european banks particularly strong thanks to comments of merkle reiterating that germany will do what it can to maintain the euro. bank of america up better than many of the other dow performers leading the way. mandy? >> okay. thanks very much for that, courtney. bullish sentiment of individual nevainvestors is creeping up. brian? >>> america, while you were having fun in the sun, did you know that stocks are red hot this summer? talk about your stealth rallies. >> lightning strikes again. slow and steady the name of the game this summer. the dow and s&p 500 just inches away from four and a half-year highs. blue chips up nearly 7% since june 1st. cisco, merck, chevron, the topper formers. the s&p up 8%. sprint nextel, tesoro, first solar, the winners there. the nasdaq's got more work to do to reach new highs though up more than 8% this summer. tops in the nasdaq 100, seagate second too long, sirius xm radio and sandisk. and don't sleep on apple. after some stumbles, the stock is up 12% this summer. back at all-time highs.and if i be unstoppable. you have to love lightning the tortois

. >>> german chancellor angela merkle is one of the most powerful women in the world. she's being honored for her handling of the euro crisis and preserving the european union. she's joined on this list by number 2, secretary of state hillary clinton and jill marusef, the president of brazil, rounds out the top three. that has not changed since last year. >>> they honored the late godfather of yoga today. he professed it chuck brown day. they made plans for a permanent chuck brown memorial in yangley park in the northeast. he found it important to keep the legacy alive. >> i find it hard to believe people don't know who chuck brown was. but the day will come when we have children who are unborn, we have children who are very young who will say, who is chuck brown? >> part of the park will be renamed chuck brown yangley park. it will also be renovated. >>> storm team 4, chief meteorologist doug kammerer. boy, say that a lot. i expect to lose weight by saying that. but, anyway -- >> have you? >> not yet, but i just started. are we done with these afternoon showers? >> i

mario draghi an now merkle and some of the other policymakers to do what's necessary to keep the eurozone together and keep the economy moving forward so i'm confident when all the data points are in at the end of september the markets are going to be feeling good about how things are going. >> interesting. we haven't mentioned greece. let's not go down the greek alley but are you suggesting therefore american investors can ignore europe, that it is actually now ring fenced by policymakers? >> yeah. i wouldn't ignore it. i mean, certainly things could go wrong and one of the key reasons is politics are involved and that was one of the key points of draghi's op-ed today, to get germany on board and make sure that politically that they're committed. so things could go wrong and so we should keep our eye on it but i think fundamentally what draghi told us over the course of last few weeks and hearing from the policymakers is they're all in, fully committed. eu eu eurozone doing what's necessary and good for the global economy an our own economy. >> mark, we are coming up on the jackson hole

up after the comments of merkle and wondering how sustainable this is going considering we haven't had any significant moves in over a week now. >> as long as europe is calm, the markets are calm. the u.s. is safest investment, mandy. how close we are to new highs, everyone complains of the volume but we are five points of a four-year high on the s&p. 100 points, 0.7% from a new high on the dow industrials. out further, the nasdaq, the russell 2000, the dow transports, a lot further away. this is a big cap rally right now. mystery stock of the day. what's going on with general motors? take a lock at gm. up 6%. now, that's a very unusual move. 9 million shares changing hands. there's an intraday chart of general motors and strange for gm. i don't have information on what's moving it for you. the preferreds are moving, as well. a tremendous yield of 6.7% and also up about 4%. there's some surveys out. isi with a survey out today and sales good for autos and no specific news on gm. take a look at the other automotive stocks. you can see moves here good. 2% overall for the group and not li

miss merkle is back from germany from the vacation. more on greece very soon.ll hear more from the ecb in the next several weeks, as well. back to you. >> okay. bob, thanks so much. trying to point to what we need to focus on. well, japan's slowdown is something that's weighing down equities. yet bringing up u.s. treasury yields. for more on equities, we have jason pride, director of glen mede and great to have you with us, gentlemen. jason, very quickly, your thoughts on the pick of paul ryan and whether or not that changes anything from an equity standpoint. >> sure. thanks for having me on, mandy. our perspective on this has little to do with whether the republican or the democratic candidates end up winning the election. really, has to do with the fact of bringing the fiscal cliff and the whole fiscal and debt debate as a core election campaign issue meaning won't be solved definitively before november and stretched in to november and running up against that january 1st deadline. that's going to create consternation. probably a good thing paul ryan is there

euro coming off after that angela merkle surge earlier today.e close of gold $1,617.15. just shy of that. back to you. >> thank you. jackie deangelis now with a market flash. >> i'm keeping an eye on mckeszon. it's a biggest decliner on the s&p 500, as a matter of fact. down 2.73%. morgan stanley downgrading it saying that upside in the stock is limited and ms pulling the price target on the stock, as well. they're expecting flattish earnings before taxes next year. not pretty. sue? >> not pretty at all. thank you very much. >>> let's get courtney reagan. noisy down here today. the natives are restless here and the market's not reflecting that too much. >> not at all. the s&p 500 trading in a five-point range today. so we're six points away from the closing high. they're too busy partying over here. volatility at a five-year low. but the vix futures, holding higher. september contract still over 18. january over 25. the consumer discretionary sector one of the leaders today. consumer sentiment reading better than expected and the strong retails

and the politics managing editor for the huffington post, amanda merkle. "washington journal" begins live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> this weekend on booktv, getting on sunday at 4:00 p.m. eastern, from his 2010 afterwards interview, mitt romney and juan williams. >> a strong defender of democracy, free trade, free enterprise, those words of apology and those statements, i think, have emboldened those who find this is a weekend enemy. >> later, in the book, the real mitt romney, co-author and investigated unchecked investigative reporter explores the 2002 winter olympics end his tenure at bain capital. part of booktv weekend on c-span2. >> from the american bar association's american meeting, a comparison of the constitutional legal systems of the united states, canada, and israel. it includes a former canadian justice minister. judges sitting on the canadian and israeli supreme court and u.s. supreme court justice, ruth bader ginsburg. this is an hour and a half. [inaudible conversations] >> good afternoon, my name is michael traison. welcome to ou