its back on the risky assets, but we are seeing a bit of a bound, let's look at it right now, there it is, smartly we were down 190 on the lows of the day for the dow, now down 84 points at 12,418. we will keep a close eye. 11 points at 2827. the s&p 500, as we said at one time down 8%, with the low point of the day, now smartly off that. talking about phony phony, that stock is bouncing back. the gains today come despite preliminary inquiries into facebook's messy ipo offering, and they were being sued by shareholders as well. right now we want to circle back on this sea of red on wall street, risk aversion back on the street, as political wrangling in europe sends investors here running for the exits. is this a fear-driven sell-off unwarranted necessarily or signs of something worse fundamentally going on. you make the point this is a fear-driven sell-off, but is it wanted? >> the u.s. economy, we still feel that it's a strong economy. we're still looking at 2.5 to 2% gdp growth to the end of the year, so we do feel it's more of a fear contagion. >> is it creating bargains? >> yes, but don't get me wrong. there's still a lot of risk, and we do have strategies. >> you make the point that tradic -- here we go again, right is it. we were certainly not well received as people suffered a lot the volatility and the risks are getting -- very -- leverage creates volatility. >> the eu is meeting. what happened in the last half hour, the reason we had that rally, bill, is because the leadership of italy and france just met, mr. monti and mr. holland, of course germans are opposed to that. we're set up for a fist fight tonight, but they also made a cryptic statement that they need to make decision by the june meeting. so the good news is they're going to press ms. merkel. the bad news is a bank recapitalization is the main subject that the traders want to hear something about, because banks need some way to get recapitalize quickly. another 30 days, i'm not so sure they'll be able to pull that off. i think traders would like to see some comment tonight on that particular subject, bill. >> meantime, rick santelli, yields on the ten-year, and the minneapolis fed bank president lakota said moments ago that he fields yields are as low as they were, because the market will be able to get its fiscal house in order this morning. >> i don't know what he's eating, drinking or smoking -- >> i thought you would like that. >> -- but these yields are a squeeze on collateral. what does that mean? money fleeing out of the banks and various financial institutions in europe. where is that money going? bunds, treasuries, bobbles, shots. that's where the money seems to be going, and i don't think there's very many positives associated with that flow, and one final point, bob has been right all along, euro bonds certainly help everything. the only way i can see any significant help, but what does that really mean? it means germany will be on the line for everything. i just don't see it happening. >> the only scenario here, the only thing you can say for sure, rick, is almost under any scenario, germany will have to write a really big check. that will be the big issue, whether they'll do it. >> especially when you consider the political landscape in not too many months down the roads. >> peter, what about that? june you have the eu summit full blown, the greek elections on june 17th. could you foresee the kind of volatility we experienced last summer, especially with the wrangling going on with the debt cell here in the u.s.? >> yes, i certainly could. the 17th is obviously an important date, but interestingly, i actually think investors are too focused on greece at the moment. that may sown fundy to say, but actually expect a bit of a rally in the markets here, because they're so deeply oversold. that said, again because of the inability of europe to move private debts onto the public sector balance sheet, the way we are able to do so here, we'll continue to make for quite a bit of volatility as the banks will continue to struggle in europe. >> erin gibbs, i know you were -- we get the point, there's still some risk in this market right now, but you do feel the market has come down to create some bargains. where are they? what sectors do you like? >> telecom and utilities are some of our favorites, particularly for some of the different-yielding stocks. don't get me wrong, not everything with a high dividend yield is what you want to invest in. we're looking for more high quality stocks. >> you realize what a cede place all tilts are. >> there's still a few great companies out there. not across the board, but southern company is one of the better ones out there. >> erin, peter, good to see you. thank you for joining us. bob and rick, we'll check back as news warrants as we proceed into the final hour of trading. you will find some bright spots of this down day. >> bill, just for a hair of a second here, we had materials actually in positive territory at the moment back in negative territory, all ten sectors within the s&p 500. energy is in the middle but for the month already energy down 9%, financials already the worst performers. today they're kind of fair to mid ling. in terms of what's moving to the outside, goog the getting a bit of a boost this afternoon. right now off its highs of nearly $5 after a jury finds google did not infringe on oracle's patents. meantime, consumer discretionary names are the best performers in the s&p 500 top gainer is expedia. it's at an all-time high today. jaefry thinks this stock could keep going to at least 53. trip adviser also getting as all-time high, a lot of folks are using that online trifl. big lots having a great day despite the fact they missed on their first quarter bottom line. however they announced $200 million stock buyback, and that gave them a big bounce. moving on, a look here at some of the small caps today that are doing pretty well. petsmart, much better than expected first quarter results really blowing away the street. same-store sales were -- compared to an estimate of just 4.5% or so. i guess maria is not the only one who buys ella bela stuff. patriot coal regaining half its losses from yesterday, but another debt downgrade today over at s&p. bill, over to you. >> maria has arrived, you caught her attention right now. >> a shoutout to ella bela. thanks, bertha. >> we all love our pets. >> yes, we do, don't we? we're going to take a break. maria and i will come back, but the dow well off the lows of the session, culling off the lows by about 00 points. we'll keep an eye. and don't go anywhere. we have much more on this market sell-off, is coming up. from leader to laggard, is there any sign of a turnaround? the tech turmoil is next. metals melting down, crude oil getting crushed. will fears of a greek exit continue to fear -- >> their priorities is to maximize profits. that's not always going to be good for community, for bigging or workers. >> president obama is on the campaign trail, criticizing private equity firms. now the industrial is fighting back. we'll get reaction from a top private equity power player. we want your take on the fight over private equity. do the actions of some private equity firms give capitalism a bad name? tweet us. your responses are coming up. 6 6 or creates another laptop bag or hires another employee, it's not just good for business, it's good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know the impact that local businesses have on communities. that's why we extended $6.4 billion in new credit to small businesses across the country last year. because the more we help them, the more we help make opportunity possible. are you still sleeping? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule. the first technology of its kind... mom and dad, i have great news. is now providing answers families need. siemens. answers. take a look at this market. a pretty good rebound here. dow industrials had almost been down 200 points, now about 75. >> bob pisani pointing out apparently they're liking what they're hearing out of the preliminary meetings as they try to get ready for the full-blown summit next month. it's been a fear factor market all day today. i don't know what they could possibly say that will soothe this market, but we are seeing this -- what is it about this final hour? >> it's funny. >> we always see new developments. >> i guess the idea they are stepping up plans for greece is certainly being applauded, and they're buying into it. the pc maker, dell really setting the tone there. take a like at dell. stock down about 18% after the weak earnings we reported. despite the dell disaster, the nasdaq has been getting hurt less. they have -- jackie deangelis is looking at the nasdaq stocks, and we have some winners here. over to you. >> hey, maria, not so bad. right now down only about 13 points, so regaining some of the ground we lost earlier. i do want to point out we have the decliners outpacing advancers about 3:1, so there is still some red out there. as you mentioned some of these stocks are bucking the trends. certainly i want to start with facebook, on everyone's radar today, lawsuits that bill mentioned earlier, et cetera, some people are coming in and buying. at this point we are about 3.5% on facebook. calling this one a buy today, taking the minority view in terms of the long-term strategy, this is a stock you want to hold a price target. starbucks as well, we saw a pop on an upgrade from bank of america and merrill. they are saying that shares are correcting, but not because there's any fundamental problem, but more because the expectations were too high. back over to you. >> thank you so much. when the markets rallied. all we were talking about is nasdaq was up 17% going into march. with the market in turmoil, the nasdaq has been posting big losses, as we approach correction territory. >> in fact, it's seen bigger lass. is tech in trouble right now in chris constantinas seeing it as a buying opportunity. then there's poreser bibb, who is not so sure. maybe he says it's time to say bye-bye to tech overall. chris, what is 2 that you like at this point? highlighting the dell numbers, you're see a slowdown in demand for the.c market. >> first of all, i think you have to look at tech -- tech back in the '90s traded at an enormous multiple, a multiple very similar to some of the internet, but if you look at the core of tech, the core of tech is trading at a pretty sizable discount to the s&p 500. i never thought in my career i would see it, but tech is trading at an 11 multiple, and this is despite the fact that tech has a faster revenue growth, faster earnings growth, higher r.o.e., and also in times of serious disconnect or dislocation in like what saw in '08, tech actually started acting defensive. a lot of these companies had fortress-like balance sheets. >> let's talk about the fundamentals, porter. you say with all of the noise around the facebook story growing, it's not heart to be bearish these days, but wall us through fundamentals. what is driving the strength in technology? and has that changed? >> first of all, let me agree with chris, it's all about valuations. the core established company it is, the googles, the microsofts, the a apples, amazons, they're doing gale and their p.e.s are down in the low double digits, 10, 12, 15. when you look at linkedin, for instance, it did double, but its p.e. is 686. that's absolutely untenable. >> so don't buy that one. do you like the google? the apple? the microsoft? that you are acknowledging are in pretty good territory, and have the fundamentals changed from the go-go days a couple months ago? >> no, but investors have. they're looking at insanely you it's really sorbed media companies in 1998 when the globe went public and en609% on its first day, and four years later was completely vaporize d. >> chris, what do you like here? you like the valuations, but are you going to buy everything? >> i think you definitely have to be selective. names like microsoft, trading at a sub-10 multiple. you know, for a company basically the market is saying that microsoft's growth is completely dead for the foreseeable future. we think that's too pessimistic. apple surprisingly, 67% last year that company trades at an 11 multiple. >> recently, we think it's an opportunity on that stock. technicians will probably stay away from the chart. if you're willing to take an intermediate view, here's a company levered to all the important real growth trends in tech in my opinion. chris, porter, good to see you both. >> are we going to mark it down about 77 points, let's getting to brian shactman. >> a lot of stocks, of course making a turnaround. k.e.x., a $3 billion shipping company upgraded to buy from neutral. you see a nice pop on "closing bell" on that stock. >> brian, see you later. :40 minute before the closing bell sounds. that's right. europe and our economy concerns about those two issues are crushing oil and gas prices. why that could be good news though. that's coming up. will the falling market throw a wrench into the housing recovery, just as things are gaining traction. we'll talk with the ceo of toll brothers, on a day that the home companies are actually among the best performers. >> they are. as we head to the break, what was a sea of red for the s&p 500 heat map. a lot more green creeping into the picture right now. back after this. sadly, no. oh. but i did pick up your dry cleaning and had your shoes shined. well, i made you a reservation at the sushi place around the corner. well, in that case, i better get back to these invoices... which i'll do right after making your favorite pancakes. you know what? 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[ male announcer ] ...forbusiness.com. ♪ ha ha! ♪ i can do anything ♪ i can do anything today ♪ i can go anywhere ♪ i can go anywhere today ♪ la la la la la la la [ male announcer ] dow solutions help millions of people by helping to make gluten free bread that doesn't taste gluten free. together, the elements of science and the human element can solve anything. solutionism. the new optimism. we are at the highest of the day with the dow jones industrial average down about 59 months. part of the strength here coming from energy glue some of energy names have been helping to turn this market around. certainly you do have some of the economically sensitive names here trading up, and having the dow jones industrial averages recover. we're still seeing significant weakness. the story today was a rush to liquidity around the globe. we saw, of course, the rise in the dollar as the euro fell and commodities fell along with it, and the crb index was the lowest level we have seen since september of 2010. when you look at various commodities, and the crb makes up about 19 different commodities, we did see significant weakness, but that has to do with europe, and the fact that there are something that believe we may see a potential deal with iran, and that geopolitical risk had accounted for some $15, so that may be part of the reason why we're down about 20 bucks. the fact we saw gold prices fall so rapidly, that also surprised some traders, but keep in mind as well, gold continues to fluctuate between being a risk assets which contributes to the decline and a safe haven, so we did see a bit of a short covering rally here in the gold market. back to you. >> things have changed rapidly in the last 30 minutes or so. let's talk about oil and gold. joining us on the technical side, it's ennis tanner with reverse.com, which is what's happening right now, and on the fundamental side, peter boockvar. we were going to talk about this higher dollar, the lower gold mark, and everything's changing around right now, but it's still -- i mean, it takes its cue from the currency market. as the dollar strengthens, a lot of these tangible et cetera will go lower. >> and we've seen this movie a bunch of times, that when qe take a break, we see the global economy roll over and see the dollar bounce, but it's that decline in those assets that eventually leads to the next qe. >> chad be quaint at a timive easing for the federal reserve, essentially more money to at to the liquidity. >> right, but this could be the ecb first, probably more from the bank of japan or from bank of england. you can inflate your way out, pay it down or debt restructuring. growth is not strong enough to pay it down and political it's too i know you're itching to show us these charts. let's start with oil. we were flirting with that $90 a barrel level. >> and qe or no qe, the dollar is making 21-month highs against the euros today. between 75 and 110, as sharon epperson pointed out, we have a very steep fall over the last month. it's obviously very oversold. >> what's your support level? >> obviously very oversold, but the point i would make is we have record inventories, i wouldn't touch oil with a ten-foot pole. >> you think it can go back to 75? >> i think 80 to 75 is a strong support level. >> very quickly on gold, it could get out of its own ways, can't get back above $1600 an ounce, but here's a longer-term -- >> this is a chart of gld. we had a very strong steady uptrend over the course of three years. we had a blowoff top in august, and that's really brought the weakness. that was the high there, and now we have, just like strength, weakness begets weakness, i think gold is going lower. >> all right. very good. thank you both. gold and oil, that's the forecast. except tect change in this last hour here. we'll see what happens, maria. >> we have 30 minutes before the closing bell sounds on a market that's coming back ferociously. earlier we were down almost 200 points. retail is one strong spot, and money moving into retail and home builders. banks are mixed though bank of america is one of the gainers on the session. listen to this. our next guest says the markets would be worse off if our government wasn't so screwed up. incredible but true. our next guess is here, and if our government wasn't so screwed up, thing would be worse for stocks. he'll explain the contrarian view. as we take a break, it's not a pretty picture in the dow, though off the worst levels. with the exception, as you can see, the. walmart, bank of america, alcoa, caterpillar doing well. back in two minutes on "closing bell." tdd# 1-800-345-2550 checking the charts. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 looking for support, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 resistance, breakouts, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 a few other tricks that i'll keep to myself. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 that's how i trade. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and i do it all with charles schwab, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 because their streetsmart edge platform tdd# 1-800-345-2550 helps me trade quickly, intuitively. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 staying on top of the market is key! tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and the momentum tool, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 it lets me do it at a glance, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 so when things shift, i'm ready. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 then to track the stocks i have my eye on, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 i turn to schwab's high/low ticker. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 so i can spot a potential breakout tdd# 1-800-345-2550 before it breaks out. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and get this...i can even trade, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 change my orders or check out my positions tdd# 1-800-345-2550 right on my chart. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 my system works for me. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 does yours work for you? 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believe it or not, one of our next guests says yes its due to the government's inable to agree on virtually anything that is prevented austerity, which would have led to another recession. white europe is suffering. explaining the case is brookings institute fellow, and good to have you both on the program. >> pietro, let me kick it off with you here. you believe in fact the issue that is most important here is sort of the government's inability to get anything done, that's actually a positive? >> yeah, in the short run that's a positive. we've been digging out, and it would not have been a good idea to precipitously increase taxes or cut the budget too heavily. >> what about the idea that, look, if you don't send a signal to the market, a signal to the players involved that you're getting your arms around the problems like the debt and the fact that we can't afford some of these public programs, then you just keep going downward into a spiral? >> that's correct, but i think it's important to send that signal for the intermediate and longer term, and not for the here and now, because right now the economy's still fragile. it's important not to impose severe austerity measures. >> and dan mitchell, that's been the probable in europe, i guess, where initial lir their message was let's cut spending, let's get our house fiscally in order right now. that's backfired and now all of a sudden they're talking about growth. do you agree? >> i agree. i think they're -- >> i'm very frustrated with the whole debate in europe, because they define austerity by simply whether you have deficits or debts, and as a result a lot of the so-called austerity is higher taxes, not lower expending which i think is good. and in europe they define growth as keynesian spending, but i don't know that woerns. it didn't work for hoover or roosevelt. it didn't work for obama or japan in the 1990s. i do agree with the premise, that our founding fathers set up a separation of power system, because they thought gridlock was a good thing. >> the founders created a system of checks and balances designed intentionally to delay and decelerate decisions. sometimes that comes in handy. you don't want to raise taxes or actually cut spending too radically when you're still in a recession or barely digging out from it. >> one thing to understand, though, most of the big european nations haven't cut any spending. government is growing about 2% a year in countries likes fran and england. it's only the southern european countries. but that's the bond market forcing that, not political willpower. >> well, the people have set no, right? because they're voting out they politicians actually behind ultimate austerity? >> that's true, but they were imposed tax increases. are ill-timed. what's going to be your take, the so-called fiscal clip, when you have tax rates expires, with spenting expire, as. pietro? >> i think a lot will depending on the outcome of the election, of course, but i would doubt that, regardless of the outcome, that there will be a tax-mageddon permitted, even a sequester i think that would put the economy back in the ditch. el it end of the day even or polarized politicians will back away from that. >> in my dream world we extend the tax cuts and take the sequester. unlike the phony packages, a sequester would be a real reduction in the growth of spending. that's what we need to do, focus on getting that trendline down. otherwise, 10, 15, 20 years from now, we will have a greek-style fiscal crisis. >> you agree now is not the time, as long as pietro is making the point, now is not the time to be making the draconian spending cuts? >> under a sequester, government grows an average of 2% a year. we have to get away from the phony definition of cut, where if you don't get to increase spending -- >> if i can. >> it's not as though there's been no budget cutting and no increases in taxes. about half the public sector is state and local, and there have been significant retrenchment at the state level. >> gentlemen, this is a broader issue than four minutes deserves, but we have to go at this point. thank you both for joining us, and your thoughts. >> thank you. meantime, ma rio, as we head to the close, down just 33 points on the dow. >> an amazing recovery, really. that's all you can say here. big victory for the bulls, as we come back. new home sales perking up, but will fallout from the falling stock market hurt housing just as things are gaining track shuns? doug yearly next. >> and forget the billions of cuts. former council of economic advisers chair ed lazear explains why it would send -- >> and as we take this break, a look at the s&p sectors. a lot more measured than when we started the show with the materials and discretionary, industrials, for examples, and energy showing strength, bringing the market back from the lows. back in a moment. ♪ i hear you... ♪ rocky mountain high ♪ rocky, rocky mountain high ♪ ♪ all my exes live in texas ♪ ♪ born on the bayou [ female announcer ] the perfect song for everywhere can be downloaded almost anywhere. ♪ i'm back, back in the new york groove ♪ [ male announcer ] the nation's largest 4g network. covering 2,000 more 4g cities and towns than verizon. rethink possible. 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[ tires squeal ] then we turned the page, creating the rx hybrid. ♪ now we've turned the page again with the all-new rx f sport. ♪ this is the next chapter for the rx and the next chapter for lexus. see your lexus dealer. s&p 500 down as well, down sharply earlier. positive by two points, though. >> it is low of the day we were down 8% from the april highs for the year, so we've almost in correction territory, now well off tof look at the nasdaq, also a leader to the up side, now almost 12, 13 points. >> so technology turning positive here. facebook is up, bill. >> found a bottom somewhere. >> and certainly money move into retail. the banks seem to be turning around as well. it might be showing signs of life. toll brothers making a $17 million profit in the quarter, with many high-end customers invested in the market, is that a concern for the nation's largest luxury builder? the stock has withstood today's market drop and actually one of the big winners on the street. joining me is the head of toll brothers doug yearly. >> thank you very much. happy to be here. >> your earnings and report, rising new home sales also good news. tell us what they reports are telling you and how you see the market at this point? >> we feel really good. we announced today our orders are up 51% over second quarter of 2011. it's been a great spring for the builders, a great spring for the luxury end of the market. right now we feel great. there's five years that's been building from everything on the sidelines. boy, this spring they sure came out. >> i know your company catered to that, who perhaps has been doing better. what do you work about at this point? how would you characterize that summer? >> the supply is way down. that's one of the things that's helped us. we're down to five months of new home inventory. that's down significantly. i think that's one of the big movers for us. there's just not that much supply out there. our clients can get a mortgage. they tend to put about 30% down. they just have been tired of waiting. they want to move on with their lives. it was just a great spring. generally the economy is improving. the housing data has been good lately. quiter confidence is up. so we feel good, but we understand we're just one or two bad headlines from people going back under the rock. we're nervous, but right now it feels pretty good and feels like we're in a new stage of recovery, which is encouraging. >> so still a strong part of this recovery, yet some fragility there. what goes through the country, in terms of varies by region by region. >> our stronger market by far is still urban new york. we build in hoboken, manhattan, brooklyn. that's by far the best market we have. northern and southern california had a great spring. dallas has had a great spring. northern virginia had a great spring. believe it or not, michigan is now one of our top markets. the areas that are a bit softer, chicago is still troubling, phoenix believe it or not has come back in a big way this spring. so overall we have a lot more as, bs and c-pluses than ds and fs. >> in terms of pricing s. where are we? a lot of people are wondering, sure, maybe prices will not be plummeting, but maybe they bump along the bom for some time. what do you think? >> we're clearly off the bottom. we were offering 10% to 15% discounts, 1, 2, 3 years ago. today our incentives run about 5%, but it's a very local business. we have great pricing power in new york city. we have good pricing power in the northeast/mid-atlantic. california is good pricing power. there's other areas where prices are still flat. they're not going backwards, but in some areas, it's still a buyers' market. there's a few areas that i would say are becoming a seller's markets. >> are there any metrics that could reverse the situation for you? what do you worry about in terms of red flags other than just an economy that rolls over and a change? sentime sentiment? >> well, we're one european headline away, major negative headline away from the market falling off significantly. buyers taking a break. so we're still concerned. you know, the buyer confidence is there, but it's fragile. it's not '05, so we're be very careful. we're making sure we have the best locations, we provide the best homes, the best product, the best service it feels good, but we're being careful. >> thank you very much. about 13 minutes to go, dow refusing to go positive here, down 17 points, the other two major averages have turned positive. 9 dow was down 190 points at one time. >> what a late-day comeback, what a wild final hour. we will end the day certainly off the lows, but will we enpositive? >> i think they can do it. i think they will do it. >> me too. imagine that. also ahead, listen to this. >> we know what you're up to, gekko, and you can go straight to hell. no way you'll break up our airline. >> nobody knows. if that's my plan -- >> would you care to put it in writing? >> i would like to remind you, we have an agreement. >> maria's good friend gordon gekko. we want your take on private ecity. do the activities of some firms gift capitalism a bad name, he asks? tweet us, and we'll reveal your responses a bit later on "closing bell." stay tuned. that bringing you better technology helps make you a better investor. with our revolutionary new e-trade 360 dashboard you see exactly where your money is and what it's doing live. our e-trade pro platform offers powerful functionality that's still so usable you'll actually use it. and our mobile apps are the ultimate in wherever whenever investing. no matter what kind of investor you are, you'll find the technology to help you become a better one at e-trade. you'll find the technology to help you become a better one you do a lot of no.aking? 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[ man announcing ] what we created here. what we achieved here. what we learned here. and what we pioneered here. all goes here. the one. the accord. smarter thinking from honda. welcome back. what a day for the markets here. quite a comeback. dow jones industrial average down about 21 points, and we have stocks like alcoa doing well, bank of america, caterpillar, some of these interest rate and economically sensitive names certainly taking the dow industrials off the lows. now showing a decline of just 23 on the dow. nasdaq has gone positive, even though technology was one of the leadership groups. money moving back into tech. >> a lot of this was attributable to the lower euro today. we hit a two-year low, the euro did. when you get the strength of the dollar, that's when you start to see problems with our stock market here. there's the euro against the dollar, which is coming off those lows of the day, but when you get a strong dollar, two positive things can happen for consumers and invest ovrs, and borrowers here in the united states. first interest rates go down, as a safe haven play comes into effect, so as they rush into treasuries we've got yields on the ten-year note near record lows. that means mortgage rates are going down, i'm sure doug is grateful for mortgage rates to be as low as they are. >> that's helped the market for sure. >> it hasn't hurt, that's for sure. >> the other positive, energy prices come down action gasoline is among them, and they couldn't come at a better time. gasoline costs are coming down. coming back almost to the lows for 2012 at this point, thank you, strong dollar. we're coming back with the closing countdown. >> then after the bell, full team coverage of this big comeback, and instant analysis. we heard from dell last night, we know that was a disaster, checking in at hewlett-packard, the numbers are out right after 4:00. stay with "closing bell." back in a moment. n a moment. today is gonna be an important day for us. you ready? we wanna be our brother's keeper. what's number two we wanna do? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online. attention on site, attention on site. now starting unit nine. some of the world's cleanest gas turbines are now powering some of america's biggest cities. siemens. answers. like in a special ops mission? you'd spot movement, gather intelligence with minimal collateral damage. but rather than neutralizing enemies in their sleep, you'd be targeting stocks to trade. well, that's what trade architect's heat maps do. they make you a trading assassin. trade architect. td ameritrade's empowering, web-based trading platform. trade commission-free for 60 days, and we'll throw in up to $600 when you open an account. inside the four-minute mark before the closing bell rings. this is why we call it the most important hour of the trading day. you get a lot of good information, a real sense of what the market's thinking during that final hour, as traders get ready for the close. they don't want to be long or short in any one direction overnig overnight, so they start to show their hand on what they're thinking. that happens to be what was happening today. take a look. the euro at almost a two-year low until the final hour, and then we start to move off that low. as we came off that low, that's when we started to see the stock market come off that low as well. we move in tandem. look at the dow. i was going to show you this chart, as it gets ever closer to that 200-day moving average, which it is, but now coming off that low, as we move to the -- down about -- 17 points, we may be positive by the end of the day. oil same story, below $9 on a barrel. for a time today. we've come off those lows, we're at $90 a barrel right now. gold at this point down 16.5, big move there as it comes off the lows. of course moving inversely with the dollar, now at $1560 per ounce, and the vix well off the highs of the day, moving inversely there. it was in the 24, almost 25 point range. let me bring in veteran trader alan valdez. crazy, crazy last hour. what's the message when something like this happens? >> it's days like this that has our heads spinning. a lot 6 it is technical on days like this. we waffle that s&p number, 1300, broken a little. and then of course it just bounced off it, but historically, if you go back in time, you look at thursday and friday before memorial day, a lot of buying, because there's no volume. guys like you mentioned, but a long week, and the end of the month, so we're not surprised. >> and indications that maybe they like what they're hearing, coming out of europe, these meetings now, the word "growth" is being bandied about. not so much austerity. the markets seem to like that, too. >> we move so quickly on news now. now you've got to insulate and it moves right away. it lifts the ship. >> we have hewlett-packard earnings out. yesterday dell's were not so good. set the tone for this morning. i think it's safe to say hewlett-packard will do the same? >> that's the feeling over here. you're right. i mean, we forget about, you know, american stocks so much, but dell did weigh on the market this morning, especially on the tech. now apple up 12 points, bringing the whole nasdaq up. >> will it be important psychologically? the s&p certainly, even if we finish right here, it's still a triple-point gain. we had a nice rally here. so definitely positive, coming -- >> alan, always good to see you. that is the first hour, and what a crazy hour we've had here as we go into the close of ad