sure the hardship provision that was already existing in the law would also potentially apply to somebody who had problems during this transition. bang -- this transition period. you are making a broader point that i think is broader point that i think is fair. and that is that in a big , what we arethis constantly doing is looking -- is this working the way it is supposed to? and if there are adjustments that could be made to smooth out the transition, we should make them. but they do not go to the court of law. the court of the law is that for 85% of the population, all they have been getting is free preventive care, better consumer protections, the ability to keep their kids on their insurance $1000ntil they are 26, a

or $500 discount on prescription drugs for seniors on medicare. 85% of the population, whether they know it or not, over the last three years have benefited from a whole set of the provisions of the law. either way, if it were to be you prove the old -- to be repealed, you would be taking away all those benefits from folks who already are enjoying them. thehave this sub portion of population, 15%, who either do not have health insurance or are buying it on the individual market. that is still millions of people. what we are doing is creating a marketplace where they can buy insurance and we can provide them tax credits to help them afford it. the basic structure of that law is working, despite all the problems, despite the website problems, the messaging problems -- despite all that, it is working.

again, you do not have to take my word for it. we have got a couple million people who are going to have health insurance just in the first three months, the spite the fact that the first month and a half was lost because of problems with the website, and about as bad a bunch of publicity as you could imagine. and yet, you still got 2 million people who signed up. or more. that thehat means is demand is there. and as i said before, the product is good. in putting something like this together, there are going to be all kinds of problems that crop up, some of which may have been unanticipated. what we are trying to do is respond to them in a commonsense way. and we are going to continue to try to do that. but that does not negate the fact that, you know, a year from

now or two years from now, when we look at, we are going to be able to say that even more people have health insurance, and that is not a bad thing. that is a good thing. that is part of the reason i pushed so hard to get this law done in the first place. and, you know, i have said before this is a messy process. i think sometimes when i say that, people say, it is real messy. isn't the fact it has been so messy some indication there are more fundamental problems with the law? i guess what i would say to that, chuck, is, when you try to do something this big, affecting this many people, it is going to be hard. and every instance, whether it is social security, medicare, the prescription drug plan under president bush -- there has not

been an instance where you tried to really have an impact on the american people's lives and well-being, particularly in the health care arena, where you do not end up having some of these challenges. the question is going to be, ultimately, do we make good decisions trying to help as many people as possible in as efficient a way as possible? and i think that is what we are doing. you made thiso, change, where people are buying a junk-type policy you are trying to get people away from. quick keep in mind, first of all, that the majority of folks are going to have different options. this is essentially a additionalnet -- additional net in case folks may have slipped through the cracks. we expect it is going to be a relatively small number. these are folks who want

insurance, and the vast majority of them have good options. in a state like north carolina, the overwhelming majority have kept their own plans. the ones they had previously. but we thought, and continue to think, it makes sense that as we are transitioning to a system in which insurance standards are higher, people do not have unpleasant surprises because they thought they had insurance until they hit a limit, and next thing you know, they owe $300,000 for a hospital visit, that as we transition to higher standards, better insurance, that we also address folks who get caught in that transition and the unintended consequences. i will be honest -- that was the original intent of the grandfather clause in the law. obviously, the problem was it did not catch enough people. that, and wed from

are trying not to repeat those mistakes. enforcement, going forward. >> bill mattingly? >> what was the message you were trying to send with not only your decision not to attend the sochi games, but with the people you named to the delegation? >> first of all, i have not attended olympics in the past. many attending the olympics, particularly at a time when we have all the other stuff people have been talking about is going to be tough, although i would love to do it. i will be going to a lot of olympic games post-presidency. the delegation speaks for itself, outstanding americans, outstanding athletes, people who will represent us extraordinarily well. and the fact that we have got folks like billie jean king or

no,an borton oh -- boita world class athletes everyone acknowledges for their excellence and their character, who also happen to be members of the lgbt community -- you should take that for what it is worth. when it comes to the olympics and athletic performers, we do not make distinctions on the basis of sexual orientation. we judge people on how they perform, both on the court and off the court, on the field and off the field. that i think value is at the heart of not just america, but american sports. i am going to just roll down these last few real quickly. last day at the

white house. he deserves a question. quick senator max baucus was widely seen as the best hope for a large-scale deal to overhaul the tax code. what is your decision to nominate him as ambassador for china say to your hopes for a major tax overhaul? >> it says max baucus will be an outstanding ambassador to china, and i would like a swift confirmation. the expectation and hope is that democrats, or if democrats and republicans in the house and the senate, are serious about tax reform, it is not going to depend on one guy. it is going to depend on all of us working together. and my office is ready, willing, and eager to engage both parties in a conversation about how we can simple fight the tax code, make it fairer, make it work to create more jobs and do right by middle-class americans. jackie comes? >> thank you, mr. president.

how do you say it in hawaii? >> mele kalikimaka. >> i would like to ask you what your reaction was to the nonpartisan truth telling group politifact when it said the lie of the year was your statement that if you like your health care plan you can keep it? related to the health care problems we have seen over the past year, the fallout from that seems to be making democrats particularly in the senate a little rambunctious and independent of you, evidenced most clearly in the debate over iran sanctions. it looks like senate majority leader harry reid has expedited consideration of iran sanctions bill for january, even as your in a stray shin and you have been trying to get them -- as your administration and you have been trying to get them to lay off sanctions? >> you are stringing a bunch of things along. let us see if we can have a

question? >> that is a lot less than henry had. [laughter] >> i thought we were trying to get along. [laughter] >> how about i separate out the iran question from the health care question? i the health care question, think i have answered several times -- this is a new iteration of it. bottom line is that we are going to continue to work every single day to make sure that implementation of the health care law and the website and all elements of it, including the grandfather clause, work better, every single day. as i have said in previous press conferences, we are going to make mistakes. and we are going to have problems. but my intentions have been clear throughout. i just want to help as many

people as possible feel secure, and make sure they do not go broke when they get sick. we are going to keep on doing that. , there is the resolution to a problem that has been a challenge for american national security for over a decade. to, int is getting iran not pursuee fashion, a nuclear weapon. already, even with the interim deal that we struck in geneva, we have the first halt, and in some cases some rollback of iran's nuclear capabilities. the first time we have seen that in almost a decade.

structure inve a which we can have a very serious conversation to see, is it possible for iran to get right with the international community , to givefiable fashion us all confidence that any peaceful nuclear program that they have is not going to be weapon eyes in a way that threatens us or allies in the region, including israel? have said before and i will repeat, it is very important for us to test whether that is possible, not because it is guaranteed, but because the usernative is possibly having to engage in some sort of conflict to resolve the problem, with all kinds of unintended

consequences. i have been clear from the start i mean what i say. it is my goal to prevent iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. i sure would rather do it diplomatically. on theeping all options table. i would think that would be the preference of everybody on capitol hill, because that sure is the preference of the american people. and we lose nothing during this negotiation, precisely because there are verification provisions in place. we will have more insight into iran's nuclear program over the next six months than we have previously. we will know if they are violating the terms of the agreement. they are not allowed to accelerate their stockpile of enriched uranium. in fact, they have to reduce their stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

ironically, if we did not have this six months in which we are testing whether we can get a comprehensive solution to this problem, they would be advancing even further on their nuclear program. i might of all that, what have said to democrats and republicans is, there is no need for sanctions legislation. not yet. says wecomes back and cannot give you a assurances we , ifnot going to weaponize they are not willing to address some of their capabilities that we know could end up resulting in them having breakout capacity , it is not going to be hard for us to turn the dials back, strengthened sanctions even further. i will work with members of congress to put even more

pressure on iraq. that there is no reason to do it right now. that thererprised has been some talk from some members of congress about new sanctions. i think the politics of trying to look tough on iran are often for when you are running office. or if you are in office. but as president of the united states right now, who has been responsible over the last four years, with the help of congress, in putting together a comprehensive sanctions regime specifically designed to put pressure on them and bring them to the table to negotiate, what i am saying to them, what i have said to the international community, what i have said to the american people, is, let's test it. it is the time to try to see if we can get this thing done. i have heard some logic that

says, well, mr. president, we are supportive of the negotiations, but we think it is useful to have this club hanging over iran's head. we still have existing sanctions in place that are resulting in iran losing billions of dollars every month in lost oil sales. we already have banking and financial sanctions that are still being applied, even as the negotiations are taking place. it is not as if we are letting up on that. i have heard arguments that this way we can be assured, and the iranians will know, that if negotiations fail, even new and harsher sanctions will be put into place. i do not think the iranians have any doubt that congress would be more than happy to pass more sanctions legislation. we can do that in a day. on a dime.

but if we are serious about negotiations, we have to create an atmosphere in which iran is willing to move in ways that are uncomfortable for them, and contrary to their ideology and rhetoric, and their instincts and their suspicions of us. and we do not help get them to a position where we can actually in thisthis by engaging kind of action. all right? ok, everybody. i think i am going to take one more question. colleen mccain nelson, and that is it. president.u, mr. a lot of longtime advisers are leaving the white house. visors are coming in, or taking on new roles. as you reshape your team, how does that impact what you think you can accomplish, going forward? >> i just had lunch with pete, who is leaving the. that is tough.

not right now, at least. i love that guy. that will be a significant loss, although he will still be in town, and hopefully i will be able to consult with him on an ongoing basis. in,ink jonathan, coming will be terrific. he may deny it, but i have been hereg to get in him -- in for some time. he ran my transition office. at that time, i think he was still feeling he wanted to develop other organizations. john is a great strategist. anybody onod as domestic policy. and i think he will be a huge boost to us and give us more bandwidth to deal with more issues. i suspect we may have additional announcements in the new year.

there is a natural turnover that takes place. people get tired. people get worn out. sometimes you need fresh legs. i can tell you is that tireless, have now is andshares my values, believes the thing i think i have repeated four or five times in this press conference, which is, we get this incredible privilege for a short time, to do as much as we can for as many people as we can, to help them live better lives. and that is what drives them. that is the sacrifice they make, being away from families, soccer games, and birthdays. some of them will end up working over christmas on issues like iran. the fact that they make those kinds of sacrifices -- i am always grateful for them.

if they say to me after making those sacrifices for 3, 4, i've , then i need a break completely understand. all right? have a great holiday, everybody. appreciate you. >> you are listening to the president of the united states and his year-end news conference. he did admit his biggest mistake of 2013 was the rollout of healthcare.gov. would,dmission, if you from the president. >> it sure was. he even said, we screwed it up. that is incredibly strong. sexy kind of had to. >> those are still strong words. admit need someone to that something is not working, that they are going to try to get it better, work on it every day until it is corrected. he said he is not going to negotiate on the debt limit. >> that is right. >> and cannot alone. >> which he has said consistently. we have those debts.

he have to pay them. >> cannot alone and unarmed any nsa programs. he did say, we are not actually snooping on anyone. >> is the nsa is not snooping, i am not sure what it is doing. i wish we could have him here. that is a big question over a lot of people's minds. >> you have to wonder. you have a judge coming out and saying it is a violation of the fourth amendment, and the president saying we are not actively engaging in anything -- >> unreasonable seizure. and yet the president saying, we are not snooping. you have to wonder what the nsa is doing. someort of want them to do snooping, because that is what intelligence is all about. it is just that this is uncharted territory. >> the concern is it has become something it should not be. >> where are the checks and balances within the system? >> good news on the economy today. 4.1%, amazing.

gdp growth really good. >> absolutely huge. >> something the president can point to. >> that is on his watch. say what you want. when you look at the data, gdp of four .1%, unemployment dropping two 7%, those are good numbers. >> al hunt is joining us now with a little more perspective. one of the most interesting things is, he said the biggest mistake of all was the rollout of healthcare.gov. a bit of an admission. but an honest one. something people needed to hear. >> that is right. the whole tone and tenor of this end of the year press conference reflected the year, which was a very troubling and negative one for president obama. it is not unusual for the fifth year of a presidency to be beset with troubles. it was true for roosevelt, for george w. bush, for richard nixon, beginning the impeachment proceedings. that this was a rough year for

obama domestically, economically, and especially with health care. he enjoyed successes in foreign policy, but they were overshadowed. that was reflected in the news conference. challenging questions. >> 50 years are tough. what about six years? >> sometimes, you can recover. whoosh did not. roosevelt, it took him eight or turn to recover. term took him a third recover. reagan made a recovery. i do not think you are herman atlee doomed, by any means. i think obama has a dental to come back. the foreign policy areas show promise of potential success, iran foremost among them. he is not going to get much through congress. there will not be a grand bargain. a chance for immigration. a lot of it will have to come from executive actions. >> he covered a lot of ground.

of all the different issues, trying to sum up the whole year, what stood out most to you? >> health care, health care, health care. october 1, democrats were doing very well in the polls. they were almost a cinch to keep the senate will stop a shot to take back the house. two months later, the situation has reversed dramatically. they are struggling to hold seats they thought were safe. obama has directly party down with him. that may be ephemeral, that it is very real. >> there is a chart of how people feel about him, a quinnipiac poll. they asked people, is president obama trustworthy? you look at it back in october. it was not great them. 44% said he was not honest. ingot worse last month november, with 52% of respondents saying that. one would have to imagine that is directly related to healthcare.gov. >> no question.

the rollout was bad. overpromising and not preparing people for some of the issues. they just did not handle it well. there are some reasonably encouraging signs. a website is working much better. attention.ying more sign-ups in some states have been impressive. i do not think the judgment is in yet on health care. i think if that turns around and those economic numbers you cited earlier continue to improve, 2014 could see a change in obama's fortunes, back to where he was in 2012. >> you have a good economy, a good presidency. >> that is for sure. >> bill mattingly was in the room. you asked about the sochi games. you asked about exactly why the president was not attending. he started by giving you an answer -- he has so much else going on. it morphed into -- at the end of the day, we here in america judge athletes by how they play

on the court and not off the court. getting at the heart of the gay rights issue that is the controversy right now in russia. >> that is right. i think the administration has been playing down what they intended to do with this delegation since it was announced earlier this week. i think there is very little question about what its point was. you see lgbt athletes on the list. a key issue based upon the gay rights fights going on right now in the country. it is kind of a shot at president vladimir putin, that also the president's decision not to go. the president does not always go to the olympics, nor does the vice president. --ards w bush was in beijing george w. bush was in beijing, along with paulson. i think on two counts, with the olympic games -- it is a sports issue? no, it is a major diplomatic issue between the countries. the idea that the president would not attend and not send anyone in his current candidate,

and be willing to go out and address the lgbt issue -- it is an interesting dynamic to see. >> a great question. you got a great answer. we will be back with our roundtable after this. ♪

>> president obama just wrapped his last news conference of the year. let us take a look at how he did in 2013. we are bringing in dan clifton, head of policy research at trategus, and the pimco executive vice president. it was a rough year. a lot of problems on the international front. on the domestic front, healthcare.gov probably being the chief one. we just heard the president say it was his biggest mistake of 2013. what has it done to people's views of president obama? >> that is right. the president, even if you disagreed with his policies in the first four years of his

administration, people generally trusted him and liked him. you really started to see that data begin to deteriorate around the healthcare.gov situation, after the government reopened on october 17. .t got to two issues confidence. you cannot even make a website work? plus of our daily lives are revolving around amazon.com, this mobile society. second, it is about trust. if you like your health care, you can keep your health care. that promise was repeated over and over again. as it started to be clear that that was not the case, the president tried to hedge away from it. it has hurt his political numbers. he talks about numbers going up and down. he is right. his numbers look like the summer of 2011. he is starting to go into quicksand, very much like george w. bush did at the end of his fifth year. every time he tries to climb out, he kept falling further

down. resident bush had katrina and the iraq war violence happening. the president has this nsa issue and obamacare. >> rich? 4.1% revised gdp growth. >> a very good number. >> if the economy continues on this path, does it completely change for president obama? >> it is obviously a positive. we have had a lot of strong numbers. a sickly, the first 10 or 12 economic numbers in january were surprising on the upside. there is momentum. dan is the political expert. that will be a positive for the president, if this momentum continues. >> and you believe it can. >> less fiscal drag. 2014 could be the best for the economy since 2006. >> you have charted residential approval ratings versus confidence in the economy. they usually go hand-in-hand. right now, they are not.

how does that usually resolve itself? >> as rich was talking about, the economy started to strengthen into the fourth quarter. we are fairly bullish on economic growth for 2014. what you saw that relationship start to break apart. that is telling us voters are more worried about the affordable care act today than they are about the economy. i tend to believe that if the economy continues on this trend and job creation continues, gasoline prices remain low due to the energy revolution going on, you will start to see that the president will get rewarded on those economic issues. but there are a series of landmines on this affordable care act in 2014. this does not end on january 1. that have to be able to manage that issue better if they want their approval ratings to go up as the economy gets better. >> it is amazing, when you think about it, that you can have this one issue overshadowing his presidency, and yet as dan points out, the economy keeps

moving forward. you are able to continue investing on behalf of clients at pimco. does anything change for you because of the presidential data? >> i do not think so. it would be more of an issue going into a presidential election year. we will pay attention to it close to november. a tipping point would be very important in the house or the senate, that i think that is part of the dynamic. in the sixth year, it becomes about the off-year elections and who is running for president. >> it almost makes it sound like -- dan clifton, maybe you can address this. is obama becoming a lame-duck? >> he is still going to be very powerful through the remainder of the year. this last change on health care, the one announced last night, is because vulnerable democrats in republican states who are up for election in 2014 are saying, you need to start changing this plan. you saw it with syria. you saw it with larry summers.

the democratic party are starting to move away from the president, which is consistent with all six year incumbent presidents. it is setting the stage for the two thousand 14 election. the president's approval rating matters for the number of seats they lose in that election. that is the risk. to an inflection point where maybe the republicans could take over the senate in the midterm election. >> if the economy turns around, i think it is a whole different game for the democrats. i think they will be trying to align themselves more and more with the president, because they can try to take credit for that turnaround. at the end of the day, people do vote their pocketbooks. great to see you as always. thanks for sticking with us. coming up next, is it a new era for facebook? we are going to find out what is behind this move and how you play it. ♪

>> facebook is having a pretty epic week. on wednesday, the stock was at an all-time high. the company announcing it is selling 70 million additional shares, including 41 million from mr. zuckerberg. today, the stock will officially become a member of the s&p. maybe you want to pick up one of the shares? our panelists with the strategy. you have major players here. works zuckerberg and mark anderson are both getting out of their shares. what is the investor takeaway? should one assume the stock is

nearing a peak? >> they are not getting rid of their stakes entirely. they are lightening their loads. they are all of a sudden exiting. typically, when you see this type of activity, it is not necessarily a good sign. he did try to manage it by saying it was for this particular use, to pay down taxes. -- mark andreessen, not a huge sale on his part. part of the effect of their sale is being offset by this addition to the s&p 500. other fund managers talked about this a little yesterday. you have to add facebook as they benchmarked the index. that is a sign the stocks had a good run. of a year.een a heck

can the stocks keep up? >> i think it can. he have precedent. look back and see what google did a few months after they were public. -- linkedin did the same thing. yelp did the same thing. i think this is a natural part of the growth of these companies. they have $10 billion in the bank. we know there is demand for about 200 million shares coming from all these index funds. is the growth coming from? people were critical of their lack of mobile advertising. they have done a lot to fix that. they talk a lot about video being the future, in terms of advertising. where is that going to be worse? >> you have a number of drivers. -- you haveular

cyclical growth from online to off-line. >> what do you mean? you mean within advertising itself? >> within advertising. facebook is by far the largest platform out there, social or otherwise. increasing numbers of advertisers want to have access to that platform. it is crucial for them to present the right format. up until recently, the formats were frankly not very sophisticated. that weretatic ads nothing exciting. now, they are talking about video ads, and that is where the money is. >> it is important that they stay on top of these trends, because the danger we have seen with many a tech company -- you are on top today, but something new and better comes along and you are not keeping up.

>> blackberry. >> that immediately springs to mind. facebook is maybe having a little bit of a challenge with some of its younger teenage users, although that is not a trend for facebook. it is not necessarily the technology. it is engagement with its users. this has always been a challenge with facebook. each inroad it makes in terms of advertising or other improvements to the site -- the risk is that it alienates some of its users, and that user engagement is vital to its being able to attract advertisers. if you are an advertiser, you want that user to be on the website a lot, clicking on your abs. >> this is not sending a cautionary tale. >> quite the opposite. this is the chart of facebook since the ipo. it took so long for facebook to

break back, but it finally did. it really is breaking out and setting new highs. it is so hard to quantify. i know it is scary. what you know the old saying on wall street. it tends to keep making new highs. >> what is great ultimately about this story -- it is something that we as americans identify with and are a little heart warmed by. it is the story of a comeback. they started high with that ipo. there was so much excitement. it tanked. is an example of the market discipline. it is really able to change that story. unbelievable. >> and it was able to pivot to mobile. that was the whole issue. how is facebook going to monetize and convert light into need into dollars? if they go to mobile, they figured out how to do it. >> it also shows you the value

of market discipline. you your stock is down, need to either turn things around, or you do not. a look atart -- take this. it is pretty much a mess. the fed created it. our closer is going to straighten it out. ♪

>> time for chart attack, where we show you a chart that will make you smarter. one yields generally follow economic data, rising when the economy improves, falling when the economy contracts.

you have done a lot of work on this relationship. it seems to have broken down recently, in part because of the fed. what is going on? >> the bond market does follow the data. when data surprises on the upside, bond yields go up. yields gonside, bond down. another factor is, what is the fed up to? this chart shows the impact the fed has had over and above the data. >> let us bring in the camera. we have the pimco economic surprise index. , add ames out better notch to the index. data gets worse, you subtract from the index. yield,verlay the 10 year we turn this into a bowl of spaghetti. a lot of lines. interpret the meaning of this. >> what you see is for 2001 until about 2008, the yellow and the white line move together. i go up and down, but highly

correlated. bond yields are falling. when the white line is below the yellow line -- very highly correlated. the bond market is paying close attention. you notice more recently the bond yields have started to react differently. 2010,ree episodes in 2011, and more recently are when the ad has really jumped into the bond market. >> the data continued getting better, but bond yields went down. the change was negative. >> that is the breakdown. there were three episodes. in 2011, with operation twist, 2000 12 with qe, and more recently with all the taper talk, you have seen the relationship breakdown. you have to follow the data and the fed. i think the future for 2014 is the best outlook for the economy

we have had in six years. you have momentum. less fiscal drag. washington is not going to be so much of a drag on the economy. the global outlook looks improved. may be for a change we have a brighter outlook for 2014 than we had. >> the fed begins tapering. you see this as a positive, not because it says the economy is doing better, but because you are getting the fed out of the way. >> policy is not getting tighter, but they are shifting the makes toward the forward guidance part. the fed offered some strong guidance at the press conference, saying rates would be on hold at zero well pass the time the unemployment rate falls. that?you buy i think one of the frustrations from the investment community is, this is a fed that said, we are all about clarity. we are going to tell you what we are thinking. so many people felt a little

burned by that. you think back to september. rackspace said, we are going to taper starting in may. in september, did not happen. >> probably the right move, considering government shutdown. but you had the entire street thinking a taper was going to happen. >> i think the fed would agree the communication was botched on tapering this summer. we will be handing off to the janet yellen fed. she will have her own style and approach to communication. the fed does not want to tighten policy into 2014. they want to shift at a gradual pace, toward this rate guidance. >> pimco is the largest bond investor in the world. ask for being here. >> as always. >> the close of trading. -- top 10 stocks you need to know about. plus, our day 10 of "12 days of bitcoin." how exactly people mine this virtual currency.

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>> if you missed everything that happened during today's session, do not worry. we are getting you caught up on all the stocks you need to know about. walgreens gaining three percent after reporting its first- quarter earnings. sort 68%. .nvestments paid off but a slowdown in generic drug introductions helped boost profitability. shares are falling. the quarterly loss wider than analysts estimated all stop lower sales across all business segments during the fourth quarter. i like drugs.

arianne rallying about 70%. the company has received approval to relaunch its leukemia drug after addressing safety concerns raised by federal regulators in october. ariad plans to start selling the drug again. >> shares dropped after an irish company said it will pay roughly a billion dollars to buy a fellow drugmaker. a develops drugs to treat variety of rare diseases and conditions. are rising twos percent. the playmaker books a big order 7x aircraft,ned 7 which boeing will build later in the decade. a lot of composite in this aircraft frame. the jones group up five percent. the owner of nine west and jones new york fashion has agreed to a $1.2 million takeover by

sycamore partners. years struggled in recent as department store sales stagnated. i am trying to -- trish's favorite brand among those is stuart weitzman. >> you are right. >> how did you know that? >> i know someone who works for stuart weitzman. to helpgirls want her them get discounts. apparently it is hot. is it a shoe thing? >> you do not even know what they make. >> shoes or handbags. what else matters? >> they make both. i have both. number four is oracle. about $1.5 billion. it tries to boost growth and square off against salesforce.com, a formidable competitor, and adobe.

about 4%.e gaining exploring a deal with sprint to buy a majority of t-mobile next year. they have discussed financing with bank such as credit suisse and goldman sachs. this deal keeps spinning around. carmax plunging 10%. the used car dealership chain reporting quarterly profit that missed analyst estimates. it says third-party lenders are getting stricter on subprime loans, closing the cash. 21%,tock had climbed outpacing the s&p, but it was punished today. the dayr one start of on this friday afternoon is red- hot, searching 14%. software company, raising its sales forecast. red hat reporting sales growth and strong demand for core technologies. we had an incredible gdp number today, 4.1% revised for the last

quarter. you can see the dow jones industrial average liked it. ofis the second best week the year for the dow, up 61 points. off the highs earlier, but nonetheless, trading in the green. investors are taking this taper in stride. they are liking the idea that we have lower rates for the foreseeable future. some additional context on today's market moves. you mentioned it was the second best week for the dow? >> the best week for the s&p 500 since july. up 2.5%. that is unimpressive gain. -- an unimpressive gain.

investors seemed to like what they are hearing from these cloud companies. oracle is a big player in that space. red-hot is a big player. to be pushing these tech stocks higher. >> with the nasdaq, here's a good one for you. they are closing out the week at a 13 year high. >> a 13 year high. wow. >> julie is impressed. >> 13 years and 2013, i like that. it is the highest since september 2000. >> the bubble. exit is amazing when you think about it. it did not make it until now. >> apples to oranges. >> let's move on to the roundup. here are the stories we're tracking ahead of monday's open.

>> another sign of big media's appetite for social media and video. news corp. is paying $25 million for a company that is only five years old. it is a start up that identifies and verifies news and videos, you name it, everything that pops up on websites like youtube and facebook. news corp. says that its new- media rivals use story full -- storyful to find videos. just repackages other people pops off. >> there is something different about them. they actually verify the stories that they run. you have a lot of other aggregators and they edit what they find. they find stories that are less known to the rest of the web and then they have journalists on staff to make sure they are true and accurate full this is a big problem with social media.

>> i am impressed. i went on their website and spent a few minutes trying to find out what exactly they do. aside from posting loads of new age internet jargon on the website, i could not great out. -- figure it out. >> you know that girl who was werking and fell over? l actually verify that story. if you think about what is going on in news corp., and 21st century fox, now they are on their own and they have to prove that they can find stories like that. they are realizing that you get a lot more bang for your buck with video ads. they are pushing into video. >> man make an important point for posterity? i want everyone to listen to me and remember that the company is called news corp.. corps, itthe marine

is not a latin word for body. it is an abbreviation for corporation. >> he make that correction with love. i will change the topic. electronic cigarettes have been banned from new york city restaurants. the measure passed yesterday. the law will take effect in four months. the council speaker christine quinn back the measure. the council has worked for well over a decade to curb smoking in new york city. i believe this is one of our greatest accomplishments. toigarettes threaten undermine the enforcement of the smoke-free air act. think they are re-normalizing smoking again and making it ok to smoke in a café. >> the big complaint is that

there is secondhand smoke. >> there is an actual danger in secondhand smoke. >> there is a little bit of paper and they come in different flavs. i would not want to smell that. >> i cannot understand the government's need to curtail the freedoms of his citizens. ban,regard to the smoking i would say that i was an occasional smoker before and i could not be happier now you cannot smoke in public places. we are happy to walk into bars and not have to smell smoke. i am happy to trade a little bit of my freedom for that. remember, it is not smoking. but you are still helping people get addicted. >> that is the idea. >> that is not why smoking is banned. it is banned because of the harm

to other people, not the harm to yourself. >> there is a small amount of vapor where people are using these things. parties.en a vapor i am just putting it out here. edge.lives on the >> i can smell the stock and it does not smell good. >> being a total freaking weirdo is enough to keep someone from doing this. proponents of the ban will tell you that it is a good thing to get people to switch from tobacco to eat cigarettes. it is a lesser evil. anything you do to slow that is not in the interest of public health. >> christine quinn's why is that it might normalize. >> right. smokeple who would not tobacco might choose to smoke and you said. -- e cigarettes. >> let's move onto something

else that does not smell good. that is blackberry. the shares were actually up today. they struck a five-year deal to have foxconn manufacture the devices. foxconn will make phones for blackberry. their plan to expand in indonesia and mexico. they will target the indonesian market. earnings were out today, or should i say losses. revenue fell 56%. that is an amazing decline in revenue. sales of devices lunch as well. rom 3.7 million. that is a quarter over quarter drop in revenue. are still a lot of challenges. everyone is trying to figure out, it really focuses on the enterprise market, on the higher end market, what does this foxconn agreement mean?

will they charge more in asia? there are a lot of questions here. the new ceo and the direction that he is taking the company in, there are questions about that. >> what you sell at this point? >> they had a big charge today. $40 billion in charges. part of that was to break down licensing an inventory that the carriers bought and don't want. >> a are effectively cleaning the balance sheet so someone can come in and find a salvage value and by the thing. >> if they have unfolded already, are they really going to sell it is my? -- sell at this point? >> apple is moving away from foxconn. blackberry is getting in. >> analysts say that they wanted to reduce their closer to the handset. that in a sense is a good move.

what will they do strategically? >> we have spent too much time talking about blackberry and no one cares. vladimirl gesture from hooton a few months before the winter olympic games. former oil billionaire was released from prison after a surprise pardon. the former owner of an oil company, once russia's man, has been in jail over a decade. be helpingmight distract people from being upset about russia's policies on human rights. >> to your point, this is a huge news story. he was probably the most famous political prisoner in the world for the past decade. he has been in jail in siberia and he funded the opposition going up against hooton. -- putin.hooton

>> they will charge him with something else. we will bring a word charge against him. we are confident that it will stick. >> people say that requesting a pardon is tantamount to admitting guilt. people say that he did it because his mother is very sick and he wanted to get out. apparently he got out of jail and going to where his mother was, but she was not there. years in prison, riot has beenussy in jail for two years? >> i thought there were more members. everywhere.lived x i wish i lived in california. some time innt california, in northern california. i have to say that the tech investor has a point.

--wants to slip the state split up the state. i would argue that northern and southern could be two separate states. polishedto submit a version of the plant to the state's attorney general in the form of a ballot proposal in the next 48 hours. he plans to section off california into six new states. silicon valley would get its own region. it would be its own state. a kind of is culturally. he is pushing the initiative for several reasons. he wants the state to be properly represented in washington. he wants decisions made by state government to be more relevant to the population. >> you think about orange county, and the difference between orange county in silicon valley and the san francisco area, look at new york state for example. >> look at albany versus new york.

>> i agree with you. >> how many states are homogenous? >> california is massive. >> it would really increase competition. i think it is ingenious. see --ou think you would taxes are high. they are very high in california. >> the only place to move is where? nevada? like they are doing everything they can. there is no income tax in nevada. compare that with california. >> that is a good point. gdp is the size of the russian economy. >> if we make california a stand-alone country, it would be the sixth largest country in the world. >> it is an incredible state. they may be efficient with the tax structures.

>> let's move on. we have more for you. >> we're going to show you client how to mine the -- mine bitcoin. matt miller will show us. it is actually quite difficult. maybe matt miller will make us some money. ♪

>> date 10 of bloomberg tv's 10 days of bitcoin. we are looking at bitcoin mining. it involves computers, you have transactions that are making bitcoin, itgame of is not easy to do. >> it is highly difficult. it is not something that most people on the forms i have been

running around and have recommended for beginners. that may explain just basically what happens. there are tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people trying to mine for bitcoin. >> let's be clear, when you say bitcoin, you mean that they are trying to identify all the codes that are out here. the codes get longer and longer. what they are basically doing is , it is an open-source system and companies sell the big mining rakes. -- rigs. >> i want to back up viewers may not understand. there is a finite amount

theoretically of bitcoin out there. >> assuming that we don't all decide to change it. there's only 21 million bitcoins to be made. it is designed that way. verifye person gets to each sequential block of transactions. the person who does that solves problem,mputational the math is getting bigger, and is rewarded right now with 25 bitcoins per transaction. that reward will change over time. as the problems get more difficult to solve and more rewarduse it quite, the in terms of bitcoin's reward will get smaller and he transaction fees will be larger. chart and it is difficult to explain, but let me point out that as it is right now, the network to verify and isve these transactions doing 10 trillion computations

per second. >> it is hard to fathom. >> they string together lots of these. >> exactly, adam. you can buy these machines and there's a new one coming out in a couple of months. he goes for $6,000. anyone who is serious about this will buy a lot of them. the problem is that creates a huge electricity bill. people debate how easy it is to break even with this. he says that would be priced around $1000, you can break even in a week. >> why do you keep all the machines for himself? that he might keep a field. guyid, you sound like the at the gold rush who selling pickaxes and widens. agons.idens -- w you could buy bitcoin from

someone else or from an exchange. you could sell goods and services to receive bitcoin in return. or yould mine bitcoin could be given bitcoin for christmas. that is what i am doing right now. adam, here you go. trish, here you go. out, you can go to the bitcoin christmas party last night. >> there is a bitcoin christmas party? >> this is a cool thing. bee is the name of the company. essentially what it is is the public key is on the front. load ine blank and you whatever amount of bitcoin you want to give. be 1/10 of -- it can

a bitcoin oriole pick line. when you break through the security tape, you will find a private key, breaker is open. you rip it from this site and you will find a private key on accesside that you can and load into your wallet. >> this is what i put on my phone so that when i want to buy or sell or whatever, i put this up on the computer and it reads it and goes to debit my account. >> got it. open up a blog chain wallet. >> i think it is so cool. they are making them for graduation and college funds. getou have a baby, you can ones that say, it's a boy or it's a girl. i also have ones that say "it's a gender-neutral baby."

class that is very in the decline spirit. i found this because a friend of mine, i don't want to give it away, but she wants to give her husband a bitcoin for christmas. >> thank you very much. >> my pleasure. >> meanwhile, we have something that your dog will like. it is not bitcoin. it will make him jump for joy. or her. >> what you have buster? is it your barkbox? what did you get? what did you get your barkbox? ♪

>> groundhog day is coming early this year. time for insights and action.

you saw the news we got that the s&p 500 is downgrading europe. the eeo member states have declined. no kidding. remember the movie "groundhog day? " give me a break. 840 days ago, you downgraded the u.s.. it took you that long to say the exact same thing about europe? this is absurd. due credit agencies even mean anything anymore? having seens is this before, we know exactly what to do about it. at the s&p 500. it got downgraded and six months later it was up. look at the bonn system, it was up 4.1% of stop if you look at the dollar, it was up as well. we have seen this play out. that is why europe was up half a percent today. traders are doing -- traders are doing exactly what they should

today. we are just moving this thing forward. >> thank you adam. for all of you dog lovers out helpingarkbox is through this recession. we have the cofounders next. ♪

>> myspace for people who like dogs. cnet. air bnp for people with dogs. we have seen that too. customhave barkbox, a box of toys and treats for your dog. he started the company a year ago and you already have sales of $2 million a month. exit is a lot of fun. the reason we have been so successful is that we are our own customers. we know that you cannot -- connect the dots across the u.s.. it has been awesome. >> it is completely digital. you do not advertise anywhere else. it is word-of-mouth.

>> it is humongous. it is very large, but it is not innovative. we took advantage of our understanding of the web. people like to see two pictures of dogs. one of our channels is facebook. we also post a lot of pictures. that is how we have been doing it. if it is amazing. you talk about the pet business not necessarily having adapted. what is it that you guys are doing that petsmart cannot do? help me understand. we tapof the things that into is this phenomenon of dog parents. dogs have gone from being a pet to an extension of the family. we understand that and we have created services for that. we are children of the internet age. see how the internet is good at making services.

it is a recession-proof business if you think about it. people take their pets very seriously. what do you say to those who say that is a copy of birchbox? very similar. >> they are friends of ours. we are close with them. we think more less about the subscription model and more about the customers that we are serving. as we mentioned, we can serve them in many different ways. channelsave retail like the box. we are going in that direction. >> it is a community. >> you were a bloomberg what one point. what was the lesson coming out of that? ati really enjoyed my time uber. for our newest service, we for that.have uber

on-demand that's when you need them. >> what does it cost? >> it starts at $99 and goes from there. we tried to be really transparent with the pricing. a lot of people with animals know that they can come out of the that with a huge bill and not know what they got. we are very transparent with pricing. >> it is frightening to walk in. i spent several thousand dollars on one of my pets. >> i have two dogs. >> do you give them treats? >> we just got our christmas box a couple days ago. >> let's bring in our camera gear to show people what we're talking about. it looks like what i could get that petsmart or the pet store. how is this different from that? really launch the product because we were having trouble finding and discovering

new brands and products from local businesses that were creating good stuff for dogs. we have a merchandising team that is out there constantly sourcing new products and meeting new vendors. we get hundreds of vendors each month. >> you are curating. out of all of the stuff out there, we will present the best of the best. then we will deliver. then we will deliver it to you on a regular basis. look how excited your dog is. look at that. wow. basically we only put stuff in the boxes that we would give to our own dogs. we only have organic dog treats in there. it is only stuff that has been produced in the u.s.. it is a good service for someone who wants to find a new way to make your dog healthy and happy. >> you are making me want to get a dog.

nice meeting you. >> coming up. ron burgundy. theill introduce you to legendary anchor who inspired will ferrell. i have to meet this guy, he is next on "street smart." ♪

>> ben bernanke's last act and big decision was to taper the bond buying program. if that makes you nervous, don't worry. we have you covered. tfs guru is in the house as always on a friday afternoon. >> it is what everyone is scared about. this is not lost on the etf issuers. one example is the proshares rate.a range -- high

treasury futures and achieves a duration of zero. there is no interest rate risk. you have your cake and eat it too. if the economy goes south and rates continue to fall, then this could hurt. >> this is what hedge fund guys do. you are playing the spread. >> that is a great point. etf's have democratize trade. a short the currency. bigjapan one was the first one. another example is the wisdom tree high yield negative duration bond etf. this does with the other one does, but it short treasury futures to effectively achieve a duration of negative seven years. this could offset other risks

and products you have in your portfolio. when you say that it has a duration of -7 years, what do you mean? shortlyfectively treasury and has a -7 year duration. if rates go up a percent, the values of the bonds in a portfolio should go up in value one percent. one percent equals one percent. that is what you get. that is why people have been using the leverage products to offset their duration. a lot of people do not like to use leverage products. these are products that are coming out and saying that they are more adviser friendly and achieving something like that is not easy to do. >> quickly, dividends. they are important if rates are going up. >> i looked through all of the dividend etf --. it is amazing how much do not yield that much. vanguardd yields --

yields. basically this is all financial talk. andooks there everything passes through investments. it has a 7.8% yield. it is a good yield. this one is basically a sequel to a popular global stock. it is a diva dance-seeking animal. it looks at all of these stocks high and large. dividendse have the dog. dog is a popular etf. one of the raps on the early this yields --

3.6%. >> particular of the week? bow -- nobl. >> i have no clue. >> it looks at the stocks in the s&p which have increased their dividend yields 425 straight years. there are about 50 of these companies. cane are the ones that you have long-term. they have a 2.1% yield. >> it is equally weighted so you are not favoring any one company. but that is right. >> heady stuff. you are getting smart. >> i learned from you.

>> it is time for "the scene." good news this week for fans of the action four news team in san diego. "anchorman 2" is off to a strong start. ron burgundy is an actual real person. after will ferrell credits detroit anchor were crammed -- mort crim as his inspiration. welcome to street smart. ron burgundy, but i appreciate the introduction. >> will ferrell said that you are his inspiration. did you see the movie? >> we had the pleasure of attending the world premiere in new york last week. i thought it was even better than the first one. i enjoyed both of them. i love parody and satire. i talked to the producers of this movie and will and his cowriter, and they did an outstanding job of parenting our

entire profession -- herrity -- parodying our entire profession. >> what you think about being his inspiration? offended at all. if this were a documentary, i might be upset. but it is parody and they love it. just to set the record straight, will has never said that i was personally the inspiration for the character ron burgundy. what he said is that he saw me do an interview with jessica inage about the resistance the newsroom to her coming in as the first female anchor in a major market. that situation actually inspire the plot and the movie. my baritonehat voice and the fact that i spoke in anchorman talent in the documentary gave him the idea. he has never indicated that ron wasntly -- ron burgundy

really me. >> you do have a terrific voice. let me ask you about the industry. i have not seen the movie yet, but i saw the trailer was not you get the san diego anchor team and suddenly they are launched into the world of cable news. the industry is change dramatically and he continues to change, what are some of the biggest things that you have seen along the way? we can go back to the days of what we saw in the original movie. how did san diego or local news change compared we see today? >> i was in the business for over 40 years. i saw a lot of changes. we moved from black-and-white film to video tape and now we're in the digital age. we moved from having basically 3 television stations to an unlimited amount. 24 hour news channels.

there have been a good and a bad side to all of this change. on the technological side, it has been really good because we can now get news transmitted through anywhere in the world, from the most remote parts in the world, complete with picture, instantaneously through satellite. it takes a back to when i was reporting from asia. if we wanted to get a piece of film out from south korea are from malaysia or any of those send it on an to airplane to tokyo and have it processed, then sent to new york where a motorcycle courier would pick it up and russian as fast as he could to the studios in manhattan. if we were lucky, the story would be seen within 36-48 hours of the event. technologically, we have made incredible process. >> it all happened so quickly now, ron. >> mort.

glad that i just call you ron? my apologies. >> if i had known, i would have worn my maroon suit. mort, what doy, you think of the fact that twitter has no editors? in the news business you are talking about, it was all carefully scripted and fought through -- thought through. now you don't know if the news is really real. >> this is the negative sign. we do not have the time, even within the so-called mainstream media would the networks in the news channels. everything is done live. so much is done on the fly. you lose the editing process. you lose the collegiality of the news room where people could look at each other's work and talk about each other's torres. they could check and recheck facts.

by losing the editing process, you dilute the quality. >> anybody can be a journalist, but that does not mean that everybody is a journalist. we have to be extremely selective. we have to become our own editors. because it is on the internet, or because it is on cable television, that doesn't mean it is true. >> that is a good point. information is so easily spread and wrongly so. we want to thank you for joining us. >> thank you, my pleasure. i am going to write a book about the real ron burgundy. >> wow, i would love to read it. when you put it out, we will have you back on and talk about it tomorrow. >> thank you.

>> coming up, a terrifying new food trend. we are dishing about it. ♪

>> it is time for weird wall street. you are taking it off. >> i am kicking it off. holiday cheer or holiday fear? are you ready for this? chtucken.ed a that combinessh chicken, crab legs, and octopus. >> it looks delicious. and turf to arf new level. >> is their bacon on the top? >> would you even contemplate eating this? >> yes. i will give you one.

>> it is approaching 56 past the hour. that means bloomberg tv is on the markets. we are finishing out the year on a strong note. first batch ofs best week since july. both are closing a new records. the fed has decided to start tapering its 85 million dollar a month bond buying program. we talked business leaders to get their opinions on the fed decision. >> i think they have done and in standing job. -- an outstanding job.

he have used monetary policy to great effect. we are seeing great leadership. there is a clear transition to the next fed chair. ben bernanke has taken on tapering and made it very clear that this is a policy that will continue. >> the fed has focused on the real economy. the real test is business investment. will it pick up, and will it pick up quickly enough to concentrate -- compensate for the collateral damage? it is a big question. it will beink answered for another year or two. it will be determined -- it will determine ben bernanke's legacy. >> we have been materially -- materializing $80 billion a month. materializeeforth $10 billion fewer a month. it will continue making new dollars each month.

featis still on unheard-of of prestidigitation, magic. >> unemployment has been following every year for three years. it is a trend and it will not stop. they pull out to say that it will stop, but we have had pretty slow growth. the lastve been 2.0% three years, and yet the unemployment rate continues to fall. that tells you that growth is occurring. a very data-driven policy. if the labor market continues to improve -- the important thing that we have learned over the we will months is that have a continuity of policy even with a new leader of the fed. >> one of the things we learn over and over again when weeks various market crisis is that people forget. there's so much focus on

tapering and forward guidance. stocks are the only game in town. we start watching other things. there's still a lot of risk there. everybody believes that the market will go up, so it does. >> self filling prophecy. >> we should definitely be worried about the strength of the taper. >> let's take a look at how the markets finished up as we follow the fed's taper announcement. stocks are not so bad. the s&p 500 is up the most since july. the dow and the s&p did not gain that much. there was some data that helped him have a leg up. the nasdaq climbed to a 13 year high. if you look at treasuries and what we saw there, mostly yields are going higher.

the week for the markets. for on the markets, i'm julie hyman.

>> this is "taking stock" for friday, december 20, 2013. housing, the foundation of the u.s. economy, how the american dream of owning a home is changing all thanks to wall street. saturday.s super last-minute shoppers will flock to retailers to finish their holiday shopping. businesses hope that they will lay the financial foundation for the year ahead. you will meet the cocreator of box