patricia powell from the powell financial group, eric kugan, rich peters, and mike mcqueen from hightower, john manley from wells fargo, and our very own rick santelli. so good afternoon to all of you. you know, rich peterson, let's just start with you. what are the numbers that surprise you most today about these markets? >> quelwell, again, kelly, we'r seeing the continuation, the war of 1812 was not with the fight over british. the war of 1812 is investors moving to higher ground. we're seeing the s&p 500 up 5%. if you look at december going forward, nine of the last 13 decembers have been positive. the average gain 1%. we're seeing, you know, strong profit growth, over 5.6% for the third quarter. the s&p 500, over 6.7% expectations for the fourth quarter. so it will, all in all, what we're seeing, you know, signs of continual growth of earnings, growth in multiple expansion. but, you know, all within a reasonable bound. we're looking to a good year on close. >> you know, patricia, you make the point that we're in the fifth year of an economic recovery. i mean, by all measurements, tha