the usair and united merger in the news today and the two companies may be plying toward a deal, and we will see if they have their eyes on another carrier in the midst of this. looking at how we finished the day on wall street. we are off of the best levels of the afternoon, one from theless, the index is closing at 10,927, up .25%. and nasdaq gave up at the close, but finished positive to the tune of 2,436. and the s&p 500 up four points to 1,186 the highest level of the year, up 33%. bob pisani has all of the figures for us and he is the eye on the floor right now. robert? >> well, 1 10,984 would have be the high but only a very short from the high of the dow. and looking at the casinos here, earlier in day, we had word out that the gaming commission that the gaming revenues in las vegas in the last month were much stronger than expected and double-digit gains which was good for a 10% gain from mirage, and boyd and wynn is strong and as well adds the sands. and stocks outperforming for day, and of course, s consolidation talks of the airlines and the rail roads were good today, an

>> the names are ual and usair. most likely it will probably happen, although it is weeks away and there are plenty of things to come in terms of hurdles they have to overcome. the airlines are still facing a prospect of not make anything money. you can charge as many people as you want for their bags, ultimately one of the best ways they perceive to actually be in a position to profit is by merging. consolidation is something the airline industry has embraced for a long time. unfortunately regulators in washington and their own unions proved a gaping issue. that's happened. ual and usair talked in the past in 2000. the government said we don't think so. and in 2008 when their own unions probably said we don't think it's something we want to happen. >> as a consumer, i'm thinking of the two brand names, united is one of those so-called legacy carriers, been around forever. would they control in a company formed by united and usair? >> not necessarily. usair has a younger management, a younger ceo, doug parker who ha

that's really where dealt saw cleaning the clock for delta and usair. they want to catch up in that area. they may have overlap problems in washington and chicago and might have to shed some gates, but for usairways ceo doug parker this is a great opportunity because he will be able to expand his airline and never mind it's smaller than united, he took a smaller america list and built it into usairways and usairways is the fifth largest airline in the country. united wants the size that would come along with a merger to better compete with delta particularly for those corporate customers and the hub overlap in washington, chicago, that's a potential conflict that ultimately could shed some gates there to make this work in the eyes of washington. what about continental? you'll hear people talk about the idea that united and co continental were in talks. they are watching this and they'll see what happens here and they already went down the path of mother-in-lawer with united once and decided it wasn't going to work and that said, you're going to hear a l

. >> be advised usair carrier has reported a passenger has attempted to ignite his shoes on fire. all pilots are to maintain extra vigilance and report any anomalies immediately. >> reporter: passengers on other flights were told to stay seated and put everything away. cnbc scott cohen flying last night on continental to new jersey said the pilot gave a warning. >> he came back on and said i want to reiterate, you're not allowed to having anything on your laps, especially cell phones and computers. if we find anything on your lap, i will divert the flight. >> reporter: two f-16 fighter jets were scrambled to escort the united flight. al madadi who was wearing sandals was searched. no explosives were found. a frequent critic of the department of homeland security says the government's response was just right. >> the air marshals from all that i know did exactly the right thing. what he did was absolutely stupid and irresponsible. >> reporter: the justice department decided not to file charges which would have been legally complicated because al madai has diplomatic immunity, but qa

in 2000, united airlines and usair struck a $4.3 billion deal only to be shot down by the justice departments and their unions, for that matter. a second deal in 2008 was opposed by a pilot's union. us airways shot up 20% in after hours trading on wednesday. united fell about 1% in late trading. darius, let's continue this conversation. our guest host, is this time actually going to go through? as i mentioned, we've tried this situation before to no avail. >> well, i think that the current market conditions with global growth recovering and the u.s. economy doing much better may provide more favorable background for m&a activity. at the same time, we have seen a big jump for fuel prices. so there is motivation to stream line and cut costs. so it may well be that this time around, the merger attempt will be successful. i don't think that regulators will provide too much opposition. although i would still be concerned about the unions. but i think there is a good chance at this time it will go through. >> hey, darius, moving on to the markets if we may, dow close to 11,000, kind of backed away

usair the lowest. there is all the merger talk in the sector as well.tephan padrazi will have more on "squawk on the street" and a live report from paris and that's your "real time flash". >>> citigroup meeting now in new york. citi shares have been really right around that $5 per share level, which is so key. both for getting on margin to short and big investors buying it to bet it will go up. and citi shares are up more than 7% over the past week of t. right now just over $4.99. the profits were $4 billion, profit was the key. many people are saying citi is no longer toxic. goldman in the meantime this morning, posted significantly better than expected bottom line results this morning. off 8% this week after the s.e.c. filed fraud charges. down again this morning, mark. alan lance is editor of "the lance newsletter." jim paulsen is back. jim, let me start with you. when the goldman charges were filed last week, we were speaking on friday afternoon, what is your perception of goldman sachs right now? would you come in and buy if t say this is way too d

united airlines and usair ways are in talks about combining their operations if that merger occurs, thecompany would become the second largest airline behind delta which merged with northwest in 2008. the combined company could compete better with delta. merging the unions could present the biggest obstacle according to the union. >>> the international space station has a new walk-in closet. while you were sleeping, the 13-ton cargo carrier from shuttle "discovery" was attached to the space station. in the next few days they will unload a new bedroom, freezer, supplies and science experiment. the sleeping compartment may be turned into a powder room where residents can take sponge baths. the cargo carrier will be shipped back to earth with trash and old equipment. >>> while her husband's popularity has fallen a bit, michelle obama's approval ratings remain high, now she's sharing how important it is for her to be involved in the d.c. community with news 4's jim vance. >> reporter: it means getting out of the white house and going where the kids are. it's important for me, personally, to