Nightly Business Report for tuesday, december the 30th. Good evening, everybody. Yes, only one more day left of the year. Im Bill Griffeth in tonight for tyler mathisen. As bill said one more year for trading and what a year for wall street with unprecedented gains. Broke through the 18,000 mark and topped 2,000 for the first time ever. Today, stocks ended modestly lower. Lost 55 points below the 18,000 level. Nasdaq to 29 and s p down by 10 points retreating from yesterdays all time closing high. Which sector saw the biggest gains this year . Topping the list utilities. Up 28 , followed by health care which rose 24 and Technology Higher by 21 . And tgs no surprise that the worst performing sector was energy with oil on track for the biggest annual drop since 2008. Telecoms were flat on the year and materials rose by only 6 . That struggling Energy Sector is where mark lousheeny sees. We turn to mark for his stock picks for 2015. Hes chief investment strategist at janny montgomery. Hi mark. Good to see you. We finish for the equity market. Can we continue the new year in the same pace . I dont know the same pace but directionally, yes. Positive equities in 2015 and better returns than that which you should expect to get out of bonds with cash. Worst case weve advocated, continue to be in equities but expect more volatility in 2015. So investors need to brace for that but not abandon other long equity strategies. So as bill mentioned, he was introducing you, you like some Energy Stocks and lets start with your first choice here which is . Hellmans and pain. Why do you like it . Primarily, north america does poses 4 billion revenue derived from north america. A stateoftheart platform and grilling rig exposure across the united states. As a result its a much more efficient user on the part of producers in terms of being able to not only extract energy but move to where energy sites might be more productive. Its been beaten up clearly, share price was half from the highs in july of this year until recently touching 60. Rallied here to 67 a share. We think earnings while theres a big trend for 2015 should still support its dividend payout which is over 4 4. 1 right now to be precise. Its a track in terms of having a high current di dend income and the process of stabilization coming to oil prices which is our base case later in the second half of 2015 and share prices depressed in that space. Okay. Mark you make a bet on Home Builders in 2015. Theyre all still kind of waiting to build in earnest. You do this through an etf. Why are you doing this and betting on the Home Builders . Sure. Certainly for the Home Builders we like the prospect of domestic conditions obviously with job growth. Earlier we mentioned it was breeding household formation. A wave of renters which we think some migrate into the home buying marketplace and with obviously some loosening and Credit Conditions and very low mortgage rates, makes affordability relatively decent. Why that particular way to approach it rather than trying to have one single home builder to stand to benefit predicated on its home price that it locks the market into or by virtue of the region in which it constructs homes, we like sort of a proxied approach thats based in itb. We think its the most home builder etf with the d. R. Hortons, lanoirs, ryans representing 40 of the etf. Mark half a minute left. Tell us about your health care pick. Med assets. Mdas on the nasdaq. Same price at the beginning of the year. Why should people put new money in now . Round trip mostly sympathy in whats taking place in the small cap space at large, trading about 14 times earnings. It basically designs and sells software to the Health Care Industry in an effort to promote greater operational and Financial Performance and so we think its a growth industry. All u. S. Based, so should benefit from once again, Stronger Economic conditions here and as well more patience going into hospitals for care. Mark lucini always good to see you. Happy new year. Same to you, bill. Well that kind of outlook for stocks along with lower gas prices and a robust labor market helped send Consumer Confidence higher in december. In the conference boards final reading this year Consumer Confidence edged up this month on a more favorable view of current economic conditions. Back to housing. The u. S. Home prices rose again in october but the growth rate has slowed down for the 11th month in a row. The case shiller home price index for the nations 20 largest cities show home prices rose 4. 5 in october from the same month a year ago, but thats the smallest monthly gain in prices weve seen in two years. Well the Housing Market might be recovering in fifths and starting, but the rental market is stronger than ever. Stronger however, means more expensive. And theres little relief in sight. Diana olick has more. Reporter the only thing soaring higher than construction cranes this year were apartment rents. Its pretty outrageous to try to find affordable rent in this area. Reporter thats san Jose California but the same situation in much of the nation. Renters paid record 20 billion more this year than last year according to zillow. Thats 312 a year per renter. It might not sound like a lot but some metro markets are far worse. In san francisco, rents rose 14 this year and they also jumped by double digits in denver and pittsburgh. In the new york city area renters paid 10 of the total rent paid in the entire country. So why dont renters just buy a home . The rents are so high you cant save any money to put aside for a down payment. Reporter 31yearold jenny zuroko wants to buy a house with her husband, but a down payment would cost her a full years salary. People in the labor market have been struggled, underutilized with the gains they usually would. People will probably be renters longer. Reporter more this year than other years and in time should ease the sky high rents. But with rents this expected to rise further next year renters will be forced to focus more on the math. I think millennials will come back into the market now. I think theyll think twice about should i spend all this money on rent slash waste this money on rent or just buy something . Reporter because despite everything thats happened in housing i dont want to throw my money away. I want something towards retirement that, you know is worth something. Reporter homeownership still seems to be the american dream. For nightly Business Report, im diana olick in washington. The numbers are in for the final tally of the americans who signed up for Health Insurance through the Affordable Care acts healthcare. Gov web site. The department of health and Human Services said 6. 5 Million People enrolled through the plan in the federal marketplace, including first time signups and subscribers automatically reenrolled from last year. Another 600,000 found a plan through the 14 state web sites that are not using the federal governments marketplace. From health care to banking, the Banking Industry was granted a couple of rare regulatory passes at year end. Including loosened restrictions on holding derivatives and a twoyear extension for banks to shed private equity in hedge fund holdings. Mary thompson reports on whats ahead for the regulatory fronts on banks in 2015 of. Reporter years after dodd frank became lobbed Congress Seen wit lg away with the banking format in the new year. I think youll see some peelback on dodd frank and immunity about raising the requirement as to whats systemically Important Bank in the u. S. The 50 billion may well go to 100 billion. Reporter want to ease requirements for mid tier banks while keeping focused on the big democrats like senator Elizabeth Warren never wanted to bail out again. I havent had anyone contact me and say, what im really hoping for is that congress will change the laws so the big banks can get a little more profitable. And if things blow up the american taxpayer will pick up the bill. Reporter all the rules requiring banks to hold more capital, liquidity, and dial down on risk taking have made banks safer. Though potentially less attractive investments according to pwcs Regulatory Expert dan ryan. Youre going to want to invest in a business with the whole 30 of its cash in reserve for a future day. Reporter in the near future like the coming year more rules on capital and risk taking will be written including final rule for global systemically banks and limits on a banks credit exposure to other banks and a minimum longterm debt requirement for big banks. Raising whats become the perennial question facing the industry will the Regulatory Burden cause the big banks to break up . The investors stay with the banks, i dont think well see breakups. If equity markets determine valuation is too low, i think then youll see that coming. Reporter with banks waiting for key rules to be written, big being is easiest way to adjust to them. For nightly Business Report, im mary thompson. And to learn more about new banking regulations for 2015 go to our web site nbr. Com. Still ahead, common money mistakes we all make but theres still time to avoid them before the year is out. Decade ban, uncle sam may allow u. S. Produced oil to be sold overseas. Just today, a unit of the Commerce Department told several domestic Oil Producers that they should consider now exporting a form of crude oil called processed condensate to buyers outside of the united states. In the meantime the price of oil closed higher today on expectations of a decline in u. S. Inventories. Light sweet crude rose 51 cents, settled at 54. 21. And brent closed at 57. 90 a barrel. U. S. Oil production revs up its a different story at dozens of west coast ports where a worker slowed down is costing Companies Millions of dollars keeping shipments waiting days or even weeks to be offloaded. Jane wells has more from the port of los angeles. It is a traditional bed with contemporary touches on it. Reporter the port has gone hollywood, even affecting actress jane seymour. This is dramatic. This is bringing old hollywood in your life. Reporter if you want to buy may have to wait. Seymour and her partner in the furniture business are one of two thousand of businesses with the contract negotiations in slowed productivitity nations largest port complex, los angeles at long beach. Each side operational dock workers blames the other for the congestion and aini is furious. Consumers, they cant sell the orders. They cant get it and go buy something else. Reporter the National RetailFederation Appears contract talks come to a screeching halt. Already, lululemon reduced due to inventory stuck in ports and taylor said had to shipments through expensive air freights and the slowdown has been a much bigger deal than people think. Amini said he has 23 containers worth of furniture stuck on the ships and trying to revert the inventory now is a challenge. He said he spent 4 million for a new design. It was the last show. None of our samples made it because it got stock in ports. And it was a pretty big blow to our business. Reporter but from here to the mall to mcdonalds, which may have to air lift idaho potatoes to japan for french fries, the only good news is the port has not completely shut down like it did in 2002. If that happens again, the National Retail federation says it could cost the u. S. Economy 2 billion a day. For nightly Business Report, jane wells, san pedro, california. Concerns about sales growth censures of green lowered today. Market focus we begin. The sales coffee pot have experienced Significant Growth deceleration. An analyst calls the results the slowest growth in recent memory. Shares of Green Mountain keurig dropped to 133. 40. Department of Justice Reportedly examining Morgan Stanleys relationship with new century financial in the sale of subprime mortgages that were running up to the financial crisis. According to those reports, the d. O. J. And Morgan Stanley may reach a settlement early in the new year. Still, shares of Morgan Stanly up to 39 a share. And shares of sieveo cratered today cutting stock price in half. Investors got first chance to respond yesterday of a seat profit warning and the fact the oil services would suspend its dividend. Demand for services has dried up as oil prices dropped. Among the firms biggest investors are Hedge Fund Jana Partners and capital. Plunge lg 52 to 3. 92. Toyota may not reach its 2014 goal of selling more than 1 million vehicles in china. Thats according to a report citing executives from the auto maker because chinas economy is slowing more than expected resulting at a price war in the local car market. Stock price at 125. 91. Amazon ranked the most popular company in the america according to a survey conducted by the university of michigan which collected data from tens of thousands of interviews from consumers as well as other industry information. But amazon stock was not popular with investors today. It lost 1. 74 to 310 and change. Apple really dominated the holidays this year. According to data from the mobile Analytics Company fleury up to christmas were apple phone. Thats not just in the u. S. Thats all around the world. Samsung accounted for only 18 of activations. Despite that shares slumped today. Down 1 to 112. 52. Well it might be a little quick to be talking about taxes. We have one more day left in this year after all, but its not too soon to Start Talking about making smart choices for the new year. Our next guest has some money tips that could save you a bundle come the tax season. Shes ivani from Wealth Management with francis financial. Ivani, good to see you. Thank you so much. First of all, these are things you can do now that are doable to reduce your taxes. Minimize your Capital Gains taxes. How do you do that right away . The stock market this year broke records. So you may have some investments with huge gains. Im here to tell you you may be able to save on taxes on those gains. Lets say you have about 5,000 worth of gains. Look in your investment portfolio. Can you find investments that you can sell that have a 5,000 loss . If it makes sense for your portfolio, sell those investments, write it off and the gain. You avoid seeing taxes and free up money to put into better investments. You say free up money, this is sort of counterintuitive another recommendation is buy that big ticket item right now. Doesnt seem like the thing you do at the end of the year. Whats the advantage of doing that now . Well the congress recently extended some tax breaks until tomorrow. And those tax breaks give you the option to either take a deduction on your state income taxes or sales taxes. So if youre not market to purchase an item like a car, in states especially where they dont have state income taxes like arizona, florida, texas, it might make sense to go in for the purchase because then you can write off that sales tax you will pay on that car. Believe it or not, you get a tax break for paying taxes. Yes you do in some states. A lot of car makers will want to sell the cars on the last day of the year anyway. You get a good deal to begin with. Make sure to take the required minimum distributions. Thats very important. Extremely. If you are over 70. 5 you are required to take distributions or withdrawals from your retirement account. There is a minimum amount that the law requires. If you dont take these distributions, you get hit with a 50 penalty. So lets say you require to take 10,000 out, if you dont do it the irs will hit you with a 5,000 penalty. And why feed the irs more than you need to . I vi make sure youve taken those distributions. I would like to add, for people who have inherited retirement accounts from someone other than their spouse may also be subject to these minimum withdrawals. So call your advisor and make sure youve taken them. Youve given us a lot to think about and do for tomorrow. One day left to make sure this happens. Ivani, thank you. Happy new year. You as well. Thank you. Coming up, a celebration at the New York Stock Exchange 50 years in the making. Thats next. It is a big problem for pet owners during the holidays. What to do with the family dog while on vacation . Some startups are offering a solution. They run web sites that connect pet owners with pet sitters. Josh lipton has the story. Reporter 83 million dogs are in the u. S. And when owners go on vacation they need a place to stay. Traditionally, thats meant going into a kennel. Now, theres an alternative. Its called rover and its easy to use. Go online find a dog sitter and book a reservation at their house or they can come to yours. There are now 25,000 sitters available across the u. S. Rovers ceo said business booms during the holidays. Unlike the summer where people can travel throughout the summer during the holidays people travel on thanksgiving and on christmas. So theres definitely a wave of people looking to book but pretty much all the same days. So it is a crazy time of year for us. Reporter rover makes money by taking a 15 commission from its sitters. Who typically charge 30 per night. The Company Raised 25 million from investors such as menlo ventures. Rover isnt alone in the market. Theres dog vacate with 20,000 dog sitters that raised 47 million from top tier venture cap lists such as benchmark. Come on. Reporter these investors know americans spend a lot of money on their pets. Nearly 60 billion this year according to the American Pet Products association. The startups do have their critics though who say sitters pose a potential safety risk for pets. Just because sitters love dogs they say, doesnt mean youre actually qualified to care for dogs. Equally captures every pet sitter is verified and reviewed and dropping off your dog with a sitter beats leaving him in a kennel. For nightly Business Report, im josh lipton in silicon valley. Working in the same place for 50 years might sound like a dead end job for a lot of people but not if its on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange for art cashen of ubn securities spent the last half century as one of the biggest movers and shakers in the market. Cashen reigned in. Heres arts best from the last years as the center of it all. You spent your life here. How long on the floor . I came down here in squabbling clothes. Arthur c. Cashen. December 30th 1964. Heres the man himself. Arthur cashen here with us. Ive seen a great many things. Some very pleasant and terrific rallies and stories. Some not so pleasant. This is a civilization changing event. Certainly you dont want to have terrorists appear victorious but security will change everywhere. You begin to hear people get more decemberspondent as continuing day after day after day. This is stunning. People avoid all assets. Its a stampede to safety. Its a little too early, often its the second mouse who gets the cheese. Dropping like dominos all around the globe. Thats got everybody worried. I think were in for several years of really tough sledding. This is another fine mess theyve go us into. This game is on the up and up. I dont know its time to open the bubbly quite yet. I dont know if its the same page with the prayers, but with aaron. We like your hat by the way. Finally got a chance to wear it. This game is not done by high school kids. When people are selling, particularly in a selling panic theyre very nervous and the noise level, the pitch goes up. So its sold sold as opposed to take them. Buy. And you know despite todays decline, the s p is about to wrap up its 8th straight quarterly gain closing at 2080. 50 years ago, when our friend art cashen began the Stock Exchange closed at 84 just to save you from doing the math thats 2,300 . Thats if you bought it the day he started. Art said he bought the s p the day he started but sold it four days later. There is no finer gentleman on the floor right . Absolutely. He wanted to have a career as a singer. I think he made the better choice. I think he did. He did very well. Thats it for nightly Business Report for tonight. Im susie gharib. Thank you so much for joining us tonight. Im Bill Griffeth. Have a great evening, everybody. See you tomorrow. Nightly Business Report has been funded in part by thestreet. Com and action alerts plus where jim cramer and fellow Portfolio Manager stephanie link share their investment strategies, stock picks and market insights. You can learn more at thestreet. Com nbr. This is bbc world news. Funding of this presentation is made possible by the Freeman Foundation newmans own foundation, giving all profits from newmans own to charity and pursuing the common good kovler foundation, and mufg. Its a global truth. We can do more when we work together. At mufg, our banking relationships span cultures and support almost every industry