second quarter dividend to shareholders. totaling $2.5 billion. and that money will go into an escrow account until the full extent of liabilities and damages are known. let's check on the markets in the week ahead with ben lichtenstein of traders audio.. he's over there at the c m e group. ben, it looks like the indexes have found a bottom at least for now. it sure does, with the activity that we've seen all of the last week, 10 days possibly. at most 10 days now. seems like the market, after coming off that high in the activity to the downside from the unemployment that we saw a week ago, plus now. the market really found a bottom there and manage to hold on to some of those key levels of support. and has rallied back. we found our way back to the meat of that bell curve, or that value area that we have established in between about 1105 in the s&p's. and about 1040 roughly in the recipe to the downside. so the market right now again has come off of those extreme lows. and we will possibly find some strength and test the high again of 1105 in the s&p's. and you see us kind of stuck in the trading range, a few weeks? we are kind of back in range now. now the we have rejected that were extreme value area that we're talking about. we will work our way back into the meat of this bell curve. it is very random at this point we are trading. one thing to focus on as we go into this week is that we are in the roll over. so september contract is becoming the front month in the futures contract. and do it is rolling out and to begin six away a little bit of energy and volatility from the market. so that would contribute again, just a sideways or horizontal development. are you noticing any improvement in the sentiment out there? well, we are. it seems to be that there's more traveling going on. unfortunately last week we close the we got with terrible retail sales numbers. but yet, the consumer sentiment was up to two and a half year high. but as far as we know, i think the retail sales number came in at half month low. so again, a lot of mixed activity. but i think that there's a lot more business travel going on. there's more spending going on right now. but with some of the activity we've been seeing out of europe. i think we just heard the major trend higher that we've been seeing, or put a little bit of a damper on, if you will. because there is an enormous amount of concern about or talk about a double-dip recession associated with the debt crisis over in europe. but, for the most part again we had bernanke come out last week and downplayed some of that concern. said they had enough money and they were going to deal with it. and have been dealing with it properly. so again, right now we are in a random area. at this point, we need to kind of work our way to one of the extremes of this value area that we've established. again, e 11 05 to the upside and roughly 1040 to the downside in the s&p's. ok, thank you very much ben lichtenstein of traders audio. the latest news on foreclosures is mixed according to one industry expert. on the upside--- foreclosure activity dropped nationally in may? may for the second month in a row. on the downside--- may was a record breaking month for bank repossessions. in one chicago neighborhood-- residents are trying to stay in the homes-- by taking on the banks. it's the new sign of the times. blanca navarro who is on the brink of foreclosure openly displays what she thinks about jpmorgan-chase. "i already submitted a second application since last year. and now i am to the point where i don't know what to do. do i pay more mortgage and keep my house or support my children?" a chicago community group called swop, southwest organzing project, is fighting foreclosures with yard signs. and the group is naming names of banks reposessing homes. "it's a good neighborhood. has good people in it and good housing stock. it was built to last forever. it's just taken a turn... i would say crisis." a crisis, because in 2 years 7,300 foreclosures have been initiated in a 4 zip code radius. neighborhoods where people who want to live the american dream, lost jobs, had hours cut or fell prey to subprime lending. "we are still feeling the effects of that, meaning folks were given loans that were totally unafforadable and some of the houses are upside down." betty gutierrez lives in the area and says when homes are foreclosed and boarded up squatters move in. she does what she can to keep up appearances. "for 18 months we lived next door to a vacant home. we tried to mask it by picking up the litter and mowing the lawn, shovel the walk. that shouldn't be our responsibility. by the same token we didn't want anybody in the house." eventually someone purchased that home, which was a sign of hope for neighbors. however, swop senior organizer david mcdowell suggests predatory lending is still happening. "there aren't nearly as many mortgage brokers in the neighborhood. we've got a lot of mortgage rescue companys that we suspect are staffed by the very same people who are taking $2,000 to $3,000 from people to try and help them with their mortgages and and probably the same people they wrote the mortgages in the first place 4 or 5 years ago." mcdowell says the crusade will carry on and he believes it's getting the banks attention. "the banks whether they want to admit it or not they are financial servicing companys and stockholders are all a part of this community and we are calling on them to engage in the same kind of stewardship in this community that the residents and churches are engaging in." we spoke with a couple of banks to get a response to our story. citigroup tells us: since the beginning of the housing crisis in 2007 the bank has helped 900,000 distressed homeowners in their efforts to avoid potential foreclosures and remain in their homes. this week, bp and u-s coast guard officials will start implementing new systems to help capture a greater amount of oil. the latest government estimate points to anywhere between 20,000 and 40,000 barrels of oil a day that had been flowing into the gulf of mexico before the containment cap system was put on earlier this month. now, bp says it's collecting up to 15,000 barrels of oil a day from its containment system. meanwhile, the u-s coast guard says it is adding more ships so they can capture a greater amount of oil. "between mid june and july we will build out new system, accomodate greater flow rate. at that point, once we know we can do that, we'll shift to a more hard cap - help us capture more, if not all oil coming out of well head." this wednesday, bp executives along with coast guard officials will meet with president obama to discuss the latest developments and the best way to proceed. so far, bp has spent about 1.7 billion dollars on clean up costs. and claims to people and businesses affected by the oil spill. also this week, the house of representatives is expected to take up a set of new tax breaks and lending incentives for small businesses. the president called on the house to pass the measure in the new week. today, small businesses are still having trouble getting new loans for start ups and for expansions because credit conditions remain tight. "the legislation being debated. eliminate capital gains taxes for investmetns in small firms. help move capital to companies across america. we'll provide tax relief to start ups to encourage people open up businesses as well." and the hope is that new tax breaks and lending incentives will encourage small businesses to hire new workers. one market pro talks about how he's playing gold. that's coming up later. but first, what's next for the housing market now that homebuyer tax credits have run out. almost 4 years since the housing bubble burst. and that sector is still struggling to find its footing. jim gillespie, president & ceo of coldwell banker is here to talk about the trends. welcome to this show. and after the home buyer tax credit expired in april, are we expecting to see sales drop in the summer? will actually we've started to see open sales drop. one of the things that coldwell banker is doing is that we are doing our best to extend the tax credit with the coldwell banker home buyers bonus program. which sellers at sign up commit to contributing 3 percent, up to $8,000 as a credit to buyers at the closing table. but again, to your point, yes sales since may 1st has dropped off. we've seen it across the country. maybe 15 to 30% depending on the local marketplace. and let's talk about existing home prices across the united states. they're down 21% from 2007. what's your forecast about whether home prices will continue to drop further, or flatten out as we've seen at least since 2009? well i have learned a long time ago not to make too many guesses. the thing we're seeing recently, if you look at the last report from the national association of realtors home prices have risen 4% from april of '09 to april of '10. so we're starting to see stability. racine the same thing as some local markets that have been hit very hard, like california for example. california prices over for five years have dropped close to 50%. in the last year, they've started to rise again, because of price point has been met. so there is some link urging signs we have seen. plus the economy is starting to pick up also. right, but on the other hand, if sales do see a drop because the tax credit has expired, that could put downward pressure on prices. it could put some downward pressure on prices. but really, the key is to see what happens in about two months. because right now a lot of salespeople and mortgage brokers are scrambling to get the properties close by the deadline, which is june 30th. by the way, senator harry reid, senator chris dodd and senator johnny isakson are introducing a bill in the senate to extend the closing date from june 30th to september 30th. and that would really help alleviate some issues with people getting their properties close in time to take advantage of the tax credit. exactly, we all know that's been a major issue. trying to nail down the closing date and the process with that. let's talk about buying trends and foreclosed homes. take a look at these numbers here, foreclosures accounted for a 33 percent of sales in april. wouldn't you want to see more foreclosed homes being bought right now? yes. actually in places like california and nevada where i've been in the last 30 days, they're begging for more foreclosures. because foreclosures sell very quickly. and secondly from the time the foreclosure is on the market, and so within 45 days. according to the national association of realtors, the pricing of foreclosures is 15%- 30% below what the true market value of that property would be if it wasn't in a distressed state. so, it's a very good opportunity for investors who are taking advantage of it. as well as first-time home buyers. and we all know foreclosures will continue to come on the market. do you expected to get worse in 2010? well, i don't know whether it's going to get worse or not. i don't expect it to ease of too much. just that there's a lot of difficulty out there, obviously in the economy. 24 percent of the mortgages in this company are under water. those folks struggle with their jobs and then we might see more foreclosures come along. so again, we're not sure, but hopefully the economy is starting to pick up. and we're going to see less foreclosures in the future. ok, we can just hope for the best. thank you very much for your thoughts on this trend. jim gillespie, president & ceo of coldwell banker. and still to come on first business... one market pro tells why he's expecting a breakout in metals. that's coming up next. our next guest says he is looking for a big break out in gold prices. eli melluel joins us now to talk about the price of gold. glad to have you on the show this morning. and you really believe that we could see gold at 5000 and towns? it's possible based on the market conditions we're seeing. what we're seeing right now is a dynamic shift in what gold really is all about, in the metals market. right now gold is approximately 1200. we could easily see a break out to the highs of 1500. 5000 is something in the long term, possibly with adjusted inflation. but what i and am seeing is this, the economy isn't doing what it should be doing right now. based on the economic numbers. that being said, i believe that gold is a safe bet and investment. not only short term, long time. now i know that you're in the camp that does not believe the economy is getting better. but there is another campus as the economy is getting better. and it is time to put your money in the stock market and wouldn't a strong way. so what are some signals that you see as a person from trader's capital right now? i know your watching the numbers that are telling you that fundamentally things are not there and gold is likely to rush. and people are going to rush in and buy it and it's going to spring back up. gold, and a one there's a limited supply. silver for example is around 17. when the hunt brothers were involved in silver and cornered the market, it went to 15. today the chinese are buying silver religiously. so it's a matter of time until you can see silver easily go to 25-$30. easily. so you're watching what's going on in foreign exchanges, as well as was happening here in the united states? yes. it's all about supply area it is about supply of the actual metals themselves. it's become a currency right now. people don't have confidence in the euro zone. about a month ago when i was on the show, the euro was trading at 129. we told you that the euro would see some substantial pressure down to 120. it hit that target. yes, could the euro collapse? i don't know if it would collapse, this will save it temporarily. but 115, 112 that's not out of the picture at all. ok, you're talking about supply. but i heard the same argument when everybody was saying its time to buy real estate. there's only a limited supply of land in real- estate out there. and of course we had the bubble and the crash. what the difference is that gold has been around as an economic vehicle from almost the beginning of time. that being said, there is true limited supply of the commodity itself. as well as silver. because there's a demand for. for example in india, as the population and their gdp grows, gold is part of the culture. and that's one of the fastest- growing gdp is in the world. as well as population. so just from the supply point of view, i think you see that. and people are just not confident in having their money in the stock market. so what do you buy? do you buy gold by the ounce, so you have something tangible? do you buy gold futures? do you buy and stocks? what do you do? we buy gold physically, get is stored in a vault. it's a very simple process. you by coins and hold them. is that what you're doing with your money? that's what will be doing with its capital right now. we predict that gold could easily run to $1,700 within the next year. long term, we're looking at 3500. i don't think it's out of the picture. i think it's just the reality. yes in theory, the dow and gold. whatever the number may be, may match. so may be a 10,000 on the gold per ounce, 10,000 on the dow. but i have asked you, and you know this. maybe 3000 and 3000. that would be a crash. but i don't predict that. ok, but that's still a big move, 3000. but let me ask you this. because you know that gold, we can have some big volatile moves in that. we saw that in the '80s, it can come slamming down very quickly. so what's the caveat? and i just have a couple seconds left. every time you see a retracement of $50 to $100, you're a buyer above 1000. i think above thousand dollars your be a buyer of the bullion. i think boy yen is where you want to be. it's a safe commodity and it is a global currency today. we'll keep watching, thank you very much. eli melluel, always a pleasure. he's with traders capital. matt shapiro of mws takes a monday morning look at the charts, after this in-the-know message. well maybe there's going to be some positive buying in the market today. let's bring in matt shapiro, president of mws capital. because matt, the volatility index is below 30 as we're starting the week off. it really is. and its one of my key indicators for the direction of the market. obviously, i'm in the pit trading a lot, along with investing. and last week it closed at 2880. which is about the lowest its been in a month. so it's almost as if, let's cross our fingers. we've turned the corner on the stormy correction, angie. now the last time we have you on, you mentioned that you were moving into the market and buying some stocks. what are you watching this week? well there's going to be just a slew of general economic stuff. housing permits, capacity utilization, and some price indexes. but i think the technicals are going to be key. and in the vix pit, the paper seems to be betting that the volatility futures are going to drop this week into expiration. it's also an option's expiration week. how will that play out? well, i think we could be very whippy. and sometimes during these weeks, if there's a recovery in the market, we could squeeze that s&p 500 up past 1100, angie. thank you very much. matt shapiro, president of mws capital. always a pleasure. have a great day matt. well thanks everybody for joining us for today's show. remember viewer mail is coming up on friday morning. so we need you to keep sending in your comments. you can call us at (312) 660-8397 or e-mail us at comments@firstbusinessnews.com. have a great day, we'll see you tomorrow.