Why it is taking down the markets and white finding an answer, it always seems to come down to the last minute. The storm hitting the midwest and it is now hitting the northeast. Oh canada, out of work americans are heading north to find jobs. Top of the hour. Time now for stocks. Nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange. Nicole we are down about 72 points. The vix, the fear index, has an up arrow today. Commodities are pulling back a little bit. I want to take a look at a name that is on the move. It is deckers. You may not necessarily know that you know what it is all about. You know uggs. It turns out they are quite popular. While that chatter has been around, they will give decker a pop. Could merge with timberland. We will be back at you in 15 minutes. For the first time in nearly 40 years, between christmas and new years, it comes as lawmakers continue to scramble to get a fiscal cliff deal done. Rich edson has the latest. Rich they are considering legislation here in the senate today. President obama says he called to talk to congressional leaders, democrats and republicans, last evening. There is no progress here to report. President obama put it all on the house. They are operating without the house of representatives. It is being operated with a dictatorship of the speaker, not allowing the vast majority to get what they want. If the 250 would be brought up, it would pass overwhelmingly speaking that 250 he is discussing that would keep tax rates where they are for income amount for less than 250,000 increased those earning more. House speaker says senator reed should talk less and legislate more. Senate democrats have not. They want to extend all the current tax rates and avoid some of the spending cuts. Democrats are on their opening offer. They basically have not moved anywhere. There is less than a week to go. Senator reid talking about a less than 250,000 limit. Speaking right. Exactly. Liz more on the fiscal cliff. Lets bring in peter. With us is former clinton advisor doug shoen. We have basically mr. Boehner saying, look, you senate, you have not come up with anything. I think, unfortunately, we will probably get around it. I think it is a worse outcome to avoid the cliff then to go over it. I think we should broaden the discussion and look at what is going on around the world. Look at japan and europe. The japanese government is the glaring war on japanese citizens. It will create inflation. If the japanese citizens start to dump their bonds, they have been a bigger part then japan recently. That is a big problem for us. Their euro has been quietly depreciating. If that goes out, that is a much bigger fiscal cliff. If the buyers of treasuries become sellers. Liz there are a lot of if in your discussion. The bond markets are still pretty nothing from the bottom vigilantes yet. You were a clinton advisor. You saw in the mid 90s bond yields really spike higher. That is the issue. If we see the economy healing, bond yields could go up. Investors say, wait a second, why invest for bond. That is the key issue. We have not seen Interest Rates spike for a simple reason. Nobody has confidence in the economy. Nobody believes we will have robust economic growth. We could be heading towards a recession. Especially given the disappointing christmas sales. I am frankly skeptical about what will happen with our economy either way. I think we will go over the cliff. I am getting more and more pessimistic by the hour. Liz here is the issue, peter. We have dysfunction in high definition. I think the issue is it is not really a bond market issue right now, it is more house it hits consumer wallets. It will be a bond market issue. They will lose confidence in the u. S. Government stability to pay its bills without trading mass inflation. That is the big problem. Yes, Interest Rates have been artificially low. They will not stay artificially low. When foreigners start selling dollars, rates will go up and Consumer Prices will go up. Take a look at what has happened in the crude oil market. That chart looks really strong. It will hit the consumer right in the wallet. Ben bernanke has already said he does not care how much inflation hits. You know, i just believe we are in a Holding Action until we resolve these immediate political problems. I agree with you was. This is a political crisis first and foremost. It is a weak economy. Getting weaker. Bond yields are going down. I think what peter speaks of is certainly possible in the near future. Perhaps, the more distant future. Bottom line, i expect more softening and a lack of confidence. The fact of the matter is, Big Government is very expensive. We need much higher taxes on the middle class. Not on the rich, on the middle class. If they do not want to get stuck with this bill, we better start slashing [talking over each other] liz we have to leave it there. Thank you very much. Really appreciate it. Heading north for the winter. Canada needs workers. Out of work americans are happy to oblige. This is really an amazing story. Oil is now trading just north of 90 a barrel. Just down a fraction of a point. We will be right back. Liz welcome back. Things are calming down from yesterday when a powerful winter storm pounded the nations midsection. Winter weather still affecting the northeast. The storm is still affecting the northeast. We actually have another storm system further out towards the west that will start to get its act together. The good news is it is not forecasted to be anywhere near as powerful as the storm that produced those tornadoes on Christmas Day and even the day after across North Carolina and over a foot of snow in portions of arkansas and illinois. The storm Still Producing snow over parts of new york, New Hampshire and maine. Some good the overt 2 feet of snow before this storm is over. The good news for new york city and boston is you did not get to deal with that snowfall. The wind has been howling over 40 Miles Per Hour at times. Especially during the overnight hours. That is what has reduced travel. We are just going to continue to see a slow commute on the roadways and also at the airport. Winter storm warning still in place. Pretty much the entire state of maine still looking for snowfall. You are still talking about a prolonged period of time. There will be more heavy snow and strong winds. Maine still looking to see over a foot of snow here for much of the state. Liz it looks like that storm is heading to canada. Quarter past the hour. Stocks now and every 15 minutes. Nicole when traders on wall street continued to talk about washington, that remains a serious issue here. Everyone knows that has not been solved yet. The truth is, there is nothing on the table. With that being said, you can see the dow and the nasdaq are down three quarters of 1 . The s p is the worst of the bunch. Bank of america and jpmorgan weighing on the Dow Jones Industrials. I wanted to check in on toyota motors. We are watching this closely. They are doing this 1. 1 billion agreement. The owners of the 16 million cars, a lot of complaints, obviously. They do not have to admit guilt. The settlement does not cover injuries and wrongful death. It does cover all of the economic concerns and crisis all these people suffered. Liz thank you so much. We will be back with you in just a few. Not only the weather, u. S. Jobs are heading to canada also. With its high unemployment rate, watch out california. Workers are the prime target. We are live in los angeles with this very interesting story. You are exactly right. Canada is looking to double its Oil Production over the next 20 years. They do not have enough workers to get it out of the ground. Some firms are willing to pay top dollar to convince americans to head north. Canada is looking for a few good men and women. A lot of people retiring and we have a lot of major infrastructure projects, minds being billed, hydroelectric boards, all the infrastructure, oil and gas, it is kind of endless. They are recruiting american workers. People who are engineers, people who have welding skills, people who have skill sets and construction. It is a wide range. John lafontaine is one of six other people who recently stood in line at a job fair in palm springs, florida. He is willing to make the move to support his children. Opportunities present themselves. You might as well reach out and grab it. And opportunity back that they have almost double his current salary. In the end, help both nations. It is a winwin. From that job fair, we are told about two dozen people are in a close to hire process and we are expecting or job fairs just like that one in california early next year. Liz they are getting free universal health care, good pay, quality schools, a lot of great benefits. Yes. That is exactly right. The pay for a skilled worker is twice or three times what they can make in california, if they can find a job. One company that a big construction company, is looking for pipefitters. They are willing to pay up to 150,000 a year. That is pretty good money. Liz thank you, anita. The Commodity Markets are sitting on washington, d. C. s next move and whether lawmakers can deliver an answer towards the fiscal crisis. We will focus on the oil market. That is next. First, lets take a look at the world currencies and how they are faring against the u. S. Dollar. Liz we have breaking news. You are looking at a live picture on your screen right now. Air force one just landing in washington, d. C. As president obama returns to the Nations Capital. He cut short his hawaiian vacation. Oil prices jumping nearly 3 since christmas time as fiscal cliff worries shake the commodities market. Joining us now president of lipow associates. I think it is waiting on congress to do something. In the meantime, we have seen the dollar weakened against the euro. Liz we have gas around 3. 25. What if we go over the fiscal cliff . If that is the case, i see us going down to about 2. 10. Liz if we go to 82 a barrel, what will the forecast before june and july . In the past, the nation has gone through some kind of panic attack expecting five dollars for a gallon of gas. I do not see five dollars at all next year. I do not even see four dollars. I expect 3. 75 to be the height of the peak. What i expect is nothing will happen until the new year when both congress and the president come back. They enact new tax cuts. Neither side is interested in any sort of significant spending cuts. Liz where do you see oil and gas prices in that scenario . Well, in that scenario, i think oil prices could rise if we just had the tax cuts because the spending will continue unabated and the dollar will get weaker and Commodity Prices will get higher. Liz thank you. Lets stay with oil. We will bring in our very own jeff flock. What are you watching out there . Jeff we were at the cme yesterday. Talk about what the impact of the fiscal cliff has done to the oil market. Take a look at oil prices today. Since christmas, we are up about 3 . Take a look at the volume. If you look at the volume of trading, and wall street journal was onto this First Talking about the falloff of volume in november, but it has really continued. Take a look at what the normal average volume is and where we are today. By the way, out at the exxon mobil refinery, and caught this caught by the way, is one of the nations newest refineries. A little news out here as we speak today. They have to report this to the federal government because liz we are having some technical difficulties with jeff flock. Working on a solution to the debt crisis. First, some of todays winners, s p. Announcer you never know when, but thieves can steal your identity and turn your life upside down. Hi. Hi. You know, i can save you 15 today if you open up a charge card account with us. You just read my mind. Announcer just one little piece of information and they can open bogus accounts, stealing your credit, your money and ruininyour reputation. Thats why you need lifelock to relentlessly protect what matters most. [beeping. ] helping stop crooks before your identity is attacked. And now you can have the most comprehensive Identity Theft protection available today. Lifelock ultimate. So for protection you just cant get anywhere else, get lifelock ultimate. I didnt know how serious Identity Theft was until i lost my cred and eventually i lost my home. 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Com to try lifelock protection risk free for a full 60 days. Use promo code gethelp. Plus get this document shredder free but only if you act right now. Call the number on your screen now liz we have breaking news for you. Moments ago, air force one landing in washington, d. C. As president obama returns to the Nations Capital to try to find some sort of deal on the fiscal cliff. We are also getting late word that Senate Majority leader harry reid will hold a News Conference at 3 00 p. M. Eastern time. This all comes on the heels that senator reid may be said we are going over the fiscal cliff. Stocks now every 15 minutes. The wall street journal out with some retailers to watch in 2013. Nicole lets start off with harry reids comments that we may go over the fiscal cliff. As a result, we are seeing a lot of down arrows. There is a market that started off in the green and then read. That is the action that we are seeing. Getting to the retailers, there are a lot of retailers that have had a lot of headlines and in many cases have been struggling. Jcpenney would be one of them. Down nearly 5 on the day. They have been a big loser. You had ron johnson come over from apple. The wall street journal talked about a few retailers. Four of them, to be exact. Including best buy. That would be another one. Radioshack. And also sears. These are the four names we have been watching very closely. A lot of these names are significantly lower. Do or die in 2013 for those names. Liz thank you so much. President obama landing in washington just moments ago. Cutting his vacation in hawaii sure to tackle the fiscal cliff. Reports calling the possibility of a deal before the new year virtually impossible. Lets bring in former press secretary to al gore and we also have brad blakeman. They are both joining us from washington, d. C. The house has already passed legislation to avoid the fiscal cliff, but Senate Democrats have not. What do you make of that feedback they are having what amounts to a staring contest right now. It is legislation that would keep tax cuts for those making under 250,000 a year. The house does not have any plans to come back before january 1. Liz the house does have a bill that would not hurt Small Businesses and the job creators in this country. For some reason they seem to be avoiding that very important issue for the u. S. Economy. What i make of it is, it all goes back to the leadership of the president. The president created this crisis. Remember, he was the one who had a Bipartisan Commission on the debt. They came back with their proposals. Two years ago, the president could have avoided all of this by having a bill that not only took care of our problems today, but well into our future. We would have been well on the way to recovery. Having said that, certainly, the rules of the house and senate, in my opinion, prevent a big bill from happening. The Congressional Budget Office said they do not have time to score it. The only hope right now is to have a bill that will maintain the status quo, past january and all of this must be revisited in january along with raising the debt ceiling. Liz senator reid talking about the 250,000 crowd. Shouldnt the democrats now the thing, look, we do want to be raising the taxes. No. They said they will not be raising taxes a dime on people making over a Million Dollars a year. That is wrong. We do not want to raise taxes on those making more than 250,000. Certainly, we have already signaled the fact that we would go as high as 400,000. The president wants us to negotiate. That is not true, brad. Plan b failed in the house because john boehner has a segment of his party that will not go along with very reasonable no, no. We will go along with revenue. There has not been any spending reduction on behalf of the American People and the president. We only control one third of government. You guys control two thirds and you have refused to lead through this crisis. If there was a bill that would raise taxes on people over 400,000 a year that that would pass . [talking over each other] look, a revenue bill would pass provided that it was matched by spending reductions. We will not take from people without giving them the insurance that we are not spending more that we are taking in. Liz thank you. Great to be with you both. Next up, we have good news on the housing front. The latest word from the Commerce Department has newhome sales at at the highest level we have seen in more than two years. New singlefamily home sales increased by 4. 4 last month from october. It showed home prices up nearly 7 for this year. The winter blast that wrecked lives in the south and kept most of the nation at home and caus