i'm melissa francis. you are listening to the question and answer portion of ben bernanke's hearing on financial regulation. stocks are lower due to disappointing economic news. let's go back to the hearing. >> there's two key issues i think. one is inflation. federal reserve is responsible for inflation. we are confident that we can manage our policies to support the economy. without inducing inflation in the median term. so we are committed to low inflation and fully believe we have the tools and political will necessary to achieve that. the second issue is about the current account and trade deficit. as someone earlier mentioned, we need to have a better balance where by the u.s. saves more, imports less and other countries, including china, rely more on their domestic demand. that's a mutual process where both sides have to accommodate that. but from our perspective, the best way we have to raise our national saving rate over the median term is to manage our fiscal position because the government defi

cnbc's melissa francis at the new york stock exchange. melissa, a lot of news yesterday about the road -- at the end of the road for gm saturn. >> yeah, that's absolutely right. gm is, in fact, closing the saturn brand. they tried to make a deal with penske to sell it, but that fell through. gm's going to immediately begin shutting down a plant in michigan that builds those cars. it could also shut 350 dealers and could cost as many as 13,000 jobs. also getting a lot of attention this morning, comcast is denying reports that it has made a deal to buy nbc universal, both nbc universal and ge have no comment on this story. back to you, ann. >> all right, melissa francis, thank you so much for your report. >>> finally now, a good samaritan is being hailed as a hero in new york after helping firefighters rescue a 4-year-old boy from a burning building on wednesday. the man carried the boy down the fire escape, as you see there, and gave onlookers a thumbs up when the child started breathing again. he's in stable condition this morning. at 7:11

. >> i'm melissa francis. the talks between ge and comcast over nbc universal will continue. we'll discuss the changing landscape of the media industry and how you can be affected. this is "the call" on cnbc. >>> looks like it's going to be a bad day for the bulls after another 263,000 americans lost their jobs in september. the unemployment rate hit 9.8%. it's the highest level since june of 1983. that's a rough start. stocks paired their losses and turned higher when dollars originally rose. then started to sell off. the dow is down 25 points. not too bad considering the data. the s&p right now is down about a third of a percentage point. the nasdaq is trading to the down side as well, down about a quarter of a percentage point, 2052. look how treasuries are faring. >> gold is up. >> the dollar taking a little bit of a hit there. down below 77 right now. you know, 7690. trish, what's happening on the floor? >> it's something that we often see, right? this weakness in the dollar which then translate into a little bit more strength in the equities market. it's something we're

cnbc's melissa francis is at the new york stock exchange. hey, melissa. >> hi, ann.lly today is on those unemployment numbers, this one day after the dow, the russell and the s&p had their biggest single-day drop since july. one of the reasons, auto sales, which tanked in september on the heels of the cash for clunkers program. gm reported a 45% decline versus a year ago, chrysler 42%. only hyundai bucking the trend, up 27%. ann, back to you. >> all right, melissa, thank you so much. >>> finally now, some clown paid $35 million to go into orbit and made it to the international space station this morning. in fact, he was the founder of cirque du soleil. laliberte. he threatens to tickle the cerp while they're sleeping. uh-oh, that could be annoying. it is now 8:04. time for the weather and al. >> announcer: "where are we today" is brought to you by comfort suites and the other fine choice hotels. >>> got some more big mariah fans over here. you guys have a pretty good shot there, see mariah. are you excited about this? >> huge fan. >> yeah. >> yeah! >> yes! >> so exci