area. we will see whether there is more interest in this market. they are always up aeros. we are also seeing intel. he would retire in may. the board will of both internally and externally. he has been with the company for almost 40 years. it has been hard for a lot of these tech companies. demand has been week. they hit a new 52 week low, but now they have an up arrow. connell: we will shift over to the debt crisis. president obama reached out and spoke to some. name ceos try to avoid going over the fiscal cliff. dagen: why is this a bad idea, monica crowley? this is what the president should be doing, should he not? >> if he didn't have a history of blowing off these ceos and their advice, and we would say, yes. every single time he has asked them to come in and talk, nothing comes of it. he doesn't listen to any of them dagen: maybe the fear is that we will go over the cliff. >> most of the ceos that you just put up on the screen, warren buffett, a huge supporter of his support tax hikes. the message he is getting is, yeah, go ahead and do what you want to do. connell: even when you listen to john boehner and others coming out, we are making progress. making progress means revenue is on the table. entitlement cuts, presumably, are on the table. >> it depends on what we mean by increased revenue. they have two courts declare principles that place here. number one, do not raise taxes. number two, cut spending. to you. out of revenue either by lowering rates or closing those loopholes? dagen: someone will behave more regardless. >> here is the problem for the republicans. they have lost control of this narrative. it is hard for them to break through. what they really need to be talking about is the spending side of this equation. look, the united states of america does not have a revenue problem. there is plenty of revenue even in this depressed economic state. the problem is spending. you never starve the beast. connell: how do you switch it back? >> this is up to john boehner. it is up to the house republicans. the tea party caucus which is talking about the tax reform and really cutting spending, they are the only people that stand between us. dagen: give it up because you will lose either way. >> i will tell you something, if the republicans can do neither of those two things, if they cannot handle either of those core principles, they have no reason of being filled key parties of america. dagen: hello. that is your headline. connell: our next guest says much of this has to do with iran. k.t. mcfarland. the stock market is off to the races. seemingly unbothered by what is going on overseas. >> this is not the typical thing. this is different. this is potentially much bigger and much worse. it is all about iran. israel school and this is to take out the 10,000 missiles that are in gaza. that are capable of reaching jerusalem and tel aviv. in six months from now, they want the option to be able to have a strike and not have to have retaliation. dagen: at what point will israel or would israel said troops and? >> if they cannot get the missile. if they can take them out by air, they far prefer to do that. connell: was shook the u.s. involvement in this piece? what is the u.s. role in all of this? >> anybody trying to broker a deal before that happens will not work. the key to this -- egypt 40 years ago signed a peace treaty for israel. for 40 years they have not shot at each other. this is a different egypt now. it will all be about egypt. egypt has a really tight line to walk. if it somehow joins with the muscle burn brotherhood, america will cut them of their aid. i think egypt tries to walk right down the middle. i do not think they get involved dagen: do so with the president and prime minister was saying her in the last week. >> yes. the egyptian president worries that the way he came to power was they got rid of the last dictator. if he does not look sympathetic to the islamic cause and into israel, they will say who needs you. connell: as always, k.t. mcfarland, thank you for coming on. >> thank you. connell: we have some breaking news before we move on. the justice department has filed a lawsuit against ebay. they are saying that the agreement illuminated a significant former competition for the employees. watch ebay today. at the moment, the stock is up $0.56. the state of california had a similar suit against ebay. we will show you what kind of agreement would be acceptable to the business world. dagen: bank regulation putting the big squeeze on smaller banks being choked out of existence. what does that mean for you to back is that your only option quarterback bank of america. love being a customer there. how are the tensions, or the fighting, between israel and gaza? you can see it right there. ♪ dagen: do we get a deal of slack i am talking about those tax increases. you have gains across the board of one and a quarter percent on your dow. one and a half plus on your nasdaq and s&p. connell: time to make money with charles payne. charles: you were making a joke about us knowing things about poop. [ laughter ] these companies can take it, use natural gas and you heat it up really well and it turns it into ammonia. it makes environmentalists crazy. in the meantime, cf industries. cf industries, the stock is an absolute amazing one. over the last five years, they have grown well over 30%. they just announced that they would be hiring. forty of the top companies -- connell: we will talk more about it later on. charles: this company is putting money into investing. they will create thousands of construction jobs. hundreds of permanent jobs. i love a company that is building in this time. my near term targets, 230 and my long-term 260. to not be afraid of a $200 stock. connell: you must like the market, by the way, today. charles: i am more concerned about the last 30 minutes of trading. i will shoot you an e-mail and we will talk about it then. connell: drink -- thank you. dagen: stocks now and every 15 minutes. nicole: cisco systems is making a deal. they are a dow component. cisco is helping them along. cisco is up about 1%. they will be fine privately. they will be buying a company for $1.2 billion. let's take a look at the major market averages. as i mentioned tag, i think of apple. apple has had an on a road today. lows came out with numbers. they have great news also. from government and regulation. what does it mean for you. connell: what is with bank of america? corporate america, not waiting for this group to do something. ceos already have been smashing investment. what does that mean clicks back we will talk about it coming out. the dow is up 160 at the minute. here is a look at currencies and some of the weaknesses in the dollar and the strength in the euro. we will be right back. ♪ >> i am lauren green with their fox news minute. the bloodshed continues on israel gaza border. prime minister say that israel is ready for a land invasion. israel needs to give into certain demands. president obama said israel has every right to protect itself. former cia director david petraeus has named the famous lawyer robert barnett. petraeus is facing a possible investigation over his affair with paula broadwell. notre dame hit the top of rankings for the first time ever. it looks to claim the first national title since 1988. the fighting irish remain undefeated. alabama and georgia round out the top three. those are your headlines. now, back to dagen. dagen: thank you so much. regulation choking smaller banks in this country. they have to find a way to get bigger. is that good news for investors? anton, telling about regulation not just choking out at the big level, but also these smaller banks. what are they going through? >> the smallest thing for the smaller banks is that thousand pages of rules. they have had to hire people to make sure they are obeying the rules. lots and lots of compliance people. if you are a small company and you have to hire a number of people, you broke your ability to make money. dagen: do they not did state and business kohls you either don't stay in business or you find a bigger bank to buy? >> in many cases a company has a better chance to thrive because it is bigger and they have the wind in its sails. dagen: is the daughter of frank regulation doing what if maybe did not want to do? >> i think it is clearly driving the number of banks in this country now. we have her to rein in the big guys. i'm not sure what the intention of the dodd-frank is. that is a pretty fast pace to consolidation. there has been a lot of lobbying, a lot of noise. the money has certainly come out of the big guys. you are seeing a lot of smaller institutions names that are not familiar with the public. particularly in the southeast. they took all the fdic failures first. they become pretty nice powerful institutions. they certainly are not too big to fail. they are very hungry. they have good currency and their stock prices are strong. this just cannot grow because they cannot deal with the expense code, and, also, the other problem they have they cannot very easily accept the capital market. small banks cannot raise money. dagen: in terms of markets, one last thing, anton, if you look at your major sectors in the s&p 500, your financials are the best performers in the last 52 weeks. broadly speaking, is played out? >> well, i guess i have to say, it depends. if we go over the fiscal cliff, it will be tough. if we do not go over the fiscal cliff and have some compromise, i think there'll be a tremendous amount of buildup. i think the banks want to lend. things like the disaster with the hurricane will lead to a lot of growth next year, particularly in banks in new jersey and long island. i suspect things will come together. if that happens we will have some very strong economic activity coming out of this. dagen: thank you very much, anton. stay warm out there. connell: we have the band all back together. despite all the goodwill that we saw, especially in the last week. they all love each other now, apparently. can we expect any long-term things? dagen: ready to start building again. homebuilders have confidence running up. home sales picking up. speaking of winners, take a look at some on the s&p today. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ engine revs ] ♪ [ male announcer ] oh what fun it is to ride. get the mercedes-benz on your wish list at the winter event going onow -- but hurry, the offer ends soon. he loves risk. but whether he's climbing everest, scuba diving the great barrier reef with sharks, or jumping into the marke he goes with people he trusts, which is why he trades with a company that doesn't nickel and dime him with hidden fees. so he can worry about other things, like what the market is doing and being ready, no matter what happens, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense, from td ameritrade. connell: on our market rally monday, here are some of the headlines coming out. corporate not waiting on washington. expecting the worst from white house and congress. sales of existing homes up. one of the reason the market looks pretty good today. very good today, as a matter of fact. credit card debt is on the rise. dagen: stocks are on the rise. stocks now every 15 minutes. nicole: tabletop of arrows. i will take it. the dow jones industrials up 162 points. all components are in the green. bank of america leading the way. traders, i guess, some of them saying after seven of the last nine weeks have down arrows. some of them saying i will just step in there and five. let's take a look at walmart. they have an up arrow here. the company has moved up their quarterly dividend. they moved it to the end of december. this is basically fiscal cliff is what they are saying. it could not, you never know, if it will be settled or not. by building up that dividend payment, it makes it better for the shareholders. back to you. connell: good vibes after the meeting with president. dagen: rich edson is live from inside the beltway with a very long road ahead. rich: it is. even if they reach a deal, it will set up even more for next year. democrats and republicans are still stuck on step one. that is the white house wanting and increase on families earning within $250,000 a year. they have said no to a rate hike. on top of that, they want entitlement reform. >> all we are even looking for at this point is a raise of an eyebrow or a head shake. >> simply transferring costs onto individuals does not address the fundamental problem. >> democrats say they know both sides have to give up something in these talks. they never really mentioned in comments specifically after the meeting. back to you. connell: rich, thank you very much. more fiscal cliff impact right now. according to the "wall street journal," more than half of the companies already announcing plans to cut their spending this year or next, in part because of the cliff that rich was explaining. we bring in the chief officer of the chamber of commerce. is that what you see, david, the reluctance of spending? >> absolutely. the fiscal cliff is important for a whole range of issues. it adds to the whole environment of intense uncertainty. you are asking people to make investors of their money or shareholders money at a time when nobody knows what the fiscal system will provide. connell: we talk to people on all sides of this debate. the conservative side represented by monica crowley. talking about the conversation changing from all of this from revenue to something about spending. from the business community's point of view, or you concerned? >> both are important. we need to address the fiscal cliff issue now. not december 301 or january 1. you'll get a lot of negative ahead of that. extend the tax treatment. extend the tax revisions. new found out for a period of time that will allow a real discussion about reform. connell: do you have to have a template in place or is it all right to just extend the current environment? >> i think what has been discussed is to come to some very broad agreement with goals for the relevant committees on the hill. that is good. that gives people a sense of where we are going. businesses need the media dealt with, in a way. also, we as a country, not just a business community, meet the long-term dealt with. connell: your group has been pushing, obviously, as we have already talked about, tax reform, cuts to entitlements and spending cuts. also, the expanding of revolution, as you put it, and energy reduction. that is the third big point that you see in this debate. >> absolutely. you only hear about taxes and spending. there is a third rocket. we are on the verge of an energy revolution. do what needs to be done and get out of our way. connell: david, it is good to have you on. thank you. >> they give very much for having me. dagen: hostess management blaming its bankers union for killing the twinkie. union workers hope that somebody will ride along and save their jobs. connell: that is right. that is the story here. good news in the meantime for housing. existing home sales rebounding last month. we will see what the former fannie mae executive, ed pinto, thinks about that. a nice rally in the market. yields on treasuries also rising. we will be right back. ♪ i always wait until the last minute. can i still ship a gift in time r christmas? 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[ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. ship fedex express by december 22nd for christmas delivery. >> i am lori roughened with your fox business brief. stocks in the green today. investors are optimistic. meanwhile, u.s. companies are scaling back investment plans at the fastest pace since the recession. half of the nations biggest corporations plan to cut spending. they are concerned the company will fall into another recession if the deal cannot be reached. a huge windfall this cyber monday. online shopping for cass, online sales managed to put in dollars. adobe also predicted 21% would be made from mobile devices. that is the latest from the fox business network. giving you the power to prosper. ♪ connell: is the season, i guess. forty-three americans will hit the road for the holiday this week. dagen: why don't you just saying some "jingle bells" while you are at it. maria will tell you whether you should be on the road this thanksgiving or not. >> we are looking at some pretty quiet weather across the country for this travel week. this is some good news. one of the busiest times of the year. we did have an area of low pressure. thankfully, the nor'easter will not be hitting us. it will remain offshore. we will continue to see the quiet weather in place. jfk, laguardia, we are expecting relatively quiet weather. as we head westbound, there are some showers. not a big deal. as we headed westward, we have been seeing significant snowfall accumulations, significant wind and very heavy rainfall. this is washington state, oregon and northern parts of california. that is where we will be seeing the travel issues. not just for today, but tomorrow, wednesday and even in time for thanksgiving. unfortunately, the pacific northwest is getting hit. we are expecting relatively quiet weather out here as we head into your tuesday and wednesday. travel for wednesday, nice weather for new york city, chicago. seattle, more rain. dagen: thank you. maria, great to see you. so more good news for the thanksgiving holiday traveler. gas prices continue a downward trend. the national average is now $3.41 a gallon. down from $3.69 a month ago. but it is up from one year ago. aaa says that 40 million people will travel by car this thanksgiving. god bless you. it is not really the travel, it is who you are with once you get there. americans are racking up more debt than ever. the credit reporting agency trans union find the average credit card debt per borrower or almost 5%. that is under $5000 in debt per borrower. the analysis also reveals that americans are less diligent about making credit card payments on time. get back off the ledge, people. step off. twinkies will survive. or they are expected to. hostess is in bankruptcy court today. twinkies alone brought in $68 million in revenue so far this year. another company will likely step in to save the twinkie. not so sure about the jobs of those striking union workers. the bakers, they could think along with the company. you can sell the assets, but the whole point is, why would any company come along and want to pick up the marketing agreements and the union contracts. the teamsters were bad about that. they signed off on this deal. it was a smaller bankers union that backed off and put the whole company into this. connell: that is what we have been talking about. pretending they are so upset about the loss of the actual twinkie. i am talking about people on tv. i am really upset i cannot eat twinkies anyone. dagen: i just think it is an excuse for a lot of female anchors to eat twinkies on tv. we all do not want to see that. connell: nicole joining us now. nicole: i feel badly for the company. i am not really a fan of twinkie, though. when you talk about a big tech company, it has globally grown. this is a stock that has grown over $700. the stock is dwindling. we are seeing a comeback now. almost 5%. we talk about capital gains, dividends, the taxes that ensue. something that people were selling off. you can see over the last month or so, it really has sold off. it is making its way back. there is problems with apple. what is the next item? you got the iphone5. what is the next item? so many people will have apple products on their list. back to you. dagen: thank you, nicole. connell: we will get to the housing market next. homebuilders acting like they like what they see. existing home sales rebounding last month. dagen: speaking of rebounding, the nasdaq was a correction territory. here are some winners out there today. look at green mountain coffee. ♪ with the fidelity stock screener, you can try strategies from independent experts and see wh criteria they use. such as a 5% yield on dividend-paying stocks. then you can customize the strategies and narrow down to exactly those stocks you want to follow. i'm mark allen of fidelity investments. the expert strategies feature is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. now get 200 free trades when you open an account. dagen: sales of previously owned homes rises. we have record low mortgage rates. is housing actually healthy perfect ed pinto will answer that. he is then sarasota, florida. >> i think it is healthy. it is progress. we have record low interest rates. we have great housing affordability. that is not the solution. you have to get back to fundamentals. you have to get more jobs. jobs is where the solution is. not building more homes. dagen: how much credit does the federal reserve get for doing that? do you find out positive or worse? >> it is very worrisome. i believe it is spreading all kinds of distortions throughout the economy. we do not know what all of those distortions are. the stock market has certainly been one of the beneficiaries. you cannot keep interest rates this low. fha solve this just last week when they announced they had negative net worth and negative net worth with the low interest rate environment we have is actually $31 billion. that is huge. there are winners and losers here. it may turn out to be the taxpayer is the loser. dagen: 3.5% is all you have to have if you have an fha mortgage. are you saying bubbles? you are in sarasota. pockets in florida are hot again. >> money is cheap if you can get it. we are awash in liquidity. they are looking for places to lend money. it is hard to find. the money will move to areas that the banks and other lenders feel the support is there. the federal government is really what is directing this. it will be a very difficult thing to unwind. that's, again, creates huge distortions in the marketplace. i would be much more optimistic if we were not relying so much on these various stimuli coming out of the federal reserve. dagen: ed, great to see you. take care. >> great to see you, dagen. dagen: enjoy the florida sun. david crow will join cheryl and dennis. connell: we talked a lot this hour about stocks being up. commodities in the rally mode. dagen: sandra smith in the pits with today's trade. sandra: the commodities are moving down here this morning. crude oil of more than a couple bucks. i want to bring in senior broker over at daniels trading. he is looking at these markets right now. thousands of israeli troops on the gaza border. >> i think the escalation will have an increased affect on the risk premium. we are starting to see that in the last week. we will see that increase if we see a widening conflict. sandra: as we look at prices nearing $90 a barrel, will that be the new normal? are we talking about gasoline prices going up above four dollars. >> it could definitely have an affect on the price of these markets. sandra: you talk about risk premiums. another place people go for that is gold. is that what is playing out in precious metals right now? >> i think gold and silver are playing a little catch-up. certainly, as time goes on, if the situation does escalate, we will see an even higher increase, i believe. sandra: one big forecast on gold prices. >> i think we could see 1800 by the end of the year. sandra: thank you so much for joining us. watch those commodity prices today. they are big movers. back to you. dagen: hard assets. connell: absolutely. thank you, sandra. dagen: president obama. connell: in the next hour, it will be dennis neil and cheryl casone. in the end, the republicans will cave in. that is coming up and a lot more. keep it here. ♪ this morning, i'm going to trade in hong kong. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 after that, it's on to germany. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 then tonight, i'm trading 9500 miles away in japan. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 with the new global account from schwab, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 i hunt down opportunities around the world tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 as if i'm right there. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and i'm in total control because i can trade tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 directly online in 12 markets in their local currencies. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 i use their global research to get an edge. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 their uity ratings show me how schwab tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 rates specific foreign stocks tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 based on things like fundamentals, momentum and risk. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and i also have access to independent tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 firms like ned davis research tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and economist intelligence unit. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 plus, i can talk to their global specialists 24/7. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and trade in my global account commission-free tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 through march 20. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 best part... no jet lag. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 call 1-866-294-5409 tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and a global specialist tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 will help you get started today. cheryl: hello, everybody. i am cheryl casone this 12:00 eastern time. dennis: and i am dennis kneale did the fiscal cliff, the dow up 160. we're joined by one of the smarter guys in the beltway who says in the end republicans will cave. cheryl: airstrikes are sweating over the weekend in gaza and israel but so far israeli ground troops remain on the border. israel is reacting. up more than $2 on fears the troops may move in. we will have analysis ahead. dennis: and hostess telling off the company. why are striking banqueting workers hoping they will be bought out and go back to work. nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange. nicole, we have a rally. nicole: we do indeed. a gain of 1.29 percent. a great day on wall street. selling off seven of the last nine trading weeks. today all 30 dow components in the great and i will get to intel in a minute but that is one going back and forth little bit lately. the dollar is much weaker today. ooil and gold are higher. when i look at the big board above me, it is all green arrows across the board, pretty amazing. the fear index had a down arrow. intel, we told you from earlier this morning, the ceo of wisdom that the company almost 40 years will be stepping down and retiring in may, they're working to replace him with th but the s moving into the negative territory and hitting a 52 week low. cheryl: one of a down spots in an otherwise positive market. thank you very much. more on this rally, joining us right now. the nasdaq moving out of correction territory. i know you said to expect volatility, are you buying into the rally today? >> i think you have to. there are a lot of different things that fall under the tax. semi conductors, computer equipment, that has been hit pretty hard. other things like electronic payments, but the thing that most people think about traditional have gotten oversold, i think. cheryl: to look at technology, 19% of the s&p 500. that seems to be the barometer of global sales. really how the countr company ig economically. >> the thing that has gotten to people lately is there doesn't seem to be much disruptive changes. it has been maybe in years past. manbonilla quite qualify industl companies. they look like valuation begins to matter. even if you don't have super new technology, it begins to kick in a little bit. cheryl: the fiscal cliff conversation continues even though congress is not in this week. what are you looking for out of d.c., what are you expecting at this point? >> we're expecting some sort of credible enough thing that buys us time, essentially. it is going to take him in order to get a comprehensive deal that makes sense and gives us a roadmap for a balanced kind of deficit address the deficit in a credible way, will take a while to get through all the detail, the tax code, all the different pieces of it, so we have to have some sort of element in place to get past december 31 deadline and get to some kind of timeframe. i know it will be disappointing for people, but you have to get past the artificial deadline first. cheryl: how do you advise your clients? i am sure they are coming into you and saying what will i do about my taxes, however this my portfolio to the end of the year. days like today, but we know we just had five straight weeks of down days, so it is incredibly tough. >> don't over think it, don't over steer the ship. his idea of developing economies whether it is in the u.s. or europe or japan, we have big debt, big deficits, we have to balance those costs with keeping the economy growing, that will be out there for years. we have this fiscal cliff in the u.s. but in the meantime life goes on, companies get out of bed, go to work, they get productivity gains from equity just a great place to be. cheryl: you like consumer discretionary. where are you right now? >> i think there's a lot of opportunity, and accessible luxury as part of the consumers. i am thinking coach and tiffany's and even down to something like a starbucks or duncan that can be a trade on a daily basis. we hear a lot about the unemployment rate, but the number of people who have jobs continues to climb. confidence almost at a four or five year high. the economy taking hold in a lot of places. a lot of stuff going on, people will be in the mood to spend and will have the ability to spend. cheryl: thank you very much, good to have you on the show. tension sending numbers higher. troops could be moving into gaza. sandra smith with "the trade" today. sandra: the mideast conflict causing a spike in commodity prices. in many dollars per barrel, gold prices up nearly $20. i want to bring in mike williams. this is something you have been watching for a while. gold i want to bring up first because you accurately called the big selloff in gold with seewas seenover $100 selloff. are you thinking they're bottoming out at these levels? >> it is probably a little bit of a bounce. gold is a little bit more fear index. we look at this is probably a bit of a bounce and playoff to be short. >sandra: you still think gold could dip below 70 non $700 per? >> we would argue yes. sandra: nobody's arguing, the situation in the middle east isn't bush for oil prices and gasoline prices for that matter. >> we're long-term investors, benefits if the united states is producing more oil, this will bounce with the issues related to war, concerned that that has passed, the market will come back down. sandra: you may very interesting point, if the conflict was taken that seriously, we would be up $8. >> eight or $10, very quickly. much higher than this. sandra: great point. still a big rally, gold, oil, commodities up across the board today. certainly causing a run-up in prices for now. back to you. cheryl: center, thank you, we are watching it. dennis: president obama intentionally lobbying for his plan to avert a fiscal cliff but only if republicans agree to slap higher taxes on households earning over 250,000 per year. joining us with his take, greg. first off the thing the republicans will cave, that is one reason or optimism? >> is it is a matter of time to paraphrase, we have agreed on the premise, we agreed on what will happen, we're just no arguing over the details. dennis: defense republicans will cave in on the idea of raising the taxes on all household over 250 k.? >> that is still to go shovel. i think they will be a tax hike, obviously. maybe rich will be redefined as $500,000, but there will be a tax hike, no question about that. dennis: it keeps going down. the other compromise was around $1 million. even if they manage before christmas to grant some kind of a work it out later, you think this could add to uncertainty for months. >> let me throw this theory at you, dennis. they agree on octobe november 2e need another quarter, another three months to iron out the details, three more months of uncertainty for u.s. businesses that aren't hiring and aren't buying new equipment, three more months of this uncertainty is not that much of a price. dennis: aren't businesses being a bit of a freddi afraid here? we will cut less than a billion dollars from government spending this year in a budget of 3.5 trillion. >> lord forbid i would criticize the media, but i think they're hyping this story to some y2k that we will be doomed on january 1 or 2nd. no, i don't think so. if we do go over the cliff, another important point, think it is fixed within weeks. such an uproar that we would not get a deal by the end of january. dennis: the bush tax cuts above the $250,000 household, to bring an estimated $80 billion per year, $80 billion per year, that does not have to derail business from investing, does it? >> know, good point. i would not say it is a rounding error, but not a huge amount of money. it is pr, it is symbolic. there has to be a symbolic message that everybody will make a sacrifice. i think that is the bigger part of this story. it is stimulus. dennis: thank you for being with us. cheryl: all right, today's building confidence number at the highest level six and a half years. fed chair ben bernanke says we're not out of the woods. dennis: and the twilight finale scores the eighth biggest opening weekend of all times. but why would also so many men in the audience? cheryl: with their daughters. oil at $89.55, sandra just talking about it. we will be right back. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] they are a glowing example of what it means to be the best. and at this special time of year, they shine even brighter. come to the winter event and get the mercedes-benz you've always wished for, now for an exceptional price. 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[ male announcer lease a 2013 glk350 for $399 a month at your local mercedes-benz dealer. dennis: and we've got ourselves a rally, the dow up 177 points. the nasdaq up 51. the s&p back up up to 1382. optimism about averting the fiscal cliff. some say the republicans are going to cave, and then again it got beat up so bad last week it has been down so long it looks like up. cheryl: and they look at shares of wal-mart because we're just getting a statement from wal-mart into fox business about this move up on the dividend. wal-mart is another stock we're watching today as well. let's make some money with charles payne this hour yet the stocks from las vegas. >> vegas is only 8% of their cash flow right now, this is more of a singapore play. but a remarkable company. the stock has beaten down a lot, execution has been horrible, they missed the last two quarters. the good news is the stock has come down from evaluations are pretty cheap, the risk-reward is absolutely amazing. china, every time we hear china is growing, it is a rocket ship. but how many people can allow in slick and go gamble. the time players are 72% of revenues, but most of that is also from slot machines. lose all the money they made that we can go back home baby with a t-shirt, the stock starting to do with the good. dennis: it is bigger than they discounted average bet, three times the best in las vegas. >> and other things, don't sleep on the singapore play. technically the stock has room, 46, 47 before rising resistance. if it breaks out, looking at $55 on the upside. cheryl: interesting. charles, thank you very much. cheryl: 15 minutes past the hour, stocks every 15 minutes, nicole, you are watching lowes. nicole: i am. the best performer on the s&p 500, new 52-week high for lowes. they came up with traffic and sales that were stellar, beat the streets. raising the forecast another good piece for lowe's and cutting costs and curbing store trends and even job cuts. the other side of the coin, same-store sales continue to lag, that of home depot still stronger of the two companies and 14 straight quarter that sales lag home depot. the market highs here, 173 points to the upside for the dow jones industrial. back to you. cheryl: thank you very much. a heckuva day for the market and also what is happening overseas. israel bombing dozens of targets earlier in gaza, but troops remain on the border. for how long, we don't know. we will take you there live next. cheryl: disgraced cia chief david petraeus lawyers up. first a look at how the currencies are faring against the dollar. [ male announcer ] this is joe woods' first day of work. and his new boss told him twongs -- cook what you love, and save your money. joe doesn't know it yet, but he'll wk his way up from busser to waiter to chef before opening a restaurant specializing in fish and me from the great northwest. he'll start investing early, he'll find some good people to help guide him, nd he'll set money aside from his first day of work to his last, which isn't rocket sence. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. >> 21 minutes past the hour, this is your fox news live. president obama pushing down in cambodia earlier on the home stretch of his tour of the south east asia. the president meeting with community leaders to push for fair elections and the release of political prisoners. the first president to step foot in that country this following his historic visit to burma. former cia director david patraeus has taken the powerful washington lawyer robert barnett. he has represented the likes of president obama and former presidents bill clinton and george w. bush. he is facing possible investigation by the government over his affair with paula. and shooting off the gulf coast of mexico kept in the immediate aftermath of that blocked out oil rig friday. authorities expanding their search for the body of the last missing worker, search and rescue dog being brought in today and three dive boats are being used around the rig. those are your headlines, now back to cheryl. cheryl: very muc thanks very mu, appreciate it. spirit airlines flight being held at laguardia airport after a flight attendant overheard a passenger making a threatening statement. flight 197. the flight going from laguardia scheduled to go to fort lauderdale, the flight attendant overheard passenger made a comment in a move the flight to separate part of the runway as you can see the goal of the airline and operations folks in case there is a threat to take it away from the building. dennis: you are thinking that it's nice of you to do that for everybody else but here i am sitting on this thing. israeli missiles hitting the headquarters of hamas security forces as troops gathered along the border preparing for a ground invasion. we're joined live from the israel-gaza border. >> dennis, behind me right now we have the israeli artillery, which were firing into gaza raid in their guns of the country on the brink of war. all along the gaza strip, outpost have now popped up, communication centers have been moved and an setup over the past 24-48 hours and not resembles an armed camp. these are valuable hours, daylight, they can practice inside the field relatively secure before the go order is given to moved through gaza and how they will clear houses and who will go where on what street. that is valuable information because the comment you don't have much time to think. for many of these soldiers, the waiting is the very worst part. for the young guys, they want to go in. the older soldiers know some of the men there with now won't come home alive. overnight the air war entered a six continuing to pound a target inside gaza. what is bush vindicated many hit or weapon depots. so far they have hit 1300 targets killing nearly 100 palestinians including a family of 11 and what appears to be a target killing gone wrong. the images of the dead and injured has hurt israel's case for the continued offensive. meanwhile the israeli president showed this home video of a family taking cover in the main part. a father comforting his crying baby. hamas rockets fly overhead. in right now the cease-fire negotiations are still underway in cairo, although they're not expected at least right now to have a significant progress in the next few hours at least. a timetable has been 24 hours from now for about the past 72 hours so kind of anybody's guess as to when that may or may not happen. there is certainly a lot of pressure on israel and other places to prevent a ground invasion going forward. we have now reached 100 dead palestinians inside gaza. back to you in new york. dennis: thank you very much. cheryl: dream and now, fellow at the washington institute. he heard the report from our correspondent along the gaza border. we're getting reports cause is trying to broker a truce but my understanding the president of egypt has been caving to populism and his country, anti-israel sentiment. who are we to believe here? >> i am also hearing both things. it seems egypt really wants a cease-fire right now. remember there are many domestic problems in egypt the new president has to deal with. including a train accident over the weekend, but on the other hand as you said he has a history of anti-israel invective, the muslim brotherhood, and want to break the treaty. we really have to see where egypt heads, but for the moment it seems egypt is pushing for a cease-fire. cheryl: in the finance chairman say we will not accept these injustices, you have 10,000 missiles in gaza right now. and the issue of iran is a piece of concern about what happens between israel and gaza and hamas. how far is egypt willing to go to actually get some peace going and where does iran factor in this? >> the truth is i don't think the cease-fire negotiations are going to work. really problem is hamas is not willing to make appropriate concessions, they're not willing to rein in rockets or stop firing rockets. there's another piece of this puzzle look at the long-term outcome, it is not just the muslim brotherhood that is acting irresponsibly. the egyptian military has lost hundreds, perhaps thousands of long-range rockets to make the trip from sudan through egypt through the cyanide and into gaza. as we try to find a long-term solution to this we have to ask the egyptian military how they allowed gaza and hamas come so well armed? cheryl: one thing the administration here can do collegiate is looking for both $8.4 billion in aid, the u.s. could support the aid or could say no to that aid. what do you think happens? >> i think the administration needs to use all of the leverage to pressure egypt is behaving responsibly, making sure president mohamed morsi and the brought muslim brotherhood don't use this as an excuse to break the treaty with israel, which is a real risk. the muslim brotherhood is pushing for it. using our military aid commission egyptian military is doing it job preventing the flow of long-range rockets into gaza. there's a hope for peace i in te region, was built to fight a terrorist organization was able to procure long-range rockets over the past four years and not just due to the muslim brotherhood. cheryl: the israelis are not backing down yet. thank you very much for the perspective, appreciate it. >> thank you for having me. dennis: tuft twinkies. posted in court trying to win approval to liquidate, striking baker's say a buyer could emerge to give them back their jobs. real possibility or state of denial? cheryl: homebuilding confidence of the best levels since may of 2006. you can profit from it, coming up. dennis: and a look at some of the winners on the s&p. nicole: i'm nicole petallides live on the floor of the new york stock exchange. great day here on wall street, every 15 minutes we have you covered on the fox business network. let's take a look at the dow, nasdaq and s&p all without arrows across the board. if you are a bowl out there, you're pretty happy today. the stock market, dow jones industrials up 176-point each of the major averages u out to abot 1.5% or more in the case of the s&p 500. a lot of winners on wall street today. thank you. cheryl: nicole, thank you very much. we also have this as far as the winning category goes. more hope for housing. homebuilder confidence the highest levels since may of 2006. national association of home builders reported the national index rose five wins in november. joining me from washington, chief economist for the nha b. in particular we have, looking at the northeast, this does include hurricane sandy data, correct? >> yes, correct. cheryl: still northeast dragged behind the other three regions of the country. so why? >> partially because we just didn't get many responses. people were either busy trying to help with repairs or didn't have electricity so they couldn't respond. this was all done by internet. our response rate was very low in the northeast. i would not take a lot from that particular number. cheryl: what are the builders telling you about? that is a pretty big jump, what are they saying? >> the buyers they are seeing now are serious buyers. we have been seeing a lot of traffic in model homes and offices, but the difference now is the intended to buy. those consumers are comfortable house prices starting to rise again, comfortable their jobs are probably more secure than i thought before. and so the postponed plans are finally coming to fruition to actually leap forward and purchase a house. cheryl: want to ask about interest rates. housing is not out of the woods. said depending on going the other way, they could be preventing creditworthy borrowers from dying homes, that is thereby the housing. what is the last shoe to drop here? are we seeing any movement? >> not much. that is the same report we get from our builders, they lighten up a buyer and are ready to go, but they miss on some credit qualification issue that probably would not have occurred had this been back in the more part of the two thousands. i don't know what is holding up the banks. there are a lot of uncertainties, many rules to be passed by the dodd-frank legislation, that could be part of it. in that case the federal government is controlling virtually the entire mortgage market. and their policies aren't exactly clear about the future. there is a lot of hesitation in the mortgage market making it difficult. cheryl: the fha. is there a land shortage, our builders saying they are from trouble acquiring new land to build on? >> yeah, that'll be a more serious problem. the land development process is a long one and a pipeline completely shut down during this collapse. there isn't an inventory of developed lots coming on, so as the buyers come back the marketplace, we could see shortages of land. dennis: after five long years. thank you very much, we appreciate it. >> sure. dennis: twinkies up on sale for ebay for $100 per box on fears the iconic snack food brand is lost forever. the union that brought the baker to the knees holding out hope the buyer will salvage chunks of the company and sent 18,000 people back to work. posted presents a bit of a judge today with a program to sell off the assets, but says he believes there is more than a good chance the buyer could swoop in and buy the problem parts of the company and give the union members their jobs back. my sources say no way. we will see. cheryl: that was fast, g.o.p. rethinking immigration policy and rhetoric after losing by big numbers in the presidential election. we will tell you why business is listening very carefully. dennis: and will others follow as dividen wal-mart moves of the dividend payment to avoid a jump in tax rates. cheryl: and a look at the treasuries today. the yield 1.63 percent. want to try to crack it? 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[ male announcer ] humana. ♪ >> i'm tracy byrnes with your fox business brief. the bullish tone on wall street continues after march by immigration discussions. and on the housing market also pushing the market higher today. americans racked up more debt in the third quarter and diligent about paying it back on time. according to the new trans union report, credit card debt jumped 4.9% from last year. just under $5000 per borrower. the report shows the rate of credit card payments at least 90 days overdue increased 1% over the same time. u.s. expects to deliver 550 million packages between thanksgiving and christmas. 5% increase from last year's total. and the shipping time hiring 55,000 seasonal employees. that is the latest from the fox business network giving you the power to prosper. cheryl: we are getting some breaking news into fox business. u.s. secretar secretary-generalt with israeli prime minister and palestinian president in an attempt to bring cease-fire to gaza. and the u.n. security council meeting that is underway focusing on the issue between israel and hamas. dennis: wal-mart shares up a moment ago. after moving up the date of fourth-quarter dividend payment, you can see that up to half a percent, avoid potential tax rate changes on january 1. rising as much as 39.6%. our next guest says the example of how the fear of the cliff can be worth a market than the cliff itself. john brown joins us now, thank you for being with us, john. what about the fiscal cliff phobia versus the impact of the fiscal cliff? the cuts less than half a billion, $3.5 trillion budget. >> yes, you're quite right. fear of the unknown is worse than facing something that you know. it is a sad thing our political overlords have ensured the only certainty that we face is uncertainty. it will kill human endeavor in the encouragement of more cattle these, investment it makes people risk diverse and they hold cash and in business it makes people risk reverse and therefore they do not invest, and that is what a lot of the money from qed, going into bank deposits and not into jobs. it is very, very bad what it portends is unnecessary economy, recession and policy. dennis: durable good orders in september fell, "wall street journal" with a story today saying of the 40 biggest publicly held companies in the country, 20 of them have cut spending for this year or next year in anticipation of all that uncertainty. does losing the bush tax rates that obama wants to go up on, household over 250,000, does that have to be a derailer for the economy? that is not a very big number. >> well, no, but he has made it a derailer asking for bipartisan agreement. i think i find that incredible. of course where we did have bipartisan agreement within the simpson bowls commission. it was a gradual climb or descend, the dissent meaning cutting back in government, big government which was a problem in the whole lot. so big, so intrusive and so expensive that it is squeezing individuals in the middle. and wages have been flat, wages have been flat, real wages are down and that is why you see as you have just announced before a great increase in borrowing on credit cards. 90 days behind in payments. dennis: we will take any purchases we can get. >> it can only end in trouble. dennis: the dow up 168, defying the worrywarts. thank you for being with us, john brown. appreciate it. cheryl: well, after losing some key hispanic votes in the presidential election, the republican party is looking to reboot its stance on immigration policy. peter barnes joins us now with more. peter. >> that is right. 12 million more latino voters turned out in 2012 and in 2008 and most voted for president obama. that got republican party's attention. more of them talk about legislation to move immigration reform, latino support for public and residential candidate had tanked since 2004 at 44%. when president bush ran for election he had double the latino vote republican presidents nominees from 1996 in part because of his support. now marco rubio, the son of cuban immigrants trying to kickstart reform and get his party to tone down the rhetoric. >> it is critical, it is common sense, rhetoric is important. >> immigration reform is a huge issue for businesses of course with agriculture, construction and high tech companies looking for workers from day laborers to software engineers. reform supporterreform supportey to citizenship but many democrats and republicans want more border and workplace enforcement and security as part of any plans. cheryl: interesting stuff. peter barnes, thank you. dennis: let's get to nicole at the nyse. nicole: and number one performer on the s&p 500. take a look at tyson foods. a lot of food stocks doing well today, but tyson came up with the numbers for the quarter, quarterly number earnings were much higher than expected. the largest meat producer and with that you can see the stock is doing well, they had higher prices, that was one of the reasons we saw the meat company do so well. up nearly 8%. don't forget so much coverage on the fox business network about the drought we saw, the worst we have seehad seen in nearly halfa century, and that made animal feed more expensive and many hats reduce the size of some of their herd. you can see they came out with numbers that easily beat the streets and that is why it is a top performer today. back to you. dennis: thank you, nicole. without a whole vampire fad may be dead, the final film in the "twilight" solder killed in the box office. "twilight: breaking dawn part 2 clearly $140 million mark becoming the third "twilight" flick to break the top 10 film openings of all time. that was not enough. "twilight: breaking dawn part 2 ranked second, surely other top film this past weekend. james bond still raking it in. cheryl: lines around the block everywhere. high noon. we're live in colorado next where prosecutors are trying to figure out what to do with marijuana cases now that voters have decriminalized pot use. dennis: a look at some of the winners around the nasdaq. cheryl: this time for your "west coast minute." intel chief ray to call it quits next may. the board does not have her pleasantly outgoing ceo. part of a 40 year career with the company. they will consider current company executives as well as outside candidates for the top spot. thanksgiving could be a real turkey. thousands of union workers are continuinconsidering walking ofe dispute over health care. a small earthquake struck washington state this morning. according to the usgs, the quake was centered under the colombia river between north portland and west vancouver, no damage or injuries have been reported so far. that is your "west coast minute." dennis: the maker of marijuana vending machines flying high after a "wall street journal" article saying the time may be ripe for investing and medical pot. district attorneys and two major colorado cities announcing they will begin to dismiss existing marijuana session cases now that colorado has decriminalized the once evil weed. >> amendment 64 does not become law until mid-december when the governor certifies it, but as of today depending on where you stand really depends on whether or not he would get in trouble with the law if you have some pot on you. if i was standing north of denver in weld county, the district attorney says i have an ounce of marijuana or more i would get picked up and prosecuted. says accordingly we will not be dismissing existing marijuana possession cases but more importantly our office gives low-level possession cases to get drug users help with their addictions. that practice will continue until state law changes. so let's say i come back to denver for a head to boulder with often don't of pot with me. i am 25 years or older and have not committed any other crimes, i will not get prosecuted even though it is not the law yet. not just a case in denver or boulder. depending on the jurisdiction: they have dismissed pending cases as well. colorado one of two states where voters decided marijuana can be used recreationally if folks are 21 years or older. his office delegated to prosecute authority for marijuana cases this became a budgetary thing. >> i made an economical decision basically don't waste your resources, don't prosecute any more of these cases as special district attorney. >> this does not mean anybody who has been busted can just not show up her court. the rest repetition is not just disappear. they must go through the motions of living they meet the age requirement and of course they haven't committed any other crimes. denis. dennis: thank you very much. cheryl: officials are heading to wal-mart headquarters as workers protest black friday beginning a day early. black friday will start early and toys "r" us, target and wal-mart also. leaving employees up in arms about having to forgo their turkey day to deal with the madness and a poorly drawn up 91 petitions calling for the holiday off. with one petition over 300,000 signatures as of last night. the second consecutive employees group of employees petitioned but to no avail at this point. on friday you want to tune into fox business, i will be broadcasting live this year from macy's in herald square all morning long checking in with visio and fox business camera will be there at midnight, dennis, we are dedicated. dennis: little bit of a respite from fiscal cliff for biblical washington reach a deal to resolve the fiscal crisis by the end of the year? cheryl: and if they don't, what will that cost you at home, everybody?. cu melissa and lori will tell you next. i need to rethink the core of my portfolio. what i really need is sleep. introducing the ishares core, building blocks for the heart of your portfolio. find out why 9 out of 10 large professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. ishares by blackrock. call 1-800-ishares for a prospectus which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. read and consider it carefully before investing. risk includes possible loss of principal. i heard you guys can ship ground for less than the ups store. that's right. i've learned the only way to get a holiday deal is to camp out. you know we've been open all night. is this a trick to get my spot? [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. save on ground shipping at fedex office. [ engine revs ] ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] the mercedes-benz winter event is back, with the perfect vehicle that's just right for you, no matter which list you're on. [ santa ] ho, ho, ho, ho! [ male announcer ] lease a 2013 c250 for $349 a month at youlocal mercedes-benz dealer. >> a sign of fiscal cliff phobia can be worse than the fiscal cliff itself. cheryl: we'v we have had so mann weeks. a lot of those technology names, apple moving early no news on a stock like apple. kind of in a buying mood right now. it'll be a nice hour with lori and melissa. always. lori: how could it be bad? the dow is up 168. good monday afternoon, everybody, i am lori rothman. melissa: and i am melissa francis. the fiscal cliff talk hope. hope is