And, bad business blunders. How corporations this year are attempting to recover reputations. First business starts now. Youre watching First Business financial news, analysis, and todays investment ideas. Good morning. Its wednesday, december 26th. Im angela miles. In todays first look the final trading days of 2012. Stocks are closing in on the 4th Straight Year of gains. As of last week, the dow was up roughly 7 . The s p climbed 13 . And are you ready for this . The nasdaq is up around 20 . Herbalife plans to respond to accusations that its Business Model is a pyramid scheme at an Analyst Meeting january 7th. The flu season could be good for walgreens. The pharmacy chain stands to make hefty profits with this projected to be the worst flu season in 10 years. And Delta Airlines is hiring 400 flight attendants for overseas flights in the summer of 2013. Applications are flying in. Fresh of his christmas vacation, Tim Mulholland lands on our show today for trader talk. Good morning to you. This feels like a holiday trading week. What do you expect . The whole year has felt like a holiday trading year with the volume. But i would say that the week should end up very slow, and other than tax relatedtype issues and window dressingtype issues, i think we will be really looking forward to next year to see what unfolds, not only in the u. S. , which i think there is some optimism about the growth prospects, especially housing, but i also think as far as china is concerned, most people consider that the economy to have troughed and look for good things to happen. So i think there is a lot of optimism even in europe theres a lot of optimism, but we know how that all goes when there is a lot of optimism. So, anyway, slow trading expected this week. Will there be some last minute adjustments, or have most of those folks already gone home and closed the books for the year . I think for the most part anyone that really had anything to do really has done it already. That would be the Capital Gains taxtype selling, that sort of thing. But theres always some minor window dressing issues that could come up. So i wouldnt really pay much attention to the price action this week. What is probably more important is the first couple weeks in january. Do you have any kind of end oftheyear strategy here, or are you just kind of going sit on your hands . At this point, no. Just wait til next year and start fresh. No plan is a good plan. Its good to have you on the show this morning. Take care. Thanks angela. In our cover story, workers making the minimum will make a little more in ten states beginning january first. And each of those increases will raise the minimum wage in those states higher than the federal minimum wage of 7. 25 an hour. In missouri, the minimum wage will increase to 7. 35 an hour, ten cents above the federal minimum of 7. 25. But in oregon, itll go up to 8. 95 an hour, and in washington state, 9. 19. Anything under 10 an hour is obscene. Its not enough to live in any city in the u. S. Theres now a push to raise the federal minimum wage. The minimum wage needs to be raised. It hasnt been raised in some time. We should consider indexing it to inflation. In 2004, voters in florida approved indexing the minimum wage to the cost of living. Colorado voters did the same thing two years later. They are among ten states where that connection is made and where wages go up january first. In florida, the 12cent increase, to 7. 79 an hour, will benefit 210,000 workers. Itll add 370 to their annual wages and 46. 2 million to floridas gdp. Still, not enough, according to some. People who work 40 hours a week need a 10anhour minimum wage. This is from a retailer. Retail wages stink. We see people work three jobs just to make ends meet. Thats not fair. In late november, president obama met with Small Business owners for their input about the fiscal cliff, and the minimum wage was mentioned. I think the administration is interested in doing something, but it also comes with some baggage, so im not sure itll be taken up. Opponents of raising the minimum wage say it would hurt teenagers, an age group facing the highest Unemployment Rate already. During the recession, many of those jobs were held by adults. In fact, in colorado, two out of three minimum wage workers are older than age 20. Meanwhile, a bill in congress would raise the federal minimum wage 85 cents a year for three years until it reached 9. 80 an hour. After that, it would be linked to inflation. As endofyear charitable donations step up this week, the new York Attorney general is releasing disturbing details about charity fundraising. For profit telemarketers hired by charities to raise funds kept an average of 61. 5 cents of every dollar donated. 76 of the 602 Charity Campaigns in the study, lost money to fund raisers. The attorney general offers these tips for charitable givers research how charities use funds, be cautious about donating via social media, and be wary of any telemarketer who pressures you to give on the spot. Many shoppers head out today to return Christmas Gifts that werent exactly what they had in mind. Consumer reports is outlining some tips to make sure the transaction goes smoothly. Shoppers are advised to check first for restocking fees. Amazon charges a 20 restocking fee on media, and sears charges 15 for opened electronics. Its also advised to bring your gift receipt. Policies vary from story to store, but the least wonderful time of the year comes when retailers wont take back items without a gift receipt. Stores may offer store credit if you dont have a receipt, or might turn you away completely. The Better Business bureau is warning Holiday Shoppers to check their credit card statements for potential post christmas shockers. Extra charges have popped up on statements in christmases past. Additional things put on the bill, problems with skimming, skimming of credit card numbers, and unauthorized usage of them. Its very dangerous. You have to check your credit card statements regularly. Tom joyce of the bbb demonstrates how a credit card sleeve blocks signals from skimming devices that electronically pick up information from your card. If you notice unfamiliar purchases on your bill, the bbb recommends contacting the retailer or your bank as soon as possible to challenge the charges. Invnvtment banks are powering down their stake in the energy business. Energy was once a popular investment on wall street. In 2008, big banks were so involved in the market that banks powered an estimated 2 out of every 5 residential customers. However, lower prices and more regulation following the enron collapse are causing firms to take a step back from the business. Recently, federal regulators banned Jpmorgan Chase from selling electricity for 6 months. Its part of an investigation that the bank manipulated Energy Prices in some parts of the u. S. The holiday parties are winding down on wall street. Several Financial Firms in new york called off Holiday Events or scaled back. Report say Morgan Stanely and Credit Suisse did not sponsor parties. Citigroup, deutche bank, barclays and the Investment Banking unit of bank of america left it up to individual departments to pay out of their own accounts. Back in the day, as in before the financial crisis, wall street firms rented out nightclubs and steakhouses in midtown for holiday celebrations. The u. S. Government is calling in the National Academy of sciences for yet another safety review of airport scanners. The department of Homeland Security says the Nonprofit Group of scientists will be charged with reviewing previous studies done on the scanners. The call comes amid continuing concerns from some members of congress, as well as some scientists, about the amount of radiation that the scanners subject travelers to. Brave investors who bought junkrated greek bonds in january of 2012 are sitting on profits. The highlyrisky bond buy during an extremely volatile time for the country has earned investors 20 times more than people who purchased toprated german debt this year. Bloomberg news reports the return on the greek junk bonds is up 80 , compared to a gain of just 3. 7 for german bonds. It helped that greeces Credit Rating was upgraded to b in june from selective default when the greek soveriegn debt was restructed. Making those new years resolutions to live healthier affects your waistline and your wallet. Bankrate. Com has listed some of those popular resolutions and crunched the numbers. Exercise regularly and you could save up to 30 on medical care costs. Quit smoking and the average savings is 2,000 on cigarettes. Give up a 10ounce bag of potato chips in your lunch and save more than 600 in the coming year. Still to come, what corporations can learn from 2012 mishaps. A look back at the biggest blunders later on in the show. And, how to squeeze more from your personal finances in 2013 is just ahead with bill moller, after this in the know message. From a peronsal finance perspective, what do you suppose is in store in the new year . Let me guess higher taxes . Thats one of many things that will be chaning. Gail marks jarvis is a personal finance columnist. Shes also the author of saving for retirement without living like a pauper or winning the lottery. And you expect kind of acrosstheboard tax increases at some point for everyone. Right. It might not happen early in the year, we will have to see. I expect congress and the president are still going to be fighting about what our taxes are going to be early in the year. But eventually, maybe late in 2013, maybe not until later than that, we are going to see higher taxes for everyone, regardless of your income. So, if you have been hearing people with 200,000 in income are the people that will be fingered, dont believe it. Eventually, in order to make the budget work, everyone will face higher taxes. And also on the spending side for government you are expecting medicare and Social Security will be lowered in its cost, which means fewer benefits for people . Yes. Now, if you are 55 or older, you probably dont have to worry about that, although you may be hit with costof living increases that will not be as generous as in the past. So you could be affected a little bit. But if you are younger, you cant count on it thway has been, which means you have to save more than ever. And i have been telling people, your taxes are low now. They are probably going to go up later. Which means you are going to have less money to save later. So save as much as you possibly can. Push it now so you have money for your retirement at the point that Social Security and medicare arent there for you the way youd think. In terms of savings, havent Consumer Debt levels dropped in 2012, and what does that bode for 2013 . That helps. What has been happening is people came out of 2008 in just disastrous condition. They had way too much debt, they were losing their jobs. They have stopped losing their jobs. They havent started getting new jobs, because companies have still been very reluctant to hire. But what people have done is they havent added new debt. What has happened is a lot of debt has been taken away from them through kind of involuntary measures, through foreclosures. But slowly but surely, people have less debt. They are also very cautious though and this is a good thing about running up new credit card debt. We see people using credit cards much more reluctantly than in the past. Gail marks jarvis, thanks for the preview of 2013. Thank you. Were going to take a look at the biggest corporate flubs of 2012, coming up next. Apple, walmart and big banks around the world all made this years list of the 2012 worst reputation falls. Daniel diermeier, professor at the Kellogg School of management, joins us now with insights, and you call this a banner year. Thank you very much for having me again. This is indeed a banner year. We have had a lot of companies that got into trouble. When we just look at the Global Financial services industry, there would have been five or Six Companies that could have made the list just on their own. And we can name a few bank of america, j. P. Morgan chase with that big loss, Goldman Sachs makes list, hsbc. Did it change peoples perceptions of these big banks . When we look at the data, we can see that trust in the Financial Service industry has further eroded. So any time you have a crisis like that, it has an impact on the company overall. But when you have a bunch of companies together, it does erode trust in the industry as a whole. There was also a tragic event that made the list costa concordia. Yes. Costa concordia, we all remember the images of the halftippedover cruise ship right there off the coast of italy. It was a tragic case, it was obviously a loss of lives and a tragic situation all around. What made it particularly striking, however, was some of the kind of bizarre circumstances surrounding the behavior of the captain at the time. And that immediately raised questions about the Safety Standards at the operator. Thats right, thoughts of an affair with a younger woman, and there were just a lot of details on that. Moving on to apple and foxconn. This was a shocking story to a lot of people as to how people were treated over in china as they make iphones and ipads for apple. Yes, it was a surprising story for many. And of course, apple, and Iconic Company with a Passionate Customer base nevertheless found itself in the spotlight over Labor Conditions not at its own factories, but at a supplier. What you have here is really an increasingly common phenomenon, where brand companies, companies that are well known, are held accountable for Business Practices that go really beyond the immediate operations that they control. Walmart had issues in mexico with alleged corruption happening there as well as in the United States with worker outrage, especially from people who did not want to work on thanksgiving day. Yes. Walmart had a tough year. You had in addition another supply chain issue in the bangladeshi factory where that horrific fire happened. Then you had the Corruption Cases in mexico and other instances. What that has raised i think has really raised some issues on the governance structure and how walmart has handled those issues. It also has reunited or reenergized the antiwalmart coalition that has been active in the United States for many years, but which has lost its momentum a little bit over the last few years. And one case that disappointed many people lance armstrong. Yes, lance armstrong, it is obviously a personal tragedy, it has to do with his life as a cyclist. But it also has brought to attention some of the challenges that nonprofits and charitable foundations face in this case, it was because of the association with lance armstrong. Another organization on the list, komen foundation, also found itself in the spotlight. So that shows that notforprofits have reputations themselves, and need to worry about them just as much as corporations. And chickfila also getting a mention by you as well. Thats right. Good to have you on the show today. That is daniel diermeier, he is a professor at the Kellogg School of management. Always a pleasure. Thank you very much for having me. Up next, commodities setting up for breakouts or breakdowns by the end of the year. Chart talk is next. [ game announcer ] touchdown and here comes the dunk. [ male announcer ] everyone loves to dunk. [ game announcer ] will he dunk it . Yes, he will. [ male announcer ] mcdonalds tender, juicy chicken mcnuggets in creamy ranch and spicy buffalo sauce. Just 4. 99 for 20 of your Favorite Chicken mcnuggets. [ game announcer ] will he dunk it . Yes, he will. [ male announcer ] more ways to love mcnuggets. Gary kozlowski of united Futures Trading Company joins us now for chart talk. Good morning gary, hope you had a great christmas. Certainly did. Lots of gifts, and i didnt have to give that money out this year for a change. Interesting year for you. Lets talk about the charts going into the end of the year. I know you watch commodities. Where do you think youll see some pockets of strength in the commodities going into the final trading week here . What i am looking at right now, probably the biggest one is going to be gold. We saw gold all last week just pulling back, and they are having the worst quarter in how many years as far as it pulling back . One of the situations that we are really closely monitoring is down in south africa. The miners down there, they are not evacuating the mines, they are not letting the replacements come in. Theyre Holding Things up right now. Were seeing that bringing gold up. Also, we are seeing russia, iraq, and a few of the others coming in and purchasing more gold. India also. They are starting to step up their purchases of it. So we are going to continue to see gold slowly coming up, plus the flight to safety right now. With all the other currencies in such a conundrum right now, we are seeing gold and silver, everybody is starting to slowly feed into that. Now if we look at the currencies, we see the dollar for whatever reason is coming back up. It looks like it wants to stay above this 80 range right now. Flight to safety on the u. S. Dollar. Japan right now, we just had the election there. We are seeing what they are doing over there. They are devaluating the yen. The reason for that is they need to export. The yen is too strongly priced. Their exports arent going out. So they are doing a good job with that. Also we are seeing the british pound theres not a lot of comfort zone in there right now we are seeing it come off of the 1. 62 range. We are looking at the euro. The euro is definitely probably definitely probably going to break under the 1. 30 range, probably by the first week in january is what we are hoping for on that. What about oil . What we saw was oil did break above 90 last week. That is part of the past. What we are looking at now is oil, there is a lot of Oil Inventory right now. We are 76 above where we were yeartodate last year. So right now what we are looking at is probably in the midtolower 80s, hopefully by the end of this week. That would be sweet at the pump for all of our consumers. They would love that gary. Thanks for bringing that good word. Have a good trading day. Thank you. Thats it for now. Coming up tomorrow, our film critic will be here with the big reveal on whether 2012 will be a recordshattering year at the box office. Plus, the top films of 2012. From all of us at First Business, thank you for watching, and have a wonderful wednesday. This is ktvu channel 2 morning news. Good morning everybody,