States. Its gotten so bad that the university in boulder had to be closed today. The students deeply upset that they have to go and party. First, though, to sue at the new york stock exchange. Yeah, its a terrible situation out west. Well talk about that in a minute. But we start this hour with two things on just about everybodys radar these days. Your house and your car. General motors unveiling two new vehicles. Phil lebeau is in new york. Well get to him in just a second. First to diana olick in chicago where were getting an exclusive look at the home of the future. Cant wait, diana. Reporter well, its true, sue. Look, it uses the most unique form of Market Research ive ever seen. Its literally built the frames of 11 full houses, upstairs and downstairs. Theyve decked them out with the cardboard kitchens. Theyve got the papermade fireplaces. Theyve even mapped out in tape on the floor where your furniture might go. So its like a housing crime scene. What theyre doing is theyre running focus groups through these models, finding out what their buyers want and of course what they dont want. It makes me want to buy a new home, thats for sure. I saw nice floor plans in here today. The idea that theyre not decorated already can give you a sense of how you would decorate the homes rather than looking at a house and seeing it already decorated, thats something thats not your style. I like the work station for the kids and then having the laundry room right off the kitchen, the pantry and then having the kitchen and then the open area. Reporter now, most of the homes being viewed here are larger, more expensive, pooufup homes. Polty execs say thats where the buyers are because rising Mortgage Rates are pricing out firsttime buyers. Their finished models are geared toward that higher end even as affordability sinks and buyers slow down. A new report today showed Mortgage Applications to buy a newly built home dropped 14 in august month to month. Builders have to think outside the box. Pultes ceo already knew that from 20 years of selling cars. Consumers will pay for what they value. And with a car, you really have to spend a lot of time understanding what do people really value . Where are they unset needs and how can you solve for those . Ive taken the same thing that we learned from vehicles now to what we see in home building. And pulte group has said thats how we deliver the most value to someone. Reporter and executives say that they will actually get five brandnew innovations from each one of these focus group events. And this was actually one of them that came from an early event. They call it the Pulte Planning Center so your kids can work here, and you can still watch them from the kitchen. It keeps you from getting the spaghetti sauce on the math homework. Whats new, whats coming up, two words for you, mud room. Everybody wants it bigger, better. They want the charging stations, the cubbies, all the junk out of the foyer and into huge mud rooms. Thats what theyre walking people through in this house. They also want to see the completely automated home. That is everything in your home from lights, alarm systems, heating, cooling to be working right off your phone. Sue . Im on board with the mud room. Im not so sure about the fully automated home. Its fantastic either way. Thanks, diana. All right. Were going to get to phil lebeau in just a second, but what affects car buying and what affects home buying . Interest rates. And we have an auction. Rick santelli, howd we do . Reporter well, sue, Interest Rates affect everything, and this auction gets a b plus. We had three solid auctions, one of them yesterdays was superlative. So we have and billion on 30s, really 29year, 11month, originally last month. A bid to cover 240 was a little light, but you have to remember, bid to cover has been trending down quite steadily. But when you look at indirects, theyre pretty close to auction average. Directs were better than their ten auction average. But heres the kicker. 3. 82 is the yield. 3. 83 is where the w. I. Was, priced through in a good way, b plus, solid auction. I guess everybodys enamored with supply this week. Just think verizon. Can i buy more . Back to you, tyler. Rick, thank you very much. Everybody wanted that verizon deal. And clearly the tenyear deal also yesterday did very well. Were watching General Motors today. Lets take a look at the stock as we move along here. Down 15 cents at 36. 20, but its been a nice move upward, about 25 year to date. The automaker trying to take advantage of rising demand for trucks and suvs by unveiling key new models. Our phil lebeau has been speaking with gms ceo at an unveiling event in new york city. Reporter big event because theyre showing big rigs. These are the new chevy tahoe and suburbans, 2015 models that go on sale early next year. You might be saying to yourself, yeah, these arent really huge sellers. Is the large suv mark that big . It may be a shrinking market, but it is big business for General Motors. In fact, 3 out of every 4 large suvs that are sold, they come from General Motors. They have they dominate this category. Sales up 16 this year. Compare that with the industry, up just 9. 3 . A few minutes ago we had a chance to talk with the cfo, and we asked him about the disconnect were starting to see between auto sales which continue to rise very quickly and the rest of the economy which at times seems like its puttering along. Heres what he had to say. The economy is still not showing all of the signs of recovery and growth that youd want to see at this point. Employments still challenged. Household income recovery still hasnt been there. But auto sales have been very strong. What were focused on is making sure that were delivering real value to the customer. Reporter ever surprise you, that disconnect, youre seeing people still come into showrooms. Ive been into some of your dealerships on saturdays and its packed. Yet you dont see that optimism of the broader economy. Well see how it tracks together. At the moment consumers are spending. Theyre in the showrooms, as you say, on the weekends, and we hope theyll keep doing that. Reporter we like to call this gms big love because the big suvs, theyre all up for General Motors. Look at the yukon xl, up 54 this year. Take a look at shares of General Motors, down a little bit today, but this is a stock that has been trending higher. If you go back to the ipo, its getting close now to that 38 mark. Tyler and sue, thats sort of the high water point, if you will, once the ipo happened since then. A lot of people i talk with think that theyll be eclipsing that relatively quickly in the next year. All right. Phil, i loved my suburban. I took the mirror off the first week i had it. I was a menace, but i love it had nonetheless. Phil lebeau, thank you. The number of people filing for firsttime Unemployment Benefits dipping to its lowest level since 2006. Initial jobless claims dropping below 300,000, but the Labor Department says that that surprising drop is because of computerrelated delays by some of the states. Instead of a sudden improvement in the labor market. As for the markets down here on the floor of the nyse, not much of a chance right now, anyway, of a tripledigits day on the dow. Were down 18 points on the Dow Jones Industrial average. Interest rates are lower as well. Nasdaq composite is down 4, and the s p 500, ty, is off about 4. 25 points. Thank you very much, sue. You know, a slew i dont know how many constitute a slew but, you know, its a lot, a slew of stocks in the s p 500 have been hitting record highs. And our dominic chu has been working the numbers at his desk. Look at that chart youve got there. Yeah, weve got all kinds of fun stuff. I dont know whats more impressive, the char or tt or t stocks. Theyve got momentum in those stocks. Momentum stocks and socks. Lets talk about the momentum. Earlier today we saw 50 companies in the s p 500 hit a 52week high. So some momentum. Now, 32 of those 50 stocks were hitting record highs. So they are, again, history alltime highs. Alltime historic levels. So weve been talking so much about netflix and starbucks, but here are some of the other names hitting milestones. Investors really are shaking off some of the worries tied to budget cuts with defense stocks. Look at united technologies. Look at lockheed martin, boeing. They are all sitting right at record highs right now. And also some of the energy names, eog resources, anadarko petroleum, noble energy, those stocks all at record highs. So thats the huge key here. Its not just netflix. Its not just starbucks. In this market, were steadily creeping higher and a lot of stocks are gaining some momentum. When you get this kind of momentum and this kind of recordsetting Price Movement in a lot of stocks, is it a sign that the market could be getting toppy . Its interesting. Were only about a percent and a half away from where we were in records in the s p 500. Early august. Exactly. Now, before that record, we saw 124 stocks in the s p 500 hit those 52week highs. So we still have a ways to go. But a lot of traders are saying take a look at the momentum because it could be an indication things may be slowing down. But were not there yet. Dom, thank you very much. Dominic chu reporting. Another stock on the move, though it has not had a lot of momentum lately, lululemon, the yoga apparel retailer, posting better than expected earnings. But investors focusing a cut in the fullyear forecast. Down 3, down 4. 5 today. It has been, of course, a volatile year for the company, as you see on that chart. The company down about 15 year to date. Sue . Ty, the u. S. Department of agriculture increasing its projection for this years corn harvest, already expected to be the largest ever, but they cut the forecast for the soybean crop. The september Production Forecast was increased to 13. 8 billion bushels from an august reading of 13. 7 billion. Meanwhile, the monthly report projected Soybean Production of 3. 1 million bushels for the 2013 14 marketing year. The september production is down 3 from the august forecast, but it matched analysts expectations, and we see a gain of 2 , ty, in the soybean market. Well, sue, dell shareholders have approved Founder Michael dells plan to take the pc giant private. End of a very long, drawnout saga for sure. So what is next for that pc company . Jackie deangelis has been covering the meeting in round rock, texas. Jackie. Reporter good afternoon, tyler. Well, thats exactly right. The question is, what lies ahead, and there are many unknowns when it comes to what lies ahead for dell. What we do know is with the vote behind them today, now it is up to michael dell and Silver Lake Partners to not only execute a devise but a strategy to turn this company around. A lot of people think that is very doable including activist investor carl icahn whos been very openly opposing this deal up till this week when he said that he thought that the vote would be very difficult to win. And the reason that icahns been against it is because he believes theres value there, but he doesnt think that dell should unlock it when the company is private. He thinks the value should be distributed to the shareholders. So thats certainly one issue. Meantime, dell did attend the meeting today himself in person. Later he was on a Conference Call to discuss the results of the vote. And this is what he had to say. This is a great outcome for our customers and our company. And i am more than excited to move even faster towards our goal of becoming the industrys leading provider of scalable endtoend technology solutions. Reporter now, there were some investors that were saying that they were relieved that the vote was over today regardless of the outcome, that they needed some clarity. They were tired of traveling to these meetings. This was the fourth one that we had all attended this summer. But in some ways its also the end of an era for a company like this. Very iconic american company, dell, now going dark for a while. And the question is going to be, can michael dell, who now owns 75 of the company, really bring that value about, and will he reap the benefiteds of what he wanted so badly . Tyler, back to you. Jackie zee ang deangelis rep for us. Michael dell will be on squawk on the street tomorrow to discuss the future of the company with Maria Bartiromo tomorrow at 9 00 a. M. Special interview, michael dell, youll hear it straight from him, what his plans are to rejuvenate that company. Sue . Some terrible weather out west. A wave of flash flooding tearing through boulder, colorado. A lot of the flooding was on the campus of the university of colorado. Get this, during a threehour window last night, up to seven inches of rain fell. Extraordinary, really. Two people were killed, and there is extensive damage, so the university of colorado will be closed today due to the damage and of course the ongoing danger. Vladimir putin has taken another swipe at the United States. He says were not so exceptional. Michelle, larry and American University professor Allan Lichtman are ready to react. Guns blazing. Well find out what they have to say. And we want you to weigh in as well. Take a vote. Finance. Yahoo. Com. And you will absolutely not believe who caught this foul ball. Watch it. It is a catch for the ages next. We went out and asked people a simple question how old is the oldest person youve known . We gave people a sticker and had them show us. We learned a lot of us have known someone whos lived well into their 90s. And thats a great thing. But even though were living longer, one thing that hasnt changed much is the official retirement age. The question is how do you make sure you have the money you need to enjoy all of these years. Welcome back to power lunch. Check out shares of doityourself soda maker sodastream, up 4 after positive comments from analysts at dougherty, walmart made some positive references to the companys products in a presentation it made at an investor conference. So apparently if walmart likes it, investors should, too, and thats why those shares are up. Back to you. Thank you very much. A catch for the ages. Watch this foul ball in the giants Colorado Rockies game earlier this week in san francisco. Keep watching. The lady who catches it, look at her. A greatgrandmother of 15. She came with a glove. Her name is virginia smith, a longtime fan, brought her glove to the game for decades, she says. Its her first catch, though. Look at virginia there. Whoa, baby she can scratch, she says, catching a major league foul ball off of her bucket list. As they used to say down at Memorial Stadium in baltimore, give that fan a contract, sue. Yeah, she just got a cheer from the guys down here on the floor when they saw that video, ty. Lets get to the latest now on the crisis in syria. Secretary of state john kerry opens two days of meetings with his russian counterpart. President obama opening a meeting with his cabinet said he hopes the meeting would produce concrete results. All of this as russian president Vladimir Putin in an oped in the New York Times railed against what he called u. S. Exceptionalism. So what to make of all of that . Joining us right now is cnbcs chief International Correspondent michelle carusocabre carusocabrera, larry kudlow and Allan Lichtman, history professor at American University in washington, d. C. Thank you all for joining us. Professor, im going to begin with you. It was quite an exceptional oped, and well get to some of the passages from it in just a moment. But given the fact that mr. Putin penned this particular piece, does it make president obama look weak, in your eyes . I think youre thinking about it in exactly the wrong way. I couldnt care less who looks weak and who looks strong at the moment. Thats the kind of narrowminded thinking that gets us nowhere. Lives are at stake here. The future of the middle east is at stake. War and peace is at stake. Who cares how people look at the moment . What matters is the end result. And if this results in a diplomatic resolution of the problem of Chemical Warfare, then all the better. If it doesnt, then obamas case, which looked very, very weak a few days ago for military action, will be greatly strengthened, and thats all that matters here. Forget all the rest of the baggage. Larry, i think you disagree with part of that, at least. Well, i disagree with the first part. I think allan got the second part right. Look, the United States has always been an exceptional nation because of our constitutional democracy, because of our humanitarian goals, because of our world leadership during world wars and so forth. And most recently our insistence on the rule of law regarding chemical weapons. What putin was saying in this thing is very simple, i think. Hes saying, look, youre not exceptional, usa. Youve got to play by the rules of the united nations, which means no military action. That is incorrect. First of all, chapter 7 of the u. N. Clauses suggest if a resolution is not completed, military action can be taken. And mr. Putin has a short memory. Back in 1999, he wrote a New York Times oped piece where he defended the russian bombing of chechnya terrorists. He should have put that in his oped today. And that was, i think, one of the biggest flaws in the whole thing. Sue, what is particularly rich about Vladimir Putin invoking the u. N. Is that he continuously thwarts it. I mean, its incredibly hypocritical from his part. Exactly. I mean, he just loves the fact that hes been able to enter the world stage and we the United States and president obama have to eat it because country and the president is looking for a way out, like mr. Lichtman is so that we dont have to bomb syria even though the president once said that there was a red line. And so this gives him that option. And then hes go the to swallow the bitter pill of this thuggish little man taking all the credit for no bombing of syria. And i just want to say, sue, allan may or may not agree with me. I appreciate the disagreements, but look. Do not expect in the media inventory of chemical weapons from syria. Never, never. Do not expect that. Putin is in the drivers seat, as michelle said. So dont expect that. Let me respond. Number two ill give you one more. General barry mccakacaffrey was last night, fourstar retired. One of his missions in the army was to preside over Chemical Warfare issues. Heres what he told me. He said it will take a year or more to get the inspectors in place, to be able to make the examinations and the verifications and to do so safely. And in other words, this process, even if it continues, will take a year before we know whether syria is telling the truth or not in whether theyre handing over their chemical weapons or not. Professor, respond to that, if you would, please. Yeah. All of this, you know, whos up, whos down, this belligerence is exactly the problem with our foreign policy. Its exactly what has got into a war in iraq, which thousands of american lives later, tens of thousands of iraqis lives later, doesnt seem to have improved the situation there. The American People now believe that was a mistake. Weve been at war in afghanistan for more than double world war ii. That doesnt seem to be resolving it. So theres belligerent approach looks bad. I dont care who looks good or bad, what takes place if we can have a diplomatic, peaceful solution. Maybe is this oped today let me belligerent, this oped today . I dont care. I dont care how they make even other look. I care about peace in the middle ea east. I care about resolving this situation. And we all know lobbing a few bombs at assad is not going to solve in any way the situation in syria. We dont know that. Of course we know that. Its never worked before. We dont know that. I beg your pardon. I think thats ambiguous, by the way, and i dont think president obama has made a strong case give me an example of where thats worked. Look, weve done this in bosnia, with the serbians. The russians did this with chechnya. We did it in libya. I mean, these things can work if theyre done properly. One of president obamas problems is he hasnt been able to define what the action will be. What do you think it should be . He doesnt have the resolve to do it, larry. You may be right. Im going to give him the benefit of the doubt. Im going to give him the benefit of the doubt. I dont want another war in the middle east. Yes, you do. There is a war in the middle east. Its in syria right now. Exactly. Weve got to leave it, guys. Let me just make this point. Senator john mccain and senator Chuck Schumer and other bipartisan senators are asking president obama to work with them to create a new resolution that would authorize military action. They want to put a timetable on these discussions that are beginning in geneva. And if that timetable is not met and if syria doesnt begin to show what its inventory looks like, then the president will be authorized to take military action. Thats what i said in the first place. I think that is precisely what mr. Obama should have said in his speech. And i think that is precisely what he should do right now. To be continued. The topic could go on forever, and it may, but at least we should put some numbers on it. Unfortunately, this cannot go on forever. Well have you all back. Thanks so much, everybody. Appreciate it. Michelle, larry and professor. Thank you. Ty, up to you. Speaking of former soviet republics, theyve certainly made a name for themselves in the industry of cyber crime. Andrea day tracking a global ring today stretching from the ukraine to blorooklyn involving almost 100,000 stolen credit card numbers. You might spend a fortune at home on security for locks, cameras and fences. But cyber criminals are coming straight through the wires and will stop at nothing to penetrate your network. In fact, major banks are hit with thousands of attempted hacks of day. But this time investigators put the brakes on one of the biggest cyber crime rings in history. Take a look. Reporter a Massive International cyber crime ring taken down. Almost 100,000 identities stolen. 15 criminals behind bars. Two more on the lam. And Law Enforcement around the world on high alert. It can create a Global Economic collapse if it goes unchecked. Reporter a wild eightyearlong investigation and prosecution from the ukraine to brooklyn, eventually leading manhattan d. A. s team to greece. We will go to Great Lengths to ensure that victims get justice. Reporter investigators say cyber criminals began running a secret operation dubbed the western express. The group trafficking stolen credit card numbers by the thousands. A dark, shadowy interpret market of Identity Theft thieves who are scattered all over the world who communicate in code and who buy and sell this for money. Reporter heres how it worked. Prosecutors say this guy, egor, operated in the ukraine selling stolen account numbers. Another Team IncludingDouglas Latta and anna ciano working out of brooklyn bought the stolen numbers, charged up expensive goods like apple laptops and sold them on ebay or the black market. They also forged complete identities, including a victims name, d. O. B. , and Social Security number. And used these machines to create more bogus credit cards. The group used this guy, vadim, as the money launderer. He used a Digital Currency called egold to move funds from the ukraine to new york city. It was then turned into millions of u. S. Dollars for the cyber ring. It is enormously profitable. What you really have is organized crime. Reporter but catching the secret network of thieves wasnt easy. This is the kind of worldwide, massive Identity Theft cases that prosecutors are seeing all over the country. And i think this was for us sort of a presentation to the court of, hey, wake up. This is really whats happening. Reporter we got exclusive access into Stafford Associates where some Major Corporations store sensitive information. Anthony roman runs a Global Private investigation and Risk Management firm. There are billions of dollars stored in here. Corporate secrets, everything that you can imagine. Reporter we cant reveal any names, but roman says Cyber Protection is more critical now than ever. The business of hacking overall is a multibilliondollar business. Its a Major Corporation in the world. Reporter and he says ng gag like western express arent slowing down. These are invisible predators. Invisible predators and theyre growing in number, and they operate in countries in which theres no extradition. Reporter the western express crime ring was finally taken down. But he was still at large in the ukraine where u. S. Investigators couldnt touch him until he was put on the watch list, unbeknownst to him, so he goes from the ukraine to greece for a vacation. Hes picked up in greece, arrested, ultimately extradited back to the United States. Reporter he was convicted on a slew of charges including scheme to defraud and conspiracy. Hes now serving up to 40 years in lockup. Other members of the western express crime gang are also facing decades in prison. And two others are still on the run. And weve got some great tips on how to prevent hackers from getting in. Just go to cnbc. Com and check it out. Back to you. Andrea day reporting. Well, believe it or not, the countdown to christmas has begun. So which retail giants are already preparing and what are they doing . Well tell you a little later. Be right back. The cnbc Trend Tracker live databoard is brought to you by cme group. Welcome back to power lunch. Mining stocks are get being whack today as gold prices fall. Look at barrett gold, newmont mining, royal gold, you get the theme, right . Theyre all losing ground as gold prices fall. Remember, big fed meeting, maybe some anticipation of tapering, sue. Back over to you. All right. Thank you so much, dom. Gold prices closing right now. It has been a brutal session. Sharon epperson has the closing numbers for us from the nymex. She tried to say. Sharon, over to you. Sue, were looking at gold prices that have seen tremendous selloff. Its largely been technical momentum that has driven the down side here. Gold prices closing down more than 30 on the session. Right around 1330 an ounce, and it is, as dominic said, preemptive selling some traders are saying ahead of the fed announce. Whenever they decide next week from their meeting about tapering. Some believe that if its going to happen, dont want to be long this market. But you add to that breaking below the 100day moving average, that started the ball rolling overnight, and weve seen momentum in the selling as weve progressed through the day. Next level to watch, 1325 or 1300. Back to you. Okay, thanks, sharon. Lets get the trading action. Joining me, kenny, director at oneill securities, and a cnbc market analyst. We really seem to be on hold today though were bettering our position. Right, weve been fluctuating. Not only the moves from the last seven days, but also once again the whole fed thing is right at the top of the list. You know, if you look at all the business programs, today theyve had both sides on. Yes, were tapering, no, were not. The market remains concerned thus no Real Movement either way. The fed looming seems to be taking a little bit of a back seat, so what do you do . What some people have been doing is theyre taking some money off the table after the move up, but theyre not necessarily getting short either. Because if the fed does nothing, expect the market to push higher again. If they do, then theyll back off a little bit. With all this confusion, eat chicken cacciatore. What to make for dinner should not be one of the decisions. Thanks, kenny. Rick santelli tracking the action at the cme. Ricky . Reporter well, we just finished all the supply for the week. It ended with a 30year market. Intraday chart. A couple things jump on it at you. Yes, rates have dipped a little but not much. You see that big spike at 830 . That spike like in football, the market spiked on that drop in claims. But that was because the ball was dropped by two states. If you open the chart up to a tenyear, you could clearly see over two days were losing momentum. Open the chart up further, were toying with a significant 2. 89 yield pivot. Boy, these currencies are running in wet sand. They cant get any traction. Reject at 100 level. Tile, back to you. Thank you very much, rick santelli. So where does a ceo turn to when the companys in trouble or trying to get a leg up on its rivals . Were going to take you inside the fantastically secretive world of the consulting giant mckinsey next. [ 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. Welcome back to power lunch. After hitting its alltime highs early yesterday, netflix is continuing to fall. Morgan stanley is the latest firm to downgrade the stock based on valuation concerns. This coming as netflix debuts its newest original series titled derek. Back over to you. Thank you very much. To outsiders, theyre simply a consulting firm, but the biggest hitters in corporate america, mckinsey, is an indispensable tool. Mckinseys influence over a century in business is virtually unparalleled. Its where executives turn to advice and where boards go when they need a new ceo. Duff mcdonald has taken a rare look at the secretive world of mckinsey in his very wellreceived new book, the firm. Duff, an old friend, good to have you here. Thanks for having me. Congratulations on the book. For those who arent familiar with mckinsey, what do they do . How big are they . What are their revenues . Theyre management consultants. So they help with Corner Office decisions when the ceo has a question, what do we do . What do we next . What do we do about this problem that we have . They have about 7 billion or 8 billion in revenues. Theyre private so its not exactly clear. Certainly smaller than the companies they advise. Most of the Major Companies in this country, if not the world. So they are problem solvers. They come in and they give advice. They dont execute. They dont come in and manage. No. And thats actually the beauty of their business model. They take no credit publicly for advice that turned out to be the wrong stuff. But they also take no blame. Its not their fault. Their whole pitch to their clients is, its up to you to do with it what you will. They are stocked with the best and brightest from the mba schools. Young. They have high turnover. The average person there works about five years with the firm. And then they move on. A lot of people call them a farm team for ceos. Absolutely. True sf. Yeah. There was a study usa today did a couple years ago which named them the top generator of ceos the worlds ever seen. You know, at any one time, dozens are running multibilliondollar public companies. Look at that list of them, including a couple of people we could call, well, crooks, basically. Jeff skilling, gupta, those guys. They dont get it right every time, and enron was one of the shining examples of where the best and the brightest clearly didnt get it right. Gm and other companies where they havent been able to turn them around. Talk to me a little about that. Yeah, enron is a very interesting example. Jeff skilling is exmckinsey, and mckinsey celebrated everything enron was up to for years just before its collapse. I think that is at least partly about buying their own b. S. Skilling was preaching mckinseys stuff he did, so it was an echo chamber. On the other hand, theyre brought in to help companies in real trouble sometimes. Like a blackberry, like a dell. I dont know whether theyve been clients of theirs, but it would be those kinds of guys. One more question. And this is my perception of them from having observed the kinds of companies that hire them, is that they are old school. They go with big dow 30, fortune 500 companies. Are they too old school to be cool in a Digital Economy . I dont really see a google hiring them. You know, its an open question i posed at the end of my book which is whether the new era of companies who organize themselves a little differently are going to want this kind of advice. On the other hand, they keep growing. And theyre growing internationally as well. So theres still demand out there. 85 of their business is repeat customers. But again, youre right. Like whether or not the new era of Tech Companies in particular wants to use their advice. Who knows . The story of mckinsey. The firm, duff mcdonald, secret influence on american business. Congratulations on the book. Good luck. Great to see you. Sue, down to you. All right, gentlemen. Thank you very much. The powerhouse coming up. 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Coming up on street signs, by now, right, weve all read putins oped, googled those pictures of him on a horse and various other things. But what does it all mean for investing in russian stocks . We are going to find out. Also, does buying blackberry on top of nokia make sense for microsoft . And stock picking based on pockets of economic strength out there. All those things and of course lots more, folks, coming up top of the hour on street signs. Back to you on power lunch. Thank you, mandy. Now to dominic chu. Disney, sue, is going to buy back 6 billion to 8 billion worth of shares. Their cfo made some comments. You see the intraday chart spiking higher on those comments. Disney looking to buy back possibly of billion to 8 billion worth of its own stock helping drive the dow higher as well. Were seeing a bit of a reversal, and of course thats helping to drag the Broader Market up higher. Power house time. A look at the las vegas real estate market. Cindy is a realtor with century 21, martinez and associates. So what, cindy, does the las vegas market look like . Lets look at some stats. Singlefamily homes in august. Median sales price, 182,000, up 30 year over year. Almost 32 . The inventory, 14,000 houses on the market there. Thats down 15 . Sales down a little bit. 4. 3 year over year. Average days on the market, 78. Is the market likely to stay hot, cindy . Absolutely. 2013 has definitely been the year of recovery for the las vegas housing market, largely due to a reduction in inventory. And available inventory meaning its not a short sale or some other sort of distress sale. Lets move on. Youve picked some out. They look very interesting. The first one is 6394 west haleh avenue. Taxes, 902,000, 160,000, three bedrooms, two baths. 1257 square feet. At 160,000, this property exemplifies a starter home here in the valley. Its located in the Fastest Growing southwest portion near some master plan communities and our newest water park, minutes from Mccarron International airport. And also the las vegas strip. More importantly, threebedroom, twobath, twocar garage, its the perfect home coveted by investors and firsttime buyers alike. And just 900 in taxes. For a guy in new jersey, that is really painful to see. Absolutely. Number two. Stepping it up, 564 staghorn pass avenue in vegas. Listed at 295,000. Taxes there, about 2300 a year. Thats a year. Thats like my monthly taxes are 2300. Four bedrooms, 2 1 2 baths, 3,000 square feet. This is a big one, cindy. It represents our middle market perfectly. This home has a separate office. It has a pool and a spa with a dramatic waterfall. And its located in silverado ranch which is the Fastest Growing southeastern area of las vegas. Very desirable. I dont know what id do in las vegas, but id like to live right there. Right there. I dont know what id do. All right. Now, the power house of the week, stepping it up, 11 clear crossing trail located in henderson just outside of vegas. The list here, 799,000, taxes, 5600 a year, four bedrooms, 4700 square feet. Tell us about this showplace. This luxury home is a stellar example of what a buyer can find in this 800,000 price range. Its located in highly desirable Anthem Country Club which is a guardgated community. This home has golf course frontage, imported marble and hickory wood floors. This home has every possible amenity. And at only 799,900, you cant find that in any other market. That is a nice looking place. Does that have a pool also . It has a pool table, i see. It has a pool table. This one does not have a pool, however, it has a full lower Level Entertainment room and a wine room. And a very nice outloor difing area there. Thank you very much. Continued good luck to you. Thank you very much, tyler. Sue . Another injury ending derek jeters season, but the yankees captain says stop speculating about the end of his career how do you know when to quit . And guess what . The countdown to christmas, believe it or not, is on. Really . How walmart and kmart are gearing up. Im not sure i like that. But anyway, its in the power rundown coming up next. Ive been doing a few things for a while that i really love tdd 18003452550 playing this and trading. Tdd 18003452550 and the better i am at them, the more i enjoy them. Tdd 18003452550 so im always looking to take them up a notch or two. Tdd 18003452550 and schwab really helps me step up my trading. Tdd 18003452550 theyve now put their most powerful platform, tdd 18003452550 streetsmart edge, in the cloud. Tdd 18003452550 so i can use it on the web, where i trade from tdd 18003452550 most of the time. Tdd 18003452550 which means i get schwabs most advanced tools tdd 18003452550 on whatever computer im on. 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Hes right, were not so exceptional, but 48 of you say he has some points, but the u. S. Is still the best in the world. Power rundown time. Joining me are dominic chu and john kearney. Welcome, guys. Good to have you with me. U. S. Jobless claims falling sharply to the lowest level since 2006, but the Labor Department says the majority of the decline appeared to be because two states were upgrading their Computer Systems and didnt process all the claims that they received. Should we trust the numbers . Well, that has kind of been the case. There have been a lot of glitches, revisions, and thats one of the things that makes wall street crazy. Right. This is totally insane. Were going into the upcoming fed meeting. Everybodys wondering, taper, no taper . And here we get the numbers, and theyre, like, oh, but you cant really trust them because one large state and one small state wasnt able to process the claims. Its driving people bonkers. I dont get how this can happen. But, you know, thats dom, couldnt they upgrade the computers maybe two weeks from now . The timing is so crazy, right . Because like you said, this is the last real data point that were going to get on jobs before the fed makes its Interest Rate decision and makes any kind of comments about l whether or not were going to taper, pull back on bond purchases. As you talk about the numbers, they say it will eventually smooth out with revisions over the coming weeks, but it sure doesnt give anybody on wall street confidence in what the datas going to tell us right before a very, very pivotal decision. All right. This next story makes me out of my mind, frankly. The countdown to christmas is on. Yes just 103 days away. And some retailers are all about it. Walmart having 1,000 kids vote to pick their favorite toys now featured online. Kmart launching a holiday tv ad on monday promoting free layaway. The question is, is it too soon . I mean, cant we just all enjoy thanksgiving first . Its such a lovely holiday. How about halloween . Ill give you halloween, too. It makes me crazy. Its so much pressure. Takes away from the holidays. Theres actually kelly grant who writes for cnbc. Com did a great story on this. You should definitely not do your Holiday Shopping right now. No matter how much they push it at you. Really good sales do happen around the holidays, but they dont start until october at the earliest. Its crazy to even think about doing your Christmas Shopping now. Yeah. I just i cant its 90 degrees outside, first of all. I mean, thanksgiving deserves its due. Thanksgiving always gets kind of pushed aside. The only reason why i would want this thing to really be, you know, happening right now, it is, of course, is if i could get those great deals. And like john said, i dont know. If i can wait till christmas, ill do my shopping then. I will tell you my daughter rose would like it to be christmas all year long. So would my kids. They would. If i could do it, i would make it christmas all year long. Yankees captain derek jeter out for the rest of the season due to an injured ankle. He says stop speculating about the end of my career. Jeters contract expires at the end of 2014. John, im going to go to you first. When do you think the 39yearold should bow out of baseball, if at all . Look, hes been around a long time. Hes made a fortune. I wonder whether after hes had this long break whether, you know, he might just decide, eh, im not sure i really do need to keep doing this. Athletes at derek jeters level, they kind of know most of the time when they think theyre approaching their twilight. If they do, they will make that decision. But derek jeter is still a great shortstop. Hes still the yankee captain. He still puts fans in the stands. He does all those things well. Yeah, he does. Maybe he should stick around for a while. Im a football fan. I think Tony Gonzalez is still doing great as a tight end for the falcons. Hes sticking around one more year. But these guys all know when their clock is going to run out. I also think jeters going to missing in the spotlight, you know, not playing for the rest of the season. Sure. Hes spent most of his life in the spotlight. Maybe no more page 6 appearances, i dont know. Or maybe a lot more now that he doesnt have to play. Page 6 for those of you in other parts of the country is the gossip column in one of the new york papers. Dominic, i love football, too. Thanks, guys. Dow rebounding. Biggest winners this hour coming up next. Were actually fractionally positive on the dow. Back in two. My mantra . Always go the extra mile. To treat my low testosterone, i did my research. My doctor and i went with axiron, the only underarm low t treatment. Axiron can restore t levels to normal in about 2 weeks in most men. Axiron is not for use in women or anyone younger than 18 or men with prostate or breast cancer. 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About 40 of easy chips revenues in 2013 were estimated to come from cisco according to benchmark analyst gary mobile. He used to watch those ezchip shares. Sue, back over to you. Thanks very much. We were briefly positive, ty, mostly driven by disney on that news theyre going to buy back quite a bit of their shares in terms of between 6 billion and 8 billion. Were down about 3 points on the dow. The s p down almost 3 and the nasdaq is off 1. 5. The winners, disney, with that announcement. Walgreens, united, tech and sears. Thank you very much. Thanks, everybody, for watching. Well see you tomorrow. Street signs begins now. What do stretch pants, suit pants and streaming video have in common . They are all top stories on todays show. They are all stocks that are down today. The names and why theyre moving ahead. New ceo, new logo, and now maybe new users. The big claim that yahoo is making. Plus, putin giving russia its mojo back. Were going to show you their surprising stock market move. Were calling it the putin pop. And what else are the new musthaves that everybodat