an award to the families who sued exxon mobil. some families saw their reward reduced. jurors found ex-on mobil liable for a fuel leak from a station in jacksonville. each family was awarded around $1 million for emotional distress but a judge cut the reward down to $600,000. >> residence complaints prompted a council vote. council members did not adopt a total ban. they'd be open to considering it in the future. civil lib tearians say it is unnecessariry. >> should local governments ban smoking near park play grounds? send your response to watercooler@wbal.com. >> the time now 5:37. parents and students in a baltimore school heated up over steamy temperatures. >> tonight is the season finale, what one local contestant has to say about his journey. >> we don't have problems in the city. a traffic l how does jell-o sugar free pudding fit all that rich, chocolatey taste in 60 calories? ♪ ♪ oh, so delicious who cares? jell-o sugar free pudding. every diet needs a little wiggle room. crunch. wheat thins. that's what's gonna happen here. because you're tasty... with toasty w

only one of every three companies in the s&p 500 bought stock led by exxon-mobil and wal-mart. >>> forget about that rumor that september is the worse month of the year for stocks here. we're at new highs for the s&p 500. frank lesh trading with us from future path at the cme group, new highs to come, frank? you think it can last? >> certainly, you know when you make new highs we look for newer highs to come after that. that is the momentum play on the market. i will say that we're not pushing as high afternoon as violently as -- and as violently as we have but but we're still making new highs. traders don't seem as willing to buy the new highs like we have in the past with you we're happy to see any money come in on the equities and at this point it seems the right way to be positioned. tuesday's retail sales numbers, of course, gives you a nice push. another string of better than expected numbers here this week helps push this market higher. >> it certainly does. meantime, a market that had been near some lows, the agriculture market, corn and soy beans really starting to light it up. n

that pumped shares of chevron and exxon mobil 2% higher. analysts upgrade energized ge, the parent company of this network, during tuesday's trading. ge gained 4.5%. apple sent shares up 2.6%. finally, some cash-strapped california couples are getting a helping hand from a 99 cents store making the most of today's 9-9-09 date. nine couples will pay just 99 cents to say i do at the discount store. then afterwards the newlywedding will be taken to an undisclosed romantic spot with $99.99 in hand. congratulations. >>> well, another open upset. big papi hits a record breaker. and who's on top in college football? plus, who says nick swisher can't hit home runs at yankees stadium? your early morning sports headlines are just ahead. >>> we have some active weather around the country. rain in three different locations. your regial forecasts coming up. you're wa today.". >>> good morning to you. i'm joe krebs. >> i'm eun yang. straight ahead, a woman is found dead outside a montgomery county apartment complex. we're live at the crime scene with the

exxon mobil was also a drag today. the ring is ringing behind me and then you'll see maria bartiromo. >> it is 4:00 on wall street. do you know where your money is? hi, everybody, welcome back to the "closing bell." i'm maria bartiromo. on the floor of the new york stock exchange. stocks pulling back today as the dollar gained strength and concerns over the sustainability of the market's six-month rally rises. nasdaq finished in the plaque. it remains the best performer in 2009. that stronger dollar also took a bite out of commodities. oil prices below $70 a barrel. gold remained above $1,000. the precious metals falling for the third day in a row, dipping below $1,000 an ounce for the first time in a week at the close. take a look at how we finished the day. the dow jones industrial average on the down side by 41 points. financials mostly the issue there, as well as a handful of oil. price of oil lower. nasdaq higher by about five points. and the s&p 500 tonight gave up 3.5 points. mary? >> maria, mixed monday for the

. >>> exxon mobil will pay millions of dollars to a local community. it stems from a leaking underground tank in jacksonville. $150 million awarded to 89 families affected by the spill. exxon lawyers wanted to slash about $14 million from the ruling. >>> more fallout for south carolina congressman joe wilson after he called barack obama a liar during an address to congress last week. jimmy carter is weighing in saying wilson's outburst was dastardly and racist. this comes on the heels of a mostly part-line vote in the house of representatives to admonish wilson for not apologizing to it. >>> elsewhere on capitol hill, a small bi-partisan group of lawmakers will unveil its health care reform bill later today. the bill risks angering democrats and republicans alike by dropping the government run insurance option and not fining anyone who doesn't buy insurance. >>> and another victory in the fight against the h1n1 virus this morning. the fda has approved vaccines from four drugmakers. the first doses could be ready in a matter of weeks. scientists have spe

. >> baltimore county judge upholds the decision to make exxon mobile pay almost $150 million to about 90 baltimore county homeowners. a judge reduced some of the damage payments slightly because of diminished home values. but the judge also threw out a motion from exxon seeking to throw out $14 million in medical damages. money awarded to residents in jacksonville after a gas leak contaminated their wells. . >> tonight first on fox. maryland's motor vehicle administration is investigating a baltimore city bus company for transporting students without insurance. it is a fox 45 investigative voice investigation. jeff abell reports on a possible breakdown in state enforcement. >> it is the end of the school day at baltimore freedom academy. and as students leave class some walk home. but others climb on board these buses. owned and operated by just for you transit. they are buses according to the state that were operating for months without any insurance. >> based on inquiries, there has been a complaint filed open. >> maryland's motor vehicle administration tells us it is now investigat

i want you to take a look at a chart of exxon mobil. you'll really see that move on the interday here. you see it later in the day after lunch or so. exxon started to pull back and oil prices started to pull back. the overall market did as well. the dollar, as i said, very much remains a story. weak again. the dollar index hitting a new 52-week low. gold stocks, how can you not talk about gold. $1,008 an ounce, up another 11 bucks today. we're looking at gold stocks to the plus side. names like i amgold. that's what the gains were. about 1.5% to 2% across the board. the shippers very much big news today. closely looked upon certainly as economic bellwethers. no more than fedex, which came out and said q-1 earnings would exceed expectations. they also raised their second-quarter outlook. that not only gave a nice bump up to fedex today, up by about 6% or so. u.p.s. certainly moved higher on that by about 4.5%. not to be remiss, let's talk about the financials. because citi raised the price target and earnings estimates for goldman sachs,

steel, exxon mobil on the energy side and harmony on the downside. >> news out of caterpillar? >> yeah. caterpillar is coming out with its august retail sales numbers. for the three months ending in august on retail sales, down 48%. big drop in north america. down 57%. and also seeing weakness in asia. so that stock's under pressure. add to that we have potash, a fertilizer company warning for the third quarter and in general the ak cultural space is weaker today on the back of the news of those companies. >> thank you very much. i'm going to send it back over to larry. >> i'll take it, actually. >>> senator chris dodd is proposing the merger of four bank agencies into one super regulator. but he doesn't want that to be the fed. both differ from what president obama envisions. how feasible is the plan? joining us now to discuss, "new york times" reporter and matt mccormick from ball gainer investment counsel. if i have four things sitting on my desk and i toss them all into one bag, i don't know how that's an improvement. i understand some think this would streamline the system

exxon mobil has a political action committee, which means voluntary contributions given by shareholders and executives, about $900,000 in the last cycle. it made last year $85 billion. now, there's just a world of difference in the resources available if you say to a corporation, "you can spend money to defeat global candidates who are in favor of global warming legislation." if coal companies can go out and say, "if you don't sign our pledge to support coal, we're going to defeat you, we're going to spend money against you." you take those enormous economic resources and you use them for something that we've never seen before. that, i think, is the radical nature. >> i think that's a real exaggeration about the likely impact if the side i'm on happens to win this case. we have 28 states now that allow unrestricted contributions, as well as independent expenditures. we haven't seen anything in the way of corporate control. and it's easier to control a state than it is the country. coming about, or distortion of the processes coming about as a result of the fact that corporations can giv

. >>> upholding almost a $50 million judgment against exxon mobile. the residents sued the company claiming that is a gas leak con tacontaminated their water well. the judge reduced awards to just eight of the homeowners. >>> new developments in the case of a yale graduate student. they executed search warrants on the person of interest in the death of anna, le. two warrants have been served at the apartment of raymond clark the 3rd. clark was handcuffed and escorted out of the building. le's bodies was discovered on sunday in the wall of a yale medical school. >>> baltimore's state attorney and several other prosecutors say the current 2-year-old law is not tough enough. they allege it doesn't do enough to define what a gang member is and it doesn't carry strong penalty. they want mandatory sentences for those who commit crimes that are gang activity. >> we want to make sure that those who are stealing and robbing our youth of their future are the ones that we sues this statute with and we put some away as long as possible. >>> the aclu says that you

western companies like shell, exxon mobil, chevron. we're also hearing analysts are anticipating this may be just a way to pressure their kpens to offer bigger stae, but the fact remains that china has made a big push to bet more natural rae source assets and this is one yeah where they're actually producing the oil already, not just exploring for those reserves. meanwhile, the amnesty offered, the nigerian government offered rebels expires october 4th. that should give a bid to oil price, but the lower dollar and anticipating another rise in u.s. inventories may keep prices lower but still above that $65 resistance level. rick santelli to you in chicago. >> thank you, sharon. the dollar index, is a bit euro centric. it had a horrible day against the yen. that index is hovering close to a three-week high. closed yesterday at a three-week high, since september 8th. dollar yen is definitely interesting, still trading just a bit bay low 90 even, pay attention to that historic level. haven't spent a lot of time under it since the mid '90s.