Economists. It could bode well for the governments numbers out friday. With the market predicting 185,000. It also means the fed could move closer to tapering its stimulus program. The dow and s p fell for the 4th session in a row. The dow dropped 25, the nasdaq flatlined and the s p dipped 2 points. Gold fell 5 and oil inched up 2 cents. Amc entertainment is offering moviegoers the chance to buy stock in its upcoming ipo. The theater stock is on track to price next week around 20 per share. Bundle up for a brutal blast of artic cold. Ice, snow and freeze temps are expected across most of the country. Time now to say good morning to tood horwitz of average joe options. Hes our man on the Trading Floor this morning. Good morning todd. Good morning angie. Youre one of the doomiest gloomiest guys i know in the market today. It feels like the market wants to go lower, a lot of that having to do with jobs jitters. What do you think . I think that everybody is focused on the jobs right now. As weve seen everyday weve had a relatively decent size, weve only come back towards that unchanged level. However we are working on a four day losing streak after an eight week winning streak. The bottom line is everybodys focusing on the jobs number and theyre trying to bet on what Ben Bernankes gonna do. And i dont think it really matters. I think the market is making a rounding top based on the technical chart pattern and im getting a little gloomier. I think its more time, not necessarily to sell but certainly to put stops on your longer Term Holdings and to be ready to get short the market. What do you think about carl icahn . Hes putting so much pressure on apple to do a stock buyback. What do you think . I dont agree with carl icahns methods. Hes a great guy investorwise but i dont like the way he puts pressure and puts his muscle in. I dont like the way that he tweets ourt what hes doing so that he can capitalize on it as well. Absolutely. And one other question. I also want to ask you about deere. Deere and Company Coming out with an upbeat outlook. They are doing an 8 billion dollar share buyback. Is this a stock you would buy . You know, its funny you mention it because i have been watching deere and looking at the 85 level as a potential spot and it broke through 85. It looks pretty good and theyre going to buy back. I really want to see more of the action here but it now looks like it might be breaking out to the upside so it might be one i would look at and its certainly good news for that sector. Thank you todd, always a pleasure. Thank you. Fast food workers calling for better wages are walking off the job in 100 cities today in a one day strike. Mcdonalds, kfc, pizza hut and taco bell are among the targets. Many the employees earn the miniumum wage of 7. 25 per hour. That translates into 15,000 per year for full time workers. Protesters are demaind 15 dollars per hourequating to around 30,000. Restaurant owners however says they cant raise pay due to weakness in the economy. Chuck coppola picks up the story with more on wage equality. Fastfood workers and others who want their minimum wage jobs to pay more are planning a nationwide strike today. It coincides with our cover storys look at the push to help more americans find jobs that pay enough to support a family. The yearlong push for higher wages is gaining supportfrom San Francisco which raised its minimum to 1055 an hour. To the d. C. Council, which is about to send an 1150 minimum wage bill to washington d. C. s mayor. Wednesday, president obama called income inequality the defining challenge of our time. Weve got to move beyond the false notion that this is an issue exclusively of minority concern. And we have to reject a politics that suggests any effort to address it in a meaningful way somehow pits the interest of a deserving middle class against those of an underserving poor in search of handouts. While the president spoke, u. S. Labor secretary thomas perez toured chicagobased recruiting firm, seaton corporation, echoing the president s support of a senate bill to raise the National Minimum wage to 1010 an hour. When that bill passes, a family of four will be just above poverty line and uh that drives growth, people spending money. Chicagos mayor released a statement in support. Also, perez saw how seatons susidiary, peoplescout and a nonprofit called skills for chicagolands future have placed 600unemployed people who sharpened their job skills. They bridge a couple of gaps they look at what public money is available and how we can use that. And there are hints that the Partnership Model here be tried elsewhere, soon. There are a number of cities that have contacted us and in a few months, well have an annoucement of our first replication outside of chicago. And we are working on further replications. The topthree job skills employers are looking for, include Customer Service, including work at call centers, sales and Information Technology specialists. Back on capitol hill. Lawmakers may be closing in on a budget deal. Bloomberg news reports rpublicans may be ready to agree on more federal spending. Democrats may be willing to accept higher user fees including for airline tickets. The panel made up of members of both sides of the aisle have until a december 13th to pound out a deal. Federal spending expires january 15th. Without an agreement another government shut down could happen. A call for clarity among big banks. In her latest quest for a more transparent financial system, massachusets senator Elizabeth Warren is asking ceos of big banks to voluntarily disclose contributions to political think tanks. In a letter, warren writes Greater Transparency will benefit your shareholders, policymakers, and, ultimately, the public. The letter was sent to the leaders of the largest banks in the u. S. Policy institutes are criticized for having a powerful impact on american politics. Fines connected to the libor rigging scandal is reaching american shores. The European Commission is hitting 8 finanical firms with a total of 2. 3 billion in fines for allegedly participating in libor rigging. Jp morgan will pay around 100 million and ctigroup 95 million. Jp morgan issued a statement to reporter saying the settlement makes no finding that Jp Morgan Chase management had knowledge of the conduct. The libor rigging scandal broke last year barclays paid 450 million after being accued of manipulating bank to bank lending rates. U. S. Banks are also under scrutiny for failing to follow orders from the government. Bank of america and citigroup are accused of failing to follow provisions related to a government settlement to improve mortgage misbehavior. Earlier this year the two banks, along with jpmorgan and wells fargo were all required to improve Customer Service within mortgage divisions. However, b of a and citigroup both fell short of the settlement terms. Reuters reports the two banks are now working to fix the problems. New homes are moving on an off the market at a faster pace. Following three months of sluggish sales. New home sales climbed a surprising 25 in october. The largest leap since 1980. The big jump in new home sales this week is a little misleading. Even though month over month new home sales were up 25 there have actually been some pretty big revisions to that number in recent months. And its a number that is typcially volatile. It bounces around alot month to month. Mortage rates have been trending higher during the past couple of weeks. The average rate on a 30year fixed mortage 4. 25 . The 15year is 3. 22 a couple of stake outs to report this morning. Reuters reports gm is selling off its stake in Ally Financial for 900 million dollars. Ally was gms financing arm. Ally and gm both received bailouts from the government during the financial crisis. Ally is said to be considering an ipo. Shares of sears plunged yesterday. Hedge fund manager and sears ceo Eddie Lampert is trimming his stake in sears to 48 from 55 . Lampert, became ceo of sears early this year, and is attempting to turn around the company. The retail stock fell over 8 , closing at 50 dollars. The latest numbers on the trade balance Shows Americans are buying fewer products from overseas. The trade gap between exports and imports dropped from 43 billion in september to 40. 6 billion in october. U. S. Exports were especially strong with Petroleum Shipments heading overseas making a 6 gain. The u. S. Is importing fewer barrels of crude as it becomes less dependent on foreign oil. Fracking is turning sand into a hot commodity. Energy companies are using billions of pounds of sand a year to help in the process of fracking. The weight of the sand is used to help break apart rocks beneath the surface of oil and natural gas wells. Stocks are getting in on the action. Hi crush partners and u. S. Silica holdings are two Public Companies benefitting from the sand demand. Toys r us will pay nearly 180,000 following allegations of overcharging customers. Prosecutors say the toy retailer has agreed to pay the fine to settle complaints brought on by customers in los angeles and san diego counties. Investigations that spanned more than 2 years revealed pricing errors at the check out. Toys r us will not have to admit doing anything wrong. The competition is getting fierce in the world of gaming. Microsoft revealed its new xbox is a hot seller. It was was released on the heels of sonys playstation four, which has already sold over 2 million units. A representative for microsoft left out specifics, but did say demand is far exceeding supply. Microsoft is up over one and a half percent on wall street. A tech company in russia raises the bar in the smartphone sector. The company yota devices is out with a double sided phone. The screen on the back mirrors whats on the front. It also has a camera on both sides. Yotaphone runs on android in so far is only slated to sell in europe and the uk. Copycat versions popping up in other countries is a strong possiblity. The super bowl is already running up the score though the game itself wont be played for another month and a half. Nfl officials confirm this years championship game at new jerseys Metlife Stadium will be the priciest ever. So far the Host Committee has spent 11. 4 million dollars. But anticipates spending 70 million when its all said and done. Consulting fees, Legal Expenses and advertising are all adding up. Advertisers are also on a spending kick, as ads for the big game are sold out. Ads that run 30seconds are going for 4 million a pop. Thats up from 3. 8 million last year. Still to come. How incentives are doctoring up a pay raise for one ceo. Plus. As much of the nation battles a cold snap. Films that could help you find comfort at the box office. And. Missing from the boardroom. The real reason why its hard to find ladies leading corporate america. Thats next with bill moller. Remember that old virginia slims ad, youve come a long way baby . taint true then or today in some important areas including the corporate boardroom. There has been a lot of research about this nationally and in chicago, which is americas 3rd largest city, with what companies are doing there. Lets talk to melissa harris, shes a business columnist for the Chicago Tribune. Just how bad is it . Of the fortune 500, only 21 women are ceos. Of the fortune 1000, the number goes up to 45. But that is dismally low. Is this a trend . This is a number that is growing believe it or not. The 21 figure is the highest that it has ever been. Progress is glacially slow. What about boardrooms . With boardrooms, the number is 16. 3 of all fortune 500 Board Members are women. And that number has stalled for about 7 years. There was separate Research Done on chicago companies. Talk about some specific companies. A lot of these are still marquee names that people would recognize. So, in the chicago region, there are 4 companies here with no women Board Members. Thats cf industries, hub group, navistar, and cna financial. In addition, there are 9 companies who repot having now women executive officers. This is still representative of the National Picture at large, not just in chicago. One problem is the pool of available women. A lot of boards require that their candidates be ceos. That is a major hurdle. If you want to put a current or retired ceo in an open board seat, as i said the pool at fortune 1000 companies, is only 45 women. Many of those women are already on 2 or 3 boards. They are maxed out. They cant do anymore. So if that is your criteria, its mathematically impossible to add more women. And we really dont know why all of this is. Do we . No. These studies that were citing they just give you the numbers. They say here are the facts, you do the analysis. And even the folks that oversee these say were not even sure why these numbers are so bad. At least its important to get the numbers out and report it as youve been doing. Melissa harris, with the Chicago Tribune. Thanks. Thanks for that update bill the ceo of walgreens is enjoying a healthy pay raise. The Chicago Tribune reports greg wassons pay improved 13 to 13 million. Much of the raise came from incentives. Wasson has served as ceo of the pharmacy chain since 2009. Hes credited with managing the retailer through a massive makeover. Coming up. The films that could dethrone the hunger games from its top spot at the box office. And later in chart talk. A trader heads to the bargain bin for a retail stock. First business continues after this. Film studios have reason to be thankful. People turned out in large numbers at the box office. To feast on film. Our movie guy Erik Childress joins me on set this morning. Good morning erik. Good morning. A big weekend over the holiday. Yeah, we had not one but two records broken over the holiday weekend. We had hunger games catching fire which did almost 110 million. The highest 5 day weekend for thanksgiving ever. Then you had disneys frozen their big animated film that did over 93 million dollars. The highest opener for thanksgiving weekend. So they have many reasons to be thankful. Heres more on those box office numbers. Coming in at at number oneno problem there. Frozen, not far behind at the movie theater. There were lines to see frozen. Thor at number 3, and the best man holiday on the top 5 list. And at 5, home front at 9 million. Coming up this weekend out of the furnace. Usually the weekend after thanksgiving is sort of a dumping period for studios. They dont really open anything major. So you have this little independent film, big cast will draw a little bit of attention but i think that its not gonna get a lot of attention from the award seekers and its not gonna do very well at the box office i dont expect. Clearly though the film studios have been waiting for december to pull out all the stops. Starting with the hobbit this month. This is the movie that i think is probably going to be the highest grosser film of the month. The last hobbit film last year did over 300 million dollars. I would be curious to see if this has the same sort of traction that the lord of the rings series does. A lot of people dnt speak of the hobbit as fondly as they do that original trilogy but i still think its gonna doanything under 250 million would be a disappointment for this. What do you think about all of the marketing with anchorman . I love it. I absolutely love it. Hes everywhere. Hes everywhere. Hes in north dakota. Hes on sportscenter. He should be here promoting the movie. That would be great. I think that this is going to be a real big movie this christmas. I think you could see fokkers numbers on this thing. Probably over 200 million. People have been waiting 10 years to see these guys back together. I think its going to be a huge hit. Cant wait to see wolf on wall street. Thats coming out on christmas or before . Its coming out on christmas day. Last year i think we had Les Miserables and django unchained be the Big Christmas winners. I think of all the movies opening this is going to be the winner. I think it could even challenge the departed to be Martin Scorceses biggest hit. With the Christmas Holiday i think it has that potential. And you have seen saving mr. Banks which i am excited to see that movie as well. You should be, its actually quite a good movie. I think its a movie that will play for older audiences as well as younger audiences. Its a pg rated film. Its about the making of mary poppins. Tom hanks plays walt disney, Emma Thompson plays the woman who wrote the individual books. The films a little darker than i think people may be expecting but in a good way. In a movie that earns the tears that are presented on screen by the end of the movie. I liked it. Erik, thanks for coming on the show. See you next week. Thank you. Still ahead a trader will be along with his insights into a stand out stock in the retail sector. Hang on chart talk is next. Suffwith a deadly disease. I was one of them. My disease was obesity and after consulting with my doctor, i received the effective treatment i needed. Please join the Obesity Action Coalition to acknowledge obesity as a disease visit obesity action dot org to sign an open letter pledging your support and for more information about how to talk to your doctor about weight loss and treatment options. Together we can make a choice to end obesity now. A Public Service from the Obesity Action Coalition. Matt cavanaugh of cmz trading joins us from the Trading Floor of cboe. Good morning matt. Good morning. Youre here to talk about tj maxx. Full disclosure i love this store. And theres a reason to love this chart. The one year looks like stair steps going higher. Yeah, youre definitely not alone. Theyve had a great run. Definitely outperformed the s p 500. But encountering a little bit of trouble breaking through this 64 line here. Is it too late to buy this stock then or do you think this is going to be an issue that line . Well, i think that if youre really bullish on retail that this is definitely one of the companies that you want to be long. Not only do they have tj maxx, theyve got home brands, theyve got a growing european business. So theyre really seeing improvement in their stores. Theyre seeing same store sales up. That being said, i think that its priced pretty well and personally i would like to see it come down a little before i buy it. What would be your entry point . See resistance for it at 64. Support for it around 60 and support below that for 55. And thats actually where i would like to get in. Below 60 i think but this market has been buy every dip so. The stores are great. Ill give you a little tip. You can actually walk into one and sometimes find the same merchandise at a macys that youll see at tj maxx. Unbelievable. I think youre right. I think that management is getting it right. They are. Theyre the store thats clicking on all cylinders and the stock has definitely been rewarded. Matt, good to have you on the show this morning. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Thats it for today. Coming up tomorrowcorporate profits are at an all time high. Our traders go unplugged with their view on wether that is a plus or minus for the economy and the stock market. Thanks as always for watching. From all of us at first business, have a great thursday. The following is a paid presentation for supersmile, brought to you by guthyrenker. None of the testimonials or dentists in this show have been paid to share their opinions. A bright and healthy smile can be your biggest beauty asset. Its one of the first things people notice about you. But if youre embarrassed by your smile because of your stained, discolored, dull teeth, its hard to feel good about yourself. 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