than pulled back as traders sighed over the fomc announcement offering few clues on how much longer it will continue to stimulate the economy. also in the session, facebook traded above its ipo price of $38, but fell back to $36. for the month, it was a jumpin' july for stocks. the dow rose 4%, the s&p posted a 5% gain, and the nasdaq advanced 6.6%, the best performance since january 2012. meanwhile, penney's stock plunged yesterday. the stock fell more than 10% on a report the retrailer is no longer receiving lending support form cit. mark sebastian of option pit mentoring joins us on this thursday morning. good morning mark. we are now post that fed meeting. did traders get any clues about tapering? - you know, not as much as they would like. in fact, if anything, the fed brought more variables in bringing up inflation this time. i think the only thing the fed really let us know is that the fed is a little less confident in their ability to really keep control of this thing than they thought they were. - we had a surprising number coming in with that adp number: 200,000 jobs added to payrolls in the month of july. what does that mean for the jobs number on friday? - you know, the jobs numbers have been trending up. i think the market wants good but not great so that the fed doesn't have to stop tapering. - let's do some stock talking now. what about visa and mastercard and some of these credit card companies coming in with earnings? - they lost a really obscure court case yesterday, and they got spanked for it. visa had the worst day it's had in over two years. mastercard gave away a 20+ point gain to barely be up. american express took a couple of points. i don't think there's going to be a lot of follow-through, because this was just a first meeting, and there's probably going to be lots of appeals and stuff like that. but, take note: if you like those credit card companies, you were given an excellent chance to step in yesterday. - so if the swipe fee does not happen here, then are you feeling as though there will be a retracement in these stocks eventually? - if that swipe fee really turns into an issue and it goes from 21ยข to some number a lot below that, then yeah, that would be cause for some retracement, and we might see visa threaten $160 and mastercard back at $550. - mark, thanks for your thoughts today. - thank you. the federal reserve predicts the economy will pick up steam in the second half of the year, but for now the fed views the economy as growing only modestly and says it's still in need of quantative easing down the road. the fed's two-day policy meeting wrapped yesterday with comments the agency intends to continue buying $85 billion in bonds, which is holding interest rates down for coporations and home buyers. as unemployment improves, the fed could end the stimulus program later this year. "if you're in the market for a mortgage, better get moving, because it's going to go up to 5 or 6% over the next two years." borrowing costs will become critical to students as well. the house approved a student loan bill tying the 10-year treasury note to student loan rates. this fall, students will be able to get loans at 3.86%, but rates will rise as the economy improves. president obama continues criss-crossing the country as he talks up his plan to bring jobs and growth to the middle class. today he makes stops in virginia and florida. yesterday, the president met with democrats in the house and the senate on capitol hill. house speaker john boehner also held a closed- door meeting with republicans. boenher is said to be considering refusing to fund the healthcare reform law by tying it to a potential government shutdown this fall. congress has until september 30th to vote on avoiding a government closure. investors taking a shot on stock tied to obamacare are in the money. shares of e-health soared $6 higher on word the company will get a critical government contract. the online health insurance broker landed a deal with medicaid and medicare to enroll eligilble participants under the new healthcare plan. a new report reveals 82 of the nation's 100 biggest companies stash cash offshore. among the names on the public interest research group list: apple, with $102 billion; abbott labs, with $40 billion; and oracle, with $20.9 billion in a safe haven. combined, the 100 corporations are holding $1.17 trillion overseas. the average tax rate offshore is 6.9%, compared to around 35% in the u.s. call it revenge of the poets: a georgetown university study concludes theater and drama grads are having an easier time finding work than information technology grads. our cover story explains what it means if you're looking to be hired. the study by georgetown university's center on education and the workforce found highly specialized i.t. grads twice as likely to be unemployed as theater grads, who may be able to learn a new skill set for the workplace. "people need to work collaboratively. it's not just book learning, but also what you learn outside the book." "i'm not surprised by this study at all." it took stephanie cummings nearly two years to finally land a job. she had a narrow specialization in a tight job market. "a lot of people wanted me to have experience. it's been very hard." cummings' employer says the key was more than technical knowledge. "she wrote well and communicated well. that's important dealing with clients." it's not to say technical expertise isn't required - it is. but now, employers, expecially small consulting firms, are looking to add technicians with skills often associated with customer service. "i think employers want employees who can problem-solve on their own - employees who'll take the ball and run with it." "my resume was all customer service, and it helped me get the position." payroll processor adp reports businesses added 200,000 jobs in july, exceeding exstimates by 20,000. mark zandi, chief economist at moody's analytics, says "job growth remains remarkably stable." the labor department's july numbers will be out tomorrow. the stubbornly high unemployment in the eurozone is improving... slightly. the number of jobless fell by 24,000 in june. it's the first decline since april 2011, and it's viewed as a sign the economic situation in europe may finally be stablizing. the overall unemployment rate, however, remains at a record 12.1%. yet another dreamliner problem. a qatar airways 787 that was grounded due to what's described as a "minor" electrical issue, resumed service on wednesday. according to the web tracking service flightaware, smoke was spotted near an electrical compartment while the jet was on the ground in doha. this is the third recent incident - japan airlines, united airlines, and ethiopian airlines have all had to take the aircraft out of service. boeing stands by the integrity of the dreamliner. qatar airways had no comment. a new report shows ways banks are denying low-income americans a bank account. according to the new york times, mistakes as small as a bounced check can cause a bank to reject clients. the report says firms such as bank of america and citibank tap into private databases to track consumer banking habits. "they're trying to find people who are doing this on a regular basis, committing fraud and trying to keep them out of the banking system. but a lot of other people kinda slip through the cracks and get caught in this system that can really keep them out of being able to have a checking account." claes bell of bankrate.com tells us the problem has been around for years and often forces people who don't have bank accounts to go to a currency exchange. he also says the bank must disclose why the person was rejected. goldman sachs says it will ease wait times for customers wanting to get to aluminum stored in its warehouses. this comes in the wake of a growing debate over whether banks should be allowed to own commodities such as aluminum at all. the federal reserve is reviewing the law. goldman was accused of manipulating wait times and therefore driving up prices for aluminum. the bank owns and stores at least 25% of the u.s. aluminum supply according to forbes, which says it could be even higher. with americans starting to spend more, it's showing up in mastercard's numbers. the company posted a 19% increase in profits on $848 million in earnings. burger king too had a strong second quarter, driven by robust overseas sales. the company posted $62.9 million in earnings - that's 18 cents per share a boom in business travel and americans with more disposable income for leisure travel is helping the hotel industry. in the second quarter, hyatt's earnings topped the street's expectations, coming in at $112 million, compared to $39 million posted a year ago. at marriott, profits plumped up 25%. it could be september 10th before dell shareholders vote on which direction to take the company, according to cnbc. the shareholder vote was called off twice already, because it appeared the company's founder, michael dell, did not have enough votes to support his $13.65-per-share offer to take the company private. dell's offer to pay a dime more per share was rejected this week. activist shareholder carl ichan is willing to pay up to $18 per share to keep the computer company publicly traded. starbucks searched and found a new wi-fi provider. starting next month, the coffee king will use google to provide free wireless services in its cafes. starbucks is replacing at&t and says network speeds will be ten times faster. still to come, why it's better to buy now rather than later if you are shopping for a new car. plus, is america ready to give up its gas habit? and why the smurfs are likely to take the box office from blue to green. first business continues after this. prices at the pump jumped in truck that runs on compressed natural gas. john o'dell of edumnds.com is skyping with us this morning. good morning, and what evidence is out that this is a good time for ford to accelerate into nat gas? - i think it's a good time because we discovered a lot of natural gas in this country, and there's a whole lot of effort to get it out of the ground and into the fuel system to help us offset our use of gasoline. - does the u.s. have the infrastructure right now to support more vehicles running on nat gas? - yes. it doesn't have a nationwide infrastructure - there are states with no retail natural gas stations - but there are many states with many natural gas stations, and, you know, that makes for regional markets for these kinds of vehicles. california, for instance, has hundreds and hundreds of them. - are consumers ready to make the switch? - that's a little bit more difficult. the truck that ford is doing is going to cost a good $9,000 more than the base f-150. the honda civic natural gas, which is the only factory- built natural gas car available right now, costs about $5,000 to $6,000 more than the base civic. so there's a real high upfront cost of getting into natural gas vehicles, but you save a ton of money on fuel. - once ford makes this move on one of its best-selling trucks, do you anticipate other automakers will follow the lead? - i do. fiat, which owns chrysler, for instance, is one of the biggest natural gas vehicle manufacturers in the world, and they can bring that technology to play into the chrysler lineup very quickly, and they have said that they intend to. we expect to see some natural gas dodge rams, we expect to see natural gas gm products fairly soon. - what will this mean for the environment? - it's cleaner. it's going to be 30-40% cleaner on greenhouse gas, on ghg emissions, and natural gas as a fuel is about 80-90% cleaner than gasoline on the normal tailpipe emissions that cause smog. so, it's a big boon for the environment, as long as the way we get the natural gas out of the ground is fairly clean. - john o'dell, thank you for your time. - my pleasure. august is replacing december as the best time to shop for a new car. stats show you can pick up a car for up to $1,000 less rather than waiting to buy at the end of the year. scott painter, founder and ceo of truecar is here to explain why august became such a hot month for cars: "really, the model year change- over occurs for car dealers in august, when they're trying to get the 2013s off the lot to make room for the 2014 product." painter adds that kids going back to school and adults after summer holidays also influence the market and help to make august prime car-buying time. still ahead, the 2 films this weekend that could head to the $100 million mark. and later on, billionaire vs billionaire: how herbalife is turning into the best reality show on wall street. ticket sales at the box office are decent this summer, but will it be a record-breaker? erik childress, our movie guy, is here. good to have you back on the show, as always. so, where are we headed? are we on pace for a record? - we still need probably another billion dollars between now and labor day past whatever the summer movies gross past then to break the last couple of years' record that we've had. but, you know, hollywood has very little to complain about. we've had just as many films gross $100 million, and we haven't even gotten into august yet, and just as many films that have grossed over $200 million or more. so the money has just been spread out a little bit more this year. - what would be the top films of the summer, do you think? - we still have coming up probably three films i think have a shot at maybe hitting that $100 million barrier, two of them opening this week. we have "two guns," with denzel washington and mark walberg. the pairing of them is going to draw a crowd. you will probably see that be number one this weekend. and also you have "the smurfs 2." the first "smurfs" movie did over $560 million worldwide, so i think this film has a shot breaking the $100 million barrier. and you also have, next week, "elysium," with matt damon, a science-fiction film from the director of "district 9," which i think is going to be a lock for $100 million. - and what about those underdogs? what would be the underperformers? - we have disney's "planes," which is going to challenge "the smurfs 2," so that could affect "the smurfs 2"'s grosses. this is basically sort of in the realm of "cars." it was supposed to be a straight-to- video movie, but an interesting stat is that no animated film has actually broken the $100 million barrier with an opening in august. so i think it's not quite going to get there. the film to really look out for i think this month is called "we're the millers." it's a comedy with jason sudeikis and jennifer anniston. i think this has real break-out potential sort of in the way that "horrible bosses" and "dodgeball" over the years have done. it's a really funny movie- - what did you like about it? - it's really funny. i mean, that's all a good comedy needs to be. - good funny, not ok... - no, it it's not a great comedy. it's not a classic comedy. but, the cast is really good. sudeikis is a lot of fun, and anniston has really come into her own as a comic actress as well. - what about "drinking buddies?" a lot of people are giving buzz to this film. - we've got a couple films from local chicagoan joe swanberg. the one film, "drinking buddies," you mentioned, is a film that he wrote and directed that's going to be out in very limited release in chicago with olivia wilde and another chicagoan, jake johnson, anna kendrick from "pitch perfect," one of your favorite movies. and it's a really solid relationship comedy, and it's also going to be available on-demand, so people should check that out. and there's another film coming out in late august on the 23rd called "you're next," which is this home invasion thriller that's been sort of on the festival circuit for the last couple years. it's finally getting out into theaters from lionsgate. people flocked to "the purge" back in may and june. go see this one. that this is a lot more fun, a lot better time at the movies than that one was. - so, summer still holds a lot of success potentially here. - absolutely. a lot of films are going to be opening in august that are probably not going to hit $40, $50 million, but these couple films that we've been talking about are really the ones to watch, the ones that open up before the kids go back to school and then we sort of get past labor day and we start talking about festival and awards season. - erik, always a pleasure. thank you. - thank you. coming up, the stock story that has traders everywhere tuning as billionaires battle over herbalife. plus, k-r-a-f-t. will the company with household appeal win over investors following earnings? what to watch for is next. ehicle. when i came here, i... i couldn't move. 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[male announce if you think you or a veteran you know has sustained a brain injury, get screened. earnings from kraft are due out today. joining us now is matt cavanuagh of cmz trading to talk more about this stock. good morning to you, matt. and what do you like in the chart? - i think it's going to be a really big earnings to watch. people are expecting big things out of kraft. the company's done really well, but i think the stock is pretty much priced for perfection here. they're looking for 66 cents a share, but i don't think that's going to be the story. the story is going to be, has management been able to improve some of their inefficiencies? how's their emerging market growth going? and how about their advertising initiatives and starting up some of these other brands like grey poupon that have struggled? so, i really don't see much coming, but it's going to be something to watch. - where would you be a buyer or seller? - i think that the stock's got resistance up at the $58 or $59 range, which is right above where we are, but support in the $52 range. however, kind of all bets are off on this stock. it's a really good stock, they pay a really nice 3.5% dividend, and i think it's pretty fairly priced. so in this market, if you get a chance to buy this on any weakness, i think you do. - i have to ask you about this herbalife situation. now we're hearing news that george soros, the billionaire, is stepping in and taking a stake in herbalife. the stock shot up yesterday. what's going on in your trader mind as you see all this activity happening with these activists? - well, it's really fascinating to watch, and i don't purport to know the correct answer, but when you see billionaires on both sides of this trade - and it's not only ackman on the short side, einhorn also has made some negative comments - it's just fascinating to watch. but i will say that if somebody that i had a slight problem with in the past came out and told the world that he was short a certain stock and it was going to zero, and i could make a big bet for a relatively small amount of my net worth, and maybe convince some of my other rich friends to do it, i probably would. so, fascinating to watch the psychology, but who knows how it's going to end up. - it's turning into a miniseries for the people in the financial industry, isn't it? - that's right. it's great. we're all cheering and watching right along with everyone else. - thanks for coming on the show. - thanks. it's time for us to wrap up the show. coming up tomorrow, it's a friday edition of traders unplugged. the guys take on the latest effort to change dollar bills into coins. it's the coin toss argument you won't want to miss. from all of us at first business, we hope you enjoy the first day of the new month. >> the following is a paid presentation forthe wen healthy hair care system, the secret to soft, lustrous, beautiful, shining hair, by celebrity hair stylist chaz dean, brought to you by guthy-renker. what does it take to gour hair this shiny, bouncy, strong, and beautiful? the wen healthy hair care system by chaz dean. >> people ask me all the time: does wen cleansing conditioner really work? i started using wen two years ago. so...you tell me.