Record breaking. The dow and s p 500 made all time highs during yesterdays trading session. The blue chips added on 71 points, the nasdaq 46 and the s p 14. Gold closed up 2 and oil by 72 cents. A tesla plant fire in california reportedly injured 3 workers wedesday. It caused the stock to tumble 2 dollars, but later bounced back. The workers are okay . Cisco had a miss on revenue along with a profit slip. The stock fell more than 3 after the close. And the nations deficit is shrinking. The shutdown and sequestration cuts assisted in reducing the deficit between Government Spending and revenues raised by 24 in october. Todd horwitz of average joe options joins us on this thursday morning for a closer look at the stock market. Good morning to you. Good morning angie. We keep hearing how lower gas prices are helping the consumers. Do you think that lower gas prices will be a driver for people to buy more stocks . No i dont think so. I think what youre really seeing here angie is a lot of the Retail Investors have now come back into the market. In fact, as of yesterday we are at our highest level of retail participation since 2008. So what about the volatility index . Its around 13. Its very sluggish over the last 3 months or so. What do you think . What the market is telling us is they know we can only go up and were never going down again. There is absolutely no fear. Theres only options sellers. Theres no options buyers right now. We know over history that eventually this will work out ot be a recipe for disaster. But for now its hard to fight the overall trend in volatility is going lower so if youre an options player you should be an options seller right now. What do you like about the stock market . If you look at some things, you can look at names like verizon and some of the dividend playersduke energy. I think those look pretty good. I think as you see their rotation out of some of the higher risky stocks like tesla, netflix. Youll see a rotation into stocks like verizon and duke energy. So i do like the safer, dividend yielding stocks. Good to have you on the show. Thank you. Thank you angie. People in the financial industry will pay close attention to confirmation hearings today for janet yellen, she is up for the top job at the Federal Reserve to replace ben bernanke. Traders especially will watch the play by play on the hill. Her prepared remarks are already being reported and contain comments that she supports the feds Bond Buying Program thats stimulating the economy. Yellen will testify before the Senate Banking committee. Democrats hold 12 seats on the committee enough for yellen to gain approval and move on to the full senate. However, members of the Republican Party and tea party are threatening to delay her nominmation. President obama is in ohio today, where he will make a speech on the health of u. S. Manufacturing. The president will make remarks on the economy from Steel Manufacturing plant arcelormittal in cleveland. The company is the Worlds Largest manufacturer of steel, and recently reported in better than expected financial results. Arcelormittal says business in north america is growing, and is helping offset losses in europe. The president may address the troubled healthcare. Gov website at todays event in ohio. Despite the series of technical glitches the administration believes the enrollment process is on track. Wednesday, the Obama Administration revealed disappointing enrollment numbers. Fewer than 27,000 people signed up for private Health Insurance through healthcare. Gov and 79,000 through state run exchanges,the goal was 500,000 by now. On capitol hill yesterday, the deputy chief Information Officer of cms which runs healthcare. Gov responded to questions from congress. We underestimated the volume of users who would attempt to concurrently access the system at any one time initially in october. And we immediately addressed the capacity issues in the first few days and continue to actively work on further improving performance and creating a better user experience. Behind the scenes some democrats are expressing frustration with roll out of obamacare. Today, Senate Leader harry reid will caucus with some of those senators and white house officials after speaking with the president. Yes, i feel very comfortable that the Obama Administrations troubled Health Care Website will be fixed. That remains in doubt among gop lawmakers. Well i think you know what our view is. We think the thing ought to be repealed and replaced entirely. We think it cant possibly work yesterdays hearings on the hill. Mark the 6th round of testimonysince the computerized insurance marketplaces went live october 1st. Fannie mae and freddie mac are on wall streets wishlist according to reports. Hedge funds reportedly are hatching a plan to take control of large parts of the mortgage agencies to end a dispute wtih the treasury and speed Housing Finance reforms currently bogged down in congress. So far, reports say hedge funds interested include claren road asset management, fairholme funds, gso capital partners, paulson co and perry capital. Investment group bain capital is making a second run at acquiring auto parts supplier t i automotive. Sources tell reuters bain is one of 3 private equity firms making a play for ti and is willing to spend nearly 2 billion dollars. The parts supplers makes fuel tanks, braking and power Train Components for cars and trucks. Theres big business, big oil and now big air. With the anti trust settlement that allows the merger of American Airlines with us airways, it means four airlines will control 87 of the commercial flights across the us. Our cover story looks at what changes this most recent merger may bring. Analysts say american and us airways gave up a little to get a lot. At the busiest airports where the two airlines dominate, theyll give up some of their slots to smaller competitors, such as virgin america, jet blue and some to those, not so smallsuch as southwest. Were surprised at how little they had to give up. Attorney general eric holder said by guaranteeing a bigger foothold for lowcost carriers. This settlement ensures Airline Passengers will see more competition. But will it . Four carriers will control nine out of ten flights in america. Most airlines have cut their flights, so its a question of price, really. No doubt there will be upward push on fares, especially in smaller markets. Lowercost options will be gone. Scwieterman predicts a steady climb for stockholders and with good reason as the wall street journal found, fares between hubs of merged carriers went up more than 50 . Prices continue to go up but im more concerned with schedules to smaller airports. Some say it may open the door for an upstart. Whenever theres a Market Segment not met, theres always an opportunity. Look at jetblue. It came in when needs were not being met. The airlines expect to close their merger deal in december. But it may take several months to completely integrate the two. One change already announcedfrequent flyers on either carrier will be able to earn miles transferable to the other beginning january 7th. Votes are still being counted after Union Members cast ballots on labor contract from boeing. Jet maker was considering building its new 777x in a non union plant. Boeing could come out the winner no matter how the union vote goes. One estimate shows the 8 Year Contract extension with Union Workers would boost boeing earnings by roughly 2 per share a year. Also lawmakers in the state of washington have approved 8. 7 billion in tax breaks and incentives to keep boeing buildindg jets in seattle. Machinists leaders plan to count the ballots late today after voting ends at 6 p. M. In seattle. Chicagobased boeing has said it would consider all options for an Assembly Location if the contract extension is rejected. A trucking shortage is dragging heavily on one company. Yrc worldwide reported a disappointed round of earnings due to costs related to fewer drivers. The Stock Plunged 22 yesterday to close above sevendollars. Yrc is also currently in the midst of union talks, requesting as many as 26thousand workers resign a contract that will cut their pay. The company has posted annual losses since 2007. Volkswagon rolls out an electric car at next weeks car show in los angeles. The first battery operated car from vw is an electric version of its popular golf model. The egolf will run on an lithiumion battery that will keep the car charged for 70 to 90 miles. Motorola is offering a new phone with no strings attached. The moto g budget smartphone comes with no contract, and costs 179dollars. Its being launched in 30countries. Analysts expect itll do well with consumers shifting over to a smartphone for the first time, or users looking for a less expensive option. Motorolas mobile device unit is owned by google. The new phone will be released in january. Macys earnings soared beyond wall streets prediction. The Company Reported revenue of 6. 28 billion dollars. A 3. 3 gain over last year. Macys ceo also predicts sales will remain strong througout the Holiday Shopping season. As macys and other retailers report earnings this week profits could get a boost from lower prices at the pump. After 2 months of increasing pessimism,consumers are feeling much more optimistic because gas prices dropped, actually they are feeling the best they have felt since july that was jeff lenard of the National Assocation of convenience stores. The current average of a gallon of unleaded is 3. 18 up a penny from tuesday. Hes a man with a plan. Office depot has selected turnaround expert roland smith to head the company. Smith previously served as ceo of wendys, hes also had a hand in other big turnarounds two of them American Golf corporation and bowling operator amf. Office depot recently purchased office max for 976 Million Dollars. New guidelines could double the number of americans taking cholesterol lowering drugs. The nations top cardiologists determined taking doses of statin drugs could lower the risek of heart attacks or strokes. It gives investors a new deminision in choosing drug stocks to buy according to trader scott bauer. I think, the public perciption is that this is going to hurt merck more than any of the other Drug Companies astrezenica, pfizer, Companies Like those are buys here. Pfizer the maker of lipitor rallied to 31. 87 cents yesterday. Investors gave a warm welcome to a Discount Hotel chain in its ipo. Extended stay popped 19 on its first day of trading to close at 23. 87. The company rents rooms out by the week or month. Guests on average stay 26 days. Textbook rental Company Chegg fell in its open. It dropped 23 on day one, closing at 9. 68. And it was a disappointing first day. The company sometimes called the netflix of textbooks, priced the stock at the highend of its ipo range. The ipo tied to the value and performance of nfl running back arian foster has been postponed. The Football Player was injured in the texans colts game and will undergo back surgery that will sideline him for the season. Fantex hoped to debut its first ipo for foster later this month. Ipo hopes are now on 49ers tight end vernon davis, who suffered a concussion in a game last sunday. We wish the best for both players. Still to come will traders hit the clearance racks following nordstroms earnings. Why a new film about wall street will be arriving fashionibly late to the box office. And, a fight thats been going on for decades with one of the Worlds LargestOil Corporations is making headlines again,bill moller is next with the controversy. Im going to pass chemistry, and ill take it from there. Im going to do what makes me happy. Im going to work hard. Be independent. Live large. Make the most of every opportunity. I knew i wanted to go to college. But figuring out how to pay for it . I didnt have a clue. The u. S. Department of education has over 100 billion. And thats a lot of money. To help students pay for college. And the free application . You mean the fafsa. I did it online. It was easy. Im never giving up on my goals. I will make a difference. Im going to find out how to pay for college. Im going to college. Gov. I served in the United States air force. I served a total of 16 years. I was deployed 13 times. On my second deployment four bombs hit my vehicle. And at 19 years old, that was the first time i ever saw somebody die. Coming back, i was raging. I started having pretty horrible nightmares. I would wake up in middle of the night sweats. I started drinking a lot. I felt worthless. I guess i never recognized it in myself. Eventually, one day i just walked into the va hospital and said id like to see somebody. Dont suffer alone. Youve got to find that link with somebody that will make you let it go. It all starts with going to the va. Theres a whole community of veterans that just want to help you out. Its for the guys who couldnt come back, you owe it to them to live well. Because theyre not here with their families. Is it the story of the big American Energy company despoiling the land of an indigenous Latin American Community and then refusing a court order to pay more than 9 billion dollars in damages. Or is it a case of a corrupt court succombing to overwhelming evidence of fraud, bribery and corruption. Such are the opposing arguments in a case decided yesterday by ecuadors National Court of justice between that country and chevron corporation. With us is nathalie cely, ecuadors ambassador to the United States. The environmental damage was done between 1964 and 1992 by texaco which is now owned by chevron. Is your governments position that the courts have spoken its time for chevron to pay . This is a private litigation between chevron and the community of lago agrioand we respect the verdict. The contamination is overwhelming and the court has spoken. Chevron is fighting very aggressively in several international tribunals. Theyre filing a civil suit against the lawyers alleging that there is all kinds of acts of misconduct including fraud, extortion. Heres the quote from the company. Refering to the lower court ruling. Is there corruption in ecuadors courts . This is very convenient now that chevron is telling about these allegations of corruption to the courts of ecuador. Ten years ago, back in 1993 the request the litigation taken to ecuador. It was under their request. So youre saying that chevron chose the venue to have the case heard. Exactly. And they claimed that ecuadorian courts were the best courts to attend this litigation case. You can go to the independent reports and i can tell you theres room to improve but nothing has happenedget the courts better and get a reform adjusted thats making the system more fair and more efficient. So you say they chose the court theyve gotta go with the judgement from the court. What about corruption . How widespread is it . Actually the allegations of corruption goes on both sides. For example the judge that did the verdict just claimed that chevron also tried to bribe him and he gave the court in new york a recording to that regard. So there are allegations of corruption that need to be proved. But there is corruption to some degree in the ecudorian courts. It seems like its a little bit of petite corruption that is being portrayed in that case that needs to be proved. Were not a part of this conflict. There is not any single proof of political interference in the process and i think there has been a due process in this whole case. Embassador cely, thank you so much. Thank you bill. Coming up. Disney dominates. But, why the studio has a harder time showing off its profits . Thats next. And later in chart talk. Can nordstrom follow suit after macys blowout numbers . Well be right back. Disney does it again. The new film, thor the dark world set a worldwide record. Heres our movie guy to talk more about the outstanding year disney is having so far. In 2010, 3. 7 billion dollars was their Global InternationalBox Office Record and theyre going to achieve that this year. They still have 3 more movies coming out. Thor the dark world has grossed over 350 million worldwide. Its only 100 million left before it breaks the originals record so they are having one heck of a year. You say disney is bringing in big money, but yet its not as profitable as some of the other film studios. Universal in particular. Disneys budgets are a bit heftier than some of the films that universal has put out. Universal has only had 3 films this year that have broken 100 Million Dollar budget. Disney has had a few more than that and plus they already had the lone ranger under their belt this year so that brought it down a little bit. But theyre still nothing to sneeze at. Theyre having one hell of a year. Does thor deserve all the dollars its winning right now in your critics view . No, as i said last week i think thor the dark world is one of the lesser of the marvel films and the way disneys going they have marvel, they have pixar. You look at the pixar movies of the last few years. Theres really been a downsize in quality. I really hope that people recognize that and not just go out because its marvel, pixar at the Box Office Last weekend, thor brought in as you mentioned, 85 million. Jackass presents bad grandpayou know i hate saying that word. Coming in at 11 million. And then freebirds at 11 million. Last vegas at 11 million, and then the enders game at 10 million. They all just took a drop. Coming up this weekend, we were supposed to hear or see the new film coming in from martin scorcesethe wolf of wall street. It was just delayed a few weeks ago. Theyre sort of trimming it down a little for length. It was originally gonna be over three hours, now its gonna come in at about 2 45. So, the movie was delayed back until christmas. Whats interesting is that it sort of left a big hole in this weekend. Theres only one sort of big wide release opening this weekend and it could benefit from that. The best man holiday. Yeah, the ticket salesthe presales have actually been phenomenal. A lot of people expecting this might do 25 maybe even 30 million. Some people are comparing it to like an event film for certain audiences like sex and the city was. A lot of women, a lot of africanamericans are pre buying ticketsyou could see this thing do a hefty number. And depending on how thor drops back, there could be a surprise number one at the box office this weekend. Youll let us know all about it next week. I will. Thank you eric. Thank you. Just ahead a trader goes shopping for a high end retail stock. Chart talk is next. See these hands . They gripped the wheel of a humvee in afghanistan. These hands . Six years treating soldiers. Twelve years, flying choppers. My hands . Theyre here for the person who fought in afghanistan. I made the call and got support for my sister. My hands are here for the person who treated those soldiers. I helped connect my son with the care hes earned. Mine take care of the person who flew those helicopters. And if life gets overwhelming theyre ready to dial the Veterans Crisis line. The Veterans Crisis line is here for all veterans and their loved ones. Call 18002738255 and press 1. Or chat online at veteranscrisisline. Net i served a total of 16 years. And at 19 years old, thats the first time i ever saw somebody die. Coming back, i was raging. I started having pretty horrible nightmares. I started drinking a lot. I guess i never recognized it in myself. It all starts with going to the va. Theres a whole community of veterans that just want to help you out. Its for the guys who couldnt come back, you owe it to them to live well. Because theyre not here with their families. Its time for chart talk. Joining us now is Matt Cavanaugh of cmz trading. Good morning matt. Good morning. After macys blowout numbers, what do you suspect well hear from nordstrom . I think its gonna be really interesting to watch. You highlighted macys. The stock exploded the other day. Their same store sales the last quarter were 3. 5 up versus 2 expected. So they really knocked the cover off the ball. And nordstrom people are gonna be looking at it but their expectations have actually come down over the last 3 months. So i think if theyre on the same course as macys the we could really see a nice pop to the upside. Is this a stock that you would buy . It is. Its tough to say that as were at all time highs in these retailers but i think that of all of them, nordstrom is really one that the management excels and they also have the Nordstrom Rack story which is catering to maybe a little bit different class than the regular nordstrom stores. So theyre firing on 2 different areas. So its definitely one i would buy and i think its very attractively priced even at this level. Lets just say the numbers come out and its disappointment. What do you do then . Do you still buy . It depends on how much of a disappointment and how much the stock goes down but nordstrom is one of those things that if they do go on sale, maybe you buy it. Well we love to shop so thank you so much matt. Thank you. Join us tomorrow. For traders unplugged our pro traders break down the facts on whether its better to own stock in twitter or facebook. 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