Transcripts For CNBC Closing Bell 20131223

For allegedly opening up customer accounts without consent, forging signatures. I mean is your identity safe anywhere . Well look at that story coming up a little bit. The rally continues on wall street today. I mean in this you know after we saw what happened, bill, with the fed, the 300point move we had after the fed decision to taper, you know the aftermath still remains pretty solid. Were adding another 70 points on that index today. The dow was 97 at its peak today, light volume. As we always say, can you make money light or heavy volume, or lose money at the same time. It still reveals a bias. The bias appears to buy the index. The s p 500 adding almost ten points at this hour. The nasdaq strongest performer of the day. Take a look at some components of facebook in particular as its added to the s p 500. Up better than 5 . That index again, sitting about 1827. Lets talk to our Closing Bell Exchange gang joe tanney dick from Rmb Capital Management joe duran, hes also by the way, the author of the money code, youre welcome, joe. Also we have dani hughes from Divine Capital and our own rick santelli. Dan y im going to start with you. This rally has been off to the races since fed meeting last week. Is this the santa claus rally or A Ben Bernanke rally . I think weve had one of those all year bill. We have seen it just since they declared their goodwill. Weve gotten a little understanding of what the taper is actually going to be. So, i think because of that we felt there was a little less uncertainty and markets rallied behind that. I expected to see that throughout the rest of the year. Its going to be very light volume. The Economic Data were expecting is going to be pretty muted. Again, we have some expectation of whats going to happen with the fed next year. Thats really whats driving anything, i think, really until we see First Quarter earnings. Thats what were waiting for. Thats a little ways away, though. Yeah next year. Joe duran, you say were in the beginning stages of a profound longterm rise in Interest Rates. Before we get into why you think, so i just want to know is this a change in view or have you been saying this for, you know, some time now . No. Weve, become more aggressive in that view. Clearly were going to keep rates on the short end very low. But go the fed is letting off the throttle its because they see the economies taking care of it for them. That implies were going to go back to much more growth. Maybe closer to 3 plus. And if theyre going to keep rates low on the short end, youll start getting some pricing accretion. Youll see more pressure on longer rates and more pressure on the stock market to go up simply because were reflecting a stronger more bullish economy. If thats the case joe, you mentioned longer rates. Its the 30 years, which is actually one of the its come in a little bit. Weve seen the short end of the curve moving up aggressively but some flattening as things on the longer end. No the area where im a little concerned is the tenyear. Again, i dont worry too much on the daytoday fluctuations. I worry about where we go month by month. If the fed is they really dont typically control the long maturity as much as the short end of the curve. What youll see is theyll force people to finance on the short end, free up money and a lot more spending that happens by consumers. Weve had over 2 trillion of Wealth Creation in home equity alone in the last year. So thats just massive. Thats the fuel to this economy. You teed it up for rick santelli. Let me bring mr. Market in right now. The flattening of the yield curve, theres those that feel the stock market is responding appropriate to the feds movement from last week, but the bond market is the question mark, why its not moving up more in terms of yields right now. What do you say . I think its an appropriate day to have this discussion. Im sorry, joe, im not buying your argument unless you redefine what a long and short maturity are. I agree with kelly. I see a fiveyear up 105 basis points since may. Thats normally considered a shorter maturity. It calls into question much. As for the day, theres a movie coming out, walter mitty. I think so theres a lot of Walter Mittys that must be involved in equities, quite frankly, because i think the equity markets are looking at the very small t in taper and getting the last they can squeeze out of the straw. When it comes to the fixed income market, maybe theres less of a tape worm in what savers are getting dinged. The flattening curve, fitz more than just positions coming off, its going to be a huge event for 2014 for those who think the fed has this mouse trap under control. I dont for a second think go ahead, joe. I dont think the fed has it under control. I think what youre going to see, we think, is that theres going to be a very aggressive catchup as growth starts coming in and the fed is behind. The fed has not led very much. The wealth and recovery is driven by home prices going up. Im very concerned about increased volatility next year especially in the stock market. Especially as we know people are going to follow and invest in whats done well. Thats been stocks and not bonds. So this coming year early on we probably will see a continuation, which will lead to a lot more volatility. Lets bring joe and dick into this question. Joe, make it meaningful for investors. Now we have the tapering mystery behind us. Where are you going to put money going into work . Into the flow of capital. Over the past several years youve seen a ton of money moving into the bond markets. Weve seen the early stages of that unwinding. I think as a result of that youll continue to see more and more money going into the equity markets over the next year. Despite the fact valuations are never nearly as compelling as they once were i suspect youll see multiples expand even further. Along with that i suspect youll see the tenyear yield rise up even higher. Thats certainly what a lot of people, joe, are saying. I just wonder, there seems to be two schools of thought right now. One is that the u. S. Will keep benefiting as people around the world pile their capital here because it looks like such a good place to invest. The other one is people think europe will dough better than the u. S. Where do you fall . I agree with most of your panelists today. I do think this is a good time to think about the impact of where we are in the cycle. The u. S. Is in my estimation in the third and final phase of its bull market and economic recovery. Thats why Interest Rates are rising. Theyre likely to continue to rise. Its also why u. S. Stocks probably end up moving up and move from fair valuation to higher than normal valuation. While europe and japan are still trading at low end of their historical valuations. Their economic and stock market recoveries are in the first of three phases. While were in the final stage. So were shifting money. Even with that 50 gain in the japan market, as a matter of fact. Dani hughes, do you stay the course with the Investment Strategy youve been using for the last several months or do you do Something Different going into 2014 . Well, my Investment Strategy has been primarily in equities over the last three years. Weve been invested in a lot of dividendpaying stocks. We still have to be in there. I think you have to watch out for 2014 though. Correlations are kind of coming off the rails. What we saw right after the aftermath of the financial catastrophes, all correlations went to the fed balance sheet. Everything was correlated. Just about six months ago we started to see things revert back to their traditional roles where currencies would drive commodities, would drive the fixed income market would drive equities. Youre starting to see that come back now. I think that will continue to happen. And when we go to 2014 i dont think equities are going to do as well as everybodys anticipating, personally. Whos going to do better . Of all those Asset Classes . Sure. I think that u. S. Dollar will do very well next year. And again that might be one way to think about the headwinds were seeing for some of these commodities. The Silver Lining bill might be that it means Lower Oil Prices for some consumers. We can only hope gasoline prices, all that nonsense. Thank you all. If we dont talk to you, merry christmas. Thanks for your thoughts. Merry christmas. About 50 minutes, heading into the home stretch of the trading session. The dows up about 70 points. A good day for the s p 500 and nasdaq. Again, the outperformer on this one, facebook. For art cashin, the bias very flat right now. Not a lot of pressure to the buy or sell side. Coming up the big banks reacting to the credit card hack at target stores. Los Angeles Times revealing another big bank thats been opening accounts allegedly, without customer consent and forging signatures to make strict sales numbers. Well look at the ethics and the implications and whether the banks need even more regulation, believe it or not, coming up. And headphones are one of the hottest accessories you can plug into this Holiday Season. Coming up we sit down with the ceo of skull candy. Stay with us. Youre watching cnbc. [ male announcer ] what kind of energy is so abundant it can help provide the power for all this . Natural gas. More than ever before americas electricity is generated by it. 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Tdd 18003452550 and seasoned market experts to help sharpen your instincts. Tdd 18003452550 so you can take charge tdd 18003452550 of your trading. John chen cheryl sandberg, another new board member at diz any. Julia with breaking details. Im thinking we knew we had a delay but not that long. Unless youre going to the moon and back. Well wait to reestablish that. We dont want to you know yet. Dont google it. Dont look it up. A major Security Breach at target has got some Holiday Shoppers spooked but banks are responding and rolling out Safety Measures to protected customers. Kayla, who i believe can hear us, has details on that. Im only about 100 feet away. Thats what i knew. The banks are rolling out Safety Measures that vary with one central message. Customers who learned theyve been impacted should replace their cards immediately. Citizens bank says it will overnight a new card for free. Chase and wells fargo, customers can get brand new cards through local branch through instant issuance. Security expert says that number could rise. Krebs reporting stolen data are already being sold on the underground market for 20 to 100 bucks. Cards issued outside the u. S. For more. Banks like chase are imposing spending limits on atrisk cards. Theres still a maximum of 250 on atm withdrawals, 1,000 on purchases. They raise the question, who will ultimately be on the hook for fraudulent charges . Customers will soon not be. Banks could File Lawsuits against target as they did against tj maxx in 2007. Those ultimately cost the retailer in total 256 million in settlements. Lawsuits have already started. A spokeswoman for target said there be a call with states attorney generals to discuss the issue. Right now it seems to be spreading and the concern is not going away. Kelly and bill . It certainly is not. Kayla, thanks very much. Its amazing at the size and scale of all of this. Scary. When its revealed about security. Speaking of security imagine your bank opening up checking, savings and credit card accounts on your behalf but without your knowledge. Thats a story as reported in this weekends los Angeles Times. The reporter spoke to former wells fargo employees who say they were pressured into unethical practices to boost the banks profits. Real sweatshop kind of techniques, from what he was talking about. Scott joins us. He was behind the investigation, reporter for l. A. Times, reporter Jake Zamansky is with us saying this is more of a systematic culture problem in the banks industry and mark la presti is with us. He says blanket indictments in the industry are not helpful to anyones cause. Scott, give us a sense of what you i mean it was an eyeopening article, very disturbing. Quickly, what did you discover in your investigation . It was eyeopening for us. Started out as a very small article on the inside of the business section a couple months ago about wells fargo firing some people that had cheated to meet their sales goals. We thought we should run it. But that might have been the end of it. But the phone lines lit up. And the emails started coming in. We got in touch with former and current wells fargo employees and customers all over the country that said, this was a real problem. People were feeling so pressured to meet sales quotas that came down from sort of regional district managers through branch managers, that they were cheating. They were doing things as bad as forging signatures by having to stay late to talk their families and friends into taking on products they didnt really need. All kinds of things. And as you document in some cases, taking their names of family or friends or just other customers opening accounts in their names in order to meet quota, is that correct . Thats correct. Jake youre not surprised by this . No. Theres tremendous pressure at these banks to sell products to customers. They put the profits of the banks ahead of the customers needs. It leads to this type of fraudulent activity. Its got to be stopped. But youre contending this comes from above, that this these are not isolated incidents by rogue employees or managers who are simply trying to meet sales goals so they can be rewarded by the head office. This comes from the top. This is a systematic problem. They tell these employees, youve got to produce a certain amount of revenue. We have our own goals to meet. So, its coming from the top. And you see it not just at wells fargo. I see it at banks across the country. And even on wall street the same kind of activities. Its got to be changed. You know mark heres whats interesting. Wells shares are actually up 0. 8 today but the extent to which the banks are so eager to put, for example, malpractices during the mortgage bonanza behind them a story like this lands and does it not represent major litigation and legal risk for them at least over the next at least, fiveyear period. It certainly does kelly. While its certainly hard to condone, i certainly dont condone the activity that went on at wells fargo. What weve seen in 2013 is an unprecedented environment of extremely aggressive regulatory activity. Over 20 billion in fines. Over 194 individuals and entities indicted or enforcement action brought against them. What im concerned about, as bill point out, these blanket indictments that wall street is dirty. We have the scandalous films coming out like the wolf of wall street around the holidays. People need to understand the costs of these fines, the costs of these penalties, the costs of litigation goat passed on to consumers and shareholders themselves. Thats where we need to be cautious about indicting the entire industry. We asked wells fargo for a statement to respond. This is what they said we strongly disagree with the l. A. Times characterization of our culture. At wells fargo we highly value and support our team members. They know success depends on what is doing in the best interest of our customers. We place a high priority on ethical Business Practices and do not tolerate any behavior that fails to meet these standards. Scott, did you find that there is evidence that this does come from above or are we talking about rogue managers throughout the system . You know i think two messages come down from above. And one is, do the right thing. Take care of the customers, or if you dont if you put your interests first, you may be in trouble and you may get fired. The other one is weve got greater sales goals to meet. Weve got to try to increase our already amazing sort of profits. And the issue is how well do you police the one message in light of the other one . There are indications here that maybe the sales message was heard a lot louder than the eltices message. Its also one their comp is tied to. We have dual situation for Financial Services industry. On the one hand wall street demands every single quart he they see growth in their bottom line. Every single quarter, every three months. On the other hand federal government says were going to put more regulations on you, raise your Capital Requirements and make it even more difficult to meet those sales goals. Is the answer more regulation . I dont think the answer is more regulation. Unfortunately, regulation has been very heavyhanded and very broadsweeping in response to whats happened in the wake of the financial crisis. As im sure there is really no question that while certain the type of conduct wells fargo engaged in incore gibl cannot be con dont but it would be difficult for anyone to say the unprecedented level of the cost of compliance that exists on the business right now does not put this kind of pressure, not only on the ground level salespeople, but also on the joe i have a very simple solution. Its out there already. The s. E. C. Has this fiduciary duty to put the customers interests first ahead of your own. If you do that, youll be fine. Youll make money. If you dont, youll be held legally responsible. I say, raise the bar and make fiduciary standard across management to put isnt that currently in place . It is not, mark. Its not. The first count of any arbitration thats brought by your firm is breach of fid youary duty. Its pending for quite a while. Its in the dodd frank rule. The securities industry has been lobbying against this. It needs to be enacted. I think that should be the first thing, fiduciary industry rule. Dont customers already have that . Dont you already have a fiduciary relationship, certainly with your Wealth Management or Financial Adviser . Doesnt that exist . It should exist in theory, and most people believe it exists but Brokerage Firms sell theyre own proprietary products. Its not in place. It should be. Its for Investment Advisers but not for Financial Brokers and banks. We need toing change that. Retail banks. Thats correct. Very very important story and thank you for your insights on that. Mark, jake scott thanks very much. Great job on reporting there. Thanks, bill. Say hi to nancy for me too. By the way, were taking a look at markets. Still staging a pretty nice rally. The financials, despite what weve just been discussing, some better performers on the day. The dow is up 70 points almost 0. 5 . Strongest gainers, nasdaq up 40 points. Apple finally announcing longawaited deal with china mobile. Will iphones be a hit with the Chinese Consumer or does apple need to roll out lower end phone to really make a splash over there . And its one of the stock stories of 2013. Best buy really was a best buy. Major momentum name. Up 240 . But will the run continue into 2014 . Well have a good Old Fashioned stock brawl. Mine was earned orbiting the moon in 1971. Afghanistan in 2009. On the u. S. S. Saratoga in 1982. [ male announcer ] once its earned, usaa Auto Insurance is often handed down from generation to generation because it offers a superior level of protection and because usaas commitment to serve current and former military members and their families is without equal. Begin your legacy. Get an Auto Insurance quote. Usaa. We know what it means to serve. [ male announcer ] the new new york is open. Open to innovation. Open to ambition. Open to bold ideas. Thats why new york has a new plan dozens of tax free zones all across the state. Move here, expand here, or start a new business here and pay no taxes for ten years. Were new york. If theres something that creates more jobs, and grows more businesses. Were open to it. Start a taxfree business at startupny. Com. Welcome back. Markets at record highs and adding to those gains today. Lets drill down on some of the big movers with Morgan Brennan taking a look at the rundown. Thanks, kelly. Food, gas and handbags, thats the takeaway from the marketplace. Food, darden restaurant surged 7 due to another activist pressing for the company breakup. Darden announced thursday its planning to sell off or spin off red lobster chain. Starboard revealing 5. 6 stake in the company. Gas, Eagle Rock Energy selling midstream to Energy Partners for as much as 1. 3 million. Shares popping 6 . Michael kors falling out of vogue with investors. Shares slipping 4 after a retail note markdowns on handbags could indicate slower Holiday Season. Gannett, offloading several newly acquired stations. Meredith corporation picking them up for 407 million. Shares of up 3 to fiveyear highs while shares of Meredith Corp have risen 5 . Social media surging, too, facebook shares jumping 5 with the tech companys first day as member of the s p 500. Now up 50 since may 2012 ipo. Twitter hitting alltime high. Finally, apple signing longrumored deal with china mobile, Worlds Largest mobile carrier. Will begin selling iphones in january. Apple rising 3 on that news. That explains, again, why the nasdaq is the strongest performer today. Thats for sure. The dow, as we head toward the close, with 30 minutes left up 70 points. Art cashin was telling us a little to the buy side in terms of bias but its not a meaningful number right now. Were kind of drifting to the close here on light volume. Still, the rally continues on wall street today. Pretty incredible. Up next best buy stock has had one of the more momentous runs this year. Well have a bull versus bear showdown on that stock to see if best buy can keep it going in 2014. And later, its getting down to the wire to apply for Health Insurance under obamacare. But the deadline is no longer today. Well tell you why theres a new dday. Well check in with a group of millenials the backbone of the plan, by the way, to see if theyre signing up. [ male announcer ] this december, experience the gift of exacting precision and some of the best offers of the year at the lexus december to remember sales event. This is the pursuit of perfection. The ocean gets warmer. The peruvian anchovy harvest suffers. It raises the price of fishmeal, cattle feed and beef. Bny mellon turns insights like these into powerful investment strategies. For a university endowment. It funds a marine biologist. Who studies the peruvian anchovy. Invested in the world. Bny mellon. [ bagpipes and drums playing over ] [ music transitions to rock ] make it happen with the allnew fidelity active trader pro. Its one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. Get 200 free trades when you open an account. I want to spread a little love this year [ male announcer ] this december, experience the gift of unsurpassed craftsmanship and some of the best offers of the year at the lexus december to remember sales event. This is the pursuit of perfection. Half an hour to go. Heres how the markets are shaping up. Dow up 76 points, building on the fact it is as nominal, as not the case of the nasdaq, although it is the strongest performer today. 64 a share, facebook is strong on the s p 500. Now that its added facebook getting a lift, up 0. 5 . Art cashin signaling with the hand signals, im learning the hand signals on the trading floor, to the buy 300 million. Modest but building as we head to the close. Rumor mill has been churning for a while but apple announcing its anticipated partnership with china mobile. Josh lipton has details on that right now. Bill, the stock of apple up more than 3 today on the heels of a deal with china mobile. Apples ceo tim cook saying he couldnt think of a better way to welcome in the Chinese New Year on january 31st than getting an iphone into the hands of every china mobile customer who wants one. Apple will offer the iphone on china mobiles network. China mobile has over 760 million customers and growing by leaps and bounds. 50 million customers just this year. No details yet on what the iphone will cost. Whether china will contract. Analysts on the street are busy crunching numbers on what this deal means for apples top line. Rbc expects its partnership to translate into sales of 17 million iphones over the next 12 months which could add 10 billion to apples annual revenue line. Thanks very much. 760 million customers, its a tall order. Its exciting, perhaps, for apple. No wonder ceo tim cook told shareholders we have a lot to look forward to in 2014. Lets get a tech check. Larry, ceo of dyna dnkslinks. Larry haverty from gabelli funds. On paper, this seems like a huge deal for apple. Is it as big as you think . I think the markets underestimating it. If you look at fellow travelers in china, yahoo s trading close to 41. That implies a valuation on al alibaba, 210. Communication game specialists over 100 billion. Pencent has 500 million subs growing at 7 rate. The chinese like the rest of the world have tremendous demand for communication services. Well, thats interesting. Ive never seen that before. Yeah you just did you do that, larry, here. He disagrees. You dont think this will be as big a deal . I dont think it will be as big a deal. It will be the price and the subsidies. In United States we get subsidies on the phone which makes sense. It will be a very small market to add in here. Explain the subsidy thing for a second. This could be the key point. It is the key, kelly. What happens in the u. S. Is the carriers that give you the phones literally pay for the phone. So, youre getting the phone for, say, 200 if you sign a twoyear plan. What will happen in china is right now, we havent seen the price without the subsidy, but without subsidies, its going to be its unaffordable. Unaffordable for most people. I think they have to work something out and look at that because it is a huge market with huge potential. You dont think tim cook knows that already . Tim cook should know that. And i believe he does. But, you know sometimes it doesnt always make sense. Sometimes two and two doesnt always equal four when you look at it. If you look at it right now, apple needs to get into other things. This is just hardware. We mentioned before yahoo . I think thats a play with their cash. Maybe they should get into. They should get into the ecommerce play, searches apple . Apple. Should get into the play of content and possibly buy a yahoo . Ive been saying for a while, facebook should buy netflix. I said that in january on cnbc when it was 60. Now its high. That may be another play for apple. They have this huge market here they can get into it but they have to get into the commerce play ecommerce other than just the phones. They have been making a bunch of acquisitions lately. Smaller ones. Yeah. But, i mean what youre talking about is it sounds like the kind of thing where you go, well weve got a bunch of money. Maybe we need to be in one of these businesses so well buy this huge that doesnt sound like the apple that that doesnt sound like apple. It doesnt sound like apple. But in technology if you dont change, you go out of business. Im sorry about blackberry. But if you dont change with constant disruptive technology, youre not going to last. And whats going to happen with apple, well continue for quarters. If its not a hot product, everybody will Start Talking them and bringing them down and then the number gets into the 400 range. If they make a bold acquisition and start getting into other things, long term, evergreen business, thats where they have to be. Dont you think they have enough cash cushion playing off what kelly was talking about, overseas cash cushion, im talking about, that they can play the game of going after more market share and not worry about profitability right away . You could do that maybe right away. That doesnt last forever. It happens real fast. People turn off on you real fast. Were talking the market there the Android Google has a huge play there. Just real quick. What would be the downside if apple said were going to absorb this cost. Were going to subsidize the iphone and in china well take the 5c for example, 70 bucks, the equivalent. That might be a possibility, kelly. Were talking about tim cooks a very smart guy but well see. Theyre trying it out this way. They may have to go that route. Kind of like amazon where theyre giving you the product to get the content. Right. Larry, good to see you. Hanging onto the blackberry. Larry, if youre out there, we apologize. Heading toward the close. The dow continues to inch higher up 80 points with 20 minutes left. We were up 97 at the peak today. When we come back, were bringing you a retail roundup. The brick and mortar retailers have had a tough go of the Holiday Season so far. But did extended hours and deep discounts give them a boost on the final weekend ahead of christmas . Were breaking down those numbers coming up. Foot traffic in malls may be lagging, Athletic Stores were seeing major crowds over the weekend, lately because the latest version of nikes air jordan sneakers hit the shelves. I think youre looking at footage of one of the places that had them. Whats the most you ever spoent a pair of sneakers . Well air your answers next hour. Keep it right here. 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Open to ambition. Open to bold ideas. Thats why new york has a new plan dozens of tax free zones all across the state. Move here, expand here, or start a new business here and pay no taxes for ten years. Were new york. If theres something that creates more jobs, and grows more businesses. Were open to it. Start a taxfree business at startupny. Com. One more full shopping day before christmas. Deep discounts extended hours. Julia is here to break count numbers for us. Julia . Caller well bill despite those deep discounts, despite those long hours, its not looking that good. This past weekend sales fell by single digit percentage at brick and mortar thats friday and saturday compared with last year down by 7 . According to a Company Called retail next. Retailers are under pressure with six fewer shopping days between thanksgiving and christmas this year than last year. Theyre offering some of the deepest discounts since 2008 as they look to lure in customers who have been waiting to shop because theyre holding out for deals. The biggest winners this Holiday Season are cashing in on the relatively small but fast growing piece of the pie that are online sales. The National Retail federation forecast online holiday sales will grow as much as 15 this season amazon, ebay, as well as retailers like gap and maesys. Moving away from that kind of branded merchandise. Now, one big question retailers have been shoppers have been talking about here today, is how much of a loser target will be after its massive credit card breach. Americas Research Group says target has not been dramatically effected but Retail Consultant Growth Partners says weekend transactions slipped 3 to 4 this past weekend from last year. And targets Brand Perception has dropped more dramatically than other companies with data breaches according to brand index buzz score. As target tries to lure shoppers back into a store with its deep discounts, which seem to be working with a lot of the shoppers we talked to, we are seeing its rivals including walmart, benefit. Back over to you guys. Julia, thank you very much. Lets talk about best buy. What a year this stock has had. Look at that. Up almost 250 just in 2013. Yeah. Is this the top now or is there still more room to run . Lets brawl it out, peter keith from Piper Jaffray thinks theres time to get in. Guys, welcome. Good afternoon. Michael, im interested here weve gotten all the way up to 40. What do you think happens next with best buy . How low do you think shares might go from here and why . You know, i think its a story of a really Good Management team coming in to a retailer that had a lot of lowhanging fruit and they scooped it all up. I think theyve done a phenomenal job. As julia just point out, youre seeing migration of shopping to online. Youre seeing a lot fewer addon purchases of things like power cords for the iphone or remote controls and printer cartridges. I think people are doing that online. I think this is the last comparable well see. The new consoles helped that by 1. 5 . After this quarter, i think its all downhill. I think theyre done with cost cut and i think youll see gross profit dollars down for the fifth consecutive year. Thats not a good story. Peter keith, you disagree. Why . Yeah, we think that this is a Big Important Company and its been mismanaged for quite a number of years. So we do give credit to the management team. But theyve really only been in place for one year. We think theyre driving sustainable improvement across the enterprise when you look at sales, gross margin and taking out costs. A lot of the initiatives they put in place, whether its optimizing some of the space in the store or trying to ship Online Purchases from the store, some of those things are just starting now. They have not gone through a quarter. We think those initiatives build as we go through 2014 youll see accelerated Earnings Growth in the coming year. Michael, whats wrong with that thesis . The metric to Pay Attention to is gross margin percentage. Its declined 11 consecutive quarters. Its going to decline, i think, for the next four consecutive quarters. If the impact of cutting prices that you get higher sales and higher gross profit dollars, then thats a good thing. Theyve had gross profit dollars decline four consecutive quarters. I think it goes down next year. If it goes dourngs the company wont make much money. Price targets, peter keith, you first . Were at 53. Were not street high on outyear earnings. Importantly, companies have 1 billion of free cash and no Share Repurchases built in. 18 and im confident in the next 12 months. 18 . Oh, my goodness. See you in 12 months michael. Thanks, guys. Thank you. If nothing else bill, other retailers have a lot to learn from best buy. Youll be sure to see skullcandy head phones. Well sit down with the ceo next hour to get the latest sales numbers. 12 minutes left in the trading session. The dow right where it was when we started the hour. Up 71 points. Dont you love that . Its a rainy day here in new york city. But we recorded record temperatures over the weekend. Oh, yeah. Did hot weather mean hot sales for retailers . Tdd 18003452550 trading inspires your life. Tdd 18003452550 life inspires your trading. Tdd 18003452550 where others see fads. Tdd 18003452550. You see opportunities. Tdd 18003452550 at schwab, were here to help tdd 18003452550 turn inspiration into action. Tdd 18003452550 we have intuitive platforms tdd 18003452550 to help you discover whats trending. Tdd 18003452550 and seasoned market experts to help sharpen your instincts. Tdd 18003452550 so you can take charge tdd 18003452550 of your trading. Welcome back. Dow was up 97 at the peak. Nasdaq continues to boom here, up 40 points. Twitter, facebook. Have you seen those . Setting alltime highs again. Well highlight those in a few minutes. The s p is up eight points. Any positive close for the dow and s p, new alltime highs once again. Joining me dan, an old friend. You like this market still, even if the fed will begin tapering a little more aggressively. Because the other part of that was really being committed to an zero Interest Rate policy. What we said all along is that the fed is going to keep Interest Rates lower for much longer. At least shortterm rates right . No doubt about it. What happens if the long end goes appreciably higher . If the tenyear goes to levels that start to compete with the yields you can get in the stock market, doesnt that put a cap on equities to some degree . I think were a what a what from that bill. Frankly, a steeper yield curve helps the banks. I think that would be indicative of greater money velocity occurring in the Financial System as well. And that what really happened because the economy is getting better, which means earnings are going to be improving next year and beyond. And lets think about all the Share Repurchases that have gone on the last several years, the actual stock market the capitalization in terms of shares outstanding, continues to contract at a time when Earnings Growth could accelerate. Youre spreading earnings over. Who do you like . Which sectors benefit . Going into 2014 i think you to want be procyclical. What we know about the russell 2000s performance over the s p, probably indicates u. S. Is a good place to be. Industrial cyclical types of names, transports should continue to do very well. Setting alltime highs. Yeah. Whether they be the rails ort airlines. Those stocks should continue to work higher into the new year. What about the financials . If the feds going to taper, presumably again those long yields go up that helps their profit margins, but you also have major regulations coming their way. And i think the regulation is clearly been priced in maybe overly priced in. Companies in the Financial Services industry have been focused on shedding head count and getting leaner, more efficient. Looks pretty good to me from the financials as well. Boy, if those really lead this market has a long way to go to the upside. Thanks, dan. Palisades capital management. Well come back with the closing countdown for this monday. After the bell sneak attack. Nikes air jordans hit the shelves over the weekend and fights broke out again across the country in stores for those 170 sneakers. Were going to be asking you, come on, fess up how much you have spent on a pair of sneakers. Well reveal your best tweets after the bell coming up. Youre watching cnbc. First in business worldwide. Open to innovation. Open to ambition. Open to bold ideas. 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Breaking into 52week highs. Six upcoming earnings plays. That recently gapped up. [ male announcer ] now the world is your trading floor. Get realtime market scanning wherever you are with the mobile trader app. From td ameritrade. About 2 1 2 minutes left in the trading session here. Pretty good rally again. I mean since the feds move of last week weve had a pretty powerful rally for the major averages. Dow was up 97 points at the peak. Drifted into the close here. We have a gain of half a percent. I had a tweet from a viewer saying, come on, man, we have to hit the highlights today. Youre right. Weve been remiss on showing you two particular stocks here. Twitter, have you seen this today, up another 8 . Now 7. 5 . Another new alltime high. Its 64 almost 65 a share on twitter. Thats been an incredible move the last few months. The other one, facebook. Its had an incredible year. Doubled in 2013. Up another 4. 75 just today. Another new alltime high around 57 and change. Bob pisani ho ho ho. Once again, considerable hostility to the rally. Same story all year. Now people saying bob, santa claus rally going to fail this year. Number one because weve had the rally because of fed last week. This isnt even a santa claus rally. Its ben bernanke. Second, rising Interest Rates are going to kill the whole gain here. Im not sure about that. In an improving economy, at least for the first part of the year modestly rising rates like were seeing theyre not galloping away from us. I think we have a good possibility to still continue to move forward. All throughout the weekend everybodys saying, its not going to work, bob. So they dont like the rally. How about moves like we just saw for twitter and facebook, a lot of these social Media Technology stocks that have been so controversial this year, and now theyve got the afterburners going here. Yeah. The important thing is this is not in some vacuum. We are seeing rising buybacks rising dividends, slowly improving economy. The backdrops are not overvalued. Theyre still modestly valued. I understand the hostility to the rally, i understand the concept of qe2 and the concern about it. But i dont see modestly rising Interest Rates. First hour of the closing bell. Kelly and i will be here early. Join us at noon eastern time for the closing bell. Right now, hour two with kelly and company. Ill see you tomorrow. Good afternoon and welcome to the closing bell. Im kelly evans on this day on wall street where on lower volume, a quieter week with the holidays, were still managing to close at fresh record highs. 16,295 just about up 75 points. Just shy of half a percent. The s p 500 turning in a gain of similar magnitude, up almost 10 points. By the way, the nasdaq though twice as big. Jumped better than 1 today. Up 44 points to 4148. Lets get straight to todays panel. Eli joins us from the washington post. Kayla and dom chu made it down here. You have a busy day job. How about the idea that when we talk about these social media momentum stocks we talk about this idea that we should maybe look at people selling just to lock in these gains because its yearend. You want to do something with them. They keep on this is way more than doubling the ipo. Look at this chart. Its up today, 7, almost 8 . 64. 64 appears to be the new close. My reaction, i said go tweet the fact that twitter has hit 64 a share. I already did. You know this is one of these cases where you risk having kind of 1990s rebound when you start saying this stock is indeed being priced for some expectation of what it becomes in the future. Not reality of what it is in the present. It will prove to be spectacular wrong or spectacular right. I Googled Facebook when i saw its incredible move the inclusion in the s p 500, youll get natural momentum. The only thing i saw where an entrepreneur forgot his i. D. At the airport and tsa let him check in off his facebook. Just to log into your account on facebook its probably more secure than other forms nothing you just said could have been said about the 1990s because none of it from tsa, facebook, twitter thank goodness for that. Theres a fascinating discussion going on right now whether is a test boom 2. 0. Every time i bring up amazon i get a series of angry tweets about how theres an amazon bubble, no profits. I have to say looking at the lobby in my building in new york city, there are at least 80 amazon prime boxes every single day in the last couple weeks. I tweeted a picture of it. People cant even pass them out fast enough. Yes, people complain about amazon but its so dominant. Juggernaut of a company right now. One thing thats encouraging about this rally, it feels like it is now based on fundamentals. We saw good Consumer Spending numbers out today. Dont forget Third Quarter gdp Consumer Spending numbers were revised upward. Maybe were no longer relying on the were in a consumerled recovery that will actually this brings me to my favorite topic of discussion. Its autos. Ill tell you why. Because auto spending in the Consumer Spending report today in november which was a strong point. A couple things are going on in the auto sector. In particular, one is the credit side of things. If you want to talk about subprime, a quarter of auto loans are subprime. You want to talk about securitization half of the quarter of auto loans are subprime but default rate is so much lower on these loans because so many people would rather pay their car loan than mortgage. Right. When you get a month like that that it happens, you know you buy a car, maybe stretch a little. You still have to make that payment in the month ahead. The savings rate comes down a little bit. Consumers may have less to spend. Its not necessarily the same National Association of Home Builders says also, when you drive a car off the lot, its worth less. When you invest in a home its worth more. These are numbers open to a lot of skepticism. Im not saying the National Association of Home Builders would skew its numbers, but its very hard to prove with any conclusiveness that a home leads to two jobs. The auto thing is interesting. It is a huge component of gdp because its an industrial product that feeds very easily into our numbers where google and facebook essentially feed into does not feed into gdp. They account for intangibles better as of this summer. My point is, i wouldnt want an economy built on an Auto Industry because that would an untenable world. Where other people can make cars more cheap like that because you have a lot of resource and manufacturing. And robots make cars the car is your new house. You have all the amenities. It will drive itself. You can tweet while youre in there. Everythings making sense. Actually on this note i want to bring in for more on todays Market Action mr. Tim seymour, who joins us fast money trader extraordinaire. I wanted to ask you, right away you actually like some of the metals here because of the auto rebound we were just talking about. Where in particular do you think you see strength in 2014 . I look at copper and nickel as the Industrial Metals. I think corp first of all, technically needs to break out of this 3 to 3. 35 area. If you look at consumption side and everything youre talking about with auto sales is the reason why hedge funds are overweight cyclical sectors here. Therefore, underlying that are the inputs which are the Industrial Metals. If im playing the auto sector and im playing Precious Metals i would be long mra laid yum and platinum and gold. Pladium over gold. You have to spread the precious metal risk because i think gold continues to go lower. Again, Industrial Metals f you look at consensus, they look better. What about the dollar though . One of the themes you start to hear about 2014 tim, is that the dollars going to strengthen. The u. S. Looks a little better. The fed may be exiting. How much of a headwind is that for metalings snoor. Its as much of a headwind if you think fiveyear yieldses which are another indicator to me of Global Growth which are through 167, 168, thats a strong counterweight to whats going on with the dollar. If i look at Commodity Prices this is the worst year for commodities in terms of net redemption in Commodity Funds since 2004 jpmorgan cant find a buyer for this business. All priced in on some level. I think people are cautious with the metals. Youve had destocking. Commodities in terms of copper and nickel are positioned to do well even though the supply side should scare if you youre concerned here. Tim, if these metals are doing better and given that a lot of that comes from outside the United States, especially those, you know now in disfavor emerging economies, is this also what youre saying kind of an implied theres a lot of catch hype up and well see catchup in ee emergency rooming markets . I think people are expecting china to be the leader of catchup. Theyll have to wait a long time. China has raising rates. Theyll try to squelch out growth. Korea is how you play industrial growth. Korea against japan is a great trade. But their debt levels can potentially be worrisome. I would like to ask you about some asia. Some point to whats happening in thailand looking at the weakening bot, political unstability. Talk about memories of the late 1990s is it too easy and too glib to draw parallels between the asian crisis then and now . To tie up that history lesson. That was the domino that started the asian crisis which led to the russian cries which blew up longterm capital which got the fed involved in everything were probably talking about today. To take a step back no i dont think you have the same story. If you look at thailand, this is a country where they have 170 billion in reserves zero inflation. Very little unemployment. They have a political crisis and thats whats going on. And i think if you look at the current account deficit countries and emerging people are very scared. Thats not all of emerging. Zach, back to you, i dont think emerging is a blind buy for 2014. But i like mexico. I like korea. I even like russia where i think you have a valuation. A couple of good ideas in there. So much is going to come back to the fed, for better or worse, people are starting to look althoughat a world beyond the fed or the taper. Jeff lacquerk talking to steve liesman, how soon is the fed going to leave the picture . Theres still going to be a lot of uncertainty next year. Yeah i think sorry, go ahead. I think thats exactly right. I think that the fed is going to be moving very cautiously over the next year. I think that youre going to see small, moderate steps. The one theyll announce in january. Theyre going to ensure they dont pull the rug out from under the recovery. They really make sure this is something that is spread out. They want to see how the economy will react to the feds movers. They want to make sure that the economy doesnt freak out. You dont see another market this is all one big science experiment, right . We can acknowledge some people would argue the word science. One big chemistry experience something to figure out whats going on. You have to figure if the economy starts going worse, they can go the opposite direction. There is the idea the safety net is there. Yeah, you may have kind of lowered it a little bit but its still around. The fed will be around for a while. There are some people looking at the move upward in yields say, the fiveyear when we talk about the treasury curve, which is pricing in much more aggressive fed stronger recovery than what people on the fmoc certainly want them to think. What if they have to come out and talk that yield down . How could they do that . I think that the fed is going to be very careful in choosing the words around its forward guidance. I think they are now in a situation where theyre no longer relying on qe in order to stimulate the markets. Now theyll be saying the words we choose around our threshold, the words we choose around potentially adding an inflation floor, words around inflation future are going to be even more important even more critical. I actually believe janet yellen may be a little more careful in controlling what the other members of the fmoc say. Oh, in public. She has argued that obviously open debate is critical. She has a heavier hand in terms of making her position known, in advocating for her side. I wonder what youll see the debate shaped like from around the regional thats a good one when you consider the fact that the fed has long known Inflation Expectations are in their own weird way a key variable in inflation Going Forward. Or i would say when individual fed members know theres inflation, their careers at stake by talking quite a bit about those issues. Career at stake. Well see if they can put the genie back in the bottle. Tim, thanks for your impressions. You can catch tim coming up on fast money at 5 p. M. Coming up on the show no headaches for skullcandy stock. Today it was up 11 . Holiday sales may be behind the moves. These are pretty heavy times in the audio company. Well talk to the ceo next. So much for deadlines. Dday for obamacare was today. Key sentence there being was. Well tell you about the latest extension and if millenials needed to support this program care about the future. I wanna spread a little love this year [ male announcer ] this december, experience the gift of true artistry and some of the best offers of the year at the lexus december to remember sales event. This is the pursuit of perfection. announcer at scottrade, our clients trade and invest exactly how they want. With scottrades online banking, i get one view of my bank and brokerage accounts with one login. To easily move my money when i need to. Plus, when i call my local scottrade office i can talk to someone who knows how i trade. Because i dont trade like everybody. I trade like me. Im with scottrade. announcer scottradeproud to be ranked best overall client experience. Welcome back. Another day, another record high for the Dow Jones Industrial average. Not a bad christmas present. Morgan brennan tracking it all. Joins us now. Thanks, kelly. Lets start with the big number United Therapeutics surging 30 , after receiving unexpected fda approval for a Blood Pressure drug that was twice previously rejected. Analysts raising price targets on the company. Home Builders Building momentum thanks to kb home getting an upgrade. Citigroup upgrading the company too neutral. Shares up more than 7 today. And skullcandy getting some sweet news. Just in time for the holidays. Roth Capital Raising recommendation on the headphone maker to buy shares of skullcandy popping 12 . Can we say music to investors ears . Thats for sure. Thanks very much. Speaking of skullcandy stock, sizzling today, and its products seem to be hot as well this Holiday Season. Joining me exclusively is skullcandy ceo hoby darling. Thanks for being here. Its my pleasure. Thanks for having me on. What can you tell us about sales this Holiday Season . Overall, were hearing from retailers is definitely if you have innovative product where weve told a great story around them, doing pretty well. I think everybody is racing for the finish line around holiday, but from what i hear people are okay. Whats interesting when i think about skullcandy the difference between you are the beats by dre which came in and grabbed the high end of this headphone space. What do you think speaks to skullcandy this year . Again, around innovation. If we can innovate and tell Great Stories around that innovation, i think well have a great holiday, even as we look into 14, that will be a solid year for us. But, you know, we want to do what we can and what we talk a lot about is we really want to revolutionize the way people experience audio entertainment. So much more than a marketing company. We want to make sure were really revolutionizing audio. This line caught my attention. You said i firmly believe the headphone and audio category is on the verge of a multiyear product innovation. Talk us through that. Where are you in that . Thats exactly right. One of the big things when i left nike to take this job about nine months ago that i really liked about this industry is its an industry that really has caught fire with youth culture. And as you look at people you know getting music off iphones off tablets, theyre really looking for how do we get more out of our audio entertainment . Thats something were going to push. If you look at where innovation has been in audio over the last couple of years, there really hasnt been a lot of innovation when you look at the rest of the tech sector and when you look at consumer electronics. One of the things we want to do is come into that space, bring a lot of freshness to it and excite our consumer around audio entertainment. I have to ask, when you look around and see everyone Walking Around with headphones and heads buried into their mobile phones in their own little worlds worlds, do you think about or think about the broader societal implications about this . Thats an interesting question. I think for us when People Choose to listen to audio, and theres definitely a lot of great audio out there, we want to make sure we give them innovative ways to experience it. When theyre at home for the holidays and enjoying it its fantastic. But when we want to be in with audio, music theater, we want to be there and give them a great product. Some people probably want to tune out their relatives during the Holiday Season. Just an operational, strategic question, i guess, as you said youve been there for nine months. The company has been under pressure and shares were earlier because there was this sense the beats or other make rz werers were going to come in and steal your thunder. Are you definitively here trying to position skullcandy for an independent future . How do you make sure your product doesnt get commodityized . I think from an independent future perspective, when i came in it was because we wanted to do great things with this company. As we look forward again, that idea that we want to revolutionize how people listen to audio and combining that in a way that no other company can do with our great assets like the Kevin Durant Derrick rose kate upton, have great Consumer Products and have more fun with audio. Thats a great path forward and were excited about it. Hoby, thanks so much. Its phat fascinating, a lens into how the world is changing too. Appreciate it. Appreciate it kelly. Have a good one. Sneaker riots meanwhile, happening across the country over the weekend. New high priced nike air joer dance hitting stores again with no sign of sticker shock as they approach the 200 mark. We want to know how high youre willing to pay for sneaks. Tweet us. Up next, wacky winter warning from spring like temperatures in the northeast followed by todays pouring rain. What it means for holiday retail. Check on a claim. You know, all with the ah, tap of my geico app. Oh, thats so cool. Well, i would disagree with you but, ah, that would make me a liar. No dude, youre on the jumbotron whoa. Ah. Yeah, pretty much walked into that one. Geico anywhere anytime. Just a tap away on the geico app. Stamps. Com is the best. I dont have to leave my desk and get up and go to the post office anymore. [ male announcer ] with stamps. Com you can print real u. S. Postage for all your letters and packages. I have exactly the amount of postage i need, the instant i need it. Can you print only stamps . No. First class. Priority mail. Certified. International. And the mail man picks it up. I dont leave the shop anymore. [ male announcer ] get a 4 week trial plus 100 in extras including postage and a digital scale. Go to stamps. 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Tdd 18886486021 open an account and earn 300 commissionfree online trades. Tdd 18886486021 call 18886486021 to learn more. Tdd 18886486021 so you can take charge tdd 18886486021 of your trading. Welcome back. Wild weekend. 70degree weather in the northeast. Half a foot of snow in the midwest. Tornado warnings now across the south. All of this just before christmas. How has the wacky weather impacted lastminute shopping . We know people are doing that more than ever. Lets bring in paul walsh from the Weather Channel to break it down. How unusual are these weather patterns . Its very unusual, very volatile. A trend weve been seeing for a long time. It happened at exactly the wrong time for retailers. We went into the Holiday Season with a week less than last year. One weekend less. Weve been seeing weather thats incredibly volatile. Much, much colder than last year. Of course, for the final shopping weekend, weve seen all kinds of wacky weather, as you said which is impacting store traffic. Both demand and also traffic has been impacted and weathers been a wild card this year for retail. Yeah. I guess i just get a little skeptical. Every time we talk about weather being volatile because its weather. Its volatile. So, i think from retailers point of view, the question becomes, is there something this year thats so out of the ordinary that its really going to have an impact relative to years past . And maybe its the warm weather in the northeast or maybe its the tornadoes down south. I mean what do you really jumps out here . What jumps out to me is the comp to last year and the fact that the weather has such a big impact in terms of driving seasonal demand. We went into this year 10 to 20 degrees colder than last year throughout the first couple of weeks of the Holiday Season which really drives demand for things like apparel. We actually saw that in internal polling were doing at the Weather Channel. For the back half of the season more specifically, the Super Saturday weekend, this incredible warmup we saw had another big impact in terms of driving product demand. And i think its going to have a big impact in terms of retail on closing out the season. Overall, i think the bad weather will override the trend. I want to bring the panel in here to show you their thoughts too. Just to make sure youre clear, paul, youre asking the weather in cold and warm has helped the retailers here . It depends on which Retail Sector youre talking about. Specialty apparel, Department Stores that have a northeast exposure would have had enough of the right kind of product to at least be in the right position to take advantage of this kind of weather. Zach . So does any of this positively impact online . Meaning, if its really really unpleasant outside, youre not going to want to get in your car and drive, but nothing reclusd you from sitting in your bathrobe and clicking. Assuming someone can deliver you the packages. Thats right. So i would expect demand for those Seasonal Items would have been up. Those would have been the category leaders we went through holiday, until this weekend. Until this past weekend. The question is more like mall traffic is something we have paid attention to but increasingly mall traffic is only one amongst many avenues by which people can attain the goods they need. Does the weather have any effect other than the choice of yes, youre going to buy a sweater when its cold and bathing suit when its warm. Does that impact online . Yes. Weather will impact product choice. Typically it doesnt have an impact on top lines with holiday sales. Increasingly online sales is starting to replace that negative impact when theres bad weather. The devastation of some of these winter storms aside, in the beginning when we got some of these snowstorms in november, the thought was, okay, now this will finally get the consumer out buying sweaters buying jackets. And then this past weekend it was sort of the lastmilt blitz to get out to the mall and it was warm, so people wanted to do it. So, it does feel like there have been a lot of sort of welltimed patterns here, paul as you mentioned. Im just wondering if this is unique to this year or just retailers saying the same old same old yes, this was good for us or bad for us . What are we going to see in the Fourth Quarter earning season when thats normally when retailers blame weather . Well you know the weather is often used as an excuse. Its increasingly, though, a bad excuse. The weather does impact consumer demand. And i think one of the negatives, of course of the season the Holiday Shopping season. There will be an impact on traffic. I think that will ultimately impact earnings for q4. Is everyone here done with their Holiday Shopping . Show of hands. Youre not raising your hand, zach. Oh, are you . Im mostly done. Paul, are you done . Yeah for the most part. I use amazon. Com a lot. You must be a savvy holiday shopper, paul. Yes, i am. I have not been into a store. At all . For the first time. Ive done every single bit of shopping online. What about you guys . I went into one store and im hoping my family is okay with me buying all of theirs from the same place. Is that amazon. Com . They might be watching. 75 25. 75 online 25 in the stores for me. I would say my birthday is tomorrow. Happy birthday. So i frequently do a lot of birthday around this time of year. One thing thats interesting, too, is the Holiday Season is not ending at christmas. It keeps going because of gift cards. It keeps going because of Online Shopping. And i feel like people are sitting on Christmas Day shopping online with their parents. How about nordstroms having their semiannual mens sale on the day after christmas. People looking at their christmas list and realizesing, there are a few things they didnt get. The numbers bear it out. Courtney talked about this the nrf saying 10 might shop on Christmas Day this year. Paul, thank you, sir. Keep us posted. Thanks, panel. Coming next, today was the deadline to sign up for obamacare. That changed again. Well tell you the very latest on it. Plus has administrations push to get millennials on board worked . Well hear from a panel of the strange species. Staying bill ackman to get active in apple, 2013 has been a big year for carl a can. Process, making it easier to try filters and strategies. To get a list of equity options. Evaluate them with our p l calculator. And execute faster with our more intuitive trade ticket. Im greg stevens and i helped create fidelitys options platform. Its one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. Now get 200 free trades when you open an account. Mine was earned orbiting the moon in 1971. Afghanistan in 2009. On the u. S. S. Saratoga in 1982. [ male announcer ] once its earned, usaa Auto Insurance is often handed down from generation to generation because it offers a superior level of protection and because usaas commitment to serve current and former military members and their families is without equal. Begin your legacy. Get an Auto Insurance quote. Usaa. We know what it means to serve. Welcome back. Its december 23rd. This was supposed to be the deadline to apply for Health Insurance under at fordable care act. Thats been quietly extended by 24 hours. Eamon javers joins us with more on this Christmas Eve move. Hi kelly. Its a little bonus here for lastminute healthcare. Gov shoppers. The administration saying that folks will have an additional 24 hours to go out and Purchase Health care on the website, federal websites. And just within the past few minutes, kelly, administration put out new data saying as of 2 p. M. Today, theyve had about 850,000 visits to healthcare. Gov. That crush of traffic is one reason why they say they really wanted to give this extension to make sure that everybody whos trying to sign up for todays deadline, has a chance to actually do it and can get health care that goes into place by january 1 st kelly. Eamon, is is there an indication as to whether or not the website is actually coping with all that volume . They say it is coping with the volume. They say the volume theyve gotten now is five times higher than it was the previous monday. They say theyve had to implement some of the procedures that they have in place for when it has more than 60,000 concurrent visitors to the website. A lot of this stuff is stuff thats just been built in the past couple of months. According to the notice that the Administration Just put out about five minutes ago, they say the website is handling that traffic well. And they think all those people will be able to do what they need to do on that website. One of the people that did what he needed to do was president obama who was through a staff aide able to sign up for obamacare over the weekend. But he he doesnt actually need insurance, does he . Thats right. His health care insurance, like all president s, is covered by the military. So, he didnt really need to do this. The white house said symbolically they wanted him to sign up. They did if in person at the dc exchange because of the sensitivity of the president s personal information. They sent a staffer over but they say the president made all the choices himself and decided what plan to sign up for and he chose the bronze plan. All right. Eamon, thanks so much. A tumultuous day for healthcare. Gov. Another day for people to sign up for health care, but what about the premise of the program . In order to work remember young, Healthy People need to be rushing in. My next guests are all young and some are pretty skeptical about it all. Boris, Senior Client Service manager is a disk jockey and scott is founder of helpsavemydollars. Com, a financial website for young people. Autder of more money please. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Boris, i wanted to start with you. People like you, millenials, young Healthy People are key to the success of the obamacare law but you say you dont want to. Why . Im lucky enough to work for a large enough corporation that our insurance plans for 2014 havent been effected. We dont know how its going to happen in 2015. But my main concern with the law is that the government has set a precedent. Theyve been backed up by the courts that they can compel the American People to purchase a product they may or may not want to purchase. And if we dont do that, then we can levied a tax through the irs. I just think that Going Forward in the long term that thats very, very bad road to go down. What about you, tell us about your situation. Well, hi, how are you guys, first of all . My situation is i am a cancer survivor myself and i am pro the Affordable Care act. I work with livestrong. Theyre pro it. Im not a politician and im not as in tuned with the political jargon that im sure come on this show are, but im someone thats personally been affected by you know, health issues. And i personally do believe in what its doing and the benefits of it. Do you have to sign up adir for coverage or do you get it elsewhere . I am an independent contractor, so i am one of the people that i do feel will affect the most because i do have to go independently and sign up for my Health Insurance. You know, thing have you tried yet to and are you doing it on the state or federal level . Im doing it on the state level. And, you know i havent actually i havent enrolled in the Affordable Care act yet. But that is something i am planning on doing. For miening for the last three years, since its gone through, a lot of the things have actually been in effect. Like as an example, preexisting medical conditions. Right. Im just curious, do you face then because if you dont sign up and you dont have coverage elsewhere, you would be part, i believe, of someone who would have to pay a penalty for not having coverage. So youre either going to pay 95 bucks, or 1 of your income or sign up very soon here. Presumably by march, i believe. Right. I am insured. I do have Health Insurance. But it is something again, it is something that i am doing. I am going to be enrolling in the Affordable Care act. I just found out that it did get extended so that works out perfectly for me. Scott i mean you hear boris story, you hear adirs story. What do you say about all of this . I think the dynamic of this Health Care Law comes at a bad time where you have young people who are dealing with so many issues. The economic landscape for young people is not looking too good. Now were asking young people to subsidize the rest of the system. And if the administration doesnt get enough young people to sign up for about obamacare, the premiums for some of the older people out there are going to skyrocket. And the risk pool for the Insurance Companies is going to be way too thin. And this system could, what they call in the private sector turn into a death spiral. Scott, are you going to need to sign up for Health Insurance or do you have it elsewhere . At the moment i have it elsewhere. But i think that whats going on is the glitches surrounding the website, and there could be an entire new set of glitches coming in 2014 because a lot of the concerns out there is that the information youre submitting on the exchanges is not making its way to the Insurance Companies. So you might think youve enrolled but come 2014 you go to the doctor and they lets look at it from a different point of view. One way to say younger are subsidizing the older sicker population. The other way is to say that if people like boris opt out, because on principle they dont want to be part of it that means the rest of the population is going to be paying more, is that fair . Well what the government is doing is basically saying hey, its immoral if you dont sign up. Ultimately if you cant afford the premiums as a young person as a millin yell,ennial, if youre dealing with student loans, you have no option but to pay the 95 fee and premiums, which are really high right now. If a young person, yes, you have to pay for coverage but it means, for example, that other person, that person with the preexisting condition or that much older, sicker person pays less, does that help, does that that you know can you afford to kind of look the other way and ignore the fact that your involvement is key to this whole thing, to bringing costs down for that population . Well kel y i understand what youre saying, but i dont really i dont really fit in with that view of collectivism. You know, i have to worry about myself and my family, you know. I take the money that, you know, i earn at work and i figure out how i make my budget. And if my budget says i can spend this amount for my Health Insurance, then thats how much i spend. Fy cant do that then i guess i just dont purchase that product. I mean, for arguments sake i did go on the website, healthcare. Gov and compared plans from what i have at work to the lowest bronze plan that i can get in new jersey for myself and my wife. And the Affordable Care act offers me a plan where i can pay 150 of what im paying right now. I can have deductibles that are twice as high. And coinsurance that goes from 80 to 50 . That doesnt seem very affordable to me. Thats the point. If you opt out, then everyone else whos sitting down around the quich table to make those decisions is going to face higher costs. If i could help everyone in the United States that would be a great position to be in. But, unfortunately, im really in a position to plan for myself and my family. Okay. Last word, adir . Yeah. I understand what everyones saying and i agree to an extent. I personally do believe someone that had a health issue, it is important for everyone to have Health Insurance. If we can aid that in any way, shape or form im very pro that. Differing views from similar cohort of the population. Guys, i really appreciate you coming here and talking through it. Great to see. You thanks, kelly. Thank you very much. Hes no santa but to many he is a gift giver. To others a pain in the neck. Up next, a look at carl icahn. A differencemaker for this year. What the role of activists investors will look like in 2014. Its an important issue. Plus, all i want for christmas is a 3d printer . Its not exactly a stocking stufferer but you may see this under Christmas Trees this year and for years to come. More on how much they cost and whos buying them. Ear at the lexus december to remember sales event. This is the pursuit of perfection. [ tires screech ] chewleys finds itself in a sticky situation today after recalling its new gum. [ male announcer ] stick it to the market before you get stuck. Get the most extensive charting wherever you are with the mobile trader app from td ameritrade. [ male announcer ] heres a question for you the energy in one gallon of gas is also enough to keep your smartphone running for how long . 30 days . 300 days . 3,000 days . The answer is. 3,000 days. Because of gasolines high energy density, your car doesnt have to carry as much fuel compared to other energy sources. Take the energy quiz. Energy lives here. Its as simple as this. At bny mellon, our business is investments. Managing them, moving them, making them work. We oversee 20 of the worlds financial assets. And that gives us scale and insight no one else has. Investment management combined with investment servicing. Bringing the power of investments to peoples lives. Invested in the world. Bny mellon. I want to spread a little love this year [ male announcer ] this december, experience the gift of unsurpassed craftsmanship and some of the best offers of the year at the lexus december to remember sales event. This is the pursuit of perfection. As we wind down 2013 were taking a look at stories that heat up the marketplace in the last 12 months. Investor carl icahn kept things entertaining not only with big bets that paid off but fights with the rivals. Reporter from dueling with dell they actually go out and scare their own shareholders. Reporter to agitating apple. Its an absurd price relative to the market. Reporter no investor has roared louder this year than carl icahn. The activist arguing for change at business after business. Hes certainly the most vocal. You know he has a very big microphone. Hes taking on the worlds richest and most beloved companies. Reporter but one of icahns biggest battles this year wasnt with a corporate heavyweight. You know i i really sort of had it with this guy, ackman. Reporter but a rival. Bill ackman. Ackman is a liar. Reporter the billionaires brawled live on cnbc over Nutrition Company herbalife and a decades worth of animosity poured out. The world watched and trading on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange virtually stopped. I never said that i want to be friends with you, bill. I wouldnt be friends with you. And you said to me okay carl. You would like to be friends so we can invest together. Carl, do you think i want to invest with you . Lets move on. I wouldnt do business with you. Reporter one of icahns most memorable moments wasnt about a tiff but a trade. The investor placed a big bet on streaming Video Service netflix and hit the jackpot. 800 million profit in just 14 months. I wanted to sell it about 100 points ago. I really wanted to sell it. My son threatened to leave. Reporter a big score for an investor who even as he ages shows no signs of slowing down. I think that he is an extremely persistent and aggressive guy. I wouldnt necessarily want to be on the wrong side of a deal from him. But hes a super smart guy. Hes got a lot to say. And i hope investors and companies are really listening. Reporter if they arent yet, they probably should be. Scott wapner, cnbc business news. Such a fascinating story, carl icahn, of course on the cover of Time Magazine where they called him the most important investor in the world. And its very interesting, guys because theres been a change in rhetoric. From the carl icahn and corporate raiders of the past to oh now, theyre shareholder activists. Is there really a difference . I dont think there is a huge difference. I have to say, look, i mean hes an endlessly entertaining person and he is a person who has strong opinions that can you use as a reference point. That being said, he is also speaking his investments. And i think you have to be careful about this is someone who has a mega phone to basically make an argument for things that will benefit him. That doesnt mean theyre wrong but hes standing for the shareholders and he has shareholdertable. Com hes using a bully pulpit, if you will i dont get it. If he doesnt get what he wants, he sells a share. Sometimes he makes a deal with a company, sometimes he doesnt. I would hesitate to call him a shareholder activist. I still think at the end of the day, hes investing for his own book. Hes certainly going without a bang, not a whimper. Thats a shareholder, isnt it . Shareholders are long hifr term invested in a company and believe in their longterm fruition fruition. Thats a different he did he said it with apple. He said he wasnt in it for the short term. He wanted a buyback but he wouldnt even tender his own shares into this buyback. He wanted to see it come to fruition. You have to say that when youre pumping your own investment on twitter. That was the very First Investment he started tweeting. Every single time he had dinner with tim cook or they even got aa date on the calendar. Isnt that transparency . It is. He has an axe to grind and Everybody Knows it. He goes on air. Everybody knows hes invested in netflix, hell talk up netflix, or apple, or whatever energy or tech company hes invested in. You can buy a share of icahn industries. Iep. Yes. Just with the amount of cash on Balance Sheets i expect this will be a big theme next year. In between Online Shopping sprees, youve been checking out cnbc. Com. Well tell you what stories are trendinging. On the ground, in the air, even into space. We repaid every dollar america lent us. And gave america back a profit. Were here to keep our promises. To help you realize a better tomorrow. From the families of aig happy holidays. [ male announcer ] heres a question for you where does the United States get most of its energy . Is it africa . The middle east . Canada . Or the u. S. . The answer is. The u. S. Most of Americas Energy comes from right here at home. Take the energy quiz. Energy lives here. Welcome back. Where is obama care . Today its not the big puller today. The big puller is the deep dive we have on amazon. So thats number one. Number two was actually about target. Target ishas actually eclipsed obama care about whether or not banks could actually start suing target for all they had to go through this weekend. Backed off on that. She has a big following. Allen, thats a huge story. I mean basically talk about more headaches for the banks along with target. Thats a fascinating point about whether they might turn around and hold them accountable. And amazon. See you tomorrow. Theres a new item that hopes to make holiday hot lists across the country exits 3d printers. A 3d showroom. Hows foot traffic . Are people really buying these things . There has been a gradual increase in foot traffic. We have seen a lot of families bringing their children in and sometimes its children bringing in their parents wanting to try out this printer. We were able to create this very cool neon bracelet which only took 16 minutes and this gnome took a couple of hours. The time really varies. A couple of other on jegts you can make include this prosthetic hand as well as this great white shark which is perfect for any clasroom. There were a couple of teachers who looked to revamp their curriculum. These things cost a couple thousand dollars but you can make a bracelet . Come on. True. 2,000 is not that much if it takes my kid away from playing a couple hours of video games to building a really cool device or design. It may sell well for families who are interested in helping their children put together a design and actually executing it and coming out with an actual object. Only in grenich. There are more affluent consumers here. Thats something to keep in mind. I hope you bring back something for the rest of us here. Have a good one. Its very cute, right . And shoppers going into a frenzy. Just how much you pay for stuff like this. Welcome back. A brawl for the latest pair of air jordans . How much would you pay for a pair of sneakers . Paul saying 200 for my son. Ridiculous . It will be his only gift. More than what two shares of twitter is trading at. Hes talking over 130. The panel here whats the most you have spent . I think the most i have spent i will admit is about 120. Thats the most i have ever spent. They were running shoes. I was angry because i had to i was like newly motivated and i was like im walking to the store getting the sneakers and then i couldnt believe i was walking out paying that much. Im not going to comment. I spend way too much on sneakers but its my guilty sneakers. The only reason to spend a lot is if you buy those that you never wear as a collectors item. I could see that like collecting stamps. I see. He says maybe. The birthday and christmas coming up . Because theyre so expensive, double dipping. Exactly. Running down the halls of the federal reserve. These are signs of a sneaker bubble. Is this all is it the feds fault that people are paying 107 . You can pin everything on the feds. Cabbage patch kids even. The only bubble we have is a bubble in the use of the word bubble on air. But people are interested i think, generally. These are not uber rich people fighting for the sneakers. In a country of 320 million people, our average applies to almost no one. We do miss when we make these easy generalizations about the consumer and Consumer Spending. I tried to make a market generalization. A lot of it is priced in. Can it keep going . I dont know. We have got to hop, thanks so much. Got to hop. We will hop in our new sneaks. Melissa, what are you cooking. What do you think when i say big bird oscar the grouch and elmo. Sesame street. Exactly. And there are lessons that wall street can learn from sesame street. What could we possibly have in common with sesame street . I would expect josh to be able to draw the parallel. Over to you guys. Fast money starts right now. Live in new york citys time square, heres tonights lineup. Time to sell the news. The deal we have talked about for months. Should you be getting out of the stock . Social search facebook shares popping on its first day of the s p 500. There is another media stock that caught our traders attention today. Time is running out to