Transcripts For BLOOMBERG In The Loop With Betty Liu 20150105

There is concern that greece may exit the euro. The Prime Minister says that early elections this month will determine the membership. The Opposition Party wants to renegotiate its debt. That could lead to an exit. Oil has resumed its slump. Prices are likely to go lower and crude is down 2 . This is the lowest point since 2009. West texas intermediate is trading at 51. Plans to oil boost exports to a record this month. Pope francis is trying to demonstrate Global Diversity of the church. He has named 15 new cardinals from 14 countries. Hedge fund founder Thomas Gilbert has been killed inside his apartment in manhattan. His 30 rural son was taken into custody after a standoff at his own apartment. Gilbert was 70 years old. We have some breaking news on germany. German inflation was just 0. 1 . The forecast was just above that. Again, the shows there is no inflation in the eurozone region , giving more room for draghi to start quantitative easing. We are going to have more on hans nichols in just a few moments. Chrysler is also out as well. December auto sales were up 20 . Olivia sterns is a breaking news. 20 is actually a little bit of a disappointment. Analyst were looking for 23 . This is been a big year for light trucks and crossovers and suvs. They have the dodge ram and sales from jeep. This is 56 consecutive months of consecutive sales growth. Chrysler was bought out of bankruptcy. There is a little bit of disappointment. We also had sales figures from nissan the top estimates. Honda sales grew just a little bit. Chrysler fiat is up 20 in the month of december. Olivia sterns has breaking news. I want to turn to our leading auto expert, matt miller. This is an Auto Industry that is on a roll. We are going to hear from ford and gm and we have heard from others. 2015 is going to be another big year . All of the analysts and players are expecting it to be a banner year possibly a record. Jd power are expecting sales of 17. 4 million cars. That would be a tie for a record with 2000. About one million more cars than we will see this year. People are expecting 16. 5 million when we closeout december sales. December sales are expected to be strong. December is the biggest month because they offer christmas deals. December to remember. Lexus made that famous. Everyone is expecting 1. 5 million in total at the end of this month. Consumer confidence has been great. Lending credit has been great and low gas prices seem to be positive. It could cut both ways. Adam jonas said this could be a year where we are selling a lot more cars but its not going to be a good year for auto stocks. He lists a number of reasons. Number one is we are adding so much capacity and that happens at the top of the cycle. They think we are at the top and we are going to stay cyclical as far as stock goes. Its not a good year for buying carmakers stock. You are trying to predict feature earnings and hope they will grow. We are expected to add 150 of the capacity we lost in the crisis. That is way more than we have the top of the last cycle. The car buyer the people that pushed us from 16. 5 two 18 or 20 million yearly sales, they demand the biggest discounts. They are the most price conscious buyer. You dont make a lot of money on them. That is going to be an issue going forward. There are a number of issues in terms of whats going on overseas. What about the recalls . The recalls havent been a so much a problem for unit sales. Theyve a problem for the bottom line it to an extent. You can write that off. That is a oneoff charge. I expect recalls to continue at a high pace. This is the new normal as far as the Auto Industry is concerned. As a car owner, its not a bad thing. When something breaks, you have to take it in and get it fixed and fight with the carmaker to pay for it. If they are recalling it, they are doing everything themselves. I want them to recall the car is much as possible. Your car is going to be more perfect than it ever has been. One of the thing thats going to hurt automakers is currency. The japanese yen is over 120 right now. That means carmakers will sell more cars here for cheap. German carmakers will as well. We will not get as much from the cars down in south america. Thank you so much, matt miller. This is going to be a good year for a to makers but its a starting off as a bad year for the euro. That could be a good year for the european automakers. The euro is trading near a nineyear low. Greases membership is in question. Hans nichols joins us from berlin. German inflation is coming in at 0. 1 . That is the lowest level since 2009. That leaves room for quantitative easing. It leaves room for you to come to europe and come shopping. This is going to lead to weaker euro. Youll get more for your dollar. I dont know if you are him a lot or a paris shopper. Either one. You have personal shoppers in both. This is a remarkable moment. This is the last argument as to why they are doing quantitative easing. They were saying we will see how other measures were. That is asset purchases. Mario draghi is going to need to grow his balance sheet. He hasnt argument from the german side that deflation is a real prospect. This is what he warned about three days ago in an interview. It doesnt look like they are downsizing much of an argument. It looks like its much more likely. That will send the euro down. You can start a shopping trip. I am already impact. There was an article talking about a greek exit from the euro. This really rocked the markets. Its an incredible story. What they have is an inside the finance ministry reporting this is anonymous sourcing the government has contingency plans for a greek exit and they think its manageable. Before the position was always its unthinkable. This marks a sea change if it is true inside the government. Weve asked for official comment and gotten nondenial denials. They have not denied the story. What we have now is intentionally a clear signal from the government both to the markets saying if greek greece exits, its not a disaster. We may not necessarily stand in your way if you want to vote in the liberal political party. That is a different posture from berlin that it was three or four years ago. Other factors, you have outlined a several. We do greek and sit and we do the price of oil as the other. The purchasing of bonds would be the third. I probably shouldnt offer a fourth version. Those are the three that i can think of with the notes i am reading. Those of the three factors that are driving the euro down. Its unclear with currency markets which one is the determinant one. It looked like the euro moved quite a bit on the back of that report. The government has not confirmed or denied. That is where we are left right now. There is a great deal of uncertainty in greece on january 26. You did see a big plunge on the back of that report. Thank you so much. Hans nichols is in berlin. Moving and shaking this hour, Warren Buffett is shifting his focus to looking for takeovers. Berkshire hathaway is trading close to an alltime high. They climbed twice as much as the s p last year. They were seen as a way to buy into buffets stockpicking skills. Now they are of that on his ability to make acquisitions and distribute funds to the companies he has bought. He is celebrating 50 years at the helm of Berkshire Hathaway. Coming up, should investors be banking on wall street this year . We are going to ask a veteran. She is now the chairman of elevate. Holiday movies dominated the box office to the tune of 100 million. Stay in the loop. You are watching in the light live on bloomberg television. After a year in which bank stocks rose 13 how much is volatility over oil prices and a weaker euro going to affect a wall street in the coming year . In 10 days bank earning season begins again. We have somebody who knows a lot about wall street. She led bank of america and citigroups wealth arm. She is the chair of Elevate Network. Its great to see you, Sallie Krawcheck. How do you think wall street will turn out . Thats all you ever had to know, how will the markets do. They did a touch better then the markets back in the day. They would have done better. If markets were good, earnings were good, you stacked all you had to know. Things are changing. There are c concerns about what regulators are going to do. You are closer to a bear market than we were last year. Every year we think we are closer. By definition, we are closer. Concerns about what happens when Interest Rates finally rise what will that mean . Volatility is supposed to be good for banks. It hasnt been. Its not. Its so interesting isnt it . You hear about banks and we are set for rising Interest Rates. 18 months ago, Interest Rates went up and the results were poor. You never know. Youve got to be careful about what you read on page 52 paragraph three. Bear market banks are a bad word it together. In the last several years are you glad you are out of wall street . Given the uncertainty . Some days werent so fun. If you take a step back, the Wealth Management is this does great things. Well talk about it very often. These advisors are out there helping American Families live the lives they want and prepare for retirement. We forget about that. We talk about this product or this capability. These advisors to good and we forget that. I dont mind missing the 85th Operational Risk Management Meeting that went into its fifth hour. In terms of what wall street can do an impact its hard not to want to be part of Something Like that. Howell hiring cap . The industry has shown again and again that it will over higher in good times and fire in bad times. Its tough. It has a negative impact on the business. If people think they will be there for a short amount of time, if they see people coming and going they will act like they are there for a short time. Its not clear that it has stressed enough to the longterm perspective for the stockholders but for the fixed income holders in the economy. You five you feel that . Are banks stepping back in spending or not hiring as much . What we can feel, we have a range of women from women who are in college to women in their 70s and 80s. Many are a couple of steps into their careers. What we hear is if they list the things that are most important to them in work, number one is meeting and purpose and number four is money. Its more about professional development and meaning and purpose. Wall street has come down their list. They are looking at other things to do. The shame of it is wall street can have real meaning and purpose, weve done a bad job of articulating it. Weve done that job of living it. What will you be looking for on wall street . What you keeping your eye on . You have to look at the capital levels and liquidity levels. If we know the banks are safer the question we havent answered is are they safe enough in a downturn . They are still highly leveraged. They are better than 2 . It sounds like you might have your doubts then. I am a recovering research analyst. Stay with me through the hour. She is my guest host. We will see how bill ackman the his peers in 2014, a dismal year for hedge funds. Should john boehner be worried. There are people in his own party that will not support him. The Congress Opens tomorrow. Bmw has agreed to pay 820 million to auto dealers in china. There are complaints about unrealistic sales projections. Bmw did the exact same thing as other automakers. The latest hobbit movie dominated the box office. It took in 22 million in north america. And to the woods was second with 19 million. The best performing hedge funds of 2014 is that guy, bill ackman. They returned 33 on investments. He is not just about herbalife. It is 26 minutes past the hour which means we are on the markets. Olivia sterns has more. Its time for futures and focus. Were looking at oil futures and they are declining for a Third Straight day. This is the lowest since 2009. How low will oil go . How can you make money on oil . I want to start with you, greg. It fell below 55 a barrel since for the First Time Since 2009. Right now, its applied. Supply. Traders are dumping this oversupply to the point where people are talking about if you are able to buy crude and store it until you can sell at a later date. Thats what were at right now. How low could it go . In 2008, we got 625 below. Now we are 42 below. This trend is very strong. Inertia is a powerful thing on the downside. What impact does the dollar have . The dollar is trading at 11 year high. You mentioned crude oil, the euro is under Pressure Versus the dollar. You have the greek exit that is not coming at a good time for crude oil. With that in mind, how would you be trading oil . I think prices will decline. We will have those greek worries that will come to the front. That is going to pressure prices. I think that hammers prices below 50. I think traders should look at going long at 4950. Dont take the trade below 48. I think thats going to start a whole new wave. I could see a quick rebound. I think we shoot up and thats where i would get out. You would buy at 4950. He would sell when he gets back up to 54. 50. He would make a profit of 5000 on his tray. Greg, what do you make of this. People are bottom fishing right now. There is enough volatility to make these. I think the trade is interesting. I would buy it. That could bring in a new wave of selling. What kind of volatility are traders looking at . There is an oil thinks it is trading at an alltime high. Traders think this volatility is going to continue. Thats not a bad thing. We are going to leave it right there. Thank you so much. Olivia sterns is on the markets. The new congress doesnt open until tomorrow. Already, john boehner faces a rebellion. A group of conservative say they will not support him as speaker of the house. Peter cook has much more on John Boehners challenges of starting off on the wrong foot. What is going on it . Hes got to heard some cats and do it from day one apparently. Hes got a handful of republican conservatives in the house who say they will not support him and there are two who say they want to be speaker inside of him. That includes Louie Gohmert and ted yoho to conservatives who have been opponents of John Boehners in the past. This is a distraction for john boehner and an embarrassment of sorts. The key number here is a vote tomorrow to determine if he is the speaker. 28 republicans we could see a second vote have to take place. This is not the unity symbol they want as they kick off this new congress. Is this a threat or just a symbolic embarrassment to him . Its symbolic, but it is a sign of things to come. He is going to have to watch his right flank even more in 2015 even if they have a bigger advantage in the house. They have 246 house members, that is the biggest number four republicans in decades. He has to watch his right. Its a headache for him and the numbers will be significant and let him know how much he has to worry about them. I know you are in washington quite often. You are meeting with everyone from the top down. When you hear a story like this that john boehner is being harangued by his own party again , what do you say . This is our politics. We have some teams we need to focus on. There is a lot of noise. This sounds like business as usual. Kids will be kids. Its like herding cats. Its like hurting a bunch of children a. What about Mike Huckabee . He is quitting fox news. He is signaling that he might be running in 2016. Another hat is potentially in the ring. He is an interesting character. Maybe jeb bushs decision move the timetable up for Mike Huckabee. He quit his job and said he is considering it going forward. This is a guy who won the iowa caucus in 2008. He sputtered out after that. He changes the early dynamic. He could win in iowa. I think he is a long shot to win the nomination. He change the dynamic early in the race and may change the thinking of some contenders. You are an independent. Who do you like so far . This whole thing needs to shake out and we do have some important debates. Immigration reform, tax signification. How much time and energy do we waste for this compensated tax code . The issue that we think about at the Elevate Network about the fact that we are so but far behind on things like paid maternity leave. It feels like a cost. There is a real benefit that can occur. If we had women as economically engaged as men are, our gdp would be seven to nine points larger. Make investments like those, these are big macro topics. Japan is struggling with that very same issue as well. It doesnt sound like you are sold on hillary clinton. The woman is enormously qualified and in normal sleep hardworking. She is battle tested. She is a very attractive candidate. She has been through a lot. Some of us have been. That kind of experience and expertise is very valuable. Sally, stay with me. Thank you to peter cook. Much more ahead about politics. Chris christie goes of viral. They tried to celebrate. A big highfive and no highfive. Vanguard saw a record inflows. Who needs stock tickers anyway . Nobody need a fund of manager to see returns. Giant vanguard saw a record returns. We are back with Sallie Krawcheck. She is now the chair of Elevate Network and partners in the elevate fund which directs capital to companies that advance women. The fund out performed the index last year. That is great news. What is the biggest challenge . You have been out talking about this fund and there are going to be skeptics. Valuesbased investing, getting a fair return. Two or three years ago, it was liberal minded. Ive changed my thinking. I try to keep learning every day. This is something that emerging investors are rejecting, that you can have a return or both. There is real growth. The other thing i would say back in the day when i was a research analyst, the question every Portfolio Manager asked in every meeting was is the Management Team any good . Every time, i would say yes they are good and i met with them for 15 minutes one time. Just as diversification and stockholding is important, so is it in management. There is an enormous amount of research out or the says diversity in Management Teams leads to higher returns on equity and lower risks and greater client focus and greater innervation innovation. Diversity outperforms in terms of business returns. Is it causation . I dont even know if i care. You do have some research that shows the fortune happiest places to work, they do tend to outperform. There is something about diversity and policies that enable people to have their work life flexibility, diversity of senior Management Teams, that clash that can occur, we know that that intuitive really intuitively leads to better results. What about active or passive investment . We are all fighting for the same market share. That is going to index funds. We are learning a lot. We were talking before that there is one Warren Buffett because there is one Warren Buffett who outperforms year in and year out. Name others . Exactly. The investment themes can matter. You say its sensible to put your money behind a star performer. How many can you find . Betting on that individual to be excellent what we are learning is a lot of the returns can come from asset allocation. Being in the right places and keeping fees down. That is what john vogel says all the time. If that is what you are looking for as an average investor, you should stick with an dekes runs. It makes sense to be diversified and keep an eye on those expenses. For active management taking some and having this diversified portfolio. Hedge funds have had one of the worst years ever. They were up 2 in 2014. We had under 500 closed down. Did investors get swayed by the egg male egos . Several years of dismal growth. There are a couple of different kinds of hedge funds are in it there are those that actually hedge and should underperform when the s p is doing well. It should provide a lower level of volatility when the markets are up. Those are hard to find. The second kind is an investment portfolio that has high fees and is a Compensation Plan that is disguised as an investment vehicle. What you see over all is they perform underperform overtime by the amount of their fees. Those of the ones that are suffering. Stay with me. Much more ahead. Companies that are outperforming and run by women, we will hear from the ceo of nutrisystem. How they are cashing in on diet plans. Stay in the loop. The gap in the workplace became the latest for years. Far less noticed in the gulf and Retirement Benefits. Since the 1970s, people are relying on 401 k s instead of pensions. Peggy collins joins us with this story read we talk a lot about this pay gap between ceos and workers. Tell me about the gap on Retirement Benefits. This hasnt gotten as much attention. With ceo pay rising their Retirement Benefits have grown as well. A lot of Companies Give executives Pension Plans or deferred Compensation Plans that are matching their salaries in retirement. If youre getting paid millions and a salary and they are trying to replace that in retirement your benefits will balloon. The average worker sees a shift from pensions that guarantee a payment to 401 k s where companies are playing paying a fraction. Where is this the worst . A lot of industries try to keep up with each other in terms of the 41 k plans. In retail, a lot of workers are parttime or hourly or not making a high wage , you can see the disparity more between what the executives get and what the average worker gets. Maybe food ceos as well . Exactly. Target had an outgoing cea with the huge balance. The average workers are struggling to get by. It contributes to their retirement account. Some of the companies in the oil industry side and the biotech, they are trying to match average worker pay. They are trying to do that or they may be contributing double what you put in. They may put into percent and try to do more for you. There is something that is not talked about. You were talking about the old days of income replacement and then it moved to the 401 k . We are now in a multiyear yield drought. The number that could have worked for income replacement five years ago is a Different Number than today. We have left these preretirees thinking what do they need. 500,000 to retire . The way that people really live is can i live on 80 of my preretirement income . We have not helped individuals make that switch from whats your number to watch your income replacement . What do you do about that . Some that can be education. What does that mean . There are implications for how these savings are managed and what they are managed four. There are benefits to 401 k s as people move from job to job. Where they fall down compared to pensions is it makes it difficult for someone who lives 30 years from retirement to figure out what to do with that balance of how to spend it down at a reasonable rate. I agree. Maybe the idea of what your number it worked before in a pension dominated workplace. I do know anybody who thinks a 401 k is going to last for 30 years. Social security is some post to supposed to replace some income. It doesnt replace very much. You need seven to supplement that 80 figure out how to spend it down. Agee, great to see you. Thank you to Sallie Krawcheck for joining us. Coming up, chinas Box Office Sales surge. We will tell you how they dominated the second largest film market. Here comes china. Its todays big number. Todays big number is 36 . That is how much movie income increased and percentage in china last year. Theaters took in 4. 8 billion. Overall, chinese made films run in more money on their own home turf than those from hollywood. The chinese movie market is the second largest. Maybe not for long. It is six minutes past the hour. We are on the markets. Equities are lower and dragged down by all of these concerns about volatility around the euro. It hits a nine year low and there is talk that greece might exit the european currency. We are on the market to get in 30 minutes. We have much more ahead. Speaking of women, we will hear from the ceo of nutrisystem on what her company is doing to get you to fit into your new genes for the new year. The Company Might be for sale. Youre watching quote in the loop. Welcome back. 30 minutes away from the opening bell. Futures indicate stocks open lower today. Oil slumping again. Something not slumping, the euro. The euro fell to an almost nineyear low today. There is growing concern elections and greece may result in the country exiting the euro. Ecb debating whether to start launch cash to start largescale buying or to boost prices. That whether making it tough for search crews looking for the airasia airplane. They believe they have found the planes tale. Chrysler reporting the best december sales in a decade. Sales rose 15 . In about half an hour, we will hear from mgmgm as well. Eight to crew members of a ship off the coast of scotland are missing. A ship carrying cars ran aground over the weekend. All crew members were rescued by helicopters on life boat rescued by helicopters. We are less than 30 minutes away from the start of trade. The top 10 headlines. Matt miller and bo peabody joining us. Happy new year. Really looking forward to this self tying shoes hoverboards. All of the great things i assume you got under the christmas tree. Number 10 sunday it was the busiest night of the year for singles to go on match. Com or whatever. That is the busiest night and it will stay this busy until valentines day for these Online Dating sites. Click over the holidays, maybe you were lonely, or, it is also the peak time of year to break up with your significant other. If you were single you felt left out. You go on these dating websites. Or you have had enough of your spouse. It is part of a bigger trend. This generation, that is what they do. Online dating. Rather than sulking in a bar. Number nine g. M. s Onstar Service will notify drivers it will tell you when there is a Dunkin Donuts nearby, or a good deal on coffee or meals able to you about a hotel or parking offer while you are driving. It is part of a platform called at your service. This is being unveiled this week. I have been a user of onstar. I am a fan of the services. When i get into a car that does not have it, i am almost disappointed. There are two sides to this. You can find our donuts are anywhere you go only other hand, someone knows where you are wherever you go. There is a story about Onstar Services being able to lower your insurance rate and they can also increase your insurance rates. I had a terrible driver in front of me. They were on their cell phone. I always have a terrible driver in front of me. We are seeing so many Amazing Things at greycroft. It is incredible. Inside the car to outer space. Elon musk going where no man has, for. They will attempt to ground a falcon nine rocket on this small barge floating in the middle of the atlantic ocean. I wish elon musk was not so lazy. [laughter] the cool thing about this, i do not think a lot of people thought about the fact that rockets were not reused before. They have soft landed a couple of the rockets in the ocean, but the problem is the flip over and explode and they are difficult to reuse after they explode. This has a 5050 chance of working or not working. One when you get to travel with the tubes. Mcdonalds. They unveiled new ads that expands on the on loving it slogan by highlighting the loving aspect of it. They are trying to turn around slumping sales. A piece of vinyl found in a Chicken Nugget over in japan. Japan is the last place you want a hygiene issue. I have been finding things in chicken since i was a kid. I went to the factory that produces all of the salad of four mcdonalds. I was amazed at how but and up it is. I do not think this is a widespread problem. To mcdonalds point, it is so easy to hate mcdonalds. How about trying to love the company. Not getting a lot of loving at the Dallas Cowboys game. Chris christie it looks like he was looking for the bro hug or bro high five and did not get it. He went for the bear hug. He seems to be getting into shape. He is losing a little bit of weight. I am a dallas fan. I was conflicted. When i was a kid, it was americas team. I always root for them, but then, i am a detroit fan now. I love the carmakers there. That city needs a comeback like no other. Cliques i do not know is he is a Dallas Cowboys fan. Jerry jones Chris Christie has to hug any billionaire out there even before, he was raising money for his president ial bid. 2014 a banner year for Warren Buffett. He changed his investment strategy. 50 years at the helm of Berkshire Hathaway. Stay in the loop. It is time for the deep dive into number five. s clothing, taking the fashion world by storm. Sales of plus size clothing up. Thanks in part to new late goals to new labels dressing women size 14 and up. Just securing 6 million in new funding. Bo peabody with greycroft staying with us. Maria if this is a great big market why havent we seen bigger retailers go after this market . They are nervous to get into the market. They are afraid if they buy a size 16 skirt, a size for customer will not buy from there anymore. The difference now that we see is digital. This customer before was diffuse and not able to connect and communicate with her peers. With the web and social media it has allowed her to create content and share content she wants to see. There is no votgue of plus size. Maybe it is as simple as it is a lot easier to be online and shop for plus sized clothing then to go into a store. In general, these of sites are benefiting from the rise and commerce. From greycrofts perspective the big retailers are starting to get into this. You had an issue a target six months ago where plus sized women were threatening to boycott. They did not have anything. You have h m and brands like nordstrom starting to make noise. The fact is the market is coming into its own. Nordstrom is our major thirdparty retailer. One of the reasons we decided to move forward is the length and perspective is similar to ours. She knows and understands fashion. It started out as an out crap an outcrop of the limited. Plus sized women do not shop as much as skinnier winter as skinnier women. It is not a lucrative market. They have not have the options. This is a market. Not so much a market, but of behavior. Retailers have pulled back the footprint and the customers spend less. You cannot blame the customer for not spending on fashion apparel. It is not there for her to spend in the first place. I think it is a matter if you kids the people what they if you give the people what they want, we will continue to give customers with asfoor. The best thing we can do is we will be going up into extended sizes, 26 and 28 moving into new categories. They are building a loyalty program. Thank you. Much more ahead. A blockbuster year sent facebook share to an alltime high. Investors may be disconnected. We will to you why. Back on the markets, the euro has not been this low against the dollar since 2006. What is ahead for the currency and the market when we come back. Cliques welcome back. The most important stories you need to know. Number four, Berkshire Hathaway trading at an alltime high. It climbed twice as much as the s p last year. Some of this is buffet, but some of it is the momentum we saw last year with equities. Almost any stock you owned would be up near a high or its record high. I admit to looking ahead. This is the answer to number two. Everyone will benefit. Warren buffett is famously long. This happened at a time when he has admitted to at least one mistake, which was tesco. The accounting and marketing issues. Ibm has been a dog for Warren Buffett as well. Investors seem to have excused it. Part of it is because he is so honest. I made a mistake, lets move on. He has 50 plus years of a record. He is the guy. He has carved out it works. He has a 200,000 stock price . Close to it. What also hit a record highest hit a record high is facebook. This one kills me. The media, we cannot invest in the stocks or the companies we cover. I do not buy and sell stocks. When facebook was coming down, i was working on the floor of the exchange. A billion people uses. They will figure out a way to monetize it. I dont think people realize how many lovers they campolo to bring money out of this thing. If you do not make money you have a problem. That does not mean the stock cannot go down. Absolutely it can go down. Number two, a vote of noconfidence, pouring money into vanguard group. They said i am going to put my money and and go to sleep. They did well. We love this trend. The world is waking up to the reality that these funds is right. Anytime you see incredible performance investors will pile into the index. When will investors be able to go into d. C. Funds . I do not think it is a good idea. As we near the opening bell futures have settled lower. Welcome back. Lets bring you the most important stories you need to know. Number one, back into markets. We start the year off with these two trends that we ended. The euro trading at a nine year low. Greece may exhibit euro. Oil is down. Why do you grown . I just got back from a. I was still paying 1. 27 or whatever. A nineyear low and we are only at a dollar 20 we only at 1. 20. I converted my dollars for . 88 for the euro. Ford and gm do not want to see that. With a weaker euro and weaker yen, you seem more mercedes audis, volkswagens getting sold over here. It is harder for ford and gm to compete. Europe has been a big problem for ford. We are going to get gm Sales Numbers in a moment. As stocks kick off the first full year of trading we are predicting another rally your on the s p by yearend. You say nearly 7 rally by the end of 2015. Why . Corporate profits will increase. 2015 will be a sustainable Global Economic expansion driven by tectonic shift. That will overcome a lot of problems we see in europe. The numbers are out. Gm, up 19. 3 . Huge. They are giving the most incentives of any carmaker. What you see every year the incentives are the amount of the discount carmakers give buyers. It grows until december. December is the biggest month. Gm is giving the most incentives of any carmaker. I am not predicting anything. Give us the facts. Gm will give you about 3300 per car on average. Ford, the sales are up 1. 3 . What happened . For it has lower growth compared to gm in the u. S. Is there a Model Driving this . All carmakers are selling more trucks, suvs, and crossovers than any car. I get a list and i look at which were the biggest sellers and im used to seeing cameron and corolla but you are seeing ram trucks, f1 50s, jeeps, all up. Gas got below two dollars at some point. It is near a low in my neighborhood. Only about two dollars in new jersey. Lets segue this back into the markets. This is another good sign. Consumers are buying lower gas prices, only at 7 , seems like we could possibly outperform at some point. Main street will feel a lot better than wall street. Wall street has to overcome a lot of problems. You have to look at what is going to bolster confidence in wall street. Look at race, was happening look at rates what is happening with the central bank. I sense bearishness taking place. You have to look at the policies of the ecb. They risk the dollar is already increasing. If they increase the dollar, it will put too much pressure on the other, not just the euro but other emerging market currencies and that is bad for the global economy. They need to look at the whole picture and take a global perspective. It is good for the markets. It will be more volatile. It will be a better year for main street and wall street. Low gas prices, low Interest Rates, a stronger dollar, good housing. A Virtuous Cycle for the consumer but not just in the u. S. , globally. Sally was on with us earlier and she was joking a little bit of the obvious. She said we are one year closer to a bear market. When does this take place . It is a mistake people underestimate the resilience of the market. You have to look at the trend driving corporate growth. We will be a new record high and corporate Profit Growth because of things happening in manufacturing and global trade. We do not know how to forecast the dynamics. You look at china growth they are a 10 trillion economy. You look at the asians the asian five, forget about europe. Forget about europe. Incredibly optimistic. From the perspective of the automakers, they are investing more money and boosting capacity. It is coming at the top of the cycle. People are forecasting 17. 5 million in sales next year. Eight is a great time to sell cars, maybe not a great time to buy auto stock. We will leave it there. Thank you for joining us. We will have much more on autos. Gm ford, reporting Sales Numbers. Ending on a high note. We will talk about what is to watch in 2015. Carmakers rolling into the new year with fortune. Cheap fuel, gassing up truck sales, consumers bought more mini vans, suvs, cars, and minivans. Drivers demand cars keep them connected. Vehicle tech is a selling point. For more on the new reality, we are joined by matt. Staying with us, bo peabody of greycroft. You just bought a car. A suburban. These compact suvs, the big trend. That is the thing i am looking forward to most in 2015. They are buying vehicles like the buick encore. It is a vehicle that did not exist a year ago. The question is, where does it come from . Slightly larger suvs. You mean the market share. Absolutely. People downsizing. I am excited. A car with a truck chassis feels so different. Absolutely. A suburban going around a corner, you have to slow down. You bought it why . I have three boys. I cannot fit them in a buick encore. The three boys is why you bought a used one. Yesterday it is great to buy a used car. You can find everything you need to know on websites. It is great. I am looking to see if more diesel trucks with diesel prices being higher are being sold. We have seen ram grow a lot yearoveryear. Ford is not doing so much diesel. Smaller displacement engines that offer better fuel economy and similar power. I want to see if gm will get into that market. More fuel economy. And more technology. Our diesel price is going to stay high and put them into the forced induction v6 engines . Apple car play. It debuted in 2014. It is supposed to make a lawn chair in 2015. We see it in volvo and ferrari. Android is also competing. What we are seeing is for years, automakers worked on designing the best system they could. What we see is bring your own device. People have their own 4g connected devices. All of these rumors about apple building cars, building cars is rough. Technology companies are going to sell tech to car companies. We will see more this year. Consumers have been very. They like tech and they have been cautious. A lot of it has been downgraded. I am curious to see how it plays out. I have a bold prediction. I think in 10 years there will be very few people driving cars. Nobody driving cars. I think it will be as an expensive to put yourself in a self mover than to own a car and pay for the gas and do the maintenance. I will say in 10 years, less than 10 of the market will be connected cars. Less than 10 . They will have some self driving features. It is because of the laws. We cannot get our airbag regulations to match up with europe. Unless we have a president ial cam plane Residential Campaign platform. Why not . Connected cars come with connected cars, make that part of your platform. Thank you. Bo peabody stays with me. Still ahead, losing weight. We will ask the ceo of nutrisystem how her company is planning to cash in on your diet plan. That is next. And new year. Along with it, your new years resolution. Foremost, losing weight is at the top of the list. Many are turning to nutrisystem. They are outperforming competitors like weight watchers. Here with me is dawn zier. She joins us live from the nasdaq, fresh off of ringing the opening bell. I know you were brought in it was doing poorly. You have turned around the company and focused more on the lower end consumer. Trying to make it more price acceptable for some. You have been competing with the digital space. That is where i want to start off. I use my fitness pal. It is free. How du compete with a nap like that . We view the apps as complementary to what we do. They have breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. You can use it to complement your weight loss program. We are positioned differently in that respect. What happens at this time of year. How much traffic are you seeing. Almost everyone is thinking about exercising and losing weight. We are seeing a lot of people, the phones are ringing people are visiting the website. It is a great time of the year for us. January is a key month for us. Over 100 Million People making resolutions to diet. The Meal Delivery aspect of your product is what differentiates it from your competition. That is correct. We invested in a Company Called pleated. What you think about those companies . I like them. We are testing a product in california. We have our current products which have over 100 products that have no artificial preservatives and we are testing a fresh product in california which would be more pricey. Would you be partnering with them at all at some point . Could you see that . We are in a partnership with fresh realm. We are testing it as we speak. More to come down the road on that. The you have warehouses in different parts of the country . We have two. East coast and west coast. That is one of the points of differentiation. We work with many different vendors and get a lot of different products. We have more variety than our competition. Watching plated grow, that is the hard part, getting the logistics down. It looks complicated, getting that down. Before we go, you have done a great turn around, the stock is up and you are beating competitors. Clinton group, whether the company should be sold, they say private he equity groups are interested in buying nutrisystem. We listen carefully to what investors say. I am focused on growing the company. We have shown revenue growth. We have momentum. We are focused on growth and innovation. Thank you. Dawn zier the nutrisystem president. That does it for today. Tomorrow, one of americas most experienced turnaround experts and formally the ceo of hostess joining me. Jim reynolds weighs on the hidden risk for. That is tomorrow, starting at 8 00 a. M. Eastern time on bloomberg television. Bloomberg televisions on the markets. We are 30 minutes into the trading day. Stocks are lower. The dow jones down by about 1 . The nasdaq off a little less. Brent continues to slide. It fell below 55 per barrel for the First Time Since may 2009. Stocks are falling this morning but the s p 500 has rallied. Strategists think 2015 will be a good year. A look at the forecast, stock editor mike reagan. We have unanimously bullish forecast. Is that not a sign of a bubble . It does worry a lot of people. This is the impressive game the market has had in the last two years. This is the First Time Since 2008 and into 2009 that they were unanimous in predicting gains. It is a different market now than it was then. This does make some people nervous. It makes you wonder who is left to be convinced. Coming off of 2008, it makes more sense. The question was, are we going to go lower . Right now, we have different headwind. Recession in the u. S. Would be the main risk to any market. The Global Growth is slowing and there are a lot of concerns today. There are concerns about grease and oil and how that will shake out. If you check the boxes for the u. S. Economy, there is nothing indicating a recession is in the cards. It might not be a blockbuster huge growth but as long as the economy keeps something coming along, bull markets generally keep going. Forget about global headwind. Domestically, we are expecting the fed to start hiking rates. It has a lot of people worried. If you look at the lowest forecasts that we track david costa is 2100 for the s p 500. Volatility around the beginning of the Interest Rate increases part of his reasoning. Others are not worried. They think valuations expand. I read a note that said he is not worried about the Interest Rates. Share buybacks will continue. While everyone is bullish in predicting a game, there is an 11 discrepancy of where they may the top bulls says his target is 23 40. What he make of the fact that the spread is so thin . It leads you to believe that they are seeing the same thing. There is no real bear market in the cards, knock on wood. Even if the fed starts increasing Interest Rates, it will not be a disaster necessarily. Market makers is next. Live from bloomberg headquarters in new york, this is Market Makers with Erik Schatzker and stephanie ruhle. Americans, keep on trucking. Simmers are snapping up trucks and big cars thanks to the falling gas prices. The Lone Star State races for the impact of plunging oil prices. Tying the knot for wedding websites, trying to disrupt the digital market lace