Lets talk stocks right now. Joining me is heather hughes, Rebecca Patterson and greg ipp from the economist. Whats going on over there, maria . Loud. Well show you whats going on here. That was the group from home depot doing a rah rah from the company. Heather, how important is housing to the broader economy . Well be talking with frank blake in a moment. Hell give us a great window into whats going on with housing and how that gifs us a sense of what were seeing in the broader economy. Definitely homes have been the driving factor to this economy. Rising rates i guess are worrying the banks right now in terms of lending. However, they may actually ease up on their lending standards as rates rise because it would also increase their profitability in terms of margins. Rebecca patterson, based on what youre seeing in the broader economic landscape, is that reason to buy stocks . Were sitting on our hands right now. We just want to get some more clarity from some of our known unknowns, be it the fed taper, the new fed nominee, syria, the continuing resolution. You have to admit the underlying tone of the economy is improving. As we get clarity in september and assuming our risks turn out to be benign, our inclination is to add to exity exposure. Greg, what about that . Is the economy Strong Enough to warrant the fed beginning that taper this month . Its definitely feeling that way. They always made it clear that the key to winding down quantitative easing is the labor market. If you look at the jobless claims today, adp suggesting a solid job number tomorrow. It creates interesting crosscurrents for the market because thats one reason the bond market continues to sell off. Thats undercutting evaluation support for the market. The tradeoff is these stronger numbers as carl was referencing suggests we might be at an Inflection Point with stronger growth ahead. I feel better on the market that depends more on good Economic Data and less on the fed. Less on the fed. Do you think we see a big Market Reaction if, in fact, the fed comes out this month, september 17 and 18 is the twoday meeting and says, yes, well take the tapering down, take the bond buying down from 85 billion a month to 65 billion a month. I think it depends on the size of the dropdown. If they go down to 65 and stay there or maybe down to 75, i think the market can stay that. Honestly, i think so much will depend on the body language, on the way they finesse it in the statement and, of course, bernankes press conference. If they give us language that suggests we are not at all on some automatic path to take this down 10 billion every month. Were still very data dependent, that can be reassuring to the asset market. Heather, if we see that tapering begin, whats your move as a portfolio manager, as an allocator of capital . Rebecca, were you jumping in there . Yes, i was going to say i agree with everything greg just said, and i would add to that that weve already seen a lot of this taper and event tightening, pricing into the market. Just today the fed funds futures. What the market is implying for shortterm rates is to suggest were going to have a 50 basis point shortterm rate by the end of next year. Only two weeks ago that wasnt priced until august 2015. The market is bringing a lot forward. I think if the tapering announcement we get is relatively in line with consensus, the market is already getting that discounted ahead of time. So i dont think this has to be a hugely traumatic event for the markets. Let me make a quick point here. If rebecca is right that the market is anticipating the fed to start tightening within a year, i think bernanke will push back, saying we dont see anything to tell us to raise the federal funds rate. If the market believes him, that could be positive. The tapering doesnt mean higher Interest Rates. Exactly. Yet were looking at higher Interest Rates, right on the doorstep of 3 right now. Does that give you pause, heather . I think regardless of what happens at the fed, whether its a september or december and how what their language is, we, of course, have seen a mass exodus from bonds. However, only 20 of that money seems to be flowing into stocks right now suggesting that investors are still raising cash on the sidelines to perhaps buy out at a lower price. If you follow the european example and you took the whole month of august off, you would have faired pretty well. It was the worst month weve had since may of 2012. The s p was down 3. 1 . In terms of mutual fund flows, we saw another 7. 7 billion . Terms of outflows last week. It will be interesting to see if that trend continues throughout september. Would you put money in bonds right here . I lost you. I said would you put money in bonds right here . I would say no. Heather is not answering that one. Rebecca, what about you, would you put money in bonds right here . No. We have a maximum underweight to traditional government bonds. Were comfortable having a small exposu exposure. We dont have zero because if rates rise more slowly we think bonds can make more money than cash. As long as we stay short duration in our exposure. Really, i think staying in equities, looking for an opportunity to month to add the equities and dont just focus on the u. S. A lot of the risk out there this year or this month are u. S. Focused. You still have a dove Issuer Company central bank, a nice discount european stocks to u. S. Stocks. Europe fell less than half what the u. S. Fell last month. Thanks everybody. Appreciate your time tonight. Well see you soon. The big bank is taking heat. Are some banks still too big to fail . Well talk about that after the break when we sit down with former fdic chairman sheila bair. The ceo of home depot frank blake making his way over. Well talk with frank blake next. Vo two years of grad school. 20 years with the company. Thousands of presentations. And one hard earned partnership. It took a lot of work to get this far. So now im supposed to take a back seat when it comes to my investments . Theres zero chance of that happening. Avo when you work with a schwab financial consultant, youll get the guidance you need with the control you want. Talk to us today. Female narrator sleep train challenged its manufacturers sleep train challenged its manufacturers to offer even lower prices. But the mattress price wars ends sunday. Now its posturepedic versus beautyrest with big savings of up to 400 off. Serta icomfort and tempurpedic go headtohead with three years interestfree financing, plus free sameday delivery, setup, and removal of your old set. When brands compete, you save. Mattress price wars ends sunday at sleep train. Your ticket to a better nights sleep welcome back. Home building stocks have been losing ground this year while Home Improvement companies have been seeing double digit gains. Sheila has the story. Over to you. Lets take a look at the numbers behind those trends. Take a look at the s andb 500 Home Building index, down nearly 15 year to date, names like lennar, dr horton among the hardest hit. You compare that to the Home Improvement stocks. Those names have had tremendous runs. Home depot up 20 , lowes up nearly 30 . Lumber liquidators up more than 80 this year. So what gives with this die very generals . The team at barclays recently had an extensive note about the difference in performance. They point out two things. First of all, rising rates weve been talking about this theme all day. They say its a big negative when it comes to demand and general housing sentiment. Also, too, they point out that the run we see in new home prices may finally be overextended. Now, it is a very different story when we talk about these Home Improvement names though. Barclays points out that remodeling, also Home Improvement projects, big lagarde when it comes to that sector. So really right now is the time for a lot of momentum in those stocks and certainly the sectors to keep an eye on it if youre looking for a bet in those names, maria. Of course, home depot a frontrunner in the housing recovery. Just look at the numbers. For the Second Quarter profits were up 17 at home depot. Sales rose to above 22 billion. Check on the stock on fire which is up 20 year to date. Sweet looking chart there. With me, the man making it all happening, leading this recovery, home depot chair manned an ceo frank blake with me. Good to have you on the program. Thank you so much. So nice to see you, particularly now at this time we can call this recovery real in housing. Weve got a lot to talk to you today about housing. But let me first get to why youre here at the new york stock exchange. This is very important, near and dear to you. Employees ringing the closing bell, your third annual celebration of service. Talk to us about this. This is a push to improve the lives of veterans. What are you doing . Thank you very much for highlighting that. Were very pleased to have our associates here ringing the bell. Weve committed over 80 million over a fiveyear period to help our veterans in need. Well be doing over 300 Service Projects around the country with volunteer labor from the home depot working with local communities and local veterans groups. Weve got a big push on hiring veterans. We know this is a need that really goes to the core of our values at home depot and were thrilled to be able to help. Thank you for that. I know the country thanks you for that with the courage and the strength that our veterans have exhibited servicing our country. Coming home, they have to start anew and that begins with jobs, but their homes as well. What are you seeing in the Housing Market . The Housing Market continues to improve. We had very strong, as you pointed out, a very strong Second Quarter. We had doubledigit same store sales growth for the first time in the Company Since 1999, strongest Second Quarter in over 20 years. A lot of that has to do with recovery in the Housing Market. Our anticipation is that that continues through the back half of the year, maybe not at a brisk pace, but a good pace, a good solid pace. You cant expect brisk in an environment where were just coming off the worst financial crisis most of us have ever seen. We talked about it in the commercial break, 6 trillion in value lost in terms of home equity during that 2006 to 2010 time frame. Exactly. The Housing Market started to crash in the back half of 2006. And in a fouryear period of time, homeowners lost half of their home equity, over 6 trillion. Thats been a drag on spending, not only in the Home Improvement space, but in other spaces, and its great to see the start of the recovery which for us really started last year and is continuing into this year. What are you seeing in terms of how people are behaving around their homes and in this recovery . Are there certain areas that youre seeing real vibrancy and other areas where were still sort of waiting for the recovery . A lot has happened in the areas that were hardest hit in the downturn. California, nevada, arizona, florida all coming back. Within the individual consumer strength, larger ticket projects like kitchen remodels were hit very hard in the downturn. Very important for us, our pro customers are also starting to come back. Actually our pro customers were the hardest hit during the downturn from 2008 on. The professional customer. Professional customer. Why were they hit so hard . If you look at the performance of our pro customer, you can almost track it to lehman in 2008. They were going down around the same pace as our consumer. Then following the fall of 2008, they started declining even twice as fast as our consumer sales during the downturn. It was credit availability. You saw that market shrink post fall of 2008. Has now started to recover. In the first quarter, our pro segment grew faster than our consumer segment. Second quarter they were both growing equally. Lets look around the world. The u. S. Verses europe. Obviously europe has been caught in its own web of upset and debt crisis. China, you made a decision to exit china last september. Looking back, good decision . Yes. I mean not that china isnt a great market, but we didnt have the right answer for the chinese market. And in particular, understanding the needs of the Chinese Consumer and how we could use our distribution strength to provide them better value, we just never could solve that problem in the chinese market. How is europe . We dont have a presence in europe. I follow from afar our colleagues who sell Home Improvement in europe and i think its a tough market. Is international not as much of a priority . We have a very strong business in mexico, so our mexican business we are over now 100 stores in mexico. Weve positively comped for 39 quarters in a row which is a Pretty Amazing record. Canada is very strong for us. Were positively comping in canada. Were a north american business. We shut down china and not looking to expand anywhere else. Some of the issues in the u. S. That we hear a lot about, the Affordable Care act, the cost of health care, the idea that minimum wage perhaps could go up. Talk to us about the expense side of the business. Are you worried about the Affordable Care act . We will run our business to provide great value to our associates in terms of our Health Care Coverage that we provide for them. And thats what were focused on. Were very proud of the fact that in this really horrible downturn in the Housing Market we maintained salary increases for our associates, we maintained 401 k matches and we substantially increased bonuses to our Hourly Associates. We have the same commitment to provide them great health care. Will you make any changes in terms of were hearing a lot about companies doing different things, saying we cant offer benefits, Health Care Benefits to spouses. If youre getting it somewhere else, we cant do it. Will you make any changes once you we actually made some of those changes preceding the health care you had to. We had to. Where we focused since we selfinsure, we focused on the Healthy Behaviors of our associates, so getting them to stop smoking, worrying about body mass index, things like that that our associates actually view as a great value for them because it helps them live a healthier life. Let me ask you about your giving back to employees through your success sharing program. Bonus payouts to hourly employees which you just talked about which is impressive. In 2012 those payouts totaled 200 million. Explain it to shareholders. Is this beneficial to home depot even though the cost is that high . We think absolutely. We want our associates to share in the success of the business. So as the business does better, we can pay out more in success sharing. Were really thrilled that we had 100 of our stores participate in success sharing in the United States this first half. We increased our success sharing payout for our associates 50 over 2012 levels which was a 50 increase over 2011. So it just as we do better as a company, well make sure our Hourly Associates do better. The number of stores and the expansion continues at home depot. When does too many stores we pretty much stopped our store expansion. Is it cannibalizing . This year were opening two stores in the u. S. , but theyre unique. One is in puerto rico, the other in minot, north dakota because minot is now a booming town because of shale gas. Those sort of unique opportunities, well build stores in mexico. But its ones and twos. Its not like a few years ago when we were doing 100, 200 a year. Those arent coming back. The environment is completely different. Completely different environment. Interesting that you say that. In one area of the country youve got fracking, the natural gas explosion not explosion. Amazing growth. The powerful growth of it. What are the other trends you see happening that might be a marker for you to appeal to you to say we want to open another store because this is happening. The energy story is a great example. The energy story is probably one of the dominant stories now. You see that. We mentioned north dakota. But you also see that some in texas. You see that some in the midwest. Id say you also have some growth in areas that are now, as i said before, recovering from the very hardhit housing crisis. So florida were starting to see growth again, california is starting to see growth again. I dont think well see a lot of new store opportunities there because we have a lot of stores already. But those are the areas were looking at. Continued strategy in terms of allocating capital, shareholders are watching. Your stock has done incredibly well, 20 year to date, 30 over the last year, 175 over the last five years. Dividend payouts, buybacks, what are the priorities . The First Priority is our business. We spend the make sure that we have a great business and were doing the right thing for our company. For our excess cash, we committed to giving that back to our shareholders either in the form of buybacks and weve set up policy on our dividends that well pay 50 of our earnings in dividends each year. Thanks very much for being on the program, frank blake, ceo and chairman at home depot. Thank you. Janet yellen, the vote of confidence in her from former chairman sheila bair. Also ahead, from russia without love, the latest from st. Petersburg on president obamas efforts to Win International support for military action in syria. Well be right back with more closing bell. In todays markets, a lot can happen in a second. With fidelitys guaranteed onesecond trade execution, we route your order to up to 75 Market Centers to look for the best possible price maybe even better than you expected. Its all part of our goal to execute your trade in one second. Im derrick chan of fidelity investments. Our onesecond trade execution is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. Now get 200 free trades when you open an account. Before Global Opportunities were part of their investment strategy. Before they funded scholarships to the schools that gave them scholarships. Before they planned for their parents future needs and their sons future. They chose a partner to help manage their wealth, one whose insights, solutions and approach have been relied on for over 200 years. Thats the value of trusted connections. Thats u. S. Trust. Welcome back. President Obama MeetingWorld Leaders in russia for the group of 20 summit as he tries to bolster support for military action in syria. Nbcs chuck todd is live in st. Petersburg with the latest developments. Chuck . Good evening here from st. Petersburg. Maria right behind me the 20 leaders of the worlds 20 richest countries are having a dinner, a working dinner and syria is the topic of conversation. It was a request actually by vladimir putin, the russian president. Hes the host. Hes been sharing these meetings. And earlier this afternoon when the g20 got started, he asked everybody to say, lets hold off on syria until dinner. The president is using his time at dinner to try to make the case to as many World Leaders that will listen to him in that room. The question is, what we dont know, did it become a debate between president obama and putin over what to do in syria . Did the president succeed in at least getting the european allies that are part of nato united behind him because both germany and italy have said theyre not necessarily supportive of providing military support to the United States if they get involved . But thats what the white house hopes comes out of this meeting. They hope that tomorrow, when all of these World Leaders, when the g20 wraps up and they do their big press conferences, that they come out and say supportive words about what the president wants to do in syria, at least about half of these countries they hope. Because what the white house thinks that will do, if theres an appearance of even rhetorically an international coalition, that that will help the white house lobby a bunch of wayward democrats. Right now the game for the white house is finding as Many Democrats that are sceptical about syria to support the president on this. Chuck, thanks very much. Chuck todd is live in st. Petersburg, russia. The dow posted its first threeday winning streak in almost three months. This is a Pretty Simple story. First of all, the winners were those economically sensitive stocks because of all the good data we received today. The Services Sector growing at the fastest pace since 2005. This gave a lift first time unemployment claims, nonforeign payroll is tomorrow. The losers, Interest Rate sensitive stocks because all this good Economic News sent the yields to their highest levels in about two years. So reits telecom and utilities. Flat. Keep an eye on tkr because its speaking in the after hours, the Company Coming out announcing it will split into two publiclytraded companies. The other focused on the bare rings and Power Transmission business. Stock up now more than 6 in taf hours. Again, tim kin splitting into two publiclytraded companies maria. Meanwhile jpmorgan continues to battle government probes on several fronts. Up next, sheila bair and whether the problem originates at the top of the banking jichbt. Well talk about fed tapering, who she thinks should fill bernankes shoes and a whole lot more. Are you ready for football . The nfl season kicking off officially tonight on nbc. Two exnfl players weighing in on the action on the field as well as the street. Dont touch that remote. Back in a moment with more closing bell. It starts with something little, like taking a first step. And then another. And another. And if you do it. And your friends do it. And their friends do it. Soon well be walking our way to awareness, support and an end to alzheimers disease. And that . That would be big. Grab your friends and family and start a team today. Register at alz. Org Student Loans no longer making the loan for banks. Jpmorgan chase is the latest to exit the private loan industry, sending a memo to participating schools, effective october 12 it wont be accepting new applications for these private loans. The memo says chase will work to process any loan submitted before october 12th. Chase will stop disbursing loans on march 15 of the last year. Borrowers seek these private loans for tuition and costs that federal aid doesnt cover. The loan comes with stricter terms and higher Interest Rates. Most students dont have a proven record of cred did worthiness and future money to cover the loans arent guaranteed. I used to be a big business for banks. In 2008, 25 billion came from lenders like jpmorgan and wells fargo. That number has sluning massively to some 6 billion as of this year. Regulation including the new Consumer Protection bureau have begun cracking down. Since then, 6 billion of revenues at the peek, just 200 million after cutting off noncustomers from applying two years from now. The memo applies to 12,000 customers. But its the late estebaning to pull out of an industry with little reward. Want to get reaction from someone who is very familiar with the banks. Joining me is sheila bair, former fdic chairman and Senior Adviser to the pure charitable trust. Thanks. Is this a good thing that jpmorgan is getting out of the student loan business . Theres been a lot of controversy about it. Are we loading kids up with too much student debt. I think theyre making a riskreward determination. Given the rates to be charged, the risks are too much. Hopefully this will not constrict credit for kids who are borrowing to go to school, makes sense. Still Government Programs available. Still smaller lepders that can step into this space. Let me ask you about whether its jpmorgan or some of the other banks out there and the Regulatory Environment right now. Jpmorgan has been in the headlines for a lot of reasons recently, whether the hiring practices, the probe on its sales of mortgages. Whats your take in terms of the pressure that jpmorgan has been facing in terms of regulators. Is this by design . Someone has to be in the spotlight after what we all experienced in 2008. Is it going too far, sheila . Well, it does seem like theyre being singled out. I want robust enforcement. I want robust regulation, but i want enforcement that even handily address behaviors that break the law and done in a consistent way. Thats the way you change behavior. If the perception is that a particular bank is being picked on because the ceo in the past pushed back against regulators or was criticized by regulators, i think thats a harmful perception. I think its incumbent on the government to have a clear articulation of the activity that is underlying the enforcement action. If other banks have been doing that activity, go after them, too. Just dont pick on one bank. Are they trying to make an example of jamie dimon . I dont know. Chase has got some problems clerly. They had weaknesses in the risk management. But some of this, you look at and question, well, we dont like that, thats wrong. Its good theyre bringing enforcement action. White arent other banks being challenged as well. Thats the question the government needs to answer and be careful about. The last thing we want, we dont have a system of regulatory integrity if the view is this is discretionary and payback as opposed to addressing behaviors that are harmful and destabilizing to our Financial System. Youve been on record by saying many of these banks are simply too big, still, after all that weve seen and all that weve witnessed, is it time to break up the banks . Would that be the answer at this moment in time . Is that what you said . Well, i think where i sit is we need much tougher capital standards. We had progress there with the Bank Regulators proposing much tougher capital levels like similar hire. That was a good initiative. As i argue in my book, id like to see federally insured deposits only to be used to support traditional banking. Dont let insured deposits being used to fund that activity. Make the market fund it. I think we need a minimum longterm debt issuance for these big guys to reduce their reliance on shortterm funding. The fed has promised to move ahead on that. Those types of initiatives will create market pressure to downsize because its going to increase their funding cost. Ending too big to fail, convincing the market that too big to fail is over, will also pressure them to downsize. I do believe right now they can access markets because there is still a perception unfortunately that they have implied government support. More robust use of those resolution tools and clear statements by both the fed and the fdic that this is over, no more taxpayer bailouts. You invest in these guys, youre taking the loss if they go down. That kind of communication strategy could have market pressure to break them up. Fed chairman bernankes term winding down. Youre a supporter of ms. Yellin for the job . I am. What makes her the best person for the job . Shes got long experience at the fed, both as the head of the San FranciscoRegional Bank where she had front line supervision responsibilities. She knows what its like to be a regulator, to manage supervisors, to be on the front lines of that. Shes also a good expert in Monetary Policy, having been the vice chairman for Monetary Policy for several years now. Shes solid. Got an impeccable reputation, a good public image. Theres so much talk about we need a new chairman who is going to have the confidence of wall street. I want somebody who understands markets. Janet yellen does understand markets. I want a fed chairman with the confidence of main street. I worry about this terrible perception that were all captive to wall street interests here in washington, and i want to break that because i want the public to have confidence in the fed and the regulatory process. I absolutely think by that criteria that janet yellen is the best person for the job. Thats a great point to make. You think Larry Summers is too tied to wall street . I dont know. I probably said more than i should about larry already. Let me leave it as saying positive things about janet yellen. I think she would be a spectacular choice and i hope the president nominates her. Your book bull by the horns released next week, a New York Times bestseller. Any forthcoming books . Its coming out in paperback september 15. Unfortunately not much has changed since the year ago when it was released. There are a lot of good recommendations in the back of the book. Some are being pursued. Some are not. I think its important for the public to engage, to understand this stuff, to engage with their elected representatives, put pressure on them, put pressure on the regulators to get this job done. Im writing a new book for young adults about the financial crisis. Ive enjoyed that a lot. Interviewing a lot of families impacted by the crisis, who have kids, how they work through it. Its really there are so many heartbreaking stories. It kind of reminds me that this really is a Financial System still at risk. We dont have a system thats resilient enough to weather another downturn. These families are still at risk. If we have another financial crisis, i dont know whats going to happen to them. I wish regulators would keep thinking about that on a daily basis as they try to get the reforms done. Youve been working on children and young adults Financial Literacy for a long time. When you and i first met, i loved that about you. How do you think what is most important in terms of getting someones children to understand the value of a dollar as theyre young so they get that mentality of saving and investing wisely for the longterm. Whats most important . Does it start at home, sheila . It does start at home with regular allowances and automatic savings, whatever the allowance you give to your child, make sure a certain percentage automatically goes into a savings account. Compounding interest is an important thing to learn. Its hard to teach right now with Interest Rates as low as they are. But compounding interest can work against you, too, if youre borrowing and delay paying back your debt. It can start at a very early age. Kids get money at a very early age. Theyre interested in it. Its always good to have jobs around the house, certain expenses that are available, theyre responsible for at a very early age, it teaches them that money doesnt grow on trees. You have to earn it and you need to think wisely before you spend. Sheila, bare, well see you soon. The nfl putting a blitz on your wallet. Up next the nfl teams commanding the heftiest prices at the ticket office. From the gridiron to wall street, two exnfl players tackle the markets in the new season. Stay with us. [ cows moo ] [ sizzling ] more rain. [ thunder rumbles ] [ male announcer ] when the world moves. Futures move first. Learn futures from experienced pros with dedicated chats and daily live webinars. And trade with papermoney to testdrive the market. All on thinkorswim. From td ameritrade. 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To avoid longterm injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than 4 hours. If you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or if you have any allergic reactions such as rash, hives, swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. Ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a 30tablet free trial. If youre looking to score good seats to the nfl, you may be in with the sticker shock. With the opening kickoff to the nfl season just hours away, we wanted to get you in the football spirit by take checking out some of the numbers on what it will cost you. This is from tic iq. When it comes to the costliest and cheapest tickets on average, this season, youll have to head to chicago and jacksonville. Bears tickets cost the most on average while Jacksonville Jaguars tickets are the cheapest. As for the biggest pop and drop in prices between last season and this season, the San Francisco 49ers posted the biggest year over year gain and the titans posted the biggest yearoveryear drop. If youre looking for the hottest tickets in town, keep an eye on these prices. The top five most expensive Single Game Tickets are number five, the november 24th game between the broncos and the patriots, number four is the october 10th game between the giants and the bears. Number three is the november second game between the steelers and the patriots. Again, our runner up for the most expensive game is the september 15th matchup when Peyton Manning and the broncos come here to visit eli manning and the giants. And the number one most expensive game, maria, my 49ers traveling to seattle to take on the seahawks on september 15th. Its a lot of ticket prices but some real sticker shock like you said for some of these hot tickets. Are you going to buy the ticket to your favorite game . It means id have to travel to seattle to get the big one. Thats a long trip to watch a football game. I dont know. All right, thank you so much. The nfl season kicks off tonight when the defending super bowl Champ Baltimore ravens take on Peyton Manning and the denver broncos. You can watch it right here on nbc with coverage beginning at 7 30 p. M. Eastern. Our next two guests traded in their cleats for suits and playbooks for spreadsheets. Former kansas city chief offensive lineman tom freeman is a Senior Vice President for ubs. And david howard, exdefensive tackle is a Financial Adviser with Merrill Lynch wealth management. Gentlemen, good to see you. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. Thanks for having me. Tom, you think the markets can gain another 4 or 5 . Whats going to drive it higher . I think earnings are. If you can look past the shortterm noise over the next 30 days, earnings are okay. Ubs has a target of 111 a share for the s p 500. You put a conservative multiple on that, we ought to be up around 17. 30. Four to five percent, ill take that all day long for the next three months. David, youre familiar adviser for merrill dealing with a lot of clients with goals, retail as well as institution. What are the biggest concerns youre hearing right now from clients . Some of the bigger concerns are about the volatility in the market. The way we we address that is constant communication and having a goalsbased approach to keep our clients invested and keep them on track with their goals. Do you think that these concerns are keeping them from putting money in the market given that weve got uncertainties around the fed and uncertainties around Global Demand . What are they thinking about . Is that stopping them from putting money to work . Some people it is, some people its not. It depends on the client, depends on their goal. A lot of people are going to have hesitations in the fixed income market with the fed and the tapering. But like i said, its all about the goals. If were meeting their goals and were on track, we have that constant communication to kind of keep them invested. Interesting change in careers for both of you, going from the nfl to the investing world. I guess i want to ask you both. Tom, you first. What got you to change careers and how come you chose investing . There comes a time when you have to hang up the cleats. The investing world is similar to football. Its the harder you work, the more successful youll be. Its all about staying focused, working on a good team and you have the ups and downs. But you have to overcome them, lift yourself off the ground and keep going. Thats exactly what the Financial Advising world is like. Can you think of other comparisons, david, in terms of wall street and football . Being a team player is a huge part of it. Having discipline and work ethic and understanding the markets. I guess that doesnt really relate to football, but having that desire to succeed. That definitely plays a part. When you were playing and sort of in the thick of things in the nfl were you also watching the market . I little bit. I had my money tied up a little bit. But now that i am making a career out of it its every single day all day. Its always been something i was interested in. So yes. Real quick. I was talking to some athletes recently when we were in lake tahoe for the mash khan century event. A lot of them said, if you want to find the people who lose money the fastest, look at athletes. Tom, do you agree with that . You guys make so much money, yet so many of your colleagues lose it all. How do you do that . Unfortunately they dont have the experience of dealing with money. So when you get a big influx of it, theyre really the targets of the best salesmen of the world who dont always have the best intentions. Players, they werent taking advanced finance courses in college. So theyre listening to bad advice. Exactly. It all sounds good. Theyve got the best salesmen in the world coming after them. Real quick. Cant let you go without getting your picks for tonight. First, dave, what do you think happens tonight. Theyre going to kill me because im coming out of baltimore. Im going to go denver. I do like denver. How come . Ive been o the sideline on the defense trying to stop Peyton Manning and its not easy. I also think baltimore lost a few key pieces in this coffoff season. I think it will be a building process to get them back to where they were. Tom, youre up. Whats your pick . I think the tom, whats your . Broncho owes are going to win. Baltimore is not the same team. Joe flacco 0 mile high stadium. The broncho owes are going to take that out on joe flack co and they love a big stage. It will be a good game but i like the broncos. Thank you very much. Well be watching the nfl on nbc. Dont miss the opening night. The Baltimore Ravens take on the bronc broncos. Up next, jobs, jobs, jobs. Stock pros weigh in tomorrow, how it may move your money. Back in a moment. Re part of ther investment strategy. Before they funded scholarships to the schools that gave them scholarships. Before they planned for their parents future needs and their sons future. They chose a partner to help manage their wealth, one whose insights, solutions and approach have been relied on for over 200 years. Thats the value of trusted connections. Thats u. S. Trust. With fidelitys options platform, weve completely integrated every step of the process, making it easier to try filters and strategies. To get a list of equity options. Evaluate them with our p l calculator. And execute faster with our more intuitive trade ticket. Im greg stevens, and i helped create fidelitys options platform. Its one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. Now get 200 free trades when you open an account. Welcome back. Breaking news on the ten year treasury. Lets get to dom chu with the details. Just in the past couple of minutes we saw those yields touch just above three percent so we have touched three percent on tenyear yields. The last time we were there, july 27th, back in 2011. So again, its back off that level right now but we did touch it at one point, maria. Well keep on eye on those. Back over to you. Thank you. Meanwhile were focused on the big number tomorrow. 30 seconds on the clock. Our next guests are joining me now to tell us what else we should be watching for. Gentlemen, good to see you. Michael youre up first. 30 seconds on the clock. What are you preparing for for tomorrow . Maria, great to see you. When i look at the jobs report its going to be better than expected tomorrow. When we look at what the fed is doing, the taper is coming. February excuse me. September 18th when you see the taper, the fomc meeting its pegged to employment. The employment numbers are going to be better than expected tomorrow. Thats going to lead to a taper thats going to cause more of a taper tantrum. Its high volatility, slow gdp and the market is going to grind higher. Sounds like youre a seller. Brian your up. 30 seconds on the clock. Again, to taper or not to taper, that is the question. From our perspective here, you still have a chance of seeing some fed tapering in september, but when you look at the bond market, i mean, weve touched that three percent level here today an tens. You have a market thats been girding for the worst. Looking ta you get a soft number, bad news is good news in bond land right now. The key thing, syria, still the situation, you got the g20 meeting, a lot of action on capitol hill with the senate coming out as far as a potential resolution for governmental power. Gentlemen, thank you very much. Up next my thoughts on housing and what it tells us about the economy. Stay with us. Washingmachine hoses every five years . What if you didnt know that you might need extra coverage for more expensive items . And what if you didnt know that teen drivers are four times more likely to get into an accident . sup the more you know, the better you can plan for whats ahead. Talk to farmers and get smarter about your insurance. We are farmers bum pa dum, bum bum bum bum thank you orville and wilbur. Amelia. Neil and buzz for teaching us that you cant create the future. By clinging to the past. And with that youre history. Instead of looking behind. Delta is looking beyond. 80 thousand of us investing billions. In everything from the best experiences below. To the finest comforts above. Were not simply saluting history. Were making it. Finally tonight my observation on the economy that is surely showing signs of improvement but not without warning signs. My guest today, frank blake, chairman and ceo of home depot told us he is seeing recovery across the country in housing but stopped short of rolling off the truck in terms of expansion. This year were opening two stores in the u. S. But theyre unique so one is in puerto rico, the other is in north dakota. Its ones and twos. Its not like a few years ago when we were doing 100, 200 a year. Right, you cant. Those arent coming back. In fact, home depot reported a great Second Quarter. It raised expectations for the rest of the year with strong results expected. Thats what he told us today. Yet you heard him say no more massive expansion of store openings. Two or three where it makes sense but no more mass openings. Last year the Company Closed operations in china. The point is home depot is doings as well but the response is cautious. The company is benefitting from an improved economic story in the u. S. But very few companies are willing to make a big bet that it continues as vibrant because of the uncertainty, health care, regular lugs and tax policy and Global Demand. Housing is critical to the economy. When people build and buy homes so many other markets feel the pinch from lumber, steel and commodities to electronics and home goods. Not to mention jobs in all of those markets. Its good news that housing is as strong as it has been but important to recognize that its hardly boom times and the players involved are approaching with caution. That may very well mean this economy, while showing fractional growth bumps along the bottom for some time to come. That will do it for closing bell. Stay with cnbc. Heres fast money right now. Im melissa lee, the traders tonight are dan nathan, karen finerman, John Najarian and mike khouw. Lets get to the big story that fast is following. The third rail, Interest Rates zoom higher today, the ten year yield finally breaking three percent just moments ago. So