caused this market to explode here as we had

sharon epperson, nbc's personal finance correspondent. dollars, about 1.9%. is that why the increased fees? >> bank revenues did drop to that level. we're seeing a loss in bank revenues due to the fact there are major changes in regulations, regulations dealing with debit cards as well as overdraft plans. >> we're paying higher fees. that's undeniable. monthly maintenance fees are up 25%. what exactly is a monthly maintenance fee and why do the banks feel the need to pass this cost on to us? >> you're paying the tellers, as well as the maintenance of the online systems an the atm servicing. all of this goes into the overhead of the banks and this is what you're paying for. >> out of network atm fees, now on average about $2.50. but your bank may charge you more. >> your bank may charge you more, the average is $4. >> the noninterest checking accounts, they're free. that's a percent that's free down from 45% last year. 76% in 2009. are they going away completely? >> they're definitely declining and it's rapidly. the cost of doing business