Transcripts For CNBC Power Lunch 20131219

Homes slipping to their lowest level in a year last month. Today well talk to one Top Executive in the business, get his advice. Sold, power lunch is a buyer. The ceo of Coldwell Banker is up in two minutes so dont you budge. The fed has spoken. How will Financial Sector stocks react . Well take that one apart. Theres jpmorgan, citigroup, wells fargo, b of a and one of the etfs, were tracking those as well. Plus, the fight against cancer. New ammunition here. New corporations coming in and throwing lots of tonnage at cancer. Thats all ahead. First, lets check in with sue on this, the day after the big taper announcement. Sue . Thats right. The markets kind of consolidating at these levels, ty. Were going to start with housing. Existing home sales hitting a yearlong low in november. Diana olick is live in washington for us. Diana . Reporter well, sue, it was a big drop, no question, and we know why. Weve been talking about it for months. Prices rising too far, too fast and mortgage credit still locked in a vice. Together, those pushed existing home sales down 4. 3 month to month. But the bigger deal is that sales were down year over year for the first time in 29 months, down 1. 2 . Now, the hardesthit region, the west, where sales are way down monthly and annually. Why . Because prices there are up over 16 from a year ago. Sales down 12 in california alone. The realtors are blaming some of this on the Government Shutdown in october, but most of it is on tight supply and higher prices. The median price of a home and nationally, up 9. 4 annually. But that is coming down. Thats the first singledigit jump in prices all year. Inventories were down 1 month to month, but up 5 year over year so that helped. But we have to remember, 32 of this market is still all cash, and that is remarkable for being this far in the recovery. Sue . Yeah, you know, diana, lets explore this a little bit further because existing home sales were weak, as you just explained. But jobless claims hit a ninemonth high. And right now we have the tenyear yield at 2. 94 . That is close to if not its high of the day. How is all of that going to impact the Mortgage Markets in terms of the data points . Reporter well, look, sue, day to day, Mortgage Rates move on what happens with that tenyear treasury yield. And so it just wasnt enough that weak data from the jobless claims, why . Because Mortgage Rates have been on this steady, enormous push higher since last may. And the jobless claims were just not enough to push them down. We also note that hikes in fees from fannie and freddie and the big drop in loan limits from the fha are going to make mortgages ever more expensive in 2014. And the lenders are already starting to price some of that in. All right, diana olick, thank you very much. Breaking news in the bond market now. Sevenyear notes up for auction. Yesterdays auction was terrible. Hows todays, ricky . Reporter horrible, plus a bit of sugar. The auction is a c minus. A little bit below average. 29 million, sevenyear. Its not the threelegged stool is used to be. 2. 385 is the yield. I saw a whole lot of trading at 2. 365 in the w. I. Market. There was a big range just like the underlying contracts are today. Lets go through the internals. 2. 45 bid to cover below the 2. 57 ten auction average. The indirects at 41. 7, close to that average. The directs at 17. 1, close to that average. Whereas yesterday dealers took a boatload. Today they took only a bit of a canoeload at 41. 2 . But yeah, c minus, better than yesterday. But calls into question the whole dynamics of yearend supply which theres not going to be a whole lot more of. Tyler, sue, back to you. Rick, thank you very much. And lets bring back diana olick in washington. And be joined now for a power lunch exclusive with budge husky, hes the president and ceo of Coldwell Banker real estate, 84,000 realtors worldwide. Mr. Husky, welcome back to power lunch. Good to have you with us. You heard dianas report, im sure, just a few moments ago where she outlined the strains basically on affordability. Prices moving up very rapidly in many parts of the country over the last year and Mortgage Rates moving higher and credit still a little bit hard to get. Is that what youre seeing . Are you seeing the kind of slowdown that diana just described . Well, i think the numbers certainly relying on the report suggest that sales dipped, but the reality is when you compare it on a yearoveryear base, it was only down one basis, and that was against an extremely strong Fourth Quarter of last year. So i dont think it was really unexpected. Overall, 2013 will lend as a very impressive year for real estate overall. Affordability, of course, is a challenge. And a lot of that has been a resurgence in both sales units and prices as a result of the overcorrection. What we tend to be moving towards now i think is into the next phase of this new housing cycle where well start to see a logical trimoff of some of the appreciation in price to a more sustainable longterm level. Diana . Reporter yeah, id just like to know, we saw this drop in existing home sales today. But yesterday we got a report on november housing starts, up a walloping 20 . The question is, going into 2014, if we do see these higher prices and higher Mortgage Rates and still tight credit, as builders, do you think youre going to be able to sell those homes . Well, i think it is a sign of the confidence in the housing new construction industry. I think one of the things that youve noted before is the fact that margins perhaps are capping out as far as new home prices have reached their peak. And i think in many cases depending on the individual markets within the country, were starting to see those pressures, the upward pressures trim off a bit as well. So it has to switch now towards a more fundamental market where the gains are going to be based on a better balance perhaps of units and upward prices. And i think thats what were going to have to see on both the new Construction Side and the resale side. When you said well probably go back to a more normalized sort of pace of price gains from the doubledigit gains that have obtained over the past year or so, what specifically are you talking about . What is the range of price gain that you expect nationally over the next 12 months or so . Thats question one. And question two, regionally, where are the strongest and the weakest markets . Well, to your first question, if you look at what nar and fannie mae are forecasting, and theyre slightly different for 2014, but it would suggest that we have volume growth somewhere from the 5 to 7 range. And the majority of that is going to continue to be based on upward price gains, of course, to your second question on the more regional base, we know that when we first wept into the correction, there was a different level of performance based on the region. Were seeing this as we go through the recovery cycle as well. And, of course, in the west where inventories were most constrained, we had the greatest increases in prices, and we also had perhaps the greatest level of competition, driving up prices from an investor standpoint. Well now start to see prices trim off more on the western side going forward, and well start to see a little more balanced approach across the country as a whole. Budge husky, Coldwell Banker real estate ceo, thanks very much. Diana, thanks to you as well. Dominic chu now for a market flash. A tough day for riteaid after cutting its earnings guide ens to 17 cents a share from 23 cents a share. The company has faced sales pressure because of the introduction of new generic prescription drugs. Those rad shares not having a very rad day. Sue . Thank you very much. The market is on track to close out 2013 with very impressive gains. The dow, the s p 500 and the nasdaq surging 20 or more, depending on which indices. But it may be difficult to match these returns next year. Blackstones chairman and ceo, steve schwarzman, explained why on squawk box. It seems low probability that markets continue going up at 27 . When you actually, andrew, have an economy that grows at 2. 5 , 2. 2. 75 and a stock market that goes up 27 , it seems somewhat disconnected. Well, from mr. Schwarzman to mr. Pisani and ms. Tausche, reporting down the line to the fed, but first to bob pisani, after yesterdays huge rally, some consolidation, were up about 11. 25 points. I might take issue with mr. Schwarzman. Thats tough to do. Valuations are not stretched. Depending on where you look. The market is not historically overvalued right now. Valuations are there. Earnings are at historic highs. Theyre going to be again next year. Id like to see more topline growth. Cost cuttings been fantastic this year. You know what im seeing . 2. 9 . I keep waiting for the market to have a negative reaction. And other than Interest Ratesensitive stocks, theyre hit a little bit. Telecoms have gone positive. I look for panic, sue, and i dont see it. The vix, i thought the vix surely the volatility index, the fear gauge, would be up today after being down 14 yesterday. Were near lows for the year, and yet its down again today. And even further out, if you look at futures contracts for the vix in january and february and march, theyre low. Theyre below a week ago and much lower than a month ago. I keep looking for traders to freak out a little bit and say heaven, were not going to make it and well have to buy protection. I dont see it yet. The markets not freaking out. Well see. Weve still got a week to go in trading. If we bump up against 3 , maybe that will trigger it. As kayla is reporting on the fed and its impact on the financials because basically the Financial Sector is always impacted just a little bit more or perhaps the most by a move by the fed like yesterday. And youre taking a look at the outlook for the financials. I am, sue. As soon as that fed statement hit, bank stocks took off, leading the rally. Theyve cooled off a little bit, but by no means is this rally over because taper is so lucrative to the sector. Shortterm rates will remain lower for longer so banks will have cheap capital. Longerterm yields will rise. Bad for consumers as the end of qe nears. But that means that banks will make more money off those loans, mortgages and credit cards. And an improving economy overall means there will be greater demand for those products in the first place. The always outspoken dick bovais characterize it had like this. I think bank stocks will go to 1. 5 times book value which means the world couldnt be better for banks than it is right at this moment. So how do you play it . Hedge funds say buy citi. Emerging markets were supposed to reel, but theyve held up. Citi could regain momentum after an overhang. Markhart says universal banks like new york mellon will win from an improving economy. If that reverses, go back to regional mortgage providers. Players like huntington get upside from that organic growth. They also spoke to menden capital. He thinks by 2015, well see deals could get snapped up. Bove said all of the above. The general takeaway, though, sue, low rates have been so bad for the core business of banks. Absolutely. That if theres an end in sight, it can only get better. Kayla tausche, thank you very much. To the gold market which is getting trounced today. Right now were down 40 at 1194. 30. Trading below that 1200 an ounce mark which was key support level for that market. The precious metal on track to end a 12year bull run, falling 28 this year. Joining us now from the cme group in chicago, Lincoln Ellis with green square capital. So lincoln, do you buy at these levels now that weve cracked the 1200 mark, or do you think theres considerable down side from here . Yeah, there really could be considerable down side from here. From the august highs really around the 1400 level right through here where we pierced the 1200 level, your support is around 1180 from a technical base. Weve been neutral on gold for some time, and we think with real Interest Rates beginning to creep up, at least real Interest Rate expectations, that we would be avoiding this space right now. Certainly a much higher level of volatility for investors in the gold market. All right. Lincoln ellis, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Ty, up to you. All right, folks. We are just Getting Started on this edition of tylers angels. Well solve more crimes here this hour. Take a look at this power lunch lineup, wells, thompson and morgan brennan. Morgan, you get to go first. Tyler, right after the break, a new and heavy weapon in the war on cancer. And from the battle against cancer to target battling a huge credit card breach, information from 40 million credit and ebb didity cards possibly compromised. What happened . How they are reacting. Thats next. Not feeling well, guys . Maybe its something you ate . Get used to it. A very serious warning about the most popular meat in america, ty. Meat, its whats for dinner. All right. I tell you, were just Getting Started. Well be right back. A lot can happen in a second. With fidelitys guaranteed onesecond trade execution, we route your order to up to 75 Market Centers to look for the best possible price maybe even better than you expected. Its all part of our goal to execute your trade in one second. Im derrick chan of fidelity investments. Our onesecond trade execution is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. Now get 200 free trades when you open an account. Shares of astrazeneca and Bristol Meyers hitting new 52week highs today. Look at astrazeneca, off just a little bit from that post of 58. 32. Bristol meyers at 53. 93. Astrazeneca is buying bristolmyers, but there is more to this deal than meets the eye. Morgan brennan is on the case. Hi, morgan. Hi, thanks, tyler. Diabetes pay be at the center of this deal, but its another disease thats powering the move, cancer. Bristolmyers saying its focusing more on its oncology franchise. What does that mean . The giant is plowing its resources between treatments that harness the bodys own immune system. Die jeets has gotten a lot of attention thanks to its ballooning epidemic status. According to evaluate pharma, spending on oncology treatments totaled 84 billion in 2012 glob globally. And the number is expected to grow at about 8 a year. A bristolmyers spokesperson says the company will look for new opportunities in this area. So could some of the cash pile be tied to the diabetes deal be put to acquisitions of cancer focused Biotech Companies . If other deals this year are any indication, then yes, its likely. Weve seen other pharma giants gobbling up oncologycentered techs. To name a new, amgen and astrazeneca. Morgan, thank you very much. To dominic chu for a quick market flash. Check out whats happening with amgen, the biotech is coming off its lows that its experimental cholesterol drug succeeded in a latestage drug. It prevents the liver from removing bad cholesterol. Those shares are starting to come off those lows. Back to you. Thank you very much. Implgts three big stories today about the safety of the american consumer. Big credit card breach, perhaps youve heard about it, at target. A news report on the safest cars on the road. Thats another one. And this is a scary one. Nearly half the chickens in america infected by a superbug that is immune to antibiotics. Well get to that one in just a moment. First, mary thompson, jane wells, phil lebeau covering all three. Mary, you first. Weve been talking about this all morning, tyler. It is the biggest data breach at a u. S. Retailer since 2005 when data for 90 million tjx customers was compromised. Target says its resolved the issue, but some 40 million customers may have been affected. Those impacted, customers who paid for their purchases at targets 1,800 stores using their credit and debit cards. The breach occurring from november 27th through last sunday, december 15th. Now, Online Shoppers were not affected. In a statement, target said its working with Law Enforcement officials including the secret service and the thirdparty Forensic Firm to identify the themes. Target isnt saying how the data was accessed, but security expert tim rhine of kroll speculates it could have been malware. Target says the data access includes a customers name, card number, Expiration Date of the card and security code. A cybersecurity analyst says this data held in the Magnetic Stripe on the back of the debit or credit card can be used to make fake cards. It says it sells for three to five times more on the black market than data stolen from a typical online purchase. Targets telling clients to monitor their debit and credit card accounts for any unusual activity. And if there is some, report it immediately to their financial institution. We also want to say that targets credit card site is down. The number to call on the website for credit card information doesnt pick up. Target says it has been overwhelmed with requests. Its working on the situation trying to bring people in to get those up and running. But what we want to do right now is bring in brian krebs, the i guess you could say the owner author, et cetera of krebs security online, i believe it is. Krebsonsecurity. Com. There it is. Thanks for joining us. First of all, give us an idea of a scope of this breach. 40 Million People is a heck of a lot of people. It sure is. And i think its still early days. Its really important to keep in mind, these numbers the numbers youre hearing out of target, 40 million, you know, 19 days, theres a really good chance that both of those numbers are going to grow as they learn more about what actually happened. How did you first find out about this . Because you broke it on your website yesterday. Right. Yeah, so ive been hearing Different Things from sources that track cyber fraud. And theyve been sort of saying for several days, you know, theres something big. Theres something big. We dont really know what it is. So ive just been feeling around talking to my sources in the financial industry to say hey, what are you seeing, if anything . And then, you know, yesterday it just came back from five or six different sources. They all said the same thing. That was enough for me. Brian, just quickly, one last question. Where do you do you have any sense of where these cyber thieves are from . Are they domestic . Are they foreign . We dont know that yet. You know, safe money is on foreign, probably russia and former soviet union or a combination thereof. Thats just the wayist gone with the last breaches of this kind. And talking about the Malicious Software installed on or very close to the point of sale devices at each of these stores. Brian, thanks so much for speaking with us. Brian krebs of krebs on security. Interesting that the data secured this way is more valuable on the black market than data secured through your online. Because you can replicate these counterfeit cards. You can basically put it right on another card. People have done them. I was speaking to one security analyst. They said we have gone into homes where half the home was devoted to making these counterfeit cards. Then you go, use the card for a purchase, then you return the goods and get the cash. And get the cash back. Also telling us 40 Million People shopped at a target in store over the last 19 days. Thats a lot of people. I have some questions about that. I wonder if some of the data was stored at the point of sale. It does seem to me at first blush a very big number. Absolutely. Mary, thanks very much. Another story that affects safety of the different kind. Phil lebeau with a new report card now on the safest cars on the road. Always interesting to find out whos on the naughty and nice list, phil. And its an expanded list to a certain extent, tyler, because iihs, the Insurance Institute for highway safety, has added another designation to say not only are a number of vehicles safe but theres some that are safer than others. Well talk about that in a bit. The new crash test criteria, its tougher according to the iihs when it comes to picking top safety models. The small overlap crash test which really affects the corner of the vehicle, it protects passengers, its how the vehicle is designed. That has become a standard now that is in all of the crash test. And as a result, heres the list of the top safety picks on the plus category. And you might be saying, what are the plus categories . Its 22 models that did even better because they have extra feature which allows them to have Collision Avoidance systems. Its primarily dominated by foreignmade variance. And you have the japanese automakers leading that list including honda which has earned six top safety pick plus status vehicles. Those are the ones that can have Collision Avoidance systems that prevent a collision in the first place. Take a look at shares of honda. 6 models of those 22 going to honda. Like other japanese automakers, it has been up over the last six months. Back to you. Thank you very much. Now to a scary story about the safety of our food. It involves a widespread superbug. Jane wells here to tell us about it. Well, ty, in the you are what you eat and it could kill you file, Consumer Reports tested more than 300 chicken breasts bought across the country and found bacteria in nearly all of them, even organic. Most distressing, about half the samples contained antibioticresistant bacteria. 80 in fecal contamination, and 11 salmonella. At the same time, pew research looked into recent salmonella outbreaks and claims the usda lacks authority to shut down processing plants. So whats changing . Well, this month the usda announced tougher testing for salmonella in chicken and will establish a National Standard for the first time for acceptable levels. And the fda plans to phase out antibiotics used in livestock and less animals are sick. Meantime, robobank predicts a great 2014 due to lower feed costs and higher prices for beef and pork. But Consumer Reports says 48 Million People get sick from salmonella every year and, quote, more deaths were attributed to poultry than to any other commodity. Ty, nothing kills bacteria, though, like heat. Just took that bird. Just got to cook it thoroughly. You got it. Sara over there enjoying some chicken. You may want to reconsider that. Reheat that in the microwave. There she is. A little mooshoo chicken. Thanks, jane. Mary thompsons report about targets credit card breach, thats not all. A crime punishment story of stolen identity straight out of hollywood. A faked death, a real murder, mom connections and a decadeslong fight with the irs. It is a real nightmare. And now heres michelle. Segue. What a segue to michelle. Tyler, three Big International stories im going to be covering for you. Putin making a huge move regarding political prisoners. One, two. Will there be snow in sochi . And three, see why the brits are making it easier to launder money. More power lunch in two minutes. Ya know, with new fedex one rate you can fill that box and pay one flat rate. How naughty was he . Oh boy. [ male announcer ] fedex one rate. Simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. [ male announcer ] fedex one rate. voseeker of the sublime. Ro. You can separate runway ridiculousness. From fashion that flies off the shelves. And you. Rent from national. Because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. And go. You can even take a fullsize or above, and still pay the midsize price. natalie ooooh, i like your style. vo so do we, business pro. So do we. Go national. Go like a pro. As we mentioned, a pretty devastating day in the gold market today with gold on the close, finishing down about 3. 5 or close to it. Down 41 on the trading day. And most importantly, breaking the 1200 an ounce mark. Silver down 3 . We had a loss in copper and a loss in platinum. That as the fed starts to take away some of the stimulus that hit the gold market very hard in todays trading session. Also, the yield on that tenyear is creeping up, close to the high of the day right now to the bond market and Rick Santelli at the cme. Ricky . Reporter it is definitely creeping up a bit. Were in what i call hot mode, meaning we are comping back a little over three months in terms of last time we closed here. So we are going hot. Not quite 3 , but close. Intraday fives, intraday tens which should jump out at you. Even though everybodys talking about yield curve steepening, todays dynamic and of late the dynamic is curve flattening. Short spa turts rates going up faster than the long end. Foreign exchange, look at the dollar index, its up today. Dollaryen is the new trade that continues to move higher. And most likely the dollar isnt going to see a lot more selling for the rest of the year. So say traders. Tyler, back to you. Thank you very much. Rick santelli. To the countdown now. Three big overseas stories and our chief International Correspondent Michelle Caru carusocabrera here to tell us about them. First lets start with snow in sochi. Putin has ordered snow, right . Thats right. As almost dictator of the country, committee demand it, and it will arrive. It will be there. Yeah. No, so the story is that sochi is actually in a subtropical climate, believe it or not. Its dicey as to whether or not the mountains will have snow. They papged because they didnt have enough snow. What did they start doing it . Hoarding it. Stored from last year. Plus 500 snow machines and they brought in a finish Company Called snow secure. So whether the snow is natural, manmade or even used, they are going to have enough snow. And you know whats really funny . It snowed this crazy this week. They have plenty of snow. Read about it on cnbc. Com. Interesting article there. Putin also in the news. He says he is now going to pardon mchale kortokovsky. He wanted to support the opposition, even considered running against putin. Somehow he ended up in jail for tax evasion for more than ten years. He was supposed to be let out in august. Today after a fourhour press conference, putin announced at the end, by the way, were letting him out of jail along with the two band members pussy riots and also some greenpeace folks. Investors say putin is trying to look magnanimous before sochi . Before sochi because so many european leaders have said theyre not going to come. Lithuania saying theyre not coming because of the way gays and lesbians are being treated in russia. Paper or plastic . This is serious bitcoin. In the uk, theyre going to go to what . Plastic money . Plastic money. They call it polymer money. Five and tenpound notes starting in 2016. Believe it or not, they already exist in canada where theyve been using them for a while. Theyre a little more slippery. However, theyre much harder to counterfeit. Which is super important. They last longer. So most paper most currency is paper based. And theyre kind of wash and wear, arent they . Right. You can put them through the laundering. Money laundering is easier, right . You can heat them. They last a lot longer. Very interesting, plastic money. Sounds good. Michelle, thanks. Good to see you. Sue, down to you. Ty, coming up, the power house. Youre going to travel to the top real estate markets in america. Today its denver. Find out how much home your money buys you in the mile high city. Plus, crime punishment. Coming up on power lunch o a chicago trader walks away from his life. Authorities think hes dead. But we find him living right here in vegas. That story coming up. [ engine revs ] [ male announcer ] the mercedesbenz winter event is back, with the perfect vehicle thats just right for you, no matter which list youre on. [ santa ] ho, ho, ho, ho [ male announcer ] get the allnew 2014 cla250 starting at just 29,900. [ 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. Oracle surging 5 today after Goldman Sachs and jpmorgan raised its price target on the software maker. Shares of ford moving lower, down 2 on the trading session, 2. 3 now. Morgan stanley and jefferys cut their target. And darden taking a hit after warning earnings will fall. The company also spinning off the red lobster chain. Ty, up to you. Sue, identity theft, weve talked about it, costing americans 24 billion last year alone. Andrea day investigating one case with a lot of twists and turns involving a dead man walking. Its a complicated story. One fit for hollywood. But its all true. Reporter this next story is straight out of a hollywood script. What does it take for a man to walk away from his entire life and leave everything behind and never look back . Take a look. Guy murray who was shot five times in the chest monday. Reporter april 30th, 1979. Carl gamari, a wealthy commodities trader found shot to death in his home. Ten days later, arthur jones, his good friend and fellow chicago board of trade broker tells his wife he has a business meeting. Walks out of his suburban home and vanishes without a trace. The 40yearold has a history of drinking and gambling. Special agent mike stuto. They expected arthur jones fell victim to foul play due to organized crime and his gambling debts. Reporter seven years later jones is finally declared dead. His wife and three kids collect benefits and move on. But halfway across the country in glendale, arizona, this man may unlock the mystery of joness disappearance. Cliff goodenough was at war with the irs. His life in shambles. You truly feel like youre banging your head against the wall. Reporter as far as the irs was concerned, mr. Goodenough, like arthur jones, was spending a lot of time in casinos. Income was showing up on his Social Security number for earnings at a casino in vegas. Around 20,000 year after year. And when the taxes werent paid, the irs began taking money out of his bank account. I have work records that show i couldnt have possibly been there working or gambling, doing either one. Reporter goodenough worked at a va hospital. Hundreds of miles from vegas. But says even though he pleaded with the government for decades, he could not clear his name. Until he got this letter from the irs. On it, his tax i. D. Number. But a different mans name. Joseph sandelli. It was goodenoughs first big clue. He searched for joseph s sandellis number and got him on the phone. We offered to go down and get another Social Security number. Reporter goodenough wasnt buying his story. He got in touch with senator john mccain, and thats when agent stuto got on the case. Stuto found sandelli working at the rampart casino here in vegas as a sports booker. Living in this home just a few miles away. The milliondollar question, what is his true identity, and what is he hiding from . Reporter so agent stuto and his partner went to his door. He invited us into his house. Reporter he says sandelli told them he was never married and had no children but dropped a bombshell. He said his name used to be arthur jones. We identified one record, an arthur jones, from chicago. However, in our records, this arthur jones was listed as deceased. Reporter so stuto reached out to joness widow, still living in chicago. The first words out of her mouth almost were, on may 11th, 1979, my husband left. He was a missing person. It became clear that this was arthur jones, that i had found her thoughttobe deceased husband. Reporter 34 years after jones went missing, agent stuto had found the dead man alive in las vegas, working under the alias of joseph sandelli and using cliff goodenoughs stolen identity. That was really the moment where, you know, you almost dropped the phone. Reporter agent stuto went back to the house to question jones one last time. Did he seem emotional about it . No, he didnt. An unemotional response. Reporter he says jones finally admitted his financial problems became so big, he thought his only solution was to walk away. He had major gambling debts. But it was a deal at the board of trade that put him so much in the hole, he was forced to sell his seat. During one trade, instead of selling 100,000 bushels of corn, he mistakenly purchased 100,000 bushels of corn. Reporter so jones decided to do the unthinkable. According to stuto, he paid 800 for someone elses identity. One transaction that would completely change the lives of two men. Jones pleaded guilty to one count of fraud. He was sentenced to three years probation and ordered to pay restitution. And theres a huge hollywood twist to this story. Investigators think they solved the murder case from 1979, and you wont believe who they say did it. Just go to cnbc. Com and check out the full story. Back to you. Thank you very much, andrea. And in todays Yahoo Finance question of the day, with target getting data stolen from 40 million of its shoppers, how do you protect yourself . 21 say i tend to use cash only. 13 say i on give my Financial Information to major stores. 66 say im not sure but more needs to be done. Thats for sure. Power lunch top five stories of the year, were counting them down. Were on number three on the list. Thats straight ahead. Implgts plus the power house. We head to top real estate markets in america. And today we are in the beautiful mile high city of denver. What kind of home your money can buy. In denver when we come back. But with less energy, moodiness, and a low sex drive, i saw my doctor. A blood test showed it was low testosterone, not age. We talked about axiron. The only underarm low t treatment that can restore t levels to normal in about 2 weeks in most men. Axiron is not for use in women or anyone younger than 18 or men with prostate or breast cancer. 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Its just one reason over 70 of our mutual funds beat their 10year lipper average. T. Rowe price. Invest with confidence. Request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. Welcome back to power lunch. Im seema mody. Reports indicate that overstock. Com is preparing to accept bitcoin, the Digital Currency as a payment in the latter half of 2014. And that, tyler and sue, seems to be a trend as of late as bitcoin becomes more popular. More businesses are finding ways to accept it as a form of payment. On that note, lets take a look at shares of bitcoin. Its up today by around 19 . Now, lets see whats coming up on street signs from brian sullivan. Seema, thank you very much. Coming up on the show, trillions of dollars are transacted worldwide by plastic little cards every year. You guys talked about it. Well continue the discussion. How do we keep our money safe . Chipotle, conquering burritos, now going after pizza. Well talk about it. And this time last year mandy and i gave our predictions for the year. Who was right . Who was wrong . Who was just awful . Not me. Now back to sue and tyler on power lunch. Well see you at 2 00, brian. Thanks. Heads up, sports fans. The fcc wants to eliminate a near 40yearold blackout rule. Nfl fans have been most affected by this as that rule blocks the broadcast of games in markets which not enough seats are sold in the home teams area 72 hours before start time. The fcc deems that rule obsolete, but the nfl does not agree. Many owners want to keep in place, fearing fewer people will buy tickets and simply watch at home instead. Ty . This time of year, a lot of empty seats in some stadiums, especially for teams that are out of the playoffs like my redskins. Power house time. Larry is back. Hes a broker associated with kentwood real estate. Kentwood, the largest independently owned Real Estate Company in denver. Larry, welcome back. Lets take a look at some of the stats for the denver metro market as of december. Average sales price out there, about 322,000. Median, about 264,000. Currently 8800 listings. That is down a little bit from november. I guess some of that might be seasonal. You tell me, larry. Hows the market overall . You know, our market needs listings, tyler. Thats where were at. And i was listening to your report earlier. And we dont have that situation here. We are still having more sales year to date this year every month than last year. So our demand is holding up very well. But our listings are down. And were at 8800 and falling. And if we go our spring selling season, were going to see a real need to have more listings. More listings. And i guess falling Inventory Means prices should stay firm. Lets take a look at our first listing, larry, at 9656 dunning circle, highlands ranch. A bargain price. Sort of a starter house, 320,000. Taxes, just, well, taxes just 2,100 a year. 2,300 a year, three bedrooms, two baths. Why do you like this one . What are the features . This ones been updated all the way to the max. Theres nothing left out of this house. This is as good as it gets in this price range. You can have all of the fancy features that you get on a much more expensive home at a starter price. And its in highlands ranch. Highlands ranch is our neighborhood thats the most popular for relocation buyers moving into the denver area. Interesting. How close is it to downtown . Its 30 minutes to downtown. So its really quite close. All right. Lets go to our next listing, 13023 south lafayette street in denver. A house that on the face there doesnt have much curb appeal, but youve got to look at the inside. Taxes, 3,100. Two bedrooms, though, larry. This is a small one. Thats the way a lot of the houses are in washington park. These are older homes that are not much to look at until they get renovated. And once theyre renovated, theyre absolutely fabulous, as this house is. And the address, by the way, is 1323 south lafayette. Oh, 1323, sorry. Yeah. No problem. Go ahead, keep talking. Its a gorgeous house that was renovated by its owner who is the lead singer in a band thats touring nationally now. That looks really cool. Look at that. Youd never know it from the street, but its a lovely i dont know what you what would you call the style of architecture there, larry . Thats a contemporary brick bungalow. A brick bungalow. Lets go to the power house of the week. 15264 west evans place in lakewood, listing for 2. 1 million, taxes under under 16,000, four bedrooms, five baths. This is a big house. 7100 square feet. Wow its big and its gorgeous. It was a parade of homes winner in 2008. And its just a fabulous home in a fabulous setting, set in the foothills with views of the mountains. And its in a gated community out in lakewood. Look at that. Thats a big one there. Look at that. Now, how far is that from downtown . Im not familiar. Look at the views of the mountains, or the foothills. 25 minutes to downtown. And only about ten minutes over to the popular belmar shopping area. Mmhmm. Maybe we can us redskins fans can send Mike Shanahan back and get him hooked up in that one ouere denver. Talk to me about what we mentioned earlier, and that was the idea that home sales were slowing. Youre not seeing that. Prices slowing just a bit. What are you seeing on prices year over year . You know, our prices have firmed up this year. And were expecting them to really, frankly, go up quite a bit next year. Yeah. It wouldnt surprise us to see a recordsetting year for prices if the Current Trends continue. Are those rising prices coupling with rising Interest Rates . Are those squeezing the firsttime homebuyers and affecting affordability . We havent seen that happen yet. The inease has been incremental. And gosh knows it could change tomorrow. But as of right now, you know, were just coasting along pretty much in high gear. Larry hotz, its always a hotz market out in denver. Thanks very much. Youve never heard that one, have you . Good to see you. Merry christmas. Merry christmas to you. Sue. Three of wall streets biggest winners this hour coming up next. All week on power lunch, the top five stories of the year. Today, number two. The glitch heard round the nation. More power lunch in two minutes. Americans take care of business. They always have. They always will. Thats why you take charge of your future. Your retirement. Ameriprise advisors can help you like theyve helped millions of others. Listening, planning, working one on one. To help you retire your way. With confidence. Thats what Ameriprise Financial does. Thats what they can do with you. Ameriprise financial. More within reach. Welcome back to power lunch. Im seema mody. Accenture shares moving to highs after the firm posted better than expected earnings as increased demand for its outsourcing services particularly in europe offset weakness in its consulting business. The stock currently trading up by around 5. 3 . Sue, over to you. Seema, thanks. All week on power lunch, were counting down the biggest stories of 2013 and the rollout of obamacare comes in at number two. Number two, healthcare. Gov d debacle. T minus four days until the Health Exchange is launched. And not everything is going as planned. Today americans who have been forced to go without insurance can now visit healthcare. Gov and enroll in affordable new plans that offer quality coverage. That starts today. Were going to go and now ask a person who has found what really went wrong with the Health Care Exchange software. The problem is really deep rooted when you get to a program level. Is there progress, Bertha Coombs has been watching this very closely. What can you, bertha . Its kind of glascial. Its still not a smooth process. People were having a hard time logging on. When they actually get through, very few people are enrolling. Data Center Critical to healthcare. Gov halting enrollment in all 50 states. How are the latest numbers stacking up . It shows things are improving. Still nowhere near what the administration would have liked. Sue, i cant think of another business story that in potential and real reach affected more americans this year with the possible exception of the one well get to tomorrow. But this was certainly one of the biggest of all. I think it was. And it hit people at home, you know. One of the biggest concerns for people recently, not only has been their job but the lack of available and Affordable Health care. And i think hopes were so high for so many people that this was finally going to be an answer. That the glitches, i think, just really magnified the dismay of those who really had so much trouble getting onto the website, registering. Its a shame that it happened. It really is. Yeah, its a business story. Its a political story, obviously. It wounded the administration. The president s credibility because he had to backtrack on his promises. Absolutely. So often made in various campaigns and outside of the campaign. That if you had insurance you liked, you could keep it. Well, not so fast there, folks. Not so fast. So its an ongoing story thats going to spill over clearly and be something well be following in 2014. We sure will, absolutely, because its not over yet. We are going to talk about number one tomorrow. You wont want to miss it. Its my top business story of 2013. We hope youll join us for that. Meantime, the markets consolidating today. Not a great gain. But we had such a stellar gain yesterday, probably not a surprise. 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It didnt make our cut, but there are signs that 2014 will be a very different year in real estate. Absolutely. Especially if Interest Rates go up. That will do it for this edition of power lunch. Thanks for joining us. Street signs begins right now. Could the dow actually carve out a 25 gain for the year . We are getting close. We are higher again today. The impact of santa bernankes slick move on your money coming up. Hi, everybody. Here are the other top stories that we have for you on this thursday. Why whats good for stocks has been awful for gold. Your votes for the worst ceos of the year, and herbs got his. And a look at our predictions for the year. What we got right and where we just completely win. Hello, everybody. Well, this time yesterday the market was gyrating to the