it s 4:00 in the morning here in new york and we re expecting a mixed open as of now, of course, but we have a couple more hours. dow futures are up at this hour about 10 above fair value right now. nasdaq futures are also slightly higher and s&p 500 futures higher, as well. this is after we ended down 58 points on the dow yesterday, but we did come off our lows. volatility is another issue. we gained 4.5% on the vix yesterday. but of course, christine, we re looking ahead to retail sales. we re looking ahead to the jobless claims which are, of course, a precursor to the big jobs report coming up tomorrow. joining us is our guest host for the next hour to talk about all these issues. stuart shrimpton, director of intelligence investments. we seem to be seeing things intensify in the equity markets today. how real is this threat of global contagion in the markets we re worrying about? we re seeing the contagion spread a little bit. but i think what you have to really look