As the price of Oil Continues to decline. West texas intermediate fell to an eighth month low and brent crude hit a 14month low dipping below 100 a barrel before coming back just a bit. That pushed shares of oil drillers, oil refiners, Oil Explorers and Oil Services Companies lower today. Case in point, exxonmobil. It was the biggest decliner in the dow today. Falling 1 1 2 . Chevron, the only other energy giant in the dow down about 1 . As for the major averages overall, the dow lost 26. Nasdaq bucked the trend. It was up 9. S p 500 down 6 but Still Closing just above the 2000 mark. Jackie deangelis has more on the slide in oil prices and where prices are trending and what it could mean for you at the pump. Energy prices continued to decline weighing on the s p 500, but bringing consumers a little bit of relief. Retail gas prices down another two cents over the last two weeks bringing prices down a quarter in the last 11 weeks. The National Average now 3. 46 a gallon according to the lundberg survey. Falling crude futures prices set the tone for gasoline. Domestic crude finishing the session at 92. 66 and brent, the international benchmark, falling under 100 a barrel for the first time in 14 months. Traders calling the drop in brent prices significant because 100 is a key technical and psychological support level. There are several reasons for the steep drop including a dollar that continues to strengthen, a market that is well supplied and also traders thinking that air strikes will stabilize the middle east rather than unnerve it. And the declines could continue seasonally the Fourth Quarter is the weakest time for crude and gasoline demand. Some traders think that west texas intermediate can go as low as 88 a barrel before it takes a pause. Im jackie deangelis. The biggest gainer in the dow today by far boeing. Thats after irelands low cost carrier ryanair finalized an 11 billion deal for 100 brand new 737s jets which can seat up to 200 passengers. Ryanair also put in options to buy 100 more. Also today the ceo of boeings commercial airplanes business said the planemaker is being pressured to raise the production rate of a 737 jetliner. Shares of the Aerospace Giant shot up more than 2 1 2 . Another dow member making news today, General Electric. At 122 years old, ge continues a makeover aimed at turning itself into a high growth Industrial Infrastructure company with a significant finance arm. The latest step in that transformation, the sale of its iconic appliance brands to swedens electrolux. Shares of the General Electric industrial giant were flat today as a lot o investors wonder whats next for ge. Mary thompson takes a look. Its been a busy 2014 for jeff immelt. In his 13th year on the job, hes made big moves to create what he called a culture of simplification at the conglomera conglomerate. The latest step in that simplification . Selling the appliance business to electrolux for 3. 3 billion. Heres chip blankenship, ceo of the division. Its become harder and harder to tell the story about how the ge appliance business is aligned with the General Electric company. General Electric Company wants to be a pure play technology and infrastructure business focused on region of Global Growth and, you know, solving hard problems like building power plants and things of that nature. The problem immelts solving for get ge to where threequarters of its profits come from higher growth high Value Industrial businesses such as energy, water and aviation. The rest can come from its finance arm, a unit that once accounted for more than half of ges earnings. With appliances profits accounting for less than 3 of the total, the loss of those earnings will be offset by the deal he struck in june buying the power business for 17 billion. Its completion forecast to lift ges industrial profits to that 75 level while this years spinoff of ges credit card unit and expected sales of Real Estate Holdings will cut profits generated by ge capital. Ges also been selling other businesses to streamline its operations. 2014 sales of fuel and signaling businesses along with appliance total 4. 6 billion. Thats above the 4 billion in targeted sales ge forecast earlier this year. Looking ahead many expect ges other iconic brand lighting will someday go on the block. For now the sales put more money in the pockets of the 122yearold firm, money ge will likely use for acquisitions to build out its higher dwroet businesses. A steady course for a firm in the midst of ongoing change. For nightly Business Report im mary thompson. After the closing bell, home depot confirmed that its systems have been breached. The hack could affect customers who use cards at the stores in the u. S. And canada. But home depot says there is no evidence debit card p. I. N. S were compromised and the investigation is focused on the months since april. Now to something a lot of big u. S. Companies might be considering a Corporate Tax inversion by reincorporating to other countries. Treasury secretary jack lew slammed the practice saying it may be legal but its wrong and that u. S. Laws must be changed. By effectively renouncing their citizenship but remaining here these companies are eroding americas Corporate Tax base. That means that all other taxpayers including Small Businesses and hardworking americans will have to shoulder more of the responsibility of maintaining core public functions that everybody depend on. Were talking about national defense, education, medical research, courts and infrastructure such as roads, bridges and airports. Lew says the Obama Administration will decide soon what actions it can take to make inversions less profitable for american firms. For most americans summer vacations end a week ago and the kids are already back in school, but washington isnt like anywhere else. And today the kids, members of the house and senate, returned to the Nations Capital after a fiveweek summer recess. And lawmakers have a lot on their plate. But will anything get done . John harwood joins us now from washington. John, what does congress have to do, if anything, in the short time theyll be in session before they break for campaigning in the elections . You know, tyler, those kids arent as mature as they always need to be. So theyre not going to get much done. The one thing they have to do is pass legislation extending government funding. Government runs ow t of money on september 30th. To avoid a government shutdown, theyve got to pass what they call a continuing resolution to keep that going. And the main threat to that possibility was the idea that the president would invoke unilateral action on immigration and conservative republicans might have then refused to fund the government. That has now gone away. It does look like that one essential piece of business will get done over the next couple of weeks. We know that these kids also have their own preferences. So what is the number one project that the republicans would like to get done . And how about for the democrats . The republicans are planning to have a series of message bills to emphasize conservative policies that theyve advocated that have been stopped in the senate on jobs and energy. Democrats will do some messaging of their own. They also would like to extend the funding for the export import bank, some Republican Leadership would like to do that, too. Many people expect there will be some sort of a shortterm steks of the authority. Congress has been put on the back burner as i understand it over the weekend, but the battle against isis about which the president will speak to the nation on wednesday is anything but on the back burner. Will congress have anything to say or do with respect to funding the fight against isis . The president may ask for some funding. I dont think it is essential that it get passed before congress leaves for the election, and i also think it is not likely the president s going to seek specific authority to use force in syria. Hes asserted hes already got that authority and it would be a dicey vote that many members of congress dont want to take. All right, thanks a lot, john harwood reporting from washington. Now to some political turmoil in europe thats having a big impact on the global economy. Scotlands threat to secede from the United Kingdom slammed the value of the british pound on worries about currency valuation, debt and north sea oil rev news. A new opinion poll shows that for the first time scots might actually vote for independence. The European Union formally adopted tough new sanctions against russia today over its actions in eastern ukraine. The move was widely expected as we reported last week, but the eu did vote to delay the implementation of those sanctions while it assesses a ceasefire agreement reached last week. Now back to here in the u. S. A lot of economists and market watchers turned to data points like the monthly jobs report or the quarterly gdp report to guide their forecasts and investments. But there are other metrics coming out this week that might be equally as important. As Steve Liesman show us you might know know about them. Three reports will get extra attention from investors and two of them most people have never heard of. The Kansas City Fed on wednesday will for first time release its new labor Market Conditions indicators. Which brings together 24 different labor reports into a single index or call it one jobs report to rule them all. Taking on added significant cannes since the Federal Reserve began debating how much labor slack is in the economy and suggested the answer to when Interest Rates might finally rise could be pegged to a broad measure of slack such as might be measured by lmci and not just the unemployment rate. It brings into it other reports such as how many jobs are open throughout the country and how Many Americans filed for unemployment insurance. Fed chair janet yellen mentioned in a recent speech she was following a similar index. Another indicator that will get attention was the Quarterly Services survey, which measures activity in health care, Legal Services and education. This is the one data release in the u. S. Economy nor the entire service sector, or about 45 of all gdp, showing how the kinds of data the government puts out are not really in tune with how the economy has changed in the past several decades. Call it destination data or data that investors dont want to miss for following the direction of stocks, Interest Rates and the Federal Reserve. For nightly Business Report, im Steve Liesman. Still ahead, stocks that may be priced beyond perfection. Companies that may have gotten ahead of themselves, next. Former Portfolio ManagerMatthew Martoma is heading to prison. In new york today he was sentenced to nine years for engaging what authorities describe as the most lucrative Insider Trading scheme in the countrys history. Its one of the stiffest sentences handed down for Insider Trading. The judge also ordered martoma to forfeit more than 9 million. Americans are borrowing a lot more these days. The Federal Reserve says Consumer Credit rose by 26 billion in july led by a rise in auto loans and credit card charging. Thats a nearly 10 increase from just the month before and the biggest onemonth jump since 2011. Stress test for mutual funds . Well, that is what the s. E. C. Apparently is considering. This according to a frontpage story in todays wall street journal. The Commission Said the paper is potentially developing reporting requirements and other procedures to determine how mutual and hedge funds would weather dramatic jolts to the Financial System such as a sudden, large move in Interest Rates. Chief economist at the mutual fund industrys main trade group the servement Company Institute joins us now. Good to have you with us. It seems to me that what the s. E. C. May be most concerned about are derivatives and the leverage that they can bring into either Mutual Fund Portfolios or into exchangetraded funds are that sometimes double and triple levered to the benchmark that they are trying to follow. How dangerous is the use of these derivatives and that leverage in the context of a mutual fund . Mutual funds and etfs both have the same sets of rules and the s. E. C. Has had rules in place for many years on limiting that amount of leverage, as you say, in these funds. We dont really know what the s. E. C. Is specifically considering, but their focus is on protecting investors and making sure that those investor protections also the funds operate well and provide Financial Stability. So what were understanding is that theyre looking at these and have been looking at these rules for some time. So you dont really know just yet what these rules will entail, but from what you do know, these are going to protect investors but to what extent is there a cost tied to it with all the new compliance, the stress test and all that sort of stuff, will there be new fees and costs to individual investors and how might these changes also impact performance of the mutual fund . Its hard to know how what the rules are considering. One of the things that derivatives can do that are often overlooked is help reduce risk in funds as well. So the s. E. C. Is going to presumably be looking at all of these, the pozive the features of derivatives as well as the rules that they have in place as to the extent that they can maybe carve those back or limit those if they believe that they need to be updated. But again, the key part here is the s. E. C. Has an open process, they look at the rules, they look at what theyre proposing as well as the cost and the cost of implementing, then they have an open process for commenting. So investors, Mutual Fund Advisers and the ici can all weigh in and provide input into that process. As i understand it, without getting too washington insider here, you and the ici not you personally but the ici, is happier having the securities and Exchange Commission take the lead on this process rather than the fsoc, the Financial StabilityOversight Council or, say, the fed, which comes basically more out of a banking heritage. Do i have that correct . Yes, we believe that the s. E. C. Is the right regulator to be looking at this. They have a 75year history of effectively regulating mutual funds and fund advisers, and we believe that they have the expertise and the understanding of funds and this is where it belongs. Financial regulators have been looking at ways to make sure that the rules are providing Financial Stability and we believe that this is just part of that overall review and we believe the s. E. C. Is the right place to be doing that. So you are thinking pretty much that this is a good thing for individual investors, but are there any unintended consequences that could come out of these new rules . Its hard to know. Like we say, we really dont know what the rules are. We could have a better idea once is s. E. C. Proposes something and allow them to look in depth at what theyre proposing to see if there are any negative effects and Cost Effective ways of addressing the concerns that they have and gathering the information that they believe they need. The chief economist at the investment Company Institute. Thank you. Thank you. General mills just got a little more organic, and thats where we begin tonights mar ma focus. They are buying mac and cheese maker annies. The price tag of the deal is a 50 premium to annies average share price over the past month. Investors ate up shares is of annies after hours but during the regular session the stock fell 1 . Hertz ceo has stepped down amid pressure from an activist investor. The Car Rental Company ceo cited personal reasons for his departure. The move follows an announcement in august that hertz would review its earnings and correct Financial Statements from the last three years because of accounting errors. Since then, activist investors have taken stakes in the Company Including carl icahn. Hertz shares rose slightly on the news to 28. 50. A big bargain bonanza at amazon. It slashed the price of its fire phone. It was about 200. Now its 99 cents. You heard me right, 99 currents and comes with a free year of amazon prime. The price cut comes the day before the anticipated launch of apples new phone. But there are some Strings Attached on that amazon deal.