could nucor make low-priced steel with highly-paid american workers?s not what you pay an employee that's important. it's what he produces. if he produces a great deal you can pay him a great deal. the average hourly worker in darlington, south carolina, in our steel mill had earnings last year of over $30,000 a year. we had melters who earned over $35,000, which compares reasonably with what unionized workers in the integrated mills earned last year. now, if you look at what we produce, though, that we produced last year some 850 tons per employee where the average for the integrated producers was something like 350 tons per employee. nucor wasn't the only company using minimill techniques to turn red ink into black. dr. robert crandall, an economist with the brookings institution a washington, d.c. think tank. in the steel industry, a minimill industry is growing up to replace the less efficient integrated firms. we're likely to have in the future 75 firms each producing 2 million tons of steel a year rather than these giant companies producing up to

it's what nucor's ceo called ridiculous levels. that's adding pressures to domestic steel prices that are tumbling in tan dem with iron ore as a key production ingredient. they tend to move together. there are bright spots in all of this. increased demand from the auto and construction industries. both of those are industries that have helped other steel producers as well. we've got nucor and ak steel also beating estimates this week. later today we've got steel dynamics. that's going to report earnings as well. if you take a look it was a mixed session. we have u.s. steel up double digits. two others that are positive. ak steel is the one that's trading in the red. >> morgan, thank you so much. appreciate it. >>> we're going to talk more about the stock market because stock pick issing back in vogue given the return of volatility. can you still make money with large caps with the strong dollar? we have nine stars worth of investment advice for you. joining us is eric marshall co-portfolio manager of the five star morning star rate

both ak steel and nucor reporting better numbers. nucor also getting a boost from strength in the construction industry in the prior quarter. we want to end up with the coal miners because we had peabody energy coming in with a wider than expected loss. it's slashing its dividend and also lowering its outlook for u.s. demand. arch cote coal down. as well as the other coal miner. the dow up 230 points. sue, back to you. >> all right mary. thank you very much. think do not have strong dollar exposure. have not been performing well. can the market continue to move higher if you don't have earnings? >> well, i think -- no i think -- and i think we're seeing that, right? the market is very disappointing. what i think is very interesting this earnings season versus prior is remember we always have the story at the beginning of every earnings season about how they've already taken the numbers down and now they're going to -- the market is going to go higher. we're going to get 80% of the companies that report bp estimates, and everything wi

i would anticipate freeport, nucor, alcoa. other things don't make quite as much sense. for example, in the transports, ch robinson, yrcw, conway, 90% of their revenues inside united states. this seems like a big move and a little bit of a panic reaction to me. but i've learned not to yell at the stock market. another thing down of course are the energy names and no surprise here, some of the big shale plays are down in double digits, but some of the big names all of them down 3%, 4% or 5%. back to you. >> now let's go to chicago and get to rick santelli. some in your bond world are saying yields are likely on climb this year, but not famed investor jeff gundlach. he's on the record saying he sees yields falling maybe to as low as 1.4%. do you agree? >> i agree they will fall. i guess the only thing that there would be some debate on is exactly how far they will fall. i think mr. gundlach has been accurate in assessing that global growth just isn't there and of course things like europe and energy may not necessarily help the investor class. but on the latter, i look for

nucor hitting 52-week lows. and alcoa despite better than expected earnings down 5.5%. to top that off, i will say this also had ripple effects into mining equipment makers. we saw caterpillar trading lower and joy global. you can see that -- joy global turned positive. guys, back to you. >> i think they heard you, morgan. thank you very much. morgan brennan back at headquarters. markets have been bouncing around. every time we look, something different is going on. gold one of the few metals in the green today though. that is is safe haven typically. let's head into the commodities pits. joining us a todd colvin and paul sachs. i'm guessing au is a reference. tell us what you think is happening with gold. >> well done. gold is actually performing relatively well compared to just about everything else you're mentioning. it it's shrugging off the implosion in crude, the strength of the u.s. dollar. gold has really been holding its own. if there's a theme,s volatility. commodities are moving 4% 5% 6% a day. to me it seems like there's some liquidation, margin calls. it re