that is a sign of resilient customer loyalty. still going with them. >> chris malone, the highest brand loyalty companies in 2013, and if the past is any indication, the stock should go to outperform. let's take a look at the markets ahead, and we will have more on the markets, and "street smart" is next. ♪ >> we have stocks climbing after the imf raises its outlook for the u.s. at these levels, it would mark the 10th best year for the s&p going back to 1928. i love that bit of trivia. welcome to the most important hour of the session. we have 59 minutes until the closing bell. the consumer looks like it is alive and well. well, spendingd more than we make. businessers want your

and they want it today. >> consumer spending up, better than personal income. >> let's go to the big picture with the three charts you need to see. up about .5%. in the last three days, we have added 2.5%. we are at another new all-time high on the s&p 500. look at the 10 year. the taper is getting worked into the market. 2.93%.only up this is the third day in a row we have not been able to get much higher. 3% seems to be the ceiling. ice storms in the midwest and canada have been brutal. you see gas up again over 1%. many people have lost power. we hope they are safe and get the heat on. look.is my holiday

professorial, kind of christmasy. happy december 23. >> these of the stocks we're watching as we head into the close. julie hyman keeping an eye on things. >> let's take a look at kb home's peer the shares rallied 7%. citigroup saying it is more positive on builders. they raised kb to neutral from sell. enough to give the stock some pop. these shares have not risen as much as the broader market in 2013. t-mobile, we have been talking about the potential deal with sprint. people familiar with the hasation saying softbank discussed financing a deal with various banks. looking for about $20 billion to make the deal happen. analysts saying the probability of the deal is higher now.

worst performer on the s&p today is michael kors. there was a largely positive note. one thing they said were markdowns michael kors were higher than anticipated. this is something we haven't seen across retail the shopping season -- we have been seeing across retail the shopping season. >> he has just been named to the disney board. disney and twitter perhaps doing some business. >> apple has finally struck a deal with the world's largest wireless carrier, china mobile. the deal will provide both companies with the means to fight declining shares among subscribers. apple is facing its first annual profit decline in the decade. wireless share has declined to a three-year low. apple and china mobile need each other. ask our panelists if the deal will help both companies turn it around.

cory johnson and max wolf. cory, is this what they needed to do? one of the biggest tech companies in the world with apple and the biggest cell phone carrier in the world with china mobile. for both, this was an important deal. this has the ability to change both companies. to haveeded by apple the biggest carrier in the world carrying their product. china mobile could benefit from this change because one of the interesting things about china is their smartphone penetration is lighter than other carriers in china. they have customers on older phones. smartphones are not as big a deal for them because they have not had the high-end luxury offering that the iphone represents in china. >> they love luxury in asia. iphone is terrific.

we all agree with that. i am looking at hours on the table. dam's is in his pocket. everybody loves apple and iphone. at the end of the day, they are expensive. people in china do not have the advantage of the plan where they can get a new phone more cheaply. they did not have the advantage of an economy like ours with their well situation being far more distributed on both ends. the majority people are barely making enough to afford one of these phones. does it matter in the end, sales in the near term? >> i think it matters because of the scale. there are 750 million subscribers with china mobile. market is so's driven by luxury and brands like apple that they are going to eat it up. they can walk into a retail

location instead of going to the gray market. it will be less expensive from china mobile in paying a couple of hundred moore's for the gray market imported from. >> morgan stanley thinks is only a mouse to about 12 million iphone sales per year. that sounds like a very small fraction of the 250 million you are talking about. why are people scaling the numbers back? >> i think it will be higher than that. that is still about 5 million phones per quarter for apple. 20% or decent bump of 25% to their sales. it is a good number for apple. it's a growth market for them. >> 25% bump in sales translates to what in earnings? >> i do not know, but it is a high-margin product. it is probably 35% margin for them. productreat part it -- for them to have in china. >> people think of apple is a computer company that sells

phones and tablets. it has become a villain and tablet company that sells a itll number of computers -- has become a phone and tablet company that sold a small number of computers. it would have been better for them to have done this deal a year ago because this is less surprising than christmas. coryie johnson, -- johnson, it has taken some time. what has held up the ability to get the deal done? >> there are technological reasons. apple was not making a phone that would work on china's network. they would have if they had gotten the sale done. there may have been government pressure to go with the more local flavors of phones including simpson. -- samsung. you know my feelings about analysts getting things wrong. analysts are looking at 2% of

phone sales from china mobile going to apple. 6% of therd quarter, smartphone sales in china worse smartphones -- apple. isording to my math, that three times 2%. jacketsensing the tweed is a hit. >> i would not necessarily call it a hit, but it is getting attention. >> i'm calling it a hit, teasing adam. like the gold iphone in china, it is a hit. >> jonathan, as you look at it is apple seems like the only american company with free reign. google is not there. facebook is not there. what did apple do to convince the government it is not the big bad bogeyman from america?

they are one of the only american companies to get into china and crack it. although google phones sold in china did not have google services. they are playing with chinese services they need to put in for the government. facebook is not there. there are no big competitors that have free reign in china. i think it's an interesting opportunity for apple. you think apple did to convince china it was ok to be that big and have free reign? >> android has done well as an operating system on four out of five phones. apple is wanting to get to half of that. android has done well despite some services being disabled. apple is an iconic brand. part of the problem as well as benefit for apple is the heyday as a brand in china is a bit past. do seem to beones

what people are spending that money on as opposed to the apple phones. to go up toem to 15% market share within a year. the question is whether they could have gotten 25% and been competitive with other markets if they had gotten in there 18 months ago. >> let's not miss the forest for the trees. market, halftphone of the smartphones is about 115 million people. china mobile alone is 176 million smartphone users already. it might not be the iphone 5s, but for apple, getting at this market is a huge deal. this market with one carrier is bigger than the entire u.s. smartphone market. that is great news for apple. >> we will leave it there. thanks so much. coming up, adam talking about a retail disconnect.

giving us a professorial lesson about boosting japan's image and industry abroad. more "street smart" in two. ♪

>> shop till you drop. time for insight and action. look at some of the ads that hit my inbox today. retailers want your business. "please come shop that bloomberg's." off.ners sales, up to 60% orvis 62% sale at

off. winter only started this weekend and they are offering 60% off. we need your business. it's bad. 22 retailers have seen at least three analysts lower estimates in the past four weeks, versus only four that have seen estimates go up. retailers stocked up on inventory. they thought it would be a better shopping season. it is not rude they are having to discount --it is not. they are having to discount. that is not good for margins. take a look at the index versus the s&p 500. here's the real discrepancy. retailers are up 40% year to date. the s&p is up about 28%. you have retailers beating the retailers a time when are discounting before christmas. it's not just 20%. it's up to 60%.

that's not good for retailers. which begs the question, how do you play it? there is your trade. aroundail etf is trading $87.50. ut costs about p $1.25. the analysts have already started to lower the numbers. we arty know that because we are getting the sales. you cannot have retail continue to outperform the but -- s&p 500. hold on to it and see what happens. >> our closer degrees. he says retailers of reach their top. he is the co-portfolio manager of the inflation rotation fund. he is making a few contrarian calls in 2014. we like that. michael, welcome back to the show. talk about retailers.

why would you be hedging them? what is your concern? >> if you look at the retailer etf divided by the s&p, they have been roughly in line with each other for three months and appeared to be down. one way to play it is by going with puts. another way might to be a spread trade shorting retailers dollar for dollar going on. >> you are talking about the far right side rude it looks as if it has stopped rallying. saying the outperformance has run its course. >> it seems to be the case. >> discretionary has been next- door new sector since 2008. that's a long time of leadership. it might be due for lagging now that we are seeing the possibility the yield curve narrows, which might be indicative of consumer demand waning. when you look at the ratio of the 20 year treasury divided by

the 10-year -- >> i got you. i like you, but those are a lot of numbers. >> when you have the yield curve is indicative longer-term rates are falling in the face of tapering. >> do you think we will see a comeback? >> i think you will see the great convergence. we saw a huge divergence this year of developed equities against commodities and emerging-market stocks. japan, u.s., europe. illogical toely think brazil, russia, india, china do not participate with a real secular trend in equities. nobody is bullish on them. when the fed did not taper in september, emerging markets ripped higher. when they tapered, they also retire. -- ripped higher. >> we will have charts to show.

we need to get the charts fired up. you will be in your element. we are going to take a quick break. japan wants to boost exports of cars and electronics. there is also a drive to sell its animation industry. we will take a look at that in today's global outlook. the battle for time warner cable heating up. which company will come out on top? we will be right back. ♪

first, bloomberg. >> time for today's global outlook. the prime minister of japan declared japan is back a year ago. one way he was trying to promote japan abroad is revive the animated industry. check this out. >> these girls are part of the prime minister's $700 million promote content abroad. subsidy began as part of the japan is back playing. at the venue, we met up with john who introduced us to a

popular japanese anime in the u.s. he says it has become harder to find content that will appeal to an american audience. >> this particular market is not for american buyers. for a while, japanese producers were starting to produce content that was good for the american audience. it had more action, more sexiness. when they saw the money go down, they focused again on the japanese market. >> exhibitors have gathered to attract international distributors. efforts,he expert -- the exports remained marginal compared to the domestic size. billion yen in 2011 while domestic sales reached 180 billion. that is why the government thinks it is essential to boost exports. >> the government is seeking to turn japan content industry into an exporting engine.

despite revenues, content can improve understanding between japan and other countries and generate ripple effects such as boosting trust in goods manufactured in japan. >> one anime producer thinks the industry needs to go further. >> the issue is with japanese creators. the industry is focusing too much on the domestic market. we know for sure it is going to shrink. providing global capital by setting up a fund is one possibility. for that, we must show there is potential abroad. thinks thatsters animecould make japanese more popular and profitable abroad. >> if sales increase, we will probably pay more for the content. then they will pay attention to the u.s. market again. it will start to make stuff that is better geared for american tastes. >> as more people consume video

online, some of the old barriers to entry are falling away. the government hopes with their support, japan's creative talent can take advantage of that and tap directly into each market overseas. tokyo.rg, t >> japan is a market that has been on fire, up better than 50% to share. best-performing stock market in the world. you have to wonder. nikkei has had many of these 30% rally's during the secular downtrend the last 20 plus years. the popularity may be waning when you look at the polls in japan. the great experiment is how you force inflation in the united states and japan. unless you get on the wage side and not the currency side -- the battle for

time warner cable. we will find out about the best and final offer and how you can play it. ♪

>> we have a couple of charts that will make you smarter. we focus on emerging markets. they have been lagging for three years. that could change in 2014 according to our closer. why are emerging markets going to rebound? some say three years is the magic time in which laggards turn to leaders. leadership tends to return. you have had this disconnect between developed equities and emerging markets and s&p and emerging markets. you can see that given the huge spread between the index and s&p 500 the last three years. is that an opportunity rather

than a crisis? of qe has made the u.s. outperform emerging markets. now we have the taper. maybe tapering will be good for emerging markets. you look at the emerging-market sovereign debt etf divided by the treasury etf. when the taper talk began in may, you saw collapse of emerging-market debt. now you have the taper on the far right of the chart. emb is outperforming, leaving. this is the face of the taper. this is very important. >> this ratio is emerging bonds versus u.s. treasuries. when the ratio turns up, that means emerging bonds are outperforming treasuries. >> that is in the face of the taper. that is a massive change in tone happening now. as much as we're told taping is bad for emerging markets,

emerging market debt seems quite the opposite. >> is this a function of the fact we are tapering so there will be less of a bid for longer dated paper here? or is it because there is a rebound happening in emerging markets? >> i think there is an element of confidence building. we have seen action taken in india. we have seen brazil raise rates. emerging market paper seems more stable than it did in may. ways, it is the ultimate contrarian trade. nobody thinks emerging markets will do well. a recent goldman report said they will continue to be volatile the next couple of years. to me, that is three years too late. now might be the time to bet on it for next year. >> play stocks or bonds? >> credit tends to lead equities. maybe it is time to play the lag asset class which is bonds. retailers have

black friday. etailers have cyber monday. there is a restaurant in chicago with plenty of orders and lots of employees, but you will never be able to get a table there. "street smart." that is next on "street smart." ♪

>> first, bloomberg. restaurantsicago's not what it seems. josh spent the day at a top secret restaurant which is actually fake. >> if you have been in a

restaurant in the afternoon rush, this will be a familiar scene. one thing here is different. it is set up in an unused conference room of grub hub. everyone working here is an employee. so are the customers. >> it is a way for the employees to understand how restaurant employees use our software. >> cinnamon cream coffee cake. >> what are the opportunities? get in the mind of a restaurant. >> it merged with its largest competitor. the combined company will do $1 billion of orders in this year. it is part of a self-imposed crash course on the food service industry. the goal is to learn more about restaurants to build technology they will use to process even more orders. >> you can process the order perfectly. you can prepare perfect food. if it does not get to your house in the right amount of time, as a diner, you are pissed off. >> some of the revelations seem obvious. the tablet has to be loud to be

heard in a commercial kitchen. the company has begun allowing restaurants to change their menus on-the-fly. it seems to be working. thousands of restaurants are using the tablet. the company is still in the testing phase. to jumpstart things, the director of products has been driving deliveries herself three afternoons a week. >> trying to navigate the landmines of getting into buildings, apartments they do not have buzzers working. how are you? calling people when they are not answering their phone is a lot more challenging than i expected. wayhis is not the only restaurants can take orders online, but it is the most popular. that means the company can offer more diners and data. >> there is a big interest in indian food. it has been trending up dramatically. restaurants should be able to know that earlier rather than later. >> it is not clear if that is what restaurants want. for many, the biggest concern is the commissions.

they start at 10%. this has led to a lot of grumbling from restauranteurs. the ceo says its goal and the client's goal is the same. >> pay for play advertising is success based. very low risk. >> everyone here seems happy. the restaurant gives employees a way to get away from their desks and hang out. everyone is appreciative when you show up at their desk with cake. developers burning the midnight oil to get ready for their version of black friday. december 25 is the most wonderful day for downloading apps. it estimates it will get half of its yearly subscribers for the popular game during christmas week. joining us from san francisco is adam. good to have you here. why is christmas such a big day

for apps? >> a lot of people get their christmas. ipads for the first thing they want to do is get some games or social networks or picture taking apps and take the device for a spin. that has led to christmas being the biggest day of the year for downloads. >> what about the idea that people have more time? is that part of the thought as well, so they might be playing on these devices? >> absolutely. people taking holiday time off, want to get away from their family maybe for a bit. they will get in the corner and play around at angry birds. >> what does it mean for the developers and companies? >> there is a lot at stake. they sweat about this. this is the biggest time of year for them. a lot of work goes into getting the app ready to go so it does not crash.

also finding a way to get people to know you are out there, especially for smaller developers. it is hard to get noticed. >> how do you do that? >> there are a few different ways. some are traditional, come out with a new game or title. you get some press attention if you can. there are other ways that are more nefarious way you can gain apple's rankings by using advertising to ensure the number of downloads. but also can increase your visibility in apple's app store. >> any idea of what we're talking about in dollars? >> this is the biggest time of year. this has become a big business of over $1 billion. this is not pocket change. billion for this one particular day could represent 10% of this, 20% of this? >> i do not have the stats at my disposal right now. i wish i did but i do not.

big companies are coming after it. you have disney, electronic arts, a lot of big companies are prioritizing the mobile entertainment. that makes it a very competitive time. >> what is hot this year? what is going to sell big in today's? >> in terms of apps, club penguin is expected to do well. that is a very popular game online. this is the first time it is coming to the ipad. tablets are already one of the most popular gadgets for christmas. they are expecting big sales. electronic arts is coming out with new titles. they are refreshing the simpsons game. there are a lot of new things coming out. >> what is your favorite game? >> i like the words games, "words with friends" and scrabble. but i am not very good with them. >> thanks for joining us. we appreciate it.

do you have any favorite games? >> i am not a game kind of guy. >> i did not think so. >> i would rather go for a run. go up north, go shooting, drive my truck in the mud. i did a lot of that this weekend. it is the dirtiest my car has ever been. it was fun. coming up, time warner cable has become a takeover target with offer expected later this week. we have details. we will be right back. ♪

>> first, bloomberg.

>> if you have not done your christmas shopping yet, you have a good excuse. there were only 26 shopping days between thanksgiving and christmas this year. that is the shortest holiday season in a decade. it is creating a super consumer of sorts. here explain is the ceo of the cambridge group and retail analyst. great to have both of you here. less time means potentially less spending or not? do people do the same amount of shopping? if so, what are they doing in the next two days? >> i think people do the same amount of shopping. at the end of the day, johnny wants his gifts. you will do the same amount of shopping in a shortened season. i do not think it hurts retailers that the season is shorter. i think it requires they have to break out more. i think the same amount of money gets spent. but where it is spent puts more

pressure on retailers to do more earlier. people do not have as much time to shop. maybe they do not do as much. >> you can make the argument that santa is always the same size, but i think the consumer is pressed for time, used to shopping late. we were in a lot of t.j. maxx stores on the west coast last night and saw lots of families shopping to pick up anything they could get for under $50. i think the stocking stuffers will look for the strange this year. [laughter] >> does it seem like everyone says the same thing every year? i'm waiting till the last minute. on thanksgiving, everyone was looking but not buying. is this standard operating procedure? >> i think it is. i think consumers think about what they want. they have a list they are trying to fill out. this year, they were looking for good deals out of the gate. the retail community started early with. big deals. . >> where are those deals and

what are people buying? >> gaming systems. they do not seem to be buying apparel. we think people are buying home goods, the typical gift baskets. we think the big department stores are struggling. >> they are also buying gift cards, lots of gift cards. >> in other words, getting cash. >> effectively. >> is that a good thing for retailers? if nothing else, you can get the interest on the money being spent without having to give away a good until that person comes to your store and purchase is something. >> and it introduces new shoppers to your store. >> and no returns because they are buying what they want. >> and not everybody uses the entire gift card, right? you get aadvocate, lot more customers coming in after christmas when everything is on clearance so profits are not as good. >> it seems like everything is already on clearance. 60% off.ale's up to

>> that is abnormal. a good year to be a consumer. >> is that because inventories were too high and they have to liquidate? >> we think that's part of the issue. everyday counts when you have a shortened calendar. if they cannot cop up double digits day-to-day, it is a problem. right now we think they have a problem. >> everyone is following everyone. the first person out of the gate who gets a hot price, everybody feels like they have got to follow. >> match them or do better and discount more. a race to the bottom as far as pricing. >> there is some of that for sure. >> what about this nielsen survey? if you two percent of americans -- 52% of americans describe themselves as only being able to afford the basics. that is sad and upsetting. what do you make of the data? >> consumers have cleaned up their balance sheets. we are seeing traffic down.

a lot of what happens to retail will be determined in the next 48 hours and next week to see how many people come in with gift cards. is saying theyca feel like they can spend freely. we talk about these problems with income distribution. i would have expected that number to have been much less. i would not have anticipated what a percent of america felt they could spend freely. would not have anticipated 48% of america felt he could spend freely. that is a good thing. we're spending more than we make because income is not quite as much. >> consumer confidence is looking good as well. >> what does it mean for retail? >> i think a lot of what has happened is small ticket purchases have been robbed by big-ticket purchases. people finally doing remodeling, replacing appliances, buying new cars. not a ton of money left over to

buy jeans and sweatshirts, but it does not mean consumer spending is unhealthy. it just means it is moving around. >>. that is curious. people are buying big-ticket items because they had to hold back? >> i think it is a bit of capitulation. i see this in business all the time. people say it will probably not get a lot better, so i have to get on with life. if i need a new car, i cannot wait another year. >> you look at the fed. it finally felt it can move to taper. you have unemployment following -- falling. gdp coming in at 4.1%. there is a lot of good stuff out there. it is a question of whether the average american is feeling it. we are out of time. great to have you here. tom facebook share sales tiffany's difficulties, the top

10 stocks next. ♪

>> if you missed everything and happened during today's session, don't worry, we will get you caught up on all the stocks you need to know about. number 10, facebook and twitter raising social media advertising optimism. spending toift mobile. bankamerica downgrades the memory chip maker to underperform. saying micron is one of the least preferred memory stocks.

i find this one notch if not 10 .otches beyond absurd in irony the stock was up 240% this year and is one of the top three performers in the s&p 500. >> number eight, up about nine percent following upgrades by two analysts. the company announced on friday that the fda has approved revised guidelines for its leukemia drug, allowing it to return to the market immediately. it was up on friday and still riding that wave. number seven, slower mall traffic has resulted in higher than expected mark downs. >> let's talk about meredith corporation, gaining five percent. has agreed to pay 408 million

dollars for tv stations. it expands its foothold in television, decreasing its reliance on print, which has been struggling. dardener five, restaurants will push for big changes. last week saying it wants to spin off or sell off the red lobster business to boost value for shareholders. one investor saying the red lobster spinoff was not enough. it wants them to celebrate -- separate further. >> marriott has done that. words, rezone the real estate underneath the restaurant. thatople like these ideas the activists are getting in and pushing for changes. tiffany has been 49 million toy $4

swatch group. affectrd does not tiffany's prospects, according to a couple of analysts. it is a lot of money. like an entire year's worth of net income. >> it is a one-time charge, so it is done and over, moveon. >> buying to pipeline units for about a billion dollars, regions extending its operations in texas where crude oil production has surged since companies are able to access all that oil trapped in the shale. number two, and upgrade, with a more favorable earnings outlook for next year.

>> the number one stock of the day, can you guess? apple jumping four percent right world's largest phone company taking pre-orders for christmas. the phones will be available in stores on january 17, and here were are with another update for the s&p, a gain of .5% on positive economic news in terms of consumer sentiment and consumer spending. the dow jones ending the day up around 75 points. we want to get additional context, julie is joining us for that as well. >> thank you, apple. accounted for a lot of the moves today, but so did face, also getting some positive analyst commentary as we talked about.

those two really helping bring up technology and bring up stocks generally. this month started off a little bumpy. we talked about maybe that would , the santa claus rally effect later in the month. consumers see a real shift just in the last couple of weeks. >> the fed doesn't hurt. >> the fed saying the economy is doing well enough that we can taper. >> the question is, is it going to last? in it january we will see rebalancing as well. saltke it with a grain of depending on the next couple of weeks. >> let's move on to the roundup ahead of tomorrow's open. the imf saying the economy

will expand at a faster pace next year, so given that lagarde data, christine praising the fed decision to taper its bond buying program last week. the imf forecast in october that the u.s. economy would expand 2.6% this year. we do not have a figure per se, but the imf intending to improve the outlook, and it should. 4.1%, don't take it away. >> we also had personal spending rising in november as well, so will be interesting to see how it plays out when we get the heavier data next week. >> it is incredible to think about how many headwinds have come off the u.s. economy. yes we got the budget deal, and clearly the market took the taper in stride.

christine lagarde says a lot more certainty for 2014. manufacturing is cheaper now in this country and that will always be a tailwind. >> part of that is cheap energy. we have a lot of natural gas and use natural gas to power the factories, plus you don't have to move it from china anymore. >> what is going to happen to the market in the new year? all this is baked in at this point. the market has done incredibly well. >> the economic data will continue to support it. springs we have had false starts with the economy, where things looked really strong going into the new year, and then the data did not support it. so yes, things look good right now, but there is no guarantee that every economic report that comes out for the next six months will be positive every >>

of course not. you look at where stocks are trading and if you want to use it is a 15t week, handle. that historically is right in the middle of the 14-17 range. >> rates have not backed up yet. >> we will see how long it lasts. let's talk about specific joseph a for today, bank says it will not expect a $55 a share takeover offer from its rival, men's wearhouse. it represents another turn in the battle that started in october between the two chains. a $2.3 billion bid for men's warehouse was rejected. then joseph a bank use virtually the same reasoning for rejecting the bid, saying it was

inadequate, it was too low. at some point, don't they have to merge together in order to grow? joseph a bank has put a lot of pressure on itself. it has been talking about making acquisitions for years. >> are they going to go back to men's wearhouse again? who else will they buy? if you look at their sales, they are not that great. down 11% in the second quarter. men's wearhouse having a similar issue. , therer than wall street is a trend towards casual now. what does that mean for these companies?

>> if one of them does look elsewhere for an acquisition, that is one of the lines of discussion that maybe they will go more casual and expand in that area. companiesings at both forecast to be down 2% in 2014. moving on, speaking of president obama, today's the deadline for americans to sign up for obamacare health coverage, but it has been extended until midnight tomorrow. deployedt technicians a system when traffic at the healthcare.gov site approaches 50,000 simultaneous users. one of those users was the president himself. on the inside himself. of course the military does take care of the president. >> it is symbolic, but come on.

>> i think he might have had someone help him. lynn, they tell you in advance, make sure your cell phone is fully charged. advance. call in what do you guys make of the new cnn poll that came out over the weekend, that 62% of americans reject or don't 36%ove of obama care, only -- >> a kaiser foundation poll showed different results. what do you think about obama care or the affordable care act? >> fair enough, there is a bias if you call it obamacare versus the affordable care act. next don't we need time for this to play out before they see if it actually works? the rollout didn't work, but six months down the road, that's

when you have to ask. greg 64% of american now doesn't like it because they have heard nothing but negativity surrounding it. when you hear problems it cannot sign up for a plan or they have to forgo their current plan to get a more expand -- more expensive land, that is what makes news. arethe conservative pundits having a field day with it. they were the ones who wanted to dismantle obama care, but now it looks like the president is doing it himself. if you think of all the mandates , thenave been pushed back you had the mandate for small businesses that also got pushed back a year, and then there are all those millions of people that were promised they could keep her plans him and they have been told they will be exempt from the fees for the first year. >> you can understand why people are voting as they do. here's the comeback kid,

talking about peyton manning regaining his record in one season. this was last night against texas. check it out. tom brady threw 50 touchdown passes back in 2007. manning started his 2013 season by becoming the first quarterback in nearly 45 years to throw for seven touchdowns in one game. the other narrative going on here, these guys have been going back and fourth. peyton manning just regain his crown for most touchdown passes beatenm brady who had peyton manning the year earlier. >> it is incredible to think about the fact that peyton manning took the 2011 season off recovering from several surgeries, and here he is.

[indiscernible] >> all that really matters for the manning brothers is who has more super bowl rings. peyton manning has 2, and eli has 1. >> attention walmart shoppers. aisle five.n she stop by massachusetts walmart on her way to a concert in boston where she handed out 750 gift cards and did a little holiday shopping of her own. in her cart, a copy of her new self-titled album and a baby doll for blue ivy, her daughter. it was all promoting the sale of

the album which was on sale at walmart. it first debuted in the itunes store last week. >> can you imagine being a shopper in walmart? forget the $50, she is in the store? i want to go meet her. target refused to sell the hard copy of the cd because she went right to itunes. >> i think she is all set. waitingwarner cable is on its best and final offer. we will take you where it might come from, next. then we are looking at wall street's brat pack. ♪

>> turning to time warner, here ceo has to incoming

say about the recent takeover talks. he said i will sell if the price is right. good news for shareholders, right? not one, not two, but three titans all considering bids right now. time warner cable is the company wall street clearly loves. done,t what the stock has the company has bought back almost $7 million worth of shares and that sent the stock up more than 400% since the spinoff back in 2009. so who will win this deal? we want to ask the panel. alix, let me start with you. the highest price theoretically wins here. the company has said it would like to see somewhere around $15 0. what is it really going to take to get the deal done, and is anyone there?

>> i wrote that story about rob marcus. his point was that he is concerned about value creation. the question is, how much more will time warner have in its operation that cannot be engineered through financial tricks like buying back shares, etc.? the question right now is, can they do it themselves, or would they be better off to sell to charter communications or potentially another company out there? is he not interested in a sale at any price? he thinks there is more opportunity in the company itself. >> where did they need to be? look at other cable bills that have happened, times,ly it goes about 8 tda.e a little more ebi

the initial offer from charter we here will come in at about $135. that itquite a bit needs to creep up there. however, we will see. i've saved the thought about creating value, because i want to get back to that. in terms of pricing, any chance comcast and cablevision would be willing to walk up $150 a share? >> my forecast is that it will be accommodation of companies it actually come in and offer a joint bid, most likely comcast and charter. you never start off with a high bid. i agree with alex, i think it will end up near an 8.5 multiple. i believe it is prudent for charter to harder with comcast.

where does rob actually see the value creation? what does he think is in time warner's future to get it to a level he would want to take it out at? >> more and more people using broadband. the second thing is business services. cable companies have started to tap into small and medium-sized up withes, hooking them voice, internet, phone, and managing their data. they can get into the cloud services business. time warner cable has made several acquisitions into this a sad it is possible that cable companies could get into the larger businesses. potentially billions of dollars of revenue growth there. those are the two main aspects that any cable company sees as major growth cap ways at this point. >> adam, you have been looking

at the most hated companies in america, and it isthat cable companies, including time warner cable, had a lot of frustrated customers -- no surprise they are in that group. >> when you call the cable company and try to get help, you get put on hold. that is typical. most dislikedthe longnies in the country, island power authority, there is time warner number two. curious that facebook and linkedin are on here. apparently customers are unhappy about the move to monetization. they like the services, they just don't want to have ads put in. the second cable is most disliked company. >> i am amazed that facebook is number three. you inspected with the cable companies, but not necessarily with facebook or linkedin. what is the timetable?

when will we know for certain whether they will get a deal done? >> there is definitely a progression here. we will get that initial bid from charter probably very early into the new year. at that point, charter will make a decision whether they want to elect a board of directors to try to get on this theoretical aw company that would be merged company between charter and time warner cable. at that point, the shareholders will probably get involved to push along the deal that may be the eventual pathway this thing takes. >> if i am the ceo, i will say it has been a good run, if they can keep it up. there was the trend, and look at what has happened over the past 12 months. vertical, has gone which tells you that in spite of that survey, people think it is

a good deal. >> coming up, the road to a career in finance might begin at the frat house. ♪

>> just call it the boys club, men continue to dominate on wall street, partly due to the old fraternity path to finance. that might be contributing to keeping more women on the sidelines than might otherwise be the case. understand what

is going on here, the fraternity path to financing. >> we found that all the big banks, when they go to recruit graduates for the super competitive internships, they to school, ands they look up their old frat brothers. >> that is probably not a surprise, right? you go with people you know. connections, alum connections, fraternity connections. >> we found houses where every year they will send a kid to morgan stanley. or we found banks where half their analyst last organizing were in fraternities and 10% are women. >> say that again? >> reader jay solomon has 19 analyst, and about half of them are guys who were in

are women.s, and two >> a lot of women are getting there. 54% of women getting into finance at the entry-level. i know you get into this in your article, how do you keep these women there? when it comes to getting a management job, they are just not being represented. >> the higher you go up the pyramid. >> what do you think the issue is there? talking to women for this article, what we heard a lot is yes, women can succeed in finance, they just need to be really tough, but the strong survive. intalked to guys fraternities and they say they love finance, it is a lot like hanging out in the frat house. reason women are there at the entry-level and not

making it to the management level. thank you very much for being here. we will be back with more ketty maisonrouge." -- we will be back with more "street smart." ♪

>> the real driver behind property values might not be the economy. it might be robots. economics professor at the university of chicago. what do robots have to do with real estate values? >> so far, not much. in the past, robots have been about entertainment. but robots can be productive , iond the entertainment area think that cities will be a

place where they are very productive. there are two reasons for that. you want to invent a robot in a place where you can invent lots of them and use lots of them he read that is going to be cities. amazon talked about their delivery robots and how the anointed world without in cities. google talk about driverless cars. i am sure that is going to show up in cities. a city is going to be the place to be to use technology. is that thert of it technologies themselves will help us use the little bit of property that we have more effectively. more businesses will be able to be more productive on urban properties. those properties will be worth one. >> what about driverless cars? i think we're looking at one. we are looking at the video here. they give you an example of robotic power. how does that affect the economy and real estate prices? makes it easier for

people to commute into the city. and there will be more people who want to do part of their business in the city. it will make it easier for people who live in the city to get out. it will be a better place to live and work in. as a result, a lot more people will want to be there for part of their business. >> that is an interesting hypothesis. we want to thank you for joining us. -- the chief operating officer. he wants to rebuild the chicago city skyline brick by brick, using his favorite building material and mine, legos. car.am the ceo of forever lego.d buildings with

i think guys rivers are fantastic. if you take a look at it from far away without any concept of space and size, it is amazing. go is about building something from nothing. it is easy to build a set because the directions are there. what is more creative is to do something from your own imagination. it combines art, science, and mathematics. you have to build a framework and strategies, with the outcomes are, and what are the tactics to get it done. lego is all about planning. to threeese take two months to figure out what structure is going to look right. buildings takes me away from the frenzy of the corporate world where i can just use my hands and my creative process, take my time, and

buildings. theye look at this and immediately want to show their kid. they get so excited. they almost get giddy looking at it. it is like the ultimate dream play. i would like to build a city. i would like to have trees that move. i would like to build trees and houses. >> that reminds me, i forgot to get legos for christmas. you can play with them anytime you want. >> i had so many advocate. on car trips, i would take them. i cannot imagine what it was like to listen to a kid in the back shoveling through plastic. amazing. the skills you are using at that early age to put those things together. >> i almost became an architect because i build with them as a kid. up, we are talking

about the xbox console. we are talking about the celebrity favorites for christmas gifts. later this season, sparks are going to fly. we are going to screen a holy race video on today's weird wall street. we are having too much fun today.

♪ >> time now for the scene where we bring you the business behind pop culture. last-minute gift ideas? lien -- leanna

and, tori. they all have their list. oprah is legendary when it comes to gifts. what is on her list? >> a little bit more down to earth than in the past. when she had the show, it was about a car or a lavish trip. now it is down to earth. $2700 diamondis a watch. >> this is what she is giving to some of her friends? >> these are things that everyone on your list might want. inspiration.out if you want to get something super lavish, there are some lovely food items like tropical popcorn. she was popcorn. popcorn.

>> so many of the items our troubles. -- truffles. truffles?sn't like >> we had man rhymes on the rhimes on thenne program the other day. what is on her list, and xbox? >> it is a great lesson for a great stepmom who really wants to wow the new step kids. >> that will do it. >> that is quite a gift. it is kind of like the lifestyles of hollywood kid. >> they were running out of white ones last year. he said they were having them shipped in. >> let me ask a question.

celebrities, when they come out and they say this is what you should give for christmas, that has a big impact on the company itself. is there anything behind the scenes that is going on, in terms of exchanges because for someone to come out and give this endorsement -- >> not that i know of for celebrity gift rides -- guides. itemsf them talk about that are part of the company. but she created a very special and targeted gift guide that she endorsed. chino would be exactly right for that person -- she knew it would be exactly right for the person getting the gift. blogs, celebrities like to

just throw out their most extravagant items. hate gwynethes to paltrow and goo. amaze -- her and mes stocking stuffer. people love to hate her. but if you want to live like a celebrity -- >> she is basically playing to her groupies. >> if you can't afford the card set by another item. >> what are these charms for 3600 bucks? > it is not platinum or dimon -- diamond.

braceletlike a charm that jingles. spelling, what did she want? she of the most expensive house in beverly hills. they have a wrapping room in the house. the gift guide was actually very down-to-earth things. she suggested a new tablet by qooq. >> i thought it was because there were recipes on their. but that is just me. >> make no mistake. tori whomebody like grow up in that bracket, the gifts are very like that. >> dishy of a brand though?

you look at her brand versus gwyneth paltrow's brand. >> her brand is more about e family. >> i think it depends who you are buying for. i think it depends who the customer is. i think people will pay anything if that is what they want. >> the us weekly beauty editor. i learned something today. >> i hope you got some ideas. >> you can read more about celebrity brands in the next issue of " us weekly." >> champagne corks are popping. the latest when we come back. ♪

target preaching online

shopping. here is how they are doing it. they are on the pin boards. chang visited to see how this thing works in action. ♪ pintrest is featured in target stores. why don't you show me how that works. targetle are visiting .com and saying they like this frog. i am going to save this frog. and they have actually created the signage here to call up the that the users have decided are the most popular. popular pthe most shelf.tems is elf on the

my son is still young, and we having use this yet. but it is still big with kids. he will fly back to the north pole, give her report, and then see the kids again. it is in some really fun places in the house. target has places of where the outfits. -- the elf sits. >> what are other retailers doing with their products? do many other stories of people marketing in a creative way and the results? there are black friday and cyber monday strategies. they created some boards that showed silhouettes of items about to go on sale. ♪ they are just starting to

start with ads. do you see an opportunity down the line? >> we are doing some test arena with promoting pins just to test the system. we are in the early stages of seeing how users react to p interest. that is going to inform how we think about an eventual business model. recently hired ahead of commerce. how do you look at the other options out there for special partnerships? >> they think of us almost as a compliment. they wantne knows something, they can search for it and find it. the other side of it is, i don't know what it went, i want to get some ideas, but when i see it, i know i like it. when they're in a store, and they want and i'll, you see it.

you want it. that is what we are trying to provide. ♪ for weird wall street. gentlemen, the following trailer is called fireplaces. ♪ winter sparks will fly. of wood meets its destiny. the triumphant return. logs and firee of that you have never seen before. they want you to stream a fireplace for your home. >> i love this. this is better. look at the drama.

>> this is better? the trailer is certainly better. there was a funny story to read i cannot remember what local market was. christmas, the best rated show on tv was the yule log. >> from you log to the missile drone. dronetists created a topped with mistletoe. are you guys with me? >> after there is so much fear about the drones, these are kinder gentler drones. >> that is it for street smart today. we will see you back here tomorrow. >> december 24, christmas eve tomorrow.

♪

>> it is :56 past the hour. this is on the markets. major averages. the s&p and the dow closing at new records. at 813 year high. they are going to raise the forecast for the u.s. economy next year. that is helping field some of the gains today. apple has signed that deal with china mobile. and not just for stocks generally but it has been huge for ip is in general. the best year for u.s. ipos

since the crash. for more on the environment and by anstings, i am joined expert. is it just about stocks doing well? >> stocks are heavily influencing the ipo market. ipo companies are able to take advantages, get better valuations, and it helps with encouraging investors with the companies, as they look to outperform the general benchmarks. there riskier. there is an increased return. ipo date pop the phenomenon? what is going on there? >> this year was actually a record ipo year.

if you look at the average of the first-day performance? >> exactly. we took the average. they were increasing, on average, 21%. is thatbehind that stocks have the most liquidity of their category. investors like to make the trade, and there was an incredible demand with the tech companies. we saw some incredible performance. bandied have been ideas about, but what about ipos specifically? askeep in mind, it is not strong as in 2000. bankers will point to diversification. back in 2000, anything with a

.com was able to increase. now i can be anything, financial services, anything. it is broad sector. >> it is this going to keep on going? are we going to have sector demand? >> it is tough to say. billions of dollars worth of ipos are expected for next year. that is more than we saw this year. pretty big companies looking to ipos next year. potentially alibaba. >> let's talk about ali baba. that is the big one everyone is talking about. >> yes. a $200ooking at maybe billion violation. -- valuation. .> a little suspense

i like it. for on the markets. ♪ . .

>> this is "taking stock." we're going to focus on the culture of money and the "wolf theaters onet" hits christmas day. blackstone is expanding the real estate empire. they make another move into shopping center. you will meet the chief executive involved in their latest deal. it is monday. my producers will try to stump