divided it is. when i argue with my liberal friends, they do not result in name-calling. cheryl: pushing grandma off the cliff. she has a new one as well. she is really going after it. it was certainly not a boring power of markets. you also have huge things. ashley: absolutely. i am surprised that dennis has liberal friends. [laughter] lori: he is my office neighbor. he is the best. ashley: good afternoon everybody. we are just one hour from the minutes. the dow off 76 points.

what you need to know before the minutes are released in just under an hour. lori: a lot going on in europe continues to influence our economy here. the congressional budget office releasing its latest prediction. the fiscal cliff quickly approaching. will this latest report fourth congress to act. ashley: plus, who would run this nation better? we will get the result of a surprising new study. we will also have lou dobbs take on the issue. time now for stocks. as the due every 15 minutes let's head down to the new york stock exchange. off of session lows right now, no goal. nicole: the market has been

somewhat weak. the nasdaq and s&p also pulling back. a little celebration to a certain extent yesterday. hovering around four year highs. you wait to see what they will say. we are waiting to see numbers out of japan. we will continue to watch some of the headlines. hewlett-packard is laying on the dow and that is because of dell. dell cannot with their numbers and they are extremely weak. they are concerned about the outlook over the pc market over all. the dell is the number one loser on the s&p 500. they hewlett-packard is the number one loser on the dow jones industrial average. ashley: thank you. by the way, you can catch all their earnings action today at

4:00 p.m. right here on after the bell. lori: investors could not get enough of hide and utility stocks, but now they cannot get rid of them. wondering if it is becoming a little crowded. >> hi, lori. what you have to consider is what the alternatives are. the yield on the ten year treasury back a month ago when the ten year was yielded 1.4%, you had more than 60% of the stocks in the s&p 500 yielding in the ten year period as interest rose, is all that number declined. there is a lack of, you know, they are not as attractive. lori: i know that ten year yields have been backing up

lately, firm resistance at the 200 moving day average, did you really expect interest rates to rise that much further? >> in the short term, i do not think so. as we go in september and europe comes back from vacation and people in the u.s. come back from vacation, we will start seeing more of the european problems rising up against and as we get into election season we will see more uncertainty. lori: i think it is too early to tell. do you kind of agree with me, paul? at the economy does fall off the so-called fiscal cliff, it will mean 2 million jobs lost. who knows what this tax plan it will be like. i would not cut and run just yet. >> no.

you are exactly right, lori. there is uncertainty out there. another thing to consider is the demographics. baby boomers need income. you are not getting it through fixed income as much anymore. if you look at stable dividend stocks, companies would be remiss not to rethink their dividend strategies and pay more out of the form of dividends. lori: should you look for other companies to raise dividends, initiate dividends? gimme some of your observations on that same? >> the dividend yield of the s&p 500 is under 2%. relative to history, the s&p has yielded more along the lines of over 4%. that is a big difference. we are at historically low levels of dividend yields. take into account the aging baby boomers and, plus, as a get

later through these years, if we see taxation on dividends and corporate profits earned overseas, if we see those move into a more pro, less tax way, we will see some of that being paid out in the form of higher dividend. lori: an interesting discussion. paul hickey, many thanks to you. ashley: the eia reported an unexpected drop in inventories. bill plante is in the pits of the cme. what are the traders telling you? >> they are surprised that oil imports into this country hit and eight month low. that was a shocker to traders. if you look down at the gulf of mexico, we did not have a storm of last. it could have something to do with a pipeline issue. the down imports coupled with

the high refinery runs really took a toll on supplies this week. down 5.4%. normally we would be up a lot more than we are. the crude oil is coming into major resistance. right into the 200 day moving interest. concerns about europe slowing us down right now. on the other hand, natural gas is up right now. concerns about that storm giving us a little bit right now. ashley: we have will have more on that potential hurricane heading towards florida. lori: new predictions from the congressional budget office out this morning. totaling $1.1 trillion. that is the fourth year in a row

with the deficit over that amount. peter barnes has more. so troubling. >> yes, lori. a new report says that the deficit will fall to $640 billion next year. it assumes the fiscal cliff will happen. the bush tax cuts will expire at the end of the year on time. as a result, the cbo is predicting that that will send the economy back into a recession next year down about a half percentage for the entire year. the brunt of it, in the first half of the year but down 3% in gdp. sending unemployment back up to 9% and costing 2 million jobs. take a listen. >> under come up with this very short tightening of fiscal policy, we are looking at an annual rate of the percent in

the first half of next year. >> the white house says this reinforces the plan to extend the president plan to extend the bush tax cuts. the romney campaign outthink the report is another indictment of president obama's economic policies. lori. lori: thank you, peter. ashley: the water of the mississippi river drops to record lows. we are headed to the banks of the, well, not as mighty mississippi river. lori: gold is down. 1641. back with more after this. ♪

lori: the drought of 2012 is being felt along the mississippi river. the u.s. army corps says it expects these new record low water levels to continue into october. jeff flock along the river and davenport, iowa. jeff: you are looking at the centennial bridge here in davenport. it was not long ago they had

record high water here. just last year. now it is almost all-time record low water. you do not see any barges out there. that is precisely why, the reason is, because of that down in mississippi. if we take a look at the mississippi river basin, the lower part of the mississippi, that is where the problem is. on the upper part, we have something called the locks and dams. it helps regulate the water flow. perhaps we will see one of those locks, it is block number 15. coast guard tells us they hope to have that undone sometime soon. because of that arcade, a lot of toes are not leaving here. they do not want to get stuck. he says he is not going to see a

boat out here he doesn't think it will get through. those, essentially, the water got so low. not a good situation. to be trying to transport coal and fuel and all the rest of the dow the mississippi, lori. lori: you make a great point. what about tourism? jeff: well, now, not at all. this fellow here, gary, is a pro- basque fishermen. the reason we were able to give him today is because of the situation. you do not have a lot of traffic on the mississippi. when the water gets low and

there is a lot of silk, sometime the fishing is not so great. lori: good work. thank you so much. ashley: isn't it beautiful? the story is terrible, but the view is beautiful. as we do every 15 minutes, let's check in on the market. nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange. nicole: we will take a look at two names here that are on the move. the first is expressed. it has clothing and jewelry. geared towards 20 and 30 something. the number is quite telling. it is down 11.25%. it missed for the second time this year. they will have to cut their forecast. it is not going well for express. it is down 11.25%.

these are the lowest levels we have seen since late 2010. williams sonoma is another one we are looking at. we will turn the arrows the other direction. great performance here. it is up 11.5%. revenue and earnings per share beat the street. now they are raising their full-year guidance. a good guidance makes for a good stock. ashley: thank you very much. lori: americans are still wasting food. fresh details about the amount of uneaten food that is dumped into the garbage. you will not believe it. ashley: net capital is getting even more curious. charlie gasparino will be with us. take a look at how the dollar is pairing today. it is up against the euro. it is flat against the pound. we will be right back.

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>> @21 minutes past the hour, i have your fox news minute. todd akin says he will not drop his bid for the senate. akin is appealing for support from christian evangelicals and anti-establishment republicans. he released a new ad yesterday apologizing about his recent marks about rape. a huge wildfire has burned dozens of homes. fires started by lightning. a veteran tennis umpire is arrested for allegedly murdering her husband with a coffee mug. lois goodman was preparing to work at the preliminary matches for that u.s. open. she bludgeoned her 80-year-old

husband, but apparently try to make it look like he fell down the stairs and had a heart attack. those are your news headlines. it must get rough with those tennis people. ashley: thank you very much. we appreciate it. lori: americans waste 40% of their food. the amount of uneaten food that is dumped and ends up in landfills and up to $165 billion. that is up to 50 pounds per person. the researchers suggest americans should save and eat more leftovers. ashley: they should. it is awful. don't you remember your mother saying, you should finish that, there are people starving in this world. lori: i still say that.

knight capital surviving a near implosion a few weeks ago. the firm managed to snare and other knee-jerk investors to bail them out. speaking six firms are essentially ended. black firm, stevens, jefferies, anyway, whoever that guy is, add one more. scott trade. there is no crime in scott trade adding to it. this is how wall street works. it is a convertible deal. they wanted to throw a bone to scott trade. why is that, because knight

capital receives trade. they will make a lot of money very fast. why would the other ones give up their shares to help out scott trade, wall street -- all the other businesses do business with scott trade. matches buyers and sellers with scott trade. that is how wall street works. one of the interesting things that we have been reporting is just how much old investors got screwed on this. diluted big-time. investors lost in this deal. the market cap went down about $700 million because of this. who is making out, all of these other players, including scott trade. knight capital wanted to essentially pay off somebody who had helped it in the past.

ameritrade is the sixth one. it escaped me for a second. ashley: they all get a slice. charlie: and then they cut these guys in on the side. lori: how did you find out? why did it we know about scott trade? charlie: that is a good question. i think because one of the reasons wall street likes to keep secret and, you know, what i do these stories, is how one hand helps the other. inside in sensuous behavior where they are and it for themselves to make money. not necessarily for the small investor. this story should show buyer beware out there. these guys will help each other. they will not necessarily help you. this is one way -- scott trade did not have to be part of this thing. they cut them and at the last

minute. they wanted to pay off a firm, a sickly, you know, help knight capital in the past. when that capital was at the end of its road, remember the week of august 1, i believe it was, i will give it one reason why that is going on, scott trade cap ascending order flow. this is a pretty interesting move. i think a lot of these players like scott trade him a they will exercise their comfortable feel. they can make a quick buck and that is what they want to do. ashley: there is always a twist and then another twist and then another twist. home sales rising last month. maybe not as much as wall street expected or wanted. building more homes would help, that is what a survey said. we will explain coming up.

lori: let's take a look at some of the winners on the s&p 500. there are some pretty good winners, especially in the housing market. back after this. ♪

lori: stocks now. 15 minutes since we last checked in with nicole pet. let's go to the floor of the new york stock exchange. what are the drivers? >> we're certainly waiting for the fomc minutes. that will be something that could be a market moving event or not. but that's the whole point, right? it is the anticipation that builds. we're down half a percent on the dow jones industrial

average, down 65 points. the nasdaq composite is down 4 1/2 points and the s&p also down over four points as well. i want to take a look at both ebay and discover. they are both hitting new highs. this is a deal that obviously a lot of the insiders in technology are very excited about, calling it an industry milestone. because now paypal, you will be able to use paypal at over 7 million merchants. start in 2013, these are places that will accept discoverer card will accept paypal. this is all about moving into digital wallet. i mean this is the transition of our time. so they're calling it monumental of course. so this will be a really big deal. on thiscks doing news. ashley: nicole petallides, we'll be back in 15 minutes, thank you. existing home sales were on the rise in july up 2.3% from june but my next guest thinks sales should be much

higher consider the historically low interest rates. joining me sam chand done. sam, thanks for joining us. give the economy and especially the labor market, why do you think there should be more home sales right now? >> well which think the point is while we've seen modest increases, and those are very welcome numbers, given where interest rates are today, given we have mortgage rates at historic lows, given affordability in the housing sector is at historic high, prices are low, and increasingly expensive to rent in many markets, if the market were functioning well, if it were functioning normally, home sales would be much higher than they are today. that is an important consideration for us when we're making an evaluation, well, are we really in the early stages of recovery? how sustainable is that recovery as mortgage rates ultimately been to rise? ashley: i saw mortgage applications dropped more than 7% last week. i would think anyone who can take advantage of these really low rates have

already done so, wouldn't you think? >> on the tail end of it i think the job markets begin to improve, as we see a larger number of people ultimately find stable employment, as they have the opportunity to build up a nest egg to use to support a down payment, those are things that can stretch out the improvement in home saleses it relates to the very low mortgage rates. so we do still have, you know, people in the market that, as they grow more confident, as their readiness to make the france significance to homeownership increases, those mortgage rates are still something that supports them. ashley: how about home prices? existing home sales were up in june but the median sales price up 9.4%. that's encouraging but i still get the sense there is a big inventory hanging out there. the banks are holding many houses. how much downward pressure will there be from that on home prices? >> yeah. i think it's an important point as you point out there is a very large inventory of

homes that are sitting with banks, with other lenders there is a large inventory with the agencies. and you know, the house price numbers are fairly mixed bag. we have a number of different influences that are playing through in the market. we've got cash buyers. we've got over the course of the last month, a slight drop in the number of distressed sales. the exact mix that we get every month is playing a big role in driving some of those house price trends. i think for any individual homeowner, for anyone who is thinking about what is happening in their particular market or the particular neighborhood where they may be thinking about buying, those national averages mean very, very little to them. ashley: all right. >> in fact they have a lot more to do, what is the mix of buyers and how many of these distressed transactions are taking place any given month as opposed to trends that are really meaningful to us when we're thinking about home prices on the ground. ashley: i have only 20 seconds. you mentioned at the beginning of this interview

if we were in a normal situation. how long is it going to take for the housing market to get back what we think as normal? >> it depends on two things. critical to all of this is jobs. we need to have much more meaningful jobs in economy. as part of that we need net new homeowners. by that i mean home trades increase and more homes are selling but we still don't nearly have enough people making transition from renting to homeownership in part because of younger families it is a lot tougher to qualify for the mortgage. ashley: that is the critical issue. sam chandan thanks for joining us. great to have low rates but hard to qualify. lori: it has to be back up to nine million for a healthy housing market. less than half that. ashley: long way to go. years i think. who is tops when it comes to being the top boss. lou dobbs joins us, well we is the boss. he will weigh in whether a

ceo or a career politician makes a better president. lori: the head of the fomc meeting minutes. let's look at 10-year and 30-year. ash, most people agree that europe driving the risk train these days. ashley: yes. lori: still interesting to look at rates ahead of the fed. 1.74%. people buying enough safe haven u.s. treasury notes. stocks selloff in the u.s. 30-year down as well. yield, 2.84%. back with more after this. [ male announcer ] let's level the playing field.

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>> i'm cheryl casone with your fox business brief. it is a sea of red on wall street as markets extend their losses for a second straight day. investors are waiting for the minutes from the federal reserve last policy meeting due at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. economic advisor for the former massachusetts governor, glenn hubbard, says that romney would consider renominating bernanke when his term expires in 2014. romney previously said he would get of bernanke. budweiser will remain the beer of choice at major league baseball for another six years. bud's parent company, anheuser-busch inbev, extended sponsorship to 2018. it will be the sponsor of the first-ever wildcard game. that's the latest from fox business network, giving you the power to prosper. the dow down 63 right now.

lori: breaking news here for you. you're looking at the mississippi river. we're now getting word from the u.s. coast guard that there are currently 90 vessels stranded between mile markers 524 and 525 on the mississippi. obviously we've been reporting this devastating drought. water levels at historic lows. you can really see it right there. we'll continue to keep a close eye on it and bring you the latest. ashley: 16 months ago i was in the mississippi in louisiana doing the floods. lori: what a turnaround. ashley: nature gives and nature takes away. lori: don't mess with another nature. ashley: no. lori: i was saying about messing with lou dobbs but, would a ceo run this country better than a career politician? a new survey by executive recruiting firm korn/ferry, finds 65% of the 125 execses

say a ceo is as skilled or better than a candidate with a traditional background. only 25% of the respondents would be interesting in going to washington. lou dones is here. i don't think anyone is surprised by that. >> not surprised, lori but the great thing about it is, validates our impression that most good business people would have the good sense not to go near washington, d.c.. they begin with exercise of judgment and wisdom. that is what i think we're looking for in any leader, whether business or political. the korn/ferry study on this was fascinating. 3/4 of ceos said, they wouldn't take the job. they did not want to be president no matter what. and are quite happy and content with their lives. lori: of course they are. because their private lives, for the most part, this is the problem we lost out on so many potentially wonderful bubble servants because of this vetting process that goes on. does that need to change? >> yeah, it should be a vetting process.

no one, i could think, with any intellectual integrity at all could say president obama was vetted. he was not. i think that no one could say that much has been missed of governor romney in that vetting process. when we talk about the difference between the public sector and government service and running a business, i mean the distance between those two activities is immense. one you're dealing with. ashley: you have to meet a payroll. you're in the real world. >> what everyone, whether you're a democrat or republican, whatever your affiliation or unaffiliated, governor romney says it right. it does help in creating jobs however, if you have had a job. ashley: yes. >> and, that's really important. it is a bit like, the expression, if you have not learned to follow, you are not prepared to lead. and, i think that goes to the crux of part of the

frustration on the part of most americans watching government now. i'm not talking about simply president obama. i'm talking about harry reid. i'm talking about congressional leadership as well. these folks struggle through without any real preparation for the kind of leadership that is, that they seek and is often through the thrust them. ashley: what i think is disappointing president obama has no experience in the business world. he hasn't had to meet payrolls. would not take the step which you would make sense is surround yourself with people who have. >> right. ashley: a complete lack of cabinet level appointees who had any real world experience. >> and real world experience, in this case, is having an understanding what is the mission, what is the goal, what is the objective. for most ceos it is a relatively easy statement. i'm going to go make money for my stakeholders and it is that straightforward. not always easy but it's that straightforward. in the case of the president he walks in with an agenda

which is evolving, which is changing. part of it is transparent and open. and then begins the fun. lori: interesting to me that the titans of wall street, if you will, hank paulson, comes to mind, in cabinet positions obviously in previous administrations but how does that transfer work? i mean kind of debatable, right? you have had so much success in the private sector you want to serve publicly. does it always have to come to that, to reach the upper echelons? how can we encourage people who are qualified who have business experience and real life experience --. ashley: to get to serve. lori: to serve? >> i would turn that question to the media itself the way we conduct ourselves. we eviscerate people standing up for public service, particularly nonelected public service. in the case of the goldman sachs stream of public servants going back. bob rubin. hank paulson. timothy gheitner in. you know, you go through the list it is really

remarkable. one of the problems is they're used when they speak as former ceos, people actually listen. in the case of timothy geithner, people are suddenly referring to him as little timmy. when they are talking about hank paulson, you know, they're dismissing him on one level or the other. even his former colleagues and pierce because he is representing an administration in had case, george w. bush they were at odds with. ashley: right. >> now they found a new administration to be at odds with and even greater fever and intensity. lori: interesting stuff as always. >> good to be with you. ashley: little timmy. good to see you, lou. of course you can catch lou dobbs at 7:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. eastern every night on fox business network. catch the former governor of new hampshire and senior romney advisor john sununu. i love saying that name, john sununu. >> one of the the smartest guys. ashley: yeah, he is. >> i hope you will both either be with us or perhaps

watching intently. lori: you got it. >> okay. lori: easy assignment. ashley: thank you, lou. quarter to as we do every 15 minutes. let's check the markets. nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange. looking at airlines, are they taking off or have they landed? >> they're sitting on the tarmac right now really to the downside. when you look at these airlines today you can see they're coming under pressure. delta air lines, for example is down 3%. southwest down 1 1/2%, us airways virtually unchanged there. unexpected drop in oil supplies is driving oil higher. we see oil above $97 right now. we have seen some strength recently in the airlines. this is a little bit of a pullback. one thing we should note, transports, for all the dow purists out there, the run-up in the major averages the dow transports have not really participated in that. so you wouldn't believe the rally, right? you want the transports to participate. and the groups have been

raising their fares and trying to beat each other out and match. back to you. ashley: nicole, thank you very much. well the fomc minutes coming up at the top of the hour about 12 minutes away. what you need to know ahead of the release. lori: been a lot of positive economic data since the last meeting. so we'll see how pertinent those minutes will truly be meantime let's take a look at some of the day's winners and losers. ebay making a nice pop up almost 3%. amazon is higher. back with more after this.

lori: moments away now from a window into the fed. minutes of the latest fomc meeting will be released at the top of the hour. we'll be wondering if they

will shed new light on the prospect of more stimulus. let's ask a wells fargo chief income analyst. as we went into the break we had pretty good recent economic data points. retail sales. housing today. inflation since the last meeting. how pertinent will the minutes be? >> i think you make a great great point. think about the last meeting. august 1st. it was really a lot of negative sentiment out there. not very good economic news. since then, really the economic news has turned around quite a bit and so i think you need to be careful reading too much into this fed, these minutes. i do think that, you know, you may see a little bit more gloomy tone in the minutes than really occurred over the last few weeks. the fed thinking may have changed over the last few weeks. ashley: i saw in your notes, brian. you believe qe may be perhaps on the agenda in december. what would that be, what

would the cause that to happen? what is it based on? >> well i think we were heading towards qe3 in september. clearly we were headed down the path. the economic data over last few weeks reversed likelihood. if we're going to get qe3 in december, probably have to see again the employment numbers not continue to improve. so if we start printing employment numbers, the nonfarm payrolls numbers below 200,000 for a couple months in a row, you see the general economic tone or sentiment kind of fall off, definitely could be back on the agenda for december. lori: so events to keep a close eye on then by the way of what the fed may or may not do. i imagine the august payrolls coming out first week of september, right? you have the jackson hole, meeting. give us a primer what we need it watch out for here. >> the fed being a dual mandate bank, clearly focused on the unemployment picture.

so, until we see a more sustained recovery there, i think, they're keying in on that. price stability the other key point. so, inflation appears to be well undercontrol, giving them a little bit of leeway. lori: is the august payroll number about, sorry to interrupt. want to drill down. august payroll numbers some suggested make or make the decision be breaking point for qe? >> i think clearly it probably is for the september meeting. you know although it would take a very negative report at this point to get september action i think given some of the more positive data we got both out of the july number and more recently in some of the additional economic data. ashley: brian, up until now, qe hasn't done a whole lot, hasn't we're talking about the job numbers. the federal reserve president lockhart yesterday basically saying, a, he believes the central bank is less willing now to ease monetary supply. also he questions whether it has been that effective, and

you know releasing more cheap money will not do that much. would you agree? >> well, i do think that qe one did have a meaningful impact. look where interest rates are today. they are lower than even where they were during the height of the crisis. so i think there has been an impact. i think it has been on the margin positive. i do think that is each additional quantitative easing initiated has less impact than the one before. so i think there is a strong case to be made that additional quantitative easing, you know, potentially, shows that the fed doesn't have a lot of cards left to play. i think they have to be careful about that. lori: brian railing, wells fargo, thank you so much for your insights. >> great. thanks for having me. lori: when it comes to jobs for gen y tech is king. ashley: no big surprise, right? lori: a study by pay scale and little len y'all branding, -- millenial

branding, they pay well but contain more flexible working environment. survey of workers 19 and 30, rated tech giant qualcomm best company to work for with average starting pay of $90,000. google came in second, average pay of 80,000. intel, medtronic, microsoft round out the top five. are we still part of gn y? ashley: i would love to be. i can't get away with that. fomc is straight ahead. will we get hints of more stimulus? we'll find out. peter barnes standing by in washington, d.c. of course we have you covered.

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it's something you're born with. and inspires the things you choose to do. you do what you do... because it matters. at hp we don't just believe in the power of technology. we believe in the power of people when technology works for you. to dream. to create. to work. if you're going to do something. make it matter. ashley: welcome back. i'm ashley webster. good afternoon for my. lori rothman. stocks under pressure

we'll bring you the fed minutes and market reaction all hour. ashley: we'll see what they have to say an hint about. plus a new study claiming american doctors are burning out at a frightening rate. that is not good. what happens when the health care law goes into effect? fox news's dr. manny alvarez is weighing in on the that issue. lori: doctor shortage is one of the fallouts from the health care. we'll talk about that. will they rise from here and with that we'll go to breaking news from the federal reserve. peter barnes has details from washington. peter? >> lori, the fomc seriously discussed more monetary easing back on july 31st and august 1st. let's go right to the minutes. quote. many members judged that additional monetary accommodation would likely be warranted fairly soon unless incoming information pointed to a substantial and sustainable strengthening in the pace of the economic recovery, end quote. they talked about doing that

three ways. one more, quantity quantity. of course more bond purchases to push interest rates down even more. lowering interest rate on trillions of reserves banks keep on deposit at the fed to encourage banks to lend more of that money, rather than keep it on deposit at the fed. three, keeping short-term interest rates low, exceptionally low, beyond late 2014. the current guidance, even, if the recovery gets stronger, quote, many members expressed support for extending the committee's forward guidance but they agreed to defer a decision on this matter until the september meeting in order to consider such as an adjustment in context of updates to participant's economic projections and the committee's further consideration of the policy options. one update the fed got three days after this meeting on august 3rd was the higher than expected jobses report. 163,000 new jobs in july.

that will be a lot of for the fomc to chew on when they meet september 12th. ashley: that was based on pretty bleak economic data. since then the data is more promising. shows they are ready to take action as they said many times. the market already starting to move on up, down 44 points. let's get reaction from these minutes from nicole petallides who every 15 minutes we go to at the nyse. nicole. >> ashley and lori, there is a lot to look at here. the markets came off the lows. they were hovering before the minutes we heard from peter barnes from the fomc latest meeting. shows they're accommodative and ready to take action. question which of the three choices are they going to do? just seeing they are willing to do more with monetary policy shows backing everybody has been waiting for. that is really one of the main reasons we run up six weeks in a row. we had a melt up. not really quite on the

fundamentals. on anticipation that we're going to have these guys doing something in order to give more support. there is nasdaq actually turning into the green right now. and the s&p 500, not far off, from journing into the green as well. so basically showing that they are there and further monetary easing or some sort of help could come fairly soon. quantitative easing or lower rates for deposits that banks keep on deposit over there and also just keeping the rates exceptionally low beyond 2014. look at the spike, intraday chart, shows you the markets were happy to hear what they heard. they're right on board. you see the obviously the committee is on board with the traders have been saying all along. back to you. ashley: wow, all eyes -- >> keep an eye on gold. ashley: at the end of august as well. that will give a more up-to-date view from ben bernanke on the economic data which has been more positive. that could of course have an impact on qe3 or any other measure. lori: boy, i will say

markets love stimulus. the dow is climbing back. nicole says the nasdaq is back in positive territory. let's check interest rates tolling -- following the fomc meeting. people still buying treasurys. this could be for a whole host of reasons. as we know it is a geopolitical world influencing rates. 1.73%. yields were backing off lows we had seen historic lows on the 10-year and the 30-year down 2.28%. that is correlated to benchmark rate. yields falls as fed in the minutes says they will keep the benchmark rates, short-term rates low beyond 2014. the phrases ashley, that stick out to me, seriously discussed qe3. ashley: yes. lori: they would do stimulus fairly soon. very important stuff. the markets love it. the other point is, jobs were better. retail sales were better. inflation in check. we'll listen intently to the

next fed meeting. ashley: we will. look at treasurys and look at oil. we've seen both brent and u.s. crude futures turning higher after these minutes. you can see oil now at 96.98. basically 97 bucks a barrel. turned up slightly higher but turning higher on the monetary easing comments from the fed's last meeting. let's carry on with this with further reaction to the fomc minutes. we have ryan dietrich, technical strategist at schaeffer's tech call research. what was your reaction to what was discussed by the federal reserve? >> ashley, doesn't seem like anything new. we know they're there. they will come in if they need us. this is backstop, we're having a little bit of a pop here. having the backstop, clearly the market likes hearing that. again nothing new. more what they say at jackson hole than the september meeting obviously. ashley: some of the other things they discussed, ryan,

perhaps lowering interest rate for banks who park their money essentially with a central bank. the ecb considered doing this. in fact charging turning into the negative rates. is this a good idea perhaps to get banks to put money back out where it should be? >> i think so. like we all know, they can buy bonds, keep interest rates low. interest rates are already low. interest rates as guest before me said are lower than the financial crisis. it is about confidence. get the consumer more confident. get banks more confident. we think the rally simply if nothing improves confidence comes back. low pe multiples. we could get in more reasons why i'm bullish. that could be one way to get the confidence slowly, slowly creep back in here. ashley: one more question on the fed. mr. bernanke at the jackson hole do you think the rhetoric will be easier because of more positive economic data since the last fed meeting?. >> i really think so. you're right. it comes down to some of the housing data. i note today's housing data

wasn't great. that is the one beacon to the economic data. we think, nothing the fed does will be anything near, if housing goes up, the multiple that can do to consumer confidence is much greater than any way the fed can flood the market with money or whatever you want to say. ashley: yeah. >> if housing goes higher that could be the multiple to bring the confidence back and equate to higher equity prices we think here. ashley: last time you were with us you predicted the summer rally. well-done on that. do you think stocks are a little overbought now or can it grind higher?. >> well that's right. at schaeffer's look at market everything is based on expectations. in early june i was said look for summer rally of expectations were very low. we had the nice rally. expectations are starting to come higher. simply put we're at the peak early april. we're still not lear the level of bullishness we've seen at previous peaks. could we pull back here, have a three to 5% rally that scare everyone at technical level? yes, makes sense.

all in all the upward price action in our opinion is still here. we want to see fare on pull backs. we'll have a pullback eventually. we think there are buying opportunities into the end of the year, ashley. ashley: the vix at exceptionally low levels. do you expect more volatility looking forward? that's right. the vix is down at 15. people are talking about over and over the vix is low. means complacency. well, it's true, but the vix existed before 2008. if you look back in the mid-'90s and last decade the vix traded between 10 and 20 for multiple years. just because the vix is low doesn't mean we'll have a massive spike up. maybe the vix doesn't show complacency as people think, there are record call open interest on vix. lots of people expecting a higher vix. when the masses think one way as contrarian we try to go the other. ashley: right. >> look at vick's futures. january 13. we did a study over weekend

at schaeffer. when you have a steep term structure it is not bear. s&p has been higher 80% of the time. three months later s&p is up 71% of the time. up 3% on average. people say the vix is low. bearish. that our study says it is not bearish. not the end. world but. ashley: you clearly like to talk about the vix. ryan, thanks so much for being here. >> appreciate it. >> good stuff. >> coming for thousands of republicans heading off to florida for a gop convention. will isaac rain on mitt romney's parade? the latest projected path next. ashley: that looks a little ominous, doesn't it? outrage over nike's new $300 plus sneaker. coming up why critics are calling it insensitive. first as we do at this time every day, look how oil is trading. as we told you just ticking essentially flat. just under $97 a barrel at 96.84. we'll be right back.

lori: there may be unwanted guest at the republican national convention and we're not talking about the vice president joe biden. the path of tropical storm isaac may head right towards florida. fox weather reporter janice dean tracking isaac for us. what is the trajectory, janice? >> florida needs to be on alert. some of those i'm sure,

organize, going, i don't know what to do but we're going to watch isaac in the days to come as thousands of people of course are headed to tampa. this storm could be paying them a visit. i want to point out we have tropical depression number 10 as well which will probably become joyce in the next several hours. maybe in the next day or so. and there's isaac. just to give you an idea that the tropics are very busy. so tropical storm isaac, new advisory just issued. nothing that has changed much but we're seeing organization of this storm. waters are very warm here. and there is not a lot of hindrance in terms of upper level winds. here is your track again as of 2:00 p.m. with the latest advisory come bind here. still a tropical storm but as we go to thursday, feting stronger by friday. we think the storm could make its way across cuba. i don't want to direct your attention to the center of the storm. it is really the whole cone we have to be paying close attention to. we think by monday, perhaps,

close to or on top of south florida. of course, tampa there, but, i want to make sure people know that even though might not make a direct landfall on tampa, we're still possibly going to feel the effects of heavy flooding. tampa is very prone to flooding as well as gusty winds and maybe even tornados. people have to be monitoring the storm system in the days to come. back to you. lori: who makes the decision to put such an important event in tampa at the height of hurricane season? so glad it wasn't my decision. >> hope it works out for the best for everybody. see you soon. keep you posted. lori: we'll look forward to the reports. ashley: good question, whose bright idea was that. lori: tampa, florida, in august and heat and whatever. all right. it is time for a market update. nicole on the floor of the stock exchange for us continuing her analysis of the fed minutes and market reaction to them. >> that's right. we saw the markets and we saw u.s. equities come off the lows, right?

as we heard the fed certainly being open to something, growing support for easing. they came up with three scenarios which we'll hear more about but i wanted you to take a look at gold. look what happened here. the intraday chart shows you what is going on with gold. gold futures spiking to the highest point since early in may and this was all on the fed minutes because the fed meeting, a lot of traders came away disappointed. as they seem more into as we hear from the fed they're into more growing support for easing we're seeing gold futures break through. the futures actually breached 1650 a troy ounce mark. they haven't done that since may. gold is slightly lower but the point is it is moving up to the levels we haven't seen. look at dell, it has been the number one loser on the s&p 500 today. they had weak sales. they had to cut forecasts. pc market they say is soft. don't forget they face intense competition. down 6.25% right now. back to you. lori: weak economy. ashley: absolutely.

nicole, thank you very much. we'll check back with you in 15 minutes. watch more earnings action today at 4:00 p.m. on the fox business network for "after the bell". the congressional budget office warning today of a deeper fiscal cliff recession of the nonpartisan cbo says spending cuts and tax hikes set to begin next year will do more harm to the economy than originally predicted. >> i think what we see coming for next year under current law is very large amount of fiscal tightening, larger reduction in the deficit relative to the gdp that we've seen in any year since 1969 and that is a sufficiently large shock, negative shock, to the demand for goods and services next year, to push the economy into a significant recession. ashley: that pretty much says it all. the cbo also saying that the fiscal cliff would cause gross domestic production to shrink half a percent rather than grow half a percent in

2013. by the way it could cost the economy two million jobs. lori: you think they will work it out? do you think we'll fall off the cliff? ashley: i don't think they have a choice. it will be last minute, you know that. coming up, a shocking new study how unprepared high school graduates are for college. we'll look what it means for america's competitive future next. lori: let's check the dollar on the back of the fed. fomc minutes released at the top of the hour, 2:00 p.m. eastern. the dollar is a little weaker. 1.2498. we'll call it flat against the pound. back with more ♪

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>> at 21 minutes past the hour i'm juliet huddy. with your fox news minute. missouri representative todd akin will not drop the bid for the senate despite calls from prominent republicans asking him to quit. he is appealing from christian evangelicals and anti-abortion activists. he released a new ad apologizing for the recent remarks about rape. egypt's new president will visit the u.s. for the first time since taking off. mohammed morsi will make stops in washington and new york for a three-day visit september 23rd which includes attending the u.n. general assembly. sometimes live plays heart. ll cool j place on "ncis",

los angeles. grabbed and held a burglary suspect at his l.a. home early this morning. a rep for ll cool j said no one was hirt and nothing stolen from the house because ll is big and stuff. these are the headlines from the fox news network. back to the tough and lovely, lori and ashley. lori: did he do a boxing song? what was it called? knock you out. i'm going to knock you out. ashley: she knows it all. lori: she does. back down-to-earth earth now, the majority of high school graduates in the u.s. are not ready for college level work, that is according to the latest act report today. remember the a.c.t.? maybe you don't. ashley: no. lori: i remember them they were painful. john ericson the president of the education division for act joins us now. welcome to you, sir. >> thank you. lori: my first question, we're a business network,

we're covering the state budget crises, is there a connection between your results and the financial pressures? >> we haven't determined a budget correction but budget impact of population of students entering college and they will be our future workforce have some skill gaps. that will make it difficult for them to find jobs and our country to get back on its legs economically. lori: because of changing face of utz labor market? shrinking face i should be quick to point out first and foremost. why are the schools left behind in terms of the curriculum? >> part of the problem our research indicates we have had different standards in different states. schools are all over the map in terms of curriculum. so this focus today on college and career readiness for all students, higher expectations, but assessment, a aligned curriculum bodes well for the future but we're not seeing a lot of results in place just yet.

ashley: many of the students are not interested in careers where most of the jobs are. that is a huge problem. >> that is a huge problem. our data indicates of fastest growing jobs 55% of jobs that will occur in 2020, is not matching up with students interest when they're taking the a.c.t.. while it is important to choose a career on your own interest, important to look ahead in thames of what the job market will be and align those two. right now there is big disconnect. lori: how closely for public schools to offer the type of courses or training to fill these jobs or even just encouragement and counseling to push people where there are opportunities? >> there is no doubt that schools are encounter being a budget problem as are states. at the same time we're finding more states and schools are actually embracing the a.c.t. and others like it in terms of that focus because it is a redirection of current budget rather than another

layering of more. ashley: how hard is it for college, for high school students these days to get into college? so expensive. lori: good question. ashley: massive amount of loans are being taken out. that has got to be an issue too. >> there is a lot of stress around the college admin mission piece. 80% of students are not meeting college readiness indicators that we measure. that is concern. if they don't go into remediation or dropout. ashley: they're lost. >> they're lost and our system is lost at the same time. so it's a growing crisis. lori: john, thank you for sharing your findings with us. >> thank you. lori: don't check my test scores, my act scores. >> i will try to find them on the internet. thanks very much, john. coming up a warning about several new scams targeting investors. gerri willis will have details what they are and how you can protect yourself. that is next. lori: markets are down, giving up earlier gains after the minutes. the dow is off 61 points.

there are winners in the session. homebuilders are higher on existing home sales data today. back with more after this.

♪ lori: welcome back. stocks get losses after this segment released at the top of the hour, still in the red. live trader reaction to enough for the new york stock exchange in moments. revealing many members of veld additional monetary easing would be needed fairly soon unless the economy improves. the fed next meets on september 12th. shares of hewlett-packard tumbling nearly 4% ahead of its earnings report. ninety minutes away from the closing bell watching anxiously

for any sign of improvement from the pc maker after a series of the buckles. don't forget, though, a big disappointment. ashley: adelle guy. stocks. thirty minutes past the hour. let's get a check on the markets as we do every 15 minutes. a little blip of words after the meeting minutes were released, nicole. it seemed to be drifting slightly lower. >> reporter: that's right. became a public stock. after we heard the fed minutes. people left a little less disappointed that they have from prior meetings. right? so what do you think? what to you make of this right now? what does this mean going forward? >> nothing. you have a little bit of a boost that there may be a few more members willing to do quantitative easing, but the big if in all of this is it the economic data we are going to see suggests it, and the

economic data we have been seeing since this conversation started is not indicative of allowing an easing, so that is the reality of it. >> reporter: when i ask you and we talked about the fact that there were three ideas about how they may do easing in ask you which of the three were more likely you really did not think any of them. >> no, i don't think an easing is likely. they can continue to twist which has been of great benefit to the primary dealers and large players, that the individual investor that this economy is based on periods of fannie mae and freddie mac buying doesn't work in a sense of their work to help the market, but that is it. lori: -- >> reporter: up six weeks in a row. what happens now? >> the hot air continues and we go lower unless they can put concrete pillars in place. >> reporter: back to you. ashley: unless they can put concrete pillars in place. i love it. thank you very much. we will be back in 14 minutes 56 new scam warnings. here with the story. >> reporter: he think they are stupid.

entirely wrong because they use all the new technology to find ways to get into your pocket. that is what they're finding is a look at some of these camps. cloud funding and internet offers. so job that allow people to raise money, small companies raise stock. just what's happening, a lot of -- 1600. yes, and calling it like to see it. bad advice from investment advisers, a lot of this. midsize firms are now being reviewed and supervised by the feds and said of the state regulators to all kinds of nasty stuff is coming out. you can do this. you don't have to invest your ira and stalker but not -- you can -- did not mean to say that. anything you want to including real estate, and now we are finding that skimmers are targeting people saying, look, we know that you consult direct hundreds of thousands of dollars you have to be given to us and we will invested. don't go there. an investment that you have heard about for a long time. that is how he got to the

states. ashley: just kidding. lori: now we know. lori: we voted on that. so this cameras are investigators? >> always last. they never win. but this cameras are finding new ways to get into your pocket which is really what i wanted to talk about. a lot of people don't expect scams in quite this way. you remember the foreclosure crisis. a million foreclosure stammers. anything that is in the news they will jump on top of and you have to make sure you're dealing with someone reputable. lori: not do in business online? >> i know, i do. absolutely. so much information. lori: simplistic questions. should you put a middleman in there? >> obviously work with people that you know and trust already on line. you know, if you have of well-known broker-dealer that you are working with with your

investments deal with them, or do with them on line, but the problem is when you work with people that you don't know. that is when the trouble comes in. when someone calls you and offers you something. something comes to your e-mail in march from someone you have never heard him before. that is trouble. a big show coming out tonight. we will be talking to ed rollins about the gop convention next week and what to expect. what is he looking for? we want to talk about that first and foremost. lori: so tonight at six to 10:00 p.m. eastern right here. ashley: always scams. the people after a tornado or hurricane goes through. sometimes you wonder about mankind. would you spend the $300 for a pair of shoes? well, if you are a woman and one of them, yes, of course. nike first knickers. the rumored price has nike and hot water over its of new shoes. adam shapiro is covering this story.

he joins us now. i mean, look, $315 is the price somewhere. it is pretty of rages. >> reporter: it is for the new wonderful sneaker with electronics that tell you how high you can jump. introduce this fall. the price has not yet been said on that suit, but the one that you see right there will be introduced this fall at about $180 for two of those. now, the national urban league, the president is a former mayor of new orleans and asking nike not to make this a national kind of items that lots of kids are going to want. and they say they're getting all kinds of complaints from parents about a $300 an acre, so they're asking nike to slow this process down. we ask for a statement and have not gotten one. also have a call in to the urban league and no comment from them. but as i throwback to you guys, $300 you can have a pair of

shapiro twelves. they're great. lori: i can't believe you bring those on set. stinky. ashley: try them on ebay. i don't think they are electronic either. coming up, what profession has the highest rate in the united states? this estimate television anchors, doctors according to a new study, and it is greatly impacting medical care. dr. manny alvarez will have the details next. lori: first, let's check. some people interpret sang qe3 is on its way. if down significantly for the market's going back, but that is telling. thirty years. back after this. [ male announcer ] let's level the playing field.

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♪ >> i'm ashley webster with your fox business brief. the fed continued to claw on wall street for a second straight day with the latest minutes from the federal reserve showing active discussions for further monetary easing not doing much to help the markets. the dow up by some 31 points. existing home sales rose in july as lower interest rates and a slight improvement in the labour market led to a modest rebound. sales of previously occupies home to the occupied homes raised to below analysts' expectations. mortgage applications falling

last week as rates jumped to their highest level since late june. mortgage bankers association index the mortgage application activity fell almost seven and a half%, the index for refinancing applications also posting its third straight weekly decline which is the very latest from the fox business network, giving you the power to prosper.

♪ lori: let's check the price of crude oil as it settles at $97.26 per barrel, up $0.42 or about one-half of 1%. interesting, right around the time the fed minutes were released at 2:00 p.m. eastern crude oil prices fell and that dow rebounded to close above $97 per barrel, once again flirting with $100 a barrel. ashley: seems like we are heading in that direction. anyway, burned out. you're not alone. according to a new study for- for-and-tan u.s. doctors

struggled with job burnout. fox news health managing editor dr. manny alvarez joins us right now to discuss the implications. >> reporter: and have no hair. i forgot that i pulled it all out. ashley: dr. burnout, big problem. >> reporter: absolutely true. one of the biggest service they have come out with, 7,000 doctors. basically asking very specific questions about exhaustion, about personal feelings, you know, suicides. and what you find is that four out of ten physicians are basically saying, we're burns. her toast. we don't know -- i mean, and this is going to have huge implications because if you look at the way physicians look at patients after they depersonalize and that affects their clinical practice. you know, look, this is something that is very big. it's only going to get worse, worse. four of ten, trust me, we did the survey two years from now and will be seven out of ten.

a lot of positions are basically saying right now -- and the problem, you know what, i'm opening a restaurant if i could or and doing something else because i cannot take this anymore. lori: to your point, it is only going to get worse, but when -- but the doctor shortage. >> that headwinds. let's start with malpractice which is my biggest beef. i laugh at all of these policies that come out. don't do cholesterol checks. if somebody misses something the going to find a lawyer is not to say, you know what, you did not read the fine print that we will see you anyway. front-line positions, he our doctors, zero week -- ob/gyn, the frontline, the amount of business they have to seek to make a buck is incredible. number two, reimbursements, all of the electronics and regulation from the government. you name it. every day on the front page and everyday the front page of this government they tell you, you are a bad person.

you know what to at the end of the day you wake up one morning and say, why am i doing this? that is exactly what a lot of physicians are feeling, and it is being reflected, and you're going to see things happening in the future which will be very bad for health care. ashley: thank you so much. >> reporter: i have to get away. lori: fired up. ashley: thank you. lori: a movie blood time and eliminated the issue of u.s. companies which pay movie -- money to countries accused of human-rights abuses in mining precious-metals off. the sec has voted to focus new disclosures, and the companies are crying foul. let's get to the bottomless and the bottom line. >> reporter: this is an historic vote. we have never seen anything like this before. the securities and exchange commission's is telling companies that make things like smart phones and cell phones and digital cameras, you can no longer effectively use these four metals that come out of the democratic republic of the condo. effectively because now they will push these companies to disclose whether or not they're

using the models in the drc which is locked in a heated military battle costing a lot of lives of civilians. what's going on, it's being used by the government to help stop the fighting in the region of the condo and the outlying areas. two commissioners said we don't know. they rejected it. they said, look, what this is an effect you will increase the black-market in other countries, but at&t is weighing in saying, this is an overreach. ask us to audit our supply what could be coming in, recycled materials as scrap metals and this is. ashley: to the supply chain. also, it's going to be difficult to trace. all tell you, intel, though, at apple, there all signing on. the bottom line, the sec is saying, just to disclose -- bynum minerals, but you have to

disclose them because burying the informational and and attachments quarterly or annual filings. so the very important point, payments they make to foreign governments which has oil companies in an uproar saying, we're going to show our strategy star rivals to don't have the supply overseas. this is a big deal, these votes there coming in. so we will be on this one watching. lori: senior into talking about it. ashley: it is just a quarter to the hour. stocks every 15 minutes. in ys he tried to come back. >> reporter: giving it a go. you never know. nasdaq and s&p bought 500 both in the green. only the dow is left. one-tenth of 1%.

senior living. the board of directors under investigation. but that is because the weather not they showed shareholders' everything about the company. they moved into a transaction the health care, so it's interesting whether the whole thing is going adequately and they're showing everything they need to. ashley: all right. thank you very much. we will be back in 15 minutes. lori: they are climbing again today after federal evolution. next favorite picks in the sector. ashley: first, let's take a look at more of today's winners and losers on the upside ebay moving higher. amazon as well. it is up 2%. we'll be right back. ♪

♪ ashley: existing home sales for july up 10% from the same month last year, so are homebuilder stocks poised for a rebound? that is a question. sandra smith has that story. >> reporter: one thing is for re. we cannot city has seen a full recovery because homebuilder stocks are still off 70% from their peak. right now so far this year or over the past year, up 76%. the snb -- s and p homebuilder etf showing significant

improvement. some of the stocks within that index have seen significant gains, and you want to watch out for ones that are pretty pricey, such as toll brothers, seeing a five and a half year high of 5% in today's session up 105% of the past year. the same goes for standard pacific up 200%. another homebuilder up 256%. one area where you want to look as the p/e ratios, price-to-earnings low, stock is trading as significantly less than peers. dr horton is an example. momentum is there, but pe is seven, and it is considered a buy. top 20, as well as, as i hand it back, lennar, a hot stock, and considerably cheaper. lori: good comparison. all right. coal stocks have been slammed. natural resources down nearly 80 percent, but a court ruling

striking down an epa pollution rule. giving stocks a boost, but will the gains continue? joining me now, stern ag senior research analyst. welcome. there you are. and buy rating on some of these stocks for months. >> certainly after a losing streak since last november when they decided not to show up in the united states and with the natural gas prices collapsing and inventory levels building, some good news for the sector. it is certainly longer term. it allows a little bit more coal consumption in the united states than we would have seen otherwise. psychologically it is a little more important than what we have seen, what will happen in the market today. it will drive cole fundamentals to more demand, supply, higher exports which i think we're starting to see the u.s. lori: the obama administration has been quite tough for many years. even just last week, with the

environmental platforms that were laid out by obama and romney. explain more about that, how it has set the industry. >> so, says the past three and a half years there have been policies put forth that have on the one hand restricted the use of coal or the future use of coal by primarily electric utilities which uses to make electricity. the other hand, to produce coal out of mines in west virginia, kentucky because of permitting issues that the environmental protection agency have put forth a limit the granting of such, so from both sides of the equation it has been difficult. now, the past three and a half years have had some really good moves on stocks and the global resurgence in coal demand. thirdly when steel production picks up, and the u.s. is an important exporter of metallurgical coal with higher-margin products. there have been times rate has been helpful. right now it has been difficult, so looking toward november that could be a positive thing for stocks. lori: i am learning to watch steel and also natural gas.

what is your other advice for investing in gold? >> what you need to see is increasing electricity generation which is helped by a better economy and of natural gas prices moved higher and continued the trend that we have seen, that will make it more competitive for coal to be concerned was therefore reduce the mentor level and health pricing. as we look at over the next 6-12 months, an extraordinary values in the group. interesting, your last comments about the home-building stocks and what they have done of the last 12 months 56 running out of time. what is your good news? >> small-cap investors to michael and natural resources among larger cap investors. those of the top four names. lori: thank you so much. the coal industry. ashley: all right. another financial setback, just what we need for the u.s. postal service for. the simpsons stamp turned out to be a bust.

some would say -- lori: you have been waiting all day to say that. printing stamps like this one, as you can see, sold only 318 million of these 1 billion stamps that were made. the post office posting daily losses of $57 million per day periods defaulting on its payments to the u.s. treasury for the first time in history. so -- lori: they need and ashley webster stamp. ashley: know, they don't. believe me. liz claman to access to the last hour of trading. the financial plan and his unique investment strategy. no icing. countdown to the closing bell is next. lori: terrible. st out terrible. ashley: awful.low? i'm just -- for. ♪ the equity summary score consolidates the ratings of up to 10 independent research providers into a single score that's weighted based on how accurate they've been in the past. i'm howard spielberg of fidelity investments.

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♪ liz: good afternoon, everybody.