dust bin. sue? >> that's right. that's coming up in a few minutes. but as you mentioned the president is meeting silicon valley's top tech titans. ceos from google and apple and facebook among them. the president as you mentioned wants to talk about improving the health care website but these ceos are focused more on the government's spying program. amman javers is following the still developing story for us from washington. >> we have something a little interesting going on right now. the ceo meeting with the president in the roosevelt room here at the white house started at about 10:45 eastern time here in washington and it is still going on at this hour. we got cameras into the meeting to see some of the opening moments of that meeting and the president reportedly joking with the ceo of netflix about whether or not he brought copies of the new season of "house of cards" before they got down to the serious business of this conversation today. but they are still in there over two hours in this meeting so clearly something of substance being discussed. just what it is, though, we don't know. the white house spokesman is not saying at this point. we're hoping to get some kind of a read out on this meeting when it does break up and we'll bring that to you as soon as we have it. we're getting news out of the white house in terms of who's going to take over for jeff zion to handle the healthcare.gov rollout so troubled and botched. jeff had been the point guy leading that. we're told by the white house that a man named kirk dell ben nay a former microsoft executive is going to take over that role here at the white house and sort of honcho the website rollout from here on out because jeff is taking over at the national economic council. they needed to move him out of the way and bringing kirk in, sue. >> amman, before we letgo, talk to me a more about the battle that seems to be brewing between the white house and media specifically when it comes to access, access to the president and access to information. what can you tell us? >> yeah, sue. there have been some real moments of frustration for the white house press corps, folks particularly still photographers are upset that what the white house has been doing a lot lately is bringing their own white house photograph per into events but barring actual press photographers from covering those same events. there was a flashpoint just last week on air force one on the trip to south africa for the nelson mandela service, in which there was a photogenic moment, a number of ex-presidents on air force one with president obama, reporters not allowed to cover that but the white house photographer did cover that. we had a chance to talk to the president of the white house correspondents association and we asked him why it's so important to reporters that independent reporters be allowed to come in and cover these events. take a listen. >> a great example is in 1981 when ronald reagan was shot, the white house released a photograph of him in the hospital standing with nancy reagan at his side in his bath robe in his pajamas noents reassure the country. we found out later the photo was cropped but they cropped out was the iv tubes running up and down just outside the lens. a photo journalist or cameraman would have gotten that. >> the key is for reporters that cover the white house, they want independent reporters, people aren't on the white house's payrolls to be covering these events. >> absolutely. thank you very much. breaking news in the bond market. the two-year note going up for auction. rick santelli is tracking the action. what's demand like, ricky? >> hey. it gets an a for apple and, of course, this is a short maturity and short maturities ought to be nailed to the wall. not a lot of volatility no matter what the fed does with taper and this, indeed, seemed to be the case so an a is the grade. the yield.345 below the one issued price trading around 35 basis points. it has the best bid to cover since november of 12 at 3.77, although that equal january of 2013. the indirects were a little light at 21.5 versus 25%. and the directs were a little heavy at 30.2, but tyler, it's a solid, solid auction and, of course, tomorrow's auction will be a bit early for obvious fed statement and press conference reasons. back to you. >> very interesting day ahead. rick santelli will be with us, of course, throughout the day today and into tomorrow. meanwhile, the senate voting on that budget deal that was reached in the house and passed over there last week, our chief washington correspondent john harwood has the details. what's the timeline now? is it all done, jon? >> not all done but it's in the process of being done. senate and the congress is giving markets the kind of present they wanted for christmas, that is a little calm and stability and not any more continuation of the crisis atmosphere. last week the white house passed this patty murray/paul ryan budget deal. today the senate with 67 votes, cleared a potential filibuster hurdle, 12p areps joining with all 55 democrats. this is a noncontroversial baby step kind of deal, but there had been some suspense as to whetherp areps were going to go along, enough of them to clear a potential filibuster because it does raise the short-term spending by adjusting the sequester caps. this is now done. in a debate period where senators are going to the floor, stating their position for the record before the final vote, that is now scheduled to happen tomorrow evening. that's wednesday evening, unless both sides agree to yield back the remaining debate time, get on to other business. that's not expected currently, so we're on a track for the budget deal to finally get passed and sent to the president of the united states tomorrow evening. tyler? >> jon, thank you very much. you know, this is a big day for us business news, financial news wonks because the fed is kicking off a two-day meeting on interest rates. it doesn't get any better than this, does it, steve? we could have a senate vote on janet yellen this week if he sh becomes the next fed chief. steve liesman here with the results of our fed survey. i described for the radio broadcasters a few moments ago janet yellen is ben bernanke's sort of monetary soulmate. >> fair or not fair is. >> that's a good point and lead in, tyler, because that's what our panel believes. we surveyed 42 economists and strategists in our cnbc fed survey and i want to show you, did a double take on this, compared to bernanke is yellen going to be much more dovish, no different, hawkish, et cetera if i originally thought they thought she was more dovish but if you look at it, it's come from a decline compared to the last survey and those that think she's going to be much more dovish, no different here, as well, and nobody thinks she's going to be much more hawkish. it's interesting. i think they think yellen will be much more like tyler was saying, much more like bernanke. we asked people as bernanke on his way out here, what they thought of qe1, qe2, qe3, essential, harmful, not needed, no help here. overwhelming support it was essential. there is no orange bar. nobody thought qe3 was essential. how about helpful? what you find here is, okay, now we get about 28, 29% think that qe3 was helpful. neutral. as you fill this in see more and more opposition, harmful, not needed the answers to qe3 where over here you see all the support for, qe3. how about grading bernanke? overall he gets a "b." a little bit up from the b-minus in our last su va here. some of the comments we got from our respondents here. those giving him an "a" included you can see steven gallagher, makes a kind of critical comment. time may tell us monetary policy took pressure off fiscal policy and therefore contributed to poor fiscal policy, still gives him an "a." the next person giving him an "a," stuart hoffman. calls him a national hero. alan blinder from princeton, a little more critical, said without lehman he would have given him an "a." how about some who give him a "b." "a" for the crisis. incomplete for 2010 to 2013 according to barry as the cost will be realized over time. a lot of commentary like that and this, from jon riding who says "a" for handling the financial crisis but a "d" for the monetary policy leading up to the crisis. too easy on the way and the continuation of qe. lot of comments on that. >> very interesting. your view tomorrow, will we get the taper or not? >> i think it's lined up. i think the fed if it was a close call in september, when i look at the data right now i think it should be a slam dunk. if i'm wrong i'm wrong in january. i will be right in january. >> cnbc your place to turn for live coverage of the fed decision tomorrow. it will be right here on cnbc 1:50 eastern time tomorrow followed by fed chair ben bernanke's news conference at 2:30. >> thanks, ty, very much. with the fed expected to start tapering soon, maybe tomorrow, maybe january, how should investors position themselves going into the new year? we welcome back our power players, andrew is managing director and senior portfolio manager at morgan stanley wealth management with me here and gary is chief macro strategist at wells fargo advisoradvisors. welcome to you both. andrew, you do not think they are going to start tapering tomorrow? >> i'm not an economist. i'm a portfolio manager, but it would seem at his last meeting it probably is not likely and we're probably looking out to next year. but the story line of this year is all the people that got too bearish in anticipation of tapering that's been a mistake so far. >> a big mistake given how this market has run. how do you play this market going into the new year with the view in your opinion that the fed probably won't taper tomorrow? >> well, you have to look at the playbook and the playbook says when the fed does change policy, markets get a little bit more volatile and so i think that's coming, but i'm not sure it's right around the corner. in the meantime i think there are a lot of very good growth stocks at reasonable multiples and i think that's what we need to focus on. >> gary, would you agree with that and what do you think, if anything, the fed might do tomorrow some. >> well, sue, i think that, you know, the fed has said it's going to happen soon, within a few months, so if it's not tomorrow it's early next year. the important thing is, it's not going to be a surprise. we're all anticipating it's going to happen in the near future and i think for that reason, it's probably not going to have as big a market impact as the sort of surprise discussion of taper asking last spring. so, you know, we're telling people that, you know, we're not expecting a sharp increase in yields and maybe we get a little volatility off this but probably not a lot. >> you know, andrew, if you had to pick sectors that still look attractive to you, given what we've just laid out, where would you be putting cash to work or where are you putting cash to work? >> i know there's weakness near term because of year-end selling and traditionally we get kind of the bounce on the low quality stocks in january. i would be careful with that because i don't think some of the health care, growth names, yes, some of the ubber growth names they've done very well and they're expensive but there's a lot of pretty good health care, technology stocks i don't think are expensive. i think they'll continue to do well in 2014 until we get higher multiples on true growth stocks. >> gary, weigh in on where you would put cash to work right now? >> sue, we like the stock market. we do think we'll get a decent year next year, probably not as good as this year but we favor the cyclical sectors. with the economy continuing to improve and the outlook we believe is still positive, that you ought to be overweighting things like consumer discretionaries, industrials and tech sector. >> thank you both. merry christmas, maihappy new y. ty to you. >> new data out right now on in store foot traffic this holiday shopping season. courtney reagan at queens center mall in elmhurst, new york. hi. >> hi, tyler. the winter storm that dropped snow from missouri to main sidelined shoppers with just a couple days left to go until christmas. according to shopper track, in store shopper traffic fell nearly 26% on saturday alone. brick and mortar sales, those are again sales that are only done in store, fell 5.4%. lower but much less in that traffic. some shoppers got ahead of the storm, in store brick and mortar sales according to shopper track up 3.3% for friday after the storm, sunday's in store brick and mortar stores down, making the weekend down 1.5% for in store. the big question that retailers are white knuckling are those shoppers going to make up the difference this week and double down or are those sales lost for good? i got to tell you, inside this mall, not a lot of foot traffic for eight days until christmas. back to you. >> all right. courtney, thanks very much. two big headlines that could have huge implications for the drug industry. patients and shareholders. sara, seema moody, both on the case. sara, you first. conflict of interest maybe in the pharma industry. doctors have gotten paid by drug companies to promote their drugs, but that may all be about to change. coming up, we'll tell you how one pharma giant is changing the script on doctor pay. >> and concerning data on vitamins and lack of benefits they provide. will this impact consumer demand? we discuss next on "power lunch." [ male announcer ] the new new york is open. open to innovation. open to ambition. open to bold ideas. that's why new york has a new plan -- dozens of tax free zones all across the state. move here, expand here, or start a new business here and pay no taxes for ten years... we're new york. if there's something that creates more jobs, and grows more businesses... we're open to it. start a tax-free business at startup-ny.com. take a look at shares of 3 m a big stock to watch today up better two and a third percent. raising its dividend 35% to 85.5 a share for 2014 and increasing its share buybacks over the next few years and plans to spend between 5 and $10 billion on acquisitions through the year 2017 and that stock up 40% this year alone. stick that one on the refrigerato refrigerator, ty. >> this caught my eye, big news, glaxo, one of the largest pharmaceuticals going to stop paying doctors to promote its drugs and secondly as you may have heard yesterday regulators say vitamins are pretty much useless. sara first, first welcome, good to have you with us. >> good to be here, thank you. >> what does this mean for glaxo and shareholders? >> they're breaking the mold here. glaxosmithkline, british giant pharmaceuticals makes anti-depressants and consumer products like aqua fresh and nick core rest, tums, the first to stop paying krs to promote drugs. for decades this was an industry standard practice but it's raising concerns about conflicts of interest. it is with this announcement going to stop tying compensation for sales representatives to the number of prescriptions written for the drugs that they make. the question is, why is glaxo making this move? i talked to glaxo spoke people and they tell me they're trying to address the perception it's not in the patient's best interest to have these kind of doctor/pay relationships, but we should note while glaxo claims it's following industry changes, responding to shifts in societal demands, it does have a reputation to repair. glaxo is at the center of a corruption investigation in china over allegations it bribed hospitals, doctors and officials and -- >> they paid a huge fine, right? >> and also in the united states paid a $3 billion record fine last year to settle allegations it marketed drugs for unapproved uses. >> off label use. now glaxo is one player in this business. >> true. >> not the only one. will others likely follow suit? >> analysts are suggesting that yes, glaxo could be a trendsetter here. certainly there's pressure on the industry right now and other pharma giantses have paid to settle similar cases. under obama care, all payments to doctors have to be disclosed, made public next year and analysts told cnbc earlier that all the major companies are going to have to do it because regulators and politicians are increasingly focused on it. astrazeneca has been touting its policy in 2011 to improve ethics around doctor/pharma relationships here, got rid of payments for doctors to attend international meetings, but none of the others have really moved. interesting to watch some of the other names, j&j, merck, we reached out to no comment there. we'll watch to see what they do on the front. >> the change in the business model and the way medicines were prescribed and sold. >> a lot of attention on this one. >> thanks very much. >> all right. let's move on now. seema, this could be a pretty bitter pill for lots of people to swallow. those especially who take vitamins. what is going on here and why now? >> here's the deal, medical experts revealed data on if we should take vitamins and here is their bottom line. >> i generally don't recommend vitamins. i recommend healthy dietary patterns and regular exercise because it's unnecessary. >> dr. miller and other researchers co-wrote a bold editorial that highlights the lack of benefits in taking vitamins and mineral supplements an how they may be even harmful. what's the solution? follow what your mother probably told you, which is to have a well balanced nutritious diet. not clear whether people will take dr. miller's advice because the vitamin and supplement industry has been a fast-growing one. in fact, euro star expected to reach $28 billion by 2017. analysts saying one of the main drivers has been the aging baby boomer population. gnc holdings, nu skin, herbal life had a significant footing in the vitamin and supplement industry. analysts i've spoken to don't seem to be too concerned. webb bush securities say they saw this research and at this point are not changing their earnings estimates of the vitamin names they cover. we'll have to see what happens here, tyler. sue, back to you. >> seema, thank you very much. i think they're right. it may take a while for that one to sink in. consumer discretionary stocks, the best performing sector in the s&p 500 this year. the one stock that you need to buy in that group heading into 2014. and a laggard, the sector underperforming this year but will next year be different? might it be better? what's ahead for the sector in q1? all that straight ahead on "power lunch." mine was earned orbiting the moon in 1971. afghanistan in 2009. on the u.s.s. saratoga in 1982. 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a lot of people have been asking that very question and now so is a sitting federal judge in new york in an opinion piece sending shock waves through the legal and financial worlds. scott cohen here with the story. this is a blistering article. >> the fact as you said written by a sitting federal judge in new york is amazing. judge jed raycough, never been shy about his opinions or afraid to upset the apple cart. he once ruled the death penalty unconstitutional and blocked sec settlements with bank of america and citigroup but his opinion piece in the new york review of books says what a lot of people frankly have been thinking ate the financial crisis. if the great recession was in material part the product of intentional fraud the failure to prosecute those responsible must be judged one of the more egregious failures of the criminal justice system in many years. you don't go after the companies because they are too big to jail and you don't go after the individuals because that would involve the kind of years long investigations that you no longer have the experience or the resources to pursue. >> i think the department has been approached by the department of justice on a professional basis, it has gone after people in the criminal law when they thought that they could. i don't see any indications they're pulling punches in their criminal investigations. >> white collar attorney reid broadski was a federal prosecutor until earlier this year. >> far from the fact that the government has brought civil fraud cases that they are willing to find evidence that they think is fraudulent and bring such cases and if they were criminal they would have brought them. >> he does say the judge does make some good points, particularly when it comes to going after corporations before individuals. the justice department spokesman says the judge didn't give a single example of an executive who should have been charged but was not. tyler, this gives people stuff to talk about. they've been talking about it already. five years on, the statute of limitation on many of these crimes has run out. others the clock is still ticking. >> scott cohn thank you very much. >> main street is talking about it so we're going to talk about this. greg zuckerman with the wall street journal joins us. you were on top of the financial crisis. and we see these crises repeat over and over again. so first of all, why do so many people miss the warning signs and do you agree with the judge? should there be more prosecutions of a higher level? we've seen, you know, the district attorney here in the southern district of new york be very aggressive but a lot of the big fish are to the being rounded up yet? >> right. so with all due respect to the judge, instinctively makes sense they should have gone after more high-level executives but it's hard to prosecute stupidity and my argument is that the experts got it wrong when it came to the financial crisis. the guys who led the banks, bernanke, greenspan, so i don't think it was willful. there were times when you look at the rating agencies there were people that realized there was lot of junk put into some of the other products, but for the large part a lot of the people were fooled themselves and didn't expect a financial crisis. it's hard to prosecute that. >> yeah. and if i read between the lines you're saying that in the case of a lehman brothers or something like that, there was no malice involved. it just was they weren't good trades, they were overexposed, took on too much risk, in an effort to make money, but there was no malice involved. >> that's exactly right. that's my argument that there were individuals that knew this was coming or had a sense this was coming, but even the top executives didn't as we saw by what happened. had they know they would have prepared a little better and it they relied on conventional wisdom which was that greenspan, bernanke, those kinds of people wouldn't let a financial crisis like this happen. raise interest rates or take other steps. hard to prosecute that. >> right. let's turn to your other beat which is energy right now. because the front page story, america becoming less reliant on the middle east for energy, now that crude is pouring out of places like north dakota, and you've covered that in length in your book "the frackers" talking about the new energy industry if you will. what are the long-term re percussions here and might china also play in all of this? >> so we all know about the jobs being created, about how natural gas prices have collapsed but one of the real things, the benefits of the is revolution is the flexibility it's giving politicians when it comes to how to act in terms of our allies, in terms of the middle east, and that's going to change going forward. the geopolitical impact one of the most important repercussions of this resurgence. the fact that a saudi prince on the front page of the "wall street journal" is lashing out at the united states sort of suggests things are changing. the middle east is going to mean less to us at the margin and i talked to generals and some military experts about this and who's going to take -- step in potentially china. now do we want that or not is a big question. kind of the important implications a lot of people in d.c. and on wall street are starting to think about. >> what about china, though? they've been aggressive in going into africa, they've been aggressive going into different parts of europe, canada. how big of a challenge will they be to our eventual ability to export energy? >> in general we're much reliant on the middle east than before and they're much more reliant so we only get about 7% of our crude from the middle east and they increase on some of those countries. the question are they going to step in help us potentially, chip in some of the costs of keeping that region secure. this is all at the margin but i think they will. the question is do we want that or not? some people argue and i kind of agree that china's got its hands full right now keeping its own people happy so we don't really have to worry too much about them becoming a little more focused on the military and spending more on their military, but other people are worried about china. it's sort of a wild card as this whole energy revolution plays out in this country. >> all right. very interesting, greg. thanks a million. good to see you. happy holidays. >> you too. >> greg zuckerman of the "wall street journal." his book "the frackers." gold prices getting ready to close right now. bertha coombs is tracking the action. >> precious metals very much under pressure with the dollar stronger and expectation we'll hear something from the fed tomorrow about a potential taper given the economic news we've seen. gold after being up for two days, giving it up today, down more than 1% and, you know, even as investors have gotten out of gold in droves since mr. bernanke said that they were getting ready to take away the punch bowl in june, so have retail investors as well. with the gold etf down 450 tons this year. sue? >> all right. thank you very much, bertha. let's see how the market in the bond pits is performing given the fact that we had an a auction in the two-year note today. how does it look, ricky? >> you know, it's easy to have a good grade on the short it's the long end we need to look at. intraday of 30 year bond yields, 391, moved back towards 387. they weren't a big portion of the buyback so you might not have paid close attention. look at the spread between 5s and 30s, steep today but it was at 222 the end of last year, we're in the 237, 238 area. the euro versus the dollar we hover just under 138, it was at 132 on the last trading day of last year. tyler, it's all yours. >> thank you very much. it's the best performing sector in the s&p 500 this year, but are there still good opportunities in that group right now? and do you need cash? maybe you turn to your rich relative? dominic chu and robert frank all over those stories. dom, you first. >> how about you take a little break from the power lunch and do some investing, rest and relaxation. some r and r for your investment portfolio after the break. >> millionaires giving away so much money to family members they're called the family bank. how much they're giving away and why it could create huge problems down the road coming up. americans take care of business. they always have. they always will. that's why you take charge of your future. your retirement. ♪ ameriprise advisors can help you like they've helped millions of others. listening, planning, working one on one. to help you retire your way... with confidence. that's what ameriprise financial does. that's what they can do with you. ameriprise financial. more within reach. [ male announcer ] this december, experience the gift of unsurpassed craftsmanship and some of the best offers of the year at the lexus december to remember sales event. this is the pursuit of perfection. welcome back to "power lunch." i'm eamon javers at the white house where just within the past few minutes, after more than two hours, that meeting with the technology ceos and president barack obama has now broken up. our cameras captured some pictures here of the ceos as they were leaving. a cornucopia of the top names in the business leaving the white house here just a few minutes ago. our producer on the street, karen james, was able to catch up with apple ceo tim cook, and she asked him about what he thought of the appointment of a former microsoft executive to head up the healthcare.gov rollout. take a listen. >> great meeting. >> sir, can you tell me what do you think of the president's appointment of mr. kirk dell bean nay? >> i think he'll be fantastic. tell me more, why? >> i'm headed to another meeting, guys. thank you. >> you can see a couple tight lipped ceos, not many of those ceos wanted to talk to any of the reporters waiting for them. we'll have to wait to see what the white house says went what went on in this meeting. a lengthy meeting, we're told they were talking about the health care website and the u.s. national security posture and the leaks from edward snowden and the cooperation between the technology companies and u.s. intelligence agencies. very, very sensitive stuff here at the white house today, guys. >> absolutely. well, we await more details on that. thank you, eamon, very much. >> you bet. >> as we close out a banner year for the u.s. stock market, cnbc is taking a close-up look at some of the real drivers of the bull run in 2013. the single best performing sector in the s&p 500 this year, consumer discretionary. dominic chu looking at specific names, the best performers and where the investing opportunities still are. >> so like you said consumer discretionary stocks are the best performing sector in the s&p. that's reason for at least a little bit of optimism. why? because more optimism comes from that -- this subsection of this particular industry, specifically travel and leisure. we'll take a page out of simon's playbook here. some of the stocks have been on a tear. for the really more americans start to feel a little more secure about their financial well being that's letting them open up their wallets a little more, travel more, and push the travel and leisure stocks higher. check out some of the big names in the broader leisure business, avis up nearly 90% in 2013. we'll stick with the transportation on wheels theme. who wants to go rv'ing? inchs like win na beggo. those shares have seen similar returns this year. what about one of the most discretionary of discretionary spending categories, gambling. after all, who goes gambling if they don't have the money to lose? caesars entertainment is up 200% in 2013. a huge move for a casino company. for where the investing opportunities are. we turned to gaming analyst robin farley and her best idea for next year is norwegian cruise line. a hotel in the water. robin likes norwegian because they weren't the biggest player in the business, still got room to grow and also have a fluor fleet of ships with a lot of amenities and that gets them a price premium for their product. her stock to avoid next year is harley-davidson. she isn't high on the hog because investors are looking for margin improvement here and harley's core demographic is getting older. new products for younger riders may not be as profitable so that is one reason to stay away from harley and keep an eye on travel and leisure. up next in "street signs," we're going to check out one of the biggest purchases thae consumer will ever make and what it tells us about the economy. back over to you. >> dom, thank you very much. if you need cash to buy a harley or take a cruise, robert frank has the answer. go to your rich unc uncle millionaires are becoming the bank for their kids and extended family. robert has more. robert, this is very i guess not surprising, but some of the amounts are. >> the amounts are amazing. millionaires are contributing so much to their families right now they're being called the family bank. nearly half of those with investable assets of 5 million more have given money to their extended family. more than 80% have given financial support to their adult children and 39% to their grandkids. the average amount, get this, given over the past five years, is $313,000. now the money comes with a few strings attached, of course. three quarters of millionaires would stop giving if the money is not used wisely and more than a third would stop if the money was not appreciated. this could be hurting some families in the end. banks when you are a family bank create codependency where family deadbeats come to rely on the money and millionaires rely on control. the key to successful family banking is setting clear terms, conditions and timelines. when tyler savings and loan opens for business only for this period and for this purpose. >> and are most of these, do we have a distinction whether these, quote, gifts were loans or outright gifts and it can get blurry fast? >> in a family situation most even if they are loans in the beginning turn into gifts. this is financial support. these are the unsung heros supporting so many. especially when young people can't find work this is the only support they get. >> they give them a loan but forgive the loan. sue, down to you. >> coming up, it ty, government gone wild. what our lawmakers are wasting billions of taxpayer money on. >> all week on "power lunch," the top five stories of the year. number four, the canadian company that spiraled out of control. more "power lunch" in two minutes. 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(vo) so do we, business pro. so do we. go national. go like a pro. coming up on "street signs" at the top of this hour, we're all addicted to low prices, right? price wars between retailers can make or break a season. we look at the ugly side of this from the workers' perspective and the type of worker. also how ford is using fomo to sell cars. the question we have, though, is does it really sell those cars? all those and lots more coming up top of the hour, 2:00 p.m. eastern. make sure you join us. back to you on "power lunch." >> thank you very much, mandy. we'll see you at 2:00. all this week we're counting down the top five biggest stories you saw on "power lunch." today, we look at number four. >> "power lunch" top stories of 2013. number four. blackberry's death spiral. >> blackberry shares moving lower. reports indicate it has lost home depot as a significant enterprise customers. >> it's been a volatile week for shares of blackberry down sharply on a bearish sell side note. >> what can thorsten heins do for an encore? >> blackberry q 10 which has a touch screen and a physical keyboard. >> blackberry right now the shares are up 7.5% because there are reports the company could go private. >> shares are down more than 80% since the apple iphone was released in june 2007. that equates to a market cap loss of roughly $30 billion. >> second quarter earnings not looking so good. the company is going to post about a billion dollar loss. it is planning to cut 40% of its work force. >> t mobile will stop stocking blackberry hand sets in its stores. >> thorsten heins getting the boot. >> all right. let's bring in seema moody to talk more about this. talk about a rough year, seema. i mean it really has been terrible for blackberry, but look ahead for me into 2014. how do you see this playing out? >> well, i would first say, sue, for 2013, had this would be a great case study or just a great lesson for any aspiring tech entrepreneur on what not to do. in terms of 2014, the company did raise a whole lot of debt, so let's see what they can do with this cash in terms of reinventing their smartphone line. that seems to be the key. keep in mind they are reporting earnings on friday, so a lot of anticipation on what blackberry will report in terms of how their bb 10 phones are doing. of course, also some management changes taking place over the past couple months. some senior executives leaving so you want to see a management team that is put in place that can really help blackberry turn around. >> yet, ats the same time, we have some companies that are putting in orders for blackberry. >> sure. >> so they haven't deserted the device completely. >> exactly. there are still people. i have a blackberry right here. there are still people using the blackberry phone that enjoy that keyboard. so there clearly is a customer out there. the question is can blackberry capitalize on that customer. >> thank you very much, seema. all this week we are counting down the top stories of 2013. we've had best buy, and now blackberry. tomorrow we'll continue the countdown with number three. coming up, did you feel like it was a waste spending 15 bucks on that pumpkin spiced double latte drink? you won't believe how much the u.s. government spent on the title "love between the covers." the magnitude of the government's wasteful spending and the staggering numbers coming up next on "power lunch." 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they criticize $2 million for the refurbishment of a mill in virginia. i've been to that mill, it needed refurbishment. >> i'm not sure that romance novel is waste. >> the softer side of jon fortt. >> new to the cynical east. >> we need more young people in this country to fuel the economy and romance norvles you could argue will help that. >> no doubt there's a lot of wasteful stuff. >> there is. >> if you can pick at it. >> if you think about it, there are hard choices that have to be made and unfortunately in this economy, you have to make those hard choices. you wonder whether or not some of these programs, yes, we may want them and need them, but do we really need them more than say other welfare programs. >> we're going to go to hampton pierson whos has the details on republican senator tom coburn's list of massive pork in the government. hampton? >> tyler, the 100-page -- excuse me, top 100 of government spending he says could have been cut out this year. the headliner, $7 billion worth of military equipment being destroyed as u.s. troops get ready to pull out of afghanistan. nearly $1.5 billion to keep the lights on in under utilized or unused federal buildings. talking about this, $616,000 spent to promote romance novels by the national endowment for the humanities bought you a documentary called "love between the covers." a traveling exhibit and a website. and, of course, no surprise, an estimated $39 million spent on the launch of the obama care website which the senator describes as the worst product launch since new coke back in 1985. >> the incompetence of rolling it out, nobody could not be critical of, and the amount of money they spent. when you talk to the people who actually do this for a living, and know how to do it, we're going to pay four or five times more than what it should have cost. >> and back to the big picture, that compromised budget deal that senate is poised to vote on, approves cuts of $23 billion from the deficit over ten years. senator coburn listing $30 billion that might have been saved this year. back to you guys. >> hampton, thank you very much. and just to tie a bow on that one, i guess you can never have too many savings when you're going after programs that are of dubious value. i mean you can look at them and they sound preposterous on the face. >> there's going to be some kind of a college major that gives you a degree in congressional or d.c. math. i have to figure out what that -- >> what it is. >> i would never understand. topic two, microsoft executive former i should say kirk dell bennet named the senior adviser to health and human services, he will manage healthcare.gov the website senator coburn was criticizing. left microsoft after a 20-year career. you know the guy? >> i interviewed him before. great pick ran the outlook team, microsoft's business division. this is the back-end data software stuff that healthcare.gov needs to get right. he's the sort of person who will know the sorts of coders who can go in, pick through the code, maybe sort this mess out. >> i don't know all of the details of this, obviously, but it seems to me that they did not go with one of the major, major companies in i.t. to set it up. it wasn't ibm, it wasn't oracle, it was -- >> oracle is in there in oregon and hasn't gotten everything right. this is complicated stuff. >> it's complicated no doubt. >> you have to wonder why a person like this wasn't put in place to begin with for such a high-profile event that would mark a president's career basically. >> word just in the last hour or so that microsoft's choice of a new ceo may not come now until early 2014. what are you hearing? >> they're saying flat out not until 2014 and they've narrowed the pool from around 100 people to 20. 100 people? i find that hard to believe they were seriously looking at that many people. >> that's not a short list. >> not a short list at all. >> you would have made that list. 100. >> i must have been on it, you know. >> like a list of the bugs on healthcare.gov. >> i had heard a month or so ago they were expecting it around mid-december but that timeline was not achievable. google getting an $82 million jet center in san jose's moneta airport. they will be breaking ground on the 29-acre facility in january, 270,000 square feet of hangar space making it one of the largest single client corporate air facilities in the world. maybe they're going to store their robots there. who knows. >> i know that airport well good deal for san jose airport which has had some financial trouble. i'm sure larry ellison likes to fly out of there at all hours of the night if possible. so hey, good for google. we know those guys like to park their jets and fuel them on the cheap. >> i'm intrigued more what you can do with that much acreage. you can park a lot of g 5s and g 6s but you have to do more than just that. >> 29 acres in that part of the world, that's expensive real estate, man. you have to have some runway. three of the biggest winners in today's trading. thank you very much. sorry to cut it off short. three of the biggest winners in today's trading when we return right after this. my mantra? family first. 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. women especially those who are or who may become pregnant and children should avoid contact where axiron is applied as unexpected signs of puberty in children or changes in body hair or increased acne in women may occur. report these symptoms to your doctor. tell your doctor about all medical conditions and medications. serious side effects could include increased risk of prostate cancer; worsening prostate symptoms; decreased sperm count; ankle, feet or body swelling; enlarged or painful breasts; problems breathing while sleeping; and blood clots in the legs. common side effects include skin redness or irritation where applied, increased red blood cell count, headache, diarrhea, vomiting and increase in psa. ask your doctor about axiron. avo: thesales event "sis back. drive which means it's never been easier to get a new passat, awarded j.d. power's most appealing midsize car, two years in a row. and right now you can drive one home for practically just your signature. get zero due at signing, zero down, zero deposit, and zero first month's payment on any new 2014 volkswagen. hurry, this offer ends january 2nd. for details, visit vwdealer.com today the ocean gets warmer. the peruvian anchovy harvest suffers. it raises the price of fishmeal, cattle feed and beef. bny mellon turns insights like these into powerful investment strategies. for a university endowment. it funds a marine biologist... who studies the peruvian anchovy. invested in the world. bny mellon. welcome back to "power lunch." while the broader market is hanging below yesterday's close, seagate technologies and western digital surging to an all-time high. jpmorgan chase upped its rating on both to neutral. analysts seeing a slower shift to flash drives than had been feared. you may remember back on friday, citi raised its ratings on the hard disk drive makers. storage heating up, sue, tyler, back over to you. >> nice percentage gains there on seagate up better than 4%. thank you. all right. the market's kind of on hold. we have the fed meeting going on this week. we have the news conference. cnbc is your go-to place for all of that taking place tomorrow. right now the dow down 21 points on the session and the s&p 500 is down about 5, and the nasdaq composite is down about 5. there are three winners in the market right now. they include frontier communications, sprint and visa. frontier is up better than 8%. sprint corporation up 3.3 and almost a 2% gain in visa. there are some winners but volume is a little light and nobody wants to be aggressive on the short side or long side until we get that decision tomorrow. >> no. the fed decision. i think at this time of year when you only have about eight or nine trading days left, if that, i can't even count anymore, you would want to be sticking your neck out either way at this point. interesting series this week. biggest business stories of the year, today blackberry, yesterday best buy, tune in tomorrow we'll tell you what the third biggest one is. that will do it for this edition of "power lunch." >> have a great afternoon, everybody. "street signs" begins right now. will home prices remain hot next year? a question everybody wants an answer to. and we have got it. hi, everybody. welcome to "street signs" on a snowy tuesday. your other hot topics this hour, has microsoft done something that almost nobody can believe? the sad story of the growing group of permanently temporary workers. you might lol, one automaker is doing to make you its bff. >> hello, everybody. the major

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