masco had surprisingly positive commentary about the second half the of the year expecting a full year profit. the stock's up 13%. also helping the home builders, as well. lumber prices, i know i don't talk about it a lot, but it's up 10% in the last two days. some of this may be due to the fact that there's production cuts announced here. again you want to see commodities coming off lows here. that's potentially important, as well. else where, a strong dollar here today puts pressures on commodity stocks overall and we see that commodities are down, big commodity names are week, valero energy reported disappointing numbers, as well. other names, same situation. the last two weeks i've had big run-ups in all these stocks off their midday lows. trader talk.cnbc.com. >> right there we hit the peak at 2:30 eastern time on the nasdaq if we can somehow get back up there, the nasdaq will have been up for 14 of the past 15 days. helping move things up could be a relatively small deal, but it is with a very big company and for a very big premium, talking about ibm buying this business software

the second biggest gainer in the s&p 500 today, none other than masco, giant maker of cabinets and faucets for homes. up a stunning 14%. it ain't done, after reporting a knockout quarter yesterday to the close, at this point the very real turn in housing seems impossible to deny. although i still people denying it. last week stanley works from black and decker reported strong earnings, i think sears will report strong earnings, black and decker raised guidance for the rest of 2009. i am thrilled by the strength in housing. i love that the stocks of the home builders which, of course, unfortunately i told you to stay away from, but ron and sana who stood right here told you to buy it, both in this market moves e-news letter and live on cnbc. and those keep marching higher and higher proving me wrong, but that's okay. i'm concerned you might miss out on all of this positive home build, home action. particularly what's in a home. because this is a market that's filled with misdirection. misdirection, case in point. yesterday, goldman sachs, my alma mater and viewed as some wall street gangste

masco had very positive comments about their earnings in the second of the year helping a lot of home building stocks overall. generally home building stocks have been up for several days in a row. talk about other groups moving here. how about, for example, hmo snz did you see what happened in hmos? a positive company from centene, a government supplier of government programs, like medicare and medicaid. we saw positive comments as well from could ventory that provider broader hmos, raise their guidance as well as centene. etna which had terrible comments the other day was to the upside. the laboratory providers, don't normally comment on them. laboratory corp, late in the day, there was word out, we haven't confirmed in that the new senate finance committee on health care might contain a copay for laboratories that might save money. you're trying to save money in the health care area but could cost profits for some of the laboratory companies which might include quest diagnostics. all those stocks were down. we have to confirm that little piece. >> bob pisani. thanks so much. busine

masco, a big supplier company had positive comments here. on the kay shilling numbers. which are showing some signs of stabilization. i don't want to make too much about it. >> let's not forget, we did see positive housing numbers yesterday, too, so the two combined in a row certainly boding well for stocks. bob pisani, so glad you could join us. >> we have breaking news right now from scott cohn. breaking news on allen stanford. >> that's right, trish. this report obtained by cnbc under the freedom of information act, the internal report of the s.e.c. looking into how the matter was handled of allen stanford and the alleged $8 billion ponzi scheme. the inspector general who has been very independent throughout these financial scandals says the agency did not reach its obligation to vigorously pursue the case, but the urgency increased after bernie madoff confessed to his ponzi scheme in september. but this report raises questions, as well. the report says that the s.e.c. effectively halted its investigation last year after bringing in department of justice to assist in

we have masco in from time to time. >> nhealth marnagement getting boost.g a profit of 13 cents a share, versus estimates of 106789. >> amgen up nicely this morning. the biotech company's q2 results topped estimates by 13 cents. revenue better than expected. helped by a rebound in saleses of its rheumatoid arthritis drug. it is upping full-year guidance and announced a deal with glaxo under which glaxo would commercialize an osteoporosis drug. >> that stock gets into the 40s, i see it there, i say will it happen again? there seems to be these reasons not to know whether it's medicare reimbursements, whatever it is, but there it is, back up to 62. >> rent-a-center. i used that once. >> you did? >> you can rent to own. it was either rent-a-center or a competitor. >> what was -- >> i just got a couch, a table, and i think i bought my own tv. but i had a couch and table. you pay rent each month and you can end up owning this stuff or give it back. >> that's good in an environment where there's not a lot of new household creation. >> yes. you can see that it was

masco, big building supplier, had a loss but talked more positively about the rest of the year.e narrowed loss. that's important. standard pacific, these stocks have had huge moves, you want to know how tough it is to be an oil refiner? look at valero, they had a nice profit last year, but a loss this quarter and no surprise here. what's happened is the amount of money that they can make off trucks, airplane, selling fuel to them has dropped dramatically bought demand for airplanes, tractors and trucks has been dropped dramatically, so the ability of these dpens buy a barrel of oil and convert that into diesel or jet fuel, the ability to make a profit on that, the margin, dropped dramatically and that hurt them a lot. tradertalk.cn tradertalk.cnbc.com. sharon, are you still talking be this is a cftc, this report that the cft is going to blame the price swing on speculation. >> that's all they're talking, not even just "the wall street journal" because on cnbc on "squawk box" we had the commission bart chilton on talking about the oil price volatility, he won't give us the conclu