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