. >>> tig a lok at overseas trading this morning, in toky the nikkei shot down 165 points, while in hongong, the hang seng lost 213 points. >>> wall street's annual summer slowdown is in full swing with markets finishing mostly flat despite the rlease of encouraging economic data. new home sales jumped almost 1 from june, driven mostly by first-time home buyers taking advantage of an $8,000 federal ta credit before it expires. but that's still a fourth straight month of gains and 30% rise from january's lows. that news gave e dow u.s. he cotruction index a boost of 3 pesh3%. home depot, t largest home improvement retailer, advanced on that ws. shares of apple dipped 1% on news nokia plans to compete with the iphone. williams-sonoma d rising 11% after posting a surprising second quarter profit. meanwhile, orders for ngasting goods like appliances, computers,nd cars ro neay 5% july, the third increase in the past four months. one reason for that surge, the popular cash for clunkers program. e government reported its final tallies wednesday, coming in just under its $3 billion budget. sales

that's a lok at your national forecast. now here's a look at the weather outside yr window. we're going to continue to be very warm in southern new england. look at that. 91 in providence. pittsburgh, 82. louisville, kentucky, should be beautiful at 86. little hot in charlte at 92 degrees. that's your wednesday forecast, christina. >> all right. thanks so much, bill. >>> home prices pop, retailer stocks rge, and the price of a cold one i heading up. your early morning business headlines are straight ead. >>> plus, she may not be making idols anymore, but paula abdul has landed herself a new job. >>> phillies walk the plank. and surprise, surprise, another lands on the d.l. you're watching "early today." bu >>> good morning and welcome back to "early today." i'mhrtina brown. and here are some of your top headlines this morning. >>> if you are just joing us, we have been coverin the death ofenator ted kennedy. know as the libera lion of the senate, senator kennedy died last night a i home in hyannisport, massachusetts, after battling a brain tumor. senator kennedy was 77. >>>

as we lok ahead pleasant days as we move into the work week for you. temperatures will dip and we'll see a bit of arise as we head to the later part of the week. we're also keeping an eye on a disturbance in the traffic stop particulars. here's today's highs. 85 at national. same at dulles. 82 in baltimore. temperatures close to where they should be. 82 at national, 80 at dulles, 80 at baltimore. 86 at fredericksburg. but look at the mid-atlantic map. that's where we start to get changes if you look to the west, 69 in sip sin and 65 in pits -- cincinnati and 65 in pittsburgh. that's a taste of the cooler air heading our way compared to the 84 at charlotte and 85 at raleigh. and so for tonight we will see a few clouds. slightly cloudy and clouds will increase in the overnight hours. look for patchy fog in some areas as well. the temperatures into the 50s and low 60s across the potomac highlands we could see mid to upper 40s for overnight lows. let's on look at true view. we have a lot going on across the west coast. this is a category 4 hurricane. it's

a new book "ben bernanke's war onhe pani goes wndehind the scenes to lok a why. author did wessell is economics editor for "wall street journ." welcome back >> good to behere. >>rown: you have covered ts every day, the daily news we're both par of. when you step bk from all those littleieces and look at the big picture, what struck you most? >> i thi two things strike me. one is just how enormo the threat was tohe financial system and the wholeeconomy. when you write about this o company, one day of the market at a time, it's hard to realize just how b a threat it was, and when i talked to bernke a feweeks after the lean brothe thing and he sa to me, "we came very cse to depression 2.0," itort of ok breath away. a the second thing ishat -- >>rown: that will take your brth away. >> yeah, and it wasn't clear we had avoided it. the other thing is that these peoe seem larger than life on tv and in the papers, they'r smart people but they're ordiry people and the number of decisns they had tomake under fre with no oer's manual, with ry little precedent to go on- i an,

now,if you lok outin the private marketpla right now, there are a ew insuranc plans that cove fertility tratments, not lot. so if that's a gide, my uess is itprobably wouldn't. it's also quite expeive. i don't think it wou fall under this notn of a basic package. gwen: jean, ita fromkentucky wants to know why isn't anone discussing tort reorm as a way of reducing health are costs? >> because its on brick too many. t would be hard tbuild. the president h acknowledged that lawsitshave some eect othe cost of health care. obviously, the coservatives and republicans an democrats don't agree on what degree. gwen: we heard dickarmy sayi -- >> they tow all kin of numbers out. you can talk to one sde they give you a buncof statistics. you go to the other sie, you get a whole other set. it's hard to figure t if you're jt talking to both sides. the president haacknowledged that someing along these lines ought toe done, but he ha said it ha to be doe after health care reformis passed. and the primaryreason for that is it is - it's ke abortion. you cannot ut an explosive issue like that it will blow

. >>> and another live lok at the gathering for big tigger's hiv and aids charity ride. bikers are gathering at rfk stadium. will mother nature make it a smooth cruise? tucker barnes is back with a workweek preview. with more eligible models to choose from than anyone. i ur nkf yo c erlu qualifies to be recycled, you can get a $3500 or $4500 government rebate. and just announced! if you fuafyhelior t clunker rebate, you al orr 72 ms.th a $3500 government re abatend no doba payment. go to chevy.com for details. >>> the outcry over health care reform continues. now there is a clash in congress. nancy pelosi and steny hoyer. e president set the record stra >> i know soon -- no sooner want to get between you and your doctor than i want insurance companies to make arbitrary decisions about what medical care is best for you, as they do today. as i've said from the beginning, under the reform we seek, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. if you like your private health insurance plan, you can keep your plan. period. >> now crics say that it's too expensive and giv

just lok uthnder the off-beat section. we are back in a moment. nd >>> back with a look at headlines around the tworld. authorities in afghanistan investigating a rocket attack in the capital of kabul. one landing near the u.s. embassy. the rocket hit the house of a senior interior minister but there are no casualties. >>> bill clinton hillary clinton is heading overseas and keep the obama's administration clued to global engagement. >>> and there is a chance the u.s. could strike a truce with osama bin laden. howeveral dohowever al zowy says mr. obama is the new face of the same old crime. the state department has no comment on the truce offering but says the u.s. changed the tide against extremist. >>> the president vowed to close guantanamo and this could land suspects in our backyard. the white house says no final decisions have been made. some are more worried about the media circus and some feel 's too dangerous. >> this is not a good place. there ought to be a better place to have these trials. and quite honestly, it's frightening to the re

it helps to lower my cost phases and gives me an absolute insurance premium, absolute lok-in price to sell my stock at. >> the bottom line is you're selling the call for more than what you pay for the put here. >> that's the key here. a, it's not going to cost you anything for the insurance policy. yes, do you have some upside risk. in other words, if the stock -- if they were to blast up to 105, you might have to sell it at 101 or 101 depending on what call you sold. if you own it at 95, who cares if you have to sell it at 101. you've got it take control of your greed. that's a problem a lot of retail traders have. >> jared, we'll catch you soon. coming up, as the summer rally turns into the summer selloff, what's the best way to present your profit. first interview with bob lutz on the future of the gm company and the american auto industry live at 5:00. >> speaking of the auto industry, just crossing, the obama administration apparently weighing vouchers for future clunker sales. don't know what that means. we're going to look into that more. obviously they like what they've seen w

and as part of, going back to heth care, whenou lok at major reforms they nd to happen at periods ofigh economic growt it's almost unprecedeed to think of major social reforms at time of economic anxietyecause people pu inward are risk adverse, hat is the pa of the political -- >> suck logically it'sgood news. i mean one-thi as many people lost thei jobs in ju as did in janry. and more people lstheir js in january than any monthsince 1940. so you know thatense it's an improvement, judy. but the ality is according to the senate f budgetnd poli priorities which is a liberals gro, that unemployment doesn't peak for a long time until ter the end of theecession. for example, in 2001 cession unemployment did not peak, that is did n reach its lowest point, until, o highest point until 19 mons after the recession had hended. it was 15 months in the 1991 recession. o the layoffs being less wer are not to be n fussed wi hiring and jobs goin out. o-third of the people who e unemployed right no have be umployed for more than halfa year. and at is more serious a more eat than any time i the histo

at'' tse aklo let's te lok from theoof camera. the sunshine is beaming through a little hayes.t today will be partly sunny skies with mid-80's by lunchtime and thunderstorms could not be ruled out for the day. it will be the same kind of deal this evening but the threat diminishes overnight. tomorrow will pump more of the same a cold front tomorrow will keep us on settle for thursday with an afternoon storm possible and it looks like friday will have a big storm. that should keep things cool for the weekend. >>> investigators are looking to a series of overnight arson fires in damascus, maryland. seven fires were intentionally set around 2:00 this morning. four bales of hay and three mailboxes were set on fire around kings valley road. if you haven't formation, call to being able to manage your diabetes properly. it's very important for me to uh check my blood sugar before i go on stage. being on when i'm feeling low can be like a rollercoaster. it does at times feel like my body is telling me to do one thing... and, my mind, my heart is telling me to do something else. managin