i'm sharon epperson. >>> coming up, how a team turned the love of a certain kind of art into a million dollar business. great story. but first, a look at how commodities, treasuries and currencies fared. >>> finally tonight, it's never too soon to start, especially when it comes to starting your own business. you're about to meet a young lady who, as tyler mathison explains, came up with an idea that's producing some pretty big money when she was just 8 years old. >> so like this one, we made a wedge. >> reporter: madison robinson's braces belie her wisdom. >> always have a positive mind and be open to what other people have to say about your product. >> reporter: her product, fish flops. according to her father, dan, the brand sold more than $1 million worth of retail merchandise in 2012. >> those numbers are accurate but now we've exceeded those numbers. >> reporter: this year, sales grew 25%. now 50 new designs due out next year. they were unveiled a few weeks ago at a las vegas trade show. what's a nice girl like this doing in las vegas? missing high school dance team practice for

back to sharon epperson who we located at the nymex. take a look at what's happening with oil prices right now. >> oil prices right now as we're heading to the close here are lower on the session but a lot of traders and analysts are looking to fill some potential upside in oil. we've been waffling at least for the wti contract. u.s. oil prices between 105 and $110 a barrel with a lot of folks just waiting to see what's going to happen next week with the fomc and now that it looks like the syria situation is cooling off, we're seeing back tracking here on oil prices. still the export issue in libya. there's still also a lot of concern about geopolitical tensions that may erupt at some time so barclay's, a number of other firms, saying there's still an upside bias to the oil price but right now we are going to close lower on the session. >> sharon epperson, thank you so much. still ahead on this fine show, a money manager delivers a trio of what he calls safe energy. down double digits and one has doubled. naming names. >> insult to inju

sharon epperson is with us with more. sharon? a lot of great advantages to 401(k) plans. when you make your contributions, of course that lowers your taxable income, and your employer may match your contributions. that's free money and then, of course, investing over time, well, that's a good way to help to ensure your retirement savings will increase, but then again not all 401(k) plans are created equally. in a new report out today bright scope, an independent financial research firm ranked the top industries with the best 401(k) plans, and these are plans with over $100 million in assets. now, topping the list in their survey is the law, and in there law firms sullivan & cromwell is at the top of the list. the second best industry with the best 401(k), industry, oil and mining gas. technology number four with google and ibm topping that sector and finally utilities round out the top five. whether or not you have the best ranked 401(k) plan really may not matter if you're not saving enough. that's what ceo from bright scope mik

sharon epperson, thank you very much. >>> talk about flying the friendly skies. not going to believe what happened on united airlines' website yet. well, it's amazing. we're going to come back in 30 seconds to tell you. stick around. >>> coming up on the friday edition of "street signs," i'm a fan of the food truck. what about a soup truck. a closet on wheels and parked out the front here. nifty things to give you the perfectly made custom suit. gold suffering its worst week since june. twitter, the big story of the day. we are asking if there is a bubble forming in social media. all those things and more on this friday edition. see you top of the hour. >> i saw that truck in the front. it looked nifty. >> jump inside and have a look around. you'll be amazed. >> mobile shopping i love it. see you at 2:00. >> okay. >> all right. dozens of jetblue airways flights are being delayed after a computer glitch limited the airline's ability to dispatch its planes. the system was restored by 10:30 a.m. eastern time but you know what that means. the airline warned delays wo

why don't we get to sharon epperson for more is there we are closing on a two-year high. in fact, is this the highest chose we've seen for mime "x" crude oil since may 3rd of 2011 and we're settling around $110.47 a barrel, up more than $2, 2% on the session. of course, all eyes are on syria and traders behind me said no way they will go home short and the that accounts for a large part of the gains we've seen this week in both u.s. oil prices and brent crude as well. but certainly wti has outpaced brent this week. also seen a great deal of volatility in the oil space and that's not likely to change any time soon as we're continuing to see what will happen here in terms of the situation in syria. so, again, we're looking at oil prices at a two-year high, above $110 a barrel. back to you. >> thanks very much for the headlines there, sharon epperson. >>> on deck, why fears about syria and the jobs report could be really good news if you're house hunting. speaking of homes, round six of the million dollar homes challenge, the pre-war condo going up against the colonial charm

i'm sharon epperson at the nymex.d prices continue to fall here, down more than $30, below 1330 an ounce and bringing down with it gold exchange trader funds. the largest one, the gld as well as the iau, both under pressure today. a lot of traders saying that it is selling due to concerns that we may see perhaps the fed decide to go with tapering, reduce its bond-buying program. we don't know for sure, but many traders say this is preemptive selling, not sure what will come from the fed meeting next week. we're also looking at perhaps some technical momentum that gathered steam after gold prices fell below the 10 0-day moving average in the overnight session. we're also looking at perhaps an unwinding of the safe haven trade. traders say we saw that run-up, a lot of money managers making bullish bets as the syria situation looked like it was worsening. now that there may be some resolution here, we are looking at that unwinding of the safe haven trade. back to you. >> sharon epperson, thank you very much for that. >>>

to get you started, author of "the adult student," insider's guide of going back to school and sharon eppersonve a second crack at a profession and go back to school and that can be a daunting idea for people, can't it? >> it can be. you have to figure out how much time you have in your day, an empty nester versus someone with someone in preschool like myself will have different types available. >> whether you can afford it, whether the degree will be worth it, the certificate or whatever you're going back for. >> and technology has probably changed a lot since you went to school last time. you better be up to date on those kinds of skills. >> absolutely. you need to be up to date on those kinds of skills and you may want to choose to take the course online as well. >> you see a lot of those online degrees advertised on tv. are those i guess not legitimate but something an employer would look at and say, great, you went there. that's fine. >> certainly there's been a stigma in the past they may have. in the last five years, it's largely been removed, thankfully. a lot of state schools and comm

let's get to sharon epperson at the nymex. aron. >> michelle, that certainly was a huge spike after the fed announcement yesterday. we did see gold price rally more than 50 bucks, and gold has held on to those gains, ebs tended them a little in today's session as well. keep in mind, we are looking at gains of more than 4% for gold, more than 8% at one point for silver and gains for copper and the platinum group of metals as well. but there's something else it consider hear. you have to remember how the gold future market trades. and it closes at 1:30 p.m. in terms of the floor session. that's really what the closing price is based on. the fed decision came at 2:00, and then we saw gold continue to rally after that. but the etfs gives you a eter indicati better indication of what happened it gold today because they really price off of what has happened in today's session. and there really hasn't pen that much action. that's why you're looking at those etfs basically flat on the session today. back to you guys. >> sharon, thank y

bring in sharon epperson as well on this, because she covers retirement issues for us at cnbc. is has a lot of financial planning implications, not just for those who are entering into retirement, sharon, but those who may be closer to retirement than they would like. the boomers. >> it's absolutely true. i mean now you're going to have more choices and just like when i was a former employee of time warner as well which is doing this, getting my first 401(k), all those choices trying to make those decisions on my own. i'm in the driver's seat not only of my retirement 401(k) planning but health care planning. this is going to be key for boomers who now know that this will be coming for them when they retire from these companies. it's also something that retirees have to think about. it's definitely going to impact your financial planning and the questions that you ask and the resources and those that you turn to get advice. >> you made the point but it bears repeating when they go on to these private exchanges the costs may actually be less than what they are paying within the p

sharon epperson. a lot of cross current in the markets as we can see. fit into the picture? have a chat with fran here on set, ceo and chief investment officer. nice of you to stop by in person. gold, down about 20% year to date after 12 years in the money. >> spectacular. >> it was spectacular but it all seems to have fallen into a hole. >> past three years up 12%. perform bonds. it's hard for people to believe that. i think that gold will continue to have its growth. the companies are probably the best place to buy. >> why? was it ju was it just the scare of the taper that changed the story for gold and now it seems to be off the table. >> historically gold starts at a summer rally to the chinese new year. we're going to be going into the wedding season in india, monsoon rains are good, harvest is great, so you'll turn around and see high gold consumption like in 2010 we had. it's an important part of the equation. strap on the fear trade. the debt ceiling battle will get extended. they will monetize debt. look at inflation and five-year government no

sharon epperson has the closing numbers for us from the nymex. she tried to say. on, over to you. >> sue, we're looking at gold prices that have seen tremendous selloff. it's largely been technical momentum that has driven the down side here. gold prices closing down more than $30 on the session. right around 1330 an ounce, and it is, as dominic said, preemptive selling some traders are saying ahead of the fed announce. whenever they decide next week from their meeting about tapering. some believe that if it's going to happen, don't want to be long this market. but you add to that breaking below the 100-day moving average, that started the ball rolling overnight, and we've seen momentum in the selling as we've progressed through the day. next level to watch, 1325 or 1300. back to you. >> okay, thanks, sharon. >>> let's get the trading action. joining me, kenny, director at o'neill securities, and a cnbc market analyst. we really seem to be on hold today though we're bettering our position. >> right, we've been fluctuating. not only the moves from the last seven day

. >> thank you very much sharon epperson. the fed expected to announce the scaling back of its quantitative easing program. how much will the fed pull back? here's what wall street's top firms are forecasting in ranges from 10 to $15 billion. nobody is an outlier there, malcolm gladwell all in the 10 to $15 billion range. we come a long way since qe was first announced during the financial crisis. and today makes it a very important one for the markets. seema mody will look at how the market reacts on fed decision generally but first the trading action with bob pisani. what you would expect a lot of watching and waiting. >> we're going to snap a three-day win streak if this keeps up. i want to point out the weakness in the hmo stocks the medicare advantage stocks that we're seeing today. humana, uam, unh, well care to the downside today. i think the market is getting a little nervous about obama care at this point. remember, the president has very little political capital right now and he walked away from larry summers a lot

sharon epperson at the nymex with details of the meltdown. >> we're looking at gold at a five-week low. though we're off the lows of the session, gold prices still just above that 1300 level, the key psychological level in the week ahead. this is the worst week we've seen for gold, for silver, too, since june. so, we are looking at a lot of traders focusing on what's going to happen next week, doing preemptive selling, expecting we are going to hear something about tapering. therefore, we're looking at lower prices in both precious metals. back to you. >> thanks, sharon. we've got the final 50 minutes to trade here on wall street. we've got a market that's higher by about 62 points. not the highs, just shy of it. >> five years after the financial crisis, a new survey confirms that most americans still do not trust wall street. up next, we're going to discuss what it will take to change that as many former investors have missed the last 9,000 points on the dow. imagine that. 9,000 points. >> 9,000 points. also ahead later on -- why do you think emerging markets with the population growt

. >> i'm sharon epperson. trades coming in the gold.ooking at gold prices ending down about $5, around 1327 an ounce. we are off the lows of the session and traders have been watching a lot of the fed talk very carefully to see which way it's going to go with the taper. back to you. >> thank you very much, sharon. to dominic chu who knows more about why blackberry was holding. >> we know now because they bettered a letter of intent, agreement with fairfax financial holdings. this company oenwns about 10% o the stock here. a possible deal involving fairfax financial, a huge shareholder. with blackberry itself. details coming out a possible deal size could be in the range of $4.7 billion. these headlines are coming fast and furious. what we know, fairfax financial, a large shareholder in blackberry, into an agreement, a letter of intent, agreement with blackberry, on what could be a possible takeover here. the size could be about $4.7 billion. tyler, again a breaking news situation. we'll bring you more details as we know them here. for r

sharon epperson is down with the traders at the nay mechaniymex.lot of people on the wrong side of this particular trade. >> reporter: a lot of people caught. they didn't know. they had no idea it was going to go this way. and as a result, they did get caught off guard and lost a lot of money. we are seeing gold prices that remain in significant gain territory, up over $60 since the fed announcement. much of those gains were made after 2:00 p.m. yesterday in electronic trading. in today's session, we remain steady and holding on to those fwan. i'm joined by kevin grady who is a veteran trader here on the floor with faen ix futures and options. and kevin, as we just outlined, a lot of people were on the wrong side of this trade. what did you think was going to happen going into that announcement? >> well, i did think there was going to be some tapering. 65% to 70% of all economist polled were also looking for that tapering. so a lot of traders were on that side. if you couple that the fact that a lot of the major banks were putting out sell signals

sharon epperson at the nymex with more on that. folks thanking ben bernanke, i guess, huh? >> maybe some gold traders are a bit over the fed for the moment as well. that one day gain is actually a one session gain. the session started after the 1:30 close yesterday. most of the gain we saw in gold was between the 2:00 announcement and 5:15 end of electronic trading yesterday. today we're not seeing as much action in the gold market. but still we are looking at a tremendous runup post fed in the gold price. and it's not just happened in the gold market, but it's happened in other metals as well. with silver up nearly 8%. we're also seeing the platinum group met als up sharply. what traders want to see is whether or not these gains are sustainable and whether we'll see more upside momentum. the jury is still out on that. they're very mixed in their views here on the floor. back to you. >> thank you. about 45 minutes before the closing bell sounds for the day in a market that is fractionally low. really mixed. nasdaq is actually higher. dow down about 37. >> slight bias to the

sharon epperson is tracking the action for us. >> hi, sue.en a somber and rather quiet day here on the trading floor at the nymex and gold prices closing now basically flat on the session around 1364 an ounce. we are looking at gold prices that are perhaps looking ahead to what will happen next week with the fomc meeting. a lot of traders not wanting to take any big bets ahead of that. goldman sachs out saying they believe we're going to continue to see a slide in gold prices because with he are going to see tapering of quantitative easing and they are a 12 month price target of 1175 for gold. back to you. >> all right. thank you so much. as i mentioned kind of a somber day down here on the floor of the new york stock exchange. bob pisani and i were just talking about this anniversary but we have a strong market. a triple digits once again and a good run for the dow jones industrial average. >> what's remarkable, you and i were talking ate this. if this was a year ago apple was down 5% the market would be in turmoil. it was down in turmoil in

sharon epperson is at the nymex and has details on that. >> we're looking at oil prices drichtsing lower now as traders await iranian president rowhani's comments and speech later this afternoon and more important, the talks that will occur later this week over iran's nuclear program. clear view energy analyst kevin book has come out with three possible scenarios on the impact this could have on the oil price. and the first one is the bullish case. the bullish case is keep in mind we've seen sanctions hit iran pretty hard, already taking about half of the exports off the table in the last two years or so. if there are additional sanctions, which would take another 1 million barrels per day off the table, that could certainly cause brent crude prices to skyrocket. he sees the case at about $116 a barrel at the end of next year. then the base case, the sanctions continue as they have. there are no additional sancti n sanctions and by the end of the next year we could see prices near where they are right now, around $106 a barrel. here's the bearish case and the one that kevin book says is

get to the gold market because it was a rough day in gold and prices are closing right now and sharon eppersons tracking the action which has been decidedly negative at the nymex for us. >> hi, sue. gold prices down $20, more than that actually at the close here right around 1364 an ounce. we have seen gold prices tumbling ever since we got word that syria had accepted russia's proposal for its chemical weapons and as we await what president obama has to say tonight, gold traders say that this is really an unwinding of the safe haven trade of that risk premium that had been in gold prices. it was significant not only for gold but silver as well and silver is unwinding. those long positions also. we're looking at silver down as much as 3% and at a three-week low nearly for both gold and silver on this session. meanwhile the only positive light here we're seeing in the metals complex is in palladium. it is up on the day. we did get the positive production data out of china and the car exhausts are made out of palladium, something helping platinum prices at this hour. >> thank you very much. >>>

sharon epperson watching gold which is surging, sharon, on the prospect of continueded in stimulus. >that's right. and the dollar has weakened. gold prices are now above $13.80 an ounce. we're looking at this bounce in gold directly after we got that jobs data. keep in mind a lot of traders say it's not necessarily that there will be a delay in the tapering but there is, of course, that expectation that maybe we will see perhaps some delay there that has some gold traders short covering. for now, we're seeing metals across the board that is in positive territory. in fact, silver price is up nearly 2% and platinum up. watching the developments in syria as they say that has still not been fully priced in if there is a full-on attack. that is something the traders are watching as we look at brent wud r crude prices up $115 a barrel and nymex crude fuel futures at approaching higher. >>> watch shares of facebook today. poised to open the new 52-week highs. suntrust raising price target from $40 to $55. they expect facebook revenues to get a boost from video ads, instagram and graph search

. >>> i'm sharon epperson with breaking news from the energy department on natural gas storage levelsorage levels rise by 65 billion cubic feet. now, that is less than what some analysts were anticipating. analysts were looking for an increase in the range of 64 to 68 billion cubic feet but many traders watched increases showing possibly 70 or 74 cubic feet. we're seeing natural gas up right now. being tradelers will watch the forecasts for temperatures coming out to be normal. often this is the time you see selling of natural gas. we'll see whether or not this storage report which shows an increase in supply of 65 billion cubic feet is enough to continue to lift the market. back to you, simon. >> the s.e.c. is meeting with the heads of this country, some 13 exchanges today, following the complete shutdown of all nasdaq traded stocks about three weeks ago for the best part of an afternoon. eamon, good morning. >> good morning, simon. the meeting has begun and it began about 9:30 eastern time here. they expect it could go as long as about three hours today. it won't get out until about

. >> sharon epperson at the nymx.like yesterday, the big leaders were trending downward, until suddenly, at 10:30, we turned around. the dow moved 90 points in the space of about 40 minutes here. that's what i'm talking about. it disappeared the minute i noticed it. look at that. a couple of things. number one, the president was speaking and some traders felt his heavy emphasis on diplomacy was a helpful factor. perhaps more importantly, rumors of a downgrade of italian debt. it wouldn't be a good thing. it was debunked at 10:30, and that's when the market turned around. that may have been a contributing factor. a lot of discussions on housing. you see robert schueler here on "squawk on the street," i love him, known him 20 year, have a lot of respect for him. put up what was going on here. put up his comment here. you want to see how confused and difficult it is for him rile now. here's what he had to say. he said this might be the beginning of a slowdown, but it sk could be the beginning of a bubble, but i don't kno

sharon epperson at the imx. >> it's the post-fed prefrenzy.e evening. we're seeing big gains not only in copper but in palladium and platinum, itself. the biggest gainer definitely silver. silver up 8% since the 1:30 floor close we saw in the komx yesterday. keep in mind, a lot of folks are saying, why are we seeing such gains in the futures for precious metals but not in the gld? and it's because it's priced off the futures and much of the gain we're seeing in gold futures came at that time. so we're just seeing a slight up tick right now in that gld in today's session. also keep in mind as we see the no tapering, the fact that qe will continue, and we talk about the benefit that that has had to the stock market, we are going -- carl, back to you. >> sharon, let's take you to washington, d.c., house speaker john boehner speaking. >> when it comes to the healthcare law, the debate in the house has been settled. i think our position is very clear. the law's a train wreck, and it's going to raise costs. it's destroying american jobs. and it must

. ♪ >>> i'm sharon epperson.he gold market pricing in expectations that the fed will taper on qe. that is why we're down yet another day here in the gold market with gold prices at a session low earlier this morning just above the psychologically important 1,300 level. as we're look at the slide we're seeing in the gold market, it's not only this precious metal but silver as well. we're on track where gold and silver are at the highest selloff levels. we're also seeing lower prices in the oil market. traders are factoring what's going on next week with the fomc and waffling between the 105 and 110 level in the oil market. traders say there doesn't seem to be any firm conviction in either direction. >> on "mad money" last year, cramer asked coo of buzz feed about what they taught about twitter going public. >> take an outside guess, what is this thing going to be worth? >> 10 to 20. i think that's what people are saying. it's what people have been saying for a while. >> jim, he called it the first pure social medi

. >> and cnbc's personal finance correspondent sharon epperson is here to tell you how to change it up a secure job, though, you know? what gave you the courage to do it? >> at the time i worked for a company and they were just laying off jobs. so they didn't lay off my particular position, but that's what made me, you know, think, what else could i do? >> you wanted to be more in control. >> a lot of people have ideas of what they want to do but don't know what to do with that idea. >> it's really a great idea to start thinking about different streams of income, even while you're working. if you aren't working if you are at home you have this great idea. start doing it. do it for friends, family members. >> get their reaction to it and see how you can do it. >> how did you do it? you didn't have a ton of money. what did you do? >> actually, what i did was i started my business with my own money. savings and 401(k). >> were you nervous to dump everything in? >> absolutely. absolutely. >> so you took your own dough. en what did you do? >> i was looking for -- well, creating a line for a