0 jeanne was there for the entire jury selection process. big news here on cnn, george zimmerman jury selected and also the dow down, tanking down. "the lead" with jake tapper starts right now. the closing bell on wall street and not a moment too soon to stop that ugly bleeding. i'm jake tapper and this is "the lead." breaking news in the money lead. do yourself a favor. do not check your 401(k) right now. whether or not you know what taper means or a bernanke, they're affecting you as the dow heads toward the center of the earth. what should you be doing about it? >> the pop culture lead. he portrayed one. most iconic tv characters of all time, james gandolfini, who brought vivid life to tony soprano. how would he want you to remember him? you'll meet people who knew a special side of him you probably didn't know about. >> and the politics lead. they're into the waiting for her to get bored from being a lady of leisure. they want to stop hillary clinton now before she can even decide on 2016. a new web site, the hillary haters. i'm jake tapper. welcome to "the lead." we'll begin with the money lead. wall street's worst day of 2013, a real meltdown. the closing bell just moments ago could not come soon enough. the dow taking a swan dive, dropping a queasy 352 points. this was after the dow already dropped 200 plus points yesterday, all after fed chairman ben bernanke nearly hinted the government was going to slow down the gravy train by tapering off the stimulus it stumps into the economy, sometime in the near future. he hasn't even announced it yet. i want to get to felicia taylor at the new york stock exchange. explain what happened there to trigger the second day of selloffs. >> the debate has begun as to when that tapering, that slight pullback, and i do mean slight. he's not taking all of the stimulus out of the market at once. traders discussing whether or not it's going to happen in the next month or possibly 2014, what that does to the market. we were down about 380 points before the closing bell. so we have come back a little bit and that is a good sign. but some traders say these kind of selloffs could continue because the debate is going to continue. but what we've really got to focus on is the economy. are we seeing enough positive signs in the economy? so far it's a very mixed picture for the federal reserve to feel confident enough to begin that slow tapering down. the answer is not really. they need at least three monies of positive economic news for him to begin that stimulus pullback. jake? >> thank you so much. so what do the markets mean for you? we're joined now by my friend erin burnett and anchor of "outfront." erin, i'll start with you. this market drop, how big of a deal do you think it is? >> it's interesting when you look at it numerically, it's the biggest two-day combined drop since we've seen in november. that calculated just before the close. when you look at what's happened since the so-called quantitative easing, the fed pumping money into the economy, every time the market thought that was going to stop, stocks started to selloff. so stocks have really become addic addicted to the free money ben bernanke has been pumping into the system. if things are getting better, that's good news. but pro veryou may see the mark off because of that good news. the question is are we really ready for that in terms of the economy? >> andy, for our viewers at home, for those who have investments, how concerned should they be about the markets right now? >> it's obviously something you can't avoid watching right knno. a lot of times people tell you to sit tight and it's very hard to do but i think this is a sit tight moment. what we're talking about is the chairman of the federal reserve saying he thinks he sees signs the economy is healthy enough to go out on its own, as erin said, get rid of the training wheels. that is a huge positive. the other thing to remember, both stocks and bonds, interest rates are spiking right now. that's another thing going on. both the stock market and the bond market very overvalued, you could argue. especially the bond market. speculators are blowing out of this market right now. i would sit tight and watch that happen. if the economy is back on strong footing, as ben bernanke is suggesting, then we'll be in good shape with the stock market over the coming months and especially years. >> erin, do you think the market is going to stabilize? >> that's the big question. you have one of the biggest bond investors in the world so obviously he has a vested interest on the bond side of things. but bill gross saying i think the fed is too confident. they can wheel all of this back and there lwill be a pause and the fed will keep moving ahead. the fed has never tried this sort of thing before and because they've never done this before, they've never actually had to unravel it and pull it back before. but andy said it right. if the economy really is on solid footing, ultimately the market will go back to doing what it always does, which is track the economy, because corporate profits are so linked to the economy. interest rates are spiking. you've seen that in mortgages. for people at home if you have a mortgage and you're looking at buying a home or able to do the refinancing, you want to seize the moment before interest rates start to move sharply higher. >> andy, what do you make of the fact that interest rates are up and the place of gold has plummeted? >> you have to look at yesterday as a turning point and we've been waiting for this for years. the fed has been injecting $2.5 trillion cumulatively into the market since 2008. five years. we kept waiting. at some point they're going to turn and say go on your own, we'll take the training wheels off and you guys can do it on your own. gold, people were speculating that this was a safe harbor. now that the u.s. economy perhaps is doing better, selling off gold, the dollar is rising, there's all sorts of turmoil on the markets right now. of course the stock market and interest rates are the two big ones for people watching at home. >> lastly, erin, what's the best advice you would give to my viewers and your viewers later today on what they should be doing with their money right now? >> i would say it's a tough one. i would say don't react too quickly. i only say that, jake, because we've known this is coming. the fed has already said very clearly when we start to see things getting better, we're going to wheel this back. we're not going to move interest rates that the fed controls until 2015. all the fed has done has come out and said things are getting a little built better ait bette going to do what we said we were going to do. to change your investment strategy based on that probably wouldn't make a lot of sense. if someone who has thrown all your money into bonds, maybe you should get some advice and think about changing it. >> the bond market, long bond, not a good place to be. the home market still has room to climb to the up side, i think. >> thank you both so much. >> coming up in the pop lead, as tony soprano used to say, those who want respect give respect. today we'll pay our respect to the james gandolfini. a sign of him you've never seen before. >> and we don't negotiate with terrorists, right? why the u.s. might be willing to bend the rules to save the life of a u.s. soldier. tony used priceline to book this 4 star hotel. tell 'em why. free breakfast with express deals, you can save big and find a hotel with free breakfast without bidding. don't you just love those little cereal boxes? priceline savings without the bidding. [ babies crying ] surprise -- your house was built on an ancient burial ground. [ ghosts moaning ] surprise -- your car needs a new transmission. [ coyote howls ] how about no more surprises? now you can get all the online trading tools you need without any surprise fees. ♪ it's not rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. it's just common sense. what'the truth is, americans are already seeing the benefits. she's seeing more seniors for free wellness visits. he received a $150 rebate from his health insurance company. and next year, she can expand her small business, thanks to tax credits that cover up to half of her workers' health insurance. better coverage and lower costs. that's what obamacare means for them. get all the facts at: barackobama.com/healthcare